Sony The PlayStation Platinum Club

[Raine]

Guides say it should take 80 hours but I'm at like 115. lol

Story of my life! I'm either an extraordinarily slow reader, I procrastinate/get distracted too much, or they have they energy of a cracked-out toddler. ...Maybe all three.

Most recently for me was Kingdoms of Amalur, which is supposed to take somewhere between 60 and 80 hours. Even on my no fucks given, TL;DR all the things, cheese-all-the-levels run... I clocked in just minutes under 90?! My runtime for the OG version was probably about 130~140.

 

[Spiner202]

Nice. I will definitely check that out. I'd definitely prefer a mindless grind over one where I follow a map.

Just circling back to this to note that I reached level 50 online today. There are only single-player trophies left for RDR2. I'm largely just posting to document this for myself, so that I can see how long it takes to knock out the remaining trophies. I will guess end of January

 

[TD]

Story of my life! I'm either an extraordinarily slow reader, I procrastinate/get distracted too much, or they have they energy of a cracked-out toddler. ...Maybe all three.

Most recently for me was Kingdoms of Amalur, which is supposed to take somewhere between 60 and 80 hours. Even on my no fucks given, TL;DR all the things, cheese-all-the-levels run... I clocked in just minutes under 90?! My runtime for the OG version was probably about 130~140.

Trophy times are all over the map for me. I beat some, others are about right, and others I go over (it's usually RPGs I go over).

90 feels like a LONG run of KoA though? I feel like my Plat was nowhere near that. Speaking of - loved that game, disappointed in the developer drama, and that they canned the sequel.

 

[Spiner202]

Uncharted 2 can be upgraded to 100% for me. I finished the speed run this morning - pretty easy with the ability to restart checkpoints.

The brutal run was easier than expected overall, but I do think the difficulty ramped up considerably towards the end of the game. There's one checkpoint on the train mission that is completely insane. Later in the game, Chapter 23 is essentially an insane gauntlet of long checkpoints. The one with the tower in particular is probably the worst checkpoint in the game. The final boss was pretty easy because there's a way to cheese him, but getting that far was definitely a very challenging task.

 

[Raine]

Alright, updated through here!


Got a 4-day weekend comin' up, and a 5-day weekend after that. Mayhaps I'll actually be stupid and waste time with XIV's Palace of the Dead finish Drakengard 3 after all these years or something.

 

[Kat]

You can add Chants of Sennarr for me. Very fun and satisfying puzzle game.

 

[Spiner202]

I must say that RDR2 is proving to be quite intimidating. I'm working on the 100% trophy right now and some of the challenges are an absolute slog. There's a challenge for picking every flower in the game, but these challenges are sequential across 10 categories, meaning that you can't earn any progress for them until you reach that particular challenge in a category. I'd probably have had more than half of these collected prior to hitting this challenge if it would let me earn progress towards it earlier.

I'm not worried at all about giving up here - I'm worried that after I hit 100%, I won't want to study/skin every animal, then after that get 70 gold medals in missions, then after that, replay most of the story for the missable trophies that I missed on my first play through

At least I have the online parts done.

 

[Spiner202]

I must say that RDR2 is proving to be quite intimidating. I'm working on the 100% trophy right now and some of the challenges are an absolute slog. There's a challenge for picking every flower in the game, but these challenges are sequential across 10 categories, meaning that you can't earn any progress for them until you reach that particular challenge in a category. I'd probably have had more than half of these collected prior to hitting this challenge if it would let me earn progress towards it earlier.

I'm not worried at all about giving up here - I'm worried that after I hit 100%, I won't want to study/skin every animal, then after that get 70 gold medals in missions, then after that, replay most of the story for the missable trophies that I missed on my first play through

At least I have the online parts done.

Quick update to this: I got 100% this morning, and managed to study/skin all animals. I'm down to a handful of trophies - several easy ones that I had missed in the campaign (and are tedious because I need to get back to that point in the story, but the trophies themselves are easy) and the one for getting gold in 70 challenges.

Originally, I thought I'd do the gold challenges first and the missables later, but now that I'm here, I decided to do the opposite. For one thing, the missable trophies require me to get to Chapter 6 anyways (there are 6 chapters + 2 epilogues). While there are numerous easy missions in the epilogues, my logic is that I only had 7 gold medals on my 100% save file, so if I do the golds first, I'm basically committing to two playthroughs, whereas this way, I might be able to rack up 10-20 golds the first time around and minimize how much I need to replay.

Also, I wouldn't mind actually playing through the story again, and I know if I do the golds first, I'll be so burnt out by the time I get to the next play through that I won't want to listen to the story.

The only other thing I'll say about this game is that if I didn't have the last week off of work, I have no idea how I would have gotten this far. I've been grinding really hard for a couple weeks now. I think I'll hit my goal of having this plat by the end of January.

 

[Smacktard]

Quick update to this: I got 100% this morning, and managed to study/skin all animals. I'm down to a handful of trophies - several easy ones that I had missed in the campaign (and are tedious because I need to get back to that point in the story, but the trophies themselves are easy) and the one for getting gold in 70 challenges.

Originally, I thought I'd do the gold challenges first and the missables later, but now that I'm here, I decided to do the opposite. For one thing, the missable trophies require me to get to Chapter 6 anyways (there are 6 chapters + 2 epilogues). While there are numerous easy missions in the epilogues, my logic is that I only had 7 gold medals on my 100% save file, so if I do the golds first, I'm basically committing to two playthroughs, whereas this way, I might be able to rack up 10-20 golds the first time around and minimize how much I need to replay.

Also, I wouldn't mind actually playing through the story again, and I know if I do the golds first, I'll be so burnt out by the time I get to the next play through that I won't want to listen to the story.

The only other thing I'll say about this game is that if I didn't have the last week off of work, I have no idea how I would have gotten this far. I've been grinding really hard for a couple weeks now. I think I'll hit my goal of having this plat by the end of January.

I've decided to tackle GTA4 and GTA5 in the new year. It's gonna be a hell of an ordeal. The online grinding stuff is always the worst. GTA4 supposedly doesn't take that long but 5 clocks in at around 200 hours.

 

[Spiner202]

I've decided to tackle GTA4 and GTA5 in the new year. It's gonna be a hell of an ordeal. The online grinding stuff is always the worst. GTA4 supposedly doesn't take that long but 5 clocks in at around 200 hours.

That sounds brutal. I never made a concerted effort on GTA4, but looking at the trophies I had left, there were some difficult multiplayer ones. I imagine they're possible with boosting?

I've looked at the GTA5 trophies (I have barely any after beating the game), and my sense is that the single-player stuff is less grindy than RDR2 but the online is worse. Also, GTA5 has DLC trophies that are apparently significantly harder than the base game.

I will make an attempt at GTA5 probably sometime in this upcoming year, but I'm definitely starting with the single-player stuff first, unlike what I did with RDR2.

 

[Fire Queen]

added A YEAR OF SPRINGS to my plat list over the holidays! a lovely and short visual novel trilogy about the nuances of being queer in japan. got me to tear up on multiple occasions. each VN has multiple endings but you can get through your first playthrough in like half an hour and then get all the other endings in like fifteen extra minutes. for trophy hunters i can't think of a much easier plat to get--you can enable skipping of unread text and basically just brute force your way through the whole thing in like ten minutes, since all you need to do for the plat is to get every ending. however if you give this game a chance you might find yourself pleasantly surprised. but also visual novels might not be your thing. but also also its never too late to make visual novels your thing. also its usually on sale for dirt cheap

have finally cracked open yakuza: like a dragon. that'll be the next plat!

 

[TD]

have finally cracked open yakuza: like a dragon. that'll be the next plat!

...good luck.

Love the game, gave up on the plat.

 

[Fire Queen]

if you don't mind my asking, what broke you? the part im not exactly chomping at the bit to do is maxing everyone's job levels, but if there's one thing i can do it's mindlessly grind in an rpg

 

[TD]

if you don't mind my asking, what broke you? the part im not exactly chomping at the bit to do is maxing everyone's job levels, but if there's one thing i can do it's mindlessly grind in an rpg

It was that and the final boss made me rage quit after failing a few times.

The game pulls inspiration from Dragon Quest and openly acknowledges it, in both good and bad ways.

There's a sizable run up from the save point to the final boss and it's a pretty long fight cause Dragon Quest.

LAD is one of those games where if your main character dies, it's game over. The final boss has an instakill attack that can kill the main character if they're the 1 of 3 party members that gets targeted and it's game over.

I've never tried the post game challenge towers, but I heard they were pretty frustrating too.

 

[Spiner202]

God of War Ragnarok can be upgraded to 100% for me

Valhalla was great. I spoke a bit about it in the GoW thread, but with this DLC being free, it's a no-brainer for anyone who liked the base game.

Also, I see no situation where RDR2 is done by the end of January, which is a shame, as I have a procedure being done at the beginning of February that will probably knock me out of commission for a couple of weeks.

 

[Raine]

Updated through here.

GTA4 supposedly doesn't take that long but 5 clocks in at around 200 hours.

Unsure on exact timeframe, but I (not-so-temporarily) noped out of GTA4 pretty quickly. The races look to be pretty obnoxious, and there's apparently a... not glitch, but perhaps hidden "feature," wherein everyone has to finish within a certain timeframe for the race to count. Or something like that. Basically, ripe for trolling/abuse and functionally impractical to multibox or whatever.

I think a combination of grinding money (/EXP) and the prospect of "Fly the Co-Op" just turned me off enough to toss it onto the back burner, and I've had no desire to fire it up since. YMMV though.

LAD is one of those games where if your main character dies, it's game over. The final boss has an instakill attack that can kill the main character if they're the 1 of 3 party members that gets targeted and it's game over.

Learned the wrong lessons from Atlus/Megami Tensei then, it sounds like. Although MegaTen does offer a couple of options for contending with that, ranging from single-use items to getting immunity through spells/resistances. So I wonder if there's something squirreled away in a sidequest or something?

Also, I see no situation where RDR2 is done by the end of January, which is a shame, as I have a procedure being done at the beginning of February that will probably knock me out of commission for a couple of weeks.

That doesn't sound good! Hopefully everything goes smoothly and you recover quicker than anticipated.

 

[Smacktard]

Unsure on exact timeframe, but I (not-so-temporarily) noped out of GTA4 pretty quickly. The races look to be pretty obnoxious, and there's apparently a... not glitch, but perhaps hidden "feature," wherein everyone has to finish within a certain timeframe for the race to count. Or something like that. Basically, ripe for trolling/abuse and functionally impractical to multibox or whatever.

I think a lot of people tend to boost these trophies. I have no problem boosting trophies that are extremely obnoxious/unfair to get.

 

[TD]

Learned the wrong lessons from Atlus/Megami Tensei then, it sounds like. Although MegaTen does offer a couple of options for contending with that, ranging from single-use items to getting immunity through spells/resistances. So I wonder if there's something squirreled away in a sidequest or something?

Oh there was something whether it was a quest, job class level, or something dumb.

Either way I wasn't going to backtrack through the whole final dungeon and grind then go back through it.

Nope.

 

[Smacktard]

I'm trying to platinum Dead Space 2 right now, and holy shit, what a game. It's even crazier than the first one. Just utterly impressive.

The first time through I played on Normal and I got my ass kicked -- a lot. Now I'm playing on Zealot NG+ and it's been a cake walk so far.

The game has one trophy that's going to be a pain in the ass. You have to complete the game on "Hardcore" which is one of the hardest modes, and it only allows you three saves throughout the entire game. If you die, you might have to retrace 2 to 3 hours of content. Over and over and over again.

There is a glitch in the first chapter that allows you to duplicate items and makes the game a lot easier, and there's some DLC equipment you can pick up to make this mode easier, still. I'm at the point in my life where I have a backlog of like 70 games. I don't care about being the perfect Dead Space 2 player when I still have a lot of other cool games I want to check out, so I don't mind cheating to get this trophy.

 

[Raine]

I think a lot of people tend to boost these trophies. I have no problem boosting trophies that are extremely obnoxious/unfair to get.

Oh yeah, for sure - I was already coming at it from the perspective of a dedicated friend group or random boosters. Like the one achievement is doing 3 co-op missions reasonably quickly (time attack, essentially), which is something I thought would be a pain because your average achievement booster is... uhhh... very not good at video games. I had such a ridiculously bad time getting some co-op Halo and Gears shit done back in the day.

The racing in particular is just such a clusterfuck of a time investment though, adding more people in adds to the total required time and everyone needs to finish each race each time within the 4:45 or whatever for it to register, if I'm understanding correctly. So:

Now, you also have to win EVERY RACE in EVERY RACE TYPE in both Race AND GTA Race. There are a total of 54 races, bring the grand total amount of races you need to win to 108.

And it was about that time my eyes glazed over and I said "I'll deal with this shit later" and later has still yet to arrive.

There is a glitch in the first chapter that allows you to duplicate items and makes the game a lot easier, and there's some DLC equipment you can pick up to make this mode easier, still.

Ohh, I was unaware of this! Will have to make sure I pick these up before the marketplace goes down, for whenever I stop being a wuss.

Ironman/Hardcore challenges are fine for short 60~90 minute games, I had a reasonable amount of fun popping the one for TMNT Re-Shelled years ago for example, but I don't think spreading them across full playthroughs is enjoyable. Looking at you, Dead Rising.

 

[Smacktard]

TMNT Re-Shelled

I never even knew this existed. Woah.

Will have to make sure I pick these up before the marketplace goes down

This is precisely why I'm trying to play all of the old PS3 games I have before moving on to more modern titles. The worst was Arkham Origins. There are online trophies but the online officially shut down years ago. One of the trophies requires you to be online in a match with 7 other cooperating people. Curiously, online still works -- you just have to spend like 45 minutes watching an error message before it pushes you into a lobby (hopefully)

 

[TD]

I hate when games have trophies tied to NG+. Feels like a cheap way to try to encourage completionists to play again.

 

[Smacktard]

And it was about that time my eyes glazed over and I said "I'll deal with this shit later" and later has still yet to arrive.

Derp, I just had an idea: why don't we slowly hammer away at these GTA4 multi trophies together? One or two or however many hours we'd be willing to put in each weekend or something?

 

[TD]

Anyone wanna teach me how to boost the jump rope trophy in FFIX?

That'd be great.

 

[Smacktard]

Anyone wanna teach me how to boost the jump rope trophy in FFIX?

That'd be great.

Build a robot that taps with perfect input:

Players Are Using Robots to Jump Rope in 'Final Fantasy IX'

Final Fantasy IX's PS4 remaster has "Hail to the King," a truly Herculean achievement for mastering a difficult minigame.

www.vice.com

 

[Raine]

I never even knew this existed. Woah.

It got delisted relatively quickly, and reception was... mixed, at best. So probably very easy to overlook, yeah.

I didn't hate it, and it retained enough of the spirit of Turtles in Time that it was still kind of fun. And, more importantly, faithful enough that I could complete that specific achievement challenge in 1 real attempt. But just playing the demo or watching a Let's Play or something, you can see that the game needed more time in the oven. Can't remotely compare to the original sprite-based gameplay, which thankfully we have easy access to now.

Curiously, online still works -- you just have to spend like 45 minutes watching an error message before it pushes you into a lobby (hopefully)

That's so weird. It's like all these Ubisoft servers that get shut down dates, but then don't actually shut down for another ~3 weeks. And then just randomly come back online months later for no reason, before disappearing again?!

I hate when games have trophies tied to NG+. Feels like a cheap way to try to encourage completionists to play again.

Absolutely! Games that lock harder difficulties until you finish the game (at least) once on a lower difficulty are truly the worst though, and I'm already dreading giving FF16 a whirl because of it. I can maybe understand it for Devil May Cry because, y'know, even normal difficulty is pretty damn brutal. And the games are ~10 hours long and all about replaying stages for good ranks anyway. But (Action-)RPGs? Nah.

Derp, I just had an idea: why don't we slowly hammer away at these GTA4 multi trophies together? One or two or however many hours we'd be willing to put in each weekend or something?

Unfortunately I don't think we have GTA4 for PlayStation! But, I'm in the process of cataloguing games and streamlining the collection and am more than happy to help out with whatever we have in common.
Or picking things up a little later down the road!

 

[Smacktard]

I didn't hate it, and it retained enough of the spirit of Turtles in Time that it was still kind of fun. And, more importantly, faithful enough that I could complete that specific achievement challenge in 1 real attempt. But just playing the demo or watching a Let's Play or something, you can see that the game needed more time in the oven. Can't remotely compare to the original sprite-based gameplay, which thankfully we have easy access to now.

Yeah, I saw a few screenshots and it's a bit... underbaked. Interesting to know that it's so faithful to the original though!

Unfortunately I don't think we have GTA4 for PlayStation! But, I'm in the process of cataloguing games and streamlining the collection and am more than happy to help out with whatever we have in common.
Or picking things up a little later down the road!

I thought you had a collection of like every PS3 game ever Damn, plat'ing GTA4 is gonna be a bitch.

Alright, how about Dead Space 3 co-op (when I get around to it)?

 

[TD]

Absolutely! Games that lock harder difficulties until you finish the game (at least) once on a lower difficulty are truly the worst though, and I'm already dreading giving FF16 a whirl because of it. I can maybe understand it for Devil May Cry because, y'know, even normal difficulty is pretty damn brutal. And the games are ~10 hours long and all about replaying stages for good ranks anyway. But (Action-)RPGs? Nah.

This highlights my love hate relationship with trophies.

I'm the type who likes to play every game as blind as possible on my first playthrough.

To find out after the fact how much more is needed for platinum? Or how much time? How much obscurity?

I clearly have a type when you look at where I've put my time. I've gradually gotten better at it but sometimes I just want that damn platinum trophy.

 

[Raine]

I thought you had a collection of like every PS3 game ever

Nooo, we're the Xbox fangirls!

...That just happen to also have a couple hundred PS3/4 games.

Alright, how about Dead Space 3 co-op (when I get around to it)?

I'll get back to you on this one after my next visit to the garage! We definitely have DS1 (and DS2?), unsure about DS3.

 

[Raine]

To find out after the fact how much more is needed for platinum? Or how much time? How much obscurity?

I clearly have a type when you look at where I've put my time. I've gradually gotten better at it but sometimes I just want that damn platinum trophy.

Abso-frickin'-lutely. I'm okay doing a quick "missables checklist" Google search before starting a game since I'm always mucking with spreadsheets and lists anyway, but... yeah. Ideally games just have an organic list and a Chapter/Stage Select. There isn't really a good argument for not letting players jump around and re-experience their favorite parts, I don't think. So not sure why so many games don't offer that, achievements-oriented or otherwise.

I forgot which game off-hand, but there was one where a blind playthrough on the hardest difficulty setting ended with me missing exactly one achievement. Hooray! ...Except that achievement was about halfway through the game, and the only way to get to that point was to do a new save file.

 

[TD]

Abso-frickin'-lutely. I'm okay doing a quick "missables checklist" Google search before starting a game since I'm always mucking with spreadsheets and lists anyway, but... yeah. Ideally games just have an organic list and a Chapter/Stage Select. There isn't really a good argument for not letting players jump around and re-experience their favorite parts, I don't think. So not sure why so many games don't offer that, achievements-oriented or otherwise.

You've always been much better than me at articulating what I'm saying and this is absolutely it.

I may glance at time to plat, # of playthroughs, and # of missables and generally speaking if it's absurdly high on any of those three I just don't bother.

It's probably why I waited 2-5 years (depending on game) to do that trophy cleanup stuff. Revisit a game I enjoy with a different lens and finish what I started.

And now I'm likely going to be in another long platinum lull, especially cause I can't even pick a game.

 

[Smacktard]

I do the same as you guys -- always check the missables, including in-game stuff. When playing Souls games, I follow a "pick up this thing here" guide as I go through the game. It occasionally removes some of the surprise, but backtracking just isn't fun.

I also check the difficulty rating too. I know Ninja Gaiden games are infamously difficult, but seeing their plat rating at 10/10 just makes me go "nah."

I'll play them, but I don't see myself platting them EVER.

And now I'm likely going to be in another long platinum lull, especially cause I can't even pick a game.

The game you want to pick is Huntdown. You're welcome.

 

[TD]

The game you want to pick is Huntdown. You're welcome.

Hmmm.

 

[Smacktard]

Hmmm.

View attachment 6612

I know you don't really buy games much, but this is honestly one of the best games I've ever played.

 

[TD]

I know you don't really buy games much, but this is honestly one of the best games I've ever played.

I'll give it a try, you've got a good feel on what I like and it's only $4. Thanks Kelly.

 

[Smacktard]

I'll give it a try, you've got a good feel on what I like and it's only $4. Thanks Kelly.

Awesome, let me know what you think. IMO it's a perfect game.

 

[Spiner202]

After 222 hours, I am a Legend of the West. Red Dead Redemption 2 can be added to my platinum list

The gold medals didn't end up being as bad as I thought. The combination of having your end of game stats (although I know it didn't work this way on the game's release) and having recently played through the entire campaign made them much easier than expected. I'd say only the last 5-10 medals were more challenging.

Also, I'm so happy I basically replayed the entire campaign (except the epilogues). RDR2 really is one of the best stories in gaming.

 

[TD]

After 222 hours, I am a Legend of the West. Red Dead Redemption 2 can be added to my platinum list

Wow - congrats!

 

[Raine]

Alright, how about Dead Space 3 co-op (when I get around to it)?

On today's episode of "Do Raine and Teli have any clue what they own?" it turns out that we don't have any of the Dead Space games on PS3.

Here's what we've got at the moment:

Spoiler: PS3 stash

Phone had a fit in the basement. You can mostly make out what these are still though lol

After 222 hours, I am a Legend of the West. Red Dead Redemption 2 can be added to my platinum list

Oof, that's solidly JRPG levels of runtime right there!

Congratulations on the plat, will add that in momentarily.

 

[Spiner202]

Oof, that's solidly JRPG levels of runtime right there!

The trophy guide I followed estimated 200 hours, and another website I use said 150-200 hours. If I didn't duplicate some work, I think I'd be in the 190 hours range, but I think someone who is better/more efficient at the game could do it in around 170 hours or so.

But I think most people would agree that, given the reputation of the game, you have to do a standalone play through first without any guides to really appreciate the game.

 

[TD]

Awesome, let me know what you think. IMO it's a perfect game.

I played it for 40 minutes (so far), I like it as a homage to old school games to pick up and play for a little here or there as a change of pace.

Kinda reminds me of My Friend Pedro.

 

[Raine]

But I think most people would agree that, given the reputation of the game, you have to do a standalone play through first without any guides to really appreciate the game.

Yeah I can't imagine ever approaching a game with such laborious attention to detail on animations and world building with an achievement-first mindset.

Sure, might suck to have to tack on an additional playthrough or something. But missing out on the first-time experience is a greater loss. Unfortunately I don't have any particular nostalgia for what they're putting down, so for this one I was content to just watch from the sidelines.

 

[Spiner202]

Sure, might suck to have to tack on an additional playthrough or something. But missing out on the first-time experience is a greater loss. Unfortunately I don't have any particular nostalgia for what they're putting down, so for this one I was content to just watch from the sidelines.

The nice thing is that my initial play through was in 2020, so while some plot points remained in my head, a lot of the detail felt new.

I'm probably going to have to buy the first game again at some point. I haven't played it since probably 2010 and it should be interesting to try it again with the prequel in mind.

 

[Smacktard]

I played it for 40 minutes (so far), I like it as a homage to old school games to pick up and play for a little here or there as a change of pace.

Kinda reminds me of My Friend Pedro.

It's like an homage, but it improves on them in every way IMO. Killer soundtrack, excellent atmosphere, challenging but fair gameplay. It's just such a good video game in an age of video spectacles IMO

 

[Smacktard]

On today's episode of "Do Raine and Teli have any clue what they own?" it turns out that we don't have any of the Dead Space games on PS3

Ahh so you must have them on Xbox then..
...r... Right?

Here's what we've got at the moment:

DAMN! Y'all some jRPG fangirls I feel bad about neglecting JRPGs in my life, but almost any time I ever attempt one, I never really enjoy myself that much. Out of all of the JRPGs you have there, which one do you think would be most appealing for me? FWIW I really enjoyed Tales of Symphonia.

 

[Raine]

Ahh so you must have them on Xbox then..
...r... Right?

Yes! That side of things is much easier to keep track of with more mainstream games, since even while blatantly ignoring the backlog in favor of MMOs we were still picking up (and sometimes playing!) games. For a good ~5 years we didn't really do anything to/with/for PlayStation at all, and are only just recently pulling that out, seeing what we want, and seeing what's actually available for a good price. (Read: Not most of the missing RPGs! )

DAMN! Y'all some jRPG fangirls I feel bad about neglecting JRPGs in my life, but almost any time I ever attempt one, I never really enjoy myself that much. Out of all of the JRPGs you have there, which one do you think would be most appealing for me? FWIW I really enjoyed Tales of Symphonia.

JRPGs can be pretty hard to get into, yeah. For a long time they were plentiful because they're really cheap to make, relatively easy to design/balance and can serve as an outlet for amateur/aspiring authors. ...Which now that I type that out actually really lays out why they fell off so hard, too. Combined with the move to HD decimating large swathes of the industry.

I ain't gonna lie: PS3's JRPG selection is dire. There's a lot there, but also a lot of it just isn't good. Idea Factory/Compile Heart games in particular are the bane of my existence.

As for a recommendation, I think a lot of that depends on what you liked about Symphonia. The safest option is a lateral move to another Tales game, but each game has different strengths or weaknesses. Like if you're in it for the characters, I quite enjoyed the cast of Graces F and it easily has the best combat of the PS3 games (since Vesperia isn't available in English outside Xbox/PS4). The overall narrative is kind of not great though. Xillia, meanwhile, has a pretty decent narrative, combat is pretty good but a couple characters really hurt my personal enjoyment.

Outside of Tales, I'll always plug Nier. It's a straight-up Action-RPG, and I adore it - jank and all. There is not a single aspect of that game that I didn't like - characters, narrative, gameplay, the music. But! Butbutbut. Expectations are a motherfucker. Cavia had a shoestring budget and you should not go into it expecting a shining AAA/Classic™ experience. Just take it as it comes/is.

Resonance of Fate is also really good, though there's nothing "traditional" about it in terms of gameplay. Also, steep ass learning curve - both in what's there, and what it's actually safe/preferable to ignore. It's the tri-Ace game I would recommend, though that's kind of sad because 1) Tales and Star Ocean are effectively siblings and 2) Star Ocean is very enjoyable, but Q) Star Ocean 4/The Last Hope is an absolute chafing train wreck of a game outside of its combat system. Which, A+ combat. Would not have gotten the ~550 hour completion if that wasn't great.

If you want a good turn-based game, it's hard to not state the obvious that is Persona 5. Though obviously the PS4 version shares the same list and performs better. P5 is my least favorite of the modern Persona games, but P3 and P4 are so high on my all-time lists that that isn't necessarily indicative of a bad time.

 

[Smacktard]

You named all of the games I have lmao, except for Star Ocean. I have Nier, Tales of Graces F, and Tales of Xilia. I also have Persona 5 Royal for the Switch (gifted). So I'll get around to all of those... eventually...

The Persona series is kind of a mindfuck for me. There's so many different versions and titles that I don't know what to make of it. What is like the Persona 5 game to have? Which console?

 

[Fire Queen]

i’m a persona hater (have only played 3-5, 3 is my favorite of the three, 5 was okay, 4 was rough) but because of writing reasons more so than story reasons. smtiv was fun! i own smtv but haven’t touched it yet

automata is the only nier game i played but it kicked ass. i wanna play replicant next. i have heard so much about kainé #girl

the two tales games i have played to completion are symphonia as a kid and vesperia as an adult. i liked both

genuinely i also recommend the xenoblade chronicles trilogy (sorry about 2). i’ve heard good things about the other xeno games

random encounters make me like rpgs less. tales of symphonia spoiled me

 

[Smacktard]

What made you prefer 3 over 5, and 5 over 4, FQ?
I should've mentioned I'm a Xenowhore. I've played all the releases since Wii, except for XC3. I still have it, but I'm waiting for Ramadan when work timings will be chill AF and allow me to get a lot of gaming done.

 

[VashTheStampede]

3 > 5 > 4 is my preferred Persona Story Order as well.

Just a couple more weeks until the 3 remake...