realm722 Posted November 7, 2020 Author Share Posted November 7, 2020 (edited) Game: Sayonara Wild Hearts Analysis: I bought Sayonara Wild Hearts for $7.79 in mid-October 2020. I am going to put two bold statements below that most succinctly summarize how I feel. Sayonara Wild Hearts has the greatest trophy list for a platinum of every game I have ever played on Playstation 4. Sayonara Wild Hearts is my Celeste. THAT'S RIGHT! Ladies and gentlemen we have one of the biggest surprises of my entire 2020 gaming catalogue this year. I thought the Banner Saga was going to be the runaway favorite for that category - with some 2nd and 3rd place nominations for Beholder and Slime Rancher. But holy crap this game has blown me away. I had heard some nice things here and there about it for Indie of the Year in 2019, but no Game of the Year love like small indie titles like Hollow Knight and Disco Elysium received. All I seriously knew about it was that it had a fun purple aesthetic, dealt heavily with music (so likely a rhythm game) and somehow despite being an indie managed to get Queen Latifah as the narrator. The story behind her last minute addition to the game for the brief narration sequences is pretty cool. Regardless, since I had heard good things about everything surrounding it and saw it had an extremely reasonable 20% platinum - I figured what the heck it's a cool indie to add to my catalogue, fully expecting this to be a game that likely lands in the high 6's to low 7's for me in my ranking scale. GOOD LORD DID IT SURPASS THOSE EXPECTATIONS. I honestly don't even know where to begin or how to express how wonderfully this game controls when you play it. It's a remarkably short game - you're going to have to play through all the levels multiple times, but the full game in 1 go can be completed in less than an hour. The great thing is - I was enthralled by going back through and achieving gold ranks on all of them. The levels are so quick that each one rarely lasts much longer than two minutes, with many only going for as long as half that. The design was so well done that the game has quick snappy menus that reload in an instant in case you want to skip a cutscene (thank goodness for this inclusion that so many other games unfathomably forget, it made replaying levels 10x far more enjoyable) along with the fact the restart button means if you accidentally mess up starting over is as quick as say, a difficult platformer like Celeste. When you die - the music doesn't get ruined but quickly puts you back in position to try again. If the game notices you've died more than 3 times on a particular obstacle - it will grant you the option to skip ahead. I of course, am a hardcore pro NOT baby boy gamer so I never used this option... except for the one time I needed to trigger it 3 times for a trophy. With regard to ranking my favorite levels - I'd say this is my Top 10. 1) Inside (little death girl tries to kill you, you don't oblige) 2) Parallel Universes (amongst many considered to be best level in the game) 3) Wild Hearts Never Die (culmination of all levels celebration, YOU KISS THE BOSSES) 4) The World We Knew (adore the visual of the VR headset) 5) Begin Again (1st major boss fight, lengthy level) 6) Heartbreak V (transition between boat to insane pace >>>) 7) Hearts & Swords (bouncing music, fun twists and turns) 8) Doki Doki Rush (loved going for risky's + dashing between cars) 9) Heartbreak III (love the music, climbing a spiral tower) 10) Laser Love (mowing down wolves on a bike with turrets) But the great thing about this game is it isn't one of those basic ass platinums that asks you to play through the game, do the bare minimum, boom congrats you done! It, instead, finds that perfect balance between asking mastery from the player over the game without an absolutely absurd unneeded requirement that some games absolutely take over the line. You do need to earn Gold Rank on every level - and be good enough at the game to beat a consecutive string of them without dying a single time, but it's not doing anything like asking you to beat the entire game without dying or collect every level in every single level or land a perfect on every single course. It's the perfect balance. I had so much fun going through each level, learning the lay of the land, and slowly inching my way closer to the Gold Rank each time. Given how quickly the levels fly by even if I messed up I'd mostly keep going just to get better practice at the later portions of each run. There's also the fun caveat of many levels having independent "riddles" or goals to achieve that are quirky and don't always demand you play the game perfectly - but rather try to subvert expectations by asking you to complete unique tasks in each level. Some of my favorites included - achieving gold rank in "Begin Again" 3 times in a row. Don't collect any small hearts in "Parallel Universes". Get 0 points in "Night Drift", and finally - get only Good on prompts in "Fighting Hearts". It's just a nice twist on how to play the game completely differently that I would never bother with otherwise and that's exactly what I want trophies to do in games for me - maximize by experience without feeling like padding. When I wrote in my second bolded line that SWH is my Celeste - I really mean it. If you haven't bothered with or played Celeste, it's a lot of peoples Games of the Year from 2018. Having played it back in April 2019 - I absolutely understand all the love it received, but I personally didn't love it - like that. I recognized the brilliant level design and love for platformers that so many have - and with it's overall message and quick twitched gameplay engrossing many - I understood why it became so many peoples favorite game... but it wasn't that for me. It was too difficult - or perhaps I should say, I didn't love it enough to learn it and conquer it like I have with other very difficult games. That's what'll happen occasionally when the game provides an Assist Mode and doesn't deactivate trophies when you choose to do so. That's not a judgement - I know the developers are big on acceptance and the like but it undoubtedly affected my experience. This is why Sayonara Wild Hearts excels in all the ways that Celeste didn't for me. I am captivated when I play this game. The controls are so smooth and snappy whenever I die I concede it's my fault. The art design and aesthetics tell more with their small budget than many other developers do with triple to quadruple the same amount. The elusive "game feel" is magnificent. Even after beating the game I sat down and watched this Yolo Arcade Run and was blown away. I managed to reach 350k and die stupidly towards the end of Parallel Universes but to pull off what that dude did is nuts - don't feel bad if it takes you a few tries, I died stupidly with 208k, 228k, and 238k brutally on the wolves levels multiple times. In Arcade Mode involves playing every level over again and I did that and had a super fun time - even managing to across the 1 million barrier for the Gold Rank. There was not a single moment I did not enjoy my time with this game and "failing" only wanted me to get better at it. It struck the perfect balance between far from a cakewalk(you're not going to get Gold Rank without practicing the later levels numerous times) while also not being soul crushingly difficult. What bigger compliment can a game receive? Sayonara Wild Hearts aced every possible aspect I could want out of a video game of this ilk - and it receives my nomination to be recommended to every type of player regardless of what genres you normally. What Simogo (Swedish video game developer) created here with the help of Annapurna Interactive was masterclass. Do yourself a favor and play it. All in all, it took me 2 days and 11 hours in order to capture it's 20.94% rarity platinum. サヨナラワイルドハーツ. Panda Score: 9 / 10 Edited June 18, 2022 by realm722 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted November 14, 2020 Author Share Posted November 14, 2020 Game: Afterparty Analysis: Hey whaddya know it's a game I've made eyes on for awhile know! From the makers of Oxenfree, I bought Afterparty for $10.99 in early November 2020. So I went into this game trying to know as little as possible about it. In fact - just about the only few things I knew going into it were the fact that 1) It was made by the same development studio that made Oxenfree(which scored a prestigious 8/10 from me) - and given that game was essentially the 1st game I properly "branched out" into when trophy hunting, that was pretty significant to me. The only other detail I really knew was 2) It deals with being in Hell, or the Underworld - and trying to figure a way out. Cool premise! This is a heavily narrative / dialogue focused game with some lukewarm gameplay elements maximizing at most with 3 mini-games. I figure I should state that at the outset since if you're someone who can't really enjoy games for anything but their gameplay - this game probably isn't for you. That being said, one of the returns to this game is the wonderful dialogue system! You can interject at any moment and the biggest change to the dialogue system is that since drinking alcohol is a huge focal point of the game, depending on the drink you choose and the effect it has on you - it can offer completely different 3rd choice options in different situations. If you buy a drink that makes you "courageous" you'll be more bold, if you buy a "flirty" drink you'll be hopelessly romantic, you can buy a mobster drink to talk like a gangster, a pirate drink, one that is titled "famous last words" where you're a gigantic a-hole to the "rich asshole" which means you're constantly putting yourself on a pedestal above others. Those are just a few to give you an idea of what the set-up is actually like - I remember when I discovered thinking it "ooooh that's gonna be tricky but fun!" and what can I say? Afterparty managed to pull of yet another extremely likable cast with fun characters and engaging dialogue. (WARNING - I pretty much give away full spoilers from here onwards, the first two paragraphs were to sell you the game mechanics - now you're either in and get off this train or keep reading!) That is enormous when that's basically the reason I got so invested in Oxenfree revolving around Alex! This game on the other hand features two main protagonists - Lola and Milo. I love that idea, their two fates are intertwined with one another and at the very start of the game Lola makes clear "I don't know why the hell people think we're dating." - oh hey! They're best friends, not a couple. At the outset you play as Milo so I went along with it but damn man - perhaps it's cliche, but I was hoping there would have been an avenue to explore where Milo and Lola... end up together? Not at all what this game was going for, I know - the closest these two ever get to true "romantic" or "touchy" is when Lola is stacked up on top of Milo in a latter sequence to sneak into an all-demon club and her crotch is rubbing up against his neck. That's about as far as it ever goes - and from everything I've played, you're never allowed as either character to "reveal their true feelings" for one another - which I thought was weird, since one of the nightmare sequences with your personal demon involves Milo's father saying "boys and girls can't just be friends."..... and then they never went anywhere with that? Nonetheless - after Lola and Milo gather their bearings that they're stuck in Hell - they meet Sam, a taxi driver who is voiced by Ashly Burch! (This is the part where I say - the voice acting in this game is WONDERFUL, so many times games come away with cringy dialogue where you want to mute you television, this game avoids that - shoutout to Lola's VA (Janina Gavankar), Milo's VA (Khoi Dao) and finally Satan's VA (Dave Fennoy) who from the moment he started speaking I could tell was Lee from The Walking Dead! Awesome selection!) Sam is oddly friendly to two brand new humans in the under-world and she explains to you all the possible escape from this nightmare. If you out-drink and out-party Satan - he grants you return to the real world! Simple enough eh? Not so fast! First you need to gather two V.I.P. entries for your protagonists and you can attain it one of two ways. Either assisting Fela (cop in need of arresting a human) or assisting Lynda (musician who sold her soul to the Devil) - in my opinion Fela's is far more fun due to the options given. After that, you go to Satan's party and discover you need to earn his respect and thus needs "seals" from 2 of the 4 monarchs. Those include Asmodeus, Apollyon, Ono(you would have run into her on Lynda's path, she went on vacation so she's not available) and the 4th that you don't realize it - but is actually Sam!(yea she's Satan's sister, you can choose to get her seal by accepting a detour right before the end of the game) Anyways - Asmodeus run includes Milo having his literal conscience being "drank out of him" and it terrified me. As someone who was favoring Lola, I still didn't want to deal with incel Milo as her partner. We reunited Asmodeus with his ex-wife Beth (Bicker, social media VP) and threw the dance competition. Later on with Apollyon we ruthlessly got Roberto(nice Belgian man) a false conviction after we threw the case which is what Apollyon wanted. I really digged Polly, but I'll be honest the difference between getting Roberto convicted or not is virtually non-existant in terms of consequences. Finally, you go to Satan's party with the seals and woah! Lola and Milo split up depending on the decisions you made and who you "favored" in terms of their personal preferences. I sadly got stuck with Milo because I mis-clicked once and didn't know other actions had such consequences. Once you learn you need a "team" to take on Satan, I went running back to Lola and got her back - relieved to say the least. The ending is where things can diverge a bit. The 1st time around I brought Asmodeus and Sam. The ending always starts the same and it's basically Apollyon trying to force an intervention with Satan that he needs to stop drinking and needs help - his friends and family are worried about him. I will tell you - I did NOT expect that to be the theme of the climatic ending. You're forced to play beer pong regardless, and depending on who you brought they will or won't play with you (Sam, Fela, Apollyon will refuse - Wormhorn, Asmodeus, and drunk Idiot will play). Regardless of if you win or lose, you will go to a final Round 2 where you have to beat Satan in a drinking game. I'll be honest - I lost with Lola and then Milo and then said "we lost on purpose" and he called me out on my BS, but thankfully gave me a 3rd try where I won. We beat Satan! We then returned to the overlord and after Lola moved away we still remained in contact with our demon buddies with us! Cool ending! On my 2nd playthrough, I brought Wormhorn and drunk Idiot, this team I purposefully lost to Satan and we stayed stuck in the under-world with Sam giving us another "out" which we immiedately took since it sucks down here, it's hell! Finally reloading a save I did the 3rd ending where I "intentionally lost" to Satan by refusing to play him and that ending was pretty damn similar to losing to him outright. All in all - I'm not disappointed. Making a game with branching narratives and paths is tricky - and I would say this was a decent experience for those who enjoy them. Don't expect anything radically different depending upon your choices though. In terms of trophies - nothing in this game is too tricky. Follow the advice on the perfect beer pong at the start, reload if you can failing when Lola takes on Apollyon for the perfect drinking game, and besides that just make sure you do the opposite of many decisions in your 1st playthrough. Oh - and don't forget to make a cloud save before entering Satan's house at the end so you can do the 3rd ending without needing to play the entire game over again. I personally earned the 18.74% platinum rarity in 4 days and 6 hours!P.S. - I don't normally do this but it's more relevant to this game than ever. I have been in a very dark, dark place the last few days due to some personal stuff that I personally self-inflicted upon myself (oh no the consequences of my actions catching up with me!) and the fact that I was in my own personal hell in real life and playing a game with 2 kids in "actual" hell was a little bit too... real for me. I don't actually want to talk about what it is, not comfortable with it at this point, but due to finding some support online my faith has been renewed and I'm going to press onward. This games always gonna be a bit more unique to me due to what was going on when I played it... that's just neat - and I felt like I should mention it. Panda Score: 7 / 10 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted November 19, 2020 Author Share Posted November 19, 2020 (edited) Game: Dear Esther - Landmark Edition Analysis: I bought Dear Esther: Landmark Edition as part of the Instant Indie Collection Vol. 4 for $2.99 in early November 2020. Oh my goodness. Do you want to talk about an upset of 2020. Entering this - I did not think it was possible, but Dear Esther has managed to pull off the impossible and somehow despite all I've played in the year 2020, I am calling the awards early due to it's performance. Dear Esther is the worst video game I have played in 2020. Thankfully, much like a surprise bullet to the skull it's awfulness is so brief and instantaneous you don't have to suffer it through like you would if you were to be shot in the stomach and slowly had your life source sapped away before bleeding to death. How the hell is this game even a thing? How did the developers at The Chinese Room sell it for $10 and not feel liable for theft? Hell - I would have felt ripped off for $2 if I hadn't bought it as part of a bundle so at least I've got 2 other games that may salvage this package. Meaningless drivel, pontificating nonsense, a misplaced sense of self-worth. Anyone who scored this a 8/10 (which hey - IGN, GameSpot, Eurogamer, and PCGamer US all scored it!) must be the most insufferable disguised rube that I can say, with 100% certainty, is not fun to be with at parties. Perhaps it scored that high since this was a game video game reviewers were able to complete given it's skill level (BOOM ROASTED!). I mean, to be serious for a moment - the developers felt compelled to put in a Director's Commentary that is longer than the game itself about.... nothing. It's a game that says and does nothing. You walk around a desolate island, trigger a few voice-overs that have the amount of depth and nuance to them that doing the "wooooooo" sound when you're pretending to be a ghost and scare your 3-year old niece have, and then the game is over. Dear Esther is the walking stereotype that walking simulators get disparaged for. You can't sprint. You can't jump. You can't interact. The visuals are at best mildly engaging in the caves, and there's nothing else of substance to even scratch at that I'm hard-pressed to find why even scholars sailing under false colors "enjoyed...this...experience...". Do not play this if you want to have a good time - play it if you want a cheap and easy 100% for your profile to break up the constant blue with one green. You can complete 2 playthroughs in 1 hour, 30 minutes and none of the miscellaneous trophies are difficult. It took me 20 hours, 18 minutes in order to achieve the 33.59% rarity 100% completion. To all who enjoyed this experience and think I am woefully off track, I salute you. You have an ability to appreciate gibberish mumbo jumbo on a level that Alex Jones listeners would envy. Treasure your gift, chosen one. Director's Commentary of RealM722's Review of Dear Esther - Landmark Edition - Hey everyone! My name is RealM722 and I am the creator and writer behind RealM722's Review of Dear Esther - Landmark Edition. So what you're looking at here is a real inner reflection of my experience and time with this triumph of video game development. If you notice, I try and throw off the reader in my first few statements. A surprise "oh my goodness" could suggest both a positive and negative occurrence. I proceed to explain that Dear Esther surprised me, so much to the point that I'm calling my game awards of the year early - leading to a climatic point in the readers experience where they very likely may believe this game has reached 9/10 or even 10/10 status. In reality, the climax was a bait and switch. Rather than endless praise, the review delivers a swift kick to the testicles to Dear Esther and it's creators. I manage to poignantly insult the developers by suggesting they've committed a felony by charging what they did for their game. Given how hard it is in the indie space to make money and survive as a developer, these hefty statements I'm laying against the "little guy" can appear quite harsh. I then compound my slander by describing their game as "drivel, nonsense" and suggest it is, to put it eloquently, sucking itself off. I'll admit, I then take the very easy stance common amongst many gamers today by taking a shot at video game review outlets and video game journalists, but I feel as though I can be afforded this transgression given what I was subjected to by playing this game. I proceed to give a full summary of all of the gameplay elements (moving forward), and offer a wonderful visual of doing that "woooooo" sound as a ghost. Mercifully, unlike Dear Esther, I notice that the likelihood of my audience wanting to hear me gasbag any further is waning - I tie the entire masterpiece together by insulting the reader(should they have enjoyed this game) suggesting they hold a level of ability to listen to baseless conjecture that even this mans followers wish to attain. Ultimately, is my review of Dear Esther one of a legitimately awful experience or rather an effort in satire of an over-whelmingly boring but largely inoffensive experience? I think it's a bit of both, but I'll let you judge for yourself. After all, if video games are now allowed to be intentionally obtuse and offer so few details that their vagueness allows them to be so immune to comprehension and criticism, why should I have to spell out for you any further than I already have that this "game" blows donkey butt. Panda Score: 4 / 10 Edited November 19, 2020 by realm722 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 Is there a reason why you’re specific with dates that you bought games? I usually forget the date a week I buy any game in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted November 20, 2020 Author Share Posted November 20, 2020 10 minutes ago, Spaz said: Is there a reason why you’re specific with dates that you bought games? I usually forget the date a week I buy any game in general. Yup! The simplest reason is that it lets me see how quickly I anticipated/wanted to play a game. If I buy a game this week, and play it by the end of the week - damn I really wanted it since I gave it priority. Comparatively, I bought Graveyard Keeper in December 2019 and didn't platinum it until November 2020. Why does that matter? I could've bought the Complete Edition for $8.99 in July 2020. Now I'm prolly gonna have to fork up $9.99 in the future for the DLC when I wanna 100% it. Now I know for the future if I'm kinda eh on playing a game and likely won't get around to it soon, I can hold off and it's almost guaranteed to go on sale for cheaper by the time I actually wanna get around to it. If you ever wonder how I keep track - you can go to "my.playstation.com" and if you click on your profile icon, you can go to "Payment Management". If you go to "Transaction History" you can then see all the games you bought during a certain calendar period under that account. Pretty useful incase you're very diligent about picking games up at sale and if you get good at it you can start noticing trends (I figured out when NFS: Heat and Madden 20 would go to EA Access cuz of it) When you get the chance - I'd also appreciate your opinion on a few games I have on my backlog on what to play next. Ones that I've bought that you've completed include (Axiom Verge, Hue, Chasm, Bully, and Rogue Legacy). Specifically that last one since it's a <3% platinum but I love roguelikes. A hard platinum doesn't scare me away - but I noticed even a game as tricky as Axiom Verge you managed to finish in a matter of days - I don't wanna be bashing my head against a wall not knowing what I'm in for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted November 27, 2020 Author Share Posted November 27, 2020 (edited) Game: Coffee Talk Analysis: I bought Coffee Talk for $6.99 back in early October 2020. This is one of the more obscure games on my collection with barely over 1,000 owners. Basically discovered it when I was browsing for games on Steam that just caught my eye - and this one did as a nice casual laid back experience that I marked down in case it ever come to consoles..... and it did! Finally picked it up while it was on sale and it had an extremely easy platinum rate, hell - it's officially my 2nd "easiest" or least rare plat coming in at 57.50% platinum rarity that I earned in just 1 day, 19 hours. Only Burly Men at Sea (PS+ Game) has been easier - but yanno what? I'm good with that. This isn't a shameless creation for the sole idea of becoming another digit in ones' platinum count. I read the full story and interactions with the characters and lemme say - it's a nice chill time and probably the perfect break game in-between some bigger titles you may be conquering. It's nice and short, with each day serving a few cups of coffee to patrons of your local boutique for a total of 14 days. Along the way you'll meet exotic characters from the fantasy genre - you have elves, succubi, orcs, werewolves, mermaids, vampires, aliens, cat-girls, and the most horrifying of all - humans! The main lady in green hair you'll be seeing is Freya, an aspiring author trying to write her own novel who is your best buddy and frequent customer in their efforts to finally get out of their miserable job of writing articles they don't care for at a local paper. You'll experience the drama of Baileys and Lua, an elf and succubi who want to be together but their parents are racist towards the other! You also have Hyde and Gala, a bromance between a vampire and werewolf that goes back decades, Myrtle and Aqua - two girl game-devs working on trying to do their own thing, Rachel and Hendry, a cat-daughter/cat-father duo that are estranged and struggling to communicate with one another, and finally, best of all - Neil - an alien from another planetary dimension who's 1 goal in life is TO BREED HUMANS AND BREED LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW. Not even kidding, he's the best character in the game and his adorable ?? is delightful. How does Coffee Talk pull it all off? Well enough. There was no grand reveal or sudden twist, rather than just chill vibes with some slightly relevant social commentary (medicine in America, racism, direct newspaper clippings relevant to American culture such as video games causing violence / gun control). Thankfully they managed to avoid hitting it over the players head with a sledgehammer. All in all, I found the dialogue and interactions generally in the B- to B tier and while I don't think I enjoyed it as much as VA-11 HA-11-A per-say, this one did a better job in the mini-game aspect of actually challenging you to remember orders from your frequent customers and in general had a slightly nicer / pristine aesthetic even if you never really go anywhere besides your store. If you enjoy these sorts of artsy games, check it out! If you're hesitant, wait till it goes a little bit further on sale to around $3 for the easy platinum. Nothing is very challenging and even the endless / challenge mode can be paused and dealt with in under 20 minutes. Only complaint would be the bizarre 1 hour latte art trophy but I just watched Cowboys v. Washington Football Team during the wait. (woof Dallas) Panda Score: 6.38 / 10 Edited January 18, 2023 by realm722 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofbattle8174 Posted November 27, 2020 Share Posted November 27, 2020 I enjoyed that game too. The music gives it this real Zen experience like actually just relaxing back with a latte in an actual shop, something I miss lately. The extra dialog if you replay is a fun twist as you mess up your own lines. I did enjoy just making the coffee too. I think the only thing I did not was the latte art but that is because my art skills are nil. Cant wait to see what you finish next. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post realm722 Posted November 28, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 28, 2020 (edited) RealM722 Presents the Top 5 Games that He's Too Cowardly to Play Due to Platinum Rarity For as easy as it is to talk about being a big man and saying "pshh imagine not playing a game because of difficulty and it'd make your account look "worse" if you couldn't complete it" - I too have fallen prey to this line of thinking. Listen, I'm not such a big baby and refuse to play games I fear I'll never be capable of - I took on the likes of Stardew Valley's bullet hill minigame as well as some pretty tricky roguelites in the form of Dead Cells and Slay the Spire. I also don't do the extra over-the-top effort of first playing a game on a second account, seeing if I can handle it, and if I can - actually playing it on my main account. No sir, I do the somewhat medium-sized baby equivalent of just.... yanno.... never actually buying the game even if I think it piques my interest. Is it bad I lit trophies affect me in this way? Maybe.. but this is my way of trying to combat that urge! I'm going to present 5 games that I've repeatedly seen on sale and thought "that looks like something I may enjoy" before swiftly searching it on PSNProfiles "Games" section and discovering what the hell this is an ultra rare that'll have you pulling your hair out? Eh, we'll settle for something else instead. Perhaps with enough time and helpful nudging by those who have conquered such games (I'm talking to you, reader) - you'll convince me to finally check these games out and hey I can say I actually showed some development in my video game playing ways. Without further ado, the list! #5. Hyper Light Drifter (2.28% platinum) Explanation: So I'm going to let all of you in on a bit of RealM722 lore. If you were to every try to scam or trick me in real life, whatever object or tantalizing scheme you laid before me, it's highly likely I'd be aware of your machinations and not be bamboozled... but if you made whatever you were tempting me with purple or neon, I'd be about 20% more likely to fall for it. I just really dig purple / neon / exotic lush colors. It's part of the reason where I adore Pyre as much as I did and one of the reasons The Banner Saga Trilogy is rapidly ascending amongst the ranks of my favorite video game franchises of All-Time. So why Hyper Light Drifter? I've always heard very good things about the game. It has a gorgeous aesthetic - some fast-paced combat, and in general as someone who typically digs indie games, this is one I've seen on sale that I've always thought I should pick it up eventually... and every single damn time I'm put off by how damn rare it is. You want me to collect EVERYTHING? Finish the entire game without dying? I dunno if that could be exploited with cloud saves but sheesh it just seems like it'd be a lot to handle and I haven't reached the point where I wanted to engage with it. It doesn't help that I'm tormented by the games magnificent art every time I click on @Arcesius profile. I give it a 40% chance I play this game by the end of 2021 - it's not so long (according to the trophy guide, 20hrs ish but sometimes those can be way off) that I would never engage with it seriously but I just don't wanna get my ass kicked so severely while I still have games like Jotun and Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland I've already purchased and haven't played yet. #4. Rain World (2.45% platinum) Explanation: Ah yes of course - Rain World, why wouldn't you want to play Rain World? (is what you, the reader is fibbing to yourself given you probably don't know what the hell Rain World even is) No worries, lemme explain. This game fascinates me. It has received lots of love from a niche community for essentially being a game that says "life is hard, you're a little slime baby, learn how to survive or die" and has 0 issues with constantly kicking the players ass' over and over again with an environment that is out for your soul. YouTuber Matthewmatosis has a good relatively brief video on it in case you just wanna figure out what it is. All in all, it's just such a cool concept for a game that it's always been one I glance at before looking at the trophies and general discussion regarding the game, before ultimately checking out. That's honestly a pretty underrated challenge with lesser known games. Rain World released in 2017, it has just 2k game owners on here and barely 50 people have the platinum. There is next to 0 discussion about on this website and even across the deep crevices of the internet you're not getting that much help. This is compared to games like Super Meat Boy and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus which sure those games are brutally difficult and have ruthless trophies but at least they're extremely popular and heavily played so at least you can have discussions with others about your struggles. In Rain World? If I'm dying over and over again hopeless, it's very unlikely I'm going to find someone to swoop in and save me experiencing similar struggles... and that's... kinda fitting given the ruthless nature of this game. I give it a less than 2% chance I ever play it. It's just too daunting for me, maybe if some of the ultra rare behemoths on here ever decide to take it on I'll reconsider. #3. Enter the Gungeon (5.28% platinum) Explanation: How could you possibly be scared of a plat that's not even ultra rare? Spoken like a person who's never played Enter the Gungeon! I love roguelikes, they're one of my favorite genres and that is blatantly obvious by my game rankings on the opening page (Dead Cells, Slay the Spire, Wizard of Legend, Children of Morta, Risk of Rain 2 & 1) but this one just seems like a different breed in the same vein of The Binding of Isaac. I've watched some gameplay and this game really isn't messing around with it's bullet hell nature. I barely survived Fector's Challenge and that was with perfectly knowing map layouts and there being a limited amount of surprises the game could throw at me. I don't think I have the personal reflexes necessary to remotely challenge for this without suffering for 100+ hours in an effort to obtain full completion. Hell, the trophy guide gives it a nice generous rating of 8/10 difficult requiring 70 hours of commitment. Plus, in case you haven't noticed - I don't typically play games with guns... but the art style kinda intrigues me enough where it may not be an issue. I give it a <10% chance of me playing within the next year, too many other games on my plate at the moment but given the fact there is a lot of love and fanfare and there is 35k+ owners - maybe one day. #2. Spelunky 2 (2.14% platinum) Explanation: Spelunky is one of the grandfathers of the beloved cult classic indie - and it's sequel released this year had me gripped to YouTube videos watching the secrets people uncovered. It's a game that I love watching runs of, but also one where you die so quickly, so easily, that I've never even considered dropping myself into. I love watching Egg play it here and there but to actually seriously try and contend with that trophy list? Beating the game with no gold, completing all of the journal, ending a run with over $1,000,000, reaching exotic locations like Cosmic Ocean - hell it has near 10 trophies that are ultra rare just by themselves which puts it in the Rain World zone of "yea, unless you're serious about unlocking these, it's very lucky people who just play the game casually can spend 10s of hours without unlocking a single trophy." The game has a thriving fanbase and it's so cool to see an invested community in a game like this - but I think it reaches the point without any work-arounds where it's in the "simply too difficult" stratosphere for me. I give it slightly higher than Rain World's but a 3% chance I ever end up playing it on a PlayStation console. #1. Rogue Legacy (2.94% platinum) Explanation: For my final selection - I choose a former PS+ game (I imagine it's PS+, it has over 170k users which is absurd for this type of game) - and it has been on the PS4 since July 2014. Lemme first say, the initial reason I was put off by this game wasn't it's platinum rarity, but rather, the fact I find the art style utterly hideous. Sorry if that's a bit mean, but just like My Time at Portia I'm not very difficult to please unless you make your game look like cheap plastic and it had the art direction under the headship of a 13-year old. But the more I read about how wonderful this game was, I would get drawn in... until I saw that nasty "Thanatophobia" trophy and noped the hell out. The reason why I put Rogue Legacy at #1 on this list is it has so much discussion surrounding it, is generally so cheap on sale, and fits right up my alley (despite the art) of the a game genre I typically enjoy - I've gotta test it out eventually. I give it a 50% chance I eventually get around to it by the end of 2021. I'm not gonna all of a sudden become @Nostalgy_Flow and begin chewing through ultra rare games like they're bubblegum, but I'd be pretty proud of myself I beat 2 of the 5 games on this list at some point in the future. I managed to earn a total of 5 ultra rare platinums in the year of 2020 (Madden 20, LittleBigPlanet 3, Stardew Valley, Unravel Two, The Banner Saga) after earning 4 in 2019 (FIFA 20, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, Knowledge is Power, Dead Cells) - I think I should start posing myself the challenge of increasing that total by 1 (go for 6 in 2021) each year so as to keep myself honest when it comes to tackling challenges. So how about you guys? Any games that you are ashamed to admit you are scared off by with how tricky they appear to be? Edited January 18, 2023 by realm722 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted November 28, 2020 Share Posted November 28, 2020 12 hours ago, realm722 said: So how about you guys? Any games that you are ashamed to admit you are scared off by with how tricky they appear to be? My list is basically the same. ? I dunno. I'd love to play Spelunky 1 & 2, The Binding of Isaac, and Enter the Gungeon, but I feel like the difficulty would outweigh any sort of enjoyment I'd get from the game. It's sorta like when I was a kid and I loved spicy food, so I'd always order the hottest wings whenever I went out to eat, until I got a little older and realized, "Why am I doing this to myself?" There has to be a point where something simply becomes too hot to enjoy. (For me, it was Quaker Steak's Atomic wings, where they actually made you sign a liability waiver before bringing you the food.) I guess games are the same. If you want to make a hard game, fine, but don't blame me for not being able to enjoy it. I have played Rogue Legacy, though. It was okay, but I didn't like it enough to finish it, let alone want to go for the platinum. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 There’s nothing wrong with good spicy food @Cassylvania. I started eating Thai food back when I was 16 years old, and it’s one of my favorite foods. Of course I have my limits, I just don’t ask for the spice to be too hot. Honestly Rogue Legacy is extremely overrated as a hard platinum. The only true test is the remix bosses, which took me a couple hundred attempts before I got them down pat. As for “Thantaophobia”, you can just abuse cloud saves making beating the game in 15 deaths or less a joke. I’d personally place Spelunky 1 & 2 above Rogue Legacy in terms of difficulty. Spelunky 1 is pretty difficult because it has a brutal trophy list, one notable trophy being beating the entire game in 8 minutes or less without using shortcuts. That alone makes the game more difficult than anything Rogue Legacy throws at you. It’s far more skill intensive and RNG plays an even bigger role. I definitely recommend Rogue Legacy @realm722. May not be for everyone as evidenced by @Cassylvania, but it is one of my favorite indies to come out in the past several years. It will feel rather hard at first, but you can always get upgrades to your castle and obtain better gear. The enemies get slightly tougher by having more hit points, but after a while you will know the enemy patterns. You can try the remix bosses as many times as you want as long as you beat the original bosses and found their boss room. Practice makes perfect. If there was any game that I would be too cowardly to even attempt, it would be Crypt of the Necrodancer. Super Meat Boy is definitely deserving as a game people should be too cowardly to play due to platinum rarity. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 Well so far there is only one game that I would love to start but I am way too chicken to attempt due to how utterly bonkers the game is difficult wise : Koihime Enbu Ryorairai. I won't mention games like SMB and Crypt because honestly I don't like either platformers or rhythm games, I don't enjoy them. However Koihime Enbu is a fighting game infamously known to be utter ridiculous with its requirements. I love going for challenges but man... That game scares me. And it's with sexy anime girls in ancient China, which is even worse to handle that's the main game that I know I would enjoy but I am too chicken to start. Another honorable mention would be Marvel Vs Capcom 3. Truth be told I am sick of online and boosting and MvC3 looks like another Capcom gut punching game in that regard. Kinda tired of that all. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 10 minutes ago, Copanele said: Another honorable mention would be Marvel Vs Capcom 3. Truth be told I am sick of online and boosting and MvC3 looks like another Capcom gut punching game in that regard. Kinda tired of that all. It's a tag team fighting game, which you said you were against. At any rate, Slain: Back From Hell might be the hardest game on your list. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 6 minutes ago, Spaz said: It's a tag team fighting game, which you said you were against. At any rate, Slain: Back From Hell might be the hardest game on your list. That too. I could get past the tagging issues no problem if the game turns to be fun but only in this specific instance. And idk about Slain. I think Skullgirls might be harder, together with Catherine and Mirror's Edge. Slain is a matter of patience and save scumming. And metal But yeah let's not derail the thread here with my games else RealM722 will kick us out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcesius Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 (edited) On 11/28/2020 at 6:47 AM, realm722 said: #5. Hyper Light Drifter (2.28% platinum) Explanation: So I'm going to let all of you in on a bit of RealM722 lore. If you were to every try to scam or trick me in real life, whatever object or tantalizing scheme you laid before me, it's highly likely I'd be aware of your machinations and not be bamboozled... but if you made whatever you were tempting me with purple or neon, I'd be about 20% more likely to fall for it. I just really dig purple / neon / exotic lush colors. It's part of the reason where I adore Pyre as much as I did and one of the reasons The Banner Saga Trilogy is rapidly ascending amongst the ranks of my favorite video game franchises of All-Time. So why Hyper Light Drifter? I've always heard very good things about the game. It has a gorgeous aesthetic - some fast-paced combat, and in general as someone who typically digs indie games, this is one I've seen on sale that I've always thought I should pick it up eventually... and every single damn time I'm put off by how damn rare it is. You want me to collect EVERYTHING? Finish the entire game without dying? I dunno if that could be exploited with cloud saves but sheesh it just seems like it'd be a lot to handle and I haven't reached the point where I wanted to engage with it. It doesn't help that I'm tormented by the games magnificent art every time I click on @Arcesius profile. I give it a 40% chance I play this game by the end of 2021 - it's not so long (according to the trophy guide, 20hrs ish but sometimes those can be way off) that I would never engage with it seriously but I just don't wanna get my ass kicked so severely while I still have games like Jotun and Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland I've already purchased and haven't played yet. I see a discussion about HLD, I join Honestly, this is one of my favorite games I've played on the PS4... It's not by chance that the banner on my profile is from this game. You describe it correctly... the combat is fast-paced, the aesthetics are unique, and it is a game that is pretty easy to pick up. There is not a single written word in the entire game, and still you know what you are getting when purchasing upgrades, you can follow the strory no problem, etc... It's really a unique game that I'm glad I picked up. As for the platinum... I didn't save-scum (didn't feel like it was needed), but you definitely can when going for the "no-death" playthrough, so I wouldn't worry. The 800 consecutive dashes are relatively easy to achieve, especially if you listen to a song in the right BPM as a help, and the game isn't toooo challenging... The collectibles can be a real pain though, but there is an interactive collectibles map here that makes it easy to keep track of what you've already gotten. Many collectibles are really, and I mean REALLY WELL hidden! If anything, the game is a bit on the short side... but give it a go, I'm sure you won't regret it!! And don't underedstimate Jotun btw... ? Btw, Heart Machine is working on their second game, Solar Ash which, as you can see in the link, goes for a similar aesthetics in terms of chosen color-palette... Really looking forward to that game as well Quote So how about you guys? Any games that you are ashamed to admit you are scared off by with how tricky they appear to be? Nah... I mean, as much as I love to see my profile close to 100%, I would never avoid a game due to being afraid of its challenges. But that's because despite me enjoying a good story, and good gameplay, and unique ideas in games... I also just enjoy overcoming a difficult challenge. A 100% completion would not mean anything to me if I would achieve it by avoiding specific games that could challenge that number. And I think my profile reflects that... Hell, I even played Crypt of the NecroDancer despite knowing that it is among the hardest games to 100%, but by doing so I also found one of the best games I've ever played... it is simply fantastic! I might never finish it, but I'm still happy that I played it. If it's the game that breaks my 100%.. oh well, that's due to my lack of skill / time, and that's perfectly fine for me. But that doesn't mean that I will just randomly start whatever game.. I need to be in the right mindset... For example, I recently bought Splasher, the hardest platformer on PSN with a platinum... And while I know I will play it eventually, I will wait until I'm (mentally) ready to tackle its challenges. Edited November 29, 2020 by Arcesius 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted November 29, 2020 Author Share Posted November 29, 2020 Wow didn't expect so much discussion from that post, happy to see y'all contribute On 11/28/2020 at 1:44 PM, Cassylvania said: My list is basically the same. I dunno. I'd love to play Spelunky 1 & 2, The Binding of Isaac, and Enter the Gungeon, but I feel like the difficulty would outweigh any sort of enjoyment I'd get from the game. It's sorta like when I was a kid and I loved spicy food, so I'd always order the hottest wings whenever I went out to eat, until I got a little older and realized, "Why am I doing this to myself?" There has to be a point where something simply becomes too hot to enjoy. (For me, it was Quaker Steak's Atomic wings, where they actually made you sign a liability waiver before bringing you the food.) I guess games are the same. If you want to make a hard game, fine, but don't blame me for not being able to enjoy it. I have played Rogue Legacy, though. It was okay, but I didn't like it enough to finish it, let alone want to go for the platinum. Our tastes in many ways are very much aligned so you saying that doesn't surprise me! and yea.... I also agree on the difficulty. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy a tricky platinum where you have to learn and come close to really mastering all the mechanics, but there's some stuff out there where the barrier for entry is just on another level. I honestly think based on your trophy profile history though you could handle both Isaac and Gungeon. It's Spelunky that's on a different wavelength due to just how quickly you can die in my opinion. 16 hours ago, Spaz said: Honestly Rogue Legacy is extremely overrated as a hard platinum. The only true test is the remix bosses, which took me a couple hundred attempts before I got them down pat. As for “Thantaophobia”, you can just abuse cloud saves making beating the game in 15 deaths or less a joke. I definitely recommend Rogue Legacy @realm722. May not be for everyone as evidenced by @Cassylvania, but it is one of my favorite indies to come out in the past several years. It will feel rather hard at first, but you can always get upgrades to your castle and obtain better gear. The enemies get slightly tougher by having more hit points, but after a while you will know the enemy patterns. You can try the remix bosses as many times as you want as long as you beat the original bosses and found their boss room. Practice makes perfect. If there was any game that I would be too cowardly to even attempt, it would be Crypt of the Necrodancer. oooooh I had 0 idea about that work-around on Rogue Legacy. Hmm, that def makes things more do-able. Next time it goes on sale I'll snag it up - and yes, Crypt of the Necrodancer receives lots of praise for it's mechanics but the fact that less than 10 people have achieved 100% on this website is mind-boggling. 10 hours ago, Arcesius said: I see a discussion about HLD, I join Honestly, this is one of my favorite games I've played on the PS4... It's not by chance that the banner on my profile is from this game. You describe it correctly... the combat is fast-paced, the aesthetics are unique, and it is a game that is pretty easy to pick up. There is not a single written word in the entire game, and still you know what you are getting when purchasing upgrades, you can follow the strory no problem, etc... It's really a unique game that I'm glad I picked up. As for the platinum... I didn't save-scum (didn't feel like it was needed), but you definitely can when going for the "no-death" playthrough, so I wouldn't worry. The 800 consecutive dashes are relatively easy to achieve, especially if you listen to a song in the right BPM as a help, and the game isn't toooo challenging... The collectibles can be a real pain though, but there is an interactive collectibles map here that makes it easy to keep track of what you've already gotten. Many collectibles are really, and I mean REALLY WELL hidden! If anything, the game is a bit on the short side... but give it a go, I'm sure you won't regret it!! And don't underedstimate Jotun btw... ------ Nah... I mean, as much as I love to see my profile close to 100%, I would never avoid a game due to being afraid of its challenges. But that's because despite me enjoying a good story, and good gameplay, and unique ideas in games... I also just enjoy overcoming a difficult challenge. A 100% completion would not mean anything to me if I would achieve it by avoiding specific games that could challenge that number. And I think my profile reflects that... Hell, I even played Crypt of the NecroDancer despite knowing that it is among the hardest games to 100%, but by doing so I also found one of the best games I've ever played... it is simply fantastic! I might never finish it, but I'm still happy that I played it. If it's the game that breaks my 100%.. oh well, that's due to my lack of skill / time, and that's perfectly fine for me. But that doesn't mean that I will just randomly start whatever game.. I need to be in the right mindset... For example, I recently bought Splasher, the hardest platformer on PSN with a platinum... And while I know I will play it eventually, I will wait until I'm (mentally) ready to tackle its challenges. Hahahaha I feel you on having a game that just grips me and popping in whenever there's discussion about it. I'm relieved to hear there are manageable work-arounds for the no-death and dash trophy, but lemme tell you that collectibles map you linked just made me far more terrified when it comes to trying to gather everything. My goodness. Lemme ask since you're an aficionado on it, is it that you're blocked off from collecting from the start and progressively as you get more powerful / unlock stuff you're able to get access to some of the more super hidden ones? Can you collect them once you beat the game? I'm always torn between having to play with a guide map open while tryna experience it the first time vs. cleaning things up at the end once I'm comfortable with the game. Based on the fact you said it's shorter (which I absolutely love, not all games have to be 50+ hours - a more pleasant refined 15-20 hrs will win every day of the week for me) - it seems the map may just appear intimidatingly big and it's not that bad once you know the lay of the land. I am not under-estimating Jotun! Anything sub <2% plat rarity is "put your big boy pants on" territory and I'm setting it up to be one of my hardest chases for 2021. I've read plenty on there's a lot of RNG nonsense, but I'll risk it since I dig the art and kinda wanna complete the trilogy of games by Thunder Locus (beat Sundered, badly wanna get Spiritfarer when it goes on sale). As for your profile - it's been said plenty in your own trophy cabinet profile thread but it really is next level. We have a few games in common but I think Unravel Two is the only "hard" one that qualifies. Even achieving close to 70% on Necrondancer is crazy to me - the rarity's on so many of those trophies would make for the Top 5 rarest on most profiles. Honestly what it reminds me of is thinking of you as a high profile prize fighter. Yea, Muhammad Ali lost a fight here to Frazier and another to Norton - but my god do you see that resumé? Same with you - maybe a handful of games do "get the better" of you, (Crypt, maybe Pier Solar?) but if someone saw the rest of your profile they'd say my goodness those games must be difficult if he couldn't beat them. Keep it up and maybe consider getting around to Stardew Valley's Fector's Challenge one day! (I dunno if you even care for farming sims but trust me it'd be one hell of a plat) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 So is Hyper Light Drifter short in terms of platinum length? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcesius Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 (edited) On 11/29/2020 at 8:43 PM, realm722 said: Hahahaha I feel you on having a game that just grips me and popping in whenever there's discussion about it. I'm relieved to hear there are manageable work-arounds for the no-death and dash trophy, but lemme tell you that collectibles map you linked just made me far more terrified when it comes to trying to gather everything. My goodness. Lemme ask since you're an aficionado on it, is it that you're blocked off from collecting from the start and progressively as you get more powerful / unlock stuff you're able to get access to some of the more super hidden ones? Can you collect them once you beat the game? Haha the map does look bigger than it actually is You have basically 4 areas.. N, W, S and E, and each area is a series of arena-like rooms (you know, you enter the room, the exits close, you kill the enemies to proceed), with a boss waiting at the end. Each area really doesn't take long, believe me. As for the collectibles, there are just a lot of them, but you can get them on your first passthrough. You don't need upgrades, as far as I remember, to access better hidden ones... ? And yes, you can get to every single room even after having beaten all four areas... I don't think any single room is unaccessible, but I could double-check if you want. Quote I'm always torn between having to play with a guide map open while tryna experience it the first time vs. cleaning things up at the end once I'm comfortable with the game. Based on the fact you said it's shorter (which I absolutely love, not all games have to be 50+ hours - a more pleasant refined 15-20 hrs will win every day of the week for me) - it seems the map may just appear intimidatingly big and it's not that bad once you know the lay of the land. I hate playing my first playthrough with a guide.. I love jumping into games blind and just discovering things for myself. Still, I wouldn't recommend getting collectibles on NG+ or the no-death save... So if you don't mind doing some backtracking, just play through the game, do some cleaning up afterwards Btw, the reason why the "no-death" playthrough really isn't that difficult even without save-scumming is because you have to play through NG+ as well.. In NG+, you only have 2HP, meaning that pretty much any enemy can one-shot you, and you cannot upgrade your max health. By playing through the game under those conditions, you really learn how to avoid taking damage, how to approach each room... Going back to a regular NG cycle where you can upgrade your max health is like going back to "easy mode" On 11/30/2020 at 1:45 AM, Spaz said: So is Hyper Light Drifter short in terms of platinum length? 20-25 hours depending on how you approach it. Quote As for your profile - it's been said plenty in your own trophy cabinet profile thread but it really is next level. We have a few games in common but I think Unravel Two is the only "hard" one that qualifies. Even achieving close to 70% on Necrondancer is crazy to me - the rarity's on so many of those trophies would make for the Top 5 rarest on most profiles. Honestly what it reminds me of is thinking of you as a high profile prize fighter. Yea, Muhammad Ali lost a fight here to Frazier and another to Norton - but my god do you see that resumé? Same with you - maybe a handful of games do "get the better" of you, (Crypt, maybe Pier Solar?) but if someone saw the rest of your profile they'd say my goodness those games must be difficult if he couldn't beat them. Keep it up and maybe consider getting around to Stardew Valley's Fector's Challenge one day! (I dunno if you even care for farming sims but trust me it'd be one hell of a plat) Man, thanks a lot for those really kind words! I will definitely get Pier Solar done.. the last thing I have to do is just so incredibly dull, and I got burned out when I was attempting it last December... I usually don't enjoy sim-games in general, too much micro-management (which is why also survival games aren't for me, for example), but believe me I've thought plenty about doing Stardew Valley just to see what all the fuzz is about, and how difficult that challenge actually is ? We'll see! My next game is going to be Enter the Gungeon though, a game I also see on your list above ? Edited December 1, 2020 by Arcesius 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 I generally prefer sim-games, micro management on the PC, mouse and keyboard are far better for that than using a controller on a console. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted December 9, 2020 Author Share Posted December 9, 2020 Game: Banner Saga 2 Analysis: I bought Banner Saga 2 for $4.49 back in early November 2020, this is the 2nd game in the trilogy - the 1st I reviewed back in October 2020. Sooooo for those who don't want to read that lengthy original post on the 1st game - my basic summary was I LOVED the original. Absolutely digged it's atmosphere, vibes, narrative, and gameplay loop and was genuinely thrilled when I realized I had two full fledged sequels to follow it up. But I'll be 100% honest, I didn't know where exactly the game would take place in the 2nd. Maybe it was obvious to others but since I avoided next to everything regarding spoilers just so I could enjoy the game fresh - I kinda expected Iver and whoever I saved (Rook/Alette) to carry over and then we'd find a bunch of new characters, different locations, etc... and yet when I discovered that Bolverk, the berserker varl in charge of the Ravens we met in Boersgard at the end of the 1st game would be our 2nd lead protagonist this game when alternating chapters? I was 1000% here for it. So without further ado, let's dive into full spoilers about this game. I'm going to cover story, how the game services as a sequel, hard mode campaign, trophies, and of course the DLC (oh god the DLC) The Narrative and Events of Banner Saga 2 - Where do I even begin? I think it's fair to say I loved it more than the original simply because I already have so much invested in these characters by now. At the start you're saving a village from dredge(common theme from the 1st game) with Rook/Alette (I love the insanely one-sided battle you fight if you roll with Rook, you actually get one of the hardest trophies in the game by beating it and I thought it was a fantastic point to drive home how frustrated he is with how things ended if you lost Alette). You have the Ravens with you who are difficult to manage to say the least, at least when it comes to being their traveling companions. One of the best things the original Banner Saga did well was spectacle. That continues in this game. Let's rattle off the biggest events shall we? Nearly cascading off the cliff of a giant waterfall, have a bridge suspended in mid-air help up by nothing but Eyvind's mender capabilities and cross an enormous chasm as members of your caravan plummet to their death. As the Ravens, arrive at Bindal and discover the cart Juno assigned you to dump into the deepest waters is in fact holding the body of the immortal Sundr Bellower, he who cannot be killed but is rather in a deep sleep. Survive as Iver and co. journey across landscapes that include Kragsmen, Horsemen, and the bloody bizarre woods, nearly get devoured by a gigantic serpent, and arrive at Arreberang in complete and utter chaos as the king is leaving his peasants on the outside to fend for themselves. As the Ravens, escaping the onslaught of the dredge entails going underground with help of the Valka Zefr - fighting a Sundr named Eyeless who kills a mender apprentice in Nikels, you survive her and the freezing tundra to make it to Old Ford, only to fight Eyeless again and finally make it to the stone tower. Throughout the game, you as Bolverk have had to deal with oncoming visions and dreams as if you're becoming.... Bellower. Maybe it's due to proximity, maybe it's due to the serpent trying to control your mind - but the end culmination of the entire game features Eyevind, Juno, and Iver facing Bolverk (becoming Bellower?) and Zefr at a standstill. You can either win or lose the last battle for a different outcome. MY WORD THAT'S A HUGE INFORMATION DUMP. Sorry for all the apparently excessive details but I just wanted to document all that so my future self remembers and fully appreciates how great this game was. I damn near completed 4 full playthroughs of this game. Despite that, I still wasn't constantly spamming past many dialogue sequences since I just enjoyed the rhythmic notes they hit. Whether as Alette trying to reason with Hakon and how he's become king of the Varl - and all the weight and responsibility that position holds. Whether you as a Rook/Alette can choose to hook-up and be in a relationship with Oddleif/Egil. Here's a little bit more RealM722 lore for you all - I LOVE the "ruthless mercenary but actually he may have a better heart than he lets on" and that is exactly how I played Bolverk and the Ravens. He was going to kill ruthlessly when you wronged him, but he appreciated the sheer joy and admiration Nikels had for his legends, as well as was willing to bring the stoneslinger along even if it would be unpopular to many from his crew. Folka was a wonderful companion and without even knowing it I made many correct decisions on my 1st playthrough that well represented the relationship they have since it spoke so well to me. That's just so much about this game that I enjoyed from even having the new arrival of Rugga (governor of Boersgard) - who will be playa hater #1 if you're Rook - or actually be generally supportive if you're Alette. In terms of my final end game choices, I accidentally my 1st time through sided with Rook AGAINST the king/Ludin/varl and basically.. exterminated their race? WHOOPS - my bad. There I go committing genocide accidentally again. On my 2nd playthrough, I let Ludin die(or get assassinated by Dagr at Lundar, you decide) - and stood by Rugga again so I was just rebelling against the king, not also the varl. On my Hard playthrough I finally saw the opposite and lemme say - I think I enjoyed it more (kept Ludin alive so varl were safe), but instincitvely it seemed "wrong" to only care about those under my banner and be protected by King Meinholf but eh... I guess screw Rugga and the others, he recruited frigging kragsmen to help him in his rebellion! Does Banner Saga 2 built enough off the first as a sequel? A resounding, 1000% accurate, emphatic - YES! I really didn't expect it to be pulled off this well. Listen, it's not like the combat was revolutionized - but they did a magnificent job of introducing so many different characters that I actually cared for and I didn't just dismiss as "oh they weren't in BS1 who cares". The Horseborn and their ways were a hell of a surprise. All of the Ravens and just their complete opposite way of being than that of Rook/Alette's clan and banner. The Tracker and the War Bear's... it's still Banner Saga no doubt, but they managed to fix supplies a bit by letting your clansmen hunt for food and you have to balance that between how many fighters you want. They expanded the training tent to include challenges that can earn you renown but also how to properly utilize the new characters in your group. They did a good job of handling dialogue if you were a new player with how they bridged the events from the 1st game. For a 2-year turnaround I thought the amount of quality-of-life improvements made was exquisite. Hard Mode Playthrough - I left the Hard Mode Playthrough trophies (Challenge included) to be my last ones since I wanted to experience the game one last time knowing everything about it and lemme tell you - what a fun trip. Of course, by this point I know all the "correct" choices to make but it was fun reliving the whole trip again. I rolled with Alette since I didn't wanna do the Rook fight again on Hard mode, plus I figured her Overwatch ability would carry me to victory and boy did it ever. I also bought Strvah's bond at a market and lemme tell you once I got her to Rank 10 there was nobody stopping us. I rolled out the crew of Alette, Egil(learned how awesome he was during the DLC and the synergy between him always being by Alette's side while protecting her along with the narrative suggesting he and her are together mmmmmm.... it's too perfect), Eirik (war bear OP), Hakon, and two randoms whenever needed whether it be Iver, Yrsa, Ludin, Gunnulf, etc... honestly - the trickiest part of the game was with the Ravens and not dying. Why? I purposefully never leveled up Bolverk during my playthrough since I knew he was the final boss fight. Instead I kept upgrading Folka, Krumur, Sjoljborn..... until I realized there's a chapter 13 opening fight where you get ambushed by humans! All of a sudden Bolverk Bloodaxe is in fact Big Baby Bolverk who can't kill a few archers and spearsmen without dying - making the fight impossible. What do I have to do? Reload to before the Eyeless fight using chapter select, get him to like Rank 8 with a good item equipped, play through all of chapter 12 again(I speedran basically) - and then destroyed the opening chapter 13 fight in a few turns. So that's my tip - DON'T UNDER LEVEL BOLVERK CUZ THERE IS THAT SOLO FIGHT! You can dust him easily as long as you disable the item on the last fight vs Eyeless(just rush him, don't care about other enemies) - and then I had an Iver with Rank 8, 20 strength due to Dundr's band which let him crush Bolverk easily. I kept Ludin alive since I wanted to finally side against Rugga and side with the King to see the differences(not too extreme to be honest) and yea.. last fight was pretty easy with Alette firing away from a distance and everyone else serving as sponge damage to takedown armor. My Thoughts on Trophies - Do not try to do everything in 1 or 2 playthroughs. It's impossible. Accept that you'll need 3. The first one is your Normal playthrough, do it without worrying about a single trophy and just enjoy this lavish tour de force of a game. On your 2nd playthrough, kick it down to easy, and do all of the trophies you missed(I got all the enemy kills, no low spirits, no hunger, etc...) - and this is where things get tricky. Even on my easy playthrough, I couldn't get Master Tactician since I simply didn't have enough renown. Thus, I had to do a 3rd in-between playthrough before Hard, grinded all the way up to the infinite horseborn fight (you know, the one where you can genocide another species) - and then with renown carried over from a Banner Saga 1 save I had - I managed to get 6 characters to Rank 10 for the trophy. That's pretty lame if you don't remember to save renown from the end of a save in the 1st game, you're kinda screwed outta this trophy unless you're willing to grind the corpses of 200+ horseborn. Finally, the hard mode playthroughs I gave my advice above - I recommend doing the DLC(it's $5) and you'll become a master of this combat that you'll hardly die even on hard as long as you're prepared, plus you can always quit out and resume if you've put yourself in a bad spot. I can confirm that 1) Losing a training tent challenge does not void the trophy, I didn't even reload after failing and still got it. 2) Capturing Eirik's war bear does not count as a loss. 3) I recommend doing a blank playthrough of this on BS2 so you don't get screwed on BS1 carry over just in case. Let it be known that I achieved this behemoth 6.65% rarity platinum OR 1.61% rarity 100% completion in just 3 weeks and 2 hours. That may sound like a long ass time... until you realize it's the 11th fastest on PSNProfiles! Yea - I don't know how people managed to do this in a week - not cause of the main game but because of.... Survival Mode DLC - OH MY GOD THIS DLC... okay so, I saw the rarity %'s just at a glance and thought "hey how hard could that be" and saw from the trophy guide that it would only take 10 hours or so... maybe I just suck but the amount of reloading I had to do, and all the mix match dancing with cloud saves just to even accomplish these trophies will drive your normal every day trophy hunter insane. I am not joking when I say this - I must have used cloud saves over 120+ times in order to accomplish this DLC. Let's say 20ish times for the 4-man varl run (thank you to @Briste for his amazing work on the guide, it made my life far easier combining all those trophies) - but I managed to keep losing 1 varl at the end of the final battle so I won it, and cloud saved around it and added 2 archers and manage to get the "make sure no one dies" trophy which is a pain in the butt since you can die so damn easily if you're not careful. I then had to do the all female humans run, and lemme tell you - I easily must have cloud saved 50+ times. I just kept dying like crazy. The worst bits are are the first 10-15 levels with your crew. They're under-leveled and it was a struggle getting Alette to her Overwatch OP status while trying to save others from dying. Folka was the MVP of this run for me as being a tank who shielded so much damage, and eventually I learned to use Slag and Burn plus Rain of Arrows to manage enemy path movements that the 2nd half of the run wasn't so bad. Finally, oh... my... days... the hard mode run. This took me 2 days of extensive playing to complete. Like hardcore, 100% attention and focus in order to not stupidly die. Once again, the first 10-20 (and the 1st Eyeless fight) were by far the most awful bits. I ran with a core of Bolverk, Iver, Egil, Eirik, Yrsa, and Eyvind. Originally for the first few levels I had Folka instead of Egil but she died on a borderline impossible early archer fight and I swapped him in, and he ended up being the MVP of the run. I got a +2 aggro item early that I thought was trash, but that in combination with Egil's shield ability makes him a sponge for enemies hitting him without actually damaging his shields or strength. I would send him out to keep 3 varl distracted by himself while the others plucked off the stragglers, and then once they were done they cleaned up the big boys Egil kept focused on him. It was fun beefing up Iver, learning to use Eirik's call bear which is AMAZING as another damage sponge and able to just focus on shields and distract. I always thought Eyvind was super weak and didn't get why everyone said he was "so great". On Hard Mode when all those enemies are bunched up together and you can get 5-6 consecutive hits with his lightning.... sooooooo satisfying. Oh and Yrsa's slag and burn was clutch as well for me on a number of occasions. All in all, once I got past the 1st Eyeless fight (which I spent 2 hours on) it was mostly smooth sailing with the odd cloud save reload cuz I badly positioned my time. All in all my thoughts on the Survival Mode DLC is this - if you care about 100%'s on your profile (not just the plat), make sure you enjoy the combat in these games. If you don't, I can't imagine how awful this would be. For me? The DLC made me end up loving this game more than the original honestly. The reason after I made it sound so torturous and excruciating? I love it when a game demands to be learn it and master it. This DLC did that for me. I had managed to scrape by on the combat, but learning how to manage enemy movement, adjusting to perma-pillage mode, discovering the strengths of characters that I barely ever used during the main game... it kicked my ass, but I eventually conquered (once again, solely thanks to the help of cloud save). I would never, in a million years, have 100%'d this without it. This DLC becomes a 10/10 difficulty if you choose not to since one simple slip up (or even bad RNG) could ruin your strategy and decimate an entire run (which takes several hours to get through). I'd imagine the game would barely have any 100% achievers (then again, this game is so niche with just 3k owners and only 100 or so DLC owners, the most die-hard of diehards WOULD do it so it'd actually prolly raise the average rarity) My Concluding Thoughts and Preview for Banner Saga 3 - You've just read a man ramble for damn near 3,000 words and you're still not bored? Alright, here's my concluding thoughts. This game is freaking awesome. I have DEVOURED it. CONSUMED it. ENGULFED it. I am Bolverk and the game is Bellower's past life controlling me. Somehow - I'm not sick of it. It kinda hit me that it's "over" for this experience and I was a little sad... until I realized hey the 3rd game is right up on deck (for January, I want to savor it and not get burnt out). What are my predictions for Banner Saga 3? Well... for Alette/Rook's crew you end up inside the Arberrang's walls but I dunno.. will you actually spend meaningful time there? How would they manage the fights / battles other than different species fighting you outside of the walls? Something tells me early on something "big" is gonna happen that's gonna force us to basically abandon and head further south... is that even possible? I think the king is dead no matter what given how Rugga poisoned him. That opens the door for Rook/Alette to become the new #1 in charge for all these people and creatures. Do you get to speak to menders working at Arberrang? Maybe? I am about 99% sure that the other "crew" you manage will bed led by Juno. I say this because Juno is literally the games icon on the PS4 homescreen - just as Bolverk is for BS2, it'd be weird if she wasn't finally playable in the 3rd installment. I imagine it's her, Eyvind(I don't think he died at the end?), and Iver, and maybe some weird stragglers you pick up try and figure out what's behind the purple portal and yea... I kinda have no clue after that. I imagine you'll run into Ubin at some point (there's a reason he detoured after meeting the horseborn - in case you made the varl got extinct, he's still gonna be kicking it and you'll find him!) - and I imagine there is an ultimate "happy" conclusion where you as a Rook and Oddleif or Alette and Egil reign supreme as king/queen of the new world as it's saved (I think Juno will be given the choice to be good or bad - she had a line about that in BS2 where she said she doesn't know where her destiny lies as hero or villain, I imagine that's cause the player will be making the choices by then) But yea! I can't frigging wait! Shoutout to Stoic for making such a genuinely engrossing franchise that has surpassed all my wildest expectations. They've made something truly magnificent, and for that, I'm thankful. Panda Score: 9.1 / 10 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 Good lord. Your last post even makes some of my long winded posts look small in comparison. Would have to hunker down and spend a good 30 - 40 minutes just reading your thoughts on The Banner Saga 2. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 (edited) 12 hours ago, realm722 said: I played the first Banner Saga on PC and just bought a physical PS4 copy of all 3 for $15. Looking forward to playing them all in the future so I'll have to come back afterwards to read your post . Edited December 9, 2020 by Grotz99 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briste Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 22 hours ago, realm722 said: Survival Mode DLC - OH MY GOD THIS DLC... okay so, I saw the rarity %'s just at a glance and thought "hey how hard could that be" and saw from the trophy guide that it would only take 10 hours or so... maybe I just suck but the amount of reloading I had to do, and all the mix match dancing with cloud saves just to even accomplish these trophies will drive your normal every day trophy hunter insane. I am not joking when I say this - I must have used cloud saves over 120+ times in order to accomplish this DLC. Let's say 20ish times for the 4-man varl run (thank you to @Briste for his amazing work on the guide, it made my life far easier combining all those trophies) - but I managed to keep losing 1 varl at the end of the final battle so I won it, and cloud saved around it and added 2 archers and manage to get the "make sure no one dies" trophy which is a pain in the butt since you can die so damn easily if you're not careful. I then had to do the all female humans run, and lemme tell you - I easily must have cloud saved 50+ times. I just kept dying like crazy. lol thanks for the shout out. I can see how the 10 hours might seem misleading...I put that to reference the 'game time' to beat. Each run through takes around 2 hours or so according to the clock. Depending on skill level/luck it could easily be double or triple that depending on how much you have to restart. I'm really happy that you enjoyed the series as much as you did! It was one of my favorite series as well and I also really enjoyed the DLC quite a bit. I must have been a bit luckier than some because I really didn't think it was too bad (using the save cloud). I used the cloud save more out of an abundance of caution then really needing to redo a ton of levels over and over. I had maybe four or five levels that gave me problems that took a lot of trial and error to figure out what worked best, but for the most part I employed a similar strategy for most of the levels. I'd target anything ranged first if I could and otherwise just try to use the terrain to the best of my ability. I tended to let the enemy come to me so that I could soften them up a bit before they got really close. It was interesting to read about your choice of characters that you used. I personally liked Eyvind and used him a ton. Nothing made me happier than seeing a line of enemies, diagonal to one another. But my main group was always Aleo, Eirik, Alette, Iver, Hakon and Bolverk. I abused the hell out of Overwatch when possible. I think you would enjoy Ash of Gods since you liked The Banner Saga so much. It is heavily influenced by TBS and was really quite good. If you try it....hang in there with the controls...they are super frustrating until you figure out what is going on....but there really is a good game hidden there. The trophy list isn't the most friendly to do quickly...but there was a pretty good Steam guide that I followed for the trophy clean up. Best of luck on your hunting! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted December 11, 2020 Author Share Posted December 11, 2020 On 12/9/2020 at 2:29 AM, Spaz said: Good lord. Your last post even makes some of my long winded posts look small in comparison. Heh - yea... I'm a long-winded gasbag. I try and balance writing a review that's somewhat mildly entertaining but also stuff from the game I actually want to remember years down the line and whenever I think "how did I feel about that game again and why?" and word vomiting out a few paragraphs helps with that. I put some of the better "eye-catching" lines in bold / different colors for those just scrolling can get a glimpse of what I think about the game and if it piques their interest they can read the whole thing. On 12/9/2020 at 0:17 PM, Grotz99 said: I played the first Banner Saga on PC and just bought a physical PS4 copy of all 3 for $15. Looking forward to playing them all in the future so I'll have to come back afterwards to read your post . Ooooooh I am envious! I personally try to have physical copies of my favorite games and Banner Saga was not one I knew was so cheap in that regard. I really hope you enjoy it even 3/4 as much as I did. On 12/9/2020 at 10:42 PM, Briste said: lol thanks for the shout out. I can see how the 10 hours might seem misleading...I put that to reference the 'game time' to beat. Each run through takes around 2 hours or so according to the clock. Depending on skill level/luck it could easily be double or triple that depending on how much you have to restart. I'm really happy that you enjoyed the series as much as you did! It was one of my favorite series as well and I also really enjoyed the DLC quite a bit. I must have been a bit luckier than some because I really didn't think it was too bad (using the save cloud). I used the cloud save more out of an abundance of caution then really needing to redo a ton of levels over and over. I had maybe four or five levels that gave me problems that took a lot of trial and error to figure out what worked best, but for the most part I employed a similar strategy for most of the levels. I'd target anything ranged first if I could and otherwise just try to use the terrain to the best of my ability. I tended to let the enemy come to me so that I could soften them up a bit before they got really close. It was interesting to read about your choice of characters that you used. I personally liked Eyvind and used him a ton. Nothing made me happier than seeing a line of enemies, diagonal to one another. But my main group was always Aleo, Eirik, Alette, Iver, Hakon and Bolverk. I abused the hell out of Overwatch when possible. I think you would enjoy Ash of Gods since you liked The Banner Saga so much. It is heavily influenced by TBS and was really quite good. If you try it....hang in there with the controls...they are super frustrating until you figure out what is going on....but there really is a good game hidden there. The trophy list isn't the most friendly to do quickly...but there was a pretty good Steam guide that I followed for the trophy clean up. Best of luck on your hunting! I think what this tells me more than anything is you are FAR more skilled at the game than I am, lol. Like, I understand the strategy you mentioned but perhaps due to a lack of caution - sometimes I would have an archer like Yrsa just get destroyed on one of the first few turns given how low her relative strength/armor is and then have to reset. I also had a number of occasions where I had a character super low, tried hiding them for most of the fight, would get like 80% of the way through and then like forget a poison effect was gonna kill them. I understand 1000% the love for Eyvind - he's a glass cannon and had some rounds where he single-handedly made a fight from properly challenging / risky to a cakewalk due to doing 7, 8, 9+ damage on multiple enemies. I stupidly didn't use Alette for my Hard Mode run since she was so fragile early on that I said screw it and switched her out. Her Overwatch is sooo good if you're able to keep her alive to then tho as you mentioned, but I think it's awesome with so many characters in a game like this I sorta discovered on my own how strong Egil was for basically being a damage sponge without ever actually taking damage and he won a ton of battles for me with that tactic. Thanks again for your assistance on this wonderful game. I will definitely keep an eye out for Ash of Gods too! I just breezed through a few forum posts that described it as "much harder than Banner Saga" but once I complete the trilogy - I'll prolly have something in later 2021 that'll wanna scratch the itch this game gave me and now I have that alternative. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted December 11, 2020 Author Share Posted December 11, 2020 (edited) Game: Typoman: Revised Analysis: I bought Typoman: Revised Edition for $2.49 in mid-November 2020 - the all-time cheapest price it's gone on Playstation 4 thus far! Honestly, while not a phenomenal game in any way - this was a pretty damn good transition game. Basic platformer with a cute concept. You're a man made of letters (specifically a O for a head, E for an upper body, H for lower body, and R for right arm - on a journey for your left arm but a demon lord is attacking you and trying to make your life difficult. You progress through the game with some basic platforming, with the odd puzzle here and there asking you to spell out words to perform actions (if you need a platform to go up - you make a word like "raise", or "lift" - if you need to breathe while in poisonous gas, you can carry a "P" to a section and create a "GASP" extending your ability to save alive, etc...). It's alright! That's a tepid opinion but this game is the definition of a 6/10 game in my mind. But let's give it some compliments for a few things it does well. 1) It's very short! That almost could be perceived as an insult but far too many games wear out their welcome by feeling the need to go on for longer than they have any business going. There's a prologue, 3 chapters - and in total, it can be beaten in an hour. Wonderful! 2) The chapter select in this game is phenomenal. In part, due to how short it is - but man it'd be nice if other games could make it as convenient as this one was to go back and clean up any miscellaneous trophies you missed. In terms of detractors, while the game is generally very polished - generally escaping enemies / some jumping sequences that are rushed are a tiny bit clunky and you'll feel like "I shouldn't have died there" but once again, the game is so short it's not a big deal whatsoever(plus you have the cloud save loophole) Favorite trophy was definitely "Typoman." I reloaded a few times since I died stupidly on a few of the electrical shock sequences on moving platformers in Chapter 3 and also for whatever reason - always sucked at the timing on the final boss when you need to jump? Seems like there's a delay and I jump 1-2 seconds earlier than I should and just die on the death wave he sends. The final trophy earned was "Antonymizer" which was a bizarrely grindy trophy in a game that is incredibly breezy and quick to fly through. You have to sit down, solve 163 words, plucking out words on a board, run over to the left, pull a lever, and guide a "lie" into that word to get other letters and form the word in question. It'll take you a few hours, but I personally just sat back and watched some Cyberpunk 2077 streams(is that game getting destroyed right now? It feels so mixed. It appears to be performing horribly on base PS4 and getting crushed but I mean... geez man, making a game in 2020 for hardware released in 2013 seems really hard when it's trying to be one of these next landmark games. CD Projekt Red due to all the hype it received for their success in the Witcher 3, and all the love that received - was put on par with Rockstar Games and that seems... unfair. They're on what, their 4th game? Rockstar's experience by comparison making Grand Theft Auto's and Red Dead Redemption's is a bit unbalanced. I understand CP2077 may be very glitchy for some right now, but my best recommendation would be sit the game out for 1 year... I 1000% believe this is an "over-correction" for all the love the studio received, and people are going out of their way to be brutal with it, but I refuse to believe they didn't make something special with it. Come back once the tides have cooled and I have no doubt there is some spectacular world building to be discovered there. Remember, a games release is vital.... but what's better - a game that gets super praised at release and barely talked about afterwards (cough Outer Worlds received so much praise simply because it was a way to attack Bethesda, have barely heard a peep about it since in the mainstream) VS. a game that gets crushed at release and with patches and time becomes what it was dreamt to be... I'll take the latter every day of the week. WOW - this was supposed to be a review about Typoman. It's decent! Get it for $2 when you can and earn a nifty 13.51% rarity platinum in 6 days and 2 hours like I did! Panda Score: 6 / 10 Edited December 11, 2020 by realm722 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted December 12, 2020 Author Share Posted December 12, 2020 Game: The Last Blade 2 Analysis: I bought The Last Blade 2 for $3.74 back on October 1st, 2020 - once again the cheapest price it's ever been as sourced by PS Prices. For the first time in my life I have finally played a fighting game! Yes, unless you count playing a few rounds of Super Smash Bros Ultimate at a few friends houses within the last year and a half, this is the first proper fighting game I bought and played on my own. The likes of Street Fighter, Tekken, Dead or Alive, DBZ, Injustice, Mortal Kombat, and Soulcalibur never caught my eye or attention... but for whatever reason this one did when it was on sale a few months back for less than $4. I figured what the hell, variety is the spice of life and who knows - maybe this would be a jaw-dropping discovery of a new genre I utterly love, and I am satisfied to report that was not the case. Yea... I love the idea of the fighting games. You have a cool badass roster (I really digged Mukuro the undead zombie, Okina the hermit fisherman, and Akari Ichijou), they all have distinct movesets and cool animations, you pick your favorite and learn to get better and better at the game, with a group of friends who enjoy it you can learn to see who's the best, it's really awesome... but that ain't exactly my circumstances. Honestly, the coolest stuff for me was seeing the wonderful artistry from an arcade game released back in 1998. I didn't really know what buttons to press and just mashed my way through all the 17 arcade game clear trophies by abusing Koryu's powerful "right dpad + circle" move (thanks to @Judgelighters for the tip) Then I proceeded utterly stomp the Time Attack mode with the same strategy. Somehow, I still managed to die sometimes due to the opposing Koryu being an utter monster - I understand he's the final boss but being "stun-locked into getting frigging rekt" seems like one of the more wack elements of the fighting game genre. Maybe that's something you just get used to or a novice like me just doesn't understand. I'm not gonna scramble to chew through the entire fighting genre library after this experience, but if I see another one on sale for fairly cheap with a straightforward and not-so frustrating trophy list - I may give it another go and may actually try to yanno... learn a few movesets and if it's an active game, see if I can beat a few people online. All 20 trophies earned took me just 1 hour and 54 minutes to achieve the 19.00% rarity 100% completion! Panda Score: 6 / 10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now