Top 10 Surprisingly HARD JRPGs

I wasn't expecting these 10 JRPGs to be so hard! Today I'll explain how they came to be that way and why they are so difficult.
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[@sirbradfordofhousejones]

Several people misinterpreting this video- it isn’t a “hardest game” list, but a list of games that are harder than you’d expect. Not sure why people feel the need to be asshats about it.

[@denisfolcik1373]

Well it's the internet, people naturally turn into keyboard warriors. People will argue and say the Soulbourne games are all super easy because it's the internet. People are asshats online most of the time.

[@sirbradfordofhousejones]

@ haha true… not much room for grace or nuance.

[@Dhalin]

If someone has an ass for a hat, they're gonna wear it regardless. They look for excuses to show it off.

[@BonesawIsReady]

your channel brought my attention to Arc Rise Fantasia. It's now become second favorite JRPG of all time behind DQ3. Thank you so much man. And you're absolutely right, Arc Rise's difficulty curve is it's strongest feature, every single boss fight goes hard and there's not a single JRPG that has had me sitting for 20 seconds considering what to do on my next turn. The very first boss is against a necromancer where you have to manage dealing with his summons against doing damage to him- every action of every turn is relevant and this pattern continues throughout the entire game. The game is absolutely stellar when it comes to mechanics and it's a crime it flies so under the radar.

[@ProductionsFromBeyon]

The Ryza mechanics was hard for me until I “got it.” It didn’t click until I was like 3/4 of the way through, but once I got it, I found it really satisfying

[@paanazmi8062]

the part of the Ryza is really frustrating as the synthesis is quite hard to digest and understand. but after some time it was manageble and fun to try

[@amuro9624]

I think this is something you have with a lot of jrpgs. There is systems you're supposed to understand to be able to use all the tools the devs give you and if you do the game isn't that hard but a lot of people default to grinding as soon as they hit a wall instead of trying to actually think and understand what they're doing wrong.

[@agamer2000]

@@amuro9624Learned this the hard with Xenoblade 2 lol

[@nessonett742]

Ryza isn't hard that's just a skill issue.

[@paanazmi8062]

@@nessonett742 Ryza 3 feels more like spamming button. I like Ryza 2 more in term of its mechanics. I havnt play the first one tho

[@hansjaeger4166]

Wild arms 5 hard? Please tell me he’s kidding.

[@theichi4135]

I beat tales of arise on unknown difficulty. But it took me 200 hrs with the dlc. I 100% everything. One of my favorite rpgs ever. Lol I was a beast in this game. My hardest part in a rpg was in ff8 when you made it to the witch castle. Then they took all your summons and magic away. I got stuck there and lost the save and never played it again.

[@saintfayde4438]

Noticing a trend where every time Erick says a game is "hard" it's usually because he ignores game mechanics or just doesn't understand how combat works...

[@agamer2000]

Pretty much XD

[@nessonett742]

Some of these are legit hard.

[@Oddly-Offensive]

I had to do an eye roll at Arise... Easiest Tales game next to symphonia

[@optimize0]

Yeah. It's not the first time he's ignored jazz.

[@alexdorian336]

Sounds more like you can't read lol. Go on read the tittle a few more times.

[@zg-it]

After Erick says let's begin, I play the music in my head

[@davenhla]

Dark Cloud needs a modern sequal. Maybe they could do a remake, but I think it could use more to it so they would be better off makeing a new title in the series with modern tech.

[@giodandosu]

i agree! but for the sequel! the 2 for me was a lot better in all ways!

[@Woodzta]

Dark Cloud can be made easier by exploiting the block button. Just get used to holding it and waiting for an opening so you can stunlock and it'll be absurdly OP against 95% of enemies. It doesn't help much against cheap fights like Dran though.

[@PuntoCeroOcho]

Man the second lord of Tales of Arise still give me chills after all this time. I had to change the difficulty to beat him because after 20 loses I was ready to ragequit.

[@theoaremevano3227]

I had to use most of my items, beating him for the first time on Hard mode, though I might have had a better time if I was not insisting on using Law with his rather lacking early-game moveset. XD He gets some moves afterward that really flesh out his main function.

[@IchiHishi]

Dark Cloud is SO GOOD! It's one of my favorites on PS2! I still want to finish Dark Cloud 2, though. TALES OF XILLIA AND TALES OF XILLIA 2 ARE ON MY TOP 5!

[@stellaanony3020]

Totally agree that Tales of Arise is too difficult, at least for me. Not because the controls are hard to master or that bosses spam too many attacks. For me it was the fact that all the enemies are damage sponges. Dang, it takes waaayyy too long for a battle to finish! I was not expecting that since I basically finished all the Tales of games, except for this one.

[@Robin-cw5zu]

In Atelier Ryza 1 on the hardest difficulty almost everyone is faster than you and the final boss if I remember correctly has like 500,000 HP. Maybe more. Oh and Ryza and her friends usually cap out around 1-3,000 health btw. Great game though. The time mechanics are actually the best I’ve seen from “traditional” jrpgs, really pushes you into being active when you play.

[@PsychoUndSoXD]

That is an interesting list. Most of the games I do know. I am surprised that none of the "Star Ocean" games made it to the list. Or maybe for those games it is not surprising because they are hard in general. And for "Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2" I played both games on the hardest difficulty and beaten them. In the first one even with all the special bosses. In the second one that is the part that I am missing. The special bosses after you beat the normal game. Those harder versions of the Organisation XIII members and the very special boss on the keyblade graveyard, which for that one to show up, I have to beat the members first. Maybe someday :D

[@gyaruninja]

Today, my friend who doesn’t like turn-based RPGs because it’s too boring and slow for him, I put him on some hard rpgs and made him play Persona 3 on Merciless Mode on first playthrough and now he’s interested in playing more turn based games on harder modes because playing them forced him to fight strategically and think a lot more through critical moments

[@TheBlackSeraph]

He's gonna love Shin Megami Tensei 3 (or most of the MegaTen games for that matter).

[@ICgay4]

You did the right thing, I want you to be my friend lol but thats awesome It's a big pricey but Arc Rise Fantasia was hard

[@Treyvon.]

Talking about FF7 remake, we watched a streamer play it who didn't always read tutorials and stuff. She also had to switch to easy mode. Only at the end of the game, we pointed out to her, for a second time, that she had not equipped any new gear OR spend level up points on any character... so yeah, it can be a hard game if you accidentally do a challenge run like that :'D

[@MorganScorpion]

The first time I played Dark Cloud, I managed to complete all except the final few levels of the big tower thingy at the end. A year ago I tried again, and this time I can't even beat Dran. Maybe I'm just getting old.

[@NadiaRayne]

As for "Tales of" games I found "Zestiria" the hardest for the reason that the enemy stats are based on armatization. For someone who could not get into this mechanice, this game was frustratingly hard. Even on lowest difficulty elite monsters or bosses were impossible to beat with separated allis. "Ryza" was my first Atelier game. It wasn't exactly hard, but it needed some effort and time to master its battle system. "Kingdom Hearts" is the action RPG series I can't get into for having really chaotic gameplay with all the air attacks and stuff. Can't really, if the series is hard, but the gameplay made it frustrating for me to get really into.

[@theoaremevano3227]

I genuinely have no idea why you wouldn't just Armitize all the time, at least for your ally. I know they had the arte triangle to try and make splitting relevant, but it doubles your freakin stats. At minimum, you want your ally fused all the time just so they die less easily... slightly less easily. I just broke the skill system eventually with anti-resist skills letting me flatten bosses with armatus mystic artes before they even really moved. Worked like a charm if you actually got it set up. XD

[@WhiteFangofWar]

That does seem to be the theme of Atelier games, always harder than their kid-friendly appearance suggests. I remember someone posting a video of one boss in that series destroying him over and over again, with no hint of anything he could have done differently to survive. Wild Arms 5 honestly feels easier than the rest of the series. Sure the solo fights and bonus bosses can be tricky, but they're the exception not the rule. Wild Arms 2 had some crazy difficulty spikes, particularly any time you can't just cheese a fight with Knightblazer. Then WA3 had a lot of puzzle bosses like the Huskarls, Asgard and Guardian Lords who would slaughter you if you didn't figure out their mechanics fast.

[@quintussilenius4324]

i'm one of the (very few) people who played arc rise fantasia... or rather most of it. near the end, it decided to bug out, so i had to reload a (pretty old) save file - and realized that now i'll have to redo a very long and tedious boss battle. and this, combined with the fact the story in the second half of the game kinda started to fall apart, made me put the game on hold - and as it is often the case in such situations, on hold was where it remained since.

[@theoaremevano3227]

Funnily enough, Xillia 2 and Arise are my top two favorites in the series. :) I think with Arise, part of their plan was to make their little 'sales packages' they sold along with it more appealing, if you get what I mean. Yet I found the experience ended up feeling better to me without those level boosts, etc. because things like items were actually worth something, as opposed to ending up with max of every item shortly after starting the game. But I hear you on modern difficulty perspectives. The prevalence of streamers, challenge runners and speedrunners either playing the same tough game all day and forgetting that it was actually hard, or faking it using cheat engines to 1-up people (until they get caught), makes the whole perspective on difficulty weird for players, and that affects demand in turn. How many deaths are required for a boss to qualify as 'hard'? Do they need that much HP, or is that only for players who've optimized the heck out of their damage output? The line between extra challenges just for people who haven't had enough yet and 'main game content' is blurry too. After all, if someone plays 'that' game on stream, don't all their viewers really want to see them fight that one superboss? We love games because of how they allow us to share experiences, but the collision between normal and fringe experiences has made the gaming landscape a genuinely confusing place at times.

[@jdforeman79]

Resonance of Fate was brutal.

[@cCarcass23]

Was gonna mention this one too.

[@abdulhadidamanhuri5235]

wild arms 5 was actually quite difficult during my childhood because i couldn't grasp the hex system at all. but the game was so good and the ost slapped so hard that i never quit it all even when there were challenging and almost impossible boss battles. in fact i keep restarting it just to grind more before such battles. the thing is there were battles that you are not supposed to win at all that i kept restarting without realizing it was a part of the storyline.😂ah the memories

[@ivanbluecool]

I'd say dragon quest series. The game is either super easy enemies you can one shot or those that just take forever and can revive their allies. Dq3 you can't really do a solo run as the game just dog piles you and at the end of you skipped getting all the artifacts you basically are done and can't continue forward. Even some enemies have blow away magic that makes you need to go back to get them in the city or negate magic

[@saintfayde4438]

Can't do solo runs? Looks like someone hasn't thought of using the Mask of Implacability

[@micheldwson]

I’m with you on FF 7 remake, that house was such a hit sponge. Came close to beating it first time on normal, died, and just didn’t have the patience to fight it again so dropped it down to easy, which was too easy. Am sure there is a right way of doing it but I am an old, sadly.

[@denisfolcik1373]

The right way is whatever you enjoy the most. Real life is hard enough, so I enjoy being OP in games and cruising through. If someone likes a real challenge in a game playing on the hardest difficulty, good for them. Never let the online trolls tell you the "correct" way to play a single player game.

[@TheBlackSeraph]

@@denisfolcik1373 It's abundantly clear that the devs don't think that way. In combat, allies gain attack meter (or whatever it is called) about 1/3 as fast as the character you're controlling, so the devs are actively trying to make you play as all characters whether you enjoy playing them or not so you can produce special attacks at the same rate. The game actively discourages grinding by providing very few respawning enemy locations that offer very little reward and you're capped at level 30. You can't fully upgrade your weapon because you don't get the full Crystarium unless you're playing on Hard Mode (unlocked once you beat the game on Normal). Every boss is designed to overstay their welcome, being an epic for the ages including characters like Rufus Shinra whose battles were a footnote in the original, which should not come as a surprise from the director of Advent Children. This is the ONLY Final Fantasy game I've played to completion (or near completion) where after I beat it I swore (profusely) that I didn't want to play this game again.

[@hernaniicruz7687]

Atelier Ryza's gameplay really had me hooked. Will play it again 10/10

[@callmera0uf560]

Another game I can think off is Metaphor Refantazio, when I picked it up at first I thought it would be as easy as the Persona series, but nope it was just as if not harder than some mainline SMT games (the final boss without relying on cheese was BRUTAL)

[@TheBlackSeraph]

I'm not up to the final boss yet, but one thing I have noticed most of the way through is that the game will have dungeons filled with low-level creatures and then one or two enemies massively stronger than it (and sometimes you, even after plenty of grinding) BUT you can level yourself high enough to take out most monsters in a single hit (which takes ages) and the next boss fight will be surprisingly difficult.

[@vargsieber]

Except for the Ng+ superboss I found it to be relatively easy, it's just a bit of a grind.

[@tyaty]

Mainline SMT is not even hard, if you understand the mechanics. Last really hard SMT was the endgame part of Strange Journey. The hard mode difficulty curve in SMT games is steep at the start, but as soon you get options, the game gives you the right tools to fuse the optimal demons to progress smoothly.

[@vargsieber]

@@tyaty true, it just can be a bit annoying if you encounter a boss that you're not immune to and it one shots you.

[@thesketchspace]

When I was younger Star Ocean 3 traumatized me. Didn't enjoy the number searching puzzle on a huge map and the turtle minecart experience. Didn't enjoy the death by MP loss mechanic. I tried picking it up again recently but I just can't get into it.

[@alvinv.5980]

For me I can't figure out the combo system.

[@kibain]

Xenosaga Episode II is always one JRPG that I forget is so hard compared to the other 2 entries in the series. The change in the battle system blindsiding you from episode 1 + the weird letter mechanic that had you guessing your attacks to land (which some boss fights you HAVE to land it) with some of the letter inputs being longer than one characters turn so you have to boost to really hit it. It went from Episode 1 being a thoughtless beat down rush with fancy attacks to a game of 4D chess to win. Pair that with some of the most annoying bosses i've ever fought and you've got my controller out the nearby window LOL

[@Relisoc4]

another fire upload

[@eliotwildermann]

Dude ff7 remake u complain about hp sponges than admit u didn't use strategies and than put it on easy so u can just button mash the attack button 😅

[@CaptainKreepingDeath]

I'm playing Atelier Ryza right now. About 40 hours in. "Hard" is not the word I would use to describe it unless it pulls some difficulty spike shenanigans in the late game. In fact, the ONLY parts of the game that have given me any trouble at all so far are the bosses of the Lent and Summer Island DLCs, and only because they stick you with preset levels and gear. I don't know, maybe I've just clicked well with the alchemy system, but so far this game has been like one step above baby mode for me on normal difficulty Though I haven't played the rest of the series, so I don't know how it compares to those.

[@brandobvf]

nah it’s really just easy. if you’re getting your ass kicked, that just means go make some better stuff. if you watch his gameplay he’s never leaving up his tactic level, that’s his issue

[@Smndo]

Great video, as usual. But what about 10 surprisingly HARD JRJGs but really ENJOYABLE?

[@theoaremevano3227]

Or 10 Unsurprisingly hard JRPGs. XD

[@drno-xc1yt]

Who would have guessed that Rhapsody III would be ballbreakingly hard?

[@Arizona-ex5yt]

Tales of Vesperia. My first (and so far only) Tales game. I had to fight some wolf boss relatively early in the game and I found it to be impossible on normal difficulty. The combat system is so strange that I never got the hang of it. Turning it down to easy is practically auto-pilot mode which is insulting. Maybe I'll revisit the game eventually but not anytime soon.

[@theoaremevano3227]

I will say, I am 0% surprised that you said Vesperia, immediately followed by mentioning Gattuso. There's just something wrong with that boss. I can say you'll have a much better time after that point. I still agree that Vesperia's combat is weird. The vast number of things locked behind skills on weapons makes it really clunky early on. Try having Repede in that fight somewhere and keep him alive because he's actually the only one who has Item Thrower (literally the basic ability to use items on other characters) that early in the game. One thing to watch out for is any weapon that has a split upgrade. Get a second copy if you can BEFORE you do the upgrade, because that upgrade will disappear from the list once you no longer have the base item in your inventory, and you'll probably forget about the other option. Check the Special Items category of item crafting a LOT too. Stuff just SHOWS UP there at certain story points that gives you insane stuff like doubling your Overlimit Meter and such.

[@felipefgoliveira]

I have dropped FFVII Remake in the last chapter because the bosses were simply not fun at all

[@arkgaharandan5881]

i gave up on final fantasy 4 at the end, having to grind in the tower, then leave the tower, go back at the ship to save and then back to the tower and finally when you climb the whole tower you are teleporting to another dimension that every enemies is super tough.

[@TheBlackSeraph]

Funnily enough, FF3 DS/PSP had the same issue, although mostly in the final area. The dark crystal bosses were largely the same but with double the HP pool, but Cloud of Darkness is now actually a multi-part boss fight with several attacks. I played the PSP version not long ago and CoD was kicking my arse and I didn't know why when the Famicom version wasn't too difficult.

[@sonicspeediscrazy]

The reason why arise was hard was because it wasn't multiplayer the ai should play perfect and all the blame should go to me if i mess up. You can play perfect but the cpus would still get hit by dumb things.

[@theoaremevano3227]

Best cure for the AI is to use their boost attack to move them or just let them phase through an attack they'd probably die from otherwise. It's like Muzet's link function, in X2, but now everybody sort of has it.

[@sebastiandzulsolano2707]

For the final boss of Ryza, I had to really understand the battle mechanics and the alchemist system. Otherwise, I would have been beaten try after try. I'll give credit to the game for making me learn how to play it in order to finish it.

[@XellosNi]

Yggdra Union. If you are easily mislead by the goofy cute artstyle.

[@toadskywalker6417]

I just bought the atelier dusk trilogy for the Nintendo switch and I might start playing it

[@Dounsk]

Nice vídeo. Arc rise fantasía is a really Good choice for this theme

[@gustavobarron2948]

You gotta play Agarest War ... and you will see what is to jump from easy to ultra hard in 1 or 2 battles hehe

[@Insert_Bland_Name_Here]

I gave up on FF4 several times. It was only when I finally played it on a GBA Emulator and could boost the speed a lot that I actually beat it. Not because playing at like 10 times speed makes the game easier, but it makes the grinding a lot less tedious. Also, Ryza is so hard, until you figure out how to manipulate the crafting system. Then the game is still surprisingly challenging, but by no means as hard.

[@taipan9604]

If you think that modern rpg makers like square enix can't make games hard try dq3 hd 2d post game dungeon in the sky where you need certain characters who can wield specific weapons to fight the upper right and left pandora's box enemies. The only way to beat them is to use blasto which requires many hours of training your characters to learn it. Also tales of arise is an absolutely great game, I beat it 3 times.

[@vargsieber]

None of the games on the list that I've played was particularly difficult in my opinion.

[@jackleonemax]

Final Fantasy VI on DS was really difficult. I mean, I played GBA and PSP versions and they were so much easier, but this one was a surprise. I still beat the game but it was tougher than expected. I believe Kingdom Hearts 2 is easier than KH1, but it has some difficulty peaks here and there.

[@Xport9]

Hardest JRPG for me was Front Mission 3 from the Original PSX. I was 12 at the time when I was playing it, and I had not a SINGLE CLUE on what was even happening with that game. The game will punish you if you mess up your turns or you have improper wanzers during missions.

[@zengram]

Good memories from that game ! Fun part is at the beginning,they give you a simple choice that makes the game 2 differents playthrough

[@wadedewell]

I loved front mission 3. I still own A copy

[@tyaty]

I never considered FR3 hard. The real challenge was getting good scores.

[@zengram]

@tyaty it's not really that hard.

[@alvinv.5980]

I used to do savescam in FM3. I'll save at every move and when the skills didn't activate or my attack doesn't land on my preferred parts I'll just reload.

[@otame4771]

Gotta agree with your take on FFVII Remake. It is really tedious and the bosses felt like they were dragged on for too long. And this is coming from a guy who played Monster Hunter games for more than 1000 hours each. I think the main reason for the tedium is the lame and braindead combat system. Having to open up menu and picking spells during the combat breaks the flow of the combat, not to mention the game itself is a button-mashing fest that felt like it was made for toddlers due to the lack of combo system.

[@ivanbluecool]

Tales of xillia 2 isn't hard. It's just annoying as damage sponge enemies come around at higher difficulties. They rebalance the cast making Jude weaker and all units able to heal so you have options but it's just grindy Same with symphony 2 where if you aren't over leveled some enemies just take a while to finish off. Only game where this is fair is graces where they let you have combo spaces where you can use your specials the better you get.

[@willemdafo2241]

Atelier Ryza really caught me off guard

[@sobeksuwek]

wait, RHAPSODY HAVE SEQUELS??!!!

[@acockroach354]

What is the game in the first clip of the intro?

[@cCarcass23]

Loop8: Summer of Gods

[@UNGGodYT]

When i saw atelier ryze, i thought it was going to be hard to concentrate, because of the memes. i did not found KH1 and 2 that hard, the final version thought, the KH final 1 was way harder than the 2. it is funny how you show Hook on it and it was where i got stuck on kh fm 1.

[@AsakuraYukiko]

The Crystal monster in Berseria was annoying AF to trigger the retaliation needed. Xillia 2 & Arise were easy.

[@fancyssb6110]

I beat tales of arise in the highest difficulty and found it rather easy, if anything I found the bosses a bit disappointing, instead of building combos on bosses you just spam the same strong abilities for a minute straight till the boss “breaks” giving you 5-10 seconds to mash buttons and destroy it instantly with alphens charged attacks. Hope next game goes back to traditional combos.

[@cesargomez80]

Ff5 in ds was no too hard in My opinión, just know how to use the skill system well and You can beat pretty much anything but superboss.

[@magnumopus8124]

Ivehad trouble with a few of these titles, but I won't say be cause of the difficulty factor. For instance, I struggle with ryza, not cause the difficulty, but i get real ocd when it comes to the alchemy. I don't have the patience like I did when i was younger. So, Trying to grind for mats for alchemy is a real chore, cause it's can make or break how easy or hard thengame can be.....still struggling to beat it. As far as ff7 remake, it took me years to beat it, cause i had trouble getting used to the battle system. I think i ended up beating it just before rebirth dropped, cause i knew I'd be getting it, but I wasn't gonna get it until i beat remake.

[@XionSteel]

To be honest, i never really considered any of the atelier games easy. Sure, if you did figure out the crafting system and how to abuse it then it makes the game trivial (though it required knowledge of where the best mats were or randomly coming across them). If you don't then well.... have fun doing very low damage for the majority of the game. The time limit on a majority of the games just forced you to rush to get things done, which didn't really add much enjoyment overall and is why ryza and sophie are much more popular.

[@TheBlackSeraph]

I bought and tried the Atelier Marie remake a while ago, but the time limit put me off (especially since EVERYTHING takes a day) and I've yet to pick it up again. It seems to be the type of game I need to have FULL concentration on for several weeks and Persona is bad enough.

[@TheCrazyhusky]

I dont normally find Tales of series hard as they tend to be average on difficulty, but I found Tales of Graces-F to be challenging. I ain't the only one a lot fans and people in general say Graces-F is one the hardest Tales of games, if not the hardest one.

[@Kio_Kurashi]

I found Ryza to be rather easy. Second and third were naturally even easier, but I didn't have any issue progressing the game. Maybe if it had been my first atelier game, as I'm sure it was for many who found thighza, then I could see it being considered a challenge since it very much relies on you quickly understanding the Alchemy system and how to exploit it, especially early on before you've gotten several tools to make that easier. I had more issues going back to the earlier games, even ones with only soft time limits like Mana Khemia. Granted, I started off with Sophia so there was the loss of decades of iteration on the formula. I have to agree with Arise though. It was never so difficult I couldn't figure out how to win even on the higher difficulties, but my god did I get tired of watching the same little cutscenes and fighting enemies all the time just to grind for stats. This is also the game that made me really start hating voice quips being inserted to give "character" to the cast. I can only hear so many times how 'skilled' Dohalim is, or whatever crap Rinwall was saying. (I hated then all but the end, but I can't even be bothered to remember specifics.) it was too often repeated and dull by the third time I heard it.

[@hasemtrejo1571]

It’s the Labyrinth of games to me are the hardest games. Labryrinth of Refrain or Labryrinth of Galleria are really hard games that I have ever played for any rpg games.

[@robrmaytry]

Xillia 2: featuring Ludger from DMC 😅

[@xXUnoriginalNameXx33Meygaera]

For anyone who thinks Tales of Arise is too difficult. Switch to playing Rinwell instead. The game will be easier.

[@marlongutierrez335]

Great video

[@TheBrazilRules]

Dark Cloud is not a JRPG, it is a Roguelike.

[@mramisuzuki6962]

Retro RPGs were so hard because many people (especially outside of Japan) bought games used or rented them. Guess what? They didn’t come with maps, the instructions guides or the Japanese exclusive magazines that tell you how to beat the game. This is why we “hated” rpgs on consoles. They were missing 75% of the games instructions that Japan had.

[@craiganderson7986]

Yeah, there were a few games I stopped playing back in the day because I simply didn’t know where to go so I just moved on to another game. Thanks to today’s handy pocket internet devices, I don’t have that problem anymore. These days the main reason I’ll quit a game is because I get bored.

[@TheBrazilRules]

FF7R is such a weird take, because the game is actually a cake walk in normal, you can just spam normal attack and never spend MP, but on the other hand, hard mode is just annoying, with you fighting more with the bad mechanics than the bosses themselves.

[@phildefreitas5669]

The original NES FF3 was pretty difficult. I still think it was the best version of that game!

[@Dhalin]

I hate it when a JRPG expects you to read an encyclopedia and memorize it to remember all of the this works on that, AND they want you to pull off almost frame-perfect inputs, especially for perfect block mechanics. It's why I refuse to play Metal Gear Rising Revengeance because perfect blocks and parries are pretty much required in that game from what I've heard. No Effing Thanks. I'm almost 45, my reaction times are not THAT good. I miss the good ole days of turn-based and ATB combat and sadly the only ways to get that nowadays are with Persona games (I don't like Calendar timed games) and Dragonquest which take absolutely forever to "get going" and you spend several hours of the game with just the Attack option with the occasional healing spell until you finally get party members who can do something other than attack, that and maybe I'd like there to be more than one or two franchises that are TB/ATB?

[@ShadowBasch]

For me, the biggest difficulty in FFVII Remake was the pacing, what an absolute slog to play.

[@fortysixteruk5672]

Kingsfield games on PS1( numbers 2 & 3 but renamed to Kingsfield and Kingsfield 2 in the west) and PS2.( Number 4). The west never got number 1 as that stayed in Japan untranslated.

[@bunchacolors1501]

So I have to agree and disagree with your opinion on FF7 Remake. Though I agree most developers do just overtune bosses and cakk it a day in terms of difficulty, FF7R wasn't that. Your example of the house boss is a good one. The game actually designs bosses with multiple ways to pressure them into a stagger, which makes their large health pools feasible to tackle even when underleveled. The house can easily be staggered if you just equip ice and fire materia (level 1) and cast them at the right time. The bosses are learning experiences of paying attention to their weaknesses and exploiting them.

[@michan6076]

Exactly! Finally someone said that! I mean about FF7 Remake, this game have insanely ridiculous hp bosses. After finished fight with hell house, i just dropped it. That was enough for me.

[@PuntoCeroOcho]

Yeah, the final boss was ridiculous. 30 fucking minutes fighting with avatars and the big guy only to ending with another long fight with Sephirot and if he kills you you have to start again from the avatars.

[@steveperry2321]

Final fantasy 4 is quite easy overall if you learn from your mistakes.. the ONLY areas that really got rough were the sealed cave and optional dungeons but by the time you have access to them you should be able to figure out methods to deal with them.. Tales of arise was far from hard just EXTREMELY tedious imo mostly due to a combination of choices the devs made

[@malpal2]

FF IV Remake was my first mainline Final Fantasy game and honestly the difficulty of that one game has largely turned me away from the series as a whole.

[@zengram]

Arc rise phantasia final boss gave me a lot of trouble

[@kosterix123]

Hard in the sense of being able to wield the controls.

[@HelghastMerc]

I'm surprised to see Kingdom Hearts on here, to be honest. I can't say anything about the second because I never played it. But the first one I thought was pretty easy. Also, I personally think Tales of Arise wasn't too bad, even on easy, although the beginning chapter can be a little rough.

[@sabataEX]

Final fantasy 4 DS was definitely harder then I thought 😂. In fact, I only just beat it a couple of years ago. I was stuck on that f***ing stupid moon. I had to grind and find secret stuff to somehow beat that game. Ughhh. Just one of the hardest games to me period. One game I actually quit years ago. Glad I finally beat it. Kingdom hearts 1 and 2, well I didn’t find any part of it hard at all except for the secret/optional bosses 😅. Kingdom hearts games that were surprisingly difficult were chain of memories and birth by sleep. Not that difficult but still gave me some trouble compared to the first 2 kingdom hearts games. That’s my opinion anyway. For the games I think that were surprisingly difficult to me… hmmm…. I would have to say final fantasy 3 for the DS, fire emblem shadow dragon for the DS, Pokémon stadium games(yes, I count those 😂), I guess persona Q but I hate that game(I quit it after the first dungeon, it was so bad), bravely default I guess, I haven’t beaten it yet(playing it now)but it’s surprisingly more difficult then I thought. Like way more difficult, so much more mechanics then I thought there would be. I guess Star ocean 1 on switch, was surprisingly more difficult then I thought for what I assumed was a simple action rpg. The mechanics to become strong were very confusing to me at the time. Baten kaitos both games had some crazy difficulty spikes that I thought was just something a sadist or someone that hates you put together 😅, especially the origins one.

[@krisnantoprayogosantoso4033]

No mention of Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne or any SMT games after that one (or any Persona games especially Persona 3 vanilla)?

[@DiabolicCrusher]

Oh man, Xillia 2, that damn bad ending fight kicked my ass quite a few times. Atelier Ryza is honestly not hard, it just has combat system different from the rest of the other games in the series that's really hard to get used to, it's why i've never been able to get into Ryza trilogy, i hope Yumia's combat will be better. I have Dark Cloud 2 and both Wild Arms games mentioned here in backlog, guess i'll see if they're really that hard once i get to them. Arise isn't that hard honestly, it's all about learning patterns and then abusing perfect dodge.

[@FirstLast_Nba]

So Hard or Awkward?

[@bamudarkweiss]

Grandblue fantasy relink thats crazy raid 💀

[@KiwiChines]

I have to disagree with some of the choices, but considering I suck at games that everyone else says are easy, It just goes to show how difficulty is subjective.

[@Puppetmaster2005]

Kingdom..... hearts......... 1 & 2...... hard??????? Are you kidding me, Erick? My 6 year old cousin literally button mashed their way through the entire game. And he didnt know what he was doing half the time. He only asked for help when he got stuck on platforming or puzzles, but as far as combat goes, the game was PISS EASY.

[@mohammedallha61]

Ff10 was by far the hardest ff game i ever played. Hoshigami is the hardest game I have ever played it’s brutal and unforgiving. Persona 4 golden on hard is just a different game .

[@koptjager1386]

Let's go!!!

[@mjdf122]

Erick and his RPGs

[@BigPapaRickSanchez]

I hated that stupid freaking house boss in FF7 😂😂

[@fenniken5381]

Dont understand the modern storytelling complaint, loved the stories for metaphor refantazio and ys x.

[@raymondcampusano2991]

They are all easy. Instead of saying hard, I would say, not that easy.

[@tigerhorse6321]

Yeah, I'm with you on FF7 Remake. I did not gel with that combat at all.

[@jurjcluners8490]

It's so good tho. Each character plays different. Bosses being sponges is one thing but the combat system overhaul was phenomenal.

[@ericsigil]

Well, FF4DS IS harder, but its not SO hard, its more about strategy than being hard. Its my favorite version.

[@nelzelpher7158]

Where’s the music from at the closing statement.

[@Ragingspoon]

For me id replace FFVII Remake with Rebirth. Platinumed Remake and while it had many many flaws (being as much a remake of FFVII as FFX-2 is a remake of FFX being one) Rebirth was incredibly difficult for me to get through because it was such a poorly written, designed, paced and executed experience that I would look for reasons not to play. Seriously felt like I was holding my breath to play that absolute stinker of a game. Would have put it in the trash where it belonged if It was not a present given in good faith. Good one with a difficulty I was not expecting would be Alundra. I expected some challenge as I knew a little about its reputation but I had to look up a guide at one point for a puzzles solution because I thought I had it but the jumps I had to pull off seemed a bit ridiculous and I wasnt even sure they were possible. Turns out I did have the right solution its just the margin for error was a lot less than what I assumed it was. I recently tried Kings field and I knew it would be very difficult but I did not think it would be that difficult that game is brutal. I do not think I will ever finish it. Will still try the second one though.

[@Delsoonbye02]

you should really play kingdom hearts dream drop distance and fight the final boss, you will have a super omega fun time! lol : ' D im not lying you can trust me!

[@StanDaMan4487]

Tales of Arise bosses are nothing but bullet sponges

[@tyfp3854]

He the angry "only in Japan" jrpg video game nerrrdddd!!!

[@TheBlackSeraph]

Aren't most of us "Angry 'Only in Japan' JRPG Video Game Nerds"? If you're a JRPG fan, sooner or later you're going to come across a JRPG that was only released in Japan that doesn't have English subtitles. :(

[@tyfp3854]

Well not to worry cause all you have to do is check out cdromance or retro game talk. Especially the princess crown fan translation or English translation check it out.

[@calokbrown1365]

Is the 3D Steam version of FF4 the same as the DS version in terms of difficulty or is it easier?

[@vargsieber]

Never played the ds version but I didn't find the 3d version to be particularly difficult.