JRPGs That Suck to Platinum: When Completionism Ruins Great Games
In my teen years, I bought an unofficial Final Fantasy VII guide, which taught me how to raise a Gold Chocobo, get everyone’s Level 4 Limit Break, and the best strategies to face Emerald and Ruby Weapons. That changed everything for me. Since then, I hardly ever played a JRPG without a guide by my side.
I didn’t use it to learn the best way to beat a boss or the optimal route; I figured those out myself. I used walkthroughs to avoid missing collectibles or obscure sidequests, for instance. However, as time went on, we got Achievements and Trophies, which only reinforced my urge to do everything a game offered or to tackle its toughest challenges head-on.
But then again, not all JRPGs deserve the time invested in them. In this list, I’ll show some JRPGs that simply suck to platinum. My only criterion is that they must be inherently good games, but whose experience is soured if you give in to your completionist addiction. Just one game per franchise to keep things varied.
10. Trails in the Sky SC: Returning To Liberl
This is not based on Trails in the Sky SC Evolution for PS Vita (which I heard has an even nastier trophy list), but on the Steam version, which has achievements. I 100%-ed it, and the only reason I managed to was because I followed a step-by-step, ultra-detailed walkthrough by my side. Otherwise, nah.
Trails in the Sky SC, much like its first game, is way too linear. Once you complete a chapter, that’s it. You can’t go back to finish missed Bracer requests or collect chests. That means you can kiss goodbye to the achievements for opening all chests and earning maximum BP.
To be fair, playing while hunting for achievements doesn’t necessarily derail your experience from a casual playthrough. If anything, it can even enhance it, since you’ll be doing everything the JRPG offers, and if you know how Trails’ worldbuilding works, you’ll want to do everything and talk to everyone.
However, it sucks because, if you’re anything like me, you’ll get obsessed with checking if you’re completing every request, picking the right choices, collecting all chests, and cooking all recipes. That constant back-and-forth between the guide and your progress can take away the genuine experience, turning enjoyment into a chore rather than entertainment.
9. Granblue Fantasy: Relink — Excessive Grinding
I didn’t know what to expect from Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and maybe that’s why it felt like such a pleasant surprise. I loved my time with it so much that I kept farming in the endgame just because, something I rarely ever do in games.
I started playing with friends, doing co-op missions, unlocking and leveling up every character, and it was a blast. It became my comfort game. Since I played it early, I didn’t know how tough its trophies would be, but I did know I had to get all weapons, which I thought were found in stage chests. But I was wrong.
The last weapons required for the trophy, the Terminus, were obtained by finishing The Tale of Bahamut’s Rage quest. The problem was that their drop wasn’t guaranteed, and you needed every character’s Terminus weapon, meaning endless repetition of the same quest over and over again.
This is a grind-heavy game, akin to Monster Hunter, I’d wager, so I know some of you didn’t mind the farming. But I did, mainly because I had to face the same boss with the same mechanics repeatedly, for I don’t know, more than a hundred times. It really soured my experience, and I never returned to Granblue Fantasy: Relink after getting the platinum.
8. RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army — New Game+ Locked Difficulty
There are a few JRPGs that only unlock their hardest difficulty once you finish the game, and some of them have trophies that require completing the game on this difficulty, but not quite. It means you can play the game on the easiest setting and then switch to the hardest one before the final boss, and the trophy will still pop. That’s the case with Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army (and most recently, Digimon Story Time Stranger).
I don’t know if that was the intended experience or if someone fumbled the requirements and just let it be, but it works. Fortunately, because having to replay a game is one of the things I hate the most.
I reviewed Raidou Remastered for DualShockers, and yeah, it was a fine game. I’d be more than happy to just play it and move on. However, I was writing a guide on how to get a demon that’s only available in NG+, and to do so, I had to replay half the game.
Since I had already invested that much, why not keep going, right? Before a recent patch, Raidou’s NG+ reset your level, weapons, and items. The only thing that carried over was your Devil Chart, which, fair enough, summoning a level 80 demon was enough to trample most of the game.
However, for the final boss (on the hardest difficulty), it wasn’t enough. I had to farm all the way back to a high level just to avoid dying in one hit. When I finally did, I just wanted it to be over. Never have I deleted a game so fast after a platinum popped.
7. Rogue Galaxy — Way Too Tryhard
Rogue Galaxy is considered one of the PlayStation 2’s hidden gems. Level-5 gave it their all, and while I think it tries a bit too hard with the number of mechanics it offers, it’s a good JRPG, so much so that it received a remaster for modern consoles. With new HD graphics also came a trophy list; a very annoying one, by the way.
This is by far one of the most tedious platinum hunts I’ve ever done. You know how I said Rogue Galaxy is tryhard because it tries to introduce so many mechanics? Yeah, most of them have no real depth, like the factory or the Insectron tournament, but you’re not forced to engage with them. Or are you?
Yeah, you are, in case you’re chasing that sweat-soaked platinum. Not only do you have to hunt for every factory blueprint and craft every item, but you also have to win the slog of the Insectron tournament and complete the Ghost Ship, the hardest stage in the game.
Even though it’s a post-game secret area, you can confidently finish the Ghost Ship around level 65-70. So why the hell did the game decide to include a trophy for taking a character to level 99? There’s no reason whatsoever to do this other than artificially inflate the playtime.
I had completed everything it wanted me to, but I still had to walk in circles, fight random battles, and earn puny experience to get my Jaster Rogue to level 99. I must’ve finished an entire Netflix series while doing it.
6. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth — I Hate Medals
This is an open letter to the developer who thought finding medals in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth was a fun and worthy activity for our time as fair and honest players. It’s not, and I demand my time invested back.
In Cyber Sleuth, you can find some Digimon Medals throughout your journey. There are 500 in total, and you need to grab them all. 99 of those are non-guaranteed enemy drops, meaning you have to farm them repeatedly until the medal drops.
To make things worse, 300 of them come from gacha machines. Once you interact with a gacha machine, you pay a fee and get a random medal. Each of the ten machines in the game houses 30 medals.
You see where I’m going? You have to mindlessly spam these machines until you get all 30 different medals because, guess what, you can and will get repeated ones from them. Who in their sane digital mind thought this was a fun task?
It’s literally spamming the same button over and over again, waiting for the right medal to appear for a mind-boggling amount of time. I only did it because I was broke at the time and couldn’t afford other JRPGs.
5. Kingdom Hearts Final Mix — No Light Or Friends Here
Truth be told, other Kingdom Hearts entries like Chain of Memories and Dream Drop Distance have a more boring trophy list, but since I’m aiming for inherently good games, I preferred going with the remake of the first Kingdom Hearts.
Final Mix added a plethora of new content, including cutscenes, enemies, abilities, Keyblades, and, yeah, trophies. Much like every other Kingdom Hearts found in the collection, you basically have to do everything in the game — from completing Jiminy’s Journal to winning all the Cups and earning an S Rank in the highly entertaining Gummi Ship missions.
My biggest gripe with Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, though, lies in two specific trophies: completing the game in under 15 hours and clearing it without changing equipment.
I have nothing against speedrunning and love watching streamers do it, but these two are basically the antithesis of an RPG. You play an RPG to progress, which not only means leveling up and learning new skills but also buying and finding new equipment to empower your characters.
Also, RPGs are famously long games. You want to take your time, so speedrunning feels counterintuitive. But there you have it, Kingdom Hearts asking you to do both.
I did it in the same playthrough, on Beginner difficulty. Not fun, not challenging, just… sucks.
4. Tales of Symphonia — Not Even Kvothe Has That Many Titles
Every 60+ hour JRPG that asks you to replay the entire game just for trophies is disrespectful. There are a few exceptions, like when a game unlocks a new mode or challenges that justify a New Game+, but that’s the exception rather than the rule.
To be honest, I could be talking about most Tales of games here, but I’ll focus on Tales of Symphonia since it’s one of my favorites. Still, I don’t love the game enough to warrant four or five playthroughs just to get a platinum. I value my time, and I believe Lloyd does too.
Several Tales of entries introduce character titles with different mechanics depending on the game. There are various requirements to unlock these titles, and that’s where the most annoying part of Tales of Symphonia‘s trophy list lies.
You have to unlock them all for every character. Some titles are locked behind character affection levels that trigger a specific scene in the game, meaning you have to manipulate said characters’ affection, reach that scene, unlock the title, finish the game, and start a New Game+ carrying titles, repeating the same drill over again with other characters. It’s simply not worth it.
3. Persona 3 Portable — Optimizing Your Schedule
I’ve heard that Persona 4 Golden has a remarkably hideous platinum run, but since I haven’t played it yet, I went with Persona 3 Portable. You know the gist: any game with a time limit is packed with missables, meaning you should prepare diligently before starting a playthrough if you want to avoid replaying it.
The major problem with Persona games is that they usually require you to max every Social Link to grab that shiny platinum trophy. While it sounds straightforward, it also strips the player of the agency to choose which activities to take part in.
Should you work for money, improve your charisma, or try to bond with a drunk monk? Or are you self-conscious because you don’t know if you just missed the cue to max everything you could? That’s when the walkthrough comes in, right as any personal decision-making goes out the window.
Okay, I never self-inserted myself into Makoto Yuki, but I still wanted to give the snarkiest answers to Tanaka. But since I was platinum hunting, I couldn’t. So I just stuck to the well-trodden path of what worked most efficiently, in the shortest time possible, and focused on strengthening my Personas to face the insane secret boss.
2. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth — Minigames Trophy Hunting
I’ll take Hamaguchi’s side on this. The director said he doesn’t believe Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is too long, just that players have too much to play these days.
I understand those who dislike Rebirth‘s minigames, but they’re so charming and quick that they don’t exactly harm your experience. That is, unless you’re hunting for the platinum trophy. Because if you are, the minigames will become public enemy number one, surpassing even Shinra.
Good grief, I can handle getting my ass kicked hundreds of times in the combat simulations, but achieving the highest rank in every minigame just to fill Johnny’s hotel is exhausting. Desert Rush, G-Bike, Chocobo Glide, goddamn Cactuar challenges — those are just a few among the immeasurable number of minigames in Rebirth.
It simply sucks because I don’t feel like those minigames honor my RPG skills like secret bosses do; they just bloat the gameplay. For the love of Aerith, if you enjoyed Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth and are thinking of extending your playtime by hunting every trophy, I beg you to reconsider. Don’t taint your experience of one of the best JRPGs out there with such unnecessary endeavors.
1. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes — Hundred Hours Wasted
Look, I love Suikoden II, and I jumped out of my chair the first time I saw the Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes announcement trailer. Learning that it was being made by Suikoden’s original creator and scriptwriter was enough to make my expectations soar higher than they should’ve — but it is what it is.
I played the spinoff Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising first. Had a mildly good time with it, then jumped into Hundred Heroes. Did I love it? Not necessarily. But I did like it. It’s a solid and contemporary take on a 90s JRPG design formula, with all the caveats and no quality-of-life improvements.
Then I had the brilliant idea of going for the platinum trophy, and oh boy, what a mistake. I started working on the trophies one by one, unaware of what awaited me, and that was enough to trigger the sunk cost fallacy in me. I had already spent 80 hours, so what were 20 more, right?
The problem is that almost 20 of those were spent on the same stupid card minigame. A minigame that isn’t even fun, mind you. It’s the same thing over and over again, but the game thought it was a good idea to make you beat all 120 recruitable characters for a single trophy.
There are other grind-heavy trophies and a few more tied to minigames (JRPG’s Achilles heel right there), but nothing tops this stupid card minigame. If you want to cherish and respect Suikoden’s legacy, avoid Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes‘ platinum trophy at all costs.
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