PSLS' Morning Wood Ep. 61: Child of Light and Bronze Trophy Troubles

[stolenxnametag]

New Friend For Morgan
When I first moved in with my wife (then-girlfriend), she only had one cat and decided that I needed a cat, too. Her cat, Molly, was raised with 3 dogs, but they were still at her dad's house. Thus, Molly was the only pet in the house. She asked me what I was going to name the new cat when she got it, so I said Davy Bones. She informed me that I was getting a female cat because she didn't want Molly get to get her bones jumped by a male cat. I replied again, "Davy Bones." Monday (Cinco de Mayo), Davy Bones will be 5 years old. We've been very happy with the decision to add to the family, so don't do it just for Morgan - do it for the family!


Child of Light Review / Reviewing Stuff
Congratulations on your first review, @D'yani! I really wasn't sure if I wanted to buy it or not, but your review cemented the deal for me. I wasn't aware of the whole arts / literature direction that the game was supposed to be taking, so that input actually made it seem even more worth getting.

When I watch Morning Wood, listen to the podcasts on PSLS, or play through a PS Mobile game for review on the forums, I always take notes on this rectangular Post-It Note thing. From there, I brainstorm a few ideas and turn the thread creation box into monochrome watercolor sunshine (sounds like the name of a band that @Lifewish would listen to). Sometimes it turns out alright, but I fear that most of these ramblings reinforce how boring I can be.


Bronze Trophy Troubles
When the two of you were discussing bronze trophy woes, I started thinking about the games I have on PS4. My biggest question is this: Why does Resogun have a platinum trophy when MGSV: Ground Zeroes and Child of Light do not? That blows my mind. Furthermore, Don't Starve should, too, but the maker of that game seems to be kind of a dick when it comes to trophies.

I agree 100% with @Chandler Wood on the idea of trophies taking a priority in the development cycle. If a game has a lack of carefully crafted trophy presence, that leads me to believe that the game isn't going to be as fun as some people say it is. It's not that trophies make a game better. They don't at all (there @Arthur Sataine, I said it). Instead of me playing as the thief class character with a shitload of SPD/DEX/AGI/STR/LUCK added to him / her and moving onto the next game, trophies give a game more replay value for me. Not only that, but they make me search for the things that I might have missed along the way. When a developer puts like 20+ bronze trophies and a silver before calling it quits, I feel like those were just tacked on instead of being purposely put in the game. Sure, the "kill 100,000 enemies" and "get 45 characters to level 99" trophies are meticulous and painful, but they do allow me to find out how to more effectively clear a level or show me how cool some of the 30 characters I ignored are (obviously talking about Warriors Orochi and Dynasty Warriors games).


Dead Battery Ending
Thanks for the weekly update! I can't believe that this show has gone on for 61 consecutive weeks without being skipped. I admire that completionist-type mindset, Chandler!

 

[SightfulRage]

You missed out on the perfect opp to bring up @D'yani's best Morning Wood image. The long flowing red hair really suits Chandler. If only a Chandler face swap mod was legit within this game. I'd buy it and move it to the top of my backlog pile.

Did Davy Bones (Pretty solid name, btw) end up becoming the name for a male cat or female? If it was male, how did you convince your wife to accept him?

Trophies to me, are some what of a blessing and a curse. I remember playing Crash Team Racing as a kid and legitimately trying to win every trophy in ever race, obtain every CTR lettering from every level and beat all the trail times just for giggles. My perseverance would have probably lead to a platinum in that game today. Now, by my own doing, I feel pressured into obtaining any and all trophies/achievements that I feel I can get. It has put me in this weird place where I'm not even playing games for fun any more and I'm just doing it for some fake award no one really gives two beans about.

A Couple examples that come to mind are Tomb Raider and Rayman Legends. Neither of these games were on my radar when they were first released. But I had a blast playing both of the single player campaigns. But by the time I obtained the platinum for Tomb Raider, I had completely forgotten about the joy I experienced with the single player due to the grind I had to endure with the Multiplayer. The Multiplayer wasn't fun and broken to boot. I was more relieved that I could put the game back on the shelf for good than thrilled I obtained the platinum.

Rayman is a different beast entirely. This game... At this point I feel worse about having to wake up and play this game than I do about going to work. I am 1 trophy away from obtaining the platinum trophy but this is by far the hardest I've ever worked for a trophy or achievement. The Joy I had for this game left long ago when I started my quest for the final trophy. Replaced now with a hatred like no other (If you want to see me blow up, put me in front of a TV with this game). I've never thrown controllers before this game. I've thrown my ds4 so many times that it is hanging on for dear life right now. The left trigger and bumper housing are beaten to hell. It took me a long time but I've finally figured out a system to where I feel if I can't obtain a gold trophy in the daily challenge easily enough, don't even try it. It delays getting the unlock by a couple days but spares my controller any more harm. If it wasn't for this last trophy being the gateway to my platinum, I would have stopped playing long ago and my controller would still be in tact.

If sequels are ever released for these games (which is most likely for both), I wont remember the good times I had playing the Single player. What comes to mind first is my last thing I experienced, the agony of trying to obtain the final trophies to complete the games. I love the addition of trophies/achievements to games. It does give the gamer an opportunity to break their normal routine from time to time and explore different routes within a game. But most dev's seem to put them in purely an after thought. In the game development process, it's probably lowest on the totem pole. But because of the trophy issues, anything further down the line goes from being a pre-order to becoming a title I pick up during a sale.

 

[stolenxnametag]

Did Davy Bones (Pretty solid name, btw) end up becoming the name for a male cat or female? If it was male, how did you convince your wife to accept him?

Davy Bones is a girl. :-D

I can't finish a platinum if the game loses its fun, unless it's like the last trophy or two before I get a platinum. Developers totally lose my respect when they implement trophies that make me hate a game. Don't Starve, for example, implemented a trophy designed to poke fun at trophy hunters. I downloaded it on PS4, but I haven't even played it because of that very reason. After reading about that on PSLS and subsequently reading an interview with that developer, I decided that their game wasn't worth my time because they considered me to be an afterthought.

To add to the discussion about multiplayer trophies, though, the ones for Assassin's Creed IV were what actually made me try the multiplayer mode. At first it was kind of a terrible, but I really started to enjoy it! I didn't get the trophies for the DLC, though, because I thought they were a little bit too nuts. Sure, it's braggable to do an acrobatic kill with Blackbeard and kill somebody else with a pistol in 10 seconds, but that doesn't add any value to the game for me. Because the challenge involved doesn't translate into anything, I decided that it just wasn't going to happen for me. Also factoring in how unreliable the servers are for the game, I eventually just lost interest.

In Final Fantasy X HD, however, the trophies you get actually add value to the game (mostly). For most of the feats you accomplish to get trophies in the game, you acquire items in the game that add to the experience. When I was doing the chocobo race at Remiem Temple this morning, I forgot how terribly clunky the controls were when I played it so many years ago on PS2, but I vaguely remembered doing it anyway when I was younger. As I tried and tried at picking up all 5 treasure chests and beating my opponent in the race, I knew that there was going to be something that made the whole experience worthwhile. Finally, I did it, and I obtained an item that will allow me to pick up all of the Celestial Weapons later in the game. I didn't know that a trophy was going to pop, but I felt so accomplished once it did! I think this is a perfect example of trophies actually meaning something to the player.

 

[SightfulRage]

As cool as name as Davy Bones is, where did you come up with it? Is it a reference to something?

A good portion of the Assassins Creed MP DLC tropies are pure luck. 1/1000 shots if attempted legitimately. Those are the exact types of trophies that I could do without. I'd love to be in the meeting that gave that garbage the go ahead. It's like they sat down and thought about what would make a cool cut scene, briefly thought about whether or not it was possible to do it in game. Since it technically is possible, they O.k.'d it. Possible? Yes. Likely? No.

The FF trophy sounds like a good mix of challenge and functionality. I would much rather do a side quest or some optional scenario that adds substance to the game rather than gather 15 billion balloons in 18 months time that seemingly drags on the grind far longer than it should.

 

[stolenxnametag]

As cool as name as Davy Bones is, where did you come up with it? Is it a reference to something?

It's a pun on a famous person. I chose it kind of on-the-spot. My wife and I have consciously decided to only have pets with proper names. The older cat, Molly Ringworm (pun on Molly Ringwald), is a large Maine Coon mix who is more calm, collected, and like what the older generations may call, "A lady." Think Audrey Hepburn (Happy belated birthday!) in My Fair Lady. Davy Bones (after the legendary sea devil / singer from The Monkees), on the hand, spent her second weekend in our home stealing Jello shots from us while we had a party. When we finally caught her dragging one into the kitchen to her food bowl, we noticed that there were 4 or 5 more that she had cleaned out first. Their names have seemed to create their personalities.

 

[Chandler Wood]

I'm stoked to add another cat to the family, it's going to be great having her. She's apparently pretty passive, and so is Morgan, so it should be a good match up.

I despise Luck based trophies. I can even handle grinding trophies, but if it's a luck based one, that's what I can't handle. I am LOVING going through FFX for trophies (Nemesis, Penance, and maxing out the sphere grids are going to be tough) because they are all about exploring the deep aspects of the RPG. I don't understand why they don't take the time to make it a key part of the development process. Some devs do, but others seem to pass it by. For example, Spider-Man 2 is really not that great of a game at all (review incoming, just awaiting an edit), but the trophies are actually pretty fun and interesting to get, and have therefore increased the fun that I am having with it.