Are there any truly difficult RPGs? Where failing to plan or bring the correct party members will result in failure

wizardry games
the first final fantasy original nes is unforgiving
breath of fire 3 and 4 can stonewall you if you arent paying attention
star ocean 2

>not bringing the "correct" party members will result in failure
>in a Role Playing Game
players should be allowed to pick whatever playstyle they enjoy the most and still succeed. forcing a player to stick to one meta playstyle is bad game design, regardless of difficulty. ESPECIALLY ON A GENERE THAT FOCUSES ON PLAYER CUSTOMIZATION, EXPLORATION AND EXPERIMENTATION

Remember: tanky bullet sponge enemies are only excused in RPGs!

Hoshigami is an FFT clone with one really clear distinction in that every map puts you at a huge disadvantage and if you don't abuse how broken magic is the game is unplayable.

Every map puts you on the low ground while enemy archers and mages pelt you from afar. Defense and Magic defense are so lobsided that your mages take zero damage from spells but get oneshot by archers. This means every map you have to bait archers with tanks, then oneshot them with your mages. You are always outnumbered 3-to-1 so every stage becomes a slog.

Wild Arms XF is another SRPG that screams "USE THIS CLASS ON THIS LEVEL OR LOSE" for almost half the game.

You sound like you play 5e.

nuzlockes are still piss easy until a random crit destroys your favorite mon and you have to grind for 3 hours until the next crit. I've beat quite a few across the generations they're just gay unless you play with an emulated speed setting or audino grinding

Wizardry

SMT

that's what post-games are for, most players don't have the patience for this sort of difficulty for the whole game

Trial and error doesn't make something "truly difficult"

The thing, if you're bad at SMT or whatever, you can just follow a strategy guide that tells you how to win. You won't find things like people literally not being able to beat the first boss in Ninja Gaiden because they can't think and react in real time.

DQ 11 with Draconian Quest options turned on.

Zanki zero's last level was a nightmare. Action rpg/visual novel with horror and survival elements, the developers had to add an easy mode with zero monsters because nobody wanted to play it.

This. I enjoy a challenge, but going into a fight and doing the right thing only for the game to deny me because it was the wrong right thing isn't good difficulty. The things that the game expects you to do should be signalled beforehand in some way (preferably not obviously). I want to game to demand that I understand its systems and force me to pay attention - not simply check how many times I'm willing to reload my game.

Etrian Odyssey can be a pretty decent challenge

This really. You can make Nuzlockes more "difficult" by giving yourself even more restrictions, but even then it becomes an exercise in tedium.

havent played but i heard The Last Remnant you can paint yourself into a corner

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