Game difficulties in general

[SuperSabin]

I hear a lot of people complain about how hard Demon Souls and Dark Souls is and the difficulties about the game are exaggerated on sites like memebase and other such sources. When I go back and play games of the older gen, I personally find games back in the Atari, NES, SNES, and Genesis era much more difficult than people make Demon Souls/ /Dark Souls/Dark Souls II out to be, for example, my friend and I went and played Super Empires Strike Back for the SNES and the first level was very far from being a basic first level. The following levels after it left very little room for being able to make progress because there are so many enemies coming at you, there are icicles randomly popping up out of the ground, there are deep spike pits that are easy to end up falling into if you're not careful.

What games do you, personally, find very challenging? also do you think modern games like Dark Souls and Dark Souls II are harder than games of the past?

Also I hope this topic doesn't already exist. EDIT: looked at the GG forum to see if there was one like it, looks like i'm in the clear, if there is a similar topic already existing, just let me know mods.

[Boxman]

Wish I could afford Dark Souls 2. Loved DS, mostly because it felt like an actually challenging and more deep version of Zelda. Skyward Sword has slightly similar mechanics, but doing a 6 heart hero mode run was still easier than it should have been.

Games can still be tough today, just much harder to find and you've got to think of what challenging means. I liked Adventure of Link and Super Mario Bros., but others felt more broken than difficult. Nowadays you've got difficulty settings to ensure that even the bad players will become fans.

Personally I think it may come down to Metroid, Super Mario 64, and Metal Gear Solid 2 for me as far as hardest games go. MGS2 is great but sometimes I feel the fixed camera angles do nothing but screw you over. SM64 is fun, too, but lacks polish - the camera once again isn't great, especially in later levels which are 99% bottomless pits, and Mario seems extremely slippery. Have absolutely nothing good to say about Metroid,

[Crescent]

Cant speak for Dark souls. Never played it.

Personally I think it may come down to Metroid, Super Mario 64, and Metal Gear Solid 2 for me as far as hardest games go.

...............My jaw literally dropped reading that.

If I were asked to roll off some of the easiest games that Ive played, those 3 games wouldve been my first to namedrop!!XD But Im not sure which Metroid game you are referring to.. I was just quick to assume you meant Super Metroid or Metroid Prime ^^'''

Out of all the MGS games that Ive had the pleasure of playing ie 1-4, Sons Of Liberty still stands as one of the easiest MGS titles for me its one of my favourites too ^^. After my first playthrough on normal mode, I decided to complete it on extreme mode -20 Metal Gear Rays as opposed to 7 Metal gear rays on normal mode = T__T You still fight 3 at a time tho just takes a while. I had a nap after lol

The hardest games that I have ever played have been on the SNES,PS2 mostly, one on the XBox and one released as recently as last year on PS3 but not exclusively: -

-Ninja Gaiden Remember being so impressed with the original 3D Ninja Gaiden- my first NG experience. One of the best combat systems Id ever played, but was tough for me to master..not only that any single encounter can kill u. Even at high levels of Ninja Gaiden, there is absolutely no button mashing going on if you're any good at the game believe me I tried A great NG player knows when to do combos, when to block, when to dodge, etc like my brother. If you're mashing buttons in Ninja Gaiden, there's a 99% chance you're just not good at the game. I went back n finished this game after I finished Ninja gaiden 2 i felt so much more confident V^.^V
-Ninja Gaiden 2 Taking what I knew from the first even on easy was like a living hell. Second mission boss Genshin drove me crazy. I couldn't even blink and he already kills me. The hts you take from bosses may as well have been instakills. I rage quit a few times And thats why I felt so proud accomplished once I finished the game./ With Ninja Gaiden(n other hacknslash titles ive listed)...you have to learn combos, timing, enemy tells, each weapons' strengths and weaknesses, boss battles, dodging, overall movement on the battlefield...there's just so much to learn, so much to master, so much to practice. If you want to master the game, it takes a good amount of practice, patience, study, and most importantly...skill hehe just as if it were the real thing! But play any Ninja Gaiden in Master and you'll not even be able to get past the first stage. I want to play all the NG games again because I have Yaiba NG Z sittin on my desk maybe im a lil rusty ^^
-Devil May Cry 3 (One of the most challenging and rewarding action-adventure games I've ever played. I always tried executing SSS combos all the time (unlike that reboot crap press 2 buttons-SSS!!!) because Dante and Vergil(SE) would expect no less. Im sure theyd both appreciate that sentiment<3<3<3 Dante Must Die was the absolute pinnacle and the ultimate test for me since I spent a generous amount of time beating the previous modes and getting at least a decent set of skills and a feel for the game... but then, this was just... rawr. Man, was it hard. Even with my Ninja Gaiden experience.
-Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (Limited continues, no saves, no passwords and level designs that fed off the tears of small children, i LOVE this game! Pure fun. PLaying Co-op is hella fun too..until u reach turbo tunnel. Much Higher chance of progressing thru that stage smoother if u just play alone..which is what will happen anyway when your crappy partner eventually loses all their lives >XD)
-Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Once you get parrying under control its all good from there imo. If you don't at least master the basics of parrying you can only go so far. Out of all the bosses, Monsoon was my favourite)
-Zombies ate my Neighbours (so much juicy co-op fun but once u find urself in the later stages its already too late. Youve only just realised that u had to accumulate as many items as u could throughout each stage(theres 40-something stages) n ration ammo..And I thought I could go all out with the weedcutter and use up all my '?' potions...And keys can u believe frkn keys)

Honourable mention - Einhander on PS1 One of the best space shooters ever made. The gameplay was fun, frantic, and the music was kick ass. Dnt get me started on that ost *___*

There have been moments in some games that have frustrated me alot but on the whole they were nothing compared to the entirety of the games listed. They may be the hardest games Ive ever played but they're the games I go back to and replay the most esp DMC3-one of my favourite games of all time- Ive finished it and with Vergil on SE about 7 times now, once almost every year since the original DMC3 release. It isnt enough that I listen to Devils Never Cry everyday too hehe ..Battletoads is still just as fun today as it was when it first came out wth my brothers n sisters back in the 90s.

[loaf]

Depends on the difficulty...the game.

Devil May Cry 3 for the PS2? Original release? Normal Mode? THAT SHIT WAS HARD AS HELL

Common joke was...

Did Capcom even Test out DMC3 or did they just make a game and released it without knowing how hard it really was. I beat it still.

Have you tried European Extreme on Metal Gear Solid 2? Those damn guards see you across the room and stay tranquillized for like 1 minute.

Sabin did you play any of the Dark Souls games? Play it before you say it's exaggerated on the difficulty.

[Xanatos]

Older games had to be more challenging to counter otherwise short length, words of Shigeru Miyamoto himself I believe. I find most older games I played to be difficult in a cheap irritating way, Contra 3 The Alien Wars would be my prime example.

Out of the newer ones Dragon Age: Origins comes to mind, rather challenging even on lower difficulty, though rewarding as ever.

[SuperSabin]

Sabin did you play any of the Dark Souls games? Play it before you say it's exaggerated on the difficulty.

I actually have not, which brought me to say I hear a lot about how hard people make that game out to be. I was pretty frustrated with Super Empires Strikes Back which was why I decided to start the topic. I'm sure Dark Souls is hard, just not in the way people hype it up to be.

[loaf]

Imagine trying to kill the same 3 Skeletons for over an hour because they just always get you. I've seen and heard and personally spend a lot of time on something Gypsy Elder does in 2 seconds ez no problem im pro mode.

[Rowan]

Pretty sure the most difficult game of all time is Tomb Raider III.

[Crescent]

Pretty sure the most difficult game of all time is Tomb Raider III.

*______* I totally forgot bout that game! Its my favourite one in the series!!! :D Yeah Tomb raider was a difficult game in retrospect. TRIII was more challenging than the first two games but I felt it kept the atmosphere of the original. Its just the fact that it was hard in a good way, exactly how one should feel if they were an archeologist travelling the world, exploring expansive, boobytrapped ruins in search of mythical artefacts, jumping n hanging off the edge of cliffs, shimming, running from tigers, swimming in pirahna infested waters XD those piranhas didnt really scare me tho soo 2D XD only when I saw da red i was like oh s*** Bt yeah just difficult level designs, traps everywhere and very few indications. My palms were literally sweating tryng to tap that directional pad ever so softly, so as not fall to my rocky death. I got lost many times on those huge levels with no hints or guidance whatsoever and kept trying for weeks till I finally beat the game. I remember I struggled to find my way out of the Croft Mansion XD which has it's own hidden areas, secrets and training courses. I spent hours in that house got so carried away trying to complete all the circuits before i ever actually ventured into the world. I locked that butler in the freezer mofo kept creeping up on me while im tryin to train esp in the indoor circuit.

[Boxman]

I meant the first Metroid for the NES. It's extremely buggy and it just feels really cheap. Loved Super and the Prime Trilogy though.

Not sure why I have so much trouble with MGS2, I guess it's just way too fast paced and relies heavily on very precise movements and aiming and etc. I play 3, 4, and Peace Walker a lot more, which all seem slower and more forgiving, plus no longer having the fixed camera. Have been able to play Ground Zeroes and wish the AI were more like MGS2 where they go over rooms entirely, because now it feels way too easy to hide. They'll see me go up on a roof or some other closed off area and often give up as long as I'm idle.

Did fight the Rays on normal a while ago and not interested in going any higher. It's unfortunate as I've spent a lot of time trying to get all the dog tags.

[loaf]

Try fighting the Rays on Extreme.

It's fun.

Edit: NOT

[Boxman]

No thanks. Something tells me I wouldn't make it past the tanker. Might try extreme on 4 someday but want to save up points to get the cheap stealth camo and bandana first and they probably won't carry over anyway.

Got EDF2025 in the mail today. Wonder how hard inferno is.

[Crescent]

It was ok u jus need to get into the flow of it. Shoot their knee to stun em then headshot em, until one of them jumps forward to fight you on the platform. Obv keep an ear out for the beeping sound to dodge those annoying airborne missiles I didnt have to flip to dodge them,just kept moving in a single direction XD When the ray sets down its foot for a second time, aim the Stinger at their knee and fire, even if there is no lock on. It will stagger again, then shoot the head. Just repeat that process oh n keep dem chaff grenades on hand T_T that face was for my fingers they got pretty stiff during the 25-30mins I was taking all those suckers down. I only played on it extreme cause I didnt feel it was challenging enough on normal n the gameplay was really fun I like teasing the guards teehee

[Kurt Zisa]

The first Metal Gear (not MGS) is probably one of the most difficult games that I've played. That's due to the fact you get virtually no guidance, other than one-time only codec calls or advice from prisoners that you've rescued. You're in a big building too, and all the floors look the same. If you die you get sent way back so you lose like half an hour of progress. It's the second game in the series (the first was Portable Ops) that I've just given up on entirely.

I don't think I've had much trouble with the rest of the series though. Metal Gear 2 was a little less vague about what your next objective was and MGS1, 2, and 3 are atcually a lot more fun the higher the difficulty.

EDIT: Portal and Portal 2 can be quite challenging towards the end. It's like "try and find that tiny portalable area that's way off into the distance while we try to distract you with all this moving machinery and hazards." It's very satisfying when you manage to solve it though.

[ezio69]

For different reasons, SH1 scared me a lot as a kid but even when I was older and played SH3 in 2003, I was so scared I couldn't muster up the courage to finish the game!

The Metal Gear series is indeed a challenging lot of games. I have only played 1 to 3 and MGS2 was the most challenging for me and that was just on normal mode. im very impressed you could handle MGS2 on Extreme and you even finished it Damn your better than most of the guys I know that struggle with stealth gameplay let alone the often VERY challenging gameplay of Hack & Slash titles

[DragonHeart]

Out of the newer ones Dragon Age: Origins comes to mind, rather challenging even on lower difficulty, though rewarding as ever.

What made Dragon Age: Origins difficult for me was that the game is set up with a non-linear progression but what it doesn't tell you is that each area still has level caps. If you follow say, the most popular GameFAQs walkthrough, you end up in Denerim several levels too low. I thought I was just absolutely terrible at the game until I stumbled across a list of the level caps for each area. I went in that order and surprise surprise, it suddenly got a lot easier. I also had to fix my party gambits to not be stupid. So it wasn't entirely my fault. Never did finish the game...I should do that one of these days.

[loaf]

I raged on Dark Souls, 2 months ago, **** that game. I just didn't want to sit there and do it.

[Rowan]

Tekken online. Sorry, but this new 'juggling' concept sucks the fun right out of the game. At least it takes skill though, I played dead or alive and pressed a button and did a 5 hit combo. So stupid.

[loaf]

If we are throwing Online or Competitive play then I'll throw Super Smash Bros Melee competitive scene. It's crazy, the moment you think you are good, you face someone who competes in local or state tournaments monthly...they just wipe the floor with you, you're lucky to even get 1 stock off of them.

[Heartless Angel]

That's true of most any fighting game. There's casual good, and then there's tourney tard good. Against other casual players in SSM/SSB, even really good casual players, most of the time I can pull wins without taking taking a hit, but when it comes to tourney tards, I'm only mid-pack. First time I played a really good player in Soul Calibur was eye opening. That match lasted less than ten seconds. I knocked him to the edge on my first attack, he guard impacted my second, I guard impacted his guard impact, we played guard impact tennis for about 7 seconds, literally just doing nothing but guard impacting each others guard impact until finally I missed my timing and got thrown out. Every subsequent round was decided entirely by who missed more guard impacts, and all were decided by remaining health when time was out. The skill curve on some of those fighting games is just unreal.