10 HARDEST Games of The Last 5 YRS That'll Challenge You 

The best feeling I’ve had in gaming is when Sekiro’s combat really started to click - the sad thing is you only get to experience it once!

Sekiro was the hardest game I played. The last boss is a nightmare. But still the most fantastic and rewarding game I've platinum... A masterpiece.

00:20 - Number 10 - Lies of P 02:01 - Number 09 - Returnal 03:10 - Number 08 - Ghostrunner 04:13 - Number 07 - Elden Ring 05:47 - Number 06 - Celeste 06:51 - Number 05 - Baba Is You 08:01 - Number 04 - Sifu 09:32 - Number 03 - Darkest Dungeon II 10:40 - Number 02 - Spelunky 2 12:04 - Number 01 - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice 13:33 - Bonus - Fear & Hunger

Sekiro's combat system does something really special. If you're able to master the timing and be aggressive, you can essentially become the boss and control the entire pace of the fight. It's incredible

Sekiro was the first game that challenged me as a person. It forced me out of my comfort zone, and when I eventually beat it I was shouting for joy in my apartment. I LOVE that game

Isshin from Sekiro absolutely obliterated me. At that time I had played multiple souls games. It took me a straight 7 hour session to beat him. Honestly, the amount of adrenaline/joy I had after beating him will likely never be matched.

Beating Sekiro was the most satisfying gaming experience I ever had. Such a great game.

The thing I love about Sekiro is that you cannot cheat in this game by over levelling like other souls game. If you have to beat this game, you just have to get good, there is no other way around.

It feels like Elden Ring can be as hard or as easy as you want depending on your choices, to a certain degree.

Imagine a world without Falcon 🦅 ?! Thank U 🦅 for entertaining us for all these years 💚

It's so good to see Returnal on this list because i would consider myself as having moderate gaming competence, and once you get use to moving around in returnal (also change the control scheme where you can jump and dodge without taking your thumb off the right stick) the game doesn't feel too challenging. The whole permadeath adds a lot of tension to the game but that may be the most challenging part of the game, take that away and it's not terribly hard... also those damn suicide torpedo squids in the last level are annoying and really discourage you from using anything shy of an automatic rifle... but probably one of my favorite gaming experiences ever

i bought Sekiro when it came out in 2019. it truly humbled me and i didn’t return to it until this year. i was finally able to complete it 100%, and i’ll say that, without a doubt, it was the most difficult (and rewarding) of all the FromSoft games for me.

Got stuck on Sekiro's last boss for like a year. Beaten lies of P which helped me getting better at parrying then gave sekiro another try. After 6 hours I mastered the first 2 fases then with some patience finally beaten him.

As someone who really loves hard games, sekiro really put me through my paces 😌.

Souls games found the perfect line between what's really difficult and what's impossible. Their games are always difficult but never impossible. Also the story telling is just badass in these games.

I'm so happy that fear and hunger is getting more attention slowly, cause the game is just fantastic and the lore is really good. Most important of all it's maddeningly addicting.

Sekiro surprised me It's the first time I see a game that's very hard to learn but easy to master. I used to think that it's a bad design philosophy but when I played sekiro and the nearly infinite replayablity this game offers it bekame my 3rd favorite game of all time.

So glad Returnal made this list. One of my favorite games of all time, like Metroid with Souls DNA spliced in. It took me weeks to beat the third Biome. It does get quite a bit easier as you progress into a run and unlock higher weapon levels. Arguably the 1st level is harder than the final biome because of Selene’s weak weapons. 10/10 for me.

I feel like Armoured Core 6 could have been added as a bonus at least, For someone who only played FPS games, I felt the even the first boss very hard.

Thank you for putting Returnal to the list. So many people often forget about this absolute gem of a game.

You should do the easiest games of the last decade.

I think Elden Ring struck a perfect balance of difficulty/fun by letting you decide how hard you want the game to be.

I'm missing Nioh 2 from this list. That was a nightmare to me, much more harder than Elden Ring. Or only to me? :D

One of my proudest moments in gaming was able to beat celeste Its a remarkable game with an amazing soundtrack as well. Please do a list of best modern gaming soundtracks

As hard as the last boss in Sekiro was, I still found Genichiro to be the toughest. Only cause by the time you reach end game you’ve got parrying down. Genichiro comes up pretty early on, and there’s nothing you can do until you pass him and his blasted 3 phases.

The Valkyrie Queen from God of War (2018) on GMGOW difficulty still gives me nightmares.

Nioh 2 missing on this list is criminal

I finally tried Celeste because I heard the soundtrack and loved it, so I jumped right in. I’ve never felt so good beating any other game. It was super satisfying and just a really good time. I recommend it

Proud to say I got to test out Sekiro!!! We had a small QA team that dedicated our time to making sure Activision DIDN’T mess up Fromsoftware's great run in gaming and I'm glad to see it stood the test of time.

I'm very glad to see some love for Ghostrunner. Feels like a bit of a sleeper hit. Absolutely love the game and hyped for the sequel!

I didn't think Elden Ring was difficult at all. I had trouble with Malenia, but even she didn't have me frustrated and cursing.

Owl (Father) in Sekiro gave me a hard time for sure, like I spreaded dragonrot all around Ashina...

I thought Divinity 2 was pretty brutal. It often felt like everything was stacked against you and you really had to plan out dozens of steps ahead to get the upperhand in every fight

Nioh 2 made me shave my head

I played Lies of P at launch. This was right after I beat Elden Ring. My confidence was high. And then it was immediately broken shortly after the basic tutorial from Lies of P 😅

Celeste’s soundtrack is such a masterpiece that I’m willing to play through it all just for them..

Defeating Sword Saint Isshin was the most satisfying experience I've had in gaming. A harrowing experience of course, but satisfying

I feel not having Nioh 2 here is a crime lol. It's at LEAST as hard as Sekiro

I disagree that the final boss in Sekiro is too hard, I think he’s perfect. He’s the ultimate test of pretty much every skill you learn throughout the game, and even though he’s hard af he always feels fair. And though being a 4 phase fight seems daunting, you can just let the lighting reversal do most of the work in the 4th phase so it’s not as bad.

Returnal is one of the most underrated games. The 2nd Boss in that game - where your falling through the sky - one of the most incredible experiences in a video game. Insane

Techically this one released a little bit off that "last 5 years" time frame But I think Dead Cells is worth talking about, this game is brutal, beating it in the hardest difficulty (wich is required to get the true ending) is a complete nightmare There are a lot more enemies than the lower difficulties; enemies can one-shot you; your healing options are limited, and some of the available healing, curses you; and some other shenanigans that I won't spoil

Imo, Elden Ring's open world is the truest "open world" like, it absolutely mirrors our real "open" world/earth; no indicator, no marks, nothing, only waypoint being listening close to the people you talk to. I know it makes it more hard and also frustrating for some people but if it were up to me, i would absolutely love it if other open world games like for eg. Rdr2 are like this. It be so much more immersive than it already is. Idk, something about no markers on the map, just listening to people or the environmental story telling and cues makes it very realistic for me.

Sekiro clicked so well with me. Yea the final boss is hard but when you figure out the right way to dodge or parry every attack it becomes trivial

As far as Soulslikes go, one i usually see mentioned as one of the most difficult, is The Surge 1, having seen descriptions of it like "masochism simulator" as the games has multiple non-bosses having one-shot moves that need to be avoided. And then there's the bosses. I didnt think it was that hard personally, but the game's theme and playstyle (what it does different from other soulslikes) instantly clicked with me from the beginning. I had more problems with adjusting to Mortal Shell's harden mechanic, but once that clicked that wasnt too bad either.

I just became a souls player this year, so now I find myself playing Spidey on spectacular difficulty in an effort to recreate that SWEET hopeless feeling those games always bring.

Armored Core 6 was brutal before the patches Alien Fire Team Elite on insane difficulty is also really unforgiving

wow, actually Fear and Hunger made the list (even if just bonus) I'm so happy to that the game get more recognition. It's brutally unforgiving but satisfying in a weird way (like getting to know how to deal with something)

The hardest but most fun time I've had in recent gaming were the Valkries in God of War (reboot). They were basically optional bonus bosses and they were hands down the hardest part of the game. Each Valkyrie had its own abilities and attack pattern, and your first 10 deaths was just trying to learn the pattern, but that was only half of it. Then even knowing the attack pattern you had to time your parries, dodges, or blocks perfectly throughout the fight. Some moves can only be dodged, some can only be blocked, and some can only be parried. If you choose the wrong one, you're dead. Even if you do the right one but did it slightly too early or late, you're dead and have to start the entire battle over again. On top of that with the weapon switching it felt close to DMC because certain moves and certain weapons were more effective at certain times, so you basically had to learn and then choreograph and memorize your entire game plan before finally being able to beat 1. Then start the whole process over for each of the other 3. Overall it was the best part of the game though. The whole game was great, and I thought Ragnarok was a downgrade but maybe that's just me.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty was my first soulslike experience, and it definitely broke me, and it broke me to the point where I didn't make it past the first boss, I was able to get him beat his 1st life and was like "yay its finally over" to "oh I know you f**king lying".

Elden ring was great:> And I was so happy when I figured out how to get past the first boss so I could explore and go back later :> Ended up beating him not too long after, but it definetly would have been much more of a nightmare without being able to go level and explore first then go back.

Just completed Lies of P and im here looking for a new game to play. Loved the parrying in Lies of P

The best explanation I heard regarding Sekiro and how it differs from other Souls games is that in Dark Souls and Elden Ring, you're trying to survive whilst in Sekiro, you're trying to control the fight. Instead of jumping around avoiding hits and chipping away at their health when you can, you have to be right in your opponents face punishing any mistakes they make. As the final boss says repeatedly when you die, "hesitation is defeat." That's why so many Souls players find Sekiro so difficult. All the muscle memory you've learned becomes useless and works against you. Once it clicks, I think it's actually easier than some of their other games.

Returnal it's just brilliant, maybe the best game ever designed, not only because of its combat system and storytelling , but also because of its achievements and resources. The thing about Returnal is that it's not only about how u master the combat system, but specially about your strategies developing skills and your resources managing skills. Once you get that, you highly improve your chances of success.

I love Lies of P, I'm on my NG3 run now. It does has some flaws though when you play slow weapons. If you run DEX the game is a 10/10 experience from start to finish. I still haven't changed from the starting Rapier, because the fast animations feel so amazing

Sekiro is so good, best combat system from FS and super satisfying once you more or less master it. The boss rush mode was such a good add on to practice certain bosses for endgame challenges like Mortal Journey. Practicing bosses so you can react to their moves will help a lot when you go to beat mortal journey. Nioh 2 should have been on this list though.

Absolutely loved this video! Please make another list with older games! (like 2010s!)

Elden ring was my first souls like, really struggled at first but once it clicked I was hooked. In 13 years of Xbox it’s 1 of 3 games I’ve got 1000 gamer score for. Sekiro is definitely the hardest game I’ve played, can’t get past genichiro😂 absolutely loving lies of p up to chapter 7 currently. Playing it while watching this video aha!

Nioh 2 can also be brutally difficult especially the depths

I loved Returnal. When I would get frustrated, I'd go on runs with reckless abandon. I always seemed to get further than expected when I did that, and it made me better. However, throughout the entire game I was afraid that then ending was going to be what it turned out to be. I was so hoping for a surprise ending. It really disappointed me when the ending was what was obvious. My wife didn't play, but she watched me, and was also disappointed in the ending.

The thing about "Fear and Hunger" is you have to treat it like an immersive sim, not an RPG. Once you start using the environment against enemies it becomes less difficult.

The Lords of the Fallen is rocking me pretty damn hard atm. Its a thousand times harder then the first instalment.

Returnal is a masterpiece! The story telling is really intriguing and the gameplay is so F…ing smooth, if you die is always your fault because the game handles like melted butter. It has become one of my favorite games of all time

How can you not mention God of War: Ragnarok? I dare you to 100% that game on the hardest difficulty. The end game bosses are among the most difficult in gaming history.

I got the platinum trophy for Bloodborne, Sekiro and now I'm going for Elden Ring. I defeated Malenia today!

As someone that used to HATE difficult games, Returnal and Lies of P have changed the gamer that I am. They’re two of my all time favorites and I wouldn’t change a thing about them!!

Malenia was so frustrating cause I would get her down to literally 1 more hit and then boom, dead. Had to fight her damn near 15 times, but finally got her!

Sekiro is my first introduction to soulsborne genre.. damn this game opened up a whole new world for me❤❤

Sekiro was the best. Once the parrying clicked at around the 3rd or 4th bosses, it became a rhythm game, accompanied by amazing world building. I played it 5 more times right after. I still come back to it once every 3 months

Tbh sekiro is only unforgivingly hard in the first playthrough, starting from the second everything becomes much easier. Not just because you kind of already know some of the attack patterns, but just because you grasped the combat and really start feeling the flow of it. When you mastered it it's nothing more than a (deadly) sword dance. I've got to a point where I will literally boot up the game, and warm up by fighting inner isshin. It's just fun and such an amazing fight that truly makes you feel like a badass.

Sekiro is one of the most difficult games I've ever played BUT the combat system is pure gold for me I've fallen in love with it, once I adapted I was able to enjoy the game more. It is one of my favourite games so far and I would very highly recommend for soulslike fans to play it if they haven't!

The best thing about Sekiro is that once you “learn” the song of the enemies they become easy to beat. You really feel the mastery once it clicks. Takes some time to understand how it’s a rhythm game though.

Really glad Lies of P is here. I felt so weak not being able to get pass the first mini boss like monster in the intro lol

LoP is fantastic the combat is addicting I beat the original version with no summons and not since Sekiro have I had this much fun with a game

Sekiro was rlly tough at the start but once I learnt how to parry, it became easier and I honestly think that it’s one of the best games ever. I’ve played it multiple times and every time I fight bosses like the inner owl, it forces me to think cuz those top tier bosses change their attacks last minute, it’s brutal but so fun at the same time 😂. however, I think that it’s game u shouldn’t play if ur just tryna relax or if u don’t have patience 😂, it’s tough, it requires practice but it’s 1000 percent worth it when u get good

I've only played Returnal out of the games you mentioned. I struggled so much with the game and at times thought about quitting. Eventually i did beat it, ironically with a weapon i didn't use as much as my favoured weapons. I feel it was down to a secondary ability of the weapon, Replicating Hits, it helped me massively to eventually beat the game, but i did really struggle with it.

Your videos always give me that Saturday morning energy vibe lol.

Returnal was SO good! I can only hope that future Mass Effect games may have a combat system so fast and responsive.

Sekiro gave me the most enjoyment out of a Fromsoft game that I've ever had. That fast paced offensive and defensive dance of combat system was so adrenaline pumping

Sekiro is one of my favorite games of all time and I have over 130 hours in that game and I have beaten the boss gauntlets. It's a difficult game but it's fair and you feel like an absolute badass once you learn the combat system and how to beat the bosses.

I love games like Ghost of Tsushima and Sekiro but absolutely the biggest bear of Sekiro is the parry The aesthetic was probably the reason it's the one soulslike ice put more time into than any other

Love me some Ghostrunner! Thanks 4 the mention. Can't wait for the 27th! 😃

Nioh deserved a place in this list

Celeste really was one of the toughest games I ever played, the patience I had to have with the game. Lawdy. But still, it was fun and that feeling of overcoming each obstacle I couldn't beat made it so satisfying. Shocked I managed to beat it, even if it took a few weeks haha.

Lies of P is a fantastic game that just needed to be a bit more generous with the parry window. Can't wait to see what the developers put out next.

I considered myself a super masochist after dumping over a thousand hours in the former souls games but man Sekiro was a completely different experience. I progressed through the entire game mashing L1 despite the game explicitly telling me not to do that. I also chessed my way through most bosses by taking out their lives by stealth but Sword saint Isshin oh man where do I even start... That dude was a demonstration of how my incompetence made me pay dearly. I did not have enough prayer beads and gourd seeds from rushing through the game. I could've been less boneheaded and made it a lot easier for myself by moving on to optional areas and bosses but no that would make too much sense. I was bashing my head against that him in that state for over 2 months. The moment he finally knelt my hands were shaking like someone who was on drugs. I never felt such euphoria in a video game and I doubt I'll ever do.

Just played Ghostrunner recently. Brutal. And it adds insult to injury by noting how many deaths you had in each level. The couple of boss fights aren’t that bad, but there are some platforming sequences that really test you.

I have a challenge for you! For 10 videos straight - whatever the topics - you cannot reference any game that has been in the previous vids, even bonus picks.

lies of P was my first soulslike, and my god that game really piss me off alot. they really force u to perfect block almost all the time. dodging felt useless most of the time. heck even the mobs can be cancerous

Lies of P is almost certainly harder than Elden Ring if we talk about just the critical path. The last 3 main story bosses are harder than any of the mandatory Elden Ring bosses imo

as a person who really didn't like to be excessively challenged in games, Sekiro basically pushed me trough that. the game didn't really click from the beginning and I played mainly for the setting in the beginning. But after a while i started to learn how to use the mechanics and I didn't struggle any less with the bosses, but i was more focused on what to learn. I remember beating the story final boss Ishin after a month and a half of playing and the first real thought i had after feeling relieved was fighting him again. before all of that I wasn't really a fan of the souls genre due it's difficulty, but today i like them really much. I finished elden ring and lies of P and had a blast with it all because Sekiro showed me the ropes.

Lol when Falcon said "Recent stuff out there, that'll knock you out- just like momma said" I instinctively said, out loud, "Momma said knock you out" 😂

And here I thought Hi-Fi Rush was the toughest game I had completed… Damn, the difficulty level for the final boss just went sky-high!

Thank you hard games for allowing me to save my money and time by not playing you. I have a job and limited time and I don’t need the hit to my blood pressure. So keep making them hard and I’ll keep saving my money, Thanks!

Forgot to mention Aeterna Noctis here. It's a combination of Castlevania and Celeste. The platforming in this game is also a big challenge, similar to Celeste.

Beating Sekiro is probably my biggest accomplishment in my 20+ years of gaming. Never felt like such a badass when I finally beat the sword saint!

I got Malenia on my 2nd try, but I had a hell of a hard time with the Valiant Gargoyles. Funny enough, a friend of mine had the Gargoyles on his first try, but couldn't get Malenia. Funny how that works.

Sekiro🤝🏻🔥

Sifu is an underrated game. I can never get tired of replaying the levels. It's fun to master and the soundtrack is awesome especially in the club level. I did play elden ring and got as far as the second boss ( took me hours to beat Margot but beat Godrick in 10 attempts without using summons). But I already spent 50 hours just exploring and doing random stuff and I got sidetracked with another game(Cyberpunk lol). I should get back into it cos I did enjoy the gameplay. The sheer size of the open world in this game can be a bit overwhelming.

I am a noob, I have only just started lies of p and i am sweating because of it. However there's one game which was very tough and also rewarding once you finish a mission - Snowrunner. It is probably the toughest slowest game you cant stop playing in existence. I have loved every minute of playing it because you might think you have planned enough and that you're patient enough, the game will still find ways of beating you

Jedi survivor grandmaster is too easy😩