8 Games Harder Than Elden Ring (2024)

In recent years, Elden Ring has become the new hard game on the block, especially with the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Quite a lot of people complained about how hard the DLC was, but truly hardcore gamers know that Elden Ring is leagues behind the hardest games out there.

For one, it's an RPG, meaning you can grind, but the combat's also far slower-paced. Some of the actual hardest games of all time, whether old school or modern, go at Supersonic speed and offer much greater challenges to overcome.

8 Ninja Gaiden 2

The Very Antithesis Of Elden Ring's Design

The perfect game that'll put any Soulslike veteran in their place is Ninja Gaiden 2. It's the complete opposite of a Souls game design-wise. Souls are RPGs; NG2 is a linear action game. Souls have slow chess-like combat, while NG2 is so fast-paced that you'll actually need some real-life dexterity and reaction skills in order to beat this game on Master Ninja.

Sure, there's tricks like grinding spots or despawning enemies, but it's still uber-tough, especially at the beginning and end. The first six chapters are the hardest, as you're the most limited in your abilities, while the endgame gets really strict with shops, with only one available in chapter 13. Like Elden Ring, however, you can do challenge runs to push your skills even further.

7 Radiant Silvergun

A Hardcore Shmup

If you want to play the hardest shmups around, play Touhou Seirensen, but if you want to play something more mainstream but still incredibly challenging, Radiant Silvergun will be for you. The Xbox Store reviews aren't lying when they say this game is for expert shmup players and not for genre beginners.

The pure savagery this game dishes out will make most beginners quit. Spacing and movement are so important in Silvergun and are required skills. Evading all these bullets isn't so much reaction, although that helps; it is more expert-level movement, especially more so in Silvergun as opposed to Ikaruga, where you at least have a little safe moment when swapping colors.

6 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

A Way Harder FromSoftware Title

Frankly, Elden Ring isn't even in the top three hardest FromSoftware games. Many people think the original Demon's Souls is the hardest FromSoftware game ever, but the toughest all around would have to be Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It's the most difficult for three key reasons. One, Sekiro isn't an RPG but rather a standard action-adventure game, making it much more harsh right off the bat.

Second, parrying is key to winning in Sekiro and requires a skill that not everyone will have. Third, the game's super confusing for beginners. You don't only damage the boss's health, but rather their posture, with the boss's meter increasing instead of draining. That confusing visual meter alone is completely counterintuitive to everything you know about FromSoftware and could lead to players quitting very early on.

5 Super Monkey Ball

Maximum Precision

Whether the original GameCube versions or the phenomenal Banana Mania remake, the classic Monkey Ball games must be some of the hardest mainstream triple-A games of all time. The total precision required and your movement skills just have to be on another level to consistently beat these stages.

There's a reason why Banana Mania removed the lives system: you can at least beat these stages, even if it takes you hours to do so. If you're going back to the original GameCube versions, good luck actually getting to the Master stages. Most players recommend that people use a glitch in Monkey Ball 1 to even get to them if that tells you anything about how truly hard it is.

4 Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

The Hardest Nintendo Game On The Switch

Donkey Kong Country has always been known for its challenging gameplay, and the reboot, DKC Returns, was no different. Those later Temple stages took a lot of attempts, and that final boss was pretty rough. However, Tropical Freeze is in a completely different league. First off, the game gets really hard, really fast, especially compared to Returns.

Starting from the World Two Temple stage, you're already required to perfectly bounce off enemies to progress, and that level of precision wasn't really required until about World Five in Returns. The bosses are also much more difficult, with each one having multiple phases in contrast to Returns, which only really had that in the final boss. There's a reason why the Switch port added an Easy mode: even for a DKC game, Tropical Freeze pushed things to the absolute limit.

3 Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts

One Of The Hardest Games On The SNES

For most, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts will be the hardest game in the series to fully beat. All of them are brutal, with their strict hit limit, enemies coming from all directions, and multiple-stage hazards, but Super is the hardest for a few key reasons. Resurrection, the newest instalment, would be the longest game in the series, but you can play on the second lowest difficulty to make both loops easier.

The original introduced the infamous loop mechanic the series is known for, but it is the shortest game of them all. Super has to be the hardest overall, with no real Easy mode and a pretty beefy campaign that you must beat twice to see the full ending.

2 Haunted Castle

The Hardest Castlevania

It's safe to say that Castlevania 1 is the most remade non-puzzle game of all time. There's so many versions on different systems highlighting Simon Belmont's first trek into Dracula's Castle. The toughest one around, however, had to be the arcade version, Haunted Castle. This was a relatively unknown game in the Castlevania series until the mid to late 2000s, when it gained an infamous reputation within the community.

Even diehard Castlevania fans had serious trouble beating this game, and this wasn't helped by the fact that many arcade emulators back then didn't offer save states like they do now. The movement here was a lot more sluggish compared to the smoother feel of the NES or PS1 Chronicles versions. This means you'll eat a lot more hits than usual.

1 Sifu

The Hardest Martial Arts Game Around

One of the best and hardest action games in recent memory has to be Sifu. The main campaign is already incredibly difficult on its default setting, with super tough boss fights and a very limited upgrade system. Yes, there's an Easy mode, but you can't switch back to Normal later, which is pretty bad in a game meant for multiple runs on a single save file.

The real meat of the game, however, is Arena mode. You start with all the available moves, which is great, but the fights here are much harder to compensate. The mode starts challenging enough, but it gets harder and harder as you progress, with the endgame fights being ludicrous. The difficulty here compared to Elden Ring or even the mission mode of NG2 is unrivaled.