ShonenCat

 Platinum #103 - Under Defeat HD 

“A battle of unprecedented scale.”

It sure has been a while, but here I am with platinum one hundred and three  Recently a local friend asked me to co-op a shmup with him on Xbox so that he may pop all the achievements. That shump being Under Defeat. I’m slightly familiar with Under Defeat as an arcade game that was ported to Dreamcast. It’s quite known for it being the last game on the console… until it wasn’t anymore 😅 That rank then went to Triggerheart Exelica. As things are now, I’m sure even it isn’t considered the final Dreamcast game anymore  With the amount of homebrew projects and unreleased titles constantly surfacing, Dreamcast is going to live on for a long time 🙃 Getting back to Under Defeat, I was unaware this even had an HD port until my friend brought it to my attention. We popped all his achievements thanks to the 2-player mode, and in return.. I asked him to help me with the PS3 version 😛 For a shmup, it’s rather easy since you can unlock infinite continues by leaving the game idle in both modes for 8 hours each. Of course having a second player makes it go by more smoothly 😋 As long as you both don’t lose all your lives at the same time, it won’t set you back to a checkpoint 👌🏻

A couple of chicks destroying things in helicopters 🚁

For a shmup, Under Defeat is a bit unconventional but offers plenty of control styles to help make it feel more modern in its design. I recommend the dual stick layout since you’re most likely using a controller to get the job done 😋 It’s a short lived journey, all you must do is beat both Arcade Mode and New Order Mode on all three difficulties, making sure to activate extra mode once for Arcade and once for New Order out of those six playthroughs. There’s a few miscellaneous trophies here and there, but most should pop from natural gameplay. Not much else to say other than it was still fun to blow things up while rocking out to some otherwise decent tunes 😋 Hopefully one of these days I can muster the strength to tackle a more difficult shmup. But for those looking for a place to start, this would be a fine enough choice 😁

Final Results:

Completion Difficulty: 2 out of 10 💪🏻

Overall Enjoyment: 8 out of 10 ❤️

Uncommon 37.29% Completed in 1 day, 9 hours ⏱

Actual Time Playing: 3 hours, 33 minutes 🎮

Idle Time: 16 hours ⏳

 Platinum #102 - Soul Calibur II HD Online 

“A tale of souls and swords, eternally retold.”

Well technically Soul Calibur II HD already existed before this version did. It was called playing on Xbox Original in 720p  Must of been nice for those who could afford a display that could do it back in 2002. Alas, that is not the version I grew up with. I had a GameCube that generation, so naturally I had a GameCube copy. Unless you were there when this game first came out, it was thee fighting game for it’s time! Soul Calibur II would also be that title that popularized having guest characters in fighting games. Seriously, this was hype and nearly everyone owned it no matter which platform they had. I can recall back to the days of my youth and remembered seeing shots of it in Nintendo Power, but wasn’t quite grasping what the big deal was at first. It wouldn’t be until I played a demo kiosk inside of a K-Mart. I soon became a firm believer then  I saved nearly every dollar I had until I could afford a copy. The amount of hours spent on my original copy was astronomical, and I’ve faced many human opponents back then. Back when games had tons of unlockables and Little Caesars pizza tasted halfway decent 😋

Which brings us to today. This PS3 digital version has been delisted only recently. But a dear friend of mine was nice enough to let me download the game from his account and I got my opportunity to platinum it 😁 I probably should of bought it a long time ago, but never wanted to pay full price. I figured as long as I still had my GameCube copy, I’d be set. That much is true, but that trophy itch got the better of me  Going for the platinum wasn’t anything too tough for me. I cleaved my way through Weapon Master Mode using Nightmare as I usually do. That’s where a majority of the trophies come from is that mode. It serves as a pseudo adventure campaign of sorts. Earn gold, buy things, conquer the world map. Then play the other miscellaneous modes for clean up. 

A 2002 fighting game staple

It really takes me back. Even though plenty of other Soul Calibur games have released since then, I truly believe this one to be the biggest fan favorite. Its pick up and play nature makes it easy for even new players to grasp. For I find newer entries in the series harder for some people with with all the newly added mechanics. It doesn’t matter to me  Soul Calibur is a series I still follow, so chances are I’m going to play any of the games put in front of me. I don’t consider myself a master by any means  They’re just fun to play. But now I have platinums for the second, fifth and sixth entries in the series! Soul Calibur IV never got trophies and the first and third entries have yet to be rereleased, or even Soul Edge for that matter. Regardless, I’m ready and waiting! 😁 Thank you all for joining me on this quick trip down memory lane!

Final Results:

Completion Difficulty: 4 out of 10 💪🏻

Overall Enjoyment: 9 out of 10 ❤️

Uncommon 24.53% Completed in 2 days, 2 hours ⏱

Total Play Time: 13 hours, 38 minutes 🎮

Most Used Character: Nightmare

Newest 100% - Gran Turismo 6 ✅

Ayrton Senna Tribute DLC Complete

I’ve done it! I’ve managed to transcend my limits and achieve Ultra Instinct! I’m on fire, baby! 🔥 For the fiercest dragon currently on my trophy list has finally been slain 🐉 While I may have popped the platinum for Gran Turismo 6 well over a year and a half ago, the Ayrton Senna Tribute DLC left me utterly defeated from reaching that sweet, sweet 100% completion. Namely the fourth and final challenge it provides. The first three were doable enough, but this fourth challenge.. let me tell ya. It’s been my bane for a while now 🥲 Only recently have I decided to return to this and give it another go. It might have something to do with @AJ_Radio managing to overcome this challenge himself about a week ago. With him kind enough to share his car settings with me, a newfound determination resonated my soul. I figured if it worked for him, it’d work for me as well 🙃 I wanted nothing more than to overcome this feat and walk away saying “anything is possible!” So I tweaked those car settings and hit the track, this time to win it all.

Of course, it didn’t go as smoothly as I might have hoped. It’s been a while since I last played, so familiarizing myself with everything I once knew took some time. Bronze after bronze, but eventually I was getting silver each and every time 😁 My resolve told me this must be in the realm of possibility. I started hitting records in the 1:07:XX range nearly every time, and it was so aggravating that I couldn’t find where to shave off that less than a second I needed to reach gold. Looking up reference videos online didn’t help much, for almost everyone uses manual transmission… and I’m not about to learn that  Keeping on the road is hard enough  Then I found a video with someone using automatic, and even had the driving lines turned on! This helped me tremendously, for I was able to gauge the best points at where to brake and how fast I should be going at each turn. Soon enough, I hit a new record of 1:07:191 but needed to be under 1:07:169. Agh! So close!
 

But I didn’t quit! I knew I was as razor sharp as I was ever going to be and knew I would prevail if I could manage to keep ahead of my ghost. Luckily, the slowest point for that ghost was near the beginning. It’s that down slope, I’m telling ya 😅 If I could perfect that part just once and put everything else I’ve learned to good use.. surely I would catch that wave and ride it all the way to the end. I felt it in my core, I had the run going, no way I was going to fall off, and there it was! The gold was mine! Coming in at 1:06:733! Dragon slain! Big thanks to @AJ_Radio for sharing those car settings once again and passing his determination onto me 😄 After about 8 hours of trying, I was able to do it too! 👍🏻 But I had one last piece to motivate me. I said if I was able to do this, I would make enchiladas for dinner instead of my usual dry protein and vegetables. And yes, they were the best damn enchiladas I ever had 😇 Thank you all for attending this very extraordinary moment in my most recent days of trophy hunting!

Final Results:

Completion Difficulty: 6 out of 10 💪🏻

Overall Enjoyment: 8 out of 10 ❤️

Ultra Rare 2.69% Completed in 4 years, 3 months 🐌

Favorite Course: Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit 80s 

Accumulated Distance for Favorite Course: 1,085 miles 🤯