It is mine and i think you need to grow up playing 90s PC Adventure games and not console metroidvanias to love La-Mulana. LM and it's sequel hit the spot almost no other game does for me
I'm happy to see Rabi-Ribi, one of my favorite games of all time, on this list (or in any list at all!). I had a great time with it throughout multiple playthroughs in various difficulties including Bunny Extinction (BEX), and clearing the DLC chapters. Even with the DLC bosses included, I think Irisu is likely my favorite boss in the game. Some of those games looked interesting enough so I may try some of them. I honestly don't mind a bit of challenge in a game, especially if the difficulty is just right like in Rabi-Ribi, and the game is fair and plays well. As long as the game gives me a fair chance to deal with whatever the game throws at me, and any penalty is caused by own mistakes or skill issue, I'm totally okay with that. In those cases all I need to do is to just practice and play better until I get it right.
I'm just happy to see the best MV ever (Rabi Ribi) getting some love. That game on Bex difficulty is an absolute work of art standing tall in any genre. It was also my intro to the shmup genre, specifically touhou games, which is my other favorite genre besides MVs. I've always described La Mulana basically the same. It's like the dev just hates the players and wants them to suffer. Nothing fair, no wanting them to succeed. He just hates them. Ngl I wish there were more games like that of the same high quality. Both games are a treasure.
one day i might play rabi ribi but honestly im not so comfortable with all the sexiness, it feels so out of place for a shmup game lol bu oh i love me some bullet hell
@@blowingoff it's not as raunchy as you might expect (specially compared to other games) it's just the costumes which can be changed for more covered up ones. Also what he says it's true, on the hardest difficulty there's a whole different level of appreciation that is diminished on Normal The game was designed with BEX (highest difficulty) as a base then for the other difficulties they watered it down by reducing bullet density, speed and effects of patterns. So normal might be a bit too easy, the combat is simple but surprisingly deep, i would say try Hard first, it got nerfed not too long ago anyway. BEX is meant for another playthrough or else it's too rough but it's always fair
Fantastic list. Happy to see la mulana take top spot. It has to be the hardest when playing legit without a guide. I like it though! Never beaten it yet mind.
second this. It's such a niche metroidvania. The dopamine hit of solving a difficult puzzle without resorting to a guide.. it's unlike any other game. I absolutely love the lore of the games, the tablets, he character portraits, the environments.. I think the main thing with la mulana is it's not for everyone. The obscurity of the puzzles, the tank controls, the absolute BS when you kill a boss, he self destructs and Instantly kills you.... Regardless of your feelings on the game, the sheer amount of work and research that went into the games has to be respected. They are a true labour of love.
I have played the start of La Mulana a few different times and just stopped because of how punishing deaths were. It made it so tedious to do anything, I spent so much time just navigating back to the spots I was working on a puzzle/understanding something. I had a similar issue with hollowknight, where I loved the game but navigating from a save point to a boss room while I was learning the fight turned me off of it. I am considering trying to go back to both of them and looking for mods to make it a better experience. Repeating the same 5 minute chunk of a game that isn’t challenging 5+ times to get back to the part I’m interested in doesn’t make me feel like a game respects my time, and as someone with some disabilities that make certain things harder for me, that’s a deal breaker. The hollow knight modding community is great so I’m sure something that will work for me exists there (like, respawn outside of boss room would be pretty much perfect for me), but idk about la mulana. I hope it does, but it’s a little hard for me to figure out what I’d need changed to enjoy that game.
La mulana is all kinds of brutal. Its almost hard to believe the game has a hard mode. I would strongly recommend la mulana 2 for anyone who enjoyed the first. Its slightly more streamlined and accessible with less oscure puzzles and improves on the gameplay in most aspects.
La-Mulana is such a great game; it's probably the most engaging Metroidvania I've ever played. And this goes for its sequel as well; there really aren't any other Metroidvania's like them out there. They give you the tools to succeed, but don't spell things out for you (usually, some puzzle solutions are just straight up told to you early on); you need to piece together information from NPCs, tablets and even the results of finishing some other puzzles to solve later puzzles. It makes the world feel very deep and connected, and the increasing challenge only serves to amplify that sense of progression. Once you beat the games the first time, of course, you can never get that learning experience again, since you'll already know how to solve all the puzzles on a repeat playthrough, so definitely cherish that first experience where you get to have the true Indiana Jones and archeologist experience ^^ Oh and the music in both games are absolute bangers as well!
I love La-Mulana simply because it respects the player's intelligence. I wish it were designed a little better, but it really is a phenomenal game. i absolutley love its lore.
At least as far as what I've played, I think I'm split between "Rabi-Ribi" and "Bunny Must Die: Chelsea & the 7 Devils" being the hardest for me. Though I do admit my perspective is a bit skewed since I'm factoring in the platinum experience for both. Cause well, that's what my experience with them were like. For "Rabi-Ribi", it's already a decently tough game. Add in a speedrun (which is difficulty dependent, 60 minutes on Casual for instance), a boss rush mode, a 0% run, a "never went home" run and more...this was a stressful endeavor to finish. "Bunny Must Die" is funnily pretty similar. It's already a challenging game to finish but then you have the any% and 100% speedruns, what is basically a minimum% run (which is ludicrously hard), all of which you have to do twice across two different characters...I was questioning if I'd be able to finish at all. To make a comparison of another game mentioned in the video, I've also done "Salt & Sanctuary" and it was a cake walk compared to those two. Heck, I don't even like "Souls-likes" so I was actively fighting myself to continue playing that game as well, meaning I certainly was playing sub-optimally in many ways.
I am played three games on this list and I see two more that look like I will both love and hate to play them so thank you for the recommendations ,In nine sols and Rabi-Ribi
I did not expect a game I am downloading and a game on my wishlist to be on here. The one downloading is Grime, the othe Rabi-Ribi. I put salt and sanctuary on my wishlist because of the comparison to dark souls. I am someone who likes soulslikes, and metroidvanias, so I added it. I like anime that is why Rabi-Ribi is on my wishlist, and considering how I actually kind of like bullethell games, but just not having played many, or even beaten one, that one would take getting used to if I actually end up getting it. Just how much of a headache am I in for at this point? I also would potentially feel compelled to 100% them, as I tend to try to completely fill out maps in games, in fact I actually didn't like it so much in a nonmetroidvania game I played so much when it would just undo my progress in filling out the map, and that was despite how it really didn't impact the game very much due to it not being a game with a labyrinthine map layout.
For mulana make sure to bring a guide, it's so cryptic you wouldn't believe it. Aeterna Noctis not sure if its actually harder than Rabi-Ribi , the base game of rabi-ribi yes, but the DLC content on the hardest difficulty i am pretty sure Rabi-Ribi it's a whole other beast. Rabi-Ribi might look very horny on the first sight , but the game itself and cutscenes are not as "in your face" and bad taste as a lot of other anime games it's just that Ribbon the fairy character is a bit disturbing to look at but that can costume can be changed.
IMO Rabi-Ribi's bosses are way way WAY harder, but Aeterna Noctis is just Path of Pain: The Game. Both difficult for different reasons. Am I the only one who didn't feel bothered by Ribbon? I mean, look at Zelda's Great Fairies (especially Twilight Princess who's freaking topless) or Midna's imp form, or the straight-up nude Puck from Berserk. I don't lose my god damn mind just because I see skin showing.
Last three literally my favorite metroidvanias (and maybe games in general) in that 1 to 3 order. La-Mulana and it's sequel are unfathomably based. ESA is pretty good too. I usually have the opposite problem - i don't find a game engaging if it doesn't kill me. Like what's the point of searching for a HP upgrade if i already never die? Like - why Guacamelee hides it's hard mode behind a playtrouth on normal, it's so dumb. I mean - i know there's a code and i used it for both games and enjoyed them, but that required research outside of the game wich is pretty stupid that i have to do. Though this was simple - in Ender Lilies i lireally need to download someone else's save to unlock ability to use difficulty sliders. But still both of this games are better in a sense that i atleast have an obscure option to do a hard mode - most games don't wich is pretty sad. I actually have pre-update Souldiers saved somewhere on harddrive, need to try it at some point, hope bugs are not that bad since you can't really have fixes without rebalancing. Also recently finished that area from Rusted Moss's big free updated and it can be pretty evil, but i think alot of big metroidvanias have this kind of optional super hard areas/bosses, what differs games like Aeterna or LM is that they're allways like that. And optional challenging areas in them? Get your butt ready. Nearly had a stroke ulocking and fighting that secret boss in Aeterna.
i mean all of these games are hard but i can take them. la mulana... oh well, game's great but that shit scares me. i remember spending 30+ hours and barely even understanding what the fuck i was doing 😊
Ender Lilies, Hollow Knight and the first Blasphemous could be well deserved honorable mentions. Aeterna Noctis is the only one I tried to play, but I didn't like the overrall game design choices, map and exploration.
I have loved (and somtimes hated) Aeterna Noctis 100%ing it on the regular difficulty. There's just something about brutal but incredibly precise platforming in a HUGE Metroidvania that pushed all my buttons, flaws and all. La-Mulana on the other hand really seems like one step too far for my tastes. It's probably the only Metroidvania i haven't even tried simply because i'm intimidated by what it apparently asks of players.
"Most people will skip Rabi-Ribi because of its... risque visuals." Lmao I don't even think the game is horny or fanservice-y. Yes the characters are in swimsuits and leotards but so was NEStroid's best ending, they aren't even actively flaunting it around. I actually think Shantae as well as the review snippets from the Erza's Wheel of Fortune leans far more into suggestive tropes. *Weak* sounds about right. But yes, very difficult game on even "normal" difficulty. Either you brave that or accept Casual Modo.
Hollow Knight is hella easy compared to any of these lol. That game doesn't deserve a spot in *any* "hard games" list. It's an easy game with a couple hard side modes. The games in this video are hard *period*.
If you prefer, in Japan, these type of games are usually called "Search-Action". Personally, I just call them all 2D Action-Platformers. Whether they are linear, stage-based, or open world don't really matter. And if I need to clarify, I just add those tags in front to be more specific.
In a parallel universe, La Mulana is my favorite game ever. In this universe though, I'd like to hang onto my sanity
It is mine and i think you need to grow up playing 90s PC Adventure games and not console metroidvanias to love La-Mulana. LM and it's sequel hit the spot almost no other game does for me
I'm happy to see Rabi-Ribi, one of my favorite games of all time, on this list (or in any list at all!). I had a great time with it throughout multiple playthroughs in various difficulties including Bunny Extinction (BEX), and clearing the DLC chapters. Even with the DLC bosses included, I think Irisu is likely my favorite boss in the game.
Some of those games looked interesting enough so I may try some of them. I honestly don't mind a bit of challenge in a game, especially if the difficulty is just right like in Rabi-Ribi, and the game is fair and plays well. As long as the game gives me a fair chance to deal with whatever the game throws at me, and any penalty is caused by own mistakes or skill issue, I'm totally okay with that. In those cases all I need to do is to just practice and play better until I get it right.
I'm just happy to see the best MV ever (Rabi Ribi) getting some love. That game on Bex difficulty is an absolute work of art standing tall in any genre. It was also my intro to the shmup genre, specifically touhou games, which is my other favorite genre besides MVs.
I've always described La Mulana basically the same. It's like the dev just hates the players and wants them to suffer. Nothing fair, no wanting them to succeed. He just hates them. Ngl I wish there were more games like that of the same high quality. Both games are a treasure.
one day i might play rabi ribi but honestly im not so comfortable with all the sexiness, it feels so out of place for a shmup game lol
bu oh i love me some bullet hell
@@blowingoff it's not as raunchy as you might expect (specially compared to other games) it's just the costumes which can be changed for more covered up ones.
Also what he says it's true, on the hardest difficulty there's a whole different level of appreciation that is diminished on Normal
The game was designed with BEX (highest difficulty) as a base then for the other difficulties they watered it down by reducing bullet density, speed and effects of patterns.
So normal might be a bit too easy, the combat is simple but surprisingly deep, i would say try Hard first, it got nerfed not too long ago anyway.
BEX is meant for another playthrough or else it's too rough but it's always fair
@@huevonesunltd ah, nice then!
When I saw the thumbnail I knew the top 1 would be La-Mulana, man...that game Scarred me, the sequel as well
💀
There's really no competition. La-Mulana is crazy hard.
Fantastic list. Happy to see la mulana take top spot. It has to be the hardest when playing legit without a guide. I like it though! Never beaten it yet mind.
I've only beaten it with a guide. I tried to do it without one, but I'm just not smart enough 😆
@@MetroidvaniaGuru no shame, doubt many have beaten it without. I havent yet for sure lol
Hope we can see a full La Mulana review at some point. I bounced off that game hard.
Sounds like torture 😆
second this. It's such a niche metroidvania. The dopamine hit of solving a difficult puzzle without resorting to a guide.. it's unlike any other game.
I absolutely love the lore of the games, the tablets, he character portraits, the environments..
I think the main thing with la mulana is it's not for everyone. The obscurity of the puzzles, the tank controls, the absolute BS when you kill a boss, he self destructs and Instantly kills you....
Regardless of your feelings on the game, the sheer amount of work and research that went into the games has to be respected. They are a true labour of love.
YESS, I was hoping THAT game on the number 1 spot, I love it so mucho but oh boy is it hard...
I love it, too. I just wish I were smart enough to beat it without a guide 😆
@@MetroidvaniaGuru nah that's impossible!
😆
What’s funny is that the original La-Mulana was even harder than the remake. A lot of that was because your character controlled so poorly.
I have played the start of La Mulana a few different times and just stopped because of how punishing deaths were. It made it so tedious to do anything, I spent so much time just navigating back to the spots I was working on a puzzle/understanding something. I had a similar issue with hollowknight, where I loved the game but navigating from a save point to a boss room while I was learning the fight turned me off of it. I am considering trying to go back to both of them and looking for mods to make it a better experience. Repeating the same 5 minute chunk of a game that isn’t challenging 5+ times to get back to the part I’m interested in doesn’t make me feel like a game respects my time, and as someone with some disabilities that make certain things harder for me, that’s a deal breaker.
The hollow knight modding community is great so I’m sure something that will work for me exists there (like, respawn outside of boss room would be pretty much perfect for me), but idk about la mulana. I hope it does, but it’s a little hard for me to figure out what I’d need changed to enjoy that game.
aeterna noctis is the ONLY game i ever rage quit.. played it on the easy mode as well..
La mulana is all kinds of brutal. Its almost hard to believe the game has a hard mode.
I would strongly recommend la mulana 2 for anyone who enjoyed the first. Its slightly more streamlined and accessible with less oscure puzzles and improves on the gameplay in most aspects.
La-Mulana is such a great game; it's probably the most engaging Metroidvania I've ever played. And this goes for its sequel as well; there really aren't any other Metroidvania's like them out there. They give you the tools to succeed, but don't spell things out for you (usually, some puzzle solutions are just straight up told to you early on); you need to piece together information from NPCs, tablets and even the results of finishing some other puzzles to solve later puzzles. It makes the world feel very deep and connected, and the increasing challenge only serves to amplify that sense of progression. Once you beat the games the first time, of course, you can never get that learning experience again, since you'll already know how to solve all the puzzles on a repeat playthrough, so definitely cherish that first experience where you get to have the true Indiana Jones and archeologist experience ^^
Oh and the music in both games are absolute bangers as well!
I love La-Mulana simply because it respects the player's intelligence. I wish it were designed a little better, but it really is a phenomenal game. i absolutley love its lore.
At least as far as what I've played, I think I'm split between "Rabi-Ribi" and "Bunny Must Die: Chelsea & the 7 Devils" being the hardest for me. Though I do admit my perspective is a bit skewed since I'm factoring in the platinum experience for both. Cause well, that's what my experience with them were like.
For "Rabi-Ribi", it's already a decently tough game. Add in a speedrun (which is difficulty dependent, 60 minutes on Casual for instance), a boss rush mode, a 0% run, a "never went home" run and more...this was a stressful endeavor to finish.
"Bunny Must Die" is funnily pretty similar. It's already a challenging game to finish but then you have the any% and 100% speedruns, what is basically a minimum% run (which is ludicrously hard), all of which you have to do twice across two different characters...I was questioning if I'd be able to finish at all.
To make a comparison of another game mentioned in the video, I've also done "Salt & Sanctuary" and it was a cake walk compared to those two. Heck, I don't even like "Souls-likes" so I was actively fighting myself to continue playing that game as well, meaning I certainly was playing sub-optimally in many ways.
You are a much stronger man than I 😆
La Mulana is hard that I don;t want to revisit or play the game again anymore.
La Mulana scares me tbh
Same lol
Same
@1:35 = Metroid 2 : Return of Samus. On Gameboy. Toughest Metroidvania i beat !!
Maybe n the top of the hardest ones ever !
It is strange that Cathedral did not make the chart.
I didn't find it particularly difficoult, but it is widely considered to be VERY difficoult.
It was considered. I thought the Necromancer was ridiculous.
I am played three games on this list and I see two more that look like I will both love and hate to play them so thank you for the recommendations ,In nine sols and Rabi-Ribi
I did not expect a game I am downloading and a game on my wishlist to be on here. The one downloading is Grime, the othe Rabi-Ribi. I put salt and sanctuary on my wishlist because of the comparison to dark souls. I am someone who likes soulslikes, and metroidvanias, so I added it. I like anime that is why Rabi-Ribi is on my wishlist, and considering how I actually kind of like bullethell games, but just not having played many, or even beaten one, that one would take getting used to if I actually end up getting it. Just how much of a headache am I in for at this point? I also would potentially feel compelled to 100% them, as I tend to try to completely fill out maps in games, in fact I actually didn't like it so much in a nonmetroidvania game I played so much when it would just undo my progress in filling out the map, and that was despite how it really didn't impact the game very much due to it not being a game with a labyrinthine map layout.
For mulana make sure to bring a guide, it's so cryptic you wouldn't believe it.
Aeterna Noctis not sure if its actually harder than Rabi-Ribi , the base game of rabi-ribi yes, but the DLC content on the hardest difficulty i am pretty sure Rabi-Ribi it's a whole other beast.
Rabi-Ribi might look very horny on the first sight , but the game itself and cutscenes are not as "in your face" and bad taste as a lot of other anime games it's just that Ribbon the fairy character is a bit disturbing to look at but that can costume can be changed.
ye, the DLC's final boss in Rabi has a final attack so god damn dense that it has to zoom in just for you to see how close they are to your hitbox!
IMO Rabi-Ribi's bosses are way way WAY harder, but Aeterna Noctis is just Path of Pain: The Game. Both difficult for different reasons.
Am I the only one who didn't feel bothered by Ribbon? I mean, look at Zelda's Great Fairies (especially Twilight Princess who's freaking topless) or Midna's imp form, or the straight-up nude Puck from Berserk. I don't lose my god damn mind just because I see skin showing.
Last three literally my favorite metroidvanias (and maybe games in general) in that 1 to 3 order. La-Mulana and it's sequel are unfathomably based. ESA is pretty good too.
I usually have the opposite problem - i don't find a game engaging if it doesn't kill me. Like what's the point of searching for a HP upgrade if i already never die? Like - why Guacamelee hides it's hard mode behind a playtrouth on normal, it's so dumb. I mean - i know there's a code and i used it for both games and enjoyed them, but that required research outside of the game wich is pretty stupid that i have to do. Though this was simple - in Ender Lilies i lireally need to download someone else's save to unlock ability to use difficulty sliders. But still both of this games are better in a sense that i atleast have an obscure option to do a hard mode - most games don't wich is pretty sad.
I actually have pre-update Souldiers saved somewhere on harddrive, need to try it at some point, hope bugs are not that bad since you can't really have fixes without rebalancing.
Also recently finished that area from Rusted Moss's big free updated and it can be pretty evil, but i think alot of big metroidvanias have this kind of optional super hard areas/bosses, what differs games like Aeterna or LM is that they're allways like that. And optional challenging areas in them? Get your butt ready. Nearly had a stroke ulocking and fighting that secret boss in Aeterna.
0:32 had me laughing out loud.
bo developer!?
@@fores7ght yes! Hi!
😆 💀
Agree with this list. Good job.
Can we talk about how even fast travel is optional and potentially missable in La Mulana?
Hidden behind a fake wall
What even
The game’s brutality knows no bounds
@MetroidvaniaGuru
Stuck in the pyramid area and kinda gave up.
Might return someday
i mean all of these games are hard but i can take them. la mulana... oh well, game's great but that shit scares me. i remember spending 30+ hours and barely even understanding what the fuck i was doing 😊
Same 😆
Thank you for this list
you should review Skelethrone it’s really really good.
Soon…
Ender Lilies, Hollow Knight and the first Blasphemous could be well deserved honorable mentions. Aeterna Noctis is the only one I tried to play, but I didn't like the overrall game design choices, map and exploration.
Ender Lilies and Blasphemous are on the easy side of Metroidvanias, what are you talking about?
I have loved (and somtimes hated) Aeterna Noctis 100%ing it on the regular difficulty. There's just something about brutal but incredibly precise platforming in a HUGE Metroidvania that pushed all my buttons, flaws and all.
La-Mulana on the other hand really seems like one step too far for my tastes. It's probably the only Metroidvania i haven't even tried simply because i'm intimidated by what it apparently asks of players.
I think every MV fan should try La-Mulana. Try it raw, even. Then use a guide if you get stuck.
And you WILL get stuck.
I beat shapely fetus on my second try
"Most people will skip Rabi-Ribi because of its... risque visuals."
Lmao I don't even think the game is horny or fanservice-y. Yes the characters are in swimsuits and leotards but so was NEStroid's best ending, they aren't even actively flaunting it around. I actually think Shantae as well as the review snippets from the Erza's Wheel of Fortune leans far more into suggestive tropes. *Weak* sounds about right.
But yes, very difficult game on even "normal" difficulty. Either you brave that or accept Casual Modo.
Erza's Wheel of Fortune is DEFINITELY a horny game 😆
We call those people weak.
lol
I've only beaten the first two games. Might not sound that bad, but considering I've beaten a hundred MV's, I fear it is, lol.
You can beat any of these games! I believe in you!
@MetroidvaniaGuru And you can beat Shinsekai! I believe in you too!
@@johanandersson8646 😅
aeterna is peak its a hot take dont care :p
A lot of people love it. And for good reason.
For me the hardest game ive ever played is deaths gambit afterlife if you beat all the challenges.
That almost made the list 💀
Adds souldiers , metroid and untitled story , but no Godhome or Steel soul hollow knight lol
That's because he is only counting the main story playthroughs of the games
Hollow Knight is hella easy compared to any of these lol. That game doesn't deserve a spot in *any* "hard games" list. It's an easy game with a couple hard side modes. The games in this video are hard *period*.
I didn't mention it in the video, but I'm only going off the base game. But, yes, Steel Soul is insane.
bruh u cant be more right
how many likes on this comment for me to get a cameo
Banned.
I don't like the term: "metroidvania". What were the original genre's for Metroid and Castlevania called? That's what it should be instead imo.
If you prefer, in Japan, these type of games are usually called "Search-Action".
Personally, I just call them all 2D Action-Platformers. Whether they are linear, stage-based, or open world don't really matter. And if I need to clarify, I just add those tags in front to be more specific.
Vampire Killer was the Castlevania in MSX. Was the first one and It has the metroid elements. VampKillerLike would be more appropriate.