The Endless Backlog and Trophy Checklist of Arctic Cress

[Arctic Cress]

This isn't a rhythm game, but I still completed it over the month.

 

#107 XBlaze Lost: Memories

Earlier this year I completed XBlaze Code: Embryo for my 95th platinum and wondered why the game existed when the connection with BlazBlue was so pointless. This kind of fixed that as some of the characters from the series are actually a major part of this story. However, it's annoying that 80% of this game is either a really bad dungeon crawler or a retelling of the first game from a different perspective, which makes no sense whatsoever. It does gives a nice epilogue to this mini-series and connects it back to the series it spawned from, which is a nice surprise. Though I felt that the first 80% was so bad I might have just considered it the worst game I played this year, but the ending really helped in that regard, so it's not that bad of a game, it just takes a little too long to get to the important parts.

 

Small updates to a few games. Still trucking along on the rhythm game front, but I've also made progress in some other games as well, mainly to help with the TT challenges.

 

Fill-A-Pix: Phil's Epic Adventure (+1, 21/30)

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2 Sisters Generation (+4, 16/41)

Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (+6, 17/42)

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (+7, 17/59)

[Arctic Cress]

Not going to stop. Here's the 4th rhythm game platinum for the month.

 

#108 Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight

Looks like they just took the Japanese platinum and didn't change it for the NA/EU release. Well, whatever.

Most of the changes from Persona 4's rhythm game are very welcome here: the social events are much better than the story mode in P4's game, and there's no need to grind credits as all unlocks come from that mode. I also like the card hunts, though I got stuck on Ken's last one. Did not expect a card there. Still, like its predecessor, the number of tracks is way too low and there's too many remixes (good ones, but that just adds to the number of repeats). When this game can pull tracks from Persona 3, FES, P3P, P4 Arena, P4 Arena Ultimax, and Persona Q, there's really no need to have that many repeat tracks in the game. And if that's a problem here, it's definitely a problem in the Persona 5 game since that can pull tracks from... Persona 5, and that's it.

 

Anyway, I played some of the Persona 5 rhythm game, as well as beating Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon and getting a bit into Iconoclasts since it's free on PS+. Fun stuff so far.

 

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (New, +9, 9/15)

Iconoclasts (New, +2, 2/11)

Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight (New, +6, 6/42)

[Arctic Cress]

One last platinum for 2018.

 

#109 Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight

Basically, the same things I said for the Persona 3 platinum apply here, the trophy lists are exact copies of each other. And the fact that this game could only pull tracks from one game means the amount of remixes increased, and sadly these remixes are not as good as the original songs they are based on, though that shows why Persona 5's OST is one of the best of this console generation. Good thing a lot of the original tracks are still in as well.

 

Also finished Doodle God. It's an ok little matching game. Nothing special, but it really doesn't have to be. Also I keep spelling it Doddle God for some reason.

 

Doodle God (+11, 11/11)

 

I finished the TrueTrophies challenge as well, though I did have to start a few new games to finally complete it. It's not a big deal, but I have a lot to work on with my completion % for 2019.

 

Arcade Archives: Magmax (New, +7, 7/9)

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (+1, 8/59)

Rogue Legacy (+1, 13/30)

Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition (New, +6, 6/49)

Word Search by POWGI [PS4] (New, +10, 10/34)

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (+5, 22/59)

[Arctic Cress]

Another fantastic visual novel starts off the platinum hunting in 2019.

 

#110 428: Shibuya Scramble

Well, that image won't make sense even if you've played the game and gotten the true ending, you have to go even further than that.

Anyway, the game is mostly spoiler territory, so I'll keep this short. It starts off with a rookie police detective assigned to a kidnapping / ransom case, but eventually becomes a lot more than that with a former gang leader, a journalist, a laboratory head and a girl trapped in a cat suit joining the detective as main characters. All of them are heading through Shibuya, and your task is to make sure they all stay alive and on track towards the end of the game. Easily this is one of the best VNs I've read and the localization is fantastic as well. Definitely a great pick up for any VN fans, shame that it isn't on the Vita (but you can always remote play it!)

 

I also beat Yakuza Kiwami 2. I was going to do the Majima Saga as well, but I learned it was connected to Yakuza 0 (which I haven't played) so I'm going to hold off on that for the moment until I get to Yakuza 0.

 

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (+9, 31/59)

[Arctic Cress]

It's been a while. Let's do a DOUBLE UPDATE.

 

#111 Fill-A-Pix: Phil's Epic Adventure

Fill-A-Pix has you recreate black and white pictures from various locales such as France, Italy, and Japan by using a grid. Each number in the grid corresponds to how many tiles the 3x3 square around it (including itself) should be colored in. Basically, after filling in all the 9s (as well as the 6s on the side and 4s in the corner) and crossing out all the 0s, there should be a few moves to get the puzzle solved. Some of the pictures can take a long time though - I once spent over two hours trying to solve one. I decided that I would get the miscellaneous trophies out of the way early and then just play the way I wanted, which was much more fun overall. Definitely a fun little puzzler and good to just pick up and play once in a while, which I have been doing for the last few months.

 

#112 One Word by POWGI

I've played several POWGI games but this one is clearly not worth the price. You solve for various famous quotes using a word search that has only the one word in it. So if you're looking for the word SAVE, a word search would only have the letters S, A, V and E and there would be only one instance of SAVE that you need to find. There's 120 quotes with multiple words to find in each, and while I did every single one the platinum only requires 32. It's the very definition of a one-hour platinum, and not worth the purchase price of $8. The quality of this game is also why I haven't bought the latest POWGI game either.

 

Lots of updates, since we're going back a full month. No 100% completions, but one game is extremely close to it now. Lots of new games, though completion has still been higher than it was at the start of the year.

 

The Caligula Effect (New, +4, 4/46)

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (+3, 11/59)

THE iDOLM@STER MUST SONGS (+17, 34/40)

Jump Force (New, +16, 16/50)

Pic-A-Pix Pieces (New, +20, 20/25)

Reverie (New, +26, 26/35)

Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition (+1, 7/49)

Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session! (+1, 28/43)
Tetris Effect (New, +15, 15/43)

Valkyria Chronicles 4 (+3, 5/36)

Wake-Up Club (+1, 11/12)

Word Search by POWGI [PS4]  (+15, 25/34)

[Arctic Cress]

Time for another DOUBLE UPDATE!

 

#113 Reverie

Reverie is a game that crosses a story based on a New Zealand legend, the combat and dungeon style of the GBC Zelda titles, and the art style of EarthBound, and makes it work very well. You play as Tai, a young boy who is on vacation on Toromi Island, a small fictional island in New Zealand. A number of restless spirits threaten to destroy the island, and your job is to quell the spirits and save its inhabitants. The game features five dungeons (and one bonus dungeon, but it's all combat) with some interesting puzzles, especially in the final dungeon. Some of the puzzles in the final dungeon are definitely on par with some of the hard ones in Oracle of Ages, which is a nice surprise to its difficulty (sadly, the other four dungeons don't have much in the way of interesting puzzles). Though with only the five dungeons available, it's over in quite a flash and there's not too much of a world map to explore - the world map hides its collectibles well, but there's not many places for them to be with the game's size. I still enjoyed my time with it and am now looking forward to the remake of Link's Awakening that was announced recently.

 

#114 Pic-A-Pix Pieces

It's an expanded version of the other Picross game I played on the Vita last year, called Pic-a-Pix Color. This one has you completing multiple puzzles (6, 12 or 24) to create a single picture. Still a lot of fun, like most Picross games, but I have the same problem as I do with Pic-a-Pix Color - the colors added to the puzzle make it far too easy compared to a regular picross puzzle. However, the amount of content in this one is massive and will keep you entertained for a while - at least 30 hours of picross solving and is definitely worth the $8 price tag.

 

Of course, since it's only been a day since I popped the last two platinum trophies there's obviously nothing else earned trophy-wise besides finishing the two games above. That will probably change by the time I get my next platinum!

[Arctic Cress]

Time to finish off another one of Lightwood Games' titles (though another one just popped up on PSNProfiles' scan, so I'll have another to go through)

 

#115 Word Search by POWGI [PS4]

Played the Vita version earlier in 2018, and then started this for the TrueTrophies Twelve Days of Christmas 2018 challenge because I needed a few trophies that were exactly 12 characters long and this game had a good five of them, so it was a good boost. I actually miss the silly puns this game has - the other POWGI games are much more boring without them.

 

No other trophies. Guess I was wrong on my prediction above, oh well! I'll try to collect some more trophies next update.

[Arctic Cress]

It's been over a month! But I finished one I've been working on a good deal for a while now.

 

#116 Jump Force

I enjoyed my time with this game, though I can say honestly that it has serious flaws and I would not recommend it to others. It's clear that they put the graphics first and foremost (and everything does look really very good), and skimped on everything else - boring storyline, easily exploitable AI, online lobby system that make little sense, and very basic gameplay overall. I never actually learned how to guard an attack, and I still managed to clear the entire game. Though it was nice to get the Defying Limits missions at the time so I could easily grind up the needed gold for the King of Coin trophy. Apparently they weren't in the game closer to release.

 

Several games have added new DLC since the last update. Not Gems of War this time, but The Amnesia Collection, Final Fantasy XV, and DJMAX Respect all added a number of new trophies to their lists, lowering my completion significantly. I've started a lot more games as well, some for Kill Your Completion and others for the current LinkFrog TrueTrophies event which I completed with a chain of 54. Also appearing are many games I have long since abandoned, from all three systems, some of which have never had an update in this topic at all. Here's the very long list.

 

Arcade Game Series: Dig Dug (New, +9, 9/21)

Broken Age (+2, 4/45)

Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Venus (+2, 19/50)

Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten (+1, 7/51)

Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers (+2, 13/44)

Fill-a-Pix: Phil's Epic Adventure [PS4] (New, +12, 12/30)

Final Fantasy XIII-2 (+1, 6/32)

Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds (New, +2, 2/36)

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2: Sisters' Generation (+2, 18/41)

Iron Sea Defenders (+1, 9/12)

Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds (+12, 35/37)

Plague Inc: Evolved (New, +2, 2/55)

Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal (New, +31, 31/51)

Sly 2: Band of Thieves (+1, 12/36)

Steins;Gate [PS3] (+12, 18/42)

Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord (+1, 24/57)

Tetris Effect (+2, 17/43)

Valkyria Chronicles 4 (+3, 8/36)

Yakuza 0 (New, +14, 14/55)

 

I don't even remember what has happened in Disgaea 4 anymore. Jump Force was +34 by itself, so yeah, a lot of trophies being thrown around. Lots of choices for new platinum trophies!

Edited March 31, 2019 by Arctic Cress

[Arctic Cress]

Time for one of the worst PS+ games I've played.

 

#117 Conan Exiles

Look, I tried. This game is a buggy piece of trash on the PS4. I can barely read any of the text, and had to get up off the couch and sit in front of the TV to read everything. Trying to climb up on the foundation to crush my friend took many tries. Getting the blacksmith on the wheel of pain simply didn't work for a few minutes. And then the guide to get the last trophy on the mountain peaks led me inside a rock.

 

Literally inside a rock. I eventually used a different peak to pop the last trophy. Either use the exploit or don't play this game at all. You'll just be frustrating yourself unnecessarily.

 

On the 100% game side of things, I got 100% in another one of the Doodle trio, Doodle Devil.

 

Doodle Devil (New, +13, 13/13)

 

Basically if you remember Doodle God a lot of the same combinations work, and then just make it a little more on the evil side for the devil. Not really worth it overall.

 

Trophy updates come in fives. Take a look.

 

Arcade Game Series: Dig Dug (+5, 14/21)

Fill-a-Pix: Phil's Epic Adventure [PS4] (+5, 17/30)

Plague Inc: Evolved (+5, 8/55)

Steins;Gate [PS3] (+5, 25/42)

 

Yep. See you next platinum!

[Arctic Cress]

I got Steins;Gate Elite recently, but I needed a good refresher course on the story before delving into Linear Bound Phenogram. Could have played Elite itself, but there was already a gate on my trophy list.

 

#118 Steins;Gate [PS3]

It is still my favorite visual novel. Nothing much has changed. I waited a bit to pop it for the 8,000th trophy milestone, so it's tied to my profile now ?

 

The biggest completion wasn't a platinum but rather a 100% in Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds! A lot of grinding at the end to level 99, but I managed to get all the way there - and unlock Nightmare+ difficulty in the end. The guide here, besides the Demonsphere map, is not very useful and encourages you to put skill points in the wrong areas. I found it was much easier to use the dash attack than the throwing method it recommends. Results may vary, of course. I also completed Iron Sea Defenders but it's another 8floor tower defense so who really cares at this point. There's only one more of those left anyway, thankfully.
 

Iron Sea Defenders (+3, 12/12)

Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds (+2, 37/37)

 

Lots of trophies in the past few weeks. After Conan, I've started to work on many different games for the Trophies for Trophy Hunting event, which explains the amount of games below. Also started a 4-man co-op run of Borderlands, which explains the odd unlocking sequence and why I haven't gotten the Rakk trophy yet in that.

 

Arcade Game Series: Dig Dug (+3, 17/21)

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland DX (New, +1, 1/54)

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition (New, +30, 30/81)

Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Venus (+1, 20/50)
DJMAX Respect (+5, 54/90)

Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds (+4, 6/36)

Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational [PS3] (+2, 15/38)

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2: Sisters' Generation (+1, 19/41)

Royal Defense: Invisible Threat (+1, 7/12)

Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal (+8, 39/51)

Sly 2: Band of Thieves (+1, 13/36)

Yakuza 0 (+5, 19/55)

 

Might just finish Senran Kagura for the next platinum. It's easy enough to get through.

Edited April 28, 2019 by Arctic Cress

[Arctic Cress]

And so, I did that.

 

#119 Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal

Having played the original 3DS version of this game (which is a 2D sidescroller instead of the 3D game this is), I felt it was a decent remake. However, there's a lot less side missions compared to the original game, which is disappointing overall. Also, I felt the battles in each school's mission 5-8 were made slightly easier - I could not do the battle on Hanzo's side in the 3DS version and never got that far. I did find the powered up enemies found on various stages to be a good challenge too, even the first one - the pst.org guide said to skip it and come back later, but it was easy enough to beat on my first run through.

 

I went right to this after finishing Steins;Gate, so there are no other trophies. Back to finding another game to finish!

[Arctic Cress]

Started this on my vacation because I wanted something else to play, and it didn't take long to finish.

 

#120 Pic-a-Pix Classic

Instead of the other games in the series (Color and Deluxe), there's no gimmicks here and just 150 basic picross puzzles ranging from 5x5 to 30x20. It was on sale for $4 on PSN so I decided to pick it up. Not much else to say about it!

 

I haven't played a variety of games like usual, and instead focused on a small amount of games during the month, including the game above. Also, no other games started besides the one above.

 

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition (+18, 48/81)

DJMAX Respect (+2, 56/90)

Fill-a-Pix: Phil's Epic Adventure [PS4] (+3, 20/30)

Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds (+12, 18/36)

 

One of these will be my next platinum, depending on when my four player co-op run group in Borderlands gets together again. It'll be Hakuoki if that doesn't happen soon.

[Arctic Cress]

This was started for some easy trophies during TrueTrophies' Link Frog challenge, and ended up being an interesting visual novel overall.

 

#121 Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds

I love historical-based games and this game was definitely a treat to play through. Ignoring the fact that it's only half of a game and I need to play Edo Blossoms as well to get the full story, this game blends the historical significance of the Shinsengumi at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate with a supernatural element that gets explained as the game progresses. While the first few routes were rather underwhelming overall, the latter routes, mainly Kazama's route and the new routes added in Kyoto Winds, are very interesting and has the protagonist take more of a stand for herself than the other routes. While I'm not going to start Edo Blossoms for part 2 right now, I'm definitely looking forward to it when I do get there.

 

Not much else to update. A few Dragon Quest trophies and an Atelier one.

 

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland DX (+1, 2/54)
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (+2, 13/59)

[Arctic Cress]

This will probably be the last POWGI game I pick up.

 

#122 Mixups by POWGI

I thought One Word was the worst POWGI game due to how braindead easy it was, but this one is probably even worse than that. I find that a lot of the words in each category do not match the subject matter, there's a misspelling on one of the later puzzles, and the hints don't help as much as it could. For one example, I know nothing about cheeses and even putting the letters into a word unscrambler gave me nothing in the end. As such, this is the first POWGI game I did not complete 100%, and will probably refrain from buying any of them later on. (I know there's a new one coming out soon?)

 

I had more fun with all of the other games I've played since the last platinum, which is a good number of games as I continue to bring my completion % up.

 

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland DX (+3, 5/54)

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (+3, 16/59)

Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers (+2, 15/44)

MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death (+1, 7/37)

Plague Inc: Evolved (+4, 12/55)

Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session! (+2, 30/43)

Trackmania Turbo (+1, 19/49)

 

Definitely making more progress in Dragon Quest XI, finally. Also got past that roadblock boss in MeiQ so I can continue that game.

[Arctic Cress]

Another cross-buy title finished on both systems.

 

#123 Cosmic Star Heroine [PS4]

Started this for the Trophy Hunters League at some point when I needed a few quick trophies, and it's short enough to still be enjoyable on a replay. Since I mainly used Dave and Lauren in my first time through, I decided to sit them for most of the game and use other characters. It was unexpected to see so many trophy glitches, forcing me to kill several bonus bosses and the final boss multiple times before their trophies would actually pop. Pretty rare that the Vita version has less glitches than the PS4 version, but I guess that extra year of development helped.

 

Been working on several games for the Trophies for Trophy Hunting event (and I just noticed most of them are games I have already played before just like the above one. Oops)

 

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland DX (+2, 7/54)

Fill-a-Pix: Phil's Epic Adventure [PS4] (+1, 21/30)

Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational [PS3] (+2, 17/38)

Saints Row: The Third (+3, 9/81)

[Arctic Cress]

One of the games I started for TrueTrophies' Birthday Challenge finally gets finished.

 

#124 Shenmue HD

What a boring platinum image.

Anyway, Shenmue is truly a product of its time. While a revolutionary game when it first was released (as I've been told, since I never owned a Dreamcast), several games by now have already improved on what it first introduced. And now, the clunky controls, laughable voice acting, and inability to progress time quickly to trigger events is a pretty large annoyance when playing. It still was an overall enjoyable experience for me, as the story and characters kept me going until the end. I also liked the battle system a bit as more moves unlocked, but some of the combos were very difficult to pull off.

 

I've already decided on my 125th platinum as well, and it will be Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age. I've been very interested in the story since Act II started and have been playing it almost non-stop since getting there. I did, of course, take a break for this platinum as I felt it was an easy one to complete and was a game I definitely wanted to finish, with Shenmue III coming out later this year.

 

Even with Dragon Quest XI taking up most of my time, I still collected many trophies in other games for various community events, as usual. I wonder if I'll ever finish DJMAX Respect at this rate...

 

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition (+12, 60/81)

Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Venus (+3, 23/50)

DJMAX Respect (+2, 58/90)

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (+16, 32/59)

Fill-a-Pix: Phil's Epic Adventure (+4, 25/30)

Guacamelee! (+1, 40/61)

Rocket League (+1, 72/88)

Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition (+1, 8/49)

 

Root Double's full title always makes me laugh. It's so ridiculous.

Edited June 30, 2019 by Arctic Cress

[StingX2]

How did you play the Shenmue arti? Step by step guide I'm guessing? If so was it still fun that way?

[Arctic Cress]

1 hour ago, StingX2 said:

How did you play the Shenmue arti? Step by step guide I'm guessing? If so was it still fun that way?

I tried mostly to do it on my own, except for getting the trophy requirements. The game is pretty good at giving you the way to go most of the time from just talking to the right NPC at the right time (the only problem is finding the one that will do it) and the notebook is a good way to catch up on what you did in prior days. I did end up wasting a lot of time searching early in Act I and because of this, I did not finish the game in the minimum amount of in-game time and it was already past Christmas by the time I finished. (I believe you can finish a week before Christmas if you don't waste any time? Not sure on the exact date.)

 

I only used a guide if I was completely stumped on a puzzle or where to go. I did use a map at some points for Dobuita - none of the other towns were that difficult to navigate and the harbor was easy to find my way around by just looking at the street signs.

[Arctic Cress]

One of the games from KYC 8 gets finished, and as it turns out, it's one of my favorites on the system and a good choice for a milestone.

 

#125 Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

An amazing JRPG, and one of the best in its series (though I still think V is a better game). Having the forge and balancing the game to actually make a Dragon Quest game that doesn't require grinding for equipment or EXP is new to me, as the last few games I played (VI and IX) both required too much for my tastes. I will admit that the story did take me a while to get hooked, but when Act II started I was locked in for the long haul. I knew when the story opened up like that it was a great choice for my 125th milestone platinum. Clocked in at just around eighty hours, which seems about right. It'll be cool to play as the Luminary in Smash as well.

 

What's next? Who knows! Hopefully one of the games I play in KYC 10 grab me so I can keep playing one of those.

 

Since I played Shenmue HD to get #125 set up, there's not too many other trophies earned, but I have a few.

 

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland DX (+2, 9/54)

Fill-a-Pix: Phil's Epic Adventure [PS4] (+2, 27/30)

Mary Skelter: Nightmares (New, +10, 10/34)

 

Borderlands and Fill-a-Pix will definitely be finished soon, but I'm still at a loss on what to get the platinum in after those. Should be fun getting to the end of a game and finding out, though!

[Arctic Cress]

Here's a KYC 9 completion to continue the month. Noted it back in my last post as one game that was approaching the end, and it didn't take too long.

 

#126 Fill-a-Pix: Phil's Epic Adventure [PS4]

I have nothing else to say besides the fact that the PS4 version is definitely the better version for giving you a more expanded viewpoint on the puzzle, which on average made me take less time on each puzzle than I did on the Vita version. Seems like an odd design choice, as when you remote play the title on the Vita, the puzzle is still easily readable from that view. Still an enjoyable game with plenty of puzzles to keep one busy for around twenty-five hours.

 

KYC 10 started, so my completion rate has taken a hit thanks to Mary Skelter: Nightmares (in the previous update), Nurse Love Addiction, and Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll. Apex Legends also snuck in there as well with a few trophies.

Apex Legends (New, +3, 3/12)

Guacamelee! (+2, 42/61)

Nurse Love Addiction (New, +13, 13/25)

Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll (New, +2, 2/42)

 

Guacamelee! is a streak extender at this point. I won't be playing that any more, just logged in a few trophies for now from the DLC packs. As for the others, after finishing a true route in Nurse Love Addiction I'm focused on finishing that by the end of the month, and Apex will be played on occasion. Not too fond of Trinity though, but it seems like an easy completion overall once I get the hang of the combat (and camera issues).

[Arctic Cress]

The first KYC 10 completion comes during the event itself.

 

#127 Nurse Love Addiction

I expected this to be some yuri slice-of-life visual novel that I was just playing as a funny joke for KYC 10. For about the first four hours, it does play as if it was the above, but then the game takes a dramatic genre shift. It's similar to what happens in Hatoful Boyfriend, which also got a similar rating from me over at vndb. Though I started with the normal ending as I stated in KYC 10 (and got no answers to the mystery there), I really enjoyed getting all of the endings and uncovering different parts of the storyline, even if some of the bad endings got very disturbing extremely fast, depending on basically what amounts to a single choice in the end. There's one route that does not have any connection to the others though and is understandably weaker, but overall the game surprised me and I'm interested to see if the other game in the series is similar.

 

A few new games started, as expected.

 

Fate/Extella Link (New, +13, 13/44)

The Silver Case HD (New, +6, 6/26)

 

Both are exciting titles that I'm interested in continuing to play after the month ends.

[Arctic Cress]

A four player co-op run all the way to the end, a few DLC runs and about ten hours of grinding up levels gets me my next platinum.

 

#128 Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition

Looking at my list you'll see very little in the way of WRPGs - too many of them are shooters (like this one) and I am completely terrible at anything resembling a FPS - though with the second wind mechanic in Borderlands this is less of an issue, I think. Also, playing with four people made the game much more enjoyable than if I played it by myself - however the breakneck speed means I missed out on some story bits. Not that it matters, the story of Borderlands 1 is very simple. Nothing really special for the platinum, just need to make a character of each class to use their class skill, play and beat a boss with friends, and hit level 50 in addition to obviously beating the game. I opted for the siren for the co-op run, and we ended up with two soldiers and a berserker in addition to myself. Too bad for the hunter, huh?

 

The last post was almost a full month ago, so there's a lot of trophy updates. First off, I got 100% in two Vita titles that have been on my list for quite some time.

 

Deemo: The Last Recital (+2, 19/19)

Wake-Up Club (+1, 12/12)

 

For Deemo, the only thing needed was a few co-op trophies. Fortunately, you don't need to pass the song in the duet mode, so you can just let it run and do nothing. Duel mode is similar in its action, but takes longer as you need to win more duels. Wake-Up Club had four alarms needed for the last trophies (obviously, I didn't know that and was prepared to do a large amount) and it was nice to finally get it out of the way.

 

The rest of the list includes the end of KYC 10, as well as the beginning of TrueTrophies' Score Challenge, of which I am in both the team and individual challenges. This Borderlands platinum will obviously help towards that, but I've been pushing through a lot of other games, like the ones below:

 

Apex Legends (+1, 4/12)

Ar nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star (New, +4, 4/26)

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland DX (+1, 10/54)

DJMAX Respect (+3, 61/93)

Fate/Extella Link (+13, 26/44)

Gems of War (+2, 57/65)

Judgment (New, +1, 1/47)

Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix HD (New, +1, 1/56)

Mary Skelter: Nightmares (+3, 13/34)

Plague Inc: Evolved (+1, 13/55)

Resident Evil (New, +3, 3/45)
Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition (+1, 9/49)

The Silver Case HD (+5, 11/26)

Tales of Xillia 2 (New, +1, 1/49)

Tetris Effect (+1, 18/43)

Yakuza 0 (+7, 26/55)

 

Pretty obvious to see what games had the most gain just looking at this. Well, onto the next platinum!

Edited August 18, 2019 by Arctic Cress
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[Arctic Cress]

Pulled a PS+ title off the download list and onto my trophy list, finishing everything in about two hours.

 

#129 Burly Men at Sea

An interesting little adventure game with a few branching paths leading out to twelve different endings. The thing unique about this game as it will constantly reference back to your previous plays through the game, so the dialogue will adapt and change as you go for all the endings. I had one bug where the button presses just stopped working, but a restart fixed it. Not a bad way to spend two hours with this title from PS+.

 

Also finished an Arcade Archives title that I surprisingly had a lot of problems with. Apparently no one else did, because no guide I read said you can access the menu and give yourself more lives to make it easier to finish. Anyway, it's done.

 

Arcade Archives: Magmax (+2, 9/9)

 

One thing I am trying to do while I rack up the points in the TrueTrophies score challenges is knock out as many common trophies on my Trophy Advisor over here to see how many trophies I can knock it down to. So far, I have 116 common trophies left in the Trophy Advisor, but I know I can get that farther down. Though, that explains why so many games keep getting updates, like below.

 

Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey (+2, 13/45)

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland DX (+2, 12/54)

Fate/Extella Link (+1, 27/44)

Final Fantasy XIII-2 (+2, 8/32)

Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition (+3, 12/49)

Sly 2: Band of Thieves (+2, 15/36)

Tetris Effect (+1, 19/43)

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (+1, 32/59)

 

But hey, I managed to at least beat Atelier Firis, finally. That counts for something, right?

[Arctic Cress]

I feel like this TrueTrophies challenge will end up putting a lot of these easy platinums and stacked ones on my list as I keep progressing through the challenge.

 

#130 One Word by POWGI [PS4]

Nothing really else to say about this.

 

The new trophies include a lot of random trophies as the new bonus involved spelling a phrase, so I went and delved into my collection to see how to spell this effectively (and then got bored and did the POWGI to finish the last four letters).

 

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland DX (+1, 13/54)

Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten (+1, 8/51)

Gems of War (+2, 59/67)

Judgment (+3, 4/47)

Plague Inc: Evolved (+1, 14/55)

The Silver Case HD (+2, 13/26)

Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord (+1, 25/57)

Yakuza 0 (+1, 27/55)

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (+3, 35/59)

 

Hopefully this long weekend will give me an idea for a platinum that takes a bit of effort

[Arctic Cress]

Well, I did not get a new platinum that took much effort, as I wanted to. The Gaming by Numbers thread concludes in less than 24 hours now, so I'm racing to finish a few things by the deadline. Including this game.

 

#131 Tacoma

If you've been looking through the downloaded games - backlog section a few times, you probably noticed this just sitting on the list for a while, for really no reason at all. I just never got to it. It's made by the same company who made Gone Home (which I also played through), and I feel that the game this time around is much more intriguing than Gone Home ever was, and it makes one actually care about the characters aboard the station as you listen in on what has happened within the past few days. My only complaint is that the game does feel too short - the full game is less than two hours long and it would be more intriguing if the game was extended a bit (no, the trophies don't extend the gameplay much at all either). As such, I recommend picking it up in a sale, as $20 is way overpriced for such a game.

 

I also finished an Arcade Archives for the Gaming by Numbers topic. I also beat the game, since it was only five stages and the final boss. There aren't any trophies for doing so but I felt like doing it anyway.

 

Arcade Archives - Sengoku (+6, 6/6)

 

Of course, with the TrueTrophies challenge still on, the random trophy updates will continue. Last week's challenge was to collect ten gaming genres, so I delved into my library to see what I could get for that, and this week's challenge is to get the same amount of trophies as your teammate. We settled on 19, which conveniently is the amount of trophies in Tacoma and Arcade Archives: Sengoku combined. Totally not planned.

 

Demon Gaze (+3, 12/41)

Gems of War (+2, 61/67)

Pic-a-Pix Color 2 (New, +14, 14/23)

Plague Inc: Evolved (+8, 22/55)

The Silver Case HD (+2, 15/26)

Yakuza 0 (+1, 28/55)

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA (+2, 6/51)

 

Demon Gaze... not sure why I stopped playing, but I'm finally continuing with that one. Same goes for Ys VIII. Pic-a-Pix Color 2 will be the next platinum as I need it for the Gaming by Numbers topic. Finally beat Plague Inc: Evolved, which is nice. The overwhelming majority of the trophy list is finding random skill combos, mostly using the Necroa Virus, so it shouldn't take much time to finish that portion (the problem will be beating every disease type on mega-brutal difficulty). For the other games, I'm just continuing to play them. Even Gems of War. It'll be complete someday, right? (nope)