eigen-space

Platinum #86 - Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon Party Like It's 2024, 36.66% Rarity Difficulty - 3/10 , Time Spent - ~10 Hours , Enjoyment 7.5/10 An evil sorceress has stolen all the dragon eggs in order to use their magical power... who better to go up against this evil than Spyro and friends? Spyro 3 offers some changes from the prior two titles, mostly by way of introducing new characters to play, each with their own special set of abilities/controls. Definitely a way to keep the game feeling fresh when you're pretty much doing all the same things from the previous game (collecting gems and eggs, completing mini-games, flaming/bashing easy enemies). Some of the mini-games in this game were a bit difficult, such as some of the skateboarding challenges and races in the flying levels. Thankfully this game doesn't make you get a true 100% in order to get the platinum, otherwise I may have found it frustrating. However, as I am a completionist at hear, I am a bit disappointed that you don't need a true 100% as you did in the other two games. Maybe the devs did realize that it was a harder game in general. Regardless, great trilogy that definitely goes down as a gaming classic.

Any Tales Of game, particularly Graces, Xillia, or Berseria (which I see you've started). These all have immersive worlds and stories, and will take you at least 60+ hours to complete. I also highly recommend the Zero Escape Trilogy. It's the only game that's ever had me calling out of work so that I could continue playing. The only thing with these is that they're not terribly long (maybe 10-20 hours a piece) and are only good if you don't use a guide to solve the puzzles (though I do recommend using one so that you can get all the different endings).

Platinum #85 - Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage Ripto's Remorse, 40.69% Rarity Difficulty - 2.5/10 , Time Spent - ~10 Hours , Enjoyment 8.5/10 Following Spyro into the world of Avalar where Ripto is wrecking havoc on the domain's creatures.... Yet another great remaster! At first I couldn't remember if I had played this game as a child, but after playing through several levels I definitely remembered various things about the game, though it still felt fresh so that's a good sign for replay-ability! Fun platformer that has a lot of the same elements as the first entry in the series-- gem collection, easy enemies to flame or headbutt, flying levels etc. One thing this game introduces is Orb Challenges, which is basically just a bunch of minigames, like playing ice hockey or follow-the-leader type games. None of the content is particularly difficult as the game is marketed toward children, and it even feels a bit easier than its predecessor.

Platinum #84 - Spyro the Dragon Gnasty's Demise, 52.93% Rarity Difficulty - 3/10 , Time Spent - ~12 Hours , Enjoyment 8/10 Everyone's favorite Purple Dragon is on a mission to free dragons and treasure after being put under a curse by the evil Gnasty Gnorc. When I picked up the game, I was worried that this might have been something that I only remembered as being a fun, good game (and 8-year-old me had much lower expectations), but it turns out that it wasn't just "nostalgia glasses" that made me feel like it was good. It truly is a greatly enjoyable game, and I think even a first-timer would feel that way. This is also a prime example of what a remaster should be like-- greatly updated graphics, few (if any) changes to the content, glitch-free (or at least I didn't encounter any), and smooth controls/gameplay. Not that I can clearly remember what the original was like as I haven't played it for two decades, but this remaster definitely feels like the game was released for the PS4. Nothing about the game was terribly challenging. All the collectibles were easily found thanks to Sparx's treasure detection, and even "hidden" parts of levels weren't too hard to find thanks to the map (which I think was added for the remaster, but not 100% sure). You can definitely tell that this is a children's game from the ease that you can defeat enemies-- basically you just watch them for a couple seconds to see what their attack is like, and then you flame/charge them, and most of them are non-aggressive attackers that will only lash out once you get close (but usually don't attack quickly enough before you get a flame out). Some parts of the game do take a bit of skill, particularly when it comes to accessing the secret parts of the map through the use of the supercharge ramps.... and the dreaded flying levels. Oh how I hated those... you basically have to perfectly execute a speedway-type level in order to get all that level's treasure, and it isn't a cakewalk; definitely took me at least 10 tries per level to get it right, and probably 40 attempts for my most trying level. Overall, great game. I'm excited to play #2, which is one that I didn't get a chance to play as a child.

A bit hard to pick guides for this year as the guides I used throughout 2019 were from years past, but some of them caught my eye: Exceptional Walkthrough Guide AND Exceptional use of Formatting: Persona 5 Walkthrough -- This game is daunting, which is why it is still in my backlog. However, this guide makes me much less wary of the game. The use of color, section headers, bolding, image placement, tables, etc in this guide also makes it a pleasure to go through and not as daunting as some other beastly trophy guides. Exceptional Gameplay Guide: Final Fantasy IX Rank S Guide -- Having already played this game, I WISH this guide existed when I was going for the platinum. The treasures in this game can be easy to pass by, and quite a few of them are missable. Having this guide as a companion to the game makes things a lot easier on the player. Exceptional Use of Original Content: Hollow Knight -- This trophy guide has excellent zone maps which seem like they'll be rather useful in conjunction with the descriptions. I look forward to using this guide when it comes time for me to play this game. Overall Game Guide: Dragon Quest XI -- This is one of the few guides I listed that I actually used this year, and it made the game pretty easy to play through. Some of the things in this game are not that intuitive, and this guide presents methods for getting all trophies that make the game seem rather trivial.

Piece of Cake Award Jazzpunk -- Really didn't play anything terribly easy this year, but this game is the closest it gets. Most of the trophies were in plain sight, if not directly tied to the story. With the help of the trophy guide here on PSNP, there was no challenge to the game whatsoever... well, apart from striving not to puke. The visuals in the game definitely made me a bit queasy. It's Like Dark Souls Tales of Xillia 2 -- I started this game over 2 years ago and it was haunting me in my backlog ever since. I had played through the game and gotten all the easy trophies, but had left it half incomplete due to the nature of some of the trophies. A lot of the trophies were simply a grind-- getting gald, raising levels, performing skills hundreds of times-- but some of them were a bit more challenging, like getting all 60+ battle titles, defeating the EX dungeon, and beating some of the special enemies in the coliseum. Definitely was a test of skill and patience. Bad Ass Award God of War -- There were many points in this game that made me feel like a bad ass, particularly when it came to the special kills of each of the foes. I mean, several of them (particularly the Wulver execution) made me cringe. However, defeating the final Valkyrie was something that took a lot of skill that I didn't know I had as I typically don't play games like this. That truly made me feel like a winner! Grind of the Year The Witch and the Hundred Knight -- Though none of the trophies are typically what you would think of when you hear the word "grind" (ie, no super-leveling, no amassing tons of money, no kill counts, etc), the game in and of itself is a grind. Every part of the game, it feels like you have to amass several more levels in order to move through it easily. I must have grinded 5-10 levels each story arc in order to move forward. The game also has very repetitive maps, "battling", and enemies, so it regularly feels like you're just doing the same thing over and over, which is like a grind to me. King of the Internet/ Worst Online Experience Didn't play anything with an online component this year, so nothing to report here. Sleeper Hit of the Year The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince -- Though this isn't my true sleeper hit (that belongs to my Best Plat of the Year game), it is a close second. Everything about this game was enjoyable... from the music, to the story, to the art work, to the controls, to the puzzles. I would be hard-pressed to find another title that was as flawless as this one. Very glad that I decided to go on Ebay to buy a physical copy of this game after missing out on ordering it regularly, as this game deserves to have a spot in my physical collection (and it was a collector's edition with some really awesome extras ). Biggest Bomb of the Year Okami -- Disclosure: I did not get the plat for this game so maybe I shouldn't be including it for these awards? But I'm going to anyway because I didn't really play anything else this year that was a disappointment. I really wanted to like this game... I mean, it has awesome art, a seemingly great story, and you get to play as a dog. What's not to like? Well, I thought the game dragged... I hated the fishing mini-game... the "voices" of the characters were f*cking annoying... I didn't really like the combat system... and I thought it should have ended after Really couldn't get past the fact that I wasn't halfway through the game and already bored/annoyed with it, so I decided not to torture myself anymore and resigned myself to a waning completion percentage for my profile. Best Trophy Image Fe -- None of the games I played this year had particularly phenomenal trophy art, but I liked Fe's trophies as a whole. They matched with some of the hieroglyphic-style artwork present in the game, so I thought it was kind of cool. Worst Trophy Image Oceanhorn -- Oceanhorn just had some lazy trophies... just a diamond with a circle around it in different colors for the different levels of trophies. Other games I played also did the "one trophy, different colors" thing, but this was the laziest design out of all of them. Best Female Character Trails of Cold Steel 3 - Laura S. Arseid -- Laura will always be #1 in my heart so long as there are ToCS games to play. She is just as badass as ever, traveling the world while training folks in sword arts, and I hope that I get to see more of her as the game progresses (only about halfway done with the game at this point... pretty sure I'll platinum before the end of the year). Best Male Character Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight -- Junpei Iori -- I haven't played P3, but I did play P3Dan, and I love the character of Junpei. He reminds me of some of my closest friends-- a bit cocky but opens himself up to being the punch of many jokes. Love that kind of attitude. He also had some of the best dance moves, and the his songs are still stuck in my head months after finishing the game. Best Plat of the Year The Sexy Brutale -- Weird title, phenomenal game. Though it was probably the shortest platinum on my list this year, it also happened to be the best. I haven't ever played anything quite like this game, and the plot definitely surprised me in the end (something that is growing harder and harder to do with video games-- I can guess plot twists hours before they happen). Highly recommend this game to ANYONE, and I also recommend doing it without a guide, lest the fun be spoiled. Wurst Plat Ov Teh Yeer The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 -- To be fair, this game wasn't completely awful... I didn't really play anything this year that was utter garbage. This game just felt a little too long for a point-and-click, and the controls were sometimes a little bit wonky. It did have its redeeming qualities, and I wouldn't be opposed to playing the PS4 stack for a PSNP event (probably wouldn't touch it again otherwise), but it just wasn't great. Most Anticipated Platinum of 2020 So, my most anticipated platinum last year was Tales of Vesperia... which I never actually got around to playing this year 😅 But my most anticipated next year will be Tales of Arise. It doesn't have a hard release date yet, but if it's being released for the PS5, it will solidify my decision to be an early adopter of the platform, just as getting Tales of Zesteria for the PS4 was my reasoning for getting a PS4 (though certainly wasn't a day-one purchase, whereas this might be).