Be it a game that’s difficult in its entirety, or a particular challenge in a game that you just couldn’t complete.
For me, there are three that come to mind:
- Super Hostile: Waking Up (Minecraft Custom Map, Hard difficulty). That damn water section…
- Terraria Zenith Mode. Coming from someone to whom Master Mode is fairly easy, this was rough.
- Calamity Death Mode (Terraria). I beat DoG (this was back when a headshot was an automatic death), but I just could not click with the Yharim fight. I also think burnout was at play here because that was a LONG playthrough.
Hollow Knight. I love that game but I am in my mid 40s and my reaction time isn’t what it used to be. And it’s not even the bosses. I just can’t make it past the spike section where you have to air-dash all over the place and can’t be a millimeter off or you die.
In the fighting game scene, reaction time is studied, and the 40+ year olds can hang with the kids at the highest level. Your reaction time is a function of your focus. If you put your mind to it, yadda yadda yadda. Then it’s just up to you to decide if it’s worth sticking to it or getting to bed so you’re well-rested for work in the morning, because that’s what will separate you from beating Hollow Knight in your 40s.
I’ve just moved on to other games. I have a wife and a small kid. I can’t afford to spend hours and hours stuck on a game.
Right, that’s my point. Those things are keeping you from finishing the game, not your reaction times. Those tend to not drop off until far later in life.
I’m guessing you’re talking about the White Palace. It’s required for the “true” ending but you can reach the credits without it. It’s worth watching mossbag’s lore videos on YouTube whether you beat the game or not.
I don’t think so. I only beat 3-4 bosses or so. I think it was a dark bluish area with white spikes, some way down from the entrance.
Personally I got through the “standard” white palace (not the side path. Fuck that).
But I never could beat the Radiance. It’s fast, its attack hitboxes are completely bonkers, and I absolutely hate the fact I can’t properly train against it to make sense of its patterns. Because every time I lose I have to redo that stupid Hollow Knight section again. It’s not even a hard part, it’s just wasting my time and making me more nervous when I have to face the real deal.
Radiance really does have some bullshit about it, especially when attacks overlap each other. I can totally understand the frustration.
For me it’s not even that, i just get lost a lot and run in circles until i put it down and when i pick it back up again i’m even more lost.
42 yo here, same as you! I tried the game multiple times as everyone was raving about it. Got so frustrated with the bosses that I gave up.
The Path of Pain? Yeah I gave up on that too. Also gave up on trying to beat Grim, even in my second play through.
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I adore the Outer Wilds vibe, but had the same experience and it still doesn’t sit well with me! Years later and the game still comes to mind, but the periodic resets were so unpleasant for me that I didn’t see it all the way through. Maybe this will be the year….
I’m glad I’m not the only one who found the world resets frustrating. I agree that the world is interesting and atmospheric, but as someone who enjoys thoroughly exploring, the resets just kept ruining my immersion into the world. Maybe one day I’ll go back to the game.
“True Pacifist” route is worth doing if you enjoy Undertale, it’s not terribly difficult and fleshes out the characters a bit more. If you’re thinking about going the other way, I would say play up through Undyne and see how that feels. Edit: also play Deltarune if you havent
I really want to like Outer Wilds, but it just hasn’t quite clicked with me either. I’ve probably played about 10 hours but just keep bouncing off of it.
Jedi Fallen Order. I’ve tried a couple times because I really WANT to like the game. But I just can’t stand the fucking souls style of everything comes back when you save. And the boss fights are just too punishing (for me). It’s so frustrating to get stuck on a boss or lost in a zone and come to the realization that I WAS having fun and then the game got in the way of that.
Elden Ring. I had a lot of fun with the game restarting and playing through the first zone on like 6 different characters to try different styles and see what I like. But at some point in the second zone I realized I was just stressed out all the time. It wasn’t fun, it was stressful. I can appreciate the game and I don’t regret spending the money on it, but I realized it just wasn’t for me.
I think I’m done with souls games. They’re just not for me. I really wanted to play Jedi Survivor but I suspect the new cool stuff will just make me more frustrated with the souls aspects, Oh well.
So so so many. Right off the top of my head:
- Guild Wars Season 2, one of the later missions. It was stealth gameplay. I hate stealth. Paid someone 100g to run it for me.
- FTL’s boss.
- Warframe’s Glassmaker season fight with Nihil.
- Currently, Ace Combat 7’s Pipeline Destruction.
Currently, Ace Combat 7’s Pipeline Destruction.
Oof, that was really tough IIRC.
Dark Souls and souls games in general. But the difficulty is just half of it. I have beaten hard games before. The problem is that everything is so bleak I can’t even feel motivated to try. I’ll do a thing only for some NPC to go “it doesn’t matter, everything is pointless and you’re so insignificant”. Inevitably being spoiled I know that even the single optimistic NPC is not getting it great. Y’all can mope, I’m gonna put my effort where it’s appreciated.
The bleakness is why I assume the “age of dark” endings are the good ones. They’re the only endings that also end all the suffering of those fucked up worlds. The only weird one is Elden Ring. You can end all suffering, but it’s presented as the worst possible end for that particular game.
You might want to try Lies of P. All of the highlights of Dark Souls combat and if you play your cards right pretty much every NPC gets a happy ending.
It’s free on Game Pass right now too, if you have that.
I just might. Some fights were infuriating but so was Hollow Knight and I love that game. As long as the conclusion makes it worth it.
It’s so interesting how tastes can change everything. The bleakness in the souls games is intoxicating to me and keeps me coming back. I imagine it has something to do with psychology
Minecraft, I tried summoning and defeating the Wither and was woefully unprepared. The entire world near the fight was filled with craters from the explosions. I was getting ready to throw the entire world away. Then I decided to just cheat and turn Creative Mode on for 1 second, the Wither disappeared and I was able to continue playing, now with PTSD.
It didn’t help that I was playing on Bedrock (switch), which apparently has a much more difficult fight than in the Java edition.
Try fighting it underground, it gets stuch on all the blocks and you can easily backpedal as far as you want down a little tunnel. Enchanted golden apples are also very good.
I usually never complete the “extreme” challenges present in some games, like path of pain and the pantheons in Hollow Knight, or the B-sides in Celeste. I try them, but when I realize that completion will require lot of time and effort, I really don’t feel bothered enough. But I’m ok with that because this kind of stuff is optional, and it’s actually cool seeing more talented gamers deal with them
Botw master mode sword challenge. Made it to stage 6
I have this weird thing where I love a game to be challenging because it’s not engaging if it’s easy, it makes the game boring to me, but at the same time I despise grinding and generally rote gameplay with the only purpose of amassing more points to be able to challenge the next boss. But very few RPGs I like are like that. Baldurs Gate 1/2 are excellent games that I love but I get extremely frustrated by some encounters which just feels like absolute bullshit and require extreme grinding or going off to do a myriad of side quests to bump up your level. Same holds true for Pillars of Eternity which I also love.
Though I tend to be a stubborn person so I generally come back a week or month later if I get stuck but I tend to put the game down once I’ve dealt with the immediate challenge and realize that I need to do all that boring stuff again for the next boss and then I just don’t start.
I definitely had that experience with Baldur’s Gate 2, but I’m about 20 hours into Pillars of Eternity so far and very much not having that experience. Pillars seems to give me all the information I need to know to get through an encounter while BG2 will just say “weapon had no effect” without telling you that this monster can only be defeated by a +3 weapon.
Well the “early” fight with the noble / king / count can’t remember in PoE had me tearing my hair on the difficulty I played on, took intense space bar action and every trick I could muster in terms of abusing targeting and kiting, etc to win it. I don’t know how many times I reloaded and how many days I tried, must’ve been in the hundreds by the end when I finally got it due to a few lucky crits and rolls.
I haven’t found a noble, king, or count 20 hours in yet, but there was a quest that said I had to go fight Lord Raedric, and then I’m warned by both an NPC and a quest description that this is something I should do later because it’s going to be very difficult. Is it possible that you missed the warning and went to do something late game earlier than you should have?
It’s a long game, I think I just overestimated how far in you’d be at 20 hours. Since I really jammed with the game (and it was before I had 3 kids 😂) I had done all the side quests I had found but I hadn’t explored further away than the zones the side quests took you to. I will say though that plot wise it would make absolutely no sense to save it to the “late game” if that’s even possible. But that is the fight I was talking about, 100%.
The first bit is basically me whenever I do a challenge run in a Pokemon game.
I had a lot of games on PS4 where the difficulty isn’t “why” I stopped, but the lengthy loads when I died was.
I’m perfectly happy dying a bunch of times in a row, provided the deaths are fair and consistent. I have a big issue with waiting 5-10 minutes to replay a section that doesn’t last meaningfully longer than that.
Getting a PS5 let me go back to a lot of those games and properly enjoy the brutal difficulty without the headaches.
I ragequit half way through the final boss after having died for the thirtieth time. The game is absolutely beautiful, but fuck me some of it is tough.
Ended up watching the last bit on YouTube. No regrets.
Thanks for the unintentional recommendation.
Oh, it’s a stunning game, and I absolutely adored it. But that final boss is an utter prick.
I doubt that I’ll ever get that far. I used to play games on “hard” difficulty and explore/find everything. Today I’m just glad if I find the time to play, have fun and enjoy the games, even if I need to play on “easy” difficulty. All the completionist aspirations are gone.
A bunch of old Sierra games. Like the Space Quest series.
Great games, but unforgiving. Having a walkthrough on hand is a must as a few sections are close to impossible without one
You are aware that the impossible sections were on purpose to sell hint books and to make money with the telephone hintline which one could call being stuck?
Yes, but I’m talking about in this day and age. There are no Hint Books or Hotlines anymore. So we fall back on ye olde walkthroughs, as without them, the games are close to impossible.
A lot of puzzle games, especially ones by Zachtronics. Eventually I get to a point where my brain just can’t keep up and at that point I consider it done.
Zachtronics games are hard. Every once in a while I try going back to beat Spacechem but I’ll just hit a wall, noodle with it for a few days and just sort of run out of motivation.
This was me playing Ocarina of Time.
It was also me when I played Majoras Mask. Young me did not comprehend that shit at all.
I never played Majora’s Mask. Having seen speedruns of it, I’m pretty sure it would have fried my brain as a kid.
Yes! For most genres of games, I’ve noped out of some games but completed others. It wasn’t until you mentioned it that I realized I’ve never completed a Zachtronic game. I absolutely adore what Witness was doing, but I haven’t finished it. I should go back to it.
Control. Liked it despite being in 3rd person view up until the mezzanine fight an hour or two in, then realized that the enemies are just dumb high DPS bullet sponges, the PC is a low DPS squishy and fighting from a cover or any other tactical approach I’m used to doesn’t work.
EDIT: There was also a spellcrafting mod for Skyrim where the endboss was immunebto all magic and would teleport away as soon as you got too close while summoning a bazillion powerful minions. At level 50…60 it was litwrally impossible to figjt the bastard. After many tries I just console killed the bugger and was done with it.
I’m about 8 hours into it, and I would say try it again, and once you get the launch ability rely on that as your primary weapon. I only really use the gun in a pinch or against enemies that can dodge launches.
Maybe I’ll give it a retry at some point in the future. If I can recall my forgotten Epic login credentials, that is. Too busy with the thargoid war for the next few years, though.
I also bounced off Control. Really wanted to like it. 3D metrovania in a SCP inspired setting ,how cool is that. The game is a technical marvel. How Remedy got that game to run on base PS4; I will never know. However the gunplay just feels off. I don’t like how the gun recharges instead of an ammo reload system. I feel like I’m too squishy. The weapon mods feel materially pointless. Don’t get me the wrong the setting so super unique. Most of my time playing was spent glossing over all the lore bits. “Threshold Kids” is horrifically fascinating. As if it came straight from creepy pasta. I wonder if I would enjoy Control way more if it was a limited series on Apple TV.
If I picked Wolfenstein: The New Order back up today, I’d probably have a better time with it, since it’s been a decade since I touched it last and my gaming abilities have improved since then, but for whatever reason this game was ridiculously difficult for me, even on the easiest setting. It finally came to a point where I just couldn’t finish it, and I’m not sure if I ever will.
I remember it being probably the most difficult shooter I had ever played up until that point. The campaign was genuinely so hard. I (barely) managed to beat it and the boss fight at the end took me real life months.
