I want to say, I appreciate how you don't put visual spoilers in your videos. Most TH-camrs who talk about media from the 2000s or earlier have massive spoilers at random parts of their videos without warning, I guess because they assume everyone has already watched/played/read the stuff they're talking about.
I've said before, with Disgaea, the grind is the game and the game is the grind. If you love the grind, you'll love the game. No shade or shame if you're not into it. Plus the original orignal pS2 version had a serious item world bug that made some levels impossible -- the exit can be on a section you cannot get to. For me, I messed with the itemization so much that I'd be massively overleveled for the story missions.
I give honorable mentions to New Mystery of the Emblem Reverse Lunatic and Fates Conquest Lunatic. The former for loving to give enemies silver and levin weapons as soon as chapter 1. Along with making all enemies act like they have the pursuit skill. Also, you can kiss the warp strategy goodbye; unlike in Shadow Dragon H5. The later for having enemies more dangerous than either on Birthright or Revelations, having some challenging map designs, and not making grinding as easy as in Awakening Lunatic+ nor in the other Fates routes. Not to mention unlike Three Houses, it doesn't have a new game plus feature to make it more forgiving.
fire emblem 5 tharcia 776 too. the hardest game I ever play, you can miss 4th time in a row at 93% and the enemie will hit you at 30%. enjoy fog of war in a game where mistakes are fatal enjoy map retreat, and if you retreat the lord and leave unit behind, ALL your unit will be lost. enjoy the fact that some unit are REALLY hard to recruit enjoy map where you had one way to go when ennemies had snipers mages at last the plot was great... but never again.
@@nancestpasmoi1834 In my opinion, Thracia 776 isn't nearly as hard as New Mystery Lunatic Reverse, Awakening Lunatic+, or Conquest Lunatic. They all heavily inflate the stats of enemy units, grant enemies unfair advantages through skills and/or forged weaponry. New Mystery Lunatic Reverse lets enemies attack first in every round of combat (unless they can't counterattack) but you can still use Archers, and the gods that are Sirius and Palla. Conquest has unique gimmicks in almost every map and enemy units with debuffing skills which make every map hard. Awakening Lunatic+ is pure unplaytested bullshit, slapping stupid skills on every enemy and pumping them full of stats.
If you have no info Thracia is wtf because you lost your team just like that. But yeah otherwise its not the hardest. FE12 Lunatic Reverse make no sense
I hope they do it justice :( Most stuff i saw they relasing on steam had problems... But i have faith one day well see a FFT collection on steam ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ🙏
Well, can't say that Hoshigami is too difficult, the AI of computer just react to your moves the same way you would do in his shoes. Left mage without defence? - killed. Not healed tank/dd - killed. Can kill the character even going overgauge? - of course. This game is about exploiting any opening and not making many mistakes. Natural Doctrine - yeah, difficult, but the battle mechanic is one of the best I have seen (more than 800 games). Sometimes enemy can't even make a move! Calculating moves and attacks, positioning, right use of weapons/skills/magic, NOT, I say it again, NOT rushing into the fights. Beat the game 3 times and was completely satisfied. Difficult, but that's the point.
Glad to hear the remake of Langrisser fixed the difficulty. I just started the ramake last week (mission 8 I believe?), and hearing Warsong pop up as the second hardest on this list spooked me for a second.
@@TSD4027 it's call, cater to everyone is a winner category even though they suck. Some people hates turn base rpg because there are not enough action. Once they go full blast into an extremely long fight against a boss in a jrpg, they will die majority of the time. They don't think strategically like a chess game.
I thought the difficulty was fine in the remake. It seems others dont agree. I guess that's why all modern games should have difficulty settings because literally everyone will have a different preference.
@@brianhartley1496 I mean, I beat the original game when I was 12. Still have the cart for the Genesis. Anyone should be able to beat the remake in their sleep. The only thing remotely threatening is 1 or 2 stages where a lot of caster types can cast meteor and even then you can bait them into wasting it on a single soldier moved away from your group.
@@TSD4027 it's call strategy. "Knowing your enemies is the key to victory." It's Art of War and Robert the Bruce's father quoting about the Scottish nobles and William Wallace. Remember when one of the scene when William and his comrades were disgusting of a full fledge head on war with the English. One companion said they can't fight against a horse calvary charging against them. So knowing this, William devices xlong spears as a way to destroy the calvary.
Rondo of Swords is the only game I've ever played that was so hard I had to look up a walkthrough in order to beat the tutorial. Even then, the strategy didn't work if the enemies moved a certain way during the first turn. It's also incredibly annoying that if the AI doesn't see a way to win, they just start running away from you, so you have to chase them back and forth until they're cornered.
Well, they are hard for a reason. So that you could feel the despair any soldier feel in the middle of battle. But the way you present it, especially at the end of this video, is awesome. I even subscribe your channel just to hear you swearing. Love your channel, keep doing the great work, screw the world for not even care. Lol...
Natural Doctrine is by far the best srpg ever made. However, the mechanics are unlike any other game, so some who like srpgs may not like it. But if you like setting up 'football plays' which focus on tactics, positioning, terrain, and flanking... it is phenomenal. Many critics did not understand the games mechanics, but I promise you, once you understand chaining and linking it works very well. Better yet, the AI does understand how to pull solid moves off - leave a unit out of position and the AI will go ham on it and you'll watch them chain attack your unit to death. Instead, keep solid formations, watch for enemy errors, and pull those grand attacks off yourself. One of the best games ever made, and terribly under appreciated, in part due to reviewers who never took the time to truly understand chaining and linking. Highly, highly recommended
7:06 You say Arc System Works, but in the cover says "Aksys Games" which is a different company (a publisher that in fact has worked with ASW before). Many people confuse them often.
I have a trick for beating Hoshigami. You have to use few characters and go on the lower levels of the first Tower of Trials. The less characters you use, the more EXP they will get and the more they will level up in a single battle. Since the game has a ridiculous power creep when it comes to levelling, your characters will become overnight juggernauts in battle and will become outright much harder to hit by enemies. Since Hoshigami doesn't properly scale down EXP gain from attacks based on how much lower is the enemy level in relation to yours, you can grind easy battles for quick EXP or quickly go up the Towers of Trials for better rewards. The story battles become a cakewalk after pretty much only one or two hours of grinding with this method. Also, PROTIP: ignore the magic system. Use ranged physical attacks and items instead. It's much more cost-effective in almost every aspect.
Hey Erick, great video. I want to correct a small misconception of the Agarest games: Agarest Zero did NOT add new game mechanics from the first game. Agarest Zero's tutorial explained mechanics that Agarest 1 failed to mention. In other words, Agarest Zero didn't add anything new, the tutorial just explains ALL of the original 2 games' battle mechanics vs the original only telling you the bare minimum you'd need to play it.
Agarest 2 is kind of infamous in its own right. It is by far the most complicated game, with the worst tutorial I've ever seen. The tutorial essentially tells you to button mash in combat, but tells you to mind your timing (when the tutorial makes it literally impossble to get the timing bonus, so you don't notice it's actually there). I could go into the tutorial on its own, but I'll keep it short. The tutorial teaches you how to play the game, but it does not teach you the fundamentals in a meaningful way so that you, as a player, can get better at the game organically(on your own without external resources from the internet). It doesn't teach you about good team building, what are the advantages of certain weapon types, etc. Basically Agarest 2 is like Agarest 1, you're taught the bare minimum you'd need to play it, but figuring out how to optimize it on your own is nearly impossble without some guides. Keep in mind Agarest 2 is the game I played the most in the series, I've beaten over a Dozen times. I love the series, but Agarest Zero is the only game with a competent tutorial for new players.
@@Raximus3000 No no, sir. I did not have trouble with it. I've spent years helping people out on a forum about this series, and that is by far one of the most common things I find myself explaining over and over again to folks. It's primarily how to play the game and all of that. I was able to figure out a mess like Natural Doctrine. The point of my reply was to say that a lot of folks experienced the stuff I talked about above. These are not necessarily my own personal opinions on them. I enjoyed Natural Doctrine, I loved Cross Edge, and I like the agarest games too.
@@demariogoss9732 Makes sense. Some JRPG have tough systems to crack and other times they absurd things, ever heard of The Caligula Effect? The system is interesting and tough to master in a meaningful way but that thing that blows my mind is how there are some NPCs that give you quests in exchange for stat ups or equipment, the insane part is there are OVER 500 OF THEM!!! And some of them ask to basicaly have them meet another one who has a certain trait, so is it fun to skim thruth a few hundreds of NPCs data for that? It is optional but it is also INSANE!!! Sure most are repeats of one another but who does that?
Love your channel. You totally nailed Natural Doctrine! I bought it for the PS4, attempted to play it for about an hour and gave up. Went back to it and gave up. This went on for a while and then I just stopped trying
Rondo of Swords is hard unless you have the secret character Cotton. On the map with the villagers to protect early on, if you keep them all alive you get a bonus map. Beating it unlocks the mage Cotton who is hella busted. Her fire spell one shots everything, she can do an aoe attack around her, she has a line target spell, and can restore her mp with her overdrive whatever ability. The hard part is putting her just close enough to draw enemies into her range without them killing her to use magic on your next turn
Onimusha Tactics would deserve a spot here. It's got the annoyance of no grinding available like some of the top few on this list, as well as Rondo's lack of healing items, if you use too many of them early on you can find yourself in an extremely difficult semi-softlocked situation. Also, your party is set characters with little customization available, nothing to really abuse or take advantage of through most of the game. Still a great game though, definitive GBA-era Tactics graphics, some good tracks and effects, good story, when you finally unlock Onimusha form it kicks as much ass as in the action games and at least the game at that point gets easier.
While not too terribly difficult, Vandal Hearts for the PS1 was a thoroughly enjoyable Strategy RPG. As a side note I agree completely about Disgaea. That game became incredibly satisfying once I got a rarity 0 yoshitsuna and three rarity 0 Super Robo Suits.
Operation Darkness is hard, but if you can get past it. I personally find it to be one of the better Strategy RPGs, due to it went with the huge maps that are pretty for the time. All Disagea's are basically grind fest for large numbers, the strategy part is how best to grind for those numbers. Yes, they are Strategy RPGs, but that is not their main thing. in most including the one, you are talking about there is an area that you can grind in super early and be max level within an hour or so, which should be good enough to beat all of the story till the end game content.
When for the first time you defeat one of the extra bosses, who are real beasts and final boss... That the moment you feel what is achievment is. Also love this game. I guess, the problem is also with battle mechanics that only shines when you have all/almost all group.
@@lambertar 1) yeah, the fight with him, by my feeling is more crazy, cause of sometime he really attack with not hard hitting attacks, sometimes... oneshots. Guess, luck with him is good. 2) only on second time playing... after literally preparing everything I could. That was really mad... but still worth it.
For Warsong I think it followed the game developer philosophy of making the games really hard so you could not rent it and beat it in a weekend. This was apparently a mindset that a lot of games in the SNES and Genesis era followed.
I played Growlanser Wayfarer of time thanks to you, and I have to say that this Game is cool, the gameplay is funny, the characters are great, the story is interesting, and yeah some missions are really hard, but is one of my favorite jrpg of all time.
I prefer a strategy rpg to be difficult. Its my favorite genre so I tend to learn the mechanics quickly. Its always a let down when once you understand the game and character progression it becomes too easy. If thats the case, at least give the player a challenge dungeon or give the enemies the same opportunity to have broken characters. Fell Seal did a great job with this. Although FFT is my favorite game, once you hit the 3rd chapter the challenge tends to be lacking if you dont place restrictions on yourself.
@@derekminna You may like something more or less, but technically FFT is a simplified version of TO. These games were even developed by the same team. The only difference is that the Square within the framework of Final Fantasy franchise did not need such seriousness and elaboration as in TO, quite a few things were thrown out and simplified, they relied on graphics, sound and a more dynamic plot and it worked, cuz wider audience always likes something brighter and simpler. It's funny that you think the closest game to FFT is Disgaea. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to argue with you or try to prove something. It just so happens that the Ogre Tactics are underestimated and are in the shadow of the FFT among players. And sometimes I just want to restore the injustice a little)
@@EmersionX first of all, I never said anything to suggest that Disgaea was "closest" to FFT at all. Just that it rivals it in terms of gameplay and my personal enjoyment. Second, Although TO is the older brother to FFT, both times I played through it I realized that combat mechanics break down late game and there is an optimal party so customization works against the player. No need to defend the honor of an exceptional game like TO with me. Happy to see that theres still people out there that have the depth of knowledge that you do on the subject. Do yourself a favor and play Fell Seal while you wait for Triangle Strategy 😉
@@derekminna This is the misunderstanding, I speak from the standpoint of objective reality, and you tell me about your personal preferences. Well, almost any tactical RPG gets easier towards the middle or end of the game, especially with so many possibilities and combinations. However, in terms of challenge, TO is more interesting, since there are limitations in the combination of skills from different classes. Also, PSP version has more end-game optional and more difficult dungeons. And If some game is more difficult only because you need to girnd more there, then in my personal opinion it is better to maintain a balance and not to stretch the game artificially. And I can recommend you to play Banner of the Maid, this is a well-made tactical role-playing game, you will be surprised at its difficulty until the very end of the game.
Rondo of Swords is fun. Warsong was brutal growing up, we never did beat it... I don't even want to go back and try the Langrisser remakes. I got Hoshigami Remix on DS, It's still brutal, never finished it. Izuna the Unemployed Ninja is also a hidden character in Rondo
Might wanna add PS1 SRPG Vanguard Bandits here too! Basically a mecha SRPG set in a fantasy world setting (knights, magic, etc). That game was easy at the start, but once certain dual-bladed grunts show up as part of the story, hoooo boy that difficulty spike. Also, to get the best ending, while there is no permadeath, you should still avoid letting your characters die coz there's some sorta relationship system with your main guy and the entire cast.
OPERATION DARKNESS .........wow...(a personal hidden gem for me) i absolutely loved playing on xbox360!!. Anyone else loved this as much as me?? Glad to see it mentioned here, because I feel like this game has been all but lost. Not being backwards compatible, and only playable on 360 hasn't helped it either.
Quite liked Wild Arms XF. Esp. the job system and hex grid. My main gripe was not the hard levels, but the easy ones. And not enough types of enemies. Wish they made another. Loved Wayfarer of Time.
I'm glad you put Natural Doctrine up. The enemy only attack one character until that person is dead. Usually the enemy attack the weakest unit possible. Once dead, Game over. Also a limited turn play. Once it's over that turn play, Game over. Retry, retry, retry, fuck.
It may just be me but when you first start out with Final Fantasy Tactics it is insanely difficult before it becomes second nature. I remember being extremely frustrated with it.
Early game there is one mission with archers on rooftops which IIRC is pretty tough, but I dont remember it being too bad after until that one 1on1 mission followed up by the zodiac boss after.
I suppose the real issue us like most Final Fantasy games Tactics was story-driven and you really wanted to know what happens as you go along. So when you’re stuck and get defeated so many times you gotta repeat sections like you mentioned over and over again it can get disheartening.
Always thought Vandal Hearts II was pretty tricky. Whenever I try to go play it again I can't get the hang of the simultaneous turns. When I played it the first time I had it pretty figured out but I remember the big battles taking quite a bit of time to get through. Had to check almost every possible movement out on the field to be able to figure out who was moving next and where and how to counter.
Nah, Vandal Hearts II can become quite easy when you are able to predict what the enemy unit will do. It is always the most obvious one like going for the character with less HP, for example.
I'd like to see Japanese subtitles added to Your channel, because I can think of at least three Japanese game developers teams who'd be very interested in your opinions and knowledge. So few people cover RPGs to the extent you do; You live and breath RPGs.
I haven't played any of these but I'll take your word for it lol. I couldn't finish Resonance of Fate when I was younger and still don't know much about what's even going on in it to this day since I didn't get far. Guess I'll watch a walkthrough one of these days.
One of the most common pitfalls of this subgenre is the lack of ability of grind. You didn't level your units the right way in Yggdra Union? You get softlocked in the later missions where difficulty spikes sharply. No grinding means you don't get to delay the main missions to go get your units stronger.
@@aquapendulum some Fire Emblem has the same point, and it's even more problematic when you have a lot of units with many special abilities. Still remember one fight, where the only good choice is the use of flying units... yes, I didn't raise any at that time... the battle became massacre for me.
The only game on this list that I have played is Warsong, I agree that it is difficult though I still love it and it is one of my favorite games on the Genesis. I have not played the remake, though I am eager to do so and probably will soon. The Growlanser series looks interesting because I enjoyed the Langrisser games and I'll probably get around to investigating those as well in the not too distant future.
When my older brother was in college he actually beat Warsong and he said it was stupidly unbalanced in that he said it felt impossible to keep all but two characters alive after a certain point in the game, but that those two just handled everything by themselves. The one was the main Garrett character and then I guess a boss bad guy can turn good like Vegeta is the other one.
Hey Eric! Loving the videos but can you match the volume of your intro song to the rest of your video? I always have to turn down the volume when the song comes on and then turn it back up after
I actually purchased Natural Doctrine because of your rants. I am so curious how hard and convoluted it really is. I've yet to play it so wish me luck!
Yggdra Union is such a gem, I really want a (fan)translation of Gloria Union and Blaze Union, I replayed Yggdra Union (and Riviera) way too many times.
For some reason I found the second Langrisser game (the SNES one) to be way harder than the original on Genesis. But even then I found those games to be pretty forgiving giving you the chance to save every turn. More strategy games should let you do that in my opinion.
Recently,i've finished langrisser 2 on the genesis and,boy was it a tough one. At some point i was overleveled and i STILL felt my back was against the wall . I agree with rondo of swords it's hard,but at least the game lets you grind,offering you some leeway. I will add eternal poison as honorable mention. The difficulty in this game stems from the level requirements in gear,meaning that if u didn't allocate exp effectively,you were forced to fight strong enemies with weak weapons,because u weren't at a high enough lvl to equip the good weapons
I didn't find Disgaea to be too hard when I first played it as a teen, but I managed to discover one of the more obvious broken mechanics in the game with wands+magic, you just use those and fairly quickly gain the ability to reach nearly across the whole battlefield with aoe damage of any element you want. Clears the main story with no grinding needed, maybe a little setup at the start to get spells on all the characters, a few uses of the ability on some random easy stage.
Never heard of the original Hoshigami, I always thought it was a 1 off game for the DS. I'd love to see it get a remake as I thought the story was pretty good. Leveling was interesting cause you can even get xp and level up beating up your allies and if done right it's the best way to level up fast especially while in a tower for training
Hoshigami is absolutely insane. I always try to complete any game I get and normally love isometric strategy, but permadeath plus enormous enemy armies who hold nothing back make it far too much of a slog for my patience.
i've only played a handful of strategy rpgs. i remember getting to the final mission of the first Shining Force, but couldn't complete it. i've finished the doujin game Battle Moon Wars on one of the chosen character stories. i played a bit of Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, and i try to work on Project X-Zone when i'm in the mood. but the one that pissed me off was surprisingly Final Fantasy Tactics. the battle system was convoluted as hell, and it seemed like the longer the battle progresses, the harder it gets. mainly because of the cast time for all the mages overlapping to the point you have to rely on chemists to do any healing whatsoever. i only got so far as one of the zodiac bosses, and i couldn't get past it no matter what i tried. i finally looked up a guide and skipped to the fight in question, only to realize i missed out on a very crucial build i should've started doing at the beginning of the game that makes it much easier
You don't need to interact with the item world to beat disgaea 1,just use the story characters they are very strong,use the Mages to Boost your attacks with braveheart and explore the enemies elemental weekness,reincarnate your generic troops at least 2 Times and that's it. Edit:some stages have brutal geo effects you Will need to use lift constantly, some of your units Will die but you Will win
I loved disgaea 1 and feel like the only person ever who didnt like 2 much. I felt 2 was more grindy and harder to grind with since big bang was the only 3x3 attack while 1 had many similar attacks and multiple missions where enemies are just sitting on 200÷ exp tiles. I also felt like leveling in the item world was more available at lower levels than 2.
Wow... I have greatly enjoyed all the Disgaea's... starting with #1. Every version has a grind gimmick but my favorite one is item world. When you get a map with at least "invlun" and "clone" geo effects its time to go to town. Bonus if there is a "LevelGain" geo effect as well and you can really power level up so freaking fast you can go in at level 50 and come out 5000. Heck, once you are 100 you can power grind Ordeals into 2k's easy. This game series is for "exploiters" for sure, but that is what makes it so fun. Who can find the best ones and grind it to "obscene" extremes and they usually supply the enemies to accommodate.
I am also a big fan of 1 and don't like 2. I really don't like the crazy topology of the item world levels. I think 1 had it nailed, if you had a version that didn't have the impossible-to-finish levels bug. I really don't like version 6. 1 is best, D2 is second, 3 is probably 3rd. I think 2 is better than 6 so that makes 1, d2, 3, 5, 4, 2, 6 in my opinion.
Good list, I will add FF tactics at least as an honorable mention, nothing beats: Chance to kill enemy from behind 85%, missed, enemy counterattacks and you're dead, hated it. Plus the difficulty spike on each boss fight is ridiculous.
Fun fact about fire emblem 5 it was the only sequel to fe 4 (since fe franchise change the universe after 2 installment so don't worry about playing fe 6 before playing the previous games but you should play it after you play fe7 since the company missed up a timeline and made a prequel to it) and the difference between the two games difficulty is insane
I have the garlands away fair of time and it's the only one of the like things that I haven't seen you play in a let's play so I am still waiting for that day
Not sure if you have played Culdcept Revolt but I've started it up and while I love it I lost the very first non tutorial battle lol. I did get passed it though on wnd try.
I honestly loved Wild Arms XF due to the unique mechanics (where else can you find a SRPG with stealth missions?!), the music was beautiful and even the basic job classes ended up really powerful and very usable during end-game. The story twist caught me off guard and kiiinda left a bad bad taste in my mouth due to how... "different" it was from the rest of the game, but that aside, I'd actually recommend it!
Love the Langrisser 1 and 2 remake! I'm surprised Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume isn't on the list. The game is freaking hard. But I thought the same of VP 1 till one day it clicked and It became too easy. Anyone else play Plume??
Disgaea series isnt hard but the number of grinding are insane. If you think disgaea hard, try yggdra union (GBA harder version/ PSP) or gungnir (PSP).
I think the issue was that disgaea jobs are very weak and depend a lot of evolving your characters, but each time they return to level 1. I got better at the game after mixing job reincarnation like healer to mage to prism mage.
Id be down for a balamced rondo style game. The line system is really fun and intuitive. Also, no generation of chaos/spectral soul? Man im surprised. Maybe those games are more convoluted than hard
The only thing to know bin Nactural Doctrine, is that the gun is OP, that's enough to make mince of all enemies in game, you can even power level Geoff early game and it make the game so less hard. I even defeated the game's superboss.
I absolutely loved Natural Doctrine. I do not understand the hate for it. I get that some people simply didn't understand chaining and linking (and if not used properly, you will die) but once you get these two principles there is no srpg I'd rather play. Setting up great moves, avoiding over extending, fantastic terrain/height/flanking bonuses. Such a great game. Even the 2p mode (using points to pick teams) was cool, tho very hard to actually find an opponent. I wish more people would give it a chance, it is a hidden gem - while not everyone will like it, those who do will love it.
Dude I’m still stuck on defeating superbia. I can’t whittle him down fast enough in the turn count and I’m under leveled. Know anywhere to level up to high 30s low 40s?
I love nocturne and the devil survivor games,maybe i should try this Rondo of swords,i heard about one so brutal that is head to head with the ancient wizardry games:the dark spire
Natural Doctrine is amazing. I mean it, give it a shot. Many reviewers hate it because the combat system takes some getting used to, and the AI uses it effectively... so if you don't know what you are doing, you will over extend then watch a dozen goblins mash your best hero in a single turn. Basically, you will want to understand chaining and linking to maximize moves - certain moves allow other units to combo off of them with a free move. So if you have 3 characters on a map, say, a bad player will get 3 moves. A good player will move A, then B and combo with A, then move C and combo with A and B. (Basically, if you combo they lose their 'natural' turn, but you can safely combo with units who already moved. Thus A can get an attack per character you have if you optimize. Add in terrain, height, and flanking bonuses, and turn planning that looks lie a football play (but makes sense, I swear) and it is a phenomenal game. It doesn't play like any other srpg but once you get into it, it's amazing.
I would add Shining Force 1 in my list of hardest strategy RPGs (due to the difficulty, and RNG almost always find a way to screw me over) if it's alright.
Natural Doctrine was impossible at some point. Im sure of that because I got the system down to a T but then hit a wall against some ogres stuck with only 2 characters and that was storyline stuck, not because someone died or anything. Its just unfair straight off the bat.
Well, you probably didn't get the system down to a T in that case. I struggled in the first few hours to really get the system and then got through the whole thing and found it addictive. Imho it is a hidden gem. The storyline really suck though. On that I wholeheartedly agree !
@@lambertar Well good for you for beating the odds. 8 lizardman and 2 ogres in what is essentially the 4th mission of the game was way too hard with only the 2 characters I got stuck with.
@@ergheiz1245 I don't remember encountering lizardmen so early in the game though. As I remember by the time you get to the lizards you have your full party. I also did grind a bit with goblins in the beginning to get the hang of it.
Since you are so well-versed even in older rpg´s, maybe you can help me. Long time ago, i think over 15 years or so, i watched my seat neighbor in the school bus play Game Boy games since i didn´t had one and made the crucial mistake of never asking what the names of these games were. Most games i managed to track down later, like FE: Blazing Blade, but one always evaded my grasp. The Story begins with the Protagonist signing up for some sort of army, with the story apparently told in hindsight because everytime you would press no in a series of questions the narrator would say that that isn´t how he remembers it. Then he would be onboard a spaceship which inadvertently be attacked or something, causing the Protag to take an escape pod and crash-landing near a village on a different planet that his home. Getting rescued by a girl who is a herbalist if i remember correctly, he first tries to get of the planet using the escape pod but it is busted. So he plans to get to the neighbouring town to find out how to get home, together with the herbalist girl. Sadly that is all I remember from the story, the gameplay was pretty standard rpg stuff. The Overworld consisted of two stages, a world map where you would move between locations and the location map which had different areas, like village, road and forest. Usually the enemies would roam the map and if you would run into them a fight would ensue, which I remember as quite terrifying in case of an eagle like creature which could just move freely in a mountain map. The fights were god´old turn-based strategy, where the characters would slide towards the enemy when attacking. I don´t know if that game had a magic system since I only watched probably the prologue. I hope you can end my eternal search.
Try typing some character names or keywords into YT search. I bet you'll find it pretty quickly. Type in the system it was on too. That will narrow the search, then just scroll through the random videos until you see something you recognize. I've found many things doing this. Try it!
@@schwarzflammenkaiser2347 let me know if it works for you! Try multiple times with different keywords. The YT engine is actually quite good for general searches.
@@shadowbanned58 No luck here, all I get is top ten lists with the usual suspects, I can´t think of any other key words than variations of GBA rpg. The thing is that most I remember is probably not going to be in the video title so I´m a little bit stuck, which is frustrating considering how clear I have the gameplay in memory. At least I can be pretty sure that the game was a GBA game cause I looked at a few videos of N64 and Gamecube games just to be sure and the graphics were not similar to the least.
I played PS2 Disgaea HoD and you just have to be prepared to put the hours in. It demands you do the grinding as all new or transmigrated demons start at level 1. But I beat the game and enjoyed playing it. I would get more frustrated with a game if it had perma-death and required repeating levels if you had casualties.
I would much rather play Agarest Zero than Agarest 2. Agarest Zero was actually much easier to get through then Agarest 1's true ending for me, while the 2nd Agarest was painful to play and I simply could not wrap my head around the battle system no matter how hard I tried to read through the material or battle enemies to get a feel for it. Not to mention the second gen protag is worse the Duran ever was.
I want to say, I appreciate how you don't put visual spoilers in your videos. Most TH-camrs who talk about media from the 2000s or earlier have massive spoilers at random parts of their videos without warning, I guess because they assume everyone has already watched/played/read the stuff they're talking about.
I've said before, with Disgaea, the grind is the game and the game is the grind. If you love the grind, you'll love the game. No shade or shame if you're not into it.
Plus the original orignal pS2 version had a serious item world bug that made some levels impossible -- the exit can be on a section you cannot get to.
For me, I messed with the itemization so much that I'd be massively overleveled for the story missions.
Disgaea is an amazing series. The main games are ridiculously easy, the big thing with the game series is the grind to do the post game content.
Shoutout to majin tensei, might not be the hardest but its awesome
I give honorable mentions to New Mystery of the Emblem Reverse Lunatic and Fates Conquest Lunatic. The former for loving to give enemies silver and levin weapons as soon as chapter 1. Along with making all enemies act like they have the pursuit skill. Also, you can kiss the warp strategy goodbye; unlike in Shadow Dragon H5.
The later for having enemies more dangerous than either on Birthright or Revelations, having some challenging map designs, and not making grinding as easy as in Awakening Lunatic+ nor in the other Fates routes. Not to mention unlike Three Houses, it doesn't have a new game plus feature to make it more forgiving.
fire emblem 5 tharcia 776 too.
the hardest game I ever play, you can miss 4th time in a row at 93% and the enemie will hit you at 30%.
enjoy fog of war in a game where mistakes are fatal
enjoy map retreat, and if you retreat the lord and leave unit behind, ALL your unit will be lost.
enjoy the fact that some unit are REALLY hard to recruit
enjoy map where you had one way to go when ennemies had snipers mages
at last the plot was great... but never again.
@@nancestpasmoi1834 In my opinion, Thracia 776 isn't nearly as hard as New Mystery Lunatic Reverse, Awakening Lunatic+, or Conquest Lunatic. They all heavily inflate the stats of enemy units, grant enemies unfair advantages through skills and/or forged weaponry. New Mystery Lunatic Reverse lets enemies attack first in every round of combat (unless they can't counterattack) but you can still use Archers, and the gods that are Sirius and Palla. Conquest has unique gimmicks in almost every map and enemy units with debuffing skills which make every map hard. Awakening Lunatic+ is pure unplaytested bullshit, slapping stupid skills on every enemy and pumping them full of stats.
If you have no info Thracia is wtf because you lost your team just like that.
But yeah otherwise its not the hardest.
FE12 Lunatic Reverse make no sense
Still over here waiting for Square-Enix to remaster Final Fantasy Tactics. Also, I enjoyed the Vandal Hearts games.
remaster for fft? Maybe we’ll get one in 30 yrs ….. from now
I hope they do it justice :(
Most stuff i saw they relasing on steam had problems...
But i have faith one day well see a FFT collection on steam ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ🙏
Well, can't say that Hoshigami is too difficult, the AI of computer just react to your moves the same way you would do in his shoes. Left mage without defence? - killed. Not healed tank/dd - killed. Can kill the character even going overgauge? - of course. This game is about exploiting any opening and not making many mistakes.
Natural Doctrine - yeah, difficult, but the battle mechanic is one of the best I have seen (more than 800 games). Sometimes enemy can't even make a move! Calculating moves and attacks, positioning, right use of weapons/skills/magic, NOT, I say it again, NOT rushing into the fights. Beat the game 3 times and was completely satisfied. Difficult, but that's the point.
Great list - definitely some challenging JRPGs here. I enjoy your content dude!
I finally beat the true final boss from eternal poison, what an amazing game, now to beat valkyrie profile 😎.
Loved the ending bit. Nicely done.
Glad to hear the remake of Langrisser fixed the difficulty. I just started the ramake last week (mission 8 I believe?), and hearing Warsong pop up as the second hardest on this list spooked me for a second.
Fixed? You mean completely neutered it to the point its no challenge whatsoever?
@@TSD4027 it's call, cater to everyone is a winner category even though they suck.
Some people hates turn base rpg because there are not enough action. Once they go full blast into an extremely long fight against a boss in a jrpg, they will die majority of the time. They don't think strategically like a chess game.
I thought the difficulty was fine in the remake. It seems others dont agree. I guess that's why all modern games should have difficulty settings because literally everyone will have a different preference.
@@brianhartley1496 I mean, I beat the original game when I was 12. Still have the cart for the Genesis. Anyone should be able to beat the remake in their sleep. The only thing remotely threatening is 1 or 2 stages where a lot of caster types can cast meteor and even then you can bait them into wasting it on a single soldier moved away from your group.
@@TSD4027 it's call strategy. "Knowing your enemies is the key to victory." It's Art of War and Robert the Bruce's father quoting about the Scottish nobles and William Wallace.
Remember when one of the scene when William and his comrades were disgusting of a full fledge head on war with the English. One companion said they can't fight against a horse calvary charging against them. So knowing this, William devices xlong spears as a way to destroy the calvary.
Ty Erick, these games will give me something to rage against this holiday season!
Rondo of Swords is the only game I've ever played that was so hard I had to look up a walkthrough in order to beat the tutorial. Even then, the strategy didn't work if the enemies moved a certain way during the first turn. It's also incredibly annoying that if the AI doesn't see a way to win, they just start running away from you, so you have to chase them back and forth until they're cornered.
Well, they are hard for a reason. So that you could feel the despair any soldier feel in the middle of battle. But the way you present it, especially at the end of this video, is awesome. I even subscribe your channel just to hear you swearing. Love your channel, keep doing the great work, screw the world for not even care. Lol...
Natural Doctrine is by far the best srpg ever made. However, the mechanics are unlike any other game, so some who like srpgs may not like it. But if you like setting up 'football plays' which focus on tactics, positioning, terrain, and flanking... it is phenomenal. Many critics did not understand the games mechanics, but I promise you, once you understand chaining and linking it works very well. Better yet, the AI does understand how to pull solid moves off - leave a unit out of position and the AI will go ham on it and you'll watch them chain attack your unit to death. Instead, keep solid formations, watch for enemy errors, and pull those grand attacks off yourself. One of the best games ever made, and terribly under appreciated, in part due to reviewers who never took the time to truly understand chaining and linking. Highly, highly recommended
7:06 You say Arc System Works, but in the cover says "Aksys Games" which is a different company (a publisher that in fact has worked with ASW before). Many people confuse them often.
if we talk about japan only strategy games i'll put langrisser 3 and 4, holy crap those two beat the living crap out of me
I have a trick for beating Hoshigami. You have to use few characters and go on the lower levels of the first Tower of Trials. The less characters you use, the more EXP they will get and the more they will level up in a single battle. Since the game has a ridiculous power creep when it comes to levelling, your characters will become overnight juggernauts in battle and will become outright much harder to hit by enemies. Since Hoshigami doesn't properly scale down EXP gain from attacks based on how much lower is the enemy level in relation to yours, you can grind easy battles for quick EXP or quickly go up the Towers of Trials for better rewards.
The story battles become a cakewalk after pretty much only one or two hours of grinding with this method.
Also, PROTIP: ignore the magic system. Use ranged physical attacks and items instead. It's much more cost-effective in almost every aspect.
Finally a list of games for me to go out and get. Joking, I already own most of these and yeah I enjoy them because of their difficulty.
Tear ring saga was my hardest by far. So glad it got a translation
I hope there’s an official digital release someday
Hey Erick, great video.
I want to correct a small misconception of the Agarest games: Agarest Zero did NOT add new game mechanics from the first game. Agarest Zero's tutorial explained mechanics that Agarest 1 failed to mention. In other words, Agarest Zero didn't add anything new, the tutorial just explains ALL of the original 2 games' battle mechanics vs the original only telling you the bare minimum you'd need to play it.
Is it a wonder Agarest 2 changed the battle system?
Agarest 2 is kind of infamous in its own right. It is by far the most complicated game, with the worst tutorial I've ever seen.
The tutorial essentially tells you to button mash in combat, but tells you to mind your timing (when the tutorial makes it literally impossble to get the timing bonus, so you don't notice it's actually there).
I could go into the tutorial on its own, but I'll keep it short.
The tutorial teaches you how to play the game, but it does not teach you the fundamentals in a meaningful way so that you, as a player, can get better at the game organically(on your own without external resources from the internet). It doesn't teach you about good team building, what are the advantages of certain weapon types, etc.
Basically Agarest 2 is like Agarest 1, you're taught the bare minimum you'd need to play it, but figuring out how to optimize it on your own is nearly impossble without some guides.
Keep in mind Agarest 2 is the game I played the most in the series, I've beaten over a Dozen times. I love the series, but Agarest Zero is the only game with a competent tutorial for new players.
@@demariogoss9732
Really?! You had trouble with that? It must been because i played a game with a similar battle system, one of those crossovers one.
@@Raximus3000 No no, sir. I did not have trouble with it. I've spent years helping people out on a forum about this series, and that is by far one of the most common things I find myself explaining over and over again to folks. It's primarily how to play the game and all of that.
I was able to figure out a mess like Natural Doctrine. The point of my reply was to say that a lot of folks experienced the stuff I talked about above. These are not necessarily my own personal opinions on them. I enjoyed Natural Doctrine, I loved Cross Edge, and I like the agarest games too.
@@demariogoss9732
Makes sense. Some JRPG have tough systems to crack and other times they absurd things, ever heard of The Caligula Effect? The system is interesting and tough to master in a meaningful way but that thing that blows my mind is how there are some NPCs that give you quests in exchange for stat ups or equipment, the insane part is there are OVER 500 OF THEM!!! And some of them ask to basicaly have them meet another one who has a certain trait, so is it fun to skim thruth a few hundreds of NPCs data for that? It is optional but it is also INSANE!!! Sure most are repeats of one another but who does that?
Love your channel. You totally nailed Natural Doctrine! I bought it for the PS4, attempted to play it for about an hour and gave up. Went back to it and gave up. This went on for a while and then I just stopped trying
Rondo of Swords is hard unless you have the secret character Cotton. On the map with the villagers to protect early on, if you keep them all alive you get a bonus map. Beating it unlocks the mage Cotton who is hella busted. Her fire spell one shots everything, she can do an aoe attack around her, she has a line target spell, and can restore her mp with her overdrive whatever ability. The hard part is putting her just close enough to draw enemies into her range without them killing her to use magic on your next turn
Onimusha Tactics would deserve a spot here. It's got the annoyance of no grinding available like some of the top few on this list, as well as Rondo's lack of healing items, if you use too many of them early on you can find yourself in an extremely difficult semi-softlocked situation. Also, your party is set characters with little customization available, nothing to really abuse or take advantage of through most of the game.
Still a great game though, definitive GBA-era Tactics graphics, some good tracks and effects, good story, when you finally unlock Onimusha form it kicks as much ass as in the action games and at least the game at that point gets easier.
While not too terribly difficult, Vandal Hearts for the PS1 was a thoroughly enjoyable Strategy RPG. As a side note I agree completely about Disgaea. That game became incredibly satisfying once I got a rarity 0 yoshitsuna and three rarity 0 Super Robo Suits.
Only one I've played on this list but not finished was natural doctrine... Challenge accepted! 😁😁🌴🌴
Take your time in the beginning and experiment a lot and then, enjoy 😁. I personally loved that game.
Operation Darkness is hard, but if you can get past it. I personally find it to be one of the better Strategy RPGs, due to it went with the huge maps that are pretty for the time.
All Disagea's are basically grind fest for large numbers, the strategy part is how best to grind for those numbers. Yes, they are Strategy RPGs, but that is not their main thing. in most including the one, you are talking about there is an area that you can grind in super early and be max level within an hour or so, which should be good enough to beat all of the story till the end game content.
Yeh, Natural Doctrine got a shout out ! Love that game ! The story is pretty meh but the gameplay is thigh and awesome once you understand it.
When for the first time you defeat one of the extra bosses, who are real beasts and final boss... That the moment you feel what is achievment is. Also love this game.
I guess, the problem is also with battle mechanics that only shines when you have all/almost all group.
@@nyarlathotep641 Yes, I never thought I could take on the lord of the lost city ! And I got him on my first try !
@@nyarlathotep641 Also that final battle is crazy. Haven't try to finish him without anyone dying. My friend did it though.
@@lambertar
1) yeah, the fight with him, by my feeling is more crazy, cause of sometime he really attack with not hard hitting attacks, sometimes... oneshots. Guess, luck with him is good.
2) only on second time playing... after literally preparing everything I could. That was really mad... but still worth it.
For Warsong I think it followed the game developer philosophy of making the games really hard so you could not rent it and beat it in a weekend. This was apparently a mindset that a lot of games in the SNES and Genesis era followed.
I played Growlanser Wayfarer of time thanks to you, and I have to say that this Game is cool, the gameplay is funny, the characters are great, the story is interesting, and yeah some missions are really hard, but is one of my favorite jrpg of all time.
I prefer a strategy rpg to be difficult. Its my favorite genre so I tend to learn the mechanics quickly. Its always a let down when once you understand the game and character progression it becomes too easy. If thats the case, at least give the player a challenge dungeon or give the enemies the same opportunity to have broken characters. Fell Seal did a great job with this. Although FFT is my favorite game, once you hit the 3rd chapter the challenge tends to be lacking if you dont place restrictions on yourself.
Try Tactics Ogre (PSP), beside graphic, its way better version of FFT. Also i recommend Operation Silent Storm (PC) games.
@@EmersionX i disagree about how its better than FFT but it was a very good game. The only SRPG that rivals FFT in my opinion is Disgaea 3 and 5.
@@derekminna You may like something more or less, but technically FFT is a simplified version of TO. These games were even developed by the same team. The only difference is that the Square within the framework of Final Fantasy franchise did not need such seriousness and elaboration as in TO, quite a few things were thrown out and simplified, they relied on graphics, sound and a more dynamic plot and it worked, cuz wider audience always likes something brighter and simpler. It's funny that you think the closest game to FFT is Disgaea.
Don't get me wrong, I don't want to argue with you or try to prove something. It just so happens that the Ogre Tactics are underestimated and are in the shadow of the FFT among players. And sometimes I just want to restore the injustice a little)
@@EmersionX first of all, I never said anything to suggest that Disgaea was "closest" to FFT at all. Just that it rivals it in terms of gameplay and my personal enjoyment. Second, Although TO is the older brother to FFT, both times I played through it I realized that combat mechanics break down late game and there is an optimal party so customization works against the player. No need to defend the honor of an exceptional game like TO with me. Happy to see that theres still people out there that have the depth of knowledge that you do on the subject. Do yourself a favor and play Fell Seal while you wait for Triangle Strategy 😉
@@derekminna This is the misunderstanding, I speak from the standpoint of objective reality, and you tell me about your personal preferences. Well, almost any tactical RPG gets easier towards the middle or end of the game, especially with so many possibilities and combinations. However, in terms of challenge, TO is more interesting, since there are limitations in the combination of skills from different classes. Also, PSP version has more end-game optional and more difficult dungeons. And If some game is more difficult only because you need to girnd more there, then in my personal opinion it is better to maintain a balance and not to stretch the game artificially. And I can recommend you to play Banner of the Maid, this is a well-made tactical role-playing game, you will be surprised at its difficulty until the very end of the game.
Rondo of Swords is fun. Warsong was brutal growing up, we never did beat it... I don't even want to go back and try the Langrisser remakes. I got Hoshigami Remix on DS, It's still brutal, never finished it.
Izuna the Unemployed Ninja is also a hidden character in Rondo
Might wanna add PS1 SRPG Vanguard Bandits here too! Basically a mecha SRPG set in a fantasy world setting (knights, magic, etc). That game was easy at the start, but once certain dual-bladed grunts show up as part of the story, hoooo boy that difficulty spike. Also, to get the best ending, while there is no permadeath, you should still avoid letting your characters die coz there's some sorta relationship system with your main guy and the entire cast.
OPERATION DARKNESS .........wow...(a personal hidden gem for me) i absolutely loved playing on xbox360!!. Anyone else loved this as much as me?? Glad to see it mentioned here, because I feel like this game has been all but lost. Not being backwards compatible, and only playable on 360 hasn't helped it either.
It's very rare which doesn't help it get any recognition either. An excellent Fire Emblem style game IMO. Hidden gem and major collector's item!
Quite liked Wild Arms XF. Esp. the job system and hex grid. My main gripe was not the hard levels, but the easy ones. And not enough types of enemies. Wish they made another.
Loved Wayfarer of Time.
I'm glad you put Natural Doctrine up. The enemy only attack one character until that person is dead. Usually the enemy attack the weakest unit possible. Once dead, Game over. Also a limited turn play. Once it's over that turn play, Game over. Retry, retry, retry, fuck.
It may just be me but when you first start out with Final Fantasy Tactics it is insanely difficult before it becomes second nature.
I remember being extremely frustrated with it.
Early game there is one mission with archers on rooftops which IIRC is pretty tough, but I dont remember it being too bad after until that one 1on1 mission followed up by the zodiac boss after.
@@Ghalion666 omg I had go back to my previous file because of this part. 😭
I suppose the real issue us like most Final Fantasy games Tactics was story-driven and you really wanted to know what happens as you go along.
So when you’re stuck and get defeated so many times you gotta repeat sections like you mentioned over and over again it can get disheartening.
Always thought Vandal Hearts II was pretty tricky. Whenever I try to go play it again I can't get the hang of the simultaneous turns.
When I played it the first time I had it pretty figured out but I remember the big battles taking quite a bit of time to get through. Had to check almost every possible movement out on the field to be able to figure out who was moving next and where and how to counter.
Nah, Vandal Hearts II can become quite easy when you are able to predict what the enemy unit will do. It is always the most obvious one like going for the character with less HP, for example.
I'd like to see Japanese subtitles added to Your channel, because I can think of at least three Japanese game developers teams who'd be very interested in your opinions and knowledge. So few people cover RPGs to the extent you do; You live and breath RPGs.
I haven't played any of these but I'll take your word for it lol. I couldn't finish Resonance of Fate when I was younger and still don't know much about what's even going on in it to this day since I didn't get far. Guess I'll watch a walkthrough one of these days.
One of the most common pitfalls of this subgenre is the lack of ability of grind. You didn't level your units the right way in Yggdra Union? You get softlocked in the later missions where difficulty spikes sharply. No grinding means you don't get to delay the main missions to go get your units stronger.
If you can grind in strategy RPG it no longer qualifies as such. What strategy is there then?
@@haksaw7334 Why don't you play Final Fantasy Tactics and find out?
Well, it's even said in the name that there is no strategy there, only tactics =)
@@haksaw7334 Har har You must have a successful career in standup, huh?
@@aquapendulum some Fire Emblem has the same point, and it's even more problematic when you have a lot of units with many special abilities. Still remember one fight, where the only good choice is the use of flying units... yes, I didn't raise any at that time... the battle became massacre for me.
The only game on this list that I have played is Warsong, I agree that it is difficult though I still love it and it is one of my favorite games on the Genesis. I have not played the remake, though I am eager to do so and probably will soon. The Growlanser series looks interesting because I enjoyed the Langrisser games and I'll probably get around to investigating those as well in the not too distant future.
When my older brother was in college he actually beat Warsong and he said it was stupidly unbalanced in that he said it felt impossible to keep all but two characters alive after a certain point in the game, but that those two just handled everything by themselves. The one was the main Garrett character and then I guess a boss bad guy can turn good like Vegeta is the other one.
This is great lol the ending
I play Wild arms XF sometimes just to hear the music. Never finished it but maybe will try soon
Hey Eric! Loving the videos but can you match the volume of your intro song to the rest of your video? I always have to turn down the volume when the song comes on and then turn it back up after
I actually purchased Natural Doctrine because of your rants. I am so curious how hard and convoluted it really is. I've yet to play it so wish me luck!
Love these series, thanks man!
Yggdra Union is such a gem, I really want a (fan)translation of Gloria Union and Blaze Union, I replayed Yggdra Union (and Riviera) way too many times.
The Dept. Heaven series!
For some reason I found the second Langrisser game (the SNES one) to be way harder than the original on Genesis. But even then I found those games to be pretty forgiving giving you the chance to save every turn. More strategy games should let you do that in my opinion.
Recently,i've finished langrisser 2 on the genesis and,boy was it a tough one. At some point i was overleveled and i STILL felt my back was against the wall . I agree with rondo of swords it's hard,but at least the game lets you grind,offering you some leeway. I will add eternal poison as honorable mention. The difficulty in this game stems from the level requirements in gear,meaning that if u didn't allocate exp effectively,you were forced to fight strong enemies with weak weapons,because u weren't at a high enough lvl to equip the good weapons
I didn't find Disgaea to be too hard when I first played it as a teen, but I managed to discover one of the more obvious broken mechanics in the game with wands+magic, you just use those and fairly quickly gain the ability to reach nearly across the whole battlefield with aoe damage of any element you want. Clears the main story with no grinding needed, maybe a little setup at the start to get spells on all the characters, a few uses of the ability on some random easy stage.
This lol many enemies have elemental weeknesses so yeah braveheart helps melee units too
Never heard of the original Hoshigami, I always thought it was a 1 off game for the DS. I'd love to see it get a remake as I thought the story was pretty good. Leveling was interesting cause you can even get xp and level up beating up your allies and if done right it's the best way to level up fast especially while in a tower for training
Hoshigami is absolutely insane. I always try to complete any game I get and normally love isometric strategy, but permadeath plus enormous enemy armies who hold nothing back make it far too much of a slog for my patience.
Only thing harder than Rondo of Swords is finding it at a decent price.
emulate
i've only played a handful of strategy rpgs. i remember getting to the final mission of the first Shining Force, but couldn't complete it. i've finished the doujin game Battle Moon Wars on one of the chosen character stories. i played a bit of Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, and i try to work on Project X-Zone when i'm in the mood. but the one that pissed me off was surprisingly Final Fantasy Tactics. the battle system was convoluted as hell, and it seemed like the longer the battle progresses, the harder it gets. mainly because of the cast time for all the mages overlapping to the point you have to rely on chemists to do any healing whatsoever. i only got so far as one of the zodiac bosses, and i couldn't get past it no matter what i tried. i finally looked up a guide and skipped to the fight in question, only to realize i missed out on a very crucial build i should've started doing at the beginning of the game that makes it much easier
You don't need to interact with the item world to beat disgaea 1,just use the story characters they are very strong,use the Mages to Boost your attacks with braveheart and explore the enemies elemental weekness,reincarnate your generic troops at least 2 Times and that's it.
Edit:some stages have brutal geo effects you Will need to use lift constantly, some of your units Will die but you Will win
Erik what about some of the super robot wars games?
I loved disgaea 1 and feel like the only person ever who didnt like 2 much. I felt 2 was more grindy and harder to grind with since big bang was the only 3x3 attack while 1 had many similar attacks and multiple missions where enemies are just sitting on 200÷ exp tiles.
I also felt like leveling in the item world was more available at lower levels than 2.
Wow... I have greatly enjoyed all the Disgaea's... starting with #1. Every version has a grind gimmick but my favorite one is item world. When you get a map with at least "invlun" and "clone" geo effects its time to go to town. Bonus if there is a "LevelGain" geo effect as well and you can really power level up so freaking fast you can go in at level 50 and come out 5000. Heck, once you are 100 you can power grind Ordeals into 2k's easy. This game series is for "exploiters" for sure, but that is what makes it so fun. Who can find the best ones and grind it to "obscene" extremes and they usually supply the enemies to accommodate.
I am also a big fan of 1 and don't like 2. I really don't like the crazy topology of the item world levels. I think 1 had it nailed, if you had a version that didn't have the impossible-to-finish levels bug. I really don't like version 6. 1 is best, D2 is second, 3 is probably 3rd. I think 2 is better than 6 so that makes 1, d2, 3, 5, 4, 2, 6 in my opinion.
Damn, just noticed that I am kind of masochistic here as I own half of the games of this list. Gotta buy the other half to ruin the rest of my life.
The angry Landon Is back xD
Good list, I will add FF tactics at least as an honorable mention, nothing beats: Chance to kill enemy from behind 85%, missed, enemy counterattacks and you're dead, hated it. Plus the difficulty spike on each boss fight is ridiculous.
Fun fact about fire emblem 5 it was the only sequel to fe 4 (since fe franchise change the universe after 2 installment so don't worry about playing fe 6 before playing the previous games but you should play it after you play fe7 since the company missed up a timeline and made a prequel to it) and the difference between the two games difficulty is insane
I have the garlands away fair of time and it's the only one of the like things that I haven't seen you play in a let's play so I am still waiting for that day
It's nice to see growlanser IV is here. Man it's one of the hardest rpg game. Good thing I made remsus a beast hahaha
Im surprised you did not add Stella Deus from PS2. It was a really good SRPG with insane content and battles.
Not sure if you have played Culdcept Revolt but I've started it up and while I love it I lost the very first non tutorial battle lol. I did get passed it though on wnd try.
Nevermind I watched your Obscure 3DS games video and it was featured. I love it.
I honestly loved Wild Arms XF due to the unique mechanics (where else can you find a SRPG with stealth missions?!), the music was beautiful and even the basic job classes ended up really powerful and very usable during end-game. The story twist caught me off guard and kiiinda left a bad bad taste in my mouth due to how... "different" it was from the rest of the game, but that aside, I'd actually recommend it!
A hard game?
Challenge accepted!
I played Hoshigami for DS and enjoyed it.
Does anybody knows the name of the game at 0:36?
Looks like one of the games developed by Vanillaware. Might be Odin Sphere?
The game shown a few seconds earlier might be the original Nier.
Love the Langrisser 1 and 2 remake!
I'm surprised Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume isn't on the list. The game is freaking hard. But I thought the same of VP 1 till one day it clicked and It became too easy. Anyone else play Plume??
Yeah, Covenant kicked my butt so many times.
Also surprised its not on there, i found it very difficult.
Disgaea series isnt hard but the number of grinding are insane. If you think disgaea hard, try yggdra union (GBA harder version/ PSP) or gungnir (PSP).
I think the issue was that disgaea jobs are very weak and depend a lot of evolving your characters, but each time they return to level 1. I got better at the game after mixing job reincarnation like healer to mage to prism mage.
Hoshigami can be easily complete with solo playthrough, unless you want to unlock all level five coins.
Id be down for a balamced rondo style game. The line system is really fun and intuitive.
Also, no generation of chaos/spectral soul? Man im surprised. Maybe those games are more convoluted than hard
The only thing to know bin Nactural Doctrine, is that the gun is OP, that's enough to make mince of all enemies in game, you can even power level Geoff early game and it make the game so less hard. I even defeated the game's superboss.
Natural doctrine is the most challenging strategical Rpg I ever played. When I finally completed the story mode I never played it again.
I absolutely loved Natural Doctrine. I do not understand the hate for it. I get that some people simply didn't understand chaining and linking (and if not used properly, you will die) but once you get these two principles there is no srpg I'd rather play. Setting up great moves, avoiding over extending, fantastic terrain/height/flanking bonuses. Such a great game. Even the 2p mode (using points to pick teams) was cool, tho very hard to actually find an opponent. I wish more people would give it a chance, it is a hidden gem - while not everyone will like it, those who do will love it.
was expecting Jeanne d'Arc on PSP to get an honorable mention atleast. Find that game to be semi-tough despite how great it is.
Dude I’m still stuck on defeating superbia. I can’t whittle him down fast enough in the turn count and I’m under leveled. Know anywhere to level up to high 30s low 40s?
Jeanne d'Arc is easy SRPG, only last missions are hard.
That game is great but it's way too easy
Disgaea isn't hard just... grindy. However, I was waiting for Natural Doctrine. I gave up on that one too! Seriously, screw that game.
I love nocturne and the devil survivor games,maybe i should try this Rondo of swords,i heard about one so brutal that is head to head with the ancient wizardry games:the dark spire
If my 15 year old brain defeated Disgaea 1 as a teenager, it can't be that tough.
I'm kinda fascinated by Natural Doctrine. I wanna give it a shot.
Natural Doctrine is amazing. I mean it, give it a shot. Many reviewers hate it because the combat system takes some getting used to, and the AI uses it effectively... so if you don't know what you are doing, you will over extend then watch a dozen goblins mash your best hero in a single turn. Basically, you will want to understand chaining and linking to maximize moves - certain moves allow other units to combo off of them with a free move. So if you have 3 characters on a map, say, a bad player will get 3 moves. A good player will move A, then B and combo with A, then move C and combo with A and B. (Basically, if you combo they lose their 'natural' turn, but you can safely combo with units who already moved. Thus A can get an attack per character you have if you optimize. Add in terrain, height, and flanking bonuses, and turn planning that looks lie a football play (but makes sense, I swear) and it is a phenomenal game. It doesn't play like any other srpg but once you get into it, it's amazing.
Anyone know what the outtro song was for the video?
Disgaea wasn't that difficult if you mastered the geomod mechanic.
Rondo wasn't bad just very demoralizing. I to gave up but wish I had more patience
15:00 LOL
I would add Shining Force 1 in my list of hardest strategy RPGs (due to the difficulty, and RNG almost always find a way to screw me over) if it's alright.
Natural Doctrine was impossible at some point. Im sure of that because I got the system down to a T but then hit a wall against some ogres stuck with only 2 characters and that was storyline stuck, not because someone died or anything. Its just unfair straight off the bat.
Well, you probably didn't get the system down to a T in that case. I struggled in the first few hours to really get the system and then got through the whole thing and found it addictive. Imho it is a hidden gem.
The storyline really suck though. On that I wholeheartedly agree !
@@lambertar Well good for you for beating the odds. 8 lizardman and 2 ogres in what is essentially the 4th mission of the game was way too hard with only the 2 characters I got stuck with.
@@ergheiz1245 I don't remember encountering lizardmen so early in the game though. As I remember by the time you get to the lizards you have your full party.
I also did grind a bit with goblins in the beginning to get the hang of it.
Stella duex. Once you get to a certain point, the difficulty spike up.
What's the game at 0:31?
One of the Ys games.
0:41 what's this game pls?
I think that's Odin Sphere.
Since you are so well-versed even in older rpg´s, maybe you can help me. Long time ago, i think over 15 years or so, i watched my seat neighbor in the school bus play Game Boy games since i didn´t had one and made the crucial mistake of never asking what the names of these games were. Most games i managed to track down later, like FE: Blazing Blade, but one always evaded my grasp.
The Story begins with the Protagonist signing up for some sort of army, with the story apparently told in hindsight because everytime you would press no in a series of questions the narrator would say that that isn´t how he remembers it. Then he would be onboard a spaceship which inadvertently be attacked or something, causing the Protag to take an escape pod and crash-landing near a village on a different planet that his home. Getting rescued by a girl who is a herbalist if i remember correctly, he first tries to get of the planet using the escape pod but it is busted.
So he plans to get to the neighbouring town to find out how to get home, together with the herbalist girl.
Sadly that is all I remember from the story, the gameplay was pretty standard rpg stuff. The Overworld consisted of two stages, a world map where you would move between locations and the location map which had different areas, like village, road and forest. Usually the enemies would roam the map and if you would run into them a fight would ensue, which I remember as quite terrifying in case of an eagle like creature which could just move freely in a mountain map.
The fights were god´old turn-based strategy, where the characters would slide towards the enemy when attacking. I don´t know if that game had a magic system since I only watched probably the prologue.
I hope you can end my eternal search.
Try typing some character names or keywords into YT search. I bet you'll find it pretty quickly. Type in the system it was on too. That will narrow the search, then just scroll through the random videos until you see something you recognize. I've found many things doing this. Try it!
@@shadowbanned58 thanks for the answer, trying it out now
@@schwarzflammenkaiser2347 let me know if it works for you! Try multiple times with different keywords. The YT engine is actually quite good for general searches.
@@schwarzflammenkaiser2347 'let's plays' are really good for this because they show alot of gameplay.
@@shadowbanned58 No luck here, all I get is top ten lists with the usual suspects, I can´t think of any other key words than variations of GBA rpg. The thing is that most I remember is probably not going to be in the video title so I´m a little bit stuck, which is frustrating considering how clear I have the gameplay in memory. At least I can be pretty sure that the game was a GBA game cause I looked at a few videos of N64 and Gamecube games just to be sure and the graphics were not similar to the least.
im glad im not the only one who quit rondo of swords
i am not playing because i have more things to play,but i did not find it too hard (but a walkthrough helps)
I was thinking Stella Deus would have made this list. I guess it’s not as hard as these though.
Would Summon Night 6 be considered difficult?
Mario rabbits gets pretty hard too.
Creo que Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, debería tener un lugar aquí...
Before they left even started I was like disgaia
I played PS2 Disgaea HoD and you just have to be prepared to put the hours in. It demands you do the grinding as all new or transmigrated demons start at level 1. But I beat the game and enjoyed playing it. I would get more frustrated with a game if it had perma-death and required repeating levels if you had casualties.
I gave up grinding against Baal in Disgaea 5 without dlc.
There is also Carnage Baal, harder version :)
I would much rather play Agarest Zero than Agarest 2. Agarest Zero was actually much easier to get through then Agarest 1's true ending for me, while the 2nd Agarest was painful to play and I simply could not wrap my head around the battle system no matter how hard I tried to read through the material or battle enemies to get a feel for it. Not to mention the second gen protag is worse the Duran ever was.
I actually beat Rondo of Swords, but only one campaign. No, I am not that good, I was reading the Gamefaqs guide the whole time.