the problem with most rewards in games is that once you unlock them theres nothing left to do because you had to do everything to get it unless its a multiplayer game

Not getting your reward for never dying in Dark Souls because you skipped the credits is the most Dark Souls thing ever.

I've never had the drive to play on the hardest difficulty for most games unless it adds new mechanics. I'll play fallout 4 on survival difficulty because I love the added challenge of needs management, no autosave/fast travel, and illness, but if the game just nerfs you and buffs enemies with no other new things, I've just never cared about playing on high difficulties.

Big boss emblem in mgs4. The pinnacle of my gaming achievement lol. Beat the game on hardest difficulty, no deaths, no alerts, no killing and do it under 5 hours. Good times.

Note: for dark souls 2 there are two difficult challenges, no dying and no resting on bonfire. complete both and you get two illusionary rings. one for left hand, and one for right hand

Beating a game on "Impossible" to unlock an award to make the game easy on a 2nd playthrough always seemed pointless to me. Once I beat a game I rarely want to do a 2nd playthrough making the item pointless.

They was an armor, Helioskrill, in Halo 5 that you couldn't unlock in that game. You had to beat Halo MCC's four original campaigns on legendary to unlock it. They have since added it to the RNG "REQ Packs". That was a punch to the gut from 343i as someone who earned it after days of angry grinding through the Jackal Snipers in H2 and Knights in H4 to see someone who basically gambled and has the same armor.

I remember beating GoW2 on Titan mode when I was in my teens. It was the only thing I could play on the PS2 at the time. I remember spending so much more time on Theseues a lot more than Zeus. On Zeus I spent about an hour or less, but Theseus cost me around 6-8 hours. I did it not because of the Hercules costume but for Athena's. I was curious if the voice would change. At the time, videogames and KZfaq wasn't as much of a thing as it is now, and if I'm not mistaken Yahoo was bigger than Google. I was naïve back then.

HOLLOW KNIGHT YEAHHHHHH. Players can get the weathered mask if they beat the pantheon of Hallownest with every binding. Spent many tens of hours working on it.

For me, one of the hardest things to get (which I somehow managed myself) was the platinum icon on Rock Band 2, which you got for beating the endless setlist on expert difficulty without taking a break. That's over 6 hours of some insanely difficult songs, and if you failed ONE song, you had to redo the entire thing, AND you couldn't pause the game!

Either I’m super skilled, or Horizon Ultra Hard was not very, well, hard.

I have gotten the ones from Halo 3, Dark Souls 2, and Dead Space 2, and every time I did, I immediately quit those games and never played them again... The rewards may be useful, but by the time you get them you are so burned out you never want to play them again. Maybe they should make it so you unlock a new mechanic to the game, something that makes you want to play even more...

Brutal difficulty was actually pretty balanced. Balancing pain and suffering worked pretty well.

just to add more to the Dark Souls 2 one. On top of beating the game without dying, if you also beat the beat WITHOUT sitting in a bonfire, you'll also get a 2nd ring of illusion. Each ring makes each hand an invisible weapon

I feel so touched to be able to say I completed HZD on Ultra Hard difficulty and got all the face paints. Got to brag naturally

Beat Deadspace 1 on hardcore AND did the only use Plasma Cutter challenge at the same time, which honestly kind of helped, I think. Loved that series, only 360 game I got all achievements for.

better to hide the true ending behind an insane challenge than to hide it in a dlc

The halo 3 hayabusa Armor really lost it's worth once they brought the DLC achievements out. to unlock it you needed 1000 total achievement point things which originally was every achievement in the game but once the DLC achievements came out you could basically skip all the difficult ones and get 1000 score pretty easily. so eventually everyone and their dog had it. then it lost even more value once the MCC came out. I still remember been bitter about that :D

Great video. Also worth mentioning the Impossible mode on I Wanna Be The Guy and doing all cartridges with their achiviements in "The end is Nigh". Those are not an easy feat.

Sekiro was an absolutely incredible experience. Platinum was well worth getting 👌 👏

Only one on this list I've managed was the Uncharted golden AK And NO IT WAS NOT WORTH IT The struggle was fun until about halfway...then the enemies just get super annoying

For Horizon: Zero Dawn you can still unlock the face paints if you play a New Game +. This allows you to have all the weapons and outfits unlocked from the start of the game as long as you got them in your previous playthrough. It makes it much easier.

Skelly's trophies and the hidden aspects in Hades are some of my favorites. Not too hard to get until you realize you need at least 25 titan's blood to even have a shot at unlocking them and THEN having to talk to the right person. It's super worth it if only because some of the hidden aspects are really fun i.e. Aspect of Arthur and Aspect of Lucifer

For the record, the hardest achievement to get on Halo 3 ( for me) was the double kill with one spartan laser shot. Just getting a Spartan laser was a challenge, because everybody wanted it on the few maps it spawned in. Then you had to find two enemy Spartans fighting and somehow manage to time it just right so you killed both of them. It sounded so easy to me when I first read it....

I remember beating the 17 bosses Boss Rush in Sekiro, it takes an enormous amount of time and it even tells you before you start that you wont get any rewards for completing it. But beating it feels like you've mastered the game.

God bless Gameranx, you guys just get it.

I love your videos. But I always seem to crack up every time your falcon animation shows up and has this look of WTF on his face. It's just hilarious.

The beautiful thing about hard mode in sekiro, no Kuros charm, isn't just increased damage. It actually requires improved mechanics because you can't block anymore without taking damage from it. This is much better than games that just increase difficulty by increasing damage taken. That is just tedious

Beating DMC3 on DMD and DOOM ETERNAL on ultra nightmare should be on this list. Both of these require you to be a literal master of the game

The pure grind to get the Halo armor was worth it tho :O

I knew it wouldn’t be on this list but I feel the Tzkal slayer helmet from Old School RuneScape is worthy of the list as it is super difficult to obtain. I requires completing all of the Grandmaster Combat Achievements requiring a lot of skill, game knowledge, and of course time…. Of course you’re not just unlocking a cosmetic appearance for a helmet, you are unlocking the right to flex on everyone else.

Watching this video reminded me of a guy who played and finished all the dark souls (including Bloodborne I think) without getting hit once, everytime he did he had to restart the game. Now that's real commitment right there

Playing Halo CE on legendary used to be a sleepover staple back in the day 👌👌👌

Loved that Hayabusa armor. So glad I took the time to get it in H3. I hope infinite makes some changes with customization. Every other Halo was filled with so much customization . Now it just sucks to load into Halo and see such little difference in each Spartan.

I remember getting the hayabusa armor within a month of release. It was more of a grind, rather than a challenge.

Getting the 3 final bosses for the second ending cutscene for each character in the original Bushido Blade was a task Required using a specific weapon with each character, running through several zone walls to jump down a well, all without being hit. Finally, you had to defeat three special bosses, all of whom functionally cheat, still without being hit.

Some more I thought of while watching: 1. The wigs in MGS2. I couldn’t even beat the first boss, Olga, on the hardest difficulty. I just couldn’t aim fast enough. 2. The trophy for beating Mass Effect 2 on insanity. I did actually do this one, and all I have to say is: insanity is a fitting name, because it absolutely was. 3. God of War (2018) Beating the Valkyries on Give Me God of War difficulty. I couldn’t even finish the first area on that difficulty. 🤣 4. The platinum trophy for Dirt Rally. (Not Rally 2.0) This is the hardest racing game I’ve ever played. It’s very sim-heavy, and it’s almost impossible to drive well on a controller. You need a wheel to even have a chance of making any progress. It might actually be easier to rally race in real life!! 5. All gold medals for all the licenses in Gran Turismo 6. Most all them are doable with practice, but there are two tests in the super license that are incredibly strict. S4 & S5 You must drive perfectly on S4, because the time is so tight. Then for S5 the time isn’t the problem, it’s just controlling your incredibly heavy Bugatti Veyron so it stays on track. It’s a long course and if a single pixel of your car touches the grass or a wall, you instantly fail and have to start over from the beginning. Another game where a wheel is almost a requirement.

Boss rush modes are always amazing at beating the confidence out of players who just beat bosses in the story mode. It basically tells the player that they never beat the bosses in story mode completely, they just got lucky each time and cannot do it again without losing again, lol.

Love the vid, great to know about these unique things. Gotta say you're wrong about Hayabusa, you didn't need all achievements, from memory was just all the skulls and perhaps legendary. You could be thinking of recon with the vidmaster achievements though

I remember finishing the "Total Pandemonium" den in Muramasa: The demon blade. The reward is actually worth the hassle, I cannot imagine doing this one in Shigurui mode where you only have 1hp....I bet very very few people have ever managed that.

Those Sekiro gauntlets have all been really fun to do, I just beat all of them a month ago

The nostalgia you gave me of loading up a game of Halo 3 multiplayer as a kid with the full set of Hayabusa with the katana you felt like a god among mortals lol.

I have every trophy for the first 2 uncharted games, and honestly crushing difficulty is VERY difficult yet I loved every moment of it.

Recon armour was much harder to obtain than Hayabusa armour in the original halo 3, required 7 achievements. 3 of those in a different game, and one of those achievements you could only get one day a year. Still my greatest gaming achievement 🏆

Those Sekiro gauntlets were such a fun challenge to complete!

Nothing is more humbling than invading someone that seems new to DS2 only to get hit by their long sword *and also the invisible +5 Fume Ultra Greatsword*

I had the hayabusa set on halo3 honestly forgot all the stuff you had to do for it. Thanks for the reminder lmao

Feels so good to see you mention the Hayabusa armor knowing it was one of the few things on this list I've done

hell yeah! I remember being so proud getting the Hercules skin for Kratos and finishing VERY challenges in both games. also the most dumbest thing I've experienced is with the first LOU, finished the game on hardest diffuculty and got no trophy, nothing on new game+ :')

I spended weeks trying to get the embrace the void in hollow knight, but I really enjoyed it and I'm really proud of myself for getting it.

In Halo 4 you get a REALLY COOL cutscene at the end if you beat it on legendary. I play every Halo on legendary from the start, and getting that cutscene at the end was totally unexpected and amazing.

I remember feeling so proud completing MGS2 on the European Extreme difficulty. The sequence when Solidus strangles you almost made me brake my own hands ;P

I remember supporting my bro thru the boss rush in sekiro, I was on deck rolling blunts to smoke after every heart crushing defeat. He got all the skins tho, took him like 2 days 🤣

I have TBOI's godhead. It was actually a treat grinding for it :)

getting the one down mask in payday 2 was one of the more difficult challenges for me from the sheer amount of heists you have to do on the hardest difficulty

I personally really liked unlocking the 2 special lenses in Fatal Frame 2. Finishing it under 3 hours and on nightmare mode is certainly not the MOST difficult thing to do, but the reward is still truely satisfying. Makes you pretty much unstoppable :D Some rewards in some games are so not worth it though...

In the old Game Cube version, of call of duty. You unlocked really awesome cheats. Though, later I found out,that I didn’t have to play the entire story to unlock the cheats. Just the last level on the hardest difficulty. Which made me realize, I didn’t have to go nuts. But hey. I earned those things. The cheats were both hilarious and great. One of the cheats shrank both enemies and friends, while making others huge too. It was great. Plus, their hit boxes either shrank or increased with them. I miss back when Games were more creative, and didn’t need patches.

In Halo 3 getting the Recon helmet or Hayabusa in flames helmet were the thoughest challenges in the game, when I managed to get the Recon I was so happy, you had to beat a rival team composed by devs, there were other ways non related to the game but I did it the normal way, and it wasnt easy they were good and the result was so close, never got Hayabusa in flames nor remember how to obtain it but I bwlieve it was even harder to get. Such good memories with the Halo saga, that was like more than ten years ago, I was known to be the best at the game in my school and many times after studying we went and play in xbox locals.

Do you play every game you talk about?? Just curious honestly , love the vids!

The Katana requirements you mentioned in Halo 3 are incorrect. When they added more achievements, all you need to do now is unlock at least 49 achievements and have at least 1000gs from them. It was significantly easier to get after the map packs and new achievements. The one that’s borderline impossible now was the Recon armor in Halo 3 because of the weird community achievements.

I was so happy when I unlocked the Handcannon. I spent a whole weekend going for it and probably replayed the intro a dozen times. I did nothing but upgrade the assault rifle and statis but damn it if the worse parts of the challenge were the environmental deaths. It was worth it for the Plat and hearing Isaac go pew pew 😆

Was waiting for this review to buy this game. I’ll buy it when it’s on sale but I’m very excited for it.

The thing with Halo 3's Hayabusa armor was that there was a second version with a katana on the back that was only unlocked after reaching ranked 50 in the multi-player. I remember at that time people were selling Xbox profiles with ranked 50.

I think unlocking Recon through the Vidmaster achievements was WAY tougher than getting Hyabusa.

I just unlocked the Tengu and Shura outfits today and holy shit, my heart was still rushing like crazy after beating Inner Isshin. Getting the Shura outfit is pretty easy though

the trinity bonuses for the ghostship and ghostship chaos, from the resident evil revelations is kinda tough too, imagine not being hit by 435 enemies, with different speed and attacks, dogs come out in bunches, there are invisible enemies. but since the internet is convinient, it can actually make it look easy, but its really hard.

Uncharted 2 Brutal was awesome and scary. some times frustrating but i was so proud when i finished it.

"Super" mode skins in any Devil May Cry game by beating all the difficulty modes. One of which puts the enemies at the second to highest difficulty (but still gives them an "enrage timer" devil trigger) and you also die in one hit. The Super mode skins are not just aesthetic, but also grant infinite Devil Trigger.

I was expecting DOOM Eternal's Ultra-Nightmare difficulty and the golden suit you get for beating it

7:02 There’s greater hell than Embrace the Void. If you give the Godseeker a flower during the flower quest before playing through Pantheon 5, you get the 5th ending

Nice video. I have the hollow knight accomplishment.

My tip for her horizon Zero Dawn: speedrun your way to the frozen wild DLC and find as much blue gleam as possible. It's really hard to do because of all those super OP enemies, but get enough blue gleam and you can buy the Nora stealth armor. That's how I've been getting my way through ultra hard.

You can add the Brass Knuckles to that list, which is a huge boost of melee damage in The Evil Within game. It unlocks after you beat the game on either nightmare or AKUMU difficulty.

Happy to say I was able to rock the full hyabussa armor back in halo3!!!

I can not proudly say I've gotten some of these rewards without even trying because I always start new games on the hardest difficulties whenever I get new games

Can't believe you haven't included a single MGS reward in this list. Like the Stealth Camo.

In c.o.d you don't need skill to unlock stuff you just need to give Activision your credit card details

Unlocking all the stuff in my 007 Goldeneye, and Perfect Dark games for the N64. That was hard.

To this day, beating Halo 3 on legendary with my 3 closest friends while collecting every skull on launch day is *my greatest gaming achievement* period

To this day I hold getting the hyabusa armor as my absolute GREATEST gaming accomplishment, I even remember the last achievement I had to get, it was killing like 3 people in 1 shot of the plasma beam gun in an online multiplayer match, and I was the 1st of my group of friends to get the armor, those were the days man, having a huge clan online with all your buddies and just spending hours and hours playing vs other clans and running lobbies.

I love playing games on the hardest. If you start on the hardest you don't realize how difficult it truly is bcuz it's as if it's the only way to play. It's not always fun though lol.

imo the no bon fire ring is more difficult since you can’t use magic, and it’s very easy to accidentally sit at a bon fire. Or, you can be a boss like me and get both in one run. Rapier ftw!

Damnnn I remember unlocking the Hayabusa armor back in the day thank you for the memories bro

LOL the way he said, Genichiro

Ah yes. The Hayabusa set... that took me a long ass time.

Fuck me the pantheon of hallownest broke me to fucking pieces and i loved it

All the Gauntlets in Sekiro are really fun. I recommend doing them once you are comfortable with the game and have unlocked all the endings.

Man the nostalgia of earning the hybussa armour, going online to show It off, then playing against a bungie dev with the flaming helmet and got put in my place

i'd personally say that the land of the storms from hollow kinght is more difficult to get than the embrace the void, where you have to do all the pantheon with all the bindings which are debuffs and significant ones at that

Another fun one is the gold crown in Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix. This probably slipped by the radar because the final mix wasn't avaliable outside of Japan until the ps4 bundles. But in order to get it you must defeat 14 of the hardest bosses in the entire series, 5 of these bosses can only be unlocked by beat 5 different optional bosses that are relatively difficult, and one of the 14 bosses required for the crown is considered the hardest boss in the game, and to many the whole series. For a series that includes super hard hidden bosses in every game these ones are brutal.

At nb 6, You forgot the halo 3 recon helmet that is even harder to get than the first two! Thanks for bringing up this nostalgy

Also could do a couple videos on horror survival games like. Evil within 1 and 2 and stuff.

Gameranx is like the New York Times of the gaming community.

Specialist Mode on Cod Infinite Warfare was amazing Campaign mode with the Helmet/Limb damage mechanics. it really throws out the standard COD 'run n gun' Campaign style for a more methodical and careful one without losing the action.

Great list

last year i got the shura and tengu outfits in sekiro in about 2-3 attempts each and i’m still proud

I've always found it annoying that the reward for beating games on the hardest level is usually a weapon that would have been useful hours earlier while i was struggling through the game but is now essentially worthless as the game is over. Oh it makes the next playthrough easier you say? So does turning down the difficulty.

If you make another list like this you should include the golden skin you unlock by beating DOOM Eternal on Ultra-nightmare

If you complete black ops 3 on hardest setting you unlock nightmare mode which is a reverse campaign with added zombies. Near impossible alone, much easier in coop reviving each other.

The next time you do one of these could you include sea of theives there are plenty of super rare things to get her like the golden curse and the songs memory that take weeks of irl time