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@Crimson Idol, I was just pleasantly surprised by how much they added and changed! I knew that the island would get some upgrades, but I thoroughly enjoyed the additions of the overworld "mini-games" and side quests... and did NOT expect the story and dialogues to change the way they did. I'm glad they made Olia more likeable

There was SO much that changed between the versions. They explained why they couldn't just patch it here, and how it was actually a concern for them.

Finished up another game today: Earthlock is an improvement on the earlier Earthlock: Festival of Magic. I highly applaud the developers of this game for making improvements to this game. They originally released this game late 2016 after being in development for several years. Lack of funding, lack of time, and many other things along the way led to the release of a slightly underwhelming game. However, after gaining revenue from their initial game sales, they were able to reinvest in development and added back in many of the things they had to cut. They also added things based on the players' suggestions. When they re-released the game earlier this year, they made it free for anyone who had bought the original game. Who says all game devs are greedy?Having purchased the original game just before they removed it from the PlayStation Store, I was able to see just how much of an improvement was made between the two games. The changes, though mostly subtle, have a huge effect on the player experience. The story follows Amon, an orphaned scavenger that was adopted by his "Uncle" Benjo. After the duo pilfers a very important artifact from the ruins of an old temple, they get forced into a much bigger plot that involves the entire empire. Along the way they meet Gnart, a hogbunny scholar that serves as the main healer for the party, Olia, the party's spear-weilding badass tank, Ive, a military school cadet, Taika, the elemental-powered storm dog, and PAT, the stat-boosting robot. One of the most interesting aspects of the game is how the battle system is set up. Each character has two stances which offer their own unique abilities. For example, one of Amon's stances allows him to use a long-range cannon that can deal some major damage while his other allows him to use thief abilities to steal from enemies or make him invisible to attacks. Additionally, you can pair up characters, and each pairing offers the characters distinct advantages like gaining immunity to certain elements or making healing items more effective. There is almost always an optimal party set up for each boss; once you know this set-up, the boss battles become trivial.... but be prepared to die a couple times before figuring out what party is optimal. The game is also a treat for people who are true game completionists rather than simply trophy list completionists. In order to complete the trophy list, you have to do almost everything the game has to offer. You have trophies for getting max levels and max bonds for all characters and character pairings. You have to complete the bestiary. You have to grow all plants (which provide you with materials to synthesize healing items and ammo for long-range weapons), you have to grow all animal trees, you have to go on all map hunts (which allow you to dig up items necessary for forging new weapons-- which you have to create one each for a trophy). Even if some sort of action doesn't directly link to a trophy, it will indirectly link to the trophy Well Traveled as you will get various mementos from talking to certain people, reading library books, releasing crows from their cages, and all sorts of other things that you wouldn't otherwise think to do. I think this game would be a delightful addition to anyone's collection. It is very reminiscent of JRPGs, despite being made by a Norwegian studio, but lacks the "anime style" character design, which a lot of JRPG detractors use as their reason for disliking a game. It has everything from slapstick humor to assassination attempts to a pining love story. There are also quite a few parallels to Star Wars...

Just finished Earthlock which counts for: --Hardcore requirement --- you grow plants in a garden and harvest from them, and you also catch barnacles to have them produce elemental cores, bugs that pollinate your plants, release crows from captivity to join you on your island, and grow "animal trees" as well which produce owls, frogs, kittens, etc --Wouldn't have played anything soon --- I played the original Earthlock earlier this year and wasn't in any rush to play this "revised" version Here's the plat image; For anyone still looking for a game, this is a pretty good one. A little history on the game-- the developers had released Earthlock: Festival of Magic a while back and, after realizing they could have done better with the game, actually re-released it as Earthlock and let anyone who had purchased the original game have it for free (finally a non-greedy dev!). The improvements to the game include filling plot holes as well as adding in some fun side quests that make the trophies feel like less of a chore. The game is a bit open-ended, so I'm hoping for a sequel.

In AZ, we have a local chain called Fallout Games and when I was in college, I use to go to Flashback Games when I was in college. Additionally, there are different used media stores that carry a lot more than video games. There's Bookmans, which focuses mostly on books. There's also Zia, which focuses more on music and movies, and apparently has a couple locations in South NV. And there's also Half-Price Books, focus which has locations in various states.

As an alternate thing... If you're in the market for a new phone and having a Night mode would improve your quality of life, try the Google Pixel 2. It has it as an option without having to download any apps (and is a great phone overall)

Definitely always down for hiking/spelunking/exploring with new friends! And thanks! I'll take all the luck I can get at this point with my competition having outpaced me at this juncture 😅

Finally got some more points on the board with Child of Light and Shining Resonance Refrain. @Zolkovo and I have completed the same amount of games at this juncture (9) but he's about 3x ahead with points. I need to step up my gaming! Some brief reviews of the games that I played: Child of Light has you play as the Princess Aurora; she wakes up in an alternate world knowing that her father is on the verge of death and the lives of the people in her kingdom are in danger from a natural disaster. You initially travel through this world only trying to find a way back to your kingdom, but throughout her adventures, Aurora meets various people and creatures who also need her help; Aurora, being the benevolent person that she is, helps everyone she comes across and makes friends that decide to fight alongside her. Simply a beautiful, wonderful game. I had the pleasure to play this on the Vita a while ago and fell in love with it due to the music and visuals, and the visuals were certainly enhanced when getting to play it on the PS4 on my TV. The ambiance of this game is perfect if you're having a stressful time as it sucks you right in and makes you forget about everything else around you (which is exactly what I needed right now as my work has been leaving me drained). The gameplay can be described as an RPG with adventure elements, with the battle system being turn-based. The game also has minor puzzle elements to it, but they are all quite easy. This game is definitely one of my go-to examples for why people should pay attention to games without platinums, and I recommend it to everyone. Shining Resonance Refrain is a remaster of Shining Resonance, a game which was released on the PS3 only in Japan. It follows the story of Yuma, a young man that is the vessel for The Shining Dragon, an entity that has fought on the behalf of mankind but has fearsome power that needs to be controlled. Two different kingdoms are after Yuma's power-- the Lombardian Empire, which seeks to force Yuma to use his powers through cruel experiments, and Astoria, which seeks to have Yuma help of his own free will. This game gives you two options up front-- you can play the game in "Original Mode" or "Refrain Mode". The only difference is that "Refrain Mode" offers you two additional characters (and scenarios for them) which were only available in the original PS3 game as DLC characters. The only reason to forego them and play the Original Mode first is if you don't want minor spoilers as these are two of the main antagonists in the game (and their scenarios sometimes reveal plot points). From a trophy hunter's perspective, you'll want to start on Refrain Mode as there are several trophies tied to this one; the trophy list does a good job at making you aware of this for 3 trophies, but some of the most grind-worthy trophies require these characters as well despite it not being specified in the descriptions. I personally started out on Original Mode thinking that I'd get all the grindy trophies in that play through and breeze through the second run to get the remaining trophies; after realizing that the grindy trophies require the additional characters (about halfway through the story), I restarted the game on Refrain. The battle scheme reminds me a lot of the Tales Of games... you enter into battle with an enemy you see on-screen, which will then pull in more enemies for a larger battle. You have the ability to fully move around the battle map while walloping on the enemies with a combination of regular attacks which you can chain together and then continue the chains together with special attacks o or magic that use MP called Forces. You also have the ability to call forth The Shining Dragon during battle as well as sing various songs through a special ability called B.A.N.D. which will increase attacks, defense, elemental resistances, etc. Some of the battles can be challenging, so if you aren't into the fighting system, you should choose the lower difficultly setting when you start your game as you can't change it during your play through. I did try certain battles out on the lower difficulty to see how much easier it was, but it wasn't really noticeably less challenging. The other big aspect of this game is that you are trying to grow your bonds with all your party members by hanging out with them before bedtime or taking them out on dates around town. These events usually give some fun insight into whichever character you're dating. Increasing affection through hanging out or going on dates is critical as each character has their own individual ending. The game is decent, though I don't see much replay value in it. It doesn't have a NG+ mode, and the story is only a couple ranks above Mediocre. Definitely wish I had started on Refrain Mode... and could have probably waited for a price reduction on the game rather than pre-ordering it. I'll probably be on the lookout for any future Shining titles... but only after they go on sale.

Popped Shining Resonance Refrain! One down, four to go!

Yes, they do need a platinum to count. @NetEntity and I need to find something else... I was just looking at games in my backlog when I saw Uncanny Valley and could have sworn it had a plat Guess it's Unholy Heights for me instead!

Level 20 Child of Light (PS4) Master Oculist Craft Oculi

I've got Shining Resonance Refrain all primed up with one last trophy to pop once school starts.... maybe I'll get Atelier Shallie Plus geared up as well. I always did like to look at the class syllabus ahead of time and do all the reading...