Games you've played the hell out of but never beaten

[Pirate1019]

A friend of mine lost my only copy of the password to get therewhen I lent the game to him. I was devastated.

Those password systems were such a bad idea.

[Softdrink 117]

DOJ. And Ibara, but that one is getting closer and closer.

For a long time I was like this with Disgaea-- in the first game the biggest obstacle was lvl 9999 Prinny Baal, but he *eventually* went down once I had transmigrated enough and stacked some 19998 Gladiators in my Yosh. In the second game, LoC Prinny Baal is still an obstacle, despite having a perfect level 200 Yosh. Need to farm for specialists, and I just don't have that kind of time anymore.

For a very long time I was also stuck at the last mission of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. The final stage is incredibly brutal. I ended up beating it when I was just messing around-- I tried playing a mad rush strategy, and one thing led to another.

Still stuck:
R-Type Command. Surprisingly good strategy game with very, very competent AI. To the point where the last few levels of the second cycle drove me absolutely crazy. I kept getting within one turn of clearing, only to run out of time with the last surviving enemy about to die. This happened five times before I just decided that it wasn't worth retrying over and over and over again. This might sound like a lame excuse, but given that a single turn from the enemy AI can take several minutes to process, the last couple levels literally took hours to run through. Absolutely miserable.

Okage: Shadow King. Charming PS2 RPG with an amazingly distinctive visual style. Made it to the last segment of the last dungeon, but had to stop playing because of school and completely forgot everything about how the game worked. When I came back to it, I got utterly destroyed.

Dr. Muto. Weird, but interesting and mostly enjoyable PS2 platformer with some absolutely brutal difficulty spikes, including the last boss. I've played through the whole game multiple times (after a memory card failure), but have never been able to beat him.

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Two separate playthroughs, both of which got most/all of the pieces of the Triforce. But I just got so wound up in sidequests that I never bothered to actually finish the game...

[Jonst]

Mushihimesama...

[7711]

Most TGM games althought I have a feeling this is about to change.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The original Diablo. Co-op (be it on PC or PSX) is magnificent with a reliable person, but we've never seen the final boss. Not that it matters a bit. Now in singleplayer someone seems missing.
I can see it also being the case with Kuri Kuri Mix/The Adventures of Cookie & Cream in a few years (albeit for a different reason - singleplayer is much harder).

[CStarFlare]

Final Fantasy X. I played the US version until right at the end, then bought International. I've beaten Penance. I just never beat the final boss.

I sold my copy, so it looks like it will stay that way.

[Austin]

R-Type II.

F$*# that game.

[broken harbour]

Einhander
Darius Gaiden
Fallout 3 (After 127 hours I gave up, did the main quest, but never 'finished' the game and visited every location, etc...)
Raiden I / II

[Ruldra]

I'm sure I could've beaten Final Fight by now if I had been using savestates, but I want to see how long it'll take if I don't use them.

[trap15]

How could you stand to play Zero Wing for that long with the fucking flashing

[Ruldra]

Never bothered me

[broken harbour]

Einhander
Fallout 3 (After 127 hours I gave up, did the main quest, but never 'finished' the game and visited every location, etc...)

I understand that people have different definitions for different things, but I usually consider beating a game as something the mainly involves the main storyline. I am bit a completionist, so I can understand where you are coming from with Fallout 3, but if it helps in the future, relaxing your definition of beating a game might give you more time to try out different experiences.

Also, Einhander takes less than two hours to beat, what the hell happened?

I loved every minute of Fallout 3 and wanted to fully explore the world, but it was the only game I played for an entire winter, and wanted to move on.
You can finish the main quest in that game in maybe 10 hours if you rush it, but it wouldn't be the proper experience.
I've heard people have spent 300 hours on Fallout 3.

Einhander is just so bloody difficult for me.

[shmuppyLove]

Blazing Star

[rapoon]

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. add me to the list. could never get his pattern down.
Blaster Master
RayForce

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. add me to the list. could never get his pattern down.

Don't feel bad. He's brutal, and quite demoralizing. He's actually easier once you get past the first 1:30 because it's only during that time that he uses the 1hko uppercuts constantly. I've beaten it, but only because I used to play it as a kid and get stuck there, so when I finally got back into it I was obsessively determined...

I've played a lot of PSO, but I've never gotten a level 200 character yet... don't stick with 'em for long enough in Ultimate...

I just realized I've played Zelda games a lot off and on, but the only one (literally) I've beaten is Link's Awakening. I keep meaning to beat the first (both rounds) and second game but never getting around to it.

GTA San Andreas too. I keep getting distracted and having fun running around to do the missions, some of which are tedious or finicky. Haven't actually beaten it yet in terms of completing the entire storyline missions.

[broken harbour]

About Einhander, I guess it was unfair of me to criticize you on that game, considering it was my first shmup.

Not at all, I suck at shmups, I enjoy them, but I'm not that good at them. I can barley get through the first level of Muchi Muchi pork with out getting hit.
I don't have the time to get really good at them, but I like them alot.