Meso's Trophy Treehouse

[Mesopithecus]

Introduction

Welcome to my treehouse, don't mind all the clutter - it's just all the games I've hoarded and not yet started.  I'm Meso, but also known as Rachel - I've been trophy hunting since 2011 first on a different account, and then swapped to this account in 2016 primarily due to a significant region change and partially due to wanting to change my account name

 

Meso-what-ecus you ask?  It's an extinct species of Old World monkey, the username primarily came about due to my love of the game Ark Survival Evolved, it was a game that my husband got me hooked on and we have a lot of shared hours on the game over on Xbox.

 

I'm a big JRPG lover, but do tend to stray outside of my comfort zone from time-to-time.  Generally though I have been gaming for long enough to know what I like and like what I know

 

Currently Working On:

 

Incomplete Games (known as the Pile of Shame)

                                         

 

I was once an avid completionist, but I found seeing that high % (I think I got it up past 98.5%) was just making trophy hunting un-fun for me.  As a result I started a whole bunch of games - of course my methods of killing my completion were probably a bit extreme (or obsessive) by others standards, but I've actually found it's helped me find enjoyment  These games haven't been abandoned and most are a work in progress, others I intend on going back to soon

 

I've added the title list in the spoiler tag to identify the icons above

 

Spoiler

1.  Hyperdimension Neptunia Producing Perfection

2.  Slay the Spire

3.  Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana

4.  Lost Sea

5.  Enter the Gungeon

6.  Kingdom Hearts 3 Re;Mind DLC

7.  The Flame in the Flood

8.  Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

9.  Graveyard Keeper

10. The Swords of Ditto

11. Riddled Corpses EX

12. Yooka-Laylee

13. Final Fantasy VII Remake

14. Lumo

15. Bloodborne

16. Trine: Enchanted Edition

17. Exist Archive

18. Amnesia Collection

19. Star Ocean: The Last Hope Remastered

20. Hades

21. Lego DC Supervillains

22. Horizon Forbidden West DLC

 

Favorites

Rather than talk in depth about all the games on my profile (which would take a while) I just want to highlight my absolute favorite games and among these are games I am proud of - I generally enjoy most of the games I play but these are the ones that just stand out for me.  Going forward, I do intend on writing some mini reviews on the games that I finish.  Equally, if you see something I have finished that piques your interest, please feel free to ask me about it.

                                                      

 

That ended up being way more favorites than I anticipated - also shout out to The Pathless because the thumbnail wouldn't embed properly.  I've also added the list in spoiler tags below

 

Spoiler

1.  Odin Sphere

2.  Don't Starve Together

3.  Magicka 2 (friend killing ftw)

4.  Ark: Survival Evolved (not for the trophies, but for the general gaming experience)

5.  Sexy Brutale

6.  Danganronpa

7.  Okami

8.  Danganronpa 2

9.  Horizon Zero Dawn

10. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep

11. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered

12. Hollow Knight

13. Persona 5

14. Final Fantasy X

15. Tales of Symphonia

16. Slime Rancher

17. Overcooked 2

18. Monster Hunter World

19. Monster Hunter World Iceborne

20. Planet Coaster

21. Spiritfarer

22. Stardew Valley

23. Persona 4 Golden

24. Children of Morta

25. Scarlet Nexus

26. Genshin Impact

27. Tales of Arise

28. Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin

 

Event Badges

I absolutely love the community events that take place on the forums, they are always filled with positivity and the event runners and badge creators are amazing.  I wanted to show off some of the badges I've earned from the events - I've popped them down in the spoiler below!

 

Spoiler

                     

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Mesopithecus

[MidnightDragon]

Looking forward to following your journey! 

[emzynitro__]

Excited to witness the journey ahead! 

[BeesTrophies]

Meso!

Can't wait to read your updates as your journey unfolds

[gruffiiti]

Glad to see Children of Morta made the fav list!

 

May have to check out a few of the others you listed.

Edited August 11, 2021 by gruffiiti

[rjkclarke]

That is so awesome seeing Tales of Symphonia on your list of favourites.... I love that game SOOO much.. So it's nice to see it getting some love here too. Looking forward to reading your progress going forward. Judging by your list of favourites, you seem to have pretty interesting and eclectic taste in video games.

[Mesopithecus]

1 hour ago, gruffiiti said:

Glad to see Children of Morta made the fav list!

 

May have to check out a few of the others you listed.

 

I'm glad I spotted you playing it during Gaming by Numbers, as it motivated me to finally pick it up and I ended up loving it.  This is a good reminder though that I should put the event badges I've earned in my opening post.

 

It's not on my favorites list yet as I haven't finished it, but I very highly recommend Slay the Spire.  I've been finding that to be a lot of fun - although it's not very forgiving at times.

 

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

That is so awesome seeing Tales of Symphonia on your list of favourites.... I love that game SOOO much.. So it's nice to see it getting some love here too. Looking forward to reading your progress going forward. Judging by your list of favourites, you seem to have pretty interesting and eclectic taste in video games.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Tales of Symphonia, I didn't even find the multiple playthroughs a chore due to the different ways you could play to obtain all the titles.  I feel like it gets a lot of love from me too as it's my first Tales game - I have most of them sat in my backlog so maybe I'll get to the rest at some point soon - I'd at least like to clear the PS3 ones.

[Tearbaer]

Been debating on doing something like this myself. Glad to see you make one. Lots of good games for you to look forward to. 

[rjkclarke]

On 11/08/2021 at 6:42 PM, Mesopithecus said:

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Tales of Symphonia, I didn't even find the multiple playthroughs a chore due to the different ways you could play to obtain all the titles.  I feel like it gets a lot of love from me too as it's my first Tales game - I have most of them sat in my backlog so maybe I'll get to the rest at some point soon - I'd at least like to clear the PS3 ones.

 

I didn't mind that aspect of it either. Adds a lot of variety to the experience doesn't it. I don't think I've ever gotten bored during any of the playthroughs of Symphonia. Including the ones independent of trophies. Although I had to, I expect at least, do more playthroughs than you ? - purely, because I made a mistake more than once trying to get Sheena's treasure hunter title (that might not have been specifically what it was called, but the one where you have to get every treasure chest in the game), I didn't mind though. There is genuinely so much to love in it. Have you thought about playing the sequel? Full disclosure. I don't think it's quite as good (yet still very good  on it's own merits), but there is a whole lot to like in it. I think that game gets a really unfair amount of hate directed towards it, because some of the characters from the original title get expanded in various ways (some less popular than others), yet the protagonist of Dawn of the New World ends up having a very unique, yet very interesting character arc.

 

It was my first Tales of' game too. I think it's one of those series where your first one usually ends up being your favourite one. That'd be awesome if you did decide to tackle the PS3 ones in the future. There is a lot of quality playtime there to be had from a JRPG fan. Expect that would make for a fascinating read for a lot of people, myself included.

 

Your pile of shame bit made me chuckle a bit (great name for it). I think Star Ocean: The Last Hope would probably be top of my personal pile of shame! ?... It's just such a daunting task to return to isn't it. It's a scary one to have in your backlog. I'm quite happy to play it, then the realisation of the time that's involved makes me just go... "Maybe some other time"

Edited August 12, 2021 by rjkclarke

[LihapullaPoju]

I was wondering about how you came with your username, well now I know

 

Otherwise very interesting picks, Im not a JRPG fan at all but looking forward to more posts

[Mesopithecus]

6 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I didn't mind that aspect of it either. Adds a lot of variety to the experience doesn't it. I don't think I've ever gotten bored during any of the playthroughs of Symphonia. Including the ones independent of trophies. Although I had to, I expect at least, do more playthroughs than you  - purely, because I made a mistake more than once trying to get Sheena's treasure hunter title (that might not have been specifically what it was called, but the one where you have to get every treasure chest in the game), I didn't mind though. There is genuinely so much to love in it. Have you thought about playing the sequel? Full disclosure. I don't think it's quite as good (yet still very good in on it's own merits), but there is a whole lot to like in it. I think that game gets a really unfair amount of hate directed towards it, because some of the characters from the original title get expanded in various ways (some less popular than others), yet the protagonist of Dawn of the New World ends up having a very unique, yet very interesting character arc.

 

It was my first Tales of' game too. I think it's one of those series where your first one usually ends up being your favourite one. That'd be awesome if you did decide to tackle the PS3 ones in the future. There is a lot of quality playtime there to be had from a JRPG fan. Expect that would make for a fascinating read for a lot of people, myself included.

 

Your pile of shame bit made me chuckle a bit (great name for it). I think Star Ocean: The Last Hope would probably be top of my personal pile of shame! ... It's just such a daunting task to return to isn't it. It's a scary one to have in your backlog. I'm quite happy to play it, then the realisation of the time that's involved makes me just go... "Maybe some other time"

 

I do have Dawn of the New World downloaded ready to play, but have been pushing it off, mainly due to all the bad things I kept hearing about it.  I should at least give it a try

 

Star Ocean is definitely a mammoth, up until earlier this year it was sat at 2% (maybe even 1%) completion but a group of my friends all played through and I joined in determined to at least finish the story.  I'm up to the grind though now, which is where I got a bit fatigued and put the game down - it doesn't help that most of what I need to do next is in a 3 hour long dungeon with no save points, and we're in stormy season right now where I live so the risk of power outages is much higher.  Maybe I'll revisit this again in the winter months

[rjkclarke]

16 hours ago, Mesopithecus said:

I do have Dawn of the New World downloaded ready to play, but have been pushing it off, mainly due to all the bad things I kept hearing about it.  I should at least give it a try

 

I know what you mean.... People seem to get really wound up by that game.. I'd recommend at least giving it a try for sure. The only thing I'd say to bear in mind, is to not be instantly infuriated with what they do with Lloyd. There is a reason, it becomes clear and it all makes sense by the end. I've seen a lot of people all over the web who haven't seen the full picture - rag on that game for things that don't really end up being relevant. If you don't like it, you can always set it on fire and throw it out of a window.... Or something more reasonable (I need to stop suggesting that as an option for people)..... I guess. ?

 

16 hours ago, Mesopithecus said:

Star Ocean is definitely a mammoth, up until earlier this year it was sat at 2% (maybe even 1%) completion but a group of my friends all played through and I joined in determined to at least finish the story.  I'm up to the grind though now, which is where I got a bit fatigued and put the game down - it doesn't help that most of what I need to do next is in a 3 hour long dungeon with no save points, and we're in stormy season right now where I live so the risk of power outages is much higher.  Maybe I'll revisit this again in the winter months

 

Snap!! Well apart from playing it with friends. I do have a friend that has played it, but they'd never attempt the trophies on it. I went back to it last year to at least finish off the story, after a gap of just shy of 9 years since my first trophy on the game. I was surprised by how much of it I still remembered. 

 

I'm at the grind, in the sense that I have another playthrough where I need to do everything. Like get all the battle titles and things like that. I just haven't quite gathered the motivation to actually do it. Every time I get the urge, common sense kicks in and I end up playing a different game.

I had forgotten there's a dungeon with no save points. Isn't that dungeon very prone to crashes too. So you'd be battling two unpredictable horrible things at once in the weather and the game possibly crashing. i wish you all the luck though if you plan to go back to it in the future.

Edited August 13, 2021 by rjkclarke

[Mesopithecus]

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Snap!! Well apart from playing it with friends. I do have a friend that has played it, but they'd never attempt the trophies on it. I went back to it last year to at least finish off the story, after a gap of just shy of 9 years since my first trophy on the game. I was surprised by how much of it I still remembered. 

 

I'm at the grind, in the sense that I have another playthrough where I need to do everything. Like get all the battle titles and things like that. I just haven't quite gathered the motivation to actually do it, Every time I get the urge, common sense kicks in and I end up playing a different game.

I had forgotten there's a dungeon with no save points. Isn't that dungeon very prone to crashes too. So you'd be battling two unpredictable horrible things at once in the weather and the game possibly crashing. i wish you all the luck though if you plan to go back to it in the future.

 

I was having a look through your checklist and your profile; you've done some mighty impressive games!  I can definitely understand putting that epic grind off, especially when sometimes we accumulate so many games in the backlog.  I'm not sure about crashes on the PS4 version, I have heard the PS3 can be prone to crashing - I definitely notice slowdowns with using Arumat's skills at least

[rjkclarke]

4 hours ago, Mesopithecus said:

 

I was having a look through your checklist and your profile; you've done some mighty impressive games!  I can definitely understand putting that epic grind off, especially when sometimes we accumulate so many games in the backlog.  I'm not sure about crashes on the PS4 version, I have heard the PS3 can be prone to crashing - I definitely notice slowdowns with using Arumat's skills at least

 

Thank you! I appreciate that. You've got a treasure trove there yourself of awesome and eclectic games, I looked at some of the completion times and kind of thought "wow" - how did you manage to get through Gauntlet so quick? . It's nice to see point-and-click and puzzle titles getting represented so abundantly on yours. Especially Broken Sword 5. I am very fond of that game and series, helped me get out of a little dark spot in my personal life at the time I played Broken Sword 5. I ended up talking about it quite extensively when I was theming some of my reviews around mental health awareness week/month a few months back. So that ended up being quite cathartic. 

 

This is going to sound weird, at least you'd expect it would, to single this one game out of the many amazing ones you've played. Is Shiness The Lightning Kingdom good or worth playing? I do own it, but I've not actually really much looked into playing it yet. I got it in a bundle with Seasons after Fall. I've just not actually bothered to touch it yet.

 

You're so right about the backIog thing though, it's way too easy to just start a new game you haven't tried than go back to something you know is as you so rightly put an epic grind. I did have the silly idea to tackle little bits of Star Ocean in between playing other games, but that's not quite worked out yet. I always get the sudden urge to play something either very specific - or I have no plan at all and just pick one at random on completion of the one I had been playing.. I'm not sure it'll be another RPG though after I finish the rest of Final Fantasy IX.

[Mesopithecus]

7 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

This is going to sound weird, at least you'd expect it would, to single this one game out of the many amazing ones you've played. Is Shiness The Lightning Kingdom good or worth playing? I do own it, but I've not actually really much looked into playing it yet. I got it in a bundle with Seasons after Fall. I've just not actually bothered to touch it yet.

 

You're so right about the backIog thing though, it's way too easy to just start a new game you haven't tried than go back to something you know is as you so rightly put an epic grind. I did have the silly idea to tackle little bits of Star Ocean in between playing other games, but that's not quite worked out yet. I always get the sudden urge to play something either very specific - or I have no plan at all and just pick one at random on completion of the one I had been playing.. I'm not sure it'll be another RPG though after I finish the rest of Final Fantasy IX.

 

 

I'd definitely say Shiness is worth a play, in terms of gameplay and story I will say it felt pretty average but there is a lot of potential there.  The rarity is very deceptive too, I felt like at the beginning the difficulty curve was the highest up until the first boss and then you get some skills that can trivialize the rest of the game.  There is a fantastic guide/walkthrough over on TrueAchievements that helps with some of the more missable trophies   I will say I experienced some bugs during my second playthrough with freezes and scenes not triggering as they should but I think that was more my fault than the game by trying to skip through so quickly.

 

Final Fantasy IX is such a fantastic game, I hope you enjoy it!!  I see you have already go the jump rope trophies done too, congrats  that's a huge platinum blocker out of the way.  

[Lawless_Llama]

Great to see you starting a checklist my friend!  I'm excited to cheer you on as you tackle games in your backlog and "pile of shame". Thank you for all you do and the joy you bring!

[rjkclarke]

13 minutes ago, Mesopithecus said:

 

 

I'd definitely say Shiness is worth a play, in terms of gameplay and story I will say it felt pretty average but there is a lot of potential there.  The rarity is very deceptive too, I felt like at the beginning the difficulty curve was the highest up until the first boss and then you get some skills that can trivialize the rest of the game.  There is a fantastic guide/walkthrough over on TrueAchievements that helps with some of the more missable trophies   I will say I experienced some bugs during my second playthrough with freezes and scenes not triggering as they should but I think that was more my fault than the game by trying to skip through so quickly.

 

Final Fantasy IX is such a fantastic game, I hope you enjoy it!!  I see you have already go the jump rope trophies done too, congrats  that's a huge platinum blocker out of the way.  

 

That sounds really appealing actually. Purely because I seem to end up enjoying games that might have slightly basic or a little iffy gameplay or storytelling. I find it really charming when developers are so abundantly trying to make their product as good as they possibly can, those games often become the ones that have the most charm to them. I love seeing the potential even if sometimes it's only half realised. Looks like that's another one to definitely add to my backlog then!! Thanks for the pointers towards a decent guide too, I appreciate that. I expect I'll more than likely use it too when I get around to playing it.

 

Final Fantasy IX is a fantastic game. I've properly fallen in love with it. Somehow I didn't play it when it came out, or any of the intervening years since. Despite considering myself quite a big Final Fantasy fan - some fan huh? ?. I've also managed to remain completely spoiler free over 20 years somehow. So that's been another real bonus. I got that jump rope trophy out of the way first. I didn't want my enduring memory of that game and the platinum to be continually failing at a mini-game..... And continually fail I certainly did! ?

 

 

[Mesopithecus]

 #228 - Desert Child

 

My first attempt at a review too, so please excuse the likely terrible write-up ahead.  I picked this one up off PSNow - so maybe I could make a series of "Meso plays weird games off PSNow" - anyway, I played this purely because of a trophy competition and I'm glad I did because it got to expand my gaming horizons a little more.

 

This game is an odd mix of simulation meets racing, you live your day-to-day life on Mars eating weird beans, becoming notorious through committing criminal acts (if you want to) and of course bike racing.  Now the bike racing is pretty simple but works quite well, it kind of reminded me a little of a 2D sidescroller - you race against one other opponent shooting TVs and money crates and timing boosts to cross the finish line first and win the race reward.  You'll be racing a lot if you decide to play this game.  Towards the end you'll do a race where I personally found quite a big difficulty spike, where you had to be more on the ball with your boosts and energy management (not ashamed to admit it made me rage a little)

 

This was overall one of those games I'd say was very average for me, I think my favorite part was the music - it was really jamming!  I've seen this on sale a few times, and you could definitely do worse for a couple of $.  So if you're into weird indie racing games, pick this up and check it out

 

 

[Mesopithecus]

 #229. 2064: Read Only Memories

 

 

2064 Read Only Memories was one of the games in the lineup of PS+ back in October 2018 - and wow do I feel silly for having this in my backlog and sleeping on it for so long, what a fantastic game!  It has everything I love about these types of games being part visual novel and part point and click adventure; also the voice cast was amazing with Melissa Hutchison (voice of Clementine in the Walking Dead) voicing the main robot character, Turing. Oh and the soundtrack was just *chefs kiss*

 

In brief and not to give too many spoilers, the game is a cyberpunk adventure where you play as a journalist, helping a mysterious robot named Turing whose creator is missing.  Through your adventures to discover what happened, you encounter quite the variety of characters and some interesting (and sometimes frustrating) puzzles.

 

For most part, the game is very easy and the guide on this site is fantastic however there are a couple of things I could see being a platinum blocker for people - there are two shooting mini-game trophies (Cardinal of Combat and Threat Neutralized) that are not well designed with the PS4 controller in mind, and there is also Iron ROM for finishing the game in one sitting - whilst this trophy was fine for me, I have heard reports of glitches and crashes however I believe they are mostly on the Vita.

 

If like me, you have this in your backlog and you enjoy these type of games, definitely give this a try.  You might be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

 

 

[rjkclarke]

What a great review of 2064: Read Only Memories.. Nice work on that one!! I had almost exactly the same thought when I played through it last year of "why didn't I play this one sooner". Actually, that's happening more and more at the moment.  It's such a fantastic experience 2064 - I thought it had  so many interesting and memorable characters too.

 

I'm waiting for VA-11 Hall-A  to go on sale - because it's set within the same universe as 2064, in fact some of the characters from 2064 appear in it, in little cameo's. I'm really looking forward to that one, hopefully it's got the same vibrant and memorable world as 2064 does.

 

I absolutely love it, when games can just surprise you like that...  Where you can't help but just think - " why haven't I played this before, I'm almost guaranteed to like it"; always a pleasant surprise though.

Edited August 16, 2021 by rjkclarke

[Mesopithecus]

20 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

What a great review of 2064: Read Only Memories.. Nice work on that one!! I had almost exactly the same thought when I played through it last year of "why didn't I play this one sooner". Actually, that's happening more and more at the moment.  It's such a fantastic experience 2064 - I thought it had  so many interesting and memorable characters too.

 

I'm waiting for VA-11 Hall-A  to go on sale - because it's set within the same universe as 2064, in fact some of the characters from 2064 appear in it, in little cameo's. I'm really looking to that one, hopefully it's got the same vibrant and memorable world as 2064 does.

 

I absolutely love it, when games can just surprise you like that...  Where you can't help but just think - " why haven't I played this before, I'm almost guaranteed to like it"; always a pleasant surprise though.

 

You're the second person to mention VA-11 Hall-A to me, so I think I'm going to add that one to my wish list

 

I thought the story of 2064 was really well written, it kept me engaged through all of it, even if some of the social commentary hit a little bit close to home sometimes

[gruffiiti]

Dammit @Mesopithecus... Ive skipped over 2064 many many times (mostly because I had no clue what kind of game it would be and hadn't bothered to look into it). With a review like that I may have to give this one a try, janky mini games and all. I haven't played VA-11 Hall-A either but Ive heard its very similar to Coffee Talk which I did like so Ive also got it on my watch list.

 

Geez... I need to find more time from somewhere to play all these games.

[Mesopithecus]

Non-Plat Spotlight

 

So, after much consideration, I feel like my initial post missed out some awesome games I've played that don't have a platinum trophy.  Typically for me, non-plat games are a nice refreshing break between longer grinds - there are exceptions to that rule for example the PS4 version of Genshin Impact is a non-plat and I already have 180+ hours on it.  I've popped all the pretty images below and then a list in the spoiler tags

 

                                                                            

 

Spoiler

1.  A Boy and His Blob

2.  Doodle God

3.  Doodle Devil

4.  Three Fourths Home: Extended Edition

5.  Abzu

6.  Dear Esther: Landmark Edition

7.  The Walking Dead: Season 2

8.  Actual Sunlight

9.  Walking Dead: Michonne

10. Costume Quest 2

11. Letter Quest Remastered

12. Koi

13. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

14. Type: Rider

15. Deliriant

16. Kingdom Hears Re:Coded

17. Level 22

18. Leaving Lyndow

19. Child of Light

20. Dream C Club

21. Hatoful Boyfriend

22. Type: Rider

23. Hue

24. Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star

25. Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage

26. Final Fantasy XV Multiplayer: Comrades

27. What Remains of Edith Finch

28. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

29. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

30. The Swapper

31. Whispering Willows

32. Machinarium

33. Frogger Returs

34. Overcooked

35. The Turing Test

36. Journey

37. Nova-111

38. One Upon Light

 

 

It's actually pretty surprising to see how many non-plat games I've completed and how many still remain in my backlog!  I would like to take a moment to shrine the spotlight on my top 5 favorite:

 

1.  Overcooked

Now both Overcooked and Overcooked 2 had piqued my interest for a while, I watched many streams (Achievement Hunter) and it looked to be a lot of chaotic fun.  I, however, could not convince my husband to play these in co-op with me as he hates this kind of stress in a game, so I decided to embark on a solo journey into this game after watching an awesome solo stream from @Beth Medusa.  What followed was hours of fun trying to strategize and overcome each level, and I won't lie, it was a challenge...but a fun challenge.

 

2.  Child of Light

It's absolutely crazy to me knowing this is an Ubisoft game.  If you're not familiar, this is a platforming RPG based on fairy tales and all the dialogue is spoken in rhyme.  The art and music is absolutely beautiful and as an RPG it's extremely accessible and easy to pick up.  

 

3.  The Turing Test

I picked this up through PSNow, as I fancied a puzzle game and this definitely scratched that itch.  The puzzles very much reminded me of Portal and it was a nice challenge, the level design is thoughtful and the narrative is interesting.

 

4.  Abzu

This game is so beautiful and very chilled out, exploring underwater ecosystems.  The art director of this game previously worked on Journey, and the his studio (Giant Squid) also went on to create The Pathless (which is also great, and you should check it out)

 

5.  Genshin Impact

OK, so I'm kind of cheating with this as I've not yet finished it, but as my most played game already this year I feel this deserves a huge mention.  I had been interested on and off with this game but the gacha element always deterred me - however my good friend @Kent10201 finally managed to convince me to play and I've not regretted it for one moment.  Now I feel like I ought to pop a disclaimer here that I've had some insane lucky rolls on the gacha, pretty much pulling my main team within the first 20 wishes.  The huge open world has well and truly immersed me and I always find (at least at the moment) so much to do from farming upgrade items, to progressing the story, to hunting down treasure chests, beating world bosses, just hanging out in my teapot.  Most of my other games have kind of fallen into the backlog abyss a little bit because I'm enjoying this so much...and what's even better is there is more content to come in the future for this game.  I know there will be a time when my interest will wane and I will end up logging in for dailies, but for now I'm thoroughly enjoying my time.

 

So....um...thank you for coming to my "why I love Genshin" TED talk ?

 

[BeesTrophies]

19 hours ago, Mesopithecus said:

Non-Plat Spotlight

 

So, after much consideration, I feel like my initial post missed out some awesome games I've played that don't have a platinum trophy.  Typically for me, non-plat games are a nice refreshing break between longer grinds - there are exceptions to that rule for example the PS4 version of Genshin Impact is a non-plat and I already have 180+ hours on it.  I've popped all the pretty images below and then a list in the spoiler tags

 

                                                                            

 

  Reveal hidden contents

1.  A Boy and His Blob

2.  Doodle God

3.  Doodle Devil

4.  Three Fourths Home: Extended Edition

5.  Abzu

6.  Dear Esther: Landmark Edition

7.  The Walking Dead: Season 2

8.  Actual Sunlight

9.  Walking Dead: Michonne

10. Costume Quest 2

11. Letter Quest Remastered

12. Koi

13. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

14. Type: Rider

15. Deliriant

16. Kingdom Hears Re:Coded

17. Level 22

18. Leaving Lyndow

19. Child of Light

20. Dream C Club

21. Hatoful Boyfriend

22. Type: Rider

23. Hue

24. Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star

25. Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage

26. Final Fantasy XV Multiplayer: Comrades

27. What Remains of Edith Finch

28. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

29. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

30. The Swapper

31. Whispering Willows

32. Machinarium

33. Frogger Returs

34. Overcooked

35. The Turing Test

36. Journey

37. Nova-111

38. One Upon Light

 

 

It's actually pretty surprising to see how many non-plat games I've completed and how many still remain in my backlog!  I would like to take a moment to shrine the spotlight on my top 5 favorite:

 

1.  Overcooked

Now both Overcooked and Overcooked 2 had piqued my interest for a while, I watched many streams (Achievement Hunter) and it looked to be a lot of chaotic fun.  I, however, could not convince my husband to play these in co-op with me as he hates this kind of stress in a game, so I decided to embark on a solo journey into this game after watching an awesome solo stream from @Beth Medusa.  What followed was hours of fun trying to strategize and overcome each level, and I won't lie, it was a challenge...but a fun challenge.

 

2.  Child of Light

It's absolutely crazy to me knowing this is an Ubisoft game.  If you're not familiar, this is a platforming RPG based on fairy tales and all the dialogue is spoken in rhyme.  The art and music is absolutely beautiful and as an RPG it's extremely accessible and easy to pick up.  

 

3.  The Turing Test

I picked this up through PSNow, as I fancied a puzzle game and this definitely scratched that itch.  The puzzles very much reminded me of Portal and it was a nice challenge, the level design is thoughtful and the narrative is interesting.

 

4.  Abzu

This game is so beautiful and very chilled out, exploring underwater ecosystems.  The art director of this game previously worked on Journey, and the his studio (Giant Squid) also went on to create The Pathless (which is also great, and you should check it out)

 

5.  Genshin Impact

OK, so I'm kind of cheating with this as I've not yet finished it, but as my most played game already this year I feel this deserves a huge mention.  I had been interested on and off with this game but the gacha element always deterred me - however my good friend @Kent10201 finally managed to convince me to play and I've not regretted it for one moment.  Now I feel like I ought to pop a disclaimer here that I've had some insane lucky rolls on the gacha, pretty much pulling my main team within the first 20 wishes.  The huge open world has well and truly immersed me and I always find (at least at the moment) so much to do from farming upgrade items, to progressing the story, to hunting down treasure chests, beating world bosses, just hanging out in my teapot.  Most of my other games have kind of fallen into the backlog abyss a little bit because I'm enjoying this so much...and what's even better is there is more content to come in the future for this game.  I know there will be a time when my interest will wane and I will end up logging in for dailies, but for now I'm thoroughly enjoying my time.

 

So....um...thank you for coming to my "why I love Genshin" TED talk 

 

Oh Meso! I'm glad you enjoyed my stream and it got you to test your patience with Overcooked solo! Like you said, it was a challenge but a fun one. I definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to give it a go but who doesn't have anyone to play with. Its totally doable

[gruffiiti]

10 minutes ago, Beth Medusa said:

Oh Meso! I'm glad you enjoyed my stream and it got you to test your patience with Overcooked solo! Like you said, it was a challenge but a fun one. I definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to give it a go but who doesn't have anyone to play with. Its totally doable

 

Hmmm... I started this with my kids awhile back and they quickly lost interest. Been on the fence about trying a solo completion sometime. This gives me hope I could do it and Id be game to watch this stream if I can find it.