__ 
 /   od of War  /------------------------------------------------------------o
|  _ -----o-----\                    Temple of the Oracle                    |
 \_/   (0000H)   \-----------------------------------------------------------o

There's a save point here of course.  When you're ready head up into the 
temple.  Fight your way through here which pretty much just entails defeating 
hordes of normal enemies until you reach the large outdoor area where you 
rescued the girl from the rope.  Save your game at the back door and head 
through it to find a number of chests with all kinds of orbs.  When you exit 
the hall you'll find yourself outside and a cutscene triggers.

Here's the deal, for this first boss every single attack Ares uses is 
blockable so you'll need to use that to your advantage.  I'll tell you this 
now, the key to victory is the Army of Hades spell, level it up as much as you 
can before the fight.  You attacks deal very little damage to the boss and his 
deal a lot so you need to play defensively and block at any sign of an attack.  
Use whichever weapon you prefer for the fight, but keep the Army of Hades 
going, often the attack alone will blast multitudes of health and magic out of 
him so much so that casting the spell pretty much cost nothing.  You should 
also use Rage of the Gods early in the battle, because even though you'll need 
it later if you use it early then it should refill by the time the fight is 
over.  After dealing enough damage to Ares the circle button appears over his 
head, at this point grab him and start tapping.  Immediately after it 
disappears stop tapping and go into a button combination.  You need to make 
this transition quick or you'll screw up, after this a scene occurs.

Now the next part involves you protecting your family from clones of yourself.  
There are a lot of clones, more than anyone could ever count and it goes on 
for along while so you'll need to keep yourself alive.  Before actual battle 
tips it's important to note that running up to your family and holding the 
circle button transfers your health to them, you'll probably have to do this a 
couple times throughout the battle.  Anyway like before your primary weapon 
should be the Army of Hades magic.  Ares' first form dropped a ton of red orbs 
so you should be able to max out the power.  Use this often during the fight, 
the damage it does should knock out a fair bit of magic power but not enough 
to replenish it fast enough.  The solution?  Rage of the Gods which gives you 
an infinite amount of magic power when the blades are maxed, which they should 
have been a long time ago.  Have this and start using Army of Hades like mad, 
it should be enough to, if not end the battle, give you the edge you need.

After one more scene it's finally time to take on his last form.  There's one 
full health bar between the two of you, damage to him means healing you and 
vice versa.  Most of the battle complications have been removed and you're 
left with what can most accurately be described as a fighting game type battle 
on a 3D plane.  Here's how it works, all his attacks aren't blockable anymore, 
most of them are but not all.  The first is sort of a fire burst he shoot out 
of his hand, learn to see this coming and dodge it because it will hit you 
every time.  The second is easier to dodge, he'll pass through the ground and 
pop up elsewhere.  This means that four pillars are about to rise and try to 
hit you.  You can get hit by these nor can you even be standing on the ground 
if you wish to avoid damage so after he teleports start running normally, 
forget rolling.  If you're running around by the time they pop up you should 
be outside they're hit range and all that remains is for you to jump in the 
air before they crash together.  Now let's look at damaging him.  After most 
of his combos he'll stop for a moment and kind of roar, this is your chance to 
strike.  Go in with both square and triangle attacks to deal damage to him, if 
you hit him and interrupt an attack you'll get the chance to do a circle 
button tapping "tug of war" where if you win it means massive damage AND he 
gets temporarily stunned.  Good all around.  The most important things to keep 
in mind is that you must not try attacking unless he's doing the roar, if he 
blocks more than three of your attacks in a row he'll do a fire burst that is 
undodgeable and unblockable because it occurs in a little cutscene type thing, 
the point is when he starts blocking then you stop attacking.  Play more 
offensively than you did the first time, even knowing how to block and dodge 
he's likely going to hit you sometimes, and that heals him.  Good luck.

That pretty much does it, there's one more section where you have control, but 
if you need a guide for that, then... I don't know what to say.

You beat the game.  Good job!  

Now sit back and enjoy the ending.

                             
                                 d--(o_O)--b
                                 
                                 
O============================================================================O
|                                 Final Note                         (0000I) |
O============================================================================O

To be honest I really don't see myself going any further than the walkthrough, 
there's an extra challenge or two here and there but really the main game is 
where it's at, and I've covered that as much (and more) than I had hoped from 
the start.  If you're looking for some Challenge of the Gods info I believe an 
in-depth guide for that just went up on GameFAQs this afternoon and it looks 
pretty solid.  Hope you enjoyed God of War (and this guide.)  Cheerio ^_^