Be it a game that’s difficult in its entirety, or a particular challenge in a game that you just couldn’t complete.
For me, there are three that come to mind:
- Super Hostile: Waking Up (Minecraft Custom Map, Hard difficulty). That damn water section…
- Terraria Zenith Mode. Coming from someone to whom Master Mode is fairly easy, this was rough.
- Calamity Death Mode (Terraria). I beat DoG (this was back when a headshot was an automatic death), but I just could not click with the Yharim fight. I also think burnout was at play here because that was a LONG playthrough.
If Hades didn’t have God Mode (which actually works in a pretty interesting way and isn’t just invincibility or whatever), I would have given up incredibly quickly.
Once I enabled it, shit started to actually feel fun for me.
Now it’s one of my favourite ever games.
I’m about to just toss Remnant 2 out. I thought maybe it would be better than the first one, but it’s even more bullshit. Like, it’s a shooter and the first boss hurts you while you look at it. The intended method to defeat it feels way more like cheesing an exploit. I’ve gotten through the first quest in the Labyrinth and I’m hating the bosses even more than the first game with how just annoyingly unfair they are if you’re not playing with a group. They’re simply not fun.
Returnal is very similar in gameplay, and is even a roguelike with super brutal gameplay; even that game isn’t as frustrating as Remnant 2. The bosses are hard, but not unfairly so.
I usually never complete the “extreme” challenges present in some games, like path of pain and the pantheons in Hollow Knight, or the B-sides in Celeste. I try them, but when I realize that completion will require lot of time and effort, I really don’t feel bothered enough. But I’m ok with that because this kind of stuff is optional, and it’s actually cool seeing more talented gamers deal with them
I had a lot of games on PS4 where the difficulty isn’t “why” I stopped, but the lengthy loads when I died was.
I’m perfectly happy dying a bunch of times in a row, provided the deaths are fair and consistent. I have a big issue with waiting 5-10 minutes to replay a section that doesn’t last meaningfully longer than that.
Getting a PS5 let me go back to a lot of those games and properly enjoy the brutal difficulty without the headaches.
Gave up on gaming in general. Moved to Linux back in October. Had issues getting my games to play because of various issues between Nvidia 535/545 and Wayland, Xorg, or the steam/proton/lutris/aagl/hgl things I tried. Then work got too busy and I’ve put gaming on the back burner 'til I have more time to troubleshoot it (hopefully with new Nvidia/Wayland packages).
This.
This is unfortunately why I have not switched to Linux as a daily driver
I switched to Linux as my daily driver back last summer and have been able to play every game I’ve tried with literally no issues. Admittedly, I had issues at first but then I switched to Pop!_OS, which has built-in support for Nvidia hybrid graphics. That solved the few gaming issues I had.
With how easy it was and how many games work with no issues, I’m genuinely surprised to hear people say they are having issues with it. I’m not even close to a linux expert. I’m not a programmer. I don’t want my OS to be a hobby, I want it to just work. And so far it has.
You might give it a try – it may just work for you. Not everybody has the same issues, and I’m sure I’ll be able to figure it out later when I have time to troubleshoot it. This is just a busy time of year for me, so as long as my work stuff works, I’m good, and gaming has to sit on the backburner for a bit.
I don’t think I’ve stopped in the middle of something without planning on coming back. If something is difficult I’m more likely to do better the next day.
But something that I know I would not have fun with is platinum any Yakuza game. And honestly, I’m glad this game taught me to not worry about not completing things I don’t care about.
I ragequit half way through the final boss after having died for the thirtieth time. The game is absolutely beautiful, but fuck me some of it is tough.
Ended up watching the last bit on YouTube. No regrets.
Thanks for the unintentional recommendation.
Oh, it’s a stunning game, and I absolutely adored it. But that final boss is an utter prick.
I doubt that I’ll ever get that far. I used to play games on “hard” difficulty and explore/find everything. Today I’m just glad if I find the time to play, have fun and enjoy the games, even if I need to play on “easy” difficulty. All the completionist aspirations are gone.
A lot of puzzle games, especially ones by Zachtronics. Eventually I get to a point where my brain just can’t keep up and at that point I consider it done.
Yes! For most genres of games, I’ve noped out of some games but completed others. It wasn’t until you mentioned it that I realized I’ve never completed a Zachtronic game. I absolutely adore what Witness was doing, but I haven’t finished it. I should go back to it.
This was me playing Ocarina of Time.
It was also me when I played Majoras Mask. Young me did not comprehend that shit at all.
I never played Majora’s Mask. Having seen speedruns of it, I’m pretty sure it would have fried my brain as a kid.
Zachtronics games are hard. Every once in a while I try going back to beat Spacechem but I’ll just hit a wall, noodle with it for a few days and just sort of run out of motivation.
I tried replaying the Kingdom Hearts games leading up to playing KH3. Got all the way to the final boss sequence in KH1, but I just couldn’t get past the second phase, and I didn’t have any good saves for going back and leveling up. Gave up. Already beat it as a kid when it first came out. No need to kill myself in my late-30s for it.
Dark Soul serie. After dying for the nth time i gave up. I don’t have enough time to red again and again the same path.
Getting over it, well it do save your progression, especially your mistake.
Subnautica and amesia. I fear void place and it’s too scary.
Botw master mode sword challenge. Made it to stage 6
Stephen’s Sausage Roll.
I play a lot of puzzle games. Some of them are pretty hard (the later levels of Tametsi take quite a while to crack).
But this one is on a completely different level. If there is a more brutally punishing sokoban-family game on existence, I have no idea what it might be.
Stephen, if he exists, is most likely condemned to roll sausages eternally in hell, for the sin of making this game.
Surely, Baba Is You is horrible and awful! By which I mean very good. And either unreasonably hard or maybe I’m stupid. Avoid at all costs!
Baba Is You is fantastic, and I think its difficulty curve is much, much more reasonable in the beginning than Stephen’s Sausage Roll. I haven’t finished it, but I didn’t utterly bounce off it either.
Minecraft, I tried summoning and defeating the Wither and was woefully unprepared. The entire world near the fight was filled with craters from the explosions. I was getting ready to throw the entire world away. Then I decided to just cheat and turn Creative Mode on for 1 second, the Wither disappeared and I was able to continue playing, now with PTSD.
It didn’t help that I was playing on Bedrock (switch), which apparently has a much more difficult fight than in the Java edition.
Try fighting it underground, it gets stuch on all the blocks and you can easily backpedal as far as you want down a little tunnel. Enchanted golden apples are also very good.
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“True Pacifist” route is worth doing if you enjoy Undertale, it’s not terribly difficult and fleshes out the characters a bit more. If you’re thinking about going the other way, I would say play up through Undyne and see how that feels. Edit: also play Deltarune if you havent
I really want to like Outer Wilds, but it just hasn’t quite clicked with me either. I’ve probably played about 10 hours but just keep bouncing off of it.
I adore the Outer Wilds vibe, but had the same experience and it still doesn’t sit well with me! Years later and the game still comes to mind, but the periodic resets were so unpleasant for me that I didn’t see it all the way through. Maybe this will be the year….
I’m glad I’m not the only one who found the world resets frustrating. I agree that the world is interesting and atmospheric, but as someone who enjoys thoroughly exploring, the resets just kept ruining my immersion into the world. Maybe one day I’ll go back to the game.
