God of War provides plenty of challenges for players, whether it's unraveling the narrative threads around Kratos and Atreus or difficult encounters where players must be mechanically sound to survive. In regards to the latter, the game is littered with encounters like this for players to dive into and enjoy, from the Muspelheim challenges to various Ancients across the realms to battle. However, one encounter continues to stand head-and-shoulders above all others in the game and still challenges players three years after release - Sigrun, Queen of the Valkyries.
Sigrun is the final encounter as part of the corrupted Valkyries side quest which pits Kratos and Atreus against the legendary female warriors of Norse mythology. Players are tasked with defeating eight other Valkyries and taking their helmets before placing them in the ruined council space in Midgard before summoning the Valkyrie queen. Players must then battle Sigrun to finally free the Valkyries of their corruption, but not before Sigrun uses her sisters' abilities to try and defeat players.
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Players took to Reddit to share their continued struggles against the Valkyrie queen, proving to be as difficult today as she did when the game released. In one thread, user u/hellraiser2710 said he was on attempt 26 of the Sigrun battle during his first playthrough of the game and comments about how much more difficult Sigrun is compared to the other Valkyries. Their stance was shared in u/Bejdza69's thread, where they comment on how difficult the fight is even on easy.
More users follow on both threads, echoing both users and commenting on how difficult the fight is. Many also touch on their own experiences in games like Dark Souls or Bloodborne and how, despite each game's difficulty, there are few encounters that can match Sigrun's challenge.
It's not hard to see why Sigrun continues to challenge players this long after God of War's release given how Sony Santa Monica went about designing this encounter. Instead of giving Sigrun a unique ability to overcome, like the other eight Valkyries, she can instead use all the abilities players had to overcome in the other Valkyrie encounters. This difficulty is compounded by a much larger health pool, meaning it takes even longer to defeat Sigrun.
One thing that is clear from all this, though, is Sigrun's challenge is one that is enticing to players. She is one of the most difficult encounters in the game, but is not designed in a way that is unfair. It instead asks players to take note and study, with the other Valkyries serving as a type of training for the ultimate fight to come.
God of War is currently available on PS4.