PSNP 2018 Year End Awards

[KennethMcCormick]

 

 

I was curious about the silly English humour of Her Majesty's SPIFFING dating back to it's release, and it was dirt cheap a few months ago. Definitely the easiest I ever played (and my fastest plat to boot), and a rather fun one.

 

 

Well... it IS like Dark Souls! : Nioh, for me. I'm not a Soulsborne player, and it was the "inspired by a Kurosawa script" that drew me to it. Once you get used to the mechanics and you get a decent character, it gets actually pretty easy, but the first boss in Japan, to a total noob like me, was insanely hard. TBH, it's not THAT nerve-wracking, and I would have chosen GTA V's Doomsday heists over it, but it must be something you finished, so...

 

 

I'd have to go with Nioh again, if only because it was a first experience (well, apart from a very few hours of Bloodborne and Lords of the Fallen) and I nonetheless chose to solo the entire game. Only times I went online was to help other people and grind glory to unlock Okatsu's skin for a trophy. Not too impressive, I know, but still highly satisfying.

 

 

Dare I say Nioh again? No, actually I did even worse this year, with Borderlands. Oh! the grind... That said, The Division is also a major grind, and I'm not finished with Red Dead Online, which is a solid contender.

 

 

I'd say For Honor. You never really know who you're going to fight, and games can go either way most of the time. It keeps you on your toes, you have to adapt, and the learning curve is okay. Not a total fan, but I quite liked it.

 

 

Conan Exiles. 'nuff said. And maybe The Division, not at all because of lack of quality, but the grind for gear is getting old.

 

 

None really, sorry, if I have to stick to your definition. Only played games with already established reputations, and the lesser known games wouldn't qualify for "amazing".

 

 

Conan Exiles. Even though it wasn't overhyped at all, it's still a massive piece of garbage.

 

 

(just because)

 

 

(because two of those dice are impossible)

 

 

Amanda Ripley, in Alien Isolation? Not really fleshed out, granted, but still a major badass. Senua and 2B, otherwise.

 

 

I might say Geralt, but it would be cheating, as this year's was a second playthrough. Well, I actually liked Arthur Morgan. And William Adams is OK.

 

 

[original post] Tough one. That would be Persona 5, For Honor and Hellblade. The games are so different from one another that I can't really choose between those three. Had I finished Alien Isolation, the answer would have been easier, but I still have the no death run to do.

["just got the plat" edit] Alien Isolation, all the way! How could I have waited that long to play this game, seriously?

 

 

Blackguard 2. Because plat is impossible, due to a glitched trophy .

 

 

Maybe The Last of Us, part 2? Not very original, but I can't speak about what I don't know, and we don't have all 2019 release dates yet.

 

 

That's all.

Edited December 17, 2018 by KennethMcCormick
changes of circumstances

[ShogunCroCop]

Please note, this does not include InFamous: Second Son, for which I should have the plat in the next few days or so. I reserve the right to revise this list once I have received the InFamous: Second Son plat.

 

Piece of Cake: Little Adventure on the Prairie. This is the quickest plat I got other than My Name is Mayo, which I obtained in 2017.

It's Like Dark Souls: None. There really wasn't any game with a particularly difficult trophy that I earned the plat for this year.

 

Bad Ass Award: All of them. I feel like a bad ass watching the plat pop.

Grind of the Year: MLB The Show 18. There was one trophy for earning a trip to the major leagues from the manager's office that would take forever to get. I had to do 4 different RTTS playthroughs and grind into 2 or 3 seasons on each playthrough to finally get it.

King of the Internet: Uncharted The Lost Legacy. Even though the trophies earned for this were part of the DLC for Uncharted 4, you actually had to play the  online section as part of Uncharted Lost Legacy.

Worst Online Experience: Uncharted The Lost Legacy. I hate online experience, and since this was the only game I played online, it is both best and worst.

Sleeper Hit of the Year: Late Shift. Really good story and not a mainstream game.

Biggest Bomb of the Year: Assassin's Creed Unity. Glitchy, and by far one of the worst rated AC games ever made.

Best Trophy Image: Rime. I think they dd a great job at making all trophy images look artistic.

Worst Trophy Image: Batman The Enemy Within. All images are of the bat symbol, with the episode and chapter number inside of it.

Best Female Character: Aya. Assassin's Creed Origins. It was either her or Chloe from Uncharted: Lost Legacy. And while Chloe is a decent female lead, the Uncharted series always should be Nathan Drake.

Best Male Character: Bayek. Assassin's Creed Origins. For those who played this game, this is self explanatory. For those who haven't, play it and you'll see why.

Best Plat of the Year: Rime. The story was so moving and the game was so fun. The emotion this game evoked made it easily the best plat of the year. Honorable mention: Heavy Rain. Another game with a powerful story, great character development, and evoked emotion.

Worst Plat of the Year: Life is Strange Before the Storm. I was never a big fan of Life is Strange, and this was even worse. I only played it for the trophies. The story was predictable and dull, and the characters were poorly developed, IMO.

Most Anticipated of 2019: Red Dead Redemption II, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Shadow of the Colossus. All games sitting on my shelf, yet to be opened.

Edited December 7, 2018 by ShogunCroCop

[scemopagliaccioh]

Piece of Cake Award:

 

Yeah, it's Burly man at sea, kinda disappointed that took Soul Calibur 2's place as the fastest plat, and I was afk for most of the time too!

 

 

It's Like Dark Souls:

 

Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, people say that Cod is an easy brainless shooter, boy how wrong they are, try zombie and you'll change ideas quickly

 

Bad Ass Award:

 

 I finally improved my Street Fighter 4 and Metal Gear Rising trophy set and got the platinum from Cod iw, Just Cause 3 and Injustice 2, maybe I can have a crack at the last 4 trophies in the original Injustice, also I finished the original Devil May Cry trilogy and got  the trophy in DMC4 where you have to kill Dante with an SSS ranking on the second try, didn't expect to find Dante in the last stage of the Bloody Palace THAT close to me at the start,  otherwise I would have got the no dmg vs Dante in BP too, well played Capcom

 

Grind of the Year:

 

This is definitely the Cat Fight trophy from Injustice 2, I had to unlock 177 of the 180 abilities before getting my hands on this stupid trophy, God also has a strange sense of humor, giving me one of the two ( as in, not Cat Call) remaining Catwoman's abilities from a bronze box(after the patches). Glad it's over.

 

King of the Internet:

 

It's a toss up between Grand Theft Auto  V and Injustice 2 where I mastered Batman for quick online victories, I suppose fighting games are fun when you win... duh

 

Worst Online:

 

Bulletstorm ps4,  glad I played on another account, if it has to be a game I own  on this account then Final Fantasy XV Comrades

 

Sleeper of the Year:

 

Hmm... I could say Devil May Cry the original, but everybody did play it so Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age. Characters class gave you the customisation the original desperately needed and boosted the gameplay considerably, you also need to do many things in a vast world,  honestly, I'm disappointed  that Ivalice's world isn't the template for an open world, yeah they have areas that need to be "loaded" but the world is so diverse and brightful compared to ffxv's open world, also the lore in the story is incredible and to me, very similiar to Dark Souls for the depth and way it's told.

 

 

BIggest Bomb of the Year:

 

It's a toss up between Fallout 76 and Battlefield 5,   but I guess I'll give the edge to Fallout due  to it having more sluggish gunplay.

 

Best Trophy Image:

 

Let there Be Light  Final Fantasy XV Comrade. A golden Bahamut waiting with his sword, priceless.

 

Worst Trophy Image:

All Heavy Rain's trophies  from the ps4 remaster they have  almost all the same image, lazy! And you can't even say it's because they didn't want to as some trophies( only 3 iirc) have different images

 

Best Female Character:

 

Cammy Street fighter 4

 

Best Male Character:

 

Bane Injustice 2, best motivational fitness speaker after THE Senator Armstrong  but you can't play as him unfortunately. I don't even like comic books but after reading this character's backstory something struck me

 

Best Plat:

Bloodborne

 

Worst Plat:

 

All the Naruto games, what's taking them so long  for another Bleach game?

 

Most Anticipated Platinum of 2019:

 

Grand Theft Auto V, DragonBall Xenoverse 2, Mafia 3, Just Cause 2, Kingdom Hearrs 3.

 

Edited December 7, 2018 by scemopagliaccioh

[Dr_Mayus]

@scemopagliaccioh oh Cat Call...there are very many status updates of my anger at this trophy ?

 

 

Also only 2 more weeks to get your Awards in  And for the first time ever we have media coverage of the PSNP Year End Awards...Plat Cast is going to be covering the event

[Lava_Yuki]

I've only gotten 11 platinums this year so I don't have much to choose from unfortunately, but here goes!

 

Piece of Cake Award: Code Realize bouquet of roses (ps4)- great story, hardly any bad endings so it was one otome game that didn't really need a guide. I did not use guide and easily got the plat. It turned out that the bad endings weren't even needed for the plat!

 

Its like Dark Souls Award: I haven't platted any particularly difficult games as I gave up on KH 1.5 + 2.5, Disgaea and FFX in terms of platinuming, but the hardest plat this year for me was Final Fantasy 12- that great crystal dungeon, filling the bestiary and those stupid judges in trial mode were a pain in the butt

 

Badass award: FF12 again, i felt so good after beating the judges on the 100th floor of trial mode,it was my last trophy and felt so satisfying. Especially since my brother who also has this game couldn't do it and gave up lol!

 

Sleeper hit of the year: Collar x Malice, I know it's an otome/VN, but the story and characters are amazing and it has lots of bad endings as well. The CGs are really nice too, but the suspense and mystery made it a really fun story to follow, even if you just ignore the otome bit since it's more story heavy anyway.

 

Biggest Bomb of the Year: Nier automata. Everyone loved it, I hated it. I found the story bizarre and convoluted, hard to follow and am personally not into robots. The characters, ,game design and music was lovely, but I felt the story and character development could have been so much better. Most of the endings were just a credit roll as well.

 

Best Trophy Image: I like creative images, so I like the cloud of Life is Strange before the storms plat, "Bring on the Storm". It's simple but funky. The name is pretty cool as well

 

Worst Trophy Image: I don't like Penelo's face on FF12 TZA. Why Penelo? Even if it's not Vaan, Ashe would have been a much better choice. I hated Penelo as a character, I found her annoying and can't see any reason to have her on the plat.

 

Best Female character: I played a lot of Otome games this year, so this a very hard choice. I will choose Fran from FF12. I really like Fran, she's my favourite character in FF12, calm and cool and also has a great figure. Runner-ups include Ashe in FF12, 2B in Nier Automata, Chloe in Life is strange Before the storm, Cardia in Code Realize and Platcha in Atelier Sophie

 

Best Male Character: Ikki in Amnesia- I really liked Ikki, he's my favourite otome game male character and quite good looking for an anime. Runner ups include Balthier in FF12 and Van in Code Realize.

 

Best Plat of the year: By far FF12. It was grindy and horrible at times, but I really enjoyed this game. Especially after playing FF15 which I hated, it felt so good to play a true FF for once. it felt so nostalgic, loved the job system and didn't mind putting the hours in for this plat.

 

Worst plat of the year: Haven't had a plat like this this year. Atelier Sophie frustrated me with the alchemy and post game bosses, but it turned out to not be so bad after getting advice. I found Psychadelica of the Black butterfly to be an easy but super boring platinum, didn't like the game much. 

 

Most anticipated Plat of 2019: For me, this is going to be Kingdom Hearts 3 for sure. I suck at KH so I probably won't manage this plat, so if I don't Spyro is my next most anticipated and on my to-buy list. Hoping Boxing Day brings me some luck. 

[ExHaseo]

I stopped trophy hunting this year, so I didn't do much trophy hunting. But I enjoy doing this every year so I'm participating anyway!

 

Piece of Cake

I'll have to go with Tekken 7. That plat was a joke. It was honestly pretty disappointing.

 

It's Like Dark Souls

I didn't get any plats that were especially difficult because of actual game difficulty, only grind heavy and a nightmare because of terrible online. So instead, I'll give this to Bayonetta 2. Playing through all of the multiplayer verses solo got pretty crazy at times.

 

Bad Ass

Thanks to Horizon Zero Dawn, there are honestly just too many individual moments that I'm just going to have to give it to the game as a whole.

 

Grind of the Year

This definitely goes to Battle of Z. Having to grind out 100 multiplayer matches as well as a total of 50 hours of in-mission time was just ridiculous.

 

King of the Internet

I'll have to give this one to Tera. I never had any connection issues, and had a lot of fun with the game. I was honestly a little sad when I got the plat so easily. Especially for an MMO. I'm sure it's much more of a nightmare to get all of the world bosses now that the game isn't new anymore though.

 

Worst Online Experience

Dragon Ball Ultimate Tenkaichi. Seriously, fork this game. It took over 10 hours to do something that should have taken about 1 hour because of how horrible the online was. I was constantly getting booted out of the middle of a match for absolutely no reason. It was unbelievably frustrating.

 

Sleeper Hit of the Year

While there was no plat, because it's on Switch, I'm going to say The World Ends With You Final Remix. The game got a weirdly bad rep just because a couple of reviewers were butthurt about it being different than the original, and everyone just took their word for it. It's really a fantastic game that improves on the original in many ways, and is also different enough from the original to feel like a new game, while still being similar enough that it still feels like TWEWY. As long as you're playing in handheld mode, it's a fantastic game. Just pretend that it doesn't work when hooked up tot he TV, because motion controls.

 

Biggest Bomb of the Year

I am going to get so much shit for this, but I can't help that I didn't like it. Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. I do not understand why people like this game. It is just awful. The gameplay is awkward, there's a stamina bar that's used for everything and makes for entirely too much standing around waiting for it to recharge, there's a ton of cheap deaths, and the game doesn't do a very good job explaining how to do anything. I gave it my best shot, but after about 4 hours, I couldn't stand to play it anymore. It was just aggressively unfun. The worst part, is that Horizon Zero Dawn came out around the same time, and did everything Zelda was failing to do. Yet Zelda got all the awards for some reason.

 

Best Trophy Image/Worst Trophy Image

I honestly don't pay much attention to trophy images. So I'm just going to skip these two.

 

Best Female Character

Maria Traydor in Star Ocean 3. This kind of feels like cheating, because SO3 is one of my favorite games, and Maria is one of my favorite characters in the game. It's just always nice to see a female character that not only has depth, but also feels real. She isn't weirdly caked with makeup and wearing a frilly dress despite being a tomboy and leader of a renegade organization. Her design actually fits her personality.

 

Best Male Character

Neku Sakuraba from The World Ends With You. Emo supreme himself. I just love the amount of character development he shows. He really grows and becomes a strong character and I absolutely love characters that show real growth.

 

Best Plat of the Year

Horizon Zero Dawn. HZD is easily the best game of this console generation. It does everything perfectly. The gameplay is fun, fluid, and varied. The story and world overall is really interesting. It looks beautiful. I could gush forever, but the game is phenomenal. Everyone needs to play it.

 

Wurst plat ov teh yeer

Dragon Ball Ultimate Tenkaichi. In addition to the nonsense with the online, the game just wasn't very fun. It wasn't aggressively bad, just very bland and repetitive. If I hadn't been going for every Dragon Ball plat, I wouldn't have made it all the way through.

 

Most Anticipated Plat of 2019

Kingdom Hearts III. Because Kingdom Hearts III.

 

[ChernobylNinja]

Piece of Cake Award: DONUT COUNTY. A great game with a simple yet addictive gameplay loop that takes about 2/3 to platinum.

 

It's Like Dark Souls: Jax and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (The Vita Version) Good god this game was such a mess I had to debug the game just to do some basic platforming because of the framerate making the game almost unplayable.

 

Bad Ass Award: Marvel's Spiderman. Swinging from webs,crime fighting and quips all around. This is the closest video game we have to being Spiderman since Spiderman 2 for PS2 and damn does it feel good to be the web head.

 

Grind of the Year: Assassin's Creed: Syndicate. The grind for destroying 5000 objects with a carriage was mind numbing not to mention all the other oddly specific requirements for 100% completion for the main campaign.  

 

King of the Internet: DOOM Such a fun online and one of the few online games I played this year.

 

Worst Online Experience: Playstation All Stars Battle Royale. Where to even start with this terrible net code that even with 4 people queuing at the same time using custom match settings not being able to get together to play.

 

Sleeper Hit of the Year: Donut County. For all the reasons listed above.

 

Biggest Bomb of the Year: Fallout 76 Such a Bomb that I refuse to play it!

 

Best Trophy Image:  Catch and Release. Another Sleeper hit and a very fun fishing PSVR game.

 

Worst Trophy Image:The Walking Dead Season One/Back to the Future: The Telltale Game. These generic plat trophy images.

 

Best Female Character: Kat-Gravity Rush Kat is an amazing protagonist from an amazing series of games.

 

Best Male Character: Kratos- God of War Such an emotional journey we have taken with this monstr of a man these last few games.

 

Best Plat of the Year: Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Where do I even start with how amazing this game is? This is my GOTY so it makes since that it would be my Plat of the year.

 

Wurst Plat ov teh Yeer: Energy Invasion fuck that game man

 

Most Anticipated Plat of 2019: Kingdom Hearts 3. Can't wait to sink my teeth into this one

Edited December 15, 2018 by ChernobylNinja

[Seasonreaper]

Piece of Cake: Deadly Tower of Monsters for a Plat, Another World for 100%. Both very easy, and you can technically plat DtoM without even beating the game if you wish. Not much point though, the final boss is cool and isn't much further on.

It's Like Dark Souls: Bloodborne and NioH for literally being Soulslikes. I did a fresh, new character build for Bloodborne for my final ending so that's like playing it from the start, and well, NioH's DLC has do all missions on NG++ which is a goddamn pain in the ass. It's not *too* bad if you can beat the game on NG++++ and use equipment from there to help out with the pain in the ass missions in NG++.

 

Bad Ass Award: DOOM (2016) and NioH. Some pretty neat moments in NioH and taking down some of the tougher bosses always feels good, whilst I went out and got all the DLC trophies in DOOM so did a ton of online, managing to pull off a round with 28 kills and 0 deaths in TDM just feels great. Not usually that good, but when it clicks, it clicks hard.

Grind of the Year: DOOM (2016). It's only for DLC so not sure it fully counts, plus the multiplayer is fun, so Persona 4: Dancing All Night for getting enough credits to buy all the unlocks. Also shoutouts to Monster Hunter: World and Helldivers for their grinds which I haven't yet completed, and I'm also working on Rayman Legends as well. So much grind. Thankfully all three games are rather fun to play.

King of the Internet: DOOM (2016), for the multiplayer DLC. So many cool moments and the only game I have platinum which had extensive online interaction. FFXIV and Helldivers also had some damn fun times as usual, but no plats yet. Also some fun times in NioH co-op.

Worst Online Experience: The Chaos datacentre on FFXIV absolutely dying on multiple occasions takes this. Thankfully I wasn't doing any important progress at the times I've been affected. It's usually stable though, but hopefully it'll be fixed for Shadowbringers. Also as for games I actually have plat on, the few times I've gone on to help other people in NioH just for them to die as I load in. Not the game's fault, it's just disappointing when you don't even get to do anything.

Sleeper Hit of the Year: VA11-Hall-A. Absolutely an amazing game and one of my favourites in a long time. Easy plat too, so if that convinces anyone to give it a shot then go enjoy it. Apotheon and Deadly Tower of Monsters also have a lot of charm even if they are a bit clunky in places. Oh, and I haven't completed the challenge mode yet for my last trophy but Iconoclasts is fantastic too.

Biggest Bomb of the Year: Jak 3. Not as shit as Jak II (which I played last year) but still mediocre and nowhere near as good as Jak and Daxter. 

Best Trophy Image: Apotheon. Has a really slick looking trophy set.

Worst Trophy Image: Not got the 100% but Iconoclasts because each of the trophy types has one standard image so with no plat, that's three whole images.

Best Female Character: Sei and Stella from VA11-Hall-A. God I love those two.

Best Male Character: Doomslayer from DOOM (2016) because it's goddamn DOOMGUY but with a slightly different name. Bonus mention for Gehrman from Bloodborne as he's so cool and a badass. Also Rad Shiba from VA11-Hall-A because he's a shiba and he's rad.

Best Plat of the Year: Ratchet and Clank (2016). Races are a slight pain but the rest is just damn fun to play and the plat flows well with the game.

Worst Plat of the Year: Jak 3. Game is mediocre, challenges and orb collection is a pain in the ass.

Most Anticipated of 2019: Likely going to be picking up some games I've been meaning to play for ages, like Axiom Verge, Guacamelee 2, God of War (2018), Spider-Man, Celeste and A Hat in Time. Also completing off some of the games I'm close to platting, like Horizon: Zero Dawn and Dark Souls III which is mostly just rudimentary trophies left.

[KennethMcCormick]

[quick update] Just got the plat on Alien Isolation, so I felt I had to edit my post in the Best Plat of the Year section.

[DoctorDrPepper]

Piece of Cake:  

The vita version became my new fastest platinum this year.  At 16 minutes and 46 seconds I feel like I could have gotten it even faster if I didn’t get a phone call during it.

 

It’s Like Dark Souls:

Whoever designed the battery charging game and made the trophy, “Fully Charged” is a sadist and an asshole.

 

Bad Ass Award: 

Recalling the leviathan axe always felt so fucking good. Also the fight with Baldur, and the Valkyrie Queen, and the dragons. At all points if this game I felt like a total bad ass.

 

Grind of the Year:

Trying to get this platinum before the servers went down was a cool idea, but the 750 stars needed and the over 100 songs played became nothing but me constantly hearing the happy birthday song being sung while I tried to do literally anything else.

 

King of the Internet:

The online element was minimal and easy to do. Plus the hardest one of finding a stable tournament was made easier when I lucked into finding one being made solely for the trophy.

 

Worst Online Experience:

The online is completely dead. I thankfully found a group of three other people to grind it out with but even then it was hard. Not because of them, they were great. The game just didn’t explain itself well in the ranking system and it lead to playing the same episode over and over.

 

Sleeper Hit of the Year:

This game is amazing. Such great style and music and aesthetic and gameplay and everything. It’s one of my top five games of the year. I recommend it to everyone.

 

Biggest Bomb:

I love the original Psychonauts, and this game was a complete let down. Even as a PSVR tech demo it was boring and dull. Not to mention janky as hell. I returned the game to Gamestop as soo as it was done. I may have played some technically worse games this year, but this one let me down the most. I expected more from Psychonauts.

 

Best Trophy Image: tie

 And 

The first is the Platinum for The American Dream. The second if from VA-11 Hall-A. Guns, dogs, and anime ladies. How can you not love this?

 

Worst Trophy Image:

All the Heavy Rain trophies are the same picture of an origami dog just colored differently. Super lazy shit.

 

Best Female Character:

Top three: Jill from VA-11 Hall-A, Alex from Oxenfree, and Evie Frye from Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate.

 

Best Male Character:

Top three: Spider-Man from Spider-Man, Kratos from God of War, and Jacob Frye from Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate.

 

Best Plat of the Year:

This is my game of the year. It was never not fun and always felt spectacular. The swinging never got old. Plus the platinum was straight forward and fun. I loved this game.

 

Worst plat of the year:

Buggy, handles like shit, and boring. And yet for some reason I still wanna go for it again on PS3 just based on how stupid I think it is that this game even exists.

 

Most Anticipated Platinum of 2019:

I’m not betting on it coming out but if Cyberpunk 2077 decided to come out it’s that. I’m not holding my breath though. Next on the list would have to be The Division 2, Days Gone, or The Outer Worlds.

[JaM]

I think I will not get another plat this year so I guess it is time for me to share my liat this year  I think I will again skip the Online related awards sinxe I think I've only played 3 with Online game this year and well, not that fun experience overall.

 

PIECE OF CAKE AWARD

Telltale's Batman

 

At least I got to play it for "free". Thanka PS+ for "free" plat I guess.

 

Other Nominees:

The Walking Dead 1-3

Mecho Tales

 

IT'S LIKE DARK SOULS



YAKUZA KIWAMI
Dragon of Legend 
Completed the game in Legend Mode.

 

Great game, Fun experience overall but getting the plat sure is not that easy. The game has gave me flashbacks to rage days of God of War's challenges. It also made me hate a girl who wants me to play against a very skilled AI in pool just to satisfy her request. But above all, clearing the game on Legends is probably the  toughest one for me. The mode overall is easy especially with Golden Pistol but that car chase sequence! I gave up on platting Uncharted cause of Insane Difficulty, now you want me to play this Dino Crisis like minigame??? And if I fail, I would have to fight these guys again? Luckily I got this boss where I could vent my anger.

 

BAD ASS AWARD

DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY NT
Suzerain 
Completed Summon Trial in gauntlet mode.

 

The game might be very grindy(hint hint) but I can also say that I have very much fun playing this game. And fighting the Summons back to back to back is definitely my favorite moment in the game. Clearing it in Hard mode is very satisfying and probably one of reason why I will play the game again(well, of course only if they give me my Vivi DLC)

 

GRIND OF THE YEAR

DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY NT
Champion of Champions 
Obtained all trophies.

 

300 online wins... 300 treasure chests... Ugh, if having bad internet connection is not bad enough, they decided to have this unnecessary grindy trophy. Playing Y'shtola while using only 2 moves foe hours is definetely not fun(thanks podcast for existing). I was not really surprised that after stalling the game for months, it's plat rarity didn't changed.

Other Nominees:

ONE PIECE: PIRATE WARRIORS 3

QUEST OF DUNGEONS

ATTACK ON TITAN

 

SLEEPER HIT OF THE YEAR

TEARS TO TIARA II: HEIR OF THE OVERLORD

 

You haven't heard of the game? I don't blame you, I didn't know that this game exist either until I saw it in game list in Weeb Olympics. I searched for Image on it and I thought it is a cute chibi SRPG and the price of physical copy is cheap as well. And then I had a blast, this gme reminded me why I enjoy playing SRPG. 

Other Nominees:

CAT QUEST - I expected lots of puns. i got lots of fun.

DEMON GAZE GLOBAL EDITION - as saus for the nth time, one of the best Dungeon Crawler that I've played so far.

 

BIGGEST BOMB OF THS YEAR

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS: KNIGHTS OF BRITANNIA

 

I really like the manga and I've watched the first season of the anime. When the game was announced, I was so excited to play it. Bought thanks to hype, got disappointed on overall experience. It has no replay value imo and the RNG is a bit of the pain. It is also very short that I managed to plat it in 1 day. Not worth the full price and one of the reason why I haven't bought Little Witch Academia, Black Clover and Boku no Hero games yet.

Other Nominees:

GRAVITY RUSH 2

MEIQ

 

BEST TROPHY IMAGE

NI NO KUNI II: REVENANT KINGDOM

WORST TROPHY IMAGE

DIGIMON STORY CYBER SLEUTH: HACKER'S MEMORY

Great game, but seriously? They just copied the trophy image of the first Cyber Sleuth. 

 

BEST MALE AND FEMALE CHARACTERS

Weeb answer: Shinpachi from Gintama and Shinon from SAO Hollow Fragment.

MALE: Evan from Ni No Kuni II(explanation in next category )

FEMALE: Velvet from Tales of Berseria. One of the reason why I loved the game is because of Velvet herself and her character development.

 

BEST PLAT OF THE YEAR

NI NO KUNI II: REVENANT KINGDOM

Suikoden II is my all time favorite game, give me a game that somehow some similarity fron that game and I will play that game til the end. That was my initial mindset when I've started Ni No Kuni II. 100 characters? I will recruit them all. Build Castle from scratch? No biggie. Skirmish Minigame? Let's go! After few hours of playing the game, I was starting to love Evan. He is not the best protagonist out there but I really dunno, I really liked Evan. And there's the gameplay, I was skeptical at first since I liked the First game's gameplay. After few hours of getting used to it, I started to like the gameplay, playing KH games before helped as well I guess. Overall, I enjoyed playing the game from start to end. Probably one of the very few game that I am willing to pay for the DLC.

 

WURST PLAT OV TEH YEAR

AKIBA'S BEAT

My rant thoughts about the game

 

Kinda funny since it is one of the first game I've played this year and it is now end of the year... And I do still dislike the game.

 

MOST ANTICIPATED PLATINUM OF 2019

Kingdom Hearts III

Dragon Quest XI

The Shadow of Colossus

Spyro Trilogy

Megaman 11

Disgaea 4

...games I bought from sales.

 

Well, aside from KH3, it is just basically the games I've bought already or stalled games. I do need to cleanup my backlogs T_T

 

Edited December 20, 2018 by JaM
It's hard posting this while on mobilw you know T_T

[Metal Slime King]

2018 Year in Review

Piece of cake award - Burly Men At Sea.

I'd be hard pressed to call this a point and click adventure / puzzle game since there really isn't anything I'd call a puzzle. How about interactive picture book? Thanks for the interactive picture book, PS+. I took a bit of a break so it wouldn't inadvertently grab my fastest Platinum title.

 

It's like Dark Souls - Downwell. 

It's not like Dark Souls at all but it was the hardest game I completed this year. Random level generation and enemy placement means that you'll never memorize your way down the well but with persistence you can learn how to manage the environments well enough to set yourself up for that one storied run.

 

Bad ass award - Downwell. Honorary mention to Curses 'n Chaos.

That aforementioned storied run. The first time I got past level 4 on hard mode was obviously the first time I fought the boss on hard mode and I beat him with 1HP left. I was quite happy with that as I'd previously discounted the chance of ever beating hard mode but with that one run the plat was finally mine. Getting a 200 combo in the Chaos Realm for the last trophy in Curses 'n Chaos was an exciting moment as well and I managed to complete the entire area without taking any damage! That didn't take me nearly as long as Downwell though.

 

Grind of the year - Spellspire. Honorary mention to Brawlhalla.

The grind for Spellspire on the PS4 is pretty bad and it's almost twice as worse on the Vita. Getting both stacks around the same time was like 4x the grind! The MP in Brawlhalla can't really be boosted effectively so I played it all legit and by the time I was on my last trophy, that 100,000 gold grind, I still needed about 50K gold. The most effective way to grind gold was 10min fights against AI bots in a private server for like 150G so I did that ... forever!

 

King of the Internet - Destiny.

Maybe it's because the game is essentially a ported PS3 game, I don't know but I get significantly more stable netplay from Destiny than any other PS4 title I've logged online with my subpar internet connection. Also what you are doing is fun, I liked all the PvE activities. Raids and strikes and extra hard Nightfall strikes and tooling around in patrols doing special events. The Court of Oryx and the trials of Elders or whatever that one was called. Good times.

 

Worst online experience - Drawn to Death.

I had numerous connection issues playing this game. Me and the people I was playing with had to frequently close the application and restart to connect again.

 

Sleeper hit of the year - NeverDead. Honorary mention to Truck Racer.

NeverDead was an older title that got blasted by critics for it's controls and game mechanics and silly story but I had a lot of fun with it. It's a 3rd person shooter / hack 'n slash where your character is immortal, if you're damaged you lose limbs until you're just a head rolling around until you can regenerate or collect your body parts. I thought the online was fun even though the escort missions were a pain but they only took a couple of attempts. Truck Racer was a PS+ freebie. I wasn't expecting much but I quite liked it.

 

Biggest bomb - Drawn to Death. Honorary mention to Bombing Busters.

I don't think Drawn to Death is a bad game, it drew me in with it's unique art style and it played alright but for a game with a creative theme it was rather limited in scope. It would've been sweet if there were some PvE game modes, like your team against waves of enemies or some giant boss encounters. The reason I'm putting it down for my biggest bomb is the producer had some clout from working on God of War apparently but then his passion project is getting shut down March 2019 and since it's an online only game that's it. So it didn't really stay up all that long. Don't forget the above mentioned network connection issues.

No one was really expecting much from Bombing Busters but it still managed to disappoint. This was by far the worst title offered on PS+ this year. How do you mess up a simple Bomberman ripoff? Poor controls and truly obnoxious voice clips are a good start. If you couldn't disable the voice there would've been no way I could've been bothered to get the 100%.

 

Best trophy image - Rime.

 

Worst trophy image - Truck Racer.

 

Best female character - Abigail "Fetch" Walker from inFamous First Light.

Best male character - Sir Galahad from The Order: 1886.

Most of the games I played this year didn't really feature a strong narrative so I'm not saying these are the best written characters ever but they stand out as the most memorable characters when I look back on my plats for this year.

 

Best plat of the year - Destiny.

This is easily one of my longest plats. I've never really been into first person shooters but a friend of mine gifted me this game on PS3 back in December 2014 so I could play with him and his friends. I took a bit of a break from gaming and by the time I came back with a PS4 they had all moved on to other things so I wasn't very motivated to buy the game again on PS4. Fast forward a couple of years and there was a particularly good sale on Destiny and the DLC and I decided to jump back in and clear it off. I got back into the game and found a guild and eventually got all the plat requirements in time to make Destiny my 100th plat, which was some pretty good timing. I stuck with it to grab the 100% and still fire it up occasionally to join in on a raid or a nightfall strike because it's pretty good fun.

 

Wurst plat ov teh yeer - Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space.

Ugh. A first person point and click adventure. You didn't even need to beat the game to get the plat and once I had the plat, that was that. I couldn't delete this turd fast enough.

[Happy]

I’ve been looking forward to this thread for months and now it turns out i’ve missed it by like three weeks. Either way, here i go:

 

Piece of Cake Award - Celeste 

 

To be honest, this wasn’t actually the easiest platinum i got this year. But the point is that it could have been if i’d wanted that.

 

It’s like Dark Souls - Thumper

 

I always find it really rewarding to beat something i’d previously thought to be utterly impossible. I think the reason i struggled with Thumper so much is because it’s so demanding in terms of player attention that i had trouble playing it for more than 1-2 hours per day.

 

Bad Ass Award - Every second of playing Hollow Knight except when i’m failing miserably 

 

It’s a good thing that i haven’t been able to actually platinum this game thus far because it would have easily sweeped most of my awards this year. Easily one of my absolute favorites this generation, maybe even one of my all-time favorites. 

 

Grind of the Year - 100% in Borderlands 1

 

This was not the game that demanded the most of my time to complete this year, there’s actually a few significantly longer ones. It was, however, the only game i fell asleep during not once but a total of three times while trying to complete it. That has to count for something.

 

King of the Internet- Monster Hunter World

 

Such a massive amount of memorable moments playing both with friends and randoms. The Extreme Behemoth fight almost made the bad ass award.

 

Worst Online Experience - GTA V (PS3)

 

I recently made the horrible mistake of deciding to go back and finally complete the PS3 version of GTA V. The online is an utter mess at this point. Everything still takes ages to load and every second session you join has a hacker messing with the weather and teleporting players around. It’s the post-apocalyptic wasteland of videogames and there’s almost some horrible charm in its utter anarchy.

 

Sleeper Hit of the Year - Deadly Premonition 

 

Games are generally quite a bit less subjective than most mediums. Opinions on a certain film for example might vary from “masterpiece” to “utterly unwatchable”. With games you have aspects that are generally not too debatable such as how well the game functions technically or how responsive the gameplay is. Deadly Premonition however, is a game so odd and so incredibly unique that it transcends all of this. My recommendation: Try the game. And while you do, assume that every single aspect of the game is completely intentional by the developers. I can’t promise you’ll like it but i can say for sure that i loved it.

 

Biggest Bomb of the Year - Nothing tbh

 

There was no shortage of letdowns and marketing shitshows this year but i was blessed with a complete disinterest in most of modern AAA gaming so i really wasn’t affected at all. Everything i played this year either met or exceeded my expectations.

 

Best trophy image - Thumper

 

Gotta be that Thumper platinum. I love the subtle synthwave aesthetic they’ve got going here.

 

Worst trophy image - Cosmic Star Heroine

 

Again, i seem to have gotten lucky here, all of my platinums have been rather pretty this year. CSH isn’t bad, it’s just kinda lazy i guess.

 

Best female character - Madeleine from Celeste

 

Madeleine is cute! Cute!

 

Best male character - Francis York Morgan from Deadly Premonition 

 

Francis is cute! Cute!

 

Best plat of the year - Monster Hunter World

 

This game is the reason i missed all my platinum goals that i set for myself this year. I’m over 600 hours in and i still play it whenever there’s new events going on.

 

Wurst plat ov teh year - Claire

 

Not outright bad but just extremely unmemorable to me personally.

 

Most anticipated platinum of 2019

 

I’m having trouble determining one specific game that i’m looking forward to the most next year. Of course i am pretty excited about Judge Eyes coming to the west. I’m not sure if Death Stranding will be any good at all but it should be very interesting either way. Very hopeful towards Samurai Spirits. This most likely won’t get a platinum but i’m extremely excited for the MonHun expansion coming in fall too.

[Dr_Mayus]

@Happy glad you got your games in Also if you like Deadly Premonition I recommend Twin Peaks if you haven't seen it yet (the game is HEAVILY based on that show).

 

@ChernobylNinja shame you didn't play PSA when it first came out because the online was actually really good then. I haven't played it in years but that game had a lot of potential

 

@JaM Hey most of my WURST PLATS are usually the first game I played that year. You know it sucks when you can keep the hate going for over 12 months

 

@DoctorDrPepper what is your sleeper hit? You just put an image and not the game

 

Also it is the 30th...get your Awards in

 

I will probably do mine on Wednesday as I may plat 1 more game (not sure) before the end of the year and I have to work/go out on Tuesday so I won't have time then.

 

 

[DoctorDrPepper]

@Dr_Mayus that is Donut County

[Dr_Mayus]

43 minutes ago, DoctorDrPepper said:

@Dr_Mayus that is Donut County

I see

 

 I have heard the name but didn't really hear anything about it. Good to know

[DoctorDrPepper]

@Dr_Mayus dude play it. It’s tied with Spider-Man and God of War as my three way Game of the Year. It’s fun, it’s enjoyable, and it’s an easy plat. The easy plat has nothing to do with how much I love it but it’s a nice bonus.

[Dr_Mayus]

4 hours ago, DoctorDrPepper said:

@Dr_Mayus dude play it. It’s tied with Spider-Man and God of War as my three way Game of the Year. It’s fun, it’s enjoyable, and it’s an easy plat. The easy plat has nothing to do with how much I love it but it’s a nice bonus.

Maybe I will...maybe I will

 

[ChernobylNinja]

23 hours ago, Dr_Mayus said:

 

@ChernobylNinja shame you didn't play PSA when it first came out because the online was actually really good then. I haven't played it in years but that game had a lot of potential

 

 

Oh I did on PS3, but trying to get the vita stack four years out was a mistake.

[Dragon-Archon]

Here are my awards: 

 

Without a doubt TellTale's Tales from the Borderlands. I already played this before, then got it from PS+ at some point. Sadly it wasn't as funny as the first time due to me knowing which jokes and funny moments were coming, but still a good story.

 

 

This one definitely goes to Rogue Legacy. Defeating the remixed bosses with a preset character at level 1, while bosses are level 275. Especially Alexander IV and Neo Khidr were the hardest 2 for me.

 

 

In Grand Kingdom I became the highest scoring player of my faction during online wars and earned the title of Hero + got a special Hero weapon. The bard of my faction's capital would also sing a song about me for the next day  .

 

Bard's song:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Another no-brainer. Toukiden The Age of Demons requires insane amounts of grinding. The biggest grinds in this game are to obtain at least 1 of every material for the slayer record + area record and collecting all mitama (souls of fallen heroes that grant abilities and buffs).

 

Collecting 1 of every material applies to both enemy drops and materials that are found in mission areas. To make things worse: the post-game maps have a completely new list of materials (both for areas and enemies). In addition to that: there's a specific material (Eye of Truth Mask) that can only be obtained by breaking every part of large oni. However, breaking every part doesn't guarantee an Eye of Truth Mask will be obtained. Oh no, you just have a chance to obtain it. And this material must be obtained for every single large oni to completely fill out the slayer record. Areas can also have an Eye of Truth Mask as a pickup reward, but again, this is random and has to be obtained for every area to fill out the area record. As if all that wasn't bad enough, materials obtained for completing a mission doesn't even count towards the slayer record and area record. Which means it's necessary to obtain the Eye of Truth Mask 30 times (once for every area and once for every large oni).

 

There are also small, grunt oni that have enemy drops, but luckily no Eye of Truth Mask. But fear not, the developer found a way to add annoying things for small oni too. There are special version of a few small oni that only spawn after killing the regular version and coming back to the area. Besides that, there are shadow oni, which are usually invisible and can only be seen with the Eye of Truth ability. However, these shadow oni have a chance to spawn.

 

The A.I. party members get in the way most of the time, as there's no way to issue commands. For example: after a part has been broken, it must be purified. Otherwise the oni can regenerate it and that wouldn't count as breaking all parts. When breaking a part it's random whether or not the A.I. helps out with purification or keeps attacking. Another thing is the A.I. continuously attacking parts that have been broken, which deals more damage. That in turn makes it needlessly harder to break all parts before the oni is defeated. Or when an oni uses an AoE attack that lingers, the A.I. just charges through it, instead of going around it. How hard would it be for the developer to add a command system so that the retarded A.I would prioritize purification, hang back, go all out, or even focus on reviving? Apparently not that hard, as it's been added in Toukiden Kiwami. It's possible to take fewer party members, but this results in fights taking longer to finish, which is highly unwanted when farming for mitama.

 

There are 200 mitama in the game and about 5 are story-related. The rest has to be farmed from oni. Mitama have a chance to be dropped from oni and you can't just fight the easiest mission ~195 times. Nope, mitama are dropped only by fighting the correct oni in the correct map. Of course there are different drops in the post-game maps. Then there are story missions and online missions. You've probably guessed it by now: some mitama are exclusive to story missions due to the area-oni combination. It's actually better to use the online missions, as it's possible to use other players' avatars as NPCs during these. Not only are those a huge improvement over regular A.I. members in terms of damage output and skills, but it's possible to stack a buff that increases the chance to obtain a mitama. Each player character can have 2 of these Heroes Guidance buffs, so a party has a maximum of 8. The avatars I received both had 2 of these buffs, which didn't disappear after a mission. That's right, having these buffs on your own character means it'll disappear after completing a mission. Obtaining them is up to RNG too, as one is obtained by visiting the Pool of Purity with a specific character. This character is fixed and only changes when completing a mission. The other one is obtained by making a donation to the offering box. This last one can be save scummed though. Remember those shadow oni I mentioned earlier? Well, those have a grand total of 24 mitama too. There are 2 shadow oni and there's one for each map and post-game map. Getting them to spawn (and more importantly, obtaining the mitama) is up to RNG too. There are 2 DLC packs that have guaranteed shadow oni spawns, which makes it possible to obtain 8 out of those 24 mitama. I eventually caved in and bought them. There was also an error in this mitama checklist: Kajiwara Kagetoki isn't obtained from Honour Bloodhunter, but Honour Manhunter. I wasted a lot of time trying to obtain it from Bloodhunter. After 50 attempts, I moved on to shadow oni farming and got it the first time from Manhunter. I can't believe no one updated the checklist in the ~4 years since the game has been released.

 

 

This one goes to God Eater 2 Rage Burst, because Grand Kingdom had no pvp multiplayer and GE2 was better than Toukiden The Age of Demons  .

 

 

Toukiden again. The servers are completely empty and to speed up the grind slightly it's possible to obtain avatars from other people that have a specific buff. It was a chore to find people that still had them and managed to obtain 2 of them in the end.

 

 

Definitely Mary Skelter Nightmares. I like dungeon crawlers and this game combined multiple fairy tales into a new tale, which seemed interesting. I played this game with no expectations and it turned out to be great. The story was a bit rushed at the end, but overal I liked it a lot.

 

Runner up: Dust An Elysian Tail, it's a very good example of indie games that work great with no bugs and glitches. Fidget is also a great sidekick, who reminded me a lot of Daxter from the Jak series both in appearance and humour.

 

Runner up:
TellTale's Batman, got it from PS+ once, but heard it wasn't that good. I'm not a fan of Batman, so don't know much of the lore and background, which may be why I liked it. Especially the part about Bruce's parents was interesting.

 

 

Since Toukiden The Age of Demons has already been axed (+ stabbed, sliced, and skewered) *takes a moment to savour that mental image*, it's time to bring in some fresh blood.... and kill it slowly. So, it's time to put Mind=0 through the grinder.

 

In this game teenagers are transported to another world where they form contracts with other beings to fight together. These beings are called MINDs and people that have a contract are Minders. This game may be the biggest bomb of 2018 so far. It's best described as a terrible Persona clone. But, I'm getting ahead of myself: before going into details about that, let's take a look at the good things first. *Thinks long and hard for a while* right, good things about this game ... oh, I got one: it's possible to equip/unequip skills in this game, provided you have the necessary skill card. That way you can adapt to new dungeons and boss fights.

 

In case you're thinking "Is that it? Nothing else was good about the game??", then congrats; we're on the same page. And nope, that's it for the good things. The story ... well, calling it a story is actually way too much credit. Anyway, the story is very lacking and doesn't explain anything, except for the basics about MINDs. That's it, there's a very brief explanation about the bad guy's plan at the end, but the majority isn't explained. This game just feels like a prologue that overstays its welcome and it was obviously intended to have a sequel. The story also takes place over the course of 9-10 days. After the initial meeting (and getting their butts kicked), the party is somehow strong enough to defeat the bad guys 2-4 days later.

 

The antagonists are introduced exactly halfway through the game. Before that the main characters wind up in dungeons filled with hostile MINDs that want to kill them, so the logical conclusion is to reach the end of the dungeon rather than finding the exit. Once the antagonists are introduced, not much changes. Nothing is revealed. Only after defeating each of them, you see a short scene (for a lack of better word, as it's just a black and white screen with some dialogue) that vaguely implies why they joined. Even their fate is not clear. One is confirmed to have died (for reasons unknown), one got away, and the other two... I don't know: they could be dead or escaped . If it wasn't for the confirmation about one of them dying, I never would've guessed it.

 

Most dungeons are very uninspired and the interior is recycled often. Interiors include an abandoned factory, subway trains, pure white mental facility-ish setting, back alley shopping street where every store's shutters are closed, and some hideous thing that resembles a 3-year old's colouring book. I liked the Japanese festival-ish theme and the movie theater though. The post-game dungeon had nothing new, instead it recycled every other dungeon. Enemies are also recycled over and over again with just a palette swap. After the second dungeon there's only 1 new enemy per dungeon.

 

There's no character growth or real events that make you care about the characters. There are 4 events per main character, but those don't add anything useful.

 

Enhancing skills at first doesn't seem to do anything, as the skill's description doesn't reflect the changes. You need to manually equip a skill, then take a look at the stat boosts or damage inflicted to notice the difference. Also, enhancing skills in one go from start to max costs much less skill points. If you raise a skill a few levels per time, the cost goes up about 100 times.

 

The floors in dungeons also don't follow a numerical order, so it's possible to go from floor 2 to 6. I'm guessing the devs thought it would be way too convenient to keep track of such a thing.

 

Finally, there's no item to escape from dungeons, you need to reach a warp portal.This is especially annoying in the post-game dungeon, where you need to backtrack from floor 50 to floor 42 to escape, which is BS.

 

The winner is definitely Valkyria Chronicles. I like the image so much, it became trophy #9,000 to keep it on my profile as a milestone.

 

Runner ups:

Cyberdimension Neptunia 4 Goddesses Online, Grand Kingdom, and Mary Skelter Nightmares

 

 

Without a doubt Claire, I think the image speaks for itself...

 

Definitely Laura S. Arseid from Trails of Cold Steel series. 

Spoiler

She has a great personality and moral code, looks great, and wields a greatsword with ease. She strives to be a knight like her idol, trains hard to master her family's fighting style, and also has a feminine side that unexpectedly shows up. 

 

 

Definitely Okabe Rintarou from Steins;Gate 0. That moment when Hououin Kyouma returns was great.

Spoiler

 

 

Another one for Trails of Cold Steel II. The first game had a great cliffhanger, so I was very excited to play this game. The grinds were also not as bad as the first game.

 

Definitely Mind=0 for the reasons mentioned in Biggest Bomb of the Year. I thought it was going to be a Persona clone...

 

 

And finally

 

 

I'm looking forward to:

Kingdom Hearts III
God Eater 3

Mary Skelter 2

Death End Re;Quest

Dragon Star Varnier

[SpaceCoresDad]

Seems only right to get on this now that 2018 is over. So..

PIECE OF CAKE AWARD:

Y'know, people give this game a lot of shit for being easy, but I thought it was genuinely really funny. It plays on a ton of dating sim tropes, and I honestly thought the writing was hilarious. For like 3 bucks, it's great. Zero complaints.

Honorable Mention to Steins;Gate too which I finished just after the new year turned. It's a visual novel, and it was free, but it was a damn good one.

 

IT'S LIKE DARK SOULS AWARD:

Jesus Christ. I loved finally beating this game, and it felt good to do it, but oh my GOD were some of those hard time trials difficult. I spent like three hours on the third colossus alone, and longer on the second to last. Way too frustrating, though I hear it's better on the PS4 version.

Honorable Mention to The Last of Us for Grounded mode. Having to do all that shit, then doing it twice because I didn't want to cheat was torture.

 

BAD ASS AWARD:

Just... just the whole game. I loved it. If I could kiss this game I would. It's over the top, ridiculous, and so unapologetically anime that I loved it. 10/10.

Honorable Mention to the time I took down a Thunderjaw for the first time in Horizon: Zero Dawn. Not a whole lot better than that.

 

GRIND OF THE YEAR AWARD:

Fuck me, this one took ages. It wasn't even really all that hard, but having to do the same damn thing over and over for EVERY character and EVERY monster was just so tedious. Thank god I had a helpful boost partner or it would've taken even longer for some of the more sickening challenges like with Hank. At least I platinumed it before the servers shut down.

Honorable Mention to Friday the 13th which I haven't even completed yet. That one's going to be a pain in the ass this year.

 

KING OF THE INTERNET AWARD:

Easily. Nothing else compares. This game got me into a discord server full of amazing people, and was one of the smoothest boosts for a game I had been afraid to try the online on. For the PS3 no less! Absolutely lovely.

Honorable Mention to Quantum Theory though I haven't gotten the platinum yet. If you can find me a group of >6 people who are dedicated enough to do all of the bullshit for THAT awful game, I applaud you. If any of that group, and there will only be the one group, reads this, you are all fuckin' champs for helping me through that last little bit after you were all done. Cheers.

 

WORST ONLINE EXPERIENCE AWARD:

Ugh. Old servers coupled with poor trophy tracking and borderline mentally disabled groups made this a chore to get the multiplayer trophies for. I did it, but it was a total shitfest the whole time, and I will never, ever be wanting to do it again. Thank god it's over, at least.

Honorable Mention to Aliens vs Predator though I don't have the plat for that either. Really, my group was pretty good all things considered, but the Six Pack trophy is a fucking bitch. So is 10 Deathmatch Wins. shudders

 

SLEEPER HIT OF THE YEAR AWARD:

This game is adorable, fun, and tricky in all the best ways. I'm not even a huge fan of pinball and I adored every second of this game. It's a Metroidvania/Pinball mashup, which sounds like it would be weird, but it's great. Trust me, check it out.

Honorable Mention to Gorogoa. I had no idea what I was going into with that game, and honestly I had no idea what I got going out, but I loved it. It's short, it's easy, and it's a great time.

 

BIGGEST BOMB OF THE YEAR AWARD:

...Is it too late to rag on Indigo Prophecy because it was a PS2 game? Is David Cage AAA? He certainly is now so I'm counting it. This game is fucking awful. The Simon Says controls are a far cry from Heavy Rain's, and I swear, you have to have fucking precognition on some of the hard mode ones. The story is drivel, the voice acting sounds like they were bored out of their minds, and it was just... bad. Would not recommend.

Honorable Mention to Mafia III. It wasn't really bad, and I even had a decent time, it was just... kinda boring. I don't think I would tell others to play it if they weren't already interested.

 

BEST TROPHY IMAGE AWARD:

Even though Evolve was a grind, I gotta admit, I love their art style. Getting a cupcake at the end of the whole thing did feel very rewarding.

Honorable Mention to Aer for also having a cupcake, though not as pretty.

 

WORST TROPHY IMAGE AWARD:

vomits What's even going on here? What's with the poses? The weird translucent Iron Men in the background? Iron Man 2 was a shit game with a shit trophy list. I only got it because I found it in the back of my games shelf and though it'd be funny to play as a joke. 

Honorable Mention to Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters for also being a crappy movie game with crappy art. 

 

BEST FEMALE CHARACTER AWARD:

I mean... do I even need to say anything? What a fantastic game with fantastic characterization. I love Senua. She must be protected.

Honorable Mention to Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider for having Lara Croft at her best. Really excited to play Shadow in the upcoming year.

 

BEST MALE CHARACTER AWARD:

Isaac doesn't even speak in this one and he's the best damn character in the game. He's relatable, he's not a badass action space hero out to kill everything in his path, and he's not afraid to show when he's fucking terrified at the end of the game. 

Honorable Mention to Cole Phelps from L.A. Noire, which I played this year but did not platinum. If you've played the game, you know what I'm talking about.

 

BEST PLAT OF THE YEAR AWARD:

I mean... c'mon. Was it going to be anything else? This game is definitively how you do an excellent trophy set. You include a few stunts that are doable, have you go all the way across the map, 100% the game, and have a fucking great time doing it. This is probably my GOTY regardless, or at least in my top 5, but a great platinum too. Looking forward to the DLC soon.

Honorable Mention goes to Alice: Madness Returns. Having to play the game again to pick up the collectables I missed wasn't even really a hassle because I had a good time with it. When you make a game fun enough that collectable finding is still a good time, I think that's a decent thing to have.

 

WURST PLAT OF TEH YEAR AWARD:

This game doesn't have a platinum but it deserves to be talked about. This game is a fucking pile of dogshit. I bought it for three bucks as a joke for a challenge in October and oh my god, what an awful missed opportunity this game was. I was expecting inFAMOUS style combat using water and stuff to knock down enemies, but no! The water only powers only appear in the final 15 minutes of the game! There are SO many missable challenges (no, not trophies, challenges, though you'll need all of them too for 100%) that it's not even funny, and there are a couple glitched ones too so good luck with that. It's boring, the storyline is basically non-existent, the main character is a cardboard cutout, it's just SO. BAD. Don't play this game. It's not worth a couple ultra rares.

Honorable Mention goes to Kholat for also being bad, though the trophy list is thankfully pretty self explanatory. The only hard part is getting through the game without dying, which if you follow a walkthrough, becomes trivial.

 

MOST ANTICIPATED PLATINUM OF 2019:

Well, I DID get The Witcher 3 for Christmas, so that'll be fun. I've also been looking forward to The Last of Us 2 which is apparently coming out this year. Maybe Death Stranding? I'm game for anything.

[zadorvp]

Yay, I wasn't months late this time

 

Piece of Cake Award:

Spoiler

Slyde... I don't think I need to explain why?

It's Like Dark Souls:

Spoiler

I can't think of any really difficult games I would have played this year. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory and Jak X: Combat Racing had some difficult parts and bullshit AI at times, so I guess they're the closest examples.

Bad Ass Award:

Spoiler

Beating the hardest fight of the standalone FFXV Comrades with just one other real player and two AIs certainly felt epic, even though it was not tough.

Grind of the Year:

Spoiler

Maximum hacker rank in Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory was somewhat annoying to get, but I also played a few RPGs that included mandatory and optional grinding and lots of it

King of the Internet:

Spoiler

A Way Out when it comes to smaller multiplayer experiences and Final Fantasy XV Comrades when talking about bigger multiplayer experiences. Friday the 13th remains my favourite, but I still haven't finished all trophies in that.

Worst Online Experience:

Spoiler

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory, sadly. I ended up having only a total of 2 real player online fights in it There were no players when I was looking for them.

Sleeper Hit of the Year:

Spoiler

Kind of a tie between A Way Out (it's really a great multiplayer experience) and The Council (loved the exploration, characters, setting, and RPG character build system)

Biggest Bomb of the Year:

Spoiler

I don't have a proper example since I liked every game that I had been hyped about, but The Inpatient was the one that let me down a bit in the end and didn't quite match my hype.

Best Trophy Image:

Spoiler

Worst Trophy Image:

Spoiler

Best Female Character:

Spoiler

Veronica from Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age or Kassandra from Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Best Male Character:

Spoiler

Connor from Detroit: Become Human

Best Plat of the Year:

Spoiler

Tough one. My top 3 most fun platinums are probably Detroit: Become Human, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, and The Council (Digimon was not a fun platinum when it comes to the hacker rank grind...). Í'll go with Dragon Quest.

Wurst Plat ov teh Yeer:

Spoiler

Little Adventure on the Prairie

Most Anticipated Platinum of 2019:

Spoiler

Kingdom Hearts 3 is a definite pick, though I'm also looking forward to games like Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, Crystal Chronicles, FFVIII (come on, S-E, be nice and port that too!), the Digimon survival game, Psychonauts 2, and possibly Skull & Bones.

 

Edited January 2, 2019 by zadorvp

[Maverick6146]

Piece of Cake

I finally autopoped the Asia version of Sound Shapes.

 

It's Like Dark Souls

Didn't play any games similar to souls. However I did 100% Nioh & Muramasa Rebirth this year, which are fairly challenging to me. If we have to stick to platinum i will use Shadow of Tomb raider here. The no checkpoint run is just too stressful for me.

 

Bad Ass

Divinity: Original Sin. There were too many miss-able trophies and the lone wolf trick somehow didn't work for me. In the end, Fortunately all of missables poped and i found a better workaround for the lone wolf and poped the platinum.

 

Grind of the Year

Red Dead Redemption 2: It is not the grind ifself but all the handicaps coming with the grind, especially the gold medals. There's one mission that requires to loot all the items I played whole six times because my bag is full and the game refused to highlight one of the tonics. And all those unskippable dialogues, tight-as-hell time limits....

Exist Archive got the honorable mention here due to its buggy nature. The game itself and grinding is not so bad, but you could easily lose 40-60min progress when the game crashes in the middle of the dungeon, there's no checkpoint whatsoever. Plus a few of its platforming moments are just irritating.

 

King of the Internet

Didn't have too much online experience and I will put Homefront: Revolution here even though i plated the game on Jan.1, 2019. There are very few people still playing online but i met a few who are very helpful and it made the online experience nice and easy.

The boosting community in RDR2 online is not bad either

 

Worst Online Experience

All the free roaming experience in RDR2. There are too many players who keep doing nonsense stuff. I mean, i get it when you shoot each other if you are in 2nd, 3rd or 4th place in race. But why the hell people still do this when they are in 11th, 12th place?

 

Sleeper Hit of the Year

 

I will put Styx: Shard of the darkness here because I am a fan of the genre. Unfortunately the game only attracts fans now. It is interesting to see the platinum rate jumped from 5% in previous title to 20% in this one.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is my honorable mention.

 

Biggest Bomb of the Year

I would say it is Life is strange: Before the storm. When they remove the criminal suspense part from this title, i am just totally out of its targeted audience.

 

Best Trophy Image/Worst Trophy Image

Didn't pay much attention to the images, but all the trophies that use the same images should be put here as worst. Especially for Quantum Dream games when the devs put so much details in elsewhere.

 

Best Female Character

A2 in Nier: Automata. I should thank these Japanese developers who still stick to their old standard of female depiction.

Senua in Hellblade: Senua's sacrifice got the honorable mention.

 

Best Male Character

Connor in Detroit: Become human. He is one of the character who has an interesting development in a game that filled with predictable characters.

 

Best Plat of the Year

Nier: Automata. I like this game.

Samurai Warriors 3: Chronicles is my personal best simply because I put so much time and effort in preparation for playing this game.

 

Worst plat of the Year

Master Reboot. The platinum is easy enough but the implementation of this game is just too crude for me to like. I think i am way over the age of playing with objects of different shapes.

 

Most Anticipated Plat of 2019

A few games from Japanese studios, Sekiro: Shadow dies twice, maybe Nioh 2.

[Dr_Mayus]

Great collection of awards this year everyone  I was trying to get one more game platted this year but I guess Secret of Mana will have to wait for the next Year End Awards to get a bunch of awards

 

Piece of Cake Award - Guardians of the Galaxy

I platted other games like Burly Men and POWGI but I couldn't give this award to those games as Burly Men did require a guide for some trophies and POWGI got very repetitive after awhile (so I had to keep stopping).

 

Guardians of the Galaxy, on the other hand, was a fantastic ride and all the trophies were earned just by beating it. So like a piece of cake it was fun, enjoyable and had you wanting more.

 

It's Like Dark Souls - Just Cause 3

I didn't plat many difficult games this year so I will give this award to Just Cause 3 for some of the Wing Suit challenges. The actual game wasn't difficult but some of those challenges did demand very precise controls making this my toughest game I played.

 

Bad Ass Award - Just Cause 3 Wingsuit Challenges

As I mentioned before these were mostly bullshit but there was one that every one kept talking about online as the "hardest challenge in the game". After 5 starring some of the challenges I decided to get that one over with because I figured "I will either be able to do it and plat the game or fail and not plat the game"

 

Well I watched a video on the challenge and then loaded it up and after only 3 attempts I 5 starred it. I know this doesn't sound super bad ass but most people were talking about 30 or 40 attempts and not even coming close so I felt pretty good about myself

 

Grind of the Year - Injustice 2 - Cat Fight

Motherfucker this trophy was bullshit. This trophy was designed to get you to buy Loot Boxes...but even if you had bought them it would still take you thousands of boxes. I went back through my status updates to find some of my rants and stats. 738 Bronze Boxes, 468 Silver Boxes, 611 Gold Boxes, 608 Platinum Boxes and 88 Diamond Boxes before this fucking ability unlocked. Now can you imagine paying for all those boxes hoping you get Cat Call?  This is just beyond stupid and this trophy is the only reason Injustice 2 is as rare a platinum as it is.

 

For your enjoyment (or you can just click the link) here are some excepts from my status updates during this time. 

 

"If everyone who reads this could sacrifice 1 trophy to the RNG gods that would be appreciated. " - July 2

 

"I don't have to say a lot more about the way I feel about Nether Realms. No respect, no honor. There is no honor among game companies in the first place.

 

They put hard times on Dr Mayus and his friends. You don't know what hard times are daddy. Hard times are when you have to play 24 hours with every character and it only counts for the character that is used by player 1. Hard times are when you win over and over in King of the Hill and no one gives you a single Respect point, and hard times are when a man has opened 2000 boxes, 2000 boxes and they give him a common piece of gear and tell him you have to play more Multiverse, daddy. That's hard times, that's hard times, and Nether Realms, you put hard times on this community by preventing Dr_Mayus from earning the plat, that's hard time, and we all had hard times together.

 

I admit I don't game like the gamers of today is supposed to game. My Hannah Montana plat is just a little embarrassing. My My Name is Mayo plat is just a little embarrassing, but brotha I'm bad and they know I'm bad, and there were two bad people, one was Omnislash, and he's don't post no more, and the other is right here.

 

Nether Realm, the Injustice 2 plat belongs to the people, I'm gonna reach out right now, I want you at your computers to know, my hand is touching your hand, for this gathering of  the biggest body of gamers on this website, in this universe, all over the world. Now reach it out,  because the love that was given to me in this time, I will repay back to you, because I will unlock Cat Call. I will beat the RNG Gods at their own game." - July 4

 

"Gorilla Grodd and Joker at Level 20. Still no Cat Call though " - July 10

 

"There was a random Ability Multiverse yesterday but couldn't get Cat Call. " - July 11

 

"OK It is Injustice 2 Anniversary so they have an event where there is 10 boss battles that each give you 4 platinum boxes and if you beat the objectives you get 3 diamond boxes...did I get Cat Call with 17 bronzes, 11 silvers, 9 golds, 38 platinums, 4 diamonds...noooooooooooooope." - July 13

 

Fuck Cat Call

 

King of the Internet

OK...hear me out on this one. Quantum Theory is one of the most bullshit online experiences out there. Even when this game was new I doubt anyone got it legit because the requirements are simply insane and this game was never popular. THAT BEING SAID IT WAS STILL ONE OF MY MOST FUN ONLINE EXPERIENCES.

 

I came up with this crazy idea of platting the Ultra Rare alphabet and I mentioned QT in the Alpha Thread. Well @Phil saw it and decided to do something about it. After inviting me to his discord group (and me actually joining this time) he found a bunch of crazy fuckers who all decided to go for the plat. I think I am the only one that actually hasn't platted the game yet So I may not be active on the discord recently but this group made grinding these online trophies a lot of fun (or at least took away from the horrible online experience this actually would have been).

 

So big thank you to @Phil, @Smashguy, @BeautifulTorment, @Bullstomp, @daftprophet, @Metal Slime King, @FriedEggsOnaNail, and if I am forgetting anyone I apologize 

 

Worst Online Experience - Mortal Kombat X - Respect Fighter

Earn 1000 respect points in King of the Hill...OK I am not the greatest at fighting games but if I beat you then at least give me 1 point. I went through SO MANY wins without ever getting a point. I would always give 10 to someone unless I discovered they didn't give points back. I actually got to about 700 points after many frustrating attempts when I finally decided to just boost the rest of it by finding someone and hopping from lobby to lobby trading wins. Nether Realms needs to fix this and at least give 10 base points to any one that wins so you at least get something for winning (and other people respect points could just be added on). I would post the status updates for this as well but unlike Cat Call these are all over the place as I worked on this trophy for about 8 months.

 

Sleeper Hit of the Year -Typoman Revised.

I picked this game up cheap and was very surprised by it. It was a fun little patformer that's puzzles revolved around spelling things to advance. The atmosphere was dark and dreary, the boss fights were fun, and it was just short enough that it didn't over stay its welcome.

 

Check it out as it is a quick but rewarding game.

 

Biggest Bomb of the Year

Ooh...Just Cause 3 making it on 3 times this year.

 

I loved Just Cause 2 so much so I was very excited when Just Cause 3 came free to Plus. Wow was this a let down.

 

It was just so boring. Maybe it was because JC2 didn't make you go for 100% for the plat...or maybe it was just one of the first Open World games I played to completion...I don't know. I do know that halfway through JC3 I was just done with the game.

 

The game looked beautiful but who cares when you are ziplining or flying around the world as fast as you can because it is so freaking huge that you just want to get to next identical looking outpost/city/base to liberate it like you did for the other 200 bases/cities/outposts. Graphics and Huge Worlds don't matter if it is BORING. Just make a beautiful looking linear game and make us care about the world because otherwise it is all just window dressing.

 

I know JC4 is out now but even if that went free to Plus I don't think I will pick it up...this game broke me on the series and I have no desire to see any more of this series.

 

Best Trophy Image - Yoku's Island Express

To be honest most of my plat images sucked this year but at least Yoku was super colourful. It is basically just the cover art but it stands out and makes you happy to earn it so I will give it the award

 

Worst Trophy Image-Typoman Revised

OK I loved this game but that trophy sucks. This game was all about the clever art design and creating characters out of words..and they give you that as the plat image? I mean Shadows of Mordor's sucks as well but that game is terrible so it deserves a shitty plat image (spoilers for later).

 

Best Female Character - Saints Row 4 - The Boss

OK that isn't what my Boss looked like but I deleted my game and didn't take a screenshot of her. Mine wore a purple Duster, purple tribal paint, pink cowboy hat, and 6 inch purple high heels...and she was bad ass as fuck. 

 

SR4 makes you play as both a male and female character for the plat and all the lines sound so awkward coming out of the male's voice but sound so natural when said by Laura Bailey. Things like "This is my jam" as you escape the containment centre while What is Love starts playing just work so much better with a female boss

 

On top of that The Boss is what all video game characters should be...someone who wants to have fun at all costs. So many game characters are sullen, dreary fucks and honestly I play video games to get away from the sadness life can bring. So yeah I want a bad ass female lead that doesn't mind stopping her quest to destroy an evil alien overlord because she feels like singing or dancing with her friends (even if they all tell her her dancing is terrible).

 

So go put on your most ridiculous outfit, grab the biggest and loudest gun you can find and go kick some alien ass.

 

Best Male Character - Persona 5 - Yusuke

Persona 5 had a whole bunch of great characters but none stood out more than Yusuke for me. I actually put forward my case for why we should have been allowed to romance Yusuke because I loved this character that much.

 

I know I just said that I don't really like dreary characters BUT in Yusuke's case his dreariness is endearing as he just wants the best in life despite not being able to afford it. The fact that he bought a pair of lobsters on the beach because he felt he had to have them (even though it meant him having no money) was such a great character moment it stood out from all the other craziness of the beach scene for me. 

 

If you haven't played P5 yet go and do it because the cast of characters are amazing but you will find yourself wanting to know more about the man known as Fox.

 

Best Plat of the Year - Saints Row 4

Oh I hemmed and hawed over giving this award to Saints Row 4, Persona 5 and Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

GotG was a great story and got me interested in seeing the Guardians movies (for the record I loved the first one and was disappointed by the second one) but at the end of the day there wasn't enough meat there when comparing it to SR4 and P5.

 

Persona 5 was a stellar game and came close to being as good as P4G (and that is high praise) but at the end of the day it required too many guides to plat it and that takes away from Best Plat of the Year.

 

So I gave it to Saints Row 4 which (as I have repeated over and over) is one of the most fun games I have ever played. Even though one of the trophies glitched on me requiring a partial second playthrough it wasn't enough to deter me from giving this my award for Best Plat of the Year. It is just so much fun that I couldn't consider anything to be better than it this year.

 

Wurst Plat ov teh Yeer - Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

I kept hearing about how this game was a game changer and about all the really cool design choices (like the nemesis system). What I didn't hear was that the PS3 version was a broken mess. 

 

Now maybe the PS4 version would have been better...I don't know...but man this game was simply awful. It looked ugly, it was boring and repetitive, the combat was uninspired (just mash  to win) and the nemesis system was stupid as I just didn't care that so and so Orc was afraid of bees or this one was afraid of fire. I was able to beat the game just fine without ever using it (beyond the trophies attached to it) so didn't see much need for it.

 

I think that is one of my biggest problems with games like this. If I am able to beat you without ever implementing the new game feature you created...then it wasn't a needed feature.

 

Anyways I know a lot of people really liked this game (once again I think they liked the PS4 version) but for me this was just a chore to get through and I have 0 desire to play the sequel. 

 

Most Anticipated Plats of 2019

As for games that are already out Spider-Man and Spyro are among the two that I want to plat the most. 

 

For games that haven't come out then Dreams is top of my list.

 

[Metal Slime King]

35 minutes ago, Dr_Mayus said:

Quantum Theory is one of the most bullshit online experiences out there. I think I am the only one that actually hasn't platted the game yet

 

I haven't bothered to go through the single player campaign yet and I was the only one that had the mp done when we started that group, iirc. Was going to finally do it for plat #125 but then Castlevania Requiem came around. I regret nothing!

 

Edited January 2, 2019 by Metal Slime King