God of War II Story Explained: Plot Summary and Ending

God of War II came out in March 2007 on the PlayStation 2, made by Santa Monica Studio. It's the direct sequel to the first God of War, and in story order it comes fifth, after the prequel Ghost of Sparta. It turns Kratos from Olympus's favourite weapon into its enemy and ends on one of the series' biggest cliffhangers. This page has full spoilers for the whole game, ending included. (God of War II)

Before the story begins#

In the first God of War, Kratos killed Ares and became the new God of War. The gods forgave his sins but left him his nightmares. In Ghost of Sparta he found his mother Callisto alive, lost her, and lost his brother Deimos to Thanatos, learning that Ares and Athena had taken Deimos as a boy because of a prophecy. That game ends with Kratos on his throne, set on making the gods pay, sending the Spartans to war. He still doesn't know who his father is. (God of War (2005); God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

Betrayal at Rhodes#

Kratos was using his place on Olympus to send Sparta's army against the cities of Greece, and the other gods were furious. As the Spartans attacked Rhodes, Athena begged him to stop, warning she could no longer protect him. He said he didn't need her protection and came down to fight alongside his men. (God of War II)

During the siege of Rhodes an eagle swooped over Kratos and drained part of his godly power, shrinking him to mortal size. Kratos assumed it was Athena. The stolen power brought the Colossus of Rhodes to life, and the giant bronze statue turned on the Spartans. (God of War II)

Struggling against it, Kratos heard Zeus offer him the Blade of Olympus, the sword Zeus had used to end the Great War against the Titans. Zeus said it was for the good of Olympus. Kratos didn't stop to wonder why. He poured his remaining power into the blade, making himself mortal, and used it to wreck the Colossus from the inside. (God of War II)

As he shouted at the sky that nothing could stop him, the Colossus fell and its hand crushed him, knocking the blade away. Dying, he crawled towards it. The eagle landed and became Zeus. It had all been a trap to strip him of his power, because Zeus feared Kratos would kill him the way he had killed Ares. Zeus told him to submit. Kratos refused, and Zeus ran him through with the Blade of Olympus, then used its power to kill everyone left on the battlefield. Kratos swore revenge as he died. (God of War II)

Gaia and the road to the Fates#

As the dead pulled Kratos down into the Underworld, the Titan Gaia spoke to him. The Titans wanted revenge on Zeus too, and if Kratos helped them, she would help him. The only way to change his fate was the power of the Sisters of Fate. Kratos fought off the hands dragging him down and climbed out of the Underworld for the second time. (God of War II)

Back in the ruins of Rhodes, he ordered the last Spartan survivor home to prepare for war, and set out on Pegasus, the winged horse Gaia gave him. His goal was the Fates on the Island of Creation: with their power he could go back to the moment Zeus betrayed him and take back what he'd lost. (God of War II)

In the frozen mountain where the Titan Typhon was imprisoned, Typhon's hand pinned Pegasus and trapped him. Exploring the mountain, Kratos found Prometheus chained to Typhon's other hand, his liver eaten by an eagle every day and growing back every night, his punishment for giving fire to mortals. Prometheus begged to be let fall into the fire below. Kratos took the bow Typhon's Bane from the Titan, came back and shot through Prometheus's chain, ending his torment. The Titan's ashes gave Kratos the Rage of the Titans. He freed Pegasus and flew on, but the Dark Rider and his griffins brought Pegasus down over the sea. Kratos killed the rider in mid-air and dropped to the island. (God of War II)

The Island of Creation#

On the island, Gaia told Kratos about the Great War and why the Titans still hated Zeus. To reach the Palace of the Fates he needed the Steeds of Time, and the key to them belonged to Theseus, who kept the horses for the Fates. Theseus challenged him, and Kratos killed him and took the key. A statue of Lahkesis, one of the Fates, warned Kratos that his fate was already set and only death waited for him. He attacked it. (God of War II)

In a swamp he met the barbarian king Alrik, the man Ares had saved him from years before. Alrik was back from the dead, riding a warhorse at the head of his dead warriors, and wanted revenge. Kratos killed him again and took his hammer. He took the Golden Fleece from a Cerberus that had swallowed it, and used it to turn back the gaze of Euryale, Medusa's sister, before cutting off her head. (God of War II)

In a bathhouse he found Perseus, who wanted the Fates to bring back his dead wife. Perseus thought Kratos was a trial set by the Fates and attacked him. Kratos killed him. Then the aged, half-mad Icarus tried to stop him at a great chasm. They fell together, and Kratos tore off Icarus's wings and let him fall into the Underworld while he landed on Atlas. (God of War II)

The Titan remembered Kratos chaining him beneath the world in Chains of Olympus and tried to crush him. When he heard Kratos was Zeus's enemy, he stopped, told him how Zeus had made the Blade of Olympus to drive the Titans into Tartarus, and lifted him back up. (God of War II; God of War: Chains of Olympus)

The Sisters of Fate#

At the Palace of the Fates Kratos fought a soldier in a dark room and threw him through a window, then found it was the last Spartan. The man hadn't gone home because there was no home. While Kratos was gone, Zeus had destroyed Sparta, and this soldier was the only one left. He had come to ask the Fates to change it, and died hoping Kratos could. Kratos screamed for Zeus to come and face him, and the Kraken grabbed him from behind. (God of War II)

As it crushed him, he saw a vision of his wife Lysandra in ruined Sparta and begged her forgiveness. It was Gaia in disguise. She told him the Titans wanted him to lead them against Olympus and gave him the strength to kill the Kraken. Riding a phoenix, he reached the Fates' temple. (God of War II)

Lahkesis told him he was never fated to kill Zeus and that even his coming there was part of their plan. Kratos said his fate was his own doing and fought her. When he was winning, her sister Atropos dragged him back in time to his fight with Ares and tried to destroy the Blade of the Gods, so Ares would kill him. Kratos stopped her. Back in the present, he trapped both sisters in a mirror and smashed it. He climbed the giant, many-armed Clotho and drove a blade through her head. With all three Fates dead, he used their power in the Loom Chamber to go back to Rhodes. (God of War II)

The ending explained#

Kratos arrived at the moment Zeus was killing his past self, his godly power back, and snatched the Blade of Olympus from a startled Zeus. They fought across the sky to the Summit of Sacrifice, where Rhea had once handed her children to Cronos to be eaten, and saved the baby Zeus by tricking Cronos into swallowing a stone. Kratos pretended to give up, Zeus came close to finish him, and Kratos turned the fight around. (God of War II)

With Zeus beaten, Kratos raised the Blade of Olympus. Athena appeared and begged him to stop, and Zeus started to slip away. Kratos pushed past her and thrust at Zeus, and Athena threw herself in front of the blade. Zeus escaped. (God of War II)

Kratos asked why. She said she did it for Olympus. Then she told him the truth. Zeus was his father. Cronos had killed his father, Zeus had overthrown Cronos, and Zeus was afraid his own son would do the same to him. He had turned on Kratos to break the cycle. Kratos snarled that he had no father. With her last breath Athena begged him to stop. All Olympus would stand against him, she warned, because Zeus was Olympus. Kratos said that if all of Olympus would deny him his vengeance, all of Olympus would die. (God of War II)

He went back to the Fates' Loom and reached far into the past, to the Great War, and pulled the Titans forward into his own time. On Olympus, a wounded Zeus called the gods together to stand against the Ghost of Sparta. The mountain shook. The Titans were climbing it, and Kratos rode on Gaia's back with the Blade of Olympus, shouting to his father that the end of Olympus had come. (God of War II)

What it means. Zeus's betrayal is the series' cycle in action. He did to his son what Cronos tried to do to him, and by doing it he made the son he feared. Athena's death takes away the last god on Kratos's side, and her reveal makes the war personal. Kratos is no longer only taking revenge for Sparta and himself. He's going to kill his own father, which is exactly what Zeus wanted to prevent. (God of War II)

What it leaves open. Gaia has helped Kratos all game, but the game never says what the Titans want beyond revenge. Athena's warning that Olympus can't survive without Zeus is left hanging. God of War III answers both: Gaia drops Kratos the moment he stops being useful, and Greece is destroyed as each god falls. (God of War II; God of War III)

What it sets up#

God of War III starts a moment later, with Kratos and the Titans storming Olympus in the Second Titanomachy. For the whole saga see the God of War story explained and the full God of War timeline. (God of War III)