My 3 JRPG New Year Resolutions for 2018

Since 2015, it’s been my own tradition to make a few JRPG resolutions to improve my gaming life for the year ahead. I do this to encourage myself to play the experiences I think I don’t have time for and to finally catch up with any JRPG urges I had throughout the previous year that I didn’t take the time to cater to. These resolutions always come with mixed levels of success, but they always help me improve my gaming time and are a fun way to start planning what I want to play each year. While keeping up with new releases is a challenge in itself, there are a few things in my JRPG life I’ve been wanting to do since I found some new things I liked last year and also things I’ve been wanting do for a while and never got around to. With those things in mind, these are my three JRPG resolutions for 2018.

Platinum Trophy Experience: Persona 4 Dancing All Night

I played the Japanese version of Persona 4 Dancing All Night a few years ago out of impatience for a localised release announcement and found myself unintentionally raking in the trophies. At the start of this year, I made it my resolution to platinum at least one JRPG and as I was checking what seemed achievable, my over 90% completion of Dancing All Night made it feel silly not to get the platinum for, even if it’s more rhythm spinoff game than JRPG. As a fan of rhythm games outside of my JRPG life, I really enjoyed aiming for high scores and dance fever combined with one of my favourite JRPG series ever. As for the platinum trophy experience, aside from a couple of minor time-consuming trophies, compared to Persona 4 Golden’s platinum trophy’s multiple playthrough extravaganza, Persona 4 Dancing All Night’s trophy is a piece of cake that a majority of people can probably get easily with a little bit of time.

Feel free to watch the video version here!

Facts

Persona 4 Dancing All Night has 40 trophies that break down into 21 Bronze, 15 Silver, 3 Gold and the Platinum. At the time of making this, no trophies on the list seem to go above a ‘rare’ in the PSN rating system and most of the trophies are based on just experiencing different aspects of Persona 4 Dancing All Night. The length of this trophy will depend on your skills and since I played it over a spread out period of time, I don’t have a solid grasp on how long it took me. However, since Dancing All Night’s story is in visual novel form and most of the trophies can be done in Free Dance, I imagine it can take much less time than the average JRPG Platinum Trophy.

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!

The Easy

~9 Story Trophies

Time to Party Harder (Hidden)

To Greater Heights - Unlocked highest difficulty (ALL NIGHT)

Appearance Matters - Bought a costume for the first time

Best Dressed - Bought half of the costumes

Closet Full of Dreams - Bought all costumes

Lapidary - Obtained all accessories

Hooked on Shopping - Bought all items in Shopping

Regular Customer - Used a total of P$500,000 in Shopping

That Familiar Rush - Watched replay data from Score

I Am Thou, Thou Art I - Completed the Database

Empty Seats - A performance ended prematurely

Hit the Dance Floor - Clear 1 in Free Dance

The Party Never Ends - Cleared all tracks in Free Dance

What’s a “Miss”? - Cleared a track with no MISSes

New Personal Best - Beat your own high score

Fashion Police - Changed costume and began dancing

The Final Touch - Equipped accessory and began dancing

Costume Coordinator - Cleared a track with each character in changed costumes

Dream Team - Paired Rise and Kanami in Free Dance

= 28 trophies

In my opinion, a vast majority of Persona 4 Dancing All Night’s trophies can be classified as easy, as most of them can be done just by completing a basic task. There are trophies for trying on a costume for the first time or for pairing certain characters together, which can be done really quickly just by changing settings before you enter a Free Dance song. Even the story trophies are very easy, as the visual novel format allows you to skip through the story while still getting all of the trophies, which is what I did with the Japanese version. What makes these trophies and Persona 4 Dancing All Night’s platinum trophy so easy is that a good majority of them aren't based on skill, you just need to play a little bit to amass money, use items to boost your rewards and you're pretty set. If you're looking for a quick way to boost your trophy total, these ones will get you up 30 in no time.

The Challenging

Born Entertainer - Obtained top rank (King Crazy) on a track

Star Dancer - Danced using 2 or more items to raise difficulty

= 2 trophies

I put these trophies in the Challenging section of this post, but in reality you can just play Easy Mode and get these trophies very easily, which is what I did to be honest. I got the Born Entertainer trophy unintentionally while challenging myself for fun to try and get a perfect score in one of Persona 4 Dance’s songs and I don’t remember it taking very long at all. Star Dancer also wasn't that difficult to get after I chose the right song. This is because there's a secret to conquering most of Persona 4 Dance’s skill-based challenges and that’s using the super easy tutorial song ‘Specialist’ on easy when in doubt. This song is not difficult on most difficulty modes, so it made raising the difficulty of a that song feel only slightly harder and I was able to get it after only a few tries if that.

Everything Else

Love Connections - Performed a full combo on a track

Perfectionist - 50%+ Perfect clear on HARD track or higher

Working Together - Triggered a Bond Fever at least once

Inseparable - Triggered 30 types of Bond Fevers

Nanako Forever! - Triggered all dances/Bond Fevers with Nanako

Senpai, You're So Cool! - Seen all Bond Fevers between Yu and Rise

Red and Green - Seen all Bond Fevers between Yukiko and Chie

The Junes Special - Seen all Bond Fevers between Yosuke and Teddie

Beauty and the Beast - Seen all Bond Fevers between Naoto and Kanji

= 9 Trophies

I put these trophies here because they require a small amount of skill, but almost all can be done using the easiest song and/or difficulty to win. The only thing with these trophies is that they may take a little bit of time and playing, but if you enjoy rhythm games and the Persona 4 soundtrack as much as I do, this probably won’t be much of a problem.

The Persona 4 Dancing All Night Platinum trophy is definitely the easiest one I’ve gotten, especially once I realised most of the trophies could be done on easy mode. In saying that, it did take a little bit of time and since I was playing in Japanese I had to Google some stuff so I could understand the trophy requirements. Because of that, I still feel like I went to a small amount of effort to get this trophy, so my Platinum achievement was a small triumph to me, but a triumph nonetheless. Now that I have the Japanese platinum trophy, I’m going to look into getting Persona 4 Dancing All Night in English so I can understand the story and maybe if I have time, I might double platinum it for fun. And I say all this with the hope that Atlus will give us a Persona 5 Dancing All Night that I’ll be able to look forward to platinuming too because this Platinum reminded me just how fun a rhythm game with Persona and its great music can be.

You can pick up Persona 4 Dancing All Night at Play-Asia.com!

______________________________________________________________________

Have you platinumed a JRPG recently? What's your favourite JRPG spinoff game?

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

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!

Feel free to watch the video version here!

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.

Final Fantasy XV can be picked up at Play-Asia.com!*

(This is an affiliate link that helps support my JRPG Jungle content, so if you use it, thank you! <3)

_______________________________________________________________

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

Is Platinuming a Game the Same as 100% Completion?

Remember when people completed games without the motivation of a trophy or an achievement? When I was discovering video games through Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot, young little me really wanted to have every gem, every record and every level for some reason. I don't remember whether it was because my parents wouldn't buy me another game or if I just wanted to, but I have many fond memories of the joy I felt getting that final gem and the hours in between. I started thinking about this after looking at Final Fantasy XV’s trophy list. It's my resolution to platinum at least one JRPG this year and I enjoyed the hell out of XV, so I thought it would be a good candidate considering I'm had around 70% of XV's trophies when I finished it (edit: and I finally got that platinum!). What struck me about XV’s trophies was how easy it looked compared to what could still be done in it. You can get a trophy for maxing out Ignis’ cooking skill, but you can't get one for unlocking all of his recipes. You can get a trophy for completing over 80 quests, but what about for completing all of them? Perhaps this was done to make the trophy more accessible to new players, but as a JRPG player that’s a completionist at heart, the platinum leaves too much leftover.

Final Fantasy XV isn't alone though. I platinumed Persona 4 Golden as my first platinum a few years ago and while in comparison to Final Fantasy XV it's a much tougher platinum, I still have things leftover outside the platinum trophy realm. I don't think I completed it on the hardest difficulty and I didn't get any Personas to level 99. When I platinumed the visual novel Danganronpa, I didn't pass any of the class trials on the hardest difficulty and if I'm being honest, I abused the easy mode to get some trophies. It's with this in mind that while I love trophies, I have to acknowledge that it takes more than a huge boost in my trophy level to fully complete a game to the level I may want. And this raises a question in my mind: am I really fully completing a game by getting the platinum? Judging from what I just said, the answer is probably not.

In spite of this, I still think trophies are great. Trophies are usually what inspire me to start exploring the full completion aspect of a game and are an excellent push in the right direction for the completionist starting out. When I decided I wanted to play more Final Fantasy XV, it was trophies that showed me there were plenty more quests I could do and was the start of my platinum journey. As someone who has been going exclusively for trophies and not thinking about the other aspects of completing a game for a while, I've realised that my definition of completely finishing a game may have changed and evolved into something more like how I completed games in my childhood. I understand that trophies are a great motivator for many people who wouldn't usually fully complete a game and they have given the completionist bug to many players who now like seeing that 100% or getting the trophy before their friends. My completionist journey is becoming a more personal one, but I also tweeted soon after I got my Final Fantasy XV platinum and messaged my brother, so I understand the community benefit of trophies. I would genuinely be sad if the community aspect or fun percentage system in the trophy world went away.

Even though my gaming style is evolving, I'll still keep using trophies as my map when starting my completionist journey and will veer off in certain ways when necessary. Trophies and full completion isn't for everyone, but trophies are certainly a good way to inspire someone to go deeper into the game and my own form of completionism is my way of finding excuses to play more. Both styles of play involve getting the most out of a game and it's great that games can provide so many different gameplay styles for people like me who want to go beyond the core game or for the more casual gamer playing with their friends.

______________________________________________________________________

What's your favourite way to complete a game? What's your proudest JRPG platinum?
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

All the games mentioned in this article are available at Play-Asia.com!

(This is an affiliate link that helps supports the site, so if you use it, thank you!)

3 JRPG New Year Resolutions for 2017 ~Realistic Edition~

Let’s start the New Year with some honesty - my last two gaming resolution plans haven’t been the most successful. I made resolutions then ended up becoming overwhelmed between achieving them, fulfilling my regular JRPG desires and living my everyday life, and eventually abandoned all except one or two of them. This bums me out, because I get very excited to achieve all of my goals and I set them because they’re something I actually think I should do. Not being able to do them makes me feel like something I want is missing from my JRPG life and I’d like to make my JRPG life as great as possible.

To make my gaming resolutions more achievable, I’m doing three instead of five this year. It’s a simple solution that I think will make things a lot more doable and I’m already excited about the goals I’ve chosen as they’re three things that I really wanted to do last year but I didn’t have (or give myself) the time to do. Here are my three gaming resolutions, posted with high hopes that I will stick to them!

Play an old game from a JRPG series

The one resolution I regretted not doing last year was playing another old Final Fantasy game. This was my favourite resolution to complete in 2015 when I played Final Fantasy IX as it really made me feel like I got to know the Final Fantasy series better while playing a fantastic JRPG that was totally new to me. I’d like to do this again to educate myself as a JRPG fan who mostly plays modern titles and I hope to find another great game I've missed out on.

Plan: I'd like to do this with either Final Fantasy or Persona preferably, especially since I have Persona 2: Innocent Sin (which I started a few days ago!) and Final Fantasy VIII digitally already. Some of my readers/Twitter friends have also recommended great older JRPGs such as Legend of Heroes, multiple Tales of... titles and Fire Emblem games, so I have plenty to choose from depending on my mood. Since a lot of the games I’m really hyped for have been delayed or don’t have solid dates, I’m confident I’ll achieve this goal but I'll be doing my best to start playing old titles from now on.

Finish Persona 5 in English and Japanese

I’ve talked about my journey playing Persona 5 in Japanese and it hasn’t been easy. However, I’ve probably spent 10+ hours doing this and I want to see it through to the end, even if it will take a lot of time considering it's taken this long and I'm honestly not even at the second save point. Finishing Persona 5 in English is a given considering how important Persona 4 Golden was to me, but I would love to make Persona 5 the second game I’ve completed in Japanese. When I played Final Fantasy X in Japanese, I felt like I learnt a lot and became more comfortable hearing the language for long periods of time, so playing more Persona 5 to improve my Japanese seems like a fun and productive idea, especially with a game that I still have hype for!

Plan: I already try to dedicate an hour a week minimum to playing Persona 5 and using my dictionary to understand the story. I will keep doing this with the hope that the more Japanese words I study and learn, the less I have to look up and the faster I’ll be able to get through Persona 5 in Japanese. Completing Persona 5 in English will be no problem as long as it sucks me in as much as Persona 4 Golden did, so the real challenge will be (and already is) the Japanese version!

Platinum a JRPG

Regretfully, I didn’t platinum any games in 2016. In fact, I haven’t platinumed anything since February 2015 when I platinumed Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa. I love the challenge that comes with platinuming games, so I would love to get back into it. I want to play side quests, level up my party to ridiculous levels and indulge my inner completionist just a little.

Plan: To also assist my Japanese studies, every time I found a JRPG I wanted to Platinum in 2016, I internally made a note that I should buy the game in Japanese to do a platinum run. I plan to do this with a few games already, such as Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and World of Final Fantasy, so I hope I can start buying the Japanese versions of these games and doing this soon. As I've mentioned, I already own Persona 5 in Japanese and am going through it very slowly to study from it, so it’s also a candidate as I highly enjoyed platinuming Persona 4 Golden for eight months (no sarcasm, I loved it) and I’ll have a head start from trying to complete it in Japanese.

These three JRPG resolutions I know will take time and effort to complete, but with plans in place to complete them I hope I can actually achieve them. I hope these resolutions will allow me to appreciate some 'historical' JRPGs, along with giving me a deeper appreciation of ones I already love. I also hope to open up the world of unlocalised JRPGs a little more so I can have even more games to play, with language being less of a barrier for a certain game I want to complete. Fingers crossed I can report back with success, but my track record isn’t perfect so we’ll see if my high motivation lasts. Wish me luck!

As I did last year, I invite you guys to make your own by commenting on this post or posting with #3JRPGResolutions on social media (please tag me so I can see yours! <3)

_________________________________________________________________________________

What are your JRPG New Year Resolutions? What JRPGs are you looking forward to this year?

Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up on Facebook 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 for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

The Definition of Too Much Blitzball (A Celestial Weapon/Sigil Rant)

I've said it before, but platinuming my favourite games truly gives me a lot of joy. It's a good excuse to stay in the game world a little longer and if the gameplay is good, it's super fun to be challenged in the smaller parts of the game, such as mini games and collecting things.

I made the decision last year to platinum Final Fantasy X HD as a New Years Resolution. It didn't work out. But it's still a goal of mine, since now that it's on PS Vita, I can finally satisfy past me by getting the ultimate weapons, beating the dark aeons and everything else. When I was a teenager, I'd read walkthroughs and found a whole new world of gameplay inside Final Fantasy X. It had levels of depth that were totally optional and kind of secret if you didn't stray from the story, which I thought was really cool. I wanted to get all the Celestial Weapons and fill the Sphere Grid for each character, but I couldn't find the time or reason to go for it when I needed to study for my final exams (I did however end up writing part of my English essay on the game though in a burst of in-exam inspiration). Now that I'm an adult, I make more time than I probably should for games simply because I can and it's fun. So, now seems like a good time to achieve that goal.

At the time of writing this article, I have found and charged Tidus's Celestial Weapon, mostly without much difficulty. I've nearly got Yuna's too, I just need more items to sell and generally more Gil to get Yojimbo. Since I could just earn Gil during battles, next in line was Wakka's Blitzball filled journey, which I now realise I was not at all prepared for. It's a long process that involves far more Blitzball matches than I expected and I'm still at it.

Before trying to get Wakka's sigil, I liked the occasional Blitzball match. In fact, before I saved my game in what was probably the first half of the story, I used to usually try to get a match in just to build up my team and earn some items. After now having won 55 matches (or more after this goes up) and not finding the sigil yet, my Blitzball love is quickly waning and it's requiring a new level of dedication to that Platinum Trophy.

To gain Wakka's Sigil, it has two show up in League as first prize, then I have to have the most team points at the end of the 10 League matches to win it. As part of the prerequisites for it to show, I've already won all three of Wakka's overdrives and I have no doubt that I've done the right amount of battles for it to pop, it's just waiting and hoping for it to randomly appear after finishing League again. I could reset my Blitzball data; it would re-cycle the prizes and make my life easier. But my Blitzball team is at a high level (Tidus is Level 40+), so the idea of resetting my Blitzball data (separate to my FFX game data) hurts me inside because I'd lose all my hard earned EXP. So, I will just play more and more Blitzball, until it eventually appears in League where I can win it.

It's a long process. A very long process.

Despite this, I still wouldn't say Blitzball is a bad mini game at all. It's crazy underwater fun when in small doses, but I've hit a point where each match is very similar and it makes it feel a little chore-like. It's no secret that Platinum trophies have challenges like this but it's the first one that's truly frustrated me this much. Yet I will keep playing through these matches to test my own dedication to the platinum. If I complete this Platinum Trophy, I'm either crazy or a legend. Probably crazy when you factor in the 200 Lightning Strikes I have to dodge at the Thunder Plains for Lulu though. Oh boy. Wish me luck!

(One thing worth noting is that I've found out that you don't need the character Sigils or Crests technically to get the Platinum Trophy, which means I could also end my Blitzball challenge sooner than expected. However, I feel charging these weapons with their Sigils and Crests will be helpful to defeating enemies like Nemesis and Penance, thanks to the Double and Triple Overdrive abilities, so I consider it related to trophy hunting :) )

You can pick up Final Fantasy X HD Remaster for PS Vita, PS3 or PS4 from Play-Asia.com now!

_______________________________________________________________

Do you like Blitzball? What's the most difficult Platinum Trophy you've ever won?

Leave a comment below or send @JRPGJungle a tweet and let's talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter for updates on content and random, shorter musings on JRPG news and games. You're awesome! <3

Note: This article does contain affiliate links to Play-Asia to help support this site. You can read our Affiliate Link Policy here. Photos in this post are also from Play-Asia.

The Platinum Trophy Journey: Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa

Following my time playing and reviewing Danganronpa, I quickly made the decision that seems to only happen with my favourite PS Vita game stories - I didn't want to leave that world yet and a good excuse to continue play was getting the Platinum Trophy.

About a year ago I did Platinum Trophy info posts for Persona 4 Golden and Gravity Rush that lightly touched the surface of my platinum trophy experience. Without entering 'trophy guide territory' (PlaystationTrophies and it's contributors already do a brilliant job at this), I still wanted to give a little guide to people going for this platinum because I made a lot of uneducated mistakes in my experience so I'd like to help you avoid doing the same.

How long it took to Platinum (according to psnprofiles): 1 week, 5 days and 12 hours. If you're looking for an hour count estimate, I was silly and didn't realise clicking the info button on my save file would display how many hours I had done until my post-platinum playthrough. As an estimate based on that, I would say I spent around 50 hours between my first playthrough and tying up loose ends specially for the Platinum trophy.

My Trophy Advice

The trophies I've categorized below are all the different trophies you need to receive the 'Despair's Last Reward' Platinum Trophy.

Story Trophies

You don't need to do anything that special for these. Just playthrough each chapter, complete the trials and enjoy the game!

From Zero to Hero - Finished the Prologue
One is the Loneliest Number - Finished Chapter 1
Two of a Kind - Finished Chapter 2
Three's A Crowd - Finished Chapter 3
Four by Gore - Finished Chapter 4
Five Alive - Finished Chapter 5
All's Well That Ends...Umm... - Finished every chapter

While these trophies are pretty self-explanatory, I did refer to this very spoiler-free guide if I was low on health during the class trials.

Report Card Trophies

Report Card trophies are achieved by hanging out with each classmate in any of the Story Chapters or School Mode until you finish their friendship arc and finish their Report Card (which you can access in the menu). Each Report Card is a different length, with the longest one at 9 pages long.

Psychic - Filled in every page of Sayaka's report card
Hope Peak's Confidential - Filled in every page of Kyoko's report card
Memoirs of a Fashionista - Filled in every page of Junko's report card
The Devil Wears A High School Uniform - Filled in every page of Kiyotaka's report card
The Game Hungers - Filled in every page of Byakuya's report card
Rebel Without A High School Degree - Filled in every page of Mondo's report card
Almost Almost Famous - Filled in every page of Leon's report card
Lost in Scanslation - Filled in every page of Hifumi's report card
The Sixth Nonsense - Filled in every page of Yasuhiro's report card
GoodFellows - Filled in every page of Chihiro's report card.
Mystic Donut - Filled in every page of Aoi's report card
Stranger's In A Brain - Filled in every page of Toko's report card
Lovesport - Filled in every page of Sakura's report card
The French Disconnection - Filled in every page of Celeste's report card
Mr Know-It-All - Filled in every page of every character's report card

It is impossible to complete all the Report Cards in one playthrough of the main story, so there's not much need to worry about this in your first playthrough. You can replay the story to complete them, but an easier way is to do this is while playing and leveling up your characters in School Mode.

To speed up completing the report cards it is possible to give each character presents. However, if you haven't received the 'Ooh, For Me?' trophy or 'Seriously, You Shouldn't Have' trophies (listed in the Monocoin Related Trophies in this post), I would advise saving your Monocoins as it makes those two trophies more time consuming. The presents are not an essential part of completing the Report Cards, so it's up to you if you want to use them or not.

SP Trophies

I put these near the Report Card Trophies, because you will probably achieve these as a result of filling in the report cards. You earn SP most times you spend time with a classmate (unless you receive an trial ability), so expect these to come naturally.

Skilling 'Em Softly - Cleared the 10 SP threshold
Skilled or Be Skilled - Cleared the 20 SP threshold
Ghostface Skillah - Cleared the 30 SP threshold

Trial Trophies - Standard

These are earned by playing through each trial particularly well. A quick note - despite descriptions, multiple sites (PSNProfiles and PlaystationTrophies) have stated it only takes fulfilling the trophies requirements in one trial rather than all trials. I can vouch as well that I only needed to fulfill the trophy requirement in one trial rather than all of them, so these are easier to achieve than they sound.

What's A Mistrial - Cleared every class trial without having to retry
You Must Acquit - Cleared every class trial without taking any damage
Not From Concentrate - Cleared every class trial without using your concentration skill a single time
The Color of Television - Destroyed 100 white noise lines across all class trials
Tuned to a Dead Channel - Destroyed 500 white noise lines across all class trials

If you need help with any of the trials, I again recommend referring to this guide. These trophies are mostly self explanatory, but are time consuming because of the average length of the trials, even while fast-forwarding though everything. I did most of these by replaying the first trial, as it is by far the most straight forward case.

School Mode

School Mode trophies can only be achieved after finishing the main story once. After finishing the main story, this School Mode mini-game will unlock. The trophies for School Mode do require a little more effort, but because your stats do carry over each playthrough, the mini-game gradually gets easier.

School's Out for Summer - Cleared School Mode once
School's Out Forever - Saw every possible School Mode ending

Completing School Mode requires a little more strategical planning than the other trophies. The mini-game is based around resource collection and management, along with keeping up with cleaning and making sure you keep your characters energised to avoid them entering rest mode. A strategy that seemed to work for me was constantly having 2-3 cleaners on every day that I also gave all cleaning buffs to. On top of this, after completing each of the Monokuma Spares, I would spend time gathering resources and creating 10 of each of the Processed Goods (and then 10 more if I finished that). This allowed me to be ready to easily make any Monokuma Spare and kept a good amount of materials in my inventory. Put simply, I recommend having an assigned cleaning team and stocking up on Processed Goods after completing your assigned tasks. It makes every other task a lot easier to gather resources for, because you already have a good amount of them.

As for the School Mode endings, these are obtained by taking the classmates on Trips around the school in a Dating Sim style. Each interaction involves conversation options that help determine how much a classmate likes you. For the trophy, you need to achieve each character's ending by having positive date experiences with them until they have 10 hearts on Monokuma's friendship chart. The great thing about this is it's possible to get more than one classmate's ending in one playthrough, so go on as many trips as possible in each playthrough until you get 10 hearts and then repeat the process until you've dated and done that with all still students cause you're super monogamous like that.

Upon finishing each ending, you will receive a special present (heh) from each of the students that will be worth holding on for when going for the Seriously, You Shouldn't Have trophy.

Monocoin Related Trophies

I put together all the Monocoin, present and gallery-related trophies here together because they're all essentially connected by the spending and receiving of Monocoins, which you receive in game by investigating certain areas, completing trials and School Mode as many times as you like.

Nine Coins, Nine Purses, Nine Bears - Collected 999 Monocoins
Ooh, For Me? - Collected 50 unique presents
Hey, Big Spender - Enjoyed the excitement of the Mono Mono Machine 100 times
Seriously, You Shouldn't Have - Collected every possible present
Rogue's Gallery - Unlocked all gallery items

This set of trophies isn't hard, although they're all time consuming and perhaps a little tedious, so I'll describe this set in more detail.

Nine Coins, Nine Purses, Nine Bears may pop after trying to get the School Mode trophies because School Mode gives you 200 Monocoins upon completion, so I would recommend getting as many Monocoins as possible while trophy-hunting in School Mode. A big tip is to not spend any Monocoins until this trophy pops as your coin count is not accumulative and will only pop the moment you have 999 Monocoins in your inventory at one time.

Ooh, For Me?, Hey, Big Spender and Seriously, You Shouldn't Have all tie in together, because you'll probably pop the first two while working towards Seriously, You Shouldn't Have. This trophy revolves around the Mono Mono Machine, which makes this a difficult trophy to write about because it is based around chance. While the more coins you put in the Mono Mono Machine, the more chance you get of not doubling up on presents, I would recommend putting your coins in one Monocoin at a time until you have all of the presents you can gain from the Mono Mono Machine as you won't waste as many coins this way. You'll know you have all the presents you need as you'll see the odds of getting a double of a present go to 100%, which means you're done. The rest of the presents are received by completing all of the classmates endings in School Mode and getting their special present when you talk to each of them one last time before leaving the school.

I left the Rogue's Gallery trophy for last as it includes a sneaky locked Easter Egg gallery photo for those who have the 'Man's Fantasy' present, which can be gained while playing the Mono Mono Machine. Once you own the Man's Fantasy present, to unlock the secret item you need to replay chapter 3 up to the scene where the girls go to the bath house without the boys. With the 'Man's Fantasy' present, Makoto will decide to take a peek at the girls in the bathroom, which unlocks a hidden artwork for the item gallery. Once you've unlocked that, it's as simple as spending your Monocoins on each gallery item until you have them all. If you run out of coins, you can replay School Mode or one of the trials to get more.

Finally, after all that you will receive 'Despair's Last Reward', the Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa Platinum trophy! w00t!

The platinum is by no means easy, but compared to a lot of other platinum trophies, it's pretty easy as long as you know what to do. I hope this helped someone! Good luck and happy platinum hunting!

Don't have the game yet? You can purchase Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa at Play-Asia.

__________________________________________________________

What's the last game you platinumed?

I love hearing your thoughts, so please comment below or send a tweet to @JRPGJungle and follow if you want to keep up the content we post. Thanks for stopping by!

Five New Years Resolutions For Gaming in 2015!!

People usually make New Years Resolutions for life improvement things, like 'lose weight!', 'learn a new language' or 'be a better person'. Of course, you should work on your goals whenever you want and if that's on New Years Day, then good for you. For the sake of this blog, I wanted to do something much more fun and game related. This is 10 days late, but this year let's strive to better our gaming habits with five Video Game New Years Resolutions! Below are mine and you can add yours in the comments below. Happy 2015, friends!

1. Platinum Final Fantasy X HD

I've had this goal since I was in primary school to completely finish Final Fantasy X and have always become overwhelm by the massiveness of the game. When I say 'finished', I'm talking with the ultimate weapons, all Aeons obtained, completed sphere grids for all characters and everything else. I always got part way through this goal multiple times, but never achieved it. This time though, there are platinum trophies to be won and to document my progress, which for me is honestly a game changer. I will complete this goal....Then cry over the total amount of hours I've spent in this game in my whole life.

2. Play a native Japanese RPG from start to finish

I've been studying Japanese on a serious level for over a year now and I'm actually heading to Tokyo later this month for a few months. Let's just say if that doesn't improve my Japanese, then I have no idea what will.

The existence of this blog is a testimony to my love of Japanese RPGs but I want to take my relationship with these wonderful games to the next level. I want to play at least one JRPG that hasn't been localised. And not just play it for a little bit - from start to finish. I've played bits and pieces of old Japanese Gameboy games and Visual Novels and it's a struggle that involves a lot of dictionary use and note taking, so this will not only allow me to play games I've always wanted to play but couldn't, but will hopefully improve my Japanese even more. Learning can be fun!

So far, I'm tossing up between Ciel nosurge or Persona 5, depending on how far apart the English release of Persona 5 is from the Japanese one. I've already started playing through/translating the demo version of Nekopara Vol. 1 (Steam Version) for my own personal use and it's taking awhile, meaning this goal will probably take me most of the year to complete. I should get started soon!

3. Chip away at my backlog

Probably an impossible goal to fully complete, but I would love to delve into my backlog of games collecting physical and digital dust. Along with free Playstation Plus games I've been saving up throughout a one year subscription, I have gems such as Catherine and Persona 2 to start, Persona 3 and Tales of Xillia to finish and I don't even want to think about the rest. Most of you will understand this big task, but I don't buy games to sit on my shelf. Let's get playing!

4. Play more PS4 games

I'm hoping this year's release schedule fixes this, but my PS4 is collecting dust and I don't like it. I'm taking it with me to Japan, so games like Omega Quintet will no doubt end up in my possession, but I'm also thinking of trying some of the various indie games available on the PSN. I'm sure there's some gems I'm missing out on, so comment below if you know anything I should try!

5. Buy a 3DS XL

I've wanted a 3DS for awhile, although I feel like I'm two timing my Vita a little. In saying that it's not like I drive so I always have more time than most for handheld gaming in my commute and variety is never a bad thing. I really want to play Bravely Default and Persona Q, along with all of the Pokemon games I've been missing out on since the Gameboy Colour was out of style.

I've never actually purchased a Nintendo console with my own money. I'm quite thoroughly a Playstation person, but I love and respect Nintendo's creativity and am keen to get involved. Fingers crossed I find a good bundle in Japan!

Bonus: Blog about all of the above things and film some videos.

I've been wanting to get the confidence and equipment to make videos and expand this blog for awhile and I should really just DO IT. I'm gonna wait till during my Japan trip, so if you're interested in unboxing or gameplay videos from a JRPG perspective, please let me know! It'll motivate me more than I can say!

_________________________________________________________________________________

Got your own video game resolutions for 2015?

I'd love to hear yours, so comment below or send a tweet to @JRPGJungle. Thanks always for reading!

Persona 4 Golden: the Platinum Trophy Info-Blog

I mention Persona a quite a lot. I have my reasons - it's my favourite JRPG that I've discovered recently and it's different to anything I had ever played. I've played many games but I don't think I've played one with such rich complexity. Seriously - a game set in a high school that has any kind of complexity deserves respect. But I'm not the only who knows Persona is special. Persona is heavily popular, with Persona 4 Golden being one of the top games sold for PS Vita in Japan and is also growing in popularity around the world.

But you probably know that if you're reading this post. Or you're curious. Be warned: This platinum trophy isn't just for people who casually enjoy the game. It requires dedication and quite a bit of planning. It's certainly more brutal than any beef bowl!

First thing you should know about this Platinum is that it requires multiple playthroughs. You can get it on two - in fact, IGN has a brilliant guide for that. Just don't do what I did - I messed up my first trophy playthrough by not paying attention and had to do it again. It took me three or four plays (and a shameful amount of hours compared to other peoples) to get the platinum. The most important thing I can tell you is be ready to plan. You will see why below.

Here's how I did it, but please note: this isn't a step by step guide. Consider it more of a 'learn from my mistakes' kind of post :):

First playthrough: I wasn't attempting the platinum yet, this was just me falling in love with the game. I did manage to get the apparently difficult Hardcore Risette Fan trophy which I don't understand any of the fuss about. I just did this by training equally. To do that, every five levels in a dungeon I would check my characters levels and if anyone was falling behind, I would exit the dungeon, swap my party around to accommodate the lower level characters (fuse some Persona's while I was at it) and go back. Because each character has different attacks, this triggered all of Rise's phrases.

Second playthrough: I concentrated on the bookworm trophy successfully and wasted time trying to get the compendium trophy until I realised I couldn't do this without completing all the social links. I also finished the Marie stuff this time.

Third playthrough: Started the Social link trophy. Stuffed this up and had to restart halfway. I kept hitting wrong question answers and not equipping the right personas. I didn't notice until around November in the game. Make sure you're always equipped with the right personas, picking the right answers when you can and instead of dungeon crawling/grinding when no one wants to hang out, use the shrine. It's a....blessing :)

(Spoilers incoming!! Only on trophy names and descriptions, nothing story related.)

Fourth playthrough: By this playthrough, I knew the game's and the tricks. I was a P4G veteran, if you will. I made sure I used the right answers, on the right days, with the right Personas for the right social link and ended up with a day or two to spare in the end part of the game which felt insane. All this work was heavily rewarded with the true ending and also an extra something after the credits. And of course the shiny, beloved platinum.
Also in this playthrough, I did the 'One Who Has Proven Their Power' trophy on Very Easy. I found Easy too hard so I allowed myself to cave and switch the difficulty (horray for New Game Plus!). You will receive the trophy no matter what difficulty you win with.
I also got the 'Power of Truth' fusion trophy, the fishing master with some tricky time management and the 'Legend of Inaba' trophy.

The hardest trophy was definitely 'One Who Has Proven Their Power' on any other mode than Very Easy. It's a tough battle even with everyone on level 99 and to anyone who does it on Very Hard, you are a better gamer than I.

Easiest are all the story related ones. Also as I mentioned, with the way I play I had zero problems with the Hardcore Risette Fan trophy.

All of this took me 300 hours and while I enjoyed every minute of it, it doesn't have to be this way! Plan your gameplay, read guides, don't underestimate any social link time and the importance of answers and Personas. And most of all, have fun. I loved getting this Platinum - I will never regret exploring this world. There are many surprises that are bound to make you smile so if you're game, I challenge you to Platinum this wonderful, wonderful game.

______________________________________________________________

Persona 4 Golden is available at Play-Asia.com.

Gravity Rush: the Platinum Trophy info-blog

One of the most anticipated games for the PS Vita was a quirky, innovative J-RPG game by Japan Studio called Gravity Rush. It starred a cute, spunky blonde, used the PS Vita's tilt functions like nearly no other game has so far, had a unique story and in my eyes, did not get nearly as much credit as it deserved. I LOVED this game for the two weeks I played it. I even stopped caring about looking like a nut on the train whenever I tilted my Vita around like a steering wheel because it was fun. But reviews said otherwise and it became a freebie on Playstation Plus (which is worth getting). But I'm not here to review the game itself and even if I was, I played it so long ago that it wouldn't be a good review (you probably gathered that from my opening paragraph). What I'm here to talk about is the Platinum trophy which shines in my PSN when you look at my trophies!

I'm not really a 'trophy hunter'...but I'm not...not a trophy hunter either (good description). I get excited whenever I get one and I use them as an excuse not to put a game down and also to get my money's worth. I loved Persona 4 Golden and Gravity Rush before I finished them and couldn't imagine putting them down yet, so I made the decision to obtain the Platinum trophies. Time consuming? Yeah. Unneccessary? Probably. Fun? Oh yeah.

Below, I'm going to list the 3 easiest non-story/tutorial-based trophies and the 3 hardest ones and then give you a summary on my experience. Hopefully this will help you decide if it is worth your time. :)

Easiest trophies:

3. Frequent Flyer
Objective: Land 10 gravity kicks without landing or taking damage.

This trophy was actually one of my first in Gravity Rush and is something you'll learn early in the game. This trophy can be done in the enemy fighting challenges and was one of my main techniques. I found this technique to be the best way to fight as it usually hit's the enemies weak spot dead on. As long as you don't tilt your Vita while doing this, you'll get 10 in no time!

2. Throwing Machine
Objective: Hurled 10 objects into enemies without missing of taking damage.

There is a challenge where you throw things at enemies non-stop so this isn't hard. Just...throw stuff at enemies and make sure you aim? The only real challenge with this is the enemies move sometimes but I'm sure you'll find another enemy and more stuff to throw.

1. True Challenger
Objective: Cleared EVERY challenge.

This one's easy, as long as you're paying attention. It doesn't require you to 'rank' (get bronze, silver or gold) in the challenges, it just requires you to find them all. So use your map wisely and this one is easy as pie to do while you play the story and unlock new areas.

Hardest trophies:

3. Illusory Game Hunter
Objective: Defeated the rare Nevi in Rift Planes: The Mirage

Holy crap. I had to do this battle SO MANY TIMES OVER. The problem with this enemy is it's attacks make it hard to get close to when you need to hit one of it's many weak points on a certain angle. There were special attacks involved, sitting in far off areas waiting for it to stop attacking, flying further away in the area to restore health and reading strategy guides. Phew.
It's brutal, but I did feel very proud when I got this one.

2. All That Glitters
Objective: Gold-medaled EVERY challenge.

This one requires patience and knowing when to walk away from your Vita and come back when you're not frustrated/have peaked for the day. The trophy requires doing all the challenge courses over and over until you get the gold. Some are obviously going to be easier than others for different people, but this is the 'perseverance' trophy so again...you'll feel proud. Invisible tears of relief kind of proud.

1. Lost in Time and SpaceObjective: Heard the mysterious couple's complete story.
I needed a guide for this one. What makes this trophy difficult is simply the fact that you have no indication on where you will find the mysterious couple next. You can either gravity shift around looking for them everywhere or you can use a guide. I will say I found their story to make this trophy extremely rewarding and I think it's more than worth it.

Honourable mentions: The other Game Hunter trophies for being challenging, Going Underground for being tedious and for Gem Aficionado and Top Cat being nowhere near as hard as they sound as long as you are playing the story and doing challenges.

I found getting this platinum really, really fun. The challenges provide simple entertainment that doesn't require you to remember huge amounts of stories, just for you to play them and think of new ways to beat them. Same goes for the boss battles, it's all about the challenge. This platinum trophy took me three weeks to get and I did it on my first playthrough mostly on train rides (at this point my daily travel was 4 hours though). It's mostly simple, just requires a small amount of thinking and if you get into the story, it becomes much easier. I also recommend the DLC trophies for a little extra challenge!

Let me know how long it took you to platinum trophy Gravity Rush and if you would consider doing it (or not).

Until next time!

-Tara
PSN: guittaraxx