Beyondthegrave's Top 10s

[Beyondthegrave07]

INTRODUCTION

 

Hello everyone! I am Beyondthegrave (also go by just "Grave") and I have recently decided to revive my trophy checklist with a new thread. That's right! I used to have one several years ago when I had 31 plats and decided to try and earn as many plats in a year as possible before I officially had gaming take a backseat in 2018 to study for my CPA exam. Anyways, I earned 31 (that''s right DOUBLED) in 2017 and jumped straight into studying in early February of 2018 and subsequently passing all 4 exams within the next year. During those two hectic years of my life, I did not update my old checklist a single time and decided it was best to just nuke it (which it's been nuked for a while now) and start over with a different approach. Keeping this thing up to date is taxing for every platinum I get, big or small, so I decided to take my collection and highlight my greatest moments, biggest frustrations, and maybe a few funny stories here and there to remember the most important apart of trophy hunting: having fun. I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to organize all of my thoughts, but I thought it'd be nice to at least get this out there to actively work on it every now and then and to take the pressure off of me to have to constantly be updating it. I will post updates any time I do decide to add something new or make any new changes (and explain why) in case anyone decides to follow this. I'm also open for more top 10 lists so please feel free to suggest them below!

 

FAVORITE PLATINUMS

 

1. OKAMI HD

Spoiler

i don't think there's such thing as a perfect trophy list for a platinum, but this is pretty damn close. I bought this game in college and was always interested in playing it even back on the PS2 games as I thought the aesthetics were awesome, and I liked the comparisons I was hearing about it to a 3D Legend of Zelda. This was kind of the point where I was just trying to add platinums that I really enjoyed to my collection so I decided to just look at the missables for the game and play through it casually. If I liked it enough, I'd do cleanup immediately. If it was a bit of a letdown, maybe I'll come back to it later. However, this game absolutely destroyed my expectations. I loved every bit of this game to the point where I WANTED to completely do everything the game had to offer and would happily do it regardless of the platinum. I typically find collectathons or games with a lot of collectables to be a chore to the point where I either: a.) never finish them (AC2) or b.) take an enormous time to complete (Yooka Laylee). Okami definitely had it's fill of collectables (fishing, beads, praise, etc) However, I almost wish it took me longer. Running through the overworld, listening to the japanese-styled music, and collecting everything was a lot of fun. Video game music is a real passion of mine, and any time there is beautiful music in a game, I find it easier to grind them out because even if the gameplay is boring or can get tedious, it's still pleasing to the ear. I'm not going to pretend like fishing on Okami was the funnest shit on earth, but add a ballin' soundtrack in the background and I'm all in. This game wasn't overly frustrating and required you to do everything the game had to offer to make it really feel like you got your money's worth and honestly, that's how trophy lists should be. To this day, this game is easily a top 20 game in my book and easily the most enjoyable platinum. If I restarted my profile today, this would be the first game I would redo.

2. Bloodborne

Spoiler

For the longest time I was so afraid to start this game. It had been sitting in the backlog for years, and all I heard was "These game are hard" blah blah blah. "You got to git gud" blah blah blah to the point where I was afraid to start this because I anticipated that the gameplay was hard for the sake of being hard. In other words, the game was hard because it was unfair to the user and stacks the hand of the AI to make it a miserable experience for some. These thoughts crossing my mind scared me because I've played games like Spelunker HD, which is hard for the sake of being hard, and it was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. I completely dropped the game after slogging my way through the first two levels because I thought, "This is just torture." and that's what I was afraid bloodborne would be to me... Torture and get dropped after the first boss.

 

However, after watching my brother play it a bit and seeing him earn the platinum gave me an ounce of confidence. I thought to myself. "Maybe I should challenge myself a little more and try something new." And that's when it hit me: Let's make this platinum #100. I was still a little intimidated by the platinum so I convinced an old friend of mine on PSN to take the journey with me and co-op some of it with me... at least for the beginning. We would discord chat and set up our room and join each other to explore the dark world together, take on bosses together and fight along side one another as we both dove into our first soulsborne game head first. And I know what some of you are thinking, "Co-op makes it too easy!" or "You're not experiencing what the game is about!" Oh, that's where you're wrong, my friend. To go through that learning curve, watching your friend die, playing to fight and live for one another as we take on massive beasts and demons... I think we experienced this game to it's maximum potential. To be frank, we did not always play with one another and we did solo some bosses by ourselves, but we learned the game together, gave each other advice, showed each other where to get weapons, researched different ideas for builds, etc. No no no no. We experienced this game and became even better friends through all of it and if that doesn't sound enjoyable or sound like we played the game correctly, go touch some grass.

3. Dark Cloud

Spoiler

Dark Cloud was probably one of my favorite childhood games. There was a point where my first PS2 could not read any discs EXCEPT for Dark Cloud so I have played this way more than I probably should have. My PS2 has not worked in years so I grabbed it off the PSN store on PS4 and playing it again was a burst of nostalgia. It was like it was bringing me back to my elementary school days again, struggling to find water and the damn exit of a particular dungeon. To this day, I still think this is one of the best aged games from the PS2 era and playing it for trophies was so much fun. Again, this game has an amazing soundtrack to where even grinding out items, leveling up, fishing, etc. overwhelms the tedium that exists in this game. Playing the game again made me realize how much smarter I was as a gamer today and how I have grown over the past 15+ years as a gamer. My only disappointment with the list is that it was too easy and it left out the final bonus dungeon as no trophies were attached to this. The final dungeon is 100 floors of enemies who can one-shot you and making your life difficult and having a trophy to show that I could do it would have been the cherry on top of this amazing game. Definitely a top 5 game of all time. Trophy-wise, I think it could have done better, but I still enjoyed every single minute of it.

4. Nier Automata

Spoiler

This is a bit of a controversial pick at #4, but eh, people can do what they want. Nier Automata is a Top 5 PS4 game for me easy and having the ability to play the game how I want and clean up whatever I want without the tedious grind made this game 10x better. I am not ashamed to say that I used the trophy shop for a few trophies at the very end. At that point, I was at 40 hours with the game, enjoyed every single minute of it and didn't want to ruin my experience by forcing myself to replay the game for a bunch of silly alternate endings or to grind materials to upgrade all of the weapons. The ending of the game and the game in general really changed my perception on how games can be created to tell a story and invoke emotion, and I wanted to leave the game with that feeling. I did not want to go through the frustration of grinding and wanted to remember the game for the emotional ride I took going through all the main endings and the catharsis I was left at the end... Not the mindless grinding that I would have needed to complete it. I think honestly, this is why it was added to the game. For trophy hunter like me.

5, Undertale

Spoiler

I can already hear everyone saying, "These trophies are shit!" or "Why is this game included, lol." I won't argue any of that. The trophies in particular are as straightforward as they come. They're bland and are uncreative. They could have made this platinum hard by forcing you to see all of the endings or doing a genocide or pacifist playthrough. However, I think Toby Fox said it perfectly when he said that he was against achievements/trophies that forced the player to play a certain way, and if you really think about it, it makes sense why these trophies are the way they are. Reach "x" in the game or donate "x" to the dog. It 100% gives players the freedom to play the game however they want which is exactly why I finished this game in like a day and struggle to finish a game like Heavy Rain 8+ years after I already played it. I was able to play this game however I wanted, make my own fuck-ups, and didn't have to worry about giving mercy to everyone or killing everything in existence, and doing so made my ending feel much more personal and allowed me to absorb the message Toby Fox was trying to convey in the game rather than thinking, "Oh shit, I accidentally killed Toriel, RESTART" and instead  learned from my mistakes and showed Papyrus mercy. I will say that I think playing through the game a few more times wouldn't be that bad though because the soundtrack absolutely slaps. I'll say that if anyone enjoys this one, try Deltarune because it's a much darker story that has some of the same aspects.

6. Resident Evil 2

Spoiler

I had pretty high expectations going into this game and thought to myself, "Ehhh, speedruns? I'll just play this one for fun and pass on being annoyed with this nonsense." However, I played the game originally on normal difficulty and thought, "That was hella fun. I kind of want to play it again." so I did... and I was much quicker at it. So much quicker, I realized that the speedrun required for this game is quite generous and decided I was going to go all in for the platinum and honestly, I'm glad I did. This game was so intense on hardcore mode that I completely changed the way I approached Resident Evil in general. I was always a headhunter and realized that shooting their legs off and knifing was way more effective than a few gunshots to the head. It was almost like playing an entire different game and taking this new approach and made me love the game even more. The game was very fair and it rewarded you for being a smart player. Can't ask for much more honestly. Trophies were all as fair as could be.

7. Catherine: Full Body Edition

Spoiler

Catherine is probably my favorite game of all time and I am denying myself the truth if I try to argue otherwise. To this day, I still play it every other week or so to chill and relax and it never gets old. Getting over the learning curve was fun and getting gud at the game, so to speak, made this a rewarding experience. The story is quirky, weird, and fantastic and all the trophies were fun. My only wish though is that I did not have to do the boring Rapunzel minigame, as I found that to be quite the chore, but everything else was so much fun to hunt. I almost, ALMOST want to go find a copy of the original Catherine and go for that plat too. Eh, never say never.

8. The Last of Us

Spoiler

This is probably my second favorite game of all time. It was the one time I was glad they had multiplayer trophies in a game as I found it extremely enjoyable to play with friends and randoms alike. However, I really wish the SP trophies were more fun and more abundant as you go through most of the game without feeling rewarded for all your work. Oh well, I guess. I can't say I didn't have blast going for them all though, collectathon and all.

9. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Spoiler

I honestly think this game is a dark horse in the FF series and is extremely underrated. People are scared of the time factor, but I played through this without a guide and did just fine! The game rewards you for spending your time wisely and I thought the idea of killing enemies into extinction was super cool and often was super rewarding too. The dress system was really unique to and allowed or a lot of creative sets. I love a game that rewards you for being a smart player and luckily, so did the trophies. This is one of those games I'd play again for trophies if the trilogy ever came to PS4/5

10. Bioshock Infinite

Spoiler

Ok, 1999 mode, as stressful as it was while I was doing it, was fun. It took me a while to warm up to the idea of going for this platinum, but ultimately, I am glad I did. It was a challenging experience where it felt like a true survival game which is one of my favorite genres. Still not sure if I want to tackle this again and ruin my fondness of the game trying to survive, but hey, for now, I'll just let the memory last. Bioshock Infinite had a near perfect trophy list. My only wish was that there were trophies that forced you to do some of the interactions with Elizabeth, as building that bond with her over the game is what made this game worthwhile imo.

 

PROUDEST PLATINUMS

 

1. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

2.Catherine: Full Body Edition

3.Hotline Miami

4.  Quantum of Solace

5. Bloodborne

6. Disgaea D2

7. RIGS: MCL

8. Call of Duty: Black Ops

9. ICO

10. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Spoiler

When I did MGS3, it was the first time I ever played the game. I was a big PS2 player back in the day, but stealth games never tickled my fancy. Anyways, my roommate in college picked this up on sale and I decided, "What the hell." and gave the legacy collection a try. To me, this was the only plat in the collection that seemed "feasible" in a semester so I focused my efforts on trying to get this platinum in a single playthrough. That means collect everything without killing anyone without ever touching the game once. It was definitely difficult, but when I shot the last frog toy and saw the trophy pop for that knowing that I had not killed anyone at that point, I was literally jumping on the sofa out of excitement. It's still one of the most thrilling trophy hunting experiences I've had to this day. In hindsight, I probably should have played it normally to actually learn the game and enjoy the story more without looking at a guide, but that was a major pog moment for sure (people still say pog, right?).

 

MOST DIFFICULT/FRUSTATING PLATINUMS

 

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops

2. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

3. Tekken 6

4. Catherine: Full Body Edition

5. Hotline Miami

6. Bioshock Infinite

7. Tekken Tag Tournament 2

8. ICO

9. Rick and Morty VR

10. Zone of Enders HD

 

 

WORST PLATINUMS

Spoiler

I'm not a very negative person in general and sure, there were a lot of frustrating trophies, boring grinds, and shitty gameplay that i wallowed through. Let's be honest here. ICO's speedrunning trophy was complete bullshit due to incompetent AI, I still don't understand why Ratchet and Clank FFA would have a trophy that takes as long to complete as it does beating the game and anyone who has done that one was probably thinking "When the fuck is this trophy going to pop? It's been fucking 4 and a half hours of hoverboot boosting!" And let's not all forget the worst walking sim ever in Everybody's Gone to the Rapture except you because apparently, you can only run at 2 miles per hour and everyone left without you.

 

However, HOWEVER, there's truly only one game that belongs on this list. A game that was fundamentally broken, had glitched trophies, and forced me to play it 2 and a half times when obviously, I would have been fine with zero after the fact. A game that I spent literally $1 on the PSN store and STILL feel ripped off after playing it. Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone else, I present to you the absolute worst PlayStation game I have ever played in my life...

 

 

THAT''S RIGHT. TOMB RAIDER. The game only sometimes counts when you pick up a treasure which is a heavy portion of the trophy list. It's completely random on when it actually counts it. Therefore, I would save my game before I picked up a treasure, grab the treasure, check my stats, and either a.) reload my game to grab the treasure again because the dumb fucking game didn't count it or b.) it counted and I can save it again to make sure I don't have to play treasure roulette again. I found times where I was picking up the same treasure over and over again, reload after reload. I had to put the game down out of frustration and go for walks and get away from it at times because I would legit waste 20 minutes picking up a single treasure or 2. It was absolutely infuriating. I honestly should have put this as my most difficult platinum because I don't think I've ever been more frustrated in my life than I was going for this platinum. However, this game deserves its own special place in hell...and I know what you're thinking... Why did I do it? Why didn't I quit? I don't have a 100% profile so why bother? I was doing this for a PSNP event and I did not have a backup plan for that category... Hindsight 20/20, I should have just bought another game for the event because this in the end, I don't think the 30 hours of frustration was worth a 16% platinum.

 

This is all under construction so fee free to peek back later to see what's new! I still plan to add plat images, descriptions and thoughts on each game, but I'm going to go at my own pace here. This is more for me to document my journey and recollect my thoughts over the past 10+ years.

Edited March 15, 2022 by Beyondthegrave07

[Rias Gremory]

Impressive stuff grave. I agree with you on Catherine: Full Body. Doing the hard and remix hard blocks can kill you and takes extreme amount of patience. Babel's Axis Mundi: Doing on solo will be tough for you and making it difficult. Two controllers should suffice. I actually do have Bioshock but only on collection atm. I hope I see you plat Dead Cells lol.

 

Keep up the good work.

[Infected Elite]

hi Grave! 

 

Bloodborne was an absolute amazing plat as well as 100%. Orphan of Kos and the Queen the chalice were hard but so rewarding of a feeling when accomplished. Kos was much more random in terms of attack pattern.

 

Okami, man, i want to plat so bad but its been so long since i touched it and the thought of missing a bead drives me nuts

 

Edit: that Tomb Raider plat sounds infuriating all right. Damn. Its like save scumming every other minute. Imagine that in uncharted where sometimes 2 treasures are seconds apart.... no thank you.

 

Congrats!

Edited August 8, 2021 by Infected Elite

[Dead Weight]

38 minutes ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

 

MOST DIFFICULT/FRUSTATING PLATINUMS

 

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops

2. Tekken 6

3. Catherine: Full Body Edition

4. Hotline Miami

5. Bioshock Infinite

6. Tekken Tag Tournament 2

7. ICO

8. Rick and Morty VR

9. Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax

10. Zone of Enders HD Edition

 

 

 

Just had to do it 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Dead Weight

[AJ_Radio]

Let me just say that I don't agree with a lot of these choices for top 10s. Tekken 6 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 wouldn't be anywhere near my top 10 most frustration/difficult platinums.

 

But you definitely have far different tastes than I do. Regardless, I always like to hear others trophy hunting experiences.

[Roronora_Zoro666]

Tomb Raider hurt me. I would argue that all the others were far more frustrating than Underworld, but ok.

 

Also, when’s Persona 4 Arena Ultimax plat? It’s not good if only 1/2 of the authors have the coveted plat. I will buy you Margaret if you’re really struggling with the challenges. ? 

 

As for the most frustrating/difficult plate, the only one I can actually agree with is Catherine, as I’ve lost my plat due to the Hard Gold runs on PS3. I apparently wasn’t good enough even though I had a near perfect run throughout.

Edited August 8, 2021 by Roronora_Zoro666

[Beyondthegrave07]

22 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

Let me just say that I don't agree with a lot of these choices for top 10s. Tekken 6 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 wouldn't be anywhere near my top 10 most frustration/difficult platinums.

 

But you definitely have far different tastes than I do. Regardless, I always like to hear others trophy hunting experiences.

Tbf, this is my list from plats I've earned. Reason why I have games like Tekken 6 and Tekken TT2 is because I'm pretty trash at fighting games.

 

@Roronora_Zoro666 @Dead Weight It's on my to-do list. Just have to put in the time for muscle memory. Definitely would be in the top 10.

 

[Yuber6969]

2 hours ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

MOST DIFFICULT/FRUSTATING PLATINUMS

 

9. Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax

10. Zone of Enders HD Edition

 

FINALLY someone else who found these two plats difficult! I'm no fighting game noob and I found the High Scorer trophy in Dengeki Bunko to be absolutely brutal.

 

I had a really hard time with ZoE as well. The trophy guide said to just do the first playthrough on hard mode, and my dumbass listened.

[DrBloodmoney]

Poor Tomb Raider Underworld - all on it’s lonesome in the worst category?

 

It’s not a great game by any stretch, but man, I must have been lucky, as I can’t recall it being broken - just pretty bland! 

Gotta say - kinda refreshing to see how little crossover there is between your ‘Proudest’ and your ‘Most Difficult’ lists ?

Sometimes I feel like folks put so much stock in  the difficulty of a plat, and so little in other factors that they only feel able to publicly admit to taking pride in a platinum if it is also a universally acknowledged ‘hard’ game with a super low rarity percentage or some insane grind associated with it - and things like how good or satisfying or just fun a game was gets set to one side!

 

 

 

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[FreshFromThaDeli]

From memory I never had a treasure not count as collected for me in any of my playthroughs of Tomb Raider Underworld so it's a bit surprising to see it as a major issue you had with the game. 

 

I say this because I unexpectedly ended up as being in the top 50 first achievers for Tomb Raider Underworld way back when it got the trophy patch. I already knew the game inside out including memorising locations of 90% of the treasures so I blitzed through it.

 

Surely I would remember that being an issue with the game but I may just be forgetting. 

[GraniteSnake]

6 hours ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

MOST DIFFICULT/FRUSTATING PLATINUMS

 

7. ICO

I need to get around to speedrunning this bitch of a game some day. Worst thing is I’ve all but forgotten all of the puzzle solutions so I’ve made it extra hard on myself!

[Beyondthegrave07]

10 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Poor Tomb Raider Underworld - all on it’s lonesome in the worst category

 

It’s not a great game by any stretch, but man, I must have been lucky, as I can’t recall it being broken - just pretty bland! 

Gotta say - kinda refreshing to see how little crossover there is between your ‘Proudest’ and your ‘Most Difficult’ lists 

Sometimes I feel like folks put so much stock in  the difficulty of a plat, and so little in other factors that they only feel able to publicly admit to taking pride in a platinum if it is also a universally acknowledged ‘hard’ game with a super low rarity percentage or some insane grind associated with it - and things like how good or satisfying or just fun a game was gets set to one side!

 

 

 

 

I plan to add descriptions to actually explain why these two lists are so different, and it will give everyone a bit of insight on my personal trophy hunting weaknesses and insight on why I chose the particular games. Therefore, if my choices seem a bit odd, it's probably because I personally struggled with a particular part, had issues with the game, or something else entirely.

 

For example, most people would look at MGS 3 and think it's a weird choice to be proud of, but I don't think I've ever popped off more earning a plat than I did with that. Getting everything in a single playthrough was just soooo satisfying and shooting that last frog during the final fight and getting that trophy in particular was just so hype.

 

9 hours ago, GraniteSnake said:

I need to get around to speedrunning this bitch of a game some day. Worst thing is I’ve all but forgotten all of the puzzle solutions so I’ve made it extra hard on myself!

The best advice I can give you is to follow a video and do EXACTLY what they do. You don't have to be perfect, but you can't settle for a "bad" section. 

 

I did two attempts at it and I literally missed the 2 hour mark by a couple of minutes. It was so agonizing to barely miss it and tried the last part of the game at least 20 times trying to get my time lower. I had what felt like the "perfect" run at the last save point and the trophy still didn't pop... learn from my mistakes. If you have a rough section, don't accept it and redo it. That's all I can really say.

 

 

Just keep in mind this is all a work in progress so it could change a bit if I missed something.

Edited August 8, 2021 by Beyondthegrave07

[DrBloodmoney]

8 minutes ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

I plan to add descriptions to actually explain why these two lists are so different, and it will give everyone a bit of insight on my personal trophy hunting weaknesses and insight on why I chose the particular games. Therefore, if my choices seem a bit odd, it's probably because I personally struggled with a particular part, had issues with the game, or something else entirely.

 

For example, most people would look at MGS 3 and think it's a weird choice to be proud of, but I don't think I've ever popped off more earning a plat than I did with that. Getting everything in a single playthrough was just soooo satisfying and shooting that last frog during the final fight and getting that trophy in particular was just so hype.

Hey man - I’m absolutely with you, some of my ‘proudest’ ones would certainly seem odd choices to folks who only traffic in ultra rares for their medals - Outer Wilds, The Witness, Prey, Transistor, Hitman 3 - the pride comes far more from how I feel I mastered a game I love than how many (or few) other people did the same!

[rjkclarke]

5 hours ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

I plan to add descriptions to actually explain why these two lists are so different, and it will give everyone a bit of insight on my personal trophy hunting weaknesses and insight on why I chose the particular games. Therefore, if my choices seem a bit odd, it's probably because I personally struggled with a particular part, had issues with the game, or something else entirely.

 

I look forward to reading those, I think like a few others have mentioned here if I was compiling a list of favourite/hardest/proudest/most enjoyable - that kind of thing, I doubt there would be all that much cross over either. I think I'll really enjoy reading about the "why" though, so I'm looking forward to that. 

 

I'm also sad to hear about your experiences with Tomb Raider: Underworld - I reviewed that myself only a few days ago in my own thread (that's not a plug by the way, I suspect by the end of that write up, those that have read the whole way through might have a melting face like the guy from Raiders of the Lost Ark)..... Anyway...... I'm in a similar boat to @DrBloodmoney and @FreshFromThaDeli, I've played that game multiple times on multiple consoles and I've never encountered any glitches like that. I know they exist though, and plenty of people have been plagued by them, it's a shame you were also one of them, sorry to hear that. As Dr B pointed out, it isn't the greatest game ever ( I may have written a lot about it, but I'm still not convinced I actually like it, in fact I was probably a little more positive than that game deserved), so to have a game that's already a little flat, also be marred with glitches must have been a nightmare. Looking forward to reading those descriptions you plan on adding in the future though!

Edited August 8, 2021 by rjkclarke

[Beyondthegrave07]

I was able to update the list today a bit, probably still needs a bit of work, but this is just something to update when I feel like. I'm in no rush. lol.

 

Added P4AU to my list for obvious reasons. That platinum was very difficult and I was lucky to find a great boosting partner (HINT: He wrote the guide with me  ). It also made A-brawl3r's comment irrelevant now so SUCK IT!!!!  

Edited March 15, 2022 by Beyondthegrave07