Top 10 Hardest JRPGs I've Ever Beaten 

Here is part 2, ten more of the hardest JRPGs I've ever beaten! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LswQusem6_8.html

Top 10 jrpg’s with the best post game.

Love how most of the footage from Code Vein was the Cathedral of Sacred Blood, the worst area of the game.

Absolutely LOVE your top 10s. You are such a funny man. Cheers Eric

For anyone struggling with Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor, it is all about not getting attached to the demons on your team because you need to change to better versions as you level up and unlock more. You have to pay close attention to their unique abilities based on their type and switch for example to the high movement demons when trying to escort weaklings that are far away. Also, you have to make sure to constantly target the enemies to learn their abilities because some of them make certain levels way easier.

"He kicked my ass several times, so I gave up". That sounds way too familiar, as in half the games I've played.

I always considered games that require grinding to be poorly designed. If all you need to do is be a high enough level to do enough damage to the enemy or withstand their attacks; that's not very intelligent or thoughtful design. You're simply setting a bar and telling the player to reach that bar or die. It's not challenging, it's difficult. There's a difference.

The stages of RPG gaming Running When you’re outclassed (wrong place?) Struggling When you’re underleved (it will pass) Grinding When you’re even leveled (because reasons?) Stomping When you’re overleved (backtracking/farming?) Where do these games put you ? XD

props on beating code vein. that boss you had on twice, and for extra time at the end, that's what did it for me. that was the rage quit moment. the goddamn cathedral level with the teleporting angels, and then that massive-aoe monstrosity in a pin-size area with nowhere to dodge. it was too much. many claps for getting past that and finishing it off.

Disgeae games are made for grinding. Those games make grinding an art. But I always thought that the first game was the easiest because of how early you can pluck out the legendary Longinus from the castle.

Thanks for sharing Erick Landon! I love your passion for RPGs man. Awesome video! :) I've been able to conquer Disgaea 2 and Final Fantasy XII and FFXII is certainly one of the more difficult ones out there. Funny enough, the part of the game where you HAVE to summon the correct being in order to open the gate completely stumped me for weeks. How cryptic was that point in the game? Final Fantasy IV for the DS and Dragon Quest II for the NES are certainly two of the most difficult ones I have EVER played. No matter how much you level up, you can still lose...easily (*shivers* as I think of the Rhone Cave in DQII).

Weird timing; I just beat Devil Survivor for the first time last night. I almost wanted to cry when it was over because it was so hard

loved this video XD love hearing your rage voice as always XD keep it up Erick

Great video, thank you for your share and passion on those titles ;)

“If you can’t figure that out. Forget it, you’re fucked.” Wise words!! 🤣🤣🤣👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Chrono Cross is my favorite RPG of all time!!! It's not hard, but it's also not that easy. Taking in consideration the fact that has no levelling system, all you have to do is choose your favorite characters and go on deep in this masterpiece!!!! The only freaking hell battle that made me hate myself and wanted to die was Dario, and even so, I love it.

The narration of each difficulty is hilarious because I know the feeling lolol.

Erick is not only a client he is also the president of the hair pullers club of RPG gamers.

You made me feel so much better about Final Fantasy XII. I thought I was the only one struggling with it because I see so much praise and very little talk about the difficulty of this frustrating yet fantastic game. If I didn't love the story and the lore of the game I would've given up.

I love games like Devil Survivor and the first three days I’ve found enjoyable, but I’ve already found that it’s so difficult. You just get so overwhelmed by enemies that constantly heal each other and I’ve heard it only gets harder from there. Maybe one day I’ll pick it up again possibly on easy, but I’m not sure if I can be bothered to go back and try

literally every rpg on the NES/FAMICOM

Patience @12:55 lol. Love this video Erick.

This video brings back memories.... Damn. Love your videos my man

I saw that General Billford in your TearRing Saga footage. Excellent choice.

I always get shocked when your music intro starts, maybe reduce the volume of it ;) Besides that, an amazing video :)

I loved Arc Rise Fantasia, glad you covered it. Some fights were stupidly hard, especially the bonus bosses, but I never got frustrated because the battle system was so tight. The Defend action actually did something for once in an RPG and it was crucial to properly balance defending and attacking to not get one-shot but also maintain enough AP for the next turn. I never really needed to grind tbh. Very sad the battle system will never get re-used because of the poor reception.

If you want a hard JRPG, try Vagrant Story. You have to learn the mechanics in that game or it will punish you later on. It's a hidden gem for sure.

damn that devil survivor is really spot on even though i played the overclock one

'Arc Rise Fucktasia' - Erick Landon RPG, 2020 :D Keep up the good work and the good puns, Erick!

Congrats on your 40subs

Eric for octopath you just need to grind in that one cave with the fat cats and use the dancing girls xp buff I love that game I put over 100 hours also thanks for the videos theirs rpgs I’ve never heard about like arc rise or exist archive

I haven't played many tough RPGs. I think the one with the most perfectly balanced difficulty curve would be Wild Arms. Never was there a point where I felt overleveled, yet at the same time I never felt like I was consistently struggling. The game is very well balanced to give magic, physical attacks, and weapons a purpose, and the Force meter makes it satisfying to come back from tough spots. It rewards your patience. I love Wild Arms so much. I want to play it again.

"Escalating like goats on a mountain!" Haha

Amazing Video as always. But Erick u gotta complete Xenogears!!! u will love it, it will change ur life.

You must've been doing something wrong if you had problems leveling in Octopath.

I had a very nice time playing Final Fantasy XII. Yes, I grinded it to almost the full potential of every party member, but the skill-license system was nice once you get used to it. Long story short: I invested a lot of time in that game, and loved it through and through. All said, thanks Mr. Landon for all your vids and top 10s. Stay safe!

About Devil Survivor: I know Midori could be very anoying xD but later, she got into my main team like a magic offense character. Yuzu as my healer, the protagonist like physical and Amane as the other magic offense character. I ended all the routes, but It was imposible to me to defeat the hidden boss, I mean Lucifer (I dont remember his name). The worst part of the original Ds game its imposible to grew up your demons for a long time. Its just a miracle to got a 99 level demon in that game, and Lucifer is at 99 level, so, you will die for sure. But its an incredible game, i love it. Love its history and its characters.

I was surprised you included Code Vein. Frankly since it is a SoulsBorne Game so I expected that you'll make no mention of the obvious or at most as Honorable Mention. Damn it is so entertaining though. I love how you react to these hard as balls games.

Dude I think devil survivor was the toughest game I've ever encountered for DS i literally gave up and never came back.

Arc Rise Fantasia was one of my favorite games on the Wii. There weren’t many good RPGs on the Wii. I didn’t beat it. I want to go to it again. I just cracked open my WiiU to play Pikmin 3 because I wasn’t about to buy a new one on the Switch.

Disgaea isn't hard, if you know how to exploit the levelling system. You don't need to grind the way you do in a normal game. You can overpower a character so that it can fight mobs twice or three times its level, jack up the experience, go kill one screen of mobs and jump from lvl 10 to lvl 15 in one swing. I know you've got a low opinion of the game and the grind, but learning HOW to grind is so much fun that if you're like most people you have so much fun grinding that the actual story becomes an afterthought. So if you google for "Disgaea 2 Leveling Guide" you can learn all the tricks to jack up weapon stats, character stats, etc. You pretty quickly find that you need to increase the difficulty in order for the game to remain challenging through the story mode.

The one I could not beat the final boss was Shadow Hearts for PS2 :(

Hey Erick, cool video! I got a question for you: what are you favorite least grindy (as in, that require the least amount of grinding to get through the story) RPGs/JRPGs/Action RPGs?

The two games in this video I've beaten are Octopath Traveler and Fire Emblem Thracia 776. Octopath wasn't too hard until the post-game final boss. Beating that boss felt sooo satisfying. And I've beaten Thracia 776 a few times. The first time I played it I used savestates, but after that I didn't. I had a lot more fun on the subsequent playthroughs since I knew what I was doing. I think the hardest jrpg I've beaten is probably Phantasy Star 2 because the dungeons in that game are so confusing! I was playing blind and only looked at a guide a handful of times when I got *really* stuck.

My #1 would have to be Natural Doctrine, but Devil Survivor MIGHT be #2. Some of those maps were just absurd.

You should try Vestaria Saga. I want to say I was starting to have problems at this chapter where you have to navigate an entire city with a low turn count. Not even sure how I beat that stupid map. Probably a mix of luck, a distant ancestor sacrificing something, and a whole lot of headache medication.

And the cool rank of this channel reaches higher, true legend!

I beat Arc Rise Fantasia today (I postponed watching this video until after finishing it). The difficulty wasn't so bad since I never lost a boss fight more than once. The hardest JRPG I've ever beaten was The 7th Saga on SNES.

I love Resonance of Fate but still didn't beat it until today, 52 hours if I remember, I spent so much time on placing color hex for multiply EXP grinding.

The secret witch boss in the post game of octopath traveler scared me so much and beat me so bad I haven't turned that game back on.

For Disgaea, Valkyrie Profile 2, and FFXII, I found that going without your full party is easier. You get more XP, and it just works out better in the long run. In FFXII using just one character was basically just cast instant death on anything that moves for 90% of the game, and I had very little trouble with it. I think I got to level 80 something by the end without even grinding or doing any sidequests. VP2 is even easier with just one party member. You're a smaller target so it's easier to avoid enemy attacks. Most bosses I was able to just stay behind and slap around without fear of reprisal. Most Disgaea games I wind up using less than five characters, only using the rest of the team as fodder for throwing geo blocks or something. It keeps them more focused and bottlenecks the enemies more. I dunno why, it just works better for me than trying to manage a huge group.

12:44 I think the issue is that you have to use specific demons that have either that fly skill tha allows to fly over obstacles thus earning extra movement or other demons that have high range of movement and those are not always the best for battle. Bless Cerberus tought :3

I started Devil Survovor (DS version) a few days ago and already feel the pain.

The final optional boss in Octopath Traveler is the hardest thing I've ever done in an RPG. And trust me, I've played a ton of them!

Valkyrie profile 2 is great, but man did I struggle with that one!

Great videos like always: From my point. FFXII played and beated it the original PS2 version Octopath traveller: Currently playing And I haven't played the others =O

Growlanser 4 isn't hard if you have one amazing skill: Dirty Trick. Get it as soon as you control Remus freely. Getting advanced spell stones early is almost gamebreaking

I remember my PS2 FF12 I got hardlock in a boss battle and I can’t go back to grind when I lost (Now I know to have multiple save file mostly due to SMT game and Fire Emblem

Valkryie profile silmeria is fun game for me, i got the tips from my brother when he finished the game, when in battle dont use dash just walk slowly to the enemy area even just a tip you can attack the enemy : ) its still grinding feast but its fun one, i never tired see nibelung valesti especialy when the three valkyrie sister together.

Nice fire emblem music at the end

I'd say Covenant of the white plume was a pretty hard game to get through... And I played it the wrong way too. On your first playthrough it is best to sacrifice allies to gain powers for the second playthrough where you can then do it without sacrificing anybody. I didn't do that, tried being a hero right from the start.

So if I'm looking for a challenge similar to devil Survivor, growlancer 4 is the way to go? I mean it in the sense that there's good difficulty (where its about strategy) and then there's bad difficulty (making the level caps higher so you have to grind a lot). So if I consider Devil Survivor good difficulty, any other games like it?

Yea octopath is just psychopath vs traveler until i know where to grind much faster, but i still love it for such a beautiful game.

I do have an advise for people who want play Growlanser IV as someone who finished it, use everything in your arsenal. All your knacks, all your buffs, all your items, all your spell stones, all your money, do not be stingy. You'll need to be aggressive with your resources to give just small enough chance to actually succeed. Also learn how to use every characters, some characters make the game easier and others harder for certain missions.

I remember when I was playing FF12 on PS2 and it took so long to level that I kept my PS2 on for 2 weeks and would grind a couple of hours each day, but of course there were no save points where I was. Then the power went out... Needless to say I didn't play it again for a few months.

I remember the A.I. in devil survivor. Many ...many hours lost 😂

Devil Survivor is the one I agree with you 100%. Definitely the hardest JRPG I can remember beating.

"escalating like goats on a mountain" LOL that is a beautiful analogy. Also I've been playing SMT4 Apocalypse on and off for like 4 years now. I got stuck on a boss that can inflict a lot of status ailments, and rather than go try to find demons that are immune I just decided to brute force it with sheer grinding. I think I'm like 30-40 levels above it now, so hopefully I should be able to coast through the game for a while.

Devil Survivor was a nightmare. I beat the final boss by a hair with the last character with no mana and a sliver of health. Super memorable moment, but damn that game was hard

I gave up on Tear Ring Saga. Kaga was over-doing it.

I definitely agree with Growlanser, but not Octopath Traveler. Besides roaming around in areas where it was clear that I wasn't supposed to be. I don't think I ever got my party wiped in that game. Once I started finding secondary classes I just felt too powerful most of the time. Growlanser on the other hand had parts that drove me crazy.

yeah, alphan's 2nd chapter was tough for me, but my strat for the entire game was to buff cyrus and him spam magic

Not that it is very difficult, but I was wondering if you have played Ring of Red for the PS2? If so, what did you think? I thought it was an interesting mech based alternative-history quasi-strategy or tactical style game. Pretty good too for an early PS2 title.

When there is any JRPG game It is always about......Grinding Even for soulsborne, sekiro, Nioh Keep grinding for making you stronger

I've just recently picked up Exist Archive and Code Vein but I've yet to play them yet. Hoping I enjoy them and I can get through them.

My hardest is probably Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. It's not only difficult, but its systems actively discourage grinding. Kill an enemy you out-level and the killer's alignment drops. Liberate towns with a low alignment character and your reputation drops. But if you kill all the enemy units in each mission you're guaranteed to out-level the enemy as well as have a very expensive army that will probably put you at a deficit of money each day. Zero in on the enemy base and neglect to finish off enemy divisions, and you quickly find they can restore themselves to full strength instantly by returning to their home base. Then you have the final mission, where enemy troops are literally infinite. Most hero recruits and special items require a guide to get. I suppose it would probably be easier to grind up, destroy your reputation and earn one of the bad endings where you go evil at the end... but that's no victory.

I love valkyrie profile 2. But the ability to split your party up in battle seems to serve little purpose. Has anyone made good use of that mechanic other than a niche use for 1 or 2 bosses?

I played Devil Survivor 2 on ds, and couldn't even get past the 10 hour or so mark. Probably the hardest jrpg i've ever played

Hardest turn-based rpg for me is Etrian Odyssey V. Beating that lovecraftian abomination is very tough. The final superboss is also a healing bastard uses skills that blocks either physical or elemental damage.

13:31 "the only reason I included it was so that I could bitch about again" 😂 that's dedication.

I have half of those games. I guess I need to get the other half and try them.

The Japanese FF3 kicked my butt as a kid on the ds. I made it to the final boss and to this day haven’t gone back to finish it

I actually haven’t had trouble with Arc Rise Fantasia. I’ve played for around 16 hours, and haven’t even gotten a game over yet. I guess because I grind a lot anyway.

I can agree his comment in regards to octopath traveller I managed to finish 2 character and called it a day the game definitely needs fast travel

The Fire Emblem Thrashia chapter 21 of the bridge crumbling after a certain number of turns was an absolute hell, literally it was hell incarnate in the universe. The hardest most difficult fight in srpg history. Screaming with madness meant your were still sane.

1) Exist Archive 2) Disgaea 2 3) Final Fantasy XII (not the easier Zodiac Age version) 4) Valkyrie Profile 2 5) Arc Rise Fantasia 6) Code Vein 7) Octopath Traveler 8) SMT Devil Survivor 9) Growlanser Wayfarer of Time 10) Tier Ring Saga

The freaking bomb in the forest level made me drop the game. I’ve tried tenfold times ti go back and beat and have not been able to. I ruined the game for me lol. Great vid Erick!

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite 2 is the toughest rpg I beat. In terms of turn based games it would be Nocturne.

I'd be interested in seeing the JRPGs you never finished because too hard but you'd do it in the future ;)

"Growlanser is so hard" Devil Survivor: allow me to introduce myself on the serious note in Growlanser you can outsmart your opponents like using Bait and running away while other 3 attack in DS nope you are screwed before I forget I am on Original route after Tricia's death and have no idea where to go can someone help?

surprised there was no Etrian Odyssey despite from my personal experience it was harder than most of the ones listed here

I felt like the main scenario in Octopath was a joke - with no grinding needed. I felt like a bully just mercilessly pulverizing my way through. Just following the crumb trail of lowest lvl scenarios and it was a cinch. The optional bosses were a deal harder, and the final boss was an absolute monster that all my friends and GF refused to figure out. But I did - and I feel damn proud of myself that I did!

Ever play SMT Nocturne? All I got to say is hard mode true demon ending.

I beat 3 games on this list. FFXII which I didn't think was hard, Octopath Traveler which I thought was well balanced, and Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time which was hard as hell. My only advice for Growlanser is to prioritize learning the passive stat boosts, quicken (or whatever the speed boost skill is), and silence from the rings.

Awesome thumbnail

Im fine with hard games being challenging or being grindy, but what i hate the most was the cryptic things that you gotta be a fortune teller to know where to go.

Ok, you made me sympathize and laugh at the same time😂, great content 9:12

Damn the amount of experience you have with RPG's is insane lol, I dunno how much time you've spent on them...

My opinon about Octopath Traveler series it the exact same. It looks and sounds beautiful, but the difficulty turns me off, especially it if it's connected to multiple hours of grinding.

Devil Survivor and Strange Journey were the hardest ones for me. I managed to beat Devil Survivor but I am really struggling with Strange Journey