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Arcesius' Pursuit of Completion


Arcesius

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14 hours ago, Spaz said:

I've looked at Sekiro and I decided I'm going to wait on it.

 

In ways it tries too hard to be like Bloodborne and in other ways it looks pretty fulfilling. I can't be bothered to pay $60 for it so I'll wait a few months when the hype and the gravy train for it die down and likely pick it up this coming Fall or Black Friday, which is still a ways off.

 

I mean, you have anyways a large backlog and a few games that you've already started. These days, waiting 2-3 months means already getting a new game at a 30% discount. I decided to not buy Darksiders III at launch and got it for 20$ less 2 months after release. ?

 

With Sekiro though, it was different for me.. I've only pre-ordered five games so far.. Hollow Knight, Guacamelee! 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Dead Cells and Sekiro... I just had to! And yeah it's no Bloodborne (like yourself I still think Bloodborne is the best PS exclusive by far), but it's definitely a lot of fun, and I appreciate it and FromSoft for trying to be/do something different. You can clearly see their design philosophy in Sekiro, but it plays completely different than their previous games, and I think that's what made it so challenging for me initially.. 

Edited by Arcesus7
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I mean I can agree. Nowadays The Order 1886 is cheap as dirt and it offers a fulfilling adventure. For $60 it was a complete ripoff and the reviews reflected on it because it was too short of a game to warrant that price tag. I bought it for under $20 months later and really enjoyed it. 

 

Currently I’m picking back up on games I started a few years ago, and they take higher priority. 

 

Slain: Back From Hell should be done the next couple days, I got stuff going in the background that is keeping me away. 

 

Your backlog is just a handful of games so it doesn’t matter a whole lot if you start on a few of them. I got caught up with PlayStation Flash Sales and PS Plus games, before I knew it I was over 100 games. 

 

You’re doing a good job. You definitely are mixing up your games which I feel is the best way to go about trophy hunting.

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Update

 

Time for some updates! Three open games at the moment, let's see how we are doing... 

 

 

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Even if it doesn't look like it (earned my last trophy for this one four days ago), I progressed a bit further. I haven't had a look at the trophy list, so yeah, they pop when they pop ?

 

This time around the story is much more straightforward, and the goals much clearer, which is actually nice when playing blind. But even after a couple of hours into the game I stand by my initial statement: Mini-bosses are giving me a lot more trouble than the actual bosses. And I think one of the reasons is that they are often surrounded by lesser enemies that need to be taken out first. That of course prolongs each attempt. On the other hand - at least so far - there is always an Idol right before a boss fight. I guess some will dislike this, but personally I'm a fan. I wanna get to the boss without having to take a 15 minute hike, and this is possible here. 

 

Oh yeah, then exploring, I came across a Demon Bell... Despite the warning, I rang that bell... Turns out, Sekiro is per default set to "easy", and ringing that bell makes the game significantly harder ? Luckily one can dispel the "demon" and reset the difficulty... Yup, immediately did that..  

 

Anyways, I have unlocked an idol right before a boss (lot of monkeys there), but before beating it I decided to go explore another open end (lot of monks there). I guess that covers two of the three objectives I have been given! 

 

 

Beat Saber

Sooo... I finished hard mode by getting S-ranks and Full Combos on all 15 original songs. I then moved on to expert mode... The game instantly became even more fun. I mean, the concept of Beat Saber is so simple, but the execution is simply genious. This game... So addictive! So far I've gotten 4 S-ranks and Full Combos on expert, 9 more to go!

 

Anyways, what was already a decent workout just got waaaaay more intense now with expert... ? Fewer breaks, way more notes to hit... I love this game. I have been playing for about 6 or 7 hours so far, and I guess I will be done with most of the trophies soonish... However, there is one trophy that requires you to play for 24 hours, so that one is gonna be a grind... Luckily once I'm done with all other trophies there are still plenty of songs (purchased the game with the Monstercat DLC) to try out! 

 

 

Trackmania Turbo

I started this one as my next game for short sessions, and got the trophies not related to story mode out of the way (I need a Ubisoft account? Come on..). So far I've done the first 10 tracks (Canyon White), which unsurprisingly were no trouble.

Since I'll need a gold medal for all 200 tracks, my approach is similar to the one I had with Thumper: I keep resetting a level until I earn the gold medal. I know I will still have to replay some of the levels to get Trackmaster Medals, but I will start going for those once I have played all levels and know which ones are easiest for me. 

 

I am pretty sure that this game will give me a lot of trouble later. I usually don't play these type of games... But, I wanted to get out of my comfort zone ? I hope I don't regret it!

Edited by Arcesus7
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13 hours ago, Arcesus7 said:

I am pretty sure that this game will give me a lot of trouble later. I usually don't play these type of games... But, I wanted to get out of my comfort zone 1f60a.png I hope I don't regret it!

 

That's a really good point, i stick with that to :D

 

Always nice to read about your progress, keep going :)

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On 4/8/2019 at 10:54 PM, S_y_n_e_IR_g_Y said:

 

That's a really good point, i stick with that to :D

 

Always nice to read about your progress, keep going :)

 

Thanks! Nice to see that what I write is being read :)

 

If you don't mind me asking, do you have a specific date in mind for your Platinum Day? Or is that in your signature outdated? 

 

 

Update

 

Some progress to report! 

 

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

After exploring a couple of open ends I had, I finally made some progress towards the story line, killing three bosses (or four, depending if you count one of those as a "boss") in the process. I liked one of them a lot, but am disappointed with the other 2 / 3... let me put stuff in a spoiler environment: 

 

Spoiler

Alright so the one I really liked is the Guardian Ape. It's this intimidating white ape that will chase you around the arena and, for the first time in this game, cannot be defeated by parrying his attacks since he doesn't have a sword but instead smashes around with his hands and entire body. So the best way to go about this one is to avoid attacks, find openings and slash away. Classic previous FromSoft titles. 

Then he goes down, the message "Shinoby Execution" pops up and I lay down my controller.. But no trophy. Hmm, not a good sign ?  A couple of seconds later, the now headless ape comes back to life and starts relentlessly attacking me with a sword. That was unexpected!! This second phase is more like Sekiro has been up to this point. Need to parry his attacks to break the ape's posture and finally execute it for good. Fun fight, that's for sure!

 

The other bosses were meh. One was just lazy... The same headless ape, now in a cave... Once the first life bar is drained, he calls a buddy ape and you need to fight both apes simultaneously. The gimmick here is that the buddy ape behaves like the first phase of the Guardian Ape, while the headless version behaves like, well, the headless version. So it's basically the Guardian Ape fight all over again, but with both phases attacking you at the same time. 

 

Then there is another boss "fight" involving apes.. It's basically a cat-and-mouse style fight. There are four monkeys that need to be defeated, using stealth to approach and attack them before they run away... Each time a monkey is defeated, some lesser monkey shadows are summoned, but those are super easy to take out. Not impressed with this one, but something different. 

 

The last one I mentioned cannot even be called a fight... After being chased by a huge snake a while back while traversing a valley, I now found access to its lair. I was way above the resting snake, so only needed to do a plunging attack.. 1-hit kill. 

 

So yeah, the first three bosses in the game and one of those described above were actually pretty fun to fight. I have no idea how far I am into the game, but I'm still having plenty of fun, so I'm not hoping to be done soon ?

 

 

Beat Saber

Some progress here. I finished the campaign! That one consists of 51 levels, each of which has certain requirements that need to be met to pass the level. Some need to be beaten one-handed, some have disappearing arrows, some need a minimum combo of consecutively hit notes, in some your hand movement needs to stay below a certain distance... It's pretty varied, but overall not too challenging.. there were only 3 or 4 levels that gave me some trouble, but after some solo-play and getting better at the game I went back to those and had no problems beating them.

 

Other than that, yesterday I got 6 more S-ranks in expert mode, so I'm now at 10 out of the 15 I need. Once I'm done with all S-ranks (and Full Combos, though I have less of those at the moment), I'll need to pick a song to try to get an SS-rank in.. That's it..

However, I am still around the 10 hour mark in time played and still below 40 Million total score (I think I'm actually around 35 Million or so)... The last two trophies will be to reach 100 Million total score and play for 24 hours.. But it's still the best game ever, so I will keep playing after the plat anyways... And since I want Sekiro to be my next plat, this one doesn't need to be done soon ?

 

 

 

Oh, and after purchasing Trackmania Turbo I went back to browse Spring's sale and got Astro Bot Rescue Mission. This one has gotten only fantastic reviews, hope it's as good as promised! ?

 

Thanks for reading!

Edited by Arcesus7
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10 hours ago, Arcesus7 said:

 

Thanks! Nice to see that what I write is being read :)

 

If you don't mind me asking, do you have a specific date in mind for your Platinum Day? Or is that in your signature outdated? 

 

 

I think the Day will be in around 2-3 years, when i prepared most of my Games :D and trust me i got enough of them^^

 

The only Problem i have is that i'm really busy, i'm most of the Time around 11 hours at work and in the last weeks i moved to a new City, but now the full days of Gaming will come back ^^

 

Next step for will be finishing the online Part from most of my PS3 games, like far Cry 2, Max payne 3, Street fighter 4, Mortal kombat, injustice,... i think thats enough for a few weeks or months^^ ?

 

Keep going with your nice Blog and have a nice Day:)

 

Greetings from Germany 

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Update

 

Friday came with a surprise.. and not necessarily a good one. Yup, I needed to go back to: 

 

Darksiders III

Nope, not the second announced DLC Keepers of the Void, there is still no release date for that one. Inexplicably though, NG+ was released with three trophies attached to it. Why? I mean, the devs didn't bother adding anything interesting to NG+ cycles.. Sure, once in a while you will come across some red-eyed demon that didn't spawn in NG, but those alone don't make subsequent playthroughs worthwhile.. And really, there is NOTHING of interest in the so-called Armageddon mode. 

 

You could play up to NG+9, but why would you do this? The technical problems have not been resolved, there are load-freezes every couple of minutes, which is infuriating, the item pick-ups are exactly the same, the drops are largely the same (I mean there are no interesting items in this game anyways)... But at least I tried to make a speedrun out of this... 

The one trophy asks you to reach level 100.. I needed to play up to the mid-point on NG+2... Ugh. 

 

Don't get me wrong, my initial review still holds, I had fun with this game. But one playthrough was enough. Especially if there are no incentives in place. 

 

 

Beat Saber

Now this game I don't wanna stop playing ? I now got all S-ranks on expert that I need, and managed to pull off a 500-note combo on expert mode (on Rum 'n Bass, which is a BLAST to play ?). So far I have mostly been playing the original Vol I & II songs, and all my S-ranks are from those. I still need a couple of Full-Combos, and I think I'll try to get an SS-rank on either Legend or I Need You, since the scoring system is only based on your swing arc and accuracy, but not on timing, and those two songs don't really have too many notes that are too close together... Let's see! 

 

Other than that, I still havn't played more than 12 hours and I'm at around the 50 Million score mark... another 12 hours and 50 Million to go!

 

 

Sekiro: Shadows die Twice

I don't care, I'll admit it.. Sekiro is tough. Still, I made some progress! I found two of the three items I needed to find, progressed a bit in the story and killed a certain boss for the third item (I needed to make a choice here, I guess this might affect the ending I get... not sure though) and then proceeded to fight a familar boss from the pre-lauch footage that was all over the place. I believe they added a third phase to this one... ? Took me a while to get the third phase down, but of course I persevered. 

 

Now, right before fighting this boss, a trophy popped that reads "Traveled to all areas of the game"... That's a bit worrying.. I'm either really close to the end, which I cannot really believe, or I still have a long way to go and will probably need to revisit certain areas... 

Edited by Arcesus7
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I'm a bit disappointed with the lack of game owners for Darksiders 3.

 

Seems that the first game was the most popular and I enjoyed it. But it seems like they just went with a completely different protagonist for every game. I understand they are all tied in some way and those characters are story related. But it looks like only the fans of the series got the game, everything else just ignored it and picked up other games.

Edited by Spaz
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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok this one is gonna be a bit long, I apologize… But it's ony April and I've already found my game of the year, plus it's my platinum nr. 50, so.. ?

 

 

40-platinum.png Platinum #50 – Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

 

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  • 100% Enjoyment: 9/10
  • 100% Challenge:  7/10 (5/10 after about the half-mark)

 

Different setting, same game design philosophy. The guys at FromSoftware know what they are doing, and hopefully will continue designing games without compromising. I know I will keep playing whatever they put out.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a departure from the Soulsborne games in many ways, while still feeling somewhat familiar, and is undoubtedly still a game that, like its predecessors, rewards dedication, persistence and adaptation.  

 

 

100% Enjoyment

 

In a gaming universe where everything is the Dark Souls of something else I'll say this: "Sekiro is the Dark Souls of rhythm games". Wait… what?!? ?

OK jokes aside… but saying that Sekiro incorporates aspects from rhythm games in its combat is still somewhat true. I'll come back to this in a bit.

 

I think it is fair to say that the Soulsborne games have been incredibly influential in game design, with many studios borrowing design ideas from those games for their own products... to mixed success. We have very clear, blatant copies, such as Lords of the Fallen or The Surge, which don't bring anything new to the table other than the setting, but also Salt and Sanctuary is basically Dark Souls in 2D. We also find games that take what makes the Soulsborne games so awesome but add something new, something that gives them their own identity. I'm thinking of Nioh and hopefully the same will hold true for the upcoming Nioh 2 and Code Vein. But it had to be FromSoftware, creators of the original Soulsborne games that managed to create an experience that throws almost everything that made up their previous games out of the window, but still feels very, VERY familiar. I have to compliment this studio: It cannot be easy designing a game that you know will be compared to Dark Souls, but what they achieved is incredible. ?

 

And I'm not talking about differences in combat alone. The storytelling is much more straightforward this time, the setting – while still disturbing at times – much more realistic. You are not a nobody in a desolated world, where everything important has already happened a long time ago. You are a Shinobi, and the shit that is happening is happening to you, right here, right now. This makes Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice very engaging from a narrative perspective.

 

But sure, gameplay is king, and combat in Sekiro is a huge departure from what we are used to from any Soulsborne or Souls-like game. For starters: There is no stamina meter. Yes, what I'd argue is the key ingredient for souls-like combat, has been removed entirely. Instead, a hidden mechanic from previous titles, posture, is now the predominant feature. Every enemy, mini-boss or boss follows the same rules, and so does Sekiro himself: If your posture is broken, you are open for a deathblow. If you break your opponent's posture, they are open for a deathblow. So instead of depleting an enemy's health, you'll usually want to break its posture. That is best achieved by deflecting (e.g., perfectly blocking incoming attacks) and dishing out sword-strikes yourself. Since posture regenerates over time, the game really forces you to be as aggressive as you can be. The previous "dodge - roll - wait for an opening"-combat from their previous games is punished hard, and deflecting is often better than dodging away. And this is where the rhythm component enters the picture. You'll want to be in your opponent's face at all times and relentlessly attack while keeping an eye on your enemy's deflection and incoming attacks, then go over to deflect yourself until you can attack again. And every attack-combo coming your way has a different deflect-rhythm to it. Learn that rhythm and you've mastered half the combat. Simple, really ? But hard to do in practice, especially during your first run. 

Of course there is more to combat than this dance back and forth… you have plenty of prosthetic tools at your disposal to give you an advantage in combat, there are really useful skills to unlock, and before engaging in battle there is often the option to stealth-kill your opponent instead of jumping straight into a fight. To me, this is the most fun combat I've encountered in a game since Nioh, and while I've heard a lot of complaints about there not being any build variety, the game really offers a lot of diversity when it comes to approaching combat.

 

Alright granted the world is not as huge as in previous FromSoft titles, the enemies are less varied (due to the more realistic approach there is less room for grotesque creatures) and you'll mostly be fighting bipedal enemies. But I didn't care. The areas are all varied and gorgeous, and the grappling hook makes traversing them effortless and incredibly fun. Not only that, but while they may be smaller in terms of horizontal extension, they are quite often very open to vertical exploration, and that is really well implemented.

 

Alright, so we have covered the narrative, the basics of gamplay, the world design… oh, the music is as per usual really good, though nothing I wanna really discuss… Let's finish this section talking about what is a main part of Soulsborne games: The bosses. And here there are quite a few bosses but additionally, mini-bosses are all over the place as well. The latter ones are stronger and unique enemies that can be found everywhere in the world. They mostly have two life-bars (the Blazing - and Sakura Bull are the only exceptions that come to mind right now) and act as skill-checks throughout the game. And oh boy do they check your skill gooood… ? I am not lying when I say that I had way more trouble with the mini-bosses than most actual bosses, at least until I managed to adapt to the combat system. For most of them there is a way to use stealth to immediately deliver a deathblow, basically negating one of the life bars. But one single life bar is enough for them to destroy a newcomer. I screamed quite a bit at the TV during my initial playthrough, but Snake Eyes Shirahagi wins the price for being the single enemy that almost made me throw my PS4 out of the window. Holy fuck was I angry the first time I fought this one… But hey, you better learn how to deal with his bullshit, since you'll be fighting him again in another area later on… But despite most ini-bosses being road-blocks at the beginning, I really liked the variety in their design. The Drunkard (resp. Glutton) that had also been showcased before the game released is one of my favorite ones, really like that one. ?

 

Ok, so that's it for the mini-bosses… Now, what about the actual bosses? Well, I was trying to find a boss that I didn't enjoy fighting, and couldn't come up with a good selection… Maybe one boss that I could understand people not liking in subsequent playthroughs are the Screen Folding Monkeys, since that fight is more a puzzle than an actual fight… But even that one was enjoyable the first time around. As mentioned before, most other bosses are bipedal creatures, mostly humanoid, but that is really fitting for this game. But hey, maybe that's just me… let's see… favorite bosses prom previous titles:

  • Dark Souls I: Artorias of the Abyss
  • Dark Souls II: Sir Alonne
  • Dark Souls III: Gael
  • Bloodborne: Orphan of Kos

Yep, all bipedal, all humanoid. So maybe it's personal preference, but I really enjoyed fighting the bosses in Sekiro. And boy can they be challenging, so you better enjoy those fights, cause some will ask a lot of you if you want to beat them! I'll only quickly mention my picks for hardest, best designed, and most enjoyable fights:

 

  • Hardest Boss: Isshin, the Sword Saint.
    This is without a doubt the hardest mandatory boss in any of the Soulsborne games. The fight starts with a single phase against a familiar face, followed by three phases against Isshin. Yep, that's 4 phases in a row. With a bit of practice, getting past the first two phases consistently is very doable. But for the third phase, the old man really gets angry. In addition to his katana, he pulls out a huge spear and a gun, and goes to town. For the last phase he even uses lightning (which you can use to your advantage, though). This guy hits like a truck, has a fuck ton of moves to learn, and since getting to his later phases requires quite a bit of effort, it's also difficult to learn his moves. A real endurance and skill test, and a great last boss that, once defeated, rewards you with satisfaction and the end credits.
     
  • Best Design: True Corrupted Monk.
    Ah, beautiful setting in the best area of the game, and a three-phase fight accompanied with great music and a boss whose patterns are fun to learn. I really like this fight, and would be my favorite one if not for one other boss, well hidden behind an obscure side-quest.
     
  • Most Enjoyable: Owl Father.
    This is it, the best boss fight in the game, and I can say probably one of my favorite boss fights in any FromSoft game. You probably already fought Owl previously in the game, but this fight is completely different. He doesn't hold back, and neither should you. Shinobi vs. Shinobi, use whatever you can, win however you can. Owl will use combat arts, he will Mikiri counter your thrusts, use firecrakers, shurikens, poison, smoke… oh, and a ghost-owl that can teleport him around and spit fire. This fight wants you to be aggressive, to react to each of Owl's moves and keep up with him.
    Not the hardest fight, but rather on the challenging side, and a ton of fun to learn.

 

 

100% Challenge

 

Like probably most players, I went into Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice playing it like I play any other Soulsborne game. Dodge and attack, attack and dodge. I am not a fan of blocking, so also played all other Soulsborne games without using shields. Yep, you can imagine that I had a LOT of trouble at the beginning. I needed to understand that this game wants me to fight differently. That deflections are not defensive, but rather offensive options. And once I understood that, the game changed completely.

This becomes even clearer after beating the game once. I did an initial blind playthrough, and then went on to play through NG+ and NG++. Excluding the bosses that I had not fought on NG, I can count my deaths on NG+ and NG++ on two hands. Once you understand the game and stop trying to play it like the next Dark Souls, the challenge decreases. And this is why I need to rate a 7/10, since I struggled quite a bit for some time, but would change that rating to 4-5/10 once the game clicks with you.

 

Other than the challenge from the gameplay itself, the trophy list does not make things more difficult. I guess all Soulsborne games have had very straightforward trophy lists, and Sekiro is no exception.

 

 

 

 

If you made it this far, thanks for taking your time to read my thoughts on this game! I hope you liked (or will like) it as well. ?

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I can easily say your last post here has probably shown the most passion. May even border on fanboyism but I won't stoop to that level.

 

I'm saving Dark Souls for number 200, but there no's question that From Software is probably the most influential gaming company of this decade.

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1 hour ago, Spaz said:

I can easily say your last post here has probably shown the most passion. May even border on fanboyism but I won't stoop to that level.

 

I'm saving Dark Souls for number 200, but there no's question that From Software is probably the most influential gaming company of this decade.

 

Haha yeah I wouldn't even mind if you had stated it that way. To be honest, apart from Indie games it's rare for me to find a game that I enjoy as much as those put out by FromSoft, so I'm glad that I enjoyed Sekiro as much as I did. 

 

Dark Souls is a nice one for a 200th plat, that's for sure! 

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Titan Souls is fucking infuriating.

 

I personally do not recommend the game as it requires near perfection and is one of the most difficult trophy lists you can find.

 

Furi felt like a cakewalk compared to this POS.

 

Sorry, just needed to vent.

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8 hours ago, Spaz said:

Titan Souls is fucking infuriating.

 

I personally do not recommend the game as it requires near perfection and is one of the most difficult trophy lists you can find.

 

Furi felt like a cakewalk compared to this POS.

 

Sorry, just needed to vent.

 

Hey no worries, vent away! 

 

But I see you got the plat, so congrats! I read that the last couple of trophies sucked the fun out of the game.. never great when that happens.. But yeah, it's nowhere near Furi's quality. 

 

Though it's a bit too late to recommend not platting that one.. I already have a while back ? I don't remember it being that infuriating though. I know the last boss with iron mode active was hard to crack, but I think there was a pretty consistent strat to kill him in like 5 seconds or so..  

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I followed what this guy on PST.org did. It’s the third post in this thread: 

 

Im desperate

 

Eventually I got him to spawn in the circle shown in the picture. Still died a LOT because of how tight the time frame is to make the shot. 

 

Titan Souls is a good game, but admittedly I enjoyed Furi more. 

 

——

 

I see you have Guacamelee 2. How difficult is it? I enjoyed the first game immensely.

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6 hours ago, Spaz said:

I followed what this guy on PST.org did. It’s the third post in this thread: 

 

Im desperate

 

Eventually I got him to spawn in the circle shown in the picture. Still died a LOT because of how tight the time frame is to make the shot. 

 

Titan Souls is a good game, but admittedly I enjoyed Furi more. 

 

Yeah that sounds familiar... But sure I also remember the window being super tight to make that shot. Definitely one of the harder strats to get consistently. 

 

 

Quote

I see you have Guacamelee 2. How difficult is it? I enjoyed the first game immensely.

 

Oh man, I loved the first one so pre-ordered this one as soon as I saw it in the store... something I rarely do. Like the first one I dunno how the game plays in single player, I've done them both exclusively with my girlfriend in couch-coop. To be honest, the second one is GREAT. People complained about there being too many memes in the first one, and the devs made fun of that, the chicken form is much more useful now, and hard-mode does not only make combat more challenging, but it also alters the platforming sections! Some hazards move faster, for instance. 

 

If you enjoyed the first one, you'll enjoy the second one, I'm positive. As for how difficult it is... again, in two-player mode not overly difficult. And you are no newcomer to platforming games, so I don't think you'll have too much trouble. It's a lot of fun, for sure. 

 

 

Update

Well, this is going to be a short week for gaming. I'm traveling to Spain this Wednesday to visit my family and will stay there until Sunday, so let's see where I'm leaving things. 

 

Overcooked! 2 - Campfire Cook Out DLC

Oh look, more Overcooked content! A Season Pass was announced, apparently there will be 3 pieces of DLC. And sure, bring the new kitchens! One of the few games where my girlfriend herself suggests playing a couple of levels from time to time. The released DLC consists of three worlds with four levels each (plus secret Kevin levels) and is campfire-themed. There is a new mechanic where - in some levels - each player needs to put on a backpack that contains a certain ingredient needed for the recipe, or wood, which needs to be chopped to keep the campfires alive. ?

We now managed to get three stars in the first two worlds. But man, we needed more retries for those 8 levels than for the entire main-game! It is a blast though... This devs really are creative! ?

 

 

Beat Saber

Total Score: 100 Million! (and a bit). I have been accumulating score points over the last couple of days, experimenting with different songs to see what's fun while still rewarding lots of points. Since I'm avoiding Expert+ (I don't think it's all that fun), I think I found the best song for this grind on Expert, and it's from the Monstercat DLC: Stronger (feat. Emel). This song is pretty fun to play, not the most difficult one (although pretty rough to get a full-combo), and with some practice I managed to get about 770k points per attempt consistently (personal best: ~780k). For a 3:42 minute song that's a pretty nice payoff. 

Of course I have been switching up songs... Feeling Stronger, also from the Monstercat DLC is easy enough to be played with the "Faster Song" and "Battery Energy" modifyers, granting ~540k points in about 2:46 minutes. 

 

Thing is, the only trophy I'm missing is awarded for playing 24 hours, and the game only counts the time spent in a song. I still have about 5 hours to go! ?

 

 

Trackmania Turbo

Oh boy, what was I thinking... I have now played the first 50 / 200 tracks, that is the complete white series and one of the four green series, and managed to get the gold medal for each track. I learned two things during this time: 

  • Sand, dirt, grass and wood tracks are the worst. 
  • I suck at this game. 

Honestly, it's clear that the tracks are going to get way more complex. I mean, the motto of the green series is "easy to pick up", while the black series states "hard to master". ? I'm seriously doubting my ability to get this plat... Then again, it is the first time I attempt a racing game, so hopefully with more practice my skill will improve. 

No worries, I'm not one to give up easily. It just might take a while for me to get there... ?


 

 

 

 

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59 minutes ago, Arcesus7 said:

 

Yeah that sounds familiar... But sure I also remember the window being super tight to make that shot. Definitely one of the harder strats to get consistently. 

 

 

 

Oh man, I loved the first one so pre-ordered this one as soon as I saw it in the store... something I rarely do. Like the first one I dunno how the game plays in single player, I've done them both exclusively with my girlfriend in couch-coop. To be honest, the second one is GREAT. People complained about there being too many memes in the first one, and the devs made fun of that, the chicken form is much more useful now, and hard-mode does not only make combat more challenging, but it also alters the platforming sections! Some hazards move faster, for instance. 

 

If you enjoyed the first one, you'll enjoy the second one, I'm positive. As for how difficult it is... again, in two-player mode not overly difficult. And you are no newcomer to platforming games, so I don't think you'll have too much trouble. It's a lot of fun, for sure. 

 

 

Update

Well, this is going to be a short week for gaming. I'm traveling to Spain this Wednesday to visit my family and will stay there until Sunday, so let's see where I'm leaving things. 

 

Overcooked! 2 - Campfire Cook Out DLC

Oh look, more Overcooked content! A Season Pass was announced, apparently there will be 3 pieces of DLC. And sure, bring the new kitchens! One of the few games where my girlfriend herself suggests playing a couple of levels from time to time. The released DLC consists of three worlds with four levels each (plus secret Kevin levels) and is campfire-themed. There is a new mechanic where - in some levels - each player needs to put on a backpack that contains a certain ingredient needed for the recipe, or wood, which needs to be chopped to keep the campfires alive. ?

We now managed to get three stars in the first two worlds. But man, we needed more retries for those 8 levels than for the entire main-game! It is a blast though... This devs really are creative! ?

 

 

Beat Saber

Total Score: 100 Million! (and a bit). I have been accumulating score points over the last couple of days, experimenting with different songs to see what's fun while still rewarding lots of points. Since I'm avoiding Expert+ (I don't think it's all that fun), I think I found the best song for this grind on Expert, and it's from the Monstercat DLC: Stronger (feat. Emel). This song is pretty fun to play, not the most difficult one (although pretty rough to get a full-combo), and with some practice I managed to get about 770k points per attempt consistently (personal best: ~780k). For a 3:42 minute song that's a pretty nice payoff. 

Of course I have been switching up songs... Feeling Stronger, also from the Monstercat DLC is easy enough to be played with the "Faster Song" and "Battery Energy" modifyers, granting ~540k points in about 2:46 minutes. 

 

Thing is, the only trophy I'm missing is awarded for playing 24 hours, and the game only counts the time spent in a song. I still have about 5 hours to go! ?

 

 

Trackmania Turbo

Oh boy, what was I thinking... I have now played the first 50 / 200 tracks, that is the complete white series and one of the four green series, and managed to get the gold medal for each track. I learned two things during this time: 

  • Sand, dirt, grass and wood tracks are the worst. 
  • I suck at this game. 

Honestly, it's clear that the tracks are going to get way more complex. I mean, the motto of the green series is "easy to pick up", while the black series states "hard to master". ? I'm seriously doubting my ability to get this plat... Then again, it is the first time I attempt a racing game, so hopefully with more practice my skill will improve. 

No worries, I'm not one to give up easily. It just might take a while for me to get there... ?


 

 

 

 

Good luck on trackmania mate. The game is fairly simple until the red series, but black is a whole different beast altogether. If you are finding a challenge at green, the game will likely push you to your limits on black but I can assure you with practice you will master each track. One thing that is fantastic about the game is that is has a very smooth learning curve despite being brutally challenging, so even when it may feel quite tough on green or so you will progress steadily as you go and it never feels truly unmanageable.

I look forward to your progress on the game, it's the best racer I've played in many years.

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Better than Gran Turismo or Need for Speed for that matter?

 

Gran Turismo I have always felt has been for the serious racing car fan. Need for Speed is more arcade like, with elements like cops showing up to arrest you that caters to a more casual crowd.

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5 hours ago, Angus1343 said:

Good luck on trackmania mate. The game is fairly simple until the red series, but black is a whole different beast altogether. If you are finding a challenge at green, the game will likely push you to your limits on black but I can assure you with practice you will master each track. One thing that is fantastic about the game is that is has a very smooth learning curve despite being brutally challenging, so even when it may feel quite tough on green or so you will progress steadily as you go and it never feels truly unmanageable.

I look forward to your progress on the game, it's the best racer I've played in many years.

 

Thanks for the encouragement! But man, how in hell did you get that plat in under 3 weeks?? Impressive! 

 

But yeah I found that too. I was stuck on #49 for some time until I figured out how to take the sharp curve before the jump over the canyon, need to get used to how each car handles. It is however very noticeable (at least so far) how nicely the learning curve is shaped, and the game has been really fun to learn so far and generally perfect for shorter gaming sessions! 

 

 

3 hours ago, Spaz said:

Better than Gran Turismo or Need for Speed for that matter?

 

I don't think it's comparable to either. It's rather a time trials game, with very short tracks often only taking 30-40 seconds to complete (excluding multilap courses), though I guess the tracks are going to get a bit longer later in the game. 

 

But the game demands that you perfect each track. Your time is saved up to hundreths of a second, but the game counts up to miliseconds in the background. I often found myself 10 hundreths of a second away from the gold medal. 

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50 minutes ago, Arcesus7 said:

 

Thanks for the encouragement! But man, how in hell did you get that plat in under 3 weeks?? Impressive! 

 

But yeah I found that too. I was stuck on #49 for some time until I figured out how to take the sharp curve before the jump over the canyon, need to get used to how each car handles. It is however very noticeable (at least so far) how nicely the learning curve is shaped, and the game has been really fun to learn so far and generally perfect for shorter gaming sessions! 

 

 

 

I don't think it's comparable to either. It's rather a time trials game, with very short tracks often only taking 30-40 seconds to complete (excluding multilap courses), though I guess the tracks are going to get a bit longer later in the game. 

 

But the game demands that you perfect each track. Your time is saved up to hundreths of a second, but the game counts up to miliseconds in the background. I often found myself 10 hundreths of a second away from the gold medal. 

I don't think it comparable either but I like it better than modern gt games even as a longtime fan, and I don't think nfs is a very good series at all even though I like racers. The tracks definitely get a lot longer. By the end one lap is longer than early multi-laps, and multi- laps are a bit easier often because more room for error. 

The ghosts stay consistent throughout however giving you just a slim margin for error, but it's the tracks themselves that get so grueling.

Thanks too btw, I didn't find it truly difficult until black valley personally, and it was enough to make me take a break from the game for a few days. It is a huge hurdle.

 

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Trackmania Turbo might be a little out of my league. Looks hell of a lot of fun though.

 

Driveclub is a whole nother beast that is going to be rather time consuming thanks to it's 128 trophies. A TON of DLC for both it and Driveclub Bikes. I'm not the biggest racing car fan out there, so I might just get the DLC and wait until a bit later to tackle it.

 

I just realized I have had Bound sitting on my backlog. Got when it was offered on Plus. How is the game? People have said it is easier because of the updates but I'm not sure. Still would be very nice to pick up a sub 1 percent platinum.

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On 5/4/2019 at 1:33 AM, Spaz said:

I just realized I have had Bound sitting on my backlog. Got when it was offered on Plus. How is the game? People have said it is easier because of the updates but I'm not sure. Still would be very nice to pick up a sub 1 percent platinum.

 

Man, everything seems to have been on PS+.. Titan Souls, SMB, Bound.. I didn't have PS+ at the time, so payed for all these games, and I have not found a single game that interests me since I became a PS+ member... Bad timing I guess. ?

 

 

As for Bound.. It has a very heavy focus on speedrunning and a very abstract, unique style. If you don't like either, I would not recommend it. Personally I like speedruns, so had a blast with this game. 

However, the only reason I can think of why even the collectables trophies are UR (the trophy percentages are ridiculous for this game..) is that most people didn't like Bound... I guess it's really not for everyone. 

 

As for updates making the plat easier, that's not really true. The only thing the patches did is make some cutscenes skippable, but that only makes the already generous speed-run times even more manageable. I don't think that makes all that much of a difference. 

 

Listen, I guess challenge is subjective.. I believe that the person that wrote the guide here on PSNProfiles needed to find the speedrun shortcuts, sequence breaks etc.. himself. And in that case, sure I believe that for him it was a 9/10 and 40 hours... But now that we have a guide, that is definitely not the case. Personally, I needed about 15-20 hours for the plat, and would not rate it higher than a 6/10. 

There are only two trophies that can be considered "challenging": A complete speedrun (get 100% collectibles and finish in under 1:05 hours) and a no-death run with edge guard off. I needed 3-4 attempts at each of those trophies, so nothing really too bad. 

 

 

Edited by Arcesus7
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Liking one game (Furi) and not liking another game as much (Titan Souls) isn't going to deter me.

 

I think anybody who did most if not all of Super Meat Boy is capable of getting the platinum in Bound. I did get it on PS+, which I believe was in November 2017. I have games from 2016 I still haven't played through yet, which speaks for my backlog.

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40-platinum.png Platinum #51 – Beat Saber

 

Le4950b.png

 

  • 100% Enjoyment: 9/10
  • 100% Challenge:  4/10
     

A game that puts you in the shoes of a Rhythm-Jedi. Combining laser-swordplay with rhythm and music – and that in VR – Beat Saber is a very simple idea, but amazingly fun to play thanks to the great implementation. So hey, get off the couch and start dancing! Gaming has never been more active. ?

 

 

100% Enjoyment

 

Beat Saber is not the only, but probably one of the main reasons I got a PSVR in the first place. And even if all other VR games would suck (luckily they don't), I would be happy with my purchase.

 

I started my journey with Campaign Mode. This is basically a series of levels, progressively increasing in difficulty, where certain objectives have to be met in each level. In some it's simply about getting a score above a set threshold, some want you to not have more than a certain amount of misses or bad cuts, only achieving combos above some threshold or even attain a full combo (not miss a single note). Then there are other requirements like never achieving a combo above some threshold, forcing you to make mistakes on purpose to break the ongoing combo or, my least favorite, not having your hands move than a set distance. That's right, the game tracks how far your hands move. That last one is really not all that fun, since you are forced to move as little as possible, feeling like a robot, while all you want to do is dance like crazy. ?

All these requirements are paired with different modifiers, like faster speed, only 4 mistakes allowed or disappearing arrows, and different modes, such as one handed or no-arrow modes. The campaign is alright, and great for learning the game, with a gentle difficulty curve, but it's not where the most fun is at.

 

Free play is the core of this game. Currently there are about 30 songs (including the DLC) and five difficulty settings, of which I only used two. Easy and Normal have too few notes and too many breaks for my taste, while Expert+ is too hectic, and notes don't always fit the beat anymore. I felt like Hard was the perfect starting difficulty after having completed the campaign and, once mastered, Expert feels like the most fun mode to play. And exhausting, too… I would come home from work, play Beat Saber for an hour and proceed to go play some Lamb of God on the drums… Excellent workout program, I tell you! ? ?

 

I usually don't care much for electronic music, but this didn't bother me at all playing this game. Almost all songs are fun to play in their own way, and the Monstercat DLC is even better than the original songs. However, I state this here in hope that someone with the power to make this happen reads it: Please, PLEASE, release a Metal DLC… This would be the most amazing thing ever! ?

 

 

100% Challenge

 

Well, there are a couple of trophies that require you to gain some skill at this game. There are trophies for attaining Full Combos (not missing a single note, that is) in 15 different songs on both Hard and Expert, though modifiers are allowed making this really easy. Then there are some for attaining S-ranks (that is, achieve at least 80% of the possible maximum score) on 15 songs on Hard and Expert. Again, not very difficult with some practice. I these four trophies on the 15 original songs, since I knew them well from having played through the campaign. 

Completing the campaign gives some trophies, but that's also not too challenging after having played the game a bit. The hardest trophy is awarded for getting an SS-rank (at least 90% of the possible maximum score) on Expert. I didn't find this too challenging once I knew how the scoring system works. It's based on cutting angle (full swings give more points) and precision (cut the cubes through the middle) for a maximum of 110 points per cut. A continuous combo grants a 8x modifier... Try a couple of times on the song you find the easiest, and voilá! SS-rank. ?

 

At the very beginning playing on Expert might seem daunting, and the plat out of reach, but playing through the campaign and then going from Hard to Expert makes this platinum rather easy, but very, very enjoyable. And hey, since there is a trophy for playing for 24 hours, and only the length of completed songs gets added to the counter, you'll have plenty of time to practice and get better at this game! After having done everything else, I still had 5 hours to play for that last trophy to pop. 

 

This could have been a way more challenging platinum if we were required to get 15 SS-ranks on Expert, or do anything whatsoever on Expert+. ?

Edited by Arcesus7
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  • 2 weeks later...

It has been a while since I wrote an update.. but this May I haven't had much time for gaming, having been away most of the weekends (I am also going to be out of town coming weekend, so there's that). 

 

But there is some progress to report, so let's get straight to it! 

 

 

Update

 

Astro Bot Rescue Mission (VR)

Since again I'll be gone next Thursday to Sunday with little time for gaming during this week, I decided to wait a bit longer with Hollow Knight and played this VR title instead. It's actually rather short and really easy, so that I already managed to grab the platinum. 

I'll be writing my thoughts about this game tomorrow the latest... ?

 

 

Overcooked 2 - Campfire Cook Off DLC

We did it! Freaking finally! After playing through most of the DLC, we hit an iron-reinforced concrete wall on level 3-4... the last level of the DLC. To get the last three stars we needed to complete this expansion, we had to reset this level more often than all main game levels combined!. We noticed that attempting this tired after work was not a good idea, and so decided to give it a try on a weekend, early in the morning... and hey, it helped! ? Our third or fourth attempt Sunday morning was finally successful!

After getting three stars on this last level, I still needed to grind taking out items from a backpack for the last missing trophy, but that was done quickly.

There have been quite a few people asking around here if playing Overcooked alone is worth it (since the original one is currently free on PS+), and personally I'd not recommend it.. It's such a fun couch-coop game, I just don't think that there is a fun game left if you remove the need for communication... 

 

Looking forward to the two expansions to come!

 

 

Trackmania Turbo

This is still going to take a while, but I'm happy with my progress... I've now played the first 100 out of 200 levels total, and got 99 gold medals. I'm still missing the gold medal for track 100, but that's because I could only attempt that track 2-3 times before I needed to stop playing (at least I already got silver there, so I think the gold medal should come quickly).

 

I'm slowly adapting to each car, but there have been a couple of tracks that almost made me rage quit. ? Still, I'm still having a lot of fun with this game, it runs super smoothly and the controls are incredibly responsive, and while I still have the harder half of the campaing to do, I think that with enough patience, practice and perseverence I'll eventually manage. At least I hope so! ?

 

 

Crypt of the Necrodancer

I fired up the game and played the tutorial ? then got intimidated and quit. Hey, it's a start! And I know, you're probably thinking "well you still can delete the trophy list, so it doesn't count", and you are right. But I ain't gonna. ? I'll say this again: I will only aim for a 100% profile as long as I can keep it, and if I find a game that I cannot complete due to lack of skill, then so be it. I certainly will attempt this plat, and I'm not naive, I know this is an almost impossible task, but the game looks like too much fun to avoid simply because it's hard, and I don't do alt accounts. So there's that... 

 

I've given up on finding a cheap Xim adapter, so I'll start playing on a controller and maybe will give REM4P with RemotePlay a shot... At least REM4P is only like 12€, so if it doesn't work properly I won't be crying over it. Only problem is, I only have a Microsoft Surface for a laptop at the moment, which only has a single USB port (needed for the Dual Shock in RemotePlay), and the keyboard ain't good enough for CotND. But it's anyways too early to care about this... I think at least until I unlock Bolt playing with the controller should be fine. ?

 

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