Member Interviews: KenjiCBZ

[Charizarzar]

Hey PSNP, welcome back to another member interview! Our current interviewee is @KenjiCBZ!

 

KenjiCBZ

 

As a reminder:

Spoiler

My real name is Christian, I am 24 and I am from Italy. I have been gaming for basically my entire life, since I started with my grandma's Ps1 back when I was like 3. I eventually played with my own Ps1 for some years, most notably various Tekken, Crash and Spyro games, before getting the Ps2 as a Christmas gift, along with Tekken 4 and Jak 3, in 2005. Ps2 turned out to be my main console for the next 12 years, but in 2007 I also received as a gift the PSP and, in Christmas 2011, I got the Xbox 360: I was kinda disappointed back then because I wanted a Ps3 instead, and in fact I kept gaming on my Ps2 more than I used to do on my Xbox 360, but I still played it a lot.

 

Ever since gaming on the Ps2, I used to tackle everything the game had to offer. I used to do every single challenge because I really wanted to complete the games at 100%: this included, for example, Spyro's skill points, Crash' platinum time trials, or some SmackDown vs. Raw games including extra challenges and in-game related "Trophies". When I noticed the Achievements feature on my Xbox 360, I fell in love with it and I started to hunt for them all: as I said, I was playing my Xbox 360 not too much because I kind of disliked it since I wanted the Ps3, but I remember that I loved getting the Achievements. In 2017 I finally made the definite switch back to PlayStation by getting the Ps4 on the day of my 19th birthday, with the intention of dropping my 8 years old hunt for Achievements in favour of Trophies; in 2018 I also finally got the Ps3, thus giving justice to the 13 year old me who was shocked the second he had opened that Christmas gift and saw that it was just a bit too green to be a Ps3  And in the end, in 2020, I also bought a PSVita.

 

Still about gaming, I love both WWE and Dragon Ball ever since I was a kid, I am an avid fan of both of them, and in fact, some of the games from these two franchises are among my favourites of all time. Other things I like about gaming besides Trophies, well, I am a pretty good Tekken player, I love the time trials from Crash Bandicoot games and I have over 1000 wins in Fall Guys.

 

Outside of gaming, I used to love going to the gym and working out, but I stopped both because of Covid, and because of the lack of time, I realized that I prefer relaxing at home and gaming than going to the gym: but I miss being jacked, maybe one day I will return to it :P. Unlike several people of my age, I have never been a fan of TV Series, I am really not the kind of guy who spends hours on Netflix, and in fact, the only DVDs I have are from Dragon Ball and various other shows, such as Toy Story, Madagascar and A Bug's Life. In the end, I have a kinda big collection of Mickey Mouse/Donald Duck comics since back when I was a kid. From time to time I still read them 

 

Standard Questions

How did you come up with your PSN name?

Some time ago I wanted to have a nickname consisting of one, simple and lone word: I thought about it for a while, and then I chose the real life Japanese name Kenji, not because of some form of homage to a real life person named as such, but simply because I thought it sounded cool. Therefore, since then, my nickname on a forum is just Kenji; when I bought the Ps4, I wanted to have Kenji as my ID PSN too, but it was not possible because it was too short, so I had to come up with something else. I was torn between KenjiPS4 or KenjiCBZ, but in the end I chose the latter, because having PS4 in my ID would have been weird, considering that I was planning to buy the PS3 in the future (Which I did, I also got the PSVita). CBZ stands for the name of the forum where my nickname is just Kenji. Nowadays, I think that KenjiCBZ is better than just Kenji. Also, while looking back at it, I think that KenjiPS4 sounds awful.

 

What games convinced you to get your PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5?

• Ps4: Tekken 7, Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy, Dragon Ball Xenoverse
• Ps3: Various Dragon Ball, WWE, and Tekken games I already owned on my Xbox 360
• PsVita: Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Gravity Rush

 

What are your top 5 game series and why?

Tekken is number one without a doubt: I have been playing the various games from the franchise since I started gaming, as Tekken 3 was my first overall game. Only in 2016/17 did I start playing Online with Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and I didn't have the intention of playing competitively, I was just doing the same moves/patterns I would do against the AI, only, this time it was against real players. As such, I was staying in low ranks, just a bit below where most average players are. When I got Tekken 7 along with the Ps4 in 2017, I started to learn how to play competitively, and now I am a pretty good player. At the moment, I have recently reached the Ryujin rank online, which is the 7th highest rank out of 30/40, I don't remember exactly.

Besides Tekken I have already mentioned both the WWE and Dragon Ball games: they aren't actual videogame franchises, but I've loved both of them since I was a kid, and as a consequence, I love their games. As I said, some games of these two series are among my favourites of all time.

And in the end, two more to fill the 5 required numbers... I'll say Crash and Spyro. Similar to the three mentioned series, I have countless memories with these two franchises ever since I was a kid, and I am actually playing Spyro 1 at the time of this interview. Looking forward to playing Spyro 2 and 3, as well as CTR Nitro Fueled and Crash 4.

 

What are your top 5 games and why?

My favourite game of all time is a game that here on this website is infamously known here for a certain trophy: Fall Guys. I like to say that it is the game that, if it didn't exist, someone had to create it: I just love it, I play it almost daily and time flies every time I play it. I started playing Fall Guys in a very rough period of my life, and due to how funny it was, it made me feel a bit better: then things kind of got better, so I think I owe something to Fall Guys. Not to mention that it gave me the proudest platinum trophy of my collection. I got the platinum almost two years ago and I still play the game almost every day, it's just special to me.

At second place I would put both Tekken 5 and Tekken Dark Resurrection, the latter being a PSP port of the original PS2 Tekken 5 game. They are both amazing games and I think they were peak Tekken, with DR being the classic game I would play everywhere on my PSP when I wanted to game outside of home. I still play it every now and then.

And to fill the three remaining spots, I'll say WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007, 2010, and 2011, they are all three amazing WWE games.

 

Which unreleased game(s) are you looking forward to the most and why?

Only Tekken 8 and WWE 2K23, no big deal.

 

Do you have any other hobbies outside of gaming?

As said before, no. At least, not anymore.

 

Top 5 TV shows, Movies, and/or anime, why, and would you recommend them to people?

As I said, I don't watch TV Shows, I'm not that kind of guy. And the only anime I have ever watched is Dragon Ball, so...

 

Top 5 favorite music bands/group/artists/composers/OST?

No one in particular. Most of my favourite songs come from video games or from WWE, or are somehow related to them. Even though I am Italian, I don't enjoy Italian songs that much, I only listen to English songs.

 

Your favorite platinum and why?

With no doubts, Fall Guys. I am part of the little group of people who obtained the Infallible Trophy legitimately, with no bullshit-glitch-cheesy wins, and if I think about the last seconds of the fifth final, I still smile remembering how much my heart was beating. I was the only player alive for my team, and I had seen an opponent grabbing out and eliminating two teammates: he tried to do the same with me but I somehow escaped, I was so nervous, also because I knew that my teammates (who were aware I would have got the trophy, in case I would win) were spectating and supporting me, I remember I was screaming inside my head "MY GOD HOW DO I GET IN THESE SITUATIONS, HELP HELP HELP" as I was escaping from that last player who was trying to kill me. 

 

And when that last opponent made a mistake and he died (I didn't eliminate him myself, I remember I was trying to force a timeout draw, meaning a win for both teams). The players I was playing with celebrated me in the chat like I was a god, I was so happy. And I celebrated the platinum by eating a lot of peanuts and drinking a full bottle of water with the song Final Fall from the game playing at max audio: I was so happy that I had to celebrate for real. Infallible and the platinum of Fall Guys, if achieved in the intended way, are truly rewarding.

 

Your least favorite platinum and why?

Again with no doubts, Vampyr. My God, that game is the worst thing ever created by mankind. As I like to say, there is some video game, in this crash. I gave up on playing that shitty, broken crashing game very early (It didn't take me long to realize it sucked), and I obtained the platinum following a video guide. And with a smile on my face, I eventually deleted that shit from my Ps4 0.1 seconds after the platinum popped. For more info, see my status update when I got that platinum.

 

Have you ever been tempted to switch over to the Xbox/Nintendo/PC gaming ecosystems?

No.

 

If you could have one game from any gaming generation be remade or re-released, which one would it be and why?

I'd freaking love an HD Collection of Tekken 4 and Tekken 5.

 

How far are you willing to go for a platinum?

As far as I can. 

 

If you could give Sony direct feedback on business decisions in the last year, and the latest console generation, what would you tell them?

Besides wanting them to add backwards compatibiity, nothing else crosses my mind.

 

What is your favorite thing about PSNP?

The fact that we can browse people's profiles, see their trophies, list them in any order we want... I love that. And milestones too.

 

What is your least favorite thing about PSNP?

Platinum shit spam/flood is allowed in the Most Recent Platinum thread, while complaining about it is not.

 

Is there anyone in the PSNP Community you would like to give a shout-out to and if so, why?

* fall guys friendly wave emote * Woo woo woo woo woo!

 

Community Questions

Given that you're Italian, are there any Italy-based game developers you pay attention to or that you're around? Lots of developers in my area (many of them Japanese).

I don't really pay attention to them, but I learned that the developer of Forma.8 and Futuridium Ep Deluxe is indeed Italian, located in Turin: I live in a city called Asti that is like 40 minutes away from Turin. I have the platinum trophy of Forma.8 and I intend to play Futuridium in the future.

 

Favorite Italian dish? I love Italian food, and in Reno, Nevada before I relocated, I loved this restaurant called "Pasta Fresca". The owner was from Italy, and it elevated how much I loved Italian cuisine. Unfortunately here in America, it is very difficult to find.

Lasagne, pizza, and pasta alla carbonara, but without pepper  My favourite pizza is called quattro stagioni (Italian for four seasons), where the pizza is split if four areas, each containing ham, black olives, mushrooms, and artichokes. I like it because it easily fills me up, and despite that, it's always one of the cheapest pizzas on the menu. There's also a similar pizza called capricciosa (capricious) with the exact same ingredients, but instead of being split over the pizza, they are all over and around it.

 

And about lasagne, I always eat 2/3 dishes of it. 

 

I noticed that we comically have no games in common on PSN. Any interest in any PlatinumGames titles?

No, I'm not interested in them.

 

You gonna get Armored Core VI?

No, honestly I had to look up into it, I didn't know about it before being asked this question. As I said, the only upcoming games I'm looking forward too are Tekken 8 and WWE 2K23.

 

What podcasts are you into?

None.

 

How was APB: Reloaded?

In 2020 I played the game for about 75 hours, and I had a good amount of fun. The game itself is pretty decent. Unlike what it looks like here, the game has a big enough player base and finding matches is not that hard, especially in certain game modes and times of the day. The problem is that trying to get most of the trophies without boosting is pretty much impossible, and even if you manage to boost, it takes 100/200 hours to complete the boost for everyone. But since I snagged a lot of super rare trophies from that, it was worth it. 

 

Do you like creating guides?

Yes I do. I doubt I will write new ones in the future, especially considering that my PC is shit and I can't be bothered with doing that from my phone, but I had a good time writing the three trophy guides I have published. I like helping others.

 

Do you still play on your older consoles?

Very rarely. When it comes to gaming, I mostly trophy hunt: if not, I play Fall Guys or Tekken 7.

 

Why do you have 35 hidden trophies?

Last year Fall Guys got re-released and it came off with a second trophy list completely identical to the original one, and as soon as you booted up the game for the first time since then, boom: pop, pop, pop. Such bullshit. I hate auto popped/stacked list on my profile, especially considering that it stripped Jak TPL of its fastest platinum milestone, so I ended up hiding it. I don't like having that blue H, but I'd rather drink my own pee than have an autopopped platinum on my profile.

 

Best thing about living in Italy?

Nothing comes to mind :'D

 

Worst thing about living in Italy?

There is that saying going around online that we Italians have shitty connections, and I think that's why it takes me several minutes before someone accepts to play Tekken 7 with me: as soon as they see I'm from Italy, they reject the match.

 

From looking at your milestones, it appears that they're planned (or at least you've been absurdly lucky getting plats on 1000th trophies a lot) Am I right? And if I am, what game would you aim for your 100th platinum?

Yes, all of my milestones are planned: as I said, that's one of the things I love the most about this site. My 100th platinum is gonna be Spyro 3: considering how special this game is ever since I was a kid, it deserves it. And for obvious reasons, I'm gonna achieve it on January 1, 2024. 

 

Tea or coffee?

Coffee, with no sugar.

 

What Italian animal would you least like to come into contact with?

"Italian animal"... Hmm. Are there even any?

 

Sort of a multipart but: Pick your faves from each matchup and a small reason why: (if applicable)

• Austin or Rock: I was born during the Attitude Era so I never got to witness prime Austin/Rock, so I can't decide.

• Hogan or Savage: Same as above. I'm just 24. 

• Kenny Omega or AJ Styles or Finn Balor: Omega is excluded because I watch no wrestling outside of WWE. Between Styles and Balor, I pick Styles. I feel like Balor's WWE career has always been kinda lackluster, since he got that injury in 2016: boring feuds and useless forgettable title reigns. Balor deserved to be booked WAY better, since he returned in 2017. Also, I'm not a big fan of The Judgment Day.

• Undertaker or Triple H: Both of them.

• Shawn Michaels or Bret Hart: HBK, since I wasn't around during Bret's career. But I got to say it, Shawn was an asshole during the 90s, expecially for the Screwjob, it was hard not to hate him. I am legitimately happy they made peace in 2010, through. HOWEVER, I have to own it, there is a little, evil part of me that wishes that, after they shook hands, HBK would have hit with a Sweet Chin Music  In reality, they hugged.

 

Since you used to tackle every challenge a game has thrown at you when trophies weren't a thing, do trophies make you feel more compelled to do everything required for a plat, even if you don't enjoy or stop enjoying the game at some point? As in, if trophies weren't around today, would you still complete games 100%?

If I earn some trophies in a game I end up not liking it, I still try to get as many trophies as possible: as I said before, I hated every single second of my journey to the Vampyr platinum, but that's the price to pay for being a completionist. If trophies weren't around, I would just stop the game if I realized I didn't like it, and only try to do everything on it if I like it. That's pretty much what I was doing before trophy hunting.

 

Also, Tekken. Which character?

My main character is Eddy Gordo. AND BEFORE YOU THINK IT, I AM NOT THAT KIND OF PLAYER WHO JUST SMASHES X AND O (Known as 3 and 4 in the Tekken community) ALL THE TIME, NO NO NO NO. I can actually play Eddy competitively for real.  I also play other characters, listing them in a casual order:

• Claudio
• Gigas
• Shaheen
• Paul
• Law
• Hwoarang
• Heihachi
• Kazuya
• Lee
• Kuma

 

Then, if we exclude 7/8 characters I have literally zero clue about, I think I can hold my ground against an average/below average player by playing with pretty much every character of the game.

 

What are some of your proudest achievements from back when you played on Xbox 360?

Nothing in particular, really. All I was playing on Xbox were mostly Dragon Ball, Tekken and WWE games, and they didn't really have any particularly challenging trophies.

 

Do you have any favorite Xbox exclusives?

No, not at all, every game I played on my 360 was also available on other platforms.

 

Less a question and more a request but as you are an Italian citizen, please watch one episode of The Jersey Shore and report back to us what you think.

Sorry but I don't take such requests since I don't like TV series.

 

Best and worst eras of WWE?

Since I started watching in 2010, I feel like 2015-16 were very solid years, and I think 2015 is very underrated: WrestleMania 31 was great, Seth Rollins' title reign was good, John Cena's US Open Challenges made his title relevant again, and SmackDown in 2016 was amazing. On the other hand, I think 2019 was horrendous: Seth's title reign, this time, was terrible, Kofi Kingston's loss to Brock Lesnar made everyone Kofi had beaten in his title run look lame, the Wild Card rule made zero sense, and in all of this trash they had the beautiful idea of introducing the 24/7 title. 

 

Favourite overall wrestler?

Edge.

 

If you won the lottery today, what's the first thing you'd buy?

I don't know, I would just think about saving that money.

 

What Crash and/or Spyro game would you most like to see remastered?

If you had asked me this question years ago, I would have said the two original Ps1 Trilogies, but we got them.  So I say, none: now that they have been released and we also got a new Crash game, I think that it is enough with the nostalgia, and that they should release brand new games.

 

Is there a game you really enjoyed despite it being outside of the typical genres you go for?

Fall Guys. I'm typically not a fan of Battle Royale games, but this one... Just works. Nothing else comes to my mind because I tend to avoid a game completely if I think I will not like it: I just don't want to go through a Vampyr-like hell again.

 

What's a lesser-known Italian dish you'd recommend to people?

Sorry to disappoint you, but I have no idea. 

 

Favourite foreign cuisine?

Chinese.

 

Best video game villain?

I feel like Uncharted 2's Lazarevic was great, very evil.

 

Is there a Tekken game you were disappointed with?

I know it seems weird, but it's Tekken 7. While it is definitely the most balanced game from a competitive point of view, its offline content is just absent: the Story Mode, while not being that bad, is too short, and then there are just two modes that are truly lame. Not to mention that there are several toxic, rude people online, but unfortunately that applies to most online games. I really hope that Tekken 8 will feature amazing offline content, similar to older Tekken games.

 

How would you rank the WWE games you've played?

Ranking from worst to best: with the exception of the first two games listed, I think they are all good games:

1. 2K18
2. 2K17
3. 13
4. 12
5. 2K16
6. 2K14
7. 2K15
8. 2K22
9. 08
10. 09
11. 06
12. SvR
13. 2K20
14. 2K19
15. 11
16. 10
17. 07

 

Have you ever changed your opinion of a game after returning to it?

Yes. When I first played The Last of Us, I used to think that while being a good game, it was not the masterpiece most people define. But with time, I appreciated it more and I think it was very ahead of its time, to the point that I decided that, as soon as I get the platinum of Spyro 1, I will play through it again.

 

Dumb question here: If you were cursed and could only play ONE game (that you've already platinumed) for the rest of your life, which game would it be and why?

Easy, Fall Guys, because it's my favourite game, I play it almost every day regardless of trophies and I have a lot of fun with it.

 

What's your game you'd, under normal circumstances, never have played but turned out to be a hidden gem?

APB Reloaded. At first, I only played it because some friends were playing it when I got the Ps4 and recommended it to me, since it was free to play. When I got it, I didn't understand what I was supposed to do and how to play, I thought the game was just bad; but three years later, I decided to return to it to try get some other Trophies, since three years earlier I only had earned one Trophy. In the meanwhile, my friends had dropped the game, but as I said I played alone against other players for 75 hours and I had fun.

 

Probably quite controversial, but I want to know this opinion from a wrestling fan. How did you react to Chris Benoit’s crime? What did you feel, what insights did this information lead you to?

In case you don't know, the Benoit tragedy had a huge impact here in Italy. Back in 2003/2007, SmackDown used to air on a famous Italian channel, Italia 1, and was fashionable between kids/teenagers: that's how most Italian kids, including me, got into WWE, thanks to SmackDown on Italia 1, and most Italians agree that that time was when WWE was a big deal here in Italy, almost as football. When Benoit died, Italia 1 decided to stop broadcasting SmackDown. I was just 9 in 2007, and I didn't know how he died, and my father lied to me telling me he died in a car accident.  I think I learned the truth in 2008/2009, when I got to use the Internet for the first time. Obviously, I was shocked. I remember around that time that I was reading details about his death on Wikipedia right before going to sleep, and then I was unable to sleep that night. I also remember that, for some reason, I wasn't really scared of the killings themselves, but of what Benoit had texted to his colleagues.

 

Now that I am an adult, I think that Benoit likely didn't realize what he was doing: his brain ended up being heavily damaged, likely because of all the bumps he took during his career. Even though his actions were most likely unintentional, he is still a murderer and he should not be in the Hall of Fame. Trying to differentiate the wrestler Benoit, one of the greatest of all time, and the man Benoit, a killer, is something that we fans can do, but not a big worldwide company like WWE, so I think that WWE is making the right decision trying to stay away from Benoit and avoid remembering him.

 

Do you have a game that led you to almost giving up because of the difficulty? If so, what made you push through it?

Yes, the WipEout Omega Collection. Some races are insanely difficult and luck based, depending on which power ups you get and when, and how the AI behaves: I gave up on it but later returned following @Destructor-8. For more information, I invite you to read this thread, where I complained about that when I dropped the game, and the update I made when I got the platinum.

 

Who was a better wrestler in their prime, Rob van Dam or Randy Orton?

Randy Orton, his 2009 character was amazing: an evil, slimy piece of shit. Also, I am a big fan of The Legacy.

 

What’s the “deadliest” special move in all of wrestling in your opinion?

Muscle Buster.

 

Which Wrestlemania event was your favorite and why?

Out of the ones I witnessed as a fan (so from WrestleMania XXVI onwards), I'll say WrestleMania 31. I dislike super long cards for PPV events, such as with WrestleMania 35, because having too many matches on one single night kind of devalues them. That's why I think that splitting the WrestleMania cards into two nights is a good idea.

 

About WrestleMania 31, the card is short, solid, and every match feels important: the Ladder Match was a great opener, Randy Orton's RKO on Seth Rollins was an amazing WrestleMania moment (and in my opinion Randy's best RKO ever), and more generally, every match was good, with just the exception of Triple H vs Sting where I really didn't like the whole NWO vs DX thing, but unfortunately they had already turned the storyline into another WWE vs WCW thing... But I can forgive it for the event. What really rises up this event is, obviously, the main event: even before Seth Rollins' cash-in, the match between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns was very cool, but the ending of the event, with Seth's historical cash-in, is just something else.

 

____________________________________________________________________

Thank you to all who participated in asking questions in this interview! See you soon for the next one.

Spoiler

@CelestialRequiem @serrated-banner9 @breakingthegreen @Infected Elite @the1andonly654 @ExistentialSolid @DoctorDrPepper @Annoyingtiger888 @Messknecht @Baranov_925 @Lum

Edited January 20 by Charizarzar

[Infected Elite]

Yeah i agree on HBK kicking Bret. Funny, WWE Youtube uploaded that very moment a few days ago. I watched it and again felt the same "what if Shawn hit sweet chin music on Bret right then and there?" That crowd would have lost it. Lol. 

I personally am not a fan of Bret but I can admit he was a good technical wrestler. He just bores the ever living crap out of me.

 

I am curious where WWE goes in the coming weeks with Rhodes, Reigns, splitting the titles, Owens/Zayn/Usos, Wyatt and possibly Rock. Prefer Roman lose a title beforehand if hes facing Rock. 

 

This was a great interview!

[Annoyingtiger888]

Now I need to play more Fall Guys haha Only played it a couple of times so far. This was a fun read, I like the idea of getting to better know members of the forum

[Valzentia]

On 1/19/2023 at 8:37 AM, Charizarzar said:

Probably quite controversial, but I want to know this opinion from a wrestling fan. How did you react to Chris Benoit’s crime? What did you feel, what insights did this information lead you to?

In case you don't know, the Benoit tragedy had a huge impact here in Italy. Back in 2003/2007, SmackDown used to air on a famous Italian channel, Italia 1, and was fashionable between kids/teenagers: that's how most Italian kids, including me, got into WWE, thanks to SmackDown on Italia 1, and most Italians agree that that time was when WWE was a big deal here in Italy, almost as football. When Benoit died, Italia 1 decided to stop broadcasting SmackDown. I was just 9 in 2007, and I didn't know how he died, and my father lied to me telling me he died in a car accident.  I think I learned the truth in 2008/2009, when I got to use the Internet for the first time. Obviously, I was shocked. I remember around that time that I was reading details about his death on Wikipedia right before going to sleep, and then I was unable to sleep that night. I also remember that, for some reason, I wasn't really scared of the killings themselves, but of what Benoit had texted to his colleagues.

 

Now that I am an adult, I think that Benoit likely didn't realize what he was doing: his brain ended up being heavily damaged, likely because of all the bumps he took during his career. Even though his actions were most likely unintentional, he is still a murderer and he should not be in the Hall of Fame. Trying to differentiate the wrestler Benoit, one of the greatest of all time, and the man Benoit, a killer, is something that we fans can do, but not a big worldwide company like WWE, so I think that WWE is making the right decision trying to stay away from Benoit and avoid remembering him.

This is the best take on Chris Benoit I have ever heard

[KenjiCBZ]

27 minutes ago, Valzentia said:

This is the best take on Chris Benoit I have ever heard

Not sure if you are ironic or not.