Hardest PS4 Games Published By Sony, Ranked

While Sony definitely had a decent lineup of exclusives for the PlayStation 3, this catalog exploded with the release of their next console, with there being plenty of amazing titles to convince players to make the call to pick up a brand-new PS4 throughout its lifespan. While a lot of these games were a little more stripped-back in their difficulty in order to be as accessible as possible, this definitely wasn’t the case with all of them, with plenty of developers deciding to make their games as challenging as possible to truly test the player’s abilities.

Because Sony was in charge of publishing such a wide array of games for the PlayStation 4 though, it means that these challenging titles span across a multitude of genres rather than being confined to just one. Whether they’re purposefully made to be as difficult as possible, or just because of clunky game mechanics, these are the PS4 titles published by Sony that are renowned for their brutal challenge.

Updated January 23rd, 2024 by Catherine Robustelli: The PlayStation 4 has seen its fair share of difficult games released by Sony. There have been quite a few supremely difficult releases on the platform but not all of them were released by Sony. Some of these titles are hard-as-nails, truly testing the players’ ability across a multitude of genres. To better showcase some of the best and most difficult games on the PS4 that were published by Sony, the following article now includes a companion video.

6 The Last Guardian

Game FAQ Difficulty Rating: 3/5

The Last Guardian isn’t necessarily a difficult game by design. Instead, the game’s rather clunky controls can end up making it pretty challenging by accident a lot of the time. The biggest example of this is Trico, a large half-bird half-mammal creature who who the player needs to control in order to complete certain puzzles and challenges to progress through the game.

The issue is, because Trico is so gigantic in size, controlling him can feel very cumbersome and unresponsive at times, making a lot of the platforming sections much harder than they need to be. The environments, while stunning from a visual standpoint, also don’t do much to point the player in the right direction, with there being no implications on which ledges can be hung from and no indication of whether a jump can be made safely or not. The Last Guardian is most well known for its amazing story and visual art style as opposed to its gameplay, which often feels needlessly hard at times.

5 Days Gone

Game FAQ Difficulty Rating: 3.06/5

It’s pretty staggering just how many zombies can be packed onto the screen at once in Days Gone, but this also means that trying to get away from a gigantic horde is an incredibly difficult task, even when riding on Deacon’s motorbike. Until players acquire some of the essential skills later in the game, they are heavily advised to steer clear of large groups of zombies, since they’re more than fast enough to catch up to Deacon if players aren’t careful.

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Days Gone is already a very challenging game on Normal and Hard, but if players want to be as immersed as possible, they should definitely try out the Survival mode, which completely removes the HUD and disables fast traveling, presenting the ultimate challenge for zombie apocalypse experts.

4 The Last Of Us Part 2

Game FAQ Difficulty Rating: 3.07/5

While the Last Of Us Part 2’s story is definitely a divisive topic among fans, one area of the game that everyone could agree was top-notch was the frantic and intense third-person gameplay which felt just a little harder than the original, a game that was already renowned for being very unforgiving. The enemy AI in this game is incredibly smart, with both humans and infected enemies being able to pick up on Ellie and Abby’s movements from the smallest of noises.

There’s also a severe lack of ammunition scattered around the environments, which makes sense considering the game is rooted in the survival-horror genre, but it also forces the player to be very conservative with their shots unless they want to risk seeing a Game Over more than a few times. This isn’t even mentioning the dogs, which can be incredibly difficult to get rid of due to their lightning-fast movements and ferocious attacks, and this goes double for the terrifying Clickers.

3 Ghost Of Tsushima

Game FAQ Difficulty Rating: 3.07/5

Once players reach the end-game in Ghost of Tsushima, they’ll finally be equipped to take down enemy Mongol soldiers without too much of a worry, but getting to this point is much easier said than done. While Jin does have several weapons and tools at his disposal to outsmart opponents, because he’s often fighting on his own, it means that the Mongol forces, who always travel in groups, can overwhelm him very easily, especially when he’s infiltrating one of their fortresses.

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The game also features some downright brutal boss encounters in the form of duels, where the player must use their sword skills and fast reflexes to best their foe in a nail-biting bout to the death. Because the enemies are constantly buffing their defenses throughout the game, it means that Jin always feels like an underdog which perfectly fits into the context of the story.

2 Nioh

Game FAQ Difficulty Rating: 4/5

A lot of people compare Nioh to the Soulsborne games because of how difficult the game is, but the main difference is that while Dark Souls and Bloodborne have a much more methodical style to their gameplay, Nioh is all about fast-paced combat and quick-reflexes. While this means that it can be incredibly hard to actually predict enemy attacks since they’re so fast, it also doesn’t help that every attack deals a ton of damage, meaning that tanking a few hits is never an option.

Additionally, the bosses in Nioh are incredibly unforgiving, with the majority of them having one-hit kill moves, meaning that even if the player manages to maintain perfect concentration for an entire fight, a single slip up can cost it all. Things can become a little ridiculous by the end of the game when multiple bosses start appearing in a single area, which almost feels unfair in design because of how insanely strong they all are.

1 Bloodborne

Game FAQ Difficulty Rating: 4.13/5

Bloodborne isn’t just considered one of the hardest games developed by FromSoftware, but it’s often touted as being among the most challenging games ever made. As soon as the character creates their characters and wakes up in the sick room, they’ll be free to explore the dark and dreary city of Yharnam to their heart’s content. However, because the streets are packed full of horrific monsters who are often much faster and stronger than the Hunter, it means that the player can be killed with not more than just a few hits.

Players will need to make use of all the tools and mechanics at their disposal in order to take down even the most basic enemies, with the parry being a particularly important technique that can make bosses far more manageable, so long as the player is skilled enough to pull it off, that is. The level design also often feels like it’s designed against the player, with ranged enemies often being situated on high-up balconies and rooftops so that they can snipe the player from afar with deadly precision. Bloodborne wouldn’t be anywhere near as beloved if it didn’t retain this level of challenge, but it’s certainly not for the faint of heart.

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