God of War Ragnarok Easter egg makes PlayStation All-Stars canon

Santa Monica Studio’s soft reboot of God of WarThe sequel is now available. God of War Ragnarök, focus on the god-slaying hero reckoning with — and at times, trying to hide from — his violent past. And while much of that contemplation and consternation touches on Kratos’ actions in the first three mainline God of War games, the ol’ Ghost of Sparta appears to have regrets beyond his Greek god body count.

Like, for example, when Kratos appeared in Sony’s attempt to recreate the success of Super Smash Bros. It is something he would rather not talk about.

[Warning: Minor spoilers for God of War Ragnarök follow.]

During one conversation between Mimir and Kratos, while the latter is paddling his canoe, the chatty decapitated head asks his handler whether one story he’d heard about Kratos’ past is true. Here’s the exchange:

Mimir: Brother, I’ve heard my share of stories about your homeland. But I’d also heard that you once fought in a tournament.

Kratos: In many competitions, I participated.

Mimir: This particular… I heard you did battle with beasts, scoundrels, princesses, the undead, automatons, and… history’s greatest musician. That’s not… that’s not true, is it?

Kratos; I wouldn’t speak of that.

Like Kvasir’s poems in God of War RagnarökMimir is making fun of another PlayStation property: the Crossover Fighting Game PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Mimir is referencing the platform-fighter’s roster, hinting at fellow combatants like Ratchet and Clank, Twisted Metal’s Sweet Tooth, Fat Princess, Sir Daniel Fortesque, and PaRappa the Rapper — history’s greatest musician, naturally. Of course Kratos was part of this. PlayStation All-StarsAssemble with his arch-enemy Zeus.

But some players have interpreted that exchange differently, mistakenly thinking that Mimir is talking about another fighting game appearance: 2011’s Mortal Kombat soft reboot, colloquially known as Mortal Kombat 9. Kratos was a guest character — MK’s first guest character — and he fought beasts (Reptile), scoundrels (Kano), princesses (Kitana), the undead (Scorpion), and automatons (Sektor and Cyrax) there, too. One could argue history’s greatest musician also appeared (kind of), since the purple ninja Rain is inspired by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Prince.

Mortal Kombat 9 is also a noteworthy appearance for Kratos as it’s his first interaction with gods outside of the Greek pantheon. He meets with Shao Khan and comes to terms with Fujin the wind god, as well as thunder god Raiden. These two gods were named after characters in Japanese mythology. However, Kratos didn’t end up defeating them as shown in the video.

Before his two aforementioned fighting game crossovers, Kratos appeared in yet another fighting game: 2009’s Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny. This exclusive PlayStation Portable game is based on Soulcalibur IVIn this game, Kratos was a guest character that replaced Yoda and Darth vader in console versions. Bandai Namco clearly wanted Soulcalibur’s weapons-based fighter to be available on the PSP. Kratos is barely featured in this story. Broken Destiny.

So yes, Kratos has fought in many contests, and Sony was pretty liberal with the character’s cameos a decade ago, but only one guest appearance seems to have a tenuous attachment to lore — PlayStation All-Stars Battle RoyaleLike it or not, it is right up there alongside baseball. Macbeth, and Jim Carrey’s The MaskAs part of the larger God of War canon.

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