Ask Lemmy

Renoir, 2nd fight.

Metroid Prime on the game cube. I've played through that game multiple times over the decades and never could finish off the Metroid Prime boss at the end. I got so very close a handful of times, but could never finish her off.

Celeste

There's one screen that's just keeeeps going in the very last level, shit took me like 20-30 hours spread over two weeks

Xenoblade Chronicles, Lorithia

I paid for my insolence over, and over, and over again

There's like 10 years between starting Pokémon Red and beating the final four for me. I didn't have the guide books but eventually it was easy to get help from the internet for a handful of hangups. I put it down for a long time somewhere after like 4 gyms, came back years later, and spent maybe 6 months playing on the commute

Mike Tyson

Pivot tables.

Excel is one of my favourite games, but I've never been able to completely grok those things.

They seem like a waste of time when it's much easier to use formulas to construct indirect ranges and work on those.

Metroid Dread was my first exposure to "tough but fair" bosses where every defeat felt earned. Every single boss took multiple tries, and every time I went through this cycle of trying a few times, walking away, debating whether I should quit altogether, only to come back a day or so later to repeat the process. I beat the entire game. Ravenbeak was of course the hardest, but man it felt good when I finally beat him.

I had a similar experience playing through various Soulslikes. The only other one I managed to beat was Tunic (I know I talk about that game a lot. It left quite the impression).

Pure Vessel in Hollow Knight. I have a file that's at like 111% and I just need to beat the final pantheon but I've never managed it. I don't even know how bad Absolute Radiance is, I've never made it that far.

Lavos in Chrono Trigger. 😭

Gwyn in Dark Souls.

The problem was my biggest success. I managed to score a zweihander, pretty early on in the game. I upgraded the hell out of it and was able to clear most bosses with some grinding and a lot of determination. I did this with a failing PS3 controller that generated spurious inputs, resulting in randomly switching to my alt config (unarmed) if I squeezed the controller too hard. I even learned a new level of personal zen and patience after realizing that getting angry would make me perform worse. I got gud.

Then I arrive at the end boss and get absolutely wrecked.

Why? I never had to parry. Not. A. Single. Time. Strike, juke, medium-roll, retreat, strike again. Don't be a target, and keep moving. Meanwhile, every guide to beat Gwyn says you have to parry his attacks. I basically had little choice but to retrain how to play my character modifying an entire game's worth of muscle-memory in the process.

My save file has been in this condition for years at this point.

Sekero is just about my favorite game. I've completed it at least 20 times and will do so again.

I've beaten the Demon of Hatred 2 times and I never want to play that motherfucker ever again.

The tank in Arkham Knight on the Xbox 360. I spent hours trying to get past it. Finally looked online and others were saying it took them days to get past it. Decided I didn't like the game enough to put that much effort into one fight.

Joker in Batman for the NES. It took forever to get to him, and it was too easy to mess it up

You underestimate my willingness to lower the difficulty if I'm stuck

I don't think I've ever beaten Doom 2 without cheats or mouselook. I just can't time those rockets correctly.

My mom. When she says, "Turn that off and get your homework done," I always cave.

Stay Puft...screw this pixel perfect dancing marshmallow lol so frustrating

Beat Emerald without much of a fuss.

Best Ruby after many many tries. X-Summon and KotR with only Cloud alive is the way to go.

Never beat Omega in VIII. Tried many times.

I'm pathologically stubborn and will stick with just about any game until I beat it, but Isshin the Sword Saint (Sekiro) took me a long time.

Wasn't a boss but an achievement in the original geometry wars. Score 10 million without dying. It took me about two years to get that and I would play it at least once a night if I could.

About 100 hours on the final boss of FF8 because I fucked up and saved right before the fight with basically nothing in my inventory. I repeated the fight for literal weeks, trying different strategies and item use patterns and stuff.

It was very rewarding to complete, but I’ll never play that game again.

Hogger

... fucking Hogger, man

Basically any after the first two in B.P.M. The on-beat fighting just is not my cup of tea.

Other than that... I guess Malenia and Promised Consort Radahn took me a while, like three evenings each maybe. But I was also stubborn with my stupid bonking build, with no magic. Below was my status and equipment after Malenia for example:

In Hollow Knight, the Grimm fight. I spent hours learning the patterns. I’m pretty sure that’s what created the drift on my joycons during that time.

Mike Tyson/Mr. Dream in Punch-Out!! (I did beat them with Game Genie though).

I've never seen what's beyond the fourth level of Battletoads for Gameboy. That fucking labyrinth.

I was actually never able to beat the nilianth in the final level of Half Life. I think I tried 2 or 3 times, it was extremely annoying getting sent to the parkour room constantly and I haven't been back to try it again in a decade.

The final battle in Star Trek 25th Anniversary (before it was patched). It's just not possible to win this!

DS3's Pontif Sulyvahn! GRR! I'll get you next playthrough! Just you wait!

I was never able to beat the final boss in Alpha Protocol because it would just CTD upon starting the fight.

I've been stuck deep in Bomberman '93 for about 15 years. It's the boss level that starts with the multiple enemies on motorcycles and then progresses to a single boss who flies around the perimeter of the level and shoots fire. Every few years I'll load up my save and spend an hour or two re-learning the fire guy's patterns and making attempts, but never quite well enough.

I've heard Bomberman '94 is really cool, but I'm not allowing myself until I finish this one!