God of War: Sons of Sparta's easiest difficulty makes an excellent reference to the 2018 reboot, and fans love it: "Whoever came up with that should get a raise"

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A small nod to the inimitable Christopher Judge

Kratos is grabbed by a cyclops in God of War: Sons of Sparta, as Deimos leaps to his aid from behind
(Image credit: Sony)

The motto of the God of War franchise may as well be "Boy," said in as strong a Christopher Judge impression as you can manage, for how synonymous that's become with Kratos since the 2018 soft reboot. It definitely seems like something of an in-joke among people involved in the property, since new side-scrolling Metroidvania God of War: Sons of Sparta makes a direct nod to Atreus in the difficulty menu.

When looking at how you'd like to play Kratos' latest outing, you're given three options: Spartan as the hardest, because of course; Cadet as medium, which makes sense; then Boy for easy mode, just to rub it in a little that you're picking the lowest. Just as the little son of Kratos spends all of the 2018 game and its sequel, Ragnarok, earning his father's approval, so too must you when picking the easiest mode.

"Now I have to choose Spartan because I don't want to be called BOY," says one fan on Twitter. People are enjoying the clever wording. "Whoever came up with that should get a raise," says another response. "Second best name for a difficulty level after having God Mode as the Normal Mode in God of War 3," a third says.

Of course, there are some jabs over the description, which explicitly points out this is for people who just want the story. How anyone else chooses to play a game is up to them, and this seems like a simple little joke rather than some kind of actual insult. Besides, those lower difficulties start to look very appealing when you spend hours stuck on a particular encounter. We may all end up playing on Boy mode at some point.

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Anthony McGlynn
Anthony McGlynn
Contributing Writer

Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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