Kill Your Completion - 6

[CJ_Mystery]

Thanks! This has been a great event. (watches his download of Teslagrad that nearly drained his bank account dry and cringes, hoping that the bank account doesn't overdraw and he has to explain to Mommy and Daddy why he did this AGAIN, but hey, it's cross-buy and I needed two more platinums to get to #60)

Edited March 31, 2018 by CJ_Mystery

[voodoo_eyes]

3 hours ago, CJ_Mystery said:

Oh yeah, I have played this myself and the speed-run trophy is BS. It's almost impossible to clear the required level in under 60 seconds with all the shit going on. (Pardon my language.)

 

I didn't actually find that one too difficult and got it after 3 or 4 tries. You need to reach the end with 80s left on the timer, I had 83 left and I did some minor mistakes. So it's definitely more than doable. The only annoying section for me was the final bonus area, as I had previously mentioned. Either way the game is utter garbage though.

Edited March 31, 2018 by voodoo_eyes

[Kevvik]

Okay, time to close out...

 

Game #10:  I Am Setsuna

 

Day 3 Impressions

 

Time played: 11-12 hrs

 

So I have continued through the story for a bit further.  My available party members is up to 6.  The story has continued to be fairly cookie-cutter JRPG.  The battles haven't changed drastically but coming up with new combos with the new members and new spritnites is kind of interesting, especially playing with inflicting special conditions on tough opponents/bosses.  Still, it does what it does well but nothing starkly stands out.

 

A new mechanic is fluxes.  Occasionally (3 times for me so far) you activate flux.  This results in a special ability attaching itself to your tech (decreased MP consumption, increased critical, that sort of thing) which makes it a little stronger.  You can get up to 10 flux bonuses on each spritnite.  This is kind of neat but so far not anything that has really had an impact for me yet. Still, something different but the RNG and I generally maintain a hate-hate relationship so I'm not sure how well this will pan out.

 

Overall, I'm still enjoying this but again, it's nothing special.

 

Trophies earned: 15/50, 25% for D rank

Score so far: 6/10

 

I went back to A Rose in the Twilight and played through another area and a bit and got a few more trophies as well. Still really liking that game.

 

Final Completion Rate: 77.95% (-2.55% for the event)

 

 

End event summary, favorite to least favorite

 

Amnesia Collection (8.5/10) - an incredibly atmospheric adventure/survival game that makes horror fun again like so few games these days do. Looking forward to getting back into this.

 

A Rose in the Twilight (8/10) - an interesting gothic puzzle game that has some neat mechanics and an intriguing story.  Another I will be returning to quickly.

 

The Talos Principle (7/10) - sci-fi puzzler with a start to a storyline that is calling me back

 

Rime (7/10) - a gorgeous exploration game with an interesting story.  Not for everyone but I liked it.

 

Exist Archive (7/10) - repetitive but intriguing JRPG with characters that don't seem totally familiar but not very effective in communicating how to take advantage of the depth of gameplay

 

Dragon Quest Builders (7/10) - Minecraft, DQ-style.  Really cute but still challenging and not as graphically simplistic as Minecraft.

 

I Am Setsuna (6/10) - well presented but exceedingly familiar old-school JRPG.  Homage or clone?  Not totally sure yet.

 

Catlateral Damage (6/10) - trash the house as a cat. More fun than it sounds like and able to maintain the fun through the full platinum.

 

Sundered (5/10) - 2D metroidvania hack-and-slash. Interesting idea but I'm just not feeling it.  Maybe when I go back to it.

 

Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae (3/10) - arcade hack-and-slash that plays fine but is just plain boring.  Plus, five difficulty levels to play through for the plat cuz no stacking. 5 x boring

 

 

Trophies earned: 126 (2 of a possible 10)

Trophies unearned: 200 

Completion rate change: -2.55%

 

Thanks again to our gracious host, even with his RL distractions (I can totally relate ? ) and thanks to all the other participants for their great reviews.  I've added a few to my wishlist from your recommendations and likely bumped a few down the playlist as well.  Three cheers to everyone ???  and here's hoping your completion rate recovers in time for the next event.

Edited April 1, 2018 by Kevvik

[MarkusT1992]

Bonus Game: Far Cry Primal

 

 

It took some time to decide what to play as my bonus game but after hearing everyone talking about the new Far Cry, I gave it a shot. That's not the new one? Well I know.

 

Far Cry Primal is, at least for me, a spin-off in the Far Cry series. I played FC 3 and FC 4 and normaly it all about shooting bad guys with your weapons.

This one is set 10000 B.C so now guns here. Instead of using pistols, machine guns and rocket launcher you use primitive weapons like spears, bows or clubs.

 

You are a member of the Wenja tribe fighting against the other tribes around. For that you atablish a little village inside a cave by rescuing Wenja to grow your village. With materials found all over the map you can upgrade your village to gain some bonuses like the aballity to learn more skills or just experience.

I don't know what the story wil be about just yet as I'm not far into it. Most af the time I tried to gather materials and explore the map.

Early in the game you meet a shaman who will show you how to tame the wild animals. From now on you can tame some specific animals and use them in fights afterwards. Each animal has other stats and special abillities like attacking unsuspicious enemies ore discovering the map around you and such things.

 

Like in every Far Cry Ubisoft game you have a lot of collectables to find. Fortunately they are show on the map so not really hard to find, just a tedious task if you want all.

You also have to collect flowers, wood and stone to upgrade your village, craft weapons.or heal yourselfe.

Hunting animals will give you meat and hides for crafting new bags to carry more meat ore hides.

 

All in all I enjoyed my time with this game. It's not like the other Far Cry games but still fun. The only downside is the combat. Most of it is melee with little ranged weapons so far. You can also throw your clubs or spear but you only have a very limited amount of them. You can craft new ones but need materials for them and they can be used up pretty fast in combat without the abillity to get more.

 

Time played: 3h 15min

Trophies: 5/51

Rating:

 

I'll write my final summary later today.

[Psy-Tychist]

OK, I am way behind so I apologise if there will be a bit of spam posting from myself, hopefully I can span it over the next couple of days. Here's the catch-up...

 

Game 3: The Witch and the Hundred Knight (PS3)

 

So I know that @dizzyshadow has done the remastered version and @ladynadiad has done the sequel, I  am here to do the original version.

 

Just a reiteration about the combat and the style of play; It is a top down, hack and slash with RPG elements in which you control the titular Knight after being resurrected for the deeds of the Swamp Witch Metallia. You are basically her 'loyal' servant until the end of the game (which it turns out is in 99 days). Until that time, you are to clear out various locales by 'blooming' Pillars throughout the maps to spread swamp and grow Metallias influence and power.

 

I've never played a game like this to be fair, I have heard of NIS and the style of games and art they use but never experienced them yet. The story is silly but incredibly camp and coarse. You basically are a minion for a bad guy and that is the goal; Help the Bad Guy. It's a fresh take for me and i found the dialogue and voice acting hilarious, such is the joy of camp storytelling.

 

I've only got through to Chapter 2 and haven't really delved into the story or mechanics deeply yet, but it's an amusing romp so far. Not something I will instantly go back to, but it is something I would like to invest time in.

 

Trophies: 6/48 - 8%

3 hours played.

Completion Rate: 53.62% - down 0.18% total

[Psy-Tychist]

Game 4: Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigame's Longest Day

 

So, slightly out of order, but still, yeah, reasons.

 

SHORT PEACE is actually an amalgamation of short animated stories with a short game accompanied with it. When downloading the game, you also get just over an hour of animated shorts to watch as well. I watched the first two and part of the third but decided to start playing the game as, well that is the point of downloading it.

 

The opening scene is shot much like an anime, looks similar to the Persona type models and is very scant on details as to the plot. The only details gleaned are that Ranko lives in an apartment complex made of shipping units of an underground parking lot. That, and she wants to kill her father.

After that, we start the first stage. Gameplay-wise it is very simplistic as its a side-scrolling runner with the ability to jump, slide attack and shot the shadowy figures following her. That is the only way to die in these stages as the enemies you meet will slow you down but you have no health bar. Being caught by the shadowy green arms is the only way to fail a stage.

Other types of stages are intermingled with these stages, such as a boss fight where you climb a tower away from a mining drill fighting against a shotgun wielding pair, riding a flying futuristic motorcycle shooting lasers at a dragon and fighting a Masked Man in an 8-bit wrestling match to remove his Masks to beat him.

 

There are more crazy things interspersed in the cut-scenes between each stage and during the stages but I'm not going to spoil it, it's too much of a head trip to explain every little madness.

Talking of the stages, there are only 8 in the entire game, you can knock this out in just over an hour without much problem. The trophies in the game however make this game a little more difficult as collecting all the art pieces and outfits are not tracked anywhere as they all respawn on each level. So you have a to know what you have already collected and try another route.

 

The game itself is reasonably tight on controls so playing the game is not a chore but it is very simplistic and if you don't like surrealist madness (this game is made by SUDA 51, go figure) then this will not be your cup of tea. For what enjoyment you get out of the initial experience however, replay value is very low.

All in all, I enjoyed it for what it is, a foray into short story-telling with a simplistic game which is just about keeping yourself just in touch enough with the madness to see how it ends.

 

See from 53 seconds in to see gameplay for the game.

 

Trophies: 9/14 - 42%

2 hours played.

Completion Rate: 53.63% - down 0.17% total

[Metal Slime King]

Finished up with Bombing Busters yesterday and I certainly didn't encounter anything to improve my initial rating, in fact I'm dropping it down to a ? as it feels as if the developers are actively trolling the players who unwittingly buy their game. There are "Pro-tips" posted on screen between each level and half of them boil down to "Lololol, you mad bro?". After finishing the game the only form of conclusion was a static screen ("Congartulations, Your a weiner!!") that hardly even references their flimsy attempt at a narrative. I knew I didn't care about their story but at least they could've pretended to care about it. I think the biggest flaw with the game itself was the implementation of randomized elements. In each stage and in the boss fights there are set elements and randomized elements but usually when a game includes randomized elements there are checks to exclude unwinnable states but not in this game.Once I was actually killed by an enemy that spawned next to me before my character could move. The most important skill to develop in this game is to quickly recognize an unfavourable state and immediately reset. On beating a boss I didn't feel a sense of accomplishment for fully recognizing his pattern, I've had the pattern a while ago. I just felt luck for this being the first run I didn't get immediately ganked by a random element throughout the fight.

 

I didn't do very well in leaderboard for fastest completion time as I've been bouncing around between a lot of games this month (obviously) but if there was a leaderboard for fastest time from beating to deleting a game I feel like I would've been a real contender.

 

Completion: (13 out of 13 trophies) 100%, no Plat.

[ladynadiad]

3 hours ago, Psy-Tychist said:

So I know that @dizzyshadow has done the remastered version and @ladynadiad has done the sequel, I  am here to do the original version.

 

I played the first game on PS3 as well.  The Revival Edition has a much harder trophy set, but the original version does have some crashing issues.  Just make sure to save often and don't go for long marathon grinding runs and chances are good that you'll be fine.  The PS3 version is definitely not a hard plat and most of the trophies are story related and unmissable.

[Arctic Cress]

Due to the fact that I'm moving tomorrow, I was unable to play the last game on my list. However, I did start another game during March and so I'll review that one instead for my 5th game.

 

 

Game #5 - DJMAX Respect

 

After a long hiatus, the DJMAX series finally comes back in a game celebrating the history of the series. Similar to Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone, DJMAX Respect has a ton of songs from both past titles as well as new songs, with more songs from previous titles coming over with DLC (and more trophies).

 

My only experience with the DJMAX series prior to this game was DJMAX Fever, back on the PSP (and I was able to get it on the Vita when Sony screwed up and allowed it for a brief period). Since Fever was a mix of songs from both Portable 1 and Portable 2, I recognized some of the songs that were available initially. Even if you don't, there's a number of different genres of music for practically everyone here. I'm a pretty big fan of the zts tracks thanks to reading through Umineko no Naku Koro ni a while back, and I've always enjoyed Good Bye from Portable 2. Some of the new tracks are also very good, like the opening Glory Day, which I still haven't been able to play through (lol).

 

Now while I do play a lot of rhythm games, DJMAX Respect is probably the hardest, up there with SUPERBEAT: XONiC in difficulty. There's a number of button combos to use with increasing difficulty; you can go from 4 notes (, , and ) to 5 notes (middle note for both and ), to 6 notes (all six buttons) and finally 8 notes (adds and ). Currently I'm stuck in between the 4 and 5 notes portions. I was able to hit the hardest difficulty in SUPERBEAT: XONiC so I'm sure I can get through this with enough practice. Also, gone is the autocorrect present in some of the portable titles, which is actually welcome since pressing the wrong note shouldn't give you points. However, missing a note carries a very harsh penalty, much more than any rhythm game I've played. Since when I miss notes I usually miss a whole bunch afterwards and fail the song. It'll take some getting used to.

 

In addition to just freeplaying songs, there's an Arcade mode where you play three songs in a row, and Mission mode where you play a number of preset songs with a certain goal (X combos, X number of points, etc.) There's also an online portion with one trophy tied to it but I haven't done anything there yet.

 

For the collection trophies, this game keeps a very detailed count of almost all the trophies - even indicating in the collection menu when new things are unlocked. It's extremely useful and it's a welcome addition for some of the more grindy trophies (of which there are quite a few!)

 

The only thing that might be a problem is the price - it's $50 and digital only here. Still, it's a lot of value for all the content you get just from the base game alone - and the option of purchasing more songs is there as well.

 

Psycho-Pass Mandatory Happiness: 18/36 (45%)
New Little King's Story: 6/50 (8%)
Exist Archive: 2/45 (2%)
Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment: 1/54 (1%)

DJMAX Respect: 8/42 (11%)

Starting completion: 70.23%
Current completion: 68.98%
Difference: -1.25%

 

Unlike the last KYC I'm not as impressed with the games I played this time around. Ratings:

DJMAX Respect - 9/10

Psycho-Pass Mandatory Happiness - 7/10

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment - 5/10

Exist Archive - 5/10

New Little King's Story - 3/10

 

Unlike KYC 5 I won't be going back to some of these games like last time. Might sit down Exist Archive and New Little King's Story for quite a while, though I do expect to finish Psycho-Pass sometime in April. SAO will take a long time to complete (which I was already aware of) and DJMAX Respect will also do so since my skill level isn't high enough right now.

 

Thanks for the event, Hemiak - I'll probably be still recovering my completion by the next KYC so I assume I'll be skipping that one. Hopefully I can join another one sometime down the road.

[Metal Slime King]

Dungeon Punks (Rating: )

My final game for this event was another ps+ from a couple of months back. This game is an RPG layered on top of a fairly straight forward isometric hack em' up like Golden Axe. You start by choosing 1 of 6 warriors then the game auto-picks 2 more to form your initial team. When you start a level all three characters are on screen, two are AI controlled and you can cycle through which one you are controlling with R1/L1 (Pretty sure there is also a multiplayer option but I didn't look into it). After the first few levels you unlock all 6 characters and each of the 3 on screen positions can tag in their off screen partner. Each of the 6 warriors gets stronger by levelling up XP and finding / buying better equipment. You purchase / upgrade magic attacks for each character using spell points gained by levelling up. Each level is a series of connected rooms where you beat up monsters and hunt down side quests (100% required for a trophy) leading up to a boss encounter which furthers the main story. There are exit points where you can leave the level prematurely if you're low on health and you keep your XP progress to try again stronger than before.

 

The graphics are hi-res characters drawn in an anime style but the characters are drawn rather poorly and look quite amateurish. The music was lame and quickly got muted out in favour of a supplementary soundtrack. I checked the trophy guide before starting which was good because there is a reportedly glitched trophy related to purchasing magic. I followed the given instructions and got that trophy without issue. While the combat does have a few options to keep it fresh (charge / guard, magic, special and rage attacks) it still gets pretty repetitive rather quickly. Probably the biggest asset saving this game from a rating is the games quirky humour which is maintaining my interest in continuing the story.

 

Finished this game and grabbed my first plat from this event . I didn't find the New Game+ run to be excessively grindy but other games may have compromised my perception of "too grindy" (ie. Brawlhalla). Obviously the story wasn't as funny the second time through which can be an issue when humour is carrying your game. It was a weird choice to have all quest related characters only give you an ellipses in their text box in New Game+, I don't know why let you redo the quests or clear up the 100% quest trophy if you missed it in New Game+. Fortunately I got 100% quest completion on my first normal game run, I would not be very enthusiastic for starting this game from the beginning again. Another issue with New Game+ is there is a character on the ship between levels who you can buy weapons and armour from, at a certain point they stop selling new equipment (I think it was item Lv26) so for most of New Game+ your ability to keep your equipment at an effective level is dependant solely on random drops and gold becomes all but worthless. There is an NPC in an earlier level who can upgrade your currently held equipment for gold. The gain is negligible but you might as well blow your millions of worthless gold on something. You could spend millions to upgrade your current weapon by 50,000 damage then find a random drop in the next level that is 600,000 damage better still. I think the best strategy would be to depend on random drops until the last level and then spend all your collected gold on your final weapon set for the final push. If, for whatever reason, you like BIG NUMBERS in your RPG's then you should get a kick out of New Game+. I'll stick with my silver rating but it's a borderline silver, certainly not a strong recommendation. I most definitely would not recommend paying money for what is ultimately a flash game with trophy support. 

 

Completion: (11 out of 29 trophies) 23%

Completion: (29 out of 29 trophies) 100%

 

At the end of the month my completion rate was 77.23%, down 2.17% from 79.40%

Edited April 8, 2018 by mking_63

[CJ_Mystery]

Starting to revive my completion with Secret of Mana. Got it to 43% and at the Mana Fortress, farming for gear.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

I feel guilty so here's at least something on my final game...

 

I don't seem to find the time to do a big post so here goes, sorry. 

 

 

Game #6: Claire

Playtime: about 45 minutes

 

I really didn't like Claire.

 

... Okay, guess I should say a bit more than that.

 

Claire, just like Uncanny Valley, is an ugly 8-bit horror game that would have profited a lot by the devs sitting down together and discussing what would make a good game, instead of just doing something and hoping for the best. That's twice in a row now that I played a game that was an ugly and incoherent mess, with bad controls and "trial and error" like gameplay, without the trial because dying was punished too harshly. If a player dies in your game and is sound of mind, it should be obvious to them what they did wrong.

 

All in all, Claire is another game I won't go back to.

 

Bonus game: Hitman

 

Figured I'd talk about Hitman too, seeing as I bought the game during the event and played it a lot.

 

I started the game before, during the summer 2017 KYC event, when I had dropped out of the event and wasn't on the site for a while. I downloaded the free base game (the training mission) and bought Elite Dangerous (by selling used games for store value) at the same time, just to do something different. I really liked the Hitman base game, but because I didn't know if the game would be worth €25 to me, I decided to wait on a better sale.

 

Turns out a few weeks ago, one of the best reviewed episodes was available for free, so I downloaded that and played it. Liked it so much that I decided to buy the game, which had become a GOTY deal for €30 with an additional campaign by then.

 

Two missions away from finishing the S1 story and I'm very happy with my purchase. It's a cool game, and the first Hitman game in which I get beyond the first level. It's very cool to get dumped in an open location and try to figure out what the best ways are to go about killing your targets.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

KYC Recap

 

Starting stats:

Completion percentage: 50,04%

Trophies won: 6.878

Unearned trophies: 5.492

Games played: 358

 

Ending stats:

Completion percentage: 49,54% (-0,50%)

Trophies won: 6.913 (+35)

Unearned trophies: 5.596 (+104)

Games played: 363 (+5)

 

 

Well, it happened... I haven't enjoyed a single game I chose to play during this KYC event.

 

I see this as a good thing. Back when @Hemiak started the first KYC event, I had much too many games to play, and so many unplayed gems in my PS+ list.. KYC events have from the start been mostly about trying PS+ games for me. Across the KYC events, I've been bothered more and more by my games - because my list of backlog games has been getting smaller and smaller, and thanks to the KYC events I've tried a lot of games I wouldn't have given a chance, with positive and negative surprises.

 

What's left, I guess, is keep to buying less games than I'm playing through, and going back to those KYC games I enjoyed the most. A KYC event might not be the best thing for me to do any more, but if people are enjoying my hissy fits when I hate another one of the games I chose, I guess I can keep trying games I'm only moderately interested in, in the hopes that I'll find a hidden gem I wouldn't otherwise have noticed.

 

I just hope I'll have more time for the next KYC event than I did this time, had a lot of other stuff to do in real life.

 

 

Game #1: Knack

Did not like the game, because it was boring. Might go back to it if I have nothing of interest to play, will never buy the sequel.

 

Game #2: Mighty No. 9

Did not like the game, because it was a bother instead of fun. Might go back to it if I've played through all games in my collection that appeal to me more.

 

Game #3: Rebel Galaxy

Did not like the game, because it became a grind very soon into the game with very little to do, and because space trucking on a two dimensional plane is ridiculous if enemies are able to move in three dimensions. Might give it a second chance if I feel like it.

 

Game #4: Deus Ex Mankind Divided (zero trophies earned)

Did not like the game, because it's not my kind of thing. I'm usually not into FPS and this game just added too many options much too quickly. I appreciate the work that went into the game but it's not something I'll enjoy.

 

Game #5: Uncanny Valley

Did not like the game, because it was an ugly and incoherent mess with much potential left untapped. Might never bother with going for the remaining trophies even though it should only take an hour or two with a guide.

 

Game #6: Claire

I did not like the game, because it was an ugly incoherent mess with much potential left untapped. Might go back to it if I have nothing of interest to play.

 

Other game in which I earned trophies this month #1: Elite Dangerous

Love this game. So much content for such a small price. Great exploration game, and the devs continue to put in new content.

 

Other game in which I earned trophies this month #2: Hitman

Enjoying this game a lot. First Hitman game I take the time for and it's a blast. Working my way through the S1 missions now, with lots of content yet to go.

[CJ_Mystery]

7 hours ago, Riq IV said:

Game #1: Knack

Did not like the game, because it was boring. Might go back to it if I have nothing of interest to play, will never buy the sequel.

I agree, this game was utter fart-phail because they made the chests act like lootboxes, giving you useless relics once you have unlocked the forms. Knack 2 might have better relic grinding but I am not going to be bothered. I added it to my old account when it was free on Feb's PS+ but might sentence it to Purchase Purtagory as I don't feel like going through the unskippable story 100+ times just for one more Ruby Relic.

 

7 hours ago, Riq IV said:

Game #2: Mighty No. 9

Did not like the game, because it was a bother instead of fun. Might go back to it if I've played through all games in my collection that appeal to me more.

Part of me would have tried in on March PS+ but I am not going to risk it because the negative reviews it got showed how much of an utter fart-phail it was. Poor Keiji Inafune, he lost his Blue Bomber baby and the replacement was utter crap.

 

7 hours ago, Riq IV said:

Game #6: Claire

I did not like the game, because it was an ugly incoherent mess with much potential left untapped. Might go back to it if I have nothing of interest to play.

I agree. I have to go do that damn Nightmare run because the PS+ version was the one where you can't hack the save to make it into Nightmare mode at the very last save point and I heard Nightmare Mode for the entire game is really tough. Shame, that's the last trophy I have to earn.

 

I guess we are extreme opposites, Riq IV, because I actually enjoyed every game on my KYC list and am working to revive them and get their platinums. Sly 3 is a clusterf*** because of the Master Thief Missions but you can't get anything for free so I'll deal with it in time, and Cyberdimension Neptunia is meh, but I love the funny cutscenes. And yes, I'll plat Re:Chain of Memories, but right now my disc slot is for Ni No Kuni 2. Once I plat that game, I'll go back to Kingdom Hearts series games.

 

[PerryToxteth]

Game No. 5

Assassin's Creed Syndicate

 

 

Trophies Earned: 2/57 (2%) E ranking

Playing Time: 3 hours

 

Final Thoughts: Thank goodness for March having 31 days or else I would've spent less than three hours on this game.  I figured I'd save my most anticipated game for last, and of course, it hasn't disappointed. Truth be told, it was unlikely to fail as this is a game in my favorite franchise. And I am an unabashed Anglophile.  English beer, Led Zeppelin, David Lean, Blenheim Palace, the British Bulldogs, Mary Poppins, the Plantagenets, Spice Girls, clotted cream, Peter Sellers, John Milton - if it involves Britannia, chances are I love it.  So an AC game set in 19th century London was made with me in mind. I've barely scratched the story surface so I'll just compare Syndicate to prior AC games in my review.

   First, the environment is incredible. The first two missions are only tutorial levels but the arena they are in is rather large. There are a number of available paths to take to reach your target, so it seems this game encourages some reconnoitering before proceeding. This time, there are two protagonists, Jacob and Evie (they're twins). Evie is the proverbial assassin where stealth is best. Jacob seems to enjoy fisticuffs so you can choose to do levels with brute force. You can switch between them at anytime.

   Like all AC games, it takes awhile to shed the training wheels before they let you loose in the open world. And once they do, you will be amazed at how London is depicted. The detail is unprecedented in an AC game. Every shop, every person, heck, every cat (!) looks different from the others in your surroundings. And like London, it is a labyrinth of oddly-angled streets and random dead ends.  So far, the only thing lacking is the historical element to the game, but the game starts you off in the Whitechapel neighborhood, which usually only gets covered in history books because of Jack the Ripper (and that's Syndicate's dlc ). So yes, I am chomping at the bit to climb St. Paul's and climb in the rafters of Westminster.

  As for climbing, it is a bit off compared to other AC games. Climbing doesn't seem to be as smooth but it's probably me just getting used to the controls. And it's strange what you can climb. Run at a brick wall and holy heck, you start going up it! But aim to jump to a chain and come crashing to the floor. In past AC games, it was pretty apparent what could and could not be climbed.  This is a minor quibble though and I will learn as I progress.

  Something a bit different too is a skills tree. Usually in a AC game, you attain better skills and equipment, by purchasing better weapons and armor. This time, you acquire XP to spend on certain skills. With Evie, you can hone her stealth skills and Jacob can advance his pugilist prowess. Something like this might have been in Unity but honestly, I can't remember. Unlike Unity, you don't need to open every chest manually (Thank God!!). 

  In short, Syndicate is fun and looks incredible. I am eager to get into more of this game and discover the side missions and see some more of London. Is Nelson in Trafalgar Square in mid-19th century London? I don't know but I can't wait to find out! Even more exciting, only 70 days left until I'm in London!! I might be so drunk off history and Doom Bar that I might try to climb up and say hi to old Horatio himself!!

 

 

KYC6 Statistics 

Pre-KYC numbers are in ().

Games Completed - Played 97/68.  ( 92/68)

Trophies Earned - 3264                      (3207)

Unearned - 614                                  (459)

Completion % - 82.75.                     (86.04)

Down - 3.29%

 

I will add a KYC wrap-up tomorrow. 

Edited April 4, 2018 by PerryToxteth

[Myu]

Hi everyone!

I kinda disappeared from this KYC around the middle of the month and I just wanted to explain why because I've been participating regularly in the last KYCs and I didn't want to seem disrespectful to @Hemiak and other members who actually put time and effort in this event.

Basically, life got in the way. A lot. And not in a funny way. I've been in and out of the hospital, I'm going back again in a few days to get surgery and hopefully life will be better after that. I felt burnt out and didn't feel like doing anything else than play Exist Archive. I've found that lack of energy and motivation goes well with grindy games that require next to no active brain cells.

 

Anyway, congrats to all of you guys for completing the event! I hope you had fun and that your completion % didn't drop too much

[voodoo_eyes]

5 minutes ago, Myu said:

Hi everyone!

I kinda disappeared from this KYC around the middle of the month and I just wanted to explain why because I've been participating regularly in the last KYCs and I didn't want to seem disrespectful to @Hemiak and other members who actually put time and effort in this event.

Basically, life got in the way. A lot. And not in a funny way. I've been in and out of the hospital, I'm going back again in a few days to get surgery and hopefully life will be better after that. I felt burnt out and didn't feel like doing anything else than play Exist Archive. I've found that lack of energy and motivation goes well with grindy games that require next to no active brain cells.

 

Anyway, congrats to all of you guys for completing the event! I hope you had fun and that your completion % didn't drop too much

 

That's unfortunate. I hope all goes well with the surgery as well as the recovery. Best of luck and get well soon!

[MarkusT1992]

A bit late but here goes my summary.

 

Pre event stats:

 

Games played: 164

Games completed: 75

Completion %: 55,03%

Unearned Trophies: 2601

 

Post event stats:

 

Games played: 171 (+7)

Games Completed: 79 (+4)

Completion %: 55,26 (+0,23)

Unearned Trophies: 2704 (+103)

Trophies earned: 149 (30 from non event games)

 

This time my completion actually rose. It's a first time for me but I enjoyed every game I played in this event. Plus having six days per game instead of only three gave me mch more time to play the games and thus more time to complete them. Let's move on to the games then

 

Event games

 

Game 1: Rime ( )

A nice little game with a good story, which is told without any words. Gameplay wise some basic puzzles in between walking. A lot of walking.

Trophies: 32/32

 

Game 2: Agents of Mayham ( )

The lates game from Volition (Saint's Row). Like the Saint's Row games this is also weird in a good way. Much gun blazzing and killing bad guys with many different characters to play with.

Trophies: 17/50

 

Game 3: Color Guardians: ( )

The biggest surprise for me in this event. Gotten free through PS+ it sat in my backlog quite some time. A very fun little runner like game which encourages to finish every level perfect.

Trophies: 46/46

 

Game 4: The Surge ( )

A Souls like game set in a futiristich, mechanical setting. Takes the good parts from Dark Souls, adds some new things and combines them to a good new game.

Trophies: 10/57

 

Game 5: What Remains of Edith Finch ( )

The best story I experienced in the last few weeks/months. A walking simulator with more than just walking. Discover the past of the Finchs

Trophies: 9/9

 

Bonus Game: Far Cry Primal ( )

Far Cry set in the distant past. No modern weapons only primitive ones. That makes the game not really feel like Far Cry.

Trophies: 5/51

 

Non event games played

 

Dear Esther

Another walking sim but not as good as other game of this genre. For me the worst walking sim I have played so far.

Trophies: 10/10

 

Project Cars

I went for the online trophies in the game and got all but one.

Trophies: 15/45

 

Dark Souls 3

Made big progress in this one during the last month. After a very long break I enjoy playing it again. Might be in anticipation of Dark Souls Remastered.

Trophies: 34/43

 

This was again a great event and I have some games on my wish list now thanks to all the reviews. Thanks to @Hemiak for doing this event. It helps a lot with starting new games and find good ones I wouldn't start otherwise soon.

 

 

[CJ_Mystery]

Resurrection of my Completion:

Phase 1 Complete ? Platinum #60 for me!

 

I did turn on the voices at the final battles. I liked Poppoi's and Primm's voices and while Randi's was a bit lackluster, I didn't commit suicide upon hearing it. Still I probably did myself a favor emulating the original game by turning the voices to 0% volume during the entire game. The worst thing was that they were lazy with the trophy titles. Just delete the descriptions, why don't you? ?

 

So that's one of the games on my old list now complete. I just wanted to let everyone know that it's possible to revive your completion if you wanted to, you just really need to love the games you played during the event. Great event and can't wait for the next KYC. Ciao!

[Kevvik]

5 hours ago, Myu said:

Hi everyone!

I kinda disappeared from this KYC around the middle of the month and I just wanted to explain why because I've been participating regularly in the last KYCs and I didn't want to seem disrespectful to @Hemiak and other members who actually put time and effort in this event.

Basically, life got in the way. A lot. And not in a funny way. I've been in and out of the hospital, I'm going back again in a few days to get surgery and hopefully life will be better after that. I felt burnt out and didn't feel like doing anything else than play Exist Archive. I've found that lack of energy and motivation goes well with grindy games that require next to no active brain cells.

 

 

RL always needs to take priority, no matter how tough we talk otherwise. Hope everything goes smoothly and that you are back up and running at normal speed as soon as you can.  Take care.

[ladynadiad]

3 hours ago, CJ_Mystery said:

Resurrection of my Completion:

 

Phase 1 Complete Platinum #60 for me!

 

I did turn on the voices at the final battles. I liked Poppoi's and Primm's voices and while Randi's was a bit lackluster, I didn't commit suicide upon hearing it. Still I probably did myself a favor emulating the original game by turning the voices to 0% volume during the entire game. The worst thing was that they were lazy with the trophy titles. Just delete the descriptions, why don't you?

 

So that's one of the games on my old list now complete. I just wanted to let everyone know that it's possible to revive your completion if you wanted to, you just really need to love the games you played during the event. Great event and can't wait for the next KYC. Ciao!

 

Did you turn them on for the battle with the Dark Lich?  Thanatos was one of the few whose voice acting I actually really liked.  The remaster soundtrack is also pretty good for the last few things.  They did a great job remastering Meridian Dance and The Oracle. 

[CJ_Mystery]

2 hours ago, ladynadiad said:

Did you turn them on for the battle with the Dark Lich?  Thanatos was one of the few whose voice acting I actually really liked.  The remaster soundtrack is also pretty good for the last few things.  They did a great job remastering Meridian Dance and The Oracle. 

Hoping to avoid spoilers but yes, I did turn the voices on for the battle with the Dark Lich. The music was much creepier(I accidentally switched to original music while trying to fiddle with the sound and heard the difference immediately), but the Mana Beast fight sounds mostly like a remix of the original. Did enjoy the cutscene just before the Mana Beast fight. Remembering the dialogue of that scene in the original, it seems like the dialogue makers decided to flesh out the dialogue a bit so that the Sprite didn't sound like as much as a brat. It was much nicer in my opinion, much more assuring.

 

The order of importance for the remaining games I have are, from most likely to be tackled next to least:

1. Dark Cloud 2 (first priority - get all of the Medals for Moonflower Palace so I can enter Chapter 8)
2. Sly 3 (because I am confident of getting 100%)
3. Cyberdimension Neptunia (want to see the story to its end, but no hurry)
4. Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories (would really like to plat a KH game before KH3)

Edited April 6, 2018 by CJ_Mystery

[DamagingRob]

Have only played two games since the event ended. NBA Live 18 and Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness. Completion slowly being restored, even though it didn't drop much.  

 

Hoping to wrap up my Universe run tomorrow, after already completing the game on Chaos. Probably will take less time since I know what I'm doing, and haven't died yet. My Chaos playthrough, on the other hand, saw some deaths.. And a few of them set me back a bit, as I didn't always save when I could (really gotta stop doing that..). But with Universe being less difficult, and me being more efficient, should get it done tomorrow. Then it's on to BT grinding.. 

 

@Myu Really sorry to hear that. And what Voodoo said! 

[PerryToxteth]

KYC 6

Wrap-Up

 

 

Final Thoughts: Another busy KYC event in another busy March! The five-game format worked really well for me this time around.  This month is terribly hectic with travel, Spring Breaks for kids, NCAA Tournament, work, life, etc. If I tried 10 games, I would've failed miserably.  Thanks again for Hemiak hosting (this is my 5th KYC event!!) And thank to Hem for playing this time around as well!!

Here are my rankings:

 

 Level

- Assassins Creed Syndicate - I savor AC games to the point where I never play the latest version so I always have something to anticipate on the gaming horizon. Yeah, pretty weird. I do the same with books by my favorite author.

 

 Level

None

 

 Level

- Game of Thrones - It's Telltales and I doubt I'd ever give one of their games a really high rating. That said, this is much better than Borderlands.  

 

 Level

- Virginia - This really had potential but the lack of production by the game developers hurt it. Story-wise, it's great. Trophy-wise, I can't believe I have to replay it.

 

And last time, I handed out awards to my favorite and least favorite games. The KYC winner got a  and was elected into Perry's Pantheon of Video Games. The loser got the ? award. That's not entirely fair this time around so I handed out awards this time to the biggest surprise and biggest disappointment. 

 

Biggest Surprise

- Rime - I was expecting a typical artsy-fartsy explorer with gorgeous graphics and subpar play. But the story - and the story's twist - really moved me.  It's a deep story and the developers are able to convey it effectively without dialogue. 

 

Biggest Disappointment

 - Watch Dogs 2 - Now before people go nuts, this is not a bad game by any stretch. It just didn't reach my expectations...yet.  I really loved the first Watch Dogs and this game has yet to fulfill the Fun Meter that game did. It very well could and I will let you know as I plan to plug away at it for the rest of the month. Looking back at my KYC history, there are games I liked in the event, and soured on as I played further into them (ahem...Jazzpunk. I somehow gave it a  rating in KYC2 ).  And there are games I didn't care for, but ended up liking when I completed it. Unravel is probably the best example. 

 

KYC6 Statistics 

Pre-KYC numbers are in ().

Games Completed - Played 97/68.  ( 92/68)

Trophies Earned - 3264                      (3207)

Unearned - 614                                  (459)

Completion % - 82.75.                     (86.04)

Down - 3.29%

 

- This is the first time I failed to hit the century mark for trophies in a KYC event. My high was in KYC5 with 130. I only hit 57 this time around. 

- It was great participating with old and new KYC buddies! Myu, I hope everything works out well for you! 

Edited April 6, 2018 by PerryToxteth

[CJ_Mystery]

3 hours ago, PerryToxteth said:

- Rime - I was expecting a typical artsy-fartsy explorer with gorgeous graphics and subpar play. But the story - and the story's twist - really moved me.  It's a deep story and the developers are able to convey it effectively without dialogue. 

Hhmmm... I am intrigued. I guess I should spend tonight getting back into that game, I only quit at Chapter 2 because I missed a collectible, but this time I have a 100% walkthrough so I won't miss anything. Also need to get that dang Nightmare run in Claire to get it out of my pool.