Summary
Segahad become one of the industry’s most prolific software developers by the time the PS3 launched in 2006. After cultivating great relationships with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, their efforts paid off as they started releasing some of the best games in the business. One of Sega’s defining traits, even duringtheir hardware manufacturing days, was their emphasis on strong design and demand for the player to be better.
All of Sega’s greatest games have relied on their commitment to keeping the player consistently challenging, a notion they carried with them through many of the titles they published on the PS3. Whether it’s the punishing difficulty ofBayonettaor the fast-paced courses ofSonic Unleashed, Sega made a commitment in this generation to task the player with a variety of challenges.
By the time the PS3 generation came around and Sega exited the hardware side of the business, seeingSonicon rival platforms wasn’t that unusual. And withSonic Unleashed, Sega sought to do something fun and unique with the blue hedgehog.NormalSoniclevels play outas expected during the daytime, but the night comes complete with his transformation into the Werehog.
Where the daytime levels are built around blistering speed, the Werehog levels have a focus on brawling and light platforming.Sonic Unleashedalternates between these two styles brilliantly, as the difficulty for each type of level begins to escalate. The speed levels become faster and more chaotic, while the Werehog levels test the player’s combat prowess. It’s one of the most uniqueSonicgames that Sega has ever made, yet still one of his most difficult and rewarding.
After creatingResident Eviland directing some of its best titles, Shinji Mikami left Capcom and co-founded PlatinumGames with Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba. One of the first games developed under this new company wasVanquish, a kinetic third-person shooter set in a dystopian sci-fi world.Vanquishfocused on frantic encounters, ones that often put the player in outnumbered situations.
While the shooter genre was beginning to become overcrowded with third-person cover shooters,Vanquishoffered a game with some unique traversal elements. A slide mechanic could be combined with a slow-motion shooting system, one that allows players to become adept at surviving aggressive enemies. Despite being over a decade old,Vanquishis still a gameworth going back to todayfor its exciting combat and intense encounters.
GameFAQs Difficulty Ranking: 3.39/5
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
Reignite your inner fighter and prepare for the ultimate showdown!Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown is the definitive version of the Virtua Fighter 5 series that incorporates all the enhancements SEGA has rolled out since 2007 with some brand new features.
As evidenced by numerous games spread across multiple genres, Sega has shown its prowess in racers, RPGs and especially fighting games. And withVirtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, Sega continued to prove why they are one of the best fighting game developers in the world. This upgraded version of the arcade title focused on a roster of flashy, quick, and skilled fighters.
Any good fighting game allows one to become intimately familiar with its systems and punishment openings, somethingthatVirtua Fighter 5does brilliantly. Among Sega’s huge library of fighting games, this excellent title is a contender for one of their most difficult and is among the very best in their long history.
Set on the fictional continent of Europa,Valkyria Chroniclesdetails the ongoing conflict between the Imperial Alliance and the Atlantic Federation. This gorgeous and meticulously designed strategy RPG features a series of battles that test the player in a variety of different ways, with some being long-form battles that can last upwards of a half-hour. Sometimes the game matches the player up with human characters but challenges the player with numerous boss battles against tanks and warships.
While most strategy games take place from a top-down, 2.5D perspective,Valkyria Chroniclesuses a third-person camera. This shift from the strategic overhead screen to the ground is fantastic, putting the player right in the middle of the action. It makes moving units and soldiers around important, as the player is also in danger of being shot during those moments before they execute their attack.
AlthoughBayonettais commonly associatedwith Nintendo these days, this Sega property was published by them as a multiplatform title. Developer PlatinumGames and director Hideki Kamiya took a cue from his previous works, as he continued the legacy ofDevil May Cryin an action title focused on brutal, punishing combat and a steep, escalating challenge.
With a strong roster of fantastic enemies and huge, epic boss battles,Bayonettais still one of the most finely-tuned action games of all time. Witch Time becomes crucial to overcomingBayonetta, as it’s activated by dodging an attack at the very last second to unlock the Umbra Witch’s true power. Making use of Witch Time and learning the various combos is a necessary element to survivingBayonetta.
Developer Tri-Ace is mostly knownfor theStar Oceanseries, but one of their best, sadly underappreciated games, wasResonance Of Fate. This mix of real-time and turn-based action is a unique gem, set on a near-future Earth that is on the brink of destruction. It is a dark vision of the future, where classism has subjugated people to desolate living conditions.
The party is made up of a group of rebellious teenagers, with a focus on frantic battles and pushing the player further into bigger, more complex battles over time. Combat feels fresh, as the use of action points to limit movement in the battle window presses the need to strategize effectively. This ominous, oft-forgotten RPG is one of the most challenging games that Sega launched on Sony’s seventh-generation machine.
TheAlienfilm franchise has spawned quite a healthy number of video games, dabbling in everything from first-person shootersto tactical strategy games. In 2014, Sega partnered with developer Creative Assembly to publishAlien: Isolation, a terrifying first-person survivor game starring Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda. True to the title,Alien: Isolationwas all about confining the player into a small space and tasking them with escaping from the clutches of an aggressive Xenomorph.
With a stunning commitment to bringing the world ofAliento life,Isolationis made even more difficult by the brilliantly designed artificial intelligence of the Xenomorph. The player is constantly made to feel helpless, scurrying away from the Xenomorph and his ability to kill them instantly.Alien: Isolationisn’t just one of the best titles that Sega published during this generation, but it’s also one of the most challenging games that was released during this era.
