I love the idea of being the kind of person who has hundreds of platinum trophies. Unfortunately, it’s also incredibly rare for me to want to platinum a game. Platinums are a big commitment. Seeking a platinum for a game suggests that you loved it enough to spend even more time with it after completion – in some cases, hours and hours of more time spent on the usual trophy related activities. Unlocking collectibles, upgrading weapons, revealing every little inch of the map… and once you start working on one, it makes it so difficult to back down, as if giving up will invalidate all the time you spent on the game so far! I’ve had the unrelenting desire to earn certain platinum trophies straight up kill my love for games I had previously lavished praise onto (Yakuza: Kiwami comes to mind as the most forbidden of all fruit for me, the very antithesis of Marvel’s Midnight Suns).
So, when I do go for a platinum trophy, I’m making a gamble that I will have a good time and not inadvertently subject myself to a specific form of torture designed to suck the joy out of one of my favourite hobbies. Here then are 5 games I truly enjoyed earning the platinum for.
1. Astro’s Playroom
Hardest trophy: Omega Booster! (Got all puzzle pieces in SSD Speedway.)
Most Fun Trophy: Saru Gatcha! (Got all gatcha prizes.)
I figure that Astro’s Playroom must be almost everyone’s first PS5 platinum trophy given that the game comes pre-installed on the console. Astro’s world is addictively fun to be in, and this combined with satisfyingly tactile controls makes platforming and scooping up collectibles feel like pure joy. Far from being overwhelming, the collectibles are incredibly cool: they are made up of ‘artifacts’ which together paint Playstation’s history, rich with consoles and peripherals displayed with stunning accuracy. It is immensely rewarding to watch the PS Labo hub fill with treasures from times past, and I was actually a little sad I nabbed this platinum so quickly.
2. Assassins Creed Odyssey
Hardest trophy: Child of Poseidon (Complete all underwater location objectives.)
Most Fun Trophy: Are You Not Entertained? (Become Champion of the Arena.)
The idea of trying to get a platinum trophy for an Assassin’s Creed game is generally nausea inducing. Assassin’s Creed II is one of the earliest games I ever tried to platinum, but I was compelled to quit mostly due to those 100 f’ing feathers that needed to be yanked out of the sky. I’m not a massive fan of these games (in their current state) anyway, so I’m not really sure why I decided to platinum Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. While I have in the past lamented the hideous nature of Odyssey’s map and recognised that this game did almost drive me to ruin, a little time and distance from this title has made me realise that I also genuinely enjoyed getting this one.
I think ultimately I reveled in sprinting around Ancient Greece – they did an excellent job of creating an atmosphere in this game that makes it so easy to spend hours just running full tilt through every acropolis, ruin and river you see. By the end, if you upgraded your character enough, Kassandra/Alexios essentially becomes a God combat-wise, and the fantastic music makes grabbing up those collectibles one Spartan kick at a time feel worth it.
3. Stray
Hardest trophy: Can’t Cat-ch Me (Complete the first Zurk pursuit without being caught.)
Most fun trophy: I am Speed (Complete the game in less than 2 hours.)
The fact that the trophy I enjoyed earning the most was completing a 2 hour speed run is a testament to just how much I loved playing Stray. The trophy list for this game is everything a platinum trophy hunt should be. There are a few collectibles, but I had already picked up most in my first play-through. Individual trophies could be hard, but never impossible. Mostly, they involved achieving a specific feat : jump 500 times, complete a certain area without killing anything, have a one-hour cat nap. In short, challenging, fun and creative missions that add an exciting but optional layer to the base game. Completing the game in less than 2 hours was a real experience – the drama of messing up a section, forgetting how to do something or just fumbling with the controls made it feel like every second counted, though really, I finished in quite good time without too much trouble. Again, challenging but not impossible.
4. Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! (Reignited Trilogy)
Hardest trophy: Bug Control (Defeat all Draclets in one Superflight)
Most fun trophy: He’s on FIRE! (Unlock the permanent Super Flame)
All the games in the Reignited Trilogy are very platinum-able, for the same reason that they are also excellent in a pinch for curing a gaming slump. Although collectibles are at the crux of this trophy list, Spyro’s forte is making collectibles super satisfying to nab, and it becomes very easy to mindlessly jump, zoom and glide around levels looking for dragon eggs and whatnot. If I close my eyes and concentrate, I can just about hear the iconic jangle of a gem being scooped up. The trophy ‘He’s on FIRE!’, which has you 100% each level, eventually requires a certain level of finesse and expert dragon handling to become a master of the super charged jump – enough to be able to leap and land at mach speed (ideally without pancaking Spyro into a wall). It turned a level like ‘Treetops’ from annoying into pretty pleasing, and I felt like I had really earned that platinum trophy by the end.
5. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Hardest trophy: Return Policy (Kill 10 Enemies by Returning Shots with the Void Reactor).
Most fun trophy: Rated Aaarrr! (Feed Bubbles)
I appreciate this game just for having a straight-forward trophy list. Finish the game, upgrade your stuff, do a few side quests and the platinum trophy is yours. Rift Apart is such an entertaining adventure, with some of the most incredible visuals of this console generation, that any excuse to hang out in that galaxy a bit longer is fine with me. It sounds like a flimsy reason, but it is one of the few games I have played where trophy clean up didn’t feel like a chore at all.
Are you a platinum collector, or are you a little lazier with it like me?
I would love to hear what platinum trophies you have found hardest or most fun to earn. Please let me know in the comments below!
