00:09Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we're taking a look at the 10 reasons why God of War Ascension is really
00:17not as bad as some people make it out to be.
00:20It is not real!
00:22I can be your reality.
00:24Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays and ring the
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00:34Restricted or Challenging?
00:43A common complaint some God of War fans make about Ascension is how Kratos is more restricted in his moveset.
00:50The only way to gain access to more moves is by landing enough hits to fill his meter.
00:56Some folks claim that this meter makes combat either way too hard or too boring.
01:08What they fail to mention is that the game gives you ways of building up that meter rather quickly.
01:14The two quickest methods being grappling or killing off smaller enemies first.
01:19Sure, they may not sound appealing to some, but that's not exactly a gripe to make towards the game necessarily.
01:24Maybe you just don't like combat based around grappling and throws?
01:37The combat is still fun.
01:47Even with the meter, the combat in God of War Ascension is still a ton of fun just as it
01:52was with the first two games.
01:54You still have the Blades of Chaos as your primary weapon, and they create a visual spectacle in the way
01:59Kratos tosses them around.
02:07As for the focus on grappling, it helps with managing enemies a lot more, whereas the previous games kind of
02:13left you with blocking, parrying, and dodging.
02:15You know, the usual stuff.
02:17At least the grappling here gives you a means to keep one enemy immobilized and quickly ward off the rest
02:23before dishing out some lethal damage.
02:30The bosses are still epic.
02:39Now, when you compare it to the rest of the franchise, God of War Ascension doesn't have the best boss
02:45fights in the franchise.
02:46However, that does not make them the worst either.
02:49If anything, they're right on par with where they should be.
02:58They aren't super complex or difficult in terms of mechanics, but they do have a ton of style to them
03:03with the camera work, music, and animations.
03:06Sometimes, you don't really need anything deeper than that.
03:09We won't lie though, Manticore was boring as hell.
03:12Easily the worst boss in the entire franchise.
03:21A fine amount of polish.
03:33With the way most people talk about God of War Ascension, one would think the game was somewhat buggy, or
03:39even broken to some extent.
03:40After all, this is supposedly the worst game in the franchise before Sons of Sparta came along, right?
03:47Well, one could not be further from the truth.
03:50We have given you all you need for success, and yet you still fail us.
03:55Ascension boasts the same level of polish as its predecessors, with responsive controls, aggressive AI, and solid technical performance.
04:03Is the framerate as buttery smooth as we want it to be?
04:06Not all of the time, but to call the game unplayable is just disingenuous.
04:21Graphical fidelity.
04:22We have to find a better slave trader.
04:32Since we just finished talking about the game playing great, we should really acknowledge how it looks great as well.
04:39As one of the last exclusives developed for the PlayStation 3, God of War Ascension does an impressive job at
04:45showing the console's visual fidelity between the character animations, particle effects, and detailed texture work.
04:59There are even some moments that we dare say are far more detailed than what we saw in God of
05:05War 3.
05:06Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we suppose.
05:10I fear you may come to regret those words.
05:13The environmental design.
05:19Die, mortal!
05:23Speaking of beauty and artistic value, Ascension does not get enough credit for its environments.
05:29We're not just talking about the visual details here, we're talking about concepts, ideas, and execution.
05:34There's no better example of this than the Prison of the Damned.
05:38I will not be ruined by a mortal!
05:43You think you are special because Ares chose you!
05:47This entire first hour or so of the game sees Kratos being sent to several different areas across long distances.
05:54There's even a section where the room is being rotated around as you fight hordes of enemies.
05:59Moments like this are what make Ascension really stand out in the same way the mainline games did.
06:16In defense of enemies.
06:28A common complaint made towards God of War Ascension is how some enemies in the game are super annoying because
06:36of how they spam attacks or make fights last longer than normal.
06:39There's no beating around the bush here, this is some serious noob talk right here.
06:51Every single God of War game has annoying enemies. Plural.
06:57Go look at our list of the 10 most annoying enemies in the franchise and you'll see that the majority
07:03of them have made several appearances throughout the franchise.
07:07This is not an issue specific to Ascension, it's an issue specific to the franchise.
07:13And at this point, you either learn to tolerate it, or the games just aren't for you.
07:27The multiplayer.
07:38It's weird seeing the PlayStation community be so anti-multiplayer these days towards Sony because, once upon a time, Sony
07:46was putting multiplayer modes in the game.
07:48Which, as well, turned out into many of their games.
07:50God of War Ascension was one of them, and despite its awkward appearance, it was kind of fun in its
07:55own way.
08:04Every weapon catered to a different playstyle.
08:07Every level had interesting layouts with different hazards and ways to ambush your opponents.
08:11and it featured the same level of brutality as we saw in the single-player mode.
08:16No, it wasn't as remarkable or impressive as other online multiplayer games at the time,
08:21but still, Ascension was neat for what it was.
08:35A variety of weaponry.
08:44Spartans move toward victory.
08:46As we just mentioned, Ascension's multiplayer mode boasted a ton of unique weapons for you to focus on.
08:51Not only that, but you could unlock and master variants of these weapons too.
08:56These variants could further refine your playstyle by granting small buffs to your warrior,
09:01be it a slight increase in health, damage output, resistance, or what have you.
09:12Obviously, there was a super optimized and busted meta build somewhere in there,
09:17and those who are still playing today are probably not going to give you room to learn the game.
09:21Still, for what it was at the time,
09:24it was a ton of fun experimenting with weapons and trying different tactics.
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10:12And lastly, a victim of circumstance.
10:16The sooner we get past Telos, the happier I'll be.
10:20They say it is cursed.
10:22Ultimately, we have a strong feeling that the hate towards God of War Ascension
10:26stems purely from the time it was released.
10:29Since the franchise began in 2005, we had a new God of War every two years, sometimes less than that.
10:39Sony didn't give us fans a moment to breathe between new releases,
10:42and the releases became so frequent that Kratos started to become annoying just by showing up.
10:48So the shade speaks the truth.
10:50So by the time Ascension was announced in 2012,
10:53we were just all so sick of God of War that most of us just weren't open to any of
10:58the new ideas it was trying.
11:00That isn't to say Ascension is secretly this misunderstood masterpiece,
11:04but it's definitely a way better game than most people give it credit for.
11:09Kratos knew he was close.
11:12Close to a time when illusion would have no power over him.
11:16Have you had a chance to play God of War Ascension for yourself?
11:19Let us know down in the comments, and don't forget to subscribe to Mojo Plagues.
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