Let's Play SO4: Return of the Epic Quest

[Meepy-]

Since I didn't post my end stats when I got the platinum, I may as well do it now. It didn't take me nearly as long as it did the first time, but that's expected when doing it a second time.

 

Playtime stats:

Galaxy (Main file): 264:34
Faize & Edge: 80:55
Universe: 6:40
Chaos: 6:56
Total: 359:05

 

That's around 140 hours less than it took me the first time around. I'd have to say it was definitely more enjoyable the second time due to the remastered version of the game. Much better frame-rate in most cases, no constant crashing in the bonus dungeons, especially when farming Arumat's kills which easily froze on me a few dozen times on PS3. Game didn't crash or freeze a single time, with the console staying on for 3 weeks straight as well. I feel I was much more efficient with grinding this time around by not focusing on any BTs apart from a few until everything else was done and had the gear to make it all go faster. I don't have any plans on doing the other two regions as of right now, but it could be a possibility in the future if they went cheap enough on a sale.

 

Anyone looking to give this game a go or get the platinum if you haven't started it already on PS3, the remaster is the way to go.

 

 

[dertswa687o]

I just hit 100 hours on my file so sounds like a good time for an update. I finished Meracle's Ornithology drops yesterday which I am very happy to have done. That took 8 hours alone but I did get a lot of kills for Arumat so it wasn't a complete waste. I have the 4,444 kills BT and I think I'm actually close to 6,000.

 

Edge: 66

Reimi: 100

Faize: 34

Lymle: 90

Bacchus: 84

Meracle: 80

Sarah: 85

Myuria: 80

Arumat: 83

Total: 702 (78%)

 

The main timesinks I have left are:

15 hours - Drops: Edge, Bacchus, Myuria, Arumat (though Edge and Arumat don't really count)

15 hours - Colosseum: Edge, Faize, Lymle, Bacchus, Meracle, Sarah, Myuria

80 hours - Kills: Edge, Arumat

25 hours - Faize

15 hours - Other misc trophies like resurrections, scumbag kills, ailment kills, etc.

5 hours - Bunny racing

20 hours - Universe and Chaos

 

That'd put me at 275 hours which would be pretty good. I did it in 354 my first time and I felt pretty efficient, so cutting 80 hours would be nice. Robotics drops took forever the first time, but I'm going to try them on Nox which I'm hoping is faster. I should be able to get Arumat kills there too. I'm not going to tackle that right after Ornithology drops, so I'll probably do some of the colosseum.

 

[dertswa687o]

This will be the last major update from me for a while. I'll be really busy with work for the next 2 months so progress will slow to a crawl, especially considering Arumat's 30k is rising up the priority list.

 

Edge: 66

Reimi: 100

Faize: 34

Lymle: 100

Bacchus: 92

Meracle: 100

Sarah: 89

Myuria: 100

Arumat: 87

Total: 768 (85.3%)

 

I finished Meracle today by rubber banding my controller until I got the 42km BT. Bacchus only needs all 200 colosseum battles, 100 fogged enemies, and 255 rush mode activations. Easy stuff. I highly recommend doing the Robotics drops on Nox now. The drops are way better than the metal scumbags for sure, and you also can get a lot of kills with Arumat in the meantime. I broke 8k during the grind and I'm sure I'm well over 10k at this point.

 

Sarah needs all 200 colosseum battles, most of the 999 revives, and a few other easy ones. After that I'll figure out a way to get Edge to 76 without killing enemies, then finish Arumat so the 30k BT unlocks the Master Battler trophy. I'll probably finish that in late February...

 

Oh, I'm at 133 hours or so.

Edited January 3, 2018 by dertswa687o

[locutus442]

Update to my progress in the Ps4 version:

 

Trophy count: 40/47

Latest trophy: World's Biggest Welch Fan (Create 100% of all possible items.)

 

Battle trophies:

Edge: 65

Reimi: 63

Faize: 0

Lymle: 66

Bacchus: 64

Meracle: 60

Sarah: 55

Myuria: 63

Arumat: 64

Total battle trophies: 500/900

 

Total game time: 237:04 (Probably going to start my Faize playthrough real soon).

[dertswa687o]

 

 

164 hours.

 

Edge: 72

Faize: 38

Reimi, Lymle, Bacchus, Meracle, Sarah, Myuria, Arumat: 100

 

It's time for some bunny racing.

[locutus442]

Update to my progress in the Ps4 version:

 

Trophy count: 41/47

Latest trophy: Seasoned Battler (Obtain 60% of all battle trophies)

 

Battle trophy count:

Edge: 66

Reimi: 63

Faize: 39

Lymle: 66

Bacchus: 64

Meracle: 60

Sarah: 55

Myuria: 63

Arumat: 64

Total battle trophies: 540/900

 

Game time: initial playthrough - 237:04

                   Faize playthrough - 21:23

                   Total: 258:27

[dertswa687o]

 

 

172 hours.

 

Edge: 74

Faize: 68

Reimi, Lymle, Bacchus, Meracle, Sarah, Myuria, Arumat: 100

 

Got bored of bunny racing like 10 in so I decided to do Faize. With his shadow and enemy types out of the way, all that's really left for the plat is pure grind. While I was going down the WD I was mostly skipping chests, but I randomly opened one and got an Infinity Saber. Thought that was really lucky.

[dertswa687o]

183 hours.

 

Edge: 80

Faize: 95

Reimi, Lymle, Bacchus, Meracle, Sarah, Myuria, Arumat: 100

 

Faize's trophies are so easy. No drops to worry about and a lot of them are quick tasks that have a ton of trophies, like the 5 for blindsiding multiple enemies. All I have left is the 55 Grigori (which isn't that bad since I enjoy beating Gabe a bunch) and 3,000 battles. For Edge I need about 90 more colosseum wins, 100 poisoned enemy kills, about 100 more preemptive strikes, and then the rest will all come during the 30k grind. I just got the 700 enemy kills BT during the first 100 colosseum wins, so I've got a long way to go to hit 30k. I had noted 600 kills/hour when I wrote the efficiency guide so only like 49 hours of grinding at this point left. Yay.

 

I was kind of thinking about this while doing Faize's trophies, but if I had to rate each character's list from easiest/least annoying to hardest/most annoying:

1. Reimi - Her drops are really easy and she has the ability to get quick kills. Interrupts and status healing can be a bit annoying, but pretty quick overall.
2. Faize - Assuming you combine his 3k battles with Edge's 30k kills, the rest is pretty easy. The 130 enemy types can be worrisome, but I managed to get it with 10 enemies to spare.
3. Myuria - Her list is comparable to Reimi's, but the problem is that Myuria sucks at killing things.
4. Sarah - Sarah's drops are very fast and it's nice you can do the airborne kills at the same time. Exact healing is easy with guides. 999 revives is way too many, but you can speed it up with 1 HP armor and letting the AI cast the spell for you so you avoid all the menuing.
5. Meracle - Meracle's drops suck. But you can get lots of kills for Arumat in the meantime, so that's nice. The 10 minute Gabe kill is not an issue at all. Only other issue is 1k blindsides... but Edge and Arumat have that too.
6. Lymle - Obviously the 10 minute EQ kill is the hardest BT in the game. On the other hand, her drops are easy and she has the ability to kill things quickly with Trinity Blaze. It's really annoying have to kill 999 undead and 999 scumbags. The 4 Energy Shields in a row took way too long. Oh, and 10km of rolling.
7. Bacchus - His drops are actually comparable to Meracle's if you do them on Nox. They still take forever though and you have a ton of exact damage BTs to worry about as well. Ok... I really just hate Bacchus's drops since I did them the first time on Metal Scumbags and that was a horrible experience.
8. Arumat - By the time I actually started grinding for Arumat's 30k I had gotten about 12k from everyone else's BTs and general playing. I feel like Arumat's list fits his character the most. Killing enemies in 1 hit, taunting the EQ, winning at low HP, etc. Death incarnate.
9. Edge - Edge's list is deceiving since the game gives you a bunch of his easy BTs early on. And then you look at the rest of the list and you begin to hate tri-Ace. 30k enemies, 1k blindsides, jump the height of Mt Everest, 100k buttons, 6 ambushes. Did I mention the 30k enemies???
10. Welch - The thing about Welch's 321 trophies is that she doesn't even let you track them.
11. Bunny - 100 wins is just way too many. It is a bit weird that a character only has 2 trophies, but tri-Ace can do whatever they want.

Edited January 29, 2018 by dertswa687o

[Dragon-Archon]

Nice work with all the progress  .

[dertswa687o]

Made a status but I might as well post here as well:

 

ULTIMATE BATTLER UNLOCKED

 

 

I somehow did not get Faize's 3k battles during the 30k kills grind, but I got it after around 20 battles afterwards.

 

Main save: 167:44

Faize/Edge save: 64:31

Total: 232:15

 

Just need to beat Universe and Chaos for the plat! Should be easy.

Edited February 26, 2018 by dertswa687o

[dertswa687o]

I got the plat! Now I can play something else!

 

Main save: 167:44

Faize/Edge save: 64:31

Universe: 6:00

Chaos: 6:30

Total: 244:45

[Edunstar84]

57 minutes ago, dertswa687o said:

I got the plat! Now I can play something else!

 

Main save: 167:44

Faize/Edge save: 64:31

Universe: 6:00

Chaos: 6:30

Total: 244:45

Wow! Congrats! That's an amazing time. Reward yourself and play something easy  

 

[Kurorac]

2 hours ago, dertswa687o said:

I got the plat! Now I can play something else!

 

Main save: 167:44

Faize/Edge save: 64:31

Universe: 6:00

Chaos: 6:30

Total: 244:45

 

Wow, nicely done. That's what I call commitment.

[Dragon-Archon]

9 hours ago, dertswa687o said:

I got the plat! Now I can play something else!

 

Main save: 167:44

Faize/Edge save: 64:31

Universe: 6:00

Chaos: 6:30

Total: 244:45

Nicely done, congrats  . Time to harass @Dav9834 again for those trophy files  .

[Dav9834]

3 hours ago, Dragon-Archon said:

Nicely done, congrats  . Time to harass @Dav9834 again for those trophy files  .

pssst....

the package has been delivered... I repeat the package has been delivered....

13 hours ago, dertswa687o said:

I got the plat! Now I can play something else!

 

Main save: 167:44

Faize/Edge save: 64:31

Universe: 6:00

Chaos: 6:30

Total: 244:45

Congrats!!

[Galactic Hyper Balls]

Seeing all of these post are slowly getting me inspired to talk to welch again to be assistant in alchemy.

Your time management is off the charts @dertswa687o Total: 244:45

had to congrats you on the so4 page too =D

 

 

 

 

 

[Baker]

On 3-3-2018 at 7:58 AM, dertswa687o said:

I got the plat! Now I can play something else!

 

Main save: 167:44

Faize/Edge save: 64:31

Universe: 6:00

Chaos: 6:30

Total: 244:45

Wow! How did you do it in only 245 hours!? That's extremely fast. It took me 550 hours and thought I was pretty efficient, lol I guess not. Congrats.

[dertswa687o]

Thanks everyone!

 

@Galactic Nordic Nuts @BB-BakkerJ I think the main timesave was just knowing what to do. When I originally did it I finished in 354 hours, so I managed to cut 110 hours. Some random stuff that cut time:

• Skipping cutscenes - 16 hours (?) - I'm not sure exactly how much this saved but I believe my very first playthough in 2011 took 40 hours compared to the 24 it took me this time.
• Bacchus's drops on Nox - 14-20 hours - I originally did his drops on Metal Scumbags which was horrible and took 24 hours. They only took 10 hours on Nox, and after Bacchus got his 999 mechanical kills I was able to get tons of kills with Arumat.
• Skipping Satanail on the Faize playthough - 1 hour - I didn't even realize it until I got to the final room, but there was no reason for me to beat Satanail when I had access to the dragon for the darkness ring already. Saved me waiting through the ending again.
• Faster Universe/Chaos - 5 hours - I did the same strats as before so I guess I was just faster.

I can't point to anything specific that saved the other 70 hours. It really was just knowing what to do and in what order to do it. You gotta do everything you possibly can in the postgame when you're ridiculously overpowered and can tear through everything. That's why I don't understand the guides that recommend starting on Earth. The EQ BT isn't that bad.

[fantrig99]

Over 120 pages of epic content! Can I join this SO4 quest? I'm planning to do the PS4 version. Congrats to everyone that have platted one of the most super long and rewarding RPGs. Good luck to everyone that are in the midst of this long journey! The digital PS4 version is quite a large game and currently awaiting the last few hours of download. 

Edited June 23, 2018 by fantrig99

[Dragon-Archon]

On 6/23/2018 at 8:41 AM, fantrig99 said:

Over 120 pages of epic content! Can I join this SO4 quest? I'm planning to do the PS4 version. Congrats to everyone that have platted one of the most super long and rewarding RPGs. Good luck to everyone that are in the midst of this long journey! The digital PS4 version is quite a large game and currently awaiting the last few hours of download. 

Sure, the event started again after the PS4 version's release, but only 1 other joined. Good to know another person is going to attempt this epic quest. Good luck .

[dertswa687o]

On 6/23/2018 at 2:41 AM, fantrig99 said:

Over 120 pages of epic content! Can I join this SO4 quest? I'm planning to do the PS4 version. Congrats to everyone that have platted one of the most super long and rewarding RPGs. Good luck to everyone that are in the midst of this long journey! The digital PS4 version is quite a large game and currently awaiting the last few hours of download. 

Please join as I enjoy reading about people going through this game.

 

On 6/25/2018 at 3:14 AM, Dragon-Archon said:

Sure, the event started again after the PS4 version's release, but only 1 other joined. Good to know another person is going to attempt this epic quest. Good luck .

That guy is probably pretty weird.

[Dr_Mayus]

On 6/25/2018 at 2:14 AM, Dragon-Archon said:

Sure, the event started again after the PS4 version's release, but only 1 other joined. Good to know another person is going to attempt this epic quest. Good luck .

Why must you keep torturing people with this quest

 

These poor unsuspecting fools

[Rick_Sanchez]

On 6/25/2018 at 2:14 AM, Dragon-Archon said:

Sure, the event started again after the PS4 version's release, but only 1 other joined. Good to know another person is going to attempt this epic quest. Good luck .

I'll join this sometime in the future after I cut a few more games off my back log. PS3 version here I come!!!! (In a date to be determined after both Mugen Souls games are completed)

[dertswa687o]

5 minutes ago, Dr_Mayus said:

Why must you keep torturing people with this quest

 

These poor unsuspecting fools

Hey, it can be done in 250 hours, that's not so bad!

 

Please note results seen above are not typical and a preliminary 350+ hour completion is generally required first. Please consult your doctor for more information, 'kay.

[Dr_Mayus]

1 minute ago, dertswa687o said:

Hey, it can be done in 250 hours, that's not so bad!

 

Please note results seen above are not typical and a preliminary 350+ hour completion is generally required first. Please consult your doctor for more information, 'kay.

Well I am a doctor (or at least I play one on a forum board) and I say that 250 hours is for people hopped up on Doritos and Monster Energy Drinks. Some of us...who will remain nameless...put in over 700 hours because the STUPID MOTHERF@$*&NG GUIDE ON MOTHERF@$*&NG .ORG WAS WRONG AND I HAD TO PUT IN 2 MOTHERF@$*&NG MORE PLAYTHROUGHS BECAUSE THERE WERE 2 MOTHERF@$*&NG MISSABLE QUESTS ON 2 DIFFERENT MOTHERF@$*&NG PLAYTHROUGHS AND I  DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE MOTHERF@$*&NG MISSABLE UNTIL I WAS ALREADY ALMOST AT THE MOTHERF@$*&NG END.

 

Or so I heard ?