The valkyrie fight in Alfheim is massive bullshit. I hate how it has some type of bullshit magnetic lock-on with its targeting that makes it almost impossible to evade its attacks. I really wish I could cancel out my attacks after the target has moved. You think you're going to parry or block until its attack turns red, and now you're fucked. I haven't really figured out the attack patterns since they seem completely random and are total bullshit.

As for that chest....if it's the one I think it is, and it's the final one in Alfheim, it's not even worth trying since it's not an apple or horn. The final horn is found in a certain dwarven ruin after an armored dragon crash lands near the world serpent.

I feel like every gaming forum I've been on has the exact same thread of some dude conplaining about the combat in the first 3-4 hours. People, control yourselves. Stop sprinting to your fav forum to vent. The game takes 50-60 hrs at least to complete. You're still in the tutorial stage.

Some dude complaining or who was venting... last time I checked forums are for sharing your opinion, which is what I did. I'm dozens of hours in now and I still feel the same way. The camera is sometimes annoying, the one hit kill enemies feel cheap and it's boring fighting them (excluding the big knights), and everything else I said in the first day or two the game came out still holds true. I even said in my first post that things might change since it is a RPG now, so there's leveling up, new weapons, etc so it's not like you're dropping news. The game is easier as you keep going since your stats go up and you get new abilities... that doesn't stop the early game from being annoying and feeling unbalanced.

@deathstriker: In the camera options, I turned off camera centering and I felt that helped some of the camera focusing issues I was having (because I now have manual control of where I'm looking at all times). I also toggle z-targeting on for single enemy fights and leave it off for multiple enemy fights. Just some suggestions that helped me.

@rubberbabybuggybumpers: Was that not a horn? Oh well. I was going to do that no matter what out of sheer stubborn spirit. The reward was kind of secondary honestly. You picked the right puzzle though! I've already talked to 3 people that instantly recollected that specific one so it seems like it might be a memorable bit.

I've noticed some of the tracking nonsense on a lot other enemies too, I'm not a huge fan but you can play around it. Comes down to relying more on siderolls.

The thing about a lot of the gong puzzles is remembering that the axe is a totally viable physical object while it being recalled as well as thrown.

It wasn't a horn. I was thinking it was due to having gotten all of the apples. The final horn is found whilst getting materials for a certain set of armor from a dwarven king. Upon getting that nornir chest open, I was greeted with the achievement for getting all of the horns.

I came across the rune that allows you to dodge quicker and gives more distance. For that bitch valkyrie in Alfheim, it makes absolutely no difference. Her attacks are way too sporadic and unpredictable. Some of them will come at you like they can be blocked and them at the last second a red circle will appear. Her air stomp is reminiscent of the bullshit fight against that pillar chucking bitch boss fight in the original Xbox's Ninja Gaiden. You can sometimes dodge it but it depends on luck more than anything. I've downed 4 of them already, including that one on "fire mountain."

I was having major problems with the combat then I just started wildly spamming the the bumpers/triggers and that's working out for some reason.

What? You're supposed to come back to those later if you're too underleveled for that. Why would you keep hitting your head against that wall when you know you're not strong enough to do it yet? When I opened that first portal and an enemy came out and one shotted me, I tried again, got one shotted, and then I moved on. It's optional content you come back to later, much like a lot of stuff in the game. This one has RPG elements. You come back to certain things later when you gain new abilities or get stronger.

This is a common thing video games do.

It took a while to get into the combat. I was also playing for like the first six hours not using the run button. I must have been canceling the run with attacks or something, and never looked at controls lol. Overall the combat is great. I like it vastly better than the old games. Only issue I have is I think the damage increase/reduction on higher level enemies is too steep.

I really didnt get a sense that the items stats translated into the real world. It was just well this enemy is 1-3 levels higher, therefore its damage is scaled by 25-75% and its just going to 1-2 shot you.

I really have an issue with the sound guy though....Anyone else hate the noise from Blades of Chaos whistling through the air? Round third light swing its really got a nasty sound to it that gets on my nerves. Like rubbing plastic on styrofoam.

@frostyryan: The game does initially do a very bad job of communicating the things you should and shouldn't be doing though. The rifts in particular are not even the least bit out of your way and have no real rhyme or reason as to whether they are good for your current level or liable to one shot you if you try them all.

I also just hate to leave areas that I know are possible to clear, especially in this game where it is very easy to lose track of what places you were able to finish off. Would have loved to have some tools for annotations.

This is an excellent point. The only real criticism I have at this point is that this game does a real bad job of communicating to you, "hey you're not powerful enough for this place yet". Which is frustrating when you get to, say, Light Elf Outpost, and you get right to the very end of it before a rift tear at the end with like level 8 dudes coming out of it. It's like, come on, I want to get 100% on this area, and I can't because the game wasn't up front about the challenge level of the area. Now I have to remember to go back there at some point.

Otherwise it's outstanding.

@littlewask: @efesell:

They are out of the way. At that point in the game, you have a compass telling you where your main objective is. Exploring areas other than that is optional, obviously.

Also, if you repeatedly fail, a tip appears saying the riffs are optional and you can come back later. I really don't see what's frustrating about this element that lots of video games have been doing for decades.

Literally everytime I've died in this game I've been reloaded 3 seconds before that point with full life (and in some cases I haven't had full life going in) sooooo...I think you should feel like you can experiment as much as you want in this game. I have and have loved it in retrospect.

If you are tired of getting one shot by enemies stop fighting enemies several levels higher than you. If the health bar is purple turn around and walk away.

I enjoy it but I feel no need to fill out Kratos' ability tree. I'm good with the two runic moves I have and the simple R1, R1, R1, R2 combo. I guess I wish there were a little more to it. But I just got to the top of the mountain so maybe it still opens up.

I rely heavily on Atreus most of the time. He's so good when his abilities open up and really helps with some of the challenges. But is any summon worth anything aside from the wolves?

The auto lock-on with the Valkyries is super annoying. Yep I see you charging up a red attack, oh great I've just rolled right into it.

@handlas; same. I've got almost 100K experience just laying there with no real need to spend more.

@burncoat:

I used Murder of Crows exclusively once I tried it out. Very useful for crowd control, as it hits multiple times rapidly, opening enemies up and stunlocking them for the duration of the summon.