Boss Fight: Persian King

The King here has three main attacks (not counting the bevy of soldiers that will run around the area and distract you). He'll attempt two swings with his sword, which can be blocked or dodge. In addition, he can also set his sword alight for one massive swing, or call upon the power of Efreet to deal damage all around him. Both of these attacks need to be dodged; just dodge away from him and you should be fine.

If you can adapt to the King's attacks, this is a fairly simple fight, as he moves slowly. Feel free to dispatch his soldiers first (they'll respawn for a while, but will eventually stop appearing), then start nickel-and-diming him to death from a distance. All of his attacks are fairly easy to avoid, since the man himself is slow, and the attacks themselves are also relatively slow to come out. Whack away at him until you get to play the minigame; it starts with O-mashing and then asks you to hit three random buttons before you're able to finish him off.

With the King dead, you'll gain his power to summon the Efreet. This is similar to the classic Poseidon's Rage ability, in that it deals damage to all enemies in a circle around you, but at the outset it will only deal one powerful blow to each enemy nearby, preventing you from using it to create huge hit combos.

After trying out the Efreet on the soldiers that come calling, the doors on the north end of the room will open. The right door will lead to the game's sex minigame, which will net you 75 red orbs if you complete it. It's not too difficult to complete, so long as you recognize that tapping the left and right shoulder buttons needs to stop as soon as the icon disappears from your screen. There's one more button press to hit after that.

Fallen Stronghold

After saving your game, move on to the next walkway. There's a ballista here which you need to fire at the Basilisk, but first kill all of the soldiers that come your way. Don't worry about kicking the ladders over; simply kill the soldiers until they stop appearing. You'll get plenty of orbs that way. When they stop appearing, rotate the ballista so that it faces the Basilisk and fire away. (Before firing it at the Basilisk, though, rotate it about to the middle of its movement scheme and fire it at the large building there. You should see it explode.) Hitting the Basilisk will let you open the door nearby to move on.

In the warehouse, avoid the crank for the moment and instead climb the ladder at the back of the room. That will lead to a Red Orb Chest and a chest with a Phoenix Feather inside of it, which will eventually increase your maximum magical abilities.

Heading down the crankshaft will lead you to your first Cyclops attack. Much like the Persian King, these guys are slow, with slow attacks, but their attacks are not blockable, so you'll have to do your best to dodge around while attacking from a distance with your regular attacks. Feel free to use your Efreet to good effect; you're going to get a magic refill from the chest nearby after the fight. Just be careful, as it can be difficult to spot the O-minigame prompt above the enemy's head, since the Cyclops is so tall. It's better to kill it with the minigame as opposed to simply beating it down, as that'll net you more orbs.

Move on past the Cyclops to reach some archers. Kill them and open the Red Orb Chest and the other chest to find a Gorgon Eye.

Siege of Attica

Head up the wall near the save point here and start killing the soldiers. Clear out everyone in the area to find a Red Orb Chest and a Phoenix Feather. There's another Gorgon Eye in the building here; if you fired the ballista at it earlier, it should be accessible. Otherwise it will be impossible to reach.

Move on by smashing the gate at the end of the walkway and using the lever there to descend into the market. Smash everything to gain orbs; there's also a Red Orb Chest nearby. You can then move on to the next stage of the market area, which is much larger. Move off to the right to find three more Red Orb Chests and plenty of soldiers. Get your combo meter up on them and use the grab move to finish them off for maximum orbs.

To move on from this area, you'll need to put pressure on two pressure plates. There's a movable box near the bottom of the screen that you'll have to move down to see; grab it and put it on the first pressure plate, then grab the dead body nearby and use it on the second plate to move on.

The Basilisk Strikes

The tunnel here will have health, mana, and a save point. You know what's coming up next! You can also find another Phoenix Feather here.

Boss Fight: Basilisk

The Basilisk here is going to be somewhat similar to his first form, but will have more powerful attacks. You'll still be able to glean some health orbs from him by hitting him often enough, but you'll want to beat him as quickly as possible regardless.

Phase One

By default, the Basilisk will face you on the ground, face to face. He will use his typical mouth attack here, which hits twice and is blockable. He will also sometimes lash out with one of his claws, which smashes Kratos into the ground and which cannot be blocked; attempt to dodge this.

If you hit the Basilisk in the face enough (using simple combos will give you enough time to block his attacks when you see them coming), you'll push the Basilisk backwards, resulting in a flood of orbs. If you don't attack quickly enough, however, the Basilisk will push forward, eventually pushing you off of the bridge. You need to balance the need to block its attacks versus the need to be vicious. On the normal difficulty setting, you can be pretty balls-out with your attacks without worrying too much; the incoming attacks won't deal a huge amount of damage. You can either use the default attack combos or the upgraded L+Square combos if you've upgraded your Blades of Chaos.

When you do manage to knock the Basilisk backwards, it will always follow up with a flaming breath attack that will sweep across the stage. Jump over this attack and use an aerial attack of your own to deal damage while the monster is distracted.

Phase Two/Minigame

After you beat the Basilisk backwards a bit, it will retreat atop a wall and start shooting fireballs at you. Use the dodging mechanic to avoid these fireballs and attempt to get up close and personal with the creature's foot, where you can start the minigame. It's not lengthy at this point; you just have to rotate the analog stick in one direction or another. Unfortunately, this can be frustrating, as attempting to rotate too quickly will cause you to fail, as of course will rotating too slowly. Keep it at a steady pace and hope that you don't mysteriously start going backwards as you rotate. It's frustrating, but eventually you'll nail it and succeed at pulling the creature down off the wall.

Phase One Repeat

This is the same as the earlier phase, but at the end of it, the Basilisk will attempt to crunch you with its jaws. Alternate between tapping on L and R to move on.

Phase Two Repeat

Another race for the foot and the minigame. This time you'll be rotating in the opposite direction.

Phase One Repeat

The Basilisk will attack more quickly in this final phase, but eventually you'll get the minigame indicator under his neck. A few button presses and an O-mashfest and you'll be ready to move on.