RealM722's Trophy Cabinet

realm722 · February 27, 2023

Game: Inscryption

Analysis: I bought Inscryption for $13.99 towards the end of December 2022. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you all my favorite game of 2023 thus far!

Why Inscryption? Anybody who knows anything about me should know now above all else that I am a huge fan of indie games. They're kind of my thing. I can appreciate the big AAA blockbuster every now and then and will have a jolly good time doing so but I like getting in the trenches trying to unearth the real diamonds in the rough of which there are plenty on the PlayStation storefront. That being said, occasionally you will have indie darlings that captivate the hearts of the masses such as Hollow Knight and Celeste. They become so beloved they enter the stratosphere of the general gaming discourse. I don't know if Inscryption quite hit THOSE heights when it debuted in back in late 2021, but it damn sure did well enough that I distinctly remember seeing the game's reveal trailer at E3 during Devolver Digital's presentation in 2021. Why does that stand out in my memory? Probably because I did AN ENTIRE post on E3 2021 and hand waved away Inscryption as a game I was "100% not interested in" as I "don't do spooky, especially not spooky card games". That's a bit embarrassing to read knowing what I know now. In my defense, I thought there would be gore/constant horror/jumpscares. But after the critical acclaim that Inscryption received, I heard that there are no jumpscares and instead the game just has an overall creepy atmosphere which I greatly prefer. What better way to sample whether or not what they said is true than to play the game for myself? So away I went!

The Card Game Mechanics - I am someone who has very little experience with card games. Off the top of my head, the only one that I can name that I've played is Slay the Spire. That's one of the greatest video games I've ever played. So it's kind of a brutal measuring stick to pit Inscryption up against, but I can happily report this is an extremely accessible game for new players to the genre. You may feel a little bit disoriented at first with how to play and may be intimidated by the game's own characters criticizing your moves (oh yea, the cards can talk to you and they'll get upset if you make a misplay) but new features are gingerly introduced the more experience you have and the deeper you go into a run. Essentially, you need to do 5 more points of damage to your opponent than they do to you. Defend yourself so you don't take an onslaught of hits. Big cards that cost more blood typically hit harder, but they're more expensive and require more planning than cheaper cards, so sometimes opting for cheaper cards is better as it doesn't take as long to formulate your attack. There are also bones (which apply to some cards and can be played if you've lost enough characters which can sway a fight), items (which are essentially consumables and can swing the course of entire matches), as well as unique events within the game that can make one strategy vastly superior to another, and you should be flexible in your playing methods to accommodate this. Some of my personal favorite cards during the base game were (2x blood Wolf, 4x bones Alpha, 1x blood Bullfrog, 1x blood Stoat) I found that cards requiring 3-4x blood took way too much time to set up and I'd be far too behind in a match before I could use them. That being said, with the RNG in the game you need to make the most of whatever the game gives you and I often found myself delightfully surprised by what I managed to conjure up and escape with the narrowest of victories which is really all you can ask for in a roguelike with so many variations.

Why I Need to Pause The Review Here - Sadly, I can't really divulge much about the game as... a detail I left out from earlier that had me curious about Inscryption and why I decided to take a flyer on it was rumors of hearing that: "did you reach the point in the game where THAT happens?" This, in and of itself, may constitute a spoiler to some people. I'm sorry if that's the case. Still, I feel compelled to mention it as it was the detail that piqued my curiosity to really take a look at the game. That may also be the case for you, the reader. In case I can't make this even more obvious than I need to be, THIS ISN'T A BASIC ASS ROGUELIKE CARD GAME. Don't get me wrong, if you loathe the notion of that sort of game, I probably still wouldn't recommend it, but Inscryption is a lot like an ogre and has a lot more layers than it's letting on. Those layers made my jaw hit the floor. They had me absolutely giddy at what was coming next not knowing what direction the game would go with it. It was a wonderful ride and I hope to encourage those who haven't played the game yet to give it a chance and hopefully enjoy it as much as I did. That's all I have left to say without divulging more confidential aspects of the game. (SPOILERS ALL THE WAY DOWN FROM HERE). You've been warned.

P03 is my favorite character in the game. They're so wonderfully snobby in their perception of decks and card-building and managed to handle robot stoicism about humor in a remarkably endearing way.

The Culmination of Act 1 - Now that the spoiler babies are gone, I can talk about Act 1 in full sincerity. Okay, so I was freaking terrified every time I stood up to walk around the cabin in this game. Yes, you read correctly. In between turns/rounds of playing, you can get up from the table and explore the cabin. There are many trinkets and devices to fuss with. I was always hesitant as the opposing player specifically told me not to touch his stuff. I was terrified that if I played with the squirrel holding the knife or messed with his skull filled with gold teeth, he'd eventually get up and I'd get horror-slashed death while crapping my pants and throwing my PS5 controller through the division. Thankfully, the game never pulls that cheap trick. Instead, you are heavily incentivized by the cards that can speak to explore the cabin and they offer helpful tips and guidance to further your progression. This is vital in order to graduate from this stage. The cards will help you rescue other cards that are trapped. By using specific items unlocked in the cabin, you can get the key item (the film roll from the clock) that is necessary to shock Leshy when you defeat him at the final boss stage and sends the game into a blurry disaster. I was petrified when he got super pissed and seemed to rush the player. I clicked whatever I needed to click. The game got dark. I was locked in an empty room with a candle... I was lost... I had to look up online what to do next, and boy was I not expecting the turn we went in.

The Structure of Act 2 - Upon starting a "New Game", you'll discover video archival footage from a man named The Lucky Carder. He's a YouTube pack-opening personality of some type who has stumbled upon this bizarre game... Inscryption. It's a little bit hokey/cheesy but I thought it was cute and the lead kinda gave me some Jim Carrey energy so I was vibing with it. Once you're done, you begin Act 2. A pixel-art retro game with all of the familiar faces from before. The guy you defeated? He's named Leshy. You still play with cards, but this is no longer a roguelike and instead, you can try battles over and over again even if you lose with no meaningful progress lost. You'll meet 3 other bosses/leaders aside from Leshy and they'll have their own distinct cards that you need to learn the mechanics of in order to progress. I personally found Magnificus' to be the most obnoxious as I felt like I was in 2nd-grade math class with all those stupid different shapes and specific combinations needed in order to activate cards. Still, the game isn't tough at all at this phase and you feel relatively safe given the lack of consequence for losing. Despite the 4 locations to explore, they're all fairly narrow in scope and this act of the game shouldn't take too long. After beating each boss, you'll be asked which one you want to replace. I chose Leshy (as he was the one I was most familiar with). P03 did not take too kindly to this and uhh... broke our TV until we ended up in his world where he's in control.

The Structure of Act 3 - Welcome to the world of Botopia. All of a sudden you find yourself in similar circumstances as to that in Act 1. Face-to-face with your foe at a table with cards in front of you. Only this time, it's not some monster weirdo bearded creep in the boondocks with freaky masks but a determined authoritarian robot at the helm. Quite possibly the most horrifying moment in the entire game was when I tried to get up from the table after entering Botopia and you realize you can't as your wrists are contained via metal locks and P03 simply retorts: "There's no time to explore, we have the great transcendence to get too!" The mechanics of the game are a bit different with 5 slots for playing cards instead of 4 and energy works a bit differently as you're working with machines but on the whole I found it to be easier than Act 1 as you're mostly familiar with the game's tricks by this point albeit with some different color dressing. I loved the bosses in this stage. They were quirky and delightful from the Archivist who has you delete files from your computer to Golly who sends enemies in the names of friends on your personal PSN friends list. Here's @DrBloodmoney about to wreck my freaking day as the most terrifying card formation possible. The entire act is enthralling and kept me on my toes. I appreciated the checkpoints and distinct bounty system as well as the small exploration bits once P03 does allow you to explore the underground bunker a bit. Eventually, you'll have the other 3 bosses (Leshy, Grimora, Magnificus) concoct a plan to overthrow P03 before he transfers his full control to the internet and they ultimately manage to thwart his plan by deleting everything! This leads to the culmination of the plot.

Conclusion of the Story - As everything is slowly being deleted, so are the personalities you've come to know during your time playing Inscryption. You'll have a brief encounter with Grimora before she meets her untimely end. Quite possibly the best moment of the entire game occurs after she disappears and you find yourself back where it all started... playing against Leshy in that sinister cabin. Despite mere hours having passed since your victory over them... I was overwhelmed with a thick feeling of nostalgia. I kinda missed him. His melancholy attitude contributed to the mood. Even though I beat him, he didn't care. He just wanted to keep playing and didn't care about the score. You'll end up facing Magnificus' in a bizarre futuristic YuGiOh battle of some sort as the final files of the game disintegrate and it all ends in a flash of white before everything is gone for good. You're sent back to The Lucky Carder who has been playing the game this whole time. There have been hints of some masterplan at play here by the company (GameFuna) that developed Inscryption. It quickly takes a dark turn and before you realize it, just after he finishes smashing the game to bits, he opens the door and is shot in the head and bleeds to death as a woman enters and exits his premises. Uhh... my first thought was, "did I get the bad ending or does that happen to everyone?" I'm pretty sure it happens to everyone. I don't quite know how to feel about the meta-story at play but I do know that I greatly enjoyed my time with the game even if I didn't quite fully comprehend the ending (or maybe it really is as straightforward as they play it). I kind of wish the game had been a great deal larger in scale with whole 1-on-1 encounter worlds with Grimora and Magnificus but maybe it's better that there wasn't as by then the mechanics could have been "played out". All in all, talk about a damn rollercoaster!

Can we talk about how wonderfully made the cards are in this game? I wanted to mention that. Maybe some card-loving snobs find them basic but I enjoyed the vast majority of the designs and they clearly convey what needs to be relayed to the player!

Cleaning-Up Main Story Trophies - Before I began playing, I learned from this helpful trophy guide that the game has a chapter select mode which means I could freely enjoy the game without worrying about hunting down trophies. I can happily report that replaying the chapters for the few miscellaneous ones found isn't that tedious. It probably took me around an hour each chapter at most as I had a pretty good grasp on all the mechanics of the game by that point. "Devil's Play" is super easy following the dummy mage battle guide on YouTube and "Grim Bounty" isn't too tricky as long as you don't get totally screwed by RNG. Everything was rolling super well and I figured I wasn't too far away from the platinum at this point given I had done and seen most of what the game had to offer. Then I discovered the expansion that the developers added to the game in the form of Kaycee's Mod.

Kaycee's Mod (good grief) - I forgot to write earlier that a sentiment I had while playing through Act 2 was "I kinda miss Leshy and Act 1 right now". The developers heard my thoughts and responded with a ridiculous challenge modifier mode of increasing scope and difficulty. Every battle is a totem battle. No more angler's hook. No more 2nd life. You can't reroll card selections. No more rare cards from boss victories. The game does it and does it with a grin on its face. I managed to get through the first few challenges and decks with relative ease... and then I unlocked the Mantis God starter deck. Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. You win forever and always with the Mantis God starter deck. This is quite frankly the most broken deck in the game. Essentially, due to the game's inherit rule of always forcing a 1-blood card on your opening turn of each match (in order to always give you something to play), all you need to do is burn one of the ringworms in a campfire and get rid of the other one via a sacrifice to the bone lord and all of a sudden you can win every match on the first turn with a slightly beefed up Mantis God. I am so glad I did NOT learn of this strategy during the main game. I love this game, but I hope time passes before I return to it as I hope to forget this strategy as its virtually impossible to not play with it but simply altering strategies of savescumming at campfires and boosting your 1-blood card while ignoring pretty much everything else in your deck. Here are my Challenge 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, & 13 victories stats. Here are my FINAL stats for all of Kaycee's Mod. I went 17-18 but a good chunk of those losses (6-8) were done because I got screwed on no campfires early in the map. Even though I needed to use all of the other remaining starter decks for "Start // Finish" I simply adopted a similar strategy from the one I had learned through this broken method and trivialized all possible challenge for myself. Yanno what? GOOD! That challenge modification of 8 bloody 4 power, 6 health grizzly bears is downright idiotic. Even with the broken Mantis God I'd still say you need the fan+brush item to exploit the final phase as without it, I don't know how you're surviving 16 hit points of damage if you don't have fodder on the front lines. All in all, I'd say this was a decent time. It wasn't my favorite additional expansion to a game (that reward will forever go to Going Under), but it allowed me to enjoy the mechanics and basking in the atmosphere of the game a little while longer before wrapping things up didn't hurt. I ultimately earned the 12.23% rarity platinum in 5 days and 4 hours. It makes me the 28th fastest achiever to date!

Miscellaneous Thoughts - I just wanted to include a few random thoughts I felt while playing the game at the end here as I couldn't find any other place to include them in the review. 1) The bosses are delightful in their odd challenges. The prospector is a bit of a joke as all you need to do is follow the stoat's instructions and break the mule and combined with the cards in your deck, it shouldn't be all that tricky. The only downside is he always turns your cards after phase 1 into gold nuggets so if you only have one super-powerful card and nothing else and play it early, you could be in trouble. The angler is a nightmare due to his ability to occasionally take your cards so you need fodder to toss so he takes that crap instead. His BS sharks in phase 2 can be bypassed by doing damage directly with flying characters but it could get you in a pickle, especially your first few times facing him without that knowledge. The trapper is a fun odd mix as he has the quirky mechanic of taking some of his own cards in phase 2 for pellets. He's probably the least interesting of the 3. OH NO! The final boss being the moon... kinda sucks? It never beat me. A single time. Usually, when I reached that phase I stomped him. Kinda hoped for something better. 2) The music in the game is outstanding. I'm going to give the OST a full listen the next time I have the chance. 3) This small studio out of Vancouver, Canada (Daniel Mullins Games) has officially been placed on the map for me. I'll play anything they make next and I'm going to go in as blind as possible as not knowing anything about the game or its additional acts absolutely added to the wonder that I never knew the game could offer.

Would I recommend Inscryption? Absolutely! As I said in the introduction of the review, this game is super accessible even for those who aren't into card games or have never dabbled in the genre. The only thing that would hold me back from recommending the game is the somewhat tedious savescumming needed in order to tackle the Kaycee's Mod challenges but the game is shockingly friendly about trying the same task over and over again as you're allowed to quit out to the menu before a fight and try, try, try again if you believe you've misplayed a winning hand. Never in a million years did I think I'd even play this game back when I first saw it as a trailer and its ended up becoming one of my favorite games of All-Time during the PlayStation 4/5 era. These are the games that remind me why I have such a blast doing this and why part of the fun from playing is added knowing I'm going to be able to gush about it in a multi-thousand word review. The next indie that'll hit these heights for me that I'm almost positive about is Neon White but we'll save that for down the road. Stay safe y'all and I can't wait to be back in March with some more unusual titles!

Panda Score: 9.15 / 10

Panda Difficulty: 5.1 / 10

Spoiler

Game: Inscryption

Date: February 20th, 2022

Super excited. Going in 100% blind. Haven’t seen a moment of gameplay but I’ve heard fantastic things, lessgo!
Okay the vibe is a kid/young guy plugging in a cartridge I think? Not typical intro
Lol opponent calls me dull for drawing a squirrel and not from the deck
LMAO IM DOOUBLING DOWN ON THE SQUIRREL YET AGAIN
Okay holy crap lost the 3rd match with the flying coyote and he had me get up from the table to get a candlestick…. That’s FREAKY
WELP WE PERISHED DIED A 2ND TIME AND BRO TOOK A PHOTO OF ME THE JERK
The stoat is super helpful…. Passcode in the rulebook. “273”
Okay we used the code on the vault and got a lil innocuous insect and a trophy cool!
I am loving the sassy Stoat in this Darth environment, its brilliant
Oh wow we can accept his surrender or not…. I say let’s accept! In case we bungle it lol
AYYYYY I THINK WE BEAT THE PROSPECTOR BOSS FIRST TRY LESSGO BABY!
We got a trophy, and for our rare card I decided to pick the strange larva!
Stoat mentions there’s another talking card in the cabin… but he’s a killjoy. Eh?
HOLY COW THE LARVA TURNED INTO A MOTHMAN AND DID 7 DAMAGE THATS OP!!!
Welp… I was NOT ready for the sharks after the Angler boss fight 2nd phase.
DAMN WE ACTUALLY BEAT THE ANGLER 2ND TRY! BARELY! SHARKS ARE CRAZY!
Wow I stood no chance in the snow zone and got obliterated by a bunch elk
Yoooo we just freaking stole one of the angler’s great white sharks baby!
Okay after stop extensive reloading and cutting OUT OUR FREAKING EYEBALL WITH A KNIFE, we finally beat the trapper & trader
OOOOOH WE PICK THE ONE WITH SOME TECHO VISION AND GOT A TROPHY!
Okay 1st day playing in the books and I am absolutely loving it. Seriously. Creepy, but also surprisingly fun card gameplay!

Okay we are back for Day 2 and with our new MASTER eye… let’s check out this cabin
Welp we died since the final cabin boss… I’m sorry… way too freaking difficult, AMALAGAM!
Yo we just got a +2 to power on Stoat on first turns of next run which is freaking sick!
Welp I bungled that run in the Wetlands man dang it died to the Angler
We are on a GOLDEN run right now… just destroyed the trader boss by getting some hella powerful cards
WE JUST DESTROYED THE FREAKING MOON AND BEAT HIM!!! WHAT HAPPENED?
BRUUUUH WHAT THE HELL IS THIS??? KARM WERKS??? HELLO LMAO
Of all the twists I thought this game would have, this is not one of them
So he finds a set of coordinates on an Inscription card pack…
One of the videos bugged out battery wise… hmm….
Oh hey he finds an Inscryption game cartridge! That’s novel!
Okay trapped in the dark cabin I had to look up on Steam that I had to go back to the main menu and start a new game
Oh now we a pixel art game? Aight I never thought this’d happen lmao
Okay I stopped playing for 2 hours to watch the thrilling Real Madrid 5-2 win over Liverpool we back
Okay you can die to Less in the pixel art land and just retry over and over again, cool
WE BEAT HIM! Key was letting him kill my guys early and then destroy ‘em late

We back for Day 3, let’s get Grimora!
Royal - far right tomb, Royal Dominguez 1589 - Spring 1632
Middle, Sawyer Patel 1702 - Fall 1778
Left, Kaycee Hobbes 1970 - Winter 1992
Okay we just straight up guessed on their causes of death and such and we got it lol
YOOO WE FINALLY BEAT GRIMORA! She kicked our butt there for a solid 5-7 attempts, but we redid our deck and got a clutch victory! Well done!
Oh we’ve got more KamWerks videos to sort through!
The Lucky Carder got the only digital version of Inscryption… where is this going?
Lady showing up at his door from Game Funa O____O
Lmao I love the smug robot “You beat them with THIS deck?”
LMAO WE REKT THIS ROBOT DUDE WITH A GRIZZLY 6x HAHAHAH!
And he’s so salty enough to blame it on RNG what a baby!
I’m stuck at this dumb mannequin puzzle in the wizard… what downvote symbol in the sound effects volume menu?
Okay I had to look up the answer (Skull, Arm, Wing)
I have been CRUISING with the following deck for the last few encounters: 1x Double Gunner, 1x Meatboat, 1x Bonehound, 1x Pharaoh’s Pets, 1x Sarcophagus, 1x Revenant, 2x Grizzly, 1x Elk, 1x Bloodhound, 3x Mantis God, 7x Squirrel)
Wing by the rabbit (north)
Okay Grimora kicked our ass for a solid minute there. I had been avoiding wizard cards all the way until now but her sigils made it impossible. Learned how to use Mox and such and DUSTED her
“IT IS TIME, CHALLENGER. CHOOSE THE SCRIBE THAT YOU WILL REPLACE”
I say… SCREW LESHY!
Oooooooooh… PO3 was the Stoat! That’s hilarious and makes so much sense!
Uhhh… PO3 my guy… why you breaking my TV brother…
LMAO now we’re in PO3’s world. Botopia. That’s brilliant.
Woah… I just tried to get up and we’re literally chained to the table, bruh
Ayyyy we beat the photographer boss! I’m digging the new mechanics in each world
This game CONSTANTLY second guesses your picks which makes you feel like a moron (example added spikes to all empty vessels)
We have more videos to view from the Lucky Carder!
This guy gives me a little bit of Jim Carrey energy in his face
Kaycee lady dead….
Interesting post-its, “O3KO”
Paused on the post it… “PERHAPS BLOOD LETTER BOX?” Is all I can really get outta it
We defeated The Archivist! No biggie!
Bought something for 25 Bucks which says :”4:00”
We beat the Unfinished Boss… damn… quite the section!
YOOOOOOOOO IM AT THE GOLLY BOSS AND SHE JUST SPANWED PLAYERS FROM MY FRIENDS LIST THATS ADORABLE
“I hope you weren’t trying troll someone” hehehehe
Freaking DrBloodMoney’s card damn near gave me a heart attack
Isosceles, blue man,
Okay that was freaky as all hell meeting the grimora, fleshy, and magnifies in the horror style
We managed to get the trophy for reviving all 5 lore cards in Botopia
YO LESHY JUST RIPPED P30’S HEAD OFF BRUH
Lmao Grimora busting out her pirate boss battle before being deleted
Awwww…. Why is fighting Leshy again so melancholy now?
I’m sorry Leshy
Why the tree dressed like Oscar the Grouch
Yooooo I believe we just got the trophy for completing the finale! Is that it?
Luke went hammer time on the cartridge
LMAOOOO LADY WALKED UP AND KO’D THIS DUDE IN THE FACE
I guess Luke Carder isn’t going to be in Inscryption 2
Ayyyyyy we’re rolling credits! Did I get the bad end or is that everyone’s ending?
Okay I finished up the main story for today! What a freaking game! Back tomorrow for trophies!

LMAOOOOO… grinding for the 3 trophies left in Leshy’s cabin and bro got so mad I got so far the 1st time he summoned 8x Grizzly’s on the Trader Boss LOL
Alrightie we got the 3 miscellaneous in there, no biggie whatsoever, on to Act 2 again!
Okay we managed to get all the remaining trophies in base game, didn’t take THAT long, now we’re on to Kaycee’s Mod!

Kaycee’s Mod Notes:

Finished up the first 2 challenges today… not so bad honestly. Took some getting used to going back to Leshy but it reminds me of the Slay the Spire Ascension Mode
Okay I have been CRUSHING IT! Got challenges #3 and #4 done. Did them with the other decks too such as blood goat and ant so the next one I unlock is the game breaker in the Mantis God! I even got the moon trophy with my 2nd deck and unlocked 2/3 of the items in Kaycee’s Mod from the frame en route to wins! We balling!

YaManSmevz · February 27, 2023

1 hour ago, realm722 said:

Game: Inscryption

Aaayyyyy excellent job as always, my dude!

When both you AND the good Doctor are high on a game, it's pretty much guaranteed that I'ma play it at some point.

Also...

1 hour ago, realm722 said:

Agreed hard, such a uniquely real tension there. The friend I first saw that movie with, he and I still reference that scene to each other once in a while.

"What do I stand to wi-"

"EVERYTHING."

DrBloodmoney · February 27, 2023

4 hours ago, realm722 said:

The Card Game Mechanics - I am someone who has very little experience with card games. Off the top of my head, the only one that I can name that I've played is Slay the Spire. That's one of the greatest video games I've ever played.

Sir, I believe you may be finding out something about yourself - the same thing I discovered via Slay the Spire and Inscryption…

…I think you may actually be a card game fan ?

To test this theory, I would recommend you try out one other game - the other in the “holy trinity” of amazing games that forced me to accept my closet-card-game-appreciator status…

…Griftlands!

It’s another really outstanding game in the genre, that I unequivocally recommend… and I have a suspicion that not only will you love it if you loved Slay the Spire… but once you do, you will be unable to deny that you are, in fact, a Card Gamer!

Edited February 27, 2023 by DrBloodmoney

realm722 · February 27, 2023

13 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Agreed hard, such a uniquely real tension there. The friend I first saw that movie with, he and I still reference that scene to each other once in a while.

"What do I stand to wi-", "EVERYTHING."

Hahahaha I'm glad to know I'm not the only one! I've been quoting the: "do you know what date is on this coin? 1958. Its been traveling 22 years to get here, and now it's HERE." The emphasis Bardem puts on the second "here" is magnificent and the gruff "Well done" after the dude calls it correctly is also just perfect ?

10 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

To test this theory, I would recommend you try out one other game - the other in the “holy trinity” of amazing games that forced me to accept my closet-card-game-appreciator status…

…Griftlands!

It’s another really outstanding game in the genre, that I unequivocally recommend… and I have a suspicion that not only will you love it if you loved Slay the Spire… but once you do, you will be unable to deny that you are, in fact, a Card Gamer!

Yoooo it's funny you mention that! I distinctly remember you playing the game a few months back and found it noteworthy given its from a major developer (Klei Entertainment) yet somehow didn't get rewarded a platinum despite a pretty brutal rarity % for 100%. That alongside with Invisible, Inc (a game that I know you have in your Top 5 and has clogged Cassy's rarest trophies ever earned cabinet for years) have my curiosity. I played Mark of the Ninja. I KNOW those people make good games with fun mechanics. I've just gotta stop being a baby and dive. Added it to the wishlist, thanks Doc!

Cassylvania · February 28, 2023

6 hours ago, realm722 said:

Yoooo it's funny you mention that! I distinctly remember you playing the game a few months back and found it noteworthy given its from a major developer (Klei Entertainment) yet somehow didn't get rewarded a platinum despite a pretty brutal rarity % for 100%. That alongside with Invisible, Inc (a game that I know you have in your Top 5 and has clogged Cassy's rarest trophies ever earned cabinet for years) have my curiosity. I played Mark of the Ninja. I KNOW those people make good games with fun mechanics. I've just gotta stop being a baby and dive. Added it to the wishlist, thanks Doc!

Game wasn't even that hard. ? I've been itching to knock those trophies off for a long time. (Still, it was really good.)

Griftlands is also on my watch list!

Edited February 28, 2023 by Cassylvania

Grotz99 · March 2, 2023

On 2/1/2023 at 8:54 PM, realm722 said:

Shameless promotion incoming...This is on sale again for 50 cents, picked it up because of your review and because I love me some TD games.

realm722 · March 6, 2023

Game: Neverlast

Analysis: I bought Neverlast when it was on sale for $2.49 in mid-January 2022. I probably overpaid by about $2.

Why Neverlast? I will fully admit that my trophy obsession and desire to stick to my meticulous monthly madness is what made me pull the trigger on what I fully realized would likely be a lackluster game. At the start of the year, it had been a while since I had gone on a spending spree during a sale which meant the available amount of 100% games I had available that would be viable for quick completion was rapidly dwindling. I decided to search in the crevices of whatever pathetic sale was active at the time and this and Pixel Gladiator was the best I could come up with. Pixel Gladiator ended up becoming one of the best 100%'s of all-time. This.... was not that.

The Game Cycle - With only 6 trophies to its name, it's not surprising that there isn't a lot to do in this game. You're immediately thrust into control of a fighter with a sword of some kind and have to wander a keep searching out 3 distinct portals to destroy. In the process, you'll need to kill or evade the 3 types of enemies scattered about this castle. All 3 enemy types are drawn in the image above. A weird cyclops-type dude who has a heavy club and is just about the only enemy in the game who can even do damage to you. A knight that will never hit you as they always die in 3 hits and you can button mash them to death, and finally a Cerberus dog that is most annoying as it can block your path moreso than ever posing an actual threat to kill you. The game doesn't feel good. Enemies flop over upon death like ragdolls. You feel floaty and obtuse. The game was created by Sabec Limited who are the same folks who made the pathetic Popeye game I sampled from last year and this somehow ended up being more pathetic and pulled off the enormous feat of somehow having even LESS to do than in their previous game. The best thing the game has going for it is the exploration as you try to Quake-run navigate your way through the labyrinth of the castle in search of the portals you need to destroy. I ended up farming the 100 kills necessary in an area where they kept respawning and after about another 15 minutes of walking found the portals I needed to complete the game and achieve a high score of 51,332. I never came close to dying once. I earned the 59.26% rarity 100% completion in 22 minutes and 12 seconds. This makes me the 15th fastest achiever of All-Time!

Would I recommend Neverlast? No. Save your money. There is very little in the form of redeeming qualities for the game unless you're just like me and needed a 100% game to chew through in order to keep your odd desired taste for your PSNProfile Games list in order with a repeating amount of blue's and green's. I can happily report that I've scooped up a number of far more intriguing 100% games since my stockpile had been depleted and we have some fascinating games on the horizon in the next few months. I'm going to try out Forager which is from a developer in Argentina and has received both praise and criticism. I'm excited to play any game that Joseph Anderson has made a video on. We've also Never Alone which is also from a unique studio in Alaska depicting a unique culture. Broforce is from the devs out of South Africa and if I ever want to offer myself a brutal challenge, I know just what game to play next. I've had many social engagements as of late in real life which has led to a bit of a slowdown in my game-playing allotted time but I think I have a few titles on the horizon that are sweet and succinct that can still make for some meaty fodder for a proper review. Until then!

Panda Score: 5.5 / 10

Panda Difficulty: 2.0 / 10

realm722 · March 8, 2023

Game: Simulacra

Analysis: I bought Simulacra when it was on sale for $5.19 back in early February 2022. Get ready for some conflicting opinions!

Why Simulacra? This is a game I've actually had on my radar for a few years now. I distinctly remember seeing it on sale as far back as 2020, and its name (single word, unique game titles are the best way to capture my attention when I'm skimming through a sale) and 30% rarity platinum made the game stand out amongst its contemporaries. But I always ultimately ended up backing off due to fear of glitched trophies and the "horror" tag appearing under its labeled themes. Eventually, as I got on my "play a game from every country" kick, I discovered by pure coincidence that the developers, Kaigan Games, are actually based out of Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. That was all the motivation I needed to finally give the game a chance and add it to my shopping cart. (SPOILERS FROM 3RD PARAGRAPH ONWARD)

From A Mechanics Standpoint - The image above is not deceptive in any way. For your entire playthrough, this small rectangle in the middle of your screen displaying a phone will be what you used to uncover the story and mystery in Simulacra. You've found a woman's last phone. Her name is Anna. You end up discovering a bunch of details about Anna's life and have to navigate this maze of mystery trying to understand her past relationships, what has happened to her, what has happened to others, and through some detective work and savvy thinking, hopefully, resolve things before it's too late! Sounds intriguing, yea? It... kind of is? I dunno. A lot of this game was hit or miss for me. There are some undeniably fun moments. Connecting the dots via information gained from emails to progress the story in other ways by remembering the last name of somebody here or an important fact of somebody else there. But there's also an incredible amount of junior crew mechanics at play. The phone calls are all REALLY bad. You play as a silent protagonist (you're not Anna, just someone who found their phone). This means the other person on the line (whether it be Greg, Taylor, or a Detective) just call you up and monologue for 20-25 seconds before hanging up. I much prefer the voice messages left via chat as at least there's not that awkward dissonance (and honestly super relatable as I have my friends send me voice chats all the time while I simply text back since I'd rather be falcon punched in the stomach than have to listen to my own voice). I enjoyed the Spark profile dating curation section. I thought the chats were neat. The decoding photos/texts was a fine small minigame. But I don't think there's a truly outstanding moment here from a gameplay perspective in the entire runtime and the super slow entering text via a PlayStation controller drains during specific sections.

Scary or Cheesy? - I mentioned the genre horror in the opening paragraph and I feel the need to follow up on that here. Is Simulacra scary? I don't think so. The game startled me once when it did a cheap jumpscare after I was backing out of an application but aside from that, I think it was fairly pedestrian. I will say that I did NOT listen to the game and play with headphones since I 100% hear the game do random secret sounds like someone knocking on your door and that is not cool in my book and I do not consent to that. Really, what I think makes the game most exasperating is that... they could have done more with this? Not in the scary department but with... everything regarding the story. I like Anna. She's pretty hot. The game does not hide this. But her Vloggr videos personalized pale in comparison to even some of the more average videos found in Telling Lies. Greg sucks. Taylor is... cool but so insanely cringe at other times. If I have to give the game credit in any department, they definitely have the general vibes/language of texting down pat. Multiple jokes that you'd absolutely see made in a given circumstance. It just doesn't flow as well together as it should. I wish they had done something better with the finale than a... tired... AI that is killing people for their own virtual world vs. physical world gain. I really didn't care for the final act and I think that's why the game didn't have the impactful finish I wish it could have had. I like games with unique styles and ideas. I like the idea of navigating everything from a phone. I like the idea of relying on/persuading people via text and finding clues to unravel a mystery. But it just didn't come out as well in action as it sounds on paper. What is with those awful full-motion videos at the end of the game? Who is scared by that?

My Trophy Path - Rather than bash my head against the wall trying to get some of the vague trophy descriptions, I have to give a humongous shoutout to @Eispan for their jaw-droppingly pristine platinum text walkthrough. I understand that this is the sort of game that is more accessible to make such a meticulous guide for but seriously they went to extreme lengths to convey every action necessary in perfect detail. I think the only "mistake" I would argue is found in the final section when aiming for Windy Convergence. They add a period at the end of the sentence "A polar, feathered bear waddles above the hammer" which if you do (and I did twice) automatically closes the gateway and locks you out of the trophy. Thankfully I learned via the trophy guide here that if you don't include a period, the sequence progresses as it should. Everything else is perfect. I avoided any and all possible chat glitches. I managed to earn "Just in Time" with 4 seconds left in the most heart-pounding sequence of the game. This is not a tricky plat by any means and if you're willing to do it against 2 playthroughs, you can get it done quite easily on New Game+ as it really does speed up the text and you aren't spent waiting around nearly as much as your 1st run when you're still getting your feet wet. I earned the 30.31% rarity platinum in 23 hours and 15 minutes.

Would I recommend Simulacra? I'd lean towards no. If you think this sort of game could be up your alley (pretty weird, atypical of most games, FMV, tryna unravel a mystery, don't mind some cheesy B-horror tricks) then be my guest and give it a whirl. I just kind of wished that the game focused more on Anna in other ways. Rather than her... becoming possessed by an AI and that explains her disappearance. I really think the game would have been improved if your main character could actually speak and interact with the other guys in the story than be completely silent. The developers, Kaigan Games, have made Simulacra 2 and Simulacra 3 since this original release back in 2017. I may do some research after the review to see whether they've managed to build on the formula and go to the next level with it or merely made minor alterations that haven't addressed any of my gripes with the game. Still, this was a pretty decent detour from games I typically play and am looking forward to getting back in the saddle on something a bit more traditional. Ta ta!

Panda Score: 6.22 / 10

Panda Difficulty: 1.9 / 10

realm722 · March 11, 2023

Game: Frost

Analysis: I bought Frost when it was on sale for $3.24 back in mid-February 2023. This game has the fewest platinum achievers(16!) of any I've played in my catalog to date!

Why Frost? With what is quite easily one of the most obscure games I've platinumed in my entire history, it begs the question of how the hell did I even discover it in the first place? C'mon. If you're a frequent reader of this thread you know the answer already. @Cassylvania. If I consider myself to be a connoisseur of the indie genre who is always digging in the mines for diamonds in the rough, Cassy is out here excavating in a mech suite on the fringes of the inner core with the sort of games they've able to uncover. I genuinely don't know how they do it. I've used 50GamesLike and scour sales on the regular but they have a gift few possess. I distinctly remember their review from way back in November 2019 and after adding it to my wishlist, it did not go on sale for 3 ENTIRE YEARS until finally popping up again last month. I'm always on the prowl for UR's and was ready to get back to big-game hunting after a relatively lax February covering games like ICEY and Carto.

A Brilliant Tutorial - One thing that piqued my curiosity about Cassy's review was them mentioning that Frost had an "excellent tutorial that gradually eases you into the game" and I'd like to back up that statement by saying that it IS phenomenal and should honestly be a case study for other indie devs trying to convey the mechanics of their game in a comprehensible fashion. Frost obviously has the advantage of the fact it's a card game but it is wonderfully weaved in a digestible manner that allows you to quickly understand what the hell you're trying to accomplish. SURVIVE. That's it. You only need to manage 3 resources (food/materials/people) and juggle how many you need in a given region in order to survive and advance (it's March Madness season baby!). The tutorial doesn't overwhelm you or even display... 60-70% of the cards you'll be encountering throughout your time with the game? This is because as you win/lose games in Frost, you will gradually unlock more and more cards along with more scenarios/playable characters. Each one will have their own strengths and weaknesses. I generally found pet cards to be useless for virtually every deck I used. EXCEPT for when I played as the Guide. This is because his special abilities allow him to use pets for health (without disposing the card) OR draw a random new free card for a pet. All of a sudden they became some of the most useful cards in the entire game. You will have to learn for yourself what best fits a certain character. The game never spells it out for you. But the tutorial, like any good parent teaching the kid to ride a bike, gives you the push you need to get started and set sail.

Having Fun Failing - When you first begin Frost, none of the available characters or their scenarios are unlocked. The game wants you to get your feet wet in "Classic Mode" with an Easy mode difficulty for default or a Custom Game Mode that unlocks pretty soon after you start playing. I decided to start things off slow since I remembered Cassy saying everything in this game is trying to kill you at all times and figured this would be a game I'd need to gradually get familiar with if I ever wanted to achieve the prospect of conquering it. I died A LOT. I'm a bit of a dunce when it comes to card games as it's always very difficult for me to remember the concept of: "keep your deck small and repeatable". I had it hammered into my skull when platinuming Slay the Spire but needed to have my brain bashed in again all these years later. DON'T ADD CARDS JUST TO ADD CARDS. Once I applied that timeless advice, I started to see results. It was easy to manage the requirements once I had a solid rotation of 4-5 food/materials in my rotation ready to handle whatever region the game threw at me, and with a steady stream of getting my survivors to scavenge, I achieved my first win on Easy. I then started dabbling with the playable characters from the Leader (3 family members you can't let die), Mediator (Frost doesn't exist w/ them, easiest scenario in the game), Guide (kinda glitchy with minimum 4 pets requirement, not too tough), Hunter (kill bear god, lil tough, just get weapons keep health high for whole run and sacrifice health for final fight with special ability), & Tracker (no other survivors, keep deck small and w/ one weapon and you got it). All of a sudden, I realized that I had glided past half the scenarios and only had 4 left. I was loving the gameplay at this time and wondered what all the fuss had been about difficulty-wise. The game wasn't EASY but it definitely manageable. Oh wait...

Conquering the Priest - Yea so the priest is the most bullsh!t scenario in the entire game. Their "special" ability is being able to raise the temperature (temperature signifies how many cards you receive in your hand each turn, range is from 1-9, default is 5) and you can raise it by sacrificing a survivor. The scenario asks for you to clear FIVE (5!) LEGENDARY REGIONS only after raising the temperature to the maximum 9. Remember, legendary regions have extra difficult requirements (4 food, 2 materials, 4 survivors OR 0 food, 6 materials, 1 survivor) as an example. Oh and you have impending death in the form of the Frost ticking each turn so make sure you do things in an orderly and quick fashion. If you don't have the "Singer" card in your deck (75% chance to spawn a survivor + 1 fatigue), good freaking luck bud. You're not winning ANY time soon. Thankfully, I was able to stand on the shoulders of giants and adopt Cassy's brilliant strategy (singer to spawn infinite people, tinkerer to get the wood, fire to rotate my hand and get more cards, & shelter to clear out some of the fatigue fluff). But even that wasn't enough. I resorted to save scumming. After clearing 2 legendary regions at +9 temperature, I quit out, made a backup to the Cloud, reentered and.... YOU CAN SAVE SCUM IN FROST. You lied to me Cassy! All of a sudden, the weight of the world was off my shoulders. I didn't need the perfect 30-minute run with no mistakes. After pigeonholing myself into probably... 15-20 losses, I finally got the magic combination I needed to defeat the Priest scenario by the absolute narrowest of margins. It was a blast. Let me say, even with this masterful strategy, I never "broke" the game and things never got too easy. I was always just barely surviving and one step ahead of getting my ass frozen. The Priest will make the Recruiter(get 10 people, get a singer, just play well after that and you got it)/Frigomancer(best character in the game, free infinite health basically and can get rid of cards you don't like with ease) scenarios look like a complete joke by comparison and I was so delighted to likely have this review ready for you all yesterday evening. Sadly, in my hubris, I flew too close to the sun.

Frost Bites Back - I was aiming to finish up the final scenario (The Skeptic) yesterday and was having quite a fine time in the middle of my run. I had read from XboxAchievements that it may be a nightmare RNG-wise with some guy wasting 20 hours on this scenario ALONE. That kind of intimidated me. Plus the fact it's the only ultra-rare trophy on the list aside from the platinum also had me worried. Midway through my run (let's say, 10 days in) I decide to back out and make a save and give myself a "checkpoint" so to speak by uploading it to the Cloud as I had done with the Priest scenario. When I load the game back up, I see the game studio logo, I see the logo acknowledging it was developed in Unity, and then I get stuck with this BIZARRE black screen that just says: "Loading..." on my TV. That's... odd. I wait. 1 minute. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. NOTHING. I google online. NO results come up for this. It honestly looks like a PS5 issue rather than a Frost game issue? I couldn't understand it. I had done this literally 50+ times the day before with the Priest and it gave me zero hassle. I DID update my PS5 software with the latest update, could that have caused the issue? With no other ways to resolve the issue, I had to delete all of my saved game data from the game and couldn't even resort to a backup from the Cloud as I had LITERALLY JUST uploaded the "corrupted" data there. This bummed me out. Here I thought Cassy was lying from earlier. Apparently, the game will let you save scum for a bit and then I guess it decided the bill had come due and I'd have to start all the way back from square one in order to aim for the platinum. So away I went!

The Home Stretch - In case you haven't realized, the fact that the game is so good that I didn't mind literally losing all my data and went straight back to work with unlocking everything again is a testament to how good this game is. It is WICKEDLY addictive and I love how incredibly smooth and snappy the menus are. It takes barely 15 seconds for the game to load up and you're automatically thrust right back into the action. The cards are responsive and make delightful card shuffling sounds. I spent a few hours wasting time replaying scenarios like the Leader, Mediator, Frigomancer, etc.. and trying some really stupid attempts at the Hard/Impossible/Medium Side Objective trophies and thankfully I learned of a super easy way to unlock everything from the start in case you were to ever lose all your data. 1) Create Custom Game. 2) Set Days Length Down to 1. 3) Win over and over again and unlock everything. Don't waste hours like I did trying to play legit when you don't have to. Thankfully, the game is so enjoyable mechanics-wise that I didn't even mind that much. Once I unlocked the Skeptic again, I didn't risk it and played the rest of the way 100% legit, just as ~~God~~ Cassy intended. I managed to find a torch and SKIP the wall in the luckiest run ever (literally my 3rd attempt) and got one of the clutchest final hands of my life, receiving the precise combination needed to win on the final turn before becoming a popsicle. These are the moments that remind me why I love trophy hunting and video games in general. It's the sort of high you can only get from a 92:48 Sergio Ramos header in the dying minutes of a UCL Final. Damn that was awesome.

Would I recommend Frost? If you're willing to dance with games with a bit of risk, 1000% absolutely. This is in my Top 3 games I've played this year to date only behind Inscryption & Return of the Obra Dinn. I'm not going to hide anymore @DrBloodmoney. I love card games. This wasn't even the one you recommended to me and it has received barely any of the attention it deserves but it has officially taught me that for whatever weird chemistry makes up my brain, I adore the repetitive loop a card game can bring me. I have to give a mammoth shoutout to the developer, Jérôme Bodin. He has officially entered the pantheon of developers that I definitely will have my eyes peeled for what they do next. His studio, Le Studio de Ténèbres is currently working on a narrative tactical BASKETBALL game. Sign me the hell up. I officially earned the 4.82% rarity platinum in 2 days and 10 hours, making me the 2nd fastest platinum achiever to date. I challenge anyone reading this to beat me as Frost is genuinely a title that deserves more admiration its way. Until next time!

Panda Score: 7.93 / 10

Panda Difficulty: 5.55 / 10

DrBloodmoney · March 11, 2023

1 hour ago, realm722 said:

.

Would I recommend Frost? If you're willing to dance with games with a bit of risk, 1000% absolutely. This is in my Top 3 games I've played this year to date only behind Inscryption & Return of the Obra Dinn. I'm not going to hide anymore @DrBloodmoney. I love card games. This wasn't even the one you recommended to me and it has received barely any of the attention it deserves but it has officially taught me that for whatever weird chemistry makes up my brain, I adore the repetitive loop a card game can bring me.

Nice!

This bodes well, as I bought Frost a while back, and have it in the to-play pile… but that’s some illustrious company it’s keeping there!

Cassylvania · March 12, 2023

Good job on Frost. I'm hurt you think I would lie to you. I couldn't remember why save scumming was a bad idea, but then you reminded me. The game will just stop loading. I remember getting so annoyed that I burst into the developers' private Discord server like the Kool-Aid Man and demanded an explanation for their anti-cheese methods. Good times...

I was much better at finding hidden gems in 2019. Today, all I unearth is crap, but Frost was one of my proudest moments. What a cool little game. I was really gunning for you to get the fastest time to platinum.

realm722 · March 15, 2023

50,000 Views in 6 Years & 9 Months | A Self-Indulgent Reflection of this Thread

It's hard for me to believe that when I started this little thread all the way back in July of 2016, I'd still find myself posting in it nearly 7 years later. Yet here we are. What all began as a side hobby of mine thanks to the whimsical adventure that was Unravel has ballooned into an elaborate review/critique/trophy guide mishmash of essays covering the oddest mix of games possible on the PlayStation 4/5 catalog. I realized a few weeks back that I was closing in on this somewhat irrelevant milestone. When sorting by most viewed trophy cabinet threads, there are only 5 that have reached this benchmark. Cassylvania (4x over, seriously, Cassy makes the wins record in baseball for pitchers look beatable), Copanele, DrBloodmoney, & Arcesius. My thread is the oldest of the bunch. So while I may have gotten here by being a compiler above all else, it's quite the vaunted class to join the ranks of. As such, I figured it'd be nice for one post to reflect a little bit on what I've managed to create with the thread, what I would like to have done differently, and what's in store for the future.

What I Wish I Did Differently - Unsurprisingly, a lot of my biggest regrets with this thread come from the first few years when I didn't really know what I was doing. A lot of the reviews from 2016-2020 are incredibly superficial, shallow, and hard to read as I don't even really get a sense of the game. I'm just throwing words together without actually saying much. This really started to shift from the Persona 5 review onwards where I didn't mention typing up into the thousands of words if a game inspired me to do so. What this has resulted in is whenever I have the itch to reflect on how I felt about game, I can read what I wrote and instantly get transformed back into the mindset I had after finishing. It's honestly a ton of fun and I do it far too often for someone who doesn't write well enough to constantly be rereading my own work. Aside from the first few years of reviews... I also think I wish I was a bit more "social" outside of my own bubble with other trophy cabinets. I think I've done a bit better in that regard in recent years. Most of y'all are hella cool. It's awesome to get recommendations directly from people you know on a forum and even get tips/tricks if a game has a particularly tricky challenge. Back then I used to just... do everything alone. I still mostly do. But baby steps, yanno?

What I'm Proudest Of - I love a bunch of the weird nonsense I've managed to make through the years. I love scrolling through the opening post. It's so cool to see every game I've ever completed neatly organized by my rating scale and just gawk at the gorgeous artwork for each title. I love my stupid psychopath spreadsheet. This spreadsheet was a catalyst for other mindbending ones I've done for other aspects of my personal life. I think the random articles I do every month are pretty fun. Fairly certain no one else does stuff quite like them and they're typically a fun thought exercise or something neat I wanted to share and they usually inspire a handful of comments outta y'all that make me think twice about everything I thought previously. I feel like writing in this fashion has helped me become better at understanding video games and expressing why I like or dislike something in a game. So often we know our likes/dislikes yet struggle conveying why that is and it can often boil down to: "it just wasn't for you" but that isn't a bloody answer! I know I love repetition. I know I'm not a fan of hard puzzles. I learned that because of the case studies conducted in this post through the hundreds of games covered. That's pretty cool. Oddly enough, my most well-liked single-game review post of all-time is.... PGA Tour 2k21? That's hilarious. It has 11 hearts. I have several others with 10 yet... that one beats them all. I guess it being a timely PS+ game and relaying a hilarious experience I had online was what triggered enough folk to dig it, cool!

What's In Store for the Future - Uhhh.... more of the same? Yea, I don't foresee any radical changes here going forward. I really love the format I've nailed down which has an introduction of explaining why I decided to play this particular game, the middle/heart of the review which covers what I felt compelled to stay about it, and the finale where I decide whether or not I'd recommend the game to others. Ultimately, that final portion is what I care MOST about when reading other trophy cabinets, so I say it's only fair I provide that to others who read my posts. I'm so happy I decided to take a flyer on the likes of Shadow Tactics because Cassy gave it their GOTY. OR that I tried Ash of Gods because Briste was kind enough to dissect it in his own thread. The objective here above all else will always be playing more awesome video games. This forum helps me achieve that so I won't be going anywhere anytime soon!

This was nice. Let's do it again sometime. How about at 100k views, eh?

YaManSmevz · March 15, 2023

Yo six years and nine months, that's crazy. You self indulge all you want, homie!

50k is well deserved, my G. This is one of my favorite checklists, and while I don't comment as much as I oughta, best believe I'll be here to peep out the 100k edition?

Platinum_Vice · March 15, 2023

On 15/03/2023 at 0:08 PM, realm722 said:

Let's do it again sometime. How about at 100k views, eh?

On 15/03/2023 at 3:02 PM, YaManSmevz said:

best believe I'll be here to peep out the 100k edition

??

On 15/03/2023 at 0:08 PM, realm722 said:

6 Years & 9 Months

Coincidentally, this is how long I've been trophy hunting.

Good for you, and please keep it up - it's cozy here. ✌️

Edited March 23, 2023 by Platinum_Vice

slicknick3822 · March 15, 2023

I'm newer here so I haven't seen this from the beginning, but I can say I always enjoy reading your posts and it has gotten me interested in some of the lesser known indie games you have played. Congratulations on the milestone and here's to many more! ?

realm722 · March 21, 2023

Game: Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise

Analysis: I bought the game when it went on sale for $0.99 back in early February 2023. For $1, this is a pretty damn robust puzzle game!

Why Agent A? Sometimes I have a very elaborate backstory explaining why I decided to check a game out. Other times, as in this case, I don't. I saw it super cheap during a sale and did a quick review of what the trophy list looked like before deciding to add it to the cart, at a 40% platinum rate, it seemed as good a deal as any. I will say that I did do a little deep dive into the studio behind the game, Yak & Co, and discovered that they are an adorably small developer out of Australia. Agent A was actually their first game and quite old at this point releasing back in 2015. Their latest title, Down in Bermuda, has come to every console except for PlayStation. It's yet another concise puzzle experience but has some cozy graphics that I'm a teensy bit envious of not being able to play. Maybe they'll bring it over to Sony by 2025. Anyways, let's get back to the game of theirs I was actually able to play.

I Like The Way The Camera Moves - I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Agent A was originally developed as a game for iOS/Android devices. Still, that does not mean the game was a poor port or thrust onto other devices in an effort to make a quick buck. You will be solving puzzles / engaging in some point-and-click adventuring in order to try and catch the mischievous Ruby La Rouge. The absolute most intriguing thing about the game in my mind is the way it lets you explore environments. You're able to click on virtually everything and navigate through rooms from the left and right-hand sides trying to find what you need in order to progress. The camera will slowly pan in and out depending on what you select. The game will have many puzzles that require you to connect the dots from things you discovered previously. Some of these can be more ridiculous than others. One of my exasperations with the point-and-click genre is the leap in logic you'll often have to make in order to find the intended solution by the developer and even after you discover it it's not a "AHA! I should have gotten that sooner" it's more of "how the hell was I supposed to know that? That's stupid." Agent A engages in a little bit of that but nothing so egregious that I think it would ruin somebody's experience. The actual narrative itself is good ol' cheesy James Bond fun. It wears its inspiration on its sleeve and I enjoyed the voice acting. The puzzles themselves were decent. Lots of memorization with the occasional trial-and-error that proved faithful enough to get me through most challenges.

The Trophy Experience - I'd be remiss if I didn't give a tremendous shoutout this review to @Velvet. Their platinum walkthrough is about as meticulously detailed as you can get. We don't give enough credit to trophy guide writers in general and the fact they went the extra mile to include all of those images is praiseworthy enough for me to mention it in this review. Agent A has very little in the fashion that will pose much of a hassle for anyone going for the platinum. There is one trophy that could pose a pain in the ass being the "Speedy Spy" which asks you to complete the game in 2 hours. This feels like a bit of a jerk move by the developers. You're essentially forcing some player's hands to decide whether or not they want to use a guide for the 1st playthrough in order to get all the trophies in one run or force someone who plays it blind the first time to do a 2nd run. IN A PUZZLE GAME? It seems a bit unnecessary. I can report that even as someone who watched all the cutscenes and did the miscellaneous trophies... I managed to get it on my first run with guide help and frequent pausing when figuring out what to do next. The timer does NOT run when paused and even then I was a bit surprised it popped on my 1st playthrough. Only other annoying sequence in the game was having to feed all those fish to Gunther but even that takes less than 3 total minutes. I managed to earn the 40.30% rarity platinum in 20 hours and 29 minutes, making me the 41st fastest completionist to date!

Would I recommend Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise? Totally depends on if you enjoy puzzle games. If you do, I think this is a pretty competent one. If you loathe the genre and don't have patience for these sorts of games, nothing the game does will change your mind. I'll admit as I've said plenty of times in the past that puzzle games are probably one of my least favorite types of games. Still, I like to go back to the genre every now and then as there are undoubtedly experiences that break the mold. Agent A ultimately does not fall into that category for me but it's enjoyable enough in what it does and competently crafted that I feel good about saying this is a well-made game. That's all from me! I got one more game I want to complete this month before a little break. What else is going on in life? The World Baseball Classic has been awesome. Randy Arrozarena is that dude. The Dolphins look like they've put together their best roster of the 21st century. The Canes are in the Sweet 16(again!). The Heat are likely going to get spanked in the 1st Round and I'm willing to go down with the ship. I'm watching Japanese cinema again. Miyazaki has got the goods, dude.

Panda Score: 6.33 / 10

Panda Difficulty: 2.1 / 10

YaManSmevz · March 21, 2023

8 hours ago, realm722 said:

Game: Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise

Good shit as always my dude!

8 hours ago, realm722 said:

One of my exasperations with the point-and-click genre is the leap in logic you'll often have to make in order to find the intended solution by the developer and even after you discover it it's not a "AHA! I should have gotten that sooner" it's more of "how the hell was I supposed to know that? That's stupid."

BRUH. 100%. And you picked a perfect game to illustrate this!

8 hours ago, realm722 said:

The World Baseball Classic has been awesome. Randy Arrozarena is that dude.

Seriously! Did you see the Jomboy video on that game? So great? Bummed about Mexico but no shame in losing to Japan! Final should be poppin.

realm722 · March 23, 2023

Game: The Deadly Tower of Monsters

Analysis: I bought the game when it was on sale for $2.24 earlier in mid-February 2023, and damn was this game not what I was expecting!

Why The Deadly Tower of Monsters? I have been very vocal in my quest to play as many games from as many different countries as possible and this latest entry is a continuation of that endeavor. In 2023, it appears like I'm focusing on North/South America above all else. I took care of Colombia in the form of Cris Tales. I conquered Mexico by platinuming Mulaka. I'm even taking on Argentina at the moment by playing Forager and WOW do I have a lot of opinions on that game when we get to the eventual review. In the meantime, I thought I'd venture over to the west coast by playing a game from the Chilean developers, ACE Team! As opposed to many developers outside of the US, Canada, Europe, & Japan - I was quite impressed by the fact ACE Team is a South American developer that has not only managed to produce one or two titles but has actually stayed afloat and in operation for coming up on 15 years now. That's praiseworthy for any game developer, let alone one based out of a country one doesn't typically associate with video games. Almost all of their games are even available on consoles and that kind of boggles my mind a bit. SolSeraph, Rock of Ages, Eternal Cylinder, & Clash. They've been published by Atlus, USA. It's odd to me that they've been completely off my radar and yet have a number of noteworthy feats that I felt compelled to mention here. What makes it all the stranger is that... holy crap man, this game is pretty awesome!

Am I Crazy or Is This Game Great? Usually, I like to beat around the bush at least a little bit in these reviews teasing what the game is about and describing some gameplay elements or one or two things that stood out about it. Not this time. Uhh... am I crazy or is this game pretty great? Why do I not hear more people talking about it? It has nearly 100k owners due to it being available for free for PS+ Users back in 2016 and yet whenever anybody wants to describe a "quick, easy, quality game" platinum all you'll get is about 100 responses mentioning Cat Quest. Why isn't this game mentioned? It's not going to knock the likes of Persona OR Final Fantasy off their pedestal but I genuinely had such a good time with this. Perhaps it was my mentality going in. I'll be truthful here and confess that sometimes I know I'm sacrificing game quality by venturing into these niche avenues (specifically, games developed by rando countries) for the sake of experimentation. I booted this up thinking I was going to get a dull, narrative-only, limited gameplay mechanics-wise mishmash that left me relatively unsatisfied with a low 6.0 rating plucking at one or two things that I enjoyed about it. HELL NAW MAN. This actually has GAMEPLAY. It's not going to make the folks over at Supergiant Games shake in their boots but despite the fact I don't think any singular mechanic was fantastic, so to speak, I love how the product all comes together.

Am I Crazy or Is This Game Great? (Part 2) I haven't actually described the game up until now. Basically, the game is making fun of a science fiction B movie from the 1970s. You actually play the game from the perspective of an obnoxious Hollywood director during commentary over their crappy film. You do this from a top-down perspective. As the title of the game suggests, you will be ascending up a stupidly tall tower, platforming, and defeating comically ridiculous enemies along the way. It all works pretty brilliantly? Listen. I feel like I need to be careful with how I'm hyping the game up here but I REALLY enjoyed my 5 hours with it. It's a brisk experience. This isn't asking for intense mechanical depth like a roguelite where you can chew your teeth on it for hundreds of hours. You have melee/ranged weapons and can alternate between the two to do damage. You have a dodge roll. It feels good. The game lets you parry enemies or deflect projectiles if you time it properly. There are a variety of special abilities you will unlock as you progress that allow you to access new areas and keep moving up the tower. You can JUMP OFF the tower whenever you like and instantly teleport back up, just in case you got flung off by an enemy. I quite enjoyed all of it. I don't think any of these mechanics on their own in a separate game would feel all that great. But combined into this package... it just works. Genuinely. I think my favorite part of the entire game is the sense of scale you get climbing up the tower. There are 70 levels to this behemoth. You can jump off whenever you like and go back to level 27, hover with your jetpack just before crashing, and continue where you left off. It's something that works so well that I'm surprised I haven't played a game previously that has pulled this trick off. Anything that may look "off" about the game (stuttering enemies, lackluster framerates, goofy explosions, meh facial features for the protagonists) can all be handwaved away by the fact that you're supposedly watching a crappy B-movie. Anything that doesn't work is the fault of the director and his production staff. It's quite possibly the most overt case of lampshading that I've ever enjoyed in my media-consuming life.

Not Every Joke Needs to Land - I haven't really touched much on the narrative of the game though it is a fairly large part of the package when it comes to selling this game. I don't think this game would have been as good if they had cut the director's commentary and you had play the game straight as a B-movie. I liked his interjections even when they weren't particularly funny. The man (voiced by Greg Meadows) is a parody of every awful blowhard Hollywood director you can imagine. He's a prick, misogynistic, disrespectful, full of himself, and quite frankly terrible at his job. There would be incredibly predictable jokes such as him intentionally underpaying his staff or dismissing blame of an issue on set to a producer but he got enough sensible chuckles out of me throughout my course of playing that I can say for a fact that the game is better with him in it. All of the actors honestly do quite well in their roles. I 100% bought Dick Starspeed as a classic movie star from the '70s as well as Scarlet Nova with that exaggerated voice women used to do in these films back then. I say all this without mentioning a very important fact... I HAVE NOT SEEN ANY SCIENCE FICTION B MOVIES. Up until now, you may have thought my enjoyment came from the game playing to a very specific niche of mine and I understand how someone could derive a much of entertainment from this sorta cinema but I haven't and I enjoyed this game aplenty all the same.

A Simple Trophy List - As if the game wasn't generous enough, all of the trophies you'll be earning throughout the game are actually tracked as you play as they're tied to your ability to upgrade your character. This makes keeping track of how many parries you need, how many dead shots you're missing, and how many hoops you still need to fly through extremely easy. As you ascend up the tower, you will unlock many teleporters which will grant you access to instantly transform yourself from wherever you need to be to snag the next collectible. There are a series of helpful videos I found out there that make clean-up a breeze and honestly, it goes by ridiculously quickly. I believe I finished the main story in 4 hours and had the platinum before I eclipsed the 5th. As I said from the outset, this is quite a breezy experience and you'll struggle to find other titles that waste your time as little as this one does. I earned the 23.58% rarity platinum in 1 day and 21 hours.

Would I recommend The Deadly Tower of Monsters? Absolutely! Maybe I've finally jumped the shark and crossed over into making the most unrelatable review of All-Time but I feel quite strongly about how well-put-together this game is. I really hope that people didn't view this through the lens back in 2016 of playing some crappy PS+ game that you begrudgingly trudged through in order to get their precious platinum. It impressed me with its novel concept and kept me around with a tower spiral that had enough setpieces to break up the monotony and enough actual things to mess with when it comes to the mechanics that my thumbs never felt bored. The game has put ACE Team on the map for me going forward. I absolutely want to check out some of their other titles to determine whether this was a one-off or if they may have a series of unsung games that deserve to be celebrated. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some Wong Kar-wai movies I gotta catch up on.

Panda Score: 7.78 / 10

Panda Difficulty: 2.4 / 10

On 3/21/2023 at 5:58 AM, YaManSmevz said:

Seriously! Did you see the Jomboy video on that game? So great Bummed about Mexico but no shame in losing to Japan! Final should be poppin.

Bro the final was fantastic! Wanted the US to win but I can't be mad, Ohtani is THAT dude and to cap it off striking out Trout? Hats off to him. Can't wait for it to return in 2026!

Platinum_Vice · March 23, 2023

On 21/03/2023 at 5:58 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Seriously! Did you see the Jomboy video on that game? So great Bummed about Mexico but no shame in losing to Japan! Final should be poppin.

16 minutes ago, realm722 said:

Bro the final was fantastic! Wanted the US to win but I can't be mad, Ohtani is THAT dude and to cap it off striking out Trout? Hats off to him. Can't wait for it to return in 2026!

Dude, Jomboy is a real one.

Can I recommend a video for you two? I had never seen anything from this channel before this so the first five minutes was a little off-putting (I think the channel has an overarching narrative in between videos), but if you skip ahead the actual core of the video is REALLY good.

Sorry to derail the thread a bit, realm. I have Deadly Tower of Monsters from PS+ from agggggges ago. You've given it a real lube-up here.

And I know it's been ages since you made the post but I never ended up saying how happy I am that you enjoyed Return of the Obra Dinn. I KNEW you'd like it.

YaManSmevz · March 23, 2023

50 minutes ago, realm722 said:

Game: The Deadly Tower of Monsters

Well shit, looks like I need to add this one to the wishlist. Maybe I'll do a Double Feature of this and Jazzpunk?

50 minutes ago, realm722 said:

He's a prick, misogynistic, disrespectful, full of himself, and quite frankly terrible at his job.

Nice.

50 minutes ago, realm722 said:

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some Wong Kar-wai movies I gotta catch up on.

I BEEN PUTTING OFF IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE TOO!! I saw 2046 way back when because the trailer dazzled the fuck out of me, in fact in a roundabout way it's why 2064 is on my soon to play list?

50 minutes ago, realm722 said:

Bro the final was fantastic! Wanted the US to win but I can't be mad, Ohtani is THAT dude and to cap it off striking out Trout? Hats off to him. Can't wait for it to return in 2026!

Fr fr you can't write shit like that!

35 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said:

Dude, Jomboy is a real one.

Mah man?

35 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said:

Can I recommend a video for you two? I had never seen anything from this channel before this so the first five minutes was a little off-putting (I think the channel has an overarching narrative in between videos), but if you skip ahead the actual core of the video is REALLY good.

Added?

Breakingthegreen · March 25, 2023

On 23/03/2023 at 0:55 AM, realm722 said:

Not Every Joke Needs to Land - I haven't really touched much on the narrative of the game though it is a fairly large part of the package when it comes to selling this game. I don't think this game would have been as good if they had cut the director's commentary and you had play the game straight as a B-movie. I liked his interjections even when they weren't particularly funny. The man (voiced by Greg Meadows) is a parody of every awful blowhard Hollywood director you can imagine. He's a prick, misogynistic, disrespectful, full of himself, and quite frankly terrible at his job. There would be incredibly predictable jokes such as him intentionally underpaying his staff or dismissing blame of an issue on set to a producer but he got enough sensible chuckles out of me throughout my course of playing that I can say for a fact that the game is better with him in it. All of the actors honestly do quite well in their roles. I 100% bought Dick Starspeed as a classic movie star from the '70s as well as Scarlet Nova with that exaggerated voice women used to do in these films back then. I say all this without mentioning a very important fact... I HAVE NOT SEEN ANY SCIENCE FICTION B MOVIES. Up until now, you may have thought my enjoyment came from the game playing to a very specific niche of mine and I understand how someone could derive a much of entertainment from this sorta cinema but I haven't and I enjoyed this game aplenty all the same.

I remember quite liking the humour when it came out, although I can say that I probably wouldn't like most of the jokes these days, 2016 was a hell of a year for postmodern and self referential jokes: Deadpool had come out, Rick and Morty was at it's peak in acclaim (Before JR burnt all his bridges).But lately I'd got fed up of the lack of sincerity with this type of comedy.

I re-watched some of the jokes some of the jokes as I was writing and realised I was wrong with what I remembered, this wasn't the postmodern game I'd remembered and got tired of, it was a lot closer to 80s and 90s parody movies that still where the jokes are meta, the story is meta, but it remembered to be 100% sincere.

Doubt I'm gonna replay it anytime soon, but this review was a nice trip down memory lane.

realm722 · March 27, 2023

On 3/22/2023 at 9:16 PM, Platinum_Vice said:

Can I recommend a video for you two? I had never seen anything from this channel before this so the first five minutes was a little off-putting (I think the channel has an overarching narrative in between videos), but if you skip ahead the actual core of the video is REALLY good.

Hey wanted to drop a comment and mention that I got around to watching it! Very enjoyable video. I disagree with a few small points he made (especially dropping the Ty Cobb line as factual when there are some serious questions regarding the credibility of the guy who made all those allegations) but I checked out a few of his other videos after that one and had a blast with it. Coincidentally, I actually saw Bull Durham for the first time a few days ago and HOLY CRAP it was great! I honestly had the perception it was cheesy, Disney-tier sap baseball movie and was blown away by how woefully wrong I was on it. Scored it in the mid-8's and it sits as my 2nd favorite sports movie after Moneyball.

On 3/25/2023 at 9:21 AM, breakingthegreen said:

I re-watched some of the jokes some of the jokes as I was writing and realised I was wrong with what I remembered, this wasn't the postmodern game I'd remembered and got tired of, it was a lot closer to 80s and 90s parody movies that still where the jokes are meta, the story is meta, but it remembered to be 100% sincere.

Doubt I'm gonna replay it anytime soon, but this review was a nice trip down memory lane.

Thanks for reading! If nothing else, I hope reviews for games people have already played can at least provide a little "oh yea I remember playing that! I had forgotten so-and-so detail so nice to remember it!" As for your mention on humor, while it's not quite DIRECTLY related, Austin Walker (cool dude) wrote a little piece on sincerity of games following all of the Forspoken discourse. It's fairly short so it won't take too much of your time but I think he absolutely crushes the issue with a lot of humor in games and other forms of media and why it's falling flat to the majority of audiences.

Been an up-and-down week for me but I've got some pretty neat games on the docket. Oh, and how about them CANES BABY!!! FINAL 4! (gotta celebrate now before we lose by 28 to those monsters from UCONN)

realm722 · March 29, 2023

Game: Dandara

Analysis: I bought Dandara when it was on sale for $3.74 back in late December 2022. We're 3 months into 2023 and this counts as my 3rd ultra-rare platinum of the year!

Why Dandara? Every now and then, I'll find a game that makes me become particularly fixated with it. This doesn't mean it'll be a great game. It just has the "it" factor that tickles my brain enough to always keep it present whenever I scroll past it while browsing a sale. Dandara is one of those games. It has some mesmerizing art and Dandara's poofy afro couldn't help but always captivate my attention. I knew that it was a unique 2D platformer that was relatively challenging so I held off on it for a good while before finally deciding to give it a whirl. One neat discovery I had when digging into the background of the game is uncovering that the studio creators, Long Hat House, are based in the heart of southeast Brazil! I've already played a game from the region in Flatland Vol. 1 but it's cool when I accidentally continue to explore games from developers in unique countries.

A Creative Take on Platforming - It is insanely difficult to standout as a platformer in the modern indie landscape. If you're not a Celeste, you're probably a Shu, and that probably means your small indie studio won't be able to make rent next month. Dandara wears its unique, distinguishing mechanic on its sleeve. What if you could only jump to very specific zones on each level and gravity was no obstacle? That may seem counterintuitive at first. But once you start fiddling with how rapidly Dandara can move at full speed with entire levels being choreographed like a high-speed dance, all of a sudden you get where the appeal of the game comes from. It will take a little bit of getting used too. You'll inevitably goof up a jump and smack yourself into a flying enemy or rapid quick X too fast and accidentally go back through the room you just came from but all in all once I got familiar with the game, I quite enjoyed how much the game is intentionally designed for going quickly. I always found the 2D Sonic games to be a bit goofy in this regard as there eventually comes a point in time where you're moving so fast, you can't physically react to whatever threat you're about to encounter. The only way around this is to have the level memorized on subsequent playthroughs. Dandara dabbles a little in this regard in some specific sections but for the most part, you can see everything that stands in your way and if your thumbs can twitch quickly enough, maneuver in a manner that would make Summoning Salt blush.

I Didn't Follow the Story But You Should - I am going to sheepishly admit that I did not really follow the story or any of the dialogue sequences that occur with any of the NPCs in the game. It's due to my approach on my 1st playthrough which I recommend you avoid. There's some pretty neat stuff with the game's story that I only learned after watching a brief YouTube video on it and during some background research on how the game's name is derived from an Afro-Brazillian warrior woman from the 1600s. (You can also read this insanely detailed reddit post if you'd like). The game's story isn't bloated. There are a handful of moments where you'll be paused to interact with some character but by and large the game keeps the story out of the limelight to let the gameplay speak for itself. I wish I had engaged with it a bit more and so the next best thing I can do is encourage future players to do better than I did.

Wow That's A Lot of DLC - Despite the game on PSNProfiles simply being labeled "Dandara", you can in fact play the full expanded edition of the game, Dandara: Trials of Fear thanks to the DLC being available for free! While other games will sometimes cut you short and make you feel like the DLC is a complete waste of time(or money), Dandara's may actually go to the other extreme. This DLC practically doubles your play-time as you can now explore a darker edge of the world with more interactable NPCs and some gauntlets that'll kick your ass compared to some of the stuff in the main game. Granted, I say "doubles" when you can realistically beat the base game in 2 hours if you know where everything is, and exploring everything in the DLC will likely take you up to 4 hours. Overall... I thought it was okay. I wouldn't have been mad if the game didn't have DLC or any of the trophies that came with it. The environments were a good deal more dreary compared to the main areas lush greens and neon purples. The biggest credit I will give this area of the game is the final boss fight against Tormenta. It is vastly superior to the base game's final boss and felt like a noteworthy challenge to conquer in order to attain the True Ending.

Random Observations - Sometimes I have a bunch of thoughts that don't fit into any one particular section and I just like to blurt them out in quick succession. 1) I love the game's powers. You get some really cool unlockables in the game that further expand Dandara's moveset. There's a green missile that is useful for breaking rocks but was also my absolute fight for decimating enemies. There's a cool skull beam that fires in a straight line that is OP as hell for bosses and can also be used for some ridiculous skips during speedruns due to its ability to do damage to Dandara. There's a neat void static option as well as a spikes weapon in the DLC that completely annihilates any enemies standing on platforms. I got some Axiom Verge-energy from the game for the amount of neat diversity between each weapon. 2) Why on earth did they make THIS specific enemy's attack reaction window so ungodly quick? It is such an odd inclusion that it almost feels like an oversight they never tweaked. Nothing else in the entire game attacks as quickly as it does and it's silly given how much health it damages as well as how later in the game it will throw MULTIPLE of these enemies at once. Am I crazy or did anyone else who play need to preemptively dodge as once it was in motion, there was no way you'd be able to move fast enough to avoid it? 3) I question the game designer's decision to make cheats no disable achievements. I had this issue with Ikenfell, and I have to bring it up again here. This feels like such a weird complaint to make given how blatantly I abused it but man... I think I would have probably enjoyed Dandara a bit more if I wasn't given the guilty-free pleasure of being able to sprint infinitely with zero energy stoppage or spam my weapon attacks at will. I've seen speedruns of the game without them enabled and they still look plenty doable! The game has fun mechanics that I still enjoyed even when playing with baby bowling ball guard rails and the game is still by far NOT as much as a pushover as Ikenfell with it enabled but eh... had to mention it.

A Recommended 1st Playthrough - You want to know the best way to experience Dandara? Play the game BLIND! OR, if you're not that ambitious, follow the 100% guide without putting the stress on yourself to beat it in 1 hour and 17 minutes. I did this, did not get it in time (finishing off by 6 minutes) and probably would have preferred taking it easy my first go-around before pushing myself for the final playthrough to seal the platinum. Don't put that pressure on yourself. Take it easy, learn the mechanics, (such as how you fire powers by holding down the square button and pressing R2 as opposed to whatever the hell abomination I was doing). You can learn the story, enjoy the environments and baller music, and THEN decide that you wanna push yourself. Do not be afraid of this experience taking too long. Even at a leisurely pace going for the plat, the full experience shouldn't take you more than 10 hours.

My Speedrun Experience - Every time a game has a speedrun trophy (or multiple ones at that), I always feel the need to make a unique paragraph just for those specific players who treat these trophies like they're the plague. I can happily report that the speedrun in Dandara is EXTREMELY doable. I beat the 1 hour, 17 minute benchmark by nearly 20 minutes and I'm a MORON, you'll be fine. I do want to give a special shoutout to the man that helped me on this journey, @Gray-Fox-44. Every now and then you'll play a random game and find a thread and posts from someone who is just oozing with enthusiasm about it and Gray Fox proved to be that for me with Dandara. Look at this wonderful post! Look at this amazing trophy guide video! It is because of wonderful people like this that I enjoy this community. I used their entire video to help me obtain the platinum and experienced zero issues in my journey. The whole thing with the speedrun is I will mention two key points that proved to be difference makers for a run in case you decide to ignore my advice and try to complete the speedrun on your 1st run. They are found at (18:36) as well as (37:46) as they are the two true skips of the entire run. Due to the manner in which Dandara stops and floats in mid-air after being hit, you can exploit this in very specific scenarios to angle your arrow to a salt zone that you would not be able to access otherwise. This makes the 1st one possible and isn't THAT bad once you get the angle down. The 2nd skip is far more annoying. My 1st run, I wasted 10 minutes trying to get this right. You need to leave your corpse far enough down that you replenish all your hearts so that even as you're getting hit by the yellow beam, you continue falling close enough to skip backward and access the "point-of-no-return" from earlier. If you're trying to do this all on your 1st run, quit out and upload your save to the cloud so that you can learn it and if you took too long, reload, do it again, and keep moving. I did this on my speedrun and it wasn't even necessary for my to reload as I got it on my 2nd try. Let me say that the speedruns of this game are VERY fun to watch and I recommend you check them out if you're into that sorta thing!

Would I recommend Dandara? Maybe. I've spent a large portion of this post heaping praise upon the game since I really do think it's quite well-made and worthy of a few more eyeballs than its received on consoles, but I do acknowledge that the speedrun trophies and a 2D platformer aren't the easiest sell to most trophy hunters out there. I'll even admit to myself here in this final paragraph that I've probably hyped the game up more talking about it than I myself have personally enjoyed. It's good! Don't get me wrong. But if you asked me between this and say... Shu? Which platformer would I be more likely to want to replay? I'd probably lean toward Shu. Still, I like the game, and am most certainly glad to say I've added it to my arsenal. It took me 2 days and 1 hour to earn the 4.37% rarity platinum which puts me in the Top 25 fastest achievers on PSNProfiles!

Panda Score: 6.80 / 10

Panda Difficulty: 4.7 / 10

Together_Comic · March 30, 2023

19 hours ago, realm722 said:

Game: Dandara

Congrats on another UR!

I was looking at this the other day on the ps+ premium game collection. It looks like id enjoy it based on what youve said.

Edited March 30, 2023 by Together_Comic

Gray-Fox-44 · April 1, 2023

On 29/3/2023 at 2:16 AM, realm722 said:

Game: Dandara

Analysis: I bought Dandara when it was on sale for $3.74 back in late December 2022. We're 3 months into 2023 and this counts as my 3rd ultra-rare platinum of the year!

Why Dandara? Every now and then, I'll find a game that makes me become particularly fixated with it. This doesn't mean it'll be a great game. It just has the "it" factor that tickles my brain enough to always keep it present whenever I scroll past it while browsing a sale. Dandara is one of those games. It has some mesmerizing art and Dandara's poofy afro couldn't help but always captivate my attention. I knew that it was a unique 2D platformer that was relatively challenging so I held off on it for a good while before finally deciding to give it a whirl. One neat discovery I had when digging into the background of the game is uncovering that the studio creators, Long Hat House, are based in the heart of southeast Brazil! I've already played a game from the region in Flatland Vol. 1 but it's cool when I accidentally continue to explore games from developers in unique countries.

A Creative Take on Platforming - It is insanely difficult to standout as a platformer in the modern indie landscape. If you're not a Celeste, you're probably a Shu, and that probably means your small indie studio won't be able to make rent next month. Dandara wears its unique, distinguishing mechanic on its sleeve. What if you could only jump to very specific zones on each level and gravity was no obstacle? That may seem counterintuitive at first. But once you start fiddling with how rapidly Dandara can move at full speed with entire levels being choreographed like a high-speed dance, all of a sudden you get where the appeal of the game comes from. It will take a little bit of getting used too. You'll inevitably goof up a jump and smack yourself into a flying enemy or rapid quick X too fast and accidentally go back through the room you just came from but all in all once I got familiar with the game, I quite enjoyed how much the game is intentionally designed for going quickly. I always found the 2D Sonic games to be a bit goofy in this regard as there eventually comes a point in time where you're moving so fast, you can't physically react to whatever threat you're about to encounter. The only way around this is to have the level memorized on subsequent playthroughs. Dandara dabbles a little in this regard in some specific sections but for the most part, you can see everything that stands in your way and if your thumbs can twitch quickly enough, maneuver in a manner that would make Summoning Salt blush.

I Didn't Follow the Story But You Should - I am going to sheepishly admit that I did not really follow the story or any of the dialogue sequences that occur with any of the NPCs in the game. It's due to my approach on my 1st playthrough which I recommend you avoid. There's some pretty neat stuff with the game's story that I only learned after watching a brief YouTube video on it and during some background research on how the game's name is derived from an Afro-Brazillian warrior woman from the 1600s. (You can also read this insanely detailed reddit post if you'd like). The game's story isn't bloated. There are a handful of moments where you'll be paused to interact with some character but by and large the game keeps the story out of the limelight to let the gameplay speak for itself. I wish I had engaged with it a bit more and so the next best thing I can do is encourage future players to do better than I did.

Wow That's A Lot of DLC - Despite the game on PSNProfiles simply being labeled "Dandara", you can in fact play the full expanded edition of the game, Dandara: Trials of Fear thanks to the DLC being available for free! While other games will sometimes cut you short and make you feel like the DLC is a complete waste of time(or money), Dandara's may actually go to the other extreme. This DLC practically doubles your play-time as you can now explore a darker edge of the world with more interactable NPCs and some gauntlets that'll kick your ass compared to some of the stuff in the main game. Granted, I say "doubles" when you can realistically beat the base game in 2 hours if you know where everything is, and exploring everything in the DLC will likely take you up to 4 hours. Overall... I thought it was okay. I wouldn't have been mad if the game didn't have DLC or any of the trophies that came with it. The environments were a good deal more dreary compared to the main areas lush greens and neon purples. The biggest credit I will give this area of the game is the final boss fight against Tormenta. It is vastly superior to the base game's final boss and felt like a noteworthy challenge to conquer in order to attain the True Ending.

Random Observations - Sometimes I have a bunch of thoughts that don't fit into any one particular section and I just like to blurt them out in quick succession. 1) I love the game's powers. You get some really cool unlockables in the game that further expand Dandara's moveset. There's a green missile that is useful for breaking rocks but was also my absolute fight for decimating enemies. There's a cool skull beam that fires in a straight line that is OP as hell for bosses and can also be used for some ridiculous skips during speedruns due to its ability to do damage to Dandara. There's a neat void static option as well as a spikes weapon in the DLC that completely annihilates any enemies standing on platforms. I got some Axiom Verge-energy from the game for the amount of neat diversity between each weapon. 2) Why on earth did they make THIS specific enemy's attack reaction window so ungodly quick? It is such an odd inclusion that it almost feels like an oversight they never tweaked. Nothing else in the entire game attacks as quickly as it does and it's silly given how much health it damages as well as how later in the game it will throw MULTIPLE of these enemies at once. Am I crazy or did anyone else who play need to preemptively dodge as once it was in motion, there was no way you'd be able to move fast enough to avoid it? 3) I question the game designer's decision to make cheats no disable achievements. I had this issue with Ikenfell, and I have to bring it up again here. This feels like such a weird complaint to make given how blatantly I abused it but man... I think I would have probably enjoyed Dandara a bit more if I wasn't given the guilty-free pleasure of being able to sprint infinitely with zero energy stoppage or spam my weapon attacks at will. I've seen speedruns of the game without them enabled and they still look plenty doable! The game has fun mechanics that I still enjoyed even when playing with baby bowling ball guard rails and the game is still by far NOT as much as a pushover as Ikenfell with it enabled but eh... had to mention it.

A Recommended 1st Playthrough - You want to know the best way to experience Dandara? Play the game BLIND! OR, if you're not that ambitious, follow the 100% guide without putting the stress on yourself to beat it in 1 hour and 17 minutes. I did this, did not get it in time (finishing off by 6 minutes) and probably would have preferred taking it easy my first go-around before pushing myself for the final playthrough to seal the platinum. Don't put that pressure on yourself. Take it easy, learn the mechanics, (such as how you fire powers by holding down the square button and pressing R2 as opposed to whatever the hell abomination I was doing). You can learn the story, enjoy the environments and baller music, and THEN decide that you wanna push yourself. Do not be afraid of this experience taking too long. Even at a leisurely pace going for the plat, the full experience shouldn't take you more than 10 hours.

My Speedrun Experience - Every time a game has a speedrun trophy (or multiple ones at that), I always feel the need to make a unique paragraph just for those specific players who treat these trophies like they're the plague. I can happily report that the speedrun in Dandara is EXTREMELY doable. I beat the 1 hour, 17 minute benchmark by nearly 20 minutes and I'm a MORON, you'll be fine. I do want to give a special shoutout to the man that helped me on this journey, @Gray-Fox-44. Every now and then you'll play a random game and find a thread and posts from someone who is just oozing with enthusiasm about it and Gray Fox proved to be that for me with Dandara. Look at this wonderful post! Look at this amazing trophy guide video! It is because of wonderful people like this that I enjoy this community. I used their entire video to help me obtain the platinum and experienced zero issues in my journey. The whole thing with the speedrun is I will mention two key points that proved to be difference makers for a run in case you decide to ignore my advice and try to complete the speedrun on your 1st run. They are found at (18:36) as well as (37:46) as they are the two true skips of the entire run. Due to the manner in which Dandara stops and floats in mid-air after being hit, you can exploit this in very specific scenarios to angle your arrow to a salt zone that you would not be able to access otherwise. This makes the 1st one possible and isn't THAT bad once you get the angle down. The 2nd skip is far more annoying. My 1st run, I wasted 10 minutes trying to get this right. You need to leave your corpse far enough down that you replenish all your hearts so that even as you're getting hit by the yellow beam, you continue falling close enough to skip backward and access the "point-of-no-return" from earlier. If you're trying to do this all on your 1st run, quit out and upload your save to the cloud so that you can learn it and if you took too long, reload, do it again, and keep moving. I did this on my speedrun and it wasn't even necessary for my to reload as I got it on my 2nd try. Let me say that the speedruns of this game are VERY fun to watch and I recommend you check them out if you're into that sorta thing!

Would I recommend Dandara? Maybe. I've spent a large portion of this post heaping praise upon the game since I really do think it's quite well-made and worthy of a few more eyeballs than its received on consoles, but I do acknowledge that the speedrun trophies and a 2D platformer aren't the easiest sell to most trophy hunters out there. I'll even admit to myself here in this final paragraph that I've probably hyped the game up more talking about it than I myself have personally enjoyed. It's good! Don't get me wrong. But if you asked me between this and say... Shu? Which platformer would I be more likely to want to replay? I'd probably lean toward Shu. Still, I like the game, and am most certainly glad to say I've added it to my arsenal. It took me 2 days and 1 hour to earn the 4.37% rarity platinum which puts me in the Top 25 fastest achievers on PSNProfiles!

Panda Score: 6.80 / 10

Panda Difficulty: 4.7 / 10

Congrats on you accomplishment and thank you for you ultra-kind comments! That adds another trophy to your cabbinet ? I am glad you enjoyed the game as much as I did!

RealM722's Trophy Cabinet

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