Trophy Thoughts: Use a Guide!

[poetic_justice_]

After four blind playthroughs and numerous missing trophies, I hit a wall. Unlike other Wales Interactive games, R1 doesn't skip scenes a player has already seen. Sometimes R1 skips a scene, usually if it's immediately before a decision, but most times R1 is inactive. This means being forced to watch the same scenes multiple times. Each playthrough was about an hour, with 90% of it being repeat viewing. This became too much for me. I completed the game four times in four different ways, but only one ending trophy unlocked. This was confusing.

 

Following the guide, the platinum can be earned in four playthroughs, with playthrough three and four being almost identical. The one exception is the final decision. On your third playthrough, as soon as the trophy Maybe You Should Give It Another Go unlocks, exit to the XMB and close the game. Restart, and if the game reloads at the final confrontation, make the opposite choice to unlock the trophy Mikey Lizard. This can potentially save you another playthrough, or one hour of unnecessary gameplay. I wasn't able to test this theory, since I had unlocked trophies out-of-order from the guide, but hopefully it can work for someone else.

 

This guide contains spoilers: http://www.gamepretty.com/bloodshore-100-achievement-guide/ 

 

I recommend two blind playthroughs, once with Tish and once with Gav. Follow your instincts and have fun. After that, use the guide, for which I take no credit. The author explains things that a player has no way of knowing, particularly for the trophies I used to think I was indecisive, We tried to warn you!, and Deathlooper. In addition, two of the trophies (Maybe You Should Give It Another Go and Mikey Lizard) are the cumulative result of conflicting and non-intuitive decisions. I won't disclose specifics, but the only way to get these trophies is to give your most important item to someone you don't trust while you are actively sabotaging your relationship with that character. Another set of trophies, Comedy Killer and Bromance, can be earned in a single playthrough, which defies logic. You stab a character to death, yet minutes later that character shows up unharmed and happy to see you. 

 

Important: Certain trophies cannot be earned if you've set the Streamer Pause function to On. The game does not tell you this. With the Streamer Pause set to Off, in two scenes you must not make any decisions whatsoever: I used to think I was indecisive and Deathlooper. For We tried to warn you!, you must make the same bad decision multiple times, even though it results in your character's death. In a game that is supposedly about making positive choices, making the worst choice possible over and over or making no choice at all was non-intuitive and felt wrong. I used to think I was indecisive is a funny trophy idea, but subverting expectations in this manner felt cheap. 

 

This is not to say Bloodshore is not worth playing. I immensely enjoyed the first two playthroughs. As an FMV, Bloodshore nails the genre. The game is so bad it's good. Bloodshore has many qualities required for FMV: a plot written by a third-grader, cliche dialogue, two-dimensional characters, and over-the-top bad acting. Many of the actors don't seem to know what to do with their hands while speaking, which I found hilarious. The awful CGI, blood, gore, and character deaths usually result in unexpected laughter. As an FMV narrative, it succeeds. My frustration resulted from technical issues and trophies with overly complex and/or counter-intuitive decisions. However, the guide solves those issues. You don't have to think, just do what the guide says.

 

I hope other people reading this have a better overall experience with the game than I did. Do two blind playthroughs, once with Gav, once with Tish, and then follow the guide for trophy clean-up. I think it's a six-hour platinum that way. 

Edited August 31, 2022 by poetic_justice_

[GothGirlWalenska]

I'm a big fan of FMV games, but this one just didn't do it for me. I found the game was too much like I'm A Celeb, but more gore and violence, mixed with the drama side of reality TV. (Not a good combination in my opinion) - Not to say it's a bad game, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as Late Shift, The Bunker, or The Shapeshifting Detective. Wales Interactive are one of my favourite publishers, but Bloodshore wasn't for me. 

 

Having said that, I do recommend checking out these games for yourselves, cos the majority of them are actually some of the most unique games I've played in recent years. 

 

There is also another FMV game coming later this month called Vegas Tales, and one coming in March called Who Pressed Mute On Uncle Marcus? - Both of those sound interesting.

[poetic_justice_]

Your Location: Arcadia Bay. ? Life is strange!

 

Late Shift had so much variety in the story choices and where your character ended up environmentally based on those choices. Bloodshore is more like The Shapeshifting Detective than Late Shift in terms of limited geography, though TSD had a more intelligent, less repetitive narrative than Bloodshore. I'm A Celeb is not a title with which I'm familiar, so I cannot make a comparison. From what I recall, the trophies in The Bunker made sense in terms of the story. I needed a guide for Shapeshifting Detective, but the trophies I missed on blind playthroughs were logical once the guide showed the path. However, many of Bloodshore's trophies didn't make sense at all. Comedy Killer & Bromance being possible on the same playthrough was physically impossible, but it is included in the game. I thought I was indecisive/Deathlooper/We tried to warn you! all ran counter to mechanics the game encouraged players to use the rest of the game. The FMV aspects of Bloodshore are solid, but the illogical trophy hoops were slightly confusing. I hope your platinum experience was smoother than mine. Thanks for the heads up on the upcoming FMV games!

Edited February 4, 2022 by poetic_justice_

[bud-arc]

This was one of the best FMV games I've played, as far as having a smooth, overall enjoyable experience. I really liked the social media Hunger Games aspect, which made it feel more "epic" than other low-budget FMV titles. I played through it about a dozen times (skipping previously viewed scenes really helps), trying all the options for my own amusement, although there are a few unskippable sequences that got repetitive after awhile. As with all of these "choose your own adventure" games, there are diminishing returns with each subsequent playthrough. The trophies were relatively straightforward except for some of those looping ones previously mentioned in the thread. Hardest trophy for me to figure out was "Good luck, nerd" because it apparently has an RNG aspect to it (took me 3 tries to unlock). Also, I felt the endings were very limited; it's basically two different scenes with slight variations that are difficult to predict. 

 

As far as ranking Wales Interactive games, I would probably place this among my favorites, such as Late Shift, The Complex, Five Dates, I Saw Black Clouds, Nightbook and Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus. I wasn't the biggest fan of The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker due to all the typing, which The Shapeshifting Detective definitely improved on, and The Bunker was also decent, but lends itself to less replayability. Simulacra was also fun, though I found some of the trophies a nuisance. And of course, Headspun is the worst, due to all the fucking bugs. Other FMV games I recommend are Dark Nights with Poe and Munro, Death Come True, Erica, She Sees Red and Telling Lies. And if you're feeling adventurous, try the '90s FMV remasters: Night Trap, Double Switch, Corpse Killer, Ground Zero Texas and American Hero, which were all frustrating experiences that I somehow tend to look back fondly on.