When was the last time you couldn't finish a game cause it was too difficult?

Johnny Novgorod

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I got stuck in a game the other day (God of War: Ascension in Hard Mode, the elevator fight near the end) and for the first time in years I feared I was simply not good enough to finish the game. I did eventually, but the familiar vertigo of frustration and insecurity had already caught up to me. And with that came all the flashbacks to my SNES days, when I would play a game in one seating and without a save option, knowing I'd have to give up in that one specific part simply because I wasn't good enough.

Nowadays this almost never happens - you know you're going to get past a part - and I don't know if it's because I've gotten better, the games have gotten easier (less cryptic, that's for sure) or a combo of the both (as well as having access to a pretty comprehensive selection of LPs, FAQs and walkthroughs).

Anyway, I kinda liked the feeling, if only for nostalgia. When was the last time you got it?
 

Dreiko_v1legacy

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I gave up on getting the super secret boss in Dungeon Travelers 2 down after over 240 hours with the game. Too much grinding required. Loved the game otherwise.
 

Hawki

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Diablo II: Lord of Destruction

That was a few years ago, not when it came out. But I just couldn't beat Baal. I rarely give up on games, no matter how tempted I might be to do so at times, but that just broke me.
 

Sniper Team 4

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I think the last game that made me simply give up was Street Fighter 4. Seth can suck and die for all I care. Never touching Street Fighter again.

It was either that, or Bayonetta. Couldn't get past that space level, where you have to fight the flying train at long range.
 

tippy2k2

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I'm not sure I ever have. I feel no shame in dropping the difficulty if I think it's too tough where it's at and the game with the notoriously difficult games (Dark Souls) I stopped playing for reasons other than the difficulty.

Really, the closest it's come to happening would probably have been "Lost Odyssey" on the 360 when I got JRPG'ed. I went to the final zone and you know how you get the "Once you cross this point, you can't come back until you beat the game, are you're squad is ready?" message? My squad was evidently not ready and there wasn't a thing I could do about it so I ended up just stopping the game.
 

CaitSeith

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Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne DLCs. I got stuck in every one of them...
 

Fox12

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Probably Bloodborne. I had to summon for every boss in the end game.

Then I replayed it, and Got Gud. Now I'm disappointed with how easy it is : /
 

Ryallen

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I don't finish games in general, but the last time I remember not finishing a game because it was too difficult was Disgaea 3. I didn't know that you were supposed to grind for levels in the item worlds, so I did every fight under leveled and got up to the Prinny Mask fight. Once one of the angel lion things one shot my Chef guy, I quit the game right then and there.

Dark Souls 3 I supposed you could count as well, but I don't mostly because it's not too hard so much as I don't look forward having to get through Irithyll Dungeon with all the Watcher assholes draining my health.

I mean, I've temporarily dropped games because they were too hard but then picked them up again and got through the part. But Disgaea 3 was thef irst time where I've put down a game that was too hard with no intention of playing again.
 

Diablo2000

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For being too dificult? Last I remember it was back in the PS2. Fucking Kratos`s Clones segment in God of War in the God Dificulty. I don`t care what anyone says, this fucking fight is not fair.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Diablo2000 said:
For being too dificult? Last I remember it was back in the PS2. Fucking Kratos`s Clones segment in God of War in the God Dificulty. I don`t care what anyone says, this fucking fight is not fair.
Dear god yes. I only played that on Normal, I can only imagine God Difficulty. Most frustrating part of the game.
 

Fijiman

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The only one I can think of that I didn't come back to later would probably be Pirates of the Caribbean: Legend of Jack Sparrow. Got to one boss that I just couldn't beat and gave up. I could probably beat him if I tried now, but that would require me to track down a copy of the game and get to that point again, which I would only do if someone were paying good money for me to do so.
 

Quazimofo

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Star Fox adventures. Never figured out that you needed to hammer the A button at a specific rate rather than just mash it for that one part in the little foot village. Don't really feel like tracking down a copy at this point though.
 

Casual Shinji

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Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, the final boss.

There's one tiny section on his back that you need to jump on, and in the final phase of the fight he just moves too damn fast for me to time it right. And it had nothing to do with perseverance or getting good, I got as good as I could get, it was just not within my capabilities to beat this guy. It was the first time in my long years of gaming that I was hit by the fact that age had slowed me down.
 

FalloutJack

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I dunno. I generally get back to 'em, eventually, and undo the issue.
 

Hawki

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Quazimofo said:
Star Fox adventures. Never figured out that you needed to hammer the A button at a specific rate rather than just mash it for that one part in the little foot village.
Oh dear god that trial...gah!

When it comes to button mashing, here's a tip that can work - get something like a pencil or pen, lay the controller down on a stable surface, and rub the stencil quickly over the button. It can be difficult to pull off, but it's only through this technique that I was able to pass that trial, as well as the torture sequence in Metal Gear Solid.
 

bartholen_v1legacy

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Diablo2000 said:
For being too dificult? Last I remember it was back in the PS2. Fucking Kratos`s Clones segment in God of War in the God Dificulty. I don`t care what anyone says, this fucking fight is not fair.
I played it on Spartan, and still had to do that segment for like an hour before finally getting through it. I found the only effective way was to spam Army of Hades as much as possible, since it deals enough damage and has a wide enough AoE to keep the crowd manageable.

Speaking of God of War, I tried both GoW 2 and 3 on the hardest difficulties, and gave up on both. In GoW 2 I got to the Theseus fight, in 3 I couldn't even get past Hades' fight. Both of them simply devolved into repeating the exact same pattern over and over, with zero margin for error. One hit, and it's over. I've got better things to do.

Far Cry 1 on PC. Holy shit talk about unfair AI! Never mind the fact that the enemies can spot you from halfway across the planet, at night, through foliage, with pinpoint precision, but at one point I kept dying and I didn't know why, until I realized an enemy was shooting at me with a bazooka... from outside the game's draw distance. Fuck that game.

Darkest Dungeon. Not necessarily because of the difficulty, but because of the absolutely, cosmically fucked amount of grinding the game expects you to do to stay competitive. Got my money's worth though, so I didn't leave feeling frustrated. Some of the bosses are just straight up unfair.

And just last night I gave up on Dark Souls for the first time. It was my first Soul Level 1 playthrough. I'd recommend it to DS veterans, since it changes the dynamic a fair bit. Instead of souls, the most important thing is upgrade materials, and the importance of armor increases drastically. It transforms the game into more of an action hack'n'slasher, and the ability to use fire and lightning weapons without bemoaning the loss of scaling was refreshing. I got all the way up to Gwyn (didn't do the DLC), but after hours of dying I just gave up. When your HP is that low, even with the Ring of Favor and Protection, the margin of error practically ceases to exist. Blocking ceases to be an option with such low stamina. If you want to try fast dodging, you die in one hit. If you want to parry, the timing must be absolutely perfect on every attempt. You miss one parry, misjudge one dodge, get hit once, even with full Havel's, it's over. In any other game I might have kept going, but taking 1,5 minutes to even get to the boss room before getting two-shotted (well, more like one-shotted, since his first strike stunlocks you when you don't have enough poise), just took too much.
 

Katherine Kerensky

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Knights of the Old Republic 2 is the last one I remember not being able to complete.
Got right to the end, and then I realised how badly I fucked up my character build. Even worse than I did on the first game, it turns out.
 

Elijin

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Binding of Isaac....sorta.

Sometimes I just cant pull of the Hush, Mega Satan and Delirium fights. Have beat them, but usually at the hands of great item combinations. I just get weary of the mechanical dodging required before finishing their 10K health pools without some seriously good set ups. (For context, the base damage players deal is 3-5 depending on character pick).
 

The Enquirer

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There was one mission on Timesplitters 2 I couldn't beat for the life of me, it was one of the assault challenges. It wasn't completing it that was the challenge. It was completing it within the time limit to unlock the stage to play in for arcade.
 

McElroy

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Far Cry 2 on Insanity. Mind you I didn't advance too far, but on Insanity you simply can't take a firefight.
Diablo2000 said:
For being too dificult? Last I remember it was back in the PS2. Fucking Kratos`s Clones segment in God of War in the God Dificulty. I don`t care what anyone says, this fucking fight is not fair.
Hint1: Magic is broken. Hint2: You have unlimited mana in Rage of the Gods. There are a bunch of tough situations in that game that you can basically just skip using Poseidon's Wrath even on the hardest setting.