The 20 Most DIFFICULT Video Game Characters to Unlock

Zero

“Bayonetta” (2009)

In the first “Bayonetta,” you can find twenty-one combat challenges spread across the game’s various chapters. After completing each of those, you unlock a survival challenge where you must make it through fifty-one waves of enemies. The first ten are set to Normal difficulty, the next twenty are on Hard, and the last twenty are on Non-Stop Climax. The final fight is against Bayonetta herself, with five health bars. Only after conquering all of this will you unlock Zero, a secret character who has the same basic controls, but who goes down in only a couple of hits. Just in case you wanted one final challenge for the game to give you.

Captain Blue

“Viewtiful Joe” (2003)

Unique in both its style and gameplay, Capcom’s “Viewtiful Joe” is already a pretty tough game. And to unlock its final hidden character, players are forced to climb a scaling obstacle of difficulty. You unlock a new character, as well as a new difficulty mode, the first time you beat the game on a previous one. If you beat it on Adults Mode, you unlock Sylvia and V-Rated Mode. Beating it again on that mode unlocks Alastor and Ultra V-Rated Mode. Finally, beating it on this setting gets you Captain Blue. Not only do these difficulty levels climb to absurd heights, but the requirement to beat the game multiple times in order to unlock this character means most players probably never did.

William Bordin

“Urban Reign” (2005)

This under-appreciated beat ‘em up from Namco had a ton of unlockable characters for players to strive for, even the big bad of the story, William Bordin. But from how weak they made him in multiplayer and how much effort you have to put in to unlock him, he isn’t worth it. To play as him, you must achieve an S-Rank on every stage. That means you have to play them pretty much perfectly, taking minimal damage, moving quickly, and playing on higher difficulties. You have to actually consider what characters work best for you while taking their own star ranking into account. Bordin’s stats are low and his attacks are weak, so he’s really only worth it for bragging rights.

Reiji Kido

“Revelations: Persona” (1996)

There are several RPG characters whose recruitment methods are ridiculously obscure, almost impossible to know about without a guide. In the original “Persona,” that character was Reiji Kido. From the start, you’d have to know to go from the infirmary to the teacher’s lounge, and talk to a specific NPC, to cause Reiji to appear in a classroom on the second floor. That’s just to meet him. You’d then have to follow a very strict path, including finding and talking to his mother ONLY ONCE, and declining certain other optional characters when they try to join you. Reiji is a strong party member worth getting. But with a long list of hoops to jump through, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll miss recruiting him on a first playthrough unless you know how.

Skelly

“Chrono Cross” (2000)

There are a total of forty-five possible party members in “Chrono Cross.” And Skelly the jolly clown skeleton is the hardest one to unlock. You can find his skull in Fossil Valley, where he’ll ask you to reassemble him by finding the remaining six pieces of his body. Unfortunately, these are scattered in hidden locations all around the game’s world, which is pretty big. While some are relatively easy to stumble upon, others definitely aren’t, and require a lot of exploring and digging into the game’s nooks and crannies. After putting Skelly back together, you then have to return to Termina, to watch him reunite with his grandma, before he finally joins you.

Junkyard Dog

“Fallout 4” (2015)

The “Fallout” series has known plenty of memorable companions, even canine ones. But in “Fallout 4” there’s another dog that most players probably never get, simply because of how rare it is to find him. Each time you enter the Commonwealth, a trader named Gene will spawn in a random location. You have no hint towards where this will be. But if you manage to find him, he’ll be traveling with a dog you can buy from him for 250 caps. And you can only do this after passing a Charisma check of a six or higher. Naturally, the random occurrence of Gene makes the Junkyard Dog an unknown possibility to most players.

Thanos (Infinite)

“Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order” (2019)

The “Ultimate Alliance” games have a few tough characters to unlock. But the series saved its hardest for the so-far last. Added in with the game’s final DLC, “Shadow of Doom,” this alternate version of Thanos came with the Infinity Gauntlet, and therefore a pretty overpowered moveset. But to wield it, you had to earn it. You had to first beat the DLC on Superior Difficulty; pretty hard if the name wasn’t obvious. This would only unlock the harder Ultimate Difficulty, which would grant you Infinite Thanos upon completion. That takes genuine dedication, grinding through some really challenging fights. But with the Gauntlet, Thanos is basically unstoppable, so the challenge at least makes sense.

Sherri Phoraena

“Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together” (2010)

Sherri is another RPG character whose unlock method is so obscure, we have no idea how anyone would think of it without outside assistance. Players fight Sherri in Chapter 4 of “Let Us Cling Together.” And to unlock her, they must reduce her health to 10% or lower, and then allow her to teleport to safety. Then, before reaching a certain point in the story, you have to return to Balmamusa, with Olivya in your party at medium-to-high Loyalty, specifically when it’s raining, to trigger a cutscene between the two sisters. Afterwards, Sherri will join your party. Honestly, that is one of the most specific checklists for recruiting a character we’ve ever seen.

Warthog

“Twisted Metal” (2012)

Although Warthog has appeared in multiple entries across the “Twisted Metal” series, getting to play as this modified tankcar in the 2012 game is a pretty big challenge. You must get a Gold medal in every Story Mode event on Twisted Difficulty, the highest difficulty setting. It’s obviously a challenge to just beat this mode in and of itself. Using some of the other unlockable vehicles you get from completing other challenges can make it manageable. But to get Gold in every Story event? That is something else entirely, and something that is going to take most players a lot of time, patience, and skill to overcome.

Nordom

“Planescape: Torment” (1999)

An obscure unlock method, and a tough dungeon? You get both in Nordom. To add him to your party in “Planescape: Torment,” you must first buy what looks to be a regular cube from the Curiosity Shop. The cube is actually a figurine of a Modron, Nordom’s race. But you’ll only learn that by speaking to either Yvana, the Galleria owner, or an actual Modron while it’s in your possession. This allows you to solve a puzzle with the cube, which then teleports you to a labyrinth. What follows is, unfortunately, one of the hardest and most confusing dungeons in the game. But only by making your way through it will you have the chance to add Nordom to your party.

Gogo“Final Fantasy VI” (1994)

The silent Mimic of “Final Fantasy VI,” Gogo can be very easy to miss if you don’t know what you’re doing, and can only be recruited fairly late in the game. When you get to Triangle Island in the World of Ruin and come across a Zone Eater, your first natural instinct would be to kill it just like any other enemy. Instead, survive until it uses its Inhale ability on the entire party. Once you do, you’ll find yourself inside the belly of the beast. Traverse the dungeon and congratulations, you’ve found Gogo! He’s pretty useful in battle, so we highly recommend going off the beaten path to find him.

Mewtwo“Pokémon Red and Blue Versions” (1998)Look, we know a lot of the entries on this list will be well known quantities at this point, but put yourself in the shoes of a kid playing Pokemon for the very first time. After finally becoming strong enough to take down the Elite Four and becoming champion, we just didn’t want the game to end. So imagine our surprise when we discovered that the Cerulean Cave was now open, and a powerful legendary Pokemon was waiting at the end of it. Finding Mewtwo by today’s standards isn’t too difficult, but at the time, battling and catching him was one of the toughest challenges ever up to that point, especially if you mistakenly used your Master Ball earlier on. His powerful Psychic type attacks and Recover ability made that feel like it went on forever.

Vincent Valentine“Final Fantasy VII” (1997)

The recent Final Fantasy VII pair of remakes doesn’t make Vincent optional, but in the 1997 original, unlocking the moody gunslinger required quite a bit of detective work. You can only unlock Vincent when the party is exploring the Shinra Manor in Nibelheim relatively late in the game. Scattered around the mansion are clues for the combination to a big safe on the second floor. Once you find the right numbers and unlock the safe within the allotted time limit, you fight a fairly difficult boss called Lost Number. After a lengthy back and forth, Vincent finally joins your party.

Luigi“Super Mario Galaxy” (2007)

“Super Mario Galaxy” is one of the best Nintendo games of the Wii era. It’s a unique take on the 3D Mario formula with tons of unlockables and secrets to collect. One of these secrets is the ability to play as the green man himself, Luigi. To do so, you’ll have to collect all 120 stars in the game and then roll credits once, then fight Bowser all over again. It seems enough, right? WRONG. There are a ton of challenge levels in the game that feel borderline impossible to beat, like the Dreadnought Galaxy’s Purple Coin objective. Good on you if you’ve unlocked Luigi here, it was quite the struggle for many.

Ollie the Magic Bum

“Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3” (2001)

The “Tony Hawk” series has known its fair share of tough, weird unlockable characters. Shout out to Jack Black as Constable Richard in “Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4,” who’s unlocked after collecting every hidden panda plushy in each of the nineteen levels. Very weird, very hard to unlock. The original third entry had someone even harder. Players could unlock Ollie the Magic Bum by completing every goal, while getting all three Gold Medals in Career Mode, a total of seven times. It would be one thing if you only had to beat the game with seven characters. But the extra challenge of completing everything for each of the skaters makes Ollie a chore to unlock.

Mokap“Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance” (2002)

Almost every fighting game franchise has their fair share of fun and goofy secret characters, and “Mortal Kombat” is no different. 2002’s “Deadly Alliance” has one of these with Mokap, a human character dressed in, you guessed it, a motion capture suit. The best part is that he’s part of the overall “Mortal Kombat” canon, serving as a motion capture artist and stunt guy with ties to Johnny Cage. To unlock him, you have to finish Konquest with every playable character. It may not sound difficult in terms of challenge, but it will take forever. Once you do, at the character select screen highlight Cyrax, then hold down and the confirm button to play as him.

Tofu“Resident Evil 2” (1998)

In both the original “Resident Evil 2” and the 2019 remake, Tofu Survivor is a mini-game available to players who beat both main scenarios with an A rank or higher and finish the 4th Survivor mini-game. Tofu Survivor is clearly a parody of this, where you play as a lifesize block of Tofu instead of super secret agent Hunk. Getting an A rank on the main scenarios can be a bit tough if you haven’t played before, but finishing the 4th Survivor side scenario isn’t that bad. Once you do all this, you can play as Tofu and other various plant-based characters with unique loadouts and designs (at least in the remake). It’s a much harder challenge, as Tofu is only equipped with the combat knife and a couple of green herbs. Good luck!

Mr. Game & Watch“Super Smash Bros. Melee” (2001)

Mr. Game & Watch is easily one of the “Super Smash Bros.” franchise’s weirdest and most iconic fighters. For many of us, when we first encountered him back in the day we had no idea who he was, and that feeling of mystery and not knowing was one of the best parts of “Melee.” Unlocking him, however, is pretty tedious and not super fun. While there are a handful of ways to unlock Mr. Game & Watch, they all require excessive grinding. You can either compete in 1,000 versus matches, or complete your choice of Classic, Adventure, All-Star or Target Test mode with every character in the game. In theory, this doesn’t sound too difficult, but it includes the other secret characters. Unlocking Mewtwo and Ganondorf are difficult in their own right, and they’re required for Mr. Game & Watch, and that’s why he makes our list.

Cloud Strife“Final Fantasy Tactics” (1997)

Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud is easily the face of the franchise. He’s the most popular protagonist the series has seen, and has had appearances in a handful of other games. Final Fantasy Tactics on the original PlayStation is one such example, and playing as the former Soldier 1st Class is pretty tricky. We won’t get into the nitty gritty as there are a lot of steps here, but after Chapter 4, you have to make a series of very specific choices for certain conditions to be met, which will ultimately result in being able to play as Cloud. In battle, he’s definitely a force to be reckoned with and with the right build is the best unit in the game.

The Forgotten“The Binding of Isaac” (2011)

Unlocking the Forgotten in “Binding of Isaac” also requires a handful of steps, but they are fairly tedious and require a lot of skill. Again, we won’t delve too deeply into the steps here, but the only prerequisite is to have beaten the Lamb at least once. And trust us when we say the rest of it is one of the most unforgiving challenges in the game. Dealing with everything from timed boss battles, precise inventory management, and, of course, not dying are all things you’ll have to focus on to unlock this powerful playable character. Once you do, the Forgotten is a useful character to do runs with due to its unique playstyle and versatility.

What secret character took you the most effort to unlock? Share your thoughts in the comments, and we’ll see you next time!