A few points I would like to address:

1) God of War on difficulty "Give Me God of War" is a very challenging, sometimes frankly frustrating, filtering game. This difficulty level is open from the very beginning of the game, by the way. No stupid gatekeeping. XVI is just not comparable to God of War 2018 in terms of difficulty and balance. The height is simply unattainable for XVI. QTE in GoW for me was a time to rest a little and catch my breath from the literal bloodbath, QTE in XVI is a time to take a nap.
2) Vanille is the best.
3) Lightning is the Purest Rose.