Yet another Japanese game where the Platinum is needlessly hard because.....minigames. (ffs)

[SimmondsR]

So unfortunately it seems that Falcom has decided to include a 'Puyo-Puyo' clone into the game.

And guess what? you have to beat every opponent for a trophy but not only that you will miss out on another trophy of getting all of the Master Quartz because yup! you need to beat everyone at the minigame to get a unique Master Quartz.

 

I hoping in creating this thread that someone may come up with some sort of tip to help people out. Because I'm only on opponent 7 out of 16 and this is ridiculously hard. Unless you're a pro-Tetris or Puyo-Puyo player you can get fucked apparently because your opponent is ludicrously fast and is planning 4 steps ahead.

Now I should mention that I'm not horrible at Puyo-Puyo, I've even done the Puyo-Puyo trophy in Judgement (for those who have also played Judgement you'll know that that was crazy frustrating) .

 

A big problem with this clone of Puyo-Puyo is that you're screen is already half-full with Poms and so you have to immediately think 5 steps ahead because if you're not then you can bet your ass your opponent is already crushing your ass before you say 'Valimar the Ashen Knight'.

I just gotta say that this sucks. This will now probably be the only Trails game I won't be able to Platinum and it's down to the fact that the Japanese can't help themselves when it comes down to some bullshit mini-game something that should be just a little side piece to the main game. 

 

I'm hoping I can find some people who are in cohoots with my suffering but maybe I'll get people telling me I suck. Only time will tell.

 

Edited November 15, 2020 by SimmondsR
Spelling and Grammar.

[Whitelightnin683]

Sadly, I can't offer any real tips since I'm bad at Puyo-Puyo/Tetris myself, yet I still managed to beat all opponents (about three of them are in a league of their own when it comes to skill). If you can do Judgement's Puyo-Puyo you can do this one, as you'll eventually get luck out and get a huge pom chain to bury your opponent. 

 

 

[TalesofGaming]

You kinda just really have to be patient with the game. I mostly save my CP for defending in case they try to attack me first.

Edited November 15, 2020 by TalesofGaming

[Sylver001]

Try to keep the middle free, like your oponents do and try to save 9 lines with cp ASAP. Wait for your oponent to be at least in the middle and then give him/her all your stuff. Works almost ever for me and I suck in Puyo Puyo.. the reason I could not finish P-P Tetris Main Story Epiloge.

[acasser]

It's an aggravating mini-game, but shouldn't you expect that by now?

 

I've only played the Cold Steel cycle, but I'm resigned to having to play mini-games to platinum these titles by now.  Blade was okay, Vantage Masters is annoying, fishing is tedious, Pom Pom Party can go rot in Gehenna.  But it's not like these games are the only ones in the history of ever to pad things out and force you to play the mindless mini-games because reasons.

 

I'm just hoping to find all of the opponents for both Vantage Masters and Pom Pom Party on my first (completely blind) playthrough so I can get those out of the way and not have to do them while enjoying my Nightmare cycle with Neoseeker's walkthroughs to get everything that I've missed.  (It's not a small amount.)

[SimmondsR]

15 hours ago, Whitelightnin683 said:

Sadly, I can't offer any real tips since I'm bad at Puyo-Puyo/Tetris myself, yet I still managed to beat all opponents (about three of them are in a league of their own when it comes to skill). If you can do Judgement's Puyo-Puyo you can do this one, as you'll eventually get luck out and get a huge pom chain to bury your opponent. 

 

 

 

Yeah, that's what I just managed to do with the seventh opponent where I just happened to luck out with a crazy high combo by slamming random pieces down haha. Still sucks that this is what it has to come to though especially as it locks you out of a Master Quartz too. 

 

9 hours ago, acasser said:

It's an aggravating mini-game, but shouldn't you expect that by now?

 

I've only played the Cold Steel cycle, but I'm resigned to having to play mini-games to platinum these titles by now.  Blade was okay, Vantage Masters is annoying, fishing is tedious, Pom Pom Party can go rot in Gehenna.  But it's not like these games are the only ones in the history of ever to pad things out and force you to play the mindless mini-games because reasons.

 

I'm just hoping to find all of the opponents for both Vantage Masters and Pom Pom Party on my first (completely blind) playthrough so I can get those out of the way and not have to do them while enjoying my Nightmare cycle with Neoseeker's walkthroughs to get everything that I've missed.  (It's not a small amount.)

 

See, I really liked Blade even though it had as much depth as a paddling pool, same goes for the fishing mini-game it's not really anything amazing but I enjoy them a small amount. And I really like the Vantage Masters mini-game.

I don't even mind Pom Pom Party to a degree but expecting players to play against 'expert-level' AI is ridiculous especially if it's just a secondary mini-game in a JRPG. I think this only got to me because I play the Yakuza games too and a huge part that makes the Platinum a pain in those games too are the mini-games just drives me crazy haha.

 

I'm also doing a blind playthrough but I keep forgetting to scan some of the enemies that you only see once in the game (I do it every game, you'd think I'd learn by now) so my Nightmare cycles will have to go through some of the secondary bosses again.

 

[YROSHIKU]

I think they do that just because they know that no one would be playing those shitty minigames otherwise ?.

[Sebastian]

I always make it a point to prioritize the shiny poms and build around 500-700 CP before I go sending attacks, I only ever use defense when it looks like I'm about to lose. It's impossible to try and set up combos when the A.I moves so fast and knows exactly what to do (sometimes). I also use the little buffer between a combo going through and the next piece appearing on the screen to plan the next move out, but the game picks up speed the longer the match goes on. I recommend practicing against local punching bag Jona to increase your speed, even if it's only a little bit.

On the other hand, I faced Opponent #11, and those matches either are 2-4 minute bouts of power, or she takes herself out in the first minute... Very unpredictable to say the least ?

[starcrunch061]

On 11/16/2020 at 5:37 AM, YROSHIKU said:

I think they do that just because they know that no one would be playing those shitty minigames otherwise .

 

I think that's actually on Squeenix's internal memos.

[acasser]

On 11/16/2020 at 6:37 AM, YROSHIKU said:

I think they do that just because they know that no one would be playing those shitty minigames otherwise .

 

All they had to do was have the one trophy for "collect all Master Quartz" and that would oblige anybody who wants the platinum to play every mini-game.  Because there's a Master Quartz as a reward for pretty much each mini-game.  Having all the additional trophies for each individual mini-game is just a little bonus to flesh out the list.

[LoveInHell]

Buy Japanese games? Play Japanese games? Be Japanese.

[DesmaBR]

Boy, am I glad I played Puyo Puyo Tetris.

 

 

But Gaius was very scary to go against.
Especially when he always says "Go easy on me" while fucking demolishing me

I'm terrified of the idea of going against Tio
 

 

Edited November 18, 2020 by DesmaBR

[awf9495]

On 11/15/2020 at 4:39 PM, Sylver001 said:

Try to keep the middle free, like your oponents do and try to save 9 lines with cp ASAP. Wait for your oponent to be at least in the middle and then give him/her all your stuff. Works almost ever for me and I suck in Puyo Puyo.. the reason I could not finish P-P Tetris Main Story Epiloge.

 

Top tier advice right here. Once I started focusing only on the middle 3 columns, things got much easier. We will see if that continues as I get into the harder opponents.

 

On 11/16/2020 at 5:37 AM, YROSHIKU said:

I think they do that just because they know that no one would be playing those shitty minigames otherwise .

 

I unlocked and maxed out every Blade (including Ursula) in Xenoblade 2. Trophies or not, there are always gonna be gluttons for punishment like me out there.

 

Side note - nice to see others playing blind as well. Cheers!

Edited November 18, 2020 by awf9495

[mecharobot]

8 minutes ago, awf9495 said:

I unlocked and maxed out every Blade (including Ursula) in Xenoblade 2. Trophies or not, there are always gonna be gluttons for punishment like me out there.

I maxed Ursula too.

 

But it was Tiger Tiger that broke me.

Edited November 18, 2020 by mecharobot

[awf9495]

12 minutes ago, mecharobot said:

I maxed Ursula too.

 

But it was Tiger Tiger that broke me.

 

So painful, especially with my Switch's Joycon drift. I waited to max Poppi until NG+ (may have been DLC) when I could just trade for upgrade materials.

[turniplord]

I personally didn't find the matches too difficult. Some of them took a few attempts to beat certain characters (they all vary in difficulty but don't actually continue to get harder, I found a few of the middle ones to be the hardest), but none of them are 'too' hard or unfair.

Just build up combos by using the glowing thingies to boost your chain, then slam it all over to your opponent. Don't be scared to use your built-up points to defend yourself and save you if you get attacked though. I had a few matches where I would use them to remove blocks the opponent sent to me and then turned it around and won the match.

[SimmondsR]

4 hours ago, Sebastian said:

On the other hand, I faced Opponent #11, and those matches either are 2-4 minute bouts of power, or she takes herself out in the first minute... Very unpredictable to say the least

THIS! haha. 

After complaining on here I've either gotten really lucky or have improved a little.

But yeah it either plays out over a 5-6 minute match of I get this random combo after combo and destroy them in a matter of seconds.

I just finished opponent 12 so perhaps Aidios has smiled on me yet.

[AllanGronkjaer]

On 15.11.2020 at 7:07 PM, SimmondsR said:

So unfortunately it seems that Falcom has decided to include a 'Puyo-Puyo' clone into the game.

And guess what? you have to beat every opponent for a trophy but not only that you will miss out on another trophy of getting all of the Master Quartz because yup! you need to beat everyone at the minigame to get a unique Master Quartz.

 

I hoping in creating this thread that someone may come up with some sort of tip to help people out. Because I'm only on opponent 7 out of 16 and this is ridiculously hard. Unless you're a pro-Tetris or Puyo-Puyo player you can get fucked apparently because your opponent is ludicrously fast and is planning 4 steps ahead.

Now I should mention that I'm not horrible at Puyo-Puyo, I've even done the Puyo-Puyo trophy in Judgement (for those who have also played Judgement you'll know that that was crazy frustrating) .

 

A big problem with this clone of Puyo-Puyo is that you're screen is already half-full with Poms and so you have to immediately think 5 steps ahead because if you're not then you can bet your ass your opponent is already crushing your ass before you say 'Valimar the Ashen Knight'.

I just gotta say that this sucks. This will now probably be the only Trails game I won't be able to Platinum and it's down to the fact that the Japanese can't help themselves when it comes down to some bullshit mini-game something that should be just a little side piece to the main game. 

 

I'm hoping I can find some people who are in cohoots with my suffering but maybe I'll get people telling me I suck. Only time will tell.

 

wait what both VM and pom pom is pretty easy lol sound like you not used to jrpg mini games ,,you should avoid games like ffx then

[SimmondsR]

On 15/11/2020 at 10:39 PM, Sylver001 said:

Try to keep the middle free, like your oponents do and try to save 9 lines with cp ASAP. Wait for your oponent to be at least in the middle and then give him/her all your stuff. Works almost ever for me and I suck in Puyo Puyo.. the reason I could not finish P-P Tetris Main Story Epiloge.

 

After actually managing to beat all of the opponents despite never thinking I'd be able to I can confirm that this is indeed a very solid strategy and great advice if you're perhaps struggling.

I feel that the two worst opponents were probably opponents 6, 10, 12, and 15. 

Good luck everyone!

 

[acasser]

On 11/16/2020 at 5:58 AM, SimmondsR said:

I'm also doing a blind playthrough but I keep forgetting to scan some of the enemies that you only see once in the game (I do it every game, you'd think I'd learn by now) so my Nightmare cycles will have to go through some of the secondary bosses again.

 

 

Yeah, I'm trying to do the same thing.

 

I'm doing an Act 3 side-quest earlier tonight that has a unique-to-the-quest monster.  Rean gets to act first, with both Altina and Emma immediately behind him, so I figure there's no need for Rean to waste his action on a Battle Scope and he can start chipping away at the thing's life bar instead.

 

So of course the Hades Gem I have on him procs when it hasn't done so in the previous two-plus hours I've been playing so far this evening.  And my most recent save was roughly 30-40 minutes ago on top of that.

 

/sigh

 

That's one monster I'll have to scan on Nightmare mode.  Which would bother me more than it already does if I wasn't under the belief that I've missed at least one optional/easily missable side-quest boss much earlier in the game.  Among other things.

[SimmondsR]

14 hours ago, acasser said:

That's one monster I'll have to scan on Nightmare mode.  Which would bother me more than it already does if I wasn't under the belief that I've missed at least one optional/easily missable side-quest boss much earlier in the game.  Among other things.

 In the first Act right?! I believe I missed the same side-quest which I have absolutely no idea how because I speak to every single NPC in the game before I move on with anything haha.

[acasser]

10 hours ago, SimmondsR said:

 In the first Act right?! I believe I missed the same side-quest which I have absolutely no idea how because I speak to every single NPC in the game before I move on with anything haha.

 

I get the distinct impression I forgot to visit a Shrine in Act 1.  But I've missed a fair amount, because I get a lot of "B" grades on chapters and acts.  Which is fine, as this is still my first cycle when I play completely blind to enjoy the game; it's only NG+ on Nightmare that I use a guide to make sure I catch everything.

[Infected Elite]

On 15/11/2020 at 10:07 AM, SimmondsR said:

So unfortunately it seems that Falcom has decided to include a 'Puyo-Puyo' clone into the game.

And guess what? you have to beat every opponent for a trophy but not only that you will miss out on another trophy of getting all of the Master Quartz because yup! you need to beat everyone at the minigame to get a unique Master Quartz.

 

I hoping in creating this thread that someone may come up with some sort of tip to help people out. Because I'm only on opponent 7 out of 16 and this is ridiculously hard. Unless you're a pro-Tetris or Puyo-Puyo player you can get fucked apparently because your opponent is ludicrously fast and is planning 4 steps ahead.

Now I should mention that I'm not horrible at Puyo-Puyo, I've even done the Puyo-Puyo trophy in Judgement (for those who have also played Judgement you'll know that that was crazy frustrating) .

 

A big problem with this clone of Puyo-Puyo is that you're screen is already half-full with Poms and so you have to immediately think 5 steps ahead because if you're not then you can bet your ass your opponent is already crushing your ass before you say 'Valimar the Ashen Knight'.

I just gotta say that this sucks. This will now probably be the only Trails game I won't be able to Platinum and it's down to the fact that the Japanese can't help themselves when it comes down to some bullshit mini-game something that should be just a little side piece to the main game. 

 

I'm hoping I can find some people who are in cohoots with my suffering but maybe I'll get people telling me I suck. Only time will tell.

 

Just keep trying and only defend if you're 3/4 full. Ive had numerous times the CPU used an attack to fill my screen and it ended up causing major combos for me which i then used to win. Patience. It takes luck. Took me 1hr after i really went for it. I had Gaius/Ash as the hardest. Everyone else wasn't too bad. 1st, 2nd or 3rd try. Ash took 7. Gaius took 5.

 

 

[FlareZero]

The Puyo Puyo mini game is brutal, too hard for me, man this time they made a wrong decison about the trophies, maybe is the hardest trophy in the set.

[MkayShock]

I just unlocked that minigame ... and I already hate it, took me like 10 tries to beat the first opponent ... I can't even imagine how hard the others will be ...