Copanele's collection of trophies and experiences

[Copanele]

Got a double entry this time. And yep, it's fighting games again  

(you'd think I would've ran out of them at this point...)

 

 No. 219 - Street Fighter IV

 

Platinum Name - Unbeatable Fist 

Hardest Trophy - No Challenge Too Hard 

Difficulty - 7.5/10

Event Difficulty - 9/10

 

 

I like to think that Lady Experience is a bountiful mistress who treats you very well as long as you are faithful and hard working ? (compared to Lady Luck who is mostly "teehee too bad, get screwed in Mahjong boy!") and man, did I see Experience's voluptuous forms when I went for this game    

 

My point is...I first went for the Ultra Street Fighter IV platinum in September 2020. I loved the game, but MAN did it kick my ass big time  at the time, it was easily the hardest platinum I have ever achieved (you can check my initial post about it here) . It was a fantastic experience and it really made me enjoy platinuming fighting games more than ever.

 

That was 2 and a half-ish years ago however...and boy did things change

 

I initially did not plan to go for the vanilla version of Street Fighter IV. However with the Platinum Difficulty Challenge and the several "trials in this game are harder than USFIV", I was "yeah why the hell not, let's do this crap again". I was also curious to see how I would fare going after the 1-frame links and cancels again, considering the other difficult games that I completed between 2020 and 2023:

 

• King of Fighters XIII - you like trials? here's a math equation equivalent of a trial
• Darkstalkers Resurrection - game's speed is botched because of poor porting, some trials require inhumane inputs
• Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 - oh you accidentally pressed an extra button? Start over again
• Persona 4 Arena - where you have to 5D chess your brain in order to understand some of the combos

 

So how was the game after all the mentioned games? Well...way easier than expected  Sure, some trials were a major headache (C. Viper is still a pain and characters like Gen or El Fuerte require prayers to the gods in order to pull some moves) BUT I didn't struggle as much as before.

 

Unfortunately I can't talk much about the story and the characters...basically the new big bad is Seth, a "clone" or something who uses moves from every other Street Fighter character and is one obnoxious boss fight. You do have to finish the Arcade mode with every single character on Medium so you will have the occasion to remember every main character in the cast - The main protagonist/eternal warrior, Ryu, his best friend Ken, the fan favorite Chun-Li and Cammy, Kung Fu master/movie star Fei Long, the most obnoxious character who just won't fkin die Blanka, list goes on. Street Fighter IV also introduces new characters, an US Kung Fu fatass master Rufus and a mexican luchador/chef called El Fuerte and ....which I can tell you they weren't fan favorites ?

 

One is an obnoxious fatass with an obsession for Ken, the other is a failed luchador chef who just says random mexican dishes

I wonder why they never appeared in Street Fighter 5  

 

You don't have all the characters available from the get go. To unlock the full roster(Dan, Rose etc) you have to beat the Arcade mode with each character. This is a nice throwback to the past fighting games, where you unlocked characters and colors via playing, instead of buying DLCs and season passes. Nice blast from the past  

 

If you are proficient in your Arcade skills, you might unlock a hidden boss Akuma who will test your skills. If you are VERY proficient (basically get Perfect wins and Ultra Finishers), you unlock a hidden super boss Gouken, who is Ryu and Ken's master. You even have to fight him on Hardest difficulty, which is one extra layer of challenge.

 

Akuma vs Gouken. Gouken didn't return to SF5 due to lore reasons, which is a shame because he is an awesome character

 

The online of this game...is still up and running, shockingly enough  there's still players going at it in the game and they're not in for boosting either! I did face a weird overpowered Vega and some not-so-overpowered Seth. But since this is a Capcom game, I boosted the online related trophies (get a ton of matches and some obnoxious titles) . Had the help of @Gommes_ who I shall thank once again for helping me with this headache of a grind. As awful as it was, the grind was not nearly as bad as in Ultra SFIV where I had to grind 600+matches to upgrade all my characters to C rank.

Still, online part in fighting games is never a fun time.

 

Time attack/Survival gauntlets are challenges where you have to beat x enemies in a row under various conditions. In time attack, your health is fully replenished between fights but you have a certain time target to achieve. In survival mode there's no time constraint, but you only recover 30% HP between fights. Honestly these would have been a headache to complete...if not for the most grappler character in the game Zangief. Zangief's whole trick is Spinning Lariat, a move where he spins like a moron at a simple press of L1 button. The magic in this tactic is that the AI tends to jump into this attack every single time.

Of course, on harder courses, the AI ain't that dumb, but it still falls prey to this trick if you time it. The only character this trick doesn't work against is Cammy, who has the tendency to throw attacks that go under the Lariat's hitbox. All I had to do was block however and throw other kinds of moves.

There were 2 gauntlet runs where the lariat was disabled. I was worried I will have troubles with it, however I just picked Sagat instead, who has a ton of health and some high damaging basic moves. 

So...honestly, Time Attack/Survival were more of a mindless grind than actual challenge.

 

Could not find a SF4 equivalent...but basically that's what I did for 8-9 hours

 

Trial Mode is the actual roadblock of the platinum (and the thing I always look forward to whenever I start a fighting game). You have to complete various combos set by the developers, combos ranging from simple "connect punch to kick" to devious shit like "Heavy kick, change stance, pokes that cancel into a super then bicycle kick" . At some point I started counting frames with @AihaLoveleaf for a certain move of Gen, a Chinese master who has 2 stances. It was mad hilarious but it actually worked.

Overall, as mentioned above, despite some characters being a complete pain to do (C. Viper is still the hardest, followed by El Fuerte), the trials this time were a breeze. My worst character was always Guile, a charge character where I had to charge buttons, do combos and then charge again for just the right amount. He used to be my bane...but after playing with a certain sexy persona character called Mitsuru , Guile turned into a tutorial version. Seriously, 2 measly Sonic Booms in SF4 are nothing when you have to do 8-9 Coup Droits in a span of 5 seconds in P4A.

But...the trials reminded me why I enjoyed SF4. There's a nice sound whenever you link a move correctly , and that SUCCESS message...delightful  

 

In the end, I am glad that I managed to revisit Street Fighter IV. It is a fantastic game despite its age and it will always be a staple entry in the series. Plus you could really get creative with the combos...which I hope will be the case in Street Fighter 6

 

THE GOOD:

• Some of the best gameplay in a fighting game
• A perfect transition from 2D to 3D models
• INDESTRUCTIBLE soundtrack
• Unlocking characters via playing

THE BAD:

• Ultra Street Fighter IV is a more complete experience
• Easy enough to learn but boy is it insanely hard to master

RECOMMENDATION - Tekken 7  Honestly the only alternative I can think of. No, I am NOT recommending Street Fighter V  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 No. 220 - One Piece Burning Blood

 

Platinum Name - ONE PIECE BURNING BLOOD 

Hardest Trophy - Dawn of a New Era  complete all episodes in the Paramount War mode

Difficulty - 4/10

Event Difficulty - 3/10

 

 

And now it's time for another stinker. I think that the anime fighting game world is cursed to have a ton of poor adaptations. There are a few exceptions (Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series, Dragon Ball games together with Dragon Ball FighterZ), but most of the time if you see an anime "fighting game" (more like Arena Brawler), you can expect 2 things:

a. accurate representation of the characters together with voice acting and all that

b. subpar gameplay.

 

Sadly this is the case with One Piece Burning Blood here. Of course, game is based on the popular Shonen Manga written by Eiichiro Oda (which has 1073 chapters right now) and was unfortunately developed by Spike Chunsoft (the ones behind the monstrosity that is Jump Force). Seeing who the developer is, I whispered an "oh no" and braced myself.

 

The game fools you from the cover of the game. You see Luffy vs Doflamingo, a well known villain in the fandom and you think "Damn, I will play through the Dressrosa arc, NICE". But no, you start the game and you are thrown into the Marineford Arc ONCE AGAIN!

To explain this to those who have no idea what I am talking about...it's like getting a box with season 4 of your favorite show and you find inside the disc with season 2 of the show, despite you really wanting to watch season 4.

 

Our protagonist Monkey D Luffy. All he knows is to eat, pirate stuff and knock people out cold

Anyway...pirate war once again. Sheesh, here we go (this Pirate War is the most important arc in the series , so it was done to death in One Piece games). I start as Luffy, then switch to Whitebeard, then Akainu (huh why do I play as a marine, which are the enemy? ) then...as Ace. And ...that is it, that's the whole Story mode.

WAIT WHERE'S THE DRESSROSA ARC? THE GAME PROMISED ME DRESSROSA!

 

Since I was forced to replay this mode (everything is locked ), I had a look at the game. So in terms of graphics and voice acting I really have no complaints here - characters do feel like straight out of the manga chapters, with accurate moves, lines, behavior and such. Even the manga specifics are available here (e.g. Sanji still can't attack female characters or Akainu dealing double damage to Ace). As much shit as I give them, Spike Chunsoft know how to respect the fidelity of the source material.

 

But...the main problem is once again... the gameplay. It sucks ass. One Piece is first and foremost a Shonen Manga, which means the action is fast paced and bombastic (see Dragon Ball Z). Well in this game... the gameplay itself is so slow it bored me to tears. Every move is sluggish, characters can't cancel their attacks, the AI blocks A LOT and the whole gameplay in the end devolves in a square button mashing. Sometimes the AI gets cheeky and blocks or dodges alot, in which case you have to brace yourself and mash that button harder. 

 

The Paramount Arc mode is also the hardest mode in the game. You have to finish missions with certain hidden requirements, which will unlock more missions. Some of the battles can be really brutal since lorewise you are underpowered here. It did take me more time that I'm willing to admit  mainly because I could pummel the enemy for 1 minute straight, just for the AI to land a cheap shot and one shot me.

But once I was done with the Arc, the rest of the modes unlock. You can customize your Pirate crew (basically pick your fighters and support characters), you can do the classic Versus matches, there's a Pirate War event that...was discontinued (I wonder why), there's even Online where you can find people as lost as you (I managed to get the 3 online trophies legit...by finding a random player after 1.5 hrs of matchmaking). The most interesting part of the game is the WANTED Poster mode, where you get various missions that you have to complete. Defeat enough of the wanted posters and new more difficult tiers will unlock. This is a perfect way to both upgrade your characters and collect money that will help you unlock additional characters for the already huge roster.

 

It's too bad that 80% of that roster is completely worthless. After trying the more powerful characters, I ended up with a team of Mihawk, Zoro and Luffy, only because they were the fastest fuckers in the game. And since they were the fastest...the other characters fell instantly. Yes, even characters like Enel who controls lightning or Kizaru who controls light.

 

Whitebeard doing what he does best - being old and slamming Marines

The next part is -- nothing. That's it, really.

 

This is another problem of the game - it looks bombastic, it promises a lot...but there's nothing really to do there. Yes you have a crapton of Wanted posters, but they are boring as sin. Online is dead, story mode is just the same tired Marineford arc...what's the point of having all these cool moves and characters if you can't even use them to their full potential?

I'd say skip this game. Read the manga instead, it's way better.

P.S. mild tag to @Grotz99, the resident One Piece fan  

 

THE GOOD

• Characters are accurate visually
• Huge roster

THE BAD

• awful gameplay
• you are promised one Arc on the cover and you get another arc in the actual game
• nothing significant to do in the game

Recommendation - One Piece the manga  if you are invested in anime/manga, just give the original material a go. Yes there's 1073 chapters (and counting), but there's a reason why One Piece is so popular - this stuff is MAD GOOD.

Or you could try the anime, if you have years of your life to spare  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[AihaLoveleaf]

1 hour ago, Copanele said:

Trial Mode is the actual roadblock of the platinum (and the thing I always look forward to whenever I start a fighting game). You have to complete various combos set by the developers, combos ranging from simple "connect punch to kick" to devious shit like "Heavy kick, change stance, pokes that cancel into a super then bicycle kick" . At some point I started counting frames with @AihaLoveleaf for a certain move of Gen, a Chinese master who has 2 stances. It was mad hilarious but it actually worked.

A big congrats on swiftly dispatching this beast of a title. If a game doesn't want to give us the tools we need to succeed, then we'll just have to reverse engineer and make those tools ourselves using low quality YouTube videos.  Down to count some frames in those future big boys -- maybe Koihime too.

[Copanele]

6 minutes ago, AihaLoveleaf said:

A big congrats on swiftly dispatching this beast of a title. If a game doesn't want to give us the tools we need to succeed, then we'll just have to reverse engineer and make those tools ourselves using low quality YouTube videos.  Down to count some frames in those future big boys -- maybe Koihime too.

Nothing like counting frames on a 480p quality youtube video with the boys ?

[maxfighter23___]

@Copanele nice platinum trophie from one piece burning blood great job how long are you active with the fighting genre copanele? i am active with the rpg genre for 1 year and 3 months

[Copanele]

2 minutes ago, zalcarezio said:

@Copanele nice platinum trophie from one piece burning blood great job how long are you active with the fighting genre copanele? i am active with the rpg genre for 1 year and 3 months

Thanks! Hmm, not really "that" active, I mostly go for the offline experience. Oddly enough I haven't found any passion in online fighting gaming (other than matches with friends  )

[maxfighter23___]

1 minute ago, Copanele said:

Thanks! Hmm, not really "that" active, I mostly go for the offline experience. Oddly enough I haven't found any passion in online fighting gaming (other than matches with friends  )

enjoy i prefer ofline aswell multiplayer maybe i give it a chance because with the server shutdowns from most of the games i have chosen for singleplayer games i dont want to deal with unobtainable trophies 

[Together_Comic]

3 hours ago, Copanele said:

And now it's time for another stinker. I think that the anime fighting game world is cursed to have a ton of poor adaptations. There are a few exceptions (Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series, Dragon Ball games together with Dragon Ball FighterZ), but most of the time if you see an anime "fighting game" (more like Arena Brawler), you can expect 2 things:

a. accurate representation of the characters together with voice acting and all that

b. subpar gameplay.

 

Sadly this is the case with One Piece Burning Blood here. Of course, game is based on the popular Shonen Manga written by Eiichiro Oda (which has 1073 chapters right now) and was unfortunately developed by Spike Chunsoft (the ones behind the monstrosity that is Jump Force). Seeing who the developer is, I whispered an "oh no" and braced myself.

 

 

I don't know if I've seen you positively review a one piece game.  Which is a shame, because the source material is seriously good.  If you know of a good one let me know, because I'd like to get in on that (eventually (TM)) 

 

3 hours ago, Copanele said:

Since I was forced to replay this mode (everything is locked ), I had a look at the game. So in terms of graphics and voice acting I really have no complaints here - characters do feel like straight out of the manga chapters, with accurate moves, lines, behavior and such. Even the manga specifics are available here (e.g. Sanji still can't attack female characters or Akainu dealing double damage to Ace). As much shit as I give them, Spike Chunsoft know how to respect the fidelity of the source material.

 

See these are the kind of touches that could make a good game a great game, but they aren't going to save a game that is already terrible :(.

 

 

[Copanele]

3 minutes ago, Together_Comic said:

 

I don't know if I've seen you positively review a one piece game.  Which is a shame, because the source material is seriously good.  If you know of a good one let me know, because I'd like to get in on that (eventually (TM)) 

Unfortunately, I played only 3 One Piece games on this account and they all sucked (Pirate Warriors 2, 3 and this game.

I love One Piece, it's my favorite shonen manga, which is why it's a damn shame the games suck like that. From what I've heard, the rest are just as mediocre (might be wrong).

The only GOOD One Piece game I've played was this little gem on the GBA (well...I used an emulator  )

 

I absolutely LOVED it!
 

(P.S. Chapter 1074 is out today  quite some interesting developments, as usual  )

 

3 minutes ago, Together_Comic said:

 

See these are the kind of touches that could make a good game a great game, but they aren't going to save a game that is already terrible :(.

 

 

Yep exactly, the material is there and I love it when I see these kind of touches (for instance, Sanji's icon turns his eyes into hearts and he throws hearts at the enemies.

But even with those touches...what's the point, if the gameplay sucks? In comparison, CyberConnect2 who does Naruto Ninja Storms series really nailed down both the source material representation AND the gameplay. Damn those games are fun to play!

 

Not sure if I'll have the energy to go for the RPG versions of One Piece, I'll see in the future  

[Grotz99]

51 minutes ago, Together_Comic said:

I don't know if I've seen you positively review a one piece game.  Which is a shame, because the source material is seriously good.  If you know of a good one let me know, because I'd like to get in on that (eventually (TM)) 

After this watching this latest arc, I've decided to play a game I've had on the backlog for a while, One Piece World Red. It doesn't look amazing but maybe it's enough to give the series some recognition?

 

The background picture at least looks awesome on the profile from Burning Blood, somehow Luffy is in Gear 4...

[Together_Comic]

1 hour ago, Copanele said:

Not sure if I'll have the energy to go for the RPG versions of One Piece, I'll see in the future

 

I've been considering World Seeker, but at this point its in the pit of never ending backlog.  If I manage it, I'll let you know

 

25 minutes ago, Grotz99 said:

After this watching this latest arc, I've decided to play a game I've had on the backlog for a while, One Piece World Red. It doesn't look amazing but maybe it's enough to give the series some recognition?

 

The background picture at least looks awesome on the profile from Burning Blood, somehow Luffy is in Gear 4...

 

Let me know how it is?

[Grotz99]

3 minutes ago, Together_Comic said:

Let me know how it is?

Sure thing, also curious how Odyssey is, but they can't seem to make anything past getting to the Grand Line. 

[Copanele]

Two super quick entries, that I played as a mood - ended up having a good time despite some major issues  

 

 No. 221 - LIT: Bend the Light

 

Platinum Name - Collector 

Hardest Trophy - You should be the game designer  find all the available solutions and an extra one

Difficulty - 2/10 (with a guide), 6/10 without

 

This game is an interesting physics/optics puzzle game, where you have to pass a light beam through various lens in order to reach its destination. It was developed by Copperglass, a studio made of 4 students. Considering the size of the dev team, I am impressed of how well made this game is.

 

You have a lot of really super well thought puzzles and various lens and prisms, which get more and more complex. No puzzle feels cheap and despite each level telling you how many solutions you have available...there's instances where's even more hidden solutions. All that matters is how good you are at manipulating the lens. I had puzzles where I had 2 available solutions but I managed to find 2 extra more. I like the idea behind this, there might be solutions that not even the devs figured out.

 

Some puzzles can get really complex later on

 

 

In conclusion, an actually interesting and fun puzzle game...

 

...if not for one critical issue - the stability of the game itself. This game crashes A LOT, to the point of unplayability. I had instances where I had a crash, restarted, solved one puzzle and during the "next puzzle screen" game crashed in such a way that it blocked my PS4 and had to "soft-reset" it.

 

This game is utterly amazing, but it is sadly unplayable in this state so I cannot in good conscience recommend it. I really hope the devs will manage to add a patch or something, it is a real shame because if not for the patches I'd recommend this game to no end 

 

THE GOOD:

• Well thought puzzles
• Physics that actually work as intended
• You can find extra solutions on top of the available ones

THE BAD:

• The game crashes so many times it is almost unplayable
• The controls are a bit finnicky when it comes to fine tuning the light beam

 

RECOMMENDATION: N/A, I would recommend Contraptions but that game is crap  so...it's abit unique in its genre

 

 

💯 No.57 - Doodle God

 

Hardest Trophy - Master of the World  Create all worlds without tips

Difficulty - 1/10 (if you check all solutions), 7/10 (if you disagree with wife about combining a turtle with a gun)

 

This funny mobile game arrived on PS4 as well and ...you play as God. Doodle God. You get 4 elements and you have to combine and match them to create more elements. It's a super stupid simple premise but it's mad fun.

 

You start from Fire, Air, Earth and Water and you end up getting some crazy combination

 

I played this one purely for fun with my wife (she actually started playing it on mobile but she got angry at the bombardment of Ads- mobile games, am I right?) . The game is super fun in the beginning, with some hilarious combinations. However in the end when you have to combine concepts and science tools and later on fantasy elements, the game gets super convoluted and you really need to use a guide ... unless you want to fight with your significant other  

 

I do recommend this game at a discount...with the mention that it truly shines if you play it with someone else near you. I don't see myself playing this game solo unfortunately.

 

THE GOOD:

• It's a fun game if you play it with someone else

THE BAD:

• Later combinations in the game make no sense

 

Recommendation - Black&White  this is a PC game actually, where you also play as a sort of God and you control an animal Titan. You raise civilizations, train them, evolve them, feed them to your titan...you do whatever you can.

Peter Molyneux really used to be a visionary at some point 

Edited December 24, 2023 by Copanele

[IzunaGaiden]

congratz yeah i already played is fun but absoluty no sense and the devil is.... hilarous

[zizimonster]

On 2/9/2023 at 8:49 PM, AihaLoveleaf said:

maybe Koihime too.

I suspect one of the reasons why @Copanele has lost interest in that game is, because one of the characters does not even know how to wear a skirt properly.

 

Look at this ?

 

 

?

[Copanele]

57 minutes ago, EdgeHosenkan said:

congratz yeah i already played is fun but absoluty no sense and the devil is.... hilarous

Yep it's fun, but I don't think I will go for Doodle Devil. One nonsensical mix&match game is enough

 

34 minutes ago, zizimonster said:

I suspect one of the reasons why @Copanele has lost interest in that game is, because one of the characters does not even know how to wear a skirt properly.

 

Look at this 

 

 

Now, I could totally say that...but I also platinumed Arcana Heart 3 twice and so uhm...shifted skirts are the least of my problems. 

Nah, I honestly do not like the gameplay, it is "floaty" and relies too much on "hope you pressed the X button at the exact frame in this 30 inputs long combo!". I neither have the skill nor the patience to practice a combo 300 hours for this game unfortunately ?

(I have to play Yakuza games instead!)

[Taruta13]

I don't care about One Piece - the only anime experience I have was dub Sailor Moon in college, Yu-Gi-Oh (up to 5Ds, I only saw the first few episodes of ZeXal and the next series with the main character owning a circus) and Pokemon(the games are better). Oh, and CardCaptors(yes, dub Card Captor Sakura, actually saw 90% of the episodes for both seasons and the premise was more interesting that Yu-Gi-Oh, just wished they started with Episode 1 instead of Episode 8). Other than that a few .HACK episodes, I have zero interest in anime, so I never watched One Piece or Naruto(though I did listen to the German Naruto opening after someone used in during a Pokemon Wonder Trade challenge ) so I have no knowledge of One Piece and no interest in anime games. However, I feel sorry for you for having to deal with bad adaption bullsh**. I hope your future fighting game experience is better.

 

Also, not interesting in fighting games either, other than Super Smash Brothers series. After they put Sora from Kingdom Hearts in Ultimate, I was a happy camper. (Sora was my main for the brief time I played Smash as he was the most overpowered character ever and the final DLC character added before discontinuing support for Ultimate so Sakura could go take a nap. ) Still, kudos to you.

[Yuber6969]

Congrats on all these plats, especially SF4! Some of those trials do indeed look ridiculous, and I'm not happy to read that USF 4 (which I popped trophies in) has a 600+ match grind. Didn't think it would be that much.

 

I don't know much about One Piece but that false advertising was shocking. And the game sounds a lot like Jump Force lol.

[Copanele]

2 hours ago, Taruta13 said:

I don't care about One Piece - the only anime experience I have was dub Sailor Moon in college, Yu-Gi-Oh (up to 5Ds, I only saw the first few episodes of ZeXal and the next series with the main character owning a circus) and Pokemon(the games are better). Oh, and CardCaptors(yes, dub Card Captor Sakura, actually saw 90% of the episodes for both seasons and the premise was more interesting that Yu-Gi-Oh, just wished they started with Episode 1 instead of Episode 8). Other than that a few .HACK episodes, I have zero interest in anime, so I never watched One Piece or Naruto(though I did listen to the German Naruto opening after someone used in during a Pokemon Wonder Trade challenge ) so I have no knowledge of One Piece and no interest in anime games. However, I feel sorry for you for having to deal with bad adaption bullsh**. I hope your future fighting game experience is better.

 

Also, not interesting in fighting games either, other than Super Smash Brothers series. After they put Sora from Kingdom Hearts in Ultimate, I was a happy camper. (Sora was my main for the brief time I played Smash as he was the most overpowered character ever and the final DLC character added before discontinuing support for Ultimate so Sakura could go take a nap. ) Still, kudos to you.

Maaan, I think our interests would be 2 circles that never touch each other, because...I wouldn't ever touch any of the games or anime that you listed there either!! I think that really is a first for me ? maaaybe Yugioh before it got cocaine mode (which was fairly early in the series).

But regardless, thanks for stopping by  

 

37 minutes ago, Yuber6969 said:

Congrats on all these plats, especially SF4! Some of those trials do indeed look ridiculous, and I'm not happy to read that USF 4 (which I popped trophies in) has a 600+ match grind. Didn't think it would be that much.

Big thanks, oh boy the trials are ridiculous alright  

As for the online...ugh...I really would recommend you finding a second PS4 to borrow...that online will wear you down (although given you went through Naruto to Boruto game, I can BET you would not be in that much of a pain ?)

37 minutes ago, Yuber6969 said:

I don't know much about One Piece but that false advertising was shocking. And the game sounds a lot like Jump Force lol.

Yep, it's done by the exact same company. They also did One Punch Man game.

In conclusion - stay away!

[YaManSmevz]

 

17 hours ago, Copanele said:

This game is utterly amazing, but it is sadly unplayable in this state so I cannot in good conscience recommend it. I really hope the devs will manage to add a patch or something, it is a real shame because if not for the patches I'd recommend this game to no end 

 

That's such a bummer, man. It looks so cool, weirdly reminds me of the light puzzles from RE 5 or the hacks from the final Doomsday mission.

 

However, this could be one of those things where I wanna play it more just because it's broken? 

[Copanele]

On 2/12/2023 at 4:11 AM, YaManSmevz said:

 

 

That's such a bummer, man. It looks so cool, weirdly reminds me of the light puzzles from RE 5 or the hacks from the final Doomsday mission.

 

However, this could be one of those things where I wanna play it more just because it's broken 

If you have the patience to go through tons of crash screens, then heck yeah go for this game in that case I DO recommend it

[Grotz99]

I started One Piece Unlimited World Red this weekend, didn't have high expectations or anything but ended up putting in like 8 hours, it's pretty good actually. The combat is pretty simple, but that's ok and the game premise is pretty neat where you rebuild a town by submitting components you get from kills, catching bugs and fish mini games and just finding stuff on the ground. The dialogue is pretty much on point for One Piece.

 

Looks like you also started the next game I'm starting soon once I finish Star Ocean 6 and can swap out the discs.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Grotz99

[Copanele]

7 hours ago, Grotz99 said:

I started One Piece Unlimited World Red this weekend, didn't have high expectations or anything but ended up putting in like 8 hours, it's pretty good actually. The combat is pretty simple, but that's ok and the game premise is pretty neat where you rebuild a town by submitting components you get from kills, catching bugs and fish mini games and just finding stuff on the ground. The dialogue is pretty much on point for One Piece.

 

Looks like you also started the next game I'm starting soon once I finish Star Ocean 6 and can swap out the discs.

Hmm interesting, I saw the gameplay and it looked abit sluggish, but it also looks way different than what I played so far.

I think I'll wait for a proper 2D One Piece Fighting game  that would work honestly

[Copanele]

#No. 222 - Dragon Ball Raging Blast

Platinum Name - 100% complete 

Hardest Trophy - Battle Bonus Complete  do all the bonus moves in Time Trial

Difficulty - 8/10

Event Difficulty - 8/10

Frustration Level - 

 

I believe that Dragon Ball Raging Blast is in a class of its own in terms of videogaming. It's an incredible case study for me, stumbling across this game while hunting for the Platinum Difficulty Challenge.

As a game based on the Dragon Ball IP and specifically Dragon Ball Z, I can say that it's one of the best show-to-videogame adaptation out there, rivalling Dragon Ball FighterZ.

It is also one of the worst games I have ever played and definitely the worst fighting game I have ever played on this profile and possibly ever.

(Yes I know, Arena Fighters aren't really considered true fighting games but for the sake of narrative let's accept them too  )

 

If you are a Dragon Ball fan, chances are you will enjoy this game, playing casually. You have a humongous roster of all the characters that showed up in Dragon Ball Z, paired with their transformations. Of course, you have the eternal protagonist/mentally disabled super powered Goku, together with all his transformations (Regular, SSJ, SSJ2, SSJ3), BUT you even have the episodic grunts that died on the course of one episode, like Guldo from the Ginyu Force (if you don't remember who that is, well the game remembered). Or Yamcha. Who is actually competent. Or Videl, who has barely any powers but was added in the game with 2 costumes even. 

The game is fast paced, in a 3D environment, where you can fly around and shoot all the attacks that made the show popular. You have cinematics, accurate voice acting, tons of kamehamehas, you name it. Your inner 11 years old would be satisfied after a couple matches, just if you want to reiterate the Gohan vs Cell fight. You would play this game for a couple matches and say you had fun.

 

Now, let's say you REALLY want to play the game. Which means playing all modes, unlock all there is to unlock and maybe get a platinum. My experience with this game once I fooled around enough and started to...well...PLAY it?

 

 

This game is utter pain. After playing the Tutorial (which, I will have to admit, it's one of THE BEST tutorials in a game ever, I am not even sarcastic here), I went to story mode, where you start playing as Raditz vs Goku and Krillin. AND I got utterly demolished, but not by a lack of skill.

Oh no, the game provides you the tools to defeat the cheeky AI (who will constantly cheat). Your tools consist of regular punches and kicks (square button), ki blasts (triangle), a dash or super dash (x ) and personal actions that are largely useless (circle). You can charge your Ki meter by holding down the D-Pad and you can fire one of the 4 super attacks (by flicking the right stick in one of the four direction).  If you overcharge your Ki meter (charge the meter twice), you can fire your ultimate attack by pressing on the R3. If it hits, a cinematic happens and the opponent gets a ton of damage.  All in all, pretty straight forward.

 

This is how the game NORMALLY looks

 

Considering all that, what could go wrong? Well, the camera is set behind you, making this a 3rd person fighting game (thus the Arena Fighter term). However the camera will always, and I mean ALWAYS focus on the enemy, no matter what. As long as you are not stuck into a cinematic, the camera will focus on the enemy at all times. You will end up with this beautiful picture 3/4 of your playthrough:

 

Behold the Dragon Balls. Quickly, make a wish!

 

You might think this is a one-time instance. Nope, I took a picture on a random encounter while I was grinding for D-points ,the ingame currency.

Your worst enemy - Android 16 crotch shot.

 

This will be the bane of your existence: the camera. It has been the most nauseating experience trying to beat this game. The moment the enemy decides to shoot for the sky or trap you in a corner, your camera decides to shove itself into the ass of your character and show you how a colonoscopy was made on PS3 era. Also, the AI is no slouch, even on Easy it won't give you any time to breathe, you will have to be on your toes and your meds to even be able to keep up with this.

 

Another HUGE issue is the framerate dropping. Whenever you charge your ki, you emit the classic ki aura. If your enemy is near you at any point, the game will slow down to a slideshow level, moving at 0.25x speed, eventually even crashing. So for your PS3's sake, DO NOT CHARGE KI NEAR ENEMIES.

 

Oh and did I mention that the AI cheats big time? Oh it does. Even after investing 40+ hours in this stupid game, I still got randomly demolished by a Yamcha just because he decided to counter my every move. The AI has a bad tendency to randomly go bonkers and screw you up at any pace. So I discovered that the best trick to deal with the entire game is to run away, charge my ki, bait the opponent into shooting a super or ultimate attack, DODGE (thanks Picollo) and shoot with an ultimate of my own. This absolutely obliterates the entire game and turns it into a chicken game, to see who shoots the biggest laser first.

 

At least when you hit, you get a sick cinematic

 

God have mercy on your soul if you ever go for the platinum. At every point in the game you will be reminded how much this game sucks. Probably the best and easiest part of this was the online and the tutorial, because the rest has been utter pain.

 

STORY MODE - You have all the main arcs in the DBZ series: Saiyan arc, Frieza arc, Androids arc, Buu arc. You also have 2 small arcs that were fan favorite: Bardock arc and Broly arc. You also have "What-if" scenario fights, where you are pit against some weird matches (like Majin Buu and Videl vs Kid Buu). While this sounds good on paper, the game was kind enough to add EVERY fight that happened in the show. Not most of them, ALL of them. Including Picollo mind training, or the Z warriors fighting in heaven with the Ginyu force (was a filler in the show), or Android 19 fighting Goku. Tons of filler fights in a stupid game, you can imagine how fun that was.

 

And then there's the trophies related to this...each mission has to be finished on Hard difficulty, also each mission has 3 stars that are linked to extra requirements: fill a requirement and you get a star. I decided to start on Hard mode and unlock stars as I go....just to figure out in the middle of Frieza saga that I have no stars. I feared that the game was bugged but NO, you have to actually finish each misison on ANY difficulty JUST to unlock the hidden requirements. Then replay the mission on Hard so you can get the "Finish on Hard difficulty" star AND THEN replay the missions a third time to get the rest of the requirements because the AI is a bitch on Hard so you will definitely have to replay the missions on easy.

And you have to get around 270 stars, because you have to buy items from a Star shop. Because yeah, you need all the items for the platinum.

 

 

SUPER BATTLE TRIAL - Here you have the "Challenge mode" of the game so to speak. I thought that after playing through the Story mode 500+ times to get all the fkin stars, I would be ready for this. HELL TO THE NO!

While Survivor, Time Attack or Arcade Mode were pretty easy (especially since you can customize your character with various power-ups in a tetris like game, turning my SSJ3 Goku into a health melting machine), there were some modes that made me pull my hair out. Extreme Battle Mode is you versus 10 enemies on "Developer Mode" difficulty, which means they are one level above the Very Hard difficulty AND have buffed health. Beating them wouldn't be a problem, the problem was HITTING them since they could teleport and counter everything. Thankfully, with a maxed out TagerBroly, I managed to grab them by their throats and plant them into the ground, proving once again that grapplers are the best characters when it comes to dealing with the AI.

Punch Machine Mode is a stupid minigame where you have to punch a power measuring machine with Videl, similar to that funny moment from Buu Saga where the Z fighters had to punch a machine to measure their power.

In this game, as Videl, you have a slider and you have to punch in a specific range to get the most amount of points. Your target is to reach over 998 points and another target is to hit exactly 137 points (Mr Satan's score in the show). 
It took me around 1.5 hours of pain. The game had a stupid tendency to drop frames whenever I was reaching a high score. It was one of the most infuriating parts of this game.

 

But I think nothing, and I really mean NOTHING compares to the Battle Bonus Complete trophy. You have to get every single bonus available in a vs CPU fight in Time Trial. The CPU is invincible and set on Normal difficulty and you have 300 seconds to input all the special moves. 

The special moves range from basic stuff like combos, grabs, throwdowns, throwing ultimate attacks to crazier stuff like winning a clash (both enemies shoot a super at the same time), breaking the enemy's guard (fully charged punch while the enemy is guarding) or clash (super dash at the same time). This is a heavy RNG based trophy, because you can be damn sure that the CPU will NOT act as you expect. Out of my 70+ tries for this damn trophy, over half of them were failed because I could not land a damn guard crush, the enemy would JUST NOT BLOCK!!!AT ALL! It made me want to throw the disc at some point.

 

Another extremely stupid trophy is All-ruined, you have to destroy every piece of environment on each map, the trick is that you have to do it on a Player vs CPU match, so no cheating with a second controller there! Another catch is, if the CPU destroys one piece of environment, you have to restart the entire map, it all has to be done in one go per map BY YOURSELF.

Thank Kami that there's more than enough guides written by desperate people that helped me with this, I did not struggle as much as I expected.

 

So, after playing all the modes, all the stories, getting all stars, doing tons of online matches, triple the number of vs CPU matches, trying all characters, collecting all the money and beating all the androids...it was time to buy everything from the shop with the D-points that you receive after every match.....

.....I barely had enough to unlock 75% of the store. So I had to grind an extra 6-7 hours for the money.

 

 

FINAL VERDICT - To hell with this game. I have never played a more asinine fighting game in my entire life. How could a developing team manage to nail the references so well yet make...everything so miserable of an experience? WHO created this???

Wikipedia - Dragon Ball: Raging Blast is a video game based on the manga and anime franchise Dragon Ball. It was developed by Spike and published by Namco Bandai for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game consoles in North America;

 

Spike...the company that became Spike Chunsoft...the monsters behind Jump Force, One Piece Burning Blood and One-Punch man Hero Nobody Knows. Yeah that explains....

 

Ah yeah...this game enters into IT MAKES ME WANT TO QUIT VIDEOGAMES AS A HOBBY territory. If I ever want to curse someone, I'll gift them this game

 

THE GOOD:

• An actually good tutorial
• Huge roster 
• Fidelity towards the DBZ series

THE BAD:

• The camera makes you feel like you're the pinball in a pinball machine
• The AI will randomly overpower you no matter what you do 
• The entire game is a hell training montage episode
• You can't play as Mr Satan in this game either.

Recommendation - going outside and trying to do a Kamehameha  it's healthier, you will go outside, it's way more fun and you'll feel less silly compared to playing this game.

 

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by Copanele

[YaManSmevz]

 

Quote

As a game based on the Dragon Ball IP and specifically Dragon Ball Z, I can say that it's one of the best show-to-videogame adaptation out there, rivalling Dragon Ball FighterZ.

 

 

Quote

It is also one of the worst games I have ever played and definitely the worst fighting game I have ever played on this profile and possibly ever.

 

 

I got excited, then sad, then horrified for you. I'm sorry man, that's some shit?

 

Also I related hard with

 

Quote

But I think nothing, and I really mean NOTHING compares to the Battle Bonus Complete trophy. You have to get every single bonus available in a vs CPU fight in Time Trial. The CPU is invincible and set on Normal difficulty and you have 300 seconds to input all the special moves. 

The special moves range from basic stuff like combos, grabs, throwdowns, throwing ultimate attacks to crazier stuff like winning a clash (both enemies shoot a super at the same time), breaking the enemy's guard (fully charged punch while the enemy is guarding) or clash (super dash at the same time). This is a heavy RNG based trophy, because you can be damn sure that the CPU will NOT act as you expect. Out of my 70+ tries for this damn trophy, over half of them were failed because I could not land a damn guard crush, the enemy would JUST NOT BLOCK!!!AT ALL! It made me want to throw the disc at some point.

 

I had a similar experience for the tutorial trophy with SvR 2010. You get 90% of it done so quickly, and then suddenly you're fucked! At least my progress was saved though, you had to do it every time??? So glad that you're done with that! This is definitely a textbook case of a review providing a service by keeping people away from a shit game!

Edited March 4, 2023 by YaManSmevz

[Platinum_Vice]

6 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

 

 

 

 

 

I was going to comment something similar! ?

 

14 hours ago, Copanele said:

Behold the Dragon Balls. Quickly, make a wish!

 

I wish for a good DBZ game. Even Shenron can't make this happen.

 

14 hours ago, Copanele said:

THE GOOD:

• An actually good tutorial
• Huge roster 
• Fidelity towards the DBZ series

THE BAD:

• The camera makes you feel like you're the pinball in a pinball machine
• The AI will randomly overpower you no matter what you do 
• The entire game is a hell training montage episode

 

Soooooo... play it?