While many games aim to offer a casual and accessible experience and challe, others stand out for their challenging unforgiving difficulty. Many Souls-like games, for example, represent a challenge in their own right, requiring a level of skill and persistence that goes beyond what is found in more traditional games.
Difficulty is not limited to Souls-likes, however. There are many titles throughout the years that require a lot of persistence from players, with challenges that test the limits of skill. Check out some games that may have made you give up, but that may also have made you grow as a player.
Cuphead
A modern classic, Cuphead offers a challenging unique gaming experience, with fast-paced boss battles and stunning visuals inspired by 1930s cartoons. Get ready for a challenge and have fun with this masterpiece of the gaming industry.
As mentioned, Cuphead’s boss battles are the heart of the game, presenting intense challenges that require quick reflexes, pattern memorization, and extreme attention to everything happening on screen. These fast-paced combats leave little room for error and require the player to stay alert and think quickly, turning each battle into a true test of skill. In addition to the bosses, the side-scrolling levels bring a gameplay variation that mixes platforming with the game’s characteristic chaos, adding even more charm and challenge to the experience.
The Delicious Last Course DLC raises the difficulty even further, introducing challenging new bosses that keep the frenetic pace going and unlock even greater mastery of the mecanics. The new challenges are more complex, with attack patterns that mix old elements with new surprises, increasing the pressure on the player.
Dark Souls
The Dark Souls trilogy, which began in 2011, revolutionized the souls-like genre and cemented FromSoftware as a master of creating challenging and memorable experiences. These games are widely recognized for its relentless difficulty, which defines the gameplay experience. Common enemies are not mere obstacles; each encounter demands patience, precise timing, and mastery of combat mechanics.
The game punishes any carelessness, whether through unexpected ambushes, deadly traps, or enemies that inflict massive damage in a few hits. The stamina system adds an extra layer of complexity, forcing the player to carefully balance attacks, defenses, and dodges. In addition, the scarce checkpoints, represented by bonfires, make progress a mix of relief and constant tension.
Dead Cells
Dead Cells is another roguelike action game that puts the player in the shoes of an immortal prisoner seeking revenge. With fast-paced combat and randomly generated levels, each run is unique. The game offers an addictive loop and a progression system that rewards persistence.
In this game, the player faces a series of challenges that test their skill, strategy and persistence. Enemies vary in behavior, from simple soldiers to complex creatures with devastating and unpredictable attacks, requiring the player to adapt quickly.
The combat is frenetic, and mistakes are severely punished, often leading to the death of the character and having to start over from the beginning. In addition, the levels are randomly generated, which means that the player never encounters the same layout twice, forcing them to constantly adapt to new scenarios, traps and enemies.
The player’s persistence is tested with each defeat, as they must learn from their mistakes and keep trying to progress. The feeling of starting over from scratch can be frustrating, but Dead Cells rewards persistence with permanent improvements, new weapons and abilities that make future attempts a little easier.
Elden Ring
Elden Ring is a challenge for the most experienced players, offering a challenging and rewarding gameplay experience. In this hostile open world, you will need to master combat mechanics to overcome the dangers that await you. Explore every corner of the Lands Between to find powerful items and uncover the secrets of a world on the brink of collapse.
Elden Ring fans already know: the 2022 game of the year continues to evolve. The “Shadow of the Erdtree” DLC brings new lands to explore, epic bosses to defeat, and much more. This DLC significantly ramps up the difficulty compared to the base game, featuring more aggressive and strategic enemies, along with bosses that have unpredictable and punishing attack patterns.
Sifu
Sifu is a fast-paced action game that challenges players with intense kung fu combat and a unique aging mechanic. With each death, the protagonist ages, making them more fragile and requiring a new approach to overcome challenges.
This challenging game redefines the concept of difficulty by integrating an aging system that not only changes the protagonist’s appearance, but also drastically changes the gameplay. Each death causes the character to age, which brings about an intriguing trade-off: the character becomes stronger and deals more damage, but at the same time becomes more fragile, with less health and resistance.
This cycle creates constant tension, as players must adjust their approach to each new aging phase, seeking a balance between aggression and caution in order to survive. The challenge intensifies as the protagonist ages, and the player feels the weight of each death more and more. As they reach advanced ages, mistakes are less forgiving, and the difficulty seems to increase exponentially.
Syobon Action
Get ready for a challenging journey in Syobon Action! Inspired by classics like Super Mario Bros., this online game takes difficulty to a whole new level. With simple graphics and addictive gameplay, Syobon Action is perfect for those looking for a quick and fun challenge. Face treacherous platforms, relentless enemies and show that you have what it takes to master this cult classic.
This game is known for its unfair challenges and unpredictable traps that often kill the player without warning. The game subverts all the conventions of traditional platform games by placing hidden obstacles and deadly surprises in places that would normally be safe. Collapsing platforms, enemies that appear out of nowhere, invisible blocks that interfere with precise jumps — everything in the game is designed to punish the player in unexpected and frustrating ways.
This constant disruption of expectations makes the player feel like they are fighting not just the obstacles, but the game design itself, which seems to be on a mission to defeat them at any cost. This cycle of treacherous traps and sudden deaths can quickly wear down even the most patient players.
