pelagia14 Posted July 5, 2023 Author Share Posted July 5, 2023 (edited) Platinum #84 | Wytchwood Developer: Alientrap Games Inc., 2021 Country: Canada Time Played: 10h Platinum Earned: 27 May 2023 Rating: 7/10 PREMISE: You play as an elderly witch, woken from a long sleep. Not only that, but you don't have any memories and it seems that pre-amnesia-you signed a contract with a demonic goat! The terms are to bring twelve wicked souls to the Goat in order to reawaken a mysterious sleeping maiden who is apparently important to you. In order to fulfill your end of the contract, you’ll need to forage and gather ingredients and reagents in order to craft potions and magical items. GAME THOUGHTS: In mid-May I saw that it was leaving the PS+ Catalog in June. The game had been a low priority on my backlog up to that point, but I decided to complete it while it was still free. I'm happy that I did, as this was a cute and quirky game with a lovely art style! The Goat comes across as mysterious but also someone you don’t want to mess with. I absolutely adored the Baba-Yaga-esque design of the Witch. The game’s tone and writing are heavily inspired by Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and I appreciated how the ending was a bit ambiguous, but still gave us enough to feel satisfied. Each of the twelve souls that you capture for the Goat has done something terrible. You need to talk to other characters to figure out how you can subdue each target, and then usually help out a person or two in order to get special magical components that you need for the target... takedowns? defeats? captures? As you are doing all of this you learn about the targets’ terrible deeds and the quests usually have an “allegorical fable” style of ending for each target. And despite being obviously influenced by fables and fairytales, the writing is really well done. For example, one of the target questlines is obviously an homage to Little Red Riding Hood, but the story makes sure to adapt it versus copying all the story beats verbatim. CRAFTING Crafting items is the big gameplay loop in Wytchwood. One quest step requires you to speak to a Bandit Boss. First, you have to sneak through the bandit camp, so you need to make a Dreadful Doll. That requires 3 Grain, 3 Hopper Legs, and 1 Sewing Kit to craft. The Sewing Kit itself has to be made from 2 Reedy Twines and 1 Skeeter Snot. Certain items can be found in many regions, but most items are only located in one or two specific regions. Thus, it's highly recommended when playing this game to always be gathering items so that you can craft items and item components. This didn't bother me at all - I'm used to hoarding items in RPGs (and never even using most of them), so it was nice to have my item-hoarding skills be an asset. Plus the art style of the game is absolutely gorgeous. Each region/zone has its own aesthetic, so I was happy to do short farming sections in the various areas while I watched TV. My big recommendation for anyone playing the game is to try to bounce around between quests. I'm the kind of person who usually likes to see a quest the whole way through before I start on the next quest, but using that type of mentality here will cause you to do a lot of additional backtracking. For example, I might work on the Cat's quest in the Market region until I need an item from the Forest. Then I'll work on the questline in the Docks region until I needed something else from the Forest. At that point, I'd work on the Bear's quest in the Forest and make sure to spend a good 15-20 minutes foraging for ingredients and reagents. Then I could return to where I was in the Market and Docks questlines until I needed another ingredient from a different zone. In addition, my "hoard all the things" tendencies meant that the 15-20 minutes of gathering I did in the Forest had me stocked up enough that I usually had enough Forest-exclusive crafting ingredients to finish my active questlines in other zones without needing to return to the Forest for a second, third, or even fourth round of gathering specific things. I want to note that the game does a great job of slowly expanding your list of potions and magical items that you can craft, so you don't feel overwhelmed by the number of options or forget what a certain one does. Finally, I didn't see this until after I completed the game, but someone here on PSNP made a post listing all the item totals needed for the various questlines. This would further reduce the need for backtracking if it is referenced while playing the game, and contains no story spoilers. TROPHIES The trophies are literally to collect the souls of all 12 targets and complete the storyline. The first day that I played, I probably finished the questlines for 7-8 targets over the course of eight hours but the trophies did not pop. This seems to be a common problem based on the forums, but it also seems to be a lot less glitchy than it used to be. I think when I turned on the game the next day, only one of the 7-8 trophies popped when I turned on the game. I knew that people seemed to need to restart their games and/or console to get trophies to pop, so I ended up closing out of the game and reopening it 7-8 times to get all of my completed trophies to pop. It was definitely annoying having to do it separately for each trophy, but the game only has 15 trophies. Plus, I think the final couple of trophies popped on their own without the whole rigamarole. Thus, my PSNP profile says that my start to finish time was 2h 18 minutes, but it was actually around 10h of gameplay to unlock the platinum. FINAL THOUGHTS I loved the bright colors and character models in this game and really enjoyed the aesthetics. The witch's dialogue was often snarky and the narrative found a great balance of having often grim (or Grimm? 😉) storylines but keeping the game itself chill and upbeat. However, there is no getting around that a solid majority of the game involves you crafting or gathering craftable components when you are not talking to characters. If you strongly dislike a heavy emphasis on crafting, then Wytchwood might not be a good game to play. FAVORITE... Trophy Image: The Stag Trophy Moment: First Things First Screenshots: Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted July 6, 2023 Author Share Posted July 6, 2023 (edited) Platinum #85 | Inscryption Developer: Daniel Mullins Games, 2021 Country: Canada Time Played: 56h to platinum Platinum Earned: 3 June 2023 Rating: 10/10 PREMISE: I don’t want to spoil anything about this game, and the PS Store description is fantastic, so I’m just going to copy it here: Inscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie. Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards... In Inscryption you will… Acquire a deck of woodland creature cards by draft, surgery, and self-mutilation. Unlock the secrets lurking behind the walls of Leshy's cabin. Embark on an unexpected and deeply disturbing odyssey. GAME THOUGHTS: Holy shit. This game, y’all. Truly one of the most inventive, clever, and memorable games that I have ever played. I had seen a few screenshots, so I vaguely knew this game was a deck-builder with “creepy cabin in the woods setting + maybe supernatural vibes”. I heard a few of the more incisive videogame reviewers whose opinions I highly respect say that this was a strong contender for Game of the Year for them but also warn that it is best to go in blind. Thus, I went completely dark on anything else about the game for over a year, and wow I am so glad that I did. IS THIS GAME GORY? One thing to note before I go further into this review, for anyone reading this who has *not* played the game already, is that the PS Store description makes it sound like this game has a good amount of bloody gore in it. I love horror movies and videogames, but I’m not a big fan of gratuitous gore - thus avoiding franchises like the SAW movies - and I have to look away when things are done to eyeballs //shudders. (How people voluntarily apply contact lenses to their eyes will always bewilder me, lol. I wouldn’t be able to handle the idea of touching my eyeballs, even though logically I’m just touching the lens to insert or remove them.) There is no graphic gore in this game, it is 100% implied. There are only two mechanics, BOTH optional, that utilize the implied gore. They are both required to do at some point for the platinum, but since this isn’t a VR game I didn’t get really squicked out. (To help illustrate where I fall on the horror squick scale, I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to play horror games alone - need to get myself in the right mindset to do so - and I don’t know if I will ever play a traditional horror title in VR. I like my horror on a flat-screen that is visibly a couple of yards/meters away from me, thank you. 😂) There also is not any form of actual surgery in the game - unless you have the highly unusual opinion that something like scrapbooking should also be called surgery. HAVE YOU PLAYED THIS GAME? If you are interested in playing Inscryption but have not yet played it, or are only a couple of hours into the game, I HIGHLY recommend you skip reading this post. I will be discussing huge spoilers at varying points in the rest of this post, and part of what makes Inscryption so incredible is how you think you finally understand the game and then it completely changes your frame of reference requiring you to recontextualizes everything… and it pulls this off multiple times, and without ever feeling like it is jumping the shark. If you are on the fence about playing this game, then I recommend reading the reviews written by @DrBloodmoney here and @realm722 here. They both do a great job of starting out as spoiler-free as one can in discussing this game, and then clearly delineating the moment they stop trying to talk around or vaguely allude to its many spoilery aspects. Reading their non-spoiler sections was what really put Inscryption at the top of my list - and after I finish writing this review, I’m excited to finally read the rest of their thoughts! WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT INITIAL BLIND EXPERIENCE The notes that I wrote down in my first thirty or so minutes are: Immediately intrigued by having to select “Continue” instead of “New Game”... “Stoats cost 1 Blood. Sacrifices must be made.” Gosh, the third sentence and already I’m loving the chilling, creepy vibe! “Fear not, its suffering was real but you will see it again.” FUCK that was said so nonchalantly. yooooooo holy shit, the pliers taking one of your teeth to balance the scales is fucking diabolical, I love it ACT I / LEARNING THE RULES I absolutely love how the cabin has the “escape room-esque” secrets to gradually discover and solve. I’ve not played a ton of deckbuilders before, and I’m not always the most patient person when it comes to having to learn new mechanics via trial and error. However, it was so fun and rewarding and interesting to learn this system. The game also does a great job of not overwhelming you with everything from the start. I felt like I was constantly learning new things for the first few hours, and never reached a point where I struggled to keep up with it. The reference book was cool, and the fact that some of the symbol descriptions are obscured with ink really adds to the mystery and suspense. In my first run I actually managed to make it to the Prospector! The game started getting really fun for me during my third run when I had enough knowledge to start synergizing a deck together. I started to favor decks that focused on Wolves and low blood cost cards. I also came to realize at this point how powerful my death cards could be, and was already labeling each death card with its run (ie, Run #3 was named pelagia-3, Run #5 was named pelagia-5, etc). LUCKY RUN 7 This was probably my luckiest run of the whole game. Within a few moves, I had already picked up my pelagia-2 card that was 0 Cost / 7 Damage / 7 Health, and next move I also got ahold of pelagia-5 at 0 Cost / 3 Damage / 4 Health! By this point I had already discovered the ring from the room’s cuckoo clock and the 4-leaf clover from the painting. I managed to get myself a Woodcarver Totem that was Unkillable Squirrels and a Stinky Caged Wolf from a sacrificial altar. Lastly, I had learned how a Poisoned Adder would kill the people at the Campfires, and was able to upgrade my Stoat to 10 Damage / 5 Health. With this incredibly lucky deck, not only did I reach Leshy for the first time but I killed him and the moon! Granted, I hadn’t found the camera film so I still ended up dead afterward. I’ll be honest, at this point I did look up how to get the roll of film, and I was able to defeat Leshy for real in my next attempt! THE LUCKY CARDER And then…. dafuq are these videos? Wait, is this a whole other element of this game?! My initial thought was that maybe Leshy was originally The Lucky Carder who became corrupted by the Inscryption cards, but as I continued to watch more videos that seemed less likely. I also adored the gimmicky Youtube content creator nods in his videos and the Blair Witch vibes for the outdoor ones (including the fake-out with the battery dying!). Plus Luke Carter -> Lucky Carder was genius. Over the span of a few minutes, I’ve gone from viewing myself as controlling a faceless, random character playing against Leshy in the cabin… to suddenly, am I actually playing as Luke Carter who is playing the game? The game universe was initially confined to the four corners of my TV screen, but now it’s expanded into the “real world” of my computer desk console area. ACT II I can’t put into words the anticipation that I had when the “New Game” option became active in the game menu. Do I get to play the game in a less spooky cabin with a more sane version of Leshy? Will there be new mechanics to the card game? …And then I press New Game, and I am greeted with a top-down perspective, 2D pixel graphics, and bright colors. This is what Alice must have felt when she went down the rabbit hole, I imagine. Suddenly, instead of a rogue-lite deck we have proper deck-building mechanics and a “gotta catch ‘em all” mindset. We still only need to do 5 “damage” to our opponents on the scale to win games, but suddenly we have new mechanics of Mox (magic) and Energy (tech) along our Beast and Bone playstyles. We get to meet the various Scribes and a couple of other NPCs like the Trader and the Angler. So many of the Beast and Undead cards play essentially the same, but at the same time a lot of strategy is completely different. It’s fucking wild. You get the sense that this was the OG Inscryption game, the uncorrupted cards and NPCs before everything got corrupted and twisted. I did laugh at the Lucky Carder section at the end when Luke says “[the game] at least appears to be professionally made”. The meta narrative gets more weird and more fascinating. ACT III At this point I knew there was going to be another paradigm shift, but it was still immensely clever to combine various aspects of the rogue-lite RNG Part 1 elements with the open-world Part 2 elements. I loved The Archivist fight where you had to sacrifice old, dear save files to do more damage. Of course it would have been a lot more intense and nail-biting had I been playing on my PC, but the concept is fabulous. Now the game has expanded past my monitor TV into my PC console itself. And then even to the internet! Talking about a change in game scope, lol. For the fight with G0lly/The Telegrapher, I loved the idea of getting cards made by other Inscryption players from the internet. I tried to make really useful cards with good stats and abilities, but to no one’s surprise, I got terrible cards from random gamers. In regards to the meta-story with Luke Carder, I loved how this time around it had strong Paranormal Activity vibes. Act I’s videos had a lot of Blair Witch as I previously stated, but I wasn’t able to figure out if Act II’s videos also took inspiration from a well-known horror movie. Learning how Act III is the story of how Inscryption went from innocent Act II to corrupted Act I was incredible. “The Great Transcendence” is a fantastic, ominous name. It was really cool that we have to fight the four Scribes during the game deletion. Though I’m sorry, the Duel Disk is 100% from YuGiOh, lol. KAYCEE’S MOD After dying super quickly in my first couple of runs, I actually put the game aside for almost a month, despairing about how I would ever earn the platinum if I couldn’t even reach Leshy with 0 challenge modification. After a few weeks away, I returned back to Inscryption with fresh motivation to beat Kaycee’s mod. A few tips in the PSNP forums helped me to finally unlock the second starter deck. With that unlocked, I began to really enjoy and appreciate Kaycee’s Mod! And while the Limoncello boss was kind of random, it was neat to have one final ‘surprise’/’new mechanic’ in the game in the final encounter. FINAL THOUGHTS Damn, this game did so many rug pulls and so fucking well. And the card game itself is genuinely fun! I don't really have anything else to compare it to, since I've not yet gotten around to other card games like the acclaimed Slay the Spire, but the gameplay loop was truly satisfying. The one thing I still have to do is to watch a video or two covering the game's ARG (Alternate Reality Game) that goes more into the lore of the OLD_DATA and the Karnoffel code. I've done a bit of reading on the Wiki and know some general things, like how the GPS coordinates shown in the Lucky Carder videos at the end of Act I actually held a floppy disk that contained hints. Hopefully if you've read this far, you've also gone on a literal journey as you played through this phenomenal creation. FAVORITE... Trophy Image: Ancestral Vision Trophy Moment: Renewal Screenshots: Spoilery Screenshots: Spoiler Edited December 24, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted July 13, 2023 Author Share Posted July 13, 2023 (edited) Platinum #86 | Aspire: Ina's Journey Developer: Wondernaut Studios, 2022 Country: Brazil Time Played: 5h Platinum Earned: 3 June 2023 Rating: 5/10 PREMISE: You play as Ina, who wakes up after months or years of slumber inside The Tower, a mysterious construction that feeds on the dreams of its prisoners. Now awake and free from her Matrix-like sleeping pod, Ina must platform her way through the Tower as she searches for an escape - and perhaps find out why she was trapped inside it in the first place. GAME THOUGHTS: I first learned of this game by seeing it on a PS Store sale. The art style looked incredible, the store description of the game almost sounded too good to be true, and it was on sale for just $3.24, so I figured why not? Interestingly, not a lot of people have played the game on PlayStation. As of early July 2023, the game only has 45 owners. I was the 11th person to earn the platinum(!), and currently the second fastest at 5h 31 minutes on the leaderboard. Documentation before my inevitable decline. I can say I was on a leaderboard at one point! STRENGTHS The strongest aspect of the game is its gorgeous aesthetic. The game has a nice soundtrack that really fits the atmosphere in certain spots, and it is an easy puzzle platformer that can be completed on a chill afternoon. When I say easy, I'm the kind of person who often gets stumped by one or two puzzles and needs to look up their solutions, and I did not have that issue here. The platinum is very easy to earn (just make sure you don’t fall from any rope swings, and don't die in the Dungeons, unless you want to play 85% or 30% of the game a second time), and there are lots of checkpoints in case you missed one of the game's few collectibles. WEAKNESSES Unfortunately, the narrative of the game was nowhere near as interesting, complex, or thought-provoking as the store description makes it out to be. Part of it reads, “Ina's dreams shape reality while the Tower feeds. Hopes and imagination satiate its hunger. How are the two connected?” The answer? They are connected because the game says they are connected. No other explanation is given, at least as far as I could figure out. I really feel like I’m missing something in regard to the story because I didn’t see how it was a deep and engaging narrative. Yes, you encounter “memories” of the various NPC friends that you meet along the way, but the NPCs still felt really two-dimensional and the single memory that you get per NPC doesn’t give them enough depth or richness to be interesting. I also want to clarify that the story wasn't a complete dumpster fire or anything. It was a serviceable story for the game - Ina has some interesting moments of dialogue with other characters, but these brief moments do not make for something complex or memorable. I think part of my problem was that the store description really created a certain idea of the narrative quality for me that the game was unable to deliver. To me, it feels like a failure of the store description to set proper expectations of the game experience, than an indictment on the game itself. (Though I would have loved if the narrative was more interesting or nuanced, don't get me wrong!) TROPHY HUNTING A lot of the trophy descriptions are pretty vague, and I had to really research how to earn a few of them due to the low number of people who’ve played the game even on other devices. I’m thinking of creating a PSNP guide for the game, to help contribute to a community that has helped me out so much, so I imagine that my second-fastest-platinum will easily be beaten by others in the future. (Especially for those who make sure they don't die in the Dungeons on their first playthrough, lol!) I do want to give a big shout-out to the trophy images, however. A lot of games are lazy in the images they select for their trophies, but most of the trophy images here are beautiful. It's evident that they spent time creating unique images for the trophies that match the game's art style, which I really appreciate. ADDITIONAL RANDOM THOUGHTS I have no idea why the game has IGDB genres of “Music” and “Arcade” - I don’t know if the developers determine these tags and this is just an error in translating IGDB into Portuguese, or if someone else determines the IGDB genres. I also personally feel that applying the “Puzzle” genre to the game is a bit generous, but there are at least puzzle elements to the gameplay even if they are relatively basic. As you play through the game, you sometimes come across runic text in the backgrounds - some of which can be translated by pressing the interact button. As a language nerd, I found it a bit odd and annoying to bastardize some Elder Futhark (Norse) runes and mix in other runes that appear to be invented by the developers. And when I say bastardize, they didn't even use all of the runes correctly. Perthro (ᛈ) is the letter "P" in Elder Futhark, but they used it as the letter "C" here presumably because it is C-shaped. Thurisaz (ᚦ) is "TH" in Elder Futhark, but here it was used as "D" for likely the same reason. Those are just two examples. Elder Futhark already has 24 symbols that line up with most Latin characters (and honestly who cares about letters like Q anyways, lol). PLUS, if you really wanted to easily transliterate English then Anglo-Saxon Futhorc is even easier to use since it has between 26 to 33 runes, depending on which version you use. So that is pel's little linguistical rant. 😂 Example of the game's invented runic script. FINAL THOUGHTS Aspire: Ina’s Tale is a cute game with pretty graphics and a nice soundtrack, but that isn’t enough for me to recommend it to others at full price. It’s a decent choice for a chill “platinum in an afternoon” game if that is your only objective, especially if you wait to nab it when it is on sale for 75% off. FAVORITE... Trophy Image: And No One Could Judge Trophy Moment: What’s In a Poem Screenshots: Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 On 7/5/2023 at 9:32 PM, pelagia14 said: (How people voluntarily apply contact lenses to their eyes will always bewilder me, lol. I wouldn’t be able to handle the idea of touching my eyeballs, even though logically I’m just touching the lens to insert or remove them.) Hahah it feels so nice to be “seen” in this way by somebody else. As a glasses-wearer since a young child, I’ve had many people: “why haven’t you ever tried contacts?” And I have to explain that my goofy ass apart from being horrified of the mere notion of touching my eyeball would inevitably end up with a scratched cornea after I panic over being unable to remove the silicone from my eye socket. On 7/5/2023 at 9:32 PM, pelagia14 said: If you are on the fence about playing this game, then I recommend reading the reviews written by @DrBloodmoney here and @realm722 here. They both do a great job of starting out as spoiler-free as one can in discussing this game, and then clearly delineating the moment they stop trying to talk around or vaguely allude to its many spoilery aspects. thank you for the incredibly kind shoutout ?, I also enjoy linking back the review that inspired me to play a game! On 7/5/2023 at 9:32 PM, pelagia14 said: Immediately intrigued by having to select “Continue” instead of “New Game”... “Stoats cost 1 Blood. Sacrifices must be made.” Gosh, the third sentence and already I’m loving the chilling, creepy vibe! “Fear not, its suffering was real but you will see it again.” FUCK that was said so nonchalantly. yooooooo holy shit, the pliers taking one of your teeth to balance the scales is fucking diabolical, I love it Hah I had forgotten about that line from your 3rd bullet point when I played. I think you did a great job of pointing out how the nature of the game isn’t really outright horror / gore but more… unsettling. Everything that would be viewed as profoundly upsetting in any normal day behavior is treated with a casualness (cutting out your eyeball, ripping out teeth to get an edge) that while still freaky eventually becomes so casual to the player after repetition that the player eventually gets on the same level as the characters in-game. Hadn’t really made that click of a realization ‘til your review so thank you! On 7/5/2023 at 9:32 PM, pelagia14 said: With this incredibly lucky deck, not only did I reach Leshy for the first time but I killed him and the moon! Granted, I hadn’t found the camera film so I still ended up dead afterward. I’ll be honest, at this point I did look up how to get the roll of film, and I was able to defeat Leshy for real in my next attempt! Damn! Sincere question, was it a bit deflating when you realized that you’d have to do another run after thinking you conquered the mountain? I probably would have found it a teensy bit anticlimactic if I had beat the game proper and missed the camera and had to do it again. On 7/5/2023 at 9:32 PM, pelagia14 said: FINAL THOUGHTS Damn, this game did so many rug pulls and so fucking well. And the card game itself is genuinely fun! I don't really have anything else to compare it to, since I've not yet gotten around to other card games like the acclaimed Slay the Spire, but the gameplay loop was truly satisfying. I think if you enjoyed Inscyrption’s gameplay loop (not just the atmosphere/vibes), I think you’re also going to LOVE Slay the Spire. In terms of pure mechanics, I think it’s quite easily one of the best I’ve ever played and it sticks with me well over a year after playing. Card games are awesome! sorry for taking so long to reply until now. I had seen your review from a few weeks back but didn’t get a proper sit down to read it until now waiting for a lengthy flight at the airport ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted July 21, 2023 Author Share Posted July 21, 2023 (edited) On 7/19/2023 at 6:33 AM, realm722 said: Hah I had forgotten about that line from your 3rd bullet point when I played. I think you did a great job of pointing out how the nature of the game isn’t really outright horror / gore but more… unsettling. Everything that would be viewed as profoundly upsetting in any normal day behavior is treated with a casualness (cutting out your eyeball, ripping out teeth to get an edge) that while still freaky eventually becomes so casual to the player after repetition that the player eventually gets on the same level as the characters in-game. Hadn’t really made that click of a realization ‘til your review so thank you! Oooooo, unsettling is a fantastic descriptor for Inscryption! And yeah, we as players become a bit numb to everything after a while. I did still sometimes wince internally when I'd rip out one of my teeth later in the game, but I quickly became inured to the Mycologist performing bloody surgery on creatures who are stated as being able to feel pain. While I brought up that aspect of the game's tone, it isn't until now with your comment that I can properly verbalize what I wanted to get across! On 7/19/2023 at 6:33 AM, realm722 said: Damn! Sincere question, was it a bit deflating when you realized that you’d have to do another run after thinking you conquered the mountain? I probably would have found it a teensy bit anticlimactic if I had beat the game proper and missed the camera and had to do it again. Honestly, I was more shocked that I managed to get to the game's end so fast, especially after not beating the Prospector until I think my third run. The Death Cards were obviously vital to my progression happening so quickly, but I thought it would take me many more hours to get to Leshy's Cabin. Though that's probably also in large part because I saw the PSNP Guide estimated the time to platinum as 50 hours, and until I reached Act 2 I had no idea that there was anything besides Act 1! Disregarding the more meta aspects of my feelings, I actually really liked that I died to Leshy the first time I beat his Moon card. It really helped justify Leshy's confidence in always defeating (killing) the opponents he comes across, and why he was bored enough to help explain the game to us when we first started. This is an amusing way to pass the time for Leshy, a game with no stakes for him - whereas it is nothing but stakes for us, with our lives on the line. It was also one of the many moments where I discovered something new about the game - though not as paradigm-shifting as most of them, of course. I thought that I just had to defeat Leshy and his Moon card in order to "win" the game's narrative, or maybe that would create a small change in things like getting a more impressive permanent item/upgrade for subsequent runs against him. Leshy seemed like an eldritch being completely beyond human comprehension, and thus one that I did not have any hope or ability to kill. As soon as I was in the serial-killing room and discovered I had access to an empty camera, I had a moment of excitement. I realized that there had to be a blank roll of film somewhere for me to find, meaning that I could kill Leshy (or turn him into a card, whatever). That made my next run still a lot of fun as I was full of anticipation for what would happen when I managed to turn the tables on him. On 7/19/2023 at 6:33 AM, realm722 said: I think if you enjoyed Inscyrption’s gameplay loop (not just the atmosphere/vibes), I think you’re also going to LOVE Slay the Spire. In terms of pure mechanics, I think it’s quite easily one of the best I’ve ever played and it sticks with me well over a year after playing. Card games are awesome! Oh, I'm super happy to hear that! I know Dr. B has been somewhat of a proselytizer in regards to fantastic card-game videogames, and it's great to hear converts other gamers espousing similar opinions. Honestly, Inscryption was a bit dangerous in terms of it getting to be late at night, and my brain going "I'll just do one more encounter before going to bed. / Ooooone more. / This will be my last one. / One more wouldn't hurt, surely? / I swear this will be the last one. / ....I can fit in another, right?" 😂 So I definitely enjoyed the mechanics, and I'm excited for whenever I get around to Slay the Spire from my backlog! On 7/19/2023 at 6:33 AM, realm722 said: sorry for taking so long to reply until now. I had seen your review from a few weeks back but didn’t get a proper sit down to read it until now waiting for a lengthy flight at the airport ? Hey, no worries about that! Life is definitely a thing that happens. I wasn't expecting a response when I tagged you (mostly wanted you to know that I found your review supremely helpful), so getting one was a delight to see! 🥰 Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted July 22, 2023 Author Share Posted July 22, 2023 (edited) Platinum #87 | Final Fantasy Developer: SquareSoft, 1987 / Square Enix, 2023 Country: Japan Time Played: 11h* *Boosts: Gil x4, EXP x4 Platinum Earned: 9 June 2023 Rating: 4/10 Note: I will be referring to the game Final Fantasy as Final Fantasy I throughout this piece to help distinguish when I am referring to the game versus the franchise. PREMISE: Final Fantasy I follows four Warriors of Light who were tasked with restoring four elemental crystals to save the world from darkness. You pick the class (essentially combat style) of each of the four characters and then play through a story that was groundbreaking for its time. HISTORY: This is the game that - according to legend - could have been a final swan song for SquareSoft but instead launched one of the biggest RPG videogame franchises. While Final Fantasy I was not the first RPG to have a narrative featuring time travel or saving the world, it presented its narrative beats in a more complex manner than was standard at the time. The story is definitely weak according to modern RPG standards, but most people who are going to play Final Fantasy I today are doing so for the curiosity to experience the franchise's origin. NES OR PIXEL REMASTER?: Unless you have a specific reason (like nostalgia) for wanting to pay the NES version, it's definitely recommended to play the Pixel Remaster version here instead. Not only are the updated pixel graphics much nicer to look at, but the various re-releases of the game have also made some important quality-of-life changes to gameplay mechanics and AI logic without changing the essence of the game. Fans of the Gameboy Advance Dawn of Souls remastered version will also want to take note that the Pixel Remaster does not contain the bonus dungeons that were added to the GBA release. NES versus Pixel Remaster graphics: Credit: J-List Blog GAME THOUGHTS: It was a delight getting to play the first game in one of my favorite videogame franchises - though it’s wild to realize that this game first came out 36 years ago! This game isn’t a 100% exact port of the 1987 code - for example, it’s my understanding that Final Fantasy 2 was the first game to actually have MP. However, the minor enhancements in gameplay do not detract from the experience in my opinion. While there is an argument for preserving games in their original state, I think making small improvements such as "if an enemy dies before Character X can attack it, Character X will redirect their attack to a new enemy instead of getting an automatic miss" are almost akin to optimizing the coding. PICKING YOUR PARTY The very first decision to make upon selecting "New Game" was to choose my party and name the characters. Job classes were easy for me to pick - I've never been a huge fan of how Red Mages are a jack of all trades and master of none (despite that being a great descriptor of myself 😅) and I wanted Thief speed over Monks who can't really equip items. Going with Fighter, Thief, White Mage, and Black Mage gave me a good balance of physical attacks and magical attack/support. (And almost, but not quite, the party composition of the blast-from-the-past 8-Bit Theater webcomic.) Picking a name for my playable character can often be a process - am I planning to essentially roleplay an existing character from a different game or other media to assist with morality decisions? Am I going to roleplay an occupation instead of a personality? If so, what types of names do NPCs in the game have, so I can choose something that either feels like it could blend in or deliberately seem foreign? And then of course the name has to look/sound right for the vibe - for certain vibes I like names that start with a hard consonant, whereas other vibes call for names that either start with a soft consonant or a vowel instead. 😂 I'm very envious of people who can quickly pick a name during character creation in a game. Thankfully, a quick Google search informed me that at some point a novelization was made of Final Fantasy I! Leaning on the English names from the novelization, my Fighter became Setro, Thief became Zauver, White Mage became Flora, and Black Mage became Teol. OLD VS NEW It was awesome to see series staples such as a character named Cid who has an airship - even though Cid originally first appeared in FF2, and this was a later retcon to FF1. Just as interesting to me were the things that went against more modern RPG conventions. The game does not have magical attack/defense stats, and both the White Mage and Black Mage were capable of doing very decent physical damage when equipped with better hammers or knives. It was also a bit weird at first to see the White Mage have a ton of HP, since that is usually reserved for front-line tanks and physical attackers in modern games. Speaking of old versus new, I loved that the game allowed you to swap between the OST (Original Soundtrack in all its 8-bit glory) and the “Arrangement” (modern orchestral… arrangements, for lack of a non-repetitive word). I used the OST for half of the game, but it was nice to sometimes swap out the delightful but more limited 8-bit tracks for something a bit more complex when I was in a specific area for a while. The game also gives you the option to use a “Modernized” font. Yes, I am one of Those People in the camp that finds the modern font to be absolute garbage. The classic font is so much easier on the eyes to read, and the choice of a super narrow font with a very thin stroke width clashes horribly with the game’s pixel aesthetic. I have no idea why someone deliberately picked a narrow font face to leave huge empty spaces in all the menu and dialogue boxes. I would have preferred almost any other sans-serif font (in a non-narrow typeface) over what Square Enix bizarrely thought was a good choice. Here is an example of how PC players can have a much more legible reading experience had a better sans-serif font (top version) been selected over the "Modernized" font (bottom version): Credit: RPGSite.net NOTES ON GAMEPLAY Honestly, despite the game using very traditional old-school RPG mechanics, there was very little that annoyed me with the game (outside of the font, lol). Perhaps it’s because my first Final Fantasy was VII, which was still pretty old-school in many ways. Anyways, I was incredibly surprised to see that Ethers only restore a single magic point per rank! They were practically pointless, especially for how expensive they were - it’d be different if enemies were dropping Ethers left and right. It's also a little annoying that resting at an Inn won't revive KO'd members, and you have to visit a church if you can't or don't want to cast Raise. My other gripe with the game was that I had terrible RNG for getting the Warmech superboss to spawn in the Flying Fortress. SUPPOSEDLY it has a “1 in 64 chance” of spawning. However, my party was leveled up enough that I could complete 3-4 battles per minute and it still took me close to 75 minutes to get the asshole to show up. I know a 1 in 64 chance doesn't guarantee I'll see the enemy within 64 encounters, but 225-300 encounters to get to the Warmech was a mindnumbing experience. FINAL THOUGHTS A small part of me feels guilty ranking this game as a 4/10 since we would not have the rest of the franchise without the game - and it feels wrong to give a game a low rank when so many people who played it shortly after its release call it ground-breaking. At the same time, I am playing this as a modern-day gamer. The story is very basic for modern standards and the soundtrack is fairly weak compared to the rest of the franchise. Most importantly, ranking this game at a 4 instead of a 5 allows me a little bit more nuance in ranking the rest of the Final Fantasy franchise. FAVORITE... Trophy Image: Wind's Caress Trophy Moment: Token of Courage OST Song: 🎶 Prelude Screenshots: Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted July 23, 2023 Author Share Posted July 23, 2023 (edited) Platinum #88 | Life is Strange: True Colors Developer: Deck Nine, 2021 Country: USA Time Played: 12h Platinum Earned: 15 June 2023 Rating: 8/10 PREMISE: Alex Chen, aged out of the foster care system after 8 long years, finally has the chance to reunite with her long-lost brother Gabe in the quaint town of Haven Springs, Colorado. After a tragedy, it quickly becomes clear that there is a mystery hiding underneath the beauty and hipster charms of Haven Springs. Alex will need to embrace her psychic Empathy power in order to get to the bottom of things while learning to let people get close to her. GAME THOUGHTS: While this is the fourth main game in the Life is Strange series, it's only the second one that I have played after the original Life is Strange. Franchise gameplay focuses on branching dialogue options and how your selections impact the mystery narrative and your interactions with the NPCs. It's definitely not a franchise made for everyone, but if you don't mind games that are focused on an interactive drama as their central gameplay "mechanic", then I think at least Life is Strange and True Colors are worth checking out. EMPATHY Alex has a psychic power, "Empathy", that has her experience particularly strong emotions from people in her proximity. If someone is suddenly full of rage and ready to beat someone up, that emotion sort of 'bleeds' over onto Alex making her equally as enraged and ready to fight. People feeling rather emotional also have a visible aura to Alex, with each type of feeling having its own color. Early on in the game, Alex discovers that she can experience snippets of memory based on the thoughts that push people into these heightened emotional states, aiding her mission of uncovering the truth behind a tragic event. As the game progresses, Alex also discovers some other facets of her ability. A game with empathy as a 'superpower' focuses on emotions by its very nature. Trauma, PTSD, and Grief are central to the game's story due to Alex's past and the literal traumatic event that happens in the game. At the same time, the narrative isn't all doom and gloom. Alex learned to be very emotionally isolated in order to survive the foster system with her ability, and during her time in Haven Springs she learns to open up again, make friends, and even fall in love (which I think is only optional, but I don't know for sure). HAVEN SPRINGS Someone who appreciates elements of stereotypical hippie-hipster culture would fit in well in this quiet town. One of the characters operates a [vinyl record store]-slash-[radio station] and another operates a [marijuana dispensary]-slash-[art studio]. There are plenty of ways to enjoy the natural beauty around the town such as mountain bike trails and kayaking on the lake. If it weren't for a mining company holding a lot of political sway in the area, it seems like it would be a literal haven for the hippie-hipster stereotype. GAMEPLAY Like all other Life is Strange titles, True Colors has an episodic structure. Unlike the previous installments, though, True Colors had all the episodes available at launch. While I of course didn't play the game shortly after release, in a day and age where we are constantly bombarded with a surplus of entertainment options and many TV shows drop their seasonal episodes in one or two groupings, I think this was a smart choice. Especially when we are talking about a game where decisions made in earlier episodes can have an impact (usually small, but sometimes big) in later episodes! Each episode has a "Zen Moment" that you can find, where Alex takes a moment to enjoy the nature around her. The camera zooms out a little to pan around the environment while a (usually folk or indie pop) song plays in the background. I really liked the inclusion of these Zen Moments, as they encourage the player to take a moment to reflect on the characters and narrative up to that point. I really appreciated how the game allowed you to remove timers from the moments where you have to make important decisions. It allowed me the time to figure out how I wanted to roleplay as Alex in these moments. Plus, since a lot of games struggle to convey what tone various dialogue options/choices will result in [🎶 Hello Mass Effect my old friend 🎶], I like being able to take a moment to think if my interpretation of an option's resulting tone/response is likely to match what the developers have set it to. One thing I really disliked was Alex's "jogging" speed. Her walking speed already felt like a turtle crawling for me. And I understand the game not wanting you to jog indoors, and perhaps take the time to enjoy every bit of the beautiful environments when you are walking outside. However, the game reuses a lot of its settings and by the fifteenth time I am walking down the main street to get from the pub to the flower shop, I feel like I've appreciated the scenery enough to where I can still admire it while jogging at a more reasonable pace. Without mentioning any spoilers, there is a section where Alex gets to do some investigating on a laptop. I really loved how part of the laptop screen acted like a "Notes App" that helped to summarize what she has learned during each part of the laptop searching, as well as making it clear what information Alex was looking for next. SMARTPHONE Alex's smartphone has access to Haven Spring's "MyBlock" app, which is essentially like Facebook if it only had the residents and businesses of the town. I normally ignore these background "social media apps" in games since it is not usually very important to the narrative and worldbuilding. Here in True Colors, however, I always checked the app whenever I saw that it had updates. Part of it was to get little additional snippets about characters I was interested in, but part of it was also to see if there were any clues to find about the mystery in town. Alex will also receive text messages from some of the town's residents throughout the story, but what I found especially fascinating to go through were her text conversations available at the start of the game with people Alex knew while she was in the foster system. The text conversations, while not too lengthy, really help to paint a picture of how Alex's powers interfered with her ability to maintain friendships in foster care. Particularly of note to me was the conversation with Isaac. Trigger Warning for brief discussion of potential pre-game sexual assault: Without spending a paragraph or two boring people by detailing my analysis of the text conversation, the shorter version is that Alex crashed on his couch on two separate occasions (though the second time was only after someone else was unable to host her). The first time, it seems like his arousal "bled" onto her with Empathy and they made out, though she indicated afterward that it had moved faster than she was comfortable with. Almost a year later when she asks to crash at his place a second time, it is not blatantly stated via text but to me it is heavily implied that Alex was raped. When dealing with the fictional scenario of a person who can be unwillingly influenced by someone else's emotions it can be tricky to say whether Isaac realized that it was non-consensual in my understanding - though, his texts to Alex that evening before her arrival gave me sketchy vibes as to his character. The whole reason I bring up this text conversation (that many players probably didn't even read) is that it was... refreshing(? for lack of a better word) to see a videogame have a character who has been sexually assaulted, but not done as a shorthand for trauma or to be used as a defining "trait" of the character. There are sadly plenty of people - female and male - who have been raped, but that does not define who they are. Survivors are not broken figures unable to ever have another romantic relationship, and survivors are able to have stories told that do not focus on that trauma. Below are some of the notes that I wrote down in each chapter, for when I want to revisit them in the future. Screenshots of my 'decisions' are also hidden inside spoilers to prevent this post from being too image-heavy on the initial load. Occasional notes in teal from present/post-game me. CHAPTER 1 | Side A NOTES: Spoiler It was a bit cringe for me that Alex sang the song Creep after discovering Gabe's gift to her. And this comes from someone who has been a huge Radiohead fan for decades. Bar owner Jed is MVP (Future Me: oh, the irony...) DECISIONS: Spoiler Alex kept Ethan's plans to herself (50%) Alex told Riley the truth about the fight (65%) Alex told Game about growing up in foster care (31%) Alex hugged Gabe on the bridge (95%) Alex advised Riley to show off in her interview (33%) Alex put cool sunglasses on the gnome (81%) Alex enjoyed a song in the record store (56%) Alex told Ryan that Gabe was a badass (56%) Alex rocked out with Gabe on the broom guitar (94%) Alex found evidence of Gabe's search for her (93%) Alex wasn't sure how she felt about Haven (38%) Alex told Jed she's never been a server (50%) Alex admitted her playing is rusty (4%) Jed was impressed with Alex's performance as a server (86%) Steph lost to Alex in the jukebox game (35%) Riley broke up with Mac after the fight (67%) Duckie was reunited with his favorite whiskey (89%) CHAPTER 2 | Lanterns NOTES: Spoiler The 'murder' mystery begins! Mac Loudon is too suspicious to be the real culprit (especially this early on, lol) - but definitely hiding something. OH. Alex can jog, just outside. I can’t decide if I would love or hate to live in a place like Haven Springs, lol. Beautiful nature, but also everyone is always wanting to talk since it is such a small town and I am an introvert who hates small talk. I really wasn't sure what to make of Ryan at first, but once he learned that Typhon was ultimately behind Gabe's death and told Alex that she would need some help, I started to like him a lot. It was interesting how they portrayed Eleanor's onset of dementia, especially with things like the numbers on the clock and phone. Also makes the last name of Lethe painfully ironic. DECISIONS: Spoiler Alex calmed Mac down from his panic attack (96%) Alex reminded Eleanor about what happened (64%) Charlotte didn't take Typhon's money (60%) Alex didn't sit on the edge of the dock (44%) Alex left the mess for later (51%) [I thought I had cleaned up everything! 🥲] Alex put the photograph on Gabe's memory table (26%) Alex didn't look at the dart board (60%) Alex chose to go by Alto in the LARP (24%) [musical reference!] Alex spent a moment thinking of Gabe (65%) Alex backed Ryan's claim at the wake (64%) Ryan accepted Alex's forgiveness (13%) Ryan and Alex shared a hug at the ravine (77%) Alex claimed the title of Foosball Champion (36%) Steph made Stormwrither the LARP boss (58%) Alex helped the Birdwatcher find her hawk (33%) Alex helped the Sad Dued find his dog (58%) CHAPTER 3 | Monster or Mortal NOTES: Spoiler I’m a bit surprised at how quickly Alex told both Steph and Ryan about her abilities, after having never told anyone. But I suppose she needs a support system after all the emotional upheaveal and grief. I also like how the game doesn’t just focus on Alex’s grief - other people were also greatly impacted, like Ethan (Charlotte’s son). I decided last chapter that Alex was going to romance Steph, and her reaction when Alex asks to barter the Soul Sapphire for her hand in marriage during the LAPR was adorable. Considering in Chapter 5 Steph doesn't hesitate to support Alex, I'm particularly happy about this decision. The decision regarding Charlotte’s anger is really interesting! I chose to let her experience her (valid) emotions, especially since Alex sees her powers as more of a curse than a gift. Apparently, if you take Charlotte’s anger, in subsequent chapters she has less emotions in general, and subsequently later in this chapter Alex would get angry at Steph and Ryan. So while it seems like a ‘good’ thing to do in the short-term, in the long term it reduces Charlotte’s emotional capacity in general and also transfers the anger over to Alex (potentially long-term as well). I also like how Alex reflected on how her use of powers with Diane earlier in the chapter was emotional manipulation since it was done with good intentions but was still shitty. And sometimes one has to do shitty things in a serious situation! But it's important to acknowledge it for what it is. Duckie’s texts end with “Sincerely, Reginald McCallister III” is such an accurate "things some older people do" that I actually laughed at it DECISIONS Spoiler Alex chose Steph to distract Diane (57%) Alex left Charlotte with her anger (47%) Alex made Diane angry (25%) Alex didn't play a record (40%) Alex did some weeding on the rooftop (41%) Ethan and Alex were never knocked out in battle (96%) The troll was subdued with magic powder (32%) [57% killed it?!] The serpent was put to sleep (52%) Steph helped Alex find out what Typhon was up to (47%) King Tabor was vanquished in the final battle (100%) Riley doesn't know about Eleanor's condition (64%) Alex helped the student focus on her work (54%) Alex and Ethan solved the Jester's riddle (54%) Alex and Ethan helped the Blacksmith with his work (67%) CHAPTER 4 | Flicker NOTES: Spoiler I found the Spring Festival to be pretty lame overall, besides the nice moment with Duckie (if you have a good relationship with him) and the scene with whoever you give a Rose to. Well, Steph is back on the road again, I guess. Seems pretty obvious that my Alex will need to decide whether to stay in Haven Springs or leave with Steph at the end of the game. I feel like after the foster system, Alex would want stability though, not more constant uprooting. At the same time, Haven Springs is associated with Gabe’s death. But there is the apartment above the bar that has positive memories. I knew there was going to be some kind of twist in this chapter. As someone who studied criminal justice and sometimes watches legal proceedings online in their free time, it was annoying to see the excuse of, "oh gosh, the case is closed, we can't look at this potential evidence, our hands are tied!" Cases can always be reopened so long as law enforcement is not trying to charge someone with a crime after double jeopardy has been attached. Fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine is a real thing, Pike should have just led with that! While I think taking away Charlotte’s legitimate emotions is a wrong choice, taking away Pike’s fear allows him to do what he wants to do (not be a pushover to Typhon), an organization that has damaged many, many lives. As for the safety of Ryan and Steph, Alex can tell them of the danger and then let them make informed decisions as to whether or not to continue being involved. Also fuck corporations and capitalism, lol. Okay, I was immediately suspicious when Jed said he would reveal Typhon's secrets, considering Diane's dossier regarding the city council votes had him as a "secured/confident" vote. Alex why are you going to a secondary location without your friends in tow, this is classic horror movie terrible decision making! (monotone voice): Oh no, turns out going to a secondary location alone with someone after revealing a massive cover-up is a terrible idea. I bet that Jed's "heroic story" is a lie which is why he hates hearing about it - not modesty, but shame. Damn, and I really liked Jed! I wonder if his being villainous was obvious and I just missed the signs, minus the note in Diane's dossier. Because before this, I read his reluctance for Ryan to be involved as just an overprotective single parent. Also, I suppose Jed being the evil King Tabor in the LARP was foreshadowing. DECISIONS: Spoiler Pike let Alex go after she removed his fear (73%) Alex gave her rose to Steph (61%) Alex had a nice moment by the bonfire (67%) Alex didn't sit on the couch (76%) Steph and Alex used about moving to the ocean (21%) Steph and Alex shared a kiss (62%) Ryan didn't meet Alex on the rooftop (66%, 67%) Alex and Charlotte shared a bittersweet moment in the festival (49%) Riley went away to college (18%) Duckie joined the festival after dancing with Alex (14%) Alex helped the Jelly Bean Counter win the contest (74%) Alex helped the Diner Buyer with his MyBlock post (42%) Alex didn't help them admit their feelings (61%) CHAPTER 5 | Side B NOTES: Spoiler Who the fuck gives their 10-year-old daughter the responsibility of caring for their older brother and father?! I get that mom Wendy was ill and maybe not in her right mind, but dafuq. As a side note, I can confirm that a preteen being given adult responsibilities by a parent is a form of trauma. John Chen (the father) literally just walks out on his kids? What an asshole. You shouldn't have had kids if you weren't prepared for the possibility that at some point their welfare might become solely your responsibility. Of course both Gae and John Chen ended of dying in Haven Springs partially due to the actions of a Lucas. I feel like that is a bit heavy-handed in terms of writing. I like how getting the "good ending" with the council requires you to have a good friendship with all the council members. This game is all about people, and having your good decisions regarding NPCs less-prioritized for most of the narrative was a nice payoff. FINAL DECISION I learned midway through the game that the final decision for Alex was to either stay or leave Haven Springs. I thought that my choice would be to stay - since despite the tragedy with Gabe, Alex was making good friends. And after years in the foster system she would want to feel like she belonged somewhere. Jed trying to kill her to cover up her investigation of Typhon would have shattered any remaining feeling of security that she had in Haven Springs after Gabe's death though, and I don’t think she would want to work through all the trauma with constant reminders in her environment. Thus, I went with her and Steph leaving. My headcanon for the future is that if they find another quaint-and-cozy town like Haven Springs that has some good people, after feeling it out for a while they would put down roots. And if they hadn't found a place after a few years, maybe they would think about returning to Haven Springs to settle down depending on how Alex's healing journey had gone. CHOICES: Spoiler Alex hit the road to play her music (44%) Alex forgave Jed for his actions (69%) Alex claimed she learned not to fear her emotions (52%) Everyone on the council supported Alex (12%) Alex wanted to belong somewhere in the future (42%) Alex took a moment to reflect in the apartment (35%) Alex didn't see Ryan after the vote (46%) Charlotte sided with Alex during the vote (44%) Eleanor sided with Alex during the vote (50%) Pike sided with Alex during the vote (74%) Duckie sided with Alex during the vote (46%) Ryan believe Alex during the vote (31%) Ryan and Alex don't get together (67%) Steph and Alex leave Haven together (33%) FAVORITE... Trophy Image: I really disliked the trophy icons 😒, but this one I disliked the least: Haven Historian Trophy Moment: Valkyrie's Dish Screenshots: Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 3, 2023 Author Share Posted August 3, 2023 (edited) Platinum #89 | Final Fantasy II Developer: SquareSoft, 1988 / Square Enix, 2023 Country: Japan Time Played: 17h* *Boosts: Gil x4, EXP x4 Platinum Earned: 23 June 2023 Rating: 6/10 PREMISE: In a world where a rebel army fights against the Palamecian Empire for freedom, you follow the story of Firion, Guy, and Maria. They join the rebellion against the empire, search for Maria’s missing brother Leon, and end up saving the world. 🎶 Rebel Army CAST: GAME THOUGHTS: Unlike the original Final Fantasy I game, Final Fantasy II has you playing as named characters with unique personalities and backgrounds instead of blank slates (which I find to be less compelling). Besides the three main characters, your party often contains a fourth guest member during specific parts of the story. The guest characters are also fairly memorable, and on the occasions when someone rejoins the party for another stretch of story, it feels like a small reunion. ICONIC ORIGINS Many creatures and items that have become a staple of the franchise first appeared in Final Fantasy II. Chocobos, Malboros, Behemoths, Adamantoises, Bombs, Coeurls, Sahagins, and more debuted in this game. We get our first canonical appearance of Cid, our first Chocobos, Genji Armor, the sword Masamune... during my playthrough, Final Fantasy II felt like the true origin of the franchise because all of these "trademarks" that nowadays are so intertwined with the franchise's identity. NEW FEATURES: Characters can learn spells, and the game utilizes a spell slot system that feels inspired by D&D. The game also has a "Word Memory" system where you can learn keywords from certain NPC dialogues and then ask questions using those keywords in conversations with that NPC or others to learn additional information or sometimes unlock something. I thought this Word Memory system was pretty neat for a game this old, since it encourages you to talk to more NPCs and makes you feel like a more active participant in the dialogues. It also encourages you to pay attention to what is going on so that you know which keyword to use in which situation. Word Memory system LEVELING And of course, there is the infamous leveling system that abandoned a traditional leveling system for one that levels each stat of a character individually based on their usage. The more often a character attacks, the higher their Strength will become; the more often they take damage, the higher their Stamina will grow; and so forth. It was an inventive idea but unfortunately is easily exploitable if you want to easily maximize your character's stats. I did like that I was able to somewhat customize each of my main party members for combat, though, and I did so through a D&D lens. For Firion I focused on leveling up Swords, Knives, and Spears, and played him as a Rogue/Warrior dual class. Maria was my Black Mage/Archer character - and yes, Bows are not a great weapon type in this game, but I'm a sucker for Bow combat and her Amano artwork shows her with a bow. Guy was my Monk/White Mage character, with a focus on Axes and Unarmed weapon types. I really liked that pairing for Guy since he comes off as a protective "gentle giant" archetype to me. MAGIC The list of White Magic spells in this game is really a bit excessive - for example, you have Shell that raises Magic Defense (based on the level of the attacking spell) but also Wall which raises Magic Defense and has a one-time chance to block damage from a spell. There's also Barrier that raises defense against elemental attacks. Status ailments are separated into short-term effects that end after battle (such as Sleep, Paralysis, and Confuse) that get cured by Basuna, and long-term effects that persist between battles (like Toad, Poison, and Stone) that get cured by Esuna. Nevertheless, I do like how the magic system forces you to pick which spells your characters will learn for each spell level, as there are more spells in each level than a single character can learn with their spell slots. RANDOM THOUGHTS Unlike my experience with Final Fantasy I, I never tired of the OST during my playthrough. I would occasionally swap to Arrangement music more out of curiosity than anything else, and then go back to the OST after a short while. The one exception was the final dungeon, where I had the OST for a short time and then swapped to Arrangement because I had already fallen in love with the song from Theatrhythm. STORY START SPOILERS -- I was surprised at how many character deaths there were! 3 out of 5 of your guest party members die (Josef, Minwu, and Ricard), as well as Cid. Of course, these characters are part of a rebellion against an Empire, but it's still impressive that the developers made this choice back then. The one small criticism that I have for the story is that Leon joining the party to fight against Hell!Emperor and suddenly becoming an antihero instead of an antagonist felt sudden and rushed. I really enjoyed the story, and it surprises me that this game seems to rank so low for so many Final Fantasy fans. Unlike Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy III, there was no prophecy foretelling that Firion, Maria, and Guy would save the world. The game starts with soldiers of the Empire attacking the party, capturing Leon and leaving the others for dead. Princess Hilda is the one to save the trio (a great subversion of the "Hero rescues the Princess" that was so popular in the 80s). I was utterly enchanted by the 🎶 Main Theme music when I first reached the World Map. The haunting, almost languid melody felt incredibly appropriate for three characters who had just survived an Imperial raid and barely escaped with their lives. Their hometown was destroyed, parents killed, friend/brother lost, and they had been turned down from their request to join the Wild Rose Rebellion and find a new purpose through it. -- END SPOILERS FAVORITE... Trophy Image: Password: Wild Rose Trophy Moment: Birth of a Wyvern OST Song: 🎶Main Theme (OST) 🎶 Pandemonium (Arrangement) Screenshots: Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 3, 2023 Author Share Posted August 3, 2023 (edited) Platinum #90 | Shape of the World Developer: Hollow Tree Games, 2018 Country: Canada Time Played: 8h 😒 Platinum Earned: 4 July 2023 Rating: 2/10 PREMISE: ...Walk through environments to interact with symbols, until you reach the end of the last level. GAME THOUGHTS: Beyond the game giving one, maybe two, instructions on controls, the entire game is left for you as a player to figure out. There are nine levels in the game, each inspired by a different type of environment. To progress through each level you need to walk through the several upside-down V symbols in the environment. Sometimes you need to interact with groups of stone to create a staircase to the symbols or in some later levels, interact with strange ring-like boulders that can launch you in the air. While all of this is happening, you can collect seeds and grow trees (or destroy them, if you want). As you progress through the levels gradually you see more and more little creatures that float around, but you can't interact with them in any real way. The nine levels GAMEPLAY That's the game. It's not like Journey where there is rich environmental storytelling, and when you reach the peak of the mountain you feel that you have reached your final destination. It's not like AER: Memories of Old where there are a handful of vague details in the environment that can inspire you to create your own idea of the world. I did note that early in the game, I almost felt like I was Amaterasu from Ōkami or the Forest God from the Studio Ghibli movie Princess Mononoke, creating life around me as I walked. However, that brief flash of comparison wasn't enough to mentally sustain me through the gameplay, and I quickly grew bored by its repetitiveness. Find a symbol. Admire the nature. Throw a bunch of trees around me out of boredom while I walk to stone monoliths. Make a staircase. Admire more of the same nature. Pick up some seeds, throw out a new type of tree. Destroy some trees in an attempt to move faster. Find a symbol. Walk some more. Do that for about 45 minutes to an hour, and that's your first playthrough of three for the platinum. The most exciting thing was when I would pick up a new type of seed and the color palette of the environment would change. Woooooooo. GAME LENGTH Honestly, the game is way too long for what it is. It would have been better served as a short 10-15 minute conceptual demo or something. I was incredibly frustrated that you need to play through this empty, repetitious game three times in order to get the Platinum trophy. Once you beat the game the first time, you can't even swap between all the different types of seeds that you found or anything. Absolutely nothing changes about the gameplay, except that you know where the find the symbols and can thus get them more quickly. Having a "speedrun" trophy (get to the end in under an hour) is fine for a very basic game like this. However, to also ask us gamers to do a "slowrun" trophy (get to the end in over 3 hours) felt incredibly unfair. If the developers want us to take our time wandering through the mostly-empty environments and admiring how we can "shape" the world with our own tree plantings, that's fine. But either put interesting elements in the game that will make it worth playing for 3 hours, otherwise it just encourages people to just leave the game on and do something else for around 2 hours. I'm also slightly salty because at the end of my first run I forgot that I was supposed to be doing a slowrun, and I finished it at 2h58m 🥲. Of course it had to be the one time I didn't leave a game running while I made dinner or something, sigh. MARKETING The store description at one point says, "Your actions will alter the world you discover in vibrant and unexpected ways, leaving you wondering what will happen with each path you forge and every hollow you stumble upon." I mean, the only way I can alter the world is by building/destroying trees and by interacting with stone groups to create staircases. After you do those actions once or twice, there isn't really anything unexpected about it except for the first time you throw out a new type of tree seed, and the game provided little for me to wonder about. The more and more that I look at PlayStation Store descriptions for games like this and Aspire: Ina's Journey, the more I'm surprised at how the marketing-speech upselling, in an almost dishonest manner, seems to apply to more than just shovelware games. I get that a game wants to paint itself in the best light possible, but there's a way to do so honestly that doesn't create unrealistic expectations of its gameplay experience. This was one of my rare purchases made solely because of the game graphics, but had I read the description before playing I would have expected a lot more from it. MOVEMENT Unsurprisingly, you move at what feels like the pace of a snail during this game. You can do a sort of bunny hop, but rarely is it useful save for getting onto the third stair of a staircase and saving yourself the extra full second it would take to walk over to the base of the stair and move to the third step. Staircases themselves were speed though - it's like when you step onto a moving walkway in an airport and suddenly you feel like you have super speed. Oddly enough, if you destroy a nearby tree (by pressing ) you will sort of leap rapidly in the direction of that tree. It allows for faster movement in already-forested areas, but it seems like the farther you are from a tree, the less likely the game is able to tell when your cursor is selecting the tree, so it isn't even a completely consistent mechanic. LESS NEGATIVE THINGS The music was decent. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't so amazing that I want to listen to the OST when I'm working on stuff. I'm torn about the trophy list art. On the one hand, several of the images are really beautiful. On the other hand, apparently the developers couldn't bother to come up with three different images for the three gameplay completion trophies. Heck, they could have even added a 1/2/3 to the trophies and it would have been better. WHY I really struggle to understand what this game is trying to achieve. Is it to admire nature and encourage conservation efforts like planting trees? Why then are two of the four tree-related trophies about destroying trees? Why does destroying trees let you move faster? Is it to encourage a sort of circle-of-life mindset, or maybe some sort of incomplete statement about how easy it is for us to transform a landscape to our preferences? What is the reason behind having me walk through the same triangular symbol several times in a level to get to the next level? Thankfully I only spent a couple of dollars on this game, but with the presence of the 3h slowrun trophy and requiring 3 playthroughs, I wouldn't even recommend it as a chill afternoon platinum unless you are looking for something incredibly simple and low-key. FAVORITE... Trophy Image: Mother Nature Screenshots: Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 3, 2023 Author Share Posted August 3, 2023 (edited) Platinum #91: Final Fantasy III Developer: SquareSoft, 1990 / Square Enix, 2023 Country: Japan Time Played: 17h* *Boosts: Gil x4, EXP x4 Platinum Earned: 4 July 2023 Rating: 4/10 PREMISE The story of four orphans, chosen by the Crystal of Light, who restored the balance between Light and Darkness to save the world. With the implementation of a new “Job System”, you are allowed to change the job classes of your party as you see fit throughout the game, plus unlock more advanced job classes as you progress through the story. CAST GAME THOUGHTS We are back to crystal warrior protagonists who are essentially blank slates, though with a more lighthearted story tone compared to Final Fantasy I. The only backstory given to our party is that they are four orphan friends who were chosen by the crystals when they were exploring a game. The 3DS Remake gave the Warriors of Light unique names, designs, and backstories, but as those were not present in the NES original they were not incorporated into the Pixel Remaster either. To solve my quandary of selecting character names and determining party compositions, I decided to borrow from the 3DS characters for my Warriors of Light. Red Onion Knight became Luneth, who I started as a Monk and eventually transitioned to Black Belt. Blue Onion Knight became Refia, my designated White Mage then Devout. Green Onion Knight became Arc, who started out as Black Mage and then surprisingly stayed as Dragoon for most of the game after that class became available. Finally, Magenta Onion Knight became Ingus, who began as a Warrior and then transitioned to Dark Knight. EVOLVING THE FRANCHISE Final Fantasy III's most well-known contribution was the introduction of the Job System, allowing you to have each character pick any of the available job classes and swap to other classes at any point outside of combat. Not only were you able to experiment with party class composition without having to start entire new save files, but the game also went from Final Fantasy I's 6 classes to now 22 classes! Moogles and Gysahl Greens made their first appearance here! Summons were also introduced in this game and apparently, the reason for their addition was that cartridge memory space had significantly improved by the time Final Fantasy III was in development, and even at the end of its development there was still unused space, which led to the developers filling it with large monster sprites that were then determined would be friendly to the party. Battles now have the possibility of your party being attacked from "behind", with the disadvantage of your rear-row members being closer to the enemies and able to receive more damage as a result. Wellsprings not only heal your characters now, but they can also revive KO'd members! I was always annoyed in the rare instances when I had to travel to a church in the first two games when I didn't want to waste a Phoenix Down, and this change was incredibly welcomed. Final Fantasy III is really into hidden pathways to obtain many of its treasure chests. It is also the first game to have hidden items, where you need to interact with seemingly-empty environmental tiles or objects to locate them. Thankfully the PSNP Walkthrough Guide shows screenshots for every single hidden item, helping to make the Platinum trophy a relaxing experience. Two examples of hidden paths RANDOM THOUGHTS: It was nice to see that if you give sick NPCs healing items, they give you something back in return. Goldor Manor having all golden enemies and decor also made me chuckle. I thought it was really cool that the Mini and Frog spells actually played into the story, being the only way for you to access certain areas of the game. Tozus, the hometown of Gnomes, and only accessible by using Mini STORY SPOILERS -- I was super surprised to see that you get an Airship almost right away! It made sense that it couldn't go over mountains for how early it is unlocked. Aaaaaand it also made sense that the Airship disappeared pretty quickly into the story 😂. When we later got the Invincible, at one point out of curiosity I decided to fly off the map to see if it would put me on the other side of the map (like a globe) or do something else. I was shocked when I instead discovered a larger map with the Floating Continent as a mere dot on it! Dragon's Peak: They jumped so far from the peak that they landed on an entirely different peninsula?! Goldor breaking the final Earth Crystal was actually unexpected, I have to admit. (Even though we later learn it was just a random gold crystal, lmfao) We got a submarine, the Nautilus! Okay, so Master Sage gifted Doga with his magic, Unei with control over dreamscapes, and Xande with... human mortality? I kinda get why Xande is pissed and causing chaos, lol. Ugh, having to do all the little "hop over narrow sections of mountain ranges" with the Invincible Airship was super annoying. Getting to the Cave of Shadows was awful. The Invincible made up for that by having its own Bed to rest in, especially since this game did not have a Tent/Camp mechanic unlike most of the other early games. It was a bit disappointing that the true villain is revealed at the very end of the game. It would have been nice if we had learned a bit sooner that Cloud of Darkness was behind Xande's actions, so it didn't feel like a random gotcha moment. --END SPOILERS FAVORITE... Trophy Image: A Vision of Hope Trophy Moment: Summon Master OST Song: 🎶 This is the Last Battle Screenshots: SPOILERS: Spoiler . Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 3, 2023 Author Share Posted August 3, 2023 (edited) Platinum #92 | Ratchet & Clank Developer: Insomniac Games, 2016 Country: USA Time Played: 29h Platinum Earned: 9 July 2023 Rating: 6/10 PREMISE Play the game inspired by the movie inspired by the original PS2 game, and see how everything started! You play as Lombax Ratchet, a new Galactic Ranger, and his trusty robot buddy Clank, as they save the universe from Chairman Drek's nefarious plans! GAME THOUGHTS I never played the original Ratchet & Clank games on the PS2 and PS3, but my husband was a huge fan of them. I figured it was worth giving this game a shot, especially since I could just use my husband's copy of the game and not have to purchase it! I had seen snippets of my husband playing the game when it released, so I was aware that the game liked to make parodies to things like James Bond movies and use a lot of humor. It ended up being slightly more heavy-handed on humor compared to my preference, but I'm also aware that I'm not the target demographic for the game, and it wasn't something that bothered me terribly. REMAKE This 2016 game is a remake of the PS2 original with some changes made - since it is apparently also a tie-in to a 2016 Ratchet & Clank movie. According to my research, these are the more significant changes from the OG: SPOILERS --- Dr. Nefarious was retconned into this game - his original first appearance was in the series' third game, Up Your Arsenal. Apparently, the OG had planets Eudora and Oltanis which were completely removed in this game, and a few other OG planets were combined together here (like Batalia and Hoven). In the OG Quark was always working with Drek as a villain, and did not provide a humerous narrative throughout the story. This game has you going through the Deplanetizer instead of a level involving Drek's Fleet, which was entirely removed. --- END SPOILERS EARLY GAME EXPERIENCE I actually struggled a bit with the earlier parts of the game. I was a bit annoyed that the game didn't give directions on how to use the hovering swing points. I was barely 10 minutes into the game and I was completely stuck, trying to Google to figure out how to proceed. Eventually I settled on watching a video walkthrough, learned that apparently I was supposed to swing across a large chasm with a swing point I hadn't previously noticed, and didn't know it was a gameplay mechanic. It definitely explained why I was stuck, though it took another few minutes for me to learn that I needed to press in order to make the swinging jump. I also had a hard time initially with understanding how the Helipack Enhanced Jump worked, for some reason. A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO COMBAT (FOR ME) I complained to my husband at one point that I was finding the game a bit frustrating, as I was on the Normal difficulty and finding myself dying a lot. He watched me play for a bit, and remarked that I was making the game much more difficult for myself because I was playing a very ammo-conservative playstyle. I was honestly a bit confused at first - I only have so much ammo for each weapon, after all!, but he explained that the game is really about bombastic, over-the-top gunfights, and enemy combat is designed around that philosophy. I started using a lot more of my heavy-hitting weapons early on in combat as well as throwing down lots of grenades. To my surprise, I never ran out of more than one or two weapon's ammos before I reached a Gadgetron Vendor spot where I could purchase ammo refills. Even better, I was no longer dying what felt like every fourth or fifth encounter! I laughed with my husband about how Survival Horror games had really sunk their claws into my gamer mindset, and with the new philosophy embraced I had a much better time with combat for the remainder of Ratchet & Clank. WACKY WEAPONS Speaking of combat, the game definitely has some silly weaponry. The Groovitron's ability to make any enemy suddenly break out into dance was very amusing. The Sheepinator's transfigurative power was also silly in a fun way, but I liked the Groovitron better because of how different enemies had their own dance animations. The Platinum requires you to fully upgrade each weapon. I have a love-hate relationship with these types of trophies. Love, because it forces me to really get to know all the different weapons, and that often provides great dividends in terms of being better at end-game combat in regards to adaptability. Hate, because it forces me to really get to know all the different weapons, when I often just want to play with the few that I really like. 😂 The Groovitron and Sheepinator in action. GAMEPLAY RECORDING PAUSED One annoying aspect of this game is that some of the cutscenes are considered "blocked scenes". They are pulled straight from the movie that was released at the same time as the videogame, and seven years later we still have these awful pop-ups warning "Gameplay recording paused because you entered a blocked scene" at the beginning and "Gameplay recording resumed" at the end of each and every one of these tie-in cutscenes. And this was regardless of whether or not you were actually trying to record anything with the PS Share feature!! It is completely immersion-breaking, makes the notification noise, and I could not find any option within the game or the console to them off. I despised these intrusive pop-ups... FAVORITE... Trophy Image/Moment: When Sheep Fly Screenshots: Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 4, 2023 Author Share Posted August 4, 2023 (edited) Platinum #93 | Final Fantasy IV Developer: SquareSoft, 1991 / Square Enix, 2023 Country: Japan Time Played: 30h* *Boosts: Gil x4, EXP x4 Platinum Earned: 9 July 2023 Rating: 6/10 PREMISE Cecil, a Dark Knight of the Kingdom of Baron and commander of its Red Wings airships, begins to question the terrible actions he carries out in the name of his king. After being stripped of his rank for daring to question King Baron's commands, Cecil ends up making many allies while seeking to discover redemption is possible for someone with his past. 🎶 Main Theme CAST GAME THOUGHTS Here we have the first Final Fantasy game to be released on the SNES, and the extra power of the SNES is evident in terms of the amount of dialogue and story when compared to the previous Final Fantasy games on the NES. MECHANICS EVOLUTION Final Fantasy IV introduced the infamous ATB (Active-Time Battle) system which many now consider to be a hallmark feature of a "classic" Final Fantasy game. I am absolutely a "Wait" Battle Mode gamer (ATB is paused when selecting an item or spell) since the list of spells and items gets fairly long as one progresses through the game! The "Very Fast" battle speed option is a fantastic feature as well. Final Fantasy IV also has the first instance of "Safe Haven" locations that act as healing and save points inside of dungeons. This game lets you have up to five people in your party! Hilariously, it took me alllll the way up to Tower of Zot before I realized that I could rearrange the order of my party to fully customize who was in the front and back rows. Prior to that point, for some reason I thought each person was stuck in their order of the formation, and of course this game has all of the even slots in one row and odd slots in another row. I was like... no wonder I was having such a hard time keeping Tellah alive in the Front and getting Cid to do any damage from the back! 😂 GROUNDBREAKING STORYTELLING The story dealt with incredibly complex themes for its time. In the first scenes of the game, you watch as Cecil grapples with his orders that result in killing innocent people to obtain the Crystals that King Baron wants. You even see a flashback of his troops killing unarmed civilians trying to protect their Crystal. Within the first 30 minutes or so of gameplay, you unknowingly cause the massacre and destruction of a village. The game starts on a really dark note (given when it was released), and I really enjoyed Cecil's journey seeking atonement. JUMPING THE SHARK START SPOILERS -- While the majority of the game has a solid plot (even if I don't find myself invested in much of the cast), the final act definitely feels like it jumps the shark. Your party travels to the moon, where you learn that a race of people called the Lunarians hibernate in wait for when they can live peacefully alongside humans on Earth. You also discover that Cecil is half-Lunarian, and villain Golbez is half-Lunarian, and there is an evil Lunarian named Zemus who has been manipulating the actions of Golbez to allow Zemus to dominate the planet! Many characters appear to die in the game... only to later be revealed alive, which obviously lessens the impact of their initial deaths. Rydia and Yang are presumed dead from a sea monster attack, and you later find them (this one I don't mind). Palom and Porom sacrifice themselves to save the rest of the party from a room whose walls were closing in, but an Elder somehow heals them and escapes with them off-screen later on. Yang sacrifices himself to save the party, but that ends up being a fakeout. Cid jumps off of his airship with a bomb to close the entrance to the Underworld, but that presumed death is also a fakeout. The only permanent death from the party is Tellah, who dies in his attempt to kill Golbez. It was also a bit odd that various groups of people were totally chill about the party's failed attempts to keep their Crystals out of Golbez's hands, continuing to help the party after such catastrophic events happened as a result of the party's actions (or lack thereof). It also felt like a lot of the game's narrative involved visiting the same handful of castles over and over again, which I found slightly disappointing. I loved Cecil's character journey, but the other narrative elements above cause me to rank the story a little lower overall, unfortunately. -- END SPOILERS RANDOM THOUGHTS: It's neat that besides airships, at one point we get a hovercraft! The OST for this game is phenomenal. Quality localization is incredibly important, but I'm so glad they kept in this famous misstep in the Pixel Remaster: "You spoony bard!" FAVORITE... Trophy Image & Moment: To the Moon OST Song: 🎶 Battle #2 Screenshots: SPOILERS: Spoiler . Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 4, 2023 Author Share Posted August 4, 2023 Platinum #94 | A Short Hike Developer: adamgryu, 2021 Country: Canada Time Played: 4hPlatinum Earned: 16 July 2023 Rating: 6/10 PREMISE You play as a humanoid bird named Claire, who embarks on a short hike. Her destination is the summit of the island's tallest peak so that she can get enough cell signal for what seems to be an important phone call. GAMEPLAY In order to reach the peak, Claire needs to collect golden feathers to increase her flight stamina. Some golden feathers can be found in the environment, but most of them Claire will earn by helping various people on the island. This is a cute, lighthearted game that can be completed in a single afternoon. Most of the game's trophies are relatively easy to earn, but I want to give a huge shout-out to Wolfwood's Fishing Guide posted at Neoseeker. I personally found the PSNP guide to be a little vague on how to find a few of the fish needed for the fishing trophy. There isn't much more I can think to write about without spoiling aspects of the game. I thought the ending was very sweet, and enjoyed the game overall. GRAPHICS In the game's settings you can pick how pixelated you want the game to look - which is great if you are someone who was turned off by the strong pixelated look in any gameplay footage you've already seen. The names of the options are hilarious, too: big and crunchy | medium rare | small and tasty | tiny and sharp | microscopic | minimum For anyone curious, below are what [big and crunchy], [tiny and sharp], and [minimum] look like. I decided to play using [tiny and sharp], personally. FAVORITE... Trophy Image: The End Trophy Moment: Hawk Peak Screenshots: "Spoiler": Spoiler . 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 5, 2023 Author Share Posted August 5, 2023 (edited) Platinum #95 | Final Fantasy V Developer: SquareSoft, 1992 / Square Enix, 2023 Country: Japan Time Played: 38h* *Boosts: Gil x4, AP x4, XP: x2 for 20h, x4 for 18h Platinum Earned: 16 July 2023 Rating: 7/10 PREMISE Bartz, a wandering traveler, comes across a large meteor that fell from the sky. There he and several others learn that the world's four elemental Crystals are in danger, and they slowly uncover a dark plot seeking the annihilation of the Crystals and the destruction of the world. 🎶 Main Theme CAST GAME THOUGHTS INFLUENCES ON THE FRANCHISE Final Fantasy V introduces us to the sword-hunting Gilgamesh (and his trusty sidekick Enkidu)! Several new jobs are introduced: Berserker, Blue Mage, Chemist, Dancer, Mime, Mystic Knight, Samurai, and Time Mage. Accessories are a new category of equipment that your party can wear. This seems like a short list, but we're also talking about the fifth entry! TONE In contrast to Final Fantasy IV's emphasis on darker themes, Final Fantasy V enjoys having plenty of heartful and silly moments. The party's tendency to laugh at a line of dialogue or bizarre situation was initially a mild annoyance to me. However, over time as I understood the game better, I came to appreciate the game for what it was instead of what I might have wanted it to be. Final Fantasy V is one of the series' entries that has a great balance of drama and humor, even if I'm someone who prefers dramatic moments more. "Hey! Leave her alone, you degenerate, lecherous, piratey... pirate!" "Hasta la bye-bye!" COMBAT I share the popular opinion that the developers really perfected the Job Class system in this game - at least in terms of games where each character doesn't have a predefined class. Each job has up to seven levels of mastery, and once a character has mastered a level, they can equip its related passive skill or command while using a different class. This creates fun combinations such as a Mystic Knight with the Ninja's Dual-Wield equipped, a Beastmaster with the Monk's Counter, or a Ranger with the ability to cast up to Level 6 Black Magic! This allows for so much customization and experimentation. You also unlock jobs at a nice pace, getting almost all of them by the game's midpoint which gives you time to truly learn and master all of them. 🎶 Battle at the Big Bridge MEMORABLE BOSS FIGHTS Previous Final Fantasy games can have most of their boss fight strategies divided into the following categories: Use strong physical attacks Use strong magical attacks If Undead, use a Phoenix Down Sometimes a boss fight will also require you to debuff them or buff your party, and there are sometimes exceptions in final dungeons, but generally boss fights were not very complicated. Final Fantasy V certainly has plenty of bosses where the above tactics still work great, but it also has a surprising number of boss fights that require deliberate preparation and strategy, or just have fun mechanics. Most of these bosses are also in the second half of the game, by which point your characters should have a variety of job skills under their belt and so while the fights can sometimes be a bit tough, they don't feel unfair. Of course, thanks to generous guide writers nowadays, a lot of these fights are less difficult compared to 1992 since you don't have to go through trial and error on your own to figure out the optimal strategies, but even when you know what to do you still have to pay careful attention to the fight. The five-stage fight with Archeoaevis at Ronka Ruins, and its shifting elements throughout the battle, was a fight I really enjoyed. Wendigo and its illusory forms was a really neat concept as well. Bahamut was another fantastic multi-stage fight, and of course there are the infamous superbosses Omega and Shinryu. Some bosses have harsh counterattacks if you hit them with a physical attack or spells of a certain element, others will throw a barrage of status effects your way. Carbuncle even takes advantage of its Reflect status, casting damage spells on itself to have them bounce on to you! The variety of boss mechanics was a delight, even if most of them have an optimal strategy that is not too difficult to implement. ENDGAME This is the first Final Fantasy game that has a proper endgame, in my opinion. Once you reach that point you can work on collecting the 12 Legendary Weapons introduced by the game's lore. Completing optional dungeons awards you with "tablets" that you can then spend to unlock the weapons, so you can do the dungeons mostly in any order that you want and you can pick which weapons to acquire first. There are also a nice number of secret summons to find and earn through battle! Speaking of dungeons, they have a great design variety. One is a maze of bookshelves inside of a Library, another is a 30-floor endurance test with no save points, and there's even a point where you have 7 minutes to explore an underwater dungeon before your party will drown. One of my favorites was the Fork Tower, which forces you to split your party into two teams as you ascend its two towers simultaneously. There's variety in setting as well: besides the aforementioned library, some other locations are a ship graveyard, a pyramid, and an underground volcanic cave with magma! GRAPHICS I haven't really discussed graphics in the Pixel Remasters thus far. These remasters have done a wonderful job of staying faithful to the original (S)NES graphics while providing more detailed sprite images for the larger gaming screens of today. And while the previous installments in the Pixel Remasters did a fantastic job of creating beautiful environments, both in combat and during exploration, I was almost taken aback by how gorgeous Final Fantasy V was: There is actual snow on some of the peaks in the mountain ranges! And look at how detailed these combat backgrounds are! RANDOM THOUGHTS Finally, healing at an inn will revive KO'd characters! Spoiler The one truly bizarre moment of the story was when Exdeath transformed into a tiny splinter(?) and hid on Krile to get into Ghido's Cave. Hiryū becoming Phoenix was such a sad moment! Plus when Lenna had a chance to save the Queen but chose not to. FAVORITE... Trophy Image: Fabled Weapons Trophy Moment: Ultimate Dragon OST Song: 🎶 Battle at the Big Bridge (such an epic song!) Screenshots: SPOILER: Spoiler . Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post pelagia14 Posted August 5, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 5, 2023 (edited) Platinum #96 | Untitled Goose Game Developer: House House, 2019 Country: Australia Time Played: 6h Platinum Earned: 30 July 2023 Rating: 7/10 PREMISE You play as a goose... I'm going to be a serene and elegant goose, doing simple goose things, right? ...whose only purpose in life is to terrorize a small neighborhood area and its residents through chaos and shenanigans. 😂 I AM GOOSE, TREMBLE BEFORE ME GAME THOUGHTS Untitled Goose Game is crack taken seriously, and I love it for that fact. I'm not always drawn to sillier games, but when a game takes a ridiculous premise and leans into it 120%, I've discovered that it is usually a ridiculous amount of fun to play. Donut Country is another game that I enjoyed for how much it embraced its bizarre concept and just ran with things. I think part of the fun with these types of games is just figuring out where the limit to the chaos is, and discovering what possibilities it contains. The simple joys of being a goose, oh man. Sometimes you need to sneak away with items. Sometimes you are trying to get a silly hooman to chase after you for some villainous magnificent objective. Sometimes you lay in wait for the perfect moment in which you can startle them with your mighty honk. The game also does a fantastic job of hinting at the possibilities of what you can do with the tasks on its "to-do lists" - such as forcing someone to buy back an item that you stole confiscated from them. Some objectives only have one way to accomplish them, but there are also objectives that can be approached in several different ways. The controls felt a little awkward at first. For example, in order to pick something up from the ground, you have to press to bend down and then you can press to interact/pick it up. It kind of makes sense that these actions would be a bit awkward for Goose, though, and after a short learning curve, I took to the controls like a goose to water. 😉 SPEED RUNS Each of the game's four main levels has a "speedrun" trophy, but they can only be earned once you've completed the game once. Each speedrun requires you to complete all of the level's to-do list tasks "before the church bell rings", aka in under 6 minutes. The first two levels were fairly easy to speedrun - I even managed to get the second level accomplished in my first attempt. The third level took me over an hour to do, even with following a video guide strategy. The AI of the two neighbors are so finicky, I'd often find myself restarting the level after only a minute or two because I accidentally triggered them into arguing with each other which wastes a good dozen precious seconds. Or I'd try to get the male neighbor to notice that I moved some of his crap, but he'd return to his newspaper instead of cleaning up the mess. I will say that despite the frustration I felt at spending so much time on what seemed like a simple 6-minute speed run, I felt like a true master of it when I finally got that glorious gold trophy to pop. If you are also having a hard time with the Back Gardens speed run, I found Quick Draw's approach to be extremely helpful. My one suggestion would be to actually have the rose cut last, since you can just pop through the gate, nip the bush, and then honk at the female neighbor to have her accidentally cut it. Another successful option I sometimes used was to ensure that I hid the cut rose in the pool or behind the female neighbor's laundry. Otherwise, there were too many times when the male neighbor would notice his prized rose was cut and then argue with the female neighbor. The Pub speedrun probably took me a good 40 minutes to accomplish, but that's because there are a lot more humans to interact with or avoid, and you have to be flexible with the sequence in which you tackle things. Almost all of my attempts were at least 5 minutes long, though, so I didn't feel like I was restarting it a thousand times. Sadly the person whose strategy I used for Back Gardens did not have a video for The Pub, so I ended up using the general strategy shown by Trophy Tom. Focusing on getting the bucket on entrance guy's head first and then tackling everything else was key, in my opinion. I definitely altered the sequence of the rest of the tasks between runs based on where specific human AI's were at in their behavior loops, which also helped the speedrun feel less monotonous and more skill-based. One task that wasn't very clear to me for a while was Get the Toy Boat - you have to leave the kitchen area with the boat in order for it to count. As soon as you step on the wood floor part of the Pub you can drop the toy boat and the objective will be complete. ADORABLE UI I really love when developers take a creative (but still legible) approach to their game's user interface! The Options page looks like a piece of dot-matrix paper - perhaps stolen by us, the Goose? While the sight of dot-matrix paper brings back deeply repressed memories of my great hatred of dot-matrix printers, I appreciated that the developer took the time to make a visually interesting settings page versus just having text on a background or inside a large box. Dot matrix printers are evil incarnate. As someone who writes many lists on lined paper, I appreciated its usage for the game's to-do lists. After your initial playthrough, navigating between a level's OG list, speedrun list, and optional tasks list was a little cumbersome, though at least I didn't need to pull them up very often. If these papers were also stolen, at least Goose didn't rip them out of notebooks Finally, I was ridiculously delighted by the Pause menu using park signs! I think it is another fantastic way to integrate the game's environment into a screen that is usually pretty dull, aesthetically speaking. (I may also be more interested in signage that the average layperson, since I was a Project Manager for a company that manufactured custom modular interior architectural signage, but still! Plus these are simple outdoor signs. 😂) Wayfinding signage is super important, y'all! FAVORITE... Trophy Image: Beautiful Trophy Moment: Devious Screenshots: (Also, I'm finally caught up with posting about all my recent platinums!!!) Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 16, 2023 Author Share Posted August 16, 2023 (edited) Platinum #97 | Final Fantasy VI Developer: SquareSoft, 1994 / Square Enix, 2023 Country: Japan Time Played: 63h* *Boosts x2 up to Chp 5, then Boosts x4 Platinum Earned: 14 August 2023 Rating: 8/10 *Additional Info on Time Played: -Playthrough 1 = 36h -Playthrough 1.5 (from Magitek Factory save point) = 11h -Playthrough 2 = 14h PREMISE A thousand years ago was the great War of the Magi, which ended with the magical Esper creatures hiding themselves in a dimension away from humans. Magic and Espers slowly faded into legend as humans focused on technological progress. Recently, the Gestahlian Empire found a way to imbue humans and machines with the power of long-lost magic. Using this "Magitek" technology, the Empire has already defeated many nations and is working towards global conquest. A rebel faction known as the Returners is seeking a way to fight against the magical supremacy of the Empire's troops. The arrival of a young woman, recently freed from mind control by the Empire, might be the ace that the Returners have sought after. 🎶 Terra's Theme CAST GAME THOUGHTS Here it is: the final (S)NES-era Final Fantasy game. As you may have noticed from the graphic above, it has a large cast - the largest of any main entry in the series! Many fans consider this to be their favorite Final Fantasy game, so I was extremely excited to finally experience it myself. Final Fantasy VII still holds first place in my heart (note that there is no objectively correct answer), but now I absolutely understand why Final Fantasy VI is so highly-regarded. FFVI also made some important changes that paved the way for FFVII's existence, and was only the second Final Fantasy game to not heavily feature crystals in its plotline. TIME TO PARTY Several previous Final Fantasy games had party members with defined personalities and backstories, but the composition of your party was predetermined based on the game's storyline. Final Fantasy VI was the first game to allow you to change who you had in your party from your group of allies pretty much whenever you want - though certain characters are unavailable for portions of the story, and a few short sections require specific party members to be included. And while some previous games defined their characters, it is nowhere near to the extent that Final Fantasy VI does. Here, we get party members with unique personal sidequests or storylines alongside the main narrative, and some characters even get a flashback scene to a pivotal moment from their past. MAGIC SYSTEM At the beginning of the game, only Terra and Celes are able to use any magic in combat. It's a fantastic design choice by the developers since it really underscores how novel magic in combat is to the characters of this world. Once you unlock Magicite, around a third of the way through the game, you can equip Espers to each of your characters to teach them magic spells. Some Espers even give a stat boost on level-up, such as an extra point in Strength or 30% increase in MP. This encourages you to play a version of musical chairs, where you work on getting each character to master spells from an Esper (so that character can cast them even when the Esper is not equipped), and then repeat this process with as many additional Espers as possible for so that they have a wide array of magic spells available in combat. Additionally, each character can summon their equipped Esper once per battle. This is a great improvement over the magic systems of most previous entries, where you would buy Magic Spells in towns and then equip/teach them instantly to your characters. (Final Fantasy V being an exception, since its magic was tied to its Job Class system.) The Magicite system lets you customize your playthroughs in fun and interesting ways. For example, in one playthrough you could prioritize Esper-equipping to create optimized stats for each character (it won't create a meaningful difference in combat outside of the Magic stat, but it could be fun for roleplaying reasons). Or perhaps you only teach elemental magic to certain characters and healing magic to other characters, to limit how many characters can cast Cura or Firaga in battle. The subsequent PS1 & PS2 Final Fantasy games would continue to experiment with unique magic systems. COMBAT Every character has the ability to use magic (once unlocked) which allows you to pick whoever you want for your party and still have a solid combat team. At the same time, every party member has a specific job - a remnant of the Final Fantasy V combat system that helps to individualize each of them in combat. Below is an outline of each character's combat ability, including optional characters, and my thoughts on each. There aren't any story spoilers, but it is hidden to help reduce the length of this post. 🎶 Battle Theme Spoiler Terra Job: Magitek Knight Ability: Trance - for a short period of time it doubles all damage Terra deals and halves the magical damage she receives. This makes Terra a great offensive character, especially for magical offense. Locke Job: Adventurer Ability: Steal - have the chance to steal an item from an enemy Personally, I didn't use Locke's steal ability very often. He has the highest Speed stat and great Evasion though, so I loved giving him the ridiculous Ultima Weapon + Genji's Glove + Master's Scroll combination! Edgar Job: Machinist Ability: Tools - use one of the eight Tool 'weapons' you can purchase in the game. Auto-crossbow for multiple enemies and Drill for enemies with lots of HP was essentially all I did when Edgar wasn't using magic! Sabin Job: Monk Ability: Blitz - lets you input a string combination of buttons (as if you were playing Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat) to use (magic-stat based) powerful attacks! Only downside is you cannot select which enemy target Sabin will attack with his Blitz move. At low levels, Raging Fist and then Meteor Strike are fantastic to use against single opponents. Rising Phoenix is fantastic for attacking all enemies, so long as they do not absorb Fire-elemental damage. At higher levels, Razor Gale (wind-elemental) is a great choice for multiple opponents and Phantom Rush for single opponents! Cyan Job: Samurai Ability: Bushido - has Cyan unleash "powerful sword techniques". Honestly, I didn't use Cyan a lot in combat, but I tended to use Bushido over normal Attacks the few times I did. Celes Job: Rune Knight Ability: Runic - absorbs the next spell cast Outside of the initial boss fight where you need to use Runic, I almost never used it. I would forget that it also absorbs spells from my other party members. Celes was my healing/magical tank character. Setzer Job: Gambler Ability: Slot - literally pulls up a 3-slot reel, with various outcomes based on where you stop each reel. I really dislike characters with RNG-based combat abilities. Strago Job: Blue Mage Ability: Lore - cast a magical ability previously learned in combat. I loved the Blue Mage job in FFV, but I didn't utilize Strago much in FFVI. I think it's partially because a lot of the more interesting Blue Magic spell-abilities can't be learned until you are near the endgame in terms of story and leveling. Relm Job: Pictomancer Ability: Sketch - use an enemy's attack against itself Relm's job is a variation of Blue Mage, but it didn't seem very powerful against the enemies I used it on. Thus I used Relm almost exclusively for spellcasting, though it was interesting that I could upgrade her Sketch command to Control with a specific Relic, which essentially turned her into a Beastmaster to help Strago learn Blue Mage spells. Perhaps if we had access to that Relic earlier in the game, Relm and Stragos would have appealed more to me in combat. Gau Job: Feral Youth 😂 Ability: Rage - essentially turns Gau into a Berserker (auto-attacker) who has the attacks and properties of whichever enemy Rage was chosen. This was an interesting concept, as it is another iteration on a "Blue Mage" since Gau has to 'learn' each Rage. I personally didn't use it since I wasn't motivated to go online and learn how all of the rages work, but apparently Gau can become a beast (pun intended) once you learn certain Rages in the final third of the game. Shadow Job: Assassin Ability: Throw - throw a weapon or shuriken item at an enemy Shurikens are insanely cheap in this game! I essentially always had Shadow throwing Shurikens unless I needed him to revive someone. Shadow also has a passive combat ability by way of his dog Interceptor. Occasionally Shadow will dodge an enemy attack which leads Interceptor to charge at the enemy and attack them with more damage than what Shadow would have received. Mog Job: Moogle... Ability: Dance - lets him create a magical effect based on what terrain the battle is on, like a quasi-Geomancer. I wasn't a fan of Dance because each Dance has four possible abilities that Mog will use, and the ability itself is determined by RNG. There also wasn't really a way in the Ability screen to see what the four possible options per Dance did, as far as I know. 🫥 I didn't really use Mog outside of the final dungeon, and when I did he was Runic-equipped to have the Jump command and work like a Dragoon. Umaro Job: Berserker Ability: Berserk - Umaro will only auto-attack enemies I only used Umaro in my third party in the final dungeon of the game because I had a final slot to fill with either him or Gogo. Gogo Job: Mime Ability: Mimic - repeats whatever action was last used by a different party member, including character-specific combat abilities (and without expending MP in the case of magic). Literally only used Gogo when I was trying to get the Joker's Death trophy since it allowed me a second character with the Slot command. START MASSIVE SPOILERS --- THE VILLAIN I love how the villain actually won (for a while, at least) in this game. Oftentimes a villain can feel not as threatening as they should be because you just know that your character(s) will be able to stop them before they achieve their plan of ultimate destruction/domination/revenge/[insert evil plan here]/etc. The second act of Final Fantasy VI ends with Kefka gaining the power of the Magi 'gods' and literally destroying much of the world. Continents shift and break apart, the sky appears to be perpetually on fire, and some regions become inhospitable to many forms of life. I greatly appreciated that we didn't get a tragic backstory for Kefka. Really, the only thing we know (at least without looking at extended sources of canon) is that Kefka was the Empire's first attempt at creating a Magitek Knight, and it apparently shattered his mind. Sometimes a villain is nihilistic for the sake of nihilism. It doesn't necessarily matter if they "grew up without love", are born a sociopath, or some other explanation. (Besides, creating explanations behind how truly heinous villains came to be can come across as partially excusing or minimizing their behavior.) I view Kefka almost as insanity embodied in human form, madness personified, versus someone who became crazy due to some external event. He reminds me a lot of Batman's Joker in that way. THE WORLD OF RUIN This is where FFVI really came to life for me, and it's wild that most of it is optional content! Finding and reuniting with all of your party members created beautiful story moments that also expand upon one of the game's themes. Hunting down all of the Legendary Dragons was fun, and the shroud of Deathgaze on the world map has such a foreboding feeling. I was stunned to learn that the World of Ruin was not initially planned for the game's story. The party's dialogue with Kefka at the very end was utterly fantastic. It highlights what the World of Ruin was all about thematically: each character finding something important to them worth fighting for - even when there appears to be no hope left. A snippet of the dialogue with Kefka is going here, for personal future reference: Spoiler Kefka: Welcome, friends! I knew you'd come, so I've been practicing my greeting! Party: How much do you have to destroy before you'll have had your fill, Kefka!? Kefka: I've acquired the ultimate power! Observe... Such magnificent power! You're all nothing more than fleas compared to me now! Embrace your destruction... It is the fate of all things. Party: To be destroyed? Maybe it is! But people can always rebuild, and new lives will always be born! Kefka: And time will destroy all of those as well. Why do people insist on creating things that will inevitably be destroyed? Why do people cling to life, knowing that they must someday die? ...Knowing that none of it will have meant anything once they do? Terra: Because it's not the end that matters! It's knowing that you have something to live for right now, at this moment! Something you've worked for... something that's worth protecting! As long as you have that...that's enough! Kefka: And did you all find your "somethings" in this broken world that just won't die? Party: Yes! Terra: Love! Locke: A person worth protecting. Cyan: A life and child who live on within me. Shadow: Friends...and family. Edgar: A peaceful kingdom. Sabin: A loving brother who always looks out for me! Gah-ha-ha-ha! Celes: Someone willing to accept me for who I am. Strago: An adorable little granddaughter. Relm: An obnoxious grandpa...who I couldn't live without! Setzer: Wings from a dear old friend! Mog: New pals, kupo! Gau: These people! All of them! Uwaoooo! Kefka: Bleh! You people make me sick! You sound like lines from a self-help book! If that's how it's going to be... I'll snuff them all out! Every last one of your sickening, happy little reasons for living! Party: No, Kefka, stop! The end-credit scenes were adorable! I love how each character got their moment to shine - and they even came up with a ridiculous scenario in which Gogo's Mimic ability was critical for success, lmao. It also fit in fantastic with the opera/theater vibe in some portions of the game, acting almost like a curtain call. --- END SPOILERS TROPHY HUNT Wow, this platinum took me a lot longer than the other Pixel Remasters. The game itself is not much more difficult that the others, I think I just was starting to become lax when tracking which chests I had opened, and then tried to play the game from a save point to save time, which ended up just costing me even more time in the long run. 🥲 That is all detailed in the next paragraph, but I also found the Master Gambler trophy to be incredibly frustrating! I spent 40 minutes trying to get Setzer's "7-7-7 Joker's Death" Slot result from auto-battle partway through my first playthrough. After getting all other trophies, I spent about a half hour trying the Pause Menu method, but it was so aggravating that the game does a secret RNG roll to determine if you get the final 7 or if it will force it to the next result. I finally gave up and spent a little over another hour doing auto-battles (with Setzer and Gogo as my only two party members, Level 50, equipped with Hermes Boots, on the Veldt) as I watched TV. As for Legendary Treasure Hunter... I had a spreadsheet with tabs where I tracked all of the Chests, Hidden Items, Blue Mage spells, and Beastiary entries needed for various trophies. At the end of my (first) playthrough, I was dismayed to see that I had somehow missed a treasure chest somewhere. I pulled up various save files and confirmed that I had 100% of the items collected in the World of Balance and World of Ruin for areas trackable on my map. Then I filtered those areas out of my spreadsheet, and saw that the only "untrackable-once-you-leave" areas were the Imperial Camp, Phantom Train, Magitek Factory, Cave to the Sealed Gate, Burning Home in Thamasa, and Dreamscape Train. I looked at the PSNP Guide's screenshots for each treasure chest in those areas, and seemed to remember opening all of them. I figured I must have forgotten something in the Magitek Factory, so I loaded a save right before it and played through to the end of the game. Only to discover that apparently my missing treasure chest was before that point. Finally after playing a second full playthrough I got the trophy!!!!!!!!! (I think I originally missed the Barrier Ring chest in the Imperial Camp.) I also made this more frustrating for myself, because on my PSNP Profile I have Platinums #87, #89, #91, #93, & #95 as Pixel Remasters... so I wanted FFVI to be #97 to finish the pattern, meaning I couldn't just take a break by playing a different game. RANDOM THOUGHTS After several weeks of playing Final Fantasy I - Final Fantasy V, I was initially very thrown at how the character sprites are noticeably taller in this game. It was fantastic for allowing for more character expression through animation, but the first minute or two felt weird! 😂 I liked how you split your party into 2 groups at Phoenix Cave and 3 groups at Kefka's Tower. Swapping between parties to progress through those dungeons really helped create a sense of teamwork amongst all of the characters. Another incredible soundtrack from Nobuo Uematsu! It's amazing how Sabin's ability to use Meteor Strike on the Phantom Train is so prolific and memorable in the fandom that it has spawned fanart and memes of the sequence. Animated Gif by Zac Gorman FAVORITE... Trophy Image: Defend the Esper Trophy Moment: End of the World OST Song: 🎶 Terra's Theme 🎶 Dancing Mad (Final) Screenshots: SPOILERS: Spoiler . Edited August 28, 2023 by pelagia14 fixed emoji 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissShake Posted August 16, 2023 Share Posted August 16, 2023 What a great checklist! I love the detail of your posts, it's really inspiring 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 16, 2023 Author Share Posted August 16, 2023 13 hours ago, MissShake said: What a great checklist! I love the detail of your posts, it's really inspiring Wow, what a compliment! Thank you so much~! I consume so much media (video games, TV, books) and I've realized that in the long term, my memory gets a bit hazy as to my experience with a game. Writing down my impressions and memorable moments now helps me remember these experiences down the road. And it was this entire community that inspired me to do that! ❤️ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briste Posted August 26, 2023 Share Posted August 26, 2023 Congrats on finishing FFVI! I read your review last week, but wasn't in a position to be able to really respond at the time, but I wanted to let you know I enjoyed your write up! It's a bummer you missed that one treasure chest that caused you to repeat everything....I know when that happens to me, it can sour an experience. I'm glad to see that you still enjoyed it despite that bump in the road Did you ever end up checking out the differing lyrics from the Opera Scene? I'm curious about your thoughts on that after seeing this version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 28, 2023 Author Share Posted August 28, 2023 On 8/25/2023 at 9:18 PM, Briste said: Congrats on finishing FFVI! I read your review last week, but wasn't in a position to be able to really respond at the time, but I wanted to let you know I enjoyed your write up! It's a bummer you missed that one treasure chest that caused you to repeat everything....I know when that happens to me, it can sour an experience. I'm glad to see that you still enjoyed it despite that bump in the road Did you ever end up checking out the differing lyrics from the Opera Scene? I'm curious about your thoughts on that after seeing this version. Thanks so much for the response! I sometimes read and then reply several days later as well, so I completely understand. Thankfully, FFVI was such a delightful game that while I was a bit frustrated in my final fresh run, I still have very positive memories of the game. It did serve as a minor lesson to not try to be a perfectionist for my PSNP profile in terms of platinum order, though. 😅 And yes - I forgot to mention that in my review. I actually liked the change, though I absolutely understand it is a difficult adjustment for someone who knows the SNES version so well and has a lot of sentimentality attached to it. If there was a similar scenario with the FFVII OST when they had brought that to the PS4, I would not have liked it. Apparently, the lyric changes were originally done in 2005 with the More Friends - Music from Final Fantasy concert. It was continued in 2007 with the live English performance of the Distant Worlds concert in Stockholm, Sweden - and Distant Worlds was thereafter performed in many additional cities across the globe. So when it comes to having actual vocal recordings of "Opera - Maria & Draco", the Pixel Remaster is not reinventing the wheel. If we go back to 2005, while some of the original lyrics can still fit into the melody when sung, the newer translation gives a much more authentic opera tone. SNES: "What shall I do? / I'm lost without you." PR: "Were you only here / To quiet my fear..." I don't know a ton about the musical composition of opera music, but the PR fits better. It's not quite iambic pentameter, but it's something similar. If this was the first time putting vocals to the song, then perhaps the quality of the lyrics should have been sacrificed a little to keep closer to the original English translation. Even the updated "opera narrator" lines prior to the singing give it a more theatrical vibe now: SNES: "The forces of the West fell, and Maria's castle was taken. / Prince Ralse, of the East, took her hand by force. But she never stopped yearning for Draco..." PR: "The Western armies were defeated, and Maria's castle fell into the hands of the East. / Forced to wed the Eastern Prince Ralse, Maria still thinks only of Draco as she gazes at the stars each night..." TL:DR; I like that they used lyrics that have already been used vocally with this melody for many years, but I absolutely understand wanting the original. It's a shame that they couldn't put the new vocals with the "Arrangement" soundtrack choice, and then kept the original without vocals for the "OST" choice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 28, 2023 Author Share Posted August 28, 2023 (edited) Platinum #32 | Mass Effect Developer: BioWare, 2007* Country: Canada *XBOX 360 = 2007, PS3 = 2012 Platinum Earned: 8 January 2021 Time Played: N/A, but easily over 70 hours. Time to Plat: 4Y 1M Rating: 9/10 PREMISE: The Mass Effect trilogy is an epic space opera in the format of an RPG Shooter. The first game focuses on you, Commander Shepard, trying to halt the rogue agent Saren from triggering an annihilatory galactic invasion. Most of Mass Effect’s (ME1’s) combat is 3rd-Person with over-the-shoulder perspective, though vehicular combat also plays a small role. There is a dualistic Paragon/Renegade morality system for your character. You can also import a completed playthrough over to Mass Effect 2 (ME2) and Mass Effect 3 (ME3), allowing for big and small decisions to reverberate throughout the trilogy. NOTES ON THIS REVIEW This review focuses on my memories of the PS3 version of the game, and my subsequent post will detail my recent experience playing the Legendary Edition. However, all screenshots in this post were taken from the Legendary Edition as I no longer own a PS3. As with Final Fantasy, I will be referring to the first Mass Effect game as ME1 to help distinguish it from references to the series in general. I always play as Fem!Shep, but as BioWare data has shown the selection rate for Bro!Shep to be between 70%-80% over the years, I will refer to Shepard with neutral gender pronouns here. GAME THOUGHTS: Gosh, hearing the main menu theme play for the first time in several years brought back so many memories. The echoing nature gives it a haunting mood and fantastic “far outer space” vibes. The title screen may have had a makeover, but the music is exactly the same. 🎵 Mass Effect Theme MEMORY BANKS I first completed ME1 in December 2016. Looking back through my trophy history, I’m very surprised to discover that Playthrough #1 was a Renegade playthrough! Shepard was an Infiltrator. I earned the Quarian Ally and Sentinel Ally trophies in that initial playthrough, and Charismatic prior to completing Virmire. Before the end of January 2017, I had completed Playthrough #2, this time as a Paragon with Turian Ally and Krogan Ally. This Shepard was an Adept. Jump forward four years to December 2020, and I was determined to earn the platinum for the game. Both of these NG+ runs were done as an Infiltrator. Playthrough #3 was my first NG+ run and I earned Distinguished Combat Medal for my Hardcore difficulty playthrough, along with Soldier Ally and Asari Ally. Two weeks later, now in 2021, and in Playthrough #4 I finally earned Medal of Valor for an Insanity run! PROFILE RECONSTRUCTION I love how the game has an in-universe explanation for its character creation - Commander Shepard’s data records have been corrupted, and so you need to reconstruct your profile! Here you get to customize your Shepard’s appearance as well as some options that impact your playthrough. Pre-Service History and Psychological Profile focus on choices that have an impact on the narrative. The narrative impacts are described in vague terms, but I've spoilered them anyway. Spoiler First is determining your Pre-Service History. Each history has a (short) unique sidequest tied to it, but otherwise just makes minor adjustments to dialogue. Spacer - Both of Shepard’s parents are members of the Alliance military and Shepard’s childhood was the typical military brat, moving with their parents from station to station as their post transfers. The sidequest involves a veteran struggling with PTSD, and you get to speak briefly with Shepard’s alive mother over comms. Note that you do not get to meet Shepard’s mother in later games. Colonist - Shepard grew up on the planet Mindoir, a human farming colony. When Shepard was sixteen, Batarian slave raiders slaughtered their family and friends, and Shepard was saved by an Alliance patrol. The sidequest involves helping another survivor of the Mindoir raid who suffered Batarian enslavement, escaped captivity, and still struggles with the trauma. Earthborn - Shepard grew up as an orphan on Earth and enlisted with the Alliance as a way of escaping the underworld gangs that helped them to survive. The sidequest involves a fellow member of Shepard’s old gang trying to blackmail them into releasing another gang member arrested on the Citadel. The next step is selecting your Psychological Profile, which also determines your starting position in the Paragon/Renegade morality system. Each option gives Shepard a prominent event in Alliance history that helps explain how they reached the rank of Commander. While no sidequest is locked to any profile, each profile offers special dialogue for a specific UNC (United Navy Command) Mission. Sole Survivor - In the past, Shepard’s unit was slaughtered on Akuze by a Thresher Maw, and they were the only one to survive. Shepard starts the game with bonus morality points split between Paragon and Renegade. UNC: Dead Scientists has special dialogue. War Hero - In the past, against all odds and without aid, Shepard successfully repelled the Batarian attack on Elysium. This saved many Alliance soldier lives and Shepard was given the Alliance’s highest award for their heroism. Shepard starts the game with all bonus morality points invested into Paragon. UNC: Espionage Probe has special dialogue. Ruthless - In the past, Shepard lost most of their unit in a brutal pursuit against Batarians on Torfan. They slaughtered the Batarians, even those who surrendered, which earned them the nickname “Butcher of Torfan”. Shepard starts the game with all bonus morality points invested into Renegade. UNC: Major Kyle has special dialogue. The final step is choosing your Military Specialization, which impacts your gameplay. You don’t have to worry about creating a balanced combat team because your crew is also made up of the six different specializations. Besides the obvious difference in abilities available to each specialization, on the PS3 version this choice also determines Shepard’s weapons proficiency. Shepard can always use all 4 gun types (Pistol, Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Sniper Rifle), but can only zoom in and receive weapon bonuses for Pistols and the weapons that they have proficiency in. Soldier | Pure Combat specialist | Ashley Adept | Pure Biotic specialist | Liara Engineer | Pure Tech specialist | Tali Vanguard | Combat/Biotic specialist | Wrex Infiltrator | Combat/Tech specialist | Garrus Sentinel | Biotic/Tech specialist | Kaidan MY SHEPARD'S PROFILE RECONSTRUCTION 40% of players choose Solder and 20% choose Vanguard, which I think are the best narrative fits for Shepard. However, the only way I am able to get through Insanity difficulty is by playing as an Infiltrator. My favorite setup for Shepard is Colonist + Sole Survivor + Infiltrator as a result, though I also find Vanguard a lot of fun to play as. SPOILERS FOR ME1 & EARLY ME 2 -- Spoiler Colonist/Sole Survivor is my favorite narrative set-up for Shepard because of how it ties into the main plot of ME2. At the beginning of the game, the shady terrorist organization human supremacy group Cerberus wants you to investigate mass disappearances happening in human colonies. You quickly learn that a mysterious alien species known only as the Collectors are kidnapping the human colonies in some sort of furtherance of Reaper plans. Since the Council believes that the Reapers do not pose a threat any longer, the only way that Shepard can get a ship and a crew to stop the Reaper-assistant Collectors is to begrudgingly work with Cerberus. It’s a highly distasteful choice, and one that results in a lot of characters giving Shepard a ton of shit for making it. With Colonist Shepard having barely survived a Batarian attack on the Mindoir colony, they would probably feel outraged that no one besides awful Cerberus is really taking the disappearance reports seriously and feel obligated to stop the Collectors from attacking more colonies. And considering how Sole Survivor Shepard discovers in a ME1 sidequest that Cerberus was behind the Thresher Maw on Akuze that Shepard barely survived, they would probably have an extreme dislike or even hatred of Cerberus for their “ends justify the means” philosophy. In my opinion, having a Colonist/Sole Survivor Shepard really underscores the internal conflict and moral dilemma they grapple with throughout ME2. CHARACTERS Beyond Commander Sheppard, there is your faithful Normandy crew. Squadmates: Ashley Williams was the sole survivor of her unit when the Geth attacked the colony where they were stationed. She probably would have died if Shepard’s team hadn’t landed to carry out a mission, and she struggles with survivor’s guilt and if she really earned her position on the Normandy. Garrus Vakarian is a Turian who worked for Citadel Security’s Investigation Division. Turian culture is very disciplined and “by the book, but Garrus chafes under the red tape that prevents him from arresting criminals or making headway in an investigation. Urdnot Wrex is a Krogan mercenary who seems as bloodthirsty as any other Krogran. Wrex is incredibly passionate about trying to find a cure for the Genophage biological weapon that has made only 1 in every 1000 pregnancies successful, despite saying that he never plans to return to his home planet. Tali’Zorah "Tali" nar Rayya is a young Quarian on her Pilgrimmage, the Quarian rite of passage upon reaching adulthood where they leave their ship in the nomadic Migrant Fleet and look for something of value in order to be accepted onto a new ship within the Fleet without being a burden on its limited resources. Dr. Liara T’Soni is an Asarian who has spent decades studying the Protheans who are believed to have built the Citadel and Mass Relay system. She has suspicions that the Prothean extinction is just the last in a cycle of galactic extinctions, and searches for the missing piece that would confirm her theory. Kaidan Alenko is an Alliance Marine who served aboard the Normandy under Captain Anderson and then Commander Shepard. He is part of the first wave of human biotics and had difficult times during his biotics training led by an alien with a hatred for humans. These negative experiences led to Kaidan being a conservative individual who believes that humans are too new to the galactic community to be ready for a seat at the Council. Additional crewmates: Jeff "Joker" Moreau is the Normandy's exceptionally talented pilot. He may crack a joke to lighten up the tension, but he knows when it's time to get shit done. Dr. Karin Chakwas is the Normandy's medical doctor. She has a kind demeanor and is calm in a crisis. Despite spending her entire career as a military doctor, Chakwas isn't afraid to ignore a rule if it isn't just. Charles Pressly is the Normandy's navigator. I find him to be pretty dull. Greg Adams is the Normandy's engineer. He is not afraid to admit that Tali has more technical knowledge than half his team, plus he ensures she feels welcomed on the ship and in the engine room, which immediately makes him cool in my book. LET'S TALK ABOUT KAIDAN If you have not played the Mass Effect trilogy but are somewhat aware of it, you’ve probably heard how a good portion of the online community hates Kaidan. The big problem with Kaidan in ME1 is that he doesn’t get much character growth until the very end of the game. The moment when he accidentally tells Fem!Shep that she is beautiful when they are both on duty was also a bit cringe to me, but apparently a lot of Kaidan/Shep fans aren’t bothered by that. Anyways, Kaidan’s motivations for having a cautious personality only make sense when you learn about his biotic training in the Mass Effect: Foundation - Issue #4 comic book (or read a brief summary on the ME Wiki). However, these comic books (released in 2014!!) are not part of the game and so Kaidan seems rather ‘plain’ when compared to all the other squad mates who are each searching for something in one way or another. It's a shame that BioWare spent a lot of time making the rest of Shepard's squad into interesting, dynamic characters in the game, but didn't put the same level of effort into Kaidan. WORLD-BUILDING I love the attention to detail that was put into the world-building. Omni-tools or subdermal implants provide real-time translation of alien languages (once linguists have studied the language). The ability for technologically-advanced species (including humans!) to have biotics users is related to childhood exposure to Element Zero (“eezo”), which is manufactured to generate the mass effect fields that allow for FTL travel with Mass Relay transits. Shepard was born only three years after humanity discovered the Charon mass relay in our solar system, and they were 29 years old at the start of ME1, so getting explanations about alien cultures and technologies doesn’t feel as fourth-wall-breaking as it could be. And that doesn’t even begin to go into the various alien cultures! A Turian, an Asari, and a Salarian HUGE SPOILERS FOR ME1 ENDING: Spoiler I also really love how ME1 had the Reapers set up the Citadel. Keepers maintain the Citadel so that organic species never need to learn its deeply hidden secrets, and the Keepers themselves are not really seen as a threat or something to learn more about since they appear to be robots with low levels of intelligence. The Citadel is strategically set up so that it can only be found once a species has learned how to use the Mass Relays - you literally cannot reach the Citadel without one, because of its location inside the Serpent Nebula. The nebula is mostly thick gas and dust, surrounding the Citadel on all sides thus making it nearly impossible to travel to it without knowing its coordinates. In addition, a codex entry heavily implies that the nebula is created by ejected particles from the Citadel’s self-repair, aka the Keepers purposefully maintain the gas-and-dust “shield” around the Citadel as part of their work. Many Mass Relays ever-so-conveniently point toward the Citadel, which always makes it the best choice to become the political heart of galactic civilization. When the Reapers use the Conduit to invade from dark space, they can quickly eliminate the galaxy’s top leadership, creating chaos and confusion in the aftermath. It would take some time for the various organic species to figure out how to coordinate with each other to mount an effective counter-offensive against the Reapers, and the Reapers would be able to make great progress during that time. CONTROLS ME1 has some infamously terrible controls. I almost didn’t make it more than an hour into the game because of how ridiculous the controls were, but I’m so glad I persevered through it. Luckily, anyone interested in playing the franchise can play the Legendary Edition of the trilogy, which really cleaned up the controls issue from ME1. More detail on that will be in my Legendary Edition post. One interesting note for ME1’s shooting controls, however, is that weapons do not use ammunication. Instead, according to the game, modern weapons are “micro-scaled mass accelerators, using mass-reducing fields and magnetic force to propel miniature slugs to lethal speeds…. [using] projectile shavers that can generate thousands of rounds of ammunition from a small, internal block of metal”, hence why ammo is not something that needs to be managed. Instead, you need to contend with a weapon’s heat sink - firing a weapon quickly causes heat to build up inside of it, and each model of weapon has its own tolerance before it will overheat. Once a weapon overheats, you have to wait several seconds for the weapon to cool down before you can fire it again. It’s a very interesting system, and refreshing to not have to worry about ammo economy, but each time I return to ME1 it takes my brain a little bit of time to make the mental adjustment. COMBAT Missions always see you picking two of your squadmates to accompany you. You can have your squadmates automatically use all of their abilities, automatically only use defensive abilities, or require you to manually deploy all of their abilities. You also determine which of the four weapons they have equipped in a fight, so it’s worth at least swapping between a long-range and short-range weapon depending on the fight. There is a bit of a depth-perception issue when you are trying to target something with your abilities, but that’s slightly offset by most abilities having an area effect. The general rule of thumb when picking your two squadmates is to try to get all three specialties (Combat, Biotics, and Tech) in your fire team. If you are a Soldier (Pure Combat) or an Infiltrator (Combat/Tech), then Liara (Pure Biotics) or Wrex (Combat/Biotics) are great choices to round things out. A Vanguard (Combat/Biotics) Shepard is nicely paired with either Tali (Pure Tech) or Garrus (Combat/Tech). The other squadmate can be chosen based on whose personality you like or based on story beats (such as Liara on Noveria, Tali on Feros, or Wrex on Virmire). One other factor to consider is what type of enemies you will likely face in the mission. Tali’s AI Hacking ability only works on synthetic enemies, so she is fantastic for any mission with Geth but not very helpful against a group of biotic wielders. Kaidan’s Neural Shock ability is the reverse, working only on organic/humanoid enemies and thus he has one less ability to use in fights against the Geth. I try to always have some amount of Tech and Biotics in the team, even if it just comes from Shepard. Most enemies have shields that Tech abilities can quickly deplete, and Biotics are fantastic for crowd control even against synthetics. While most combat happens on foot, there are small sections of combat that utilize the Mako 35 Infantry vehicle. The Mako is rough in the PS3 version, for several reasons that will be detailed in my Legendary Edition post since this one is already getting pretty long. However, the secret to Mako combat in either version of the game is to dance like a leaf in the wind 🍃. And by that, I mean that you should constantly be strafing the vehicle left-to-right to dodge enemy attacks. While their weapons are on cooldown, you can get in a shot or two. Then you see a new missile coming towards you and now you dance🍃 out of the way again, since there is no auto-tracking on ballistics once they are fired. You can also use the landing thrusters to jump over missiles, but I find that to be a less accurate method of avoiding hits. EXPLORATION For a game initially released in 2007, I love the effort that was put into exploration. The main mission planets are fairly linear in structure, but that is offset by the details put in the environment and optional sidequests that will often have you returning to the quest-giver on completion. You can also land on many other planets in the solar system to complete additional sidequests. The planets you can’t land on at least provide little summaries that help the world to feel rich in detail. These “uncharted worlds” let you drive over any part of the provided square-shaped map area, and vary greatly in surface conditions. One planet might be a verdant world, the next planet covered in icy tundra, and soon after you might encounter a desolate landscape with hazardous conditions that are survivable outside of the Mako only for short stretches. Look ma, meteors! It does get monotonous after a while, especially if you do a bunch of UNC missions back-to-back-to-back, but the Legendary Edition’s photo mode makes it much more enjoyable. Also, the Galaxy Map is truly incredible for showing the sense of scale in the Galaxy. Each Nebula in the Milky Way has 1-5 planetary systems, and each system besides the Citadel's has several planets, usually with at least one that you can land on. > > > Plus, each Nebula has a different piece of space art for its background on the map! STORY - RECOMMENDED PATH There are 4 planet worlds that contain a majority of the main missions: Feros, Noveria, Therum, and Virmire (which unlocks after 2 major worlds, including Asteroid X57 from the DLC, are done). Once you have completed all 4 main worlds, you will trigger your final visit to the Citadel. The true point of no return is the final planet that opens up, but you will not be able to return to the Citadel after the final story visit. For those interested in a spoiler-free suggestion of the best order of main worlds in terms of narrative and gameplay, it is hidden below inside a spoiler only to save space. Spoiler Prologue: Eden Prime Prologue: Citadel | Serpent Nebula Focus on the main story for now, and leave most of the sidequests for when you have more Charm or Intimidate points invested in Shepard. One sidequest to start now, though, is “The Fan”, by speaking with Conrad Verner in The Upper Markets. Depending on your initial response to Conrad, the full quest takes place over three different visits to the Citadel. Therum | Artemis Tau Therum unlocks your final squadmate, and their dialogue on the ship between main missions helps with worldbuilding and fleshing out the plot. It’s also fairly short as far as main mission planets go. This world has only one enemy type for most of the mission, so diversity in specializations is not as critical - though you will definitely want to have Tech somewhere within your team. Noveria | Horse Head Nebula There aren’t too many enemy types. This planet might take the longest if you want to complete all the sidequests, but most of them are not too difficult. Citadel - Visit #2 | Serpent Nebula If you’ve not been doing every sidequest available on the main mission worlds, then now is a great time to return to the Citadel to work on its many sidequests to level up your team. Just note that there will still be a couple of missions with morality checks too high for you to pass. Optional: Asteroid X57 | Exodus Cluster Part of the “Bring Down the Sky” DLC that is included in both the PS3 and Legendary Editions of the game. Another great opportunity to level up your squad. Note that while it is an unexplored world, it is probably close to Eden Prime in terms of how long the mission is. Feros | Attican Beta The final boss is quite lengthy, and best approached with a mid- to high-leveled squad and upgraded Medigel capacity. It’s still doable at lower levels, but will take longer to complete. Certain outcomes require passing high morality checks, making it best to play once you’ve invested a good amount of talent points into either Charm or Intimidate. Citadel - Visit #3 | Serpent Nebula This is when you should finish up any remaining sidequests that you want to complete. Several will open up missions that occur in unexplored world areas as well, which is why it’s best to make sure you complete what you want from the Citadel before your final visit there. Virmire | Sentry Omega Nebula Narratively, I feel that this planet is best saved for last. It flows really well into the final planet. Virmire is also great for getting loot, and playing it at a high level means you will be getting high-level weapons and mods which can be sold for tons of money. Citadel - Final Visit Triggered once you complete all 4 main worlds (Therum, Noveria, Feros, & Virmire). You can still complete sidequests on the Citadel that do not require you to return to the Citadel. Unexplored Worlds Cleanup Finish any unexplored world sidequests that you still have open [FINAL PLANET] / POINT OF NO RETURN STORY - THOUGHTS SPOILERS FOR ALL OF ME1: Spoiler Eden Prime Once you land, I love how you can assign Jenkins with Talent points. Makes it seem like you will at least get to use him in combat in this first mission. 😂 Citadel Having the next major section of the story (becoming a Spectre) happen in the Citadel was a great decision. Gives you an opportunity to focus on some worldbuilding and learn about various alien species if you want! I thought it was clever to put little bits of worldbuilding in the loading-screens-disguised-as-elevators via news broadcaster updates, reflecting outcomes based on small decisions you make throughout the story. Therum Hello Mako my old friend... 🎶 Wow, the Mako is not complete garbage now! (Not to say that it is great) Mako is like a cat, always lands on its feet! Noveria I liked the whole 'corporate espionage' vibes throughout this mission. Feros I'm sorry, but ExoGeni's setup was extremely dumb. They discover a sentient plant creature that possesses mind-control abilities (and uses airborne spores to infect its thralls), and they think it's totally fine for their researchers studying the Thorian to be on that same planet?! No, no, no. What you do as an evil, amoral corporation is still have the "Zhu's Hope colony" bullshit so that you have your sample pool of unknowing subjects, but then you keep your Thorian researchers on a spaceship so that there is no way for them to become infected and controlled as well. Virmire I always tell myself I’m gonna sacrifice Ashley this time, and see how Kaidan is in the other games…. but then I talk myself out of it at the last moment. I really dislike how Kaidan reacts to Shepard in ME2, even if it makes sense for his character. At some point though, I will need to see Kaidan's ME3 character growth. Finale I choose to save the Council so that they feel more indebted to humanity - plus part of the Reapers’ strategy with a citadel invasion is to kill the galaxy’s leadership, so leaving the Council to potentially die would be playing to the Reaper Invasion Handbook™. Hahaha, I forgot about the fakeout with making a new player think Shepard died at the end, then the triumphant swell of music when their survival is revealed. PS3 ROAD TO PLATINUM I highly recommend that people play Mass Effect: Legendary Edition over the original PS3 trilogy. However, both the game and the trophy list for the PS3 are more difficult, so for those who still own a PS3 and want to earn the trophies the PSNP guide is fantastic but here is a quick rundown of the important points to note: The platinum is a minimum of 3 playthroughs. Hardcore difficulty can only be unlocked after you complete your first playthrough, and Insanity difficulty can only be unlocked after a completed Hardcore run. You also need to complete 45-50 missions with each of your squadmates (in a single playthrough per squad member), and between main missions and optional assignments/sidequests, there are only about 80 total in a single playthrough. For Asari Ally, you need to avoid doing as many sidequests as you can while on the Citadel, and make recruiting Liara the first thing you do after you leave (since she is the only squadmate that gets recruited after the Citadel section). A lot of Citadel sidequests are best completed later in your playthrough anyways, as their best outcomes often require 4 or more Charm/Intimidate points in order to use the related dialogue options. Which Ally trophies to get on each run (Normal/Hardcore/Insanity) really depends on which class you play as. I personally recommend Infiltrator for an Insanity run - especially in a NG+ run where the upgraded Sniper talent reduces the terrible PS3 ADS reticle sway from the very start. A lot of people swear by Vanguard for Insanity, though, so your mileage will vary. If you already know which class you will play on your Insanity run, you should keep one Ally Trophy for a specialization that Shepard's class does not have. And if that character is one of your least favorite squadmates, it might be worth having your other Ally trophy for that run be someone you like/tolerate, to help balance it out. Also, Krogan Battlemasters on Insanity Mode can just go fuck off. That's all. FAVORITE... Trophy Image: Medal of Heroism Trophy Moment: Medal of Valor Screenshots: Spoiler Screenshots: Spoiler . Edited October 11, 2023 by pelagia14 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 28, 2023 Author Share Posted August 28, 2023 (edited) Platinum #98 | Mass Effect (Legendary Edition) Developer: BioWare, 2021 Country: Canada Platinum Earned: 25 August 2023 Time Played: 36h Time to Plat: 5D 22H Rating: 9.5/10 LEGENDARY EDITION THOUGHTS: There are so many things I want to say about the Legendary Edition experience for Mass Effect 1, that I’ve decided to make at least this first part into a standalone post. Also, if you found this post through a link and want to know more about ME1 overall, just scroll up to my previous post! OVERALL CHANGES IN THE LEGENDARY EDITION All three games are bundled into a single launcher. Hardcore and Insanity difficulties are unlocked from the start, instead of after unlocking NG+. There is a new “Legendary Edition” trophy list that spans the entire trilogy! (100% list, not a platinum) The new individual platinum trophy lists have been modified, making it possible to earn each platinum in a single playthrough. Individual Shepard profiles apparently have a maximum of 50 saves, but the overall internal save cap has been removed - so you can have as many Shepard profiles as your console/cloud storage can hold. The games now have a Photo Mode! (More on that in a bit…) GRAPHICS MAKEOVER To no one’s surprise, Mass Effect 1 has the biggest graphics facelift of the trilogy in the Legendary Edition. The games now run at 60fps! In-engine cinematics have been re-rendered to benefit from all the graphical enhancements. Many assets that are reused in ME3 at a much higher quality have been “back imported” into ME1 (and ME2). Character models have more detail (with some textures being incorporated into the models themselves) and they are rendered at a much higher resolution: BioWare Press Environmental textures and updated lighting effects make areas look gorgeous now, and lighting responds to surfaces based on their material (skin, metal, plastic, fabric, etc.). The game has new and upgraded particle effects, muzzle flashes are improved, post-processing effects have been updated, better anti-aliasing makes shapes look less jagged, and blooming effects are less distracting. There are even additions or improvements that I don’t quite understand, like “ambient occlusion” and “dynamic volumetrics”! Feros looks incredible now (BioWare Press) All three games now use the ME3 character creator. Apparently when LE initially released the updated facial models for Shepard were… rough, but BioWare has since fixed that. CHANGES SPECIFIC TO ME1: Awesome weather effects now in Therum and Noveria when driving in the Mako. The boss fight in Virmire now includes waves of Geth, which makes a lot more sense. The final boss fight also has waves of Geth! It's important not to waste too much time killing them though, as apparently they will spawn endlessly and it allows the boss' shield time to be restored. Loading times are faster, to no one's surprise. You can now skip the news alerts/squadmate convos in the Citadel's elevators if that was somehow annoying to you, but it doesn't skip the Elevator ride itself. Oddly, "Scan the Keepers" now only requires 20/21 to be scanned! You can now choose whether the max level is 30 or 60. You get twice as many talent points when the level cap is 30, but you get them slightly less frequently. Not really sure who wanted this, I stuck with the classic level 60 system. INTERFACE & INVENTORY ME1’s HUD has been updated to ME3’s HUD style, with health in the bottom-center of the screen, and shields represented as a bar above health instead of separate blocks next to it. Inventory has some really nice quality-of-life changes now. Max capacity has been doubled (originally 150, now 300). The original game only warned about “low on Inventory space” when there were 10 inventory slots left, but now the game alerts you when you have 50 slots left. Even better, there is now a “Mark as Junk” feature! You can mass-sell your marked junk or mass-convert them into Omni-Gel, versus pressing square over and over and over again per item. Finally, it’s only indirectly related to inventory, but the Decryption “mini-game” for gaining access to storage lockers and the like has been slightly tweaked. Apparently, the original XBOX version always had 5 button prompts to decrypt, but the PS3 version had the number of buttons vary by difficulty. Easy decryptions were 4 button presses, Moderate ones were 6 buttons, and Hard ones were 8 buttons. That PS3-era change is still present, but what is new is that you can fail at the decryption essentially an infinite number of times. The original game locked you out from decryption after a single failed attempt, requiring Omni-Gel to force open the containers. The mini-game isn’t very hard but I sometimes press the wrong button when my brain sees a pattern forming, so not being forced to deplete my Omni-Gel unless I wanted to was nice. REVAMPED CONTROLS Praise Athame that ME1's absolute garbage controls have been greatly improved in this edition. While pretty graphics are awesome, the huge improvement in controls is the primary reason that this version of ME1 is the definitive version. Melee attacks are now mapped to their own button just like in ME2 & ME3 - fucking wild, I know. OG ME1's melee was the same button as firing a weapon, which forced you to do a melee attack when you were close to an enemy. LE ME1's melee button is , and to stow away your weapons you now press the TOUCHPAD button. You can now reliably enter and exit cover when you want to. This includes being able to take cover behind low objects without needing to awkwardly pause to crouch down. ADS on Sniper Rifles without talent upgrades no longer sways as though being held by a drunkard, making Snipers much more viable to use beyond just the Solider and Infiltrator classes. (I'm looking forward to eventually doing a Vanguard playthrough with this QOL change!) The Galaxy Map's "Zoom Out" and "Exit" buttons have been swapped, now matching ME2 & ME3 and preventing me from accidentally exiting out the map half of the time. You can now direct your two squadmates to different locations/cover with the D-pad, versus giving both of them a shared command to move to a single location/cover. There are other general improvements to combat beyond the control scheme: OG ME1 didn't quite understand the concept of headshot damage for most of its enemies (including many humanoid ones!), but LE corrects that. Enemy and Ally AI is improved. Enemies with Biotic abilities do not constantly spam them, thank fuck. Now they have biotic cooldowns just like we do! Speaking of cooldowns: LE ME1's First Aid now only has a base 20-second recharge rate, versus the 60 seconds of OG ME1. When you overheat your weapon the cooldown is now shorter. The sabotaged weapon cooldown remains unchanged, which I think is fair. M35 MAKO, MEDIOCRE NO MORE Probably the most infamous of ME1’s trash controls were in regards to the Mako, your vehicle for exploring all sorts of planetary environments. BioWare really put a lot of attention and care into improving numerous pain points related to the Mako: The Mako has heavier physics so that traversing across bumpy and wavy terrain doesn’t bounce it around like a goddamn trampoline. This increase in weight means that the Mako can’t climb up nigh-perfectly sheer inclines without assistance from its new thrusters. The thrusters help boost the vehicle’s ground speed in short bursts, but the cooldown is also fairly fast. Repairing the Mako is VASTLY improved. You can actually move the vehicle now while it is being repaired! It still boggles my mind that in ME1, the devs thought it was a good idea to force the vehicle to be stationary during repairs, when you often need to repair the vehicle during combat sections! You still can’t fire the Mako’s weapons while it is under repair (repair bars going up), but that’s fine. When the repair bars “cool down” (go down the bars) you can start firing again. The Mako HUD was also updated so that you can see its health and turret cooldown even when you are in first-person mode aiming down sights. Thus it no longer requires you to exit out of zoom to find out if you are about to overheat the turret or run out of vehicle health. 😂 Mako Combat There is no longer an XP penalty for enemy kills made by the Mako! Originally it was something like a 40-50% penalty on Insanity Mode. Firing the vehicle’s cannon is much easier now. It used to be hard to shoot at anything if the Mako wasn’t almost completely flat because it used boring real-world logic that prevented you from shooting at enemies below the cannon’s pitch. Now the cannon fires where the reticule points, and artillery pitch can fuck off. Thresher Maw fights are a lot more intense, now! I did not know of the change beforehand so it took me a bit off guard, but it was a great change. I never had a frustrating moment with the Mako in this game - though, I suspect someone playing LE ME1 without OG ME1 as a frame of reference will still be slightly annoyed at how it is a bit unwieldy at times. I would intentionally try to flip it upside down, and even if I almost succeeded for a moment, typically the game would force it to "land on its feet" - just like a cat! Honestly with these I missed the perfect moment, but right after Image #2 the Mako *was* touching the ground upside down for a split second. SUBTITLES The only complaint that I had with LE ME1 was that for some bizarre reason, subtitles would often (but not always) display at the top of the screen instead of the bottom. I quickly became fed up with my beloved subtitles being plastered directly over the foreheads and faces of numerous characters in cutscenes, so I ended up turning them off. I didn't make that decision lightly either, as it can be hard for my brain to parse 'digital audio noises' into 'intelligible human words' if I'm multitasking or even a bit tired. ME1 TROPHY LIST The best part about this trophy list is that you do not need to play the game 3 times to get the platinum. I don't mind when an excellent RPG asks me to play through its story a few times and make different choices, but most of us have already done this a ton by this point. Insanity mode is not required for the platinum (though it is part of the 100% Legendary Edition trophy list), and Insanity mode is also unlocked from the start if you want to play that way. another reason you don't need multiple playthroughs for the plat is that you don't have to do 45-50 missions with each squadmate! Now you only have to do 5 per squadmate, which is easily doable inside a single run. I get that BioWare probably wanted to showcase how having different companions on the same mission would slightly impact dialogue or something, but I don't really like either human squadmate. I basically used them in the Citadel and then took Kaidan to an undiscovered world to spam Neural Shock for its trophy. Speaking of Ability trophies, you don't have to create multiple Shepard profiles to get the "Use (x) Talent 75 times" ones anymore. You only need to use each Talent 25 times, and it counts when you order your squadmates to use their abilities. Thus, as an Infiltrator I was able to get AI Hacking through Tali and all the Biotic Talent trophies through Kaidan, Liara, and Wrex. (And uh, for anyone who doesn't want an Engineer or Sentinel Shepard and doesn't want to run several missions against organics with Kaidan after unlocking his Neural Shock ability, for some reason if you tell him to cast it on the Mako that counts. 😂) EXPLORATION I referenced this in my OG ME1 post, but goddamn exploration is so much more fun with photo mode and the enhanced graphics. Whenever I was driving around uncharted worlds I would try to get pictures of the Mako launched in mid-air: I also had fun creating Mass Effect 'postcards' based on screenshots I took in Photo Mode: PHOTO MODE The game's photo mode doesn't have a ton of features, but I'm just happy to have a photo mode in general! There are like, 5 color filters - (normal, a very blue one, a very green one, a very yellow one, and one that gives a sort of cell-shaded/comic-book vibe. I like messing around with color filters every now and again with my videogame screenshots, but the blue one was intense in color and I didn't really like the other couple of options available. You can also take "photos" as if you have a camera lens equipped. You can enable depth of field and fiddle around with focal length, focus distance, and F-Stop. Alternatively, you can turn it off to get screenshots with perfect resolution even in the background: Left: Depth of field enabled. Right: Depth of field turned off. Additional features include hiding Shepard, hiding squadmates, hiding enemies, hiding NPS, and hiding vehicles. Of course you can set the level of brightness, contrast, and color saturation (I'm usually guilty about increasing the latter a bit for ME1 😅). Film grain and vignette-style corner shadows can be turned off, or you can play with the Bloom setting if you have something that glows or shines. Note that you are not able to pause cutscenes to use Photo Mode, only standard PlayStation screenshots can be captured during those moments. Finally, here are some more favorite screenshots of mine. (Was this entire post an excuse to post Photo Mode shots? ...Maybe.) FAVORITE... New Trophy Image: Medal of Exploration III New Trophy Moment: Meritorious Service Medal Graphics Glitch: (The only glitchy moment I noticed!) . Edited October 11, 2023 by pelagia14 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted August 28, 2023 Share Posted August 28, 2023 Hey! I had specifically not read your Inscryption review because it was rapidly approaching the top of my “play next” pile... and then soon after that you’d reviewed Ratchet and Clank 2016 and I knew that I would have something to say about it... and then you posted another game, and another game, and before I knew it, I had to dedicate time to specifically read through your checklist with the intention of commenting properly... and then you kept posting reviews, so I knew that I'd need more time, and then... well, you know. Inscryption IS amazing, right? I had a very similar experience to you. I’m yet to read a review that doesn’t say “this is a must-play” which echoes my opinion as well. Truly an amazing experience. And as you said: spoilers should be avoided at all costs. Ratchet and Clank 2016: You’ve really missed out on the best games in the series. I really liked the first three (even the fourth one is ok) but haven’t enjoyed any of them from the PS3-onwards. I will go into Rift Apart with an open mind, but I did not enjoy R&C2016 which is apparently a contrarian's perspective. Ratchet’s rebooted personality (or lack thereof) was hard to swallow. The first trilogy is made for teenagers, and it’s somehow the most adult of any of the 10 games that I’ve played in the series. You’ve really opened my eyes to Ovivo and Asira. I hadn’t heard of them but now I want to enjoy them! (Even though it seems that you weren’t fully enamoured by them). A Short Hike has been calling to me from the backlog for ages. And thanks for the trip down memory lane for Untitled Goose Game, too. MASS EFFECT!! Holy cow did I love the first two ME games. I LOVE the slow and methodical pace of the first game. The musical themes - wow. Particularly the main theme – thanks for mentioning it, by the way, now it’s in my head – and the theme that plays where looking at the galaxy map... incredible. And the lore building! How GOOD?! Garrus and Wrex! You’re really taking me back to a happy place, Pelagia! I also defaulted to the Infiltrator class in ME1, too. Also: the Mako was never that bad. I’ll die on that hill. The controls for Shepard, however, were a lot worse than I expected going into ME1 in my first playthrough (which was in 2016). Does the Legendary Edition remove the audio bug in ME1 where enemies get caught repeating taunts and combat dialogue on an endless loop? I appreciate a fellow screenshot-er, by the way. The postcards are great! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted August 28, 2023 Author Share Posted August 28, 2023 44 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said: Hey! I had specifically not read your Inscryption review because it was rapidly approaching the top of my “play next” pile... and then soon after that you’d reviewed Ratchet and Clank 2016 and I knew that I would have something to say about it... and then you posted another game, and another game, and before I knew it, I had to dedicate time to specifically read through your checklist with the intention of commenting properly... and then you kept posting reviews, so I knew that I'd need more time, and then... well, you know. I'm super behind on reading posts in everyone else's cabinets! For a few months, I was constantly about 10 or so reviews behind whatever I was currently playing, and a few weeks ago I finally got some hyperfixation motivation to power through them all! 😂 44 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said: Inscryption IS amazing, right? I had a very similar experience to you. I’m yet to read a review that doesn’t say “this is a must-play” which echoes my opinion as well. Truly an amazing experience. And as you said: spoilers should be avoided at all costs. Aaaaaaaah, that's awesome that you were also able to keep mostly blind to the game! I knew that it was part of your "PS5 Alphabet" plan, and for a second I thought this meant that I had missed your write-up about it on your thread! Whenever you do get to popping your "I" platinum and then writing about it, I am super excited to read what you have to say! 44 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said: Ratchet and Clank 2016: You’ve really missed out on the best games in the series. I really liked the first three (even the fourth one is ok) but haven’t enjoyed any of them from the PS3-onwards. I will go into Rift Apart with an open mind, but I did not enjoy R&C2016 which is apparently a contrarian's perspective. Ratchet’s rebooted personality (or lack thereof) was hard to swallow. The first trilogy is made for teenagers, and it’s somehow the most adult of any of the 10 games that I’ve played in the series. Oh, that's really interesting to hear! I had no idea that Ratchet's personality had changed from the original game! I found a Reddit discussion about the personality change and Ratchet's original character growth over the series. From what I understand, he had some real snark in the early games, which I wouldn't have guessed at all! 44 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said: You’ve really opened my eyes to Ovivo and Asira. I hadn’t heard of them but now I want to enjoy them! (Even though it seems that you weren’t fully enamoured by them). A Short Hike has been calling to me from the backlog for ages. And thanks for the trip down memory lane for Untitled Goose Game, too. OVIVO was definitely a unique game concept, so it's worth checking out for that alone. My struggle with the controls in later levels might be a neurodivergent brain thing, since it was sometimes hard to keep track of whether my dot was a "positive charge" or "negative charge" when one needs to rapidly alternate it to get through a few parts. I wouldn't mean to button smash, but I'd start loosing track at the 5th or 6th rapid swap as to which state my dot was in. I'd be really interested to read your take on the controls, to find out if it was a me issue or a game issue! Honestly, I think a lot of my frustration with Ina's Tale was that the store description promised a specific game experience that I felt was completely different from what the game actually provided. It's like being told that you are being given a PB&J sandwich but it is actually peanut butter and... I dunno, ketchup. Maybe PB&K is a good combination, but when it's not at all what you were expecting it can be hard to focus on anything besides how it fails to meet your expectations. I'm also still slightly annoyed at them randomly butchering Elder Futhark for no good reason, but I should probably try to let go of that since I'm not sure how familiar Brazilian developers would be with Norse culture to even know what to google for. 44 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said: MASS EFFECT!! Holy cow did I love the first two ME games. I LOVE the slow and methodical pace of the first game. The musical themes - wow. Particularly the main theme – thanks for mentioning it, by the way, now it’s in my head – and the theme that plays where looking at the galaxy map... incredible. Yes! And you actually make a really good point about the pacing of the first game - on paper, it seems a lot more simple compared to the sequels: "Only 5 main planet missions?!" However, there is so much depth in each of those worlds that it is somewhat startling to realize that the game can be simplified down to that level. Haha yes, the Galaxy Map music is also super catchy! I'm also realizing that while I described the Main Theme as haunting and echo-y, I forgot to clarify that it has hope in it as well. I can't believe I forgot how good some of the music in the game was. 44 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said: And the lore building! How GOOD?! Garrus and Wrex! You’re really taking me back to a happy place, Pelagia! I also defaulted to the Infiltrator class in ME1, too. YES THE LORE! Garrus and Wrex are such bros together, it's so fantastic. 💖 I wish that we could still have Wrex as a squadmate in ME2, sigh. Vice, I am delighted to hear that you typically play Shep as an Infiltrator as well! I gravitate towards bow-and-arrow/combat-from-a-distance in games, almost without fail, even when close-quarters builds are extremely viable. 44 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said: Also: the Mako was never that bad. I’ll die on that hill. The controls for Shepard, however, were a lot worse than I expected going into ME1 in my first playthrough (which was in 2016). I actually went and put my original Mass Effect 1 disc in my PS5 so I could refresh my memory on OG Mako's controls... and then I remembered that it is a PS3 disc and I sold my PS3 last summer. //facepalm 😂 I'll fully accept that the community might have tinged how I recall OG Mako, considering I had braced myself for a whiny Kaidan... only to rediscover that he isn't whiny at all, and I don't understand why he often gets labeled as such by the fandom. Yeah, 2016 was just far enough removed from the game's release where gaming developers had standardized most controls in ways that made sense, and we were finally used to a mostly-consistent/coherent control system, versus dozens of terrible control systems. It's even more bizarre that the controls for the PS3 version were so bad, considering ME2 the next year had great controls. Obviously, ME1 needed more than simple button remapping, but I'm assuming they didn't have to rewrite them from scratch for the Legendary Edition (though who knows). 44 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said: Does the Legendary Edition remove the audio bug in ME1 where enemies get caught repeating taunts and combat dialogue on an endless loop? I want to say yes, because I don't remember that happening in my most recent playthrough. And while it sometimes takes me a little bit of time to notice audio things like that, I normally do notice them eventually. 😂 44 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said: I appreciate a fellow screenshot-er, by the way. Yes, screenshot-ers unite! I'm an incredibly visual person, and while I am a voracious reader, gaming itself is incredibly visual so I love incorporating that into my posts! 44 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said: The postcards are great! 🥰 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted September 1, 2023 Share Posted September 1, 2023 On 8/28/2023 at 8:42 PM, pelagia14 said: also had fun creating Mass Effect 'postcards' based on screenshots I took in Photo Mode: haha - these are dope! They somehow make Mass Effect feel like it's filtered through the Outer Worlds lens - and I dig the novel use of a photo-mode! This makes me really curious what you could end up doing if you ever play Plague Tale: Requiem.... that's got some amazing environments, but a bit of simplistic photo mode... ...but thats something I suspect some post-game creativity could fix 😜 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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