If at first you don't succeed, try and try again

[Pifanjr]

We've had a thread on difficult games before, but I don't think we've had a thread specifically for difficult moments before.

Maybe it was because the game's difficulty spiked, because you tried to take on something you weren't ready for or because the game threw something at you that countered the strategy you had been using. What are some notable moments in gaming where you ran into a difficult section that you just kept trying and trying, either until you succeeded, cheated or simply gave up?

 

[Pifanjr]

There are two examples that spring to mind for me:

The first one is the Tower of Lost Souls mode in Soul Calibur IV. You basically ascend multiple floors, fighting harder and harder opponents with a group of your fighters. It has a bit of a mini game where you have to capture and defend towers. Your fighters had to stay at a tower to regain any health they lost during a fight and if you lose a fight, that fighter takes a while to respawn before you can use them again, so you can lose a couple of fights without immediately having to restart.
It's technically a single-player mode, but my friends and I each made our own fighter and just passed the controller to whoever's turn it was to fight. It took us quite a while to get to the top floor already, but we weren't prepared for the final boss. I think we tried for several hours without ever getting particularly close to beating him.

The other example I don't even remember what game it was, maybe Kingdom Hearts. It was another single-player game where we passed the controller around whenever someone lost. However, this was one of those games with an unskippable cutscene before the boss fight that you had to sit through every single time. We tried enough times that we were able to recite the entire cutscene word for word.

 

[Charagma]

The first boss in the witch hunter (Think was number 2). After running around everywhere you end up fighting a Monster in a beach with several tentacles. Took me days to get past it. This was a long time ago so cannot remember the game number not the monsters name (Kraken Possibly). Eventually got it beat by "trap, hit, roll", "rinse and repeat". If I recall, there was 6 tentacles and if it got you, you were dead.

I hardly use the internet (Google) to get information on games. If I do, it is usually to find someone that I cannot find. On the internet I will do whatever search and it will give the name and location by saying "When entering XYZ" and that is where I stop reading. This has helped me a lot especially in games where you play in multiple towns or areas. Boss fights, puzzles there is always a way. Just keep at it. Sometimes you get it right by mistake and sometimes you really need to start up "The grey matter" to find a way to beat the opponent. Worst puzzle ever was in Dragon Age inquisition where you had to run over several stepping plates in a certain pattern. Also took me ages to figure it out.

With puzzles, just look around. Generally, there are hints somewhere. Check walls, floor markings, color sequences, something someone said, a note, a book or patterns that helps you.

 

[Pifanjr]

The first boss in the witch hunter (Think was number 2). After running around everywhere you end up fighting a Monster in a beach with several tentacles. Took me days to get past it. This was a long time ago so cannot remember the game number not the monsters name (Kraken Possibly). Eventually got it beat by "trap, hit, roll", "rinse and repeat". If I recall, there was 6 tentacles and if it got you, you were dead.

I remember that fight in The Witcher 2, but I don't remember having a lot of trouble with it. From what I remember it's indeed just a matter of rolling out of the way of the tentacle attack and then getting a few hits in, rinse and repeat until you've won.

 

[Alm]

There have probably been a few. The one that springs to mind is Darth Malak on KotOR. He could kill me in 1 or 2 strikes so I couldn't be hit.

I had to run away to a spot where he couldn't hit me and use my lightsaber throw. And then leg it again and rinse and repeat. I think it took about 30 throws to beat him, so it was a bit of a slog. But he was the last boss.

 

[Frindis]

I'm not sure if it counts, but I am currently playing PUBG solo first-person squad ranked play, trying to earn both ranked points (getting higher up gives better rewards) and a 1st place position (for bragging rights). It has been months since I last played, so I am struggling a bit to find the right tactics, especially since the new point system update penalizes fewer kills.

I have gotten 2nd, 3rd, and several 4th-8th placements this last week, so at least I can get close to it. I should probably go to training camp and practise more on accuracy (my aim is nothing to brag about).

The reason it is fun and challenging doing solo squad is that it is much harder for a whole squad to spot a solo player because they tend to spot the most movement. The negative is that if you do get spotted, you are in for a hard time. Another positive thing is that a solo player can gear up much easier because they can land in smaller areas where a squad would not land because of less loot. This means you can stay away from combative zones more easily.

My strategy so far at the beginning of the match has been to land very isolated, loot up and only use a low to medium tier backpack so I can more easily prone in vegetation late game, as the more stuff you have on you, the easier it is to get spotted. I then plan for places I can hide, places that are not as lucrative for a squad, but good enough for me. Like a small hole in the ground, a tiny slope barely enough for one player.

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm not sure if it counts, but I am currently playing PUBG solo first-person squad ranked play, trying to earn both ranked points (getting higher up gives better rewards) and a 1st place position (for bragging rights). It has been months since I last played, so I am struggling a bit to find the right tactics, especially since the new point system update penalizes fewer kills.

I have gotten 2nd, 3rd, and several 4th-8th placements this last week, so at least I can get close to it. I should probably go to training camp and practise more on accuracy (my aim is nothing to brag about).

The reason it is fun and challenging doing solo squad is that it is much harder for a whole squad to spot a solo player because they tend to spot the most movement. The negative is that if you do get spotted, you are in for a hard time. Another positive thing is that a solo player can gear up much easier because they can land in smaller areas where a squad would not land because of less loot. This means you can stay away from combative zones more easily.

My strategy so far at the beginning of the match has been to land very isolated, loot up and only use a low to medium tier backpack so I can more easily prone in vegetation late game, as the more stuff you have on you, the easier it is to get spotted. I then plan for places I can hide, places that are not as lucrative for a squad, but good enough for me. Like a small hole in the ground, a tiny slope barely enough for one player.

From the bit I've played of Fortnite the best strategy also seemed to be to land somewhere isolated and stay near the edge of the storm to limit the chances of running into other players, then hope you can ambush the last few players alive as they're shooting at each other.

 

[Frindis]

From the bit I've played of Fortnite the best strategy also seemed to be to land somewhere isolated and stay near the edge of the storm to limit the chances of running into other players, then hope you can ambush the last few players alive as they're shooting at each other.

And hiding in one of those bushes. Lol, I did that too much when I played Fortnite, and to my surprise, it often worked . The hamster ball also saved me a ton of times, I miss that one. To be honest, In Fortnite I was more interested in doing the fishing activities than shooting, not that I would have had much chance going against any of the squeekers and especially not in building mode, OMG that is hard to do!

 

[neogunhero]

Celeste was one of the most frustrating yet fun gaming experiences I have ever had. It took me starting from the beginning 3 times over the course of two years to beat it. The first two times I gave up halfway through because the difficulty is constantly increasing with each level. The third time I was much more determined to beat it. It was incredibly relieving to finally finish that game.

 

[Frindis]

Some of these days, I will try this game, though I have a feeling I will rage quit

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy on Steam

A game I made for a certain kind of person. To hurt them.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Two come to mind right away but theres a lot of Dark Souls here for me.

Sword Saint Ishin in Sekiro, the final boss. I played the whole game through, ran against him again and again for several sessions of play. Lost the will for it after a while. A couple months later I started the game from the beginning, and when I got to the end beat him after maybe 10 tries.

In Gears of War 1, the whole game was pretty much a cakewalk until I hit the final boss. I dont remember the specifics except the fight was on a train carriage and it wasnt fun at all. In the end he bugged out and got stuck on part of the scenery. Headshotted him until he went down, no regrets.

 

[Frindis]

Ouch, just remembered the last boss in Half Life! I don't think the boss itself was hard, most likely kind of like the Doom 2 boss, but the whole understanding of the area took a while. So, I died and died and died until I finally understood it. Come to think of it, after watching that boss fight again, it is a pretty well-designed boss fight.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wEWgygC_w8

 

[DXCHASE]

I have two that go hand in hand that i can think of that would be my top 2.

1. Beating a Destiny 2 raid (Vault of Glass) with my whole clan as a leader and sherpa. I had previously completed a much easier raid within the clan but never like this. VoG was a hard raid in the first place, and i was playing with people that were within a month or so of just starting to play destiny. Took 2 sessions at about 8 hours a piece, maybe like 6 for the second? All-in-all was a very big hill i climbed over and was really good to see people beat a raid that otherswise would have never attempted.

2.Beating Dark Souls 3- Just beating a dark souls game in general is the feat. Not only are all these bosses hard but i bore really quickly with the gameplay loop so sticking out that loop for a whole game and actually beat its bosses was nothing short of a miracle.

 

[Pifanjr]

And hiding in one of those bushes. Lol, I did that too much when I played Fortnite, and to my surprise, it often worked . The hamster ball also saved me a ton of times, I miss that one. To be honest, In Fortnite I was more interested in doing the fishing activities than shooting, not that I would have had much chance going against any of the squeekers and especially not in building mode, OMG that is hard to do!

I didn't play Build mode, but according to my wife it isn't actually that bad because most of the players there are much worse at shooting than in Zero Build. And in both modes the really good people are insane.

Two come to mind right away but theres a lot of Dark Souls here for me.

That reminds me, I spent quite a while trying to kill Havel the Rock at the end of the Undead Burg. I was horribly underpowered, I vaguely remember calculating I'd need to hit him 30 times without being hit once.

Ouch, just remembered the last boss in Half Life! I don't think the boss itself was hard, most likely kind of like the Doom 2 boss, but the whole understanding of the area took a while. So, I died and died and died until I finally understood it. Come to think of it, after watching that boss fight again, it is a pretty well-designed boss fight.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wEWgygC_w8

I turned on god mode halfway through playing Half-Life, I think when I encountered the assassins.

Celeste

Some of these days, I will try this game, though I have a feeling I will rage quit

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy on Steam

A game I made for a certain kind of person. To hurt them.

store.steampowered.com

Beating Dark Souls 3

This wasn't supposed to be the difficult game thread!

But now that you've mentioned entire games instead of specific moments, I'll add that Angband fits here really well too for me. As a classic roguelike, the whole point of the game is starting over again and again until you've learned the game well enough to win, something I haven't managed yet but still hope to one day achieve.

 

[Rolfil]

Killing the Searing Exarch pinnacle boss in Path of Exile. It has a certain attack at two health stages that shoot balls of fire across the screen vertically and then horizontally. Some of these are removed and you have to dodge through the gap. I just could not get the timing right on this for ages.

 

[neogunhero]

This wasn't supposed to be the difficult game thread!

But now that you've mentioned entire games instead of specific moments, I'll add that Angband fits here really well too for me. As a classic roguelike, the whole point of the game is starting over again and again until you've learned the game well enough to win, something I haven't managed yet but still hope to one day achieve.

The main game of Celeste isn't all that hard if you're into platformers, it's the B and C-Sides of the levels that are incredibly frustrating. Basically in the game, the levels are broken into little rooms that serve as checkpoints as you progress through each one. B sides make the rooms longer, and C sides even longer than that, requiring even more skill to not die and start at the very beginning. Basically, the checkpoints get further and further with each remixed level, increasing difficulty. The regular game is fairly easy, then you get to the B-sides which are more difficult but doable, however it's the C-sides that killed me. It was basically just so frustrating that I was starting to rage and had to give up trying. I returned a second time, played through the game, got through the B-sides, then the same thing happened. Maybe 3 years ago is when I finally conquered the C-sides and felt relieved that I never had to touch this game again.

 

[Frindis]

Kakapo, streetfighter! Man, I suck sooooo bad at those games. I remember having to cheat (or being dumb), or what you would call it, while playing against my friends using the character Blanca. I would just mash one button to proc the lightning, and that would kill them a few times. They understood I sucked and found a way around it, while I will forever be a one-button smasher in such games.

 

[Pifanjr]

Killing the Searing Exarch pinnacle boss in Path of Exile. It has a certain attack at two health stages that shoot balls of fire across the screen vertically and then horizontally. Some of these are removed and you have to dodge through the gap. I just could not get the timing right on this for ages.

I've always been pretty terrible at any kind of bullet hell mechanics. It's okay if there's just a static source of bullets flying in straight lines, but anything more complicated than that leaves me struggling.

Kakapo, streetfighter! Man, I suck sooooo bad at those games. I remember having to cheat (or being dumb), or what you would call it, while playing against my friends using the character Blanca. I would just mash one button to proc the lightning, and that would kill them a few times. They understood I sucked and found a way around it, while I will forever be a one-button smasher in such games.

I've never been particularly interested in fighting games, but my friends played them pretty frequently and I got at least somewhat decent to the point where I wasn't just button mashing and could block my friend's attacks.

 

[Zimbaly]

I've posted about it before and I'll post about it again. The demon baby tossing boss in The Last Remnant.
Raged so hard I have yet to go back to that game all these years later. I don't know why, but this boss owns me.

The Gates of Hell

Accompanied by four Hypnos unions: two 2-unit unions and two 3-unit unions. Uses either Blue Blazes or Hellfire at the beginning and end of a turn. If a union dies, Pandemonium may be used to resurrect them and turn them against you (this causes the Enthralled status). Having at least one unit...

lastremnant.fandom.com

 

[Zloth]

I've posted about it before and I'll post about it again. The demon baby tossing boss in The Last Remnant.
Raged so hard I have yet to go back to that game all these years later. I don't know why, but this boss owns me.

I hung around in the forums for that game for years - it was definitely one of the harder bosses.

I'll also point to Last Remnant, but I'll pick out The Enlightened Seven. It's an optional encounter that I couldn't even access on my first play-through. I don't think I could even access the quest that unlocks it!

As the name implies, you fight 7 enemies. These are all bosses that you've fought before, only made much more powerful. Also, you mostly fight them two at a time. It was an incredibly difficult fight but, thank the devs, the hardest fights were the first two pairs. That made it easy to re-load a save and try again and again. It took me a loooong time, but I made it through!

(The second pair of bosses joining the fight and nearly wiping me out yet again.)

View: https://youtu.be/VniECDuYD1M?si=Biszp6RcvGVqesLk


P.S. There was one fight that was even harder: essentially, fight a super strong version of the final boss. I was able to hurt him badly, but I never beat him.

 

[JCgames]

I never cheated in a game, aka used cheats from a console command, but ive looked up walk-throughs when ive been stuck.

but if there were jump cheats in a game called "Contrast" i would of used them because i loved the game, 3d platformer that i suck so bad at that i got to a point i couldnt make the jump, it was a timing double jump that did it. Sucked too because i was really loving the vibe of the game.

These days though games have cool accessibility things that i've been using like turning off the lock pucking in starwars outlaws, i could not figure out that bloody rythum thing for the life of me and gave up after 20 mins and turned on no pucking needed!

I have zero issue with turning down game difficulty to easy or story mode if needed. Though strat games im good at so those i dont need to.

It seams like these days, easy is super easy, so thats great when you just want to play the story. i dropped down to easy in outlaws, and i might do the same for the jedi game surivor is it? The story was ok but the game play is just not my thing anymore, so id rather easy mode it and skate through. Verse trying to "beat" the bosses.

Point and clicks these days have some good hints systems ive used too. Sometimes those can be frustrating when you know what you need to do, but because you didnt read the note or view the item, the combo doesnt work. Then you smack your forehead and think how could i miss the totally obvious but i did... thanks hints!

 

[mjs warlord]

In one og the legend of grimrock their is a pyramid you go inside to get some gear and a big dude comes after you .... i lost count of how many times i died and then i spotted a bug.

Get the guy to come after you and jump down the edge of a burning urn , when the guy cant get you wait till he walks away jump out and hit him from behind , when he turns to come after you jump back down then repeat till he dies.

 

[Zed Clampet]

The final boss in Quantum Break killed me over and over, mostly because I couldn't locate something on the level. And every time he killed me, I had to sit through a long cut-scene. I decided to quit for the day, and when I came back the next day, I got him on the first try.

Had the same experience with a boss in Remnant. Died over and over. Gave up for the day. And when I went back the next day, got them first try.

Taking a break seems like a good strategy for me.

 

[kalton]

One moment that really sticks out for me was the final boss fight in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. I thought I had a good grip on the combat system… until Genichiro and Isshin showed up like, “Nope, time to humble you.” 😅 I must’ve spent hours just memorizing patterns, dodging at the wrong time, retrying over and over. It honestly felt impossible at one point—but finally beating it was one of the most satisfying moments I’ve had in gaming.


Also, shoutout to those classic Halo 2 Legendary missions. Some of those checkpoints felt like the game just wanted me to give up entirely. But hey, if at first you don't succeed...

 

[Zimbaly]

@Zed Clampet looking at my video online from my boss fight I've taken a break since 4/13/2009