Trophy/game info

[Whirled03]

I decided to take a risk and buy the game with very little knowledge about it, while also being unsure what the plat was going to be like.

 

After earning the plat, here's what I found out (if anyone is curious) -

 

Assuming backup saves are made:

• Plat time: ~30-40 hours.
• Minimum playthroughs: Basically 2. I think technically you could do it in 1.5.
  • Side note: Not sure if it's worth trying to do it in 1.5, as you have to have multiple separate backups for multiple sections of the game. The game isn't terribly long on subsequent playthroughs (probably less than 10 hours); once you figure out how to manage your items and where you need to go to progress the story, the vast majority of the locations in the game can be ignored. 

 

In terms of trophies, there's only one that is particularly problematic, which is "No sleep for the wicked", where you have to kill a Black Chomper, which is one of the strongest enemies in the game, armed only with a Shovel (which is sort of a medium-tier weapon). No healing items are present for this encounter, but I'm not 100% sure if passive skills gained via upgrades are.

 

To make matters worse, this encounter only occurs during a "dream", which only occurs after the player purchases a skill (which is kind of the "level up" system). To clarify, there is only a chance that a dream will occur after a skill is bought, but the chance is fairly high (guesstimating 50%-75% chance). On top of that, the dream that occurs is randomized, but the plus side is that the same dreams do not seem to repeat after later skill purchases.

 

In other words, there's a chance you can go through the entire game never seeing this specific dream where this encounter occurs.

 

What this boils down to is that the trophy may need the use of backup saves for any serious attempts, unless you want to play through the game more than twice. When you do get the dream to occur, it's also worth noting that it's the same dream that is required for the "Sleep in the grave" trophy, but you can only get that trophy if you decide to avoid the Chomper fight. If you do decide to engage with the Chomper, if you die, you get kicked out of the dream and the auto-save activates shortly afterward. Although, you can press Pause and quit to the Main Menu right before dying to get another attempt.

 

This means you only have 1 shot per playthrough without the use of backup saves The good news is that there is an auto-save right after you enter the dream, so that can be backed up in case you die.

 

I would recommend using backup saves for "Willpower" and "Entertainer" as well, since they are both 1 attempt per playthrough. They're not nearly as difficult as the fight with the Chomper, but you might die attempting to figure out how to complete their specific encounters.

 

The other trophies are not difficult to complete overall, but do require some specific story choices.

 

Game:

 

It's actually kind of an older game as it turns out (maybe 5 years old?). I'm guessing the console port was just an attempt to earn some cash. It seems that there were a lot of versions prior to the final in the PC version, which could explain why some of the design makes little sense in some places.

 

There is a Fandom wiki on it, which is a fairly good source for information:

 

https://darkwood.fandom.com/wiki/Darkwood

 

The game itself is not that difficult on Normal but I would imagine it's quite difficult on any other difficulty (you can play on Normal for trophies). What's good about Normal is that dying is mostly inconsequential; you only drop about half of your current inventory where you die, and that's it. Not only that, but where you died will also be marked on the map, making it even less of a big deal.

 

The game isn't a "Survival Horror" game in the classical definition (i.e. Silent Hill, Resident Evil), but rather a "Survival" game with a Horror theme. There's a lot of crafting involved, as well as time management; you can't really stay out during the night cycle, which means you have to go explore during the day, then run back to your hideout before nightfall.

 

Any sense of difficulty mainly stems from just figuring the game out - What to buy and not buy; where locations are; where items are; how to progress the storyline, etc. The combat is fairly basic, mostly consisting of being able to use 1-2 attacks, but they do use Stamina, which means it's mostly just about Stamina management.

 

If anyone has a question about the game or the trophies, feel free to post.

[yowzagabowza]

Great post with useful information, thank you!

 

I just checked this on the store since it's on sale and it looked kinda good. Everything you said about the he was good, too, until you said it's a survival game. I'm not interested in resources and crafting and running back to camp. Oh well, it was worth a shot?

[Alesana_1992]

On 7/7/2019 at 9:03 AM, Whirled03 said:

I decided to take a risk and buy the game with very little knowledge about it, while also being unsure what the plat was going to be like.

 

After earning the plat, here's what I found out (if anyone is curious) -

 

Assuming backup saves are made:

• Plat time: ~30-40 hours.
• Minimum playthroughs: Basically 2. I think technically you could do it in 1.5.
  • Side note: Not sure if it's worth trying to do it in 1.5, as you have to have multiple separate backups for multiple sections of the game. The game isn't terribly long on subsequent playthroughs (probably less than 10 hours); once you figure out how to manage your items and where you need to go to progress the story, the vast majority of the locations in the game can be ignored. 

 

In terms of trophies, there's only one that is particularly problematic, which is "No sleep for the wicked", where you have to kill a Black Chomper, which is one of the strongest enemies in the game, armed only with a Shovel (which is sort of a medium-tier weapon). No healing items are present for this encounter, but I'm not 100% sure if passive skills gained via upgrades are.

 

To make matters worse, this encounter only occurs during a "dream", which only occurs after the player purchases a skill (which is kind of the "level up" system). To clarify, there is only a chance that a dream will occur after a skill is bought, but the chance is fairly high (guesstimating 50%-75% chance). On top of that, the dream that occurs is randomized, but the plus side is that the same dreams do not seem to repeat after later skill purchases.

 

In other words, there's a chance you can go through the entire game never seeing this specific dream where this encounter occurs.

 

What this boils down to is that the trophy may need the use of backup saves for any serious attempts, unless you want to play through the game more than twice. When you do get the dream to occur, it's also worth noting that it's the same dream that is required for the "Sleep in the grave" trophy, but you can only get that trophy if you decide to avoid the Chomper fight. If you do decide to engage with the Chomper, if you die, you get kicked out of the dream and the auto-save activates shortly afterward. Although, you can press Pause and quit to the Main Menu right before dying to get another attempt.

 

This means you only have 1 shot per playthrough without the use of backup saves The good news is that there is an auto-save right after you enter the dream, so that can be backed up in case you die.

 

I would recommend using backup saves for "Willpower" and "Entertainer" as well, since they are both 1 attempt per playthrough. They're not nearly as difficult as the fight with the Chomper, but you might die attempting to figure out how to complete their specific encounters.

 

The other trophies are not difficult to complete overall, but do require some specific story choices.

 

Game:

 

It's actually kind of an older game as it turns out (maybe 5 years old?). I'm guessing the console port was just an attempt to earn some cash. It seems that there were a lot of versions prior to the final in the PC version, which could explain why some of the design makes little sense in some places.

 

There is a Fandom wiki on it, which is a fairly good source for information:

 

https://darkwood.fandom.com/wiki/Darkwood

 

The game itself is not that difficult on Normal but I would imagine it's quite difficult on any other difficulty (you can play on Normal for trophies). What's good about Normal is that dying is mostly inconsequential; you only drop about half of your current inventory where you die, and that's it. Not only that, but where you died will also be marked on the map, making it even less of a big deal.

 

The game isn't a "Survival Horror" game in the classical definition (i.e. Silent Hill, Resident Evil), but rather a "Survival" game with a Horror theme. There's a lot of crafting involved, as well as time management; you can't really stay out during the night cycle, which means you have to go explore during the day, then run back to your hideout before nightfall.

 

Any sense of difficulty mainly stems from just figuring the game out - What to buy and not buy; where locations are; where items are; how to progress the storyline, etc. The combat is fairly basic, mostly consisting of being able to use 1-2 attacks, but they do use Stamina, which means it's mostly just about Stamina management.

 

If anyone has a question about the game or the trophies, feel free to post.

 

Can you confirm if quitting in the main screen is advisable for "No sleep for the wicked" trophy? I'm not subscribed to PS Plus right now so save scumming will not work for me. TIA

[Whirled03]

13 hours ago, Alesana_1992 said:

 

Can you confirm if quitting in the main screen is advisable for "No sleep for the wicked" trophy? I'm not subscribed to PS Plus right now so save scumming will not work for me. TIA

 

Okay I'll try to do my best from my memory here lol it's been a while though.

 

From what I recall...the issue with quitting to the main screen is that you have to be really quick about it. Like I said in my post, there should be an auto-save that kicks in as soon as you die, which means you have to gauge whether or not you want to quit first, then hit the pause button and quit to the main menu before you end up dying.

 

It's certainly a lot faster than trying to reload a back-up save, but I had a few attempts where I thought I was going to kill the Chomper, only to die anyway. So things don't always go as planned; iirc, the Chomper can kill you in 2-3 hits, whereas you have to hit him probably double that amount.

 

Of course I don't know if the game has been updated/changed at all since I last played.

 

You don't need PS+ to create a back-up though, if you have a USB Flash Drive. I'm not sure what your location is, but here in the US they go for as low as $5.

[Recoilius]

I think I will pick the game up at one point on sale due to this review.  It looks like a indie title and kinda fun, but knowing the platinum is not a ball buster adds the incentive spice!