Before God of War Ragnarok, back to those adventures of Kratos that you might not know

That’s it, God of War: Ragnarok is at the turning point, more than four years after God of War (2018) which marked the big return of Kratos in what looks like a reboot as we see our Spartan in the world found in Norse mythology. But long before this radical change in formula, we mustn’t forget that God of War on PS2 and PS3 were more of a classic beat ’em-ups that marked the great hours of those consoles. But beyond the numbered trilogy well known to Sony console owners, Santa Monica Studios’ flagship series was entitled to spin-off episodes, but they needn’t be ashamed of their console counterparts. These games are God of War: Chains of Olympus and God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Kratos’ Adventures on PSP.

Ready at Dawn, a contender for PlayStation Studios

To understand the origins of these lesser-known episodes, you have to go back to the day after the launch of the franchise’s very first game, simply called God of War, which released fresh on PS2 in 2005. Some time later, The Ready at Dawn studio is knocking on the door of Santa Monica Studios to offer them to develop a new game in the franchise, but this time on PSPSony’s handheld console that has just been released worldwide.

And if the Ready at Dawn name doesn’t mean anything to you, that’s quite normal given that this is a studio that’s been relatively discreet as of late. However, the company was originally founded by Didier Malenfant, a former Naughty Dog, you will see that it will be important for the future, but also by two former Blizzard. At the beginning, Your very first project is none other than Daxter, a PSP game in which you play the pet of the famous duo Jax and Daxter, a license originally created by… Naughty Dog. After that, the studio takes care of God of War on PSP, then porting the games to PS3, but also the version of Okami on Wii.

Furthermore, More recently, Ready at Dawn is best known for The Order: 1886, an early PlayStation 4 exclusive.. When it was announced, the project had fascinated by the beauty of its graphics and the quality of its staging. But upon arrival, players were disappointed because of the game’s short lifespan, but also because of its ultimately few and too many courses of gameplay. While the company could have become a Sony flagship studio alongside Naughty Dog (The Last of Us, Uncharted), Sucker Punch (Ghost of Tsushima, inFamous) or Guerrilla Games (Horizon, Killzone), the project’s failure prevented it from doing so to earn this position. A situation reminiscent of the history of Bend Studios (Syphon Filter), whose mixed success of Days Gone has not helped it find a place within PlayStation Studios. Today, Ready at Dawn is more discreet, offering VR games like Lone Echo.

Chain of Olympus, a PS2 worthy adventure?

Back to Chain of Olympus, back in 2007. Originally, the game was announced on April 25th, 2007 with a demo available on UMD, the famous format for PSP games. Finally, a little less than a year later, in March 2008, the title was released around the world. As for the development The latter seems to have gone pretty well since the teams used the engine from their previous project, Daxter, which was already a 3D game. Many new features have been added for this God of War to make the adventure more epic than ever and the result turned out to be impressive as we will see later.

scenario level, It is the second game in the God of War timeline, between God of War: Ascension and the very first God of War from 2005. However, it is the fourth title in the franchise in terms of release, since it will be released after God of War II: Divine Retribution, but also God of War: Betrayals, a mobile game that we will soon tell you about on the site. . In any case, in this first adventure of Kratos for PSP we find our hero obeying the orders of Athena, who must prevent Morpheus and Persephone from taking control of Olympus while Helios, god of the sun, has faded. An epic and tragic new story for the former captain of Sparta, who was then working in the service of the Olympian gods.

Aside from its story, Chains of Olympus may be most compelling at the level of its gameplay. While the PSP has fewer buttons compared to the PS2 controller, Ready at Dawn has managed to adapt the home console playability of God of War to the portable format to achieve similar sensations, a small achievement in itself. So Kratos’ signature Chaos Blades are still just as easy to use as the many secondary weapons we pick up throughout the adventure. And then we’re also entitled to attacks that consume the magic bar to switch between combat options even more.

For all these reasons Chains Olympus was a real critical success upon release, becoming Metacritic’s top-rated PSP game with an index of 91. A success that is also reflected in the sales figures, because with 3.2 million copies sold it is the seventh best-selling game on the console. At that time, the press and gamers praised the graphics, which are really impressive for the PSP, but also the feeling of playing a real God of War episode, but simply in a portable format and without major concessions.

Ghost of Sparta, an effective but avoided second opus

Following the success of that first game, Ready at Dawn will continue in the same year with Okami’s Wii port, released a month apart. But given the reception, inevitably a second work quickly goes into production to try to replicate the operation. In order to, Ghost of Sparda is eligible for express development as the game is finished in just 23 months, less than two years. On the one hand we must consider that we are dealing with a project for a portable game, which therefore requires fewer resources than a game for HD consoles, but also because the teams have been able to use the engine of the first game to save time .

From the first information we learn that the goal of this new adventure is to make it like its predecessor but bigger, a bit like God of War: Ragnarok for that matter. At the forefront of this project we find Dana Jan, the lead level designer of the first game, who regains the place of Ru Weerasuriya, who directed Chains of Olympus. In order to, Dana Jan promises that Ghost of Sparda will offer “25% more gameplay” than its predecessor, in the sense that this adventure includes more varied monsters and more boss fights than before. Graphically, too, it’s all about pushing the PSP to its limits even more than before, particularly by offering more enemies on screen than ever before.

For the story of this Ghost of Sparda, the title is placed between God of War, the first of the name, and God of War II. However, this is the sixth game in the franchise as it was released the same year as God of War III but a few months later. Which put pressure on this new project. At story level we find Kratos again, haunted by visions of his mortal past and in search of his origins. At this goal He ends up in Atlantis, where he meets Callisto, his mother, who tells him that Deimos, his brother, is alive. Thus, Kratos will descend into the domain of death to save his brother and face Thanatos, the god of death.

By relying on the accomplishments of his elder, Ghost of Sparda has also received a particularly positive reception from the critics. In Rubble, the press hailed the game’s story, its cutscenes, and its graphic illustrations. But aside from that, this new adventure is being criticized for being too close to its predecessor., with finally few new elements on the gameplay side, even if we are entitled to new effective secondary weapons. And then this second episode reproduces the wonder of its predecessor by offering a new graphic slap on PSP. At this point, some reviewers are raving and don’t hesitate to say that the title is visually nicer than some PS2 games, even down to a PS3 experience that’s still pretty over the top. . Unfortunately, if the game combines the qualities, we do not find the same popular success, since only 1.2 million copies have been passed, making the title the 15th best-selling game on the PSP.

God of War: Origins Collection or the transition to PS3

To complete this overview of Kratos’ adventures on PSP, let’s finish by mentioning the case God of War Collection Volume II which, as the name suggests, brings the two titles together but obviously with improved graphics since it’s a PS3 version. Once again, Ready at Dawn takes care of it, and thanks to the first collection, the PS3 becomes the console that welcomes all God of War games on the same machine. Despite everything, the sales figures for this compilation are rather modest with just over 700,000 copies sold.

God of War on the PSP is therefore a success for Sony, as Ready at Dawn has managed to offer the portable console a real technological showcase to prove to market participants that the machine can offer titles worthy of console games. A few years later, when the PS Vita launched, PlayStation repeated the experience with Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which is just as impressive. Unfortunately for Ready at Dawn and Bend Studios, the latter failed to establish themselves as essential studios for Sony on the PS4 generation, which explains why we don’t find them in PlayStation Studios today.