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Some Ratalaika Games Are Actually Hard


PalaceOfLove706

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Despite the misleading completion percentages, I would forward the argument that some of these games pose a challenge, at some point, to even the most experienced gamers.

 

I got my ass handed to me in level 8 of Squareboys versus Bullies, repeatedly.

 

Bouncy Bullets controls were so frustrating I almost gave up on the game.

 

And other games similar to those from this developer, such as The Perplexing Orb, take multiple attempts to complete the last challenge.

 

Yes, there are many “free trophies” in these games but to earn the platinum, gamers still have to ride out some storms. I think this reality should give them a little more legitimacy in the trophy and gaming world.

 

i can do <1% challenges but find some of these platinums to pose a threat on occasion. That’s all I’m saying.

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I said this in another thread, but I'll say it here too since this seems to be themed around the legitimacy of the games: 

 

It's my understanding that Ratalaika just publishes games that were developed by other game studios. There are some really good developers that make games that they published - I know the meme is that they are short and easy trophies. However, a majority of the indie games I play on PC are around 15 - 20 minutes long to begin with, which means that Ratalaika games are actually on the longer side for an independent indie game. Just because the publisher adds trophies in the first half or that the games are easy or quick doesn't mean they are bad or just here for the trophies (unlike some 1000TopRated/Slyde/Adventures on the Prairie games). 

 

They also published some of my favorite PC games to PlayStation, so I'm all for Ratalaika 

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32 minutes ago, Kittet3 said:

I said this in another thread, but I'll say it here too since this seems to be themed around the legitimacy of the games: 

 

It's my understanding that Ratalaika just publishes games that were developed by other game studios. There are some really good developers that make games that they published - I know the meme is that they are short and easy trophies. However, a majority of the indie games I play on PC are around 15 - 20 minutes long to begin with, which means that Ratalaika games are actually on the longer side for an independent indie game. Just because the publisher adds trophies in the first half or that the games are easy or quick doesn't mean they are bad or just here for the trophies (unlike some 1000TopRated/Slyde/Adventures on the Prairie games). 

 

They also published some of my favorite PC games to PlayStation, so I'm all for Ratalaika 

 

Thank you for posting this. I was checking out the hidden gems sale on the ps store and saw quite a few Ratalaika games discounted. I haven't played anything by Ratalaika as I have only constantly heard the theme that they are "trophy/plat games" which turned me off. I like plats but not at the cost of playing a bad game.

 

You're post actually clarified that the games aren't just cheap platinums and can actually be enjoyable so I'm going to give some a go while I can get them discounted. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to hit me up ? 

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30 minutes ago, Kittet3 said:

It's my understanding that Ratalaika just publishes games that were developed by other game studios. There are some really good developers that make games that they published - I know the meme is that they are short and easy trophies. However, a majority of the indie games I play on PC are around 15 - 20 minutes long to begin with, which means that Ratalaika games are actually on the longer side for an independent indie game. Just because the publisher adds trophies in the first half or that the games are easy or quick doesn't mean they are bad or just here for the trophies (unlike some 1000TopRated/Slyde/Adventures on the Prairie games). 

 

You got that right.  I actually know some of the devs from their recent releases that were ported from Steam.  I've also found that if the game is from Steam and had achievements there, they keep that set for PSN and just add a plat and values for the trophies.  From what I know of the devs, they are just excited to see their game get released outside of PC and didn't have the ability to release on consoles themselves.  I've also found Ratalaika doesn't tend to port complete rubbish, which Steam definitely has plenty of.  The games from Steam are all rated positively (so reviewers said they would recommend the game to friends more often than not).  I have no issues with Ratalaika because I know the game will have a level of quality that makes it a fun game and they provide good value.  Can't say the same for all indie games that end up on PSN other than PSN does have more quality control than Steam does, but there are definitely much worse indie games out there.

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I'll believe your argument once the platinum rates are below 80%. :P

 

Though, I do hate the idea that easy platinum = shit game because I have a few plats that are borderline EZPZ (imo) and were absolutely fantastic.

Edited by Beyondthegrave07
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The way I see it, if you had fun playing it...then it served its point.

 

I just finished "Just Ignore Them" and really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed all my Tell Tale games (minus the bullshit PS3 version of Batman), Mega Mind, Toy Story 3, Where the Wild Things Are (one of my favourite movie adaption stories) and other "easy" games.

 

I also enjoyed 3D Dot Game Heroes, Axiom Verge, Resistance 2, Star Hawk, Transformers War for Cybertron and other Ultra Rare plats as well.

 

I mean games like EYEPet and Start the Party! are Ultra Rare plats so that shows how out of whack the whole percentage thing is.

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None of them are that hard.

 

A lot of these games borrow a great deal from the 8 bit/16 bit era, but they don't hold a candle to those old games. Especially when it comes to difficulty. Anybody here who played Double Dragon as a kid and beat it gets my utmost respect.

 

Steam started the shovelware bullshit. Sony basically decided to pick up some of that stuff.

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4 hours ago, Kittet3 said:

It's my understanding that Ratalaika just publishes games that were developed by other game studios. There are some really good developers that make games that they published - I know the meme is that they are short and easy trophies. However, a majority of the indie games I play on PC are around 15 - 20 minutes long to begin with, which means that Ratalaika games are actually on the longer side for an independent indie game. Just because the publisher adds trophies in the first half or that the games are easy or quick doesn't mean they are bad or just here for the trophies (unlike some 1000TopRated/Slyde/Adventures on the Prairie games). 

 

They also published some of my favorite PC games to PlayStation, so I'm all for Ratalaika 


This is what kinda kills me about the whole company. I've beaten several Ratalaika games even past the requirement for the platinum, because I thought the games were fun. They didn't need the easy trophy bait. The games are good enough on their own. By making these bait easy trophy lists with multiple regions on both PS4 and Vita, Ratalaika doesn't exactly exude confidence in the quality of the games they publish, and that is honestly disheartening. I remember thinking fondly of Metagal, Warlock's Tower, and Daggerhood. 
And in a way I can't really blame Ratalaika for doing this. The indie market is flooded at this point, so companies tries to find any avenue to make their game appeal broadly. I'll say that easy trophy lists are a bit of a pathetic way to go about it (I say, while having multiple of those platinum trophies (hey, I'm only human)). I bought "Adventures on the Prairie" (not by Ratalaika) for the plat, and immediately regretted it. That game is just trophy fodder, and I swore to myself to never do that again. Rataliaka kinda tests my beliefs on that. On one hand, many of the games are good, on the other I don't know if I want to support these kinds of practices. They devalue trophies as a concept... which is forgivable in my opinion. What is less forgivable, is that it also devalues the games. It's negative advertisement. Trophy lists that are overly easy on purpose might sell, but it's not something that's being associated with high quality games. As a publisher, they're kinda throwing their developers' reputation under the bus.

Edited by gyrocop
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8 hours ago, Spaz said:

None of them are that hard.

 

A lot of these games borrow a great deal from the 8 bit/16 bit era, but they don't hold a candle to those old games. Especially when it comes to difficulty. Anybody here who played Double Dragon as a kid and beat it gets my utmost respect.

 

Steam started the shovelware bullshit. Sony basically decided to pick up some of that stuff.

I have some fond memories of DD - enough so that I decided to play and 100% DD Neon

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On 9/7/2020 at 9:38 PM, gyrocop said:


This is what kinda kills me about the whole company. I've beaten several Ratalaika games even past the requirement for the platinum, because I thought the games were fun. They didn't need the easy trophy bait. The games are good enough on their own. By making these bait easy trophy lists with multiple regions on both PS4 and Vita, Ratalaika doesn't exactly exude confidence in the quality of the games they publish, and that is honestly disheartening. I remember thinking fondly of Metagal, Warlock's Tower, and Daggerhood. 
And in a way I can't really blame Ratalaika for doing this. The indie market is flooded at this point, so companies tries to find any avenue to make their game appeal broadly. I'll say that easy trophy lists are a bit of a pathetic way to go about it (I say, while having multiple of those platinum trophies (hey, I'm only human)). I bought "Adventures on the Prairie" (not by Ratalaika) for the plat, and immediately regretted it. That game is just trophy fodder, and I swore to myself to never do that again. Rataliaka kinda tests my beliefs on that. On one hand, many of the games are good, on the other I don't know if I want to support these kinds of practices. They devalue trophies as a concept... which is forgivable in my opinion. What is less forgivable, is that it also devalues the games. It's negative advertisement. Trophy lists that are overly easy on purpose might sell, but it's not something that's being associated with high quality games. As a publisher, they're kinda throwing their developers' reputation under the bus.


Ratalaika would be nothing without trophies. 
 

The sad fact is a lot of people bought these games purely for the trophies. If this was still 2008 - 2012, Ratalaika would of been forced to make a decent trophy list that not only made players complete the games, but also provide a little bit of challenge. 
 

Somewhere along the line Sony decided to toss out the standards they had and allow piss easy lists like My Name is Mayo to get passed. 
 

Xbox Achievements used to have achievements that didn’t reward anything but were there to sort of mock the system, like having an entire party killed. Nowadays, something like that would probably reward you points. 
 

What Ratalaika is doing is taking something like having you collect 100 coins, beat the first few levels.... and boom, platinum trophy. 
 

I could get my 7 year old niece and have her platinum some of these games. 
 

It’s a giant slap in the face to those of us who have been gaming for decades. TellTale Games did trophies right. Sure, they were easy as fuck, but you still had to play thru the end. 
 

Ratalaika is cashing off of trophy hunters and those with OCD. In addition to disgracing the trophy system, they are also disgracing the developers who put in all the work. 

Edited by Spaz
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1 hour ago, Spaz said:

The sad fact is a lot of people bought these games purely for the trophies. If this was still 2008 - 2012, Ratalaika would of been forced to make a decent trophy list that not only made players complete the games, but also provide a little bit of challenge. 
 

Somewhere along the line Sony decided to toss out the standards they had and allow piss easy lists like My Name is Mayo to get passed. 
 

Xbox Achievements used to have achievements that didn’t reward anything but were there to sort of mock the system, like having an entire party killed. Nowadays, something like that would probably reward you points. 

 

Avatar: The Last Airbender - Burning Earth would like to say hi and laugh in the face of Ratalaika games because it only takes about 5 minutes to get all of its achievements.  That was released in 2007.  PSN actually dodged a bullet on some easy plat games that could have existed last gen because they were released before the trophy system and never got trophies added.   Trophies and achievements have always been up to the dev and it is the devs who choose to either make a hard list or an easy list and there are plenty of devs who have made easy lists even back then.

 

0 point achievements likely went away on Xbox because they annoyed players. Achievements with odd point values have been greatly reduced as well for a similar reason.  Devs have always been able to choose point values on achievements on Xbox, the total just has to be 1000 for retail releases and 200 (later increased to 400) for arcade games.  Xbox also stopped having new games come out with less than 1000 gamerscore total as of the Xbox One, so it makes sense for Sony to do something similar.  It wasn't a relaxing of standards, it was getting rid of a system that was honestly stupid to begin with by giving some games less value because of how they were released.

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10 hours ago, Spaz said:


Ratalaika would be nothing without trophies. 
 

The sad fact is a lot of people bought these games purely for the trophies. If this was still 2008 - 2012, Ratalaika would of been forced to make a decent trophy list that not only made players complete the games, but also provide a little bit of challenge. 
 

Somewhere along the line Sony decided to toss out the standards they had and allow piss easy lists like My Name is Mayo to get passed. 
 

Xbox Achievements used to have achievements that didn’t reward anything but were there to sort of mock the system, like having an entire party killed. Nowadays, something like that would probably reward you points. 
 

What Ratalaika is doing is taking something like having you collect 100 coins, beat the first few levels.... and boom, platinum trophy. 
 

I could get my 7 year old niece and have her platinum some of these games. 
 

It’s a giant slap in the face to those of us who have been gaming for decades. TellTale Games did trophies right. Sure, they were easy as fuck, but you still had to play thru the end. 
 

Ratalaika is cashing off of trophy hunters and those with OCD. In addition to disgracing the trophy system, they are also disgracing the developers who put in all the work. 

How many Rata games have you played? The point of this thread was to say some of them DO present a challenge, while some may not. Like I just did 36 fragments to midnight which was again, a challenge. It has 3/10 difficulty rating and is not as simple as picking up a coin and getting a platinum. My young children could not 100% that game and do the speedrun. Attack of the Toy Tanks because the controls are terrible is also difficult. I think rata games have some easy trophies but to 100% SOME of them they require patience and perseverance. I don’t think you can make a sweeping generalization about them all if you haven’t played them all. There are “real” games out there with a difficulty rating less than these guys but just take longer to compete and no one craps on them.

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