Yeah I played the music box last night. One of the worst levels in the game easily. It's just very tedious going back and forth, and the platforming on those red sections was really annoying. The first level of chapter 10 was really bad too. I actually got stuck there for like 15 minutes, because the camera was positioned poorly and I thought that one path was a dead end, when in fact it lead to the next area. Haven't looked up the answer to any puzzles though. The Frankenstein one wasn't hard at all imo.
I don't get the complaints about this game's combat though. The whip + all of the abilities you get from armor + magic are better than any one of Kratos' weapons. God of War just wins on variety since Kratos gets like 4 weapons compared to Gabriel's one. It doesn't have much depth, but there's enough combo versatility to keep it fun. Enemy patterns are are well designed, and instantblocking someone mid attack and then annihilating them is even better. You are even rewarded for getting through encounters without getting touched (the yellow meter), so that's always a plus.
There are *some* enemies that take a while to kill (like 40 seconds to a minute), like the skeleton warriors or the mountable enemies, but they are hardly the norm. The standard mobs you face take like 10 seconds each to kill if you are using the more powerful attacks, how much faster do you want it to be? Ninja Gaiden 2 style where you can kill nearly anyone in 3 seconds? God of War is far more guilty of damage sponge enemies.
