Your Rants On Achievements/Trophies

[Smolderin]

This thread has been inspired by a particular trophy that I just picked up yesterday. Now, I am not much of a completionist, usually I just play the game...beat it at the difficulty that suits me, and if there is some extra content here and there unlocked by beating the game, I might just be obliged to take advantage of it. But usually I will not go out of my way to try and get 100% completion, much less all of the trophies/achievements that go with it. However, recently there has been an exception to this rule, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix. Considering Kingdom Hearts is one of my all time favorite game franchises, I felt obliged to not only complete the game once more, but to achieve the full 100% completion...and of course that meant getting all the trophies. Everything was going extremely well, I synthesized all the items, beat the game on Proud Mode, and defeated all the hidden bosses (even the new one, Unknown).....but nothing prepared me for the fresh hell that was the Gummi Ship Collector trophy.

Really, if all I am about to say is boiled down to one sentence, it is this. FUCK...THAT...TROPHY.


---RANT COMMENCE---

In the original game, already was the Gummi Ship bits my least favorite aspects of the game, but of course Square Enix in all of their infinite glory and wisdom decided they should add a new feature called Gummi Ship missions in which the game expects you to tie both hands around your back and complete the route while meeting mission parameters, and course since you get Gummi Ship blueprints from these missions, you are expected to do ALL OF THEM in order to get the final blueprint required by the trophy. Now at the start of my attempt, this wasn't all that bad until I finally started getting to the last tiered missions of each world. Never in my life have I gone through such arduous, tedious, long and boring bullshit in a video game. It was not fun, it tested the limits of my fucking patience, and when all was said and done...I didn't even feel happy that I got the trophy. I just felt a sense of relief that I would have never again have to go through that again.

To be honest however, I would think that this trophy wouldn't be near as bad if there wasn't an Atlantica Mission 3. I SPENT 4 DAYS trying to beat that stupid mission. I never spent 4 days trying to beat anything! Yet here I was, sitting on my ass for hours on end trying to complete this unreasonable mission where they expect you to reach a certain score without collecting a single item. Multiple guides that I read suggested I leave from Neverland but no matter what I did, I never was able to get close to the required score...so what did I have to do? I had to leave from Agrabah and take the long ass 10-15min route to even get close to the required score. Now normally, that in itself isn't all that bad, but of course if you decide to take this route their is a wild card that you have no control over.

MONSTRO

Why is it that the 2 worlds that I hate the most in Kingdom Hearts have decided to ban together to cause me as much pain and misery they can possibly dish out? This motherfucking whale seemed to impede my progress 80% of the time, causing me to start the route all over again. And of course, it really only appears if I seem to be doing really good. Monstro my dear Escapists, is the reason why I spent 4 days trying to complete this mission. It wasn't enough that this mission basically requires to put on the brakes all throughout the route, it wasn't enough that you were essentially required to know the route and all of it's enemy ship and obstacle patterns like the back of your hand, it wasn't enough that you had to dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge for 15 minutes hoping you don't accidentally attract an item...nope...they had to throw in Mr. I am going to appear every time you are doing well and make you start all over again. I couldn't believe it yesterday when I actually, through sheer dumb luck, didn't run into Monstro while I was doing good and completed the mission.

You know, at least with the Synthesis Master trophy, it was fulfilling my primal need to destroy shit, all the while getting other trophies like Master Leveler, Master Defender, and Master Magician. Yes it was long and tedious, but I actually had a measure of fun doing it. The Gummi Ship Collector trophy though? FUCK...THAT...TROPHY. It brought out the worst in me. Normally I am a laid back, patient, and apathetic individual but this trophy got me so wound up that I contemplated giving up my attempt at a 100% Kingdom Hearts run. But I persevered...I channeled that anger into energy and used it to keep going, this game wasn't going to beat me....so I would keep beating at it's doors until the game finally relented...and it did. As I said before...I was not happy when I got that trophy, just relieved that I didn't have to do it anymore.

Now all that is left to do so far is to get my Speedster Trophy, Unchanging Armor Trophy, Novice Player Trophy, Final Mix Master Trophy, and Undefeated Trophy...most of which can get done in just one more quick playthrough....Either way...I am just so glad that hardest part is out of the way...I said it before and I will say it again...Never before have I done something so incredibly long, stupid, tedious, and boring as that trophy. FUCK...THAT...TROPHY.

---RANT OVER---

So, that is my rant on what I believe to be an unnecessarily difficult trophy to obtain. It felt good getting that out of my system. Now how about you Escapists? This thread is for those who have their own stories to tell on unreasonable trophies or achievements that they have obtained or attempted to get in the past. LET THE RANTS BEGIN!

 

[Gankytim]

Here's a statement I've wanted to make about this for a while.

1. I don't know how sony do it, but microsoft demands all games have achievments. No trophies, no release on their console.

2. They demand the developers come up with the trophies themselves.

3. Achievments can't have any effect on the game itself due to software limitations.

4. This does take time, the developers need to take what they have, identify both realistic and challenging goals for the player to achieve and script them to work with the achievment/trophy software.

These three things all combined have had a detrimental effect on a game in one of my favourite series. Remeber the older Ratchet and Clank games? How you had skill points that could be used to unlock cool cheats? Yeah, not in the new games anymore. Coming up with skill points takes an equal amount of time as coming up with achievments, and they have a limited amount of time to do this, most of them would be made toward the end of the development cycle when time was running short and they knew what content that had and hadn't cut.

What do achievments contribute that justifies their taking content from ANY game at all?

 

[Elfgore]

The flags in Assassin's Creed. Fuck. That. Achievement. A shit-ton of flags in an area,no help from your map, and no reward make this thing useless. I've gone through that game multiple times and have never even looked for those damn flags. The feathers were pretty damn annoying in 2, but I think you could buy maps to find them. Or at least you could in Brotherhood.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

Here's a statement I've wanted to make about this for a while.

1. I don't know how sony do it, but microsoft demands all games have achievments. No trophies, no release on their console.

2. They demand the developers come up with the trophies themselves.

3. Achievments can't have any effect on the game itself due to software limitations.

4. This does take time, the developers need to take what they have, identify both realistic and challenging goals for the player to achieve and script them to work with the achievment/trophy software.

These three things all combined have had a detrimental effect on a game in one of my favourite series. Remeber the older Ratchet and Clank games? How you had skill points that could be used to unlock cool cheats? Yeah, not in the new games anymore. Coming up with skill points takes an equal amount of time as coming up with achievments, and they have a limited amount of time to do this, most of them would be made toward the end of the development cycle when time was running short and they knew what content that had and hadn't cut.

What do achievments contribute that justifies their taking content from ANY game at all?

That's fucked up.

Personally, the only Platinum trophies I've ever achieved are on Mass Effect 2 and 3. They weren't that hard to get, you can probably get every trophy in one playthrough if you do everything on the hardest difficulty. I'm working on ME1, but that's much more annoying since you have to play the game 3 times to get all six party member trophies.

I'm trying to get platinum on Dark Souls, but the Knight's Honor trophy is balls. Nowhere in the game does it tell you what a "rare" weapon is, you just have to get every single item and hope you didn't miss anything. You have to cut off every detachable boss tail, and some of those are total bitches. Plus, you need to use Sif's soul for three different weapons, which means a minimum of three playthroughs with one character just for this one fucking trophy.

 

[josemlopes]

Here's a statement I've wanted to make about this for a while.

1. I don't know how sony do it, but microsoft demands all games have achievments. No trophies, no release on their console.

2. They demand the developers come up with the trophies themselves.

3. Achievments can't have any effect on the game itself due to software limitations.

4. This does take time, the developers need to take what they have, identify both realistic and challenging goals for the player to achieve and script them to work with the achievment/trophy software.

These three things all combined have had a detrimental effect on a game in one of my favourite series. Remeber the older Ratchet and Clank games? How you had skill points that could be used to unlock cool cheats? Yeah, not in the new games anymore. Coming up with skill points takes an equal amount of time as coming up with achievments, and they have a limited amount of time to do this, most of them would be made toward the end of the development cycle when time was running short and they knew what content that had and hadn't cut.

What do achievments contribute that justifies their taking content from ANY game at all?

That doesnt make any sense, there are plenty of games that have unlockables and creative achievments, and then games that dont have unlockables and all its achievments are basicly 10 achievments for beating each chapter, each one being 100 points, making the 1000 points total.

The achievments are there for completionists (the most obvious), show players that there are different ways and things to do or to be similar to self imposed challenges. Even cheat codes still exist in games with achievments so you are incredibly wrong.

 

[Vegosiux]

Well, I actually get annoyed when new patches make achievements literally impossible. Like, the one for Europa Universalis 4 where you need to conquer the world as Ryuyku. Even the most badass meta-gaming, mechanic-exploiting player who pulled it off a few patches ago seems to agree it's simply impossible to do now.

 

[Andy Shandy]

As someone who enjoys achievements for a variety of reasons, fuck online multiplayer achievements, for the most part.

Half the communities of games that aren't named "Call of Duty" are pretty much non-existent after the first week, making a lot of achievements impossible to achieve.

 

[Colour Scientist]

My only complaint right now is that I got an achievement a while ago, I think it was Halo 4, with a 2 or 7 on the end so now my gamer score doesn't end in a 5 or 0.

It really bugs me.
It shouldn't but it does.

Other than that, I wouldn't consider myself an achievement hunter. I like getting them but I rarely have the patience to do really tedious missions for achievements, especially not ones that involve collecting 6 million tiny items scattered around the four corners of the map. If I really like the game, I'll try to do everything that I can but that doesn't have that much to do with achievements.

 

[Rozalia1]

As someone who enjoys achievements for a variety of reasons, fuck online multiplayer achievements, for the most part.

Half the communities of games that aren't named "Call of Duty" are pretty much non-existent after the first week, making a lot of achievements impossible to achieve.

This is what I'd go with. Not an online guy in regards to gaming, but when I do get a game with online trophies I have to make sure to get them all quickly, and its irritating.

 

[Roxas1359]

As someone who enjoys achievements for a variety of reasons, fuck online multiplayer achievements, for the most part.

So much this. I've not completed multiple games for 1000/1000 or the Platinum trophies because of stupid multiplayer achievements/trophies. It's also annoying because once the servers go offline, you will never even be able to try and get them even if you find a way to cooperate with friends. It's the only main problem I have with achievements/trophies in general.

 

[duwenbasden]

My only complaint is when an achievement feels like work, or you have to do shit you'd never do otherwise.

"Go here without jetpacks!" Well, fuck you. Jetpacks >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> a picture of a trophy.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Dont like achievement in general (and trophies etc) I feel they cheapen the game and are only there to try and hook you in to increase something completely pointless, games would be far better off without them in my opinion.

I think Persona 4 had the most ridiculous achievement in it expecting you to complete score attack mode with every character even completing it with one character was near impossible as the comp was souped up so much one hit could and probably would mean your death especially once you got to Chie onwards. So basically you had to battle all the comp characters 12 (think) under 2 rounds all of whom have had insane AI adjustments and MASSIVE damage boosts (1 hit kills are a thing for the comp here) and if you lose a match its right back to battle number one there are no continues. I never did it and there are few who had the patience (and skill) to exploit the AI enough to do so.

I think Street Fighter 4 had an achievement which was be number one in the world online it was worth 0 points and was called iron fist or something.

 

[Wilco86]

I'm kinda trophy addict (16 platinums from 30 or so games, if I recall right), but sometimes it's just not worth it. Like in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2:

-Defeat 1000 enemies using Obliteration Techniques.
-Defeat 1000 enemies using Ultimate Techniques.
-Successfully use the Izuna Drop on 1000 enemies.
-Successfully use the Guillotine Throw on 1000 enemies.
-Defeat 1000 enemies with the Dragon Sword.
-Defeat 1000 enemies with the Lunar Staff.
-Defeat 1000 enemies with the Falcon's Talons.
-Defeat 1000 enemies with the Dual Katana.
-Defeat 1000 enemies with the Kusari-gama.
-Defeat 1000 enemies with the Eclipse Scythe.
-Defeat 1000 enemies with the Tonfa.
-Defeat 1000 enemies with the Vigoorian Flail.
-Defeat 1000 enemies with the Enma's Fang.

Also ones that don't count towards those weapon usage trophies mentioned above:
-Defeat 1000 enemies in (read: as) Ayane.
-Defeat 1000 enemies in (read: as) Rachel.
-Defeat 1000 enemies in (read: as) Momiji.

I can understand finishing the game with hardest difficulty possible, but those are just a dull, time-consuming chore.

 

[Lieju]

As someone who enjoys achievements for a variety of reasons, fuck online multiplayer achievements, for the most part.

Half the communities of games that aren't named "Call of Duty" are pretty much non-existent after the first week, making a lot of achievements impossible to achieve.

This, pretty much.
Except I don't like playing online multiplayer in the first place.

 

[Darren716]

My only issue with getting an achievement was with Dishonored where there was an achievement for going through the entire game not killing anybody. So I play through the game again, making sure at the end of each mission that the "no kills" box is checked before moving on. I finish the last mission, watch the credits annnnddd... nothing. I go back through each of my mission scorecards and see that every one of them states that I didn't kill anybody. To this day I have no idea why I didn't get it, about 12 hours wasted with no reward except for my own personal pride in not killing anybody.

 

[LobsterFeng]

There's an achievement for TF2 where you have to invite a certain number of friends to play with you and when I see it all I can think is "Oh thank you Valve, thank you for reminding me that I have no friends." *sobs*

...In all seriousness achievements that have to be earned through online multiplayer tend to be pretty bullshit. Especially when the servers aren't running anymore so it becomes impossible to get said achievement.

Edit: It seems people have already mentioned bullshit multiplayer achievements. Sorry for not reading posts before posting.

 

[Raggedstar]

Fuck Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD trophies. There is no reason why ANYONE should design a trophy list where difficulty trophies don't stack...for a JRPG of all genres. The worst part is how it affects Re: Chain of Memories, where you technically have to beat the game 6 times (once on each of the 3 difficulties and each for Riku and Sora's stories). Considering how I can't even slog through that game ONCE, I don't even want to bother.

Also, multiplayer trophies. They can go die.

These three things all combined have had a detrimental effect on a game in one of my favourite series. Remeber the older Ratchet and Clank games? How you had skill points that could be used to unlock cool cheats? Yeah, not in the new games anymore. Coming up with skill points takes an equal amount of time as coming up with achievments, and they have a limited amount of time to do this, most of them would be made toward the end of the development cycle when time was running short and they knew what content that had and hadn't cut.

What do achievments contribute that justifies their taking content from ANY game at all?

Perhaps I misunderstood your post, but Ratchet and Clank games still have cheats, skins, and other extras that are unlocked by skill points. In fact, Into the Nexus has them 100% separated in-game (skill points being more difficult, missable, and generally harder to find). The only thing that makes it awkward with the series recently is that they're technically the same thing (only trophies show up differently). Tools of Destruction didn't even have trophies (as it was before Sony adopted the system). With the HD collection, almost all of the non-story related trophies were just copy/pasted from the skill point list.

I wouldn't say it RUINED Ratchet and Clank. It just made the system a bit weird. I don't think they've ever subtracted content due to trophies. Insomniac has technically had a loose "trophy system" since Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage in 1999 (though Spyro 2 and 3's skill points were vague and cryptic with barely any reward). I don't think they're going to stop any time soon.

 

[GreyNicor]

Not much of a trophy/achievement fan, I'll take em if I get them but generally do not go out of my way to get them, never 100%'d anything either.

Also a complaint about multiplayer achievements, but with a twist:
Halo 3 ODST, came with 2 discs, single and multiplayer, each counts as their own game with their own achievements.
Problem is, the multiplayer was from Halo 3, this means I had Halo 3 as a registered game but only had the ODST singleplayer.
So now I cant get 100% if I wanted to because I can get ONLY the multiplayer.