KN_Kirai's Never-Ending Journey to Completion

[Arcesius]

I haven't read your Bioshock review 100% since I am going to play it next as well and want to remain spoiler-free... Congrats though!  I usually suck at shooters too, so let's see if I manage to do Survivor legit or have to resort to the glitch ?

 

But yeah, looking forward to the game.. It's one of those franchises that I keep hearing so much about but never got around to playing. 

[KN_Kirai]

34 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

I haven't read your Bioshock review 100% since I am going to play it next as well and want to remain spoiler-free... Congrats though!  I usually suck at shooters too, so let's see if I manage to do Survivor legit or have to resort to the glitch ?

 

But yeah, looking forward to the game.. It's one of those franchises that I keep hearing so much about but never got around to playing. 

 

Thanks! I tend to keep my reviews spoiler-free regarding the story with a few exceptions, but if you're going to play it in the near future then it's better not to risk it ?

 

Good luck with the game, as I said I enjoyed even though FPS games are not my favourite, I hope you'll enjoy it too ☺️

[KN_Kirai]

You turn around one second and you have five reviews to write... Ugh.

 

74th Platinum - Dragon Ball Fighterz

Trophy Triumphant

 

Well you know, it's Dragon Ball, the platinum rarity is like that only because of a stupid Zeni grind that lately hasn't been all that bad since they gave away 5 million, then 3.5 million, then someone discovered how to continuously gain the same amount over and over and reach 20 million in like five minutes. So why not jump in when there's an opportunity? And so I did.

 

Of course I wasn't interested in this game only because it had an ultra rare platinum: it's Dragon Ball, and I've always wanted to try it after playing Dragon Ball Xenoverse 1 & 2 and really enjoying them; turns out it wasn't all that good since it's quite different than those two previous games.

First of all, I'm not an expert of fighting games, so I was thankful that completing all the challenges for all characters is not required, since for most I couldn't do the harder ones; second, unlike XV1&2 it's a 2D fighting game (if that's how they're called), and I found out that I suck at those, badly. Fortunately, to platinum this game you don't require mad skills, since most things are easy.

 

Another thing is that most of the time, I couldn't connect the combo for the finishing moves, since I was using the D-Pad as instructed by the tutorials in the game: now, I don't know how pro fighting gamers play, whether they use the analog stick or the D-Pad, but I almost burned the skin off my left thumb slinding it onto the D-Pad. I'm sure it's just me being an incompetent fuck, but I much preferred the combos in XV1&2 (something like L2+R2+square).

 

That said, the story felt quite boring at some point, since you need to sit through it three times from different perspectives with minor changes, with Android 21 being the only satisfaction (and I know you know which of her assets brought that satisfaction). I also enjoyed the banter between good and evil characters based on which ones you use in story battles.

The online is the only thing other than, previously, the Zeni grind which could be considered a bother, since it requires 9-10 hours of boosting (if you choose to do so, otherwise well, good luck) with you and your partner taking it in turns by winning 3 matches each: despite the frequent connection errors, I managed to get through it in one sitting, so it wasn't a bigger deal than I thought.

 

One little note about the S rank in Arcade mode: fuck you. It's not enough that I'm a stupid piece of shit that didn't realize for an entire day that if you lose one of the matches and don't restart the whole gauntlet, the next match doesn't give you full scores (despite there being a notification message when you lose which I always skipped without reading too much of it), and that didn't pay too much attention on the scores and then wondering why the hell I was always getting C rank on the last match; no, the CPU also has the audacity to spam you with 300 combo moves the moment you're not attacking or failing to connect a hit, with Cell always firing a point blank Super Kamehameha in my fucking character's face. Again, I'm bad as fuck at this game so it's to be expected, but come on.

 

 

75th Platinum - BioShock Infinite: The Complete Edition

Platinum Columbia

 

Concluding the trilogy of BioShock, this is the best of the three in my opinion: there is always a lighthouse.

 

I can say that even though I'm not a fan of shooter games, I enjoyed this trilogy and this game in particular very much: the plot and the environment are very likeable and the interaction between Booker (which hey, now the MC talks unlike the previous games) and Elizabeth are priceless most of the time.

 

It would seem that this game comes with a problematic bug, which is that if at any point when you're playing while signed in to PSN you get disconnected for whatever reason and continue playing regardless, the trophies will no longer unlock even if you satisfy the requirements: if you have bad connection or just don't want to risk having to replay entire sections of the game on harder difficulties, it's best just to turn the connection off before starting the game every time you play. By doing so I didn't have problems in those regards, and I don't know if this has been patched recently or not.

Platinum-wise there are a few things one needs to watch out for: first, there are a lot of weapon-specific kill trophies, so keep one weapon long enough to reach the required amount of kills, then switch to a different one and so on. It's not that hard to accomplish most of the time (if you're not playing on 1999 mode from the get-go) apart from the weapon only dropped by Patriots. The other miscellaneous trophies can be cleaned up using chapter select, so they're not too troublesome.

Second, the collectibles: I'd say to do them on your 1999 mode run because you will need all the extra cash you can get (there's a gear that nets you extra money when you pick up a Voxophone) in that mode and you might as well collect them all; there's the same problem as in the previous BioShock games where if you miss one, you can use chapter select to pick it up afterwards, but if you don't know precisely which one you haven't picked up you might end up collecting them all again because they respawn altogether.

Lastly, 1999 mode: well, just don't purchase anything by mistake from a Dollar Bill machine, or you'll have to do another playthrough on that difficulty from the start. If you're thorough with the scavenging you won't need to purchase anything from it, and will have spare cash to use somewhere else. Also, the sniper rifle is your best friend in that mode.

 

One thing that I didn't like and that in a way makes 1999 mode harder than it needs to be, is the fact that unlike the previous games the game only autosaves at fixed points, which are more frequent (since it only autosaved at the start of chapters before) but not enough, and most of the time I ended up dying during a two-part gap and having to repeat the first part over and over because there wasn't a checkpoint after it. Had there been the possibility to manually save as well (like previous games), it would've made the game much easier, and I wouldn't have had to wait for the game to auto-save to turn off the game when I didn't want to (or couldn't) continue.

 

Quick notes on the DLCs: CitC's hardest trophy is cheeseable if you earn every other trophy first and your second to last trophy for the 100% isn't the platinum itself, because it autopops as the last trophy if those conditions are met; Burial at Sea was a nice conclusion to the story of BS Infinite and a nice connection with the first BioShock, and the two parts are not difficult to 100%.

 

 

76th Platinum - Metal Slug Anthology

Metal Slug Master

 

Well, sooner or later I knew I would have to play this collection: it's Metal Slug after all.

 

Let's begin by saying, if you haven't read my brief review of Metal Slug 3, that I played a lot of MS when I was a kid: it all started with MS2 on an arcade cabinet in my town where all the kids would play while wasting away all their money on coins. Yeah, there was a time like that. I myself wasn't very good at it so I never got too far in the game, but then I had the opportunity, thanks to some connection and friends, to play it on PC with an emulator alongside MS1, X and 3. Needless to say, since at that time you didn't have many games to play but you had all the time in the world, I played those four games endlessly.

I played the same four games again when they were released on Steam a few years ago and discovered that, well, I still got it, but not enough to clear the game flawlessly of course. I also played MS Anthology on PSP I think, and Metal Slug XX too on the same console. So yeah, I know a thing or two about MS.

So I am somewhat of a veteran of the first four games, whereas I didn't play MS4, 5 and 6 more than two or three times, which is one of the reasons why I consider MS4 and MS5 the hardest among all games, and MS6 too on hard mode.

 

All of this to say that while I know very well the first games, I pretty much cannot clear them with 5 or fewer continues, even on easy, which is what you're required to do for every single MS game in this anthology: the best I could manage were 7 continues on MS1, 2 and X.

And why is that I couldn't manage? Well, one reason is obvious: I'm good, but not enough, so more practice is needed; the second reason, THE FUCKING INPUT LAG OF THIS PORT. Maybe if you practice for a very long time you can get used to it, but you really notice it when you need to jump or duck and the character does so at least half a second after you pushed the button, and in the middle of a bullet hell, it can cost you a life or even more.

But don't worry folks, because we got them exploits! Turns out that if you have one more controller, you can sign in as a guest user for example and start with player 1 only, play until you die and the Continue screen shows up, then press start on the second controller and proceed with player 2 until another Continue screen shows up, and repeay the same process of alternating between players until you beat the game. By doing so you effectively never press start after a continue, the time runs out each time but it doesn't give you game over because you're playing with the other controller, so at the end it shows that you used 0 continues and thus you unlock the trophy effortlessly.

I know there will be people who're gonna crucify me and everyone who used this exploit, as the majority of every glitch and bug exploit is unwelcomed between the pure trophy hunters, but I feel like this needs to get a pass: I'm sure there are those who did this entire platinum legitimately, and I tip off my hat to all of you, because that is not an easy thing to do as discussed until now.

Fun fact: since I only have one PS4 controller and the PS3 one doesn't work on the PS4, I either needed to borrow my friend's controller or do another thing. I decided the latter, which was to connect my PSVita to the PS4 by Remote Play as Player 1, and then sign in with my controller as a guest for Player 2. The hard part was remember when to switch controllers and not mess up midway in, but I managed at the end.

 

So with that out of the way, the only "real" challenge are the POW rescue trophies: then again, if you are doing the previous trophies somewhat legitimately, you will get almost all of these the first time you play because all you need to do is rescue 10 POWs and just not die until the end of the mission. I did all trophies first try except MS4 and MS5 for obvious reasons, since I know by heart the first missions of the first four games, which means I also know where the hidden POWs are; MS6 is also easy to achieve if you play on easy. For the remaining games I needed to get familiar with the first mission and the locations of the POWs, so I managed on the second try of each surprisingly, since I thought this was going to take a while. Guess I have enough skills to do that, at least.

 

Overall, loved these games primarily because of nostalgia, but that doesn't mean they're bad for people who have never played them. Also, I don't think I'm going to play Metal Slug XX anytime soon, and that's gonna be another pain in the ass to platinum, since I don't know the game well this time.

 

 

77th Platinum - Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight

Dancing in Moonlight

 

A quick review here, since it's pretty much the same thing as Dancing in Starlight, only for Persona 3. I played P3FES on the PS3 as a port of the PS2 version without trophies, and boy will we talk about FES if Atlus ever realeases it on PS4 (or 5), because you know I'm gonna be playing it.

As it was for its P5 counterpart there really isn't really much there to do, you just play the songs and see the Social events, all while enjoying the OSTs of Persona 3 and the interaction between characters. Overall a nice little break between games.

P.S.: Elizabeth gets to be the best Velvet Room girl, surpassing maybe even Margaret of P4, just because of her weirdness and way of doing.

 

 

78th Platinum - Persona 4: Dancing All Night

Dancing All Night

 

I finally got around playing the original Persona Dancing, the one that actually has a canon story mode but still no Japanese dub. Oh well, at least the English one is acceptable in P4.

 

First things first: did fucking Yu Narukami just talk out loud without it being a cutscene or a battle? And did the other characters just call him by his actual name and not only refer to him as "Leader" or just "him"? The answer to both of those question is: fuck yeah.

I don't remember if I ever said it clearly in previous reviews, but a thing that has always kind of bothered me at the start of playing a dubbed JRPG game is when you have to name the MC: that leads to other characters never calling the MC by his default name because, you know, who knows what name you gave him. The same thing happened in FFX with Tidus: it was fine and all up until FFIX since there was no dub, but for some reason they decided you could still customize the MC's name in a dubbed game. Persona games in this are the "worst" because in addition to that, the game doesn't have a default name you can select, which leads to the MC having multiple names since in the manga and in the anime they're called differently most of the time: that is what happened to Minato Arisato or Makoto Yuuki (P3's MC) and to Akira Kurusu or Ren Amamiya (P5's MC). I guess Yu Narukami is primarily known as such because of this game and the Arenas.

That said, this is the first time (I don't know about the Arena games but it must be like that as well) the MC got treated like other characters, and it's a bit of a shame that P3D and P5D are not like this, with the MC not talking at all like the original Persona games and his avatar only showing when there's a dialogue choice to make; well, at least they talk while dancing, right?

 

After that selfish and almost not needed digression, the story is quite good and enjoyable despite not living up to P4G's standards, but there's not much you can do there; the new character Kanami Mashita is also a nice addition to the story (in more ways than one, if you know what I mean), as is her involvement and interaction with other known characters.

 

The free dancing part is quicker to clear than it is in P3D or P5D just because the story takes the most part of the game, which is not a bad thing of course. The platinum isn't hard at all since you only need to clear a few tracks on hard, and even those can be cheesed if you have enough items and can just spam the buttons throughout the song.

The only "boring" thing you need to do for the platinum is the money grind to purchase every item, costume and accessory in the shop; if you're willing to destroy your hands, you can just wait until you have all power up items and a few books, then you turn on all the former ones and the book that renders notes invisible and raises the money you earn by 800%, and then you just spam a D-Pad button, X or whatever button you prefer, and L1/R1 or an analog stick to clear the song on hard (or all night) difficulty with a full combo: that nets you 100k-200k every time, and you need about 1 million to buy everything.

Edited July 8, 2020 by KN_Kirai

[KN_Kirai]

Well, it has been a long time since I did a platinum review, both because I immersed myself in playing Pokemon games during the summer, and actually playing games instead of writing reviews. Guess I have to now because the games are piling up and I'm starting to forget what to say about them.

79th Platinum - Assassin's Creed Origins

Earn Them All!

 

I haven't played many open world games but despite that I've enjoyed this one: it's well done and even though the map completion you have to do may get a little ripetitive over time, I didn't really feel bored or annoyed about it. I also like the fact that it's a "filled" open world, in the sense that most areas are not just very big without anything to do, except deserts but those are excused.

 

The story grew on me as well, with Bayek of Siwa becoming one of my favourite AC protagonist of all time, the more I played the more I wanted to find out how the story was going to develop, but at the same time I didn't disregard the sidequests or the map completion, always keeping up with the area levels.

Surprisingly there's not much to say about the platinum: being an AC game you'd expect crazy requirements as usual, but there's not much difficulty involved since you just need to be at the right level for the mission you're doing. Granted, you're not gonna breeze through even if you're at max level, since the elephants are also level 40 and they're not easy or the phylakes which tend to kill you pretty quickly if you're not careful, but with the right strategy and level you can take them down no problem. So if you're exploring most of the time instead of just doing the story mission, you'll be able to catch up to the level requirement most of the time, if not be overleveled: I did every sidequest even if you don't have to for the platinum and ended up a few levels higher than most enemies, and if you have the DLCs the level cap is extended so you can level up even further.

 

Speaking of DLCs, they extend the story and let you explore new areas with the formula being the same: complete the story mission, sidequests and usual map completion. Nothing much to say here either since the trophies are not hard at all, the only problem might be some of the Pharaohs, but if you have the right equipment and skills unlocked you can take them out easily.

Overall a pretty good AC game; looking forward to AC Odyssey in the future as well, which I will play since I've played all AC games now except Odyssey and the new Valhalla.

 

 

80th Platinum - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

Cold Steel Conqueror

 

Seriously, what the hell did I just play?

I heard about the Legend of Heroes saga (more specifically the Trails sagas) from a few friends who played the first two games and recommended it so much I finally decided to play them: and boy were they right.

 

The rate the characters grow on up at is like nothing I've ever experienced, the story starts off nice and easy at first and develops more and more until it explodes right at the end, and the combat system is very well executed once you get the hang of it (because I sucked ass at first, as usual). What more can I say? I can only tell you that I don't remember a game that made me so eager to play the sequel faster than this one: after all, what was I supposed to do after that cliffhanger ending? Apart from the NG+ run to get the platinum, of course.

Speaking of platinum, it's very manageable if you know what you're doing and follow a guide, because there are many missable things that may end up screwing you out of the completion and requiring another playthrough, like the Character Notes, Recipes, Enemy scans and stuff like that. There are some which you can get at the end but the majority are one time only, especially some of the Master Quartz, like the ones you get from the Principal in the Final Chapter: if you don't have all the medals or forget to speak to him because you didn't know those existed (yes, the game doesn't tell you unfortunately), tough luck, you have to start another playthrough. And do 40 quests all over again because the progress for those resets.

One of your runs must be done on Nightmare difficulty, which would be difficult in normal circumstances, but since you can carry your levels, items and equipment from the NG run it's a breeze at first, and gets more difficult towards the end since you don't level up as much and the enemies have more HP. But once you get used to spam S-breaks it shouldn't be a problem.

 

Another matter that you need to be careful of is the Bonding trophies: of course, you can do one and then reset for the others, but you need to fulfill certain requirements in order for the characters to appear in the selection for the bonding scene. Even if you plan it all out some thing can go wrong, for example Towa not appearing because you can't see her Link EXP and you think she has enough when she actually does not and you need to start from the beginning of Chapter 6 and beat the boss after the final dungeon, in Nightmare mode because you're doing the NG+ run; yeah, stuff like that happens. Fortunately I was keeping separate saves since I began the NG+ run so it wasn't a big deal. Also that let me finish with Alisa as the choice for the scene which leads to a special scene at the ending and, if you carry your clear save data into Cold Steel II, a little continuity being maintained between the two games.

 

Also, Alisa best girl and canon route, change my fucking mind.

 

I guess the only complaint I have with the game is that the Japanese dub is lacking most of the time, especially the protagonist Rean who sometimes isn't dubbed in scenes when the other party members are: it's not like we're in a visual novel, and he's not Sigma from Virtue's Last Reward, is he?

The other complaint may be the fact that the game doesn't tell you much about the side things you need to do, like the requirements for the bonding scene or, as I mentioned above, the requirements for the medals. But since nowadays almost every game has a guide, it's not that big of a deal. What's certain is that this game is awesome and at this rate it won't be long until I play all of the four Trails of Cold Steel games.

 

 

81th Platinum - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

The Ashen Chevalier

 

And as I said, here I am completing the second Trails of Cold Steel right after the first one. I don't know what I would have done if I had played the first one when the second hadn't been released yet: I would've probably gone for hibernation until this game came out or something.

 

The game is the same as the previous one with more additions and improvements: remember when I said that the first game didn't tell you important thing like the medals or the requirements for the bonding scene? Apparently I wasn't the only one and people who played the first game back then had the same "complaints", so Falcom listened and put a lot of messages warning the player about these things. What can I say other than nicely done, Falcom!

Other improvements are the fact that you can see the current Link EXP of people like Towa and Alfin when you're doing their bonding events, or the new Overdrive mechanics in battle. Still, the fact that you can't cancel an S-Break after selecting it has remained but I won't hold it against them.

The poorly dubbed Japanese hasn't improved all that much, and you can see it because even though some characters who weren't dubbed in the previous game now finally got a voice actor, people like S or V lost theirs in the transition between games. I guess that's because they don't say much in this game but it felt weird, especially during the prologue where everyone was speaking and suddenly those two, who you expect to be dubbed because you just came from the first game, are not speaking like they are some side NPC. Well, what can you do.

I guess I should mention that if you play these two games on PS4, the English dub has been improved during the port from PS3/Vita and has like 5000+ new dubbed lines. Or so I heard from a friend who played with the English dub.

 

I guess I should mention that the story is at the same level if not better than the first game, since now you already know every character and you can enjoy it from the get go. Of course I enjoyed it very much, not that I was expecting any less from this game.

 

The platinum is almost exactly the same as the first game, with some new trophies that are related to the new additions (like Overdrive). Unlike the first game you don't have to win 1000 battles, only 600, which is nice but I feel like these requirements should have been swapped between the two games, since I ended up with 800 battles in the first game after two runs, and almost the same number in the second game after only one run.

The medals are still around, but not only are they flashed out unlike the first game as I said above, there's only one reward instead of two so it can be done in one playthrough and you don't need to worry about doing it all over for a second time. Other things to watch out for are the missables as usual, and don't forget to scan every fucking enemy you come across like in the first game, objects included, because if you forget and didn't keep separate save files, you're gonna have to play a third time all the way up to that point.

 

Also, like the first game, Alisa best girl and canon route, change my mi- actually don't, you can't. And it's confirmed so why bother.

 

I said to myself I'd wait a bit before playing CS3 (since I haven't even purchased it yet), but guess who'll be playing it and CS4 right after that by the end of the year? Yeah, take all of my money Falcom, I don't need it. The ending of this game isn't as cliffhangerous (is that a word?) compared to the previous game, so the "waiting" is bareable, even though my friend is playing it right now and increasing my hype for it in the process.

I'll distract myself with some other games, like Pokemon or replaying the Spyro Trilogy (because why not), but not to worry, the time to play CS3 will soon come.

 

[KN_Kirai]

No, I'm not dead. I've just been playing on other platforms, because the Cold Steel saga made me want to go back and play every other Trails game in order to better comprehend the overall story; and since I've replayed the ToCS games, I figured I can finally write the reviews for the last two games.

 

82th Platinum - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III

A Flash of Light

 

Let’s be clear, the hype for this game was high coming from the previous two: and boy, did it deliver and then some. From a change in graphics and little tweaks to the combat system and gameplay, to the continuation of an already awesome story, to new and old characters that meet and develop through the course of the game. And I live for these things.

 

As stated earlier, at the time I’m writing this review I’ve currently played all four ToCS games, gone back to Steam to play the Sky games, and somewhat managed to play the Crossbell games in between, and I am now replaying the ToCS games, currently having just finished ToCS3 so I thought why not finally write this review. Yep I know, I’m crazy.

But why did I go back to play the first games? Other than pure interest in the Trails series, there’s also the small fact (very, very ironic) that while CS1 and CS2 develop purely in Erebonia despite being part of a series that spans in other countries as well and there being some references to the previous games, you don’t quite feel the need to know about them because the story is pretty much independent; what’s not independent is the one from CS3 and CS4, because old characters from previous Trails games appear and talk about events that happened during those games, so the first time I played 3 and 4 I missed out on a lot of details. That is why I went back and played them all, and then replayed the CS games to now get every reference. As I said, I live for the interaction of characters from different games, and I really enjoyed it while replaying CS3: can’t wait for CS4, because it’s even more evident in that game.

 

The game in itself changed quite a bit from the previous two, from the button input in battle to the mechanics themselves, and every change is an improvement, which is always something you like to see. 

The biggest change is the bonding mechanics: previously it was related to the Link Level between Rean and the other characters, but now it’s a completely different stat, and it’s easier to raise with gifts and bonding events. This game also has the quickest way to obtain all bonding trophies out of the four, since you only need to max out the affection and use one ticket at the festival in Chapter 4, and you’ll see the special scene with the character which will unlock the trophy: no reloading to choose a different character.

 

Also, if you were wondering, Alisa is still the best girl and canon route, even though CS3 does not let you load a clear save data from CS2, so the relationships are “reset”. But regardless, it’s always made clearer and clearer.

 

Other than that, the trophy list is similar to the previous games, except one “major” change: the medals now are not earned by doing some specific requirements, but are connected to the academy grade, which functions similarly to the instructor rank or student rank in the previous games. Of course, following a guide is the best thing to do if you don’t want to miss something.

 

Also yep, there’s that CS1-like cliffhanger at the end, fuck you Falcom as always. But at least I had CS4 ready to go after the NG+ run, so no biggie. Other than that the story is awesome as always, even more so now that I know everything that happened before.

 

 

83th Platinum - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV

Divine Blade

 

This is it, the end of saga. The game that includes various characters from not only the previous ToCS games, but also the entire Trails saga. When I saw Estelle and Lloyd along with Rean on the back of the cover I almost screamed out loud. Almost. And back then I barely even knew who Estelle was, not having played the Trails in the Sky games.

 

Now that I played all nine games, the events of the story made much more sense, along with the numerous references to past events and occurrences: of course, I really enjoyed the interactions between the old characters and the new ones, as well as seeing everyone again grown up (since four years have passed since the beginning of the first Sky game).

 

The game shares a lot of similarities with ToCS2, being the sequel of ToCS3 and beginning almost exactly where the previous game left off, as well as being almost the same game with various modifications and improvements to the gameplay such as upgrading slots on the ARCUS II. One thing I really loved was the ultimate almighty Quick Travel feature: now you can finally go directly to the single building you need to go to for your quest or whatnot, and don’t have to walk so much as in the previous games; I also thank Falcom for allowing quick travel directly to the Trial Chests, because that would’ve been a mess otherwise.

 

The trophy list is, as usual, almost identical to the previous games’, so no biggies here: it’s all pretty much manageable as was ToCS3. A great addition was the visual confirmation that a monster had been fully analyzed, by having a green tick beside its name; no more checking 20 times over to make sure you didn’t miss one question mark on the monster’s data. The same is done for the recipes, but the impact on those was not as great as the monster list.

Oh wait, minigames! There’s always Vantage Master since it was introduced in ToCS3 (and you start with a trash deck, so good luck) with the same rules and some new cards, but there’s one new minigame: Pom Pom Party. Oh boy. I put off playing it till the end because it didn’t interest me that much, and it can be brutal at times, but once you get the hang of it and keep rematching players, you’ll eventually beat all 16 of them. Problem is, you need to get their ID in order to play with them, and those IDs are key items that can be missed: you can sometimes get them in the bargain bin from Jingo if you did, but you need to be careful, because if you miss one, you can’t get the related trophy in that playthrough. If you follow the guide you should have no problem of course.

 

Yay, clear save data import from ToCS3, that changes I think about two-three lines while talking with Alisa, but that’s fine. As always Alisa main girl, if it’s not clear to you even after four games, especially this one, I don’t know what else can be done.

 

Overall, it has been a great experience coming to a conclusion after five long months, for what has now become one of my favourite game series period. The problems now are that I’m not sure how to live without the Trails saga in my life, and that I want to play Hajimari but it’s not available in English yet. Guess I’ll just have to suck it up and wait for the latter, and play the Evolution version for the former and the former as well.

 

 

Now that I'm done with the Trails Journey (and hollow inside afterwards), I guess I can return to society and play some of the games I've been keeping in my backlog, DBZ Kakarot being the first since I want to play a different kind of game, although maybe not so much different. We'll see how it goes.

[KN_Kirai]

84th Platinum - We Were Here

The Curse of Castle Rock

 

A very good and enjoyable puzzle co-op game: it requires two players with mic or at least some form of external chat because communication between the two players is fundamental in order to solve the chambers. Needless to say my main man @SteelKira and I started this game without knowing a thing about it and spent the first 20 minutes looking around the room without me (the librarian) figuring out what hint I needed to look at and give my partner while he (the explorer) was trying to tell me what he needed in order to proceed: I've rarely laughed so hard in my life.

 

If you can get past the initial phase (or skip it altogether if you're good at these games) and cooperate well with you partner, it all becomes a rather enjoyable experience. The trophies are self-explanatory, you need to do two runs covering both roles in order to get them all, including the two "ending" trophies; then there are the perfect play ones, where you need to do the puzzles without failing: those actually can be done together with the no-death run trophy, since you also need not to fail a single puzzle in order to achieve that. It can be pretty tough at first, but once you know the chambers well enough it can be done pretty quickly; we didn't test if restarting from a checkpoint after dying or failing a puzzle would void the trophy, though I suppose it would.

 

Overall a great experience, looking forward to play the two sequel games as well.

 

 

85th Platinum - Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

Dragon Ball Master

 

As a die-hard Dragon Ball fan, you can't go wrong in delivering to me a good DB game most of the time (*cough* Ultimate Tenkaichi *cough*), and this game did not let me down either. After playing the two Xenoverse games I was really looking forward to a RPG game with the DBZ story, other than spamming Kamehamehas and other ki blast attacks once again of course.

 

Let's say that if you're playing this game because you're looking for a challenging game, this is not the game for you: at least, if you don't make it so. If you play the game normally and complete most of the subquests while managing your community boards well, there is nothing too tough to beat: even though the AI mostly spams ki attacks and interrupts your own while doing so, if you're at least at their level and have enough healing items you can get through most fights unscathed. I suck at fighting games and the only fight I lost in this game was because I got into a super villainous fight early on in which the enemies were 20-30 level higher than me, so of course they one-shotted me; that is because this is an action RPG game, and if you're at a high enough level, you can just spam Kamehamehas or Spirit Bombs and you get through everything.

Did that change my opinion on the game? No, but some other people would. Of course you can make it harder for yourself by not completing the subquests and challenging the villainous parties and superboss at a much lower level, like you can do in any RPG game, up to you.

 

That said, the platinum is really easy since you need to do little things here and there about the mechanics of the game (like building cars or training, completing the story or performing certain actions), and almost all the trophies come naturally as you play. As long as you build a good Training Community Board in order to max it out in the post-game and have double EXP earnings, you can get to level 100+ by just doing the subquests (which is not required for any trophy, but some battles with the returning villains dish out a lot of EXP). The upgrading of the training room is nicely done once you have enough materials by doing everything else and a good amount of Zeni from the story and subquests and wishes to Shenron.

 

So to sum it all up, I've really enjoyed playing this game and it has become one of my favourite DB games along with the Xenoverses. Really glad there are no DLC trophies, because I'm not planning on doing Battle of Gods and Rebirth of F for now, although the DLC of Future Trunks has me a little interested in it: maybe I'll play it sometime in the future (or if it gets trophies, because we roll like that).