Hisuiryu's Never Ending Backlog

[funboy1246]

8 hours ago, Hisuiryu666 said:

On the flip side, you have a lot of great fantastic on your profile that you've barely played, so if you dive into your backlog you can have a great time on a variety of games!

this is true. im working on it. little by little. just between work and taking care of my aging mother doesn't leave much time to really dive in.

[Hisuiryu]

17 hours ago, funboy1246 said:

this is true. im working on it. little by little. just between work and taking care of my aging mother doesn't leave much time to really dive in.

I feel that, it's only been since working from home this year that I've gotten back into trophy hunting in a big way - responsibilities take up a lot of time unfortunately. Just keep chipping away at it as long as your having fun, personally I really like seeing my completion % creeping up, so that's my motivation haha!

[Hisuiryu]

Don't you just hate it when RL burns you out? But I'm feeling a little more relaxed and am now bringing this up to date, so here's a summary of my progress over the last few months - 

 

Platinum's obtained

     

• Finished up Ghost, though since then the DLC dropped so I need to go back to it for online and NG+.
• Had a blast with infamous 2, thankfully I didn't have issues with the UGC so it was a smooth ride to the end, and now means I have a complete collection of infamous games!
• I mentioned before that I only had the online to do on AC3, and after picking up a 2nd copy it was a fun and short grind with my partner for us both to get the plat & 100%
• I played a few other things between, but the next plat was Lego Ninjago Movie, I played this as a palette cleanser while the NG+ on P5 was feeling like a slog - thankfully I only encountered minor bugs so it was fun to go through.
• Finally cleaned up the last trophy for plat in Borderlands after my partner said he wasn't interesting in doing a playthrough together - still working on some of the DLC though
• And most recently, BB CTB is officially my first BlazBlue plat! I picked it up on a whim but now I feel a little more motivated to work on some other ArcSys fighters

100% Completion

 

• In addition to the above, I also cleaned up the rest of the DLC in Spider-man!

Backlog

    

And on the other end of the scale, I bought the Persona dancing bundle on sale and got Baldur's Gate and Trails of cold Steel for Christmas.

[Hisuiryu]

Happy new year all, I managed to end 2020 with a final plat, then earn one at the start or 2021, so here we go! 

 

 The Legend of Korra

 

I had quite a bit of fun with this, it's pretty basic, but still a decent Platinum Games action game. It got a lot of flak when it came out, but I feel that was more for what the game could have been (as Korra, and the larger Avatar IP could really be a great foundation for a fantastic action game) rather than a fair reflection on what it is. While definitely not without faults, it has fun gameplay, nice graphics, and no performance issues or bugs that I found, and to me that counts for something.

 

I think they really should have just made you play through the plot of the TV series for the amount of effort that went into the game's plot and characters, especially since everything you fight except the big bad was pulled wholesale for series 1 & 2. It was also super short, and while I don't remember how much it retailed for, I'm very glad I picked it up on the cheap on sale - though as you can't buy it any more it's kind of irrelevant now....

 

Trophy-wise it was a breeze, aside from the slightly weird quirks on the tutorials nothing is missable, and I didn't have any issues with RNG collecting all the items. The pro bending was a little tricky but didn't take long for me to do even the hardest one, and that was for sure the most challenging part of the plat. Overall if you have it, it's a fun and quick plat, but if you didn't pick it up before delisting you're not really missing out on much.

 

 Persona 5

 

I make no secret of the fact I loved Persona 3 and 4, so I was pumped when P5 was first announced - unfortunately fate (and my motivation) had other ideas, and by the time it came out I didn't get it. In fact it took me 3 years to buy this game, and with the sheer amount of positivity surrounding it I was pretty excited to finally play it... and honestly? It's a decent game, but I consider it largely inferior to both P3 & P4 from a pure enjoyment standpoint. 

 

That said, it's still a very good game and with my first (blind) playthrough running just shy of 100 hours, it has plenty of content to keep you going - but I didn't find the story as engaging as I expected, the social links (er, Confidents) were actually much more interesting to me. Unfortunately the 2nd run felt like a slog (partially my own fault as I had to play almost to the end because of missed trophies on the 1st), but I can't really place a pin on why it was so difficult to play again -  regardless it harmed my overall perception.

 

And on the point of trophies, for the most part it's very self-explanatory to get them over 2 plays, in the end there were only a handful of things that I had to look up to complete which was nice. Overall it's a great game, even if not quite to my expectations - though I'm pleased to have read some things about P5R that make me look forward to playing it in the future despite my reservations!

[Hisuiryu]

Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight

Nothing too tricky here once I got the hang of it again, I got the PS4 version so I could get the PS4 stack of P4DAN as well but I've realised now that I definite prefer playing these games on Vita - the icons moving on a full size TV vs a small handheld screen was much harder to adapt to, even more so than on the Project DIVA games. That said, I still really enjoyed it, it was nice to revisit the P3 cast in some capacity (I kind of want to replay P3P now...), the music for the series is fantastic and the remixes in this game are also pretty great! In terms of difficulty, the ability to use as many support items as you want for the majority of the game makes it incredibly easy overall which explains the high plat percentage.

 

I would definitely recommend this to Persona fans who don't mind a silly spin-off, if you just like rhythm games though there are definitely better ones out there.

Edited January 12, 2021 by Hisuiryu666

[Hisuiryu]

Titan Souls (1.85%)

 

So apparently this didn't post last time I tried to update it, but here we are - I completed my first game towards the UR Cleanup 2021 with Titan Souls!

 

This game is kind of a unique experience in the general gameplay loop (I've been told Shadow of the Colossus is similar but I've not played it myself), you battle boss after boss with a very simple rule - if you can land a single hit you win, if they land a single hit you die. All bosses have unique mechanics and weak points, so it's largely about learning what strategy works best for each one, several of which can be dispatched within seconds if you know what you're doing. Although at some points it can be frustrating, it's pretty satisfying to overcome the hurdles which make it quite a fun challenge - though I'll openly admit that without the ability to save scum there is absolutely no way I would have beaten the game without dying one (Iron Mode)…. just not going to happen. 

 

Overall, I played this because it's a rare platinum that I had in my library from PS+, it's likely not a game I would have played otherwise so while the reasons may be shallow I'm still glad!

 

The only disappointing thing was I would be interested in learning more of the game's lore - there are various hints and a few things you can extrapolate, but having more information would have been great! Though I accept that it's not a game made to focus on such things...

 

 

Backlog ?

I bought a couple games, and there's a few I had forgotten in put in my backlog list - so it expands once more...

[Hisuiryu]

 Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy (8.91%)

 

I'm just going to start this by saying that I really love the plat icon for this game! Anyway, this is the first dent in the year+ backlog in a while, but I finally completed Operation Abyss - a first-person dungeon crawler a la Demon Gaze or Etrian Odyssey, Operation Abyss was one of a few that NISA published over a short time a few years ago. While it's actually a remake of a pair of older games, this was the first time they were available in English, so effectively a new game in the west. 

 

I feel like even if you like this kind of game, it's a little hard to recommend, the game doesn't explain itself very well which left me feeling lost about what some of the stats actually did, what all the information on items/equipment actually did and mean - even the shop doesn't say "buy and sell" so I was a bit tentative on how to use it at first. On top of the impact gameplay wise, it's kind of dense with sci-fi jargon that it seems to expect you to understand already or with only a passing explanation... which makes it very hard to get into imo, it's one of the reasons I stopped playing back in 2015. It's not a hard game by any stretch, in fact I'd say the only thing that made it feel difficult was not fully understanding the mechanics, once I managed to see the light on that I didn't have any issues. Even the final secret boss, which I've see recommended not to fight until you reach max level (40) after farming the best gear I beat at level 34 (meaning no top level spells) with only the best Katana and shield as far as equips... 

 

That said I mostly enjoyed it once I got the ball rolling, the story is entertaining enough, it's not the best game but not terrible either - distinctly average. Trophy-wise it's nothing difficult, the worst thing was winning 3000 battles as clearing all of the content took something like 1000-1200 battles so it was just an annoying grind. Total play time was around 60 hours including save scumming the RNG.

Edited February 15, 2021 by Hisuiryu

[Hisuiryu]

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor - GotY Edition (20.58%, 2.97%)

 

 

Like many others I started this to avoid missing out on the online trophy forever - of course the devs have patched it in the end so it's obtainable offline, but I'm pretty glad I got that push to finally play it! I enjoyed the game a lot, even as someone not overly into LotR and not familiar with the lore, I get the impression that a lot of the collectables flavour text would be more interesting if I was. In terms of gameplay it's a pretty simple open-world action RPG with Arkham style combo > finisher combat, I think it improves a lot from gaining access to more abilities so I would probably recommend to focus on story missions before bothering with a lot of the side-activities. 

 

Trophy-wise, it's pretty easy and pretty fun - typical open world game requiring picking up collectables and clearing side-missions and a few miscellaneous activities... The only thing I found particularly annoying was the RNG involved in getting a level 25 rune, I didn't save scum it and ended up having to set up the conditions for it 4 separate times due to getting an Epic rune instead. Still overall, a lot of fun, and very easy - however there is a little more challenge involved in the DLC for 100%

 

Lord of the Hunt DLC

Honestly, this is a really fun expansion with some fun new abilities, overall I really enjoyed it. The trophy requirements are (for the most part) also straight forward, however then we get to the Trial of the Hunt. It was a very frustrating experience to get the final trophy in the trail, as so much of it relies in not getting a bad RNG on certain things, otherwise it can completely ruin the chance of being able to clear in 40 minutes. That said, using a combination of strategies online and a few things I adapted for myself, I cleared it with 8 minutes to spare on my successful run... such is the way of these challenges I suppose!

 

The Bright Lord DLC

Probably the worst part of the game in my opinion - while from a story perspective it was interesting, Celebrimbor is so limited ability-wise compared to Talion that I just didn't find it as fun to play. Except using The Ring - that was ridiculously overpowered! That said, once again I cleared the campaign-based trophies without any issues, the level 30 rune dropped on my first attempt to get it, and I cleared the Trial of the Ring on my first attempt in only 49 minutes, meaning I didn't have to spend enough time on this to sour my overall experience. 

 

[Hisuiryu]

Thief (3.83%)

 

What to say about this game... I've called it painfully mediocre in the past, and that seems the most apt. Looking at it from purely "is it a good stealth game?", I'd say it's not terrible but it doesn't do anything that Dishonored doesn't do as well (or better). Beyond that very narrow view of it's best side, the game suffers from poor performance throughout particularly during the pre-rendered cutscenes at the start and end, but also at various points during actual gameplay, I'd hate to see how it copes on the PS3 version. The story was largely non-sensical and otherwise dull, I'm not sure if being familiar with the older Thief games would have helped, but without any knowledge of the characters or world prior to this game I only have a very shallow understanding of what was going on - and to me this is a huge downside as and lover of story-driven games, I'm the type that can forgive mediocre gameplay if I enjoy the story enough.

 

On the positive side, the level design for the main missions was fun and the puzzles weren't bad, though this was ruined by the terrible hub map which made the time spent between stages annoying at best. The exploration within the stages was also enjoyable while playing blind I got around 75% of the collectables which isn't bad, but again it was marred by the game's flaws with at times frustrating checkpoints and points of no-return. 

 

Overall I really wouldn't recommend this game - if you want a good first-person stealth game, look elsewhere. 

[Hisuiryu]

Tales of Zestiria (3.65%, 2.30%)

 

This is kind of a difficult one to write up for me, I generally enjoy the Tales series and in general enjoyed my time with this game (despite it's bad reputation), however I played the bulk of the game 2 years ago with primarily cleaning up post game, grinds and collectables recently and I honestly don't remember too much about it.... I suppose that means it's at best pretty forgettable. I liked the characters in general, though none of the core group were my favourites and the plot was kind of weak which is disappointing for the series. It had a few interesting notes though, I thought the side-quests dealing with Edna's brother were some of the best and I felt more playing that than the tragedy that was core to the plot.

 

Gameplay is generally... fine I guess? I didn't like the forced party make-up where you had no choice but to use Sorey and Alisha/Rose, and while being able to freely switch the others in combat was interesting it pretty much just worked as a rotation based on what elements you wanted to be using in any given fight more than preferred fighting styles or anything like that. The other huge weakness is the armatization which is far too powerful and allows you to spend 90% of the time spamming a handful of abilities to great and boring effect. The equipment/fusing/bonus system felt convoluted and poorly explained, this is possibly why it was balanced so you don't really have to engage in it at all to clear the game, which then results in using it extensively also being over-powered... all in all the game balance wasn't great.

 

In terms of trophies, it's a okay list - nothing particularly missable, and only having to beat the final boss on the hardest difficulties in addition to them stacking made that pretty straight forward. The various trophies for equipment bonuses were just kind of grindy as you can take advantage of the normin/lotl setup so it just means grinding until you get the right equipment drops which is easy but not interesting. One of my last trophies was for collecting most of the items - this is a tales standard so I don't mind it in principle, but the removal of any kind of item log made it a pain, especially as the # of items listed in the records is pretty much useless since NG+ messes with it, and it doesn't actually correlate to the trophy requirement. The snack making trophy was also just bullshit, anything that requires running in circles for 4+ hours without any actual gameplay after everything else is finished AND is dependant on RNG is a bad trophy.

 

Overall, unfortunately this is another game I wouldn't recommend, though in this case pretty much any other entry in the series will be a better alternative if the game seems appealing! Though if you're a fan of the series and don't want to skip an entry, it's not some kind of broken mess or anything, it could just have been a lot better.

 

Another Story: Alisha DLC

Additional story DLC in my Tales game? It's more likely than you'd think. I don't have much to say about this DLC, it's a short sequel story where Alisha gets an opportunity to deal with the main game's ending. Gameplay is more of the same, the story itself is fine I guess, though Rose and Alisha's characterisations kind of annoyed me. Alisha's inability to armatize just means you're encouraged to play as Rose if you don't want to have a bad time. The dungeon was boring as fuck and clearly just there to pad it out to a reasonable length for the amount they wanted to charge. It's the kind of DLC you're better off just watching on youtube if you're interested in it.

 

Trophy-wise it's underwhelming as well, effectively, you clear the story and halfway through you stop to beat the crucible (arena) 11 times for god knows what reason. Oh, and you need to be significantly powerful from post-game so Rose is strong enough to carry the battle quick enough. Thankfully, the DLC is short enough that even if you're not strong enough when you first play it doesn't take too long to get back there after powering up a bit in the core game. 

[Hisuiryu]

Batman: The Telltale Series (62.23%)

 

A small break from grindier games, and something to give me the +1 to plat #99 - I finally played Telltale's Batman! Nothing too exciting to talk about here it's a pretty typical Telltale experience with an entertaining enough story and a bunch of bugs big enough to be distracting, but not enough put me off playing. And in typical Tt fashion, I'm not interested in playing the game again just to see how the story branches go, because it only serves to ruin the illusion of choice

 

I kind of enjoyed Tt's interpretation of Batman, not retreading too much old ground with typical character variants and playing with relationships and histories to make something a bit different. I liked that Bruce Wayne got a lot of interaction with different villains rather than the typical Batman experience, and the option to deal with some situations as either Batman or Bruce seemed pretty well done. It's certainly not the best Batman story ever told, but it's enough to keep me interested in seeing where the sequel goes. Without going into spoiler territory, I enjoyed watching Harvey's arc play out, and I'm looking forward to the pay off with John Doe. I felt the relationship with Selena/Catwoman was very awkward, but knowing how Tt developed their games they likely pushed it that far due to the amount of players who picked that option after the bar fight... I'm not a fan though. 

[Hisuiryu]

Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited (1.71%)

 

Where to start with this - Disgaea is a great series of tactical turn-based JRPGs, and I consider this entry (and by extension the PS4 version) the best entry all round. It's silly, funny, emotional at times and it's grindy as fuck, basically everything I want from this sort of game. The series has always been very good at building on the foundations of the previous instalments, and to me this one has the best balance between a great story, great QoL features added to the gameplay and really satisfying progression and endgame. And of course, a hell of a time sink. 

 

Trophywise, it's great for the most part, it basically requires clearing all the core content, as well as everything was DLC in the original release of D4 - and most of the rest will naturally be achievable as part of that. Getting the epilogues was a weird choice for the trophies as the structure of the game doesn't really encourage extra playthroughs to get them naturally, but it's easily resolved by reloading an endgame save file. The only real gripe I have with the list is collecting all the items - even the pirate ship parts weren't so bad to me - the amount of luck needed to get hold of some was annoying, and with the additional R40-2 items in this version, there's just way too many item world runs with nothing but the next item god to steal from and eviscerate... But it's a pretty minor gripe as perhaps 10 hours out of 170 was spent exclusively on that, the rest of the time I was happy enough progressing in different things together which kept it feeling good.

 

I'd absolutely recommend this game, with one caveat - it's a great example of the kind of game it is, but this kind of game is absolutely not for everyone. If you like a grind though, it's a very satisfying one.

 

-----

It's also worth me saying, that this is my 100th Platinum! While I know these days 100 isn't exactly an impressive number, it's been a goal for my years of active trophy hunting and I'm extremely proud to have made it to triple figures.

 

I picked this particular game for my milestone - of course a weeb game is inevitable, but the series has brought me a lot of joy back since I picked up the first game around 2005 right around the time I was finding my love of RPGs. It's the rarest plat in the series, which falls in line with the reason why I like trophy hunting, to challenge myself and see everything a game has to offer - and also matches with my more recent journey to get some more rare plats. And finally, it's trophy-based proof that I'm a Hardcore Gamer!

 

Now onward to the next 100!

[Hisuiryu]

Dragon Age Inquisition [PS3 ver] (4.24%, 1.33%)

 

One of only a couple of stacks on my profile, I finished the PS3 version of DAI! As a huge fan of the series I enjoy Inquisition - it's not without it's flaws but it did a pretty good job blending some of the better aspects of the previous 2 instalments and while the amount of side-quests can be overwhelming, I enjoy the amount of lore and depth it added to different areas and events throughout. 

 

That said, the core game has a weak ending, and that is one of the big downsides to playing the PS3 release - it is missing the incredibly important Trespasser DLC (and Descent) which is a pretty big downside. Other than that, the game has some performance issues in all it's releases, but on PS3 they're particularly acute, I experienced a lost of issues with framerates and regular crashes of the console while playing (though even when it crashed while saving, I thankfully didn't get any data corruption). This version also suffers from being a noticeable graphical downgrade over the PS4 version, which is already one of it's weaker areas.

 

Overall DAI is a game I'd recommend if you like slow paced open-world RPGs, but do yourself a favour and pick up the PS4 GOTY version instead

[Hisuiryu]

Assassin's Creed Chronicle: China (5.96%)

Another cleanup of a game I started many years ago - first time I played ACC:C I really didn't enjoy it, but I can't really give a reason why. Returning to it now though, I had a lot of fun, and enjoyed it as a change of pace from the much longer games I've been playing.

 

At it's core, it's a 2d stealth game - while you can play it battling your way through, or assassinating every enemy in the way, the trophy list punishes you for this approach. As is often the way with this kind of stealth game, it often felt more like a puzzle game of working out the best way to clear a section, then repeating each step until you could clear the next part - thankfully this game is very generous with the checkpointing so it's not too bad to replay section to maintain that perfect Shadow rating.

 

I had a lot of fun with it overall, and I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for the other Chronicles instalments going on sale.

[Hisuiryu]

Tales of Monkey Island: Chapters 1-5 (32.41-62.97%)

This is a game series I've had on my account to play for a long time - a TellTale sequel to the classic point and click adventure Monkey Island games. Unlike more modern TT games, these are much more in line with the classic point and click style - solving puzzles by picking up items and talking to people, much like the MI games themselves. While the gameplay and story is basic, the writing is entertaining and the characters are funny, and I enjoyed the references and easter eggs that appeared across the chapters. It's a shame they never did a "season 2" as I would have been interested in what they would have done next time! It is fairly dated however, it wasn't off putting to me personally - but the 3D is definitely inferior to the classic 2D style for the series. 

 

Trophy wise it's not overly taxing, though a lot of the trophies are very easy to miss or are things you wouldn't do playing normally (like interacting with the same items 10+ times) so using a guide is probably best. That said, each chapter is only about 1 hr 30 long, so partial replays to get whatever was missed playing blind wouldn't be too much of a hardship either.

 

If you enjoy classic point and click games, and don't mind the lack of plat, Tales of Monkey Island is worth a go if you have it kicking around.

[Hisuiryu]

 Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight (47.36%)

There's not much to say about this, other than it's more or less the same game as Persona 3: Dancing in Starlight. I still feel these games are better suited the the small screen of the vita, but enjoyed it none the less. I would say the music selection in P5 is better than the P3 version, and just like in that one the plot character conversations are simple and entertaining, but don't expect much depth. I completed it just under 9 hours and played mostly on hard. The down side to the trophy list (mostly the social ranks) is that you need to clear a lot of songs with a good ranking, which discourages from pushing yourself onto a harder difficulty as it will require more songs before you unlock everything, which is a shame.

 

Once again, I would have liked a more difficult list (which involved playing All Night mode), but still enjoyed the game and revisiting the Persona cast. 

[Hisuiryu]

At this point it's just expected to be behind on these updates I think.... Anyway, roughly one month later - 

Outland (3.81%)

Outland is a metroidvania style game by Housemarque which was a PS+ game many moons ago. The controls, level designs and puzzle all felt well polished and enjoyable and the style of the graphics mean it doesn't look dated despite being 10 years old. 

 

I would honestly say there's no good reason this 100% is so rare (other than PS+ rarity inflation), the game itself isn't overly difficult though it takes some time to get used the the mechanic of switching colours. The bosses are probably the hardest part, but really after a few attempts you can learn their patterns and beat them without too much trouble. The collectables are also pretty easy to find guideless with fairly minimal exploration (with a map almost effortless), the miscellaneous trophies aren't hard either, though a couple are unlikely to happen naturally. Grind-wise it took me about an hour after completing everything else to get the money, so again, not any reason for the low completion % - I think my overall playtime was around 11 hours.

 

There's the 1 online trophy, but it only requires 2 people and takes around 10 mins - it's possible to do solo if you have 2 consoles though takes a bit more effort. 

 

Regardless, Outland was a very enjoyable game with a nice level of difficulty, some interesting world building and a great aesthetic. I would absolutely recommend giving this game a go if you like metroidvanias, or just fancy something short and sweet with a moderate challenge. 

[Hisuiryu]

 htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary (10.65%)

 

Though not clear from it's incomprehensible title - htoL#NiQ is a creepy-cute 2D puzzle game which has you controlling a pair of fireflies to guide and young girl, Mion, through various dangers to escape the ruins and rubble she wakes up in. The title is pronounced Hotaru no Nikki, which translates to Firefly Diary. 

 

You primarily control a green firefly who Mion will slowly follow to as close as she can. You can also switch to the purple firefly, who moves through shadows only and can interact with objects like flicking switches, you sometimes need to stop in certain places to use Mion's shadow to connect sections allowing the firefly to pass to where it's needed. The puzzles are largely around positioning and timing for triggering whatever you need to progress, and it can be quite tricky in places, especially where some of the trophies come in. Mion's movement speed is pretty slow though, which is useful in some ways, but it means travelling back to sections after you die is pretty dull.

 

Speaking of dying, the games gets pretty grim, though it's no more explicit than a blood splatter effect on the screen Mion can and will die in a variety of ways - in fact there is a trophy tied to 100 deaths. There is also a segment which involves dropping corpses out of trees to use as bait so you can pass an obstacle... On this front the world building is interesting, the game has no dialogue and the story and scenes you do get (from collectables mostly) have no dialogue so are largely down to interpretation. The story actually comes across quite well, but even after completing it there are a lot of aspects I'm uncertain about - I feel it would have benefitted from a little more information actually given on top of the contextual clues. 

 

So onto the trophies - for the most part it is an easy list, there is a task to complete in each stage (generally speedrun or perform a specific action) and a few collectables that require a bit more puzzling than just getting to the end. As is the nature of puzzle games, with a guide these will pose no problem, and even without most of them are not too difficult. However there are 2 trophies that are highly frustrating

- the first is to clear a maze with the green firefly without touching the walls. This would be challenging anyway, but the segment you have to play through to reach the maze is tedious and the number of attempts you'll need for the maze makes it a painful experience. Apparently there is a glitch you can utilise to skip this segment however.

- The other, is to clear the final boss without making any mistakes. The boss made of 2 mini games, one you will see a glimpse of a figure and then have to match it to the correct one which appears after, the second is a version of the shell game. Each round gets harder to the point it's almost impossible to identify the figure in the first game, the recommended strategy is to record the game and play back the video to try and find the only frame that shows it, and depending how good your phone is the video may not even be much help.... it is extremely unfair to be perfectly honest.

 

Overall I enjoyed HnN and would recommend it for casual play at least, it's a good quality puzzle game with a nice style - the trophy list has it's issues but not enough to prevent being completed with some perseverance.

 

---- 

It seems I'm slowly writing more about these games.... I never intend it to be this long! Oh well, next up Seasons After Fall

[Hisuiryu]

 Seasons After Fall (47.47%)

Seasons After Fall is a cute puzzle-platformer in which you play as a fox (kind of) and go around collecting and utilising the powers of the seasons in order to complete a ritual. It's a fairly short game with a metroid-vania style of map and exploration - returning to previous areas with new powers to progress further or access collectables.

 

While generally straight forward, I appreciated that it didn't hold your hand on progress - after telling you which area to go and the occasional hint of how to utilise a new power, it didn't give a constant barrage of hints that some games of this kind end up doing. The story is a little dark in places despite how whimsical it sounds. It leads you on through disembodied voices talking to the fox and telling you where to go, and as you progress you slowly get a deeper understanding of the who and why of it all - it was enough to keep me interested in moving forward and finding out what would happen, but as such a short game it's no epic, of course.

 

Overall it's pretty slow paced, relaxing, simple and very enjoyable. Definitely one I recommend if you like this sort of game, I picked it up on sale and was not disappointed at all.

 

 

[Hisuiryu]

One of these days I'll write these as I play them

 Catherine (1.27%)

 

Total Time: 70 hours

Fun: 8/10

Difficulty: 8/10

Other: No DLC, Irrelevant online features

Where to start... for the unaware, Catherine is a puzzle game at it's core with horror-dating sim elements to tie it all together. You take the role of Vincent, a man in a long-term relationship with Katherine who, after beginning to feel pressure about commitment, meets Catherine; a young very forward woman who seems to immediately fall for him. After waking up one morning with Catherine in his bed, he must navigate towards a breakup with one of these women without finding himself dumped (or possibly killed) by both. Meanwhile, he is plagued with nightmares in which he and a bunch of other sheep have to climb an endless-seeming wall to reach "true freedom", and failing to do so might also mean death!

 

While a game like this is pretty niche, I believe it's pretty well known - usual in it's gameplay and style of mature themes, but also for it's difficulty going for completion in Catherine is really no joke. I played the story through on normal first to learn the game and enjoy the story and even that was quite challenging, but it became apparent quickly on hard mode that rewind is a massive crutch and learning to play without it is a massive curve even from that point. Hard mode was genuinely tough, the last few stages in particularly frustrating with the random elements, I didn't use a video guide for the majority of it, but even watching runs of those stages is no guarantee of doing it in a few attempts. Doing this without guides did however force me to really learn the techniques which I would say is very important in preparation for the true challenge: Babel. Babel is more of the same block-climbing puzzles but with an edge, they are very difficult stages which you have to climb a number of steps and are randomly generated meaning you must learn how to progress yourself and it is HARD. 

 

But clearing it was very very satisfying. And that's the crux of my enjoyment of this game, the story was interesting but I wasn't a fan of the ending, the atmosphere was very good and despite Vincent being a douche I overall enjoyed the characters and relationships - but the sheer satisfaction I got from progressing through and improving is difficult to explain.... but equally it very much the kind of game that has to click to enjoy it, puzzle games don't appeal as broadly as action games for example, and if you don't like the gameplay than playing though the number of stages required will likely feel like a chore. Also, even if you do enjoy it Rapunzel will still feel like a chore ?

 

Hard to recommend this one in general, but it definitely worth checking out and making your own judgement on if you actually want to try it - but be prepared for a struggle if you want to plat it!

Edited July 12, 2021 by Hisuiryu

[ShadyWARcotix]

13 minutes ago, Hisuiryu said:

One of these days I'll write these as I play them

 Catherine (1.27%)

 

Where to start... for the unaware, Catherine is a puzzle game at it's core with horror-dating sim elements to tie it all together. You take the role of Vincent, a man in a long-term relationship with Katherine who, after beginning to feel pressure about commitment, meets Catherine; a young very forward woman who seems to immediately fall for him. After waking up one morning with Catherine in his bed, he must navigate towards a breakup with one of these women without finding himself dumped (or possibly killed) by both. Meanwhile, he is plagued with nightmares in which he and a bunch of other sheep have to climb an endless-seeming wall to reach "true freedom", and failing to do so might also mean death!

 

While a game like this is pretty niche, I believe it's pretty well known - usual in it's gameplay and style of mature themes, but also for it's difficulty going for completion in Catherine is really no joke. I played the story through on normal first to learn the game and enjoy the story and even that was quite challenging, but it became apparent quickly on hard mode that rewind is a massive crutch and learning to play without it is a massive curve even from that point. Hard mode was genuinely tough, the last few stages in particularly frustrating with the random elements, I didn't use a video guide for the majority of it, but even watching runs of those stages is no guarantee of doing it in a few attempts. Doing this without guides did however force me to really learn the techniques which I would say is very important in preparation for the true challenge: Babel. Babel is more of the same block-climbing puzzles but with an edge, they are very difficult stages which you have to climb a number of steps and are randomly generated meaning you must learn how to progress yourself and it is HARD. 

 

But clearing it was very very satisfying. And that's the crux of my enjoyment of this game, the story was interesting but I wasn't a fan of the ending, the atmosphere was very good and despite Vincent being a douche I overall enjoyed the characters and relationships - but the sheer satisfaction I got from progressing through and improving is difficult to explain.... but equally it very much the kind of game that has to click to enjoy it, puzzle games don't appeal as broadly as action games for example, and if you don't like the gameplay than playing though the number of stages required will likely feel like a chore. Also, even if you do enjoy it Rapunzel will still feel like a chore 

 

Hard to recommend this one in general, but it definitely worth checking out and making your own judgement on if you actually want to try it - but be prepared for a struggle if you want to plat it!

 

I have this game still in my backlog (Finished one run and wanted to plat it, but I was busy with other games) I don't now If I will beat the Babels, only finished the first one. They look hard af especially the last one. Congratulations for the platinum!

[AJ_Radio]

Catherine is definitely hard. One of my weaknesses is puzzle games, I’m definitely not touching Tetris Effect. Even The Witness might be enough for me.

[Hisuiryu]

17 hours ago, ShadyWARcotix said:

I have this game still in my backlog (Finished one run and wanted to plat it, but I was busy with other games) I don't now If I will beat the Babels, only finished the first one. They look hard af especially the last one. Congratulations for the platinum!

Even after clearing all of hard mode I still struggled to complete the first Babel stage (which possibly says more about how much I relied repetition of the level rather than solving them, but still)! I personally found the 3rd stage harder because the RNG of monster and mystery blocks fucked me over way more than the complex patterns of stage 4... but either one I wouldn't have liked to try solo, I'm very grateful my partner was happy play 2P and follow me up! Thanks

 

8 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

Catherine is definitely hard. One of my weaknesses is puzzle games, I’m definitely not touching Tetris Effect. Even The Witness might be enough for me.

Same here, one of the reasons I put off trying Catherine for so long because I fully expected to be terrible at it - Tetris Effect would definitely be far beyond me ?

[Hisuiryu]

 Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (34.4%)

 

Total Time: 19 hours (10 hours without glitches)

Fun: 5/10

Difficulty: 2/10

Other: No DLC, No Online

A thorn in my profile has been removed - not a difficult game by any means, but in typical Lego game fashion bugs can really screw you over. I'm not going to talk too deeply about the game, anyone that's played a Lego game and seen the Harry Potter movies can pretty accurately imagine this game; simple action gameplay and puzzles wrapped up in a straight-forward and repetitive gameplay loop with very little deviation from the rest of the Lego games... enjoyable, easy and a nice break between longer or harder things.

 

However, this title was long abandoned on my account as one of the character unlocks bugged and while I had a token collected, the characters didn't become available to buy in the shop - something I only learned after doing everything. So I had 1 effectively complete save file and no desire to replay the game - off the back of Catherine I decided to go for it, enough time had passed for me to enjoy replaying it even if it was annoying that I had to. There's nothing hard on the trophy list at all, a bit of exploration gives you all the tools you need to complete to 100%, the most challenging part is staying awake while clearing the duelling club matches, which would be hard enough if there wasn't dozens of the damn things...

 

Overall, it's an typical Lego game and an entertaining retelling of the HP stories - worth playing if you're a fan of either and fancy some light entertainment but otherwise it doesn't hold much value.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Hisuiryu

[Hisuiryu]

 Final Fantasy XIII (7.97%)

 

Total Time: 93 hours

Fun: 7/10 (Story), 4/10 (Trophies)

Difficulty: 4/10

Other: No DLC, No Online

 

With my love of JRPGs, including the FF series, playing this one has been a long time coming. FFXIII is a game that has a lot of mixed feelings around I know many people that love it as one of their favourite entries in the series, but there is also a very vocal set of FF fans who detest it for a variety of reasons. All in all, my opinion is definitely closer the first bunch! While it is by no means a game without issues, I genuinely enjoyed my time with it and am looking forward to playing the sequels in future. Plus for a decade+ old game, it looks really good. The main criticism I see of FFXIII is it's linearity - and while I agree to the extent of the party limitations for a large portion of the game were for the worse, for progression I didn't find it a problem. To me, it's not that far off the way FFX progresses, with very few options but to run forwards until you hit around 70% of the way through the game (Calm Lands or Gran Pulse), at which point you get an open area and access to some side content. I suppose some of the difference comes from the fact that eventually in X you can revisit all of the previous areas for side-quests which isn't an option in XIII, but given the context of the story and nature of the areas you pass through it makes sense an I don't begrudge it.

 

In terms of the story and characters, I would say it wasn't anything amazing, but interesting enough to hold my interest and keep me curious how things would progress, though I thought the ending was lackluster. The lack of explanation of some things (in-universe jargon) is kind of annoying at times, but at least the explanations exist in the game if you want to spend some time reading the datalog. As for the characters, they were kind of hit and miss, like most FF games some got more development than others, and some just felt like they were there as an excuse to pad out the party... but I suppose the nature of becoming L'Cie means they don't need strong personal motivations to complete their journey, even if it feels a little weak. I really enjoyed Fang and Vanille's story at least.

 

But by far the games best feature is the battle system! The ATB has always been a nice balance between turn-based and action gameplay, and FFXIII's variant of it is fantastic. The ability to change classes on the fly mid-battle really gave a good tactical depth (even more so with the limited paradigm setups), and the unique abilities available to each character, plus the differences between how each class role progresses per character actually kept the feeling of uniqueness between each party member intact through to the end - unlike many RPGs where at some point they just become a small variance in stats until maxxed out, when they lose even that...

 

Probably the biggest downside to the game is actually the trophy list! For the most part it just wants you to grind for the sake of grinding, at least for money and materials needed for treasure hunter and between drop rates, few worthwhile targets and sheer quantity it is not enjoyable. Achieving the 5* ratings on the missions was a nice challenge though, and the fact the time limit was adjusted based on your party strength is actually very interesting. That's actually about the extent of the list; finish the story, 5* all the side missions and get all the items - focusing on those 3 things and pretty much everything else just happens... not the most exciting list.

 

All in all, I would actually recommend Final Fantasy XIII if you like linear, story-drive RPGs - but not necessarily for the plat. It's not ground breaking but it's enjoyable to play, however the trophies just detract from the overall experience.