Metroid Dread was my first exposure to “tough but fair” bosses where every defeat felt earned. Every single boss took multiple tries, and every time I went through this cycle of trying a few times, walking away, debating whether I should quit altogether, only to come back a day or so later to repeat the process. I beat the entire game. Ravenbeak was of course the hardest, but man it felt good when I finally beat him.
I had a similar experience playing through various Soulslikes. The only other one I managed to beat was Tunic (I know I talk about that game a lot. It left quite the impression).
Pivot tables.
Excel is one of my favourite games, but I’ve never been able to completely grok those things.
They seem like a waste of time when it’s much easier to use formulas to construct indirect ranges and work on those.
Lavos in Chrono Trigger. 😭
Mike Tyson
Gwyn in Dark Souls.
The problem was my biggest success. I managed to score a zweihander, pretty early on in the game. I upgraded the hell out of it and was able to clear most bosses with some grinding and a lot of determination. I did this with a failing PS3 controller that generated spurious inputs, resulting in randomly switching to my alt config (unarmed) if I squeezed the controller too hard. I even learned a new level of personal zen and patience after realizing that getting angry would make me perform worse. I got gud.
Then I arrive at the end boss and get absolutely wrecked.
Why? I never had to parry. Not. A. Single. Time. Strike, juke, medium-roll, retreat, strike again. Don’t be a target, and keep moving. Meanwhile, every guide to beat Gwyn says you have to parry his attacks. I basically had little choice but to retrain how to play my character modifying an entire game’s worth of muscle-memory in the process.
My save file has been in this condition for years at this point.
Don’t give up, skeleton!
Pure Vessel in Hollow Knight. I have a file that’s at like 111% and I just need to beat the final pantheon but I’ve never managed it. I don’t even know how bad Absolute Radiance is, I’ve never made it that far.
I got stuck on Absolute Radiance and my thumbs took a break and haven’t made it back yet. It’s been at least a year.
Same. I think there’s something of a skill cliff here.
Sekero is just about my favorite game. I’ve completed it at least 20 times and will do so again.
I’ve beaten the Demon of Hatred 2 times and I never want to play that motherfucker ever again.
Killed him once legit and then cheesed him off the cliff on every subsequent playthrough. Fuck that boss.
Beat Emerald without much of a fuss.
Best Ruby after many many tries. X-Summon and KotR with only Cloud alive is the way to go.
Never beat Omega in VIII. Tried many times.
The tank in Arkham Knight on the Xbox 360. I spent hours trying to get past it. Finally looked online and others were saying it took them days to get past it. Decided I didn’t like the game enough to put that much effort into one fight.
Joker in Batman for the NES. It took forever to get to him, and it was too easy to mess it up
Basically any after the first two in B.P.M. The on-beat fighting just is not my cup of tea.
Other than that… I guess Malenia and Promised Consort Radahn took me a while, like three evenings each maybe. But I was also stubborn with my stupid bonking build, with no magic. Below was my status and equipment after Malenia for example:
Wasn’t a boss but an achievement in the original geometry wars. Score 10 million without dying. It took me about two years to get that and I would play it at least once a night if I could.
I don’t think I’ve ever beaten Doom 2 without cheats or mouselook. I just can’t time those rockets correctly.
Perhaps you might find it easier to archvile jump into the exposed brain and chaingun it to death.
I got the Xbox port of this a few years ago, and the last level of Doom 2 was a bitch to play. I died so many f’ing times before I finally got it.
About 100 hours on the final boss of FF8 because I fucked up and saved right before the fight with basically nothing in my inventory. I repeated the fight for literal weeks, trying different strategies and item use patterns and stuff.
It was very rewarding to complete, but I’ll never play that game again.
You underestimate my willingness to lower the difficulty if I’m stuck
That best part of modern games. Couldn’t do that in the old school games.
Prehistoric 2 kicked you out of the game before the final level if you were playing in beginner mode.
My son kicks ass in Dark Souls and Elden Ring, but the original Mario not so much.
The final level of Mario Odyssey.
