Copanele's collection of trophies and experiences

[Copanele]

5 minutes ago, Grotz99 said:

I also really liked the Majima mini game, gave a kind of tower defense feel. How long until you play 3?

Yep, it actually worked+ it forced me to think the troops!

Now for Yakuza 3...I will take a well deserved break. Not sure when I will return to it, but man...I was SPENT after Kiwami 2. So I need some time to pass before I get thrown again in the land of nasty punches and Mahjong.

 

Honestly it's the completion list that wears me off  it's so brutal sometimes...and I heard that the pool minigame in Y3 is infernal.

[Grotz99]

8 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Yep, it actually worked+ it forced me to think the troops!

Now for Yakuza 3...I will take a well deserved break. Not sure when I will return to it, but man...I was SPENT after Kiwami 2. So I need some time to pass before I get thrown again in the land of nasty punches and Mahjong.

 

Honestly it's the completion list that wears me off  it's so brutal sometimes...and I heard that the pool minigame in Y3 is infernal.

Yeah grinding out the mini games takes a toll, I usually try to work through those as I play through the games, but I usually end up finishing short of having those all done for the trophies. I'm slowly working through them though when I need a break from other games. Pool is a bit infuriating, but I think they made it more manageable in the remaster as I was coping with it. Not sure though since I haven't played it on PS3.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Grotz99

[Copanele]

1 minute ago, Grotz99 said:

Yeah grinding out the mini games takes a toll, I usually try to work through those as I play through the games, but I usually end up finishing short of having those all done for the trophies. I'm slowly working through them though when I need a break from other games. Pool is a bit infuriating, but I think they made it more manageable in the remaster as I was coping with it. Not sure though since I haven't played it on PS3.

Ah, right, all the complaints were about PS3. I have all of them on PS4 and I am not intending to return to PS3 for them  so that's good news then!

[Copanele]

 No. 144: Blazblue Continuum Shift

+ 💯   completed

Platinum Name: All Others Are #2 or Lower 

Hardest Trophy: Superior State of Mind  complete 100 trials

Difficulty: 6.5/10

Personal impression: 7.8/10

 

Completed another Blazblue game, since they are the closest thing to Guilty Gear for me. I don't have much of a consistent "review" about this game, so I will just do the good ol' paragraphs  call me lazy but my fingers hurt.

 

Story - Pretty decent, didn't pay attention to it at all. Instead I focused on getting the bad endings which triggered "Help me Professor Kokonoe" gag reels, where a Kokonoe gremlin tells you what you did wrong in a very funny way. Also gremlin Kokonoe looks the part.

Gag reels were also fun, especially the Love Glasses part.

 

Soundtrack - sick as always. ArcSys will always deliver. Just search for Ragna, Valkenheim, Jin's OST

 

Score Attack - ah, the most beloved ArcSys mode, where you have to beat all the cast in 1 life, oh and the cast is also at Hell difficulty. Marvellous. Luckily you can save yourself with a second controller here (thank the Lord), however this mode also showed me how absolutely BUSTED Iron Tager is. What I did was this: slap the enemy quickly, grapple the enemy for 1/3 of his life, electrify him with THE FINGER then grapple again. Tager is love, Tager is life, he shall be forever praised. Thanks to him, this scary mode was nothing more than a joke  

Challenges&Trials - oh baby this is the real deal, the stuff that makes me want to platinum them all, the GODDAMN TRIALS! They are...tough, not going to lie. VesperArcade did rate them just below KoF13 and for good reason. Thankfully, just like in KoF, you aren't required to do them all (it would have been a sub 1% if you had to do them all), only 100 out of the 150 available (180 with DLC).

So...they were nasty, they required precision, but they were in the end super fun. Did all 10 trials for Tager (hail to him), then just messed around with the other characters. Hardest character to use is of course Carl, since you have to control both him AND his puppet sister with only 1 controller. I also had to do 7 trials for Makoto, Valkenheim and Platinum as DLC trophies, but luckily they are super easy compared to the madness in the main game.

A good part of the game is that if you change the game's version (latest patch is 1.03, you can set to previous versions via Game Options) you get a completely different set of trials. So if a trial is too difficult in v1.03, it might be easier in v1.02. I sure did abuse that option not gonna lie  .

 

Conclusion - A fun game if you are into Blazblue and a decent challenge if you are into fighting games. If you aren't into either of those however, I recommend skipping this game and go for Centralfiction instead.

 

THE GOOD:

- ArcSys fighting game - can't go wrong with quality

- Sick Soundtrack

- Tager

- good if you are looking for a nice challenge

 

THE BAD:

- quite old

- not as refined as the later iterations

- grinding for online is awful and you NEED a turbo controller there

- Carl should not be in this game

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[DrBloodmoney]

Nice write up man - 

 

As not much of a fighting game guy (some light fannying about in Street Fighter and getting my ass kicked is about my speed!) I feel like I'm genuinely learning the finer points of fighting game appreciation just from this thread alone! ?

Edited July 2, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Copanele]

3 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Nice write up man - 

 

As not much of a fighting game guy (some light fannying about in Street Fighter and getting my ass kicked is about my speed!) I feel like I'm genuinely learning the finer points of fighting game appreciation just from this thread alone! 

Thanks for the appreciation yeah fighting games ended up being my second favourite genre out there (after pure action games) so I try to post some decent information here about this often avoided part of gaming. 

 

Either that or just random rambling depends on my many moods. Luckily this game here put me in a good mood. 

[Copanele]

 No. 145: SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy

 

Platinum Name: SNK HEROINES Tag Team Frenzy 

Hardest Trophy: I-Impossible...! - defeat 30 enemies in survival

Difficulty:3.5/10

Personal impression: Mai Shiranui's bust size/10

 

DrBloodMoney mentioned "Finer points of fighting game appreciation" before. My oh my how true those words sound when it comes to this game  because in terms of fine points...this game wins by a mile. Sort of. Not really.

 

Where to start...Terry Bogart was kidnapped by Kukri (a KoF14 dude with a hood and sand powers, don't bother too much) together with another 13 girls from SNK games, put in a pocket dimension and forced to fight for the glory of cuteness. I wish I was joking. Only problem is...Kukri wants girls while Terry is a buffed dude. So how does he solve this issue?

 

YOU GUESSED IT!

--------------------------------->

 

Utterly marvelous, Japan. Thanks for existing  

 

Anyway the gameplay itself is simple to the points of absurdity. You mash one button until you get the enemy to a Red state(and I kid you not, sparkles, stars, bunnies, chipmunks and other cutesy things fly away when you connect the hits). Once you get the enemy to red state, if you have the required meter, you press a second button to do a special attack and win the fight. That's legit the entire game. Since it's a tag game, you also have a tag button where you can switch with your partner if things get dicey. And finally, this game has items, so by collecting yellow orbs that pop randomly into the stage, you get various power ups to help you in the fight: a frying pan, banana peels, landmines, a colorful rainbow tornado, a wrecking ball of death...list goes on.

 

I wanted to initially bash the game (because let's be honest, this game is garbage as a gameplay aspect, it's here only for the fanservice), but I have to admit...I was surprised. No, not by Mai's cow costume. SNK actually put effort in this blasted game. There's Art of Fighting references(Yuri's ending), there's Samurai Shodown bits (Nakoruru) and stuff from past KoF games that are completely canon. So yes, I can't say that the game is complete and utter fan service garbage, it has its moments for die hard fans.

 

Also I cannot understand how the tone of this game works. For all the sparkly shit, it has a ton of seriously dark moments. In each character's Arcade ending, you get a scene about how the characters wake up from a nightmare, probably the thing they fear the most. It ranges from absolute cuteness (Kula Diamond dreaming that her teammates ate her icecream) to downright disturbing (Sylvie Paula Paula dreaming about how she was tortured by her previous retainers - she was a failed experiment in KoF 2000). Or Leona dreaming how she murders her friends - with a toy hammer, but still. It's ...odd  what the hell SNK. Not to mention that all these dreams are actually canon, it's part of the characters' backstories. So....wow. Not sure if it's a good point or bad point here.

 

A special mention I have to make to Survival Mode, where you have to defeat 30 opponents. This mode reminded me that the game is a SNK game after all, which means bullshit AI. Maybe it's because I severely underestimated the game but here's the funny part: Doing the Impossible in Injustice 1 (beating up the full cast at a very high difficulty, considered to be one of the toughest things to do in Injustice) took me about 5-6 tries. Beating the Survival mode in SNK Heroines (a game with moe girls) took me 11 attempts. So uhm...yeah. Survival mode came in like a wrecking ball ? did not expect it.

 

As a conclusion... unless you are a SNK/KoF fan who wants to do all the games from the series + spin-offs, you should definitely avoid this game. It's not enjoyable by any means, other than the girls and the lewd costumes. But if you love the KoF franchise and enjoy references as a thing, you should probably pick this up at a discount sale. 

 

I swear, SNK putting effort in these type of games is what gets them to bankruptcy every single time...

 

THE GOOD:

- SNK references

- girls with revealing clothes

- looks better than KoF XIV

- perfect if you want to deactivate your brain

- effort was put in this game and it shows

 

THE BAD:

- if you ignore the girls, it's an actually pretty bad game

- some costumes are absolutely tasteless - Mai's cow costume

- game is semi-canon to the lore? What?  

- people will judge you for playing this

[Copanele]

Skullgirls 2nd Encore - Annie DLC

 

After 6 years, Skullgirls has received a new DLC: Annie of the Stars. A new addition to the cast, Annie is an immortal warrior girl who is set on defeating any Skullgirl that appears while also being a child actor on the side.

Honestly I enjoyed Skullgirls and despite the DLC being released after so much time (and being pricey af, 10 euros for a character wtf), Annie is still a nice addition. Her moves are inspired from other fighting game characters (Terry Bogart, Sol Badguy, Ryu etc.) and her gameplay is pretty straightforward. The funniest part is her "Photo Bop" special attack where she signs a picture and gives it to her Familiar rabbit to slap the enemy with.

 

There were 2 additional trophies : a pretty straightforward one which involves finishing the Arcade mode and an obscure one where you have to finish a certain mission as Annie and also beat the final opponent with "Photo Bop". At least the trials are not required anymore thankfully, Annie might have the hardest trials in the game so far.

 

Overall a good addition to the cast, but Annie is abit too expensive right now so I don't recommend buying this character yet. Moreso, Skullgirls is still a niche game so I am not sure that this game will catch any spotlight. Regardless, a second character should be released soon, so this game will remain installed for now  

 

P.S. I do not recommend buying the Season pass for this game. The developers have a history of struggling with funds for their own games, buying a season pass only to realize that they won't release the other unnamed characters won't be pretty. 

[Copanele]

 No.146: Monkey King Hero is Back

+ completed

 

Platinum Name: An Everlasting Bond

Hardest Trophy: Can't Touch This Monkey(DLC) S rank on Extreme Mode

Difficulty: 1.5/10, 3/10 with DLC

Personal impression: 7/10

 

Monkey King Hero is Back is a cute little game, meant to be a throwback to the old PS2 games. This game loosely reenacts Journey to the West, where the Monkey King is freed from his imprisonment by a young boy monk Liuer. Together with him and his companion Pigsy (a former pig general), Monkey King must defeat the Evil Overlord and recover his former powers.

The textbook adventure, of course  

 

The gameplay is pretty straightforward: The monkey has all his powers sealed by a chain, so you will have to resort to basic punches and kicks. You can also sneak on enemies and "assassinate" them via a kick in the butt. There's 2 kinds of parries: One-on-one, where if you press square the moment an enemy hits you enter into a mashing contest with him. The other parry is a Purge, where if you press triangle right before the enemy connects the hit, you punch him in the gut and send him flying. Killed enemies drop souls which you will use to upgrade your spells and slowly gain your former powers back.

 

Thus being said...game is a bit boring in its simplicity. Story is pretty straightforward, characters are mediocre to annoying (I got tired of the monkey's sighing and eye rolling) and most of the time you'll spend spamming Mind's Eye to find little Earth Gods (basically using your monkey vision to find little grandpas hidden around, the collectibles of this game). Normally I wouldn't have bothered too much and would have struggled to even remember the game but... this game has a DLC. A fantastic one.

 

Uproar in Heaven is a prequel to the game, set right before the Monkey King's imprisonment. You fight 3 Chinese gods while having your full power. And the game turns from a cute action adventure game to full blown Asura's Wrath, where you fire lasers and twirl your mythical staff against a giant dude with an axe and volcanoes for shoulders. 

This DLC is friggin bombastic, the gods have lots of interesting powers and attacks and getting an S rank in the mission proves to be quite the challenge. I wished the game was more like this! 

 

And then there's the last DLC Mind's Temple, showing Monkey's training during his imprisonment. You have to complete 6 palaces, each palace having 4 trials : defeat all enemies, defeat all enemies without being spotted, destroy all pots and reach to the designated area within the time limit. The challenges are super easy and monotone at certain parts.

 

Overall...an interesting game, but abit boring and way too old fashioned for today's standards. The DLC is its saving grace, but I wouldn't recommend this game unless you find it at a heavy discount.

 

THE GOOD:

- lighthearted game

- amazing DLC

- you can switch the voice acting to Chinese

 

THE BAD:

- abit too easy

- monotone at some points

 

BONUS ROUND -  No.147 - Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late [cl-r]

 

I did the exact same game than before (PS3 version and ST version on PS4). You can check my initial review HERE, legit too lazy to edit it.

New characters Wagner and Londreika were fun, but didn't improve the roster by much.

 

Anyway, I am slowly reaching platinum 150, which will be Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 ,since I already work on it. Got 2 more games to finish until then...the next one will be one spicy kung fu hustle!

[Yuber6969]

That Monkey Hero DLC is making me reconsider the game for a future palate cleanser. You make it sound pretty epic.

[Copanele]

Just now, yuber1234 said:

That Monkey Hero DLC is making me reconsider the game for a future palate cleanser. You make it sound pretty epic.

Might have just gotten overhype because I didn't expect it  but considering that I was fighting little gremlins with benches in the main game and then it gave me flight powers and the mega staff and lots of flash flying combat in the DLC...it got epic pretty fast

[AJ_Radio]

This fighting stuff reminds me. Should I start tackling Art of Fighting Anthology?

[Copanele]

5 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

This fighting stuff reminds me. Should I start tackling Art of Fighting Anthology?

To be 100 % honest.... No. You have seen how cheap it is. Not sure if you would enjoy that kind of thing where the AI cheats so blatantly. I can't really recommend the anthology to anyone truth be told ?unless you are really passionate about old arcade fighting games. 

[AJ_Radio]

6 hours ago, Copanele said:

To be 100 % honest.... No. You have seen how cheap it is. Not sure if you would enjoy that kind of thing where the AI cheats so blatantly. I can't really recommend the anthology to anyone truth be told unless you are really passionate about old arcade fighting games. 

 

I was the one who pushed you towards that collection. Remember back in January - February this year?

 

Unfortunately I already bought the collection dirt cheap. If I was able to get thru punishment from Surgeon Simulator and Capcom Arcade Cabinet, I can definitely get thru Art of Fighting Anthology.

[Copanele]

15 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

 

I was the one who pushed you towards that collection. Remember back in January - February this year?

 

Unfortunately I already bought the collection dirt cheap. If I was able to get thru punishment from Surgeon Simulator and Capcom Arcade Cabinet, I can definitely get thru Art of Fighting Anthology.

Oh I know that you recommended it to me, you were the cause of my suffering  and I FUCKING LOVED IT! great game! BUT!

 

12 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

This fighting stuff reminds me. Should I start tackling Art of Fighting Anthology?

Again tagging. There's a high chance you will NOT have a good time with it, that's why I answered "no" in my previous post. It's cheap as fk in ways that can make you tear your hair out. I am not saying you can't do it, hell YOU can do it no worries I could bet on it. Just thinking of your mental sanity here ? 

 

Although to be completely honest I personally WANT you to try it just to see those juicy status updates :> I would be here to support you either way  

[Copanele]

So question, since I am equally undecided for both games. What should I go for 150th platinum?

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 or Persona 4 Arena?

For UMVC3 I have the trials left to do. Easier, but not really digging the game.

For P4Arena I have Trials and Score attack. Harder, but I like the game more.

I might resort to a coin flip in the end  

[YaManSmevz]

Persona 4, if you're feelin that one! Besides, I know if I flipped a coin and it decided the game I was enjoying less I'd probably be like "...nah" and just play the game I liked more anyway haha

[Yuber6969]

1 hour ago, Copanele said:

So question, since I am equally undecided for both games. What should I go for 150th platinum?

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 or Persona 4 Arena?

For UMVC3 I have the trials left to do. Easier, but not really digging the game.

For P4Arena I have Trials and Score attack. Harder, but I like the game more.

I might resort to a coin flip in the end  

 

If you've made roughly equal progress with both, I'd say go with whichever game you actually like better, which sounds like it would be P4A.

Edited July 15, 2021 by yuber1234

[Copanele]

Yup it seems that p4a wins both in the topic and in my heart. 

I have only 13 characters to do in P4A and the combos aren't completely unapproachable so i might stand a chance. 

[AihaLoveleaf]

7 hours ago, Copanele said:

There's a high chance you will NOT have a good time with it, that's why I answered "no" in my previous post. It's cheap as fk in ways that can make you tear your hair out. I am not saying you can't do it, hell YOU can do it no worries I could bet on it. Just thinking of your mental sanity here  

Probably won't be playing Art of Fighting myself, but after @Copanele introduced me to the physics of the series I have a new found respect for it.

[Arcesius]

14 hours ago, Copanele said:

So question, since I am equally undecided for both games. What should I go for 150th platinum?

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 or Persona 4 Arena?

 

Personally, I will probably never touch anything Persona-related ever again, but in your case I think P4A is the better choice... Go for it!   

[Copanele]

11 hours ago, AihaLoveleaf said:

Probably won't be playing Art of Fighting myself, but after @Copanele introduced me to the physics of the series I have a new found respect for it.

Back in my day a fireball actually blew clothes away ?

13 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 

Personally, I will probably never touch anything Persona-related ever again, but in your case I think P4A is the better choice... Go for it!   

I ain't gonna touch a main persona game either but idk it's satisfying to beat up Yu Narukami with a chair. I think I will go for a double down and do both games next. 

 

Will definitely have to recover with some good stuff afterwards... Really itching to finally try the fist build in Nioh 2. 

[Copanele]

 No. 148: One Finger Death Punch 2

Platinum Name: Master Smasher

Hardest Trophy: King of the Hill  unlock level 8 in survival

Difficulty: 4.5/10

Personal Impression: 4000 years of Kung Fu history/10

 

Ever watched old Chinese Kung Fu movies? The ancient ones where 2 angry Kung Fu masters swear to revenge one on each other then start flying and kicking each other with the best sound effects ever created?

Ever dreamed that you could be one of those masters, fully utilizing Crane kick, or perhaps Viper style, or even Mantis mode? Flying around, channeling your chi, yelling Yatta Kawaii or other cultured words while defeating tons of evildoers with your magic chackra infused fists?

Well, if you dreamed of all that on a regular basis...you're probably a bit weird. Ah also One Finger Death Punch 2 is definitely for you.

 

But what is OFDP2(that's the abbreviation, I won't write that name again)? Why am I spouting all this Chinese nonsense and sharing gifs like I snorted some of Grandma's flour spread over a cat's belly? Well, OFDP2 is the next best martial arts game after OFDP1 and Jade Empire. And probably Karateka. And...Street Fighter. Anyway it's a 2D stick figure fighting/rhythm game where you defeat waves after waves of angry stick figures with your kung fu moves. That's it, that's all the premise. You have 2 buttons, square for left and circle for right, an area where the enemy stick figures become vulnerable, press the right button (or the left button lel) to karate chop the living shit out of them. All at the press of one button. 

 

 

The game looks deceptively simple at first. You go through a tutorial of sorts where the announcer (an old wise Kung Fu man) will slowly guide you through the mechanics of the game and the type of enemies. Some enemies are ranged users. Some require more hits to kill. Some swap places after hitting them. And some are so nasty that you enter into a special minigame with them. You have 10 lives per level and you must absolutely follow this rule no matter what: DO NOT MASH. The game will detect it and penalize (and mock) you. You would not want to disappoint your master, would you?

Anyway after you are done with the tutorial, the wise master is seemingly pleased with you and boots you out of the school in order to impress the world with your Kung Fu. There are 8 areas to be conquered with your impressive skills, each having lots of levels and bringing separate challenges.

The levels themselves are quite diverse. The regular brawl levels are the basic punch and kick until you're the only one left standing. In the "ball of death" levels, you must kick a ball into the poor enemies. Some levels require you to do x kills with a chainsaw, or with a lightsaber, or execute enemies in various traps. Yeah...the game is not all kung fu and sunshine  

Some levels may reward you with Revenge Tokens and Upgrade Points. Revenge tokens are special items that regenerate your life if you find a level too tough to beat. Just pop one of those and your HP will refill constantly during fights. Upgrade Points can be used to purchase various skills such as health, auto chainsaw summon, meteors, one hit kill karate chops and more. They're not required for your playthroughs but THEY DO HELP!

 

Now, normally the game is not that difficult. At least in the beginning. But do not be fooled by the platinum rarity. It's not that easy either. Final map can be a real headache to defeat, since you have tons of waves of enemies, especially in the last level. It's best to save your Revenge Tokens here to quickly blitz through it. And well, the survival mode, while pretty basic, requires you to defeat a certain number of enemies for one floor, then that same amount +200 more for the next floor unlock. You have to kill 1400 enemies to promote from floor 7 to floor 8, which is straight up impossible if you haven't levelled yourself up.

The game has other minigames but they are mostly stupid and disgusting so I will skip them.

CONCLUSION: If you want a dumb and bloody Stick Figures game where you beat the enemies in a way that would make Mortal Kombat blush, while reminiscing the good ol' Kung Fu movies with all the styles, bad lip sync and ka-pows, then this game is for you. It's usually dirt cheap.

Warning though, I am not responsible if this game awakens your Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

 

THE GOOD:

- dumb mindless fun game

- allowed me to use all these sweet gifs

- made me want to rewatch Drunken Master with Jackie Chan

- Announcer's "hoooohohoho Peeerrrufect" voice makes me want to do flying kicks

 

THE BAD:

- if taken seriously, this game ain't that fun

- not nearly as good as OFDP1

- abit too long for its own good

- Booger minigame is absolutely disgusting

- pretty much won't teach you actual Kung Fu

[Yuber6969]

Congrats again!

 

1 hour ago, Copanele said:

The game looks deceptively simple at first. You go through a tutorial of sorts where the announcer (an old wise Kung Fu man) will slowly guide you through the mechanics of the game and the type of enemies. Some enemies are ranged users. Some require more hits to kill. Some swap places after hitting them. And some are so nasty that you enter into a special minigame with them. You have 10 lives per level and you must absolutely follow this rule no matter what: DO NOT MASH.

 

Alright, well there's a game I'd struggle with  

[AihaLoveleaf]

1 hour ago, Copanele said:

DO NOT MASH

Look boys, we found another game I will get absolutely demolished by.