How God of War II improved upon perfection...

In an earlier blog I mentioned the elements that I thought made for a great sequel. When movies were exceptionally made, told a riveting story, and had actors that made us believe in the world the director had created then it was possible to have an even more amazing sequel. I talked about how Aliens, Back to the Future II, The Empire Strikes Back, and Terminator 2 were awesome follow-up movies. They had raised the stakes, gave more important roles to the main characters, and even let the villains win to make a come back feel even greater. Great video games also made use of these lessons, God of War was no exception. Sony Santa Monica had raised the bar for an entire console generation. Other developers tried to copy the formula, or the play mechanics (Sonic Unleashed I’m looking at you), but it just didn’t work out. It was going to be all but impossible to top the game on the current Playstation 2 hardware. God of War came out in 2005, and most everyone believed that a sequel would be released on the Playstation 3, which would come out in 2006. Instead it was announced that God of War II would be released in 2007, and for the Playstation 2. Audiences couldn’t believe it. They thought that Sony was shooting themselves in the foot. Instead it turned out to be a very calculated risk. Since the PS2 was still a popular selling console, and it already had millions of units installed all around the world then it would make GoW II an instant best seller. Sony would be able to recoup a huge cost relatively quickly. Also the team at Sony Santa Monica was developing both GoW II, and GoW III simultaneously. The studio was learning the new hardware from scratch. The tricks that they had learned with the PS2 wouldn’t necessarily apply here. However they would be able to ensure that thematically the look, feel, and story of GoW III would be seamless between the platforms.

It took a lot of hard work from Sony Santa Monica, and although there had been different directors through the history of the franchise, they were able to make sure that the games felt like one connected story. Nothing felt out of place, nothing betrayed the spirit of the first, even as some events were retconned. When it came to this series I honestly felt that the first game in every chapter was perfect, and yet somehow the follow up was even better. To me that means God of War II was better than the original. I see the PSP games, and PS3 games through a similar lens. God of War III was great, but I think God of War Ascension, the second PS3 game, was even better. God of War Chains of Olympus was amazing, but God of War Ghost of Sparta was a step above perfection on the PSP. The reason why each follow up I consider better than the prior has to do with the team. In the first game the studio is breaking new ground, they are still getting a feel for the hardware, and software. They are still trying to figure out who the characters, and villains are. They go back, and forth refining the locations, villains, puzzles, and mechanics. By the time a sequel gets made the studio is filled with veterans. They know exactly where they are with the technology, characters, and game play. They are able to add new staff members that bring in more experience, and help raise the next game to even more amazing places. With God of War II we were able to hit all the notes that made the first game amazing, and then expand on everything tenfold.

The game begins with the Spartan army laying siege to Rhodes. Conquering another city for the honor of Kratos, the new god of war. Athena appears in the flesh, she was simply a statue in the first game. Voiced by Carole J. Ruggier, the actress was fantastic throughout the series, and held her own with T.C. Carson, and Linda Hunt. She warns Kratos that the other gods will not tolerate his actions. He brushes her off, and leaps from Olympus to finish razing the city. As with all tragedies Kratos doesn’t even realize that he became the monster that Ares was at the start of the first game. Kratos even turns into a giant when he starts demolishing Rhodes. Just as Ares was a giant when he was attacking Athens. To try, and stop the mad god of war Athena strips Kratos of some of his power, and gives it to the Colossus of Rhodes. One of the fabled ancient wonders of the world. The Colossus comes to life, and begins advancing on the player. Audiences are given time to relearn the controls of the game, while the giant golden statue stalks us in the background. Even the human-sized Kratos is still too much for the army to deal with. He was as powerful at the start of this game, as when he was at the end of God of War. He even used the golden blades of Athena, instead of the Blades of Chaos, which he had earned at the conclusion of the first title. Right away we can tell that everything that made the original game memorable has been cranked up. The visuals, sound, animation, control, and effects were improved over the first. That in itself seemed impossible.

The game begins was a multi-stage encounter fighting the Colossus. Kratos is flung from one corner of the port village to the other. Zeus delivers the Blade of Olympus, the sword that he used to defeat the titans in the Great War. He tricks Kratos into using it so that his remaining power would be pulled into the weapon. We get a chance to fight the Colossus inside, and out. Battling inside a moving stage was something I’m sure the team had always wanted to do. The interior of the statue is a lattice of wood that is being engulfed in flames. Kratos not only has to defeat the waves of Rhodes defenders, but also has to take apart the superstructure while not falling into the flames. The game managed to raise the stakes over the iconic Hydra fight from the original. Where it went from here was anyones guess. I was certainly ready to go along for the ride. Kratos defeats the giant, and is boasting to the gods. But in his hubris he fails to see the hand of the Colossus falling on him. Without his godly powers to protect him he is flattened, and barely left alive. Zeus shows up, and finishes the job. Running him through with the Blade of Olympus. He says he does this to protect Olympus. Kratos is pulled into the underworld, but is saved by Gaia. The surviving titan gives Kratos some of her power, so that he may aid her, and the other titans. She hopes to gain revenge on the Olympians as much as Kratos does. Again, I had no idea where we were going from here, but I was 100% on board. I did not expect to see more mythical characters introduced, or that some loose ends would be tied up.

For example in the back story of the first game Kratos grows to be a legendary Spartan captain, but his men got wiped out by a barbarian horde. He offers his soul to Ares just as he is about to be killed by the Barbarian King Alrik. Kratos is gifted with the Blades of Chaos which he uses to decapitate the massive warrior. You have to wonder how mighty Alrik was to have bested the god of war in a one-on-one battle. Many fans questioned where the Barbarians came from, and who was this mysterious figure that had almost changed the course of history? Just as Kratos had fought his way out of Hades in the first game we get to see Alrik return from the underworld to get a rematch. His appearance gave me goosebumps, I recognized the fur-covered warrior right away. He was not only strong enough to break the grasp of death, he also was able to pull other souls out of the afterlife. Seeing the Ship Captain that Kratos managed to kill twice get summoned by Alrik was impressive, and at the same time comedy gold. It was not the only mythological match-up in the game. Kratos also fights Theseus, a king of Athens. He was a person that defeated the Minotaur in Crete, had captured the Marathonian Bull. He went on many adventures with Hercules, Jason, Orpheus, Euphemus, and other great legends. He was arguably the greatest hero in Greek mythology. This crossover made the mythology obsessive kid in me super excited. That was until Kratos then had to fight Perseus.

It seemed that the developers at Sony Santa Monica grew up with the same influences that I did. They must have been awed by the same films, and had kept them close to their hearts. The story of Perseus was told in the classic film Clash of the Titans. It was the movie that taught me about the titans, Medusa, and the various gods. I had talked earlier in the blog series how the stop motion work in the movie was done by Ray Harryhausen. He had worked on Jason, and the Argonauts, as well as The Golden Voyage of Sindbad. Not to mention dozens of other cult favorites. His work was as inspirational to me as any other artists living, or dead. Harryhausen brought the enormous Kraken to life, as well as the distance shots for the devil-like Calibos, and the tiny mechanical marvel Bubo who was Athena’s owl. What amazed me about GoW II was that the studio asked Harry Hamlin to reprise his role as Perseus some 25 years after he last played the part. I’m sure he was not about to turn down Sony for the project. Part of him must have been humbled knowing that an entire generation of kids never forgot the actor, or character. These kids were now writers, and directors in their own right. My brothers, and I were certainly giddy that Hamlin would be voicing one of our childhood heroes once more. I even told my mom about it, and she couldn’t believe that Generation-X never forgot the character. Of course the downside was that if he was going up against Kratos then it was not going to end well for him.

God of War was also creating an entirely new chapter in the mythology, and the way the gods were presented. In the era of the internet, cell phones, self driving cars, and other technological wonders Sony managed to take material that was thousands of years old, and make it accessible to the 21st century. The heroes of antiquity were vibrant, and moreover made cool once more. There weren’t many studios that could claim to bring history to life. Let alone influence global culture through their efforts. Proof of this was in the Hollywood remake of Clash of the Titans. The 2010 movie by Warner Bros. was undoubtedly nudged into production by the runaway success that Sony was having with God of War. The advances in special effects were light years above the work that went into the MGM classic. The monster designs in the new film were much more influenced by the types of characters featured in the Sony game, rather than the Harryhausen movies. Proof of this could be seen with the updated Kraken design. The original monster was terrifying on the big screen, at least it was to me as a kid. The Kraken featured in GoW II was much scarier, and could have easily influenced the look of the gigantic beast in the new movie.

Going bigger, and better with every step of the series was something that David Jaffe helped push the team to do through SingleTrac, Incognito Entertainment, and Sony Santa Monica. The direction, casting, acting, and story were all rock solid. There was nowhere that Kratos could have gone to that I wasn’t eager to follow. There was no challenge that was impossible to beat for the Ghost of Sparta. My jaw dropped with the Cronos scene in the first game. Crossing the Desert of Lost Souls on the back of the titan leader was more amazing than anything I could have ever imagined. I had no idea that the sequel would have another scene to top it. Kratos was trying to cross the Great Chasm when he got into a fight with Icarus. As they fell through the world they ended up in a massive red abyss. I freaked out when I saw Atlas holding the world on his shoulders. Kratos landed on his brow, the head of the creature was as massive as an office building. Hollywood actor Michael Clarke Duncan voiced the four-armed titan. His deep baritone voice was perfect for the mountainous monster. Since Kratos had been stripped of his godly powers at the start of the game, he needed to be built back up again with new magics. A collection of Titans, and Primordials including Gaia, Cronos, Typhon, Prometheus, and Atlas had all leant Kratos a portion of their power through the different chapters of the game. They sought revenge against the Olympians as much as Kratos had. There was of course one final obstacle to beat. The Sisters of Fate were revealed to be the ones literally pulling the strings. In the game they lived in the Island of Creation, a place impossible for mortals to reach. In mythology the fates wove the threads of life. They knew the lives of every living being, including the heroes of old. When a person reached the end of their life they would cut the threads with magical scissors. In classic literature they looked like maidens working at a loom. Spinning threads, and overlapping encounters as they spun out destiny.

Sony Santa Monica had done a great job at interpreting the mythological characters, and made them appealing to modern audiences. The entire series had a certain aesthetic. The character designs were not quite realistic, nor were they cartoonish. They were instead something in-between. None of the characters, locations, or set designs were historically accurate. Instead studio artists incorporated elements that we would have identified as Greek, or Roman, but presented with the style of a comic book archetype. The three Sisters of Fate were made very unique, whereas their classic counterparts looked like regular women. Atropos was the oldest, she was the one that cut the threads. Her golden armor, and long scissor-like fingers a nod to her origin story. Lahkesis was the second oldest, and was responsible for determining how a person lived their life. This meant the sister looked the most human, and attractive in the game. Clotho was the youngest sister, at least in historical context. She was the one that spun the threads of fate. Instead of being a young maiden she was presented as a gigantic creature, with dozens of breasts. Like an enormous, obese silk worm. It was both a grotesque, and captivating monster design. Kratos defeats the sisters, and takes the power to rewind his thread, and return back in time to the moment where Zeus betrayed him.

Kratos fights the king of the gods thanks to his newfound power. Zeus has a bunch of tricks at his command, and we have to fight him in multiple stages. From being a gigantic boss, to a more human-sized opponent. Well, Zeus remains tall in the game, well over seven feet in his human form. It is a well planned battle that sees the two trading blows, and neither really gaining the advantage. The game play in every boss encounter in the series is very well balanced, and the fights between Ares, and Zeus at the end of each respective game was the perfect kind of challenge. Kratos eventually gets the upper hand in the battle, he takes the Sword of Olympus, and tries to kill the father of the gods. Athena steps in and sacrifices herself. It was a moment that my brothers, and I did not anticipate. We literally gasped when the scene played out. Of course had we been paying more attention to the classic story structure we would have realized that she was the one destined to die. She had been with Kratos the longest time, had shown him mercy, and was trying to redeem him since the first game. Her death would have meant much more to audiences than Kratos simply getting his revenge.

Zeus slips away, and runs back to Mount Olympus. Athena explains to Kratos that his obsession will destroy everything they have built. Kratos simply wants to kill his newly revealed father, but he doesn’t understand that Zeus is Olympus, if he dies then all of the gods die. With Athena passing, really the only god that he cares about, then he resolves that all of the gods must then indeed die. He returns back to the Sisters of Fate Loom Chamber, and goes further back in time. He uses the Blade of Olympus to pull the titans out of the great war, and bring them to his timeline. The game then ends with the titans, and Kratos climbing up Mount Olympus, a set up to the third, and assumed final chapter in the God of War series. It was a powerful ending, but one I didn’t necessarily appreciate. It was as if everything that happened in GoW II was nothing more than an ad to sell the Playstation 3, and the next game. That was how I felt about it. The previous 99.9% of the game was absolutely worth the experience. It had improved upon the original in every regard. The ending was a minor issue. Whether or not God of War III would be a worthy wrap up of the story was yet to be revealed. I was counting the days until I could get my hands on the game. If you played through GoW II what did you think? Did you think it was better than the first? Did you have a favorite encounter? Or was there something you wish had been explored in the story? Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

What came before the gods? Pop culture makes me obsessed with mythology...

In the previous blog I talked about a conversation I had with my cousin on whether Elden Ring, or God of War Ragnarok would win the 2022 game of the year. It got me thinking about the GoW series, about what made it stand out to me. Why did the adventures of Kratos resinate so much with me? I suppose it all goes back to the movies, and stories I grew up with. I’m a Gen-Xer, like most we were born in the 1970’s. It was a sweet spot where arcades were transitioning from pinball machines, to video game cabinets. So we were the first generation to enjoy the last of the mechanical games, and the first of the digital games. Also we were the generation that was introduced to home game consoles as well. I was lucky to have parents that took my brothers, and I to many different types of movies. Animated, live action, comedy, horror, action, suspense, and just about everything in between. Of course they’d tell us to close our eyes if there was nudity, but we enjoyed most everything we saw. Then of course we would watch TV after school, and see all sorts of classic films while doing our homework. It would be a few years before we got our first game console. So comic books, cartoons, and classic movies pretty much fed our imagination.

There were a few films that we always tried to catch on TV whenever they played. Chief among them were the ones featuring Sindbad, sometimes written Sinbad. The films covered the stories of the famous Arabian sailor. We got to see a world of fantastic adventures, filled with mythical monsters, evil wizards, and memorable archetypes. While we enjoyed the movies about Robin Hood, and King Arthur as well, it was always nice to see dark-skinned characters play the heroes. The Golden Voyage of Sindbad was possibly our most favorite. It didn’t hurt that I had an instant crush on the chesty Caroline Munroe. The makeup, costumes, and special effects were amazing. We knew how green screens worked thanks to the local weatherman, but couldn’t figure out how they got giant monsters onto the same frames as the actors. The scene where the evil wizard Koura brings the statue of Kali to life was forever burned into my memory. We’d eventually learn about stop motion animation, claymation, and the like. It was an animator named Ray Harryhausen that brought the fantasy monsters to life. I would be forever in debt to his creativity.

Every movie sparked questions from us. We were in awe of the myths from the Mediterranean, Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Who were the Greeks? Who were the Romans? What about the Persians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Sumerians? What was a colossus? Where did the giants come from? Were these based on actual legends? Were they original stories? Did these places, did these people exist in real life? Where did flying carpets, and genie’s come from? We’d pester our parents with these questions day, and night. Thankfully mom was familiar with many of the stories. She had grown up with seven brothers, and a sister. They learned all sorts of things in school. She told my brothers, and I about Shahrazad, and the Thousand and One Nights. She talked about how the ancient cities, as well as some of the magics, and monsters were even mentioned in the Bible. As practicing Catholics that was all I needed to hear. I was convinced that a lot of these fantastic stories were based on reality. The thing that really intrigued me was that every legend was built on an earlier story. Like it was King Solomon from the Bible that cursed all djinn, and made them servants. So demons, and monsters used to just run over ancient civilizations. The film Clash of the Titans was the first Greek mythology film we saw in a theater. I learned about the gods that existed before the Bible from that movie. More important, I learned that there were monsters called the titans that existed before the gods of Olympus. They all had names, they all had origins. The idea of something existing before the more well known gods inspired me. It created a desire to learn what came before. I wanted to read more about the ancient gods, and monsters. Of course there weren’t many story books about that in elementary school.

That desire to learn what came before never faded. It was how I discovered that Oswald the Lucky Rabbit existed before Mickey Mouse. At the very least our library had books about cartoons. My fascination with Oswald stayed with me for decades. It was the bit of trivia that I could always bring up to stump the other die-hard Disney fans in school. I never forgot about the titans, and when we took field trips to the main brach library in downtown Long Beach I would seek out the mythology books. I would find out the names of the heroes, people like Jason, and Perseus, and the adventures they went on. I’d wonder why the statues of the classic heroes were always naked, but seeing them wrestling monsters was proof to me that the stories were based on reality. Every now and then I’d learn the name of a titan. Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, Iapetus, and their young brother Cronus. I’d learn there were female titans named Rhea, and Phoebe as well. Studying that titans also had parents named Gaia, and Uranus to me meant that they must have been the ones that helped shape the cosmos. It was heretical thinking, but I was sure that the Catholic god was the one that created them, grew tired of their battles, and banished them from Earth. He ended their reign before the Olympian gods showed up. Teachers always wondered how I knew about Roman, and Greek gods whenever they talked about where ancient traditions like Valentines Day came from.

Middle school (then called Jr. High) was more of the same, picking up bits of information about the oldest mythologies. The comic world was undergoing a radical changing of the guard. Jim Lee, and Chris Claremont had redefined the look, and writing for the X-Men. Frank Miller, and Alan Moore made Batman a true heavy hitter. Peter David, and Dale Keown crafted brilliant Hulk comics. Mr. David had even introduced the Pantheon into Hulk continuity; Ajax, Hector, Agamemnon, Andromeda, Atlanta, Delphi, Jason, Paris, etc. These were just a few of the artists, and writers that exploded the comic book market. The indy publisher Eclipse, and later Dark Horse comics was translating a few Japanese mangas at the same time. It was how I discovered Masamune Shirow, and his Appleseed series. The post-apocalyptic story was brilliantly written, and illustrated. The fact that they used classic Greek names, but in a science fiction setting blew my mind. The cybernetic hero Briaeros Hecatonchires, and his girlfriend Deunan Knute were mercenaries recruited into the Olympus E-SWAT team. Nike, Athena, Poseidon, Aeacus, Hades, and Uranus were characters, and places visited in the series. Shirow’s groundbreaking mecha, and weapon designs, several of which were based on insects, were unlike anything I’d seen in any western comic. Shirow was quickly becoming an art god for me. The fact that Briaeros was a Black Mediterranean man underneath the cybernetic armor was also inspiring. Of course I was furious that the more recent CGI movies had white-washed him. The name Hecatonchires was the type of brain augmentations he had, the name was based on the hundred-handed giants that aided the Olympians in defeating their cousins the titans. Briaeros was the name of one of the three Hecatonchires. His brain implants were so advanced that they scared other cyborgs. It was said that he could control an aircraft carrier all by himself by plugging into its computer.

I remember vividly as a kid that several classes got a chance to take a field trip to the University of California Irvine. We were treated to an entertaining presentation in their massive gymnasium, where we were encouraged to go to college. Then we were allowed to attend an actual university class. We had a list of possible classes to sit in on, I was split between the science, and art classes. I sat in on the art, and it turned out to be a history class. The professor was discussing the importance of a classic Greek statue. I was absorbed by the details that he pointed out. The sculptor captured the correct anatomy of throwing a javelin, how the foot placement, turn in the hips, and torso was actually mid throw. There was a shift in balance, on the balls of the foot, and these were motions that happened in a hundredth of a second, but was accurately recreated in bronze. After the class wrapped up most of his students packed up, and left. I ran up to him, and asked if there were any statues, paintings, or other representations of the hecatonchires recorded. Because I only had the stories to go from, but wondered how the Greeks actually imagined a hundred-handed giant looked like. The teacher stared at me with a puzzled look. “Heck-a-ton-cries, uhh, I’m not sure what you’re referring to. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that.” I insisted that they were the monsters that helped the gods defeat the titans. He nodded, and said “I’m not sure, sorry.” He couldn’t put away his notes, and get away from me fast enough. I’m sure he was wondering who the hell this young brown boy was asking such a strange question. I was deflated. How could a teacher that studied ancient art have no idea what I was referring to?

High school allowed me to finally get credit for my fascination with ancient myths. Each time an English teacher would assign book reports we’d get a list of acceptable titles to read, and write about. I’d gravitate to the oldest stories that I could find. I got a chance to read the Iliad, and the Odyssey over those years. It helped me discover the relationships between the various characters. It also allowed me to appreciate the classic movies when I rewatched them. The teachers would then add to my love of mythology by introducing Beowulf, and the other stories from the north. All the while my brothers, and I continued enjoying movies, and playing video games. They were evolving in the arcade, and at home. Stories became bigger, and more complex. The best games were soon rivaling Hollywood for our attention. It was only a matter of time before they would surpass cinema as the biggest form of entertainment. The ‘90s saw Final Fantasy, Zelda, and Phantasy Star made even more amazing with the introduction of 3D to home consoles. The Sega Saturn for example featured Panzer Dragoon. It was a rail shooter the likes of which we had never seen before. Sega had managed to create something fantastic with heavy influences from mythology, but in a fresh new way. Similar to how Appleseed reinterpreted the names, and relationships from the classic gods into science fiction.

As I got older I was convinced that my favorite games were created by people that also believed in ancient legends. Stories of heroes against impossible odds. Enormous beasts, swords, and sorcery were brought to life once more thanks to their talented teams. Video game studios rather than Hollywood still believed in the power of myth. In creativity, and imagination as being the most important element to a successful title. At least it was for a little bit. Even from the earliest days we saw how publishers tried to turn a popular IP, like Star Wars, into a video game. Sometimes these adaptations worked, sometimes they didn’t. Star Wars worked thanks to Atari working with vector graphics, the predecessor to polygon technology, and sound clips from the movie. Then there was E.T. a home console adaptation by Atari that was so bad that many think it tanked the industry, and extra copies of the games were notoriously buried in the desert. I paid attention in English class how stories were built. How heroes, villains, and challenges placed to create drama. It made me watch movies, read comics, and play games with a more critical eye. I became very aware of how sequels worked, or didn’t in some cases. I’m going to talk a little bit more about this on the next blog. I’d like to know if there was something you were obsessed about as a kid that you carried into adulthood. Or was there a comic book, manga, or game that forever influenced you. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!