Poll of the Day > What's the hardest game in these respective video game franchises?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Rules:
- Hardest Game from each
- I only mean from game start until credits roll, no extra missions or 100%ing.
- Normal Mode only if applicable.
- Main series only if applicable.

2D Mario
3D Mario
Zelda
Pokemon
2D Sonic
3D Sonic
Final Fantasy
Resident Evil
Metroid Prime
Classic MegaMan
MegaMan X
Tales of
Persona
Halo
Dark Souls

Add more game if you feel like it

Tie between classic mega Man and dark souls for me, they both require either memorization or fast reaction time and foresight.
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2D Mario - original Mario, or Mario 2J if applicable
3D Mario - Mario 64 (mostly due to control refinements made in later games)
Zelda - Zelda 2: AoL (although the CDi games are technically harder due to garbage)
Pokemon - Pokemon Ranger (or Mystery Dungeon 1 if you don't level your partners)
2D Sonic - Sonic 1 (lack of refinements, such as spin dashing of all things)
3D Sonic -
Final Fantasy - Final Fantasy 2, unless you count the bonus bosses in 11 (one of which you get BANNED if you manage to beat it...)
Resident Evil -
Metroid Prime - 3 is probably the hardest, they're all easy - but 3 has more button mashing bosses
Classic MegaMan - 1 by far, no contest - it's an entire exponent harder
MegaMan X - X6 due to spikes
Tales of -
Persona -
Halo -
Dark Souls - Dark Souls 1 if melee, Dark Souls 2 if multiplayering, Dark Souls 3 if magicking.
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The 2d/3d distinction should also apply to Zelda.

From the ones I've played

Mario 2
Adventure of Link
Majora's Mask
None really for Pokmon...
Final Fantasy II
Haven't played enough classic or X, but for Zero, 1
Phantasia, later games do not not tend to get difficult unless you make it difficult...

Castlevania (Metroid Style): Ecclesia
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the single hardest game out of all of those? or each hardest game from each of those? I'll go with the latter since that's more interesting.

All of these are limited to the games that I've played.
2D Mario - SMB3
3D Mario - SM64
Zelda - Zelda 2
Final Fantasy - FF1 (compared against 4, 6, 7, and 10)
Metroid Prime - 2
Classic MegaMan - 7? I think 7 is the only one I couldn't beat even though I gave it quite an effort. Didn't really play 5 and 6 though.
Dark Souls - 3
Halo - none of 1-3 seemed hard

Hardest of all of these is either Dark Souls 3 or Zelda 2
I had forgotten about FF1 actually... it's hard to say because FF1 and Zelda 2, it's really easy to get stuck, but DS3 takes way the heck more skill, even if you don't get stuck.

N/A - haven't played enough to compare or even at all
Pokemon
2D Sonic
3D Sonic
Resident Evil
MegaMan X
Tales of
Persona
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2D Mario - Lost Levels
3D Mario - Sunshine
Zelda - Zelda 2, Oracle games if you want a more traditional game answer
Pokemon - Gen 4, mostly because of Cyrus 2 and Cynthia
2D Sonic - 1 overall, 2 for its last zone
Final Fantasy - 3 DS, has a really grindy endgame
Metroid Prime - MP2
Mega Man Classic - 9
Mega Man X - X6 (haven't played X7 or X8)

2D Mario - The Lost Levels
3D Mario - SM64
Zelda - AoL
Pokemon - All pretty much the same imo
2D Sonic - Orginal Sonic on Genesis
3D Sonic - Sonic 06
Final Fantasy - Original FF on NES
Resident Evil - Original on ps1
Metroid Prime - Echoes
Classic MegaMan - MM1
MegaMan X - X2
Tales of - never played
Persona - never played
Halo - Original Halo
Dark Souls - Titan Souls
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Zelda - Majora's Mask i suppose. Only played one game before OoT but i was little and dont remember what it was so havent played any of the ones that might actually have difficulty.

Pokemon - Diamond/Pearl. Still not even close to actually being hard imo but Cynthia was a bit above the average champion.

Final Fantasy - IV. Been a long time since ive played VI so might be something there but of what ive played IV is the only one that comes to mind that you cant stomp the game with minimal effort.

Tales Of - Zestiria. Only played it and Berseria...wouldnt call either difficult but Zestiria is the harder one.

Dark Souls - Only played 3 but as ive played 3 i know it has to be 2 or 1.

The rest i either havent played, only played one of, or while having played more than one been too long for me to remember any of them well enough.
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List needs some Castlevania and Shin Megami Tensei love.
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2D Mario - LL/Real 2
3D Mario - Sunshine for having shit controls
Zelda - 1 or 2, not counting shitty dance minigames in OoA
Pokemon - idk, maybe a spinoff? The Coliseum games had issues
2D Sonic - Maybe Sonic 1
3D Sonic - Pass
Final Fantasy - None I've played strike me as hard
Resident Evil - Pass
Metroid Prime - Pass
Classic MegaMan - 1
MegaMan X - Were any hard? idk, maybe 5?
Tales of - Never played
Persona - Never played
Halo - Pass
Dark Souls - Never played
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2D Mario - The Lost Levels
3D Mario - Super Mario Sunshine
Zelda - The original, if only because some of the dungeons were stupid well-hidden
Pokemon - RSE, though they're all pretty easy. RSE is the only one that almost requires some grinding before you face the E4, though.
2D Sonic - Sonic CD is the one that gave me the most trouble. Honourable mention to Sonic Advance 2.
3D Sonic - Sonic Unleashed would take it in a heartbeat if we were counting bonus missions, but since we're not, I'd say either Sonic and the Secret Rings (due to incredibly shitty controls) or... actually, now that I think about it, it's probably a toss-up between Heroes and Unleashed
Final Fantasy - I haven't played any that stuck out as more difficult than the rest
Resident Evil - Only played the first one, so can't comment
Metroid Prime - Probably 2. 1 and 2 are honestly pretty comparable for difficulty; 3 is significantly easier.
Classic MegaMan - Have only played 2 for any length of time, so can't comment.
MegaMan X - X6, due to some incredibly shitty design, and it's not even close. Some of the levels are literally unwinnable if you don't have the right setup.
Tales of - Xillia probably takes it out of the ones I've played.
Persona - Haven't played.
Halo - Haven't played.
Dark Souls - Only played the first one.
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Persona 3 (FES) only cause you cant control your party, all the persona games are pretty easy at least compared to most SMT games
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