I'm about to review a trophy list, and will use terms such as "Dire AIDS", "David Hasselhoff" and "KKK" whilst doing so. If that doesn't absolutely stink of a South Park game, then nothing ever will.
This is a turn-based RPG open world game, with combat focused around strategic thinking and character development. As with all RPG's, you'll level your main character, earn/purchase stronger weapons/equipment and recruit a party made up of other classic South Park characters to help you through your adventure, each with their own set of attacks and special abilities.
The game's story covers the Stick of Truth, an object in a fantasy role playing world, which allows the holder of the stick to control the universe, and your role as "Douchebag" AKA the new kid, is to help Cartman's and Kyle's warring factions to obtain possession of the stick from other each other, evil factions and other parties along the way, including nazi zombies and government officials. The story is funny, very outrageous and offensive, a bit mental and contains numerous popular culture references to classic South Park episodes of years gone by.
In terms of difficulty, there really isn't any. You don't choose a difficulty level at any point, the turn based nature of the game means there isn't really any combat-based skill required (aside from a hint of good timing necessary when blocking attacks) and the majority of the enemies you face can be killed with relative ease, including the various boss fights throughout the game.
So where does a 4/10 difficulty rating justify itself for this trophy list? The game contains 51 trophies, and 21 of them are missable. So almost half of the list contains trophies which can be missed for various different reasons, so the level of game management required from the player is as high as any game I've ever played.
Now, it's impractical to go through why every single one of these 21 trophies is missable, but they all contribute towards this difficulty rating, and it is pretty much the only thing that's challenging about this trophy list.
The main quest-line doesn't actually contain that many progression based trophies, but it does award trophies pertinent to how you defeat certain characters through the game. For example, half-way through the story, you can either side with Kyle and the elves, and fight Cartman, or you can side with Cartman and the KKK, and fight Kyle, with each choice awarding a trophy, meaning you'll have to play-through the game twice in order to fulfill the trophies for both decisions, technically making them missable by force of choice.
Similarly, the "Outpatient" trophy, awarded for defeating Princess Kenny while living with dire AIDS, comes towards the end of the story, where you'll have to defeat Princess Kenny after contracting the dire AIDS affliction, obtained by being bitten by a wild animal in Canada, and neglecting to cure yourself. This can be tricky, because dire AIDS incurs additional damage per turn to the player for as long as you leave the condition untreated, and since Princess Kenny is the final battle, you'll have to endure this for the rest of the game.
However, the main point here is that, there are also 2 other trophies for defeating Princess Kenny in certain ways, which include defeating Princess Kenny whilst wearing the girls makeover outfit and whilst looking like David Hasselhoff. As above, this will also require a minimum of 2 play-throughs. (You can combine having dire AIDS with either the girls makeover outfit or the David Hasselhoff face, but you can't have both of the latter at the same time, so you will have to replay the game to beat Princess Kenny again to fulfil all 3 requirements).
You also have to defeat the Meth Tweekers whilst dressed in the Evil Cartman goatee and bald cap and defeat the Boss Hall Monitor whilst wearing freckles. These are all really simple tasks to fulfil during the main story of the game, but you have to be on top of them and make sure you have the equipment to fulfil the conditions of the trophy, and that you remember to equip them (which can be an easy thing to forget to do with the amount of juggling this game requires from you). If you don't at least one earn them, you'll be replaying the game, because you only have the one opportunity with all of these missable trophies. The vast examples are emphasised to just reinforce that point.
The "Chinpokolypse" trophy, awarded for collecting all of the Chinpokomon, may seem like a standard collectible trophy, but 7 of the 30 Chinpokomon toys in the game are only available during specific levels which you can only visit once, therefore making this trophy missable too. In a game full of collectibles, and trophies to accompany them, this isn't actually one of the worst, but you can't afford to miss any of them, and they can actually be quite difficult to spot. Some may also require inherited powers to reach which you only unlock later on in the game, like the gnome dust and alien probe, which can disrupt your tracking of this trophy as you come back later to retrieve certain Chinpokomon which could only be collected after obtaining these special powers. It's important to also note that, there is an in-game menu which shows you the Chinpokomon you have, and the Chinpokomon you still need, which is a very useful tool to utilise.
The "More Popular Than John Lennon" trophy, awarded for being friends with Everyone in South Park, requires you to befriend every character in the game through interacting with them. There are 120 characters in total, and acceptance of a friend request can range from just simply talking to them to completing a quest for them. As before, a handful of these people can only be befriended at certain points in the game, and if you don't befriend them before it's too late to do so, you won't earn the trophy. It's especially important to track this trophy properly because of the high volume of characters, and, although the characters you have befriended are tracked within the in-game menus, it doesn't actually tell you which ones you need, so it's not as helpful as the Chinpokomon menu.
The "Clothes Whore" trophy, awarded for collecting all of the available costumes, is mentioned here for exactly the same reasons as above. There are 85 total costume items to get, which are scattered throughout the game, and found in secret chests, purchased from the various in-game shops and looted off specific enemies. A lot of these are missable, so again, diligence is required when going through levels you cannot return to in order to make sure you grab every costume, and these are also tracked under the collectibles tab on the in-game menus, which tells you which costumes you have and which ones you still need, so this helps a little bit. The majority of the clothes come as a 3 piece set though, usually either purchased together in the same shop, or collected together within a certain area/level, so not so scattered as the other collectibles.
The "Full Arsenal" trophy, awarded for owning all the weapons and costumes available in the game, follows on with the exact same principle as before. There are 68 weapons to collect in the game, and a fair amount of these can only be obtained within certain levels, and are therefore missable (surprise, surprise).
However, with weapons, you only have to have owned the item, meaning you can you sell it, which is especially useful if you need to raise the extra cash to afford the higher level, and ultimately more expensive, weapons in the game (which you'll most likely need to take advantage of). The weapons you have owned, and need to own, are tracked in the same menus as above, grouped together with the costumes, so again, take advantage of this, and make sure you're grabbing the missable stuff in-between levels.
Aside from that, nothing else will really cause you any issues in this game, but it is a challenge to keep on top of everything from the very start. Most of the other trophies are awarded for random actions which are secondary to the game, or feats you will naturally achieve in combat as the game progresses. The sole focus should be around the collectibles, and knowing exactly where you need to pick up certain items so they don't become missable.
When you combine all of the above together, it's a bit overwhelming, and the level of game management you need to make sure you maximise your play-through to the fullest potential is about as high as it could be. It's never my intention to play any story driven game just once, for the want of enjoying the story first and foremost, but even if trophies were my sole focus, I still wouldn't attempt everything in this list in one go. I would split it in half with as much rational thought as possible and focus on every missable trophy over 2 playthroughs, to make sure I didn't miss a handful of things accidentally first time round through overload.
To complete the main story, and the necessary side content, will take somewhere in the region of 15-20 hours. You could, in theory, with more than a handful of strategic saves, beat the game in just a single play-through for around 25-30 hours, in order to get the previously mentioned story choice branching trophies, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to play the game twice and make sure the sheer amount of missable trophies are easier to manage.
However, on the whole, this list isn't really that challenging, and even in the worst case scenario of poor game management, it's not the worst thing in the world if you ever had to replay the game because you missed a trophy or two that you shouldn't have missed. It's an average length for a single play-through, and the difficulty curve is minimal at best.
Notable Trophies -
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| Outpatient - You defeated Princess Kenny while living with Dire AIDS. Chinpokolypse - You collected all of the Chinpokomon. More Popular Than John Lennon - Everyone in South Park is your friend. Clothes Whore - You've collected all of the available costumes. Full Arsenal - You own all of the weapons and costumes available in the game. |
More Popular Than John Lennon
Everyone in South Park is your friend
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