Giant Bomb Presents: God of War (2018) Spoilercast

@skinnyluigi: cool

BOY!

Yes

My go-to combo was so do a light throw to stagger an enemy then do the move where you call the axe back and do this big sweeping two hit combo. So satisfying

@blitzrules240:

Regular brains go about saying boi, us galaxy brains go about saying brother.

Boy, not a lot of them finished the game. And wow, I knew Nolan North played one of the brothers but didn't know Troy Baker did the other.

Man I had such a good time with this game. The last time I really got hooked on a game this hard was NieR:Automata. God of War's combat system and moveset is just so damn satisfying when you get good at it and make it work for you.

Yes! I wish the bombcrew did more spoilercasts.

I was hoping this was coming. So much in this game to talk about, and it was painful hearing them talk around stuff on the casts.

Man, I know Dan reviewed the game but, did he even play it?

Big fan of muscle film.

Surprised they didn't get into the Freya stuff, with her going to Mimir to ask about where Odin has hidden her Valkyrie Wings while they're off in Jotunheim. I think that ends up putting her in a really interesting place in regards to the sequel.

Wow Dan really just doesn't pay attention to dialogue that much does he. I know he's not really a story guy but holy shit. Seems like anything more than "dude punches guy" goes above his head.

Also, I know this has come up before but man Dan has such a simple view when it comes to "bad guys." "Oh he's the bad guy, i have to kill the bad guy cause he's the bad guy and i'm the good guy." Protagonist doesn't mean "good guy" and antagonist doesn't mean "bad guy." They can both have good and bad qualities.

@glok1132: Yeah, he knows surprisingly little about a game he considers one of the best of this console generation. If he's just a guy who doesn't care about story but still loved the game, then fine, whatever. But he also doesn't remember the final boss fight?

Also, for what it's worth...

- The third Dragon Tear can be found at the dragon that crashed after you fought Baldur on it. Its corpse is still sitting in Midgard. Just go there and pick up the Dragon Tear off the ground.

- The Valkyries' unavoidable flash/explosion/blinding attacks can also be interrupted with Shock Arrows and axe throws, not just Light Arrows like Ben mentioned.

@glok1132:

Seriously. Wasn’t even aware of major plot points. Or noteable moments in the set-pieces.

And his view on good guy, bad guy story beats are so plain. There’s just so much more grey room than that. Kratos is the furthest thing from the “good guy” he’s actually always been the villain but this continuation of the story seems to be attempting to give him a solid redemption arch.

I played through the game on hard, and killing Sigrun was so satisfying. Probably tougher than any boss I've conquered in recent memory. She has something like 20 moves. And you die in like 2-4 hits. You really learn the best way to counter every single one of her moves. Knock her out of the air when she's charging up the slam that blinds you. Use the shield bash to counter her guard. Dodge 3 times when she flies into the air for her curb stomp combo. Etc. I killed her before I beat the game, so the ending message of "You could go conquer the terrifying valkyries now" was pretty funny.

My main loadout for the axe was the light runic attack that hurls the axe forward. My heavy runic attack was the triple melee slam (that upgrades to like 10 slams). And my favorite talisman was the slow time one. Comboing the slam + the slow time was really helpful for Sigrun. Normally, she'd just fly out of the slams. So my main damage dealing method was my normal attack combo, slow time + runic slams, and then another normal attack combo to take off a couple bars.

I also loved how Dan had like no understanding of the story (or he forgot most of it). Ben and Vinny explaining what was going on in the last fight was hilarious. Never change, my man! :D

I really wish they'd do more spoilercasts. I enjoy the discussion on the bombcast/beastcast, but they have to tiptoe around. There's a lot of vague comments and "well, I don't want to say too much," which is a bummer when you really WANT to hear their thoughts on things. Without these spoilercasts, we'd have to wait until GotY to hear their full thoughts on everything in the game.

Man I haven’t listened yet but Bakalar isn’t in on this?? I was really curious to hear his take on some of this stuff.

Still really excited to listen to it; they should do these for all major story driven releases.

Dan platinums a game and is accused of not playing it. Video game discourse ladies and gents!

I get that the point is that he missed story beats but come on, no need to beat up on him for what he did or didn't take away from it in relation to what you did or didn't take away from it. It's so weird to me to see people somehow say "Well, he gave it 5 stars but, I don't believe he fully appreciated it."

All of that said, I loved this podcast. Ben is so fucking great.

ALSO WOLVES.

@axersia: Or press the down d-pad and looks away

@vinny I suggest Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. It's exactly what it sounds like: Gaiman retelling Norse myth. It's good.

For a spoilercast from three guys that played the game they seem to be pretty unsure on a lot about it, lol. Granted it's pretty dense in lore, but there's just simple stuff they don't remember or know. Especially Dan, but go figure.

@glok1132: I mean, I know sometimes they have trouble paying attention, but it can't be that bad.

*listens to the whole thing*

Okay... it is that bad.

Wow the condescending tone of some of the commenters on dan here really off-putting

I got the audiobook for this and listened to the first two stories, the second one being about the giant who disguises himself and builds the wall for Asgard in exchange for Frigg's hand in marriage. Then I loaded the game back up, thinking to myself, "I wonder if any of Mimir's stories will overlap with the stories in Gaiman's book..." Then I got on the boat and that was the story he ended up telling :D

@phalex: i get tge feeling that alot of people who worked on this game read that book too based on alot of the writing in the game

I've never understood the whole "Kratos is a big dumb jock" thing. He actually has a lot of insightful musings scattered throughout the game. He actually develops sarcasm in the later game boat stories with Mimir, as well.

Also, I love you Dan, but that was literally the final boss of the game, and arguably the coolest fight. I don't know how you could have forgotten it so easily.

This was fantastic. Thank you Dan, Ben, and Vinny

Same, I love these spoilercasts. It's much more interesting than the first impressions stuff.

You all ever considered doing these spoilercasts for older games? It'd be fun just to hear you talk about them without worrying about spoilers, in another context than a GOTY argument.

I can see why Dan didn't remember the giant being reanimated. It really wasn't made a huge part of that fight except for like one or two moments. With everything else going on I thought there could have been more done with it.

It would have been much cooler if his hands came down to trap Baldur and Kratos to get them to stop fighting rather then the vines.

@galerian: For the blinding attack, yes, but there are also Valkyries that have arena-filling shockwave attacks. They simply can't be avoided and must be interrupted.

Everything I know about Norse mythology I learned from God of Thunder.
So, basically nothing.

I guess this game is not so memorable since they seem to not remember anything.

Perfect!!!! I just got the platinum for this

Agreed, they should do these for every big release, especially when there is a lot of interesting story to discuss.

This discussion specifically could have used a 4th person that was maybe semi well versed in actual norse mythology.

I don't think Odin is going to be in any way an antagonist in any next game (if there is one), and I'm OK with that

The only thing i didnt like about the game was that naglfar wasnt in it. Its the biggest ship in the world made by the fingernails and toenails of the dead. That is why its important to cut your nails, so you dont make the ship bigger when you die

It took me the entire game to realize Faye is short for Laufey and the also the official name in the mythology. A dead give away from the first moments in the game. Post game when you talk to Brokk, he casually mentions her name and I felt really dumb haha.

@fredz85: The only reason I know about Naglfar is because of the black metal band of the same name. But yes, on the second trip to Hel when they started talking about the ship, I thought "Fuck, is that going to be Naglfar?!"

But no... it's just a wooden ship. Missed opportunity right there.

I'll take that bet, I'm assuming God of War the Reboot 2: Ragnarok, where you get to that final fight and battle Odin. And, if they pull a God of war 3 again, then you fight Odin for the third game too. If there's any subversion here, it's that Thor kills him and you fight him instead, since Odin is more of a trickster while Thor is the big powerful lightning dude, parallelling Zeus' and Kratos' movesets.

I feel like this new game is pretty conflicted. On one hand, it's Kratos learning from his mistakes, raising a kid not to be like him, give peace a chance etc. But you're still killing monsters, men and gods. The new fiction they've written and the ways they've twisted Norse mythology doesn't gel with the desire to "grow up" Kratos - Odin is characterized as a right bastard worse than anyone, and while a lot of Norse gods aren't exactly "nice" in their behavior, they're not devils, either.

Effin Baldur, the god of being so nice and wise and pleasant he became immortal by everything in the world swearing not to hurt him 'cause his mum asked, is turned into this UFC-looking tattooed hipster nutjob and has to play the main antagonist 'cause they wanna do ragnarok next. They're still having you fight on the bad side of the mythology, teaming up with the Midgard Serpent and the like, 'cause that's more cool, man. It's still gotta be an action game, and it's still being done by the God of War 2 dude. The quest for redemption is always gonna be half-assed 'cause Kratos can't stop killing if he wants to still exist. This game focuses on the patricide angle. "We'll end the cycle and be better" and all that. No more killing your parents. But Kratos isn't a bad dude because he kills his dad. He's a bad dude because he kills everyone.

Kratos might justify his actions differently, and maybe his kid will take some of the heat on that end. Atreus sure seemed like he was straight up possessed in some way when he didn't remember the bad stuff he did during the game, so I could easily see him pull some possessed by Loki-shit in the next games and do some of the bad stuff for Kratos. But I don't think for a second Kratos won't slaughter his way through the rest of the aesir by the end of this trilogy. He's still gonna murder another pantheon. They're not gonna have a second game where Kratos has actually changed his ways. The best he can hope for is staying dead when he dies this time.

Most of this post isn't aimed at you, vdortizo, I just took the opportunity to air my thoughts.

Baffles me how Dan can spend so much time over a game, along with giving it 5 stars, yet understands so very little about anything within it.

Oh Dan....

Dan questions how Zues came from Kronos, well his mind will be blown to know the World Serpent Jörmungandr is the Son of Loki ie Atreus, It's why Jörmungandr recognised him when they first meet.

I'm glad the reason the snake looks like Kratos isn't just generic art direction. I dunno if they'll send Kratos back through time to be the snake or if it'll look like that in honor of him or what, but I'm expecting some weird-ass shenanigans.