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* Creator/{{Nicalis}} is beginning to get a reputation for this, with ''[[VideoGame/CaveStory Cave Story's]]'' infamous Sacred Grounds / Blood Stained Sanctuary, or the entirety of ''[[VideoGame/OneThousandAndOneSpikes 1001 Spikes]]''.
* Creator/{{CAVE}} has a well-deserved reputation for this, generally in a "tough but fair" way. The designer for ''[[VideoGame/DonPachi DoDonPachi Saidaioujou]]'' said of the game, "I hope it takes at least 7 years to beat." Their games also usually have a TrueFinalBoss which makes the ''entire rest of the game combined'' look like a piece of cake.
* LJN. TheProblemWithLicensedGames was just as prevalent back then as it is now. They didn't actually ''make'' games, but the ones they published were almost always punishingly difficult, and savvy players knew to avoid any game with LJN's rainbow of death on it. FakeDifficulty is rife in these rather execrable games. Notably (and frequently bad) games by LJN include: ''VideoGame/FridayThe13th'', ''VideoGame/WhoFramedRogerRabbit?'', ''VideoGame/TheTerminator'', ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'', ''Franchise/XMen'', ''VideoGame/{{Jaws}}'', ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'', ''[[Videogame/ANightmareOnElmStreetNES A Nightmare on Elm Street]]'', and ''VideoGame/TheKarateKid''. UK developer Software Creations, creator of many LJN games qualifies as well.
** ''VideoGame/FridayThe13th'' managed to gather some fans and can startle well. Horror was a bit hard for 8-bit games to convey. It still featured a frantic, difficult hunt for weapons capable of wounding Jason, who could kill a character in seconds. He would also murder the camp children while you were trying to navigate the many mazes in the game. Oh, and Jason must be killed thrice, growing stronger and carrying weapons as the game goes on.
*** He gets so fast and powerful on the third day, that if you fight him in a cabin he's nearly {{Unwinnable}} (the lousy dodging controls don't help matters). Jason moves around the lake just like you do (Read: No teleporting), which means if you encounter him once, it's easy to encounter him another two or three times in rapid succession. Combined with Jason's ImplacableMan status, and it actually captures the feel of the movies pretty well since it's difficult just to ''escape''. On the other hand, if you get a powerful weapon like the torch or pitchfork, [[WhosLaughingNow it's entirely possible to chase him around the lake and beat the crap out of him within a couple minutes.]]
* Creator/{{Capcom}}! ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins'' is just the beginning, folks:
** ''{{Franchise/Dead Rising}}''...oh boy Dead Rising. It's a doozy of an intense sandbox survival franchise. Each installment includes each game being one giant TimedMission (except for the 4th installment), mixed with [[EscortMission escort missions]], and boss fights that occur in random areas of the games. However the first game is the hardest for those same reasons since the survivor A.I. is wonky at best, stupid at worst.
*** The kicker? To go with the moving clock is a strict schedule of all of the events to occur at certain times of the days in the first three games. So if you don't know how to manage your time properly, (or get sick of [[TheScrappy Otis]] calling you in the middle of said schedule at the wrong time), you can miss survivors, boss fights, and main missions known as scoops if you're not fast enough. Speaking of scoops, missing the story scoops known as cases will cause the story to immediately end the game, sort of giving you a NonStandardGameOver, though you can continue to play the game, but there's no chance of getting the GoldenEnding if you do. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Then there's the]] [[ThatOneAchievement achievements, (specifically 7 Day Survivor)]]. Seriously, you'll need all the quick thinking, and luck to get EVERYTHING in each game. Good luck...
** ''[[VideoGame/GunSmoke Gun.Smoke]]'', i.e. Battletoads with six-shooters: Die with one hit, check. Checkpoints, check. Constant swarms of aggressive foes, check. You are a world-class legend master god if you make it HALFWAY through this.
** ''VideoGame/LegendaryWings'': This one has it all: fast-moving enemies, hard-to-hit enemies, obstructions, and absolute thread-the-needle precision needed to avoid numerous ''routine'' hazards. Even better, if you continue, you get sent back to '''the start of the level'''.
** ''VideoGame/TheSpeedRumbler'': You drive a not very sturdy car through a confusing course with hordes of enemies constantly assailing you and instant death traps scattered everywhere. Every bit as fun as it sounds.
** ''[[VideoGame/NineteenFortyTwo 1943: The Battle of Midway]]'': Starts out fairly simple. Then ramps up. And ramps up some more, until near the end you're spending almost as much time watching the continue counter run down as you are playing the game.
** ''VideoGame/BionicCommando1987'' (original arcade version): Combine OneHitPointWonder and EverythingTryingToKillYou with a protagonist who cannot jump, slide, or climb.
** ''F1 Dream'', a.k.a. Why Capcom Does Not Do Racing Games. Horribly broken game with ALL the headaches associated with the genre. Finishing ''5th'' is a major achievement.
** ''VideoGame/ForgottenWorlds'', ''U.N. Squadron'', and ''Carrier Air Wing'': 1943's spiritual brothers, all every bit as murderous.
** ''[[VideoGame/StriderArcade Strider]]'', one of the most intense and merciless platformers ever; this makes Contra look like a nature walk. Of particular note is the final area before the last boss, a lengthy sequence with tons of hazards that you have to complete while ''upside-down''.
** ''VideoGame/ThreeWonders'''s games-within-a-game ''Midnight Wanderer'' can get rather difficult in the final stages, when platforming action gets ''intense'' and enemies come from every side of the screen at once. ''[[ShootEmUp Chariot]]'' as well.
** This is also a staple of the ''Mega Man'' franchise. See the entries listed under Platform Games for details.
** ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'', especially ''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterFreedom2 Freedom Unite]]''. Although the games ease you into the comfort of hunting initially, the ''massive'' difficulty spike come High and (in expansions) [[HarderThanHard G/Master Ranks]] throws a lot of players off guard. The game requires constant focus on the monster, an attention to carefully managing several items in your supply, and demands lots of practice. Every other monster is ThatOneBoss, and as a BossGame, this isn't comforting. It reaches the point where some late-game quests, such as some of the Elder Dragons, are considered nigh impossible without more than one player. This is all disregarding the constant grinding you'll be doing; without a good armor set or weapon and will to devote several hours to the game, you may as well give up.
* Creator/FromSoftware is notorious for making some of the most punishingly difficult games out there. Examples include the ''[[VideoGame/DemonsSouls Souls]] [[VideoGame/DarkSouls Series]]'', ''[[VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}} Bloodborne]]'', ''[[VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/EldenRing Elden Ring]]''. Their brand of difficulty later becomes [[SoulsLikeRPG another genre of itself]].
* Creator/{{Kaneko}} is an obscure and forgotten company that even manages with brutal and punishing difficulty.
** ''1000 Miglia: Great 1000 Miles Rally'' and it's sequel have harsh time limits, each one having only 60 seconds to complete. Don't expect to win a race, ''even'' if you crash just once.
** ''Air Buster'' doesn't go to harsh on the three levels. That is, until you reach the anti-gravity section.
** ''VideoGame/{{Cyvern The Dragon Weapons}}'' is a Battle Garegga like game with dragons, but with similar difficulty.
** ''VideoGame/{{DJ Boy}}'' and ''B.Rap Boys''. The first one having floaty controls that makes it's harder to fight enemies (not bad, but not entirely responsive). It's sequel, is no better, with enemies that can deplete you health in an instant. It's update, makes things better, thankfully.
** ''VideoGame/{{Jackie Chan The Kung Fu Master}}'', one of the harder fighting games. The opponents can do ''massive'' damage to your health. There's one move that can take ''25%'' out of your health! And, there's three version of Jackie Chans, good luck with that.
** ''Samurai Nihon-Ichhi'', A solid Kung-Fu clone, but with more aggressive enemies and projectiles. If you managed to make to the final level, you deserve a medal.
* [[Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment Namco]] deserves a mention here for some absolutely brutal games.
** ''VideoGame/PolePosition'' and ''Pole Position 2''. Basic gameplay: Accelerate. Sprint. Barely touch a sign or other car and watch your car ''[[EveryCarIsAPinto explode]]''. Lose several seconds. Repeat until you run out of time.
** ''Dragon Spirit''. Vertical scrolling shooter. Not bullet hell, but it hardly matters when 1. you're a big, easy-to-hit target, 2. the whole ''environment'' is trying to kill you, and 3. You have no recovery time, which means you can lose an entire health bar in one hit. Oh yeah, checkpoints. Also.
** ''VideoGame/RollingThunder'' combines lots of aggressive, fast-attacking enemies with distant checkpoints and a hero that's as brittle as glass and has the agility of a three-legged hippo. And believe it or not, ''Rolling Thunder 2'' is even worse.
** On the PSX, ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis'' (the arcade version was tough but not impossible) gives you three life boxes, no crisis sights, and the joy of ''restarting the level at the beginning'' every time you continue.
** ''VideoGame/PropCycle'' required the player to operate a pedal plane. No, not the hero, the ''player'', cranking actual pedals and moving actual handlebars (which were incredibly sensitive). The object was to pop balloons scattered at various locations and elevations. With an unforgiving time limit. And obstacles scattered everywhere. Needless to say, not for the faint of heart.
** It's debatable which version of ''Cyber Sled'' has the more insane 1-player mode, arcade (clock constantly ticking, one loss usually spells doom, taking too long to take down Hans Baird the same, no continuing) or PSX (12 increasingly tough matches, no continuing). Call it a split?
** How about a ''VideoGame/PacMan'' game or two?
*** Look no further than ''Pac-Mania'', featuring 4 increasingly complicated boards (of which you can only see a small portion at any time) and up to ''eight'' ghosts in play. Sure, you can jump, but some of them can too. You can continue as often as you like, but that doesn't make it easier to reach the remote corners of the board, especially in the expansive Jungly Steps.
*** ''Pac-Man Championship Edition 2'' is perhaps the hardest game in the ''Championship Edition'' lineup (consisting of the original, ''Championship Edition DX'', and this), thanks to high movement speeds without any way to mitigate them and weakened ghost trains actively trying to avoid you, and you can only eat a train by eating the head of it (if you run into the side, you'll just bounce off). Plus, in harder difficulties, the Power Pellet and the fruit ''also try to avoid you too!''
** If you thought ''VideoGame/BattleCity'' was easy, try ''Tank Force'' for a change. The pace is much faster, the enemies come from more directions and the level designs themselves are harder.
** The Famicom version of Star Wars which was released only in Japan. In this game, Luke Skywalker [[OneHitPointWonder dies in one hit]] and has to start all the way back if he gets a game over.
* The majority (if not all) of the adventure games published by Creator/{{Sierra}} have a habit of being this. Almost every single one had {{Unwinnable}} situations out the ears. If you didn't pick up an item you may not have noticed and can't return to the room that houses that item, don't even bother to keep playing. And if you saved in an Unwinnable situation, then God help you. The hintbooks were effectively a necessity when playing Sierra adventure games. Another thing that most of their games had were [[TheManyDeathsOfYou ways to die]]. If you did something wrong, poor [[VideoGame/SpaceQuest Roger]], [[VideoGame/KingsQuest Graham, Valanice, Rosella, Alexander]] or [[VideoGame/PoliceQuest Sonny]] could bite the dust and you'd have to restart the game over, reload a previous save, or quit (not the case in some later titles, thankfully). These deaths can sometimes even come right out of nowhere. For instance, in the VGA of Space Quest I, if you attempt to operate the throttle in the escape pod without bucking up, the game kills you instantly for '''no reason whatsoever'''. Note that you can save at any time, so if you haven't saved after making a great deal of progress and then dying, tough shit. Also, some of the [[SolveTheSoupCans object puzzles]] can be [[MoonLogicPuzzle can be outright ridiculous]]. Oh, sorry Leisure Suit Larry 6, how was I supposed to know to [[ItMakesSenseInContext use a key on soap to leave an imprint for making a copy of it with a file and other key]]?! In fact, their games were so hard, that Sierra's mantra is "[[SaveScumming Save early, save often and don't overwrite saves]]". Speaks for itself, really.
* Any game made by the Creator/{{Sega}} Technical Institute tends to be like this.
** ''VideoGame/KidChameleon'' for the Sega Genesis has been called ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy Lite'', and for good reason; between the multiple drill-blocks, spiked pits, numerous enemies, crushing spiked walls and platforms, blocks that ''shoot spikes when touched'', hailstones that fall like rain during certain levels, mazes during the aforementioned crushing spiked wall chase levels made out of rubber blocks, and the sheer amount of levels you have to go through in a single sitting due to the game's utter lack of any sort of save feature, it's a wonder no one has gone insane (that we know of) from playing it.
*** Then there's the dozens upon dozens of "elsewhere" levels in the game. If you take an alternate exit, you end up "elsewhere". Early in the game, this wasn't bad because finishing elsewhere usually took you a few levels forward. Later, who knows? Backwards, forwards, sideways... you'll have no idea until you see another level (maybe an "Elsewhere" level) that you already played a while ago... a long while ago. It's enough to make the "TOO BAD" level (in which taking the wrong path out of two = die and start the level again) seem downright friendly. Indeed, in the final section of the game, you get a bonus for finding the actual flag that ends a level - most of the time you end up wandering between the levels via various inter-level teleporters. And just to really rub it in, there's a secret to skip right to the final boss from the second level of the game, and get the same [[AWinnerIsYou (crappy)]] ending you'd otherwise need to spend a gazillion hours to see.
*** There are also a few levels, in particular [[ThatOneLevel Bloody Swamp]], which are incredibly difficult. It is possible to avoid playing some of these levels, particularly Bloody Swamp, but oftentimes the path of least resistance leads you to these levels. It is not uncommon for players to have accumulated a very large number of extra lives and continues, end up in Bloody Swamp, and lose every single one of them because of the AdvancingWallOfDoom, the very precise timing and platforming required as a result, and the fact that if you die once, you have no access to helmets which would help you complete the level. The level is about 3/4ths of the way through the game as well, meaning that if you want to practice it, you have to beat over half the game to get back there.
** ''VideoGame/ComixZone''. 6 stages, 2 lives (only accessible after finishing the first two stages), [[ThatOneBoss ridiculously hard 4th stage boss]], time-based ending for the final battle, very few healing items, no save system, and the amazing idea that someone had to make you '''take damage''' every time your character punched a non-enemy object, and you were more or less forced to destroy several of them over the course of the game to proceed, sacrificing a good chunk of your health in process. Oh, and the first stage ends with a jump that must be spot on. Still considered an enjoyable game, mostly for the aesthetic and great soundtrack.
*** And because the save state feature has made it, at last, accessible to a normal player.
*** To be fair, most if not all obstacles can be destroyed using items found in-game, it's a matter of knowing exactly where they are or using your rat to find an item on the page that was not listed nor hinted to exist. which still makes it a little silly
*** Also, some versions of the game (assuming that there hasn't been a mistake in the original post) give you a life at the start of the third section (Level 5) as well as the second section (Level 3). This doesn't necessarily make the game that much easier (you still lose all your items if you die, which can make level 4 in particular much more difficult than if you hadn't died, and falling to your death off panel after losing all your health takes out two lives), but it certainly makes it more manageable.
* Many games released by Creator/{{Atlus}}. This includes the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games. In particular, the infamously difficult ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne''. This game was famous for having possibly the most frustrating bosses in the history of JRPG games. Of all the bosses, Matador in particular stands out as being ThatOneBoss among a game FULL of them. As a bonus, WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou is in full trumpets-blaring force through almost the entire ''Shin Megami Tensei'' franchise. Translation: should the Main Character fall, oh, hello '''''again''''', Game Over!
** ''Nocturne'' famously introduced the "Press Turn" battle system, which was later used in spinoff ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga''. This meant getting extra turns for exploiting an opponent's elemental weakness. And also giving the OPPONENT extra turns for exploiting your own elemental (and in one case, status ailment) weaknesses. Since each party member is weak against a different element (or status ailments) chances are any enemy who can cast hit-all elemental spells (that is, 90% of them) will get extra turns. Which will likely be used to cast same elemental spell again. Given that enemies often appear in groups of 5 (each of which capable of casting an elemental hit-all spell, usually different elements) and you start to get the idea.
*** What's more is that if you or your opponent dodge (there's a difference between attacks missing and being dodged) or hit a resistance, they ''lose'' turns. Dodged/voided means 2 turns lost; if the attack is reflected or, even worse, absorbed, '''all of your turns''' are gone. This also happens if you are interrupted while recruiting a demon or fail to escape a battle.
*** The Hard mode cranks this up to eleven. On top of all that, enemies do double damage and have a higher evasion rate, OneHitKO spells have higher chance of working, [[StatusEffects poison]] and traps deal ''triple damage'', items cost triple their buying price (including Magatamas, which are already pretty expensive), it's impossible to flee without using a skill or item for that, and ''there's an item limit''. When the game says this difficulty is "for those seeking the thrill of death", it surely isn't joking.
*** Speaking of ''Digital Devil Saga'', that particular duology is infamous for a different reason: {{Superboss}}es. In both games, the penultimate ones (Huang Long in the first, Seth in the second) are considered to be at least stronger than the {{Final Boss}}es. Then there are the final ones. [[spoiler:The Demi-fiend and Satan]] are several magnitudes of difficulty higher than even Huang Long and Seth, and are widely considered the two strongest bosses in JRPG history.
*** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', ''[[VideoGame/{{Persona 4}} 4]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/{{Persona 5}} 5]]'' use a slightly different system, which only has the extra turns for exploiting elementals. For ''3'', it's not too bad, since all targets have to be weak to get the 1 More (except in ''Portable''), but in ''4'', as long as one target is weak, they get the 1 More. If it wasn't for AIRoulette, you'd see a lot of death from casters spamming Ma- spells. As it is, approximately 90% of deaths are due to this system.
*** [[UpdatedRerelease Persona 3 FES]] also introduced [[PlayableEpilogue The Answer]], which upped the ante even higher. The mode is permanently stuck on hard mode, which meaning tougher encounters, the player is locked out of using the Compendium, and instead of putting teleporters just before floor bosses, they're instead directly ''behind'' them, forcing the player to trek through the dungeon and still have enough resources at the end to handle the boss (and the game doesn't even allow the player to access the mall to buy items until after the first dungeon.)
** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' was no slouch either - your ability to get through dungeons is largely based on how many levels you've ground times your ability to talk your way out of certain enemy battles (especially the sort that hit you with multi-target status effects). Combine that with some absolutely MASSIVE dungeons (good luck remembering where that one location was that you needed to go to because ''it's not marked on the map'') with a long, long walk to every save point (and forget saving before bosses - there's NEVER a save point before a boss) and a limited item list and you'll be spamming save states on an emulator just to maintain your sanity. Oh, and sometimes the map likes to warp you to random locations, and then upon going back you'll be somewhere else. Or you'll fall through the floor. Which will be a damage floor. And you will never, ''ever'' have enough MP, and most of your demons will suck, especially if you're not Neutral and are therefore locked out of recruiting demons of the opposite alignment (and for some reason the hordes of Chaos don't seem to like ''healing spells'').
** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' combines Press Turn with ''not having a defense stat''. "RocketTagGameplay" doesn't even begin to cover it; even enemies much weaker than you can potentially do serious damage to your team if they manage to back-attack you.
** ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' was made Nintendo Hard ''on purpose.'' In interviews with the lead designer, he claimed being greatly inspired by old madness-inducingly hard first-person dungeon crawlers such as ''Dungeon Master'', and specifically wanted to recapture that element. For example, he liked the sensation of having to break out graph paper and draw maps as you're playing, and the strange pride you feel about said maps when they're done, so now ''Etrian Odyssey'' gives you a blank grid and some placeable icons and makes you draw a map instead of doing anything for you. And as any ''Etrian Odyssey'' player can tell you, having to make your own map is the ''least'' of the game's hard elements.
*** The best part is when you get cornered by an F.O.E., and every turn, as you battle it, the surrounding F.O.E.s approach to gang up on you all at once - when any single one of them is a brutally hard boss all on its own. And then there's the floors that are almost entirely damage floors for a whole level - and there's no way to ward that off, by the way.
*** And then there's the invisible F.O.E.
*** ''Music/{{IOSYS}}'' managed to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM5MMqNgUzM beautifully capture the state of mind you will descend to]] if you dare to play.
*** The PointBuildSystem for your characters offers incredible flexibility in how you build up your characters, allowing you to create the JRPG party of your dreams...''if'' you plan and build your characters correctly. Do it wrong and later battles become near-impossible, forcing you to reset your characters' skill builds at the cost of some of their levels and possibly undergo extensive re-grinding.
** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'' is an [[JustForFun/XMeetsY unholy fusion]] of the previous two franchises; the only thing preventing it from being unplayably hard is that the elements it takes from each are a bit less brutal than the originals (the equivalent of F.O.E.s are mostly optional, you have an automap, and the equivalent of Press Turn never benefits your opponents). On the other hand, it also has several [[ThatOneBoss bosses]] that are [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard cheap]] ''even by Creator/{{Atlus}} standards''.
** ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter'' more than deserves a mention here. ''Under the Knife'', ''Second Opinion'', and ''New Blood'' have always been known for their intense learning curve and mission difficulty. ''Under the Knife 2'' takes the difficulty from the previous games, tears it to pieces, stomps on them for a bit, then incinerates the remains in the fires of Hades. One particular example is the first Pempti mission; in ''Under the Knife'' and ''Second Opinion'', Pempti was stupidly luck-based and difficult on its own. In ''Under the Knife 2'', you have ''two'' Pemptis to deal with at the same time (though with the right strategy, you'll kill both within moments of each other and save you some trouble). The final mission can take hours of practice to even get to the last stage (every single GUILT you've fought before appears in the mission, and are able to cause at least ten more damage to vitals than usual), which, in all likelihood, you can lose in a second, due to the game's nature of important things happening when your patient is a second away from death. There's also three major points during that battle that you need to cut certain things while dodging a red line, which deals insane damage and even ''instant death'' on the last major point. Your stylus hand is most likely shaking. And this is on ''Normal mode.''
*** Heck, at least Second Opinion, UTK 2, and New Blood had difficulty levels. Easy mode is relatively painless, save for the last few missions. However, Under the Knife is a completely different story. It HAD no difficulty setting. If you completed the main storyline, chances are you've played every single mission 20 times over.
*** The game is so cruel that if you mess up the timing during the SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome at the end of the game, it's game over, no questions asked.
*** Then there's the X levels, the insidious, demon-possessed bonus levels that come at the end of the game and belong to their own difficulty level. For months after a new game is released, you can bet any walkthroughs will stop dead at the first one.
** ''VideoGame/TraumaTeam'' has the Specialist difficulty. To put this in perspective, a spokesperson stated that it is equivalent to Extreme (the X missions) - and you can make every operation like this.
** And what of ''VideoGame/SnowboardKids'', that obscure Atlus racing series for the N64 (and later, the DS)? The original raised TheComputerIsACheatingBastard to a near art form, with AI that performed perfect turns and got to the coins and items before you could, leaving you with nothing unless the game took pity on you and gave you a half-decent item. Using any character beyond Tommy, Slash, or [[GameBreaker Shinobin]] was basically asking to have your ass kicked. Amazingly, this only applied to human players! Computer-controlled characters actually get better stats than they would if you played them!
*** The sequel, ''Snowboard Kids 2'', reduced the AI's omniscience, but included ''boss battles''. In a ''racing game.'' Where, you not only had to beat the boss to the finish line (and they were faster than you could ever hope to be), you also had to collect items on the course and hit the boss enough times with bombs so they would collapse. Damien's robot still haunts many an N64.
*** As an added bonus, anyone who missed the AI from the first game now had Expert Mode, which gave the computer-controlled characters back their ridiculous advantage over any human player.
** ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'''s Nightmare Segments were so difficult, even on Easy mode, that the company was forced to create a patch to balance the difficulty.
** Basically, you know it's an Atlus game if in your first encounter in a new area, you get ambushed by a group of enemies who go first and eliminate your entire party before you get your first turn.
*** If Atlus were as famous as Nintendo, this trope would probably be called "Atlus Hard" instead. That said, the statement one of their spokesman said about their games is scarily true: "We get off on your tears."
* Creator/{{Treasure}} has occasionally been labelled as this, particularly in regard to their ''VideoGame/SinAndPunishment'' games. At one point, apparently, their boss tried playing ''Sin and Punishment'' and complained that the difficulty was too high, and they needed to tone it down. Treasure staff responded with such comments as [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments "Our director doesn't suit us." and "Those who can't play our games don't deserve to be on our staff."]] Ironically, the inverse happened with its [[VideoGame/SinAndPunishmentStarSuccessor sequel]], where Nintendo staff complained that the game was too easy in testing and told Treasure to bump it up. The late Satoru Iwata was so baffled when he heard this that he said, "[[TemptingFate Of all things, you told none other than Treasure to make it more difficult?]]'' And so they [[GoneHorriblyRight did.]]
* Creator/{{Toaplan}} made some pretty bitchin' hard shmups in their prime. What they lack in BulletHell, they make up for with brutal cheap shots and checkpoints meaning if you don't have the skill, you won't see much of the game even if you abuse continues.
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