In short, it is cool to be a game reviewer because you get the games before they release. The bad side is that you have to rush through the game and deal with stuff before the Day 1 patch(es). I am going to savor this game and do literally everything at my own pace.
@@AmariMarvelous I am a weirdo about it too. I will complete all of the side missions (and maybe the trophies if it is a good list) before completing the final mission. Once I beat the game, I am done with the playing the game altogether.
Portal 1 was the only one, but was a short indie game that did cut away for its ending cutscene. Man lost his train of thought, I thought he was gonna refer to MGSV or something.
Thank you for doing the review as a podcast and keeping it as spoiler free as possible. There have been several reviews that claimed to be as spoiler free as possible but still showcased certain story moments. So thank you for an actually spoiler free review
Always good news when the developers are confident enough to give their game to reviewers so early. Other games have embargoes that try to hide their game right up to launch. Can't wait for this game!
What stood out most in this review is how often you guys mentioned having to finish it in time for review. Sounds like it hurts your experience with the game.
@@TheAndyCortez still being in the world of "critics" usually ruins your perspective to regular ppl. Seriously 90% of Art critics film/gaming are so wrapped up in their bubble they loose the forest for the trees. They forget we want escapism and entertainment not messages and agenda. Tho those things have their place. Just good MTX free single player games ON THE DISC/cart. Thats what we want. Just how adults loose their teenage brain dont loose your regular person perspective. Dont be a "critic" be a person and honest about opinion vs fact.
I think the reason I like Ragnarok more than Elden Ring is that while Elden Ring does "The Duel" very well, it lacks in "The Brawl". GoW does both really well that every encounter makes you kinda of work for it.
Absolutely insane that Sony Santa Monica was able to create a sequel that is undoubtedly as great as its predecessor, potentially even better. Especially, since God of War (2018) is one of the greatest games ever created. Ragnarök will be something truly special.
2 and 3 had weaker stories, part 2 in particular felt like a narrative waste of time that made no sense after part 1, so much so that they invented lore years later in part 3 to retroactively justify 2 and yet 3 still wasn’t very good but was at least carried by set pieces and next gen graphics at the time, unlike part 2. The PSP games were in better line with the first game and part 3 was entirely carried by being a PS3 tech showcase bloodbath. Don’t even get us started on Ascension.
If you feel like you're going through the motions with the combat in this game you need to up the difficulty. Probably the best combat in a game. Needs to be on at least hard.
1:14:45 Andy: "you shouldn't have to do side quests to get what they're trying to put across" *Elden Ring nervously sweating after making 99% of people look up wikis and videos to hope to piece together the side quests and story*
Blessing claiming God of War's combat is too spongey and hack and slash while also shilling on Elden Ring is some level of irony, I'll tell you. It's okay to be a fanboy and unironically meme yourself with bad takes that lack any sense of self awareness; you just sound laughable doing it. It's fine to like a game more, but your key complaint is something that Souls games are literally built on - spongey bosses that take 200,000 hits with massive multi-tiered health bars, and a meta that's virtually comparable to what God of War's combat basically is. I like Blessing, but looking back on literally any review, he's the Picasso of bad or meme worthy takes. Like when he claimed Varl's death in Horizon was gross and tropey, lmao. Yeah, okay buddy. He wasn't killed off because he's black; he just so happened to be Aloy's second hand man with undying loyalty, willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good - and he did with honor, bravery, and conviction. To look at his death and only recognize the fact that he was a black man, and reach to think of "the black guy always dies first" tropes is so hilariously off base, it's really impossible to take seriously or respect in the slightest. Anybody who's deep into Horizon could see his eventual and imminent death coming from a mile away because of his fearless loyalty to protect his allies. If anything, his character and the way he was written should be celebrated.
I wrote my senior thesis on "Video Games as Art." The core of art is to make you feel. No one would argue movies can't make you feel. Games have a tougher job of it, because when you are largely in control, making you feel gets undermined. Roger Ebert was very adamant that control takes away your ability to just get carried away by the story. What we know that he doesn't is that in the right hands, control draws you into the story even further/ Anyway, we're seeing that just like movies that deal with the human condition, some themes and ideas are universal. I think it's telling that two of the most impactful games when it comes to storytelling and making you feel (The Last of Us and God of War) both center around the most universal of human conditions ... from being a self-centered individual to a parent trying to raise their kid to be better than they are. I don't think the 2018 God of War works as well without the games that came before. People talk about God of War/Ragnarok being a two-game story, but they're not. The original God of War games are absolutely the first act of this three act story. You should know why Kratos is why he is to see why the cracks in the facade in 2018 are meaningful. But even not having experienced that part of the story, you can still relate and feel this man struggling with his own past, mistakes, and anger and how he's trying to spare his child that. The expertise in SSM's storytelling is making you feel those things without having been through the experience.
I think this is very well said and I hate when people like to block out or say kratos in the older games character doesn’t matter when it makes these games so much more special
Honestly, as much as I love FromSoftware's combat, I feel like the unending praise it gets has a lot to do with people liking it on autopilot, without critically thinking about it. I say this because it's pretty much the same system from DeS, DS1, DS2 and DS3. In DS3 they introduced weapon arts that added a bit to the game but it still felt the same. By the time we got Elden Ring, the combat has been diluted since DS1 to the point where trash mobs = R1 or weapon art spam and 99% of the combat really shines in boss fights. I appreciate that From's combat system stayed true to it's traditions but it this doesn't keep me from questioning and comparing it to some systems that took inspiration from it. Like, Nioh 2 threw the raw core of Souls combat and their Ninja Gaiden expertise to make what IMO is the best combat system ever created in an action game. I think Devil May Cry 5 is better but it doesn't really give you a reason to use 80% of your arsenal, it's mostly about going out of your way to be stylish. I really like how God of War borrows from Souls but adds juggling mechanics, weapon switching and active skills, all wrapped into incredible, visceral and kinetic animations. Then, if you really want to go niche and research advanced gameplay with animation cancels and infinite juggles (mostly from GBG's channel), you'll find an entire second layer of unintended mechanics that brings the game a bit closer to Devil May Cry's cancels and combos, that you never knew existed.
Yea I can’t say elden ring has better combat I know it’s a little harder to compare but dmc 5 and god of war have the best combat in gaming to me I would have to say the depth to the combat is what separates it from from software specifically
Saying this game is like playing an MCU movie really is an insult and I enjoy marvel movies. Not a single one has come close to the depth of this game in terms of world and script
Finished the game recently, fun going through all the review vids. Really interesting that no one complained too much about the side characters always nudging Kratos all over the game. Whether it’s about looting, finding xp, solving a puzzle. Found it all to be a bit much. Would have loved if we have gotten a Nordic trilogy just to have cut a lot of bloated content and make it a bit tighter.
For really big anticipated games, these are the only reviews I love to watch. No spoilers. No pictures or video. Just people talking about the game and how they found it. I don't want to see a single trailer for this game and want to experience it as fresh as possible without trailers or reviewers blatantly giving huge spoilers to the game. Kinda Funny do things right. Thanks guys.
It's just needless nitpicking to be a critic, especially with a game that's as highly anticipated as God of War: Ragnarok. They have to say something they didn't like so they don't get accused of saying the game is perfect, which no game is.
Hhaha yes I agree with Andy with the accents in the Horizon and GoW games. You go to all that length in pretty out there names and model design to create this fantasical setting and then they like "oh whatsup Alloy!". First time meeting the Carja in Zero dawn was like wtf man ya'll run out of money or something?? hahaha.
Not a dad but kratos is the fckn G.O.A.T Best GoW games 1. God of War 3 omg when I 1st saw that on my ps3 the scale of it Still to this day look great 2. God of War 2018 3. God of War 2 4. Ragnarok 5. Ghost of Sparta 6. God of War Ascension 7. God of War where it all started 8. Chains of Olympus I actually really enjoy all of em
Here’s my thing with Blessings argument on Ragnarok combat, why are you judging it as if it’s not an action game and hasnt always been one? It’s always been button mashy, and that’s one particular style of combat in video games, not just Ragnarok. Just weird to critique the game for having an easy to approach combat style like so many other games. Not every game will have the same tactical style of combat like From games. I adored ER but if every game had its combat system gaming would be in some serious trouble.
When Andy said “you shouldn’t have to do side quests to get the point they’re trying to get across” I’ve gotta disagree. I mean the main story should be self contained in the golden path but side quests need to be character/world/lore building, they need to have a point to them. The Witcher 3 is not as great a game without its side quests, Elden Ring doesn’t have “side quests” per se but if you golden light path Elden Ring the experience is lessened.
I can't wait to hear you guys continue talking about this with the rest of us normies next week because the fresh hype for it will still be there, right? Right?
3:09 “I don’t want to say too much cus I know you guys have stuff to say” 3:15 Calmly & reasonably passes the torch to Greg miller who proceeds to ramble on for 3 minutes non stop and goes off topic multiple times but proceeds to just ramble on as if he’s talking to talk until he lands on something. My favorite parts the cringe with the weird flex but okay “I got a lot of money” - the cutaways to the other guys all with the same look on their faces of “Ugh… this dude sure loves to hear himself talk.” “You think he knows it’s an intro of sorts and he’s not just riffing ?” “…aaaaaand he’s riffing, we’re gonna be here for a while aren’t we..”
It is humanly impossible to reboot a franchise such as god of war and get very warm critical and public appreciation then top it with its sequel. This will be remembered very fondly in history of video games
So glad Andy shouted out Skill up, the FPS podcast had Bless on recently and we just need more crossovers between you guys. Tam has bridged that gap several times and you’re all phenomenal voices in this industry.
Great review and I’ll attribute it to trying to avoid spoilers, but blessing made it sound like a 3or4 out of 5. For a 5/5 it seemed like you really dove into things you didnt like. But very entertaining
finished the game last night -great story -great combat -overabundance of puzzles -overabundance of long animations overall it was a great game when it wasn't slowing everything down to a crawl for puzzles and animations it's hard for a game with great combat to burn me out but by the end GOWR did. i appreciate all the added content (i did about 70-80% of it) but i really can't go do the rest because I know exactly how they will all play out gameplay-wise because the game is a cycle of puzzle - tedious traversal -story beat and that's fine in the first 20 hours, but in the last stretch it got exhausting. i appreciated the main story having set-pieces to add variety. id give it an 8 or 9. it's still too soon to say exactly where i'll land but it's not a 10 for me.
I think Greg needs to go back to elden ring for a second. Not to beat it or anything but him saying god of war is “skin of your teeth” in any way similarly to elden ring will get knocked out of him with that first mounted tree boss lol. Character action is just a different style of game then a souls like
Yh definitely, for hard mode or below. Then there’s give me god of war mode. Yh good luck with that. It is 1000% as hard as elden ring or harder, especially when elden ring can be beaten with over levelling (let’s face it that’s how most people do it) and you also have SO MANY cheese moves to blitz bosses with ease. Although most of those you’d have to look up. Elden ring is definitely FAR more vague for sure and playing it without any advice would definitely be harder… but again, no one really does that 😂 Anyway GMGOW on GOW 2018, especially sigrun but even the main game was insane. And it was the same or harder than elden ring for me. and I didn’t even over level much in elden ring… Although maybe miquella… but she was just a dreadfully designed boss imo, so op and unbalanced, just cranking a bosses health way up and their defence/damage stat way up and introducing a cheap health regen mechanic, does not a good boss make. When I beat her I didn’t even feel good, just broken from the bad design 😂
@@Tom-bv1sc that’s a fair point for sure. Although I highly doubt Greg was playing in God of war mode. Even in god of war mode however I’d give a bit of pushback where the “difficulty” at that point doesn’t come from brilliant boss design but more so the enemy’s just have vastly increased health and you have vastly reduced health. Which to me is just frustrating when the game was clearly not designed to be played that way. Whereas elden ring has no difficulty modes, it is meant to be played in one specific and highly crafted way. 200% agree that mid to late game over leveling makes the game way easier to play (especially with people doing exploits) and to be fair by late game I was over leveled altho melania was still very difficult. Nice talking with ya though and ya I love god of war, amazing amazing game but I just feel like it’s combat doesn’t outshine elden ring. Story and characters do tho imo.
@@elimanator true about Greg, he definitely wasn’t playing GMGOW mode 😂 And yes Melania! Why did I think it was miquella 😂 I think she is the blade of miquella haha you can tell it’s been months since I went through that hell😂 Fair points but I’d argue that regardless of elden ring being designed to be harder by design, that “harder” design is mainly that the bosses health and damage are very op purposely to give you that satisfaction. Similar to sigrun in GOW, which is an expertly designed battle and felt like a true souls level fight in that you had to dodge, parry, roll and attack with sheer precision or you would be annihilated. That is the same for most of elden rings bosses, I suppose the difference is that for elden ring that’s every boss while for GOW it’s only a few that are meant to be the hardest. But I think we can agree to disagree, at least we can both agree they are fabulous games 👌good talking to you too😊 Also just a side point that has me so hyped. I’ve read a few takes that ragnaroks side quests and side bosses are some of the best in gaming and far better than 2018s, one outlet (i think Washington post on twitter 🤔) said that it’s the best set of side quests/side bosses and optional lore since the Witcher 3… high praise for sure! I need this game 🥹
It’s all relative, Mario can be skin of your teeth for a disabled person. For many GoW 2018 stroke the right balance where any more difficult would’ve been too difficult and make ‘em walk away.
@@elimanator Elden Ring has character types, strats and RPG grind, there definitely isn’t just one crafted way of playing it. I honestly don’t get why they don’t just have a lore difficulty for players who just want to explore the setting and lore.
blessings take on games is so off from his comparison of one shot cams with fps games to his total ignorance to the side quests like did he release the whale or the jelly fish or just skip them whole sections if not thats dissapointing
I love how blessing was pretty adamant about getting rid of his sonic intro, because he's a fan but not like that, but second it goes away....he's ALL about sonic. From the "most anticipated game" joke, wearing a sonic shirts, now a sonic chain? This man loves Sonic.
No I definitely, vastly prefer the creative “play with your food” character action games over unnecessarily difficult soulsborne games, and I say that as someone with Sifu in my top 5. If Sifu didn’t have a strong artistic story that comes from doing everything in it, if it only had its initial generic story, than it wouldn’t be anywhere near that high, cause the shit you can pull off in a Bayonetta 3 or Devil May Cry V is far more fun and engaging, always will be. And I feel like Sekiro is the only combat system from From that was actually fun (like Sifu), but Souls games should’ve just been evolutions of Ninja Gaiden rather than bland RPG games. I do not get joy from dieing or wasting my time, From Software needed to copy Team Ninja and not the other way around cause Ninja Gaiden had the perfectly tense risk/reward Bless talks about without sacrificing fun fantasy-fulfillment character action. GoW 2018 had a nice balance as well, especially the Valkyrie boss fights. You can also set higher difficulty in most character action games to make them more Soulslike anyway.
Surprised KFGD didn't plan or mention of plans of bringing back Alanah Pearce to talk about GoW Ragnarok. With how much she was involved with KFGD previously AND part of the X Cast you'd figure that'd be a slam dunk.
Ten minutes in the video! But can I know what difficulty you guys played? Since SkillUp mentioned playing on ‘give me balanced’ was kinda easy. Just wanna know if thats the same experience for you guys! If this gets answered in the video sorry in advance haha
Man look idk why but I wasn’t really excited to get it even though I loved the last one but you guys really know how to hype it up and get me intrigued … awesome review gave the good and the bad
Excited to play this and appreciate all the reviewers avoiding mentioning spoilers. All the combat improvements are exciting to hear and the characters sound really cool. I’m hoping there’s some more weapon variety but I’m glad I’ll just found out if there is more when I play it. Definitely would want to find everything out in a playthrough rather than online
Honestly I’m not sure how I feel about the game. My biggest takeaway is god DAMN this needed to be a trilogy. There is so much story crammed into this game that a lot of it ends up falling flat. The returning cast where all great but I don’t think I cared about any of the new characters introduced here. Freyr’s merry band of misfits could have been awesome if even one of them made enough of an impact for me to remember their name. That said, there are some genuinely incredible moments in this game that stand alongside the series high points (storming of Asgard had me on my feet). The father/son dynamic was really sweet and overall well told, but there were certain times where I felt they were harping a little too much and I’m like “okay we get it, can we move along now?” Odin was really compelling as an antagonist but the highlight of the villains for me has to be Heimdal. His introduction might be the best scene in the entire game and taking him out genuinely made me feel powerful. Though I will say I miss the scale of the original trilogy. I loved how the Greek Gods where these towering giants. The Norse Gods being more or less Kratos’s size doesn’t elicit the same kind of jaw-on-the-floor wow factor something like the Posideon or Cronos boss fight did. Music was God-tier. Might be better than the first. Performances were perfect. Camera work was also better than the first. Overall liked the game but didn’t love it. If I ranked the main series it’d be: 1.God of War (PS4) 2.God of War III 3.God of War Ragnarok 4.God of War II 5.God of War (PS2) And honestly, Ragnarok and GOW2 might be interchangeable on that list. EDIT: Oh and, my God the Ironwood section was atrocious. Hated everything about it. I realize this is a very negative sounding comment but there is a lot I liked.
I totally resonate with Tim’s self labeled “sequel person.” It’s awesome when people get it right the first time, but proving you can do it twice and even better is far more impressive.
Please tell me they show or talk about the old games story in this one, I would love to see a reimagining of it via a dream sequence or exposition dump of Kratos path of heartbreak and destruction in this new engine or the very least a narration with some key art. The first game was so underwhelming for me because it pretty much ignores the old games and leaves new players with no info pretty much at all about what had happaned so far. A vague scene with Athena and smoke zeus in Helheim felt like such underwhelming moments in 2018... I can't believe they did that and still irks me to this day because without them a new player is just going to think Kratos is some stoic neandethral.. Returning players of old trilogy are left with a very wet bread story thats clearly trying to ham fist a son/father dynamic that spans generations.
Finished the game a few days ago. All in all I enjoyed my time with the game. However, I totally expected this game to have bigger scale, especially for a game called "Ragnarok". I feel like God of War 3 on the PS3 had more epic "omg this is insane" moments. Also the story side of things started to wear me down, I almost got to the point where I was thinking "F all this emotional stuff, let me go kill some Gods", which is directly opposed to the themes of the story 🤷🏽♂🤷🏽♂
The main problem is when you realise that most of these guys haven't even bothered playing the whole game, only played it on the easy modes and still have the petulance of complaining about gameplay and combat, just to appear like they actually have an opinion.
Kinda annoying that Greg mentions a cutscenes at the end of the game with Kratos considering *the* debate around this game is whether Kratos dies or not and when it might happen.
It was originally meant to be 2 more games. I for one could feel there was 2 games crammed in. I enjoyed the story but felt there was a bit too much filler. Overall it was a great game in my opinion.
@@clintmichael4371 that makes sense. There were some event that felt like they could have been expanded on and the end felt a bit rushed but still a great story.
In short, it is cool to be a game reviewer because you get the games before they release. The bad side is that you have to rush through the game and deal with stuff before the Day 1 patch(es). I am going to savor this game and do literally everything at my own pace.
That's the best way to play the game and all games for that matter except for pick up games that you want to get into right away.
@@AmariMarvelous I am a weirdo about it too. I will complete all of the side missions (and maybe the trophies if it is a good list) before completing the final mission. Once I beat the game, I am done with the playing the game altogether.
Blessing comparing Gow 1 shot camera vs 1st person shooters HAS to be one of the worst takes ever
Blessing always has bad takes though. Think he does it deliberately to be "that guy"
Portal 1 was the only one, but was a short indie game that did cut away for its ending cutscene. Man lost his train of thought, I thought he was gonna refer to MGSV or something.
@@jmorgmate never took him serious as a gaming journalists he honestly sucks i wish we could have colin back
@@anthonyfuentes2596 agreed. I quit watching KF because he constantly had the worst and most ridiculous opinions. Adds nothing to the conversation.
I'm happy for the representation of Blessing but omg are his takes off the wall. Yeap I'm just not doing side quests. What?!
Thank you for doing the review as a podcast and keeping it as spoiler free as possible. There have been several reviews that claimed to be as spoiler free as possible but still showcased certain story moments. So thank you for an actually spoiler free review
Man. Those background video graphics are dope as hell. Really dig the Control and Returnal ones. Also. Blessing's jacket is awesome.
Seeing Yuna from Final Fantasy X got me nostalgic 🥲
A friend of mine told me GoW R is like the Terminator 2 of sequels. That’s high praise
That's the best compliment you can give to a sequel 😄
But how would he know if it’s not out
If this is true it only adds to my excitement. Also what a good way to describe a sequel
@@callum7081 same way KF does .....
Ive heard comparisons to the godfather 2 also lol
Always good news when the developers are confident enough to give their game to reviewers so early. Other games have embargoes that try to hide their game right up to launch. Can't wait for this game!
Sony games almost always do this, they got that POLISH
@@cassw8951 The bestowed Sony polish indeed! ✨
Tim: depending who you’re with Me: :/
What stood out most in this review is how often you guys mentioned having to finish it in time for review. Sounds like it hurts your experience with the game.
we would have given it a 6 out of 5 instead of a 5 out of 5.
@@TheAndyCortez still being in the world of "critics" usually ruins your perspective to regular ppl. Seriously 90% of Art critics film/gaming are so wrapped up in their bubble they loose the forest for the trees. They forget we want escapism and entertainment not messages and agenda. Tho those things have their place. Just good MTX free single player games ON THE DISC/cart. Thats what we want. Just how adults loose their teenage brain dont loose your regular person perspective. Dont be a "critic" be a person and honest about opinion vs fact.
good game
I think the reason I like Ragnarok more than Elden Ring is that while Elden Ring does "The Duel" very well, it lacks in "The Brawl". GoW does both really well that every encounter makes you kinda of work for it.
Andy looked super handsome in this review and his opinions holds huge weight in the video game community. The true king in the north.
Absolutely insane that Sony Santa Monica was able to create a sequel that is undoubtedly as great as its predecessor, potentially even better. Especially, since God of War (2018) is one of the greatest games ever created. Ragnarök will be something truly special.
Why are people acting like there wasn't a whole trilogy before this game? God of War 2 AND 3 were better than 1....this has been done twice before
2 and 3 had weaker stories, part 2 in particular felt like a narrative waste of time that made no sense after part 1, so much so that they invented lore years later in part 3 to retroactively justify 2 and yet 3 still wasn’t very good but was at least carried by set pieces and next gen graphics at the time, unlike part 2. The PSP games were in better line with the first game and part 3 was entirely carried by being a PS3 tech showcase bloodbath.
Don’t even get us started on Ascension.
is amazing that kratos goes from someone that wants to die to someone that wants to live to take care of his kid. amazing message.
If you feel like you're going through the motions with the combat in this game you need to up the difficulty. Probably the best combat in a game. Needs to be on at least hard.
1:14:45 Andy: "you shouldn't have to do side quests to get what they're trying to put across"
*Elden Ring nervously sweating after making 99% of people look up wikis and videos to hope to piece together the side quests and story*
GoW presents itself as a cinematic experience tho. it's like snydercut making itself 2 hours longer so that moments can mean more.
imo GOW is better than Elden Ring
@@tjselwyn7003 ragnarock? Have you played it yet?
Both games tell a good portion of their narratives through visual storytelling.
Blessing claiming God of War's combat is too spongey and hack and slash while also shilling on Elden Ring is some level of irony, I'll tell you. It's okay to be a fanboy and unironically meme yourself with bad takes that lack any sense of self awareness; you just sound laughable doing it. It's fine to like a game more, but your key complaint is something that Souls games are literally built on - spongey bosses that take 200,000 hits with massive multi-tiered health bars, and a meta that's virtually comparable to what God of War's combat basically is. I like Blessing, but looking back on literally any review, he's the Picasso of bad or meme worthy takes. Like when he claimed Varl's death in Horizon was gross and tropey, lmao. Yeah, okay buddy. He wasn't killed off because he's black; he just so happened to be Aloy's second hand man with undying loyalty, willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good - and he did with honor, bravery, and conviction. To look at his death and only recognize the fact that he was a black man, and reach to think of "the black guy always dies first" tropes is so hilariously off base, it's really impossible to take seriously or respect in the slightest. Anybody who's deep into Horizon could see his eventual and imminent death coming from a mile away because of his fearless loyalty to protect his allies. If anything, his character and the way he was written should be celebrated.
I wrote my senior thesis on "Video Games as Art." The core of art is to make you feel. No one would argue movies can't make you feel. Games have a tougher job of it, because when you are largely in control, making you feel gets undermined. Roger Ebert was very adamant that control takes away your ability to just get carried away by the story. What we know that he doesn't is that in the right hands, control draws you into the story even further/
Anyway, we're seeing that just like movies that deal with the human condition, some themes and ideas are universal. I think it's telling that two of the most impactful games when it comes to storytelling and making you feel (The Last of Us and God of War) both center around the most universal of human conditions ... from being a self-centered individual to a parent trying to raise their kid to be better than they are.
I don't think the 2018 God of War works as well without the games that came before. People talk about God of War/Ragnarok being a two-game story, but they're not. The original God of War games are absolutely the first act of this three act story. You should know why Kratos is why he is to see why the cracks in the facade in 2018 are meaningful. But even not having experienced that part of the story, you can still relate and feel this man struggling with his own past, mistakes, and anger and how he's trying to spare his child that. The expertise in SSM's storytelling is making you feel those things without having been through the experience.
I think this is very well said and I hate when people like to block out or say kratos in the older games character doesn’t matter when it makes these games so much more special
Can we read the thesis somewhere?
@@Klutch29 Gosh, it's been well over a decade now. It might be published somewhere ... I'll need to see if I can dig it up.
Metal Gear series, Quantic Dreams games, indies, etc.
Why Bless look so pimpin'? Did he get a stylist?
Honestly, as much as I love FromSoftware's combat, I feel like the unending praise it gets has a lot to do with people liking it on autopilot, without critically thinking about it. I say this because it's pretty much the same system from DeS, DS1, DS2 and DS3. In DS3 they introduced weapon arts that added a bit to the game but it still felt the same. By the time we got Elden Ring, the combat has been diluted since DS1 to the point where trash mobs = R1 or weapon art spam and 99% of the combat really shines in boss fights.
I appreciate that From's combat system stayed true to it's traditions but it this doesn't keep me from questioning and comparing it to some systems that took inspiration from it. Like, Nioh 2 threw the raw core of Souls combat and their Ninja Gaiden expertise to make what IMO is the best combat system ever created in an action game. I think Devil May Cry 5 is better but it doesn't really give you a reason to use 80% of your arsenal, it's mostly about going out of your way to be stylish.
I really like how God of War borrows from Souls but adds juggling mechanics, weapon switching and active skills, all wrapped into incredible, visceral and kinetic animations. Then, if you really want to go niche and research advanced gameplay with animation cancels and infinite juggles (mostly from GBG's channel), you'll find an entire second layer of unintended mechanics that brings the game a bit closer to Devil May Cry's cancels and combos, that you never knew existed.
Yea I can’t say elden ring has better combat I know it’s a little harder to compare but dmc 5 and god of war have the best combat in gaming to me I would have to say the depth to the combat is what separates it from from software specifically
Saying this game is like playing an MCU movie really is an insult and I enjoy marvel movies. Not a single one has come close to the depth of this game in terms of world and script
Finished the game recently, fun going through all the review vids. Really interesting that no one complained too much about the side characters always nudging Kratos all over the game. Whether it’s about looting, finding xp, solving a puzzle. Found it all to be a bit much. Would have loved if we have gotten a Nordic trilogy just to have cut a lot of bloated content and make it a bit tighter.
Its crazy listening to them talk about when they rolled credits because Im like 35 hours in and it feels like im not even close to finished
I applaud Blessing for his bravery wearing that Shadow chain/necklace unironic!😉
For really big anticipated games, these are the only reviews I love to watch. No spoilers. No pictures or video. Just people talking about the game and how they found it. I don't want to see a single trailer for this game and want to experience it as fresh as possible without trailers or reviewers blatantly giving huge spoilers to the game. Kinda Funny do things right. Thanks guys.
It is always so weird to me when 90% of a persons talking points are about the 10% they felt was great but could have been better, but still great.
It's just needless nitpicking to be a critic, especially with a game that's as highly anticipated as God of War: Ragnarok. They have to say something they didn't like so they don't get accused of saying the game is perfect, which no game is.
Hhaha yes I agree with Andy with the accents in the Horizon and GoW games. You go to all that length in pretty out there names and model design to create this fantasical setting and then they like "oh whatsup Alloy!". First time meeting the Carja in Zero dawn was like wtf man ya'll run out of money or something?? hahaha.
I just started the game and I have no idea how they could just Golden Path a game like this.
Shills
Fucking love Greg dude was just spot on…Kratos is the best video Game character in history
Kratos is the GOAT , Greg is dead right on that take !!! , This game hits your soul as a dad , I definitely teared up in parts
Not a dad but kratos is the fckn G.O.A.T
Best GoW games
1. God of War 3 omg when I 1st saw that on my ps3 the scale of it
Still to this day look great
2. God of War 2018
3. God of War 2
4. Ragnarok
5. Ghost of Sparta
6. God of War Ascension
7. God of War where it all started
8. Chains of Olympus
I actually really enjoy all of em
How can Blessing give this game at five out of five when he doesn’t even wanna go back and play 30% of the game which is the side missions?
Why is blessing always yelling and cutting other people off? I can’t even hear when someone is talking over his constant yells.
Can’t wait for the Spoilercast. Just finished it and it’s a masterpiece
This is KFG Vol. 2, Episode 152 (Episode 404 overall)
Here’s my thing with Blessings argument on Ragnarok combat, why are you judging it as if it’s not an action game and hasnt always been one? It’s always been button mashy, and that’s one particular style of combat in video games, not just Ragnarok. Just weird to critique the game for having an easy to approach combat style like so many other games. Not every game will have the same tactical style of combat like From games. I adored ER but if every game had its combat system gaming would be in some serious trouble.
What’s up with the bubble on Greg’s laptop screen? 🤔
When Andy said “you shouldn’t have to do side quests to get the point they’re trying to get across” I’ve gotta disagree. I mean the main story should be self contained in the golden path but side quests need to be character/world/lore building, they need to have a point to them. The Witcher 3 is not as great a game without its side quests, Elden Ring doesn’t have “side quests” per se but if you golden light path Elden Ring the experience is lessened.
Love seeing Andy in the comment replies of this video. It's great content
Ryan Hurst, of Sons of Anarchy fame, voiced Thor! Can't wait to play!!!!
"I got this." Man is a legend. Can't fucking wait.
I can't wait to hear you guys continue talking about this with the rest of us normies next week because the fresh hype for it will still be there, right? Right?
"I am a Endgame person, I am a Last of Us 2 person, and I am a Ragnarok person" BIG W GUY. Love to hear it.
3:09
“I don’t want to say too much cus I know you guys have stuff to say”
3:15
Calmly & reasonably passes the torch to Greg miller who proceeds to ramble on for 3 minutes non stop and goes off topic multiple times but proceeds to just ramble on as if he’s talking to talk until he lands on something.
My favorite parts the cringe with the weird flex but okay “I got a lot of money” - the cutaways to the other guys all with the same look on their faces of “Ugh… this dude sure loves to hear himself talk.” “You think he knows it’s an intro of sorts and he’s not just riffing ?” “…aaaaaand he’s riffing, we’re gonna be here for a while aren’t we..”
when is the spoiler cast?
It is humanly impossible to reboot a franchise such as god of war and get very warm critical and public appreciation then top it with its sequel. This will be remembered very fondly in history of video games
Santa Monica have done it once again! Legends 💙
So glad Andy shouted out Skill up, the FPS podcast had Bless on recently and we just need more crossovers between you guys. Tam has bridged that gap several times and you’re all phenomenal voices in this industry.
Great review and I’ll attribute it to trying to avoid spoilers, but blessing made it sound like a 3or4 out of 5. For a 5/5 it seemed like you really dove into things you didnt like. But very entertaining
11/9 can’t come fast enough!
finished the game last night
-great story
-great combat
-overabundance of puzzles
-overabundance of long animations
overall it was a great game when it wasn't slowing everything down to a crawl for puzzles and animations
it's hard for a game with great combat to burn me out but by the end GOWR did. i appreciate all the added content (i did about 70-80% of it) but i really can't go do the rest because I know exactly how they will all play out gameplay-wise because the game is a cycle of puzzle - tedious traversal -story beat
and that's fine in the first 20 hours, but in the last stretch it got exhausting. i appreciated the main story having set-pieces to add variety.
id give it an 8 or 9. it's still too soon to say exactly where i'll land but it's not a 10 for me.
I think Greg needs to go back to elden ring for a second. Not to beat it or anything but him saying god of war is “skin of your teeth” in any way similarly to elden ring will get knocked out of him with that first mounted tree boss lol. Character action is just a different style of game then a souls like
Yh definitely, for hard mode or below. Then there’s give me god of war mode. Yh good luck with that. It is 1000% as hard as elden ring or harder, especially when elden ring can be beaten with over levelling (let’s face it that’s how most people do it) and you also have SO MANY cheese moves to blitz bosses with ease. Although most of those you’d have to look up. Elden ring is definitely FAR more vague for sure and playing it without any advice would definitely be harder… but again, no one really does that 😂
Anyway GMGOW on GOW 2018, especially sigrun but even the main game was insane. And it was the same or harder than elden ring for me. and I didn’t even over level much in elden ring…
Although maybe miquella… but she was just a dreadfully designed boss imo, so op and unbalanced, just cranking a bosses health way up and their defence/damage stat way up and introducing a cheap health regen mechanic, does not a good boss make. When I beat her I didn’t even feel good, just broken from the bad design 😂
@@Tom-bv1sc that’s a fair point for sure. Although I highly doubt Greg was playing in God of war mode. Even in god of war mode however I’d give a bit of pushback where the “difficulty” at that point doesn’t come from brilliant boss design but more so the enemy’s just have vastly increased health and you have vastly reduced health. Which to me is just frustrating when the game was clearly not designed to be played that way. Whereas elden ring has no difficulty modes, it is meant to be played in one specific and highly crafted way.
200% agree that mid to late game over leveling makes the game way easier to play (especially with people doing exploits) and to be fair by late game I was over leveled altho melania was still very difficult.
Nice talking with ya though and ya I love god of war, amazing amazing game but I just feel like it’s combat doesn’t outshine elden ring. Story and characters do tho imo.
@@elimanator true about Greg, he definitely wasn’t playing GMGOW mode 😂
And yes Melania! Why did I think it was miquella 😂 I think she is the blade of miquella haha you can tell it’s been months since I went through that hell😂
Fair points but I’d argue that regardless of elden ring being designed to be harder by design, that “harder” design is mainly that the bosses health and damage are very op purposely to give you that satisfaction. Similar to sigrun in GOW, which is an expertly designed battle and felt like a true souls level fight in that you had to dodge, parry, roll and attack with sheer precision or you would be annihilated. That is the same for most of elden rings bosses, I suppose the difference is that for elden ring that’s every boss while for GOW it’s only a few that are meant to be the hardest. But I think we can agree to disagree, at least we can both agree they are fabulous games 👌good talking to you too😊
Also just a side point that has me so hyped. I’ve read a few takes that ragnaroks side quests and side bosses are some of the best in gaming and far better than 2018s, one outlet (i think Washington post on twitter 🤔) said that it’s the best set of side quests/side bosses and optional lore since the Witcher 3… high praise for sure! I need this game 🥹
It’s all relative, Mario can be skin of your teeth for a disabled person. For many GoW 2018 stroke the right balance where any more difficult would’ve been too difficult and make ‘em walk away.
@@elimanator
Elden Ring has character types, strats and RPG grind, there definitely isn’t just one crafted way of playing it. I honestly don’t get why they don’t just have a lore difficulty for players who just want to explore the setting and lore.
Came here just to see how cute Andy was looking in the video. Keep up the great work guys.
blessings take on games is so off
from his comparison of one shot cams with fps games to his total ignorance to the side quests
like did he release the whale or the jelly fish or just skip them whole sections if not thats dissapointing
I love how blessing was pretty adamant about getting rid of his sonic intro, because he's a fan but not like that, but second it goes away....he's ALL about sonic. From the "most anticipated game" joke, wearing a sonic shirts, now a sonic chain? This man loves Sonic.
Everything great but the audio is so quiet on all the new studio videos. Please increase if you can.
No I definitely, vastly prefer the creative “play with your food” character action games over unnecessarily difficult soulsborne games, and I say that as someone with Sifu in my top 5. If Sifu didn’t have a strong artistic story that comes from doing everything in it, if it only had its initial generic story, than it wouldn’t be anywhere near that high, cause the shit you can pull off in a Bayonetta 3 or Devil May Cry V is far more fun and engaging, always will be. And I feel like Sekiro is the only combat system from From that was actually fun (like Sifu), but Souls games should’ve just been evolutions of Ninja Gaiden rather than bland RPG games. I do not get joy from dieing or wasting my time, From Software needed to copy Team Ninja and not the other way around cause Ninja Gaiden had the perfectly tense risk/reward Bless talks about without sacrificing fun fantasy-fulfillment character action. GoW 2018 had a nice balance as well, especially the Valkyrie boss fights. You can also set higher difficulty in most character action games to make them more Soulslike anyway.
Been awhile since I have watched KF content. They do review scores now?
Ever since Horizon Forbidden West, yes.
@@Hs022 interesting. I remember Greg and the crew back in the day being so against it. Times are a changin’
They had a whole thing talking about and explaining why.
35 is a lot?!?
Wow, I’m just past 40 hours in and I got A LOT TO GO!!!
I know they want to show off the new studio, but the super wide shots are weird as hell lol
Shout out to SkillUp!
By far the best and most entertaining review I've seen so far. Well done
Surprised KFGD didn't plan or mention of plans of bringing back Alanah Pearce to talk about GoW Ragnarok. With how much she was involved with KFGD previously AND part of the X Cast you'd figure that'd be a slam dunk.
Spoilercast for sure
Great video lads. I don’t know how much longer I can keep my hype levels constantly high for Ragnarok! Inject this game into my veins!
Blessing rocking his Shadow the Hedgehog chain during this review keeping the Sonic Frontiers love alive is 😚👌🏿✨
Great Gamescast! extra points for the kingdom hearts background I saw. :)
Ten minutes in the video! But can I know what difficulty you guys played? Since SkillUp mentioned playing on ‘give me balanced’ was kinda easy. Just wanna know if thats the same experience for you guys! If this gets answered in the video sorry in advance haha
I'm loving it so far
1st Time I’ve seen the new intro graphic! Incredible Andy!!!!
Lol elden rings combat is literally just dark souls and this guy complaining that gow combat didn't evolve enough
Man look idk why but I wasn’t really excited to get it even though I loved the last one but you guys really know how to hype it up and get me intrigued … awesome review gave the good and the bad
Great review guys!
It's hilarious watching the replay of live chat beefing over GOTY discussions.
Lmao first time watching since you guys opens the new stuud, and loool at the fog. I’m assuming you got some lasers too? Ehh ehh?
Andy needs a coaster.
You getting Cory Barlog on the Spoilercast??
GOTY for me. I agree with Greg Kratos is up there with the best video game characters.
This is the first game in a long time where I felt like I under paid.
“GOW2018 rang the alarm.” Smooth 😎
I’ve been so hyped for this moment
Cant wait to play this! Will loop back to listen to this after. Unless someone in the comments can confirm there are no spoilers in the episode 😅
Im 10min in. For NOW no spoilers
A man of the people! Thank you
I just finished listening. No spoilers.
@@dportnov 🙏 you rule. Listening now!
SPOILER:
The game is a fucking masterpiece 🏅
Blessing and Andy already politicking to try and undermine God of War so Elden ring wins game of the year lmaooo
KFG "Man its annoying this game is button mashy". Also KFG "Man its annoying there are combos where I have to not mash the buttons to pull off"
Excited to play this and appreciate all the reviewers avoiding mentioning spoilers. All the combat improvements are exciting to hear and the characters sound really cool. I’m hoping there’s some more weapon variety but I’m glad I’ll just found out if there is more when I play it. Definitely would want to find everything out in a playthrough rather than online
Wow, enjoyed this review.
God, this is some of the most excited I've ever been for a video game.
Shoutout to Bless for the Shadow chain btw
Honestly I’m not sure how I feel about the game. My biggest takeaway is god DAMN this needed to be a trilogy. There is so much story crammed into this game that a lot of it ends up falling flat. The returning cast where all great but I don’t think I cared about any of the new characters introduced here. Freyr’s merry band of misfits could have been awesome if even one of them made enough of an impact for me to remember their name.
That said, there are some genuinely incredible moments in this game that stand alongside the series high points (storming of Asgard had me on my feet). The father/son dynamic was really sweet and overall well told, but there were certain times where I felt they were harping a little too much and I’m like “okay we get it, can we move along now?”
Odin was really compelling as an antagonist but the highlight of the villains for me has to be Heimdal. His introduction might be the best scene in the entire game and taking him out genuinely made me feel powerful. Though I will say I miss the scale of the original trilogy. I loved how the Greek Gods where these towering giants. The Norse Gods being more or less Kratos’s size doesn’t elicit the same kind of jaw-on-the-floor wow factor something like the Posideon or Cronos boss fight did.
Music was God-tier. Might be better than the first. Performances were perfect. Camera work was also better than the first. Overall liked the game but didn’t love it. If I ranked the main series it’d be:
1.God of War (PS4)
2.God of War III
3.God of War Ragnarok
4.God of War II
5.God of War (PS2)
And honestly, Ragnarok and GOW2 might be interchangeable on that list.
EDIT: Oh and, my God the Ironwood section was atrocious. Hated everything about it. I realize this is a very negative sounding comment but there is a lot I liked.
I totally resonate with Tim’s self labeled “sequel person.” It’s awesome when people get it right the first time, but proving you can do it twice and even better is far more impressive.
Blessing's take on combat in this game vs Elden Ring is insane! Bullet sponge?! More than Elden Ring.... come on dude...
Please tell me they show or talk about the old games story in this one, I would love to see a reimagining of it via a dream sequence or exposition dump of Kratos path of heartbreak and destruction in this new engine or the very least a narration with some key art. The first game was so underwhelming for me because it pretty much ignores the old games and leaves new players with no info pretty much at all about what had happaned so far.
A vague scene with Athena and smoke zeus in Helheim felt like such underwhelming moments in 2018... I can't believe they did that and still irks me to this day because without them a new player is just going to think Kratos is some stoic neandethral.. Returning players of old trilogy are left with a very wet bread story thats clearly trying to ham fist a son/father dynamic that spans generations.
Finished the game a few days ago. All in all I enjoyed my time with the game.
However, I totally expected this game to have bigger scale, especially for a game called "Ragnarok". I feel like God of War 3 on the PS3 had more epic "omg this is insane" moments.
Also the story side of things started to wear me down, I almost got to the point where I was thinking "F all this emotional stuff, let me go kill some Gods", which is directly opposed to the themes of the story 🤷🏽♂🤷🏽♂
The main problem is when you realise that most of these guys haven't even bothered playing the whole game, only played it on the easy modes and still have the petulance of complaining about gameplay and combat, just to appear like they actually have an opinion.
Great review, lads! Love your work 💙
Kinda annoying that Greg mentions a cutscenes at the end of the game with Kratos considering *the* debate around this game is whether Kratos dies or not and when it might happen.
Bless killed this one for sure! His take was very refreshing.
he just repeats what everyone else says
No trophy talk?
Shout out Andy
I don't know if you guys feel this happening in real time but god did this turn into a b**** fest about a game within 94 on metacritic
I can't wait to play it
And they didn't have to reuse assets for a decade to do it 👏🏻
3:10
6:35
I do wonder if this story was meant to be two games at one point. Some there is so much story.
It was originally meant to be 2 more games. I for one could feel there was 2 games crammed in. I enjoyed the story but felt there was a bit too much filler. Overall it was a great game in my opinion.
@@clintmichael4371 that makes sense. There were some event that felt like they could have been expanded on and the end felt a bit rushed but still a great story.
bless and greg are hilarous bless comapres to elden ring and greg just shits on elden ring lol
Big SOny game without Days or Gone in the name. Let me guess. 5/5 greatest thing ever made.