Making It Rain... Again (2024 Platinum Rain Challenge)

[ProfSeajay7]

 

EDIT (Dec. 27, 2023): I organized the rules to be more understandable. Also fixed the name of the FFXIV expansion. Seriously, Dawn TRIAL?

 

So last year I tried to do this in my checklist post, but it fell off after a while. This time, to celebrate the coming of Dawntrail for FFXIV coming out in Summer 2024, I am going to do this again but with a lot more streamlined rules.

 

This is basically a Platinum Rain Day challenge. If you don't know what a Platinum Rain Day event was, go to this checklist. @AceAttorneyEric does a far better job describing it than I do. TL;DR: You basically get all but one trophy in a title and put it in a bin, then repeat until you reach a goal before a certain date, and once that date dawns, you get up, eat breakfast, and log in to the Playstation you got those games on and pop all of those final trophies, hopping from game to game until you get the platinums in every last one in 24 hours.

 

While there had been official Platinum Rain Day events a long time ago when Dragon_Archon was a mod of these forums, the trend fell off of the forums, but some people have decided to try it as a personal challenge... and it's far less stress inducing and prone to failure than the "30 platinums in 30 days" challenges you see on YouTube, started by the creator Mystic, who did three of those challenges and, while he did get the 30 plats in 30 days goal, his attempt to push it past 31 failed in his last attempt because of a stupid Barbie game's RNG. If I were him, that would push me into insanity and force me to retire from trophy hunting and stick to games without achievements...

 

Like Dragon Quest Mon--- okay, okay, you're not here for me to hype on the glory of The Dark Prince, you want to see the rules. And you will get rules.

 

So here are the rules I made for myself:

 

1. There can't be DLC, or at least the DLC must be easy to accomplish, like Shantae and the Seven Sirens, which only has two trophies which require you to play the game in certain modes. Any DLC that requires me to spend a lot of time on it is not allowed for this challenge. I do want to get a decent amount of games on this list.
2. The game must have an estimate of at least three hours to complete. (Changed this rule again after finding out that Legend of the Skyfish takes only 3.5 hours to complete, way under the four hour minimum.) That means no Artifex Mundi titles, shovelware or visual novels are on this list. I cut the time down from eight as there are some very good indie titles that don't require too much to do. Of course, I must note that even if I could finish a game in under five hours, it won't always mean that I will do so, unless I focus all my time on it, and there are other things like Youtube videos I want to play and games I want to try out, and sometimes what normal people might get through easily... not so much with me. I'm sort of an ADHD case so please bring on your quality of life improvements for me to use!
3. The games must be doable in a reasonable time, therefore no game on this list will be an estimated difficulty of over six. I have another thread for a secondary account which has games that I am using for the Platinum Difficulty Challenge 2024, those high risk games will go over there.

 

That's one elephant addressed.  The other elephant in the room is that other games require my attention. For example, I mentioned Final Fantasy XIV. Well, come the new year I will have to start pushing the story for my character(I have an alt doing a challenge to get all combat jobs to Level 90) to get the end of 6.55 to be ready to go to Tural in the summer. I am not doing much with her now, because there is also the recent Dragon Quest Monsters game that came out, I am addicted to it, trying to fuse up a super-powerful team to beat the story and enter post-game with. Considering that this game has 20 worlds, I think I will be on that game most of 2024. (There's also the new Pokemon DLC, the Indigo Disk, but I am not ready to touch that with a ten-foot pole considering how all the trainer battles are double battle VGC champions, so I'll be farming the Ace Academy Tournament for years to get enough cash to VGC train. )

 

So with two to three things on my plate, these games I have to do will have to be strictly scheduled so I work on them each day. The first game I did took too long to reach the end because I was attempting to write a platinum trophy guide for it on my WordPad... and had to buy the Nintendo Switch version to get screenshots because Sony won't let anyone upload screenshots directly to Twitter.

 

This post will host the list of all the games I will be doing. My intended goal was slashed several times so I decided to just try to get as many games on here as possible before the release date of Dawntrail which, at the time of this post, has no exact release date, but I'll set my day of getting all the platinums to around that date, probably the day before because that is usually when the game shuts down for a full day so they can implement the new expansion content into the game. If anyone is interesting in joining me in doing this challenge, feel free to post on this thread. I'll also post my trophy card and update it as I get more games to the required 99%

 

EDIT: This thread is redacted. See the last post I made in it for why. Here is the link to the new thread:

 

The Journey to Dawn: Attempt #3

Edited March 24 by ProfSeajay7

[StewartBros]

9 minutes ago, ProfSeajay7 said:

visual novels(since they all can be done in 15 minutes thanks to options to set a fast-forward mode so you can't even read the text)

What if one were to 'play' a visual novel but actually read all the text?

Edited December 13, 2023 by StewartBros

[ProfSeajay7]

Finally got my first game up. This took a while due to FFXIV and recent events, but I finally pushed myself to do it...

 

Game #1: LEGO Jurassic World (Playstation 4)

 

Yes, expect a truck-ton of LEGO titles in this list. LEGO is not complex in its gameplay, you just smash blocks, build block objects and go from point A to point in a ton of levels involving some backstory. While there are a few LEGO originals(Ninjago, The LEGO Movie, etc), most of these titles are based off sets based off of famous fiction franchises( or the Triple-F for short ); this first one retells the first four movies based on Michael Crichton's classic, Jurassic Park, a tale about man resurrecting the dinosaurs and putting them in a petting zoo. A petting zoo that fails and turns into a hellhole of claw, fang and blood.

 

This is LEGO, though, so the last one had to be cut out with more hilarious situations. Did you know the part in the Jurassic Park III movie where the Spinosaurus and Raptors begged the humans to let them go to the mainland to go shopping after they heard a phone ad from a phone the Spinosaurus swallowed? No? Well, that's LEGO's doing, trust me, if you saw the actual movie, you would shake your head and laugh. 😜 

 

The only reason I still plat this title is because I actually saw the full Jurassic World movie in theaters during an outing with my local 'help group.' I've been in several help programs over the years and lived in a group home and an apartment complex as part of a group so I had to do things other than gaming during the day. Needless to say, this title let me watch the movies without seeing the humans get eaten alive, but the scenes were mostly faithful to the movies and they actually used voice lines from the films, which was kinda sweet.

 

Anyways, this game is LONG. Since it covers four films(the three Jurassic Park movies and Jurassic World), and each film covered has five levels in it, it's twenty full levels, which each have two or three sub-levels to traverses, including a few auto-scrolling chase scenarios, and those are a pain.

 

Let me explain if you have never played a LEGO title before: There are various collectibles you have to get, and some are in the chase sequences. If you want to 100% the game, you have to get everything, and you can't go back if you miss a collectible in a chase sequence, which means you have to reset the level.

 

Also, there are four island overworlds and you have to get every collectible there too. If you love collecting things, then you are in heaven. I don't mind a good scavenger hunt, using the abilities from every character you unlock(and let me warn you only once, you will need to finish the story mode to unlock everything), but this is ridiculous. I missed four gold bricks because the map doesn't show you where they are as they require you to destroy a set of things. One is in an area which the maps don't cover.

 

Still, I got it done and did enjoy playing as LEGO dinosaurs.

 

And yes, there are actually LEGO titles that have MORE levels than this one. The majority have only 15 levels. This is one of four games which have more than that.

 

Percentage: 98% (48/49)

 

First Trophy Earned
Something Has Survived (December 4, 2023; 10:12 PM)

Final Trophy to Pop

Building Blocks of Life (build a LEGO object with Mr. DNA)

 

On 12/13/2023 at 12:09 PM, StewartBros said:

What if one were to 'play' a visual novel but actually read all the text?

More power to you, but I'm not one who has the patience to do that. Not to be rude; I have read actual books, but those are things I do when I go walking around the neighborhood for my mandatory exercise regimen or are out of the house and on a two hour road trip. I prefer reading actual books instead of comics(which is sort of what visual novels are, since they are digital adaptions of Japanese manga) because I don't see any characters so I can imagine what they look like. Highly recommend the Nick and Nora series, the Midnight Louie series... any book series which involves cats and murder mysteries.

 

I'm not going to put a gun to anyone's head, they are free to use any games they want as long as they can manipulate them so they don't pop the last trophy by accident. Most shovelware and visual novel games go by so fast that it's easy to miss the last trophy and pop it without warning, another reason I'm not touching those games. I did do a couple of visual novels for my A-Z-Z-A challenge only because they had the letters I needed. I had other games lined up which were more fulfilling, but by the time I reached those letters I was already multi-tasking and very tired and didn't want to bother. That is why I need to be extremely committed to this project. Right now I have my PS4 on and I have two games ready to start... but I am stalling for time which I should not do.

 

But hey, if you want to go ahead and read all the visual novels, you do you. If you read those novels through every ending and don't speed up text, then you are actually showing the people who create these titles that you damn well care about their work. I wish I could care about Gamuzui(who created the Sakura Succubus series) enough to play the Sakura Succubus series slowly and read every word of the stories, watching in bated anticipation as I see the scantily clad demonesses seducing the hero... but to be fair, that's a bit too saucy for me and I have better things to do with my time, like play Dragon Quest Monsters or FFXIV. Sorry, Gamuzui. I don't want your Ultimate Sweet.

Edited December 14, 2023 by ProfSeajay7

[ProfSeajay7]

Also, as a warning, I am very type-heavy and speak my mind, so if you want an answer, expect a mini-essay.

[Super_Mep]

@ProfSeajay7

Watch out on Lego games. Some of the trophies pop unintentionally or not as described/designed. Lego Movie: the video game did this on several trophies. Just thought I'd mention it since you might leave a random trophy undone but pop it accidentally haha

[ProfSeajay7]

On 12/13/2023 at 5:56 PM, Super_Mep said:

@ProfSeajay7

Watch out on Lego games. Some of the trophies pop unintentionally or not as described/designed. Lego Movie: the video game did this on several trophies. Just thought I'd mention it since you might leave a random trophy undone but pop it accidentally haha

 

I appreciate the warning, Super_Mep, but the first one didn't give me trouble, although my last trophy I plan to pop(after this post, I am going to edit the entry to include the last trophy I need to earn so people don't get confused, I forgot to do that ) was nearly sabotaged by the game itself as I forgot to avoid buying Mr. DNA until I finished all the Free Play clears as the game kept making Mr. DNA the second character, though luckily it was obvious and I quickly changed him out to avoid stumbling into a build and building with him, earning that last trophy. Nice try, game, you failed. 😛

 

I do have LEGO Harry Potter Legacy Collection on the screen, but I am going to shower and rest before I do that; The Indigo Disk popped for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and after losing some money (because I was an idiot and didn't check my wallet to find my physical copy ) and I am also playing Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince and building uber teams so that takes a while even with the Mole Hole DLC(where the monsters are stronger and harder to recruit), and it's the holidays so there may be some inssues.

 

Luckily, the second game on the bucket list isn't a LEGO game and only took me two days to prep...

 

Game #2: Legend of the Skyfish (Playstation 4)

 

Another game I got 100% in multiple times, mainly because the game is short. There are 42 levels and 3 bosses but the name of the game is using your fishing rod to hit switches, grab and pull things and pull yourself over to platforms. I did die a few times because some of the later levels are brutal if you aren't careful, but all in all, it was a fun time. If I do play the Vita version, it'll only be to cleanse my mood between games and I won't put it off too long as the memory really helps. I didn't need a guide for any of the puzzles as they are quite obvious, although the chests are easy to miss, though I remembered where they all were.

 

(I changed the format. Since I will be picking up backlogged game which I started months ago, the time between first and second-to-last trophy will be way too inconsistent. I will put down the date and time I got the first trophy, though, but it'll just be simple: The first trophy I earned and the final one I need to earn on the special day to get the platinum. I'll also put the percentage down as well the trophy ratio, though it will be one off because I don't include the platinum trophy here as you get it right after you get the final trophy.

 

Percentage at Stop: 91% (14/15)

 

First Trophy Earned
A Just Cause (December 13, 2023; 12:45 pm)

Final Trophy to Pop
The Lady and the Lord (defeat the boss of the third campaign)

 

EDIT: Changed my time rule to 3 hours minimum after finding out that HowLongtoBeat.com claims that this game is doable in 3.5 hours, way under the four hour time minimum I expected. Also, I found out that this game has a sequel, but I assume it for the PC only or this site would have posted a trophy list for it.

Edited December 27, 2023 by ProfSeajay7

[serrated-banner9]

Just saw this thread and i wish you the best on this, it's definitely not something i would have the patience for lol  

 

Just stopping by to give some suggestions because why not (All of these are either PS4 or PS5 games as i assume that's the only consoles you have):

NOTE: Some may take longer then others (also hoping none of these are already on your list lol)

• Spyro the Dragon
• Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
• Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon
• XIII
• InFamous: Second Son
• inFamous: First Light
• Sonic Origins
• Bloons TD 5
• Balan Wonderworld
• Rugby World Cup 2015
• Dreams
• 101 Ways To Die
• God of War
• Tearaway Unfolded
• Bugsnax
• The Sims 4
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered

[ProfSeajay7]

10 hours ago, serrated-banner9 said:

• Spyro the Dragon
• Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
• Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon

Yeah, I do have those games and will add them to the list as they are not too difficult to trophy manipulate. I really enjoyed the Spyro trilogy before it was remade and Toys for Bob did a great job remaking it(even though Gulp cost me a tooth because I was stupid and didn't use Superflame cheese on him to get that one trophy). I will probably start that trilogy as my next game on the list.

 

10 hours ago, serrated-banner9 said:

XIII

Not really into FPSes, but I know that Ubisoft made a cult classic with that title.

 

10 hours ago, serrated-banner9 said:

• InFamous: Second Son
• inFamous: First Light

While I had platinumed Second Son on my first set of accounts back in the day that PS4 was young and shovelware didn't exist so games like this were the easiest games to platinum(I have had a lot of accounts and had been earning trophies since 2009), the fact that you have to play as an evil person and do terrible things really put me off on that game. As one Let's Player said, "Every time I had to earn THIS trophy, it made me sick to my stomach."

 

Also, since I have no longer no any interest in the Infamous series, First List is just not going to do it for me, especially since you have to do a bunch of arena challenges and I don't really like doing those.

 

(These are good suggestions, I am just not in the series anymore especially since you can't skip cutscenes.)

 

10 hours ago, serrated-banner9 said:

Sonic Origins

 

I did use to enjoy the Blue Blur, but at my age I don't think I can handle going super fast.

 

10 hours ago, serrated-banner9 said:

Balan Wonderworld

 

I WAS going to try it... but then I got biased by the HUGE amount of negative reviews and the fact that it flopped harder than a Dondozo on land.

 

10 hours ago, serrated-banner9 said:

Dreams

 

Fact: I actually do have this game maker on one of my active accounts. The problem is that I don't know if I can commit the time to it.

 

10 hours ago, serrated-banner9 said:

Tearaway Unfolded

 

I tried this game, but the gopher missions were so difficult for me to do that I just threw my hands up and gave up.

 

10 hours ago, serrated-banner9 said:

Bugsnax

 

I've seen a lot of people playing this game on speedruns but not sure if I can handle doing a first-person adventure interacting with bipedal walrus people who mutate when you feed them bugs. 😮

 

10 hours ago, serrated-banner9 said:

The Sims 4

I know that you can link the game to your EA account and download a lot of fan-made families to fulfill the trophies, and I have platinumed this title on an older account, but I do not think I can do that again, and my favorite part of The Sims 4 are the story challenges that are posted on Carl's Guide, so I don't think I can just load up families and just go to Burger King and let the trophies pop. My experience with The Sims series is on PC, no matter how buggy it is. *shrug*

 

10 hours ago, serrated-banner9 said:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered

I've seen someone on Youtube earnthe platinums for these games... and they hated it because of all the multiplayer trophies. Besides, I said I hate FPS games and I especially hate Call of Duty and its competitors because any war game turns me off. I dread the thought that some day I could get drafted to kill human beings.

 

10 hours ago, serrated-banner9 said:

God of War

Sorry, I do not like the God of War series, no matter how quick you get the trophies. No offense to people who love Kratos, but...

 

Also, I really don't know much about Bloons and really don't want to know. Also, I don't want to stress out, and from the looks I saw on 101 Ways to Die, it looks VERY stressful.

 

I appreciate the suggestions, and out of those, the Spyro Reignited trilogy will definitely be on the list. If you insist on another game, I might look into either Sonic Origins or Balan, though I heard from one content creator that the trophies there are ridiculously unfair. Thanks for the suggestions.

[ProfSeajay7]

Almost prepped my third game on the list. Actually, I don't have a list, I just pick and play games, though I probably will start up a list soon if I intend to get at least 20 games prepped before the summer. 😛

[ProfSeajay7]

Game #3: LEGO Harry Potter, Years 1-4 (Playstation 4 Legacy Collection)

Edited March 1 by ProfSeajay7

[ProfSeajay7]

Game #4: LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (PS4 edition)

Edited March 1 by ProfSeajay7

[Boni_Neto]

Merry Christmas, mate. I always find these LEGO games funny, because of the light-hearted jokes that they throw here and there in what otherwise should be a more serious story. But I remember enjoying getting both platinums, while feeling frustrated that, at the time, the only HP games on new consoles were LEGO ones. Such a waste. But now I can't wait to play Hogwarts Legacy. And I will tell you this, I also rather play a book adaptation than the movie one. And this is why I consider HP1 and 2 back on the PS1 some of the greatest HP games ever (despite the nightmare inducing model of Hagrid).

[ProfSeajay7]

1 hour ago, Boni_Neto said:

Merry Christmas, mate. I always find these LEGO games funny, because of the light-hearted jokes that they throw here and there in what otherwise should be a more serious story. But I remember enjoying getting both platinums, while feeling frustrated that, at the time, the only HP games on new consoles were LEGO ones. Such a waste. But now I can't wait to play Hogwarts Legacy. And I will tell you this, I also rather play a book adaptation than the movie one. And this is why I consider HP1 and 2 back on the PS1 some of the greatest HP games ever (despite the nightmare inducing model of Hagrid).

 

You should be glad that you didn't see the Playstation version of the last books which weren't connected to a block set because by golly, EA really butchered the Deathly Hallows by making it a Third Person Shooter. I know that this was Harry and his friends fleeing from the Death Eaters and trying to destroy the Horcruxes, but if I wanted a TPS, I would go play Ratchet and Clank. 😠

 

And yes, I do agree that they could have added more in from the books(like Hermione's interactions with the house elves and her attempts to liberate them from 'slavery' with the hilariously anagramed orginzation S.P.E.W. ) but I saw all the movies and Danny Ratcliff really brought to life the Boy Who Lived as he grew up from a scrawny fresh-faced kid to a jaded young adult. Though I do admit that the old Playstation 1 Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets games were really fun to play despite their janky graphics, but then again, all PS1 games were janky polygonal hot messes. Look at the most popular Final Fantasy in the world, Final Fantasy VII. It was janky robot people with huge Popeye arms! (Although I did enjoy seeing people play the remake, I do not intend to play those games myself as I hate difficulty trophies as much as you despise online trophies, which I also do not like. This is why, while I did enjoy playing the Kingdom Hearts series, those games may never see the light of day in my profile. )

 

I'm sure you will love Hogwarts Legacy but you will have to do partial playthroughs as there are trophies for reaching a point in the story with characters in each House. I actually did a playthrough on my old account and celebrated it by begging to go to Universal Studios in March to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. (I was going to go to Disney World to motivate myself to play Kingdom Hearts, but that was too costly and thank goodness I choose this path as Universal Studios' Harry Potter parks are amazing! )

 

By the by, I wasn't frustrated at playing the LEGO games(though my inane brain was upset you have to watch the cutscenes at least once because it was lazy and wanted to skip - that's what you get for growing old 😛), this was just the umpteenth time I played these games and I am so glad I am never doing this again.

 

EDIT: This is a temporary thread. It will stop updating once I pop the trophies for all the listed games past and future. However, there is another account I made for a special reasons... I'll put a thread up when I start getting work done on the games there.

 

I promise, this third thread will be my last trophy checklist.

Edited December 23, 2023 by ProfSeajay7

[ProfSeajay7]

Game #5: Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon

 

This took me a year and a half, figuratively speaking.

 

I knew the Spyro Reignited remakes would be on this list sooner or later. I enjoyed the original Spyro trilogy back when Hunter, Bianca and Ripto were ugly polygonal messes that would make original Cloud Strife laugh. 😛 And I loved all the character, even Spyro and his companion Sparx. The good thing is that the remakes gave Shiela some hair so they made her look like a girl. I know female kangaroos don't have hairdos, but this isn't biology, folks, it's a (bleepy) VIDEO GAME.

 

Anyways, I had a feeling this game would be the first to be prepped. My plan was to speed run to the final boss of each game and then do cleanup. The problem is that Spyro 1 and Ripto's Rage both require you to get 100% to get some trophies - Spyro 1 opens a bonus level and Spyro 2 gives you a permanant power up.

 

Spyro 3 has a bonus level like Spyro 1 with a rematch at the end, but the platinum doesn't require you to do that bonus level, which is a gauntlet of various mini-games and exploration to get the 25,000 gems you need to open the bonus boss door, defeat them and get the 150th egg.

 

The trophy list for Spyro doesn't require you to do that, so it doesn't require you to get 100% like the other two games do.  And that's a good thing as I died on a few bosses there. MANY TIMES. This game is not nice to you, and one word of advice: DO NOT DO THE SKATEBOARD AREAS! The first is easy but the second requires you to learn how to master skating tricks and that is just manure. What's worse is that one of the challenges in the bonus level is a race against three Yetis using a giant skateboard that has jank controls and will send you careening off a cliff if you look at it funny.

 

Can you tell I hate the skateboarding levels in this game? The only one I did was the first one in the first level, and all you have to do is hit a bunch of lizards running to escape you.

 

The game, however, isn't easy. You still have to get 100 of the 149 eggs in the game and once you hit 50 of them, the game starts getting mean with you. Still, it is nice to mess around with various characters and their abilities like Shiela's double jump, Bently's brute strength, Sgt. Byrd's aerial missiles and flight, and Agent 9's third-person shooter mechanics.

 

Overall, a great game, but be warned that many of the things you get here are quality of life improvements from the previous two titles, which I will cover... when I get around to prepping them. AND I WILL.

 

Have a happy Boxing Day, to you Canadians reading this.

 

Percentage at Stop:  91%

 

First Trophy Earned

The Money's In the Bag: December 25, 2023

 

Final Trophy to Pop

8000 Reasons to Kick Butt

[ProfSeajay7]

Game #6: Spyro the Dragon

 

So with the third game in Spyro's trilogy done, I decided to spend Boxing Day(that's Canada Christmas), I decided to take on the second most frustrating game in the trilogy, the O.G. and man, this game made me gnash my teeth. Let me start with saying I never want to use Supercharge ever again. 💢

 

Also, the ability to hover you get in Spyro 3 doesn't exist in Spyro 1, so you have to use exact jumps to cross large gaps. Also, you have to get certain milestones to unlock the worlds. In my first part of the run, I ignored all the worlds in Beast Tamers and Dream Weavers and just headed to the nexus where I took out the final boss, Gnasty Orc. (He turned all the dragons to stone because he got insulted on TV. ) You start in the Artisans World and have to free dragons, collect gems and rescue eggs from thieves that took a lesson in Road Runner speed before the balloonist in that world will let you go forward.

 

All in all, this game got a nice HD remaster and if you don't mind supercharging off into the abyss a zillion times, you'll be fine.

 

Percentage at End of Prep: 97%

 

First trophy earned

Hop, Skip, and Jump
 

Last trophy to earn

Hoarder

 

A thing to note. I have dropped the date of first trophy pop for now on. This is because I have some games I want to prep that I started months ago and the time it took to prep the game would be inconsistent since you can't delete old trophies. (One game got its fist trophy around the time I created this account!)

[ProfSeajay7]

Game #7: Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!

 

And with that, I finally have the entire Spyro Reignited trilogy prepped for the Rain Day. Spyro 2 was the most frustrating to prep, which is ironic as the original Spyro 2 was the game that got me into the trilogy. I thought original Ripto was hilariously ugly, so it's nice that Toys for Bob gave this villain some LITERAL teeth.

 

(I do realize that toothless Ripto was due to the polygonal nature of PS1 games, but still it's nice that the remade Ripto looks a lot more evil.)

 

This morning, at 4:30 AM, I woke up and decided to knock off the required 100% collection. I can safely say that Fracture Hills and Magma Core will always remain my least favorite stages to 100%, due to Hunter. Don't get me wrong, Hunter is a nice guy(and he looks a lot more realistic than the goofy-ass cat he was in the original version, again with no teeth because of polygon restrictions)... but playing a crystal catching game twice with him is brutal. I was lucky to get the 15 crystals before him on the first try because the camera angle is annoying so you can't see the crystals coming up very often and Hunter predicts them faster than you. Then we have Fracture F''king Hills and its Earthshaper golems. Two orbs require you to be fast and reach the Earthshapers or you fail the mission. I failed the alchemist escort ten times because the damn goat doubles back and you don't see it in time, and the other mission tricks you because Hunter shoots a golem you were not expecting and you can miss it and fail to stop it from getting up. Don't even get me started in the gear collecting in Breezy Harbor.

 

But I finally got the 100% and the permanent superflame so I just took down that Ox in Metropolis for the trophy to kill it without being hit, then loaded into Gulp's Lair where I will snipe him until he dies to get the final trophy there when the Rain Day happens. When I load in the game, I'll be in Gulp's Lair and get that final trophy very quickly. That dumb quadruped Terrakion ripoff has to pay me $49000 for my stupid false teeth because he made me chip a tooth years ago.

 

Now I have to start grabbing another wave of games. It's still four days to New Years' Eve, so I may have time to prep three more games.

 

Percentage at End of Prep: 90%

 

First trophy earned

Hypersonic

 

Last trophy to earn

Conversationist 2

Edited December 28, 2023 by ProfSeajay7

[ProfSeajay7]

Game #8: Donut County

 

 

Edited March 1 by ProfSeajay7

[ProfSeajay7]

Game #9: Unpacking (PS5 edition)

 

I was busy grinding off Final Fantasy II in hopes that I could finish it before New Years' Eve. However Psaro the Manslayer had something to say about that, so I was fusing his monsters instead of fighting monsters in my other game. Then I realized something... I could multi-task!

 

So I swapped to my PS5(the Switch dock was sharing the same TV) and looked around for cheap games... and then I realized I had only finished the PS4 version of Unpacking, a very cute puzzle game where you have to unpack boxes and put the contents in the right place in several rooms of a house or apartment. This is my first Playstation 5 game on the list. The last ones have been all PS4 games.

 

I am not adverse to doing stacks as long as (1) I can do them at the same time and not lost muscle memory or (2) I had forgotten about them so the experience was fresh. I had done the PS4 version of this game for my A-Z-Z-A challenge as it was one of the games starting with a "U", and had been introduced to this game by Outside Extra, a group of British games who have a Youtube channel where they do top-ten lists or do game challenges. A couple of the members worked on the platinum for this game and I got hooked on it. It's a nice chill puzzler where you aren't punished for failure, you just get told that the item placement is wrong.

 

I recommend it for a quick and easy platinum as all you need to do is complete all the levels(there are seven of them) and get all the sticker challenges done. This game won't earn its platinum yet, though. The final trophy is easy to manipulate as you can decide which sticker challenge you want to do last.

 

I will be doing more stacks, but for now I want to get things out of the door for the weekend.

 

Percentage at time of stop: 90%

 

First trophy earned

Make some memories

 

Last trophy to earn

Solve a puzzle

Edited December 28, 2023 by ProfSeajay7

[ProfSeajay7]

Happy New Year's 2024! I hope you all are having a good time setting off fireworks(my sister's husband and the neighbors are making the family dogs sh** themselves from all the pyrotechnics ) and sipping whatever sparkling beverage you have in your wine glasses(for me, it's Welch's Rose Grape Juice - I am not into wine 😜) as we ring out 2023... and thank goodness I got one more game prepped before then! (Not going for any platinums but my current total is 57. I started this account several months ago and that's how far I went - although 52 of those were part of an alphabet event.)

 

Game #10: Final Fantasy II
(Pixel Remastered edition)

I tried to go for a couple of games and started one, but I didn't think I could get all the trophies in two days(I had to go do my final grocery shopping of the year on Friday because I had gym and church on Saturday due to my parents not being in town on Thursday as they were visiting my other sister in Houston, which is a five-hour drive) so I didn't have time to burn the midnight oil, therefore I decided to pull a game out of the backlog, namely this one.

 

I earned the first Final Fantasy platinum the day before Halloween for the A-Z-Z-A challenge and started this game shortly thereafter, but didn't touch it for a month due to the other games for the challenge. I let it rot so long that I forgot where I was in the story. Thankfully, desperation made me work on this game and luckily my three characters had some decent stats. So I spent all night last night and all day today getting the game beat. Last time I tackled the remastered series I saved the 100% treasures trophy for last, but I realized I had gotten EVERY treasure chest up to the final dungeon and knew that if I tried to do that, I would have to crawl through Pandemonium again. (Not the FFXIV Endwalker raid, the final dungeon of this game.)

 

I was lucky to get the rare Iron Giant and found that I had missed Mantis King, which was not in Pandemonium but in the overworld, so I am saving the 100% Bestiary for last as I only need to kill that mantis king to get the last entry and I learned where it is from a video guide.

 

As such, I now only have less than four hours to plan out how I am going to tackle things in the coming year. I have a lot of goals and some involve another Final Fantasy game... namely the popular M-M-O... Have a happy new year and I will see you all in 2024 to start really blazing through the games. 🎆

 

Percentage at time of stop: 91%

 

First trophy earned

Thrifty Spender

 

Last trophy to earn

Field Research - Professional

[ProfSeajay7]

 

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2024. I hope everyone had celebrated the death of 2023 and the birth of 2024 in their own special way. (Me, I shared some home-smoked brisket that my brother-in-law made[he has become a pit fiend after my parents gave him his own smoker several Christmases ago when he married my sister😁] with my mother-in-law and my two lovely super-young nieces.) I have several goals going forward, some which are not video gaming.

 

(Such goals are leaving the house once a week to hang out in a public space and try to meet new people and get to know them better in hopes, before I turn 60, to land myself a romantic partner of my own, and maybe, just maybe, marry them and finally lose my virginity. Other goals are trying to keep my weight down to 280 pounds, lose a bit of that giant belly I have, and try to stop going out for a sandwich after church or gym and go straight home for lunch[since I now have a toaster oven so I have no excuse not to toast my own sandwiches] as well as keep up my two walks per day and get them up to a half hour a day.)

 

However, I have not forgotten why I started this project so I want to share some of my planned titles going forward into the new year. In fact, I've already started with Game #11. So here are the plans for the next two titles in the list as well as a bucket list of games I might add later in the month. With the Tokyo Fan Fest for FFXIV happening this month, they'll likely reveal the update date for Dawntrail and I will finally have my Platinum Rain Day scheduled.

 

Have a great New Year's Day, everyone!

 

Game I have started:

Legend of the Skyfish (Vita version)

That stupid $49 I lost in my bank account due to buying Tales of Arise (which is going to be played in an alternate account due to the DLC, and the game I am playing for this year's Platinum Difficulty Challenge) may have been a blessing in disguise, as I could use the $50 I got from my out-of-town sister's Christmas gift to buy Grim Fandango Remastered(another game for the Platinum Difficulty Challenge) and two Vita games. Since Sony disabled the ability to buy games directly with your bank card and force you to add funds to your wallet, the $50 would find some good use in buying stack platinums, and I did enjoy this game, so having it on the go for my walks made this a no-brainer. I'll probably cut and paste the stats from the PS4 version since chances are I will probably end up having the same outcome due to how very linear this game is.

 

Games I plan to add this month:

LEGO Jurassic World (Vita)

Don't be fooled by the LEGO game, this is not the same as the PS3/PS4 version. Vita versions of LEGO games are not ports of the PS3 version, but of the Nintendo 3DS version, which has abridged hubs and levels. The levels mostly play out the same but the three sub-levels are their own thing. The only thing that will make this game long is the grind as there is a trophy for having 2 billion studs in your bank and the fastest way to do that is grind out the Indominus Rex bonus auto-scroller, which only gives 63 million with all the stud multipliers, which only get you up to 1920x because there is no 2x multiplier.

 

But I am willing to go that distance.

 

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (PS4)

I just started this and intend to finish it.

 

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart

Another game I started but didn't have time to finish before the new year.

 

There may be other games I will add this month, but these three are the ones I will work on first to get them out of the way.

 

Games I want to add before the Platinum Rain Date of Destiny:

 

I will not give thoughts of these games as their status is unknown as they are games I would LIKE to add to my list but may not be able to depending on when Dawntrail releases as well as how I will juggle the games I must do for forum events(I have asked to join four, the Platinum Difficulty Challenge, the Bingo Bonanza Challenge, the Kaleidoscope Challenge and the Backlog Challenge). Also, my Playstation consoles do not have infinite memory so I may have to shut down any games if they overload the memory.

 

RPGs:

Platforming/Adventure:

 

LEGO:

Edited March 1 by ProfSeajay7

[ProfSeajay7]

I sort of was late in this, but...

 

Game #11: Legend of the Skyfish (Vita)

 

Yep, this is my first stacked platinum. As I said, the 50 bucks I forgot to use for a certain game for my other account was a boon as it let me buy this game and the next one on my list without paying out of pocket, as I was really strapped for cash because of that mistake. I won't bore you with a recap, but this version was worse off due to the fact that the cursor for the fishing rod was so damn sensitive and I kept missing the cast because the cursor went off track. I died several times due to being unable to hook a platform before I got hit with a fireball or whatnot.  I dread having to fight the final boss on this version with such janky controls.

 

The stats are the same as the PS4 version as I did the exact same things in the exact same order.

 

Percentage at Stop: 91%

 

First Trophy Earned

A Just Cause

 

Final Trophy to Pop

The Lady and the Lord

 

Edited January 4 by ProfSeajay7

[ProfSeajay7]

 

Game #12: LEGO Jurassic World (Vita)
 

This game is the first Vita LEGO game, and while it shares the same franchise, it's not the same game. The Vita versions are ports of the 3DS versions so they have hubs instead of overworlds and some cutscenes and levels were cut. However, this version took just as long as the PS4 version because of the stud grind. There is a grind for two billion studs and there is no 2x stud multiplier so you have to AFK the entire process. It's the one thing that put me off of this game, but at least it is over and I can delete this game off my Vita forever.

 

Percentage at time of stop: 98%

 

First trophy earned

Something Has Survived

 

Final trophy to earn

Hello John!

Edited January 16 by ProfSeajay7

[ProfSeajay7]

 

Seriously... I should have seen this coming.

 

(Also, thanks to @coldhardcrash_ for helping me finally get PS4 and PS5 screenshots to my blog, even if I have to do it a roundabout way. At least now I can dedicate my two Twitter accounts to only Nintendo Switch gameplay. )

 

If I had recalled how long it took to get the platinum of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, I would have never even attempted the title. Both versions are consuming my life and game time. I haven't even been able to start playing FFXIV on my second account and I wanted to get my new character to 6.1 before Dawntrail came out, but the way Kylo Ren is tormenting me, chances are that ain't happening.

 

Thankfully, I am done and dusted with the Free Play levels... I just have to get every collectible in all TWENTY-SEVEN explorable planets. 😢

 

For the PS5 version. Yes, I had to put the PS4 version on cold hard ice so that I could prep this version first so I could free up my PS5 to play FFXIV. PS4 version will take twice as long due to the longer load times. 😠

 

Well, I'll get it done even if it takes me all of January. Gawd, I hope not! 🙃

[ProfSeajay7]

So somehow, I forgot to put an update, so you get a double update!

 

Game #13: Ape Escape (PS5 version)

 

If you want a full review of the game, go to The Platinum Academy, where I fully platinumed the PS4 version, which is slower and more annoying than the PS5 version. It's not much to talk about.

 

Percentage at time of stop: 91%

 

First trophy earned

Penny Pincher

 

Final Trophy to Earn

Space Monkey

 

Speaking of Space Monkeys, or Space Thingies...

 

Game #14: LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (PS5)

 

Yeah, finally got through this. I swore I would not touch another PS5 game until this damn thing was prepped, and it took me over two weeks to complete.

 

I said I would prep the three longest LEGO games in existence, and I delivered. While Star Wars has less total levels than both Harry Potter games, that is BOTH games, this is one game, so in essence, it has the most levels of any single LEGO title with fourty-five. Add in that there are 27 hubs for almost all the planets, with over 45 collectibles on each one, and the nine capital ships and tons of space battles, and you can see how it made me a broken man.

 

I did enjoy the recreation of all nine Star Wars movies, and I didn't have to actually get 100%, though I did have to get 90% because I needed 1163 of the 1200 Kyber Bricks(yes, there are TWELVE HUNDRED OF THESE THINGS) to upgrade every skill tree to max, the tons of challenges you have to do to get every character(380 of these buggers) and it was mind-numbing. I had the Cantina music datacard on thinking it would distract me from the boredom, but now I have the /censored/ Mos Espa cantina music buried in my brain. 😭

 

I do not intend to prep the PS4 version of this game, which is not even half done. I intend to take a break and get started with FFXIV, thank the Twelve I managed to get this version prepped before Patch 6.55 dropped! When I get to the PS4 version, it'll get its platinum and be deleted from my PS4 forever.

 

*sigh* I'm a bit in pain right now, I think I have arthritis and the cold weather outside is not helping my mood.

 

Percentage at time of stop: 98%

 

First Trophy Earned

'You guys got yourself a ship!"

 

Final Trophy to Earn

"Jedi business."

Edited January 16 by ProfSeajay7

[ProfSeajay7]

Game #15: Final Fantasy III
(Pixel Remastered edition)

 

 

So I have finally hit the 15th game, after what seemed like forever on LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. The PS4 version, which has terrible lag and issues. Managed to get that platinum on January 31st.

 

I needed to detox BAD, and surprise, what came along but Final Fantasy III, which I had restarted but left to rot for days. So I got cracking on it with the help of a video guide by Youtuber PrimaLiquid, a British chap who made things clearer to me, especially the bestiary. (For the record, my first trophy was earned way back in September but I lost interest in the game after Pokemon Violet got the Teal Mask update.)

 

When it came to the endgame, I realized I couldn't hold back a chest this time as I had collected all of the chests save the ones in the final dungeon, and you can't beat the final boss and then reload because are no save points in the final dungeon, I had to use Quick Save, which would have been overwritten had I beaten the final boss. Thankfully, I got another plan - I had woefully neglected to build any job levels but I had used Black Belt a lot and one of my characters had a Job Level of 59 in Black Belt, so I just jetted to the first dungeon of the game and manslaughter goblins and wildlife until that character's job level was 98, one shy of the max level. Why is the job level important? The final trophy I will earn requires you to get a job level to 99. Jobs gain a level every eight or so fights, so it was to manip.

 

I do intend to at least get Final Fantasy IV and V prepped for the event. VI might be tricky.

 

Percentage of completion at stop: 91%

 

First Trophy Earned

Hope of the Wind

 

Last Trophy to Earn

Management Laborer

Edited February 2 by ProfSeajay7