YMMV / Blazing Aries

• Demonic Spiders: Bandits are notorious for curb-stomping the heck out of new players if they haven't learned how to counter quickly. Even then, the sword-wielders can sometimes instead throw a grenade that stuns Aries, leaving her vulnerable to an retaliatory action by them. The bow-wielders are less painful to deal with given that Aries can simply jump over them, but their tendency to sometime shoot in close-quarters can throw off some players.
• Goddamned Bats: The Goblins, for some reason, have an unique attack animation: Instead of attacking Aries in front like most enemies, they instead sidestep to attack her from behind. This can heavily throw off even the more skilled players who are accustomed to countering enemies, but then fight them and get their rhythm thrown off-course because of it.
• Goddamned Boss: Carm when possessed by the Black Flame. Sure, he's easier compared to the Gargoyle, but the main gimmick of the fight is that you have to target the Black Pillars around him, which is hard to do since while he has two deadly attacks that can be easy to counter after experience, the main annoyance is sometimes, he'll summon an black orb near Aries' spot, which does damage and has almost no tell beforehand. This can be quite annoying to deal with, since this can cause the fight to pad out for the wrong reasons.
• That One Boss: The eldest of the Bandit Brothers when you rematch him. While the Bandit Brothers were a Wolfpack Mini-Boss, they can be easily cleared with counters and usage of Blaze Arts. The rematch has two of his brothers snipe Aries with arrows while he acts as an King Mook version of an Bandit. Considering his inflated HP and the fact the Brothers can interrupt Aries while she wails down on the eldest of the Bandit Brothers, this makes it incredibly harder than it sounds. To add insult to injury, if you don't have the ability to nullify stun, the eldest Bandit will not hesitate to assault her. Probably because of the sheer difficulty even by the game's standard, the Time Attack doesn't allow you to rematch them. Thank god.
• That One Level: Zalal Ruins. For starters, the entire map is filled with darkness, and the only way to get rid of it by bringing a light that can help Aries see in it. The problem is that the item needed to light up the area is located within the level, and said level is filled with Bandits, who will not hesitate to attack Aries, and while they can be countered given good reflexes, the problem is that due to the darkness, it's hard to predict where they are. Fortunately, the level takes a nosedive in difficulty once that's over with, but good luck trying to find one who isn't disliking this dungeon.
• That One Sidequest: For the reasons above, the Subjugation Quest for Zalal Ruins. Since it involve subjugation of the bandits, it's as painful as you expect. To add insult to injury, you only get to turn in it this quest after you go past a certain point which essentially forbids you from going back to the ruins, and by the time you regain access to it, you have access to better-paying Subjugation Quests. Even the NPC who gives you the quest, Adventurer Warreck, lampshades it!

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