10 Hardest Games To Beat, According To Reddit

Although almost all video games challenge players to some extent, there’re certain games that are notorious for their extreme difficulty. Out of all games, these titles tend to give players the strongest emotions that range from burning frustration during harsh segments to overwhelming elation when those parts are overcome.

Since the fun of these games comes from the adrenaline of the struggle and the pride from the accomplishment, there are many players that enjoy these challenging experiences. For these fans of the genre, Redditors have shared their opinions on which games are the hardest to beat.

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

Since the 2003 game Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, which is the seventh mainline installment of the Fire Emblem franchise, the game’s titles have been regularly localized. But, the earlier games in the Fire Emblem franchise are among the many great Japanese games that have never received an official English translation. One of these earlier titles is the 1999 Super Famicom game Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, which is the fifth installment.

Although Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem may have the hardest difficulty mode, which is called “Lunatic Reverse Mode,” Thracia 776 is arguably the most difficult overall. 4ny3ody explains that, “While Thracia‘s ‘paragon mode’ gives you double EXP, this game demands more than just combat prowess on your characters as maps tend to have quite varied objectives.”

Shinobi (2002)

Since the late ’80s, the Shinobi series has been a well-beloved Sega franchise, but the 2002 PS2 installment,is especially known for its extreme difficulty. The game follows a master shinobi from the Oboro clan named Hotsuma who wields a special sword, Akujiki, and must defeat a powerful sorcerer Hiruko.

Because Akujiki drains the player’s health and the enemies are brutal, many people consider this game to be one of the hardest games they have ever played. Caseythebuffalo even writes, “When people complain about Dark Souls being hard, I always think back to [Shinobi].”

Kaizo Mario World

Created from 2007 to 2012, Kaizo Mario World is a series of three ROM hacks of the SNES game Super Mario World, which were made by the Japanese ROM hacker T. Takemoto for his friend R. Kiba. These hacks are infamous for their “unfair” traps such as invisible blocks, fast scrolling levels, goal post traps, enemy-based puzzles, and more.

While the hacks were specifically made for one person, they became popular after YouTubers uploaded videos of them playing the game, and now the term “Kaizo” is often used to refer to extremely difficult platformers. After mytwodogs beat the original, they revealed that it took them “13 weeks, playing two hours a night, for a total of 182 hours to do this.”

Touhou Project Franchise

Starting on the PC-98, Touhou Project is a series of popular shoot ’em up games that primarily focus on a young shrine maiden named Reimu Hakurei as she solves various supernatural mysteries within a land filled with both humans and yokai called Gensokyo. Besides having a strong fanbase, the series is notable for creating the “Bullet Hell” genre.

As the name of the genre entails, players must guide Reimu and other characters through waves of bullets by precisely moving between them. WeeziMonkey says that the Touhou games “make Dark Souls look as easy as a kid’s game.”

The Binding of Isaac

Originally made as a 2011 Flash game and later remade in 2014, The Binding of Isaac is a popular roguelike that revitalized the genre. The game follows a young boy named Isaac who flees into his monster-filled basement after his mother is told to kill him as proof of her faith for God. As either Isaac or several other characters, the player must traverse the procedurally-generated dungeons, collect items, and defeat enemies.

Because of the game’s high difficulty and in-depth gameplay, players can spend many hours and playthroughs in the game and still not completely beat it. UltraLegoGamer reveals this struggle by saying, “I have about 135 hours in The Binding of Isaac, and I still don’t have a few characters unlocked and I need to do a lot of character completions and challenges, as well as other item unlocks.”

Hollow Knight

While most good metroidvanias usually have some level of difficulty, Hollow Knight is especially known for its challenging platforming, enemies, and boss battles. As a silent, insect-like protagonist known as the Knight, the player must explore an underground ancient kingdom named Hallownest and defeat various bosses in order to solve a mysterious illness, “The Infection.”

Although it’s not a roguelike, the game is similar to The Binding of Isaac because its longevity is largely due to the large amount of detailed in-game content and difficult boss battles. Twilo101 laments the fact that they may never achieve the game’s 112% and says, “Being the completionist that I am in games, Radiance was manageable, NKG stomped me into a f****** wall, and the 3rd Pantheon simply said no before blocking me out of the game entirely.”

Mega Man Franchise

Since 1987, Mega Man has been one of Capcom’s major franchises. Although the games take place in different times and even different universes, they all center around a blue humanoid robot named Mega Man who fights enemies using a cannon attached to his arm called the “Mega Buster.” While the series has over fifty games that span over many different consoles and genres, they are all usually well-known for their intense difficulty.

For example, DerRoger considers the original NES Mega Man games to be the most difficult and says that, “In my opinion, they are still harder than the Soulsborne games.” Meanwhile, Alexlun couldn’t believe how challenging Mega Man Zero is and wrote, “I had a background in Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne (completed a lot of insane challenges in those games) and I still remember being stuck at the first boss for like two hours before I gave up and watched a tutorial online.”

Ghosts ‘n Goblins

Even though the Ghosts ‘n Goblins franchise has plenty of great and challenging games, none of them have been able to achieve the same level of infamy as the original 1985 Ghosts ‘n Goblins. In this game, players control a knight named Sir Arthur as he attempts to rescue Princess Prin-Prin from the king of the Demon World.

Because of the large amount of enemies, Sir Arthur only being able to withstand two hits, and the fact that players need to beat the game twice, some consider the retro title to be one of the most difficult games. Anytime Ninjaromeo struggles with a harsh game, they tell themself, “I beat Ghosts ‘n Goblins, and I can beat this too.”

Bloodborne

Released in 2015 and considered by some to be one of the greatest video games ever made, Bloodborne is an action RPG created by FromSoftware who also made the similar Souls series. As a Hunter within an ancient gothic city called Yharnam, the player attempts to uncover the mysteries behind the city and a blood-borne disease while fighting various creatures.

Unlike the other Souls games, Bloodborne deceptively appears fairly easy at first, but the challenges in the second half of the game and DLCs are arguably more difficult than any of the challenges in the Souls games. DestinyUniverse1 agrees and says, “Bloodborne starts fairly easy and just gets extremely ducking annoying and hard toward the end.”

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Before 2019, players of FromSoftware’s Soulsborne games thought they already knew how difficult the developer’s games could be. But, after the release of the award-winning action-adventure game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, players learned that FromSoft had been holding back this whole time.

The game follows a powerful shinobi named “Wolf” who goes on a journey to rescue his lord, Kuro, and enact revenge against his kidnapper Genichiro. With a steep learning curve and difficult battles from the start, Hawggy echoes everyone’s experience with the game by simply saying, “Sekiro: Shadows Die Way More Than Twice.”

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