Cassylvania's Miserable Little Pile of Platinums

[Cassylvania]

On 10/10/2021 at 9:26 AM, realm722 said:

I started to realize this eventually about 60% of the way in and said "um... why am I spending so much time running around my ship sheering my sheep and feeding them every day? Will the game ever really require me to make use of this 100+ wool I'm holding? I doubt it. i then paid the exorbitant copper/plank price for all 5 sheep corrals and ignored them for the rest of the game. I somewhat fell into the habit towards the very end of entirely not feeding my spirits (sorry Buck) since there was no need to waste time to do it. Obviously I don't think this game would benefit if the crew got pissed at you and said "screw this you're a bad commander Stella IM OUTTA HERE" given the wholesome intentions of the game, but you can see some of the cracks in the veneer the game presents.

 

It almost makes me wonder if the game would've been better if it had been free roam from the beginning. Once I hit that bottleneck and was stuck for a few hours (real world days), it really slowed down the pacing. I think the concept would've worked fine if everything was randomly generated. Maybe in your playthrough, you go north and encounter Buck early on, while I go south and encounter Beverly. So what if Beverly needs an apricot pizza or whatever to advance her story? Even if I don't find apricots until 20+ hours into the game, it just means she'll be with me for longer than somebody who finds them right away. Or maybe I want to focus on making Beverly happy, so instead of waiting for the game to tell me I'm now allowed to start gathering apricots, I go searching for them myself. That would make my playthrough much more unique than yours, where you have Buck with you for the entire game, and it would have a more open world feel. I think that's more in the spirit of the game anyway.

 

Maybe in Spiritfarer 2.

 

Platinum #278 - Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk DX

 

Oh, boy. Another Atelier game. These always get so many views. (Nobody reads past the title of these, do they?)

 

Well, guys. I found it. The hardest Atelier game yet. Up until now, I'd probably say it was one of the Arland games (most likely Rorona DX because of the time mechanic or Meruru DX because of the superbosses), but Ayesha puts them both to shame. The difficulty -- for the first time ever -- is actually in the alchemy system, which is a huge part of these games and something I rarely talk about because you usually aren't required to master it. Here, you kinda have to in order to beat the four superbosses, and I couldn't find a single comprehensive guide that is compatible with the DX version. (I don't know what all they changed, but the original guides don't prepare you properly.) That means you either need to figure out the alchemy system for yourself or pick and choose from forum posts or reddit threads to get a basic idea of what you're going to need. Normally, there seems to be a consensus on this, but I had a hard time figuring out what "ultimate equipment" I needed. The alchemy system is also a bit of a mess.

 

See, in most Atelier games, you gather ingredients, which have various traits on them, and the alchemy system is all about transferring those traits onto something new, with the ultimate goal being to remove bad traits, enhance good traits, and end up with something better than what you started. You often need to synthesize something more than once ("chain synthesis") in order to achieve this. For example, you could take an anchovy with the +10 HP trait and combine it with a red pepper with the +15 HP trait to create a pepperchovy with a +25 HP trait. You could then add that pepperchovy to bread with a strength boost trait and a tomato can with a defense boost to obtain a pizza with the +25 HP trait, strength boost, and defense boost. You could then have Ayesha wear that pizza on her head to gain those properties. I don't know why I keep using pizza as an analogy. I guess I have pizza on the brain.

 

Wait, no. That's Ayesha. She's the one wearing a pizza hat.

 

Anyway, what makes it difficult here is that when you're chain synthesizing, only the top five traits are retained, and the order of traits is reserved on the next synthesis. So if you have traits A, B, C, D, and E, and you add a new ingredient that creates trait F, you now have F, A, B, C, D. If you synthesize that item into something else, its starting traits will be D, C, B, A, and F, with F being the first to be removed as more ingredients are added. So, if you want to keep a trait on an item after eight cycles, you...gosh, I don't even know. You'd have to do some crazy kind of fourth-dimensional chess. (And the order DOES matter even when you're finished, as if you synthesize a dye or whetstone, which are needed to enhance armor and weapons, only the first trait is carried over, UNLESS you have already have that trait on the armor/weapon OR depending what properties are on that item -- because items have properties as well as traits. In the case of dyes or whetstones, there is a property called Property Copy that adds as many traits as the level of the property. Other properties can add additional bonuses to an item, such as a wider range to healing items or more damage to bombs.) If that sounds confusing to you, it should. I still don't understand the system and I had to use it to create the best gear possible.

 

As with most older Atelier games, each synthesis takes at least a day and the game automatically ends after the third year, so you don't want to waste too much time figuring things out or crafting subpar items. Traveling, gathering, and battling also take time.

 

The main game really isn't that bad. You have plenty of time to save your sister -- yeah, that's the basic plot of the game from what I gathered -- but if you want to take on the superbosses, you need to start preparing by the third year. They're utter bullshit. The battles can take up to an hour, every boss heals itself (some multiple times), and most of them have attacks that can one-shot you or wipe out your whole party. It's almost always a war of attrition. You want to create this item called Hell Soup that will ensure Ayesha cannot die as long as she has enough soup in her inventory (which means you need to make sure it has the right properties), and then it's just a matter of doing enough damage to the boss that you kill it before you run out of soup. This is made even more annoying by the fact that each superboss gets more powerful the closer it is to death, and once they're below 10% or something, almost every attack is a miss. There is nothing fun about those battles. It's terrible game design and it makes me appreciate the newer Atelier games all the more.

 

My usual joke is to say with every Atelier game that this (whatever one I'm reviewing at the time) is the one you should start with if you have even a fleeting interest in the series, but I can't with Ayesha. The characters and plot might be on par with the others -- I'm definitely not the one to ask about that -- but this one asks waaaaay too much of the player. I still think you start with Ryza or the Arland trilogy. (And if you're going to do Arland, probably just jump to Totori.) This isn't a BAD game by any means, but I'm not going to recommend this to anybody for a casual play.

 

Also, be aware that some of the physical discs are Japanese only!

 

Do we have some artwork to share?

 

 

Interesting angle choice, artist.

[winter_bird_22]

Wow, if anything could make me hate Atelier, it's Ayesha. Seriously, WTF were the devs thinking making alchemy so damn complex?

[Cassylvania]

7 hours ago, winter_bird_22 said:

Wow, if anything could make me hate Atelier, it's Ayesha. Seriously, WTF were the devs thinking making alchemy so damn complex?

 

It's worse than I made it sound too. There are skills called Draw Power, Power Transfer, and Power Pour that you can apply to one or more ingredients during synthesis. Each skill costs CP, which ingredients also cost, the amount of CP is dependent on the kind of ingredient being used, and the total amount of CP you have for a synthesis is dependent on your alchemy level. Once your CP is gone, no more traits can be transferred or applied. So, sometimes you WANT to run out of CP so you can add the rest of the ingredients without changing the traits. Also, the order in which you add ingredients is important.

 

The only nice thing about the alchemy system is that you can undo an action if you aren't happy with the result. So, the alchemy isn't "performed" until you've added all the ingredients (in whatever order you want and by applying whatever skills you want) and click OK. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with chain synthesis.

 

I'm going to wait a bit on Escha & Logy. I hear they have the hardest boss in the entire series.

[Cassylvania]

The race to finish 13 games by Halloween continues. Next up, one that has very little to do with Halloween outside of the title...

 

Platinum #279 - Ghost of a Tale

 

Missed opportunity there, guys...

 

Anyway, it's been like three reviews since I last mentioned Dark Souls, but I can guarantee you I won't make it through this one without doing it. The inspiration is obvious. But unlike almost every Souls-like game out there, it's not the combat system they attempted to copy. Sure, the enemies will attack you on sight, but you have no way of defending yourself. This is a stealth game.

 

"Wait," you're thinking. "They took away the best part of a Souls game and replaced it with one of the genres you most in video games? You probably hated this!"

 

Actually, no. Dark Souls is about more than just the combat and the difficulty. It's about the world, the exploration, the way lore is presented, the seamless integration of the map design... All of that is here. But the developers took all of that and made something entirely unique with it. I never read the Redwall series, but I imagine this is what it's like.

 

So, since you can't tell from the title (because they missed the obvious pun *sigh*), Ghost of a Tale has you playing as a mouse named Tilo. In fact, all of the characters in this game are small animals. I absolutely love that concept and wish it was done with more games. Now, the overall plot is that you've been wrongfully locked up for sedition, but you escape from your cell with the help of a mysterious 'S' and begin the search for your wife Merra. The entire game takes place in and around Dwindling Heights Keep. There are a few NPCs who will give you quests, but most of the characters you encounter are rat guards, who patrol the hallways. If they detect you, they will give chase. Fortunately, because this game uses excellent map design, you will eventually unlock shortcuts that will allow you to maneuver around the world more easily. And if you've seen, you can always hide in a chest or barrel... For some reason, the guards don't ever bother checking these. (Rats are kinda dumb, aren't they?)

 

The writing here is surprisingly good. A lot of games that I've seen copy the Souls formula have a tendency to take themselves too seriously, and I was worried this game would either do that or do the exact opposite, but there's a great balance here between sobriety and comedy. The world has a dark medieval fantasy feel, and the characters reflect that. Gusto and Fatale steal the show in my opinion, but Kepto, Silus, Rolo, and even the Commander (who is the one who locked you up!) are good too. Enough that I can actually remember their names. Because unlike SOME games, I actually wanted to read the dialogue here. Some of the text even lights up in yellow and you can click a button to learn more about the lore of that character, place, or event. Or don't. It's completely up to you. It saves to your inventory screen if you want to go back and read it later.

 

But how's the gameplay? Well, I lied when I said you're defenseless. You can pick up items throughout the world that can be used to distract or temporarily knock out guards. There is no way to permanently remove them from the game. This could be seen as a bad thing, as I think it's technically possible to run out of every item (except sticks, which can only be used as a distraction), but you'll eventually unlock a costume that tricks guards into thinking you're a rat. A very tiny rat in an oversized suit of armor. Did I mention Tilo is adorable? This could be seen as god mode, but Tilo is SO. FREAKIN. SLOW. while wearing it. Sure, it's probably faster than waiting for guards to move or ducking into cover all the time, but there is so much backtracking in this game that it gets tedious moving at a snail's pace all the time. And unfortunately, rats patrol most areas in the keep except for the sewers (the one place you WOULD expect them), so you'll probably be wearing or swapping to that costume a lot during your ~12-15 hour playthrough.

 

And that...leads to my main problem with the game. That's right, guys -- it's another game ruined by trophies. Here, there are several playthrough-spanning trophies that have no business being in ANY game. Let's meet our contestants. Up first, we have Dodgy Mouse, which requires beating the entire game without getting hit. What requires a "hit"? Well, we know getting poked by a guard would do it, but what about a spider trap? Bees? A long fall? The leeches in the sewer? Worms? Skeletons? Poisonous mushroom gas? I'm going to say I got fucked up by all of those and still got the trophy, but I definitely reloaded an earlier save if a guard saw me. I kinda had to because of our second contestant: Like a Ghost, which requires beating the entire game without alerting any guards. This...ruins what I think the developers were going for. It's actually pretty fun in the beginning to sneak around and use items to distract guards, but it gets old when you have to revisit the jail for the nineteenth time. Better just put on your XXL guard armor. Finally, we have Crash Diet, which requires beating the entire game...without eating to restore your health. You would think this wouldn't be a big deal since you're not going to be getting hit, but since traps don't negate that trophy and there are a lot of traps in the forest areas, you're probably going to need to heal up from time to time. Fortunately, you can sleep in a bed for that.

 

There are other trophies I hate, such as The Arsonist (burning all the Red Paw flags, which are all over the place) and The Scholar (completely every side quest -- keeping in mind some are missable if you advance too far into the game), but only because the game is a bit buggy and I kept thinking I was going to have to do a second playthrough. Fortunately, most of the bugs I encountered were good ones. I had several trophies pop much sooner than they were supposed to. These were usually related to collectibles, such as stealing all the handkerchiefs from guards or opening all shutters. I encountered another issue where I lit all nine candles from the fallen heroes in the correct order before reading the document that explains the order. (NO, GUYS. I DIDN'T LOOK UP THE SOLUTION ONLINE.) This technically completed the quest, but it didn't give me the Dying Flame reward, which is probably optional but...well, the game is rather dark, and having a lantern that doesn't go out is nice. It was worth a reload.

 

Anyway, the game is getting a recommendation from me, but do yourself a favor and either accept a second playthrough (you could probably do a speedrun in just a few hours) or take your time. It's a gorgeous game, so I don't think a little backtracking is going to hurt you.

Edited October 17, 2021 by Cassylvania

[Cassylvania]

Platinum #280 - Oxenfree

 

There are three indie games I bought earlier this year that I had the intention of playing for Halloween: Night in the Woods, Spiritfarer, and Oxenfree. I had...mixed reactions to the first two. You might say I was disappointed. I don't have mixed reactions here. This game is a fuckin' masterpiece.

 

The problem is, unlike NitW and Spiritfarer, I can't really talk about this game because it's entirely story-driven. No mini-games or crafting elements. Not really anyway. I don't want to talk about the characters because that would spoil the plot, and I don't want to talk about the plot because that would spoil the experience. What's a lazy reviewer to do?

 

I guess I could at least say this is a story about five teenagers (with actual personalities, which is rare for anything in the horror genre) who find themselves trapped on a haunted island and are trying to escape. The way the ghosts communicate with them is really neat. I'm sure it's been done before, and I definitely got Stranger Things vibes, but I like that this game uses psychological terror instead of clichéd jump scares all the time. More games need to do that. Eternal Darkness remains one of the best horror games to date because it messes with the player's head and expectations. There aren't very many fourth-wall breaks in this game, but there are enough to make you wonder what's really happening.

 

This is one of the few games where I think multiple playthroughs are a good thing, but only because the game seems to be designed around the idea that you'd want to play through it more than once. It's actually a really novel concept. Design NG+ to be different enough that the player will enjoy playing through it a second time. Don't want to say more than that, but don't be put off by needing more than one playthrough. (Even though the silent playthrough is a little pointless...)

 

As with the other games I mentioned, the graphics are beautiful. If I had a complaint, it's that I wish you could zoom in closer to the characters. Alex and her friends appear very tiny on the screen sometimes, and it just seems like a shame to hide them. I also think the dialogue choice boxes disappear a little too quickly. Alex has a tendency to start talking as soon as you select a dialogue option, so she'd often interrupt another character instead of letting them finish. Just seemed a bit immersion-breaking for me to always have to wait until the last possible second to select what I wanted her to say (or risk her saying nothing at all). You also have to play through the game once being mean to everyone, which you might want to do during your first playthrough. I felt terrible being a jerk to my friends in NG+.

 

Definitely recommended. Might go on my favorites game list. Not sure yet. Worth buying full price.

 

[Grotz99]

16 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Platinum #280 - Oxenfree

About to finish my 2nd playthrough of this, which I decided to do as the silent one and it's been more of a speedrun mode than anything, and I agree that it would be hard to talk about this game when it would be best to do as much of a blind run as possible. I had no idea going into this game other than I heard that it had a creepy vibe playing through it and it was short. You can do this is 2 playthroughs, but it's probably recommended in 3. I feel like I'm not going to like being a total jerk to them in my 3rd playthrough...

 

Edited October 22, 2021 by Grotz99
Removed my reference to a movie due to possibly spoilage.

[realm722]

On 10/21/2021 at 11:09 PM, Cassylvania said:

Definitely recommended. Might go on my favorites game list. Not sure yet. Worth buying full price.

 

This makes me really happy to read. Oxenfree was legitimately the very first game I bought on sale when I started "variety trophy hunting" back in 2018 and deviated away from pure sports games. I only got it since it was $5 on sale and looked unique. I absolutely loved it, and didn't even mind having to do what was essentially 4 playthroughs since I messed up the "get Ren/Nona dating" trophy since I was a complete noob back then. But ever since the years have gone on, I always kinda asked myself "yo was Oxenfree actually as good as I think it was OR was it just a breath of fresh air for me given I had been playing NFS, NBA2k, FIFA, and Madden for 5+ years?". Your post reaffirms that nah, it was actually always awesome.

 

My biggest credit to the game IIRC is that the dialogue wasn't unbelievably cringy for a bunch of teenagers. When the characters were playful and joking, it genuinely came across that way as opposed to sometimes having to stomach cheesy interactions in these sorta games. You should also get around to playing "Afterparty" as it's made from the same studio (Night School Studios). It's not as good as Oxenfree in my mind but I think you'd still get some enjoyment out of it. May as well play everything in their catalog since Oxenfree 2 is also right around the corner. (2022 apparently)

[Cassylvania]

On 10/23/2021 at 1:24 AM, realm722 said:

My biggest credit to the game IIRC is that the dialogue wasn't unbelievably cringy for a bunch of teenagers. When the characters were playful and joking, it genuinely came across that way as opposed to sometimes having to stomach cheesy interactions in these sorta games. You should also get around to playing "Afterparty" as it's made from the same studio (Night School Studios). It's not as good as Oxenfree in my mind but I think you'd still get some enjoyment out of it. May as well play everything in their catalog since Oxenfree 2 is also right around the corner. (2022 apparently)

 

One step ahead of ya. Just started Afterparty tonight.

 

Platinum #281 - Overcooked! All You Can Eat

 

Hey, my first PS5 plat.

 

I've always wanted to play Overcooked because it kinda reminds me of CSD, but I don't have reliable family or friends to play with. This compilation of the first two games (and I guess every DLC?) solves that by introducing Assist Mode. With that, I was able to do almost everything on my own pretty easily. I can definitely see how this would be a stressful game to play solo, though. Or in co-op. In fact, this game probably had no business being as relaxing as it was for me.

 

Just going to leave the review at that since this is an older game and everybody got it free anyway. For now, I have to figure out how I'm going to deal with PS5 game images in the OP... I didn't care about the square images before, but now I see they're going to be a problem. Suggestions?

[Cassylvania]

Platinum #282 - Afterparty

 

Good to see Lee from TWD back as Satan. I wouldn't have expected anything less.

 

So, as you might have heard, Afterparty is the little brother to Oxenfree. Both were developed by Night School Studios, but Oxenfree is generally considered the better game. I think Afterparty is decent in its own right, but it speaks volumes that I'm willing to talk about the story here without worrying that I might spoil the game for someone. If you just want the TL;DR version, if Oxenfree is a 9/10, this is a 7/10 and still worth a buy. If you want the longer version...well, let's jump right into the plot.

 

In this game, you play as Milo and Lola, who are best friends who are totally not dating. I'm not sure what personality traits they were going for, but Milo definitely comes across as more of a self-righteous nerd, while Lola is so bossy and sarcastic that it's no surprise she has a hard time making friends. Think Arnold and Helga from that Nickelodeon show. Anyway, they die (not a spoiler) and end up in hell, where the only way to escape is to beat Satan in a drinking contest. Apparently, everybody in hell is an alcoholic. The entire game revolves around barhopping, getting drunk, playing drinking games, and talking to assholes. I loved every minute of it.

 

This is one of the coolest depictions of hell I've seen. It's mostly a comedy, I guess, but there are enough serious undertones that it wouldn't be out of place in the drama category. The voice acting is great and you really feel for some of these characters. You may even relate to some of them. 

 

One of the most impressive things to me about this game is the variety of dialogue options. Like Oxenfree, characters will respond differently to you whether you say something nice, mean, or nothing at all. But here, bars have various drinks that open up new dialogue options. For example, there's one bar where you can order a drink that makes you talk like a pirate. That means they had to record a lot of voice lines that may never even be heard by the player. They also break the fourth wall from time to time. For example, there's an instance where you're supposed to follow Satan while he talks to you. I had to go do some stuff in real life, so I put the controller down and came back later, only for Satan to say something like, "One more time for anyone whose mother just came in the room and asked them to take out the trash..." Pretty funny stuff.

 

The screen and dialogue also get warped when you're drunk. Nice attention to detail.

 

I think this game warrants a second playthrough less than Oxenfree, but there are several points in the story where you're asked to make a decision on what quest you want to do or how you want to approach a problem, so it's not going to feel entirely repetitive. Basically, you're going to want one playthrough where you favor Milo's opinions most of the time, and another playthrough where you side with Lola. Do that and most of the trophies will come naturally. The only annoying ones are the ones related to consuming a lot of alcohol, which seem a bit buggy, and the one for playing a perfect game of beer pong.

 

Make good use of a USB stick to avoid a third playthrough.

 

Anyway, good game. Check it out if you want. Gotta squeeze in one more Halloween game before Sunday! We got this, boys.

[Cassylvania]

Platinum #283 - Pumpkin Jack

 

I was in a bind because I was way behind (on the Halloween event), so I was willing to make a deal. Heard this game was pretty good and I saw it on sale for half price. But is it worth the $13.49 or is this game jack shit? Let's find out.

 

So, in this game, you play as the eponymous Pumpkin Jack. They call him that because he has a pumpkin for a head. Actually, I think he IS the pumpkin and he just uses his roots to control a body he possesses, kinda like Earthworm Jim. Either way, it's fuckin' disgusting. There's some kind of plot here where the devil brings Jack back to life to wreak havoc on the world, but most everything is played up for comedic effect. There are some cute lines that might get a few chuckles, but it's pretty tame compared to Afterparty. That's always a risk you run into when you play similar games back to back.

 

Not that the gameplay is anything like Afterparty. This is a 3D platformer with some very basic combat and puzzle-solving, probably most similar to Medieval. There are six levels, each with about 21 collectibles and a boss fight, and they only take about an hour to beat each. You can probably do them in half that time if you know where to look for the collectibles. In either case, it's a short game with a mostly forgiving checkpoint system. I died 32 times in my playthrough. Why do I know the exact number? Because the game mocks you every time you die by telling you how many times you died. I'd say 30 of those deaths were because Jack can't swim. The controls in this game are very floaty and would be a lot more frustrating if Jack didn't "latch" onto ledges and jump up if you're slightly off with your aim.

 

I don't really understand the combat. Like Medieval, it feels like you're just supposed to spam the attack button and hope things die before they hit you. Each level gives you access to a new weapon, but once you have the gun (I think after the third level?), why would you go back to using a melee attack? You also get a crow buddy early in the game that you can use as a long range weapon, although he does have a brief cooldown. Almost every boss is a matter of surviving a few waves of attacks, hitting the boss during a moment of vulnerability, and repeating twice more. It sounds repetitive, but for a game that doesn't overstay its welcome, I don't think it is.

 

What I do question, though, is the full price tag. Even at $13.49, this isn't a great investment. If you use my dollars-to-hours formula, that should buy you at least 13 hours of quality entertainment, which is a stretch (even without a walkthrough). The replayability is almost non-existent here, and the game isn't challenging enough for you to die more than a couple times in any section. I'd say if the price was cut in half again, then maybe this would be worth a play next Halloween. It certainly fits the mood.

[James_Tonto]

You continue to be an inspiration for all kinds of trophy hunters Cassylvania. 283 platinum trophies, that number still sounds so far away, but so did 150. Your trophy list also doesn't look like you compromised to boost your trophy count, you play the games you want to. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen a great looking trophy list, then there's 3 My name is Mayo's or a bunch of genuinely terrible games. Usually the movie-licensed garbage we got a lot of in the PS3-era. Looking forward to seeing you hit plat #300

Edited October 31, 2021 by James_Tonto

[Cassylvania]

7 hours ago, James_Tonto said:

You continue to be an inspiration for all kinds of trophy hunters Cassylvania. 283 platinum trophies, that number still sounds so far away, but so did 150. Your trophy list also doesn't look like you compromised to boost your trophy count, you play the games you want to. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen a great looking trophy list, then there's 3 My name is Mayo's or a bunch of genuinely terrible games. Usually the movie-licensed garbage we got a lot of in the PS3-era. Looking forward to seeing you hit plat #300

 

Thanks! I guess we are quickly approaching that milestone. Don't think it'll happen this year, but maybe I could shoot for my birthday in February.

 

One thing I realized during this Halloween event is that I'll never get to every game I want to play. Even if I focused solely on spooky-themed games or games in my top three favorite genres, my backlog would keep me busy for this entire console generation at least. And that doesn't include new releases. I wouldn't have time for sticky mayo even if someone gifted it to me for free.

 

You're going at a good pace and you're playing a lot of good games. Indivisible was one of the best games I played last year, Concrete Genie looks great (I just don't have VR), and Hellblade was amazing. Can't wait for the sequel. You even got to games I recently bought but are stuck in limbo, like Doom Eternal and Blasphemous. I think if you keep focusing on games you enjoy, you'll get to 200 in no time. I think for me, the lowest points in my trophy hunting career have been when I was stuck playing something I hate, like Resident Evil Revelations. That's why I don't really understand why some people constantly subject themselves to garbage games, even if it's just to inflate their trophy count. At some point, I think it would do more harm than good.

[winter_bird_22]

I understand your pain, Cassy. I want to platinum all these games I started trophies in(Dragon Quest XI S, Disgaea 5) but until I get FFXIV out of the door, that is not happening. I'm almost done with the game's platinum... I just need to grind out 13000 collectibles and clear 3000 dungeons and FATEs combined.

 

Also, won't be earning 100% Stormblood or Shadowbringers until the level cap rises to 100 because *bleep* Savage raiding. After failing to get a mount drop and claim it after 99 Suzaku Extreme runs, I just gave up and traded 99 tokens. The bird is a *bleep*. ?

Edited October 31, 2021 by winter_bird_22

[James_Tonto]

8 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

 

Thanks! I guess we are quickly approaching that milestone. Don't think it'll happen this year, but maybe I could shoot for my birthday in February.

 

One thing I realized during this Halloween event is that I'll never get to every game I want to play. Even if I focused solely on spooky-themed games or games in my top three favorite genres, my backlog would keep me busy for this entire console generation at least. And that doesn't include new releases. I wouldn't have time for sticky mayo even if someone gifted it to me for free.

 

You're going at a good pace and you're playing a lot of good games. Indivisible was one of the best games I played last year, Concrete Genie looks great (I just don't have VR), and Hellblade was amazing. Can't wait for the sequel. You even got to games I recently bought but are stuck in limbo, like Doom Eternal and Blasphemous. I think if you keep focusing on games you enjoy, you'll get to 200 in no time. I think for me, the lowest points in my trophy hunting career have been when I was stuck playing something I hate, like Resident Evil Revelations. That's why I don't really understand why some people constantly subject themselves to garbage games, even if it's just to inflate their trophy count. At some point, I think it would do more harm than good.

 

DOOM Eternal's great as you can probably tell from the mostly positive reception it recieved, excluding the people who cried about the Marauder. I was one of those people who found him frustarting, but then I got used to him and now I enjoy the challenge those guys throw at you. Love Blasphemous, my name's somewhere in the credits I think, since I helped kickstart it. You don't 'need' to do it, but I would strongly encourage completing the Stir of Dawn DLC. It's a fantastic addition to the game's lore and you get some brilliant bosses to fight.

 

Concrete Genie's an alright game, it's pretty short but there's one trophy that bugged and forced me to play it again.That was the one related to the Genie moments, so be prepared to save and upload that save online in case one doesn't get added to your journal. I don't have a VR set for the PS4, but hopefully I can borrow one to get those three trophies, should be an easy 100% completion. I just finished Indivisible today, my last one for October. Literally within the last 5 minutes of the month ^u^. It's a pretty good game though.

 

Edit: Also thanks, I'll hopefully try and maintain the momentum and keep knocking games off my backlog. Obviously sticking to games I am enjoying.

Edited November 1, 2021 by James_Tonto
Just adding a snippet

[AJ_Radio]

On 10/31/2021 at 1:38 AM, James_Tonto said:

You continue to be an inspiration for all kinds of trophy hunters Cassylvania. 283 platinum trophies, that number still sounds so far away, but so did 150. Your trophy list also doesn't look like you compromised to boost your trophy count, you play the games you want to. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen a great looking trophy list, then there's 3 My name is Mayo's or a bunch of genuinely terrible games. Usually the movie-licensed garbage we got a lot of in the PS3-era. Looking forward to seeing you hit plat #300

 

I got my share of utter crap on my profile too. Sort of the reason why I've started a new alt account because there are games I want to revisit and just casually enjoy myself.

 

I see tons of awful games on profiles that are around my world ranking. Years ago my profile on this website would of been considered average or above average, but now it stands out because I've just stuck to games I want to play instead of catering to a trend.

 

On 10/31/2021 at 10:01 AM, Cassylvania said:

I think for me, the lowest points in my trophy hunting career have been when I was stuck playing something I hate, like Resident Evil Revelations. That's why I don't really understand why some people constantly subject themselves to garbage games, even if it's just to inflate their trophy count. At some point, I think it would do more harm than good.

 

I don't understand this either. I get a lot of hate whenever I try to debate this subject, and it's usually from the people who constantly subject themselves to garbage games anyway.

 

I fully understand the idea of inflating trophy count, because I did that for a while simply for the trophy dings which felt satisfying. Then it got to the point where I was playing point and click games and walking simulators that were just a chore to slog through, I got bored sitting thru them so I decided to finally stop. Sound Shapes basically put an end to my "trophy whoring".

[Cassylvania]

Platinum #284 - Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky DX

 

Somebody needs to talk to Koei Tecmo about the length of their titles...

 

Well, guys, here we have the middle child of the Dusk trilogy. The gimmick this time is we have two alchemists and one of them is a boy (!). I didn't know that was even legal in the world of Atelier. Logy (that's the white-haired chap in the image above) actually seems pretty cool, and Escha (Pinkie Pie) seems a little more subdued than the other Atelier girls. In fact, this whole game seems subdued. Atelier games have never really had seasons from what I can remember, even though they usually take place over several years, but this whole game seems to take place in a region that's perpetually autumn. I wish a place like this existed in real life. There are lots of browns and reds used in the color palettes of most areas, the music is very relaxing, and the time constraints are a lot less noticeable than past titles. I didn't even need a walkthrough for this one, which was a very nice change of pace.

 

Your first question is probably, "Why are there are two alchemists?" We haven't seen that since Lydie & Suelle, who were twins. Well, it's so that the developers have an excuse to make you play through the game twice. That's right -- you can only play as either Escha or Logy during NG and you'll need to play through NG+ as the other one in order to see the true ending. Are there differences between them? Not really. Escha uses a staff and Logy uses a sword. Their personalities are different. Some of the dialogue changes. One of them has boobs. But fundamentally, they're the same. However, veterans of the series are used to playing through NG+, so this just gives you a slightly better reason to.

 

Now, you'll remember from my Ayesha review that I wasn't very happy with that crafting system. I was worried this would use the same thing, but it's actually a lot easier...once you get used to it. The problem is that the game spoon-feeds you a lot, but it does so incrementally, so you'll spend a good amount of time skipping reading tutorials until you've unlocked everything. It'd be like if I was teaching you to play baseball, but I only told you that you have to throw a ball, then I tell you that the ball might be hit, then I told you that the goal is to deliver the ball to the base before the opposing player gets there. In this case, I wish you had access to all your skills from the beginning (or at least knew what you'd eventually unlock) because it made a lot more sense when I had all the options in front of me and could see how they interact.

 

I don't know why I always try to explain the alchemy systems in these games, but here goes. Basically, there are four meters: wind, water, earth, and fire, and they for some reason chose yellow to represent earth. It doesn't matter. Each meter has five bars and each ingredient will fill up one or more of those bars. So, for example, a fire flower might fill up two fire bars and one earth bar. You can then spend those bars on skills, which you unlock over time. These skills AND ingredients cost CP and you only have so much CP per synthesis, but one of the early skills you get is to trade one fire bar for additional CP. Earth has a skill that increases the total number of items made by the synthesis. Water has a skill that allows you to transfer bars to a different element. But you can only use each skill once per synthesis, so sometimes you have to get crafty (pun fully intended). I found Conversion, which is the skill that lets you move bars around, to be extremely useful, but it didn't make a lot of sense to me until I had access to more skills.

 

Supposedly, this game has the hardest boss in the entire series, but I had a much harder time with the (required) DLC bosses in Ayesha. Those were cheap fights where you pretty much had to abuse soup in order to win. Here, I chose to make the ultimate gear in NG (which DOES transfer over to NG+), which made NG+ a joke. You really only need the best weapon, armor, and accessories for each character you're going to use, Poly Poison, Escha's book, Elixir Base, and maybe Time Watch. I say this in case somebody is out there trying to figure out if they really need to make every single item listed in the ultimate crafting guides. You don't. Double Draw with Poly Poison + Escha's book will kill almost everything. The only reason the final boss is hard is because you need to build enough support to use Double Draw more than once, so you actually have to be able to last a few rounds. I made an ultimate Dragon's Secret and Eye-Opener too, but I don't know if they're necessary. I definitely didn't bother with the Goddess Shield, Command Chain, or any of the girls' ultimate weapons (outside of Escha).

 

"But Cass, isn't that sexist of you?"

 

Well, no. See, in addition to forcing two playthroughs, you're going to want to use the same members that are the same gender as your protagonist. That's required for a couple trophies. For Escha, I think the only girls you need to max out friendship with are Lucille, Wilbell, and Threia, but I can't see why you wouldn't use Linca too. Girl was the clear MVP in Ayesha. For the sausage party ending, you only need to max out Awin and Reyfer, but I will say that Awin has one cutscene that is VERY EASY to miss and is absolutely required for his ending. It's a good thing I make backup saves for my backups saves or I would've needed NG++ to finish this. (If you're reading this because you're playing through the game now and had the same trouble as me, the cutscene I'm referring to is the one that comes after making the Flight Gas Jar. I'm pretty sure you have to make this during the same assignment you get the recipe, which I think is Assignment 6. I tried making it during the next assignment, but it did NOT trigger the right cutscene. You also have to see the cutscene BEFORE leaving Colseit. I don't know why this particular cutscene is so missable when every other character event is super easy to find thanks to the red exclamation marks.)

 

Best waifu is still Linca.

 

I should use Atelier reviews to post my innermost thoughts. This space is safer than a diary or password book.

 

Surprisingly, I don't have a lot to complain about with this game. The trophies are fair and the difficulty feels about right, if you ignore the final boss (and maybe the penultimate boss, which is an obvious check for unprepared players). The intro animation is pretty sexy too. Reminds me of a Bond movie. I was surprised to see a couple animated cutscenes during the main game, which I think is a new thing to the series.

 

As far as the story goes... Well, it's an Atelier game. Your best friend is going to be the square button, which auto-skips dialogue. Unlike Ayesha, this works in EVERY cutscene instead of only ones you've seen before, so you can just make up the plot like I did. From what I can tell, Escha and Logy are both assigned to the same atelier, but their individual skills complement each other. Escha does alchemy, while Logy focuses more on synthesizing weapons and armor. It doesn't matter who you play as, though, since you have control of both crafting systems and can use either or both in battle.

 

Not going to bother describing combat. It's what you're used to, except you can have six characters in battle. Only three fight at a time, though. But since you want to max out friendship with certain characters, you're probably going to end up using them for the most part. And since I used Escha on my first playthrough, I only needed to equip the guys with the best gear for NG+.

 

So, yeah. I think I can go back to saying if you're only going to play one Atelier game, this might be a good choice. Yeah, it has some of the same characters as Ayesha, but that one is hard to recommend because of the difficulty (DX version only -- I hear the original is much easier). Ryza is still the most approachable, though.

 

Hard to think we're almost done with this series. Just two to go.

 

Shallie, shall we?

 

 

Yes, she has a tail.

 

No, I don't know why.

 

Edited March 2, 2023 by Cassylvania

[Rally-Vincent---]

9 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Your first question is probably, "Why are there are two alchemists?"

 

My first question was: Which one of them is the boy, because in Anime/JRPG, sometimes looks are deceiving.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Rally-Vincent---

[Together_Comic]

4 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Your first question is probably, "Why are there are two alchemists?"

 

My first question was: how many Atelier games even are there? (A google search tells me there are 22, in case your wondering)  By my count that means Cass has approximately 11 more diary entries before their secret plan of revealing their innermost thoughts falls into shambles.

[Cassylvania]

On 11/12/2021 at 10:56 PM, Together_Comic said:

 

My first question was: how many Atelier games even are there? (A google search tells me there are 22, in case your wondering)  By my count that means Cass has approximately 11 more diary entries before their secret plan of revealing their innermost thoughts falls into shambles.

 

22 sounds about right. For me, though, I could just claim I played all the ones that don't have trophies and you'd have to take my word for it. Mwahaha.

 

There's soon to be 23, though. For some reason, Sophie of all games is getting a sequel...

 

SPEAKING OF GAMES THAT HAVE SEQUELS...

 

Platinum #285 - Nexomon

 

My second PS5 plat is what I can only imagine is an iOS port. Really pushing those next generation capabilities.

 

Well, after having played the sequel at this time last year, is this one 'mon worth catching or should this whole series be nexed?

 

Spoiler alert: it's the latter. I fuckin' hated this game.

 

Where do I even start? I guess my first complaint is with the 'mons themselves. There are 310 of them in this game, which is impressive considering I'm pretty sure none of them were repeated in Nexomon: Extinction (which had even more). Their designs are OK. I have nothing against the artwork. In fact, the only thing I liked about this game was the graphics. But I want to take you back to a simpler time. Let's go back 25 years ago to a time of Red and Blue. What made the first Pokemon game so special? It was pixelated, black and white, and there were only half as many monsters -- some of which were even version-exclusive. But it had charm. Every Pokemon (for the most part anyway) had a role in that world. When you started out, you had the choice of three Pokemon who did not appear in the rest of the game. If you only had the one save file, your entire adventure would consist of one of those creatures being yours, another always being your rival's, and the other would seemingly not exist. In contract, Nexomon lets you pick from about seven starters, each of whom appears in the wild later in the game. Nothing makes them special or unique. And beyond that, when you started your adventure, what were the first Pokemon you encountered? Pidgey and Rattata. They were everywhere. The game didn't have to tell you that they were common Pokemon (even though the Pokedex probably did). You experienced it. If you hunted around long enough, you might encounter a Mankey (particularly good if you inadvertently chose hard mode by picking Charmander at the beginning), but you understood that rats and pigeons were as ordinary in this world as they are in ours. Similarly, when you entered the first, you encountered bugs. That makes sense. It's a forest. And those bugs would evolve quickly, even though they weren't very powerful. They had a role to play. Pokemon were introduced to you slowly. Some of them were given their own stories, like Clefairy in Mount Moon or Cubone in Pokemon Tower or the legendary birds. You wanted to learn more about these creatures and it was exciting to find something new. You know what isn't exciting? Walking to the next screen and encountering five new kinds of Nexomon. Sure, some of them make sense to be there -- you'll find fire Nexomon near the lava area and water Nexomon near the beach area -- but with so many being thrown at you at once, they lose all individuality. There's a reason I could probably name less than ten Nexomon if you asked me right now, but I could recite every one of the original 151 Pokemon.

 

But that's OK. Pokemon has too big of a roster these days too. The bigger problem in my opinion is the combat. I don't know how they screwed up turn-based combat, but they made several decisions that make me scratch my head. First, if a Nexomon faints, the one it's replaced with gets to attack first. This is frustrating because it means even if you're capable of sweeping a trainer, you're inevitably going to take damage. Get ready to heal after every battle if you only like to use one or two mons like me. You can use it to your advantage sometimes because it means you can chip away at a particularly strong Nexomon (or just keep reviving your Luhava like I did), but I don't like being punished for doing well. I can't remember if the sequel was like this. The second weird decision is that there only seven elemental types, which was changed in the sequel (Psychic and Ghost were added), but you might be surprised to learn that fire beats wind and grass beats electric. It's like they didn't want to copy Pokemon too much, so they just started making up their own rules.

 

But what I hate the most about the combat is that there are essentially no set-ups. Almost every move is an attack. It makes battles so freakin' bland. Essentially, you're just going to use the attack with the biggest base power. Your opponent will use random moves, but since most of them deal damage, there's very little strategy. There aren't even any fun or situational moves like Rollout or Mean Look or False Swipe. The non-damaging ones are just like...maybe cause a status condition or put up a barrier that reduces the next attack received to 1 damage (stupid because you can't pair it up with anything else or use it to survive an Explosion, etc.). I think I'd be OK with either of these things if they weren't used in conjunction, but giving your opponent a free turn AND having almost every move deal damage just makes the game a slog to get through.

 

And that's not even getting into the story. Holy shit. I don't expect much from a monster-catching game, but this was PAINFUL. Yes, it's the usual ancient power is awakening, you're the chosen one, yadda yadda, but the clichés never stop. I lost track of the number of times a character appeared out of nowhere to either stop the hero or save him. It's *every* cutscene. Just assume that every bad guy will get away and you're never in any danger. And even that wouldn't be so bad if the story wasn't on replay the whole time. This is going to be the hardest thing to explain, but imagine playing your first Pokemon game. Imagine all eight gym leaders are evil and you have to beat them. So you do that. But then they show up again and say, "This isn't our true form!" and you have to beat each of them again. So you do that and they join forces and you have to beat them a third time. Then you have to enter their minds and beat each of them individually. Then they join forces again. Then you find out it's all a dream and you have to do it again. Imagine you just have to keep fighting the same bosses over and over for the rest of time. Does that sound like fun to you? Do you like feeling like you're wasting your time and making no progress? Because that's what Nexomon is like. This was one of the most deceptively unfun games I've ever played.

 

I don't even want to talk about what a chore it was to capture all 310 of these turds.

 

The ONE saving grace for the story is your robot companion, Atlas. He basically plays the role that Coco played in the sequel, which is to break the fourth wall at every opportunity. In the sequel, it was cute...maybe a bit overdone...but here it's just nice when the game openly admits that much of its content is padding. Honesty is a virtue and I appreciate when a game doesn't take itself too seriously.

 

I see no reason to play this over the sequel. It is demonstrably worse in every way. In that sense, I guess I should be glad because it means the developers learned from their mistakes. Well, they got one over me there because I keep paying for this shit. I give this game a 1 out of 10 and an early nomination for worst game of the year. Next month's awards are going to be lit.

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by Cassylvania

[Briste]

4 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

This is going to be the hardest thing to explain, but imagine playing your first Pokemon game. Imagine all eight gym leaders are evil and you have to beat them. So you do that. But then they show up again and say, "This isn't our true form!" and you have to beat each of them again. So you do that and they join forces and you have to beat them a third time. Then you have to enter their minds and beat each of them individually. Then they join forces again. Then you find out it's all a dream and you have to do it again. Imagine you just have to keep fighting the same bosses over and over for the rest of time. Does that sound like fun to you? Do you like feeling like you're wasting your time and making no progress? Because that's what Nexomon is like. This was one of the most deceptively unfun games I've ever played.

This is actually surprisingly close to how I would explain the KH story too  ?

 

When do you think your luck will change and you'll accidentally play a good game? You've had a rough stretch of it lately.

[Rally-Vincent---]

4 hours ago, Briste said:

When do you think your luck will change and you'll accidentally play a good game? You've had a rough stretch of it lately.

 

Sometimes I wonder how Cassy chooses what games to play... is it "That is similar to game X", or "That game is from genre X", or is it "I didn't like the last one from the series, let's see if they did better this time"?

[Cassylvania]

22 hours ago, Briste said:

When do you think your luck will change and you'll accidentally play a good game? You've had a rough stretch of it lately.

 

It gets worse when you consider that there are several active games on my list that I haven't even complained about yet because I can't be bothered with the platinum.

 

18 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Sometimes I wonder how Cassy chooses what games to play... is it "That is similar to game X", or "That game is from genre X", or is it "I didn't like the last one from the series, let's see if they did better this time"?

 

I use a simple flow chart. I ask myself, "Do I feel like playing Atelier?" If yes, I have my next game. If not, I roll a die.

 

In all seriousness, though... I have a backlog of about 200 games. I try to organize them by genre, and then I'll pick a game from that genre when the mood suits me. I don't do this with every genre, though. Like, I don't care about open world games or shooters. The genres themselves are fine, but I'll very rarely say, "Man, I'm really feeling like playing an Ubisoft game right now." More likely, I'll want to fall back on my favorites. I always want to have that next survival game or farming game or puzzle game ready to go to break up the monotony of larger titles.

 

I try to avoid having multiple RPGs going at once.

 

Community events help.

 

Sometimes I play games that just fit the time of year. Halloween is the obvious one, but I have several games with a winter theme that I plan to start soon.

 

In the case of Nexomon, I just didn't want to get conned into buying Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl. If anything, that game just reminded me how bland the Pokemon formula has become.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Cassylvania

[Together_Comic]

On 11/20/2021 at 8:54 PM, Cassylvania said:

In the case of Nexomon, I just didn't want to get conned into buying Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl. If anything, that game just reminded me how bland the Pokemon formula has become.

 

I had to convince myself multiple times this weekend to not buy BDSP.  I think the only thing that saved me $60 is that its close to an exact remake of Diamond/Pearl with out any of the neat new bells and whistles that we got from say a HGSS or the ORAS remakes.  On the other had, Piplup is cute and that in and of itself is almost worth it.... At this point the only thing I find exciting about pokemon is the online competitive battling which is still mega-fun even now, but the main games have long since been stale I definitely agree.

 

Thanks for the dodge of Nexamon.  Some times I feel like Cass is the Nostalgia Critic of video games... They be like "I suffer through it, so you don't have too..." ?

[winter_bird_22]

On 11/20/2021 at 8:54 PM, Cassylvania said:

In the case of Nexomon, I just didn't want to get conned into buying Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl. If anything, that game just reminded me how bland the Pokemon formula has become.

Actually, let me relax your thoughts: I have Shining Pearl and it's an exact remake of the original games. No Mega Evolutions, no Dynamaxing, and they even made TMs consumables again and have you use HMs again. (Only you don't need an HM slave, it's like Poke Ride in Sun and Moon, a wild Pokemon nearby helps you out.)

 

The only thing different is the Underground, which is now more fun because there are Wild Areas areas called Pokemon Hideaways, giant caves of various biomes where you can influence what type of Pokemon roam there by putting statues in your secret base which you mine from the walls.

 

Other than that and the Contest changes, it's the exact same game. No changes in the original story or post-game, no ancient evil. (That's being saved for Legends Arceus coming out in January.) It was also made by a different company. So they went back to their roots and it is a lot of fun.

 

Unlike Nexomon if your review is to be believed.

Edited November 27, 2021 by winter_bird_22

[Alternatewarning]

@Cassylvania I've read through your last few Atelier reviews and I can now confidently say that...I'm going to start with Ryza.

I've seen your thread a few times but never actually looked at it and boy.  Just looking at that platinum number is intimidating.  And here I was proud of my 80 haha