Arcesius' Pursuit of Completion

[Arcesius]

9 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Hi bud,

Welcome back!

 

/End of Meaningless Interaction  

 

Thanks!

 

Just so that there are no misunderstandings (maybe it wasn't clear enough above)... The "meaningless interactions" do not apply to the interactions in the Trophy Checklist section, which is more about exchanging experiences and keeping the motivation high. This is also why the next paragraph mentions those  

 

But most other discussions that are repeated at least five times a year and always result in the same outcome... Yeah I'd say most interactions in those are pretty meaningless ?

[DrBloodmoney]

6 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 

Thanks!

 

Just so that there are no misunderstandings (maybe it wasn't clear enough above)... The "meaningless interactions" do not apply to the interactions in the Trophy Checklist section, which is more about exchanging experiences and keeping the motivation high. This is also why the next paragraph mentions those  

 

But most other discussions that are repeated at least five times a year and always result in the same outcome... Yeah I'd say most interactions in those are pretty meaningless 

 

I know - I'm just joshing ?

 

ps - Live reaction to me reading your post:

 

"Hey, someone else did Slay the Spire!..."

 

"...51 hours??! ....

....Man, I must suck!" ?

Edited June 29, 2022 by DrBloodmoney

[Copanele]

Welcome back my dude, if only briefly  glad to see you are OK and especially that the moving out went well!

Had to deal with that too and boy was it not fun  

 

Quote

(I'm still very active there! So if you want to keep in touch, that's the way to go I'd say )

Good to know then!  need to fire up some questions but didn't want to disturb you from moving out 

 

Now for one particular game!

21 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 

  

Elden Ring. 

 

Difficult to write only a paragraph about this game... In one word: massive. It's a massive game that kept me in awe for a long time. But the more I kept playing, the more I started seeing things that I didn't like. The two aspects I disliked the most: Recycling of Bosses (why would you put such an epic, gorgeous boss such as Astel in a forgettable dungeon... I don' t get it), and balancing issues both due to the open world structure (especially in the early game), and boss design in the late game. 

Probably FromSoftware's most incredible achievement to date, but not my favorite game of theirs and the one with the lowest replay value in my opinion. Also the most accessible game, and for veterans their easiest for sure. Even if I only wrote the two negatives, I had a fantastic time with this game! 

 

I...kinda agree. Fantastic game but man, I don't feel the motivation to start a second playthrough. Hard to say why. I know the last few patches balanced out the bosses but yeah why is Astel stuck in a random dungeon like that?  

Still a great game nevertheless! The first playthrough was the best, until I reached the Frigid Outskirts 2.0 snowy fucketryland.

 

4 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 

But most other discussions that are repeated at least five times a year and always result in the same outcome... Yeah I'd say most interactions in those are pretty meaningless ?

Those are just ego stroking and "man I love posting the same shit 3 years in a row while being as salty as possible". So yeah, other than Trophy Checklists, most of the threads did turn into "ha look at this fool fooling around"

 

But anyway, glad to hear that you are safe and sound  

[Mori]

❤️

[Destructor-8]

6 hours ago, Arcesius said:

How did the move go?

Very well! Man, our new place is absolutely amazing, we have plenty of space both inside and outside now (despite it being an apartment in a city and not in the outskirts), I have my own room now for both home office and gaming, etc... Everything went much better than expected, and we are only dealing now with a few issues that come with every newly built apartment, but nothing worth complaining about, and all stuff that is being taken care of.

 

That's it guys... Thanks for stopping by  

 

Nice to see you back & glad it all went well! I can imagine how it can take up quite a bit of time & since your write ups have always been incredibly cool to read, I know you put in a lot of time into each one. If it's anything then just wanted you to know that this thread has always been one of the best & personally, very inspiring. It's nice that you will still do write ups as you can still interact around here on the games you did so that's cool. Congrats also on the games you finished since then! There are some amazing games there & impressive ones too.

[Briste]

6 hours ago, Arcesius said:

I could... And that is what I had been doing for some time already. But this still costs a lot of time. Maintaining my own checklist is already time-consuming enough (as everyone with one such list knows), but trying to keep up with what others do (which is what makes hanging around here interesting in the first place) takes even more time. And that time I should spend working, gaming, or just hanging with my friends and with my family instead. 

I feel you here on the next level. This section is by FAR my favorite part of the forums but I find keeping up with it all to be overwhelming at times. There are so many good people writing short stories on their experiences with the games, that I very much enjoy reading, but the effort it takes to keep up with them all is near impossible. It comes down to choosing whether I want to spend that hour or two updating a forum post or to actually play a game. With my son getting older and more interested in the gaming side of it, I'm choosing gaming ten times out of ten.

 

I also do a lot of reading and not a lot of posting. I'm happy that things are going well with you sir and will continue to creep on your trophy list to see your exploits!

 

Also, StS was amazing and I'm baffled you did the whole thing in just over 50 hours lol well done!

[AJ_Radio]

As someone who is just now covering games from last Fall on his own checklist thread, it’s a bit of a demanding task. I’m not satisfied just making a brief description of each game, I prefer to go into more detail. 
 

Real life must come first, because after all we’re playing games to have fun and to challenge ourselves from time to time. We can’t play everything we want and we don’t have the time to always engage in our hobbies. 

[Joe Dubz]

The man, the myth... The LEGEND @Arcesius is back! Good to see you here bro!

 

Very glad to hear your move went about as smoothly as it could. The wife and I moved into our place a few years ago and I realize just how hectic that can be!

 

Congratulations to you for smashing through Badlands... Looks really good taking over your rarest trophies list ? Glad you guys were able to stick it out, even if the Shareplay part of it sucked ? Plus you got to make a great friend with @Mori, who seems like a really solid dude! As I mentioned to you on PSN, I just wish there wasn't 6 hours between us because I would've loved to kick it with you guys!

 

As for the drama part, ha... I feel like it really is the same 4 or 5 heated topics that always pop up like once a month ? I try not to even pay any mind to that madness lol. 

 

Anyway, good to hear from you Arc, glad everything was going well and chat with you soon my dude!!

[Arcesius]

See, it happened again.. I quickly wrote an update, and proceeded to keep checking my phone way more often than I'd want to just not to miss potential responses.. It's just not "healthy" for me to hang around here it seems ?

 

Let me adress a couple of things though... 

 

On 29.6.2022 at 10:19 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

ps - Live reaction to me reading your post:

 

"Hey, someone else did Slay the Spire!..."

 

"...51 hours??! ....

....Man, I must suck!" 

 

On 29.6.2022 at 4:30 PM, Briste said:

Also, StS was amazing and I'm baffled you did the whole thing in just over 50 hours lol well done!

 

Hmm, you two are not the first ones to tell me that ~50h is fast... But honestly I didn't really feel like it was THAT fast..? ? The challenge runs and most misc trophies, the first wins and heart kills... all that takes some time, but the most time consuming single challenge is unlocking and beating A20. And that takes... maybe 25-30 hours? 

 

But it also depends a bit on your background with card games. I am a passionate board gamer as well, and spent a TON of time building decks for Magic the Gathering. I have also experience with "on the fly"-deck building games, such as Slay the Spire... I was once 6th on the leaderboards for Star Realms, won a couple of tournaments, and generally played that game to an unhealthy extent. That game consumed me during my time as a PhD student, 

 

But I think the main reason I got it done that "quickly" is because I did almost everything with The Watcher. Honestly, that character is extremely powerful, and luckily fits my playstyle. 

 

Also, Slay the Spire is additionally complex in that it has shops, events and a very strong emphasis on Relics... But The Watcher has such strong cards that I simply used shops to remove shitty cards, almost never accepted events with negative trade-offs (never take curses unless you have the relic that allows you to play them), and while I did not avoid all elites, I didn't rely on strong relics. The ones you get from the mandatory boss-fights are usually the most important ones. 

 

 

On 29.6.2022 at 4:30 PM, Briste said:

I feel you here on the next level. This section is by FAR my favorite part of the forums but I find keeping up with it all to be overwhelming at times. There are so many good people writing short stories on their experiences with the games, that I very much enjoy reading, but the effort it takes to keep up with them all is near impossible. It comes down to choosing whether I want to spend that hour or two updating a forum post or to actually play a game. With my son getting older and more interested in the gaming side of it, I'm choosing gaming ten times out of ten.

 

Yeah I thought about just reading when I have time, but most of the fun for me comes from the actual interactions in these checklists... It's great to read a nice review, but I then often have the urge to comment on the review, share my opinion on the game in question (if I've played it), and just share some positivity with the awesome people that you can find in these parts of the forum... 

 

I'm pretty sure I will experience the same thing once my son is a bit older and interested in games He's almost 2 and a half now and still doesn't consume any media that requires a screen. But he is very active and wants to go out all the time, and I just don't want to keep checking my phone when I'm with him... It's a "me"-problem, but the only solution I have right now is to make a clean cut. 

 

 

On 29.6.2022 at 10:20 AM, Copanele said:

Now for one particular game!

I...kinda agree. Fantastic game but man, I don't feel the motivation to start a second playthrough. Hard to say why. I know the last few patches balanced out the bosses but yeah why is Astel stuck in a random dungeon like that?  

Still a great game nevertheless! The first playthrough was the best, until I reached the Frigid Outskirts 2.0 snowy fucketryland.

 

Yes I adored the early game... Just exploring limgrave and the academy, searching every nook and cranny for items, trying to find every dungeon I could... But the more I kept playing, the more "repetition" I started seeing. How many unique bosses are there really in the game? About 9, right? In a game with 130+ "boss" encounters, that number is waaaaay too low in my opinion. I might be a couple of fights off, but the scale is more or less correct I think. 

 

Also, the side dungeons... Initially I thought they were all cool and unique. But they all end up being one of 4-5 types of dungeon. The one with crystals and miners, the one with the bleed-imps and fire-statues, the one with illusionary walls... There is not much variety, which you might not notice at the start, but definitely towards the mid- and end-game.

 

And then there is the issue of rewards being "meh"... How often did I solve a puzzle, or clear a dungeon, just to be rewarded with some spell I knew I would never use... 

 

I would replay DSIII or Bloodborne 10 times each before thinking about a new playthrough of Elden Ring... But I'm still looking forward to any potential DLC  

 

 

13 hours ago, Joe Dubz said:

The man, the myth... The LEGEND @Arcesius is back! Good to see you here bro!

 

Very glad to hear your move went about as smoothly as it could. The wife and I moved into our place a few years ago and I realize just how hectic that can be!

 

Congratulations to you for smashing through Badlands... Looks really good taking over your rarest trophies list  Glad you guys were able to stick it out, even if the Shareplay part of it sucked  Plus you got to make a great friend with @Mori, who seems like a really solid dude! As I mentioned to you on PSN, I just wish there wasn't 6 hours between us because I would've loved to kick it with you guys!

 

Anyway, good to hear from you Arc, glad everything was going well and chat with you soon my dude!!

 

You, my man, are always full of positivity  The move was smooth, especially considering that we have a small child that had to live with us between moving-boxes for a couple of days, and then had to adapt to the new place, change his daycare-place (that was not easy for him..)... We had "only" two weeks off from work, and tried to do everything we could in those two weeks... But obviously there are still things to do. 

 

Badland... I honestly wasn't sure how long it would take ? But after a slow start with the coop-part, we both eventually were really motivated and just wanted to get it done. And hell yeah it feels great!! Finishing all those games (especially Badland and DRG... what a fucking stupid grind that was) actually gave me the motivation to keep cleaning up my profile. I started playing SMBF again, made some more progress and am now currently practicing Dark Chipper Grove  I should hopefully get a clear in the not too distant future ?

 

You are making amazing progress in Crypt!! What a game  Good luck with the remaining characters!! 

[AJ_Radio]

15 hours ago, Arcesius said:

I would replay DSIII or Bloodborne 10 times each before thinking about a new playthrough of Elden Ring... But I'm still looking forward to any potential DLC  

At this point it’ll be years before I ever get around to Elden Ring. Got enough on my backlog including Dark Souls 2, anyone that plays normally without outside help knows the Souls games take a good chunk of time to complete. 
 

The Bloodborne DLC is still single handedly one of the best, most immersive experiences I ever had with modern gaming. Because Elden Ring was so well received by critics I don’t think it’ll be bad to release DLC, hopefully with some trophies. 

[Arcesius]

So, I finished a couple of games and thought it might be time for a new update, along the lines of the last one... If there is one thing I don't have at the moment, it's time... And so, writing long reviews won't be a thing for the time being ? And to be honest, it's one thing to write a review about a game that surprised me and with which I had an incredible time, but it's only half as fun to write one for an "okay'ish" game... 

 

However, this checklist should still serve as some sort of archive for future me, so I keep updating the OP and may as well write a sentence or two about each of the games I finish  I might also start doing these updates after each game finished instead of waiting, but those updates will still be small. 

 

 

  

Shiftlings

A game I played in coop exclusively, together with @Mori. But despite a promising premise, a game that both of us didn't really enjoy all that much. The gimmick is as follows: You have a think but agile, and a fat and heavy one, connected via an umbilical cord (or maybe it's a less gross cord, but that's what I alwasys imagined it as). By the press of a button, the think alien becomes fat, and vice versa. The goal is to navigate the different levels using this shift mechanic. 

Now, the first two worlds were more or less fun, but the gameplay got old pretty quick. Paired with the sometimes incomprehensible placement of collectibles, shitty hitboxes (especially of the fat alien) and rather poor platforming mechanics, the game didn't really convince. 

 

 

  

I Am Bread

"Arc, I remember you writing that you would never, NEVER, play the Bread game". Yes, you remember correctly.. However, I used this game back then when I wrote that sentence as an example. What I actually wrote was that I would never play games purely for trophies, be it UR trophies or otherwise. 

Over the years, I always avoided buying I Am Bread.. But I was always curious. You will see it constantly popping up in discussions, people talking about it as "a very hard and frustrating game", guides giving it a 9/10 or 10/10 in difficulty, with a completion time of 40-75 hours... 

And one day, I woke up and somehow had the urge to give it a go myself... And so I did. 

 

Two things: First, the game was way, WAY more fun than I thought it would be. Honestly, if it wasn't for the glitches in the Cheese Hunt mode, my rating would be even higher. 

Secondly, the game was surprisingly easy. And I mean it, it was surprising to me how quickly I was done with the game. 

There is one level, the famous Garden level in Cheese Hunt mode that gave me some grief, but everything else was ridiculously straightforward. To put it in perspective... I finished the game in 13 hours. I spent 4-5 of those hours in that one Garden level, with many runs ending due to the aforementioned glitches. 

 

 

  

Returnal

Now, this one might piss some people off. I'll start by saying that I had a good time with Returnal... But I have to add that I didn't love it. 

It's a gorgeous game, one that plays great, is responsive, can be somewhat challenging... But during my time with it, it failed to click with me entirely. It felt to show me why so many people praise it to the moon and back. During my entire time with it, I couldn't wait to be done and go back to something with more of a retro feel (see next game in this update ). 

 

The gameplay-loop is fun, but each run can be a tad too long for my liking. Most weapons I felt were lackluster, which always made me resort to the same 2-3 weapons each run. Though I enjoyed the 3D-bullet hell aspect. 

 

I still think that Nex Machina is the best game by Housemarque to date .  

 

 

  

Eldest Souls

Ah, back to gorgeous pixel-Art ? Honestly, playing this game was such a joy... Great aesthetics, fun boss fights (this is a pure boss-rush game), build diversity... And a challenging trophy list on top of a great game! Now, the game was a bit more challenging than I was expecting ? Especially NG+ was a surprise, with bosses now being relentless and hitting like trucks. 

Similar to Jotun, the one game I've played that is closest to Eldest Souls, the biggest challenge is to beat each boss without getting hit. I really enjoy these types of challenges, and it wasn't different here... HOWEVER... Despite there being build diversity in Eldest Souls, no-hitting bosses can often be a DPS race, forcing you to use a high-damage build and taking away all flexibillity. All videos I've seen of people overcoming these challenges use the same build, which is a shame. 

I didn't mind too much though, since I could already experiment with builds while playing through the game normally. 

 

 

Until next time!   

[AJ_Radio]

3 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 

  

I Am Bread

"Arc, I remember you writing that you would never, NEVER, play the Bread game". Yes, you remember correctly.. However, I used this game back then when I wrote that sentence as an example. What I actually wrote was that I would never play games purely for trophies, be it UR trophies or otherwise. 

Over the years, I always avoided buying I Am Bread.. But I was always curious. You will see it constantly popping up in discussions, people talking about it as "a very hard and frustrating game", guides giving it a 9/10 or 10/10 in difficulty, with a completion time of 40-75 hours... 

And one day, I woke up and somehow had the urge to give it a go myself... And so I did. 

 

Two things: First, the game was way, WAY more fun than I thought it would be. Honestly, if it wasn't for the glitches in the Cheese Hunt mode, my rating would be even higher. 

Secondly, the game was surprisingly easy. And I mean it, it was surprising to me how quickly I was done with the game. 

There is one level, the famous Garden level in Cheese Hunt mode that gave me some grief, but everything else was ridiculously straightforward. To put it in perspective... I finished the game in 13 hours. I spent 4-5 of those hours in that one Garden level, with many runs ending due to the aforementioned glitches.

 

I remember asking you a couple years back when I was doing Surgeon Simulator whether or not you were going to play the game yourself for the challenge. And you said no.

 

The same company that developed Surgeon Simulator also developed I Am Bread, and from what everybody tells me. it is even more ridiculous. Having to A++ all surgeries outside of the alien ones really put me off and the game was just designed with those controls in mind. It was like me getting a root canal at the dentist, which funny enough, you have to do a number of surgeries involving knocking out the rotten teeth and putting in the fillings.

 

Thanks to @Bushido_Cypher though, the platinum is far more doable for people who don't exactly have the greatest patience. His Surgeon Simulator guide really helped me out back in 2020, but I still struggled a great deal A++ all surgeries.

 

I never played anything apart from Super Meat Boy that required more precision out of me in a video game.

[Copanele]

Welcome back, if briefly  

6 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 

 

  

Eldest Souls

Ah, back to gorgeous pixel-Art  Honestly, playing this game was such a joy... Great aesthetics, fun boss fights (this is a pure boss-rush game), build diversity... And a challenging trophy list on top of a great game! Now, the game was a bit more challenging than I was expecting  Especially NG+ was a surprise, with bosses now being relentless and hitting like trucks. 

Similar to Jotun, the one game I've played that is closest to Eldest Souls, the biggest challenge is to beat each boss without getting hit. I really enjoy these types of challenges, and it wasn't different here... HOWEVER... Despite there being build diversity in Eldest Souls, no-hitting bosses can often be a DPS race, forcing you to use a high-damage build and taking away all flexibillity. All videos I've seen of people overcoming these challenges use the same build, which is a shame. 

I didn't mind too much though, since I could already experiment with builds while playing through the game normally. 

 

 

Until next time!   

Eldest Souls was a fun time, but I also agree, for no-damage trophies there's only one build that works, and even that barely. I know you mentioned 532 retries at one boss, I'd wager it was Eos the god of Unity, because that one took me a ridiculous amount of time to complete as well  

Otherwise, the other 2 branches do work with a normal playthrough. 

Also loved the various endings based on which sidequest you finished.

[Arcesius]

15 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

I remember asking you a couple years back when I was doing Surgeon Simulator whether or not you were going to play the game yourself for the challenge. And you said no.

 

Ha, yeah ? I really looked at these games as "frustrating for the sake of it", but over the years I've talked to other people that finished those games and really showed me that they enjoyed their time with them. After playing I Am Bread, I understand their perspective. Those games can be a lot of fun if you go in with the right mindset and know that the controls are desingned to try to drive you nuts... If you can keep your cool and look past that, there is a lot of fun to be had here. 

 

I will definitely get to Surgeon Simulator at some point  

 

 

13 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Welcome back, if briefly  

Eldest Souls was a fun time, but I also agree, for no-damage trophies there's only one build that works, and even that barely. I know you mentioned 532 retries at one boss, I'd wager it was Eos the god of Unity, because that one took me a ridiculous amount of time to complete as well  

Otherwise, the other 2 branches do work with a normal playthrough. 

Also loved the various endings based on which sidequest you finished.

 

Maybe briefly, who knows... As soon as I notice that I spend time on here where I should be doing other things, I'm out   

 

Yeah, it was Eos... almost 6 hours of retries... ? But alll other bosses were very easy after that. The most frustrating part was that there is no instant retry option... After getting hit, you need to try to die, and depending on Eos' mood that can take some time. 

 

They should implement a retry option... That would save a lot of time for sure. 

[Joe Dubz]

I think I may have been one of those who enjoyed IAB and may have swayed you in that direction!! You absolutely BLITZED through it tho, most impressive! I had to look at TrueTrophies to know but... It took me 120 hours to finish it!! You are a BEAST Arc, bravo man ?

 

I actually opted to up my PSPlus sub and ended up getting Returnal as well. I dig it so far, but I can see how the gameplay loop might get a little stale after a while... Especially considering how long it takes to run through each biome! Ah well, as long as I'm still having fun, I'll still be playing it ?

 

And yes... Definitely do check out Surgeon Sim! I probably had an equal amount of fun between that and IAB, even if it is equally as glitchy in some parts... That fuggin ambulance driver needs to stop drinking on the job ? Just be ready to downgrade to v1.0 towards the end... Unless you wanna A++ every surgery ?

[realm722]

On 9/14/2022 at 3:29 AM, Arcesius said:

  

I Am Bread

"Arc, I remember you writing that you would never, NEVER, play the Bread game". Yes, you remember correctly.. However, I used this game back then when I wrote that sentence as an example. What I actually wrote was that I would never play games purely for trophies, be it UR trophies or otherwise. 

Over the years, I always avoided buying I Am Bread.. But I was always curious. You will see it constantly popping up in discussions, people talking about it as "a very hard and frustrating game", guides giving it a 9/10 or 10/10 in difficulty, with a completion time of 40-75 hours... 

And one day, I woke up and somehow had the urge to give it a go myself... And so I did. 

 

Two things: First, the game was way, WAY more fun than I thought it would be. Honestly, if it wasn't for the glitches in the Cheese Hunt mode, my rating would be even higher. 

Secondly, the game was surprisingly easy. And I mean it, it was surprising to me how quickly I was done with the game. 

There is one level, the famous Garden level in Cheese Hunt mode that gave me some grief, but everything else was ridiculously straightforward. To put it in perspective... I finished the game in 13 hours. I spent 4-5 of those hours in that one Garden level, with many runs ending due to the aforementioned glitches. 

 

Happy to see you pop back in again, its been far too long! Outstanding job with this. Your completion time is absolutely wicked on it. I was curious and checked out the 100% club and given it was your first experience with the game to complete it in such little time is a huge testament to your skill. 

 

I'd be curious if you have any "really hard <2% games" on your radar. I know you said you'd never play them strictly to gain more URs but I think your recent history has shown you really enjoy a good challenge and finding a nice polished (and not so glitchy :P) gem could be ideal for what you like to dig your claws into. 

[Arcesius]

9 hours ago, Joe Dubz said:

I think I may have been one of those who enjoyed IAB and may have swayed you in that direction!! You absolutely BLITZED through it tho, most impressive! I had to look at TrueTrophies to know but... It took me 120 hours to finish it!! You are a BEAST Arc, bravo man 

 

Oh yeah, without a doubt, you were one of those to actually change my mind about giving this game a go  Did you use the SIF-glitch when you attempted the game? 

 

 

9 hours ago, Joe Dubz said:

I actually opted to up my PSPlus sub and ended up getting Returnal as well. I dig it so far, but I can see how the gameplay loop might get a little stale after a while... Especially considering how long it takes to run through each biome! Ah well, as long as I'm still having fun, I'll still be playing it 

 

Sure, though I think it's important on this one that you make up your own opinion, so I'm glad to see that you are giving it a chance... I might be the outlier here, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case! 

 

 

4 hours ago, realm722 said:

I'd be curious if you have any "really hard <2% games" on your radar. I know you said you'd never play them strictly to gain more URs but I think your recent history has shown you really enjoy a good challenge and finding a nice polished (and not so glitchy :P) gem could be ideal for what you like to dig your claws into. 

 

Sure, I don't play the games I play for the trophies, but I'm always looking for a good challenge, and so many of the toughest games I play just tend to be UR... However, it's always difficult to know how difficult a game is going to be a priori, and I think my experience with I Am Bread is a good example of this ? But I can tell you which games I have in my backlog that I EXPECT to be really hard, even if - as you say - I have no idea when I will get around to them... I list only games that I actually own already: 

 

This one is known for being one of the toughest racing games to 100%. The plat is just below 2%, but most of the difficulty comes from the "Colin McRea" DLC. There is no doubt in my mind that, should I manage to complete this, Dirt Rally 2 will be among the top-3 hardest completions on my profile. 

 

No platinum, but I think it still qualifies, with the toughest trophy sitting at 0.39% in the version I have access to (NA, as EU has been delisted, unfortunately). One of the toughest precision platformers, especially since you are required to beat the entire game without dying once... 

 

How many times have I been about to start this one... And yet, I keep postponing it ? But there is something that always reminds me of Nuclear Throne, and I have no doubt that I will take the plunge sooner or later... 0.48% plat at the time of writing, and I think this one will give me a lot of grief. 

 

This is a bit of an obscure one, and I have no idea what to expect... The EU-version sits around 1% platinum with 8 achievers ? The guide on trueachievements rates this a 10/10, though I was planing on playing through the toughest challenges in coop with @Mori, which might make this slightly easier... However, we will need to do those challenges twice as the game doesn't feature online coop, so shareplay it is... 

 

Griftlands, a game that I expect to be as good as Slay the Spire... Although that might be a difficult expectation to fulfil. Again, no plat, but 12/13 trophies are UR, with the rarest one sitting at ~1%, only 6 100% achievers. I think this is going to be tough also because there is not much information about this game out there ?

 

Probably the next game I'll start. A Pixel Story should be chill for the most part, but has a challenge hidden in the post-game that is probably going to require multiple hours of practice. Sits currently at 2% rarity, had 3 achievers before the guide came out, has meanwhile been achieved by 11 players on PSNP.

 

 

I have plenty of other sub-2% games in my backlog, but I don't think that all of them will give me as much trouble as those I listed  However, don't be fooled by the rarity.. Splasher is almost at 4%, Super Meat Boy Forever is over 4%... both games are definitely harder than most other games on my profile... And certainly harder than some of the games I just listed (I'm guessing confidently... we will see though!). 

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 

 

Griftlands, a game that I expect to be as good as Slay the Spire... Although that might be a difficult expectation to fulfil. Again, no plat, but 12/13 trophies are UR, with the rarest one sitting at ~1%, only 6 100% achievers. I think this is going to be tough also because there is not much information about this game out there 

 

 

Hey man - long time!

 

I'm playing this one just now - only played a few runs so far, but it's cool as hell so far! 

[Rally-Vincent---]

Griftlands shouldn't pose too much trouble for you, @Arcesius. I found it easier than Slay the Spire. The 1% trophy is the speedrun trophy, which is the only one I found a bit tricky. I dislike (read: hate) speedruns, though, so take that with a grain of salt.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Rally-Vincent---

[Destructor-8]

On 14/09/2022 at 8:29 AM, Arcesius said:

I Am Bread

"Arc, I remember you writing that you would never, NEVER, play the Bread game". Yes, you remember correctly.. However, I used this game back then when I wrote that sentence as an example. What I actually wrote was that I would never play games purely for trophies, be it UR trophies or otherwise. 

Over the years, I always avoided buying I Am Bread.. But I was always curious. You will see it constantly popping up in discussions, people talking about it as "a very hard and frustrating game", guides giving it a 9/10 or 10/10 in difficulty, with a completion time of 40-75 hours... 

And one day, I woke up and somehow had the urge to give it a go myself... And so I did.

 

Nice to see your updates, these are always interesting! I saw you were playing this recently which I think was just before @KindaSabbath went & did it so it was cool to see you both get that one knocked out around the same time haha. Congrats on finishing it! It sounds like it can be a lot of fun although quite frustrating at times I've heard especially on the last part as you mentioned. I have thought about getting it recently but didn't know if I would like it but if it's a challenge that is worth having a try at then I might get it. I don't think I've played anything like it so I don't think I'd have any experience going into it though. I might get when it's next on sale. Nice going again on this & all the other stuff you finished!

 

6 hours ago, Arcesius said:

This one is known for being one of the toughest racing games to 100%. The plat is just below 2%, but most of the difficulty comes from the "Colin McRea" DLC. There is no doubt in my mind that, should I manage to complete this, Dirt Rally 2 will be among the top-3 hardest completions on my profile.

 

Oh wow those are some pretty tough ones that you've mentioned so that's awesome stuff. I still haven't got around to picking this one back up as I've had so much other stuff to do plus I've currently got a lot to try to finish off so would be nice if I can get back to it. I've mentioned to @KindaSabbath about how much of an intense challenge this one is & I'm sure both of you will enjoy it a lot. It would be nice if I could one day finally get this one done. I'm looking forward to more of your updates, glad to see as these are always a great read dude!

[Joe Dubz]

12 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Oh yeah, without a doubt, you were one of those to actually change my mind about giving this game a go  Did you use the SIF-glitch when you attempted the game? 

Glad to hear I could help nudge you in that direction!! Yes oh my... No way in hell I was trying that without the SIF-glitch! I figured it out early and used it often... This game would have been 10x harder IMO without it!

[Arcesius]

On 9/16/2022 at 8:20 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

I'm playing this one just now - only played a few runs so far, but it's cool as hell so far! 

 

19 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Griftlands shouldn't pose too much trouble for you, @Arcesius. I found it easier than Slay the Spire. The 1% trophy is the speedrun trophy, which is the only one I found a bit tricky. I dislike (read: hate) speedruns, though, so take that with a grain of salt.

 

Well the important part is that it seems to be a great game, judging from your impressions... I also think I remember reading some updates a while back when you were playing the game, @Rally-Vincent---, and I believe you were positive about this game as well..? ? I'm just hoping to have a good time, as I thought Slay the Spire was fantastic and really woke my hunger again for card games. 

 

17 hours ago, Destructor-8 said:

I saw you were playing this recently which I think was just before @KindaSabbath went & did it so it was cool to see you both get that one knocked out around the same time haha. Congrats on finishing it! It sounds like it can be a lot of fun although quite frustrating at times I've heard especially on the last part as you mentioned. I have thought about getting it recently but didn't know if I would like it but if it's a challenge that is worth having a try at then I might get it. I don't think I've played anything like it so I don't think I'd have any experience going into it though.

 

Yeah I finished the game and then Sabbath told me that he had been thinking about playing it.. I told him that this was not the right game to play after going through Trials of the Blood Dragon to forget about thos shitty controls (since, you know... I Am Bread's design has awful controls on purpose), but he wouldn't listen ? He enjoyed the game as well though, and blitzed through it in no time either! 

 

I will repeat that I think there is a lot of fun to be had here if you go in with the right mindset, but it definitely isn't a game for everybody. 

 

12 hours ago, Joe Dubz said:

Glad to hear I could help nudge you in that direction!! Yes oh my... No way in hell I was trying that without the SIF-glitch! I figured it out early and used it often... This game would have been 10x harder IMO without it!

 

Oh absolutely.. I've seen videos of A++ runs without the SIF glitch and damn, it was already tight without the glitch, I don't wanna imagine how much practice went into those glitchless runs ? 

[Rally-Vincent---]

1 hour ago, Arcesius said:

Well the important part is that it seems to be a great game, judging from your impressions... I also think I remember reading some updates a while back when you were playing the game, @Rally-Vincent---, and I believe you were positive about this game as well..?  I'm just hoping to have a good time, as I thought Slay the Spire was fantastic and really woke my hunger again for card games.

 

I enjoyed it, especially since you have to build two decks for your runs instead of just one (one for fighting battles and one for talk battlles). Each deck on its own has less variety than the full deck of StS, though, so within each deck, I tended to build it mostly the same way. But there are three characters, each with an individual story campaign, and you can have companions and temporary party members in your battles, and there is an ascencion-like mode, albeit condensed and not stretched out over 20 levels. The game also has a non-story mode (brawl), so there is enough to do.

 

Griftlands is an overlooked game.

Edited September 17, 2022 by Rally-Vincent---

[Arcesius]

I still can't believe it... over 11 months after starting the game, after having mentioned the game in my "Games I'm afraid to start" mini-writeup, I can finally put this one to sleep: 

 

  

 

Super Meat Boy Forever

What an experience... I think this is the first game that has this combination of enjoyment / challenge rating. And it's mainly that discrepancy that made this one feel... like torture at times. 

So, before anyone asks, let me formulate the question that is floating in the room, since it's also the question that will allow me to talk about my time with the game more generally as well:

 

Is Super Meat Boy Forever hader to 100% than the original? 

 

For me, personally, the answer is a very clear yes, quite significantly. But maybe not for the reasons you think. 

 

In terms of gameplay, the two games are not really comparable. Super Meat Boy is known to be an ultra-tight precision platformer with somewhat floaty controls and excellent level design. The sequel is a precise auto-runner with interesting mechanics that I would not have expected in such a game. 

Let me say this: I really liked the different mechanics and gameplay elements introduced in each of the different worlds and even levels, I thought they were clever and they were interesting. But the auto-runner aspect of the game, taking away a lot of freedom from the player, paired with the random nature of the game (I have mentioned this before, each player will experience different levels, as they are put together from fixed chunks according to the seed selected at the start of the game) and sometimes questionable level design really took away much of the enjoyment I was initially having with the game. 

 

And this is also the reason why the game feels much harder to me than the original. Because while no single deathless run took longer than 10 hours of practice, every single one of them felt like it took an eternity to complete. When you are not necessarily enjoying something, the time spent with said thing just drags on and on. And this is how practicing those incredibly difficult runs felt to me. Draining, frustrating and unfair. The latter aspect is probably a projection of my feelings for the game, although I can certainly find many "level-chunks" that could be objectively labeled unfair. 

 

In any case, after leaving the game untouched for months after completing the much easier light world deathless runs, I decided to abandon my seed and did all dark world deathless runs over three different seeds that felt more doable to me. There was no point in sticking to my own seed, potentially having to practice for many more hours before getting a clear... I don't regret that decision at all, since returning to the game and actually noticing my steep progress actually resulted in some much needed enjoyable moments.

 

In case you want to tackle this game in the future and are looking for manageable seeds, here is my playlist containing all 11 deathless runs. Each video has the seed in the description: 

 

 

Was it worth it? Well yes, yes it was. You can't imagine my elation after each completed run. Ask @Mori and @Exhuman1988, I was in party chat with them when I finished what I would say was the hardest run, and I almost left them deaf from my victory scream ? 

 

 

Next up: I'm currently playing Victor Vran with @Mori, @Exhuman1988 and @Koro249, so that's my current coop project. I can't go back to Bleed just yet since that's also a game I don't enjoy, so I want to play something else first. I have Velocity 2X and A Pixel Story in mind, and will probably start the latter in a week (currently on vacation ). 

Edited October 1, 2022 by Arcesius

[Baker]

Congrats!
 

I’ve ‘seen’ you playing it for such a long time I thought that this game must be extremely difficult. The more I look into SMBF myself the more I want to play it too. It actually seems like a lot of fun.

 

I’m starting Dirt Rally 2.0 in 3 weeks because of the Dirt Rally server shutdown. I don’t want to take any chances and get the online trophies out of way asap. Want to join in on the fun?