What is the hardest game you have ever completed?

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newnab

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#1  Edited By newnab

Coming up soon I'll be livestreaming (with a couple friends) a 25 hour long marathon of some of the hardest videogames of the last decade for charity.

More about that here: http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/25hgamingmarathon

On our list already is Super Meat Boy, Dark Souls, Ninja Gaiden Black and Ikaruga to name but a few, but it got me thinking:

What's the hardest game you have ever completed?

I'm actually not good at games, so the hardest for me is probably something like... Crash Team Racing.

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morningstar

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Hmm, the souls games , the old x-com games, The land of the livid dead parts of Rayman: Origins were also very challenging. Just from the top of my head =)

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Morrow

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I'm afraid I never really completed a "hard" game ._. All the games I've completed were either easy or moderate. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to complete them.

:D

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Davvyk

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I've never been one to play game for the challenge. I just like to experience the narrative laid out for me.

That said i certainly know there is a place for challenge centric games like Super Meat Boy and i enjoyed that particular game but with all hyper challenging games the point comes where i just don't want to play anymore.

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Humanity

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I'd say Devil May Cry 4 and not because it was really tough, although I gotta say the poor checkpointing and archaic save system was quite frustrating - but having to play the game as Dante and go through every single level and every single boss I already beat only in reverse order took a lot of strength to not just put this game away on the shelf and never touch it again. Not to mention the last few levels are basically a Boss Rush mode - so not only did you have to beat every boss, again, as Dante but now you had to beat them AGAIN for the third time! I was so frustrated at that last part I remember when I finally beat the last boss and got to a checkpoint I was the most angry I've ever been at a videogame.

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anywhereilay

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Skullmonkeys, although it doesn't feel like a very 'fair' challenge.

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ChadMasterFlash

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Dark Souls isn't hard!

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Svenzon

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@_chad said:

Dark Souls isn't hard!

Please don't be that guy. I get what you mean, but don't ever say it's not a challenging game.

I've completed Fester's Quest on the NES once. Guess I was too young to realise how insane that game was at the time or something, cause whenever I tell people I've beaten it noone believes me!

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chrissedoff

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I'd say the hardest game I've ever finished was Ninja Gaiden on the NES. I spent so much time playing it obsessively as a kid that I'm actually still pretty good at it today.

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mellotronrules

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#10  Edited By mellotronrules

probably super meat boy (not 100% completion however...someday). bit.trip runner took some doing as well. both games require "perfect" runs on the final level- so it's just a matter of grinding it out.

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Canteu

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@svenzon said:
@_chad said:

Dark Souls isn't hard!

Please don't be that guy.

What guy? Dark Souls ISN'T hard. It's just a test of memory.

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CouldbeRolf

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#12  Edited By CouldbeRolf

Don't know if it technicaly counts, but I remember spending alot of time getting through Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts. Finall got to the end and then: "oh hey, there's this super duper weapon in the first stage that you'll need to finish the game, so go back there at a higher difficuly and play through everything again". To wich I responded: "No, game. I will not".

To be honest I did give it a try, but I was so broken down that after my first death I put down the controller and never looked back. I think that was the first game I really loved but ended up recenting.

But other than that I guess maybe Street Fighter Alpha 2 at some high difficulty. Some fo you might scoff at that, but I'm generally shit at fighting games, so I was pretty pleased with that.

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Cloudenvy

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Skullmonkeys, although it doesn't feel like a very 'fair' challenge.

I thought I was the only one who knew that pain. Despite that, I still have fond memories of Skullmonkeys.

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egg

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Pursuit Force might be

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TangoUp

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It would have to be Ninja Gaiden Sigma. I can shamelessly say that I resorted to walkthroughs/strategy guides online to complete that game. Or Vanquish on 'God Hard' mode. Damn those DrillRomanovs and Snipers.

I guess I could also add Demon Souls. The difficulty is manageable but I gave up on finishing the game due to its tediousness.

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Justin258

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Apparently, Super Star Wars Return of the Jedi was a really hard game. I did beat it a long time ago but I don't remember much of it.

Anyway, I am not really certain.

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SlashDance

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Symphony of the Night ? The inverted castle with Richter was kinda tricky in spots.

I never really finished any truly hard games, though. It's just not my thing.

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Azteck

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Ninja Gaiden Black and 2 on the Xbox/360 I guess?

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SkyTown_Drifts

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F-Zero GX I suppose. I managed to beat the story mode on all chapters without snaking. I also completed every cup on every difficulty without snaking to the exception of the AX cup where by that point I just wanted to finish the game; and recently getting the platinum in Shadow Of The Colossus (it is not easy).

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Aishan

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The two 'splosion man games, on Hardcore mode. Basically, any enemy kills you in one hit (instead of knocking the wind out of you) and there are no checkpoints in the middle of a level.

It basically boils down to memorisation of the levels, but it's still quite the challenge.

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rentacop

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Elite on Killzone 2 had some pretty brutal spots. Easily the hardest fps experience I've had so far. Nowadays beating games isn't really considered much of an accomplishment due to derpy "normal" and "easy" modes making platinums/1000s the real challenge. Only some platformers, most schmups, and the Souls games seem to require some work to reach the credits.

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zaccheus

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#22  Edited By zaccheus

Super Meat Boy and Killzone 3 on Elite, neither of which I would consider really hard. They can't really be since I did it. I'm not really into brutal difficulty in games, especially these days.

@rentacop said:

Elite on Killzone 2 had some pretty brutal spots. Easily the hardest fps experience I've had so far.

I had trouble on normal with that game. There were some really fucked up spots in that game, I can't imagine it on Elite.

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TobbRobb

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Devil May Cry 3 I guess. But I think Ninja Gaiden is way harder. Otherwise I feel you got the ones I care about.

Obligatory "I wanna be the guy" mention. Even though that falls into the Super Meat Boy genre, and is a bad game.

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Philantrophy

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#24  Edited By Philantrophy

Probably Ninja Gaiden Black for the xbox. I have also done COD4 on veteran and Halo Reach on legendary. I don't exactly enjoy really hard games.

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Morbid_Coffee

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#25  Edited By Morbid_Coffee

Almost any NES Sunsoft game.

Trying to 100% Mr. Gimmick will make anybody want to punch babies afterwards.

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gkhan

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#26  Edited By gkhan

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri on Transcend (the highest difficulty) is probably the hardest one.

I'm calling it: Alpha Centauri is the greatest game of all time. Done.

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Yummylee

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Probably DMC3 on DmD mode. These days I don't usually strive to beat already difficult games on their ultra-high settings quite as much; I just don't have the same degree of patience anymore. Though I do still tend to start most games from scratch on their Hard or whatever the one-above-normal setting is, especially shooters since they're often intended to be played on the above-normal setting for most anywhoo. One of the most recent difficulty achievements for me would be beating God of War 2 on Titan mode... that game does not fuck around on Titan, and the part where you hafta escort this translator guy was absolutely maddening.

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Vexxan

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Super Meat Boy or the Trials games for 360.

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DaMisterChief

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Halo 4 Legendary All Skulls On

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LassieME

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I beat I wanna be the Guy: Gaiden not too long ago, nothing else really comes to mind.

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Mirado

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#31  Edited By Mirado

Y'know, I can't remember what the toughest game I've beaten is. In the NES days, a game didn't stand out just because it was hard; often times you had such a limited pool of information available that you may have beat something significant over a weekend without realizing it, just because you didn't have any other games to divert your attention. Also, I was like 6.

I also have trouble reconciling difficulty from modern times to back then; yeah, I beat the NES Ninja Gaidens, but are those harder than Sigma? Honestly, it's hard for me to tell.

@canteu said:

@svenzon said:
@_chad said:

Dark Souls isn't hard!

Please don't be that guy.

What guy? Dark Souls ISN'T hard. It's just a test of memory.

I usually hate arguing about semantics, but I'd call Dark Souls unforgiving rather than hard. "Hard" implies there's some skill above the norm involved in order to complete it; I disagree, as it does seem to boil down to a memory test and as such anyone with average motor skills can get through it without undue hardship as long as you remember "Oh, this spot has an ambush" or "The pattern for this boss is X." Still, the punishment for failing that test is enough that I would consider it to be "unforgiving" of those mistakes.

F-Zero GX I suppose. I managed to beat the story mode on all chapters without snaking. I also completed every cup on every difficulty without snaking to the exception of the AX cup where by that point I just wanted to finish the game; and recently getting the platinum in Shadow Of The Colossus (it is not easy).

You need to be hospitalized for insanity; even if said challenge didn't drive you crazy, you need be sequestered from society so we all can feel better about ourselves.

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supamon

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Final Fantasy XIII because that game literally made me not want to play it.

Or Metal Gear Solid 3 on European Extreme difficulty.

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Vamino

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#33  Edited By Vamino

Yeah, F-Zero GX for me too. Very hard story mode without snaking etc. And then so many laps doing time trials for the max speed ladder online. I played entirely too much of that game. I can still remember track layouts.

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gkhan

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@supamon said:

Final Fantasy XIII because that game literally made me not want to play it.

Or Metal Gear Solid 3 on European Extreme difficulty.

That should be the tag-line for the game: "It's not just extreme. It's European Extreme!"

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newnab

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Hmm, the souls games , the old x-com games, The land of the livid dead parts of Rayman: Origins were also very challenging. Just from the top of my head =)

I own Rayman Origins but never got to that stage, just watched a video on Youtube. Wow. That looks mental.

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granderojo

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Just because it was one of my first games and I was a child at the time. It was an adventure game, a sequel(I know because it had 2 in the title) that had you in a jungle trying to escape a prison of some kind. Sort of starts like Farcry 3 but in adventure game form. I remember as a small child being so frustrated and spending so much time trying to figure out how to play that archaic old at the time adventure game that happened to be on my grandma's pc.

I can't remember the name of the game to save my life. Maybe someone remembers it. Was a sequel, jungle adventure game with you as a prisoner at some point.

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mosespippy

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@mirado said:

@canteu said:

@svenzon said:
@_chad said:

Dark Souls isn't hard!

Please don't be that guy.

What guy? Dark Souls ISN'T hard. It's just a test of memory.

I usually hate arguing about semantics, but I'd call Dark Souls unforgiving rather than hard. "Hard" implies there's some skill above the norm involved in order to complete it; I disagree, as it does seem to boil down to a memory test and as such anyone with average motor skills can get through it without undue hardship as long as you remember "Oh, this spot has an ambush" or "The pattern for this boss is X." Still, the punishment for failing that test is enough that I would consider it to be "unforgiving" of those mistakes.

I'd say it's fairly forgiving. To start with, you get to keep your loot. Secondly, your blood stain isn't place where you die but rather in a place where you were safe (relatively) moments before you died. Thirdly, there are rings to nullify the penalties. And lastly, you haven't lost anything at all until you die twice in a row. It's neither hard nor unforgiving.

The most difficult game that I completed was Ridge Racer on PSP. The final 24 races have estimated odds of completing between 1/200 and 1/200000 depending on the vehicle class. The second last one was on my least favourite track and took me 5 months to beat. The rubber banding is so aggressive that the average speed for laps would be higher than the cars top speed since we would be bumping into each other providing speed boosts. Multiple times I placed last in a 4 car race and was less than .01 seconds behind first.

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Nickieroonie

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I think that you should define "hard". A game like Dark Souls is difficult to complete, but isn't particularly difficult to execute. Some games artificially increase their difficulty by making you grind more. Some games require exploiting at higher difficulties.

So does "hard" mean difficult to complete, hard on the mind and body, hard to execute, a lot of time investment required... or all of the above?

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newnab

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@nickieroonie said:

I think that you should define "hard". A game like Dark Souls is difficult to complete, but isn't particularly difficult to execute. Some games artificially increase their difficulty by making you grind more. Some games require exploiting at higher difficulties.

So does "hard" mean difficult to complete, hard on the mind and body, hard to execute, a lot of time investment required... or all of the above?

I think it's all of the above.

As far as our marathon is concerned, we wanted to focus on games which present a challenge but are also actually good games. Not games that are so awful that they become hard to finish, or games that are designed purely with difficult in mind. Because we're live streaming it, we wanted games that are a real accomplishment but also that are fun and enjoyable to watch. Games like SMB, Ninja Gaiden and Dark Souls are in that 'sweet spot', I think.

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nightriff

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Doing the endless setlist on expert drums counts as finishing Rock Band 2, that was hard, exhausting and one hell of a time

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frankfartmouth

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#41  Edited By frankfartmouth

I'd have to say Actraiser 2 for the SNES. Good god, that thing is utterly brutal.

Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox might have taken the prize, but I never finished it. I was deep in college at the time, and it was just requiring too much work for a game, so I dropped it about midway through maybe (?), when I was fighting that goddamn skeleton dragon.

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Svenzon

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@canteu said:

@svenzon said:
@_chad said:

Dark Souls isn't hard!

Please don't be that guy.

What guy? Dark Souls ISN'T hard. It's just a test of memory.

Couldn't you use that argument about just about any hard game, though? I'm fairly positive someone out there will say that Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden aren't hard, just a test of memory too.

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Mirado

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@mirado said:

@canteu said:

@svenzon said:
@_chad said:

Dark Souls isn't hard!

Please don't be that guy.

What guy? Dark Souls ISN'T hard. It's just a test of memory.

I usually hate arguing about semantics, but I'd call Dark Souls unforgiving rather than hard. "Hard" implies there's some skill above the norm involved in order to complete it; I disagree, as it does seem to boil down to a memory test and as such anyone with average motor skills can get through it without undue hardship as long as you remember "Oh, this spot has an ambush" or "The pattern for this boss is X." Still, the punishment for failing that test is enough that I would consider it to be "unforgiving" of those mistakes.

I'd say it's fairly forgiving. To start with, you get to keep your loot. Secondly, your blood stain isn't place where you die but rather in a place where you were safe (relatively) moments before you died. Thirdly, there are rings to nullify the penalties. And lastly, you haven't lost anything at all until you die twice in a row. It's neither hard nor unforgiving.

I'd say it's unforgiving because of how swiftly your death arrives, not necessarily the punishment for failing twice. If you mess up the pattern or motions of a boss, it's usually a one or two hit kill. If you don't understand how to handle the S&O fight or the fact that you can summon reinforcements even offline, you aren't greeted with a tutorial message or a handy tip. The game isn't afraid to hand your ass to you over and over again if you don't grasp what it is trying to tell you through the gameplay, and I'd say that qualifies as "unforgiving" anymore. Hey, you walked into that forest as a human? Fuck you, here's a bunch of invaders that made a pact with an ill defined covenant to kick the shit out of you. Oh, you attacked that goddess in Anor Londo just to see what would happen? Now the whole stage turns to dusk and you are being pursued by players for affronting their deity Used to games where you cannot harm the NPCs? Good luck with completing the game after you indeterminately kill the NPCs responsible for upgrading your equipment or teaching you spells.

It seems like "Didn't tutorialize the whole game or hold your hand the whole way" should qualify as unforgiving anymore.

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MikkaQ

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@canteu said:

@svenzon said:
@_chad said:

Dark Souls isn't hard!

Please don't be that guy.

What guy? Dark Souls ISN'T hard. It's just a test of memory.

The same can be said of the toughest of Cave shmups, that doesn't make them any less difficult.

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BeachThunder

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Dear Esther.

Maybe Bit.Trip.Runner?

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Clonedzero

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Mercenaries 2 for the xbox360.

the gameplay wasn't hard at all, but that game was SO buggy, like it makes fallout new vegas look flawless. its insane. why i stuck with it and went through the entire game of that unplayable mess is beyond me, but i did it.

wanna zipline to a helicopter, since its like a core mechanic? well guess what you can't zoom in with your guns anymore! WOO! the scripting on every other mission would completely break and you'd have to like, push characters into their positions to trigger things. ugh.

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mosespippy

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@svenzon said:

@canteu said:

@svenzon said:
@_chad said:

Dark Souls isn't hard!

Please don't be that guy.

What guy? Dark Souls ISN'T hard. It's just a test of memory.

Couldn't you use that argument about just about any hard game, though? I'm fairly positive someone out there will say that Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden aren't hard, just a test of memory too.

Any difficulty in Dark Souls can be nullified with co-op play or by leveling stats and gear. The game can be completed at level 1, so a level 60 or 100 or 713 character certainly shouldn't find it difficult. I haven't played Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden but I don't think they have ways to get around the difficulty like that.

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LornHg

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Vanilla World of Warcraft was pretty rough ... never quite finished Naxxramas 40

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metalsnakezero

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Souls series, Ninja Gaiden (Xbox version), and Devil May Cry 3.

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Aterons

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I manged to get to very high master in starcraft, top 200 guild in WoW, suit only every blood money mission and a lot of RPG/strategy RPG's with self imposed restriction.

However I never liked nor have I tried playing a lot of "super precision platformers" which seems to be the games you are referring to... so as far as Ghost and goblin is involved, non, i play games for the story and for the mental challenge not to test keyboard latency and finger reflexes.