You may as well finish, youre literally right at the end. Taking a break now would definitely throw the pacing off.
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God of War |OT2| Mad Dad Redemption
- Thread starter More_Badass
- Start date
I just returned from the elf realm and cleared the black smoke on the way to the mountain.
How far into the game am I approximately?
I completed almost all trials on the first try, but that
at the end is fucking nuts. I can't get past half health.
Valkyrie
It is complete.
Not until you plat 1 and 2 on the Vita, lol.
I'm just starting this, and I'm instantly wondering if I'm not grasping something about the combat, because everything has a "bullet sponge" feel to it and combat seems like it takes to long and feels tedious already. Is this a common complaint?
game is way too long for me. the boy's "gameplay" driven dialogue is lame to me, "we can explore some if you want", "Nate!" shout when you die, it's all pretty silly.
pace is too slow, would rather a more linear experience. enjoying the combat though
pace is too slow, would rather a more linear experience. enjoying the combat though
That's all you need. Just go to the realm travel room and you should be good.
Alright, I finally picked this up. Pretty excited to hop in.
Is give me a challenge about on par with a standard "hard" difficulty mode from a character action or brawler game?
Is give me a challenge about on par with a standard "hard" difficulty mode from a character action or brawler game?
I think it starts out harder, but as you get upgrades it gets a lot more manageable. If you're familiar with this kind of game and want to be challenged, I definitely recommend starting on that difficulty.
No. You are just starting. You will get dozens of moves in the next few hours to make you stronger.
I'm getting pretty close to the end and he's just as annoying as he has been all game. Constantly screwing up and then giving me lip about it. Kratos has an infinite amount of patience for that compared to me.
Done. :D
Only my second true platinum (not counting ones from short games you get just for finishing) after Bloodborne. Definitely my game of the generation so far and one of my all time favorites.
Only my second true platinum (not counting ones from short games you get just for finishing) after Bloodborne. Definitely my game of the generation so far and one of my all time favorites.
You can do them on easy (give me a story). It doesn't affect the trophies. The only one I found annoying as the
win without taking damage one.
The 1st impossible trial after the valkerie is tough, but the rest are pretty easy on normal difficulty.
Speaking of trials, I'm on number four and it's kicking my ass. Just a few quick questions for those who've beat them all.
1) Does it get significantly harder than Trial 4? Because I'm not even getting halfway through it.
And
2) Is there a special reward for completing this that's a big part of the game? Just want a vague yes or no, no spoilers obviously.
1) Does it get significantly harder than Trial 4? Because I'm not even getting halfway through it.
And
2) Is there a special reward for completing this that's a big part of the game? Just want a vague yes or no, no spoilers obviously.
Huh. She shouldn't be too difficult then... I don't remember too much despite only recently beating her, but I'll try and help.
Something really useful is when she leaps into the air (but not flies out of the screen) and prepares to attack with her staff, either have Atreus fire arrows at her or quickly throw your axe at her. It'll stop her attack and give you a free hit. If I recall correctly, she'll come down as well, so you'll be able to attack her even more if you quickly close the gap.
On the other hand, instead of attacking with her staff, she could call down a rain of fire on you. Observe whether she gives off the red or yellow circle, as this will be red and the above will be yellow. If you see red, dodge roll to either your left or right. Don't bother throwing your axe, prioritize dodging this attack.
When she does fly out of the screen, get ready to dodge roll twice: the first time when the red fiery circle shows up where you're standing, and another after that to dodge her landing. This will allow you to punish her and you should be able to do a full combo.
Also, whenever you're doing a combo, have Atreus fire arrows at her but not too quickly and instead space it out so that she'll be staggering long enough for you to be able to get a full combo and deal maximum damage.
If she raises her wings, then that means she's about to do either a two-part or three-part attack. Just block this entire time, unless you're confident enough to be able to parry her slashes. The first two attacks will always be the same, Gondul slashing with her wings, once from the left and once from the right. If she does a third attack, it's either the unblockable stab with her right (your left) wing, so dodge to your right and quickly punish her. Alternatively, she could do a stationary spinning attack instead. Keep your shield up this whole time and only attack once she's done spinning. Luckily, there's enough time to notice which of the two moves she's about to do, you'll see either the red or yellow circle pop out, so just remain calm and wait for the tells to decide on your next action.
Lastly, don't forget to use quick turn and sprint when needed, either to get away or pick up a health stone. They're both essential in fighting Valkyries. I usually either have Atreus wearing his runic vestment or the sharpshooter one, and have the wolf summon ready to keep her occupied if I'm about to run and get some health stones.
Cory actually talked about this in his spoiler cast with EZAllies that he liked sprinkling clues through the game about where the story would go XD
Got it on my second try, huehuehue.
Didn't do then until after I finished the game at level 7 tho.
There's only one Frozen Flame that you can purchase from the brothers. You can see the quantity of the items they're selling when you select it.
Trading the items you get from completing the 2 challenge realms (Nif+Mus) can only be done after you finish the game, as far as I could tell. I only got the option to trade them, then.
So I platinum-ed it about a week ago. And decided to let it sit a little, both in terms of hype and let it settle for some perspective before I wrote about it.
I had an amazing time, I don't platinum games unless I do. And the game was very smooth in that regard, I didn't have to do a whole lot of extra work to platinum it because most of the items were on the path. Just a few items after reaching the credits which didn't take long.
Anyway, upon reflection some things I liked, some things I didn't. From my experience on "Give me a challenge"
I really did enjoy my game, despite my nitpicks and weak points I discuss in the spoiler. So take it all with a grain of salt. I just had to/wanted to talk about some things I thought were particular weaknesses on an otherwise fantastic title.
I had an amazing time, I don't platinum games unless I do. And the game was very smooth in that regard, I didn't have to do a whole lot of extra work to platinum it because most of the items were on the path. Just a few items after reaching the credits which didn't take long.
Anyway, upon reflection some things I liked, some things I didn't. From my experience on "Give me a challenge"
Combat, I mean what can you say, the flow of the combat, the abilities and styles was fantastic. The enemy variety was solid, but nothing spectacular. Enough to create some combat variety at least in a way that you had to somewhat change up your approach, though later this was less and less important. Especially with the right Runic abilities (Tempest and Blessing of Frost) made things quite trivial. The combat flowed very well, especially early on in the title with just axe/shield to melee and back. The game excels in this regard.
To that end, I think it was a mistake to bring back the blades of chaos, especially in regards to making us use them. It was great in terms of the story, the impact of that scene was excellent. It would have been cool to have them back for a boss fight or a small segment. But I think it negatively impacts the flow of combat past that point. As it's highly incentivized to use abilities, over combo flow. Switching to blades of chaos to use abilities or for wide sweeping attacks, then back to leviathan axe made the most sense to do, and output the most hurt/damage. Especially with block/dodge breaking attributes. I think the combat was at its best, when they prioritized the dynamic between the free flow of axe to fist combat. Later I found myself almost never actually engaging in combat with my fists during axe downtime and very rarely even throwing my axe/follow up attacks outside very particular enemies, as it was completely unnecessary and lowered my output.
The very natural rythm of introducing side paths, and side quests. Almost nothing was completely off the beaten path, in a way that you'd have to get lucky stumbling across it, or easy to miss. It was a much more curated experience, and I liked that it was only semi-open world. I never felt particularly lost or aimless throughout, everything I was doing was leading to something. Atreus or Mimir pointing things out/mentioning them and even tying lore and emotional resonance into those components was awesome. I've fallen off a lot of open world experience recently, and this held my attention like a game hasn't in a while due to the excellent flow of the content.
The world, it was an incredible place. Breath taking art and vistas. I mean wow, for instance Thamur's corpse, the introduction and exploring there was a highlight. When the game opens up a bit too, or at least the implication of it opening up after you open the Bifrost, and travel the Alfheim etc. Is amazing. This leads me to the weakest component of the game by far. The emptiness, and meaningful interaction with the world. It very much reminds me of a horror title, giving you the runaround as to why you never see, talk or interact with anyone but monsters and occasionally Brock and Sindri. It was very much a throwback in that regard to the PS2 era limitations/design for me, I get the comparisons to RE4 in this regard. It left the world feeling very devoid of vibrancy and life.
This is, I think very poignantly pointed out by one of the low points in the game and sets the tone for the rest of the title, Alfheim. It's our first experience traveling through the Bifrost, we're visiting a new land, a mirror realm and the game feels like it's opening up. What's this? There's an ongoing war between Dark and Light Elves. Whats the story here? Who will we side with, who will we help. We proceed slowly across, maybe stopping to explore on the sides, watching light elves being massacred by dark elves, listening to Atreus question why this is happening. We kill many Dark Elves, we proceed onward with out task, killing every more Dark Elves as we move to the inner sanctum for the light of Alfheim. We have a minor cinematic experience, Atreus pulls us out. We leave with the light, letting the Light Elves back in and killing the Dark Elf leader. This experience end up feeling pretty empty/shallow in the end, a real tease of deeper interaction. Other than the fact we got lost in our mind, and our son killed a ton of Dark Elves with the Leviathan, so what a badass, and he's now angry at us because we left him. Ok sure, setting up the interaction/tense situation between Dad and son sure. However literally, the only people in the entire game we encounter other than gods, godesses, Mimir, Brock and Sindri we don't get involved with beyond combat, we don't know their situation. There's no NPC's to talk to, no sides to take, no depth to their conflict. No quests to undertake. It's an absolute tease for more life in this beautiful but barren land. It's very oddly juxtaposed in the story, and comparative to later experiences sticks out like a sore thumb. Almost as if there had been more planned there, more attention to civilizations and their situations in the future too. But kind of got scrapped and emptied out as time went on. Certainly a low early point.
This continues on, and becomes a representation of what you'll get to explore in the further realms. Small, barren and largely unimportant locations that don't do much to service the story/experience further except have some minor activities and treasures. Hellheim has set piece moments, which are cool and help progress the story. But I can't help but to feel almost all of these locations did little to serve the overall game. What's more, that initial large feeling we get, that wow moment when we see all the locations we can travel to. Is just a tease. Which was pretty disappointing, as we learn later, that we can really only visit a few of these places. With two of them being treasures/Challenge realms.
Which leads me to another sticking point, treasures, challenges, gear and progression. While the game does a great job with the standard games path, leading you through the story with plenty of great, emotional and tense moments. All the while adding in side quests in a decent looping way as you go. It doesn't do a great job with gear progression, and revisiting paths for what you've unlocked at all to keep that steady stream of improvements. Too often did I already have gear far more powerful than what I was finding and things I feel I should have had a while back. Retreading areas which you could now access thanks to new abilties and items, very rarely felt rewarding in a meaningful way. Almost every bramble location, especially in Midgard I found had enchantments, pommels/blades or otherwise that were low level, blue items etc. I think certain items should have been locked to specific encounters/events like the Valkyries for instance. But largely otherwise I think the chests should have been slowly rolled out based on your current level/progress and abilities, versus specific locational chests that were far too often redundant or useless one I found them. Especially since after you find the Chisel, it feels only natural to want to start hunting down Valkyries which you've already found, which give you quite powerful gear.
To this end Muspelheim and Nilfheim played into this awkward gear pacing as well, and the more barren world. If you're like me, you reached Musphelheim fairly early, and did at least a few challenges, got some gear. Then left and largely forgot about it until way later, where that gear was completely irrelevant and the content just easy as can be. Post that here were tons of level 4-5 purple and orange runes on side quests which made a lot of the random "return later when you have X item chests" nearly worthless. After you hit Nilfheim later in the game, you quickly launch from a lower level. I think I was 5, up to 7 or even 8. I mean I think I completed all of Ivaldi's workshop in maybe a few hours just because of the need to grind the anchors boxes, and knowing past that point I was quickly closing in on the end of the game, I felt like I needed to do it then. So yea, in my opinion the pacing of upgrades at least, was not great, and probably would have been better addressed in a different way.
I also think any gear set in the game, should have had the ability to go up to max level. So that a set you really like, and the effects, you could carry with you all the way to level 8, provided you had the materials. Which maybe could have been restricted simply by certain resources only being found at certain corresponding areas tied to the games progression/farm-able to a degree like a souls title. It was disappointing to end the game, and really only be able to choose from a few sets, likely which were Ivaldi's or the Valkyries. Having those pieces have the best set bonuses would have been fine/incentive enough to get them. It probably wasn't necessary to cap various sets to lower levels.
Additionally, the time spent and rewards of Muspelheim and Nilfheim just didn't feel quite right, they were supposed to be largely rewarding and challenging. But for the most part outside Niflheim they simply weren't worth doing and interrupted the pace of the game if you did (Which is why I completely forgot about Muspelheim until I was far too overpowered for it.) I'm not sure those were the experiences in those locations that should have been focused on, side quests dealing with the story of what happened there, maybe some interactions with other peoples or gods, or just nixing them entirely for a longer story/focus, even just more side quests. I think would have been a far better use-age of the time, and been a more rewarding and better flowing experience overall. I get what they wanted to do with the two places, something like Bloodborne Chalice dungeons. But I felt they largely under-delivered and frankly didn't mesh well with the title for me.
I think that is especially underscored by the fact that the games pacing does wax and wane in odd ways at times, especially like I said with Alfheim and then late in the game when things very much slow down. The time and resources of those two trial locations, would have probably been better used to smooth out the main story pacing and add things where necessary.
To that end, I think it was a mistake to bring back the blades of chaos, especially in regards to making us use them. It was great in terms of the story, the impact of that scene was excellent. It would have been cool to have them back for a boss fight or a small segment. But I think it negatively impacts the flow of combat past that point. As it's highly incentivized to use abilities, over combo flow. Switching to blades of chaos to use abilities or for wide sweeping attacks, then back to leviathan axe made the most sense to do, and output the most hurt/damage. Especially with block/dodge breaking attributes. I think the combat was at its best, when they prioritized the dynamic between the free flow of axe to fist combat. Later I found myself almost never actually engaging in combat with my fists during axe downtime and very rarely even throwing my axe/follow up attacks outside very particular enemies, as it was completely unnecessary and lowered my output.
The very natural rythm of introducing side paths, and side quests. Almost nothing was completely off the beaten path, in a way that you'd have to get lucky stumbling across it, or easy to miss. It was a much more curated experience, and I liked that it was only semi-open world. I never felt particularly lost or aimless throughout, everything I was doing was leading to something. Atreus or Mimir pointing things out/mentioning them and even tying lore and emotional resonance into those components was awesome. I've fallen off a lot of open world experience recently, and this held my attention like a game hasn't in a while due to the excellent flow of the content.
The world, it was an incredible place. Breath taking art and vistas. I mean wow, for instance Thamur's corpse, the introduction and exploring there was a highlight. When the game opens up a bit too, or at least the implication of it opening up after you open the Bifrost, and travel the Alfheim etc. Is amazing. This leads me to the weakest component of the game by far. The emptiness, and meaningful interaction with the world. It very much reminds me of a horror title, giving you the runaround as to why you never see, talk or interact with anyone but monsters and occasionally Brock and Sindri. It was very much a throwback in that regard to the PS2 era limitations/design for me, I get the comparisons to RE4 in this regard. It left the world feeling very devoid of vibrancy and life.
This is, I think very poignantly pointed out by one of the low points in the game and sets the tone for the rest of the title, Alfheim. It's our first experience traveling through the Bifrost, we're visiting a new land, a mirror realm and the game feels like it's opening up. What's this? There's an ongoing war between Dark and Light Elves. Whats the story here? Who will we side with, who will we help. We proceed slowly across, maybe stopping to explore on the sides, watching light elves being massacred by dark elves, listening to Atreus question why this is happening. We kill many Dark Elves, we proceed onward with out task, killing every more Dark Elves as we move to the inner sanctum for the light of Alfheim. We have a minor cinematic experience, Atreus pulls us out. We leave with the light, letting the Light Elves back in and killing the Dark Elf leader. This experience end up feeling pretty empty/shallow in the end, a real tease of deeper interaction. Other than the fact we got lost in our mind, and our son killed a ton of Dark Elves with the Leviathan, so what a badass, and he's now angry at us because we left him. Ok sure, setting up the interaction/tense situation between Dad and son sure. However literally, the only people in the entire game we encounter other than gods, godesses, Mimir, Brock and Sindri we don't get involved with beyond combat, we don't know their situation. There's no NPC's to talk to, no sides to take, no depth to their conflict. No quests to undertake. It's an absolute tease for more life in this beautiful but barren land. It's very oddly juxtaposed in the story, and comparative to later experiences sticks out like a sore thumb. Almost as if there had been more planned there, more attention to civilizations and their situations in the future too. But kind of got scrapped and emptied out as time went on. Certainly a low early point.
This continues on, and becomes a representation of what you'll get to explore in the further realms. Small, barren and largely unimportant locations that don't do much to service the story/experience further except have some minor activities and treasures. Hellheim has set piece moments, which are cool and help progress the story. But I can't help but to feel almost all of these locations did little to serve the overall game. What's more, that initial large feeling we get, that wow moment when we see all the locations we can travel to. Is just a tease. Which was pretty disappointing, as we learn later, that we can really only visit a few of these places. With two of them being treasures/Challenge realms.
Which leads me to another sticking point, treasures, challenges, gear and progression. While the game does a great job with the standard games path, leading you through the story with plenty of great, emotional and tense moments. All the while adding in side quests in a decent looping way as you go. It doesn't do a great job with gear progression, and revisiting paths for what you've unlocked at all to keep that steady stream of improvements. Too often did I already have gear far more powerful than what I was finding and things I feel I should have had a while back. Retreading areas which you could now access thanks to new abilties and items, very rarely felt rewarding in a meaningful way. Almost every bramble location, especially in Midgard I found had enchantments, pommels/blades or otherwise that were low level, blue items etc. I think certain items should have been locked to specific encounters/events like the Valkyries for instance. But largely otherwise I think the chests should have been slowly rolled out based on your current level/progress and abilities, versus specific locational chests that were far too often redundant or useless one I found them. Especially since after you find the Chisel, it feels only natural to want to start hunting down Valkyries which you've already found, which give you quite powerful gear.
To this end Muspelheim and Nilfheim played into this awkward gear pacing as well, and the more barren world. If you're like me, you reached Musphelheim fairly early, and did at least a few challenges, got some gear. Then left and largely forgot about it until way later, where that gear was completely irrelevant and the content just easy as can be. Post that here were tons of level 4-5 purple and orange runes on side quests which made a lot of the random "return later when you have X item chests" nearly worthless. After you hit Nilfheim later in the game, you quickly launch from a lower level. I think I was 5, up to 7 or even 8. I mean I think I completed all of Ivaldi's workshop in maybe a few hours just because of the need to grind the anchors boxes, and knowing past that point I was quickly closing in on the end of the game, I felt like I needed to do it then. So yea, in my opinion the pacing of upgrades at least, was not great, and probably would have been better addressed in a different way.
I also think any gear set in the game, should have had the ability to go up to max level. So that a set you really like, and the effects, you could carry with you all the way to level 8, provided you had the materials. Which maybe could have been restricted simply by certain resources only being found at certain corresponding areas tied to the games progression/farm-able to a degree like a souls title. It was disappointing to end the game, and really only be able to choose from a few sets, likely which were Ivaldi's or the Valkyries. Having those pieces have the best set bonuses would have been fine/incentive enough to get them. It probably wasn't necessary to cap various sets to lower levels.
Additionally, the time spent and rewards of Muspelheim and Nilfheim just didn't feel quite right, they were supposed to be largely rewarding and challenging. But for the most part outside Niflheim they simply weren't worth doing and interrupted the pace of the game if you did (Which is why I completely forgot about Muspelheim until I was far too overpowered for it.) I'm not sure those were the experiences in those locations that should have been focused on, side quests dealing with the story of what happened there, maybe some interactions with other peoples or gods, or just nixing them entirely for a longer story/focus, even just more side quests. I think would have been a far better use-age of the time, and been a more rewarding and better flowing experience overall. I get what they wanted to do with the two places, something like Bloodborne Chalice dungeons. But I felt they largely under-delivered and frankly didn't mesh well with the title for me.
I think that is especially underscored by the fact that the games pacing does wax and wane in odd ways at times, especially like I said with Alfheim and then late in the game when things very much slow down. The time and resources of those two trial locations, would have probably been better used to smooth out the main story pacing and add things where necessary.
I really did enjoy my game, despite my nitpicks and weak points I discuss in the spoiler. So take it all with a grain of salt. I just had to/wanted to talk about some things I thought were particular weaknesses on an otherwise fantastic title.
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Yeah, uhh, you should reply to the other guy and not me cause I'm not the one having issues with the Frozen Flame, haha.
I feel the same thing. I completed all side quest before ending the game. Now all I have left is an empty world with just collectibles It's just not fun anymore to backtrack just for these. I do wish I could get a new game plus with all weapons. Then maybe I would be able to platinum it. The game does not give you much incentive for exploration after you complete the game including all side quest
Finished the story last night.
I mean, what an experience. It was just fantastic.
Small, niggling flaws aside, God of War is simply one of the best singleplayer epic adventures that I ever had the pleasure of going on.
From previously not caring about this franchise in the least, I'm now invested. Like, day one for whatever's next.
Bravo, everyone involved in making this game. You did real good.
I mean, what an experience. It was just fantastic.
Small, niggling flaws aside, God of War is simply one of the best singleplayer epic adventures that I ever had the pleasure of going on.
From previously not caring about this franchise in the least, I'm now invested. Like, day one for whatever's next.
Bravo, everyone involved in making this game. You did real good.
Get and lvl up the armor set from
Niflheim
squirrel summon on Atreus.
It's all about being patient and only doing damage when you're safe, while having means to regenerate life.
Attack patterns are, iirc:
projectiles:
- Black arrows: dodge dodge dodge
- Yellow rings: dodge dodge dodge that shit
- blue ice shards: block block block, the last big chunk (red circle!) you need to dodge
red-circle-charges: she does 3, dodge them (great attack window afterwards!)
red-circle-charge-up-arena-wide-AoE attack: interrupt with atreus (attack if you're close enough)
yellow-circle-charge-attack: counter that shit and attaack
yellow-circle-wing-strikes: yeah, fuck those, dodge em.
she flies up in the air: DODGE LIKE CRAZY (up to 3 times)
- Black arrows: dodge dodge dodge
- Yellow rings: dodge dodge dodge that shit
- blue ice shards: block block block, the last big chunk (red circle!) you need to dodge
red-circle-charges: she does 3, dodge them (great attack window afterwards!)
red-circle-charge-up-arena-wide-AoE attack: interrupt with atreus (attack if you're close enough)
yellow-circle-charge-attack: counter that shit and attaack
yellow-circle-wing-strikes: yeah, fuck those, dodge em.
she flies up in the air: DODGE LIKE CRAZY (up to 3 times)
When your rage meter is full, pop it, do damage.
It starts out ridiculously hard IMO and honestly kind of boring (it just makes you feel weak - you die really quickly and every fight just takes ages because of increased enemy resistance to stun, stagger and damage and they all get extra health) before getting a lot more enjoyable and manageable once you've acquired a bunch of upgrades.
Are you on Give Me a Challenge? Because it'll feel like that for a solid 6-7 hours in my experience.
I agree with the emptyness of the world and the lack of interaction with it as well as the PS2 era principles of game design and the RE4 comparisons. I'll probably create a thread about GoW flaws a while later when more people are ready to really talk about its game design problems.