Not too long ago, I breached a very important trophy hunting milestone: 200 platinum trophies. I decided to mark the occasion with a very special game in one of my favorite video game series of all time. Tales of Hearts R was the last major release I had not completed in the Tales Of series. Now, it will forever be immortalized on my trophy list.
After reaching such a significant marker as a trophy hunter, I like to think that I know a thing or two about this hobby. And I’m about to make that not-so-humble knowledge everyone else’s problem.
We can agree to disagree on some points, but first you’ll need to find out what I’ve learned over all these years. Read on to see my observations and opinions after more than a decade of trophy hunting.
Table of Contents
Not Every Trophy Hunt Is Equal… And That’s Okay
Some game developers put out titles with brain-dead easy requirements, while others produce ones that require the utmost focus and intensity to earn their platinum trophies. There is a wide variety when it comes to trophy hunts.
Will a game be grind-heavy, RNG-reliant, or skill-intensive? All of these make for vastly different trophy hunting experiences. Most people will feel encouraged to rank such experiences to decide what games to chase.
One problem that many trophy hunters encounter is the incredible pressure to earn platinum in very hard games. We’re talking the Super Meat Boys, the Wolfensteins, the Call of Duties… These are all great challenges in isolation, but when you start stacking them up for no other reason than to have them, what’s the point? Why put yourself through all the suffering just for some stranger’s approval?
This isn’t jab against those who truly enjoy going for challenging platinums. When the satisfaction comes from within, there’s no other place you’d rather be.
But what’s wrong with going for something easier from time to time? Actually, in my humble opinion, going for only hard platinum trophies makes for a boring mosaic. It may as well be the Buzz Lightyear meme of trophy hunting.
I want to see the easy games. I want to see the quirky games. I want to see the games I’ve never heard of but which you’d argue endlessly over. I want to see what makes you the trophy hunter that you are, not the trophy hunter you think you should be.
Just enjoy games. Period.
You Don’t Need to Get the Platinum Trophy in Every Game
Completionists often feel the compulsion to 100% anything they touch. I can absolutely understand this impulse, as someone who has been going back through and clearing my backlog for years. I’ve gone from ~60% to now over 80% doing so. I can’t go back and change which games I played on my account; I can only clean up my mess.
But it has led me to have a very different approach to video gaming today. I no longer play anything and everything on my PlayStation using my primary account. I can’t trust myself not to feel pressured to complete a game I try and dislike.
That’s why, any game I don’t want to complete, I play in a different environment. This generally means using my partner’s PlayStation account or utilizing a different console entirely. These are the moments when I’m glad to still have an Xbox of all things.
I would highly recommend all trophy hunters adopt a similar philosophy toward their gaming habits. Having games you play just for fun and not to sate your completionist urges is a game changer. It lets you return to your trophy hunts refreshed and ready to take names.
Personally, I love to play Salmon Run in Splatoon 3 on a regular basis. It can be as short of a run as you want it to be, or you can spend a few hours min-maxing a rotation. In the past, I’ve put in many hours into Dead By Daylight as well. Check out what other games I play when I’m not trophy hunting here.
Boosting Sessions Are Like Herding Cats
Have you ever tried to be the one to schedule a boosting session for a particular trophy? Maybe it’s the gnarly trophy set for Naughty Bear on the PlayStation 3. Maybe it’s for a raid in Destiny. Or, perhaps, it’s for a game that doesn’t require other players but which you would like help with anyway.
Regardless, boosting sessions can be highly hit or miss. The players who join you may be the kindest, most wonderful people you’ll ever meet. They might not even need the trophy themselves but put themselves out there just to be a good Samaritan. We love these players. Or, they may be a literal ghost. Pick your poison.
This is very topical for me. I recently went for the last of the trophies in Call of Duty: Black Ops III. In my case, that meant a lot of Zombies Easter eggs, often outright requiring four players.
After working up the patience do go through with it, I did the usual rigmarole. I posted a session on PSN Profiles, waited like a week, and added folks as they came in. By the time I wanted to play, the group chat had like 15 people. You’d think this would be good news and I would almost certainly clear my trophies.
Wrong. I consistently had one person willing to help (someone who didn’t need the trophies themselves, go figure), and radio silence from all the rest. Days and days went by with this problem. In the end, I only made it through because the one person helping me basically blackmailed their IRL friend into hopping on. That, and my partner was willing to waste their weekends with me and two very kind strangers.
I’ll never understand the people who join boosting sessions and never interact in them. Maybe I take them more seriously than most, but still. If I commit to something, I’m going to be there. That goes for meeting friends for drinks just as much as it does for tackling trophies with other hunters across the world.
Other People Think You’re Crazy
Do you tell your friends and family that you’re a trophy hunter?
It’s probably ill-advised. It’s already a common misconception among non-gamers that video gaming is a character flaw among the lazy. Try to tell the uninitiated about how you like to fully complete games and you might get looks. Bonus points if you describe some asinine trophy requirement, like seeing every single line of dialogue in Monster Prom or chugging through six playthroughs of Tales of Symphonia.
You’re likely to get asked if you’re crazy. “Why?” is what you’ll hear. And objectively speaking, it makes sense. You are putting yourself through hundreds or even thousands of hours of potentially lesser gameplay experiences just for some digital props.
And, yeah, if you put it like that…
But these people haven’t ever heard the trophy pop and felt the immense satisfaction that follows. The closest allegory they may understand is that moment when you work hard for something and get rewarded for it. Like, imagine you practice shooting three-pointers in basketball for weeks and finally nail a shot mid-game, winning the match. That satisfying feeling? Very similar.
Trophy hunters love to seek that feeling out via their preferred medium: video gaming. Some might argue it can also be just as much of a sport as basketball, making the comparison even more apt.
There is another aspect of the journey I’ve yet to mention. Earning platinum trophies is satisfying, yes, but there’s more to it than that. There is an element of self-actualization in the hobby.
As you undergo more and more challenges, you learn to trust yourself more. You begin to build confidence in yourself as a trophy hunter and as a person. When you complete a difficult trophy hunt, you feel such a deep sense of satisfaction that it may just briefly reach some part of your soul. I’d venture to call it fulfillment.
I don’t think Grandma is ready for that conversation, however.
Some Game Developers Hate Us
It’s no secret that trophy hunting is a niche hobby. Some people will love it, and some people will hate it. You don’t have t o go far to see some discussion about whether they make gaming better or worse.
What is surprising, however, is when it comes from an inside job. Some game developers make their stance on the issue very obvious. Whether by making embarrassingly lame trophy sets or insanely difficult ones, they want to prevent that satisfying feeling by all means possible.
In the case of a lame trophy set, that means handicapping the feeling from the gate, preventing it from ever becoming truly satisfying. In the case of an insanely difficult one, they hope that no one will ever reach that feeling at all.
Undertale is an incredibly popular game, and for good reason. It has engaging gameplay, music, and makes you think. What doesn’t make you think, however, is its trophy set. Half of it is simply donating money to the Dog Shrine.
You can actually get all the game’s trophies without even beating the game, that’s how bad the trophy hunting situation is. If you know anything about Undertale, you know that the true experience requires multiple playthroughs. That puts the game squarely in the “lame trophy hunt” category. It’s such a shame, because it would be a very cool title to 100% properly.
I’d wager that any game with a Permadeath trophy falls into the latter category. Those style of trophies are outright hostile toward the player. For this article, I’ll focus on Outlast 2.
To get the platinum trophy in Outlast 2, you must beat the game on Insane difficulty. If you die, you have to start all over. That means you must get through 7-10 hours of flawless gameplay to beat the game.
Not making mistakes in Outlast 2 is already very difficult. It’s made worse by the fact that the enemy AI is souped-up on this difficulty setting, making keeping and re-entering stealth incredibly challenging. The trophy guide literally suggests using chapter select to practice, that’s how bad it gets.
It Will Never Be Enough
So many trophy hunters decide on arbitrary goals for their retirement. 50 platinum trophies. 100 platinum trophies. 200 platinum trophies. It’s fine for an individual to decide it’s time to leave the community. Trophy hunting can be very time-consuming if you’re not careful.
But this just isn’t the case for me, and I don’t think it ever will. I’ve been completing games since I was around five years old. I still remember struggling through Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask as a small thing, trying to find all the masks without a guide. Now more than 20 years later, that shows no signs of slowing.
There are still ~60 games on my backlog. I want to keep the series I’ve completed, even as new entries come out. There will surely be games I’ve yet to hear about but which I will have to have. I have so many ideas for things to write about and make videos for.
Trophy hunting is a lifestyle for me. It is my primary hobby, and I am passionate about it. That will not be changing anytime soon.
If you want to take an honest look at whether it’s time to retire or not, check out our article on the subject here. We’ll respect your choice, but we’ll also miss you.
Conclusion
Reaching 200 platinum trophies is an incredible milestone that anyone should be proud of. How many platinum trophies do you have? Do your loved ones appreciate the completionist quirk in your personality?
Leave a Reply