Yuber's ArcSys Fighters Challenge (COMPLETE)

[Yuber6969]

I used to love fighting games when I was younger. I sank about 100 hours into Budokai 3 on the PS2, and again on the PS3. I played Tekken competitively with my cousins every Christmas for years. And I played Marvel vs Capcom 3 with coworkers at a job I had in my early 20s.

 

After not gaming for a while, I got back into it a couple of years ago (and as a trophy hunter this time). Didn't have much of an interest in fighters this time around, until recently.

 

I became a big fan of the Persona series, and will buy any game even remotely connected to it. I picked up Persona 4: Arena Ultimax in the process, and it became my favourite fighting game, but I just assumed I was biased as a Persona fan. I played BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle shortly after (because of the Persona crossover) and immediately fell in love with the BlazBlue world.

 

Arc Systems Works has rekindled my love of the genre. Their fighting games actually have good stories, and the platinums I earned so far were very satisfying. In this era of game developers reducing the difficulty of their plats to make more money, I forgot how rewarding it is to be in the small percentage of people who overcame a gaming challenge.

 

So, I have decided that I want to experience every fighter ArcSys has to offer. Some things to note:

 

1. I rarely like replaying games, so I will not be playing multiple versions of the same game (Under Night In-Birth was updated twice for example). I will play the latest versions.

 

2. DLC is not relevant to this challenge. I only care about platinums.

EDIT March 26, 2022: I have now obtained all DLC trophies for all of the games in this challenge.

 

3. Guilty Gear (the first one) and Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus R do not have platinums, so the goal will be 100%.

 

4. This won't be rushed. I have a big backlog even outside of ArcSys, and I don't want to make myself hate the genre by playing all of the games back to back.

 

5. NEW 09/10/2021: English games only. I may make exceptions to this if the game isn't horribly expensive and if there is a guide of this calibur.

 

EDIT: It's been brought to my attention that some of these games were published by ArcSys rather than developed by them. I will still include them in the challenge. This challenge will be for platting all fighters developed or published by ArcSys.

 

GAMES COMPLETED BEFORE STARTING THIS CHALLENGE

 

 

Persona 4: Arena Ultimax

Platinum Rarity: 1.43%

100% Rarity: 0.61%

 

Platinum Difficulty: 7/10

100% Difficulty: 8/10

(DLC trophies completed after the challenge began)

 

The combo challenges were insanely difficult for me, especially because this was my first ArcSys game. Golden Arena posed a challenge for me a couple of times too.

 

 

Enjoyment: 9/10

 

Persona 4 Golden is my favourite game so I'm going to love pretty much any chance to be in that world again. I did the Vanilla P4A DLC too. The title of the game is misleading as the Persona 3 cast are a big part of the story. I'm currently playing P3 for the first time, and probably would've appreciated P4AU more if I played P3 first.

 

 

 

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle

Rarity: 16.79%

 

Difficulty: 3/10

 

I'm disappointed with the lack of challenge in this one. One of the easiest games I've platinumed.

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

 

 

Bought this game for the P4A crossover. This was my first exposure to BlazBlue and I knew I had to go back and play the whole series (yes, including the underrated XBlaze games).

 

 

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger

Rarity: 5.64%

 

Difficulty: 5/10

 

Easy game overall except for Unlimited Ragna. That was a brutal experience.

 

Enjoyment: 9/10

 

First exposure to the BlazBlue world after Cross Tag Battle. The characters in this game are either cool, funny, or attractive. I had a great time with this.

 

 

 

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend

Rarity: 2.81%

 

Difficulty: 4/10

 

Ragna's 90-hit combo gave me a bit of trouble, but it was nothing compared to what I went through in P4AU. Unlimited Nu was a bit tough because I was underleveled when I fought her the first time, but she was nothing compared to Unlimited Ragna in BBCT. Easy but grindy game.

 

Enjoyment: 9/10

 

Pretty much everything I said about BBCT, but add that this game was also laugh out loud funny at times. Rachel's Gag Reel was hilarious.

 

 

GAMES COMPLETED SINCE STARTING THIS CHALLENGE

 

 

Arcana Heart 3 Love Max!!!!!

Rarity: 1.27%

 

Difficulty: 6/10

 

This is my second-hardest ArcSys fighter plat to date (after P4AU).

Parace L'Sia was really hard for me. She chains supers into combos with other supers, is extremely aggressive, can heal herself, and regenerates her super meter very quickly. As per the trophy guide, I relied entirely on Angelia's critical heart, and was usually killed before I could charge it. I fought her about 30 times before I finally beat her.

 

Some of the trials actually gave me a harder time than Parace did. This might not have been the case if I played this on the PS3, but it was really hard to pull off some of those inputs on the Vita. The trial for doing a 13 hit combo took me forever. 13 hits sounds like nothing, but the combo system in this game is very bare-bones in my opinion.

 

I also did most of the miscellaneous trophies against the AI, which added to the difficulty. I could have boosted them, but I work evening shifts so scheduling is usually an issue.

 

Enjoyment : 5/10

 

The game itself was just okay. The story did not interest me at all, but I haven't played the previous Arcana Heart games, so that might be why. By the way, if there's anyone out there considering playing this game for the fanservice, don't waste your time. There are better games with better looking women.

 

The combo system was almost non-existent and the gameplay felt kind of retro, which is not my cup of tea. There is no tutorial, so you have to either research or figure things out on your own. Hands down, my least favourite ArcSys fighter to date. The game is a 6/10 for me.

 

Now, add trophy hunting to the mix and the enjoyment gets even lower. At least 80% of my total playtime was grinding. I've platted quite a few JRPGs, and this was grindier than most (if not all) of them. I hope I don't encounter another grind like this later in this challenge.

 

 

BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend

Rarity: 1.96%

 

Difficulty: 8/10

 

Hardest platinum to date (including non-ArcSys games). The two combo challenge trophies were a nightmare. Frame Advantage required 100% completion of one character's challenges. I knew this one was going to be hard, but I didn't think it would be this hard. Challenge 19 in particular required extremely fast inputs at some points, and very specific timing at other points. It's no exaggeration to say that it had to be done perfectly for the game to count it as a pass. If you're off by a fraction of a second at any point, you have to start over. Bread and Butter required 50% total completion of all challenges, and it wasn't the cakewalk that I was expecting it to be. Makoto, Hazama, Litchi, Carl, and Nu-13 have combos that are just insane. I now have respect for anyone who mains with any of those characters. Because I was unable to get 50% with those characters, I had to compensate by dipping my toes into the higher-level challenges of some characters (I did pretty well with Bullet). I have blisters on my thumbs from these two trophies. Also, I Am The Law required a very tough combo with Tsubaki which took me two hours worth of retries to complete. An awful trophy for an awful character.

 

Outside of the combo-related trophies, the game was much easier. However, there was still one challenging trophy: Wunderbar! (complete Score Attack mode). They nerfed Jin, who was my main in the previous two BlazBlue games, so I had to learn how to use Ragna. This made Score Attack mode pretty intense, as I was using a character that I wasn't used to. It was the right amount of challenge though: enough to keep me entertained, but not enough to make me want to throw my controller.

 

Enjoyment: 9/10

 

The story started out very strong, and stayed that way until the last couple of chapters. Seriously, I was ready to give this game a 10/10 and declare that it has of the best stories I've ever seen in a video game. First of all, they cut down on the things that were not good about the previous story modes: the amount of times you have to hear Hakumen's cheesy "I am the white void..." speech, filler, and excessive narration. They also did not have an individual story mode for each character, which eliminated repeating scenes/battles. The new characters that they introduced were likeable and well-written. Most importantly though, there was actual character development, and it was very well done. I can't say much for the sake of spoilers, but they really made one character grow, and it was so well done. Unfortunately, the last couple of chapters were very convoluted and this really brought down the quality of the story towards the end. It is a huge annoyance to me when writers think that that difficult to follow = good story. That is simply not true.

 

Most of the extend story content was boring, with two exceptions. The gag reel with all of the Nu-type characters had me dying of laughter, and Kokonoe's extend story finally explained Arakune's backstory.

 

The fighting was as good as it was in Continuum Shift Extend. I didn't notice any changes except for the nerfing of Jin. This game had very minimal grinding (both online and offline) and the developers deserve praise for that. Overall, a great game.

 

 

 

BlazBlue: Centralfiction

Rarity: 3.54%

 

Difficulty: 7/10

 

This was a step down in difficulty from Chronophantasma Extend, but it was still quite tough. Like in Chronophantasma Extend, there is a trophy for completing all of one character's combo challenges. I chose Susanoo for this and most of his challenges are easy, but he has two that are quite difficult. One requires very precise timing while the other requires extremely fast inputs. Both took me a few hours each to complete.

 

Faster! requires you to complete all Speedstar courses (A - C). Speedstar is basically a hybrid of Score Attack and Time Attack modes seen in other fighters. You basically need to finish your opponents as quickly as possible, and with at least a distortion finish. Course B was very tough as you had to fight 32 extremely aggressive opponents with very little time. They block frequently and like to eat up your time with 20+ hit combos that chain into distortion drives. I spent a whole day on this. Contrary to the popular opinion, I found Course C to be significantly easier. While time is more limited in Course C, the AI is less defensive so it's easier to bait them into getting astral finished.

 

Abyss Mode is somewhat similar to Survival Mode from games like Tekken. One big difference is that your character has stats that can be leveled up like in a JRPG. In the previous BlazBlue games, Abyss Mode was just a grind. This time, the last 200 floors of this mode have brutally tough AI, and I refused to grind my stats. Thankfully, you can save your progress after every 100 floors (there are 800), but a lot of retries were needed here nonetheless.

 

Enjoyment: 9/10

 

I have both positive and negative things to say about this game, so I'll get the negative stuff out of the way. For reasons I can't get into for the sake of spoilers, you spend a large portion of the story watching events you've already seen in previous BlazBlue games. This was lazy writing under the guise of trying to nostalgia-bomb the player, and I didn't fall for it. Also, this game was even more convoluted than the previous games in the series. There is still stuff that I don't understand, and I am too fed up to go back for an explanation. Those of you who read my Chronophantasma Extend review may remember that I praised the game for reducing filler and the amount of times you have to hear Hakumen's awful "white void" speech. Centralfiction took a step backwards and brought those things back. There is so much filler in the form of "sub stories" and almost all of them are boring.

 

Now for the positives. Once you get past the repeated events, the story gets really good. The game did a great job making the player feel the full range of emotions during scenes, all of the major protagonists got developed, and all questions you would have had throughout the series got answered. Combat was more fluid than in the previous games (not that it was ever a problem). The writers did a great job wrapping up the series as this game had one of the most memorable endings I've ever seen in a video game. I'm going to miss BlazBlue.

 

 

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift (vanilla)

Platinum Rarity: 2.73%

100% Rarity: 1.79%

 

Difficulty: 6/10

 

The combo challenges in this game were the hardest ones I've seen in the series so far. The reason I rated this lower than Chronophantasma Extend is because CPE required you to complete 100% of one character's challenges, meaning that no matter who you picked, you were bound to have at least one challenge that would give you an immense amount of trouble. CS does not require you to do this, and only tasks you with completing 100 challenges. While the challenges are the toughest in the series (so far), it was easy to avoid the high-level challenges for the most part.

 

Aside from combo challenges, Score Attack was brutal. Most of it was easy, but Unlimited Rachel (final boss) was possibly the hardest fight I've ever had in a fighting game. Jin's cheese strategies don't work on her and I can't play Tager to save my life, so I had to actually fight her the "legit" way. You can not rely on projectiles against her because she can literally fill the screen with thunderbolts. I spent the entire fight right in front of her trying to break her guard while trying to dodge everything. If she hits you once, you will be stunlocked and she will remove at least half of your health. While she was the most difficult AI I have faced in a fighting game, I had a harder time with Speedstar in Central Fiction. This is because while Speedstar had (comparatively) easier AI, you had to do all 32 opponents in one run as opposed to having unlimited tries with Unlimited Rachel.

 

I respect the fact that difficulty is subjective, but I personally don't see why vanilla CS is considered by many to be the hardest in the series. I would not want to have to 100% complete Tager's challenges again, nor would I want to deal with Speedstar a second time. It is true that my previous experience has made me better at BlazBlue in general, but I really don't think that is the sole reason that I found CS to be less challenging. To be clear: it was challenging for me; just less than CF and far less than CPE.

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

 

I already saw the entire story in Continuum Shift Extend (and fairly recently too). Because of that, I skipped the entire thing this time around. My favourite part of the BlazBlue games was always the story, so the game was less exciting for me this time around. It's not a criticism of the actual game, but that is the situation and it did have an effect on my enjoyment of the game.

 

On the more positive side: it was so fun to be able to play as Jin again before they nerfed him in the later games. Though Score Attack made me rage, defeating Unlimited Rachel with no cheese methods was super satisfying, and I feel like that fight alone made me improve in the genre. Doing combo challenges is always fun, even though it can be very rage-inducing once you hit a wall. My biggest problem with this game is that with every character, combo challenges 1 - 5 are multi-part challenges, and some are tough. Your progress is not saved until you clear the entire challenge. There were times where it took me half an hour to do part 1 of a challenge, and I would be stuck trying to get part 2 done so that I could save my progress. It was a very frustrating experience, and I'm glad that all challenges in the later games were single challenges.

 

 

 

BlazBlue: Chronophantasma (vanilla)

Platinum Rarity: 2.98%

100% Rarity: 2.19%

 

Difficulty: 8/10

 

The combo challenge requirement in this game was a joke in terms of difficulty. That's not to say there aren't tough challenges in the game, but you basically don't have to do the tough ones at all. The combo challenge trophy requires you to do 500 of the 780 challenges (the 780 is including DLC). This is not nearly as tough as it sounds as there are more than enough freebie-level challenges, so you don't have to attempt any of the difficult ones. This was not difficult but it was extremely tedious. Usually the combo challenges are the platinum breaker in BlazBlue games but this time, a couple of other trophies serve that purpose.

 

Highlander Assault is a mode that tasks you with fighting the series' infamous Black Beast. It plays more like a 2D action-platformer than a fighter. If you've ever played a Mega Man X game, it's similar to fighting Sigma as Zero. There is a huge learning curve involved as most prior knowledge of BlazBlue mechanics doesn't apply here. The beast deals a lot of damage and can kill you within seconds if you don't know what you're doing. Once you've learned the beast's patterns, the fight actually becomes pretty easy with most characters. The problem here is that there is a trophy for beating him with all characters. Fighting the beast with Bullet is infuriatingly difficult for two main reasons. The first is that she can't run, so it is very tough to dodge one particular distortion drive that the beast has. The other is that all of Bullet's distortion drives involve grappling; something the beast is immune to. You are stuck fighting a boss that can you can barely deal damage to, and that you will have a hard time dodging. It took me about 3 hours to pull this off with Bullet, and that's after spending most of a day learning the beast's patterns with characters better suited to this mode.

 

Score Attack was another tough one. This is by far the hardest Score Attack trophy I've done in the series (though not as hard as CF's speedstar). In terms of the AI, it was actually quite a step down in difficulty from other BlazBlue games. What made it harder is that while the other games tasked you with simply clearing the mode, this one wants you to clear it with a certain score. The game is very stingy with how it awards points, so you can't afford to make many mistakes. I could not find any comprehensive guides for this mode so I had to figure out my own strategy, which took several attempts to perfect. Even on the run where I succeeded, I came pretty close to dying against one of the later opponents.

 

Enjoyment: 7/10

 

Regarding the story, I'll say pretty much word-for-word what I said in my vanilla CS review. I already saw the entire story in Chronophantasma Extend (and fairly recently too). Because of that, I skipped the entire thing this time around. My favourite part of the BlazBlue games was always the story, so the game was less exciting for me this time around. It's not a criticism of the actual game, but that is the situation and it did have an effect on my enjoyment of the game.

 

I really enjoyed most of the non-combo challenges this time around. Score Attack and Unlimited Mars were really challenging, and I had a lot of fun trying to take those opponents down. It was a very rewarding experience when I developed my own strategy to conquer Score Attack mode and succeeded. I usually rely on tips from guides or from the elite Copanele. That wasn't an option for me this time as I found no useful guides and Copanele has not played this game. Beating this mode using a strategy that I developed with no help from anyone was immensely rewarding.

 

Highlander Assault mode is the reason I enjoyed this game the least in the series. This is not solely due to difficulty. I don't like 2D action-platformers, so I had zero fun with this mode. I've already talked at length about this mode so I have nothing else to add to that.

 

 

 

Nurarihyon no Mago: Hyakki Ryouran Taisen

Rarity: 6.11%

Difficulty: 6/10

 

The language barrier negatively affected my enjoyment of the game. I was always having to take pictures of things and send them to my friend for translation. As this is not the game's fault, I feel like it would be unfair for me to give an enjoyment score for this game. I will say though that I had fun in mission mode, which is where I needed the least translations due to this great guide for the missions. Speaking of guides, I'm not usually one to bash a free guide, but the one trophy guide that I found for this game was lacking in translations/useful information, and this further added to the tedium of the game. Thanks again to my friend (who will stay nameless) for the translations! I literally couldn't have done it without you.

 

This was the most unique fighting game that I've ever played, and it was nice to experience something new. Even in the missions that weren't terribly high in difficulty, the gameplay was hectic. Due to the fact that your shared health bar is set up tug-of-war style, one of you can be very close to losing and suddenly turn the match around in a matter of seconds. You can't rest until the match is over, and this kept me on my toes. This game utilizes almost every single button on your controller, which was a nice touch. Beating the hardest missions required you to use every single aspect of the game's mechanics rather than just spamming your favourite cheese move.

 

To be clear, the difficulty of navigating the language was not factored into the difficulty score. Most of the game's missions were easy, but the hard ones were no joke. The hardest missions were comparable in difficulty to Unlimited Ragna from Calamity Trigger. For the most part, I feel like the challenges were fair. If you put in the practice, you'll be able to clear everything. My only complaint about the game was the hitboxes. I wish this game was on the PS4 so that I could show just how bad they are. There were missions that required you to win the battle using only your minions and/or attendants. If you hit your opponent with your commander (the character you control), you fail automatically. The problem is that I would still need to use my commander to claim shima, and I would end up hitting my opponent's hitbox even though there was no contact between the two characters. I can't count the amount of times that I yelled at my TV over that.

 

 

 

Granblue Fantasy: Versus

 

Rarity: 15.19%

Difficulty: 3/10

Enjoyment: 6/10

 

This is the most visually impressive game I've played so far (including non-Arcsys), the music is pretty good, and there are a few moments of BlazBlue-tier fanservice. Other than those three things, this game was a disappointment for me.

 

This game is way too easy. The combo challenge trophy requirement is a joke, and even if you wanted to challenge yourself past what the trophy asks of you, the combo challenges available in the game are not satisfying. Also, there is no mode where you fight against brutally tough AI (such as BlazBlue's Score Attack). Mechanically speaking, the game is pretty good, but there is no mode where you can put those mechanics to use. Combo challenges and brutally tough AI are two of the three things that I love about ArcSys fighters, and the game let me down on both accounts. The third and biggest thing I love about Arcsys fighters are the stories, and this game didn't deliver in that regard either.

 

I'll start by saying that I've never played Granblue Fantasy, so that's probably part of the reason that the story didn't interest me. Unlike BlazBlue, the story is very generic. You won't see character development, plot twists, etc. Gran - the protagonist, is the most dull protagonist I've seen in a long time; they could have made him a silent protagonist and it wouldn't have changed anything. The plot itself is your generic "we have to stop the evil bad guy who is trying to take over the world" type of story. Worse yet, Story Mode (called "RPG Mode" here) plays more like a beat-em-up than a fighter. More specifically, it plays like a 2D version of Legend of Mana. I like both beat-em-ups and Legend of Mana, but I was playing this game because I was in the mood for a fighter. I could have forgiven this if this was a mini-game, but this was the bulk of my total playtime. The mode itself was very easy and I got through 37 of the 40 levels by mindlessly spamming the heavy attack button. I didn't have to actually start dodging until the second-last boss in level 38.

 

This game sucks. Unless you're a Granblue Fantasy fan, I would not recommend this game unless you could get it for about $20, and you need a palate cleanser after a hard game or a game with a heavy story. If you do buy this game, be prepared to downgrade to version 1.00 of the game or you will need to buy DLC for the plat.

 

 

 

Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe

 

Rarity: 3.98%

Difficulty: 7/10

Enjoyment: 7/10

Total Playtime: 27:30

 

First of all, props to the developers for adding an in-game playtime counter that's visible to the player. All games should do this in my opinion.

 

I enjoyed this game a lot more than I thought I would considering how simplistic it looked. Though the mechanics are not deep, it's fast-paced and has challenging single-player content. From a non-trophy perspective (and only from a non-trophy perspective), this game is very welcoming to newcomers to the genre as the amount of time given to input commands is quite generous. There is no tutorial mode which usually upsets me in a fighting game, but it was acceptable here due to simple nature of the game.

 

There was a story, but I don't like the way that it was presented. There is no voice acting in anything outside of battle, which I think is unacceptable for a PS3 game (this is an enhanced version of a PS3 game if I understand correctly). The "prologue" was a few paragraphs that you had to read in the options menu. Instead of a Story Mode, each character has a very brief introduction given when you start Arcade Mode with them, and 2 different endings that you can either get through Arcade Mode or buy with in-game currency. This felt like the story of a non-Arcsys fighter; generic, predictable, and no character development. A couple of things that did make this feel like an Arcsys fighter story were the fanservice and the humor. This game has the best looking cast I've seen in an Arcsys fighter so far, and it also made me laugh a couple of times.

 

Mechanically, this game is extremely similar to Street Fighter Alpha 3. Survival Mode challenged me quite a bit, and so did a couple of the missions. I had fun with those two modes, but I would have preferred combo challenges over missions.

 

Overall, this is a decent game. It's no masterpiece but it's both fun and challenging. I would gladly play a sequel to this.

 

 

 

Dragon Ball FighterZ

 

Rarity: 2.71%

Difficulty: 4/10

Enjoyment: 7/10

 

The gameplay in this game is really bad. While there are a variety of combos and skills that you can use, all you really need to do to beat the AI in any fight is press the homing button (R2 IIRC), mash square, and repeat. The combo challenges in this game are the easiest ones I've seen in an ArcSys fighter so far, even more so than BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle. There is no Score Attack mode or anything similar that would have you fight brutal AI. The only thing in this game that is even remotely challenging is clearing Arcade Mode with an S rank. The AI isn't terribly hard, but the challenge comes from having to play almost perfectly to get enough points.

 

The online trophies in this game are very grindy, and can not be done AFK. However, they are fully boostable and simple. The only reason that this platinum is so rare is because there is a trophy for earning 20 million zeni. It is a very long grind to reach 20 million, but it can be done AFK with a turbo controller, so it's not a big deal.

 

The story is the only reason that I gave this game a decent enjoyment score. They made an entirely new villain and story just for this game. I haven't watched Dragon Ball Super, but I'm a big fan of Dragon Ball Z and an even bigger fan of TeamFourStar's Dragon Ball Z Abridged. I don't know who wrote the story for this game, but that person is definitely a DBZA fan. There were a lot of DBZA running gags in this story, such as Goku being a bad father. At times, I actually felt like I was playing a DBZA game. As much as I complained about the gameplay, the story made the experience worth it for me.

 

 

 

Battle Fantasia

 

Rarity: 0.61%

Difficulty: 8/10

Enjoyment: 6/10

 

The biggest issue with this game is that the controls are way too janky; this plays like a PS2 game. There were so many times that I got screwed over because my character would use a regular attack instead of a special move or a super. I'm definitely not a fighting game noob at this point, so I can say with 100% certainty that I was inputting the commands correctly - at least most of the time. The janky controls really added to the already high difficulty.

 

The AI in this game is brutal. When I had to use characters that I don't like, I played on Very Easy mode and the AI still posed a challenge. Survival Mode had AI that I'm convinced was reading my inputs. And then of course, there's the trophy for beating Deathbringer on a difficulty higher than Normal without taking damage. Even with the cheese method to reduce the difficulty of parrying the super, winning the fight without taking damage was still very difficult.

 

The story was very mediocre (but still miles better than that of the average non-Arcsys fighter). The story was very generic, and almost every character had a very anti-climatic ending. One of the main characters - Marco, was one of the most annoying characters I've seen in a video game. He's 9 years old IIRC, and he tawlks wike twhis (I never found that kind of shit cute). I'm not exaggerating when I say that there are several times in the story where he throws tantrums and cries for about 10 seconds. Story Mode is annoying from a trophy perspective too because you have to lose every single battle to get 100% completion. One good thing I'll say about the story is that it's legitimately funny. There is a lot humor, and I laughed hard several times.

 

I would have liked this game more if it wasn't so janky. It did have potential.

 

 

 

 

Skullgirls 2nd Encore

 

Platinum Rarity: 0.84%

100% Rarity: 0.1%

Difficulty: 9/10

Enjoyment: 8/10

 

This is the hardest fighting game I've done so far and the second hardest game I've done overall. Marie 300% and some sections of Challenge Mode were hard, but the combo challenges are what made this game brutal. There is no leeway at all; you have to do every single trial in the game. Don't like a certain type of character? Too bad. Worse yet, the timing required is extremely unforgiving. This means two things: one, you have to be really fast, and two, pause cheese does not work on 90+% of the combos. On paper, I have seen much harder combos in some of the BlazBlue games, but the fact that most of the combos can't be pause cheesed raises the difficulty exponentially, hence the 9/10 rating. The combo trials in this game definitely made me a grow as a fighting game player, and I plan to eventually go for some of the 10/10 difficulty fighting games.

 

The combat was solid. This is one of the best fighting games that I played when it comes to gameplay. The combo challenges are actually practical in real combat, and most of the characters feel legitimately unique. I'm not crazy about tag games (except Marvel vs. Capcom 3), but you can use 1 or 2 characters instead of 3, and your stats will scale accordingly. I really loved this mechanic. Annie was my main, and one of the most fun characters that I've used in any fighting game. She plays like a hybrid of Street Fighter's Ryu and BlazBlue's Ragna in my opinion. I've also heard she plays like Guilty Gear's Sol, but I can't confirm that until I play Guilty Gear.

 

The story was decent. It wasn't BlazBlue quality, but it was better than any non-Arcsys fighter's story I've seen. Even within Arcsys fighters, this is the best story that I've seen since BlazBlue. It's interesting, funny, and even emotional at times. It's not without faults though, hence the 8/10 enjoyment score rather than 9/10. One problem that I have with it is that the game does not make it clear which (if any) story is the canon one. The stories all follow the same plot for the most part, but there are minor differences in certain characters' stories, and I'm annoyed that there is no clear answer regarding which one is canon. Another problem that I have with it is that there is no proper introduction; it felt like I walked into a movie an hour late. Granted, you do end up getting an explanation if you pay close enough attention, but I felt that this was sloppy storytelling. Despite those complaints, I did enjoy the story, and would love a sequel to it.

 

There was also fanservice. Lots of fanservice.

 

 

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r]

 

Rarity: 21.08%

Difficulty: 4/10

Enjoyment: 8/10

 

The lack of challenge in this game was disappointing. The hardest trophy in the game tasks you with completing the intermediate-level combo challenges for 5 characters. They are easy enough that a beginner could do them with enough practice, and would be even easier if it wasn't for the game's strict timing for chaining attacks together. There are some very difficult combo challenges in the game, but they aren't required for any trophies. Aside from the combo challenges, the AI is not that difficult even on the hardest difficulty.

 

In terms of gameplay, the game is good. There are too many characters that feel the same IMO, but of the 20 characters, there are enough different types that anyone's preferred type should be there. There are autocombos, but you have to be very close to your opponent to use them, so it doesn't break the game if you're playing competitively (but it totally does in single player). One gripe I have with the gameplay is the strict timing for (non-auto) combos. If you input the next attack during the previous attack's animation, the combo will drop. This won't matter unless you play against an actual person though, since you can get through the entire single-player game by spamming autocombos. Speaking of playing with people, the netcode is solid. I played some matches with Copanele and we never had any lag even though we're pretty far away from each other.

 

Initially I was maining with Orie. Her playstyle reminded me of my favourite fighting game character to play as: Margaret from Persona 4: Arena Ultimax. I liked Orie and Margaret because they can attack from any range, and have attacks that quickly close the gap if necessary. Both characters' weakness is that they can't take a lot of damage, but this was far less of an issue for Margaret because she does so much damage and because she can do combos from a distance. When doing Arcade Mode runs with every character to see the full story, I felt that I was pretty good with Phonon - a shoto character with decent range. I plan to keep playing this game with Copanele (and anyone else who is interested), and I'm thinking I'll main with her from now on.

 

I had some issues with the story, but thought it was a good story overall. If you are the type of person who doesn't skip story, the vast majority of your playtime will be spent in Chronicle Mode. It's a prequel to the Arcade Mode's story and is purely a visual novel. The short playtime you see in the trophy guides must be based on skipping all of the text, because I read/watched it all and I can say that it's very long. The narration is extremely excessive and caused me to fall asleep many times. Eventually, I decided to skip all narration and just hope that I didn't miss anything important. Once I made that choice, I started to enjoy the story. The plot is slightly convoluted, but is captivating nonetheless. The characters are interesting, there is humor, the villain is really hot, and there are emotional moments. The story in Arcade Mode wasn't nearly as good, as most the dialogue was the typical "I'll kick your ass" type of back and forth seen in many fighting games.

 

Even though I had a few complaints about this game, the pros far outweighed the cons. I really hope there will be a sequel.

 

 

 

Kill la Kill: IF

 

Rarity: 11.81%

Difficulty: 5/10

Enjoyment: 6/10

 

I should start by saying that I've never watched the Kill la Kill anime nor have I read the manga (assuming there is one). My enjoyment of the game may have been different if this was not the case.

 

As I mentioned a couple of times in earlier updates: the controls in this game are really bad. L1+R1 serving three different functions while the L2 and R2 buttons are completely unused was a very stupid design choice. You can't move the camera, which could have easily been controlled by the unused right analog stick. You can't choose who you are locked-on to when battling multiple opponents at once. It's a shame that this was an issue, because I could tell that the game would have been a lot of fun if the buttons were mapped properly. Also, the rock-paper-scissors mechanic is something that I'm sure no one wants in a fighting game. There is a degree of challenge in this game, but only because of the bad controls. In addition to this, the roster only has 10 characters, and there are only 6 stages to choose from. One positive about the game is that the characters do feel different from one another.

 

The story is not welcoming for people who don't know anything about the anime. You get no backstory on any of the characters. It felt like I started the story after someone else played it for an hour or two. The story was mildly entertaining, but I was unable to get emotionally invested in it since the characters were not properly introduced to me. I fell asleep while the watching the ending (from tiredness, not boredom) and I don't care enough to pull up YouTube and see what I missed.

 

If they fixed all of the issues I mentioned, I would play a sequel for about $20. I could tell that the game had a lot of potential.

 

 

 

Guilty Gear

 

Rarity: 13.19%

Difficulty: 5/10

Enjoyment: 5/10

 

To get 100% completion, you have to clear "Normal Mode" (basically Arcade) with every character and beat the secret boss. Considering the short and repetitive content, I did not see the point in making multiple updates for this game. That's not to say that I didn't find the game to be hard though.

 

As is the case with many retro fighting games, the AI is brutal. As far as I could tell, they don't read inputs, but the upper-level opponents are difficult. Even with cheese methods, I had to retry against Testament (the second-last boss) with the majority of the characters. He's very aggressive and has long combos. The last boss - Justice, was less difficult, but still hard as she has attacks that can drain almost half of your health even if you block them. To fight Baiken, you have to clear Normal Mode with Sol or Ky without losing a round, but you can save yourself from losing by pressing Start on a second controller. This condition was more annoying than difficult, but thankfully Baiken is pretty easy if you use Ky.

 

The story was better than those of other fighting games of that era, but as someone who has been spoiled by BlazBlue, I was not impressed. However, I do have faith that the Xrd games will have a very good story.

 

 

 

Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus R

 

Rarity: 1.74%

Difficulty: 6/10

Enjoyment: 7/10

 

This is a vast improvement from the first game in every regard. There's way less jank in this one, and I could probably even say that there was no jank, but it's hard to say for sure since I played this with the Vita's awful d-pad. The AI was still pretty tough even on the easiest difficulty, but instakills are easier to pull off in Accent Core.

 

Survival Mode was the only barrier to 100% in this game, and it's not that bad with Justice's cheese methods. The last boss of Arcade Mode is pretty cheap too but it took me no more than roughly 5 tries to beat her. The trophies in this game are more annoying than they are difficult. You have to see all endings in Story Mode, and some of them have annoying requirements such as winning with a Time Up victory, which is hard to do because the AI is aggressive. There's also an RNG based trophy that requires you to keep playing on a specific stage until one of the NPCs in the background does something different than they usually do. Worst of all, there's a trophy for playing on all 49 stages of the game (the guides say 47, but I counted many times and got 49). The trophy seems glitched because I had to play on some stages more than once to pop the trophy, and yes - I'm sure that I didn't miss any as I was using a checklist. For some reason, you also have to spend 5 hours in training mode, which wouldn't be too annoying if this was on a PS3/PS4. For those who don't know, the Vita goes into sleep mode if you're idle for more than 30 minutes (or less, depending on your settings). As far as I know, there is no way to disable this, so this trophy can't be fully AFKed.

 

I'm starting to enjoy the Guilty Gear story. In my opinion, it's not nearly as good as BlazBlue's so far, but I heard that it gets a lot better from Xrd onwards, and I believe it. I think the protagonist (Sol) is incredibly boring and I miss Ragna. However, a lot of the other characters are entertaining to me in one way or another. Johnny is really cool and Robo-Ky made me laugh out loud on several occasions. The game did a good job in the fanservice department as well; Baiken, Millia, and especially I-No are all hot. I got a chance to try all characters since I had to for the Story Mode trophy, and I liked Baiken's counter-based combat style. Assuming she plays similarly in Xrd and has some decent combos, she will likely be my main.

 

 

 

Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-

 

Rarity: 1.09%

Difficulty: 6/10

Enjoyment 8/10

 

After hearing many people swear that is on par with - if not better than - BlazBlue, I was excited to play this. So far, I would say that I like BlazBlue far more than Guilty Gear, but I did have a great time with the story and the characters. The Story Mode was essentially a 4 hour movie with no battles fought by the player. I actually liked this approach to storytelling, and I think more fighting games should do it. I didn't like Sol at first because I found him to an excessively broody character who is grumpy for no reason. However, once his backstory was presented to me in this game, my opinion of him changed for the better. The gameplay was solid but the trophy list was so shitty that there was no real opportunity to get the most out of it.

 

The game offers very little in terms of challenge, and most the journey to the platinum is just a grind. The only hard thing in the game is the trophy for getting an S rank on 30 missions, and I was able to get 15 without much effort. I self-boosted the online trophies using my PS3 and my PS4 and it took several hours. As mentioned earlier, MOM Mode was an abysmal grind. My love for the story raised my enjoyment score a lot for a game that I otherwise would not have enjoyed. I would have liked to see some harder combo challenge requirements, a mode with brutal AI, and far less of a grind.

 

 

 

Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator

 

Rarity: 1.33%

Difficulty: 5/10

Enjoyment: 8/10

 

My thoughts on Revelator are basically the same thoughts I had about Sign: amazing story, good gameplay mechanics, and a shitty trophy list. This was slightly easier and slightly less grindy than Sign. The biggest grind was Medal of the Holy Order, which requires you to get 151 badges (150 really, since you get the 151st badge for getting 150 badges). You get badges for satisfying certain conditions at the end of every match in Arcade Mode or in Ranked Matches. A lot of the badges task you with very easy things that you will likely get naturally during your Arcade Mode runs such as winning a match without blocking. I boosted some of these badges with my boosting partner, then self-boosted the rest (I have it on both PS3 and PS4).

 

Just like in Sign, the only challenge in the game comes from Mission Mode, and it was easier in this game due to the fact that you are no longer required to S-rank the missions; you only need to pass them. The combo challenge requirements are still a joke and there is still no "Score Attack" type of mode to really make the most of the game's amazing mechanics. I only gave the game a high enjoyment score because the story was amazing - even better than Sign's. I never thought I'd say this, but Guilty Gear's story might be even better than BlazBlue's. I'll finish the series before I make a definitive statement though.

 

 

Guilty Gear: Strive

 

Rarity: 11.11%

Difficulty: 7/10

Enjoyment: 9/10

 

Considering the direction ArcSys has been going, I thought that I would have liked the Xrd games better than this one, but the opposite turned out to be true. I would have liked some difficult combo challenges, but otherwise I would say that this was a satisfying platinum. There were no major grinds (offline or online) and the game actually offered some challenge. You don't need to boost the online as all you have to do is play 2 matches, but the grindiest trophy in the game can be done faster online. I loved the Xrd games for their stories, but found the platinums in both games to be tedious rather than challenging. Messiah Will Not Come was very challenging for me; it reminded me of Art of Fighting, but less unfair. Nagoryuki's theme song was a total banger too, as was Smell of the Game - the song in the opening movie.

 

I really liked the story in this one too, including the DLC story. Unfortunately, I found it to be the most confusing Guilty Gear plot to date, but I still enjoyed it. After having played through the entire series, I'm unable to decide between Guilty Gear and BlazBlue in terms of which story was better. I will say though that I like Sol way better than Ragna (and Ragna is one of my favourite video game protagonists). The graphics are miles better than the already amazing graphics that were present in the Xrd games, and the ladies in this game were extremely attractive, especially I-No.

Edited July 5, 2023 by Yuber6969

[Copanele]

Sweet challenge! Was waiting for this post tbh, since I love ArcSys games too (more of a Guilty Gear fan, but I mess around with the other entries too).

I mentioned it in the status update, but...Persona 4 Arena the original one has a different story and different trophies. Not sure if it falls under the Nr 1 rule though   Also soon you will have to add Guilty Gear Strive to the list too...once it will be launched!

 

Anyway, can't wait to see your progress! Best of luck  

[Yuber6969]

3 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Sweet challenge! Was waiting for this post tbh, since I love ArcSys games too (more of a Guilty Gear fan, but I mess around with the other entries too).

I mentioned it in the status update, but...Persona 4 Arena the original one has a different story and different trophies. Not sure if it falls under the Nr 1 rule though   Also soon you will have to add Guilty Gear Strive to the list too...once it will be launched!

 

Anyway, can't wait to see your progress! Best of luck  

 

I forgot about Strive; I'll add it.

 

I played the vanilla Persona 4 Arena story as DLC in Ultimax, so it does fall under rule 1 lol. I'm sure it sounds like I'm just avoiding the challenge, so hopefully I can prove myself with the nearly-as-rare Battle Fantasia plat.

 

Thanks for the interest!

[Copanele]

2 minutes ago, yuber1234 said:

 

I forgot about Strive; I'll add it.

 

I played the vanilla Persona 4 Arena story as DLC in Ultimax, so it does fall under rule 1 lol. I'm sure it sounds like I'm just avoiding the challenge, so hopefully I can prove myself with the nearly-as-rare Battle Fantasia plat.

 

Thanks for the interest!

Ah ok! I will be honest, I skipped the story so if it's in Ultimax, then it's understandable  

[AihaLoveleaf]

I like this challenge! Will be watching to see this pan out.

 

Arcana Heart 3 is in my list of unplayed games. Bought it years ago because waifus but never got around to playing. It sounds like it's pretty tough. Do you have a difficulty rating that you would give it?

[Yuber6969]

17 minutes ago, AihaLoveleaf said:

I like this challenge! Will be watching to see this pan out.

 

Arcana Heart 3 is in my list of unplayed games. Bought it years ago because waifus but never got around to playing. It sounds like it's pretty tough. Do you have a difficulty rating that you would give it?

 

Thanks!

 

If you have the Vita Love Max version, I'll help you with the online trophies.

 

I can't speak for the vanilla version, but I'd give Love Max a 7/10. The platinum breaker is a boss named Parace. She's the reason a lot of people don't get the plat. She can chain super attacks into combos and can easily take out half of your health before you can do anything. She can also heal herself. There is a cheese method, but even that requires both skill and luck. It's definitely doable though.

 

A couple of the trials are tough too, but nothing compared to the high-level combo challenges seen in other ArcSys fighters.

 

If you haven't actually bought either version yet, get it on PS3 instead of Vita. Because of the fact that you can't use 2 controllers on a Vita, you will have to do extra boosting.

 

EDIT: Just noticed that you bought it already. Which one do you have?

Edited May 13, 2021 by yuber1234

[AihaLoveleaf]

1 hour ago, yuber1234 said:

 

Thanks!

 

If you have the Vita Love Max version, I'll help you with the online trophies.

 

I can't speak for the vanilla version, but I'd give Love Max a 7/10. The platinum breaker is a boss named Parace. She's the reason a lot of people don't get the plat. She can chain super attacks into combos and can easily take out half of your health before you can do anything. She can also heal herself. There is a cheese method, but even that requires both skill and luck. It's definitely doable though.

 

A couple of the trials are tough too, but nothing compared to the high-level combo challenges seen in other ArcSys fighters.

 

If you haven't actually bought either version yet, get it on PS3 instead of Vita. Because of the fact that you can't use 2 controllers on a Vita, you will have to do extra boosting.

 

EDIT: Just noticed that you bought it already. Which one do you have?

I have Love Max on PS3. Didn’t realize there was a vanilla version before now ? Parace sounds pretty OP, but going for the plat seems likely if Continuum Shift Plat is successful for me.
 

I can’t imagine trying to play a super precision game like a fighter on the Vita. Thinking about trying to grind out a fighting game plat on one sounds horrifying. Maybe people really good with the Vita can swing it but I definitely need to be able to use my fight stick or at least a proper controller like the Hori Fighting Commander. 

[amex_svk]

Sorry to be a nitpicker but Arcana Heart is developed by Examu, Chaos Code by FK Digital, Under Night games by French Bread and Kill la Kill by A+. ASW just published those games.

 

Otherwise good luck with the completion? I fell in love with fighting games thanks to the older ASW games. I still respect the company, even though I don't like their recent output

Edited May 13, 2021 by amex_svk

[Heather342]

If you enjoyed Persona 4 Arena Ultimax so much and fancy even more of a challenge, the original Persona 4 Arena game is one to check out. Although there is a lot of online, and the game is region locked so not sure how easy it would be to find a boosting partner. The score attack mode on this game is mental

[Yuber6969]

@amex_svk Ah, I didn't know that. I'll still include them in the challenge.

 

 @Heather342 I already played P4A's story in P4AU's DLC, so I won't be repeating it. I heard the horror storries about Score Attack and the combo challenges though.

[Heather342]

18 minutes ago, yuber1234 said:

 @Heather342 I already played P4A's story in P4AU's DLC, so I won't be repeating it. I heard the horror storries about Score Attack and the combo challenges though.

Yeah, it's pretty tough. I pick it up and practice every now and then. I hope that one day I will overcome this challenge ?

[Yuber6969]

All online trophies for Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator are done. Next step will be to get the online trophies done for Sign and for Battle Fantasia. I need to get the online trophies for Granblue Fantasy Versus too, but I don't own the game yet; waiting for a price drop.

 

Also, a friend of mine told me that Battle Fantasia is still available digitally. He was right; I don't know how I missed it. I no longer have to rush the game over concerns about PS Now.

Edited May 16, 2021 by yuber1234

[postofficebuddy]

Always nice to see more people getting interested in Arc Sys games. Good luck on finishing everything dude. Out of all the games on this list Battlefantasia is probably the hardest. Don’t be like me and choke after parrying Deathbringer’s super. I quite literally had over a dozen post-super chokes before I got that damn trophy. That’s the stuff that makes you want to throw a controller. BTW, nice to see you here @Heather342. Best of luck to you on Arena and Ultimax. BTW since we’re on the topic of Love Max does anyone know how to get Elsa’s attack 3 link animation? I really hope you don’t have to do her critical heart. 

Edited May 14, 2021 by postofficebuddy

[Yuber6969]

2 minutes ago, postofficebuddy said:

Always nice to see more people getting interested in Arc Sys games. Good luck on finishing everything dude. Out of all the games on this list Battlefantasia is probably the hardest. Don’t be like me and choke after parrying Deathbringer’s super. I quite literally had over a dozen post-super chokes before I got that damn trophy. That’s the stuff that makes you want to throw a controller. BTW, nice to see you here @Heather342. Best of luck to you on Arena and Ultimax.

 

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. And yeah, I figured it was going to be the hardest game. Congrats on the plat!

[Yuber6969]

1 hour ago, postofficebuddy said:

BTW since we’re on the topic of Love Max does anyone know how to get Elsa’s attack 3 link animation? I really hope you don’t have to do her critical heart. 

 

I haven't gotten to that yet, but I'll post here when I do.

[postofficebuddy]

On 5/14/2021 at 7:13 PM, yuber1234 said:

 

I haven't gotten to that yet, but I'll post here when I do.

Thanks for be willing to check but I actually managed to do it just now. God, what a ridiculous input. For the sake of anyone else going for this I hope this isn’t the only to get this animation (except for a really long combo maybe). I think I’ll test out a few things with this one. If this is the only realistic way to do it than the best advice I can offer is buffer the down up input off of a crouching heavy attack. That should give you a few more frames to do the super motion. Also remap the A+B macro to the X button if you’re playing on a PS3 controller. 
 

:edit: Tried to do the CH in simple mode and as far as I can tell it can’t be done. 

Edited May 16, 2021 by postofficebuddy

[Yuber6969]

Online trophies for Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- and Battle Fantasia are done. The Battle Fantasia trophies were glitchy for me, so I had to do around 80 ranked matches instead of 60.

 

The only online trophies I still need are from Granblue Fantasy Versus (and presumably Strive), but there's no need to rush them since those servers shouldn't be going away any time soon.

 

I've been grinding memories in Arcana Heart 3 Love Max for hours and still have about 30 to obtain. Can't wait to be done.

Edited May 17, 2021 by yuber1234

[Yuber6969]

 

Arcana Heart 3 Love Max!!!!!

Rarity: 1.27%

 

Shoutout to @postofficebuddy for giving me the correct info about Kira's Link Anime; every guide I've read has it wrong. Thanks again!

 

Difficulty: 7/10

 

This is my second-hardest ArcSys fighter plat to date (after P4AU).

Parace L'Sia was really hard for me. She chains supers into combos with other supers, is extremely agressive, can heal herself, and regenerates her super meter very quickly. As per the trophy guide, I relied entirely on Angelia's critical heart, and was usually killed before I could charge it. I fought her about 30 times before I finally beat her.

 

Some of the trials actually gave me a harder time than Parace did. This might not have been the case if I played this on the PS3, but it was really hard to pull off some of those inputs on the Vita. The trial for doing a 13 hit combo took me forever. 13 hits sounds like nothing, but the combo system in this game is very bare-bones in my opinion.

 

I also did most of the miscellaneous trophies against the AI, which added to the difficulty. I could have boosted them, but I work evening shifts so scheduling is usually an issue.

 

Enjoyment : 4/10

 

The game itself was just okay. The story did not interest me at all, but I haven't played the previous Arcana Heart games, so that might be why. By the way, if there's anyone out there considering playing this game for the fanservice, don't waste your time. There are better games with better looking women.

 

The combo system was almost non-existent and the gameplay felt kind of retro, which is not my cup of tea. There is no tutorial, so you have to either research or figure things out on your own. Hands down, my least favourite ArcSys fighter to date. The game is a 6/10 for me.

 

Now, add trophy hunting to the mix and the enjoyment gets even lower. At least 80% of my total playtime was grinding. I've platted quite a few JRPGs, and this was grindier than most (if not all) of them. I hope I don't encounter another grind like this later in this challenge.

 

Happy to done with this game. BlazBlue Chronophantasma Extend will most likely be next.

Edited June 7, 2021 by yuber1234

[AihaLoveleaf]

Respect for putting up with that on the Vita. I cannot imagine. At least it's over now.

 

Was thinking about going for this on PS3 at some point, but if it's really that bad I ought to reconsider.

[Yuber6969]

1 minute ago, AihaLoveleaf said:

Respect for putting up with that on the Vita. I cannot imagine. At least it's over now.

 

Was thinking about going for this on PS3 at some point, but if it's really that bad I ought to reconsider.

 

Thanks!

 

It is really bad IMO, and it's definitely not welcoming for people new to the genre because there's no tutorial.

 

The challenging trophies in the game are very satisfying, but the tedium of the grind outweighs that satisfaction.

[Yuber6969]

I'm thinking of buying a fight stick to make the combo challenges less difficult. I've been told they make it easier, but I have literally never used one before, so would that still be the case for me?

 

What do you guys use, and what do you think I should do?

Edited May 25, 2021 by yuber1234

[AihaLoveleaf]

It's 100% worth it. The digital precision and not busting your thumbs on a D-Pad are all worth the price tag.

 

I unfortunately can't give you any modern recommendations though because I'm using a dirt-old PS2 Hori arcade stick with a PS3 adapter. I was actually going to post at some point asking about good, modern arcade sticks, but hopefully someone here has something.

[Copanele]

1 hour ago, yuber1234 said:

I'm thinking of buying a fight stick to make the combo challenges less difficult. I've been told they make it easier, but I have literally never used one before, so would that still be the case for me?

 

What do you guys use, and what do you think I should do?

I am on a different opinion tbh, buying a fight stick won't help you at all, it would hinder you more. You have to learn how to play with that stick on top of dealing with the combo. If you want to buy it only for the combos, I strongly suggest continue with the d-pad, as you won't have any advantage with the stick. Heck, buy a turbo controller instead, for the mashing sections. 

 

But if you still want to buy a stick, one possible suggestion is Madcatz fightstick. I can switch between ps3 and ps4 with it and is accurate enough. Pretty cheap, the only downside is holding it(not very stable) 

 

 

[Heather342]

1 hour ago, yuber1234 said:

I'm thinking of buying a fight stick to make the combo challenges less difficult. I've been told they make it easier, but I have literally never used one before, so would that still be the case for me?

 

What do you guys use, and what do you think I should do?

I bought one to work on the Persona 4 Arena combos. Personally, I've found it helps but I still have a pretty long way to go completing all my challenges ?

I would also recommend the Madcatz stick. This is the one I got from a second hand website, and it cost me around £45 which wasn't too bad. I have to place it on a small table to use it as it is a bit big

[Yuber6969]

Thanks @AihaLoveleaf, @Copanele, and @Heather342. I'm not sure what to do with the conflicting opinions, but at least now I know which one to buy if I do buy one. It might have been worth mentioning that I don't use the d-pad during combo challenges; I use the analog stick for those.

 

Good luck with P4A Heather. That's probably harder than this entire challenge lol.