i love the style of this video, it feels like just chatting with a friend. great recs too! there's a few in this list ive played but a ton that are new to me

And not one person mentioned Ephemeral Fantasia on the PS2. This game is hard because the monsters scale up with your level. You need to unlock other characters to help you, otherwise you end up grinding too high and the monsters just kill you. You need a guide to get the other characters but keep in mind, this game has a guitar hero mini game too. :P

This one wasn't featured in your countdown, but Breath of Fire 3 for the PS1 is my number 1 hard JRPG due to a lack of dedicated healers and very few MP-Heal items. Also, to learn the better spells in the game the spell had to be "Examined" from enemies and the spell also had to be used on the person to learn it. Then there was the ridiculous encounter rate. I loved the game, but getting in a fight every 2 seconds while trying to explore an area was more than frustrating. I think I rage quit twice before I finally beat it.

Wow, monumental video. Thanks! Which someone had the time to write the timestamps for each game.

Holy shit earlier today i was literally trying to look up hard jrpgs.

Loving this video format

What an amazing list. HOLY! Legend of Legaia? Tales of Graces f? I LOVE THEM!

So glad to see Legaia on this list and as you said it started off decently balanced, leaning more towards the easy , however like you I never beat it one of the late game versions of Songi kept owning me and I rage-quit in frustration. I really should give it another go though as it was an amazing game.

I found Tales of Graces F to be pretty reasonable in difficulty for most of the game. It's just in the 3rd Chapter of the game that the difficulty gets absolutely insane. The 1st boss to really give me a hard time was Emeraude in Chapter 2. She was the 1st boss that I Game Overed on. Then the Fodra Queen at the 3rd Chapter was an absolute nightmare, even on Easy. I only ever beat her once out of dozens of tries. Still a great game, that I hope gets another release in the future.

Legaia`s difficulty was cranked up in western release - after battle you get only 75% EXP and 50% money, compared to original japanese version! It reminds of situation with 7th Saga on SNES, but in lesser degree.

I played through Ys Origin on normal and i personally found the unlockable 3rd character to get the canon story is definitely the hardest of the three because of the additional end game boss. PSII i found i unintentionally grinded due to a localisation error where i was looking for a plateau that i didn't need to. The penultimate boss is harder than the final boss. The navigating of the dungeons can be time consuming which adds to it's difficulty. Regarding Eternal Sonata, if you juggle your party around, you can potentially have a healer in your squad the bulk of the time, Polka's Orange Glow, Frederick's Sacred Signature and Viola's Healing Arrow can all heal. Which will help your squad out.

We need a "25 rpgs with a elf party member" please lol. They are kinda hard to find since it isnt something that you can easily just look up

I have played legend of legaia. When I got a new spell, I would work on leveling it up before progressing in the game. I never did finish it but I did enjoy it. The game actually belonged to a former roommate of mine.

Was feeling like challenging myself lately anyway, bring the grind and the pain. Kinda agree on Persona 1, gameplay wise it didn't age well, but in my opinion it still has the best music in the whole Persona SMT sub-series. Star Ocean Till The End of Time's already in backlog, undub-patched ps2 iso's sitting on SSD and waiting for its turn, puzzles will probably be annoying but i saw videos of people basically breaking the game, don't think it'll be too hard, same with God Wars but own it on steam. As for Ys, honestly people call Felghana hardest but i think Napishtim is way harder honestly, aside from Nordics it's the only Ys game i've yet to finish. Ah, also, yes, Tales of Graces F, it's my favorite since it introduced me to the series but who in Namco thought giving bosses full-screen mystic artes that hit all party members if they land connect to one was a funny idea? And yeah, the infamous queens fight, Fodra Queen battle was pretty brutal too, barely won it with Sophie left at 20%-something HP on my first future arc playthrough. Shining Resonance Refrain is pretty easy, except for the part where it forces you to use party of only 2 characters, it got me good since i didn't use one of them at all before that point.

Would love to Play Legend of Legaia some day

There must be a real difference between versions of Eternal Sonata, because the one I played (X360) was very, very easy

I was so young when I played Legend of Legaia that I have no idea how I actually played it. I barely remember the details but remember getting to one of the last bosses and couldn't beat them. Def need to whip out my PS3 and see if I still have teh disk here somewhere

Try to get this guy over 100K subs!! He's earned it over the years!!

Grandia 3 towards the end was definitely on the harder side. Huge difficulty spikes.

Have a merry xmas and a happy new year, Erick! My favorite game of 2023 is Octopath Traveler 2, although I have only played the demo. I am looking forward to Suikoden 1+2 on the switch. Octopath Traveler 1 wasn't that hard, in my opinion

I loved and finished Dragon Quest Heores. Enjoyed it so much I went and got me the sequel +Hyrule Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors right after looking for similar experience.

This list is pretty great. I also don’t like to think while playing the games.

19:54 I'm play Ys Origins off and on. I'm over halfway up the tower, but there is a boss I am having trouble beating

i like the list like this please make the hardest PSP JRPG games

I was going to mention the Shining Force games. A non-console game I think was the hardest is Bard's Tale 2 on the Commodore 64. It had a dungeon where you couldn't use any light, there was no map, and there were teleporters. How were you supposed to know where you were and where to go?

I would def add Indivisible and Astria Ascending

The Church in Code Vein is the reaspn why I never did a second play through.

I beat Legend of Legaia and dude…the final boss is INSANE. I just barely won, and I was good as hell at that game back then!

Playing scarlet nexus made me feel like i am terrible at games. Glad im not the only one that suffered

Romancing Saga series and Saga Frontier as well(because the enemy changed and scale with how many monster or battle you done Even the Wizardry heart of Maelstorm if you didnt understand Latin( the spell in latin and you gameplay can get messy if you teleported way beyond you level in lowest dungeon Jade Coccon And BOF Quarter The Ultima games since it didnt feed you much info or detail in game Phantasy Star 1 and 2 is still manageable

Hardest JRPG I've ever played, (besides SMTs and FromSoftware titles) and have not seen mentioned in this video, is Baten Kaitos Origins. Every boss is so beyond the common local mobs, they obliterate you in a couple turns if you're not well prepared.

The hardest *good* games you left out are Gungnir on PSP, Glory of Heracles on DS, and Steambot Chronicles on PS2!

Dragon quest 8 was brutal. Even at endgame random encounters can destroy you.

Agree, Devil Survivor should be in top 5 My hardest JRPG is Ms saga a new dawn, even if you are a Gundam fan that knew some lore this game still beat you up hard. second one is Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 to the end of galaxy, this game have many unbalance character that give us hard time also many late game boss is designed to 2nd playthrought

The Alliance Alive it's a Hard game, but a masterpiece, the story, the weapons, the charaters... what a game!!!

Hey ! What's your opnion on Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits ? Difficulty had insane spikes, especially that final boss, still giving me nightmares (even with super farm) and preventing me to restart the game ever again

Trails in the Sky not only in Steam, it is on GOG too, if you don't want to use Steam.

I jz miss growlanser 4, grew up with it, jz love it. And also Radiata Story😊

SMT V. Stuck on the last boss. Tactics Ogre too. Stuck in the hanging gardens and gave up. It stopped being fun and just made me angry. Will have to return to both sometime.

Shadow dragon is hard. I been playing stuck on a level after I sacrificed all my characters for Athena lol. I can’t afford to lose any characters and I reset if I do.

Erick, did you even try to finish the games? Nocturne and DQ8 start hard, but once you progress it is really doable.

37:33 maybe that person was refering to the PS1 game that was fan translated recently.

I think someone mentioned it but yeah, Operation Darkness belongs on the list. Great list nonetheless.

Trails in the Sky is - IMO - much better on Vita in the Evolution series. I'm finishing up Trails in the Sky SC now so I'll be starting 3rd soon. Most people pirate these, of course, but I own the games... they are beautiful collector's editions and well worth the ~$350 - $400 price for the three games.

Can you please tell me what ost play at 5:00 during exist archive? It sounds pretty familiar, but i didnt play this game, so looks like its from another game.. what game?

Didn't even know dragon quest heroes existed

Not sure if it counts, but Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator was an awesome game that I just couldn't beat myself.

"But grinding isn't hard! Just time consuming!" Sorry, someone had to intentionally misunderstand and get their feels hurt.

Jade Cocoon Eternal Eyes Dragon Valor Three games I didn't see mentioned that were good and difficult.

I beat Nocturne on hard on PS2 and Dragon Quest 2 on Nes as a child. I feel proud. By the way, Trails in the Sky FC Evolution on the hardest difficulty is way too hard.

Another day of JRPGs

I did not like the character rotation of Suikoden III with the deja vu at first, then I gave the game more of a chance and though I still do not like it as much as 1, 2 or 5, I consider it good (and definitely better than IV, which is the black sheep or low point of the series).

Not a Jrpg but a game I really liked that I apparently sucked at was Kena Bridge of Spirits, for some reason everything beat the shit out of me an Im usually pretty decent at those kind of games, pretty puzzling lol

Even Mario games must be too challenging for him

Vagrant Story. I still have my original PS1 copy... but nah, not ever trying that again, never got far into it. The diminishing returns combat just broke me.

legend of legaia opened the world of rpg to me. still one of the best imo.

I replayed muscle dome several times to get power ups and soru breads so I could breat the game (legend of legaia)

Didn’t know this guy could play hard games

do you have a list of the games you cover in your videos

Jade Cocoon old ps1 rpg, that was hard

16:51 3ds is easier because you can see the enemies on the field meaning you avoid unprofitable fights.

Resonance of Fate is the one jrpg that I just said "ok, nah". Might go back to it one day, but sheesh

no one mentioned Lunar SSS? that game is very very hard!

Nice list! :)

Tales of Graces F got one of the greatest combat systems in any JRPG

Nothing beats playing a super hard jrpg that's also very when you lose that battle because you made the wrong decision and you know you made that wrong decision.

For me it’s trails to azure just cause of the final boss

Chained Echoes is super hard but great

How is ys oath in felghana harder than dark souls?

Brandish 2 Expert.

Kingdom Hearts 3 can be difficult on like Critical or for those that aren't that good at games but overall it's. not that hard just space battles are frustrating and extra content just like KH2

Could you put the timestamps in description?

I also gave up on dragon quest 8 it was too hard for me

27:04 I beat the bonus dungeon once.

I have to be honest : I didn't think YS origin was not that hard. I struggled with Yunica against some bosses but it was really manageable. I found YS III : oath of Felghana was way harder. Is the steam version the North American one ?

Both Valkyrie Profile 2 and Valkyrie Profile Covenant Of The Plume are great choices for this.

Was Legend of Legaia difficult or just obtusely built/hard to comprehend from a modern perspective? I beat it when I was about 8-9 years old and I wasn’t exactly the brightest kid lol 🚌

Tales of graces f had the best combat in tales games 😊😊😊

Octopath Traveler is not THAT hard, but the fight you showed on the video was specially frustrating

Hard jprgs are the only one's I play.

Cool list, but any way to get it in text lol.

Rouge Galaxy to me is more cheap than it is hard

Breath Of Fire 5 Dragon Quarter needs to be in this list for me. Also White Knight Chronicles and Shadow Hearts 1

Many of the games on this list are not hard, just grindy and I think it's not the same, other are quite easy if you strategize bit, I agree that you can consider that hard. But around half yes, they are indeed hard.

'Tough but great' was what got me into the Megaten franchise. Devil Survivor: Overclocked being one of my all-time favorites. High difficulty helps to create the right aura of fear and respect towards the higher demons. More controversial would be Front Mission 4; perhaps not too hard until the late-game missions but the best and toughest of the series (haven't played FM5 but watched it and the high enemy stamina looks like a serious impediment to enjoyment). Suggestion: Top RPGs that deal with racism. FFX and Tales of Symphonia come to mind.

funny how difficulty is hard to judge on the rpg genre.. take for example etrian oddisey. the game kicks your butt and then provides a way to auto grind. You just set the path for your characters and they walk it fighting everything. Is it hard then? well it depends on how much time you have or your skill to put something that presses the attack button for your characters in a low lvl dungeon. The game plays itself while you sleep... I would say that any game that allows for grinding on THAT level is automatically an easy game for me. Fire emblem gives you some titles that have grinding between missions and some that wont let you and the difference is HUGE, it´s a totally different experience. I think it´s harder to define difficulty in action rpgs.

Valkyria Chronicles is actually notoriously easy aside from maybe 3 out of 20-ish missions where unexpected reinforcements can catch you off guard the first time. A lot of the difficulty is actually an illusion from not being familiar with the map, but as soon as you generally know the map the illusion breaks once you realize how overpowered your main character scout Alicia is. She can just run so damn far that you can end missions super early by just having her sprint to the exit ignoring enemies. Also, for the times you can't run and have to fight the "permadeath" feels inconsequential because it's so easy to rescue those units when you have 3 whole turns to do so. Btw, I love the game I just wish it retained it's difficulty better because nothing is as thrilling as the first time you get caught with your soldiers out of position... but then it'll probably never happen again.

I found Tales of Zestria harder than Tales of Graces, I just could not get my head around the weapon upgrading. Never played the first Vandal Hearts, but the second is only hard until you work out the rules the AI plays by, then it's just boring.

Can you for the love of god please start invluding the name of the game onscreen at all times for these lists!!

If the game hard just because grindfest then it's good. But if need brain, strategy focused & grind is useless, i'll think twice.

I don't understand why you don't want SMT games in the list. Nocturne is one of the if not the hardest game there (apart from the Digital Devil Saga games)

Seriously confused on some of these. I remember beating VP2S as a kid, and when I was young, I had a temper with struggling in games. I have no memory of EVER getting frustrated with it.

Beyond the Beyond, snubbed...

Its funny, I thoughr star ocean till the end of times was stupid hard. couldnt finish it. While I didnt particularly think Xenosaga 2 was particularly hard

39:07 LMAO

Kingdom hearts 3 final boss was definitely really hard

The Nightmare of Druaga just about broke me. Very punishing and unforgiving game

Growlanser 4 is the hardest one? I was looking for a growlanser game to start with and everybody on reddit said that one. WTH

Brother i love you so I’ll be the first to say FIND A NEW BARBER YOURS IS PLAYING WITH YOU

Legend of legaia was so good, the astral sword not being worth the bar was my first big disappointment in gaming