I’ve been watching Playstation Access plat vids–both list videos on when to go for the plat and what to expect in a plat run, and actual plat runs. I’m including the video about what a game must have in order to make a plat run appealing. The first is loving the game, which you would think would be a given, but some people are plat hunters and don’t care for which game they hunt the plat. I call it not-platting because I think it’s funny, but also because the first two times I went for plats (Dark Souls, Dark Souls III), I told myself I wasn’t platting.
I am not a trophy hunter. At all. The reason is because I know that I will become obsessive about it once I start a plat. It happened with all the Dark Souls plats and the Hades plat as well. Fortunately, the latter plat is one of the most organic ones to get. Very little grinding, which made me happy. Here’s the thing. There’s always the grueling trophy or two that a game throws into the plat list that makes it such a pain to get. In the case of the Souls games, it’s the covenant items. It wasn’t terrible in the first game because you only needed ten (if I remember correctly). In the third game, however, you needed thirty of the item and the drop rate from farming was two or so an hour. Three or four if I was lucky. It was so painful, I begged Ian to let me kill him for the last dozen-and-a-half or so items I needed for one covenant. The second game, which I platted last of the three, also had a requirement of 30 covenant items twice, I believe (maybe three), but it didn’t seem quite as grindy as the third game. Why? Because the drop rate was a tad better. 3 an hour versus 2. It was still grindy as fuck, but didn’t wear me down as much as the third game did.
By the end of the not-plat for the third game, I was hating the game with all my might. It’s a good thing I gave in and asked Ian to let me kill him several times in a row for the last bunch of covenant items I needed because I have a feeling I might not have played the game again if I had to finish the plat the old-fashioned way–grinding it out.
I don’t see the need for excessive grinding at all in a plat. To me, a plat should celebrate a game and remind you of why you love it. It should bring a smile to your face as the trophy pops not make you feel like a hollow husk inside. Which is how I felt with each of the Dark Souls plats. Also, a sense of relief, but it was mixed with anger that I had to go through all that. I didn’t play Dark Souls III for months after the plat because I hated it so much by the end. Thankfully, I got over the hatred in time and now love it as much as ever, but it took many months and fear in my heart.