Top 10 Hardest JRPGs I'll NEVER Beat

[@ErickLandonRPG]

WATCH PART 2 HERE: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6HHhK2ogpiMrJY

[@gethermedel3620]

I laugh at the end part lol

[@davidesquivel4063]

Thanks🤟🏻🔥

[@jefferydillion1649]

tldr; 10 tales of destiny 1:01 9 shining force exa 2:40 8 agarest generation war 4:06 7 soga frontier 2 5:30 6 phantasy star 2 6:57 5 xenosaga episode 2 4 disgae hour of darkness 10:00 3 valkyrie profile convenant of the plume 11:24 2 the 7th saga 13:02 1 popful mail 14:25

[@thevideogamebrothers3006]

This was one of best AVGN episodes I've seen in a long time.

[@gonzalofernandezortiz1553]

avgn?

[@stevenmorton2059]

@@gonzalofernandezortiz1553 AVGN = Angry Video Game Nerd

[@stevenmorton2059]

By the way, nice impression there, Erick. You had me wondering for a moment. "He'd rather have a buffalo take a diarrhea dump in his ear He'd rather eat the rotten @$$hole of a roadkill skunk and down it with beer..."

[@thunderlightningbolt6597]

♫♫♫He's the angriest gamer you've ever heard, he's the angry rpg nerd ♫♫♫

[@vblegh1620]

Lol

[@Demonic0Jester]

Nocturne like all SMT games is just about knowing what you're up against and how to counter it, in particular in Nocturne the MC can become ridiculously powerful with high crit AoE melee attacks and making use of reflect phys / reflect magic walls

[@ianbraun271]

Also, Disgaea. if you are only trying to beat the Main Quest, and use the item world just a bit, you can beat the game with a full party o level 200 characters with appropriate gear. The key to Disgaea is the item world though. If you don't use it well, you wont get far.

[@berwwtje]

nonesense. I've beat it with relative ease and I only leveled up 1 item 1 time. I didn't like the item world and I didn't get what the inhabitants were supposed to be. So I didn't use it. All u need to do is up the difficulty a little bit and grind your characters up a bit. Just use the two main characters, maybe a healer on the side. I don't get why people think it's hard. I'm playing the 3ds fire emblems now and they kick my ass on hard mode, mainly because of the perma death and not allowing myself to lose the characters I want to keep.

[@katobytes]

Agarest took me 200 hours to beat lmao. Definitely the longest game I've ever played period.

[@DKmax25]

The easy mode message on the remaster was hilarious. See you next time.

[@akemiknowsbest3671]

Xenosaga 2 is one of the hardest games I ever managed to finish, and I personally love the battle system. However, once you get to the final boss, that game expects you to be so masterful of the system, that you have to follow a VERY specific battle pattern with very specific characters. You have to do it perfectly, or this boss will HEAL ALL THE WAY BACK UP after a point (which was typically about THIRTY MINUTES in to the battle. I literally cried at that battle (I probably put a good 20 or so hours trying to beat that battle alone), and eventually gave in, grabbing the strategy guide and swearing like a sailor when I realized what the game expected of me. Great game though, probably my favorite of the 3. haha

[@user-pj5my5po3q]

😱🤣

[@Zantetsudex]

In terms of the list out of the games I did play: Tales of Destiny - Honestly it wasn't that bad. Granted you oughta take into account how to properly keep swordians up to speed to take advantage of them. Now try Phantasia for REAL difficulty. SaGa Frontier 2 - This game is BRUTAL. For the unfamiliar, the game is driven in a way that it can force you to start over for being unprepared. The narrative spans generations of two families and depending on certain choices characters you may have focused on will die outright for story reasons. The final boss in particular can easily be classed as the hardest boss in RPG history. Valkyrie Profile - Great story, but has a similar issue to the above in that you're forced to sacrifice your roster permanently to get the better ending. Not knowing that screwed me over big time when playing the original on PS1. 7th Saga - I remember playing and beating this when I was little, maining Lux the robot. It had a lot of cool ideas for being a progenitor of the genre, but yeah it's another difficult game even for the time. It can be made relatively easier knowing that you can bank your gold by buying gems and realising the runes can be used in battle, like the earth key in Breath of Fire 1 making the early game a breeze. Disgaea - .. You're joking. Right? You want difficult? Play Treasure of the Rudra.

[@ShivaDiva24]

I didn't mind Phantasia or Destiny. The hardest Tales I ever came across is still Eternia.

[@DustinBarlow8P]

Yea 7th Saga, I was only able to get far in it, because I did the instant battle exploit, where you get to a point where you can take out the enemies with one hit, than you put a rubber band around a turbo controller, and leave it auto battling for however long. I accidently forgot about it for 3 days, so when I came back I was like level 55. Just for reference, the level most people beat the game on is like 45..... lol

[@NAYSqjn]

Did not expect to see Nocturne near the end lmao same here

[@KaliChronicles]

Truly fantastic. The popful mail rant had me rolling in laughter.

[@kyethememer9836]

Yes. That was a hilarious rant.

[@lightone31]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@Massiveillusion14]

Popful Mail is an incredibly well put together game. It's just the game is designed to frustrate.

[@trollingisasport]

For sure. I went and played it on an emulator last year and loved it until I got to that woodcutter boss. Reminded me of Cuphead lol

[@bobross4886]

Epic!

[@xDarthRiverax]

I finished 7th Saga with Lejes. I learned that if you let your partner character die, you can resurrect them in those tedious one on one fights with the other characters.

[@yannickluecker3983]

If you ever want to get past the golem in Popful Mail: Stock up on healing items, pass him while he blinks with invincibility and try to stun lock him while he has his body, then follow behind the head with the meelee sword. In fact, this boss really requires the sword...

[@Maelael]

Eric, here's a pro tip for beating Diseaga. Fight level 90-99 enemies! Foes in this level range give MASSIVE amounts of exp/kill and if you can kill off groups of them at once you have an effective EXP farm! Combine that with an EXP boosting Geo Effect and the effect gets even more massive! each foe in the 90-99 level range drops EXP of that of an enemy around the 340 level range. Just look into a guide in which story maps in conjunction with the stronger enemy bill will bring foes straight to lv 99 and have some AOE skills/magic and go fry some demons. In a few hours of this your best warriors will be getting very close to level 1000 which will be far more than enough to beat the crap out of the final boss with only one unit!

[@richardaaron4454]

I don’t remember 7th Saga being that hard, I mean I don’t even remember much about it. I just remember liking it and beating it when it came out when I was a kid.

[@wastingtime2380]

One of my favourite videos of you. It's fantastic to see you are human after all, even playing hundreds of jrpgs

[@pauleccles8562]

In Disaea the demon court can be used to manage and customize the difficulty to your liking. Did you increase the loot quality at all? Did you accidentally raise the enemy strength too high?

[@jalalal8056]

He's noob

[@p1nkfreud]

Just so you know, for the games that actually were made harder for localization, there are fan translation patches for the original (J-NTSC) versions. I highly recommend those over the NA/PAL releases!

[@cmac43]

I love the 7th Saga, it's absolutely a grind fest but I enjoyed every minute of it. Beat it back in the day and when I was older too. I hope you give his game another chance!

[@HelvecioGomes]

Can't wait to see streamers getting rekt on smt Nocturne hd remaster and having to play merciful mode to finish it. lol

[@georgielockhart6686]

IKR? I LOOOVE that game but every time I start it I stop for a bit then forget where I even was. Mynlast playthrough ended after beating that whore Matador and somewhere around Thor. I have forgotten of I even beat him either but I am excited for HD and have sworn to finally complete it.

[@HelvecioGomes]

@@georgielockhart6686 I finished it only one time , true demon route, normal game mode. Tried hard mode and stopped playing before the three brute brothers, before going to Asakusa. Anyways it's a huge game, one of the games I spent more hours playing. But imo Strange Journey is harder than Nocturne.

[@artofthepossible7329]

@@HelvecioGomes SJ's hardness can be demonstrated by the music that plays for random encounters.

[@Goomyx1492]

@@HelvecioGomes Hmm I tried Nocturne many years ago but never got too far. I did beat Matador, but I couldn't beat the first Dante fight for some reason and I stopped. I have beaten Strange Journey since then. And I had beaten Digital Devil Saga earlier, so I'm excited for the HD remaster.

[@trashwolf8]

Can’t wait for persona fans to get a taste of what real smt is like

[@dustinb5908]

Nice work Erick. Great video. At first I was wondering why Xenosaga Ep. 2 was in the video but then I realized I beat it with a Gameshark. I did however beat Nocturne on my own.

[@deshawnholmes4876]

What i find myself laughing at myself about is the fact i beat a lot of hard games as a kid, but i wouldn't even look twice at those games now as an adult. For me they were a one and done. I had the time and patience for them then. I still have the time but no longer the patience i guess.

[@borugbarag5754]

I remember givin up on gettin 100% on Legend of Legaia because of that fishing thing.

[@SuiteLifeofDioBrando]

The hardest rpgs I beat were Monster Hunter Freedom Unite 2 Star Ocean 3 SMT Nocturne (TDE) SMT DS 2 Reccord Breaker Tales of Graces f (highest difficulty)

[@RavenousSpectre]

Ive always hated hard games. But i do have an itch every now and then to see how i can progress in bloodborne or the dark souls series...little by little. Lol

[@x2rmav]

Monster Hunter is a RPG?

[@SuiteLifeofDioBrando]

@@x2rmav I consider it a action rpg.

[@yastafel]

I played all star ocean games, never beat one. How the hell long are those games!?

[@x2rmav]

@@yastafel If you are collecting everything, on Galaxy Difficulty, 50 hrs avg. If you try the maxed difficulties, then 200+ hours. Point Taken,, Star Ocean games are the nightmare of bruteforcing though. No wonder you probably didn't beat then.

[@Trakker1985]

if you're just after beating the story mode in Disgaea, you can knock that out with a team of 4-5 characters at about level 70. There are a few good grinding maps along the way. I'd stick with that just for the story ='D

[@SEiMEi_EXiSTS]

I watched all the way through to see your honorable mentions, I was worried you wouldn't put SMT Nocturne in the honorable mentions! Glad you did though! 😂

[@jaimereupert4247]

11:05 that stage is a good leveling spot early on. You need a skill that hits a 3x3 area, like a level 9 magic, Big Bang (fist skill lvl 20) or Winged Slayer (sword skill lvl 10).

[@Arexion5293]

The whole video I was wondering if an SMT game would show up. I've personally beaten Nocturne twice on Hard, never even touched Normal. There's very little jrpgs that interest me, and Nocturne's combination of philosophical narrative and an actually good turn based battle system made the game fun for me. I want more jrpgs with proper battle systems like the press turn system.

[@ddjsoyenby]

i beat nocturne, but could only on normal i love the game, but it can frustrate me.

[@TheRedWaltz24]

I used to love 7th Saga. I remember getting it when it came out and going through it multiple times because I loved it so much. I don't remember it being hard, but that was almost 30 years ago.

[@rivlasdezerai]

Same, it was really fun to me, I beat it with every single disciple, was going to do a solo run by getting the demon as a companion as he betrays you before you go to the alternate world. The reason it was so hard is they screwed up the stats when leveling in the English version so your main character got less stat gains with leveling than the other apprentices. That's why the higher level you recruit them, the stronger they are, making the main char quite weak by comparison.

[@RaphaWasHere]

covenant of the plume its one lof my fav jrpgs, i love all the three endings and some stuff in the post game, the game puch to sacrifice enought characters to get the C ending, then the nex time its more easey and you get the B ending and then neh you just get it easy till the very end and then find out that the final boss from the A ending its more harder than the whole game its selft. i love it

[@wesmeyer1888]

Covenant of the Plume is fantastic.

[@mequint2000]

Tales of Destiny - Playing it right now. Clunky, yes. Grindy, yes. Each of those painful levels, I did in one sitting but then I'd do something else like read or code. Will I beat it? For sure! Saga Frontier II - Played both characters - the last chapters defeated me. Someday, I'll go back Xenosaga II - Played twice. Beat once. Probably won't ever do it again. 7th Saga - Didn't get 10 minutes into the game FFT - Beat multiple times! BoF2 - Beat once. That last dungeon would turn anyone away. The others- Never played. But now I got some good challenges!

[@MiamiSunrise]

Yes that last dungeon in BOF2 is really something. They also did something else inexcusable with that last dungeon......

[@mequint2000]

@@MiamiSunrise And what is that?

[@ourdivinemouseoverlord3308]

@@mequint2000 I think he's referring to how to get a spell you need to beat the game, you have to go through a special cut scene that de-Shamanizes your characters (in Bof2, Shamans are used to significantly make most of the characters in the game stronger)

[@mequint2000]

@@ourdivinemouseoverlord3308 Yeah, I remember the shamans but I don't remember the part you mentioned. It's been about 20 years. That a dev sin, if I've ever heard one.

[@MiamiSunrise]

@@mequint2000 Yes, what @our divine mouse overlord said. One of the worst parts about the end of that game is that the game does not force you to meet those shamans to get the spell that weakens the final boss enough to beat him. The place you go for that can be missed and as you know there is that long first section and then the really nasty multi level core of the final dungeon before the final boss fight. I found it inexcusable that the devs allowed you to miss something so INCREDIBLY important. The shamans locale is not hidden at all, but you can accidentally miss it and thats my main point.

[@ourdivinemouseoverlord3308]

The only two games mentioned I've played (and that I've beaten) are "The 7th Saga" and "Breath of Fire 2". For "The 7th Saga," I played as the robot and teamed up with the elf girl and used that team to beat the game.

[@Frank-ux6hs]

Hey Erick you should beat the bird from Baten Kaitos in stream, that would be awesome :0

[@jbelt712]

You should do a livestream series where a fan helps you through these games.

[@redstratus97]

I’m in the middle of Xenosaga 2 right now. The battle system does indeed have a learning curve to it. But once you figure it out, then it’s loads of fun. I lucked out getting through the first disc in 20 hours without knowing how the battle system fully worked. It wasn’t until the first mission on the 2nd disc that I was forced to learn it. I also have to say that a lot of the side quests are nearly mandatory due to the items you get when you complete them. You need those items for your characters to be strong and competent during battles. However many of the side quests are boring, take forever or just take too long to do. So because of that IMO you must play Xenosaga 2 with a guide. It will save you a lot of trouble and make the extra long boring side quests a lot more manageable. I’m 40 hours into the game now and it’s the addicting story that is keeping me playing along with the cinematic scenes. The game design is horrid, but the guide is helping me through it. I can’t imagine playing this without a guide now. Without a guide I would have quit long ago.

[@tigmo55]

@ redstratus97: Way to stick with it because I feel your pain! I adore the Xenosaga trilogy (III is in my Top 5-10 video games of all-time list) but everything you said rings true. The story is outstanding as always in II but the side quests...sigh...the side quests are just kind of "Meh" aren't they? It's like a bunch of people criticized Episode One for not having enough side quests/extra content so they tried it in II and...it didn't work very well. Overall, I still enjoy II immensely (Jr. is one of my favorite characters so it's nice to see the focus on him more than the bratty Shion) but it's still the weakest game of the trilogy IMO.

[@redstratus97]

tigmo55 it makes me wonder what the developers were thinking when they designed this game. Ok sure you added side quests now. However who over there thought it would be fun to try to find one person in an area that includes 2nd miltia, The Foundation, The Durandel and the Elsa? That’s more then 100 people you may have to talk to to find just one person! Yeah that not fun, that’s annoying and stupid design. Yes the first game had areas where there was no music so you added music everywhere now. Ok that’s fine, but the music quality suffered greatly and overall with the exception of a few tunes the soundtrack is worse then the first game. Yeah Juniors story is decent in the first disc, however you have to agree with me that it dragged it a few places. I did get tired running around the realien courtyard to advance the story. Plus too having to play the same area twice once in the summer and another in the winter? Come on, that’s lazy game design and boring. Ok they added extra hard optional boss fights. But why would they make most of them only available after you beat the main story? They should have been during the main story. When I finish the story I don’t see myself doing those. Maybe one or two, but without the story what’s the point. Yeah I get what you mean about Shion however it’s fair to mention that her personality is a lot like most highly educated women today. I wouldn’t call it bratty I would say that she knows what she wants when it comes to certain things and nothing is going to stop her from getting it. Yeah I’m liking this game. But I know that the free online guide is helping me like it. I have Xenosaga 3 on the shelf here. I look forward to starting that when I finish this story.

[@remreanimated4640]

Good video as always. :) I laughed at the scrolling text on SMT 3. I plan to do the same thing, wait for the version with easy mode. XD

[@Harkz0r]

@@darkmaster022003 Not only that, but if you get used to selecting your demons based on the difficult encounters, have the right elemental absorbs, abuse Dark Might, etc then you can really cut down on the difficulty. At least until assholes like Mot arbitrarily decide to take infinite turns and ruin your day lol.

[@drachengott95]

Try playing Albert Odyssey. The notes in the back said they inproved the grinding from the original when they translated it.

[@jamesoneavatar8644]

I've beaten Phantasy Star II at least twice. I think I used a strategy guide the 1st time, but I don't need one now. I recommend finding the Visiphone w/ the thief. It helps to be able to save anywhere

[@Doctor7175]

Normal difficulty nocturne is very easy. If you have 1-2 good demons(Daisoujou) ,use buffs and Divine shot you can steamroll everything until last dungeon. Hell even without it buffs are probably enough.

[@stevenmorton2059]

I managed to beat The 7th Saga with multiple characters back before there were internet guides. I bear my scars with pride.

[@LezbeOswald]

probably at least half of my 80+ hour run with Disgaea was grinding. the only thing that kept me from going crazy was the new skills i got at certain levels. the animations and high numbers were entertaining enough to keep me from feeling like i wasn't accomplishing anything.

[@thaiboypsp3000]

Trail in the sky for me. I love the game but I stopped a couple hours in because I didn’t grind enough and kept losing to the bandit early on. Shame

[@terrysalt]

Yes a million times to Agarest. I've tried so many times to get through that game and I always end up giving up before the end.

[@adeswahyuir13]

man, shining force exa was truly grinding. i've never played this game again

[@japanimationman4442]

Not surprised to se Popful Mail at #1. There was one boss fight where even the best weapon available was only doing 1 point of damage, and it had like 100 HP. Since even with the best available armor you'll die in about three or four hits, this was a hell of a challenge. I think the game would have been fine if they hadn't botched the difficulty in localization, but as it is the fun can really get sucked out of it. And, yeah, that golem wrecked my ass for a while, too.

[@realavt]

Erick, there is a fan-made patches for The 7th Saga and Popful Mail, which allows you to play them with original japanese difficulty level :)

[@MTGControl]

I love your sense of humour squire! Subbed!

[@lucassworldofletsplays9270]

Came in fully expecting Etrian Odyssey to be on the list, was really surprised when it wasn’t.

[@PoogiBear1]

You should really try the Sega Ages version of Phantasy Star 1, the quality of life additions and 2xp and meseta boost really makes the game much easier and takes out the grind, plus the auto draw map for the 3D Dungeons makes exploration great. I am biased though; it’s the first RPG I played at 5 years old

[@seanbcusack]

yeah 7th saga was really hard. i did beat it with every character eventually, it really is a hidden gem, but a few of the paths are super hard. i forget which one, but one of them has you fighting the robot dude and that comes out fo nowhere and he's insanely powerful at that point compared to where you likely are. and playing i think the healer or mage guy spent so much time with a single person, so you have no defense against anything, was also a real grind. still an awesome game though.

[@justnewbieintheworldofexpe4977]

Destiny was one of my first JRPGs, failed in first attempt, and finished in second year later. One of my favorite in Tales series too...

[@ordinaryhuman5645]

I'm definitely looking forward to SMT Nocturne again. I haven't done TDE yet.

[@Sinistralx]

Tales of Destiny ps1 was my very first intro into the tales series. I'd say it's worth a round 2!

[@cazualgamerjp]

i love your rant about popful mail :D i think i might pick up that game to see how difficult the game is. i wonder if i'm going to end up yelling like you did :D

[@mr__seven]

Oh 7st saga....recuerdos de Vietnam vienen a mi mente... Realmente lo tengo pendiente ya que la última vez llegue al BOSS final pero no pude bajarlo :( un duro golpe.

[@juanortiz9123]

De cómo un comentario en español! :o

[@mr__seven]

Erick es mexicano, así que tengo que fe leerá también los comentarios en español. ;)

[@chumbosaurio7099]

@@mr__seven si, pero nunca los respondera jaja

[@chumbosaurio7099]

Ese juego es una patada en los huevos , todo porque la localización le arruinó el balance jaja

[@mr__seven]

Debo decir que me encantan personalmente que la versión gringa sea más difícil que la versión japonesa, generalmente siempre es al revés.

[@TBoneTony]

Those that have slow grinding or have confusing battle system. Or if you have beaten the game with a normal ending but if you want the Good or Best ending, you need a strategy guide to trigger an event with characters to get the best ending with those character shipping. And you don't want to print out a strategy guide because the document in GameFAQs is more than 20 pages in length.

[@jaimereupert4247]

17:14 funnily enough, I own a copy of that game and have yet to play it. Not sure if I should. 🤔🤷😂

[@gozucritic4546]

Ah hahahahaha Erick is such an animated genuis plus reviewer,gotta love his wacky rants & his videos

[@SinisterCheshire]

"Popful Mail also has a great soundtrack man, you should check it out." Best part of the vid!

[@paulkinder8440]

I've just started Phantasy Star II, unsure how far i'll get though, but i'll try to get through it.

[@happosaai]

OMG Popful Mail was sooooo much fun!

[@dtk7181]

Ah Disgaea 1... I cleared it 3 times, Recruited the secret characters and cheesed the mega boss with a living book and had over 280 hours on it. This one was the DS version so you know what Characters were included that you can get

[@rpgaholic8202]

Time to comment on ones of these I've played! Hmm... The reason I gave up on SaGa Frontier 2 is I was at the point of "I got this far, but I really want to use the PocketStation with it" and then the PocketStation never came to the US and by then, I had found other JRPGs that I had found to be more engaging. ---- Ooh, Xenosaga II, for me, I think it was the grinding, combined with the fact it didn't feel as fun as the first one. Also maybe the fact that I was mad that Shion now went without glasses, and I found her cuter with them on. ---- Disgaea! Loved it! I think the only thing I haven't done with it is beat Baal. ---- The 7th Saga... I only rented it, it just didn't catch my attention to merit a second rental or even later purchase from me. I might grab the rom and try to see where I go with it, but I've got other games on my radar I'd rather play. The only JRPG I remember going "I never want to play this again" was Magna Carta: Tears Of Blood. For one, it took the Judgment Ring from the Shadow Hearts series and made it worse. Not that I hate the Judgment Ring, but it's not my favorite way to judge attacks. Combine that with my army commandos that have years of training struggling against even minor foes unless they outnumber them. I think I got maybe 4-5 hours in before I was "there are better games out there I want to play or even replay."

[@LunarWingCloud]

Xenosaga Episode II was torture. I remember the final boss beating me MULTIPLE TIMES and since battles take forever sometimes, it took me a full couple nights of attempts after work to beat the bastard.

[@guillermoh.k.2967]

Sorry to sound arrogant, but I feel a sense of accomplishment by finishing many of those PS2 games Mr. Landon gave up (ToD, Xenosaga 1 to 3, SaGa Frontier 1 and 2, Disgaea, SMT 3) back in the 2000's using console and CRT TV (no mods or cheats). And also having Platinum'd Bloodborne. Maybe I should also start my youtube channel LOL.

[@Engylizium]

Bloodborne platinum is easiest from all Souls games, now go get DS 1-3 plat, then you'll have your bragging right lol. P.S.: I think every game is beatable, you just need a ton of time and even more patience

[@guillermoh.k.2967]

@@Engylizium Already did Demons Souls, DS 1 and DS 3 plats among others (hiroman_us). Look me up at psnprofiles (dot) com. Did not like DS 2 enough to plat it. So there you have it.

[@justsomephguy]

I agree with everything, but I was able to finish Phantasy Star II in 1991 in my highschool days with no guide, it just took a really long time.

[@TrejoDuneSea]

It's been years since I finished it, but I recall Xenosaga episode 2 combat being weird in that, especially toward the end, I had a lot more trouble with random encounters than with boss battles. I just plain forgot about almost everything else gameplay related though, including how to boost.

[@NovaSniper12]

I love the 180s that he does, he goes from hating the game guts but then praises them lmao

[@richardaaron4454]

Have you played Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? That’s the hardest platformer I ever I played, it also made Ninja Gaiden look like nothing. Now I really want to try Popful Mail.

[@eileenjimenez7114]

Someone once told me that playing Prinny will make Super Ghouls and Ghosts look like a Kirby game... He wasn't lying...

[@richardaaron4454]

Eileen Jimenez Prinny Thumb is a thing. I never hit buttons so fast in my life. I didn’t know about the Prinny Bomb or how it made the end easier so I beat the game without Prinny Bomb. I used almost all 999 lives to beat it.

[@eileenjimenez7114]

Dude, I can roughly relate. I bet you also feel weird whenever you press PSP buttons now.

[@richardaaron4454]

Eileen Jimenez I can’t wait to play it again on Switch but also I never finished the 2nd one so I’m very much looking forward to completing it.

[@SBaby]

7:45 - I'll be honest. I did beat this game without a guide, mainly because when I first played it, you didn't have GameFAQs or RPGClassics to look up guides for these games, and obviously Nintendo Power wasn't going to touch a Sega game. But once I figured out how the chutes worked in the game, it wasn't hard to map out the dungeons. No, the hard part came from the brutal second half of the game, where each battle was a potential Game Over. So once I got the Visiphone, I save scummed the crap out of the game and made it to the end.

[@PuckishAngel]

From this list I'll try to play Saga Frontier 2, Xenosaga 2, Disgaea and 7th Saga (started this one, but lazy to continue). When I look for a hard rpg I want something that I can search about the system and then try to use everything I found to beat the challenges. So games like Tales of Destiny wouldn't be 'hard' because I would use a guide when I got lost or if I took way to much in a puzzle with a lot of backtrack. Recently I played FFX Ultimate Hardcore mod and it was nice because the game is pretty linear and I had already beat vanilla once, so I just had to worry about how to deal with battles.

[@japanesehercules]

I could never beat Phantasy Star 2 because I spent hours grinding and when I reached the final boss my levels weren’t enough to survive so I have to grind MORE to even stand a chance

[@Galanthos]

SaGa Frontier 2 can be pretty brutal, especially of you don't realize that you need to be preparing for future generations. The ending to the Wil Knights arc is only about as bad as your standard SaGa game though. The Gustav arc ends with a strategy battle that you have no input or preparation into and that is heavily slated against you. 7th Saga really got hit hard by the localization difficulty adjustment. There are some patches that restore the original difficulty, and that makes the game much better, if still an acquired taste. I remember being really frustrated with Xenosaga 2's combat system in the beginning, but eventually I was able to really get it. You pretty much need everyone to know the Boost spell ASAP, and always choose the appropriate party members to hit the weaknesses of your enemies. Phantasy Star 2 came from that era and philosophy of gaming that expected you to be drawing your own maps. I know I beat it at some point, but I am fairly certain I at least looked at a guide. I'm totally on the same page as Tales of Destiny though. I have never gotten very far in that game, but I beat Tales of Phantasia, and that was enough to sour me on the Tales Series as a whole, forever.

[@Goomyx1492]

I have beaten 3 Disgaea games and done quite a bit of "post-game" shenanigans in them, but I've never gotten very far in the first Disgaea. Whether the PS2, DS, or Switch Version, I just sink a couple hours into it and get bored/discouraged. It just never feels like you're really progressing much in that first one imo

[@DayFul]

Disgaea had a few maps along the story built for power leveling the later games had my head spinning.

[@its_davidooo968]

Valkyrie Profile: COTP was sooooo good but very hard in my opinion. It required a level of strategy that I’ve never encountered in a video game up until that point. The key is to plan each battle and plan on who you want to sacrifice. I’ve raged quitted (a lot) but I beat the game multiple times and achieved each of the three endings and also beat Seraphic Gate 10 times and got the Angel SlayerTM. You really just gotta make sure all of your party members attack at once while also keeping them out of range of other enemies and avoiding back attacks. I hope you give it another try someday!!

[@SHlNRlKlARU]

I gave up on Valkyrie Profile because I outright refused to sacrifice a character. It just feels wrong man... Glad to see it made the list!

[@mistersomaru]

I found Shining Force EXA pretty easy, actually. I haven't played in a long time, but I found a pretty easy way to cheese it. Simply big AOE styled attacks as much as possible and items. If I go through it again, I can explain exactly how.

[@Codiceus]

Besides, if you put a focus on the training grounds in the base you can get strong enough for wherever you are at, it really doesn’t require a lot of grinding in my opinion.

[@mistersomaru]

@@Codiceus the post game dungeon does need some grinding though

[@RaphaelDDL]

Popful Mail art reminds me of Slayers. I love Tactics but I also gave up on Disgaea and Agarest xD

[@puczoas]

Xenosaga trilogy is amazing. I'm surprised Namco never did a remaster of the trilogy for the PS4

[@CrowQuark]

its because Namco doesn't own the rights to Xenosaga its purely owned by Monolith Soft who now works with Nintendo, we could see a remaster on the switch though

[@personamaster1573]

Anyone else other than me see lina inverse from the slayers anime in popful when its not in a cutscene as the female character?

[@Ness-op2uy]

Yeah exactly my thoughts

[@Ness-op2uy]

Oh yes I have a love/hate relationship with Breath of Fire 2. Everytime I'm playing this game I'm stuck somewhere and give it up only to return some years later and be stuck again. But I love everthing about this game so someday I'll try it again.

[@saitamabilingualgamer3915]

Greetings! Love your channel. Nice power metal intro. Tales of Destiny has a lot of frustrations!! I was about 25 hours into the Japanese version and I gave up. I ended up just watching the rest of the game on KZbin. I found of used Japanese copy of Nocturne for only 5 bucks or so and I think I'll give it a go soon.

[@MiamiSunrise]

haha that was a fun video! Random encounters at times where you are doing puzzles and such is the worst. Good luck remembering what the hell you were doing in what order by the time the random ass battles are over with. 7th Saga is a tough game, it is unsurprising that it made one of the top spots in your list. I always liked to play as the Tetujin robot sort of guy but then got to a point where the game I swear was killing me because of that. Never beat it and would really like to say I did. I really need to make a video about Breath of Fire 2, as you mentioned it at the end since my recent playthrough of it I have some big gripes with and its not the translation I'm talking about even though its not good. Awesome vid

[@shinsukesama8665]

What about SmT 1 and 2? I still plan on finishing them because the story is interesting.

[@colebadguy]

Not very hard at all

[@shinsukesama8665]

@@colebadguy You talking about the remakes or originals? For me it's confusing. Not hard because of the battles. Also I hate using guides to progress the story. I'm still having fun with them. I decided not to touch another SMT before completing first two lol. I already own both of SMT IV games on 3DS and will definitely pick up the new remaster of SMT III and the new SMT V.

[@voiceofthevoid2284]

I beat Breath of Fire 2 when I was a kid. I love that game. It wasn't until I came back to it as an adult that I realized how ball-bustingly hard it really is, and I haven't been able to beat it again yet. Still don't know how I did it when I was a kid, but I still love that game.

[@somejock4396]

It feels like I just dropped into a video from 2007.

[@superarty7]

I will never forget that took me an entire month to beat one specific dungeon on Phantasy Star 2. I only beat it with online maps

[@GeoGyf]

Record of Agarest was nott hat hard because most of the original party of Generation 1 & many from Generation 2 stay for the full 5 generations, so you have a really solid team. Add the fact that you can also pay money in a shop to add any characters from previous generations (i had the 5 protagonists from the 5 generations for the ultimate team) and its not that bad. However there are a few fights in the midgame (Midas boss fight) and a couple in the endgame (The 2 Lindwor dragons in Gen 5) that are quite hard and you need to be fast when a party member dies, order a party member to go tank immediately and draw aggro from the boss, because if the boss switches targets and goes for a healer you are screwed -you need that healer to raise the fallen party member. When these things happened to me, there was always a period of nerve-wracking moments, but if you are swift then its just a waiting game to get the AP to perform your team's ultimate move. The game is huge though- it has 3 endings, at least 8 superbosses, and an entire optional area- with such a big game you are better off consulting a FAQ to see the True Ending. The only problem i had with this game was that it was huge & the battles took a lot of time just accumulating AP for your super moves (i made the mistake of playing on hard mode). Solved that conundrum with exercising on a stationary bicycle..

[@grayaj23]

That falcom rant was the best rant ever.

[@sambajane]

the vocal performance during the last entry is extraordinary

[@RodimusPrime1313]

I beat force exa after beating the first one. I also beat all the xenosega games. The record games are insane and you can only get all achievements if you play on hard.

[@christophergrimes6082]

OMG I played 7th Saga on the super nintendo back when i was like 9 and loved it. I rented it from the local video store and have been thinking about it recently but I couldn't remember the name and had no luck looking it up so thank you so much now i can retry it.

[@retrogamernes3121]

Erick, I wholeheartedly agree with your take on Phantasy Star 2. I'm playing through it right now and I'm only at the 2nd dungeon. What I also hate is that the characters I have right now other than Nei, they take so long to gain levels, plus the fact that they can only use certain pieces of equipment. As for Xenosaga, I couldn't get into it because of the battle system, I couldn't understand it. It was the same with Star Ocean 3: Til The End of Time. I couldn't understand what was going on and I think one of my party members died after running out of MP...NOT HP....WTF?!.....I also rage quit Soul Nomad because of those stupid rooms and formations and the fact that the game doesn't explain any of that....another great video by the way

[@SeafoamSmiles]

As someone who just recently played and finished Phantasy Star 2 for the first time, I agree 100% with it being on this list. If the version I played (Genesis Collection) didn't have the Fast Forward and Rewind features that let me plow through the game, I never would have finished it. I highly recommend the Switch/PS4/Steam Genesis Collection version of the game to anyone who wants to tackle it, as the FF and Rewind are life savers. Fast Forward helps with the grind and slow walk speed/exploration of sprawling dungeons, while the Rewind lets you kind of cheat a little to avoid encounters so you don't game over and lose your hard earned progress (and let me tell you, there are some monster formations in this game that are downright unfair). And while I'm at it, I should also mention that the SEGA AGES version of Phantasy Star 1 on the Switch is the best version to play. You can increase the play speed and Meseta/XP gain, and there is an auto-mapping feature to help you through the 3D dungeons. It even lets you change which version of the soundtrack you listen to.

[@millgiass]

I think I would use the rewind and save states to get quality level ups more than anything. You can really get FUCKED leveling. On the GBA collection I would use all the save game slots right after leveling and do a 'best of 10' average. Which ever level up out of the 10 got me the most cumulative stats I would accept that and move forward. REALLY slowed my game down but my characters thanked me for it. Nei beat the absolute fuck out of Nei-First. Since the GBA SP was so easy to reset it was just simple. Now on Genesis I believe my team was weaker than fuck because you didn't have the option and just had to take what you got.

[@SeafoamSmiles]

@@millgiass This is also a good use of it if you want to min/max, or as you say avoid having terrible stat increases. I thought about doing that myself, but since it was my first time playing the game I just kinda went with the flow.

[@millgiass]

@@SeafoamSmiles My first time was on the genesis as a 12 year old. When I beat the game I was in my 60s and WEAK every enemy in NOAH was brutal as hell and was a near fight to the death and at that point the exp requirements had inflated so significantly that leveling had become basically impossible. So I just limped through Mother Brain, beat the game, then returned later to take on Dark Falz.

[@Kiorra]

Is totally unfair when the last boss uses a unique powefull attack that erase all your party from this universe. So, you need to go back to grind, only to become strong enough to survive this attack. I don't have patience to do this in the end of the game. That's why i never beated Legend of Legaia.

[@elbravovierde8010]

Popfull Mail is one of the best games when it comes to soundtrack!! The first stage music is pure gold and helps brighten the day!!

[@theosr93]

Rhone cave in Dragon Quest II say hello.

[@RocketZX]

oh yeah, if someone hasn't played dragon quest 2 to the end i can't call them a dragon quest fan LOL

[@Ramsey276one]

Lesson learned: Liking a genre doesn’t mean you will enjoy every take on that genre I prefer Tekken or Street Fighter to Mortal Kombat because I am not into gore... but I played a few with a neighbor group until a new FGC was purchased I survived Xenosaga and would probably beat all the ones in this video... if I don’t get a new one along the way... XD Fully agree on that 7th Saga English version... Q_q