My take on the road to Platinum
So I finally landed the platinum on Enotria, and my feelings are rather torn on it and the game. Hope the subreddit can handle some constructive criticism.
First, I must preface this by pointing at another soulslike I hit platinum on very recently, namely Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. I loved that game so much that even after NG+ I was left wanting to do another run with a different build approach.
Unfortunately I can't say the same about Enotria. Now admittedly the pace is a bit slow for my liking and though Sabers exist, they simply don't deal the sort of damage that is comparable to something like Colossal Greatswords, in terms of DPS. Lower damage per hit of course but the speed doesn't compensate for the utter lack of damage, especially in boss fights. Of course different weapons have different movesets and it helps diversify builds a bit but I felt like the game either asks you to spec towards the Elementalist approach or the Ardore Battlemage approach and they both just feel too similar to me. I wasn't able to experience any significant variety no matter how many different combinations of Maks Lines, weapons and perks I used.
Now the first time around I got to the second area without too many issues, but knowing I wanted to hit 100% completion, I knew I couldn't afford to skip fights, even optional ones. Enter Veltha. That was a true quit moment for me. I tried for 2 hours the evening I got to her until I decided to give it a rest and try again later. Now I know it's probably some sort of a skill issue from an old man at play, but the next evening I pummeled her face in (or had mine pummeled) for 8 hours straight before I beat her. In fairness my NG+ and NG++ runs took 3 and 2 tries respectively so I did learn a lot. It just felt like placing her where she was placed in terms of expected progress was just unfair.
Sure enough I got through the rest of the game pretty easy, and although I stumbled into the point of no return accidentally (thanks for not having a heads up...) and was unable to complete the quests for God of Man before the final boss, I figured it's fine and I'll just do it next playthrough, since multiple are allowed and required. Fun fact btw, you can finish the quests AFTER the main boss(es) are dead.
I figured maybe the plat isn't going to be so bad after all. Some Mask farming so I could do the "I Learned That Part" trophy next run, and off I went. Easy run. Time to finish it all off with a compendium run up to Master Gondolier. And this is when I really understood why the game has such a low platinum %. What the actual hell.
Why would the devs think it's reasonable to ask you to kill 50/80 of any particular enemy in the game, especially those very much off to the side (talking especially about the Malanno Crab in Litumnia), that you would most likely not slay more than 10 of over the course of 3 whole playthroughs of their areas. Who thought this was balanced, or fun. Running from the "bonfire" knot to the enemy, dodging the enemies in your way, kill the enemy, and teleport back. And do that again and again and again for most of the enemies that wouldn't naturally get fully completed organically.
Enotria was my 90th platinum trophy on Playstation. And I can't remember doing another trophy for a platinum that was as monotonously mind-numbing as this was.
If it wasn't for the Compendium bit, I'd give this plat a chill 6.5/10. Not the best, not the worst.
But I gotta be a bit harsh here. My end score for going for Platinum in Enotria is probably 3.5/10. If I'm being generous. I don't feel accomplished, just exhausted. It wasn't fun, or challenging (except for the 1st Veltha because fek dat bish), but just a test of how much you hate yourself for a digital accolade. And apparently I hate myself enough lol...
Overall, the game was alright tho. Not the best, a lot of jank, slow movement and combat, but at least it was short, pretty and once you understood the systems and had the pieces to make builds, it was actually very easy. But I'm happy it's over now.
To anyone who read this far, and also completed the game 100%, good on you people. That was... something..