@CJD87 Congratulations! So glad you did it! Like you, I felt reluctant to do Act 3 at first because I have such limited time and an enormous backlog, but I just couldn’t tear myself away from the addictive gameplay of Returnal, so I did the final act. You’d be glad to know that Act 3 actually goes pretty fast. Without spoiling too much, you’re playing through all these biomes you already know, and just gathering some extra story items, but they don’t have to be obtained all in one run and they carry over upon death, so it’s much simpler and most of the time you don’t even need to finish the whole biome. Then you just have to beat the B6 boss one more time and that’s it. It gives you some extra story sections and so the narrative makes a little more sense, although it also raises more questions. 😄
Anyways, in case you were on the fence, just know it’s not as large of a commitment as the other two Acts. But either way, it’s good to see another player appreciate the greatness of the game!
@CJD87 Well done 👏 that’s a great job!! Glad you managed to find the confidence to get aggressive to maximise your obolites. It’s a great feeling to finish this game when you are less skilled than some - I know as that’s definitely me.
I’d say it’s worth going for act 3 as you’ll realise how good you’ve got. It’s great to blast through the biomes fully tooled up and you can just have some fun with it 😀
@CJD87 Preaching to the choir here but absolutely do try to complete Act 3. It's not long and it's worth it unless you hated the story.
The platinum is a different story and totally fine if you skip that
@CJD87 I beat Kena. Loved it. Still need the trophy for beating it on master mode so I’ll be back to it at some point (and I’ll be suffering in those boss battles).
@CJD87 I skipped the platinum too. Not sure if I’ll go back and try for it anytime soon but I’m keeping my disc rather than selling it back so I can keep my options open. Act 3 took me just about… I don’t know, maybe 4-5 hours and about that number of runs… but I could tell the platinum would take me another dozen runs or more trying wait for all the RNG drops for the ciphers and whatnot.
Fair warning — I wasted some time initially in Act 3 not realizing I hadn’t done all the house sequences during the earlier Acts. During Act 2 I had been running past the house in B4 over and over not realizing I could go inside. So the first step in Act 3 is make sure both houses in B1 and B4 are “dark”, which indicates you’ve seen all the house sequences. Only then can you start the Act 3 collection process. It’s pretty cryptic, the whole thing, and the game doesn’t really guide you on what you have to do, so I used advice here and some guidance from the internet to get through Act 3, otherwise you might just be running around for a couple hours like me wondering what you’re supposed to be doing.
As far as a cleanser game afterward, Kena sounds like a good one. I still want to play it, but haven’t bought it yet. For me, I played Dear Esther and Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight as a post-Returnal cool down before I’ve been taking on tougher games (currently FF7R). I think it’s a good plan, but some people like the constant challenge so that’s fine too. 😄
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution - thanks for the heads up regarding the house being “dark”!
I’ve actually just kicked off a B4 run and checked this, and can confirm the B4 house is definitely already “dark”…. But if I’m reading you correctly, the extra story items won’t unlock unless BOTH B1 and B4 houses are “dark”?
I’m a bit hesitant to kill this current B4 run, as it’s going really well! So would it be worth doing a quick B4 clear, and if the item doesn’t show then I can/should assume I’ll need to travel to B1 and finish the house there? I’m actually fairly certain I saw all the house scenes in B1 - are there 2 per biome?
You’re spot on in that the game gives basically zero indication about where to start Act 3, so I can only imagine how many hours people wasted without realising the house detail (as you mentioned above)
FF7R was actually my cleanser game post-Sekiro, and I loved most of it! How are you finding it so far? I know that a lot of fans found some of the story beats a bit contentious, but personally I loved what they did with the narrative
I thought the combat and material system was great as well, allowing for a really unique approach to most battles. My only gripe was that it has (IMO) a lot of unnecessary padding…. I think it could have been an amazing and really tight 20-25hr game, but instead it was stretched into a ‘pretty good’ 40hr game. It was a great experience though, and the Yuffie DLC is well worth the admission price if you’re hungry for more. Hard mode is brutal too!!
@CJD87 You might recheck the B1 house after you clear B4 if you don’t find anything there. I don’t know how much of a spoiler it is but I’ll tag it just in case —
The items are called Sun Fragments, and there should be one in each Biome. They appear at relatively consistent places usually — in a specific room in each Biome, but it’s just random how the layout will be, so the room may generate at the beginning of the Biome sometimes, or it might be toward the end. Of the 6 pieces I think at least 2 or 3 of them were really quick in their respective Biome, and another 2 or 3 took searching a large part of the Biome. I think I struggled mostly with the piece in Biome 6, because it’s off a specific pathway that you have to shoot one of those orbs to reveal a hidden platform and it was a little difficult to find. I ended up looking online to see what the pathway should look like and then was able to recognize it when it came up.
I think one or two of them (maybe B2…. Can’t remember) we’re in rooms that you had to access with a key. The fragment will be marked on the map with a little triangle like the other items, so you can quickly enter a room and check your map and it there aren’t any item icons then you can skip the room and move on.
Also, like I mentioned, the great thing is the game saves the fragment into your inventory once you find it and they carry over, so you can’t just comb a biome and when you find it you’re free to just exit out or move straight through the short cut to the next biome.
Also, it wasn’t clear to me initially either but the little room with the weird machine that opened up in the Helios after Act 2 is what allows you to jump from Biome 1 to Biome 4, back and forth in time. So that’s how to get back to B1 and vice versa.
I think there are 3 House sequences in each of B1 and B4. Or maybe it’s 2 in one and 3 in the other. But if you go through B4 and find no fragment, then probably check back at B1 and make sure it’s dark. I think there should be a new pillar at the B4 house with a cryptic message that introduces this whole scavenger hunt but it doesn’t really make sense 😅
Once you find all the fragments. The game will hint at it, I think, but the final step is going back to the boss at B6 and defeating it one more time. In my opinion it’s not the hardest boss in the game, so not too bad there, and I don’t think it’s buffed at all over the first time… I don’t think. Anyways, from there you’ll get the true ending.
I hope that makes sense. Once you find your first fragment then you’ll start to feel like you know what you’re doing.
As for FF7R, it’s been really great. I can understand the padding comment. I’m at 35 hours and in the middle of Chapter 13. Just was able to clear Leviathan (sheesh, that was a tough one!) and next on to further the story. The game’s really well done though. A few issues here and there with pacing, dialogue, and the occasional graphical imperfection, but it’s better than it should have been given the lofty expectations.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Thrillho - I’m on the same page mate, not sure if I can suffer the prospect of another 50hrs aiming for a platinum that is largely dependent on RNG elements! But massive respect for all the masochists out there that have managed to attain this, I can only imagine the level of sheer dedication (and neglect of real world activities!) that is required
@CJD87 Great work, act 3 is a great accomplishment! Going for the plat is a big undertaking, if it was taking over 60 hours, I would have quit long before I got it!
“I’m a really good lawyer.”
———
“One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them; In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.”
I can’t remember what my stats were in the end. I know I was on 58 odd deaths up to the end of act 2 but not sure on the time.
It did take me a while to get the platinum but I think I’d pretty much got a load of weapon traits unlocked by then that I didn’t die a great deal. It took me ages to find the things I needed in B2 but I was still loving the gameplay so was actually quite happy to keep going.
@render thanks also as you were one of the few here egging me on to complete Act3… and I honestly enjoyed it! If my backlog wasn’t as big as it is, I’d potentially consider the platinum… as you say the gameplay is so sweet, and also the ‘pressure’ is off a bit when hunting for collectibles - allowing the opportunity to play around with less desirable weapons and traits etc
@CJD87 Well done, my friend. Glad you ended up enjoying the final act. I do think it’s pretty critical to feeling like you got the whole experience. The narrative is still vague but I like the added details which can contribute to more theories on what’s really going on. Also, I think, like you say, there’s an added level of enjoyment to play around with less pressure after your skills are more tuned and you’re just looking for the collectibles.
As for me, I can’t remember - I think I posted it on here somewhere, but I want to say that at completion of Act 3 I was in the 80-90 hour area and with about as many death. Seems like I was averaging a little over 1 death per hour
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution Thanks for pushing me into completing Act3 also... I think I would have regretted not pushing through, and never would have felt I'd actually completed it! The sense of accomplishment is great also, especially when you see the small % of attainment associated with that Act3 trophy. I can definitely understand why some of the Tropy Hunters on this board aim for full completion, and would probably aspire to do myself if I had more leisure time available!
@MatthewJP Thanks man! Are you still playing? Or have you moved on to something else? Likewise - I am far from a good gamer, and amazed to hear tales of how some people ploughed through Acts1-3 with <10 deaths... seems impossible!
@CJD87 Yeah, I was still enjoying the core gameplay of Returnal when I moved on, and honestly I am probably 75% of the way to the platinum, but like you I have many games to get to so the extra time for the plat was a little much for me too.
FF7R is going great, by the way. I was planning to post some updated and extended impressions in the FF thread, but it’s late so I’ll do it maybe tomorrow. But suffice it to say I’ve made huge progress (in fact I’m probably within a few hours of the end) and it’s really been very, very good these last few chapters.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
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