Cant understand people who do that. I mean that cant be fun surely. Drudging along through a game, fights becoming frustrating, have to reload/respawn over and over again. Just to say that I beat it on difficulty X when nobody really cares what difficulty you did it on. Take that person you mention there, 3 hours to beat that valkyrie and at the end of that 3 hours can that person really say they had 3 hours of fun doing it, or was it like 10mins of fun and a couple hours of dying in frustration. I'd just lower the difficulty and increase my enjoyment. Its just entertainment to me not a flexing exercise
To a degree it's a great challenge. It teaches you observation, speed, timing, reaction time and more so on that difficulty, you need a good build. There aint no slacking in this mode. The only problem is which makes New Game Plus very interesting on Give Me God of War, the patterns can change. Plus they'll one shot, if not down to slither. Status effects are really brutal on that difficulty.
This was how I felt on my first playthrough, every normal fight felt like a marathon boss fight but it became a fun challenge. Yes it was long but there was fun in learning the mechanics.
On New Game Plus Give Me God of War becomes a different game that I had to make two save files. One on Give Me a Challenge I'm farming gear on through the story that has dropped me some amazing stuff that I'll carry over to another save. The other save on Give Me God of War is stuck on the Draugr pit because they're psychos in there. A lot of fire, jumping fire explosions and sliding. Roll, roll, roll, 180.
Sometimes it can be hella frustrating but it's a great way to teach patience and tactics. That's what makes the challenge fun and it is brutal.
Yeah theres also quite a lot of lore you pick up as you're running around and theres some nice Norse info on stuff in the Codex. Though that does require the modern gamer to do something that the modern gamer hates, reading rather than listening
Some of the items to read and stories from Mimir in the boat are very fascinating. As the stories in the boat are also nice breathers between fights.
The lore got me obsessed with this game from 2018 like I felt getting into Lord of the Rings. It's great fantasy stories. I love the whole magical feel to its world. Plus from the lore tied to the gear building makes the hacking/slashing fantastic. No other game has intense action/lore, story telling and carnage like it and others has spoken of this said the same on twitch.