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rjkclarke's Carnival of Diamonds and Rust


rjkclarke

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Sideshows and Curiosities

(This is where all the slightly esoteric and sometimes non gaming related posts are going to be kept, so if you want to look at aspecific one, now you know where you can find it)

 

 

The Platinum Vault, Part 2

(Just follow the blue link for the reviews!)

 

Spoiler

351- 360

 

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361-370

 

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371- 380

 

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Spoiler

Platinum #371 Dark Nights with Poe and Munro (PS4)

 

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Platinum #372 Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (PS3)

 

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Platinum #373 The Order: 1886 (PS4)

 

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Platinum #374 WWE 2K22 (PS4)

 

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Platinum #375 Silence (PS4)

 

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Platinum ##376 The Lord of the Rings: War in the North (PS3)

 

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Platinum #377 Kona (PS4)

 

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Platinum #378 Yooka-Laylee (PS4)

 

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Platinum #379 Ape Academy 2 (PS4)

 

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Platinum #380 A Way Out (PS4)

 

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381-390

 

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Spoiler

Platinum #381 Syphon Filter (PS4)

 

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Platinum #382 Dead Synchronicity (PS4)

 

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Platinum #383 Batman: Arkham Origins (PS3)

 

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Platinum #384 Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered (PS4)

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Platinum #385 BioShock (PS4)

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Platinum #386 Astro's Playroom (PS5)

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Platinum #387 Pyre (PS4)

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Platinum #388 Truberbrook (PS4)

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Platinum #389 Unpacking (PS5)

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Platinum #390 Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS5)

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391-400

 

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Spoiler

Platinum #391 LEGO The Incredibles (PS4)

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Platinum #392 We Were Here Too (PS4)

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Platinum #393 Twisted Metal (PS5)

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Platinum #394 A Short Hike (PS4)

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Platinum #395 Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassin's (PS4)

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Platinum #396 Watchdogs 2 (PS4)

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Platinum #397 Mirrors Edge: Catalyst (PS4)

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Platinum #398 Borderlands 3 (PS5)

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Platinum #399 Twisted Metal 2 (PS5)

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Platinum #400 Return To Monkey Island (PS5)

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401-410

 

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Spoiler

Platinum #401 It Takes Two (PS5)

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Platinum#402 Greedfall (PS4)

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Home of the 100%'s, Part 2

(These are all ordered alphabetically, follow the blue link to take you straight to the post the review is on!)

 

Spoiler

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Spoiler

Ape Escape 2 (PS4)

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Blood Knights (PS3)

 

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Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PS4)

 

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Firewatch (PS4)

 

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Inside (PS4)

 

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Journey (PS4)

 

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Last Day of June (PS4)

 

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Limbo (PS4)

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Observation (PS4)

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Stick It To the Man (PS4)

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Subject 13 (PS4)

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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PS4)

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Type:Rider (PS4)

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Warframe (PS4)

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Uncanny Valley (PS4)

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Captains Log Stardate....... No, I'm not doing that haha! I'm so far making pretty good progress with Drakengard 3 , considering I'm juggling several things at the moment so I'm not getting that much time to really play games, I'm just sleeping less to try and cram everything in.

 

So I'm sitting at 31% Completion now,  I'm really enjoying it too apart from the obvious frame rate issue Drakengard 3 has, but I platinumed Fallout 3 and New Vegas so I can deal with playing the video game equivalent of a PowerPoint presentation, for a story as good as Drakengard 3 seems I think a few dropped frames here and there won't hurt. I've done two of the six DLC packs. One of the packs doesn't have trophies for some reason, but for £25 there is no way I wasn't going to play it, thankfully I did want to and I think its going to really help towards the base game trophies like money farming and what not, so cannot complain at all. I was debating putting down two mini reviews of what I thought the DLC's were like but I think I'll hold off until I have the platinum and all the other DLC finished, then I can do it in one longer dedicated post.

 

Oh well, once the Snooker World Championships have finished, I'm probably watching an unhealthy amount right now. (Colette from Tales of Symphonia would call me a Snooker Maniac haha!) I'll have one less thing to concentrate on once that has finished, so I'll probably be able to get more done then. Had a little edit of the original post, added a few games here and there,, then I noticed that about roughly 60% at least of the games I want to play are really long. I haven't quite decided yet whether or not to clear out some of the quicker games first and then the longer ones, or just continue as I have been just, flitting from game to game as my mood takes me.

 

I think I'm going to try and put up my first "Classic Review/Rundown " either tomorrow or in the next few days, got to start those at some point if I plan to do them, as I have quite a few to get through. I think I'll start with my very first platinum and then I might just do them in a random order from there, or maybe if the genre of a particular game I'm playing reignites a few thoughts about a particular game I might do that one. I'll see how I feel about them, I've always played things in a fairly haphazard order so who knows might be interesting to go chronologically, I've really not made my mind up. I guess cliched as it is, I'll just go with the flow haha.

Edited by rjkclarke
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2 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

You have a truly impressive profile and trophy collection.  Seriously, that's a stupidly high completion percent.  Do you dabble in other platforms or is this profile where it's at?

 

Thank you!! I really appreciate that, its been a long old journey/quest, whatever you want to call it haha. I'm still kind of trying to find ways to keep it interesting and entertaining for myself. I had a look at your profile earlier actually when I looked at your checklist thread. You've got some really good stuff on there too, you've nearly got that pesky Star Wars Battlefront platinum, I can't ever decide if I want to play those games or not.

 

Funny you should mention other platforms actually, because I used to dabble a bit with achievement hunting way back on the Xbox 360 not like massively, think I had like 44,000 GS or something. Then when I got a PS3 I sort of just left it alone for a few years, I still played the console just was never online, but I never realised that Microsoft delete your account if they think it hasn't been used for a while, so yeah GONE FOREVER, WOOPS. Nevermind though, just this profile now I suppose. Shame Eternal Sonata doesn't have trophies or I'd platinum that to fill my favourite 1000GS shaped hole. So I guess Playstation is where I am right now yeah.

 

 

Edited by rjkclarke
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"Pesky" is a good way to describe Battlefront.  I've done all the typically difficult, online-only trophies, and have completely lost steam on the home stretch.  The priority was to get the online trophies out of the way as it's old and unpopular, and if it wasn't an EA title I'd be very worried about a server shutdown.

 

For that reason, I wouldn't recommend playing it unless you are a Star Wars fan, and are OK with a grindy trophy list.  The server population is more or less dead, and I had to use a Discord community to organize matches for the DLC lobbies.  I had approximately 200 hours into the game when I picked it up last month, and sunk another 50 or so (or maybe more, I didn't track).  I don't regret the experience at all as I made some new friends out of it, but if I didn't have trophy progress on it I wouldn't have done this.

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46 minutes ago, RockySanchez666 said:

Nice collection mate

Thanks Rocky!! I never expected you to end up finding your way onto this thread haha, awesome that you did though, I might as well ask you here, as I cant really be asked to go on my phone right now whilst I'm on my PC, are you ok if I mention you in any write ups where I talk about games we've boosted together? Would certainly be fun chronicling the nightmare we had on WWE2k15!

 

I mean, there is a fair few games on here that I never would have gotten the platinum in had it not been for your help keeping me sane and amused during some of those boosting sessions we've done over the years, plus you helped make a lot of those experiences so much more enjoyable, I said in my opening post that I'm not really a fan of online boosting, but its more when it relies on so many people like when we were doing Dirt: Showdown earlier in the year haha.

 

1 hour ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

"Pesky" is a good way to describe Battlefront.  I've done all the typically difficult, online-only trophies, and have completely lost steam on the home stretch.  The priority was to get the online trophies out of the way as it's old and unpopular, and if it wasn't an EA title I'd be very worried about a server shutdown.

 

For that reason, I wouldn't recommend playing it unless you are a Star Wars fan, and are OK with a grindy trophy list.  The server population is more or less dead, and I had to use a Discord community to organize matches for the DLC lobbies.  I had approximately 200 hours into the game when I picked it up last month, and sunk another 50 or so (or maybe more, I didn't track).  I don't regret the experience at all as I made some new friends out of it, but if I didn't have trophy progress on it I wouldn't have done this.

 

I can definitely understand why you would prioritise it for that reason. Pretty much everything you listed is one of those things that has always put me off it, I am a big Star Wars fan, but I know I'd constantly unfairly compare it to the halcyon days of the PS2 era Battlefront games.

 

I can deal with a grindy trophy list, that isn't too much of a problem but then when you add to that the problem of having to rely on lots of other people to get organised, that is where I start to lose a bit of interest in starting it. Sounds like you've pretty much done all of the hard work though, I have to admire your dedication there! Also, you made some friends along the way, that is one of the best side effects of playing games with an online component. So that is awesome too.

 

Looks like you are so close though!! I'll use a Star Wars analogy actually, just imagine that you are Luke trapped in the ice cave on Hoth, looking at your lightsaber as a Wampa comes striding towards you, the minute you get that Platinum, somewhere there will be a one armed Wampa as you go running straight out of the cave to pastures new. Ok so I made that analogy a bit messy towards the end, but you get my drift I hope haha.

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Lets take a crack at a "Classic/Retro" review/ write up, I'm still figuring out names and titles haha. But I guess I should start at the beginning.

 

Classic Review

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Platinum #1

WWE Smackdown vs. Raw  2011 (PS3)

 

 

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PLATINUM

OBTAIN ALL OTHER TROPHIES

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 8th Jul 2011: 3:29:03 PM

Time Taken to Platinum :  1 week, 22 hours, 49 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 3.87%

Trophy Number - #45

 

 

 

I'm not quite sure why they felt the need to shout in the description, I guess it is a wrestling game so I'll give them a free pass on that one. Even back when I used to spend a bit of time going after Gamerscore on Xbox 360, I always liked the idea of trophies more, I'm sure it isn't just me but anybody that has dabbled with both might be able to attest to this, when I was playing on 360, I very rarely felt motivated to get all the achievements , unless I really liked the game, I used to have a bit of a cut and run type approach where I would basically, just get what I could and then think about coming back to it later, perhaps I was just a colossal tit when I was younger, who knows haha.

 

The pursuit of a platinum for me has always been that satisfaction of being able to tell yourself that you've practically seen everything that experience has to offer, not always obviously. (Looking at you Teslagrad, still finished the game though, because why go all that way to not finish it.)

 

So I guess, I'd better make like Worzel Gummidge and put my reviewing head on. (No cups of tea, or slices of cake though unfortunately.) I know this is my first platinum, but it wasn't actually my first PS3 game, that was actually  Fallout New Vegas, I remember asking for it for Christmas in 2010 to try and incentivise myself to buy a PS3, it did work eventually I suppose.

 

Thankfully, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011, is still fairly fresh in my memory, because I still used to play this quite a lot with one of my friends, this game is an incredibly fun multiplayer experience, especially if you've had a few drinks and even when it isn't. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to do that for the last year because here in the UK you aren't allowed to go in other peoples houses at the moment, unless that has changed and I just didn't notice.

 

So in the above regard I have very fond memories of this game, we must have sunk so many hours into silly, multiple person ladder matches with created characters like Darth Maul, Luke Skywalker, Solid Snake and Raiden to name a few, Raiden even had a naked alternate attire, which if anyone reads this and is a Metal Gear fan, you can probably imagine what that looked like haha. This game had VERY VERY weird physics, which was where a lot of the fun came from in matches involving weapons, if this was on PS4 I would have so many saved clips of just ridiculously funny moments.

 

Somehow, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 actually manages to look more visually impressive than WWE 2K20, that was released in 2019, I'm not going to jump aboard the "lol look how crap that game is" bandwagon, because I got the platinum in it and I did enjoy it for what it was, but  visually, unfortunately it just is a fact in this case. The story mode in this game, Road to Wrestlemania,  was one of the better ones from what I remember they do tend to be fairly hit and miss. This last entry in the Smackdown Vs Raw series was just a fairly solid all round game I thought.  I mean usually, when I write these kinds of things I like to talk about the OST, but this one  pretty much is just a lot of wrestler themes for the menu music so I guess this section will stay a bit shorter.

 

As far as the trophies in this game go, I actually still remember a fair few of them, some more fondly than others. the Man of 1,004 holds trophy (Perform 1,004 Signature and Finishers in any mode of play) was one of the ones I remember, less fondly. I think this was probably one of the first times I'd felt "the grind" I'm fairly sure that this trophy was bugged too, so I essentially had to do all 1004 in one sitting as did many others probably. All the other trophies though are fairly standard "do this thing, in a specific way" type trophies that you see a lot in sports games, beat the story mode, that kind of thing. It did have online trophies though, I don't actually remember how the online Royal Rumble worked, it has been nearly ten years haha, but you had to win one of those. I don't ever really remember being bored though and variety in trophies is always very welcome, but you could argue that might be the "newness" of trophy hunting to me at the time.

 

A pretty fun time really, usually I'd say whether or not I recommend this, but I'm fairly sure the platinum is unobtainable now, but if anybody reads this and doesn't particularly care about the platinum, (Seems unlikely on a trophy tracking site I suppose) this still has an incredibly fun multiplayer that holds up really well to this day, so its pretty easy to find a cheap copy and have a bit of a blast with it. I guess its kind of cool but unintentional that my first platinum is now an ultra rare, I think it was just shy of 4% when I looked earlier. This has been quite a fun trip down memory lane actually.

 

Edited by rjkclarke
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3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Thanks Rocky!! I never expected you to end up finding your way onto this thread haha, awesome that you did though, I might as well ask you here, as I cant really be asked to go on my phone right now whilst I'm on my PC, are you ok if I mention you in any write ups where I talk about games we've boosted together? Would certainly be fun chronicling the nightmare we had on WWE2k15!

 

I mean, there is a fair few games on here that I never would have gotten the platinum in had it not been for your help keeping me sane and amused during some of those boosting sessions we've done over the years, plus you helped make a lot of those experiences so much more enjoyable, I said in my opening post that I'm not really a fan of online boosting, but its more when it relies on so many people like when we were doing Dirt: Showdown earlier in the year haha.

 

 

I can definitely understand why you would prioritise it for that reason. Pretty much everything you listed is one of those things that has always put me off it, I am a big Star Wars fan, but I know I'd constantly unfairly compare it to the halcyon days of the PS2 era Battlefront games.

 

I can deal with a grindy trophy list, that isn't too much of a problem but then when you add to that the problem of having to rely on lots of other people to get organised, that is where I start to lose a bit of interest in starting it. Sounds like you've pretty much done all of the hard work though, I have to admire your dedication there! Also, you made some friends along the way, that is one of the best side effects of playing games with an online component. So that is awesome too.

 

Looks like you are so close though!! I'll use a Star Wars analogy actually, just imagine that you are Luke trapped in the ice cave on Hoth, looking at your lightsaber as a Wampa comes striding towards you, the minute you get that Platinum, somewhere there will be a one armed Wampa as you go running straight out of the cave to pastures new. Ok so I made that analogy a bit messy towards the end, but you get my drift I hope haha.

Sure go ahead, I'd say the same too mate, bring on wwe 2k22 lol, I don't how I keep on top of boosting games nowadays, it's like a runaway train especially catching up on those ps3 games 

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On 27/04/2021 at 1:56 AM, RockySanchez666 said:

Sure go ahead, I'd say the same too mate, bring on wwe 2k22 lol, I don't how I keep on top of boosting games nowadays, it's like a runaway train especially catching up on those ps3 games 

 

Awesome man, I will do just that then, whenever I get to the games that we have played together, should add another little fun element on top of it. Lets hope 2K22 is an improvement on the last one eh lol.

 

I don't know how you keep up with keeping track of all those things you are boosting either, but your dedication to it is definitely impressive. Hats off to you though man, I've said it before, but you really have done some insane PS3 online grinds in your time!!  I guess you have to prioritise the PS3 titles a bit more now as well, as those servers could probably go at any minute, does make me rather glad that I only have a few PS3 titles left I'm that bothered about chasing online trophies in, otherwise I guess it would be so easy to get overwhelmed by it all.

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Think I'll do a little update before I go to sleep, its 3.30 AM in the UK and playing Drakengard 3 for hours later than I probably should have might not have been the best idea, but what are these sorts of threads for if you can't at least update them with progress. I'll probably loosen up on some of these "updatey" type posts, because I keep noticing I do have a tendency  just like Kryten from Red Dwarf to have a few "modes" to how I write so I guess when I'm doing this I'll be fairly casual and then when I'm reviewing... Well to tweak a line  from that show "REVIEW MODE ENGAGED" haha.

 

I noticed I haven't dropped any swearing into any posts so far, I guess I don't really need to either unless something really calls for it or I'm using quotes, it just surprised me a bit because in real life I'm always as Karl Pilkington would say, "effin and jeffing" but never mind.

 

Drakengard 3 wise, I've just hit 63% completion so I think considering I've barely had much time to play it I'm doing alright, still absolutely loving it too. I've done 5 out of 6 DLC packs now and I'm leaving what I hope to be the best one because it features the main character until last or at least after Ending D. I might try and push through tomorrow sleep be damned and try to get through Ending C and D so that I'd only have bits of side content and money farming left for the Platinum trophy. So far it all seems to be going fairly well, I think my next sort of classic/ retro review thing might be Nier: Automata, because of the Drakengard 3 connection, I was thinking about doing the original Nier, but that game is very very special to me, so I want a bit more time to collect some thoughts about that one.

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So that is Drakengard 3 at 100% complete now, that was a hell of a fun time, despite sometimes playing like a PowerPoint presentation. I'll do a write up of the DLC in here and also paste in the post I'm going to put in the Most Recent Platinums thread, just so I can have it tagged onto the DLC write ups in one nice uniform spot, as I'll want to tidy up that messy first post at some point in the near future.

 

 

Drakengard 3 Review!

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Platinum #318

Drakengard 3 (PS3)

 

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The Final Song

I can hear the sound.

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned and 100% earned - 1 May 2021: 9:40:52: AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  1 week, 1 day, 8 hours

Platinum Rarity  - 12.00%

Trophy Number - #15,406

 

 

Ever had that agonising feeling when delving into your backlog where you just think "Oh, why didn't I start this sooner" well that is sort of where I'm at right now. I wish I had started this sooner, I've known pretty much from when it was released that I was going to like it. I remember playing Drakengard on PS2 when I was about 14 or 15 and being blown away by some of the issues and themes in that game. I think my 14 year old brain was surprised a video game was allowed to tackle some of the dark subject matter bubbling above and under the surface in the original Drakengard, so I've always been a big fan of Yoko Taro as a storyteller he has an incredibly deep grasp on multiple perspectives I think, which is always important when trying to tell a complete story. I think the less said about Drakengard 2 the better haha as I did hear he doesn't even consider it "canon." Nier however, was my personal favourite game of the PS3/360/Wii generation, I'm not saying it was the best, its just the one I have the most fondness for and I don't really see that changing, I still have the Nier OST on my iPod (Yes I still have a working iPod lol) and it still gets played fairly often, so why I never got around to playing Drakengard 3 until 2021 is anybodies guess.

 

Drakengard 3 is connected to both Drakengard 1 and Nier, if anybody was unaware it is a prequel/ interquel to the Drakengard/ Nier series. I'm fairly sure its supposed to be a very dark comedy as well. I don't feel like i misinterpreted it but you never know haha.  This game is far from perfect though, it is unfortunately marred by a lot of technical issues that I can't really ignore if I'm going to be able to talk about this in an objective fashion.

 

There is a part of me that actually thinks this game was originally developed for the VITA, it has very short succinct levels that feel quite enclosed at times which you would think would be good for a smaller screen so theoretically it would be almost perfect for a handheld format. Funnily enough I seem to be saying that about a lot of games I've played recently. The problem with that though, is that it barely manages to run stably on a PS3, which is a shame because this game really and I mean REALLLY suffers from slowdown and framerate issues very often. The DLC runs a lot better though to be fair. The technical issues do sort of just become something that you end up suffering through because the game is VERY VERY good in almost all other departments. It seems unlikely but I think a PS4/PS5 remaster of this would do wonders for it; because if it was just a little more playable for people with a little less tolerance (that isn't a dig, its just the issues test your patience a bit) it would probably be so much better received.

 

I think the shorter formatted levels though are a deliberate callback to the original Drakengard, which was structured that way, instead of a sprawling empty open world that you might find in a more modern title. It does feel very true to both Drakengard and Nier which is always something you want from a game that is part of a wider mythos, you do want it to feel like part of it. Drakengard's connection to Nier I would probably liken to Judgment/Judge Eyes connection to the Yakuza universe, the link is fairly tenuous but they still both feel part of a shared universe, so that is something Drakengard 3 achieved really well I think. There isn't a whole lot to say about the combat, its pretty much your bread and butter hack and slash type thing, a little unsophisticated and unfair at times but still very good

 

I barely ever mention the games plot when I'm writing these sorts of things and I don't think that is going to change here, because I always assume people wouldn't want to be spoiled on something, even an older title like this. The plot absolutely deserves peoples eyes and ears on it too. I might mention the odd character here and there though. The English voice cast in this is very memorable and well performed I pretty much like Cam Clarke in any voice role he does but you can absolutely tell he is having an absolute blast playing Decadus in Drakengard 3 he arguably gets a good chunk of the games funniest lines too. He's a bit of a kinky so and so haha. Tara Platt shows an incredible amount of versatility as the main character Zero, a character that is at times hard to like but as the story unfolds you begin to understand her motivation more and more. Zero is a very easy character to get wrong, but much harder to do right and I think the interplay between her and Mikhail the Dragon is incredibly cleverly handled once you understand the whole story.

 

Drakengard 3's art style is very distinctive too, its almost a melding of Nier's aesthetic and the original Drakengard, I mean some of the level design is a little samey and some of the textures aren't the best, but all of the important characters REALLY stand out such as the six sisters and your companions. Just like Nier, Drakengard 3 boasts an incredible soundtrack. Emi Evans provides some more of her incredibly haunting melodic vocals in this game, there is just something very otherworldly and  ethereal about her voice so it is absolutely perfect in a place like this, similarly to how her voice is used in My Brother Rabbit strangely. Wow I never thought I'd reference an Artifex Mundi game when talking about something like this but there you go.

 

As far as the trophies in Drakengard 3 go, they are all fairly straight forward apart from a few. It ends up being one of those games where you unlock about 75% of the base game trophies before you hit the wall so to speak. But there are at least three reasons why a lot of people probably wouldn't platinum this game or might end up giving up on it and that is Branch D the infamous Rhythm Game finale, Accord's requests and upgrading all Weapons to max level. That Rhythm Game caused quite a lot of controversy I believe. Although, I do have my own almost funny story about Branch D. Part of me wondered whether it was deliberate but one of Decadus' kinks is being denied pleasure and that Branch D boss almost denied me the satisfaction of a platinum trophy, so I thought that was a nice bit of funny irony there. I know its a call back to Drakengard 1's final ending but it didn't stop it getting a little infuriating. Once you nail that Rhythm Game though it is so exhilarating, my heart was pounding a lot, it ended up taking me about three hours, because I messed up so much near the end and its an eight minute song/fight.  If I was going to give anyone advice though on the platinum, I'd recommend picking up the DLC because it will pretty much cut the time you have to farm gold down by half, I think its estimated to take about six hours, but after getting every DLC chest I ended up needing to farm for about just shy of two hours, plus the DLC is very good so there is that added bonus.

 

I do recommend this, but its sort of one of those games where you have to know that you'd like it going into it, so might be one to research a bit , I think if you went in blind having no prior experience of how odd some of Yoko Taro's games can be you might feel a little bit put off. I would say it is quite a rich and fulfilling experience though, so apart from how infuriating the final boss was I pretty much enjoyed all my time with it for what its worth and the platinum ABSOLUTELY felt earned.

 

 

DLC

 

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I'll give a little run down here of each DLC pack and what I thought about them, I won't give any spoilers so this might be a bit shorter form here, but for the record I was really apprehensive about paying £25 for all the DLC it seems a lot especially when they don't even contain cutscenes, but I do actually think it was worth it overall considering how much depth it adds to the characters of the six sisters, almost essential really, plus they really help with some of the base game trophies.

 

One's Prologue:

 

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This is strangely, the only DLC pack that doesn't contain trophies, its still absolutely worth playing though, just maybe don't go the extra mile and level One to max level like the other sisters. Ironically, One is probably the character that most needed their own dedicated DLC as she seems like the sister that gets the least amount of development over the course of the game. Like all the other packs with the sisters this one is a prequel, apart from Zero's which sort of acts as a midquel and prequel a bit like Borderlands: The Pre Sequel does actually, with characters retelling events. You do get 4 levels/maps  to play through which is decent and they all take a reasonable amount of time. You get a pretty decent Chakram as well for the base game which costs you the grand total of 0 gold to upgrade so long as you have the materials. I can't say that I enjoyed this as much as the others, I liked the story element to it, I just don't really have much fun with Chakrams in this game, that or I suck with them I suppose.

 

Two's Chapter: Bliss

 

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Two's chapter is really interesting, it contains a lot of character development for one of Zero's companions Cent as well. Of the six content packs I think this one is one of if not the best one, that could be purely down to just the final boss alone though and the initial lead up to it. The final boss of Two's DLC is so well realised and so haunting at the same time, very reminiscent of a few sections of Nier. One of those things that is worth seeing at least even if you didn't up playing it. I like the fact the game makes sure you have at least experienced Branch A before starting the DLC's I don't think there would be as much impact if you hadn't interacted with the characters yet. Also worth noting are the Memoirs of the Intoners, which act like little mini stories about the sisters lives or others perspectives on them, you get one each from each time you level up for a maximum of ten, these are so worth the time to read through as well. Got to get your moneys worth from the hefty DLC price tag haha. For finding all the chests you also get 500K in gold some decent crafting materials and Two's Sword which is actually one of the best swords, as again you can upgrade it for free and have a superior sword to Zero's for a good portion of the game.

 

Three's Chapter: Play

 

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Three. takes a little bit of time to get used to as far as a playstyle goes, she has an odd sort of scissor blade weapon that takes a bit of time to adjust to using. You have to adjust quickly as well because of the way the DLC is structured, its a bit unusual in that its essentially Three play testing her own creations by fighting variations of some of the enemies throughout the game. This leads to some particularly funny dialogue later when fighting a pack of Cerberus of various shapes and sizes in this packs dedicated dragon level, which was a personal highlight. I really enjoyed this one despite those scissors being a bit funky, I never bothered to upgrade them so I couldn't say if they are good or not. One of the best things about this DLC is how much more depth there is to Octa's character that you don't really notice until quite late on in the main story. The intoner Memoir's are a very good read here, as they shed some light on how other people perceive Three, she's quite introverted so a random soldiers perspective of her ends up being quite interesting. As usual, you can unlock plenty of decent things from opening all the chests in the DLC pack.

 

Four's Chapter: Frigidity

 

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Apart from the final two verses, I wasn't particularly a fan of Four's DLC, but I think that is more to do with Four being incredibly unlikeable, she is incredibly fun to control though purely from a gameplay aspect, in fact I'm sure most people have known someone like Four in their  lifetimes. The final two verses are both equal parts messed up and hilarious, the Dragon who's name I won't mention because its a bit spoilery has some spectacularly funny dialogue on the approach towards the final boss, that level happens to be the best one to get to level 10 on so you end up playing it a lot, and those funny pieces of dialogue never really got old. Her particular Intoner Memoirs are quite interesting as its her true thoughts about the people she associated with the most, her Sisters and Decadus, instead of the sweetness and light that she projects to the world. The usual goodies can be found in all the chests and Four's claws become available for Zero in the base game, which can be a really good weapon if you use the charge attack to stagger lock enemies.

 

Five's Chapter: Hunger

 

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Just like One, Five is another one of the characters that you meet fairly fleetingly in the main story. I think the DLC actually has a lot more going on beneath the surface than it actually appears to. If you read between the lines a bit with Five they are presenting some fairly interesting philosophical idea's about her character, something Yoko Taro has a penchant for, aside from that I can't really go into in too much detail about it because it would spoil the DLC story, these get expanded upon even further inside her Intoner Memoirs, but of all the DLC packs this, One  and Two probably have the most depth to them. That sounded really pretentious so I should probably go bonk myself on the head with some wood or something haha. Five, doesn't really control any different to Zero with a spear, so its pretty standard spear wielding fun on that one. I really liked the final boss of this verse too, it was incredibly quirky and incredibly funny, not what I expected at all. Chests are full of the usual DLC goodness, I wouldn't bother upgrading Five's spear though, there is plenty of better ones so better to save your materials to be honest.

 

Zero's Chapter: Fate

 

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Here we are then, the last one that I did. You can play this one whenever you have finished Branch A, but its probably best left until Branch D is finished so that you have pretty much all of the plot details known, plus the Intoner Memoirs shed some light on what happens to the world after Branch D so I thought personally it was probably best to leave it till last. Zero plays, well exactly the same, as you'd expect. This one actually seemed like it was one of the shorter packs, but I really liked the fact it shed some more light on the relationship between Michael the Dragon before he was Mikhail and how he interacted with Zero, because you only get a fleeting idea of what that dynamic was like at the very start the game so its nice to see it get expanded upon here. Some of the interactions between the characters are like a lot of things in this game, very funny. Zero has a few moments in this DLC where she's super similar to Kaine from Nier, which I enjoyed quite a lot. The costume you get from this DLC is actually really good intermediary between your regular outfit and Crimson/Bloodsoaked garb you get for attaining max weapon levels. The DLC outfit extends the amount of time you can use Intoner mode by quite a bit so its useful for some of the money farming you have to do.

 

I had a really good time with this game and all its DLC, although I haven't really slept very much for the better part of a week, so I could try and fit everything I've wanted to do in that time-frame . I guess I should just sleep more next week if I can. But yeah, what a ride Drakengard 3 was despite a few technical issues.

 

 

 

 

Edited by rjkclarke
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I feel like I need a little light hearted vent and my own thread seems as good a place as any. I think I underestimated how much of a mammoth task it will be writing reviews of every game I have a platinum or 100% completion in, I still plan to obviously, because I really do enjoy the writing process I really can't overstate that enough. I'm just going to have to approach it in a sensible way and not try and rush it all my fingers will end up like little worn down twiglets from all the typing lol.

 

In all seriousness though, I feel like I'm starting to make a halfway decent attempt at making the opening post look presentable now, I was absent mindedly thinking earlier today about how essentially this kind of opening post is like a Merchants stall or a front garden, then I thought about how mine would look if it was a front garden or Merchant Stall. IT WOULD LOOK TERRIBLE, people would probably run away screaming, or be sick into their shopping bags. Okay  maybe not that bad, but I think I made my own protracted weird point fairly well. There would be loads of bald bits of soil everywhere, no plants just some sparse patches of grass that from a helicopter/drone might read COMING SOON or you know something equally silly, or just one big block of grass text. It basically just didn't feel finished enough

 

After spending a few hours tinkering around though, I'm starting to like the look of it a bit more I've added 125 of 318 Platinum's to the Platinum Vault part, I'll add more later, it just takes a while finding and pasting in all those images. I'll probably fit some more in tomorrow. I just thought it would be better if I added all the Platinum's now and then really, that will be one of the more time consuming parts done as I'll just have to change the title to a link whenever I get around to actually reviewing them in the future. I also worried in the opening post I was sounding like " Hey erm I cant be bothered to actually add my trophy list to this yet, so if you want to find my profile you can" I thought it would probably be better to just add them and then make it as accessible to people as possible in case people did want to have a read through at some point in the future.

 

Good to get that bit of nonsensical silliness out, onwards and upwards and all that.

Edited by rjkclarke
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Very good and impressive trophy profile. Obviously you've been at it for a long time.

 

Writing these long reviews is the main reason why I've put off writing reviews on my own trophy checklist thread. It takes a long time to think about what you remember about the game, and to compile it in a few paragraphs isn't easy.

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19 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

Very good and impressive trophy profile. Obviously you've been at it for a long time.

 

Writing these long reviews is the main reason why I've put off writing reviews on my own trophy checklist thread. It takes a long time to think about what you remember about the game, and to compile it in a few paragraphs isn't easy.

 

Thank you!! That is nice of you to say, I definitely have been at it for a long time, close to ten years now. Although I guess these days you could say having 300+ platinum trophies doesn't mean a whole lot depending on what your stance is on that sort of thing, but I've pretty much had good experiences to some degree with every single one that I have gotten, which is partly why I felt the need to start chronicling some of those thoughts. These days though somebody could probably get 300+ in the space of a year or less if they really wanted to. Not sure they would have a whole lot of fun in that endeavour, I know I wouldn't, but that is just me, I guess different people like different things, we don't all have to be motivated by the same desires and nor probably should we be. As long as people are enjoying themselves who am I to criticize that. Hard for me not to sound like a cockwomble on that one. I'm too laid back to really worry too much about what "modern trophy hunting" has turned into. It seems like the sort of thing that can spark major toxicity if not handled delicately.

 

You've got a pretty beastly profile yourself by the way, I like the fact you don't shirk going for 100%'s without a platinum trophy in them, after all a game is still a game and it should be enjoyed the same whether or not it has a platinum, but that is just my take on that. I have plenty of games I plan to get around to playing in the future myself that don't have a platinum.

 

You really hit the nail on the head there about putting off writing reviews, because of it taking a while to compile your thoughts on something you've not played for years. If you do though, I'll be sure to read them because, just like most people I'm sure you've got plenty of interesting thoughts and experiences about the games that you have played. Its actually one of the things I like about this sort of thing, is how some people can have such a completely different experience of games they've played because they had different preconceived ideas and expectations going in. I struggle to be succinct when writing anything, so that is another thing I'm struggling with, the fact that I know I'm going to be sitting here for probably an hour plus at a time each time I think about writing a review. Still enjoy it immensely though.

Edited by rjkclarke
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So that seemed like it took forever, but FINALLY I've managed to get all of my Platinum Trophies and 100%'s into the first post, that took bloody ages!! Feels Great to finally have it all in one place. It has just taken such a long time, but I really think its going to be worth it, because from this point on I can pretty much focus exclusively on getting to review the games I want to, as its going to be nice and easy to just paste a link in the titles and then not have to worry about them, because if it was a case of just adding one at a time it would have looked so barren for a VERY long time. Also I do think that Both of the new 100% and Platinum sections look pretty nice now, certainly compared to what it was. So Starting to feel more positive about it, which is always great for motivation.

 

It was certainly an experience getting it all in there, I noticed so many minor details I'd literally never noticed about lots of those trophy tiles too. Like the fact MGSV's Platinum tile actually has a Trophy in it I've somehow never noticed that. I'm not sure what I thought it was before, but maybe I need to take my Nan's advice and finally get some glasses haha.

 

I know maybe this doesn't warrant an update post, but I'm doing it anyway because that was such an arduous task to get everything in there and I guess to let anyone that might stumble across the thread know where to look to see what kind of things might start appearing in here in the future on the off chance they want to hear my oddball musings on some of the Platinum's I've gotten over the years.

 

I'm going to try and get the review of Nier Automata out later today, as I've been putting that off for a while, because its hard to really articulate what I feel about that game without going into spoilers, so I'll have to think a bit more on it and try and be as vague as possible.

 

That's it for now Peace out.

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22 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

So that seemed like it took forever, but FINALLY I've managed to get all of my Platinum Trophies and 100%'s into the first post, that took bloody ages!! Feels Great to finally have it all in one place. It has just taken such a long time, but I really think its going to be worth it, because from this point on I can pretty much focus exclusively on getting to review the games I want to, as its going to be nice and easy to just paste a link in the titles and then not have to worry about them, because if it was a case of just adding one at a time it would have looked so barren for a VERY long time. Also I do think that Both of the new 100% and Platinum sections look pretty nice now, certainly compared to what it was. So Starting to feel more positive about it, which is always great for motivation.

 

Looks great mate - I know full well that getting nice formatting within the confines of the forum software is never easy, and very laborious! ?

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17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Thank you!! That is nice of you to say, I definitely have been at it for a long time, close to ten years now. Although I guess these days you could say having 300+ platinum trophies doesn't mean a whole lot depending on what your stance is on that sort of thing, but I've pretty much had good experiences to some degree with every single one that I have gotten, which is partly why I felt the need to start chronicling some of those thoughts. These days though somebody could probably get 300+ in the space of a year or less if they really wanted to. Not sure they would have a whole lot of fun in that endeavour, I know I wouldn't, but that is just me, I guess different people like different things, we don't all have to be motivated by the same desires and nor probably should we be. As long as people are enjoying themselves who am I to criticize that. Hard for me not to sound like a cockwomble on that one. I'm too laid back to really worry too much about what "modern trophy hunting" has turned into. It seems like the sort of thing that can spark major toxicity if not handled delicately.

 

I have some throwaway platinums myself don't get me wrong, but the lengths and strife people go through to gain that many in just a year or two is..... pointless.

 

Breakthrough Gaming Arcade is a prime example of how not to make games and then sell them to a niche audience, that audience being the trophy hunters. We've always been the minority, but they can do better than this.

 

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You've got a pretty beastly profile yourself by the way, I like the fact you don't shirk going for 100%'s without a platinum trophy in them, after all a game is still a game and it should be enjoyed the same whether or not it has a platinum, but that is just my take on that. I have plenty of games I plan to get around to playing in the future myself that don't have a platinum.

 

It took me a lot of hard work to get to where I am now. Trophies are honestly just icing on the cake. The main issue is I suffer from OCD and I'm sort of a perfectionist, if a game is left unfinished I want to get it done.

 

Thankfully I don't have that problem on Steam.

 

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You really hit the nail on the head there about putting off writing reviews, because of it taking a while to compile your thoughts on something you've not played for years. If you do though, I'll be sure to read them because, just like most people I'm sure you've got plenty of interesting thoughts and experiences about the games that you have played. Its actually one of the things I like about this sort of thing, is how some people can have such a completely different experience of games they've played because they had different preconceived ideas and expectations going in. I struggle to be succinct when writing anything, so that is another thing I'm struggling with, the fact that I know I'm going to be sitting here for probably an hour plus at a time each time I think about writing a review. Still enjoy it immensely though.

 

I'm roughly seven months behind on my own reviews. I have to start with Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and work my way up to the present. Not easy, considering everything I've played since Tekken.

 

Being a little brief but a little descriptive is the best approach. Writing long ass textbook definitions on games you've done just confuses the reader.

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14 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

I have some throwaway platinums myself don't get me wrong, but the lengths and strife people go through to gain that many in just a year or two is..... pointless.

 

I think most people probably have the odd throwaway platinum, plus I suppose everyone has their own view on what a throwaway platinum constitutes. An Ultra Rare hunter would probably look down their nose at me for playing Point and Click Adventure games for example, or HOP games. I really like them though, so to me they wouldn't be a waste of time. I guess it depends how you want to view them, there is a few I certainly don't think I would have on there if they hadn't been free or at least very cheap, but I suppose I try and be fairly optimistic about things like that. Nobody forced a gun to my head and said PLAY LARA CROFT GO!!!!  like I definitely wouldn't have actively pursued buying Burly Men At Sea for example, but I really enjoyed playing it.

 

14 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

Breakthrough Gaming Arcade is a prime example of how not to make games and then sell them to a niche audience, that audience being the trophy hunters. We've always been the minority, but they can do better than this.

 

I've seen a few videos of those, I've never looked at how much they cost but I'd find it pretty astounding if they carried any sort of a high price tag. I mean if done right, there isn't anything wrong with a nice deliberate retro aesthetic, I'm well up for a nice bit of pastiche done right! They do seem a bit shallow I guess. Weirdly my first ever console/ computer I suppose you should say was a Commodore 16/Plus 4 that makes me seem ancient but I'm not, but I remember playing games that ran off a cassette that played better than those Breakthrough Gaming Arcade game's seem like they play.

 

14 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

It took me a lot of hard work to get to where I am now. Trophies are honestly just icing on the cake. The main issue is I suffer from OCD and I'm sort of a perfectionist, if a game is left unfinished I want to get it done.

 

That is a good way to approach it I think, I feel a similar way, that trophies are just the icing on the cake. I've always tried to get the best value for money out of the games I play ever since I was fairly young, I kind of feel like trophies end up being a natural extension of that. I often wonder if I have OCD myself, but I have no idea. Probably means you will always be able to maintain a high completion percentage though. I have no idea if you are like this too, but my own unfinished games do get under my skin a little bit, especially the ones where its really hard to motivate myself to play them, because of just incessant online grinds.

 

14 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

I'm roughly seven months behind on my own reviews. I have to start with Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and work my way up to the present. Not easy, considering everything I've played since Tekken.

 

14 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

Being a little brief but a little descriptive is the best approach. Writing long ass textbook definitions on games you've done just confuses the reader.

 

I've got to apologise for the messiness of these quote posts, my mouse is being a pain in the arse and won't highlight text at the moment. (It will highlight blocks, but not when I hold and drag over it, so it won't let me do more than one paragraph at a time when quoting, ODD.) I'm going to have to do something about that soon. That does sound like quite the task you have ahead of you catching up on those reviews, I remember seeing quite a few of your update posts in the Most Recent Platinum thread and it certainly seems like you've been busy. Some good advice for the reviews though, I appreciate that, think it will be a little bit of a bumpy road for me to find the right balance, but hopefully I'll get there eventually.

 

16 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Looks great mate - I know full well that getting nice formatting within the confines of the forum software is never easy, and very laborious! ?

 

Thanks DrB!! Haha, It certainly took a while, but it was a nice thing to distract me in-between sessions of the Snooker, nice little time filler waiting for the middle aged men in waistcoats and bow-ties to come back and hit some high tensile plastic balls around on a rectangular piece of felt with a stick. I shouldn't have written that haha, that just made Snooker seem even weirder than it probably already does.

 

I wanted to find the quote, but I couldn't in the end but one of your posts yesterday cracked me up so much,  telling someone how hard he must struggle in restaurants when they ask them if they want  a pudding, then proceeding to pour it onto their Steak and Potatoes.

 

Been enjoying your Scientific endeavours lately, found those very entertaining. I actually was thinking about picking up The Mysteries of Little Riddle, but I think I'll give that a miss after reading your write up of it, it sounds pretty much like interminable nonsense!

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1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

snip


Nice review mate :) 

 

It’s interesting for someone like me who liked Automata very much also, but never played the original, to hear what a big fan of the original has to say. It definitely sounds like the ‘baggage’ (not the right word, but you know what I mean!) that comes with pre-existing fandom made it more of a slow build of your appreciation of the sequel than my immediate “I don’t know what this shit is, but I’m all in!” brand of confused admiration.?

 

I was a fan of the same aspects that you highlighted - the strangely astute study of philosophical ideas, as viewed by creatures without all the tertiary tools to necessarily understand them, and the look at how following a single philosophy to it’s logical but extreme end without outside influence can be dangerous or desperately sad and tragic.

The ‘Become as Gods’ section obviously, but also a lot of the side quests (the ‘couple’ quest still sticks with me in particular.)

 

I think, oddly, the biggest difference we have is maybe our view on the ‘Trophy Shop’ mechanic.
I know the arguments against it of course - but I think it has a specific, and actually, proven and successful aspect to it - the preservation of peoples memory of the game.

 

What I mean by that is - if you talk to almost any trophy hunter who platinumed that game, and they will remember it fondly and often rave about it.

 

That might just be because it’s a great game (and it is, no question), but there are plenty of other great games, and not many have quite the uniform level of fondness engrained in people - and I think the trophy shop is the reason.

 

With a lot of games - especially rpgs - the player forms quite an attachment with the characters and the mechanics over the course of the story.
However, most rpgs also have a considerable post-game grind associated with them, and that means that by the time the trophy hunter has platinumed the game, much of the memory of the story and the characters they love is dulled, and the abiding, lasting memory of the game is the last part they did - the grind.

 

Some folks love that grind, and that’s cool, they can still do it here, and their memory of the game will be positive because they ended on a high for them, but for for folks who don’t love it, they can finish up the list with the trophy shop (which is only possible after completing ending E anyway) and they will also end on a high - the part they remember most will be the story parts they loved.

 

The net effect being - no one is going “Well, the story was good, but it was a pain at the end”.

No one has to caveat or temper their recommendation of the game to others - everyone remembers it fondly :) 

 

Trophy rarity questions aside - that can only be good for the game overall, I think, and can only help sentiment in favour of Yoko Taro getting to keep making his odd brand of philosophical strangeness just the way he wants to without interference.
Positive sentiment among the user-base is, after-all, the perfect antidote to marketing driven, focus-tested, banality-inducing corporate oversight...

... Just ask FROM software ?

 

 

 

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On 05/05/2021 at 10:50 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Snip

 

^^ Never thought to reply like that haha, that does make things a lot easier. Thanks as well by the way I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I'm probably going to do an edit in a bit here and there as some of the sentence structure is a bit off, I wrote that on an empty stomach so I started to rush a bit towards the end.

 

You know, that is an incredibly apposite point you made there about the Trophy Shop, I'll be honest I hadn't really thought about it like that. I guess because I'm fairly used to RPG's, I always tend to forget that I'm definitely in the minority of people that somewhat enjoy the grind. I'm usually fairly quick to prioritise the fact that there are so many other perspectives than just my own, so skimming over those factors is actually so unlike me - so that is a poor show from me really, I think I just got a bit caught up in my perception of how I saw it.

 

You are so right as well, I'm genuinely not being sycophantic either. I know plenty of people who would never term themselves a "Trophy Hunter" that have gotten the platinum in this, that obviously never would have otherwise and I know they used the Trophy Shop, in fact it was one of my best friends first platinums and I've never looked down on them for it, in fact I think it encouraged him to do a bit more hunting as he liked the idea a bit more. It honestly hadn't ever occurred to me before that it could have been down to the accessibility of the Trophy Shop, I just sort of saw it as a lazy cop out, which I'm totally wrong about. I think to be honest my stance on it might have been more justified if it had opened up after Ending A or something, because then you truly could miss out on some of this games magnificence.

 

I'm so glad you brought that up, because I probably would have just remained thinking it was a lazy implementation and just continued to be a bit of a sour puss about it all, which I worried I was coming across as anyway. So I truly appreciate the slight change of perspective on that one.

 

 

Edited by rjkclarke
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I've been on the lookout for a PS3 copy of the original Nier (at a decent price) as I borrowed it from a friend a long time ago and never really had the time to play it back then, so it sits on my account with a low percent. It pains me to see that it was actually a really solid experience for people and after playing Automata, it makes me want to play it more.

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5 hours ago, Grotz99 said:

I've been on the lookout for a PS3 copy of the original Nier (at a decent price) as I borrowed it from a friend a long time ago and never really had the time to play it back then, so it sits on my account with a low percent. It pains me to see that it was actually a really solid experience for people and after playing Automata, it makes me want to play it more.

 

I think a few people are having that problem now, which is a shame, especially as NieR: Replicant isn't strictly the same game, so it isn't as if you can pick up that version and have the same experience you would with the PS3 version.

 

I feel fairly lucky in the sense that I picked it up back in 2011 for I think about £10, before it really started to inflate and become the cult classic that it is now. I remember one of my friends had to pay loads for it. I honestly can't recommend the original NieR enough to people, to the point where people would probably want to tell me to shut up about it haha, its very unpolished and visibly quite low budget, but the story is one of my favourites that I've ever experienced in gaming. Its my favourite game from that PS3/Wii/360 gen as well.

 

I don't want to come across like some crazy preacher on a plinth in a town square so I'll try not to haha. Doing the whole..... HEAR YEEE.... HEAR YEEE.... NIER IS AN UNDERRRATED GEM thing. But in all seriousness if you can find a copy that is a price you are willing to pay, I'd definitely encourage you to go for it. I have the same problem myself - where there are quite a few PS3 games I never got around to playing, that I now want to, where the prices are starting to skyrocket a little bit, I feel like there is always a limit to how much you are willing to pay for something that is at this point fairly old. A little part of me tells me I should though, because I might end up really enjoying it. Decisions... Decisions and all that.

Edited by rjkclarke
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