The God of War games were termed as being heavy on the action and easy on the story before 2018’s soft reboot came around, but that’s not exactly a true assumption as the series overall has had plenty of moments that attest to the story’s quality.
Most of the high points here have had to do with some truly sad moments on display, and God of War has thrived by making the characters involved come across as sympathetic. In this list, we’ve considered the backstory and impact of the moments in question in great deal to bring you these 10 heartbreaking moments from the series.
10 Kratos Accidentally Kills Athena
The only god to have a positive relationship with Kratos was Athena. Due to Kratos’ pursuit of Zeus, Athena’s relationship with him had also become strained. However, there was never any intention from either of them to fight the other.
For this reason, Athena’s death became one of Kratos’ greatest sorrows as he accidentally landed the fatal blow on her instead of Zeus. It was also the first time we’d seen Kratos show true remorse, with Athena’s acceptance of her demise completing the heartbreaking scene as Kratos once again killed someone he’d cared for.
9 Deimos' Demise
You have to feel for Kratos’ brother, who had the worst existence anyone could imagine and got death as his eventual reward. Deimos spent all his life being a captive who grew to hate his brother due to the belief that Kratos had abandoned him.
Unfortunately, when he finally learned the truth, Deimos couldn’t spend any time with Kratos, as their confrontation with Thanatos ended with Deimos’ demise. It appeared that Deimos just could never find any peace or happiness, as his freedom was extremely short lived and he died to leave Kratos distraught at having lost his true brother.
8 Kratos Is Left Alone At The Cliff
After having fought Persephone and Atlas, Kratos got no reward for his efforts and was left to his own devices once he’d returned the sun chariot to the skies. The toll of his efforts took over, and Kratos hurtled to the ground.
Rather than help him out or at least send him somewhere he could’ve received help, the gods simply left Kratos lying at the edge of a cliff. The sight of him unconscious and friendless highlighted how this man had become such a tool for the gods to use that he received no care or respect for saving all of humanity.
7 Atreus Accuses Kratos Of Not Caring
Kratos’ stoic mannerisms led his son to believe the former had no care that Faye had died and was simply going on about as if nothing had happened. When Atreus did accuse Kratos of feeling this way, we found out the sad truth.
Kratos revealed he indeed was devastated by Faye’s death and had been mourning in silence as he also had Atreus to take care of. It was one of the very few times we saw how Kratos held such deep sadness within himself; it was clear the grief was stifling and yet he continued pushing it down. In that moment, both father and son seemed like the loneliest people you could find.
6 Freya Gets Distraught Over Baldur
A mother’s love is the strongest thing out there, and despite Baldur having attempted to outright kill Freya, the latter still had nothing but love for her son. This is why it was so hard to see her being beside herself with grief when Baldur had died.
Even though we knew Freya was the one in the wrong, as Baldur had been the evil party, it was still a pitiful sight to see her lose her senses while weeping over her son’s body. Also making the scene sad was the fact that Freya’s friendship with Kratos had now become irretrievably broken.
5 Kratos Jumps Off The Cliff
How desperate would a man be that he’d choose death to escape the gods themselves? This was what Kratos had been reduced to as he willingly plummeted to what he hoped would be his demise. After enduring a hellish time to get to Pandora’s box, the gods still denied him his one request.
Realizing the nightmares of his past would never go away, Kratos chose to take his own life rather than be trapped in the madness of his mind. Even though he’d deserved his torment, you had to feel for him after having gone through so much trauma, only for the gods to break their promise to him.
4 Pandora And Hephaestus' Deaths
All Hephaestus had wanted was to have his daughter be returned to him, but he realized Kratos intended to kill her to retrieve the box. For this reason, you can’t fault the guy for trying to kill Kratos to protect Pandora, but he eventually found himself dead and with his last words being those of remorse.
Pandora's demise too was equally sad, as the child never got to be free from being hunted by the gods, and ended up dying for no reason, as it turned out the box had been empty all along.
3 Every Innocent's Death
There’s no one moment we can pick here, as there were numerous innocent souls who were killed by Kratos who didn’t even deserve it. For instance, watching the people in God of War III suffering from the plague was a devastating moment as these were deaths that could’ve been avoided.
Another moment where Kratos scared us pretty bad was when he burned an innocent soldier alive in Pandora’s Temple just to have a fast track through a route; the man’s whimpering pleas for mercy aren’t easy to forget. There was also the unfortunate moment when a soldier in God of War II was crushed to a pulp just so he could jam a gear that was blocking his way.
2 Kratos Watches Family's Demise Again
Here, we’re talking about the fight between Ares and Kratos at the end of God of War where Ares “resurrected” Kratos’ family for him to defend. Kratos would survive an assault from an army of undead and had the belief he’d managed to finally protect his wife and daughter.
However, Ares would then rip apart Kratos’ chains and use them to once again kill his family. A devastated Kratos could do nothing other than fall to his knees and mutter “not again” when he saw that no matter what he did, he would always witness his loved ones’ deaths.
1 Kratos Has To Let Calliope Go
Even worse than watching his family die was when Kratos had to willingly push his daughter away when he could’ve lived forever with her in Elysium. Knowing that Atlus’ destruction of the pillars would mean Elysim would also fall, Kratos reluctantly parted with his daughter to stop the Titan.
Sadly, this meant he had to physically separate himself, and we watched as Kratos had to shove his daughter away. Perhaps even more heartbreaking was when Kratos had a vision of Calliope at the end, only for him to turn his back on it to spare himself of another life’s worth of pain and misery. He’d had another chance with her, but it was just not to be.