Dragon-Archon's Lair of Platinums Mk.II

[Dragon-Archon]

5 minutes ago, Glenn Radars said:

so if I have not killed the Archdemon before Importing I`am screwed?

 

 then I have Saved Vigil's Keep that would be a good save file to use, Good my Warden-Commander is already a Champion and Templar, then she hit 20 I pick Spirit Warrior or Guardian

Wait, it's possible to import before beating the Archdemon?

Ok, if you use a respec tome you can also change the specializations.

[Leon Castle]

Just now, Dragon-Archon said:

Wait, it's possible to import before beating the Archdemon?

Ok, if you use a respec tome you can also change the specializations.

Yeah, There were no warning then I Imported my warrior character and somehow Alistair is king and He was not happy to see me(I don`t remember if he was happy to see me in my first play of Awakening with my first Warrior that did all the best choices)

[Dragon-Archon]

2 minutes ago, Glenn Radars said:

Yeah, There were no warning then I Imported my warrior character and somehow Alistair is king and He was not happy to see me(I don`t remember if he was happy to see me in my first play of Awakening with my first Warrior that did all the best choices)

Didn't know that was possible. Learned something new about this game after all these years  .

[Dragon-Archon]

 #156: Odin Sphere Leifthrasir

Another fun game from Vanillaware. This time the story is set in a world based on the Norse mythology of the 9 realms and Ragnarok (the apocalypse). The gameplay fun, though the story is a bit confusing as it's split into 5 books (one for each main character). So events are completely out of order and it's up to the player to connect them chronologically, which is a huge chore. After completing these 5 books, another book is unlocked, which acts like an epilogue. It's up to the player to decide which character to use for each part, leading to different endings. When all possible endings have been seen, the complete ending is unlocked. I'm grateful that Vanillaware didn't force players to play the game on all difficulties, unlike in Dragon's Crown. I'm also glad that each character's story is unique, instead of just the same thing with another character. Though some bosses are recycled a bit too much. I also really hated the fights against the Three Wise Men and the giant snowtroll thing. Those Wise Men would teleport around constantly when approaching them and the Snow Troll had way too many attacks that interrupt or knock down the player character. The boss rush wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. After each character's item storage was linked, I moved all the bronze, silver, and gold fruit to one character's inventory and used those to heal. With the heal upgrade the bronze fruit restored 2,400 health while raising the max hp with 50 permanently. Didn't even need to use the silver and gold fruit  . All in all, it's a fun game to try if you like 2D games.

[Dragon-Archon]

#157: Sword Art Online Lost Song

I'm a huge fan of SAO and was looking forward a lot to this game after platting SAO Hollow Fragment. However, this game left me with mixed feelings. The story is meh and feels like it's a filler arc where the main cast just go on some questing, much like the Excalibur arc in season 2 of the anime. And I'm still waiting for an explanation about how Rain can dual-wield, which should be exclusive to Kirito. The combat is simplified compared to Hollow Fragment, which is a shame. I did like the flying mechanics in the game, though the altitude limit was driving me crazy. It felt pointless to be able to fly, only to have an altitude limiter preventing me from reaching story-related places. Having Kuroyukihime from Accel World as a playable character was a nice addition. I wasn't expecting to fight her when starting the event and she defeated me with 2 attacks... The post-game cleanup was just a boring grind: 100 side quests, 100 extra quests, raise a sword skill to lvl 500, raise a magic skill to lvl 500, raise all OSS skills to lvl 100, and unlock all skills for a single character. Luckily, the trophies for the skills could also be unlocked when an A.I. reached the requirements.

[Dragon-Archon]

 #158: Code Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~

Another PS+ freebie that turned out to be more entertaining than expected. The game is an otome VN, but it's at least 100 times better than the other otome VN freebie Amnesia Memories. This game doesn't force you into a relationship with one of the potential romances. The story and setting are a lot better and interesting too. It takes place in a steampunk version of London in the 19th century where alchemy has been used to improve the daily life of humans. The game starts with a mysterious group hunting the main character. The main character's has the ability to melt pretty much anything she touches due to a strange poison in her blood. She's saved in the nick of time by gentlemen-thief Arsène Lupin. Together they search for a way to rid the main character of her poison. Other notable characters that appear in this game are Van Helsing, dr. Frankenstein, Saint-Germain, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Queen Victoria, and even Jack the Ripper. Some characters I didn't like were Impey Barbicane, Nemo, and Finis. I also hated how Finis was a guy, but cross-dressed like a girl. Most character are interesting and especially Saint-Germain's route is one of the more interesting ones. There were lots of moments in that route where I was convinced things would lead to a bad ending, only to find out it was all part of the true ending route. What I also liked about this game was that the bad endings aren't required, so I could jump right into the true ending for each character. The real true ending route in the game wrapped things up nicely. Though the routes tend to drag on a bit when they reach the end and I usually found myself skipping dialogue just to get it over with. All in all an entertaining story.

[Dragon-Archon]

 #159: Broken Age

An entertaining point-and-click game where the story follows Shay and Vella. They live in different worlds and don't seem to have anything in common. Shay lives in a spaceship and is looked after by the ship's computer, who calls herself Mom. He goes on "important" missions, which turns out to be something that Mom set up for him. Shay is bored because he never gets to do something exciting or dangerous. Vella lives in a medieval-ish world and is about to be sacrificed to Mog Chotra, a monster that appears once every 14 years to eat the sacrifices in every village. In return it leaves the rest of the people alone. She wants to fight and kill Mog Chotra and goes on a quest to make it happen. Then, one day Shay and Vella's lives intertwine in the most unexpected way. The story is entertaining, but sometimes it's not clear where to go or what to do next. This game has lots of missable trophies that would've been a huge pain to get without a guide (shoutout to @zadorvp's excellent guides for this game). The speedrun took me 2 attempts. I'm not a fan of speedruns, so this was very annoying. During the first one I finished acts 1 and 2 in 58 minutes and didn't bother finishing the finale after passing the time limit. The second attempt went much better with act 1 in 19 minutes, act 2 in 51 minutes, and the finale at 57 minutes. 

[JadedDragos]

So I have probably posted on here somewhere before, but I just went through all your trophies and it's still a great list. =-D

[Dragon-Archon]

4 hours ago, JadedDragos said:

So I have probably posted on here somewhere before, but I just went through all your trophies and it's still a great list. =-D

Thanks Jaded  .

[Dragon-Archon]

 #160: God Eater Resurrection

August 6 2017

First of all, that's a pretty badass image. I've heard a lot of things about God Eater and wanted to try it for a long time. God Eater Resurrection is a re-re-release and contains the original God Eater, GE Burst, and the Resurrection stories. In this game the world has been overrun by Aragami: monsters that can absorb organic and inorganic materials to evolve. These monsters can only be defeated by destroying their cores, which only God Eaters can do with their special God Arc weapons. Luckily, the story in the game is so much better than the anime. There were more types of enemies than I expected and this was a welcome change over Freedom Wars (though I did miss the thorn from FW  ). Each type has its own weak spots and these can be destroyed for bonus material and to deal extra damage. Sometimes enemies lose the ability to use certain attacks when destroying parts. I also liked the ability to devour Aragami to gain special bullets. The effect of the bullet differs for every variant. My most hated enemy type was the Kongou (monkey-ish enemy) followed closely by Chi-You (bipedal bird). They like to spam spinning and AoE attacks and these are especially devastating at the start of the game. The first real challenging boss was the Dyaus Pita. This enemy is definitely a step up in terms of speed and attack combos. Taking the time to observe and memorize his patterns is definitely required, as mindlessly attacking won't be enough. The next real challenge was Hannibal and its variants Caligula and Blitz Hannibal. The latter has got to be the most agile enemy in the entire game, but luckily it doesn't have as much health as the other Hannibal types. My favourite enemies to fight are Susano'o and Hannibal. I also found it funny that Amaterasu had boobs, seeing how Aragami are supposed to be genderless. That enemy is something I'd expect to see in games like Senran Kagura.

 

The weapon system is nicely done. It's possible to craft and upgrade new weapons, shields, and upgrades. Later on it's possible to add new skills to melee weapons, guns, and shields, giving players the option to select and add skills based on their playstyle. Though the only downside is the skills obtained are completely random. Some skills can also level up a weapon/shield to increase it's attack/defence stats. Some weapons also resemble the Aragami whose materials were used to craft it and a few among them have a cool design. Obtaining materials can be a hassle at times, as it's random which ones you get as a reward. It's also possible to attack specific parts and break them to obtain materials. Besides that, there's also the option to exchange tickets or other materials to get the required ones. The only downside is that tickets are random rewards. Later in the game the Amor Aragami is introduced, this one is a random spawn and will always drop a ticket when defeated. The mission Harvest Festival also spawns gold and platinum tickets as pick ups, I even got a black ticket twice.

 

This game can be played solo, but it's also possible to do it all in co-op, which is more fun. I liked the option to register friends, so their avatars become NPCs. These are generally a lot better than the in-game NPCs, though the free DLC pack adds some strong ones too. I got @Shana Alter's OP avatar and that one was a great help. It definitely speeds up missions, though player avatars can't be used during story missions. Player avatars can have up to 3 different loadouts when used as an NPC and I wish the limit was 4, because I created a loadout for every element. Also this game may be the only one where it's not possible to fully customize the avatar after starting it. I quickly skipped the character creation, thinking I could always do that later, as I like to take my time for that. Well, that didn't go exactly as planned. Turns out I could only change the hairstyle, accessories, and outfits afterwards  . Some things that IMO could be improved are: being able to fully customize the player avatar after starting the game, having more badass outfits, I would've liked the option to start a romance, as there are small cutscenes where the player character spends time with other NPCs, so a romance system could've been added. And this game needs more diversity in areas. There are only 6 or 7 and these are used over and over again.

 

I saved a special mission for the plat screenshot, as the name (Dragon God) seemed very fitting  . All in all this game is very enjoyable and has a very good crafting/upgrading system that seems simple at first, but is a lot more in-depth. Definitely a recommendation for people who like or want to try out the monster hunting genre.

Edited August 7, 2017 by Dragon-Archon

[Dragon-Archon]

 #161: Killzone Mercenary

August 17 2017

This one is also Ultra Rare plat #20. At first this game was a lot of fun. Sure, the story is nothing spectacular, but the graphics, controls, and motion controls are great. The motion controls worked flawlessly, contrary to games like Uncharted Golden Abyss and Resistance Burning Skies. Most mp trophies can be done solo in Botzone, where you can add AI bots and decide their difficulty. However, some trophies requires can't be obtained with bots and must be done with actual players. Here's where the problems start: the servers like to troll a lot by kicking you from a match lots of times before it finally works. As a host you have the ability to switch players between teams... only this doesn't work on public matches and trophies can't be obtained in private matches (huge thanks to my boosting partners @DarkSoleride, @Dav9834, @outlawblue1, and @DILLAsirens). When using the Join Friend or Party features, you can still be kicked. Getting this plat also requires lots of grinding. I completed the game on the hardest difficulty and then 3 more times to complete all contracts. After obtaining 25 unique valour cards, I did a 5th playthrough to get all intel. I purposely saved at least 1 intel in every mission, because collecting them all in every level gives players 3 unique valour cards per level. With this I could get the remaining 27 cards and complete the deck. So that's 5 playthroughs with less than 4,500 kills That meant I had to grind 5,500 more kills for one bronze trophy, which basically comes down to replaying chapter 5 55 times. This chapter has an average completion time of 15 minutes and cutscenes can't be skipped. At least the plat image looks nice.

[DarkSoleride]

2 hours ago, Dragon-Archon said:

 #161: Killzone Mercenary

August 17 2017

This one is also Ultra Rare plat #20. At first this game was a lot of fun. Sure, the story is nothing spectacular, but the graphics, controls, and motion controls are great. The motion controls worked flawlessly, contrary to games like Uncharted Golden Abyss and Resistance Burning Skies. Most mp trophies can be done solo in Botzone, where you can add AI bots and decide their difficulty. However, some trophies requires can't be obtained with bots and must be done with actual players. Here's where the problems start: the servers like to troll a lot by kicking you from a match lots of times before it finally works. As a host you have the ability to switch players between teams... only this doesn't work on public matches and trophies can't be obtained in private matches (huge thanks to my boosting partners @DarkSoleride, @Dav9834, @outlawblue1, and @DILLAsirens). When using the Join Friend or Party features, you can still be kicked. Getting this plat also requires lots of grinding. I completed the game on the hardest difficulty and then 3 more times to complete all contracts. After obtaining 25 unique valour cards, I did a 5th playthrough to get all intel. I purposely saved at least 1 intel in every mission, because collecting them all in every level gives players 3 unique valour cards per level. With this I could get the remaining 27 cards and complete the deck. So that's 5 playthroughs with less than 4,500 kills That meant I had to grind 5,500 more kills for one bronze trophy, which basically comes down to replaying chapter 5 55 times. This chapter has an average completion time of 15 minutes and cutscenes can't be skipped. At least the plat image looks nice.

Congratulations man a great platinum to have in the collections welcome to the Mercenary Club

[Dragon-Archon]

4 minutes ago, DarkSoleride said:

Congratulations man a great platinum to have in the collections welcome to the Mercenary Club

Thanks  , happy to be a part of Club Grindzone  . Btw my final time was 1 day, 21 hours, and 13 minutes. Could've done it faster, but took breaks during mp matches and replaying chapter 5.

[DarkSoleride]

1 minute ago, Dragon-Archon said:

Thanks  , happy to be a part of Club Grindzone  . Btw my final time was 1 day, 21 hours, and 13 minutes. Could've done it faster, but took breaks during mp matches and replaying chapter 5.

damn beat my time by 3 hours lol nice one i know that defiantly was the fastest way to rack up them kills what a ass wipe of a trophy its like GG Cambridge just said "we need to make this game grindy like the last Killzone games how do we do this?" employee - " i know lets make the players mindlessly kill 10,000 enermies which will never happen with natural progression" ....

[Dragon-Archon]

32 minutes ago, DarkSoleride said:

damn beat my time by 3 hours lol nice one i know that defiantly was the fastest way to rack up them kills what a ass wipe of a trophy its like GG Cambridge just said "we need to make this game grindy like the last Killzone games how do we do this?" employee - " i know lets make the players mindlessly kill 10,000 enermies which will never happen with natural progression" ....

Thnx  . Lol, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case  . And to make matters worse: it's only a bronze trophy.

[Dragon-Archon]

 #162: Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book

September 8 2017

This is my first time playing an Atelier game. I was told this is a good game to start with, as it has no time limit, like in the previous games. At first I played it just like any other RPG and focused on defeating enemies to level up. However, the focus in this game isn't combat, but the synthesis system and gathering materials. In fact, the final boss is the second or so boss that's fought as part of the story. Sure, you can challenge other mini-bosses by buying rumours, but most of them are way too OP to take on early in the game. The story is expanded by interacting with specific NPCs and following their questlines.

 

The synthesis system is pretty in-depth and also a bit confusing at first. At first the items that can be created aren't that great in terms of quality. Gathering better materials and searching for specific traits to inherit makes all the difference, as was evident by the post-game superboss Demon Lord. I farmed some materials from the Hidden Archive DLC area and thought the equipment was good enough, since the other post-game bosses were defeated with hardly any trouble. But nope, he kept defeating me and healing insane amounts of health. So I went back and created some better healing items and bombs, which worked wonders (though I still just barely won). Also the Demon Lord doesn't really understand the concept of turn-based combat when he gets a turn after every party member does something  .

 

Doll Making was also a nice feature, which allows a specific party member to change the stats and appearances. I eventually went with something that resembles the hooded white robe from Assassin's Creed. The Epilogue DLC is a nice way to end the game and it sets things up for Atelier Firis nicely. I may try that game at some point too.

[Satoshi Ookami]

2 hours ago, Dragon-Archon said:

and healing insane amounts of health.

 

2 hours ago, Dragon-Archon said:

better healing items and bombs, which worked wonders

 

2 hours ago, Dragon-Archon said:

he gets a turn after every party member does something

 

And with these, your Atelier experience is complete =D

[Dragon-Archon]

5 hours ago, Satoshi Ookami said:

And with these, your Atelier experience is complete =D

Not sure if I should be happy about that  .

[Burgins]

Ah man, I envy you for having it done. I prefer the older Atelier games and it's been tricky for me to force myself to actually work on Sophie. I only like a few of the characters 

 

congrats on finishing it up

[Dragon-Archon]

12 hours ago, Burgins said:

Ah man, I envy you for having it done. I prefer the older Atelier games and it's been tricky for me to force myself to actually work on Sophie. I only like a few of the characters 

 

congrats on finishing it up

Thanks. I wish some of the characters' stories were fleshed out some more. For example Fritz, Corneria, and Leon's stories felt a bit incomplete.

[Dragon-Archon]

 #163: Muramasa Rebirth

September 23 2017

Another gem from Vanillaware, this time the setting is ancient Japan. The art style and OST are wonderful, especially this part. Demon blades slowly corrupt their wielders, which causes them to slaughter anything in their paths. Only people who master the Oboro fighting style seem to retain their sanity. The story follows Kisuke and Momohime, whose stories seem to have nothing in common at first. The controls for both characters are completely identical and I would've preferred it if each of them had a unique ability or move. Now it just seems like a different skin. I do like how it's possible to switch between their campaigns and how swords are shared between them after clearing both story modes. 

 

When starting the game it took a bit to get used to the weapon system. Blades can break once their spirit gauge (the weapon's hp bar) reaches 0. Sheathing the weapon and using another one will cause the broken blade to regenerate. When a blade is broken, it's offense is severely reduced and blocking + deflecting isn't possible.

 

Obtaining all endings on Fury mode (where the player only has 1 hp) wasn't as hard as I expected. The game is pretty generous when dying and respawns you at the same area. Some bosses did take over an hour to beat. Especially the final bosses were annoying due to random lightning bolts and falling rocks. After finally beating Kisuke's final boss, a lightning bolt hit me. For a moment there I thought the game would make me fight both forms all over again. Luckily, that didn't happen. After Fury mode the speedrun was a joke. I took my time exploring and fighting and still managed to beat it in 2 hours and 31 minutes.

[James_Tonto]

On 24/09/2017 at 2:10 PM, Dragon-Archon said:

 #163: Muramasa Rebirth

September 23 2017

Another gem from Vanillaware, this time the setting is ancient Japan. The art style and OST are wonderful, especially this part. Demon blades slowly corrupt their wielders, which causes them to slaughter anything in their paths. Only people who master the Oboro fighting style seem to retain their sanity. The story follows Kisuke and Momohime, whose stories seem to have nothing in common at first. The controls for both characters are completely identical and I would've preferred it if each of them had a unique ability or move. Now it just seems like a different skin. I do like how it's possible to switch between their campaigns and how swords are shared between them after clearing both story modes. 

 

When starting the game it took a bit to get used to the weapon system. Blades can break once their spirit gauge (the weapon's hp bar) reaches 0. Sheathing the weapon and using another one will cause the broken blade to regenerate. When a blade is broken, it's offense is severely reduced and blocking + deflecting isn't possible.

 

Obtaining all endings on Fury mode (where the player only has 1 hp) wasn't as hard as I expected. The game is pretty generous when dying and respawns you at the same area. Some bosses did take over an hour to beat. Especially the final bosses were annoying due to random lightning bolts and falling rocks. After finally beating Kisuke's final boss, a lightning bolt hit me. For a moment there I thought the game would make me fight both forms all over again. Luckily, that didn't happen. After Fury mode the speedrun was a joke. I took my time exploring and fighting and still managed to beat it in 2 hours and 31 minutes.

 

Congrats on Muramasa Rebirth. Got any advice for Fury mode playthroughs? Like any tips to make the game more beatable?

[Dragon-Archon]

8 hours ago, James_Tonto said:

Congrats on Muramasa Rebirth. Got any advice for Fury mode playthroughs? Like any tips to make the game more beatable?

Thanks. Sure, always keep an eye on a blade's spirit gauge. When it went below 50%, I switched to a new one. Nothing is more annoying than being close to beating a boss, only for a blade to break, which is an instant death. Memorizing boss attacks helps a lot too.

[Dragon-Archon]

 #164: Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana (Vita)

October 6 2017

According to PSNP I'm the fourth person to plat this version  . The game completely exceeded all my expectations. The story is amazing and so well-written, characters are interesting, locations are nice, artwork is beautiful, and the soundtrack is top notch. It's been a while since a game blew me away like this. It takes a bit for the story to build up and become interesting though. As much as I want to discuss the plot, I won't. Not even in a spoiler tag. It's best to play this game without knowing anything about the story and be amazed. Dana is a great character, her voice actress does an incredible job, and she has the best track of the game as her theme. Nightmare difficulty was harder compared to Ys Memories of Celceta, but memorizing the bosses' attacks helps a lot ... and I may or may not have retried the final boss a few extra times to listen to the battle theme  . I'm definitely going to get the PS4 version at some point.

 

Edited October 6, 2017 by Dragon-Archon

[TwilightSpira]

11 minutes ago, Dragon-Archon said:

 #164: Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana (Vita)

October 6 2017

According to PSNP I'm the fourth person to plat this version  . The game completely exceeded all my expectations. The story is amazing and so well-written, characters are interesting, locations are nice, artwork is beautiful, and the soundtrack is top notch. It's been a while since a game blew me away like this. It takes a bit for the story to build up and become interesting though. As much as I want to discuss the plot, I won't. Not even in a spoiler tag. It's best to play this game without knowing anything about the story and be amazed. Dana is a great character, her voice actress does an incredible job, and she has the best track of the game as her theme. Nightmare difficulty was harder compared to Ys Memories of Celceta, but memorizing the bosses' attacks helps a lot ... and I may or may not have retried the final boss a few extra times to listen to the battle theme  . I'm definitely going to get the PS4 version at some point.

 

 

Beautiful bud, congratulations. I'll definitely play Celseta and this one on my vita on a sale. Happy to know you're enjoyed so much

 

By the way don't know if you noticed but my 150th took form, and was Chain of memories

Edited October 6, 2017 by Mah2c