Life Is Strange - Trophy-Speedrun

[dernop]

*edit* 

we did the run, both on ps4 and ps3... i just quote my answer from further below here:

 

i prepared the run with a friend simultaneously and then did the trophy-speedrun one after another yesterday evening. we did the ps4 version on her account first and my missing ps3 version after that.

we got both fastest achiever times no problem:

 

1:52h for the ps4 version (https://psnprofiles.com/100-club/3313-Life-Is-Strange)

2:10h on the ps3 (https://psnprofiles.com/100-club/3313-Life-Is-Strange)

 

the strats mentioned above worked and you can absolutely prepare the whole game with 0% trophies, without using any kind of backup save or anything, and then just quickly run through the chapters in "collectible mode", getting all the photos and finishing the final chapter of each episode after that.

you won't even have to quit the game once you started and can do it all in one run.

 

the exception to this would be the ps3 version, since it crashed at least once per episode for me or just stuck in an infinite loading screen... that, plus the overall slower loading times, are the reason why it was around 20 minutes longer then our ps4 run, even tho' we had more experience and avoided some errors we did on the first (ps4) run.

Original post:
hi,

since we had quite some discussions around here over the last days/weeks regarding trophy-speedruns, i'm currently planning a trophy-speedrun, since all episodes are complete and i wanted to replay it anyways.

in terms of "strats", what i thought of so far is: it should be possible to play each episode separately, without getting any optional photos, and then just quit basically right before the episode end (last checkpoint).
should be even possible to do it on a single save file, since you unlock chapter select and can just replace from the final chapter of each episode.
to further improve the time you could use the three(?) available save slots to really be able to continue from the very last checkpoint.
the only downside is, that you play the episodes separately and your decisions won't have any impact this way, but since i already played it, i don't really care that much about that

when you have prepared all five episodes this way, without any trophy unlocked so far you could jump right to the end of episode one, complete it and quickly get all photos with chapter select. perhaps one should do any particular photo/episode first. i'm instantly thinking about one of the last (or THE last, not sure) photo, where you have to collect all bottles in the nightmare area first. not that it's hard or anything, but it can be a bit random and i got detected a couple of times there, which will negatively impact the time.

another thing: since you only have three save slots, put the three episodes there with the longest final chapter. so that you can do them from the last checkpoint and you'd have to replay the whole last chapter of the remaining two episodes.
you could even throw some cloud/USB saves in there but i don't think i want to go that far.
basically with the restriction: in-game features only (the three save slots).

i know some people don't like that kind of stuff, but i really find it interesting (and i know some other members around here do,too) and just want to try for fastest achiever, which should be quite easy right now

it should work as described, shouldn't it? perhaps i missed something?! i'm simply looking for any kind of input/suggestions here, it would be highly appreciated!

dernop

Edited November 1, 2015 by dernop

[demonoid321]

Just a question since your going for speed running this game. Is the game any good? Wanted to check it out but need some thoughts on it.

[dernop]

Just a question since your going for speed running this game. Is the game any good? Wanted to check it out but need some thoughts on it.

i absolutely loved it, but i guess you have to like "telltale-like" games for that.

if you liked the walking dead for example, i'm almost sure you'll like this too.

overall a very good, story/decision-heavy adventure game.

[demonoid321]

i absolutely loved it, but i guess you have to like "telltale-like" games for that.

if you liked the walking dead for example, i'm almost sure you'll like this too.

overall a very good, story/decision-heavy adventure game.

Telltale is one of my favorite game developers (besides Rockstar and Bethesda) whats the main story based about?

[dernop]

Telltale is one of my favorite game developers (besides Rockstar and Bethesda) whats the main story based about?

uh, i'd highly recommend reading a professional review for that, because i'm extremely bad at explaining such things!

i just grabbed a short synopsis from imdb.com:

 

 

An unconfident photography student discovers that she has the ability to rewind time. After reuniting with her estranged best friend, she uses her new found ability to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a local girl.

- Written by Anonymous

especially the rewind mechanic is quite funny and i really liked that aspect. 

 

[PleaseHoldOn]

I gathered all the trophies/achievements for this one on PC... I'm really not sure what you're asking OP.  The trophies are basically all the optional photos.  Either you get them, or you don't.  I'm not sure what the "strategy" would be.

 

That being said, the game does have a "collectible" mode where you just play through the game without saving your decisions for the optional photos.  And you can select specific episodes, and even chapters within the episodes to make collecting the photos even easier post-game.

 

 

Telltale is one of my favorite game developers (besides Rockstar and Bethesda) whats the main story based about?

 

The game is basically a time bending sci-fi story/investigation of a girl that disappeared... with heavy doses of teenie bopper digital-age melodrama.  Don't get me wrong, it's very good... I LOVED The Walking Dead and Quantic Dream games (Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls), and I almost want to say Life Is Strange was even better... so that's a raving endorsement from me.  But you may struggle to stay interested at first if topics like bullying and hipsters make you groan with disinterest.  Get through that though, and you're in for a treat.

Edited October 27, 2015 by PleaseHoldOn

[dernop]

I gathered all the trophies/achievements for this one on PC... I'm really not sure what you're asking OP.  The trophies are basically all the optional photos.  Either you get them, or you don't.  I'm not sure what the "strategy" would be.

 

 

well the strategy, as i described relatively detailed in my original post, would be, that you more or less cut off the time to actually complete the game by "almost completing" every episode beforehand, without getting any trophies and then just quickly get the photos in the collectible mode and replaying the last checkpoint of each episode (for the episode trophy).

 

if you simply play through the whole game while getting the photos it would take you at least 6-8 hours i guess?! current fastest achiever was around 10h, last time i checked.

if you can just jump into specific chapters, get the photo and jump to the next, i'd say it can be done in 3 hours or so perhaps?

 

that's basically the "challenge" here. i'd like to try how fast you can actually achieve platinum in this, without usb/cloud saving. otherwise you would just make a couple of saves with checkpoints directly at the photos or so.

[PleaseHoldOn]

Oh, I see.  So it's a question of what's faster... getting the photos as you play through the game, or jumping from chapter to chapter afterwards.

 

Logically, it would be fastest to get them as you play through the game, no?  Since you have to play through the game from start to finish anyways for the episode completion trophies. The optional photos are typically "right there" as you play, with a handful of exceptions that require a little time manipulation or planning to achieve.  I guess that's assuming you know where they are... or use a guide.

 

Then again, I've never been a "speed runner", so maybe I'm not looking at it the right way.

Edited October 27, 2015 by PleaseHoldOn

[dernop]

Oh, I see.  So it's a question of what's faster... getting the photos as you play through the game, or jumping from chapter to chapter afterwards.

 

Logically, it would be fastest to get them as you play through the game, no?  Since you have to play through the game from start to finish anyways for the episode completion trophies. The optional photos are typically "right there" as you play, with a handful of exceptions that require a little time manipulation or planning to achieve.  I guess that's assuming you know where they are... or use a guide.

 

Then again, I've never been a "speed runner", so maybe I'm not looking at it the right way.

 

ah, i guess i see now where we get each other wrong!

i'm talking about a TROPHY-speedrun, which is basically just the time between the first and the last trophy! you absolutely cannot compare this to a real speedrun. it's more like strategic planning of when and how to get the trophies.

the general idea is to get the first trophy as late as possible! so you play through the episodes beforehand and avoid getting trophies. so when your trophy-speedrun actually starts (first trophy) you already have almost completed the game.

 

this may sound strange but some people are into that kind of thing. it's interesting to see and plan ahead how to lay out the trophies to get them as fast as possible. we just had this discussion a couple of days ago, because someone was flagged as cheater because of that

[imagineSM]

You already know my thoughts on illegitimate speedruns. 

But sony and thus psnp consider it to be legit, so you're okay on that front.

 

Why not get every collectible but the last one in each chapter first, then complete the game.

Upload that save to the cloud then delete that save from your game.
Then get towards the end of chapter 1 and upload that save to the cloud then delete the save from your game.

Rinse and repeat for each chapter.

 

Obviously do not sync the trophies and delete your account from your playstation.

Then re add it and load for example the chapter 1 save and get the chapter one trophy. 

Delete that save and load the chapter 2 save from the cloud and pop that trophy real quick too.

 

You should have the plat within an hour.

 

It's digusting, but it's allowed and I'm guessing that's what you're asking?

Edited October 27, 2015 by imagineSM

[dernop]

Why not get every collectible but the last one in each chapter first, then complete the game.

Upload the save to cloud, do not sync the trophies, remove your account  then re add the account; load up your save then get every last collectible in every chapter while completing the chapter through chapter select?

Should be able to do it all in an hour or so lol.

 

like i said i would like to get the best time possible, without utilizing backup saves. especially since i know some people don't like that and i can fully understand that point!

 

but here, every collectible has basically their very own trophy, so this wouldn't work anyways!

so the way i see it, you can only save time on the initial playthrough by not getting ANY collectible. the trophy list pretty much only consists of collectible trophies. 

10 trophies / collectibles per episode plus one for all collectibles of that chapter and one for completing the episode. so this strategy wouldn't really work anyways.

 

basically, in my opinion, this _is_ a legit trophy-speedrun. i'd only use the ingame-possibilites. nothing external, not even backup saves!

[imagineSM]

like i said i would like to get the best time possible, without utilizing backup saves. especially since i know some people don't like that and i can fully understand that point!

 

but here, every collectible has basically their very own trophy, so this wouldn't work anyways!

so the way i see it, you can only save time on the initial playthrough by not getting ANY collectible. the trophy list pretty much only consists of collectible trophies. 

10 trophies / collectibles per episode plus one for all collectibles of that chapter and one for completing the episode. so this strategy wouldn't really work anyways.

 

basically, in my opinion, this _is_ a legit trophy-speedrun. i'd only use the ingame-possibilites. nothing external, not even backup saves!

 

Yeah that's legit.

Can you load the chapter from a certain point or do you have to start at the beginning?

If you have to start at the beginning then there's probably no difference.

[dernop]

Yeah that's legit.

Can you load the chapter from a certain point or do you have to start at the beginning?

If you have to start at the beginning then there's probably no difference.

you unlock chapter select basically, so you can start anywhere! as long as you don't complete the episode you wont get a trophy BUT you unlock the last chapter, so you can jump right into that.

at least that's my plan! should work!

[imagineSM]

you unlock chapter select basically, so you can start anywhere! as long as you don't complete the episode you wont get a trophy BUT you unlock the last chapter, so you can jump right into that.

at least that's my plan! should work!

 

Oh, then yeah it'll absolutely be faster.

That's a legit method so no one can complain about that time.

Good luck dude.

 

Edited October 27, 2015 by imagineSM

[Hemiak]

But if you get a trophy for each completed episode how do you "set up" your episode 2,3,etc. saves before completing ep. 1? Are they "separate" like some of the other Telltale games or linked like TWD chapters?

[dernop]

But if you get a trophy for each completed episode how do you "set up" your episode 2,3,etc. saves before completing ep. 1? Are they "separate" like some of the other Telltale games or linked like TWD chapters?

 

exactly! it's a typical episodic game where you can start each episode individually. the game will warn you, that it "doesn't make sense" (or better: your decisions are not saved), but you can absolutely do that.

[Hemiak]

OK, I haven't played any telltale games since the beginning of Chapter 2 in TWD season 1, I was just curious.

[dernop]

That's a legit method so no one can complain about that time.

Good luck dude.

aaaaand done, thanks!

i prepared the run with a friend simultaneously and then did the trophy-speedrun one after another yesterday evening. we did the ps4 version on her account first and my missing ps3 version after that.

we got both fastest achiever times no problem:

1:52h for the ps4 version (https://psnprofiles.com/100-club/3313-Life-Is-Strange)

2:10h on the ps3 (https://psnprofiles.com/100-club/3313-Life-Is-Strange)

the strats mentioned above worked and you can absolutely prepare the whole game with 0% trophies, without using any kind of backup save or anything, and then just quickly run through the chapters in "collectible mode", getting all the photos and finishing the final chapter of each episode after that.

you won't even have to quit the game once you started and can do it all in one run.

the exception to this would be the ps3 version, since it crashed at least once per episode for me or just stuck in an infinite loading screen... that, plus the overall slower loading times, are the reason why it was around 20 minutes longer then our ps4 run, even tho' we had more experience and avoided some errors we did on the first (ps4) run.

but it was fun and we still love the game!