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[TheInfamousKira]

So we've all been there. Playing a game, everything is coming up roses. "Ha! Are they any that canst hope to smite me? Is there a soul who deigns to proclaim themselves a threat to me, a veritable mountain of nigh invincible success and skill?!" you exclaim in your living room. But then it happens: you get royally mollywhopped. Perhaps once, perhaps several times. Difficulty spikes are common place in games, and utilized well, they're a fulfilling test of skill and ingenuity, proof that you're in the big league now. Done poorly, they're hair pulling, rage inducing limbos that are cheap, unfair, and stacked against you. What are your examples of the best and worst?

Good tier: Bladewolf from Metal Gear Rising. Teaches you to parry, hands you your sawed up ass if you don't take the lesson to heart. Teaches and refines a skill that you will use for the remainder of the game.

Bad tier: I'll stick with Metal Gear and say the Skull Unit from MGSV. If you're new to the base building/R&D research, or just plain inattentive, you'll very likely end up doing a typical mission only to find yourself getting your butthole turned inside out in an airport by spoopy ghost men who are earth benders and have armor that baseline weapons are like peashooters against.

 

[FreedomOfSpeech]

Astral Chain endboss: Hey, I don't know how to play at all...

 

[LazyParrot]

Lady Butterfly in Sekiro was pretty good. You can kinda get by without learning the ins and outs of the combat system up until you meet her, but it really felt like the devs put her in specifically to tell players that it's time to either learn or quit.

 

[skit_data]

Lady Butterfly in Sekiro was pretty good. You can kinda get by without learning the ins and outs of the combat system up until you meet her, but it really felt like the devs put her in specifically to tell players that it's time to either learn or quit.

I had that experience with Genichiro in Ashina Castle

 

[laynelane]

Two examples I can think of come from the The Ringed City DLC from Dark Souls 3:

Good: The Demon Prince. Despite the name, the fight consist of three demons you must defeat. They all have high damage output, high health, and high defence. Fighting them taught me about managing multiple enemies of that size, remembering and countering patterns, and using everything I have in my arsenal to win - mobility, weapon types, armour, etc. It's now one of my favourite fights in the series.

Bad: Midir. He's a huge dragon so understandably has a huge health pool. He also has extremely high defence, only one weak(er) point, and massive damage output. The fight is long, arduous, and you are in danger of being one-shot very easily throughout it all. His moveset is relatively easy to understand but due to his size it can be hard to get out of his way and the camera doesn't help either. I don't enjoy this fight because unlike most fights in DS, it's an endurance contest.

 

[Three]

This guy

 

[YukiOnna]

In recent times Sekiro was great at this. Genichiro basically has you learn how combat works and flows in Sekiro and I never had any trouble going forward for a majority of the game thanks to that boss fight. So thankful you had that skill check early on.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

That cave boss in I am Setsuna. I just strolled through the game up until that point, then this guy mopped the floor with my party. I had to grind some ten levels to stand a chance.

 

[Rea]

This guy

He was my nightmare. It's so brutal on hard difficulty

 

[Nico_D]

 

[Urban]

Grilgan - Lost Odyssey Disc 1

until this point I thought my group was pretty’s strong.
Such a good Game

 

[kanjobazooie]

The final boss in Destroy All Humans 2020. It taught me how to press start and choose quit.

Bad tier: I'll stick with Metal Gear and say the Skull Unit from MGSV. If you're new to the base building/R&D research, or just plain inattentive, you'll very likely end up doing a typical mission only to find yourself getting your butthole turned inside out in an airport by spoopy ghost men who are earth benders and have armor that baseline weapons are like peashooters against.

That part was absurd. Even with a grenade launcher it was very tough.
I believe in my second playthrough I upgraded the walker gear and it was so much easier.

 

[Doczu]

First boss in Nier: Automata. I started playing on Very Hard because i wouldn't let any game tell me who's the boss.
So after a ~1 year of getting frustrated, dropping the game, trying again, memorizing the whole intro monologue, besting every small enemy, then getting too sure of my capabilities and got murdered by basic robots i finally did it.
Got pro as shit thanks to the prologue.

The whole battle taught me everything about the game, bullet hell sections, dodge mechanic, combos, humility.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

The final boss in Destroy All Humans 2020. It taught me how to press start and choose quit.



That part was absurd. Even with a grenade launcher it was very tough.
I believe in my second playthrough I upgraded the walker gear and it was so much easier.

I want to say I had to run through a bunch of side ops while I upgraded one of the assault rifles to like rank 5 or something. Been awhile since I played, but I remember it being a brick wall for progression the entire afternoon.

 

[Birdo]

My first playthrough almost ended when I hit this git:

 

[TheInfamousKira]

My first playthrough almost ended when I hit this git:

Good old FFVII. I was very young when I played it for the first time. This boss, as well as the Materia Keeper and the Carry Armor gave me tons of trouble the first go around.

 

[kikkis]

First real boss of ghost of tsushima if you havent upgraded your stats

 

[FranXico]

 

[FreedomOfSpeech]

I struggled with this one as well. After that, I learned how to parry.

Gotta say, I love the blade wolf's dialogue, he's like an AI philosopher.
I also enjoyed the blade wolf dlc

 

[joedan]

 

[Aldynes]

Murai from Ninja Gaiden / Black and Sigma

Dude's was playing Dead Or Alive with counter and holds, epic.

 

[NewChoppa]

If you hadn’t learned to parry effectively before this boss, good luck

 

[Skatewarp]

Bad diff spike:
This fucker.
The Anchor is an optional boss fight in Control, but goddamn, it was a tough one.

Spoiler: P.S.

As far I know, patches made this boss more easier, but I played/defeat it before those patches were out.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Jetstream sam in MGR, but only really because I hadn't upgraded, so I had to deal with my basic moves and low damage:

 

[VGEsoterica]

Final boss in Spikeout: Final Edition. It will literally take probably $20 worth of credits to beat him. Just straight up cheapest boss in a game ever

 

[TheDrunkenMerchant]

Not a boss, but that damn Water Room in Resident Evil 4. Hot damn was that a spike during my first few playthroughs as a kid.

 

[Kupfer]

I once created a whole thread for this motherfucker.

 

[Bragr]

First boss in Nier: Automata. I started playing on Very Hard because i wouldn't let any game tell me who's the boss.
So after a ~1 year of getting frustrated, dropping the game, trying again, memorizing the whole intro monologue, besting every small enemy, then getting too sure of my capabilities and got murdered by basic robots i finally did it.
Got pro as shit thanks to the prologue.

The whole battle taught me everything about the game, bullet hell sections, dodge mechanic, combos, humility.

The worst part is having to play through 30 minutes to get there.

 

[Codes 208]

Weirdly enough for a game that was overall pretty easy, the Egg beetle and final level in general in sonic unleashed was a 9/10 difficulty while the rest of the game stayed around 5/10

And obligatory dark souls boss shenanigans but when I was getting back into the series via dark souls 3, there was a massive difficulty spike when facing Pontiff Sulyvahn. That fucker had my number and sent me back to the bonfire where I belong again and again so many damn times. In a series where the difficulty is above average he was a boss amongst bosses

 

[Aldynes]

I once created a whole thread for this motherfucker.

Hell yeah this one was baaad, i remember the hours spent on the highest difficulty trying to find how on earth i could cheese this asshole, turns out you just needed to bring a knife to a gunfight.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Not a boss, but that damn Water Room in Resident Evil 4. Hot damn was that a spike during my first few playthroughs as a kid.

I remember that room well. That and the room towards the end of the castle that was basically a long stairway with two small hallways on either side that had two Garradors and a bunch of respawning cultists. I was too young to use the bells in the room the right way and basically played tag with these things over and over until I brute forced my way through the encounter.

 

[Shifty1897]

Astral Chain endboss: Hey, I don't know how to play at all...

Oh shit, I'm almost to the end of this game now...

 

[Danjin44]

Oh shit, I'm almost to the end of this game now...

Beast Legion is your best friend for that boss.

 

[Doczu]

The worst part is having to play through 30 minutes to get there.

Yeah, every two or three times i just dropped the game for a few days...

 

[MrS]

genichiro ashina

 

[Danjin44]

genichiro ashina

Really!? before you fight genichiro you will come cross mini samurai boss that has very low posture, couple parry will finish him off. And genichiro same way also has low posture compare to other story boss, if you are aggressive, his very easy to beat.

 

[MrS]

Really!? before you fight genichiro you will come cross mini samurai boss that has very low posture, couple parry will finish him off. And genichiro same way also has low posture compare to other story boss, if you are aggressive, his very easy to beat.

I know a lot of people who dropped the game at Genichiro. Was a real skill test for a lot of folks.

 

[Danjin44]

I know a lot of people who dropped the game at Genichiro. Was a real skill test for a lot of folks.

If you mastered the parry, his not that tough. Guardian Ape in other hand was much tougher fight in my opinion.

 

[Wherewithal Not Found]

Not a single mention of Ornstein and Smough? What games are you people playing?

 

[u4ea]

Bad diff spike:
This fucker.
The Anchor is an optional boss fight in Control, but goddamn, he was a tought one.

Spoiler: P.S.

As far I know, patches made this boss more easier, but I played/defeat it before those patches were out.

Man, control has the worst difficulty spikes.

You play almost an hour going through enemies like a breeze and suddenly you hit this block. The worst part is that you lose credits when dying and the checkpoints can be a PITA sometimes.

 

[MrS]

If you mastered the parry, his not that tough. Guardian Ape in other hand was much tougher fight in my opinion.

Guardian Ape was easy imo. His attacks are telegraphed and easy to read.

 

[Bragr]

There are one or two rooms in Uncharted 4 that are a giant bitch because the layout sucks.

Dragon Age Origins was a motherfucker on harder difficulties if you didn't build your squad well, and it was the kind of fuckery where you get 80% into the game and suddenly it spikes to hell.

 

[Lethal01]

The first reply nailed it, why are you guys still going?

 

[Bragr]

Bad diff spike:
This fucker.
The Anchor is an optional boss fight in Control, but goddamn, he was a tought one.

Spoiler: P.S.

As far I know, patches made this boss more easier, but I played/defeat it before those patches were out.

Huh? isn't this the guy who just spins around and you shoot him a few times and he's done? I thought the end last 30 minutes of the game was worse when it comes to spikes.

I had a harder time getting to him. You need to cross that chasm. I got there without levitate and it was a huge fucking pain. I didn't even know you could get levitate way after I did that guy.

 

[Danjin44]

Guardian Ape was easy imo. His attacks are telegraphed and easy to read.

His second phase was much easier to deal with but first time fighting the Guardian Ape his first phase give me lot of trouble.

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

This fight in Smash Ultimate Adventure Mode reeeeeeeally sucks.

 

[xellos2099alpha]

My first playthrough almost ended when I hit this git:

I think the final fantasy iv version of the demon wall is worse

 

[YukiOnna]

Really!? before you fight genichiro you will come cross mini samurai boss that has very low posture, couple parry will finish him off. And genichiro same way also has low posture compare to other story boss, if you are aggressive, his very easy to beat.

I think the difference is that Genichiro basically taught you how to parry a wide variety of attacks. Whether it was range, side swipes, or elemental, he had everything so he served as a good skill check. Every other boss following after that follows that model (outside of the puzzle ones,) so they never gave me that much trouble. Guardian Ape ended up being really easy thanks to that.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Look at this giant bug boss it's in the beginning of the game but before that enemies were weak.

 

[Danjin44]

Matador in Nocturne, for new comers who never played SMT, this boss can be very tough.