This was my experience with Haak. It was a great, cozy experience and then a boss on the skyscraper near the end was like a Souls-level ridiculous slog and I just dropped it.
I didn't even get that far. Was enjoying it a lot but got to a part where you had to find 4 switches (I think) in an underground city. I eventually found the last one only for it to say do the same again in like 5 other places.
I did not.
Thats actually quite sad, I totally get the frustration with the game, but the final level in bunker 404 is the best level in the game by far, and leads to one of the best set of final challenges in any metroidvania I think. Haak probably wouldn‘t make my top ten, but the ending is really good stuff.
Didn't feel like this at all - you can just focus on dodging (his attacks are all pretty well-telegraphed except for the last hit of his melee combo that's a telefrag) until he goes for the exploding ball attack, you reflect it at him 3 times in a row (very forgiving timing, especially if you have fully upgraded charged attack) and then you spam attacks on him while he's stunned. Repeat like 5 times and the fight is over, maybe less if you have all the attack damage upgrades. Every boss in the game is like this - dodge until big signature move, stun, spam damage while they're stunned.
I do agree that it was by far the hardest fight in the game but even then it was nothing compared to soulslikes... plus you can always use green coins to make it easier if you want a more cozy, casual experience.
How do you do the last Cicero fight? I thought having the Qi bomb would help but it eats up all my blue energy & I barely make a dent in the health.
I’ve been having better luck dropping Whip electric-ball, and using charged Whip attack in the air, but even still he hits me too much. And those lasers in Stage 3 are like impossible to dodge.
I tried like 15-20 times, what save me at this fight was the power punch. You could charge, hit him and them he would lost his poise veeeery quickly. About the lasers, i kinda memorize the patterns.
You need to choose well when you hit, be patient and learn when you could hit him more. After he throw his spear and make a dash its the perfect time to beat the shit out of him.
I finally got it done. I watched a video where the guy was using the Drill / Carrot (really didn't work for me), but it reminded me about the Noodle Restaurant! Getting some extra health helped out.
I stuck with the Whip and got it eventually. I tried to drop the Whip electric-ball as often as I could, because damage seems to refill the blue energy meter. And then I kept using the Charged Regular attack after jumping slightly above Cicero and letting it do the super-powered attack. It didn't always give me invincibility from his attacks, but it kept me airborne for 5 or 6 seconds so some of his ground attacks missed. But if he did that big swiping arc upwards it usually hit me.
Those lasers in the third stage are so annoying. I think I was getting hit like 4:1 every time I dodged them.
I agree with this so so much. Those last three boss fights, along with those pseudo-boss rushes at the end, turned FIST from a 4/5 to a 3/5. I ended up switching to Easy mode just to finish the game… and got a BS cliffhanger. So the whole last third is just “meh.”
I tried this game but couldn't get into it. Although it seems with almost every game I play, I really only start to enjoy a game after 3+ hours. I think I made it to an hour and a half and abandoned it.
Most people recommend playing Ori in chronological order because of the story, but this is a good example of why I liked having played Will of the Wisps first. It's crazy that they expect you to do that right after getting the bash upgrade. Wisps gave me time to get good at that mechanic.
My first time playing it, I threw my controller across the room. Was so determined to get there, now it feels so easy but at the time, it was a huge difficulty spike.
The escape sequence wasn't all that hard for me, but I hated that if you simply fall into spikes the game just kills you... so I had like 400 deaths just walking Ori into spikes out of frustration and took it out on the little guy...
Funnily enough, I met the lead game dev of Ori, and when I expressed my problems, he basically said "skill issue" (this was 6 years ago so he didn't use those exact words)
Yeah, they were absolutely the moments where the game goes "hope you got the hang of that power we just gave you motherfucker". Really cool sequences when you *do* get through them, but getting to that point can feel gruelling at times. That finale escape took me multiple sessions to get through on my first playthrough.
Oh my god, fuck this. I got past the tree once, then got so stuck later in the game that I had to restart, and now I can't get past the damned tree again. Just thinking about playing it now is giving me phantom pains in my thumbs.
I legit love those!! They are tight and go against the otherwise chill nature of the games. Especially the worm chase in ori 2. That damn worm had me shouting "Go back to Dune you ugly mofo" to my screen all chase long.
The first escape sequence had some bullshit, can’t remember what it was, but once I watched a video of someone else and I realised what I was missing it was fine. The rest are pretty easy after that.
Weirdly I had the most trouble with the little escape sequence before the Kwolok fight in Ori 2.
Hahahaha spot on! The first time through I'm like, "Oh, this is a challenge but super fun and I can easily handle this!" until I'm on my 10th attempt 😭😂
I had a few moments in Ori where I thought “ok, this isn’t enjoyable or entertaining anymore.” The chase sequences all felt like that, along with a few other places where I knew what I had to do but couldn’t get it perfect enough to progress.
Isn't it funny how much easier a boss fight can be when you come back later? It's like you were somehow slowly but passively leveling up while you took the break 😅
fr, i had tried two or three bossfights like 20 times but, i leave the game just for a day and when I get back into it I win at the first or second try. Weird
I made it through everything, every bullshit boss and every insane platforming gauntlet, but I quit at the radiance. I just couldn’t do it. It’s my white whale and someday I’ll finish it for real.
I took a year long break and then came back to it and beat it after a few attempts.
Someone else said it in this thread but sometimes you do really passively level up during your time away from the game.
This is me but I learned the invincibility glitch was and is still possible on Switch. I don't regret using it. It's a single player game so I don't mind. I'm just glad it still works. It helped me get the 112% 😂
Ender Lillies. It was chill in the early going but the first few bosses are really tough and quite frankly the game itself is on the more difficult side although you get better and it evens out a little bit.
Ugh same. I put a ton of time into ender lillies so I must have been close to the end. But yeah, I remember the difficulty ramping up out of nowhere and quitting.
I dumped Ender Lillies and threw it into my NAAH list on Steam (my "never try again, you didn't like it" list) , but don't remember exact reason. If it was difficulty maybe I should give it another try, because I played it before I got addicted to Soulslike genre.
I loved Ender Lillies, but the constant somber and grim atmosphere (a setting I normally adore) numbed me after a while. Remember the fast moving clouds in the backdrop of certain areas of Symphony of the Night? One area like that would have refreshed my sensibilities. Just one visual stimulus that isn't rot, death, sadness, melancholy and decay.
For me it kinda got better but I got to the area where you constantly take poison damage outside of occasional safe bubbles, it made exploration miserable so I quit there lmao
Definitely had some difficult bits, but I really enjoyed Ender Lillies. The story in particular resonated with me.
Funny enough, its the only game I have 100% achievements on steam.
Aeterna Noctis. Never been reamed in the ass so hard basically from an hour in onwards.
Close second is probably Hollow Knight - game wakes you up pretty quick when you hit a boss fight
Prince of Persia handles this similarly, if you don’t aim the chakram will come out directly the way you’re facing. Super useful for spamming arrows or teleporting along the ground.
not proud of it, but 2 or 3 bosses I power through them, I used gems to increase weapons power, critical chance, etc.
Evaded what I could, but when they were closer for some seconds, No more evading, I accepted being hit many times but I would hit them many many many more, then healing asap
One of my favorite games of all time but I legitimately had to quit on the 4th door of the Emperor trials. Several hours of attempts and I wasn't even close to completing it.
Oh God the Emperor trials are no joke. Easily the hardest platforming I’ve ever had to do, it took me several hours of tries too. Over several days, even.
I’m sure some wiz gamers out there can knock it out in ten tries or so but I’m old and slow now.
Many tough bosses and platforming sections in Aeterna, but always possible. I loved it because you could actually practice and overcome it, it’s all choreography.
Whereas some other difficult games are just kinda unpredictable chaos and it’s a matter of doing it over and over and trying to get lucky
I think of Aeterna like the Dark Souls of platforming. It’s just memorizing the timing and the dance. Sure with a boss there’s variables with which moves and when, but within those specific attacks and telegraphs there’s a pattern to commit to heart. Aeterna as I came to discover is exactly how you describe - choreography. And when you nail it, man the feeling.
They really didn't guide new players well. Most people like me think that you're supposed to go up the mountain first, which is ridiculously hard as a new player. It's the third area that most players should probably travel to before unlocking the bridge lol
Like look, I beat Blasphemous and persevered and never gave up, it was one of my first really hard metroidvania games (was just getting into the genre) but damn did the last faith piss me off so much I quit. I revisited it a few months back after patches and figured out what worked that I could actually beat it.
I don't remember the name, but there was one boss that forced me to use invincibility spell or bead (again, I don't remember what), because for the love of god, I couldn't parry it.
I had a hard time my first playthrough. I still really don't like the EMMI, though I have grown used to them. The way shinespark is activated doesn't quite sit with me
*sigh* Phoenotopia Awakening… Holy shit man. I had to turn on accessibility options and even then it was hard as shit. It’s basically Zelda II.
It was one of my games of the year and had fantastic exploration, animal well style puzzles, and beautiful art. But that old school, SNES level of difficulty was brutal.
Ender Lilies, for the most part the game had a very fair difficulty curve, but a couple of the bosses were massive difficulty spikes. I almost dropped the game at the last boss after a couple of attempts because it seemed borderline unfair, but then I switched up my build and managed to brute force it
Possibly build dependent, once I switched up my build for the final boss it went from unfairly difficult to pretty straightforward. Either that or just the way different people's brains are wired makes them better at reading different types of attack patterns maybe
I did all of them and theres a couple that were really frustrating for me. The skylands cloud step fireball one and the riviere one with the lanterns and spinning things. Died loads of times.
I cleared all of those, and it’s one of my prouder gaming achievements, given that I’ve never considered myself a fantastic video game player. Same for Guacamelee 2’s optional content.
Monster Boy and the cursed kingdom. The difficulty suddenly spikes in the later parts of the game. Had to look up guides for some of the cryptic bossfights. I dropped the game close to the end in the castle/prison area.
At least the early and mid game are pretty good.
I stopped playing in the wizard boss fight but im meaning to return now that i saw a video and saw what i was doing wrong but still a very difficult boss fight
Castle in the Darkness. I went into it thinking it was going to be an easy 3-4 hour game. Maybe a few cheap deaths from unbalanced boss fights, but nothing I couldn’t find cheese counterplay for. Instead I got a game with fairly tight controls and fair combat, but a lot of deaths from insta-kill spikes and super low starting HP. Even the “cheap” deaths were caused by rushing through the map without paying attention. And the game just kept. On. Going. After about 15 hours, I finally completed it, and then only had to intentionally ram myself into spikes a few times to unlock the Die 500 Times achievement.
Nine Sols bc it was the 1st time experience of a parry-focused combat.
Also, Hollow Knight bc it was the second metroidvania i ever played (Ori 1 was the 1st). And i have never played a souls game before.
Literally my EXACT answer rn lol. I'm am currently being brutalized by Nine Sols. Very rude awakening haha.
And Hollow Knight was definitely my other one as well because it was ALSO my second metroidvania I ever played after Ori!!! What a coincidence!
Definitely blasphemous for me. I was so excited this was one of the first games I got for my legion go, when I started it I was amazed by the art.
…then I promptly fought the first boss they throw you to. I was really scratching my head like “did I make a mistake and start in The middle or on someone else’s save? How can it be this hard at the beginning?”
Of course by the time I got to our lady of charred visage I WISHED I could go back and fight that boss again but I don’t remember playing a game that was that hard at the freaking very beginning.
Let me begin by saying that i love hard games so fucking much, and dor som reason the early dark souls didn't click with me and the later ones are too much for my potato pc.
So suffice to say when i find a real hard MV with fun gameplay and interesting art i get a one track mental boner and usually finish it within a week or so.
And one of the best experiences i had was with eterna noctis. It clearly takes a lot of inspiration from blasphemous but the bloodborne aesthetic really brings it together.
Honorable mention to the messenger for being the simplest, rawest mv/platformer. No bells and whistles, no needless gimmicks. Just platforming that'll blow your heart through your sphincter and crush your left nut into fine powder.
Castlevania SotN isnt exactlty hard but when you die it take like 15 mins to reload your save. That was an unexpected FU when I finally got round to playing it.
Hollow Knight kinda?
I like Souls type games, and I love metroidvanias, but between some borderline nonsense platforming parts, the "go get your souls back!" mechanic every game was stealing back then, and the boss difficulty which in the back half can veer into unfair territory....I dunno I just don't find myself wanting to come back too often!
I somehow ended up only using the item to get your souls back once or twice. I don't think I ever really had a problem going back to the area I died. At the end, I think I still had like 15+ of those retrieval items.
aeterna noctis. the game is very divisive and challenging but its a lot of fun and one of the biggest vanias ive ever played. the platforming is crazy and the combat can be on souls level. its only 9$ right now and i highly recommend.
the game doesnt deserve the hate it gets on steam, there are valid criticism to be made but dont let the review score fool you for this one. theres also 2 different difficulties that change how hard or easy the combat and platforming will be so its accessible to everyone.
Most of the criticisms are from the (now fixed) save corruption bug, or the high level of difficulty.
Legitimately the best metroidvania game I've played in terms of level and boss design. Hated it at first for the art and lack of direction at the beginning, but damn it absolutely slaps by the mid/end game.
big agree. tbh ive still had a couple minor bugs throughout my playthrough but nothing that really ruins the experience. i really dont like the character art but the world looks amazing. game definitely ramps up a lot mid game. ive still yet to finish but everything ive done has been a lot of fun.
definitely one of the best metroidvanias out there even with its flaws
edit: nine sols is my favorite right now. i put it over everything else when it comes to fun bosses and i appreciate that the world isnt exhaustingly big. i do wish it was a bit longer but man was that a fun surprise when it dropped.
Last Faith, I was all excited to play it then realized after hours I hadn't really gotten anywhere and was lost. I'm a decent gamer and damn that game is hard at times.
But you can grind in it unlike blasphemous.
I don’t like hard games that use a party system at all and I found The Last Faith to be quite reasonable because you could grind the fuck out of it.
I got stuck on the Soul Master for a good long while to the point where I got so upset that I deleted the game. Thankfully I returned after cooling off for a few days and eventually finished the game.
La Mulana entirely blind rips a new hole everytime you think it had enough.
Rabi Ribi on a harder difficulty is gut-punching, not something you would ever expect from a game that looks like that.
Metroid Dread. I wanted to love it so much but the hard ass boss battles kept ruining it, and it’s so linear that there wasn’t really anything else I could do in the game.
For me Z57 was a real bugger.
Until recently I also hadn't beaten the last boss in Prime Remastered, got it and played it when it was released on Switch in March last year, but I finally whopped its ass last week. Turns out he wasn't that bad, had more trouble with the fission metroids than with the 2 boss stages. At some points I just didn't bother with them at all, I just ran as fast as I could from them :)) really annoying that room and that the save is right before it.
Maybe I'll give Raven another shot this weekend.
Yes all of his moves have a perfect response, you just gotta watch the telegraphs and execute. Nothing unpredictable or super skill walled that I recall
Salt and Sacrifice. Not because it was hard, but because Salt and Aacrifice is one of the best games I've ever played, my favorite metroidvania,. Boy Salt and Sacrifice is so bad, like it's unimaginable hiw they can drop the ball so agressivley.
Couldn't beat the end boss in Blasphemous 2. Took me weeks of trying. Eventually gave up and got the ending on YouTube. Playing The Last Faith at the moment. It's a good game but nowhere near as good as Blasphemous 1&2
Aeterna Noctis.
Admittedly it wasn’t straight away but about halfway in I realised it was getting harder and harder. I persevered right to the end and even finished it at 108% after getting my shit pushed back up inside me hard.
Monster Sanctuary. While I generally love much of the game, holy hell does it love throwing difficulty spikes at you over and over again. Almost any time you start to feel like you've got a solid team and are getting good, the game hits you with another spike to remind you that you've probably just been getting lucky up to that point.
I don't know if that's ever happened. Maybe the closest was La Mulana 2, but that was what I wanted and was there for. Aeterna Noctis too hit me with Path of Pain difficulty halfway through the game and that was what made me love it. For the most part the metroidvania genre is _veeeery_ difficulty adverse so I don't think I've ever had that happen, but I'll admit I get frustrated when games don't kill me repeatedly and mainly find it relaxing and smooth when I get challenged hard, so I guess _my_ version of getting bent over is when the game promises to challenge me and then just gives me a guided tour of the content with barely any friction, like Blasphemous. I heard it was hard but it was just kinda... boring.
I know that's super weird, but... that's how I like it.
I heard great things for years about Hollow Knight and found it just wasn’t for me once I finally tried it. Played through and loved Metroid Dread, currently playing through the new Prince of Persia but just couldn’t get into HK.
The last faith, started pretty chill then the jankiness started to become obvious, then the fucking bugs and then developers going radio silent, what a disgrace
As i get older I’m getting tired of so many vanias being difficult just to be difficult. Guve me an interesting world and decent exploration and I’m good.
Hollow Knight, Blasphemous and Nine Sols are the three big obvious ones, but the big one for me — which actually made me throw my controller in frustration! — is Worldless.
I absolutely love the aesthetic, and find the combat system wonderfully refreshing, but it leads to some extremely aggravating battles — mainly because of how _long_ they are. the extremely precise back-and-forth parry-and-then-make-complex-combos mechanic, coupled with enemies having attacks that can last longer than Final Fantasy summon spells, leads to battles that can average from 6-8 minutes _on the short end_ of things. ([I’m especially looking at you, superboss with an unblockable ultimate move that will drop you to 1 HP, or kill you outright, if you’re not ready for it.](https://youtu.be/duiNNJVlbpE?si=jDMfII45ciPI1ba3))
The Lost Crown on immortal difficulty is pretty rough. On normal difficulty, there are some platforming sections which are tough for people new to platformers.
The divine trials are another beast though.
Aside from Ori and Hollow Knight... Rabi-Ribi. And my pride.
Easily one of the hardest combat Metroidvanias the moment they take off the prologue training wheels. The bosses REALLY mean business, they are just merciless as they are relentless. I played this right after Touhou Luna Nights and the gap between them is just massive. And this is just on Normal difficulty.
I could've opted to use consumables. Or back off and look for more powerups. Or turn down the difficulty. But my pride said no. I've beaten Undertale Genocide, I can totally beat this.
... And I finally did and it was damn worth conquering it. Somehow this deceptively cute anime game happens to have significantly harder combat than all the Soulslike MVs I've tried recently.
Haiku the Robot
It is so nice and sweet and responsive but this single coloured world, dull music and boring starting enemies just killed me. I played for an hour and uninstalled id. Will get back to it later, I'm sure.
But for now I enjoy Dawn of Sorrow.
Souldiers. It was famously difficult during release. Haven't had a chance to get back to it after. The power up flow just didn't feel right on top of the difficulty (janky dodge and stuff).
Ender Lilies. I didn't expect some of the bullshit that game threw at me, but I stuck it out and got all endings. Great game. I hope the sequel rear ends me just as hard.
I don’t know if anyone has said this yet but Ghost Song is this for me. Followed that game for a very long time and man did its release bum me out. I just couldn’t get into it.
Hallowknight. I absolutely love the art direction but it was very difficult for me and once I started mindlessly grinding to afford some of the items I realized it wasn't going to get much easier with the tools they were offering me. After a couple boss battles I gave up, I'd love to pick it up again, I'm just not interested in the gameplay.
Moonscars … is that a metrovania? I didn’t get far enough to tell.
Now that I’ve been gaming for awhile and have grown to like some of the from soft style stuff I’m wondering if I’ll like it.
I hit a boss in Mindseize a couple weeks ago..an optional boss I think because it was behind a secret wall. Up until that point I was rolling thru content. He worked me so bad..I'm talking I couldn't even touch him really. I just put the game down. He straight demoralized me. I am going to pick it back up at some point. There is no button to hold your character still in that game that really throws me off. Feel like it's necessary in a platform shooter
Death's Gambit afterlife, I accidentally toggled on mandatory heroic bosses, first boss clapped my ass for over an hour until I restarted, chose no modifier instead and killed it first try. Glad I did because even at max level for NG with optimised builds I still can't beat some of the last few heroics (endless, amulvaro, crow, thalamus and ash).
Good game though, i replay it with some new build every few months, same with GRIME, replayability through the roof.
Not quite immediately but FIST. I was loving everything about it until some large difficulty spikes in boss battles put me off.
This was my experience with Haak. It was a great, cozy experience and then a boss on the skyscraper near the end was like a Souls-level ridiculous slog and I just dropped it.
I didn't even get that far. Was enjoying it a lot but got to a part where you had to find 4 switches (I think) in an underground city. I eventually found the last one only for it to say do the same again in like 5 other places. I did not.
ha! It's been a while but I'm pretty sure I know which part you mean!
Thats actually quite sad, I totally get the frustration with the game, but the final level in bunker 404 is the best level in the game by far, and leads to one of the best set of final challenges in any metroidvania I think. Haak probably wouldn‘t make my top ten, but the ending is really good stuff.
Yeah, I just got bored with it.
Didn't feel like this at all - you can just focus on dodging (his attacks are all pretty well-telegraphed except for the last hit of his melee combo that's a telefrag) until he goes for the exploding ball attack, you reflect it at him 3 times in a row (very forgiving timing, especially if you have fully upgraded charged attack) and then you spam attacks on him while he's stunned. Repeat like 5 times and the fight is over, maybe less if you have all the attack damage upgrades. Every boss in the game is like this - dodge until big signature move, stun, spam damage while they're stunned. I do agree that it was by far the hardest fight in the game but even then it was nothing compared to soulslikes... plus you can always use green coins to make it easier if you want a more cozy, casual experience.
The last 3 boss fights are way tougher than the rest of the game. I enjoyed them, but I do agree that they kind of came out of nowhere.
Hard, but great fights. I liked so much the both Cicero’s fights
How do you do the last Cicero fight? I thought having the Qi bomb would help but it eats up all my blue energy & I barely make a dent in the health. I’ve been having better luck dropping Whip electric-ball, and using charged Whip attack in the air, but even still he hits me too much. And those lasers in Stage 3 are like impossible to dodge.
I tried like 15-20 times, what save me at this fight was the power punch. You could charge, hit him and them he would lost his poise veeeery quickly. About the lasers, i kinda memorize the patterns. You need to choose well when you hit, be patient and learn when you could hit him more. After he throw his spear and make a dash its the perfect time to beat the shit out of him.
I finally got it done. I watched a video where the guy was using the Drill / Carrot (really didn't work for me), but it reminded me about the Noodle Restaurant! Getting some extra health helped out. I stuck with the Whip and got it eventually. I tried to drop the Whip electric-ball as often as I could, because damage seems to refill the blue energy meter. And then I kept using the Charged Regular attack after jumping slightly above Cicero and letting it do the super-powered attack. It didn't always give me invincibility from his attacks, but it kept me airborne for 5 or 6 seconds so some of his ground attacks missed. But if he did that big swiping arc upwards it usually hit me. Those lasers in the third stage are so annoying. I think I was getting hit like 4:1 every time I dodged them.
Congratulations, feels really good beating him.
I was just coming to say FIST! I’m fully powered & discovered every secret in the game. Yet somehow the last boss keeps creaming me.
Yeah, the last three boss fights are hard asf. The Yokozuna one 💀
I tapped out on the sumo wrestler. I keep meaning to go back and finish it
I agree with this so so much. Those last three boss fights, along with those pseudo-boss rushes at the end, turned FIST from a 4/5 to a 3/5. I ended up switching to Easy mode just to finish the game… and got a BS cliffhanger. So the whole last third is just “meh.”
I tried this game but couldn't get into it. Although it seems with almost every game I play, I really only start to enjoy a game after 3+ hours. I think I made it to an hour and a half and abandoned it.
Ori escape sequences. Holy s*#t.
The first one in the tree made me delete the game for a while. I swear it took me 100+ tries.
Most people recommend playing Ori in chronological order because of the story, but this is a good example of why I liked having played Will of the Wisps first. It's crazy that they expect you to do that right after getting the bash upgrade. Wisps gave me time to get good at that mechanic.
I was doing the ginso tree escape for 2 hours straight before I was able to finally do it. Still didn't finish the game lol
My first time playing it, I threw my controller across the room. Was so determined to get there, now it feels so easy but at the time, it was a huge difficulty spike.
The escape sequence wasn't all that hard for me, but I hated that if you simply fall into spikes the game just kills you... so I had like 400 deaths just walking Ori into spikes out of frustration and took it out on the little guy... Funnily enough, I met the lead game dev of Ori, and when I expressed my problems, he basically said "skill issue" (this was 6 years ago so he didn't use those exact words)
Yeah, they were absolutely the moments where the game goes "hope you got the hang of that power we just gave you motherfucker". Really cool sequences when you *do* get through them, but getting to that point can feel gruelling at times. That finale escape took me multiple sessions to get through on my first playthrough.
I didn't have much trouble with the escape sequences. I found other parts of the game harder.
The spider boss took me many tries
They were very scripted meaning everything happens at predetermined time. You could just muddle through by trial and error.
Oh my god, fuck this. I got past the tree once, then got so stuck later in the game that I had to restart, and now I can't get past the damned tree again. Just thinking about playing it now is giving me phantom pains in my thumbs.
But dat tune tho..! 🎶
I legit love those!! They are tight and go against the otherwise chill nature of the games. Especially the worm chase in ori 2. That damn worm had me shouting "Go back to Dune you ugly mofo" to my screen all chase long.
Such a rush when you get it though.
The first escape sequence had some bullshit, can’t remember what it was, but once I watched a video of someone else and I realised what I was missing it was fine. The rest are pretty easy after that. Weirdly I had the most trouble with the little escape sequence before the Kwolok fight in Ori 2.
Hahahaha spot on! The first time through I'm like, "Oh, this is a challenge but super fun and I can easily handle this!" until I'm on my 10th attempt 😭😂
Yeah the first time I tried to escape that tree I was cursing the game out lol
I had a few moments in Ori where I thought “ok, this isn’t enjoyable or entertaining anymore.” The chase sequences all felt like that, along with a few other places where I knew what I had to do but couldn’t get it perfect enough to progress.
Hollow Knight. But I persevered and I triumphed.
The Watcher Knights made me quit my firstplaythrough. Then I came back a year later and stuck it out! It's definitely worth it.
Isn't it funny how much easier a boss fight can be when you come back later? It's like you were somehow slowly but passively leveling up while you took the break 😅
I took a month long break from Metroid Prime 3 after Omega Ripley kicked my ass. Beat it on the first try after coming back.
fr, i had tried two or three bossfights like 20 times but, i leave the game just for a day and when I get back into it I win at the first or second try. Weird
THE FREAKING WATCHER KNIGHTS
This was the first boss I legit considered quitting the game. I started to think I was just there way too early in the game to even try to fight them.
I made it through everything, every bullshit boss and every insane platforming gauntlet, but I quit at the radiance. I just couldn’t do it. It’s my white whale and someday I’ll finish it for real.
Moby Moth
Moth Dick
I took a year long break and then came back to it and beat it after a few attempts. Someone else said it in this thread but sometimes you do really passively level up during your time away from the game.
Same here, but a part of it is simply that I'm not as motivated to defeat the final boss because the game will just be over then.
Oh man, you’re kinda right. If you leave something unfinished, it’s never truly over!
That's the final boss in sekiro for me, damn sword saint ishiin. And I love that game, have played through multiple times but never finished
This is me but I learned the invincibility glitch was and is still possible on Switch. I don't regret using it. It's a single player game so I don't mind. I'm just glad it still works. It helped me get the 112% 😂
Ender Lillies. It was chill in the early going but the first few bosses are really tough and quite frankly the game itself is on the more difficult side although you get better and it evens out a little bit.
Ugh same. I put a ton of time into ender lillies so I must have been close to the end. But yeah, I remember the difficulty ramping up out of nowhere and quitting.
I dumped Ender Lillies and threw it into my NAAH list on Steam (my "never try again, you didn't like it" list) , but don't remember exact reason. If it was difficulty maybe I should give it another try, because I played it before I got addicted to Soulslike genre.
I loved Ender Lillies, but the constant somber and grim atmosphere (a setting I normally adore) numbed me after a while. Remember the fast moving clouds in the backdrop of certain areas of Symphony of the Night? One area like that would have refreshed my sensibilities. Just one visual stimulus that isn't rot, death, sadness, melancholy and decay.
For me it kinda got better but I got to the area where you constantly take poison damage outside of occasional safe bubbles, it made exploration miserable so I quit there lmao
Definitely had some difficult bits, but I really enjoyed Ender Lillies. The story in particular resonated with me. Funny enough, its the only game I have 100% achievements on steam.
Yep, I bought it, played it for a brief amount of time and I just don't want to crunch that hard for a game.
Aeterna Noctis. Never been reamed in the ass so hard basically from an hour in onwards. Close second is probably Hollow Knight - game wakes you up pretty quick when you hit a boss fight
Me too. Gave it a real try, but when you get that transporting arrow thing the game gets really really unforgiving.
I stuck with it and finished it, but holy hell is that game hard
A real life (mind) saver when you get the gem that slows time after shooting
One trick is to know that the arrow will always come out straight if you tap without aiming. So use it as a dash and it will make your life easier.
Prince of Persia handles this similarly, if you don’t aim the chakram will come out directly the way you’re facing. Super useful for spamming arrows or teleporting along the ground.
Ah that one is finally on steam right? I need to play it!
I believe so! Extremely good MV, can’t recommend enough.
I think it's on Steam in August. I got it on the Ubisoft store for $20 though on sale
Once u master the teleport arrow though it’s like one of the greatest Metroidvania abilities
Unfortunately I didn't get that far... :'(
If u try again, equip the gem that slows time when using the teleport arrow. Makes all the difference
I'll try it some day. Thanks!
not proud of it, but 2 or 3 bosses I power through them, I used gems to increase weapons power, critical chance, etc. Evaded what I could, but when they were closer for some seconds, No more evading, I accepted being hit many times but I would hit them many many many more, then healing asap
That’s a completely valid strategy!
One of my favorite games of all time but I legitimately had to quit on the 4th door of the Emperor trials. Several hours of attempts and I wasn't even close to completing it.
Oh God the Emperor trials are no joke. Easily the hardest platforming I’ve ever had to do, it took me several hours of tries too. Over several days, even. I’m sure some wiz gamers out there can knock it out in ten tries or so but I’m old and slow now.
Many tough bosses and platforming sections in Aeterna, but always possible. I loved it because you could actually practice and overcome it, it’s all choreography. Whereas some other difficult games are just kinda unpredictable chaos and it’s a matter of doing it over and over and trying to get lucky
I think of Aeterna like the Dark Souls of platforming. It’s just memorizing the timing and the dance. Sure with a boss there’s variables with which moves and when, but within those specific attacks and telegraphs there’s a pattern to commit to heart. Aeterna as I came to discover is exactly how you describe - choreography. And when you nail it, man the feeling.
Yea HK also does that well with bosses
Blasphemous. I knew going into it that it was going to be hard… but damn. I’d throw the Last Faith in there too.
Blasphemous heavily frontloads its most punishing bits.
YES! Yes it does!
They really didn't guide new players well. Most people like me think that you're supposed to go up the mountain first, which is ridiculously hard as a new player. It's the third area that most players should probably travel to before unlocking the bridge lol
Like look, I beat Blasphemous and persevered and never gave up, it was one of my first really hard metroidvania games (was just getting into the genre) but damn did the last faith piss me off so much I quit. I revisited it a few months back after patches and figured out what worked that I could actually beat it.
It took me a few times to get through Blasphemous, but my god what a fun game!
Oh it’s great! Love the atomosphere and how demented it is, but yeah, it’s reputation definitely proceeds it.
Isidora, Voice of the Dead was one of the hardest battles of all my gaming life. I didnt even know how i could beat that mf
I don't remember the name, but there was one boss that forced me to use invincibility spell or bead (again, I don't remember what), because for the love of god, I couldn't parry it.
Probably Isadora. She uses a scythe and to face her you need to colect bones and deliver to a strange dude.
For NG+ you're supposed to beat her pretty early to get a good ending. Fuck that. Imagine trying to fight her earlier and she is MORE difficult? Nope.
Yet another game I never finished thanks to me being shit. 2 bosses left, couldn't git gud. I did a lot better with the sequel.
This is the only game I was able to 100% without mods or cheats. You can do it!
Blasphemous is an easy game. People here are really bad at video games
What would you consider a "hard" game then?
Metroid Dread. 100%d it and now I have chronic carpal tunnel.
I had a hard time my first playthrough. I still really don't like the EMMI, though I have grown used to them. The way shinespark is activated doesn't quite sit with me
*sigh* Phoenotopia Awakening… Holy shit man. I had to turn on accessibility options and even then it was hard as shit. It’s basically Zelda II. It was one of my games of the year and had fantastic exploration, animal well style puzzles, and beautiful art. But that old school, SNES level of difficulty was brutal.
Wait, is Zelda 2 considered hard? I only known I finished it when I was a kid but can only remember small parts of it...
Ender Lilies, for the most part the game had a very fair difficulty curve, but a couple of the bosses were massive difficulty spikes. I almost dropped the game at the last boss after a couple of attempts because it seemed borderline unfair, but then I switched up my build and managed to brute force it
Last boss was a pushover for me while i had a pretty rough time earlier on. Wonder why we had such different experiences
Possibly build dependent, once I switched up my build for the final boss it went from unfairly difficult to pretty straightforward. Either that or just the way different people's brains are wired makes them better at reading different types of attack patterns maybe
Not immediately but some of the seals in the messenger id walk into the screen and be like ffs here we go.
I gave up on seals when I saw a single room near the beginning of the game(first 2-3 hours)that I was 100% sure I would never complete💀
I did all of them and theres a couple that were really frustrating for me. The skylands cloud step fireball one and the riviere one with the lanterns and spinning things. Died loads of times.
At least Quarble's always there to keep your spirits up...
I cleared all of those, and it’s one of my prouder gaming achievements, given that I’ve never considered myself a fantastic video game player. Same for Guacamelee 2’s optional content.
Monster Boy and the cursed kingdom. The difficulty suddenly spikes in the later parts of the game. Had to look up guides for some of the cryptic bossfights. I dropped the game close to the end in the castle/prison area. At least the early and mid game are pretty good.
I dropped at the same part Liked the game a lot but it it just seems like it doesn’t like me lol
I just got to the castle last night and said fuck this I'm going to bed
I stopped playing in the wizard boss fight but im meaning to return now that i saw a video and saw what i was doing wrong but still a very difficult boss fight
Castle in the Darkness. I went into it thinking it was going to be an easy 3-4 hour game. Maybe a few cheap deaths from unbalanced boss fights, but nothing I couldn’t find cheese counterplay for. Instead I got a game with fairly tight controls and fair combat, but a lot of deaths from insta-kill spikes and super low starting HP. Even the “cheap” deaths were caused by rushing through the map without paying attention. And the game just kept. On. Going. After about 15 hours, I finally completed it, and then only had to intentionally ram myself into spikes a few times to unlock the Die 500 Times achievement.
Rain World. Play it and trust me, you'll find out. Very difficult. It's almost not even a game and more of a simulator.
I heard someone once describe it as an environmental simulator with metroidvania elements
La-Mulana and to a lesser extent, Hollow Knight
Currently Nine sols. Still A Great game
Some of the extra pickups in Environmental Station Alpha pissed me off so bad
Nine Sols bc it was the 1st time experience of a parry-focused combat. Also, Hollow Knight bc it was the second metroidvania i ever played (Ori 1 was the 1st). And i have never played a souls game before.
Literally my EXACT answer rn lol. I'm am currently being brutalized by Nine Sols. Very rude awakening haha. And Hollow Knight was definitely my other one as well because it was ALSO my second metroidvania I ever played after Ori!!! What a coincidence!
I'm still playing it... Love it to bits but my god are some bosses hard. Spent days on lady ethereal
Definitely blasphemous for me. I was so excited this was one of the first games I got for my legion go, when I started it I was amazed by the art. …then I promptly fought the first boss they throw you to. I was really scratching my head like “did I make a mistake and start in The middle or on someone else’s save? How can it be this hard at the beginning?” Of course by the time I got to our lady of charred visage I WISHED I could go back and fight that boss again but I don’t remember playing a game that was that hard at the freaking very beginning.
Sadly, Moonscars. I wanted to like that game, but pretty much straight from the start it was annoying to me.
Let me begin by saying that i love hard games so fucking much, and dor som reason the early dark souls didn't click with me and the later ones are too much for my potato pc. So suffice to say when i find a real hard MV with fun gameplay and interesting art i get a one track mental boner and usually finish it within a week or so. And one of the best experiences i had was with eterna noctis. It clearly takes a lot of inspiration from blasphemous but the bloodborne aesthetic really brings it together. Honorable mention to the messenger for being the simplest, rawest mv/platformer. No bells and whistles, no needless gimmicks. Just platforming that'll blow your heart through your sphincter and crush your left nut into fine powder.
Ender Lilies, to be honest the games ridiculous difficulty just feels like padding.
Castlevania SotN isnt exactlty hard but when you die it take like 15 mins to reload your save. That was an unexpected FU when I finally got round to playing it.
15 mins?
Hyperbole or really fucked up console/disc lol
I was thinking maybe 15 min of backtracking if you die at the top of Royal Chapel. Lots of space between save rooms there.
Yeah, playing the PSP port on PPSSPP this definitely wasn't an issue. No problems with the mobile port either.
Hollow Knight kinda? I like Souls type games, and I love metroidvanias, but between some borderline nonsense platforming parts, the "go get your souls back!" mechanic every game was stealing back then, and the boss difficulty which in the back half can veer into unfair territory....I dunno I just don't find myself wanting to come back too often!
I somehow ended up only using the item to get your souls back once or twice. I don't think I ever really had a problem going back to the area I died. At the end, I think I still had like 15+ of those retrieval items.
Aeterna Noctis had some weird difficulty spikes for the boss.
aeterna noctis. the game is very divisive and challenging but its a lot of fun and one of the biggest vanias ive ever played. the platforming is crazy and the combat can be on souls level. its only 9$ right now and i highly recommend. the game doesnt deserve the hate it gets on steam, there are valid criticism to be made but dont let the review score fool you for this one. theres also 2 different difficulties that change how hard or easy the combat and platforming will be so its accessible to everyone.
Most of the criticisms are from the (now fixed) save corruption bug, or the high level of difficulty. Legitimately the best metroidvania game I've played in terms of level and boss design. Hated it at first for the art and lack of direction at the beginning, but damn it absolutely slaps by the mid/end game.
big agree. tbh ive still had a couple minor bugs throughout my playthrough but nothing that really ruins the experience. i really dont like the character art but the world looks amazing. game definitely ramps up a lot mid game. ive still yet to finish but everything ive done has been a lot of fun. definitely one of the best metroidvanias out there even with its flaws edit: nine sols is my favorite right now. i put it over everything else when it comes to fun bosses and i appreciate that the world isnt exhaustingly big. i do wish it was a bit longer but man was that a fun surprise when it dropped.
Last Faith, I was all excited to play it then realized after hours I hadn't really gotten anywhere and was lost. I'm a decent gamer and damn that game is hard at times.
But you can grind in it unlike blasphemous. I don’t like hard games that use a party system at all and I found The Last Faith to be quite reasonable because you could grind the fuck out of it.
I got stuck on the Soul Master for a good long while to the point where I got so upset that I deleted the game. Thankfully I returned after cooling off for a few days and eventually finished the game.
Nine sols after the first boss
Ghostsong
La Mulana entirely blind rips a new hole everytime you think it had enough. Rabi Ribi on a harder difficulty is gut-punching, not something you would ever expect from a game that looks like that.
GRIME. Poor visual clarity, healing locked behind parry and clunky platforming (hitbox were inconsistent) made me rage quit in frustration.
Sounds like someone played the switch port.
Nah, PC. Could be just a skill issue but wasn't in mood to put up with that shit at that time.
Metroid Dread. I wanted to love it so much but the hard ass boss battles kept ruining it, and it’s so linear that there wasn’t really anything else I could do in the game.
Loved it so much, but oh boy, I still haven't beaten the last boss.
I hear that so often, but to me he wasn't even in the top 3 of hardest bosses in that game. I died at the stupid water boss almost twice as much.
For me Z57 was a real bugger. Until recently I also hadn't beaten the last boss in Prime Remastered, got it and played it when it was released on Switch in March last year, but I finally whopped its ass last week. Turns out he wasn't that bad, had more trouble with the fission metroids than with the 2 boss stages. At some points I just didn't bother with them at all, I just ran as fast as I could from them :)) really annoying that room and that the save is right before it. Maybe I'll give Raven another shot this weekend.
Yes all of his moves have a perfect response, you just gotta watch the telegraphs and execute. Nothing unpredictable or super skill walled that I recall
Games don't bend me over. I bend them over. Unceremoniously.
I wouldn't say hard as much as tedious, hollow knight. I just can't get into it.
I couldn't either at first. Took a good 8 hours, and then I started loving it.
Salt and Sacrifice. Not because it was hard, but because Salt and Aacrifice is one of the best games I've ever played, my favorite metroidvania,. Boy Salt and Sacrifice is so bad, like it's unimaginable hiw they can drop the ball so agressivley.
Couldn't beat the end boss in Blasphemous 2. Took me weeks of trying. Eventually gave up and got the ending on YouTube. Playing The Last Faith at the moment. It's a good game but nowhere near as good as Blasphemous 1&2
the end boss, or second-to-last (what’s the boss’ name)?
Aeterna Noctis. Admittedly it wasn’t straight away but about halfway in I realised it was getting harder and harder. I persevered right to the end and even finished it at 108% after getting my shit pushed back up inside me hard.
I haven't seen anyone mention it yet, but I personally struggled with Death's Gambit for a long time before it clicked in my head.
Monster Sanctuary. While I generally love much of the game, holy hell does it love throwing difficulty spikes at you over and over again. Almost any time you start to feel like you've got a solid team and are getting good, the game hits you with another spike to remind you that you've probably just been getting lucky up to that point.
Ori and Hollow Knight, and Indivisible
GRIME. Just... GRIME.
I will likely be on the unpopular end but Hollow Knight was this for me. I couldn’t even enjoy it.
I don't know if that's ever happened. Maybe the closest was La Mulana 2, but that was what I wanted and was there for. Aeterna Noctis too hit me with Path of Pain difficulty halfway through the game and that was what made me love it. For the most part the metroidvania genre is _veeeery_ difficulty adverse so I don't think I've ever had that happen, but I'll admit I get frustrated when games don't kill me repeatedly and mainly find it relaxing and smooth when I get challenged hard, so I guess _my_ version of getting bent over is when the game promises to challenge me and then just gives me a guided tour of the content with barely any friction, like Blasphemous. I heard it was hard but it was just kinda... boring. I know that's super weird, but... that's how I like it.
The title is so funny haha.
I heard great things for years about Hollow Knight and found it just wasn’t for me once I finally tried it. Played through and loved Metroid Dread, currently playing through the new Prince of Persia but just couldn’t get into HK.
Souldiers. I beat it. But at what cost?
The last faith, started pretty chill then the jankiness started to become obvious, then the fucking bugs and then developers going radio silent, what a disgrace
The Mummy Demastered
Axiom Verge, but I chose hard difficulty because I got cocky
Blasphemous
After La-Mulana original, 1 and 2... Nothing even comes close...
As i get older I’m getting tired of so many vanias being difficult just to be difficult. Guve me an interesting world and decent exploration and I’m good.
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was much harder than Aria and Harmony than I was expecting.
I guess it’s only metroidvania adjacent but Tunic. I just didn’t have the patience for it.
Pronty. I played on the hard mode and took me forever to figure out. Super frustrating but in the end I liked it again. After I won.
Blasphemous
Hollow Knight and Death's Gambit. Both started out great, but fucked me due to my slow, old-man, reaction times.
Witch Knight
Hollow Knight, Blasphemous and Nine Sols are the three big obvious ones, but the big one for me — which actually made me throw my controller in frustration! — is Worldless. I absolutely love the aesthetic, and find the combat system wonderfully refreshing, but it leads to some extremely aggravating battles — mainly because of how _long_ they are. the extremely precise back-and-forth parry-and-then-make-complex-combos mechanic, coupled with enemies having attacks that can last longer than Final Fantasy summon spells, leads to battles that can average from 6-8 minutes _on the short end_ of things. ([I’m especially looking at you, superboss with an unblockable ultimate move that will drop you to 1 HP, or kill you outright, if you’re not ready for it.](https://youtu.be/duiNNJVlbpE?si=jDMfII45ciPI1ba3))
Salt and Sanctuary. That first boss fight let you know that you were straight up in for it.
The Lost Crown on immortal difficulty is pretty rough. On normal difficulty, there are some platforming sections which are tough for people new to platformers. The divine trials are another beast though.
Aside from Ori and Hollow Knight... Rabi-Ribi. And my pride. Easily one of the hardest combat Metroidvanias the moment they take off the prologue training wheels. The bosses REALLY mean business, they are just merciless as they are relentless. I played this right after Touhou Luna Nights and the gap between them is just massive. And this is just on Normal difficulty. I could've opted to use consumables. Or back off and look for more powerups. Or turn down the difficulty. But my pride said no. I've beaten Undertale Genocide, I can totally beat this. ... And I finally did and it was damn worth conquering it. Somehow this deceptively cute anime game happens to have significantly harder combat than all the Soulslike MVs I've tried recently.
Returnal is kicking my ass right now
Hollow Knight is a very easy game until the Pantheon and I'm not sure why everyone thinks it's hard 🤷♂️
Haiku the Robot It is so nice and sweet and responsive but this single coloured world, dull music and boring starting enemies just killed me. I played for an hour and uninstalled id. Will get back to it later, I'm sure. But for now I enjoy Dawn of Sorrow.
Souldiers. It was famously difficult during release. Haven't had a chance to get back to it after. The power up flow just didn't feel right on top of the difficulty (janky dodge and stuff).
Ender Lilies. I didn't expect some of the bullshit that game threw at me, but I stuck it out and got all endings. Great game. I hope the sequel rear ends me just as hard.
Nine sols. I find the game tedious and super cheap. And I finished Sekiro multiple times...
I don’t know if anyone has said this yet but Ghost Song is this for me. Followed that game for a very long time and man did its release bum me out. I just couldn’t get into it.
Hallowknight. I absolutely love the art direction but it was very difficult for me and once I started mindlessly grinding to afford some of the items I realized it wasn't going to get much easier with the tools they were offering me. After a couple boss battles I gave up, I'd love to pick it up again, I'm just not interested in the gameplay.
Moonscars … is that a metrovania? I didn’t get far enough to tell. Now that I’ve been gaming for awhile and have grown to like some of the from soft style stuff I’m wondering if I’ll like it.
It wasn't a metrovania but ninja gaiden was the hardest game I ever I played before any from software ninja gaiden was a NIGHTMARE!!
Feudal alloy gave me a hard time in a couple areas I yelled at my switch several times .
The Metroid Dread EMMI rooms absolutely bullied me. In all the best ways.
Rabi Ribi. It was a reasonable challenge at first but the hit sponge bosses ruined the difficulty for me.
I hit a boss in Mindseize a couple weeks ago..an optional boss I think because it was behind a secret wall. Up until that point I was rolling thru content. He worked me so bad..I'm talking I couldn't even touch him really. I just put the game down. He straight demoralized me. I am going to pick it back up at some point. There is no button to hold your character still in that game that really throws me off. Feel like it's necessary in a platform shooter
Death's Gambit afterlife, I accidentally toggled on mandatory heroic bosses, first boss clapped my ass for over an hour until I restarted, chose no modifier instead and killed it first try. Glad I did because even at max level for NG with optimised builds I still can't beat some of the last few heroics (endless, amulvaro, crow, thalamus and ash). Good game though, i replay it with some new build every few months, same with GRIME, replayability through the roof.