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rjkclarke's Carnival of Diamonds and Rust


rjkclarke

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33 minutes ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

In honor of your Mental Health Awareness Week posts, I submit that you should play Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice if it's not already in your backlog.

 

That's a great idea actually thanks!

 

It isn't exactly in my backlog in the sense that I own it. But it is in the sense that I've wanted to play it for a long time. I'm glad you recommended it though, I'll definitely try and pick a copy up at some  point. I've always thought it seemed like the sort of thing I'd probably have enjoyed.

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5 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

That's a great idea actually thanks!

 

It isn't exactly in my backlog in the sense that I own it. But it is in the sense that I've wanted to play it for a long time. I'm glad you recommended it though, I'll definitely try and pick a copy up at some  point. I've always thought it seemed like the sort of thing I'd probably have enjoyed.

It's also very quick - no more than 8 hours and all the trophies can be had in one playthrough.  Fantastic game, and it's disappointing the sequel won't be coming to Playstation.

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That sounds awesome then - I've heard its pretty much all narrative based for the most part? Apart from the odd bit of combat here and there..

 

Eight hours seems like a good amount of time too, because I've found a lot of times with games where they push narrative as the focus, they end up getting quite bloated story-wise. I think. Its a hard balance to strike isn't it, because people are often super quick to pile on a game for being too quick, but also complain when its too long. We're a funny breed humans, tough to please it seems haha!

 

That is a shame about the sequel as well. Bit annoying when that sort of thing happens. Won't stop me playing the first one though.  Without any irony at all, I'm genuinely really gutted that Deadly Premonition 2 isn't available for PS4/PS5. At least not yet anyway, I can dream right lol.

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I'm almost done with Vampyr! I think last time I talked about it a few posts back I was really enjoying it. Now, not so much.. I'm still planning to finish it. I mean, I've come this far so why stop now. When I think about how optimistic I usually am when I review things Vampyr is going to end up being a strange one. Now I've done a full playthrough I have such mixed feelings about it.. But I guess I'll get to that when I get the platinum eh.

 

@DrBloodmoney 's recent scientific adventures with the two Shadow of the Colossus titles reminded me that I need to upload my own reviews of those two here, as I haven't gotten them in here yet. But they are already written so here we go. I think I should be able to get both of the games into one post so I think I'll do that. I don't fancy doing another classic review for another day or two anyway, as that Broken Sword one on the last page was a bit of a tough path to retread. I feel like it was worth it though

 

In the paraphrased and immortal words of Borat - time for my probably "inferior potassium " version of the Shadow of the Colossus reviews.

 

Shadow of the Colossus Reviews

 

 

 

The Remaster

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Platinum #314

Shadow of the Colossus (PS3)

 

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Wander and the Colossus

Acquired all Trophies

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 3 April 2021: 2:01:20 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  1 week, 2 days, 7 hours

Platinum Rarity  - 2.49%

Trophy Number - #15,206

 

Originally Written - April 3 2021

 

 

Shadow of The Colossus is such a truly phenomenal game! I hadn't actually played it for about fourteen years all the way back on my dusty PS2 that retired to live under my bed. At least that was the last time before recently picking up the Team Ico HD collection, I'm so glad that I did because playing through these classics the last few weeks has been an absolute blast, I feel like I probably should have revisited them a bit sooner. I also don't think when I first played this all those years ago I truly appreciated how well crafted the game is. I appreciated it yes, but ironically it is probably going for the trophies in this that really opened my eyes to how good it is. I saw so much more this time round than I ever did before, I never bothered to collect fruit or lizard tails when I used to play this, because I thought "well you get enough stamina from the Colossi lets just move on". Silly me I suppose haha, because due to that I missed out on so many landscapes I had never even noticed before because it was more a case of going from Colossus to Colossus back then. Everybody, that still has a PS3 and hasn't played this version BUY IT NOW!! or y'know maybe get the digital version whilst the store is still available because I have a feeling this game physically might start to skyrocket once a fixed digital price has vanished.

 

I think, just like the remaster of ICO the remaster of Shadow of The Colossus was made with such a large degree of love and dedication. Like I said in my post about ICO I do feel like the need to sell a product has somewhat hindered modern remasters, where a few more corners get cut, less dedication and time is given, which does sometimes lead to an inferior product. I get it though nostalgia sells and all that. This remaster was released back when there were fewer remastered collections around I suppose, but I think of the ones I have personally played from the PS3 era this was definitely up there as one of the best.

 

As usual I won't mention anything about the story in case anybody hasn't or still wants to play it, or has somehow managed to avoid all the spoilers about this game for the last fifteen years or so between now and its release haha. Outside of the fact that just like ICO it is something quite simple executed incredibly well, which is quite often the case with cinema too. Visually and musically, it was just as I remembered it just a little glossier looking, which obviously is great, it always seems to be a bit of a mixed bag when you see PS2 textures in a HD format, sometimes it works better than others, but I think for a remaster they did a fantastic job both visually and musically.

 

There are so many small and brilliant bits of attention to detail too; one of the Colossus is absolutely afraid of fire, so when you manage to knock its armour off, you can see lots of burn markings all around the fur you grip onto, illustrating why it fears fire, I had never noticed that when I played it back on PS2, but a fantastic detail that I guess could be easily overlooked. As with all the other Team Ico games that I have played so far, (I've not played Last Guardian yet but I plan to soon.) the OST in this is also incredible, with so many memorable pieces. One of the things I really liked was how the tempo would often switch from serene and peaceful, to ferocity almost in the click of the fingers, particularly the music during the  Phalanx fight or the flying nutsack as one of my friends calls them.

 

Taking all that into consideration, it is possible for a game to possess all of the above yet have some really uninspiring and uninteresting trophies or trophy requirement that can sometimes hinder enjoyment. (Looking at you Tales of Berseria haha!!) this DOESN'T though! I thought it might, but even the fact you essentially need about six playthroughs for the platinum and to find quite a lot of collectibles, I don't think that I was ever bored once, the gap of fourteen years probably helped though. To me that really illustrates how good this game is. I don't think its too difficult either, the only thing that would probably give people the most trouble is the Hard Time Attacks, I guess those could become a blocker for most people, especially as in this PS3 version Wander's  movement reminds me of one of those animal balloons that mimic the motion of walking, especially when jumping, I don't remember him tipping over quite so much on the PS2 version, but its quite possible he did. I only really struggled with Colossus 3, 6 and 15 for the HTA's, most of the others only took 2 or 3 attempts at most thankfully. If I was going to give advice on them I'd just say make sure you cut corners where you can and that most Colossus' weak points have a much larger hit box than they actually look like they do, so you can use that to your advantage to get in spots where you are less likely to be thrown off and have to restart.

 

I would obviously recommend this game to anybody that hasn't played it and still wants to, or just wants to play an absolutely awesome game. I could probably spend a stupidly long amount of time listing all the reasons this game is absolutely worth your time, but they probably would have released a remake of the remake by then haha. Just trust me that it is. If you are into your Ultra Rare Platinums this one might be for you as well, it was 2.49% when I achieved it yesterday which is always nice to nab another Ultra Rare plat when you can, its got 6 or 7 Ultra Rares too if those are your thing. All the guides say that the game takes about 50 hours, which it might have done, I'm not actually sure. If it did then WOW because I've played games that can take about 15 hours to platinum in the past, that felt longer than it took to get the platinum here. As if it wasn't obvious I enjoyed it a lot, there really aren't many flaws to be found within it, they aren't really worth mentioning as they won't hinder your enjoyment too much. I do plan to play the remake soon as well whilst all of the games mechanics, collectibles and strategies are still fairly fresh in my mind so I'm really looking forward to that!!

 

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The Remake

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Platinum #316

Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)

 

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The Horned Boy

Acquired All Trophies

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 15 April 2021: 1:21:43 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :   1 week, 3 days, 24 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 8.46%

Trophy Number - #15,282

 

Originally Written: April 15 2021

 

 

I feel like I'm about to sound like a miniaturized Parrot has just crawled inside my brain through my ear and is about to make me go "BWARRK SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS REMAKE IS AMAZING, BWARRRK." On a slightly more serious note, I'll try and keep this fairly brief. (Although I do always seem to fail at that one! I went to Edit and whoaaaah was I wrong, I ended up having loads to say but I'll leave it in just for my optimism at the start haha.) I did have quite a lot to say about the PS3 version and there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two, if you want to read that its a couple of pages back. This game REALLY is amazing though. I played the PS3 version of Shadow of the Colossus about two weeks ago so the fact that in less than a month I have essentially played through this game about twelve times and never really felt bored AT ALL is a testament to the quality of Shadow of the Colossus just as a whole, remake or otherwise. 

 

Bluepoint, did such a fantastic job with recreating this even if you are taking into account just the visuals alone. There are a few area's that are noticeably a bit different, some of the area's that had dense tree's and plant life have been expanded upon quite a bit, which makes them feel a lot more spacious than they did on the previous version. There is a small bit of irony I thought in the fact that the vibrancy of the colours in this version actually make it harder to spot the Shining Lizards. (There was quite a lot of blends of greys and brown in the PS3 version, so the shiny bits were much easier to see.) Although I guess that is less of a problem in the PS4 version as it contains different trophies so you DON'T actually need to collect all the Lizards anyway, just find what you can and you'll have to do less repeat playthroughs. The OST and the Sound Design in the PS4 version are as immaculate as they always have been, with the odd nice new flourish  added to them here and there. One of the best new additions I think actually involved the use of Sound Design, which was a very clever deliberate choice to add a female voice layered on top of Dormin's existing voice, which made perfect sense to me if Dormin is an amalgamation of multiple parts there's no reason why all of those should be male, so I thought that ended up being a very cool addition that is easy to gloss over.

 

I guess some people could make the argument that this game is too faithful, but I don't really think that's particularly a detriment when it comes to video game remakes. By their nature as video games, I feel like they have got a duty to capture at least what the essence of the originals gameplay was and then maybe add some quality of life improvements, this does that and then some. It should always feel like the same game. I like that this version has quite a few different trophies compared to the PS3 version, I feel like I might have enjoyed it less if I was essentially doing everything in the PS3 version a second time, I always welcome variety.

 

In a way I suppose you can compare this game to Gus Van Sant's cinematic attempt in the 90's to make a practically shot for shot remake of Psycho, except in Shadow of the Colossus' case it actually does work. I suppose mainly due to how the story is fairly minimal, as is dialogue, so as long you don't mess with the gameplay elements too much then you would always get a great result as long as you can effectively recreate the original games atmosphere, which again this does very well. I mean its not all perfect obviously, there are a few strange design choices. Colossus #7 (Hydrus I think) is now covered in fluorescent yellow/orange  lights so now and this might just be my weird interpretation of it, but I think now its covered in lights it kind of looks like a really long football sock covered in Christmas lights. I know its basically a giant electric Eel but still made me laugh a bit haha.The games physics are still a little bit weird too, Wander does maintain his balance a lot better in the PS4 version, but he does still jump and move around like one of those animal shaped balloons that walk along the ground, but because his balance is better I think quite a few elements of the game are a lot easier like the Colossus Time Trials.

 

The PS4 version however, is a colossally (Yes, pun intended) easy platinum compared to the PS3 version, it isn't necessarily easier its just much quicker and there are quite a few shortcuts you can use to basically cut your playtime down significantly. For example in this version you don't have to find every single Lizard and fruit on the map if you don't want to. I like that they put in the trophy for saving at all the save shrines again though, because that means you do get to see the vast majority of the amazing job they did faithfully recreating the original game. Also you can have the Hard Time Attack and Normal Time Attack Items on the same file, so you can essentially grind the Colossi using the Queen's Sword in this version so you can kill them much quicker than in the PS3 version and restart NG+ playthroughs if you cant be bothered to kill a particular Colossi and just want to restart your playthrough from that part. I was actually really glad that the game had these quality of life improvements, it was nice being able to use items I had earned to make Hard mode a breeze, which it isn't that difficult anyway its just substantially longer because of how much extra damage the Colossi take. I did very much welcome  the new trophies though, especially the few tasking you with killing Colossi a certain way, that was a very unique addition I thought.

 

I would honestly recommend this to anybody who hasn't played it before or anyone who has access to a PS4/PS5 and had always wanted to. Ironically you would essentially get the same experience whatever version you played. I ended up playing both though and ironically I was for the longest time of the mindset of " Why do you need to remake this, its pretty much perfect as is" But I yield this version is great and I don't have a problem admitting when I'm wrong. I'm assuming this version and the PS3 version don't count as a stack? I don't think remakes do, if so I guess this is the first time I've stacked something, but then if remakes do count then I did that with Ratchet and Clanks remake years ago.

 

Still, I wouldn't mind, I'm not against stacking or anything, I just personally struggle a bit with repetition so I've never done it in case it tarnished my initial enjoyment. I'll probably edit that previous bit out at some point as it looks like a strange stream of consciousness haha. To reiterate though, do yourselves a favour and get around to playing this if it is on your backlog or the PS3 version, it truly is one of those gaming experiences everybody should have at some point I think, if they can. Whilst remakes seem to be the in thing right now, I really wish some underappreciated IP's would get the remake treatment though. I desperately want a Legacy of Kain remake, any one will do. I think that game series whilst a little janky gameplay wise have got some of the richest and deepest lore, that is essentially just confined to video game history now. Still I can dream right?

 

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I'm actually fairly happy with those still, they're fairly recent anyway. But I want to have all my reviews in one place eventually so it seemed right to get them here now. I could have edited some bits of those out, but I won't. Although that comment about the PS3 store going down has thankfully aged like milk now, I'm glad it has though because it would have been an absolute shame to lose the Ps3/Vita store.

Edited by rjkclarke
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Some actual progress! That's Vampyr finished at least. Now the real challenge is going to be how I manage to avoid spitting venom and bile with my thoughts about Vampyr.

 

I'll listen to some nice relaxing Clannad as I write so I can keep a cool head I think - otherwise it will end up being the most negative thing I've ever written in here, despite there being things that I really liked about the game. Lets get to it then. I'll leave my thoughts below

Vampyr Review

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Platinum #321

Vampyr (PS4)

 

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Time is on my side

Earn all trophies

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 22 May 2021: 7:54:06 PM

Time Taken to Platinum :  1 week, 1 day, 14 hours

Platinum Rarity  - 10.09%

Trophy Number - #15,494

 

 

This is going to be a tough one to write about. My opinions on this game have fluctuated up and down more than a seesaw at this point. I think I like it, I just have such a problem with so many elements of it that this might end up coming off a little more negative than I want it to. I feel like you need a lot of patience to get much enjoyment out of this game. I don't think I've ever experienced a game perform so terribly on a PS4 and I've played quite a few PS4 titles at this point. To put it into perspective, I did a full playthrough yesterday of the entire game for the no kills trophy and it crashed at least twenty times. I honestly lost count of how many times. I'm not sure I've experienced crashes like that since all the way back on the PS3 when Skyrim had that weird bug for a while where every time you touched water, in whatever form the game just decided to freeze. Its pretty tough to ignore glaring issues like that unfortunately. People often dig out games by Spiders. (the studio not the creature! Haha) I don't think I experienced close to half of the amount of crashes playing through The Technomancer and Bound by Flame, despite the fact they are often maligned - maybe unfairly, as the inferior games.

 

Back to Vampyr though. There is a whole lot to like here, so lets be more positive. From a visual standpoint I think it was done in a fairly interesting way. The characters for the most part are all really well designed.  The protagonist Jonathan is particularly well designed. I had to double take a few times that I wasn't looking at Christopher Lee. I would imagine, it must have been a deliberate choice to have Jonathan look slightly like a modernised twenty first century take on  Hammer Films DraculaJonathan is just the tip of the iceberg in this regard though, almost all of the characters look very unique (they don't sound unique, but we'll get there). This was one of the area's that really did keep me invested in the game, because its easy in games of this nature to just have a lot of bland characters that you can barely tell one from another. For the most part, I think they are very well designed for the time period that they are supposed to be from, with the occasional bit of modern flourish.

 

Unfortunately, it isn't all visually perfect though. Judging a video game on how it uses the "camera" in cutscenes might seem like a harsh thing to do, but they are presenting a narrative in a similar way to how a film would, so I think its alright to talk about it. The best word I can think of to describe this games cutscenes is simply just,  bland  - surprising, because DONTNOD did such a good job with that not being the case in Life is Strange. The cutscenes in this are pretty much all static shots. Just a fixed view of one persons face. Which is pretty unforgivable really, in a game that is almost sold on its dialogue and story, I found myself getting bored looking at the side of a characters face as they are giving an exposition dump. This aspect of it just felt so unnatural to me. 

 

One of the elements I can't find a whole lot of fault with is the games OST and Sound Design. The soundtrack itself is very well crafted. The theme that plays when you are in Elisabeth's house is incredibly chilling. Its just incredibly well realised. Very atmospheric, really evokes the gothic horror vibe to a tee. Those moments where you are doing an evil thing,  put it this way, it definitely makes you feel the consequences of your actions, through  the music and dialogue.

 

The voice acting is all round very good too, you do get a few very similar sounding characters where voice actors are re-used, but that's almost a given with a lower budget RPG right? Anthony Howell I think does a really good job with the voice of Jonathan, I don't think it was probably the easiest task for him either, because I honestly thought Jonathan was quite a bland protagonist, but that wasn't down to his voice work, just a lack of decent character development. If I was going to give out an MVP award for voice acting in this game it has to go to Katherine Kingsley as Elisabeth Ashbury. I honestly can't overstate enough how good she is. It might not seem like much on the surface, but she just played that character with so much depth. There is an absolutely ageless quality to her voice, the almost weariness in her voice, reflecting several lifetimes full of hardships and loss was just so, so brilliant. In a way she reminded me of my favourite character from Skyrim, Karliah - another character where I think, the voice acting alone really elevates the character.

 

I'm not going to specifically talk about the story, because this game is very narrative focused so it would be unfair to delve too much into that without huge spoilers, so I won't. I'll mention a few vague things here though. I remember when I first started playing this I sent a message to one of my friends saying give DONTNOD the keys to Legacy of Kain please. I've since taken that statement back, because whilst the world and the lore is quite interesting it does devolve a little bit into silliness, but not quite in the self aware way it maybe should have. Which is fine, but I feel like there were a few moments they could have set aside for some light heartedness.There is way too much of a focus on the power levels of vampires for my tastes. Almost felt like I was playing Dragon Ball Z with vampires in places. Elements of the story are very good though, I'd say it is definitely the games best feature that doesn't directly relate to the sound. 

 

Gameplay wise, Vampyr, is not anything particularly new. The combat is very clearly inspired by Souls-esque titles, I think Bloodborne specifically. I don't think I disliked the combat particularly, but there were points where the enemies health just gets ridiculously high, that I just didn't have fun with long protracted fights where you could basically die in a few hits for the HUGE amount of XP and by huge I mean 10, yes just 10 haha. The dialogue and character hint system is one of the area's where the game absolutely shines. Its absolutely fascinating delving into these characters lives. Its amazing how much the hint system can change your opinion on certain characters. Its one of those area's where if you were doing a playthrough taking trophies completely out of the equation, there are a few people you definitely would think about chomping into, just because they seem like a danger to society. I do unfortunately have to mention what doesn't work though. As I said, in the opening paragraph - I don't think I've ever experienced a game run as poorly as this on a PS4. I'm fairly sure its had a substantial amount of patches too, so really its unforgivable. It really lets down what could have been an incredibly good game. I feel bad for those that paid a lot of money for this game, only to have it constantly freeze on them, or get ridiculous slowdown at regular intervals.

 

However, it is one of those games where going for the trophies probably does enhance the experience. The fact that you have to collect every weapon, was an interesting one for me. It meant that  I got to experiment a bit more with weapons that I hadn't used yet. There's a lot of variety to the weapons too, so it does add quite a lot. A lot of the trophies come from story progression, so you only really need to keep an eye on collectibles, you'll pick most of the other trophies along the way depending on how you decide to play. I'm fairly sure you can do this game in one playthrough, via using backup saves. So that might be a good option for anyone that starts playing this, then decides they don't want to play it any more than they have to. I personally did it in two, well two and a bit. That's the weird thing, its a very playable game, just incredibly frustrating when you are having a good time until it starts crashing - when that happens it makes you want to set the game on fire and throw it out of the window screaming. Well maybe not that, but close. The actual task of attaining the platinum itself is pretty simple though, which is always welcome.

 

I'm not sure that I recommend this one, if its in your backlog and you got it free with PS+ like it was for me, then maybe I would. I'll be honest though, I'm not sure I could actually justify paying much money for this, because I would honestly have felt cheated. Perhaps the game runs better on a PS4PRO/PS5, I don't know. If it does, those might alleviate some of the things that let this one down. So it might be worth it in that case. I'm glad I've written this though, because I still feel fairly positive coming out the other side of Vampyr, I didn't expect to -  because that last playthrough did sour the experience, but there was a whole lot to like there. I think I'd play a sequel if there was one.

 

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What a mixed bag that was haha! Time to play an RPG I know where I'm at with, think I'm going to go straight into Final Fantasy VIII remastered (if you can call it that) then I'll probably FINALLY  tackle Final Fantasy IX - For now though onto Final Fantasy VIII!!

Edited by rjkclarke
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3 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

Sounds like Vampyr was a very mixed experience.  I was disappointed I missed out on claiming it when up on PS+, but now not so much.

 

Unfortunately it was. I guess the last page back on this thread would cement that too, because initially I was really enjoying it. Its a shame too, because I think it has the foundations of a really good game - elements of it are genuinely brilliant too. But all of its technical flaws, bring down the experience an exceptional amount.

 

I am sorry if I put you off it though. I was trying to be as fair as possible. I think to be fair if I had missed claiming it for PS+ I would have been disappointed too, because its always been on my radar to play. If it runs with complete stability on a PS5 I'd recommend playing it on that - the game is never boring, just incredibly frustrating because it crashed so much. Only if its a decent price though.

 

I have a similar PS+ story actually, I never claimed Styx: Master of Shadows when it was on PS+ and now I regret it because -  I'm pretty sure I'd love it and it never seems to go on sale now, so one day I might have to just take my medicine and pay full price for it.

Edited by rjkclarke
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I think its probably about time that I pull my head out of this Final Fantasy VIII flavoured rabbit holethat I seem to have jumped head first into the last few days, for at least a bit anyway. Not that I'm complaining, I'm having a great old time down there, stuck amongst the card games and magic junctioning, I always forget how much of a tit Squall is to begin with though, despite having played Final Fantasy VIII quite a lot by this point since its release.  Still, I can't imagine my opinion on this one souring by the time I get to the end like I did with Vampyr.

 

I think I'm going to write another classic review, because since playing Vampyr; for some reason I've been thinking about Venetica a lot, they aren't particularly comparable games either, maybe its just because they happen to sit next to one another in my trophy list now - so that might have been what re-triggered my memory so to speak. Its better to write it now, because it might be another few months or years before it wanders back into my brain case. Still, I'm going to have to dig deep into my memories because I haven't played Venetica since 2013, so let's see how foggy it all is.

 

Classic Review

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Platinum #41

Venetica (PS3)

 

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Master of Venetica

Earn all Venetica trophies to unlock the platinum trophy

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 31 July 2013 - 10:15:02 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  5 Months, 4 Weeks, 2 Days

Platinum Rarity  - 9.40%

Trophy Number - #2,344

 

 

 

I might as well say this now, Venetica  is not the greatest game ever made, I'd be very surprised if there were anyone out there that has played it that holds the opinion that it is. I guess there could be that one person who has only played this game and no other game, they might. (Weirder things have happened lets face it.) That one hypothetical person who has shielded themselves from other awesome games aside, I really like Venetica purely for what it is. It is in essence unapologetically a very by the numbers low budget Western RPG. It really truly excels at this though, I'll get to that though. I feel like I should provide a little context to why I think I'll always end up going back to games like this. More than anything, I think I will always appreciate when a game is trying to be ambitious, even if its over ambition, I think it shows that the people making it really care. I can still appreciate it, even when what they are trying clearly doesn't quite work. That's why I'll always kind of overlook a few technical limitations to play a game that has very clearly been crafted with love. I'm less forgiving when AAA titles are just unimaginative and bland. With the amount of budget they are afforded they really have no excuse to devolve into being bland messes that some of them often do.

 

Looking back on it, with I suppose now more jaded eyes, whilst I've always been very fond of this game - I don't think I ever appreciated it for just being what it is, there is no pretentiousness on display here from the developers, thinking they are telling a story much deeper than they are. Its just a solid time all around.  ( I'll resist the urge to knock Old Creepazoid Cockwomble David Cage) I'm hoping, I didn't completely misread the developers intentions, but I think there are a lot of elements found here that were done with their tongues firmly in cheek. Venetica utilises a lot and I truly do mean  A WHOLE LOT of tropes you would very commonly associate with other games of its ilk. The game literally starts with your village/ tutorial starting area, being burned down, add to this the protagonist Scarlett  is one of those hokey "Pre-ordained for greatness" style characters, what with her links to Death. Thankfully, the game doesn't take itself too seriously for the most part so I don't think I ever found it irritating. I think the fact it reminded me so much of Summoner 2 on PS2, probably helped my tolerance level greatly. I was really hoping that, that would get the PS2- PS4 emulator treatment, but alas that seems to have been somewhat abandoned. I really love the Summoner series though, just like Kingdoms of Amalur, it had an incredibly rich amount of lore, that had some very intricate thought put into it. Anyway - after that slight deviation into why I love the Summoner series lets get back to Venetica.

 

I guess from a visual standpoint Venetica, doesn't really do anything outstanding. if you are familiar with WRPG's or any sort of game from the mid to late 2000's you would know what to expect visually. Its not ugly at all though, but I do remember at the time thinking the graphics could look a bit more polished than they were. I think the character designs themselves were all quite interesting though. The game is set in 16th Century Venice, with an added bit of Steampunk flare, so a lot of the various characters reflect that. I always welcome variety in any avenue of my life, so I'm pretty much the same when it comes to video games. Everything in Venetica from purely a design standpoint, good or ill stands out in a unique way, whether that be the vibrancy of the colours of their clothes or the characters appearance - the African characters are a bit "suspect" as far as not being a horrendous stereotype goes.If you've played the Risen games and have seen what the characters who practice Voodoo look and sound like you can probably imagine what you'd be getting here. I can't say I'm the biggest fan of that aspect, it all seemed a bit insensitive. 

 

I would usually dedicate an entire section to Sound Design and the OST, but its hard to really say much here. So I'll pair it up with talking about the characters, because as usual no major plot details are going to be here. Anything that I do say about the soundtrack or lack thereof , probably won't be overwhelmingly positive. Atmosphere can sometimes live and die by the use of a good soundtrack or OST, in Venetica's case it doesn't really excel in either of these departments. Its a shame, there wasn't more of a memorable soundtrack to speak of.

 

I think the voice acting is overall patchy to say the least. I don't think it detracts from the enjoyment though, I was quite fond of a few of the characters despite both the audio being recorded poorly and the characters emotions not quite being conveyed the way they are intended. Scarlett and Death howeverare voiced quite well - which is very important considering they are some of the characters you probably see the most of, there are a few elements of this game that remind me of Legacy of Kain. I know I'm mentioning that a lot lately, but one -  I bloody love it and I think in this case its justified because the dynamic between Scarlett and Death is similar to the Elder God and Raziel in Legacy of Kain. Death's character by his nature should be incredibly ENIGMATIC , thankfully he is otherwise this would have been one of the elements that really didn't work. Scarlett herself, as I mentioned previously does fall into the mould of being a a character driven by revenge, on the surface yes quite shallow but she gets expanded in a lot of interesting ways thanks to a unique gameplay element that allows her to interact with the spirit realm and commune with dead characters, which adds  a surprising amount to her character.

 

Scarlett could have maybe done with being slightly customisable, I imagine if this game was made within the last ten years or so she almost certainly would have been, it might have helped people connect to the character a bit more if they chose what she looked like - her appearance after all doesn't define any part of her character from a story perspective so I think it would have been a nice addition. Scarlett was at least a likeable protagonist though, in a game that's twenty plus hours long that is almost a necessity, I wish Risen 3 and Bound by Flame had managed that but I'll discuss them when I get to them I suppose.

 

I'll delve into the gameplay a bit now. I think if a hypothetical machine existed where you could gene splice two games together and make one. A Brundle-Game so to speak. I'll leave that there for any fans of The Fly,  then I'd say Venetica almost feels like Fable mixed with Soul Reaver, with maybe a bit of  sneeze DNA from games like Gothic and modern titles by Spiders. Venetica does have quite varied gameplay though, which really helps to keep it fresh; especially helpful considering you have to do at least two and a half playthroughs for that all important platinum trophy. I think the way the respect system is handled in Venetica whilst not being anything new is very interestingly handled. It does encourage doing side content because some characters just won't interact with you if you don't have enough respect within Venice. For me, that was probably the biggest similarity between this and games made by Piranha Bytes, where you essentially have to do things a different way depending on whether or not you are doing an honourable or dishonourable playthrough. Thankfully, Scarlett's ability to enter the spirit realm was not a gimmick that was just saved for cutscenes and exposition. It serves a practical purpose by always being the second part to a boss fight, an element I always really enjoyed because not only does the perspective change, but the nature of the fight. From what I remember, the combat took some getting used to - one of those games where you are pretty much being attacked from all angles, so it ends up feeling like you are dodging more than you are actually attacking. There are a large variety of weapons that play quite differently though, so you can change up frequently if you get bored.

 

Venetica's trophies are quite interesting just by the sheer amount of the game that they expect you to tackle. I think before I get into really talking about Venetica's trophies, I'll deviate a bit and mention how I used to approach trophies back when I played Venetica. I definitely remember, starting this and then just sort of putting it down for whatever reason and then going back to it later. When I did, it sort of just "clicked" and I was almost certain I was going to have a good time, sometimes games seem to have that effect. I used to do that quite a lot back seven years ago, but nowadays I tend to focus on one thing at a time if I can, otherwise I feel like I'd have an even more mountainous backlog and nobody needs that. Back to Venetica though, for all its faults I feel like Venetica really does have an eclectic and enjoyable trophy list. I think I've mentioned before in some of these reviews that I really love when a game essentially asks you to do everything, I usually always end up feeling as if I've had my moneys worth.

 

Even the more mundane things can end up simply being quite fun, seven years on I can clearly remember doing the roof beast quests and absolutely battering the roof beasts with a giant hammer I had found somewhere, which seemed funny at the time. It also tasks you with digging out all of the games treasures which is actually quite addictive and satisfying, plus you end up getting some incredibly overpowered weapons and armour that way. Its not the easiest of trophy lists though, one of the trophies tasks you with doing an entire playthrough without using healing items. I think you can eat food though, so there are ways to alleviate some of the difficulty - but as the game doesn't have an autosave feature this aspect of that playthrough invariably becomes the most frustrating thing you'd have to contend with.

 

Would I recommend it? Tough to say really, there are a lot of much better games out there in 2021 that would scratch the not particularly time consuming middle of the road RPG itch. I think if I played it in 2021 and didn't have the platinum and was going for it, I think I'd still have a fun time with it. It still ticks those boxes that I personally like. To be perfectly honest its tough to even say if its a hidden gem or not. I think it just about qualifies, but amongst other games I'd consider hidden gems this one probably looks like it was accidentally knocked into a pile of manure, before being hurriedly scraped and hosed down before being placed amongst its more modern brethren. I enjoyed it a lot though and I've really enjoyed reliving some of it here. I noticed two people have achieved the platinum this year though, so some people are still stumbling across it, its certainly surprising that the game has just shy of 7,000 owners on here, I expected it might have been a bit higher for some reason.

 

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That was an absolute blast writing that huge wall of text :D. I'm a little unsure whether or not I'm going to cut out the emboldening of words from future posts, I've just been trying that out lately a bit to see if I like it, but I do think sometimes its worth highlighting specific things.

 

I didn't mention it in the review but Venetica plays much more stably than Vampyr does, which is shocking considering how old it is - add to that the fact that, even when it was released Venetica was criticized for its technical performance.

 

A funny side note, when I was looking through the first post to find which platinum number this was, I noticed I literally haven't touched a single one of the games I had deemed high priority, quite funny really, considering this thread has been going a month and I've not touched a single one, just gone into other bits of my backlog, so maybe I'll tackle something high priority soon haha!!

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11 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

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Great write up mate - I can totally tell reading it that you feel forced to write a whole bunch of the negative aspects you know it has, yet you clearly have a love for it anyways - Feels exactly like I feel writing about Shadow of Memories ?

I think we all have those games - the ones we know aren't really as good as they loom in our minds, but for whatever reason, they just hit us in at the perfect time and place, and just hit the spot, and remain stuck there in a spot in our brains forever that really, on paper at least, should be reserved for a better game!

 

It's not like Venetica was from bad stock or anything of course - it's Deck 13, who are still making great stuff now - well, both The Surge games are great at least!

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1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Great write up mate - I can totally tell reading it that you feel forced to write a whole bunch of the negative aspects you know it has, yet you clearly have a love for it anyways - Feels exactly like I feel writing about Shadow of Memories 1f602.png

I think we all have those games - the ones we know aren't really as good as they loom in our minds, but for whatever reason, they just hit us in at the perfect time and place, and just hit the spot, and remain stuck there in a spot in our brains forever that really, on paper at least, should be reserved for a better game!

 

It's not like Venetica was from bad stock or anything of course - it's Deck 13, who are still making great stuff now - well, both The Surge games are great at least!

 

Thank you!! You can clearly read me like a book good Sir (probably a really convoluted one too) :D

 

Unfortunately, you can't leave out the negative bits otherwise it just isn't fair. That's so true as well about a game just being in that perfect time and place for you at the time, that just get in your brain. That statement for me, is as good an illustration as any for video games being considered art. I mean its not even a debate in my mind, but for some it obviously is. A good piece of art stays with you, the same way a video game a film or a song would. I'm honestly not comparing Venetica to a piece of art in that exact direct sense  to be clear, that would be like comparing a Macaroni Owl to the Mona Lisa! But it sure was a good time. 

 

That is very interesting you mention Shadow of Memories of all things, that game was so ambitious for when it was released. I never actually finished that, I was in the middle of playing it when I moved house back in 2010 and to my shame I never went back to it

 

If its the same Shadow of Memories I'm thinking of anyway, the PS2 one. Where the main character walks around announcing himself with both his first and second name everywhere he went. Set in Germany? despite the aesthetic making you assume it would be set somewhere completely different.

 

I must get around to the other Deck 13 titles too. Guessing you recommend giving them a play? I always try and find something to like in everything I play, so they'd probably be quite an interesting time at the very least.

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14 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

That is very interesting you mention Shadow of Memories of all things, that game was so ambitious for when it was released. I never actually finished that, I was in the middle of playing it when I moved house back in 2010 and to my shame I never went back to it

 

If its the same Shadow of Memories I'm thinking of anyway, the PS2 one. Where the main character walks around announcing himself with both his first and second name everywhere he went. Set in Germany? despite the aesthetic making you assume you it would be set somewhere completely different.

 

That’s the one - well, they said it was Germany, but really, it was set in the country of ‘Japanese-Imagined-Europe’ - basically the same place Professor Layton lives ?

 

And yeah - the main character (actually every character) talks like Tommy Wiseau in the Room - every conversation starts with “Oh hi, X”.... The voice acting is absolutely unreal - I love it ?

 

 

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I must get around to the other Deck 13 titles too. Guessing you recommend giving them a play? I always try and find something to like in everything I play, so they'd probably be quite an interesting time at the very least.


well, They’ve pretty much carved out a spot for themselves as ‘the other Souls-Like company now’.  The first one, Lords of the Fallen, was a bit of an also-ran, and not that great, but, both Surge games are excellent - the first one in particular - and probably the best non-FROM Souls-like games - sci-fi souls seems a bad concept on paper, but they really made the concept work so well.

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44 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

And yeah - the main character (actually every character) talks like Tommy Wiseau in the Room - every conversation starts with “Oh hi, X”.... The voice acting is absolutely unreal - I love it 1f604.png

 

That was exactly the one I was thinking of then! I remember being absolute arse at one of the opening bits where you have to do something with a ball - I'm sure my memory is wrong, but you have to bounce it off your head or something. I'm probably just thinking of the Jecht shot from Final Fantasy X and misremembering.

 

A little bit of my comment you quoted has some terrible grammar, reads like someone hit me in the temple with a hammer in the midst of writing that.

 

44 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

well, They’ve pretty much carved out a spot for themselves as ‘the other Souls-Like company now’.  The first one, Lords of the Fallen, was a bit of an also-ran, and not that great, but, both Surge games are excellent - the first one in particular - and probably the best non-FROM Souls-like games - sci-fi souls seems a bad concept on paper, but they really made the concept work so well.

 

 

That's good to hear, especially about The Surge actually. I'm fairly sure I own it -  so I'll definitely add it to the list of things to play in the future. I ought to jump into some Souls games/ Souls-like titles actually so it might be a good jumping back in point, because whilst I've played Dark Souls 1 and 2 on 360, outside of Bloodborne I don't have a single one represented on Playstation, despite the fact I really like them.

 

I trust your opinion on sci-fi from reading everything you've written about the games you've played that contain a sci-fi element.  So that's reassuring I worried it would be one of those games that handles it really poorly and sort of squanders the potential. Its a little too easy to drown sci-fi elements in a ridiculous amount of cliche.

 

That's sort of the direction Warframe ended up going with some of its "story" where it literally ripped off the StarChild thing from 2001 and had a character sat in a bed watching things unfold around him, not even in a wink wink nod nod way, in a "we've just copied it and hoped nobody notices" kind of way. Sort of put me off the game from that point onwards. Sounds harsh to say but that was just such a huge lack of creativity on display there.

 

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7 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

That's good to hear, especially about The Surge actually. I'm fairly sure I own it -  so I'll definitely add it to the list of things to play in the future. I ought to jump into some Souls games/ Souls-like titles actually so it might be a good jumping back in point, because whilst I've played Dark Souls 1 and 2 on 360, outside of Bloodborne I don't have a single one represented on Playstation, despite the fact I really like them.

 

 

I trust your opinion on sci-fi from reading everything you've written about the games you've played that contain a sci-fi element.  So that's reassuring I worried it would be one of those games that handles it really poorly and sort of squanders the potential. Its a little too easy to drown sci-fi elements in a ridiculous amount of cliche.

 

That's sort of the direction Warframe ended up going with some of its "story" where it literally ripped off the StarChild thing from 2001 and had a character sat in a bed watching things unfold around him, not even in a wink wink nod nod way, in a "we've just copied it and hoped nobody notices" kind of way. Sort of put me off the game from that point onwards. Sounds harsh to say but that was just such a huge lack of creativity on display there.

 


Oh, the Surge games never go that big or out there, sci-fi wise really - it’s still earth based stuff, and fairly grounded in some form of reality. It never gets into the more esoteric or spiritual stuff, or into plastic-reality or mind-bending areas.

To be honest, the closest movie in terms of tone, I thought, was probably that ‘Elysium’ movie with Matt Damon if you saw that? - though the stuff that reminded me of the Surge was probably the first 20 minutes of that movie more than the rest of it - his work reminded me of The Surge quite a bit

 

That’s good you’ve played some Souls elsewhere actually - I was going to mention that jumping straight on the Surge games without any FROM souls to relate them too would potentially feel a bit odd -  as they are very much based around the idea that the audience is already familiar with the souls-like genre, and they play off that to large extent - but if you have played a bit of them before then I’d say you’re golden

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43 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:


Oh, the Surge games never go that big or out there, sci-fi wise really - it’s still earth based stuff, and fairly grounded in some form of reality. It never gets into the more esoteric or spiritual stuff, or into plastic-reality or mind-bending areas.

To be honest, the closest movie in terms of tone, I thought, was probably that ‘Elysium’ movie with Matt Damon if you saw that? - though the stuff that reminded me of the Surge was probably the first 20 minutes of that movie more than the rest of it - his work reminded me of The Surge quite a bit

 

That’s good you’ve played some Souls elsewhere actually - I was going to mention that jumping straight on the Surge games without any FROM souls to relate them too would potentially feel a bit odd -  as they are very much based around the idea that the audience is already familiar with the souls-like genre, and they play off that to large extent - but if you have played a bit of them before then I’d say you’re golden

 

I have seen Elysium yeah, that's good to hear. I quite like Neil Blomkamp's creative output for the most part. I don't think he's quite topped District 9, as far as quality goes. So that sounds good as far as the story goes. In that case it would probably remind me of Elex, that reminded me of Elysium in a few places too.

 

I'm perfectly fine with the game not having anything deep and meaningful to say, as long as its an enjoyable time and experience, it doesn't need to have any kind of sweeping dramatic subtext.Not everything needs or should have that anyway. Its probably better that it doesn't to be fair, from what I've played of other Souls and Souls-esque titles there is usually a fair bit to remember from a mechanical gameplay perspective, so its probably just better to keep the story fairly low - key. So you can focus on remembering which enemy moves a specific way and that kind of thing. Whenever I play games like that I never really focus all too much on the story anyway, at least not whilst I'm actively playing it.

 

The Souls series obviously has an incredibly rich lore so its majesty is there to behold obviously. I just tend to think about the story aspect as a secondary thing in those games. Which is bad on my part. With maybe the exception of the Lucatiel interactions from DSII I really did pay attention to those, I thought they were really engaging.

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This isn't a PSA or anything and I'm not telling you how to spend your money, but The Bard's Tale - Remastered is on sale right now for a really decent price. £1.99 in the UK, I assume its in the other retro and remaster sales worldwide too. I think until June the 2nd. If you like a good bit of old school RPG'ing (yes I know that isn't a word :D) this might be your thing.

 

I have written a review for it too, in fact its the last review I wrote before starting this thread I believe, but I've not actually put it in here yet. Now seems as good a time as any.

 

I'm under no illusions that my strange ramblings might convince someone to buy it. I just thought I'd mention it, just in case people weren't aware of the game. 

 

Here we go then. I might edit a few bits and bobs in it as well - there were definitely a few bits I remember not being very fluid in my previous review.

 

The Bard's Tale Review

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Platinum #317

The Bard's Tale (PS4)

 

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Master Bard

Unlocked all Trophies!

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 21 April 2021: 2:27:57 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  5 days, 7 hours, 20 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 12.85%

Trophy Number - #15,334

 

Originally Written: April 21 2021

 

 

 

I'm going to paraphrase a line from one of my favourite TV shows to describe this game -  which is "I'm going to unearth you, for the world to see." Wow, that probably comes across very pretentious, so apologies in advance haha, I'm not suggesting I have power over the world or influence over what anybody sees or reads obviously, just the notion that this game truly is a hidden gem that absolutely deserves to be unearthed. I mean this game has under 5,000 owners, which seems a shame to me

 

The Bard's Tale or perhaps I should give it its full title The Bard's Tale: Remastered and Resnarkled is a game I never expected to get the remaster treatment, I would have thought that even in 2004 this game was fairly niche. This is probably why the Original Xbox version is the only remaining Original Xbox game left on my shelf whilst all the others live in the loft, I always really loved how much this game is absolutely brimming with charm! (Also Remastered and Resnarkled sounds better to be honest but I have a theory as to why it isn't listed like that.)

 

I was actually fairly apprehensive about playing this because I was a little worried that the passage of time would have changed my view on this game. It didn't for the most part, I just found this time around the gameplay was perhaps a little more repetitive than I remembered it being. That might be my fault though to be fair, I was often playing this for quite long periods of time. I know on the cover image it still says The Bard's Tale: Remastered and Resnarkled, but in the trophy list it doesn't, I wonder if that was done because the game isn't really a remaster? I thought might have been to avoid backlash because whilst it has been polished in places this really is more like a port than a remaster, in a similar manner to how Jedi Knight II and Jedi Academy are more or less just ports. Just a theory though, I can live with it, after all to be able to play games that you used to love and stick them on your trophy list is awesome! You would have to be pretty miserable to poke too many holes in that,its still better than having no trophies at all I think.

 

I'll not mention the story because it is genuinely really funny, and although this game is nearing eighteen years old now, I'm sure some people might like it to remain spoiler free in case it is in their backlog or something, if it is you should experience it for yourself. I will mention a few story-ish things though, like character and voice performances. The actual writing of the characters and the voice performances of this game are one of the areas where it shines very brightly. I suppose they had to, back in 2004 you couldn't rely on cutscenes that have detailed facial animations so the voice performances and how the characters themselves are written had to be really memorable. I think this is  one of the reasons David Hayter has garnered such a huge fanbase for his portrayal of Solid Snake.

 

I actually mentioned Legacy of Kain in my last post in this thread (for anyone reading this in my personal checklist thread - see the PS4 Shadow of the Colossus post for that specific reference :D ), this game actually features a cast reunion of sorts with Simon Templeman (Kain) Tony Jay (The Elder God) and Michael Bell (Raziel) in various roles. Tony Jay is the Bard's Tales narrator and he is an outstanding actor anyway, whether that was live action or voiced but he really sounds as if he's having fun with the dialogue here. ( I think sometimes you ABSOLUTELY CAN tell when the actors are doing it just for a payday.) If you can't quite think of the name immediately he was Frolo in the Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame film, ironically his voice is something I more associate with sternness and rigidity, but a lot of his sarcastic and sardonic line deliveries genuinely made me crack up and laugh out loud more than once. The Bard, is voiced by Cary Elwes who I guess most of us know from The Princess Bride (Elwes also worked as a screenwriter for this game) and also does a very good job considering he's playing an arsehead as far as characters go. I actually think The Bard skating a line between likeable and unlikeable is actually realised quite well here, because of its light hearted and comedic tone you never really question his actions too much. You could maybe make the argument that he behaves a bit like a horny teenager, but then this game also came out on the same console generation that had a Playboy Mansion game so y'know maybe they were playing off of that, the game does slip into being very self referential and meta-textual so perhaps it was a deliberate decision.

 

There actually isn't a whole lot that I can really say about the gameplay to this game. In a way its beautifully simplistic, but I think probably too simplistic. Its one of those things where you get into an almost mindless routine of doing almost all of the game a specific way, with the same few summons, because they often turn out to be the best ones. The loot system however, is honestly one of the more interesting ones I have seen, just because of how ridiculously addictive it gets seeing your weird and innocuous loot like seashells, underwear and diaries get transformed immediately into silver. I found myself picking up loot, long after I needed silver in the game just to see what it was and hear that satisfying sound as it became money straight away. I don't personally have a Vita, not yet anyway, I might get one at some point. Bard's Tale is available on Vita though and part of me thinks playing it in a pick up and play sort of fashion might be one of the more enjoyable ways to play this. The game itself is like I mentioned previously very simple so it would probably be a nice chilled out experience to just play for an hour or two after a hard day for some light relief.

 

In a game where a musical focus is very prominent you would expect the OST and Sound Design elements to stand out, and yes they really, REALLY do! There is a really hilarious reoccurring element with the music where a group of Trow's periodically show up and sing hilarious songs about where The Bard has been or where he is going next in the style of the Oompa Loompa's from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Those have always been one of the things I remembered most fondly about this game, there are plenty of similarly funny songs in the tavern, it truly is one of the reasons this game is just brimming with charm.

 

I had an absolute blast getting the platinum in this even if I did have the odd criticism about repetitive gameplay, its still fun gameplay nonetheless. Bard's Tale however, is one of those games where it does have console commands which can quicken your time to platinum the game, but honestly, I wouldn't use them because you'll end up probably skipping whole dungeons, quests, area's and most importantly DIALOGUE. But if anybody decided to grab a quick platinum that way, they would at least have a load of absolutely gorgeous looking trophy tiles though, that's always nice right? I don't think that's just me haha. Bard's Tale's story really is quite a joy, its simple but its always very funny - but I think you might be doing yourself and this game a disservice by skipping over its story just for a quick Platinum.

 

There is a slight caveat to that though, I guess the humour might not be universal though, it has quite British humour, some of the Scottish and Irish accents are just straight up stereotypes though, which could potentially be grating for people from that neck of the woods, I'd usually say whether or not I would recommend this, I mean its patently obvious I loved it. But I'm just one person, so yes  I would, but if anybody were to play it, go in with the right mindset and don't expect it to be something that it isn't. If you like very old school RPG's this would probably be right up your street, Baldur's Gate fans might enjoy it too, but they probably will have played this version already back in 2004 like I did. If you wanted a very relaxing light-hearted 15-ish hours Platinum this might be your thing too, its one I think you have to have at least some vested interest in already, so I feel like its a bit tough to recommend it. I'm sure in one of the Metal Gear Solid games Snake describes himself as a "Relic from a bygone era" I might be completely misremembering that, but I feel like "Relic from a bygone era" is almost the perfect way to describe this game.

 

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My goodness, what is with me and always bringing up Legacy of Kain -  anyone would think I loved that series or something........... I'm sure if I really tried, that if I was reviewing Tetris I would find a way to compare and contrast them.

 

Honestly,  I think some day I'll probably write some really way off topic reviews in here about all the Legacy of Kain titles, because lets face it they aren't ever that likely to get ports with trophies in them, so its definitely something I might have a think about. Might stop me cramming references and allusions to them left and right haha!

 

I guess I'll put a little mini and I do mean mini, update about my Final Fantasy VIII progress, its going well. In PS1 terms I have Squalls Lion Heart weapon on what would be disc 1, which is how I've virtually played Final Fantasy VIII every time I've played since I discovered you could get it that early, back in the late 2000's.

 

That might help to breeze through a few sections of the game a bit quicker. I feel like once I actually get the platinum, I'm going to end up putting some really nitpicky things in my review about its trophies, purely because I think they are a little unimaginative. But we'll get there when we get there, unoriginal trophies are in no way going to hinder my enjoyment so as always I have to remain positive about these things. As I said in my Bard's Tale write up, its so awesome to even have trophies in these kinds of games to begin with.

 

Edited by rjkclarke
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I guess I should probably update this, as I haven't posted anything in here for a week. I would probably have had Final Fantasy VIII platinumed, with a review alongside it by this weekend. Unfortunately however, I had to travel halfway across the country for a funeral, so I've been there for the last few days and lets be honest - real life things like that should always take priority over a bit of trophy hunting.

 

So instead as I still have some reviews written that I haven't posted in here yet and I don't really fancy putting loads of effort into writing a classic review right now; I'll post one of those. Although I should say the next I'm planning to write is part of the Yakuza series but I'm not going to say which one. I'll let that be a surprise :D

 

Lets go with the Glass Masquerade games. I'm fairly sure I can fit both of them into one post so I'll do that.

 

 

 

The Glass Masquerade Series

 

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Platinum #313

Glass Masquerade (PS4)

 

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Art Deco

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A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 27 March 2021: 4:19:14 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  3 days, 6 hours, 14 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 89.44%

Trophy Number - #15,197

 

Originally Written:  March 27 2021

 

 

This one actually will be short for once haha. There isn't a whole lot to say about this game. Its essentially Jigsaw Puzzles: The Video Game. If you like Jigsaws you will almost certainly like this. It has a very unique art style too. (I loved the idea of puzzles made out of stained glass.)  I've sort of just been playing this off and on the last few days between playing Shadow of the Colossus, its been nice and relaxing to just solve some puzzles to some relaxing music for a bit in the evening, its actually a lot more cathartic than I expected it to be. I think the really chilled out OST helps as well to be fair, perhaps should have saved the relaxation for when I have to do the Hard Time Attacks in Shadow of the Colossus, but there's always glass Masquerade 2 for that!

 

I guess now it also has the distinction of being my most common platinum, so there's that I guess. I don't mind though its not like I didn't have fun playing it, because I very much did. Of all the games I own it is by far the platinum with the highest PSN percentage I think I've personally seen, something like 72.4%, obviously there is higher just not of anything I've played. I managed to pick both Glass Masquerade 1 and 2 up in a sale about a month ago for under £3, which turned out to be an absolute steal.

 

If anybody was interested in this, don't go in expecting it to be a quick and easy Platinum, its easy, because all you have to do is solve the puzzles, but there is 25 I think and some of them can take a while. I guess you could expedite the process by looking up what the Clock face  picture is supposed to be, but where is the fun in that. I enjoyed this game a lot though and its the sort of thing I'd play anyway even if trophies weren't involved so the trophies were just a nice bonus I guess, so if its something you might be interested in and you can get it for a good price, you definitely should. Fans of Artifex Mundi's titles would probably enjoy this, just don't expect any story. I look forward to Glass Masquerade 2 in the near future as I've heard that is a bit more challenging, which I like the sound of.

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Platinum #315

Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions (PS4)

 

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The Final Illusion

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A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 10 April 2021: 2:14:53 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  6 days, 7 hours, 54 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 58.01%

Trophy Number - #15,273

 

Originally Written: April 10 2021

 

 

You know that absolutely cliched, but true description people use when talking about Marvel's Spider-Man? That line of "It really makes you feel like Spiderman" well funnily enough, this game REALLY feels like you are solving a jigsaw puzzle haha, or at least 31 smallish ones! I'm not exaggerating either, anybody that has spent any time doing Jigsaw puzzles, even the smaller pieced ones you have as children would have a very similar experience in this game to one you would have in real life. Even down to the small satisfying intricacies of how they work in the real world, where you tend to fill in the edges then work inwards or on specific areas. It also has those really cool almost Zen like moments where your brain just seems to momentarily see where several pieces go all at once, which surprised me in a game where the shapes are all very unconventional glass shards as the puzzle pieces, very enjoyable stuff.

 

I quite enjoyed the original Glass Masquerade but it isn't in any way challenging so I was very pleased that the sequel introduced a hard difficulty mode. Thankfully it doesn't put a timer on you to complete the puzzles quickly, instead it just doesn't set the pieces up to automatically be rotated into the position that you need to place them, this ends up adding quite a bit more time as each piece can be rotated 8 different ways so on the puzzles that have 70+ puzzle pieces that adds a fairly large chunk of time. I think that is part of the reason their is quite a big disparity between the platinum rarity of this game and the original. The Original is close to 90% whereas this one is closer to 56%. Not that this particularly bothered me, in a game like this being able to earn some trophies is just a pleasant bonus really.

 

This game doesn't have a story so even if I wanted to mention it I couldn't. It just has a few lines of text here and there explaining the nature of some of the puzzles.Glass Masquerade 2, does have an incredibly charming and interesting art style though, aesthetically similar to the first game but with a plethora of variety, I think the artists who designed the puzzles probably had a bit more artistic freedom in this one, because whilst the country themes in the first game were very cool, there is obviously a limit to how far you can go with that creatively. I don't think I can really give a fair opinion on the OST though, it isn't bad by any means in fact I liked what I heard of it, but I'm quite an avid listener of Podcasts so I ended up turning the OST down and listening to Podcasts quite often as I played this. 

 

Just like the first game, if you like jigsaw puzzles you are almost certainly going to like this one. I personally really enjoyed the added difficulty mode of this game, it doesn't particularly make it harder, just means you'll end up taking longer. You'll get the platinum just by doing everything on the hardest difficulty, but some puzzles can take probably close to an hour if you get really stuck. If I was going to give any advice I would say, just take the game slow and be relaxed about it, play a few puzzles every day or just when the mood takes you. I played this in-between doing other things so that is probably the best way to approach this without ending up burning yourself out. I had a really chilled out time with both of these games though and if they go on sale for the stupidly cheap price I paid for them (Under £3) or something thereabouts, they are absolutely worth peoples time. Looks like its time to get back on Agro and go trophy hunting in the Shadow of the Colossus remake!! Should be fun.

 

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I could probably squeeze another one in here if they ever release another Glass Masquerade, I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

 

I think I'm only about a day or two away from finishing Final Fantasy VIII, although when I was playing it last week I was enjoying it a whole lot, so in a way I'll be sad to finish it.

Edited by rjkclarke
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Final Fantasy VIII is finished!!!

 

I want to say a big thank you to a few people who sort of nudged me in the direction of playing Final Fantasy VIII, first off I should thank @DrBloodmoney for providing the platform for myself and @The_Kopite (If you read this, I haven't forgotten that I still need to play Final Fantasy IX) to have a discussion about Final Fantasy and to my friend who I'm just going to call Loki, because just in case he ever reads this I wouldn't want to put his real name down on here without his consent. But he's always tried to get me to go back and play some Final Fantasy

 

Thank you all, I think had I not started this thread, it would have been a long time before I ever went back to a Final Fantasy game, so I'm glad Final Fantasy VIII made me fall in love with the series again after I massively fell out of love with it with Final Fantasy XV, I don't even really dislike that game, my issue was more with Square Enix and how I thought they handled that game. But I think I'll leave that boring story for when I do a write up of Final Fantasy XV

 

Anyway, I'll leave my thoughts from the Most Recent Platinum thread below, I'm going to tack on an extra bit too, which I thought was a funny little thing worth talking about that happened,  on the journey towards the platinum.

 

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered Review

 

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Platinum #322

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (PS4)

 

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Lionheart

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A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 10 June 2021: 4:07:34 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  2 weeks, 2 days, 15 hours

Platinum Rarity  - 34.92%

Trophy Number - #15,529

 

 

I know I'm about to sound soooooo OLD here, but just this once I don't think I mind. It just has to be said, " they really don't make them like this any more."  So lets talk about probably one of the more divisive entries in the Final Fantasy series. I'm going to get this out of the way now and just put it out there, I love this game, I always have and I think I always will, more-so even than most peoples favourite Final Fantasy VII. I'm not blind to peoples issues with this game though and I think they deserve to be talked about, just as much as I want to heap praise on it. Final Fantasy VIII I would say is probably one of, if not the least accessible entry in the series - to both newcomers and established fans alike. I think its safe to say it probably was when the game was originally released at least. Final Fantasy XII may have later taken that possibly unwanted crown. I'll get to some of the why later on, probably when I mention gameplay.

 

I seem to be playing a lot of remasters at the moment and my prevailing thought - from my own perspective at least, is that more than anything, the fact is, that its amazing that these games even have trophies in them at all for us to enjoy earning. Its something that we maybe shouldn't take for granted either, I don't think I ever would have thought seven or eight years ago that I'd have a platinum trophy from two PS1 Final Fantasy titles, but here we are.

 

As far as Remasters go, this one is very well crafted. Not perfect by any means, I think some of the re-touched character models aren't exactly brilliant. I'm glad that they did them, I just don't think they were that faithful. Squall , for example, looks only vaguely similar to what he does in the FMV cutscenes. I mean the clothes are the same I guess.  I honestly thought he looked like TIdus from Final Fantasy X going for a dark dye job and then borrowing some clothes from someone he knew who was a big fan of My Chemical Romance circa 2006, or at the very least made his own clothes out of one of Lulu's giant dresses. Wow never thought I'd end up mentioning My Chemical Romance when reviewing a Final Fantasy title, so that's a new one. My memory could be fairly hazy though, because I hadn't actually played Final Fantasy VIII since about 2012, I was maybe a quarter of the way through attempting a perfect game, so all the characters in that version would have looked like some fuzzy pixels. In general though this PS4 version looks pretty immaculate, apart from the odd spot here and there, that I assume was just forgotten about. I honestly had to remind myself a few times that I was actually playing a PS1 game, remastered or not this wouldn't look out of place on a PS2. Even for when it came out, some of the things this game does visually are astounding. It wouldn't seem much to someone that started gaming in say 2021 or before, but the way the game almost seamlessly transitions from FMV to actual gameplay is incredible.

 

Purely from a visual standpoint this game is phenomenal, I don't strictly mean graphically either. Final Fantasy games have always had the amazing ability to tell beautiful stories without voiced dialogue - a real testament to how how well some of them are written I suppose. In some respects later entries were probably hindered by an over reliance on voiced dialogue. I can't give enough praise to Yoshinori Kitase for how well crafted some of the cutscenes were, on multiple levels too; some of the sheer scope and ambition on display in this game is truly impressive. Of particular note are some of the scenes in space, as well as the lead up to the "Assassination Mission in Deling City" even watching it more than twenty years later its still so well put together. I can't not mention the ending scene and the lead up to the credits either, although I won't mention any spoilers because if anyone is still spoiler free and wants to play it they absolutely should. I love the scene that plays during the credits though and everyone who has played it will probably understand what I mean, that it is almost equal parts poignant and funny. The sort where you have a huge smile on your face just as you notice your eyes are wet.

 

I'll try and keep this bit brief because I'm about to go into the OST and the Sound Design elements in this game and anyone that has read anything I've written before would know that's a favourite area of mine. As tempting as it is to write an in depth analysis on every piece of work  done by Nobuo Uematsu in this game, I'll try and keep it as succinct as I can. I guess I could always write that Nobuo Uematsu deep dive in my own thread if I really wanted to. Uematsu truly is a master of his craft though, most people who have played any Final Fantasy up to X can probably accurately name at least one if not more tracks from a Final Fantasy soundtrack. To Zanarkand anyone? Is Final Fantasy VIII my favourite one he's ever done? No, but I do really like it - and I think its incredibly memorable. This is a bit of an off topic segue but my favourite work of Uematsu is in Lost Odyssey, which was a wonderful game that I wish had been released on PS3 or PS4; fingers crossed it still could on some PlayStation platform. This is going to almost sound like an oxymoron now that I think about it, but if I was going to describe his work in Final Fantasy VIII I'd probably call it familar but original. What I mean by that, is that musically it has that Final Fantasy identity, but also exists as a fresh take on that similar sound.

 

As I mentioned above, I'm not going to delve into any aspect of the story, at least not really important plot details anyway. I am going to talk about a few of the characters though and try and give a little bit of context as to why I actually prefer this entry to the beloved Final Fantasy VII (don't worry I like it too). I'm not going to compare every single character or anything, if I did that then Square Enix might actually have released all of FFVII remake by the time I finish. I do think, and this is purely my own opinion, in general the characters are better in Final Fantasy VIII - that isn't to say that VII's are bad but I think if anything, it has an overabundance of characters and none of them really get enough of the development that perhaps they should. You could argue some of them are optional like Vincent or Yuffie, but even the required members are a bit thin on the ground as far as character development goes. They did try with Cait Sith, although I dislike Cait Sith an irrational amount and I can't figure out why either.

 

Back to VIII though, I think in this games case, the opposite to what I previously talked about is the case, for me at least; all the characters for the most part get a fair to decent amount of development. Part of why this works I believe is because there just isn't that many party members - and none of the characters get introduced to you too late in the story for there to not be a lack of character development cough Cid cough. Squall in particular is a very well developed character, he'd have to be really as he is the protagonist after all. I'm not going to get into a Cloud vs Squall sort of debate, I prefer Squall but I also like Cloud. I think I prefer Squall though, mainly down to the fact that his character grows a little bit more organically than Cloud does and I think his internalised thoughts are conveyed in a way that really match his actions. I think the characters themselves mesh better as friends too, whilst I like the rag-tag aspect to FFVII's crew, the amount of camaraderie between the cast of FFVIII feels very genuine.

 

Looks like its time to delve into the trophies and the gameplay. Honestly the gameplay is probably where a lot of the divisiveness comes from regarding FFVIII. Its very different - its also one of those games where its pretty beneficial to keep your characters low level, as it ends up making the overall experience easier. The game does allow that in a lot of ways too, so at least it doesn't just pigeon-hole you into doing just one thing to get through the game. However, most RPG players brains are conditioned with the mindset of "fight enemies, get stronger" which usually alleviates difficulty spikes. In this game though, the enemies level with you, so unless you learn how to junction magic effectively, its going to get brutal. I hated the Junction system when I was younger as well, it took me a long time to really figure out how it all worked - and it wasn't until I was much older that I realised you could make the game so much easier by playing Triple Triad, in my younger days I just used the GF's as big hulking meat shields that also dealt some hefty damage.

 

I think, due to the above, quite a few people ended up being turned off by this games mechanics not being very user friendly or explained particularly well. Speaking of Triple Triad, its so easy to get sidetracked playing lots of this, if there was an actual Triple Triad released that kept the same rules, even the weird ones like Plus/Same/Random and Elemental this game has I still think I'd buy it and play it, IT IS THAT FUN. In a lot of ways Tales of Zestiria  has almost become the Tales of'  series equivalent of Final Fantasy VIII, it changed a lot and took people out of their comfort zones I believe. It might seem like a strange comparison, but I feel like its a valid one, as Zestiria asks you to learn the mechanics and intricacies of the games crafting system instead of having you overpower yourself to defeat the hardest of foes.

 

I remember thinking as I was playing through Final Fantasy VIII that the trophies could probably do with having a little bit more challenge to them, as they are all very straight-forward for the most part. I've thought about that some more and on reflection I think they should stay as they are. I'd be worried that if it was harder, it would either mar peoples enjoyment, or just straight up make people avoid the game altogether. I do know a few people who have avoided playing Final Fantasy IX because of the Hail to the King trophy. I'm not one of them, I just haven't got around to it yet, if that trophy beats me, it beats me. Simple. By going for the trophies in this game though, you do end up seeing about 90% of what the game wants you to see, so I think them leaving out a few things is forgivable - things  that could have been troublesome like getting Odin or Gilgamesh or BOTH, which would have required an extra playthrough if you don't get Odin early could have been a pain for some. So ultimately I think this game has a pretty good balance for its trophies. Although the Obel Lake side-quest trophy can get in a flaming bin full of manure and fire itself into the sun, because that is so finicky and imprecise. The Trophies could have been much more strenuous, like having every characters ultimate weapon for example, that would probably slap another ten hours onto your playtime. So I'd rather people have a carefree time getting the platinum, than a frustrating one. That would probably give them a more worthwhile experience ultimately. So in the end I'm glad they are, just how they are.

 

I think this humongous post, sort of illustrates that I'd recommend this game. It isn't perfect, but then nothing is really. It goes on sale quite often, but I think its worth the price whatever you ended up paying for it. Hypothetically speaking, I'm not sure this one should or would get the remake treatment  from Square Enix. There are too many logistical problems you'd have to really change, like would they do Squall's internalised thoughts as Shakespearean asides or soliloquies? Realistically that would be odd, but how else do you convey the emotions of someone who deliberately internalises their own thoughts. Honestly and this is going to sound so jaded, they'd probably release it in about five parts and we'd have a lot of pointless DLC like Episode: Laguna or Episode: Seifer. I'm not being 100% serious there obviously, just thought it might be nice to end on a fun note; but it is the sort of practice I've unfortunately come to expect from Square Enix at this point - nor are they in any way the worst culprit of this. Still I enjoyed my 42 hours with Final Fantasy VIII immensely, feels great to add another Final Fantasy platinum to the collection. 

 

 

The Kind of Funny - 15,500th Trophy Milestone.

 

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Loser

Lose a rare card in a Triple Triad game

 

 

I know strictly, 15,500 is not a milestone, but I thought it was funny anyway. You have to have a sense of humour about these things. If anything a ropey milestone-esque thing has been chasing me for a while like the Dahaka from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. I was only one trophy away from having my 15,000th trophy be Failure, from ICO, that one might have been even funnier to be honest. I didn't even know that a milestone was approaching, so it might have been funny to have that there anyway had it happened.

 

Which game is next?

 

I'm going to slighty deviate, but stay on the Final Fantasy Doomtrain track (get it? Nah I'll get my coat), I still need to cut down that backlog so next up is A Kings Tale: Final Fantasy XV. I should be able to knock that out fairly quickly, but I'm looking forward to playing it nonetheless.

Edited by rjkclarke
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1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

in my younger days I just used the GF's as big hulking meat shields that also dealt some hefty damage.

Haha that was me too! lol That's what they were supposed to be for right? Well kinda, but then you find out the intricacies of the Junctioning system and Triple Triad and that combination open ups so many new possibilities and strategies lol 

 

I can understand why FFXV threw you off FF for a while. It's not a bad game (got the plat and enjoyed aspects of it) but haven't got around to buying the season pass, and not sure I ever will. Did buy the book (forget what it's called) which essentially is the 2nd season pass that never came to be, therefore completing the story properly. Hopefully they don't do those kind of things with FFXVI but that's another discussion altogether. 

 

Congrats on the plat (Looking forward to getting it myself one day!) and after A King's Tale FFXV (which is decent and different). well you know the next suggestion I'd give you lol :)

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5 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Haha that was me too! lol That's what they were supposed to be for right? Well kinda, but then you find out the intricacies of the Junctioning system and Triple Triad and that combination open ups so many new possibilities and strategies lol 

 

It certainly does haha!! Although to be fair, I used the Summons as meat shields in Final Fantasy X as well, even last time I played it a few years ago. They have to get used for something right? :D

 

5 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

I can understand why FFXV threw you off FF for a while. It's not a bad game (got the plat and enjoyed aspects of it) but haven't got around to buying the season pass, and not sure I ever will. Did buy the book (forget what it's called) which essentially is the 2nd season pass that never came to be, therefore completing the story properly. Hopefully they don't do those kind of things with FFXVI but that's another discussion altogether. 

 

No it isn't a bad game at all, not in the slightest. I got the platinum too and I enjoyed aspects of it a lot  -  and others I just really really was turned off by. Like that cliche parent line of "I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed".

 

Giving myself the maybe silly (and oh is it going to take a long time) task of reviewing all of the titles that I've platinumed, Final Fantasy XV is going to be a really difficult one to do a write up about, very few times have I felt as conflicted as I do about that game. Put it this way, hypothetically if Luke Skywalker were here, he would be right in my ear saying "I sense the conflict within you." To that, I would say play the unpatched day one release of FFXV and tell me you aren't. Assuming Luke's a Final Fantasy fan obviously, he might be one of those people that likes Cabela games as he's into shooting Wamprats so much. Well that escalated into something odd very quickly, but I'm keeping it there haha.

 

I did buy the season pass and the three initial packs are very good to be fair they offer quite a lot of interesting gameplay tweaks that carry over into the main game, plus they thresh out Gladio, Prompto and Ignis much better, especially Prompto, because I thought he was a bit of a fanny in the main game to be honest. Comrades was really good too actually, I'm just disappointed I never finished it, I know I still could, but downgrading a patch seems like a hassle I would probably rather avoid doing it just to pick up 5 or 6 trophies. I do have Episode Ardyn as well, but I haven't actually played it, I'm not sure why I bought it either because I really can't figure out why people go absolutely nuts for Ardyn as a character. He isn't bad, just I wouldn't put him high on my own ranking of FF villains if I were to do one. jurys out on the Royal pack, as I've not played that either, maybe one of these days. Did you ever read the book?

 

5 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Congrats on the plat (Looking forward to getting it myself one day!) and after A King's Tale FFXV (which is decent and different). well you know the next suggestion I'd give you lol :)

 

Thanks by the way! I'd definitely recommend going for it. Nice and chilled out level of difficulty too. I know the next suggestion, I'm going to get there trust me and I I'm hoping I'm going to really enjoy it. So I look forward to our inevitable discussion about it. Should be fun, because I'd be quite interested to know what it was like from your own perspective to play it as the last of the PS1 Final Fantasy's, when it was released instead of twenty plus years later. From everything I've heard it certainly gave the series on that console a hell of a send off!!

Edited by rjkclarke
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5 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Although to be fair, I used the Summons as meat shields in Final Fantasy X as well, even last time I played it a few years ago. They have to get used for something right? :D

Absolutely!!! A Final Fantasy isn't a Final Fantasy without Summons! 

 

5 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I did buy the season pass and the three initial packs are very good to be fair they offer quite a lot of interesting gameplay tweaks that carry over into the main game, plus they thresh out Gladio, Prompto and Ignis much better

Yeah I have heard that, so I will probably pick them up eventually, which would be when I have the game to hand to play again as it's been stored away somewhere lol

 

5 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

He isn't bad, just I wouldn't put him high on my own ranking of FF villains if I were to do one.

100% agree. I didn't see the appeal personally about Ardyn, but then the Episode of him is supposed to be very good and add a lot of depth to his character, which is good. 

 

5 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Did you ever read the book?

No I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Had to get it even though FFXV is nowhere near my favourite FF, as I want to have the complete story to a game like that. The positives of the DLC's being good as you said and the Dawn of the Future book (remembered the name of it lol) is that this extra content shouldn't have had to be created in the first place. Create DLC and extra content to supplement the main game, not have to create it in order to flesh out main characters and having to actually tell the full story that wasn't told in the first place. FFXV is an infuriating one for me really, but hey it's got some great music like any FF has as a bare minimum.

 

5 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Thanks by the way! I'd definitely recommend going for it. Nice and chilled out level of difficulty too.

O yeah, it'll be great to play VIII again and get a plat for it! Triple Triad is the best minigame, period. Has to be a milestone plat for me ?

 

5 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I know the next suggestion, I'm going to get there trust me and I I'm hoping I'm going to really enjoy it. So I look forward to our inevitable discussion about it. Should be fun, because I'd be quite interested to know what it was like from your own perspective to play it as the last of the PS1 Final Fantasy's, when it was released instead of twenty plus years later. From everything I've heard it certainly gave the series on that console a hell of a send off!!

I'll save my answer to that for when you do play it :) One thing is for sure, it definitely left me impatiently waiting for the next FF to come out! lol

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1 hour ago, The_Kopite said:

Yeah I have heard that, so I will probably pick them up eventually, which would be when I have the game to hand to play again as it's been stored away somewhere lol

 

I don't know that I'd honestly recommend that you go out of your way to go back to them if the game isn't exactly close by. Judging by what you said further down in your reply, which I'll get to in more detail, you'd probably have a lot of the same frustrations I had with it. However good the DLC's might be. Whenever it might be that I get around to Ardyn's DLC I expect I'll feel the same.

 

This is going to sound brutal, but to me Ardyn was a poor man's Caius from FF13-2/ Lightning Returns. At least in Caius' case all of his motivations are properly explained and given some meaning and reason - and to some extent, some real justification. Whereas with Ardyn, it isn't explicitly clear, I'm not saying it can't have any ambiguity, but there's ambiguity and then there's just a lack of character development, masquerading as ambiguity; something which they obviously felt the need to rectify with his own DLC.

 

1 hour ago, The_Kopite said:

No I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Had to get it even though FFXV is nowhere near my favourite FF, as I want to have the complete story to a game like that. The positives of the DLC's being good as you said and the Dawn of the Future book (remembered the name of it lol) is that this extra content shouldn't have had to be created in the first place. Create DLC and extra content to supplement the main game, not have to create it in order to flesh out main characters and having to actually tell the full story that wasn't told in the first place. FFXV is an infuriating one for me really, but hey it's got some great music like any FF has as a bare minimum.

 

Wow that's, well that's scary how much our opinions align on that one. I couldn't agree more, it never should have had to have been created in the first place all of the extra nuances with party members and added plot intricacies should have always been there from the  start. Unfortunately that was my big problem with FFXV on release, it felt so bare-bones and incomplete. The frustrating part for me was seeing all the components of something really brilliant there, but they just didn't all mesh together properly even though I so wanted them to.

 

I've had long conversations with people about how this game made me think that Square Enix had become a bit creatively bankrupt, the addition of a Season Pass for a Final Fantasy game at the time really didn't sit right with me. I've mellowed a bit on those thoughts by now obviously - and  of course I can't exactly complain too much can I? I did buy the season pass, so I'd be a massive hypocrite if I didn't at least extol  some of its virtues. FFXV does have very good music I agree, that's almost a given really. Maybe we'll be shocked one day and FFXVI might have a soundtrack like the Director's Cut version of Resident Evil 1? But I really hope not. 

 

"Create DLC and extra content to supplement the main game"   What you said right there is why I'll always go to bat for the DLC for Resident Evil 7, its pretty much all stuff that just builds upon something that was already incredibly well crafted.in the main game. It doesn't add anything mind blowing that should have been in the main game, just interesting pieces of plot that just subtly add something - or are just plain fun side content. But the sheer amount of variety, really makes it feel like something worth paying for. I feel like you absolutely get your moneys worth with it too.  I always struggle a bit when dev's decide to lock content that is clearly important to the main plot behind some DLC. Its not like I'm making some groundbreaking statement here, its just a bit frustrating. Still I'm sounding a little too negative for my liking so I'll stop myself. I always like to be positive whenever I can, so I'll go back to that :D 

 

1 hour ago, The_Kopite said:

O yeah, it'll be great to play VIII again and get a plat for it! Triple Triad is the best minigame, period. Has to be a milestone plat for me 1f44d.png

 

Good idea! Always nice to have some Final Fantasy milestone plat's I've got a couple myself. Although personally, I don't strenuously plan them or anything, apart from once, I did end up engineering it so my 10,000th trophy would end up being the platinum for Yakuza Kiwami. You could always make Final Fantasy VIII your 225th? Plus you get to play all that awesome Triple Triad..... Nudge Nudge haha!! Up to you obviously..

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I don't know that I'd honestly recommend that you go out of your way to go back to them if the game isn't exactly close by.

We will see what happens in the future, maybe the season pass will go on sale for pennies one day lol

 

8 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

This is going to sound brutal, but to me Ardyn was a poor man's Caius from FF13-2/ Lightning Returns. At least in Caius' case all of his motivations are properly explained and given some meaning and reason - and to some extent, some real justification. Whereas with Ardyn, it isn't explicitly clear, I'm not saying it can't have any ambiguity, but there's ambiguity and then there's just a lack of character development, masquerading as ambiguity; something which they obviously felt the need to rectify with his own DLC.

Can't say that I disagree with that. Maybe the DLC does rectify the situation a bit (I've heard its good) but yeah like we agree upon, none of that extra content should have been needed in the way it was.

 

8 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Unfortunately that was my big problem with FFXV on release, it felt so bare-bones and incomplete. The frustrating part for me was seeing all the components of something really brilliant there, but they just didn't all mesh together properly even though I so wanted them to.

Sadly I think the development hell it went through (being originally Versus XIII) etc etc pretty much destroyed any hope of it being a fantastic game, and at best it was only going to be a good one, and it didn't really fully achieve that either sadly. Too many people involved, too many changes to story and structure etc rarely make for a good game at the end.

 

8 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

the addition of a Season Pass for a Final Fantasy game at the time really didn't sit right with me.

Can't tell you how jarring that was at the time for me. A season pass, for a FF game? eh? lol

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

FFXV does have very good music I agree, that's almost a given really.

I'll always try and get people to at least listen to one Final Fantasy song, just to experience the franchise that way if nothing else lol.

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

"Create DLC and extra content to supplement the main game"   What you said right there is why I'll always go to bat for the DLC for Resident Evil 7, its pretty much all stuff that just builds upon something that was already incredibly well crafted.in the main game.

Haha nice to hear that considering I'm playing (very slowly) RE7 at the mo, and have the gold edition with all the DLC. Along with FFVIIR, those two will keep me busy for a while, and show how far behind I am lol

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Good idea! Always nice to have some Final Fantasy milestone plat's I've got a couple myself. Although personally, I don't strenuously plan them or anything, apart from once, I did end up engineering it so my 10,000th trophy would end up being the platinum for Yakuza Kiwami. You could always make Final Fantasy VIII your 225th? Plus you get to play all that awesome Triple Triad..... Nudge Nudge haha!! Up to you obviously..

Nice! Yeah I'm kinda the opposite, I like to try and plan out my next milestone plats when I can, and share them out between my 3 favourite franchises, so FFVIII is there somewhere but not 225 lol I'm always gonna be behind with my games though lol as you saw above.

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On 11/06/2021 at 9:20 AM, The_Kopite said:

We will see what happens in the future, maybe the season pass will go on sale for pennies one day lol

 

That's how I'd approach it, I can't remember how much exactly the season pass was, I know I paid under £2 for Ardyn's episode. Pennies might be the better approach though.

 

Sorry I've taken an age to reply by the way. I wanted to make sure my brain was functioning properly so I could actually put some effort into what I reply with, I haven't slept properly lately, today is the first decent amount I had gotten for a while.

 

On 11/06/2021 at 9:20 AM, The_Kopite said:

Sadly I think the development hell it went through (being originally Versus XIII) etc etc pretty much destroyed any hope of it being a fantastic game, and at best it was only going to be a good one, and it didn't really fully achieve that either sadly. Too many people involved, too many changes to story and structure etc rarely make for a good game at the end.

 

I remember before it became Final Fantasy XV I had a theory that Versus XIII was going to become it. It was one of those situations where between lightning returns and the announcement of XV there was next to no news, so I kind of thought yeah they're just going to release Versus XIII as XV. Maybe I should take a crack at the lottery next. :D Ironically I was actually quite looking forward to Versus XIII or at least what it originally was conceptually.

 

On 11/06/2021 at 9:20 AM, The_Kopite said:

I'll always try and get people to at least listen to one Final Fantasy song, just to experience the franchise that way if nothing else lol.

 

It probably helps more than you think, sometimes people will have interest in a game just from a soundtrack. I mean I have literally no idea what Mighty Switch Force! is, but I've heard bits of the soundtrack years ago that make me want to at least maybe check it out at some point.

 

On 11/06/2021 at 9:20 AM, The_Kopite said:

Haha nice to hear that considering I'm playing (very slowly) RE7 at the mo, and have the gold edition with all the DLC. Along with FFVIIR, those two will keep me busy for a while, and show how far behind I am lol

 

Honestly man, if I was going to rank DLC that I've played then RE7's would be incredibly high up, top 3 for sure, some of it is a bit difficult but brilliant nonetheless. It really adds to the experience too, but not in a way that makes you think it really should have been in the main game, just that its a nice addition that really extends the gameplay and in a few places does some very unique things in it. Ethan Must Die is particularly good, I'm honestly not too familiar with RogueLikes/lites but I think that qualifies as one and if they play similarly to that I ought to try some more because the game play loop is so addictive.

 

Don't worry about going slow either, you've got to go at your own pace. Ironically I think I've slowed down since starting this thread haha! :D  Y'know I ought to get and start FFVIIR myself  but I might just get the PS5 version at this point. I worried for the longest time it was going to remind me too much of FFXV and I wouldn't like it, but most peoples reaction to it seem to be fairly overwhelmingly postive so maybe I should dip my toes in.

 

On 11/06/2021 at 9:20 AM, The_Kopite said:

Nice! Yeah I'm kinda the opposite, I like to try and plan out my next milestone plats when I can, and share them out between my 3 favourite franchises, so FFVIII is there somewhere but not 225 lol I'm always gonna be behind with my games though lol as you saw above.

 

If I know I have one coming up then I'll usually go out of my way to put something there that's halfway personal to me. I wouldn't plan one like ages in advance and think something like x game will be milestone #50  I probably didn't explain that well, because my milestones certainly probably make them look more planned than they are. Pretty much all of my milestones are taken up by my favourite game series. Although, if there was a Monkey Island game that had a platinum then that would probably have had its own milestone by now.

 

So that leaves the burning question of what you have planned for 225? Or is that a secret you aren't willing to share :)

Edited by rjkclarke
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Oooh, I only just noticed after making my last post I'm one away from 100 posts! (Yes, I'm aware that isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, but I'm going to turn this post into something specific now.)

 

I haven't actually posted this in this thread - and I've been thinking for a while that if I am re-pasting my own content into here then I should probably at least add something extra to it. I have some big plans for the Marvel's Spider-Man post whenever I get to posting that, because I want to write up all of the DLC.

 

So I think, I'm going to add the first ever review that I posted in the "Most Recent Platinum" thread not to bring this full circle exactly, because this is far from the end. Just to look back to where it all started for me I suppose - and 100 posts in seems as good a time as any. Writing in that thread really bit me with the reviewing bug that I've been enjoying so much. I'm just glad a few people have enjoyed some of the strange witterings that I post from time to time - to everyone that has been so positive and uplifting I'd genuinely like to say thank you so much!!. Its been a blast so far and long may it continue.

 

I'm going to expand it a bit though, because its really short and not very detailed. Honestly, its just because I assumed people wouldn't give a flying squirrel about what I had to say on a niche PS3 title (they probably still don't haha) so I didn't write all that much. Now I think I'll at least add a little more detail. I'll leave the link to the original post HERE if anyone was interested in reading the beginning of me starting to crawl out of the woodwork a little more on this forum. I don't know why I just compared myself to a woodworm but there you go, I did :D 

 

So lets get to it then

 

Bound by Flame Review

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Platinum #299

Bound by Flame (PS3)

 

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  Platinum Trophy
Win all of the trophies in Bound by Flame

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 23 January 2021: 8:36:11 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :   4 days, 11 hours, 13 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 4.15%

Trophy Number - #14,725

 

Originally Written - January 23 2021

 

 

I'm not sure what to really say about this game other than it is a game. I personally very much enjoy EuroRPG's. They do appear to be a very niche offshoot little genre that seem to get little attention or love. Last year I ended up playing a lot of Piranha Bytes titles for some reason. Getting the platinum's on Risen 2, 3 and Elex. Since originally writing this review I've since played The Technomancer by Spiders and I think the developers are really starting to grow on me. I can always appreciate when a developer is really trying hard to create something worth enjoying and I think for the most part although Spiders games do tend to fall a little bit on the jankier side of the gameplay spectrum the stories, world and lore are always interesting enough to keep me invested at the very least.

 

I didn't enjoy Bound by Flame as much as the Piranha Bytes titles, the game has a protagonist that is hard to like regardless of how you play or what gender or alignment you end up going with, like a more extreme version of the protagonist from Risen 3 ironically. Unfortunately, this is an area of the game you really can't avoid criticising. If you are going to invariably spend a lot of time with a character, as you would in an RPG for example; the characters should probably at the very least be likeable even if - to borrow a bit of Mass Effect terminology you play Renegade or Paragon. In Bound by Flame however, regardless of how your moralities align, your character will always just be an unpleasant dick head. Part of me wonders if that is a deliberate move from the developers to try and encourage the player to play a certain way. I always thought that in inFamous the developers wanted you to play those games the more villainous way as it caters more towards some of the moral ambiguity that gets thrown Delsin and Cole's way.

 

But I try to see a positive in everything where I can. It does have quite an interesting trophy list though which encourages you to practically see all of the things the game has to offer, this is something that I usually appreciate as it usually means you end up playing it in a way you never naturally would. The higher difficulty trophies also allow you to experiment in some interesting ways with skill builds, you can make yourself ridiculously overpowered within Bound by Flame by making a hybrid set up of the Ranger and Pyromancer tree - here, you end up stacking insane amounts of critical hits onto your magic and essentially melting most of the bosses on the hardest difficulty. Certainly helps to make the ultra rare difficulty trophies a little more manageable.

 

If you are a fan of the EuroRPG genre and have yet to play it I would recommend it. The gameplay alone is actually quite decent. I certainly don't feel as if it was a waste of my time. There is a lot to like here, it really does have some charm to it. Thankfully, I don't think its ever too long to outstay its welcome, even playing through it multiple times. Does it have all the wonderful sound design and soundtrack that I usually love? No, but  it does a decent enough job that it never feels irksome. With maybe the exception of Sybil, she sounds like all of her dialogue was recorded underwater, Its a shame because its quite a strong voice performance, its just hard to make out what she's saying. Hopefully that was cleared up in the PS4 version, but I don't actually know.

 

I know the PS4 version is on offer in at least the UK/EU store, at the time of writing this. (It seems to go on sale a lot I'm noticing.) I expect that version plays better, it is also fairly short for an RPG which might interest those who want a quick RPG fix before moving onto something else. I did like it enough however that personally am going to try and get the platinum's in The Technomancer and Greedfall (One down one to go!!) at some point in the future, the other titles from the studio.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I didn't expand too much, sometimes it is tough to write a lot of free flowing thoughts and opinions about a game which is quite unremarkable, yet still very enjoyable.

 

There's probably going to end up being quite a few like this once I start to write more classic reviews. Although honestly, there really aren't that many games I've played where my opinions almost boarder on indifference, it will all probably depend on the amount of content that was in the game as to how expansive the write up will end up being. But that's all stuff to worry about later on.

 

Before I end this post I'd still like to say a massive THANK YOU to whoever it was that gifted me premium membership all those months ago, I still have no idea who it was, or whether you'll ever read this. But thank you, I really appreciate it - and the kind words people have expressed on the way to getting to this point, they really have meant a lot.

 

I hope that I didn't come across too much like a sycophantic oddball, but even if it does, I am thankful, so I feel like I ought to say as much.

 

 

Edited by rjkclarke
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3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Sorry I've taken an age to reply by the way. I wanted to make sure my brain was functioning properly so I could actually put some effort into what I reply with, I haven't slept properly lately, today is the first decent amount I had gotten for a while.

No worries, you didn't have to reply at all, so I appreciate it ?

 

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

so I kind of thought yeah they're just going to release Versus XIII as XV. Maybe I should take a crack at the lottery next. :D Ironically I was actually quite looking forward to Versus XIII or at least what it originally was conceptually.

Yeah Versus XIII sounded like it had an interesting premise. Think there's a new vision and elements of it in Kingdoms Hearts, but I couldn't ever get into that series. Haha I'm useless with the lottery.

 

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

sometimes people will have interest in a game just from a soundtrack.

Music is very powerful and something that most people can experience very easily.

 

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Honestly man, if I was going to rank DLC that I've played then RE7's would be incredibly high up, top 3 for sure, some of it is a bit difficult but brilliant nonetheless. It really adds to the experience too, but not in a way that makes you think it really should have been in the main game, just that its a nice addition that really extends the gameplay and in a few places does some very unique things in it. Ethan Must Die is particularly good, I'm honestly not too familiar with RogueLikes/lites but I think that qualifies as one and if they play similarly to that I ought to try some more because the game play loop is so addictive.

I'm glad I got the Gold Edition, because comments like this about the DLC make me more excited to experience it! I don't have experience really with roguelikes much, so that mode sounds interesting. 

 

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Don't worry about going slow either, you've got to go at your own pace. Ironically I think I've slowed down since starting this thread haha! :D  Y'know I ought to get and start FFVIIR myself  but I might just get the PS5 version at this point. I worried for the longest time it was going to remind me too much of FFXV and I wouldn't like it, but most peoples reaction to it seem to be fairly overwhelmingly postive so maybe I should dip my toes in.

Honestly I had the exact same thought. That thought changed when they first released the demo and I played that, and was like "Okay, I can get on board with this". The fact that you can choose commands for all your party members using ATB bars, MP etc. and the time slow right down so that you actually get to choose, makes it feel more like it's turn based and you have more control and can form strategies in battle. I never had that in FFXV at all, which was severely disappointing. Warp here, attack some, warp around a bit, attack more and repeat pretty much sadly.

 

At this rate, I'll have a PS5 before I finish a runthrough and therefore will end up carrying it on with the PS5 lol Got to look into getting the INTERmission episode too once I have a PS5 and y'know the price goes down lol 

 

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

If I know I have one coming up then I'll usually go out of my way to put something there that's halfway personal to me. I wouldn't plan one like ages in advance and think something like x game will be milestone #50  I probably didn't explain that well, because my milestones certainly probably make them look more planned than they are. Pretty much all of my milestones are taken up by my favourite game series. Although, if there was a Monkey Island game that had a platinum then that would probably have had its own milestone by now.

 

So that leaves the burning question of what you have planned for 225? Or is that a secret you aren't willing to share :)

Haha that's fair enough, everyone is different. You have to do what is right for you. Can't say I've played a Monkey Island game before, though I've heard they are classics.

 

My planned 225th platinum is Sonic Forces. Not the best critically rated Sonic Game out there, but I loved Sonic Generations (Was my 2nd ever platinum) and Forces is more of the same but of lesser quality, but it'll be my first solely Sonic platinum milestone ? (1st and 100th are the Sega Collections for PS3 and PS4, both of which had the classic and best Sonic games of course lol)

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