Taruta13's House of Business

[Taruta13]

I've got a little something something planned for later this year. First off...

 

I'm going to be wandering around HERE from March 21-23. Why? Well, my plan was to go to Disneyworld to soak in the atmosphere to motivate myself to platinum Kingdom Hearts, but that was too expensive, so instead...

 

I'll be soaking up the atmosphere of the Wizarding World in Universal Orlando to motivate myself to do a playthrough of Hogwarts Legacy instead, which is cheaper and since I pre-ordered the game on my PS5, I think it was time to get into it.

 

Now for something different...

 

 

These games! What do they have in common?

 

The answer: I platinumed all four of them on older accounts but then they got DLC that I despise because they ramp up the difficulty intensely. Now that I am sure that the Minecraft DLC might be uncompletable(due to needing an old as the hills physical copy to boost the DLC 2 and DLC 5 pack trophies since they are only doable on the 1.0 Editions version of Minecraft), I am just going to go ahead and platinum these four games again: Clockwise from the upper left if you don't know what they are: Ni No Kuni II, A Hat in Time, Kingdom Hearts III, and Shantae Half-Genie Hero(not the Ultimate Edition as the DLC is built in so it technically has none, I'm talking the ORIGINAL Half Genie Hero).

 

Whether I got for 100% completion is up to my mood and the year. If I can get more games completed and out the door, these DLCs might get some respect. (Especially after I learned that A Hat In Time got an update that adds an assist mode for the Death Wishes that erases the need to do the bonus challenges.)

 

 

[Taruta13]

So right now, I'm going to put up my next update even though it's incomplete. I will be going to Orlando by plane and staying for a few days in order to get the Harry Potter experience while I am pushing through Hogwarts Legacy on my PS5. (That is, if the airport will let me take my PS5 on the plane... ) So I won't be updating until I get back in five days.

 

Spoiler

REDACTED, see next post

 

Also, remember what I said about a certain game not coming to this list? Well, since I just platted a game which I never intend to 100%, you might notice that I scratched it off the original post.

Edited March 25, 2023 by Taruta13

[Taruta13]

Turns out I accidentally created a new post without realizing that I had put this list in my last post. Deleted that and moved it here. Sorry!

 

(I can't remove the spoiler tag in the old post.)

Platinums #131-140

Spoiler

(131) Evan's Remains

A very short puzzle game with lots of story elements. Other than a couple of missable trophies, one requiring you to change the language of your game to Spanish for one cut-scene, the game is pretty decent. A story about a girl exploring a deserted island with mysterious ruins while looking for a boy called Evan who disappeared around there years ago, the game has some interesting elements in it. I did this because I needed a platinum title starting with "E" and this was promising.

 

(132) LEGO Legend of Chima: Laval's Journey

 

I wish I could dignify this game with a good review but I can't. Laziest of the LEGO titles and it's one of LEGO's original properties! I did like Furtivo the Fox, though.

 

(133) Iro Hero

 

Don't judge me. I needed a platinum title starting with "I" and most of the options were games I didn't really like. I just wanted to do a schmup for two levels and be done with it.

 

(134) LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin

 

This Vita title is one of the LEGO Ninjago games. I did not touch Nindroids as it has the annoying "Lose all your health, game over, you have to restart from the beginning of the level!" mechanic that I hated in the Vita version of The LEGO Movie game. ?

 

This game got me to play The LEGO Ninjago Movie game. BAD LIFE DECISION.

 

(135) Shantae: 1/2-Genie Hero (PS4)

 

And this begins my descent into 75% Trophy Profile 4-EVER.

 

This is one of four games that is fun to platinum and impossible for me to complete due to DLC. I'm talking about the Trine ripoff DLC called Friends to the End, where Shantae's friends go into her mind to defeat the evil genie Shantae.

 

But the game is fun to platinum and due to an exploit, I was able to get the 100% run in under three hours game time. I still favor Seven Sirens over this.

 

(136) Ultra Hat Dimension

You do have to solve 45 block-pushing puzzles to get the platinum for this, you know.

 

(137) Zeroptian Invasion (PS4)

 

I tried Z-Warp for my Z title game, but got slaughtered on the first boss. Thankfully, no trophies popped there, so I deleted the game and came back to this one and found it far easier to complete, despite previous runs of this game killing my game before the second boss. Didn't lose a single life this time.

 

(138) Jack N' Jill Deluxe (PS4)

 

Okay, so I was just filling up slots to #140 so I could pop it during my vacation to Florida. This was a quick, easy and relaxing title with monocrhome chiptune cuteness.

 

(139) The Gardens Between

 

I was platinuming a few easy games because I wanted to qualify for the A-Z platinum club. Turns out I need eight more titles.

 

Still, this was a very short and simple -puzzle game involving manipulating time so that you could move to the goal in each stage with a few miscellaneous trophies for manipulating the memories to trigger events and sometimes manipulating time to trigger other events. It's a sad story about two friends being seperated and spending thei rlast night together recalling all their fun times.

 

(140) Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (Vita)

 

An old classic returns and might be rejoined by the other three titles in the future.

 

This was something I earned on the plane trip back home from a fun week of visiting Universal Studios and it was really nice to revisit the old raccoon and his two pals. This game is the easiest to deal with as you only need to open all the vaults and you don't really need a guide for the bottles. Before Sucker Punch made Infamous Second Son, this was their IP and it formed the Trinity with Jak, Daxter, Ratchet and Clank.

 

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by Taruta13

[Taruta13]

My four-year old niece ran out as I was going on my first walk since Florida and hugged my leg. That's a memory for the grave.

 

Anyways, busy pushing to #150. My RPGs are in lockdown until April Fool's Day, due to RPG Mania 2023, but I have other things I fill in the gaps with, already at #144.

 

Also bought RPG Maker FES for my new Nintendo 3DS just before the e-Shop is destroyed and everything I can re-download is lost forever.

[Taruta13]

I decided I am going to put a new update despite not hitting the next milestone because I have no idea where to get the next two games. I plan on #150 being super special, but #149 is... meh.

 

Platinums 141-150

Spoiler

#148: Illusion of L'Phalcia

 

My 2nd Kemco title. I was waffling on this one but eventually downloaded it for the Vita to play on the plane to and from Florida on the week of March 20. Sadly, I forgot to buy the DLC boosters so I went in blind. Nevertheless, this was a solid retro RPG experience with a ton of the usual tropes: Magical wish-granting artifact that gets abused and sealed away and you are on a treasure hunt for the maps to reveal it so you can get your fondest wish granted. You play as Ryzer, a guy who wanted to wish for riches, and are accompanied by a big cat called, uninspiringly, Cougar, who is a leopard with a lion's mane, and his wish is for a lifetime of food. (Well, being a monster-animal, his motives are pretty primitive. ) You run into three other characters who forced themselves into your party for their own wishes. (Well Ferio is a simp who just wanted to wish for whatever his lady Tania wishes for. )

 

In the end, you find you've been duped and now have to save the world. Yep, this game doesn't have a deep story. However, the gameplay is decent and the battles are 3D awesome... though you will go ape-sh** having to listen to that annoying battle music OVER AND OVER, because yep, this is a Kemco RPG and Kemco still believes invisible random encounters are a thing. At least the game warns you when you are going to fight by the border of the screen changing color from yellow to red.

 

I got to the final boss, he kicked my a$$, so after getting all of the trophies related to story save the last few, I decided to delete my Vita version, get on the PS4 version(since this is a shared list so no double platinum here) and get the rest of the trophies after shelling out $26 for the DLC boosters. I did still have fatalities against the super-powered optional overworld bosses, but Ryzer's Deadend Rain made short work of everything.

 

A forum member told me that Kemco RPGs are junk food, and I sort of agree. This is not something as deep as Ni No Kuni or as content-heavy as Hogwarts Legacy, but it gets the job done. Also, the overworld sprites for generic monsters is not very interesting - it's just a creepy eyeball floating in a colored flame.

 

#142: Queeny Army

 

If you are trying to get into the A-Z Platinum Club, you need to have a game with a name that starts with Q, and sadly I already burned all of the Queen's Quest games, so my options are kinda limited. Still, if you love Contra and wished that those buff dudes were buff chicks, this might be the game for you. The rudimentary story is that these girls all attended a girl's boarding school together but then the government went evil and sent corrupt cops to kidnap all the girls for forced prostitution(or something) and these twelve escaped by blowing out the brains of those cops, meeting up with a mysterious guy who promised them revenge by training them to be commandos. It's all fluff for the main attraction, running and gunning.

 

You only need to kill the first two bosses but I got pretty decent in Stage 3 despite the huge number of enemies and traps that can one-shot you. A nice quick game if you need to detox after a honkin' large RPG. And it's the easiest Q-named game in the world so that's a bonus.

 

#143: 112th Seed (PS4)

 

Same situation as the last game, only there are differences: I needed a game title starting with a number, and this is not a PG-rated run and gun but a cute block-pushing puzzle game. Still, no need to complete the story, which is about a sentient seed trying to release three cryogenically statised scientists this time around. You just need to reach the first scientist by completing the first 30 levels. The last level required a guide, but the first 29 were not too difficult. I'm sure the remaining 60 stages are killer hard to make up for that.

 

There is a PS5 version so that might be on the table.

 

#144: Alphaset by POWGI (PS4)

 

Well, I had Sly 2 and 3 on the Vita, but those are long and annoying, so... more Word Games by the pun-cracking ASCII dog.

 

Alphaset is a fun concept - filling in a crossword's missing letters with every letter of the alphabet. Suitable title to start off my planned 15 game list for the Platinum A-Z club.

 

#145: Chicory: A Colorful Tale (PS5)

 

It's nice when a great game like this is cross-buy or available for free on PS+.

 

I had more planning, using an interactive map(and spending $5 to upgrade my account on the site which I registered for - MapGenie, a map-making app - so I could mark everything off instead of 100 items) and I only struggled near the end as the map didn't account for smaller hub areas in the map like the Grub Deep. This time I skipped all the bossfights(although one required me to paint all the eyes to continue and the option didn't work there) and cutscenes to get to the end credits ASAP.

 

A cute game, and if you skip the bossfights it's totally G-rated. Was careful not to color too much of the map in for fear of crashing the game again.

 

#146: Alphaset by POWGI (Vita)

 

Second verse, same as the first. Sadly, my Vita's left analog stick keeps eating inputs and the touch controls are really hard to do here since the puzzles are so tiny.

 

#147: Crossovers by POWGI (Vita)

#148: Crossovers by POWGI (PS4)

 

More word games, but this one is faster to get through as you just have to get some crossword letters to form a word at the end so once you get the trophy for not making a single mistake you can just mash the X button while hitting every letter.

 

#149: 112th Seed (PS5)

 

Decided to just stack this since it wasn't expensive.

 

#150: Xenon Valkyrie+ (PS4)

 

Almost put Jak and Daxter on this spot, but then I learned about a code to give you max HP, max defense and do 999 damage with your weapons, so I just decided to pry it off my old backlog, and it was interesting. Finally got a game starting with X at long last!

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by Taruta13

[Taruta13]

Platinums 151-160

Spoiler

#151: Gravity Duck (PS4)

 

A very short and sweet platformer game with only fourty eggs to get for the platinum. Also, ditched Genshin Impact due to it requiring an account.

 

#152: Dragon Sinker

 

Another Kemco title, but I really enjoyed it, although the final superboss fight was tough to get ten kills in. Once again, splurged on the DLC to reduce the grind to a minimum.

 

#153: Xenon Valkyrie+ (PS5)

#154: Xenon Valkyrie+ (Vita)

 

Got the stacks for my 150th platinum, but an issue caused the fourth secret character to not unlocked despite doing all the requirements and required me to delete the saves(or game in the Vita version since the Vita has no save data feature) and start over several times. The PS5 version only took two tries, but the Vita version too five because the game refused to let me unlock the secret character. I eventually brute forced it.

 

#155: The LEGO Ninjago Movie Game

 

The game was faithful to the movie(which I didn't watch so I dunno) but there were issues that caused the game to crash, lag and freeze twice in one stage. The collectibles are easier to get as there are no minikits and no 'free play'(if you redo the story, you do the story mode again) but some icons did not spawn meaning that I had to exit the game and restart it to make the items or icons for quest giving spawn. This should have been beta-tested, but overall, I did like the characters.

 

Yes, even Lord Garmadon.

 

#156: Jack N' Jill DX (Vita)

 

#157: Gravity Duck (Vita)

 

So I did some more stacks to fill out the list. Nothing new here. Move along, folks.

 

 

#158: Virtuous Western (PS4)

#159: Virtuous Western (PS5)

 

Well, dang y'all, being Texan I can't help but hoot and holler at some good ol' fashioned WIld West justice against horse poachers! Yee-haw!

 

Now that I've offended every Texan in the state I can say this is pretty much a puzzle game except for the boss who is a wimp. Another one of those indie titles.

 

Also, it starts with V, and I needed a game with V for my A-Z plat club and after seeing Cassy's review of Virginia, I decided not to go back there.

 

#160 - Zeroptian Invasion (Vita)

 

Wish I hadn't just gone for a stack. I do try to make my 10 platinum milestones memorable, butt this was a tragedy.

 

 

My future plans:

1. Planned milestone: #175. Going tear through the other three characters to get the map chamber trophy for Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Gryffindor.
2. Planned milestone: #200. Yes, I am going back to the MMO. I really want to see what Yoshi-P has planned for 7.0.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Taruta13

[Taruta13]

Wow, over 15 titles unaccounted for. That's sort of embarassing, so it's time for another two parter!

 

Platinums 161-170

Spoiler

 

#161 - Mekabolt (Vita)

#162 - Mekabolt (PS4)

 

Well, just going for some more EZs. This is a platformer involving shooting robots to paralyze them so you can use them as tools. You only need to complete all of the first two areas, so it's not that hard to do. Remember this for later.

 

#163 - Word Wheel by POWGI (PS4)

#164 - Word Wheel by POWGI (Vita)

 

More POWGI games. *GASP*

 

Seriously, don't be surprised. This one is basically building words using the letter in the middle.

 

#165 - Asdivine Cross (PS5)

 

Yep, getting into the flagship series of KEMCO. This is the first game in the series and it's sort of funny considering most of the four heroes are girls and one is a masochist. (Considering she is a "Blue Mage" who absorb skills from party members and monsters, I am not surprised they went that route. ) You have to get all of the endings which, except for the normal ending, are endings involving Harvey the thief 'hooking up' with the girls.with a harem ending, sort of, if you get all three girls to 100 trust with Harvey. It's not that hard, you can get five four-leaf clovers that will boost trust to 100, you do not even need to do the 'private actions' hangouts with them. The story is interesting, I give you that.

 

And yes, I will buy the 3x EXP boosts for each KEMCO game as getting some of these enemy skills would be impossible if we aren't max level(999, a sort of precursor to Disgaea's Level 9999(.

 

#166: Crypto by POWGI

 

I think this is the only POWGI which doesn't have version stacks as I couldn't find Crypto for the Vita.

 

Good as...

 

#167 - Wordsweeper by POWGI (Vita)
#168 - Wordsweeper by POWGI (PS4)

 

This is the last Vita title I will get for a long time, due to me stupidly spilling soda on my device and shorting out the left analog stick. My dad tried to fix it but busted the buttons so now I can't use buttons in my games. I will have to replace my Vita, which is upsetting as I had Sly 2 on it and have to repurchase.

 

Otherwise, nothing new here.

 

#169 - Mekabolt+
 

Note the plus symbol. Yes, this is Mekabolt for the PS5, but they added a challenge mode where you control this weird guy who grabs inert robots and carries them around. You only have to do 20 challenges but they are a bit tricky to do. Other than that, this is just another Mekabolt platinum.

 

#170 - Disgaea 4 Complete+

 

Finally got this title out of the door. This is the precursor of Disgaea 5 and boy howdy is it a grind. You have to get one of every item, see every skill animation(luckily they show it the first time it's used) and get every pirate ship part. Be grateful this is not Final Fantasy XIII where you void the trophy if you SELL ANYTHING. *BURN!!!*

 

I still like Nagi Clockwork though. I'd marry her in a heartbeat.

 

 

 

I will probably push Hogwarts Legacy to #180 as it's sort of a bugbear to me.

[Taruta13]

It's important to keep your trophy cabinet cleaned up, so...

 

Platinums #171-180

Spoiler

#171: A Year of Springs
(PS4)

#172: A Year of Springs
(PS5)

 

So another visual novel, this one hand-drawn and involving a trans-sexual. While it does not have anything too gay about it, I don't think my dad would like the story.

 

Anyways, it's about this woman who is in college and her two classmates invite her to bathe at the local hot springs(this is in Japan, by the way), and it's basically how any visual novel plays - you make various choices and you get different endings, and to get the platinum you have to get all of the endings. However, there are three major stories and to unlock the second and third, you have to get all the endings in the previous chapter. I followed BadDriver's guide and got through it with the power of fast-forward and scene skip.

 

The art style is cute so that's a plus.

 

#173: Final Fantasy

 

Yes, you heard me right. I got the platinum for the ORIGINAL Final Fantasy.

 

 

So, for the record, just recently Square-Enix decided to do something amazing, something that they need to do with their Dragon Quest series... they remade the original first six titles in their epic franchise with the remake backgrounds but retcons the character models for characters and monsters to the original style, with only slight graphic tweaks. These remakes, which they call the "Pixel Remasters", now have trophy support for the PS4.

 

But you might think, "these trophies are hard." I hear you, the original six games were no joke in difficulty, Final Fantasy IV was my first FF and it was a brutal trial by fire. It started easy but after certain story points, I kept losing characters to mobs. However, they added in a "boost" quality of life option which boosts EXP gain and money gain by up to 4x, let you set your walk speed to running, and even lets you turn off encounters on the fly by pressing R3. This makes grinding a lot less painful because you will hit high levels early on and be rich and not have to worry about resource management.

 

These are optional, of course, but I used them because I am 50 years old and I didn't play the original Fantasy when it came out for the NES 12 days after my 15th birthday. (I was still busy trying to find a way to hang out with my teenage crush and kiss her as well as try to beat Legend of Zelda, and I didn't have much money back then, so I was doing Zelda instead of RPGs. As I said, Final Fantasy IV was my first time with the series, and I was in college at that time. I also heard the original Final Fantasy was hardcore and you died a lot, and I rage quit when Link died in Dungeon 3 in Legend of Zelda, no way I was touching that RPG.

 

And now I decided to try it, especially as Youtube creators got into the Pixel Remasters. The trophy list is not that complicated - you have to 100% the bestiary, get all the chests (which I would have to do anyways when World of Final Fantasy finally barges in and flogs me for deleting my save ), visit every area with a map point(but you'll get that easily as you can't miss a single map point in this title), and beat the game. Oh, and get the Excalibur, the second best sword in the game.

 

This title is very easy to get into and you can customize your team build. I went with Fighter/Warrior, Thief/Ninja, Red Mage/Red Wizard, and White Mage/White Wizard, and did find as I had a lot of healing and three strong melee fighters. Though why they decided that the attack-boosting spell Saber needs to affect the caster is silly as only Black Mage can use it. (There is a glove which you can use to cast Saber, but the Ninja should be able to learn Saber.)

 

All in all, a very short and simple title. With the boosts, you can just get through the game, and you'll get to Level 50 easily by killing every enemy you run across to fill out that bestiary.

 

May you walk in the Light of the Crystal...

 

#174: Asdivine Saga
(PS4)

Yep, another KEMCO title, and it's a sequel to Asdivine Cross. No masochists this time, but you still have three companions(one which you fight against twice) and the plot has a trope pulled straight from Shining Force 2 where someone gets possessed by a demon.

 

The usual stuff from Cross is here: Get all of the normal and romantic endings and whatnot. I realized that you can choose your ending after you beat the final boss because I accidentally chose the Zandark normal ending a second time and got that twice, so I had to refight the final boss an extra time. Luckily, I fused together two Dark Rings that let you hit all enemies with powerful dark flames that do tons of shadow-element damage, so the final boss was weak enough to one-shot with Akane's 8-Cross Shuriken.

 

Stay tuned....

 

#175: Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
(PS5)

 

Yep, they just released a PS5 port of the game that was my third platinum recently. It's just a port so other than running a bit smoother, it's the same game with all the same trophies, so just jump back to Plats 1-5 if you want to get my review. Sadly, I couldn't get Hogwarts Legacy here, but this game deserves to be in this landmark just as much as it is a great game which ties up the Wonder Boy series. I might try for the Wonder Boy Collection.

 

 

#176: Asdivine Saga
(PS5)

Yep, this is one of those stacking platinums from KEMCO-ware, so I had to play this game TWICE.

 

#177: DoraKone

(PS4)

#178: DoraKone
(PS5)

 

Another visual novel, but the premise is cool - the main character, a tomboyish girl, is visiting a beach town to participate in the Mobile Online Monster Catching Game )totally NOT Pokemon GO with dragon-type Pokemon ) and ends up teaming up with one of three girls who are also there to participate in the tournament event. And yes, there are romantic endings, and the man character(female) can end up hooking up romantically and kissing her female team-mate, and they have images of that. (Can't show them or I might violate ToS and get a lot of homophobes hot and bothered. ) But I did read the endings and thought they were pretty nice. The three girls that Dulce(the main character) can hang out with are Rayen(the shy game geek), Brin(the masculine competitive player) and Honore(a rich girl who got kicked out of the game last time for cheating). Each has their story and if you get the win endings, where you win the tournament(you have a bad ending if you do the single player tournament and neutral endings if you pick the wrong choices and lose the tournament), you get to read a cool wall of text telling how your companion suddenly busted a move with their dragon and clinched the win! It's really fun to read.

 

I'm not saying I am one of those perverted guys who gets janked on seeing girls kissing each other, but they did avoid oversexualing the romance and used the mobile dragon fighting game as the main plot point for the endings. Also the art and music are amazing.

 

#179: Ambition Record
(PS4)

 

Okay, I said a few bad things about this game in my review at the RPG Mania event, but the only bad thing about this interesting title(where you are mercenaries trying to help the local king defeat the Dragon King and end a war) is that two trophies require you to unlock jobs that can only be unlocked for one of your characters by using an item on them, sort of like how Dragon Quest 3 requires you to have the Zen Book to change one of your generics into a Sage.

 

HOWEVER, these items are locked behind the crafting shop, which requires you to spend points(and you earn 10 of these points every three battles you win so this is very slow) or spend premium tickets, which are rare. The only way to farm them is by clearing a three-wave gauntlet in the local arena called the Extreme Arena, and unless two of your characters are at 1000 or more strength and have max level, the final round of four legendary heroes will TPK you.

 

i did not realize that I needed to buy Ultimate Berries to boost my strength by 200(for each four-berry set, and it's random so you need to save-scum for it) and those cost 250 for every four berries. That means I have to win 75 battles to get the ARP for those berries, and you need four sets for each character using weapons.

 

Needless to say, I did not save my ARP in this run and had to farm for hours to get to that point. I did eventually get the books (because the crafting shop odds slowly increases for every ticket or point total you spend to craft) and got some decent armor and weapons to boost my attack even more, but it was annoying.

 

Other than that, the game is pretty decent and you can speed through stuff.

 

#180: Final Fantasy II

 

Just like the last entry, here you are rebels fighting against a demonic emperor in a war. However, unlike Ambition Record, the RNG can be manipulated and you will max out eventually. This is the second FF Pixel Remaster and the boost option is here, but since FF2 uses a stat/move leveling system(in fact, this game is the forefather of the SaGa series that started with the Gameboy Final Fantasy Legend titles) the boosts speed up grinding for stats. The three characters I had through the entire game(there is a fourth but you don't get him until near the end of the game) hit max HP and MP and got max level on several spells(yes, in this game weapons and spells have level and they max out at Level 16). I had maxed out fists, but I didn't need them - Firion was spamming Holy 10, Maria was spamming Flare 10 and Guy was rocking the Ultima spell... at Level 10. Getting those three spells to max level would have made this platinum take months as they level up slowly, but dannnn does Ultima vaporize everything. And since I maxed out Shields and equipped my three heroes with nothing but shields, they dodged every attack thrown at them. The final boss couldn't even hit them.

 

This game is iconic and birthed many things that are iconic in Final Fantasy to this day:

1. The first instance of the iconic yellow ostriches known as the chocobos.
2. The first appearance of the legendary lance wielding dragon-rider, the Dragoon. Estenien and Kain would have never existed if Richard had not be in this game.
3. The first appearance of the Ultima spell, the ultimate destructive magic.
4. The first instance of an NPC getting killed off like Kenny from South Park. In fact, several characters die.
5. Also, FFXIV would have never had its goofy battle music and there would be no Pandemonium raid had FF2 not existed.

 

The trophy list is a bit trickier as there are four places you can only visit the first time and never again, so you might end up missing chests or enemies. There is also a point near the end of the story where the overworld enemies become new tougher enemies and several enemies are removed, so you will miss them if you do not fight them before doing a critical story element. Yes, this game has missable trophies.

 

I'll be working on game-breaking guides for the Pixel Remasters starting with this game and link to them when they are done. These will be text guides and not video guides as PrimalLiquid is doing platinum trophy playthroughs of these games.

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by Taruta13

[Taruta13]

Okay, let me try to do updates like Cassylvania does it...

 

Platinum #181
Ambition Record (PS5 edition)

 

 

If you saw #177, you know how I feel about this title. But, due to needing some way to warm up the Playstation 5 while I was grinding stats in Final Fantasy II, I decided to try to stack this game. This time, I planned ahead, saving my points to buy Ultimate Berries early. The good thing is that it made the game a breeze as Rafael and Henry were tearing apart mobs, and I could leave the encounters on and get more levels.

 

Of course, I probably didn't need to train everyone in every job. That's what happens when you get into Final Fantasy III's job system.

 

I eventually got to the Premium Ticket farming and farm I did, but now it was easier and soon I was able to just auto-battle the legendary heroes at the end of the Extreme Trial, although I did almost wipe because I forgot the mage casts a barrier that reflects physical damage on you.

 

This time I got Fortune Teller first, then Minstrel. Got those special courses knocked out, got the 'happy ending'(which are two consecutive boss fights) and then cleaned up the rest of the sidequests to get the final trophy.

 

The only thing that soured this game for me was the fact that two jobs require items locked behind the in-game casino that they call crafting. Thankfully they haven't done that predatory practice again. (I know that this game was once a mobile game and you could buy Premium Tickets with micro-transactions, which makes it worse.)

 

At least I will never have to donwload this game and its predatory grind practices again.

[Taruta13]

Platinum #182
The Last Campfire

 

This was supposed to be a game I took up for three hours and put down for the Kill Your Completion 2023 event... only it was not.

 

This game is very easy, is non-violent(the most terrifying thing is a giant snake but it doesn't attack you) and has a lot of puzzles involving manipulation of the environment. The gist is that you are a lost ember and need to find the Last Campfire, helping other Embers whose light has gone out. There are 22 of these things and each is a small puzzle room to reach their ember. There are also a few other NPCs who have puzzle rooms that involve you escorting an ember to them without it getting blown out.

 

There is a narrator who gives text dumps(you can change the voice of the narrator but I went with the default British woman, though I played the entire game with the sound off, except the final trophy pop), and the graphics are very subdued. If you have any little kids, play the game in front of them and watch them react.

[Taruta13]

Platinum #183 & #184

6 Souls

 

I needed an easy title to push the marker to #185, so these came out for both the PS4 and PS5.

 

This game is a platformer at the core and involving a man and his dog. No, really. The man and his dog find a treasure mpa and go hunting for treasure only to find that several souls need his help to defeat some evil warlock or something. I can't really tell much of the story since I skipped the cutscenes, but for a game like this, story is back-seat to the action.

 

The game map is laid out similar to Ghouls and Ghosts with a linear progression, but the difficulty slowly increases. There are a lot of insta-kill spikes, but since you need to die ten times for a trophy anyways, it's a moot issues. You only need to clear the first three areas to get to the platinum, but the two bosses you have to fight require a bit of dodging. You get a dash move in area #3, but it's finicky and you could accidentally dash into some spikes.

 

You also have to collect six coins and three slices of bacon, the latter being a collectible only the dog can collect. You see, the first area is easy tutorial stuff and then you get to area 2 and start running into sub areas that you have to send the dog into. The dog can double jump but cannot fight, while the man can attack enemies with a knife, but you don't want to get into fights as you can only take two hits and the third hit kills you as there is no way to recover health.

 

Cute thing: The man jabbers like Banjo or Kazooie and the dog barks out his dialogue.

 

Platinum #185

Final Fantasy III

 

This is what I wanted #185 for. I almost made it #183, but can you blame me? Before I got serious with it, I had just been grinding out job levels on four monks (due to a faulty power leveling guide video ) and hadn't even enter Dragon's Peak yet in the first area. By the end of that night, I was in the frekking World of Darkness, the final area of the game, and actually beat the story! Made a mistake, thinking that filling out the bestiary was the final trophy.

 

Turns out that getting a job level of 99 was the final one. Thanks to me following a faulty power leveling guide, I actually had one character with Monk Level 90, so I just went back to Sealed Cave, turned off EXP and money gain to speed up victory screens(everyone was Level 70 and I knew there was no way to reasonably grind out 29 more levels), switched that character back to Monk, and just pounded on goblins until he got those last 9 job levels.

 

This is a really nifty retro classic and I recommend playing with the original soundtrack, but if you want the modernized one, the battle music is bopping.

Edited May 16, 2023 by Taruta13

[Taruta13]

I'm in Casino Mode again, I have no idea what to play. No way will Hogwarts Legacy make it before #200(which is reserved for Final Fantasy XIV, just like my last account ) and the rest of the Pixel Remasters are reserved for June for the Summer Backlog event. Trying to pound out some KEMCO titles but the ones I have now are ether reserved or just plain boring. Made the mistake of buying Sword of Elpisia before realizing it has no Full Restore After Battles DLC, which is odd. Also, that game is also no fast-forward like Heirs of the Kings so I stopped it before getting to the point where you earn the first trophy and hid it.

 

I am tapping away at Ni No Kuni Remastered and might make that #190 or #195. That is one of the old KYC games that I need to get cleared ASAP.

[Taruta13]

Well, after hiding Sword of Elpisia like it was some shameful love child I created with a hooker I ended up spanking another ExE-Create title instead... two stacks...

 

And boy howdy did this suck.

 

Platinums #186 & #187: Liege Dragon (PS5 & PS4)

The trophies aren't too hard to complete, it's a much easier list of stuff. No arena fights, no post-game to speak of, and the bonus dungeons are easier. So why do I hate this title?

 

Because it suffers the same problem as ALL ExE-Creations: THERE IS NO GUIDE ONLINE.

 

I should know better. Being a guy who won't touch a game until he has a video of someone telling you how to earn the platinum(thanks a f'king lot, BadDriver ) or at least has several guides pulled up, this was torture to me. Especially since I skip dialogue and this game punishes you for doing that: One nasty dungeon has a "walk the hidden path" puzzle that you wouldn't know about unless you read the dialogue between the characters and I kept running into the trap and failing the puzzle, sending me back to the start.

 

Also, since I skipped the dialogue in another dungeon, I didn't learn that you need to use the key you got from the mini-boss to release the prisoners and talk to them to spawn another key you need to get past that locked door barring your progress, so I ended up rage-quitting.

 

Worst offender: The Monplete Bestiary! You have to find every monster in the game and when I saw a missing entry in the first dungeon, I restarted my game thinking I had missed a rare enemy. NOPE. That last entry, the Golden Wolf, is A SIDE QUEST BOSS. Had I just done all the sidequests instead of deleting my save, I would have saved myself time and frustration.

 

This title has me eager to boycott EXE-Create for good. Unfortunately, I still have to platinum Heirs of the Kingdom next month since I put it on my KYC list. *sigh*

 

Do yourself a favor: Avoid this pile of sh**. In fact, until we get decent guides up, anyone who is like me and anal about not having guides(the only info you can get for these games is RPGInsanity, a defunct forum discussing these games and giving sparse tips), I advist not to play ANY KEMCO titles by EXE-Create.

 

Oh, and there are two endings requiring you go through every bonus dungeon and equip an item from the last dungeon you unlock... and then you have to fight a dragon boss after the final boss, and it uses a move that TPKs you, requiring you to spend the game points to revive yourself because there is no way you can prevent this instant-party wipe attack.

Two games I will briefly touch on...

 

#188: Roundout by POWGI

 

This is the only POWGI title that does not have version stacks, there is only one version for the PS4. Pretty fair as the puzzles you have to solve are silly: You use the words in a wheel of letters to fill out a crossword. There is a guide by PowerPyx that tells you what you need to do for every trophy and gives illustrated solutions, so don't worry about it.

 

Yes, I am slowly weaning myself from the pun-cracking mutt.

 

#189: Alexio

 

I forgot that 8-bit does not mean easy and quick. I died a zillion times on Level 1 before checking and finding the cheat code that gives you God Mode and infinite flight.

 

Play Untitled Goose Game, that waterfowl is far more entertaining than Rambo Duck. I even tried to play Level 2 to see if it got interesting. IT DID NOT.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Taruta13

[Taruta13]

Big update again with six games.

 

#190: Ni No Kuni Remastered

 

Started this last November as part of the Kill Your Completion for 2022 and finally got around to clearing it so I could give my disc away to my gym trainer, who was excited to get it and I am sure he will share it with his illegitimate four-year old daughter, who is currently obssessed with the latest Zelda title.

 

This was a nice experience but oh boy, the grinds were real. Unfortunately, I couldn't dupe glitch my money early because that was exclusive to the physical PS3 due to a memory issue of the hardware, so all other versions are forced to gamble in the dreaded card game known as PLATOON. After several losing streaks I eventually got lucky and won over 500,000 chips which went towardss Jumbo Drops for some of my 250 familiars. Despite the system, it's not Pokemon. I even went and rewatched a guy speedrunning the platinum trophy for this game, but he was running the PC version and there was a nasty bug which made Seek Fortune(which lets you see the hidden overworld chests) not work.

 

I liked the game, I might revisit it in the future, but now it's time to move on...

 

#191: Frogo

 

...to Baby Frogger.

 

Yeah, this is basically a very nerfed Frogger with only one level and you get all the trophies by playing the game. The only missable would be the strawberries but they are so easy to get that's it hilarious. Crossing the roads was stupidly easy and I didn't even get hit once despite the trucks moving fast. Once you hit the end of the trail, you get the platinum. Baby's First Frogger. There's a custom Mega Man Maker level recreation of Frogger that was more difficult than this.

 

#192: Venus: Improbable Dream (PS4)

#193: Venus: Improbable Dream (PS5)

 

Another visual novel duet. I bought and played Frogo and these stacks because someone did a dumpster dive (basically a long run of platinuming very bad shovelware games) and had these two games on the list. This Visual Novel is very easy - you just need to choose the top option five times and then the bottom option, you get the platinum. The creator I was watching said "to be fair, they put a lot of love into this game" and I thought "Then why did they not make it exclusive to tablet and PC instead of shoveling it onto the Pit of Voles that is the PSN Store?"

 

Story is about a guy who had to have eye surgery for some reason and befriends this girl whose dream is to perform piano at a concert. The backgrounds are doctored photos of real life objects and building, which makes it a little more interesting than your usual VN Fare.

 

Still, I never bothered with the story, like usual.

 

#194: Heirs of the Kings (PS4)

#196: Heirs of the Kings (PS5)

 

I'm putting this here because I want to save bandwidth and not have to repeat myself, even though the second version was after #195. This is probably how I will do all future stacks.

 

This game is slower than a slug in January in Alaska and you cannot skip dialogue or cutscenes. The Soul Maps are knock-offs of FFX's Sphere Grid and not very good one at that as you can't use multiple Power Rebirth Gems to upgrade your stat or skill nodes. There are metal slime monsters that required me to grind the KEMCO points to get Critical Rings that guarantee crit hits, and I had to grind to max level and even then I kept dying to the superbosses. So I grinded out for stat seeds to boost my strength and even then two characters dropped. At least there is no post-game.

 

Story is fine, characters are fine(including the talking animal statues) and battles are quick, but my gawd, everyone speaks too much! ?

 

I platted the PS4 version in May and the PS5 one followed after I got #195 so I could get rid of it and put in on my Kaleidoscope Card #2. (The PS5 version was one of the games I played for this year's Kill Your Completion and did it murder it! )

 

Now onto something pleasant...

 

#195: Final Fantasy IV

 

Boy! It feels good not having to fight encounters every two steps on the Lunar Subterrene!

 

This was my first RPG (I do not count Legend of Zelda as an RPG) and it was fun to play back in the day but boy howdy was it hard to get anywhere without being jumped, and the last dungeon was so brutal it sucked. I got into the Final Fantasy IV Randomizer, Free Enterprise, because I liked how hackers made the game replayable.

 

However, this remaster was really great. They didn't cuss as badly as the fan translation of the Japanese version of the old classic(you still got the meme 'spoony bard' line ) and this was the first time I actually missed a collectible(missed two chocobo forests and a bunch of chests and hidden items in the Sylvan Cave before I fought Zeromus, who was still pretty dangerous even with everyone at the max level and with Rosa sporting Adamant Armor - the addition of the Japanese items was great as Sirens are the only way you can consistently get that Pink Tail which you need for a trophy), so this means that the second half of the Pixel Remasters will require me to follow a guided walkthrough.

 

A great classic, I highly recommend it. Especially since Golbez is recreated in FFXIV's recent trial, the Voidcast Dias.

[Taruta13]

#197: Final Fantasy V

 

I really enjoyed this title and the music that came with it. I wish that this game had been released as "Final Fantasy III" in the US and VI had been "Final Fantasy IV."

 

The job system was really nice and I was able to have my entire party be freelancers with Rapid Strike, Blue Mage and Gil Toss just completely shred the final boss even though they took a ton of damage in the first phase.

 

Onto Final Fantasy VI! And Kefka... *sigh*

[Taruta13]

So I was a bit off so I need to get some spoilers up:

 

Spoiler

#198: Frogo

 

Yep, the PS4 version of this very cheap Frogger clone. I didn't realize that there was a stack. Moving on!

 

#199: Final Fantasy VI

 

And with that, I am the master of every Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster. It was a bit unnerving coming back to Kefka, but I turned off sound effects so I never had to hear his laugh. Also missed a location and had to replay the entire Floating Continent again. At least the game popped the location trophy as I enter a second ranch so I didn't have to redo all those dungeons which were annoying as all get out. ?

 

#200: Kingdom Hearts III

 

Ah finally, my first Kingdom Hearts platinum on this account. (I did platinum other games but they were on older accounts.)

 

This game is not too difficult to platinum, less so if you use the EZ codes, since you can skip the cooking mini-games and farm enemies quickly with Deadly Blow. I did not use Deadly Blow on Dark Inferno - since he is so easy to defeat, I wanted him to have SOME dignity. Also turned off Deadly Blow when fighting the final bosses, as they also did not deserve that sort of dis-respect. Ice Serpents, however... (flips the bird to them)

 

EDIT: I did play this on the PS5 and the big improvement pf doing so is that the instagram loading screens loaded twice as fast, making you only bear witness to the cringe#cringe that Sora and his friends post on the Internet for a lot less time. There are loads, but at least you don't have to deal with ###### for the long times that you would have if you had played on original PS4 hardware, and that's a good thing. I usually used the instagram loads to go on a break but not this time.

 

Now that I have 200 platinums, I am going to take a break before I considering doing anything else, maybe get some Pokemon in and play a few randomizers.

 

Plans for 2nd half of 2023:

Recent plans:

1. Get more work done on Final Fantasy XIV. I used a story skip that auto-popped all of the story trophies so I need to get my main up to scratch.
2. Next major platinum will probably be Dragon Quest XI S. I have avoided that game for so long that people are threatening to divest me of my Dragon Quest fanboy badge.

Games in the meat freezer:

• World of Final Fantasy (still procasting on that)
• Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (need to redo)
• My Wheel of Names which has a ton of stuff (Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Vol. 1, two more Kingdom Hearts games, Persona 3 Portable...

Have a happy Independence Day / Mid-Year Celebration 2023 to you all!

Edited July 5, 2023 by Taruta13

[Taruta13]

So I did end up late again, but for good reasons. Here is a spoiler tag with all the games up to now. Apologies for the short summaries and small icons in advance.

 

Spoiler

#198: Frogo (PS4 edition)

Just the same as the PS5 edition, had to stack it.

 

#199: Final Fantasy VI

Finally got to this... and actually missed a location! Turns out it was a pair of Chocobo stables which are really stupidly easy to miss, forcing me to replay the Floating Continent and watch the Emperor get bodied again. Luckily I didn't have to redo Phoenix Cave as the trophy popped after getting that second stable in the World of Ruin.

 

#200: Kingdom Hearts III

My first entry in my Wheel of Names(which I removed six games from after realizing how painful some of them would be to revisit right now ) and it was quite the adventure. But I gave in and used the EZ codes and they made stuff like the stupid cooking minigames a non-issue. I only used Cooking Master, the HP/MP regen and some other code I don't remember to make the trek quick and painless. (I know you can't use EZ codes in Limit Cut or Yozora but screw me if I try those bosses. I won't do anything like Data Org or Lingering Will.)

 

#201, #202: Frogo 2 (both versions)

Oh yeah, this easy Frogger clone has a sequel!

 

#203, #204: Frogo 3 (both versions)

And a third game! Seriously, if you are too scared to let people play actual hardcore Frogger, don't make the games.

 

But I needed to get my spots filled for...

 

#205: Dragon Quest XI S: Definitive Edition

THIS.

 

Yep, finally I have a mainline Dragon Quest game platinum trophy. Of course, this is the ONLY mainline Dragon Quest game with trophy support, unless you count the original, which I'd love to try... but once again I sold off my physical copy and since the digital copy was delisted and no longer exists on store, I have to pony up Amazon for the chance to do the bodkin crossbow challenge. But hey, I love 2D mode... and it's a Dragon Quest game with superbosses that only Lingering Will would laugh at.

 

To be fair, the superbosses are not impossible, they just need a lot of strategy. Use Yggdragon's Pep Power to make yourself invincible for three turns and then spam Mighty Magic Burst with the sisters to destroy them. It requires a lot of work, money and luck to win the Jackpot in roulette, but it's worth it.

 

I think Dragon Quest XI S is banned in Europe due to the casino and bunny girls.

 

 

[Taruta13]

Should have put this up when I got the platinum, but...

 

#206: Reverie Sweet As Edition

 

I did the original Reverie as some of my early titles, but I didn't expect the devs to get the kit to make a Playstation 5 port. They moved the feather you get in the bonus dungeon to the prize for a shooting gallery mini-game which isn't too hard. Guess they felt obligated to add content.

 

Other than that, it's the same game.

 

I'm sort of at a loss on what to play next as my focus has been on FFXIV(and another MMO which has no trophies so ignore that ) and between them I have no time to game. Just got my main into Heavensward and trying to get to Stormblood before October when they drop 6.5 and the final set of duty support dungeons. Also, they just did a Pokemon Presents and revealed some more new content for the DLC.