A Vigilant Crow's Quest For Shiny Trophies

[VigilantCrow]

March is finally over. Another month and unfortunately there's been no platinum trophies, plenty of Fortnite progress though.

 

Progress made over March:

Campaign: All related trophies now completed

Structures Built: 261,095 (238,905 Remaining)

Civilians Saved: 2,366 (7,634 Remaining)

Exploration Badges: 722 (778 Remaining)

Mist Monsters Killed: 4,928 (15,072 Remaining)

Play With Others: 669 (331 Remaining)

 

 

[VigilantCrow]

 22

The Banner Saga 2

 

Time: 30 hours 

Difficulty 2/10

Rating: 5/10

 

Banner saga 2 adds onto the game mechanics that the first game established. Biggest additions that were added include barricades and new combat classes/skills. Opens up more tactics which is greatly appreciated, however a few skills break the game (Overwatch being the prime example). 

 

The story's charm felt like it was missing something that the original had. The increase in world stakes took priority, over furthering character development and I think that's what bothered me the most. With more characters being added to your roaster, less time was available for each individual. The choices made in the first game, and the characters that survived do affect some aspects of the game but not as much as I'd hoped (mostly flavor text and a couple of random events).

 

Trophies were similar to the Banner Saga. They covered pretty much every aspect of the game, such as the normal story progression, using different characters, managing your resources/population and completing the game with different difficulties.

 

The DLC trophies were by far my favorite aspect of the game, where you take part in 40 battles in a row with no story in-between. This mode changes the way that turn orders were calculated and forces you to use different combinations of characters, then you normally would (all female team, only varl etc). This made the combat fresh and brought some much needed life back into the fights, at least in my eyes.

 

Adding Banner Saga 3 to my in progress.

 

Edited April 13, 2020 by VigilantCrow

[evs_castro]

Nice checklist mate! (:

Congrats on Bloodborne, i'm dying to play the game (no pun intended) but just can't find the time.

[VigilantCrow]

On 4/12/2020 at 10:29 PM, evs_castro said:

Nice checklist mate! (:

Congrats on Bloodborne, i'm dying to play the game (no pun intended) but just can't find the time.

Bloodborne was a great game. I'd definitely recommend trying it out, when you have the time. I found that the lore was far superior to Dark Souls, in terms of world building.

[Grotz99]

54 minutes ago, VigilantCrow said:

Bloodborne was a great game. I'd definitely recommend trying it out, when you have the time. I found that the lore was far superior to Dark Souls, in terms of world building.

 

Bloodborne was my favorite due to the environment (Gothic architecture) and the combat, which felt more fluid. I need to go back and finish it up with the DLC sometime. I also liked Sekiro, but even though the combat is a bit different, as it is based around parrying, I would play another Soulsborne game before it. The enemies also don't stop respawning in Sekiro if you kill them enough, unlike the other games.

 

I don't know what it is about the Dark Souls games, but I've only really played through all of the 2nd one on PC. I played the first one back when I was a noob and just haven't revisited it, but i remember there are some points where my PS3 could barley keep the game running due to graphics. I tried the 3rd one and it just did not stick with me. If a game lacks some kind of story lately, it's really started to turn me off to them as there are so many other great games to play. They are still fun and the best place to start learning the combat and strategies for these type of games.

 

 

[VigilantCrow]

 23

Zombi

 

Time: 12 hours 

Difficulty 2/10

Rating: 2/10

 

Zombi is a first person shooter/horror game. Basically while exploring, you're contacted by some person who controls the CCTVs that populate London. In exchange for shelter you complete jobs for him. The main draw for the game is the concept of when your characters die, they become zombies instead of getting a game over. You'll then respawn as a new survivor and be required to hunt down your old self, to retrieve your bag and items. 

 

Gameplay wise you're looking at what feels like a very Indy game, despite coming from Ubisoft. The gunplay isn't very polished, melee is inconsistent (some zombies die in 1 swing, others took more than 10) and there are several instant death glitches when climbing ladders with zombies nearby (fall through the ladder after reaching top, while simultaneously being attacked). The game itself is incredibly easy, ammo is everywhere and is a very common enemy drop, Zombies have different walking speeds so you can back up when facing multiples and let them line up in single file.

 

In terms of trophies, most will be unlocked by simply playing through the story. There is a "collectible" trophy in regards to finding all CCTV boxes, however this is easy enough to do as you'll hear a sound when close to one. Difficulty trophies aren't stacked and will require 3 playthroughs to platinum the game. I finished my first playthrough on Survival (1 life mode), in just over 8 hours. The other two playthroughs took approximately 2 hours to finish each.

 

Overall not a bad or difficult game. Definitely won't remember it a week from now though.

 

 

[VigilantCrow]

 24

Banner Saga 3

 

Time: 23 hours 

Difficulty 2/10

Rating: 6/10

 

Banner saga 3 ends the story built up from the previous games. In terms of gameplay nothing was really added, that wasn't in the previous games  ("waves" being the equivalent of wars from the first game). I honestly enjoyed the conclusion, especially where multiple endings can occur depending on choices made throughout the final game. Decisions throughout the previous games, seem to have limited consequences on this one, which was disappointing though.

 

Trophies were the same standard ones from the previous Banner Saga games. Most were popped with normal story progression, using different characters and completing the game with different difficulties. I did need to replay 4-5 times though for choice specific trophies, but that could have been reduced to 2-3 if I had followed a guide. A full playthrough on easy, could be finished over the course of an afternoon and isn't too much time commitment.

 

Bought and started playing Don't Starve Together.

Also bought Witcher 3, adding it to my backlog.

 

 

[VigilantCrow]

Purchased X-Morph: Defense

Adding it my in progress.

 

 

[VigilantCrow]

 25

 

Time: 11 hours 

Difficulty 2/10

Rating: 4/10

 

X-Morph: Defense is a tower defense game where you take the role of an invading alien AI, tasked with absorbing the Earth's molten core energy.

While controlling a fighter plane, you build defense, attack waves of human enemies and ultimately try to protect a "core" (essentially your base).

 

Gameplay wise it was easy to navigate building menus, which is where the bulk of your time will be. There's 4 different branches of tower to choose from and 12ish levels to complete. You'll face ground and air units which are broken down int further niches (singular strong enemies, massive waves of weaker ones etc). What stood out though the most, was the inclusion of "boss enemies" that had modular parts. You could choose to attack boss weapons to reduce their firepower, legs/engines to reduce speed etc, I've never seen that before in tower defense which was nice.

Overall the game was long enough to provide different challenges, but not long enough to make playing it a chore.

 

In terms of trophies you'll need to finish the campaign twice, both in single player and couch coop (i just used a spare controller), to get the bulk unlocked. There's a few for killing a set number of ground and air enemies, as well as finishing each map with a gold rank.

 

Overall not a half bad game.

 

Grabbed COD WW2 from June's PS+ offerings. Adding to my current games, so I can help a certain llama and medusa get their plats.

Also purchased Code Vein for my own enjoyment. Adding it to current games as well.

 

Edited May 30, 2020 by VigilantCrow

[AJ_Radio]

I honestly never heard of X-Morph: Defense. Sounds like they took a page out of X-Com: UFO Defense, a very old strategy game from the 90s.

 

Only a select handful have X-Morph, so it's definitely a niche title. The PS4 avatars are slick as fuck. Yeah.... I might just get this game.

Edited June 2, 2020 by Spaz

[VigilantCrow]

10 hours ago, Spaz said:

I honestly never heard of X-Morph: Defense. Sounds like they took a page out of X-Com: UFO Defense, a very old strategy game from the 90s.

 

Only a select handful have X-Morph, so it's definitely a niche title. The PS4 avatars are slick as fuck. Yeah.... I might just get this game.

I try to go out of my way to grab niche titles. In my eyes the more Indy devs there are in the gaming sphere, the more innovation we'll see (which benefits everyone).

 

 

 

[AJ_Radio]

2 minutes ago, VigilantCrow said:

I try to go out of my way to grab niche titles. In my eyes the more Indy devs there are in the gaming sphere, the more innovation we'll see (which benefits everyone).

 

 

 

 

This goes back to me constantly saying AAA studios can no longer afford to take risks. Which is sad, because there is stuff from the 1990s that was more innovative and original than practically any AAA game I've seen in the past five years.

 

Indie games in a lot of respects borrow a lot from the old developers of the 1980s and 1990s. X-Morph: Defense sort of looks like a combination of old strategy games from the 90s, only with a sleek interface and more convenient for modern audiences.

 

That is one big reason I praise the good indies, because they harken back to a time when kids were playing couch co-op with their Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. In my opinion, this focus on video games having to be all movie like and cinematic like Uncharted 4: A Thief's End isn't why I got into them in the first place. If I wanted to watch a cinematic experience with quality story telling I would watch Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead (early seasons) and Mad Men. I feel it's only going to get worse with me with the PlayStation 5 generation. I play video games to escape reality, not be reminded of all the horrors and sad truths of the real world.

 

The Last of Us Part II is basically another game that is going in that direction. It's another reason for me not to buy that game.

 

Long story short, indie games are generally a preferred choice for people who prefer gameplay over presentation and cinematics.

[VigilantCrow]

Thread updated. Apologizes for the unexpected disappearance, completely forgot about the thread while dealing with RL issues and a shameful stint of laziness.

 

[VigilantCrow]

 34

Resonance of Fate

 

Time: 117 hours 

Difficulty 2/10

Rating: 3/10

 

Resonance of Fate is a JRPG what combines turn based combat with a cyberpunk overworld.

 

The gameplay centers around a unique combat mechanic of trying to move your characters into triangle formations, and combining attacks to defeat enemies. Instead of traditional HP and damage, the game uses a scratch damage system, where you need to weaken an enemy with scratch, before you're able to do actual damage. Never seen the combat before in other games, which made for a nice surprise. The dev team had an apparent love for action movies, as you'll spend 3/4 of your in game time throwing your characters into the sky and watching them shoot enemies. 

The best part of the game was just how much it allowed you to customize. Weapons can re fitted with 50 or so components each, allowing you to specialize in different ares such as capacity, aim time etc. There's 100 or so clothing items available for each character, including some troll costumes.

 

Character wise you have your stereotypical teenaged emo, a flirty and somewhat oblivious love interest and the peervy guardian. Decent character development, but it seemed forced more often than not.

 

In terms of trophies you'll get the majority by completing every chapter of the game and finishing all side missions. There's a few random ones for killing yourself with an explosive barrow but nothing difficult. The bulk of your time will be spent grinding 500 wins, in an area.

 

Recent purchases:

Gauntlet  

Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion 

Adding to current games list:
Bioshock

Gauntlet

Adding to Backlog

Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion 

 

Edited September 19, 2020 by VigilantCrow

[VigilantCrow]

 35

Bioshock

 

Time: 11 hours 

Difficulty 1/10

Rating: 5/10

 

Adding Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion to current games.

 

 

[VigilantCrow]

 36

Wargroove

 

Time: 65 hours 

Difficulty 4/10

Rating: 5/10

 

Wargroove is a turn based strategy game, set in a fantasy world. More or less an indie version of Advanced Wars, but much more unforgiving.

Game contains a story campaign where your character needs to defeat a generic badguy, an arcade mode where you fight battles within a random set of maps and puzzles, where you need to finish objectives within a single turn. 

Most trophies will be completed by simply playing the campaign and obtaining S ranks (finish a level within a set timeframe). A few trophies are related to the puzzle mode and finishing the arcade with each character on the highest difficulty. The campaign itself was pretty easy, however a few missions towards the end require some actual thinking (i'm looking at you act 7 mission 2).

Arcade is mostly broken with your opponent gaining double the income you do, however since the game cheeses you, you might as well cheese back by rushing maps with wagons.

 

Overall I honestly enjoyed this game, not just for the nostalgia but because the game required different strategies be used instead of the same thing over and over again. One of the few games I'd actually recommend.

 

Purchased Tiny Metal

Adding Tiny Metal to my currently playing list. 

 

 

 

[shxrpay]

You should knock out Sims 4 outta your backlog since the addition of the gallery. ~3 hour plat now, start to finish.

[VigilantCrow]

6 minutes ago, shxrpay said:

You should knock out Sims 4 outta your backlog since the addition of the gallery. ~3 hour plat now, start to finish.

I'm hoping to play that one with my niece, during the Christmas break. I try to avoid exploits, but if we can't get everything done by New Years, I'll definitely take advantage of the Gallery ?

Edited October 1, 2020 by VigilantCrow

[VigilantCrow]

 37

Gauntlet

 

Time: 40 hours 

Difficulty 1/10

Rating: 1/10

 

Gauntlet is a top down, hack and slash in which you select a character and attempt to brave a gauntlet of levels. I'd consider the game to be the aborted love child of Diablo and DnD, due to the attempt to copy both sources and yet fail miserably to understand why those IPs are praised. You can select a handful of stereotype heros (barbarian, wizard, archer etc) and go on a journey through a dungeon.

 

The game has approximately 20 levels, including 3 bosses where you'll slash, freeze, pierce or otherwise kill swarms of enemies. Finishing the game on Hard nets you a handful of trophies, however the bulk of the trophies require grinding. Killing 15000 of each enemy, 50 of each subboss, destroying healing items 500 times and the list goes on. The last gametype involves an endless mode where you need to beat 50 levels in a row. I say beat, but you can turn yourself invisible and just walk past everything, making the challenge turn into a chore.

 

The trophy rarities come directly from the time required to achieve them, not due to difficulty. If you have a spare weekend it may be worth inflating your account with easy URs.

Grabbing a few PSN cards for my upcoming birthday. Once I've finished my shopping spree, I'll update a list of new games, that were added to my backlog.

 

[VigilantCrow]

 38

Tiny Metal

 

Time: 28 hours 

Difficulty 3/10

Rating: 5/10

 

Tiny Metal is a turn based military game, that plays almost identical to Advanced Wars. You play as a young officer who tries to protect his country by defending it against a clown. No idea either, the story was terrible but the gameplay was fun. 

 

Trophy wise you'll gain the bulk of them by completing the game on normal mode, then again on new game plus. Difficulties don't really change all that much, main difference being the number of units that the AI has at the beginning of each mission. There's also a couple random trophies for finding a secret hero character and for finishing an optional map.

 

Game wasn't too difficult, once you get a grasp of walling (sticking units in key spots to prevent enemies from advancing). Mission 6 on new game plus was the only genuinely difficult level and may require some people to think outside of the box. Overall not a bad little game.

 

Purchased The Long Dark after being recommended it, Bloons 5 TD so I can have another kids game to play with the little one and grabbed a subscription to PS Now. 

 

 

 

[VigilantCrow]

 39

The Long Dark

 

Time: 350ish hours (could be halved if played on easy)

Difficulty 3/10

Rating: 6/10

 

The Long Dark is a survival game with resource management. Taking place in Northern Canada, you're tasked with surviving in the wild. Game contains 3 primary modes; story, survival and challenges. There are also seasonal challenges that provide unusual world settings and objectives.

 

In terms of trophies the game requires that you use every mechanic in the game. Trophies pop for throwing a rock at long distance at a rabbit, fishing a massive catch, keeping a fire going for three days straight etc. The hardest trophies involve surviving 500 days in challenge mode and mapping every location in the game.  The campaign and side missions provides the rest of the trophies.

You can play of the easiest difficulty to make the game a simple 3/10 difficulty, however if you play the game on Stalker as it was intended, the game ramps up to a 7/10 (recommended for most enjoyment).

 

Personally I had a decent time playing the game, especially with all of the Canadian Stereotypes. Ketchup chips, plaid shirts, maple syrup and "eh" could be seen everywhere, heck you could even wear a tuque. Game donates part of their sales to Doctors Without Borders so that was also a plus.

 

Grabbing November's PlayStation Plus games. They don't look like my thing, unsure if I'll actually play them yet.

 

[VigilantCrow]

 40

Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion

 

Time: 20 hours 

Difficulty 1/10

Rating: 1/10

 

Fallen Legion is an RPG with levels filled with combat gauntlets. You take control of a fantasy world general, who tries to run a coup against the heir of a throne. 

 

Gameplay wise it's incredibly boring, requiring simple button mashing and timing blocks. By the time I entered the last half of the game, I wasn't even looking at my TV during combat. When not fighting, you're auto running through towns talking to people, making choices that affect which side plots you'll unlock.

 

Trophy wise, you're going at 3 playthroughs by following a guide. Side plots unlock the bulk of the trophies, but you'll also grab a chunk by completing the story. The last couple are for gaining a 100 attack chain (easily cheesed with a paralyzing loadout) and for using each of the side plot unlocked spells.

 

Worth playing for the easy UR trophies, not worth playing if you're looking for fun.

 

Purchased Rainbow Moon and City Skylines, adding both to my in progress.

Taking Alien Isolation out of my backlog and adding to in progress.

[AJ_Radio]

Gauntlet predated Diablo by over a decade. I’ve been on the fence in getting it, but all that grinding just sounds like torture so maybe I won’t.

 

You definitely aren’t easy in giving games good ratings. A number of 1/10 to 5/10 ratings you’ve been giving out on games. 
 

Keep up the good work. 

[VigilantCrow]

2 hours ago, Spaz said:

Gauntlet predated Diablo by over a decade. I’ve been on the fence in getting it, but all that grinding just sounds like torture so maybe I won’t.

 

You definitely aren’t easy in giving games good ratings. A number of 1/10 to 5/10 ratings you’ve been giving out on games. 
 

Keep up the good work. 

I have a hard time giving games good ratings beyond 5-6, if they aren't providing me with a "wow" factor. Usually I'l give between 1-2 points if they provide unique experiences (Long Dark for example showing Canadian culture and stereotypes), another 1-2 if it can maintain my attention throughout the entire experience and a final point for challenging me.

 

The 5 points I almost never give out require me to see brand new ideas or innovative mechanics (point each), treating the player like an actual person (telling someone to use the left stick to move is insulting in my eyes) and the last 2 points involve the game being good enough to have me keep playing after the plat.

Thanks!

[AJ_Radio]

1 minute ago, VigilantCrow said:

I have a hard time giving games good ratings beyond 5-6, if they aren't providing me with a "wow" factor. Usually I'l give between 1-2 points if they provide unique experiences (Long Dark for example showing Canadian culture and stereotypes), another 1-2 if it can maintain my attention throughout the entire experience and a final point for challenging me.

 

The 5 points I almost never give out require me to see brand new ideas or innovative mechanics (point each), treating the player like an actual person (telling someone to use the left stick to move is insulting in my eyes) and the last 2 points involve the game being good enough to have me keep playing after the plat.

Thanks!

 

I very rarely give a game a 10 out of 10, it has to be something special for me to give it that rating. Bloodborne and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt are two games in my book that are 10 out of 10, immensely enjoyed them both, none of the trophies felt like a chore. They not only have to be fun, they also have to be where the trophies don't ruin the experience.

 

Then there's stuff like Japanese visual novels which I'd give 1 to 4 out of 10 ratings for regardless of the game because they're just not my cup of tea. They're boring for me, what's boring for me might be exciting for someone else and vice versa.