A Surprising Winner, but Elden Ring, Bloodborne and More Soulslikes Easily Miss Out on the Most Difficult Games of All Time

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Back in the ‘Golden Age’ of gaming – considered the late eighties and early nineties by many -, video games were a difficult endeavor. With no save slots, insta-death, entire campaign resets, and more, completing a game was a huge badge of honor back then, much more than it is these days anyway.

Nowadays it’s all too easy. you’re able to save, glitch, cheat, and more to get the dopamine hit of an end credit screen, but back then, it was difficult. Real difficult. We’re not talkingElden Ringdifficulty either. Well, now have a concrete answer for what is the hardest game ever made.

Gaming is Subjective, But This Scoring System Isn’t

New research has revealed what everyone so desperately wanted to know – the hardest and most difficult video games of all time. The top 10 in fact. If you ever take a look at the scoring system on GameFAQs, you’ll notice a trend of games that feature prominently; Soulslikes. FromElden Ringto Hidetaka Miyazaki’soriginal cult classicDemon Souls,there are a few of them present.

That said, it may be surprising that only one Soulslike actually features in the top ten list below, and that in fact it’s made up of far more archaic and difficult games many of us would long have forgotten.

In the spirit of knowing what gamers are like, if you take a look at theHardest Games page on GameFAQs, you’ll notice straight away two games at the top not included below. That’s because, like pretty much every Wii game ever, everyone complains about the controls, rather than it being genuinely difficult, so these were excluded. So, discounting the Wii games, the top ten (400+ votes) are as follows:

WithElden Ringbeing beaten quite considerably (it ranks number 22), and onlySekiromaking the top ten, it goes some distance to show how easy us gamers have it nowadays compared to the Golden Age of gaming.

Is Elden Ring and Co. Returning Us to that Sort of Difficulty?

Many gamers these days associate ‘difficulty’ with the Soulslike genre, as already mentioned, and compared to the likes ofBattletoads, Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins,and others, they’re an absolute cakewalk. But if you think back a few years to a time beforeElden Ring, Demon Souls,andDark Souls,the very thought of games being as difficult as they are in this genre would be bonkers. I mean, who wants to play a game that is so hard you get frustrated, angry, annoyed, and more besides?

It turns out, quite a few of us. Each entry in the Soulslike genre is going on leaps and bounds, with each one selling more and more than the last, and that’s beforewe get the likes ofShadow of the Erdtreeor the inevitableElden Ring 2.

What do you make of the top ten most difficult games of all time? Have you beaten any yourself? Broken a controller or three because of one of them? Let us know in the comments below!

Luke Addison

Former Head of Gaming

Articles Published :462

Luke Addison is a Former Video Game Critic and Gaming Editor. As likely to be caught listening to noughties rock as he is watching the latest blockbuster cinema release, Luke is the quintessential millennial wistfully wishing after a forgotten era of entertainment. Also a diehard Chelsea fan, for his sins.

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