Vanq's Trophy Corner: The Evergrowing Backlog

[Vanqishd]

Hello folks! After considering it for several months, I've decided to finally open my own checklist thread to be more organized about my gaming. So, let's cut to the chase.

 

 

Who are you?

You can call me Vanq or V. I'm a guy from Spain that has been gaming ever since I was just a couple of years old. I started with the SNES/N64, then grew up through all Nintendo and Sony systems GB > GBC > GBA > GC > GBA SP > PS1 > NDS > PS2 > PS3 > 3DS > PS4 > NSW > PS5. You get the idea. I also briefly had an X360 back when it was released since the launch price of the PS3 was rather ridiculous to justify, although I traded it in after a couple of years to move forward with the PS3 and never looked back. My first platinum trophy was already on a PS4 system (Watch Dogs) back in 2014 and oh boy, it never stopped. As of the time of writing this post, I sit at 117 platinum trophies. I'm mostly into RPGs and JRPGs, but you'll find that I play a wide variety of titles.

Besides that, I also happen to be part of the Guide Team on this site, which I joined back in early 2021. It's been a fun ride so far, and I'm happy to be part of such a wonderful team. You might've also read one of my guides (FF7 Remake or Steep), although I have been rather slacking on writing guides since reviewing takes away most of the time I can dedicate to it. However, I wanna go back to writing some guides, so I might also write updates regarding this in this thread.

 

What will I find here?

Here you'll find regular updates about my trophy progression. I don't expect to play many new games in 2023, but I would like to 1) revisit some of my older titles and increase completion percentages, and 2) start/continue/finish sagas from which I've been wanting to obtain trophies for a very long time (for example Kingdom Hearts).

 

 

2023 Objectives / Checklist

This will be a bit too optimistic, but here's a list of the things that I want to do. I might abandon some of these games, but here we go:

1. Finish the Witcher 3 (PS5), as well as finally play the DLCs. Also, unlock the DLC trophies on the PS4 GOTY version that I got the platinum for last year.
2. Finish the Final Fantasy VII Remake DLC (PS5).
3. Get the MP trophies for TLOU Remastered (PS4) & finish TLOU Part II (PS4).
4. Finish Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (PS5).
5. Get all trophies for FIFA 23 (PS5) - this time for sure. Haven't finished a FIFA game in ages and they love to make trophies unobtainable about two years in.
6. Start & finish God of War: Ragnarök (PS5).
7. Start & finish Horizon: Forbidden West (PS5).
8. Start & finish Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy (PS5).
9. Start & finish Grand Theft Auto V (PS5).
10. Start & finish Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4).
11. Start & finish A Plague Tale: Requiem (PS5).
12. Finish some of the VITA titles I started (God of War, FIFA 15, Hotline Miami).
13. Do the Elden Ring PS4 stack.
14. Buy, start, & finish Forspoken (PS5).
15. Buy, start, & finish Hogwarts: Legacy (PS5).
16. Buy, start, & finish Octopath Traveller II (PS5).
17. Buy, start, & finish Final Fantasy XVI (PS5).
18. Slowly progress Tactics Ogre: Reborn (PS5) and try to finish it (it's my bed / remote play game for now).
19. Give another chance to Valkyrie Elysium (PS5).
20. Start & finish games from the GTA Trilogy (PS5), at least GTA: San Andreas.
21. Finish Killzone: Shadow Fall (PS5) offline trophies.
22. Give another chance to Dying Light 2: Stay Human (PS5).
23. Not get motion sickness from PSVR2 and play/platinum some titles. Fingers crossed it will be fine it since I've never played any VR titles.
24. Finish any of the remaining Final Fantasy mainline entries that I have pending (FF VII, FF VIII, FF IX, FF X-2, FF XII).
25. Make some advances in Trackmania Turbo (it will be a long ride).
26. Start Riders Republic and write a guide for it with my fellow Guide Team member @Charizarzar.
27. Finish my The DioField Chronicle guide.
28. Revisit some older titles that I have the platinum for but not the 100% and unlock new DLC trophies (Among Us, Black Clover, Steep, etc.)
29. Revisit some older titles that I do not have the platinum for and bring the completion percentage up (AC: Unity, Dreams, etc.)
30. De-dust my PS3 and make an attempt to beat the FF XIII trilogy.
31. Start other franchises from the Backlog that I've been wanting to play (Kingdom Hearts, Mafia, Mass Effect, etc.)
32. Get my completion rate to at least 70%.
33. Decide what to do with Hidden Trophies ?.

 

Trophy Cabinet

2023 Finished Games

Spoiler

 

January

Spoiler

 

1.  The Witcher 3 (PS5) -  73% - Update #01

2.FIFA 23 (PS5) -  100% - Update #02

3.  Dragon Ball: Kakarot (PS5) -  100% - Update #02

4.  FIFA 15 (PSVita) -  100% - Update #03

5.  Riders Republic (PS5) -  100% - Update #03

 

February

Spoiler

 

6.  Forspoken (PS5) -  100% - Update #04

7.  Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (PS5) -  100% - Update #04

8.  Black Clover: Quartet Knights (PS4) -  100% - Update #05

9.  Maquette (PS5) -  100% - Update #05

10.  Dreams (PS4) -  100% - Update #05

11. Steep (PS4) -  100% - Update #06

12.  No Heroes Allowed! (PS5) -  100% - Update #06

13. Jumping Flash! (PS5) -  100% - Update #07

14.  The Last of Us Remastered (PS4) -  79% - Update #07

 

March

Spoiler

15.  Octopath Traveler II (PS5) -  100% - Update #07

16.  Goat Simulator (PS4) -  100% - Update #07

April

Spoiler

 

May

Spoiler

17.  Marvel's Spiderman (PS4) -  100% - Update #08

18.  Marvel's Spiderman Remastered (PS5) -  100% - Update #08

19.  PUBG: Battlegrounds (PS4) -  100% - Update #08

20.  Mekorama (PSVita) -  100% - Update #08

21.  I Am The Hero (PSVita) -  100% - Update #08

22.  Outriders (PS5) -  82% - Update #08

23.  Welcome Park (PSVita) - 100% - Update #08

24.  Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS5) -  100% - Update #08

 

 

 

 

 

I will also be updating this first post with the images of the platinum trophies I've obtained, checklist changes, and who knows what else. I'm very optimistic about 2023 in terms of gaming.

 

For now, I raise a question to all of you who might be reading this thread: I happen to have now have a total of 291 hidden trophies in my profile. All these trophies come from games that at some point I started but never got into and didn't want to keep playing (I don't have a secondary account to try out games), so I would just hide them and move on with my life. At this point in time, I'm wondering whether I should unhide them all and try to work my way to raise the completion %, or simply keep doing what I did and keep hiding all these games that I know I won't be getting back to so that they don't affect my completion %. I would now hide Angry Birds Start Wars from the PSVita for example. What are your thoughts on this?

 

Cheers!

Edited May 27, 2023 by Vanqishd

[Charizarzar]

8 minutes ago, Vanqishd said:

For now, I raise a question to all of you who might be reading this thread: I happen to have now have a total of 291 hidden trophies in my profile. All these trophies come from games that at some point I started but never got into and didn't want to keep playing (I don't have a secondary account to try out games), so I would just hide them and move on with my life. At this point in time, I'm wondering whether I should unhide them all and try to work my way to raise the completion %, or simply keep doing what I did and keep hiding all these games that I know I won't be getting back to so that they don't affect my completion %. I would now hide Angry Birds Start Wars from the PSVita for example. What are your thoughts on this?

 

Cheers!

 

I'd say give them a go (not necessarily unhiding them all at once though, if you're worried about that % plummeting). I know there were a few games I ended up changing my mind about when I went back and revisited them (like RDR)

 

Looking forward to your journey! 

 

[CelestialRequiem]

I personally believe having a big ol' blue H looks worse than a lower completion rate, but that's just me. I may not ever plat some games on my account -- but I'd like them at least visible. I say unhide 'em.

 

Neat. I'll follow this thread.

[Vanqishd]

First Update! Not sure how I'll be structuring these, but for now let's go like this. So, these are the updates for this week:

The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt Complete Edition (PS5)

1/1 2/2 8/8 43/68 ( 0% -> 73% and  obtained)

 

I've unlocked all the trophies for the base game and also accidentally unlocked Dressed to Kill, which is part of the DLC Blood and Wine. Since now the game allows cross-save between platforms, I also took the chance to unlock it on the PS4 stack. Not sure when I'll be starting the DLCs since we'll start Riders Republic already with @Charizarzar, but I plan on starting them before the month ends. 

 

I'm not going to talk much about the game itself since this is my second playthrough, and I speedran through the dialogues, but what I will say is that going back and forth between PS5 <-> PS4 versions because of the saves, it's crazy how much better the PS5 version runs. I didn't notice poor performance last year when playing the PS4 version, and I really thought it held up well, but having a next-gen version made it all fall apart. The performance is a few orders of magnitude better (60 fps, less stuttering, way quicker loading screens, 0 crashes this time around, etc.). Whoever hasn't jumped yet into the world of The Witcher 3 but plans to do it at some point, please make sure you're playing the new version. It does feel like a different game.

 

Knowledge is Power (PS4)

0/1 1/2 2/9 34/35 (0% -> 67%)

 

I've had this game for ages from the old monthly PS+ and also decided to start it this week. Not sure why. I expected full online play, but apparently this one is a local couch party game, so besides playing a few games with my SO, the rest of the trophies will have to come through boosting. I'm glad I keep around my old phones, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to boost anything myself. Now that I've dedusted them, I'll also keep them around to eventually do the new Among Us DLC trophies.

 

The game itself is your usual trivia game. I haven't played any Trivia videogames besides Buzz!, so this one has its unique touch. I'm also thankful we moved past the need to have all these Buzz! controllers lying around and can use our phones for that. If you ever plan on having a party at your house, it might be a game worth considering, else it's just another game to boost with 3 URs.

 

FIFA 23 (PS5)

0/1 0/3 5/12 9/24 (22% -> 28%)

 

Earned four new trophies this week, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze. I feel like this year the trophies are spread among too many game modes, and it's often unclear in which ones they have to be unlocked. Hopefully, we'll see a guide soon on the site that'll save me from having to look up on Google where and how to get them ?. I was playing mostly the FUT mode for fun this year, and I'm sitting at 190 appearances with my oldest player, so I'll be unlocking the 200 Appearances in FUT trophy soon enough. I will see how progress goes, as I haven't platted a FIFA game in a long time, but hopefully this one won't be too tedious.

 

 

I didn't check the exact completion percentage I was at when I wrote the topic, but I'm now sitting at 64.83%. Keep you folks updated, thanks for reading!

[Vanqishd]

Second Update! I'll be using the same format for now, I will see if I eventually change it. Sundays are a good day to summarize the week, so I'll be doing the weekly updates by then. Here's what's new this week:

Riders Republic (PS5)

0/1 3/4 10/15 11/15 ( 0% -> 71%)

 

As I mentioned in the last update, me and @Charizarzar started this game since we both enjoyed Steep. So far, a lot of the easier trophies have popped, but I'm still a long way from the longest grind (50 Mass Races -> Flash Mobs). What's particular about Mass Races in this game is that they start every 30 minutes, so at X:30 & X:00 every hour. They take about 15 minutes to complete, so you're looking at basically 25 hours of gameplay focused on Mass Races. Luckily you can use the 10-15 extra minutes in between Mass Races to tackle other trophies. Mass Races are rather fun since you're competing in a 64-player race, but the collision physics are terrible, and the fact that there are maybe 3 different Mass Race layouts makes it very repetitive. I've got 20/50 so far, so this will take the longest time to get next week. 

 

About the game itself, they've taken the core mechanics of Steep and improved on them. You can really tell the mechanics of the existing sports in Steep have been improved (Ski, Snowboard, Wingsuit, Rocketsuit), but I'm not exactly a big fan of the regular Bike/BMX events. It's a shame really since the game revolves more around them than the snow sports, but nevertheless, I'm very happy that Steep got a spiritual sequel. I should still get back to Steep and do its DLCs, although some have been delisted, and I'm not sure I could get the 100% anymore. Overall, I'd rate the game a solid 8/10 so far. If you've enjoyed Steep in the past, it's worth a try.

 

FIFA 23 (PS5)

1/1 3/3 12/12 24/24 (28% -> 100% )

 

Focused mostly on FIFA 23 earlier in the week to start fresh for Riders Republic. So basically, I had left: trophies that required a Co-Op partner (eg.  Full-House) and found sessions without issues on the site to do them fast; VOLTA/Pro Clubs trophies which luckily this year weren't grindy at all; and one of the most terrible trophies I had to grind for, Dazzling Personality. For this last one, you have to sim about 7 full seasons being careful not to mess up or you might lose progress, which takes around 4-5 hours. There are reported bugs (increase in the points that you need to reach) that caused people not to be able to fulfill the requirements by their last season, since players retire and they couldn't go further. Glad I didn't have to go through that, but I'll be uninstalling FIFA 23 not to be attracted to the money sinkhole that FUT is. It's a dangerous game, guys.

 

FIFA 15 (PSVita)

0/1 3/4 5/11 14/18 (28% -> 65%)

 

Remote Play has been working kinda poorly on my phone for the past few days, so I've decided to pick up the VITA again and work through some of the games that I started there. The one I had the most progress in was FIFA 15, so I decided to pick that up since I had just finished FIFA 23 and my "football skills" were as trained as they can be. It's not a difficult trophy list at all and it's one of the most achievable FIFA platinum trophies out there, but there is a single trophy that makes the list a bit time-consuming and tedious: Tour Bus. This trophy requires you to play one match in every one of the available stadiums in-game (around 50), and there's no way to keep track of which ones you've played in other than write them down and/or cross them off a checklist. There's no FIFA 15 PSVita trophy guide on the site either, so it took some extra digging to find a full list of the available trophies or explanations on what needs to be done for those that are a bit ambiguous. Nevertheless, progress is good, and should have another PSVita platinum by next week. I think I might work towards the PSVita God of War collection next, which I also started a few months back, but we'll see.

 

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (PS5)

1/1 4/4 9/9 28/28 (0% -> 100% )

 

I shamelessly popped a full autopop platinum for the profile. I did not know is that all trophies would unlock by simply importing the save from the main menu ?, even though I did know there was autopop for the trophy list. I didn't even have to get into the game. I still went to check the improvements applied on the PS5 version (basically a 60fps performance mode), and it does play really well. For anybody that didn't play the PS4 version, it's actually a good pickup since the physical PS4 version will entitle you to a free upgrade and you can find copies for 10 bucks, at least around my area, so you can either do both stacks or play the better version from the get-go at a rather low price point. For some reason, the new digital version is priced once again at 69.99 which is kinda crazy. Actually surprised the DLCs don't have trophy lists. If they ever release DLCs for this one with trophies I'll definitely jump back to get them, as I did enjoy the game. DBZ was one of the few Animes that I watched during my childhood, and the game goes through that storyline that we all know.

 

Through this week's games, the completion percentage from my profile changed from 64.83% -> 65.47%. That's almost +1% in a single week, which is a bit crazy. Keep you folks updated next week. Thanks for reading!

[Vanqishd]

Third Update! I couldn't update it on time yesterday, but I will still do this week's update on Sunday. Here's what's new from the past week:

Riders Republic (PS5)

1/1 4/4 15/15 15/15 (71% -> 100% )

 

I was totally wrong last week. Mass Races were not what took the longest time to get and were not the most boring thing to do. However, the same issue persisted in which there were only 3-4 different Race layouts, and it ended up being rather repetitive. The most grindy trophy ended up being  ... but your enemies closer which consisted of playing 50 Free For All (FFA) matches... it took around 15-20 minutes to find a group last week since it required 12 players. Luckily, with the last weekly reset the type of FFA matches changed, and they became 1v1 BMX trick events. While these events stopped being fun after the 5th, at least you only required one other player to queue up, and you'd be able to find sessions. Still not a fan of the Bike/BMX events, I wish Steep had gotten an actual sequel. It's also a shame that there aren't any "challenges" this time around unlike Steep, where to get the Platinum you were required to beat certain times or point limits to get the required stars on each event. I'd still rate the game a solid 8/10 or 9/10 if you are going to play for pure enjoyment since it's actually fun, but a point or two lower than that if you're going only for the platinum. You can beat the "story" in about 5-10 hours, and there are not that many different events (maybe around 100, split in around 15-20 per sport). It's more about the Mass Races and the online fun.

 

We're currently working on the guide with Char, so hopefully that will come out in the next weeks. I hope we bring some new players to the game!

 

FIFA 15 (PSVita)

1/1 4/4 11/11 18/18 (65% -> 100% )

 

Not much to say about this. I was missing a few grindy trophies and did them over the week while waiting for events to pop in Riders Republic or doing other things. It's the only FIFA that still has obtainable platinum on PSVita since it doesn't have any online trophies, so it's worth checking out if you're interested. 

 

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (PSVita)

0/1 0/2 0/9 12/35 (15% -> 18%)

 

I was hesitating about picking this up again or going for the God of War 1 & 2 on VITA but ultimately decided to do this one first since it's a quick one. I greatly enjoyed the original NFS: Most Wanted on the PS2 and this one is rather different, but we'll see where it leads. I continued my save from around 2 years ago, so I'm still a bit lost on what part of the story I'm in. The controls are rather stiff, and the whole menu navigation / event tracking is still a bit confusing to me, so I'll have a better appraisal next week.

 

Through this week's games, the completion percentage from my profile changed from 65.47% -> 65.75%. That's an increase of .28% which is not a lot, but I'm looking forward to increasing this number again next week. I should be starting Forspoken, so I'm not sure how that'll play out. So far it looks like the game hasn't come out the best (sitting at a 69 score on Metacritic) and a trophy is bugged (therefore no platinum), but we'll see. I still have faith in Square Enix.

Edited February 5, 2023 by Vanqishd

[serrated-banner9]

maybe if i did weekly updates, my thread would be lively. currently it has 2 posts by me lol. going to follow this

[Vanqishd]

Fourth Update! I decided to wait to post an update since I was playing Forspoken. Since it's been a rather controversial game, I wanted to platinum it before I gave my thoughts on it. So, besides Forspoken, here's the summary since the last update:

Dreams (PS4)

0/1 2/4 5/12 14/25 (13% -> 49%)

 

I started this time at launch, basically. Jumped on it due to the LBP bandwagon but never really got into it. I always found fascinating the levels other players can come up with. I admire the dedication, the time they invest, and the attention to detail. There are literally full games within Dreams. However, I'm terrible at making my own things so my time in Dreams is spent playing creations from other people and getting trophies rather than being involved in level creation ?. This week I haven't done much but finish the "Story" creation made by Media Molecule, which maybe takes around 2-3 hours to complete (it isn't that long) while picking up all collectibles along the way. This has been just enough to basically have the game 50% complete trophy-wise, which is crazy. What's left are lots of trophies that can be earned doing specific actions, as well as others that will be earned by playing and generating XP, so I'll be focusing on the first ones and see how far that gets me with level progression.

 

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (PS5)

1/1 4/4 20/20 76/76 (82% -> 100% )

 

Not much to say about this. I was missing several miscellaneous trophies that could easily be earned through Chapter / Encounter selection, so that's what I worked on the past hour or two. Still one of the most visually stunning titles on Playstation, but since I was here only for cleaning up old trophies, I won't be really giving any opinion about the game.

 

Forspoken (PS5)

1/1 2/2 7/7 44/44 (0% -> 100% )

 

Now here comes the beefy part of the update. I gave my preliminary thoughts on a thread named "Are the BAD reviews true? Or just haters?", which you can read if you're interested. That was when I had spent only 7 hours into the game, but most of it still holds up to this point. So, here are some of my thoughts on the game.

 

Overall

• The game isn't as terrible as reviews paint it to be. There are other popular games with very similar approaches that get way better reviews and don't get the criticism this game got. I think it got more heat due to it being a PS5 exclusive and having poor PC performance while having very high hardware requirements.
• While it isn't a terrible game, it's not a great game either. It's a decent game that will be a very good pickup when the price drops around the range of 20-35€, but paying 70-80€ is too much. Knowing Square Enix, it won't be too long before we start seeing this game on sale.
• If you are curious to know what you could be getting into, I'll quote myself on that first preliminary thoughts post. My opinion hasn't really changed. This game is basically FFXV developers had an affair with Ubisoft and gave birth to a dystopian Assassin's Creed where everything revolves around magic: parkour, combat, and enemies. It has a huge world filled with collectibles, useless filler side quests, parkour, and an okay story. The concept is really not that far from the latest 3 Assassin's Creed, but AC doesn't get this hate.
• If I had to give it a score, it'd be around a 6. Not more than that. Given that on Metacritic this game has a 65 score and AC: Valhalla has an 84, then this game should at least be a Metacritic 80 ?. It is after all a bland, empty, generic open world, truly much like Ubisoft. This game could've been published by them.

 

Story

• The story isn't great. It's okay, it's decent. It's very predictable but still tells a compelling story.
• You will hate the main characters. I don't know to which extent they're intentionally made obnoxious (specially Cuff) for you to hate, but it works. You kind of get to connect with the main character, but what they went for is a weird unconventional approach. What I mean by this is that the main character isn't likable due to how she behaves and talks to people. However, this behavior makes sense. It's a girl who was abandoned and had to push through her whole life. She has been magically randomly teleported to a fantasy world where she can perform magic, and she's asked to be a hero that kills the bad guys for the greater good. Why should she care? She doesn't know these people. She doesn't know the world. Their problems are not her problems. She just wants to go back home, even if she doesn't really have anything to call home.
• Something that I'll also quote myself on from the previous message is that it is a plus for me is that there are not too many main characters involved in the story. So many other games have overly complex stories or too many characters, which often makes it hard to follow because, at some point, you do not know who's who and who did what anymore. I honestly hate that some developers seem to believe that the bigger the map, the more characters, the more quests, the more collectibles, or the more hours you have to sink in to finish it, the better game they made. That's not it for me.
• Lastly, the dialogue, which has been one of the main complaints. The dialogue wasn't really my thing, and it did feel cringe at times (it really does feel like this game was made by adult Japanese businessmen who went like "Hmm, for sure this is how western girls talk and behave, right?"), BUT it isn't as bad as some reviews paint it to be. There were a few clips circulating on Twitter and other social media trying to show how terrible dialogue was in the game, but in all truth, these were the two or three "worst" conversations available. What annoyed me the most was the goddamn bracelet, but at least in Settings you can adjust how much you want to hear Frey <-> Cuff random interactions. They repeat the same 20 lines over and over, and it does get boring.

Combat

• Honestly, the combat was pretty good. Lots of magic to choose from and quite a decent enemy variety.
• Actually, the number of magic choices felt a bit overwhelming at times. It became a bit of a button-mashing exercise rather than thinking through what you were going to use and why.
• It doesn't help that the way in which you choose what magic you want to use is just awful, slow, and poorly though out. They have to improve on that. So, you end up toggling a feature in options that auto-selects magic spells that are off cooldown to use next ?.
• The way in which you unlock new magic makes sense progression-wise, but you get some of the last magic pretty much when you're wrapping up the story, so you don't actually have the chance of using it unless you go for side content. For those that go for beating the story only, combat can feel a bit lacking since you'll be using the same magic until halfway through the story.
• World traversal felt great. You were also unlocking new ways to traverse the world as you progressed the story, which added some new tweaks that made things a bit more interesting. At the end of the day, map is so big that you end up fast traveling everywhere, but still, traversal feels great.

Complaints

• Stuttering in cutscenes. I always read the subtitles and occasionally skip the dialogue to the next sentence (X) if I'm done reading and want to move on. I have no clue what they did, but the game stutters for a good half a second sometimes to move to the next point of dialogue, which makes it look like a pre-recorded video where you're trying to find the exact second in the slider you want to move to ?. Just awful.
• The map is just Ubisoft. Too big, too many things to do. Not everything is required for the trophies, but around 75-80% will.
• Related to the previous point, too many collectibles. Too much irrelevant side content. The story can be wrapped up in 8-10 hours, but the platinum will take you around 30-35 hours because you'll spend all the remaining time going around the map removing items from your checklist.

 

I could say many more things, but I don't want to dwell too much on it. I would recommend taking a look at actual gameplay footage rather than reviews, since they appear to be skewed negatively. The game does have issues, for sure, but many games suffering from the same issues have a green light while this one just didn't. If you read the whole thing and want me to share some more thoughts, feel free to let me know and I'll certainly do so.

 

Through this week's games, the completion percentage from my profile changed from 65.75% -> 66.22%. That's an increase of .47% which is quite the number if I'm able to keep this pace. Next week I'll be starting Hogwarts Legacy, so more updates coming!

[Charizarzar]

Look at that completion going up. ? Looking forward to your Hogwarts review!

[Vanqishd]

Fifth Update! It's that time of the week again. I won't be extending myself much since there hasn't been much activity this week other than cleanup and starting Hogwarts Legacy, of which I'll post a review once I'm finished with it. Here's the summary since the last update:

Dreams (PS4)

1/1 4/4 12/12 25/25 (49% -> 100% )

 

Oh boy. The premise of the game is fantastic. Some of the levels people have come up with are worthy of being an actual game. However, I'm terrible at creating levels, lack originality, and don't have time to invest the time and resources necessary into learning the complex world of level building in Dreams. Sadly, "players" are sort of punished when it comes to generating XP for the level trophies, since playing levels seems to yield way less XP compared to creating. After playing levels for several hours and barely seeing any progress, I resorted to using a turbo controller to AFK "creating" overnight. This way, I could still enjoy the game by playing normally but I would progress level-wise during the night. Otherwise, it would have probably taken me months to reach level 30. It saddens me that I took this approach, but at the end of the day, I didn't enjoy Dreams as much as I enjoyed the LBP franchise and wanted to move on. Will definitely come back if Mm releases any other DLC levels, but that's about it.

 

Black Clover: Quartet Knights (PS4)

1/1 3/3 21/21 22/22 (85%  -> 100% )

 

Not much to say about this. I was missing the DLC trophies and I bought the Deluxe edition for maybe 4-5€ a long time ago. The cleanup of the 3 DLCs barely took around 15-20 minutes each, so it wasn't too bad. Glad to have another 100% on the profile.

 

Maquette (PS5)

1/1 6/6 14/14 2/2 (48% -> 100% )

 

One of the earliest PS5 PS+ offerings that I started and ignored for almost two years. It's a rather quick puzzle game that capitalizes on perspective tricks more than anything. It was enjoyable, but I felt cheated on the speedrun trophies until I realized that the time spent in cutscenes counted and had to skip them holding . It has a PS4 stack, so I might revisit it in a couple of years. I recommend it to anybody enjoying puzzle games, especially since this one was given away in the PS+ (now Essentials) monthly game offerings, so check out whether you have it on your library.

 

Hogwarts Legacy (PS5)

0/1 0/2 0/15 7/28 (0% -> 7%)

 

Will keep my thoughts to myself until I've managed to finish it. So far though, looking good and playing great. This is looking like the Harry Potter universe game everyone was waiting for. 

 

Through this week's games, the completion percentage from my profile changed from 66.22% -> 66.50%. Not much of a bump since a new game was started, but we'll see the numbers rolling up soon enough. I'll also most likely be hiding and unhiding some games depending on what I rescue from the backlog and what I sent deep into the will-never-play-this-again-in-my-life abyss ?

[Vanqishd]

Sixth Update! I decided to wait on Hogwarts Legacy a bit since there have been way too many reports about bugged collectibles, sidequests, spells, and so on. Since they already released a patch fixing some of these issues, I'll pick it up again this week. I've decided to use this time however to clean up an old game and finish a new one from PS+ Premium, so here's the summary since the last update:

Steep (PS4)

1/1 6/6 16/16 25/25 (70% -> 100% )

 

Oh boy. I was missing all the DLC trophies and I decided it was about time since I had just finished its spiritual successor (Riders Republic). First of all, I must note that trying to buy all the DLCs for this game is a hot mess. Season Pass (more than one?), Expansions, DLC updates, separate DLC listings... there is no way to get everything you want in one spot. There are 3 DLCs out of the pack that have trophies and two of them can be bought through the Season Pass from Year One (Wreckfest + Extreme). The last one - Road to the Olympics - was delisted over a year ago. Apparently, it's available digitally in the Brazil PS Store, but the DLC is account-restricted. Therefore, you can't buy it on a secondary account and play it on yours. Luckily, a physical Winter Games Edition was released in the EU and the codes still work (even though Ubisoft's website says you can't redeem them anymore), so I managed to find a sealed copy for 10€ that had everything. So, upon having all 3 DLCs, the journey resumed.

 

I went first for the Wreckfest DLC. It was basically doing 4 quick trials > then racing against a boss. Repeat 5 times. The DLC duration wasn't much longer than an hour, but oh boy, the controls do feel bad after having played Riders Republic. They've made a MASSIVE step forward in terms of how responsive and great the gameplay feels. Not a very complicated DLC at all. 9.99€ for 1 hour of content felt a bit like a waste, however.

 

Then, it was the turn of the Extreme DLC. Again, the DLC duration wasn't much longer than an hour and it was focused on "extreme" sports, aka Wingsuit and Rocketsuit. I have to say that the Steep's Rocketsuit feels soooo wobbly and over-responsive (in terms of sensibility) compared to the one in Riders Republic. Also, you can use the boost (turbo) without any restrictions, it's unlimited. Getting the 10 Gold Medals wasn't too hard, although I think there were way more than 10 Events regardless in case somebody struggles.

 

Lastly, the Road to the Olympics DLC. This one was just HARD to start. Where the hell do you need to go in the menu to start this? Why is there no quick access? Turns out I had to navigate through all the maps until I found the ONE event that triggered the start of the DLC. Oh, and when I turned off the console overnight, I had to do the exact same the next day. Navigate through all maps and massifs to try to find the next event in the storyline... awful. Length-wise it was longer than both of the previous DLC combined, but I enjoyed the events from the Extreme DLC the most.

 

 

No Heroes Allowed! (PS5)

1/1 2/2 22/22 14/14 (0% -> 100% )

 

One of the new PS+ Premium offerings that had trophy support added post-launch. There was somebody strongly recommending this game on the Guide Author's Discord Server, so I eventually gave it a try. The game is your usual story of heroes going into the dungeon to defeat the evil guy but in reverse. You're the one in charge of protecting the evil guy from the heroes. And to do so, you'll have to manage the map, resources, and monsters to fend off all the enemies successfully. The game is so much more complex than what it looks like on the surface, and will take some time to get used to. I enjoyed it a lot even though I was rather lost for the first 3-4 hours of the game, not really being able even to beat the most basic levels of the story. There are some tutorials and such, but there are so many things to explain that it's just complicated to present everything to the player. Additionally, there are not many online resources available to help you with the game, so if you are to give it a try, I'll give you the same advice I was given: water is OP. It is an infinite source of resources.

 

I might replay it again and go through the PS4 stack and some point, and who knows, maybe write a trophy guide for it. We'll see how things go in the future. For now, I'm looking forward to continuing Hogwarts Legacy, experimenting with PSVR2 (which arrives on Wednesday), and starting Octopath Traveller 2 next week.

 

Through this week's games, the completion percentage from my profile increased from 66.50% -> 66.82%. Wonder how long It'll take me to reach 70% ?

 

I've also edited the initial post with the trophies obtained per month ?

Edited February 20, 2023 by Vanqishd

[Vanqishd]

Seventh Update! I've decided to space out updates so that they actually happen when I have things to say, rather than on a weekly basis. As a summary, I'm still holding on to Hogwarts Legacy since the game became kinda boring to me personally, as I've grown to kind of hate bloated open worlds and had just played Forspoken. However, I'll give it another go probably next month and see how that goes; probably better. Anyways, here's what's new this week:

 

Philosophy (?) 

I vowed to spend less money on buying games at release since they pretty much sit on my backlog. Many of them are already on sale or in some subscription service when I get to play them (looking at you, Horizon Forbidden West), so it's a waste of money to buy them at full price. Unless I know I'm playing them day one (like Octopath Traveler 2 this month), I won't be buying them. So, since I'm subscribed to PS+Premium, I've also decided to make use of the money I've spent on it and play some of the games in the catalog every month. Classic games (PS1/PS2/PSP) will definitely be showing up more often!

 

Jumping Flash! (PS5)

1/1 10/10 4/4 0/0 (0% -> 100% )

So this is the PS Classic game of this update! Last time it was No Heroes Allowed!, now it was time for something simpler and quicker. I didn't play this title back when it was released, but I can see how it was a showcase of what 3D graphics could do in that new generation of consoles. Its controls are rather clunky nowadays, but it does its job of still being an enjoyable platformer experience that will take you around 3-4 hours to platinum without the help of any guides. Honestly, it feels great to go back to games that don't require you to pick up 1000 collectibles and have an absurdly big and empty open world. As for the next classic, I'm eyeing The Legend of Dragoon. I have never played it either, but I heard nothing but praise for what it was back in the day. Hopefully, we'll see it in a future update!

 

Drums Rock (PSVR2)

0/1 0/6 4/13 1/2 (0% -> 14%)

 

Not much to say here, other than being excited since this is my first VR game, ever! I've played the drums for about 15 years of my life, so with that in mind + the fact that's a game you can play while sitting down, I thought this would be a great pick to get started with VR. Sadly I got the flu, so with the headaches and nausea I parked the PSVR2 headset until I feel better. This week I should be going back and going for more.

 

 

The Last of Us Remastered (PS4)

1/1 7/9 17/1813/22 (66% -> 79% )

 

I've had this pending for SOOO long. I got all base game trophies within 3 days, but it took me an extra 2 years, 7 months, and 3 weeks to finish the 2 MP trophies and get the platinum... to put into perspective... that's 966 days ? With the hype from the TV Series and the fact that I wanna finally beat Part 2 (replaying Part 1 Remake first), it was the right time to finally do this. I don't know if I'll get to do the Left Behind DLC trophies or the Grounded mode trophies, but the goal I set at the beginning of the year (in the first post of the thread) about finally getting the MP trophies for this game can be crossed off. As for the game mode itself, it was honestly quite fun. It took a few matches to get used to the style of gameplay since it's very different from other shooters, but I ended up averaging 8-10 downs per game, so I wasn't doing too bad. I won't be playing it ever again since I'm done with the trophies, but I'm glad it was a rather fun experience.

 

 

Genshin Impact (PS5)

0/1 3/6 8/17 26/46 (1% Hidden -> 51%)

This is the first game I'm taking out of the black hole that is my list of hidden games. However, I've traded it for the PS4 version of COD: Black Ops Cold War, since if I am to do any stack, I'll do the PS5 one. I'll eventually take out the PS4 stack of Genshin as well, so it's still a positive trade, but since you need an actual PS4 to install it and mine is in storage right now, I can't do it. So, as for the game, I started it a long time ago on PS4 when the game launched, but I ended up making an account on PC. Since cross-progress was disabled until way later down the line, I never had progress synced. I discovered that you could unlink the PSN account and link it to the PC account, so now my progress is synced to the PC version. Now, most of this progress is from my GF (95%) of it, but with achievements as an argument, I vowed to help my GF out with the game. She still wants to do the story pieces, but I'll be in charge of all the side content related to trophies, so she can use all the currency earned to get more characters.

 

 

Octopath Traveler II (PS5)

1/1 3/3 23/23 6/6 (0% -> 100% )

To summarize my experience: the game is simply gorgeous and plays amazingly. That's it. If you're remotely a fan of JRPGs and turn-based combat, go get it. The soundtrack is fantastic, the combat and its depth are very enjoyable, the stories are mostly great but predictable (bar a few exceptions), the art style is gorgeous, and the boss fights are fantastic. You will need to absolutely do everything for the platinum and some boss fights are challenging, but the journey is worth it.

 

As a request for a forum member, I ended up uploading my final superboss fight on YouTube, if anybody is curious about the game. This superboss fight was crazy, was long, and it took me around 10 attempts (total of 5 hours maybe) to beat. Super satisfying to beat, but very punishing during my previous attempts:

 

Now, I could do some sort of overall analysis and such like I did for Forspoken, but there are so few things to complain and this game will never be surrounded with such controversy that I don't think it's necessary at all. The game is a rock solid 9.5/10 to me and I'd ask the Men in Black to erase my memory to go through it blind once again. If you'd like me to develop more about the game and write a small analysis though, let me know and I'll gladly do so. But all I can do is stress once again that, if you're a fan of turn-based RPG games, go and get it. ASAP.

 

 

Goat Simulator (PS4)

1/1 5/5 15/15 62/62 (57%  -> 100% )

This update's last game is none other than Goat Simulator. All that I had left were the DLCs (4 DLCs x 13 bronze trophies = 52 trophies), which conveniently have been on sale during this last March sale (4€ for all 4 DLCs, which is a good deal). I've also picked up more DLCs to clean up down the road, such as Watch Dogs (1 & 2) and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, so you'll see them come up soon in some of the updates. As for the game, I will sadly be more extensive than with Octopath Traveler. I have only praise for OT2, while I have nothing but complaints for the Goat Simulator DLCs and I need to vent. So, here is the summary of the 4 DLCs:

1. GoatMMO was the first one I picked up. The idea behind it was alright, the execution was fine. Not too boring, not too fun. Average DLC, could be done in around 1-2hrs, so a quick in and out. I thought the rest of the DLCs would be similar, but oh boy was I wrong.
2. Then, I went for GoatZ (DayZ parody). Here is where I started to experience some of the bugs. The controls are clunky all around (in the base game too), but you can give it a pass because it's a "meme" game and it's part of what makes it fun, as well. However, it's an issue when things bug and glitch out to the point where you have to restart a whole level since you can't progress anymore. And this is what happened to me with this DLC. Twice. There is a trophy that requires you to craft all items in the game (combination of 2 items you can find in the map), but some items have limited quantities that are required for the crafting. If you lose one, or it glitches on you, you're a goner. On the first run, a car run me over and pulled the item with him and it just disappeared, and on the second one the item just glitched on the wall and didn't wanna come out. Lost about solid 20 mins of progress each time, so this was a frustrating and terrible experience.
3. For the third pick, I chose Waste of Space (Star Wars parody). Most of the DLC played alright like GoatMMO, but the spaceship controls were the worst I've ever experienced in my life. It made me rethink playing videogames going forward. Controls were glitchy, stiff, made you dizzy in space, and the enemies you had to kill would bug out and speedrun around you so that you could never target them (had to restart the level twice, as well). Absolutely awful. If you only do 100%s and ever considered Goat Simulator, please don't. This DLC is a miserable experience.
4. Lastly, the Payday DLC. This one was also fine, just like GoatMMO. Also with glitchy controls and minor bugs here and there, but at least I didn't have to restart the whole level because something exploded in my face. The last trophy also bugged out (in a good way) and popped along with the last trophy I actually went for. I've read this is common across the whole game, so at least I had something positive come out of it ?

In summary, dodge this game if you plan on playing it due to the awful experience the DLCs will be. And that's it for this update!

 

Oh, as a side note, I've joined the Spring 2023 Backlog Challenge, so we'll see how that goes. I never joined any of these events, but I'm curious to see how it works out. What are your experiences in these sorts of events, if you've ever joined any? My initial picks have been Sifu, Horizon Forbidden West, Outriders, Hogwarts Legacy, TLOU Part 2, and Anthem. I'm supposed to finish them before May 31st, so you'll hear about them in the future. 

 

Through this update's games, the completion percentage from my profile increased from 66.82% -> 67.46%. Getting closer to that 70% ?

[Vanqishd]

Eight Update! Okay, so this might be a mega-update so I'll keep most of the things under spoiler tags to reduce size. I basically went on holidays for 3 weeks spanning almost half March and half April after the previous update, so there wasn't much to say. Then I started a few new games here and there, cleaned up this other thing, and I was thinking that I'd post whenever there's something big to say... which means there's now a lot to talk about. So, here's what's new:

 

Minor updates (can skip, not much to say):
 

Spoiler

Final Fantasy XIV (PS5)

0/1 0/1 5/26 34/114 (0% -> 25%)

Spoiler

Starting this might've been a mistake since there's constantly new updates (DLC trophy packs), but hey, we'll see how it goes. Haven't made much progress so far, bought the story skip, did a few dungeons with friends, and not much has happened ever since. I haven't been "hooked" yet, but that's something that might eventually happen or might never. Should eventually be doing some more progress, but for now it's parked.

 

Sifu (PS5)

0/1 0/3 1/18 4/39 (0% -> 7%)

Spoiler

Basically started the game and went as far as I had to in order to obtain the PS Stars collectible from the campaign. Will eventually get to play it and finish it, but it's not the time yet. I just didn't want to miss the collectible.

 

Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection: Volume 1 (PS4)

0/1 0/1 0/7 2/48 (0% -> 2%)

Spoiler

Basically started the game and not much else. Will be playing it on and off while in bed through remote play. Although not turn-based, they're games that fit my remote play criteria, so I'll be slowly progressing through the series. Not much to say just yet.

Welcome Park (PSVita)

1/1 1/1 11/11 (0% -> 100%)

This game is so small that, even if finished, I don't think it should be in the section below. It's just a simple "demo" for the PSVita features and controls, which revolves around puzzle minigames. It's pretty okay for a free experience, and the rarity is surprisingly low (12%), so it was a game that I've wanted to beat for a long time.

 

 

 

Big updates:

Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4)

1/1 5/5 14/14 54/54 (62%  -> 100% )

+

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (PS5)

1/1 5/5 19/19 54/54 (0% -> 100% )

 

The game was about to leave the PS+ Extra service, so it was about time to go back to it and finish all the DLC trophies! Here are my thoughts on them:

Spoiler

All 3 DLCs were great additions, at least since I didn't pay any extra for them since they were included. I don't know what's their retail price, but depending on what it is, maybe I would feel they were not enough. All DLCs were about 2-3 hours long, consisting of several story missions, a couple of side stories, more challenges, more crimes, and more collectibles. The Heist had the best story by far. Black Cat is so much more likeable than the main DLC characters from the other two expansions. I hadn't played this game for almost four years, but it still felt great going back at it on the PS4 version. Insomniac did a fantastic job. Oh, and I hate these Screwball challenges. I really do. 

Also, since I could autopop the PS5 platinum but I didn't wanna do it just because, I took advantage of the fact that the game had two trophies for beating the game in NG+ and in Ultimate difficulty, and replayed the whole game to feel like I earnt the PS5 platinum as well. The PS5 version plays much much better, and if I hadn't started the PS4 one before the PS5 even existed, I would have jumped straight to the superior version. Being able to get one more platinum for free doesn't justify playing the worse version, which is why when a game is released, I always jump to that one even if I could get 2x1 in plats (see Horizon: Forbidden West, for example).

 

PUBG: Battlegrounds (NA - PS4)

1/1 5/5 8/8 24/24 (91% -> 100% )

 

I've had this pending for SOOO long. I had obtained the platinum for the EU stack which has 14 URs and wanted to also do the NA one for 14 more. I finished all trophies except one within about 4 days, which would have granted me a spot on the fastest platinum time back in 2021 when I did this (it would've been top 3 fastest time, IIRC) but I got burnt out by the grind. I stopped at around 600 kills when I was only missing the trophy for killing 1000 enemies. On and off, I've been playing few matches these past few weeks and finally got the trophy, bringing home a nice 1.12% UR platinum trophy. PUBG is now free to play and the trophies aren't hard at all to earn, so I'd recommend the game to anybody wanting to unlock several UR trophies. Disabling crossplay, around 80-90% of the players in your matches will be bots, which will make the grind also significantly easier. PUBG could've been the monster Fortnite now is, but failed. Still, it's a good shooter and one of the first big battle royal hits, so you can't go wrong by giving it a try.

 

Mekorama (PSVita)

1/1 10/10 3/3 3/3 (0% -> 100% )

+

I Am The Hero (PSVita)

1/1 7/7 13/13 2/2 (0% -> 100% )

 

I was away for the weekend last week and I decided to bring the PSVita with me for the travel. Since I wanted to get a couple of short games (especially a puzzle one), I searched through PSNP to see what games had around 50% completion rates (which meant they weren't pure shovelware) and looked doable enough in a weekend. This way, I ended up with Mekorama (Puzzle game) and I Am The Hero (Beat 'em up). When I booted them I found out they were published by Ratalaika, so you might wanna stay away from these two games if you have something against this publisher. Even if most of the games they release have easy trophies, they are actual games, so I don't really have anything against them personally. Anyways, as for my thoughts, these two games do exactly what they're supposed to do:

• Mekorama is a fun puzzle game that will take you around 4-5 hours to beat (unless you use a guide, I guess, although the game also has a hints system). The puzzles make good use of perspective and PSVita touch controls, so it's a good one to add to your list if you own one of these devices. You don't have to complete the whole game for the platinum (only all easy and normal difficulty levels are required), but difficulty still ramp ups quite a bit and some levels are quite a challenge.
• I Am The Hero is a quick and fun beat 'em up. I'm not an expert in this genre. Actually to be honest, I haven't played many games of this style other than short flash games from the Miniclip era. I wanted something more dynamic than puzzles and landed on this, and it did quite a good job. The platinum requires you to beat the game in Normal difficulty and also get some collectibles and miscellaneous trophies along the way. I'm not an expert in this genre and a couple of fights took me a few attempts, but was still able to do this with about 2-3 hours of playtime. It isn't a lot, but it's what I expect from handhelds and VR games, so that's completely fine by me.

 

Outriders (PS5)

1/1 4/5 7/9 33/38 (5 -> 82% )

Oh boy is this game bad. Not much I want to say about this game other than it's bad. Generic looter shooter from Square Enix. Please stop trying to make generic looter shooters and similar things. It's like so many developers are currently throwing shit at the wall to see if something sticks. It's painful to be a witness of how many games are dead on arrival because they just aren't it. Wanted to clean up some games I had started, but hell, they won't get me to buy Worldslayer and do the DLC trophies. I've had enough of this game.

 

Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS5)

1/1 3/3 10/1032/32 (30% -> 100% )

Now after that bitter Outriders text, let's change the mood a bit with Sackboy. This game is fantastic. You don't know how much I have an itch for a good solid PS5 platformer after Astro's Playroom, and this definitely scratched that. I've played through the story with my GF (who's not very good with controllers) and it was such a fantastic experience that I've been able to convince her to play some more co-op games with me (It Takes Two, Cat Quest, etc.). Mind you, some levels were actually hard (Wonderplane levels specially), I almost lost my mind on the Knitted Knights Ultimate Trial (it took me about 3 hours of non-stop trying back to back run attempts), and some mechanics are finicky on co-op (you can bodyblock each other, and that's a pain when there are jumps involved). That last point wouldn't be an issue if the camera didn't move towards the person most ahead in the level and kill the rest of the party if they were too far behind. Even with all of that, this game is a solid 9/10 and is a recommended experience for anybody that's looking for a platformer. There are tons of level, environment changes are cool, gadgets are fun; it's an all-around very positive experience. It's included on PS+ Extra and was also given (unless I'm wrong) with PS+ Essential a couple of months back, so really go ahead and jump straight into it whenever you have a chance! You won't regret it.

 

New big games:

 

Beat Saber (PSVR2)

0/1 0/7 0/8 6/11 (0% -> 8%)

GF made me buy it. We'll see how it goes since I'll have to jump in and clean up trophies myself (she doesn't care about achievements), but she's so far having plenty of fun with it. I've been sadly dealing with constant headaches, so I'm staying away from PSVR2 for a while, so not much to say here personally.

 

Horizon: Forbidden West (PS5)

0/1 0/2 1/10 19/67 (0% -> 20%)

This is the next big one! I started it before going on holiday just like Sifu, so that I'd get the PS Stars campaign collectible. Still going through the story, so I'll keep all words to myself until this is over and I give my thoughts on the game. However, so far, so good. Horizon: Zero Dawn but bigger, longer, prettier. Hopefully not too big or too long, though. Open-world games are burning me out lately.

 

Through this messy update of a bazillion games, the completion percentage from my profile decreased from 67.46% -> 67.32%. We're evolving, but backwards! We'll be getting closer to that 70% soon enough ?