"God Of War IV" or "There 'Aint No Comin' Back!"

[Seil]

What the crap!? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUY1MeMaFVU)

Major spoilers below for anyone who hasn't beaten III yet:

Kratos brutally murdered everything. Like, what - Gaia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNyXGEKPEew), Cronos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAcIdPDciFM), Hades (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN0dzTiFk7g), Hermes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il9f_G-6e28&feature=related), Hera (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtZgsrIIhog&feature=related), Hercules (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLv8Wj_M10g), Ares (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcWVlLAnwqo&feature=related), Athena (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR6NEXBny-I), Hephastus (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJAWEU2iG8I&feature=related), Helios (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu1AxnpeohQ&feature=related), Posiedon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COQLMcelqbQ), Zeus (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz03BhgnZ2A) - who else is left? Hell, even Pandora (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UndcaUJHqXc) died. Not even counting the fact that, I guess, he found peace and forgave himself for killing his family (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh9GgdtwgjE), and stabbed himself (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ5nnQQ0fFw) with the Blade Of Olympus...

What's left for him to do? He's starting the game in hell or what? 'Cause I guess there's nothing left in there. Well, maybe there are other gods. Aphrodite, Eros, Psyche...

Yeah, that's where my knowledge runs dry.

[phil_]

Kill YHWH. Preserve the pantheon. The pantheon that he killed. Maybe he can kill Buddah and LaVey, too.

Edit: Oh! And Odin, too. Can't leave him out. Kids love Odin.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

I tell you, whatever squamous deity is out there that inspires executives to milk a franchise dry no matter what it takes could seriously use a stab to the face.

[Flarecobra]

Yeah, I think he might start going after the Roman partheon now.

[Seil]

But aren't they planets?

[Flarecobra]

Not all of them.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Isn't the Roman pantheon almost literally the Greek pantheon with the names changed to protect the (not-so) innocent? I'm just picturing in my diseased brain gods wearing blue instead of red and matching goatees.

[Amake]

How quickly they forget (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/3/22/).

Yeah unless you kill the Buddha, I'm not as interested in this as in Asura's Wrath. And if you do kill the Buddha I'm going to cry. :I

[Seil]

MOSES! YOU DARE DEFY THE GOD OF WAR!?

[Solid Snake]

How quickly they forget (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/3/22/).


Oh man, this might lead to the first time I play a videogame and deliberately lose every time.

In all seriousness, I'm kind of hoping Kratos goes north and they do the Norse pantheon next.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Isn't the Roman pantheon almost literally the Greek pantheon with the names changed to protect the (not-so) innocent? I'm just picturing in my diseased brain gods wearing blue instead of red and matching goatees.

They are. Almost literally.

I'm gona go out and say right now that this game isn't happening, same as I did for DMC2. It doesn't exist and anyone who says otherwise is clearly insane.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

4th game in a series you fight aliens. Always.

[Osterbaum]

God of War/Stargate crossover.

[Niveras]

Oh man, this might lead to the first time I play a videogame and deliberately lose every time.

In all seriousness, I'm kind of hoping Kratos goes north and they do the Norse pantheon next.

Sort of a tangent game, with Loki toying with Kratos as he fights all the Norse gods, might be a functional premise.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

I'd like a game where you have to kill YHWE and his somewhat nicer persona Jesus.

Just to witness the shit that will undoubtedly be stirred up by the same people who found fully visible female breasts offensive.

Boobs, deicide; What's the difference?

Especially when it's a deity that is commonly believed in all of a sudden.

[Sky Warrior Bob]

I vaguely recall mention that the GoW universe might stick around for some games, but Kratos wouldn't be in them.

Of course, I wonder if this means they'll find a way to bring back Deimos(sp?).

[Roland]

4th game in a series you fight aliens. Always.

Wait, I thought that was Russians. Or is that just movies?

[Bells]

i've played enough GoW games to call them shit. THey are shit. Shit that look nice from time to time. When they are telling Side Stories or Flashbacks they use Subtitles, when the tale is moving Forward they use numbers.

Kratos destroyed THE WORLD last time and all gods in his realm. And it was marketed as the Conclusion of that Saga and His Saga. So i'm guessing ANY game they pull off now is coming after the age of those gods (i guess) and it should have another hero... but who are we kidding, they will just milk off Kratos.

Are we sure this is not a fake?

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Wait, I thought that was Russians. Or is that just movies?

But how do the monkeys and swarms of flesh-eating ants fit into this?

[Loyal]

Isn't the Roman pantheon almost literally the Greek pantheon with the names changed to protect the (not-so) innocent? I'm just picturing in my diseased brain gods wearing blue instead of red and matching goatees.They are. Almost literally.
Well, sort of; the Romans assimilated gods from pretty much everyone relevant they conquered and adapted them for their own preferences, the Greek pantheon merely being the most prolific. The Romans (up till the rise of Christianity) had a peculiar form of religious tolerance in that they were like, "Y'know, that's a pretty neat god you guys are worshipping. We'll do the same!"

Also, while they had equivalents to nearly all the Greek gods, the Roman versions weren't quite the massive assholes the Greek versions were. Jupiter, for instance, wasn't Rapist King Of The Universe like Zeus was.

[tacticslion]

Well, sort of; the Romans assimilated gods from pretty much everyone relevant they conquered and adapted them for their own preferences, the Greek pantheon merely being the most prolific. The Romans (up till the rise of Christianity) had a peculiar form of religious tolerance in that they were like, "Y'know, that's a pretty neat god you guys are worshipping. We'll do the same!"

Also, while they had equivalents to nearly all the Greek gods, the Roman versions weren't quite the massive assholes the Greek versions were. Jupiter, for instance, wasn't Rapist King Of The Universe like Zeus was.

Mostly this. They had their own gods (thus the difference in names), but basically worked really, really hard to find out how all gods were the same so, when they conquered somebody, they could just go, "hey, yo, your gods are cool and you can keep 'em - see we worship the same guy!" So Jupiter slowly took on the characteristics of Zeus until you really couldn't tell the two apart. Vulcan, on the other hand, had no Grecian equivalence, and even Mars was fairly far apart - originally - from Ares, considering he was originally god of cattle (that bravely sent his loyal herdsmen to war to conquer the supposedly possibly maybe cattle-stealing neighbors, which was the initial reason for Rome's earlier conquests... the dudes were paranoid).

The reason the Roman loved them some Greek gods, however, was that they loved them some Greek culture, in general. Greek became the de-facto "common" world-language (it already was due to Alexander, they just kept it up, as it was easier) and Grecian culture (brought in by the slaves and tailored to Roman tastes - kind of like French/Anglo -> English language change after 1066) appealed to them. So the gods blended.

As far as the religious tolerance, it was a practical religious tolerance - so long as the religion, in general, didn't completely contradict the Roman divine rule (the divinity of the Emperors). They were pretty cool with most things, though. Certain divisive sects, especially monotheistic ones - including the Jews (initially given leniency because of their submission, but ultimately destroyed due to repeated monotheistic-based rebellion against the polytheistic Roman Emperor's claim of divinity), then later Christians - but also polytheistic deities considered (rightly or not) divisive, dangerous, and/or seditious, like the mystery cults (Christianity was considered one) of Bacchus (one of two given equivalency with the Grecian deity Dionysus), or (for a short time) the Isis/Horus mystery cults. Generally these were persecuted because they met in secret, had some sort of 'blood rites', and were generally considered unsavory, and filled with seditious attempts to overthrow the state. Often persecuted, the many various 'mystery cults' and other intolerable religions were granted little to no mercy under some emperors and tolerated rather openly by others. Eventually Christianity grew in popularity until it was the most common religion (after Diocletian nearly wiped it out, Constantine made it permissible) and it wasn't until emperor Theodosius (sp?) that "Christianity" became the state religion and the Roman Empire began to persecute non-Christians (and dissenting claimants to the title "Christian").

Anyhoo, derailing history lesson aside, I'd say that the Norse pantheon is a prime target next. I've always found it interesting that the Norse and Grecian pantheons are so similar, yet divergent in significant ways. You have your dominating, lustful ruler (Zeus v. Odin), your super-strong son (Heracles v. Thor), your ancient, primordial, quasi-elemental super-sized terrors from which the world was made (Titans v. Giants) and your weird intrigues. There's a minor reflection of this in the Egyptian pantheon as well, although that one took a much larger diversion in character archetypes. The Norse pantheon gave the roles of the deities to very different creatures however. In Greek, the high-god was lightning, while in the Norse, the more popular super-strong and brash son was, just for example. It's kind of neat, really.
/nerdiness

EDIT: I thought of it at the time, though I forgot to mention, but the Egyptian pantheon would also be a very decent focus for the next series of stories as they are both close in geographical scale and supposed "deilithic" (I'm just making up the deity-themed words, here!) time line.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Roman "religion" was basically poorly understood Etruscan religion cobbled onto some Greek and Egyptian, then they throw in all this gallic shit and eastern shit. They were madass djs. Boosh, boosh, boosh.
As for the "love in with the Greeks" it is kind of true- the high Roman culture for ages was Greek but the Empire was so large that this really didn't apply to the majority of citizens, except those in Rome or Greece or ex-hellenesitc empires- which was large bits of the Empire admittedly. All the big bits of Roman culture and literature and things are all pretty much Greek but what is remarkable when you dive into it is how diverse Roman culture was. Pretty much every territory combined their own local cultures with Roman influences so you had a tremendous diversity of art/religion/culture but all with common Roman threads- this is the main reason why the Roman "Pantheon" is so bizzare and contradictory.
Also its on e of the one best bits of Roman culture, whereas Greek culture was all about idealised forms and one sort of archetype Roman cuture had a lot more diversity.

[PyrosNine]

God of War IV will be Kratos as a guest star in Shin Megami Tensei just to make sure he kills every mythology imaginable.

Including the flying Spaghetti monster, and eventually me.

...someone hold me, I am soooooo scared. :crying:

[Loyal]

EDIT: I thought of it at the time, though I forgot to mention, but the Egyptian pantheon would also be a very decent focus for the next series of stories as they are both close in geographical scale and supposed "deilithic" (I'm just making up the deity-themed words, here!) time line. And when Kratos is sent to the Underworld and his heart is weighed, it tips the scale so hard it cracks the floor.

[phil_]

it tips the scale so hard it cracks the floor. ... crushing two beggars and a prostitute, 'cause you gotta have pointless gore and tits. This is God of War, after all.

[Jagos]

Mostly this. They had their own gods (thus the difference in names), but basically worked really, really hard to find out how all gods were the same so, when they conquered somebody, they could just go, "hey, yo, your gods are cool and you can keep 'em - see we worship the same guy!"

Now that is a perfectly good Kanye meme just waiting to happen...

[Shyria Dracnoir]

God of War IV will be Kratos as a guest star in Shin Megami Tensei just to make sure he kills every mythology imaginable.

Including the flying Spaghetti monster, and eventually me.

...someone hold me, I am soooooo scared. :crying:

Don't worry Pyros, we'll protect you. Who knows, he might not get past Arhra "Avatar of Chaos" [subject last name here] before crying to mama.

[phil_]

Arhra was defeated by an inbred chocobo once*. I don't like any of the self-proclaimed NPF pantheon's chances against Kratos.

*And it would have happened sooner if anyone had listened to the person who pointed out the Glowing Weak Point™ at the start of the fight...

[Overcast]

But we understand Krato's weak point. He is a big whiny bitch, and also dumb. The only reason he won is because someone else was controlling him, any time he was in a cutscene or forced mechanic he did stupid. And when he tries to kill us we'll show him the sad truth. WE OWN HIM.

[Loyal]

So... NPF confirmed for next God of War targets?

[Shyria Dracnoir]

I still say we can take him. Provided we don't kill one another before he gets here, at least.

[Toastburner B]

So... NPF confirmed for next God of War targets?

Why do I get the feeling I'm going to be an early stage cannon fodder?

[phil_]

Provided we don't kill one another before he gets here, at least.Now that I think about it, that's kinda our trump card. We sometimes try to kill each other, but we never can. However, our violence groups us together, which is something Kratos hasn't had to face with the Greek pantheon. While he's quick-time-eventing Arhra's skin off, Raiden can blast him with lightening while Twiddy makes his parents never exist.

Maybe NPF stands a chance. It would be ugly, though. He'd have to plow through a lot of regular posters before he got to the big guns, after all.

[Solid Snake]

So... NPF confirmed for next God of War targets?

I'm totally the final boss.
I'll have an attack that spews melodrama, and if it hits Kratos, he's Wall of Text'd for 999,999 damage.

I will also be riding a pink pony.
And I will attack him with MLP links, forcing Kratos to stand still and watch the clips in awe of the majestic realization that friendship is magic.

[PyrosNine]

But what if he goes for Queen Equestria and her sister first? They be godlike individuals within their worlds!

[Krylo]

I'm totally the final boss.
I'll have an attack that spews melodrama, and if it hits Kratos, he's Wall of Text'd for 999,999 damage.

I will also be riding a pink pony.
And I will attack him with MLP links, forcing Kratos to stand still and watch the clips in awe of the majestic realization that friendship is magic.

He already learned that at the end of GoWIII.

[Arhra]

Arhra was defeated by an inbred chocobo once*. I don't like any of the self-proclaimed NPF pantheon's chances against Kratos.

*And it would have happened sooner if anyone had listened to the person who pointed out the Glowing Weak Point™ at the start of the fight...
In hindsight I probably shouldn't have kept fondling the damn thing.

Maybe Kratos could find the Silk Road early, end up in the Mysterious Orient and go "More gods? That makes me so ANGRY!" and then killing spree.

Or if it's space gods next, clearly the Aztecs. Or perhaps he kills them and then has to fight the crazy spider demons from beyond the Moon on account of the Aztec gods being killed. That's what the sacrifices are for you know. Keeping them beyond the Moon.

Or maybe the God of Atheism.

That guy's tough!

EDIT: Oh, oh! Maybe he could get transported back in time, somehow!, and then he wipes out the dinosaurs. And their gods too!

[phil_]

I like this concept of dino-deities and the slaying thereof.

[Melfice]

Arhra was defeated by an inbred chocobo once*. I don't like any of the self-proclaimed NPF pantheon's chances against Kratos.

Give Hawk and myself a decent sized army, and we'll take 'im down. Through The Power of Strategy and (sometimes not so) Friendly Rivalry!

Then I'm coming for the NPF pantheon. (Including Hawk.)

Just so you you'll mostly be trading one evil for another. But at least you'll be slain by another NPF'er instead of a spartan warrior-turned-god-of-war.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

One day Melfice, me and you are gona throw down and only one of us is walking away intact.*

For now I'll settle with showing off my superior strategic skills in Risk(if you ever get around to updating it -_-) and Twilight.


*The winner will be the one who already declares himself War Incarnate and whose real name actually means Hawk of battle!

[Overcast]

Actually took the time to look over the third game since I never played it and I figure the only thing left is to create a godless world, where all power lies in humanity alone. As far as I can see the only thing that might stand in the way of that is the spirit of Athena that is still trouncing about for some odd reason or another. She planned to use hope to become the only true force of balance in the world by the end of 3, and Kratos stuffing it out to everybody as a balance to all the evils.

Imagined final plot since this last one was all vengeance will be atonement. Athena is going to try to destroy everything since she is probably possessed by an evil as well and isn't able to handle not being the one true god. Kratos gets to be the savior and gets his final death after he forges a world truly balanced where humanity can thrive without the intervention of gods, titans, anything.

But I have no idea where he will get his powers from this time, maybe hope and all his past issues coming fully to term like Pandora and his brother.

[Kim]

God of War III: Kill Kratos