That One Level/Video Games/Turn-Based Strategy: Difference between revisions

*** Don't forget that {{spoiler|Soren might have a Blizzard tome by now, which not only allows him to attack from half the map away and probably kill anyone who isn't being rescued, but waste a really good tome on units that you don't want to kill.}}

*** At least 3-13 is redeemed (somewhat) by the [[Crowning Music of Awesome]] it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ6WPnvukQ4 plays]. 4-3 doesn't have quite this much luck. Sure, it's probably the least scrappy of the ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' desert levels (which, given how bad they always seem to be, isn't saying much)... but then try playing it your first time through without a guide. You won't realize that Sothe's ultimate weapon and the Dragonfoe scroll (both of which are EXTREMELY helpful in Endgame) are buried here, much less where. You won't know to send Micaiah to the far east (which is quite counterintuitive, by the way) to get Stefan. You won't know that you need to keep the boss from being the last enemy you kill because there's a Laguz Gem (also EXTREMELY helpful in Endgame) buried at his position. And you won't know that you have to hurry to gather kills before the {{spoiler|Black Knight shows up and annihilates all the enemies in his path}}. Yeah, in case you didn't get the message, that level is a '''MASSIVE''' [[Guide Dang It]].

*** Chapter 4-5 in ''Radiant Dawn'': the one with hordes of feral laguz coming at you, swamp that lowers movement rate everywhere, and a boss that would summon four more enemies every single turn, and, if you got close to him, would teleport away. At least it's a [[Squishy Wizard|mage boss]].

**** Although that one is somewhat redeemed by being the single most experience-rich map in the game. Buy everyone some extra weapons, fight defensively and let the hordes come to you, and soak the levels up like a sponge...

** Unless you have a grasp on the [[Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors]], any naval-based Drake mission can be really frustrating. And even some of the land ones; in "Captain Drake", Andy has to capture X amount of cities before Drake does. Except Drake has more units than you to start with. Oh, and he already has infantry on the center island. And you have to make infantry from factories. And you have only one lander and no way to make more. And Drake has a submarine. And...

* ''[[Advance Wars]] Dual Strike'' has a number of levels that stray away from genuine challenge into [[Fake Difficulty]] and general annoyance:

** Pincer Strike. So many units, so many indirects, so much forest, so much fog, so much possibility of a Tag Break involving Drake, so much [[Fake Difficulty]].

*** Pincer Strike becomes really, really easy with [[Character Select Forcing|Sasha and Colin on Blue Moon]]. Lots of funds per turn, nothing to spend it on and the ease with which Market Crash is charged = no tag power for Jugger/Drake.

** Into The Woods. Just......Into The Woods.

** Dark Ambition is a boring piece of garbage thanks to Olaf's Winter Fury power that makes pushing through the defense of the HQ so annoying. In fact, if it weren't for that Stealth you get, you probably would lose thanks to the Megatank. (Yeah, what were you thinking, Allied Nations? You regarded the reverse engineering possibility and they actually would be causing you to lose if they actually had a Stealth of their own.)

** Said Day-To-Day guide is pretty much the only way to complete it, and even that only if Caulder feels like following it. For instance, if he uses a Fighter instead of a Duster, you're screwed because he's only able to target your precious bombers instead of being distracted by other units. Also, said guide completes the mission in around 10 days at most. If you don't win by 13, Caulder pretty much tells you to give up. Now thats nothing uncommon for video game villains, but unlike most others, he's not bluffing.

*** It's possible to beat it after 13 days, but good luck getting a half-decent rank.

*** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb_7sT7wXwI This] completes the mission in ''six'' Days.

** "A Hero's Farewell" in ''Days of Ruin''. The sea throws a Battleship ''and'' an Aircraft Carrier at you and the rough seas and lack of your own predeployed Battleship keeps you from doing much about either one quickly enough to avoid letting your Cruiser get shot, and if you don't kill the Battleship in one turn, your Submarine will inevitably get hit by the enemy Cruiser. The Aircraft Carrier, meanwhile, sends out Seaplanes. As for the land front, you're not going far quickly because of a terrain-covered Rocket Launcher, which allows Forsythe to build up.

*** The best part: if you go into the Tactics Room, instead of Lin, ''Forsythe himself'' tells you how to go about the mission. He's an [[Anti-Villain]], yes, but still... '''''the enemy CO takes pity on you!'''''

** There's also "Siege of the Vladstad", which is a perfectly acceptable level right up until the end. And that's even ''if'' you realize {{spoiler|the Vladstag has a side entrance}}.

** "Road to Xylvania" tops all of them. First of you have a Battlestation which unlike the sequel cannot turn to aim and thus you have to position yourself perfectly to beat the Pillboxes that will kill everything else in a heartbeat.On top of that the path is so curvy giving Heavy Tanks an advantage against the Battlestation. That's a just ridculuosly in itself,but then you have Gunships constantly after you mercilessly attacking anything in sight,and you only have 6 Missile Vets.You can spam the Y button all you want,they'll still get ya' down. Not to mention acid pits that are too easy to step into. At least Vladstag has assistance.

** The Reckoning in the sequel borders on being [[That One Level]], but doesn't quite manage it because it's the last mission. However, if you want that perfect S-Rank, have lots of hair ready to be torn out. Technique, although having a ridiculously high minimum (a whopping 70% with just the Battlestation, the mission critical unit, alive), doesn't hit 100% easily, so you have to keep plenty of units alive, which means you'd want to get through the first half of the stage without anything lost, because the second part is full of {{spoiler|[[Demonic Spiders|Fighters and Strato Destroyers]]}}, which are bound to tear apart your units like paper, and {{spoiler|your Anti-Air Vets have laughable lock-on range for their job if you thought you could [[Glass Cannon|switch to one to erase the air units faster]]}}. But things get really bad if you want 100% in both Power and Speed. Not only does the game place 2 Heavy Tanks and some Grunts behind the {{spoiler|Mining Spider}} but Speed is absurdly strict for the fact that you'd have to deliver the [[Mighty Glacier|painfully slow Battlestation]] from one end of the map to the other in order to do anything to the {{spoiler|Mining Spider}}. [[Master Knight|This troper]] has done ''every'' other mission in the game on a [[No Casualties Run]] with a Perfect S-Rank (including Their Finest Hour, actually except Under Siege but he's convinced that one is possible with a competent teammate) and finds that a [[No Casualties Run]] ''at all'' is harder on The Reckoning than on any other mission between both games except ''maybe'' Bonus Mission 3 in the first game, if it's even possible to do, never mind trying to do it in the time limit.

* However, the level that stands head and shoulders above all is [[Brutal Bonus Level|Rivals]], of the first Advance Wars.

* Pretty much the meat of both the OG games on GBA fits this trope if you're going for the skill points.

** Speaking of which, the introduction of the Inspectors in [[OG 2]]. "But it's a ''Hopeless'' Boss Fight," you say. "you're ''supposed'' to lose!" No, not '''this''' one. This one is Hopeless only in that it's damn near impossible to ''win''. The challenge of that stage is '''surviving'''. With only a battleship which you have had few to no opportunities to build up (depending on the route split) and three mid-level mecha, which have had ''no'' opportunities to be powered up (if you were able to get a certain Secret weapon, that's about it). Against a bunch of Mooks, a couple enemy battleships, and three End-game bosses that can probably kill your mecha in a single hit. And you have to escape through the far side of the map. That is to say, right ''through'' them.

** One mission in [[OG 2]] requires you to defend an annoyingly large base from annoyingly fast enemies. Not only is it game over if they so much as reach the outside line, but you're going to be using one set of mechs you haven't upgraded (since it's Earth Route, you won't have had a chance to remove the way Katina dodges like a paraplegic whale, for example), the third wave comes from the back, your most durable starting robot isn't allowed to move until the third wave, the Shirogane battleship and the allied Barrelions will be contributing jack shit (at least the Barrelions are trying), your reinforcements deploy to the west so you can't use even the fastest of them to secure the east, and every time you fail (which will be often), Lee will insult your troops despite the fact that he was [[The Load]] for the entire mission.

* The final stage of the PSP remake of Advance. Tough grunts and ridiculously high HP bosses with HP regen are nothing new, especially if you took the Nadesico route at the last path split and had to fight Don Zaucer... but unlike most levels in this game (or in the non-skill point using installments of the franchise in general,) there is a TURN LIMIT. You have 10 turns to wade through the strongest grunts in the game, backed up by TWO overpowered bosses, one of whom as far as I can tell has an automatic 0% chance of being hit (and not the type that goes away after one attack,) with the only ways to even HIT her being to use accuracy boosting spells (and SP is rather limited in this game overall, though by no means as bad as in certain other titles,) and her own counterattack range and accuracy being ridiculously huge. Thankfully, she's not REQUIRED to be defeated to clear the stage (though have fun clearing it with her sniping you constantly)... but the actual boss is so much worse. Some 260K HP, of which he regenerates 10% a turn, exceptionally high EN, which he also regenerates, and his attacks use far less of it than they ought to (not that you can really hope to drain his EN even without the regen, due to the turn limit), a VERY powerful and accurate MAP attack, and the ability to move and attack TWICE per turn. Oh, and while not guaranteed, he is surrounded by high HP/Armour grunts, some of whom have HP regen, all of which if they are right next to him can Support Defend (take a hit for him for half damage) THRICE PER TURN. It might be worth noting that this is also the game where enemy accuracy increases with each attack - if you dodge an attack, the next attack aimed at that character will be at a ''cumulative'' 15% accuracy boost, meaning that with enough attacks at any one character, eventually they WILL get hit (and there are more than enough enemy units for this).

**** Samurai abilities require specific swords to be in your inventory before they can be used. Masamune (an AoE, instant, no MP, Regen and Haste buff) requires you get Masamune, which can only be acquired by stealing it from Elmdor. The Genji equipment is lost forever if you don't steal it, but if you don't steal Masamune an entire Samurai skill can never be used (you can learn it, you just wouldn't be able to use it).

* "An Earnest <s>Two</s> [[Two-Timer Date|Five Timer Date]]" in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2]]''.

** This is on top of the way that the AI chooses the target to attack. Does the enemy on the entirely other side of the map suddenly have less hit points than your current target? Better start wandering over there!

** "Bonga Bugle - Blackfrost." You have to survey people and find out what the most popular resolution was. Problem here is that some people either give more than one or give one that could have more than one meaning. Of course you have to restart the mission all over again if you get the answer wrong. However, doing this mission multiple times ''changes the top resolution'', so not even [[Save Scumming]] will work here! While the Head Editor does give a slight hint at what the answer will be, everything is vague here. What also makes this annoying is that there are TONS of NPCs on the field to talk to, including a few on the rooftops for some odd reason so unless you have a high move or jump stat, have Fairy Shoes or Galmia Shoes, or have a Gria unit, you might not be able to reach the highest NPCs. And you can't forget talking to people behind their doors either. Since all the units on the field are considered guests, you'll waste time watching them do nothing.

* Any ''[[X-COM]]: UFO Defense'' mission that has [[Demonic Spiders|chryssalids]]. Can you say "zombie apocolypse with ambushing giant insects creating more zombies"?

** MOST missions in ''X-COM: Terror from the Deep'', including cargo ship terror missions (bad AI means they can run into thousands of turns while you try to hunt down that one last alien hiding in a closet), alien colony assaults (same problem, except also with [[Demonic Spiders|Tentaculats]] galore), and Artefact Sites (same as colony assaults, except they pop up randomly and you have to do them immediately or take such a huge penalty to your score that it can sink your game).

* The final mission in Roland's Campaign in ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic|Heroes of Might and Magic II]]'' (and I assume Archibald's too, I never even managed to make it to that one.) pulls absolutely no punches. First off, the choice between three possible bonuses at the start of the mission ends up being a choice between three artifacts that ''hinder'' you instead. Next, the developers put an enemy hero right next to your castle, but just out of sight. If this is your first time playing this mission, it WILL catch you offguard and essentially force a restart. But the most difficult part is exactly how much of a challenge you face in this mission. Your opponents have no less than '''TWELVE''' towns, (technically thirteen, but one of them does absolutely nothing until the final battle.) backed up by a metric crapton of resources and mines. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iln_6I2PGzU A playthrough on Youtube] took roughly EIGHT HOURS to beat this mission, without accounting for failed attempts. And as if that isn't enough, those [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|The Computer Is A Cheating Bastard]] elements in this game mean you and the AI are roughly evenly matched when you have the SAME number of towns. It is impossible to describe the pain, time and amount of attempts it will take to finally put this monster of a mission down. Though since this is the last mission in the campaign, all this is at least mildly forgiven.