Well I'm not a pro at hack & slash games but I remember specially the first two GoW as pretty hard on normal. Ascension is by far the easiest one, even the Trial was no problem. Seriously I died like 3 times on combat, 1 of them was the Trials.

This is why I'm really surprised. I even remember people claiming that GoW 3 was too easy on normal and I can say I needed several tries at almost every boss and died like 20 during combat, at least.

The way i did wa shold block to block their attacks then press square till tehy about hit you so you an block again. repeat that through out teh stage. you can use magic for that stage . i used the lightning one which was very useful and kills them quick.  You only need ot dogdge when teh siresn cast that unblocakble AOE stun spell ands sometimes for the meudsa swoop when you press sqaure a bit to much. This tactic made it a breeze to past the trials. you only hav eot worry for teh first level adn the first wave on the second levels. After that its pretty easy to do .  Thats only challenging beat in the game because its cheap and because you the combat  skills you have iis limtied and yo are tsuck in a small space. Good luck and let me knwo if you do manage to beat it.

This could be difficult for if you haven't acquired all the health upgrades and magic by then. It poses more challenge. Your avatar shows your current state of mind.

But still you can beat the trial. Use the slow down, clone Kratos and fire blades to beat medusas in the first wave. You must try to save your magic until the sirens. Use hades/zeus blades and magic to get the sirens.
Second level is simply more of slow down/clone Kratos and timed combos. Carefully stay away from the spraying fire to avoid losing health.
Third level is the easiest. You simply need to be at a spot diagonally opposite ready to dodge spear charges from the Centaur boss. Continue this till you have him stunned for execution. The last remaining enemies that throw projectiles can be easily attacked if you follow the usual combos with the blades. It becomes easier if you have a magic bar spare to use. Zeus's magic or Hades can be truly effective.
(Applies for both Normal and Hard)
EDIT: This walkthru was done for pre-patched version but should work none the less . I haven't patched yet. Currently playing on titan mode.

I was completely stuck the first time round that was because I only had 2 magic bars and 4/5 health. I started the game again, got all the gorgon eyes and Phoenix feathers and fully upgraded kratos and it was easy. Managed to do it first time. For the first part use the fire blades for regular attacks but always use your electricity for magic. It has the most power and range and can knock the electric bitches out of the arena. Also whenever you have the stone, freeze your enemies and use shadow kratos to tear shit up.

And use your magic straight away on the first 2 snakes.

the patch was already released. did you install it?

Bayonetta was a joke in all difficulties for me. GOW3 in Chaos Mode on the other hand, called me a little bitch several times before beating it. Devil May Cry does get  a little complicated as well in Dante Most Die (was it the name???). 

I need to play this game.

As I said I guess at these types of games I'm averagely skilled at best. I feel like GoW is the least skill based (or dumbed down) game compared to Bayonetta or DmC. Bayonetta was quite a challenge for me on normal, haven't tried on hard.

I almost feel overwhelmed by the amount of combos you can use and its fast pacing. GoW's gameplay is slower and has a couple of combos you repeat all the time. Timing is less important and the right tactic is the key to win, not your gaming skill.

Well if you can't get past the first wave...
Look they patched it to give you chests at every level now so just use all your magic with lightning equipped on them. The Gorgons give you magic for another attack when you kill them so you'll get to do 5 or 6 magic attacks and then just dodge, parry, and slam until you win they should be pretty low on health. I did this before the patch and the key to future waves is that the enemies can't break your block so you just have to hold it down until they give you a pause in attacks and then get a couple quick jabs in, but nothing that you can't go right back to block at a second's notice. Just hit square twice when they stop is what I did, but yeah just spam magic and you'll get the gorgons fairly easily I think.

I was so worried about these trials when I heard so many reviewers talking about it. When I played it and beat it (on the first try mind you) I was shocked to learn that's what was giving them so much trouble. I'm 30 years old, and usually I'm the "Old Guy" that can't react as fast and keep up with everyone else. But this really wasn't a problem. If you kill enemies in their specific ways, it yields life and or magic. Didn't need chests to refill, as this did it a few times through the trials.

Bayonetta is extremely easy for me because you only need to get the timing and hit the shoulder button and no matter where you are you evade, plus slow things down with Witch Time which makes things even easier. There is a difficulty beyonf Hard, Climax (i think) you need to beat it to get the platinum. It was pretty much the same thing for me in any difficulty, the only difference the difficulty made was to put the enemies to attack you more and look for you immediately, which made things even more fast to finish.

God of War is anything but dumped down. Alongside DMC and on the contrary to Bayonetta, you need not only to pay attention to the timing to evade but also to choose where you go to with your evasion. I could evade attacks in Bayonetta by just standing, if you evade in DMC or GOW you need to move away from the range of the attack and if you choose incorrectly where you move to, you still get attacked.

Easier levels will make things easier in all games, maybe easier levels of GOW may make things easier for gamers with the resistance of the character and attacking pattern of enemies, I honestly never got the chance to compare easier diffuculties, but when it comes to the higher difficulties GOW is the hardest game for me, excluding Onimusha and that difficulty where you only kill enemies by doing that critical strike, whatever you call it. At least from the ones I've got to play until now.