6 Changes ‘God Of War’ Made To The Norse Mythology That Made It Way Cooler!

The latest version of the God of War games came out on April 20th of this year and has received praise from fans and critics alike. IGN rated the game 10 out of 10 and it has a Metacritic rating of a high 94%. It also ended up fifth on the Forbes list of the best games of 2018.

The game has taken a turn away from the Greek mythology that dogged the previous games, with Kratos bolting for a location unknown. Atros is now tasked with dealing with the Norse gods, with his son Atreus in tow.

However, the quests of the great Kratos take a turn that all the mythology buffs and history fans will not expect. The Viking people were actually preceded by some Nordic residents of those lands who had their own sets of Gods.

Just like all the other mythologies, all the gods were for certain purposes. Odin was the god of gods, much like Zeus, Jupiter and Ra. The God of War has come up with a new version of Odin taking some creative liberty. The changes the game has made to the Norse mythology have been received well by the fans for the most part. Here are some things that fans seem to appreciate most about the changes:

1. A better God Queen:

The Goddess of love and beauty Freya has departed strongly from the homely and domestic portrayal that is common for the Norse mythology. Instead, it is shown in the origins that she was forced to take care of her own affairs for years, and she is a strong and independent woman who does not really need a man to take care of herself.

This is something that fans have really appreciated, and the departure from the traditional and conventional portrayals is in keeping with the sensibilities of our times.

2. The Loki is Atreus:

The popularity of the MCU movies that rely heavily on the characters of Thor and Loki have made the God of mischief kind of a fan favourite.

While Loki is still very much the same as we expect with his actions providing unexpected turns and twists in the game’s plot, the game makes an exception to his identity by making him Atreus instead of son of Odin. This curiosity is something that will be certainly addressed in future versions of the game.

3. Simplification of relations:

Odin has a lot of sons from a lot of mothers. There is a certain simplicity to all the complex relations between the characters in the game that is nice. Baldur was born to Odin and his chief wife Freya, the goddess of love and beauty. On the other hand, the God of Thunder Thor was the son of Odin and the Earth goddess Jord.

The goddess is a relatively minor character that does not appear in mythologies except in the context of being Thor’s mother. The game leaves out Jord as she is not important enough in the scheme of things.

4. The chief characters:

In all major mythologies, there are three characters that rule the roost. In Greek myths, it was Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. In Roman texts, it was Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto. Egyptians used to worship Ra, Osiris and Horus as the chief gods. In the Norse texts, the corresponding big trio was Odin, Vili and Ve.

Vili was the master of motivation in the Norse world and Ve was the creator of god. While the God of War has very little to say about Odin, it is not really a surprise that there was no word on Vili and Ve but it would have been great if they could be included as part of the game somewhere.

5. The Valkyrie:

These female warriors have a curious way of being depicted in the Norse myths. Sometimes they are harcore female warriors but at other times they are loving and almost motherly. They have also been depicted as corrupted. One constant feature is that they are extremely important to the Norse myths.

The God of War has a major addition to the roster of responsibilities that Freya has – she is the leader of all the Valkyrie, thus completing her depiction as the strong and fearless leader. Not only is she a strong role model and downright epic for her own deeds, getting to lead a strong army of female warriors makes for a strong statement.

6. The rulers in our heaven:

There has always been a wall that bars gods in one mythology to even know of the existence of the other. However, the God of War game changes that. Kratos was not to be found for more than ten years because his son is not younger than ten. That would imply that the Greek gods are unaware of where he is. However, when Athena appears in the game it only tells us that the Norse gods finally spoke to some of the Greek gods, breaking a wall.