Going Platinum: Yeah, I Kinda Cheated to Get the Hardest Trophy in Kena: Bridge of Spirits

I see no issues here. Why should you have to suffer more than necessary because of a developers’ lack of consideration of your time and/or skill level?

People seem to forget or not realize that trophies aren’t like Olympic medals. In any given event, only one person/team will claim the gold. Trophies/achievements were designed from the very beginning so that any number of people can have that trophy/100%/Platinum. Gatekeeping trophies behind overly tedious or absurdly difficult criteria is bad design, and so long as someone isn’t using an exploit with the express purpose of lying about the feat to boast about how skilled they are (when they’re clearly not), then I see no problem here. Some of us just want that 100%+Platinum in a reasonable amount of time to satisfy our OCD so we can move onto the next game.

This is an interesting glitch that pops up in similar ways in different games. I think Apotheon, Guacamelee 1, Callisto Protocol, and Uncharted 4 had something like this. Bioshock maybe, too.

So, I guess I could play my physical copy all patched up and then reinstall the game and play it unpatched to exploit the bug?

I still haven’t played this all these years later. I’m going to do it when kena 2 is near I reckon

I literally turned off the Internet on my PS5 while playing this game at launch as I feared it would be patched before I finished the game. IIRC it ended up being the right call as the patch dropped a day or two before I finished. And yes, I have no shame about that at all.

Who cares what you had to do to get platinum? You bought the game, play it how you see fit. Silly notion to have any kind of shame attached to doing it. I'm amazed you felt that way at all.

Has Kena 2 moved out to 2027 now.

@Balaam_ Trophies can be as easy as or hard as the designer wants. If they deem you need skill (which you've repeatedly proclaimed you lack - which is fine because it is after all a videogame) to unlock their platinum, then that's what you need. Justifying using an exploit (AKA cheating) because you don't have the skill and have this warped sense of entitlement because you've deemed yourself a "trophy hunter" is some next-level cope.

@Quintumply This is outrageous. I demand you delete your PSN account because you Sir, are a fraud, and you've made a mockery of the PS Trophies leaderboard. Shame on you.

@MrPeanutbutterz if a “designer” picks a trophy that requires skill to complete then maybe they should first acquire the skill to ship a game that doesn’t allow for the exploit. This isn’t some third party software allowing cheating. It’s a design flaw within the game which makes it fair game in trophy hunting. You might not like it if agree with it, but trophy hunters all take advantage of fair game exploits. You’d actually be dumb to play back through this game on master if you don’t need to for the trophy if all you’re looking for is the trophy.

Shame! SHAME!

Pretty sure I did it legit as I remember it being a total pain in the arse at times and i also played it much later so guessing this would have been patched by then. But if there is an exploit fair play to anyone that uses it.

Will say though if you do something difficult legitimately that then becomes signficiantly easier when a exploit is discovered it can be a tad annoying.

Happened to me with blue prince. Was one of the 1st people to platinum it, few weeks later dozens of people were suddenly doing it as somebody had found a game breaking exploit that trivialised a very difficult trophy.

I've been playing nearly every day on every Sony home console since 1997 and I still only have 1 plat, Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, and I still don't feel bad about that at all. 😂

Don’t feel bad I think a lot of us cheated with the Kena platinum. I used a different exploit which I think still exists (I played it on PS Plus so it had probably had its last patch by then). The exploit I used was to play on Master till the first village and perform an out of bounds manoeuvre to skip to the end of the game.

No regrets as Master difficulty is hard as nails.

I finished Kena this last night, on standard difficulty, enjoyed it but I found it to be fun but rough around the edges.

@For-Kier You reckon trophy/gameplay design, programming, and QA is all one person? Lol. Besides, this was patched.

Yeah and the trophy hunters who use any exploit they can are cheaters. And ***** gamers.

Wait, so people are dumb now because they enjoy a challenge?

@CaptD I came to this article thinking it was the same trick I used, like you did.

@Quintumply Heck I've been helping people get the Honor Mode Trophy in Divinity Original Sin 2 by using my save that's at the end of the game so I'm not Judging.

@Balaam_ I’m also a trophy hunter and I only play games on hard if the platinum trophy requires it. Currently playing Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen and there’s a hard mode requirement. I’m putting in the time but wish it weren’t a platinum requirement. Furthermore, a speed run is also required. So thats 3 playthroughs for platinum. Things like this are why I have no issue with “cheating” to get a platinum!

Just started the game a week ago. A lot of games that I enjoy seem to use the second playthrough for one more trophy tactic, and it's a bit hit or miss for me. If I loved the game, then sure. If it was just ok or less, it's a bit of a chore. Oh well.

@Balaam_

Agreed. I love collecting trophies and I've been doing it for a long time, but I do not give a damn how people choose to do it. Use any exploits you like. I know a guy who uses save editors to do select really tedious/hard things. People who gatekeep need something better to do. Like, ok, YOU got the super hard trophy the hard way, and YOU know you did it that way, and YOU feel you earned it that way. Why do you care if someone else did it easier than you did? That doesn't make your achievement any less real. So idk.

@CheesyOatcake I’ve seen somewhere that there’s a method to install the game without a patch(don’t know if I can write more about it) and it’s legal. Thanks to that you can use the exploit. Check the web mate and you should find it without problems😊

@Shirtpotatoes75 not sure about that. I think that the disc version of the game had already a patch for that exploit. Best way to be sure is to check what version of the game is on disc.

Anytime I see trophies for finishing this game on gazilion difficulties I also hear Samuel L Jackson in Jurassic Park "Please! God damn it! I hate this hacker crap!"

Very much looking forward to the second game.

Trophies? Deactivated the notifications and don't care. For me they make game experiences worse or just don't matter.

Very well written. Loved this one.

I confess I also cheesed the Platinum for Kena, but I was too late to do the same exploit, instead I did a boundary hopping one that I believe still works to this day.

I also don’t feel bad about it, because the games master mode just isn’t fun. It was a lazy implementation of just “enemies life bars become sponges and you die in 3 hits”. That’s as deep as it got.

Still, loved the game and excited for the sequel, I just hope they put more thought into the balancing.

Post number 2 from Balaam summed it up perfectly and took the words out of my mouth.

Repetition is not hard. Having a lot of spare time is not the same as having skill. With the exception of games designed that way (Nier Automata) all trophies should be achievable in the first single play through.

A higher difficulty should be available from the start, if it is a prerequisite for a trophy. No shame in exploiting past such bad design.

At the end of the day trophies are just silly internet points that have no real meaning past what and individual decides they are worth to them. They have zero impact on other gamers and don't really affect any one else’s enjoyment. As such I see zero issue with using whatever means necessary to get them.

@For-Kier "trophy hunters all take advantage of fair game exploits"
There's a huge difference between using exploits and "i want every trophy just for participation because i don't have skill" mindset

@Dogbreath I did this game on Master difficulty first time. So they evidently listened to the online self-entitlement and removed the need to play through it more than once.

@ilyn I beg to differ. I've been in plenty of online games where teammates aren't playing the game/objectives properly as they're clearly trying to unlock a trophy along the lines of "xyz amount of kills using your big toe". Or the guy in a Street Fighter 6 tournament lobby who was having a meltdown in the chat because he wanted people to throw the tournament so he could get his wins (I fought him, wrecked him as if he was holding his own controller upside down, and was then subjected to a tirade of abuse in the lobby for not letting him win).

I tried this when I had PS Plus Extra and didn’t understand the combat at all. I got to the first boss, fought it for ten minutes without doing any damage, tried a few different things, then quit and deleted. If I’d been enjoying the game I would have looked up what I was missing.

Hunt those trophies anyway you like. As long as you enjoy the experience, that's all that really matters!

@CheesyOatcake I’m glad I could help ✌️😁

It's 2026 and dudes still be gaming and caring about trophies... and even writing protracted quasi articles about them. Damn, I would have never guessed this thing would go on to have such a long tail.