What is the hardest RPG you Ever Completed?

[oldgamerz]

If Pokémon is considered the easiest thing in RPG form what is considered a REALLY REALLY hard RPG Me? I choose Final Fantasy 7, it throws a difficult boss fight right in the beginning AND tells you the wrong way how to defeat it according to someone on here before. As a result I never looked up a guide for final fantasy 7 and still have no way to know how to complete the boss fight in the beginning of it, WTF

I like Pokémon because you've AND Earthbound because you've got unlimited lives to screw up before starting over from the beginning and? what other games are like this?

[megasilverx1]

The hardest RPG I've beaten is the NES version of Dragon Quest/Warrior II. The last areas of that games are brutal and the monsters always seem to target the weakest party member.

[emporerdragon]

For what I've played personally, it's gotta be one of the Hard Modes of a Fire Emblem (Can't tell If I'd give it to Blazing Blade, Conquest, or Awakening). The games have permadeath and they know you want to keep everyone alive and will punish you for it. So, you either have to keep replaying levels over and over until you get everyone out safely, or you need to make sacrifices and watch your party options dwindle as the campaign progresses. And that's also not counting the times you have to scrap the entire file and restart from the beginning because the wrong person got the very limited exp. or you've lost too many units of one type.

In any case, I'd honestly put most RPGs on the easy side, as with most of them, any difficulty can be removed with a bit of grinding. But that's where people inflict self-imposed challenges. Beating Pokemon isn't a big deal. But beating it doing a Nuzlocke run without being overleveled or using items is significantly more impressive.

[bizzgeburt]

I played a ton of different RPGs throughout my life and those that I kept in mind as very hard were:

Final Fantasy II - starting out quite cool, but ends up being brutal when it comes to enemy-strengh balance and random encounter frequence

Ys, vanished omens for SMS - you actually reach max lvl before entering the last dungeon, wich you spend more than half of the whole gametime in, and even with best equipment, enemies in the last areas strip you of half your HP with a single blow.

Different Wizardry titles - the fact, that some chars can't be revived in some cases, meaning to lose them for good - cruel!! And also the all-in-all difficulty is what hooked me into that games.

Phantasy Star II for SMD - I'm actually playing this game by now, and I tell you this: I'm really ... I mean REALLY good at grinding my chars to max ... nevertheless, even after leveling up for dozens of hours, the last dungeons and enemies in there are so hard, that there's always the possibility to not come out alive ... I rarely found strategic-RPGs where you never reach that certain point of being god-mode through grinding, but this particular game seems to be one of that kind.

(I also remember Phantasy Star III starting off quite the same, meaning, leaving first town and walking just a few steps to far ends up in being anihilated by the first foes you encounter)

I guess there are many more games of that type, and after beating dozens of strategic JRPG's easily due to my resilience in leveling, I actually prefer those games with a mean difficulty for the challenge they offer to a vet like me

[telekill]

I've never been huge into RPGs until more action was included. In the earlier generations it was easy to know what an RPG was. Now... they mesh RPG into many games that are more action driven. So I'll list the RPGs I've enjoyed enough to finish and you can tell me if they count.

 - Parasite Eve (both)
 - Shenmue (all 3)
 - Mass Effect (all 4)
 - Witcher 3
 - Final Fantasy 7 Remake

That's every RPG I've finished. I would have moved forward with the original FF7 as I really enjoyed it but my copy was bugged and never let me progress past the first outing to the world map. I'm essentially at the exact same spot after beating the Remake. I also got really far into FFX but didn't understand the leveling so a later boss kept destroying me.

[Cartagia]

Dark Souls count?  Then Dark Souls.

[chexmixbreath]

- Shenmue (all 3)

Really? I've only played the first one on Dreamcast, and I don't recall it being a difficult game... tedious at points, maybe, but I don't remember getting stuck for overly long periods of time. Secondly, to consider the Shenmue series as RPGs is, well, debatable.

[pzeke]

If Pokémon is considered the easiest thing in RPG form what is considered a REALLY REALLY hard RPG Me? I choose Final Fantasy 7, it throws a difficult boss fight right in the beginning AND tells you the wrong way how to defeat it according to someone on here before. As a result I never looked up a guide for final fantasy 7 and still have no way to know how to complete the boss fight in the beginning of it, WTF

That was a mistake from the localization team. The first boss fight is easy: you need to attack with all you have, using Bolt with Cloud and attacking from the back with Barret, and then do nothing other than heal if needed when the boss raises its tail, resuming your attacks once it lowers it.

Anyway, the only RPGs in recent memory that gave me a bit of a struggle were A.S.H.: Archaic Sealed Heat and The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road for NDS. The former wasn't exactly difficult, but it was a chore to complete, while the latter, although not as difficult either, requires a lot of backtracking, and the super bosses happen to be quite super.

[...] Beating Pokemon isn't a big deal. But beating it doing a Nuzlocke run without being overleveled or using items is significantly more impressive.

Give one of the Kaizo ROM hacks a try.

[telekill]

- Shenmue (all 3)

Really? I've only played the first one on Dreamcast, and I don't recall it being a difficult game... tedious at points, maybe, but I don't remember getting stuck for overly long periods of time. Secondly, to consider the Shenmue series as RPGs is, well, debatable.

You misunderstand. Shenmue wasn't difficult. I listed every RPG I've played. Shenmue was by far the easiest listed there.

[undertakerprime]

I honestly don’t know which RPGs are generally considered the hardest, but RPG difficulty can be subjective anyway since it’s usually possible to just grind until the game is a piece of cake.
But I can say which ones I had the most trouble with:

Probably the hardest time I ever had actually completing one was Dragon Warrior 1. I don’t remember if I got DW or Final Fantasy first, but they were my introduction to RPGs and I had no clue what I was doing. Thanks to Nintendo Power’s strategy guide, I was able to finish DW, but it was just a tedious experience to stick with. IMO Final Fantasy was harder but I never finished it so it doesn’t count for the purposes of this thread. In FF, I would grind for HOURS and I could still never get more than 1/3 of the way through the game. It’s the game that soured me on RPGs for the next few years so I never tried Dragon Warrior 2-4.

Final Fantasy II (IV) was the game that got me back into RPGs, but it was REALLY hard for me at the time. I know it sounds kinda pathetic when the game was made easier for western players, but I absolutely could NOT get past those three F***ING black orbs in the Giant of Babil. Eventually finished it about 17-18 years later.

The only other one I can think of that gave me a hard time (but I finished) was Legend of Dragoon. That final boss battle isn’t necessarily that difficult, just REALLY long.

I did get stuck in Dragon Quest VIII when I kept losing the 2-part fight against Dhoulmagus, but once I left the dungeon and did some grinding I got through it. Still one of the best RPGs I’ve played.

None of the other RPGs I’ve completed has been exceptionally difficult. Final Fantasy VII did have a handful of hard parts, but the endgame bosses are pushover pansy-asses if you invest the time to get Knights of the Round.

[telly]

I think the hardest RPG I've ever finished was Earthbound Beginnings.

I also finished Kingdom Hearts I, II and III on their highest respective difficulty settings.

[vivigamer]

Kingdom Hearts II.5 Remix
Whie the main game isn't exactly hard the extra VR Battles with the Organisation XIII are BRUTAL! I was pretty proud (Yes, on Proud Mode...) of myself for beating them all!

[wartoy]

I remember Blue Dragon and Last Remnant for Xbox 360 being rather tough.

[kypherion]

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. Spoilers ahead.

I beat it on hard. It was one heck of a time, from the Matador to Mot, cheapness struck, but I prevailed with determination and the fact that it was NG+
First playthrough was on normal, and it still wasn't easy. Hard definitely still made it difficult to get the ball rolling, but eventually I got money to summon in demons, slowly but surely.
I got the True Demon Ending and my final party included Metatron, Dante, and Trumpeter.

Overall, the game was a solid challenge, given the fact that bosses can do this... https://youtu.be/rhDIDWh84-s, I'd say it's a fair contender for the hardest RPG I've beaten and a difficult game in general.

[bikingjahuty]

In terms of how objectively hard it is I'm not sure its one of the hardest out there, but for me the first Lunar game was impossibly difficult for me as a kid. It's been so long since I played it that I can't remember specifically what made it so hard, other than several of the last bosses you fight in the game destroyed me time and again no matter what strategy I tried employing. I eventually gave up on Galleon and haven't returned to that game in over 20 years. I'd be interested if I still find that game just as hard now.