The Hardest Game

What is the most challenging game you have ever played? What made it challenging? Did you ever overcome the challenge? If you did overcome it was it worth it?

For me the most difficult game I have played would probably be Bangi-o Spirits. The games was actually so difficult I failed some of the TUTORIAL levels. Of course I never overcame the challenge but I would say the game was still fun otherwise. I don't really recall it beng frustrating just really, really hard.

Another tough game I played would have to be Metal Slug Anthology. Kunoric and I managed to beat all the games but we probably used AT LEAST 20 continues each during the play-through. Still can't beat the first game limiting ourselves to 30 credits... As difficult as it is it's still very fun to play and I can see SNK making bug bucks with it at an arcade with how frequently one would have to feed the quarter eater just to see the end...

The hardest game I've ever played would have to be Demon Souls. Maybe I'm just a spoiled brat when it comes to games? Which probably isn't as far from the truth as I would like lol... But the whole "We're going to drop you into this tower with absolutely no idea what you're doing, why you're doing it, or even how to do it" concept really just asks for its players to throw their controllers into the screen. Dark Souls isn't much better, but I still think it improved a bit. With Demon Souls It took me 3 HOURS just to find out how to get myself into the first level. And then the two days after that I repeatedly going into the first level and then promptly being murdered by the boss of the area. No, I never got past the first level. After playing and watching Dark Souls I MIGHT go back to it if I ever got a PS3.... but that's a big maybe. Cuz that was frustrating as hell.

The hardest game I've ever played that wasn't frustrating is Minecraft. Yes, I said Minecraft. Mind you, I play single-player survival with the end-goal of killing the Enderdragon. But even survival wise, this game is pretty damn difficult. I always seem to give my worlds gen-seeds that make diamonds even more rare than they should be, or at least it feels like it. And I also swear the game is specifically programmed to troll you with creeper spawns if you begin to pick up or start carrying diamonds around. So many easy ways to die if you aren't extremely careful...

So when you mentioned Dark Souls I was reminded of a video about it... Short but sweet and rather entertaining.

Edit: I found a YouTube version so here it is embedded.

lolololol, I remember seeing that spell in there too! BUT NOBODY PICKED IT UP. WHY?!

Well, pretty much any PvP game can become ridiculously difficult...

But I'm guessing you mean single player.

In which case, there's lots of different types of difficulty.

Like fake difficulty, I wouldn't consider. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeDifficulty Warning: TV tropes)

SK would be guilty of at least this...
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CameraScrew

Then there's strategy games, like turn based RPGs, some of those can be insane...

Or bullet hell games/ shmups.

Fighting / street fighter type games can be damn well impossible.

Battletoads (And many other "Nintendo Hard" games...) probably deserves it's own category.

Like I say, there's many ways in which a game can be difficult...

So, I'll choose this game as my personal hardest game.

http://tinyurl.com/cuxqa48

emotional difficulty doesn't count silloe, but if it did, i'd give my vote to any heavy mainstream PVP mode game that's simply saturated with either trolls or elitists that really don't respond well to newer or more casual players,especially the ones that allow said elites(or just brats) to kick new players on a whim, not just removing them from the session but puts them back at a main screen; makes it hard to play a game when you can and are ejected through nothing you can help- i imagine it rivals the feeling of being told by other kids on the playground they don't want you to play, only then they pick up the entire field and go somewhere else with it. enraging for anyone, but really hurtful for those feeling "picked last for kickball" syndrome.

as for gameplay, I think that "hard game" should mean the game was intentionally designed to "game over" most players or transform them into the absolute best players around by the end of the game- poor camera control, gameplay control, or something else that simply causes the entirety of the game to be irksome and legitimately "unfair," don't deserve the attention carefully thought out hurdles do; it's the difference between a difficult game, and a game that is difficult to play- case in point, a cheap port deserves nothing but angst.

so I give the hardcore medal to survival games(mine craft included),where you can only be so prepared, and even cheating with walkthroughs won't help a bad player get far.I don't know how demon/dark souls handles defeat, but i'm willing to say it fits in here.

kunoric wrote:....I don't know how demon/dark souls handles defeat, but i'm willing to say it fits in here.

Well, considering you include Minecraft, Demon/Dark Souls fits in for pretty much the same reasons. When you die, you may not lose all of your equipment but you lose all over your valuable souls (which act as currency for both stores and leveling up) and your ever-precious humanity, which are essentially like souls, but instead of acting as currency, they act as a sort of un-undeadification counter. It increases your stats, enemy drop rate, and also allows to you summon other players to help you out (although you can also be invaded in Dark Souls just for having your humanity counter above 0).

Replacing lost souls and humanity is like trying to chew off your hand that's chained to the wall so you can escape your kidnapper. It's possible, but extremely painful, not mention it leaves you permanently crippled. (of course, you can avoid the painful *Blank* Souls grinding process if you can find your bloodstain and activate it before you die again. This tended to be exactly what got me killed the second time though...)

tl;dr version--- In Demon/Dark Souls, this invokes both the Unstable Equilibrium and Continuing is Painful tropes, exactly like how Minecraft does.

Zerahnor wrote:
Well, considering you include Minecraft, Demon/Dark Souls fits in for pretty much the same reasons. When you die, you may not lose all of your equipment but you lose all over your valuable souls (which act as currency for both stores and leveling up) and your ever-precious humanity, which are essentially like souls, but instead of acting as currency, they act as a sort of un-undeadification counter. It increases your stats, enemy drop rate, and also allows to you summon other players to help you out (although you can also be invaded in Dark Souls just for having your humanity counter above 0).

Replacing lost souls and humanity is like trying to chew off your hand that's chained to the wall so you can escape your kidnapper. It's possible, but extremely painful, not mention it leaves you permanently crippled. (of course, you can avoid the painful *Blank* Souls grinding process if you can find your bloodstain and activate it before you die again. This tended to be exactly what got me killed the second time though...)

tl;dr version--- In Demon/Dark Souls, this invokes both the Unstable Equilibrium and Continuing is Painful tropes, exactly like how Minecraft does.

Some of this reminded me of games that require you to restart from your last save when you lose but only gives you one place to save. Like Etrian Odyssey which only allows you to save in town or at a certain point on every few floors (6, 11, 16, 21 and 26) meaning a small mistake can sometimes cause you to lose hours of gameplay. But I wouldn't lable EO as hard so much as I'd say it's "Easy to Fail". Small mistakes mean more than you think and unfortunate encounters with FOEs can cause an otherwise good run to go south in a flash. (Especially when the FOE corners you making escape impossible or when they try to gang up on you or do both at the same time) It's not HARD beating normal encounters is usually easy but the game conspires against you with FOEs to try and make you fail. :L