Gaming challenges that go far beyond the platinum

[LancashireLad87]

 

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Disclaimer: My opinions may differ from yours so please bare that in mind and post your own suggestions

 

 

 

Since it's inception trophies have become the new standard for trophy hunters as a way to 'measure' your proficiency within a game or genre. However there are challenges that go far beyond the skills of the platinum trophy. Whether your aiming for Rank 1 on the global leaderboards or something else entirely, I will give you a few examples to get the ball rolling;

 

Game #1: Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (PS4)

 

    

 

Don't be fooled, CTR Nitro-Fueled has one of the hardest non-trophy challenges in modern gaming because of the 'Ultimate Flex' consisting of 6 special unlockables to create the ultimate setup. Across the entire player-base (PS4/Xbox/Switch) they're are well over 7,000,000 users, of which probably only 8,000 (0.001%) or so have completed this challenge legitimately but what makes it so difficult? The original Crash Team Racing on the PlayStation 1 had the infamous Nitrous Oxide time trials which required a degree of skill, timing, track knowledge, good driving lines, shortcuts, boosting and reserve management to overcome. The PS4 remake took this challenge to the extreme, introducing Emperor Velo and Developer time trials which were vastly superior to Oxide.        

 

Ultimate Flex (Ranked from easiest to most challenging)

 

Unlock 1: Character Dr N.Tropy

To unlock Dr Nefarious Tropy as a playable character you have to beat his time trial on EVERY CTR and CNK track. Despite being the easiest ghost to beat in the time trials there are many players who cannot do it and resort to either giving up or requesting others to do it for them via share-play. In my opinion the hardest track to beat him on is probably Oxide Station because his time is a mere 3 seconds slower than Oxide.

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Unlock 2: Digital Dr N.Tropy Legendary Skin (Platinum Trophy level)

To unlock the 5th hardest unlock in the game you have to defeat all of Nitrous Oxide's time trials on ALL CTR and CNK tracks. Oxide is considerably faster than N.Tropy and requires the player to be trophy competent in order to defeat him. The majority of platinum achievers will stop at this level because there are no more trophies to unlock. A few noteworthy tracks that most players will have trouble with are Dragon Mines, Tiny Temple, Sewer Speedway and Crash Cove. According to PSN only 0.8% of PS4 owners (4,900,000+ players total) who've synced at least 1 trophy have earned the platinum trophy.

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Unlock 3: Champion Set

 

 

Now we're getting onto the good stuff! Historically you were able to unlock the champion kart by being in the top 5% on the global leaderboards however this is no longer the case. The ONLY way to unlock the set now is to defeat Oxide on all the Bonus Tracks, meaning you need to beat his time trial ghost on 39 tracks to earn this reward whilst the platinum trophy only required 31. On the face of it, it doesn't sound too difficult but some of the bonus tracks are considerably harder than the base game for instance Gingerbread Joyride and Drive-Thru Danger.

 

Upon completing this challenge your rewarded with a bunch of stuff, the Champion Kart, Champion Wheels, Indigo Champion Paint job, Back In Time and Oxide Champion decals which are exclusive to the champion kart. Never again will you unlock so many items!

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  Unlock 4: Relic Platinum Paint

 

 

Prior to the additional content, this was the hardest challenge CTR had to offer. To unlock such a reward your task is to earn a Platinum Relic on all 18 tracks of Adventure Mode. Naturally certain tracks are harder than others, most platinum achievers will only earn Sapphire Relics and maybe the odd gold here and there. The hardest tracks in my opinion are NGin Labs, Sewer Speedway and Papu's Pyramid. 

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Unlock 5: Emperor Velo Champion Decal

If you thought Nitrous Oxide was hard to beat, you don't know the meaning of the word hard. The emperor is considerably faster across the board, Velo finishes Tiger Temple in 1 Minute 45 (10 Seconds faster than Oxide), Hot Air Skyway (40 Seconds faster than Oxide), Cortex Castle (25 Seconds faster than Oxide) and 33 Seconds faster on Out of Time are his most impressive times. Very few players will be able to unlock this, kudos to anyone who has!   

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Unlock 6: Master Wheels

 

 

Ladies and Gentleman I present the most difficult unlockable in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, the Master Wheels! If you think your a Pro at Kart Racing than I implore you to give this a shot! In order to unlock them you need to defeat all of the developer time trials on EVERY track! Don't be fooled thinking the developers are going to be a cake-walk to overcome some of their times are within 3 seconds of the current world record!

 

The hardest tracks to beat the developer on in my opinion would be Dragon Mines (1 Minute 19 Seconds), Oxide Station (2 Minutes 48 Seconds), Crash Cove (1 Minute 19 Seconds), Sewer Speedway (1 Minute 47 Seconds), Turbo Track (1 Minute 33 Seconds), Slide Coliseum (1 Minute 41 Seconds), Hot Air Skyway (2 Minutes 13 Seconds), Meteor Gorge (1 Minute 24 Seconds), Out of Time (1 Minute 14 Seconds), Prehistoric Playground (2 Minutes 22 Seconds), Spyro Circuit (2 Minutes 12 Seconds), Gingerbread Joyride (1 Minute 54 Seconds), Megamix Mania (2 Minutes 4 Seconds) and Drive-Thru Danger (1 Minute 50 Seconds).

 

  Anyone who has earned ALL of these unlockables in CTR is a true pro at the genre! Can you take on the challenge?

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Game #2: Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition (PS4)

 

 

Everyone knows how difficult it is to get the 100% for this game but what if I told you there was a challenge far greater. Amongst the DMC community there's a term thrown around known as a 'Perfect S Rank' but what does that mean? Don't worry, I will enlighten you! A perfect S rank means clearing the stage without taking damage, using any continues or abusing any exploits such as Faust Hat cheese. Doesn't seem to bad right, well try earning a Perfect S Rank on EVERY stage of EVERY difficulty with EVERY character! Doesn't seem so easy now does it!

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Game #3: Bayonetta (PS3/PS4)

 

 

This is essentially the same as Devil May Cry 5 except your task is to earn a Pure Platinum medal on EVERY stage of EVERY difficulty.

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Game #4: King of Fighters 13 (PS3)

 

 

Anyone who's attempted KOF13 will tell you the combo challenges are the HARDEST in ANY fighting game on the system. Clearing 200 for the trophy is a feat in itself but clearing ALL of them is another matter entirely. Considering multi-world champion fighting game players like Justin Wong who've made a living competing in tournaments are having a difficult time completing them should speak volumes. The fact that players like Kizzie Kay, J Wong and Punk who are currently producing KOF13 trial videos at the time of posting makes me feel better at myself that even these players are having trouble!

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Game #5: Final Fantasy X (PS2/PS3/PS4)

 

 

Very few players will have attempted and completed this particular challenge which far exceeds the skill, planning and knowledge of a platinum achiever. I'm referring to a No Sphere Grid, No summons and No Overdrives playthrough without using an existing guide! Maybe one day, when I'm done with trophy hunting, I will attempt this challenge!

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Game #6: Sekiro Shadow's Die Twice (PS4)

 

 

As far as I know there is a challenge within Sekiro that meets the requirements of the thread. I'm referring to the Gauntlet of Strength challenges, specifically the Gauntlet of Strength (Mortal Journey). This requires you to defeat 17 bosses in a row without dying. Good luck with that one! According to the wikipedia pages there's no reward for completing this absurd challenge apart from personal pride and accomplishment of a true samurai!

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Game #7: Resident Evil 5 (PS3/PS4)

 

 

You may be surprised to see a Resident Evil game on this list but I'm sure this is no easy feat to achieve and would require not only a deep understanding of the games mechanics, map layouts, strategy, accuracy, item management and much more. I'm referring to the Mercenaries mode, your goal is simple earn a SS Rank on EVERY stage with EVERY character, SOLO! On Normal mercenaries because No Mercy is MUCH easier to reach SS Rank on. I'm currently playing through RE5 Gold Edition so I'll end up attempting this in the near future!

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Game #8: Star Wars The Force Unleashed (PS3)

 

 

This one is fairly simple, there's a trophy called 'Sith Master' which requires you to complete the game on the hardest difficulty. According to another trophy website the guide states that most players will use in-game cheats to make this easy. What I'm saying is, do it WITHOUT cheats to become one with the force!

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Edited March 14, 2021 by LancashireLad87

[Copanele]

Sweet topic, I will try to contribute as well with my opinions. If one of those ain't fitting to the list, let me know  

I will also avoid multiplayer focused games (such as reaching Warlord in Street Fighter 5) because I like to consider me vs game, not me vs others   

 

Game #1 : Nioh

Getting here the original Samurai Gaiden Souls. To 100% complete this bad boy, you must do all the mission for the entire game up until Way of the Demon. Some missions are stupid hard without the proper build, knowledge and well...even a bit of co-op.

Well if you wish to be overkill, the game has 2 more difficulties : Way of the Wise and Way of the Nioh. Want to be a Nioh pro? Do the entirety of Way of the Nioh solo  

Still not happy? Then do the entirety of the Abyss Mode, which means all  999 floors , again solo. If you have done all that then you are the Nioh of...well Nioh and nobody can say otherwise!

 

Game #2 : Devil May Cry 3

 

As a reply to @LancashireLad87 Game #2 (master Balrog and Cerberus' Ice Age for Dante btw :> ) , I come with another challenge. Normally the platinum requires you to get S rank on every mission on ONE difficulty. That's nothing I say, there's another bigger fish to catch (and I believe this game is where the first Perfect S rank term comes from, don't quote me on this though) : Get all SS ranks on all difficulties. Of course, this means for both Dante and Vergil.

Unlike DMC5, here you get ranked based on these factors : Time, Orbs collected, Style, Damage taken, and Items used. For SS rank you need an S rank in all those departments.

Basically if you manage to get these two images, you are good to go!

 

Game #3 : Crash Bandicoot

It's the only Crash game that I ever played (and will ever play) so I will keep this brief : Collect all Platinum Relics for all the levels including Stormy Ascent.

Now thinking about it, if you mastered Stormy Ascent, Platinum Relic is way easier to get there compared to the other main game levels. 

 

Game #4 : Bloodborne

 

There is a trophy most Soulsborne fans ask for in these games : No Levelling full playthrough. Basically play through the entire game starting as the lowest level possible (Soul Level 1 in Dark/Demon Souls and Blood Level 4 in Bloodborne) and defeat every single available boss across NG. 

I picked Bloodborne for this because it's easily the hardest of them all. Why I say hardest? Because when I said a BL4 run in Bloodborne, that includes the chalice dungeons! Yeah, maybe the main game and possibly the DLC will be easy, but good luck with the Depth 5 chalices. Loran Darkbeast will forever love you  

 

Ah and no co-op either! No cheating allowed!

And finally :

 

Game #5 : God of War

There is one thing that disappointed me at this obvious masterpiece of a game : the hell is with that easy ass trophy list? That's Assassin's Creed level of trophies, come on Santa Monica or whatever!!!

I needed one trophy to flex my imaginary Ancient Greek muscles : Finish the entire game on Give me God of War difficulty. And yes, this trophy should include also defeating Sigrun. Only then you can say you are a God of War  

 

 

Ok that's all I could think of , for now. Fun topic, might find another examples later on!

 

[Beyondthegrave07]

Here are a couple I want to do:

 

#1 Dark Cloud

 

Conquer the Demon Shaft. This is the post-game dungeon in the game and has 100 floors in order to complete it with extremely tough enemies. On PS2, I got extremely close to completing it, but failed when you had to play as certain characters somewhere in the 80s-90s range and at that point, most enemies can one shot you. The platinum is called Dungeon Master, but completing this would make you a Dungeon God.

 

#2 Undertale

 

Genocide Run Without revealing too much, this playthrough requires you to kill everyone in the game. Random encounters, bosses, etc. Show no mercy! Sounds pretty simple, but doing so also forces you to fight the ultimate superboss... It's said that Toby Fox purposely made the trophies in this game easy so no one had to play it a specific way... Well, now's your chance... Just a warning though. You're in for a bad time.

[charxsetsuna]

I was going to attempt 100% on dragon quest 11 on ps4 but then I got the superior switch version. It still counts if I do the 100% on a different console right??

 

As for actual ps4 games, I want to do a classic mode run of odin sphere. I got the platinum on the remaster mode but I want to experience the classic mode too. Ive heard its harder than the modern game mode .

Edited March 15, 2021 by charxsetsuna

[TrafalgarWarGrey]

Yakuza

This game can be easy spamming healing items or abusing weapons during fighting sections.Instead if you play without doing that it can be harsh sometimes.A great thing is also Ultimate Match who defines better player.A good example is Yakuza 3.S rank are not required for platinum but they are a plus.

Also you can do the no hit run on hard difficulty when a boss battle comes.

The most difficulty thing remains get 100% completition and EX Rank with Haruka.

Even in game that not require it for get the platinum 

Also there are some hidden gems like discover the secret Mahjong table on Judgment,get 1 on Mahjong tournament rank in order to unlock every single weapon on Kiwami or get every food bonus on 6 and Kiwami 2.They are not required for 100% completition.

Also not to mention coliseum battle when you face the best opponent in the game without healing.I don't know if Remastered with 60fps is the problem or opponent framerate is insane.I didn't play this games on PS3.

 

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth

 

 

This game on hard difficulty is insane.Without piercing attacks you can't complete it.Not to mention Royal Knights fights or Demon Lords.Also the tournament on arcade is insane.On hard difficulty is impossible in my opinion do a rookie digimon run unless you rewrite with cheat engine your stats.But on Normal is plenty of possibilities of doing weird and strange things.

 

Digimon World Next Order

 

 

This is also another hard game.At the beginning when you start and with your champion digimon try to fight others champion digimon you will probably be obliterated.Knowing a good training route makes possible to beat the game with champion digimon on Hard difficulty where AI has a better block rate and combo rate even without EXE or max stats.That's quite a challenge.

Edited March 16, 2021 by TrafalgarWarGrey

[Copanele]

On 3/14/2021 at 7:31 PM, LancashireLad87 said:

 

Game #3: Bayonetta (PS3/PS4)

 

 

This is essentially the same as Devil May Cry 5 except your task is to earn a Pure Platinum medal on EVERY stage of EVERY difficulty.

 

I just found another challenge that is not covered in the platinum for this game: Defeat Rodin.

Like...that guy can Raging Demon you out of existence (not to mention getting the halos to fight him is a crazy grind in itself).