rjkclarke's Carnival of Diamonds and Rust

[YaManSmevz]

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Thanks man!

 

I would call it a labour of love - but nothing about writing that was laborious - the version of Monkey Island that's been sitting on one of my shelves for years is the exact same copy that I played with her all those years ago, so it still gets dusted off occasionally.

 

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You know, Seinfeld is something I really have to educate myself on - I've not really seen enough of it, it didn't get repeated all that much over here, or if it did, it wasn't anywhere I was aware of, so I kind of stumbled into it a bit later on, but I feel like that's one of those things I need to really dive into, because it always gets such universal praise.

 

It's definitely worth your time, I think you'd enjoy it! Or you wouldn't, and could be like "y'know, I didn't care for Seinfeld."

 

...upon re-reading this, I would like to register my previous statement as "Most Useless Comment Ever."

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Speaking of Cam Clarke - I don't know if you've seen this but Cam Clarke had this up on his YouTube channel a few years back around Christmas

 

 

It's a funny little bit from himself and David Hayter - I remember showing this to one of my friends and he loved it too. I was going to send you this at Christmas, but you might have seen it anyway, and I'm clearly impatient haha ......... You might like this too @Slavaif you've never seen it.

 

My favourite Cam Clarke performance is actually from Tales of Symphonia - I don't think Kratos (not angry bald fanny in a loincloth, a different one, ) would have half as much nuance, and depth if he didn't have Cam Clarke's voice attached to it, he is absolutely outstanding in that game!

 

You're right too, there isn't a world of difference between Leonardo and Liquid Snake - there's something very very, distinctive about the way he says certain words, that you can't help but notice it.

 

I loved this! And there's that Tales series again... I actually bought Vesperia for the 360 but never played it.

 

D'oh.

 

All this talk I've been seeing about Tales games, particularly in the challenge thread, get me thinkin about that game. And now a familiar voice in Symphonia??

 

....I gotta think about this.

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Great to hear you're having a great time with those respective games too. I really have got to play The Witness at some point - Doc's review pretty much cemented for me that I'd have a great time with it, I just haven't quite gotten around to starting it yet.

 

I'd highly recommend both, to be honest. Finishing up Miami and I'm putting on my big boy pants and tackling the end of The Witness this week. That game makes me feel like my brain is doing an unending repetition of squats or something, but figuring shit out feels incredible!

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm a bit bummed out I can't really ever do any reviews on Syberia on here - I've never bothered to play the PS3 version, as the 100% is unobtainable in the version of Syberia 2 that's in our region store, so I'd have to make a US account then buy that version just to be able to review it, but I quite enjoyed those Syberia titles when I played them back in the day. I've not played the third one yet, so I guess I'll just leave that as a maybe for now.

 

Ummm.... sir.

 

This is your thread, you can write about whatever you'd like! If I can write about The Godfather, there's no reason you can't write about Syberia! Think about it man, cuz I'll bet you could put together a bad ass lil write-up?

 

8 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I really like when updated games do this - though  I end up in ADHD mode - flipping between them in every scene 

 

Not the same game, but the same idea - Medievil did that as well, including the classic game along with the original, and I too ended up playing through the old version to compare and contrast! So I can confirm along with Mr. Clarke, you're definitely not alone there!

[Slava]

5 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

It's a funny little bit from himself and David Hayter - I remember showing this to one of my friends and he loved it too. I was going to send you this at Christmas, but you might have seen it anyway, and I'm clearly impatient haha ......... You might like this too @Slavaif you've never seen it.

 

Yep, I haven't. But I have now! I like seeing them voice these characters for fun. I've seen videos of David Hayter memeing around with Snake's voice like this one https://youtu.be/ixWybGQnPHQ ?. I think this meme even transcended the Metal Gear fanbase. He also did Big Smoke's order in Snake's voice: https://youtu.be/KG3-ZbywLFc.

 

MGS must be one of the most memed game franchizes, and I love it.

 

 

[rjkclarke]

On 01/11/2021 at 4:33 PM, YaManSmevz said:

It's definitely worth your time, I think you'd enjoy it! Or you wouldn't, and could be like "y'know, I didn't care for Seinfeld."

 

...upon re-reading this, I would like to register my previous statement as "Most Useless Comment Ever."

 

 

Haha! I make plenty of those myself!

 

It is on Netflix so I might have to start from the beginning and dive right on in.

 

On 01/11/2021 at 4:33 PM, YaManSmevz said:

I loved this! And there's that Tales series again... I actually bought Vesperia for the 360 but never played it.

 

D'oh.

 

All this talk I've been seeing about Tales games, particularly in the challenge thread, get me thinkin about that game. And now a familiar voice in Symphonia??

 

....I gotta think about this.

 

Well, I'll always try and find a way to bring the conversation around to the Tales series ?........ However, Symphonia is kind of an odd one - it might be a better place to start, because it's gameplay is so archaic that going back to it after playing more recent ones would probably genuinely hamper the experience. Even if I do think the gameplay is worth enduring, it's one of my favourite video game stories ever.

 

If you don't fancy diving into the PS3 though, you couldn't go wrong with picking up the PS4 version of Tales of Vesperia, that's another great entry in that series, and it's usually on offer for a pretty decent price too.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed that video as well - I've seen it a few times over the years and it's always a pretty fun little watch.

 

On 01/11/2021 at 4:33 PM, YaManSmevz said:

I'd highly recommend both, to be honest. Finishing up Miami and I'm putting on my big boy pants and tackling the end of The Witness this week. That game makes me feel like my brain is doing an unending repetition of squats or something, but figuring shit out feels incredible!

 

Noted! They both sound awesome. I will have to bump at least The Witness a little higher up the list - maybe time to start busting out the swaps for the backlog challenge. ?

 

On 01/11/2021 at 4:33 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Not the same game, but the same idea - Medievil did that as well, including the classic game along with the original, and I too ended up playing through the old version to compare and contrast! So I can confirm along with Mr. Clarke, you're definitely not alone there!

 

That's awesome - I had no idea about that - I might have to do Medievil this month, as its thumbnail is orange, so I could do it as part of the trophies to fight cancer event.

 

I haven't actually played the first Medievil - oddly, I've only played the second one, I could never find a cheap copy of it when I was younger, so I kind of just let it pass me by, but I've been eyeing up the remake for ages - you might have just nudged me in its direction.

 

On 01/11/2021 at 5:00 PM, Slava said:

Yep, I haven't. But I have now! I like seeing them voice these characters for fun. I've seen videos of David Hayter memeing around with Snake's voice like this one https://youtu.be/ixWybGQnPHQ . I think this meme even transcended the Metal Gear fanbase. He also did Big Smoke's order in Snake's voice: https://youtu.be/KG3-ZbywLFc.

 

MGS must be one of the most memed game franchizes, and I love it.

 

Haha! I've always found that first one really confusing - yet still very funny.

 

I'd never seen the Big Smoke order one - thanks for posting that. That was pretty funny.

 

I do worry that's just going to become David Hayters shtick now - just doing everything in the voice of Snake. I kind of wish he'd dabble with screenwriting a bit more. I know he still does - just a bit more would be nice,  he's actually a pretty decent writer - of those quite early comic book movies X-Men 2 or X2 is actually one of the better ones.

 

On 01/11/2021 at 4:33 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Ummm.... sir.

 

This is your thread, you can write about whatever you'd like! If I can write about The Godfather, there's no reason you can't write about Syberia! Think about it man, cuz I'll bet you could put together a bad ass lil write-up

 

 

That's a great point yes! So thanks for the reminder, maybe I'll get around to it in the future then - I do plan on doing one fairly soon that doesn't have trophies, so I guess I could end up doing a few here and there.......Looking forward to that Godfather review by the way, unless you've already written it and I just completely missed it like a total fanny.........

 

........ Speaking of reviews, I've got another one to put up later, it'll be a bit of a short-ish one, as it's on Letter Quest, which is a game I think you'd probably dig actually...... I just need to finalise a few things before I post it.

Edited November 2, 2021 by rjkclarke

[DrBloodmoney]

17 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

That's a great point yes! So thanks for the reminder, maybe I'll get around to it in the future then - I do plan on doing one fairly soon that doesn't have trophies, so I guess I could end up doing a few here and there

@YaManSmevz‘s is right here -

 I meant to say this yesterday, but must have got distracted by a bumblebee or something: Regardless of having played them on Playstation specifically or not, with your experience of (and love for) the Adventure game genre, and your flair for writing about them, I can think of few people who are better qualified to wax lyrical on the Siberia games!

[rjkclarke]

3 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 I meant to say this yesterday, but must have got distracted by a bumblebee or something:

 

Must be those big fuzzy arses that they have ?

 

4 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Regardless of having played them on Playstation specifically or not, with your experience of (and love for) the Adventure game genre, and your flair for writing about them, I can think of few people who are better qualified to wax lyrical on the Siberia games!

 

Thanks man - I probably needed to hear that, from you both - in that case - I might go ahead and cover The Curse of Monkey Island and Escape from Monkey Island before I eventually do Tales of Monkey Island much further down the line. It'd be nice to be able to do all of them, instead of just skipping past two of the pretty decent ones, just because they don't have trophies in them.

 

and cover the Syberia games as well......... Looks like I need to think of a catchy name for a new section on the first post to put them in .

 

I guess that also gives me the okay to wax lyrical about the Legacy of Kain series  and Eternal Sonata - because I wish  Eternal Sonata was talked about more. Especially about  how staggeringly beautiful and serene that game is in places, so maybe I ought to give it some focus. - it's cruel, that as it has no trophies, most of us trophy hunter folk would probably just skim over it.

[rjkclarke]

Classic Review

Letter Quest Remastered

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

100% Achieved - 11 May 2018: 2:25:12 AM

Time taken to 100%: 1 year, 5 months, 4 weeks

100% Rarity - 11.84%

 

 

 

Letter Quest is a game that was remarkably easy to sell me on the concept of – all I needed was to notice that it’s essentially a turn based RPG spliced together with Scrabble. That was all I needed, to pretty much guarantee that I’d love it, and I did. End review...... Only joking, as if I could write something that short, as usual I’ve got to be objective about this, and give the game the time that it deserves.

Released all the way back in 2016, on the PS4 and the Vita – the game was given away free for Playstation plus users at one point, so there’s a chance you might actually have this already. I think this is one of the many instances where I’d already purchased the game before it became a plus title, and unlike a few other experiences like that I’ve had, I still absolutely feel like that was money well spent.

 

Visually, Letter Quest has a really charming aesthetic – taking the form of a hand drawn comic-book visual style. Whilst the gameplay itself is excellent (more on that to follow,) I can’t ignore how exceptionally charming it’s visual style is, it’s also slightly reminiscent of mid 2000’s flash games – there was clearly a lot of effort put into the design aspect, as each of the enemies look distinct and unique for the most part. There is the occasional forgivable palette swap but aside from that it’s hard to criticise that element too much.

Probably the aspect of the game that is the weakest is probably in the audio department – it is in no way bad, it’s just very limited. So as a result feels a little bit empty sounding in spots, there’s very little ambient music or sound effects in between actions – so this aspect of the game can feel a little flat. I can understand why it’d be a secondary consideration though, good or bad audio isn’t really a factor with a game like this, and you’d have the same experience with or without the audio, as I ended up playing it whilst listening to podcasts or music fairly often.

 

On the surface Letter Quest, seems like a very basic and a little slowly paced gaming experience, and certainly the first few levels of the game would give you that impression. However, the further into the game you delve, the more appreciation you end up having for how much depth the combat, and the game as a whole actually possesses. The gameplay essentially works like this – you  take your chosen little reaper into a level, and then to attack, you have to spell words, which just like scrabble have different “letter score/grade (bronze, silver or gold,)” which amplify your damage, based on the complexity of the used letters.

 It’s a wonderful concept, one that never gets tiresome throughout the entire experience, because just like with real Scrabble you can’t ever truly predict exactly which letters you can get. I’m afraid that for any of you Simpsons fans out there, you won’t be able to use Kwyjibo as a word, apparently Letter Quest doesn’t recognise that as a true species of balding North American Ape – yes, I was disappointed with that too.

 

The game is structured as sets of discrete levels, which gradually increase in difficulty – but thankfully the increase in difficulty is gradual and fairly organic, each level contains a set of stars that you have to earn – each one changes up elements of the gameplay in some way, these include a time trial, a challenge stage, and a crystal stage.

This aspect ladies and gentleman is where the depth really bubbles to the surface in a really interesting way. The time trials are – well they are exactly what you’d expect from a time trial actually, but the challenge stage and the crystal stage (the harder of the two,) are where things start to get fascinating. With the gradual increase in difficulty, comes the introduction of new tiles – a few examples of these are Crystal tiles, which if you use in a word, give you a positive effect, it’d take an inordinate amount of time to list every type of negative tile, but one of the more interesting instances – comes in the form of the plague tile.

A tile which deals no damage to your opponent, yet if left unused, will also spread eventually to all of your tiles, so it ends up becoming a mad rush to get them used to keep your options open – to the point where you’d be throwing out Cat’s, Mat’s and Pen’s galore just to do a little bit of cleaning of the board.

 

The various tiles end up adding a lot of strategy to later levels, as it becomes a bit of a delicate balancing act between using your tiles for attacks, and managing all of the various negative effects that could come your way if you don’t effectively control the board.  On top of this, Letter Quest actually contains a few lite-RPG mechanics, in so far as you are offered certain customisable options. Examples of these being weapons, and books, the weapons have a variety of positive effects, so it becomes a matter of choosing which one you think would be the most beneficial. Whereas books – of  which you can have three on the go at any time, end up offering interesting passive bonuses, with each one being able to be upgraded up to five times. All of these features end up adding so much variability to how you can approach the game, as there’s no definitive “best” way to advance the game.

 

As far as your route to the 100% goes – it’s a fairly straight forward one. If not a little lengthy, roughly fifteen hours or so. You’ll have to get every star in every level, and eventually spell three thousand words; don’t panic, once you’ve done everything it’ll be a pretty minimal grind to get there if you hadn’t already. My advice would be to try and do as many of the stars in the levels that you can as you go through the game, this will really help when the difficulty starts to ramp up, so that the extra gems (the currency,) you will have earned will mean you can upgrade your books and weapons to offset the difficulty increase a little bit, which will make your experience a little more streamlined.

 

Whilst I don’t think every single person would have a spectacular time with this due to its admittedly fairly slow pace. I think it’d be perfect for those that are both looking for a relaxing yet very enjoyable experience or even those who enjoy Scrabble out in the real world – you know, the one we live in that has much sharper graphics, but sometimes terrible gameplay and perma-death. It’s a good one to keep the grey matter ticking over too, you never know, you might already own it, so it might be an interesting one to delve into.

 

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

 

Thanks to @Copanele for requesting this one - I don't know when I would have actually gotten around to ever reviewing this one without the necessary nudge in the right direction. It's a great game though, and I'm glad of the nice reminder of how much fun I actually did have with it - and, well you know, the fact it's actually really quite good helps immensely. I'm also glad it was a PSPlus title at one point too - it means that more people will have gotten to play it, that might not have done so. it might not be the most mechanically complex thing ever conceived, but it sure is fun, and sometimes that's enough.

 

Oh I guess I'll add another one of these Arkham Knight updates as well whilst I'm here.

 

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

 

The Road to Platinum and 100% in Arkham Knight Part 2

 

I'm completely done with the Batmobile trophies now - so all that I have left are the base games trophies and the - to pull a quote from Rain Man "SCARY BAD!" Community Challenges.... I'm hoping those don't go too disastrously.

 

They are a bit variable those Batmobiles - I guess I should really praise the fact that they all handle in a unique manner, which I suppose is a good thing - the strangest thing of all, was that the one that seemed to drive the fastest was actually the Adam West Batmobile. Despite being allegedly from the 1960's. Whereas others just behave like absolutely cumbersome tanks - looking at you Dark Knight Tumbler - you giant block of lead on wheels you!

 

I had a decent amount of fun with them though - far more than I expected to and in a way it was fun racing against the times of some of my PSN friends, at least one of whom reads this thread too, so it was quite fun trying to chase some of those times - although to be honest they were pretty beastly, so more often than not I felt like I was in the unfortunate position of chasing a formula 1 car on a rusty bicycle ?...

 

......I guess I'll try and pluck up the courage to start the Community challenges in the next couple of days.

 

But for now - I think I'm off to dive back into the magical world of Horace Porter and the Dairy Paintings Part Deux...... It's a good thing this is the last Harry Potter game I have left to play, because I'm having to get very creative with the stupid names I'm giving the games.....

 

Catch you all in the next one folks!

Edited November 2, 2021 by rjkclarke

[YaManSmevz]

11 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Well, I'll always try and find a way to bring the conversation around to the Tales series ........ However, Symphonia is kind of an odd one - it might be a better place to start, because it's gameplay is so archaic that going back to it after playing more recent ones would probably genuinely hamper the experience. Even if I do think the gameplay is worth enduring, it's one of my favourite video game stories ever.

 

If you don't fancy diving into the PS3 though, you couldn't go wrong with picking up the PS4 version of Tales of Vesperia, that's another great entry in that series, and it's usually on offer for a pretty decent price too.

 

That is tremendously high praise, as I've a great deal of respect for your opinion (I certainly hope that's been evident thus far!), I'll have to take it under advisement. I have PS3 games to tackle at some point as it is, so I won't rule that out!

 

Yeah, every time I see Vesperia on sale for like ten bucks I'm like????

 

11 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That's awesome - I had no idea about that - I might have to do Medievil this month, as its thumbnail is orange, so I could do it as part of the trophies to fight cancer event.

 

I haven't actually played the first Medievil - oddly, I've only played the second one, I could never find a cheap copy of it when I was younger, so I kind of just let it pass me by, but I've been eyeing up the remake for ages - you might have just nudged me in its direction.

 

It might still be on sale!

 

What's funny is that it had been so long since I played them that when I played the remake, I thought levels were missing until I remembered that I was thinking of the second one?

 

Might be the nostalgia talkin but it's a fun game! Short and sweet, with a total Danny Elfman wannabe soundtrack to boot!

 

12 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That's a great point yes! So thanks for the reminder, maybe I'll get around to it in the future then - I do plan on doing one fairly soon that doesn't have trophies, so I guess I could end up doing a few here and there.......Looking forward to that Godfather review by the way, unless you've already written it and I just completely missed it like a total fanny.........

 

Doo it! Doo it!! And absolutely do Legacy of Kain too! Anybody who's been following your thread knows you're passionate about that franchise, and that you can write up a storm - you know it makes sense, don'tcha?

 

Damn, you might have to start writing a new series!

 

The more I think about it, the more I think I'll end up writing about The Godfather. I still own copies of it for both the 360 and PS2, and I don't remember but I maay have bought the PS3 version as well.

 

I have a problem?

[Copanele]

10 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Classic Review

Letter Quest Remastered

Hah nice review there  despite being simple, this was quite the enjoyable game! It really reminds me of Bookworm Adventure on PC (if you have a PC, grab it, it's mad fun and abit more complex). Also kid friendly ?

 

 

 

Also...you're playing Arkham Knight! Damn that's the only game from the Arkham series that I haven't played, need to get to it at some point. Good luck with the challenges  

[rjkclarke]

On 03/11/2021 at 6:52 AM, YaManSmevz said:

That is tremendously high praise, as I've a great deal of respect for your opinion (I certainly hope that's been evident thus far!), I'll have to take it under advisement. I have PS3 games to tackle at some point as it is, so I won't rule that out!

 

I appreciate that man - likewise, I have a great deal of respect for your opinion too, so that's awesome. Funny you mention PS3 titles to tackle, I've actually kind of gotten my PS3 backlog under control a little bit now, so I'm fairly happy with that - even if one of the games I have left could take close to 500 hours. I still do plan on doing that eventually, it'd give me plenty of breathing room to write a lot of reviews I suppose too.

 

On 03/11/2021 at 6:52 AM, YaManSmevz said:

Yeah, every time I see Vesperia on sale for like ten bucks I'm like?

 

 

That's such a steal at that price - that whole game is absolutely awesome - it's my second favourite entry in that series though, so I would say that haha! Symphonia being the top dog of course.

 

 

On 03/11/2021 at 6:52 AM, YaManSmevz said:

It might still be on sale!

 

What's funny is that it had been so long since I played them that when I played the remake, I thought levels were missing until I remembered that I was thinking of the second one

 

Might be the nostalgia talkin but it's a fun game! Short and sweet, with a total Danny Elfman wannabe soundtrack to boot!

 

It is on sale still, so I might have to dive in with that one - plus, Orange thumbnail and all that. So I can just casually play it off as my incentive was to go and smash in cancers kneecaps with a cricket bat for the event - even if I did want to play it anyway. Plus one of my favourite actors is in it, so that'd be a nice bonus too.

 

You might have just swayed me in that games direction, I'll try and make a point of getting to it this month.

 

I actually had the same you thing you did with Medievil a few years back when I was playing the Spyro trilogy back, and I was sure levels from other games were in the one I was playing - but I think they'd all just glooped themselves together into a big puddle of sludge in my brain.

 

On 03/11/2021 at 6:52 AM, YaManSmevz said:

absolutely do Legacy of Kain too! Anybody who's been following your thread knows you're passionate about that franchise, and that you can write up a storm - you know it makes sense, don'tcha?

 

Damn, you might have to start writing a new series!

 

The more I think about it, the more I think I'll end up writing about The Godfather. I still own copies of it for both the 360 and PS2, and I don't remember but I maay have bought the PS3 version as well.

 

I have a problem?

 

You might regret saying that once I actually start .......

 

.......... I was thinking actually of like a suitable name for a series of "trophyless reviews" - so as my thread has carnival in the title, how about calling it something like "Sideshow Attractions" or Freak shows and curiosities"? I don't know maybe that's just a bit too corny even for me, so I'll have a think about that one, I could just y'know call them reviews, like a sensible chap!

 

I hope you do - because I really quite enjoyed that Godfather game so I'd love to read it that's for sure - and I know I wouldn't be the only one - it might make you want to go and grab the platinum for Godfather II over on PS3 as well - you never know!

 

On 03/11/2021 at 8:02 AM, Copanele said:

Hah nice review there  despite being simple, this was quite the enjoyable game! It really reminds me of Bookworm Adventure on PC (if you have a PC, grab it, it's mad fun and abit more complex). Also kid friendly 

 

Thanks man!

 

I think I might do that yeah - I just had a little look into it and it has a sequel too. I'm sure someone I went to school with used to play that game - because the minute I saw you'd written Bookworm Adventure, I felt like I'd heard of it before, but I've certainly never played it. I think I'd have a good time with it if it's like a more complex version of Letter Quest.

 

also........

 

On 03/11/2021 at 8:02 AM, Copanele said:

you're playing Arkham Knight! Damn that's the only game from the Arkham series that I haven't played, need to get to it at some point. Good luck with the challenges  

 

I am - although I've not delved back into the combat especially yet on my little revisit - I thought it was about time I actually got around to going back to it... You should it's definitely a decent game - even if I'm not the biggest lover of the batmobile. The game itself I remember quite enjoying. So I'm kind of looking forward to diving back in for the Platinum and full completion soon.  I'll take that luck man - because I'm sure I'm going to need it! Send a message to Falkor from Never Ending Story too, just in case I run out - what with him being a luck dragon and all!

 

I equally should probably go back to Arkham Origins, props for getting that one ticked off yourself by the way!  I don't even know if the online is still available for that game, that's one of the few reasons I haven't picked it back up, as organising loads of folk to all be in one spot for online, can be a real pain sometimes, so I just ran away in fear instead!

 

If it all goes to plan by the end of Arkham Knight, Falkor can take me home......

 

.........Like this

 

 

 

I guess I better get back to writing that review for my latest platinum I suppose.

[YaManSmevz]

10 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I appreciate that man - likewise, I have a great deal of respect for your opinion too, so that's awesome. Funny you mention PS3 titles to tackle, I've actually kind of gotten my PS3 backlog under control a little bit now, so I'm fairly happy with that - even if one of the games I have left could take close to 500 hours. I still do plan on doing that eventually, it'd give me plenty of breathing room to write a lot of reviews I suppose too.

 

Thanks man! And that's great about your PS3 backlog getting shaved down some, by the looks of it you've been chippin away at a pretty healthy rate. I'm grateful that I've only got a handful of PS3 games to get into, my hands are full as it is with the PS4! Your mention of breathing room for writing reviews reminds me how on occasion I'm writing a review while thinking that I should be working on a game, or vice versa! Can't win for losin???

 

10 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

It is on sale still, so I might have to dive in with that one - plus, Orange thumbnail and all that. So I can just casually play it off as my incentive was to go and smash in cancers kneecaps with a cricket bat for the event - even if I did want to play it anyway. Plus one of my favourite actors is in it, so that'd be a nice bonus too.

 

You might have just swayed me in that games direction, I'll try and make a point of getting to it this month.

 

I actually had the same you thing you did with Medievil a few years back when I was playing the Spyro trilogy back, and I was sure levels from other games were in the one I was playing - but I think they'd all just glooped themselves together into a big puddle of sludge in my brain.

 

Do tell! My money's on Paul Darrow?

 

I think I had the same thing with Spyro that I had with late 90s Disney movies, I was at an age where I thought I was too cool for kid friendly stuff. Funny you mention that, though - I had a demo disc with Spyro, Medievil, and Metal Gear Solid (among others) back in the day, I got a lot of mileage out of it! I'm sure that in my inevitable review of Medievil I'll mention it, so... try to look surprised when we get there, yeah?

 

10 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

.......... I was thinking actually of like a suitable name for a series of "trophyless reviews" - so as my thread has carnival in the title, how about calling it something like "Sideshow Attractions" or Freak shows and curiosities"? I don't know maybe that's just a bit too corny even for me, so I'll have a think about that one, I could just y'know call them reviews, like a sensible chap!

 

I hope you do - because I really quite enjoyed that Godfather game so I'd love to read it that's for sure - and I know I wouldn't be the only one - it might make you want to go and grab the platinum for Godfather II over on PS3 as well - you never know!

 

I was trying to think of something similar, but I was probably just gonna go with something like "Platinum #nunya GATdamn business" or something equally silly. I'm sure you'll come up with something! If nothing is feeling right, there's nothing wrong with simplicity either!

 

Also, I meant to compliment your Arkham prowess! I'm still trying to get up the nerve to dust off Asylum and finish those wretched combat challenges... and it's my understanding that Asylum has the easiest of the bunch!

[rjkclarke]

A Magical New Platinum & Another Series finished (For Now).

Platinum #335

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (PS3)

 

 

Future Auror
Get all Trophies, 100% the game!

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 4 November 2021: 10:59:37 PM

Time Taken to Platinum :  4 days, 20 hours, 3 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 13.98%

Trophy Number - #16,112

 

 

It turns out this game in reality turned out to be one of the most pleasant surprises I’ve had in a long time in a video game. It’s always a daunting prospect playing video game adaptations of films. Especially as the previous game had far more aspects of it that over-burdened it and made it a far less enjoyable experience than elevated it. Here however, quite a few of the wrongs were righted, and I think a genuine effort was made to improve upon some of the weaker aspects of the previous title.

 

Harold Porter and the Dilapidated Hedgehog Number Two.......  Sorry, sorry. It’s the last one – I had to get at least one of these in..... Ahem – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, is – at the surprise of absolutely nobody, unless they have awakened from a coma they’ve been in since 1997, is the video game adaptation of the final instalment in the Harry Potter film series. Once more the gameplay is that of a third person cover shooter (wander?). Now – you will rarely see me praise EA as a company – and they are very rarely ever associated with crafting many of their products with love. However, this game I believe is one of the rare exceptions.

Before we really get into this though, let me just establish that this is not a fantastic game, it’s a vast improvement on its predecessor – a game which wasn’t bad, it was just outlandishly unremarkable. I’d be lying if I said this was a tremendous feat of gaming brilliance, but it is fun, and I can appreciate the steps they made to improve upon the previous entry.

 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, introduces the concept of multiple playable characters. In previous games we’ve only been able to play as Horatio Pottery, Roon Wasley and Hammyone Ganja, up to this point. Are all of you Harry Potter fans suitably twitching now that I’ve gotten all those names wrong? Any eagle eyed Harry Potter fans will notice at least one of those is actually from one of the books. Here however, we get introduced to a whole raft of playable characters, you can’t select them, and they all control exactly the same, but it’s at least a nice inclusion. I can’t say that I ever expected or wanted to be able to play as Professor McGonagall, but it was nice to be able to.

 

Do all the characters look exactly like they should? Unfortunately no, they don’t, somehow Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince still looks visually more appealing than this game does. The level design compared to the previous game however, is a marked improvement, as the variety on display, and attention to detail is impossible not to notice, as it should almost every area feels very distinct.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the character designs themselves, they mostly resemble the actors, they are supposed to, apart from Molly Weasley. I do hope that Julie Walters never played this – because, honestly the best way to describe her likeness in this game would probably be  that of  a really despondent   Owl, that had gotten a gigantic puddle of muddy water kicked into its face, and had the sudden realisation, that mud wasn’t the only nasty smelly thing in that puddle. Alright, so I took a long time to say she looks like a demented owl, but I found it really distracting.

 

The voice acting on the other hand – is generally of quite a high standard. For the most part at least, I think Adam Sopp performs outrageously well as Harry. It might seem like I’m over praising him, but he sounds so close to Daniel Radcliffe that if you didn’t know it wasn’t him, you’d probably just assume that it was Radcliffe playing the part. That’s no easy feat either, because Radcliffe has a very specific cadence to his voice, that would take a lot of practice to truly master, he has almost a breathiness to how he speaks, so replicating that whilst maintaining the character is very impressive. Alice Keenan provides an equally good portrayal of Hermione, much like with Sopp – if you didn’t know it wasn’t Emma Watson, I don’t think you’d question it. Rupert Grint, actually does play Ron here, so Ron feels about as authentic as you can get.

 

There’s a moment in the game that’s a huge part of the book and the film, I’ll just say this for any Harry Potter fans that might be reading, just to avoid spoilers for the Harry Potter films for those who haven’t seen them, it’s a scene in the woods, with a stone (you’ll know the one I mean). The fact you control that scene in the game, makes that moment, and that part of the experience all the more powerful, it’s an amazing thing how just the element of control can enhance a sequence like that, and Sopp’s  voice cracking  when he delivers the “Stay with me” line at the end actually hit me pretty hard.

The soundtrack is decent enough – there’s times when it really evokes the sombre funeralistic tone that the final Harry Potter film also has, and then at other times it’s just a little bit too nondescript to really even discuss, which ends up being another element of the game that ends up being slightly inconsistent.

 

However, for all the great voice performances, there’s a few that really do make your toes curl on occasion. Snape and Voldemort are voiced by the same person, and unfortunately you can tell too, because they sound far too similar. Specifically in the boat house scene – where both characters are communicating with one another and you can tell that it’s just one person in a recording booth throwing his own voice back and forth. Not only do they sound too similar, they don’t really sound like either character either, so that only elevated the problem further.

I have to apply the same criticism that I did to the performance of Bellatrix Lestrange in my review of the previous game, which is that it just doesn’t quite work, the voice actress is pretty good in other performances of hers I’ve heard, but her portrayal of Bellatrix is just “generic mad” instead of wild and dangerous, it’s one of the things that can really distract you during the game.

 

One of the most positive areas of improvement upon its predecessor is the gameplay. It is such a leap in terms of both playability and engagement. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, is actually a much more streamlined experience, when compared with the previous title, instead of padded out extra missions, elements of actions scenes found in the film are expanded upon and put you right in amongst the action in the battle of Hogwarts, the main story itself might be fairly short, but it never outstays its welcome, and I found it incredibly easy to just get swept along and play almost the entire thing without stopping.

 

The biggest improvement of note, is probably in the spell mechanics – previously you had to manually select a new spell to switch to, an aspect which honestly didn’t quite work. Here, however, the only requirement to switch spells is to double tap a button or switch between the various face buttons for various spells, which means you can essentially combo spells together, for some increased damage. It’s an element that really streamlines the experience – if not also oversimplifies it. EA are at the very least pretty competent at making decent shooters, I think most of us can probably agree on that – so they decided to really apply that knowledge here, instead of the more lackadaisical way they approached it before. They did it in a way that each spell would essentially represent how a gun might work in a shooter. Stupify mimics a bolt action rifle with singular shots, Expulso that of a machine gun, Confringo mimics a Rocket Launcher, Petrificus Totallus a Sniper Rifle, Protego a spell shield and Impedimenta essentially functions like homing rockets would. Those small improvements go a long way, as before the spells you used were pretty much irrelevant, it just amounted to “point spell at head until enemy falls over.” This time around you have to employ a bit of strategy, as each spell is more viable depending on the situation.

 

The route to the platinum in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is somewhat of a simple one – despite the fact the game has difficulty trophies. As long you stay in cover you’d pretty much get through the game without too many problems. You do need to play through it twice, as the hardest difficulty is only unlocked after finishing the game. I’d also get up a collectible guide for your first playthrough, and knock out those nice and quickly. That extra playthrough won’t be too taxing either, mine took me just shy of three and a half hours I believe. You’ll also need to complete challenge mode versions of each level, and get at least Gold rating in all of those. These are really fun, and do test your knowledge of the game somewhat, as it encourages the use of spell combos and quick stuns, to maximise the amount of time you can shave off.

 My advice for both the higher difficulties and the challenges would be to abuse the Impedementa spell, as it’s a homing spell, you can essentially, lock the targets, snap out of cover, fire your spell off, and then snap back in to take out the enemies that way, trust me it’ll save your life a lot on higher difficulties if you chose to play this game.

 

I think I’d only really recommend this one to fans of Harry Potter, because realistically there are better games you could play – I definitely had a lot of fun with this one, and if you are a Harry Potter fan you’d probably have a good time too. As far as movie tie in video games go, as with a lot of the Harry Potter games they do tend to fall on the higher quality side of that specific breed of video game. I’m  certainly happy to have played it, and it’s nice to finally have the series complete on my profile – the little “Thanks for playing” montage they give you at the end of the game, showing you little clips from  all of the previous Harry Potter games. Happened to be a lovely little sign off to a video game series that I think they genuinely loved making – so that was charming to see, thanks for that EA Bright Light. For now I’m done with Harry Potter based trophies until Hogwarts Legacy releases.

 

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

 

That's one more series ticked off the list to complete.... I actually had far more fun with that game than I ever expected to, so I definitely can't complain about that one - I guess the key was going in with pretty low expectations.

 

On 05/11/2021 at 10:55 AM, YaManSmevz said:

 I'm grateful that I've only got a handful of PS3 games to get into, my hands are full as it is with the PS4! Your mention of breathing room for writing reviews reminds me how on occasion I'm writing a review while thinking that I should be working on a game, or vice versa! Can't win for losin

 

 

Don't worry - you definitely aren't the only one thinking that - sometimes when I'm sitting here typing away I think, I could definitely be making progress with a game now...... You definitely said it best "can't win for losin."

 

 

On 05/11/2021 at 10:55 AM, YaManSmevz said:

Do tell! My money's on Paul Darrow

 

I think I had the same thing with Spyro that I had with late 90s Disney movies, I was at an age where I thought I was too cool for kid friendly stuff. Funny you mention that, though - I had a demo disc with Spyro, Medievil, and Metal Gear Solid (among others) back in the day, I got a lot of mileage out of it! I'm sure that in my inevitable review of Medievil I'll mention it, so... try to look surprised when we get there, yeah?

 

Well if you'd bet that money, you'd be getting a fat payout.  It was either an incredibly lucky  guess - or that you know me well enough now to kind of guess something like that... I think it's probably the latter. But yes, you are correct!

 

He was a great actor Paul Darrow - he bought a lot of class to a lot of roles that he played, and his voice just absolutely screams "villain." It's sad how many health problems he had later in life - even had to have his legs amputated, poor guy.

 

I believe I had that demo disc too - and I too got a hell of a lot of use out of it.

 

I'd still recommend Spyro by the way - they are a decent little time - plus there's all that Stewart Copeland goodness!

 

On 05/11/2021 at 10:55 AM, YaManSmevz said:

"Platinum #nunya GATdamn business" or something equally silly. I'm sure you'll come up with something! If nothing is feeling right, there's nothing wrong with simplicity either!

 

Also, I meant to compliment your Arkham prowess! I'm still trying to get up the nerve to dust off Asylum and finish those wretched combat challenges... and it's my understanding that Asylum has the easiest of the bunch!

 

That's a funny alternative! I like it, maybe you should go with that, it'd be a bit of a task to come up with something original and funny each time perhaps.

 

I actually found Arkham Knight the easiest as far as the combat challenges go for what it's worth, that'll change once I do the community challenges I'm sure - I think the more limited move-set that you have in Arkham Asylum actually makes some of those challenges a little trickier - as it sort of forces you to always get like the perfect use of every gadget into almost every round and not get hit,so you have more of  a chance at the points threshold.

 

This will seem obvious - but in Arkham Asylum I'd recommend jumping over your opponents fairly often, to keep your combo going, because sometimes it is really easy to mistime the counter presses,  and mess your combo up I did that loads, so I used to just juggle them that way sometimes. Made it a bit more manageable for me.

 

You can do it though! You've got this man! Just think of it like a rhythm game! ?

Edited February 2, 2022 by rjkclarke

[Iker_01]

Combat Challenges were definitely more difficult in Arkham Assylum. Predator Challenges, on the other hand, were harder in City. I've been enjoying your checklist, it's a nice collection of games and I like reading your thoughts on them.

[Platinum_Vice]

14 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Platinum #335

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (PS3)

 

 

I did not expect such a competent game. With a touch from the devs of playing snippets of their other games in remembrance, it sounds like they were really proud of getting this last one out then.

In which case they'd probably be really glad that you enjoyed it as much as you did.

 

 

14 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Don't worry - you definitely aren't the only one thinking that - sometimes when I'm sitting here typing away I think, I could definitely be making progress with a game now...... You definitely said it best "can't win for losin."

 

...

 

I'd still recommend Spyro by the way - they are a decent little time - plus there's all that Stewart Copeland goodness!

 

 

That's a funny alternative! I like it, maybe you should go with that, it'd be a bit of a task to come up with something original and funny each time perhaps.

 

I actually found Arkham Knight the easiest as far as the combat challenges go for what it's worth, that'll change once I do the community challenges I'm sure - I think the more limited move-set that you have in Arkham Asylum actually makes some of those challenges a little trickier - as it sort of forces you to always get like the perfect use of every gadget into almost every round and not get hit,so you have more of  a chance at the points threshold.

 

This will seem obvious - but in Arkham Asylum I'd recommend jumping over your opponents fairly often, to keep your combo going, because sometimes it is really easy to mistime the counter presses,  and mess your combo up I did that loads, so I used to just juggle them that way sometimes. Made it a bit more manageable for me.

 

You can do it though! You've got this man! Just think of it like a rhythm game!

 

You have to start with Asylum, the trophies build on you having completed the prior platinums before it.

[YaManSmevz]

23 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

A Magical New Platinum & Another Series finished (For Now).

Platinum #335

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (PS3)

 

 

I'm glad Airy Plopper and the Smelly Phallus ended well for you! Good to hear the last one was the best of the bunch, always good to end on a positive note. You're really knockin these series out man, props!

 

On 11/5/2021 at 11:05 AM, rjkclarke said:

 

Well if you'd bet that money, you'd be getting a fat payout.  It was either an incredibly lucky I guess - or that you know me well enough now to kind of guess something like that... I think it's probably the latter. But yes, you are correct!

 

He was a great actor Paul Darrow - he bought a lot of class to a lot of roles that he played, and his voice just absolutely screams "villain." It's sad how many health problems he had later in life - even had to have his legs amputated, poor guy.

 

I believe I had that demo disc too - and I too got a hell of a lot of use out of it.

 

I'd still recommend Spyro by the way - they are a decent little time - plus there's all that Stewart Copeland goodness!

 

Nice! That was my guess because, funnily enough, he played Zarok, the main villain. That's horrible to hear, nobody should be on their way out like that. A damn shame.

 

Yeahmann, that disc was the bizness. I easily played the MGS demo the most, and remember chomping at the bit for the full game to be released. Spyro seemed like very light fun.. which I might give into, one of these days. We could all use a bit of that (as well as Stewart Copeland jams)!

 

On 11/5/2021 at 11:05 AM, rjkclarke said:

 

That's a funny alternative! I like it, maybe you should go with that, it'd be a bit of a task to come up with something original and funny each time perhaps.

 

I actually found Arkham Knight the easiest as far as the combat challenges go for what it's worth, that'll change once I do the community challenges I'm sure - I think the more limited move-set that you have in Arkham Asylum actually makes some of those challenges a little trickier - as it sort of forces you to always get like the perfect use of every gadget into almost every round and not get hit,so you have more of  a chance at the points threshold.

 

This will seem obvious - but in Arkham Asylum I'd recommend jumping over your opponents fairly often, to keep your combo going, because sometimes it is really easy to mistime the counter presses,  and mess your combo up I did that loads, so I used to just juggle them that way sometimes. Made it a bit more manageable for me.

 

You can do it though! You've got this man! Just think of it like a rhythm game!

 

I like the idea of adding a quick little task like that - I'm finding that with adding song lyrics to reviews, I don't know how that came about but it's really fun to have that extra thing to think about each time!

 

You know, it took forever for me to realize that jumping won't interrupt combos. I felt like such a dummy when I noticed that!

 

Thanks man! I certainly hope so? and that's a great observation - the good Doctor pointed that out as well, and once I get back into the groove of it I really need to take that approach!

[DrBloodmoney]

On 05/11/2021 at 6:05 PM, rjkclarke said:

Platinum #335

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (PS3)

You did it, my good man - you made me slightly interested in a Harry Potter thing! ?
 

I am, almost assuredly, the only living human left to have never seen any of the HP films (for reasons I don’t really know - I’ve seen both Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in other films, and think both are really good actors!) but somehow, have managed to miss every single movie in the franchise - but your review was entertaining enough to keep me reading anyways… long enough for my interest to be piqued, dammit!

 

Maybe i should get those films watched… if only to allow me to finally make sense of that Lego game I played and didn’t understand a damned thing about ?

[Slava]

@DrBloodmoney this is actually impressive ?. I assume you haven't read the books either. Back in my childhood days everyone used to read them including me and my classmates. And then we'd wait for the films.

[rjkclarke]

On 05/11/2021 at 7:34 PM, Iker_01 said:

Combat Challenges were definitely more difficult in Arkham Assylum. Predator Challenges, on the other hand, were harder in City. I've been enjoying your checklist, it's a nice collection of games and I like reading your thoughts on them.

 

That is a very accurate appraisal I agree about the two Arkham titles. Some of the Predator Challenges in City gave me some real trouble, mainly the ones where the A.I don't quite want to play ball. It's particularly frustrating when you have to do some of the harder ones for the campaign challenges too.

 

Thanks by the way, that's awesome to hear your enjoying the thread, I appreciate that - I've definitely got an eclectic taste in games that's for sure, I think that's half the reason I've never really gotten bored or burned out so far.

 

On 06/11/2021 at 8:15 AM, GonzoWARgasm said:

I did not expect such a competent game. With a touch from the devs of playing snippets of their other games in remembrance, it sounds like they were really proud of getting this last one out then.

In which case they'd probably be really glad that you enjoyed it as much as you did.

 

 

I think they were too - and i think they did a pretty decent job of it too. Knowing that Hogwarts Legacy is going back to a more open world format should be pretty interesting - as that always was one of the better elements of those early Harry Potter titles.

 

So it could potentially be really good - it's also got the benefit of not being hamstrung by any of the movies, so it is essentially a blank canvas that they can pretty much do what they want with.

 

Fingers Crossed.

 

15 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Good to hear the last one was the best of the bunch, always good to end on a positive note. You're really knockin these series out man, props!

 

Thanks man - I guess I should get and do God of War (2018) soon that'd be another series ticked off after that as well. I dunno man, it's probably just a weird fixation I have with finishing game series. Sometimes I also end up trying to do lots of games by the Dev Studios I like as well.

 

15 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Nice! That was my guess because, funnily enough, he played Zarok, the main villain. That's horrible to hear, nobody should be on their way out like that. A damn shame.

 

Yeahmann, that disc was the bizness. I easily played the MGS demo the most, and remember chomping at the bit for the full game to be released. Spyro seemed like very light fun.. which I might give into, one of these days. We could all use a bit of that (as well as Stewart Copeland jams)!

 

I agree it's a sad way to go - but the positive thing about being a voice over artist, or acting in film and television is that you're never truly gone, people can discover him for years to come....... Well they could if they decided to go down a Blakes 7 rabbit hole - which I'm not sure I recommend to be honest, because he's literally one of the few good things in that show.

 

Well to the surprise of literally nobody, that was probably the demo that I played the most as well. I believe that was the one that ended when you got up to the DARPA chief if I remember right. I remember how excited I was when my Dad surprised me with a copy of Metal Gear Solid, because he actually remembered I loved playing the demo, and I was completely blown away by the fact it had two discs (this was before I'd played Final Fantasy, on the PS1,) so multiple discs to me meant a huge game, and I was not disappointed.

 

I think you should give into the allure of Spyro - Peter Pan that bad boy, you're never too old.... Actually that was probably a bad analogy, because the Disney version at least  of Peter Pan does look a little bit like he might hang around outside of parks and playgrounds if you get my drift, he just has really unsettling eyes. Especially in Kingdom Hearts..... They just stare right through you......

 

 

15 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I like the idea of adding a quick little task like that - I'm finding that with adding song lyrics to reviews, I don't know how that came about but it's really fun to have that extra thing to think about each time!

 

I like the song lyric thing too - I've done it myself maybe twice that I can think of, I did it in the Phantom Pain review, and then all the way back in one of my early Tomb Raider ones I think in Anniversary.

 

I love the ones you used for Manhunt - which again I need to drop a comment on, because that review was fantastic - in fact there's been plenty in the last couple of days I've read that I need to leave some feedback for.

 

If you don't mind, I've got the perfect ones to add to the review I'm posting later, but if you object I'll just not use them, or I'll just edit them out later on - as the song lyrics  is much more your thing than it is mine. This one time, I feel like it might add another special little layer to it.

 

15 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

You know, it took forever for me to realize that jumping won't interrupt combos. I felt like such a dummy when I noticed that!

 

Thanks man! I certainly hope so and that's a great observation - the good Doctor pointed that out as well, and once I get back into the groove of it I really need to take that approach!

 

I did the same thing - I assumed jumping would just stop the combo - so no need to feel like a dummy....... Or I guess we both can feel like one if that's easier ?

 

They are very much like rhythm games I think - I usually absolutely suck at rhythm games too, so hopefully now that you know that I'm hopeless at those it might give you a little bit of confidence that you'll be able to nail those combat challenges!

 

2 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

You did it, my good man - you made me slightly interested in a Harry Potter thing! 
 

I am, almost assuredly, the only living human left to have never seen any of the HP films (for reasons I don’t really know - I’ve seen both Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in other films, and think both are really good actors!) but somehow, have managed to miss every single movie in the franchise - but your review was entertaining enough to keep me reading anyways… long enough for my interest to be piqued, dammit!

 

Maybe i should get those films watched… if only to allow me to finally make sense of that Lego game I played and didn’t understand a damned thing about 

 

Damn Doc - Thanks, I appreciate that.

 

Although now I'm a little worried that I've used up all of my "you've made me want to play/watch this" Karma on a Harry Potter thing. Especially as the review I'm posting later for the original NieR I'd desperately love for you to get interested in playing, because I think you'd have an amazing time with that one.

 

I'm just finishing it off now - I'm a little worried I've put too much of me into that one, but we'll see. I'm just worried once I come out the other side of it I'll just be some emaciated husk - but if that happens, I'm going to go ahead and kindly blame @Copanele for requesting it....... Thanks by the way, I think I would of put that off for a while had you not done that - so I really hope I do it justice.

 

...... In all seriousness though I've really enjoyed writing it, but it's made me a little emotional to say the least. I don't think I'd ever really thought about how much that game actually means to me. But I guess you can read about that if you decide to, in the review itself.

 

I actually think not having read the books might be a slight advantage when it comes to watching the films. You won't get bogged down in the thought process of "they could have done this bit better, or they missed that bit out" you'll just see whatever the film-makers wanted you to see. Sometimes that's good, sometimes, it isn't.

 

At the very least I think you'd definitely appreciate the third film - as I know you can appreciate good film-making - I genuinely think it's one of the best films Alfonso Cuaron has made as well. a Few HP fans do tend to get a bit, erm antsy, I suppose you could say about how much that deviates from the source material in places, but visually it's an absolute triumph - it's one of those instances where as a film it sort of just transcends the series that it came from, even if it is a huge tonal shift from the first two.

 

Last human alive not to have seen one - I think my Nan may even have seen a Harry Potter film ....... Although I suspect she probably didn't want to.

 

1 hour ago, Slava said:

@DrBloodmoney this is actually impressive . I assume you haven't read the books either. Back in my childhood days everyone used to read them including me and my classmates. And then we'd wait for the films.

 

Thanks for making us all feel old Slava.......... ?

 

........We were in school when those books came out - and now they are almost twenty-five years old!

Edited November 7, 2021 by rjkclarke

[YaManSmevz]

10 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

I guess I should get and do God of War (2018) soon that'd be another series ticked off after that as well. I dunno man, it's probably just a weird fixation I have with finishing game series. Sometimes I also end up trying to do lots of games by the Dev Studios I like as well.

 

Same on God of War. And may I say, it absolutely is not weird, them's some natural completionist urges! When a completionist and a game series love each other very much...

 

12 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

Well to the surprise of literally nobody, that was probably the demo that I played the most as well. I believe that was the one that ended when you got up to the DARPA chief if I remember right. I remember how excited I was when my Dad surprised me with a copy of Metal Gear Solid, because he actually remembered I loved playing the demo, and I was completely blown away by the fact it had two discs (this was before I'd played Final Fantasy, on the PS1,) so multiple discs to me meant a huge game, and I was not disappointed.

 

Aw, you had the better one - mine ended when you crawled into the vent at the very beginning, just before the DARPA chief. Then in that Game Over screen it said "Coming soon" or some such shit. Played it over and over and over. I too was so excited when it came out, and I remember this palpable excitement when I went into the shaft - and the game kept going!

 

18 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

I think you should give into the allure of Spyro - Peter Pan that bad boy, you're never too old.... Actually that was probably a bad analogy, because the Disney version at least  of Peter Pan does look a little bit like he might hang around outside of parks and playgrounds if you get my drift, he just has really unsettling eyes. Especially in Kingdom Hearts..... They just stare right through you......

 

 

 

Oh my... yeah, I see what you mean. It gives a whole new meaning to the name Lost Boys???

 

Makes me think of Spyro frolicking around, with happy music, and then a cut to this image here with menacing music. Poor Spyro!

 

28 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

I like the song lyric thing too - I've done it myself maybe twice that I can think of, I did it in the Phantom Pain review, and then all the way back in one of my early Tomb Raider ones I think in Anniversary.

 

I love the ones you used for Manhunt - which again I need to drop a comment on, because that review was fantastic - in fact there's been plenty in the last couple of days I've read that I need to leave some feedback for.

 

If you don't mind, I've got the perfect ones to add to the review I'm posting later, but if you object I'll just not use them, or I'll just edit them out later on - as the song lyrics  is much more your thing than it is mine. This one time, I feel like it might add another special little layer to it.

 

Oh wow, you sure did!

 

I didn't even think of that! I started doing that because I thought of a line in a Jay-Z song where he referenced Family Feud, and wondered if I could find references to the other games in that post. I wouldn't mind in the least, I do believe you did it first - and even if not, it's not as though i have a monopoly on song lyrics?

 

Thank you! And you're not wrong - we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to great reviews to read these days! I was in the middle of making the rounds myself when I saw you posted?

 

55 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I did the same thing - I assumed jumping would just stop the combo - so no need to feel like a dummy....... Or I guess we both can feel like one if that's easier

 

They are very much like rhythm games I think - I usually absolutely suck at rhythm games too, so hopefully now that you know that I'm hopeless at those it might give you a little bit of confidence that you'll be able to nail those combat challenges!

 

Thank you man, it does - I really love that game, and it made me sad to stop playing it. Literally all I have to do it beat it on hard (which doesn't deter me at all) and top all the combat challenges (which gives me anxiety). My current games are kinda beating my ass, but hopefully once I can handle those, I'll be able to make some room for Asylum!

 

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I am, almost assuredly, the only living human left to have never seen any of the HP films (for reasons I don’t really know - I’ve seen both Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in other films, and think both are really good actors!) but somehow, have managed to miss every single movie in the franchise - but your review was entertaining enough to keep me reading anyways… long enough for my interest to be piqued, dammit!

 

Maybe i should get those films watched… if only to allow me to finally make sense of that Lego game I played and didn’t understand a damned thing about 

 

If it makes you feel any better, I haven't seen any of them either. I've acquired some knowledge of the series through osmosis but other than that I'm pretty clueless - if it weren't for Mr. Clarke and his fine write-ups, I wouldn't even have known about these games!

[Copanele]

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Although now I'm a little worried that I've used up all of my "you've made me want to play/watch this" Karma on a Harry Potter thing. Especially as the review I'm posting later for the original NieR I'd desperately love for you to get interested in playing, because I think you'd have an amazing time with that one.

 

I'm just finishing it off now - I'm a little worried I've put too much of me into that one, but we'll see. I'm just worried once I come out the other side of it I'll just be some emaciated husk - but if that happens, I'm going to go ahead and kindly blame @Copanele for requesting it....... Thanks by the way, I think I would of put that off for a while had you not done that - so I really hope I do it justice.

 

I just imagined you having a great time, then me coming along recommending NieR. While writing the review you remember the first NieR experience and yeah, THOSE moments.

No regrets there I accept the blame. That game is special to me too :>

 

Also hot damn Harry Trotter....haven't heard of that one in a while! Sadly I can only remember the first 3 movies (including the games - damn frog cards), those were the most "magical" to me.

After that they went too dark(or tried to) so I lost interest. Still a fun watch here and there!

[rjkclarke]

Tenth Anniversary Classic Review

 

Platinum #5

NieR (PS3)

 

 

The Final Verse
Congratulations! Thanks for playing!

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 7 November 2011: 9:15:36 PM

Time Taken to Platinum : 4 weeks, 2 days, 16 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 7.82%

Trophy Number - #387

 

 

"Those days are all gone now but one thing's still true
When I look and I find
I still love you"

 

 

Every once in a while a video game can enter your consciousness – and then decide that it never, ever wants to leave. For me that game was NieR. This game just took a piece of me – a piece of my heart, and my soul, and I don’t think it’s ever going to give it back. You know what? I’m perfectly fine with that, this game can live rent free in my mind for as long as it wants to.

 

Before we really get into this, I in reality feel like I ought to warn you – that however much this might sound like a love letter to this game – and it will, believe me; I’m also not blind to some of the flaws that it possesses. I’ll be fair and I’ll be thorough, but honestly, some of the unrefined elements of NieR are part of what made me fall in love with its charm in the first place. Certainly when I played it at least, all the way back in 2011 this game was the definition of a hidden gem – and I soon made it my mission, to try and get as many people to experience it as possible.

 

If memory serves me correct – I bought NieR for roughly £10, which also happened to be one of the best £10 that I think I’ve ever spent. Before purchase, I’d seen it on the shelves of various outlets for a while, found the cover art quite interesting but never really looked into the game all that much. That is until; I decided to replay Drakengard in 2011 – after doing so I jumped onto our trusty friend Wikipedia to find out that NieR was actually a tangential sequel to Drakengard.  I was considering playing Drakengard 2, so to find out NieR was part of that universe (it is ironically a sequel to the joke ending of Drakengard,) I’ve never played Drakengard 2 and I don’t plan to – you shouldn’t either by the way, because as I alluded to in my Drakengard 3 review what seems like an age ago, Yoko Taro doesn’t even consider that game canon. With that in mind, and my fondness for Drakengard I fully expected to have a great time with NieR and I wasn’t disappointed.

 

There are few times when a game has managed to instantly hook me in the same way that NieR did. I’m not going to delve into story spoilers, because – well, that beautiful present is for anyone else to unwrap that still hasn’t played this fantastic game. However, I will give you a couple of the details you find out in the opening of the game, just for a little bit of context. Set in the summer of 2049, on earth, the game opens with you - the technically unnamed protagonist, protecting your daughter from waves of enemies – after this, the game time skips over one thousand years, as you now live in a small technologically un-advanced village, with your daughter, who suffers from a terminal illness called “the black scrawl.” This is what the main thrust of the narrative becomes, the initial search for a medicine to help cure your daughter Yonah of her terminal illness. You’ll fight your way through many foes, and gain friends (Emil, Weiss and Kaine) along the way.

Together you’ll endure many hardships in search of the truth. Oh – and once you think you’ve finished the game, you haven’t, play it a second time and you will be treated to whole new cutscenes, bosses and story beats – that add a terrific amount of depth, to an experience that was already brimming with that to begin with. Some of them are probably enough to melt the iciest of hearts. For everyone that has played it – even thinking about “Beepy” makes my eyes want to leak. Some of that second playthrough hit me so hard, like a huge eighteen wheeler full of emotions just crashed straight into me, and then reversed back over me for good measure. Whilst I haven’t mentioned the specifics of the story, I think they are phenomenal, and honestly slightly better than its sequel NieR: Automata, a game who’s narrative content, I also rate incredibly highly.

 

All of that seems simplistic enough – but that was deliberate. I really don’t want to give too much away – because I can’t commit to this fully, but if I really gave it some detailed thought, this game might have one of the best video game stories I’ve ever played.

 

Video games as a medium can often live and die by the atmosphere that they manage, or in some cases don’t manage to create. In the case of NieR I can think of few better examples of building a specific atmosphere than this game does. There exists a sombre tone and inherent sadness that absolutely permeates through this entire game – it runs so smoothly through it like a hot knife through butter. Yet – alongside that sadness, comes optimism and hope. It’s a fascinating juxtaposition, as it’s incredibly endearing seeing certain characters still have that will to fight on, and keep going  - all the while attempting to forge a future for themselves in a world, that seems like it just wants to give in. It sounds quite bizarre to say – but this world, feels real. I think that’s one of the things that resonated with me the most, is that many of the characters feel and act like humans – the way they react to certain situations, means that often times it’s really tough to avoid having so much empathy for certain characters.

 

Putting the story itself to the side for a moment – NieR’s characters themselves are about the truest testament you can get for the sheer quality of Yoko Taro’s writing ability. I know one of his favourite things about writing stories, comes from writing about the darker side of human nature (something he and I share actually,) the way he does it in NieR is very specific, yet absolutely excellent. Time for a little character deep dive I think.

 

Kaine is one of the perfect examples of what I mentioned above – she’s a prickly character on the surface – yet she’s incredibly likeable, and that’s even before mentioning anything revelatory about her character. She’s damaged, she’s angry (justifiably,) but she cares, however hard she might try to hide it. I think part of the reason this game resonated with so many people, is because it’s quite easy to see elements of you in some of these characters, even the villains – yes, they are in a situation we can’t truly understand, but how they think, how they feel, and how they hurt, most of us can relate to in some way. This game makes you confront some of the ugliest sides of human nature in the most unapologetic and at times bluntest way possible, but the way it does it, is fantastic.

 

I often wonder what it’d be like for someone seeing Emil in this game after already playing NieR: Automata. I think you’d certainly see him differently on a replay of Automata that’s for sure. You’ve seen Emil the other side of everything that happens to him in this game, including everything that comes with that – the sadness, the guilt and that longing to belong, but most of all the transformation. In a way Emil reminds me of Quasimodo, from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (specifically the Disney version actually, more so than the book). They both have an infectious optimism, yet everything about them is tinged with a slight sadness, a sadness that really got to me every time that he’d say something slightly self deprecating. Emil’s character arc across the entirety of NieR is phenomenal, and I actually think it’s one of the best realised aspects of the narrative itself.

 

NieR’s protagonist who is technically nameless, as you, yourself name him – is one of the things about the game that has always left an incredibly lasting impression on me. There are very few times I have ever been as invested in the story of a character in a video game as this one. Again, I believe it is the truest of testaments to Yoko Taro’s writing ability to be able to achieve what he does with this character. A character who on the surface looks – well let’s not beat around the bush here, he looks pretty goofy. He wears a mask that looks like pair of underpants is strapped to his face, he wears jet black leggings, and he wears flip-flops. Most people would take one look at that, and think “what a goof.” Ultimately, that aspect doesn’t become a problem.

I can’t give Yoko Taro all the credit. Jamieson Price brings an outrageous amount of depth to the character, that’s underselling it too, one of the biggest elements of the protagonist, is that he is a Father. Something Price excels at are some of the lower key moments, where a little of the gruffness of his voice ever so slightly dissipates and you see a softer side to him. The protagonist is tough when he wants to be, strong when he has to be, and much like Kaine, he cares far more than he initially lets on, about everyone. There’s a scene involving Emil in the latter portion of the game that breaks my heart every time I’ve played it and the way he tells Emil “Don’t look back.” His own voiced tinged with such a sorrowful tone, yet also in the knowledge that he has someone else’s feelings to think about, so he can’t quite be upset himself, has always gotten to me. He’s a character that has the entire weight of the world on his shoulders, but his unwavering conviction, and willingness to do what he thinks is right to try and save his daughter is so gripping.

 

Continuing with the theme of voice acting for a moment – NieR contains some of the best voice acting; I think I’ve ever heard go into a video game. You do have to deal with the occasional anime grunt, but aside from that it is excellent across the board. As easy as it is for us all to make jokes about Laura Bailey, and the fact that she appears in so many video games. There’s a reason for that, she’s excellent. Kaine is on first impressions at least, a fairly one dimensional character, but she’s so much more than that. Once you understand her, you can really appreciate exactly how nuanced and layered Bailey’s performance truly is.

Imagine my surprise when playing a video game, and I actually found myself caring about the fate of a talking book – Liam O’Brien as Grimoire Weiss, is actually one of the most memorable things about the entire experience, he’s funny, at times deadly serious, and in some of the more powerful and emotive scenes, his voice carries an incredible amount of weight and gravitas.

Julie Ann Taylor’s portrayal of Emil for me is one of the rare times when the whole way through you’re aware that it’s a female actress playing the part of a small male child, yet isn’t distracting at all. There are a few instances where Emil just gives the most haunting, and agonising screams I think I’ve ever heard in video game form. Emil is I would imagine, not the easiest character to play, as sometimes younger characters can oftentimes be fairly irritating in a game like this (looking at you Genis from Tales of Symphonia,) but the way Taylor breathes life into Emil does a wonderful job of really making you care.

 

I’ll be honest here – one of the weaker areas of NieR is actually its graphical fidelity. They aren’t bad by any means, but even by 2010 standards the graphics themselves definitely aren’t as sharp as they could have been. It’s fairly similar to how Final Fantasy VII has not aged all that well visually in a few areas, yet the art-design and overall visual aesthetic and artistic direction remains one of the games strongest and most notable features.

 

That being said – it more than makes up for its graphical shortcomings with its art-style, as well as its visual design. I alluded earlier to the fact the game world itself almost feels real. It is set on Earth after all, so I guess that is appropriate. Yet it also somehow manages to feel so alien and otherworldly on occasion. The character designs themselves are terrifically distinctive. An area which I think it does a little bit better than its successor NieR: Automata, for as much as I love that game, and I do, I think some of the character designs are a little less inspired than they are here.

Even the protagonist, for as goofy as he might appear, seeing a man with an underpants mask, black leggings and flip-flops, you’re definitely going to remember something like that. NieR also uses colour in a very interesting way too, the shades (the games enemy creatures,) might be a mixture of blacks and yellows, but they absolutely stand out, and they are varied too. In much the same way the bosses are also designed particularly well, ranging from monstrous to absolutely disheartening when you encounter them on a second playthrough after you understand some of the ramifications of the first playthrough.  Devola and Popola are one of my personal favourite designs, especially when you factor in some of the narrative at play. The use of colour and symmetry in their costumes is inspiring, as they essentially make two halves of one whole, it ends up giving them a really interesting duality when stood side by side.

 

Another thing of note (I know, you’re probably getting tired of me praising this game at this point,) is the individual area design. Something I have always had a deep appreciation for regarding video games, and video game writing is the ability to build a world with rich lore, which makes logical sense for the world that has been created. It’s one of the aspects of Legacy of Kain that always draws me back to it. In NieR’s case I think Yoko Taro does a masterful job of that.

 

Each individual location you visit in the game is distinctive and memorable to some degree, and that is only positively built upon when it comes to the individual area designs. I would argue none more so, than in Facade the city of masks. Those who have played NieR: Automata, and spent any time in the desert will have seen the masked enemies. Well in the original NieR there exists a whole city of masked individuals, and these masks form a huge part of their identities, the whole place is governed by over one hundred thousand rules that they all have to adhere to. Rules that stop even the rescue of their own ruling Monarch. I’ve always been amazed at the amount of detail Yoko Taro put into making them feel like a believable civilisation. It’s a place that genuinely does feel like it’s steeped in its very own history.  

 

Another area of particular note is The Aerie, a small raised village area, the home of some incredibly stand-offish individuals who would really rather not be disturbed. I think part of the brilliance of The Aerie’s design, is that when you go there it becomes a fairly arduous process to actually do anything noteworthy quickly, as it’s filled with ladders and houses that are usually quite a process to actually reach. I’ve always felt this was a deliberate design choice, and that the inhabitants of The Aerie built it that way on purpose, as a way of discouraging people from coming back.

 

One of my personal favourite locations is – well, it is just called Seafront actually, but it has one of the most calming atmospheres of any location in the entire game, it’s as if it is one of the last remaining intact parts of our world left in this one, which seems almost untouched by the ravages that have been visited upon the land. Many of the side-quests pertaining to Seafront are actually very sombre, and tinged with an element of sadness (much like a lot of this game,) but the level design itself is incredibly serene, it is to borrow a line from a Kingdom Hearts song – Simple and clean.

Alongside that are locations like Emil’s mansion – which is clearly very visually inspired by the Spencer mansion from the original Resident Evil title. It has an eerie and off-kilter feeling, which I’ve never quite been able to tangibly describe. The general atmosphere just makes you feel so uneasy, as if something could go catastrophically wrong at any moment.

 

It will be a surprise to absolutely nobody at this point – which is that I really enjoy delving into a good video game soundtrack. To be perfectly honest just calling this masterpiece “good” is doing it the greatest of disservices. Keiichi Okabe created one of the finest examples of a video game soundtrack that I think I have ever encountered. For all the praise I have heaped upon all of the other elements of the game (praise I genuinely think it deserves,) I don’t think they’d be quite as memorable as they would with Okabe’s absolutely tremendous soundtrack to compliment it. Impressive visuals are one thing, but if you don’t have something auditory to compliment that, then half of that wonder and that magic can essentially be lost.

One of my favourite sequences in cinematic history (don’t worry I’m going somewhere with this,) is the Binary Sunset from the original Star Wars film – a scene which I just need to hear part of the musical score, and I’m instantly transported to that solemn brooding shot of Luke Skywalker desperately looking up at the setting suns, wistfully longing for a life beyond what he can currently imagine. Sometimes just hearing that rousing piece of music is enough to make my eyes want to leak. How does this relate to NieR you ask? Well with Okabe’s incredible soundtrack he manages to do the same thing that John Williams managed with the binary sunset theme, the minute you hear certain pieces of music you are instantly transported back to those moments. That is true artistry right there.

 

Now – usually I would listen to the musical scores whilst writing these, and I have done to some extent, but I really didn’t need to. Contrary to what you might believe, I don’t actually listen to video game soundtracks all that much, but this one I do. It has been a constant mainstay on my iPod for the last ten years. In a way it’s interesting because some of the pieces of music are incredibly sad, and they make me sad too, yet I always find enjoyment from listening to them. Practically every piece of music in this game fits both tonally with the specific areas – yet also with the overarching narrative that’s playing out. One of my most enduring memories I have of my initial playthrough all those years ago, is the musical transition from the calm melancholic theme of your starting village, to that of The Northern Plains – and the track Hills of Raidiant Winds is almost the perfect indicator that your adventure has just begun, there’s just something about that track that has stayed with me for all these years.

 

I’d be the most evil monster imaginable – if I just skipped over Emiko Evans fantastic contributions when talking about the soundtrack. Her haunting vocals are one of the things that really elevate this to one of the highest of high echelons of video game soundtracks  Haunting is an understatement too, her voice has such an ethereal and otherworldly quality to it, that just makes you take notice and pay attention to everything that is happening. I think a fair comparison to her voice would be someone like Bjork or her Icelandic compatriot Emiliana Torrini, who both possess voices that at times have such an inherent sadness to them. There is no accident in the fact that some of the most memorable pieces of music from both NieR titles and Drakengard 3 also prominently feature her voice. I feel like you’d have to have a heart of the hardest granite possible to not be at least a little bit moved by some of the more emotional scenes, featuring her vocals accompanying the music.

 

At the very start I mentioned that I’m not blind to NieR’s flaws. Well, assuming that you haven’t fallen asleep at this point. That is true; I’m not blind to its flaws. Flaws of which – honestly, primarily come in the shape of its gameplay. Now, NieR’s gameplay is not dreadful by any means. Unfortunately however, it is limited, it is clunky, and it pretty much confines you to one or two play-styles to actually be effective. Usually this isn’t an element I’m particularly bothered by, and that’s still the case here. I’m very fond of EuroRPG’s after all, a genre which is rife with bland gameplay, but stories and worlds that have been clearly crafted with an obscene amount of love, that you just can’t ignore them.

 

I unfortunately can’t ignore less than stellar gameplay though, as I am still trying to be objective here. NieR’s combat feels restrictive and it feels cumbersome at times – it’s one of the aspects that are probably the least enjoyable elements. There are no real combos to speak of – and unlike Drakengard 3 the weapons types all have one move-set each, instead of behaving in a much more unique way depending on the specific weapon. In that regard the game doesn’t even give you all that much of an incentive to really experiment with different weapon types.

I’ve always found it far easier to just find the fastest and most damaging thing possible – my preference has always been The Phoenix Spear, and use that to dispatch enemies as quickly as possible. I would however, thoroughly recommend reading some of the weapon stories. Which are interesting little short written pieces that you can read each time that you upgrade a weapon, a feature that dates all the way back to the original Drakengard.

They really add some extra depth to the already very well fleshed out lore of the universe that NieR and Drakengard exist within. You do have to upgrade them all for a trophy, so you might as well read them whilst you do that, a lot of them are worth it. Even if it does feel frustrating grinding for specific item drops and getting item drops like colouring books or crayons, but those weird item drops do make sense in a roundabout sort of way, but that’s for you to discover and not for me to spoil.

 

Where the combat might falter a little bit – the spells or sealed verses as they are referred to in this game actually somewhat make up for the shortcomings in the combat, by being incredibly fun to just experiment with. Thankfully they do something few games actually tend to bother with, which is making them feel devastating and at times horrendously powerful. There is an undeniable satisfaction about replaying the game with your spells fully upgraded and just decimating a boss by launching them halfway across a room with one cast of Dark Hand and then finishing them off with a satisfying “poke” with a powerful spear.

 

My belief has always been that some of the shortcomings in NieR are an unfortunate side effect of being fairly low budget. They had to get really creative to get around the scaling down of certain areas. In a way it is very commendable as it leads to some incredibly varied portions of gameplay. On occasion the game switches to being a side-scroller and in a few spots even a top down camera, which is incredibly reminiscent of some very well known PSOne titles. One particularly interesting gameplay quirk is The Forest of Myth – which essentially takes the form of a text adventure. I remember thinking the first time I played it what an unusual and unique element that is, it’s something you never expect to encounter in a game like this, but its inclusion ends up making it all the more memorable.

 

What exactly is it that the platinum trophy asks of you? Honestly, quite a lot, there’s quite a few time specific trophies – which if you miss the first time through, you’d have to create an entirely new character to go for it. In no small part down to the fact that you can only play the first half of the game once, each subsequent playthrough starts you at the halfway point of the story.  This is something that I did myself, because I missed the speedrun trophy the first time through – and to be perfectly honest here, you probably should set a playthrough aside for this one, as this is absolutely one of the games I’d recommend taking your time with. So if you do an extra playthrough make sure you slaughter a lot of sheep on your first half of the game, because they aren’t in the second half.

 

Pretty much each boss has a trophy associated with beating it within a certain time limit.  So those are a few that you should always be mindful going into them, but on subsequent playthroughs, you’ll become stronger and stronger and even on the hardest difficulty you’ll be able to dispatch them with ease. You’ll spend a good portion of your time farming weapon components to upgrade every weapon, which sounds worse than it is. This is one of the few times where the soundtrack is so good that I didn’t mind keeping it on whilst item farming, the RNG will definitely feel unfair at times, some of those drop rates are ridiculously low, but it’ll feel good when you eventually get there. I think the most nightmarish trophy of all is Legendary Gardener, which tasks you with harvesting a White Moon Flower (Lunar Tear). It’s a completely laborious process that is hard to really speed up outside of manipulating your PS3 clock. It feels worth it though, I remember finding Kaine’s house in NieR:Automata and seeing all of the  Lunar Tears was an absolute hollow point bullet to the feelings.

 

Other than that, my only real advice is to just enjoy the experience, nothing is really that difficult, but almost every element of actually striving for the platinum in this game absolutely feels rewarding. Whether that’s fishing, item crafting, exploring the multitude of quite frankly excellent side-quests or replaying the game for one of the four endings, it’s an absolutely wonderful time, and an experience I’ll hopefully never forget – one I’ll always hold in the highest of regards.   

 

I think it’s obvious that I recommend this one – even if the PS3 version is perhaps a little rough around the edges. I will be playing NieR: Replicant on the PS4, I just haven’t yet. The thing is, even though NieR: Replicant exists I still think that this version is worth playing; contextually it is a different story. There is quite a huge difference between a Father and a Brother so I’m interested to see how Replicant changes that dynamic. I am not a Father, but I am a brother, so perhaps that will end up resonating with me even more as a result. I have gained three hundred and thirty platinum trophies since this one – but this one still remains one of the most worthwhile experiences I’ve ever had in a video game. I can't promise that you'd love this in exactly the same way that I do, but I still think my own personal feelings aside this game is tremendous!

 

I hadn’t ever given very much thought to what my favourite game of all time is – I’ve always said that this is my favourite game of the PS3 generation, but the more I think about it, maybe this is my favourite game, ever. For a multitude of reasons – it’s a game I’ve had endless conversations with one of my best friends about. (I don’t like to think I have one singular best friend by the way, I have several incredibly close friends that I all hold in very high regard, if you ever wondered why I refer to someone as “one of” my best friends. Context is everything after all.) I’m so glad that after years and years of me hammering the idea into his head that he should play this, that he did, and that he now absolutely adores this game too. It’s a feeling I’m incredibly happy we share, and I have always enjoyed some of the insanely late discussions we’ve had about this game, as well as some of the ones we had in the lead up to Automata where we’d both kind of come to accept it wasn’t quite what we wanted it to be, but were still excited for it regardless.

 

I hope this one wasn’t too much of a nightmare to read through – I know it’s long after all. I put a lot of me into this one, but I still like to think I tried to stay objective – I genuinely think this is an excellent game with just a few slightly weaker areas. I’d be lying if I said parts of revisiting this didn’t make me a little bit (actually very) emotional. The protagonists desperate hope to save someone that he loves so much from succumbing to a terminal illness, and that willingness to do almost anything is something that’s  unfortunately really hitting home with me right now.  I wish it wasn’t but it is.

 

I can’t believe that it has been ten years today since I got the platinum in this game. Time may come around quickly – but an amazing experience like this one rarely does. Thank you NieR you were magnificent!

 

 

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

 

 

Thanks to @Copanele for requesting this one, as usual if  any of you want me to get to a specific review of a game I've played, all you have to do is ask, you can seek out any of my games in the first post of this thread. Or on my profile.

 

To all you pedantic people out there  - I know next year is technically the tenth anniversary - but it felt right to call this one that than ten years on or something similar.

 

I think I was just a little scared to revisit this one - to say this game is emotionally weighty is an understatement. That was an absolute joy to write, even if I did get smacked in the feelings a fair few times when I was writing that. I think I may have just discovered what my favourite game of all time is too (so far at least,) I'd struggle to think of many gaming experiences that have resonated with me quite as much as this one.

 

So to answer the question I know a few of you that read this are probably wondering, why haven't you played Replicant yet?  Because I didn't know how it would make me feel. Writing this has made me pretty certain that I'm going to love it.

 

I don't plan trophy milestones almost ever - but I think I'll save NieR: Replicant for platinum number 350...... I'm fairly certain I'll love it, so it isn't like it's an experience I'll eventually look back on negatively and think "why did I do that?" Who knows when that will be though. I'm not going to play a load of ridiculously quick and easy things to try and get to 350 faster, that's just not me, so - I'll get there when I get there.

 

Catch you in the next one folks! Sorry in advance for the long read too!

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by rjkclarke

[Copanele]

Fantastic review, I knew I was right in requesting this specific game especially since I read Drakengard 3 and your EuroRPG love...yep, Nier is up there for sure!

Took me some time to read that monster of a text (saw it coming), obviously I agree with every single point duh, NieR is in my top 10 of all time hands down.

 

One thing I would like to mention though, something that I am SO glad you noticed as well. Damn, you're the very first who did it

31 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

Each individual location you visit in the game is distinctive and memorable to some degree, and that is only positively built upon when it comes to the individual area designs. I would argue none more so, than in Facade the city of masks. Those who have played NieR: Automata, and spent any time in the desert will have seen the masked enemies. Well in the original NieR there exists a whole city of masked individuals, and these masks form a huge part of their identities, the whole place is governed by over one hundred thousand rules that they all have to adhere to. Rules that stop even the rescue of their own ruling Monarch. I’ve always been amazed at the amount of detail Yoko Taro put into making them feel like a believable civilisation. It’s a place that genuinely does feel like it’s steeped in its very own history. 

 

Most reviews kinda say that you don't need to play the original NieR in order to enjoy Automata. While in the gameplay and surface level I would say that's true, if we want to go for full experience, I would respectfully disagree: NieR IS REQUIRED for TRULY appreciating Automata.

 

I have a friend who played Automata first and really disliked it, said the game gave him 0 feelings. I asked him to play NieR Replicant once it comes up (I was sure a remaster was on its way and he pretty much trusts me whenever I 100% recommend a game), he did, LOVED the game and replayed Automata. Ended up falling in love with Nier Automata as well. It's not the smoothness of the combat that got to him, or the awesome soundtrack or 2B's ass, but the feeling that "holy crap this place hits differently now that I know its history".

 

And that is where I saw that you truly enjoyed NieR ? existential dread aside, the moments that got me the most in NieR Automata were the aforementioned robots with masks, the "God of the Mountain", Devola & Popola and their whole story, the Lunar Tears and a certain fight in the desert with some massive balls of doom and death. You know the fight, the words, if you play as A2 (as you should) you get a different reaction...that's Yoko Taro madness right there and I loved it

Even A2...you would think she's just another badass android...until you get her context. NieR Automata truly hits its mark only after you have experienced NieR.

 

And yes, I do insist for that NieR Replicant. Imagine NieR with actually fixed combat. It's now wonderful. Also they added a never-before from the scratch in-game quest that was only in the Grimoire Nier stories and it hits you in the goddamn heart, like this game wasn't tragic enough

Mad respect for this review @rjkclarke, best of luck in surviving NieR Replicant when you will get to it ?

 

Also why did you have to mention Beepy, Jesus? I need Cat Quest III to get myself into happy moods now!

 

[The_Kopite]

On 10/27/2021 at 9:22 PM, rjkclarke said:

If you want to continue your life in the best way possible - then yes, I'd say avoiding those two massive trash fires is probably the right way to go!

Noted!

 

On 10/27/2021 at 9:22 PM, rjkclarke said:

It's just really saddening is what it is - it's bad enough as a fan to see it happening - but for the guy that created that series, loves it so much, yet can't do anything with it, that must be even more of a gut punch.

 

I kind of didn't think to mention The Witcher series - I guess I don't really associate it with the games - as its an adaptation of the books more than it is the games - so I kind of just didn't mention it - I thought it was really good though, so I'd definitely recommend giving that one a watch.

 

You might like the Uncharted trailer - I'm not the worlds biggest Uncharted fan as it is, which I feel like I've probably mentioned in here about six thousand times ...... So I was always going to watch it and be like okay then....

Yeah definitely, that is a shame.

 

Ah I didn't realise it was based more on the books than the games. Well I've neither read the books nor played the games, so that'll probably be my first experience of The Witcher personally lol

 

I've got to say, the Uncharted trailer was alright, like the homages to set pieces and other little things were really cool, but it kind of lacked the soul and heart of the games from that trailer sadly.

 

On 10/27/2021 at 9:22 PM, rjkclarke said:

Thanks - I mean there's a huge amount of luck involved in Ethan must die, that and knowing where all the traps are and using those to your advantage...  Yeah I wouldn't worry about then if you aren't bothered about having 100% of the trophies in the game, plus you'd have to see far too much of that old ladies erm "front garden" yeah lets just call it that .....

 

Again Jacks 55th birthday Party doesn't really add anything to the story - it's just a weird little fun side game, so I could see why you'd just leave that one alone too.

 

No, that last card trophy is brutal, you have to do all ten in a row, there's no getting around that with saving, it's just really brutal, and so luck dependant - I essentially had to learn how to count cards for that, because that's the only reliable way to get through that game mode, and even then it isn't exactly foolproof, but I still really enjoyed that one.

Ah yes, Marguerite and her 'front garden' haha nice way of putting it there lol Yes I won't bother with that mode.

 

Yeah Jack's one is definitely random and interesting in it's own way.

 

Eeeessh, right well I'll probably leave that one too. I'd try all of them if I had the time to put into them and eventually succeed, but sadly I just don't.

 

On 10/27/2021 at 9:22 PM, rjkclarke said:

I don't know - I always thought Joe was meant to be funny - he's just that archetypal violent swamp man stereotype - except they actually turn it on its head, and it turns out he's actually fairly decent and has good intentions, but I always thought some of his dialogue was meant to be funny. There is a good chance that I just woefully misread that though

 

Some of the story stuff on the boat is great - and that kid really REALLY unsettled me......

 

  "I don't want to live at the lab anymore. I want a house. And I want you to be my mummy."

 

NAHHHHHH

 

kthnksba

Maybe he was meant to be funny, I'm not sure exactly. An interesting character nonetheless and a random mode lol

 

Yes some of the story stuff was definitely unsettling, and the front cover of the Gold Edition of the game made sense once I'd encountered her, as before I was like "Who is this?" 

 

On 10/27/2021 at 9:22 PM, rjkclarke said:

I started the second Cat Quest last night actually - I think I paid like close to £6 for it, which it will probably drop in price, but I thought screw it, why not - everyone says it's awesome so why not just go and grab it.... It does seem pretty good so far as well.

 

Yeah I'd hardly say getting to max level in that first Cat Quest was too much of a grind - nothing in that game really feels like a grind to be perfectly honest - it's all just the right amount of playtime that nothing really outstays its welcome. I really enjoyed that aspect.

Yeah indeed it wasn't a grind at all really. Got one trophy left for the platinum but it'll have to wait as Platinum milestone 225 is up next and that'll be Sonic Colours Ultimate!

 

Definitely will get the 2nd Cat Quest in the future, and I'll have to read your review I've just spotted lol

On 11/1/2021 at 8:22 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Having said that - there is another one that I really, really want to see you review - purely so I can read the eight pages of interesting back and forth between you and @The_Kopite that it will inevitably precipitate - FFX-2!

Haha! You know me too well good sir lol I'm up for that, it'll be an interesting discussion. 

On 11/1/2021 at 11:28 AM, rjkclarke said:

I worry that, that back and forth between Kopite and I would just be interesting to the three of us, and maybe nobody else  - I swear there's already like five pages at least of this thread of us discussing Final Fantasy already. Haha!

 

That's an interesting one though FFX-2 - I'm obviously going to have to do FFX first I think - just for context and what not, and that's going to be a fairly lengthy one, what with it being my favourite Final Fantasy title. FFX-2 will be bizarre, because I've got such mixed feelings about that game, I guess I'll just have to iron them out and watch the as you say "eight pages of back and forth" play out 

 

Thanks for the feedback though - I'm looking forward to tackling those!

 

I might get to at least FFX this month, it's already going to be a fairly RPG heavy one - as I've got the review of the original NieR dropping on the 7th (the tenth anniversary of me getting the platinum) and then later on at the end of the month on the 28th I've got Tales of Zestiria pencilled in for a very specific post I've been thinking of for a while, so I'm sure I can probably cram it in somewhere.

To be fair, that's a very good point. Maybe see if other people are interested in that discussion, wouldn't want it to take up the whole thread again like other Final Fantasy discussions haha

 

FFX is a fab game, 2nd favourite FF personally as you know so really looking forward to your review on that!

[Platinum_Vice]

On 08/11/2021 at 2:44 AM, rjkclarke said:

 

I think they were too - and i think they did a pretty decent job of it too. Knowing that Hogwarts Legacy is going back to a more open world format should be pretty interesting - as that always was one of the better elements of those early Harry Potter titles.

 

So it could potentially be really good - it's also got the benefit of not being hamstrung by any of the movies, so it is essentially a blank canvas that they can pretty much do what they want with.

 

Fingers Crossed.

 

 

Top 3 most anticipated unreleased games on the Gonzoscale. Trying to not let my expectations get out of hand.

 

Hope they don't fcuk it. 

 

How good was the Chamber of Secrets game though?!!

[DrBloodmoney]

On 07/11/2021 at 11:28 PM, rjkclarke said:

 

 

Platinum #5

NieR (PS3)

 

 

 

 

Christ man - you do realise I already have a backlog that could stun a team of Oxen in it's tracks, right?

What are you doing to me ?

 

I've read through this one a couple of times now, and I have to admit, I was really hoping I could read between the lines enough to find something I can point to and go "Ahah! There's a reason I wouldn't like it..." so I didn't need to add another game to the never-ending wishlist...

 

but I think this stuff:

 

On 07/11/2021 at 11:28 PM, rjkclarke said:

Each individual location you visit in the game is distinctive and memorable to some degree, and that is only positively built upon when it comes to the individual area designs. I would argue none more so, than in Facade the city of masks. Those who have played NieR: Automata, and spent any time in the desert will have seen the masked enemies. Well in the original NieR there exists a whole city of masked individuals, and these masks form a huge part of their identities, the whole place is governed by over one hundred thousand rules that they all have to adhere to. Rules that stop even the rescue of their own ruling Monarch. I’ve always been amazed at the amount of detail Yoko Taro put into making them feel like a believable civilisation. It’s a place that genuinely does feel like it’s steeped in its very own history.  

 

Another area of particular note is The Aerie, a small raised village area, the home of some incredibly stand-offish individuals who would really rather not be disturbed. I think part of the brilliance of The Aerie’s design, is that when you go there it becomes a fairly arduous process to actually do anything noteworthy quickly, as it’s filled with ladders and houses that are usually quite a process to actually reach. I’ve always felt this was a deliberate design choice, and that the inhabitants of The Aerie built it that way on purpose, as a way of discouraging people from coming back.

 

One of my personal favourite locations is – well, it is just called Seafront actually, but it has one of the most calming atmospheres of any location in the entire game, it’s as if it is one of the last remaining intact parts of our world left in this one, which seems almost untouched by the ravages that have been visited upon the land. Many of the side-quests pertaining to Seafront are actually very sombre, and tinged with an element of sadness (much like a lot of this game,) but the level design itself is incredibly serene, it is to borrow a line from a Kingdom Hearts song – Simple and clean.

 

sounds too good to pass up - and was the primary reason Automata spoke to me (as a Nier newbie) - the differences in philosophy and thinking theory that surrounded each distinct area, and how kind of none of them actually worked, or made anyone in them actually happy...

 

Well, onto the wishlist goes the Remake version I guess - (hey, did you know there is a maximum limit to haw many games you can put in your PSN wishlist... 'cause I sure didn't until this morning!)

 

I swear, I'm getting to the point where I need my own personal...

 

On 07/11/2021 at 11:28 PM, rjkclarke said:

...time skips over one thousand years...

 

...just to see if I ever did manage to get through all these games ?

Edited November 9, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[YaManSmevz]

On 11/7/2021 at 3:28 PM, rjkclarke said:

Tenth Anniversary Classic Review

 

Platinum #5

NieR (PS3)

 

 

The Final Verse
Congratulations! Thanks for playing!

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 7 November 2011: 9:15:36 PM

Time Taken to Platinum : 4 weeks, 2 days, 16 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 7.82%

Trophy Number - 387

 

 

"Those days are all gone now but one thing's still true
When I look and I find
I still love you"

 

You're right, the lyrics were absolutely necessary!

 

Something I thought I'd never say - you've made me want to wear underwear on my head, steal a pair of my wife's leggings and grab some flip flops and go on an adventure.

 

....failing that, I'll just play NieR.

 

I've heard of these games of course, but for whatever reason never really looked into them. I'm honestly floored by how passionate you are about this one, it's makin me feel like there's a bangin party down the street and I just now got an invite!

 

I'm really lovin - can I say this?? - how you're progressively putting more and more of yourself into these. You do a masterful job of walking us through your experience, what grabbed you, and what's lasted with you since.

 

Looks like I've got a new wishlist entry... time to do some research!