Friday 28 April 2017

JRPGs I Played in April 2017

I said last month I’d play a lot of Persona 5 and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for almost the entire month of April. In fact, I’ve barely played any other games as between life and enjoying the time sync that is Persona 5,  I just haven’t had the time. It’s lucky that Persona 5 is such a good game however, as I haven't minded at all. I’ve downloaded a few demos of JRPGs I’m quite sure will be good, but I don’t want to leave the friends and confidants I've made in Persona 5 yet. So although the list of JRPGs I’ve played this month is a short one, the amount of hours I put into my main April game is certainly not. Here are the JRPGs I Played in April.

My Favourite JRPG of April:
If you’ve seen my recent content or my March JRPGs I’ve played post, then Persona 5 being my favourite game of April is probably no surprise. But Persona 5 is highly deserving of this month’s title, as it’s really really good. I intend on making a full review of Persona 5 (plus plenty more content because there’s a lot of good things to talk about in it!), but my first 70 hours with it have reminded me very much of the deep and addictive JRPG gameplay that was in Persona 4 Golden that sucked me right back into JRPGs to begin with. There’s something really fun about the freedom having so many different options and mechanics given, and partnered with the improved dungeon and social systems, I hate when I have to put it down. At the time of writing this, I’m in Persona 5’s August and I don’t know how far I am from totally finishing it and I honestly don’t mind not knowing, as long as I can spend more time with the fun characters and dungeons.

There were four days before Persona 5 was released this month, which gave me a little bit of NieR time. I’m a little into Route C and a lot of story revelations have already occurred, even a few hours in. I’m amazed route by route by the sheer scope of NieR Automata and I’m pretty sure each new route proves to me I’ve never played anything like it. While I’m loving my Persona 5 experience, there is a piece of me that still has Automata in mind as I’m curious about what will happen next. I hope I can get back to it a least a little in May, as I’m sure it has plenty more story to tell.

Fire Emblem Heroes has been my main portable game of May, although I haven’t really played that much. I did really enjoy the Easter event with it’s cute story and costumes, even if I did three gatchas and didn't win a single Easter character. Every time I log into it recently, there are a bunch of Orbs and gifts waiting for me which have been nice for gatcha draws, although I think I’ll be stockpiling them until they do a character draw for a Fire Emblem character I know better. I do think Persona 5 and NieR have put me into more of a console game mood recently, but Fire Emblem Heroes is still enjoyable if I have nothing else on me to JRPG with.

(Also, chapter 10 is finally out for anyone who didn't know!)

Persona 2
I only played Persona 2 once this month for a couple of hours, but after playing the newer Persona game, it did become interesting to me in a few different ways. I’m gonna do a full post about this, but there a few small elements such as demon negotiation in Persona 5 that seem inspired by Persona 2 which was cool to see on the go. I’m fairly sure I still have a lot of Persona 2 to get through at 15 hours in, and I hope the story amps it up a bit soon as I slowly continue my way through it.

My May JRPG Plans
May is an interesting month to think about right now, as I don’t know if I’ll have fully finished Persona 5 by the first of May. I was really interested in the Caligula Effect for its interesting aesthetic, but it releases on May 2nd so if I’m not going to be done in time for its launch, so I might wait and let the price goes down. This leaves me with the options of Fire Emblem Echoes or Summon Nights 6, where I think I’m personally more interested in Fire Emblem. Because I’m currently living in Tokyo with access to an Australian 3DS, I would have to import the Australian version for that one (or finally set up eShop), so hopefully I’ll be bothered enough to go through the import hassle to play what’s probably a good tactical JRPG.

On top of May’s new JRPGs, if I have time I would love to get back into NieR Automata as its story still has me intrigued, especially where I left off before Persona 5 took over my life. I also am really enjoying the gameplay of Persona 5, so there is the thought of Platinuming it in my head as well. My May JRPGs are a little uncertain at this point, but I’m excited to see what ends up in my console next month.

Most of the games listed in this article are available to buy or pre-order at Play-Asia.com!
(This is an affiliate link that helps supports the site, so if you use it, thank you!)
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What JRPGs did you play in April? And if you're playing Persona 5, how far are you hours-wise?
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on FacebookYoutube or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagramlike JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

Friday 21 April 2017

My 5 Favourite Music Pieces from NieR Automata (#JRPGAppreciation)

Since his compositions for NieR Automata and Final Fantasy XV’s Episode Gladiolus, Keiichi Okabe has quickly risen to being my current favourite JRPG composer. The eerie beauty he creates in his pieces is unique, with his use of vocals and instrument combinations adding to this. I mentioned in one of my other NieR posts that I heard NieR’s music was brilliant and Automata certainly proved that to me. I know it's only the first half of the year, but so far there's no question that NieR Automata has the best JRPG soundtrack this year so far and I'm pretty sure it's in my top 5 favourite ones ever. Speaking of top 5s, here are five of my favourite tracks from NieR Automata’s brilliant soundtrack.

Feel free to watch the video version here!
(The video features previews of a lot of the tracks included in this article!)

Edit: I made a mistake in my video with a couple of tracks in this video (Amusement Park and A Beautiful Song) by crediting them to Keiichi Okabe. While Keiichi was the main composer of NieR Automata, Keigo Hoashi is credited as the composer for those pieces in a few errors. I apologise for my error and will be more diligent in my research next time! (I have also updated the article to reflect this)
This Cannot Continue
This Cannot Continue is special to me for a couple of important reasons. Firstly, it was playing the moment NieR Automata clicked with me. The scene leading into the track was so weird (in a good way) compared anything I'd played in recent memory and it was an unpredictable moment that evolved into a story boss battle with this amazing track behind it. The tribal, pumping rhythm propels the fight up to epic levels and the mix of acoustic and electric sounds in this track is a good example of what Automata's soundtrack does best.

Amusement Park Theme
If This Cannot Continue was the moment Automata clicked with me, the Amusement Park Theme was the moment I fell in love with its music. The Amusement Park Theme encapsulates the creepy yet magical aesthetic of the Amusement Park with matching musical magic, with tight and quick guitars and slow piano put together with glockenspiels and beautiful vocals. Together they make a piece of music that has the perfect eerie vibe for this area, complete with a pop song structure that makes it addictive to listen to.

Rays of Light
A lot of the pieces in Automata are either creating suspense or a thumping action vibe, but the piece Rays of Light manages to be a pretty little exploration track while still featuring the musical elements carried throughout other tracks. Rays of Light may swap a lot of the strings and big percussion for guitars and pretty piano to create a softer feeling, but the piece is much like a song, with the vocals creating the emotiveness that NieR's other tracks have. It manages to be a great fit for running through one of the main open areas of Automata and is unintrusive while still creating the unique atmosphere NieR has.

Honourable Mention: Hacking OST
Rays of Light is also one of my favourite tracks from the Hacking versions of NieR’s soundtrack and helped make the track really grow on me. The simplicity of the 8-bit track brings out the melody in a new way and it's always interesting to hear a natural sounding track redone digitally. The existence of Automata’s Hacking OST is much like the multi-faceted nature of NieR and has a majority of its soundtrack redone in cool, 8-bit form as a new way to listen to the great soundtrack.

A Beautiful Song

I’ve talked before about how NieR Automata’s trailers were a big part of what sold me on it and this includes one of the early trailer fights featuring 2B and 9S fighting a robot a wearing red dress. The piece A Beautiful Song makes the battle shown in that trailer so much more intense and the track matches the depth of the moment so well with its big vocal driven track with tension raising drums. It's not every game that you can verse a robot in an Opera gown with music this epic and cool and A Beautiful Song is definitely up there in NieR’s best boss battle pieces.

Pascal’s Village
I left Pascal’s Village for last as it's the perfect combination of most of the things I love about NieR’s soundtrack. Pascal’s Village is one of the quirkier NieR tracks with its mix of childish vocals and electronic vocals in lead lines and harmonies and while spoilers are tough to avoid for this track, let's just say it's very fitting for its moment in the story. Pascal’s Village’s beautiful guitar and light percussion with these vocals help make the eccentric track one of the most charming tracks from Automata and contrasted with the epic boss battle music shows Keiichi Okabe’s blend and range of styles very well.

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What's your favourite track from NieR Automata? What's your favourite JRPG soundtrack?
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

Friday 14 April 2017

Persona 5 DLC Analysis and Schedule - Costumes Anyone?!

Persona 5 has many hours of gameplay in it, so you might as well look cool while doing it...or at least that's what Persona 5’s DLC would like you to think. Persona 5’s DLC schedule has been outlined for the next few months and can be divided into a few categories: aesthetic, gameplay and Persona. Notably Persona 5 doesn't seem to be going down the story DLC route, which is probably for the best as it would likely be met with fan rage, especially since the story of Persona is the main reason why people play it. But without story DLC, there are plenty of opportunities for cool costumes and extra Personas, so here's a look at Persona 5’s upcoming DLC, along with my opinions on whether or not it's good value for what they're offering.
Special thanks to @komeDefur on Twitter for suggesting I write my thoughts on this! He's an awesome guy who's also talented at design and working behind the scenes on games. Check him out on TwitterYoutube and his website!

Aesthetic/BGM
  • Persona 3 Costume and BGM Special Set - $6.99, 4/11 (AIGIS MORGANA)
  • Persona 4 Costume and BGM Special Set - $6.99, 4/11 (Teddy Morgana!!)
  • Persona 5 Regular Clothes and School Uniform Set - free, 4/11
  • Persona 2 Costume and BGM Special Set - $6.99, 4/18
  • Persona 20th Anniversary Logo Car Sticker - free, 4/18
  • Shin Megami Tensei if… Costume and BGM Special Set - $6.99, 4/18
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Persona Costume and BGM Special Set - $6.99, 4/18
  • Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Costume and BGM Special Set - $6.99, 4/25
  • Persona 4 Dancing All Night Costume and BGM Special Set - $6.99, 4/25 (Rainbow Afro Morgana!)
  • Persona 5 Phantom Thieves Logo Morgana Car Sticker - free, 4/18
  • Persona 5 Swimsuit Set (Costumes for all members) - Free, 4/25
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV Costume and BGM Special Set - $6.99, 4/25
  • Catherine Costume and BGM Special Set - $6.99, 5/2
  • Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha Costume and BGM Special Set - $6.99, 5/2 (green eyed Morgana??)
  • Persona 5 Maid and Butler Costume Set - free, 6/6
  • Persona 5 Christmas Set - free, 7/11
Persona fans can expect to be able to customise the Phantom Thieves a fair bit in Persona 5, whether you have money to spend or you want some free costumes. There are well over 10 Costume sets coming between April and November this year, including the usual fan service sets such as Christmas costumes and Maid outfits, along with outfits based off other Atlus games, such as the Persona 4 or Catherine Sets. I have to commend Atlus for keeping the Persona 5 related sets totally free, even free from costing in-game currency which was the norm in Persona 3 and 4. Even though they're not installed on the disc/game download when you buy Persona 5, their total lack of cost is really nice. The paid sets are pretty good value too, considering what you get with them. For $6.99, most sets have a full set of costumes (at least the ones I could find details on), a battle theme and jingle (the jingle being what I imagine to be the end of battle track) and a special accessory. I thought Final Fantasy XV’s costume prices of $0.75 (Australian) were good for a costume for one party member, so $6.99 for a full 7 people party is great in my books.
Also worth noting is the fact that Atlus makes full use of their mascot character Morgana, with Morgana having by far the best DLC costumes. I'm dying to put Morgana in Teddy’s Persona 4 Golden costume or Persona 4 Dancing All Night’s rainbow haired disco one. Even some Shin Megami Tensei sets from games that I haven’t played have some great Morgana costumes such as Acid Green-eyed, Glowing Morgana in the Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha set. Even if you don't know all the sets origins and don't plan on buying them, the Morgana costumes are worth a look if you're a fan of the Mascot character.

Personas
  • Izanagi and Izanagi Picaro Set (Two Personas, fusion materials) - $2.99, 4/11
  • Orpheus and Orpheus Picaro Set (Two Personas, fusion materials) - $2.99, 4/11
  • Thanatos and Thanatos Picaro Set (Two Personas, fusion materials) - $2.99, 4/18
  • Kaguya and Kaguya Picaro Set (Two Personas, fusion materials) - $2.99, 4/18
  • Magatsu Izanagi and Magatsu Izanagi Picaro Set - $2.99, 4/18
  • Ariadne and Ariadne Picaro Set - $2.99, 4/25
  • Tsukiyomi and Tsukiyomi Picaro Set - $2.99, 4/25
  • Messiah and Messiah Picaro Set - $2.99, 5/2
There are a lot of extra Personas available to put into battle if you have a favourite Persona from main characters of other Persona games. The part of these Personas that is most likely to appeal to me is that each one carries a skill unique to that Persona. In saying that, I don't know if there's a skill strong enough or game changing enough to warrant buying one of these for me, even for their reasonable price of $2.99. A Persona’s success is generally based on weaknesses, so how one skill could be unique enough to change the game is hard to imagine. Still, certain Personas such as Matsuga-Izanagi are tempting and I like the touch of the inclusion of Picaro designs, but if I was to put my money towards these or the costumes, I think there is more value to be found in the costumes.

(Side note: I actually got the Izanagi set with my pre-order and so far it's an easy way to be kinda OP at the start of Persona 5, as the two Izanagis are over level 20 and have more powerful lightning skills than starting Personas do.)


Gameplay

(All free so far)

  • Japanese Audio Track
  • Merciless Difficulty
  • Skill Card Set
  • Healing Item Set
I don't know if there will be more gameplay DLC, but the ones listed here were available at launch and all available for free, another thing I commend Atlus for. The Japanese Audio version of Persona 5 is available for those who are curious or purists and has the great performances I heard in my partial playthrough of the Japanese version of Persona 5. While I'm into fully dubbed JRPGs recently, I have no doubt some people will really appreciate not having to pay for the Japanese audio alternative and I'm glad to see they've listened to fan feedback about this. An addition I'm also happy about is the Merciless Difficulty, which will probably destroy me. This is a mode that I would've like to be in Persona 5 on the file, but I can appreciate how not including it saves data space since not everyone will use this. Space aside, from trying out safety mode and finding it really easy, I like the idea of the super difficult Merciless mode and I'll be trying it if I end up doing a second or third playthrough.

There is the Healing item set and the Skill card set which are a nice little gifts, particularly for those starting out. I have the Healing Item set to thank for getting through the first dungeon in a few in-game days because I could restore my MP, so I think it’ll come in handy for others too

Avatars and Themes
A bunch of Avatars and Themes are available for Persona 5. I got a free Persona 5 theme with my pre-order so I don't have much interest in these, but I know some people may, so this is the available list of Persona 5 characters to customise your home screen with.

PS4
  • Persona 5 Protagonist Special Theme and Avatar Set (PS4 Only) - $1.99, 4/4
  • Persona 5 Ryuji Sakamoto Special Theme & Avatar Set - $1.99, 4/4
  • Persona 5 Morgana Special Theme & Avatar Set - $1.99, 4/4
  • Persona 5 Ann Takamaki Special Theme & Avatar Set - $1.99, 4/4
  • Persona 5 Yusuke Kitagawa Special Theme & Avatar Set - $1.99, 4/11
  • Persona 5 Makoto Niijima Special Theme & Avatar Set - $1.99, 4/11
  • Persona 5 Futaba Sakura Special Theme & Avatar Set - $1.99, 4/11
  • Persona 5 Haru Okumura Special Theme & Avatar Set - $1.99, 4/11
  • Persona 5 Goro Akechi Special Theme & Avatar Set - $1.99, 4/18
  • Persona 5 Igor & Attendants Special Theme & Avatar Set - $1.99, 4/18

PS3

  • Persona 5 Protagonist Special Theme - $0.99, 4/4
  • Persona 5 Ryuji Sakamoto Special Theme - $0.99, 4/4
  • Persona 5 Morgana Special Theme - $0.99, 4/4
  • Persona 5 Ann Takamaki Special Theme - $0.99, 4/4
  • Persona 5 Yusuke Kitagawa Special Theme - $0.99, 4/11
  • Persona 5 Makoto Niijima Special Theme - $0.99, 4/11
  • Persona 5 Futaba Sakura Special Theme - $0.99, 4/11
  • Persona 5 Haru Okumura Special Theme - $0.99, 4/11
  • Persona 5 Goro Akechi Special Theme - $0.99, 4/18
  • Persona 5 Igor & Attendants Special Theme - $0.99, 4/18
While I probably won't buy any of these, I do like how they've spaced these out. It's coming up (at the time of writing) to April 11 now and I've just met Yusuke, so I think they put some thought into what characters to release when.

Final Thoughts
With over 30 DLC items in total, while Persona 5’s DLC items are mostly aesthetic, I like the variety of fans they've tried to make them appeal to. People with not much extra cash like myself can enjoy free items at a slower rate, Persona or Shin Megami Tensei fans can deck out the characters with nostalgic costumes and everyone can enjoy the choice of dub they want to hear. For myself, I downloaded all the free DLC as soon as it came out and will probably continue this as more free DLC rolls out, all while tempted to pick up the Persona 4 packs because nostalgia really is appealing. I do kinda wish they made a few DLC bundles based on each Persona game, such as combining the Izanagi set and the Persona 4 Costume BGM set into a Persona 4 full set with all the Persona 4 DLC maybe for a small discount or even for full price just, just for simplicity's sake and to encourage a quick sale for those who don't want to scroll through a bunch of stuff to get it piece by piece, but it's really not a big deal. All in all, this Persona 5 DLC has a little something for every kind of fan and the mix of good value sets and free items gives everyone a way to customise in a long JRPG experience.

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Will you be buying Persona 5’s DLC? If you could put Morgana in any costume, what would it be?
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Make sure to follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

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(Information for this post was sourced from Persona Central and the official Persona 5 website and is subject to change)

Friday 7 April 2017

The Platinum Trophy Journey: Final Fantasy XV

On March 10th at 8pm, you can bet I was grinning pretty hard as my platinum trophy for Final Fantasy XV popped. Not only is it my little badge of honour for a game I've had over 100 hours of fun with, it's my first platinum trophy since 2015 and my second JRPG one since I platinumed Persona 4 Golden in 2014. Platinum trophies are my excuse to stay in worlds I don't want to leave yet, and this Final Fantasy XV trophy gave me another 60 hours of gameplay to satisfy my addiction to its open world.

The extra time I spent in Final Fantasy XV going through the trophy list and finding out what I needed to do was actually pretty fun and it isn't that difficult of a platinum to get compared to my three (or more? I can't remember) playthroughs of Persona 4 Golden. Final Fantasy XV’s platinum was mostly pain free because it simply requires time and if you waited until the end game like myself to explore the open world, you'll probably find a lot of new things that you didn't know you could do in Eos.

As I've said in my other Platinum Trophy posts (you know, in 2015), the purpose of this post is not to guide you into getting the platinum trophy as there are plenty of fantastic sites such an PSN Trophies that do a great job at that already. This post is to inform you about the experience of getting it. Most platinum trophies are no small feat and while this one was relatively pain free compared to other experiences, it might not be for everyone. Here's the best and worst of Final Fantasy XV’s Platinum Trophy experience for those ready to spend more time with Noctis and his crew.

Spoiler note: I have included Hidden trophies names in this post, but not descriptions to avoid spoilers as much as possible while still describing my Platinum Trophy journey. I don’t think there are any major story or event spoilers in this post, but proceed at your own risk!

Facts

Final Fantasy XV has 51 trophies to unlock. This includes the platinum and 50 trophies, including 42 Bronze, 5 Silver and 3 Gold. The time it takes to get the platinum trophy will of course vary from person to person, but by the time I was done my hour count was at around 120 hours.

The Easy
~15 Story Trophies (Hidden)

Learner’s Permit - Drove the Regalia
Immortal Photobomb (Hidden)
Quadruple Threat - Equipped four weapon slots
New Power - Learned first ability
Chocobo Jockey - Rode a Chocobo
Angling Rookie - Improved Fishing Level for the first time 
Survival Rookie - Improved Survival Level for the first time 
Photo Rookie - Improved Photography Level for the first time 
Cooking Rookie - Improved Cooking Level for the first time 
Just Hangin’ Around - Performed first point-warp suspension 
Brother in Arms - Issued first ally command 
Blind Spot - Performed first blindside link 
Noct You Like A Hurricane - Initiated first link-strike after parrying an attack 
The Power of Kings - Called forth the Armiger for the first time 
Magical Worker - Crafted a spell for the first time 
Black Mage - Used magic for the first time 
High Five for Justice! - Played Justice Monsters Five for the first time 
Spinning a Yarn I - Completed first sidequest 
Spinning a Yarn II - Completed five sidequests 
Divine Intervention - Summoned one of the six for the first time 

35 Bronze + 1 Silver = 36 Trophies

The good news about Final Fantasy XV’s trophy list is that there are a lot of trophies for just doing basic tasks and completing the main story. Completing the main story alone will yield you a good 15 trophies, and you’ll definitely get other trophies along the way just from playing. In fact, the first tutorial will probably see you pop multiple trophies for doing basic battle tasks and this is a trend with Final Fantasy XV’s trophy journey. There’s a trophy for doing most of the activities available to explore in Eos at least once, such as riding a chocobo or driving the car for the first time. I was only missing the High Five for Justice! Trophy at the end of story and was able to get it in less than five minutes once I decided to go for the platinum. Most people will probably get a good majority of these on their first playthrough and they’re fairly simple to go back and do if you missed one, making getting the bulk of Final Fantasy XV’s trophies quite easy.

The Challenging
Tortoise Toppler (Hidden)
Regalia Pilot (Hidden)
Faithful Heir (Hidden)
Spinning a Yarn V - Completed 40 sidequests
Weaving a Tapestry - Completed 80 sidequests

1 Gold + 3 Silver + 1 Bronze = 5 Trophies

The most challenging trophies of Final Fantasy XV involve running through dungeons, big boss battles and a lot of quests. They'll require some levelling and healing items and are deserving enough of their gold and silver ranks. The toughest one for me was Tortoise Toppler trophy and I left it till last. Even with my characters at level 100, it took time and items but the 30 minute battle that ensued had my tension levels at their peak because I didn't want to lose all that time for nothing and made winning feel damn good. The other hard trophy from this list was the Faithful Heir one that required a lot of dungeon crawling, but the dungeon battles weren't the hard part, it was more the amount of them and some of the maze-like areas that I definitely got a little lost in. As a fan of dungeon crawlers and recently games with a lot of exploration, I found this one enjoyable for the most part, but I may have referenced a guide or two for some of the more difficult dungeons (a certain tower comes to mind).

As for the quest trophies I've mentioned here, the challenge of these trophies is probably subjective, but if you sped through the story, doing so many quests will take some time and a lot of running around the map to do tasks big and small. The more difficult trophies I mentioned will complete some quests to help you do these, but doing 80 quests will naturally require a significant time investment.

Everything Else

Chosen King (Hidden)
Self-Mastered - Activated 50 Ability Nodes
Self-Improved - Activated 20 Ability Nodes
Angling Expert - Reached maximum fishing level
Survival Expert - Reached maximum survival level
Photo Expert - Reached maximum photography level
Cooking Expert - Reached maximum cooking level 
Spinning a Yarn III - Completed 10 sidequests 
Spinning a Yarn IV - Completed 20 sidequests 

2 Gold + 1 Silver + 6 Bronze = 9 Trophies


The quests listed here are not easy, not hard; they basically just require what most of Final Fantasy XV’s trophies require: time. The Expert trophies here were what took me the longest, but they were some of the funnest as they encouraged me to run around Eos and do what the guys love doing. I found myself fishing and running around a lot for these and the fishing risked grating on me towards the end. I feel lucky that at the time I was levelling up my fishing skill, the Moogle Chocobo Carnival was still around and had a nice atmosphere for fishing (as weird as that sounds). But for those without that luxury, probably the most annoying part of the platinum trophy journey (unless you love fishing), will be fishing. (But hey, at least Noct enjoyed it, right?)

Side note: There are little tricks I found that you can do to make Ignis and Prompto’s skills easier to complete: I spammed Prompto’s Snapshot skill in battle and you can camp many times in a row to get Ignis’ cooking skill up much faster. I didn’t find a secret to getting Noctis and Gladio’s skills up faster, so you can leave it in the comment if you did!

It's probably worth noting that I put two of the seemingly more difficult gold trophies here, rather than in the ‘Challenging’ part of this post. This is because I didn't think they were that challenging, but they do require a little levelling up time to get AP. I ended up liking unlocking ability nodes, particularly the combat ones, as I had no idea how many cool skills there were to unlock and some of the posey teamwork moves the group do now are really cool.

The Experience
As a Final Fantasy XV fan that's a completionist at heart, I had a lot of fun getting this platinum trophy and I found it to be a mostly fun experience. I had about 60% of the trophies when I started my platinum trophy journey and got myself up to around 80% mostly through quests. A lot of the trophy’s goals are easy to combine for efficiency, which is good considering how overwhelming most platinum trophies can seem. For example, while trying to get 80 quests done for the Weaving a Tapestry trophy, I made sure to run to every quest to up Gladio’s survival skill, fish out any rivers I found along the way and camp a lot. It also gave me that ‘being on the road exploring with the guys’ feeling that XV does so well, making the around 60 hours it took me to get the platinum (after my initial 40 hour playthrough) go by much faster than I thought based on Persona 4 Golden standards.

As with any platinum, if you're not addicted to or in love with the game you're platinuming, you're probably not going to love it. I'm in the group of people who did love XV and I'm satisfied with the extra time I spent playing it. If you're like me and you loved the exploration and brotherhood aspect of XV, the platinum trophy is a fun way to get the most out of the Final Fantasy XV universe by meeting side quest characters and beating big bosses and it is certainly not a bad way to kill time while waiting for the next piece of story DLC.


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Will you platinum Final Fantasy XV? What was the last JRPG you platinumed?
Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram, like JRPG Jungle on Facebook and Subscribe to the mailing list and Youtube Channel for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3