[General Discussion] Hardest game(s) you've ever played

Originally Posted by Grawl

Ys: The Oath in Felghana was hard for me, even on 'normal'. Yay for Japanese action platform games.

Funny story: At Otakon this year, there was a booth that specialized in Japanese imports and they had Oath of Felghana running. I got to play and I asked the owner if there was a save at the final boss. Long story short: With about 50 people watching, Galbalan completely thrashed me in about 30 seconds. I was supposed to hit him with some kind of spell (he was too far off to hit with the sword), but he destroyed me before I could get anything off. I just remember some people going, "Dude, you're supposed to hit him!" That was humiliating...I passed the controller to some guy who proceeded to do about as well as I did.

Hardest would probably be Ikaruga, Gradius (all), Contra 3 or Xbox Metal Slug 3 (without the ability to continue where you left off). All of those are hair-pullingly good times. Battletoads for NES gets an honorable mention for the speed bikes and so does Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 for NES (mostly for that one corridor in the final level with the jetpack men).

Jam it back in, in the dark.