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Cassylvania's Miserable Little Pile of Platinums


Cassylvania

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7 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

Ender Lilies is a game on your list I really want to try out, but the $24.99 price tag is a bit much. 

 

Had to go back and check my review. I said $25 was a fair price for a polished product, but if you ever see it on sale in the $15-20 range, I'd say buy it for sure. It's probably still my GOTY for 2022. (Granted, it's going up against the likes of Sanic Racing and Spongeboob. My quality of gaming really dropped after January...)

 

7 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

You’re not much older than me, though I’ve already noticed I’m not as exhilaratingly quick as I was 10 - 14 years ago.

 

One of the only advantages of having multiple accounts over the years is that I have a way to directly compare myself to past me. I like to occasionally go back to games I either struggled with or breezed through to see if I've improved or if I really am slowing down. I'm happy to say that I think I could kick my past self's ass.

 

I don't know if I have another litmus test in me. Doing Rocketbirds co-op trophy solo was one of my earliest trophy hunting achievements, and it made me appreciate how utterly ridiculous this spectacle can be at times because I was trying to juggle two controllers for a piece of virtual recognition. I've obviously done harder stuff since, but gaming and trophy hunting was very different 10 years ago.

 

That's probably a good topic of conversation. What are some of your guys' most hardcore gaming achievements? Not necessarily something trophy-related, but moments when you were really in the zone and did something that would be hard to replicate.

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8 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

One of the only advantages of having multiple accounts over the years is that I have a way to directly compare myself to past me. I like to occasionally go back to games I either struggled with or breezed through to see if I've improved or if I really am slowing down. I'm happy to say that I think I could kick my past self's ass.

 

I don't know if I have another litmus test in me. Doing Rocketbirds co-op trophy solo was one of my earliest trophy hunting achievements, and it made me appreciate how utterly ridiculous this spectacle can be at times because I was trying to juggle two controllers for a piece of virtual recognition. I've obviously done harder stuff since, but gaming and trophy hunting was very different 10 years ago.

 

That's probably a good topic of conversation. What are some of your guys' most hardcore gaming achievements? Not necessarily something trophy-related, but moments when you were really in the zone and did something that would be hard to replicate.


It was different 10 years ago because EZPZs for the most part didn’t exist. I don’t remember exactly when they started creeping in but Steam was definitely ushering them in with the Early Access bullshit and just allowing shovelware to make it to their store. 
 

That’s why I often say 100 platinums doesn’t mean shit anymore. They are what you make of them. The leaderboards mean nothing to me at this point, I just care about my own personal goals. 
 

As far as hardcore gaming achievements go, it would definitely be putting around 9000 - 10000 hours on RuneScape. I became an addict to the game which ended up affecting me mentally during my high school years in the early - mid 2000s. Played for a time in circa 2009 - 2011, then quit and came back to Old School RuneScape from roughly 2013 to 2015.

 

I also rolled with some raiding clans in World of Warcraft back in the day. It was the first time I ever “boosted” with a group so to speak. I was some 18 - 19 year old kid who didn’t know much, and some of the dudes in the clan were pushing their late 30s - 40s who had a family. I looked up to those guys, because it showed me that even with real life throwing you curveballs, you can still go back and enjoy the hobbies you love doing. 

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On 20.7.2022 at 3:21 PM, Cassylvania said:

That's probably a good topic of conversation. What are some of your guys' most hardcore gaming achievements? Not necessarily something trophy-related, but moments when you were really in the zone and did something that would be hard to replicate.

 

Many years back, a couple of guys from a message board started a F2P game called Travian, and because I hat time, I joined in. The game was a typical F2P - you settled and conquered sqares, developed the spots for resources and build armies. People joined guilds, and guilds allied into factions. In the endgame, factions would race to build a "World wonder" first, which used up insane amount of resources. It was a "harmless" F2P - spending money to build instantly instead of waiting two days, you couldn't buy overpowered units or the like (I think - I never spent a cent and didn't explore what you could get for money).

 

It went as you might expect at first - in three weeks, the forum people dropped out until only two of us were left. Yet, we played on and actually finished the campaign (which lasted short of a year). Both of us didn't pay any money, while many others must have been whales. We stayed independent until the endgame, while all around us guilds were either destroying or subjugating the smaller players. In the endgame, there was no neutrality, obviously, so we joined a faction (which won the server in the end).

 

Every week, the game awarded ribbons for the 10 best attackers and defenders. Of course, those would always go to the big players in the alliances who spent money, yet one week, I got a ribbon (8th best attacker that week).

 

So yeah; a competetive achievement in a F2P game way into the server without money spent. I was amused.

Edited by Rally-Vincent---
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I just platinumed Nexomon: Extinction myself and boy howdy, I am assuming you got this platinum BEFORE the dang DLC update, because the Abyssal DLC for this game(which was hard-wired into my copy) added 46 new Mons that you HAVE to get to get the trophy for Owning all Nexomon as it increases the cap from 381 to 427 and you can only get half of these guys by exploring the new area and fighting a ton of new Tyrants that are huge HP truck-smackers(my team was all max level and even them I suffered some deaths) and finishing the DLC story.
 

Spoiler

However, to be fair, if you ever saw that creepy treant and did his quest, the DLC causes said creepy tree to trade you points(which you get by releasing Nexomon - yes, this feature encourages you to clean your boxes out, something Pokemon needs to get on ASAP as I had no reason to horde Pokemon) and two of the rewards you can trade for these points are - get ready - a Portable Storage Space that lets you access the PC from anywhere(where you can store Nexomon) and a Portal Warpstone that let you use the warpstone fast travel from anywhere, which was a blessing as (a) walking to a warp stone is slow and (b) some areas in the new DLC island are a PAIN IN THE (Yoshi!) to navigate. One area slowly drains your health(it won't kill you) and burns your entire party if you fight there, and another area is a huge freaking maze similar to Hilda's Maze in the original Nexomon. Oh, and you can craft really strong cores you can equip on your Nexomon to make them stronger and tougher. :)

 

It took me all day to get that final trophy because I had to capture all 29 normal new Nexomon(which are final form Nexomon from the original game like Bedam and Resonic) and do the quests to get the remaining 17 legendaries(including Luhava from the original game which is a 0.8% encounter in the Lost Woods area near Parum City).

 

 

On 12/12/2020 at 3:48 PM, Cassylvania said:

Can't remember her name, but she made me laugh the most.

Spoiler

You mean Videll? Yeah, she's one freakin' crazy miner chick. It's funny because she shows up in the Abyssal DLC, most of the characters you meet join forces to stop the Abyssal Tyrants. Also, it's terrible that you played the original Nexomon after this one as the bad guys of the original (the children of Omicron) show up as capture fights in post-game due to your character's ability to resurrect the dead aka Jesie C. xD

 

This game also has a custom mode you unlock after you beat Vados and get the credits which let you create a custom game with settings for challenges like "Randomizer"(randomly place Nexomon in spots they shouldn't be, like instead of fighting Graloon, you fight a Hohopi xD) or rules similar to a Pokemon Nuzlocke(perma-death, losing any battle outside of story-relevant ones deletes your save file, can't use items in battle, etc).

 

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I have no idea who or what Bubsy is. I just wann say I would have earned the credits trophy because I always let the credits roll by after finishing a game first time.

 

On 12.8.2022 at 7:40 AM, Cassylvania said:

 

I (And not to spoil anything, but you get the best ability in the game once you find all the collectibles, but that's almost certainly going to be your last trophy...which means you don't even get to use it.)

 

Bit like getting the best sword after beating the hidden Super-Boss in a JRPG. There is absolutely no use for the best sword hidden behind the strongest enemy. Give it to me after beating the second worst boss.

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On 8/15/2022 at 6:50 PM, Cassylvania said:

I want to take you back to 1994. Times were different. Whether it was because I was a kid or because the only thing you could do on the internet was check your e-mail until your 100 free hours of AOL were up, there wasn't this concept of "good" or "bad" games. I think we all knew there were some amazing franchises, like Mario and Sonic, but most other games seemed to be on a respectable tier directly below that. If you had asked me at the time, I would've ranked Bubsy alongside Earthworm Jim, Gex, and Boogerman (the early 90's were all about gross-out humor), despite never getting very far. I just assumed I was bad at the game or not smart enough to figure out the controls. It wasn't until later that I realized bad game design is a thing and quality assurance is not.

 

Much of that gross-out humor from the likes of Ren & Stimpy and Beavis & Butthead would be considered far too edgy and offensive by today's standards. I can remember other shows like The Tick which would also be regarded as too edgy. Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures are are in a similar camp, though they were geared towards a younger audience.

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On 8/18/2022 at 10:19 PM, Cassylvania said:

This year, I wanted to use this game for the Gaming by Numbers event, knowing the NA version was going to count for a 7. Well, apparently the physical copy I bought came from overseas because I ended up with the EU version, which has the only number I didn't need.

This is why I never platinum anything but good only NA games. (Also, I am not going to create foreign accounts and spend money on game cards just to buy games on those accounts. ?

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On 8/21/2022 at 3:47 PM, Cassylvania said:

did every possible thing there is to do in Dragon Quest Heroes 2

:o Can I be your apprentice, sensei? I put that game down as my 7/10 difficulty game on the Platinum Difficulty 2022 event and now I am regretting it as I only played up to getting Maribel and Ruff. (Seriously, WTF were Square-Enix and their distributor thinking when they renamed Gabo the wolf boy in Dragon Warrior VII THAT? ?)

 

(If you were joking, then I apologize. I was technically joking too. xD)

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On 8/22/2022 at 10:37 PM, Taruta13 said:

:o Can I be your apprentice, sensei? I put that game down as my 7/10 difficulty game on the Platinum Difficulty 2022 event and now I am regretting it as I only played up to getting Maribel and Ruff. (Seriously, WTF were Square-Enix and their distributor thinking when they renamed Gabo the wolf boy in Dragon Warrior VII THAT? ?)

 

(If you were joking, then I apologize. I was technically joking too. xD)

 

I was joking only in the sense that I played that game for so long that I think I exhausted the list of things to do. I didn't realize it was a 7/10 in difficulty. I remember that one annoying boss with the dark attacks, but I've encountered worse.

 

Such as...

 

Platinum #330 - Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream

https://i.psnprofiles.com/games/44cc43/trophies/1L599109.png

 

The Atelier series is a strange one. Typically, I associate these games with trilogies. Since the PS3, we've had the Arland trilogy (Rorona, Totori, and Meruru), the Dusk trilogy (Ayesha, Escha & Logy, and Shallie), and the Mysterious trilogy (Sophie, Firis, and Lydie & Suelle). The trilogy of trilogies, if you will. Before that, I guess you had the Salburg trilogy, the Iris trilogy (no, "Iris" is not a character in the game), and the Mana Khemia duology, but I've never played those (and we're going to ignore the last one because it doesn't fit my narrative). Then Lulua came out in 2019 and added a fourth game to the Arland trilogy (tetralogy?), along with whatever the hell Nelke was supposed to be... When Ryza became the first character in the series to get a direct sequel ("Mana Khemia" was not a character either), I figured that's just how Gust was going to do things from now on. Then they went and gave a sequel to a game that already had two sequels, which had me saying, "Why...?"

 

Chronologically, Sophie 2 takes place between Sophie and Firis, which is probably less confusing than it could have been, so thanks for that. I won't bother trying to explain the plot since (a) there's no reason you would play this before Atelier Sophie, and (b) you haven't played Atelier Sophie, but it does the whole "parallel world" thing, which is rarely done well. I think the only time I've ever really liked that was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. But here, I think it works fine. You get an interesting cast of characters too, and a younger version of Plachta, who was the talking book from the original game. (I guess she's like a novella now?)

 

Jokes aside, the story and characters are about what you'd expect.

 

These games have always had good graphics and music, so I won't touch on those.

 

As always, our main focus should be gameplay. That means we need to discuss combat and the alchemy system. (There is no time limit in this game. I don't expect that to ever return to this series, for better or worse.)

 

Combat is turn-based. Unlike previous games in the series, where you can only have access to a few characters in your party at any one time, all six playable characters have an active role in your party. They are simply split between three "front row" characters, who can attack and be attacked, and three "back row" characters, who provide support. Those six characters are: Sophie (now my favorite girl in the Mysterious tetralogy), Plachta (the younger version...before she was turned into a book...and later a doll), Ramizel (Sophie's HOT grandmother), Olias (generic male character #1), Diebold (generic male character #2), and Alette (don't do drugs, kids). Sophie is locked to the front row, but you can freely move anybody else around.

 

During combat, each character can attack, use a skill, use an item (each character is limited to how many items they can have equipped and not every character can use every item), block, or flee. You can also generate Technical Points (TP) in battle, which is used to perform Twin Attacks, allowing a back row character to use a skill or item during the same turn. Eventually, you gain access to Dual Triggers (DT), which allow a front row and back row character to perform a unique powerful attack. My favorite was Olias x Diebold, because Einzelkampf is ridiculously overpowered (in every Atelier game), but Plachta x Alette is funny to watch because they climb onto a giant floating hand that's shooting across the sky and start raining down presents on you like Santa Claus. All the animations in this game are very well done. They even have unique victory animations at the end of battle if you performed a DT attack. Seeing Ramizel ruffle Sophie's hair was oddly satisfyingly.

 

There is no timing to combat. In past games, if an enemy is about to attack, you'd only have a brief moment to try to block it or perform another action. Here, the game freezes and lets you decide whether to switch to a different character or face-tank it. Switching to another character is the only way I know of to put a back row character in the front row during combat, but it also changes what TP and DT actions you have to work with. Fortunately, I didn't have any trouble with the combat in this game. I chose to play through most of it on the default difficult (Normal), but switched to Easy to see how much grinding would be required. I found that playing on Easy, even making minimal use of the alchemy system, was enough that I never had to go out of my way to farm for experience or better gear.

 

Of course, there is that one damn trophy. Here, it's Ruler of the Dream, which requires beating the final boss on Very Hard difficulty. You can switch to Very Hard right before fighting her and still get the trophy, but this would be a massive step up in difficulty for somebody who's never played an Atelier game before. I don't think it would be doable without understanding at least the basics of the alchemy system.

 

So, I actually do remember a bit of the original game's alchemy system, and this retains some of its aspects. At least, in the sense that you're moving Tetris-like pieces around and trying to complete rows of the same color. The problem is that there are different "catalysts," which affect the size and effects of the board you're using, and I never did quite figure out the advantages or disadvantages of each. It can also be tricky to unlock all of the different gauge levels. For example, you might have an item that has four gauges: fire, wind, fire, and light. By adding more fire pieces to the board, you're increasing both the first and third gauge. Add enough pieces and you'll reach the next "level" on that gauge, which results in a better synthesis (e.g. if it's a healing item, it might go from a low heal to a medium heal or add in a buff, such as MP recovery). If you only care about the wind gauge, you could just focus on adding wind pieces to try to get that gauge maxed out, but each item has a unique combination of pieces and elements available. It can be a bit of pain to try to get the pieces you want, while also trying to carry over the traits you're interested in (which are also unique to each item).

 

If that sounds confusing, let me just say this was actually one of the easier alchemy systems to comprehend. The search function and the ability to see what you're making BEFORE it's made are godsends. It also helps that you can only carry over three traits. I didn't drive myself crazy trying to figure out how to get a certain trait onto the piece I wanted because the in-game mechanics were designed with the alchemy system in mind, and I greatly appreciate that.

 

Still, it took me a few hours last night to fully grasp what I was doing so that I could make the proper gear and items for my characters. I wouldn't say I was OP by any means, but I thought the final boss on the hardest difficulty was a fair fight, requiring a good amount of carefully selected moves and several retries. It was a nice change of pace from either steamrolling the final boss or being steamrolled.

 

One last thing is Sophie has the ability to CONTROL THE WEATHER. This actually plays a role in two ways. In the overworld, it's used to solve what I guess could pass for puzzles. You can switch between sun, rain, snow, thunder, and...gravity (everybody's favorite kind of weather). Certain paths are only available if the right weather conditions are met. It's not always obvious what you need, though, and it can be annoying to have to go back to your atelier to fill up on the special stones you need to change the weather, which can only be done at specific statues. I recommend spending some time just crafting a ton of these as soon as you gain access to them. 30 or 40 of each should be enough for the whole game. (I guess the one way these are used as a puzzle is sometimes you need it to rain so it will fill in a basin, which you can then freeze over with snow.) You can also sometimes switch weather in combat, which can make certain encounters much easier. I never really bothered with this, though. I mean, this game's idea of logic was making a fire dragon weak to fire, so how am I supposed to know if sun or rain makes him stronger?

 

If you couldn't tell, I liked this game, which really shouldn't come as a surprise. I've played them all at this point. At least, the ones that are available on the consoles I own. There are no English voiceovers -- same as Ryza, so we can probably consider those another relic of the past with this series -- but I didn't mind. This is definitely on the shorter end too, with only about 30 hours of gameplay and a single playthrough. (The only missable trophy is the one I already discussed.) I also think it was the perfect game in the series to have a sequel to. It didn't make sense to me at first, but I think it's a good way to capitalize on the success of Ryza and provide an entryway for new fans to get into the older games, with the Mysterious sub-series probably being the most immediately accessible...

 

And now...officially, I am done with this series.

 

For the second time.

 

Sidrp9S.png

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13 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Platinum #331 - Coffee Talk

https://i.psnprofiles.com/games/15850f/trophies/1L9cdc08.png

 

Come. Sit down. Have a (non-alcohol) drink. This is a long thread and we have many more games to play. Every now and then, it's good to relax with something simple.

 

So, what is Coffee Talk? Well, I guess it could be as described as a "slice of life" visual novel, making it pretty unique in an already unique genre. You play as...well, you can choose your name at the start, but I went with the default name of "Barista", which is also your role in the game, if the title didn't already give it away. You don't really matter, though. Much like you, your character takes a backseat to the coffee house regulars, to the point that you sometimes forget you're even there.

 

Many of these storylines play out over several days, with the characters who are present in the café offering their advice to those talking about their problems. Your character will speak up every now and then, but there are no dialogue options, so you can basically set the text speed to Auto and just listen (well, read -- no voiceovers here). My favorite storyline is between Baileys and Lua, who are a young couple going through a rocky relationship because their families don't approve of each other. Baileys is an elf and Lua is a succubus, and I guess those two races don't get along in this universe. In most other games, you would be tasked with helping them out, but all you can do here is listen to them and hope they make the right decision.

 

 

wow. i want to play that now lol. i kinda of like visual novels, they tell good stories

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