Platinum Watch #58: Steins;Gate (PS3)

PSN Level 28 - 84%

Since I played Virtues Last Reward for PS Vita a couple of years ago, I have been immensely jealous of the slew of visual novels on consoles in Japan. When one comes to the US on a PlayStation console, I buy it. I was doubly excited when Steins;Gate was announced, having seen the anime and attempting to play the PC fan translated version (didn't enjoy playing on the PC).

The anime was one of my favorites. I "marathoned" the English dub when it came out. Though, before playing through the game, I remembered very little of it. Playing through the game was like experiencing it for the first time again. And it was amazing.

I remember liking the English dub, and since beating the game, I started re-watching it. The voices are great, and the localization is excellent. But I also love the Japanese cast, especially the female leads.

Mixed in throughout the game is a bunch of science terms, and many otaku/2chan memes, many of them parodies of real life media. Luckily, the game provides an excellent index, adding the entry when the word is used. Be sure to read all of them because they can and will be used again in the future dialog. The game seems to cater more toward the otaku fans than I remember the anime doing, or I am just understanding more of the references now.

I think all of the endings were heart wrenching. Getting 80% of the endings(there are about six or seven) is easy. The other 1 or 2 need to follow a specific text thread starting in earlier chapters. Responding to texts is an interesting way to engage the player. but they require you to choose between about 1-3 seemingly random words to respond to. And once you choose the word and write out the new text, I can't see any way to back out to pick a different word and am forced to just send it. I would prefer to preview all responses before picking one because this random replying means you can miss small details about other characters, or the bigger deal, a whole story thread required to get the better endings. I strongly encourage anyone to play through all the endings, using a guide when necessary, to see the true ending. This ending, the same from the anime, is so much more impactful after seeing how much the MC (main character) went through to get there.



After finishing, I am struggling to find more English translated media from this franchise, hoping more will come to america soon.

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Platinum Watch #57: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

PSN Level 28 - 38%

A couple years ago, I platinumed Ni No Kuni. I ended up loving all 85 hours I spent with that game. It was the first RPG I completed in probably a decade, since Pokemon Crystal. I tried picking up other RPGs (both Japanese i.e. Final Fantasy VII and western i.e. Fallout 3) during that decade, but they never appealed to me. But I picked them back up after Ni No Kuni, and slowly I am liking them more and more.

My first trophy in the game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was on 8/1/2012. I played about 5 hours and put it down. I remember liking the combat, but RPGs were still a bit overwhelming for me back then. Nearly three years later, I picked it up where I left off, put another 60 hours in, and got the platinum trophy. And there are still many side quests that I did not complete. After about 50 hours of any game, I am usually satisfied; any time spent over that is usually monotonous and boring for me. Though I enjoyed it thoroughly, this game was not different.

The combat was really fun. It played like a good action game which I am always fond of but added in all the RPG elements I am starting to enjoy. It really is to bad the developer went bankrupt and never got to make the MMO this game was supposed to introduce. The pacing of the experience growth was perfect, never needing to grind, and (playing on hard) was fun and never frustrating.

In every RPG with inventory management, I always end up constantly being full or encumbered. I stopped playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3 solely for that reason. I have to pick everything up to keep or sell, and always keep redundant weapons. This game started off the same, so I hunted down inventory expansions until I maxed it, and leveled up a skill that let me part of the cost of an item or weapon when destroying it that way I didn't need to visit the shop to sell my junk so often. A neat feature this game has, (I've seen it in Borderlands too), is send an item as junk and sell or destroy all junk at the same time. Unlike in Borderlands, there is not an option to set an item as a favorite, which would have made item management even easier. The player shared stash is in one of 4ish player houses, but it would have been more convenient to have a stash in more places, even if I had to buy the house. By the end of the game, I didn't know what to spend my $2,000,000 on. Another positive was the unlimited saves the game lets you make, and it always keeps a recent auto-save, one after the tutorial, and one after the final boss.

Some negatives are the environments and dungeons often use the same layout re-skinned (or maybe even exactly the same) and could get confusing. Also, better quest management would be good. After so many side quests build up, 50+, there is no recommenced level, though they are in the order received or updated. Also, having the map up while selecting the quest so you can pick something close would also be preferable to switching between the 2 menus.

But all in all, it was a fun game, and a pretty easy platinum trophy if you have 65 hours.

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Platinum Watch: #56 MotorStorm RC (PS3)

So I downloaded MotorStorm RC for the PS3 today. I remember really liking it on Vita, even platinum it on the handheld. It was $2.00, basically 80% off, so why not play it again. Turns out, through no means of syncing saves or anything, all the trophies popped. In short, I accidentally bought my 56th Platinum trophy (unlike when I did it for DC Universe online for PS4, that was completely intentional).

P.S. I had to re-download my Vita MotorStorm game/save to fix a sync issue to get that last DLC silver trophy

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