10/31/13

[Xbox360] ファントムブレイカー:BG 全キャラカンスト、そして実績 100%!!!



Though I'm not too hung up on Trophies and Achievements anymore, there was one game that I at least wanted to fully complete for the 360, none other than Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds.

Thanks to a rare free Gold Weekend, I was able to get the ones for Online Co-op and Vs early on. Since then a solitary Achievement has totally eluded me for the longest time.

Upon digging up the list, I found out it was "Free Fall Perfect", which entails collecting all the loot (coins and EXP gems) from the bonus game after beating M and Cocoa in Stage 4. Though I'm pretty confident with my action game reflexes, I've sadly never been able to properly pick up everything during a normal playthrough.

So as not to get too frustrated, I decided to spread my attempts around in between grinding the extra characters. I've gone through everyone and counter-stopped their levels to 99, but none of my Free Fall runs were successful.












The problem lies mainly in the flow of the items. Starting from the center, a stream of coin sets arc slightly to the right, then left and suddenly there's an irrationally-positioned set of EXP gems at dead center. After that, the scroll rate slackens a bit. The coins at the home stretch are in more comfortable degrees and somewhat easier to grab.

In the end, I opted to use a cheap tactic that I haven't employed since my Famicom days: The good-old "Time Renda".

For those who don't know, "Time Renda" or "Time Tapping" is a method of pausing and unpausing repeatedly, essentially putting the game in manual slow motion to help with hard-to-evade enemy attacks or to obtain flighty bonus stuff.

Hori released quite a number of peripheral gamepads that employed an automatic rapid pause feature for the benefit of those lacking the reflexes to pull that stunt off. Never got one of those though. The real gamers do it (almost) like Takahashi Meijin, and for WAY more than an hour every day.

Anyway, with no other options left and nothing to lose, I gave it a shot.

It was doable, but not foolproof. I had to restart several times to go back to that point (Being able to go directly to Stage 4 via Story Mode on Easy difficulty was a total boon). Mindlessly tapping start was no good, I needed to come up with a specific rhythm to make things work. The frequency at the starting point needs to be somewhat fast since that's where the tricky parts are. One hiccup means an inevitable miss.

The rate can be dropped a little around the gem points (though there's the small matter of actually getting to them properly), but letting your guard down is taboo, since there's a high probability of missing some of the home stretch coins.

Got it on my 7th try (plus about 200+ if prior grind runs with more orthodox attempts are taken into account).  

*cue Arino Kacho guts pose*
(`・ω・´)o彡゚

It felt great. Almost the same sensation of euphoria as back during the time I cleared that unfairly protracted 4 against 1 Newtype Level Mission back in Gundam Extreme Vs.

Eventually found a nicovid demonstrating the same Time Renda method, only the uploader got it in one try.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm20234251

I may get the Vita version if it ever comes out just for kicks. I can't imagine pulling the same stunt with the system's tiny start button though...

4 comments:

  1. Now that's what I call dedication! XD

    I'm pretty sure I also did this Time Renda trick (self-discovery) to some game some time ago... though I can't remember ^^;

    Congrats for your 100% Trophies... erm Achievements X)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks. Since I don't fire up the 360 as much as the others, I at least wanted one fully completed game on it.

      Now I'm back to not chasing titles and stuff.

      Delete
    2. I think it's okay to chase after trophies but only after you've beaten the game and had fun with it first without being affected by trophies. It's additional replay value after all, which seems to be the case here ^^

      Delete
  2. I guess you're right.

    There's a difference between playing for the sake of getting a trophy/achievement and playing to fully complete the game AND earn it as a fringe benefit.

    ReplyDelete