Early Game Hell: Difference between revisions
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* 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. In worse cases, it turns the early stage into a [[Luck-Based Mission]]. It is essentially a symptom of [[Unstable Equilibrium]].
Remember, [[Tropes Are Not Bad]]. Use of '''Early Game Hell''' can make progression infinitely more rewarding. Early Game Hell can also be the only time the game ever presents a challenge.
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* In ''[[Mother 3]]'', the first three chapters are told from the viewpoint of three different characters. While it's undoubtedly an excellent storytelling choice, getting yanked away from the characters you've leveled up and gotten familiar with is a bit jarring. This comes to a head in Chapter 3, where you have to play as [[Joke Character|Salsa]] for the entire chapter, including fighting ''[[That One Boss|a freaking tank]]'' at the end.
* [[Hello Kitty: Roller Rescue|Hello Kitty Roller Rescue]]'s [[New Game+]] has this when you play as {{spoiler|Badtz-Maru}}. He has lower health than Kitty has—though by the end of the game he has ''more'' health than she does.
* ''[[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-like" movement.
** The original ''[[Resident Evil 3: Nemesis]]'' starts with Jill dramatically somersaulting out of her apartment, making a perfect landing on the street below and ready to kick zombie ass. The remake, however, decided to make it harder for her. The game starts with Nemesis making his first assault on poor Jill, breaking into her apartment (and in the tradition of hulking monstrous abominations, [[There Was a Door| not using the door]]) leading to a five minute sequence requiring the player to guide the terrified heroine in fleeing the building, using quick-time events to survive, until finally ending up on street level, unarmed, half her life bar depleted, and surrounded by hungry zombies, plus a new control scheme the player has to learn to use ''quickly'' due to the sudden change to 3rd-person perspective gameplay. The only edge she has is that Brad shows up to help [[The Load| but, well... you know.]]
* The hardest boss in the first ''[[Diablo]]'' 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.
* ''[[Minecraft]]''. Entire guides have been written on how to survive the first full day, and what you should set about doing immediately. For the uninitiated, this is because the game starts you with nothing. No weapons, no tools, no food, and no real idea or explanation of how to get them. Just you, dumped into a random landscape, with ten minutes before nightfall, when the monsters appear. In that time you need to prepare some form of defense, even if it's just a basic shelter. The game gets much easier once you have a shelter, some cobble weapons (at least), and have learnt a few ways to craft all the stuff you'll need to survive against the enemies.
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* Most ''[[Pokémon]]'' games start out slower than molasses. This is because you have few [[Mons]] available to you to build a proper party, and because the game [[Broken Bridge|prevents you from leaving the early area]] until you beat the first Gym Leader. This means that you have precious few trainers to draw experience from, forcing you to [[Level Grind]] off of wilds, and no way of [[Money Grinding]] at all. Once you beat the first Gym Leader the game generally gets a lot more free and easy, with the exception of an occasional [[That One Boss]].
* On higher difficulties of ''[[Monster Girl Quest Paradox]]'', the first area (Slime Mountain) becomes this. Luka is alone, with his starting job and race and a limited inventory, meaning that there simply isn't any room to use strategy. The level 1 Slime Girls will almost certainly defeat you, unless you get very lucky with evasion and critical hits. It becomes much easier when you start recruiting party members. This was toned-down somewhat with the release of the second chapter, which specifically makes Slime Mountain easier.
* ''[[Wizardry]] VII'' first area. There are [[Beef Gate|ambushes with fairly tough monsters]], using poison at that, right away - one before the chest with map kit, and another before city (where you can't go anyway without a password found elsewhere). If you already have played it and remember to go straight for the healing fountain and avoid these [[Fixed Encounters]] until some good [[Level Grinding]], it becomes easier, though a little bad luck with random encounters (debuffers, ''then'' heavy hitters) still can be fatal.
* ''[[MegaMan Battle Network]] Transmission'' has an extremely steep difficulty curve before becoming trivial. First boss FireMan is tricky to dodge and can take lots of punishment from your low damage chips but will kill you in only a few hits (even though you are given an item that halves his power) hits and second boss GutsMan is only slightly easier. After this you will be showered in HP upgrades and chips that give powerful attacks that can literally kill bosses in seconds. Platforming is similarly rendered trivial after this if you know which enemies to kill for a chip that [[Double Jump|lets you jump in the air]] (this only works a max of 9 times a stage, but that's more than enough for most). Difficulty falls off even further by the midway point when you've upgraded the freely usable but weak Mega Buster to the point chips aren't even needed for non-boss fights anymore.
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