That One Level

[Soapbar]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ThatOneLevel/

tl:dr it's like That One Boss but with levels instead.

anyways, let's talk about Kane's Tower from Command and Conquer 3. In this level, your primary objective to defend 3 Scrin Structures from GDI attack. Sound simple right?

Wrong.

The first problem is that the Scrin are hostile to you, making protecting them a pain in the ass. On the other hand, they are no where near powerful enough to stop GDI as GDI starts out with 2 very large Tier 3 bases and a small airbase, the latter of which will bomb both you and the Scrin into oblivion. They will also happily build but not one but TWO Ion Cannons before you can even start to build your first nuke. They also have artillery which will constantly be shelling the structures your supposed to protect, although they are "capturable". Winning often depends on luck, since the magnitude of GDI's attacks are random, ranging from managable to about 30 Mammoth Tanks supported by double that amount of lighter vehicles, aircraft and infantry, along with every single reinforcement support power that GDI can use.

[Shadow Mir]

Chapter 14 in Sword of Seals. So much bullshit I don't even want to talk about it (but I will anyway). First off, it's a desert with Fog of War. Second, you're forced to field two new characters, one who's crippled by the desert, and the other who's just weak. Making matters worse is the time limit needed to get to the gaiden. Oh, and there's an item that only one of the aforementioned characters can find.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Levant Colthearts

[The Geek]

The original Crash Bandicoot is a famously frustrating and difficult game, but there are a few levels that take the cake.

The Lost City: The first really difficult level in the game with some pretty crazy timing for certain jumps. Doesn't help that this is also a colored gem level so you have to complete it before you can complete several other levels.

Bridge Levels in General: Some very difficult long jumps to make with very small platforms to land on. And then there are the pigs. Screw those pigs.

Slippery Climb: This stuff makes Donkey Kong Country look like Kirby. Crazy timing on jumps and some moments where you really need to speed.

The Lab: Tough enemies and really trollishly placed TNT crates mixed with some more crazy timing with combinations of several obstacles each with different patterns.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Hmm

PSX era boys would probably recognize this

JUMP! JUMP!

SLIDE! SLIDE!

[Shadow Mir]

Chapter 13 in Shadow Dragon. Ballisticians and their 3-10 range virtually flood the map. This is made worse by their overlapping ranges. Not fun at all.

Also, the swamp battlefield in Yggdra Union, though it's more irritating than actually difficult. The swamp drops morale every turn and reduces your movement to 1.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Levant Colthearts

[Walker]

anyways, let's talk about Kane's Tower from Command and Conquer 3. In this level, your primary objective to defend 3 Scrin Structures from GDI attack. Sound simple right?

Wrong.

The first problem is that the Scrin are hostile to you, making protecting them a pain in the ass. On the other hand, they are no where near powerful enough to stop GDI as GDI starts out with 2 very large Tier 3 bases and a small airbase, the latter of which will bomb both you and the Scrin into oblivion. They will also happily build but not one but TWO Ion Cannons before you can even start to build your first nuke. They also have artillery which will constantly be shelling the structures your supposed to protect, although they are "capturable". Winning often depends on luck, since the magnitude of GDI's attacks are random, ranging from managable to about 30 Mammoth Tanks supported by double that amount of lighter vehicles, aircraft and infantry, along with every single reinforcement support power that GDI can use.

Ah ... the final Nod level. The trick is to get a stealthed T-refinery on the T-field on the plateau. GDI smells you, you're a goner. And, both Scrin and GDI use their superweapons against you, so you need to keep Vertigo bombing them. Took me five tries to last more than ten minutes. (cringe)

I find Sarajevo to be worse. Worse, you ask? You are deployed against a base the size of half the field. You don't have Juggernauts, so artillery is flat out not an option against Nods most powerful base defenses. The computer (like always) has unlimited resources, which comes in packs of stealth tanks, and Black Hand (armored flame unit) rushes. Then halfway through the level, they get Avatars, thirty foot tall mechs. Which can crush your tanks by stepping on them. Then if you enter the base, Nod decides it's a good time to crack open their nuclear silos. And spawn reinforcements

Oh, and your superweapon? The space-based laser the width of a block? Yeah, that can't fire in Nod's base. Enjoy.

[OakTree]

Mega Man 2 as a whole, i still don't get why it's cited as the best classic Mega Man game.

[Omegaprism]

JUMP! JUMP!

SLIDE! SLIDE!

*Hugs knees and rocks back and forth*

Speaking of our dear departed rockman, who here remembers that level in mega man zero where you have to find and defuse those bombs in the factory? Or better yet, the final Arcadia shrine? Ugh, and the extra life system was so punishing in the first zero game!

[animeapple]

heh... one level i still cant beat.... in rayman legends.... Land of the Livid Dead 8bit remix

the level was already hard without the remix but.... with it... ugh...

just watch this to see why...

[Ercdouken]

A couple from Castlevania IV that stand out.

Stage 8: The place is filled with instant death spikes. Also, acid that harms you if you're on it. There's a section with a bridge that slowly falls apart above the acid, and if an enemy hits you, you fall into the acid. And then at the end of the stage, there's the RNG bridge.

The second part of the final level: There's a saw that slowly rises up, and stairs that fall after you land on it. If you fall from the stairs, bad news for you. It's worse on second quest with added skeletons that can screw things for you. Once you get past that part, you have to land on platforms that scroll upright, and there's ceilings with instant death spikes.

[Tamanoir]

Temple of Maharashtra in Dungeon Travelers 2. The second to last dungeon on the game

This dungeon is a giant maze. You have to navigate the third gigantic levels by falling on the right holes (hoes you can't see before hand. You can still save every time you move, but that's rather unconvenient.) Add to this the one way paths and secret passage and this is already quite painfull.

But what makes this place a real living nightmare is the Euryale ennemy. Euryale have an attack that automatically petrify a wholerow (which means instant death in two attacks). All the other petrification attacks take a few turn to petrify you, but here it's immediate. And the 2nd dungeon boss is also pretty bad. (Absolute Prehemptive Attack + Shadow Clone. You won't be able to damage it before quite a while.)

[Shadow Mir]

Temple of Maharashtra in Dungeon Travelers 2. The second to last dungeon on the game

This dungeon is a giant maze. You have to navigate the third gigantic levels by falling on the right holes (hoes you can't see before hand. You can still save every time you move, but that's rather unconvenient.) Add to this the one way paths and secret passage and this is already quite painfull.

But what makes this place a real living nightmare is the Euryale ennemy. Euryale have an attack that automatically petrify a wholerow (which means instant death in two attacks). All the other petrification attacks take a few turn to petrify you, but here it's immediate. And the 2nd dungeon boss is also pretty bad. (Absolute Prehemptive Attack + Shadow Clone. You won't be able to damage it before quite a while.)

Urk! Sounds like a pain in the ole gluteus maximus.

I actually got that game a couple days ago, btw.

Edited February 21, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Shinehollow]

Devil May Cry 3 mission 17. As if the God-Cube room wasn't enough (especially without Air Hike), Doppelganger can be a pain, too. Mission 18 can be painful on Very Hard and on Dante/Vergil must Die since it's a boss rush, and if you want the Blue Orb piece, you have to defeat all of the bosses. Which are now stronger.

[Shadow Mir]

Devil May Cry 3 mission 17. As if the God-Cube room wasn't enough (especially without Air Hike), Doppelganger can be a pain, too. Mission 18 can be painful on Very Hard and on Dante/Vergil must Die since it's a boss rush, and if you want the Blue Orb piece, you have to defeat all of the bosses. Which are now stronger.

I'd second Mission 18. Damned Chessmen... Ugh. And the boss rush has its fair share of bosses I'd rather NOT have to fight again if I could help it... But I like Blue Orbs, so I have to suck it up.

Anyways, Chapter 16 in Project X Zone. Starts off easy enough, but once the Stehoneys appear... it's not. You have to kill all four of them to not fail, they start out a good distance ahead of your units (they're faster than your units, to boot), and only the half of your team that showed up when they did has a chance of catching them.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[henrymidfields]

Chapter 14 in Sword of Seals. So much bullshit I don't even want to talk about it (but I will anyway). First off, it's a desert with Fog of War. Second, you're forced to field two new characters, one who's crippled by the desert, and the other who's just weak. Making matters worse is the time limit needed to get to the gaiden. Oh, and there's an item that only one of the aforementioned characters can find.

Agree with almost everything you said. Sophia I can kind of understand (from a story perspective) why she needed to be in that Chapter, but Cecilia really should have died in Chapter 13.

Also, Johto Route 40-41 from Pokémon GSC. High chance of encounter due to the nature of surfing across water tiles. The wild Pokémon are Tentacruels and Tentacools, with their poison attacks, and the ever-annoying poison status. Too many of said Pokémon, and nothing else to break the monotony, and they're at an unusually high level - some trainer's Pokémon are up to 5-10 levels below the wild Pokémon, and even Chuck, the local gym leader ties with the wild Tentacruel you can find - which is Level 30. It means that Bug Spray would not necessarily help to crossing the water routes either.

[Tamanoir]

Urk! Sounds like a pain in the ole gluteus maximus.

I actually got that game a couple days ago, btw.

It is quite annoying, yeah.

I'll also add Abyssal darkness. See all the grey Aera on the map? They are "Dark Zone, which means you don't have access to the map here. With the usual one-way paths/one-way doors, because it wouldn't be fun otherwise. Without a map, you're in there for a while.

And earlier, Khorramshar Village introduce both one-way paths and "Anti-Magic Zone"(In red on the map. Like the name implies, except monsters are unaffected.)

That game is honnestly really great, gameplay-wise.

And it has an extended post-game (Maharashtra and Abyssal Darkness are actually found there)

It take quite some time to get to the best elements (Unique Skill at level 10, Intermediate Class at level 15 and Advanced Class at level 30.), but then you can really have fun.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Tamanoir

[Shadow Mir]

It is quite annoying, yeah.

I'll also add Abyssal darkness. See all the grey Aera on the map? They are "Dark Zone, which means you don't have access to the map here. With the usual one-way paths/one-way doors, because it wouldn't be fun otherwise. Without a map, you're in there for a while.

And earlier, Khorramshar Village introduce both one-way paths and "Anti-Magic Zone"(In red on the map. Like the name implies, except monsters are unaffected.)

That game is honnestly really great, gameplay-wise.

And it has an extended post-game (Maharashtra and Abyssal Darkness are actually found there)

It take quite some time to get to the best elements (Unique Skill at level 10, Intermediate Class at level 15 and Advanced Class at level 30.), but then you can really have fun.

Zoinks!

(BTW, the first GameStop I went to Friday didn't have the game, but the clerk called another, which did. It also came with a calendar, which makes me feel I lucked out big time, particularly since it was the last copy THAT store had.)

Back to the topic at hand:

-Sphere Corporation in Star Ocean 3, at least when you go there during the storyline. Most of the enemies there are the type of crap that's best avoided (AKA, soldiers and Robo Gunners [spider tanks]), resulting in it not being a very good place for training. What's more, once you enter, you can't leave.

-The Resource Center Unorganized Zone in Mana Khemia. It's a long walk to get to the boss, who's That One Boss... which brings up worries of it turning night on the way, which is very bad since enemies are harder to avoid, and stronger at night.

-The second half of the final dungeon from the same game. Once again, it's a long walk to get to the final boss, which means it WILL become night at least once...

Edited February 22, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Patrickzzz]

Hmm

PSX era boys would probably recognize this

JUMP! JUMP!

SLIDE! SLIDE!

This...

But for me it would have to be Mobius Desert from DW3, i mean seriously who had that idea?

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Sector Eridanus from SMT Strange Journey is probably the #1 RPG levels that make me shouts multiple profanity at the screen because of how bullshit it is, both by design, and by its solution. It had lovely stuff like Poison Panel, Hidden doors, and Pitfall combo

The irony with Eridanus is the fact that it would be REALLY REALLY easy if the game used the mapping system of Etrian Oddysey instead of an Auto Map. This forces you to use pen of paper if you are short in memory like me lol

[Walker]

H2G2 text-based game. That is, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text based game. You will die in ten commands, unless you've read the book. Also, the babel fish puzzle, and tea puzzle. (Get 'tea' and 'no tea' in your inventory at the same time!) The entire game is like this.

What do you expect? It's Douglas Adams.

[Shinehollow]

I'd second Mission 18. Damned Chessmen... Ugh. And the boss rush has its fair share of bosses I'd rather NOT have to fight again if I could help it... But I like Blue Orbs, so I have to suck it up.

Anyways, Chapter 16 in Project X Zone. Starts off easy enough, but once the Stehoneys appear... it's not. You have to kill all four of them to not fail, they start out a good distance ahead of your units (they're faster than your units, to boot), and only the half of your team that showed up when they did has a chance of catching them.

Since I do this as Vergil, I just equip Beowulf during the Damned Chess Battle because using Starfall over and over on the Damned King allows you to stay high enough that none of them- even the Damned Queen- can't hurt you. Just when the Damned King switches with a Damned Rook is when you have a chance to get hurt. Nevan is the difficult one for me, especially since Vergil has no weapon very effective to her, and she uses her draining kiss move more often.

[Azure Sen]

Seconding Chapter 16 of Project X Zone and Chapter 14 of Sword of Seals. Funny how they're both timed missions, in effect.

For me, it's Chapter 11 of New Mystery of the Emblem. Between the desert restricting everyone but the squishiest of your army (and Palla and Catria), all of the items to find, those 12 move Wyvern jerks, the fact that the only Anti-Wyvern weaponry you have at this point are Excalibur and Bows, and the fact that IntSys taunts you with a Secret Shop that has Anti-Wyvern weapons but you can't reach without getting mauled, this is probably up there for "worst Fire Emblem level I've ever played."

[Shadow Mir]

Since I do this as Vergil, I just equip Beowulf during the Damned Chess Battle because using Starfall over and over on the Damned King allows you to stay high enough that none of them- even the Damned Queen- can't hurt you. Just when the Damned King switches with a Damned Rook is when you have a chance to get hurt. Nevan is the difficult one for me, especially since Vergil has no weapon very effective to her, and she uses her draining kiss move more often.

It's the Damned Queen that tends to ruin my day on that chessboard, thinking about it... It's like, I can't be trying to get a combo going or do some special move or I get plowed into and lose a chunk of health. As far as the boss refights, Beowulf's one of the ones I dislike most - which sucks all the more since if you want to finish ASAP, you have to go through him.

Chapter 29 in Project X Zone is also pretty bad, though it doesn't look like it at first. Namely, stuff happens, X and Zero wind up out of commission, and you have to get to them (or kick Vile's ass, which would need to be done twice, because the first time just strips him of his Ride Armor) in about 7-ish turns, or you lose. Also, TWO Skeiths (there's a third, Skeith Zero, who, mercifully, is a non-factor until you save X and Zero) are in your way, as is the aforementioned Vile, to say nothing of the horde that you have to fight through...

Edited February 26, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia