Current Events > Have you ever done a challenge run in a game?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ive done Final Fantasy one solo character runs with a thief and with a white mage. I can say Ive done them, but not recommended.

Well I was enjoying that Zelda ALBW run, as I mentioned.
But the final boss is kicking my butt.

Success!
The key was pause scumming the heck out of the fight to predict his teleports and the trajectory of projectiles, particularly towards the back half of the fight. I just couldn't react to some of them otherwise.

Nuzlockes are pretty much the only way i play Pokemon these days. And have done 3 hearts in Ocarina of Time. All that comes to mind.

buster only'd the entire MMX franchise except X6

I've done a few Fire Emblem ironmans (basically no reset runs) in video form.

They were fun. It's definitely different not being able to reset to get your favorites back, but it forces you to really think moves through more.

I think the runs mostly went well, though I lost Robin on Awakening and thus technically lost the run. I beat my others, though they weren't especially tough games.

_____Cait posted...

No weapon run in MMX. Not that hard really.

I did the complement; weapons yes, upgrades no.

It was a decent challenge, but honestly the hardest part was the holes just before and after the Storm Eagle rematch. You can just BARELY grab the wall before you hit the death zone at the bottom of the pit, if you time the jump exactly right.

No Deaths in Mega Man 9 and 10, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 3, Elden Ring

Girls Only in a lot of the Fire Emblems, and Dungeon Siege, on the highest difficulties

I've done a lot. Favourites are for RPGs. I particularly like no weapons, and complete bestiaries - so I can say that I beat every last enemy with my bare hands!

EPR-radar posted...

The funny thing about FF8, as I'm sure you know, is that this makes the game as easy as possible, so it's debatable if this even counts as a challenge.

Yeah, I went the other way when I tried to challenge run FF8. I knew a full No Junction run was basically a luckfest so went a bit milder; I allowed junctioning for the most part but junctioning magic to stats was forbidden (elemental / status was allowed), summoning GFs was forbidden, and Card Mod was forbidden. Anything else was fair game (except The End I guess), but I gave up at Cerberus, it got too hard.

I mean I've done the built in modes on some rogue like games, but I doubt that's what you mean.

Other than that, I think the only thing was an unintentional challenge playthrough my first time of Final Fantasy Tactics where I only used Ramza and generic units, because I was a dumb kid and I didn't want to restart building party members in getting Agrias, etc.

I've also started a few randomizer runs and one Nuzlocke, but I don't think I ever finished any, just for getting bored rather than being unable to do it.

In general there's too many games to play and I feel like I'm wasting my time to go back and play something again, but harder this time.

Mostly just Nuzlocke runs on Pokemon... Did one last week

Done nuzlockes in the gen 3 and 4 games, those were fun. Allowed me to use pokemon I normally wouldnt.

Did low level runs in bloodborne which was cool, managed to get really good weapon upgrades so damage was fine. Managed to help out lower level players quite easily.

Gimmick runs, yes. Challenge runs... no.

TheGreatEscape posted...

buster only'd the entire MMX franchise except X6

Then again, I don't really consider Buster-only MMX runs as challenge runs(...for me, personally, that is), so, I dunno.

4 bouncer class party HTPD run PSO2. It was really fun and loved the challenge because you can die so easily in that class. You also need to know your DPS/rotations to clear that fight.

Duo runs in HTPD is another fun one.

Other than that no death runs in games I know I play the hell out of.

Tried doing the Perfect Run in Mario Galaxy 2. Many times. Many, many, many times.

Never could beat it.

v_v

Im actually kinda surprised we have so many people here who have done challenge-type stuff, maybe I shouldnt be. The topic came to mind because I had just beaten Kingdom Hearts 3 at level 1 and with Pro Codes (for the bosses that give points). Ive previously done 1 and 2 on level 1 as well, including the bonus bosses. Otherwise, I cant say Ive really done much else, challenge-wise. I attempted a Nuzlocke a couple of times, but didnt get far either time.

Does it have to be an official challenge or can you lump in personal difficult achievements as well?

MI4_REAL posted...

Does it have to be an official challenge or can you lump in personal difficult achievements as well?

Certainly doesnt need to be anything official

Bump, just in case

Speaking of unofficial challenge runs, I'm presently bungling my way through Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the first time. For me, there's a lot to like about the game, but it has such a complicated real-time battle system, with one time only in-game tutorials(!), it feels like a challenge run.

I don't like speed runs.

Most of my challenges are completion under a variety of conditions.

Any of:

- no weapons
- no power-ups
- no dying
- limited characters (if you have choice)
- no gold usage in rpgs
- single character challenges in rpgs

Thought this was worth the share. :)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/48ad1e8d.jpg

In Pikmin 4, challenged myself to clear Olimars Shipwreck Tale in four days. It was challenging figuring out the best routes and strategies for each day. Had to start day 1 over I dont know how many times until things clicked. Was very satisfying to pull off once I completed it.

Some, usually at the behest of RetroAchievement sets or out of boredom.

I guess a more interesting response comes from my speedruns of Mega Man Legends; several challenge runs have categories on the category extensions board on SRC: https://www.speedrun.com/mega_man_legends_category_extensions

Perhaps the most challenging were my Busterless & Low% runs.

Busterless is what it says on the tin: beat the game without ever using the Mega Buster. This sounds straightforward on the face of it, but to bypass the early game you are left with so few resources. You have to KICK the first boss to death. The next bosses are straightforward enough, and then you get to City Hall. You only can use land mines, in a limited quantity, to hit flying enemies. If you line up the Hornisse right, though, you can explode your own mines and just barely hit them.

If you kill them all without running out of mines, the remaining enemies can be beaten with kicks (even Bon, if you're careful and manipulate his position). Afterwards the game is straightforward since you'll have access to the Machine Buster or Grand Grenade soon enough. (Maybe one could be safer, e.g. Shining Laser, but since it's in a speedrun setting I also want to go somewhat fast, and Grand Grenade does the trick. Though even the route I did was considerably safe.)

My run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_q--EJxw30

A proper run by BlueMetal, the game's main runner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxF3FNYd88g

This I considered the hardest challenge I did for a while, tbh.

But last month in the same game I finished the game with the fewest items known possible ("Low%"). (I had done Low% before, before I realized one more item could be cut off.) This ended up meaning the use of a few glitches and getting kinda lucky at several points. The boat battle is so difficult because you have no Range on your Buster, and so you're stuck with 16 Powered Buster shots to kill Balcon Gerat's cannons and laser - wiggle room of one shot from perfection, but explosion damage is RNG-dependent. You can hit the arms with the Buster (which is only at +1 Attack), but only barely. Most attempts died to just the ship being hit too much.

The second time out of 27 I managed to get past him, I succeeded though. The air battles were also scary (similar situation - I was 1 hit from dying) and the sub-cities (no armor or healing means the Sharukurusus hit like a BUS). The final boss ironically has an invincibility glitch to exploit though.

My run (some more details in the description): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4DRmB82PGo

No.

FFT, done several, to varying degrees of success. i've definitely started more than i finished.
played a bunch of randomizers of various jrpgs and zelda games. done a lot of lttp randomizers, and a few FF4 free enterprise ones.
orpheus/izanagi/arsene only runs for persona 3, 4 and 5.

ds3 sl1

All the time in the dark souls games. My most recent one was sentry's torch only in elden ring

Yup, that cat robot game in a dystopian future.