Hardest games you ever played

[rocklobster]

The way some programmers are, you might think they're closet sadists. What are some of the hardest games you ever played? Here are some of mine. (NOte: the game must be enjoyable despite its difficulty)
Super Mario 3
Mega Man 2-4 and 6
Super Smash Bros Brawl's Subspace Emissary (even on Easy, it's challenging!)
Final Fantasy X (I didn't finish it, mostly because my PS2 stopped working properly. But even without that, I was still having trouble.

[ADXC]

Well yeah of course I know that these aren't the hardest games ever, but they are hard for me!

Fire Emblem series
Valkria Chronicles
Dragon Quest VIII(Wow, you had to level your characters up a lot so that you could take down a few select bosses.)
Baten Kaitos
FFX(Ok so I didn't finish this one either. I liked it, but I got stuck at one in the end part of the game and I can't really get past it.


I don't have much trouble with Real-Time battle, but those turn-based battles are where you have to think.

[Sanderson]

Ghosts 'n Goblins
Ninja Gaiden
F-Zero GX
Battletoads
Devil May Cry 3

[ich1990]

Those on this thread certainly count:

http://www.christiananime.net/showthread.php?t=46212&highlight=hardest+game

Otherwise, Battletoads. I haven't played it in a while though....

[ADXC]

Oh yeah, Id rather not think about those games...

[Jingo Jaden]

Fighting mania - Demands strenght, speed and endurance on the higher levels. Fun arcade game.

Linus Spacehead - My 1# rated worst game of all time. It is so broken it's nearly unplayable, I DARE you to try it. It was so broken that I just had to finish it, which I did.

Those made to be impossible j-games.

Pluss a number of broken games.....

[ShiroiHikari]

The original Megaman series. Those games are crazy.

[Solid Ronin]

King of Fighters 98'.

I drill the first two teams. Then comes the Japan team and everything is over. Drill the next three teams, then enter the Super boss Team... only way I won was tming them out.

Then enter The Boss Boss. ... Lucky My Athena was there to bail be out.

[Fish and Chips]

Bunny Must Die. Combining precision platforming with sensitive controls does not leave me in the best of moods. Downgraded from Evil to simply Cruel because of the healthy dose of easily accessible save points in areas where death is immanent, which is everywhere.

[oro!]

Final Fantasy X didn't seem that hard to me... of course I leveled up like crazy and used a guide, so that probably had something to do with it.

Myst was hard. I hardly started it.

The campaigns on Age of Empires II were hard; I don't think I completed a one of the empires.

I guess I steer clear of difficult games, or don't remember many...

[uc pseudonym]

Someone has already posted a link to the previous difficult games thread, so I'll be brief.

In terms of actually completing, Battletoads is the most difficult game I've played. However, if it allowed saving, then the actual difficulty would be less than a game like I Wanna Be the Guy. I think difficulty should be based on the challenge of individual segments, not on requirements like beating the game in a single sitting.

I find it a bit odd that people are listing FFX here. Thanks to the nature of the Sphere Grid, you can get by with extremely little leveling. Beating the Monster Arena is hard, but that's a different story altogether.

[Fish and Chips]

Not sure we should use bonus levels or secret bosses in our difficulty estimations, since they tend to be deliberatelly harder than the rest of the game, only there to say "I beat Ballos" at fancy dinner parties.

Probably shouldn't count side quests or minigames either.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Right now? Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. Why? It keeps crashing every five minutes!!

[Nate]

I find it a bit odd that people are listing FFX here.

Same...I didn't find FFX hard in the least. It was actually a cakewalk, except the bonus dungeon (I would die quite often there), but again, bonus content shouldn't really be included in difficulty assessments.

The only storyline boss I remember everyone saying they have problems with is Yunalesca but...I beat her my first try.

[MasterDias]

Yeah, I wouldn't consider Final Fantasy X very hard. A few tricky bosses, but that's about par for the course of RPGs. Ditto for any RPG like Dragon Quest that can be overcome by just a bunch of leveling.

SRPGs are harder generally. I had difficulties with Fire Emblem originally. But, I've become so used to it, the subsequent Fire Emblem games didn't cause me very much trouble.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

The only boss I had any troubles in FFX with was the freaking Dragon of Bevel! I kicked butt and took names on everything until that jerkface showed up, and then I couldn't level up to beat this guy. Everything else I wiped the walls with. Everything. Else.

[ADXC]

Well I beat Dragon Quest VIII, Im just saying that sometimes you had to think outside of the box with your attacks to win boss fights at times. Did you play the extra thing after at the end with those dragons?

Well, I was underleveled in FFX and I wasn't able to go back and level up so that's kinda why I had trouble with it. And I didn't have a strategy guide for it either.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Oh, no no no. The above was actually about FFX. Nah, I kicked DQ8's butt this way and that! Loved that game! Including the part at the end.

[Raiden no Kishi]

I think Ikaruga is the hardest game I've ever played. Certainly the hardest game I own.

.rai//

[Gabriel 9.0]

Ninja Gaiden
G.I. Joe the Atlantis Factor which should be remade along with the first NES G.I. Joe and the G.I. Joe arcade games after the new G.I. Joe video game comes out that is.

Contra Hard Corps

Halo and Halo 2 on Legendary mode

Gears of War on Insane mode

Resident Evil 4 on Professional mode when you barely have a arsenal to fend yourself with.

The first Super Mario Brothers

Certain bosses in Final Fantasy 8

[Peanut]

I think Ikaruga is the hardest game I've ever played. Certainly the hardest game I own.

.rai//

I second this based on the fact that I've only seen people beat the game when they had unlimited continues.

[Tommy]

Final Fantasy X?
That game was quite easy.
I second Nate on the Yunalesca comment, except I beat her on my third try.

I remember I could never beat Xenosaga Ep.1, but I think that was because the disk was scratched or something. I forget. :p

[Peanut]

Two more I thought of, Timesplitters 2 and Jet Force Gemini.

Edit: Also there is Viewtiful Joe...

[KagayakiWashi]

Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japanese NES version)
Contra
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda II
Gumshoe
Megaman (NES games)
Castlevania
Metroid
Sin and Punishment

[Tarnish]

Discworld was so random and incoherent that I found it impossible to play without a guide. And there's a dead end pretty late in the game, which is just plain cheap.

Oh oh oh, and Riven. Freaking Riven.

Everybody I know makes fun of me for it, but that game was just too hard for me. I didn't really have a ton of trouble, up until the spinning-ball-thingy-placermajigger-board. The notes and miles of backtracking got really tedious.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Final Fantasy X?
That game was quite easy.
I second Nate on the Yunalesca comment, except I beat her on my third try.

I remember I could never beat Xenosaga Ep.1, but I think that was because the disk was scratched or something. I forget. :p

I was doing good until I reached the last dungeon. There was a point there where every enemy you encountered was a crew of three guys that would each use a flame thrower attack that dealt 3k damage to every character in your party. All three of these guys would go in a row. 9k damage. Whole party. I gave up.

[Doubleshadow]

Since I get to do my gaming only when I visit my folks, I'm pretty bad at everything until about three hours in and I get my groove back; on that note, the LotR game. I couldn't get past Moria, which was what, stage 2?

[uc pseudonym]

SRPGs are harder generally. I had difficulties with Fire Emblem originally. But, I've become so used to it, the subsequent Fire Emblem games didn't cause me very much trouble.

Incidentally, I've just begun playing Fire Emblem (Sacred Stones). I'm not sure how difficult it is in the sense of losing... because I've never been willing to let a party member die. Characters are so fragile that it only takes a minor error (or a boss with a surprising secondary weapon) to get someone killed. But after a while I got used to enemy ranges and such and I haven't had to restart a level in a little while, so I think I've got the system down.

[quote="Doubleshadow"]Since I get to do my gaming only when I visit my folks, I'm pretty bad at everything until about three hours in and I get my groove back]
Which LotR game? Some of the action-rpg ones have actually been a bit rough.

[MasterDias]

Incidentally, I've just begun playing Fire Emblem (Sacred Stones). I'm not sure how difficult it is in the sense of losing... because I've never been willing to let a party member die. Characters are so fragile that it only takes a minor error (or a boss with a surprising secondary weapon) to get someone killed. But after a while I got used to enemy ranges and such and I haven't had to restart a level in a little while, so I think I've got the system down.

Sacred Stones is actually probably the easiest of the Fire Emblems that were released stateside. The designers were attempting to make it accessible to new fans of the series, I think.
But overall, if you keep an eye on enemy ranges each round, and memorize each unit's strengths and weaknesses(ex: never leave a pegasus knight in an archer's range) and take advantage of them, the games do become easier, although still a decent challenge.

Final Fantasy Tactics was a fairly challenging game as well.

[Fish and Chips]

The Oddworld games were also pretty challenging, considering they subscribe to the One Hit You're Dead school of level design. Between the heavily armed enemies and death traps and secret rooms you'd never know were there if you didn't have someone tell you, you have to ensure the survival of no less than half your Lemming Mentality buddies, some of whom are blind, or tempermental. Thank God for saving your game, or the margin of error would be razor thin.

Some people have claimed to have beaten Oddysee and Exoddus with no deaths, no retries, and saving everyone. I think they're lying, but maybe I just can't concieve of anyone with that level of commitment to mastering a game.