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Cassylvania's Miserable Little Pile of Platinums


Cassylvania

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I kept seeing Coffee Talk on sale and was interested, but could never justify pulling the trigger - maybe I'll actually get to buying it next time I see it at a discount.

 

On 8/21/2022 at 11:05 AM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

 

Maybe with a pure platformer. Or would that turn out as a rogue-like instead?

 

Sounds like Super Meat Boy to me.

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Coffee Talk was one of the best game I could have chosen for a small break between all the hassle of other games.

Did you also read the short stories on your phone written by Freya? 

 

Overall I'd recommend the game to anyone when it is on sale, not much you could do wrong with that.

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Platinum #334 - Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles

https://i.psnprofiles.com/games/602559/trophies/1Ldcea43.png

 

(Yes, I had to check that title five times to be sure I spelled it right.)

 

So, maybe of you have probably wondered how I have the patience to stomach some of these games, particularly those with exceptionally long grinds (e.g. Dragon Quest Heroes 2) or multiple unnecessary playthroughs (e.g. Erica). The truth is that I watch a lot of other things. Recently, I've been trying to get into anime, and the first show I happened to pick was Demon Slayer, which is about a boy named Tanjiro Kamado, whose family is killed by a demon, and his sister Nezuko, who has been turned into a demon, on a quest to...well, slay demons. I don't usually review the shows I watch here (maybe I should), but I think the fact that I went out and bought this game -- a fighting game, nonetheless (my least favorite genre) -- says everything you need to know. Does it hold up as well as the show? Let's find out.

 

To begin, this IS a fighting game, but it's a 3D fighting game, which is a genre that I didn't think existed. Most battles put you into a circular arena with either one or two opponents. You have a variety of attacks you can perform, including a normal attack, special attacks (which use an energy bar), jump, throw, shield, parry, dodge, Boost/Surge, and an ULTIMATE ART (the latter two of which will require filling up the yellow meter at the bottom of the screen). You also sometimes get a support character, who can be summoned to attack your opponent or help you to dodge an attack. During Story Mode, you usually play as Tanjiro, but there are actually a lot of playable characters in VS Mode and Training (especially if you buy the DLC packs).

 

There's technically more to the gameplay than that. When you're going through Story Mode, you'll occasionally get to move around a small map for some reason. I'm not really sure why this is present, other than to pad out the campaign or make the game feel more like an adventure. You'll encounter scripted battles here and there are a few collectibles, but they're all marked on your mini-map and you can always revisit an area if you miss something. There are also two mini-games that you'll complete towards the end of the game. Both of these simply involve pressing the right button on your controller at the right time. I usually hate stuff like that, but these weren't hard.

 

I kinda want to talk about the graphics, the audio, the gameplay, and the trophies.

 

The graphics are...honestly, impressive. I don't play a lot of anime-inspired adaptations, but this looks damn close to the show. There are a LOT of cutscenes and they're very well done. In battle, the special attacks are gorgeous and the Ultimate Arts are fun to watch. They're basically just a chance for you to put down your controller for a few seconds and watch your character absolutely decimate your opponent. I'm pretty sure a lot of these were taken directly from scenes in the show.

 

Audio is pretty good too. I watched the anime with English dubs and they used all the same voice actors from what I can tell, so take that for what you will. I know some people are very much against English dubs for this kind of stuff.

 

Gameplay was fun, which was actually the biggest surprise for me. I don't usually like stuff like this and I only really considered it because I saw it was a fairly short platinum and thought, "Well, if I don't like it, at least I won't have to play it for long." But no, I actually enjoyed fighting the AI. I haven't brought this game up in a review for a while, but this honestly reminded me of -- yes, I'm about to say it -- Dark Souls. Attacks are very fairly telegraphed (with a colored area showing you the range), dodging is necessary to avoid taking damage, and you're often bouncing back and forth between an aggressive and a defensive playstyle. Most opponents only have a few attacks, so battles just come down to learning when to run away (standing still fills up your energy bar) and when to punish your opponent. You also want to make sure you're connecting on your Ultimate Arts, or you just wasted your best source of damage.

 

One of the most amazing things about this game is that I didn't get frustrated, despite some tricky battles where I got my ass handed it to me. I found that every attack is dodgeable and most of the damage I took was my own fault for being greedy. You really want to combo your opponent (four or five normal attacks in a row, followed by one or two special attacks) and then back off while they're on the ground. If you stand still and use your support when your opponent gets back up, it usually buys you enough time to refill your energy meter. In some cases, you're better off baiting certain attacks than trying to counter everything coming your way. I found every opponent has at least one or two attacks that are easy to punish them for once they're done.

 

As far as trophies go, your main priority is getting an S rank in every Story Mode battle. You'll probably get a lot of these naturally playing through the game. There are also "Special Missions" that you'll need to get an S rank on (both difficulties), but there are only a couple I struggled with. Getting an S rank on the final boss was a bit of a pain too.

 

How do you get an S rank? Generally, you need to beat the battle without taking a lot of damage. Doing it quickly seems to help too, but you really want to be finishing with above 75% health most of the time, so playing it safe seems to be a better strategy. Sometimes your opponent will go into "awakened" mode, where they'll become much stronger, more aggressive, and not flinch from your attacks. I recommend staying back and dodging instead of trying to get a few hits in when this happens...

 

Fortunately, you can choose which character you want to use (and your support) for a lot of these battles. I went with Nezuko whenever possible because she's fast and easy to combo with. I liked Zenitsu as a support (not only because he works well at range and can stun enemies, but because these two have some funny dialogue when they're together).

 

Looks like it took me about 22 hours to get the platinum. That seems high, but I was probably idle a lot. Maybe a 4/10 in difficulty?

 

In a shocking twist, guys, I really liked this game. I would recommend it. The unfortunate thing is that it's only on the PS5 and neither the physical version nor the digital version are in a price range that I'd consider acceptable, but definitely consider this if you enjoy the anime or fighting games. I think it gives you a good taste of both the show and the genre without asking for too much in return, which is what I hope for when I venture outside my comfort zone.

 

Huh...

 

nezuko-kamado-nezuko.gif

Edited by Cassylvania
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@Mori, I really dig your animated signature pic, it's really funny seeing the girl cry "YAY!" after getting a cruddy bronze. xD

 

On 9/4/2022 at 0:07 PM, Cassylvania said:

as you would expect from a game intended for a younger audience and stylized to look like a children's storybook

 

P_P Seriously, people just keep adding to the list of games I have to platinum for my nieces' entertainment. (They are 4 and 2 years old respectively and constantly coming over to visit while their mom and dad are out helping in a hospital and school[both my sister and bro-in-law, who live next door, are nurses].) First Disney Dreamlight Valley and now this. I won't beg to stop because I don't want you to stop the summaries, but ugh... xD

 

Really love the reviews, Cassy. Keep it up. I have my own thread for all the games I platinumed. It's called "Tataru's House of Business." (Yes, I did like FFXIV but dread the thought of playing through Endwalker again. :()

On 9/4/2022 at 0:07 PM, Cassylvania said:

(I'm just going to refer to them as "goobers" because that's a lot easier to type.) 

Why not Pikmin? Oh wait, the Nintendo Ninjas would assassinate you then. xD Yeah, these Spritelings seem to work like Pikmin. I know that's only one aspect of the game, but... or we could call the Spritelings after those Pikmin creatures you use in Ni No Kuni 2. :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have been meaning to dip my toes into Bloodstained, ever since Miriam cameo'd in Blasphemous. Your review has encouraged me to check out the main game first, then maybe these two games from the 'Curse of the Moon' series. Congrats on hitting 336 platinums, a monumental feat! Good luck reaching your next milestone of 350!

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On 9/26/2022 at 1:42 AM, James_Tonto said:

I have been meaning to dip my toes into Bloodstained, ever since Miriam cameo'd in Blasphemous. Your review has encouraged me to check out the main game first, then maybe these two games from the 'Curse of the Moon' series. Congrats on hitting 336 platinums, a monumental feat! Good luck reaching your next milestone of 350!

 

Thanks! I don't think we'll have trouble hitting that this year.

 

Blasphemous is on my list too. I got some easier Metroidvanias I want to get to first, but knowing it has cameos is interesting. That's the first I've heard of that.

 

With October quickly approaching, we have a lot more spooky games to get to. I'm probably going to end up starting a lot more than I can finish by Halloween, but that's what the rest of the year is for. Then we'll get to that milestone...

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Platinum #337 - Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory

https://i.psnprofiles.com/games/f3c7e3/trophies/1Ld2de0d.png

 

I'm starting to wonder if I even like RPGs...

 

Disclaimer: I was never into Digimon. I grew up in the era of the console wars. As a kid, it was forbidden to like two things that were similar. If you liked Nintendo, you hated Sega. If you liked Marvel, you hated DC. If you thought the pink ranger was hot, you wouldn't even look at the yellow ranger. We were at each other's throats over these things. This was serious business. Hell, I remember not even liking ZELDA because I thought it was the "more adult" version of Mario, and how DARE you insult my favorite Italian plumber by saying his games are too "kiddie". We won't even discuss how I felt about SONIC.

 

Digimon was basically the adult version of Pokemon. From what I understand, Digimon could actually die in battle and the show dealt with much darker themes overall. I just wasn't into that. Plus, I didn't like the more robotic/futuristic creatures in that universe. You could always tell a Pokemon from a Digimon. Pokemon were your friends. They were the ones you'd want as a pet. Digimon always looked off to me, like some sort of deformed monster, like they were created by the B-team. I say this because I want you to understand that I have an irrational dislike towards this series.

 

But that doesn't mean I haven't given it a fair chance. I played the original Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth back in 2016, before I even made this thread, and I remember thinking it was...okay? Honestly, there were only two things that stuck out to me. First was the beat-the-game button. Whenever you got into a battle, you could press the Options button and it would simulate the rest of the battle for you. No need to have to select your own moves. I remember thinking that was a really nice option for cutting down on the grind. Second was the stupid gacha machines. There was this ridiculous trophy that required getting 30 unique medals from every gacha machine in the game, and it was literally just a matter of spamming the X button over and over until the RNG gods smiled upon you.

 

For better or worse, both of those features are back. In fact, so are all the same characters and dungeons. I'm not even sure this qualifies as a new game. There's a new storyline, I guess, and a few more Digimon to add to your party...but it's largely unchanged.

 

This also has some of the stupidest features I've seen in a modern video game. The first is the Options button. Like before, this will allow the game to select attacks for you. Press it once and the AI will take over. Press it again and you regain control (in case you want to use an item or switch party members). The problem is what the Options button does outside battle. I want you to take a guess. Pretend you're a programmer and you're designing an RPG. Which of the following commands would you assign to the Options button?

 

A.) Open the Options menu

B.) Open the party menu

C.) Open the inventory

D.) Open a window asking if the player wants to return to the title screen (without saving)

 

If you answered D, congratulations. You were probably on the development team for this game.

 

If you answered anything but D, you're probably wondering, "But wait.... So what if you accidentally return to the title screen? This is an RPG. You can just return to your last auto save."

 

You poor thing. You thought this game had auto save. 60 hours in, I was STILL so baffled by the exclusion of this that I kept returning to the Options menu (accessed by the triangle button, by the way) to see if there was a way to enable it.

 

"OK, no auto save for a game that came out in 2017 is pretty dumb," you might be saying. "But how much is that really going to affect you? If all your Digimon die in battle, you probably just get sent back to the nearest Digimon Center."

 

WRONG. You get booted to the title screen. This game will happily set you back HOURS if you forget to save. And -- while this is a minor complaint by comparison -- only giving the player three save slots is bizarre. Especially considering there's at least one critical decision you need to make midway through the story that affects the remainder of your playthrough.

 

The gacha machines are back too. There are more of them this time. In fact, now you need 700 medals for a trophy. (In the original game, you only needed 500.) If you're smart, you'll have your save from the previous game and you can import the first 500 medals. If you're like me, you get to do it all over again.

 

The good news is that not every medal is unique to a gacha machine. You'll get many just by playing the game and picking up shiny items you see on the ground. The bad news is that some of them are rare drops from Digimon, so get ready to grind.

 

Speaking of grinding -- because that's all this game is -- the most amazing trophy I've ever seen is Vanguard, which requires maximizing your hacker rank. How do you increase your hacker rank? You do quests. You need to reach rank 20 for the trophy.

 

"Surely there are enough quests in the game to reach rank 20..." you start to say before you realize I'm setting you up again.

 

ENJOY HAVING TO PLAY THROUGH THE FIRST HALF OF NG+.

 

What other dumb features can I think of...? Well, there's no mini-map in the overworld. That's annoying. The way you access certain areas is annoying. You have the "real world" and then the "Digiworld", which I guess they call EDEN. If you're in the real world and want to navigate to another area, you have to walk to the edge of the map (but only in specific areas). If you're in EDEN, you have to find an exit portal. To enter EDEN, you need to find a computer terminal in the real world. Most areas have one of them, but you're probably going to use the one in your HQ, which is the only computer terminal you can use to access the BBS. The BBS is basically what you use to start a quest or turn in an existing quest. You can only take one quest at a time, which is stupid, and you don't have a quest tracker to let you know where to go. (This is technically not true, as you can go to the Options menu, down to Player, scroll all the way over to BBS, and you might see a hint of where to go next. I have no idea why this is only a feature some of the time.) It's VERY easy to get stuck wandering around, unsure of what NPC you need to talk to or what area you need to visit in order to advance the plot. I recommend a walkthrough.

 

Speaking of the plot... yeah, not interested. This is a personal preference, but I couldn't bring myself to care. I bailed shortly after the scene where the character you play as (Keisuke) walks in on the female lead (Erika), and she proceeds to wail on him...with a keyboard/whale (don't ask). I figured this was the highlight of the game. If you're interested, though, this is neither a sequel nor a prequel to the original. It's supposed to be taking place at the same time, so you'll run into many of the same characters and fight many of the same battles. Some people might call this "paying homage" to the original. I call this a lazy excuse to avoid having to come up with something different. The only time I've seen something like this done was right The Lion King 1 1/2, and that's because they changed the tone and did something interesting.

 

That said, I ignored 80% of the story, so maybe it's really good. I don't play Pokemon games for the story either.

 

How does the battle system work? Well, I sure hope it's amazing because it's the only game mechanic I have left to discuss...

 

So, Digimon is a bit more involved than Pokemon when it comes to type match-ups. In Pokemon, creatures have one or two elemental types, such as water or flying/electric. Digimon have elemental types as well (not quite as many as Pokemon, admittedly, and each Digimon only has a single element), but they also fall into one of three (technically four, but the last one is neutral) categories: Data, Virus, and Vaccine, which have their own rock-paper-scissors mechanic (Vaccine beats Virus, Virus beats Data, and Data beats Vaccine). I generally only paid attention to the latter. If my opponent was using Virus Digimon, I'd put out my best Vaccine Digimon, etc. You can have three Digimon on the field at once and up to 11 in your party (although you're limited by Memory Capacity, so you can't just fill your party with all the strongest Digimon). This can also provide you with some necessary or useful abilities outside of battle, such as being able to activate panels or repel enemies, but you need the right Digimon for the job. Best to have a good variety with you at all times.

 

Then there's the DigiFarm and Digivolution and De-Digivolution and...it gets confusing. I hate the evolution system in this game. This isn't like Pokemon, where you have a creature that starts out weak and you slowly raise them over time so they can grow big and strong. Instead, you're constantly evolving and unevolving (yeah, not using the proper terms) them in order to raise their ABI, which is necessary to unlock stronger forms and also to allow them to get higher stats from the farm. I'll let you figure all that out if you decide to play the game. It's not overly complicated -- I'm probably making it sound more confusing than it actually is -- but I lose all attachment to my party members when they're constantly changing form. I just got two silver poops and used them for most of the game. (Yes, that's an actual sentence I wrote.)

 

There's probably a strategy in this game, but I found I could just spam my strongest attacks or have the AI fight for me to win most battles. It's only when you go the Master Cup trophy that you really need to concentrate. I spent an entire afternoon putting a team together for that. The PSNP guide is more than sufficient for letting you know which Digimon are the strongest. (Hint: get Sistermon Blanc (Awakened) from the free DLC.) Other than that, it's your standard turn-based battle system where you kill your opponent before they can kill you.

 

The game's bad, guys. I'm sorry. I don't go into these reviews thinking, "What popular series can I tear apart this time?" I know this game has its fans, and I know some people get upset when a reviewer criticizes a game they really enjoyed. For those of you who have stuck with me over the years, I hope you can appreciate how I'll always tell it like it is. You could say I'm biased against this series or that I didn't give the story enough time, but I put over 120 hours into this game and didn't find it enjoyable, even from a gameplay perspective. If it had some voice acting, maybe. If I didn't have to spam X to get through dialogue. If there were clearer directions on where to go, if the grind was cut in half, if the dungeons weren't recycled from the previous game, if the buttons made sense, if you didn't have to spend so long scrolling through menus, if you didn't have to save every few minutes because you're afraid of losing your progress... Basically, just get rid of all the design decisions and make a new game. Is that too much to ask?

Edited by Cassylvania
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On 9/27/2022 at 7:07 PM, Cassylvania said:

Thanks! I don't think we'll have trouble hitting that this year.

 

Blasphemous is on my list too. I got some easier Metroidvanias I want to get to first, but knowing it has cameos is interesting. That's the first I've heard of that.

 

With October quickly approaching, we have a lot more spooky games to get to. I'm probably going to end up starting a lot more than I can finish by Halloween, but that's what the rest of the year is for. Then we'll get to that milestone...

 

I definitely recommend Blasphemous. Fair amount of challenge as is expected from a Souls like game. Automatically comes with DLC content when you install the updates.

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I wanted to try Hacker's Memory and then I read your review and thought "Yeah, I changed my mind." :(

 

I had platinumed the original Cyber Sleuth on an ancient account, but when I tried to play it again, the game couldn't be booted up. I think I had downloaded the Vita version and it crashed on start-up. What a shame, but if I have to do two playthroughs for a game just to get to Rank 20, I'll die of old age knowing I never had to suffer through that. In other words, you play games so I don't have to. xD

Edited by Taruta13
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Damn I had been planning to play this game as well, I guess I'll just play the PS4 remaster of the first one. It really sounds like NIS severely fumbled this sequel, which is sad. I mean they've managed to keep the game play plots of the Disgaea games fairly interesting and in-tone with their setting. The first Witch and the Hundred Knight definitely felt darker, but the story, characters and multiple endings kept me playing. A third game might redeem this series, but I get the feeling that the fanbase has probably checked out if the experience you had is any indication Cassy.

 

Instead of a sequel, maybe NIS could release Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? 1 and 2 on the PSN with Trophy support instead? Those games sound better than what you endured and they already got ported to Switch, so fingers crossed? ^^: 

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On 10/15/2022 at 4:30 PM, Cassylvania said:

You play as teenage twins Jenn and Tristan, who live in a small town with a man they call the Professor. One day, the Professor goes missing, and they discover a portal in the basement that leads to an underground world of goblins. There, they have to try to save the professor, by defeating the evil Goblin King Dwarvengobben and his henchmen.

 

Sounds like a David Bowie movie.

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On 10/18/2022 at 3:56 AM, Cassylvania said:

This game has the extraordinary honor of being one of the only games I've bought on release day in years. Unfortunately, it also came with several game-breaking (well, trophy-breaking) bugs that made me have to shelf it for a few weeks... Finally got back around to it and finished my playthrough, so let's discuss.

 

Every time I rent / buy a game at launch I end up regretting it. Even with Forbidden West, which launched relatively stable, it got a patch fixing most of performance mode's issues right as I was finishing my playthrough. I just recently platinumed Destroy All Humans 2, and I'm definitely not happy with my decision to rent it so early, because while the base game is fairly good, my experience was soured by frequent memory leaks, crashing, screen tearing, and countless other bugs.

 

The state of the game industry in regards to game launches is really ridiculous right now. You're practically punished for not waiting a year or two to buy games, given they're not only cheaper but vastly improved experiences given a year or two.

 

I've been keeping an eye on Cult of the Lamb myself, but have been wary due to all the bugs. I'll probably keep holding off on it. I'm glad you had a good time with it despite all the technical issues, though! 

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