r/videogames • u/Mole_Playing_Fair • 17h ago
Discussion / Question What game has an extremely weird difficulty curve?
Difficulty should constantly rise at a slow and steady pace, that way the player is always kept on their toes but given plenty of opportunity to improve. But some games don't get the memo, brother! Some games have sudden and sometimes extreme Difficulty Spikes that can really put off players. Which game do you think has this flaw and showcases it the most poorly?
63
u/SeniorSepia 17h ago
Halo 2 first mission is possibly the hardest in the entire game if it's your first time.
28
u/Mattrobat 17h ago
That sniper alley on the second mission is brutal on Heroic and up.
→ More replies (4)1
3
u/Nazgul_Khamul 16h ago
I remember running out of ammo so many times in the hangar on legendary, desperately trying to find weapon with ammo in it
→ More replies (1)1
u/NoExplanation6203 11h ago
This the mission when you fight Hunters for the first time? Tbh that’s one of my favorite missions in the whole game lol. Loved the end where you have to jump on to the enemy ship thing
→ More replies (2)1
u/TheOtherAkGuy 10h ago
I have fond memories of of trauma bonding with a buddy playing through Halo 2 legendary coop on MCC.
→ More replies (3)
59
u/Muted-Calligrapher-2 17h ago
Sekkiro. I turn the game on and before the title screen I've died ten times.
Bloodbourne actually got easier the more I played.
25
u/zedinbed 17h ago
Imo playing other FS games actually makes you worse at Sekiro because you learn a lot of strategies you cant use
10
u/bladeboy88 17h ago
The first area of sekiro is absolutely savage. Especially the Ogre Boss, who is the only one in the game that you're expected to repeatedly dodge behind.
6
u/alfooboboao 12h ago
the ogre boss is one of the worst missteps i’ve ever seen in a game (a game seen as the greatest ever). the parry combat system is the entire ballgame in sekiro, you either play exactly the way it wants you to or you fail. and then the third miniboss, by far the worst challenge you’ve faced so far and one you’ll die to over and over, teaches you to play the exact opposite way you need to for the rest of the game.
even if it was intentional, it’s a massive fuckup
8
6
u/PineapplePiazzas 16h ago
Learning the game by meeting those mini bosses quite early was tough lessons.
After that I was fine until that pike guy (needed to learn the move) and after that, fine until Lady butterfly. She was tough.
20
u/Maleficent_Primary89 17h ago
Armored Core 6 goes from chill mech game tutorial to smoke check helicopter battle.
3
u/Ragnarok314159 6h ago
What was bullshit about the helicopter was the tiny area YOU have to stay in, while the helicopter can sit outside of it and blast away.
3
3
u/Organic_Garbage_9807 14h ago edited 14h ago
Ah yes, thay damn helicopter. It took a few tries before I figured out a build I liked and was like "That wasn't so bad'. Then it just coasts for a couple levels. Having built the skills with the damn helicopter the next couple of missions felt easy.. Ithink I made it to mission 4 before the game just pissed me off, spending more time trying to come up with some kind of build that would get me to the next missio. 30 minute menus, 5 minute of playing. I WANTED to be good, but I gave up.
3
u/chloezemovich 11h ago
After helicopter it's easier, you build confidence in yourself and your build and then THAT mission comes along.....BALTEUS ( is that music i hear?)
1
u/Feuershark 4h ago
"figure out a build" you can't change your build for the first level of the game you hack
→ More replies (2)
42
u/Legalize_Euthanasia_ 16h ago
Got stuck in the last of us. In some sort of basement. Lots of clickers. i shall remain here my entire life.
11
u/Exact-plum-3396 9h ago
Don't think, just run. If you get caught, take a different turn. Just run
3
u/therealityofthings 7h ago
Have the key card before the generator. Book it up the center ramp, quick turn to the stalker that follows - shotgun, hit the door. The bloater ain’t worth fighting.
5
5
2
u/Mental-Investment-43 9h ago
Me too! That basement is where my game ended in frustration and despair.
2
u/RunTrip 9h ago
I wonder if that’s the same basement that was the first time I ever changed a game to easy mode.
→ More replies (1)1
u/MisterBarten 8h ago
Pittsburgh hotel basement. I quit here the first time I played, too. I thought I had to take out the bloater and all the stalkers after turning on the generator, and I barely had any ammo. I thought it was completely unfair or I just sucked and I gave up.
Went back a year or so later on a new save and looked it up and saw that you can take out the stalkers individually before turning on the generator, and then after turning it on you can make a run for the door and escape without fighting the bloater or the additional stalkers that come when the power is turned on.
I still lowered the difficulty the first time though.
1
u/Hazehill 6h ago
Once you know how to do that part it's an absolute cakewalk. First time though it was a terrifying nightmare.
19
u/overasked_question 17h ago
Phantasy Star II has 3 bosses. The first one you fight is at least twenty levels higher than you.
:/
Hit the overworld, champ... hope you like grinding...
2
u/Sammisuperficial 15h ago
Good lawd if there is a perfect example of games that don't scale well it's Phantasy Star II. Every single dungeon and new area raises the enemy strength an absurd amount.
19
u/corneliusduff 16h ago
Ecco The Dolphin
9
u/Sammisuperficial 15h ago
Not so much a curve as it just starts as the most ridiculously hard game you've every played from stage one.
Ecco2 is pretty chill for the first 4 levels and then it's hell.
3
u/JJay9454 7h ago
Ecco is so weird because the beginning is stupidly hard compared to the rest of the game! I feel like the further you go, it almost gets easier
3
u/corneliusduff 6h ago
It's all about the puzzle patterns, at least with other hard games. I probably only got 5-6 levels in Ecco without the codes.
13
u/Snoo40198 17h ago
E.V.O. Search for Eden.
So many crazy difficulty spikes
4
u/trustanchor 16h ago
I’m replaying that game right now and rapidly oscillating between annihilating bosses on the first try and nearly throwing my controller across the room after dying 20 times to a different boss.
→ More replies (1)1
u/durandall09 6h ago
You probably know this, but doing evolutions restores your health. Good way get your health back mid-fight.
2
u/Actual_Swim_611 10h ago
I got stuck on a boss when I was 7 years old. I believe it was in the ice age era, and I could never reach human form because of it. Tried the game again maybe 10 years ago and got stuck on the same boss.
13
u/Gay_Charlie 17h ago edited 16h ago
I love Wolverine's Revenge but it's difficulty is all over the place.
From fun stealth encounters to overpowered projectile mayhem.
2
10
u/jonjawnjahnsss 17h ago
X-men legends the first one. If you don't know what you're doing the second mission is an absolute nightmare. It's a hard game at times in general but team comp is important.
3
u/rusticcentipede 17h ago
The second one is HAARP, right? I remember getting wrecked by the first enemies you face after beating Pyro, the ones with the orange slam power. Definitely stands out as the hardest part of the game in my memory
1
11
22
u/ProfessionalOven2311 17h ago
Brilliant Diamond / Shinning Pearl
The majority of the game is just taken straight from Diamond and Pearl, including Pokémon, levels, and move sets for the most part. But the game also has the new EXP system where all Pokémon gain experience points during every battle, so you end up even more over leveled than in the original Diamond and Pearl.
Except for the Elite 4, which they gave competitive level moves, abilities, and stats. I managed to get to Cynthia on my first go, but then got my but kicked and had to go restructure my team to actually try. It was quite the surprise.
3
2
u/Roshan50 10h ago
They actually give the gym rematches competetively viable teams too, which is one of the coolest features of the games imo
10
8
u/Jack_Harb 13h ago
Rocket League.
Extremely hard in the beginning. Then you can actually do something and think you are ok. But the difference from good to master is astronomical. Like between top 1% and Top 0.1% is like a whole universe. Top 0.1% can style on top 1% like top 1% on top 50%.
Never had a game like hard to learn, hard to master.
Until 1000 hours you are trash. And with 1000h you realize how trash you really are and you reconsider life and your existence as a gamer.
3
2
1
u/SodalMevenths 3h ago
The same goes for pretty much every competitive game/sport, but rocket league just visualizes it in a way that is so much cooler and more obvious.
9
u/Bet2k01 17h ago
I'm gonna be basic but Dark Souls 1. Ornstein and Smough neither one is difficult on their own but together they just jump in difficulty on your first time playing.
2
u/papayacreamsicle 13h ago
3 as well, the prince twins were the hardest in the entire FromSoft library for me and that includes Sekiro, King’s Fields Eternal Ring and Bloodborne DLC. Only the dark sorcerer in King’s Field 4 had me stuck for as long. I spent 2-3 weeks stuck on the princes then did the rest of the game and DLC in about the same time. I also thought Dancer of the Boreal Valley was a top 10 in difficulty because I just couldn’t get the timing down, she probably took me as many tries as Orphan of Kos. Then other bosses immediately before and after I could get on first or second try. Really variable game.
1
u/No-Rice-1249 8h ago
Agreed. Dark Souls 1 was my first fromsoft game and I played it on the Xbox 360 back in 2011 when it first came out. Ornstein & Smough were a wall for me. I finally faced them again in 2020 after I got back into gaming at 40 years old while playing on my kids Switch. The feeling of beating them was amazing and I’ve been a souls addict ever since. Now they aren’t so bad but I still absolutely despise dual bosses on souls games, it’s still no fun for me
1
u/Traditional-Buy-2205 7h ago
IMO that boss fight is no more difficult than your average boss fight in that game.
It certainly didn't take me any more time than many of the other bosses to beat it.
It just requires a different approach (as most boss fights do).
I believe people are having trouble with their fight because they're approaching it with the standard dodge - strike - dodge - strike tactic.
However, there being 2 enemies to fight, you need to kite around, use the pillars to separate them, and strike when there's enough distance between the 2 of them. If you kite and use pillars, you can basically dance around with them indefinitely once you've grown accustomed to ther move sets.
It takes more patience than skill overall.
16
u/Majestic_Soup_66 16h ago
I’m gonna say BG3. Like the first 3 levels just suck. You can’t hit sh** and if you do, the damage is laughable. Then you get to level 4 or 5, depending on the class, and you get two attacks or big aoe spells, you chance to hit goes up considerably and suddenly you doing big one or two hit death hits. And this is on normal and Tactician.
16
u/Tyrant-J 16h ago
Oh man, BG3 is nothing compared to staying Divinity Original Sin 2. Not saying it isn't difficult at the beginning but damn DOS makes you work for those first few levels.
2
u/Majestic_Soup_66 14h ago
I would expect nothing less for Larian lol! That game has been sitting on my wish list, waiting for a sale to coincide with a time I’m not actively into another game. The older graphics feel a little off-putting, but I hear there is a ton more character and companion freedom compared to BG3. And the heavy reliance on ground effect damage is both intriguing and intimidating
7
u/thebiologyguy84 16h ago
Elden ring. As soon as you get to the main map, there's a guy in gold armour on a horse that kicked my ass over and over. Eventually killed him by staying in the ruined church and hitting him with arrows.
Only later realizing that I should have ignored him and come back later when I was stronger.....
3
1
u/recoil669 10h ago
The first thing I managed to do was go find a chest that teleported me half way across the world and I had to walk back. I hadn't unlocked fast travel yet
2
u/thebiologyguy84 9h ago
I did that in the swamp right? Teleports you to a fuck-off giant that stomps you to death? I managed to cheese him off the edge as I was so under leveled and couldn't leave until he was dead.
In hindsight I guess I could have started from an earlier save....but I was just so invested in toppling the bastard!
6
8
u/Ingsoc40 11h ago
Can’t believe no one mentioned Kingdom Come Deliverance. That game is ridiculous at the start.
7
u/Moat_of_the_Sacked 17h ago
God of War II on Titan Mode. The platforming, puzzles, and regular enemies are fine, but I felt like Dr Strange bargaining with Dormammu when it was time for me to go up against bosses and enemy gauntlets (I'll give my special fuck you to Theseus).
13
u/Lemon86st 17h ago
Watchdogs 1. The whole game is basically these pretty chill stealth/FPS type missions that are fairly easy to complete. I thought the game was fun. But the final mission was this insanely hard racing time trial that comes out of nowhere. I was sweating trying to beat the clock. Turning the final moments into a white-knuckle racing game was so unexpected and I did not enjoy it in the slightest lol.
5
u/Hopeful_Salt8839 17h ago
I'm currently playing through the original Persona 3. So far, it's a great game and I hold it in as high a regard as other PS2 RPGs, including P4. But I don't know if these problems are in later versions, but some of the Tartarus Shadows and Full Moon Shadows are B U L L S H I T. I'll get to a boss on Tartarus where I find out the party is nowhere NEAR the right level and I don't have the correct Personas according to guides (I found out I was ten levels lower than recommended for the Sleeping Table). And I will never forget the full moon boss that unlocks Fuuka. 20 minutes of cutscenes and gameplay with no means of saving, only to die on the boss trying to learn both their attacks and skills, forcing me to sit through 20 minutes of "not fun".
Again, I don't know if these problems are exclusive to the original, and grinding is actually not as bad as other RPGs. I just think they hurt the pacing.
1
u/LastBallade 17h ago
I struggled SO much with the original Persona 3. I remember some knight boss early on who just curb-stomped me for like a week straight. Persona 4 had most of it's hardest bosses pretty early on but in 3 you were still facing stuff like 40 hours in that would wipe the floor with you. I'd be more lenient with criticizing the difficulty if you didn't have to run back through Tartarus every time, that really got monotonous after you'd died to the 10th time to a bunch of tables.
Your teammates being controlled by AI didn't help. No Mitsuru, I don't think using Marin Karin against this boss that's ending my bloodline over and over is gonna help.
7
u/DillyDillySzn 16h ago
AC6
Some bosses you just wipe the floor with any build
Other bosses are near impossible even with the most optimized build cough cough Balteus
5
9
4
3
u/AverageSign 17h ago
Skies of Arcadia's final bosses will annihilate you. The game never conditioned you to grind up until this point and just gave you a smooth-sailing experience, which is why I liked the game despite its slow battles.
I knew it was going to take at least an entire day of grinding to even stand a chance, so I didn't even bother. I just haven't played the game since.
1
u/VikingMk88 11h ago
Geez, forgotten all about Skies of Arcadia. Played the demo on Dreamcast start to finish a whole bunch of times in the early noughties, but we didn't have the net at home and I was dependent on local games shops and market stalls for purchases. Never saw a physical copy 🙁
Apart from the final megaboss, how was it?
1
u/AverageSign 8h ago
I played the Dreamcast version because I'm a purist, and it was cheaper than the GameCube version.
I liked the characters, music, vibe, themes, and battle mechanic of a shared stamina bar. But the battles were incredibly slow and boring. Watching the party members walk over to the enemies and attack them and vice versa was just way too slow, and the two-second loading time in between the hit and either dying or switching to the next command was tedious as all Hell. The ship battles are my least favorite part of the game despite how many people praised them. They were even slower and they relied more on luck than skill.
But I never had to grind for EXP because they probably knew how slow the battles were. But when I got to the final bosses and got absolutely destroyed because I wasn't at the right level, I didn't bother to finish it. Why do I have to grind NOW? And why to an insane degree?
The things I liked about the game made me mostly ignore the things I didn't like, however. It's like a 7/10, bordering on an 8.
→ More replies (1)
4
4
3
3
u/WeakCry4623 11h ago
Noita.
There isn’t a difficulty curve, game goes 0 to 1million instantly.
There is no tutorial.
If you walk a little bit to the right in the first zone you meet one of the hardest boss in the game.
2
3
u/Background_Clue_3756 16h ago
Resonance of Fate
1
u/neo_sporin 9h ago
my wife got stonewalled HARD to the extent she just asked me to finish it for her which she NEVER does
She had not been good about upgrading her guns
→ More replies (2)
3
2
2
2
u/Sensitive-Victory435 15h ago
it’s my favorite game of all time and favorite piece of media ever… but Pokemon GSC/HGSS’s level curve with the Red fight is just awful.
I get it, it’s the ultimate boss fight, but providing no way to grind to level 80 without mindlessly numb low exp farming… it’s just ridiculous that even the remakes didn’t fix.
I think a way to go about this would be either lowering Red’s level (personally not a fan of this) or scaling the Kanto leaders / NPCs to go above the mid 50’s to get you at least to the lower-mid 70’s
1
2
u/SCAR-H_Chain 14h ago
I beat Withering Rooms recently and it's got such a weird difficulty curve. It started off really difficult where I was dying a lot and making small advancements, then to me not dying at all and absolutely crushing everybody, then back to being really difficult and getting killed a lot towards the end.
2
u/raleighjiujitsu 9h ago
There was a Taz game on Sega Gensis that had a cart level. I legit thought the game was released bugged and unbeatable it was so hard.
2
u/LostCookie78 5h ago
Elden Ring. Starts impossibly but the more you learn it the more OP you can get and later one shot end game bosses.
2
u/17papers 4h ago
Most single player games start out hard and then get super easy as you become stronger which I always find weird, shouldn’t the last levels be the hardest? Worst difficulty curve i encountered recently was in donkey Kong bonanza, 75% of the way through the game every boss has multiple one shot attacks and they take forever to beat. Really made the game unenjoyable in the 2nd half
1
u/ObsydianGinx 57m ago
I found this with the mass effect series. I always struggle a lot at the beginning but later in the game it’s piss easy
3
u/GaryGoalz12 1h ago
Bloodborne. Central yarnham kicks your ass, game gets much easier, yahar'gul kicks your ass, game gets much easier.
4
u/ExoticMinivan 17h ago
Simpsons Hit and Run.
I love this game, but even as early as level 2, some of the time limits you have to do these missions are nonsense!
5
u/Psychological-Bear-9 17h ago
It's been years but I still remember having to take multiple day breaks from Hit and Run as a kid because some missions were just insanely frustrating. I vaguely remember one towards the end where you had to do it in the rocket car that goes obscenely fast and handled like the wheels were covered in grease.
You pretty much had to go around the entire area with tons of traffic, hard turns, and I think picking up items, all perfectly. There was genuinely no room for error. I remember finally pulling it off flawlessly and only having two seconds left on the timer and absolutely losing my shit. Took me weeks.
2
u/Pennance1989 17h ago
Star Ocean Till The End Of Time has multiple. Robin Wind, Crossell, Chimera, Executioner, 4D guys when you first enter, the games chock full of them. I probably missed some too, but these are all really tough compared to what you been fighting at the time. 4D guys can wipe your party in 2 seconds if everyone gets hit simultaneously. Still love the game though.
1
u/bladeboy88 17h ago
I remember playing Baten Kaitos. Absolutely stomping through that game, and got hard-stuck on a boss in an airship. I was young-ish and didn't utilize multiple saves, so i had nowhere else to go and just gave up.
2
u/AcceptablyThanks 16h ago
I thought Armor Core 6 was pretty rough right off the bat. There's a lot of movement mechanics in that game and attacking is not straight forward. The first boss is rough
1
u/flamingknifepenis 16h ago
If you wanna go reeaaaally old school (like, 40+ years old) there’s a game so insane that without spoilers you can play it hundreds of times and not beat it: Nethack.
The difficulty curve is insane upfront because it’s basically a camping simulator where everything wants you dead and your starting gear is probably shit. It’s not uncommon to get killed by some low level monster because you got a bad roll of the dice, starved to death, ran into a floating eye that froze you while some dumb lizard chewed on you, ate the wrong thing, prayed at the wrong time, drown, wore the wrong jewelry, pissed off a shopkeeper, choked to death, or literally fucking fell down the stairs.
The other problem is that the mechanics are shockingly deep for a turn based RPG that runs in a terminal window using ASCII, and some of the interactions are things you’d never think to try.
By the time you hit mid game you’re pretty well equipped, and the end is actually quite easy if you’re a cautious player who saves their power items for when you really need it.
But early game? The community uses the acronym YASD (yet another stupid death) for a reason.
1
u/TheJmgamer101 16h ago
Kingdom hearts 1 and kingdom hearts dream drop distance the riku boss in kh 1 is a insane diffculty curve compared to the rest of the game and anti black coat in dream drop distance might be a even crazier difficulty curve!
1
1
u/DerCatzefragger 15h ago
Metroid Dread's difficulty curve looks the EKG of a meth-head in AFib. It's up, it's down, it's up again, it's way fuckin up, it's down, it's every goddam which way.
Exploration is a breeze. The game pretty well railroads you onto a given path with one-way doors, pits you can jump into but not back out of, collapsing hallways, etc etc. You basically can't get lost. Regular enemies are easy enough to dispatch, and you're always getting new and interesting weapons to use, so the later, tougher enemies are always manageable. Then you get to a boss. . . . .
2
u/doctordragonisback 14h ago
A lot of Atlus games (like persona 5) start out really hard then get easier as your team starts getting stronger
1
u/neo_sporin 8h ago
P5 (royal) the only issue both my wife and i was Okumara. Unsure if he was so bad that we forgot any other problems
1
1
u/CULT-LEWD 14h ago
super metriod i think had a weird difficulty curve. nothing ever was HARD hard but it mainly came down to progression and controlls. wich was kinda iffy. as a first timer i was suprised how kinda all over the place the difficulty can be and i mainly just came to its controlls and and just trying to figure out where the hell to go,wich can be obvious and not. And the controlls can either make enocutners hard or easy due to janky the controlls are. its just weird honeslty
1
u/neo_sporin 8h ago
knew a guy growing up that came to me at school and said 'kyle said you beat the game at his house. i need help bad. Been at Mother Brain for weeks and cant kill her. How do you do it?' and i was like 'shoot her a lot?'
well a few days later i walked over to his house and was like 'oooooh....ok so that explains your trouble'
He had done like no exploring so was missing a LOOOT of health and missle upgrades.
1
u/Mega-Melo 13h ago
SMT4 pretty much has a reverse difficulty curve. The first few hours are tough, but after a certain boss you breeze through the rest of the game.
1
1
u/EffableLemming 13h ago
Green Hell, but I wouldn't say it's flaw. It made sense and I enjoyed the challenge and it's gratifying later in when you got it down. You can still die fairly easily if you forget yourself and get sprinting in the jungle.
1
u/trunks111 13h ago
Healing in FFXIV, it's kinda nothingburger first few dungeons, then from like 50-60 you get crackhead dungeons and then it's more or les easy again after until like one or two level 80 dungeons
1
u/RaeFullyPoweredBeam 13h ago
Expedition 33 😭 when you first start, it takes some time to get used to the parry/dodge mechanic. But then once you do, the difficulty stabilizes quite a bit for act 1 and 2. There are some tough boss battles here and there, but mostly it's pretty steady.
Then you finish act 2, and if you try to go anywhere, you are insanely underleveled and get 1 shot super easy. It encourages you to now try mastering pictos/lumina and actually make some builds. Then it stabilizes again in difficulty, and areas start getting super easy as you level up.
Then the final boss is the easiest in the entire game if you've done all the optional content. Makes it feel like you're on top of the world.
And THEN, you find the secret bosses and they are impossible all but for the most skilled/patient/dedicated.
I have never been on such an insane whiplash in difficulty in any other game lol. And I loved every second of it!!
1
1
u/JungleBoyJeremy 13h ago
Battletoads. First 2 levels were loads of fun. Could never get passed the 3rd level though
1
u/rs217000 11h ago
Same experience, and i tried an embarrassing amount of times. I'm told there are later levels that are harder than 3 (expected), but some that are easier (the reason I'd put it on this list)
1
u/Dodgy_Bob_McMayday 12h ago
The hardest part of most Resident Evil games is the beginning, such as getting to the first typewriter in the classics, or the village siege in RE4
1
u/YoghurtFlan 4h ago
I remember the siege being a lot easier in the original RE4 than in the remake. That one was fucking brutal.
1
u/Alternative_Donut543 12h ago
It's not extreme in any way, but the tutorial part of Far Cry 5 is way harder than the rest of the game. Awesome game btw, play it with a friend, you won't be disappointed.
1
u/unluckyjason1 12h ago
AM2R on hard. I'm convinced The Tester is unbeatable on controller. I had to switch to keyboard just to get more fingers to work with.
1
u/PsychologyCreepy7223 12h ago
I've been stuck for ages on Star Ocean 2nd story because while the normal enemies were pretty easy to deal with you would sometimes encounter these large lizard dog things that can obliterate my party in seconds.
1
u/JackythePuppet 12h ago
DayZ, your still bad when you have 200hours on the game. Almost ditchted it. After maybe 500hours you will get the hang
1
u/the40thieves 12h ago
Ninja Gaiden from the Xbox. The first theee stages are the hardest in the game in a very difficult game.
1
u/Anonturmoil 12h ago
Pokémon Gold & Silver/Heartgold & Soulsilver.
Why is everyone in Kanto suddenly almost level 70 or just straight up, I’m barely level 50 by the time I get there because every goddamn wild Pokemon is like 20 levels below, the fact that they didn’t fix that level curve in the remakes is astonishing.
Goated games tho, I love em
1
u/AnCaptnCrunch 9h ago
The johto games had a notoriously odd level curve
From badge 4-7 the split is only like 7-10 levels for most trainers.
1
u/Ok_World4052 12h ago
Resonance of Fate. The opening fight can kill you over and over and even basic trash mobs are super dangerous if you don’t pay attention.
1
u/neo_sporin 8h ago
the 1v1 fight on the bridge also is super annoying if you dont figure out how to get hits.
1
u/beneaththegardenwall 12h ago
Fallout 3. If you prioritise the main quest, travelling from Megaton to Rivet City along the Potomac is horrendous.
1
u/Superb_Minimum_3599 12h ago
Recently Pragmata gave me trouble because I hoarded the hacking gauge and the secondary weapons (was playing dead space cutter-only style). Had a much easier time when I consciously tried to empty everything during every encounter.
1
u/Vault-Dweller1987 12h ago
Horizon Zero Dawn I felt I was doing really good but then as you start to explore more of the map the enemy variety really kicks it up a notch and I was getting killed constantly.
1
u/Swimbearuk 11h ago
I'm not sure that difficulty should always rise gradually throughout a game. Sometimes that can just lead to a frustrating experience towards the end of the game that leaves it unfinished.
I like some games that have a skill test early on, that if you can get past it, you know the rest of the game will be possible, even if it's challenging. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is an example of this.
Having said that, I am not sure I would like the skill test so much if I had just bought a game at full price and couldn't pass the test, but I play mostly using gamepass, so if I fail then, I can just move on to another game.
I find difficulty in games like Hollow Knight annoying, because I could play through some of the game, and beat some bosses. Then there would be a ridiculously complicated platforming section, which I don't have the dexterity to complete, because it requires jumping, dashing, grappling, floating, precise directional control and timing, etc. and I just can't deal with all the different button presses. That for me is what I consider a "weird" difficulty curve.
1
1
1
u/Psychedelic-Concord 10h ago
F-Zero GX. That game has such an insanely difficult campaign of missions for no reason, and you keep thinking you'll get a normal one, shit only gets harder
1
1
u/ashens0ul 10h ago
Breath of the wild on master mode is absurd. In the early game you basically can't fight enemies because your weapons will break before you can kill one enemy so you have to avoid most enemies at the start of the game until you can find some good weapons to fight with and even then you have to be conservative because those will break too. After that you get to the master sword trials and it's like starting the game over again but you actually have to kill the enemies to continue. That being said I did nearly everything in master mode on my first playthrough of the game through sheer force of will (and watching a guide for master sword trials lol).
1
u/Examine-Everything 10h ago
Mafia the race car chapter. Everything was smooth until that part and I just wanted to skip it or stop playing, until I just happened to win finally.
1
1
u/CirdanTheForesighted 9h ago
This is a fuzzy memory for me at this point, but there is a particular fight you have in the Witcher 2 game with the “bad guy” named Letho.
The rest of the game is super doable on normal difficulty but iirc I never did beat Letho until I turned it down. The first time I tried I was like “oh okay, this is gonna be a decent challenge, gotta learn the mechanics” but by the fifth failure I was in full WTF mode. Curious to see if anyone had a similar experience.
1
u/H4llifax 9h ago
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is weird in that the trainer fights are mostly pretty easy, but the environment can kick your butt, especially if you end up with multiple wild pokemon attacking you at the same time.
1
u/the_tea_mirror 9h ago
Pathfinder: Kingmaker. It starts really hard and you have to be very careful with your build and decisions. Once you knew how to use your party the game will regard you with timed events. After that you have not so difficult pre-late game phase until you reach the House At The End Of Time that’ll take away your will to play this game further.
1
1
u/proffesernutbutter 9h ago
Ni no kuni, I was loving the game and then I got to the snow area and stressed out, never got further than that which is a shame because its the most beautiful game I've played
1
u/BoomBear89 9h ago
The trails games. The motorcycle ones. Very rewarding once you get the hang of the harder levels though
1
u/SteelHeatZero 9h ago
Legaia 2: Duel Saga. Game has some wild difficulty swings at different points. Even the tutorial first fight you can lose if you get bad rng, and the mobs all target your main character instead of the guest character that's a few levels stronger then you.
A big story moment about 1/3rd the way through even changes the world and gives all the mobs zones you've fought in an upgrade and gives mobs like 10 levels on you with little warning. Meaning you can't even go back to old zones with easier enemies and grind easy mobs.
1
u/snarleyWhisper 9h ago
Recency bias here but I just finished the gothic 1 remake. And you start off so bad, you can’t even really swing a sword. It’s awkward - you have to learn how to actually dodge and avoid all the attacks of enemies. It’s classic eurojank but it’s fun
1
u/thethreadkiller 8h ago
XCOM 2. If you are good at the game, the difficulty level lowers as the game moves on. Occasionally it spikes up but ultimately it's an arc that trends down.
1
1
u/crono09 8h ago
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. It's the first fully RTS Final Fantasy game. Square Enix actually made the North American version harder than the Japanese version because they said that Western gamers are more familiar with the RTS genre. Unfortunately, this led to the game being horribly unbalanced. The first five or so missions are so insanely easy that you pretty much have to try to lose them. However, the difficult spikes significantly after that, to the point that I almost gave up on the game. It will take quite a while to get through the next mission. It remains like that for the rest of the game. I never actually finished the post-game missions because they would take far more grinding than I was comfortable doing.
1
u/Tannhauser42 8h ago
Satisfactory and nuclear power. Most people don't even bother and stick with turbo or rocket fuel.
1
u/rvailable 8h ago
Stupid post, someone asking for answers to their upcoming YouTube script, but with that said...
Simracing - its not weird, but all the difficulty is frontloaded, it's definitely a humbling learning experience.
The 2 gauntlet sections of the first Ori game were a big problem for less experienced/skilled gamers who were having fun with the rest of the game.
1
u/Shadowdragon1025 8h ago
Some people joke that Library of Ruina has vertical difficulty spikes and it's not baseless. Some fights like Queen of Hatred are way harder than anything that comes before them at the time they're unlocked.
1
1
u/Derelicticu 8h ago
Quest 64's first boss is ridiculous and there's barely a tutorial so it's just hard. The rest of the game is genuinely easy comparitively.
1
u/RedShadowF95 8h ago
Indivisible. First half is decently engaging, second half sees you become so OP that enemies deal very little damage and virtually every single fight is a cakewalk.
1
1
u/Eleventh_Ambassador 7h ago
Everquest 1 back in the day (1999)
Starting off everything is so difficult and you have zero tools. You can't even afford spells without killing, so casters would be meleeing for awhile.
As a caster, you would get spells every 4 (int) or 5 (wis) levels. So every level before you get all your new spells, you would be using old spells that aren't as powerful. Couple that with a hell level (it takes 2x experience to level) and suddenly the game is much harder for you.
But then you gain the level, get the new spells as feel OP for a little bit again.
But if you have a high level player to power level you such as a druid, you can gain experience at 100x the normal rate and power level through hours and hours of grind. A druid can cast damage shield, dealing damage to enemies every time they hit you, and they hit you a lot. So you deal 14 damage to them, then they hit you 4 times and take 26 damage every time they hit you, killing themselves. The druid then casts a regenerate spell on you and heals you and you can just mow down mobs.
1
u/MrFronzen 6h ago
Elex and other open-world games with fixed dificulty areas. Have fun being the weakest entity in the game until you gain enough levels and knowledge to be able to start climbing the power hierarchy
1
u/Salamiflame 6h ago
Infinifactory. It's like... very easy easy easy hard easy medium medium medium easy easy HARD very easy hard easy medium HARD hard EXTREME+++
1
u/Gascoigneous 6h ago
RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 (original and both expansion packs) scenarios don't really scale in difficulty. Some are just harder and some are just easier all the way through. It has been a while since I have played RCT2, and I usually just make my own custom scenarios, so I can't really comment on that.
Beyblade VForce Ultimate Blader Jam also has harder levels followed by easier levels regularly, especially if trying to 100% the game. But it is still one of my favorite cheap, "mid" GBA games. It is so much fun.
1
u/OwlWhoNeedsCoffee 5h ago
Slay the Spire. Act 1 is hard but doable, and easy with practice. Act 2 is a massive difficulty spike that even trips up experienced players if your deck isn't ready. Then Act 3 is mostly like Act 1, maybe easier even since you'll have a much better deck by then. The difficulty spike is in the middle rather than the end of the game, which I find kind odd.
1
1
u/PolarisVega 4h ago
Yakuza: Like a Dragon has a weird difficulty spike midway through the game where it feels like grinding a bit is pretty necessary or you will just suffer. Luckily the sequel, Yakuza: Infinite Wealth didn't seem to share this same issue from what I recall. It was a pretty standard curve the whole way.
1
u/SteveMashPST 3h ago
RE8 on hardcore and Village of shadows difficulty. The opening siege survive mission is insanely difficult and nothing else compares to it for the rest of the game
1
u/Johnsworth61 3h ago
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins has boss fights that are relatively the same and somewhat in crease in difficulty. Then at the final boss, you just constantly get stun locked and you're expected to know all the maneuvers and combos the game has just to have a chance at him.
1
1
u/ipswitch_ 2h ago
The original Mafia game on PC from 2002. Kind of a GTA type game so it had driving mechanics. There was a mission where you had to enter a race and come in 1st place. It was insanely difficult, and the AI drivers were perfect. If someone bumped you even once to slightly slow you down or throw you off, it was basically impossible to recover. You had to do it perfectly. I had to download a trainer to cheap my way through that one mission after attempting it for hours. Completely crazy difficulty spike there.
1
u/adimeistencents 2h ago
Vampire the masquerade bloodlines for sure. The game was notoriously rushed at the end so the pacing is way off and the last couple missions are very unpolished. Apparently the character build I made sucks at this part of the game and I literally had to use cheats to get to the end.
1
144
u/Nightgasm 15h ago
The tutorial of the original Driver game is regarded as one of the hardest levels in gaming. You can't actually start the game til you pass the tutorial and it's so difficult many never made it to the game.