History ThatOneLevel / HackAndSlash

** ''Legends'' brings chapter two of Gannondorf's chapter. For the most part it plays out the same as the original version, until you get to the final phase, where Lana doubles herself and tries to flee. In the original, both doubles had half health and a fair way to run. This time, Lana splits into ''three'' full-health copies, which start sprinting in different directions. Each still has Lana's "commander" flag, giving her plenty of health and a strong AI. You ''will not'' be able to hunt them down alone. Fortunately, Zant and Girahim are there to help, and will run to intercept two of the Lanas... but if you left them to their own devices, they'll be horribly out of position, their pathfinding when ordered to chase a target is moronic, and even if they catch her Lana will ignore them and keep running unless the player assumes control. Manually ordering them to the escape points is the way to go... but unless you're deep into Adventure Mode, Zant and Girahim will still be locked, meaning they have default weapons, no badges, and pitiful health and damage, meaning it's difficult to stall them, let alone defeat them. he only reliable way to do this is to start moving Gannondorf to intercept the fleeing doubles before they actually appear, and tie up two while sending both other characters to intercept the last one. Oh, and just to add insult to injury, since checkpoint triggers are processed in the dialogue queue, it's possible for the final checkpoint to save while the level is already UnwinnableByMistake. Have fun!

** Chapter 5 is a brick wall for a lot of new players. Not only is it the second longest level in the game, with no fewer than ''fourteen verses'' (eleven if you don't do the Alfheims), it introduces a whole host of aggravating angels -- Grace and Glory (similar in many ways to Gracious and Glorious from the previous example, the main difference being that you can Witch Time off these guys), the Fearlesses (the even worse version of the Fairnesses from Chapter 3), the Harmonies (raylike angels that you have to fight for the first time right AFTER a Grace and Glory fight), and the Inspired (big-ass snake angels that like to move fast, shoot fireballs and whip you with their tails). It also has several platforming segments that either do damage to you if you fuck up (in a chapter where you don't want to take damage) or kill you outright in the later ones, and to top it all off, the end fight is another big showdown with [[ThatOneBoss Jeanne]]. Good luck getting through it all on one lifebar, especially if you're new to the game and [[EarlyGameHell don't have everything yet]].

** Chapter 5 is a brick wall for a lot of new players. Not only is it the second longest level in the game, with no fewer than ''fourteen verses'' (eleven if you don't do the Alfheims), it introduces a whole host of aggravating angels -- Grace and Glory (similar in many ways to Gracious and Glorious from the previous example, the main difference being that you can Witch Time off these guys), the Fearlesses (the even worse version of the Fairnesses from Chapter 3), the Ardors (sword and shield angels that do incredibly fast combo attacks), Kinships (shiplike angels that fire volleys of homing missiles), and Harmonies (raylike angels that you have to fight for the first time right AFTER a Grace and Glory fight), and to top it all off, the end fight is another big showdown with [[ThatOneBoss Jeanne]]. Good luck getting through it all on one lifebar, especially if you're new to the game and [[EarlyGameHell don't have everything yet]].

** ''Franchise/DevilMayCry 4'''s Mission 10 is almost unanimously the WORST mission in the entire game. There are more than enough {{death trap}}s to wipe out your life bars, and the boss at the end ([[spoiler:Dante himself]]) is unanimously also [[ThatOneBoss the most difficult boss in the entire game]].

** Chapter 5 is a brick wall for a lot of new players. Not only is it the second longest level in the game, with no fewer than ''fourteen verses'' (eleven if you don't do the Alfheims), it is the introduction to Grace and Glory (similar in many ways to Gracious and Glorious from the previous example, the main difference being that you can Witch Time off these guys), it introduces the as-annoying Ardors, Kinships and Harmonies (the last of which you have to fight for the first time right AFTER a Grace and Glory fight), and to top it all off, the end fight is another big showdown with [[ThatOneBoss Jeanne]]. Good luck getting through it all on one lifebar, especially if you're new to the game and [[EarlyGameHell don't have everything yet]].

** Chapter 5 is a brick wall for a lot of new players. Not only is it the second longest level in the game, with no fewer than ''fourteen verses'' (eleven if you don't do the Alfheims), it is the introduction to Grace and Glory (similar in many ways to Gracious and Glorious from the previous example, the main difference being that you can Witch Time off these guys), it introduces the as-annoying Ardors and Harmonies (the latter of which you have to fight for the first time right AFTER a Grace and Glory fight), and to top it all off, the end fight is another big showdown with [[ThatOneBoss Jeanne]]. Good luck getting through it all on one lifebar, especially if you're new to the game and [[EarlyGameHell don't have everything yet]].

** Chapter 5 is a brick wall for a lot of new players. Not only is it ''long'', with no fewer than ''fourteen verses'' (eleven if you don't do the Alfheims), it is the introduction to Grace and Glory (similar in many ways to Gracious and Glorious from the previous example, the main difference being that you can Witch Time off these guys), it introduces the as-annoying Ardors and Harmonies (the latter of which you have to fight for the first time right AFTER a Grace and Glory fight), and to top it all off, the end fight is another big showdown with [[ThatOneBoss Jeanne]]. Good luck getting through it all on one lifebar, especially if you're new to the game and [[EarlyGameHell don't have everything yet]].

** Chapter 5 is a brick wall for a lot of new players. Not only is it rather long, with no fewer than ''fourteen verses'' (eleven if you don't do the Alfheims), it is the introduction to Grace and Glory (similar in many ways to Gracious and Glorious from the previous example, the main difference being that you can Witch Time off these guys), it introduces the as-annoying Ardors and Harmonies (the latter of which you have to fight for the first time right AFTER a Grace and Glory fight), and to top it all off, the end fight is another big showdown with [[ThatOneBoss Jeanne]]. Good luck getting through it all on one lifebar, especially if you're new to the game and [[EarlyGameHell don't have everything yet]].

** Chapter 5 is a brick wall for a lot of new players. Not only is it rather long, with approximately eight to ten fights, it is the introduction to Grace and Glory (the two aggravating enemies from the last example), it introduces the as-annoying Ardors and Harmonies, and to top it all off, the end fight is another big showdown with [[ThatOneBoss Jeanne]]. Good luck getting through it all on one lifebar, especially if you're new to the game and [[EarlyGameHell you don't have everything yet]].

** Chapter 5 is long as hell, with approximately ''twelve'' or so fights, it is the introduction to Grace and Glory (the two aggravating enemies from the last example), it introduces the as-annoying Ardors and Harmonies, and to top it all off, you have to fight Jeanne again at the end of the level. Good luck getting through on one lifebar, especially if you're new to the game and [[EarlyGameHell you don't have everything yet]].

** Chapter 5 is long as hell, with approximately ''twelve'' or so fights, it is the introduction to Grace and Glory, the two aggravating enemies from the last example, it introduces the as-annoying Ardors and Harmonies, and to top it all off, you have to fight Jeanne again at the end of the level. Good luck getting through on one lifebar if you're new to the game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}''. You've played through Normal mode, had a blast, [[spoiler:[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punched God]] [[MegatonPunch into the sun]]]], and you've unlocked Hard Mode. Shouldn't be too bad, right? Unfortunately, in Hard Mode, the ''very first level'' is that one level. Halfway through the level, you're on the wings of a plane, in [[BulletTime Witch Time]], and because it's the tutorial level, this is the part where you learn about [[LimitBreak torture attacks]]. You must execute three of them to pass this point, and you have to do it within the time limit before the plane you and Jeanne are on crashes and you die. They don't redo the tutorial itself, but you still gotta do the torture attacks...against '''[[DemonicSpiders Gracious and Glorious]]'''. To do a torture attack, you spend 8 units of magic. You get one unit for every few hits you land on an enemy, and lose '''''4''''' if you get hit. On normal, this wasn't so bad, because the enemies were pathetic. On hard, it's hell, because Gracious and/or Glorious just love to interrupt your combos, and are as aggressive as sharks in a feeding frenzy. The rest of the game isn't anywhere near this bad, and it's humiliating to get your ass handed to you sixteen dozen times ''on the tutorial level''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}''. You've played through Normal mode, had a blast, [[spoiler:[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punched God]] [[MegatonPunch into the sun]]]], and you've unlocked Hard Mode. Shouldn't be too bad, right? Unfortunately, in Hard Mode, ''Level 1'' is that one level. Halfway through the level, you're on the wings of a plane, in [[BulletTime Witch Time]], and because it's the tutorial level, this is the part where you learn about [[LimitBreak torture attacks]]. You must execute 3 to pass this point. They don't redo the tutorial itself, but you still gotta do the torture attacks, and within the time limit before the plane you're on crashes and you die. The catch? You're fighting '''[[DemonicSpiders Gracious and Glorious]]'''. To do a torture attack, you spend 8 units of magic. You get one unit for every few hits you land on an enemy, and lose '''''4''''' if you get hit. On normal, this wasn't so bad, because the enemies were pathetic. On hard, it's hell, because Gracious and/or Glorious just love to interrupt your combos, and are as aggressive as sharks in a feeding frenzy. The rest of the game isn't anywhere near this bad, and it's humiliating to get your ass handed to you sixteen dozen times ''on the tutorial level''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}''. You've played through Normal mode, had a blast, [[spoiler:[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punched God]] [[MegatonPunch into the sun]]]], and you've unlocked Hard Mode. Shouldn't be too bad, right? Unfortunately, in Hard Mode, ''Level 1'' is that one level. Halfway through the level, you're on the wings of a plane, in [[BulletTime Witch Time]], and because it's the tutorial level, this is the part where you learn about [[LimitBreak torture attacks]]. You must execute 3 to pass this point. They don't redo the tutorial itelf, but you still gotta do the torture attacks... against [[DemonicSpiders Gracious and Glorious]]. To do a torture attack, you spend 8 units of magic. You get one unit for every few hits you land on an enemy, and lose '''''4''''' if you get hit. On normal, this wasn't so bad, because the enemies were pathetic. On hard, it's hell, because Gracious and/or Glorious just love to interrupt your combos, and are as aggressive as sharks in a feeding frenzy. The rest of the game isn't anywhere near this bad, and it's humiliating to get your ass handed to you sixteen dozen times ''on the tutorial level''.

* ''VideoGame/FistOfTheNorthStarKensRage'': the final chapter of Legend mode the first time through is an absolute nightmare. First of all, the game makes it very easy to collect mission stars - keep in mind collecting these gives all enemies (bosses included) an attack boost, and the only way to avoid getting enough stars for the first buff is to [[ViolationOfCommonSense counter-intuitively]] run right past a bunch of {{Mooks}} the game lights up for you. Once you get up to the gate before the final boss (the level's one courtesy is that it's short and simple in layout), you have a gauntlet of dodging falling pillars, then it takes SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity to a new level by putting a two-wave ambush in the room with the stage's last pickups. The second wave of this has ''four'' minibosses at once, and if you're forced to grab the water (or worse, food) during this fight, you can end up heading into to FinalBoss with no spirit and a severely drained health bar. And said boss? A MarathonBoss with no checkpoints, no recovery items present (a nasty shock, since every previous boss had a few crates lying around), capable of offing you in two or three hits with the only checkpoint being at the very start of the battle.

* Mission 19 in ''Franchise/DevilMayCry 3''. There's this bit where the DemonicSpiders known as Abysses appear and you have to kill them off before the huge hourglass in the background runs down. If you don't, the Abysses reappear but your damage taken and items used stay as they were right before the hourglass had reset. Then it caps off with [[spoiler:the horrible blob Arkham]], who is most certainly ThatOneBoss. The BossRush levels in ''3'' and ''4'' also fit to some extent.

** ''Franchise/DevilMayCry 4'''s Mission 10 is almost unanimously the WORST mission in the entire game. There is more than enough {{death trap}}s to wipe out your life bars, and the boss at the end is unanimously also [[ThatOneBoss the most difficult boss in the entire game]].

** ''Franchise/DevilMayCry 4'''s Mission 10 is almost unanimously the WORST mission in the entire game. There is more than enough {{death trap}}s to wipe out your life bars, and the boss at the end is unanimously also [[ThatOneBoss the worst boss in the entire game]].

* In ''{{Drakengard}}'', we have Leonard's Regret, specifically the verse "Gleamings". Aside from the waves of those ever-annoying bulb-armor knights, the end of the stage sees you fighting a dozen heavy cavalry. They have an attack that causes them to charge at you and send you flying if it hits. Since there are so many of them, several are ''guaranteed'' to charge at once, and MercyInvincibility doesn't kick in until you recover, so prepare to be ping-ponged between several of them. Oh, and they ''love'' doing this while you're busy attacking one cavalryman and they're offscreen. And there are ''two more waves'' after the first. Best to call out Leonard for the last one...

** This editor cracked up when, after dying one too many times to the terrain in Path of Hades, the game prompted him to switch to easy mode, with the note that "this will only affect combat." Yes, because that would ''certainly'' help me deal with niggling jumps and climb your blasted whirling bladed cylinder of pointy doom.

[[AC:VideoGame/GodOfWar]]

* In God of War 2, there's the part where you have to protect the Translator. It basically involves [[EscortMission carrying around]] the ultimate SquishyWizard on your back and trying to protect him from the game's most frustrating DemonicSpiders, the Satyrs and the Minotaur Priests, enemies you would be lucky enough to survive against yourself! It's only moderately difficult on some of the more human difficulty levels, but on Titan, it can be seemingly impossible. If you haven't upgraded ''just right'' up until this point (usually by [[LevelGrinding exploiting infinite respawn and / or magic areas for experience orbs]]), you could be stuck in an {{Unwinnable}} situation. To add insult to injury, ''you can totally see the final boss lair from the balcony!!!'' At least when / if you ever get past this part, you immediately get to [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential smash the fragile little bastard's face into a book]] to [[CatharsisFactor vent your frustrations]].

* The Cavern from ''[[VideoGame/GodOfWar God of War III]]''. You're on a moving platform in the form of a giant box held up by a chain. The basic minions attacking aren't difficult, but then [[DemonicSpiders two minotaur]] appear, determined to break the chain, which is followed by another mook rush. Followed by two more with archers sniping at you. More mooks follow, and then SEVERAL more attack. And if you fail at any point, you have to start over.
* The Trials of Archimedes from ''[[VideoGame/GodOfWar God of War: Ascension]]'' is another contender. Basically you must endure three waves, each with powerful enemies consisting of [[DemonicSpider lightning sirens, gorgons]], [[GoddamnBats harpies]] and other powerful enemies. The real kicker is that there is little to no health powerups and if you die, you have to start from the first wave all over again. It becomes so bad that a patch is later released so that you regain health and magic for each waves cleared.

** The worst was where you had to move a box along a floor in a certain time limit, or else spikes would come out of the floor and instantly kill you. I got through Hades with no problems (no, I have no idea how), and it took me a ton of tries to get past that damn room.

** ''The Stars Are Left'' DLC is meant as a challenge for experienced players, but most of it isn't TOO too hard...until you reach Chapter 3: [[spoiler:The Nightmare Corpse-City Of R'Lyeh]]. The main reason is that the game abruptly switches from straight up action to facing you with puzzles. Of the four puzzles in the Chapter, one requires you to run at top speed through a corridor while being chased by an endlessly spawning horde of tough enemies before reaching an area where an enemy that can kill you in one hit appears with no warning, forcing you to react the right way within split second, one borders on SolveTheSoupCans, one is a more reasonable but quite tricky puzzle, and one requires you to run across invisible bridges while being harried by very powerful enemies. And once you solve two of the four, you have to fight a boss to continue. And your reward for beating that? ''The hardest boss in Magicka, BAR NONE''.

* Mission 19 in ''DevilMayCry 3''. There's this bit where the DemonicSpiders known as Abysses appear and you have to kill them off before the huge hourglass in the background runs down. If you don't, the Abysses reappear but your damage taken and items used stay as they were right before the hourglass had reset. Then it caps off with [[spoiler:the horrible blob Arkham]], who is most certainly ThatOneBoss. The BossRush levels in ''3'' and ''4'' also fit to some extent.

** DevilMayCry 4's Mission 10 is almost unanimously the WORST mission in the entire game. There is more than enough {{death trap}}s to wipe out your life bars, and the boss at the end is unanimously also [[ThatOneBoss the worst boss in the entire game]].

[[AC:DynastyWarriors]]

** For the best rewards, the "fight against two armies" quest that drops Darunia's level 2 weapon qualifies. In order to win, you have to defeat two armies' commanders (general-class versions of the Icy Big Poe and Gibdo), with the army that you're not beating becoming stronger the more you fight the other. Foes will regularly make forays into your territory, frequently requiring you to run back and play defense (while controlling the slowest runner in the game). Also, there will be three Manhandla stalks that will spawn and start an artillery rain on your base, and allowing it to continue for any amount of time will result in a severely weakened base camp (this can cross over into LuckBasedMission - if all three spawn near your start point, it's manageable. If none do, get running). Even all of that is comparatively manageable. However, due to how spread out everything (including enemy encampments and raids) are, the A-rank requirements of 1500 downed foes in 15 minutes (again, with the [[MightyGlacier slowest character in the game]]) require a combination of serious leveling as well as a highly coordinated plan that must be modified for random factors. (Did the stalks spawn near you? Did either general decide to advance on your base? Can you afford to hold off on rescuing Impa to finish taking this base, or do you run back and risk Raid Captains spawning from it?)

* ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'', the spin-off based on ''Franchise/TheLegendofZelda'' universe, has the first chapter of Cia's tale in the Master Quest DLC pack, which really lives up to the "Master Quest" name. You will be constantly switching back and forth between offense and defense in this mission. In the first part you have to capture four keeps controlled by Volga's army, all while protecting your main base from Goron invasions which include Bombchus, and protecting your ally Wizzro from a series of [[DemonicSpiders Lizalfos and Dinalfos Chieftains]]. The last part of the mission has you scrambling to save your main base from [[spoiler:Wizzro after he betrays you]] as well as Volga and two King Dodongos. That's four bosses at once!