rjjameshiii

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #69: Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon

Achieved on 6/9/2025 at 7:23 PM

After I had gotten the Platinum for Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, I decided that I should play the third game in the Reignited Trilogy and get all three Spyro Platinums out of the way. Mostly because I wanted to delete the game to make room for some other games, but I also wanted to experience another Spyro game I had never played before! Unfortunately, this ended up being my least favorite Spyro experience so far.

Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon opens with Spyro and all the other dragons sleeping while a magical rabbit named Bianca and an army of Rynocs sneaks in and steals all of the dragon eggs. Also, for some reason Hunter is there too? He's just sleeping with Spyro in the Dragon Realms and it's never explained why he's not in Avalar. I guess he and Spyro are best friends now.

Anyways, Bianca steals all of the dragon eggs in the Dragon Realms and brings them to the Forgotten Realms, which are ruled by the evil Sorceress, a big blue crocodile lady who hates dragons. So now it is up to Spyro, Hunter, and some new friends Spyro meets in the Forgotten Realms to find all the eggs and defeat the Sorceress.

Like Spyro 2, I decided to start off by simply playing through the game until I defeated the final boss and just see what trophies I unlocked along the way.

1/41: The Money's in the Bag - Free Sheila the Kangaroo in Sunrise Spring.

2/41: The Villa Bully - Defeat all Coward Rhynocs in Sunny Villa.

3/41: Moving Up in the World - Launch the Transporter Balloon in Sunrise Spring.

4/41: Buzz Off! - Defeat Buzz.

5/41: A Byrd In The Hand... - Free Sgt. James Byrd in Midday Gardens.

6/41: Byrd Bombs - As Sgt. Byrd, bomb all the treasure chests in Sgt. Byrd's Base.

7/41: One Small Step for Dragon... - Launch the Transporter Whirligig in Midday Gardens.

8/41: No Dragon for Lunch Today! - Defeat Spike.

9/41: A Dozen Cold Ones - Use ice breath to freeze 12 enemies in Frozen Altars.

10/41: A Small Cost To Bear - Free Bentley the Yeti in Evening Lake.

11/41: The Harder They Fall - Defeat a giant in Charmed Ridge.

12/41: ...One Giant Leap for Dragonkind - Launch the Transporter Rocket in Evening Lake.

13/41: Scorched! - Defeat Scorch.

One thing I couldn't help but notice is that, even though this game has you play as Spyro, I feel like the game is more about Bianca and Hunter. All of the cutscenes revolve around them and their developing relationship. I'm not complaining because I ended up liking Hunter and Bianca's romance a lot. But anyway, by this point I was in the final hub world of the game, so it was time to buckle down and finish the game.

14/41: That Monkey's Gonna (Make Them) Pay - Free Agent 9 in Midnight Mountain.

15/41: A Key Move - Unlocked the locked treasure chest in Molten Crater.

16/41: Bye Bye Bluto - Defeat Bluto's nuclear shark submarine in Seashell Shore.

17/41: Butterfly Hunter - Find both butterfly jars in Desert Ruins.

18/41: Cannon Fodder - Destroy 6 icy things using the cannons in Icy Peak.

19/41: Tucked in for a Long Slumber - Defeat Sleepyhead in Spooky Swamp.

20/41: Bottled Curiosity - Follow the question mark bottle to the end in Bamboo Terrace.

21/41: Sorceress Down! - Defeat the Sorceress.

With the Sorceress defeated, all I had to do was clean up all of the remaining miscellaneous trophies. I was very happy when I realized that, unlike the first two games, getting 100% in this game was not necessary, which means I didn't have to grind out finding all Eggs and all Gems. Instead I just went down the trophy list and got each trophy one by one.

Also I'm just gonna say it now. I hated the levels that forced me to play as the new side characters, and I loathed the Sparx levels. Like, this is a Spyro game. Why do I suddenly have to play as new characters? Sheila and Sgt. Byrd were probably the most fun to play as, but I really did not like playing as Bentley or Agent 9.

22/41: 8000 Reasons To Kick Butt - Get revenge on Moneybags in Midnight Mountain.

23/41: Head in the Clouds - Glide for 5 seconds in Cloud Spires.

24/41: Stomping Target Practice - As Sheila, destroy all headbash treasure chests in Sheila's Alp.

25/41: Star Power - Fly through 4 Star Speed Boosts in one lap at Mushroom Speedway.

26/41: Who's Your Crawdaddy? - Defeat the Crawdad King in Crawdad Farm.

27/41: Balloon Buster - Destroy all balloons in Enchanted Towers.

28/41: Rocket Racer - Fire 5 missiles in one race at Country Speedway.

29/41: Web-Be-Gone - Defeat the Spider King in Spider Town.

30/41: Man The Cannons, Man - Use cannons to shoot down all vultures in Lost Fleet.

31/41: It's Totem Destruction - As Bentley, destroy all the totem poles in Bentley's Outpost.

32/41: Real Star Power - Fly through 12 Star Speed Boosts in one race in Honey Speedway.

33/41: Twin Dragon Destruction - Defeat the Twin Dragons in Fireworks Factory.

34/41: Manta Erayser - Defeat the Manta Ray in Starfish Reef.

35/41: Vanishing Act - Defeat all the Crystal Bears in Crystal Islands.

36/41: A Sarcopha-Kinda Guy - Destroy all Sarcophagi in Haunted Tomb.

37/41: Nice Shootin' Tex - As Agent 9, defeat an enemy with a ricochet shot in Dino Mines.

38/41: Someone Set Us Up the Bomb - As Agent 9, shoot down all the balloons in Agent 9's Lab.

39/41: Hunt for Hunter - Find Hunter in Harbor Speedway.

And after finishing the final Sparx level, I got the final Platinum in the Spyro Reignited Trilogy!

40/41: Debugging - Defeat the Metapede in Bugbot Factory.

41/41: Party Like It's 2024 - Unlock all trophies in Spyro 3.

This game was mostly fun. I enjoyed the unique levels and the sheer amount of unique minigames that were available. Like, I never expected to see skateboarding in a Spyro game. However, I really disliked being forced to play as the side characters and Sparx, especially since the controls felt clunky and unnatural for each of them. That really brought down my enjoyment of the game, but I am happy that I have officially Platinumed the entire Spyro trilogy.

Rating: 7/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #68: Undertale

Achieved on 5/23/2025 at 8:26 PM

Oh my gosh, to be back in 2015 when Undertale was first released into the world. I remember how insanely huge this game was when it first came out, with both the good - the explosion of incredible theories, fan art, and fanfiction - and the bad, namely the horrifically toxic fandom that sprung up with the game. Things have calmed by 2025, 10 years after the game's release, and one of my best friends discovered Undertale for the first time and was keeping me updated on his playthrough of the game. It made me nostalgic for when I played the game all those years ago, so I decided to purchase it on my console and get the Undertale Platinum.

I was filled with determination.

For those who don't know, Undertale is about a small child who falls down a hole and ends up in a massive underground cavern that is home to the Monster race, who had been banished to the underground by humans hundreds of years ago. Your goal is to make it to the end of the Cavern and get back to the surface, and it is up to you whether you kill or befriend all of the various monsters you run into.

It was such a nostalgic experience to begin a new save file and experience this game and all of its charm and hilarity again. I got my first trophy once Toriel saved me from Flowey and brought me into the first area of the game, the Ruins.

1/30: Ruins - Enter the Ruins.

I was of course going for a straightforward Pacifist Route. I had played the Neutral and Genocide Routes back in the day on PC, but I was just in this for a fun time, so I stayed Pacifist. I also quickly realized that the trophy list was a bit irreverent once I got four trophies in a row simply for picking up items along the way.

2/30: Don't Worry, I Have Lots of Ideas For Trophies - Get an item.

3/30: Like Getting Items - Get two items.

4/30: Or Getting More Items - Get three items.

5/30: Help Me, I'm Out Of Ideas - Get four items.

I continued on through the game. It was kind of funny how quickly the game came back to me in my memory, helping me easily finish each enemy encounter. I got three more trophies by the time I reached the halfway point of the Snowdin area.

6/30: Mouse - Reach the mouse hole in the Ruins.

7/30: Exodus - Arrive at Snowdin.

8/30: Manna - Get to the Spaghetti save point in Snowdin.

It was when we got to Papyrus and Sans' house that I found the Dog Shrine underneath the sink. Upon donating 2 gold to the Dog Shrine, I got a trophy. Curious, I looked it up and discovered that almost all of the trophies in the game were related to donating money to the Dog Shrine. I ended up donating 30 gold in total in one go, getting me a total of five trophies within a few minutes before deciding I needed to continue on with the story.

9/30: Dognation Level 1 - Donate 2 gold to the Dog Shrine.

10/30: Dognation Level 2 - Donate 6 gold to the Dog Shrine.

11/30: Dognation Level 3 - Donate 12 gold to the Dog Shrine.

12/30: Dognation Level 4 - Donate 20 gold to the Dog Shrine.

13/30: Dognation Level 5 - Donate 30 gold to the Dog Shrine.

What I ended up doing after that point was, while I played through the game, I occasionally decided to return to Snowdin to donate more money to the Dog Shrine. This is how I did things all the way up to the final area of the game.

Also I just want to say that I somehow beat Undyne on my first try, but I lost to Papyrus three times in a row. Make that make sense.

14/30: Midpoint - Arrive at Waterfall.

15/30: Dognation Level 6 - Donate 43 gold to the Dog Shrine.

16/30: Rain - Reach the place where it rains.

17/30: Dognation Level 7 - Donate 59 gold to the Dog Shrine.

18/30: Final Stretch - Enter Hotland.

19/30: Dognation Level 8 - Donate 78 gold to the Dog Shrine.

20/30: Dognation Level 9 - Donate 100 gold to the Dog Shrine.

21/30: Dognation Level 10 - Donate 125 gold to the Dog Shrine.

22/30: Final Stretch II - Reach Hotland 2F.

23/30: Final Stretch III - Reach Hotland 3F.

24/30: Good Luck - Reach the second save point in the CORE.

At this point, I was ready to face the rest of the game. I was ready to fight Mettaton, and then Asgore, and then Flowey, and then continue on to get the True Ending of the game....

Until I realized that the only trophies I had left were for donating to the Dog Shrine. There were no more trophies for the actual story. Not even a trophy for fighting Asgore or finishing the game at least once. This caused me to have a bit of a dilemma, but I ended up going back to Snowdin after losing to Mettaton a few times, where I donated all of the remaining gold I needed to go get all the rest of the trophies.

And I got the Platinum before I had even finished Undertale.

25/30: Dognation Level 11 - Donate 155 gold to the Dog Shrine.

26/30: Dognation Level 12 - Donate 190 gold to the Dog Shrine.

27/30: Dognation Level 13 - Donate 230 gold to the Dog Shrine.

28/30: Dognation Level 14 - Donate 280 gold to the Dog Shrine.

29/30: Dognation Level 15 - Donate 350 gold to the Dog Shrine.

30/30: Don't You Have Anything Better To Do? - Obtain all the other trophies in Undertale.

Now I had a real conundrum. There was no reason to finish the game...and I had beaten this game several times over already in the past. In the end, I decided that I would not be finishing the game at that time, but I definitely plan on coming back to it.

Because of that, I have to take a point off of my rating for this Platinum. Undertale is still an incredible game and I think everyone should play it at least once - and play it however they please without any toxic fans gatekeeping the game - but I wish it had a more steady and rewarding trophy list, Toby Fox. Still, Undertale will always be a classic.

Rating: 9/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #67: Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!

Achieved on 5/19/2025 at 3:25 PM

I had played the first game in Spyro's Reignited Trilogy, aka the first Spyro the Dragon game, back in 2023. And for some reason it took me over two years to play the next game in the series. When I was a kid, the only other Spyro game I ever played was Enter the Dragonfly (which is a shit game by the way), so I literally had no idea what Ripto's Rage had in store. But I finally decided it was time to get his Platinum done!

Ripto's Rage sees our hero Spyro get teleported into the world of Avalar by three of its residents - A genius mole known only as the Professor, a faun named Elora, and a cheetah named Hunter. Avalar has been taken over by Ripto, a tiny evil dinosaur wizard who seems to want to take over Avalar and cause untold havoc just for the fun of it. Spyro immediately jumps into action to travel through the different realms of Avalar to help stop Ripto.

This game is pretty similar to the first Spyro, except instead of freeing dragons, each world has its own little mission that Spyro must complete in order to receive a Talisman from the world's leader, and then later on complete side missions to earn Orbs. Since this was my first time experiencing the game, I decided to play it completely blind up until I defeated the final boss, and see what trophies I naturally unlocked along the way. By the time I beat Ripto and finished the game, I had unlocked 10 trophies.

1/30: Well, You Might As Well - Complete Hunter's challenge in Summer Forest.

2/30: Exterminate - Defeat every robot in Hurricos.

3/30: Conservationist 2 - Complete Gulp's Overlook without harming any fodder.

4/30: Long Distance - Complete the long glide to the Orb in Autumn Plains.

5/30: Hypersonic - Light all 6 Gem Lamps in 15 seconds in Glimmer.

6/30: Bad Sushi - Do not feet the Hungry Idol any red fish in Idol Springs.

7/30: Duck and Cover - Don't get hit by Bob in Scorch.

8/30: Rescued! - Headbutt every turtle in the Turtle Soup challenges in Sunny Beach.

9/30: Lockjaw - Destroy every Roboshark in Aquaria Towers.

10/30: RGB - Use all three types of power-ups in Ripto's Arena.

After beating Ripto, I decided to go through all the levels and get all of the miscellaneous trophies that I had missed. Some of these trophies were directly related to completing missions for Orbs, but some of them were just random things to do in the levels. Eventually, once I got all of them, I had 18 more trophies.

11/30: Using Your Head - Charge a goat in Colossus.

12/30: Warm Up The Crowd - Heat up the audience in Ocean Speedway.

13/30: Unburnt - Don't touch the lava once in Skelos Badlands.

14/30: Gnot Cannon - Use a cannon to defeat a TNT Thrower in Zephyr.

15/30: Giantslayer - Defeat every Earthshaper in Fracture Hills.

16/30: Ganked - Steal a Popcorn Crystal from Hunter in Magma Cone.

17/30: Bug Control - Defeat all Draclets in one Superflight in Crystal Glacier.

18/30: Trouble No More - Get a clean run in the trolley in Breeze Harbor.

19/30: Dryfoot - Don't touch the hazardous waters in Shady Oasis.

20/30: Flyin' High - Defeat the Snowmobiles before defeating a Hang Glider in Icy Speedway.

21/30: Bird Is The Word - Flame all the Pigeons first in Metro Speedway.

22/30: Yard Work - Headbash every rock in Winter Tundra.

23/30: Monkeying Around - Charge through every Monkey in Mystic Marsh.

24/30: Sheeples - Don't hit any sheep in Cloud Temples.

25/30: Olly Olly Oxen Free - Defeat the Ox without taking a hit in Metropolis.

26/30: Spitball - Defeat every Robo Bee by spitting in Robotica Farms.

27/30: Buggin' Out - Defeat 5 buggies while charging in Canyon Speedway.

28/30: Conservationist 1 - Complete Crush's Dungeon without harming any fodder.

Now I only had one more trophy to get before the Platinum, and that was for unlocking the permanent Super Flame power-up. However, to get to that power-up, I had to unlock Dragon Shores. And to unlock Dragon Shores, I needed to get all the remaining Orbs and Gems in each level - basically, I needed to 100% the game. This took me a bit of time and was kind of a grind, but once I got it, I immediately grabbed my second Spyro Platinum trophy.

29/30: He's On FIRE! - Unlock the permanent Super Flame.

30/30: Ripto's Remorse - Collect all trophies in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!

I really enjoyed this game! I liked how it had an actual plot instead of the barebones dilemma of the first Spyro game, and I really enjoyed Elora and Hunter's addition to the game (the Professor was just ok). However, I think that I might be a bit biased towards the first game, because I still liked that one slightly more. Still, I was very happy getting this Platinum.

Rating: 9/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #66: Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly

Achieved on 5/7/2025 at 8:50 PM

I had enjoyed the first "Coffee Talk" game so much, the next day I looked up the sequel. I was thrilled to discover that the sequel was available for free on PS Plus as well, so I quickly ran through my first playthrough. However, I discovered that this Platinum would be a little trickier to get than its predecessor, but I still fell even more in love with the world of Coffee Talk by the end of it!

Hibiscus & Butterfly is named such because there are the two new ingredients you can use to make drinks - butterfly pea flowers and hibiscus flowers. All of the characters from the first game return, with the exception of Freya and Hendry (Neil has also adopted a human form and changed his name to Silver). In their place are new characters Lucas, a social media influencer satyr who became my new favorite character very fast; Riona, a banshee struggling to make it in the opera business; and Amanda, Silver's sibling who is trying to convince him to come back to their home planet.

The gameplay is mostly unchanged from the first game; you make drinks and listen to your customers talk about their personal problems, and how their conversations go is affected by if you make the drink right or not. However, instead of being a mostly slice-of-life game like the first one, Hibiscus & Butterfly actually has an ongoing mystery story going on, centered around Lucas, Riona, and human cop Jorji. It was really cool to see the game take such an interesting turn. Like the first game, I played the game blind and tried my best to get the best ending for all of the characters.

1/53: Welcome To Coffee Talk - Start a new game.

2/53: First Brew - Brew your first drink.

3/53: It's A Masterpiece! - Create and serve your first latte art.

4/53: Let Me Start Over - Trash a drink for the first time.

5/53: Overflowing Warmth - Serve Myrtle and Aqua the correct drinks on Day 2.

6/53: Fellow Influencer - Give Lucas's contact info or the fidget spinner to Rachel.

7/53: Child's Play - Give the fidget spinner to Gala.

8/53: Good Review - Give Lucas the correct drinks on his first three visits.

9/53: We Are All Friends - Meet all of the main characters.

10/53: Blood(ish) Red - Serve Hyde his favorite hibiscus drink.

11/53: Master Purloiner - Steal the Agent's key card and give it to Silver.

12/53: Saved $100 - Prevent Gala from getting a fine.

At one point in the game two characters suddenly showed up to have a conversation with Jorji. I later found out that this was a cameo of the two main characters from another game called The Darkside Detective. I ended up adding that game to my library to try out in the future, so thanks Coffee Talk!

13/53: Hardboiled Advice - Unlock the conversation with Detective McQueen and Officer Dooley.

14/53: 40,075km - Get Silver and Amanda's good ending 1.

15/53: Guest of Honor - Get invited to Lua and Bailey's wedding.

One new mechanic this game added was the ability to receive items from characters that you must then remember to give to other characters with their drinks. I thought I was doing so well at getting everything right - until the moment I accidentally forgot to give Gala the wedding invitation for Hyde. I was embarrassed and worried I wouldn't get the best ending for Hyde now, so I will be honest and say that I reloaded the day and remembered to give the invitation the second time around. So this playthrough wasn't exactly 100% me doing my best in one try.

16/53: Unsolicited Bouncer - Forget to give Gala Hyde's wedding invitation.

17/53: Failed Messenger - Forget to give items to the intended recipients for the first time.

After that though, I did continue playing without restarting any days, and I am happy to report that, despite a few mistakes, I was able to come up with enough good drinks for everyone that I eventually finished the game with ALL of the best endings for each character, giving me a total of 26 trophies by the end of my first playthrough.

18/53: First Love - Inspire Rachel with a "Sweetheart Latte".

19/53: Just Married - Get Lua and Bailey's good ending.

20/53: Hyde Leibovitz - Get Hyde's good ending.

21/53: Is This It? - Serve the wrong drink for the first time.

22/53: Local Favorite - Ensure everyone always gets the right drink.

23/53: The Hibiscus & The Butterfly - Get Lucas and Riona's perfect ending.

24/53: Remembrance - Get Jorji, Lucas, and Riona's perfect endings in the same playthrough.

25/53: Five Stars! - Serve Lucas the drink "Five Stars!" on his Reviewer's Test.

26/53: One Way To Find Out - Play the story mode to conclusion once.

Now before I started my next big step of the Platinum journey, I decided to look up a list of all of the drinks in the game and then make all of them in Free Mode to get the trophy for making all drinks.

27/53: Master Brewer - Unlock all special drinks.

After I got that trophy, I began embarking on my second playthrough, and I honestly wasn't looking forward to this part. Unlike the first game, there were actually trophies for getting the bad endings for all the characters. I actually felt really bad making the wrong drinks for everyone and watching as relationships turned sour, dreams failed, and all the characters just ended up miserable and sad. Alas, we have to do things we don't like for trophies sometimes.

28/53: Ghosted - Provide Riona with poor service until she stops visiting the coffee shop.

29/53: Bad Memory - Forget to give Jorji his lighter back.

30/53: Bad Review - Give Lucas the wrong drinks on his first three visits.

31/53: Star-Crossed Siblings - Get Silver and Amanda's bad ending.

32/53: Cold Shoulders - Aqua and Myrtle didn't make up.

33/53: Nothing To Show... - Fail to inspire Rachel.

34/53: Festina Lente - Get Lua and Bailey's bad ending.

35/53: Immutable Immortal - Get Hyde's bad ending.

36/53: Work Woes - Get Jorji's bad ending.

37/53: Not So Hot Business - Complete the story mode with the least amount of correct drinks possible.

Thankfully with that done, I was able to do a third playthrough to get all the remaining endings I didn't have yet. Yeah, some of the characters have more than two endings. Those are Silver and Amanda, who have two different versions of their Good Ending; Jorji, who has a Good Ending that does not tie into Riona and Lucas' stories; and Lucas and Riona, who likewise have a Good Ending that does not tie into Jorji's story. So I did a third playthrough and got those three endings and three more trophies.

38/53: How I Met Your Ancestor - Get Silver and Amanda's good ending 2.

39/53: Tender Soul - Get Jorji's good ending.

40/53: A Budding Partnership - Get Lucas and Riona's good ending.

Next I got one random trophy out of the way by replaying the day of Riona's second visit to the coffee shop and handing her Lucas' fidget spinner. She was just as confused as I was.

41/53: What's This? - Give Riona the fidget spinner.

Next I needed to finish out all the trophies related to Rachel. Basically, you have three different options of drinks to make for Rachel to inspire her to write a new song. I had made Rachel the same drink in all the previous playthroughs, so all I had to do was serve Rachel a different drink on that particular day, then fast-forward to the day she brings in her new song, then repeat with a different drink, and I got two more trophies out of it.

42/53: Wistful Nights - Inspire Rachel with a "Dreamin' Blue".

43/53: Comfortable With You - Inspire Rachel with a "Milk Honey Green Tea".

But then I was a little confused when the trophy for unlocking all three songs did not pop. Turns out that I just needed to use the Sweetheart Latte again. Once I got that scene again, I got the trophy for unlocking all three of Rachel's songs, and I also got the trophy for listening to all the songs on the soundtrack.

44/53: True Fan - Unlock Aremy x Nekochel's whole album.

45/53: 24/7 Beats To Relax/Study To - Listen to all of the songs.

One thing I didn't bring up is that, throughout the game, a mysterious cat keeps coming into the shop. I knew after looking up a guide following my first playthrough of the game that you needed to get every ending to figure out what the cat's deal was. So I continued on until the very end of the game after unlocking the songs...and got a very sweet scene where the cat's owner comes in and takes him home. The owner in question was none other than Coffee Talk's creator, Mohammad Fahmi, who tragically passed away in-between the two games. It was a very moving and sweet cameo...and a goodbye.

46/53: Cat Shelter - Reunite Tofu with his owner.

After that trophy, I realized I somehow hadn't gotten all the images in the Gallery despite getting every ending. Upon doing research, I discovered the one single art I was missing was only unlocked in a playthrough that combined Baileys and Lua's good ending and Hyde's bad ending. So I was forced to do a semi-partial playthrough of the game in order to do that, but once the art popped up, so did the trophy.

47/53: Art Connoisseur - Unlock all art in the Gallery.

Now my last step of the Platinum playthrough was exactly the same as the first game. First I started a new playthrough and trashed drinks until I hit 25, and then left the game running on for an hour during the first Latte Art sequence. Boom, two more trophies.

48/53: Stop It! - Trash a total of 25 drinks.

49/53: Art Takes Time - Spent a total of 1 hour making latte art.

And lastly, getting 50 correct drinks in one run on Challenge Mode. This mode was not changed from the first game, the only difference being there were a lot more drink options to fuck up. So I decided to pull up a guide of what drinks each order referred to, which allowed me to quickly mop up 50 correct drinks and unlock the Platinum!

50/53: Barista Trainee - Serve 10 correct drinks in Challenge Mode.

51/53: Barista Expert - Serve 25 correct drinks in Challenge Mode.

52/53: Barista Guru - Serve 50 correct drinks in Challenge Mode.

53/53: Thank You For Playing - Unlock all trophies.

I really loved these games. I even kind of wish I hadn't gone through both games in 5 days, because I already miss them. I loved the setting, I loved the characters, and I loved how relaxed and happy the game made me. I know that a third game is coming up, but this one is gonna be set in Tokyo and feature a new cast. I'm not too sure about that. I know it will be amazing, but I'm so attached to his cast! Especially Lucas, I fucking love Lucas so much. But anyways, I definitely recommend everyone give both Coffee Talk and Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly a try!

Rest in peace, Mohammad. Thank you for making such a great game.

Rating: 10/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #65: Coffee Talk

Achieved on 5/4/2025 at 12:06 AM

After getting the Platinums for two separate Persona games, which took me a combined 245 hours or so, I really wanted to play something a little more lowkey. Something easy and relaxing. A game that was chill, you know? And I remembered seeing this game "Coffee Talk" on the PlayStation store, and for free on PS Plus. I decided to give this game a try, and I immediately fell in love with it.

Coffee Talk is set in a version of Seattle populated by humans and fantasy creatures alike. You play a barista - I named mine Arie - who runs a special coffee shop that is only open at night, which is where the most interesting people come in to drink and share their stories. These include your most frequent customer, a human writer named Freya; elf and succubus couple Baileys and Lua; human cop Jorji; vampire model Hyde and his werewolf best friend Gala; rising catgirl popstar Rachel and her overprotective father Hendry; game designer orc Myrtle; shy mermaid Aqua; and Neil, an alien wearing a spacesuit who is searching for love.

Coffee Talk's gameplay is also very simple. When a customer asks for a drink, you have to try your best to make exactly what they want. At first, I thought that this was just to give the player something to do, but I found out after I played the game that making the drinks actually affects how each customer's story plays out. Like, if you give a character the wrong drink every time, you'll get their bad ending.

Somehow, despite not knowing this, I still managed to get the Good Ending for each character during my first, completely blind playthrough of the game. I finished the game in about 5 hours, and I was absolutely absorbed in the characters and their stories as I played, and I had 15 trophies by the end of the game.

1/24: Welcome To Coffee Talk - Start a new game.

2/24: First Brew - Brew your first drink.

3/24: It's A Masterpiece! - Create and serve your first latte art.

4/24: Achievement Unlocked! - Reach a certain point in the story.

5/24: Let Me Start Over - Trash your drink for the first time.

6/24: Is This It? - Serve the wrong drink for the first time.

7/24: We Are All Friends - Meet every character in the game.

8/24: Love of my Life - Get Lua and Bailey's good ending.

9/24: Gala Had A Fit! - Serve Gala a Gala Had when he turns into a werewolf.

10/24: Social Media Fever - Unlock all of the characters social media profiles.

11/24: Father and Daughter - Get Rachel and Hendry's good ending.

12/24: Art Connoisseur - Unlock every image in the gallery.

13/24: There's A Spark - Get Hyde and Gala's good ending.

14/24: Interstellar Support - Get Neil's good ending.

15/24: Is That It? - Play the story mode to conclusion once.

With the game finished, I only had a few trophies left to get. First, I went into the music-playing app on Arie's phone and simply played a few seconds of each song on the soundtrack to pop the trophy for listening to all the music.

16/24: Aremy Jendrew - Listen to all the songs.

I then attempted to get a few trophies - the one for spending an hour making Latte Art and the one for making and throwing away 25 drinks - in Free Mode, which is a mode where you can just endlessly experiment with drinks, but after making many drinks and not popping the trophy, I googled it and discovered that they did not count when done in Free Mode.

So I ended up deciding to play the game for a second time. I would have to do this anyway, as playing the game a second time is necessary for a specific trophy. I won't spoil what happens, but what I found out about Arie at the end of my second playthrough? It absolutely tickled me.

17/24: Art Takes Time - Spent a total of 1 hour making latte art.

18/24: Stop It! - Trash a total of 25 drinks.

19/24: God of Caffeine - Discover the Barista's secret.

Next, I went back into Free Mode, and this time I looked up a list of all the drinks in the game and their recipes. Once I had made all of the drinks I had yet to discover and serve, I got another trophy.

20/24: Master Brewer - Unlock all special drinks.

Now, I only had three trophies left, and they were all for correctly making drinks in Challenge Mode. This mode sees you having to make drinks for an endless stream of customers. Correct orders will add to your time limit, but incorrect orders will make the clock tick down. And I needed to make at least 50 correct drinks in one single run of Challenge Mode.

This turned out to be trickier than expected, as once you make about 20 correct drinks, the orders start getting insanely vague, and I ended up making a lot of mistakes. Still, I didn't lose, and was able to eventually get to 50 correct drinks, which also unlocked the Platinum trophy!

21/24: Barista Trainee - Serve 10 correct drinks in Challenge Mode.

22/24: Barista Expert - Serve 25 correct drinks in Challenge Mode.

23/24: Barista Guru - Serve 50 correct drinks in Challenge Mode.

24/24: Coffee and Chill - Unlock all trophies.

This game was incredibly relaxing and chill, which is exactly what I needed after several stressful Platinums. And I completely fell in love with all of the characters, and I adored the urban fantasy setting. I got this Platinum within one afternoon and evening, and I was so in love that I immediately started playing the sequel the next day!

Rating: 9/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #64: Persona 3 Reload

Achieved on 4/29/2025 at 8:12 PM

So I had literally just gotten the Platinum for Persona 4 Golden, and I was debating whether I wanted to finish Persona 5...or give Persona 3 a look. During my playthrough of P4G, I kind of went a little insane and consumed an extremely large amount of Persona content. I even watched an entire playthrough of Persona 1 and Persona 2 (honestly if any games deserve a remake, it's those two, come on people give Naoya, Tatsuya, and Maya a chance!). But the dark blue aesthetic of Persona 3 drew me in the most, so I decided to buy Persona 3 Reload and get that Platinum next!

Persona 3 first came out all the way back in 2006, and it's already had two updated versions come out since then, but Reload is the most recent, and updated all the graphics and gameplay to modern standards. The plot sees our favorite blue-haired depressed boy Makoto Yuki/Minato Arisato (the name I picked) moving to a new town and new high school who discovers there is a secret 25th hour of the day called the Dark Hour, where Shadow monsters roam about. He ends up joining and becoming the leader of SEES, a group of seven high schoolers, one middle schooler, a robot waifu, and a dog that all have the ability to stay awake during the Dark Hour and fight the Shadows with their Personas.

Like my main playthrough of P4G, I decided to use a day-by-day 100% guide in order to get everything done as efficiently as possible. I actually ended up thinking I had more to do than I actually did, but I'll get back to that. For now, I was just enjoying the game. I always love how different each Persona game is, and I quickly fell in love with this cast of characters.

So yeah, I was following the guide and unlocking a bunch of trophies as I played.

1/49: Awakened Power - Obtained the Persona Orpheus.

2/49: SEES The Day - Join the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad.

3/49: The First of Many - Performed a Dyad Fusion.

4/49: There's No "I" In Team - Performed a Shift.

5/49: The Thrill of the Hunt - Defeated a rare golden enemy.

6/49: Tempting Fate - Triggered a skill change during a fusion.

7/49: Making the Dream Work - Performed 50 All-Out Attacks.

8/49: Shrouded Assassin - Initiated 50 Chance Encounters.

9/49: Back On Track - Defeat the Priestess.

10/49: The Power of Choice - Obtained 10 Personas during Shuffle Time.

11/49: Briefcase Burglar - Opened 50 treasure chests.

12/49: Eagle Eye - Acquired every Twilight Fragment in town.

13/49: Gourmand - Ordered from the secret menu at the Iwatodai strip mall at night.

14/49: Empowered Protector - Defeated the Empress and Emperor.

One thing I want to point out is apparently Reload added a bunch of stuff to the game that weren't in past versions. This includes spending time with all your teammates at the dorm. It still blows my mind that the original Persona 3 did not have Social Links for any of the male team members, so I'm glad they added dorm hangouts and special scenes with all the male team members to make up for it.

15/49: Dorm Life - Spent an evening in the dorm with a teammate.

Also I wanted to say, unfortunately, that there were quite a few Social Links that I just did not like at all. I really liked all the Social Links in 4, so I was disappointed that I was forced to hang out with some annoying ass people. But luckily I still liked most of them. Especially Hidetoshi. I don't know why but I adored Hidetoshi.

16/49: Unbreakable Link - Maxed out one Social Link.

17/49: Eat Your Veggies, Please! - Harvested a crop you grew with a teammate.

18/49: Specialist - Maxed out one Social Stat.

19/49: Shattered Plumes - Used a total of 50 Twilight Fragments.

20/49: Extracurricular Excellence - Rescued a missing person in Tartarus.

21/49: Birthday Present - Obtained an item from a Persona fusion.

22/49: The Fool's Journey - Obtained 10 Major Arcana during Shuffle Time.

23/49: Never Toy with Matters of the Heart - Defeated the Hierophant and the Lovers.

24/49: Benevolent Purr-tector - Nurse a cat back to full health.

25/49: Top of the Class - Aced an exam.

26/49: Fusion Artisan - Performed a fusion with three or more Personas.

27/49: Beyond the Darkness - Unlocked access to the remaining Major Arcana.

28/49: Armor Disarmed - Defeat the Chariot and Justice.

29/49: Through Thick and Thin - Unlocked a teammate's Combat Characteristic for the first time.

30/49: Peak Performance - Maxed out all Social Stats.

31/49: The Strength of Our Hearts - Use each teammate's Theurgy at least once.

32/49: Get a Load of Those Numbers! - Dealt over 999 damage in a single attack.

33/49: Dodging Lightning - Defeat the Hermit.

34/49: Glimpse of the Depths - Discovered and conquered 10 Monad Doors.

35/49: In High Demand - Accepted an invite to hang out five times.

36/49: Twist of Fate - Defeat Fortune and Strength.

Around November I also finally was able to romance my chosen partner. I think many people will be surprised to learn I didn't go for the obvious choice of Yukari, Fuuka, or Mitsuru. No, I decided to romance Yuko. I just feel like she makes the most sense for Minato's girlfriend. And I just love her hehe.

37/49: That Special Someone - Nurtured a romance.

38/49: The Horror of the Shade - Encountered a Dark Zone in Tartarus.

So throughout this entire playthrough so far, I kind of just assumed that there would be trophies for completing the Persona Compendium and defeating Elizabeth in her secret boss fight. I mean, those were trophies in Golden after all.

But after spending the entire game trying to get as many Personas as I could and stressing out on trying to prepare to fight Elizabeth, I finally discovered something that brought me so much joy: Those weren't necessary for this Platinum! Yeah, there are NO trophies related to finishing the Compendium or fighting Elizabeth. I was thrilled because I heard Elizabeth was insanely hard, and if Margaret was already super hard, I wasn't looking forward to it at all. But I didn't have to! Hurray!

I did have to do 80 requests for Elizabeth for a trophy, and I actually messed up despite following a guide, so I was worried I wouldn't get it. But then I managed to finish a few Tartarus requests, and I got to invite Elizabeth to Minato's bedroom. And yes, it goes exactly how you think.

39/49: Distinguished Visitor - Invited Elizabeth to your bedroom.

40/49: A Sense of Finality - Defeat the Hanged Man.

I was really excited to beat the last Full Moon Shadow character because I knew that Ryoji would enter the game following that. I had been spoiled on Ryoji's character in-between playing 4 and 3, but I had still fallen in love with the guy thanks to fan art and fanfiction. So I declare Ryoji the Best Boy of Persona 3 Reload, hehe.

Unfortunately, I was also now in the part of the game that was extremely boring, because there really truly isn't a whole lot to do in November, December, and January. Even the guide had turned into "do whatever you want" for almost all of the days.

So I got very bored, very fast. Most days I just went into Tartarus to try to grind up my party's levels, and this is when I realized that I really did not like Tartarus. At first I found it to be a cool dungeon format, especially with how each block is so differently designed, but by this point in the game it went from fun to boring and repetitive. But I kept on the grind because I wanted all characters available to be high level options for the final boss.

41/49: The Grindset Mindset - Earned over 50,000 yen total from part-time jobs.

42/49: A Newfound Strength - Awakened all teammates Ultimate Personas.

43/49: People Person - Unlocked all Social Links.

Now around the midpoint of January, I had fused both Satan and Helel in the Velvet Room and was shocked to see I know had access to Minato's Armageddon spell, or Theurgy in this case. For some reason I thought I had to fuse all the demonic Personas first, but no, I got it now. And since Armageddon does 9,999 damage when used, I was able to immediately go and fight the Reaper and kill it in one shot.

44/49: Reaper Reaped - Defeat the Reaper.

Not only did I get the Reaper, I kept killing the Reaper over and over and over again thanks to Armageddon. Because of that, I was able to level up my entire party to Level 99 in the span of two hours!

Suddenly I was having fun again, and I quickly sped through the rest of the guide to get to the final battle, fusing Messiah and finishing all the Social Links along the way.

45/49: Path to Salvation - Fuse Messiah.

46/49: A Legacy of Friendships - Max out all Social Links.

I ended up bringing Yukari, Akihiko, and Mitsuru to the final battle against Nyx. Even though I loved all the characters, this party ended up being my go-to formation many times, so go with what works, right? My strategy was to fill up Minato's Theurgy bar, and then use Yukari, Akihiko, and Mitsuru to demolish through all of the Nyx Avatar's phases until I got to the final phase. Then I had Minato use Armageddon and instantly kill the final boss.

I felt SO COOL.

47/49: The Great Seal - Sealed Nyx.

Now all I had to do was watch the ending. Even though I already knew what happened thanks to all my research into the Persona fandom, I was still deeply moved and got a little teary eyed at the ending. What an amazing message, and I can see why Persona 3 was such a huge success. I was still wiping away tears once the Platinum trophy popped.

48/49: From Shadows into Light - Watch the good ending.

49/49: A Most Remarkable Guest - Acquired all trophies.

I don't think Persona can make a bad game, hehe. I loved this game immensely, and I mostly loved it for the characters and for the cool boss fights! And even following a day-by-day guide, this entire playthrough still took me 95 hours. And even though I didn't like Tartarus by the end of the game, and the last three months of the game are incredibly boring, I still absolutely plan on playing this game again.

And I don't mean replaying this game again, or playing the Answer DLC, although I may do that too. I mean that as soon as I got this Platinum, I bought Persona 3 Portable. HERE I COME KOTONE!

Rating: 9/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #63: Penny's Big Breakaway

Achieved on 4/21/2025 at 11:26 PM

I first saw this game when browsing the PlayStation store one day, and I was intrigued by the look of the game. Doing my research, I discovered that this was a momentum-based platformer involving yo-yo stunts, and that the creators of the game had also worked on Sonic Superstars. Deciding I had to give this game a try, I bought it and then proceeded to get one extremely fun but also very frustrating Platinum.

So Penny's Big Breakaway takes place on the planet of Macaroon. Our heroine is Penny, a young woman who tries to impress the Emperor of the planet, Eddie, with the help of her sentient Yo-Yo, to earn a spot performing at the yearly Gala. However, Yo-Yo ends up going out of control and publicly humiliating Eddie, who orders Penny to be arrested. So Penny is forced to go on the run around the planet, using Yo-Yo to perform some sick tricks to escape Eddie's horde of police penguins and clear her name.

I decided the first step to my playthrough was to simply enjoy the game and play through it. And this game was pretty fun. I loved all the level designs, and the momentum platforming was pretty challenging. I could definitely tell that these developers had worked on a Sonic game, but Penny's Big Breakaway was so incredibly unique to itself. By the time I defeated the final boss fight, I had earned 18 trophies.

1/31: Close Shave - Shake off four penguins.

2/31: Together Forever - Fall off a ledge with a penguin attached to Penny.

3/31: Steeeeerike! - Land a strike with the penguins in Vanillatown 1-3.

4/31: Ready Set Yo! - Escape the Penguinball.

5/31: Ship-Shape - Repair Sheila's ship.

6/31: Everyday I'm Buskin' - Complete a perfect Busker Bonus minigame at the top tier.

7/31: Squeaky Clean - Complete a level without losing Gusto or letting Penguins attach to you.

8/31: On The Blue - Fill all the golf holes in Zaphara 3-1.

9/31: Corner Pocket - Knock some sense into Mr. Q.

10/31: Let Her cook - Cook all of the food in Moltobene 4-1.

11/31: Royal Flush - Beat Eddie at his own sumo game.

12/31: Double Up - Double Puppet Penny's coin count by the end of the race.

13/31: Percussive Maintenance - Shut down the Giant Penguin.

14/31: Sweet Freedom - Free all of your cellmates in Lawberry.

15/31: Adjourned for Recess - Beat Judge Rufus and tip the scales of justice back in your favor.

16/31: Pengo Penthouse - Find the secret Penguin room.

17/31: Iconoclast - Knock down every portrait of Eddie in a single Edditorium stage.

18/31: One for the Ages - Bring down the house at the Edditorium.

With the game beaten, I decided to focus on getting all the remaining miscellaneous trophies for doing specific actions in certain levels.

19/31: Perfect Prologue - Complete the Prologue level without falling off the ledge.

20/31: Hydrophobic - Complete a stage in Tideswell without falling into the ocean.

21/31: Hang Ten - Surf on a wave for 10 seconds in Bubblin'.

22/31: Winter Sprinter - Complete Pengoville 7-1 in under 3 minutes.

23/31: Demolition Expert - Hit a bomb with the Yo-Yo in mid-air in Industria.

24/31: Hundo Club - Get a combo of over 100.

I was on a roll, until I got to the trophy for completing the final level of the game before the final boss fight in less than 4 minutes and 30 seconds. This ended up being my hell. Of course they would do this kind of trophy for the level with the hardest platforming. Finishing it before the time limit was up required near perfection, and it took me nearly 50 tries before I finally managed to beat the challenge and unlock the trophy.

25/31: I'm Designer - Complete Edditorium 11-4 in under 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

Next, I decided to grind coins to get the trophy for having 10,000 coins. I was up to about 700 by the time I started doing this, so I just ran through levels and picked up coins until the trophy popped.

26/31: I Love Gold - Collect 10,000 coins.

My next step was to finish all the collectibles. There are two main collectibles in this game. The first is Denizen Dilemmas; in each level, there are three citizens who need Penny's help with something. These are usually fetch quests, time limited challenges, or puzzles. You need to complete all three in each level for the trophy. There were also three hidden Show Pieces in each level to find for another trophy. To get this, I just used a YouTube guide on how to complete all dilemmas and find each show piece. The trophies both unlocked once I got all of them in the final level and then completed the level.

27/31: Model Denizen - Complete all Denizen Dilemmas.

28/31: Lights Camera Action! - Collect all Show Pieces.

Finally, all I had to do was complete the Star Globe levels, which are bonus challenge levels that test all of Penny's different skills and tricks. There are a total of 15, and once I finished the 15th and final Star Globe level, I had myself a shiny new Platinum trophy!

29/31: Cosmic Aspirations - Clear one Star Globe level.

30/31: Reach for the Stars - Clear all Star Globe levels.

31/31: Breakout Star - Get all of the trophies.

I think that this game was fantastic. I had a lot of fun playing it, and I bet that you could get a lot of enjoyment out of trying to beat your best times on each level. I don't know for sure if this game has a speedrunning community, but if it doesn't, I would be shocked. I only knock off points because there are a few glitches here and there, but nothing too distracting from the fun.

Rating: 8/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #62: Persona 4 Golden

Achieved on 3/3/2025 at 11:42 PM

I always had known of the Persona series, but I never actually played it. And then one day, I decided to give it a try. So I bought a Persona game, and started playing it, and I became hooked. I became obsessed. It was one of the most fun video game experiences I ever had, and I was determined to get the Platinum for it.

That game.......was Persona 5.

Yeah, I actually played Persona 5 up until the boss of the second dungeon, but then I had a catastrophic system glitch and lost my save file. I was very sad and annoyed, so I decided to take a break from Persona 5 and try something else.

That something else ended up being Persona 4 Golden. And if I thought I had loved Persona 5, I was not prepared for how much I would end up adoring Persona 4.

As soon as I began playing Persona 4, I wondered to myself "How did I miss this gem for so long?". I immediately fell in love with the game and the characters. And I also loved how different the plot was from Persona 5, and was excited to join these small town teenagers in discovering the truth behind a series of murders related to the strange world inside the TV's.

I now know that the Persona 4 protagonist has the canon name Yu Narukami, but at the time of my first playthrough, I gave him the name Rin Yamanouchi. I played the game blind, using my knowledge of the similar mechanics from Persona 5, and got three trophies early on.

1/50: The Other Self - Obtain the Persona Izanagi.

2/50: Advantage Mine - Enter a battle with Player Advantage.

3/50: A Favor for Marie - Register a Skill Card.

Now I will say that, going into this game, I had already known that there were guides on how to 100% the game as quickly as possible. Like, guides that told you exactly what to do day-by-day in order to unlock all the trophies. And at first, I didn't want to do that. I wanted to play the game completely blind.

And then I failed to rescue Yukiko before the deadline.

From that point on, I decided that I could still enjoy the game even if I was using a playthrough guide. So I restarted the game, and this time I played following the 100% Schedule Guide. I know some people might not agree with his decision, but the important thing is that I was correct, and I was still able to thoroughly enjoy the game even when I was playing following a guide.

So I continued on with Rin, now renamed to his canon name Yu, and played through the entire game day by day.

4/50: Lucky Me! - Win a prize from the vending machine.

5/50: Persona Shopper - Buy a Persona from the Compendium.

6/50: Seize The Moment - Buy a special croquette from Sozai Daigaku.

7/50: It's Working Today - Buy an item from the Capsule Machine.

8/50: Fashion Plate - Fight a battle in costume.

9/50: Tactical Fighter - Exploit enemy weaknesses 100 times.

10/50: Skilled Commander - Perform 50 All-Out Attacks.

11/50: A Prince Appears - Rescue Yukiko Amagi.

12/50: Grasping At Greed - Defeat a Golden Hand.

13/50: A True Man's Stand - Rescue Kanji Tatsumi.

Real quick note: Kanji is Best Boy. That is all.

14/50: Bug Hunter - Swing the bug net with perfect timing.

15/50: Fill Your Hand - Get 50 Sweep Bonuses.

16/50: Displaying Adaptability - Switch Personas 5 times in one battle.

17/50: The Lounge Is Closed - Rescue Rise Kujikawa.

18/50: Granter Of Your Desires - Buy 5 things from Tanaka's Amazing Commodities.

One thing to mention is that, by following the guide, there were some points where I would do things specifically to get trophies, and then reload a previous save in order to keep things running smoothly. Save files REALLY came in handy a lot in this game. You bet your ass I was making sure to use a Goho-M and save the game before any boss fight.

19/50: Movie Buff - Go to three movies at 30 Frame.

20/50: Head of the Class - Rank #1 in your class on an exam.

21/50: The Nose Doesn't Always Know - Experience a fusion accident.

22/50: Special Fusion Expert - Use 4 or more Personas in a special fusion.

23/50: Game Over - Secure Mitsuo Kubo.

24/50: A True Bond - Max out a Social Link.

25/50: Fishing Master - Catch the Sea Guardian.

26/50: Going Nova - Deal over 999 damage in 1 attack.

27/50: Boarded-Up Lab - Rescue Naoto Shirogane.

28/50: Moderate Bookkeeper - Register over 50% of the Persona Compendium.

Also I think most Persona 4 fans can agree that Rise and Yu are just meant to be. I know Yu can romance Chie and Yukiko and Naoto and a few other social link girls, but honestly? Yu and Rise just make the most sense.

Also Rise is Best Girl, I love her so much. Just give me Yu, Rise, and Kanji and I'll be a happy RJ.

Anyways, continuing on with the playthrough and getting trophies!

29/50: A Special Lady - Enter a special relationship with someone.

30/50: The Return of the Angels - Rescue Nanako Dojima.

31/50: Mr. Perfect - Max out all social qualities.

32/50: Food Fighter - Finish Aiya's special dish.

33/50: Big Bro Is Worried - Visit Nanako in the hospital three times.

34/50: Bond Maniac - Max out 10 Social Links.

35/50: Compulsive Reader - Read all books.

36/50: Fusion Expert - Perform 50 Persona fusions.

I will also say that I was genuinely thrown for a loop by the identity of the real killer. Looking back, there were plenty of hints about it, but I was genuinely surprised. I guess I just got tricked by the soft tones of Johnny Yung Bosch's voice. Sigh.

37/50: Breaking Through The Fog - Secure Tohru Adachi.

After capturing Adachi, surprisingly there is still a lot left to do in the game, so I continued following the guide to get more miscellaneous trophies.

38/50: An Acquired Taste - Drink the coffee at Cafe Chagall.

39/50: The Reaper Becomes The Reaped - Defeat the Reaper.

40/50: Cooking With Gas - Make five perfect boxed lunches.

And then it was time for Marie's dungeon. Apparently, Marie's dungeon will ONLY appear in the game if you finish her Social Link. I am glad that I followed the guide, because if I had been playing blind like my first attempt at Persona 4, I would have straight up ignored her. I find Marie deeply annoying, sorry to all Marie fans.

41/50: Welcome Back - Rescue Marie.

After that, all I had left was finishing the last Social Links and then defeating the real final boss, and I had officially finished my first entire playthrough of Persona 4 Golden.

42/50: Legend of Inaba - Max out all Social Links.

43/50: The Truth In Your Hands - Defeat Izanami.

Now it was time for my New Game+ playthrough. I was specifically aiming for the secret Margaret fight that is only available on the final day of a New Game+ playthrough, but I was also going to go for all the remaining skill cards, Personas for the Compendium, and getting 250 unique navigation lines from Rise.

That last one I will get back to.

But I ended up playing the entire game again, and this time I did whatever I wanted, only building up the Social Links that I liked the best, and being an absolute troll and menace. It was great. And by the end of my second playthrough, I got all but two trophies in the game.

44/50: Card Collector - Register 100 Skill Cards.

45/50: Thorough Bookkeeper - Complete the Persona Compendium.

46/50: The Power of Truth - Create Izanagi-no-Okami.

47/50: One Who Has Proven Their Power - Defeat Margaret.

So, you'll notice that even though I began my New Game+ playthrough with the intention of getting Hardcore Risette Fan, I did not get it. This is because I was an idiot and didn't think to keep track of the lines until halfway through the first dungeon with Rise as navigator. I ended up getting so frustrated that I just gave up.

So yes. I actually had to play an entire third playthrough of the game JUST for the sole purpose of unlocking the trophy for hearing 250 of Rise's navigation lines, this time keeping track and spending hours in a dungeon grinding out different lines. It was infuriating, but the pure euphoria I felt when I finally unlocked the trophy was indescribable.

48/50: Hardcore Risette Fan - Hear 250 of Rise's navigation lines.

After that, I only had to do the Miracle Quiz minigame. This is a quiz show where Teddie challenges you to answer trivia questions about Persona 4. And some of these questions are VERY obscure. I think one of them was "how many seats are in the classroom" at the school. It was wild. I ended up using a guide for this as well, and when I won the Finals of the game, I got the Platinum for Persona 4 Golden!

49/50: A New Quiz King - Win the Miracle Quiz Finals.

50/50: Golden Completed - Earn all trophies.

I really enjoyed what little I had actually played of Persona 5, but this game is what made me become a truly obsessed Persona fanatic. I love the setting, I love the characters, I love the dungeons, and even though some parts of this Platinum were frustrating, I loved every minute of the 150 hours it took to get it.

And as of me posting this, Persona 4 Revival has been announced, and I already know I've lost the mental battle to convince myself not to buy it. Persona 4 has a special place in my heart.

Rating: 11/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #61: Sly Cooper & The Thievius Raccoonus

Achieved on 2/15/2025 at 10:49 PM

Wait a minute. Didn't I already get this Platinum way back in 2022?

Oh, I see, this is a remastered re-release on the PlayStation 5 that came with a completely brand new trophy list! How fun!

Yep, I actually got a Platinum for the same game twice. However, this time around, I actually found the Platinum to be extremely enjoyable. And why? Because the trophies were actually fun!

I don't need to tell you what Sly Cooper is about. We all know what the plot of our favorite furry thief's first outing into the world is about. However, this time, the trophies weren't exclusively about opening vaults and getting new power-ups or finding secrets. Most of the new trophies had a degree of challenge to them. Since I've played this game at least 100 times by now, I had no issue with focusing solely on getting the Platinum, so I looked up guides on how to get all the trophies.

Starting off with Sir Raleigh the Frog's rainy ship, which still contains one of my least favorite levels in video game history (I'm looking at you, stupid crab treasure chest minigame I hate you so much). Most of the trophies in this stage were easy to get, and I ended the level with 8 of them.

1/37: Get A Clue - Collect 5 clue bottles.

2/37: A Thief Heeds No Warning - Destroy 4 signs in A Stealthy Approach.

3/37: Nimble Solutions - Complete The Fire Down Below without grabbing any hooks.

4/37: Charming the Library - Complete A Cunning Disguise without using the barrel.

5/37: Through the Fire and Planks - Take a shortcut over flaming debris in The Gunboat Graveyard by using the Crow's Nest.

6/37: Plundered Treasures - Open all vaults in Tide of Terror.

7/37: Stopping the Storm - Complete all jobs in Tide of Terror.

8/37: Croaking Crook - Defeat Sir Raleigh.

Next up was Mesa City with Muggshot. I'd say the most difficult trophy here was trying to complete the Carmelita chase in Two to Tango without getting hurt. I kept falling and taking fall damage at a specific point in the chase, but I eventually managed to get it, and ended this level with 8 more trophies.

9/37: What a Pane - Destroy 7 panes of glass in Back Alley Heist.

10/37: Look Out Below! - Drop 5 cars in Straight To The Top.

11/37: Sleight of Hand - Defeat all 4 Casino Enforcers at the start of Boneyard Casino without being detected.

12/37: The Perfect Date - Complete Two to Tango without taking damage or falling.

13/37: Bringing Down The House - Complete all jobs in Sunset Snake Eyes.

14/37: No More Beaches for Sly - Discover the Water Safety Technique.

15/37: Sly's Hot Streak - Open all vaults in Sunset Snake Eyes.

16/37: Blinding Blaster - Defeat Muggshot.

Going into Mz. Ruby's voodoo swamp, I found the difficulty picking up slightly, but it was still relatively easy. I think this Platinum list would be good for kid gamers - it's challenging but not impossible! And I ended this level with 7 more trophies.

17/37: Must Have Been the Ghosts - Defeat all Voodoo Guards in The Dread Swamp Path without being detected.

18/37: Ectoplasmic Slasher - Defeat five ghosts in a single attack in A Grave Undertaking.

19/37: Sly Be Nimble Sly Be Quick - Jump over all candles during the chase in The Lair of the Beast.

20/37: Slytly Pacifist - Complete Descent into Danger without defeating any enemies or destroying any alarms.

21/37: Swampy Secrets - Open all vaults in Vicious Voodoo.

22/37: Cauldron Disaster - Complete all jobs in Vicious Voodoo.

23/37: Bayou Boogie - Defeat Mz. Ruby.

And then the snowy mountains of the Panda King's temple. Nothing really important to say here, except the Flaming Temple of Flame trophy made me discover for the first time in literally my entire life that the monkeys training on top of the sticks in that one room can actually be killed? I legit had no idea that was possible. You learn something new every day! And of course, you can't open the last vault until you beat Clockwerk, so I moved on from that level with 7 more trophies.

24/37: Share What's Mine - Defeat two or more enemies with the same mine.

25/37: Seen and Wanted - Alert every flashlight guard and set off every alarm in The Unseen Foe.

26/37: This Session's Over - Defeat all the training Moo Goo Monkeys in Flaming Temple of Flame.

27/37: Setting the Mood - Launch 2 pink fireworks in Duel by the Dragon.

28/37: Super Cooper - Discover the Briefly Defy Gravity technique.

29/37: Production Blocker - Complete all jobs in Fire In The Sky.

30/37: Panda Pummeler - Defeat Panda King.

The final level in Clockwerk's lair only has three trophies, and they are all basically for completing the final level and beating the boss. I did find it humorous that they devoted an entire trophy to simply seeing the cutscene where Sly and Carmelita kiss.

31/37: Death Ray Destruction - Foil Clockwerk's plans in The Cold Heart of Hate.

32/37: Eternal Enemy - Defeat Clockwerk.

33/37: Oh No He Didn't! - Steal a kiss from Carmelita Fox.

Once the owl was dead, I went back to the Panda King level and opened the final vault for the last vault trophy.

34/37: Safecracker - Open all vaults in Fire In The Sky.

Next I went for this weird trophy where I had to use the Binoc-u-Com to analyze 10 enemies and learn their names. I have no clue if this was a thing in the original Sly Cooper and I just never noticed it or found it, or if it was added to this version exclusively, but it was very easy to get.

35/37: Knowing is Half the Battle - Learn the names of 10 enemies using the Binoc-u-Com.

And lastly, I had to complete 10 Master Thief Sprints, which is where you speedrun a level and get to the end before time runs out. I actually looked up a guide on the 10 easiest levels to do sprints in, and then just did those until I completed all 10 and got the trophy, and then my 2nd Thievius Raccoonus Platinum!

36/37: Speedius Thievius - Complete 10 Master Thief Sprints.

37/37: A Cooper's Pride - Unlock all trophies.

I always enjoy this game. It's one of those nostalgic games that I could never truly get tired of. And I was very happy to see it get a brand new, much more satisfying trophy list. Thanks for the second Platinum, Sly!

Rating: 10/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #60: Nippon Marathon

Achieved on 2/15/2025 at 3:35 PM

This is one of the weirdest games I've ever played. But holy shit it was so much fun!

I first became aware of this game when I saw Achievement Hunter play it in a video years ago. One day, I randomly remembered the video, and decided to see if the game was available on PlayStation 5. To my surprise, it was, and I also discovered it had a Platinum. So I decided to buy the game and try it out, and ended up having a great time playing this weird, weird, weird game.

Nippon Marathon is a party game in which up to four players race through a course filled with obstacles such as giant fish, overenthusiastic flyer distributors, angry Shiba Inus, masochistic businessmen, and social media influencer monkeys. It's set in an incredibly surreal and over-the-top version of Japan, and the game is made with deliberately low quality graphics and physics, which honestly added to the charm.

There are four main characters, each of whom has their own Story Mode - lobster farmer J. Darwin; narwhal enthusiast Elizabeth Nishibori; Zenbei, a system made up of a bubbly schoolgirl and a grumpy old man; and weirdest of all Snuguru Maestro, a walking talking dog with dreams of starting a dating service. You have to complete Story Mode with all four of them for trophies, so I started by playing each character's story all the way to the end, and got a few other miscellaneous trophies along the way.

1/13: Smelliest Player - Be declared the Smelliest at the end of a race.

2/13: Renovate The Farm - Complete story mode with J. Darwin.

3/13: Dog Whisperer - Alert 100 Shiba Inus.

4/13: Save the Narwhals - Complete story mode with Elizabeth Nishibori.

5/13: Xylophagia - Eat a Wedy Page and gain nothing but protein.

6/13: Meet Your Other Half - Complete story mode with Zenbei.

7/13: Now Incorporated - Complete story mode with Snuguru Maestro.

Next I decided to tackle the two minigames that the game offers. One is LOBSTER MODE, which is where you try to get as far as possible in a randomly generated obstacle course, and the other is Go-Go Trolley Bowling, which is bowling except you use a shopping cart instead of a ball. These were both a little tricky, but I managed to get the trophies for both minigames quickly enough.

8/13: Poor Man's Chicken - Traverse 200 meters in LOBSTER MODE.

9/13: Turkey Trolley - Get three strikes in a row in Go-Go Trolley Bowling.

Next up I went for the trophy for choosing Snuguru 25 times in Versus Mode. Now, when I did this trophy, I assumed that I had to play Snuguru 25 times. This meant that I had to play 25 different rounds of Versus Mode as Snuguru. And that is what I did.

Turns out I didn't have to. You just have to literally select Snuguru 25 times. No actual gameplay required. I found that out when I was about to start my 25th game, and got the trophy as soon as I left the character choosing screen. Not gonna lie, I was a bit ticked off.

10/13: You Love The Dog - Choose Snuguru Maestro 25 times in Versus Mode.

Second-to-last, I had to complete a Full Marathon. This is a party mode where you race through every single course in the game in one go, and you have to win for it to count for the trophy. It did take me about three tries, but eventually I was able to win the Marathon and unlock the trophy. I used J. Darwin because he ended up being my favorite character. Screw the dog, we're about lobsters here!

11/13: I Just Felt Like Runnin' - Finish a Full Marathon.

And now the last thing I had to do was collect all Wedy Pages. Wedy is a reporter with a jetpack who pops in during races to ask questions, and she has a pretty big role in the Story Mode too. She has travel guide pages scattered across all the courses, so I ended up just using a guide to find all the ones I didn't have. Once I got all the Pages, I got the Platinum!

12/13: Travelling Enlightened - Collect all Wedy Pages and becomes a Legendary Backpacker.

13/13: Nippon Legend - Earn every trophy!

This game is janky and weird, but that's clearly on purpose. This game is supposed to be weird, and in accepting that, I had a total blast playing it! I'm not sure how well it would actually work if I was playing it with three other people - mostly because I'm not sure my friends in real life would appreciate the joke, hehe. But anyways, if you read this and have any interest in playing Nippon Marathon, please do! It's a weird and wild time!

Rating: 8/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #59: SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake

Achieved on 9/12/2024 at 8:51 PM

One of the first Platinums I got on my PS5 was for SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated. I still consider that to be one of the most fun Platinums to get, and definitely one of the best licensed games out there. I was a little skeptical when I heard about The Cosmic Shake, but I still decided to buy it when it came out and give it a try.

I was disappointed.

Cosmic Shake sees SpongeBob and Patrick having to save Bikini Bottom when they unintentionally unleash a tidal wave of cosmic jelly onto the town, transforming it into a mashed together wasteland and accidentally sending all of SpongeBob's friends into alternate dimensions. With the help of the definitely-not-evil mermaid Cassandra, it is up to SpongeBob and Patrick (who has been turned into a balloon for some reason) to rescue everyone and return things to normal.

I'm just gonna get this out of the way now - this game is hella glitchy. There were multiple times when I pressed a button but SpongeBob didn't do anything, and I saw a lot of frame rate issues. But the worst was definitely the audio. So many voice lines don't sync with the characters mouths, or the audio just completely cuts out and you can't hear them. The audio never really got better at any point during the game either.

Anyways, I just went into the game blind and played it from start to finish without any expectations. My first trophy I got completely on accident when I just started beating the crap out of a police fish during the tutorial for shits and giggles.

1/44: Wanted Sponge - Hit 25 NPC's.

After the tutorial, you start unlocking other dimensions, which serve as the levels of the game. To enter a level you need to buy the right costume from Cassandra, and doing this for the first time got me another trophy.

2/44: Dress Up - Unlock your first costume.

And so I continued playing, getting different trophies as I went through the game. I will say, the levels are all very cool, and I did enjoy the platforming.

3/44: Sponge out of Harm's Way - Defeat 50 enemies without taking damage inflicted by them.

4/44: Bubble the Trouble - Bubble 10 Tartar Jellies that are currently engaged in an attack.

5/44: Bamboozled - Bubble an enemy that hasn't detected SpongeBob yet.

6/44: Deputy - Complete all the main missions in the Wild West Jellyfish Fields.

7/44: Stunning Performance - Push 50 enemies with the Jelly Maker roar.

8/44: Is It A Plane? Is It A Pizza? - Glide 1000 meters throughout the game.

9/44: Movie Star - Complete all main missions in Karate Downtown Bikini Bottom.

10/44: The Way of the Sponge - Karate kick 100 times.

11/44: Boxing Champion - Destroy 1000 Tikis.

12/44: Friendly Fire - Defeat a Big Jelly with the Baby Boom projectile.

13/44: Volley King - Defeat 10 Baby Booms by reflecting their missle.

14/44: First Mate - Complete all main missions in Pirate Goo Lagoon.

15/44: ScaredyPants - Complete all main missions in Halloween Rock Bottom.

16/44: SpongeBob JellyPants - Carry 10,000 Jellies at once.

17/44: Ugh Ugaha! - Complete all main missions in Prehistoric Kelp Forest.

18/44: Red and Shiny - Press 50 buttons.

19/44: King of the Castle - Complete all main missions in Medieval Sulfur Fields.

20/44: BounceBob - Jump 10 times in a row on one Jump Pad.

21/44: Ride Rider - Complete all main missions in Jelly Glove World.

During the final boss fight against Cassandra and a giant Jelly-corrupted Squidward, I discovered for the first time that each boss has a trophy related to it when I managed to get the trophy for completing the right without getting hit on accident. Once I finished that boss fight, I had officially beaten the main story of the game.

22/44: Tentacle Dodger - Don't get hit by Jelly Squidward's tentacles during the boss fight.

23/44: Local Hero - Save Bikini Bottom from being destroyed.

For my next step, I decided to go back and get all the trophies for the various boss fights in the game. Some of them were easy, but a few others were really difficult, namely the trophies for taking no damage in the Sandy and Pom Pom fights, and avoiding getting spotted during the King Gary fight. That one took me the most tries. But eventually I finished out all the boss fight trophies.

24/44: The Good, The Bad, and the Krabby - Catch Mr. Krabs in under 3 minutes.

25/44: Kah-Ray-Tay King - Don't take any damage during the Sandy boss fight.

26/44: Deck Scrubber - Reclaim the Flying Dutchman's ship in under 5 minutes during the boss fight.

27/44: Jellyfish Hunter - Catch 50 jellyfish.

28/44: Pet You Didn't See That Coming - Don't get seen by King Gary during the boss fight.

29/44: SpongeLock HolmesPants - Find the Secret Spatula in every level.

30/44: Dehydrated - Evade all of Pom Pom's shockwaves during the boss fight.

31/44: Knight in Shining PJs - Deliver all cakes without getting hit by the With once during the boss fight.

32/44: Splash Zone - Have Glovey Glove defeat 20 enemies during the boss fight.

While I was still in the Glovey Glove fight after getting the trophy, I realized that I could get another trophy really easily here. Enemies called Ninjellies spawn infinitely at a certain point in this fight, but they can be killed by Glovey Glove's attacks. Since these counted as environmental hazards, I just sat around and waited until 25 had been killed to pop the trophy.

33/44: Hazardous - Defeat 25 Ninjellies with environmental hazards.

Next I got a few miscellaneous trophies out of the way.

34/44: Beach Spinster - Spin six beach umbrellas at once.

35/44: Music Enthusiast - Listen to a Slamvil perform a solo in peace and quiet.

36/44: Sponginator - Destroy 500 objects.

Then I decided to focus on all the remaining combat trophies, which I was able to easily get by finding the various enemies around Bikini Bottom and doing what was needed for each trophy.

37/44: Jaws with Flaws - Defeat 10 enemies with the Burrower.

38/44: Wrath-tub - Defeat 25 enemies with the Big Jelly's attack.

39/44: Return to Sender - Defeat 5 Jelly Makers by knocking other enemies into them.

40/44: King of Bubbles - Bubble 100 enemies.

41/44: Spring Cleaning - Suck in a total of 100 enemies using the Reef Blower.

Next up I needed to completely 100% all levels. Since I had already defeated Cassandra, all I needed to do was finish all the side missions and find all 70 coins in the game. Once I did that, I got the trophy.

42/44: Wanna See Me Do It Again? - Clear every level and defeat the final boss.

And with all the coins found, I was able to buy the remaining costumes, which was the final step to getting this Platinum.

43/44: Fashion Hunter - Unlock all costumes.

44/44: One Sponge To Rule Them All - Collect all trophies.

I'm sure that they were hoping this would be a worthy follow-up to BFBB Rehydrated, but even though the level designs are fun, the absolutely insane number of glitches kept distracting me from truly enjoying the game, and I honestly got kind of bored of the game by the time I got the Platinum. This is definitely a game I will only play once. Sorry SpongeBob.

Rating: 6/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #58: Hogwarts Legacy

Achieved on 9/5/2024 at 12:13 PM

I've been a huge fan of Harry Potter since I was a little kid, and I was obsessed with the PS2 versions of Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban when I was younger. So once I heard that Hogwarts Legacy was coming out, I knew I had to have it!

...and somehow I didn't buy it until nearly almost a year and a half after it came out. But I did eventually buy it and had some of the most fun I've ever had getting a Platinum!

For the most part.

Hogwarts Legacy is set in the 1890's, well over a century before Harry Potter is even born, and sees players take on the role of a young wizard or witch - character customization is great in this game - who is attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft & Wizardry for the first time...as a fifth year. Apparently we're a late bloomer! But before we even get to the school we have an entire adventure that sets us up on a journey to discover the truth behind a mysterious ancient magic that we alone can harness.

It's so fun being the Chosen One!

What I was really excited about was learning we can choose which House we are sorted into. So my beloved character, whom I named Jesse Poisonwood, joined me in the illustrious house of Ravenclaw, and I finally got my first trophy after almost two hours of gameplay.

1/46: The Sort Who Makes An Entrance - Complete the introduction and finishing the Sorting Ceremony.

I decided the best course for my Hogwarts Legacy journey was to play the game blind and explore the game at my own pace, unlocking whatever trophies I could all the way. And honestly, even just exploring the castle or exploring the world map for hours and hours is insanely fun. I didn't even use Fast Travel most of the time because I enjoyed flying on my broom over the countryside so much. So I just played the game, balancing story missions and side content along the way.

2/46: First Class Student - Attend your first class.

3/46: Troll with the Punches - Survive the troll attack at Hogsmeade.

4/46: A Keen Sense of Spell - Invoke Ancient Magic for the first time.

5/46: The Wise Owl - Find the Map Champer as a Ravenclaw.

6/46: A Talent for Spending - Spend 5 Talent Points.

7/46: That's a Keeper - Meet Charles Rockwood in the Map Chamber.

8/46: The Root of the Problem - Stun 10 different enmies using a Mandrake.

9/46: Loom for Improvement - Upgrade a piece of gear.

10/46: Spilled Milk - Used Flipendo ten times to tip over one cow or several cows.

11/46: Going Through the Potions - Brew every type of potion.

12/46: The Defender of Dragons - Rescue a dragon.

Fun fact, you can learn all three Unforgivable Curses in this game if you complete Sebastian's side quest storyline. I find it hilarious when I'm whipping out Avada Kedavras and Imperios and Crucios in the middle of battle. They're not needed for the trophy to learn all spells, but I did eventually get that trophy too!

13/46: The Spell Master - Learn all spells.

14/46: Challenge Accepted - Complete all tiers of a challenge.

Also there is an entire side mission and trophy dedicated to a meme based off of one of Ron's lines in the second movie. I clap my hands in applause, Hogwarts Legacy. This killed me when I got this trophy.

15/46: Followed the Butterflies - Follow butterflies to a treasure.

16/46: Third Time's The Charm - Upgrade a piece of gear 3 times.

17/46: The Hallowed Hero - Wield a Deathly Hallow.

Once I unlocked the final portion of the map and entered the final act of the main story, I decided to try to get some of the side content done as I played through. I decided to finish all of Imelda's races, and grow all plants and breed all the beasts in the Room of Requirement, all of which I accomplished at various points in-between story missions.

18/46: Coasting Along - Visit Poidsear Coast.

19/46: Flight the Good Flight - Beat Imelda's time in all broom races.

20/46: Rising From The Ashes - Rescue the Phoenix.

21/46: Put Down Roots - Grow every type of plant.

22/46: The One Who Mastered Memories - View all Pensieve memories.

23/46: Grappling with a Graphorn - Subdue the Lord of the Shore.

24/46: The Nature of the Beast - Breed every type of Beast.

25/46: The Ends Petrify The Means - Defeat a total of fifty enemies using Petrificus Totalus.

And then I got to the final battle against Ranrok the goblin, which was absolutely stellar. Probably one of my favorite boss fights in a video game.

26/46: The Hero of Hogwarts - Defeat Ranrok.

With the main story done, I was on trophy clean-up. First, I got all three trophies for finishing the questlines for your companions in the game - Gryffindor badass Natsai, Slytherin sly boy Sebastian, and my favorite unhinged Hufflepuff Poppy.

Also, you technically have a Ravenclaw companion, but Amit doesn't get his own storyline. It's bullshit and unfair.

But anyway, I had already played each questline's main missions, and so all I had to do was talk to each of them one at a time to get the trophies. I loved Natsai and Poppy, but I think Sebastian was definitely the standout winner among the three storylines.

27/46: The Avenging Gazelle - Complete Natsai Onai's questline.

28/46: A Sallow Grave - Complete Sebastian Sallow's questline.

29/46: Beast Friends - Complete Poppy Sweeting's questline.

From here, I focused on grinding out trophies. A lot of them involved collectibles and exploring the map, so I used guides for a lot of these trophies.

30/46: Floo Around The World - Unlock all Floo Flames.

31/46: Room With A View - Reach the highest point in the castle, the Headmaster's upper study.

32/46: Demiguise Dread - Find all Demiguise statues.

33/46: The Intrepid Explorer - Discover all Cairn dungeons.

34/46: Raising Expectations - Reach a combo of 100.

35/46: Rise to the Challenges - Defeat enemies in all battle arenas.

Unfortunately, I now had one of the two worst trophies in the game to deal with. There are a lot of enemies in the game, and this trophy requires you to use Ancient Magic on each type of enemy at least once.

However, I had no earthly idea which enemies I hadn't used it on. So I was forced to get a list of all the enemies and slowly hunt them down one by one and use Ancient Magic on them until I got the trophy, which took me way longer than it should have, mostly due to the fact that there were one or two enemy types that I just could not find on the map, but eventually I got it.

36/46: Finishing Touches - Use Ancient Magic on every enemy in the game.

Next was another awful trophy, and that was completing all the Merlin Trials in the game. These are puzzles scattered throughout the map, and I had stupidly only done the one single trial that is required during a story mission. I thought finishing them after the main story would be easy.

Turns out there are 95 fucking trials. This took me hours and hours of running around the map and solving puzzles. I hated it so much, but I pushed through and got the trophy.

37/46: Merlin's Beard! - Complete all Merlin Trials.

Next I decided to finish all of the side missions. I had actually gotten a lot of these side missions done during the main story, so this did not take me as long as the previous two trophies.

38/46: The Good Samaritan - Complete all side quests.

Next was getting Jesse up to Level 40, which required me to finish all the challenges in the game. Things like killing a certain number of enemies. This also didn't take me long, and once I got the trophy for hitting Level 40, I also spent all the remaining Talent Points to unlock all skills for another trophy.

39/46: A Forte for Achievement - Reach Level 40.

40/46: Savvy Spender - Spend all Talent Points.

Next up was completing all collections, which basically meant 100%ing the game. The biggest part of this was collecting all the Revelio Pages for the Field Guide, but also included things like collecting all brooms and wands and collecting all ingredients. However, it turns out that this trophy is glitched sometimes, and won't count one of the 16 ingredients as found. I had panicked and worried this would stop me from getting the Platinum, but then I found out that you don't actually need everything to unlock the trophy. The trophy still unlocked once I had gotten 603 items, even though there are a total of 625 collection items. I was so relieved, let me tell you.

After I got that trophy, I finally went to Professor Weasley to trigger the House Cup cutscene, getting me another trophy and effectively ending Jesse Poisonwood's story once and for all.

41/46: Collector's Edition - Complete all collections.

42/46: The Seeker of Knowledge - Win the House Cup.

Now I had only one stage left to get the Platinum, and that was replaying the game three times to get a member of all three of the other houses to the Map Chamber. This required me to make three new save files and play the game for about 3 hours to reach the Map Chamber section. As soon as I finished the Map Chamber cutscene for my three new OC's - Breezy Gold, Flynn Fourpetals, and Siarra Starling - I restarted the game, until I got the final trophy and then the Platinum!

43/46: The Auror's Apprentice - Find the Map Champer as a Hufflepuff.

44/46: The Toast of the Town - Find the Map Chamber as a Slytherin.

45/46: The Gryffindor in the Graveyard - Find the Map Chamber as a Gryffindor.

46/46: Trophy Triumph - Obtain all other trophies.

I think this is a fantastic game. It's an amazing open world, and I loved exploring it. And being a wizard just scratched at a childhood dream that always lingered in the back of my mind. Grinding for a lot of the trophies was taxing, but it did not kill my enjoyment of the game in the slightest. I totally recommend this Platinum to any gamer!

Rating: 10/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #57: Daxter

Achieved on 8/14/2024 at 6:00 PM

It's crazy to me that I got the Platinum for Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy back in 2022, and I didn't pick up another Jak & Daxter game until over two years later. I was actually working my way through Jak 2 when I discovered that Daxter's self-titled spin-off had been added to PS Plus. I had never owned a PSP so I never played this one, so I decided to pause my Jak 2 playthrough (which is still paused to this day oops) to get the Daxter platinum!

So this game is set during the two year gap that takes place between the beginning of Jak 2 when Jak is captured by the Baron's guards, and the scene where Daxter rescues Jak from the prison. Or so it claims. In reality, this game seems to actually only be set during the last week or so of the two year gap, where Daxter has completely forgotten about rescuing Jak and instead has been telling made up adventure stories to drunks at a bar, until the day he gets a job working for a bug extermination company.

That's the plot of the game. You play as Daxter and are sent to various different locations throughout Haven City to kill bugs (which are obviously Metalheads but this is never actually acknowledged in the game itself). All the levels are heavy on the platforming, which is one of my favorite parts of a Jak & Daxter game. I got my first two trophies when I met Osmo, the owner of the bug extermination company, and then found a Precursor Orb in his house.

1/43: You're Hired! - Meet Osmo in the Shop.

2/43: Not These Again! - Collect 1 Precursor Orb.

And then I entered my first level of the game, the Westside Hotel. For some reason, every single level in the game has a trophy for entering the level. Not for beating the level, entering it. I find it a little weird, but oh well. So you'll get a trophy for each time you enter a new level.

3/43: Daxter's On The Job - Enter the Westside Hotel level.

I also got trophies for finding some random items in the hotel. Apparently these are related to a minigame where you have bugs duel to the death but I'll get to that later.

4/43: Look How Cute It Is! - Collect a Combat Bug Cage Item.

5/43: What Does It Do? - Collect a Combat Bug Token item.

6/43: Hard Hats Required - Enter the Construction Site level.

7/43: Bug Juice - Collect a Combat Bug Vial item.

The second level is where you meet Taryn for the first time, and I just gotta get a little nitpick out of the way. Taryn annoys me. She's supposedly the female lead and a main character, but she only shows up four times in the game, and all she does is give Daxter upgrades to his bug gun. She seems to know about the truth behind the Metalhead invasion, but how she knows or what her motivations are is never explained. Honestly it kind of feels like she's just there to give the game a female character for Daxter to grossly flirt with.

8/43: Taryn the Engineer - Meet Taryn in the Construction Site.

Anyway, I continued playing through the game, with Daxter getting various missions to kill bugs at various locations, with the bugs getting bigger and more dangerous as the game went on. Daxter even got a few boss fights in, which were all honestly quite fun and challenging!

9/43: I Thought It'd Be Lethal - Stun a bug with Poison Spray.

10/43: No Fly Zone - Defeat the Queen at Breezy Valley.

11/43: Mean Green Spraying Machine - Obtain the Bug Sprayer pressure upgrade from Taryn.

12/43: Not Here for Drinks - Enter the Brewery level.

13/43: Does This Pay Off My Tab? - Fix the mechanical problem in the Brewery.

14/43: Every City Needs One - Enter the Transit System level.

15/43: Full Steam Ahead - Escape from a runaway train.

16/43: Don't Bug Me Please - Defeat the Hive Queen under the Transit System.

17/43: Mind My Mine - Enter the Strip Mine level.

Another aspect of this game is that you can have Daxter go to sleep at the shop, and play one of several minigames inspired by movies like The Matrix and Braveheart. You unlock these minigames with Precursor Orbs, and I got a trophy for playing three different ones.

18/43: Sleepy Retreat - Play three unique Sleep Minigames.

19/43: And Stay Gone! - Defeat three Queens in Breezy Valley.

At this point, Jak finally re-enters the plot when Daxter spots him in a prison transport. After failing to save him, the plot instantly changes from "Daxter working as an exterminator" to "Daxter trying to figure out how to save Jak".

20/43: Daxter to the Rescue - Chase down a Prison Zoomer.

So you continue playing and killing bugs/Metalheads in various levels, getting more and more trophies as you play.

21/43: Bug Infested Boat - Enter the Tanker level.

22/43: You Can Never Have Enough - Collect 250 Precursor orbs.

23/43: Pyromaniacal - Obtain the Flame Thrower upgrade from Taryn.

24/43: This Place Needs Maintenance - Enter the Distillery level.

25/43: Nothing Quite Like a Toasted Carapace - Defeat a bug with the flamethrower.

26/43: Don't Feed The Fishes - Enter the Fish Cannery level.

27/43: Putting on a Friendly Face - Discover a hidden mask.

28/43: Water Fly of the Isle - Defeat the Queen in Emerald Isle.

29/43: Don't Look Down - Enter the Construction Site 2 level.

30/43: Extreme Bug Infestation - Enter the Strip Mine 2 level.

31/43: Experimental Carnage - Eliminate three bugs at once with a bomb.

32/43: Hive Mind - Defeat the Hive Queen at the Strip Mine.

33/43: Part-Time Lumberjack - Enter the Lumber Mill level.

34/43: Keeper of Fancy Eggs - Collect 500 Precursor Orbs.

Once I collected 500 orbs - thankfully you do NOT need every orb in the game for the Platinum - I decided to get all the remaining minigame trophies out of the way. This included playing every single dream minigame at least once, getting a Gold Rating in at least one of them (I went with the Matrix one, it's the easiest) and playing a single round of the bug fighting minigame, where I allowed my bug to get killed as quick as possible to get the trophy over with.

35/43: Sweet Dreams - Play all Dream Minigames.

36/43: Bugged Sport - Play a single round of Single Player Bug Combat.

37/43: Daxter the Great - Obtain a Gold Rating in any Minigame.

Then I returned to the main game and continued playing through all the story missions.

38/43: Target Practice - Take down another Queen in Emerald Isle.

39/43: Uncovering The Truth - Enter the Tanker 2 level.

40/43: Expert Negotiator - Enter the Baron's Palace level.

And then I had reached the final level of the game, the Prison. This was definitely the hardest level in the game, and the final boss fight against the main bad guy Kaeden, who's a giant Metalhead disguised as a human, was really damn hard. But once I beat him, I rescued Jak, and then got the Platinum for Daxter!

41/43: Finishing The Job - Enter the Prison.

42/43: Friends Together Again - Rescue Jak.

43/43: Bug Boy Extraordinaire - Unlock all trophies in Daxter.

This game was pretty fun. It's short but all the levels are unique and a lot of fun to play through, and playing as Daxter was really great. It was also hilarious and had a lot of jokes and gags that made me die laughing.

The thing that annoyed me the most about this game were all the damn PLOT HOLES. This game is seemingly set just before Daxter rescues Jak, but at the same time the Metalhead invasion is just starting, when Jak 2 seems to set up that the Metalhead invasion has been going on for some time? And then Metal Kor is shown at the end coming up with the idea to disguise himself as an old man, but then Kor meets Jak outside of prison immediately after he is rescued and it's clear Kor has been in disguise long enough to earn the Underground's trust. Not to mention that almost all of the locations we see in Daxter don't seem to exist in Jak 2 when we explore all of Haven City.

But the thing that pissed me off the most was the game outright saying Daxter forgot about Jak. Daxter may be a smug annoying little rat, but do you know what he is as well? A loyal smug annoying little rat. I refuse to believe Daxter spent two entire years just lollygagging and forgetting Jak was being tortured in prison.

Aside from that, the game itself is a lot of fun, and an easy Platinum since almost all the trophies are story based. I recommend!

Rating: 8/10

[rjjameshiii]

imo sharing your art for free online for strangers to see it requires a lot of courage. A lot of mental strength. Im being serious rn i think if youve ever shared anything online and even if its not popular even if only a few people have seen it i think thats very very brave

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #56: Froggy's Bouncing Adventures

Achieved on 8/11/2024 at 9:01 AM

I don't know why, but I have such a fascination with cheap indie games. I don't usually actually buy them, but I do like to see what games on the PS Store are only a few bucks. Cheap games aren't all bad though - sometimes you can find a hidden gem or two. Like this game! It's nothing revolutionary, but when I picked it up for like 5 dollars, I ended up having a very enjoyable day with Froggy Bouncing Adventures.

This game is about a little frog named Froggy who's pet fly has gone missing, so Froggy begins making his way through the platform levels that make up his world to try and find him.

Similar to Tricky Thief, you don't actually have to finish the game to get the Platinum. However, I ended up enjoying this game. It reminded me of a classic Nintendo DS game. Even though I got the Platinum just by playing through the game normally, I ended up completing all 50 levels in the game. Some of them near the end were actually quite challenging, which is all I can ask for in a platforming adventure.

1/12: Jungle Jumper - Clear 5 levels.

2/12: Gorilla Guardian - Survive an encounter with the Red Gorilla.

3/12: Divine Discovery - Find the God of Frogs.

4/12: Reaper's Respite - Find the Frog Reaper.

5/12: Avian Adversaries - Survive an encounter with the Wild Birds.

6/12: Amphibious Adventurer - Clear 10 levels.

7/12: Friendly Feline - Find Ruby the Cat.

8/12: Leapfrog Pro - Clear 15 levels.

9/12: Beam Me Up, Froggy! - Use a Warp Gate.

10/12: Dimensional Hopper - Clear 20 levels.

11/12: Bumballon! - Find Bumballon.

12/12: Platinum Froggy - Get all other trophies.

This is a very short experience. Even those with the least amount of experience playing platformers would probably finish this in less than 2-3 hours. However, I think it is very fun and engaging for what it is, so I am glad I played it!

Rating: 7/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #55: Thirsty Suitors

Achieved on 7/4/2024 at 12:07 AM

I was browsing the PS Store one day when this title caught my attention. By that, I mean that I glanced at the title, scrolled past it, and then realized what I just read and went back to look at it. "Thirsty Suitors"? What could that possibly be?

Obviously I immediately bought the game and began playing it, and I discovered that Thirsty Suitors was both one of the most unique games I've ever played, and an absolute emotional gut punch that I did not expect.

Thirsty Suitors is about a young Indian-Sri Lankan American woman named Jala, who is returning to her hometown of Timber Falls three years after leaving without a word for her sister Aruni's wedding. When Jala arrives, she finds that she is public enemy number one. Her parents are pissed at her, her sister refuses to see or speak to her, but worst of all, her exes have decided that it is time that they make Jala regret the various ways she broke their hearts.

I was introduced to how incredibly surreal this game was in the opening sequence, where Jala runs into her first ex, Sergio, at a cafe upon arriving in town, and their confrontation about their relationship is presented in the form of a turn-based battle.

1/27: Nylon Empire - Battle Sergio.

That is the crux of Thirsty Suitors. Jala has to confront all the people she left behind and work things out with them so that she, her exes, and her family can all find closure.

And when I say this game is surreal, I mean it. You can cook South Asian recipes via quick-time events that see Jala flipping and spinning all over the kitchen. You can summon Jala's mother in fights to flatten your opponent with a massive flip flop. There is a talking cat, and a man dressed in a bear costume is leading a cult of skate punks. Jala's grandmother in India sends suitors in literal gift boxes who then pop out and engage Jala in battle. One of Jala's exes can hear the imaginary version of Aruni that talks to Jala inside her head.

And yet despite all the zaniness, this game also does not pull any punches about how emotionally complex and exhausting Jala's situation is. It's amazing.

Anyway, I should talk about the rest of the trophies, shouldn't I?

I decided that I was just going to enjoy the game and complete it at my own pace. I battled suitors, confronted my exes, cooked with Mom and Dad, and leveled Jala up. It still tickles me how a game about a woman trying to reconcile with her family and friends has leveling up.

2/27: Good Cock - Get 3 stars on a Recipe.

3/27: Cooking Lesson - Cook with Mom.

4/27: Rookie Skater - Complete a Skate challenge.

5/27: Great Chef - Get 3 stars on five Recipes.

6/27: Sergio Favors - Do all favors for Sergio.

7/27: Can I Do This? - Reach Level 10.

8/27: Voice of Reason - Battle Diya.

9/27: Cat Fight - Battle Irfan.

10/27: Diya Favors - Do all favors for Diya.

11/27: Irfan Favors - Do all favors for Irfan.

12/27: Jellybeans - Battle Bruno.

13/27: I Can Do This - Reach Level 20.

14/27: In The Mood - Inflict moods on enemies 50 times.

15/27: Polygalactic - Battle Andile.

Earlier I mentioned that there was a man in a bear costume, Soundie, leading a skateboarding cult. At multiple points in the game, you fight his underlings and try to convince them to leave the cult. It's kind of a crazy side story compared to the rest of the game. Sadly, even though I thought I was picking all the good dialogue choices, I actually ended up failing to beat Soundie and end the cult. It bugged me a lot, but I forced myself to move on and continue playing the game.

16/27: Paws and Reflect - Finish the Skatepark Cult storyline.

17/27: Exceptional Chef - Get 3 stars on all Recipes.

18/27: Self-Help Expert - Heal 1000 HP during a Battle.

19/27: Andile Favors - Do all favors for Andile.

At a certain point, I realized I was heading into the finale of the game, so I decided to grind out battles against suitors and skate punks to get the trophy for winning 50 battles, and then I grinded out earning Kquenchos, the strangely named currency in the game, so I could then spend enough Kquenchos at the stores for another trophy.

20/27: Scrappy - Win 50 Battles.

21/27: Big Spender - Spend 5000 Kquenchos.

Once I got those two trophies out of the way, I battled my final ex, Tyler, and then got a surprise in the form of the true final boss, Jala's emotionally abusive grandmother. I'll come back to his later, but once I beat Paati, I officially finished the game.

22/27: Digging Up The Past - Battle Tyler.

23/27: Generational Trauma - Battle Paati.

Now I only had three trophies left before the Platinum, and they all related to skateboarding, Jala's main method of transport. First, I had to get 1 million points in a single combo. I immediately looked up a video guide on how to do this, and basically I just had to repeatedly jump around the fountain in town and then, once I got to a certain number, end the combo by grabbing the multiplier on top of the fountain, which helped me get the million points easily.

24/27: Millionaire - Get one million points in a single skate combo.

Next were the Skate Challenges. There are a total of 28 skate challenges, but luckily I only had to do 15 of them perfectly. I actually found a list online of which challenges were the easiest to do for the trophy, so I followed that and played all of them until I had gotten an S-rating for each.

25/27: Casual Skater - Get an S-rating on 5 different Skate challenges.

26/27: Pro Skater - Get an S-rating on 15 different Skate challenges.

And once I did that, I had the Platinum!

27/27: All Done! - Collect all trophies.

This game is a ton of fun, and was an extremely quirky and unique take on the turn-based RPG game. And I loved that the game had so much representation too - Like almost the entire cast is made up of people of color of multiple different South Asian and African backgrounds, and lots of the characters are also LGBT, with Jala herself being pansexual.

However, the biggest reason I loved this game so much was because I ended up relating to Jala way more than I expected to.

I love my family dearly. I love my parents and I love my siblings. However, I have spent most of my adult life unpacking and working through the various ways that they fucked me up growing up. Families are fucking hard, and I got quite emotional whenever Jala confronted her family about their issues. Especially during the final boss fight against Jala's own grandmother.

Generational trauma indeed.

I love this game. It's going in my Top 10 Games of All Time. And I hope more people find it and experience it.

Rating: 10/10

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #54: Tricky Thief

Achieved on 4/8/2024 at 10:47 PM

When I first saw this game on the PS Store, I thought it was a phone game that had been ported to consoles, but turns out I was actually wrong and this game was first released on the Nintendo Switch. It's a pretty simple puzzle game in which you have to sneak a thief past guards to reach the end of each level. It was only 2 bucks and looked fun enough, so I decided to play it and was shocked to discover it actually had a Platinum.

Tricky Thief has 50 levels, but you only need to play 25 of them to get the Platinum. I don't know why games like this do this. It makes more sense to me to incite your audience to play your entire game, right?

Anyways, I think the only trophies you could possibly miss are the trophies for getting caught. Luckily for me, I am not good at this game and got caught enough times to unlock all the trophies, and once I beat Level 25, I got the Platinum in less than an hour.

1/13: Leveler I - Complete Level 1.

2/13: Leveler II - Complete Level 5.

3/13: Banker I - Collect 10 coins.

4/13: Hunted I - Get caught by the guard 6 times.

5/13: Leveler III - Complete Level 10.

6/13: Banker II - Collect 25 coins.

7/13: Hunted II - Get caught by the guard 12 teams.

8/13: Leveler IV - Complete Level 15.

9/13: Banker III - Collect 50 coins.

10/13: Hunted III - Get caught by the guard 24 times.

11/13: Leveler V - Complete Level 20.

12/13: Leveler VI - Complete Level 25.

13/13: Thief Master - Unlock all trophies in the game.

I'll be honest, I didn't bother playing all the way up until Level 50. This game is fun and some of the puzzles were genuinely tricky (hehe, get it?), but I didn't feel the need to ever pick it up again, so I quietly deleted it from my library once I got the Platinum.

Rating: 6/10