Week of 28 Apr 2024
“You got to have a clean a** to fight crime.”
Achievements Earned In:
- Enchanted Arms
- Skylanders SuperChargers
- Eastern Exorcist
- NORCO
- Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
Hey, I finished Enchanted Arms! Well… mostly. As I mentioned last week, this version I’m working on has three unobtainable achievements, so I finished this in the sense that I got the completion percentage as high as I could. Two of the broken achievements are actually in the endgame, so I didn’t even have to bother finishing the storyline either! I was already approaching the final dungeon, so I just needed to clear a couple story beats and I’d wrapped this up. Very easy overall, and a permanent stain on my profile.
Achievements unlocked: 22 (+4) | Completion: 88%
I decided to do something a little more actually fun next. I’m sitting on only a few more entries of the now-defunct Skylanders franchise, so I thought I’d take the next step to the series completion: Skylanders SuperChargers, this time on Xbox One! I ran through the Xbox 360 version back in 2020, and since then I’d kept all of my strongest toys in a plastic bag for use when I finally returned. But, I ended up starting with me weaker Skylanders so I could level more up while I run through the game on Normal before moving to Nightmare later on. I don’t know, if you’ve played these games you know what to expect: fairly inoffensive mascot platforming action with great production value. I’ve always thought they were fun little games, so I’m looking forward to getting back to this. Because, well… then the games leaving Game Pass list came out. And I popped off.
Achievements unlocked: 6 (+6) | Completion: 15%
So, first on the docket was Eastern Exorcist, which I loaded up with VERY little research or anything. I saw it, saw the achievements were pretty obtainable in a manageable timeframe, and started it right up. So, this game is a side-scrolling action platformer, where you also have to be very good at parrying and dodging to take on the enemies. The checkpoints are even numerous! Not bad, right? Well, of course then you have the achievements: you have to do a run on Normal without leveling up at all. You can improve your skills and upgrade things, but can’t actually level up beyond level 1. You also have to do a playthrough without using the healing item more than 60 times or replenishing those healing items manually much, and, since I was going for efficiency and hate myself, I wrapped all of these into one playthrough as Lu Yunchuan, one of the two protagonists. I’d read that he has the easiest bosses, and also found out I could play this on Casual all the way up to the final boss, switching to Normal and it would count. With all of that decided I jumped in, and it wasn’t too bad until I reached the third boss and the gap in my stats started to really stand out. Since if I was doing well enough to beat the boss I likely wouldn’t be getting damaged much I quickly decided I just wouldn’t use healing at all through the whole game. Did I mention I hate myself? The frustration started to really crank up when I reached the ninth boss and just could not stop myself from getting hit a lot. The game has a stamina mechanic for both the playable hero and the bosses, where doing enough damage will cause them to become stunned and is when you can really lay into them. But, that stupid zombie dragon doesn’t have such a meter and you just have to slowly whittle away at them. Four (fairly easy) bosses later and you’re at the final boss and, wow, did I get angry. It takes about two hits from them to end your attempt and this happened over and over again, but that’s solely because I didn’t realize it is (essentially) a gimmick fight where you can really only succeed by parrying their attacks. A little bit doing that and I managed to knock them out, finishing my entire first and longest run on the first day of playing on Tuesday! I was very easily able to sprint through my second playthrough as the other character the same night, with the ability to level up a huge boon in just cutting my way through the multitude of bosses. I actually preferred Xiahou Xue’s attacks and moveset, so maybe I should have played her instead? I think the main difference is the final bosses, since they’re the ones you have to actually fight on Normal for those harder achievements. I don’t think you can simply/easily parry your way through her final boss? Anyway, whew, this was estimate to be almost a 20-hr completion on TA, so for me to finish it in 6 hours over a single day was fantastic!
Achievements unlocked: 38 (+38) | Completed
Once these matters are settled, we’ll discuss who will go retrieve Mulan.
Next I loaded up NORCO, a point-and-click adventure title that takes place in a gloomy and fairly off-putting near-future Louisiana town. I also didn’t really know anything about this game, but since this genre is always an easy completion and the achievements didn’t appear to look otherwise I wasn’t worried. And, yeah, none of the achievements were very complicated if you’re following a guide (like this one) and can use save scumming to get branching options completed. I really loved the art and atmosphere in this one, though I’m not sure how I felt about the actual context of the story. It takes a pretty wild turn and I definitely didn’t see any of that madness coming. And… then it’s suddenly over and I’m left uncomfortable and wondering what happened to everyone. I got all of the achievements, and may change my name to Garrett. Great success!
Achievements unlocked: 35 (+35) | Completed
FREAKING FRICK… hello, Ditch Man.
Figured I’d do one of the longer options of games leaving, so I decided to start Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising. During my time in Rochester, MN back in 2022, I almost started this multiple times. It’s actually a very easy and straightforward completion, with no missable achievements or anything. And I love the 2.5D art the game employs! It’s another action platformer, though doesn’t rely so heavily on being all parry parry and everything. You get a handful of zones to explore and bosses to fight, and it’s all pretty chill. The vast majority of the completion time lies in grinding for materials in the postgame, which I’m not looking forward to. I’m now entering the final zone, and my equipment is at level 17 out of the required max of 30… so that’ll be a pain, probably.
Achievements unlocked: 15 (+15) | Completion: 30%
Highest ratio: 7.39
Reach the peak of perfection (Eastern Exorcist)
Lowest ratio: 1.00
Plenty More to Go (NORCO)
