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Plat Ain't It, Chief

Oh hey there! A while back a bunch of us content-creating site folk wrote up a list of our "S-Ranks": those games that we've completed in their entirety, to the extent that we've earned the coveted Platinum Trophy (PlayStation), 1000 GamerScore (Xbox), or a cute if patronizing "well done, you" message (Steam). However, there are many more games out there where I've earned almost every achievement/trophy going... bar a scant few. Those near-misses are what this list is about.

Let me tell you how my broken brain works w/r/t trophies: I'll take a glance at the list first and a roadmap of how much grinding/subsequent playthroughs are involved. If there's too much busywork, I'll flake on collecting them then and there and just enjoy the game like a normal person. However, if I'm about 80%-90% the way to a Platinum, my OCD will kick in and I'll look to complete the rest regardless of what's involved. There's only been a few cases where those final elusive few trophies prove too much, and I leave the game in a slightly uneasy mood: it's honestly better for me if either half the trophy list is insane and I can skip it all or if it's all attainable in a single playthrough with a moderate amount of challenge.

To an extent, these games left a sour taste in my mouth, though only because I have some very dubious brain chemistry working against me. Achievement design is a tricky process that's still in its nascence, so I don't begrudge the majority of the following games for their occasional clunkers. Mostly.

(Items are ranked in chronological order of when played. Stats included are: Number of trophies earned versus number total, with the collection %. I've also included the rarity of each Platinum trophy, according to PSN.)

List items

  • 46/50 (92%), Plat Rarity: 2.2%. We're just going to stick with PS4 games for now. Including this one, which is the second PS4 game I ever played (it was a pack-in). The last handful were some grindy milestone trophies I didn't feel like farming - I was past done with the game once I'd cleaned up most of the Ubisoft open-world map icon vomit.

  • 31/35 (89%), Plat Rarity: 0.8%. All three of the non-Platinum trophies here specifically relate to being unable to complete the Misplaced Gopher challenges: the lowest point of a platformer that, while aesthetically charming, had all the floaty imprecision and dodgy platform boundaries you've come to dread from Media Molecule. IIRC, the gopher challenges were lengthy no-hit escort runs, which... no thanks.

  • 50/55 (91%), Plat Rarity: 0.3%. I love the D:OS duo but they both have the same issue with their trophies, namely that you need a minimum of two playthroughs of a 70+ hour RPG which, I mean, good for you if you think people have that kind of time to invest in your game, I guess. My last trophies are for completing the game on the hardest mode (Honour, which will wipe your save if you die) and also with the Lone Wolf trait (which prohibits companion PCs, cutting off a number of other trophies if it's the first playthrough).

  • 46/50 (92%), Plat Rarity: 2.6%. I forget why I missed these. There's a Puff-Puff trophy which I recall was purely random whether it happened or not, and then a couple of completion trophies which might require you beat all the super tough post-game bonus maps? 2.6% isn't a crazy low amount for a Platinum, so I might have to revisit this one.

  • 53/55 (96%), Plat Rarity: 4.6%. I realize I just railed against long RPGs with single "beat the whole thing again but harder this time" trophies, but this one I'm seriously considering because Ys excels when it's challenging. Ys VIII will at least throw you a bone by letting you start your Hardest Mode difficulty run on New Game Plus mode, which not only makes things slightly easier but also mitigates the amount of time crafting and completing side-quests since a lot of that carries over. Plus, I adore this game and am psyched for Ys IX coming out soon. Definitely a consideration.

  • 24/26 (92%), Plat Rarity: 9.7%. It wouldn't be a big deal to acquire the last trophy for Poi, which is (naturally) to beat the whole game again on NG+, but it wasn't especially great, at least to the extent that I want to play through it all again. I'll consider it perhaps a few more years from now when I've forgotten almost all its challenges and puzzles. It's not like new 3D platformers are showing up every other month these days.

  • 45/51 (88%), Plat Rarity: 1.3%. I've had some real bad times with Tales achievements in the past (there's a blog on the site about my unfortunate travails trying to earn 100% on the original Xbox 360 Tales of Vesperia, which I do not recommend trying) so I wasn't looking to get the Platinum here either. The few trophies left are grindfests, to say the least, worst of which is levelling up everyone's titles. That means a lot of time spent in mini-games and hitting milestones. Others require a NG+ run, since you can add XP and money multipliers to those.

  • 45/49 (92%), Plat Rarity: 2.4%. Another lengthy RPG, another small number of NG+ trophies. Why do these games do this?

  • 45/49 (92%). Plat Rarity: 0.9%. Some difficulty-related trophies left. That and quaffing healing items like there's no tomorrow.

  • 44/47 (96%). Plat Rarity: 1.1%. Great Souls-like, but a few binary decisions necessitate a second run. I'd rather play the sequel.

  • 48/52 (92%). Plat Rarity: 6.4%. As with Ys VIII, I neglected to play on Nightmare despite that setting being entirely manageable. Not a mistake I made with Ys IX, which I completed on Nightmare in the first playthrough.

  • 23/26 (82%). Plat Rarity: 1.9%. A no-deaths clear in a physics-based platformer? Are you kidding me?

  • 26/29 (82%). Plat Rarity: 2.5%. Last two non-Platinums are a low-level clear and a hard mode clear, so that's two more playthroughs. I'm good.

  • 44/50 (92%). Plat Rarity: 2.3%. All online-based. Those will be fun to get once Ubisoft inevitably shuts down all online support.

  • 25/31 (87%). Plat Rarity: 1.2%. Just a few marriage-related trophies left. I actually intend to get these someday; they shouldn't take long.

  • 61/63 (91%). Plat Rarity: 3.6%. All that's left is the incredibly tough super post-game dungeon, or rather the even harder version of same. Did not care for this game enough to put in the many hours of extra grinding the last trophy will need.

  • 44/47 (88%). Plat Rarity: 9.3%. Both Hard Mode related. First playthrough clocked in at just shy of 90 hours, so I'll be leaving it here.