Quotes / Sequel Difficulty Spike

"Hands down, this is the hardest 3D Mario game, maybe the hardest Mario period. The upbeat music, the pretty colours, slipping-sliding through some palm trees, that's all bullshit. This game is not a 'vacation'; this is about being the best guy ever or getting your dick knocked off."

—videogamedunkey on Super Mario Sunshine, "Dunkey's Best of 2014"

"All right. We've just put out the biggest and best video game ever. Now we must get to work on the sequel, which naturally must use the same engine and graphics as the first game and be as maddeningly difficult and frustrating as our programmers' ones and zeros can allow. IT IS THE ONLY WAY."

— Pat R. on Final Fantasy II (or was it Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels?)

"It's even tougher than the original."

— Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest commercial

Kazooie: Great, I get to peck some more witch butt! Let's go, Banjo!

Banjo: Sigh... I've a feeling it's not going to be so easy this time...

— Banjo-Tooie

"Where the first game (Innocent Sin) was embarrassingly easy for at least half the game, Eternal Punishment demands that players contact demons constantly, grind up Persona levels with fusion attacks, replace Personas every two to four dungeons, and, at times, require specific Personas if you want a quality chance at success in certain boss fights."

— KBash on "The Most Punishing Persona Games"

"[X-COM: Terror from the Deep] is significantly harder than UFO, however – everything feels as though it’s geared towards more experienced players. Your starting weapons are much weaker, some of the missions are gruelling in length, the laser-equivalent Gauss weapons now require ammunition, and some alien types are incredibly resistant to most of your arsenal. This perhaps wasn’t helped by a difficulty bug in the original UFO – the first game would revert to the easiest difficulty after a single mission. Anyone attempting a Superhuman run in Terror From The Deep would be in for a nasty surprise!"

—Stuart Brown, RetroAhoy: X-COM

Oh, what a thrill it was
To fight before because
My Pokémon took all the hits!
This target on my back
Makes every last impact
Feel worse than twenty million crits!

— "Legendary Beatdown" by RecD, on Pokémon Legends: Arceus

[...] as much as we like to compliment ourselves on the fact that we only lost one person in the last run, and, like, we were playing on Hard Mode, and everything, make no mistake guys. We are not going into this game deathless!

—The Green Scorpion, starting his Let's Play of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

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