Why People Love Playing Hard Games

Have you ever wondered why some of your friends play hard games like Dark Souls, Battletoads or Cuphead?

Well I have and before I started playing Souls games, I had no idea why anyone would torture themselves by playing frustratingly hard games that make you throw your controller or break various other items.

My journey into “hard games“ started with Dark Souls 3. I can honestly tell you that I hated it. Progressing felt like a chore and I had no idea what I was supposed to do or where to go. For some reason I never looked it up, but over dying countless times I managed to progress through difficult areas and Boss fights. There were still times where I got stuck on certain Boss fights (…Damn Dancer..) but somehow I prevailed. Finding my way through harsh areas and killing Bosses, especially if I accomplished it all by myself, made me feel so happy, relieved and proud at the same time. But of course the fear of what awaited me next never disappeared until I finally beat the game.

The feeling of constant dread and fear of whatever will kill you next and the contrast to the extreme happiness after killing a hard Boss after dying over and over again makes it all worth it.

After playing these kinds of games you start seeing it as a challenge and no matter what the game throws at you, you want to beat it. After you accomplished just that you have bragging rights and can tell all your friends about how you beat this really hard game.

Some gamers go even further and try to get all achievements or collectables to get the ultimate bragging rights. Believe me, most gamers who 100% a hard game will tell you about it.

After fully completing the game, some still feel like they weren’t challenged enough so they either make their own challenges or mod the game to make it more challenging.

After finally completing Dark Souls 3, I went on to beat it two more times. Then I went on to try Bloodborne, which had a much faster combat style thanks to the possibility to heal a fraction of your health by attacking after getting hit. Parrying is only possible by shooting the enemy with your gun instead of using a shield because Bloodborne doesn’t have useful shields. For those reasons Bloodborne was more challenging than Dark Souls 3.

When Dark Souls Remastered was released and I played it, and oh boy was I lost. I just couldn’t figure out where to go at so many different points in the game. On top of that the combat was slower than Dark Souls 3 and more unforgiving. Rolling away like Sonic often gets you killed instead of saving your skin. Thanks to those reasons Dark Souls Remastered was more difficult than both Souls games mentioned above.

So in short, gamers who like hard games enjoy being challenged and the satisfied feeling after overcoming these challenges. As an added bonus you get bragging rights for beating these games.

Which hard games did you successfully complete? Why do you enjoy playing such games?