Cassylvania's Miserable Little Pile of Platinums

[RuneEyesDragon]

On 1/4/2020 at 9:30 PM, Cassylvania said:

They could have made the trophies much worse by requiring 100% completion.

I agree. Having to 100% complete all of the items is almost impossible unless you farm the Explorer's Shores for days. I'm glad Square-Enix realized how much BS having to harvest 120 orichalcum is. ?

 

Anyways, I'm glad you enjoyed the game. Hopefully they make Dragon Quest Builders 3 with Zoma as the final baddie and he has his wave of ice to keep dispelling your attacks just to be a dick. To be fair, final Malroth is no joke and if you aren't careful, you die and have to go through the stupid hanging text before that battle AGAIN.  I know from personal experience.

[Cassylvania]

On 1/7/2020 at 2:29 AM, RuneEyesDragon said:

Anyways, I'm glad you enjoyed the game. Hopefully they make Dragon Quest Builders 3 with Zoma as the final baddie and he has his wave of ice to keep dispelling your attacks just to be a dick. To be fair, final Malroth is no joke and if you aren't careful, you die and have to go through the stupid hanging text before that battle AGAIN.  I know from personal experience.

 

I didn't have any trouble with the final boss, but I could see how that would be annoying. Unfortunately, I definitely don't want that game to be plat #200, so we're going to have to sit on the last trophy or two for now. Should only take a couple minutes to grab them when I'm r

 

I made a deal with God that if the Vikings beat the Saints over the weekend, I'd finally begin Kingdom Come: Deliverance. As you can see, I kept my end of the bargain. This is going to be a long one. I made it to Rattay, where I think I'm going to stay for a while. I know this game is supposed to be hard, so I'm going to live the life of a hippie thief for now, stealing from people and picking flowers. That should let me make some easy coin and get my skills up. I'm not sure how I feel about the combat yet. I got my ass kicked by Runt, but I haven't had any trouble with bandits. There's a trophy for not killing anybody during the entire playthrough, but...well, that one's out. I guess I didn't think a sharp object through the chest would hurt.

 

Made a little progress in Hollow Knight too, but I'm clearly not going to be done in time for the Winter Holiday event. It's okay. Nine out of ten ain't bad.

 

Now, what to promise if the Vikings beat the 49ers...?

[Together_Comic]

16 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

I made a deal with God that if the Vikings beat the Saints over the weekend, I'd finally begin Kingdom Come: Deliverance. As you can see, I kept my end of the bargain. This is going to be a long one. I made it to Rattay, where I think I'm going to stay for a while. I know this game is supposed to be hard, so I'm going to live the life of a hippie thief for now, stealing from people and picking flowers. That should let me make some easy coin and get my skills up. I'm not sure how I feel about the combat yet. I got my ass kicked by Runt, but I haven't had any trouble with bandits. There's a trophy for not killing anybody during the entire playthrough, but...well, that one's out. I guess I didn't think a sharp object through the chest would hurt.

 

Made a little progress in Hollow Knight too, but I'm clearly not going to be done in time for the Winter Holiday event. It's okay. Nine out of ten ain't bad.

 

Now, what to promise if the Vikings beat the 49ers...?

 

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the game that finally made me break down and buy a PS4, which started me in my trophy hunting ways.  It really is an excellent game.  Which reminds me...(stares awkwardly at the KCD 28% on my own profile)...I need to...ahem...finish this game up.

 

I do really like the Vikings out of the NFC.  I can definitely see them going to the Super Bowl. As far as what you should promise, I have no idea, but don't go to deep.  You still have the Seahawks/Green Bay, and then probably that other purple team in the AFC. ??

[RuneEyesDragon]

Unfortunately, my money is being invested outside of PSN, especially since I had to cut my budget due to the co-owner of my bank account being told that someone is spending too much on video games and not enough on clothes.

 

Sadly, that money I can have access to now is going to the new Pokemon Sword and Shield expansion pass which they announced as well as the remake of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red/Blue Rescue Team which is coming out in March. I thought Game Freak had quietly ended the life of Mystery Dungeon but it seems that they want to reboot it with all of the stuff  that had to drop in Gen 8. Also, the expansion pack is coming with two new lands in Galar and a ton of new Pokemon, all of the old legendaries, and new Galarian forms and Gigantimaxs, so between Wizard101 and Pokemon, I am probably never going to find time for platinum trophies. I hate to say it, but chances are I may have to retire from this hobby and trade in my PS4 and all of the games I have, then delete my PSN accounts. I am almost at middle age and now have to start being responsible for my money so something has to get the axe.

 

If it does happen, I'll give a farewell post here. Was planning on playing Adventures of Mana again but now this bombshell changes everything.

[Cassylvania]

On 1/9/2020 at 9:12 AM, Together_Comic said:

I do really like the Vikings out of the NFC.  I can definitely see them going to the Super Bowl. As far as what you should promise, I have no idea, but don't go to deep.  You still have the Seahawks/Green Bay, and then probably that other purple team in the AFC. 

 

Well, our dreams of a Purple Bowl died on Saturday. How about the Titans, though? Or KC? Those may have been two of the craziest games I ever watched...for two very different reasons.

 

I was too football'd out to watch the Packers last night (or LSU tonight), but it looks like they prevented any last minute Russell magic. Now do we get to hear all week about how Rodgers grew up as a 49ers fan and will be playing them next week? And how badly will the NFL be pushing for a Chiefs/Packers Super Bowl? Then again, with the way KC played yesterday, can anybody stop them?

 

I've picked the Chiefs to win the SB every year since 2013. Could I actually be right for once...?

 

ANYWAY, I've spent the majority of the past week playing KCD (a game I still spell out Kingcom Done every time I try to look something up on Google), and...wow, it's a long one. There are like a hundred quests, shrines/crosses all over the map that need to be discovered, a ton of perks and skills to raise, and it's very easy to suddenly die and lose all your progress. The limited saves makes this somewhat frustrating. I understand the point is to prevent save scumming, but the only two ways to save are to sleep in a bed or use a fairly expensive potion, and there just doesn't seem to be enough beds to make it fair to the player. Like, I was in this town last night with an innkeeper who wouldn't rent me a room (not for any in-game reason, like I didn't have enough money or he caught me in bed with his wife), and the only other beds were in people's homes. That's realistic, sure, but I should be able to nap on a bench for a few hours or curl up with the animals in the chicken coop. You don't really want to fast travel at night because you can easily get ambushed, but you also can't wait around forever because eventually you need to eat and get some rest.

 

I wish camping was an option in this game. Maybe it is and I just haven't figured it out yet. But it is really nice to just explore the countryside and take in the sights. Right now, my main goal is to make enough money so that I can rebuild Pribystlavitz and get the Trial-and-Error DLC trophy, which should give me a steady source of income. Then I can learn how to read and start paying NPCs to train me. I also (quite literally) fucked myself out of the Virgin trophy, so it looks like we'll have to take care of that during my Hardcore run.

 

And, yes, I know I could always reload an earlier save, but some things are more important than trophies. Like keeping the outcome of that quest canon.

 

I think, between KCD and Hollow Knight, it may be a while before I earn another platinum. If we want to make some progress on this next community event, we might have to consider a replacement game for #200. I know that's a little disappointing, but I could see this quickly turning into a logjam if we don't address the issue soon.

 

I may need to look over my list of games...

Edited January 13, 2020 by Cassylvania

[Rally-Vincent---]

29 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

I also (quite literally) fucked myself out of the Virgin trophy, so it looks like we'll have to take care of that during my Hardcore run.

 

Got drunk with Father Godwin, eh?

 

KCD is a good game, I enjoyed it a lot. It'd make for a good milestone.

[realm722]

On 12/26/2019 at 2:20 PM, Cassylvania said:

Platinum #198 - Graveyard Keeper

 

 

My feelings about this game haven't really changed from my early impressions on the previous page. So, rather than reviewing the game, I'm just going to tell you how to enjoy it.

 

First, get both DLCs (Breaking Dead and Sinister Sins) and start them immediately. Breaking Dead adds zombies that do work for you. You're going to want one chopping wood, a few mining, a few gardening, and the rest carrying supplies back to your base. Doesn't matter how "efficient" they are. The only objective is to get a production line going. You "win" once you have a fully upgraded zombie farm/vineyard, with a brewery/winery in your basement. That's where Sinister Sins comes in. I didn't start this until late in my playthrough (because I was too cheap to pay full price for the second DLC), but the tavern you can open is critical to gaining money, which (along with faith and blue gems) will be your limiting factor for most of the game. For faith, hold sermons every Sunday. For blue gems...well, I had three furnaces making glass products around the clock, but it's probably faster to make second-tier gravestones. Spend the rest of your time working on whatever you need to complete the six main questlines. That's the fastest, most enjoyable way to play the game, I think.

 

It boggles my mind that the base game doesn't come with zombies. That'd be like playing Minecraft without a pickaxe or Skyrim without a bow or Grim Fandango without a full walkthrough. You would NOT have a good time. (Still, you should play for a few hours before getting your first helper, but only so that you can fully appreciate what they're doing for you.)

 

Would I recommend this game? Not if it's your first farming sim. It's way too tedious and time-consuming to get anywhere. HOWEVER... If you've played Stardew Valley or any of the Harvest Moon games before, and you absolutely love them, then you'll feel right at home here. Just be aware that this is not a short platinum.

 

Platinum #199 - Arkham City

 

 

I think it was six years ago that I first did the Calendar Man trophy legitimately, but this is my first time platinuming the game. I don't know where exactly I'd rank it in the series. Difficulty-wise, I guess it was a little harder than Arkham Knight (because of the DLCs), but I liked it more than either that or Asylum. The thing is, I've played this game to the point that I don't even want to think about it anymore. Doing the same thing over and over on multiple accounts with multiple playthroughs and multiple characters has really, really worn me out on Batman. My only consolation is knowing that anybody who has even a remote interest in this game has already played it, so it's not like I need to recommend it or even review it. I can say anything I want and it really won't matter. So, let's do this in style.

 

...I'M BATMAN.

 

As someone who adored Stardew Valley and already bought Graveyard Keeper when it was last on sale - I know what I'll be getting in for. Thank you for the DLC tip - Breaking Dead is free but I'll make sure to buy the other one before I decide to put myself through hell.

 

I'm also playing through Asylum write now but I appreciate you preparing my head for City which I also got in the bundle for $6 when it was on sale. I think it's a game I'll hold off on for awhile so I don't get Batman fatigue since Arkham: Knight was one of my Top 5 games I played in 2019. Want to space it out so I have stuff to look forward to!

 

DQB2 is also a game I want to enjoy when it comes down in price on sale since I weirdly enjoyed DQB1 but was turned off by the starting over each time you finished a chapter. It seems like the perfect turn your brain off and just listen to other stuff game which is something I can always enjoy. It's crazy to me how much overlap we have game-wise. I imagine it's 100% been mentioned to you before on here since this is a gigantic ass post but I personally recommend you Persona 5! It's a JRPG, super fun social stuff with a cast and crew you'll bound with. It is a mammoth game I do warn and I think it's best experienced without trying to micro-manage (but if you want the platinum, you almost 100% need it due to hitting certain moments before certain dates) - but yea - I imagine you'll be busy with Hollow Knight and Kingdom: Come Deliverance for awhile but that and Transistor (Supergiant Games) would be my recommendations for you!

[AJ_Radio]

How exactly did you go about getting the 100 percent for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End @Cassylvania?

 

I think now, if you play long enough, you can get people to carry through the 10 Survival Stages on Crushing and earning 3 Stars. There may be other ways, but those last two trophies look like a royal pain in the ass to get.

[VigilantCrow]

If you're still having a rough time finding beds, around Rattay, there's a campfire/bedroll, just outside of the city gates (where the homeless live). Nobody technically owns it, so you'd be able to sleep anytime.

 

If you're looking for others, near other towns/cities, just let me know. Done my share of hours in the game.

 

[Cassylvania]

On 1/13/2020 at 4:37 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Got drunk with Father Godwin, eh?

 

Twice, actually. I restarted after I got the trophy so I wouldn't lock myself out of Virgin, but then I ended up making the same decision again. That's too good of a quest to NOT be made canon.

 

On 1/13/2020 at 8:30 PM, realm722 said:

I imagine it's 100% been mentioned to you before on here since this is a gigantic ass post but I personally recommend you Persona 5! It's a JRPG, super fun social stuff with a cast and crew you'll bound with. It is a mammoth game I do warn and I think it's best experienced without trying to micro-manage (but if you want the platinum, you almost 100% need it due to hitting certain moments before certain dates) - but yea - I imagine you'll be busy with Hollow Knight and Kingdom: Come Deliverance for awhile but that and Transistor (Supergiant Games) would be my recommendations for you!

 

Both good recommendations (and on my list of games to play this year). I'm thinking maybe this summer for Persona 5. I at least want to wait until the Royal edition is out. Based on my extensive research (literally two seconds of searching the forums), it looks like that version will be much easier to platinum. I'm hoping that means one playthrough and nothing is missable, but we'll see.

 

Transistor will come after Bastion, which...yeah, will probably be some time after this slew of difficult games. I've played Bastion before, so I know what to expect. I wasn't able to platinum it on my old account.

 

We do have a lot of games in common. Other than the sports games (which I typically avoid), most of the games you have that I haven't touched are ones I've been meaning to get to, like Aven Colony, Okami, and The Messenger. I'd do Madden if they would stop putting in online trophies.

 

8 hours ago, Spaz said:

How exactly did you go about getting the 100 percent for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End @Cassylvania?

 

I think now, if you play long enough, you can get people to carry through the 10 Survival Stages on Crushing and earning 3 Stars. There may be other ways, but those last two trophies look like a royal pain in the ass to get.

 

They are. Prior to a certain patch (I think 1.20), they were doable, but Naughty Dog decided to implement a pay-to-win system. I got lucky and got maybe half of the stages done before the patch dropped. As far as I know, your best bet now is to get to max level and buy as many revives as you can.

 

The hardest stages were 8 and 10, which I did post-patch with help. For 8, I think we had to stand in a specific place on the ship so the boss would glitch through the floor. For 10, we got lucky and the boss teleported himself off a cliff. I don't know if they're possible to do otherwise.

 

8 hours ago, VigilantCrow said:

If you're still having a rough time finding beds, around Rattay, there's a campfire/bedroll, just outside of the city gates (where the homeless live). Nobody technically owns it, so you'd be able to sleep anytime.

 

If you're looking for others, near other towns/cities, just let me know. Done my share of hours in the game.

 

It's mainly Neuhof and Merhojed. I have a permanent place in Uzhitz, Ledetchko, Rattay, and Talmberg. You can sleep with the sick people in Sasau, which is effective (but probably not sanitary), and Samopesh isn't too far away. But yeah, I wish you could at least save in every town. I just wandered into Vranik last night, so it'll be interesting to see if I'm even supposed to be there... I had to hop the fence just to get in.

 

Might start a shorter game this weekend. My desk is starting to look like finals week with all the notes and maps I've scribbled down for KCD and Hollow Knight.

[VigilantCrow]

@Cassylvania

For sleeping in Merhojed before the story events, the closest bed is about a 3 minute horse ride, west of the town. You'll find a camp of friendly soldiers and plenty of beds.

After the story events, you can sleep in the same barn, in which "some guy" found himself locked inside.

 

The only reliable bed I've found near Neuhof, was a small camp 2 minutes North-East of the town, on the very edge of the map. It's on a road making it very easy to find.

 

 

 

 

[Cassylvania]

On 1/17/2020 at 8:07 AM, VigilantCrow said:

For sleeping in Merhojed before the story events, the closest bed is about a 3 minute horse ride, west of the town. You'll find a camp of friendly soldiers and plenty of beds.

After the story events, you can sleep in the same barn, in which "some guy" found himself locked inside.

 

The only reliable bed I've found near Neuhof, was a small camp 2 minutes North-East of the town, on the very edge of the map. It's on a road making it very easy to find.

 

Good to know. Things have gotten easier now, with the combat down and money no longer an issue. I'm just hoping I finish enough quests to get the Completionist trophy. I've failed three so far, and I think I locked myself out of a few more by advancing the story too much. Hopefully the DLC quests will count towards that trophy. 

 

Anyway, I haven't posted in a while because I haven't really accomplished much, despite playing KCD almost every day. Sometimes I go six or seven hours without getting a single trophy. It's addictive and yet extremely frustrating. I think that whole monk questline was one of the most annoying experiences I've ever had playing a video game that I actually enjoy.

 

I'll likely keep letting KCD and Hollow Knight battle it out for platinum #200. I've looked through most of the trophy lists in the PS4 library (this game offers a lot of downtime thanks to loading screens), and nothing else really impresses me. Maybe Shantae 5, if it releases within the next month. Anything else would take just as long as the games I'm working on.

 

Speaking of long games... Check out my 2019 wrap-up. I think we all knew which game was going to take the #1 spot, but I'm glad we finally have a number to put with it. ?

 

 

The other two are not surprising, but the order is. I would've guessed TLD was around 200 hours, and Nioh only 150. I wonder how much of that time was spent idle.

 

No other stats are that interesting. 61 total games, top genre was Miscellaneous (that's not a genre), 2206 new trophies, and 3160 hours that my house was at risk from the PS4 overheating. Don't tell my insurance company.

 

Anybody else have a wrap-up worth sharing?

Edited January 26, 2020 by Cassylvania

[Rally-Vincent---]

1 hour ago, Cassylvania said:

Anybody else have a wrap-up worth sharing?

 

I don't, but I could tell the story of how I bought XCOM 2 a second time, only this time on PC to play it with all the mods Christopher Odd flaunts around, and how it is a blast.

 

Spoiler

I bought XCOM 2 a second time, only this time on PC to play it with all the mods Christopher Odd flaunts around, and it is a blast.

 

 

1 hour ago, Cassylvania said:

Anyway, I haven't posted in a while because I haven't really accomplished much, despite playing KCD almost every day. Sometimes I go six or seven hours without getting a single trophy. It's addictive and yet extremely frustrating. I think that whole monk questline was one of the most annoying experiences I've ever had playing a video game that I actually enjoy.

 

 

I found the undercover Monk section really good. Story-wise. Gameplay-wise, I did well because I nicked a monastery key far earlier and could leave to collect stuff, so it wasn't that tedious.

Edited January 26, 2020 by Rally-Vincent---

[Cassylvania]

On 1/26/2020 at 5:01 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

I found the undercover Monk section really good. Story-wise. Gameplay-wise, I did well because I nicked a monastery key far earlier and could leave to collect stuff, so it wasn't that tedious.

 

It was just annoying because the monks would pull me aside if I accidentally stepped into the garden on my way to mass or left the kitchen a minute early. And since I usually had a weapon on me, they'd kick me out of the monastery, the quest would fail, and I'd have to reload an earlier save...and repeat the entire day. I think it would've been less tedious if you could make a midday save.

 

Storywise, it was great. In fact, this game blows a certain Bethesda product completely out of the water when it comes to good storytelling. Some of these quests are among the best I've seen in a video game.

 

I did manage to finish the main campaign the other night, but I guess one of the DLCs is a requirement to see the ending. I'm working on those now. With any luck, I should only need...maybe six trophies for my Hardcore playthrough. And I'm going to try to speedrun it. That's not a requirement, but I'm curious how quickly you could reach the end of the game without killing anyone.

 

Movie update! Joker was really good. I didn't see it when it first came out, but it's worthy of all the awards it was nominated for. Pretty surprising too, since I didn't think anybody would surpass Heath Ledger (or Mark Hamill) as that character. I also finally got around to seeing The Killing Joke, which...wasn't very good, considering the base material...and I'm almost done with the second season of Gotham, which is a much better show than I expected. I think my favorite character (and probably most people's) is Penguin. It's very refreshing to see this new take on the character. Same with Catwoman, Bruce Wayne, and to a lesser degree Alfred. I also applaud the writers for getting through almost two full seasons without introducing Joker (maybe). They resisted the low-hanging fruit, and I love them for that.

 

6 Underground is a terrible movie. Stop making these, Hollywood.

[Rally-Vincent---]

23 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

 

It was just annoying because the monks would pull me aside if I accidentally stepped into the garden on my way to mass or left the kitchen a minute early. And since I usually had a weapon on me, they'd kick me out of the monastery, the quest would fail, and I'd have to reload an earlier save...and repeat the entire day. I think it would've been less tedious if you could make a midday save.

 

I used to step outside and collect a saviour Schnaps from the horse to save underway. But why did you carry your weapon around? If I remember correctly, you could have stored it in a chest in the sleeping room. Wasn't there even a dagger in one in the first place?

[Cassylvania]

On 1/28/2020 at 4:25 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

I used to step outside and collect a saviour Schnaps from the horse to save underway. But why did you carry your weapon around? If I remember correctly, you could have stored it in a chest in the sleeping room. Wasn't there even a dagger in one in the first place?

 

Eh, I was mostly worried about the dagger not being there when I went to retrieve it. It seems like some of the chests reset after a certain amount of time (like the one in the alchemy room that I cleared out every day), and the guide I was using suggested that some of the NPCs might use the chests from time to time. Plus, there's not much of a difference between being caught without a weapon and being caught with a weapon and having to reload an earlier save. You're still going to have to do the day over from the beginning.

 

But I'll tell you what. I don't think I've ever been more invested in a story-based trophy than Angel of Mercy. What an amazing quest/DLC. I don't want to spoil anything, but that trial at the end had me on edge, because I was relying on Johanka to not fuck it all up for me. I don't like putting the fate of my trophies in the hands of an NPC. (Unfortunately, I am locked out of two DLC trophies, so I'll have to play through A Woman's Lot again on a separate playthrough.) But hey -- a trial with actual witnesses. The 1400s did something right. ?

 

I have some clean-up left to do, and then we can start Hardcore Mode. I think my biggest concern will be playing through the game without fast travel or a compass/map. I'm not exactly great with directions. I may end up having to use my horse, which is something I forgot I even had until a couple of days ago. I mostly just used him early on in the game to store loot, when money was hard to come by.

 

My next game will probably be The Witch and the Hundred Knight. I played for about an hour last night and...um, yeah. Not what I expected from NIS America. The graphics, sure...but not the dialogue. It's actually pretty jarring to see female anime characters dropping the F-bomb. Maybe Johanka needs to give Metallia a visit.

 

The Super Bowl should be good. People seem to be acting like the Chiefs are the heavy favorites, but they're only favored by 1 point, and I think they're forgetting that the Chiefs have been falling in early holes throughout the playoffs. I'd put much more faith in the 49ers' D than that of the Texans or Titans.

 

Sounds like Brady, Rivers, and Brees may be done (at least with their respective teams), which is going to make the 2020 season very odd. I might even be interested in the draft this year because of that. Crazy, huh?

 

Well... Guess that's all I got for now. This has been a bit of a lazy month for me, even though I feel I've put a lot of time into KCD. January always seems to be the slowest month in gaming, though. Anybody playing anything good?

[AJ_Radio]

How does Kingdom Come Delieverance run on a PS4 Slim?

[Cassylvania]

2 hours ago, Spaz said:

How does Kingdom Come Delieverance run on a PS4 Slim?

 

I'm not sure. I'm running the Royal Edition on an original PS4 and it's fine. There are some texture drops (usually related to clothing), and the load times are a bit long, but that seems to be present even in the PC version. I bought one of those PS4 stands that has built-in cooling fans, so that seems to have helped with those overheating problems I was having last year.

 

Up early because morning seems to be the only time I've had for gaming this week. I managed to kill Runt on Hardcore Mode, which is a huge accomplishment, as he's the only enemy I'm allowed to kill during the entire playthrough for Merciful (aka the stupidest trophy you could put in an open-world RPG). That means my combat skills were definitely not on par with his. He even decided to wear a helmet this time around, so you can't cheese him with a single arrow to the face. I kinda wish we had gotten a separate animation for that. Like, the intro cutscene plays out the same way, but then he looks at you, smirks, and slides the helmet over his head. Maybe even raps it with his knuckles to really rub it in.

 

If there's one thing KCD is good at, it's making you hate the villains.

 

I may end up waiting on The Witch and the Hundred Knight. (That's a dumb name, by the way. I keep wanting to call him the Hundred Year Knight, which still doesn't make sense, but at least it sounds better.) I just don't see a place for it in the community event. It's pretty rare I can't find a spot with literally zero categories filled in, but that's because the story of the game is still a mystery to me. Reviewers have been very cryptic when it comes to that. But there's no school, none of the characters seem to work for a living, you aren't collecting money or doing side quests, and nobody is overly fat or muscular (although if "Lose Your Weight" included characters who are clearly anorexic, this would be the perfect fit).

 

In fact, I'm not even sure where Hollow Knight is going to fit. Maybe money? Maybe I won't even finish it. Maybe I won't finish anything. Maybe I'll be playing KCD until I'm 80 years old. Would that make it the greatest RPG of all time?

[det_gittes]

21 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

I bought one of those PS4 stands that has built-in cooling fans, so that seems to have helped with those overheating problems I was having last year.

Never heard of it but it got me very curious - is the fan noise reduction satisfying? Can you maybe write the name of the product? The reason I haven't played Gone Days and Just Cause 4 in quite some time is that whenever I play these games, my PS4 Pro goes crazy, the noise is on and off but it really takes away from the gaming experience and if these cooling fans are a solution, I will happily order them right away (they are also quite cheap, around 12 dollars here in Poland). Funnily enough, Red Dead Redemption 2 is largely unaffected by these temperature spikes, so with a bit more free time in February that's one game that I've been playing recently. 

[Cassylvania]

7 hours ago, det_gittes said:

Never heard of it but it got me very curious - is the fan noise reduction satisfying? Can you maybe write the name of the product? The reason I haven't played Gone Days and Just Cause 4 in quite some time is that whenever I play these games, my PS4 Pro goes crazy, the noise is on and off but it really takes away from the gaming experience and if these cooling fans are a solution, I will happily order them right away (they are also quite cheap, around 12 dollars here in Poland). Funnily enough, Red Dead Redemption 2 is largely unaffected by these temperature spikes, so with a bit more free time in February that's one game that I've been playing recently. 

 

I think I bought the PECHAM model. It's a vertical stand with three USB ports and two controller charging docks. There's a button in the front that you can press to turn on the cooling fans, but you can basically keep it on all the time because it powers on and off with the PS4.

 

I wouldn't say it makes the PS4 quieter, though. If anything, it might be louder, because you have more fans blowing. But my PS4 is no longer shutting itself off due to overheating. My solution to the noise problem was shoving the PS4 in my bedroom closet and keeping the door shut. There's a small hole in the wall that lets me connect everything to the TV, so it's nice and tidy.  The only problem is I have the stand sitting on the floor, so I have to bend down to put in games or charge controllers, but that's a price I'm willing to pay for silence.

 

If I had a walk-in closet, I'd totally put all of my gaming consoles in there.

 

Anyway, Indivisible is going to be my next game. I really like the art style and I need to play something that isn't like running my face across a cheese grater.

[Rally-Vincent---]

I have a plain old regular PS4 and never had trouble with KCD.

[Dauersack]

14 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Up early because morning seems to be the only time I've had for gaming this week. I managed to kill Runt on Hardcore Mode, which is a huge accomplishment, as he's the only enemy I'm allowed to kill during the entire playthrough for Merciful (aka the stupidest trophy you could put in an open-world RPG). That means my combat skills were definitely not on par with his.

A word of warning from someone who was stupid enough to try, and ultimately succeed, with what you are about to do, namely (because I didn't like the game) combining the merciful and the hardcore run with all negative perks into a single playthrough. The game does not want you to do that, the balancing of later encounters is not made with that in mind on hardcore. These bigger fights are balanced in a way that your comrades will die quickly and not do all that much damage on hardcore, so without your help they will not have too much of an impact, needing you to do most of the work. Now the games definition of when you did a kill is pretty arbitrary at times, sometimes you can kill with poison or bleeding without it counting, sometimes not so you have to check the statistics often, but in practice it is quite risky to rely on that as I have seen several cases online when that still lead to people not getting the merciful trophy.

 

So in order to win the battles you have to be really aggressive with the enemy while your comrades are still alive, you need a fitting weapon and need to get them as close to death as you can, as quickly as possible so your comrades can deliver the killing blows before they all die. This is hard for various reason, enemies like to block and counter an awful lot on hardcore and your comrades are shit, you are on such a tight time window that you need to weaken an enemy and then have to do the next one quickly while the other guy might still be alive, you have to be careful not to mix them up, and you have no indicator to distinguish between them or know exactly where their health is at. Thats a lot of reloading for the later fights.

 

You already went through the big Runt battle, but that is the easiest one in that regard because you could weaken the enemies before the fight and the numbers balance is in your favor. You will not like how some the other battles go believe me.

[Cassylvania]

5 hours ago, Nighcisama said:

A word of warning from someone who was stupid enough to try, and ultimately succeed, with what you are about to do, namely (because I didn't like the game) combining the merciful and the hardcore run with all negative perks into a single playthrough. The game does not want you to do that, the balancing of later encounters is not made with that in mind on hardcore. These bigger fights are balanced in a way that your comrades will die quickly and not do all that much damage on hardcore, so without your help they will not have too much of an impact, needing you to do most of the work. Now the games definition of when you did a kill is pretty arbitrary at times, sometimes you can kill with poison or bleeding without it counting, sometimes not so you have to check the statistics often, but in practice it is quite risky to rely on that as I have seen several cases online when that still lead to people not getting the merciful trophy.

 

So in order to win the battles you have to be really aggressive with the enemy while your comrades are still alive, you need a fitting weapon and need to get them as close to death as you can, as quickly as possible so your comrades can deliver the killing blows before they all die. This is hard for various reason, enemies like to block and counter an awful lot on hardcore and your comrades are shit, you are on such a tight time window that you need to weaken an enemy and then have to do the next one quickly while the other guy might still be alive, you have to be careful not to mix them up, and you have no indicator to distinguish between them or know exactly where their health is at. Thats a lot of reloading for the later fights.

 

You already went through the big Runt battle, but that is the easiest one in that regard because you could weaken the enemies before the fight and the numbers balance is in your favor. You will not like how some the other battles go believe me.

 

Thanks for the warning. I'll be looking for cheese in every battle. For Runt's army, my strategy was to light the hay on fire and then run to the tent immediately below where the archers are standing. The smoke from the fire causes them to run down the stairs, and then all they go for me...but they won't attack as long as my shield is up and I move to the back of the tent. I don't know why. It probably has something to do with their pathing. But anyway, they'll just stand there and let the guards wail on them. Other than that, I only needed to clinch a couple of enemies to keep the numbers in my favor. I was getting to Runt pretty consistently with that strategy. (I did burn all of the arrows beforehand, though.)

 

I couldn't beat Ulrich (you can actually force him to push you onto the tree behind him with a clinch and then safely pepper him with arrows, but I didn't have a good bow), so I decided to see if I could skip that objective altogether by running straight to the bandit hideout. That does work, but I couldn't get by the bandit there. Or rather, the real enemy: the infinite loading screen that happens as soon as he goes down. I don't know if it's because I skipped part of the quest or because I cheesed the fight (yeah, there is a table there you can jump on ?), but I eventually used a Bard Potion to convince him not to fight me. That bypassed the loading screen.

 

I'll have to think how to handle the later battles. It's ridiculously stupid that this trophy exists. Worst case scenario: I rush through the game a third time to get Merciful. I know exactly what to do now, so I could probably knock it off in a single afternoon.

 

If I could lower the difficulty, I probably would just to get the platinum, and then I could worry about Hardcore Mode later on this year (like I probably will for the other DLC trophies I couldn't get)... But I'll press on for now. Henry demands it.

 

Did you really not like the game? That's unfortunate. I have a lot of good things to say, but these trophies are starting to change my mind. I'm honestly not sure I've seen a trophy more poorly implemented than Merciful.

[Dauersack]

46 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

 

Thanks for the warning. I'll be looking for cheese in every battle. For Runt's army, my strategy was to light the hay on fire and then run to the tent immediately below where the archers are standing. The smoke from the fire causes them to run down the stairs, and then all they go for me...but they won't attack as long as my shield is up and I move to the back of the tent. I don't know why. It probably has something to do with their pathing. But anyway, they'll just stand there and let the guards wail on them. Other than that, I only needed to clinch a couple of enemies to keep the numbers in my favor. I was getting to Runt pretty consistently with that strategy. (I did burn all of the arrows beforehand, though.)

Thats an interesting strat, not absolutely necessary to do because you can tank a lot of the enemy attacks due to them being mostly low level and equip but still funny to think about. Yeah Runt is actually not easy on hardcore even when being quite overequipped, his equip is high quality and he blocks and parades the vast majority of attacks, also is tanky as hell and has that annoying plate helmet, definitely not comparable to the guy you could oneshot in normal.

 

46 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

I couldn't beat Ulrich (you can actually force him to push you onto the tree behind him with a clinch and then safely pepper him with arrows, but I didn't have a good bow), so I decided to see if I could skip that objective altogether by running straight to the bandit hideout. That does work, but I couldn't get by the bandit there. Or rather, the real enemy: the infinite loading screen that happens as soon as he goes down. I don't know if it's because I skipped part of the quest or because I cheesed the fight (yeah, there is a table there you can jump on ), but I eventually used a Bard Potion to convince him not to fight me. That bypassed the loading screen.

There are plenty of ways to avoid fighting Ulrich or skip most of him alltogether if you already know where the mine is, but if you have to fight him going all horse archer on him is a pretty good strategy. The bandits near the mine are a pain though I agree, it is possible to run past all of them but not easy due to the corridors being so tight. If you decide to do another quick playthrough and you remember where the locations are you can bypass a lot of stuff and save time, sometimes Henry even comments on that.

 

46 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

I'll have to think how to handle the later battles. It's ridiculously stupid that this trophy exists. Worst case scenario: I rush through the game a third time to get Merciful. I know exactly what to do now, so I could probably knock it off in a single afternoon.

The trophy is indeed stupid as hell, and it obviously was not meant to be done on hardcore. It took me a few hours combined to get through all the battles, especially the last one must have taken me about 2 hours of trial and error alone. You are at the mercy of rng and your ai performing reasonably well, if they mess up early they will be dead in minutes and you will be alone against a horde of strong enemies you are not allowed to directly kill. You definitely want to max all combat stats and get the best possible equip for the last 2 battles, anything less will make it damn near impossible on hardcore. Gotta say I feel confident saying that blitzing through the game a third time might take a bit longer, but is a hell of a lot less frustrating than playing the game in the horribly unnatural ways required to get through the last battles on hardcore without killing anyone.

 

46 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

If I could lower the difficulty, I probably would just to get the platinum, and then I could worry about Hardcore Mode later on this year (like I probably will for the other DLC trophies I couldn't get)... But I'll press on for now. Henry demands it.

Got the dlcs on sale, but only have finished From The Ashes, Hardcore and the tournament so far. Couldn't yet motivate myself to go through the others because the games dlcs kinda suck, they are low effort and pretty short for their asking price, even fanboys of this game don't deny that.

46 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

Did you really not like the game? That's unfortunate. I have a lot of good things to say, but these trophies are starting to change my mind. I'm honestly not sure I've seen a trophy more poorly implemented than Merciful.

I really disliked the game, but a considerable part of that strong dislike was due to bugs. I bought that game day 1 and it was basically unplayable, I put it on the shelf and returned to it months later because I wanted to give the company another chance. Game still was horrible performance wise, bugs were still there plenty, horrible clip in, and even if it worked it was somewhat underwhelming, with the combat system being way too reliant on Master Strikes to the point that the game actively punishes you for attacking high level enemies instead of just turtling and master striking them to death. Even today there are still some day 1 bugs in, and when I did the tournament a few weeks ago I had someone watch and he was shell shocked because whenever I was riding the fast horse into a settlement all the buildings and bodies would partially disappear and take up to a minute to fully load in.

Devs obviously were in way over their heads, but I guess if you like the story and the defense rewarding combat is your thing, then it can be a decent experience. I would not tolerate anyone praising the side quests of this game though, because oh boy was that some boring shit, and don't get me started on some of the main quests like the Monastery. Trophies are a pain in the ass indeed, when I was going for the plat the King Charming trophy was somewhat broken, as you could not improve the reputation with Merhojed nearly enough to reach the required value and had to bypass that with some of the most tedious shit imaginable. Given the rarity of that trophy it probably is still fucked even today.

 

Well I have played worse games since then, one nasty game especially, but let's just say Kingdom Come does not have a place on my top list. It is not horrible when it works and you do not try to combine too many trophies into one playthrough, but I wouldn't call it exciting either.

Edited February 7, 2020 by Nighcisama

[det_gittes]

14 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

I wouldn't say it makes the PS4 quieter, though. If anything, it might be louder, because you have more fans blowing. But my PS4 is no longer shutting itself off due to overheating.

I got excited initially but now I see that these fans are not a solution for me because in my case I never had any problem with the perfomance of the console (no freezing or shutting itself off), the only problem is the noise of the fans. Well, I guess I'll have to put up with the noise after all. I wonder if PS5 will handle its noise significantly better.