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00:06Welcome to MojoPlays and today we aren't just looking at hard PS2 games, we're looking at
00:10PS2 games that were confusing, rushingly long or just not worth your time. These are 20 PS2 games
00:15that are almost impossible to finish. Let's go! Before we continue, we publish content all week
00:20long so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get notified of our latest videos. Persona 3 Fez.
00:33Is Persona 3 Fez hard? Yeah, to most people. Is it boring and draining? Honestly, sometimes.
00:40Is that why it's impossible to finish? No. Between the original campaign, the expanded Fez content
00:45and the answer, you're looking at an RPG that can swallow 80, 90, even 100 plus hours without much
00:51trouble. It can be brutal on your free time. Tartarus alone stretches across hundreds of floors,
00:56turning dungeon crawling into something dangerously close to shift work. The combat can also punish
01:00sloppy preparation since enemies love exploiting weaknesses and bosses occasionally demand very
01:06specific setups. None of this is impossible on its own. The problem is surviving all of it for that long.
01:17Gradius 5
01:26Dying in Gradius 5 hurts twice. First your ship explodes, then you respawn without the power-ups
01:31that were helping you survive the section that just killed you. Excellent system. Later stages fill the
01:35screen with bullets, enemies and hazards that demand extremely precise movement, while success
01:39increasingly depends on memorizing patterns rather than simply reacting. The Vic Viper can become
01:45absurdly powerful when fully equipped, but rebuilding after one mistake can leave you feeling pretty
01:50helpless. That creates a nasty snowball effect, where failure makes the next attempt harder instead of
01:55easier. A skilled player can tear through the campaign fairly quickly. Becoming that player is
02:00something most players can't really be bothered doing.
02:07Pac-Man World 2
02:16Mention Pac-Man World 2 as a difficult game and half the room will laugh. The other half who actually
02:21played it
02:21will stare into the distance like a WW2 soldier having a flashback. Finishing the story is manageable,
02:26but trying to complete everything is where the cheerful platformer reveals its evil little heart.
02:31Later stages demand accurate jumps, tricky collectible routes and time trials that can
02:36feel absurdly strict. Going for 100% means replaying levels until every shortcut bounce and turn
02:41is burned into your memory. At one point, some of these target times genuinely seemed impossible to me.
02:47People have since proven otherwise, which is nice for them, but also bite.
02:57Beautiful Joe
03:01Bright colors, comic book poses, and a hero shouting catchphrases should simply not be this stressful.
03:07Beautiful Joe expects you to properly learn its VFX powers, not just activate them because slow motion
03:13looks cool. Dodging, countering, and exposing enemy weaknesses depend on using slow, muck speed,
03:18and zoom at the right moment. Bosses are where that knowledge gets examined, often refusing to take
03:23meaningful damage until you understand their trick. Later stages start mixing several enemy types together,
03:28forcing you to juggle techniques while everything tries to cave Joe's head in. The game always looks
03:33cheerful about it too, which isn't fun, it's really insulting. Oni
03:47There's a really interesting action game buried inside Oni, but you'll have to wrestle the controls
03:51to reach it. Bungie mixed hand-to-hand combat with third-person shooting, producing something ambitious
03:57that could also be more awkward than an 8th grade dance. Enemies hit hard, health isn't handed out
04:02generously, and checkpoints can be far enough apart that one bad encounter sends you back through
04:06enough of the level to make returning the game for store credit feel really really enjoyable.
04:11Difficulty spikes appear without much warning, mistakes are expensive, and the enemies are weirdly smart.
04:23Manhunt
04:24It looks like this goes all the way to the top. I can't trust anyone, least of all the police,
04:29and time's running out. Getting spotted in Manhunt doesn't always mean immediate failure,
04:33but it often feels like the game is getting you ready for an inevitable death soon. Stealth is
04:38everything. You watch patrols, hide in shadows, and wait for the right moment to strike, because open
04:43combat can turn ugly pretty fast. But let's talk hardcore mode. Hardcore mode removes helpful radar
04:49information and makes an already nasty experience considerably less friendly, with reports of
04:54roughly 15% of players beating it. Difficulty aside, something that made it impossible to finish
04:59was actually about your location, with many countries banning the game outright.
05:03See a few works around these fans. Sorry, I should explain. Each gang has their, let's just call it, their
05:12thing.
05:17Airblade was dismissed as a Tony Hawk imitator, and honestly I'm glad because I didn't need this pain
05:23as a kid. Each stage gives you several objectives and a strict time limit, which sounds familiar enough.
05:29The difference is that those goals generally need to be completed together,
05:32rather than chipped away at across multiple attempts. Suddenly every missed grind or badly timed trick
05:37matters, because one small mistake can ruin an excellent run near the finish. Learning the routes
05:42isn't enough, you need to execute them cleanly while watching the clock. Skateboarding? More like
05:47hateboarding, am I right? Shut up.
05:53Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter
06:03Even long-time Breath of Fire fans can walk into Dragon Quarter and wonder whether they accidentally
06:09bought somebody else's RPG. Its systems are unusual, resources are tight, and the game expects you to
06:14understand mechanics that don't behave like traditional entries in the series, a series that
06:19itself was already pretty tough to get through as a casual player. It's like Dark Souls veterans being
06:23like, whoa, this Elden Ring game is too hard for me. The infamous D counter adds constant pressure,
06:28and bosses later on are more than happy to expose a bad build or poor resource management,
06:33sometimes after hours of commitment. Beating it comes down to one core principle,
06:37understanding the complex systems. They don't benefit players looking for extra edge, they're non-negotiable.
06:50Gitaru Man
06:58Your brain may be ready to finish Gitaru Man, but your hands aren't. The normal campaign is challenging,
07:04but learnable, with rhythm battles built around following lines, hitting prompts, and keeping time
07:08through increasingly wild songs. Master mode is where things become ridiculous. Note patterns
07:14speed up, timing windows feel microscopic, and familiar tracks suddenly demand the concentration
07:19normally reserved for diffusing explosives. Unlike a difficult RPG, you can't grind levels or
07:24improve equipment. The improvement has to happen in your actual fingers. And if I wasn't willing to
07:29train to beat fun games, I'm not practicing for this Guitar Hero wannabe.
07:39Siren
07:42What is she doing?
07:48Who is it?
07:50Sometimes the scariest thing in Siren isn't a shibito, it's realizing you have absolutely no idea what the
07:56game wants you to do next. The controllers take adjustment, the camera can work against you,
08:01and many scenarios revolve around trial and error rather than straightforward survival horror logic.
08:06Then come the puzzles and interconnected objectives, some requiring actions that won't make sense until
08:11much much later. Sight-checking is brilliant, letting you see through enemies' eyes, but even that takes
08:15practice before it becomes useful. Combat rarely feels like the smart option, so getting lost or spotted
08:21can quickly spiral into disaster. If you think it's easy, tell me honestly if your first playthrough
08:26was a kid involved a guide, and then sit.
08:38Unlimited Saga
08:45If Unlimited Saga confuses you during the opening hours, congratulations, the game appears to be
08:51functioning normally. Rather than behaving like a standard JRPG, it borrows heavily from tabletop
08:56systems, with unusual movement, randomised elements and mechanics determined to remain mysterious.
09:01Even basic actions can involve systems the game explains really poorly, making early progress feel
09:07like deciphering somebody else's campaign notes. Luck also plays a significant role,
09:12so understanding what happened doesn't guarantee you can prevent it happening again.
09:32You get a few seconds to hear an instruction, understand it, and then perform something a normal
09:37driving instructor would immediately call the police about. That's Stuntman. Each movie sequence demands
09:42precise turns, jumps, near misses and crashes with very little tolerance for bad timing, ironically.
09:48The directions can also be vague enough that your first attempt is basically reconnaissance with
09:52explosions. Once you know the route, execution becomes the next problem. Clipping one object or
09:57approaching a stunt at the wrong angle can ruin the entire take. It sits between deliberately difficult
10:02and slightly unreasonable, a place that made games in the early 2000s really tough to deal with.
10:22The jump from Jak and Daxter to Jak 2 is almost comical. One game is a colourful collect-a-thon,
10:28the next gives Jak a gun, a hover vehicle and a city full of people who apparently want him dead.
10:33Missions
10:33regularly spike in difficulty, often with checkpoints placed far enough apart that failure means repeating
10:39several minutes of work. Vehicle challenges can collapse after one bad collision, while combat
10:44sections throw aggressive enemies at you with little breathing room. Some missions became infamous because
10:50they combine length with tiny margins for error. If you have fond memories of this game as a kid,
10:55I implore you to revisit it, your brain is playing tricks on you.
11:04Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne
11:12One bad decision can erase an entire battle in this game. Its pressed turn system rewards hitting weaknesses
11:19with extra actions, but enemies play by the same rules, meaning one poorly prepared party can be
11:24dismantled before you recover. Bosses demand careful team building, buffs, debuffs and elemental planning
11:30rather than blind grinding. Even regular encounters can become dangerous if the wrong demon gets lucky.
11:36Save points and healing aren't always nearby either, so losing can cost genuine progress. That constant risk
11:42fits the bleak world perfectly, but it makes the journey exhausting and one that most players skipped after a few
11:48hours.
11:49Last thing I remember, I was blinded by a bright light. After that, I was in this room.
12:04Trying to play God Hand like a normal beat-em-up is an excellent way to discover how light your
12:10PS2
12:10actually is and how far you can throw it. The combat is built around reading individual enemies, dodging
12:15correctly and creating your own attack combinations while the unusual camera and movement take time
12:20to understand. The game even adjusts difficulty dynamically depending on how well you're performing,
12:25essentially noticing your confidence and responding with violence. Button mashing only gets you so far
12:31before stronger enemies expose every bad habit you've developed. Once the combat clicks,
12:35it becomes one of the most satisfying action games on the PS2. For me, it never clicked.
12:47Armored Core Last Raven
12:49The intruders are on the move.
12:53Make sure none of them escapes.
12:56FromSoftware usually makes difficult games that at least give you room to learn. Armored Core Last Raven
13:01assumes you already did the homework several games ago, forcing a lot of players to ask if there were
13:05other Armored Core games. Building an Armored Core means understanding weight, energy, heat,
13:09weapon balance, movement and a mountain of smaller systems that suddenly matter enormously once missions
13:15begin. Enemy pilots can be vicious, resources are limited and poor decisions in your build can turn
13:20certain encounters into immediate disasters. Even experienced Armored Core players regularly
13:25point to this as one of the series' nastiest entries.
13:34Contra Shattered Soldier
13:43A normal playthrough of Contra Shattered Soldier is already brutal. Going for the proper endings is
13:49where the game starts checking whether you've secretly been training since birth. Lives are limited and
13:53stages demand memorization because reacting for the first time often isn't fast enough,
13:57a style of difficulty that really grinds my gears. Boss's chain attacks together with
14:01barely any downtime turning each encounter into a pattern recognition exam under heavy gunfire.
14:07The ranking system adds another layer, destroying enough targets and avoiding mistakes affects what
14:12ending you can reach.
14:20Devil May Cry 3 Dante's Awakening
14:25Don't forget, before re-releases and years of players mastering its combat,
14:30Devil May Cry 3 arrived in North America with a reputation for being savage. Enemies deal serious
14:36damage, bosses move quickly and the game expects you to understand dodging styles, weapons and combos,
14:41rather than leaning on one reliable attack. Cerberus alone introduced plenty of players
14:46to the continue screen before the adventure had warmed up. Higher difficulties only pushed that
14:51demand for mastery further. What makes it work is that the combat gives you the tools to improve,
14:56it just refuses to use them for you. Every death feels educational, though after the 15th attempt
15:02at a boss, you might request a new teacher. This one's been hitting its students.
15:07This one's been hitting the top of the game, and this one's been hitting the top of the game.
15:11Maximo Ghosts to Glory
15:20Take the old ghosts and goblins philosophy out of third dimension and apparently nobody thought to
15:26make it nicer. Maximo Ghosts to Glory gives you limited lives, dangerous platforming, relentless
15:32enemies and a save system that can make failure surprisingly expensive. Armor acts as your
15:37protection, gradually disappearing as Maximo takes damage until he's running around in his underwear
15:42like Arthur before him. That joke stops being funny when one hit means death. Levels mix combat
15:49with jumps that demand care, so rushing usually ends badly, while moving slowly gives enemies more
15:53time to cause problems. It's a deliberately old school kind of difficulty, in an era that was already
15:58pretty damn difficult. Shinobi
16:12Momentum is survival in Shinobi. Totsuma is built to dash through the air, run across walls,
16:18and carve through enemies quickly enough to keep his sword satisfied. Slow down and the blade begins
16:23draining his health, meaning even standing around to think can become dangerous. That creates a
16:28wonderfully aggressive combat system, but it also means mistakes snowball fast. Enemy groups are
16:33arranged around maintaining chains, bosses punish hesitation, and checkpoints aren't always close
16:38enough to soften a bad run. Mastering movement eventually makes the game look effortless, which is
16:43deeply misleading to anyone watching. It's way harder than the expert makes it look.
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