10 RPGs With Insane Difficulty Spikes

10 RPGs With Insane Difficulty Spikes

As a seasoned gamer with decades worth of battle scars under my belt, I can confidently say that these challenging encounters have left me more than just a little battle-worn. The Hag from Darkest Dungeon, with her cauldron of doom, is a witch I’d rather not cross paths with again. That fight was a wicked dance of life and death, where every move counted and every mistake could cost you dearly.


Occasionally, a role-playing game may seem straightforward at first, giving the impression of a relaxed gaming journey. However, unexpectedly, it can suddenly ramp up its difficulty to a challenging level that’s tough to surmount.

It might be shocking for some and could discourage others from gaming completely. However, it excites those who crave difficulties in what would otherwise be a leisurely activity.

Although these Role-Playing Games (RPGs) initially appear easy, they hide some of the most unexpected and challenging difficulty peaks found in any video game. It’s unfortunate but true that RPGs tend to be the genre with the steepest learning curves, so let’s delve into it.

10 Black Myth: Wukong

Not a Souls Like, Or So We Thought

10 RPGs With Insane Difficulty Spikes

2024’s “Black Myth: Wukong” is hailed as one of the top games and offers a unique, peculiar gaming experience. At first glance, it seems quite simple and limited, offering a linear path with minimal storyline and repetitive battle sequences that propel you forward.

As the game unfolds, it rapidly evolves, transitioning from compact zones to vast, labyrinthine landscapes brimming with hidden gems and sub-quests to discover as you advance.

The significant increase in challenge occurs in Chapter 2. In contrast, Chapter 1 offers a breeze as you effortlessly defeat everything in your path, even bosses with just one or two attempts at most. However, the final battle of Chapter 1 serves to ramp up the difficulty, but nothing could prepare you for what lies ahead in Chapter 2.

Facing off against the Tiger Vanguard, Yellow Wind Sage, and other challenging bosses may push your mental limits. Ensure your reaction time and ability distribution are well-honed, or you might find yourself replaying these battles multiple times.

It gets crazier from there, with the subsequent chapters upping the ante even further.

The game incorporates fighting systems that are complex, inconsistent, and occasionally illogical, leading to frustrating moments where you might feel like tossing your controller away. However, despite its challenges, it is highly rewarding, making it worth persevering if you have the patience for it.

9 Final Fantasy 10

I Hate You Seymour And For Good Reason

10 RPGs With Insane Difficulty Spikes

Speaking candidly, Final Fantasy X is highly esteemed, yet its distinctive feature lies in the challenging segments that appear towards the latter stages of play.

The battle that encapsulates this best is the fight against the iconic and painfully difficult Seymour Flux. This battle is so twisted that it doesn’t make sense the first time you play it.

In this chaotic battlefield, status ailments are flying around unpredictably. The boss’s health bar is astronomically high, and if you don’t pay close attention, your team could be wiped out with each turn due to one-hit attacks.

If it appears that this is an exception, rest assured that it isn’t, for the battles against the bosses become progressively intricate from here on out. Battles against Yunalesca and certain final bosses prove to be remarkably challenging.

You might anticipate some tough battles from early 2000s JRPGs, but even with a solid plan and a party at optimal levels, it’s quite demanding dealing with how brutally hard this game gets. This is all without considering the additional side quests that involve fighting monsters with health points in the millions.

It’s a great game, but be ready for a harsh reality check in its second half.

8 Divinity: Original Sin 2

So Much Fire. It Feels Like It Won’t End

10 RPGs With Insane Difficulty Spikes

Original Sin 2″ is an extensive role-playing game offering flexibility in gameplay style. However, this versatility doesn’t come without a cost.

In the initial stages, the game presents a moderate challenge, yet it’s not until the Oil Slug battle in Act 2 that the real increase in difficulty occurs. Despite being entertaining, this encounter requires you to engage oil slugs in a burning arena.

In this intense scenario, it’s a rollercoaster ride of laughter and brutal challenge since everything around seems to be on fire. The task at hand is to find a means of survival amidst the blaze, all while putting an end to the foes who ignited the inferno in the first place.

This fight was hellish in every way, forcing you to use your environment, equipment, and mind to overcome it. It is one of the toughest and most memorable moments in the 80+-hour game.

7 Sekiro

Genichiro Ended Many Playthroughs

10 RPGs With Insane Difficulty Spikes

Indeed, it’s well-known that the game Sekiro is quite challenging. However, with strategic planning and quick reactions, most of the bosses and challenges can be successfully tackled.

From the moment you engage Genichiro for the first time, everything shifts. This rooftop battle at the temple serves as a pivotal test in Sekiro, pushing your skills and knowledge to their limits.

The difficulty spike here is beyond belief, especially when you’ve already conquered such foes as Lady Butterfly.

As a passionate admirer, I find myself gasping for breath amidst this breathtakingly swift battle against Genichiro. His first form already pushes me to my limits, but his second transforms the duel into a daunting challenge. Mastering the art of lightning deflection, an intricate and delicate technique, becomes essential – a task that feels almost impossible to execute flawlessly.

One of the toughest realizations comes after victory, when it becomes clear that the most significant hurdles of the game are yet to be faced.

6 Final Fantasy 16

The DLCs Were Brutal For A Game That Started On Easy

10 RPGs With Insane Difficulty Spikes

In straightforward terms, “Final Fantasy 16” stands out as one of the most user-friendly games I’ve encountered. The primary antagonists provide regular respite points during battles, restoring all your healing potions and inventory, ensuring that no challenge becomes excessively tough.

As an avid player, I found the overall gaming experience quite delightful, but the seemingly effortless battles against formidable foes left me feeling somewhat frustrated. The grandeur of these colossal adversaries, meant to instill a sense of dread and awe, was unfortunately undermined by their lack of challenge.

That all changed when the Rising Tides DLC arrived, as well as the Echoes of the Fallen.

Initially, the First Super Boss of the Game Makes Its Debut in the DLC Echoes of the Fallen, presenting an intense battle against the legendary boss Omega. This epic confrontation is characterized by prolonged combat, includes challenging bullet hell sequences, and demands a generous supply of potions to ensure your survival throughout.

That challenge comes out of nowhere, but the Leviathan fight takes the cake here.

The final fight of the Rising Tides DLC against Leviathan starts easy enough, but the midpoint of the battle has a ridiculous DPS check that is completely off-brand compared to the rest of the game and not only produces an instant-fail state, but even gives you a unique cutscene where a terrifying tidal wave swallows you and the world.

As a devoted player, I can tell you that determining the optimal attack sequence in this game is no easy feat. The sheer volume of incoming projectiles makes dodging them quite a challenge, and getting hit means my character will have less health remaining for subsequent attacks.

In essence, while the game as a whole is relatively straightforward, it boasts some of the toughest and bloodiest downloadable content battles that you might encounter within the realm of gaming.

5 Tales of Arise

We Didn’t Expect What Happens With Ganabelt

10 RPGs With Insane Difficulty Spikes

Initially, Tales of Arise might seem like a delightful, carefree journey. However, upon closer inspection, it delves into heavier themes such as slavery, existential crises, and the poignant ability to experience pain – so it’s important to discard any initial lighthearted assumptions.

Around the ten-hour mark of the game, you’ll encounter some challenging obstacles that align with its mature themes. One such challenge is the battle against the formidable boss, Ganabelt, who has a significant build-up before the fight. This battle delivers an exhilarating experience.

This battle is incredibly dynamic, both visually and mechanically, making it challenging to follow along and stay informed about what’s occurring on-screen, much like tackling a difficult task.

In the arena, Ganabelt unleashes widespread attacks that last for a while, so it’s crucial to interrupt these animations to stay alive or meet damage requirements. Furthermore, he possesses an immense health reserve.

If you don’t arrive prepared with a good stock of health and CP potions, this battle is likely to be incredibly challenging for you.

For the remainder of the game, you’ll find spikes in difficulty for each boss that are quite alike. The closing stages of the game, however, present a distinctively challenging and cruel design, one that seems to forcefully encourage buying the game’s additional content or reducing the difficulty level, which may feel cheap, but such is the nature of the game.

4 Xenogears

Existence is Futile Thanks To Deus

10 RPGs With Insane Difficulty Spikes

Xenogears stands out for its compelling narrative and grand scope, yet at some stage in the game, it becomes nearly impossible to play without proper preparation beforehand.

The indicated point, or boss character, is known as Deus. While it’s expected that final bosses should be difficult, the challenge posed by Deus appears illogical. Here’s the reason: Your colossal robotic machines, referred to as Gears, require fuel to operate.

Currently in the game, just ahead lies a safe spot where you can save before engaging in the climactic battle. Following that, an extensive, multistage fight unfolds, one that calls for every member of your team to contribute.

In simpler terms, when I say “All of your party,” I mean all your characters or Gears. It’s common for players to focus on a few favorites, so the damage your team inflicts may not be very high. Additionally, keep in mind that you have a limited supply of fuel. If you run out, it could spell the end of your Xenogears journey.

If you have saved games prior to entering the final stronghold, it means you could revert to an earlier state to retrieve this fuel. However, doing so would imply losing significant progress, which can be disheartening, and might indicate a challenging obstacle or sudden increase in difficulty due to hasty game development instead of a well-designed battle.

3 Darkest Dungeon

Hope You Like Despair Because There Is Plenty

10 RPGs With Insane Difficulty Spikes

2016 saw the arrival of Darkest Dungeon, which brought a much-needed refreshing breeze to the gaming world. However, it also boasted one of the steepest challenge ramps in the gaming industry.

Initially, the game provides an uncomplicated journey for your band of explorers, guiding them through numerous dungeons in search of riches and defeating bosses. However, the level of challenge suddenly escalates not long after the initial objectives are accomplished.

As the challenges intensify within the game, unexpectedly, team members may begin to conflict, heroes could become overwhelmed leading to stress, and in some instances, they might suffer a fatal heart attack. Essentially, in this virtual world, characters can abruptly succumb to a heart attack with no chance of revival. Isn’t it thrilling?

Absolutely, there are strategies to make this easier, but they involve defeating opponents in the dungeons, which only become tougher as you progress. To add to the difficulty, sometimes your characters might refuse to fight. They may disregard attack orders, and when that happens, that’s just part of the challenge in Darkest Dungeon.

One particular difficulty spike comes from a witch boss known as the Hag, where she cooks your party one by one in her cauldron, not allowing herself to be attacked unless you want to kill your team. This fight drew a particular ire in a game that quickly reveals its cruel face.

2 Lost Odyssey

How Hard Can An Electric Eel be to defeat?

10 RPGs With Insane Difficulty Spikes

Lost Odyssey is a classic JRPG, and many consider it the true Final Fantasy 13.

The battle at hand goes by the name of Bogimoray, and it’s a particularly intense encounter in every aspect. It consists of several stages, occurs relatively early in the gameplay, and requires you to locate a rather elusive item that has been cleverly concealed within the surrounding area. Following this is an unavoidable narrative sequence.

As I ponder over the thrilling melody echoing in my mind, I find myself confronted by two colossal monstrous eels, known for devouring swarms of bugs as their meals. The battle design is ingenious, but the reality is a brutal challenge.

Bugs amass energy on Bogimorays, and once fully charged, they launch a powerful assault that typically eliminates anyone who isn’t well-prepared with robust defensive and recovery spells.

On my latest playthrough, Bogimoray proved particularly challenging, even though I knew the strategy to conquer it. Compared to other obstacles in the game that seem almost effortless to overcome, Bogimoray stands out as an exceptionally difficult hurdle.

1 Elden Ring

Put your foolish ambitions to rest10 RPGs With Insane Difficulty Spikes

Elden Ring is challenging, yet offers abundant solutions to offset its toughness. For instance, it provides the Mimic Tear, an option for allies, whether friends or strangers, to join you in your quest, and the flexibility to craft overpowered character builds to conquer the monstrosities of this realm.

Initially, you encounter a significant challenge when you first face the renowned boss, Margit. At that stage of the game, it’s unlikely that you have any available summons to aid you, and your capacity to call for help from friends might be limited.

In this scenario, it appears you, who might be a jellyfish, and your rudimentary, almost junky technology, are up against an opponent who is clearly wiser. This adversary advises you to abandon your overzealous aspirations.

In a straightforward manner, Margit teaches the player about the relentless, time-delayed, almost limitless combo sequences that other bosses might use, and this initial lesson can be quite challenging.

In simpler terms, Margit is incredibly powerful, quickly depleting your health within a blink of an eye. She possesses both close and distant attack capabilities, leaving no safe zone for you on the battleground.

In this battle, you’ll likely struggle due to the compact size of the arena. Although Margit appears big, his speed is such that you won’t have much time to create space before he launches another assault.

Among other challenging battles in the game, Margit stands out as particularly formidable, especially during the initial stages. His difficulty level is so high that he earns a place among the greatest challenges in video game history. For this reason, he claims the top spot on our list.

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2024-09-20 18:39