Tag: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Trophy Hunters – 2022 Recap

2022 is really coming to an end, huh? I’d love to sit here and say I managed to accomplish everything I set out to, but…things didn’t exactly happen that way. Looking at back at this past year, however, I can remain satisfied in what I was able to achieve – of course, I’m talking about gathering more PlayStation trophies. PLOT TWIST: I’m also being joined by fellow trophy hunters and blog friends – Solarayo and GamingDiaries, who have graciously agreed to take part in today’s year-end trophy post and write up their own respective recollections from this past year(links above). So…let’s fucking go!

First Trophy of 2022

First Weapon(Donuts ‘n’ Justice) – One of the very first memories made in 2022 involved some trophy collecting as my wife and I spent New Year’s Day relaxing at home with loads of snacks and video games. One of the games we decided to play together was the short, retro-inspired indie game – Donuts ‘n’ Justice. It only took about an hour or so to complete the entire game and collect all the trophies for an easy platinum. Only one day into 2022 and I was already off to a decent start…surely that momentum would continue throughout the year, right?

Most Recent Trophy

Pontiff Sulyvahn(Dark Souls 3) – The most recent trophy I unlocked was for defeating Pontiff Sulyvahn in Dark Souls 3. Shortly after arriving in the wintery, picturesque city of Irithyll, I entered the main cathedral where my next test of patience was waiting for me. Pontiff Sulyvahn proved to be a challenge as he has a number of sweeping(almost graceful) attacks with greatswords, which sort of resembled dual-wielding a pair of lightsabers. Hell yeah. It took me a few attempts but I managed to finally claw my way to victory and the trophy to prove it.

Proudest Trophy Unlocked

Sekiro(Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice) – If you asked me at the beginning of 2022 whether or not I was gonna attempt a challenge as daunting as beating Sekiro, let alone getting the platinum trophy, I would have laughed at you. Well…through some strange sequence of events, I did just that. I had made a couple previous attempts to complete the game, but, for whatever reason, it wasn’t until this past August that the fast-paced, rhythmic combat FINALLY CLICKED for me. I managed to not only beat Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, but finished the game NEARLY FOUR TIMES on my way to what I’d consider my biggest achievement of 2022. I can easily call Sekiro my *other* favorite From Software game, right next to Bloodborne…

Regret *NOT* Getting

The Wasteland(Cyberpunk 2077) – I had played a few hours of Cyberpunk 2077 on PC right at the game’s launch in December 2020, but due to having plenty of other games on my plate at the moment I decided to shelf the Cyberpunk for the time being and focus on other things. The long-awaited next-gen update was released for the game this past February; the shipping for my copy of Horizon: Forbidden West had been delayed, so I decided to return to Night City, this time on the PS5. CD Projekt Red has done a remarkable job turning around what was an utter dumpster fire of a game launch for Cyberpunk, and the game is much, much closer to what the devs had first announced years ago. While the game is a VAST IMPROVEMENT, I was unfortunate enough to encounter a couple glitches during my playthrough. A bug that occurred while returning a stolen vehicle to a fixer’s garage prevented the mission from showing as completed, making it impossible to get the trophy for completing all side gigs in the Badlands. Of course, this was the final trophy I needed…one glitch away from another platinum trophy.

Platinum Trophies Acquired

Despite feeling like I didn’t accomplish much in 2022 other than a handful of FromSoft games, I did manage to acquire 14 more platinum trophies. I’ll acknowledge that roughly half of these are from indie games that took me anywhere from an hour to a few hours to grind out another platinum, but I’m also gonna point out that the three FromSoft platinums – Elden Ring, Bloodborne and Sekiro, accounted for just about 300 hours of PlayStation playtime this past year, so…

Here are the games in which I managed to grab those sweet, sweet platinum trophies:

  • Donuts ‘n’ Justice
  • My Name is Mayo
  • Life if Strange: True Colors
  • Tesla vs. Lovecraft
  • My Name is Mayo 2
  • The Last of Us Part II
  • Elden Ring
  • Bloodborne
  • The Pizza Delivery Boy Who Saved The World
  • Distraint
  • Control
  • My Name is Mayo 3
  • Hoa
  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Next Platinum Targeted in 2023

Dark Souls III – Despite my best efforts(well, not really), I’m STILL working my way through pretty much every modern From Software game. I started playing Dark Souls III about a month ago now and have been really enjoying it so far; the overall movement and combat is significantly less cumbersome than Dark Souls: Remastered and feels closer to Bloodborne, which was released the year prior to Dark Souls III. Hopefully the grind for covenant items isn’t *as* tedious as it can be for some as I’m aiming for the Dark Souls III platinum trophy in the beginning of 2023, if not, I *did* just so happen to express interest in another trophy hunt with Solarayo as she is planning to go after the platinum trophy in Dark Souls II…which I may regret?

Trophy Hunter Shoutout

Solarayo – Extremely Solid(Metal Gear Solid 2)

For those who follow Solarayo on her blog site – Ace Asunder(if you don’t, I recommend doing so), she emerged victorious last year in her long-running quest to get the elusive Metal Gear Solid 2 platinum trophy. This feat of patience and determination involved playing through the game numerous times AS WELL AS completing a literal shit ton of VR Missions, each with their own set of requirements. And she was worried about Dark Souls…go ahead, just ask her about the giant elephant boss!

Gaming Diaries – Master of Fate(Final Fantasy VII Remake)

Despite her humility, GD is quite the accomplished trophy hunter and has accumulated a number of trophies that I doubt I possess either the skill or patience for. One such trophy is ‘Master of Fate’, the platinum trophy for the Final Fantasy VII Remake. I’ve played through the FFVII Remake and have wanted to revisit the PS5 version and maybe, JUST MAYBE make an effort at the platinum trophy. The biggest hurdle from what I can tell is needing to play through the entire game on Hard difficulty. Yeah…I had a devil of a time defeating Hell House on normal difficulty, thanks.

I want to throw out a big THANK YOU to both Solarayo and GamingDiaries once again for agreeing to join me in this half-baked idea. I’ve been a little directionless lately in regards to blogging and hopefully this will help me to regain some lost momentum.

Here’s to a better year in 2023 and plenty more trophies ahead!

Omnivore Update – October 2022

It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? It’s already midway through October and I’m still unable to process that, so here’s yet another blog/life update.

I had every intention of using Blaugust as a momentum-builder going into the autumn months with the hope of maintaining some semblance of consistency, not just with blogging, but with streaming and…life in general, I guess?

Spoiler Alert: that was clearly some wishful thinking didn’t quite work out like that. I published my half of the Elden Ring collab post with Meghan going over all the enemies(well, some of) we found most annoying while playing the game; I’m still really pleased with how the post turned out and it’s one of my blog highlights from this year. I wanted to keep the momentum rolling and had come up with a number of ideas for blog posts that I had in mind and had even gotten a few beyond the initial ‘That’s a decent idea…’ step and had *actual words written* and then suddenly just felt…like I couldn’t do it. I haven’t been able to write more than a handful of paragraphs in the last month and a half. At first I kinda shrugged it off as “meh, it’s fine. I’m not gonna force myself to sit at my computer and not leave until I have some arbitrary number of words written; this really isn’t the first time this has happened.” Fast forward to six weeks later and…

When this happens, I usually find myself caught somewhere between “I’m not gonna force myself to write up something just to say I accomplished something” and “Fuck, it’s hard to pick up where I left off after this long”. I realize this is compounded by the fact I possess the special ability to make EVERY.SINGLE.THING I attempt much harder than it needs to be – i.e. overthinking the shit out of everything. I’ll randomly think of something over the course of the day that I feel like I could wrestle into some sort of almost-coherent post, but it’s usually negated by stressing myself out over something that I…haven’t even attempted yet? I eventually arrived at the conclusion that writing, just WRITING anything is bound to be better than nothing and will make it easier to get back to where I had hoped to be by now. What’s the easiest way to get back into a rhythm of writing for me? Update posts or lists, usually. Anyways, here’s what I’ve been playing recently…

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

I first played Sekiro…well, attempted to, after picking it up back in 2019. I immediately loved the setting and overall art style of the game, but two things prevented me from ever getting very far in the game: possessing the attention span of a hamster and the fact the game was hard as hell. I played the game here and there over the next couple years and still appreciated everything the game offered, but felt like I had neither the skill or patience to make it very far in the game – in my original playthrough I made it TO, but not PAST the Genichiro fight in Ashina Castle. It wasn’t until 2022 that I fully entered my From Software Era. I obsessively played Elden Ring this past March/April, followed immediately by another playthrough of Bloodborne, which I documented with a series of blog posts. I then dabbled in some Persona 5 Royal, which I’m still currently chipping away at, before I began my next challenge – playing through Dark Souls. It was around the time I made it to the New Londo Ruins that I felt like I had hit a bit of a brick wall and decided to shake things up, so in typical deranged fashion, I started playing Sekiro again.

I’m not sure what it was this time around, but everything about the game started to make greater sense to me. Make no mistake, the game is still among one of the more difficult modern games I’ve played, but I felt like I had a better understanding of the way the game encourages(demands?) you to approach enemy encounters as well as combat mechanics than my previous attempts. The boss battles – which are quite fucking spectacular, became more about rhythm than using brute force and aggression, which is how most of my hours are spent in other FromSoft games. There’s something so satisfying as well as intoxicating the way a boss fight can go from feeling completely insurmountable to being merely another obstacle that you’ve overcome on your journey…if only that translated as easily to real life, right? I’m still finishing up some endgame areas but can confidently say Sekiro has 1000% become a favorite From Software experience(alongside Bloodborne, of course).

Hoa

This past week I had been feeling a little drained by the end of the day and wanted to play a shorter, more relaxing game. I’d still been playing a fair amout of Sekiro & Persona 5 Royal, so something concise sounded like a good idea. I eventually decided to play Hoa, which was highly recommended by my wife, and quite the pleasant surprise as it’s an excellent indie game. Hoa is a pretty straightforward platformer, but still very much worth playing as it manages to highlight how sometimes complexity in game mechanics or story aren’t required for a game to be memorable. Gameplay-wise it’s very similar to Gris in the way you progress from one area to the next, acquiring several new abilities along the way. It incorporates some wonderfully charming animation that looks like a Studio Ghibli movie, and there’s also a whimsical, yet spirited soundtrack similar to games like Ori and the Blind Forest and Death’s Door. It only took me a couple hours to complete Hoa, but it was a perfect change-of-pace game that I greatly enjoyed.

October Plans

It’s that time of year again – Blogtober! Here’s what I have planned for this year…

Nah, I’m just kidding…you’d think I’d have learned my lesson about setting goals I have no earthly possibility of achieving by now, right?

Since I began blogging over three and a half years ago now, I’ve usually dedicated the month of October to writing about a range of different spooky and/or scary games, some of which I’ve played before, and others for the first time. The past couple years I’ve incorporated this into my Twitch schedule(using this very loosely) as I’d stream some of the games from my ‘Blogtober’ list. This past year I wasn’t able to do as much blogging/streaming as I’d intended, so I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again this year. Well…I *haven’t* been as productive as I wanted to be – whether because of rarely feeling in an adequate headspace to get anything written or pure laziness(50/50 maybe?). I am, however, going to get a few things crossed off my list and not just concede defeat halfway through the month. I’ve played a little bit of Resident Evil 0 and Little Nightmares on stream so far and there’s a few blog posts in the works that I WILL get posted before the month is over. So, this is essentially me saying I’m *not* making (too many)plans and just taking things one at a time.

Thanks for reading!