Topic: The Trophy Discussion Thread

Platinum # 79 Marvel's Miles Morales

The game was technically sound and a good starter to showcase the powers of the PS5. The combat was fluid and crunchy. Movement was responsive and felt tighter than the first game. The challenges felt completely sterile and uninteresting, holograms instead of people cheapened the experience. Mile's gadgets gave a new more adaptable approach to missions, which was a welcome change. The story was good at the start, then created a kind of divide that was unnecessary. It broke immersion and any kind of feeling or connection to that character and to their world/community. After that it became nothing more than one more vehicle for task completion. No particular trophy stood out as difficult or time consuming. Locking platinum behind a Newgame+ completion is usually time consuming but the story itself is really quite short so a quick speed-run took just over two hours. I generally move through games fast and this one was no exception, everything to one hundred percent took eight hours. Also I'm glad podcasts can be turned off as Danika was very annoying, I kept drowning her out with music until I realized she could be completely disabled. Thankfully.

@Thrillho Sorry I missed your reply. You were right it was much shorter. I have a lot of mixed feelings about the game, there are things that didn't need to be there, but as an actual game it did work. Combat was fun, exploring was okay, a lot of collectibles were definitely padding but the bases/hideouts felt more polished than the original's. There were some good set-pieces too, though the Underground got a little bit copy and paste after a while, I read that the second game fixes that with more variety. I found myself hitting those buttons that little bit faster just so I didn't have to listen to them anymore. I'm not really sure who the game was for but I didn't feel like the demographic. It felt like I needed to get out of Harlem and go back to the Upper East Side. That sort of went away during the very last part of the game and I felt that little bit more invested again until the very end/dialogue etc and once more I was reminded that the game wasn't for me.

@nessisonett Liberation turned out to be one of my favorites in the series. Not at all as big as Origins or any of the others but the story was good and the character mechanics were different enough to really stand out. The graphics felt a little easier on the eyes once I got into the story. Some trophies were a little grindy but nothing was impossible.

Platinum # 80 Marvel's Spiderman 2

Three nights again at three hours each, nine hours with an extra thirty minutes for the clean-up to one hundred percent. This game was hands down the easiest platinum of the three. Nothing stood out as complicated and the combat trophies were easier than the other games combined. There's a separate trophy set for Newgame+ and it's only to complete the game once, there are none for added difficulty. I'll write some more about it in the finished game thread, with a big spoiler tag. I imagine anyone playing all three in a row for the first time is rare considering the first game was so highly recommended. It definitely helped to compare content, systems and keep track of continuity. Now I suppose I wait for part four.

I too have just platinum’d Spider-Man 2 although it took me just over 20 hours but I do like to take things slow and smell the virtual roses.
Quite enjoyed it with some great set pieces but it did feel quite difficult so I played it on an easier difficulty which I found much more enjoyable.
Easy platinum and I will now do NG+ which tbh offers little on the face of it.

A few bugs and the wonky camera, especially in the later crazy levels were the only real negatives but nothing of any real consequence.

Platinum # 81 Venba

A short little Indie about cooking, culture, love and loss. I liked this one a lot more than I expected and there's a chapter select at the end too so you can go back and grab any trophies you missed. Two hours to platinum.

@CaptD Congrats did you run into an audio bug near the last three or four missions? I did, it sounded like the original studio recording played and was isolated from the rest of the score/sound effects. Other than I kept getting stuck inside the Brooklyn Bridge when trying to climb it. Masochism is an acquired taste, I died five times in a row from one boss fight because I did max the difficulty, it becomes a case of one to two hits and you're out, which I imagine could be stressful when a boss has three phases. Healing didn't do much either, it was all about perfectly timed dodges and parries, the Souls experience basically. Which I imagine is something most Folks don't want in a Superhero game.

Stealth was that much harder too, I had to keep web lines as high as possible or they'd always detect me sneaking by. I can't remember any crazy wonky camera problems but I was moving quite fast so a lot of fights were a blur, especially when there were groups of them and finishers kept triggering. Did you have a suit of choice or did you keep changing them throughout? I mainly used the Noir one, my game became The Shadow and Darkman all in one. I also bumped the contrasts quite high so those blacks were pitch black, which made tracking Lizard even more terrifying.

@GirlVersusGame
Congrats in that new tasty platinum, it is on my list to play but I haven’t decided when despite it being a shortish platinum.
I didn’t experience any audio issues with Spider-Man 2 just the issues that I mentioned along with a random activity just disappeaing, one minute I was on the bonnet of a car forcing it to stop and the next minute I was just standing in the middle of the road like a chump.

@CaptD It won't take you long at all, it helps to always check the recipe book for those extra tips, I missed one and I wasn't sure which one it was. It took replaying each chapter until I finally found the one I'd missed. The game won't tell you, everything else is easily tracked but the trophy called Flavor Text was one I wished I'd known about when I started the first chapter.

@GirlVersusGame You should give Neva a go, I thought the game was incredible, the art style, music and the game play was great, and the platinum is pretty easy too.

@Oram77 I think I have it on physical too but never finished it. I'm pretty sure I had to leave and never got back to it. I started Control tonight but had to take a break, maybe Neva would be a good temporary placement. Venba was equally parts as relaxing as it was thoughtful, it's not a bad way to spend two hours if you like collecting shiny digital stamps and learning to cook at the same time. I could also try that game Tjuz mentioned, I'm sure I bought it. Maybe Neva might be the way to go, thanks Oram.

Platinum 147: Metal Gear Solid 1 via Master Collection VOL 1, while the game is still a master piece, the controls have aged like milk, Yeah I know it's 28 years old at the point but damn man this needs a remake (hint hint Konami), anyway the trophy list was pretty standard part from making you do 300 VR missions, like was it really needed? Anyway onto MGS2 which I've heard is an extremely brutal platinum gulp

@Oram77 Congrats, three hundred VR missions? No thanks. I've only played Metal Gear Solid 2 and the one memory that sticks out are dog tags. Oh it's worse, I just looked and add another two hundred VR missions onto the last number. I'll stick with my flower collecting in Neva. You'll go into the series as Young Snake and come out as Old Snake, but with the added damage from the heat/oven thing in Guns of the Patriots and then you'll sleep for decades like The End.

@GirlVersusGame I actually can't wait to replay MGS2 again it's been literal years! I think the game was so far ahead of it's time (game play and visuals) it's crazy, and the ending has aged like the finest wine (if you know you know). I'm happy to be the gentle nudge you needed to start Neva and loving it by the looks of things. I may have another for you, Sword of the Sea yet another truly stunning visual picture and moving music but with skate boarding gameplay, pretty sure it's still free on PS extra tier, that's of course if you haven't already it.

I just finished my Insanity run and got Platinum #157 for Resident Evil Requiem.

After finishing the run I just needed to purchase and view some models so I pondered saving doing that until later so I could make this a landmark plat. When I realised my next landmark was 175 I decided not to bother as that is still quite a long way off. Code Veronica Remake might be out by then 🙂.

Platinum # 82 Neva

Well this was a journey. My first playthrough was completely blind. I switched to story mode because I didn't want to see that wolf getting hurt. I then decided to do a second playthrough with deaths turned on, and I brought along a trophy guide. The first thing I realized is that I kept missing jumps that I'd previously zoomed through with no trouble at all. I can't explain why that happened. There were no problems grabbing the trophies themselves, though some of the guides weren't as clear as they could have been for some of the collectibles. In hindsight I think the story is about the cycles between life and death, and not some kind of environmentalist warning after all, and here's why.

The game features the four seasons and traditionally each season reflects the various stages of the afterlife. Summer is about warmth and growth, Autumn is about letting go and transition, Winter is about stillness, personal reflection, Spring then focuses on rebirth and renewal and the emergence of new life. I observed every one of those factors at play in each of the games four stages. The visuals also represented all of the above, I'm convinced that's what's at the core of the games story.

The gameplay itself was different, I don't think I've played many platformers. I generally see a target or goal and go straight for it, some wires get crossed when traversal is the goal and it's sometimes frustratingly difficult to make a certain jump. I'm sure that's expected for a platformer, there were some growing pains but I like a challenge too and some of those gravity defying jumps were exactly that. The graphics and aesthetics were beautiful and after reading the art-book I'm even more impressed, seeing each tiny detail drawn out, it's so unique. The music was equally beautiful and at times felt a lot like the work of Craig Armstrong particularly his Piano Works album from 2004.

It's a great game if you are looking for a quick, chilled and moving adventure, especially if you are a platformer veteran. It got quite a few compliments too, normally no one pays attention to what they see me playing. I think the music and the minimalist approach caught a couple of eyes. I'd love to see it being made into an animated short, I think there's a lot the developer can still do with the I.P/concept. It also made me think of my own dog/wolf (minus those tree branches in their head) so I'm going to go visit him tomorrow.

I need to mention abilities too. I came from a game that drowned the player in abilities but never gave all that much in the way of testing each one out before the next one unlocked. I didn't use half of those Spiderman abilities or gadgets. Every ability in Neva wasn't just necessary, it was intuitive and often subtle. It was a refreshing approach and made a big difference in traversal and in combat.

@Oram77 Thanks for recommending that game, it's just as memorable and moving as Spiritfarer. I might hold off on Sword of the Sea for a while, I'm by no means a platforming expert and Control is reminding me that it loaded a trophy set at zero percent completion. I might try Gris too.

@BearsEatBeets Congrats on yours too. I'd wonder what percentage that games platinum is since so many people are playing it at the moment. I checked Control's it's only Very Rare, there's hope for # 83

@GirlVersusGame Cheers and congrats to you on quite a few recent plats. Best of luck with Control, it's a great game and has ample gameplay settings to cater the difficulty to your suiting.