Lost Treasures adds a solitary level, considered as DLC, rather than just part of the main game, to the original Crash Bandicoot within the N'Sane Trilogy series.
Perhaps the reasoning behind this was because the level in question, Stormy Ascent, was eventually not included in the original Crash Bandicoot after being cut from the game, and it finally makes an appearance with a vengeance right here.
Despite there being only 2 trophies on offer for it, it turns out to deliver the toughest level in the game. None of the Crash Bandicoot levels really come close to the challenge on offer here, not even High Road, making you quickly realise why this level never made the cut in the original game.
The "Crown Jewel" trophy, awarded for "Seek and destroy" simply requires you to earn the level Gem for breaking all boxes. Simple.
However, that merely exists to whet the appetite and lure you into a false sense of security for what's to come;
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| An Ancient Antiquity - Do hard time. |
The "An Ancient Antiquity" trophy, awarded for "Doing hard time", simply requires you to earn a Gold relic or better on the Stormy Ascent level. I say "simply", purely in theory.
As previously aforementioned, this is the toughest level to Gold relic in Crash Bandicoot. To take a direct quote from the development team; "It was too long and too hard and we ran out of time".
The completion time to qualify for a Gold relic is 4 minutes and 30 seconds, and it's important to note firstly, that this is plenty of time. You don't need to be faultlessly quick, which becomes an important tip to understand, because the best way to get past certain segments of this level without dying is to take your time.
Another key thing to note is the fact that, you're going to have to practice this run. A lot. The level is set on the side of a castle, and contains hazards such as sliding staircases and platforms that move and change direction at varying speeds. There are also awkwardly placed spike traps that can obstruct your path, particularly when jumping. You're only going to get closer to achieving this trophy but putting a minimal amount of hours in, understanding which points within this level are the hardest, and finding an approach that works to get past them. Then you just have to string it all together into a deathless run within the required time limit.
I would suggest I spent around 8 hours on this trophy altogether. I didn't track the amount of attempts it took me, and nor does the game, but I did manage to get it within 3 sessions. Video guides do help slightly, but such is the basic nature of Crash Bandicoot, and understanding that all you literally have at your disposal is the single jump action, the skill element purely boils down to timing, which is something a video can't really teach you. It's just mostly about practising the route, hitting a rhythm and most importantly, not being phased by the reality that this will test your patience.
8 hours might not seem like alot, but it's one of those trophies that mentally wears you down. The repetitive action of replaying the same level and failing at the same spots over and over has a very robotic notion to it, and causes you to dip in and out of focus. I died a reasonable amount of times purely through lapses in concentration bought about the monotony of the task, which never previously existed in any Crash Bandicoot Platinum across all 3 games.
The most challenging parts of this level are also right at the very end, so you don't tend to get as much exposure to these as you do the earlier parts of the level. Both the last 2 segments are tricky, but you get limited opportunities to practice them, and they effectively come down to just whether you can nail those last few segments with a bit of blind luck. This is where the video guide comes in handy, where you can pause to regroup, just watch the video for reference, and take your shot based on that, which is what ended up working for me. I only reached the final segment of the level twice, such was the challenge reaching that point.
This isn't the sort of the trophy you'll manage to just fluke on a few attempts. It requires sufficient enough knowledge of the level to be able to pull off some of the requirements necessary to reach the end of the level and nail the correct timing depending on where you are. Practice will make perfect, but it will also require potentially alot of patience, something I ran out of twice before coming back for my third session and finally completing this pack.
It did give me a good sense of accomplishment, despite the fact my attention started to wane significantly throughout this challenge, and even though my eventual Gold relic time was 4 minutes and 4 seconds, which was 26 seconds within the tolerance, it still felt like a hard fought victory.
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