Need Help With Yakuza 3?
By vidiot 10 Comments
I thought perhaps this would be a good time to talk about my philosophy/rant incoherently concerning achievements. I have a lot. One of the first quests that unlocked on GiantBomb for me were all the ones concerning #S Ranks. I still have a bunch to spare too. I like achievements, whether they be on Steam or on my Xbox. Bioware achievements (Let's get some support here GB). I heard that Sony was considering putting trophies on their PSP games, something that I wish they would hurry up and do.
I also wish Sony would get off it's lazy ass, and let other sites do stuff with their precious Trophy information. Ya'know, like every other company that has something remotely close to an achievement system.
That's a debate for another thread. What was this thread about? Crap, I'm writing without thinking ahead again.
I like achievements. I like a permanent physical acknowledgment of the games I've played. It's rad.
I do though, have developed some semi-OCD tendencies regarding certain games. My mantra is simple: If it's single-player I will get it. Or I will try my damnedest to achieve it. There are of course exceptions to this rule, and Yakuza 3 breaks all of them.
- The first one is if the achievement breaks my appreciation of a certain aspect of the game. CHECK.
- The second is that if the achievement is counter to a certain aspect of the game. CHECK.
- The third is, and this is one that is actually quite controversial, is that if the achievement confuses difficulty with absurdity. CHECK.
It's the reason why I usually don't go after multiplayer achievements....at all. My first experience with multiplayer achievements was with Halo 3 and I remember how, at the time, The Lone Wolves playlists devolved into people screaming before matches where they were going to meet in order to unlock the Spartan Laser.
At the time, it was rare to get into a match where people just wanted to play.
Usually my recent excuse from not playing multiplayer is because I don't like playing against prepubescent turds. Multiplayer achievements are also a good indication of how many people are totally not playing your tacked on multiplayer component. Thank you GiantBomb, for showing me that the achievement for "Winning 10 Matches" in " Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena" (Good game BTW, big fan of Starbreeze.) is freaking rare. JUST WIN 10 MATCHES. :P
Getting back to topic, if there is one, I've become very picky of my achievements. Yakuza 3 by my own rules, has terrible achievements. The scary thing is that the cut-content would have actually added more to this game. It goes without saying: My hat goes off to those who can 100% this game.
It's called "Mini-Game Master" and it's the Gold Trophy that stops you from getting your platinum trophy. Even after you have completed the 100+ missions, and have beaten the game perhaps three times (You need to play through the game on 'hard' to unlock 'Extra-Hard' difficulty, and thus, get the Extra-Hard trophy.) The hardest gold trophy is whether or not you can get the highest "scores", or complete the highest criteria for all mini-games. What I'm trying to illustrate that ontop of this trophy, Yakuza 3 has a dizzying array of trophies that are difficult time-sinks.
Difficulty is thrown out the window. Out of all the mini-games there are in Yakuza 3, only after getting the golf requirement did I ever get the feeling of actually getting better at the game. Everything else was a slow grind, playing out Billiards matches against an opponent A.I. that, to put it nicely: CHEATS. There was also playing the hardest set of simulated batting cages ever conceived and replicated a dare I say, masochistic approach to achievements that I can't stand.
I went in seeing how many mini-games I could complete, I wasn't even considering getting the trophy. After I saw that it wasn't necessarily skill, but something I could do while, doing something else. (In this case play mini-games every night while I watched The Daily Show.) Then I realized that yes: It was horrible and unnecessary, but I could easily do it. The end result was me getting the trophy, but not after it broke all three of my self-imposed rules in the most eloquent way possible. The only difficulty regarding mini-game master it seems is how much time you put into it.
There's a delicate balance though of what should be considered difficult and what could be considered asinine. I am in awe of designers that can understand the strengths and weakness of their game and apply trophies and achievements in a manner that is not vomit-inducing. On the opposite end of the coin you can point to the likes of either Assassins Creed 2 or Oblivion, two games that are shoe-in #S Ranks. I honestly felt upset that Ubi went the easy route after the disaster that was flag collecting in the first Assassins Creed.
For those looking for help aspiring to get this trophy, I strongly recommend you try out this guide. I don't know who this Patrick guy is, but I believe he is a wizard from another dimension that gives free chocolate.
For anyone who needs help, feel free to ask or PM me. I've spent over 100 hours easily getting this, go right ahead and ask away.
One last question: Why the hell is "Ultimate Skill" a freaking bronze trophy? The trophy requirements ask you to complete 34 of the 35 different Ultimate Skill challenges. It's probably one of the most hardest trophies in the game next to "Mini-game Master", but it's only a bronze? Was someone asleep when they decided how much each trophy was worth or something?