Week of 22 Sep 2024
“Find me, and walk beside me.”
Achievements Earned In:
- Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster
- Ryse: Son of Rome
- The Walking Dead: Season Two
- Legend of Mana
All that was left this week in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster was clean-up, and boy this is far and away now the easiest completion in the series, discounting the two XBLA titles. All the quality-of-life improvements removed a lot of what made the original so difficult, including the test of endurance that was the 7 Day Survivor achievement. For the other stuff, they added the ability to find and track PP Stickers and clothing items around the mall, down to the store they’re in. Meanwhile, the Infinity Mode includes the new time skip feature, which obviously is most of the trouble, sitting there for 14 hours straight. They also added a new mechanic where typical zombies will randomly drop a box of loot that may include a weapon or even food, removing another barrier to getting the achievement. Nothing helps survive the apocalypse like an additional golden baked pizza or a jug of orange juice! The cherry on top is the reward for earning the Saint achievement: a magazine that makes all item integrity infinite, including the ammo for guns. So, that’s indestructible mini-chainsaws, or a heavy machine gun with infinite ammo! Takes about 3 hours now, nice and easy. Very enjoyable experience all around, I’m sad it’s over.
Achievements unlocked: 50 (+7) | Completed
Isabela... is that really the best posture...?
With nothing on the docket now, figured I’d go back to my rank grind in Ryse: Son of Rome, and I quickly got into a better groove than before. On Monday, I managed an almost x3000 combo, which leveled me from 110 to well over 160. It didn’t take long on Tuesday to get another really good combo, taking me over the necessary Rank 200 and wrapping this up. That was way less painful than I’d thought!
Achievements unlocked: 76 (+4) | Completed
I sadly wouldn’t be able to play either of the “leaving Game Pass” games I wanted to do, but finishing another stack of The Walking Dead: Season Two seemed reasonable enough, so I installed it on my laptop and got to playing. I was mostly idling it, meaning my Clem was a very stoic and quiet protagonist as I let the silent option play while I watched TV or something. I would have finished this week, reaching midway through Episode 4, but… well, something came up…
Achievements unlocked: 29 (+29) | Completion: 70%
I can’t believe I’m typing this: I played Legend of Mana this week for achievements. On Xbox. What a world! I actually found out as I woke up on Thursday that it was released onto Xbox and straight into Game Pass at the Tokyo Game Show while I’d been asleep, and I immediately stayed home to play it nonstop practically all day. This was one of my most treasured games growing up, being a major escape for me back during some really tough times. It’s one of the very few games I’ve completed multiple times prior to there being achievements for doing so. The remaster was released for the Switch and PlayStation back in 2021, and I was always hopeful it would see a release on Xbox. Well… ta~da! If you’ve played any of the first games in the series (Sword, Secret, or Trials) then you know how this plays; it’s an action-RPG on a 2D plane. The big hook here as the fourth game in the series is how customizable everything is. After completing certain quests/Events you can craft your own spells and gear, raise pets to your liking, and soon create your very own NPC partner. You can name everything, alter their abilities and traits, and even shape the very world map you traverse through the game’s (admittedly disjointed) storyline. Luckily, not only do I know this game very well from prior playthroughs, but it’s old enough to have step-by-step guides and dedicated wikis around the internet. Following a combination of a few, I started working my way through the 67 Events in the game. While completing them is important for a particular achievement, the real challenge is remembering to check in with Li’l Cactus at your Home after each Event, which… dang it, I forgot to do after one, robbing me of getting the world first completion for this by AN HOUR. At first I thought it was one of the missable ones that you can’t remedy on New Game+, but it was luckily a very short and easy one early on in the game. Man, I’ll probably never stop beating myself up about that. I also, after 20 some years, figured out how the acquisition of Special Techniques works (look, I didn’t really have access to the internet back then, okay?), though the complex ins and outs of weapon/armor tempering still escapes me. But, no achievements related to all that so I didn’t think now was the time to study up. I’d say overall, with a guide to help with unlocking all the artifacts and events, this is a very simple and easy completion to achieve over a single 20-ish hour playthrough, with a quick stop in New Game+ for a single achievement. And it was so magical getting to play through again, though I’m pretty sure those backgrounds are just how I remember them looking and not how they actually looked. The music, though? Still straight up banger soundtrack.
Achievements unlocked: 29 (+29) | Completed
Great Goddess, take it down a few notches, Gilbert!
Highest ratio: 42.97 (tie)
Master-at-Arms (Legend of Mana)
Ardent Agriculturalist (Legend of Mana)
On Cloud Nine-Nine (Legend of Mana)
Fingers in Every Pie (Legend of Mana)
No Hope for the Future (Legend of Mana)
Thirst for Knowledge (Legend of Mana)
Lowest ratio: 1.00 (tie)
River Runs Cold (The Walking Dead: Season Two)
A World is Born (Legend of Mana)
