WHAT IS A CHALLENGING RPG?

author=masterofmayhem

author=Zachary_Braun
I saw this video today and thought of this discussion. An incredibly powerful enemy is defeated using ironclad strategy and precise execution. The player's characters are all at less than 100 HP; a single hit means instant death.

To bad that video is in Japanese so I don't know what that ironclad strategy is or how it works.

Ironclad is a term. It just means "impenetrable." You basically have one party member that can't easily be killed. You have easy heal/resurrection for the rest. You have spells or abilities that specifically target that monster's weaknesses, and buff against its stronger attacks.

Because the one party member won't die, you stay in the battle. Because the others get revived, they can attack for the other character (unless your strategy is to solo tank). Because you have some awesome abilities, you can basically ignore the fact that the party is waaaaay underlvl.

Or, seriously, just watch the video. You can tell what they're doing.

Btw, one of the most commonly used ironclad strategies is from Yunalesca. Have Yuna zombieproof and deathproof, and have the rest of the party get zombie-resist. Yunalesca has an ability that kills everyone who isn't zombie, so they're immune. And Yuna can buff and heal, etc. To make matters easier, you can also get Yuna to learn Holy.
For that matter, alot of Final Fantasy X's boss battles need one. Especially one of the Seymour battles (the one where he throws spears).

The most fun ironclad strategy I ever employed was in Legend of Dragoon. The game was set up so that combos would gradually increase damage, and if you were bad at combos, your damage would be weak throughout the game. Still, even if you sucked, you could make up for it with the dragoon form, which allowed for magic use. Btw, this applied to me. I could barely do the double attack combo, which only needed one box to be hit inside. (If you spent an obscene amount of time grinding for cash, you could but an auto-combo accessory, or if you could beat up metal slime type enemies. Likewise, you could also grind for two-piece helm/armor that reduced physical and magical damage by 1/2)
The final battle was epicly long, and the odds of running out of mana, or mass dying was pretty high. To make matters worse, I had two attackers that were doing double digit damage because they couldn't combo. So, ironclad strategy time! Equipped the white dragon (she had a heal/revive dragon summon that did decent damage) with the 1/2 damage gear, and an accessory that healed MP. Equipped everyone else with the best gear I could, and tried to get them into dragoon mode. The white dragon I was careful to get to a single bar of dragoon, since the boss had an anti-dragoon ability, so you didn't wanna stay like that. The dragoon didn't do much damage, so the battle was literally defending with the healer until she could use her mega heal/holy dragon summon to deal massive damage to the party, adapting to weird abilities, and trying to keep party members revived with the white dragon summon. It took 6 hours (ironclad strategy can keep you alive, but if you lack power, this becomes a loooooong fight).

I usually find puzzle rpg's (like Wild Arms) to grant a bit more challenge. These come, of course, in the form of puzzles, even if the combat is easy enough.