Games Too Difficult for You to Beat?

[Neb]

I'm surprised I haven't posted on this thread yet.

I haven't beaten the vast majority of older video games I own and/or have played. What I consider older would be before 2001. Games from back then are just harder, lack what are considered quality of life or accessibility features, and have limited save functions. Older JRPGs especially are can be a nightmare. You either have to save in the overworld or in a specific location. This means backtracking through places with random encounters or bracing through to the end of the dungeon where there might be somewhere to save. We really take autosave and save anywhere functions for granted now. Unless the older game in question is somewhat easy and short, I likely I don't have the patience to beat it

As for modern games, I'll give Hades as an example. It's very hard and you lose your progress whenever you get a game over. While I enjoy the game a lot, I get burned out after each run because I don't feel like repeating what I beat right away.

Another recent example is Disco Elysium. The game is a real investment out of the player. There's tons of dialogue to sit through and it doesn't do much to hold the hand of the player. For the most part the game is figured out through the player. In that sense it's almost like a point a click. Unlike that genre though, I don't feel like the answers are obtuse to solve problems.

 

[JKDOS]

The original Metroid for the NES. I'm glad I was able to substitute it with Metroid: Zero Mission.

 

[-Mars-]

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[Belle T]

I agree with you on the Sonic Advance games. I'm trying to beat all the stages with all characters in Advance 1, and I see Sonic being my hardest character. Amy is, in my opinion, the easiest one for the latter stages, especially Casino Paradise and Icicle Mountain (i think that's what that's called).

The Sonic Advance games haven't aged terribly well, in my opinion. The first in particular from what I recall is plagued with frustrating level design choices and the GBA's tiny resolution and aspect ratio make it absolutely impossible to predict the multitude of bottomless pit and inconvenient object placement. They're also just visually not as lively as Mega Drive games, or even the Adventure games before it. They're not bad by any means, but I struggle to fathom how I managed to tolerate these issues on top of the original GBA's non-backlit screen when they were new.

 

[Corrie]

The Sonic Advance games haven't aged terribly well, in my opinion. The first in particular from what I recall is plagued with frustrating level design choices and the GBA's tiny resolution and aspect ratio make it absolutely impossible to predict the multitude of bottomless pit and inconvenient object placement. They're also just visually not as lively as Mega Drive games, or even the Adventure games before it. They're not bad by any means, but I struggle to fathom how I managed to tolerate these issues on top of the original GBA's non-backlit screen when they were new.

I'm glad it wasn't just me being bad. I found myself in bottomless pits often without warning, or at least that I noticed.

 

[Belle T]

I'm glad it wasn't just me being bad. I found myself in bottomless pits often without warning, or at least that I noticed.

It took about ten years for handheld Sonic games to come to the epiphany that shoving in bottomless pits at random and without adequate warning was perhaps not the best design choice. I don't know if that's an issue they ever fully solved, however.

 

[ShinyDungeoneer]

It took about ten years for handheld Sonic games to come to the epiphany that shoving in bottomless pits at random and without adequate warning was perhaps not the best design choice. I don't know if that's an issue they ever fully solved, however.

They solved that problem with Mania, but since that was mainly developed by fans, I'm not sure if SEGA/Sonic Team learned their lesson. I like challenge running Advance 1 with Amy because she is widely considered the hard mode of the game due to her lack of a Spin Jump/Dash. Also, if you want suffering, try Puyo Pop Fever on very hard. That's a NIGHTMARE.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Its Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage. Trying to replay that game is so frustrating. If you lose all your lives you have to start all the way over from the beginning.

 

[ZeldaCrossing64]

Honestly Zelda games in general, but most notably Twilight Princess. I first played it in early 2019 and I'm only in the second-half of the Lakebed Temple, which is the 3rd out of 10 dungeons in the game. And I got really frustrated with the motion controls since I play the Wii version.

 

[Tao]

I don't really struggle with games that often. Most of the games I couldn't finish at all were when I was a kid and have since gone back and absolutely destroyed those levels I struggled on (screw you, Grunty and Bowser!)

The only game I can think of in recent memory where I've not been able to finish it because I just wasn't good enough (as opposed to getting bored) is Sekiro. It was a difficult game to get into anyway but once the parry system "clicked" with me about mid way through I was getting through most difficult encounters within a few attempts, sometimes the first.

Then the last boss happens. Up to that point bosses only had 2 phases at most. This guy had 4. Throw in some attacks with near 1-hit kills, ridiculous range/AoE and attacks with really short windup/almost no telegraphing and I just couldn't do it. I finally got to phase 3 a couple of times before I looked online at how many phases there were and nope'd on out of there upon seeing the bad news. I hear phase 4 is essentially just phase 3 again but harder and honestly, it took me hours to even get to phase 3. I just didn't want to spend any more time on that. It had already taken up 2 nights.

And I was okay with that. Sekiro is by far the hardest of FromSoftware's games and it also feels by far the fairest. You're given most of your toolset at the start of the game and it doesn't really change much, everything is balanced almost entirely around that. I couldn't do it and I felt that it was all on me. I probably could have sat there and eventually done it, but I could also sit there and eventually crack through my skull with a spoon if I tried for long enough.

Fair play, game, you defeated me and I don't feel like it was BS.

 

[Flicky]

When it comes to games that I can't beat, most of the time it's more that I can't be bothered to complete them, especially if they have an obnoxiously long final boss that resets to the beginning when you fail. Those games I could, in theory, learn the pattern of the boss properly, or grind until I'm high level enough to beat it, but usually by that point I'm bored and just watch the final cutscene on the internet.

I've still got a sealed copy of .hack Mutation on the PS2 because I got bored of grinding on Infection, and then I never got around to playing it since it can use the (completed) save data from the first game and I was, once upon a time, dedicated enough to games that I would only opt for 100%.

In terms of games that are genuinely too difficult to beat, I'd say they're all older era games, such as NES and the like. Excluding the times I used an emulator to cheat, Ecco the Dolphin and Jurassic Park (MegaDrive/Genesis) come to mind.

 

[LuchaSloth]

I don't know which, or how many games I would consider "too difficult to beat"...but, I typically don't enjoy playing games on harder difficulties at all. (This is just not something that my system is wired to enjoy). I almost always play games on the "normal" or "standard" settings. I typically don't do well with stealth segments in games (I lack patience). And I really don't care for "bullet hell" style gameplay when there becomes an endless wall of things to avoid.

 

[RemMomori]

I've never beat Super Mario Bros 3 or Super Mario RPG. I've had both games on my wii virtual console for at least 8 years now but I have never beat them. With Mario Bros 3 I would use two warp whistles to skip to world 8 (honestly that might be my problem) and get as far as the first maybe second airship stage before losing all my lives and giving up. As for Super Mario RPG I got stuck on the Yaridovich boss and haven't touched the game since. I was probably in middle school when I got these games off the wii shop.

A newer game I need to go back and finish is Pokemon Legend Arceus. I was around the middle of the story when I just stopped playing one day and never went back. The way progression works in this game is that there are tasks to fill out the pokedex and the pokedex is tied to progression in the game. Whenever I even think about playing this game again I just get to thinking about all the things I need to do and I don't even know where to start. Then I just stop playing again. I do want to go back and finish the main story at least.

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

First I would say Super Mario Bros RPG just because I haven't finished it yet and its kind of hard! The savepoints on Wii U virtual console are what is saving me to continue playing in all honesty. Second I would say Dragon Quest Heroes II. I loved the first Heroes game but it was too short and the final boss was so easy I was expecting it to be like a mini and then real one but nope. Its still one of my favorite games of all time because I still trying to level up all characters to 99 and get EVERYTHING (I have all costumes and my main party lvl 99), but I just love it. The second game is just ok in my opinion, the online is fun though! oops i talked more about dq versus actual hard games :0

 

[Azy]

I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that I could not beat eventually. There were times I’ve been stuck in games for hours and had to try repeatedly but I usually would overcome said obstacle in time.

However, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice might be one of the most rigorously difficult games I’ve ever played and I will be surprised if I can push my way to the end. I haven’t picked it up in a few months because I’ve been distracted but wow, that game is no joke.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I’m having difficulty with Metroid Fusion with the SR-X boss fight. I keep trying what I see in guides and YouTube tutorials but I keep dying and not able to get enough hits in.

 

[sleepydreepy]

I rarely ever come across a game too difficult for me to beat, but I can't to this day beat Dead Cells on 4+ boss cells. You need to beat the game at 5 Boss Cells I think to get the "true ending" or whatever, but I just can't do it. Maybe one day I'll go back to the game and try again but I've given up for now. I also always wanted to beat all the Celeste C sides, but I can't get past chapter 5 (I think it was chapter 5, or maybe 4). Hopefully I'll go back to that game as well.

 

[oath2order]

Luigi's Mansion 3, because of that godforsaken basement vehicle boss.

 

[ObstinateSparrow]

I've been able to beat most games I stick with, but never have I been able to beat Ecco the Dolphin, or it's sequel, the Tides of Time (both for Sega Genesis). I'd love to know if anyone has ever legitimately beaten either one of those games. They're that hard. Come to think about t, a lot of older games are hard. I have quite a few for the Genesis that I have never beaten.

 

[Zane]

I never beat Sonic The Hedgehog 2, or that obscure N64 title Glover. Too hard for little kid me, I’d like to replay Glover sometime and see the rest of it ‘cause it was an interesting game.