Kratos overcomes hordes of undead soldiers and monsters from Greek myth in his quests, eventually finding Pandora's Box in a temple on the back of the Titan Cronos. When Kratos realized what happened and renounced service to Ares, an oracle cursed him with nightmares, binding his family's burnt ashes to his skin, giving Kratos the moniker "Ghost of Sparta." Ares tricked Kratos, however, causing the Spartan to kill his wife and daughter without knowing it. He swore allegiance to Ares if the god would give him the power to win, so Ares bestowed on Kratos the fiery Blades of Chaos, chains that burned into his arms. In the past, Kratos led armies in conquest but nearly lost a battle. Over the course of the game, flashbacks reveal why Kratos suffers nightmares. For his final quest, the goddess Athena tasks Kratos with killing Ares, the Greek God of War. The game focuses on Kratos, a Spartan warrior who completes 10 years of service to the Olympian gods of Greek mythology if they rid him of his nightmares. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to start brushing up on your Egyptian mythology.The original God of War launched on Mafor the PS2. Whether that means retiring Kratos, shifting the focus to Atreus or simply changing the location is anyone’s guess.
No matter what happens to Kratos in God of War Ragnarok, we should expect the series to go in a very different direction afterward. A grueling fight to the finish against a deity who calls himself “The Prince of Peace” seems unlikely.)
I’m less certain that Sony would actually pit him against Jesus, for both reasons both theological and pragmatic. (For what it’s worth: I’m positive that Kratos could square off against Horus without ruffling too many falcon feathers. If Sony’s ultimate objective is to bring Kratos all around the ancient world and encounter all the fascinating creatures and gods along the way, he can’t spend too long in one location. The more time Kratos spends in the Norselands, the less time he spends elsewhere. Egypt seems like the next logical location in which Kratos could commit deicide, but either way, the fact is that there are a lot of other pantheons to explore. Either Kratos will complete his story arc by dying (for real, this time), or he’ll move on to another pantheon in the next game.Īlert God of War fans are aware that the series has already foreshadowed other pantheons, including the gods of Celtic myth, Egyptian myth, Japanese myth and Christianity. If the Norse story wraps up in Ragnarok, that could mean one of two things.
God of War (2018)’s director Cory Barlog explained that the current God of War story wouldn’t be a trilogy, primarily because Sony doesn’t want to make fans wait 15 years for a full story arc. Fighting Ares, Zeus and Gaia was a thrill fighting Persephone, Thanatos and Alecto didn’t feel quite as epic. Keeping the Norse myth arc focused on the most recognizable parts of the pantheon could also help avoid some of the issues the God of War Greek myth spinoffs ran into. I don’t think fans were absolutely dying for showdowns with Theseus, Perseus, Icarus, or Helios. But the downside of that approach was that we had to spend a lot of time fighting relatively minor deities along the way. Granted, if Sony wanted to stretch out the Norse myth arc, it could repeat what it did in God of War II and III, by dividing the pantheon up between two games.
In other words: once Ragnarok is done, there won’t be all that many Norse gods left to kill.
If I were a betting man, I might put a little money on Ragnarok ending with Kratos and Odin tearing each other to metaphorical (and possibly literal) pieces. And, of course, God of War (2018) spent a lot of time foreshadowing Odin as a cruel and belligerent king. Freya and Angrboda will probably play big roles in the story, and the traditional Ragnarok myth doesn’t end well for either one. In Ragnarok, Kratos will almost certainly face off against Thor and Tyr. In the first game, he tore his way through the Valkyries, a host of trolls, the king of the dark elves, Thor’s sons, and the beautiful Baldur himself. Drawing out God of War’s Norse arc into a trilogy presents another potential issue: Kratos has already killed a lot of our favorite Norse gods, and he’s (presumably) going to kill a lot more of them in Ragnarok.