History Main / SchizophrenicDifficulty

** The first ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' has a series of challenges that can be unlocked using the game's Toys/{{amiibo}} figures. While the Inklling Girl and Inkling Boy amiibo challenges simply task the player with completing a set of missions from Hero Mode using a Charger or Roller weapon, respectively, the Inkling Squid amiibo has two different types of challenges to offer. Among the most difficult are the "limited ink" challenges -- unlike every other mode in the game, these challenges prevent you from refilling your ink tank, forcing you to be ''extremely'' careful about using your weapon at all. On the other hand, these are mixed randomly with Kraken challenges, which are [[BreatherLevel much easier]] {{Timed Mission}}s that grant the player unlimited use of the [[SuperMode Kraken]], allowing them to speed through missions and blast through enemies with ease.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker''[='=]s 100 Mario Challenge in Expert mode is SturgeonsLaw in full effect, due to the game's reliance on user-generated content. You frequently run into courses filled with FakeDifficulty, tight reaction times, haphazard enemy placement, etc. You can skip these courses, but you need to actually clear a course in order to truly progress. Fortunately for those striving for HundredPercentCompletion, the majority of the 30 Mystery Mushroom costumes randomly rewarded for beating this mode can be alternatively unlocked through Toys/{{amiibo}}[[labelnote:specifics]]Bowser, [[ChromeChampion Mario (Silver), Mario (Gold)]], [[VideoGame/YoshisWoollyWorld Mega Yarn Yoshi]], [[Franchise/{{Kirby}} King Dedede]], [[VideoGame/{{Metroid}} Zero Suit Samus]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Lucina, Robin]], [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Lucario, Greninja]], [[VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} Captain Olimar]], [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]], [[VideoGame/{{MOTHER3}} Lucas]], [[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} Inkling Boy, Inkling Girl]], [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Tom Nook, Rover, Kapp'n, Isabelle (Winter Outfit), Reese, Lottie]], [[UsefulNotes/GameAndWatch Mr. Game & Watch]], VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog, VideoGame/PacMan, [[VideoGame/PunchOut Little Mac]], [[VideoGame/StarFox Fox McCloud, and Falco Lombardi]][[/labelnote]], so at best you need three mandatory playthoughs to get the [[VideoGame/MarioBros Sidestepper, Shellcreeper, and Mario]] costumes.

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}''
** ''Splatoon'' has a series of challenges that can be unlocked using the game's Toys/{{amiibo}} figures. While the Inklling Girl and Inkling Boy amiibo challenges simply task the player with completing a set of missions from Hero Mode using a Charger or Roller, respectively, the Inkling Squid amiibo has two different types of challenges to offer. Among the most difficult are the "limited ink" challenges -- unlike every other mode in the game, these challenges prevent you from refilling your ink tank, forcing you to be ''extremely'' careful about using your weapon at all. On the other hand, these are mixed randomly with Kraken challenges, which are considered [[BreatherLevel much easier]]. Despite being {{Timed Mission}}s, these challenges grant the player unlimited use of the [[SuperMode Kraken]], allowing them to speed through missions and blast through enemies with ease.
** ''VideoGame/Splatoon2: Octo Expansion'' is notable for its [[NintendoHard brutal difficulty]] in general, but it offers a great deal of flexibility in the order that you go about completing it. As such, there isn't any set pattern in terms of the levels' difficulty, meaning that some of the most frustratingly difficult levels can be sandwiched by comparatively simple ones. The only area on the map that seems to have a consistant level of difficulty is Line J, where several of the game's most demanding levels are clustered together, including the [[ThatOneLevel infamous]] Girl Power Station.

* In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat2'', Jade was a secret boss, with the [[SNKBoss cheap AI]] that you might expect from a boss. In ''[=MK3=]'', Jade was a selectable character, but the programmers never fixed her AI. Considering that it was almost entirely random when, or even if, you fought Jade in single player mode, she was a single-handed example of this trope.

** ''VI'' ramps this problem UpToEleven, as almost all the good units require a strategic resource and if you don't have iron early game, niter mid-game, or oil late game then you should basically forget going to war in those eras unless you want to get {{CurbStomp|Battle}}ed. This was an intentional choice in order to encourage more diplomacy and trade as well as give reasons to settle new lands late game, but if all the resource tiles are taken and everyone hates you too much to want to trade with you you're kind of boned.

* ''VideoGame/{{Frogger}}'' IS this trope. At least the UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} version anyway. Early on, the difficulty levels change gradually from warmup level 1, slightly less easy warmup level 2, easy but noticeably harder level 3, and then a sudden difficulty spike with moderately hard level 4. Then level 5 is easier. Then level 6 is legitimately hard. Then level 7 is a piece of cake, easier than level 3, only thing that makes it harder than rather than equal to level 2 is the fast-moving snake on the log (which can be fairly easily avoided), then level 8 takes NintendoHard UpToEleven with the close but slow moving traffic and fast moving water hazards. Then level 9 is a bit easier but still not cake. It goes on like this all game long.

* In ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution X2'' on the [=PS2=], boss songs are unlocked in this manner. The first song is ''[[TitleDrop Dance Dance Revolution]]'', which isn't hard outside of its jumps, then right afterward comes ''Dead End (Groove Radar Special)'', which is absolutely loaded with FakeDifficulty, and has only one chart, which is an '''18'''. After that comes ''Pluto The First'', which is notorious for being one of the worst charts of all time and having [[UpToEleven even more]] FakeDifficulty than DEGRS. Once you've gotten past that, you'll find the remaining two bosses, Kimono Princess and Roppongi Evolved, to be very easy by comparison.

** The first two maps of the original game's fourth episode are considered to be insanely difficult in comparison to the ones that follow, while the last two are generally regarded as the easiest in the episode. Then again [[GameMod megawads]], that aren't PlatformHell in the first place, can have wildly varying levels when it comes to difficulty. The Community Chest mapsets are big examples of this.

** The end is only as hard as you want it, which is what makes it so jarring. You've spent the game raising up ''[[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters almost 70 different characters]]'', and you're only allowed...what, ''18'' or so? What's more, you're given a crapton of extremely good units that could solo the ENTIRE Endgame ''by themselves'', plus two units that can, in exchange for extreme efficiency sacrifice and LOTS of LevelGrinding and patience, make the 3rd part of the Endgame, considered by many to be the hardest chapter of the endgame, into an ABSOLUTE joke. Oh, if you trained and used [[SquishyWizard Micaiah]], you'll find she can attack the FinalBoss without retaliation, but you probably [[GuideDangIt won't know this]] because you'll be afraid your [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou "Lord" character will die]] from the Boss's ridiculous magic, even if Micaiah is a mage. The same goes if you did ThatOneSidequest to unlock [[spoiler:Lehran]], who comes with the most powerful staff in the game (which heals every single one of your units in the field), but only joins for the LAST level, but can use ALL staves, Light and Dark Magic, can double attack the final boss (something which is very hard to achieve), and ALSO won't face retaliation.

* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' is hard no matter what, but there's a noticeably odd slant. The beginning is pretty nasty -- {{Hitscan}}-wielding cultists everywhere, limited ammo, and you'll be relying a lot on flares, an extremely powerful but naturally-limited shotgun, and the occasional powerup. Your only real source of crowd control is dynamite bundles, which have a bit of a learning curve and aren't reliable in a pitched fight. Then you pick up the napalm launcher, and you now have an option for wiping out the hitscanners and taking on harder targets without getting right in their face, and the game becomes a lot more manageable. The difficulty then starts to climb again as strong enemies like Hellhounds, Gillbeasts, and Stone Gargoyles start joining the standard enemy ranks... and then at a certain point, you've picked up all the weapons and figured out how each weapon counters each enemy (and that the tesla cannon counters whatever the napalm launcher doesn't), and the game runs out of things to throw at you. The challenges don't so much increase in difficulty as they do stay the same while the player just keeps getting more and more powerful and skilled, culminating in the FinalBoss, who goes down pretty quickly to a fully-equipped Caleb.

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* ''VideoGame/UFOAftershock'' borders on this trope and multiple [[DifficultySpike difficulty spikes]]. First mutant mission is a cakewalk, but as soon as on third mission you can encounter very tough shotgun-wielding humanoid mutants (by that time you have only Alien laser weapons, which have pathetic range and damage) and fast sniper-ranged star like mutants, both of them can kill any of your unskilled soldiers with [[OneHitKill single critical hit]]. After you acquire shotguns for yourself it gets a bit easier. Another spike comes when Cultists come into play. On first mission against them you have to catch "real" cultists off guard on close range with your whole squad to bring them down without losses, mid range engagement is just a suicide. Second cultist mission is back to just difficult, because of captured equipment (especially weapon mods). When you get sniper rifles, scopes and trained Snipers, game goes from whatever difficulty it was to easy again. Then the Wargot show up, with their MechaMooks, powerful energy and kinetic weapons, and a love for incendiary explosives; all of which laugh at your armour at that point... on top of very good resistance to all non-armour piercing munitions. Fortunately that's offset by their humanoid nature (allowing snipers to make called shots). Later, the Starghost enemies raise difficulty again because they are either highly resistant (more resistant armour than anything before) nonhumanoid (preventing called shots) robots or actual ghosts (called Psionic projections) immune to your standard issue [[ImprobableAimingSkills fully modded]] AP loaded [=XM8=], [=MSG90=] and [[GunsAkimbo dual]] [[MoreDakka MP5]] forcing at least one of your (now [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower Super]])Soldiers to waste backpack space to carry an [[SniperRifle Ultra]][[StunGuns SonicGun]] or other energy weaponry.

* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' video games frequently drop right into this, as CCGImportanceDissonance or flat-out bad game design means that the skill level of characters zigzags up and down frequently. ''Stardust Accelerator'' in particular is notorious for featuring a MarathonBoss against a group of players using tournament-quality decks that can vomit out banned monsters with frightening consistency, and then following it up by making you fight [[Anime/YuGiOh5Ds Jack Atlas]], whose absolute best first-turn play is summoning a single mediocre Level 8 Synchro.

* Communicating in a foreign language, as bizarre as it seems. When you begin it's difficult with your limited dictionary, but people will be understanding and make it easier by speaking slowly and using basic words. The difficulty goes down a bit as you improve, but once you become it decent it actually gets ''harder'' because people mistakenly think you're fluent or even a native speaker, which is bad as you now have to contend with rapid speech, advanced words, and/or slang. Once you become actually fluent, then the difficulty goes back down and thankfully, stays down, with only small spikes on occasion in the cases of technical jargon and other such niche terms.

* Due to having more than its share of {{That One Level}}s, ''VideoGame/MegamanX6'' has this if you try to follow the order of the bosses' elemental weaknesses. You're likely to start with the relatively easy Amazon Area and Central Museum, then go into the blistering hard Magma Area, followed by the not-quite-as-hard Northpole Area. You'll a bit of a breather at the Inami Temple, then go into the hell that is the Recycle Lab, followed by the short and simple puzzles of the Laser Institute and tricky, but straightforward and also short Weapon Center. You're much better off defeating the bosses with the buster or saber, taking the levels in order of difficulty, and using alternate means to unlock the endgame instead of trying to finish all the maverick stages.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' starts with 2 extremely easy dungeons,[[note]]Yukiko's Castle and the Steamy Bathhouse[[/note], which are each capped off by an EarlyBirdBoss and a WakeUpCallBoss. The third dungeon[[note]]Marukyu Striptease[[/note]] gets tricky with its encounters, and its boss can get tedious. The fourth dungeon[[note]]Void Quest[[/note]] is a good step harder than that and has possibly the HARDEST story boss (almost the only other boss you will actually need to grind against). The fifth dungeon[[note]]Secret Laboratory[[/note]] is easier, with a challenging but not hair pulling boss, and the one after that[[note]]Heaven[[/note]] is a little harder, with a boss nearly as hard as the 2 very hard early game bosses. The penultimate and final dungeons[[note]]Magatsu Inaba and Yomotsu Hirasaka[[/note]] scale appropriately with potentially dangerous encounters for the unprepared, but the bosses at the end spike in power.

** From Jahara to Giruvegan storywise, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' is all over the place. Ozmone Plain is typically used as a PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling, and with good reason -- while the enemies are strong, few have area attacks, and the ones that do are weaker. Then Golmore Jungle starts throwing lots of status ailments at you, and you can't get Esuna till you reach Eruyt Village. Henne Mines settles for cranking enemy combat strength up. Then it's back to Golmore where the game will [[WakeUpCallBoss force you to use everything you've learned about status ailments]]. The difficulty then plummets for Paramina Rift, then spikes again for the Stilshrine of Miriam. After that, you have to fight through the Mosphoran Highwaste (fairly easy), the Salikawood (upgraded Golmore, meaning loads of status effects), the Phon Coast (easy again), the Tchita Highlands (also easy), the Sochen Cave Palace (difficulty spike) before ever reaching Archadia. The Draklor Laboratory features lots of Imperials, and a difficult boss fight. Difficulty remains at a very high level until the end game -- Giruvegan is particularly unfair with loads of gimmick bosses. Then comes the even harder Pharos, a dungeon that would qualify for VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon status in any other ''FF'' game. Sky Fortress ''Bahamut'' comes after Pharos and is probably far easier -- the enemies are just high level Imperials and there are no gimmick bosses to deal with.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' starts with 2 extremely easy dungeons[[note]]Yukiko's Castle and the Steamy Bathhouse[[/note]], which are each capped off by an EarlyBirdBoss and a WakeUpCallBoss. The third dungeon[[note]]Marukyu Striptease[[/note]] gets tricky with its encounters, and its boss can get tedious. The fourth dungeon[[note]]Void Quest[[/note]] is a good step harder than that and has possibly the HARDEST story boss (almost the only other boss you will actually need to grind against). The fifth dungeon[[note]]Secret Laboratory[[/note]] is easier, with a challenging but not hair pulling boss, and the one after that[[note]]Heaven[[/note]] is a little harder, with a boss nearly as hard as the 2 very hard early game bosses. The penultimate and final dungeons[[note]]Magatsu Inaba and Yomotsu Hirasaka[[/note]] scale appropriately with potentially dangerous encounters for the unprepared, but the bosses at the end spike in power.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' jumps all over the place through most of the game. The first two Gym Leaders, the [[WakeUpCallBoss Striaton Triplets]] and [[NonElemental Lenora]], are generally considered [[ThatOneBoss among the hardest in the game]]. The next, [[BigCreepyCrawlies Burgh]], is much easier due to his team's major Fire and Flying weaknesses, two types that can be found in the areas around his city. The ''next'' two Gym Leaders, [[ShockAndAwe Elesa]] and [[DishingOutDirt Clay]], spike the difficulty right back up again, while [[BlowYouAway Skyla]], [[AnIcePerson Brycen]] and [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Drayden/Iris]] are a lot easier. And then you get to the tough Elite Four, followed by the fights against [[spoiler: N and Ghetsis]], which are ''brutal.''
* In VideoGame/RolansCurse2, this happens with the bosses. The first boss can easily be beaten without taking a hit, but the next two are so ungodly difficult that they are completely impossible to beat without getting hit, then a couple more easy bosses, then one last hard one, then the final boss, a completely stationary pile of bones who fires impossible-to-dodge fireballs that can kill you in two hits.

* ''VideoGame/UFOAftershock'' borders on this trope and multiple [[DifficultySpike difficulty spikes]]. First mutant mission is a cakewalk, but as soon as on third mission you can encounter very tough shotgun-wielding humanoid mutants (by that time you have only Alien laser weapons, which have pathetic range and damage) and fast sniper-ranged star like mutants, both of them can kill any of your unskilled soldiers with [[OneHitKill single critical hit]]. After you acquire shotguns for yourself it gets a bit easier. Another spike comes when Cultists come into play. On first mission against them you have to catch "real" cultists off guard on close range with your whole squad to bring them down without losses, mid range engagement is just a suicide. Second cultist mission is back to just difficult, because of captured equipment (especially weapon mods). When you get sniper rifles, scopes and trained Snipers, game goes from whatever difficulty it was to easy again. Then the Wargot show up, with their MechaMooks, powerful energy and kinetic weapons, and a love for incendiary explosives; all of which laugh at your armour at that point... on top of very good resistance to all non-armour piercing munitions. Fortunately that's offset by their humanoid nature (allowing snipers to make called shots). Later, the Starghost enemies raise difficulty again because they are either highly resistant (more resistant armour than anything before) nonhumanoid (preventing called shots) robots or actual ghosts (called Psionic projections) immune to your standard issue [[ImprobableAimingSkills fully modded]] AP loaded XM8, MSG90 and [[GunsAkimbo dual]] [[MoreDakka MP5]] forcing at least one of your (now [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower Super]])Soldiers to waste backpack space to carry an [[SniperRifle Ultra]][[StunGuns SonicGun]] or other energy weaponry.

** ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' starts with two very difficult levels back to back, then segues into several moderately difficult ones, than an easy one, and then the difficulty spikes into the stratosphere with Cortana before the easy final levels.

** ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'': very hard->hard->medium->easy->hard->medium->hard->medium->easy->ultra-hard->hard->medium->easy

** So much of the game's difficulty comes from scattered [[TheWarSequence War Sequences]] and other [[ClassicVideoGameScrewYous game design death traps]] that the series might as well be the trope codifier for "ThatOnePartOfThatOneLevel".

* This is a natural consequence of most personal ''VideoGame/{{MUGEN}}'' builds due to their being made of [[CharacterCustomization user-created content]], especially if one wants to have the kind of UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny that [[JustHereForGodzilla draws in]] much of ''M.U.G.E.N''[='=]s playerbase in the first place. The quality of the character often doesn't correlate to the difficulty in fighting them, due to creating a fighter and programming an AI being entirely different skillsets; expect many a balanced and enjoyable character to be difficult to lose to as a computer opponent even for a casual player--any that keeps to the prepackaged AI module used by default character Kung Fu Man falls into this category--and many a poorly-made character to have flawless inputs. It goes to show just how difficult making a challenging but fair AI can be, especially in the fighting genre.

* Communicating in a foreign language, as bizarre as it seems. When you begin it's difficult with your limited dictionary, but people will be understanding and make it easier by speaking slowly and using basic words. The difficulty goes down a bit as you improve, but once you become it decent it actually gets ''harder'' because people mistakenly think you're fluent or even a native speaker, which is bad as you now have to contend with rapid speech, advanced words, and/or slang. Once you become actually fluent, then the difficulty goes back down (and thankfully, stays down this time).

* The ''Xenoblade'' games have some of this, but the worst offender is ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'', which is as open-world as the games get and is absolutely lousy with enemy placement. Nowhere than the very start of the game is this made clear; Elma herself informs you that you really should take the upper route to New Los Angeles, as while the fall to the lower level won't kill you, the high-level indigens certainly ''will''. Even then, you will spend much of the early game stealthing your way around high-level threats by exploiting the terrain, because trying to brute-force your way past them will only end in you getting wasted in record time.
** While most of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' is EasyLevelsHardBosses, the [[BonusBoss superbosses]] have a severe case of this. Gladiator Orion, the lowest leveled one (100), is considered one of the hardest ones, while Tyrannotitan Kurodil, the highest leveled (130), is actually the easiest and can be easier to beat than some enemies under the player's level 99 cap.[[note]]In addition to high stats, higher-level enemies have invisible buffs and debuffs based on how much higher-leveled they are. Kurodil has none of those buffs, just his high stats, so he takes and does normal damage, no matter your level.[[/note]]

** The 8-bit versions have this problem to a lesser extent. Jungle Zone Act 2 in the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem version is one of the hardest in the game due to RatchetScrolling, while Labyrinth Zone and Scrap Brain Zone Act 1 are surprisingly easy in comparison to the 16-bit equivalents.

** ''Sonic 2'' for the UsefulNotes/GameGear and UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem is horrible about this. Underground Zone, the game's first, is modestly challenging up until the boss, and even that is beatable with some practice ([[WakeUpCallBoss although still surprisingly difficult considering it's the first boss]]). The next zone, Sky High, is more difficult than anything up until Scrambled Egg and Crystal Egg, the final two levels, due to unintuitive hang glider controls. Aqua Lake is back to being relatively easy, then bounces back to being NintendoHard with the second act. Green Hills (note the "s") isn't very hard at all until the third act, which is one of the hardest in the game. The game seems to make up its mind about its difficulty level starting with Gimmick Mountain.