Most Recent Platinum

[Captain_Bone_666]

#59 Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter

Life of a Consulting Detective

 

The trophies are little pieces of art.

The game is fun and enjoyable.

The riddles make sense and can all be solved by thinking and some trial-and-error, or if you don't care for trophies, can be skipped.

When travelling, the loading times can be slightly annoying, but it's not too bad either.

 

I bought the game as digital copy for 1,99 Euro and spend probably some 10 - 15 hours with it.

Absolutely worth the time and the effort.

Very easy platinum.

[MilanYildirim]

#199th. Evil Within
Shinji Mikami, what the fuck? like seriously. That game broke me. Never again!

[Ala-Arska]

The Escapists 2

 

Houdini

Unlock all trophies

 

"You're not sending ME to the COOLAH!" - Mr. Freeze

 

A sequel that escaped my attention at release, caught my eye at last.

From the masterminds that made every Worms game ever, comes a rollickin' good 16-bit prison breaks series.

And I use the term "prison" here loosely. Yeah, there are some standard low- and high security facilities around, but...

There's also escaping from a plane, train, space station, Santa's shop, circus, dungeon etc etc 

I like how inventive you can get with the ways of escape. Classics include digging and fence cutting, of course...

Aaand not quite traditional ways are riding a dolphin, being an alien pretending to be human, or jumping with a motorcycle!

Everything in a prison goes by a clock. Routines must be obeyed at certain hours, else it's baton up the butt. I mean, solitary and stuff.

Crafting, doing favours, looting other prisoners' desks and working for money are all means to a slippery end, a slide to freedom 

While the time restrictions feel pressing at first, one quickly adapts to tasks at hands and finds time to do the above stuff and more.

The Escapists games are perfect for me. I find it addictive to complete my craftings and goings in fast pace. This is not for everyone, though.

Still DLC's left, which I'll be tackling gladly. For strategists who work well under pressure, running away from these titles would be foolish 

[WayfarerFox]

Overwatch

#198

Overwatch Platinum Trophy (All that hard work for this amazing plat name woo)

Time to Platinum: 80 hours | Difficulty: 7/10 | Enjoyment: 8/10

 

This won't be one of my typical platinum posts where I break down some of the stuff for the game like characters etc because there isn't much point to it as it has no relevance to absolutely anything. It's typically just a FPS 6vs6 game with classic game modes handed down from the past. It's a brilliant game to chill to if you're bombarded with grinding trophies or similar stuff in games you know? I've had this game since launch and typically I've played it over a number accounts really. Never really committed to the trophy side of it and when you start to do that you will more than likely get frustrated doing so. Not because the trophies are technically hard. I mean they are but they're very situation based. You need the enemy team to be bunched for the most part and depending on what game mode you play can be borderline impossible to do. 
 

There are 3 different classes of characters to choose from. Your tanks (it's in the name) absorb damage and basically sponge it all while others do the main damage. You have your damage classes which is exactly what it says on the tin. A number of variety attackers. Some situational and some straight DPS to hold your ground and push enemies back etc. Then you have your healers essentially. Each hero I do have to say is very well created. They all have perks which make them strong. Some are stronger than others but it's all subjective on who truly is the most powerful. Like some characters I can't use who I think don't do much damage. To someone else they would absolutely annihilate others. For that reason I can't say that I do have a favourite character to use as I tried to get a handle on the most of them if I'm being honest. 

 

Each character has 2 trophies associated with them. Usually a ultimate move one which involves killing 4 people. Not everyone has that but the majority do. The other trophy is tied to one of their abilities that you have to use and kill them with it or do a set amount of damage etc. Not going to lie. Some of them are really tough. From the base game, the majority of the trophies are really simple. You can probably do them with enough practice but the DLC list characters wow. Some of them don't hit that hard and their abilities require very precise situations. Baptise for example. You have use his ability and pray people shoot through it to amplify damage. If you roughly did this legit in game and people tried to help. You're looking at around 5+ attempts with his special just to get that. Not only that, it requires you to not die at all AND you have to pray the round/game doesn't end before it's done. So without boosting I think some trophies are borderline impossible to do. They are doable but you'd need a very good team and a very good enemy team honestly.

 

The game is split essentially into 2 game modes. Quick Play and Quick Play Classic. The former is a game mode where you have to have 2 of each class. To balance itself out and make a fairly even game. This in all honesty is where you'd go for the longer games where you both have to go for the objectives. It's much more competitive in there than second to competitive mode itself. That's where the majority of the games can be done and where I got most of my trophies. Classic mode on the other hand is the same thing BUT you can choose any character you want from any selection and ususally its 6vs6 damage characters. People tend to play this a lot because in Quick Play there is ques for Damage characters. That usually have 8 minute wait times. I think this is down to mainly casual players who just want to full on attack then help team mates and help. Usually in it for themselves which sucks really. I hope they manage to balance this more when Overwatch 2 gets released.

I managed to get 67 trophies out of 82 without boosting the game. The ones I had left I just couldn't find the situations to do them. I had many opportunities but they had to be pinpoint and the majority of you know now when you try something really hard. It makes it harder to do so I had enough and decided to join the boost group on Discord. The first week I only managed to get 1 trophy. Some people needed one trophy then all of a sudden had to go and this made it complicated and unsuccessful.  You'd think 1 person leaving wouldnt be too bad but to even start a boosting session you need to have 12 players. Luckily the second attempt went a lot better and we had a ton of people and I managed to get all of my remaining trophies. 

There isn't much to say about the characters themselves. They are all unique, have different abilities and are good to use. Blizzard do have backstories and an ongoing story for the game but I dunno just feels out of place when none of it really matters in game. I heard Overwatch 2 will be a lot more story based as well and have a ton of PVE elements rather than just the PVP side. So if they can nail a story and some backstory for characters it should be a really good game.

Trophies are difficult but can be done with enough practice. Some will be needed to boost though as by the time you get to the end you just want it to be over and done with.

According to @Mayellie this is my best platinum and honestly. I think I can agree with her. I have rarer plats but this one is notoriously a pain in the ass and everyone that's played it besides the hardcore players know it to. I think this one is going to be sat pretty in my trophy cabinet. A big shout out to her as well as I wouldn't of even started it if she hadn't back in May. We played the game a lot together and gave me the push to get the platinum done. Thank you.  

 

[Biertje373]

Astro's Playroom

If there's one game that really surprised me this year, it has to be Astro's playroom.

When this game got announced, I was like "This looks cute, but it looks like something that I am not going to touch" but then I watched a review and saw how much fun the person had and I've decided to give it a chance, it's free after all.

And wow, I had so much fun with this game, Astro is a super charming character, the platforming is so good and the music is so good.

I seriously recommand this game to anyone, even if you don't go for the platinum, just give it a shot. You may find a game that you will adore and want more of.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Biertje373

[Hoopdahoopla]

#57 - God of War 3 (PS3)

 

#58 - God of War: Ascension (PS3)

 

Another 2 GoW games in the bag, only 2 more of the PS3 era left.

 

Most of the gripes I had with God of War 1/2 went away with these two games, probably since they were actual PS3 games and not PS2 HD. The combat felt a little better but I still hate that delay when you get hit, the enemies seem to be able to chain their attacks together really well once they manage to hit you, I've seen enemies literally dive across the screen to get me once I was hit. The delay on the dodge still bugs me as you stand still for about a second after each dodge, this was more noticeable in Ascension as most enemies second or third attack was almost expertly timed for this delay.

 

The main issue I have with these games is the amount of time you spend watching the screen pan around. Walk in to a new area, cinematic screen pan, see a puzzle, screen pan, move an object, screen pan, solve the puzzle, screen pan, new area, rinse and repeat. It feels even worse the second playthrough as you know what you're doing and where you're going and these keep popping up, I counted at worst 6 times this happened for one puzzle and there's no way to skip them.

 

You also can't skip cutscenes unless you're in new game plus, the drawback is you can't earn trophies in new game plus. I watched a few speedruns of GoW3 and the runners even said 80% of the run is cutscenes.

 

Apart from that I enjoyed the games, the challenges in 3 weren't as bad as the previous 2 games and there was no trophy for challenges in Ascension, I did have to PS Now the game to get the multiplayer trophy but it's literally a 2 minute thing.

[Suparichie123]

Persona 5 Royal

The Phenomenal Phantom Thief

 

Had to wait a few months to make this my 3000th Trophy, so it's been a while since I actually finished the game itself Just got the Platinum today, and even though it wasn't hard, I'm still really happy to have it on my profile! Next up is Dirt Rally 2.0, almost finished with that one already actually .

[Jelly Soup]

#141 - Oceanhorn: Monsters of Uncharted Seas

 

Good Zelda clone. A little obtuse about certain things. Game doesn't make it clear what parts of the environment are bombable, lots of hidden paths, monsters that respawn way too fast. Some of the boss fights are pretty annoying, but still manageable. Music is good, some of the animations are wonky. The worst part is the fishing mini-game. I loves me some fishing simulation, but this was terrible. Hold the rod in the opposite direction the fish is trying to go to lower it's energy, but watch out cause the fish is fast, will switch sides rapidly and can, for some reason, recover it's energy. And then there's the Ghostfish that will reverse your controls and the Robofish that does a half hearts with of damage every five seconds. It's a RNG crapshoot with annoying controls and an even more annoying AI.

 

Interestingly, this is another game that doesn't require beating the game to unlock the platinum.

[Puppeter04]

 

While taking a break from Kingdom Hearts 1.5 FM and Persona 5, I platted this little shooter:

 

2 Playthroughs are required, rookie and veteran, some misc trophies like headshots, long shots, destroy objects... 1h15' per playth. 

You can see your progress via statistics on each chapter, or in a general perspective.

Oh, and of course, a trophy is glitched or semi-glitched should I say, the collectibles one,  you have to break radios but in one sitting, so if you finish the game, you have go through it again, from scratch, so no chapter select. And you know that I don't have luck  technologically speaking so it glitched.

The game made me rage a few times on veteran, bc if you reach a checkpoint with low health and then get killed by +5 enemies, surprise! you gonna start from the checkpoint with low health again so that becomes a vicious cycle.

 

Picking up the radios was very long so the fun became "meh". 

 

Time: 2-5h (4 for me)

Fun: 5/10

Diff: 5/10

[fresquinho]

 - The Lombax Triumphant

 

 

 

[Elvick_]

Platinum #222

Final Fantasy XV

The World Wanderer
Collected all trophies.

 

Buckle up if you want to read what I have to say about this, because it's going to be a journey. The tl;dr is that I didn't like it, and it's a mess... though the OST is phenomenal.

 

I will try to be as fair as possible, and to kick that off I do think the game could be fine for some people. It just depends on where your expectations for a game like this currently are. As someone who has played many open world games over the years, most of which from western studios, this one leaves much to be desired. It is honestly an example i would give of bad open world design. And as someone who has played Final Fantasy most of my life, it's just sad to see such a horribly done story. I haven't finished XIII but the story was not really one of my issues in that game. This has re-egnited my desire to finish that though, so we'll see.

 

I'll also be clear that I'm a little biased toward Versus as well and will never not want that to be made in Nomura's vision. But, I can put that aside for XV itself and try to judge it for what it is. Excluding the anime things or the movie, because I haven't seen those and think it's insane that you have to watch what should be supplementary content to understand the plot of a game. And I'll just point out that I refused to buy the game until they actually finished it, and after Royal Edition and announcing and then cancelling more DLC I just was content never playing it since to me it was never finished [and after playing I stand by that assumption], but it was on PS+ Collection for PS5 so why not. Forgot Ardyn or w/e DLC wasn't in the Royal Edition so won't speak on that, but I will talk about the other DLCs because I think it's important when I get into the story of XV and how b/s the whole thing is... and it's insane to me to imagine what this unfinished game was even like when it first came out. I've never been happier to not buy a game.

That said, I did try. I tried really hard to give this game a fair chance. You can take it or leave it whether you want to believe that. And I'll get more into it in a bit, but there was potential even in what was here. I could see hints at something, sadly most of that was from the DLC... which is pretty sad.

 

I guess I'll just start with the story, because it's one of the worst stories in an mainstream RPG I've ever played. It's bordering on incomprehensible. To speak without spoilers first. I'd say the summary of the issue is that nothing is set up. There are key points that could have had a lot of impact and resonate with you, but it just doesn't set them up at all so they just fall flat. They just happen out of nowhere, and expect you to give a shit and... I've played too many games with better stories, and seen too many movies and shows that have well set up dramatic events to just be conned into feeling what they want just because they're basically telling me it's time to feel x, or y.

 

The characters are pretty flat. I like the idea of a 'road trip' focused game where it's more about character relationships than the overarching plot, but it still tries to have that overarching plot... well, tries is a bit generous. But the set up to the trip just doesn't work at all. I hear the movie helps but again you shouldn't have to do homework for a game's plot to make sense. The beginning of the game is one of the most painfully boring intros to anything I've played. When FF opens, I think of something like FFVIII's CG opener, VIII has some down time but very quickly you fight Ifrit as well and there's some great early moments that hook you. VII is a great opening. VI has an iconic opening [biased I know, but the invasion of Narshe and the March on Narshe during the credits is great and technologically was awe inspiring at the time]. X with Blitzball, Sin attack... usually there's a hook first and then some down time. This game does a flash forward, but with zero context you don't really care. I initially forgot that was even a thing that happened as I was trudging through the tedium that is the opening part. Foolishly partaking in open world shenanigans not yet realizing they're mostly all crap and boring and hardly worth doing. Once you get turned away from the 'boat' it starts to pick up but never really goes anywhere.

 

I don't know to further talk about it without spoilers so.

Spoiler

When I say it doesn't go anywhere, I mean nothing is set up to go anywhere. There are obviously set pieces, some of which are conceptually cool. I'll get into the execution as I go along, but as they were all happening I just didn't know why any of it was happening.

You start off leaving to go get hitched, okay. Then you can't go on a boat, then you hear your home city was invaded and the treaty fell through and your father is dead. It just lacks any impact in the way it was handled. I won't go to this well a lot, but from the initial plan for VS even for XV [from it's reveal trailer] they had the invasion/battle in Insomnia (I think that's the kingdom anyway) happen with you there.

I think this would have been that much needed Sin attack, Midgar Reactor, Narshe Invasion, moment that really gets you hooked into the story and "ooh". Have that invasion, then have you fleeing. Then have some down time after that. Ensure you set up that they are safe distance away for the moment, then have their car break down. This way you don't have assholes like me going, "why aren't they more concerned?" Because I do think it's interesting to have the car break down be a more mundane thing than it is an urgent issue. There's just so many missed moments that could work it's incredibly frustrating, especially given that I could have just never played this game and just wanted VS and not wanted XV that is done better on top of that lol.

 

After the boat and trying to get back into Insomnia, I don't even remember what happens for awhile. There's the visions of Titan, you seemingly have no real purpose? I don't really get what's happening at all in these moments. After you see Titan you just kind of make it your goal to see more of the Espers (I know they aren't called that but I can't be arsed tor google the term and I don't remember it). And then just make a pact with them? But before that it seemed like your goal was to track down the 13 kingly arms or w/e. It just feels like your entire purpose is just to be pushed around by happenstance. What if Titan didn't send flashes to Noctis? He didn't have any instruction from what I remember to make a pact with all of these Espers. It doesn't make much sense to me.

And Luna, my god. What a useless character. I think they spend like 1 minute of screen time together, Noctis and Luna... and that's flashbacks to her as a child, and then she's dead.

The Leviathan chapter was such a huge cluster. It's such a mess. The most egregious part is that Ignis' DLC takes place here and his DLC is my favorite in terms of the story. When I finished the Leviathan chapter, I was pissed off. It just cuts to black as Titan is defending Noctis from Leviathan, but then he's in a bed. Ignis is "hurt" and it doesnt' really properly convey he's blind until you realize he is because they are kind of guiding him around.

Then it cuts to the train "several days later" or something and Noctis is sitting there and then Gladio just acts like a stupid asshole for no reason, it's so poorly done. He tells him to get over Luna, she's dead Jim who cares. He may as well just say, "She wasn't even a character dude, you should feel  nothing like the audience playing this stupid game right now." then look at the camera and wink. It was relatable in that meta sense, but in the context of the game's attempt at a story it made zero fucking sense. Because he's mad at Noctis for "ignoring" Ignis and his sacrifice of his vision.

 

Something we did not see. Something you had to pay extra to see later after the game had already come out. That DLC is incredibly important in my opinion. It is necessary, in my opinion. It had the exact effect that it intended to have when I played it, it was great. If the game was like that DLC, then I wouldn't hate the game. Seeing what Ignis went through allows you to feel more for what he's going through rather than just be confused by wtf happened. I mean for all we know he could have just slipped on a banana peel, or was peeping in on some undressing women and she pepper sprayed him but it was behemoth piss and that blinds you. I don't know, they didn't show you unless you play the stupid dlc.

And even if that was included in the game, Gladio's reaction makes no sense because we do not see Noctis not caring about Ignis. We see him immediately concerned about Ignis having scars on his face. Which btw is a bad indication of blindness given that Gladio returned from his far weaker DLC side venture with more scars. Like come on. And Ignis already wore glasses so that doesn't signify it well either.

 

Leviathan and the Ignis DLC is where i pretty much lost all hope and faith in this game. I was really mad about how all that mess played out, frankly. I really can't stress enough how much I enjoyed the Ignis story points. Just restructure the DLC to be more linear and set piece driven and have maybe 2 sets of trash mobs and the existing boss fights and boom you can easily include these in the main game. Though I suppose having more open world sections would make sense to some degree but I feel like if it were included in the main game it would ruin pacing, as it is ultimately padding to justify CHARGING YOU MONEY FOR WHAT SHOULD BE IN THE GAME... *sigh*

 

The Leviathan boss battle is kind of hit and miss for me. OST is rocking the shit out of it, the first 'phase' sucks so much balls. They should have did the cliched "avoid the big boss enemy on this small platform" design, rather than "teleport attack, rinse repeat forever". It took me like 5 minutes to trigger the next phase, I was so baffled what was happening. I would often miss attacks entirely. It was so bad. Then the Super Saiyan section happened and that was cool for about a minute, but it lasted too long. THere was a point where Leviathan just goes to the left and under the water and comes out and you do a counter. This was cool the first time, then she did it two more times in a row and that kind of made it annoying and stupid. If they had tightened up the fight to be shorted, given that you can't really die during that part... it would have been pretty fun and visually cool, but any positive the game gives to me it just has to also do wrong so I can't just enjoy something outright. Thanks game.

 

After that I honestly barely remember anything. Luna's dead, Ignis blind, Gladio being annoying about it, then Ignis is like dude stfu and that's over. Oh yeah, Prompto getting separated and then being like "dude I'm like Vivi and Zidane" and his friends are like, "and?" and then nothing about that matters at all. It's honestly really fucking stupid. I was actually really mad about that too. It just came out of nowhere and felt like it was just ripping off FFIX to me. The DLC did set that up better and I feel like it should have also been in the game. You can take or leave Gladio, it does add a bit ot his character motivation but then the bitch fit he throws on the train and shortly after makes even less sense because of that DLC so... you'd have to alter the other parts of the story to fit it there properly.

And then the game is over. I mean that sounds like I missed stuff, but honestly I don't think I did really. Beyond just Ardyn being a troll from time to time, oh and him being like the sacrificial lamb to suck in all the daemons and purify the world but then being treated as an outcast for it. That's an interesting villain origin, but it wasn't done well. They just kind of tell you that somewhere and then never really address this. Nobody is like, "hey maybe you were mistreated, but that doesn't justify killing everybody". Not saying I want them to hug it out and for love to save the day or anything, but it's like none of the main cast even are aware of why Ardyn is doing what he's doing? I honestly don't even remember how the game tells you this information in the first place. Was it Shiva?
 

The empire is useless. Literally useless, they are never really shown to have much of a presence at all in the game [beyond some bases and the annoying ships dropping troops] and then poof gone. They are replaced with Ardyn randomly and nobody else seems to matter anymore. He's the big bad all along guys, that weird obvious villain with hidden motives was actually a villain with hidden motives the whole time. I'm so surprised and stunned.

 

You couldn't have had a better empire presence? Like really? You couldn't have had Ardyn take over and push characters like Luna's brother whose name is whatever and Aranea [is that the dragoon lady's name? I'm so bad with names] idk... defect from that. Rather than just a casual conversation with Aranea ingame with no real setup where she went from cool boss fight to just npc lady who can sometimes help you out and leaves because she helps people now because reasons. I bet that DLC would have helped and been dope as hell if Ignis and Prompto's were any indication.

 

You couldn't show the empire crumbling in the damn game? I'm still not even sure who Prompto's DLC was even about. Was that the leader of the empire? I thought it was some scientist in the empire, but I honestly don't know. I just know in the main game without DLC they go "lol the empire is dead tho" and that's all that nothing turned out to be. What...

 

Actually now that i think about it... where were they even going on the train? Oh right, to get the crystal. I genuinely paused for a few minutes to think about wtf happened. Oh yeah, there's the crystal.. which doesn't mean much other than a way to do a FFVI World of Ruin, remember when Final Fantasy was good guys? Okay that's petty, but it was hardly the first time that the game had made me think of a previous better FF and it just got worse each time. Like there's homage, and then there's just running out of ideas entirely. Obviously a world being destroyed isn't unique to VI, but it's the context that annoyed me.

The idea was interesting, but since you can't spend the rest of the game there you just get picked up in a truck and a stuck in a walled in area and then whisked away to the end game just makes it pointless. You don't really get to see the devastation to the world, just parts of it. You don't get to do new quests to help things out there, because it's just a set piece to throw away when you travel back in time to have gameplay again.

 

And apparently the Insomnia area wasn't ever in the original? This was added in a patch as I understand... I'm going to look up the original part because I can't imagine how underwhelming it was then. I wouldn't say it's great as it is now, but at least there are things to do.

 

I just can't fathom how you fuck up a story so badly. Maybe some of my ideas on how to restructure are stupid to people, but I'm not charging you $60 + DLC costs. And the editing in new ideas months later to fix my initial ideas... I only get this way when I can see something. A level of potential that's almost entirely untapped. The problem for XV is that it's contending with decades of Final Fantasy games setting my expectations of what SE is capable of doing and making. Whereas something like Bulletwitch, I can love in spite of those issues. It's terrible, but I unironically love so much because it's it's own stand alone project. Cavia were trying something new for themselves and they failed, they had interesting ideas that were poorly executed. But it wasn't like they had decades of making the same genre of game in the same series. I know SE can do better. FFVII Remake while I don't like aspects of that story, I do love aspects of it, and the gameplay is great.

 

To get off the negative for a slight bit... I will say I think the story did a decent enough job at signifying the characters were friends. Although that's not without it's problems caused from this implication. I never felt like I had to have tons of flashbacks of these characters as kids, even if some of the dlc did that. I could do without it honestly. And some of the driving conversations were interesting. I would have liked to see some post event campfire scenes to develop the story/characters more. I mean, something like World of FF would change rando NPC dialog as you progressed the story, you can't give me a little something in a campfire? You don't have to do it for everything, and I know they do have conversations generally after stuff but something a bit more in depth would have been nice. The appearance of some of the 'events' was nice, it's just silly they're at specific camp sites. I get why, as they have gameplay for the area, but it makes actually doing them a chore.

 

The music is fantastic, but sadly they had to ruin a perfect OST with a terrible pop song at the end credits. You're really testing my patience game, you couldn't let me have one clean compliment to give you. It had to have SOMETHING wrong with it. It's like you want me to hate you.

 

The graphics are good. I think the locations are pretty boring overall, there's one room in a dungeon that's visually interesting [looks like you're underwater]. And the Venice-y town looks nice,  but I love water in games. And there's a Myrtwood or something Forest with a lake and camp near it, it's a dungeon, and that water fall is beautiful. But overall I just felt the art was kind of bland. There was nothing as interesting as Narche [technology not withstanding, it's a very interesting steampunk design and the mix of snow just makes it very memorable to me], or Macalania Woods. It was just trees, dirt and/or grass, and some rock formations for the vast majority of it. It technically looked fine, although the draw distance isn't great particularly for shadows. You can see the ring around you as you drive or walk and where it's loading in/out everything from. Even some areas of XIII, I remember being really nice looking.

The Prompto snapshots are pretty neat, not a perfect feature but I really like some of the pictures that came out. One was funny, it was a picture of a demonic creature's butt. Sometimes they'll be nothing of note, but sometimes something neat. The staged pictures at time are nice too. But I felt that some of the side quests were annoying related to this as he complains about lighting if it's the wrong time of day but most of his pictures are over exposed. Like dude... stop pretending you're picky. lol

Spoiler

And I was half tempted to pick that as the photo you can take with you at the end, but I didn't... and as soon as that was used in the final cutscene I was really sad because it would have made a funny clip of noctis and luna looking at it. I'd have to beat the game again to do that and I don't think I have it in me just for a short gag.

 

The hunts are tedious and mostly just the same enemies you've killed thousands of times already. And the fact each area has it's own list is annoying as all hell, so if you did want to do them all enjoy teleporting everywhere to check and heaven forbid you not have the right rank yet to start one. Write that ish down. Sidequests were almost entirely fetch quests or hunts under the guise of fetch quest [get this material from monster~]. I say almost, but it might be all of them, I just let myself the slight off chance I'm forgetting a more interesting one. The pictures were fetch quests to me too.

The combat Noctis is my least favorite, so I'm glad I didn't buy the game at launch. Well, maybe Gladio as he''s slow and I'm not a fan of slow stuff but he's more interesting mechanically than Noctis.

One of the biggest issues for me in the game was the level design. The game just up and forgets that Noctis can teleport where ever he wants. The game is designed like he doesn't have that power at all. Which would be fine... if he didn't have that power. D:< He'll literally teleport forward a few steps in a cutscene, but oh no that ladder up there isn't down. Welp, gotta go around and find a way to it to get a short cut. Noctis couldn't possibly teleport up to the path and drop the ladder down for the rest of them. No that wouldn't be very friendly of him to leave his friends.

 

Speaking of leaving friends, early on I had tons of issues with the party never being around when I would enter battle. They would fall behind constantly. And with a character who can warp into battle, that's really stupid design. The fact they don't almost instantly teleport where you are as soon as you turn away the camera is beyond me. Especially when you enter a battle. I had to fight so many relatively strong enemies on my own because they weren't around and you can't switch to them.

Speaking of switching, I know it was done in a patch but it's super friggin cumbersome to do. And the 'animation' to the switch is really annoying, I know it gives you invincibility frames for it but man. I just want to shoot up some people with OP Prompto.

And ffs, FFXII was over a decade ago and they still have not learned not to stop a character in their tracks after battle in an open world. It's so annoying to want to just keep going and then for you stop in place as the game caculates your XP. I forget if FFVII remake does that or not, but it was really annoying here. Especially when the battles are over in seconds later on as you clean up stuff, that ring you get is op af for trash mobs. Speaking of this, the "challenges" or whatever... no, I think "Strategy" is what the game called them, when a party member taps Noctis on the shoulder and gives him an idea to do and if you do it you get extra AP... these seemed to only want to appear when the enemies were super weak and dead before I could ever hope to do the strategy they wanted. Interesting idea, bad execution.

 

The driving is terrible. I didn't do off roading at all, since by the time I got that option I had the flying car and that has infinite gas... and I had to walk around aimilessly to level of Gladio's skill. Why that was his skill and not the picking up of items after battle is beyond me. Fighting stuff would have been more fun to level him up than just walking around. What a terrible idea. "Hey if you use the car or the chocobo you won't level up that skill, haha, loser." Who wants to walk around in an open world forever? Just dumb. There's not enough side content or dungeons to hit that max if you've been doing any smart travelling [including teleporting].

Riding chocobos is fun, just wish they could fly slightly even if at level 10. Sometimes their jump isn't enough even the upgraded one. But overall their movement is fun, just stupid you can't pick up items on them. Speaking of that, the Ignis DLC let you pick up items in battle but the main game didn't. They should have rolled that improvement into the main game as that was highly frustrating in it. But what can you expect from an unfinished game?

 

I played on PS5 and the performance was mostly fine once switching to framerate mode. "Performance" had tons of issues in the DLC [go figure], and the other option was terrible in the main game and I assume DLC too. The game crashed once. The game soft locked once as well.

I know there's more to talk about but I'm so exhausted of talking about it. If there's anything I feel was important to note I'll edit it in later. What a mess.

 

edit; oh yeaaaah, the cross over events/quests for FFXIV and Terra Wars were great. Sarah from TW was awesome, great character design. I wish the game was more like those and the DLC.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Elvick_

[Mariner1534]

  #55: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - A New Hope

 

 

This game was a pleasant surprise. It was an impulse buy on Black Friday since I felt like playing a Star Wars game and it was only $24. The story was interesting enough, and while it borrows a lot from other games (exploration from metroidvanias/Tomb Raider, combat from Souls-likes, etc.), it was mostly done pretty well and made for a solid campaign. You can freely switch between any of the four difficulties without voiding any trophies, so it's accessible for all skill levels - I played on the second-highest for the story, then the lowest for the postgame cleanup. There are some pretty long loading times on the base PS4 though, especially when the game reloads after dying. Can get frustrating if you have trouble beating a certain enemy and have to sit through minute-long screens between attempts. Still had fun though, plus a single-player EA game that lacks microtransactions is pleasantly bizarre.

 

Plat's pretty easy and straightforward. The usual "do and collect everything," plus a few simple combat-related trophies. Nothing is missable or difficulty-specific. However, my least favorite thing about the trophy hunt was the total lack of any fast travel. I'd be fine with locking the fast travel until postgame, or even just having a one-way "back to the ship" option. Not having anything made the long treks to the areas of the planets I had to clear out really tedious. The 3D, multi-layered minimap was confusing at times, as well. It's still a reasonable time commitment at least - about 30 hours even with the tedious backtracking.

 

Difficulty: 3/10

Enjoyment: 7/10 for the campaign, 4/10 for the postgame cleanup

Plat Time: 30 hours

Edited December 15, 2020 by Mariner1534

[OverlordOfRacing]

Platinumed Assassin's Creed Origins. Overall was decent but was annoying getting all of the question marks.

[kRiZz_93]

 #116 - Terminator: Resistance

 

Difficulty - 2 / 10

Enjoyment - 6 / 10

(Surprisingly decent compared to Terminator: Salvation)

Time taken - 2 Days 2 Hours

 

 #117 - Aces of the Luftwaffe: Squadron

 

 

Difficulty - 4 / 10

Enjoyment - 5 / 10

(Probably would have been more if it wasn't for the unnecessary grind for the skill points)

Time taken - 1 week 2 Days

 

 #118 - Star Wars: The Jedi Fallen Order

 

Difficulty - 2 / 10

Enjoyment - 8 / 10

(Total blast to play through, just wish they didn't add so many tediously hidden collectibles)

Time taken - 5 Days 2 Hours

Edited March 3, 2021 by kRiZz_93

[slender_adrian]

 #56 - Watch Dogs

 

Really nice game, it was cool coming back to this game after a lot of years and finally getting this platinum. It was a super easy platinum but really boring honestly, and of course like a good Ubisoft game this is, I had to start a new game because a trophy glitched and of course it was a collectible one so had to collect them again, Long live glitches!

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by slender_adrian

[Omelette Paradise]

 #440 - My Name Is Mayo 2

 

 

The GOTY follow up to the original GOTY of it's time. The inclusion of minigames this time was unexpected. Harmless fun for all.

 

Enjoyment: 10/10

Difficulty: 1/10

 

 #441 - Far Cry 2

 

 

This one was a long time coming. I got so burned out doing the tiresome MP trophies that I had to take a break from the game and it's taken me five years to go back to it. God what a drag those trophies were.

 

I'm glad I went back to it as I enjoyed the campaign a lot more although the gun jamming and malaria effects both got kind of annoying after a while (realism to a fault) along with enemies constantly respawning at the road checkpoints. Other than that it's an excellent FPS and I liked the rest of the game.

 

I wouldn't mind playing a Far Cry 2 Classic on PS4 or PS5 with the MP trophies removed as it would be a fairly tough platinum even without those and I liked the campaign even with the annoying bits.

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: 9/10

[ZitMeatloaf]

 #66 - MediEvil

"Savior of Gallowmere"

Difficulty: 2.5/10

Enjoyment: 6.5/10

 

This was my first time playing this game; I couldn't wear PS1 nostalgia goggles while I played it. Because I lacked those goggles, I was able to see several antiquated PS1-era mechanics and flaws quite clearly. The controls felt clunky, the camera was absolutely awful in many places, the hitboxes were questionable, and the aim assist often chose the least desirable target when there were multiple enemies on screen. Since this was a remake and not a remaster, I don't quite understand why they held on to so many outdated aspects of the PS1 era. Playing this certainly feels like playing a PS1 game. A very pretty PS1 game.

 

Even with all those flaws, there's still enjoyment to be had. The game looks great and has a cute story, and once you accept the outdated gameplay for what it is and adjust accordingly, it can still be satisfying. A couple of the stages will provide a decent challenge the first time through and you might even die a few times. Dying on a level means starting it over from scratch - there are no checkpoints within levels. Some people complained about this, but I didn't think it was too bad. And the trophy images look great.

Edited December 16, 2020 by ZitMeatloaf
Typo

[Sardavanua]

#172 - Path of Exile

 

 

Wow, just wow. First off this game is still amazing. I played this game for some time when it finally came to console, but I never really tried to get the trophies up until like two months ago. The changes they brought to the atlas since then, mixed up the trophy requirements quite a bit and I basically had to restart everything to get back into PoE. The new system in the atlas with all the conquerors and watchstones were confusing as hell and I'm still not sure if I understood everything correctly or just got lucky sometimes. Luckily the community is still very helpful and I met a few nice players who helped me out with the more difficult parts of the game e.g. Uber Atziri, Hall of Grandasters. Besides all the nice people I met there's sadly alot of scammers or straight up d*cks who will try to take advantage of you as soon as they can and I'm not even talking about the trade market. Getting all maps and high level gear isn't really possible without interacting in global chat and grouping up. For those who want to get the plat aswell, let me give you a quick hint. Sell portals for Doriyani's Machinarium and/or Perandus Manor. That's how I kinda cheesed the current market situation as I wasn't to keen on farming for months and months just to get enough currency for those two maps and high level gear. Anyways great game, everyone should check it out etc...

 

 

Difficulty: 6/10

Enjoyment: Decreases rapidly after 200 hours LOL

Time spent: 200+ hours

[KunoGuy]

            #185 Platinum Trophy

                     8 To Glory

        Time taken: 2 days 9 hours

I will say that trophy hunting gets you to try and play games you may not have considered before. That was my thinking after playing this bull riding sim. I probably wouldn't have sought this game out for what it was but in the end it was fun albeit slightly grindy for one of the last trophies. You end up riding a whole roster of bulls who in real life their names are reminiscent of a WWF wrestling lineup. 

Funny thing is I found myself googling the sport and found one of the main riders I used had won the actual 2020 season. 

So trophy hunting for me can take you to interests and games you wouldn't expect and in the end I was glad I went there for that Platinum buckle in the sky. No Bull.

Edited December 15, 2020 by KunoGuy

[Nostalgy_Flow]

Platinum #88: Raiden V: Director's Cut


 

I found it inferior to its predecessor but it still remains a good shmup after all. One thing I hated, and I saw I'm not the only one, is the fact that dialogues are constantly present in every moment of the game, and they're pretty annoying, so much so after a few runs I directly muted 'em lol.
For the rest it's a fun game, also the OST is nice. If you like the genre I definitely recommend it!
 

Plat has nothing to do with IV's (I still have nightmares about it), but it's more of a grind for the most part.
I had some issues unlocking one of the two TLB's endings, eventually got it after using several continues. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what triggers the ending because it was the only TLB run where I didn't do the 1cc.
For the 1cc on Easy with S routes I had no problems, got it first try, I used the pause a bit but not for the entire lenght of the run, since there was no need. Also you can restart individual scenes if you make too many mistakes, so the thing is even more doable.
The rest is just a grind for the Sols/Faries and the power-ups ships.

[StraightVege]

 

Impress the Elder Gods!

 

  #246

10th Fastest Achiever (1 day, 1 hour)

 

It took a couple of hours for this Lovecraftian Metroidvania to win me over. Early on, I found the barren procedurally generated rooms a bore, and no matter which direction I explored, I always seemed to hit a dead-end. After the poor first impression, when I finally began to unlock some new abilities and get a sense of real progression, I actually came to enjoy the game's frenetic movement and combat quite a bit. Darting through rooms, while hacking up hordes of eldritch abominations is both blazingly fast and satisfying, with precise controls and smooth animations. You easily get into a "zone" and lose track of time. It looks and feels somewhat similar to Dust: An Elysian Tail, which is definitely a complement.

 

Sundered opens with an unwitting desert scavenger, named Eshe, being swallowed by the sands, where she finds herself in a derelict secret kingdom, ravaged by war and madness. The remaining denizens appear to have been twisted into ferocious monstrosities by some unknown influence, so her only hope for survival is to seek out powerful technology, left behind by one of the warring factions. Fortunately, Eshe finds guidance in the form of a sentient crystal shard, called "The Shining Trapezohedron," which speaks a strange dialect, and seems to know an awful lot about her. It will also serve as her blade, and promises that everything will be fine if Eshe just obeys its every word. It's blatantly obvious that this thing has ill intentions, but the voice acting is great, so I can excuse it.

 

The science vs. occult aspect is pretty interesting. It's up to the player to choose: they can either give-in to corrupting their gadgets with dark power and become far stronger, at the cost of their humanity, or reject the old gods for a more challenging experience. The game is brief and fairly easy either way, but this decision does determine what ending you'll see. Death is handled in a rewarding manner, as well, since you keep all of your currency, and are immediately sent back to a massive skill tree screen to improve your character. Even just damaging bosses grants some money to spend, so being defeated by them has no sting, because you get to buy more cool upgrades straight away. Admittedly, traveling all the way back to the boss can get rather dull, as the rooms are largely uninteresting, but it's not terrible. I really like the developer's approach to failure in Sundered; sometimes, I almost wanted to lose, since I knew it would only lead to greater strength.

 

However, the use of random rooms does significantly detract from the game, and that's tragic. More often than not, it simply doesn't work well in Metroidvanias. I much prefer meticulously crafted environments, with well-planned platforming challenges and thought-out enemy encounters, along with captivating hidden secrets to discover. Procedural maps can be so bland, which is certainly the case here. Sundered could have been something special if it had an excellent, traditionally designed world. The boss battles are also kind of substandard. Although they look good, most of the fights involve breaking a few weak points with your blade, while dodging projectiles, and it feels samey.

 

Fortunately, the overall experience is partially salvaged by the tight gameplay and mysterious setting. I wouldn't put Sundered in my top 10 action-platformers or anything, but it's a solid enough title, especially if you're a fan of Lovecraft lore. A middling game, that plays around with some interesting ideas. My thanks to @hugglebunn-e for the recommendation—I don't regret trying this one!

 

Screenshot:

Spoiler

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/131277297_1570574809793489_7456665831114255627_o.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=2&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=51uz6UcP1bgAX_Wrcy7&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-2.xx&oh=f419d3ba44cec04c44c4cef7ef7e1e89&oe=5FFDAB44

[starcrunch061]

Plat #419: Persona 5 Royal

 

 

The Phenomenal Phantom Thief

Obtained all trophies

 

Well, what can I say? I'll try to keep the conversation exclusively to Royal. Oh, and there will be light spoilers. You've been warned.

 

Persona 5 was a game bursting at the seams with content, style, and greatness. It is among my favorite games of the generation. Persona 5 Royal, though, pretty much requires you to change into sweat pants. It has all the content of P5, and then quite a bit more. Two new confidants. A new dart minigame (that's a lot of fun) and billiards...thing (that's not). An upgrade on the persona fusion system (the alarm is another great idea). Remixed bosses (most better, some worse). And of course, a completely new palace and new month of play.

 

Was it necessary to give a completely new release for this content? I don't know; I certainly didn't buy it new. But it was definitely worth the $20 I paid for it on Black Friday. I really enjoyed my time with this one, and that is saying a lot, considering that I screwed up my plat on P5 and had to play it 2.5 times (stupid missable Mementos missions). Oh, and while it is possible to miss missions here, you'd have to work really hard at it. 

 

But anyway, the new content follows two new characters: a guidance counsellor at your school, and a new student. Both of the characters are likable, though I found the new student to be a bit...unctuous. She constantly talks about how great you are, and I was really looking forward to a betrayal of sorts, but no...that's just how she is. The counsellor is more fully developed, and a better addition overall. During the main game, these two characters add very little to the proceedings. They get their own cutscenes, sure, but they really feel out of place overall. In the post-game, however, they take center stage. 

 

Speaking of the postgame, I was a bit wary of it to start. After all, it seems unlikely that you can really do much more after the ending of the original P5. But as it went, it really worked for me. Even the character of Akechi was done as well as he could have been done. He's never been a believable character, and he's not particularly believable here, either, but he still works in the end.

 

I mentioned the dart minigame. I found it to be quite fun. It's not as good as the Yakuza dart game, but it's close, and with a little fine tuning, it could be great. The batting minigame returns as well; it's a lot easier, though I enjoyed the invisible pitches. The fishing game remains OK as well. I wish they would have done more to the crane game, and added an arcade game or two, but I'm nitpicking. 

 

There is also a Thieves' Den, which serves as the old "developer room" that has gone the way of the dodo. In here, you have a movie and music player, a floor you can design with various items you buy, and award walls (awards are given for doing certain things in game, such as getting a persona with all 99 stats, or getting a bunch of ambushes, etc.). It's nice to see it here, and I hope it heralds a return of such things.

 

My main gripe is that nothing is done to speed up some of the proceedings. Between evening and morning, you still have to sit through 2-3 transitional periods, some of which require button presses to advance. It slows down the proceedings.

 

There are new persona in the game, but honestly, with so many persona already available, I couldn't really tell you which are which. I will say that the 3rd evolution persona for your teammates were disappointments. There are also a lot of things that have nothing to do with trophies, but are nice anyway (new superbosses, e.g.). I wish they had better rewards (you do get Thieves' Den tokens for beating them, and some key items, the uses of which I have no idea).

 

But all in all, a worthwhile waste of my time. Really, this probably should have been DLC, but I'm not complaining about the chance to plat the game again, and with sales (on physical releases, at least), I did it all for what I would have expected to spend on the DLC, anyway. I don't usually like NG+ trophies, but I really wish there was a trophy for beating the game on Merciless difficulty. And finally, the hostage mechanic remains. What, you don't know about that mechanic? Well, I would have completely forgotten, except that in my last trip to Mementos, after 100 hours of play, one of my characters was taken hostage by an enemy. I don't even know what the point is: I fought tons of battles in this one, my weaknesses were hit tons of times, and I only was taken hostage once. Maybe it happens more on higher difficulties (I played the default, which I believe is normal).

[Guest]

Maneater (PS5)

Enjoyment: 5/10

Difficulty: 3/10

 

We need more B-games like this

Pros:

-When the world isn't glitching out and is fully loaded in, it looks nice.

-The documentary style story is interesting and well done.

-Being a shark, and also watching it grow and evolve, is very fun.

 

Cons:

-Still a technical mess with constant pop-ins, momentary freezes, or crashes.

-Most of the game is very repetitive with most main/missions just repeats of former missions but with different fish/people to eat/kill.

-I wish there was more to the combat just biting and stunning (which of the two, biting is 99% of what you'll be doing). I know you're just a shark, but it's a video game; add in some weird shit.

 

TL;DR: Still a broken mess and constantly repetitive, but playing as a shark is still great fun.

Edited December 15, 2020 by ChunkyKong64

[flashpool23]

Plat 157 - Tales from the Borderlands 

 

The plat title asks, We Had Fun, Didn't We? Seeing as this is the second time I played this game and I loved it as much as the first time.....yes, we did.

[percy547389126yv]

#638 Vita version of Memories Off: Yubikiri no Kioku

Edited December 15, 2020 by percy547389126yv