JRPGs and difficulty aren’t necessarily something you see hand in hand. After all, most games in the genre let you just grind away any challenges in your path. However, the best type of difficulty is the kind that unlocks a whole new type of game within the game.
This can range from revealing new enemies to forcing you to use tactics that you left pretty much unused due to the easy difficulty of a first playthrough.
We’re going to check out some JRPGs where the hard mode is the best way to play and explain the reasons why.
10 Trails In The Sky 1st Chapter
Battle Planning
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter manages to be one of the toughest games in a series that is already full of tough games. The difficulty here jumps to a pretty wild level on hard mode, but it requires you to become a strategist, where before it might’ve been just a casual feeling from battle to battle. The biggest difference is that the enemies have more health and hit harder. So, how do you manage that? Well, it becomes less of spamming your Arts and instead, going into battle like you are thinking of each one as life or death.
You need to stock up on potions for health, ability points, and make sure your party is constantly equipped to their fullest. While the game allows you to select lower difficulties after battles to up your odds, that doesn’t feel nearly as rewarding. Mastering the game’s systems, learning to use and link your abilities together, and utilizing different things like stunning your enemies becomes paramount here.
Enemies will attack faster and also use their most dangerous moves far more frequently. If you were using your S Craft attacks haphazardly before, you’d better reconsider that on hard mode, because they mean everything here. It makes the combat much more interesting, though, because you and your enemies are on even ground, and even the most casual fight becomes an all-out war.
9 The DioField Chronicle
Punishing AI
The DioField Chronicle is a game that gets a lot right and a lot wrong, but thankfully, the combat side of things is all aces. On the hardest difficulty, the game actually feels like the war it is trying to depict. The drops that help you out, like healing items and other boons to you and your team, are far less, and the enemies will be hitting much harder. Thankfully, unlike most hard modes, this does not mean your enemies turn into infinite health bars.
It simply makes you more vulnerable, which fits with the overly serious story at play here. It feels distinctly less video game-y because of it. The battlefield is not an opportunity here; it’s a fight for survival by all means. You can’t take much damage at all. On top of that, those summons would largely make things a bit trivialized in the easier difficulties; on hard mode, your summons will barely make a dent.
That means you’ll be relying on other ways to get the job done, which means positioning, planning the use of your abilities, and making sure you’re properly leveled, as most battles will require more preparation than before, and enemies can easily outlevel you. It makes the game feel more rewarding, though. It’s a serious conflict you’re involved in, and appropriately, your fights are as tooth and nail as they come.
8 Fire Emblem: Three Houses
The Horrors of War
Fire Emblem: Three Houses can be a devilish experience on hard mode, but the purists of the series understand that this is the only way to play. The reason is simple: permadeth. While this game is a bit less straightforward with what happens to your characters if they fall in battle, that doesn’t change the effect it has on the game. If your character is defeated, they are done for the game. Yes, you can still find them in the school, but for fighting purposes, they’ve been injured beyond healing.
This makes battles turn into a game of chess, but one with permanent implications. What if you lost your queen in a game of 50-hour chess? Would you leverage your pawns to be more dangerous, or make sure your knights and bishops became as formidable as possible? It forces you to take the weaker characters in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and turn them into dangerous warriors. If I lose my favorite character, do I just reload a save, or do I make sure not to make that mistake again?
It gives a JRPG battle experience like none other. You need to make sure every move is perfectly planned, and you need to start with formations that make sense for each battle. This is a brutally tough series for a reason, and the hard mode in Fire Emblem: Three Houses shows you why.
7 Final Fantasy VII Remake
Hard Mode Is A Different Game
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is an awesome game, but the best version of it is once you beat it one time and unlock hard mode. Hard mode does something simple that changes everything: No items allowed. It’s not just that, either, as MP no longer regenerates until the end of a chapter. That means you need to be very careful about using magic during combat and will need to utilize abilities that recharge MP more than ever before.
Enemies are also stronger, but the way you approach them is the most immediate change. You can’t just brute-strength your way through battles anymore. Every move has to be calculated. You need to dodge and parry way more than you would in normal mode, and, generally, you want to save magic for the big fights and learn to utilize your abilities as much as possible.
There are also new fights in the simulator to take on, including some of the toughest fights in the game, so you can expect plenty of interesting and new content to test yourself with. The big bonus is your EXP triples in this mode, so you’ll be stronger than ever regardless of the challenge you’re facing.
6 Tales of Berseria
Utilize Every Party Member
Tales of Berseria is arguably the best game in the series, with an awesome story, a great protagonist in Velvet, and one of the best parties in a series full of characters. As far as the combat goes, the only way to play is on hard. The reason is that so many of the cheap tactics you can employ in easier modes, like stunning enemies constantly and really just tanking a lot of the big attacks from bosses in particular, no longer apply.
Now, you have to work your ass off to stun an enemy; you can’t just randomly fire off your Arts here. You need to memorize sequences for your art attacks and make sure you are keeping your gauge in check, because every attack you can pull off can be the difference between winning and losing. You’ll also get way better drops from fights in general, so while the combat is undoubtedly tougher, you’ll have more means to survive them than other difficulties.
You’ll also get way more EXP from big combos, so now you actually have an incentive to tie together your attacks in a meaningful way. It makes the in-depth combat really pop in a way that previous modes don’t exactly require.
5 Valkyrie Profile
The Hardest And The Purest
Valkyrie Profile is best played on hard mode for a few reasons. You get the true experience of the game, having access to not only new weapons but also new storylines, dungeons, boss battles, and even the true ending of the game.
It’s also actually far easier than the normal mode because you can get such great equipment early on. It’s still a challenge for sure, but if you find the right items early on, it’s not too tough, and you should have your party super-powered within the first few sequences of the game because of it.
Usually, the hard mode would scare people away because of the challenge, but this mode should really be called the True Valkyrie Profile mode. This is the definitive experience without a doubt, and you shouldn’t let the word “hard” scare you away here, as it really is the only real way to play the game.
4 NieR: Automata
A More Fun Game On The Hardest Difficulty
NieR: Automata is one of the flagship titles in the JRPG world, but if you’re not playing it on the hard difficulty, you’re missing out. First of all, the easy mode basically plays the game for you, with auto fire enabled for your pod, but hard mode makes you actually utilize the various abilities you get throughout the game.
There are tons of cool ways to customize your pods for combat that you likely left by the wayside before in the easier difficulties, and they can help you through some of the toughest fights in the game. And tough they will be, because on hard mode, there is no relief. You’re going to have to parry far more and try to optimize your loadouts of weapons, too, whereas on normal, you’re just flying by the seat of your pants button-mashing half the time.
There are also enemies that, all of a sudden, will unleash new attacks, and bosses will hide their easiest to dodge moves, so hard mode will require the best of the best out of you.
3 Scarlet Nexus
Use Your Mind
Scarlet Nexus isn’t a particularly challenging game once you get the hang of things with the more complex-than-it-seems combat system. However, the hard mode is absolutely the way to play, as it gives you a sense of accomplishment.
The reason is that the crush mode gauge is much longer for enemies, so you don’t just get an instakill method in seconds in any of the fights. Instead, you’re the one who feels hunted. Bosses will be one-shotting you if you’re not careful, and all those SAS abilities are suddenly paramount.
You need to make sure you’re taking the right companions along, because enemies are so ferocious on hard mode. They are far less passive, and they no longer wait their turn to attack, so you’ve got to treat every battle, boss or not, like it’s going to be a serious challenge.
2 Star Ocean The Second Story R
Deeper Than You Thought
Star Ocean The Second Story R is a seriously underrated game in the long-running franchise, and the combat is the best in the series in many ways. With an update after the game was released, the Chaos mode was added to the proceedings, and it’s a game-changer.
You’ll have new enemies to fight in the endgame, new weapons and armor for your characters, and even new event scenes that expand on the story. It’s brutally difficult, as you’ll now take far more damage and fight more aggressive enemies, but this is clearly the complete version of the game that the developers want you to experience. This is especially true for those wanting more challenge in the game.
The added boss fights of The Ten Wiseman after the main story is over are the toughest in the game, and if the main difficulties in the game left you wanting that ultimate challenge, this rematch with some of the main antagonists in the story will have you utilizing every single ability you have, timing your dodges perfectly and making you reconsider your party composition overall. The new additions to the chaos mode are just fantastic through and through.
1 Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix
Critically Good
Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix offers perhaps the best depiction of a hard mode available in the iconic Critical Mode. What happens here is that Sora turns into the classic glass cannon. You take way more damage than usual, but you’re loaded with ability points early on in the game. This gives so many combat options to deal with the increased challenge, and while Sora now has less of an ability to tank hits, he can deal more damage than ever before.
This makes encounters much more fun, because both sides of the deal are taking more punishment, and combat itself is just more interesting due to the number of abilities you have at your disposal. It makes boss fights a harrowing time, too, as bosses are now daunting challenges. Bosses in the story become intimidating beyond their previous means, with some truly terrifying damage outputs if you’re not careful.
It makes you utilize the drive modes, the summons, and your spells in ways you definitely didn’t consider them previously. It’s about maximizing your assault, with the defense being largely on your ability to dodge or parry. It’s the definitive Kingdom Hearts 2 experience.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
