History NintendoHard / TurnBasedStrategy

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776''. This game is known for being extremely difficult, and its reputation is well-deserved. The game constantly presents the player with difficult scenarios (the Munster prison break arc, Saias showing up, the battle with Reinhart, the defense of Tarrah) and has an RNG that is a lot more strict compared to the rest of the series (with accuracy going from 1-99 instead of 0-100, accurate hits that tend to miss, inaccurate hits that can screw you over), enemy and obstacle placements that can be a pain to deal with, limited resources, permanent status effects and dismounting having much harsher penalties compared to ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'', and the ill-prepared player will receive a game over or lose a unit every time with the constant difficulty spikes after the first 3-4 basic chapters. The game comes packing a handful of features (capture, rescue, fatigue, night combat and surprise ambushes due to the Fog of War mechanic, leadership stars, etc.) that further increase the game's difficulty. The player is of course given plenty of tools to adapt to these challenges, and by virtue of the game's high difficulty level you're essentially forced to use them. Getting the highest rank of SSS requires a lot of skill and planning.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'', the next game after ''Thracia 776'', is the only one that might rival it for "hardest game in the series on Normal difficulty" (later games added [[SerialEscalation increasingly higher difficulty levels]] in order to simultaneously make the series friendly to newcomers and provide challenges for veterans who enjoyed the ridiculousness of the early games). While fatigue meters, leadership stars, and unit capturing are gone (and only the last has ever returned, in a much less frustrating form), FogOfWar became a mainstay, as did gaiden chapters, with the addition that missing even one of these gaiden chapters--or allowing the {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}s that you acquired therein to break prior to the end of the chapter in question--would cause the game to end three chapters prematurely. This was also the game that codified the series' desert maps (namely the part about the hidden items scattered across the maps, something that ''Radiant Dawn'' extended to nearly ''every map''), except this game's incarnation of the desert map was also a FogOfWar map...with a requirement for unlocking a gaiden chapter...that involved keeping alive a freshly recruited and forced party member with stats so poor that were she an enemy, your main character could kill her in one round with his starting stats.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776''. This game is known for being extremely difficult, and its reputation is well-deserved. The game constantly presents the player with difficult scenarios (Manster prison break, Cyas, Reinhart, defense of Tahra), and the ill-prepared player will receive a game over every time. The game comes packing a handful of features (capture, rescue, fatigue, night combat, leadership stars, etc.) that further increase the game's difficulty. The player is of course given plenty of tools to adapt to these challenges, and by virtue of the game's high difficulty level you're essentially forced to use them. Getting the highest rank of SSS requires a lot of skill and planning.

* ''VideoGame/HoshigamiRuiningBlueEarth'' for the Playstation. It's a tactics RPG with a ridiculously complicated magic system (which you'll have to master if you want to get anywhere in the game), and the battles are all stacked heavily against you. There's one early-game mission where you have to save someone who starts on the other side of the map, surrounded by enemies, and you have to rescue her. Did I mention that {{Permadeath}} holds true for any character you lose?

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem New Mystery of the Emblem]]'' on Lunatic ramps the difficulty [[UpToEleven past 11 and up to 15]]. Not even exaggerating. Even if you expect ''Shadow Dragon Hard 5'' difficulty, you're going to have a miserable time on Prologue 4, not even halfway through the prologue chapters, showing how much of a joke in comparison Hard 5 is. Three words: [[spoiler:[[DemonicSpider 19 Attack Archer]]]]. Yep, the difficulty level adds more enemies, including the [[spoiler:archer]]. Unfortunately, using the Wi-Fi features makes the game significantly easier, and there is no rank past the easy to achieve A rank. (Note that this is the first game in the series into include Casual Mode, which makes units retreat until the next chapter instead of dying for good, so much of the difficulty is completely optional.)

*** The most infuriating of these aforementioned bosses is [=ZweiZerGain=], which has heightened damage resistance, increased hit/evade rates, and most notably the support ability After Image which makes any move completely miss it, even if you have a 100% hit rate. He pulls After Image so much one has to save after every move and abuse the reset function to try and hit him.

* XCOM's spiritual successor, VideoGame/{{Xenonauts}}, has become infamous due to its [[Main/HighAltitudeBattle aerial combat system]] - especially in the more recent builds. The ground missions can be nasty too, especially alien base assaults.

* ''VideoGame/YggdraUnion'' is probably the hardest game on the GBA, although subverted that the game actually got easier if you perform better. Most of the time, you must plan ahead for a turn or two so that your enemy won't form a union to wipe yours out. Playing badly will make the game outright hard due to the lack of +2 MVP bonuses and good items.
** And remember [[ThatOneBoss Gulcasa and Genocide]], along with the nigh-maxed [[TheDragon Baldus]].
** Sometimes, Mizer will appear out of nowhere to make your life much harder (especially if you weren't expecting an ambush).

* The ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' series is quite difficult, with a few exceptions. Enemies always outnumber you, new recruits are often quite weak, FinalDeath applies to everybody with only a few games allowing for resurrection and putting strict limits on it, characters can easily fall behind if they don't get any kills in just ''one'' mission, you have a fairly limited amount of money, shopping must be done ''during battles'', inventories are often very small, weapons wear down and if they break units are totally defenseless with the strongest weapons often having the lowest durability, and character growth is totally randomized with a scant few items that can boost stats by one or two points. The two games that ''break'' some of these rules, ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden Gaiden]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones The Sacred Stones]]'', are actually the easiest of the bunch.

* ''VideoGame/HoshigamiRuiningBlueEarth'' for the Playstation probably fits this trope as well. It's a tactics RPG with a ridiculously complicated magic system (which you'll have to master if you want to get anywhere in the game), and the battles are all stacked incredibly heavily against you. There's one early-game mission where you have to save someone who starts on the other side of the map, surrounded by enemies, and you have to rescue her. Did I mention that FinalDeath holds true for any character you lose?