Day 46: Baldur/The Stranger
Yup, I like the fight against Baldur, known as The Stranger in the beginning of the game, more than I like the fight against Poseidon. Why is that? One reason, and one reason alone fellow reader. While Poseidon only fights you while safe in his water armor, Baldur faces Kratos head on, no armor at all. It's just two Gods duking it out mono-e-mono.
Another reason why I like this fight more than Poseidon is the air of mystery surrounding Baldur. When he first appears, we have no idea who he is or what he wants (as of right now we don't even know Baldur's name or that he's a God). All we know is that he poses a threat to Kratos and his son Atreus and we've got to kick his ass.
Before the fight begins tension is rising as something appears outside of Kratos and Atreus' shack and Baldur demands Kratos to come out and face him, causing Kratos to tell Atreus to hide underneath their shack's floorboards as he goes out to face Baldur. After a misunderstanding where Baldur thinks Kratos is a Jötunn Guardian and Kratos thinks Baldur knows of his past as the Ghost of Sparta, complete with some smack talking and literal smacking, the fight begins.
In phase one, armed with nothing but your shield, Leviathan Axe, and your own bare hands, you must try and hit Baldur all while he zips around you at fast speeds, and hitting you with powerful punches and kicks, and even sending out a wave of ice to take you out. Keep dodging and blocking his attacks, and wailing away at him to lower his health bar.
After losing over half his health, Baldur will fling Kratos onto the roof of his shack where upon punching a hole in it he discovers two beds, making him wonder who Kratos is hiding. Kratos has no time for questions and he promptly delivers a beatdown to Baldur's face before bringing the fight back to ground level where Kratos throws a tree at Baldur before ramming him into a rock wall. Baldur will push Kratos off of him before regenerating all of the health he lost and punching Kratos through the rock wall, trapping him, and Baldur tells Kratos that he's going to talk with the other person in the shack. Knowing that Atreus would be in danger, Kratos breaks through the rock wall like the badass daddy he is, and delivers another round of ass whopping ending with Kratos using another tree as a battering ram, which he uses to propel Baldur through the rock wall and into a stone structure behind it, kicking off phase two.
In phase two, Kratos will have entered Spartan Rage mode and delivers a no holds barred beatdown of Baldur for most of the phase. After that, it's pretty much the same as phase one: just hit Baldur while avoiding his fast kicks and punches and his wave of ice. But I'd be lying if I said unleashing Spartan Rage on this guy wasn't satisfying as hell!
After beating Baldur into unconsciousness, Kratos ends the fight by crushing him with the stone structure. With all that said and done, Kratos makes his way back to his shack when...
Baldur: Leaving so soon?
(Cue him lifting the stone structure and throwing it back at Kratos who breaks it with his shield)
Baldur's not done yet as he and Kratos engage in a power struggle that tears apart the ground beneath them. It's during this struggle when Baldur tells Kratos that he doesn't feel pain, and after a badass moment of the two gods brawling in mid-air, Kratos gets stuck in the fissure created from their struggle and he has to climb his way back to the surface, all while listening to Baldur's taunts. After making it back to the surface, the third and final phase begins.
The third phase is the same as the first two, but this time Baldur has another attack where he leaps into the air and tries to slam down onto Kratos.
After depleting Baldur's health bar one final time, Kratos ends the fight by snapping Baldur's neck and throwing him into the fissure, knowing full well that due to Baldur's invulnerability, snapping his neck would only be a temporary fix and he'd be back later.
So, with great set pieces, epic cutscenes that rival that of the Poseidon fight, the more straightforward and honorable nature of the fight when compared to the fight against Poseidon (which was basically Kratos vs a giant water God where here it's two normal sized Gods fighting in hand to hand combat), and just the mystery surrounding Baldur, this is easily my favorite first boss in the God of War series and my favorite Playstation exclusive boss.