Controller Snapping Rage
What’s the hardest game you’ve ever played? Was it cheap in it’s design or was it a genuine challenge? I’m currently playing Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones for the GBA (as a 3DS download) and it’s probably the hardest thing I’ve played in a while. It could be the way I’m playing it though.
To start things off, it’s a tactical style game where your units are magicians, knights, assassins, cavaliers, archers, etc. All this that is very cool, but as you start the game, you’re told that once a unit has died, you don’t get it back. They are gone forever. Which wouldn’t be so bad except that every unit is a character that can play apart in the story or recruiting others on the maps. Which is the only way to get new units. So when one of them dies on the battle field you better believe that the game gets reset and I try again. What sucks is that you have to start that chapter/battle over again as you can’t do any kind of save during the fights except for a quick suspend that gets deleted when you load it up again. I’ve played some maps over and over again so that no one dies. I could just let them die I suppose, but knowing that I can’t get them back… well… I just can’t let that happen.
I’ll see it through to the end. It”ll be a challenge for sure, but I just can’t walk away from it. I’ve been waiting to play this game for years and now that I have a chance I don’t want to give up on it. Have you ever walked away from a game because it was too hard?
Play Asia
May 15th, 2012 at 11:01 pm
I remember this game. I loved its strategic design, but I definitely used save states to avoid losing characters when I made a bad move.
From a gameplay perspective, the game forgives you for losing characters because you can acquire a huge number of them. And they don’t tend to be copies of each other.
It’s heartbreaking, but if you can bear with it, every playthrough will be very different.
But… I never had the heart.
Losing a character is just too much of a loss for me to accept.
And this game seems a little cruel since the most likable characters tend to be the most fragile gameplay-wise… at least in my opinion.
(Can you tell I like Vanessa?)
But I consider it to be one of the amazing lessons in game design this game teaches. Psychologically, losing a character is a punishment worse than any gameplay-related hazard. Especially when they’re likable enough for you to develop an attachment and favorites.
Another very cool thing this game does is that the endings for each character are different depending on whether they survive and how close they become to each other.
May 16th, 2012 at 7:58 pm
Yes, I amassed quite a crew of characters thus far in the game. If I did lose one, I would have my pick of the litter to replace him/her. I agree, the whole idea of forever death in games is interesting. Should one die, I consider it a mistake on my part and that I need to try again to correct the loss. I would rather miss a treasure chest then have someone die. It’s just so sad to think that one of the characters will be gone. And yes… Vanessa has been on the wrong end of the blade as I try and level her up. Interestingly though, I recently played Aliens: Infestation for the DS recently and it has the same mechanic. Once a marine dies, he/she is gone for good… and I was okay with that. I never restarted from a save to try again. I saw that as part of the story and horror of my squad as they watched and experienced the loss of their friends.
I wonder what ending I’m setting myself for by making sure no one bites it.
May 15th, 2012 at 11:09 pm
There was one game I eventually gave up on because of its extreme difficulty. When I was very young, I played a game called “Downland” for the TRS-80 computer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os6qUWRARws
It was a platformer where you travel through a cave with multiple areas, trying to get the keys and progress deeper.
But… the main character was VERY fragile. One hit and you started the entire game over from the beginning. Nothing was saved.
You could die from things like acid drops falling from the ceiling, falling too far, spikes, or getting squashed by a boulder bouncing down a hill. Memorization and precise timing was everything.
I gradually got very good at it and almost beat it but eventually I just ran out of patience.
May 16th, 2012 at 8:02 pm
Oh man, old games like that a just brutal. It a shock that gaming ever took off when replay some of those really hard ones.
May 15th, 2012 at 11:28 pm
I forgot to mention. Downland was kind of exploration-based where you had to look for a key to open a door elsewhere. So it’s like playing Metroid with only 1 HP and no saving.
May 16th, 2012 at 2:46 am
Ever hear of a pretty number called “Dark Souls”? The game’s tagline is “Prepare to die”,and the strategy guide’s tagline is “Prepare to die less”. Although,to be fair,the game’s design is completely fair if you play with the internet turned off;every death is because YOU screwed up,not because the enemy was being a cheap div cheese.
However,if you play with the net turned on…At any time,players who are around the same place in the game as you will have the option to use a consumable item to invade your world. Known as Black Phantoms,their goal is to kill you before you beat the zone boss. If they succeed,they take ALL of your Humanity. Humanity is a very valuable and very finite resource that allows you to get potions and such.
Also,Cave Story’s Sacred Grounds. Platform hell and a lot of powerful enemies. I didn’t make it past the miniboss yet.
May 16th, 2012 at 8:07 pm
A friend of mine told me about this game. Sounds ridiculously hard and frustrating. I don’t own a PS3 or a 360 so I’ll never know the horrors of this game… sounds like I’d pass on it anyway. BTW, did you know they’re shutting down the servers for the first one?
May 17th, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Dark Souls is coming to the P.C. in August. Fan reaction was so great that they ported it with additional content. I’m hoping for DLC on the console. If you like dark fantasy and action combat, then I can’t recommend it highly enough. It is unfortunate that the Demon’s Souls server is shutting down, but they kept it open for a year or two longer than they originally intended (can’t complain about that).
May 16th, 2012 at 8:11 am
Last game that made me rage was Demon Souls but i didnt break my controller. There was a game that made me very angry when i was a kid.
Cant really remember enything about it besides that i was on commodore C64 and i broke pretty
expensive joystick while play it.
If you want to se some old and hard games i recommend waching Game Center CX on you tube, its very fun show and its steamed evry week on my videogame streaming chanell.
May 16th, 2012 at 8:12 pm
I LOVE Game Center CX. I have close to 100 episodes saved (not all translated) and I own the Retro Game Master DS game, which is probably my favorite DS game. ^_^
May 16th, 2012 at 9:08 am
If the Sacred Stones is becoming too difficult to the point of frustration, you can grind in the Tower of Valni between maps, unlike most other Fire Emblems. Indeed, in many later maps it seems like they designed around the ability to grind yourself up and increase the amount and strength of enemies dramatically.
May 16th, 2012 at 8:14 pm
I find the grinding in the tower is so long… plus I started to lose characters in the tower. Maybe I just suck at the game. ^_^
May 16th, 2012 at 9:35 am
Like The Riddled and Zafo, my first inclination was to mention the Demon’s/Dark Soul duo. However, my experience with these games (which is more than I should admit to) is that they are not unforgivingly hard, but require a good understanding of the mechanics. Once you get a good grasp on enemy behavior, available equipment/magic, and the controls the games become less hair-pullingly difficult and more attention demanding (any mistake can lead to a very quick death). To be sure, deaths are inevitable and VERY frequent on a first playthrough, but after the game’s tricks are learned, it isn’t all that difficult of a game (I had been working on a level 1 playthrough, and it wasn’t that bad).
The only games that I can remember making me rage-quitting mad were from my youth. Oldschool NES games like Ghosts’n Goblins, Ninja Gaiden (any), Mega Man 1 (beat it once or twice, but hated that rock dude in Wily’s palace), Castlevania 1, and some others. I’m sure the same argument can be made for the difficult of these games as I made for D-Souls (it’s a matter of practice/knowledge), but my experience is such that they are legitimately harder (frustratingly so).
This Fire Emblem game seems cool. Reminds me of the Shining Force series (which, thanks to the wonders of emulation, I can occasionally return to). I love tactics rpgs. Something about having plans come together (or fail miserably) is very satisfying to me. However, the fact that you can lose story relevant characters seems a bit harsh (there is no way to bring them back?!).
May 16th, 2012 at 9:50 am
I remember having trouble with Ninja Gaiden even with a game genie and invincibility. They enemies would always send me flying into pits.
May 16th, 2012 at 8:20 pm
No, there is no way to get them back. Most are not super important to the story. You’ll just miss the parts they play in the over all arc. As for the others, I’ve never finished Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Ninja Gaiden(s) or Castlevania(s). I did finish Mega Man though, all of them actually. I loved the Mega Man series. That is one that I would sink lots of time in to just to finish.
May 16th, 2012 at 11:50 am
E.T. for the Atari 2600.
God I’m old.
May 16th, 2012 at 8:23 pm
Would you believe that I actually beat E.T. on the Atari? It’s true. I’ve yet to meet anyone else that has.
May 17th, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Well, truthfully I did beat it after several frustrating tries. After that, I was done with it forever.
May 17th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
Well, if you’re old, then you’re in good company. I never played E.T., but I did play a lot of 2600. Found the action games (Combat, Pacman, Space Invaders, etc…) great, but couldn’t play the adventure games. Couldn’t progress in them–some combination of ‘can’t tell what that sprite is supposed to be’ and ‘have no idea what I am supposed to be doing’ always sent me away before getting far. Kudos, Joe, for beating E.T. (its difficulty is renown).
May 16th, 2012 at 4:49 pm
Yeah, I’m going to need to throw out Dark Souls. While many people will complain about how hard the game is I tend to disagree with it being really all that hard. I would classify it as unforgiving. If you make a mistake you’re going to be punished for it. Another way of describing it is, that while you will die it never feels unfair. You always know why you died and what you could have done to avoid it.
May 16th, 2012 at 8:27 pm
Sounds like the game is very pattern based. Mega Man Zero was also like that. It’s very satisfying when you get it all right though.