Boss Fight: Perseus
Perseus is trapped in the temple, and has apparently been looking for an audience with the Sisters of Fate himself. It doesn’t take him long to talk himself into attacking you, in the hopes that this will further his cause.
Phase One
Video Walk-through
The gift of the cap of invisibility from the Nymphs to Perseus will make this first section of the fight problematical, since, well, it’ll let Perseus fight while invisible. You can make out a vague shape in the water, and see his footsteps, but he’ll still be tough to spot. Luckily, you can dodge pretty much any attack he throws your way here.
Perseus’ attacks are fairly typical. He’s got a lunging attack, a charge attack that will attempt to repeatedly hit you, and a sling attack that will send a green bullet your way. When you see him charging up the sling attack, get ready to use your golden fleece to reflect it. If he’s far enough away, you’ll be able to do this twice per volley. Apart from that, use standard attacks to try and wear Perseus down. No need to fool around with elaborate combos or special attacks; just tap out an attack or two in his general direction when he stops attacking. You’ll know you’re hitting based on the blood that spurts out, as well as the hit meter.
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This can be a confusing fight, but if you keep your guard up when you’re unsure of Perseus’ location, you should be able to avoid most of the unnecessary damage. Feel free to pop your Rage and spam out some combos if you just want to wear him down quickly.
Unfortunately, moving past this phase will require you to hit an O-prompt above Perseus’ head. Normally that wouldn’t be too bad, but the prompt here only lasts for a couple of seconds; if you miss it, you’ll have to resume damaging him until it shows up again. Again, try just tapping out a couple of normal attacks if you find yourself consistently missing this prompt, and wait until you know he’s close to you before attacking him. Launching supercombos will usually result in the prompt coming and going while you’re in mid-combo and thus can’t react to it. Stick with simple attacks, stay close, and keep on trying; eventually you’ll get to grapple Perseus and smash his helmet.
Phase Two
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Without his helmet, Perseus is visible to you. He’ll attack in much the same way as he did in the first phase, here, save that his sling attack will now send out multiple bullets in an arc. In addition, he can occasionally blind you by holding his shield up to the sun. You’ll need to move your left analog stick left and right to break out of the stun that results; start doing it as soon as you see the screen go white, and you’ll almost always be free by the time his attack lands, letting you put your guard up.
This is a good time to pop your Rage, assuming you didn’t do so in the first phase of the fight. There’s nothing super complicated here; just keep your guard up while landing blows to Perseus as best you can. Eventually another O-prompt will appear, allowing you to grab Perseus’ sword and break it, thus mostly ending the threat that he poses to you.
Phase Three
At this point, without a helmet or a sword, Perseus is greatly weakened. He’ll still attack you with shield bashes and sling attacks, but he won’t be able to do much damage to you. Just keep mashing out your square button attacks, and try to maneuver him to the north side of the arena, making a special point of attacking him when he’s near the walls. Eventually he’ll move to the center of the northern wall and stick there, so redouble your attacks on him and wait for an O-prompt. When it comes, hit the first button to slam his head into the wall, then start waggling your left analog stick when his head is underwater. As soon as the stick icon disappears from the corner of your screen, though, get your thumbs back over the face buttons and get ready for one last button press. Hitting it correctly will kill Perseus and let you return to the atrium below you.
Moving On
Now that you have Perseus’ Shield, you can affix it to the statue that you kicked to the ground here earlier. With that done, push the statue onto the small platform in the middle of this atrium; there’s a little slot where it’ll fit into. After it’s been inserted, raise the platform it’s on with the lever nearby. You should see it start to reflect the beam of light back into the eye of the statue that’s emitting it. If so, then you’re halfway there!
When the platform is raised, and one of the beams is reflected, let go of the lever and quickly jump onto the stone and hop up the ladder. You need to get in front of the second beam of light and hit the L1 button to reflect it with your fleece before the platform drops and you have to repeat the movement. If you can get into position before the platform drops, though, the shield nearby will drop, allowing you to move on.
