Summary

• JRPGs offer challenging gameplay with trial and error combat mechanics, requiring strategic planning and patience to succeed.
• Difficulty levels can be adjusted in games like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Dragon Quest 11 for a more intense gaming experience.
• Games like Fantasian and YS: Oath provide unique battle systems that require precision and planning, adding to the overall challenge.

Japanese role-playing games, or JRPGs, are among the most popular gaming sub-genres. JRPGs usually blend a multi-layered story,🐟 iconic monsters, a world that needs saving, and sometimes a protagonist with amnesia and a complex battle system. Combining those with complicated game mechanics can make or break a game, and if developed well, the challenge presented can have a massive payoff and offer up a lot of fun.

Expect to die multiple times while you adjust your playstyle in many of these games. Trial and error🐻 are key as you learn an enemy's attack pattern and which skills can be used to bring them down. However, combat and gameplay can be very rewarding once things fall into place.

Updated May 25, 2024, by Jason Wojnar: Judging the difficulty of JRPGs is a difficult task in and of itself. After all, many of the genre's toughest challenges can be overcome by simply grinding until the party is overleveled or looking up a sound strategy. This is does not apply to all the games below, however, and it definitely doesn't apply to a couple of the games added in the updated version of this list. When JRPGs add real-time elements into the equation, challenges become so much more than just training hard enough.

14 Final Fantasy 7 Rebi💫rth

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is kind enough to offer difficulty options. Even on Normal, however, the game will pusꦅh back and prove challenging if you didn't beef up the party with some side quests. ꦬJump to hard mode, though, and that's where the real fun begins.

Even at the level cap, every battle in the hardest difficulty becomes a grueling bout. The right group of enemies can wipe your party out in seconds and bosses require the perfect combination of st🍌rategy and precision. On top of that, the final challenges in the Shinra Combat Simulator are some of the hardest fights in any JRP𝕴G.

13 Final Fantasy 11 ෴

• Released: May 16, 2002   
• Developer: Square
• Platforms: PC, PS2, Xbox 360,

MM🥃ORPGs these days have done a lot to streamline the experience. Final Fantasy 14, for example, still has an extremely long main quest but it never feels unfair or makes you do tedious tasks. Final Fantasy 11 is the complete opposite of that.

It deserves endless praise for being the first big MMORPG from Japan, but it is definitely the product of its day. Getting a start in the world is difficult and made even harder if you don't u📖nderstand how stats work. The modern version of the game is a little easier, but it will still give you a reality check if you aren't careful.

12 Earthbound Beginnings ♋

• Released: July 27, 1989   
• Developer: Ape inc 
• Platforms: NES, Game Boy Advance, Wii U Virtual Console, Nintendo Switch Online

Earthbound Beginnings anꦛd its sequel, Earthbound, are hard for two distinct reasons. For one, just figuring out where to go and how to progress the 🙈story is a challenge all on its own. Secondly, the combat is brutal and unforgiving. Earthbound Beginnings is especially cruel in the game's opening hours.

Even with thꦑe use of save states on modern consoles (like on the Switch Online NES catalog), you can end up in a dungeon where you are ill-equipped or unprepared for enemies. At that point, the only options are to restart the grind or engage in an absurdly tedious grind to reach a normal level.

Iꦫn its original Japanese launch, the game is꧂ known as Mother. The game did not make its way to the West until 2015.

11 Fantasian

Though it was overlooked since it's only available on Apple Arcade, Fantasian is a fantastic JRPG that brings a lot of challenges. The game uses a battle system with a fun twist: you use your fingers, mouse, or controller tཧo attack enemies.

Some attacks allow you to ඣhit enemies in a line or curve depending on your aim, while others offer AOE effects. Boss battles are difficult and long, thanks to high hit points and the need to debuff and buff constantly. Planning your attacks is paramount, and there is a lot of trial and error to succeed. Overall, the game is a love letter to old-school JRPG fa🐼ns with its static backgrounds and challenging turn-based combat.

10 ဣ Dragon Quest 11 🔥

While it's not extremely difficult in its own right, Dragon Quest 11 has a variety of modifica𝔍tions that can be done to really ramp up the challeng𝓀e and make it one of the most difficult JRPGs of all time.

At the start of a new game, there are many options to craft your own difficulty using the Draco🐽nian Quest options. Turning on the 'All Enemies Are Super Strong' or 'Party Wiped Out if Protagonist Perishes' will ramp everythiꦇng up to an eleven.

Both boss and regular battles will require thoughtful planning, and buffing the party will be required if you hope to succeed. You'll also need to grind levels up if you hope to win, and with a varied cast o🌟f party members with their own skills, it's easy to find a good party balance.

9 Resonance Of Fate 𝓀

• Released: January 28, 2010
• Developer: tri-ace     
• Platforms: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, PC

Some games are difficult and require much grinding to power through, and some are difficult thank🧜s to their mechanics. Resonance of Fate is one of those games.

The game's battle mech♌anics require careful timing, and there are many nuances to learn to win even normal battles. If you aren't patient and slow down to learn what the game tries to teach you in its various tutorials, you'll get lost and die a lot. Besides that, there are several difficulty spikes throughout the game that happen quite suddenly, but the game's vast, steampunk world makes it enjoyable.

8 YS: Oath

• Released: June 30, 2005
• Developer: Nihan Falcom
• Platforms: PC, PSP, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5

Originally launched as a PC game for Windows in 2005, YS Oath received its localization♏ in English when it came to the PSP in 2012. The journey of Adol and his friend Dogi is one of the most soul-crushing action JRPG adventures ever.

The hardest part isn't just in perfectly leveling up your m𝄹ain character, but the boss fights in which you'll find yourself. You'll find that any minimal mistake you make in a boss battle may ꦏmean you will lose. So, put some patience aside for this one, and learn to accept that you'll have to replay it several times.

7 ꦚ 🦄 Final Fantasy 4

• Released: July 19, 1991
• Developer: Square
• Platforms: SNES (Original) , Nintendo DS (remake) PS1, PSP, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Mobile, PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4 (other ports)

Final Fant🎉asy 4 is well-loved, but o𓂃ften overlooked with how popular other earlier entries like Final Fantasy 6 and 7 are.

The 3D remake of Final Fantasy 4 that was 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:launched on the Nintendo DS in 2007 is often regarded as one of the most difficult games in the series thanks to stronger enemies, the need to buff your party constantly, and a newly added augment system that can help mitigate some of the difficulty but only if youꦿ know the best way to use it.

The only issue with the augment system is that some are missable or can be applied to a character that might not utilize it best, and then you're stuck and forced to deal with your mistakes in the battle 🌼for the rest of your playthrough. Even if you're hesitant to use a guide, it might be worth peaking online at how the augment𓂃 system works.

The game was called Final Fantasy 2 in the W🦄est since the real second and third entries did not come out in these territories for more than a decade.

6 🐠 🦩 Natural Doctrine

• Released: April 3, 2014
• Developer: Kadokawa Games
• Platforms: PS3, PS4, PS Vita

If you were looking for a way to put your strategic mind to the test, then look no further than Natural Doctrine. You might be a genius at the highest settings of the Total War series, but if you've never tried Natural Doctrine, you꧟ might end up being humbled.

The game itself focuses on the wars between humans and other humanoid races. A Japanese fantasy setting that brings out th💖e best in all of us, but when you pair that with a 'na𝔍tural selection' mechanic, you'll understand why it's so hard.

5 ꧑ Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

• Released: September 1, 1999
• Developer: Intelligent Systems
• Platforms: SNES

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 was the last game released on the SNES in Japan and is the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:lowest-selling entry in the series. Just a few battles into the game, the story places you in a prison, stripped of everything and forced to fight with the option to save other prisonersꦫ, knowing you'll likely die if you choose to try and ꦿsave them.

There aꩵre a lot of strategies required to succeed💙 within the game and not lose, but in some battles, there aren't multiple ways to win, which can lead to stale and unvaried gameplay.