Platinum Difficulty Rating

[Woody]

Collected Trophy Difficulty Rating: 8.82

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• Visit the Collected Trophy Difficulty Ratings thread

Voting Guidelines

1. Do not vote unless you have played the game.
2. Do not vote until you have dedicated a substantial amount of time towards the game.
3. Do not vote based solely on the descriptions from the trophy list.
4. A time consuming game does not necessarily mean a difficult game so vote accordingly.
   Examples;
   • Warhawk is time consuming and difficult.
   • Resistance 2 is time consuming, but not difficult.
5. Vote with honesty and integrity.

[Aeliana]

I've waited to vote on this 'til I had most of the trophies. I'm up to 40 out of 50 now so I think that time has come... 7/10 from me. Catherine is kinda like Demon's Souls... You will die *a lot*, and as a result, you'll learn from those mistakes and become better and better at the puzzles over time.

Time to depends heavily on one's skill. I'd estimate 60 hours or so for an average player, as fast as 40 hours if you're good and 80+ hours if you're not so good. Most of the trophies aren't too difficult, but there are a few such as...

- Beat all 4 Stages of Babel Mode (Altar, Menhir, Obelisk, Axis Mundi)
- Beat all 9 Stages of Golden Theater (Story Mode) on Hard Difficulty -and- earn a Golden Prize on each.

...that are, in a couple words, "serious business." Those two require a lot of practice/talent. There are videos on Nico Nico Douga and YouTube that illustrate solutions to the puzzles, but even so, it requires flawless execution there's also an element of randomness in Babel Mode.

[Vandemis]

Originally Posted by Aeliana

I've waited to vote on this 'til I had most of the trophies. I'm up to 40 out of 50 now so I think that time has come... 7/10 from me. Catherine is kinda like Demon's Souls... You will die *a lot*, and as a result, you'll learn from those mistakes and become better and better at the puzzles over time.

Time to depends heavily on one's skill. I'd estimate 60 hours or so for an average player, as fast as 40 hours if you're good and 80+ hours if you're not so good. Most of the trophies aren't too difficult, but there are a few such as...

- Beat all 4 Stages of Babel Mode (Altar, Menhir, Obelisk, Axis Mundi)
- Beat all 9 Stages of Golden Theater (Story Mode) on Hard Difficulty -and- earn a Golden Prize on each.

...that are, in a couple words, "serious business." Those two require a lot of practice/talent. There are videos on Nico Nico Douga and YouTube that illustrate solutions to the puzzles, but even so, it requires flawless execution there's also an element of randomness in Babel Mode.

I was hoping to get a platinum here, but after reading this is guess i have to give up already. I suck on puzzles, but i will buy it anyway. EVeryone should buy it and support Atlus that way, for having such great ideas for a game.

[zeociko]

I can't confirm or not, but I think the Golden Theater (didn't start Babel) puzzles are randomized.

As for Babel I believe they are randomized OR there are different variations. But anyway randomized puzzles or not, this is not easy and very difficult to emulate.
You also need to complete Normal in order to even unlock Babel mode stages.

Easy and Normal and Hard stages have similarities but the differences that are there make solutions to progressing completely different in parts.

I hope we can share better tips once more people have their hands on the game with the Western release...I think a lot of people are going to give up early though.

I see a lot of people hyping it up but don't really understand how deep the puzzles get. Even with the patch (which gives you an option before starting a game to play Easy with the Drink item [high jump temporary] and a few other small features), the difficulty is relative to Easy=Hard, Normal=Very Hard, Hard=Extreme. By Stage 7 or late areas of 6 on Easy things start to ramp up.

Outside of main gameplay, other trophies require you to select the right conversation choices, talking to people in right order, helping the regulars' issues in both the Nightmare realm and real life (Stray Sheep), mastering the Rapunzel mini-game, etc. Replying to certain text messages will also help or hurt the ending you are going for (there are multiple endings) just as conversation choices and pre-Stage Question/Answer do, so multiple playthroughs are necessary.

Great game though, it already has a sealed spot in the top 5 gems of 2011 in my book.

[Aeliana]

Originally Posted by zeociko

I can't confirm or not, but I think the Golden Theater (didn't start Babel) puzzles are randomized. I looked at some videos and compared to what it had on my screen and the puzzles were different...though it might have been difficulties.

As for Babel I believe they are randomized OR there are different variations, which would mean multiple solution videos would have to be made. But anyway randomized puzzles or not, this is not easy and very difficult to emulate by watching a video. You may complete a puzzle by looking at one but good luck getting Golds.

Oh yeah and I wouldn't even bother with Easy (unless you enable the Drink bonus) since if you ever need help literally every video on Youtube and Nico Nico Douga is either Normal or Hard stages. Easy and Normal stages have similarities but the differences that are there make solutions to progressing completely different in parts.

I hope we can share better tips once more people have their hands on the game with the Western release...I think a lot of people are going to give up early though.

I see a lot of people hyping it up but don't really understand how deep the puzzles get. Even with the patch (which gives you an option before starting a game to play Easy with the Drink item [high jump temporary] and a few other small features), the difficulty is relative to Easy=Hard, Normal=Very Hard, Hard=Extreme. By Stage 7 or late areas of 6 on Eay things start to ramp up.

Great game though, it already has a sealed spot in the top 5 gems of 2011 in my book.

I don't believe Golden Theater is randomized; I ignored Easy and beat it three times on Normal, and each time I used the same videos (MasterLL's on YouTube) when I needed reminders on the puzzle solutions. Golden Prizes on Normal aren't too terrible, but Hard is another story.

Babel, however, I think you are correct - it's not so much "randomized" as it is "different variations," at least 3 or 4 for each stage. I beat Altar last night and am very close on Menhir, but Obelisk and Axis Mundi are still a bit beyond my skill level.

Currently up to 42/50 Trophies btw... I still need:

Golden Theater - 100% Golden Prizes on Hard
Babel - Menhir
Babel - Obelisk
Babel - Axis Mundi
Rapunzel - Stage 64
Rapunzel - Reverse Rapunzel
Rapunzel - Rapunzel's True Form

I'm at my wit's end w/ Babel Mode so I'mma focus on Rapunzel for a while.

[Kuraudou]

The difficulty of this game varies upon the individual themselves in how good they are with solving puzzles. Story related puzzles, however do not change at all, so it is a matter of trial and error. However, if someone would want to simply check the 'Answers' per se, then there are plenty of videos out on Youtube.

However, there was something I noticed between the JP and NA versions of the game. Some of the puzzles start out differently, or in the middle of a stage there is something different. However, still, someone could use those videos as guidelines. The true challenge does come from the Tower Of Babel puzzles as those alone are 'randomized' to a certain degree. Those alone are a true test of your own abilities and techniques.

I would give the game normally a flat 10 due to difficulty of some puzzles, but since someone could easily literally 'follow' a video on how to solve them, then that can drop the difficulty down a notch or two(In my case, an 8). After all, most of the trophies come from running through the story. Basically from helping the other sheep out of their predicaments to getting all the endings.

[lostleader]

It seems to me that a lot of trophies are easy to obtain but a cluster are very hard. The babel towers and golding hard are the biggest obstacles I see. Rapunzel stages present a problem for those without a guide as well. Never the less quite doable.

Golding hard shouldnt be too bad as you learn how to complete it with each go through, so its doable as well. But the babel towers..well they are a babel tower of obstacles for the plat.
Despite still having a set pattern they are still randomly generated and this can cause a lot of difficults to complete, on top of that you have to go through 5 of them.

Its going to be a long and hard road.

[Maxdestructo]

Babel mode seems to be the biggest roadblock. In fact, it's very similar to Challenge 6 from Vanquish. You need to have incredible skill to even hope of accomplishing it, but there's also luck factoring in.

Doable, but incredibly hard.

Everything else doesn't seem too challenging if you use a guide, although getting a gold on hard mode might pose a problem.

[PsienceWins]

Originally Posted by Maxdestructo

Babel mode seems to be the biggest roadblock. In fact, it's very similar to Challenge 6 from Vanquish. You need to have incredible skill to even hope of accomplishing it, but there's also luck factoring in.

Doable, but incredibly hard.

Everything else doesn't seem too challenging if you use a guide, although getting a gold on hard mode might pose a problem.

I agree with this. Haven't started Hard yet, but the randomization in Babel mode is crazy. I can get to level 100 or so on Alter, but just can't beat it. Gave up after an hour or so. I think that will be the hardest part.

Rapunzel is pretty fun and easy. I haven't played it much (I'm just going to sit down with it after the story mode is finished so that I have infinite plays), but it's not that difficult.

All in all it's a fun game so the "challenge" doesn't frustrate me. I think that's the biggest thing.

[starcrunch061]

Hard mode is hard. I was amazed that not only do you lose the ability to take back moves, but the puzzles themselves increase exponentially in difficulty. Still, with the ability to get answers on youtube, that's not really a huge stumbling block.

Babel is really hard, though. I'm hoping that local two-player mitigates some of the difficulty, but it's pretty brutal. I haven't started rapunzel, yet. I'm a little confused: do you mean that in a new game, after beating the game, you have infinitely many tries? As far as I can tell, there is no way to go back to the bar at the end of a game, as you are locked in a save elsewhere. I know you can try out any level in a new game - can you also play rapunzel infinitely?

In any case, I want to play a little more before giving a rating, but this one is going to be high in difficulty.