Digging Up the Buried Past

Zhang Yi wasn't the only one who felt this way. Many players who had experienced the previous God of War games felt the same.

It was as if they had been playing a fake God of War. The truly badass one was their son, who didn't even have a health bar.

Especially as Atreus's skills grew stronger and he learned more abilities, he seemed far more useful than Kratos.

Of course, that was mainly because most players simply hadn't improved to the point where they could utterly crush monsters.

There was also one crucial factor: the gameplay experience of New God of War was very cohesive with the previous trilogy.

Most players hadn't even mentally prepared themselves for it.

Take the Greek-themed God of War games, for example. After killing Hydra, players quickly encountered Athena and established the main storyline.

Take down Ares, God of War. A mortal slaying a god!

Then, at the end of the first chapter, players became even more excited. Taking down Ares was only the beginning—their final target was Zeus.

Over the next two chapters, Kratos fought his way from hell to Olympus, ultimately wiping out Greek Mythology. It was badass beyond words.

But what happened when they got to Norse mythology?

Kratos was old and had a kid—that was one thing. The Blades of Chaos had become an axe for chopping firewood—that was another thing they could overlook.

After all, an axe with a built-in GPS navigation system was actually pretty fun to use.

But the main storyline was taking his kid up a mountain to scatter ashes. That was difficult for players to accept at first. The psychological gap was just too huge.

Add in the RPG elements, and Kratos's health bar was embarrassingly small even on Normal Difficulty. On God of War