20 HARDEST Characters to Unlock in PS1 Games

20 Hardest Characters to Unlock in PS1 Games

Welcome to MojoPlays, and it’s time to relive some trauma. Unlocking collectibles was always harder on the PS1, mainly because we were all kids, but also because the 90’s were built different. These are the 20 Hardest Characters to Unlock in PS1 Games. Let’s go!

Titanium Power Ranger

“Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue“ (1999)

What makes this one so ridiculous is that the actual unlocking isn’t even difficult. The problem is the game basically lies to anyone playing co-op. You reach the final stage, spot the Titanium Ranger sitting there locked up, and naturally assume rescuing him is part of the mission. Fair enough. Except the game never mentions one tiny detail: you can only free him in single-player. My brother and I had no idea, so we spent literal weeks replaying the co-op campaign, trying different characters, routes and probably several completely imaginary theories. Meanwhile, the answer was simply to ditch each other, and come back alone. Fantastic design choice for a game heavily sold around playing together.

Reptile

“Mortal Kombat Trilogy” (1996)

“Mortal Kombat” really made you earn the right to even meet Reptile. First, you had to be fighting on The Pit, then somehow win with two Flawless Victories, never block once, and finish the match with a Fatality. Already ridiculous. But there was also one completely random condition: a silhouette had to fly across the moon in the background during the fight. Miss that little visual cue and congratulations, you’ve just performed the world’s most stressful perfect match for nothing. Reptile himself was basically a green version of Scorpion and Sub-Zero, but finding him felt like uncovering government secrets. He would rank higher, but unlocking him is just to fight him, not to play as him, so he can sit on a warm rock at number 19.

Maita

“Bust-A-Move 4” (1998)

There’s something especially rude about a cute puzzle game suddenly demanding tournament-level focus. In “Bust-A-Move 4,” unlocking Maita means making it all the way to Round 16 of Win Contest Mode, which sounds manageable until the CPU starts playing like it’s just you, but from the future. You need to keep winning without one bad board completely ruining the run, and that’s where the pain comes in. A nasty colour layout, one awkward mistake, or an opponent deciding it has become a tactical genius can send you straight back to square one. It’s not the most complicated unlock ever made, but it does demand consistency, patience, and the ability to stay calm while adorable dinosaurs quietly destroy your afternoon.

Shenlong

“Bloody Roar 2” (1998)

“Bloody Roar 2” doesn’t hide Shenlong behind some bizarre button code or secret menu. It just asks you to beat Arcade Mode without using a continue .. Piece of cake, if the cake is made of concrete. You’ve got to survive the full ladder, keep your run alive, and then still beat Shenlong when he finally shows up at the end. At least you can use whichever fighter you know best, because you’ll need every advantage you can get once the PS1-era AI starts behaving like 2026 AI. Reaching Shenlong only to lose is especially cruel, because the game immediately turns your impressive run into nothing.

Ace

“One Piece: Grand Battle! 2” (2002)

Here’s one that you’ve probably never heard of because it was a Japanese exclusive. Ace feels less like an unlockable character and more like the game checking whether you still have a social life. Before he even becomes an option, you need to unlock every other fighter and finish Story Mode with all of them. That alone is already a serious time sink. Then, because apparently you haven’t suffered enough, you must run through Story Mode again as Smoker on Hard difficulty, reach Ace at the very end, and beat him. Only then does the game finally hand him over. There’s no clever trick here, just a mountain of repetition and one final difficult run.

Spider-Man

“Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2” (2000)

For one of the coolest secrets in “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2,” the game basically makes your custom skater get through an absolute gauntlet first. You need to push that created character through the entire Career, clearing the required goals, competitions and cash totals until there’s almost nothing left to do. Only then does Spider-Man finally become playable. Thankfully, the payoff is worth it. Seeing him throw ridiculous tricks, grind rails and tear around stages to the soundtrack is exactly the kind of nonsense PS1 games were brilliant at. Back then, it also sounded like the sort of playground rumour nobody believed, and trust me, when you saw it for the first time, the pop was insane.

Dr. Bosconovitch

“Tekken 3” (1997)

For somebody who looks ready to fall asleep mid-fight, “Tekken 3” makes you work your arse off to unlock Doctor Bosconovitch. You need to clear Tekken Force Mode multiple times before he finally appears as an opponent. Tekken Force sounds like a fun little bonus mode until you realise it’s basically a side-scrolling mugging simulator, with enemies constantly surrounding you and throwing hands from every direction. After several full runs, you finally get the chance to beat Bosconovitch and add him to the roster. Your reward is an elderly scientist whose moveset involves collapsing, crawling around and generally looking medically unfit for combat. You endure all that effort to unlock a man who really needs a chair.

Beemer

“Speed Punks” (1999)

“Speed Punks” makes unlocking Beemer feel like surviving a kart-racing conspiracy, and not a fun playground one, I mean a tinfoil hat one. Before you can even challenge him, you first have to win every race in the Hard League. Not most of them. Every single one. That would already be annoying enough, but the game loves rubber-band AI, random weapons and last-second disasters that can turn a comfortable lead into eighth place before you know what happened. Once you finally conquer the entire league, Beemer still isn’t yours. You then unlock his personal challenge and have to beat him there as well. So after proving you can dominate the hardest championship, the game basically says, “Lovely. One more thing.” Beemer isn’t a character unlock. He’s a fulltime job.

Zack

“Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring” (1998)

Zack isn’t sitting behind one nasty requirement in “Ehrgeiz.” He’s buried at the end of an entire unlock family tree. You need to finish the game with all the available “Final Fantasy VII” characters, which sounds straightforward until you remember some of them are hidden too. Yuffie needs a clear with Cloud, Vincent needs one with Tifa, and only after opening up the roster can you keep working toward Zack. Still, back in 1999, fans were absolutely going to do it. This was years before “Crisis Core,” when getting to play as Zack anywhere felt like discovering alternative costumes in Super Smash Bros.

The 200th Monster

“Tobal 2” (1997)

Okay, this is a bit different from the other entries, so let’s put it here to split the list, give us all a little break. Calling this a character unlock barely covers what “Tobal 2” expects from you. Quest Mode lets you capture defeated monsters and gradually turn them into playable fighters, eventually building a roster of roughly 200 characters. The catch is that some of the rarer creatures are buried deep inside the game’s six dungeons, so collecting everyone means plenty of exploration, survival and carefully timed captures. At that point, “Tobal 2” stops feeling like a fighting game and starts resembling “Pokémon” if every creature immediately punched you in the face.

Devil

“Tekken 2” (1995)

“Tekken 2” gives you a nice little trick at the character select screen: it shows ten fighters and quietly lets you assume that’s the whole roster. It isn’t. If you want the boss unlocked, you need to finish the game with every character, including the ones you unlock along the way. So each successful run doesn’t bring you closer to freedom so much as reveal another person you now have to learn. Before long, you’re cycling through wildly different movesets while also wrestling with controls that feel prehistoric compared to modern fighting games. Beating Arcade Mode ten times would be tedious enough. “Tekken 2” instead keeps expanding the homework until you’ve practically completed a degree in the entire roster.

Squall

“Chocobo Racing” (1999)

“Chocobo Racing” is mostly a breezy little kart racer where you can switch your brain off and enjoy yourself. Then Squall turns up and apparently decides friendship is over. Unlocking every character means beating him on his own track, and he has one enormous advantage: his special ability basically works like an unavoidable Blue Shell from “Mario Kart.” It hits everyone, there’s no real defence against it, and naturally the game gives it to the guy you’re desperately trying to beat. Suddenly this cute “Final Fantasy” spin-off becomes a lesson in controlled rage. Squall may be the hero of “Final Fantasy VIII,” but here he races like someone who’s been banned from Mario Kart, and is still upset about it.

Armor King

“Tekken” (1994)

The OG Tekken game! And the OG for expecting you to figure things out the hard way. To unlock Armor King, you had to clear Arcade Mode using King, which sounds simple until you remember how unforgiving those old fighting-game ladders could be. There were no glowing objective markers, helpful pop-ups or friendly little hints explaining what to do next. You just kept playing, losing, retrying and hoping you were on the right track. Eventually, beating the mode with King revealed his darker masked counterpart, Armor King, and suddenly all that frustration felt worth it. He looked meaner, hit harder and immediately became a brag.

Tofu

“Resident Evil 2” (1998)

Of all the secret characters you could spend hours unlocking, “Resident Evil 2” somehow decided the ultimate prize should be healthy .. It’s Tofu. Getting there is no joke either. First, you need to unlock The 4th Survivor by completing the required A and B scenarios with strong enough rankings. Then you have to beat that bonus mode and satisfy even more completion conditions before Tofu Survivor finally appears. Your heroic reward is a wobbling piece of soybean curd armed with nothing but a knife, thrown into one of the game’s nastiest survival runs. It’s completely absurd, incredibly difficult, and somehow exactly the kind of secret the PS1 was built for.

Morrigan & Nakoruru

“Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro” (2000)

At this point, fighting games really were addicted to the phrase “beat it with everyone.” “Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro” takes that idea and makes it especially painful thanks to its enormous roster. Want Morrigan? You’ll need to finish the game using every Capcom fighter. After Nakoruru instead? Same deal, except now you’re working through the entire SNK side. That means dozens of Arcade Mode clears before both characters are finally available. It’s not technically complicated, but it is a serious test of patience and free time. By the end, you won’t just know the roster, you’ll know their moves, habits, weaknesses and probably what they had for breakfast.

N. Tropy

“Crash Team Racing” (1999)

N. Tropy doesn’t care whether you can simply win races in “Crash Team Racing.” He wants proof that you’ve basically memorised every corner of the game. To unlock him, you need to head into Time Trial mode and beat his ghost times across every track. That means learning the best racing lines, chaining drifts properly and squeezing speed out of shortcuts that casual players might never even notice. One messy turn can ruin an otherwise perfect attempt, so this quickly turns into a battle against both the clock and your own sanity. Once every ghost has finally been beaten, N. Tropy joins the roster. Fittingly, unlocking the time-obsessed scientist requires sacrificing a fairly unreasonable amount of your own time.

Wolverine

“Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3” (2001)

Of all the places Wolverine could randomly appear, “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3” is definitely up there. Unlocking him is the real problem, though, because the game basically asks for two near-perfect Career runs. You need to complete every career goal and win gold in all three competitions with two different skaters. So yes, that’s essentially doing everything twice before Logan finally decides to pick up a skateboard. Even experienced players can stumble on some of those objectives, which explains why plenty of people never knew he was hiding in the game at all. At least the reward is great: Wolverine gets unique animations, custom moves and plenty of personality. Turns out adamantium claws are surprisingly good for grinding rails.

Reiji

“Revelations: Persona“ (1996)

Reiji might be one of the most aggressively missable characters ever put into an RPG. In “Persona,” you don’t unlock him by winning some brutal boss fight. Instead, you have to make a weirdly specific chain of choices across the game, and one wrong move can permanently ruin the attempt. Yeesh. You need to visit the right places, choose exact dialogue options, talk to his mother only once, recruit the correct party members and trigger events in the proper order. Miss a step and that’s it, Reiji is gone. This is the kind of secret that practically screams, “Please buy the strategy guide.” Considering he’s also one of the strongest characters available, hiding him behind this nonsense feels especially cruel.

Cloud Strife

“Final Fantasy Tactics” (1997)

Cloud is usually about as subtle as a meteor crashing into Midgar, but “Final Fantasy Tactics” hides him behind a ridiculous sidequest chain. You need to wander well away from the main story, complete optional battles, help Besrudio get his strange dimensional machine working, then defeat Construct 7 at Nelveska Temple. After all that, you’re still not done. You also need to buy a flower from Aerith and later step in when Cloud helps defend her from a group of thugs. Only then does “Final Fantasy VII’s” hero finally join your party permanently. It’s a fantastic cameo, but the game makes you work so hard for him that it’s borderline not worth it, like, why is even here?

Skelly

“Chrono Cross” (1999)

Skelly isn’t so much recruited in “Chrono Cross” as slowly rebuilt like the world’s creepiest IKEA project. His skeleton has been scattered into six separate pieces across the game, and every bone is hidden somewhere different with its own little requirement. Finding all of them is already a huge scavenger hunt, but collecting the parts still doesn’t actually give you Skelly. You then need to track down his grandmother, bring her the complete collection, and trigger the right conversation so she can finally put him back together. After all that effort, you’re rewarded with an undead clown who isn’t exactly a statistical powerhouse.