God of War is a beloved gaming franchise based on Greek and Norse mythology. It’s a franchise that is all based around these mythologies but how accurate are the God of War games? I will go over multiple different strengths and weaknesses of these games and compare them to the myths they are based on.

Kratos Vs Kratos

These two are VASTLY different characters

Kratos is a spartan. He starts off as a regular human soldier. Cratus is a god born of Styx and the titan Pallas. Kratos or Kratos is the personification of strength in Greek mythology. He is actually an ally of Zeus unlike in the games where he is an enemy of Zeus and constantly tries to kill him. Kratos in the games has NO resemblance to Kratos in Greek mythology but it’s the closest counterpart he has. He also is the father of Loki and it has no connection to the myths because the mythologies don’t mix. The closest Norse mythological figure to Kratos is Týr. He is the Norse God of War and Kratos is the respective God of war in his series. He is not the actual God of War though, that title goes to the god Ares. Ares is the main villain to The original God of War and Kratos takes the title when he kills the God of War.

The Enemies

The creatures and gods you fight are vastly different from their Greek mythology counterparts. The most accurate god is probably Zeus because he actually sucks, Zeus is a horrible person. The other gods aren’t as bad as they are portrayed, especially Hades. Hades is done dirty in every appearance he has. He is always the bad guy who hates Olympus but that’s just not true. Hades is not a bad guy, he’s kind of chill. He’s always in his own world and never has problems with the other gods. He actually helps the gods whenever they are in need. Also the variety of enemies are so wrong. In God of War 3, you fight about 10 Medusa’s but in reality there is only 1 medusa. The boss fight with the Hydra in God of War annoys me so much because it’s such a bad depiction of the Hydra. It starts off with 9 heads which isn’t 100% wrong but It annoys me because in the mythology the Hydra is a creature with 2 heads that grows an extra head every time 0ne is cut off. It doesn’t just start with one head.

One thing I can give to the games is world building. The world building in all 5 of the God of War games is so amazing and actually is pretty accurate to the source material. In the newest game God of War:Ragnarök the world building is fantastic. All of the 9 realms you can travel to are beautifully crafted.

So God of War isn’t perfect but it will go down in time as one of the best video game franchises of all time and will always be my personal favorite game franchise.