Copanele's collection of trophies and experiences

[Copanele]

7 hours ago, Puppeter04 said:

I DIED LAUGHING!!!! HAHAHAHA god 

 First of all, congrats ! 

This game is one of those that separates our community, some of us like it, some hate it. Basically the controls are the problem to the ppl who do not like it, but if is true that is a good remake/remaster (don’t know now what it is) for us who enjoyed it on PS2  

 

Looks, sound and atmosphere play a HUGE role on this, just like AC2 or some Resident Evil.

 

But after all it’s just a normal game, nothing too fancy but wishing to play DMC2 instead?!?!?!?!?!?!? 

 

Again, congrats, 123 is a huge amount, and my fav number btw

Thanks yep in terms of remake Bluepoint are kings here, they really did this game justice... But would it have killed them to fix the controls abit? 

And yeah it's for fans only. I mean i cannot wait to play Demon Souls Remake on PS5 (whenever I get that console) but those who can't handle those types of games... You just get your ass kicked in ultra HD edition. Not fun

 

And why I said I would rather play DMC2... I have platinumed that atrocity twice. I would not dare platinum SotC again. 2>1 DMC2 wins for me hahahahah. Best maths out there. Still dmc2 is way worse not denying that. 

123 sounds like a fun number too. Would have wanted that as a milestone instead of 125.

 

4 hours ago, realm722 said:

 

Bahahaha excellent job on this. First of all, on achieving this platinum in the 1st place. But my goodness... I downloaded Shadow of the Colossus when it became free for PS+ Users but REFUSED to play it until I at the very least, platinumed The Last Guardian. It's the latest game by Colossus' developer, Team Ico. I don't know how else to say this... I despise that game with ever fiber of my being. It is the worst Playstation 4 game I have ever played, and I have beaten the game 6 BLOODY TIMES and yet don't have the plat (need to do an unbelievably annoying hear all hints trophy+do a whole playthrough without leaving spears in your monsters companions body. To see that the EXACT same awful control problems are present in their title that led them to superstardom on a global stage boggles my mind. 

 

So having read your review, thank you for your sacrifice. For it tells me - yanno what, don't ever play this game, or at least if I want to, do it on a 2nd account and only do a 1-time playthrough. I can do and handle difficult games that require skill and precision. Wanting to fight the game CONTROLS themself though and have an infuriating experience? I'm good dawg. Don't need that in my life. Hell of a platinum to end 2020, I salute you. 

 

I played SotC while telling a friend of mine the experience. He played Last Guardian and told me, god bless his soul "imagine that you have the same beautiful controls, same stuff same everything but the colossus is your friend and has an even more complicated AI that poops. Literally. And you have to do time based circus puzzles with it. " 

 

That sounds like nightmare doubled down. I am glad I did not buy The Last Guardian and yes, if your really want to see what is the deal with SotC, one playthrough on a secondary account is enough. Even with functional controls the grinding is super boring. 

[Honor_Hand]

Well, this post here is full of even more analogies and an even deeper existential crisis. Like, your status updates were able to convey that emotion very well to me but I don't think they were as fully realized as they are here. man.  The colossi stun-locking the main character into shaking like Shakira and, the wheelbarrow with a flat tire thing, and Aggro the horse spawn of Satan made me burst into laughter, lol.

 

But seriously, all these games made by Team ICO have this same exact reputation. I'm no denying the fact that they have a very artistic approach in what they are trying to convey in their games and that they do look wonderful as an art piece, but they DO control like garbage. All 3 of their games have this reputation and one can't help but wonder if this is some sort of design choice or if they don't actually know how to make good controls in videogames... like at all. That's a good part of the reason why I haven't tried their games yet even if I have the first two on PS3 when they were given away as PS+ freebies. I like art in videogames but I also like art that controls good and that has fun gameplay. Take Okami for example, that game looks beautiful AND the controls are great. I don't know if you've played that one already but do take it into consideration if you want to experience an artistic game that controls well and has fun gameplay. I'm sure there are many others out there as well.

 

I don't know if I'll ever play Team ICO's games at some point. Reading horror stories like the one Copanele shared here with us certainly doesn't help in making me play the games. ?

 

 

[Grotz99]

Shadow of Colossus has probably been on my backlog longer than any other game now. I have it on PS3 and PS4...for some reason. PS4 is physical and I'm not sure if it was ever offered on PS3 for Plus. I've heard good things about the game, but this review might have pressed it further on the back log. I tried The Last Guardian and got bored before beating it once and I didn't enjoy the controls at all, so that being from the same company also had me worried.

[Copanele]

4 hours ago, Honor_Hand said:

-snip-

Well truth be told, I TRULY expressed my feelings about this game here. There's more people checking the status updates than Trophy Checklists so I didn't want to cause too much mayhem with my opinions about this game  but yeah...I've seen how ICO looks like and just NO! I hate escort missions and that game is an entire escort mission. The Last Guardian not even that, I have seen way too many sour opinions related to that game.

But yeah...if you can't ignore the severe flaws of the gameplay, you will hate your life with this game, regardless of how much you love aesthetics in videogames. I truly recommend you try it on a secondary account first to see if maybe you have a different experience, heck I might be wrong and you might enjoy the game!

And yeah, I have heard lots of praise about Okami AND it controls well. The only complaint I heard about it is that the game is abit too long, but nothing else otherwise. Might give it a go one day!

 

3 hours ago, Grotz99 said:

Shadow of Colossus has probably been on my backlog longer than any other game now. I have it on PS3 and PS4...for some reason. PS4 is physical and I'm not sure if it was ever offered on PS3 for Plus. I've heard good things about the game, but this review might have pressed it further on the back log. I tried The Last Guardian and got bored before beating it once and I didn't enjoy the controls at all, so that being from the same company also had me worried.

Yeah...having this game on BOTH PS3 and PS4....why ? I mean at least on PS4 you can sort of survive through it but on PS3 you have to kill all lizards and collect all fruits also! That will be hell!

I predict you will indeed push them even further down  

[Honor_Hand]

23 hours ago, Copanele said:

Well truth be told, I TRULY expressed my feelings about this game here. There's more people checking the status updates than Trophy Checklists so I didn't want to cause too much mayhem with my opinions about this game  but yeah...I've seen how ICO looks like and just NO! I hate escort missions and that game is an entire escort mission. The Last Guardian not even that, I have seen way too many sour opinions related to that game.

But yeah...if you can't ignore the severe flaws of the gameplay, you will hate your life with this game, regardless of how much you love aesthetics in videogames. I truly recommend you try it on a secondary account first to see if maybe you have a different experience, heck I might be wrong and you might enjoy the game!

And yeah, I have heard lots of praise about Okami AND it controls well. The only complaint I heard about it is that the game is abit too long, but nothing else otherwise. Might give it a go one day!

 

Better avoid people raising up in arms against you for your mostly negative opinion on SoTC. But hey, it is what it is. x3

 

Okami is indeed kind of lengthy. I think a full playthrough of it collecting everything you need should probably be around 45-50 hours. You can double that if you like to goof around like me. ? Another weak point of the game is, in my opinion, its overall easy difficulty in both combat and puzzles. There's very little challenge to it at all, if any. But still, it's a wondrous-looking game with an interesting story all the way to the end. One of my favorites for sure.

[AJ_Radio]

Demon's Souls really isn't that hard, I don't think the Soulsborne games are as hard as people say. There was a time several years ago when you could make the point that Soulsborne games had a big cult following that was extremely dedicated, but I can safely say now that they are mainstream. They're no longer the hard as nails games people thought they were a decade ago. Demon's Souls and Dark Souls both took a formula that was more common with old school gaming, which was throwing you out there in the thick of things after providing what is probably the most simplistic tutorials, just a bunch of button commands that you had to master in order to finish and platinum the games.

 

Modern AAA games basically hold their hand for the players, and the recent trend of adding difficult/annoying DLC trophies really kills my desire to go for the 100 percent. In Days Gone I have to do a casual playthrough for the base game, do clean up, earn the platinum, then play the game one more time on New Game Plus while having fast travel disabled, then finally tackle the challenges which will take god knows how long they will be. Nothing all too difficult, but the gap between those who earned the platinum and those who earned the 100 percent is so wide it's probably easy to see why most won't attempt going for every trophy.

 

Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, once you read up on guides and do your own research, become a whole lot easier. The most difficult portions was just me getting used to the controls and how the game mechanics worked. I did everything on my own for Bloodborne, only looked up a guide for some of the bosses and finding a couple weapons. All else I did pretty much blind, including the Chalice Dungeons which a lot of people struggle with. Soulsborne is one of a select few that does New Game Plus right. Marvel's Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone and Ghost of Tsushima all have a tacked on New Game Plus that adds nothing more than to waste your time. In the Souls games I have a reason for playing New Game Plus, new paths open up, new weapons become available that I couldn't get on the first playthrough, NPCs can also change on New Game Plus, and the enemies are properly made more challenging.

 

But in all honesty the Souls games aren't as cumbersome and difficult as people make them out to be. Watching a YouTube video or two completely kills the difficulty in more ways than one. Some of the stuff I've done; Super Meat Boy, Surgeon Simulator, OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood and Velocity 2X are still difficult and challenging even if you do look up YouTube videos, because there is a good degree of skill required. In the Souls games, you really just have to learn how to play them, and the rest will come to you as long as you're willing to put in the time.

[Copanele]

@Spaz you refer to the point where I mentioned that Demon's Souls Remake might kick a newcomer's ass no? Because I admit I was abit lost with the Soulsborne text there

 

I think what i meant with that analogy was that for a newcomer Soulsborne might be a nasty experience , same as SotC was with me, regardless of the skillset. I don't consider myself to be THAT bad at videogames anymore and I still couldn't get past the controls, even when I knew all the stuff that I had to do. I also have a friend who is really good at videogames and has awesome eye - hand coordination (he is a very good Tekken player) and still cannot enjoy Demon's Souls no matter what; it is simply not for him. So yeah at this point this type of experience is entirely subjective. 

 

And yeah... Soulsborne games are not cumbersome or difficult at all (except some poorly designed bosses/DLCs from DS2) but yep, not everybody's cup of tea. 

[AJ_Radio]

Well yes that was my entire point @Copanele. You will fail a LOT at the beginning. That's any game really, but this especially applies to the Souls games. A newcomer who never played a second of Souls before is likely to get wrecked, and perhaps that would even deter him from ever playing the games. Despite Bloodborne being an uncommon platinum, there are tons of people who never got past the Cleric Beast. They just threw their hands up, admitted defeat and moved on.

 

Nioh and Nioh 2 I feel are a step up from the Souls. They were heavily inspired by what From Software did before and tacked on their own set of standards. Builds are far more important now. I generally hear people who cheesed their way through Nioh and a bit of Nioh 2 are getting destroyed in the Nioh 2 DLC. I can subjectively say that because of that, Nioh 2 is definitely more difficult of a game to master.

 

I'm not a huge Souls guy, both you and @Arcesius have far more love and dedication to From Software than myself. Your friend in contrast could probably compete in the higher online rankings of Street Fighter V and Tekken 7. I could never do that, even if I had the means to because strategizing and trying to defeat an online fighting opponent requires a whole different set of skills and mindset. My specialty is platformers, played them for over 25 years dating back to the Super Mario/Sonic the Hedgehog era. I could play classic Sonic and enjoy it just as much as I did back in the 1990s. You admit you suck at platformers, you're bad at them, they frustrate you to no end, you couldn't even imagine yourself beating Super Meat Boy. You won't do Crash 2 and Crash Warped because again, you don't like the genre that much. Me personally, I could knock those out in a couple of days.

 

This is of course coming from me and these are of course my own opinions. Let's not stray off and say Dark Souls and Nioh are the worst games in existence, as a certain user will say Nioh was one of the worst games he ever had the displeasure of finishing. I can think of far worse games that most people can definitely say are horrifically bad, they don't need to be subjective about it.

 

If I had more time and less games on my backlog, I would pick up Nioh.

[Copanele]

@SpazOh yes, you are right there. Damn even mentioning platformers makes my skin crawl but yeah you are an absolute pro at them, hats off there. I will take the action /fighting games instead thank you very much! 

 

BUT yes, what I write in my "reviews" is purely subjective, my experience with a videogame, good or bad. I think there is only one objectively irredeemable bad game on my list and that is DMC2. That is indeed a horrible game. Even Duke Nukem Forever has its moments. Other than that I can't say there was another abysmal game that should be deleted from the face of the earth.

 

Ok not sure where I wanted to go with this idea hahah, I think I just like rambling about videogames in general as a sort of conclusion, do make sure to pick up Nioh, it is well worth it when you have some spare time. You might have it already from PS+. I will dive into Nioh 2 soon after I cleaned up the backlog abit more, got the Deluxe Edition. No cheesing allowed either, just like in Nioh 1.

 

[Copanele]

 No. 124 - The King of Fighters Collection : The Orochi Saga

 

Platinum Name : Keeper of Sacred Treasures 

Hardest Trophy : Party at Cafe Illusion  Clear all five games with the Women's Fighters Team without losing a single match - goddamn you Rugal.

Difficulty : 3/10 - not really that difficult but it takes a lot of time.

Personal impression : 8/10

 

I really missed a lot of old classic fighting games and this year I intend to correct this and go through all the good ol' button mashers.

I started up with King of Fighters, SNK's most popular franchise and this collection contains the Orochi Saga games, KoF '94, '95, '96, '97 and the non-canon but still a fantastic entry '98. So basically 5 games in one package.

 

To briefly describe all 5 games, they are really made with tons of care and a quality that kinda surpasses Street Fighter (which I feel is the main competitor). In KoF you pick up a team of 3 fighters and you have 3v3 battles with the opponent. In the end, the team with the fighters still standing wins. No tagging system in these entries thank god, just fight until one drops then the other one enters the stage.

Why I said care and quality...while you fight, the other teammates either cheer you up every time you hit your opponent, get worried if you get your ass handed to you or fall into despair if you get defeated. The defeated teammates mope around in the background. For such old games, they sure feel lively and organic, reacting to your progress during the fight.

 

Mai and Kim support their teammate Terry

 

Other than that, I have to say that the execution in these games is TOUGH as nails. There's lots of commands, intricate combos and mechanics that take a lot to learn and master. This is truly a cruel series for beginners, it's quite difficult to learn and even more difficult to master. However I felt that the games are incredibly rewarding once you manage to learn that crazy combo or that stupid input that gets you the flashiest super.

 

Robert can be a total beast in the right hands

 

The games themselves were mostly fun. What I loved is that they were vastly different from each other (at least from my noob perspective  )

 

KoF 94 : The first in the series and definitely the clunkiest and the cheapest. It wasn't as awful as Street Fighter 1, god forbid this is a great game to play, but age really shows in this game. AI is more or less cheap, however this game also hosts one of the cheapest SNK bosses, Rugal. He is the embodiment of SNK Boss Syndrome, reading your inputs like no tomorrow and murdering your health bar in 2 attacks. For me this was the hardest KoF to complete with all the teams.

 

KoF 95 : A vast improvement over 94, however it still felt abit clunky for me. AI learned a few new tricks and got even cheaper, however ironically the final boss Omega Rugal is actually rather easy to defeat. Somehow powering up de-powered him  logic... 

Also this is the only game that I kinda struggle to remember. The only thing that is burned into my mind is Heidern being an awful AI to fight (a tall captain that jumps across the map and strangles you)

 

KoF 96 : I had the most fun with this one. It introduced a new character Leona, a charge character (kinda like Guile from SF), but unlike Guile I actually loved her playstyle and design. She is one deranged cookie however, mainly because of the final boss Goenitz, another incredibly cheap but manageable boss. This final boss has the bad habit of going "Kansas mode" on you and spam tornadoes on the screen. He's not as cheap as Rugal but he can end your life instantly if you rush him down.

 

KoF 97 : This one is technically the end of the Orochi Saga, you face the big bad Orochi who is...a rather plain boss battle. However this game gets us new characters, one of which became quickly one of my favorite : Shermie. She isn't my favorite gameplay wise but my god that presentation, that WALK, that sass  SNK does good job there.

 

KoF 98 : The only non-canon entry in the series. It's by far the best one gameplay-wise, but it not having a story quickly became forgettable for me. After being treated by each character's internal struggles (and hunger for money), just playing a random game with no story was kinda meh for me.

 

Honestly I am really glad that I played this collection and that's my first platinum on this year. It's a fantastic series and I can't recommend it enough, if you have the patience with a rather cheap AI. 

Myself, I keep preparing for finishing KoF XIII's monster trials and soon I will be starting The Art of Fighting Anthology. I heard AoF is incredibly cheap, so it's best to get ready beforehand  

Never expected these old games to bring me more fun than the modern games. I might be getting old lol.

 

P.S. I used lots of GIFs in this post, mainly because just describing this game with words is not enough. I won't make a habit of it, but I just felt that this game deserves some "visual goodness"

 

THE GOOD:

- a classic collection

- big roster of unique characters

- the little details bring all the charm in the game

- those damn bosses are hella memorable - goddamn you Rugal

- Leona is a great character that I didn't know I needed

 

THE BAD:

- age starts to show - the earlier KoF games are quite unforgiving and clunky

- bosses can be incredibly cheap - GODDAMN you RUGAL

- KoF 98 REALLY needed a story

- SNK Boss Syndrome at its finest if you play on any difficulty other than 1. Rugal you garbage!

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[Eqill5]

I personally really enjoyed SOTC, but I found your review hilarious, kudos for seeing it through! Because you loved the controls so much (I mean c’mon who wouldn’t?) then I won’t recommend ICO or The Last Guardian to you. Not just on a trophy perspective but trying to navigate your way through a play through (multiple) it can make things quite frustrating at times.

 

I played all 3 games back-back-back and did like them and the experience they offer, but if it’s not for you, then that’s completely fine because not enjoying something due to it’s mechanics I can understand would in turn ruin your experience - and waste your damn time! ?

[Copanele]

10 minutes ago, Eqill5 said:

I personally really enjoyed SOTC, but I found your review hilarious, kudos for seeing it through! Because you loved the controls so much (I mean c’mon who wouldn’t?) then I won’t recommend ICO or The Last Guardian to you. Not just on a trophy perspective but trying to navigate your way through a play through (multiple) it can make things quite frustrating at times.

 

I played all 3 games back-back-back and did like them and the experience they offer, but if it’s not for you, then that’s completely fine because not enjoying something due to it’s mechanics I can understand would in turn ruin your experience - and waste your damn time! ?

I am still amazed how nobody actually picked on me for that review ? but yes, I am not touching anything made by Team ICO until they learn how to properly implement the controls. Ironically now all that suffering paid off since people enjoyed that dumb ranting.

What kinda bums me out...if only Agro controlled A LITTLE BIT better, just a bit and didn't stumble like an idiot in every single form of terrain, I would have actually enjoyed the game. But my god that horse...

Edited January 4, 2021 by Copanele

[Copanele]

 No. 125 : The King of Fighters XIII

Platinum Name : THE KING OF FIGHTERS 

Hardest Trophy : Yes! I'm the best!  - complete 200 trials

Difficulty : 8/10

Personal impression : 8.3/10

 

The reason I started digging into SNK's main franchise The King of Fighters is because of this game. I stumbled across this one for one main reason : a comment on the SF4 forum saying " If you think SF4 trials are hard, give this game a go". Well...gotta say, that comment was right - KOF13 is something else.

 

KoF13 is the end of the "Ash Saga", where the main protagonist of this arc Ash Crimson messes around with some obscure plans. I still am trying to understand the whole story (and maybe play more entries in the game), but from what I get there's the Orochi Saga (played the collection, protagonist is Kyo Kusanagi - the man on the cover), NESTS Saga (Protagonist is K' , didn't start it yet) and Ash Saga(the game I just completed is part of it). Of course there's tons of entries so I will catch up later, but for now the story is abit fuzzy.

 

But anyway, as a fighting game, KoF XIII has 2 main characteristics : BEAUTIFUL and DIFFICULT. In terms of aesthetics, this game looks awesome and sounds the same. The characters are hand drawn and each of them has a specific animation (Especially Mai, oh my). They are all incredibly personalized to the point where no 2 characters are the same (unlike Ryu and Ken for instance, you can immediately see the differences between Kyo and Iori, the rivals of the series).

 

                                                         

However I also mentioned that this game is difficult. Of course this is my own opinion, but I believe the execution ceiling is way higher than in other fighting games. There's a ton of inputs, cancels, links and moves, without counting the new Hyper Gauge bar that unlocks even more cancels and links. If you know your stuff you can combo someone into oblivion for almost the entire health bar. Myself, I will keep to the regular punch-kick-shoryuken something something  but yeah, once you learn how this game works you can do some mad stuff.

 

Honestly, platinum-wise, this game wouldn't be too remarkable if it wasn't for one specific thing : THE TRIALS. They are often dubbed the hardest trials in a fighting game ever and for good reason, the execution level required for these blasted things is inhuman levels. Luckily for the platinum you need to do only 200 out of 330,or  360 if you have the 3 DLC characters (which I bought, it was required). Still, doing 200 took a LOT of time, because by the time I reached 170/200 I actually started to struggle alot. Seriously some of them are truly masochistic. To give an example(one of the easier ones) : 

Honestly if it wasn't for VesperArcade's videos I don't know how I would have done it, because the Demos in the game can be obscure at times. One thing is for sure, it would be utterly impossible for me to fully do all 360 trials. I am not that skillful and I doubt I will ever be.

 

Still, this has been one fun platinum, perfect for my 125th milestone. Waiting now for KoF XIV to be discounted, I want to play it soon.

 

THE GOOD:

- good looking fighting game

- crazy good gameplay if you know what you are doing

- a story that actually makes some sense

- huge roster of unique characters

 

THE BAD:
- unforgiving to the newcomers

- online is atrocious

 

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[Copanele]

 No.126 : Mount & Blade : Warband

 

Platinum Name : Platinum Trophy 

Hardest Trophy : The Golden Throne - Rule all Calradia 

Difficulty : 3/10

Personal impression : 10/10 - TRULY BIASED IN FAVOR OF THIS GAME IF YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED

 

The best description for Mount and Blade would be a Role Playing Strategy Sandbox type game. And that is putting it lightly, because this game is one mad personal experience of mine brought from the distant lands of the PC right on the PS4 console.

 

You start as a nobody, with a self-build story (you got some background options), then you set your main skills and perks that you want to develop in the future, and off you go into the land of Calradia, only with a rusty sword, an old shirt and some breeches of a dubious smell. You do a quest here and there and...you will probably get lost in the first hours of the game.

Calradia is the medieval equivalent of Europe in the Middle Ages. It has 6 factions constantly at war with each other : The Swadians (Western Europe, England mostly), Vaegir (Eastern Europe and my choice in every M&B game), Nords (as it implies, the Scandinavians), Rhodoks(italians...don't ask me why, they are into the mountains), Khergits (Mongols) and Sarranids (the Ottoman empire). Each of these factions are really unique to each other with advantages and disadvantages.

 

You arrive in this beautiful world where everyone is fighting everyone and it's up to you to unite them all under your wise rule - and by unite, I mean "peacefully" remove every faction through ye olde war. But of course, you can't do that with only your smelly breeches, so you have to start somewhere, by hiring the locals who are willingful to join you and your promises. You hire some peasants with what little you have. You go around in towns, trying to find work (helping a peasant liberate his village for instance). You win some tournaments and get covered in more money. You get whomped by bandits that are way more numerous than you, thus you reload a save(the most medieval tactic). You learn poems from wandering troubadours and woo damsels. Eventually you come clashing with lords in terms of honor.

 

After getting some experience and a small group of people who aren't as weak as before ,who magically found horses to ride, it's time to decide : Do you wish to conquer a random castle and potentially declare war to a minimum of 2 nations with armies of 3000+ elite armor troops? Or become a vassal to someone and raise through the ranks and relations with the others, waiting for the perfect moment to strike at a chance for your own country?

 

This is how Mount & Blade Warband goes. It's a game of struggles, fights, charisma and cheese. Don't be fooled by the shitty looks of this game, it is deceptively grounded and each playthrough is an experience. It's like a budget indie Game of Thrones where you conspire and fight lords with ugly mugs. Going the warlike mode headfirst is suicide , because you WILL be demolished in the first quarter of the game. You must know your place until you gain enough Renown(from battles and tournaments) and Honour( doing personal quests and releasing captured lords). Also despite being strong, not every smelly peasant becomes a king so you also need Right to Rule if you wish to attract lords to your future country. It's a messy headache of a game and I utterly love it.

 

Now, why I gave this game a 10/10? Am I insane? Probably. Is this game deserving a 10/10? HELL NO! The AI is complete ass, the graphics are...no, the combat is just flailing weapons in the slowest way possible, I even complained about it in my status updates. The reason why I gave this a perfect score is because I can't stop playing it. Every time I start a M&B campaign I fully invest myself into the game. I reach the point where I fear this game, because of the time I put into finishing it This crazy platinum run was my shortest M&B campaign ever, I usually spend twice as long in the game with self-imposed targets.

 LUCKILY the PS4 version is the Native version, no crazy mods here. Were there mods, you wouldn't have heard of me for 1 month at least. 

 

Honestly the multiplayer is just as fun. Considering you don't find a cheater(usually naked people with hats and a club that insta-kills you), you can spend tons of time whacking each other with clubs and spears and have the most dumbass kind of fun ever. On PC(again) there's more expansions, notably the Napoleonic Wars where you have troops from the time of Napoleon, which triples the fun of the game. 

 

So, after this mess of a review-impression-rambling, I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS GAME. However I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS GAME. I don't know, this is a game only for me ? if you wish to play it however, do yourself a favor and grab it on PC. That's where the good wars are held and butter is being seized.

I don't think I will grab Bannerlord however. I feel that the magic will be lost on me.

 

THE GOOD:

- once this game catches you, you are done for

- some concepts that I rarely ever seen in videogames

- if you know how to use your troops, you are basically playing Rome : Total War in 3rd person

 

THE BAD :

- it's not a game for everyone

- AI can be horrifically dumb at times

- the game doesn't look that good (indie)

- even with guides, it takes time to understand how the mechanics of this game works

- the moment when you start your own faction can be brutally unfair even on Easy setting.

 

Edited January 13, 2021 by Copanele

[Copanele]

💯  No. 20 : Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist

 

Hardest trophy : Master Duelist 

Difficulty : 2/10, 4-5/10 if you know nothing about YuGiOh

Personal impression : 7/10

 

I have watched YuGiOh when I was a kid. Show made no sense in terms of rules but still it was fun as hell. Then I found the 3 classic Yugioh games on the PC : Yugi the Destiny, Kaiba the Revenge and Joey the Passion. Fun games, Kaiba kicked my ass but still I learned the rules and how to build a half decent deck, and even beat the AI while he was cheating.

 

Well years later, I saw this game and said "oh it's an instant buy for me", of course without even bothering to check what's it about. Bear in mind, I never got past Yu Gi Oh the original series. Tried to watch abit of Gx but got bored and I heard rumors about the one with motorbikes, thus avoiding it like the plague. But with this game, I got to experiment all the arcs of yu-gi-oh : Original series, Gx, 5D's, ZEXAL and just abit of Arc-V. VRANS is not covered in this game. 
And well...I wish I did not  

 

For those who have no idea what this game is about , YuGiOh is a card game. Same as Duel Monsters, same as Gwent, you name it. You have cards with monsters, spells, traps and a fuckton of rules. Go read them if you care. For those who know what's the deal, in this game you basically go through every single main duel (fillers excluded) from the main series. What you have to do in this game to get 100% (besides some online matches and some "deal x amounts of damage in y ways typical grinds) is to defeat every main opponent in the show in a duel, then reverse duel (if the first run yugi beat kaiba, now kaiba must beat yugi), THEN play a challenge mode where you fight every single character in the entire series with your own pack while they have their best pack available. And when I say best, I mean that they can beat you in 2 turns. Their heart of cards is THAT OP. In the story and reverse mode, you can play with your custom deck or with the story deck, aka the deck that the main character had in the show. And boy was it fun...for a while. Here's how it went for me : 

 

• Yu-gi-oh - ah still cool, I know the rules, won each duel with each character's default pack. Was fun and stuff. Loved to fight Kaiba, Pegasus and Malik with their crazy cards.
• Gx - Yeah abit tricky, but still got it. Too many fusion cards for my taste though. What the hell was that monster at the end?
• 5D - wtf why are they riding motorcycles when dueling. Also tuner monsters? What?
• ZEXAL - Astral beings and XYZ and WHAT? Alternate realities?Ok One Turn Kill Exodia deck it is.
• Arc-V - glad it's just a tutorial level but...pendulum summons? alright I am outta here.

As I was dueling, since I was curious about these characters, I was also checking Wikipedia. And my god...the story in these later arcs are laughably ridiculous. It's the "Moses parted the Red Sea with a beyblade" level of ridiculous. What's more, there's so many rules added and so many stupid summons (I waited for the AI to stack 7 cards one on top of each other to pull a monster with 5500 damage) that I simply gave up. I looked on the internet for the best pack consisting of pots of greed type of cards (draw x amount of cards from the deck) and Exodia (instant win if you draw all 5 pieces) and I just blasted through the AI starting from 5D onwards. 

 

And from that point...game becomes a massive grind. Maybe if I was a fan of the later arcs I would have known what xyz and pendulum summons were. But like this, I was lost and I didn't care enough to even learn, the rules were giving me headaches. It was just a 1 turn kill through the entire cast 3 times.

 

So yeah...if you are a big fan of Yu Gi Oh, do get this game (or the Evolution version that was released these past weeks). If not...you are better of skipping this one.

 

THE GOOD:

- story covers up all the events surprisingly well

- the original arc is still fun

- you can cheat through the AI pretty easily

- online can be fun (no cheating there, there's rules that I didn't bother to check)

- the option to create an One Turn Kill Exodia deck

 

THE BAD:

- so many rules that makes my head spin

- story itself gets weird (not the game's fault)

- too much of a grind for my taste

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[Copanele]

💯 No. 21 : Darkstalkers Resurrection

Hardest Trophy : The Chosen King  the dealbreaker for this 100%

Difficulty : 7/10 only because you can exploit Rikuo's trials with pause/resume. 

Personal impression : 8/10

 

So this PS3 collection actually holds 2 games : Darkstalkers Night Warriors and  Darkstalkers 3. This is an old Capcom game( I will refer to the 2 games as one game from now on) that has quite the following and it's actually a very good fighting game. But since it didn't sell as good as its main competitor (Street Fighter lol) it's currently dead and buried.

 

In true Capcom fighting game fashion, you have a roster of unique and interesting characters each with their particular abilities, from the Succubus Morrigan (cover girl) and her counterpart Demitri, the werewolf Jon Talbain, a chinese vampire zombie Hsien-Ko and the fan favorite Felicia (some say she is the best cat girl ever created and I find no reason to contradict them  ). This game can be wild if you put time in it and it shows, since it's full of personality and oddities. Of course it also has an online which works surprisingly well. I had some matches and while I was absolutely demolished by a Pyron player, the online worked even better than in SF5.

 

But anyway, the main meat of 100%ing this bad boy is the trials. Each character has 5 trials and you must do them all on your way to 100%. It's best if I simply rank them in terms of difficulty, because I didn't spend enough time to study the intricacies of this game. So let's see the roster, I will grade them from 1 to 5 : 

 

 

Huitzil : 1/5 . The most basic and easiest character to do in the entire game. If you have troubles with this dude, you should definitely train more.

Victor : 1/5 . He has only one combo abit more difficult than Huitzil, but otherwise he's extremely straightforward.

Pyron : 1/5. The third easiest character. His trials 2 and 3 are abit tricky to pull, because you have some jab links and a nasty DP motion, but he is still pretty tame.

Lord Raptor : 2/5 . Not a very bad character, but he has some odd combinations and might be just a bit tricky in Trial 2.

Demitri : 2/5. All you need for his trials is speed. Otherwise he is deceptively easy.

Jon Talbain : 3/5. He has very fast links since he is a fast character. His trial 5 gave me the most headaches.

Felicia : 3/5. She has one crazy Trial 5  where you have to input 3 hits in air. There's only a specific distance where you can input that kind of combo, which makes trial 5 annoying

Anakaris : 3/5 . The reason he is difficult is because he is so damn slow. He's basically Dhalsim from Street Fighter so better have patience with his weird combos.

Bishamon : 3/5. His trials mostly involve dashes, which are terrible to connect in this game. His trials are pretty straightforward, however you better get good with them dashes.

Hsien-Ko : 4/5. She has one very ugly Trial 4. If you mastered Felicia's Trial 5, then this may be SLIGHTLY easier. If not, prepare for a world of pain and tossed items.

Morrigan : 4/5. There's only one condition for her Trial 4 and 5 - better learn how to input Dream Illusion lightning fast(). Master that and you are set. 

Sasquatch : 5/5. Dash loops are a nightmare in this game. For Sasquatch's Trial 5, you need a pixel perfect positioning and frame perfect inputs.

Donovan : 5/5. Trial 5 is one of the hardest in the game. You need pinpoint precision and a ton of precise inputs in order to do floating sword into 3 jabs into kick into 4 jabs into medium punch. This trial is incredibly hard, but it's also fair...unlike the final entry.

Rikuo : 6/5. The reason why this game has such a low completion rate. Rikuo has a dreaded backdash cancel into frontdash cancel in his trial 2 which must be done in a split second. What's worse, due to this game being remastered at a faster speed, you need to input this even faster compared to the original arcade cabinet. It's the only trial where i ended up cheating with a turbo controller, because my god ...this character was a nightmare. If you manage to complete Rikuo's trials, you can say you have this 100% in the bag.

 

So yeah, that's the introduction of the characters and their difficulty. Not much to say about this game, it was pretty fun, but I truly hope they revive this series. It would be a shame not to.

 

THE GOOD:

- a crazy diverse cast

- the good old arcade game brought to the PS3

- Felicia and Morrigan are fan favorites

 

THE BAD:

- difficult trials

- forgotten by Capcom

- obtuse mechanics

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[AJ_Radio]

Darkstalkers a 7 out of 10 in difficulty? More like 9.5 out of 10 for me.

 

Donovan and Rikuo would probably be an 11 out of 10 in difficulty. I really don't know how you can input buttons so quickly. That's really what sets Capcom fighters and SNK fighters apart from other fighters that are much slower paced, like Mortal Kombat.

[Copanele]

7 minutes ago, Spaz said:

Darkstalkers a 7 out of 10 in difficulty? More like 9.5 out of 10 for me.

 

Donovan and Rikuo would probably be an 11 out of 10 in difficulty. I really don't know how you can input buttons so quickly. That's really what sets Capcom fighters and SNK fighters apart from other fighters that are much slower paced, like Mortal Kombat.

The reason why i put a 7/10 is because Rikuo can be cheated with pause abuse in the end. It's a 10/10 hands down with no cheats. And it's ONLY Rikuo, because Donovan can be done legit after serious practice.

Maybe it's experience talking, but KoF13 is way more difficult. I have never seen attack cancel into a different attack, then a combo cancelled into super like kof13. I just can't explain it that well, search for K' Kof13 trials if you wish to truly see hell in trial form 

 

And the way you input buttons so quickly is TONS of practice holy shit my thumbs are flat from all that mashing. That's why I found it so absurdly hard before, after being baptised by kof13 this game finally became accessible. What kills you in this game is not speed, but precision. The old story : press a button a frame too late, tough luck sucka try again. 

 

But there's another "dangerous" part with these games : I really got into them big time. I can't wait to finish Skullgirls and fire up art of fighting, blazblue, mvc3... Going for challenges like that and discussing them with you guys online is one pure form of enjoyment

So big thanks for that!

 

[AJ_Radio]

6 minutes ago, Copanele said:

But there's another "dangerous" part with these games : I really got into them big time. I can't wait to finish Skullgirls and fire up art of fighting, blazblue, mvc3... Going for challenges like that and discussing them with you guys online is one pure form of enjoyment

So big thanks for that!

 

I'm actually curious about Art of Fighting because it just looks so simple even when compared to the old arcade Street Fighter games. There's a few moves that are basically the equivalent of Ryu's Fireball, but there is an energy meter that must be taken into account.

 

Someone who used to come here to PSNP told me the Art of Fighting Anthology was the most difficult fighting platinum he earned, and he did Street Fighter IV, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 among other fighters. On a YouTube playthrough of Art of Fighting 1, someone commented he took more attempts to beat the final guy in that game than it took him to beat Akuma in Street Fighter II Turbo.

Edited January 24, 2021 by Spaz

[Copanele]

2 minutes ago, Spaz said:

 

I'm actually curious about Art of Fighting because it just looks so simple even when compared to the old arcade Street Fighter games. There's a few moves that are basically the equivalent of Ryu's Fireball, but there is an energy meter that must be taken into account.

 

Someone who used to come here to PSNP told me the Art of Fighting Anthology was the most difficult fighting platinum he earned, and he did Street Fighter IV, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 among other fighters. On a YouTube playthrough of Art of Fighting 1, someone commented he took more attempts to beat to final guy in that game than it took him to beat Akuma in Street Fighter II Turbo.

Same, I wish to see just how cheap this game can get. 

The inputs for Art of Fighting characters are abit weird, but this being an old SNK game, I assume it's insane input reading paired with attacks that can potentially one shot you. This being an arcade game, it's designed to eat your quarters.

And as to why it's difficult...Heir to the Dojo trophy asks you to beat all 3 games on Hard mode INCLUDING special stages. Guess how fun that will be....

[AJ_Radio]

Just now, Copanele said:

And as to why it's difficult...Heir to the Dojo trophy asks you to beat all 3 games on Hard mode INCLUDING special stages. Guess how fun that will be....

 

You get infinite continues though.

[Copanele]

5 minutes ago, Spaz said:

 

You get infinite continues though.

Only on AoF2. You have to finish AoF1 and AoF3 with no continues also. Now I am truly curious, hmmm..

But yeah, so glad I don't have to put actual quarters in this game. I bet I'd go bankrupt if I were to play SNK games on arcade machines

[AJ_Radio]

7 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Only on AoF2. You have to finish AoF1 and AoF3 with no continues also. Now I am truly curious, hmmm..

But yeah, so glad I don't have to put actual quarters in this game. I bet I'd go bankrupt if I were to play SNK games on arcade machines

I’m looking forward to hearing your potential rants on the games. 
 

KoF 94 thru 98 are just..... wow. Capcom and SNK fighting games really make you jump hoops to earn their trophies.

[Copanele]

1 minute ago, Spaz said:

I’m looking forward to hearing your potential rants on the games. 
 

KoF 94 thru 98 are just..... wow. Capcom and SNK fighting games really make you jump hoops to earn their trophies.

Oh yes, you bet imma fire up status updates  after Skullgirls and Batman AO that's the next game I will attempt.

Yeah Orochi Saga doesn't mess around. You end up playing like your life depends on it on certain games. I think both Capcom and SNK really love slamming that cheap difficulty.

Also again, stressing it out...KoF94 is straight up mad. I mean, just check this video here , it is BY FAR the best representation of a fight with Rugal. Don't be fooled by the difficulty number saying it's 4 out of 8. Rugal ignores pathetic things like difficulty settings and comes at you with max power regardless of that level  

The soundtrack and aesthetics though are pretty dope in my opinion. The game IS good for its time.

 

I'd say KoF94 and KoF96 were the ones that kicked my ass the most. Goenitz in 96 is a scummy tornado spammer.

[Copanele]

 No. 127 : Skullgirls 2nd Encore

 

Platinum Name : Another Seven Years 

Hardest Trophy : Overruled ! 

Difficulty : 8/10 - I don't know, I did find this game quite difficult personally

Personal impression : 9.5/10 - a true masterpiece

 

Do you love cartoons? Do you enjoy upbeat jazz music? Do you by any chance love to control unique characters and duke it out against randoms online or offline? Then well Skullgirls 2nd Encore is the perfect game for you. This started as a "oh what a cute little game, let's give it a go" and turned into a full blown passion. Holy crap this game is GOOD!

 

Unlike most fighting games, this one actually has a solid story. The main cast is hunting for the Skull Heart, a magical object that can grant any wish, however if the person is impure the one who wishes for anything turns into a Skullgirl, a powerful zombie demon that can destroy the world. There are 14 total characters trying to get their hands on the Skull Heart or to deal with the current Skullgirl, among them being Fillia (the main protagonist, a schoolgirl controlled by a parasitic hair demon), Cerebella (circus girl who has a super strong hat), Ms Fortune (an immortal cat girl), Beowulf(retired wrestler) and many more. Honestly you truly have to play through each of their story mode and discover everyone's deal.

 

All this happens in a cartoon themed environment.Everything is hand drawn and the animation+music are incredible. I actually forgot they can still do games like these. Just for a small example, check out the gifs from below.

 

 

So yes, aesthetics are a big thing in this game. But how about the gameplay. Well...it seems that the devs took the absolute best out of most fighting games and blended them in here. You got characters with long intricate combos, characters with cancels, tag teams, multiple supers, whatever you desire. The craziest character might be Peacock, a cartoon based girl that has the powers of the Toon world. She is basically a hybrid between the Mask and Bugs Bunny, constantly breaking the 4th wall and pulling all kinds of crazy shit.

 

In terms of platinum difficulty, this game is no walk in the park. Even finishing the arcade mode might prove tricky, because the final boss Marie the Skullgirl is not that easy to defeat. But together with that, you also have stuff like Mission Mode, a tutorial that despite teaching you everything it also demands perfection, a fight vs a super amplified hyper damaging Marie as Squigly, a fairly weak character and the cherry on the cake THE TRIALS. Unlike other games, these trials teach you the absolute basics required online. But man, some of them were BRUTAL. Ms Fortune and Valentine especially were quite tough to pull.

 

And again, this is a game that you will have to experiment, a review just won't do. I can talk alot about trash or mediocre games, but games like these are too difficult to explain. This one is a rare example of why I love games and especially fighting games. It's just pleasant to look at. I'd honestly compare it with Cuphead, when I fire up this game I feel good, I have nice feelings and happy thoughts and all those mushy stuff. For an artefact that corrupts hearts, Skullgirls truly warmed mine.

 

Ok enough lame shit I go practice more Ms Fortune OMNOMNOM combos!

 

 

THE GOOD:

- 10/10 graphics

- That music gets me all jazzy

- Oh wow the combos in the trials make SENSE

- incredibly easy to learn, incredibly hard to master

- you hate tag teams? YOU CAN PLAY AS ONE CHARACTER

- Ms Fortune has an OMNOMNOM attack

- Makes me want to play even more fighting games

 

THE BAD:

- There won't be a sequel any time soon