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Early Game Hell

1592 statements
306 feature instances
559 referencing feature instances

Early Game Hell	type	FeatureClass
Early Game Hell	label	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell	page	EarlyGameHell
Early Game Hell	comment	The early part of a video game or tabletop game is often the hardest part. This can be due to a number of factors, including (but not limited to): Lack of resources (skills, money, equipment, party members, etc.). Lack of opportunities to Level Grind. Lack of a Second Hour Superpower. Lack of experience with the game mechanics. This particular valley of difficulty usually occurs between the opening chapter of the game (where there are so few options that it is hard to make a wrong choice) and the point where a player becomes able to understand and accumulate the resources at their disposal, significantly increasing their available options. It is essentially a symptom of Unstable Equilibrium. Remember, Tropes Are Not Bad. Use of Early Game Hell can make progression more rewarding. Early Game Hell can also be the only time the game ever presents a challenge. On the other hand, sometimes developers are aware of this particular trope and give you a Crutch Character and/or A Taste of Power to compensate. In addition, this trope is often why the Healer Signs On Early. Another thing to keep in mind is that the player generally has less freedom in the early game, with less combinations of party members, items, etc to choose from, so players that spend a lot of time between battles optimizing these things are harder hit with this trope, while a Challenge Gamer that refuses to use new features as they're earned will be less affected. When With This Herring is in play and the herring is crappy equipment/very little gold, this trope is likely to happen. Early Game Hell can lead to a Slow-Paced Beginning if the pacing problem is caused by the player being too underpowered to easily make progress. Super-Trope of Early-Bird Boss, and often overlaps with Schizophrenic Difficulty. If there are difficulty options and the "Easy" mode is harder for whatever reason, that's Non-Indicative Difficulty. Contrast Newbie Immunity, which actually makes it impossible for the player to lose at the beginning of the game, or at least makes it less penalizing. Not to be confused with the way that early video games tended to be brutally unforgiving because the medium was too new to find a good skill/challenge balance, which is Nintendo Hard.
Early Game Hell	fetched	2024-04-17T04:30:54Z
Early Game Hell	parsed	2024-04-17T04:30:55Z
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Early Game Hell / int_108cd205	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_108cd205	comment	The older Wizardry games, Nintendo Hard even at their best, were literally almost unplayable when you were just starting out. Level 1 characters are so utterly inept at absolutely everything that even getting them to win a single battle without someone dying was a pretty impressive accomplishment, as your spellcasters would only be able to cast maybe one spell before they ran out (assuming they didn't bungle their Oratory check and kill themselves with their own backfiring spell), your melee characters and archers had worse accuracy than a fresh X-com recruit, leaving them stuck in an endless loop of "attack miss! attack miss! attack miss! attack miss! attack miss!" until the enemies killed them just to get them to stop embarrassing themselves, and most characters had so little HP they would be killed in 1-2 attacks by anything. Oh, and any character who dies is gone- even if you could revive slain adventurers that early in the game, they wouldn't even be worth it. On the first floor of the castle in Wizardry VI it was perfectly possible to lose a frontline fighter to a single large rat if luck wasn't with you (and it usually wouldn't be). Once you put on a few levels of experience and find some better equipment your characters become marginally less incompetent, but good luck getting that far!
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Early Game Hell / int_10d303a2	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_10d303a2	comment	Shin Megami Tensei IV is considered a horrible uphill battle at the beginning due to the grueling Press Turn combat system and how easily you can get destroyed if you don't learn to abuse it yourself. Once you reach Tokyo, however, things become far more manageable as you start getting the heavy weapons. It's especially brutal in the tutorial segment as you have ~100 hit points, no other party members or repeatable healing, and all enemies come in groups of at least two, each of who deals ~60 damage when they attack.
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Early Game Hell / int_10ddd3d5	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_10ddd3d5	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: The first fights against Shadow Beasts are the hardest because Link only has three hearts, the Shadow Beasts deal a full heart of damage, and there's no healing available during the fights. The first fight adds another nasty wrinkle: the move required to prevent the Shadow Beasts from reviving is locked until they revive once and Midna teaches it to Link, so Link effectively has to beat them twice. Lastly, unlike the game's two 3D predecessors, the entire prologue also lacks enough Heart Pieces for Link to assemble a fourth Heart Container, so the player will have to keep surviving with only three Hearts until the defeat of the first boss (Diababa) in the Forest Temple.
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Early Game Hell / int_110dcdca	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_110dcdca	comment	The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: At the beginning, enemies are extremely dangerous and do a lot of damage, with those in Hero Mode being able to kill Link in just two hits. But then you get the special tunics that double defense, more and more Heart Containers and the insanely powerful upgraded items... and the difficulty drops like a stone as a result. The pattern actually occurs twice too, with Lorule's first few hours of gameplay being a bit like a repeat of the start (thanks to the much tougher normal enemies). Then after a few dungeons and sidequests, that too loses its difficulty.
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Early Game Hell / int_11366f17	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_11366f17	comment	In Betrayal at Krondor, combat in Chapter I is usually a lot more difficult than it becomes in later chapters, after you've upgraded your equipment and learned some useful spells. This is especially true if you try to take the long way to Krondor (through Highcastle and Northwarden, then down the east side of the map) as the few combats of five or six moredhel blocking the way will normally rip you to shreds, despite combat of this kind becoming fairly standard by Chapter IV. The last chapter, in particular, is really easy compared to earlier ones. It's probably for this reason that a lot of the tips on websites for this game are ways to earn enough money to afford good swords and armor early on.
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Early Game Hell / int_14675d9f	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_14675d9f	comment	Wurm Online suffers from this rather badly. Unless you can get recruited into an existing group (or put up some real-world money) from the beginning, you're faced with the prospect of walking for as long as it takes to find some unclaimed land to erect a simple hut and a fenced-off potato patch, fighting off hostile wildlife with a laughably ineffectual sword and buckler and no armour whatsoever. And that's before we talk about the amount of Level Grinding necessary to get any useful Item Crafting done.
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Early Game Hell / int_15a26aad	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_15a26aad	comment	Arena and Daggerfall are absolutely hellish, where even basic enemies like rats can kill you in a couple of hits if you aren't careful. Awkward controls, no health regen and the ability to only cast one or two spells before magicka runs out means players will usually die a myriad of times in the tutorial dungeon alone until they figure out what they are doing.
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Early Game Hell / int_1670bd19	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_1670bd19	comment	S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: In vanilla Shadow of Chernobyl, you are stuck with a leather jacket that barely qualifies as armor and a cheap pistol for the very early game. The first fight is one of the hardest, because you're up against several bandits with better protection than yours and sawed-off shotguns that can blast through you like tissue paper, while you're stuck with an inaccurate pea-shooter. After finding some more decent ranged weapons and armor*or download a Game Mod where guns behave like guns and not pieces of rubbish, the game gets much easier, but it'll still be a while before you get a submachine gun, let alone an assault rifle, unless you're willing to take on several heavily armed and armored opponents. Despite the Renegades, the first faction you get in a war against in Clear Sky, being much less well-equipped than any other faction, the entire battle occurs in the Great Swamp, an extremely flat area covered with tall grass and reeds that can hide their approach and little to no cover anywhere. Add to that fact that you have barely more gear than at the start of the Shadow of Chernobyl example above, and suddenly it doesn't seem that outlandish to say that fighting Monolith is easier. The game even toys with you on this - you can find an endgame-grade rifle in the starting area, but it's in the worst possible condition and there's no ammunition for it. Call of Pripyat avoids this by giving you some gear on par with other people in the starting area, and leaving a bunch of high-end weapons available across the map if you know where to look.
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Early Game Hell / int_173fe05a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_173fe05a	comment	THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage isn't as bad about this, but it still takes some time to accumulate enough SRs to get good scores on Master difficulty songs. Thankfully, a Pro-only player can still be competitive enough in events to get those SRs.
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Early Game Hell / int_17bfcf60	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_17bfcf60	comment	Homeworld 2's multiplayer does this with the Vaygr race. Sure, their strikecraft is all you need to win and in fact the Vaygr's strongest asset. However, with expensive upgrades and the fact that Vaygr Carriers can only have one production module at any time (though this game averts No Recycling, alleviating it somewhat), early game Vaygr players are in constant want of a large Resource Unit pool and a stable source thereof. Once they get the ball rolling and their strikecraft cloud large enough though, Vaygr players can start their Zerg Rush or wait to make an even larger cloud of massed units, thereby (almost) ensuring victory. In other words, the best way to take out a race known for their Zerg Rush is to Zerg Rush them first.
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Early Game Hell / int_1852cbb9	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_1852cbb9	comment	Starbound: The planet you start out on may be all but the most peaceful place you'll ever find, but... you're practically naked, with only a broken sword and a glorified shovel in hand. You want better, you'll have to work for it. Also, getting off the planet requires you to either burrow to the planet's lava-filled core or take your chances with a very dangerous boss beastie...
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Early Game Hell / int_18883335	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_18883335	comment	Starfield: The earliest portion of the game is by far the most difficult under most circumstances. You'll be low on money, most types of ammo are scarce/expensive, you'll be lacking Skill investment (including some quality of life features that past Bethesda games gave you for free like "detection" notice while sneaking), and your starting ship, the Frontier, is underwhelming, especially when it comes to weapons, and will be outgunned quickly. As you gain a few levels and figure out the most efficient ways of making money, a snowballing Unstable Equilibrium effect kicks in, making everything far easier as long as you don't stray to places too far above your level. Once you get past level 60 (where the final Level Scaled items unlock and become available), the game will be almost laughable easy on everything but the highest difficulties. This turns out to be cyclical when it comes to the New Game Plus. As you pass through the Unity, becoming Starborn and entering another universe, you get to keep your level, skills, and powers, but lose everything else - weapons, equipment, items, outposts, ships, relationships... Starting over largely from scratch can be challenging and, on top of it, all enemies will get damage and damage resistance boosts each time you do this. (And nowhere in the game does it tell you this.)
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Early Game Hell / int_18ce7450	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_18ce7450	comment	Hellsinker is known for many things, but perhaps the games most infamous claim to fame is its steep learning curve with players often struggling to get anywhere in the game before they get a handle on it. Making matters worse is that new players will be forced to face Glorious Symbol at the end of Segment 2note Once beaten, the player gets the option to fight the more manageable Scarlet Queen. And just to rub it in, in order to unlock one of the more easy to play characters, the player has to get past Segment 4 and in turn Rusted Dragon.
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Early Game Hell / int_19505f68	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_19505f68	comment	Startopia can be this, depending on the level or sandbox options. Regardless of specifics: you'll not have a lot of energy, and what little you have goes to Arona Daal to buy raw materials and basic facilities. Low energy means power shortages, and guests that were only minorly upset that your station isn't a four-star locale will become really irritated when things shut down. It's inevitable, though, that you'll be able to become nearly completely self-sufficient by making your own goods. It'll get to the point where you'll need to buy another Energy-storing building because you've overloaded the first. Sooner or later, you'll need a third. You'll need a fourth one before you realize it, and the fifth one is practically instant. Before you know it, you'll experience an economic version of The Singularity.
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Early Game Hell / int_19de515	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_19de515	comment	While Descent into Avernus isn't quite as bad as others, the first real combat encounter is a fight involving a bandit crew, consisting of seven bandits, and a Bandit Leader, who is able to make three attacks and can easily kill any player character without trouble. Unless the players recruit help from inside the tavern, its very likely to be a Total Party Kill.
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Early Game Hell / int_1a8119af	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_1a8119af	comment	Dragon Quest VIII: The game's encounters are balanced around a full party. Problem is, it takes several hours before you even get a third party member. It also takes awhile before you are given any kind of a tool to deal with groups of enemies. Sure, you get hit for Scratch Damage, but when you get hit as many as five or six times in a row, it really adds up and turns into Death of a Thousand Cuts. It wasn't unheard of for some people to actually get a game over before the first dungeon.
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Early Game Hell / int_1ad4fe9a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_1ad4fe9a	comment	Might and Magic: Might and Magic I starts you off in the town of Sorpigal, where your party starts out with very low attack accuracy and armed only with clubs and no armor. They will struggle to survive even against the weak monsters on the town's streets. Especially deadly are the sprites, who can completely decimate even a fully healed-up party with their high speed, magic defense, and curse ability, which weakens the entire party's defense against attacks. Might And Magic VI could be very difficult at the outset. Until you get bows for all your characters, you won't have much of an ability to fight monsters at range, and it can be difficult to defeat even the enemies around New Sorpigal until you gain a few levels. Might And Magic VII does this as well. Even the weakest enemies can be difficult at the beginning. Once you reach the mainland you appear in a city surrounded by the horde of goblins and it doesn't get any easier from there. It doesn't help that unlike in VI you can't reach maximum mastery in skills without promotion, and the second promotion is locked by a storyline event appearing into second half of the game. This can also happen with Might And Magic VIII. Made worse that you're stranded on small island where the only source of experience are pirate hordes that will quickly beat you up, and local Noob Cave you have to get to. Getting full party will also take some effort, unlike in other games. Once you get to the mainland you can either get Level 50 party members or a dragon, both of which make the remainder of the game much easier. This is the case with Might and Magic X. The game is very linear, thus denying you the opportunity to grind levels. Once you reach Lost City and get the Blessing of Shalassa the game becomes more open, and it's also usually around this poind you should be able to handle stuff in early Dangerous Caves, netting you relics that will be handy down the road.
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Early Game Hell / int_1ae3c0f3	comment	In Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard, you can use a password obtained at the end of the original game to get recognized as the same guild. None of your characters transfer over; you're still going to be training up a new team of heroes, but you'll still be viewed as old pros. And while this lets you access some special encounters down the line, it also means that, because you're such experts, the guards at the start of the labyrinth won't bother giving you some Medicas to help you get started.
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Early Game Hell / int_1af341a1	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_1af341a1	comment	Disgaea 1 through 3 tend to have somewhat punishing, but reasonable difficulty curbs that make the early game fairly easy if well-played. Disgaea 4, however, is ridiculously punishing early on, with the enemy level average easily exceeding yours if you don't go back and grind, which is incredibly inefficient before unlocking good leveling maps or the skills to make quick work of them. Once you get past around chapter 7 or 8, the game becomes slightly less cheap and more Nintendo Hard.
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Early Game Hell / int_1c9a08e9	comment	Hoard of the Dragon Queen, part 1 of the Tyranny of Dragons adventure, is particularly infamous, with the players having to do several missions in a town under siege by hostile forces. Enemies are very difficult to kill, in particular Gnolls because they get a pack bonus that is well beyond what normal level one groups can reasonably handle. Oh, and two of the bosses of chapter one are of a level the players don't have a prayer of a chance in fighting.
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Early Game Hell / int_1d7b02b7	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_1d7b02b7	comment	Total War: Warhammer II has this with several of its campaigns. The biggest and most notable example in the whole game is easily Tomb Kings, particularly Settra the Imperishable's campaign. While Tomb King units are free and have no upkeep, their buildings and research are ludicrously expensive and take a long time to reach, and their basic units are crappy skeletons that can't really do much other than blob enemies. The advantage of free units is almost totally nullified in the early game due to limits that initially restrict them to a single army and lacking the "background income" most factions get, which covers the upkeep for an early game army anyway. However, once they get their upper-tier constructs like Ushabti, they quickly steamroll the other factions in short order. Thorgrim Grudgebearer's campaign start qualifies too, particularly post The Warden and the Paunch patch. Due to the new Greenskin confederation mechanics, there's a high chance that all the Greenskin tribes around your starting province will unite against you and take out the other Dwarf kingdoms nearby in short order, leading to multiple doomstacks from the south lead by Grimgor and doomstacks from the north attacking your tiny province simultaneously by turn 10. However, once you manage to take Mount Gunbad and get your economy in order, the campaign gets considerably easier. Alarielle is another example. She has a unique mechanic where she gets bonuses to her economy, diplomacy, and public order if Ulthuan is under High Elf control, and staggering penalties if it isn't. At game's start, Alarielle is at war with a Dark Elf faction that holds a number of territories including a fortified pass she has to siege her way through long before she has access to good tools to do so, and who will grab the Sword of Kaine if given enough time. Simultaneously, far to the south, Tyrion is dealing with a similar inner-ring incursion of Druchii. And while Eltharion will have no problem stomping out the Greenskins expeditionary force he starts next to, this normally leaves his army woefully out of position when the Pirates of Sartosa start raiding and occupying the coast. And everything but her personal target is far out of Alarielle's sphere of influence, leaving you at the mercy of the AI to get the worst of your penalties cleared up. Once Ulthuan is finally secured, Alarielle can start to take advantage of some very nice bonuses to quickly confederate the other High Elves and get her economy rolling. Imrik's entire faction boni are geared towards Dragons (reducing their upkeep, making them more powerful, being able to recruit 6 unique versions of them), a late-game unit, which will not help when his first dozens turns involves fighting multiple armies of Skaven that, although easily defeated individually, will be extremely numerous and much more mobile on the campaign map, able to overwhelm the player and attack settlements while they're taking the long route to theirs. Unless Snikch is dealt with very quickly, it's extremely easy for the player to be bogged down fighting endless stacks of progressively tougher and tougher Skaven armies while his other potential enemies (Greenskisn or Dwarfs) grow more and more powerful. Add to that, that Imrik has a poor starting economy (due to no access to global trade via a port) which will make upgrading your cities/armies difficult. Once you get past these hurdles, you can see for yourself that the buffs Imrik gives to Dragons are huge on top of being a High Elven faction.
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Early Game Hell / int_1f630f72	comment	Dark Souls III keeps up the pattern, although the Estus Flask splits the difference and has three uses. The tutorial area ends in a fast-moving and damaging boss, who will completely change moveset part-way through. And then, when you get past that and level up at Firelink Shrine, you come to the High Wall of Lothric, which is so hard you could use it for horseshoes. A warren of staircases and ladders, swarming with hollows, the High Wall is a place where you can find your head being beaten in by a guy who came up a staircase you didn't even see while you were already avoiding arrow fire and fighting a guy who is worryingly skilled with his halberd. The Lothric Knights are so eager to punish the slightest misplay that they practically qualify as Artificial Brilliance. Also there's a dragon and a mimic, because why not at this stage.
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Early Game Hell / int_20336460	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_20336460	comment	Jagged Alliance 2 forces realistic weapon ranges while sticking the player with pistols and the rare SMG. Unlike STALKER, the environments and combat system make closing the distance impossible, and sticks the player at the mercy of Randomly Drops, allowing the computer to have long arms while you don't.
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Early Game Hell / int_210767ac	comment	This holds true for a lot of opening games in Crusader Kings II especially if you're playing as a kingdom with few provinces or some counties and duchies with powerful rivals. But it's especially true if you're starting out as a Zoroastrian ruler (and you're determined not to convert). Basically you start out with no advantages except a large starting army (if you're playing the satrap of Karen) that cannot be replenished, virtually no one to make alliances with because of religious differences, and completely surrounded by hostile pagan and Islamic rulers who can gang up against you and will sooner or later, and probably sooner, attack you - and even if you do survive for a couple of centuries you'll probably be right where you'll have to deal with swarms of Seljuk Turks. Even strategies posted online by veteran players can only recommend the "gamey" strategy of pledging allegiance to a neighboring Muslim monarch and exploiting the game's mechanics to try to seize their territory from within, or at least play aggressively and rely on luck, or just pick a stronger and more secure pagan ruler and convert to Zoroastrianism (which is itself tricky, since it usually means you'll have to capture a Zoroastrian woman and make her a concubine). Even with save scumming, it's still an accomplishment to start out as a Zoroastrian leader and survive.
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Crusader Kings (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_210767ac
Early Game Hell / int_2192aeb3	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_2192aeb3	comment	Fire Emblem: The early chapters are the only ones where accuracy is a frequent issue and one miss will cause a unit to die due to not enough buffer HP/defense. This issue is compounded in hard modes due to the enemies being tougher. Early-game Fire Emblem in general is also made worse by the fact that you have few decent weapons and not much money to buy new ones with. Fortunately, most early gear has a high number of uses, but it still usually takes a while for the player to get access to higher-ranking gear. In addition, players have far less flexibility in early levels, being restricted to a small number of units still locked into their base classes. It's for this reason that the meta now generally considers it totally okay to use Crutch Characters, because you need them more early on and later access to better classes makes the EXP loss irrelevant. Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 has a very pronounced case of this—while the first couple maps aren't too hard, the chapters taking place in Manster are downright brutal, between limited healing access, having to start over with what's basically a new party (which lacks the powerful Crutch Characters Eyvel and Dagdar), and many of your characters being mounted units who are stuck indoors and forced to dismount. Once you've escaped Manster, you have enough strong units to carry you. Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade is a good example of this trope. In just the first five chapters of the game, it is possible to get a Game Over if the player is careless with their planning. The boss of the third chapter is one of the first to use a throne for an evade boost, and he can take advantage of it quite well. Roy, the game's Lord, can be frustrating to level early on due to his speed issues. Weapon accuracy also adds to the game's difficulty early on. Battle preparations are not available until Chapter 6, which also restricts your characters' starting positions to default. Chapter 4 is often considered one of the hardest, due to its large size, multiple objectives, and enemies that (on Hard) are juuuust fast enough that Crutch Character Marcus can't double them. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is one of the bigger offenders, as unlike most games where the best units come at the start and latter units are mostly to replace ones that die, the first quarter is populated either by units that are terrible (Meg, Fiona, Aran, Leonardo), leave, taking their XP with them, and leave the team even further gimped once they leave (Ilyana, Nailah, Tormod and co, the Black Knight.) and even the decent units (Zihark, Jill, Nolan, Micaiah, Laura, possibly Edward) are frail and/or have hideous accuracy at first, while the next two chapters have Lightning Bruiser badasses on your team from stage 1. The two hardest chapters of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon's remake are Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. The strategy to beat Merciless Mode that most players advise is to utilize class changing to get characters into optimal arrangements, forge extra power onto anti-armor/cavalry/dragon weapons to utterly wreck vulnerable enemies and bosses, and make use of the Warp Staff to skip over particularly troublesome sections. But you don't get to forge or change class until Chapter 4 (and you only get Warp about halfway into Chapter 3), and the majority of enemies in the first three chapters, including the bosses, are Fighters and Pirates, and there are no weapons which counter those classes. Also, your only recourse for healing during most of this period are vulneraries and Wrys's heal staff, when Wrys is a very squishy unit and his heal staff only has so many charges in it. The most significant Wake-Up Call Boss is Gomer, the Chapter 2 boss—only three characters out of the fourteen available at that point can survive a round of combat with him at base level, and the most common advised strategy to deal with him is to try outlasting him until his handaxe breaks. Chapter 1 averts this very slightly, as while it's still abnormally hard for a first chapter, the game deliberately tweaks the enemy level scaling to be lower, and its boss can be cheesed by hitting him at range. This can make Chapter 2 quite a shocker. Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem is generally much smoother about its difficulty curve, due to making the eight chapters of its prologue mandatory on all difficulties, but it also scales up the prologue pretty significantly to make it no longer the easy-peasy training ground it was on Normal. This can result in the prologue being quite a shocker for players when they turn up the difficulty, to the point that even a somewhat good player is at risk of losing in Prologue 2 or 3. You're given the bare minimum of iron weapons initially, with a few steel weapons showing up later, and a limited supply of troops that are mostly just enough to cover your bases. You also don't get your Crutch Character Arran at all, as he only joins in the first chapter of the main campaign. Like Shadow Dragon, you also can't reclass or forge or buy stuff, taking away a lot of options. All this culminates in Prologue 8, which is often considered one of the hardest chapters in the game; a cramped corridor with lots of surprisingly strong enemies that have overlapping ranges and gleefully focus-fire anyone you leave open. After Prologue 8, forging, reclassing, the shop, and your new recruits will make things much simpler. The first four chapters of Lunatic and Lunatic+ in Awakening are generally considered the most brutal part of the game... because after Chapter 4 you have access to DLC grinding maps. (And yes, Level Grinding there is all but required on those modes.) If you've got the guts to go without (or you're too broke to afford the DLC), Early Game Hell lasts until chapter 8 when you start getting approximately one Master Seal per chapter, allowing you put your best units into their Prestige Classes (probably a well-trained Avatar, then Chrom, then whoever else is kicking ass), and soon after unlock Steel weaponry for purchase in chapter 9's armory. The Conquest and Revelation routes of Fire Emblem Fates are especially bad about giving the player a low unit count for their first few levels. For example, Chapter 7 of Conquest starts the player off with only Corrin and Jakob/Felicia; while the number grows to 6 total during the mission, there's a turn or two between each arrival, and the enemies on the map all hit fairly hard. Revelation's Chapter 7, meanwhile, only gives you Corrin, Azura, and either Jakob or Felicia (until almost the end) in a Fog of War map with a very high number of enemies. The first few chapters of Fire Emblem: Three Houses on Maddening difficulty are the most brutal segment of the game on a fresh file, the main reasons being halved exp, too early to access Battalions and Gambits note the latter being the only method of preventing enemy counter attacks early in the game, no access to Divine Pulse rewinding for the first two chapters, being stuck with Level 1 allies while enemies are several levels higher early in the game, and being stuck with the Noble/Commoner class note which while having access to all weapons and magic types, magic uses are halved in that class, meaning that magic-dependant allies have 6 or less magic uses to cast per battle and are forced to use their weaker Strength stat to attack when they run out. Enemies are also more numerous and have buffed up stats (not only they will hit hard, they will very likely be hitting twice) and now have access to skills such as Pass, Lance Breaker+, and Poison Strike, making some of them Demonic Spiders. The Blue Lions route is slightly easier than the other routes due to having access to Crutch Characters with specific personal skills, but for other routes, you'll be praying to the RNG gods. Once you have access to Battalions and stat boosting items from the Garden, the game gets a bit easier to handle. New Game Plus also gives access to Battalions from past playthroughs right from the start, making it easier on the initial chapters, but you cannot replenish them until you unlock the Battalion Guild.
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Early Game Hell / int_223c2a48	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_223c2a48	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have this as one of its defining qualities. The game can be grueling when you start off on the Great Plateau (in Breath) or the Great Sky Island (in Tears), as you only have three hearts of health, flimsy old clothes for armor, and are reliant on anything you can pick up off the ground for weapons and shields (likely a lowly tree branch, to start). Enemies are smart and will swarm you if they spot you, forcing you to be cautious and clever if you hope to best your foes, at least until you can get better equipment and upgrade your life bar. For Breath, you may also face a Blue Bokoblin and a Decayed Guardian; in regular mode, as long as you keep your health at max, you can survive a one-hit kill, although taking too long to heal immediately would result in a Game Over. It is even crazier in BotW's Master Mode, with making the enemies stronger (enough to One-Hit KO you on top of losing the Last Chance Hit Point clause in this mode), more capable of seeing past your stealth efforts, and even adding Sky Octoroks and a Silver Lynel. After getting the para-glider, there's nothing preventing the player from ignoring the map markers and going straight to Hyrule Castle or other areas such as the Wasteland, where you'll find yourself facing Guardians in BotW, Gloom Spawn in TotK, or Lynels in both.
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Early Game Hell / int_2319cc69	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_2319cc69	comment	Ori and the Will of the Wisps exhibits this on Hard difficulty, where both enemies and hazards deal double damage, and purchased items cost 50% more, exacerbated by having to fight the starting enemies and the first boss with a woefully short-ranged torch. After you acquire the Spirit Edge, learn some athletic abilities, collect a few Shards, purchase a suitable secondary weapon from Opher, and upgrade your life and mana meters a few notches, the going gets smoother.
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Early Game Hell / int_237f18e5	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_237f18e5	comment	Code Name: S.T.E.A.M is quite this - the first few maps have you vastly outnumbered by enemies that are surprisingly smart, with no form of healing outside of field heals. Fortunately the game is nice and eventually gives you four teammates, a healing weapon usable by everyone, and Tiger Lily.
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Early Game Hell / int_24d953d0	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_24d953d0	comment	Metroid is very difficult in the start due to starting out with just 30 energy points out of the maximum 99 (Yes, you don't even start at full health) and a weapon whose shots only go a third across the screen. This makes killing enemies very difficult and if you're not careful, you will die a lot. Once you get better gear and more energy tanks, enemies become easier to deal with. The Metroid: Zero Mission remake makes the game a lot more bearable when starting a new file.
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Metroid (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_24d953d0
Early Game Hell / int_27b84429	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_27b84429	comment	For about the first half of the Summer chapter of The Last of Us, youâ€™re seriously lacking in advanced gear. All you have is a pistol and rudimentary melee weapons. Pistols donâ€™t do so well against the more advanced levels of infected and melee weapons arenâ€™t one hit kills yet. Once you get out of the core area of Boston, youâ€™ll get a shotgun and learn to craft Molotov cocktails that make fighting advanced infected so much easier. Melee weapon upgrades help to get you out of tight spots if youâ€™re backed into a corner by the infected.
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Early Game Hell / int_283badac	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_283badac	comment	Many players never got past the first chapter of Dark Cloud because the very beginning of the game can be sheer torture: before you have access to a shop, you get a VERY limited cache of supplies from the mayor of Norune (albeit one you can refill every time you enter the dungeon and then return to the village); your weak weapon needs to be repaired frequently (and God help you if you run out of Repair Powder at a critical time), you may or may not luck into a Healing Spring in the random dungeon layouts, and heaven help you if you manage to get poisoned. Even after you finally get access to the game's first shop, it doesn't get MUCH easier, because the enemies in the first dungeon don't drop much money and the item prices are ridiculous — plus in a Guide Dang It! moment, it's possible to inadvertently cause the shopkeeper to injure himself and thus be unable to provide you with his full stock (the trick is to completely restore the Macho Brothers' House before restoring the shop, so the brothers can help the owner with his inventory). Add to that the fact that your first ally's weapons are slingshots that do Scratch Damage, a dungeon floor where you can only play as said ally, and the absurd difficulty of the final boss of the first dungeon, and a lot of players gave up on this otherwise excellent game before they could really open it up.
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Dark Cloud (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_283badac
Early Game Hell / int_28569895	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_28569895	comment	Total War: Shogun 2 progresses from early game hell, to middle game heaven, and then to late game hell when "Realm Divide" kicks in. At the start, you'll struggle to balance fielding an army and developing your provinces as your aggressive neighbouring factions torment you relentlessly. Expect to be short on funds as you exempt newly acquired provinces from taxes to maintain public order and field armies of mostly ashigaru units to Zerg Rush your enemies. Eventually, once you've carved out a nice territory and establish trade relations, your economy will rebound so you can start to produce stronger units and develop your cities. Things will go swimmingly for a while as your high grade troops carve through Japan like a warm knife through butter... then Realm Divide will kick in and everyone will be against you. This can be especially jarring to players coming from Rome: Total War and Medieval II: Total War where you might spend you first several turns doing nothing more than beginning to build up your cities and waypointing your starting troops. And even then, the worst you generally have to deal with early on are the weak "Rebel" factions. The Otomo clan especially suffer from this. Many clans can eventually convert to Christianity, but the Otomo are Christians right off the bat and their leader is dishonourable, which means everyone in Japan hates them. The only advantage they have is a matchlock unit which isn't very good and costs a ton, and they share an island with the Shimazu, who are aggressive, expansionist and happy to demonstrate to you that Guns Are Worthless and Katanas Are Just Better. Fortunately if they manage to survive the Otomo can really become a Japanese superpower, as their gunner units improve dramatically, trade with Europe leaves them swimming in cash, and being able to recruit European-style cannon ships reduces all Otomo naval warfare to a series of Curb Stomp Battles. The Oda clan starts out smack dab in the middle of Japan and will be fighting a two-front war, and also have ongoing feuds with the powerful Imagawa (and their Tokugawa vassals) and the nearby Ikko-Ikki. Once you've shaken off the initial pests, however, the Oda clan's access to superior Ashigaru (especially if you go straight for Long Spear Ashigaru and gunpowder units) lets them Zerg Rush Japan into submission.
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Total War: Shogun 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_28569895
Early Game Hell / int_289484d9	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_289484d9	comment	On some maps, the early game tend to be the hardest part of a run in Bloons Tower Defense because of the map structure and the inability to afford enough defense to deal with all the paths with bloons coming out. The placement of towers as well as micromanaging the tower's attacking priority is vital for beating the earlier rounds. This is especially the case for the CHIMPS mode in 6 where you can't lose lives or use any power or insta-monkeys, Apopalypse mode where there are no bonus cash at the end of a round, and Half Cash mode where every source of cash is halved, including starting cash.
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Bloons Tower Defense (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_289484d9
Early Game Hell / int_289f3039	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_289f3039	comment	Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: There are two ways to unlock things; you can fight baseline Smash battles with the Original 8, get an unlock battle every ten minutes, and earn Spirits through the Spirit Board once you have a fighter you excel with. Or, you can unlock everything via Adventure Mode, starting with just your randomly-chosen Primary Spirit starter and whatever Old Save Bonus spirits you have. The latter is this trope. The Schizophrenic Difficulty plus your lack of good spirits means you will often have to face powerful 3-star level spirits with a bunch of wimps. Fortunately, once you start to pull yourself together and get better spirits, the difficulty evens off, and by the time you reach the Dark Realm, you'll only really fear the strongest enemies in the game at that point. Early on in World of Light, you'll be able to take on a couple of Spirits, especially if they're around the 2000-power range, but you'll eventually run into Ace- or Legend-class Spirits that suddenly have power levels in excess of 9000+, which will easily pound you and the spirits you're likely to have at that point into the dirt. You're meant to find other ways around and, through leveling up Primary Spirits and acquiring a wider range of Support Spirits, eventually come back to those powerful Spirits later to fight them on more equal terms.
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Early Game Hell / int_291e9857	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_291e9857	comment	Dark Souls: Dark Souls: Early game, everything can one-hit-kill you somehow, you've got no clue where anything is, no weapon upgrades, no way to repair damaged gear, not enough souls to buy things like anti-poison moss and arrows and not enough stats to use any of the more powerful weapons. And the player doesn't know what to expect, how hard the game can really be, and that you need to be on guard at all times. Late game, you've got the gear, you've got enough health to take at least one hit from everything (though not much more than that), you know to keep your guard up, and you either know or can guess the attack patterns of everything you come across. Dark Souls II makes the early game even more brutal: you can easily miss getting your Estus Flask, and it starts with only one use instead of five. The game introduces more common healing items, but your supply will be limited until you defeat the first boss and get the merchant to move to Majula. You will only be able to buy a fixed number of items the first game quickly gave in infinite supply from merchants, including basic Titanite Shards, Poison Moss, Homeward Bones, and Prism Stones, until potentially very late in the game, and farming is harder because enemies don't infinitely respawn. Blocking starts out harder because shields that block 100% of physical damage are rare and/or have high stat requirements; additionally, the only class to have a shield from the start has a broken sword that will be rendered "at risk" more or less the moment you use it. Dodging starts out harder because the number of invincibility frames is based on a stat instead of equipment load, and its starting value is as low as armored characters had in the first game. Also, your weapons are very fragile, and repair powder is both very expensive and comes in very low quantities. On top of that, there are two areas you can reach from Majula. The Forest of Fallen Giants has large numbers of hollow soldiers, including two early areas where you need to defeat multiple hollows while under fire from hard-to-reach archers (and in the latter you can accidentally aggro an optional Mini-Boss who, at that stage, will barely break a sweat as he peels your skin off and uses it to write a letter to his aunt), plus a durable Ironclad and a boss who can ambush you some distance outside his arena while you're dealing with one of several fire-bombers. The Flame Tower of Heide is swarming with large, durable Old Knights, who are slow but damaging; in particular, there's one with a mace who is very hard to dodge (although thankfully he doesn't respawn when killed), and he's the second enemy in the area. Dark Souls III keeps up the pattern, although the Estus Flask splits the difference and has three uses. The tutorial area ends in a fast-moving and damaging boss, who will completely change moveset part-way through. And then, when you get past that and level up at Firelink Shrine, you come to the High Wall of Lothric, which is so hard you could use it for horseshoes. A warren of staircases and ladders, swarming with hollows, the High Wall is a place where you can find your head being beaten in by a guy who came up a staircase you didn't even see while you were already avoiding arrow fire and fighting a guy who is worryingly skilled with his halberd. The Lothric Knights are so eager to punish the slightest misplay that they practically qualify as Artificial Brilliance. Also there's a dragon and a mimic, because why not at this stage.
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Early Game Hell / int_295048d5	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_295048d5	comment	In Bloodborne, you can easily run out of health items early on, especially since you can't level up until you at least see the first boss, and the much faster combat can easily defeat new players, even those used to Dark Souls games. Later in the game, you'll probably have a lot more health items and a better grasp of the combat, making the game easier.
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Bloodborne (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_295048d5
Early Game Hell / int_2990bf98	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_2990bf98	comment	In Dicey Dungeons, while bad rolls can mean disaster at any point of a run, they are particularly punishing during the first couple of floors before you have time to build up dice manipulation and defensive options that let you recover from an unlucky roll. It's not unheard of to get defeated on the first floor simply because the enemy dealt too much damage too quickly.
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Early Game Hell / int_29b50f9c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_29b50f9c	comment	In Castle of the Winds, the very first battle the player encounters is against a kobold. The battle verges on sheer luck territory, especially if the first spell you chose wasn't the healing spell or Magic Arrow. Then you can grab the armor on the ground, start making money to buy new equipment, etc. and it gets easier, but barely. The snake enemy that poisons you is a trifle when you have tons of HP and mana to cure the poison, but early on you can find yourself in a position where you just have to go back to your last save or start over, because that next keystroke is going to kill you.
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Early Game Hell / int_29b689d1	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_29b689d1	comment	Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight has a hellish first couple of stages. Oddly, it's not just that you have a short health bar, few to no healing items, and are lacking the upgrades that make the game easier later on (although that certainly doesn't help), the enemies you meet at the start are among the most annoying and hard to deal with in the game on their own merits, particularly the shielded imps (even late-game enemies are very rarely capable of blocking your attacks), the unpredictable knife-throwers who are hard to hit without taking damage, and the bombers who can inflict Poison on you.
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Momodora (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_29b689d1
Early Game Hell / int_29d129d0	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_29d129d0	comment	The Tiamat Sacrament: The hardest part of the game is the beginning, when the party has few abilities or items, and the procedures to learn new skills are grindy. Az'uar's inhale mechanic is also hard to use because of how it's easily interrupted. However, endgame enemies and bosses generally don't stand a chance against the party once they have most of their skills. There are also late game equipment and skills that remove the drawbacks of Az'uar's inhale system, allowing him and Kelburn to unleash their best attacks more frequently.
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The Tiamat Sacrament (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_29d129d0
Early Game Hell / int_29fc3950	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_29fc3950	comment	The very starter set adventure itself, Lost Mine of Phandelver, starts of with an encounter that should be balanced in theory, pitting four goblins against the players in a wide area. However, the goblins get a surprise round due to ambushing the characters, wield bows, and are hiding in some trees which give them extra cover. They also are far enough away so it can take around two full turns of movement to get to them, making it very easy for the goblins to kill level one characters. It then puts them through a dungeon filled with goblins, traps, and a Bugbear, still at level one. Once the players beat this section, the rest of the module is much smoother and the encounters after are not nearly as challenging, such as the Red Brands being much easier to fight thanks to the players having more options for approaching it.
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Lost Mine of Phandelver (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_29fc3950
Early Game Hell / int_2a4482ad	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_2a4482ad	comment	One of The Secret of Monkey Island's hardest moments happens early on, where you have to memorize the shopkeeper's commands in order to open his safe for a note of credit. Unlike the game's other puzzles, this does not require using items, and instead a specific combination of push, pull and use commands that randomizes with each new game (so looking in a strategy guide is futile).
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The Secret of Monkey Island (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_2a4482ad
Early Game Hell / int_2a643174	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_2a643174	comment	In Chicken Invaders, your firepower grow much faster than the hitpoints of the monsters. Thus, the second level is normally easier than the first.
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Chicken Invaders (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_2a643174
Early Game Hell / int_2acb12c5	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_2acb12c5	comment	X3 Reunion and previous X-Universe games are infamous for dropping the player into the universe in a crappy ship with next to no money, no upgrades, bad weapons, and no tutorial. Trading is painfully slow and combat usually results in a Pirate fighter curb-stomping your little ship. Later games alleviate the issue by having alternate game starts give the player a better ship or more money, and rewarding the player more for doing the more numerous plot arcs and randomly generated missions. The later games also give you options to enhance the hell of the early game, such as Terran Conflict's Goner Witness start. You get the Goner Ranger, which is completely unarmed and agonizingly slow, and 350 credits. That's enough credits to buy a handful of Energy Cells, the cheapest ware in the game. The original X: Beyond the Frontier was bad about this even by X standards. You start with a measly 100 credits, no weapons, no time compression device - so you have to spend 30 minutes real time on a one-way trip between stations - and the weakest possible shield in a game where zero shields = dead. Oh, and you have a 3,500 credit debt to pay off (fortunately, the Teladi are pretty patient when it comes to you paying them back).
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X (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_2acb12c5
Early Game Hell / int_2c71840f	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_2c71840f	comment	While the original Tomb Raider I wasn't all that bad, it was the sequels that really started to put you through the wringer for the first handful of levels. In particular, Tomb Raider II and Tomb Raider III will utterly destroy you in the first levels, and heaven help you if you had never played any of the previous games. A lot of the hell in these games comes from the fact that the developers seemed to intend for the games to be played in sequence. As a result, "The Great Wall" in TR2 isn't all that much more difficult than some of the Atlantis levels from the first game, and the Venice levels after were a fair bit easier than "The Great Wall". Unfortunately, all of India's levels in TR3 are pretty difficult, and if you're smart, playing the Nevada levels immediately after only extends the hell into about mid-game. Afterward, once you have plenty of new equipment and experience under your belt, the South Pacific Islands and London are a little bit less hair-pullingly hard.
Early Game Hell / int_2c71840f	featureApplicability	1.0
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Tomb Raider I (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_2c71840f
Early Game Hell / int_2cb2e5e0	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_2cb2e5e0	comment	Breath of Fire II has a very hard opening chapter after the Playable Prologue. When Ryu and Bow leave the first town, you may find that straying more than a few steps from town could end with you flattened by random encounters. It will take a few level-ups before you can even reach the mountain pass, and in said mountain pass you'll almost certainly need to camp by the healing fountain for a while to grind before you can explore the mountain without fear of getting slaughtered within a few feet. Fortunately, by the time you take out the mini-bosses, Bow will have learned some healing spells — and then right after this, you lose Bow for the next third of the game. Now Ryu must battle alone for the next couple of hours, facing even harder enemies on the overworld, and a rather unforgiving dungeon with a mini-boss at the end, followed by two more tough fights. After this part, thankfully, you get access to Lightning Bruiser Katt, who makes battles much easier. The game then settles into a difficulty somewhere between challenging and difficult, but doesn't reach the maddening levels of the early game until the final dungeon.
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Breath of Fire II (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_2cb2e5e0
Early Game Hell / int_2dc12aeb	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_2dc12aeb	comment	In NetHack and other Roguelike games, experienced players can (almost) guarantee a win, but still run the risk of running into a dangerous enemy and dying before they can insure themselves against such threats. Statistics show that the most common causes of death for NetHack players are being killed by a soldier ant or some other low-level enemy.
Early Game Hell / int_2dc12aeb	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_2dc12aeb	featureConfidence	1.0
NetHack (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_2dc12aeb
Early Game Hell / int_2f203125	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_2f203125	comment	Shin Megami Tensei series: In general, until you get to access fusion, you're stuck with whatever demons or Personas you can recruit or purchase. Some games even limit your stock early on to restrict your tactical options until you reach a certain point in the plot. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne isn't too bad in the first dungeon, where free healing spots abound... but as soon as you leave, the enemies suddenly get a lot nastier. You have very little choice in what you can use as far as skills, and you don't get the Demon Compendium (which lets you resummon demons you've already recruited and makes fusion far less of a gamble) until after you defeat possibly the most infamous Early-Bird Boss in gaming. Once you defeat either Dante or Raidou (depending on your version), things begin to even out. Shin Megami Tensei IV is considered a horrible uphill battle at the beginning due to the grueling Press Turn combat system and how easily you can get destroyed if you don't learn to abuse it yourself. Once you reach Tokyo, however, things become far more manageable as you start getting the heavy weapons. It's especially brutal in the tutorial segment as you have ~100 hit points, no other party members or repeatable healing, and all enemies come in groups of at least two, each of who deals ~60 damage when they attack. The playable epilogue "The Answer" in Persona 3 FES is already incredibly hard, and it certainly doesn't help that you need to clear the first dungeon in order to access Paulownia Mall and stock up on healing items and equipment. Persona 4 hits you with this as well. While there exist certain Personas and abilities that make the early bosses cake (Good luck with that), the low power and small party options will turn against you very quickly. It absolutely does not help that the first major boss, Shadow Yukiko, has an attack that hits your entire party and which one character, your only character guaranteed to have a heal ability, is weak against it, allowing the boss to attack twice if you don't get lucky with blocking. After about the second dungeon, it gets easier. Persona 5 While the game is good in giving multiple options to allow you to restore SP, the bulk of these happen later on in the game, making the first palace you tackle a situation where you will regularly run out and either be forced to use expensive items or leave entirely. Additionally, the first Palace is the only one where it's possible to save yourself in an unwinnable situation due to the time limit not accounting for the three days needed to actually put a bow on things. So taking too many of those breaks can result in being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
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Early Game Hell / int_300a716d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_300a716d	comment	Hoshi wo Miru Hito: Stargazer starts your party off at level 0. Yes, level 0. And while at level 0 you can only do one 1 point of damage per hit at best, and even the weakest of Random Encounters can completely trash you. It's up to luck whether you live long enough to gain enough levels to put up a good fight.
Early Game Hell / int_300a716d	featureApplicability	1.0
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Hoshi wo Miru Hito (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_300a716d
Early Game Hell / int_3038d75c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_3038d75c	comment	Diablo II and Diablo III aren't quite as bad as the original Diablo in this regard, but the lack of ways to recover your health and resources is a big detriment early on. Gear that synergizes with a certain build is crucial to gaining power in the Diablo series, and the things you find early on only might do that if you're really lucky. It's only in the second or third chapter of each game that things really start to take shape; before that, it will involve a lot of having to run from even basic zombies and undead monsters.
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Diablo II (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_3038d75c
Early Game Hell / int_30450a9a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_30450a9a	comment	Alien: Isolation sees you as Amanda Ripley, being chased down by a Xenomorph, androids, and hostile humans. You don't even get a gun until 3/4th's the way through the third chapter, and even then ammo is so scarce that hiding is a better option, especially since in chapter 4 is when the androids start trying to murder you, and they take all 6 shots from the revolver to put down. Chapter 5 is when the Alien becomes an active threat, and if you are extremely lucky, you might be able to obtain enough resources to craft one Molotov cocktail or a pipe bomb, the only two offensive weapons capable of driving the Alien off until you acquire the flamethrower, which doesn't happen until chapter 9, effectively half way through the game. By then, the amount of ammo, bombs, healing items, and crafting supplies should cover you, provided you don't just try and draw attention to yourself.
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Alien: Isolation (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_30450a9a
Early Game Hell / int_30c1ffd0	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_30c1ffd0	comment	In Stardew Valley, only the most basic adventuring equipment is available from the start (it does 5 points of damage, meaning that even green slimes will take several hits to kill), the player must spend most of their time doing agricultural work in order to earn money, his/her inventory is relatively small, and valuable loot is very rare on the first 20 or so floors. Eventually, the player unlocks sprinklers- which means that farming can be automated- and grows or finds enough food that some can be sold and the rest can serve as relatively cheap healing items.
Early Game Hell / int_30c1ffd0	featureApplicability	1.0
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Stardew Valley / Videogame	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_30c1ffd0
Early Game Hell / int_318fe3d2	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_318fe3d2	comment	Etrian Odyssey: Several games in the series, already hellish as a whole, make the early exploration hard even by their own sick standards. Patching up party members and replacing your Warp Wires takes up all the money you earned getting the injuries, giving you no cash for even basic equipment. Running into FOEs means an instant game over. Skill-heavy characters like mages and healers run out of TP after only a few battles, reducing them to plinking with daggers for Scratch Damage. It's not until you can level up a few times and get some decent skills that you can start saving for better gear. Even worse, the first game in the series does not let you reset your skills until halfway through the game, meaning if you made bad decisions assigning skill points before the first boss, you may have to either train an entire second team almost from scratch or just restart your playthrough. The fourth and sixth games aim to mitigate this by introducing a Noob Cave (Old Forest Mine and Eastern Shrine respectively; the latter is still officially a major dungeon in Nexus but only has one floor), but unprepared players are still likely to have a hard time during the prologue. In Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard, you can use a password obtained at the end of the original game to get recognized as the same guild. None of your characters transfer over; you're still going to be training up a new team of heroes, but you'll still be viewed as old pros. And while this lets you access some special encounters down the line, it also means that, because you're such experts, the guards at the start of the labyrinth won't bother giving you some Medicas to help you get started.
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Etrian Odyssey (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_318fe3d2
Early Game Hell / int_31e1eca3	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_31e1eca3	comment	PokÃ©mon Diamond and Pearl pits you against two nasty bosses early on in the two Team Galactic admins, Mars and Jupiter. Mars is fought in the Valley Windworks, where she has a Level 16 Purugly (17 in Platinum), a fully-evolved PokÃ©mon who at this stage in the game is a Lightning Bruiser compared to your not-fully evolved PokÃ©mon. Jupiter ups the ante not too long after with her Level 20 (23 in Platinum) Skuntank, who has a powerful attack in Night Slash, Screech to make its attacks hit even harder, and Smokescreen to make it certain you're unlikely to hit it back. Just like Purugly, Skuntank's a fully evolved PokÃ©mon, meaning it most likely outclasses your lineup at that point, and since both these fights take place within the first two gyms, and both PokÃ©mon only have one weakness, there aren't that many viable options to beat them without crazy amounts of Level Grinding. The games also have arguably the strongest front-half Gym Leaders in the entire series, with the first Gym's ace being a PokÃ©mon with an Attack stat on par with fully evolved PokÃ©mon (Cranidos), and subsequent Gyms having you face off against fully-evolved PokÃ©mon with metagame-worthy stats note Roserade, Mismagius, and Lucario, two of which later get used by the Champion (the last three Gyms, in comparison, are Breather Bosses due to specializing in easily countered types).
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PokÃ©mon Diamond and Pearl (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_31e1eca3
Early Game Hell / int_32500a5d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_32500a5d	comment	In the first part of Earthbound Beginnings, Ninten is your only party member and he has zero offensive PSI spells in addition to a pitifully small amount of inventory space. Once you bring in Ana or Lloyd, the game eases up as there are more targets for your enemies, more inventory space, and in Ana's case, effective methods of attack other than just bashing the enemy.
Early Game Hell / int_32500a5d	featureApplicability	1.0
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EarthBound Beginnings (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_32500a5d
Early Game Hell / int_3287d1e5	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_3287d1e5	comment	One of the first missions after reaching your first Home Site in State of Decay has you defending other survivors' enclave from several waves of zombies. At this point, you only have two playable survivor (only one of them had a firearm with little spare ammunition), one of them may be already fatigued by the time you reach the Home Site, poor quality weapons, no explosives, and little medicine. The worst part is the Freaks that come with the horde and if a Juggernaut appears, you can kiss this task goodbye.
Early Game Hell / int_3287d1e5	featureApplicability	1.0
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State of Decay (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_3287d1e5
Early Game Hell / int_331e009	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_331e009	comment	Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! avert the trope with bonuses you earn from getting badass ranks. The bonus stats apply to all characters you use, which means you can have an easier time getting into the game every time you use a new character. You can still play the trope straight by turning the bonus stats off.
Early Game Hell / int_331e009	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_331e009	featureConfidence	1.0
Borderlands 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_331e009
Early Game Hell / int_339e3a65	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_339e3a65	comment	Sweet Home (1989) uses the classic turn-based RPG gameplay style, which includes infinite Random Encounters. Coupled with limited supplies and permanent character deaths, it should go without saying that this is a hard game for the first hour or two. However, if all of your characters can survive long enough to gain a few levels, it then becomes fairly easy, since your party is always given the chance to attack first.
Early Game Hell / int_339e3a65	featureApplicability	1.0
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Sweet Home (1989) (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_339e3a65
Early Game Hell / int_33f99742	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_33f99742	comment	Ingress is painful to play at first because at level 1, the only XMP Bursters and Resonators you can use will be at L1; L1 Bursters will do Scratch Damage at best unless you stand right on top of a Level 1 Resonator, and L1 Resonators are often just cannon fodder. Once you propel yourself to higher levels, however, you'll have access to higher-level equipment that will withstand enemy attacks better and can do massive damage to enemy Resonators within a 40-meter radius.
Early Game Hell / int_33f99742	featureApplicability	1.0
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Ingress (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_33f99742
Early Game Hell / int_36df24f9	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_36df24f9	comment	Hyper Light Drifter can have any one of three areas be the first one the player explores, but even the locked-away fourth area is of comparable difficulty to the first three. As a result, all of the game is of similar difficulty, while the player gets more powerful over time. Some unlocks — most notably the ability to deflect/absorb projectiles — make the game significantly easier, meaning that the game is much harder before they are unlocked.
Early Game Hell / int_36df24f9	featureApplicability	1.0
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Hyper Light Drifter (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_36df24f9
Early Game Hell / int_39c8cc46	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_39c8cc46	comment	Genocide Online: After Rena caused slaughter in the City of Beginners and overthrown it's rulers, it became harder for new players to develop quickly. Soldier NPC, which was answering the questions about the game, is dead, most of the experienced players no longer play on this starting location, so you have to learn everything on your own, unless you have made up with a friend that is a pro player in advance, like it happened with Komari and Seigi.
Early Game Hell / int_39c8cc46	featureApplicability	1.0
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Genocide Online	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_39c8cc46
Early Game Hell / int_3b08dfc9	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_3b08dfc9	comment	Pillars of Eternity: While the game is more forgiving than Baldur's Gate, Act I can be more than a little tough for new players. Your characters are frail, you don't have any decent equipment yet, and you can cast only so many spells before you need to rest. Just traveling between areas can be a problem since some of your characters may not have a single point in Athletics and, as a result, will suffer from a major debuff because they are exhausted just from traveling from one area to the other (leading you to use camping supplies, which are sparse and costly at this point of the game). Most aggravating of all, you will encounter ghost-type enemies, which deal high endurance damage, can stun you with each attack, and can teleport directly on your most frail characters (and there are a mandatory encounter in Od Nua, a dungeon you must complete in order to gain access to the rest of the map and begin Act II).
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Pillars of Eternity (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_3b08dfc9
Early Game Hell / int_3c36b590	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_3c36b590	comment	Try Infinite Undiscovery on Infinity. The first fight with the Player Character alone against two Mooks is easily the hardest fight in the game, because you'll die in 3 hits and barely do Scratch Damage. Most players find the only way to survive that is to get one of them stuck on a piece of furniture so you can deal with them one at a time. Even then, it will require near-perfect use of the parry move, because you'll die from a few hits and there's no way to heal. The game really only becomes comfortable at the second dungeon when you can finally start to Level Grind.
Early Game Hell / int_3c36b590	featureApplicability	1.0
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Infinite Undiscovery (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_3c36b590
Early Game Hell / int_3c912b71	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_3c912b71	comment	Battle Princess of Arcadias has three different types of levels: Combat for taking on enemies, Sieges for boss fights, and Skirmishes for army vs army battles. The first few levels consist of one Combat zone, one Siege, and two Skirmishes in a row with the second Skirmish being much more difficult than the first and none of the levels are very good for grinding to be able to strengthen the characters and brigades very quickly. After that Skirmish, the level variety and experience curve balance out and most of the rest of the game becomes much easier.
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Battle Princess of Arcadias (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_3c912b71
Early Game Hell / int_3cf15492	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_3cf15492	comment	MechWarrior 5 is... tolerable in the story mode. The threat usually ramps up slowly enough that you can get by on the small selection of starting equipment, and you have a Centurion starting out too. By contrast, the career mode can be downright intolerable; almost all of the pre-selected lance compositions suffer from some kind of crippling limitation that makes even early-game missions into exercises in frustration and constant equipment attrition, bleeding you via repairs, replacements, and travel expenses. It will probably at least one in-game year before you can get enough money together to purchase a decent 'Mech to start challenging more profitable missions.
Early Game Hell / int_3cf15492	featureApplicability	1.0
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MechWarrior (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_3cf15492
Early Game Hell / int_3faaab79	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_3faaab79	comment	The power curve in Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory is built around the assumption you'll be clearing dungeons multiple times after meddling with them via the Scouting system, meaning the early parts of the game (before this mechanic is introduced) are absolutely brutal. You have only a couple of small dungeons to grind in, lackluster equipment, and filling up the EXE gauge to give yourself a vital power boost is so arduous you'll almost certainly need to retreat to heal afterwards (resetting the meter by doing so). The developers seemed to have noticed, too; right at the start of Chapter 2 (where you encounter the first non-plot boss that will mop the floor with you) very potent HP boosting accessories are made easily available. It's not much, but it's something.
Early Game Hell / int_3faaab79	featureApplicability	1.0
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Early Game Hell / int_4110f1d0	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_4110f1d0	comment	Both Baten Kaitos games suffer from this to various extents. The battle systems are quite complex and not beginner friendly. Just to add to that, the first game makes you spend a long time with only Kalas in your party, which slows battles to an absolute crawl and gives you little margin for error. Origins, being the difficult game it is, really tries to mix this up. You've got a short section with no party members other than Sagi, a nasty Early-Bird Boss, and several scenes where nothing particularly interesting happens. Just to add to that, new players are going to have a hell of a time with the battle system and the rather steep difficulty curve, while veteran players learn there's no EX Combo options until a couple hours in. The game gets infinitely better once you meet Quaestor Verus, though.
Early Game Hell / int_4110f1d0	featureApplicability	1.0
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Baten Kaitos (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_4110f1d0
Early Game Hell / int_411acd6e	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_411acd6e	comment	The Wonderful 101, like its spiritual predecessor above, is not nice for newcomers. You lack several essential skills (like Stinger and Rising), you lack all your weapons outside of Hand and Sword, you only have a handful of permanant Wonderful Ones, having to find the rest throughout the game. On top of that, the game suffers notorious Tutorial Failure and does not tell you useful moves like locking-on. Fans of the game even note that your entire first playthrough is essentially the tutorial and the real game begins after you unlock Hard Mode.
Early Game Hell / int_411acd6e	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Wonderful 101 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_411acd6e
Early Game Hell / int_42f805cb	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_42f805cb	comment	Conviction (SRPG): The early game only allows the player access to infantry and priest classes and troops, making it hard to move across the map quickly or deal with a variety of enemy types. By the mid-game, the player will have more variety, but the abundance of speed-based objectives can make most of the campaigns difficult. The last four chapters of route A are standard campaigns with no speed-based objectives or NPCs to protect, making them less frantic than many of the earlier chapters.
Early Game Hell / int_42f805cb	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_42f805cb	featureConfidence	1.0
Conviction (SRPG) (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_42f805cb
Early Game Hell / int_43909786	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_43909786	comment	Republic at War: In the "From Ashes" map, you start with only one planet, low income, have to fight through fleets with ships more powerful than yours, and won't be able to advance your tech level for quite some time.
Early Game Hell / int_43909786	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_43909786	featureConfidence	1.0
Republic at War (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_43909786
Early Game Hell / int_43a87369	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_43a87369	comment	River City Ransom: Underground has a quite rough early-game, as a Level 1 character's starting move set has a very limited ability to handle the large crowds of enemies, the money for extra moves and stats are only slowly trickling in from beating people on the streets, and the fact that your money gets cut in half every time you are defeated. Once you get enough moves for crowd control and hitting people while they're down, it gets much easier.
Early Game Hell / int_43a87369	featureApplicability	1.0
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River City Ransom: Underground (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_43a87369
Early Game Hell / int_43f52aa9	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_43f52aa9	comment	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion potentially inverts this trope due to its level scaling system. The system scales enemy encounters to the level of the player. During the early game, the most dangerous creature the player can encounter is a small imp, while bandits generally wear low tier equipment. On higher levels, the game world is filled with creatures like minotaurs, ogres and bandits wearing high end equipment. If you didn't level the right skills and attributes, you might find fights becoming nearly Unwinnable, resulting in a Late Game Hell.
Early Game Hell / int_43f52aa9	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_43f52aa9
Early Game Hell / int_4665a2e8	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_4665a2e8	comment	Atomic Heart: At the start of the game, even a single VOV-A6 robot poses a serious threat, and you lack the means to quickly dispose of them in direct combat, having to rely on stealth instead. This trend continues when you first make your way into the open world — while you're better-armed at this point, the infinitely repairing robots will quickly overwhelm you once your pitiful ammunition supplies run out.
Early Game Hell / int_4665a2e8	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_4665a2e8	featureConfidence	1.0
Atomic Heart (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_4665a2e8
Early Game Hell / int_474c18c1	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_474c18c1	comment	BioShock Infinite is this all over again, especially before you get the regenerating shield. You can't carry any health kits or salts this time, so you need to actively go get healing items. This is hellish on Hard, and more so with the 1999 Mode difficulty, before Booker has his shield, as getting shot once is a risky proposition, and there are several turrets around that laugh at his starting pistol and its poor ammunition capacity. This is exacerbated by the first Vigor obtained—Possession—having an extremely high Salts cost (without Elizabeth around to refill easily) and having no effect against non-mechanical enemies (though there is a purchasable early-game upgrade that allows you to possess humans), meaning he can't even use his limited resources to full effect.
Early Game Hell / int_474c18c1	featureApplicability	1.0
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BioShock Infinite (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_474c18c1
Early Game Hell / int_48d5e6ee	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_48d5e6ee	comment	Fatal Labyrinth can be like this due to the random generation, sometimes you will start the game right next to a dangerous enemy. But on the other hand, if you can get a Battle Axe and some healing potions, the only challenge might be a Game-Breaking Bug.
Early Game Hell / int_48d5e6ee	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_48d5e6ee	featureConfidence	1.0
Fatal Labyrinth (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_48d5e6ee
Early Game Hell / int_49a88442	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_49a88442	comment	Final Fantasy XIV: Unless you play as a healer, the first levels can be quite tricky. While some quests will pair you with an NPC that can heal you, they are not too good at it and you will have to learn to pay attention to which enemy is attacking you and how not to aggro every single enemy. Additionally, participating in a FATE syncs your level to it, thus you can sometimes be temporarily deleveled and lose access to some abilities you learned. Once you're able to upgrade from a class to a job, it gets much easier. Leveling in the field early on, at least solo, is also a slog due to lack of support. Once the player has their trusty chocobo companion (acquired at level 30), going back and doing the other classes becomes much simpler, especially combined with the bonus experience from items like the Brand-New Ring and the Hunting Logs. This still, of course, doesn't help when it comes to the main questline and the first go-around. Eureka is an absolute slog in the first few levels. At level 1, you can barely go toe to toe with most enemies at your level solo and fighting enemies higher leveled than you can easily get you killed. It isn't till at least level 10 where you can really start dishing out damage in your party.
Early Game Hell / int_49a88442	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_49a88442	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Fantasy XIV (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_49a88442
Early Game Hell / int_4bea6084	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_4bea6084	comment	If that's not stressful enough, in Europa Universalis you can try to revive the glory of the Byzantine Empire — starting just a few decades before it was invaded in real life. You have only a few provinces (with ocean and enemy territory between your capital and them), an all but nonexistent army and navy, are surrounded completely by a much stronger enemy who wants your capital province and will work to claim it, and your only ace is that your capital province is a trade center, which really doesn't do you much good all things considered. Although unlike the Zoroastrians mentioned above, there are nearby powers you can form alliances with, they tend not to do much if any good unless the Ottomans find themselves in a bad position early on, which rarely happens. Recommended strategies also tend to be "gamey", like exploiting the peace treaty and vassalage systems to gobble up territory in eastern Europe before the Ottomans can. Luckily the game does give the player considerable bonuses just for being able to expand into the Byzantine Empire's old territory, but most games played as Byzantium won't even make it to that point. The Muslim equivalent to the Byzantine Empire is Granada, with Castile (most likely Spain later), usually in conjunction with Portugal and Aragon, filling the role of the Ottoman Empire. IV even offers players who manage to pull off conquering all of Spain and Portugal as Granada the Re-Reconquista achievement.
Early Game Hell / int_4bea6084	featureApplicability	1.0
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Europa Universalis (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_4bea6084
Early Game Hell / int_4c2da4b8	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_4c2da4b8	comment	MADNESS: Project Nexus 2 intentionally invokes this in its Arena Mode. You start out as a bog-standard Mook with near-identical combat capabilities to any other generic mook in the game, that is to say, basically none. Once you've leveled up a decent amount, you'll be able to make mincemeat of most enemies with increasing style and ease.
Early Game Hell / int_4c2da4b8	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_4c2da4b8	featureConfidence	1.0
MADNESS: Project Nexus 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_4c2da4b8
Early Game Hell / int_4c56381b	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_4c56381b	comment	The Binding of Isaac: The new game mode in Afterbirth, Greed Mode, has a main gimmick in that you fight waves of enemies that escalate in difficulty until you eventually fight a boss (or a couple of them), which when beaten, allows you to proceed to the next floor if you choose not to battle a champion boss for a guaranteed Devil/Angel Room. Its other gimmick however, is that you can only get your items (other than the aforementioned Devil/Angel Rooms, a free Silver Treasure Room, and a locked Gold Treasure Room every floor) from a shop. While the shop infinitely restocks, you earn that money by beating the enemy waves. As such, this can lead to some really aggravating and painful early games, where if the game doesn't decide to give you good damage items early, you will just get overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies attacking you. It's even worse in its hard equivalent, Greedier Mode, where not only do you get less money per floor, the game throws champion enemies at you constantly and makes the timer between waves shorter. Isaac in general is rough as hell in the early game, as most of the better items (such as the D6) are not unlocked and require beating the game multiple times with different characters in order to unlock them. Not to mention, the game is fairly heavy in the Unstable Equilibrium, so getting the power you need to get Angel/Devil rooms reliably is harder to obtain in the early game. Holy hell Keeper. Unsurprisingly, he's the prize for grinding through Greed Mode enough times to donate 1000 coins to the Greed Machine. His gimmick is he starts with two "coin hearts", each of which is one single hit and is replenished by finding coins. While this means relenishing health is easy, it also means he dies in only two hits. He also starts with a very weak variant of Mutant Spider, meaning he seriously struggles to keep crowds of enemies off of himself. In other words, out the gate he's basically Judas with a weak slow attack and without Book of Belial, so you'll struggle to even make it to Chapter 2 as this guy. Once you manage to beat Issac though, he starts with Wooden Nickel which means a free health recharge per room, or every 15 seconds if you get lucky enough to find the very common 9 Volt item.
Early Game Hell / int_4c56381b	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_4c56381b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Binding of Isaac (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_4c56381b
Early Game Hell / int_4cd32aa7	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_4cd32aa7	comment	Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is this all over. Player Characters come from lame working-class backgrounds (like Peasant or Charcoal Burner or Ratcatcher) and most begin the game with very few combat skills and little in the way of money or equipment; depending on your class, you may not even start with a proper weapon, and you can forget starting with any armour (though you might be able to scrape together enough starting money for a leather skullcap or some tough boots). Perpetual Poverty is a state of being for low-level PCs: having more than 50 Gold in your purse at any moment is a massive accomplishment, in a game where the most expensive item is a Best Craftsmanship galleon worth 120,000 Gold; even if you roll up a nobleman, you will be scrambling for every penny. Not helping is the game's combat system, which is extremely (and often hilariously) lethal, because Critical Hits happen quite often and have a fair chance to cripple you (you have to roll on a table to see where you were hurt and how badly - a hit with a warhammer can range from "cracked sternum" and "broken wrist" to "head splattered like a juicy tomato"). The fortunate part is From Zero to Hero is also in full effect: even the most pathetic and hoarking ugly peasant can become a respectable martial champion or lord wizard... if they survive that long.
Early Game Hell / int_4cd32aa7	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_4cd32aa7	featureConfidence	1.0
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_4cd32aa7
Early Game Hell / int_4ce5263e	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_4ce5263e	comment	XCOM: Enemy Unknown: While not as difficult as UFO Defense, you'll spend the first few months of the alien invasion commanding four panicky rookies equipped with Kevlar armor and basic assault rifles against enemies with plasma weapons, desperately trying to keep the nations of the world from collapsing into panic as the aliens abduct their citizens and terrorize their cities at will. By the endgame you've got six badasses in power armor, toting reverse-engineered plasma weapons of their own and even psionic powers, supported by aircraft that can go toe-to-toe with the biggest alien battleship and win with ease, and what's left of the world is sleeping soundly because they know you've got this.
Early Game Hell / int_4ce5263e	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_4ce5263e	featureConfidence	1.0
XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_4ce5263e
Early Game Hell / int_4d72a695	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_4d72a695	comment	Progressing through Cook, Serve, Delicious! feels like a chore through the zero- and one-star ranks. Due to the low initial food prices, limited prep stations, and low Buzz (meaning fewer customers), you'll be lucky to scrape together $500 on a typical day. Yet most foods and upgrades have costs in the thousands, meaning you'll have to scrimp and save in order to make even minimal progress, and even then you'll likely find yourself having to pass up significant money-making opportunities (like bets and catering jobs) because you can't afford the required foods. By the two-star rank, most players will have upgraded enough to provide themselves with a steady revenue stream, making the rest of the game considerably more bearable. Surprisingly averted on the hard difficulty, as you receive a significant, permanent 50% boost to buzz, and start off with 6 cooking stations. Within a few days you can jump through a few restaurant and food upgrades without too much worry.
Early Game Hell / int_4d72a695	featureApplicability	-1.0
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Cook, Serve, Delicious! (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_4d72a695
Early Game Hell / int_4e3c5456	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_4e3c5456	comment	The Swindle: The early game can be a bit tricky. While Slums levels don't have the intricate variety of security systems that the later difficulty levels do, you start out without certain key upgrades: you can't double-jump, wall-cling, hack computers or plant explosives until you've saved up the cash for that, and the payouts are low enough that once you're past those intro-level upgrades you won't be able to buy things too quickly. It at least takes a few levels to gear up the difficulty with mines, drones and the like, but losing seven hundred quid and the chance of the Ghost bonus because one computer spawned somewhere inaccessible without dynamite can provide some nasty delays given how low payouts are at that stage. (It doesn't help that tutorials generally boil down to "Here's a two-sentence summary of that new toy you just bought"; figuring out what a new thing does is usually achieved by getting inconvenienced or killed by it, wasting precious time in your pursuit of the Devil's Basilisk.)
Early Game Hell / int_4e3c5456	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Swindle (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_4e3c5456
Early Game Hell / int_5075737a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5075737a	comment	Golden Sun: The Lost Age has the beginning become very tough if you decide to play it on Hard. All of the monsters' stats are given a 1.5 multiplier boost, which means you will have to level grind far more often than you did in a normal play through just to survive and make a dent in the enemies' boosted HP and/or get lucky with rare drops. Dying in Hard mode will be even more brutal due to how expensive reviving allies at a sanctuary will be and the Water of Life item being extremely rare to find.
Early Game Hell / int_5075737a	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_5075737a	featureConfidence	1.0
Golden Sun: The Lost Age (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5075737a
Early Game Hell / int_507dfb6a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_507dfb6a	comment	While EarthBound (1994) is overall easy, the beginning up to the point when Paula joins Ness is by far harder than the rest. The problems are: Each party member gets their own inventory space, but this means that it's very small when you only have Ness. Even worse, you are required to have some of his already limited space occupied by several important key items. Those being the ATM Card, Sound Stone, Receiver Phone, and Pencil Eraser. On top of that, the equipped weapon and armors take up to an additional FOUR slots total. This means out of Ness's already limited 14 slots, you only have 6 open slots for items. PP recovery items can't be purchased until much later, and finding them is incredibly rare, which makes it difficult to save PP and requires lucky encounters with Magic Butterflies to replenish it. But even if you had access to PP recovery items, Ness probably wouldn't have the inventory space to keep them. This creates a feedback loop of sorts; PP restoration is limited, so the player wants to keep healing items in Ness's inventory, but space is limited, so the player would rather heal HP with PSI, but PP restoration is limited... While Ness hits hard and has high HP, he's very slow, so enemies usually get to go first. This means that every battle, even if Ness is capable of one shotting the enemy, he's still likely to take damage before he can do so and get whittled down. This is especially bad when facing multiple enemies at once, where Ness will be battered several times before even getting a chance to act. The rolling HP mechanic helps, but at this early point, not only does Ness not have enough HP to take full advantage of it yet, but most of the enemies aren't dealing enough damage in one hit for the HP to roll down for much longer than a couple seconds at most. The player can easily be left in a Healing Loop. Combining this issue with the PP recovery issue, PSI Rockin, Ness's only option for multi-target attacking's expensive PP cost (10 for Î±, 14 for Î²) has limited usage.
Early Game Hell / int_507dfb6a	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_507dfb6a	featureConfidence	1.0
EarthBound (1994) (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_507dfb6a
Early Game Hell / int_512b4b82	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_512b4b82	comment	Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia runs on this trope. At first, Shanoa has one weak weapon, meaning she will likely die many times before she starts acquiring more potent weapons and techniques. Once she does, the game drops in difficulty to become only very difficult, slightly below Nintendo Hard, once you learn which monsters are weak against which weapons.
Early Game Hell / int_512b4b82	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_512b4b82	featureConfidence	1.0
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_512b4b82
Early Game Hell / int_526d4c5c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_526d4c5c	comment	In both Knights of the Old Republic games, you start without the Force or a lightsaber, resulting in very slow fights. Once you become a Jedi (KOTOR I) or build a lightsaber from collected components (KOTOR II), the game becomes much faster.
Early Game Hell / int_526d4c5c	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_526d4c5c	featureConfidence	1.0
Knights of the Old Republic (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_526d4c5c
Early Game Hell / int_52f6626	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_52f6626	comment	Jak II: Renegade: The missions can be quite tough at the beginning. Outside the city you have to fight Metal Heads, and some of them take a lot of punishment and will gang on you. Inside the city you have sometimes a never ending stream of Krimzon Guards on your tail. At the start you can either use Dark Jak, which charges slowly, punch the enemies (that isn't really advised), and a bit later a Scatter Gun that is slow and has a short range. Once you get Blaster you'll have so much needed opportunity to fight back while not staying inside the effective range of enemy's attacks.
Early Game Hell / int_52f6626	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_52f6626	featureConfidence	1.0
Jak II: Renegade (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_52f6626
Early Game Hell / int_53b30902	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_53b30902	comment	Valkyria Chronicles peaks early on in Chapter 7, an absolutely brutal Final Boss Preview, but gets much easier later on, when your troops have leveled up and learned how to actually hit things. Some classes get access to new weapon types at higher levels, the most notable being Flamethrowers for Shocktroopers, which let you One-Hit Kill enemies in cover and then take the cover for yourself, GREATLY simplifying the game. You also get Smoke Rounds for the Eidelweiss, a Machine Gun that fires 30 shots(when even 3 hitting the target's head is enough to kill) and Alicia awakens her Valkyria powers. Early chapters are near impossible to A-Rank without a New Game Plus, but play your cards right later on and you'll be getting A-Ranks left-right and centre. It feels like you're an army of Quadratic Wizards facing an empire of Linear Warriors.
Early Game Hell / int_53b30902	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_53b30902	featureConfidence	1.0
Valkyria Chronicles (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_53b30902
Early Game Hell / int_53c13dff	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_53c13dff	comment	The original Medarot starts rough. You only have one Medabots at this stage and since the game ends if you don't have any spare Medabots in reserve after a loss, every loss after the tutorial battle will result in a Game Over. Despite this, the game has no qualms about subjecting the player to 2 v 1 fights (including a trap triggered by talking to a random NPC) and some battles may as well be a Luck-Based Mission. This is felt as early as the opening battle with Cyandog, who can sometimes knock out the player in two turns without there being a way to prevent it. This is more pronounced in the Kuwagata/Rokusho version because while Kabuto/Metabee has a powerful missile attack for his head part, the Kuwagata head only has a useless (at this stage) sensor function and it derives its striking power from frail arm parts, Since there is no secondary Medabot to draw away fire or provide support boosts, it's very difficult to get through the first town and acquire your second Tinpet (at this point which the difficulty evens out) without swapping parts.
Early Game Hell / int_53c13dff	featureApplicability	1.0
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Medarot: Kabuto and Kuwagata (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_53c13dff
Early Game Hell / int_5436b1a9	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5436b1a9	comment	Part of the reason Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson has a reputation for an enormous Sequel Difficulty Spike is due to this. Stage 2 decides to throw a full-blooded boss at you, before you've unlocked the pair-up mechanics the game's difficulty is scaled around. The game is certainly never easy, but it becomes much more manageable once you actually have all your abilities.
Early Game Hell / int_5436b1a9	featureApplicability	1.0
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Senran Kagura (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5436b1a9
Early Game Hell / int_54828035	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_54828035	comment	While Final Fantasy X itself doesn't suffer from this, the same cannot be said about one of its minigames, Blitzball. The first match that you have to play is the only obligatory one and you have to play with Besaid Aurochs, by far the worst team in the game. Only Tidus and Wakka have okay stats, and you can't even have both at team at once. They are also only ones that have any techniques. This match alone is enough for some players to completely abandon the minigame in disgust. After this match however you get the option to fire Besaid Aurochs and hire other players, and the further you get in the core game, the more players available to recruit you have, some of which are so powerful (such as Brother) that they make the entire minigame a cakewalk.
Early Game Hell / int_54828035	featureApplicability	1.0
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Final Fantasy X (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_54828035
Early Game Hell / int_54dd20c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_54dd20c	comment	Minecraft YouTuber Dream and his Minecraft Manhunt series. The beginning of a Manhunt is almost always one of the most frantic parts, since all the Hunters are nearby and Dream doesn't have any of the tools he'd normally use to fight them off, leading to some dud games where they simply corner Dream and punch him to death in minutes. Once he manages to get some breathing room he can gather resources and equipment, giving him a lot more options to level the playing field.
Early Game Hell / int_54dd20c	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_54dd20c	featureConfidence	1.0
Dream (Web Video)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_54dd20c
Early Game Hell / int_5555282	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5555282	comment	The hardest boss in Diablo (1997) is the Butcher, encountered at level 2 and quite capable of surviving all your mana potions and staff charges and killing you in two hits.
Early Game Hell / int_5555282	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_5555282	featureConfidence	1.0
Diablo (1997) (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5555282
Early Game Hell / int_55f5c3aa	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_55f5c3aa	comment	Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom. Each new kingdom starts you off with a handful of money and an open area. The first year or so will be spent building houses, getting steady food and water supplies going, waiting for new settlers to move in, and setting up trade with neighbors, all the while minimizing your construction because it's easy to go broke if you overextend, especially on higher difficulties. Once your population and workforce grow to the point you can start gathering taxes and building industries for export, your money woes will soften and you can build and expand your city more safely.
Early Game Hell / int_55f5c3aa	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_55f5c3aa	featureConfidence	1.0
Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_55f5c3aa
Early Game Hell / int_56fa0ea4	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_56fa0ea4	comment	Civilization games can be this, if you have an early warmonger civ as a neighbour. Bonus points if you're Venice from the Fifth Game's Expansion, Brave New World. If you manage to survive his attack or somehow he doesn't declare war on you, you can try to take him down since his advantage is gone after going up to a certain era (Medieval or even Classical).
Early Game Hell / int_56fa0ea4	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_56fa0ea4	featureConfidence	1.0
Civilization (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_56fa0ea4
Early Game Hell / int_58a0656b	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_58a0656b	comment	PAYDAY 2 follows suit by having you start a fresh game with nothing but a two piece suit, a weak pistol, and a just as weak and inaccurate assault rifle. Unlike in the first game, weapons have to be bought with money (which you don't have much of in the beginning), but you also have to unlock them first by leveling up. Character skills require skill points gained via level up, and you need said skills in order to be able to be more versatile in combat and stealth. If you decide to go infamous, you'll lose all your acquired skills and spending cash while all of your gear gets locked again. However, you do get to keep all your guns and the mods installed on them, as well as your perk decks which greatly boost your survivability.
Early Game Hell / int_58a0656b	featureApplicability	1.0
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PAYDAY 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_58a0656b
Early Game Hell / int_5921531a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5921531a	comment	The playable epilogue "The Answer" in Persona 3 FES is already incredibly hard, and it certainly doesn't help that you need to clear the first dungeon in order to access Paulownia Mall and stock up on healing items and equipment.
Early Game Hell / int_5921531a	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_5921531a	featureConfidence	1.0
Persona 3 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5921531a
Early Game Hell / int_5921531b	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5921531b	comment	Persona 4 hits you with this as well. While there exist certain Personas and abilities that make the early bosses cake (Good luck with that), the low power and small party options will turn against you very quickly. It absolutely does not help that the first major boss, Shadow Yukiko, has an attack that hits your entire party and which one character, your only character guaranteed to have a heal ability, is weak against it, allowing the boss to attack twice if you don't get lucky with blocking. After about the second dungeon, it gets easier.
Early Game Hell / int_5921531b	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_5921531b	featureConfidence	1.0
Persona 4 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5921531b
Early Game Hell / int_5921531c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5921531c	comment	Persona 5 While the game is good in giving multiple options to allow you to restore SP, the bulk of these happen later on in the game, making the first palace you tackle a situation where you will regularly run out and either be forced to use expensive items or leave entirely. Additionally, the first Palace is the only one where it's possible to save yourself in an unwinnable situation due to the time limit not accounting for the three days needed to actually put a bow on things. So taking too many of those breaks can result in being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Early Game Hell / int_5921531c	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_5921531c	featureConfidence	1.0
Persona 5 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5921531c
Early Game Hell / int_59b7f1d5	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_59b7f1d5	comment	New to Love Live! School idol festival, but not new to Rhythm Games? Get used to the fact that you will not be getting any A or S ranks for a while, even if you get all Perfects. Unlike in most rhythm games where your note-hitting accuracy and sometimes your combo are the sole influences in your score, in LLSIF your score also depends on your characters' Attribute values. The higher a character's level and rarity, the higher their Attributes will be. If you're trying to get grade S unlocks, it's largely recommended to ignore score and just go for Full Combos in the early game; at least Full Combos don't necessitate a good team. And let's not get started on Score Matches, where you'll frequently end up in matches where the 4th-place player will have a Full Combo while the winner doesn't. Once you power up and idolize your characters and start getting SR- and UR-rarity characters, your rhythm game skills will begin to finally pay off.
Early Game Hell / int_59b7f1d5	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_59b7f1d5	featureConfidence	1.0
Love Live! School idol festival (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_59b7f1d5
Early Game Hell / int_59da62aa	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_59da62aa	comment	Fallout: New Vegas has several Beef Gates that will curbstomp you if you go to the wrong place too soon, and overpowered hit squads that you WILL encounter once you get a bad reputation with either of the main factions. If, for example, you go straight north you make it past Scorpion Gulch (a gulch with giant Radscorpions) armed with only dynamite, a cheap pistol, weak armor at best, and some supplies. If you do manage to survive and win you still can't make it past the Cazadors (giant Tarantula Hawk wasps) further north.
Early Game Hell / int_59da62aa	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_59da62aa	featureConfidence	1.0
Fallout: New Vegas (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_59da62aa
Early Game Hell / int_5bd9e7b7	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5bd9e7b7	comment	Dark Souls II makes the early game even more brutal: you can easily miss getting your Estus Flask, and it starts with only one use instead of five. The game introduces more common healing items, but your supply will be limited until you defeat the first boss and get the merchant to move to Majula. You will only be able to buy a fixed number of items the first game quickly gave in infinite supply from merchants, including basic Titanite Shards, Poison Moss, Homeward Bones, and Prism Stones, until potentially very late in the game, and farming is harder because enemies don't infinitely respawn. Blocking starts out harder because shields that block 100% of physical damage are rare and/or have high stat requirements; additionally, the only class to have a shield from the start has a broken sword that will be rendered "at risk" more or less the moment you use it. Dodging starts out harder because the number of invincibility frames is based on a stat instead of equipment load, and its starting value is as low as armored characters had in the first game. Also, your weapons are very fragile, and repair powder is both very expensive and comes in very low quantities. On top of that, there are two areas you can reach from Majula. The Forest of Fallen Giants has large numbers of hollow soldiers, including two early areas where you need to defeat multiple hollows while under fire from hard-to-reach archers (and in the latter you can accidentally aggro an optional Mini-Boss who, at that stage, will barely break a sweat as he peels your skin off and uses it to write a letter to his aunt), plus a durable Ironclad and a boss who can ambush you some distance outside his arena while you're dealing with one of several fire-bombers. The Flame Tower of Heide is swarming with large, durable Old Knights, who are slow but damaging; in particular, there's one with a mace who is very hard to dodge (although thankfully he doesn't respawn when killed), and he's the second enemy in the area.
Early Game Hell / int_5bd9e7b7	featureApplicability	1.0
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Dark Souls II (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5bd9e7b7
Early Game Hell / int_5bfa9c98	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5bfa9c98	comment	Warframe is pretty rough on new players for two main reasons. First, new players don't have access to very many of the resources they'll need to make stronger equipment or improve their current gear, which is only to be expected. Second, the game doesn't do a very good job of explaining... well, most things, leaving newbies reliant on the community to learn the ropes. By around Mastery Rank 6, most players have figured out the key mechanics, and they'll have gained access to powerful weapons like the Soma, making the rest of the game much easier (at least conceptually).
Early Game Hell / int_5bfa9c98	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_5bfa9c98	featureConfidence	1.0
Warframe (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5bfa9c98
Early Game Hell / int_5d321bc8	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5d321bc8	comment	While in mid- to late-game Factorio you (hopefully) have a good sized factory and most of the boring tasks are automated, you start out with nothing but a burner mining drill, stone furnace, and a peashooter of a pistol with 10 magazines. There's no small wonder that an entire mod has been created for the express purpose of skipping Factorio's early game outright. When not lightening the load between several players in a multiplayer run, the grind can feel unnecessarily intense for veteran players who just want to jump into their favorite part of the game, and are bored to tears with the first couple of hours of gameplay: The first few objectives of starting up power production, research, mining, and smelting can be a real slog. Often, you will be waiting to get a sufficient amount of resources to build sections of your mines and factory. Once you have those resources, manually crafting what you need will tie up your crafting queue, which occasionally forces you to wait to craft more items or cancel what you're crafting (and God forbid you're doing a "Lazy Bastard" run, in which case you can't even craft more than a certain amount of items before reaching your first assembling machine, which itself requires power). Combine all that with needing to grind through all the early game research to get to automobilism, which lets you explore more efficiently, and trains, which make transporting large amounts of resources across long distances viable (doubly so if you're playing on "Railworld" map gen settings). Once your factory gets to a decent stage of the game where most of the early tasks are automated, you suddenly have to watch for biter attacks, which are triggered by the pollution your factory constantly produces. All of your early game gun turrets will frequently run out of ammo and need to be replenished, and hand-fed ammo if you don't have a dedicated transport belt bringing in magazines and a factory supplying the belt. Neglecting to clear out biter nests early on will leave your base open to more attacks. Biter nests themselves are full of danger and can't be easily cleared out until flamethrower research is finished; flamethrowers are also a mid-game tech locked behind oil research, which itself takes a lot of setup, and often requires scouting of the map to find a sustainable oil field.
Early Game Hell / int_5d321bc8	featureApplicability	1.0
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Factorio (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5d321bc8
Early Game Hell / int_5d951ad3	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5d951ad3	comment	Mario Golf on the Nintendo 64 and GameCube are difficult to play for the first time due to 80% of the characters being locked and forcing you to use weaker characters who cannot hit the ball very far. To unlock better characters, you have to beat them in a head to head competition and the rivals will always have hit the ball farther than you.
Early Game Hell / int_5d951ad3	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_5d951ad3	featureConfidence	1.0
Mario Golf (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5d951ad3
Early Game Hell / int_5da242aa	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5da242aa	comment	Fuga: Melodies of Steel and its sequel practically enforces this as right off the bat, the game makes it clear that movement is automatic and will not stop until you reach an intermission, an expedition, or an enemy encounter/boss. This means there's no way to properly grind items and experience and trying to take the Safe Routes ends up being a retroactive Schmuck Bait as they'll deprive you of much needed experience and items required to upgrade not just the children, but the Taranis as well. It's worse in the first game as instead of a monetary system, shops run on a bartering system and are only available at the end of each chapter, unlike in the second where there are marked places to call a supply ship to give you whatever items are needed. Combine this with the looming threat of the Soul Cannon will make every battle early on almost nerve-wrecking to go through, fitting for the games' War Is Hell theme.
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Fuga: Melodies of Steel (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5da242aa
Early Game Hell / int_5e468cb1	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5e468cb1	comment	In Hexen II, the first hub, Blackmarsh, is easy for all classes but one: the Paladin. Reason being, his second weapon isn't ranged like those of the other classes. That means a lot of painful things: having to rush in to destroy archers and ballistae while entirely exposed to their fire; playing cat-and-mouse with Wizards that pelt you with skull missiles and teleport to another end of the room if you take too long in getting within sword's reach; facing Stone Golems, that don't flinch and aren't affected by knockback (which mean the sword is very impractical against them), with the uncommon-in-Blackmarsh Glyphs of the Ancients because getting close to them means either literally getting your head smashed in even for a melee class such as him; and storing all your healing items for the fight with Famine, as you'll be too close to use Discs of Repulsion and reflects his magic bolts while you attack. To slightly compensate for the ordeal, the Paladin has his third weapon available much earlier than the other classes, and he, when using his sword with knockback and insane damage, laughs in the face of anything that isn't a Golem (which he can now play keep-away with).
Early Game Hell / int_5e468cb1	featureApplicability	1.0
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Hexen (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5e468cb1
Early Game Hell / int_5e91c7b	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5e91c7b	comment	As soon as the game gives control to the player, Resident Evil 2 throws zombies at you in nearly every direction from the very start. If playing on normal, you won't have enough ammunition to fight them all, forcing you to run. The controls have a definite learning curve to them; expect to die a lot in the early stages (if not the very first screen) if you're not well accustomed to tank controls. It gets worse if you go for the secret key that requires you to pick up no items or weapons until you reach the police station, leaving you with very little ammo and a few hits off your health as well.
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Resident Evil 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5e91c7b
Early Game Hell / int_5e91c7d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5e91c7d	comment	Resident Evil 4 can be terrifying and brutal in the beginning village sections, where the player is unlikely to have enough supplies or ammo for their guns to effectively fight off the villagers (especially Dr. Salvador), let alone get any gun upgrades. You're lucky if you can escape by the skin of your teeth. Leon can get more ammo and money from the enemies he kills, but he will have problems during the whole village survival segment and to a lesser extent the aftermath, up until he meets the Merchant and starts buying new weapons and upgrading or selling old ones.
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Resident Evil 4 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5e91c7d
Early Game Hell / int_5e91c7e	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5e91c7e	comment	Resident Evil 5, in the very first level, throws you into an area where you have to fight off an endlessly respawning number of Majini and a Boss in Mook Clothing that can reduce you to Dying status in one hit. Worse still, said fight starts in a tiny building in an equally small area with no cover where you're Zerg Rushed by tons of enemies. The only way out is when the Boss in Mook Clothing smashes the wall open for you. All you have is a handgun, Sheva's special A.I. will have her dying constantly until you figure out how to babysit her, and you're damned well staying put until the game decides you can leave.
Early Game Hell / int_5e91c7e	featureApplicability	1.0
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Resident Evil 5 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5e91c7e
Early Game Hell / int_5f6f8929	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_5f6f8929	comment	In Crypt of the NecroDancer, this applies to one character: Aria, already a Nintendo Hard One-Hit-Point Wonder, goes through the zones in reverse, so she starts out having to make her way through the chaos of Zone 4, but each progressive zone gets more predictable and less filled with traps.
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Crypt of the NecroDancer (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_5f6f8929
Early Game Hell / int_62148c49	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_62148c49	comment	Lie of Caelum: The first dungeon of the game can be very difficult, since the starting gear has few stances, making it easy for the enemy to break the party members. Later armor units have enough stances and stats to let the party survive most situations. Additionally, having a third party member makes a big difference in breaking enemy stances quickly and budgeting turns for healing.
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Early Game Hell / int_62148c49	featureConfidence	1.0
Lie Of Caelum (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_62148c49
Early Game Hell / int_63ac9ac1	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_63ac9ac1	comment	Sonic the Hedgehog 4's Episode Metal is difficult at first because you go have to go through the 4 main zones of Episode 1 in reverse order.
Early Game Hell / int_63ac9ac1	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_63ac9ac1	featureConfidence	1.0
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_63ac9ac1
Early Game Hell / int_640d9be1	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_640d9be1	comment	Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade is a good example of this trope. In just the first five chapters of the game, it is possible to get a Game Over if the player is careless with their planning. The boss of the third chapter is one of the first to use a throne for an evade boost, and he can take advantage of it quite well. Roy, the game's Lord, can be frustrating to level early on due to his speed issues. Weapon accuracy also adds to the game's difficulty early on. Battle preparations are not available until Chapter 6, which also restricts your characters' starting positions to default. Chapter 4 is often considered one of the hardest, due to its large size, multiple objectives, and enemies that (on Hard) are juuuust fast enough that Crutch Character Marcus can't double them.
Early Game Hell / int_640d9be1	featureApplicability	1.0
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Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_640d9be1
Early Game Hell / int_66b7b92d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_66b7b92d	comment	Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast similarly starts you out with a few levels as a Badass Normal, made challenging by the fact that in this game blasters really are clumsy and random, and the Stormtroopers have apparently learned to shoot straight. Few descriptions of it do it justice: the game is very stingy with ammo and health; expect to be a One-Hit-Point Wonder with One Bullet Left being constantly shredded to pieces by stormtroopers with better aim than Hawkeye and Deadshot combined. You will cry like a baby. Repeatedly. Getting hold of your lightsaber, even with the weak starting skills, is a palpable relief.
Early Game Hell / int_66b7b92d	featureApplicability	1.0
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Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_66b7b92d
Early Game Hell / int_66d0cab8	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_66d0cab8	comment	Every level in Populous is hardest at the beginning. Since your mana is dictated by the population of your tribe, and you almost always start with only one or two, you barely have enough mana to raise or lower land at the beginning. This is compounded by the fact that later levels manage difficulty primarily by giving the enemy a very good start location and a massive initial population, making it easy to get crushed by them early on if you're not careful.
Early Game Hell / int_66d0cab8	featureApplicability	1.0
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Populous (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_66d0cab8
Early Game Hell / int_677fd618	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_677fd618	comment	Despite unlocking your action skill at level 3 instead of level 5, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! manages to be even harder early on. Most of the early areas lack an atmosphere, and while you do get your first Oz kit very quickly, you're not likely to find one with a decent oxygen capacity for a long time. The enemies are also generally harder than what you'd face in the previous games around the same time; Scavs are prone to taking flight and leaping great distances, making them harder to track than their gravity-bound Bandit counterparts, while Kraggons split in two when killed, making them more dangerous than the relatively-straightforward Skags. To cap everything off, you don't get access to most of your key resources, such as the Black Market, the bank, and the Quick-Change station, until you've defeated the notoriously-difficult first boss, and you won't get a third weapon slot until you're halfway through the story. There is the option of choosing the Crutch Character Claptrap, who does not require oxygen and takes reduced damage from Fire attacks, which is common in early game, at the expense of higher mid and late-game difficulty on account of having an action skill that relies entirely on randomness.
Early Game Hell / int_677fd618	featureApplicability	1.0
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Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_677fd618
Early Game Hell / int_67ce5a04	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_67ce5a04	comment	The Conquest and Revelation routes of Fire Emblem Fates are especially bad about giving the player a low unit count for their first few levels. For example, Chapter 7 of Conquest starts the player off with only Corrin and Jakob/Felicia; while the number grows to 6 total during the mission, there's a turn or two between each arrival, and the enemies on the map all hit fairly hard. Revelation's Chapter 7, meanwhile, only gives you Corrin, Azura, and either Jakob or Felicia (until almost the end) in a Fog of War map with a very high number of enemies.
Early Game Hell / int_67ce5a04	featureApplicability	1.0
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Fire Emblem Fates (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_67ce5a04
Early Game Hell / int_68a8d1da	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_68a8d1da	comment	Metro: Last Light toys with this. Stealth is a little easier, but after you get your choice of the Rangers' armory in the prologue mission, you're captured and get stuck with nothing but a knife and whatever weapons and ammunition you can rip out of the enemy's hands, and you'll be scrounging for every round. It's telling that it's only on the hardest difficulty that you get your weapons back at the end of the first real level.
Early Game Hell / int_68a8d1da	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_68a8d1da	featureConfidence	1.0
Metro: Last Light (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_68a8d1da
Early Game Hell / int_68a92548	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_68a92548	comment	theHunter: Call of the Wild: You start out forced to use bad equipment until you can unlock better. You also start out with a very badly wobbly aim, which can be mitigated by spending Perk points. Perk and Skill points can also be used to mitigate other very important things affecting difficulty, like how visible you are and the amount of noise you make, and give you other crucial skills. All of the high scoring animals of any type, and all large animals such as bison and moose, are very difficult to hunt early game until you get stronger guns and until you spend Skill and Perk points. You will need to play many hours before you can hope to possibly get anything better than does and low-level bucks. Coyotes and foxes are also very difficult to hunt early game because of how skittish they are due to their good sense of smell and sight. They are also very hard to see in the thick vegetation. Two early missions on Layton and Hirschfelden involve photography, which can make the early game hard because of how broken the photo system is. It doesn't help that one requires two bears in the same picture. One of the early missions on Hirschfelden is to hunt a fox with a bow. Unless you've been grinding or playing another reserve, this often comes at a time when the player has yet to spend Perk and Skill points in visibility and noise stats, making it difficult to not spook the fox until you can lure it in close enough.
Early Game Hell / int_68a92548	featureApplicability	1.0
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theHunter: Call of the Wild (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_68a92548
Early Game Hell / int_68b8bdfe	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_68b8bdfe	comment	X-COM: UFO Defense: Despite being able to field 14 troops in the beginning, your rookies have pitiful damage, accuracy, and armor. Even the Sectoid can tank a shot or two from the basic rifle, and you're at least a month away from better weaponry (assuming you rush research and manufacturing on laser weapons, you might have a laser rifle by February, but you won't have the money to do much of anything else). Troops also improve slowly if at allnote Rank advancement provides the best boosts to soldier skills, but the ranks available are determined by the overall number of soldiers you have, such that you can only have 1 Corporal for every 5 soldiers, and 1 Sergeant for every 11 soldiers, and so on. The starting budget is laughable, you can go weeks without ever spotting a UFO, and your first terror site mission, one of the hardest missions of the game, is reliably coming at the end of the first month. At least your interceptors can shoot down any UFOs that show up this early...if you have the money to pay for missiles. Research must be carefully prioritized to catch up to the aliens as fast as possible. The end of the game is much easier, when you're able to bring up to 26 soldiers to a mission, all armed with Heavy Plasmas or Blaster Launchers, alien grenades, and for the best, psi-amps that can mess with the enemies, all while flying around the battlefield in functional tank armor, but it will take a lot of effort and death to make it there.
Early Game Hell / int_68b8bdfe	featureApplicability	1.0
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X-COM: UFO Defense (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_68b8bdfe
Early Game Hell / int_6ac55ec7	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_6ac55ec7	comment	While 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons is somewhat lamented for not being as lethal as earlier editions, a lot of the adventures are brutal at level one. This is largely because level one characters are much more fragile than they should be since they start off with low amounts of health, spells, equipment, etc, meaning a lot of early encounters that should be easy are over-tuned. It's not rare to find groups who prefer to start start off as level two or three characters instead of one so that the players have more balanced stats and skills. The very starter set adventure itself, Lost Mine of Phandelver, starts of with an encounter that should be balanced in theory, pitting four goblins against the players in a wide area. However, the goblins get a surprise round due to ambushing the characters, wield bows, and are hiding in some trees which give them extra cover. They also are far enough away so it can take around two full turns of movement to get to them, making it very easy for the goblins to kill level one characters. It then puts them through a dungeon filled with goblins, traps, and a Bugbear, still at level one. Once the players beat this section, the rest of the module is much smoother and the encounters after are not nearly as challenging, such as the Red Brands being much easier to fight thanks to the players having more options for approaching it. Hoard of the Dragon Queen, part 1 of the Tyranny of Dragons adventure, is particularly infamous, with the players having to do several missions in a town under siege by hostile forces. Enemies are very difficult to kill, in particular Gnolls because they get a pack bonus that is well beyond what normal level one groups can reasonably handle. Oh, and two of the bosses of chapter one are of a level the players don't have a prayer of a chance in fighting. Curse of Strahd features a short, introduction dungeon called Death House, and that name is quite accurate. It's a confusing area filled with strong enemies, unclear objectives for completion, and doesn't give much in the way of rewards for the players. One of the most infamous examples being the animated brooms, which are seemingly joke enemies, but for level one adventures, are surprisingly hard to hit and kill. While the entire campaign is hard, the Death House is very hard for where it is positioned. While Descent into Avernus isn't quite as bad as others, the first real combat encounter is a fight involving a bandit crew, consisting of seven bandits, and a Bandit Leader, who is able to make three attacks and can easily kill any player character without trouble. Unless the players recruit help from inside the tavern, its very likely to be a Total Party Kill.
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Dungeons & Dragons (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_6ac55ec7
Early Game Hell / int_6c1234ed	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_6c1234ed	comment	A Dwarf Fortress is most vulnerable in its first year, when population is still low and security hasn't been constructed yet. The more challenging the embark conditions, the more hellish the early game, but as a fort develops over the years, the difficulty flattens out. A fort that survives 2 years can probably sustain itself through the worst of the late game. Also, the slightest mistake or miscalculation in Adventurer mode can end a career very early. Even demigods need to spend time developing themselves through non-combat skills (swimming, sneaking, throwing, etc) before they can get a fighting chance.
Early Game Hell / int_6c1234ed	featureApplicability	1.0
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Dwarf Fortress (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_6c1234ed
Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b1	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b1	comment	Since encounters in Fallout don't scale to your level, you can run right into a pack of radscorpions right out of the Vault and get slaughtered because all you have is a 10mm pistol and a leather jumpsuit.
Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b1	featureApplicability	1.0
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Fallout (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b1
Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b2	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b2	comment	Fallout 2 starts with the Temple of Trials (see Tutorial Failure for more info). After that, you're given a spear, a knife, and a handful of money, and told to save your village. If you aren't built as a melee or unarmed character, you're going to have a miserable time, as you don't get a firearm until the first town (and getting a firearm that isn't the Pipe Rifle takes even longer).
Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b2	featureApplicability	1.0
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Fallout 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b2
Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b3	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b3	comment	In Fallout 3, you can get curbstomped by early random encounters, such a Talon Company Merc squad, a Giant Radscorpion, a Yao Guai, or a Deathclaw, when you're probably only armed with a pistol or hunting rifle. With the Broken Steel add-on, you can run into a Super Mutant Overlord as early as the GNR Plaza, and a Feral Ghoul Reaver or two in the Taft Tunnel as they start spawning at level 15. They're a fierce fight for a Level 30 player, who's already at max level.
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Fallout 3 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b3
Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b4	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b4	comment	Fallout 4: You start the game far from any major population, so you have to deal with a lack of doctors and not enough medicine. The Commonwealth has a lot of radiation to deal with (including random rad-storms everywhere). If you're like most Fallout veterans, you'll think that exploring the vicinity of Sanctuary and running a bunch of sidequests before charging halfway across the map to Diamond City is a good idea, but you really want to open up access to Diamond City's shops, and especially their doctor, as soon as possible (ideally shortly after getting with the Minutemen). Survival mode is especially hectic in the early game. With no armor and low stats, players can easily be killed without even realizing they're under fire. The weakest enemies can make short work of even careful players. Players who don't know what they're doing can easily become sick, with the worst sickness causing constant health deterioration. With the lack of doctors, the punishing saving mechanics, and rarity of medicine at this stage, it may become impossible to advance in the game. Trying to rush to Diamond City becomes suicidal, and making settlements is not optional. You have to build a network of safehouses and bases everywhere you go, to store your valuables (because everything weighs you down and you can't carry much), to sleep (and save your game), and to avoid going too far from safe territory (because you can't fast travel). It will take you a long time to be able to get to Diamond City, making things that much harder. The new Perk Tree makes the early game hurt even more as you now have to juggle perks that either give you more of a fighting chance over perks that let you dish out more damage with the piss poor pipe guns you get. No matter which you chose you'll need to grind for many, many levels before you start to get a clear advantage over everyone else.
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Fallout 4 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_6c1d09b4
Early Game Hell / int_6d8311c4	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_6d8311c4	comment	PokÃ©mon Gold and Silver has the infamous Whitney battle which is the third gym the player faces along with being a noticeable Difficulty Spike and That One Boss. The Clefairy will pose little difficulty to a prepared team but her Miltank will be a significant challenge to even a prepared team. On top of its already high defense stats, Milk Drink recovers half its HP while Attract will cause infatuation where there is a 50% chance Pokemon of the opposite gender will not attack. Its attacks Stomp and Rollout will significantly plow through teams as Rollout generates more damage on consecutive uses along with Miltank having high stats for the time it is fought. The "Early Game Hell" part comes into play where there are few PokÃ©mon that resist Rollout at that point in the game, being the evolutionary families of Wooper, Onix, Geodude, Sandshrew and Machop. Unlike the previous remake FireRed and LeafGreen which added mechanics and moveset changes to make battles easiernote an example being Charmander learning Metal Claw to have an easier time defeating the Pewter City Gym, HeartGold and SoulSilver made the battle harder. Using a Ghost-type PokÃ©mon will not provide an immunity to Miltank's Stomp due to her Ability Scrappy which allows Normal and Fighting-type attacks to hit Ghost-types and Miltank is holding a Lum Berry, giving it a one-time immunity to any status condition. Whitney's Miltank still uses the Attract strategy in her rematch in the Fighting Dojo in HeartGold and SoulSilver but this optional battle takes place post-Hall of Fame where the player will have access to a lot more Pokemon.
Early Game Hell / int_6d8311c4	featureApplicability	1.0
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PokÃ©mon Gold and Silver (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_6d8311c4
Early Game Hell / int_6e0e351	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_6e0e351	comment	The other Escape Velocity titles can be challenging early on as well, it's hard to make a living in that tiny shuttle of yours.
Early Game Hell / int_6e0e351	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_6e0e351	featureConfidence	1.0
Escape Velocity (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_6e0e351
Early Game Hell / int_6fe277bc	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_6fe277bc	comment	Both Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin II games are quite difficult during their first act. While the second game is much more forgiving, your characters still begin with no money and nothing but the clothes on their backs—which, incidentally, provide zero armor or stat buffs. This is even further aggravated in the former game because you can easily run into enemies in the starter zone that are several levels higher than you, even if you level grind in Cyseal. Take a wrong turn (or walk out of the wrong gate) and you'll be facing level 8 monsters (and occasionally bosses) as early as level 1. In response to this (and as an anti-frustration matter) they did give guards at most of Cyseal's gates dialogue to warn low-level party's from the dangers behind said gate, so the most difficult encounters can be avoided by paying proper attention to the city guards.
Early Game Hell / int_6fe277bc	featureApplicability	1.0
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Early Game Hell / int_708d9e55	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_708d9e55	comment	Satellite Reign starts off very difficult: you have 4 agentsnote Initially 3, your first mission being to rescue the Infiltrator with very inaccurate, very low-power submachine guns and that's it. Your first few missions will be stealth missions out of necessity, and even those will be difficult, since you can't take advantage of terrain features like high vents, and can't hack security features with your low-level hacking ability. As the game grinds on, you get access to better weapons, more options for dealing with situations, better stealth and hacking technology, and equipment that massively boosts your agent survival rate such as armor and shields. The final mission can be brute-forced, but the first mission requires a lot of subtlety.
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Early Game Hell / int_72a1ac51	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_72a1ac51	comment	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has CJ start with pathetically weak stats, which means his melee attacks are weak, he can't sprint far, he can't hold his breath underwater for too long, and his low proficiency with guns (accuracy, reload speed, etc.) and driving means he has to take cover when possible in a gun fight and drive very carefully. While the early game missions aren't too terrible, it can still be easy for new players to get tripped up with CJ's heavy limitations. As CJ's stats improve and the player finds better guns for him, the difficulty curve more or less flattens.
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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_72a1ac51
Early Game Hell / int_72ab82	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_72ab82	comment	Kid Icarus (1986): The first levels are probably the hardest (which makes sense; you actually are in Hell, after all). Pit starts out with a tiny health bar and a weak bow with poor range. The first levels also scroll upward, and due to Ratchet Scrolling you die if you fall past the bottom of the screen. Once you've completed those levels though, most likely gaining some health and weapon upgrades along the way, it gets much easier. Pit and Palutena even reference it in Uprising.
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Early Game Hell / int_73b74949	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_73b74949	comment	The Borderlands games tend to be rough in the beginning. You have little money, a narrow selection of mostly bad-quality weapons (especially in the first game; the second one hardly ever generates completely unusable pieces of Shop Fodder like its predecessor was prone to doing), no shield, no artifacts, relics or class mods to boost your stats, and you can't use the character's special ability until level five. This means you'll spend time grinding for levels on weak enemies and searching respawning chests for decent loot, which at this point includes health pickups and any ammo you can lay your hands on. Once you get a decent shield (which can effectively double your HP if you get a decent one), unlock your special ability, and find elemental weapons, the games start to ease up. Despite unlocking your action skill at level 3 instead of level 5, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! manages to be even harder early on. Most of the early areas lack an atmosphere, and while you do get your first Oz kit very quickly, you're not likely to find one with a decent oxygen capacity for a long time. The enemies are also generally harder than what you'd face in the previous games around the same time; Scavs are prone to taking flight and leaping great distances, making them harder to track than their gravity-bound Bandit counterparts, while Kraggons split in two when killed, making them more dangerous than the relatively-straightforward Skags. To cap everything off, you don't get access to most of your key resources, such as the Black Market, the bank, and the Quick-Change station, until you've defeated the notoriously-difficult first boss, and you won't get a third weapon slot until you're halfway through the story. There is the option of choosing the Crutch Character Claptrap, who does not require oxygen and takes reduced damage from Fire attacks, which is common in early game, at the expense of higher mid and late-game difficulty on account of having an action skill that relies entirely on randomness. Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! avert the trope with bonuses you earn from getting badass ranks. The bonus stats apply to all characters you use, which means you can have an easier time getting into the game every time you use a new character. You can still play the trope straight by turning the bonus stats off.
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Early Game Hell / int_73cdb697	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_73cdb697	comment	Resident Evil: As soon as the game gives control to the player, Resident Evil 2 throws zombies at you in nearly every direction from the very start. If playing on normal, you won't have enough ammunition to fight them all, forcing you to run. The controls have a definite learning curve to them; expect to die a lot in the early stages (if not the very first screen) if you're not well accustomed to tank controls. It gets worse if you go for the secret key that requires you to pick up no items or weapons until you reach the police station, leaving you with very little ammo and a few hits off your health as well. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. The reason? The Recurring Boss the title alludes to. The first encounter Jill has with this ten-foot-tall brick shithouse is by far the hardest, since you only have a pistol (and, if you know the game, a shotgun, a few herbs and a health spray) but Nemesis' total health is constant in all encounters - which is to say, very high. It's a fight that's guaranteed to give trouble even to veterans of the series. By the time the second encounter rolls by, you've already got far more healing items and one of the two high-powered guns the game has to offer, and Nemesis will often favor standing back and rocketing you instead of breathing down your necknote at least until he runs out of ammo, and you can disrupt his aim by shooting him. You can also take advantage of the "corner glitch" to knife the Nemesis to death without firing a shot. Even the mandatory boss fight with him mid-to-late game, where you're permanently poisoned, is several degrees of magnitude easier. Resident Evil â€“ Code: Veronica starts with Claire imprisoned, so she doesn't even have any weapons. By the time zombies start showing up, all she has is a knife (admittedly, a far more bad ass knife than previous knives in the series, but still not ideal for swarms of zombies). When she does find a gun, it's not even fully loaded. On top of that, the starting area likes to respawn zombies any time you come back to an area you previously cleared, so get used to either low health, low ammo, running away, or all of the above. Resident Evil 4 can be terrifying and brutal in the beginning village sections, where the player is unlikely to have enough supplies or ammo for their guns to effectively fight off the villagers (especially Dr. Salvador), let alone get any gun upgrades. You're lucky if you can escape by the skin of your teeth. Leon can get more ammo and money from the enemies he kills, but he will have problems during the whole village survival segment and to a lesser extent the aftermath, up until he meets the Merchant and starts buying new weapons and upgrading or selling old ones. Resident Evil 5, in the very first level, throws you into an area where you have to fight off an endlessly respawning number of Majini and a Boss in Mook Clothing that can reduce you to Dying status in one hit. Worse still, said fight starts in a tiny building in an equally small area with no cover where you're Zerg Rushed by tons of enemies. The only way out is when the Boss in Mook Clothing smashes the wall open for you. All you have is a handgun, Sheva's special A.I. will have her dying constantly until you figure out how to babysit her, and you're damned well staying put until the game decides you can leave.
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Early Game Hell / int_74a4c704	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_74a4c704	comment	Kingdom Hearts is pretty tough until you beat the Deep Jungle and get the Cure spell, so you have to rely on potions to stay alive, and at first you can only bring up to 3 of them to each fight without restocking. On proud or higher difficulty, you won't be able to withstand many attacks, so the first couple of bosses will just wreck you. God help you if you choose the magic build since you don't get any spells until after the second boss, especially if you choose dusk exp curve (slow leveling rate that rises later on). It's actually kind of amusing to watch bosses that you probably didn't even notice had attack patterns on your first play through three-hit KO you over and over again.
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Early Game Hell / int_74ca38b	comment	The landlords on hard difficulties in Richman 11 can be this. Every player character starts with a total of 120k cash and deposit. However, the landlords start with multiple chain stores which will cost a whopping 60k when stepped on, as well as many hotels and shopping centers which are also nukes (and it doesn't help that the landlord will also start with a robo-laborer and will most likely use it on these buildings first, and use their remote dice or road block to go there to further upgrade it). The player on the other hand has only a remote dice, a banana peel, a robot doll and a portal (which replaces the road block on easier difficulties). And this is not considering that many landlords either deals more damage to cripple you even further, or take away or disable your cards so you won't even be able to get to the nearest card shop. Once the Random Number God decides to let you survive this though, things will usually become easier as you successfully remove the nukes from the landlords and/or get enough properties to be safe.
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Richman (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_74ca38b
Early Game Hell / int_74f7210c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_74f7210c	comment	The Legend of Zelda: The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link are very brutal in the beginning where enemies are strong and you lack decent gear and enough hearts to survive. As you progress, you'll find better items and your life meter will be longer, thus you can endure enemies a lot better. And in Zelda II, Link starts off with extremely weak stats, and it takes a while to get enough EXP to even have a fighting chance. Making matters worse is that the game throws Death Mountain, probably the hardest level in the game, at you very early on. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: You only start with three hearts at the start of the game, and after the easy-by-comparison Hyrule Castle and Eastern Palace, you'll commonly run into enemies that can do at least two hearts of damage. Combined with the prolonged threat of Collision Damage due to the regular sword's short range, the early game can be quite stressful. This doesn't end after you obtain the Master Sword either, as you're thrown into the Dark World not long after, which is where the game really stops pulling punches. You will quickly learn to value every heart you have, and it's up to you to have a Fairy or Red Medicine prepared when the damage adds up. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: The earlier bosses are likely to be the hardest due to your low heart capacity. Conversely, the boss of the eighth (and penultimate) dungeon is laughably easy thanks to the Fire Rod. The Switch remake adds Hero Mode, in which enemies deal double damage and don't drop health items. The only sources of healing early on are heart pieces and containers and the Great Fairy in the Mysterious Forest. Once you get the Power Bracelet in the second dungeon, you can get to Crazy Tracy's Health Spa and a fairy you can put in a bottle, making things much easier. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest starts with much harder dungeons right from the Great Deku Tree — by this point in the game, there are no Pieces of Heart to extend Link's health or Bottles to carry healing items. In the 3DS remake, Master Quest also doubles the damage taken. Once Heart Piece sidequests are opened up and the inventory expands, the dungeons generally become more manageable. The Water Temple, the sixth main dungeon out of nine in a "normal" runnote It is possible to beat certain temples out of order, or even leave a dungeon after getting its item and using that to finish another one, is even made easier in the mode, although that was in part due to complaints about its original incarnation. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has a rough beginning due to some cruel factors that affect Link since the beginning. Since his Ocarina of Time was stolen, he's unable to travel back in time and thus unable to save his progress. Until he's able to revert the situation, he has to perform several tasks under a time limit of three days, which even pass on a much faster rate than in later gameplay sessions. (Each hour normally lasts 45 real life seconds, but in this first loop it only lasts 27 seconds; symbolically, this represents the urgency Link has to improve his situation.) The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Forsaken Fortress is quite nasty because it foists a rather unforgiving Stealth-Based swordless dungeon on you. Without the means to defend yourself you're stuck sneaking around, hiding under barrels from Moblins in areas where rats will gleefully knock you over and expose you if you're unlucky, while you try to find your way around what amounts to a maze to take out searchlights and clear the route to retrieve your sword. In fact, your second attack on the Forsaken Fortress much later in the game, despite being swarming with many more (and more powerful) enemies, is worlds easier simply because you're free to fight instead of being forced to surrender when you're spotted. In the HD version, Hero Mode causes you to take double damage, while no monsters or pots drop hearts. Dragon Roost becomes extremely dangerous in this mode, as you're not allowed to leave the island until you complete the dungeon, and the only healing items you can get within are red potions (purchasable from rats) and a fairy in the pot in the room right before the boss. And you only have a few Heart Containers (four if you collect enough Heart Pieces, including one from Forsaken Fortress that will be missed until much later if you don't get it on your first visit) while everything deals double damage. You do get a bottle, which you can use to catch the fairy or buy the red potion, but you don't get it until after you reach the island, so you can't put any other healing items in it. Once you finally get off the island, you can claim a second bottle and start buying more potions, making future dungeons far more manageable. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: The first fights against Shadow Beasts are the hardest because Link only has three hearts, the Shadow Beasts deal a full heart of damage, and there's no healing available during the fights. The first fight adds another nasty wrinkle: the move required to prevent the Shadow Beasts from reviving is locked until they revive once and Midna teaches it to Link, so Link effectively has to beat them twice. Lastly, unlike the game's two 3D predecessors, the entire prologue also lacks enough Heart Pieces for Link to assemble a fourth Heart Container, so the player will have to keep surviving with only three Hearts until the defeat of the first boss (Diababa) in the Forest Temple. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has Hero Mode, which doubles damage done to you and eliminates recovery hearts. Once you get the Heart Medal (which takes beating at least three dungeons) and start amassing more Heart Containers, the game becomes far easier, but early on it is quite easy to die to even the simplest enemies. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: At the beginning, enemies are extremely dangerous and do a lot of damage, with those in Hero Mode being able to kill Link in just two hits. But then you get the special tunics that double defense, more and more Heart Containers and the insanely powerful upgraded items... and the difficulty drops like a stone as a result. The pattern actually occurs twice too, with Lorule's first few hours of gameplay being a bit like a repeat of the start (thanks to the much tougher normal enemies). Then after a few dungeons and sidequests, that too loses its difficulty. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have this as one of its defining qualities. The game can be grueling when you start off on the Great Plateau (in Breath) or the Great Sky Island (in Tears), as you only have three hearts of health, flimsy old clothes for armor, and are reliant on anything you can pick up off the ground for weapons and shields (likely a lowly tree branch, to start). Enemies are smart and will swarm you if they spot you, forcing you to be cautious and clever if you hope to best your foes, at least until you can get better equipment and upgrade your life bar. For Breath, you may also face a Blue Bokoblin and a Decayed Guardian; in regular mode, as long as you keep your health at max, you can survive a one-hit kill, although taking too long to heal immediately would result in a Game Over. It is even crazier in BotW's Master Mode, with making the enemies stronger (enough to One-Hit KO you on top of losing the Last Chance Hit Point clause in this mode), more capable of seeing past your stealth efforts, and even adding Sky Octoroks and a Silver Lynel. After getting the para-glider, there's nothing preventing the player from ignoring the map markers and going straight to Hyrule Castle or other areas such as the Wasteland, where you'll find yourself facing Guardians in BotW, Gloom Spawn in TotK, or Lynels in both. Cadence of Hyrule: Before the player gets the lute (to teleport out of deadly situations), some potion bottles (for health potions automatically used to prevent death), alternative weapons (to attack enemies for more than a heart of damage without putting yourself in position to be hit), and a few extra hearts, the game punishes mistakes brutally. This is especially evident on permadeath mode, where most deaths will happen before finishing the first temple.
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Early Game Hell / int_76376304	comment	Metro 2033 does this, as it comes from the same lineage as the below included S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. The first game, even on easy, doesn't let you have any good gear early on. It takes a number of tough levels, including two tense firefights and a long trek across the Death World of the surface before you can even get a decent assault rifle. Ammo is scarce as all hell. For context, games like Call of Duty and Gears of War often let you carry hundreds of rounds for an assault rifle. If you got down to say, 150 rounds, you'd call that running low on ammo. In Metro, having even a full spare MAGAZINE is considered abundant. The enemies and environmental challenges in the early game require you to learn the mechanics very quickly. This all comes at a time when you have hardly any ammo at all, without which, you'll have to either evade or take on everything with your knife. Guess what's standard practice in Harder Than Hard Ranger Mode? That's right: sneaking around like a rat and never getting into a direct fight if you can avoid it.
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Metro 2033 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_76376304
Early Game Hell / int_76686539	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_76686539	comment	Mass Effect has this even on the easier difficulty levels due to starting with the least effective armor, weapons and equipment. However, by and large, no new enemies are introduced, so as you progress through the game it gradually gets easier and easier.
Early Game Hell / int_76686539	featureApplicability	1.0
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Mass Effect (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_76686539
Early Game Hell / int_7668653a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7668653a	comment	Mass Effect 2 hits this because of a major case of Bag of Spilling: it completely revamps the Class and Level System and shifts from the first game's... unusual overheating-based system to a straight "find spare ammo and reload your magazine" model. Having an Old Save Bonus does practically nothing valuable. The same thing happens in a New Game Plus Insanity run, since the enemies are scaled to your level, but your weapons are stripped of all upgrades. The hardest levels are either Freedom's Progress, where you're restricted to the crappy default weapon loadout, or Horizon, where you come up against the full might of the Collectors, including a Goddamn Praetorian. Mitigated if you're starting from the first game, or from scratch (which isn't recommended for story reasons) as the enemy's power is scaled to Shepard's level, and assumes you have stat upgrades. If you don't...
Early Game Hell / int_7668653a	featureApplicability	1.0
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Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7668653a
Early Game Hell / int_7668653b	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7668653b	comment	Mass Effect 3's single-player campaign only tweaks the leveling and shooting systems, allowing a lot more to carry over. But multiplayer suffers from this pretty hard. When you're first starting, you have pathetic starter weapons, and all the Shepard expy characters, plus one from Reckoning. However, as you go, you'll be buying packs full of new weapons and characters, upgrading the stuff you have, and maxing out those cool powers for flashy biotic, fire, cryo, and electrical explosions. Platinum solos are still incredibly difficult with maxed out everything. Don't go into one as your first match. It is also mitigated for new players in that they may be put in a server with other players who have considerably better weapons and more levelled up abilities, so new players can ride along with them until they have enough experience points and credits to start making names for themselves.
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Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7668653b
Early Game Hell / int_7785278d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7785278d	comment	The BioShock series is distressingly fond of this. BioShock starts you out at your weakest with little health, a small amount of EVE, and weapons that either have low damage output or aren't affordable to feed. You see, you need to keep yourself supplied with health, eve, and ammunition, all of which cost a fair amount of money. You don't have terrible reserves of any, and all of them are rather scarce outside of vending machines. The result is that you spend quite a lot of time getting into fights and using up a fair amount of resources, and then taking the spoils back for recovery and ending up with slightly more than you had earlier at best, assuming everything goes well. The game gets much easier once you get a few upgrades to toughen you up and do more damage. Once you can start taking down the Big Daddies without bankrupting yourself, the game gets much easier as you can farm the infinitely respawning bastards. BioShock 2 keeps up this grand tradition by sticking you with your weakest stats and shittiest gear right at the beginning of the game, when it really does seem like the game is also at its most determined to kill you. It's the same deal with the resource grinding, only that you now have to defend the Little Sisters against hordes of baddies prior to getting any Adam for upgrades, after you've busted your hump to bring down their big daddy, and then big sister has to have a go at you before you can upgrade. BioShock Infinite is this all over again, especially before you get the regenerating shield. You can't carry any health kits or salts this time, so you need to actively go get healing items. This is hellish on Hard, and more so with the 1999 Mode difficulty, before Booker has his shield, as getting shot once is a risky proposition, and there are several turrets around that laugh at his starting pistol and its poor ammunition capacity. This is exacerbated by the first Vigor obtained—Possession—having an extremely high Salts cost (without Elizabeth around to refill easily) and having no effect against non-mechanical enemies (though there is a purchasable early-game upgrade that allows you to possess humans), meaning he can't even use his limited resources to full effect.
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BioShock (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7785278d
Early Game Hell / int_791fca44	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_791fca44	comment	BioShock starts you out at your weakest with little health, a small amount of EVE, and weapons that either have low damage output or aren't affordable to feed. You see, you need to keep yourself supplied with health, eve, and ammunition, all of which cost a fair amount of money. You don't have terrible reserves of any, and all of them are rather scarce outside of vending machines. The result is that you spend quite a lot of time getting into fights and using up a fair amount of resources, and then taking the spoils back for recovery and ending up with slightly more than you had earlier at best, assuming everything goes well. The game gets much easier once you get a few upgrades to toughen you up and do more damage. Once you can start taking down the Big Daddies without bankrupting yourself, the game gets much easier as you can farm the infinitely respawning bastards.
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Early Game Hell / int_791fca45	comment	BioShock 2 keeps up this grand tradition by sticking you with your weakest stats and shittiest gear right at the beginning of the game, when it really does seem like the game is also at its most determined to kill you. It's the same deal with the resource grinding, only that you now have to defend the Little Sisters against hordes of baddies prior to getting any Adam for upgrades, after you've busted your hump to bring down their big daddy, and then big sister has to have a go at you before you can upgrade.
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Early Game Hell / int_791fca45	featureConfidence	1.0
BioShock 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_791fca45
Early Game Hell / int_7988cb68	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7988cb68	comment	Mass Effect Mass Effect has this even on the easier difficulty levels due to starting with the least effective armor, weapons and equipment. However, by and large, no new enemies are introduced, so as you progress through the game it gradually gets easier and easier. Mass Effect 2 hits this because of a major case of Bag of Spilling: it completely revamps the Class and Level System and shifts from the first game's... unusual overheating-based system to a straight "find spare ammo and reload your magazine" model. Having an Old Save Bonus does practically nothing valuable. The same thing happens in a New Game Plus Insanity run, since the enemies are scaled to your level, but your weapons are stripped of all upgrades. The hardest levels are either Freedom's Progress, where you're restricted to the crappy default weapon loadout, or Horizon, where you come up against the full might of the Collectors, including a Goddamn Praetorian. Mitigated if you're starting from the first game, or from scratch (which isn't recommended for story reasons) as the enemy's power is scaled to Shepard's level, and assumes you have stat upgrades. If you don't... Mass Effect 3's single-player campaign only tweaks the leveling and shooting systems, allowing a lot more to carry over. But multiplayer suffers from this pretty hard. When you're first starting, you have pathetic starter weapons, and all the Shepard expy characters, plus one from Reckoning. However, as you go, you'll be buying packs full of new weapons and characters, upgrading the stuff you have, and maxing out those cool powers for flashy biotic, fire, cryo, and electrical explosions. Platinum solos are still incredibly difficult with maxed out everything. Don't go into one as your first match. It is also mitigated for new players in that they may be put in a server with other players who have considerably better weapons and more levelled up abilities, so new players can ride along with them until they have enough experience points and credits to start making names for themselves.
Early Game Hell / int_7988cb68	featureApplicability	1.0
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Early Game Hell / int_7b2ca7a2	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7b2ca7a2	comment	The eponymous protagonist of the Bayonetta series starts off underpowered, and has to rely on dodging, Witch Time and combos to deal with her angelic enemies. She has to collect weapons, health and skills throughout the game.
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Bayonetta (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7b2ca7a2
Early Game Hell / int_7c19a801	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7c19a801	comment	In FTL: Faster Than Light, the magnitude of Early Game Hell depends upon which ship you start with. Some ships, like the Kestrel, the Rock Cruisers, or the Federation Cruisers, start off reasonably well armed and equipped for the early sectors. Then you have some, like the Zoltan Type B, the Stealth Type A or the Mantis Type B, that need a few upgrades before they can reliably go toe-to-toe with whatever they encounter. Finally, you have some like the Stealth Type B or the Engi Type B, which have so many problems in the early sectors that most people consider them 'challenge ships'.
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FTL: Faster Than Light (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7c19a801
Early Game Hell / int_7cdb2d8d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7cdb2d8d	comment	Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos makes the last section of the introduction this. While there's a path in the walls surrounding the village of Lenctenbury and the player can freely go about and explore, until the village is upgraded to two stars and the wall completely disappears, there's no access to the teleportation system or the ability to exchange the Harvest Wisp Fruits for more energy or larger bag space. This means players need to walk everywhere, with their already limited stamina lowering from the travelling and the time it takes to go back. Once the introduction is finished and those mechanics are unlocked, travelling across the vast world of Anthos is a lot simpler.
Early Game Hell / int_7cdb2d8d	featureApplicability	1.0
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Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7cdb2d8d
Early Game Hell / int_7d25ee05	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7d25ee05	comment	In New Horizons, on default settings, player start as a nobody who can't do anything right, a leaky tub, some pocket money, a few crewmen that can't hit the broadside of a barn and need literal minutes to reload, no guidance except "Buy low, sell high", and the entire Caribbean with all its dangers at your bow. Unless he already knows what to do, either from simple trial & error or asking other players for help (and even then), he has to prepare to die. A lot.
Early Game Hell / int_7d25ee05	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_7d25ee05	featureConfidence	1.0
New Horizons (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7d25ee05
Early Game Hell / int_7de8951a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7de8951a	comment	Character creation in the original Traveller is its own mini-game. Scouts were popular character types because they had the best chance of getting their own ship (a small ship, but fully paid for), but unless you rolled well when you generated your Endurance your chance of dying during character generation as a Scout was roughly 40% for each term you served. 3-4 terms of service was needed for most characters to be competent.
Early Game Hell / int_7de8951a	featureApplicability	1.0
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Traveller (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7de8951a
Early Game Hell / int_7ea4fd20	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7ea4fd20	comment	Although Wasteland 2 is fairly challenging throughout the whole game, it is VERY brutal at the start. Characters start with an acceptable amount of attribute points, but a ridiculously low amount of skill points -You have enough to buy a total of six ranks in skills, including combat skills. As a reference point, three ranks in a combat skill is probably enough to reach mediocrity with a base 65% or so chance of hitting, and that would be half of your starting points. Forget about having a secondary weapon at that point. Weapons jam, ammunition is sparse, and you don't have much cash. So, you'll miss frequently or have your gun jam, which will waste the precious ammo you do have, and switching to alternate weapons is harder because you probably aren't trained in them. That's on top of needing to spend skill points on all kinds of non-combat Knowledge and General skills too, some of which are binary you have enough points to succeed or you don't, like the conversation skills. And for players starting the game for the first time, the game gets even MORE difficult because they have no idea what combat or non-combat skills will be needed or when. A character who starts with maxed-out Luck and skill points in Energy Weapons, Heavy Weapons, and Alarm Disarming are going to find themselves quite the liability.
Early Game Hell / int_7ea4fd20	featureApplicability	1.0
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Wasteland 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7ea4fd20
Early Game Hell / int_7eca3a82	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7eca3a82	comment	Cadence of Hyrule: Before the player gets the lute (to teleport out of deadly situations), some potion bottles (for health potions automatically used to prevent death), alternative weapons (to attack enemies for more than a heart of damage without putting yourself in position to be hit), and a few extra hearts, the game punishes mistakes brutally. This is especially evident on permadeath mode, where most deaths will happen before finishing the first temple.
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Cadence of Hyrule (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7eca3a82
Early Game Hell / int_7f5bc680	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7f5bc680	comment	Fallout: Since encounters in Fallout don't scale to your level, you can run right into a pack of radscorpions right out of the Vault and get slaughtered because all you have is a 10mm pistol and a leather jumpsuit. Fallout 2 starts with the Temple of Trials (see Tutorial Failure for more info). After that, you're given a spear, a knife, and a handful of money, and told to save your village. If you aren't built as a melee or unarmed character, you're going to have a miserable time, as you don't get a firearm until the first town (and getting a firearm that isn't the Pipe Rifle takes even longer). In Fallout 3, you can get curbstomped by early random encounters, such a Talon Company Merc squad, a Giant Radscorpion, a Yao Guai, or a Deathclaw, when you're probably only armed with a pistol or hunting rifle. With the Broken Steel add-on, you can run into a Super Mutant Overlord as early as the GNR Plaza, and a Feral Ghoul Reaver or two in the Taft Tunnel as they start spawning at level 15. They're a fierce fight for a Level 30 player, who's already at max level. Fallout: New Vegas has several Beef Gates that will curbstomp you if you go to the wrong place too soon, and overpowered hit squads that you WILL encounter once you get a bad reputation with either of the main factions. If, for example, you go straight north you make it past Scorpion Gulch (a gulch with giant Radscorpions) armed with only dynamite, a cheap pistol, weak armor at best, and some supplies. If you do manage to survive and win you still can't make it past the Cazadors (giant Tarantula Hawk wasps) further north. Fallout 4: You start the game far from any major population, so you have to deal with a lack of doctors and not enough medicine. The Commonwealth has a lot of radiation to deal with (including random rad-storms everywhere). If you're like most Fallout veterans, you'll think that exploring the vicinity of Sanctuary and running a bunch of sidequests before charging halfway across the map to Diamond City is a good idea, but you really want to open up access to Diamond City's shops, and especially their doctor, as soon as possible (ideally shortly after getting with the Minutemen). Survival mode is especially hectic in the early game. With no armor and low stats, players can easily be killed without even realizing they're under fire. The weakest enemies can make short work of even careful players. Players who don't know what they're doing can easily become sick, with the worst sickness causing constant health deterioration. With the lack of doctors, the punishing saving mechanics, and rarity of medicine at this stage, it may become impossible to advance in the game. Trying to rush to Diamond City becomes suicidal, and making settlements is not optional. You have to build a network of safehouses and bases everywhere you go, to store your valuables (because everything weighs you down and you can't carry much), to sleep (and save your game), and to avoid going too far from safe territory (because you can't fast travel). It will take you a long time to be able to get to Diamond City, making things that much harder. The new Perk Tree makes the early game hurt even more as you now have to juggle perks that either give you more of a fighting chance over perks that let you dish out more damage with the piss poor pipe guns you get. No matter which you chose you'll need to grind for many, many levels before you start to get a clear advantage over everyone else.
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Fallout	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7f5bc680
Early Game Hell / int_7f9dbbcc	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7f9dbbcc	comment	After you run through the tutorial section in Far Cry 2, the game dumps you in a Wide-Open Sandbox where nearly every person you meet outside Pala wants to kill you, and the game is determined to give you something to cry about. If you don't know to start working for the gun shops immediately to unlock a good supply of weapons, which involves taking out CONVOYS with multiple trucks, you'll be stuck using the broken weapons that enemies drop. It doesn't help that the G3 is ubiquitous in this part of the game, and despite firing the respectably powerful 7.62x51 in real life, the game's version apparently fires slightly hurtful insults. Enemy weapons improve to more powerful and reliable weapons as you progress in the story. Any and all gun shop items (weapons, upgrades to everything, and so on...) are painfully expensive at the start of the game, and all methods of getting income suck fumes through a straw. Faction missions pay crap and take a long time, but they advance the story. Taking missions from the radio towers pays a bit more, but also takes a long time and doesn't advance the story. Diamond briefcases just about always contain one or two diamonds (more usually just 1), which at least remains consistent throughout the game. The prices of weapons and upgrades are high compared to what your income is; it can take several missions just to have enough to buy one thing or one gun. Mission pay gets dramatically better as you advance through the story. Your stealth capabilities are patently awful at the start of the game, making sneaking by enemy groups and checkpoints very difficult, and the starting map has terrain that gives you very little freedom to avoid the roads and their attendant enemy patrols and checkpoints, which is a vital part of surviving IRL. The one upgrade to your stealth capability is pretty expensive and raises trying to sneak from guaranteed detection when all the guards are alive, to being able to avoid combat or at least kill a couple guards before detection. In this game, your machete isn't a 1 hit kill stealth weapon; unsuspecting guys you kill with it will still give death screams which alert all the other enemies in the area. So you have to buy your first proper stealthy weapon, which, again, is expensive. You have to get used to fighting in environments which have lots of concealment in the form of tall grass and big foliage. To top it all off, you still have malaria, and you have to occasionally stop doing paid missions in order to do missions where the only reward is medication that stops you from keeling over.
Early Game Hell / int_7f9dbbcc	featureApplicability	1.0
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Far Cry 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7f9dbbcc
Early Game Hell / int_7f9dbbcd	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7f9dbbcd	comment	Far Cry 3 starts with you having just two health units, minimal capacity for anything, being able to carry hardly any ammo, you have only the most basic skills, and enemies who hardly give you any loot. Oh, and they are all over the entire map. A single brief shootout with one of the ubiquitous patrols is extremely prone to alerting some other enemies that you are in the area, leading to massive impromptu battles as the fracas from you killing the initial enemies alerts more enemies, and the fracas from that alerts more enemies... Also, knockdowns will not only stun you, but reduce you to one last hit point. Your stealth is ludicrously bad, and while your abilities even now are better than peak stealth in Far Cry 2, you still get detected too easily... The game gets so much easier as you progress and expand the tatau. It's done this way on purpose to make you feel like you are becoming a badass motherfucker. And it works. The most important things to get quickly are improvements to stealth, health, and weapon and ammunition capacity. Unfortunately, this leads to the late game being typically too easy. Annoyingly, the game prevents you from upgrading too much until you reach certain points in the story. This leads to the infuriating problem of the game not letting you acquire skills which would have been VERY helpful until after you needed them most. For example, you can't even learn the ability to use a stealthy melee takedown on the Elite Mook Heavies until well after they've repeatedly been a thorn in your side. Instead, (if you want to stay stealthy) you basically need to set them on fire, which tends to get nearby enemies a mite agitated.
Early Game Hell / int_7f9dbbcd	featureApplicability	1.0
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Far Cry 3 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7f9dbbcd
Early Game Hell / int_7f9f892f	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7f9f892f	comment	War Thunder: As far as many veteran players are concerned, a new player who chooses France as their first nation is one making a colossal mistake. In Rank I, France has inferior tanks to many of her competitors, with designs that even for pre-war Reserve tanks are slow, under armoured and armed with guns of exceedingly poor anti-armour performance. Not only that, but these early French tanks have crews of only two men and tall hulls with broad sides, so it doesn't actually take much to take them out of commission. The original line of French Reserve tanks (the AMC.34 YR, FCM.36, and H.35) were considered so atrocious that they were eventually removed from the tree and replaced with better (but still not quite exactly good) alternatives, the AMD.35 and the H.39. You can still unlock them but you need to reach Rank II to go back and get them — why you would want to waste your time on that is the real question. Things get better for the French when you hit Rank II and unlock the Char 2C, a super-heavy tank the size of a house with a decently-punching close range cannon and a whopping crew of twelve, making a tank that takes FOREVER to kill as long as you don't get ammo-racked.
Early Game Hell / int_7f9f892f	featureApplicability	1.0
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War Thunder (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7f9f892f
Early Game Hell / int_7fb486bc	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_7fb486bc	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: The earlier bosses are likely to be the hardest due to your low heart capacity. Conversely, the boss of the eighth (and penultimate) dungeon is laughably easy thanks to the Fire Rod. The Switch remake adds Hero Mode, in which enemies deal double damage and don't drop health items. The only sources of healing early on are heart pieces and containers and the Great Fairy in the Mysterious Forest. Once you get the Power Bracelet in the second dungeon, you can get to Crazy Tracy's Health Spa and a fairy you can put in a bottle, making things much easier.
Early Game Hell / int_7fb486bc	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_7fb486bc
Early Game Hell / int_806c20e5	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_806c20e5	comment	Demon's Souls: Take everything said above about Bloodborne, except you can't level up until you beat the first boss, and dying once will permanently cut your max HP in half until you get your body back... by beating the boss. There's a ring that lessens the HP cut so that you only lose 25%... except you can't get it until immediately before the boss, so good luck doing the entire level at half.
Early Game Hell / int_806c20e5	featureApplicability	1.0
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Demon's Souls (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_806c20e5
Early Game Hell / int_82a3b84e	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_82a3b84e	comment	PokÃ©mon Colosseum's early difficulty comes from its main mechanic, Shadow PokÃ©mon. There are plenty of decent Shadow PokÃ©mon to snag early in the game, but each one starts with only Shadow Rush (a strong move that deals recoil damage and can force a PokÃ©mon into a berserk state, interrupting their turn) and gradually earns its other moves as it gets purified through battles. Shadows can't level up or evolve until they're fully purified at Agate Village, which is reached a third of the way through the game; until then, the only PokÃ©mon who can level up are your starters Espeon and Umbreon (and a Plusle), since Colosseum doesn't have wild PokÃ©mon. Pyrite Town and its dungeon areas can become difficult fast since trainers increase in levels while Shadows are stuck at around level 30, and the boss fights with Cipher Admin Miror B. and Cipher Peon Skrub reach and pass the mid-thirties. After unlocking purification, there's another tough Cipher Admin battle before Mt. Battle opens up and it becomes easier to grind. The sequel, PokÃ©mon XD: Gale of Darkness, grants access to purification and Mt. Battle much earlier.
Early Game Hell / int_82a3b84e	featureApplicability	1.0
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PokÃ©mon Colosseum (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_82a3b84e
Early Game Hell / int_832b06b1	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_832b06b1	comment	Skyrim isn't nearly as harsh in the early game, but, like Morrowind, loses most of the difficulty that it does have after level 16 or so, especially if the player invests in crafting skills to create weapons and equipment far more powerful than what is available in the game world and weapon damage with multiple perks applied increases exponentially, reaching ten or more times the base value. However, like Oblivion above, not levelling the right skills can result in fights becoming unwinnable.
Early Game Hell / int_832b06b1	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_832b06b1
Early Game Hell / int_8434e584	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_8434e584	comment	Slither.io. When you first spawn, you can hardly Nitro Boost, meaning you can't attack or go after the mass of dead snakes very well. Plus, your small size makes you vulnerable to being coiled. It's not hard to get to a decent length so that your boost becomes effective, but it can be annoying should you spawn in an area of the map with sparse pellets or near a giant snake that can circle you easily.
Early Game Hell / int_8434e584	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_8434e584	featureConfidence	1.0
Slither.io (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_8434e584
Early Game Hell / int_86616890	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_86616890	comment	Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: After the tutorial cutscenes that teach you basic skills like stealth, countering, and attacking, drops you in the middle of Mordor with no further tutorials. With a slew of wraith abilities the game does not teach you how to use, but are vital to your survival, you will constantly run into large groups of Orcs and multiple enemy arc types that block all frontal attacks and all direct attacks. You will also start encountering Orc captains, who also can fit into these arc types, can kill you quickly, very soon, and grow stronger as they kill you. Even a mob of enemies can be troublesome. Once you start unlocking more powers, though, the game gets much more manageable. The sequel Shadow Of War. The first area Minas Ethil can be absolutely punishing even on normal difficulty. It has just as many Captains running around as any other area in the game but is much smaller, so you'll keep tripping over them going from one quest to another. And since all possible random traits and immunities are present from the beginning (And there are so much more of them) you could be saddled with a Captain who can turn up at any time who is immune to standard attacks, your frost stun, can't be vaulted over, enraged by merely seeing you, and carries an unblockable poison weapon that takes out all your health in one hit. (The developers seem to know this, and it's the only time where Talion may be rescued from a Captain by a normal Gonderian captain.) As a part of the tutorial, the game introduces you to enemy types with them ambushing you, forcing you to abandon whatever you were doing beforehand. It gets even more hellish on Nemesis difficulty, as every uruk is more durable, captains tend to be several levels higher than Talion, and your "Last Chances" are halved. and that's not even counting "Gravewalker" difficulty. Shadow Of War also introduces a fun feature where Orc captains can adapt to certain attack or defensive option if you use it too much. You start out with five basic ones, standard attacks, counter, frost-based stun, vaulting, and a bow with limited arrows. Basically, you counter a captain's attacks too much and they'll start using more unblockable attacks, vault over those and they'll soon grab you, throw you to the ground and continue to pummel you. Make them vulnerable by freezing them and they'll start blocking your stun attack. Forcing you to use only standards attacks (Leaving yourself vulnerable) or a very limited amount of arrows to damage them... and god forbid they're immune to either (though thankfully, no captain is ever immune to the Glaive). Captains adapt faster on Nemesis, and even faster on Gravewalker.
Early Game Hell / int_86616890	featureApplicability	1.0
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Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_86616890
Early Game Hell / int_86814cc3	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_86814cc3	comment	In the first part of the Soul of Rebirth section of Final Fantasy II, your only playable character is Minwu, a White Mage who (though fairly powerful) has very few ways to hurt his enemies unless you really grind up Teleport or give him Holy somehow in the main game. He then meets Scott and Josef, who are more combative, but still very weak. It's only the very last companion to join, Ricard, who can really pull his weight in combat, and you have to go the whole way without being able to rest or restock, meaning grinding is very dangerous. Not long after Ricard, though, you find your first town, at which the game becomes far easier.
Early Game Hell / int_86814cc3	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_86814cc3	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Fantasy II (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_86814cc3
Early Game Hell / int_8986faef	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_8986faef	comment	Daikatana: The first time period (far future Japan) is universally agreed to be the worst. Not only are almost all the weapons awful, the place also has a ton of annoying enemies as well some rather ugly graphics (in particular the swamp right at the beginning, which is mostly an eye-watering acid green color.) This likely is a big contributor to the game's horrible reputation, as many players never get past the first time period.
Early Game Hell / int_8986faef	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_8986faef	featureConfidence	1.0
Daikatana (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_8986faef
Early Game Hell / int_8ac4e993	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_8ac4e993	comment	The Zeon campaign in Gundam Crossfire, especially if you picked the E.F.F first. The early Zeon mobile suits are blatantly worse in every way that matters (the wet paper-thin armour being especially problematic) and the early missions have you facing more and much more advanced enemy equipment than what the E.F.F has to fight at the same point of time. However, as newer and much better Zeon suits become available for purchase, the difficulty evens out.
Early Game Hell / int_8ac4e993	featureApplicability	1.0
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Gundam (Franchise)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_8ac4e993
Early Game Hell / int_8b6f3e45	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_8b6f3e45	comment	Fallout Shelter starts you off with a handful of dwellers, very few caps, no equipment but what raiders and lunchboxes give you randomly, and you can't build crafting or training facilities. The first several hours of the game will be spent just getting your vault self-sustaining and holding off enemy attacks. Once you scavenge some half-decent equipment and send dwellers into the wasteland to find more, the game lets up considerably.
Early Game Hell / int_8b6f3e45	featureApplicability	1.0
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Fallout Shelter (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_8b6f3e45
Early Game Hell / int_8c76c03	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_8c76c03	comment	Early on in Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters things are very tough for Yugi and his friends, as they're initially separated by wild monsters, and when brought together they lack enough power to fight large groups of monsters or particularly powerful monsters effectively. Things become more manageable starting around episodes 4 and 5, when Yugi gains his Dark Magician, Joey and Tea gain Flame Swordsman and Dark Witch, and Yugi obtains the Duel Armor for added power boosts.
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Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_8c76c03
Early Game Hell / int_8c87469c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_8c87469c	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has Hero Mode, which doubles damage done to you and eliminates recovery hearts. Once you get the Heart Medal (which takes beating at least three dungeons) and start amassing more Heart Containers, the game becomes far easier, but early on it is quite easy to die to even the simplest enemies.
Early Game Hell / int_8c87469c	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_8c87469c
Early Game Hell / int_8da0ea80	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_8da0ea80	comment	PokÃ©mon Yellow starts out slower than molasses. This is because you have few Mons available to you to build a proper party, and because the game prevents you from leaving the early area until you beat the first Gym Leader. Unlike Red and Blue, where two of the three of the starter PokÃ©mon can easily beat Brock,note Charmander is particularly challenging because it's at an elemental disadvantage against the first 2 gyms. Thankfully unlike in the remakes, Brock's PokÃ©mon don't know any Rock moves, but they do resist every single move Charmander has. Additionally, Brock has a set of Full Heals, meaning that landing a burn isnâ€™t helpful at all. Level grinding before the first and second gym is essentially a requirement. In contrast, Bulbasaur can reliably win the fight at just level 6 (about half the usual level a Charmander would need to be) only using Leech Seed and Growl, and Squirtle can do it at level 7 with Bubble. you're forced to start with Pikachu, who only learns Normal and Electric type attacks. Brock's PokÃ©mon are highly resistant to the first and outright immune to the second. You're forced to catch a wild PokÃ©mon and level grind it until it can face Brock. And most of the wild PokÃ©mon in the early areas are ineffective against Brock too. note Yellow added the same early-game Fighting-type PokÃ©mon as the remakes, and gave another PokÃ©mon you can catch early on a Fighting move, but most people at the time were too familiar with Red/Blue to notice these changes.
Early Game Hell / int_8da0ea80	featureApplicability	1.0
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PokÃ©mon Red and Blue (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_8da0ea80
Early Game Hell / int_8ec33a87	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_8ec33a87	comment	Xenoblade Chronicles 2 suffers from a large amount of this starting at the end of chapter 1. The player has nowhere near a good handle on the game mechanics, tutorials are only viewable once and frequently have wrong or misleading information, new battle mechanics (such as chain attacks) are introduced before you can make good use of them, and party members are frequently missing for plot-related reasons, meaning it's easy to lose your tank or healer unexpectedly. None of this is helped by the story also not being the most compelling at this point, as actual forward progress towards the main goal of the story is slow and the other plotlines are still developing. The game finally picks up substantially around the end of chapter 4/early chapter 5, when the party fills out, your collection of blades has improved, and the plot starts to pick up steam.
Early Game Hell / int_8ec33a87	featureApplicability	1.0
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Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_8ec33a87
Early Game Hell / int_92ac8bc0	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_92ac8bc0	comment	Xenonauts starts off with a lot of advantages, such as dedicated special purpose weapons (sniper rifles, shotguns, etc) and decent troopers, even a few with a couple of promotions under their belts. The aliens that you first encounter are also relatively inept, and although their weaponry is dangerous, it's not only possible but likely to survive being shot (at least on lower difficulty levels). However, the bread-and-butter of alien defense, shooting down UFOs, is difficult and demanding at the beginning, requiring a lot of planning and resources to successfully shoot down a basic scout, and the aliens quickly and deliberately ramp up their invasion, such that the second month could introduce escort fighter formations to air combat, smarter aliens with psionic powers that can and will devastate your previously sound tactics, and budgetary concerns that will keep you from expanding as quickly as you need to, leaving most of the world at risk of alien attack and nothing you can do about it. Significant downtime for poor operations is also a recurring theme, with interceptors needing significantly longer repair times if they get badly damaged, wounded soldiers potentially needing a full month to recover from a bad injury, and resupply taking days or even weeks once you start fielding advanced equipment. Later in the game, when you have the resources to cover more of the world (ensuring funding), the base facilities to improve production (speeding resupply) and a full fighting force of soldiers (reducing downtime between missions), you'll be in much better shape to respond to alien aggression.
Early Game Hell / int_92ac8bc0	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_92ac8bc0	featureConfidence	1.0
Xenonauts (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_92ac8bc0
Early Game Hell / int_93cc5f35	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_93cc5f35	comment	Virtual Villagers is a big example, considering that you start off with a few people that don't know what to do. Your food sources are limited, which means you have to make sure your villagers can develop a trainee skill to keep them from shaking head (indicating failure) over and over, as well as researching new technologies to unlock new things to work with. It isn't until Virtual Villagers 4 where you can select your starting group's skills.
Early Game Hell / int_93cc5f35	featureApplicability	1.0
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Early Game Hell / int_951c41c1	comment	Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 has a very pronounced case of this—while the first couple maps aren't too hard, the chapters taking place in Manster are downright brutal, between limited healing access, having to start over with what's basically a new party (which lacks the powerful Crutch Characters Eyvel and Dagdar), and many of your characters being mounted units who are stuck indoors and forced to dismount. Once you've escaped Manster, you have enough strong units to carry you.
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Early Game Hell / int_9521e2e4	comment	Mordheim: City of the Damned is a game that wants players dead. At the start your warriors will be fragile and lacking any powerful skills, and money will be tight. If it's your first-ever campaign then chances are you'll have a suboptimal build for your warriors that the game will happily chew up and spit out. Be prepared to fire your first few warbands. If everyone has it tough early on then the Cultists have it even worse as their leader is a Squishy Wizard with only one dubiously useful spell (the other factions' leaders are badasses who can handle themselves well in combat) and their other henchmen are quite fragile; in a game where being knocked out can lead to permanent injuries which hamper your warriors' capabilities, this means that only a few bad losses early on will make the game nearly impossibly difficult, necessitating a restart. A small blessing for later on is that the AI generates random warbands to fight yours, which often contain troops like one-armed,, dagger-wielding Marksmen which are no match for the optimised troops developed by an experienced player. The AI essentially uses We Have Reserves to try and knock out your troops. But, early on your low level forces are little different from theirs. There's also the Macrogame to consider, where achievements help build account veterancy. The first warband will start with next to nothing, but after a few small successes, following warbands will have a bigger nest egg, better prices at the market, more capable swords for hire, and points to spend on powerful Veteran Skills. Basically, every start is easier than the last.
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Early Game Hell / int_97c1f64e	comment	Castlevania: Legacy Of Darkness adds a brutal prologue level before you reach the forest that served as the first level of the original game, complete with a fairly difficult boss that appears so early you likely haven't even learned the controls yet. Both this boss and this level are middle-of-the-game levels of difficulty at the least, while the original game (save for a bit of dodgy platforming) is fairly easy in the early levels and really doesn't get hard until the "magical nitro" event.
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Early Game Hell / int_98b8816	comment	Ruina: Fairy Tale of the Forgotten Ruins: The early game equipment isn't able to cover all ailments and elements, making it easy to get wiped out due to a lack of resistances. The later part of the game makes it easier to build against bosses' traits and skillsets, especially if the player knows which random drops to save scum for.
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Early Game Hell / int_997f2d2f	comment	The sequel Shadow Of War. The first area Minas Ethil can be absolutely punishing even on normal difficulty. It has just as many Captains running around as any other area in the game but is much smaller, so you'll keep tripping over them going from one quest to another. And since all possible random traits and immunities are present from the beginning (And there are so much more of them) you could be saddled with a Captain who can turn up at any time who is immune to standard attacks, your frost stun, can't be vaulted over, enraged by merely seeing you, and carries an unblockable poison weapon that takes out all your health in one hit. (The developers seem to know this, and it's the only time where Talion may be rescued from a Captain by a normal Gonderian captain.) As a part of the tutorial, the game introduces you to enemy types with them ambushing you, forcing you to abandon whatever you were doing beforehand. It gets even more hellish on Nemesis difficulty, as every uruk is more durable, captains tend to be several levels higher than Talion, and your "Last Chances" are halved. and that's not even counting "Gravewalker" difficulty. Shadow Of War also introduces a fun feature where Orc captains can adapt to certain attack or defensive option if you use it too much. You start out with five basic ones, standard attacks, counter, frost-based stun, vaulting, and a bow with limited arrows. Basically, you counter a captain's attacks too much and they'll start using more unblockable attacks, vault over those and they'll soon grab you, throw you to the ground and continue to pummel you. Make them vulnerable by freezing them and they'll start blocking your stun attack. Forcing you to use only standards attacks (Leaving yourself vulnerable) or a very limited amount of arrows to damage them... and god forbid they're immune to either (though thankfully, no captain is ever immune to the Glaive). Captains adapt faster on Nemesis, and even faster on Gravewalker.
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Early Game Hell / int_99e49e94	comment	Bug Fables is this on Hard Mode, which can be toggled at any time with a Medal given at the beginning. There are not that many options available to strengthen the party up in Chapter 1, since there is no shop available and only a small handful of Medals, while enemies are beefier and hit like a truck to the point of demanding at least some frame-perfect super blocks. The very first few rooms are worse, as Leif is not part of the party, taking away a third of Team Snakemouth's normal firepower compared to most of the game. There are only a handful of skills available, and relying on them too much drains TP very quickly. Later in the game, Hard Mode's difficulty levels out, with more TP meaning more skills can be used, access to shops and cooking, level ups to make the party stronger, and Medals allowing for better builds.
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Early Game Hell / int_9b3ae4a9	comment	Silent Hill 2 starts James off with just one weapon: The Plank. It's about as worthless as one would expect a skinny three foot length of wood with a couple nails sticking out to be. Seriously, it's a wonder the damned thing doesn't break when James hits enemies with it, and to make matters worse it can easily ricochet off walls and obstacles if one's aim isn't right on, briefly stunning James. At this point fighting anything is dangerous for an experienced player, and nearly suicidal for a newbie. Near the beginning of the first "dungeon," (so to speak) the player acquires a handgun, which does more damage and can hit enemies at range; good thing, too, since enemies are much harder to evade in the cramped hallways of the apartment complex than out on the streets. Still, ammunition is in short supply, especially on higher difficulties, and the more one uses on normal monsters, the less available for boss fights. It's not until the steel pipe shows up a quarter of the way into the game, sticking out of a car's hood like the sword in the stone, that the difficulty curve leaves the "hell" zone: it does much more damage than the plank, hits with an easy to aim stab for far more range, and doesn't run out of bullets like a gun. With it, a reasonably competent player can melee most single enemies without losing health, allowing James to save ammo for fights with enemy groups and bosses.
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Early Game Hell / int_9bb5aad4	comment	The Tag Force series is also a prime offender. The moment you start the game, you're more or less gimped with a very wimpy or cookie-cutter deck that'll get stomped on with a single stroke of bad luck. While Tag Force 1 and 2 are better about this due to the Slifer Red students being absolutely awful at dueling and giving enough DP to gather cards, alongside a particularly easy exploit to get any card you want besides a select few and the Egyptian Gods, but good luck knowing it without using GameFAQs. There is no such quarter in Tag Force 4 and 5, where the bug has been removed/nerfed completely. You're more or less forced to use a mediocre at best deck for about the first 1/4th of the game. Oh, and even the first few people you meet are capable of swarming the field with Synchro monsters or posses insanely strong archetypes (Like Crystal Beasts or freakin' Lightsworns!) that can wipe you out in seconds. And no, using UMD Recognition to get the Egyptian God Cards will not save you; these games also have an incredibly spiteful and vile RNG as well, often leading to dead draws while the AI draws exactly the card they need to swarm the field with 4 2500+ ATK monsters. At times, the only way to make any progress is to rely on your partner AI, who is normally either competent or uses a strong deck, and even so... it will often fall on you to win.
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Early Game Hell / int_9d34190a	comment	The Elder Scrolls: Arena and Daggerfall are absolutely hellish, where even basic enemies like rats can kill you in a couple of hits if you aren't careful. Awkward controls, no health regen and the ability to only cast one or two spells before magicka runs out means players will usually die a myriad of times in the tutorial dungeon alone until they figure out what they are doing. Morrowind is very hellish once you leave the easy-going starting town of Seyda Neen. Even the standard local wildlife will be a challenge until you increase your skills and acquire better equipment, and anything stronger will serve as a Beef Gate. It's recommended to complete the first few assignments in the main quest, as well as the first few missions for the local guilds, as these are largely easier quests and are rewarding enough to purchase training and the aforementioned better equipment. Progression is largely lopsided, however, and once you start increasing in levels, you'll go from schmuck to god-slayer very quickly. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion potentially inverts this trope due to its level scaling system. The system scales enemy encounters to the level of the player. During the early game, the most dangerous creature the player can encounter is a small imp, while bandits generally wear low tier equipment. On higher levels, the game world is filled with creatures like minotaurs, ogres and bandits wearing high end equipment. If you didn't level the right skills and attributes, you might find fights becoming nearly Unwinnable, resulting in a Late Game Hell. Skyrim isn't nearly as harsh in the early game, but, like Morrowind, loses most of the difficulty that it does have after level 16 or so, especially if the player invests in crafting skills to create weapons and equipment far more powerful than what is available in the game world and weapon damage with multiple perks applied increases exponentially, reaching ten or more times the base value. However, like Oblivion above, not levelling the right skills can result in fights becoming unwinnable. The Game Mod Alternate Start: Live Another Life for Skyrim allows the player to choose where they can start the game without having to do the lengthy intro. Some of the options could drop the newly created character in a high-level zone such as Solstheim and Blackreach with very little equipment. If the player has the Frostfall mod enabled, it can become far worse if they chose the shipwrecked option since it requires the player to swim through cold water that can be deadly without proper protection. The Game Mod Requiem - The Roleplaying Overhaul for Skyrim is a complete overhaul of the gameplay which results in a much more difficult early game. Level Scaling has been removed and most of the animals or mooks you can encounter are stronger than a low level Dragonborn; note that the first dungeon you have to visit is no longer a Noob Cave. The encumbrance capacity has been drastically reduced, while gold, arrows, and lockpicks are no longer weightless. Also, the efficiency of skills have been greatly reduced if you don't buy perks, which means you'll initially suck at, well, everything until you gain a few levels and some perk points. On the other hand, the complete removal of level scaling means the game because gradually easier the longer you play and gain levels.note The aforementioned Alternate Start: Live Another Life and Frostfall can be installed along Requiem, though deliberately deciding to start at level 1 in a high-level area is an example of Unintentionally Unwinnable.
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Early Game Hell / int_9d533fa6	comment	Warhammer 40,000: Gladius: You begin the game with a single "city" and a handful of basic infantry units... with a huge number of roving hostiles. You likely won't encounter an enemy faction for a few dozen turns and will be busy fighting off Kroot hounds, Enslavers and a whole host of other neutral nasties. You may end up next to a pack of Kastellan robots which are entirely capable of decimating your army and flattening your base before you have any guns big enough to do more than annoy them. Things are particularly tricky if you are playing as the gallant men of the Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard). Your starting infantry are Guardsmen, ordinary laser rifle-toting human soldiers. Up against Super Soldiers (Space Marines), self-repairing millennia-old robots with guns that treat heavy armour like a joke (Necrons), angry 8-foot tall mushroom people who can shrug off bullets like a light shove and rip the arms right out of the offending shooter's sockets (Orks), and local wildlife that will (in many cases literally) eat Guardsmen alive. Fortunately, the Militarum happen to be the setting's undisputed kings of mechanized warfare with the best tanks and artillery in the game, but until you unlock them with tech, you basically have to make do. The Tyranids, added as DLC appropriately have a Hard rating like the Militarum. Termigaunts are even flimsier than Guardsmen and have shorter ranged guns, and unlike Ork Boyz, they don't have a particularly strong melee attack either. In fact, the Tyranids' primary weakness is their widespread 1-hex range syndrome - the only non-hero Tyranid unit capable of shooting more than two hexes away is the Tyrannofex (which sits at the very far end of the tech tree). They also have a Synapse mechanic, so your units have to maintain cohesion or they revert to instinctive behaviour until contact is reestablished (but units within Synapse are immune to morale, so it's not all bad). The Aeldari have a somewhat easier time than the previous two, but still suffer from squishy infantry and an early game that requires finesse and a solid plan that comes together. Guardians are also short-ranged on the attack and very easy for most things on Gladius to kill, and the fact that your cities grow slower than other races (the Aeldari are Space Elves and The Remnant of a galaxy-spanning empire that was destroyed in a massive cataclysm, and have a very low birth rate as a result) doesn't help. However they have several powerful late-game units of note, like the War Walkers and the Crimson Hunter, and powerful heroes like the Avatar of Khaine. And then there's the map control they can pull off by activating Webway Gates. Basically, you have to crush the knife-ears early on and not allow them a chance to grow out, or you might be in trouble. Subverted with the Chaos Space Marines, who start out with four units of Cultists. Yes, Cultists suck, but they are builders so you can get four cities up and running very fast, and if the Cultists defeat some of the local wildlife they have a chance to "mutate" into another unit. If you are very lucky, you might end up with a Daemon Prince long before any factions can consider getting their first hero.
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Early Game Hell / int_9db1766a	comment	Most Devil May Cry games count for this trope. At the beginning of the game, Dante (or Nero) start out with their basic sword, guns, weakest maneuvers, very little health and MP (Usually NO MP at all), and the enemies can still kill quite easily. DMC3 seems to like throwing concepts of difficulty curving to the wind, putting you up against tough bosses right at the start. Even though you face harder enemies later in the games, the ability to repeat stages and grind through means that it's possible to level up faster than the difficulty curve can keep up with. Typically, the games get easier after a few life bar increases, the acquisition of way to deal with crowds of enemies, and getting the ability to double jump. Even worse is that DMC1 lacked the option of allowing players to freely choose and revisit previously completed missions. Unless you've been doing well enough to earn enough orbs, you're going to need to do a lot of backtracking to respawn enemies for grinding purposes, lest you struggle your way through the rest of the game.
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Early Game Hell / int_9df3213f	comment	Colossal Caverns is a Pikmin 2 rom hack where every enemy and boss is all placed inside one gigantic map. By the beginning, the player has a limited squad with no access to Onions, and there is a chance that enemies and hazards could be right near the beginning, requiring quick thinking when in the initial room. As a run goes by and more of the cave is taken care of, the number of enemies drops, the player eventually finds the Onions scattered about the map to grow their Pikmin squad, upgrades are obtained from treasures dropped by bosses, Purple Pikmin and Bulbmin are found through Candypop Buds or enemy Bulbmin (unless Purple Pikmin are enabled to be given at the start), and the run overall becomes much more relaxed.
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Early Game Hell / int_9e003c9	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_9e003c9	comment	Resident Evil â€“ Code: Veronica starts with Claire imprisoned, so she doesn't even have any weapons. By the time zombies start showing up, all she has is a knife (admittedly, a far more bad ass knife than previous knives in the series, but still not ideal for swarms of zombies). When she does find a gun, it's not even fully loaded. On top of that, the starting area likes to respawn zombies any time you come back to an area you previously cleared, so get used to either low health, low ammo, running away, or all of the above.
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Early Game Hell / int_9e3d1858	comment	This is one of the things Kingdom Come: Deliverance is infamous for; Henry is borderline useless in direct combat at the beginning of the game, isn't even literate let alone possessed of particularly beneficial skills. Cash is hard to come by, specialist tools like lockpicks and horses are expensive and hard-to-find, Henry can't even carry the weight of a full set of armor. The worst part is a lot of this difficulty is either fake or exacerbated by an obsessive denial of information to the player. Paradoxically, thanks to the complete lack of Level Scaling, this is reversed once Henry gets a few levels under his belt with the increase to his stats rendering most forms of combat easy.
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Early Game Hell / int_9f4256af	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_9f4256af	comment	Alex Kidd: The first level of Alex Kidd in Miracle World is a vertical oriented one where you go down instead of left to right, and it is much harder than the rest of the game, especially if you're trying to get all the money bags, since there are no shops and one hit will leave you dead and without power-ups.
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Early Game Hell / int_9f4bb60d	comment	Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is awfully difficult when you begin: you start out with bottom-barrel equipment, a handful of mediocre abilities, poor stats, not enough money to fix this, and no idea where anything is. Combined with most areas having a chance to spawn high-level enemies and the enemies you can beat dropping low EP, the early-game is a desperate scramble. Once you've got better equipment and abilities things become more reasonable.
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Early Game Hell / int_9f89a5f0	comment	PokÃ©mon: PokÃ©mon Yellow starts out slower than molasses. This is because you have few Mons available to you to build a proper party, and because the game prevents you from leaving the early area until you beat the first Gym Leader. Unlike Red and Blue, where two of the three of the starter PokÃ©mon can easily beat Brock,note Charmander is particularly challenging because it's at an elemental disadvantage against the first 2 gyms. Thankfully unlike in the remakes, Brock's PokÃ©mon don't know any Rock moves, but they do resist every single move Charmander has. Additionally, Brock has a set of Full Heals, meaning that landing a burn isnâ€™t helpful at all. Level grinding before the first and second gym is essentially a requirement. In contrast, Bulbasaur can reliably win the fight at just level 6 (about half the usual level a Charmander would need to be) only using Leech Seed and Growl, and Squirtle can do it at level 7 with Bubble. you're forced to start with Pikachu, who only learns Normal and Electric type attacks. Brock's PokÃ©mon are highly resistant to the first and outright immune to the second. You're forced to catch a wild PokÃ©mon and level grind it until it can face Brock. And most of the wild PokÃ©mon in the early areas are ineffective against Brock too. note Yellow added the same early-game Fighting-type PokÃ©mon as the remakes, and gave another PokÃ©mon you can catch early on a Fighting move, but most people at the time were too familiar with Red/Blue to notice these changes. PokÃ©mon Gold and Silver has the infamous Whitney battle which is the third gym the player faces along with being a noticeable Difficulty Spike and That One Boss. The Clefairy will pose little difficulty to a prepared team but her Miltank will be a significant challenge to even a prepared team. On top of its already high defense stats, Milk Drink recovers half its HP while Attract will cause infatuation where there is a 50% chance Pokemon of the opposite gender will not attack. Its attacks Stomp and Rollout will significantly plow through teams as Rollout generates more damage on consecutive uses along with Miltank having high stats for the time it is fought. The "Early Game Hell" part comes into play where there are few PokÃ©mon that resist Rollout at that point in the game, being the evolutionary families of Wooper, Onix, Geodude, Sandshrew and Machop. Unlike the previous remake FireRed and LeafGreen which added mechanics and moveset changes to make battles easiernote an example being Charmander learning Metal Claw to have an easier time defeating the Pewter City Gym, HeartGold and SoulSilver made the battle harder. Using a Ghost-type PokÃ©mon will not provide an immunity to Miltank's Stomp due to her Ability Scrappy which allows Normal and Fighting-type attacks to hit Ghost-types and Miltank is holding a Lum Berry, giving it a one-time immunity to any status condition. Whitney's Miltank still uses the Attract strategy in her rematch in the Fighting Dojo in HeartGold and SoulSilver but this optional battle takes place post-Hall of Fame where the player will have access to a lot more Pokemon. Main-series PokÃ©mon games tend to start off rather slowly in general, since they're all typically plagued by having a poor selection of Mons available early on. In general, your only decent PokÃ©mon will be your starter, and the rest of the stuff you can find will be Com Mons who don't have advantages over a lot of stuff. Few are quite as egregious about it as Gen 1, but the series as a whole falls into this trope to some degree. PokÃ©mon Colosseum's early difficulty comes from its main mechanic, Shadow PokÃ©mon. There are plenty of decent Shadow PokÃ©mon to snag early in the game, but each one starts with only Shadow Rush (a strong move that deals recoil damage and can force a PokÃ©mon into a berserk state, interrupting their turn) and gradually earns its other moves as it gets purified through battles. Shadows can't level up or evolve until they're fully purified at Agate Village, which is reached a third of the way through the game; until then, the only PokÃ©mon who can level up are your starters Espeon and Umbreon (and a Plusle), since Colosseum doesn't have wild PokÃ©mon. Pyrite Town and its dungeon areas can become difficult fast since trainers increase in levels while Shadows are stuck at around level 30, and the boss fights with Cipher Admin Miror B. and Cipher Peon Skrub reach and pass the mid-thirties. After unlocking purification, there's another tough Cipher Admin battle before Mt. Battle opens up and it becomes easier to grind. The sequel, PokÃ©mon XD: Gale of Darkness, grants access to purification and Mt. Battle much earlier. PokÃ©mon Diamond and Pearl pits you against two nasty bosses early on in the two Team Galactic admins, Mars and Jupiter. Mars is fought in the Valley Windworks, where she has a Level 16 Purugly (17 in Platinum), a fully-evolved PokÃ©mon who at this stage in the game is a Lightning Bruiser compared to your not-fully evolved PokÃ©mon. Jupiter ups the ante not too long after with her Level 20 (23 in Platinum) Skuntank, who has a powerful attack in Night Slash, Screech to make its attacks hit even harder, and Smokescreen to make it certain you're unlikely to hit it back. Just like Purugly, Skuntank's a fully evolved PokÃ©mon, meaning it most likely outclasses your lineup at that point, and since both these fights take place within the first two gyms, and both PokÃ©mon only have one weakness, there aren't that many viable options to beat them without crazy amounts of Level Grinding. The games also have arguably the strongest front-half Gym Leaders in the entire series, with the first Gym's ace being a PokÃ©mon with an Attack stat on par with fully evolved PokÃ©mon (Cranidos), and subsequent Gyms having you face off against fully-evolved PokÃ©mon with metagame-worthy stats note Roserade, Mismagius, and Lucario, two of which later get used by the Champion (the last three Gyms, in comparison, are Breather Bosses due to specializing in easily countered types).
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Early Game Hell / int_a04210b3	comment	Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth on Hard can be hell to go through right at the beginning. You only have one Digimon fighting mobs of two Digimon, with one encounter being enough to defeat your lone Digimon. You will want to form a team immediately if you wish to survive and not burn your healing items down.
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Early Game Hell / int_a0b707e6	comment	Star Traders: Frontiers is brutal at the start, particularly on hard difficulty where permadeath applies. Your starting ship is badly underpowered and generally inefficient at whatever task you want to use it for, while your low-level crew don't have the skills required to pass the game's constant skill checks with any degree of consistency. Expect to take constant ship, crew, and morale damage while merely traveling through space as a result. Furthermore, your lack of standing and trade permits also means you won't be able to access the game's high end cargo at any place other than indie worlds.
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Early Game Hell / int_a2dee471	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a2dee471	comment	The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Forsaken Fortress is quite nasty because it foists a rather unforgiving Stealth-Based swordless dungeon on you. Without the means to defend yourself you're stuck sneaking around, hiding under barrels from Moblins in areas where rats will gleefully knock you over and expose you if you're unlucky, while you try to find your way around what amounts to a maze to take out searchlights and clear the route to retrieve your sword. In fact, your second attack on the Forsaken Fortress much later in the game, despite being swarming with many more (and more powerful) enemies, is worlds easier simply because you're free to fight instead of being forced to surrender when you're spotted. In the HD version, Hero Mode causes you to take double damage, while no monsters or pots drop hearts. Dragon Roost becomes extremely dangerous in this mode, as you're not allowed to leave the island until you complete the dungeon, and the only healing items you can get within are red potions (purchasable from rats) and a fairy in the pot in the room right before the boss. And you only have a few Heart Containers (four if you collect enough Heart Pieces, including one from Forsaken Fortress that will be missed until much later if you don't get it on your first visit) while everything deals double damage. You do get a bottle, which you can use to catch the fairy or buy the red potion, but you don't get it until after you reach the island, so you can't put any other healing items in it. Once you finally get off the island, you can claim a second bottle and start buying more potions, making future dungeons far more manageable.
Early Game Hell / int_a2dee471	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a2dee471	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a2dee471
Early Game Hell / int_a52b111	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a52b111	comment	Heroes of the Seasons: The initially available equipment in the stores is good enough to beat the early modes, but even with good preparation, the first few versions of King Frinch can be tanky to take down. Starting with Invasion mode, better equipment and consumables will be unlocked, making it easier to min-max characters to finish off enemies faster while still staying alive.
Early Game Hell / int_a52b111	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a52b111	featureConfidence	1.0
Heroes Of The Seasons (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a52b111
Early Game Hell / int_a55d57a8	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a55d57a8	comment	Crashday has a pair of missions in the early stages that will definitely put the player's patience to test: "Mansfield Speedway" has several curves that can throw off your car and make you lose time. The track itself being two laps long doesn't help as well. The Race Point-to-Point levels are infuriating per se due to the game type's rulesnote Reach point B starting from A and make sure to not miss any checkpoint and the time limit not giving much space for errors, but the early missions of this type ("The Offroad Stage" and "Car Theft") take the cake, especially "Car Theft" where you not only have to complete the stage in under two minutes in a large map, but you're also chased off by police cars armed to the teeth with Miniguns and Rocket Launchers while you're forced to drive an un-upgraded Bornbad GT-90 (which you don't get to unlock until later in Career Mode) with its weird turning.
Early Game Hell / int_a55d57a8	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a55d57a8	featureConfidence	1.0
Crashday (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a55d57a8
Early Game Hell / int_a56c4b90	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a56c4b90	comment	Curse of Strahd features a short, introduction dungeon called Death House, and that name is quite accurate. It's a confusing area filled with strong enemies, unclear objectives for completion, and doesn't give much in the way of rewards for the players. One of the most infamous examples being the animated brooms, which are seemingly joke enemies, but for level one adventures, are surprisingly hard to hit and kill. While the entire campaign is hard, the Death House is very hard for where it is positioned.
Early Game Hell / int_a56c4b90	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a56c4b90	featureConfidence	1.0
Curse of Strahd (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a56c4b90
Early Game Hell / int_a6bce733	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a6bce733	comment	Astral Chain: The first two and a half Files of a new game tend to strain a player's health the most, as they don't have access to the Finishing Move yet. Once they do, healing items become a bit less precious.
Early Game Hell / int_a6bce733	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a6bce733	featureConfidence	1.0
Astral Chain (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a6bce733
Early Game Hell / int_a6fb0678	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a6fb0678	comment	La-Mulana: While it stays Nintendo Hard throughout, the game is hardest at the beginning, when it has the learning curve of a brick wall. The game opens with your pathetically weak character, armed with a single clumsy weapon, running around a confusing jungle. How do you get into the ruins? What's the best item to buy with the few coins you can find? How do you save? It doesn't let up after you get into the Guidance Gate, which, at first glance, is filled with nasty traps and unclear puzzles. Veterans will know to make a beeline for the Grail, Shurikens, and Knife, but new players will suffer until they figure out the game's general train of logic. Reading the manual confirms this was intentional. The developers wanted to make a game that recalled early sidescrolling adventure games, and purposely made it this hard to weed out anyone who wasn't really interested.
Early Game Hell / int_a6fb0678	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a6fb0678	featureConfidence	1.0
La-Mulana (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a6fb0678
Early Game Hell / int_a74ec89b	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a74ec89b	comment	Castlevania: Circle of the Moon has Thief Mode, where all of your stats (save for intelligence), HP, and MP are cut in half in exchange for 1600 Luck that goes up 160 each level. At the beginning of the game, enemies can kill you in about 2 or 3 hits and your attacks are incredibly weak, but as your luck goes up you can easily collect equipable items that more than make up for your reduced stats and max out your healing items. By the end of the game, even the Battle Arena can be easiest to beat in this mode.
Early Game Hell / int_a74ec89b	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a74ec89b	featureConfidence	1.0
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a74ec89b
Early Game Hell / int_a7a0b48b	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a7a0b48b	comment	The prologue of NieR: Automata (which includes a shmup segment, an entire stage, and multiple boss battles) has to be beaten without saving. This can take up to an hour on your first playthrough, and if you die at any point (which is pretty easy on Hard mode due to the bosses' ability to take you out in only a few hits) it's right back to the beginning.
Early Game Hell / int_a7a0b48b	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a7a0b48b	featureConfidence	1.0
NieR: Automata / Videogame	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a7a0b48b
Early Game Hell / int_a877956	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a877956	comment	The Witcher can be hard at the beginning not because the enemies are particularly strong, but because the game has lots of mechanics that can take a while to get used to. A good example is potion brewing. To harvest the ingredients for potions, Geralt first needs to read certain books about local flora and fauna, which cost a pretty penny to obtain. Once Geralt is able to harvest said ingredients, the game becomes much simpler.
Early Game Hell / int_a877956	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a877956	featureConfidence	1.0
The Witcher (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a877956
Early Game Hell / int_a913877a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a913877a	comment	Project Zomboid: Kind of the case. When you start, the map is littered with loot, most services still work (even the TV) and you can get by quite easily just by living on looted sandwiches people made for themselves to go to work. But on the other hand you're just a schmuck who has nothing resembling survival skills aside from maybe some hobby knowledge or job training, and you'll need to start forming some kind of base with a good stockpile of supplies while hordes of zombies are everywhere. While your character will (hopefully) be much more capable later on, the amenities of modern living will eventually become a distant memory as supplies dwindle, tools break and the electrical grid and the water system fail around six months in.
Early Game Hell / int_a913877a	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a913877a	featureConfidence	1.0
Project Zomboid (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a913877a
Early Game Hell / int_a9347d80	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a9347d80	comment	In Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour, once you defeat Bandit Keith, it becomes much easier to find duelists and non-duelists as Seto Kaiba upgrades your Duel Disk to judge duelists by a star rating. Non-duelists have no stars, and you can register duelists to make finding them easier.
Early Game Hell / int_a9347d80	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a9347d80	featureConfidence	1.0
Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a9347d80
Early Game Hell / int_a96a7ada	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a96a7ada	comment	Yu-Gi-Oh!: In Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour, once you defeat Bandit Keith, it becomes much easier to find duelists and non-duelists as Seto Kaiba upgrades your Duel Disk to judge duelists by a star rating. Non-duelists have no stars, and you can register duelists to make finding them easier. The Tag Force series is also a prime offender. The moment you start the game, you're more or less gimped with a very wimpy or cookie-cutter deck that'll get stomped on with a single stroke of bad luck. While Tag Force 1 and 2 are better about this due to the Slifer Red students being absolutely awful at dueling and giving enough DP to gather cards, alongside a particularly easy exploit to get any card you want besides a select few and the Egyptian Gods, but good luck knowing it without using GameFAQs. There is no such quarter in Tag Force 4 and 5, where the bug has been removed/nerfed completely. You're more or less forced to use a mediocre at best deck for about the first 1/4th of the game. Oh, and even the first few people you meet are capable of swarming the field with Synchro monsters or posses insanely strong archetypes (Like Crystal Beasts or freakin' Lightsworns!) that can wipe you out in seconds. And no, using UMD Recognition to get the Egyptian God Cards will not save you; these games also have an incredibly spiteful and vile RNG as well, often leading to dead draws while the AI draws exactly the card they need to swarm the field with 4 2500+ ATK monsters. At times, the only way to make any progress is to rely on your partner AI, who is normally either competent or uses a strong deck, and even so... it will often fall on you to win.
Early Game Hell / int_a96a7ada	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a96a7ada	featureConfidence	1.0
Yu-Gi-Oh! (Franchise)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a96a7ada
Early Game Hell / int_a9c4727b	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_a9c4727b	comment	In Has-Been Heroes, before you have access to elemental spells and better heroes, you're stuck with non-elemental spells that lack the ability to deal damage, access to items is very limited and only two of your three characters are capable of dealing more than Scratch Damage and you'll still need to strategize and manage them properly if you want any hope of reaching the boss at the end of the run, let alone winning.
Early Game Hell / int_a9c4727b	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_a9c4727b	featureConfidence	1.0
Has-Been Heroes (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_a9c4727b
Early Game Hell / int_aabf6d1d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_aabf6d1d	comment	Darkest Dungeon starts you off with a tutorial section where you can suffer a Total Party Kill, or at least lose one of the only two heroes available. For the first week, all buildings are locked, and even when they open, you'll be too strapped for cash to have your heroes go through stress relief or quirk removal, and you're not going to have the necessary heirlooms to upgrade all buildings to keep up with how fast your heroes level up. Expect to send off or outright lose some of your dearest characters until you've amassed enough gold and heirlooms to treat and upgrade them with, and trinkets to remodel their stats to your advantage.
Early Game Hell / int_aabf6d1d	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_aabf6d1d	featureConfidence	1.0
Darkest Dungeon (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_aabf6d1d
Early Game Hell / int_ab372c0f	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ab372c0f	comment	Citizen Sleeper sees the Player Character starting out pretty much already half-dead and with nothing to their name — no money, no food, no items to sell. The first few of the game's turns are a mad scramble just to survive (fittingly, that's also the first major Drive you are settled with), as you first have to explore Erlin's Eye to find out what places sells the medication and food required to keep the Player Character alive, and try to scrape some money together to afford these goods. You therefore need to think very carefully about what to do when and in which order. It takes quite a while for your situation to stabilize enough to feel like you're not about to drown in heavy sea at any moment.
Early Game Hell / int_ab372c0f	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ab372c0f	featureConfidence	1.0
Citizen Sleeper (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ab372c0f
Early Game Hell / int_ae050a9f	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ae050a9f	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest starts with much harder dungeons right from the Great Deku Tree — by this point in the game, there are no Pieces of Heart to extend Link's health or Bottles to carry healing items. In the 3DS remake, Master Quest also doubles the damage taken. Once Heart Piece sidequests are opened up and the inventory expands, the dungeons generally become more manageable. The Water Temple, the sixth main dungeon out of nine in a "normal" runnote It is possible to beat certain temples out of order, or even leave a dungeon after getting its item and using that to finish another one, is even made easier in the mode, although that was in part due to complaints about its original incarnation.
Early Game Hell / int_ae050a9f	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ae050a9f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Videogame	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ae050a9f
Early Game Hell / int_af60702d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_af60702d	comment	The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link are very brutal in the beginning where enemies are strong and you lack decent gear and enough hearts to survive. As you progress, you'll find better items and your life meter will be longer, thus you can endure enemies a lot better. And in Zelda II, Link starts off with extremely weak stats, and it takes a while to get enough EXP to even have a fighting chance. Making matters worse is that the game throws Death Mountain, probably the hardest level in the game, at you very early on.
Early Game Hell / int_af60702d	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_af60702d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Legend of Zelda (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_af60702d
Early Game Hell / int_b0544c4b	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_b0544c4b	comment	Super Robot Wars X can be this in its Expert Mode difficulty where enemy upgrades will be at a higher point than players can keep up especially since for the first few stages, the characters that the players have are either the Glass Cannon type or the Fragile Speedster type. The game however does get easier once Simon joins the group and Gurren Lagann ends up becoming one of the best tanks in the game.
Early Game Hell / int_b0544c4b	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_b0544c4b	featureConfidence	1.0
Super Robot Wars X (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_b0544c4b
Early Game Hell / int_b0544c4d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_b0544c4d	comment	Third Super Robot Wars Z: Tengoku-hen starts out brutal for the first half of the game. With a mandatory event that scatters the party members, most of the party members being stripped of their most powerful attacks and sometimes even mecha, and the Quirky Miniboss Squad of the game being comprised of Sphere holders with nasty abilities that affect all units in a battle, the game doesn't pull any punches in terms of difficulty.
Early Game Hell / int_b0544c4d	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_b0544c4d	featureConfidence	1.0
Super Robot Wars Z (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_b0544c4d
Early Game Hell / int_b0ec0986	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_b0ec0986	comment	Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has this as Aqua. As the local Squishy Wizard, she's largely reliant on magic... and doesn't really start getting many good spells until the third world. Then the game becomes much easier. Ventus also has this trouble. In the first required world he visits, there's very few enemies, they all offer very low exp, and he doesn't even learn the cure spell until afterwards, which means that when he confronts the first boss it's a very stressful battle. Thankfully the next two worlds feature more frequent enemies that give out better exp, making it easier for him to quickly get stronger after that rough beginning.
Early Game Hell / int_b0ec0986	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_b0ec0986	featureConfidence	1.0
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_b0ec0986
Early Game Hell / int_b3ebd61e	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_b3ebd61e	comment	The first mission of Star Wars: Rogue Leader, the Battle of Yavin, is brutally frustrating owing to some jankey physics during the final iconic trench run where you fire the proton torpedo down the exhaust port combined with a lack of checkpoints. You get one very easy to miss shot at it at the end of a fairly drawn out mission, and if you miss you go back to the very beginning of the mission. It's also possible to render the level Unintentionally Unwinnable by using up all your proton torpedoes prior to the run, which will also punt you back to the beginning of the mission.
Early Game Hell / int_b3ebd61e	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_b3ebd61e	featureConfidence	1.0
Rogue Squadron (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_b3ebd61e
Early Game Hell / int_b41004a1	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_b41004a1	comment	For new players Lost Odyssey can suffer from this. Part of the problem is the that your smaller team size means your dependent one one mage doing both your Black Magic and White Magic, causing difficulty in prioritizing healing your party and doing your main form of damage. However, a bigger problem is the lack of the potential Game-Breaker abilities of Relax, which you gain access to right after the first major dungeon, and Cover, which is gained not too longer after Relax. For experience players who know how to properly combine skills and manipulate defend and GC to build Kalm up as a tank the start isn't as painful, but not everyone is going to figure this out on their first play through.
Early Game Hell / int_b41004a1	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_b41004a1	featureConfidence	1.0
Lost Odyssey (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_b41004a1
Early Game Hell / int_b425b05c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_b425b05c	comment	The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa has a fairly difficult early game. To really start doing damage you need to train and improve your stats, so before then, enemies can easily take you down.
Early Game Hell / int_b425b05c	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_b425b05c	featureConfidence	1.0
The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_b425b05c
Early Game Hell / int_b55b8015	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_b55b8015	comment	Ninja Gaiden Black/Sigma qualifies in Master Ninja mode (the Harder Than Harder Than Hard mode): you do the first chapter with no weapons, upgrades or techniques but instead of weaklings you fight the strongest and cheapest Ninja enemies. Reaching the first save point literally becomes the hardest part of the game.
Early Game Hell / int_b55b8015	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_b55b8015	featureConfidence	1.0
Ninja Gaiden (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_b55b8015
Early Game Hell / int_b6f0e9c4	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_b6f0e9c4	comment	The early stages of A Dance with Rogues are extremely unforgiving: everything can kill the Princess in one hit, and anyone who isn't after her head will at least try to mug and rape her. The first act is there to teach you to consider where you go very carefully, to never speak with strangers, and to always, always have an escape plan. It's only roughly after the Golden Chalice adventure that the Princess obtains enough character levels, disposable cash, and magical gear to be able to relax and enjoy herself from time to time.
Early Game Hell / int_b6f0e9c4	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_b6f0e9c4	featureConfidence	1.0
A Dance with Rogues (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_b6f0e9c4
Early Game Hell / int_b7c72249	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_b7c72249	comment	Zigzagged with Luck Mode in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, where entering the name "X-X!V''Q" starts you at a piddling 30 HP, 1 MP and Strength, 5 Hearts, and 0 Constitution and Intelligence in exchange for 99 Luck and an equipped Lapis Lazuli. While this does make the game much harder, it also enables the "Bypass Death" glitch that lets you keep Alucard's Taste of Power which turns you into a nuclear bomb with a cape and a sexy voice. Luck Mode was at least intended to be this, though.
Early Game Hell / int_b7c72249	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_b7c72249	featureConfidence	1.0
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_b7c72249
Early Game Hell / int_b906a721	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_b906a721	comment	Secret of Mana is at its most difficult without magic, which not only deals a majority of the game's offense for a while, but allows you to stunlock the enemies in place, and can hit a target no matter where it is.
Early Game Hell / int_b906a721	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_b906a721	featureConfidence	1.0
Secret of Mana (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_b906a721
Early Game Hell / int_b9419bd1	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_b9419bd1	comment	Deus Ex: Human Revolution's first level has Jensen fight against Spec Ops soldiers without any augmentations, including HUD, health meter and radar. It's not impossible but very easy to die if you botch a shot or get detected. Even more annoying when attempting a Pacifist Run, as Jensen has no non-lethal weapons and can't do takedowns yet.
Early Game Hell / int_b9419bd1	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_b9419bd1	featureConfidence	1.0
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_b9419bd1
Early Game Hell / int_b9cbc95b	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_b9cbc95b	comment	Tales of Rebirth: Before the Enhance and Inheritance options are available, prepare to die a lot due to the lack of good sources of healing available (Annie, your healer, tends to waste time casting useless area of effect buffs and not healing you) and not having any particularly powerful attacks to deal damage quickly before you can take it in return. You also cannot run away from most encounters, unlike in every Tales game prior and subsequently.
Early Game Hell / int_b9cbc95b	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_b9cbc95b	featureConfidence	1.0
Tales of Rebirth (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_b9cbc95b
Early Game Hell / int_ba1083f7	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ba1083f7	comment	Guitar Hero II: The first tier in the PS2 version. When the game was re-released on the Xbox 360, three of the original 5 songs from tier 1 were moved to tier 2 while two new tracks were added to tier 1 and two songs that were originally in tier 2 were moved down.
Early Game Hell / int_ba1083f7	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ba1083f7	featureConfidence	1.0
Guitar Hero (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ba1083f7
Early Game Hell / int_baa75d56	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_baa75d56	comment	Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden: Beatable enemies can be hard to find early on, which makes it more difficult to level up for the harder enemies. Enemies that are too hard for you are marked with a red skull. Half the locations on the map seem to have red skulls. Enemies that are individually manageable can be rather harder en masse. You are encouraged to sneak around and pick off enemies one by one, but if they are too tough to take out in one round with silenced weapons, then we return to the second point.
Early Game Hell / int_baa75d56	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_baa75d56	featureConfidence	1.0
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_baa75d56
Early Game Hell / int_babc3924	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_babc3924	comment	Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is this trope when playing on Hard Mode. Later on, you can grind, get decent special attacks, get good gear and badges and who knows what else. In the beginning? You've got obviously bad stats, a near non-existent choice of gear and badges, semi useless items you can only carry ten of each and enemies that kill you in two hits due to doing about 7 times the amount of damage per attack as in the normal mode. It's bad enough the game's producer apparently died in the tutorial when testing.
Early Game Hell / int_babc3924	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_babc3924	featureConfidence	1.0
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_babc3924
Early Game Hell / int_bbaaaf06	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_bbaaaf06	comment	Morrowind is very hellish once you leave the easy-going starting town of Seyda Neen. Even the standard local wildlife will be a challenge until you increase your skills and acquire better equipment, and anything stronger will serve as a Beef Gate. It's recommended to complete the first few assignments in the main quest, as well as the first few missions for the local guilds, as these are largely easier quests and are rewarding enough to purchase training and the aforementioned better equipment. Progression is largely lopsided, however, and once you start increasing in levels, you'll go from schmuck to god-slayer very quickly.
Early Game Hell / int_bbaaaf06	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_bbaaaf06	featureConfidence	1.0
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_bbaaaf06
Early Game Hell / int_be492827	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_be492827	comment	Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: The first Dark Aether region, Dark Agon Wastes, is one of the most frustrating areas simply because of the Dark World life drain. Without the Dark Suit, your HP drains at almost five hit points per second, meaning you have to dash from safe zone to safe zone (even worse, some safe zones have to be manually activated and only stay on for a number of seconds, forcing you to either continually re-activate them or move on). After the Agon Wastes, you get the Dark Suit and can navigate the dark world with ease (the atmosphere of Dark Aether is still degenerative to Samus but at a considerably reduced rate with the Dark Suit; it won't be until she gets the late-game Light Suit that she's truly impervious to Dark Aether's atmosphere).
Early Game Hell / int_be492827	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_be492827	featureConfidence	1.0
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_be492827
Early Game Hell / int_beac6ffb	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_beac6ffb	comment	The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has a rough beginning due to some cruel factors that affect Link since the beginning. Since his Ocarina of Time was stolen, he's unable to travel back in time and thus unable to save his progress. Until he's able to revert the situation, he has to perform several tasks under a time limit of three days, which even pass on a much faster rate than in later gameplay sessions. (Each hour normally lasts 45 real life seconds, but in this first loop it only lasts 27 seconds; symbolically, this represents the urgency Link has to improve his situation.)
Early Game Hell / int_beac6ffb	featureApplicability	1.0
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Early Game Hell / int_c00c0023	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_c00c0023	comment	The second level of the Russian campaign in Empire Earth has you fighting multiple superpowers with advanced technology right off the bat, compared to the previous game where you faced a single base.
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Early Game Hell / int_c0eae17	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_c0eae17	comment	The Total War series: In Rome: Total War when playing as one of the non-Roman factions who shares a border with the Romans. Greece? Carthage? Gaul? Be prepared for your Roman neighbors to attack within the first few turns of the campaign. Not only are they a tough and wealthy foe, being at war with them also deprives you of establishing trade relations with them, meaning you'll have to fight them at an economic disadvantage. And gods help you if one of your other neighbors decides to attack you early on as well... In fact, some campaign guides even advise that you pull out of your Roman border settlements just to give you a few extra turns of peace to build up your army and treasury. In the popular Medieval II: Total War Game Mod Third Age: Total War, each of the "good" factions qualifies to an extent, but Gondor has it the worst. You start off at war with Mordor and Harad, two factions that can churn out Cannon Fodder to Zerg Rush you and have protected settlements located deep within mountains or deserts, meaning that conquering either is a long slog. Meanwhile, Gondor has great infantry and a huge city, but slow recruit times, a very large and vulnerable coastline, and a lagging economy in its inland settlements. Playing as Gondor requires an active strategy of harrying both enemies until its economy is powerful enough to sustain multiple stacks of troops. Total War: Shogun 2 progresses from early game hell, to middle game heaven, and then to late game hell when "Realm Divide" kicks in. At the start, you'll struggle to balance fielding an army and developing your provinces as your aggressive neighbouring factions torment you relentlessly. Expect to be short on funds as you exempt newly acquired provinces from taxes to maintain public order and field armies of mostly ashigaru units to Zerg Rush your enemies. Eventually, once you've carved out a nice territory and establish trade relations, your economy will rebound so you can start to produce stronger units and develop your cities. Things will go swimmingly for a while as your high grade troops carve through Japan like a warm knife through butter... then Realm Divide will kick in and everyone will be against you. This can be especially jarring to players coming from Rome: Total War and Medieval II: Total War where you might spend you first several turns doing nothing more than beginning to build up your cities and waypointing your starting troops. And even then, the worst you generally have to deal with early on are the weak "Rebel" factions. The Otomo clan especially suffer from this. Many clans can eventually convert to Christianity, but the Otomo are Christians right off the bat and their leader is dishonourable, which means everyone in Japan hates them. The only advantage they have is a matchlock unit which isn't very good and costs a ton, and they share an island with the Shimazu, who are aggressive, expansionist and happy to demonstrate to you that Guns Are Worthless and Katanas Are Just Better. Fortunately if they manage to survive the Otomo can really become a Japanese superpower, as their gunner units improve dramatically, trade with Europe leaves them swimming in cash, and being able to recruit European-style cannon ships reduces all Otomo naval warfare to a series of Curb Stomp Battles. The Oda clan starts out smack dab in the middle of Japan and will be fighting a two-front war, and also have ongoing feuds with the powerful Imagawa (and their Tokugawa vassals) and the nearby Ikko-Ikki. Once you've shaken off the initial pests, however, the Oda clan's access to superior Ashigaru (especially if you go straight for Long Spear Ashigaru and gunpowder units) lets them Zerg Rush Japan into submission. Total War: Warhammer II has this with several of its campaigns. The biggest and most notable example in the whole game is easily Tomb Kings, particularly Settra the Imperishable's campaign. While Tomb King units are free and have no upkeep, their buildings and research are ludicrously expensive and take a long time to reach, and their basic units are crappy skeletons that can't really do much other than blob enemies. The advantage of free units is almost totally nullified in the early game due to limits that initially restrict them to a single army and lacking the "background income" most factions get, which covers the upkeep for an early game army anyway. However, once they get their upper-tier constructs like Ushabti, they quickly steamroll the other factions in short order. Thorgrim Grudgebearer's campaign start qualifies too, particularly post The Warden and the Paunch patch. Due to the new Greenskin confederation mechanics, there's a high chance that all the Greenskin tribes around your starting province will unite against you and take out the other Dwarf kingdoms nearby in short order, leading to multiple doomstacks from the south lead by Grimgor and doomstacks from the north attacking your tiny province simultaneously by turn 10. However, once you manage to take Mount Gunbad and get your economy in order, the campaign gets considerably easier. Alarielle is another example. She has a unique mechanic where she gets bonuses to her economy, diplomacy, and public order if Ulthuan is under High Elf control, and staggering penalties if it isn't. At game's start, Alarielle is at war with a Dark Elf faction that holds a number of territories including a fortified pass she has to siege her way through long before she has access to good tools to do so, and who will grab the Sword of Kaine if given enough time. Simultaneously, far to the south, Tyrion is dealing with a similar inner-ring incursion of Druchii. And while Eltharion will have no problem stomping out the Greenskins expeditionary force he starts next to, this normally leaves his army woefully out of position when the Pirates of Sartosa start raiding and occupying the coast. And everything but her personal target is far out of Alarielle's sphere of influence, leaving you at the mercy of the AI to get the worst of your penalties cleared up. Once Ulthuan is finally secured, Alarielle can start to take advantage of some very nice bonuses to quickly confederate the other High Elves and get her economy rolling. Imrik's entire faction boni are geared towards Dragons (reducing their upkeep, making them more powerful, being able to recruit 6 unique versions of them), a late-game unit, which will not help when his first dozens turns involves fighting multiple armies of Skaven that, although easily defeated individually, will be extremely numerous and much more mobile on the campaign map, able to overwhelm the player and attack settlements while they're taking the long route to theirs. Unless Snikch is dealt with very quickly, it's extremely easy for the player to be bogged down fighting endless stacks of progressively tougher and tougher Skaven armies while his other potential enemies (Greenskisn or Dwarfs) grow more and more powerful. Add to that, that Imrik has a poor starting economy (due to no access to global trade via a port) which will make upgrading your cities/armies difficult. Once you get past these hurdles, you can see for yourself that the buffs Imrik gives to Dragons are huge on top of being a High Elven faction.
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Early Game Hell / int_c326acd9	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_c326acd9	comment	In the first games of each Inazuma Eleven series: Raimon Soccer Club is made of depressingly underpowered players and limited resources to the point even random encounters can be a problem. In addition to the poor bases, most characters will get tired out by half-time in a 60 minute full match due to the lack of stamina. They will be forced to crawl through the rest of the game because you have little to no substitutions. Once the characters level up and gain special abilities, cooped with the player mastering the stylus movement, the rest of the game is a cakewalk.
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Early Game Hell / int_c51a81a0	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_c51a81a0	comment	In A Witch's Tale, just gaining your first level will be extremely difficult, since enemies give you very low EXP and can hit fairly hard, especially in the Candy Maze. You also have only 100 MP when the Ancient Rune magic costs 99 MP.
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Early Game Hell / int_c51b8d7a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_c51b8d7a	comment	Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne isn't too bad in the first dungeon, where free healing spots abound... but as soon as you leave, the enemies suddenly get a lot nastier. You have very little choice in what you can use as far as skills, and you don't get the Demon Compendium (which lets you resummon demons you've already recruited and makes fusion far less of a gamble) until after you defeat possibly the most infamous Early-Bird Boss in gaming. Once you defeat either Dante or Raidou (depending on your version), things begin to even out.
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Early Game Hell / int_c72021c5	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_c72021c5	comment	Deus Ex starts the player off with few skill points, ammo, and medkits, all to hammer in that the player has many more options than just shooting their way through.
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Early Game Hell / int_c96cfe29	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_c96cfe29	comment	The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: You only start with three hearts at the start of the game, and after the easy-by-comparison Hyrule Castle and Eastern Palace, you'll commonly run into enemies that can do at least two hearts of damage. Combined with the prolonged threat of Collision Damage due to the regular sword's short range, the early game can be quite stressful. This doesn't end after you obtain the Master Sword either, as you're thrown into the Dark World not long after, which is where the game really stops pulling punches. You will quickly learn to value every heart you have, and it's up to you to have a Fairy or Red Medicine prepared when the damage adds up.
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Early Game Hell / int_cb6c417f	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_cb6c417f	comment	Tormented Souls: Save Tokens are rare in the early game, and combat is unforgiving. You'll eventually learn how to make the most of your weapons, and save tokens become more plentiful later on, but be ready to reload a lot at first.
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Early Game Hell / int_cba48b98	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_cba48b98	comment	God Hand, while hard throughout, breathes this. You get your ass kicked a lot in the early going, with the sliding difficulty going UP the better you do. There is one particularly egregious example on Hard Mode: a room in 1-5 that you must go to where you have to face four waves of thugs, at least one of which will transform into a demon most of the time, the last wave of which has tons of HP, with a very limited moveset, in a cramped space, AND with the difficulty meter locked on DIE, is almost guaranteed to result in a chucked controller.
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Early Game Hell / int_ccc76d45	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ccc76d45	comment	The first years of King of Dragon Pass can easily go very poorly. Your clan is small and vulnerable to raids, you have access to very few of the gods' mysteries, you're rather diplomatically isolated once you go harder than Easy, and you have no reserves to help weather hard times.
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Early Game Hell / int_cccafd49	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_cccafd49	comment	Gothic is purposefully built on this to give a feel to character progression, making The Nameless Hero taking a level in badass all the more noticeable. Initially, except for some VERY weak civilian characters and the odd monster at the bottom of the food chain, anything will easily kill you. You are expected to gather EXP by staying in town and doing non-combat quests, take full advantage of the rare opportunities where an NPC deigns to escort you somewhere, resort to thievery whenever you can, gather all sorts of consumable trinkets that might save you in a pinch and, in general, choose your battles wisely, use unconventional tactics and avoid combat until you are ready to tackle the weaker enemies and work your way up from there.
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Early Game Hell / int_ccceba90	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ccceba90	comment	In the popular Medieval II: Total War Game Mod Third Age: Total War, each of the "good" factions qualifies to an extent, but Gondor has it the worst. You start off at war with Mordor and Harad, two factions that can churn out Cannon Fodder to Zerg Rush you and have protected settlements located deep within mountains or deserts, meaning that conquering either is a long slog. Meanwhile, Gondor has great infantry and a huge city, but slow recruit times, a very large and vulnerable coastline, and a lagging economy in its inland settlements. Playing as Gondor requires an active strategy of harrying both enemies until its economy is powerful enough to sustain multiple stacks of troops.
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Early Game Hell / int_cfe0fed2	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_cfe0fed2	comment	The Great Gaias: Not only do money drops start low, mages don't start with enough MP to take advantage of their equipment's passive MP regen, making it hard to repeatedly use magic. This becomes less of a problem when the mages' max MP grows enough to regen MP and when the player forges max MP increasing gear.
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Early Game Hell / int_d1706117	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_d1706117	comment	Zoo Tycoon can be this, particularly when it comes to dealing with your zoo's guests. You start out with small buildings that can only serve one guest at a time. As your zoo gets more popular, crowds and lines form, resulting in your guests' needs rising and consequently, their happiness decreasing. Eventually, you unlock fancier buildings such as restaurants and large restrooms that have unlimited capacity and do a better job and satisfying your guests' needs.
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Early Game Hell / int_d18cf67d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_d18cf67d	comment	In Mother 3, the first three chapters are told from the viewpoint of three different characters, and getting yanked away from the characters you've leveled up and gotten familiar with can be a bit jarring. This comes to a head in Chapter 3, where you have to play as Salsa for the entire chapter, including fighting a freaking tank at the end.
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Early Game Hell / int_d212a05e	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_d212a05e	comment	The whole Hero Gauge/Invincible Action mechanic falls squarely into this in Resonance of Fate. To elaborate, Resonance of Fate seemingly plays like a tactical turn-based RPG, which massively hampers the playable protagonists if you do play it as such. However, Hero Gauge usage allows for actions that "break" such turn based rules (one example being allowed to attack multiple times while moving in a single turn). However, Hero Gauge consumes Bezels, a resource which is also consumed when any character depletes his/her health points. Furthermore, completely consuming all of them will all but guarantee a Game Over. This trope comes in full play as in early game, you are only given three Bezels. Later on, you gain more Bezels, and enemies come in varieties which replenishes more when attacked, in addition to already having upgraded/customized your guns as well as having higher levels. This is not to say it makes the game much easier, but definitely much more manageable.
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Early Game Hell / int_d328cd69	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_d328cd69	comment	In Dungeon Fighter Online some classes suffer from this, mostly because they can't produce reasonable amount of damage early on, meaning they take much longer to clear dungeons and waste MP-restoring items the process: either they're more focused on party play and not very suitable to soloing dungeons or they don't gain access to their main sources of damage until later. The classes that suffer the most from this are Paladin, Soul Bender and some of the female Mage subclasses. Downplayed in the Season 2 update, where you can freely change your subclass before level 50 once for free and for a moderate but increasing cost from that point onwards, allowing you to do all your early leveling as one of the more effective subclasses and then switch to another one afterwards.
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Early Game Hell / int_d3b17858	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_d3b17858	comment	Final Fantasy Tactics is very difficult in the beginning due to you having access to only a few basic job classes (Squire, Knight, Archer, etc.). Accuracy for many abilities are generally poor, including the critical Life spell for the White Mage (yes a revive spell can MISS). By the 3rd story mission, you'll be fighting a group that have Black Mages on their side and their spells can hit you pretty damn hard while you are most likely relying on the use of Potions to heal at this point. As you level up and unlock more advanced job classes, you can start kicking butt with little effort and you can boost accuracy on some of your moves to ensure they don't always fail. Grinding for levels was difficult early in the game when you got Argath, due to his inability to not rush blindly into danger, ruining any strategies you might have had and getting himself killed, getting you a game over. Calling that frustrating is an understatement. Luckily, he doesn't participate in random battles, available after the second story battle.
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Early Game Hell / int_d45837ba	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_d45837ba	comment	Despite being mostly a huge sandbox, Cities: Skylines has to be started off in a certain way to ensure a city will thrive; otherwise, players may struggle to earn money or will default on their budget, causing a game over. In the beginning just building a road system and basic services can consume almost your entire budget, leaving you to hope things are arranged well enough to bring in a large enough population that their taxes will pay the costs of operating all those services before your remaining capital runs out. If your road system isn't laid out properly or something important is disconnected, there may be no way to fix it without going into the red. Once the population gets above a few thousand, however, you start making money easily and before long you'll be able to satisfy all of the population's needs with enough left over for huge vanity projects if desired.
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Early Game Hell / int_d4caf593	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_d4caf593	comment	The very first chapter of Bully traps you in Bullworth Academy with no safe places except directly inside your room. You have no resources but your fists (and even those are limited until you get in some gym time and hobo lessons), you haven't completed any of the classes at first, and the bullies (your enemy for the chapter) consider the boys' dorm to be their particular turf. It's much easier to get knocked out if you're not careful.
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Early Game Hell / int_d56f8815	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_d56f8815	comment	OMORI: In the game's prologue, enemies can take out your squishier characters in around two or three hits, and Hero's basic healing skill drains a large portion of his Juice. It isn't until you hit around the end of the prologue where you get more skills, decent equipment and upgraded Follow-Ups.
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Early Game Hell / int_d5a71292	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_d5a71292	comment	The beginning of Risen is rather harsh. You start out with nothing. You have to comb the beach looking for plants, pearls and a stick so that you can defend yourself. You then have to travel further inland where everything can one or two shot you while you try to scrounge together enough gold and experience points to become somewhat competent at fighting. Things don't become reasonable until you purchase worker's clothes and a decent weapon. Then you have to choose a side either the don or the inquisition. Both sides give you better armor with the inquisition giving you the option of magic. Either way your first couple of hours in risen will be miserable. The sequel is a little more forgiving allowing you to start out with a weak weapon, some grog and a bit of gold. Which if you are smart you will spend it on the the sneak skill. Which allows you to steal stuff which is going to be where the majority of your income comes from. The sequel isn't much more merciful you start the game with none of your items or skills from the last game but you do start with 500 gold, a weak sword and some grog. 500 gold is enough to pay for one skill. The smart players pick Sneak. Which helps you steal which will make up the most of your current and future income.
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Early Game Hell / int_d5e9cf36	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_d5e9cf36	comment	XCOM 2: Your limited offensive and defensive capabilities force you to act carefully, except mission objectives usually have some sort of time limit, sending extra enemies or making you abandon the mission if you go too slowly. Funding and resources are hard to come by, because the game takes place during a timeline where the aliens already successfully invaded. With the War of the Chosen expansion, you'll also be dealing with three Recurring Bosses who train themselves in new abilities in response to your successes, possess Resurrective Immortality, and will even oppose you on the strategic level by cracking down on allied resistance groups and sabotaging your progress. But eventually you'll learn how to take down those Chosen for good, build up a squad capable of the job, and rebuild XCOM and take the initiative away from the aliens.
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Early Game Hell / int_d6206c4c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_d6206c4c	comment	In Rome: Total War when playing as one of the non-Roman factions who shares a border with the Romans. Greece? Carthage? Gaul? Be prepared for your Roman neighbors to attack within the first few turns of the campaign. Not only are they a tough and wealthy foe, being at war with them also deprives you of establishing trade relations with them, meaning you'll have to fight them at an economic disadvantage. And gods help you if one of your other neighbors decides to attack you early on as well... In fact, some campaign guides even advise that you pull out of your Roman border settlements just to give you a few extra turns of peace to build up your army and treasury.
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Early Game Hell / int_d7081096	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_d7081096	comment	Mother: In the first part of Earthbound Beginnings, Ninten is your only party member and he has zero offensive PSI spells in addition to a pitifully small amount of inventory space. Once you bring in Ana or Lloyd, the game eases up as there are more targets for your enemies, more inventory space, and in Ana's case, effective methods of attack other than just bashing the enemy. While EarthBound (1994) is overall easy, the beginning up to the point when Paula joins Ness is by far harder than the rest. The problems are: Each party member gets their own inventory space, but this means that it's very small when you only have Ness. Even worse, you are required to have some of his already limited space occupied by several important key items. Those being the ATM Card, Sound Stone, Receiver Phone, and Pencil Eraser. On top of that, the equipped weapon and armors take up to an additional FOUR slots total. This means out of Ness's already limited 14 slots, you only have 6 open slots for items. PP recovery items can't be purchased until much later, and finding them is incredibly rare, which makes it difficult to save PP and requires lucky encounters with Magic Butterflies to replenish it. But even if you had access to PP recovery items, Ness probably wouldn't have the inventory space to keep them. This creates a feedback loop of sorts; PP restoration is limited, so the player wants to keep healing items in Ness's inventory, but space is limited, so the player would rather heal HP with PSI, but PP restoration is limited... While Ness hits hard and has high HP, he's very slow, so enemies usually get to go first. This means that every battle, even if Ness is capable of one shotting the enemy, he's still likely to take damage before he can do so and get whittled down. This is especially bad when facing multiple enemies at once, where Ness will be battered several times before even getting a chance to act. The rolling HP mechanic helps, but at this early point, not only does Ness not have enough HP to take full advantage of it yet, but most of the enemies aren't dealing enough damage in one hit for the HP to roll down for much longer than a couple seconds at most. The player can easily be left in a Healing Loop. Combining this issue with the PP recovery issue, PSI Rockin, Ness's only option for multi-target attacking's expensive PP cost (10 for Î±, 14 for Î²) has limited usage. In Mother 3, the first three chapters are told from the viewpoint of three different characters, and getting yanked away from the characters you've leveled up and gotten familiar with can be a bit jarring. This comes to a head in Chapter 3, where you have to play as Salsa for the entire chapter, including fighting a freaking tank at the end.
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Early Game Hell / int_db2796e3	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_db2796e3	comment	Shantae (2002) has some issues, due to several little factors. The infinitely-respawning baddies in the first section, Lilac Fields, have a bad habit of spawning on top of you and kill you in six hits. The key to the first dungeon is past three full overworld biomes (Lilac Fields, Tangle Forest, Water Cliffs). There's a day-night mechanic, and you can just barely get to Tangle Forest before the moon comes up and the enemies get free extra hit points. The sprites in the game are all pretty big, so you can't see very far ahead of you or below you. To top everything off, this is before you get a real source of money; if you want any healing items whatsoever, you either have to grind, or deliberately wait out the clock for the Dance Parlor to open.
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Shantae (2002) (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_db2796e3
Early Game Hell / int_dc17fc41	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_dc17fc41	comment	Expect to die a lot early on in The Persistence from deadly enemies who you can't afford to waste ammunition from your weak weapons to kill them. That's if you can risk buying weapons at all, since you lose them every time you die, so you can spend all your money to go all in and have to start your arsenal from scratch. Once you have upgrades, access to more money from later levels, and better bodies, the game becomes much, much easier.
Early Game Hell / int_dc17fc41	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_dc17fc41	featureConfidence	1.0
The Persistence (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_dc17fc41
Early Game Hell / int_dd233398	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_dd233398	comment	Battle Princess Madelyn: Instead of dramatically ramping up the difficulty as you progress, Story Mode actually gets more forgiving as it goes on. This is less a matter of the game getting easier (the difficulty is fairly constant) than upgrading your weapons and armor allows you to take more damage and gives you more powerful and more useful attacks. However, the upgrades are optional if a more difficult game is desired.
Early Game Hell / int_dd233398	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_dd233398	featureConfidence	1.0
Battle Princess Madelyn (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_dd233398
Early Game Hell / int_dd30f115	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_dd30f115	comment	In The Witcher: Game of Imagination the mechanics are intentionally imbalanced vis-a-vis starting characters. In their zone of competence they have about a 50% chance to succeed in easy tasks. The expansions helped a bit, providing material for Min-Maxing and a bunch of easy-to-gain perks, but for a long time your character will remain relatively underpowered outside the specific field(s) picked up during character creation.
Early Game Hell / int_dd30f115	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_dd30f115	featureConfidence	1.0
The Witcher: Game of Imagination (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_dd30f115
Early Game Hell / int_dd5934e0	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_dd5934e0	comment	A lot of the Atelier Series games can leave you with frustration. You start off with one or two recipes, you often find low quality ingredients, and equipment is hard to come by, if at all. And you can be on a strict time limit even early on. Once you get more recipes, figured out where the best ingredients are, and know the right combinations, you can start kicking some serious butt.
Early Game Hell / int_dd5934e0	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_dd5934e0	featureConfidence	1.0
Atelier Series (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_dd5934e0
Early Game Hell / int_deaae920	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_deaae920	comment	The top four killers in online Dungeon Crawl are early game monsters (hobgoblin, kobold, gnoll, snake) for a very good reason, with even the much-maligned Sigmund achieving a mere 7th place. No matter what your selected background is, a streak of missed or undamaging attacks can result in one of those low-HP monsters getting up in your face, bashing you with an enchanted weapon. In the case of snakes, minor poison can be deadly, as you have no HP buffer to work with and might not have a healing potion to counter it. Potions and scrolls are scarce and unidentified at that point; reaching for one in an emergency can give you something completely useless or even harmful.
Early Game Hell / int_deaae920	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_deaae920	featureConfidence	1.0
Dungeon Crawl (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_deaae920
Early Game Hell / int_e04f934e	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e04f934e	comment	The first few chapters of Fire Emblem: Three Houses on Maddening difficulty are the most brutal segment of the game on a fresh file, the main reasons being halved exp, too early to access Battalions and Gambits note the latter being the only method of preventing enemy counter attacks early in the game, no access to Divine Pulse rewinding for the first two chapters, being stuck with Level 1 allies while enemies are several levels higher early in the game, and being stuck with the Noble/Commoner class note which while having access to all weapons and magic types, magic uses are halved in that class, meaning that magic-dependant allies have 6 or less magic uses to cast per battle and are forced to use their weaker Strength stat to attack when they run out. Enemies are also more numerous and have buffed up stats (not only they will hit hard, they will very likely be hitting twice) and now have access to skills such as Pass, Lance Breaker+, and Poison Strike, making some of them Demonic Spiders. The Blue Lions route is slightly easier than the other routes due to having access to Crutch Characters with specific personal skills, but for other routes, you'll be praying to the RNG gods. Once you have access to Battalions and stat boosting items from the Garden, the game gets a bit easier to handle. New Game Plus also gives access to Battalions from past playthroughs right from the start, making it easier on the initial chapters, but you cannot replenish them until you unlock the Battalion Guild.
Early Game Hell / int_e04f934e	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e04f934e	featureConfidence	1.0
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e04f934e
Early Game Hell / int_e095cf68	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e095cf68	comment	While the first day of Danmaku Amanojaku ~ Impossible Spell Card isn't that bad, the second sure is. You have a handful of mediocre items, little ability to level them, and are up against some fairly nasty patterns. Once you clear it you get access to the bomb, and the game doesn't get particularly hard again until the last few days.
Early Game Hell / int_e095cf68	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e095cf68	featureConfidence	1.0
Danmaku Amanojaku ~ Impossible Spell Card (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e095cf68
Early Game Hell / int_e22c949c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e22c949c	comment	The NES Dragon Quest games are all Nintendo Hard, but special mention goes to Dragon Quest at the beginning. You start out with 120 G, which gives you a choice of either buying a club and losing out on armor, or buying armor and having to fight with a glorified sticknote Smart players buy the armor and grind slimes with their bare hands until they can afford the Copper Sword, or forego both weapons and armor and beat up slimes like some kind of barefisted monk until they can buy the sword. It's not glamorous, but it is safe and effective. Times might be tough, but seeing as how the king's relying on you to save his daughter and his whole kingdom, you'd think he could at least give you a loaner or something.
Early Game Hell / int_e22c949c	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e22c949c	featureConfidence	1.0
DragonQuest	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e22c949c
Early Game Hell / int_e235270c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e235270c	comment	Stellaris, as par for the course for a game made by Paradox Interactive. You start off with a fair amount of energy, minerals, influence, etc., to allow you to build a colony ship, or a few mining platforms, etc. But until you start expanding to other worlds, you'll likely run out of resources really quickly, until you can expand to several systems and build up a solid mineral and energy income, but by that point, your AI neighbors will likely be far ahead of you in both infrastructure and military because they don't have these problems.
Early Game Hell / int_e235270c	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e235270c	featureConfidence	1.0
Stellaris (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e235270c
Early Game Hell / int_e38dfe69	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e38dfe69	comment	Water's Fine: When you're starting your first dives, you have a very limited air supply, you're a One-Hit-Point Wonder, and you don't have any direct way to attack enemies. But once you've accumulated some treasure and purchased some upgrades, you can dive deeper more easily and get more treasure.
Early Game Hell / int_e38dfe69	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e38dfe69	featureConfidence	1.0
Water's Fine (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e38dfe69
Early Game Hell / int_e409487a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e409487a	comment	The Mordheim early game is punishing enough that a bad game can make it more cost-effective to scrub the warband and start over, rather than to try and continue - especially if you have a bad run with your heroes, who will thus be prevented from helping you explore and resulting in a dearth of wyrdstone with which to replace the casualties.
Early Game Hell / int_e409487a	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e409487a	featureConfidence	1.0
Mordheim (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e409487a
Early Game Hell / int_e5dbf9d0	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e5dbf9d0	comment	Raft starts you off with a 2x2 raft and a plastic hook. You have no food except for the rare beet or potato from floating barrels, and no source of fresh water until you scrounge up enough materials to make a purifier. There's also a shark constantly circling your raft, who can attack and destroy sections of it if not driven off with a weapon. The early game stretches your resources thin to expand your raft, build the necessary tools, and cover your essentials, but once you do, the game opens up immensely.
Early Game Hell / int_e5dbf9d0	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e5dbf9d0	featureConfidence	1.0
Raft (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e5dbf9d0
Early Game Hell / int_e5de447c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e5de447c	comment	X-COM: X-COM: UFO Defense: Despite being able to field 14 troops in the beginning, your rookies have pitiful damage, accuracy, and armor. Even the Sectoid can tank a shot or two from the basic rifle, and you're at least a month away from better weaponry (assuming you rush research and manufacturing on laser weapons, you might have a laser rifle by February, but you won't have the money to do much of anything else). Troops also improve slowly if at allnote Rank advancement provides the best boosts to soldier skills, but the ranks available are determined by the overall number of soldiers you have, such that you can only have 1 Corporal for every 5 soldiers, and 1 Sergeant for every 11 soldiers, and so on. The starting budget is laughable, you can go weeks without ever spotting a UFO, and your first terror site mission, one of the hardest missions of the game, is reliably coming at the end of the first month. At least your interceptors can shoot down any UFOs that show up this early...if you have the money to pay for missiles. Research must be carefully prioritized to catch up to the aliens as fast as possible. The end of the game is much easier, when you're able to bring up to 26 soldiers to a mission, all armed with Heavy Plasmas or Blaster Launchers, alien grenades, and for the best, psi-amps that can mess with the enemies, all while flying around the battlefield in functional tank armor, but it will take a lot of effort and death to make it there. XCOM: Enemy Unknown: While not as difficult as UFO Defense, you'll spend the first few months of the alien invasion commanding four panicky rookies equipped with Kevlar armor and basic assault rifles against enemies with plasma weapons, desperately trying to keep the nations of the world from collapsing into panic as the aliens abduct their citizens and terrorize their cities at will. By the endgame you've got six badasses in power armor, toting reverse-engineered plasma weapons of their own and even psionic powers, supported by aircraft that can go toe-to-toe with the biggest alien battleship and win with ease, and what's left of the world is sleeping soundly because they know you've got this. XCOM 2: Your limited offensive and defensive capabilities force you to act carefully, except mission objectives usually have some sort of time limit, sending extra enemies or making you abandon the mission if you go too slowly. Funding and resources are hard to come by, because the game takes place during a timeline where the aliens already successfully invaded. With the War of the Chosen expansion, you'll also be dealing with three Recurring Bosses who train themselves in new abilities in response to your successes, possess Resurrective Immortality, and will even oppose you on the strategic level by cracking down on allied resistance groups and sabotaging your progress. But eventually you'll learn how to take down those Chosen for good, build up a squad capable of the job, and rebuild XCOM and take the initiative away from the aliens.
Early Game Hell / int_e5de447c	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e5de447c	featureConfidence	1.0
X-COM (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e5de447c
Early Game Hell / int_e61d84b0	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e61d84b0	comment	Star Shift Origins: The first dungeon of the game is the ESA invading the TRS Dauntless, and there's no opportunity to shop for new equipment, making it difficult to deal with the enemies' high stats. Afterwards, the player has a chance to buy equipment upgrades from Nexus, but how much this help depends on how much money they managed to grind on the Dauntless.
Early Game Hell / int_e61d84b0	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e61d84b0	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Shift Origins (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e61d84b0
Early Game Hell / int_e72137be	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e72137be	comment	Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night dumps a lot of game mechanics and abilities on you very early on and thus has a fairly steep learning curve. By the time you've beaten only the first boss you're introduced to sidequests, a farming mechanic, alchemy, shard augmentation, cooking, and even inherent abilities of Miriam like attack canceling and back-dashing. It's easy to want to just press on and rely on Level Grinding to get by but if you don't take the time to at least learn how all of these work and try them out a bit, you are not going to get past Zangetsu.
Early Game Hell / int_e72137be	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e72137be	featureConfidence	1.0
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e72137be
Early Game Hell / int_e79477d2	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e79477d2	comment	Black Mesa has a somewhat more difficult early game than Half-Life. In the original, you only had a single headcrab standing between you and the crowbar, and the pistol could be picked up not long after that. In Black Mesa, the crowbar's introduction is moved further back, past a platoon of zombies, and it's a considerable distance after that before you get your first gun... which is in an optional, out-of-the-way area, so it's entirely possible to miss it and put yourself through this for even longer. Downplayed in that there's now a considerable amount of emergency flares lying around that you can use to set headcrabs and zombies alike on fire before the crowbar is available, and further so in the Steam release, which restores Half-Life's earlier introduction to the pistol.
Early Game Hell / int_e79477d2	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e79477d2	featureConfidence	1.0
Black Mesa (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e79477d2
Early Game Hell / int_e8091fc1	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e8091fc1	comment	The early part of career mode in BattleTech is not easy. Yes, you have five Humongous Mecha, but so does everyone else, and odds are that you've probably got a lot of small, vulnerable 'Mechs like the Locust or Commando. If you do have a medium 'Mech, it's more likely to be a liability than an asset as they are usually 40-ton designs, which are generally very squishy for their size. Surviving the first few months is tricky, as you will either have to corner and kill enemy medium 'Mechs or buy some of your own to really start making progress. Better hope your unit started with a Panther.
Early Game Hell / int_e8091fc1	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e8091fc1	featureConfidence	1.0
BattleTech (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e8091fc1
Early Game Hell / int_e9b228dd	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_e9b228dd	comment	Mega Man Network Transmission is pretty infamous for this trope. Even veterans of both classic and Battle Network games can find themselves getting destroyed over and over by the first 2 bosses (Fireman.EXE and Gutsman.EXE), who can demolish Mega's entire HP pool in just a few hits, while neither the Mega Buster nor the chips available help you much (until you upgrade them later in the game). Gutsman is the worst of the two, as he has no elemental weakness, hits just as hard and fast as Fireman, his attacks are poorly telegraphed and stun you, leaving you open for further attacks. Once you get past them, however, and the difficulty drops a lot, to the point the only other boss who can give you as much trouble later is Protoman.EXE.
Early Game Hell / int_e9b228dd	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_e9b228dd	featureConfidence	1.0
Mega Man Network Transmission (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_e9b228dd
Early Game Hell / int_ea051cf0	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ea051cf0	comment	Viewtiful Joe is hit by this hard. The first stage lasts over 10 minutes and you are incredibly weak starting out, only having 5 hit points (on Adult difficulty) and only one of your VFX powers. The stage then ends with a tough miniboss that can kill you fast if you don't know what you're doing, especially given Joe's glass cannon status at this point in the game, and if you run out of lives you're going right back to the start and you've made no progress. Once you reach the first save point after beating the first stage you gain access to the shop which allows you to increase your maximum health and get more attacks which helps a huge amount, and from this point it isn't long until you gain access to all of your VFX powers and are fully equipped with everything you need to take on the game's remaining challenges.
Early Game Hell / int_ea051cf0	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ea051cf0	featureConfidence	1.0
Viewtiful Joe (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ea051cf0
Early Game Hell / int_ebb4de03	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ebb4de03	comment	Harvest Moon One World starts the player off with only four hearts and walking around actually depletes energy in this game, so there's not much exploration that can be done. It improves a little bit after completing the events in Calisson and the player receives a fifth heart, but a good portion of the game's difficulty in the beginning is growing enough crops to ship and unlock their seeds in various stores, as well as having a supply to use for cooking, so the player can keep their health up for longer over the course of the day.
Early Game Hell / int_ebb4de03	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ebb4de03	featureConfidence	1.0
Harvest Moon One World (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ebb4de03
Early Game Hell / int_ec02633a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ec02633a	comment	The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt suffers this to a lesser extent. Post-tutorial, wandering into the wrong part of the Wide-Open Sandbox can and will result in random bandits thoroughly handing you your ass, as they can be several levels above you. The key here is to take on the easier contracts until you've sufficiently levelled up to deal with these threats.
Early Game Hell / int_ec02633a	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ec02633a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ec02633a
Early Game Hell / int_ec4e65ca	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ec4e65ca	comment	The original X: Beyond the Frontier was bad about this even by X standards. You start with a measly 100 credits, no weapons, no time compression device - so you have to spend 30 minutes real time on a one-way trip between stations - and the weakest possible shield in a game where zero shields = dead. Oh, and you have a 3,500 credit debt to pay off (fortunately, the Teladi are pretty patient when it comes to you paying them back).
Early Game Hell / int_ec4e65ca	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ec4e65ca	featureConfidence	1.0
X: Beyond the Frontier (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ec4e65ca
Early Game Hell / int_ecd2d797	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ecd2d797	comment	The original Baldur's Gate, like all Dungeons & Dragons-based games where you start at level 1, can be extremely unforgiving for the first one to three levels (depending on your build), since you start with just the basic equipment (unless you exploit the character export function during the illusionist's quest), minimal skills, measly 4-10 HP, and just one companion in the party—who likewise has weak equipment, skills, and health. Fortunately, it is justified by both characters having been forcibly expelled from a previously very sheltered life with no idea how to survive on their own. It is astonishingly easy to have your 4hp mages oneshot before you even notice you're under attack.
Early Game Hell / int_ecd2d797	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ecd2d797	featureConfidence	1.0
Baldur's Gate (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ecd2d797
Early Game Hell / int_ed2a7866	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ed2a7866	comment	The titular VRMMORPG of Sword Art Online. Half of all player deaths occurred before beating the first dungeon, and it took a disproportionate amount of time to complete (over a month, while it took about two years to do seventy-four more dungeons).
Early Game Hell / int_ed2a7866	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ed2a7866	featureConfidence	1.0
Sword Art Online	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ed2a7866
Early Game Hell / int_ed422854	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ed422854	comment	No Man's Sky starts with the universe against you. You start the game on a hazardous planet with your gear non-functioning, leaving you to scramble to find some Sodium to recharge your hazard protection and find materials to repair your gear. Your starting Multi-Tool is pathetically weak, unable to gather some resources, has few upgrade slots, and can't fend off predators or Sentinels. Your inventory space isn't enough most of the time, and upgrading it involves finding rare Drop Pods. Then there's your starting ship. Little item storage, low damage, its warp drive only goes a few stars at a time, and certain star types are inaccessible. Getting a better ship involves either buying one for Units several orders of magnitude higher than what you have or getting lucky with a crashed ship and repairing it with exorbitant amounts of hard-to-get resources. When you find an alien race, you won't be able to understand them; talking to them is manageable, but raiding outposts to find crafting recipes will involve a lot of Save Scumming until you learn more words. But every step, every improvement makes the universe open, and eventually it will be yours.
Early Game Hell / int_ed422854	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ed422854	featureConfidence	1.0
No Man's Sky (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ed422854
Early Game Hell / int_ede55421	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ede55421	comment	In Doom Eternal the first three levels are extremely harsh, especially on higher difficulties. Margins in the early game are much tighter, and mistakes that would be inconsequential in the later game will often mean a quick death. The Slayer will initially have the lowest possible caps for ammo, health, and armor, meaning that survivability and sustained damage are at their lowest for the whole game. The low ammo cap is exacerbated in the very early game before the Plasma Rifle is obtained, as this means the Slayer can't even use one of the three basic ammo types. The game's primary means of replenishing health are "glory kills," achieved by weakening an enemy without killing them, then performing a melee attack. Getting a sense for how much damage is required for that sweet spot will take the player a little time, and killing a fodder class demon that you needed to harvest health from will often mean that you die as well. The Flame Belch ability is used to replenish armor and isn't unlocked until the end of this sequence. The Dash ability is key to avoid getting bogged down and dogpiled in bigger fights, and it isn't unlocked for a few levels, either. The frag grenade and freeze grenade aren't unlocked by default. The freeze grenade in particular is often a Get Out of Jail Free card. Many rune and Praetor suit upgrades will make health, armor, and ammo drops more frequent and generous. Guess which levels they aren't unlocked during?
Early Game Hell / int_ede55421	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ede55421	featureConfidence	1.0
Doom Eternal (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ede55421
Early Game Hell / int_ee344d3d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ee344d3d	comment	The Evil Within opens with you practically defenseless and injured while a chainsaw-wielding maniac bears down on you. The next chapter sees you obtaining a gun, but your ammunition pool is comically low, as well as your maximum life gauge, so you'll still need to sneak past enemies that can end you with a blow or two and watch out for explosive traps that can easily blast you apart. The following chapter offers up a powerful shotgun and a multi-purpose crossbow, the better to take on enemies with (good thing, too, since the aforementioned chainsaw maniac shows up again for a proper boss battle). From there, you start amassing enough in-game "currency" to upgrade your vital stats and your weapons, to the point that enemies can be directly confronted with less of a problem, and running into a tripwire bomb is a painful nuisance instead of Yet Another Stupid Death.
Early Game Hell / int_ee344d3d	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ee344d3d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Evil Within (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ee344d3d
Early Game Hell / int_ee76546c	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ee76546c	comment	Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead has the "Challenge: Really Bad Day" scenario, which starts you off as one of the worst classes in the game (Shower victimnote Has no clothing except a wet towel and some soap, the latter which you can't even keep because the towel has no storage space or Tweaker note Starts with a crippling amphetamine addiction)in a burning building surrounded by zombies (no time to craft basic equipment), with a "Bad Feeling" (-100 morale, which means your character is depressed and has stat penalties in addition to being unable to craft), extremely drunk, sick with the flu (several stat penalties), and with an infected bite wound which gives constant pain and nausea and will kill you after a day unless you find one of the few items capable of curing it. You're going to need the 10 bonus skill points this scenario gives you.
Early Game Hell / int_ee76546c	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ee76546c	featureConfidence	1.0
Cataclysm (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ee76546c
Early Game Hell / int_ef215943	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ef215943	comment	PAYDAY: The Heist is extremely difficult for new players or players that have reset their levels. You only get to use an assault rifle and a silenced pistol. Until you level up your class trees several times, you won't have access to better guns to kill stronger cops, an ammo bag, body armor, or a medical bag. Until you get better stuff, expect to conserve your ammo and to take lots of cover to preserve your health.
Early Game Hell / int_ef215943	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ef215943	featureConfidence	1.0
PAYDAY: The Heist (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ef215943
Early Game Hell / int_ef8bd4a5	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_ef8bd4a5	comment	Mega Man: In general, Mega Man games get easier as you go on because you're getting new weapons from each stage, allowing you to bypass challenges easier. This includes gathering the weapons that each individual Robot Master has a weakness to, the likelihood of having such increasing as you gather more (unless you have a guide). Unless one boss in particular is just much easier than the other then the first boss will usually be the hardest because it's the one that you must defeat with your Mega-Buster alone, before you can start the chain of weakness-exploiting. Mega Man Network Transmission is pretty infamous for this trope. Even veterans of both classic and Battle Network games can find themselves getting destroyed over and over by the first 2 bosses (Fireman.EXE and Gutsman.EXE), who can demolish Mega's entire HP pool in just a few hits, while neither the Mega Buster nor the chips available help you much (until you upgrade them later in the game). Gutsman is the worst of the two, as he has no elemental weakness, hits just as hard and fast as Fireman, his attacks are poorly telegraphed and stun you, leaving you open for further attacks. Once you get past them, however, and the difficulty drops a lot, to the point the only other boss who can give you as much trouble later is Protoman.EXE. This extends to some Fan Works, as well. Make A Good Mega Man Level: Episode Zero is particularly noteworthy in this regard — E-Tanks are in short supply, and you don't get access to a shop, or any alternate weapons besides what Dr. Wily gives you and the Cutter Chip, until the end of Chapter 1. That's 10 levels (12 if you decide to do both of the split paths) before the game starts to ease up, including some tough bosses you're forced to fight without exploiting their weaknesses.
Early Game Hell / int_ef8bd4a5	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_ef8bd4a5	featureConfidence	1.0
Mega Man (Franchise)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_ef8bd4a5
Early Game Hell / int_f04b4111	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f04b4111	comment	Metroid: Metroid is very difficult in the start due to starting out with just 30 energy points out of the maximum 99 (Yes, you don't even start at full health) and a weapon whose shots only go a third across the screen. This makes killing enemies very difficult and if you're not careful, you will die a lot. Once you get better gear and more energy tanks, enemies become easier to deal with. The Metroid: Zero Mission remake makes the game a lot more bearable when starting a new file. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: The first Dark Aether region, Dark Agon Wastes, is one of the most frustrating areas simply because of the Dark World life drain. Without the Dark Suit, your HP drains at almost five hit points per second, meaning you have to dash from safe zone to safe zone (even worse, some safe zones have to be manually activated and only stay on for a number of seconds, forcing you to either continually re-activate them or move on). After the Agon Wastes, you get the Dark Suit and can navigate the dark world with ease (the atmosphere of Dark Aether is still degenerative to Samus but at a considerably reduced rate with the Dark Suit; it won't be until she gets the late-game Light Suit that she's truly impervious to Dark Aether's atmosphere).
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Metroid (Franchise)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f04b4111
Early Game Hell / int_f120845f	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f120845f	comment	On 1st playthrough of Kingdom of Loathing, the player is essentially under most of the restrictions of Hardcore modenote Hardcore mode prevents you from gaining certain benefits from earlier playthroughs; a fresh account obviously doesn't have earlier playthroughs to benefit from, without any of the the benefits of a New Game Plus. It becomes marginally easier each ascension until you gradually accumulate the skills for an optimal run. The Special Challenge Paths more or less try to equalize the difficulty between newbie and veteran players.
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Kingdom of Loathing (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f120845f
Early Game Hell / int_f1785a72	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f1785a72	comment	Gran Turismo games can have this for anyone not used to how cars actually handle, or any real working knowledge of cars. Usually the game starts you with just enough money to buy a reasonable second hand car, but that's about it. Yes, you can take the licencing test right away to learn all about driving theory and cornering techniques, but they tend not to reward you with money, and the good car prize is often only for getting all gold, something a new player won't manage. Hence, there's every possibility you could unintentionally buy an awful early car, and have no option other than to repeatedly fail at races until you've got enough pity money to buy something better. The game usually gets easier once you've had a bit of experience on each track, and have managed to scrounge up enough cash to buy/mod up a winning car.
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Early Game Hell / int_f17c3b1d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f17c3b1d	comment	At level one, Dead Rising's protagonist Frank West moves very slowly and has low health and inventory space. Compounded by good weapons being rare at this point, the player will have to make do by making a weapon out of whatever you can get your hands on and healing (by eating food) at every opportunity.
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Dead Rising (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f17c3b1d
Early Game Hell / int_f1aaf6d5	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f1aaf6d5	comment	The difficulty curve for Indivisible is basically inverted from the norm; the early parts of the game will kick your ass hard, but things only get easier and easier as you progress. This mostly stems from the initial lack of important platforming moves or effective healing options, coupled with your party members being limited to two attacks per round and the game in general just being somewhat eclectic, with a lot of unusual mechanics that can take getting used to.
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Indivisible (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f1aaf6d5
Early Game Hell / int_f231435e	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f231435e	comment	Battle Brothers is a very, very challenging game early on: Building up your mercenary company will quickly exhaust your starting gold, and your first recruits will be people who really aren't the best choices for the job - farmhands, fishermen or even beggars and cripples. The only gear you can afford to outfit everybody is often just simple clubs and repurposed farming tools, and thick shirts and leather hats. All it takes for any of your men to die is often a single bad hit, and you'll usually only be able to break even on the poorly paid early contracts. Really, you'll look less like a reputable mercenary company and more like a band of opportunistic looters and hired thugs. And worst of all, even once you climb out of the pit, a really bad mission can toss you back in. The special starting scenarios in Warriors of the North often have their own specific quirks that further compound the early difficulty. Peasant Militia: You start with a large gang of poorly-armed peasants of various backgrounds. The superior numbers mean losses are less painful and you can more easily outmaneuver enemies, but food costs will be very high, and your men will swear to never allow a highborn among them which forever prevents you from hiring many of the best recruits. Lone Wolf: This start gives you a single, well-equipped knight who serves as your Player Character: he can almost handle many early contracts by himself (keeping in how effective armoured knights were against poorly-armed lowborn troops in real life), but the prices to repair his nice arms and armour are exorbitant, an issue exacerbated by his lacking starting money. Also if the knight does go down then it's game over. Band of Poachers: You start with three woodsmen, men who are light on their feet and deadly shots with their bows, but they are not the best fighters in melee and have a reduced inventory, limiting supplies and trade opportunities. Beast Slayers: You start with three professional monster slayers, well armed and skilled in combat, but the social stigma they face from the rest of society will leave them facing a 10% inflation cost on all buying and selling goods, which makes a tight money situation even worse early on. Trading Caravan: You start with a pair of caravan hands (who kind of suck at fighting) and a cache of nice trade goods, and make more money from trades too. However you also start with zero renown, and gain it at half the normal rate, leaving you struggling with the bottom-barrel contracts for a long while. Deserters: You start with three trained men with some decent equipment... and a noble house out to kill them right off the bat. They also only managed to get away with what they had on their backs, so starting money is little too. Cultists: You start with four men and a surprisingly large amount of money too. Unfortunately your four men are deranged servants of Davkul, a capricious and fickle Lovecraftian elder god who randomly demands sacrifices of supplies, weapons... or people. Honouring Davkul gives you boons but not heeding him leaves him displeased, and Davkul also doesn't give a shit if you are going through a rough patch and haven't got a lot to give him at the moment. Northern Raiders: You start with a trio of barbarian warriors who were roped into becoming sellswords by a monk. These barbarians are excellent fighters and get more loot after battles, but most human factions hate them, which means fewer opportunities to trade or take contracts, not to mention higher costs in shops. Blazing Deserts adds two whole new flavours of Early Game Hell. Manhunters gives you a slave driver from the south and a bunch of Indebted; the slaves are not great fighters but they are cheap and can be whipped into a frenzy, but the real issue is that they can never be outnumbered by non-Indebted and they cannot grow beyond Level 7 either, locking them out of nice late-game perks. Gladiators is perhaps the hardest one yet: it gives you three skilled fighters who demand quality food, high wages and good conditions, and will leave if their demands cannot be met; it also hardcaps your company size to twelve men and like Lone Wolf, losing these three ends your campaign.
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Battle Brothers (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f231435e
Early Game Hell / int_f4a04cd2	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f4a04cd2	comment	Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. The reason? The Recurring Boss the title alludes to. The first encounter Jill has with this ten-foot-tall brick shithouse is by far the hardest, since you only have a pistol (and, if you know the game, a shotgun, a few herbs and a health spray) but Nemesis' total health is constant in all encounters - which is to say, very high. It's a fight that's guaranteed to give trouble even to veterans of the series. By the time the second encounter rolls by, you've already got far more healing items and one of the two high-powered guns the game has to offer, and Nemesis will often favor standing back and rocketing you instead of breathing down your necknote at least until he runs out of ammo, and you can disrupt his aim by shooting him. You can also take advantage of the "corner glitch" to knife the Nemesis to death without firing a shot. Even the mandatory boss fight with him mid-to-late game, where you're permanently poisoned, is several degrees of magnitude easier.
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Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f4a04cd2
Early Game Hell / int_f5eee4b9	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f5eee4b9	comment	Hello Kitty Roller Rescue's New Game Plus has this when you play as Badtz-Maru. He has lower health than Kitty has — though by the end of the game he has more health than she does.
Early Game Hell / int_f5eee4b9	featureApplicability	1.0
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Hello Kitty Roller Rescue (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f5eee4b9
Early Game Hell / int_f6a54e75	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f6a54e75	comment	Kingdom Hearts Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories has you begin with only a handful of attack cards, one Cure card, and no Sleights. If you're in a tough battle and that Cure card gets broken, pray you can get through the battle alive or have a Donald card handy. And don't try to Sleight your cards together to use combos on bosses, or you'll learn the hard way that the first card in the Sleight does not reload and thus your deck begins to dwindle. Once you get to the next world, you can start visiting Moogle shops to buy more cards, you'll level up a bit to get Sleights and more HP and CP, and the game settles into a more even difficulty level. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has this as Aqua. As the local Squishy Wizard, she's largely reliant on magic... and doesn't really start getting many good spells until the third world. Then the game becomes much easier. Ventus also has this trouble. In the first required world he visits, there's very few enemies, they all offer very low exp, and he doesn't even learn the cure spell until afterwards, which means that when he confronts the first boss it's a very stressful battle. Thankfully the next two worlds feature more frequent enemies that give out better exp, making it easier for him to quickly get stronger after that rough beginning. Kingdom Hearts is pretty tough until you beat the Deep Jungle and get the Cure spell, so you have to rely on potions to stay alive, and at first you can only bring up to 3 of them to each fight without restocking. On proud or higher difficulty, you won't be able to withstand many attacks, so the first couple of bosses will just wreck you. God help you if you choose the magic build since you don't get any spells until after the second boss, especially if you choose dusk exp curve (slow leveling rate that rises later on). It's actually kind of amusing to watch bosses that you probably didn't even notice had attack patterns on your first play through three-hit KO you over and over again.
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Kingdom Hearts (Franchise)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f6a54e75
Early Game Hell / int_f792476	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f792476	comment	Shira Oka: Second Chances is built on this trope: your character starts out as a self-proclaimed loser with pathetically low stats, but you get to pick up more stat points and better quirks on successive playthroughs and the "Groundhog Day" Loop thus becomes progressively easier.
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Shira Oka: Second Chances (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f792476
Early Game Hell / int_f7c8e36e	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f7c8e36e	comment	Octopath Traveler: The first character you choose will have the hardest time starting out, since they start at level 1, most of them have to fight all by themselves, and your inventory and money is limited. While the other party members also start at level 1 when you recruit them, your main character will always be in the party, giving them a strong ally who can easily wipe out the early enemies; you have more characters that can exploit enemy weaknesses; you will likely have enough money to get the best equipment available for them at the time; and your inventory will have more items that can help in battle. All this is writ large with Primrose, who has terrible defense both physically and elementally, and has the toughest Chapter 1 boss.
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Octopath Traveler (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f7c8e36e
Early Game Hell / int_f891a20d	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f891a20d	comment	Terraria: The early game is extremely hard, as you start out with only 100 health, the weakest sword in the game, and the weakest pickaxe and axe. Gathering resources in the early game, especially on expert or master difficulty, can be incredibly difficult. The underground is plagued with traps that'll easily kill you, mobs that can quickly overwhelm you, mobs that can kill you very quickly, mobility is heavily limited until you get a hook, fall damage is a major hazard without an accessory to negate it, and most of the early armor defense is paper thin and only offers the slightest bit of protection. May the great Terraria Gods above help you if you spawn with a Corruption/Crimson biome on either side of your base at that. The difficulty gradually tapers off as you acquire more and more helpful items to get around easier, counter or avoid hazards, kill enemies more quickly, and take more damage, while your threats don't get any stronger outside of bosses. And then hardmode starts, and you're practically in a second Early Game Hell as you have to deal with new and much more powerful enemies, with that equipment that made you feel invincible before suddenly becoming utterly insufficient. This trope is especially true for summoner playthroughs. In 1.3, their three pre-hard mode staffs are either an extremely rare drop that you need a mob statue to grind the mobs to get (slime staff), acquired by beating a boss (the Queen Bee, which also must be beaten for one of the only pre-hard mode summoner armors), or is made from hellstone, which requires the second best pre-hardmode pickaxe (corruption/crimson, which requires beating their respected bosses to craft). You could also sequence break using the Reaver Shark, an item acquired by fishing, to get hellstone before fighting a boss, but this was changed in 1.4. Fortunately, 1.4 also gave summoner some other early game options, such as the Finch Staff, Flinx Staff, Vampire Frog Staff, and whips. This gives the summoner a much easier way to start out, though the lack of early summoner armor or accessories and the weakness of the early weapons leave it still one of the hardest classes to start. The Easter Egg seed "not the bees" makes the beginning of the game significantly more challenging by making almost all of the world a Jungle, one of the hardest biomes in the regular game. It also has other nasty gimmicks such as honey replacing water to greatly slow down the player, Hornets being able to spawn anywhere instead of just the Underground Jungle, and several Larvae being dotted around the world making it easy to summon Queen Bee by accident. It is more difficult for an early player to get around a "not the bees" world than even a "for the worthy" world, which was deliberately designed to be a leap in difficulty. Once the player gets enough progress to get through the Jungle normally and has tools strong enough to regularly farm Queen Bee, the difficulty sinks like a stone until Hardmode. And even in Hardmode, the player by that point would have likely found a way to build several safe spots or have easier access to other biomes from late Pre-Hardmode movement gear. Meanwhile, "for the worthy" worlds continue to scale with the player and reach the point where Hardmode bosses can one-shot those with endgame gear.
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Terraria (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f891a20d
Early Game Hell / int_f9368d52	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f9368d52	comment	Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories has you begin with only a handful of attack cards, one Cure card, and no Sleights. If you're in a tough battle and that Cure card gets broken, pray you can get through the battle alive or have a Donald card handy. And don't try to Sleight your cards together to use combos on bosses, or you'll learn the hard way that the first card in the Sleight does not reload and thus your deck begins to dwindle. Once you get to the next world, you can start visiting Moogle shops to buy more cards, you'll level up a bit to get Sleights and more HP and CP, and the game settles into a more even difficulty level.
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Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f9368d52
Early Game Hell / int_f97683ef	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f97683ef	comment	Hollow Knight has shades of this, with early game difficulty mainly being due to the lack of movement abilities, the lack of clear direction, and the fact that most optional upgrades (including health and damage upgrades) open up halfway through the game. The second boss, Hornet, can be quite a roadblock as she has to be fought without any of these.
Early Game Hell / int_f97683ef	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_f97683ef	featureConfidence	1.0
Hollow Knight (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f97683ef
Early Game Hell / int_f9b9dfe4	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_f9b9dfe4	comment	Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is one of the bigger offenders, as unlike most games where the best units come at the start and latter units are mostly to replace ones that die, the first quarter is populated either by units that are terrible (Meg, Fiona, Aran, Leonardo), leave, taking their XP with them, and leave the team even further gimped once they leave (Ilyana, Nailah, Tormod and co, the Black Knight.) and even the decent units (Zihark, Jill, Nolan, Micaiah, Laura, possibly Edward) are frail and/or have hideous accuracy at first, while the next two chapters have Lightning Bruiser badasses on your team from stage 1.
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Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_f9b9dfe4
Early Game Hell / int_fa49fd7a	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_fa49fd7a	comment	Oracle of Tao until you have a full party, are about level 20, and one of your healers researches some more spells, and have some decent money for recovery items, many of the early enemies kill you easily. The thing is, many of the early enemies also only offer Shop Fodder, so earning the money or the levels is rather difficult, unless you know exactly what you are doing. You can get levels by visiting a hidden NPC and by using the priest or special items against undead, and the money you can get by selling a blackmail picture repeatedly.
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Early Game Hell / int_fa49fd7a	featureConfidence	1.0
Oracle of Tao (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_fa49fd7a
Early Game Hell / int_fa575b33	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_fa575b33	comment	When you begin Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune, you begin with a bone stock vehicle that can maybe hit 240 km/h tops, in contrast to the 340 km/h that a full-tuned vehicle can achieve. A full tune requires completing Story Mode, which, depending on the game, takes 60 to 100 stages, and to make matters worse, every single stage uses up a credit. Until then, it's the only worthwhile mode to play because you just won't have the power to take on full-tuned vehicles in Ghost Battle or Versus Mode. There is also no point in taking on Time Attack mode, though the games rectify this somewhat by providing a "special car" mode (in the original Maximum Tune and its sequel) where you drive one of the three protagonist cars from the manga, or an "official machine" mode where you use a non-customizable, full-tuned car.
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Wangan Midnight (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_fa575b33
Early Game Hell / int_fab472d2	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_fab472d2	comment	Dark Souls: Early game, everything can one-hit-kill you somehow, you've got no clue where anything is, no weapon upgrades, no way to repair damaged gear, not enough souls to buy things like anti-poison moss and arrows and not enough stats to use any of the more powerful weapons. And the player doesn't know what to expect, how hard the game can really be, and that you need to be on guard at all times. Late game, you've got the gear, you've got enough health to take at least one hit from everything (though not much more than that), you know to keep your guard up, and you either know or can guess the attack patterns of everything you come across.
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Dark Souls (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_fab472d2
Early Game Hell / int_fc1d6ac6	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_fc1d6ac6	comment	Beast Slayers: You start with three professional monster slayers, well armed and skilled in combat, but the social stigma they face from the rest of society will leave them facing a 10% inflation cost on all buying and selling goods, which makes a tight money situation even worse early on.
Early Game Hell / int_fc1d6ac6	featureApplicability	1.0
Early Game Hell / int_fc1d6ac6	featureConfidence	1.0
The Witcher (Franchise)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_fc1d6ac6
Early Game Hell / int_fcb6cd71	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_fcb6cd71	comment	In Surviving Mars, there are two layers of this trope. When you initially land on Mars, you only have what material you brought on your starting rocket and any free metal on the surface. From that you need to build enough energy and water infrastructure to support a basic dome. Once that's established, you begin the Founder stage where you can only bring in one load of colonists. The number of colonists is only just enough to keep basic service buildings and a few farms operating, never mind trying to open some mines. Happiness will be low and stress will be high due to this and there's little that can counter the problem. This stage either lasts a set amount of time or until a baby is born; only then can you bring in enough colonists to make everyone happy and start expanding.
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Early Game Hell / int_fd55a2da	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_fd55a2da	comment	Minecraft's early game is hard, especially for new players. You start off with nothing, you'll have to scour the landscape for supplies, and whenever night hits, you'll likely only have wooden or stone tools and a small stock of food to defend yourself with. If you're unlucky enough to not have found any sheep or villages, you'll be lacking a bed to skip nighttime and have to deal with the mobs that come out during the night. Even if you DO find a bed, you'll then have to venture into the dark, mob-infested caves in order to gather the resources needed to craft better tools and armor. Getting iron and diamonds makes the Overworld a lot more secure, but this difficulty spike occurs AGAIN after entering the Nether, where even the tiniest slipup could send you hurtling into lava, and every living creature (with the exception of the Strider) is hostile and hits HARD. Where you start in a new world can also make or break players. Started out in a forest with cows and pigs nearby? You'll have an easy time gathering supplies. Started out on a lone island in the middle of the ocean with a single tree and no animals? You'll have a harder time. This was later lessened with a new option to spawn a chest within walking distance that has a pickaxe, some food and some torches so you aren't necessarily in a frenzy to get everything ready for the first night.
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Minecraft (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_fd55a2da
Early Game Hell / int_fe61cee7	type	Early Game Hell
Early Game Hell / int_fe61cee7	comment	Both Fear & Hunger and its sequel are most difficult in the early game, as you start off alone and with rather few resources against several highly lethal enemies. Once you begin amassing items, skills and party members however, the games become much more manageable.
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Fear & Hunger (Video Game)	hasFeature	Early Game Hell / int_fe61cee7

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Early Game Hell	processingCategory2	Video Game Difficulty Tropes
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Splatoon (Franchise) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Twitch Plays Pokémon Dual Red & Blue (Lets Play) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
KonoSuba / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Creature of Havoc / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Fighting Fantasy / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Freeway Warrior / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Full Dive / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Genocide Online / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
KonoSuba / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Metroid: Zebes Shin'nyuu Shirei / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ready Player One / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sagas of the Demonspawn / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
So I'm a Spider, So What? / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Fabled Lands / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
It Gets Better	seeAlso	Early Game Hell
Tropes A to F / Real Life / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (Tabletop Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Hollow Earth Expedition (Tabletop Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Mordheim (Tabletop Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Out of the Abyss (Tabletop Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
RPGStuck (Tabletop Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Star Wars: Roleplaying Game (Tabletop Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Witcher: Game of Imagination (Tabletop Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Traveller (Tabletop Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Twilight: 2000 (Tabletop Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
AI War: Fleet Command (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
A Legionary's Life (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
A Link to the Past: Randomizer (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
ARK: Survival Evolved (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
A Witch's Tale (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ace Combat (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Action 52 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Aetherius (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Alex Kidd (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Alien: Isolation (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Alien Vs. Predator (Jaguar) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Amnesia: The Bunker (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Arknights (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Armored Core (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Astral Chain (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Atelier (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Atelier Series (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Atomic Heart (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
BPM: Bullets Per Minute (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Back 4 Blood (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Baldur's Gate (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Baldur's Gate III (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Band Yarouze! (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Barony (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Battle Brothers (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Battle Princess Madelyn (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Battle Princess of Arcadias (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
BattleTech (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
BattleTech (2018) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Bayonetta (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Betrayal at Krondor (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Better Than Wolves (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Beyond The Chiron Gate (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
BioShock (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Blaster Master Zero (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Blood (1997) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Bloodborne (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Bomber Crew (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Bomberman Tournament (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Bounty of One (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Breath of Fire II (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Bully (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
COPS 2170: The Power of Law (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Cadence of Hyrule (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Carmageddon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Carnivores Triassic (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Cataclysm (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Cattails (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Caveman2Cosmos (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Chained Echoes (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Chaos Legion (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Chronicles The Lost Page (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Cities: Skylines (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Citizen Sleeper (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Civilization: Beyond Earth (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
ClanGen (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Cook, Serve, Delicious! (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Crashday (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Crime Boss: Rockay City (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Cris Tales (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Crusader (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Crusader Kings (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Crypt of the NecroDancer (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Cube World (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Cult of the Lamb (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Daikatana (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dark Cloud (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dark Souls II (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dark Souls III (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dark Souls Nightfall (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Darkest Dungeon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Darkest Dungeon II (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Darksiders III (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dawn of War (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
DayZ (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Days Gone (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dead Cells (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dead Island: Riptide (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dead State (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Deadly Towers (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Deadwater Saloon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Death Rally (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Death Rally (2011) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Death Road to Canada (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Death Stranding (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Deathloop (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Demoniaca: Everlasting Night (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Deus Ex (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Diablo (1997) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Diablo IV (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dicey Dungeons (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Digimon Survive (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Digimon World (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Digimon World -next 0rder- (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dino Crisis (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Discworld MUD (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dishonored 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dissidia Final Fantasy (2015) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Distorted Travesty (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Divinity: Original Sin (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Divinity: Original Sin II (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Doom Eternal (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (NES) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dragon Quest Monsters (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dragon Quest VIII (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dragon Quest XI (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dragon Ball Xenoverse (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dragon's Dogma (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Drakkhen (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dungeon Crawl (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dungeon Fighter Online (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dungeon Lords (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dungeon of the Endless (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dying Light (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dying Light 2 Stay Human (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
EA Sports Street (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
EVERSPACE (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Endless Stairwell (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ensemble Stars! (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Epic Seven (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
EquestriaBound (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Escape from Tarkov (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Etrian Odyssey (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Etrian Odyssey (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Europa Universalis (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ever Oasis (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Evil Genius 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Evolve Idle (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
FE000000 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
FTL: Faster Than Light (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
FTL: Faster Than Light Multiverse (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Factorio (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Fallout 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Fallout: Dust (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Fallout Frost (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Fallout Shelter (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Far Cry (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Far Cry 5 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Far Cry Primal (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Fear & Hunger: Termina (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Final Fantasy Adventure (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Final Fantasy (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Final Fantasy III (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Five Nights at Freddy's World (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Football Manager (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Forspoken (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Four Towers (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Frostpunk (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Fuga: Melodies of Steel (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
GTFO (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Galaxy on Fire (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Gemcraft (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Get To The Orange Door (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ghost of Tsushima (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
God of War (PS4) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
God of War RagnarÃ¶k (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Golden Treasure: The Great Green (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Gothic (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Graveyard Keeper (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
GrindCraft (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Guncaster (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Gunfire Reborn (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Hades (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Hearts of Iron (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Hell Is Others (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Helldivers II (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Heroes Of The Seasons (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Heroine's Quest (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Hitman: Contracts (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Hollow Knight (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Honkai: Star Rail (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Horizon Forbidden West (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Hotline Miami (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Hyper Light Drifter (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
I-Chu (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ice and Fire (Minecraft) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
I'm On Observation Duty (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Imperator: Rome (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Indivisible (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ingress (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Inscryption (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Into the Breach (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ixion (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Jagged Alliance (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Jurassic: The Hunted (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Kenshi (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Kid Icarus (1986) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
King Arthur: Knight's Tale (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
King of Dragon Pass (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Kingdom Hearts (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Kingpin: Life of Crime (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Kittens Game (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Knights of the Old Republic (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Legionwood (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Lies of P (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Lost Odyssey (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Love Live! School idol festival (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Magic Carpet (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Magic Rampage (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Mappy (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Mass Effect (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Master of Orion (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Medabots: Metabee and Rokusho (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Mega Man X (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Mega Man X (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Mega Man X3 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Megami Tensei (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Mental Omega (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Meritous (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Metal Gear Solid (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Metal Max (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Metal Max 3 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Metroid (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Metroid Dread (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Metroid Fusion (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Metroid: Samus Returns (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Metroid: Zero Mission (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Mighty Gunvolt (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Mini DAYZ (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Moon: Remix RPG Adventure (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Mother (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Mount & Blade (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
My Summer Car (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
My Time at Sandrock (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Natamin's Big Adventure (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Nazo Puyo (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Need for Speed Heat (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Neo Scavenger (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Neopets: The Darkest Faerie (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
New Horizons (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Night of the Full Moon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
No Delivery (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
No Man's Sky (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Nocturne (RPG Maker) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Octopath Traveler (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Odium (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Of Orcs and Men (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
One Hour One Life (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Operation Darkness (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Origin Realms (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ostranauts (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Overkill's The Walking Dead (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
PAYDAY 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Paladins (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pandemonium! (1996) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Papa Louie Arcade (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Path Of Achra (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pathfinder (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pathfinder: Kingmaker (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pathfinder (Video Game) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pathologic (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pathologic 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Persona 5 Strikers (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Phantasy Star I (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Phantasy Star II (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Phantasy Star III (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Phantasy Star Online (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Phantom Breaker (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Phantom Brigade (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Phantom Doctrine (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pharaoh (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pillars of Eternity (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
PlanetSide (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Plants vs. Zombies (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pocket Card Jockey (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pokemon Blue Kaizo (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
PokÃ©mon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pokemon Quarantine Crystal (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
PokÃ©mon Radical Red (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
PokÃ©mon Reborn (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
PokÃ©mon Red and Blue (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
PokÃ©mon Super Mystery Dungeon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pokémon Zeta and Omicron (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Power Pro-kun Pocket 3 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Punishing: Gray Raven (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Raft (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ragnarok (Roguelike) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Railroad Tycoon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ratchet: Deadlocked (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Rebel Inc. (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Reinhardt's House (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Remember Me (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Republic at War (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Requiem: Avenging Angel (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Resident Evil 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Resident Evil 2 (Remake) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Resident Evil 4 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Resident Evil 4 (Remake) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Resident Evil â€“ Code: Veronica (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Resident Evil Village (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
RimWorld (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Road 96 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Roadwar 2000 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Rock n' Roll Racing (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
RollerCoaster Tycoon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Rome: Total War (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
RosenkreuzStilette (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ruina: Fairy Tale of the Forgotten Ruins (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Rune Factory 5 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
SYNTHETIK (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
SaGa Scarlet Grace (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sailor Moon: Another Story (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Saints Row: The Third (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Saurian (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Second Wind (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Secret of Mana (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
7 Days to Die (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Shadow Empire (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Shadow Man (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Shadowrun (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Shantae (2002) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Shin Megami Tensei IV (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Shining in the Darkness (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Shiren the Wanderer (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Shogun: Total War (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Shovel Knight (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Silent Hunter Series (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sonic Adventure 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sonic Battle (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sonic Riders (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sonny (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sorry, We're Open (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sort the Court (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Space Crew (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Space Rangers (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Space Station 13 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Spider-Man (PS4) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Star Control (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Star Shift Origins (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Star Stealing Prince (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Star Traders: Frontiers (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Starbound (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
StarCraft II: Co-op Mode (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Stranded Deep (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sunless Sea (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Super Hostile (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Super Robot Wars Advance (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Super Robot Wars Z (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sweet Home (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Sweet Home (1989) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
System Shock (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Tactics Ogre (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Tails Adventure (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Tales of Arise (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Tales of Phantasia (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Tales of Rebirth (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Taz: Wanted (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III Radical Rescue (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Terra Invicta (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Adventures of Batman and Robin (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Binding of Isaac (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Callisto Protocol (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Deer God (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Denpa Men (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Elder Scrolls Online (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The End Times: Vermintide (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Evil Within (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Fourth Age: Total War (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Guardian Legend (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Halloween Hack (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1984) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
theHunter: Call of the Wild (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Last of Us Part II (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Last Spell (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Legend of Korra (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Legend of Zelda (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Long Dark (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Perils of Akumos (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Persistence (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Ranch Of Rivershine (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Sacred Armour Of Antiriad (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Temple of Elemental Evil (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Way (RPG Maker) (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Thera (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
They Are Billions (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
This War of Mine (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Time Commando (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Tokyo Jungle (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Tomb Raider I (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Tomb Raider II (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Too Many Softcaps (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Tormented Souls (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Total War: Shogun 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Touhou Ningyougeki (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Toukiden (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Trials of Mana (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Turok (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
20XX (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Twisted Wonderland (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Two Point Hospital (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ultima Underworld (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Unchained Blades (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Under Mine (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Unexplored (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Unlimited Saga (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Unreal Tournament (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Utawarerumono (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Valkyria Chronicles (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Vampire Survivors (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Victoria: An Empire Under The Sun (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Virtual Villagers (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Void Bastards (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
War for the West (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
War Thunder (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Warhammer 40,000: Gladius (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Wasteland 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Water's Fine (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Witchfire (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Wizardry (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
World War II Online (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
X: Beyond the Frontier (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
XCOM 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
XCOM: Long War (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
X-COM: UFO Defense (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
X-COM (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
X: Rebirth (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Xenoblade Chronicles 1 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Xenoblade Chronicles X (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Yakuza 3 (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished – The Final Chapter (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Zeus: Master of Olympus (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
ZombiU (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Zoo Tycoon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Zorbus (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Cthulhu Mythos RPG: The Sleeping Girl of the Miasma Sea (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
DRL (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dead by Daylight / Videogame / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Gnomoria (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Monark / Videogame / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
NieR: Automata / Videogame / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Rogue Legacy (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Shadowrun Returns / Videogame / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Silent Storm (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Splatoon (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Subnautica (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Syndicate / Videogame / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Videogame / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Video Game) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds / Videogame / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim / Videogame / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Tears of Themis (Visual Novel) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Civvie 11 (Web Video) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Dream (Web Video) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Pokémon Friendlocke (Web Video) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Saltydkdan (Web Video) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Twitch Plays PokÃ©mon Crystal (Web Video) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Twitch Plays PokÃ©mon Dual Red & Blue (Web Video) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Twitch Plays PokÃ©mon Emerald (Web Video) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Twitch Plays Pokémon FireRed (Web Video) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Twitch Plays Pokémon Red Anniversary (Web Video) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Twitch Plays Touhoumon & Moemon (Web Video) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Vinesauce (Web Video) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell
Lioden (Website) / int_1527d90d	type	Early Game Hell

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