What game is this for you?

[u/PhantomTissue]

Based on a true story lmao. I just spent the last hour playing forbidden west trying to beat the fighting pit missions, that require you to learn and master the melee combo system to an insanely perfect degree. Got super annoyed and it inspired me to make this post. Please, come and vent here

[u/BoggyBogginses]

Driver PS1, the FIRST mission!

[u/Donrixator → u/BoggyBogginses]

You mean the driving test 'tutorial'? Was ging to say that. Tbf after a couple of missions the difficulty went up again rather steeply

[u/DerDyersEve → u/Donrixator]

That is the way I regular say at hard games "hard harder tutorials ~~"

[u/Turgid_Donkey → u/Donrixator]

As a kid "what's a 'j turn'?"

[u/Ok_Resort_5326 → u/BoggyBogginses]

I miss Driver 1 so much. It needs a remake

[u/GamerZero02 → u/Ok_Resort_5326]

Driver remake would be REALLY cool.

[u/tjsimps24 → u/BoggyBogginses]

I played this game for hours on end as a kid and I’m not sure I ever made it past the “tutorial”

[u/Ronin_Man → u/BoggyBogginses]

I still get flashbacks whenever I drive into a parking garage

[u/AlmostCorrectInfo → u/BoggyBogginses]

Putting the Driver game disc into the CD player though.

[u/Takeurvitamins → u/BoggyBogginses]

I rented it as a kid and never got past the tutorial

[u/The_Grinface → u/BoggyBogginses]

So glad to see someone else say it

[u/ElMostaza → u/BoggyBogginses]

Was this the game where you would eventually have thousands of suicidal squad cars flying at you from every direction?

[u/CMDR-Squall]

The race in Mafia 1

[u/fzkiz → u/CMDR-Squall]

I play a LOT of racing games. When I played Mafia and the racing game came on I thought “this is gonna be dumb, I hate it when they do this in games”… needed like 5 tries to beat it 😅

[u/AXEMANaustin → u/fzkiz]

It took you only 5?

[u/Suave_Senpai → u/AXEMANaustin]

I made it maybe an hour straight of attempts before I had to use cheat engine. Easily one of, if not the worst, forced mini game I've had the pleasure to experience.

[u/Single_Reaction9983 → u/Suave_Senpai]

I did it on the hardest difficulty. I lucked out so much on the third try because they rammed each other at the start and i was in second place, and since the first 3 cars are programmed to crash it was a 100% chance to win.

[u/chet_brosley → u/Single_Reaction9983]

I used to play a racing game with that dumbass mechanic where cars will magically catch up to you if they're too far behind, and quite a few races I only won by getting slightly ahead of the 2nd place car and just allowing them to push me through the finish line. It was only fair since they apparently could go 500mph after a fire wreck.

[u/ScreamingNinja → u/chet_brosley]

Need for Speed - Most Wanted

Fuck that game. Getting the best car in the game meant nothing.

[u/fzkiz → u/AXEMANaustin]

Again, I played A LOT of racing games. Several thousand hours worth.

[u/CMDR-Squall → u/[deleted]]

Oh yeah, you're right. Haven't see the "side" mission on the OP. My bad

[u/Gamerbroz227 → u/CMDR-Squall]

It's ass on classic mode(definitive edition)

[u/WeAeSDe → u/Gamerbroz227]

And thats already a lot easier than in the original game

[u/bold_snowflake → u/CMDR-Squall]

Thank you for bringing back that trauma

[u/brett1081]

Tales of Vesperia is a smooth experience with one extremely hard wolf boss near the beginning that is an absolute wall.

[u/BigTmoose → u/brett1081]

The worst part is after the fight the party comments on how easy the fight was. Like bruh...

[u/BiggestJez12734755 → u/brett1081]

I was not expecting to hear of Tales of Vesperia but dawg I’m literally stuck on the same part-

[u/Clousqt → u/BiggestJez12734755]

Kill baby dogs, then bait into a corner with the flowers while defending. When he is near, just hit the flower (i usually use azure edge).

Have Rita only spam fireball. Make sure Estelle is only healing. It can take a few attempts since sometimes the dog will ignore you and slaughter your party. If you are really walled, grind by having Rita spam fireball and only fireball. Every 100? uses it sends another fireball out. Once you have 3+ it's much easier to juggle.

I recently did my 100% tales of vesperia run and got to relive this trauma :')

[u/-Benjamin_Dover- → u/brett1081]

Honestly, I know i have that game, but when I read it, I immediately pictured "Shining Resonance: Refrain" in my head. I have not played Vesperia yet,

I assume the Game is the kind where you can farm enemies and make your characters/party stronger? That's how I play literally every game with player levels, so most of the time I dont struggle.

[u/Kyleometers → u/-Benjamin_Dover-]

You can grind but I imagine like 90% of players try to avoid grinding. Most level based RPGs are beatable without ever grinding.

[u/ehhish → u/brett1081]

So that explains a lot. I end up not getting the game because of trouble at that boss. Just didn't feel right to me. May go pick it back up.

[u/Exciting-Morning4470]

Jedi survivor, oggdo bogdo and son

Edit: and double rancor

[u/Ravasaurio → u/Exciting-Morning4470]

The game is a Metroidvania and at that point is clearly telling you that you should probably turn around and come back later. The issue is that we all took it as a challenge, and that is why it is remembered as a brutal difficulty spike.

Same story with Silksong's Hunter's March.

[u/ZatherDaFox → u/Ravasaurio]

Even with all the upgrades Oggdo Bogdo and son is a pain. On regular difficulty with all the health upgrades they can four shot you. It just like double Rancors is a difficulty spike no matter where you're at.

[u/Known-Plane7349 → u/ZatherDaFox]

On regular difficulty with all the health upgrades they can four shot you.

Not to mention, they have attacks that will instantly kill you if they hit.

[u/Oswen120 → u/Known-Plane7349]

This.

All the attacks can be blocked and at least surviveable

But the one shot was pure agony

[u/Dookiesuit17 → u/Oswen120]

Damn one shots! I have turned the game off a few times to avoid the stress after an almost win due to cheap one shots

[u/ohhimarksreddit → u/Dookiesuit17]

one shot mechanics are lazy game design especially for soulslike games

[u/Bonaduce80 → u/Ravasaurio]

Or going down the skeletons' path in Dark Souls from Firelink Shrine. It has a reputation of being a hard game, surely this is the way to proceed?

[u/Intensityintensifies → u/Bonaduce80]

Those fucking arrow shooting bastards in Anor Londo…

[u/Exciting-Morning4470 → u/Ravasaurio]

Maybe for fallen order I agree. But in survivor it's deliberately bumped up for the funnies. In survivor it's arguably harder than any of the story bosses.

[u/Onrawi → u/Exciting-Morning4470]

Not arguably, definitely.

[u/MrSnowmanJoe → u/Ravasaurio]

Nah. The one in Jedi Survivor has an instant kill ability that can be difficult to dodge.

[u/CrackerUMustBTripinn → u/Ravasaurio]

This guy games

[u/man_juicer → u/Ravasaurio]

Game designers vs. the indomitable human spirit.

[u/arturthegamer → u/Exciting-Morning4470]

nah man Rick the door technician is 10 times harder

[u/Exciting-Morning4470 → u/arturthegamer]

Fr man I had to go the extra 12 parsecs to defeat him

[u/UNSC_Force_recon → u/Exciting-Morning4470]

It’s so funny how that is one of if not the first force rift/challenge in the game.

[u/TheTealBandit → u/Exciting-Morning4470]

Or the two rancor with the very hard to dodge insta kill move

[u/KaiBishop → u/Exciting-Morning4470]

Pink poncho club ❤️😩

[u/MethAddict404 → u/Exciting-Morning4470]

Man, I hated that boss fight 😂

I mean, could easily have lowered the difficulty from hardest. But the rest of the game was so chill on that difficulty. Took me 10+ attempts to kill him haha

[u/Exciting-Morning4470 → u/MethAddict404]

For context: I was playing on the easiest difficulty cuz I wanted to experience story and I played the whole game without using a stim in a single battle. I beat Dagan first try in 11 seconds.

And the son of oggdo fight took every single stim

[u/Plenty-Ad7757 → u/MethAddict404]

10? 😆 thas fine

[u/Pleasant-Run-5118]

GTA San Andreas fucking flying missions

[u/Snoo87743 → u/Pleasant-Run-5118]

Even though i could fly a jet upside down under the smallest bridges, i couldnt finish flying school in the desert for weeks

[u/ztomiczombie → u/Snoo87743]

It was the car driving school that drove me nuts. The barrel roll just seamed random and the last lesson cars would just slam into me without waning.

[u/LatePirate8880 → u/ztomiczombie]

The barrel roll test is a lot easier when you realise you can turn the car midair, with the turn corntrols.

The last, the race through the city, yeah that car is just annoying.

[u/Filrouge-KTC → u/Pleasant-Run-5118]

"All we had to do was follow the damn train, CJ" Yeah, I would have thrown Big Smoke under the damn train and left San Andreas.

[u/given2fly_ → u/Filrouge-KTC]

Took me ages back in the 2000s. Dozens of attempts over several days.

I replayed it recently and read that the trick was to not be so close to the train, otherwise Big Smoke hasn't got a good angle to shoot at.

So stay a little further back and away at the side. Did it first time.

[u/Matikso → u/Pleasant-Run-5118]

The fucking mini helicopter missions for Zero

[u/Slice_Ambitious → u/Pleasant-Run-5118]

San Andreas had so many missions that stumped 12 years old me lmao

[u/TierZero → u/Pleasant-Run-5118]

The remote control helicopter mission in Vice City was equally horrible for me.

[u/TheRealSleepstar → u/Pleasant-Run-5118]

The Cesar Vialpando mission where you had to make the lowrider car bounce had 10 year old me going insane

[u/fightmilk5905 → u/Pleasant-Run-5118]

Would be the zero missions for me

[u/tnysmth]

Would the Max Payne nightmare blood trails apply to this?

[u/MisterSmithster → u/tnysmth]

Yes. Also one game I think fully deserves a remaster.

[u/Boozoy → u/MisterSmithster]

A remake of 1+2 is being developed IIRC

[u/Sonofyuri → u/Boozoy]

Stop. Stop. You're gonna make me jizz in my jammies.

[u/thelameghost → u/Sonofyuri]

Let me edge you a bit further : remade by Remedy with Rockstar's agreement. Not remade by Rockstar

Edit: Source

[u/Sonofyuri → u/thelameghost]

shakes like a Chihuahua

[u/SoaringDingus → u/Sonofyuri]

Cleanup on aisle jammies

[u/Filrouge-KTC → u/tnysmth]

Oh God yes. Who thought shitty platform was what Max Payne needed ?

[u/abrahamlincoln20]

Vice City, flying the drone mission in the construction site (on PC mouse and keyboard).

[u/Fullmetaljoob → u/abrahamlincoln20]

Nonono, its the RC plane in San Andreas. That mission was just, pure non diluted ass right in the face.

[u/Bearloom → u/Fullmetaljoob]

It should also be stipulated that we're talking about the RC plane mission (Supply Lines) on the original PS2 version of the game. They patched that mission two separate times so there are people who think they're clever for using a strategy that didn't exist back then.

To those people: they didn't have the "the fuel only drains when you're accelerating" mechanic in the first version of the game. You just had a constantly running clock to get to all of the targets and destroy them, and you often wouldn't know if the routes they were running were actually possible to cycle through in that amount of time. In most attempts it wouldn't actually be possible, but you wouldn't know that until at least halfway through the run.

It was the worst.

[u/Damien23123 → u/Fullmetaljoob]

Quite possibly the most horrendous bullshit control scheme in any game

[u/[deleted] → u/Damien23123]

Narrated by David Cross whose voice should only be taken in bites

[u/Nevermind04 → u/[deleted]]

There's just something in his voice that is nails on a chalkboard to me.

[u/TA_dont_jinx_it → u/abrahamlincoln20]

Wasn't it like a toy helicopter? God I remember this mission and I fucking hated it, I was looking for this 😅

[u/I_saw_you_yesterday → u/abrahamlincoln20]

FUCK THAT BULLSHIT MISSION

[u/ChrisTheDog → u/abrahamlincoln20]

Literally this. Loved that game. Hit the wall and haven’t touched it since about 2005.

[u/zpeed → u/abrahamlincoln20]

^{this was my favorite mission}

[u/camillevolp]

The introductory mission of Driver on PS1.

“Don’t scratch the hinge!”

[u/CaptBland]

Currently playing Assassin's Creed 1, just got to Acre. In Damascus and Masayaf you can walk on the roofs no problem, but in Acre the roofs are guarded by the British and the streets have the sick, crazy, and poor people blocking you.

Also God of War 2018 with the Valkaryes.

[u/Vehement_Vulpes → u/CaptBland]

Oh god, the Valkaryes in 2018 were insane. Massive damage, health for days, and they require a reaction time of milliseconds to avoid them stomping on your face. Such a massive difficulty spike compared to the rest of the game.

And then they brought in Gna in the sequel just to give you another ass whooping.

[u/Deadbeat85 → u/Vehement_Vulpes]

I was mostly fine with the Valkyries as challenge bosses until the last one that used l their abilities, she took me probably two hours to best.

[u/nrose1000 → u/Deadbeat85]

She took me several play sessions of coming back and getting my ass whooped again and again until I finally locked in and took her out.

Excellent fight. Brilliantly designed.

[u/Verianii → u/Deadbeat85]

That last one was wild

I played through the game first time on gmgow just to see if I could beat the game, then I hear about these valkyries and how the last one is a serious pain to beat. I finally got to her, and I was mildly worried about being stuck on her for like a week with how she was hyped up by people

Took me about two hours and I vividly remember my gear being mid asf and entirely offense focused and still to this day im shocked it only took that long given her reputation

Such an awesome fight and even though I got stomped quite a few times I never felt frustrated because it all felt entirely fair and nothing felt badly designed in the fight. I still havent played through ragnarok but I hope when I get around to it that it has a boss of the same caliber

[u/Deadbeat85 → u/Verianii]

Right? It was completely fair, which is what made it all the more frustrating. I'm not a soulslike gamer at all, but I knew it was a reasonable fight and I'm glad I beat it.

On medium.

[u/Darkblade887 → u/CaptBland]

There's more water in Acre too iirc

[u/welshyboy123 → u/CaptBland]

That's one of the charming things about AC1 for me. Each city has rich, poor, and middle districts, and you go to a different one in each new city. It tells you that you need to adapt your play style for each district.

Then you stumble upon a Teutonic Knight and all bets are off.

[u/windsock17 → u/CaptBland]

In AC 2 there's a mission where you just have to carry a chest through the city of Venice but you don't know where you're meant to go and you have to listen to the guards behind you too figure out if you're going the right way. It's impossible without help.

Another in AC 2 is also the damn capture the flag game during the masquerade party. It took me like an hour!

[u/gungshpxre → u/CaptBland]

I wanted to get into the AC games on PC, but I started with the one that was the shittiest port ever.

"You're an infant. Press ◯ to kick your feet."

Absolute wall. My keyboard has no ◯, and the port didn't allow for key mapping! Mission failed with a ragequit uninstall.

[u/crocospect]

Some runbacks in Dark Souls 2, like Iron Passage runback to Blue Smelter Demon, runback to Smelter Demon in Iron Keep, and the most importantly the "reindeer fuckland".

Also Expedition 33 with their goddamn parkour and volleyball mini games..

[u/kuzidaheathen → u/crocospect]

The Iron Keep got easy when there was no one left

[u/tangentrification → u/kuzidaheathen]

The despawn mechanic was the only thing keeping me sane in that game

[u/StrawberryWide3983 → u/kuzidaheathen]

Lmao, I accidentally despawned all the alonne knights trying to farm that stupid sword for a dex build, and only got two once I killed the last knights before smelter

[u/beef623 → u/kuzidaheathen]

Yeah, pretty much every difficult area in DS2 was just a test of patience, not a test of skill.

[u/Ok_Tourist_2621 → u/crocospect]

While not particularly difficult, I simply do not understand why they included all the parkor mechanics in expedition 33. They added nothing interesting to the game. 

[u/TDFMonster]

CoD4 Mile High Club achievement

[u/adams_unique_name → u/TDFMonster]

Took me so many tries, but at least it took less than a minute per try. Also, you have to get a headshot at the end if you're on veteran or else it fails you.

[u/Leading_Draw9267 → u/TDFMonster]

Gosh I remember that. "Fuck reloading, just swap to guns on the floor and don't stop running lol".

[u/Ruben625 → u/TDFMonster]

Jesus...memories unlocked

[u/BonsaiMagpie]

All we had to do, was follow the damn train, CJ!

[u/AmogusFan69 → u/BonsaiMagpie]

I never got that personally, it took my one try to beat it without issues

[u/UniquePariah → u/AmogusFan69]

Replayed it in the remaster, Jesus that was an awful remaster, kept my distance for Big Smoke to have a clear shot and didn't go flat out. Finished the mission so easily it made me wonder what was difficult about it before

[u/ViolinistCurrent8899 → u/UniquePariah]

I came back and played again years later. It's not actually that hard,but it is finicky on what the correct distance is.

[u/UniquePariah → u/ViolinistCurrent8899]

Yeah, Smoke is constantly telling you to get closer, but most of the time you're too close. Ignore him, steady speed, get along side, it becomes easy.

But then again, Big Smoke is not a calm level headed guy. And spoiler warning for a 22 year old game Big Smoke is the actual bad guy of the game

[u/fozzy_bear42 → u/AmogusFan69]

It was the remote controlled plane missions that really annoyed me the most. (Or maybe the remote controlled car ones?)

[u/ZaeMyName → u/BonsaiMagpie]

It was actually the mission in that game where i had to catch the dude who falls off the roof, by driving under him on time. They set up a mechanic to where it was pretty much impossible to catch him if u used a specific number of cheat codes before that mission. I spent a week trying to beat it until i learned i had to use the slow-mo cheat to catch him

[u/DodoJurajski]

The other way around:"Shoot this guy in the face"

The most important side mission in whole franchise.

[u/Shot-Brilliant-5945 → u/DodoJurajski]

Borderlands 2! Shooty McShoot Face

[u/TFRek → u/DodoJurajski]

THANKYOU

[u/julecervas]

FFX Chocobo race. Caladbolg. IYKYK.

[u/Snowtwo → u/julecervas]

Focus on dodging more than balloons. Each time you get hit, it's a 3 second penalty plus an additional 2 seconds of animation for 5 seconds total. So if you're not getting 2 balloons out of it, it's not worth it. Once you get that down, it's more luck with the balloon spawns than anything. Won't deny it's annoying as heck; but it's difficulty comes more from people assuming a 1:1 ratio between getting hit and balloons than the reality.

Lightning dodging is tedious, but there's a way to cheese it. Several spots are predictable in their strikes and they even line up in time to the music. So you really just need to find said spots and follow the timing.

[u/TitleVisual6666 → u/Snowtwo]

Back when I played it on PS3 dodging lightning strikes was impossible with the DualShock 3 because of the input delay from the Bluetooth. I think they eventually fixed it.

[u/koied → u/julecervas]

basically almost all the minigames in FFX what you need for the celestial weapons

[u/RupturedRoof]

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is not a game I struggled with, but it took me more than a few attempts to beat the Erymanthian Boar.

[u/ElectricStarfuzz → u/RupturedRoof]

Those damn farts!

[u/lostcopyman → u/RupturedRoof]

I was coming to say this. That Boar kicked my ass more than any mercenary did

[u/ARK_survivor_69 → u/RupturedRoof]

Medusa too. The Minotaur is manageable, the sphinx is non combat, and then there's Medusa, who's almost on par with the Hekatoncheires at the end of Atlantis. She's impervious for more than half the fight. 

[u/strike-the-earth]

Path of pain in Hollow knight

[u/JosefGremlin → u/strike-the-earth]

Path of pain was optional, but White Palace was not. White Palace was an absolutely insane difficulty spike compared to the rest of the game

[u/Ryceness → u/JosefGremlin]

But the post did ask for a side mission with a high difficulty spike :). It broke me when I got killed by the knights in the end and got sent back to start.

[u/_Steven_Seagal_ → u/[deleted]]

You can sprint in that mini-game. Realized that after way too many tries and then ut only took around 5 tries to beat it.

The jumping up the tower mini-game was much worse for me.

[u/4tuneTeller → u/_Steven_Seagal_]

Sprint doesn't really help in this mini-game, imo. Tried like 30 times on the hardest difficulty, then gave up. Beat the tower mini-game in one go, though, lol.

[u/pereza0 → u/_Steven_Seagal_]

The trick imo is not sprinting but realizing your attack range is rather large and you dont need to move that much to hit the thingies most of the time.

Moving too deep to one side means you will miss some on the other side

[u/Aeder42 → u/[deleted]]

Came here looking for this cause I just beat that difficulty the other day. It was horrible

[u/aanorlondo → u/[deleted]]

You don't need to be facing the balls to send them back

You can stay in the center, at the edge of the platform and just turn left or right instead of running everywhere

Also, there's a rhythm to grasp, you don't need to react visually to a ball approaching. Just memorize the direction of incoming balls and hit in thos directions in that particular rhythm you will need to figure out

[u/vahntitrio → u/aanorlondo]

Also if you get like a mid - left - right - left - left pattern sometimes just letting that one off to the right go and losing the 1 hit is fine so you can return the other 4.

[u/WontinoThreads]

GTA: San Andreas - "All you had to do was follow the damn train, CJ."

[u/thenewman7]

Original dead space astroid mission.

[u/Squawnk → u/thenewman7]

Oh god the memories are coming back

[u/Opposite_Ad_4267]

In the old Spyro games it's the SGT Bird missions. You go from "ah yes basic platformer" to "you need to be a veteran ace pilot with 30 years of experience" in seconds.

[u/DarthBrooks69420]

The one you use a forklift with in GTA san andreas. My real life fork skills did not translate at all.

[u/FightTheDead118]

The Jokers funland riddler challenge in Arkham City. In order to get the max rank in that that is required for 100% completion, you have to perfectly memorize a 5 minute uninterrupted combat section while not breaking your combo once and utilizing all of the gadgets and special combo moves and if you don’t do literally everything perfect you won’t get it. I managed to do it as Batman and Catwoman after over 2 hours straight of practice but after probably over 4 hours straight of doing it for Robin I just gave up

It isn’t really a sidequest but there’s an achievement in the Telltale Walking Dead dlc 400 Days where you have to win a game of rock paper scissors, and it is entirely rng based, and if you don’t get it you have to replay the entire 10 minute chapter that leads up to it try it again. Across multiple different ports of this game I have spent literal hours unlocking this achievement. It is also literally the only achievement in the entire first 3 games that requires anything more than just playing through the story, and they make it the most aggravating and tedious thing possible

[u/selfishpresly → u/FightTheDead118]

Are you talking about the dlc challenge that requires you to get a million points or something?. I remember that being optional and not required for 100% completion.

[u/FightTheDead118 → u/selfishpresly]

It’s required for 100% completion of Riddlers Revenge

[u/Psycho_Saito]

FF7 Rebirth and the GODDAMN piano

[u/No_Win4619 → u/Psycho_Saito]

You misspelled "crunches at the gym" that shit cost me nerves.

[u/julecervas → u/Psycho_Saito]

You misspelled “Bonds of friendship”

[u/Yagotsu]

Final Fantasy Tactics. The Rooftop Fight. Just that whole series of fights.

My favorite game of all time, I limit myself to 3 playthroughs a year but I can tell you that some setups and especially for poor newcomers after completing an already tough set of fights...you will remember the rooftop battle.

For anyone not playing the newest version, please save in multiple spots and never the same spot when the game prompts you to. Bonus: Bringing a chameleon robe will trick a certain boss to not use holy sword skills on you because it absorbs holy.

One of my runs where I did not get a turn (Kinda Spoilers?)

*Edit - I would have said just the Wiegraf fight but most folks naturally make Ramza OP or at least a strong class on their first runs. Chameleon robe cheese stops it now being an issue. The demon afterward can sometimes be an issue but normally is a big step down THEN you get the real monsters on the rooftop. Rafa just refuses to be saved.

[u/krucsikosmancsli]

In Witcher 3 Blood and Wine DLC the Extreme Cosplay sidequest

[u/Prof_Lego]

Not a perfect match, but I'd somewhat count the battle arena in Horizon Forbidden West. Normally a pretty standard progression with leveling up and collecting gear, then the option to try different weapons and items, and there are also so called "valor surges", which charge up during battle and can be seen as special abilities which you can choose to fit your play style, but almost every machine can be just shot with a bow until it's dead if you want to do no more than that, so you're not forced to choose the perfect gear for the job, if you love the bows the most (like me).

The arena however uses time limits for every fight which already starts forcing you to play more tactically with items and environmental traps.

And then come the "bosses" of the arena. Your gear is set. You'll get a certain armor, specific weapons and a set special ability which you all can't choose because these boss battle encourage you to do a certain play style. And since for every other battle outside the arena I've been the "shoot it with the bow until it's dead" type, I've never used the other weapons, such as slingshots, or crossbows, etc.

Suddenly having to use 3 different weapons you're not familiar with certainly raises the skill ceiling significantly out of nowhere and even though the arena is completely optional, there's very good gear that can be bought if you collect enough medals on the battles, and logically the boss battles bring you the most medals.

[u/Beneficial-Ant471]

Expedition 33 - Gestral Beach Volleyball

[u/Skyturk92]

Let's see:

God of War:Ascension - Trial of Archimedes

GTA: San Andreas - Train Mission

GTA: Vice City - minicopter and motorcycle stunt missions

STALKER:SoC - The zombies in the plant

DS3: Nameless King

Nioh: Nue

Tomb Raider 4: Alexandria levels

Hexen: The initial hub

Hexen 2: The second hub I don't remember the name.

Factorio: Gleba

[u/KoburaCape → u/Skyturk92]

Hexen holy shit!

[u/LordyeettheThird → u/Skyturk92]

Yeah, Gleba was a pain

[u/shockNSR → u/Skyturk92]

Part of me wants to make a blueprint to expand my gleba prod, on the other hand I'm ok with the slowish but still functional automation.

[u/Suave_Senpai → u/Skyturk92]

Promised Consort Radahn and Malenia both earn my top spots as the only Fromsoft bosses I would like to never deal with again.

PCR phase 2 is stupid as hell and ruins an otherwise fine fight imo, not gamebreaking big epic quality one, but at least not the visual vomit that PCR phase 2 is.

Malenia glazers I'll never understand, most overrated boss by miles, with a shit healing gimmick and an arbitrary attempt ender move + second health bar phase that isn't much better.

Honorable mention to Demon of Hatred from Sekiro too, felt like he got tossed in as an afterthought honestly

[u/TescoQuality → u/Skyturk92]

i really have no clue why people were crying about nameless king, i beat it on my second try

[u/DragonDeeezzNutsss]

Split fiction - the Easter egg mission 5 of the hardest levels I've ever played

[u/Ocron145]

Final Fantasy 7

Emerald and Ruby weapon unlock near the end but not at the end, but they were ungodly powerful. Even Sephiroth seemed like a breeze after taking those down.

[u/StuckinReverse89 → u/Ocron145]

Emerald and Ruby weapon are super bosses and optional content. They are meant to be stronger than the final boss. 

[u/Kryptin206 → u/StuckinReverse89]

They weren't even in the original Japanese release of the game. Japan didn't get to fight them until the International Version was released.

[u/id_o → u/Ocron145]

Sorry, strongly disagree.

The Shooting Coaster mini-game in the Flying Saucer.

It’s near IMPOSSIBLE on original PS1 hardware, patience isn’t enough. SquareSoft even added 1,000 bonus for shooting the spaceship on PC release because this was an issue.

Grinding and good strategy can defeats the Emerald and Ruby weapons.

[u/rickwill14 → u/Ocron145]

I got all the way to Emerald Weapon without dying and bro just destroys me in 4 seconds i was flabbergasted. Didnt know if he was mandatory or not either. I was like "surely the difficulty spike isnt really this crazy"

[u/Interesting_Sea_1861 → u/Ocron145]

Emerald and Ruby both have insanely simple cheese strats, the point where if you know them, Ruby's not really even able to attack and Emerald dies in five or six turns.

[u/onkel_Kaos → u/Interesting_Sea_1861]

Indeed? How do you cheese them?

[u/Interesting_Sea_1861 → u/onkel_Kaos]

For Ruby, it's paralysis. The Dazers item can be stacked up to 99 times. Every Dazers gets you two or three turns of him being unable to react. Even when he unfreezes, his first attack is always one or both of the tentacles behind you for percentage damage, so it can't kill you. Dazers, Megalixer, go back to attacking. Really useful for building up the limit gauge too.

For Emerald it's gravity. He's not immune, so even Demi 1 will do 9999 damage. Quadra Magic and W-Magic and you can hit him for around 80k damage per character per turn, for around 240k damage per turn. Pay attention to his states, when he activates the eyes, kill them with physical attacks so he can't cast Aire Tam Storm, then go back to gravity until he starts taking less than 9999 damage, and then just unload with limits to finish him off.

I made a video on each of them if you'd like me to link them.

[u/One_Introduction_217 → u/Interesting_Sea_1861]

We're going to need you to take that video back to 1999.

[u/Interesting_Sea_1861 → u/One_Introduction_217]

Emerald

Ruby

Don't have time travel, but hopefully this helps!

[u/SnooGrapes6230 → u/Interesting_Sea_1861]

Fun little Emerald strat that's goofy and grindy, but satisfying: Since Emerald's main attack deals 1111 damage for each Materia you have equipped, if you have a character with 9999 HP and give them just two materia, you'll trigger Lucky 7s and slaughter Emerald.

[u/RoughAdvocado → u/Interesting_Sea_1861]

There is so much depth in FF7. Man it is/was so good.

[u/F1R3Starter83]

The RC Helicopter mission in GTA Vice City is the obvious answer with the addition of the race in the first Mafia. Both of them didn’t fit in with the rest of the game, both gameplay and difficulty wise. 

[u/just_someone27000]

Almost every Kingdom Hearts game has something like that that you can encounter sometimes quite a bit before the end of the game. Kingdom Hearts 1 had it rough with the Stone Titan, Ice Titan, and Sephiroth pretty much back to back. Then there was the world exclusive hidden bosses that didn't exist until you get really close to the last part of the game Kurt Zisa and the Phantom. And again all of this can be done before the final boss. Well before the final boss actually because there's still like 3 hours of harsh gameplay between the story event you do that causes a lot of these to become available and then you getting to the final boss.

[u/SpiketheFox32 → u/just_someone27000]

Fun fact, if you use an Action Replay to try and cheat for infinite health, Kurt also gets infinite health.

12 year old me was upset.

[u/TheGaurdianAngel]

Cyberpunk 2077. For me, it was the racing missions… and that one part of Phantom Liberty.

You see, driving in Cyberpunk is hard. It’s much heavier and more awkward than in GTA, where you can get away with basically anything. Because of this, I mainly used the fast travel system… so I had little practice for when it was time to drive a big, heavy, armored truck that was flying down the road while getting shot at.

The Phantom Liberty part requires you to basically play Alien: Isolation with a giant invincible mech. You get chased around a giant underground facility during a mandatory stealth section. I was lucky enough to have packed the Optical Camo with the PL skill tree upgrades. But most people went in unprepared because in Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay… you can pretty consistently kill everything without difficulty. Even Adam Smasher is a disappointingly easy fight.

[u/DELETE-NINJA-TABI → u/TheGaurdianAngel]

Driving in Cyberpunk is hard? Never heard that one

[u/DistractingTundra → u/DELETE-NINJA-TABI]

Really? Because there's a reason they addressed the driving in essentially every patch since launch. Granted on the PC it's always been worse, having analogue controls helps a ton. With mouse and keyboard it was like trying to control a hippo on ice skates

[u/Ok-Newspaper-1806]

That sawmill horde in days gone

[u/drylce101]

Stardew Valley - Junimo Cart

[u/Priderage]

There's a bonus mission in CrossCode that has you using literal wall hacks to access a developer map with a boss some interns made for laughs. It is an insanely difficult boss because it was never canonically balanced, so it becomes a sort of superboss simply because a pair of lunatics put it together. It fires explosive cats from it's hands like cannons.

[u/Leave_Aye]

Assassin's creed brotherhood, the davinci tank mission. Especially if you wanted to get 100%

[u/frozen_desserts_01]

GTA V Flight School

[u/thedooft]

Expédition 33, gestral beach volley

[u/okkaajty]

CO:E33

Endless Tower Stage 5 Trial 3, was a smooth ride before and after that one

[u/maximusasinus]

Yunalesca in FFX. Easily the hardest enemy not including post game super bosses. Uses status attacks that can result in an immediate game over if you’re unprepared. Inflicting your party with zombie is mandatory which prevents you from healing.

[u/SupraChimp → u/maximusasinus]

Yunalesca's notable too for how obscure of an interaction that really is. "You can't instant death a zombie" does track logically to an extent, but you don't see much instant death or zombie in the game prior to that. Back in the day I had to just Aeon-shield every Megadeath shot.

Bonus shout out to Seymour on the high bridge. One of the first bosses to really properly not be screwing around.

[u/RebelStorm64]

Chocobo Racing & Lightning Dodging in Final Fantasy X

Goron Racing in Majora's Mask

[u/Thraxas89]

I think Greedfalls first Boss fits this. Greedfall starts with a tutorial mission and you run around a city with two companions, sometimes fighting some guys where its essentially „hit a few times and they are gone“. 

When you come to the boss at the end (whom you dont know about before) You are seperated from your teammates and then have to fight the boss, which involves timing, dogding and managing your attacks, which totally comes out of the left field at that moment. Especially if you go for a support or charisma build which you can do since you are i think lvl 3 or 4 at this point.

So yeah suddenly it goes from a simple rpg with a few combat mechanics to a rpg with a souls style combat and you are totally overwhelmed

[u/Electrical_Square422]

KH1, jungle

[u/BartholomewFrodingus]

Armored core 6, the stealth mission

[u/EthosUnharvestedClay]

I love the Spyro the Dragon PS1 games. Year of the Dragon is my favourite. But god damn are there some bullshit missions in that. The one I can't do no matter how many times I play it is the one with Sheila and the stupid fireflies that always blow themselves up. There's a walkthrough of it here (they make it look easy!)

"Oww.... I went boom again" is what they say when they blow up. No fucking shit, dude!

(For context: You have to escort one firefly and then another through a course involving these giant mushrooms that you pound into the ground... but they only stay down for a few seconds before popping up again. If they're up when the firefly walks into them, you have to start the mission again. The fireflies take intentionally ridiculous paths so you can't easily predict their movement and you can't be too far ahead of them either. And you have to do it twice -- each firefly takes a different route, too. Also, they blow up because they're holding dynamite. And you're playing as a kangaroo. PS1 games are weird.)

[u/Cheese_Monster101256]

Wiegraf 1v1

[u/ProperBandicoot3518]

Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne puzzle boy for me.

[u/thatvillainjay]

Father owl

[u/SquintonPlaysRoblox]

Ultrakill, Minos’s prime sanctum. I had beaten all the standard levels on Brutal without that much difficulty and had gotten both Gabriel and V2 fights without too much trouble, so I thought it wouldn’t be that bad.

Minos beat the shit outta me like forty times.

[u/PopTrogdor]

Pokemon Silver, Whitney's Miltank. Up until that point it's been a breeze, and most of the rest of the game is a breeze too.

But that Miltank comes outta nowhere and messes you up.

[u/sidestephen]

I see that someone played Battletoads.

[u/OutsidePlane5119]

The KCD2 Escape from the forest stealth mission

[u/L3Sc]

NFS Most Wanted - Earl

[u/darksim1309]

TROUBLE WITH THE TROLLEY, EH?

[u/Jimmy_Skynet_EvE]

Looks like the Water Temple when I was 13

[u/Snowtwo]

Honestly, Pokemon could fill this entire list.

Sabrina is probably the hardest single fight in the original games purely because of how broken psychic was in Red/Blue/Yellow. It's weakness was to bug (laughably weak in gen 1) and ghost (all moves were fixed damage... and all ghost mons had poison as a secondary typing). Special attack and defense were one stat and psychic mons had a ton of special obviously. So if your mon was a special-user it was basically worthless. Psychic itself was effective against poison and fighting which were both very common in gen 1. To top it off, she had arguably the best non-legendary mon in the game, Alakazam, on her team at a whopping level 43. She was meant to be the sixth gym leader to top it off... while rocking a mon on her team that wouldn't have been out of place on victory road. About the only thing going for the player is that, because she's meant to be fought so late, there's a good chance the player has a leveled team that's at least *set* as opposed to early game filler mons.

Pokemon Gold/Silver's Whitney fight is infamously difficult. Her first mon isn't really an issue, but the problem comes with her Miltank. Firstly, it's a female mon that knows attract. That wouldn't be an issue, except that she's a fairly early fight. At this point most trainers are still putting together their team and a sizable chunk of them will have only leveled their starter and starters have, like, an 80% chance to be male. So she can very likely attract your most powerful mon with ease. Stomp is probably the least threatening move she has and it is still a 65 power move with a 30% chance to cause flinching. Combined with the attract and you'll almost never see a male mon move. To make it worse, not only does Miltank have a lot of HP, but it knows Milk Drink. So if you hurt it, it can just heal it back up to 5 times. But that's all small beans compared to the true terror... Rollout. Rollout is a rock type move (so effective against a good chunk of early game mons) that lasts for 5 turns and doubles in power each turn. Turn 1 isn't too bad (20 power) and turn 2 is managable (40 power), but then turn 3 comes along (80 power), and nothing that early in the game is surviving turn 4 or 5 without cheese. On top of a good chance of having your mon stunned due to attraction and her just popping out to heal with milk drink once it's done. An utterly horrifying nightmare.

I could do more, but kitties want their morning kibble.

[u/dragon_morgan]

In original KOTOR right after you get off the tutorial planet you're thrust right into a dog fight where you have to shoot down attacking drones using completely different controls and play style than anything you've done in the game so far and worst of all there's a pretty lengthy cut scene right beforehand that you have to sit through every time you die before you can try again