What are the hardest games on the PS4? Developers walk a fine line between challenge and fun. A game must be difficult enough to feel accomplished, but not so hard it becomes a chore. Finding this balance is tough. Difficult games can be classics, though. The PS4 has its share of tough ones, from seeking revenge in Sekiro to battling in Dark Souls III, a notoriously difficult franchise. Check out the hardest popular PS4 games. How many have you beaten?
About this list
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In Bloodborne, players control a Hunter in Yharnam, a Gothic, Victorian-era city. City residents suffer from a blood-borne disease. Players must find the virus's source, solve mysteries, and fight creatures. The game blends H.P. Lovecraft with Bram Stoker's nightmare. Finishing the game end-to-end proves very hard.Bloodborne, players take control of a Hunter in a Gothic, Victorian-era city called Yharnam. City inhabitants have a blood-borne disease. Players must find the virus's source while solving mysteries and fighting creatures. The game mixes H.P. Lovecraft and Bram Stoker's nightmare. Making this game from start to finish is tough.
What Makes It So Hard: The game isinfamousThis game is one of the hardest ever made. Playing through it takes masochism, but it remains entertaining. Bosses demand multiple attempts. Players must memorize each boss's unique patterns and fight mechanics. After beating one, you might need a break; your hands will hurt too much to keep going. It isthathard.
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Sekiro: Shadows Die TwiceThis action-adventure title from FromSoftware is set in Japan's Sengoku period. Players become "Wolf," a shinobi on a quest against samurai who attacked him and kidnapped his lord. The game earned high praise and sold very well. However, its intense difficulty is one complaint.
What Makes It So Hard:Sekiro'sdifficultyThe game's difficulty comes from its fight mechanics. These mechanics differ from most games. Players do not just hack and slash. The game focuses on timing. Blocking, posture-breaking, and parrying define the game. Every fight risks failure if a single move misses perfect timing. It is very hard, but the story engages players, and they loved it.
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The fourth title in theSoulsDark Souls III hit major consoles in 2016. Like its earlier games, it earned praise from critics and players.Dark Souls IIIDark Souls III serves as a conclusion to the series. It sold the fastest in the developer's history, making it wildly successful in sales. The two DLC expansions, Ashes of AriandelandThe Ringed City,added exceptional content to an impressive game. These additions finished the storylines and ended the series well.
What Makes It So Hard: Everything aboutDark Souls IIIPlayers praised Dark Souls III at launch. Soon after, players began complaining about the intense difficulty in progressing. TheSouls series is known for being hard. The difficulty level increased for the fourth title. Creator Hidetaka Miyazaki explained this, saying, "When we set the difficulty level… our objective was to make the game possible to accomplish." The game is beatable, but it demands a lot of time and patience.Hidetaka Miyazaki, who said, "When [we] set the difficulty level… our objective was to make the game possible to accomplish." The game is beatable, but it demands a lot of time and patience.
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NiohNioh released in 2017. It sets its story in a version of the world from 1600. Players act as William Adams, an Irish sailor hunting sorcerer Edward Kelley. The game moves into the Sengoku period, leading to Japan's unification under Tokugawa Ieyasu. The game tells this story in a way that has only one weakness: the difficulty.
This game presents challenges.: NiohThe game is complex. Players must develop a specific playstyle to finish it. Being a Souldborne game, you know it will be tough. The developers stepped up the challenge to keep players engaged. It is a hard game.Souldborne-type game, you know it is tough. The developers raised the difficulty to keep players watching. It remains a hard game.hard gameTo finish the game, players must grasp the mechanics completely. This demands gameplay and study. Pay attention to everything. Otherwise, you will feel frustrated instead of entertained by this engaging title. Most gamers say the 2020 sequel, though expanding the original everywhere, is much easier.
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With a name like Super Meat BoySuper Meat Boy, you start an adventure. Gamers control Meat Boy, a cube-like character. He tries to find his girlfriend, captured by an intelligent fetus named Dr. Fetus.
What Makes It So Hard: For starters, Super Meat BoyFine-tuned controls leave little room for mistakes. Timing is everything; precision matters. However, the game has unique mechanics players need time to learn. A game co-creator shared details about how they made the game so hard.went into detail as to why (and how) they made the game so hard.
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Games based on the AlienAlien franchise has been inconsistent since the first film in the late 1970s. Occasionally, a good one appears.Alien: IsolationAlien: Isolation puts players in the role of someone hunted by a Xenomorph. Despite being great gameplay design, it is frightening to play.
What Makes It So Hard: The game demands survival. Avoiding the main monster throughout gameplay is the only way. You have few weapons or defenses. Imagine being hunted by something designed to track and kill you in dark, scary places. The difficulty is insane to avoid this monster, so the difficulty coupled with constant fear and paranoia makes playing this game well almost impossible.difficultyThe difficulty coupled with constant fear and paranoia makes it almost impossible to play this game well.
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This acclaimed role-playing dungeon crawler lets players build a team of explorers. They explore eerie dungeons filled with evil creatures and many booby traps. Players recruit heroes and use various skills.
Dungeon crawlers are hard by nature. Darkest Dungeon raises the difficulty with more traps, enemies, and a dimming torchlight. Players must prepare; knowing what to expect is key because you cannot fake your way through. The game offers several difficulty levels for extra replay value.Dungeon crawlers are hard by design.Darkest DungeonDarkest Dungeon increases difficulty with more traps, enemies, and dimming torchlight. You must watch out. Preparation is key; knowing what awaits stops you from faking your way through. The game features different difficulty levels for replay value.
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Crash Bandicoot takes the honor of representing early PlayStation gaming, like Mario for Nintendo and Sonic for Sega. The series shows the bandicoot running, jumping, tumbling, and flipping over many obstacles in 3D worlds. A new trilogy of remastered games brought Crash to the PS4, but nostalgia makes gamers forget how hard it was to beat it.Crash Bandicootgame.
What Makes It So Hard: These are remastered games, but all the originals remainObstacles stay.Activision admitted they purposely made these remasters harder than the originals.These remasters made them harder.Activision tweaked Crash's jumps, making challenges tougher. Players must time everything perfectly, or they cannot reach the end quickly. Running and jumping over obstacles repeat a lot, demanding massive button-mashing. Expect sore thumbs by the end of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.
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Players who enjoyed the originalX-Com: UFO DefensePC players waited long for a new X-Com title. They finally got one in 2012 with XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Enemy Within).XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Enemy Within), and four years later,XCOM 2XCOM 2 received great reviews. Every game in the franchise is not simple or easy, but it is fun.
What Makes It So Hard: Like the other games, XCOM 2XCOM 2features turn-based combat. Unless you plan 20 moves ahead, you will face trial and error. Mistakes happen easily in this combat. Since the game is hard regardless of the mechanic, the difficulty setting goes up.
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Enter the GungeonEnter the Gungeon is a bullet hell roguelike game on PlayStation 4, released in 2016. Four adventurers enter the Gungeon, a gun-themed dungeon. Players seek a gun to kill their past; everything in the Gungeon is procedurally generated.
What Makes It So HardDescription of 'Enter the Gungeon' in the list '15 PS4 Games So Hard You'll Want To Throw Your Controller'Enter the Gungeon is challenging.The game moves fast. Bullets fly constantly in the Gungeon. Players must stay alert and ready for anything instantly. The game is hard, but it remains fun. As an indie title, it avoids Triple-A pricing, making it a good buy for roguelike fans.
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Remnant: From the Ashestakes theSoulsgameplay concept switches to a first-person shooter, keeping most mechanics. The game features a single-player campaign, but three-player co-op is best. Because co-op is favored, the difficulty increases.
What Makes It So Hard: The game really wants three players. Solo play is possible, but it is anear-impossibility, which demands hours of button-mashing and hair-pulling. Gameplay forces players to hit every moment perfectly. Since this is impossible at the start, players repeat the same actions hundreds of times before winning. Beating it alone is insanely tough; it is possible, but no one recommends it.
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For anyone who played a game in theMonster Hunterfranchise, it is known they aren'teasy to beat, and each series addition makes games harder. WithMonster Hunter: World, that basic reality held true. Then the DLC "Iceborne" dropped, and many players found themselves in the hardestMonster Huntersituation ever conceived.
What Makes It So Hard: The game has an incrediblesteep learning curve, and because you don't level up normally, moving forward gets harder. Monster Huntergames use killing low-level beasts. Players use their "parts" to make new gear and weapons, allowing them to fight bigger, better monsters. This expansion includes the nastiest beasts the franchise has made, so players must stay alert.
One-shot kills happen against huge beasts. Players must time every move perfectly; fail, and you will not survive. Seek openings and retreat when needed. Otherwise, some monsters demand patience and prep, making a single run take hours to reach goals.
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The Final Fantasy VII RemakeThe 'Final Fantasy VII Remake' takes what gamers loved about the original and adds new things only a next-gen console allows. Characters look more animated, environments look more lively, and mechanics feel extremely fluid. The main story has three difficulty levels, but players unlock a new hard mode after finishing the game.
This game is hard.In addition toit has more challenging enemies.and boss fights, players cannot use items in hard mode, making saving and keeping your MP very important. Those longer fights become much harder. Once your magic ends, all your Cure and Life Materia become unusable. The mode lets players choose which chapters to play, but finishing the whole game in order is a tough job.
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Devil May Cry 5is the sixth game in the franchise to reach a major console. It takes place five years after the events ofDevil May Cry 4. A trio of warriors with awesome demonic powers stop the Demon King Urizen from destroying all of humanity. People received it well. It was an impressive addition to the franchise, but it had a problem, which you probably guess is related to difficulty.
This game is hard.There are a total ofsix different difficultysettings players can use, though some require unlocking through gameplay. All settings get harder to beat. "Hell and Hell" is the hardest, nearly impossible because enemies have double health and checkpoints disappear. Playing the hardest mode means one hit means you die.
That's it. One hit ruins your character! You get three chances in Hell and Hell, but that's all. If you fail, you must restart the level.
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Controlis a Metroidvania game with no difficulty setting; the only one is tough. The game follows a secret government agency that contains things breaking reality's laws. The agency is the Federal Bureau of Control. Players play as Jesse Faden, the FBC's newest director, exploring headquarters while using powers to fight the Hiss that invaded reality.
This game is hard: The lack of a difficulty setting makes for a tough run. Players must use lots of trial and error to pass the hardest parts. A lot of time goes into movement because players have few places to rest. The game's name is move, Move, and MOVE, so stay active during gameplay or threats in the HQ will quickly defeat you.
The game's difficulty has caused problems for players.the devsThe game released, and they said there was room to make it more playable.
We explored different directions for this, aiming for cohesion. We wanted it to feel connected, not random based on the situation. We aimed for honesty and consistency. That system works for our concept. Looking back, we could have used a different approach that might serve more players. There is definite room for improvement in many areas of the game. That is one thing people comment on.
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