Character Breakdown: Kratos

Name: Kratos, God of War
Game(s): God of War 1, 2, 3.  God of War prequels.  Mortal Kombat.  Assorted cameos.
Skills/Attributes:

• Unparalleled warrior
• Vengeful
• Ruthless
• Determined
• Powerful
• Flawed

Summary:
Let's start at square one.  Kratos is a badass.  This is a character specifically designed to enact every cathartic, violent power fantasy that every gamer has.  His movements ooze strength and power, his combat is brutal and unflinching, and the game overall is animated, dark, and gory.  Kratos is the epitome of desensitized anti-hero, driven solely by personal motives, and uncaring of the consequences of his actions.

Kratos wields two chained blades as his main weapon, though he masters several other styles of weapons in his journey as well.  As a spartan, he is a warrior without peer, striking down anyone or anything that gets in his way.  His combat style is flashy and violent, with lots of face smashings, joint breakings, and literally ripping people in half.

He is frighteningly strong, but even more than this, he is unrelenting.  He doesn't tire, and he never stops.  Physically, this is an astounding feat, considering all he goes through in his adventures.  Mentally, his determination is admirable, though it leads him to be ruthless and uncaring, sometimes to his own destruction.  Kratos is a flawed and damaged character, who spends most of his time recovering from the deep, and somewhat self inflicted wounds on his own psyche.

As usual, we're going to look at Kratos' physical capabilities first.  We're going to focus on a workout style promoting a mix of explosive power, and astounding endurance.  Then we'll take a look at skills and combat style, focusing on efficiency of movement, power techniques, and brutal self defense.  Finally we'll take a peek into the damaged psyche of the Ghost of Sparta, and how Kratos causes many of his own problems and conflicts, and what we can learn from it.

It's good to be back, and I'm psyched to be doing one of the most iconic characters from the modern era! Don't forget to follow me on Twitter, or like the blog page on Facebook to get a heads up on blog updates!

Dan "DaRatmastah" Wallace