Ala-Arska

Bound by Flame (PS3) Platinum Trophy Win all of the trophies in Bound by Flame Her career as a naturist adventurer was, unsurprisingly, short-lived. First impression is always right. Except when it isn't. My very first impression, when playing Bound by Flame, was "wow, this is one ugly looking, badly controlling piece of junk." I immediately regretted starting said abomination, and thought nothing but quitting it. Aaaaand that's when the first trophy popped. Now it was too late, I had to start pushing through towards the rest of 41 trophies. With a sour taste in my mouth I was dying constantly, camera would play tricks on me, the game was too hard on me. Wah wah waa, I had baby tantrums left & right! But, suddenly, a miracle of sorts happened. The game began to make sense to me. Combat turned more fluid, camera would stay put. Praise be! I would use hit and run tactics, let my ally take the heat. Stab 'em in the back, watch me win all day every day Music sounded good from the get-go. My tone-deaf ear would pick notes from greats like Bionic Commando (NES) and Final Fantasy IX. Isn't it weird? Story was nothing amazing, but having a demon possessing you did give a lot of humorous dialogue. People around the hero swore a lot, and the amount of sarcastic comments was staggering. And like a poor man's Dragon Age, it had some awkward seduction lines as well (which made everything all the more awesome, to be honest) Overall Bound by Flame is an average C+, but there's something bad that's really good about it. Well, the many cheap deaths are just bad

Tales of Zestiria (PS4) Master of Zestiria This is proof that you've obtained all trophies. We're thrilled you liked the game so much, and we hope to meet you again in future titles! The only trophy screenshot this game allows to have, and it's Claptrap's worst enemy...stairs. Well over a month with this game. Feels almost like a hiatus. And now it's finally over, goshdarnit! I'll say this right off the bat: Tales of Zestiria was a disappointment for me. It's the changes that alienated this dude Combat system is highly different than what I'm accustomed to in previous Tales of...titles. Let's start with the camera position... Characters either fight in third person mode, or in weird angles. Sometimes you can't even see what's going on due to cameraman passing out Then there's the combos. More than often my member would continue hacking thin air after missing once, even if I've stopped pressing buttons. And that's something that really pissed me off a lot. There's no fluid movement or mixing different artes, it's all just blind luck if anything connects Leveling up means jack shit. Now it's up to fusing equipment with different skills, if you want to survive. F**k this, I'll take grinding EXP any day, old school! It's stupid and illogical when you're over one hundred levels better than the enemy and the monster still occasionally takes 0 (zero!) damage from you. F**ksh*t. Some of the trophies related to fusing and getting a certain amount of skills suck ass. I hated the whole micromanaging system here, and the trophies as well But still, as sucky and flawed this pain-in-the-arse-of-a-game can be, it does have some redeeming qualities. Music is pretty darn good. Even when farming Gald or equipment for hours upon hours, I didn't feel the need to mute my TV. I liked the soundtrack quite a bit Characters are interesting, funny and have a history and a story arc. Tales of...games usually succeed in this department, this game is no exception. Story doesn't blow, let's just put it that way. Lot's of watchable cut scenes, and the animated scenes were always a welcome addition Still much left unsaid about the good and bad qualities of Zestiria, but they're more or less nitpicking on my behalf. This is now my 7th Tales of...game completed, not many left. Zestiria is in the bottom half of my catalogue. Still better than Dawn of the New World, though

Yomawari: Midnight Shadows Shadows at Midnight Earned all other trophies This almost looks like the fetus boss from Earthbound. Or not. Ha, ha, ha, ha, staying alive, staying alive! Alrighty then, so an isometric survival horror with cutesy graphics and Japanese ghost elements this time. Yup, just pissed my pants. Yomawari: Midnight Shadows actually got me a few times. With some low jump scares, for sure, but also with building tension through the roof. I was suckered in with this one because of eye-appealing graphics none too different from the golden 16-bit era. But it's actually f**king dark, man In short, it's a story of one kid girl looking for her friend in two small towns and their surroundings. At night with a flashlight. Surrounded by spirits. Each time an evil, murderous ghost (Jesusf**kingChristwhatthef**kisthat??!!!) is near, protagonist's heart beat grows faster, and faster. So will yours Oh, my poor ticker. I must've soiled myself a dozen times before the end credits. I did get used (and annoyed) to enemies eventually. I'm a brave trooper 😌 So yeah, as far as the atmosphere + story + creepiness goes, Y: MS deserves some serious praise. Sound department shines brightly as well. What brings the enjoyment down are the numerous cheap deaths. Enemy placement can be hopeless at times, and trial and error becomes the ruling power. It sucks a bag of diarrhea-plastered platypus schlongs to start from the same checkpoint over and over again, just because of insta-deaths overpower you Post-game item collecting takes far more effort than it should, too. Stupid mini quests to get stupid, useless flowers and rocks and poops and pisses. Other than those two huge annoyances, Midnight Shadows was a successful purchase. I might even try the first one, Night Alone, some day. Prob not If you're looking to revive your heart attacks from Silent Hill days, look no further. Yomawari scares, annoys and entertains all at once. Have fun dying

Cladun Returns: This is Sengoku! Platdun Returns: You Did It! Obtain all trophies for Cladun Returns: This is Sengoku! This particular Hydra took about 12 x 100 floors to finally appear. Thanks RNG! Hells Bells! Bee's knees! Ant's pants! If any game ever was a struggle, this was it! Only nine Platinum achievers before me and with approx 1.3% Ultra Rare, I knew it was going to be a pain in the ass And with no trophy guides or complete information about some trophies around, I was doing everything the hard way. I wanted to do this because a: I was craving for a roguelike RPG to tackle and b: I need some f**king Ultra Rares, dudes (and dudettes) Main 50 dungeons and extra 50 ones only take 10-20 hours to complete (very roughly), so no biggie there. Story is basic soul saving stuff, btw. Real fun begins after that. There are these so-called Rangeons, with 100 levels each. And of course no chance to save at any point, duh Neogeons rise enemy levels randomly with every floor. That you have to complete at least 4 times to get every color of last boss Hydra to spawn. But, since it's RNG based, you'll end up missing the last one over and over again. 12 runs it took me. Plus the failed runs and freezes. Yup, the game can freeze when you're changing floors or at the last goddamn floor. It happened to me twice, and I did almost cry. Almost. Trigeons are the same shit as Neogeons, but here enemies scale with you level and there's no warps. "Only" one or few runs required. Last compulsory Rangeon is the Deathgeon. Only 10 floors, but you'll be running those few random floors hundreds of times. Yay, boredom! Enemies there vary from lv ~1000 to 9999. With your max level 99, you'll be in some deep, deep shit. And you'll die...repeatedly. FML... So, what you'll want to do is raise all your resistance stats over 200 and become a motherf**king invincible destroyer of planets! I can't emphasize enough how grindy all this is. And examples above were just a tip of the ice berg. Collect everything and do everything, and more! As I mentioned before, story stuff only takes max 20 hours. Farming all and getting RNG-raped in the butthole took me extra 100+ hours! My poor ass... Relying on luck to get a certain colored boss to appear at the final floor of a 100 room trek suck major donkey balls. I lost faith in trophy hunting more than once. At least there's always music to help you pass the time. Muting the TV and listening to Springsteen, Judas Priest, Journey, Fleetwood Mac and co saved my soul. Cladun Returns: This is Sengoku! is a game that eats away your sanity, breaks your will and makes you hate all games...of course you'll want to play it now

Late Shift Platinum Trophy Acquire all trophies Surprisingly good. An interactive movie, much like The Bunker. Only better acted. The main reason why I didn't play (or watch, LOL) this sooner was the main image (same as Plat image). I thought that the main dude looks kind of ill in those shots and I didn't want to watch hours of that face Well, spoiler alert: he looks just normal and does a fine job in acting as well. What weirdos we humans are Plus points for having a setting in London. The British are coming and all that, I love England and hope they'll win the World Cup 🇬🇧 Late Shift is a swell combination of game and movie. A good way to spend a hung-over weekend. Film buffs! In an Adventure with Trophies

Cosmic Star Heroine (PS Vita) Heroine Achieve all possible trophies I'd rather have a Love Shield. The power of love with none of the arguments or thrown dishes. I've waited this port for a while now, since the PS4 version was pure 16-bit, nostalgic gold. This, I'll give silver at best. The game is still the same, but technical issues keeps me praising this one much. More on those later. Cosmic Star Heroine is a fast-ish paced RPG with SNES visuals. Gameplay owes hugely to greats Chrono Trigger and Secret of Evermore. Love those Style-wise it's futuristic cyberpunk, I guess. In many ways it looks and especially sounds like Blade Runner and its sequel. Again, much love Lots of references to games and films to be found. Particularly the police station level, which is a huge nod to Resident Evil 2, and this RE1 riff: I surely hope this isn't Chris' blood. About that Jill-sandwich we were talking about earlier... But, lo and behold, the devs had to drop the ball on this port. There's lag in menu and in walking, characters strut and jerk, load times are long. Sometimes the game even goes to an almost complete halt, having me praying it doesn't crash. Why is it so? It's a 16-bit game on Vita, ffs Random freezes do occur, and one constant one. Leveling to 50 with my main Alyssa and clicking Abilities caused a crash four times in a row Cosmic Star Heroine is a fantastic title, just not on handheld. If you do have the option to choose, play it on PS4. Vita is love, but not today folks