10 Video Games That Want You To Hate Them

2. Demon's Souls (2009)

I could have given this spot to any of FromSoftware’s iconic Soulsborne games but we’ll assign it to the game that started it all. Prepare to die is the name of the game and you will, repeatedly.

FromSoftware pulls no punches with Demon’s Souls. You are expected to struggle. What makes Demon’s Souls especially difficult is that death carries so much weight. There’s no zapping back to where you began fully in tact, this is an RPG and when you die you lose the souls you needed to invest into levelling up your character. Dying is not only frustrating but losing the ability to level effectively makes the game even harder.

As for its infamous bosses, sure once you learn their attack patterns and the flow of combat you might have an easier time, but you’re likely going to have to die an awful lot to get to that point.

But why is Demon’s Souls on this list instead of any other Souls game? Well, there is the matter of Old King Allant, a boss who, with a certain attack, can actually knock a level off your character. And if you keep getting hit by it you keep losing levels. Those things that you’ve been painstakingly grinding for the whole damn game. On top of that fun little fight, if you die in Body form anywhere in the game, you’re chucked back to the start of the level, every enemy respawns, you lose half your health and you better make it back to those souls without dying again or they’re permanently gone.

Dying when a boss is on their last tick of health is agonizing, and while there’s an expectation to ‘get good’, Demon’s Souls is absolutely a game that fully expects you to lose your marbles over its difficulty more than once and throws up a giant ‘You Died’ screen for your trouble.