ExistentialSolid's "Please Destroy Me" Detour

[Xenoblast91]

Go ahead for GT Sport. I planning to beat it along with Uncharted 4 as those came with God of War bundle. So, kinda free platinums despite U4 came back free last year. Anyway, I'll like to see your methods and try to match our playrun to see different results in that game. Still daunts me but I must do it, LOL. 

 

Like the new poll system. I think is fair and makes a little playoff there as should be. Can't wait to see the next chapter ?! By the way, what are you going to play or do in the meantime of the following week? This is giving me feeling that you're creating your own cult in order to later perform on Twitch or something and then having us all following you as your entourage, LMAO. 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by Xenoblast91

[ExistentialSolid]

Poll #2 is now underway! 

How is the poll going to work?
Polling is going to be conducted in two phases! In phase 1, which will be taking place at the time of posting, all 17 of the current nominees will be assembled together in one comprehensive list. Each player will be able to vote for as many of these nominees as they would like! The goal of this phase is to roughly gauge the level of interest that each game on the nominee list generates. The three nominees that earn the most votes in phase 1 of the poll will move on to phase 2!

Phase 1 will begin as soon as the poll goes live on 1/18 and will end on 1/23 at 7:00 PM EST (UTC-5)!

During phase 2, the three nominees that received the most votes in phase 1 will battle it out to become the next game featured in this challenge!  Each player will only be able to cast a single vote for whichever nominee they have the most interest in. The game that receives the most votes during phase 2 will be the ultimate winner of the poll and, like Ikaruga, will receive regular progress updates until the game is either completed or manages to destroy me!

Phase 2 will begin as soon as the poll goes live on 1/24 and will end on 1/27 at 7:00 PM EST (UTC-5)!

Players are more than welcome to discuss their selections in this thread but please be respectful of one another! If there are any questions or concerns, please let me know!

[ExistentialSolid]

14 hours ago, Xenoblast91 said:

Go ahead for GT Sport. I planning to beat it along with Uncharted 4 as those came with God of War bundle. So, kinda free platinums despite U4 came back free last year. Anyway, I'll like to see your methods and try to match our playrun to see different results in that game. Still daunts me but I must do it, LOL. 

 

Like the new poll system. I think is fair and makes a little playoff there as should be. Can't wait to see the next chapter ! By the way, what are you going to play or do in the meantime of the following week? This is giving me feeling that you're creating your own cult in order to later perform on Twitch or something and then having us all following you as your entourage, LMAO. 

 

 

Sounds fun! Sharing strategies would help me too as I have little experience with sim racing games and could definitely use the help from players that know what they're doing. Tuning is something I've never really bothered with for example (since I have no idea what's going on) but I know it can make a world of difference in the hands of the right players.

Thanks, I'm glad to hear that you like the new polling system! ? I haven't really decided what I'm going to do in the meantime but I think I'll take the opportunity to relax and work on some easier games and side stuff. Entourage assembly will have to wait for another day. ?

Edited January 18, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[JohnlMatrix]

In Phase 1 of the 2nd Poll I chose Deadbolt, VVVVVV and Splasher.

 

I chose.....

 

-Deadbolt because I suggested it and would like to see somebody share their journey of beating it, given the horrible aiming mechanism on console.

-VVVVVV because I like platformers and would certainly like to see status updates from someone trying to go for it.

-Splasher because some have stated that it is harder than SMB and I wanna play it myself (already on hard drive). Would be cool to share tips while going for the plat. Maybe I'll play it at a later date, in which case coming back to this thread and being able to read someone's take on the struggle might help.

Edited January 19, 2021 by JohnlMatrix

[Eqill5]

GT Sport is a great platinum to go for, while I don’t think it fits the criteria for your thread it still presents a mighty challenge. And this is because of two online trophies - Pole Positions and Wins.

 

As the events change weekly, you might not always be comfortable with a track/car combination but if you find one you lap well on it’s a great start. What I would do is watch the qualifying replay for the fastest person that week and pay close attention to:

 

- Braking points

- Corner entry speed

- Apex speed

- Corner exit speed

- Gearing

- Top speed on straights etc

 

I would then try and replicate the line they follow throughout a lap, connecting corners, when to turn in and how wide they go on exit. I found my lap times drastically reduced watching someone fast do it and adjusting my driving to see where I was losing time.

 

When I was going for these trophies the most important thing was to be clean and consistent. Learning to be precise and to repeat this process over and over, lap after lap. This in turn helps you in the race. If you can lap faster and more cleanly than those behind you’ll create yourself a bigger gap but also gain places from those in front if they start making mistakes under pressure!

 

Half a second is half a second ? sometimes I would win or lose races by fractions and everything you do in each race counts.
 

Not to derail the thread but I just wanted to give some tips that I found helpful on my journey and in turn may help @ExistentialSolid & @Xenoblast91 or anyone else that might like to attempt it! Also, vote placed in Poll 2 ?

[ExistentialSolid]

1 hour ago, Eqill5 said:

[...]

Half a second is half a second  sometimes I would win or lose races by fractions and everything you do in each race counts.
 

Not to derail the thread but I just wanted to give some tips that I found helpful on my journey and in turn may help @ExistentialSolid & @Xenoblast91 or anyone else that might like to attempt it! Also, vote placed in Poll 2 

Don't worry about derailing the thread, tips are always welcome! ?

Closely analyzing the replays of the top weekly players sounds like a great idea and I'll be sure to take your advice if I play GT Sport in the future, especially since you've given me an idea of what to look out for! 

While it's not quite the same as replay analysis, I have a lot of fun learning track routing by racing the ghosts of better players. I'd imagine that a lot of the same fundamentals of replay analysis apply but you get to see tangible evidence of each and every mistake you make. If the ghost starts blazing ahead of you after a tricky turn, then you've likely chosen a poor braking point or driven a sloppy line or failed to account for your speed at each section of the turn. Likewise, if you start gaining on the ghost, then you've successfully made an optimization. String together enough of these optimizations and you achieve dominance over your opponents.

I really enjoyed grinding for cleaner and faster lap times in games like Trackmania Turbo and Crash Team Racing so it's nice to hear that the online in games like GT Sport reward players that meticulously grind for better lap times. I'm excited to give it a try sometime!

Thank you for voting! ? 

[Xenoblast91]

7 hours ago, Eqill5 said:

Half a second is half a second  sometimes I would win or lose races by fractions and everything you do in each race counts.
 

Not to derail the thread but I just wanted to give some tips that I found helpful on my journey and in turn may help @ExistentialSolid & @Xenoblast91 or anyone else that might like to attempt it! Also, vote placed in Poll 2 

 

Thank you very much for such kind words! I'm planning to play this game before any potential server shutdown come in the next years. Really want to get rid of this as I see it really daunting. Not to say that I'm afraid of difficuilty games, but the time required sometimes stresses me enough to stop enjoying the game; however I'm really tough and I want more the 100% relief than just relying on an incomplete game though. 

 

Honestly, the last racing game I tried was Driveclub (which actually void my account for a 99.41% for ever) and despite I found it fun, the grind was real. I'm not so used to simulator games, even more to racing simulator ones! Also, I don't knwo if DC match such description, but overall I like this genre. I've played almost every single Mario Kart game out there (incluiding the new 8 Deluxe, thanks to my cousin, LOL) and even those are just casual racing titles, I enjoy them a lot and when I was a kid, I beat all the ghosts in trials modes and the like. So yeah, GT Sport can be challenging, but even the requirements for the 2 trophies -the wins and pole positions- doesn't seem so bad at first glance... I don't consider myself a highly skilled player, but just an average one with a midset that says "heck, this ain't going to beat me; this' gonna fall!". My strategy and approach, though could be rough and raw, would be based on doing at least 2 or 3 wins with those positions per week. A very slow grind in all truth, but don't like neither feel the need to rush a game in order to beat it in less than 3 months. Doesn't stick with my playstyle. 

 

However, I'll take those heads-up in mind when I grab the wheel once again and see how pro or noob I can be, LOL. And congrats by mastering those events, as you mention! I think only a very few are able to get that Platinum, and of course it will feature in my profile soon  Also, I doubt that Solid would even care to try it as this challenge is priority for him (which I'll be looking with great interest *insert Palpatine meme here*) but in an any potential swift change of events, I'll be more glad to play with! Of course, if the server even match us in first place xD. 

[Eqill5]

15 hours ago, ExistentialSolid said:

While it's not quite the same as replay analysis, I have a lot of fun learning track routing by racing the ghosts of better players. I'd imagine that a lot of the same fundamentals of replay analysis apply but you get to see tangible evidence of each and every mistake you make.

Precisely, ghosting is another fantastic method of improving. You mentioned tuning in an earlier post, while it can be very helpful it’s can also be confusing to dive into as every car on every track would require different fine adjusting to make small differences. Above all I believe race-craft to be a number one priority.

 

11 hours ago, Xenoblast91 said:

-snip-

Don’t stress if you don’t make your targets right away, I know some players that took until after their 70th races to achieve their first win. They do come eventually! However if you find a race you’re doing really well in - stick with it and use it as a potential event to farm in! I wish you the best with GT Sport!

 

Back on topic though, is there any game in the poll you don’t want to win the vote? @ExistentialSolid 

[ExistentialSolid]

23 hours ago, Eqill5 said:

Precisely, ghosting is another fantastic method of improving. You mentioned tuning in an earlier post, while it can be very helpful it’s can also be confusing to dive into as every car on every track would require different fine adjusting to make small differences. Above all I believe race-craft to be a number one priority.

That's a relief. Tuning sounds like a tedious process anyway so the more I'm able to just ignore all of that and focus on driving, the better. ?
 

23 hours ago, Eqill5 said:

Back on topic though, is there any game in the poll you don’t want to win the vote? @ExistentialSolid 

No, not particularly. There's been a strong lineup of nominees so far! Being upfront in my original post about which genres of games I don't really enjoy has generally kept games I would prefer not to play (like fighting games or strategy games) out of the picture. 

Edited January 23, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[ExistentialSolid]

The first phase of poll #2 has concluded!

While two clear favorites have been dominating in a clash for 1st throughout the poll, the race for 3rd has been much closer and has ultimately ended in a tie between The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and Catherine: Full Body. Because only three games can feature in phase 2 of the poll, this tie presents a problem. According to the current rules I've set for polling, if there is a tie in any poll, I will need to select the winner myself. To resolve the tie, I have opted for a simple coin toss: heads for Isaac, tails for Catherine. 

The 3rd place winner is...



...Catherine: Full Body!

The three games moving on to phase 2 of the poll are...

VVVVVV, with 18 votes!
Splasher, also with 18 votes!
And finally, Catherine: Full Body, with 13 votes!

Special thanks to everyone that took the time to participate in phase 1 of the poll! The full results of phase 1 have been posted below! Phase 2 will begin tomorrow, January 24th, and will end on January 27th! See you all tomorrow! ?

Edited January 24, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[ExistentialSolid]

The second phase of Poll #2 has begun!
With the conclusion of phase 1 of the poll, we have narrowed the field to three promising nominees: Catherine: Full Body, VVVVVV, and Splasher!

For this phase of the poll, players will only be able to cast one vote for whichever nominee they have the most interest in seeing played for this challenge! Whichever nominee receives the most votes will be the next game I attempt to platinum/100% (with regular progress updates to be posted along the way)! Much like the first poll, I will not be describing any of the nominees in detail but will instead link the PSNP pages for each one below for players that would like to check them out before voting.

**The poll will begin when this post goes live on January 24th and will end on January 27th at 7:00 PM EST (UTC-5)!

Catherine: Full Body - https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/9594-catherine-full-body



VVVVVV - https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/2988-vvvvvv

 

Splasher - https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/6684-splasher

Edited January 24, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[Baker]

Voted Splasher.

 

Actually a game that looks like I would enjoy. But I made a promise to myself to never play games again that have full game speedrun trophies. Doesn’t matter if they’re easy or hard, because I loathe them.

 

Supposedly the hardest PS4 platformer out there and I have a high expectation this will win the poll. So...
 

Good luck! ?

[HusKy]

Yep, Splasher is the obvious choice here. Good luck indeed.

[CrimsonMercury]

Went with VVVVVV, but at this rate it looks like Splasher is gonna win by a large margin lol. I've seen a 10/10 difficulty being given for both games, however in the instances where the two are compared, Splasher is usually said to be the more difficult platformer. And I think it's because of the platinum medals, which seem to have extremely tight and unforgiving time requirements. Good luck!

[Miles]

Nice seeing that Splasher is winning! It's a criminally underappreciated platformer. Personally had a blast with it and I think you will as well, judging by your trophy list! 

Edited January 24, 2021 by MiIeski

[ExistentialSolid]

9 hours ago, BB-BakkerJ said:

Voted Splasher.

 

Actually a game that looks like I would enjoy. But I made a promise to myself to never play games again that have full game speedrun trophies. Doesn’t matter if they’re easy or hard, because I loathe them.

 

Supposedly the hardest PS4 platformer out there and I have a high expectation this will win the poll. So...
 

Good luck!

 

Thanks! ? Full game speedrun trophies can be stress-inducing so I can't really blame you for not enjoying games that feature them.
Speaking of expectation though, I was so confident that Ikaruga wouldn't win the first poll, that I didn't even own a copy of the game when I first threw the thread together. Shows how little I knew. ? 
 

9 hours ago, HusKy said:

Yep, Splasher is the obvious choice here. Good luck indeed.

 

Thanks!  Looks like you're not alone considering that Splasher is crushing it so far!
 

9 hours ago, CrimsonMercury said:

Went with VVVVVV, but at this rate it looks like Splasher is gonna win by a large margin lol. I've seen a 10/10 difficulty being given for both games, however in the instances where the two are compared, Splasher is usually said to be the more difficult platformer. And I think it's because of the platinum medals, which seem to have extremely tight and unforgiving time requirements. Good luck!

 

Thank you! ? I've been surprised to see how dominant Splasher's early lead is considering that VVVVVV managed a pretty decisive 2nd place victory over Splasher in the previous poll (11 votes to 7). The platinum medals definitely look to be the toughest challenge of the set (the deathless run looks brutal too) but I'm excited to see how things go if the game manages to take the win!
 

7 hours ago, MiIeski said:

Nice seeing that Splasher is winning! It's a criminally underappreciated platformer. Personally had a blast with it and I think you will as well, judging by your trophy list! 

 

I've been looking forward to giving Splasher a shot for awhile now so, if it manages to win, I'm betting I'll have a blast too! ? Congrats on being one of the few to earn Splasher's platinum by the way! ?

Edited January 25, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[JohnlMatrix]

I voted for Splasher. Started playing it a couple of days ago. I have one level left to complete my first playthrough and have to say that I really like it. Going for the platinum will no doubt require in-depth knowledge of each level and precise use of the games mechanics. Could be quite doable with enough practice. The only two problems I have so far (and ones that other players and speedrunners also mentioned) is the fact that the character sometimes won't shoot the ink in time (I think they called it ink delay) or that the input is too imprecise, resulting in the ink not being shot directly in front of you on the floor but instead straight under you or in the direction that you run in. Both of those problems will lead to the player either dying or going off-cycle and losing time in the process.

 

Anyway, I really hope Splasher wins this poll and will therefore be the next project.

[ExistentialSolid]

1 hour ago, JohnlMatrix said:

I voted for Splasher. Started playing it a couple of days ago. I have one level left to complete my first playthrough and have to say that I really like it. Going for the platinum will no doubt require in-depth knowledge of each level and precise use of the games mechanics. Could be quite doable with enough practice. The only two problems I have so far (and ones that other players and speedrunners also mentioned) is the fact that the character sometimes won't shoot the ink in time (I think they called it ink delay) or that the input is too imprecise, resulting in the ink not being shot directly in front of you on the floor but instead straight under you or in the direction that you run in. Both of those problems will lead to the player either dying or going off-cycle and losing time in the process.

 

Anyway, I really hope Splasher wins this poll and will therefore be the next project.

Nice! If Splasher ends up winning the poll and you also plan on earning the platinum, we should share tips along the way! ?
Ink delay and imprecise input is a shame to hear about, but hopefully those issues are infrequent enough that they won't cause any serious trouble.

Edited January 25, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[JohnlMatrix]

3 hours ago, ExistentialSolid said:

Nice! If Splasher ends up winning the poll and you also plan on earning the platinum, we should share tips along the way! 
Ink delay and imprecise input is a shame to hear about, but hopefully those issues are infrequent enough that they won't cause any serious trouble.

I'd really like to share tips. One tip up front could be to have perseverence but I guess that goes for almost all difficult games.^^

Don't get me wrong, I encountered those problems scarcly, it's not like they happen all the time and take the fun out of the game. But for things like a no-death speedrun they could pose obstacles to bear in mind and overcome.

Maybe someone that already achieved the plat in Splasher could weigh in on the significance of those issues when going for the more difficult trophies.

[AJ_Radio]

A good majority of people who played Splasher have the Super Meat Boy platinum in their belt. I heard a couple users on these forums say Splasher is one of the hardest platformers out there. Still not as taxing as Crypt of the Necrodancer in my opinion. 
 

I don’t know, it looks pretty difficult even for me.

[You]

When the next game is chosen, are you going to make a second topic and archive this one as "Ikuruga" and "Success" ?

[CrimsonMercury]

41 minutes ago, enaysoft said:

When the next game is chosen, are you going to make a second topic and archive this one as "Ikuruga" and "Success" ?

 

I think he'll use this topic for all future games as well.

[Miles]

7 hours ago, Spaz said:

A good majority of people who played Splasher have the Super Meat Boy platinum in their belt. I heard a couple users on these forums say Splasher is one of the hardest platformers out there. Still not as taxing as Crypt of the Necrodancer in my opinion. 
 

I don’t know, it looks pretty difficult even for me.

 

I found it harder than SMB but I think anyone that has platted SMB can do this one as well. It just requires a bit more patience so I'm sure you could get it done with enough practice. 

 

7 hours ago, JohnlMatrix said:

Maybe someone that already achieved the plat in Splasher could weigh in on the significance of those issues when going for the more difficult trophies.

 

Unfortunately, the issues were quite noticable for me, mostly in the deathless run but I heard some players managed to mitigate them. I did use analog though, not sure if that caused some issues or not 

[ExistentialSolid]

19 hours ago, JohnlMatrix said:

I'd really like to share tips. One tip up front could be to have perseverence but I guess that goes for almost all difficult games.^^

Very true. ? Without perseverance, difficult games can shred your resolve and leave you discouraged. People often assume that you either "have" the perseverance to succeed or you don't but nearly anyone can develop the right mind set with time and practice. Along the same lines, managing your expectations is another important part of the mental game. Learning to expect hours and hours of failure when confronted with a difficult task can do wonders to minimize the frustration involved in trying to overcome it. Celebrate the small, incremental victories because they will eventually cascade into your sweeping domination of a game. 

 

18 hours ago, Spaz said:

A good majority of people who played Splasher have the Super Meat Boy platinum in their belt. I heard a couple users on these forums say Splasher is one of the hardest platformers out there. Still not as taxing as Crypt of the Necrodancer in my opinion. 
 

I don’t know, it looks pretty difficult even for me.

I agree, I'm not expecting Splasher to rival Necrodancer or anything but I've heard a lot of the same things about it being one of the hardest platformers with a platinum trophy so it should be a helluva time regardless if it manages to win the poll!  

 

17 hours ago, enaysoft said:

When the next game is chosen, are you going to make a second topic and archive this one as "Ikuruga" and "Success" ?

 

16 hours ago, CrimsonMercury said:

I think he'll use this topic for all future games as well.

Yeah, CrimsonMercury is right. ? My plan is to use this topic for all future games that manage to win one of the polls. Along the way, I've been trying to keep the original post on this thread up to date with links to each of the Ikaruga updates, poll details, announcements, etc., for any new/returning players.   

For Ikaruga specifically, I think I will be making a new section on my original post to link/archive all of the progress updates for past games like Ikaruga for anyone that would like to check them out once the 2nd poll's game (and beyond) is decided.

Edited January 25, 2021 by ExistentialSolid

[JohnlMatrix]

15 hours ago, MiIeski said:

Unfortunately, the issues were quite noticable for me, mostly in the deathless run but I heard some players managed to mitigate them. I did use analog though, not sure if that caused some issues or not 

Just finished my first playthrough and got the platinum medal for the first level. I'm still a little off the plat time for the second level. The times are really really tight.

Also finished a selfish speedrun just for the heck of it: about 104 minutes. Some parts will require extensive work to get down consistently. The levels where the acid is chasing you could also be doable with practice but the last level, my goodness, it goes pretty fast. No time to think, just react. It will probably come down to repetition, strategy and nerves.