Forums

Topic: Weird Difficulty Spikes

Posts 1 to 20 of 38

Drawdler

I was just replaying the original Spyro trilogy. They're pretty easy for me, since I've completed each a dozen times. Some of the challenges still annoy me, though, and several are in otherwise-easy levels.

In Spyro 1:

  • End of Twilight Harbor- To be fair, it's the final level and the hardest in the game, but the last section still sticks out. You need to go through a couple of rooms with enemies shooting all over, then along a walkway with more enemies shooting, making sure you don't fall off and drown. No checkpoint between those, no nearby fodder to restore health. It's particularly strange because the final boss, straight afterward, is ridiculously easy.

In Spyro 2:

  • Crystal Popcorn II- You need to get 15 pieces of Crystal Popcorn before Hunter. The first Crystal Popcorn challenge is fine, but as for the second... If the RNG is in your favour, not very difficult, but that's rare. When it isn't, the lazer-precision AI can be infuriating.

And in Spyro 3:

  • Yeti Boxing I & II- The opponent takes dozens of hits before they're down. You move like molasses. It's a pain.
  • Yeti Boxing Skill Point- Achievement for beating Yeti Boxing in one round. I don't understand how I actually managed to finish this when I was little.
  • You're Doomed I & II- Clunky controls, slow movement, annoyingly agile enemies. It sticks out even more because this is one of only two FPS segments in the game- the other is easier and on-rails, so you don't need to deal with the control problems there. And of course, if you get a Game Over during the second part, you're forced to redo the start and deal with the controls and speed again. Oh, joy.
  • Tank Challenge II- Clunky Controls 2: Electric Boogaloo

I also remember one tough level near the end of Super Mario 3D Land. It wasn't Special-Crown, which is a fitting difficulty spike, it was one of the clockwork towers. It took many lives...then I breezed through the rest of the levels.

What other games have non-special challenges that stick out for being difficult?

Myland's Dream Address: 6500-2329-0504 | darkSpyro | Ghostroaster | Reddit

3DS Friend Code: 2191-7661-4611 | Nintendo Network ID: Nibelilt

Eel

The second generation pokemon games and their remakes.

Most trainers and wild pokemon after the 7th gym are incredibly underleveled compared to the gym leaders they precede. Which means your team will always be underleveled unless you power train a single pokemon all the time or grind for hours with weak wild Pokemon to catch up.

It gets worse in the battle against Red, where you go from barely-lvl40 wild pokemon to battling against a lvl70-80 team.

So the difficulty in these games spikes wildly between "important" battles.

Edited on by Eel

Bloop.

<My slightly less dead youtube channel>

SMM2 Maker ID: 69R-F81-NLG

My Nintendo: Abgarok | Nintendo Network ID: Abgarok

Kaze_Memaryu

The Metroid Prime series had some, even though it never became seriously difficult.

  • Prime: Meta-Ridley. Before, every boss involved a gimmick that saw you utilize your latest new gadget. But this time, it's a pure skill fight - full of hard-to-see attack patterns, weird hitboxes, and comparably large amounts of damage.
  • Echoes: For starters, the entire game compared to Prime. Enemies deal much higher damage, the Dark Aether deals constant damage to you, and you have to deal with limited ammo for beams. But in addition to that, Chykka was just a pain to deal with, especially during his Adult Form.
  • Corruption: Being more combat-centric, Corruption had a lot of fairly tough enemies. But the hardest parts in my opinion were Hunter Ghor, who had a ridiculous arsenal of attacks, and the Pirate Research Station on Skytown, Elysia, with large groups of Metroids that can turn into ghosts when you shoot them hunting you, and later on spreading over the entire area.

Another difficulty spike I remember is the Flea Caves in PLOK. Aside from being a fairly hard game that has no save or password system at all, the Flea Caves are all levels that force you to traverse them with a specific vehicle, most of which are really hard to control at times.

<insert title of hyped game here>

Check some instrumental Metal: CROW'SCLAW | IRON ATTACK! | warinside/BLANKFIELD |

3DS Friend Code: 3136-6640-0089 | Nintendo Network ID: KazeMemaryu

Grumblevolcano

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn.

The first Part where Micaiah is the main character is infact the hardest part of the game because most of the characters are either underleveled or have bad stats. The parts that follow are much easier especially those where Ike is your main character (Yes, he's more overpowered than in Smash 3DS and Wii U!)

Grumblevolcano

Switch Friend Code: SW-2595-6790-2897 | 3DS Friend Code: 3926-6300-7087 | Nintendo Network ID: GrumbleVolcano

Xeno_Aura

Yeah, I also have problems with Pokemon titles, it's a constant theme with me and Pokemon games, that I naturally level up enough to tackle the first few gyms and rival battles, but at a certain point, usually at 7th or 8th gym, or the rival battles in between, that I hit a wall, and usually have to grind for a while before I can face them, usually where I stop playing the game unfortunately.

My progress on Pokemon Black, which I haven't played for a long long time, is at a rival battle at some sort of bridge, but I was underleveled by a fair bit.

Edited on by Xeno_Aura

Xeno_Aura

3DS Friend Code: 3394-3596-9756 | Nintendo Network ID: Jenraux | Twitter:

kkslider5552000

Boost Guardian. Prime 2. Especially on hard mode.

Super Monkey Ball 2 had some random levels that were like 10X more difficulty than any level near it. I think anyone whose played it remembers Arachnophobia and similar stages.'

Code of Princess has this boss that is like going from Skyward Sword to Dark Souls or something. Or I'm terrible at the game, I dunno...

This was way more difficult when I was younger but seriously, going from the laughably easy beginning parts (which were like 2/3 just walking around town) to the SEVERAL BOSS BATTLES IN A ROW in Megaman Legends is why it took me a long time to really get into that game. And while they're not so bad now, as a kid I was so clueless on locking on and strafing that it took me forever to get past the 2nd one to reach a save point.

When I was really young, I couldn't handle the giant leap of difficulty in Megaman depending on the stages. Topman is like Kirby and Gemini or Shadowman without the right weakness was like Castlevania.

Edited on by kkslider5552000

Non-binary, demiguy, making LPs, still alive

Megaman Legends 2 Let's Play!:
LeT's PlAy MEGAMAN LEGENDS 2 < Link to LP

mookysam

Shin Megami Tensei III is a reasonably challenging game from start to finish, but one particular moment sticks in my mind. Matador. Matador is a particularly tough boss for that early part of the game (your level, skills and party probably ain't great) and the fight is seemingly out of nowhere.

Black Lives Matter
Trans rights are human rights

TeeJay

I'll agree with the others saying Pokemon. Pokemon black and White had an unreasonably gigantic level spike after beating the Elite Four. And the thing was that after beating them once you couldn't fight them again to level up off of them because they jump to like, level 70 so you were pretty much doomed to slow agonizing grinding for about 20 levels.

Edited on by TeeJay

If you add me, I need to at least know you or I won't add you back.

Switch Friend Code: SW-5283-4033-0929 | 3DS Friend Code: 2423-1923-3519 | Nintendo Network ID: TeeJay92

unrandomsam

Unlocking the Kid on Super Meatboy. That single warp zone is harder than the rest of the game combined.

Rogue Legacy - New Game +3.

Edited on by unrandomsam

“30fps Is Not a Good Artistic Decision, It's a Failure”
Freedom of the press is for those who happen to own one.

Eel

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about the post elite four spike in black and white.

That one came out of nowhere, suddenly every trainer is way stronger than you and you're left grinding with audino.

Bloop.

<My slightly less dead youtube channel>

SMM2 Maker ID: 69R-F81-NLG

My Nintendo: Abgarok | Nintendo Network ID: Abgarok

Drawdler

I didn't even think about Pokémon. I agree with that too. HeartGold/SoulSilver are my favourite in the series, but they were pretty bad with their difficulty balance. There was one spike with the E4 in White as well. It was the only time I felt like I HAD to grind in the main story (Serperior sucks). I don't remember the postgame grind being that bad, but maybe it's just because I used Kyurem for a lot of training in Nimbasa.

@Jenraux I stopped playing White 2 for a while because I felt like I had to grind and grind and got tired of it. I can't remember exactly when I stopped... I think it was with the last gym. I ended up using brute force and quit training anything besides my Emboar, who won just because of his level. I wish Gen V's starters had better stats/movepools (especially Emboar, who looks like Ganon on fire). It's one of my biggest gripes with that gen.

Myland's Dream Address: 6500-2329-0504 | darkSpyro | Ghostroaster | Reddit

3DS Friend Code: 2191-7661-4611 | Nintendo Network ID: Nibelilt

BearHunger

I would add one to Spryo 3: Dino Mines. I still have no clue how to cross the bridge with the green dino on it without getting hit. I tried just rushing it, but that didn't work. Apart from that detail, the game was quite easy outside of certain side challenges.

Bit Boy‼︎ ARCADE suddenly gets absurdly hard starting at World 3-1 Phase 8. It can be done, but nothing up to that point was anywhere near as taxing.

Omega Pirate from Metroid Prime, and Boost Guardian from Prime 2.

Some of the minigames in Donkey Kong 64, particularly the hard version of Minecart Mayhem, which takes 125% more thinking than the rest of the game. I'm not good at that!

The Elite Four in Pokémon Pearl, arguably fitting in that it's the end of the pre-post-game. Still, there really ought to be a better way to train for such high levels.

The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games (Blue Rescue Team, at least) had some dungeons that ended up being way harder for me than they were supposed to be. That underground one that I think had Groudon at the end in the first game was a huge pain at first because Graverler's Magnitude could randomly kill my partner (Pikachu) in one hit. There was also one in one of the games where Togetic was a huge threat somehow just by knowing Ancient Power, and apart from that the dungeon was pretty easy. And then Temporal Tower had the Lunatones that could randomly kill me (Bulbasaur) in one Psywave, though that was the last dungeon of the main story.

BearHunger

Nintendo Network ID: Bear_Hunger

CM30

Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga has a pretty massive difficulty spike when you get to Joke's End, made even more obvious by how the earlier Beanstar collecting bit was ludicrously easy. The enemies get ridiculous, the area itself is really, really confusing and the depressing as hell atmosphere only makes it stand out even more.

Dream Team also had one. Well two or three really, every few hours, the game threw a tough boss or section at you from nowhere. First with Bowser in Dream's Deep, then Dreamy Mount Pajamaja a bit later (which you couldn't exit without clearing) and then with Earthwake, who pretty much acted as a literal brick wall straight after the Ultibed Quest. It's even worse on hard mode... there you pretty much got stuck at each of the last three giant bosses for 6 to 8 hours or so each if you weren't a saint.

Oh, and world 5 in Yoshi's Island DS. The point where Artoon's level design went from 'fairly easy' to 'oh god this is ridiculously hard'. It was like going from Yoshi's Island 1 to something akin to Ghosts n Goblins or Ninja Gaiden... The secret levels were another one, where you realised with horror that the designers had watched a lot of Kaizo Mario videos on Youtube and decided to try making Kaizo Yoshi's Island. I can only imagine the shock for first time players when they realised that Yoshi Tower had no checkpoints or healing items (beyond the minimum of the latter required to make 100% completion doable). Or that Yikes Boiling Hot was actively malicious in terms of level design...

Try out Gaming Reinvented, my new gaming forum and website!
Also, if you're a Wario series fan, check out Wario Forums today! Your only place for Wario series discussion!
My 3DS Friend Code: 4983-5165-4...

Twitter:

BearHunger

@CM30 Was world 5 the last world in Yoshi's Island DS, or was there a world 6 that was the last in the main story? I forget what number it was, but that last world sure was tough.

↓ Ah. For a moment there I thought Yoshi's Island had eight worlds!

Edited on by BearHunger

BearHunger

Nintendo Network ID: Bear_Hunger

Eel

Yeah I never beat Yoshi's Island DS because it it suddenly went from pleasant to ridiculous in that world.

Bloop.

<My slightly less dead youtube channel>

SMM2 Maker ID: 69R-F81-NLG

My Nintendo: Abgarok | Nintendo Network ID: Abgarok

KingMike

It's been so long since I played I forgot that Gen V is the only gen to scale EXP. When playing White 2, it took so long to train to beat Clay (I think that was his name, gym 5). In the end most of the work got down by Liligant after sacrificing Cottonee to drop Excalbur (I forget, the Unova's Dugtrio)'s attack as low as possible. I think I had Leavanny as well. Yeah, that one Pokemon was the bulk of the fight.
I only played through like four Gyms of HeartGold, but I recall three of those Gym leaders had me planning my strategy around surviving a single move.
(and it was actually years ago since I fought Falkner but I think I might've even just use Bide to survive. Or maybe it was Pearl, now that I check Bulbapedia. It's a game I started but I picked up years later but never erased because of the legit Mew. My Pearl card should similarly have a legit Jirachi but I haven't played it in years. I probably should try to figure out where I was and finish it sometime.)

I've watched raocow play some Yoshi's Island hack awhile ago that was essentially kaizo Yoshi. Can an official game be that bad?

KingMike

CM30

Yes, an official Nintendo game can be, and Yoshi's Island DS was pretty much it. It was more kaizo than even the Lost Levels, since it deliberately tried to trick you with unfair death traps.

The GBA remake of the original game had a few really tough/unfair levels too. Like this infamous one:

But hey, none of 'em compare to literal Kaizo Yoshi's Island. As in, makes the hacks raocow played look like a cakewalk level kaizo:

Try out Gaming Reinvented, my new gaming forum and website!
Also, if you're a Wario series fan, check out Wario Forums today! Your only place for Wario series discussion!
My 3DS Friend Code: 4983-5165-4...

Twitter:

This topic has been archived, no further posts can be added.