I’ve pinched this article idea from Mikey because as a recently born again trophy hunter, I’ve thrown myself back head first into the pursuit of that digital Playstation bling. I like all my milestone trophies (every ten Platinums and every 500 trophies) to be for a game that means something to me. This means that often when I reach points when Platinum 50 and trophy 4500 are approaching my progress grinds to a halt as I scramble to find a trophy I want to reach this milestone with.
I’ve just attained my 5000th trophy for completing Dishonored: Death of the Outsider with my preferred choice of ending, the gold trophy ‘Deicide’. I have a list of games that I will work through over the coming months before aiming to Platinum the first Dishonored game for Plat 60.
Having a current collection of 52 Platinum trophies I thought I’d put my own spin on Mikey’s idea, and so here are my three favourites I achieved, and the three most painful to unlock. I’ll start with the three best first.
3) It’s All Relative – Gravity Rush Remastered
This game was an absolute gem to play as it came out of nowhere and I picked it up as I wanted a new game without having to splash out on whichever triple-A game was dominating the sales charts at the time. Gravity Rush takes all your fantasies about flight, or falling upwards as it turns out in this, and delivers them all to you on a silver plate with a side order of whatever the hell you want.
I’ve mentioned before on Respawning that one of my favourite combat moves in any game ever is from this game, which is when fighting a ground of enemies on the ground to launch into the air and start drop-kicking them with such speed and power they have no chance whatsoever to defend themselves or escape.
The time trials can be a little frustrating to unlock the trophies for them, but if you just leave them till the last thing you have to do so you are as experienced as you can be with the game controls, you should have minimal issues with them. The game camera can also misbehave and make things a little more difficult than they need to be, but these things aside Gravity Rush is a fun and accessible Platinum, well worth the time of any trophy hunters who haven’t played it yet.
2) Platinum Trophy – Prototype 2
I achieved this Platinum almost by accident as I hadn’t bothered to check the trophy list for it when it released as I remembered how ruthless and time consuming its predecessor had been. Upon discovering how easy the game was, even on the hardest difficulty, upon my completion of my second playthrough three days after the game launched I had only a couple of easy trophies to unlock to attain 100% completion of this game.
My page on PSNProfiles informs me I unlocked the Platinum in five days and nine hours after starting it back in April 2012 and I can honestly say it was my favourite Platinum unlocked in the Playstation 3 era.
1) Epic Cycle – Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
I grow to love some games I am otherwise indifferent to during the grind to Platinum, but this game had me enraptured long before I realised I could Platinum it. The last trophy I unlocked to achieve this in Odyssey was ‘Island Hopper’ for completing quests in a particular group of islands, something I would have completed regardless of it having a trophy as I completed all the quests available in order to spend as much time as possible in this incredibly detailed world.
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is definitely one of my most enjoyed and most played games of this generation (I have just finished the story in my Xbox One playthrough of it) and every minute of the roughly 120 hours it took me to Platinum it was nothing short of a pleasure, a privilege and some of my fondest moments in recent gaming.
And now we move on to the Platinum trophies that were as fun and appealing as drinking your favourite beverage directly out of a dirty bin.
3) Past, Present and Future – Dark Chronicle
I have always absolutely adored this game, and often joked with others who have played it that if they ever ported it to Playstation 4 that a trophy for achieving 100% of the medals or fully levelling up a monster transformation would be far too cruel of the developers to include. Alas, when the port was eventually announced and the trophy list confirmed my heart sank at the fact both of these remorselessly time-consuming and grind-heavy requirements were present in order to unlock the Platinum.
The fact this game is on this list for me to talk about proves that I did eventually complete this duo of mammoth tasks, in 150 mind-numbing hours spread across eight months, but upon attaining the 396th medal (some of which are cruelly missable) the Platinum mercifully popped. Despite how much I enjoyed this game on PS2 and playing the story on PS4, the dozens of hours spent reaching 100% has undeniably soured this game in my memory. Unless you are a die-hard fan of the game, love trophy grinding or have too much time on your hands, I cannot recommend this game to any trophy hunters out there. Keep well away.
2) Plantinium – Nubla
I only played this game for its average 1/10 ranking for difficulty to Platinum but I wholly regret the time I spent playing this monstrosity. The game is janky, ugly, boring, repetitive, badly made and just generally shit in every possible aspect. I cannot comprehend how this was cleared for release, and thankfully with the releases of other much easier games to Platinum, I am happy this game no longer seems to get mentioned anywhere as an option for trophy hunters.
It took me almost a week to Platinum this, thing, but most players could easily blitz through it in just a couple of hours. I had to take regular breaks and approach it in bursts as its profound dullness and frankly nauseating ‘art’ style meant I couldn’t ever play it for more than half an hour at a time. I’m yet to meet anyone else who has played, yet alone unlocked the Platinum, in Nubla and with every fibre of my being I wish I hadn’t bothered either.
1) Ultimate Hero – Final Fantasy XIII
I will never understand the deviant and detestable mind of who created this game’s trophy list. The ‘Treasure Hunter’ trophy for owning every item in the game at least once in a single playthrough is nothing shy of obscene for the fact you can happily acquire every item you can towards the end of the story, only to find out if you missed out on upgrading a couple of early game items you must start from scratch on a brand new playthrough.
I was among those who found this out to my dismay and outrage until I replayed the game a couple of years later and stuck rigidly to an item list so as not to miss anything again. Final Fantasy XIII is by no means a short game so a total restart of this scale to any unprepared trophy hunters would have been an unceremonious gut punch to say the least, and I still to this day despise the cretin who made ‘Treasure Hunter’ a trophy.
Thanks for reading my picks for my three most and least favourite Platinum trophies I have achieved. Let me know yours in the comments or on our Twitter @RespawningUK and I’ll be back next week with another feature for you.