Topic: The Trophy Discussion Thread

@sorteddan Yeah you're right.

Thanks for the reply. It's goes against my instincts to quit when I've come so far but when you get angry you just make more mistakes. Vicious circle.

@The_Moose I find it hard to give up on things myself. I have a couple of things which I just felt I had to ‘park’ for a while as my time is just too precious… but they still eat away at me.

I think both persistence and the ability to move on are both strengths in different ways… sounds like starting something else could be a good idea in your current situation though.

@colonelkilgore It's always my problem where I'll focus on one game and if it's like this one just get burnout. I stay focused on one usually to get better at it but I'll take a break and return to it another day.

Once it's done I will never ever play it again but the plat will be so worth it haha.

@The_Moose well good luck with chasing that one down… those ones that cause the most frustration definitely result in even more dopamine when they pop 😉

@The_Moose in January 2016, I started playing a little game called Aqua Kitty. Within a week I had every trophy but one. The last one required surviving for 20 rounds in essentially an RNG bullet hell. You'd get only one or two upgrades to help, but 90% of the time it's something useless. I'd barely ever make it past like round 7 or 8, so not even close.

After trying for a while I ended up playing some other games. I'd come back every and now then for maybe a couple weeks, every time thinking this trophy is simply impossible. Eventually I decided to switch from playing the PS4 version to Vita, to kind of force a different style of playing.

Giving it a go every couple days to weeks eventually turned into every couple months, then probably a year or more went by without me playing. But every time I used my Vita, the game was right there, pinned to the home screen, taunting me, much like RogerRoger suggested of leaving it installed.

Finally, one evening in September 2020, 4.5 years after earning all but one trophy, I picked up the game again. I think it had been more than a year since I'd last played. After only a couple tries I finally got the last trophy. Oh yeah, the game doesn't even have a platinum by the way, all that for just a single bronze trophy.

I've finished 685 of 700 games, so I may have a similar play style to you in that I almost always stick it out no matter how grindy, tedious, bad, or hard a trophy is. There's only 3 of my 700 played games that I don't think I'll ever finish because they're too hard, but this one was different, I kept coming back because I always felt if the stars aligned just right, I might somehow pull out a miracle.

So the moral is, if you think you can beat it, you've got the skill but you just need things to go right, then you definitely can beat it. But you don't have to right now. Play some other games and come back later with a fresh perspective. It might take some time, years even, but the game isn't going anywhere, you can beat it eventually.

@RogerRoger Some perspective from a 'Platinum Rookie' here...!

So I only have 4 x Plats to my name:
Returnal (inc. DLC trophies) / DeS / GoT (inc. Iki Island trophies) / Elden Ring

IMO, I think that attainment of a Platinum should definitely involve going 'above and beyond' a base game/experience... but not involve anything too time-consuming or obnoxious (ie collect 20,000 of these items scattered in remote corners of an open-world map)

I actually think FS did a great job with the Elden Ring trophies, whereby you could scoop the majority through the base game but you need to go a little further to get the remainders. Also only having 1-2 'missable' trophies is a pro.

GoT did a good job also, especially in that it only needed you to collect 'enough' collectables instead of every single one.

DeS was outrageously obtuse for me. I honestly don't know how any normal human being would attain all the trophies without following a guide from day #1, which I suppose then feels a bit like you're not 'playing the game'.... I think FS really learnt a lesson here, and the trophy-scope for Elden Ring was so much better.

So in summary - I think there is a very fine line between asking players to 'go the extra mile' vs obnoxious busy work! Currently working on the platinum for Nioh, I'm expecting some grind towards the end (weapon proficiencies, finding all kodamas etc) but I am enjoying it so much that I don't think this will be a chore.

@RogerRoger Well the game in question has 2.5% on the plat and I'm very surprised at that, relatively speaking I think it's quite high. Either the people who play this are very dedicated or I'm just saying it's way harder than it actually is.

It's a tiny game so I can leave it installed.

The only games I permanently walked away from were Dead Space 3 because 1. It was a mess and 2. There were MP trophies for a game which nobody played anymore. I also walked away from ME3, not because I didn't like it (it was my favourite of the 3 games), but again there was MP trophies and I had serious burnout after blasting through all of them. I'll plat all 3 when I do the Legendary Edition another day. Also Max Payne 3 on NYMHC mode when on the 2nd last level and 3 hours without a break the game crashed and it was known to happen on that level so screw you R*!

It pained me to walk away but it had to be done to all of them. My time was just too important and I had plenty more to play where I'd be more productive.

@Milktastrophe Aqua Kitty! The name itself sounds like it should be so easy but they can be deceptive.

Sounds like I'm at a similar stage as you were to be honest. I played a little more last night and made some progress but see how I feel when I run into the next roadblock. It's just demoralising when it's every 2 mins.

It's artificially hard if that makes sense.

Out of curiosity what were the three games you deemed too hard?

@CJD87 You raise a good point about game guides. I will always try and play through a game first just to see if I enjoyed it and then go for the trophies on the 2nd run. As you allude to though some games are just too time consuming especially if they are missable which in turn makes you rely on a guide which then takes a lot of the fun and exploration out of the game.

I tried it without a guide on Aggelos but you are reliant on upgrades which can only be attained by doing certain tasks which I needed a guide to help me complete. Also I'd have never gotten past the 3rd boss without a guide so...

Looks like another productive weekend congrats everyone on your recent plats

@CJD87 I think in a very similar way to you mate, I have 9 Plats I think and apart from Astros Play Room and Sponge Bob Bikini Bottom my other plats have been games I've enjoyed so much sticking around to get the plat only seemed like it was enhancing my experience.

I have many times got that sense of joy or excitement when that first trophy pops on a game to then go through the list and realise nah I ain't got the time or patience to go through all this lol

I do salute all you guys for getting as many plats as you have and I can see why it would be a good side hobby to an already existing hobby.

That said I have started to enjoy more hunting for the plats on more games but I still don't think I would devote all my time yet to becoming a full time trophy hunter.

@The_Moose I admire your persistence on this game, it sounds like it's really testing your patience. I'm in the same camp as a few others on here where I tend to platinum games that I enjoy or know that I'm going to enjoy playing. Those that are going to be overly onerous to achieve I will either leave completely or at least park for a while to revisit them when I feel I have time.

I can appreciate that it gnaws away at you not having that last trophy though as I've been like that on a few games that I have enjoyed but have pushed me to my limits. I'd side with those that say put it down for a while and come back to me. Sometimes it's good to have a couple of games on the go at any one point so you can chop and change based on mood and it gives you chance to have a cool down from feeling beaten.

I picked Resogun up again a few weeks ago after not playing it for a long while. I'm currently working my way through playing all the levels on veteran mode for the trophy and it's definitely challenging but I can see that it's fair in it's difficulty and is just really fun to play. Even then I've been switching it with other games so that I don't get too annoyed when dying for the 10th time. Good luck on your trophy hunt!

@MaulTsir yeah same here. I'm also trying to get more platinums, am at 4 at the moment. But I won't let enjoyment of a game get in the way of getting a plat. I made a few rules for myself to see if I get the platinum. I have to really enjoy the game and the platinum shouldn't be challenging or to grindy. So for me the platinum is basically a sign of Iiked the game enough to go for it. So I would also call myself more a casual trophy hunter than most of the guys here. But that's fine not everyone is the same.

I’m more of a casual trophy hunter too, selectively choosing which games to go the extra mile for the plat. To me it feels like I rarely get to that highest level of game completion, but then I look and realize I’m at 36 platinums and I wonder how the number got that high. 😅 Not that it’s a huge number, but it feels higher than what my efforts and skill level are.

@The_Moose Terraria - I could just never beat one of the bosses, Plantera. And it doesn't help that newer patches have added more stuff making some of the trophies harder/more time consuming.

Yakuza 0 - I made it through about half the climax battles before getting stuck. Haven't even started the hard mode playthrough either since I barely beat the normal playthrough.

And the single hardest game I've ever played - God Eater. I just can't understand how the plat rate is so relatively high. Everyone says it's easy because you can just make awesome guns, but nobody ever says what those awesome guns are and I can't find any online that actually work well. I only made it through like half the story too.

Platinum #38 is The Artful Escape
There are only a handful of trophies that aren't directly tied to main game progress and they can be completed in 15 minutes or so with chapter select. And if you check the trophy list beforehand, it's actually all doable in a single playthrough.

The game itself is actually not much of a game but worth playing for the art and music alone. It's very pretty.

@Voltan Congrats on a new shiny. I might check it out if I feel like a chill out sometime.

@Voltan congrats dude… heard good things about this since it released on Gamepass… added it to my list but gonna wait for a sale as in no rush.

@colonelkilgore You not on the new PS Plus? Because it's on there.

@Voltan nah I just stuck with the old PS+ (think it’s called Essential now). Was never fussed on the subscription model… even when the Official Xbox thread was in full-on non-commission sales-force overload 😉 and still wouldn’t be bothered even if the big Sony 1st Party AAA’s were day and date. I just like owning stuff I suppose.

@colonelkilgore Fair enough