Do any of you prefer not to use trophy guides/roadmaps?

[twothumbedfist]

I understand that guides are a big part of this community as they eliminate a lot of random elements and guess work and shorten the time to the next platinum. But how many of you feel more satisfaction finishing a game completely on your own?

 

I used guides a few times in the past when I first started trophy hunting in earnest (back on 2017), but I just didn't get that dopamine rush when the plat came up that I got when I played a game blind, so I decided to stop using them. All I do now when I buy a game is check to see if there are any glitched trophies so I'm not wasting my time and then I jump in blind, even if it means I'm not taking the most optimal route and end up doing more playthroughs than the minimum required. Even though it can get frustrating at times, the feeling I get when the platinum trophy pops is a rush and the reason I got into trophy hunting in the first place, does anyone else have a similar experience to share?

[GT__Jedi]

I prefer not to use them. Then you see me ranting on my status update about how I hate collectibles.......so then I'm stuck with using them unless I want to play the game for the next year....

[LucianaRosethorn]

I try to not use them as much as possible so if there's aren't any missables then I go for it until I need help with something but if there are missables then yes, yes I will be reading it constantly. I definitely enjoy games a lot more when I can just play it how I want, not go for anything right of the bat or having to avoid doing this for that reason but every game is different so it's a mix 'n' match of yes and no. 

[HaserPL]

I never use them when I don't know what will happen in the game. It's 2020 now and to be honest, it's hard to not know stuff about games you wanna play but haven't got around to it, especially if games are old enough. I tried my best to avoid spoilers about God Of War but I saw some of them just in the names of fucking youtube videos... In that case I will use a guide because I already know what to expect so I won't spoil the fun for myself, it's already ruined. But Deus Ex: Human Revolution for example, I will play blindly for the first time because I heard some really good stuff about the game :). Can't wait to be honest. Yea, guides are great if you wanna get the platinum ASAP, but it ruins the fun completely. I only play with them on my first playthrough if I don't care that much about the game or I just wanna get rid of it quickly.

[VoxAnimi]

I personally have completed some games on here like Infamous First Light or Days Gone (Barring 2 glitched story trophies.) without using any guides, although they did have in-game trackers that notified me of my progress towards the trophies or at least some information pertaining to the trophies via First Light's challenge tracker. In my opinion, I'm ambivalent regarding them as while not utilizing them does potentially avoid the possibility of spoilers and it does feel rather satisfying to not constantly glance at a guide, it also can be a hassle if the game turns out to have trophies that can only be obtained at a certain point or if chapter select isn't an available option, which leads to an additional playthrough depending on the circumstances. It really depends on the type of game I'm playing as it obviously differs from game to game. 

[Litha]

Most of the time I prefer not to use guides as I prefer to discover things on my own. My exception would be something like Dark Souls, where you'd need to do another playthrough because you forgot to pick up this item or talk to that person.

[dmland12]

I don't use roadmaps or complete guides and usually don't even look at them at all.  But, I do like looking at the information available for individuals trophies, especially if the trophy description isn't clear.  Also, things like collectible guides are almost a necessity for some platinums, but I'll generally save that for a second playthrough, or end-game depending on how the game handles it.

 

I'm not trying to be the fastest or pile up the most trophies as quickly as I can anyway.

[chester_abellera]

Looking up trophy guides sort of gives some of the story away just by

catching a brief glimpse of the trophy description.

 

However whenever I play a new game for the first time, the only thing

I really look out for in my first playthrough are missable collectibles.

Some collectibles are fun to find, and there are some that are just a drag,

especially if you decide to commit to it on your second playthrough.

 

Just enjoy the story on your first run and then do some trophy cleanup on the second.

 

Happy hunting!

[Guest]

You mean there is a way to cheat and take shortcuts but people won't use it?? WOW! 

 

For me I think it comes to what game and type of games. I normally check if there is "missables", I hate those. It's always nice to get a headsup unless it's a spoiler kinda missable but wouldn't it be spoiled if I check it? Yeah its a double edge handle, gotta be careful I guess. There are some really well written guides so I'm thankful for those that also have spoiler tags.

 

I'm just here to have fun!

[twothumbedfist]

12 hours ago, SpaghettiGrabsy said:

Most of the time I prefer not to use guides as I prefer to discover things on my own. My exception would be something like Dark Souls, where you'd need to do another playthrough because you forgot to pick up this item or talk to that person.

I used a guide after my first playthrough of Demon's Souls because I had no idea where most of the pure upgrade stones were and would've never figured out the world tendency stuff on my own. I spent so much time with the other souls games I figured out most things organically over hundreds of hours.

[Sicho]

I use guides if there are missable trophies or if playing by a guide can save you a second playthrough.

Sometimes I even use complete platinum walkthroughs if there is too much missable stuff.

Games like Death Stranding, where nothing is missable, I play without a guide at all. Maybe that's why it took me 90h to plat it

Edited January 3, 2020 by Sicho
typo

[Lava_Yuki]

I always use them, and like to use those 100% platinum walkthroughs to get the platinum as efficiently as possible and do as much as possible in the first playthrough. I don't like having to replay a game, so I try to get the plat in one go if the game allows

[EcoShifter]

Yes, emphasis on heavily prefer. For the most part, I use guides strictly for the following:

 

- Estimated Difficulty

- Offline trophies? 

- Online trophies?

- Approximate amount of time to Platinum?

- Minimum number of playthroughs?

- Number of missable trophies?

- Glitched trophies?

- Trophy affected by difficulties?

- Stackable difficulty trophies?

- Collectibles

 

Of course there are going to be some exceptions (there's exceptions for every single thing in life). Not the best example but a sufficient one, such as God Eater Resurrection (great game btw), where a trophy requires 500 missions played with the same type of equipment. This is an easy task that is purely time consuming. Because of that, looking at a guide to see if there's a faster way to get that (mind you, without exploits or glitches) isn't shameful, moreso after attempting to get it through normal and natural means for a long time period. After having over 120 hours of play-time, the whole story beaten, and only being in the 300s, personally, it was time to find a faster way, even if I wasn't bored of the game itself and wanted to keep playing. The option I chose probably spared the game anyway, as very unfavorable trophy list are known to ruin enjoyment and appreciation of a game (which is usually not the case for me... personally).

 

Collectibles are mostly the reason why I use guides after the initial overview, as an immense amount of developers aren't generous with their implementation of collectibles.. Some developers have multi-hundreds of collectibles scattered across the world they create; some hide them in unfair overlooked areas; some require an entire secondary playthrough of a whole episode (even worse for collectibles that require whole chapter/episode completion and/or exist in a game with unskippable cutscenes); some are at mercy of other poor game design systems; some don't have a tracking system anywhere (during the level, on the main menu, stat page, etc, which is asinine and disgusting); and I can go on. Unless the game is something like The Swapper, an extremely rare case for me, I've always ended up finding at least half of a game's collectibles by myself. I put in that time and effort. 

 

Another funny fact is when... you're actually brought to guides because something doesn't appear to be working correctly or what you thought, such as those special games that don't have stacking difficulty trophies (hate those) or something more appropriate like a trophy description being completely misleading to what is actually required to unlocked it.

[TJ_Solo]

If I use one then I prefer actual guides and walkthroughs that keep trophies in mind.

[launcestondevil]

Personally I will my best on a game, trying to do as much as I can, but then if I do get really stuck, I will use a roadmap or perhaps a quick YT video for some guidance.

[Litha]

On 1/3/2020 at 0:11 AM, twothumbedfist said:

I used a guide after my first playthrough of Demon's Souls because I had no idea where most of the pure upgrade stones were and would've never figured out the world tendency stuff on my own. I spent so much time with the other souls games I figured out most things organically over hundreds of hours.

I was using a guide to help me on my first playthrough of Dark Souls, but if I'm honest it kind of killed a bit of the enjoyment as I knew ahead of time what was coming. I reckon I'll finish up that first playthrough blind and then use a guide for NG+ if I have too much difficulty. You're right, it's better to figure this stuff out organically.

[DarkSoleride]

It really comes down to what i decide to play. 

If i am playing a game like a shooter i probably won't use a guide unless there is something specific i need to do which i do not understand from just the trophy description itself. 

 

If am playing an RPG however say Trails of Cold Steel or Final Fantasy i will prefer to use a Roadmap / Walkthrough due to the number of playthroughs that have to be done and collectables, dialog options and so on.

 

If i am playing a genre or game i am new to i would prefer to use a trophy guide where i can quickly read through and have quick reference to certain trophies when i need it rather than scrolling through a walkthrough to find a specific point 

Edited January 6, 2020 by DarkSoleride

[Lillia]

Younger me would've said "I don't need no guides I'm up for the challenge ayye" 

Present me is like "..I can't even read anymore dude..help" 

 

[Raidou Kuzunoha XIV]

I usually check trophy guides if they exist for a game before I start a new game that has trophies. Whether or not I end up using it depends. I generally do like playing games blind first, but there's some where I don't really care so much, and of course, there's the best games where you don't need to worry about missables and can just play it blind till you complete the main story.

 

If I can get a plat for a game in my first playthrough, I probably will use a guide unless I absolutely don't want any chance of spoilers, or I just don't particularly care about getting the plat for that particular game for whatever reason.

[Arcesius]

Me. I really don't like keeping track of trophy requirements during a first playthrough of any game, and will always do a blind playthrough first if possible. And it's not because of spoilers, since very often descriptions of at least missable trophies don't really spoil much, but I just don't like my games to become a "checklist" when I haven't even started them yet. 

 

There are exceptions though. If I start a game and notice that it's not as great as I'd hoped, I will use a guide to avoid multiple playthroughs. A recent example of such a game would be Lumo. I started playing the game blind but after an hour I noticed that I didin't wanna have to play through the entire game multiple times, so I resorted to a guide for the collectibles. 

[ARH65512]

For me, it depends. I do use a guide but I don't follow step by step most of the time. Like for example, AC: Black Flag, they put the final step as online/multiplayer but to be honest I did that first because online trophies are a pain and it relies on other people. In fact, you might noticed I got the RAREST trophy even before the MOST COMMON trophy because I didn't want to dive into the single player until I 100% online, even DLCs. Another, like others have said, I use it for missable and/or glitch. When I did Batman Arkham City, I got over 2 potential glitched trophies and 1 missable as soon as I finished the courthouse section. The only time I legit used a step by step guide was the Resident Evil 2 remake because of the missables and amount of playthroughs. Last thing, like someone in this thread said, if the game has A LOT of missable then I used a platinum walkthrough video (or even a speed run to a certain extent), not even a written guide. A game like Detroit Become Human is a prime example since over 90% of the trophies are missables. 

But for the most part, I just go at my own pace if they're no online, glitched, or missables. 

Edited January 10, 2020 by ARH65512

[Viper]

I like living by the old mantra "work smarter, not harder". A lot of people mistake this for being lazy, or in terms of gaming...cheating. 

 

I use guides because it provides a path of least resistance. I've never been able to share in this weird dichotomy people have where the harder something is, the more satisfaction you get out of it. I'm not satisfied by purposely pissing myself off. Life is challenging enough, I don't want more of it out of my escape. 

 

So yeah...I use guides because it makes sense to do so. My end goal is the Platinum...regardless of a guide, I still have to put the work in, giving me a little information is only helping me out.

[Bloodytears1666]

I use guides usually in certain moments, if stuck for days for collectibles or objectives. That was cool back in the day to spent weeks on one game, but now usually want to have some progress everyday, time is short nowadays:).

[charxsetsuna]

I always check for online trophies before I start a game. I dont mind using guides but the only games I won't are puzzle games because then what's the point of playing puzzle games.

 

I could do Lara Croft go very quickly but I wouldnt feel proud of it so I refuse to use a guide. Most games I will use guides however because at the end of the day you still need the skill to do the thing.

[RadiantFlamberge]

I'll play thorough a game blind once, then use a guide for cleanups- especially if the game has a chapter select once you've finished the story (such as Nier Automata and some FPS games).