What's the hardest game you've played?

[Sheep]

Let us know. What made you suffer so?

 

[GameBunnyAdvance]

This is kind of hard to answer, because with a lot of games I've only found them hard because I've not known how to play them properly. With most RPGs it's just a case of "grind until you're strong enough to win" and with a lot of action games, you just need to learn attack patterns of enemies, or placement of hazards, and time your movements accordingly. Most puzzles are tricky the first time too, but once you get the solution they're straightforward. I've had a lot of unpleasant, painful experiences, but they've always been only the first time.

In terms of well-designed, balanced gameplay, I think the hardest game I've played so far is probably Ikaruga. I am not particularly good at bullet hell shooters, and even when I revisited it on the Switch when it re-released I went through a lot of pain to finish it despite how short it is. Some of the songs in Project Diva songs are also borderline impossible on higher difficulty settings. How people manage to clear songs like Negaposi*Continue and Sadistic Music Factory above Normal difficulty is beyond me. I have good muscle memory and reflexes, but I think these are more than a little beyond my skill level!

As for games that are hard because of poor game design...Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty comes to mind, although that is probably recency bias. Because this is a thing with Koei Tecmo Soulslike games: they completely miss the point of what makes those games challenging and just amp it up to unfair levels at specific boss choke points for the sake of it. Lu Bu, in that game's case. Everything before, and much of what came after, was significantly easier. It was like going up against Flamelurker in Demon's Souls all over again, right down to the fire theme. Lu Bu was disgustingly unfair.

Part of me wants to say the Xbox 360 version of The Last Remnant though, on the basis of the Curse status effect, which has a 50% chance of killing you every turn...and if your party leader dies, that's the end. A lot of enemies utilise Curse too, and it's incurable. There are a lot of nasty, unfair status effects in that game, but Curse is probably the worst I have ever seen in my thirty-odd years of playing video games. The PC version is slightly more forgiving because if your party leader dies you don't lose the entire team, but it's still absolutely brutal. Dragon Quest II is actually in a similar boat for its aggravating roulette of status effects that can see you sleeplocked and murdered regardless of your level, right up to the end of the game. The random encounter rate certainly doesn't help matters.

 

[Zaronji]

I'm not sure on the name (it's been so long), but I want to say Battletoads. Whatever game it was, I used a game genie code for infinite lives and still couldn't beat the game!

 

[Zeostar]

The easiest answer would be a plethora of NES games. Punch-Out is nearly impossible without the right system and TV due to the slight input delay.

But for a more unique answer: Old Point and Click adventure games without a guide. They go deep into moon logic and without a guide it's super easy to get stuck. (monkey island, grim fandango, manaic mansion).

 

[ソラ]

NES TMNT game. Lion King Sega/SNES was the two hardest games i can remember they're hard.

 

[CoolKid575]

Elden Ring, but I gave up on that game really quickly. The hardest game I've ever beaten was probably EarthBound; that game can kick your butt if you aren't paying attention. 100% completing Super Mario 64 DS was also pretty difficult.

 

[Devalue]

Probably one of those old ASCII art roguelikes (like Angband). Usually died to some nonsense.

 

[Crustan]

Elden Ring, but I gave up on that game really quickly. The hardest game I've ever beaten was probably EarthBound; that game can kick your butt if you aren't paying attention. 100% completing Super Mario 64 DS was also pretty difficult.

SAME! But I stuck around and man oh man was it worth it! No game scratches the itch quite like ER did! It's like a love letter to all the lovers of fantasy genre!

Also Cuphead because f*** that game 😭😭

 

[Janp]

I'm actually having a hard time thinking of some games that were extremely hard for me.

This War of Mine is probably one of them, because I never truly finished a run in it. It completely destroyed me.

Baba is you is probably the hardest puzzle game I've played. Or even one that I'll play. I'm so proud of myself for 100% it.

 

[Setsuna]

It's tough to say! I love 2D run and gun games and people seem to find those difficult, Mega Man and Bass as well as Mega Man X6 were difficult for me but that's partially cause they aren't super well designed. Metroid Fusion was tough, and the extra missions at the end of games like Splatoon 2 and Mario Galaxy 2 were tough.

But I have a 100% save file in Celeste with all the crystal hearts and everything completed, and considering Chapter 9 took me several play sessions to simply complete I'll probably go with that. It was so worth it, though.

 

[ReKoil]

I just straight up gave up on Super Meat Boy and never went back to it =\

 

[Pyrax]

Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne doesn't mess around. Even on Normal I've been KO'd by regular random encounters and lost several minutes of progress. Mind you, story dungeons are easy compared to the Kalpas - invisible walls, chase sequences, poisonous mist, etc. Likewise for story bosses vs the Fiends (the infamous Matador is imo the easiest) and last two Kalpa bosses.