Parts in games so difficult they made you stop playing

[WillRock]

Say you're playing a game. Its fun. You're loving it. Then BAM. You hit a wall. Some immovable section you just can't get passed, no matter what you do. 

We've all been there.

I'm curious to know what peoples examples are, I'm not talking about difficult games you got fed up off over general stuff - i'm talking about 1 area in an otherwise smooth running game that made you give up, either due to difficulty, a puzzle you couldn't solve, or a blockade you didn't know how to get passed etc.

Alright, i'll start. 

Sonic 3: The barrel of doom. Yeah, if you've played this game you know what i'm talking about,

So as you guys can see, this is room with a door that shuts behind you. The barrel is in line with the floor. You can get it to move down and up by jumping on it. However, the room is boxed in, so the only way is down. However, timing the jumps right to get down there is completely impossible. Apparently it can be done, but yeah. Anyway, what you're suppose to do is press up and down (buttons that only make sonic look up or down and don't affect gameplay otherwise) to make it move on its own without jumping. However, you have to do it a bit before you see any movement from the barrel and sonic/tails sprites don't change when you press the buttons, which means you immediately think that doesn't do anything. 

I got stuck, gave up. Came back every now and then when I felt like some sonic, never figured it out tho. Bare in mind this was before the internet was commonplace, we didn't have access to the answers in those days. I looked it up one day... 10 years later? Got passed it, completed the game no problem.

Stupid barrel.

Alrighty then, anyone else got any good ones?.

[SystemsReady]

The final boss of Sonic 2.

Every time I start a playthrough I'm like "okay, I'll play through the game over and over until I finally beat this damn thing". But after losing all my lives and accumulated continues to the game's cheap-ass no-ring final boss, I put the controller down after the Game Over screen. I just can't be bothered to play through the entire game again - special stages + Metropolis Zone + Wing Fortress Zone especially - after being subjected to something so dumb.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles kinda pulled that too but at least it had a save system, so you wouldn't have to go through like 10 stages + 14 special stages if Death Egg's final boss kicked your ass too many times (which would be difficult given that the game throws extra lives at you like candy). And Sonic 1's final boss is hilariously easy.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Man, I've got too many to list.

The worst is Demon's Souls. It's fairly good until right after you beat the Phalanx; the first boss. Then, especially if you picked the wrong class, the game just becomes stupid tough. Like, "No job, no girlfriend, no-future-if-you-want-to-beat-this-game" tough.

I've solved this problem now by researching any game I'm about to buy (though I almost never buy games these days) and if I find out that the game is absurdly difficult with no adjustable settings or requires an enormous investment of time just to make it through the story (and most game stories are garbage anyway) I dodge it like

 

[Garpocalypse]

Pretty much everything after the first half of the first level in Comix Zone. I acknowledge that it was among the better games to come out at the end of the Genesis's run but it is a classic rage game .  You only get one life, you die if you fall, and hitting obstacles to get through the level hurts you.  wtf.

 

 

[Ridiculously Garrett]

For me it had to be the AT-ST fight on the second level of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for the N64. I've since beaten it, but as a kid, I could never do it. It was the hardest thing on the planet, coupled with the poor camera and looser controls.

[JohnStacy]

In Sonic Adventure DX (the Gamecube port of Sonic Adventure) there was one level in Eggman's base/city thing that took me forever to beat just because it was so glitchy.  There were so many places in that level where I would fall through platforms or walls, then have to start over because I would run out of lives.  It wasn't a hard level, so to speak, but for whatever reason, it had to be done *perfectly* or you would fall through a surface due to poor collision detection.

[Garpocalypse]

2 hours ago, JohnStacy said:

In Sonic Adventure DX (the Gamecube port of Sonic Adventure) there was one level in Eggman's base/city thing that took me forever to beat just because it was so glitchy.  There were so many places in that level where I would fall through platforms or walls, then have to start over because I would run out of lives.  It wasn't a hard level, so to speak, but for whatever reason, it had to be done *perfectly* or you would fall through a surface due to poor collision detection.

Sounds like Sky Deck.  yea that level is a glitch nightmare on the Dream cast version too.  I still shudder when that name comes up.

[WillRock]

20 hours ago, SystemsReady said:

The final boss of Sonic 2.

Every time I start a playthrough I'm like "okay, I'll play through the game over and over until I finally beat this damn thing". But after losing all my lives and accumulated continues to the game's cheap-ass no-ring final boss, I put the controller down after the Game Over screen. I just can't be bothered to play through the entire game again - special stages + Metropolis Zone + Wing Fortress Zone especially - after being subjected to something so dumb.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles kinda pulled that too but at least it had a save system, so you wouldn't have to go through like 10 stages + 14 special stages if Death Egg's final boss kicked your ass too many times (which would be difficult given that the game throws extra lives at you like candy). And Sonic 1's final boss is hilariously easy.

Oh yeah. Sonic 2's boss is all about timing that jump where he's vulnerable. I'd say the annoying part is once you have the pattern down, even tho its not hard to avoid, its a long pattern before he exposes himself, and even then, you slightly misplace your jump and you're dead. I've done it a lot (Sonic 2 is by far my favourite sonic game) but yeah.  Tough as nails.

[Black_Doom]

Shdow the Hedgehog. Level called "Lost Impact". FUCK THIS SHIT. Seriously. So, if you don't know - every level in this game has several missions, and one of the missions in this level is to destroy all the artificial chaos guys and, man, this is one of the most annying things in world. It may not be difficult, but the level is huge as hell and its structure is awful, so if you dare to miss one of these dudes, you'll regret about it. It took me about an hour and a half to beat this level the first time. 

[The Damned]

I recall a part of Golden Sun 2 that, at the time, I could not get past. It was one of those puzzles where you have to use your various powers in a certain way to proceed, but I either didn't have all the required ones yet, or did, but couldn't wrap my head around how to do it properly.

More than a decade later, and I still haven't bothered with it since.

[JohnStacy]

Sonic Adventure kind of sucked from a production standpoint.  Wife could never beat Big's storyline because it would keep crashing. 

I could never play Sonic heroes because of load errors.  Would play the game, would get to a point, audio would cut out, then the game would give a load error screen. 

I recently played through the games from my childhood because I finally had free time to kill and I needed a break from music stuff, so I did Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and other games from 98-04, and they were much different this time around.  For one, Odolwa from Majora's Mask suddenly became much more difficult than I remember it.  I actually couldn't beat that boss and as a result I stopped my playthrough there, partially because I didn't want to continue and also because work was starting again.  There were actually quite a few places in those games I never had trouble with when I was younger but suddenly couldn't get past like at all now that I'm older.  Not sure what's up with that.

[Flexstyle]

The Meat Circus in Psychonauts. Still haven't beaten that game. 

[TheChargingRhino]

On 4/8/2017 at 7:56 AM, Ridiculously Garrett said:

For me it had to be the AT-ST fight on the second level of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for the N64. I've since beaten it, but as a kid, I could never do it. It was the hardest thing on the planet, coupled with the poor camera and looser controls.

THIS.

The sewer level was cool. 

THE ONE LEVEL-The Boba Fett one. I got to the fight once. Freaking Wampas. AND THE JET PACK.

 

I'm stuck on Okami right now.

Taga Valley. I got the tree, trying to get to the windmill. 

[Gario]

Final Fantasy 3 for the DS, Dark Cloud (final boss). You need to get through the final dungeon, then boss rush five new bosses just to get to her (they're no slouches themselves), and she's hard as balls if you don't have the right setup. I wouldn't mind her difficulty if it didn't take two hours or so just to get to her (with zero save points in between, mind you), but I'm not going to spend an entire evening just to see if my current setup has a chance to beat her. Haven't finished that game to this day because of that.

Also, on my first (and only) run I somehow got a super rare drop from one of the baddies (a piece of the onion set from the yellow dragon) and thought to myself 'Cool, I'll save as soon as I see another save point'... Yeah, definitely a bummer all around.

[MindWanderer]

I never finished FFIII either, also gave up on the final dungeon.  So long, so painful.  Never even reached the boss rush, the dungeon was just that un-fun.  Same problem with Xenogears and Breath of Fire II, never finished either because of the last dungeon.

I put down Devil May Cry for a long time when I was near the end.  I think the boss is called Nightmare, it's a big blob that sucks you in and makes you re-fight other bosses.  There are tricks to beating it easily, but I didn't know them at the time, and at that particular point there's no access to red orbs to grind upgrades.  Went back and beat it a year or two later, still no tricks but less frustrated.

Final Fantasy X was the reverse for me--I beat the game, then a couple of years later, went back with the intention of doing the post-game.  Unfortunately, none of it is fun.  I actually liked Blitzball, so getting Wakka's ultimate weapon was OK, and Auron's was just lying around, but Tidus?  Stupid impossible chocobo game.  Kimahri?  Stupid impossible butterfly game.  Lulu?  Stupid impossible lightning bolt game.  I don't even remember the others, they were all awful.  And grinding to upgrade weapons manually was insane.  My favorite FF game for the story part, my least favorite for the optional stuff (except Blitzball).

[orlouge82]

Strange, I never felt Xenogears was terribly difficult, and had no problem beating it right when it came out (back in '97, methinks?).  Of course, I'm such a grinder/completionist (or at least I used to be, back when I had free time) that RPGs would have to offer some kind of crazy difficult challenge for me to just give up (I came close with Yiazmat in Final Fantasy XII, but I had heard so much hype/scare beforehand that I was very prepared going into it, and I only died a few times before figuring out how to beat him).

 

I think the only game that I completely "gave up" with was the Lily Pad Ride in Mario Sunshine.  I eventually figured out that I didn't need to ride the lily pad down the river the entire way in one go, and completed it.  To this day, however, I still cannot do it just riding the lily pad, and I think that doing it any other way is circumventing the way that the game was designed to be played, but whatever.  

 

 

[Modus]

I only remember doing this once. Just like flipping out and giving up forever after a hundred attempts. And that honor goes to the first Wizpig race in Diddy Kong Racing for N64.

Couldn't do it!

I think it took me two or three attempts on the DS version.

[DusK]

Literally any boss from Mega Man 1-3.

[Crulex]

When I first started playing video games around seven years old, it seems silly now because it's so easy as an adult, but at that time I had given up playing the Super Nintendo version of Lion King for a long time because of the stupid monkey puzzle at the end of the second level. I just never could figure out where I went wrong and which monkey I was missing to get out of the infinite loop.

Also, the boss right before Kefka from Final Fantasy 6, Poltergeist. I fought that thing, and I got wrecked.After getting so far into Kefka's tower and putting up with all the other battles, losing that one was rough. I probably could have gotten my levels up and set-up the teams properly, beaten that boss and then beat Kefka to finish the game if I really wanted to (probably still could if I get on another Final Fantasy kick), but I had lost so much patience with FF6 by the time I got to the last dungeon, and the last dungeon did not help because I really despised the three team thing.

 

[Chernabogue]

20 hours ago, MindWanderer said:

Final Fantasy X was the reverse for me--I beat the game, then a couple of years later, went back with the intention of doing the post-game.  Unfortunately, none of it is fun.  I actually liked Blitzball, so getting Wakka's ultimate weapon was OK, and Auron's was just lying around, but Tidus?  Stupid impossible chocobo game.  Kimahri?  Stupid impossible butterfly game.  Lulu?  Stupid impossible lightning bolt game.  I don't even remember the others, they were all awful.  And grinding to upgrade weapons manually was insane.  My favorite FF game for the story part, my least favorite for the optional stuff (except Blitzball).

Oh yes, I tried to complete the post-game content once and stopped after a few hours. Super boring and not very rewarding.

[k-wix]

• The hidden final fantasy boss in Super Mario RPG. Culex? Dude was very hard.
• Thunder Hopping in FFX
• Antichamber got difficult about halfway-ish through, gave up.
• Punch Club was a huge pain - the grinding was not fun.
• 3rd Strike Boss - Infuriatingly difficult. Gave in many times.
• Puzzles in Lufia 2 - got stuck and quit many times.

[MindWanderer]

2 hours ago, k-wix said:

• Puzzles in Lufia 2 - got stuck and quit many times.

Really?  I only found one to be difficult, the "World's Hardest Puzzle."  Never did finish it, but thankfully it was optional.

But the worst optional puzzle I've ever seen is the one to get Bombada in Breath of Fire 2.  It's an insane musical rhythm game that uses every button on the SNES controller and you only get one shot at it.  You can reload your save, of course, but that's really slow for something you'd probably fail dozens of times.

21 hours ago, orlouge82 said:

Strange, I never felt Xenogears was terribly difficult, and had no problem beating it right when it came out (back in '97, methinks?).  Of course, I'm such a grinder/completionist (or at least I used to be, back when I had free time) that RPGs would have to offer some kind of crazy difficult challenge for me to just give up (I came close with Yiazmat in Final Fantasy XII, but I had heard so much hype/scare beforehand that I was very prepared going into it, and I only died a few times before figuring out how to beat him).

It's not that it was difficult, it was just grindy.  The only way to heal the mechs is to use expendable items, so you have to burn through them even if you want to just go down there for some XP and money.  Or you could grind elsewhere, where there's a shop inside a secret dungeon that sells the best equipment.  And the final dungeon is so long, you end up having to go through a lot of repair items.  Not to mention I wasn't terribly motivated to complete it, since one character is removed from the party until the final boss, so you can't level her up anymore, and I'd spent the last several hours doing scripted quests and losing the open world, so I couldn't go back and pick up the stuff I missed.  It just wasn't fun anymore.

[The Nikanoru]

In the game 7th Saga, anytime I would choose the demon Lejes as my main character, Valsu would invariably be one of the apprentices I had to fight to get either the Star Rune or the Sky Rune. It doesn't matter what level I'm on or how long I drag the fight out, I lose every time. To this day, I have beaten the game with every other character except Lejes because of this.

Also, Shadow Link from Zelda II. Need I say more?

[Mazedude]

On 4/10/2017 at 0:35 AM, Flexstyle said:

The Meat Circus in Psychonauts. Still haven't beaten that game. 

I hear so many people complain about the Meat Circus; I didn't think it was all that bad.

For me, it's more of a delayed-reaction "what the hell" response to The Adventures of Bayou Billy on NES. On one magical day in my childhood I tapped into the zone for that game, and beat it. Now, I go back, and I can barely get past level 1, all the while getting pissed as the alligators keep biting me. How did the younger me do it???

[Gario]

1 hour ago, The Nikanoru said:

Also, Shadow Link from Zelda II. Need I say more?

Yup, duck in the corner, slash at random. Dead shadow. No point in doing that one legit.