God of War: A’s Trials of Archimedes “Will Still be Hard on Hard,” Update on PSN Release Soon

There was a little bit of outcry when Todd Papy announced that a patch was being worked on to make the much maligned Trials of Archimedes easier. If you haven’t listened to it yet, Sebastian goes off a little bit on the matter during this week’s Bad Gamers, but basically the consensus is that if it was made to be hard, it shouldn’t be toned down.
-PSLS

[Wedge19]

Well, at least the challenge can still somewhat remain... but still. There wasn't a patch to make Demon's Souls easier....

[AsimLeonheart]

Santa Monica crumbled under pressure of all the gamer outcry. Man, it wasnt even that hard; just a little challenging. I died 3 times but then I was forced to rethink my options and strategies when brute force wasnt working. I realized I wasnt using the two abilities of creating a clone and stopping time at all. I started using them in the 4th try and I was able to clear it with almost full health. Gamers have become such pussies these days. What would these guys do in the NES and SNES days when we had to complete the whole game without any checkpoints or save points, in a single playthrough with limited number of lives and continues.

[Dir_en_grey]

It's more like the reviewers giving games a bad score because of the difficulty making it hard for them to finish their reviews on time.

Usually gamers paid for a game and they have no problem going through trial and error even if they died a couple of times.

But the random reviewer who does it as a chore have the "voice" at the end of the day because that's just what most people read before they buy the game.

It will be sad if all developers now design and make games for "reviewers" instead of "gamers".
And any random guy can be a "game reviewer" is the problem IMO.

Sure you might have a decent news site, and you get those review copies and feel like you have a duty to put out a review to get as many hits as possible... but at least have the decency of giving it to somebody that actually knows and plays and likes the genre to review it, and they should AT LEAST be averagely skilled at the genre, not SUCK at it. (And seriously most reviewers out there should just swallow their pride and play on Easy because they really suck and aren't qualified to even review the games IMO)

It's a problem that probably won't be solved, but these type of reviewers are really the cancer of the industry.

How about somebody make a meta critic review site to review the game reviewers in the industry, it'll most likely blow up.

[Sharius]

That why i more into user review on gamefaqs than those so call reviewer, atleast they are true gamer and they tell me what they really feel about game

[Wedge19]

@Dir_en_grey. When I play games for myself, I always play on the hardest difficulty available, but when I am doing a review, I will always just play through the game on normal. It's not worth possibly getting stuck, or reviewing a game based on a difficulty that a lot of people don't end up playing (or don't play first).

[TrendyGamers]

Good, gotta keep Hard hard.

[Foolsjoker]

Well only if you want to make people happy..

[dbjj12088]

As related as it's ever gonna be.

[Silly gameAr]

Man, I'm starting my second playthrough on hard and I'm not really looking forward to that trail. It was frustrating on normal so I'll be lucky if my controller survives this time. I was damn close to throwing it through my tv, but I finally made it on my 5th try.

I'm trying to make it there before the patch though, so I can test my GOW mettle. Since it's going to stay hard on hard, then I guess I don't have anything to moan about.

[PirateThom]

You can also cancel when it asks if you want to patch or delete the update data if you want to try it out anyway.

[GribbleGrunger]

Don't forget to turn off auto update patching if you have PS+

[VonBraunschweigg]

5th try. On normal.

I think that says it all. People nowadays expect to just walk through games like it was a walk in the park. No challenge, no need to master the mechanics, the moves, what's handy when and what's not.

Then there's a difficulty spike, not uncommon at the end of a game. And than it happens. No health chests, no saving, too many enemies! Help! Four times already!

Never learned to use finishers, never learned the effects the blade elements have on the colour of the orbs. In Ascencion, you can play half the game not using health chests if you know what you're doing, and on Normal all you have to do is mash those buttons.

It's not meant personal, but when I read you almost went berserk because you had to play a section only five times I just couldn't help but reply, see it more as a complaint against the state of decay Gaming is getting consumed by.

[Simon_Brezhnev]

I had a hard time at first because i love to play reckless then i thought about the Hercules fight and remembered i got to be patient. lol

[Silly gameAr]

umm, Playing it 5 times wasn't the reason I almost went berserk. It was making it to the Centaur almost every time, to end up dying because I rolled into one of the spiked walls that almost drove me berserk.

I have no problem with being challenged, but I just considered that a cheap death. Not really sure what part of my comment gave the impression that I don't like a challenging game. If that was the case, I would have gave up on Demon's Souls and it wouldn't be one of my favorite games of this gen. I dread the trails on hard, but that doesn't mean that I'm not hyped about beating it on hard.

Sorry that a moment of anger at a part of a game added to the state of decay that's consuming the gaming world.

By the way, I'm pretty sure I know a good deal about the GOW series since I plated every game in the series and going for my GOW A plat.

[Deputydon]

I don't understand this. I beat the Trials on normal the first try. All you do is use the fire blades till you max your rage bar, then switch to the soul blades and finish the enemies off. You get health orbs for killing enemies with the soul blades. Problem solved, unlimited health.

[BlaqMagiq24]

I beat it on my first try and completely forgot about the Soul blades lol. Glad to see someone else didn't have a problem. I just couldn't see where the "hard" part was.

[LeoDDestroyer]

Souls blades don't give you much health orbs on hard especially on that part. Square, square, triangle on the other hand is very good at that part.

[Deputydon]

You get enough health orbs to help. I beat it on hard no problem.

[JW1080]

It was the hardest and most frustrating part but I managed to get past it. All I can say is keep trying and use your magic wisely. First half of the trial is the hardest part.I was jumping for joy on the inside when I cleared it. Took me a bunch of tries too. Don't give up or wait for the patch.

[ftwrthtx]

Glad they left it challenging

[Foolsjoker]

Same here...they really need to stop messing with it.

[grayfoxx881]

I think the hardest wave was the first. I used fire for my blades and magic to kill the medusas. When they died they gave me more blue orbs for magic attacks. Once I finished that wave I was set. I was surprised I finished it on my second attempt on medium difficulty. The way everyone was talking, I thought I'd get stuck for sure.

[ziggurcat]

papy also stated that it was harder than they had intended it to be, so... if they tone it down, it's probably going to be to the level they intended.

at any rate, going to probably finish the game on hard tonight for the platinum, so i guess i can at least say i beat it before it was patched?

[Jek_Porkins]

Thank god, I understand a lot of you youngsters enjoy the higher difficulty, but as someone who's been gaming since 1988, I have to say I simply don't have the time or skill to sink into replaying something 20+ times.

Liked the game, but stuck on this part since launch.

[VonBraunschweigg]

Pfff, already wrote a wall of text. Grayfoxxx881 2 comments above found the solution, so can you. Especially when you started gaming in the 80's, because shit was hard those days and patches you had to program yourself if you wanted them.

[claterz]

This level is killing me!! I've tried it like 10 times, then took a break, then tried it another 20 times...still can't do it. The most annoying thing is that the parry system in this game is so unpredictable it doesn't even work half the time. And I know I'm not the only one with this issue because I've looked on other forums.

You guys got any tips on defending against the witches or using the parry more effectively? I'm only playing on normal :(

[VonBraunschweigg]

The thing is to use parry early. Not the moment a weapon is about to hit you, but the moment the attack against you starts. Some enemies attack quick, some take a little more time to swing their weapon. It's a bit different, but after adjusting it certainly doesn't feel unpredictable to me.

[claterz]

Ok I'll try it that way. The hardest part is when there are 2 witches and 2 medusas. It destroys my health bar to less that a quarter every time which leaves me in a terrible position for the next round lol. Even using magic to vapourise madusas doesn't give much magic.

Can't wait to beat it though.

[LeoDDestroyer]

Don't forget to use Uroborus to slow the enemies down then cast your clone. The clone is very effective at taking down the sirens and one thing I kept forgetting to use very often.

[Morgue]

The only reason it was somewhat annoying for me is because I kept forgetting about the magic slow down and shadow power. I also thought I had passed it after the Horse guy with barely 1/4 of health remaining only to find out there was one more stage. I had like an 1/8 of health left and my hands were shaking.
In the end it was nothing compared to the last challenge of the gods on the first GOW. I left my PS2 on over night because you couldn't save.

[BlaqMagiq24]

Guys I'm not trying to be funny or a troll but was the Trial of Archimedes really that hard? I beat it on my first try on Normal. NO JOKE!!! I went in thinking it lasted somewhere between 30-45 minutes and I kinda breezed through it. I had my health upgraded to max and had half left, given I got some back from killing a few enemies. I just made good use of the Amulet, Ares and Zeus magic, and timed parries real well. Don't get me wrong it was still challenging, but it didn't feel hard in my opinion.

[Omar91]

oh man I hope I don't kick myself for always playing my games on hard this time around. Im not at that part of the game yet, however from the comments here it seems like its one of the most annoying parts in GOW:A. Im already struggling in the beginning I cant imagine it getting any harder :/

[Sharius]

Well it's sure difficulf, i don't try to sugar coat that, but it's not unbeatable, take this slow, don't smash button and you will be just fine

[eagles1990]

I beat it on Hard. It's difficult because there's no save points but it isn't that hard after you get past the first part. Just use the Soul of Hades and keep using the Amulet of Uroborus and Oath Stone of Orkos and block but keep moving so the Gorgons don't turn you into stone. Once you get past the first part, Just keep holding the block button. It's that simple. On part two, quickly throw the Harpies off the level and block the Amazons attacks while using the Amulet of Uroborus and Oath Stone of Orkos. Be sure to get the QTE kill on them because they give health. Avoid the fire while using the the Amulet of Uroborus and Oath Stone of Orkos on the Talos.

The last part is the easiest. Just block and let the Centaur charge you but complete the QTE. Kill him with the QTE for health. Then block the attacks from the ghosts and use the Amulet of Uroborus and Oath Stone of Orkos. Only thing you really have to worry about is holding the block button and avoiding the spikes on the walls.

[STARS]

This was very helpful, especially playing on Hard during my first playthrough. Thanks!