Makilio's Trophy Checklist

[Makilio]

Updated to include Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth2:

 

#57: Gameindustri's Ultimate Savior

 

About the game

HDNR2 is the Vita remake of the 2nd game in the HDN series; the storyline takes place in a different dimension than the previous entry, and it follows Neptune's younger sister, Nepgear. She travels all over Gameindustri trying to rescue the CPUs and make friends along the way.

 

Things I liked:

• Some of the new characters were nice. I liked Nepgear and Rom and their contributions to the story.
• The endings. I enjoyed all of them, even the Conquest ending.

Things I didn't like:

• Chapter 2 and Underling. That chapter dragged on for far too long, and I didn't like how 80% of the storyline was chasing Underling around the planet and watching the same events unfold in a different setting.
  • I honestly didn't like most of the story until the CPUs returned.
• Some of the new characters. I absolutely dislike Red; I know she's a caricature, but she needs her own personality and to get off my screen. I wasn't a fan of Uni for most of the game, but she calmed down in like Chapter 7 or something. Ram's down there somewhere too.
• Stella's dungeon. Luckily the final tower only took two attempts, but 26 hours dedicated to not playing feels like a waste.

 

Overall, I didn't like the game until I got to the post-game grind, and even then it was just okay. Maybe it's because it felt like a emptier version of Mugen Souls or something, but I couldn't get into it at all.

[Makilio]

Updated to include Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance:

#58: Dream Drop Distance Master

 

About the game

KH:DDD takes place during a slumber party at Yen Sid's castle, where Sora and Riku compete to see who can sleep better. Sora ends up having a bad dream about Xehanort, so Riku wins the contest.

 

Things I liked:

• Playing as Riku. I've never been a big fan of Sora, so I always look forward to when I can play as someone else in this series. Riku seemed to beat Sora in almost everything in this game: personality, unique moves (Double Jump > Superglide), map design, boss battles.
• Post-game trophy grinding. Unlike the previous entries in the series, the trophy list was actually somewhat reasonable and enjoyable.
• Flowmotion. Pretty fun way of navigating. Totally beats walking.

Things I didn't like:

• Diving. Aside from CoM, traversing through worlds for the first time is always annoying. I didn't like the dive into the worlds, especially the ones with bosses since I was impatient to keep the story going.
• Drop system. It was pretty annoying to have to waste a slot for Drop-Me-Nots because the timing would always occur as soon as you reach the boss in each world. If you drop during the fight, you get to start the boss fight from the very beginning. Yay.
• The plot. I knew the plot was weird before playing the game, but actually experiencing it was another thing. Sora's lacking in the intelligence department, magical letters that function as spy equipment, time travel, and all that jazz.

To be honest, I didn't care for the game until I reached the post game. I'm not entirely sure if I liked the game or not, but I probably won't play it ever again (I'll get around to finishing BBS eventually). Also, Balloonra is a pretty stupid spell.

 

With this completion, I've finally passed 90% completion rate, and I've narrowed my incompletes to games I don't really care for, or games that require multiplayer that I'm too lazy to continue boosting.

[Makilio]

Updated to include Malicious.

 

About the game

Malicious is a hack and slash game by Alvion. You're the defender of something, and you're protecting it from the "Malicious" using a Spirit Vessel. You don't have many powers, so you beat some bosses to expand your powers, before fighting the Malicious off for now. There's apparently some intricate plot somewhere, and the Wikipedia page is much more detailed than I expected/got out of the game. I guess it's mostly from other versions of this game.

 

Things I liked:

• The designs were pretty cool. Each stage felt unique, and the bosses were completely different too.

Things I didn't like:

• Really wonky default controls. You can change them, but I'm still wondering how someone could reasonably play with the default controls.
• Strange difficulty distribution. Out of the 5 regular bosses you fight, only one of them can be called challenging, but I didn't find her too difficult. However, the final boss's stage seems brutal in comparison.
• Settings cannot be changed outside the main menu. Really weird decision not to be able to manipulate sound settings without quitting out completely. Also, the music wasn't that great, and bosses have warning noises for several attacks, so it's recommended to be off anyways so you can actually hear them.
• 10,000 kills trophy. Completing the game for all of the storyline trophies at once (No continue + no repairs + S rank) gives about 1,300 kills. Cleaning up the various other trophies gave another 1,000. That left me with 7,700 kills just to grind over an additional hour. Even if you split the S rank and no continue/repair trophies, that's still about 6,000 kills to farm.

 

Really simple game with really weird design choices.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Makilio

[Makilio]

Updated to include Tales of Symphonia:

#59: Symphonia Master

 

About the game

Tales of Symphonia is the 5th entry in the Tales series, being closely related to the first entry (to the point where some people call it a prequel despite occurring ~4000 years in the past). The plot follows Lloyd in his quest to help his childhood friend, Colette regenerate the world and usher in a new era of prosperity. Along the way, he finds out that regenerating the world is slightly more complicated than one would expect.

 

Things I liked:

• Battle system. It's completely different than any of series I've played (this is the only game in the Tales series I've played, so I don't have the comparisons/improvements to discuss).
• Post game battles. Honestly, my favorite part of the game is once I can stop caring about the story. The battles with Abyssion, Shadow Kratos/Mithos/Yuan, Meredy/Farah/Gar were my favorite. Boss battles in my Gung Ho playthrough was pretty interesting too.
• Fatalize. Best battle theme in the game.

Things I didn't like:

• Storyline. Honestly, I think the plot is somewhat interesting, however, the storytelling of this game was ridiculously bad (to the point where I did not want to play this game a second time (my first PS3 run)). Everything is ridiculously cheesy and fRiEnDsHiP. Ugh. Half of the plot twists aren't even shocking.
  • Party skits. Honestly, I don't mind when characters are talking to each other one on one (that's where most of the tolerable and interesting character development and exposition occurs), but once three people are conversing, I start mashing buttons to end it to keep my sanity.
• Unskippable events and skits do not belong in a game where multiple playthroughs are expected due to plot choices (5 playthroughs are necessary for having a 100% save file; 8 are required to see all of the character dialogue/interactions/endings).
• Being reminded that Colette is clumsy is not necessary in every town. Girl has wings and manages to stumble on her feet on a regular basis; I'm surprised she didn't crash into a wall or tree or something with how uncoordinated she is (there are multiple instances where she's literally broken walls by falling into them by how clumsy she is).
• Spell queues. Advanced spells are queued up when the caster is done performing the incantation. This leads to scenarios where you can delay an enemy's attack by using your own spells, or preventing Raine from healing you because Genis finally finished Indignation once you're all at low health. With Raine being so valuable, this flat out makes Genis the worst character in the party
• Allies' AI is sporadic in their decision making. Some battles everything flows and goes as expected. Other times, Raine runs across the stage and up to the boss to start casting her spells, only to be brutally murdered seconds later. There's a Strat page that can be manipulated to encourage "better thinking", but if Raine really wants to get close to a boss, by golly she's gonna. Melee characters have this weird process of running up to a boss, performing their combo, then running to the opposite edge of the battlefield to think about their next action.
  • Elemental resistances seem to have weird influences with the AI. If you have a default elemental attack on a melee character, they'll refuse to attack an enemy that's immune to it the entire battle even if their equipment is changed (Lloyd wouldn't attack Shadow Mithos at all because I had the Light gem equipped on him for the dungeon and forgot to remove before the fight). Genis doesn't seem to mind using spells on bosses that are immune to them, and priority isn't given to effective elements either; he'll even cast earth spells on flying enemies on a semi-regular basis. Raine won't use Light magic against enemies that are immune to Light, so that's nice.

 

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of this game, and I can't fathom how it's classified a good game; I've watched my boyfriend play through Xillia 1 & 2 and Zestiria, which all three seem significantly better than Symphonia. I'm pretty relieved to have this game off my backlog, and it'll probably be a long time before I touch another Tales game.

[Makilio]

Updated to include Uncharted 3 (PS3) - DLC.

 

I normally wouldn't include getting 100% for DLC, but I'm making an exception for the wild ride that is the Uncharted 3 PS3 trophy list. I think my experience was opposite of most; I enjoyed the grind of Hoarder/Collector, but was stressed out of my mind for the Overseer attempts. Managing teams of 5-6 people for the competitive trophies was frustrating as well.

 

But it doesn't matter. It's over; I'm free~

 

 

[Makilio]

Updated to include Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force:

#60: Ultimate Fencer

 

About the game

FFF:ADF is a remaster of the PS3 game Fairy Fencer F; it was made by the lovely Compile Heart and Idea Factory. This version of the game includes two new storylines based on your decisions in the early game, as well as some new playable characters. The plot follows Fang and his fairy, Eryn, as they attempt to bring back the Goddess for world peace by collecting Furies while eating as much food as possible. Along the way, the meet other fencers that are collecting Furies for their own reasons.

 

Things I liked:

• The plot. The characters were really funny, and I loved all of the character interactions.
• The music. All of it is really good. Personal favorites include: Fairize theme, Marianna's theme, Clockwork Universe
• The battle system. It's pretty fun and is a really nice step-up from previous CH/IF battle systems. The only functions I didn't really utilize were the personal skills (for anyone that's not Fang or Pippin/Noie for their respective trophies) and switching.
• Transformation scenes for everyone

Things I didn't like:

• Not being able to reorganize/unequip spells/skills. There's a decent amount of them for each character, and I don't think I used more than 10-15% of them in total.
• Berserker trophy. I was able to complete all three storylines with less than 3,000 kills, so 10k seems a bit excessive for most players. Although, the grind wasn't too bad; you can easy solo it with Tiara in the first DLC floor in the tower rather "quickly".

 

Honestly, this is probably the best game to come out of Compile Heart and Idea Factory. The fanservice was kept to a minimum and it felt equal for both genders.The storyline was really funny, and I just had a blast playing it. It's probably one of my favorite games for the PS4 now.

Edited September 11, 2019 by Makilio

[Makilio]

Updated to include Cross Edge:

#61: Crossover Conquest

 

About the game

Cross Edge is a cross-over of several series (Ar tonelico, Atelier, Disgaea, Darkstalkers, Mana Khemia 2, and Spectral Souls). The plot follows the OCs York and Miko as they fall into this strange land and their quest to get back home to their boring normal lives. Along the way, they find other "heroes" that were forced into this mess and want nothing more than to return to their original worlds.

 

Things I liked:

• Characters. Probably the most defining aspect of a crossover game. The main reason I picked up this game was because I knew Etna, Marie, and the Darkstalkers cast were in it.
  • The interaction between the characters. I didn't want to say the plot, because as expected of a crossover, it's hot garbage, but I liked how everyone interacted with each other, as well as all of the fourth wall breaking in the post-game.
• Adult York. Total stud.

Things I didn't like:

• Battle system. While it seems really complicated at first, it's actually really simple and honestly, quite boring. There's five types of combos: Physical, which essentially boils down to comboing up a skill-type (A/B/C/D): A1 + A2 = Combo1; Combo1 + A1 + A2 = Combo2; Combo2 + A2 + A3 ..., Magical and Ranged (similar to physical combo but with magic/ranged techniques), and Mix attacks that are slightly more complicated and honestly not worth using since their damage is lower than its counterparts, and EX-combos which combines specific EX-skill types to combo. The game is completely doable without Mix and EX combos, as I never found them worth the hassle to use. Once you get comfortable with knowing which character has which skills and you are able to use Fanatic Rave (strongest physical) and/or Ragnarok (strongest magical), that's all you'll do until the final fight in the post game. You'll probably unlock it around a third of the way through the regular storyline (or at least I did).
  • Due to each character having specific skills and skill-types, the only good parties are those that can combo with each other. So if you're unfortunate enough to like characters that are incompatible with each other, sucks to suck. Who wants to play a crossover game to use just their favorite characters from different series?
• Marie and the synthesis system. Words cannot express how awful this system is. The equipment forging system is similar to the Atelier series, as in you get the required ingredients, bring them back to base, and alchemize a new item. Yay! Unless Marie decides to mess up like the klutz she is. That's right, there is an additional RNG mechanic tied to creating equipment and items (on top of the RNG of getting the drops you want), so you're at the mercy of the game. There is no way around it: Marie's combat level is irrelevant, Marie's alchemy level is irrelevant; it's just you and the RNG goddess having a race. Because of this, you're going to have to back out of the alchemy menu all the way, so you can save every few steps to save your progress. Also, Marie has this "oh no... ?" face that covers the screen when she messes up. Not cool.
  • Note: There is a steal mechanic in the game that is tied to specific skills, however, there are some enemies that are immune to stealing, so you have to farm them the old fashioned way.
  • Another note: Despite all of th guides and discussions about the game, there's no mention/consideration that stealing is tied to the character's LUK stat. I proved this myself in the endgame as York couldn't steal from some of the bosses at all, but once I dumped all of my bonus points into his LUK stat, he was able to steal from everyone without an issue. There was a hypothesis that it was tied to the character's level, but I tried with multiple characters and the consensus is that it's definitely the LUK stat.
  • Also, Marie decided to keep messing up the last item I needed to make for the platinum so I kept resetting for about 7 minutes. I'm still bitter from that.
• The shop. This somewhat ties in with the previous bullet point, but I'd say it warrants its own bullet. After successfully making an item, it registers in the store for purchase, so you get to save time for recipes that require lower leveled items (which is essentially everything past the first two tiers of weapon). Except, not every item will register, in fact about 95% of them won't. Because of this, you'll be making and remaking the same items several times with some of the final weapons taking ridiculous amounts of forging (and thus backing out and saving).
  • Some weapons have awful recipe chains the are frustrating because of these mechanics (like my favorite, the Argemein, as seen below):
  Spoiler

  
  [Argemein] 
  --------------------------------------------------
  Storebought:
  Fire Cluster (5)
  Ice Cluster (2)
  Thunder Cluster (4)
  Wind Cluster (11)
  Earth Cluster (9)
  Thunder Crystal (1)
  Wind Crystal (1)
  Dark Crystal (4)
  Flame & Sound (2)
  Wooden Naginata (2)
  Sports Pistol (10)
  Naginata (1)
  Bone Knuckle (3)
  Paw Guard (2)
  Bone Spear (2)
  Iron Claw (3)
  Assault Cannon (6)
  Chokushin Ryu (2)
  Adakh (2)
  Moon Crusher (8)
  Chained Knuckle (2)
  Sniper Shot (4)
  
  TP Store:
  Railgun (2)
  
  Ingredient Drops:
  Bug Whistle (3)  - Killer Bee (N/OK / 1-2)
  Wing Charm (1)  - Lesser Bat (N/OK / 3-3)
  Coral (1)  - Sea Bat (N/OK / 1-2)
  Crab Shell (1)  - Iron Scissor (N/OK / 1-3)
  Aqua Stone (1)  - Death Crab (N/OK / 5-1)
  Lizard Tail (2)  - Salamander (N/OK / 2-3)
  Basilisk Eye (2)  - Basilisk (N/OK / 4-1)
  Poisonous Petal (3)  - Mandrake (N/OK / 3-1)
  Ice Crystal [2] (2)  - Cold Gel (N/OK / 3-3)
  Solution (2)  - Water Pudding (N/OK / 4-2)
  Beast Charm (10)  - Hell Dog (N/OK / 1-1)
  Nightmare Stone (1)  - Night Hound (N/OK / 2-2)
  Imp Horn (2)  - Imp (N/OK / 1-1)
  Imp Wings (4)  - Lesser Devil (N/OK / 3-3)
  Bone (2)  - Skeleton (N/OK / 2-1)
  Bone Powder (4)  - Bone Soldier (N/OK / 1-3)
  Skull (2)  - Bone Warrior (N/OK / 3-3)
  Death Token (2)  - Mummy (N/OK / 2-2)
  Dead Crown (2)  - Grand Mummy (N/OK / 4-2)
  Silvervine Branch (2)  - Werecat (N/OK / 3-1)
  Snakeskin (9)  - Lamia (N/OK / 2-2)
  Viper Scale (1)  - Gorgon (N/OK / 4-3)
  Ceremonial Lexicon (2)  - Magic Lord (N/OK / 3-2)
  Hellblaze (12)  - Flame Dog (R/OK / 3-1)
  Nevermelting Ice (4)  - Fenrir (R/OK / 2-2)
  Primary Feather (4)  - Garuda (R/OK / 1-3)
  Large Mallet (2)  - Troll (R/OK / 3-2)
  Sharpened Horn (2)  - Gyuki (R/OK / 3-1)
  Monotone Wings (1)  - Chimera (R/OK / 2-3)
  Curse Stone (2)  - Majin (R/OK / 4-3 Dungeon)
  Dragon Fang (2)  - Dragon Zombie (R/OK / 4-3)
  Blue Dragon Scale (1)  - Blue Dragon (R/OK / 3-3)
  Red Dragon Scale (1)  - Red Dragon (R/OK / 5-1)
  Black Dragon Scale (1)  - Black Dragon (R/OK / 5-2)
  Rusty Gear (2)  - Auto Cannon (R/OK / 2-3)
  Calculator (2)  - Micro Burst (R/ 4-2)
  Electromagnetic Unit (1)  - C.P. Cannon (R/OK / 5-2)
  Black Box (1)  - PT-00X-ZL (R/OK / 5-2)
  Iron Chunk (2)  - Golem (R/OK / 2-3)
  Iron Gear (2)  - Iron Golem (R/OK / 4-1)
  Spirituality (1)  - Title 079, Lazarus (R2 / 5-3)
  
  Equipment Drops:
  Crystal Spear (1)  - Lesser Devil (R / 3-3)
  Nietzsche (1)  - Dagon (R2 / 4-1 Dungeon)
  Sleipnir (1)  - Metal Frame (R2 / 5-1 NE)
  Salamander (1)  - Zelos (N2 / 5-3)
  
  Synthesize List:
  Corsica (2) 
  Quick Load (10) 
  Tsurimaru (2) 
  Cross Spear (1) 
  Gaia's Claw (3) 
  Hurricane (8) 
  Harpoon (1) 
  Piledriver (2) 
  Halberd (1) 
  Air Smasher (3) 
  Moonlight (4) 
  Flame Knuckle (1) 
  Flashfire (4) 
  Gale & Emery (2) 
  Falcon Lance (1) 
  Clutch Knuckle (2) 
  Hide Seeker (2) 
  Ice Hand (2) 
  Crushing Fang (4) 
  Thunder Baghnakh (1) 
  Shadow Blaster (4) 
  Quinqu Rain (2) 
  Jamadhar (2) 
  Silent Wind (1) 
  Hidden Blaster (2) 
  Hidestalk (2) 
  Magic Hand (1) 
  99 Magnum (2) 
  Blue Dolphin (1) 
  Silent Cross (1) 
  Hydro Pain (2) 
  Magic Rifle (1) 
  Dragreiser (1) 
  Argemein (1)
  
  Convert List:
  Curved Blade (2)  - Wooden Naginata
  Spearhead (1)  - Corsica
  Dual Frame (2)  - Quick Load
  Pointy Bone (1)  - Bone Spear
  Assault Barrel (4)  - Assault Cannon
  Cross-shaped Edge (1)  - Cross Spear
  Samurai Edge (2)  - Chokushin Ryu
  Diamond (2)  - Gale & Emery
  Small Beak (1)  - Falcon Lance
  Full Metal Wheel (2)  - Chained Knuckle
  Unite Scope (2)  - Sniper Shot
  Crystal Eye (1)  - Crystal Spear
  Dark Bullet (2)  - Hidden Blaster
  Big Bullet (2)  - 99 Magnum
  Summer Strike (1)  - Silent Cross

• Lots of forced and uncomfortable fan service. Typical hot springs event, costumes only for the girls, boys are gross and disgusting. The usual.

 

Honestly, this game is a complete mess and frustrating to play. It's like the developers didn't think any of the mechanics through, and the whole shop/alchemy catastrophe makes it completely not worth playing. I would never recommend this game to anyone, and I have a deep hatred for Marie and her incompetency.

Edited September 11, 2019 by Makilio

[Makilio]

Updated to include Little Dragon's Café:

#62: Little Dragon's Café

 

About the game

LDC is about twins (Ren and Rin) whose mother owns a café in the middle of nowhere on its own island. One day, she gets sick and the twins have to live out their mother's dream of finally owning a successful café.

 

Things I liked

• The design of the story characters. They look nice.

Things I didn't like

• No sustenance. There is no driving force to accomplish anything in this game. Your priority during the main game is to collect ingredients so your staff can gradually increase your café's reputation until the next story event. Most days are skipped due to sleeping being a requirement for the next event. There's also no currency, so I suppose you're not selling your food.
• The dragon. All it does is bark at you, which is kind of cute when it's a baby, but after that, it's annoying to hear every 3 seconds. I ended up turning off sound effects because of how annoying it was, despite sound effects being useful for hunting animals and customer tracking for ingredient efficiency.
• The plot was bad.
  Spoiler

  Your mom gets sick because she's half dragon, despite being half dragon her entire life with no negative side effects. A creepy old man ghost appears out of nowhere and spends all day in your mom's room watching her slowly die while comatose. What.

   

• Post game was very uninteractive. The only goal is to achieve the last 10 recipes, which you get from the story characters after they visit your café and receive a dish they're happy with 50-60 times. The number of visits during the main game do not seem to count based of my tracking and comparing it to the discord's numbers.
  • To make this as time efficient as possible, you should only have one dish on your menu that you don't have enough ingredients for (causing all customers to storm out angrily). When a story character enters your café, add a dish they like before taking their order, place it at the register, then remove it immediately. If you time it correctly, your staff will be busy doing other things so your ingredients aren't wasted. Whoever takes their order or serves them does not matter, so you can strategically set up your menu if your staff are going to reach them before you and a lot of them come at once. Dish quality and rating doesn't seem to matter too much, as most of my numbers were comparable to others' finding.
  • Additionally, the distribution of story characters isn't even close to being balanced. Poncho and Huey consistently show up twice a day, whereas I did not see Maurice for several real-time hours at a time. Also, they only visit during 3 hours of the entire day (noon to 1 PM and 6 PM to 8 PM).
  • There's no in-game counter for your progress to obtaining your recipes. I kept a manual tracker in Excel so I wouldn't go crazy not knowing how I'm progressing compared to the average.
• Weather severely affects the number of customers negatively. Whenever it's not sunny (e.g. rainy, windy, overcast), less customers will visit the café. Of course, there's the standard daily variance, but when it's raining, you're lucky to see over 10 customers in a day, so you're better off sleeping until it's sunny. I once went on an unlucky spree and had 18 rainy & windy days in a row. Bleh.
• You cannot walk through NPCs, and they can push you to get where they're going. This leads to your staff and customers just pushing you around. The hitboxes on the characters felt awkward, and it was pretty frustrating to deal with. There were times where I was going to place an order, and one of my staff walked in the opposite way of me. I clipped the corner of their model and was dragged all the way across the café. There's also a possibility of getting trapped between someone sitting at the bar and Billy when he goes to stand near the bathroom area if you're far enough left when he's walking up from the register.
• Your chef is bad at cooking. Whenever he's sad, he has a high chance of failing a dish. What makes him sad? Almost everything. It's not sunny outside; someone didn't like his bad cooking; your other staff members are slacking off; the RNG goddess hates you; you haven't talked to him in awhile because you're probably running your café or getting ingredients; you didn't have enough ingredients to make a dish. Whatever the reason, he'll mess up the dish and a customer will rate it low.
• "Your staff is slacking!" notification. You'll most likely see this pop up as soon as you leave your café. If you decide to go back inside, you'll see all three members doing nothing and an influx of customers. This is only relevant during the storyline since customers need to be served dishes to increase your reputation. It also likes showing up as soon as you get to wherever you're going for ingredients.
• There's no variation or progression in game play. The general idea is you find where your desired ingredient spawns, mash X until it runs out, then go to the next spot. There's also hunting Zucchi (which your dragon does very poorly, by the way). But that's all there is to the game play. The only sense of progression is after the 3 chapters your dragon gets older. Adolescence lets you break stick piles. Young adult lets you fly. Adult lets you fly even longer (wow).

When the optimal way of playing your game is to not play it at all for recipes you'd never use in a typical playthrough, that's a pretty bad game design. The game was very disappointing on several fronts since there's no progression or sense of accomplishment. I don't recommend playing it even if you find it for a cheap price.

[Makilio]

Updated to include Grand Kingdom

#63: Hero of Resonail

 

About the game

Grand Kingdom is about a person who ends up in charge of a mercenary troop with one goal in mind: become famous. As for the actual plot, the storyline isn't required for the platinum, so I didn't play it. The game itself plays very uniquely; the best way to describe it is mobile-esque, but even that does not feel right. The battle system takes place on three rows that are fairly long with you and the enemy troop on opposite sides. You're able to populate the field with traps and various obstacles to spice up the battle.

 

Things I liked

• Each class feels really unique to use. This is due to there being two sets of techniques: class-specific and for-everyone. There are some similarities between classes (archers vs hunters, witches vs arcanists), but even "similar" classes felt completely different.
• The music and artwork were really good. It's pretty stunning.
• The online War mode. Being able to test your troop against other players' teams was pretty nice.
  • Additionally, the battles were pretty fun until you created an all-powerful team.

Things I didn't like

• The ACT stat / class priority. This stat is how turn order is determined. Units with the highest ACT stat (which is class specific) go first; in the event of a tie, AGI is used, followed by invasion (vs defending), followed by unit placement. While the ACT system isn't a bad mechanic, it felt underwhelming to use classes that had lower ACT. It also didn't help that one of the strongest classes (Paladin) had the highest ACT. This also led to units with low ACT being borderline unusable *cough* Dragon Mages,
  • While using 4 min-maxed Paladins won't win you every fight due to them having blatant counters, the game wasn't popular enough to create an anti-Paladin meta in the online War. Them being ridiculously strong allowed you to do stupid things like solo level 96+ teams with a non-min-maxed one with the proper set-up. Some higher level players caught onto this and created specific teams to counter this, which while frustrating, would've made investing into other units more worthwhile if they were more popular.
• Weird mid to late game feeling. The strongest equipment is around level 40-50, even including the elusive War-only equipment. After getting your mid-level equipment and strengthen it at the blacksmith, you're essentially done unless you want to train multiple troops (where there's no incentive to really do so).
• Online War enemies. While I did like the mode, it didn't feel balanced, probably due to the lack of a playerbase. Most of the time you'd fight troops that are sub-50 despite being level 99 on three of your characters. This led to pretty boring battles. Other times, you might run into 10 anti-Paladin level 96+ troops in a row (totally happened one day) that destroyed me. Battles pretty much always felt one-sided.

Overall, I felt it was a pretty fun game with its downsides. I felt this is one of those games where a trophy list actually makes it less enjoyable since it forces you to play a specific way (although, that way is somewhat optimal anyways). I feel like the War mode is a major portion of the actual gameplay, and with the servers closing, there's not much life left into the game. Despite having a lot of fun playing Grand Kingdom, I can't really recommend it anymore since future experiences will be missing out on a lot.

[Makilio]

Updated to include Kingdom Hearts 3 and Dragon's Dogma (because I was too lazy to do KH3 for a month)

 

#64: KINGDOM HEARTS III Complete Master

 

Things I liked

• San Fransokyo. The world itself was pretty cool; I spent most of my post-game grinding there if I didn't have to be in a specific world. I liked the world's theme as well.
• Spoiler

  Playing as Aqua. Best fight in the game.

   

• The gameplay. I liked all the changes they've made to the battle system. It flows really nicely.

 

Things I didn't like

• How forced the worlds felt. Most of the worlds felt completely forced, like Disney told the developers they had to use these specific worlds. There was no reason for Pirates of the Caribbean to be on here; the plot spanned over 2 (3?) of the movies and made no sense without context.
• How predictable the ending of the game was.
• Sora
• Verum Rex. I think I actually would've taken a 100 Acre wood world over this minigame's trophy.

 

 

#65: The True Arisen

 

Things I liked

• The pawn system. It was cool how you could use other players' pawn as part of your party (and vice versa with your pawn).
• The opening theme. I remember seeing an ad for this game with the theme playing, which is the main reason why I bought it in the first place.
• Symone's run and fall animations.

Things I didn't like

• The world. It's pretty empty with no variance in spawns. It got really boring, really quickly.
• The boss battles were exciting the first time you faced a particular boss, but once you've started seeing them around the map, it got annoying.
• Pawn holding enemies or yelling at enemies.. The game starts to lag and pans over to wherever the pawn/enemy are while they shout "Now, master. Strike!" The transition was not done well and made fights more frustrating than they should be.
• Storyline. It was nonexistent for 80% of the game, and then it wasn't even that good.

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by Makilio

[Makilio]

Updated to include Uncharted 1 Remastered and Shining Resonance Refrain.

 

#66: Platinum

 

Things I liked

• Nate and Elena's dialogue. I started the series with 3, so it was really nice to see how they met and how their relationship started to develop.
• The brutal playthrough was a lot of fun. While I did miss the mechanics I got used to during the U3 grind, I was still pretty good at the game and had a lot of fun in the shooting scenes. I didn't find any of them too difficult/frustrating. (although I would hope that's the case after 300+ hours of frustration in 3)

Things I didn't like

• The jeep chapter, especially on Brutal difficulty. Being killed in one shot before you get control of your character isn't cool.
• The descendants. Scared the hell out of me in the bunker on all of my playthroughs when they popped around corners, even when I knew where they were.

#67: Shining Resonance Refrain

 

Things I liked

• The music is nice, although I would put it below Eternal Sonata's soundtrack.

Things I didn't like

• Characters. They were all pretty one dimensional with no character growth throughout the game. There were plenty of plot points that could've been used to develop several of the characters in this small cast, but for some reason, the writers didn't feel that it was necessary.
• No quick navigation. There's a consumable item you can use to warp back to town, but there's nothing to help you navigate to the further portions of the map. A way to warp to the minor camps would have been nice. There's an item in the post game that doesn't get consumed when you warped, but I already went and bought a large amount of the consumable type prior to unlocking it that i didn't really see the need to get it.
• Lack of difficulty. The only boss I found difficult was Beatrice, who was a really minor boss/antagonist in the grand scheme of the plot. Every other boss was laughably easy, even without using the Shining Dragon form. I cleared all of the post-game battles using it and didn't actually pay attention. I just mashed away and that apparently was good enough. All content in the game can be easily done by level 80, which is weird since the level cap is apparently 200.
• The plot. It falls somewhere between bad and mediocre.
• Dating. It felt like watching two high schoolers awkwardly trying to romance each other. It was really uncomfortable, especially for Marion who looks really young and has some sort of Stockholm syndrome going on.
• Run animation. There was momentum, so your characters would slow to a halt when you tried to go back to walking which was really clunky. It was also awkward to turn while running while going around corners or navigating around enemies in dungeons.

[Makilio]

Updated to include Dragon Quest XI.

#68: Living Legend

 

Things I liked:

• Sylvando. Every Dragon Quest game has that one character with enough personality for the rest of the cast, and I'm glad it was this guy. I'm surprised that some people honestly think he's not gay.
• The music, monsters, and all Dragon Quest tropes. I'll take shirtless muscle men and bunny girls over any Final Fantasy any day.
• Weather cows. Honestly, such a stupid thing shouldn't be that funny.

Things I didn't like

• Hero. Now I know every DQ game has a self insert void of personality and is pushed through the story because the plot demands it, but I'm really not a fan of that. Unless I have choices that dramatically effect a story, I want the protagonist to have a personality and actually interact with their party and environment. Heck, I don't understand why him and Gemma are a pair. She has no personality either other than "I'll wait here for you forever and talk about how sad I am". Girl bye.
• Gemma. Enough to mention her twice since she kept trying to be plot relevant past the opening.
• The pacing felt weird, especially in the later two acts.

 

Overall, a solid Dragon Quest game, although I'd probably rank it somewhere around the lower middle of the series. It's not bad by any means, but I feel like it was lacking the charm of some of the previous games. Honestly, playing through this has me craving for another Dragon Quest Monsters game (the original series, not Joker).

[Makilio]

Updated to include Until Dawn

#69: A Symphony of Horror Trophies

 

Things I liked:

• The clues. They were a really nice way of adding additional plot development to the game, and it was fun to know what sort of twists that were coming before the characters did if you collected enough of them to piece together the information.
• Emily and Sam. After my two playthroughs, I would say these are really the only likable characters in the game. Emily's definitely my favorite.
• What happens to Jess early on in the game. I honestly thought it was the funniest scene in the game.

 

Things i didn't like:

• Recycled lines. Some of the lines/reactions don't really make sense depending on how many characters are alive at that point of the game.
  Spoiler

  The building in chapter 10 where you see the dead bodies is the perfect example. "So many bodies..." and their really dramatic reaction doesn't make sense when it's just the creepy old man you barely even know. And if they're the only two people left alive, it felt like an extreme under-reaction. I don't think the reaction to both of those scenarios should be the same. There's plenty of other examples of this sort of reaction throughout the later portions of the game.

   

• Unskippable scenes. Definitely makes any sort of replayability go out the window. Also, why do I need a "previous on Until Dawn" for the last chapter, when I literally just finished it? It makes sense if I turn off the game and come back, but still make it skippable. I feel most people will remember what happened in the last 15 minutes if they're playing a story driven game.
• A decent number of the QTEs and "don't move" events actually don't have consequences for failing them. I see why for some of them for plot reasons, but there's still many that I messed up on during my second playthrough that made me go "huh."
• Ashley during the all deaths run.
  Spoiler

  If you beg someone to shoot you to save their life for several minutes, you kind of lose the right to get mad at them if they actually do it. The fact that Ashley allows Chris to get murdered because of that scene is awful, and the fact that she was indifferent about his death was even worse.

   

• Clunky movement around other characters; they have really large hitboxes or something. Also, I feel like the walking speed is a bit slow, even when holding down L1 (and there's no auto speed-walk or anything).

 

The game's pretty fun the first time around, but it's not as replayable as the devs would want you to think. Nobody wants to rewatch the same scene over and over because you want to do something different later on in the same chapter.

Edited June 27, 2020 by Makilio