NieR introduces controversial new PS4 feature - the ability to buy Trophies

Nier: Automata trophies can apparently be bought. This is the first time in a PS4 game that the feature has been included.

[UCForce]

Thank god it's not real money.

[Chille_psu]

Yeah that would be incredible stupid but this is a slippery slope, who knows what could happen in the future if someone else decides to do it?

[UCForce]

Yeah, I agree. I remember how dumb SE pushed Deus Ex Mankind Divided pre order. That was a mistake.

[Nitrowolf2]

I just have a feeling that this is Square Enix way of testing it out remember Deus Ex didn't have microtransaction until the very end of development, the team admitted that Square Enix came in and said the game needed to have it.

I can see them tying stuff like this to microtransaction currency in the future. And if not then another developer will after seen something like this

[IamTylerDurden1]

Ppl made far too much out of the Deus Ex preorder as well.

[MyDietEqualsGames]

This will not phase me. I will try to get as many as I can within the first 2 playthroughs.

[TardcoreGamer]

I wouldn't be suprised if theres a policy against that practice in place by the major platform holding companies (MS, Nintendo, Valve, Sony) who have meta "acheivement" systems in place.

[MyDietEqualsGames]

I think they tend to leave it up to the developer to dictate the structure for trophies.

Btw, I didn't downvote you.

[rainslacker]

I don't think it's in the compliance itself, but the TOS of Sony consoles is that you can't pay cash money for things like trophies....namely, people that would pay to have someone boost their score for whatever reason. And yes, there are people that do such things.

Because of this, it's probably not going to pass compliance if it's enabled to function within the game itself, because then the publisher would be complicit in breaking Sony's own TOS.

[Deadpooled]

If it was with real money it would devalue the purpose of trophies. Trophies are essentially "targets" set by developers for players to explore the whole game from the main aspects to the little details (my own purpose for going for trophies, although I am bad at getting the harder or more grinding ones 😂) Trophies are for gamers to have a sense of satisfaction for completing the game.

[MyDietEqualsGames]

Rainslacker, if correct, that would be irresponsible on Platinum's part. I guess we'll see how Sony responds and how it plays out from here. ;D

[CocoaBrother]

Only purchasable with in game money after third play through; however, I still find it to defeat the purpose of earning trophies.
I hope this doesn't become a standard

[Kingthrash360]

I don't understand the disagree. You are 100% right.

[GNCFLYER]

Some people don't read comments, they just scroll down hitting disagree on every comment.

[Klonoa-dreamtraveler]

anonymous disagree ninja's they literally just hit disagree just to hit it to be a dick lol

[IamTylerDurden1]

Ppl are acting like u can barely play the game and just use real money to buy a Platinum trophy. It's really not a big deal at all and all it will do is SLIGHTLY increase some of the trophy percentages for the game. You have to play through three times and use in-game currency.

[Summons75]

You say this as if there were ever a purpose to earning Trophies. They have been and always will be the most pointless thing added to gaming.

[Last_Boss]

You mean like a High Score too?!!/s

[OB1Biker]

I sort of agree but only from my point of view. I know many gamers find it important to get those trophies.
I think the food for thought is trophies should be worthwhile for the gamers own satisfaction of accomplishment and not to compare with other gamers who may not care. So being able to buy them is only a matter of choice for gamer to feel if they really deserve the accomplishment or sort of cheat themselves. In short, gamers will give these trophies their own values

[iofhua]

I agree. The point of games should be to have fun, not to reach milestones or compare epeens which is what trophy lists are for.

[trouble_bubble]

So by the same broken logic, we should also do away with leaderboards, prestiges, feats, points, levels, ranks, milestones, basically anything remotely competitive that might threaten the betas. smh lol!

[No Way]

Trophies/Achievements should be used as a point system to unlock things - either in the game itself, or thru Sony/MS store. Just things like outfits/weapons/maps or even credit to purchase things, thru the store.

[Klonoa-dreamtraveler]

sounds like some people are intimidated by trophies cause they can't earn them or it's too hard for them i don't see any reason why someone would dislike trophies and try to down play it i mean you don't have to go trophy hunting it's a option. i think people can hide their trophy list too from people which again i think they are insecure about not having any or much of it. i started my trophy hunting when i got my ps4 and it has benefits to games like exploring area's you would never see that you wouldn't see or notice playing it regularly or get to try a lot of what the game has to offer and cool or funny references etc

[FunAndGun]

What is the purpose of earning any trophy?
What is the purpose of playing a game?
What is the meaning of life?

[Princess_Pilfer]

@Lsst_Boss
No. See, high scores allowed competition with friends (or yourself) to improve on your abilities. Trophies are just checkmarks, most of them take no skill and essentially all of them fail to offer a way to meaningfully compete with either yourself or the game.

[IamTylerDurden1]

Princess_pilfer

You are dead wrong. Are you kidding? Do you even game bro? Almost all platinum trophies require a certain level of skill and fortitude to aquire (besides Tell Tale games and the odd game here n there). Most trophies require no skill and they don't offer a meaningful way to test yourself or the game? Go platinum Super Meat Boy and Enter the Gungeon and tell me it didn't challenge you. That is a large part of the purpose to trophies is to test your skill and to add new challenge and nuance to the game. It also is a way to track significant in-game achievements and feats. I really don't understand the ppl who are anti trophy, but to say they offer no challenge is an absolute joke. I have a platinum trophy that only 0.1% of all ppl who played the game have and it is absolutely an accomplishment that feels good.

[Princess_Pilfer]

@IamTylerDurden

1: No. Almost all platinum trophies take a lot of time, rarily skill.
2: Even if they do take skill, seeing as it's a simple checkbox they don't provide a way to compete with either yourself of the game. You don't have 92% of a trophy, you have it or you don't, so you can't measure your improvement or compate your progress to your friends.
3: Specific notoriously difficult indie platformers =/= most games.
4: Most people don't care, or they care for a few specific games and none of the others.

[P_Bomb]

Trophy Haters need to just take the 'L'. If your level sucks, that's on you. If other people enjoy rattling em off with their friends or sharing accomplishments on message boards, great. Far more productive they're actually playing these games instead of incessantly whining on the internet with nothing to show for it

[Sniperwithacause]

The way i look at it is. If that's what needs done to achieve the trophy so be it.

Edit: I'm not the one who gave the disagree.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

I mean from my perspective the dev is clearly saying 'trophies are stupid play a game if you like it'

[IamTylerDurden1]

Ppl are overreacting and getting confused. Third playthrough, in-game currency, it isn't a big deal bc if u play through the game three times and have enough in-game currency to purchase them you've pretty much earned it anyway. I'm really not concerned in the least.

[rainslacker]

That's what I was thinking. While I haven't looked over the trophy list, I'd imagine outside of any action specific trophy which requires doing something out of the ordinary, one would probably achieve all the trophies in 3 solid play throughs.

Realistically, unless it were completely impossible due to set up, the people who actually care enough about trophies to try to get them would likely try to do it all within one or two play throughs.

[TheGamez100]

Even if you can buy them in-game pretty unfair for the people that actually earned em.

[Teflon02]

Depends on the ingame price. If you have to grind a whole playthrough for a harder or rare trophy then it isn't a big deal. But if you can get 10 trophies bought through saving from 1 playthrough, then I have an issue.

[remixx116]

Maybe..

[PhucSeeker]

Grinding 2 playthroughs and jumping around until you can take a shot at 2B's pantie are just simply not the same at all.

[PhoenixUp]

How dare they diminish the value of Trophies by making them buyable

[iofhua]

I think this is the best idea ever. Soon enough all trophies for all games will be purchasable with real money and then no one will care about them again. Then gaming will be returned to its previous more evolved state when games never had them and people just played to have fun.

[remixx116]

Isn't that still the case??

What jackass buys a game for trophies/achievements??

They are literally there just for completionistsale and doesn't devalue the game at all.

Jeez people will complain about anything nowadays.

[Klonoa-dreamtraveler]

you still have that option genius you can play game and not care about trophies and people who do care can still play lol i love trophies.

[rainslacker]

@remixx

I sell games to some guy in Europe who is a trophy hunter. He's ranked in the top 10 within his country. He buys US versions of games from me, for games whose trophies stack and you can get multiple plats off the same game.

I wouldn't consider him a jackass, he's quite nice, and pretty intelligent. But for him, it's a social status thing and apparently at the higher levels of trophy hunting there is a lot of friendly competition between them.

But I agree with you, I don't think the majority of gamers, or even 1%, buys games for trophies. Although I know some games can sell more copies because they have easy to obtain trophies.

I think the value of a trophy is really in the eye of the beholder. Some people care, others don't. Some people think having a lot of them makes them better. Others just enjoy the hunt. Some don't care at all.

Me, I like getting them in games I enjoy. It keeps me playing a game longer trying to get a platinum as well as try things that I probably wouldn't normally do like play through a lengthy JRPG twice in a row(although I've found this a good way to enjoy the story more since), but I will put down a game if I start to find it tedious or boring. I also will give up on platinums if the things to get those last few trophies are just too frustrating. I have too many other games to play to really be too fussed about it.

[theshredded]

That's a neat and cool feature!

[SoulWarrior]

This is kind of weird, Platinum are known for having brutal platinum requirements in their games yet this one looks to be easy as hell especially with this feature.

[opinionated]

Kinda weird but many people make purchases based on how easy the platinum is. It makes sense to target that group when it doesn't affect anyone else.

[LexHazard79]

It should affect your conscious, knowing you paid for trophies others earned.

[opinionated]

It doesn't for these kinds of people. They will buy Burger King games for an easy platinum. I don't know why people are disagreeing with facts. It's not like I'm condoning it but it doesn't affect you or me one bit. It's a non-issue. There is nothing to complain about. The fuck do you care about someone else's conscious for? Lol

[Razzer]

My conscious? lol.....I think I'll sleep just fine, thanks.

[rainslacker]

Three play through isn't exactly what people go for when looking for easy trophies. One could probably achieve it faster by actually trying to achieve the trophy, assuming that it doesn't require three play throughs to begin with.

As far as how they feel about it. I think there are lots of different types of trophy hunters. Some don't care how they achieve it, some believe earning it properly is the only way to be credible, some just casually try to get them but don't really take to much stock from it, etc.

[MasterCornholio]

I know it's with ingame money but I don't agree with this.

[ziggurcat]

yeah, this is just silly.

[Natversion1]

If you don't like it don't buy the trophies, if you're worried someone else has a platinum because they paid in game for it, get out more.

[LexHazard79]

I usually don't complain about much. First pay online, dlc, mt, season pass now you can buy trophies(one game,but others might follow). Its getting ridiculous... trophies are to be earned not bought.

Edit: even if its just in game credits. Plenty of other games offer credits to buy mts as well, but achievements and trophies would be pushing it..imo

[opinionated]

The other things you mention are on another level. Consumer related. They can be abused but also done right at times. I had no problem buying the nioh season pass and a few others but most of the time I wait to see what the dlc is before I buy it. I get the "participation trophy" bullshit, I really do. I hear what you are saying but this really doesn't hurt anyone as a consumer. It actually opens this niche Japanese game up to an entirely different market. People that don't care what kind of game it is lol.

Let it get to a million like nioh using cake trophies and any trick they can. As long as it's a good game and it doesn't nickel and dime then I can forgive this kind of marketing. Maybe that's just me. If they can get more sales by making the trophies piss easy then that's fine imo. You just have to like the game enough to beat it three times.

[Chaosdreams]

What's the trophy called?
"Congrats, you paid for this one, literally."

[Blastoise]

This completely defeats the point of even unlocking trophies. I don't agree with this at all and I hope we don't see more of it.

[trooper_]

I detest this practice.

[AnubisG]

Well, that is one less game I will be buying. I love the trophy system. I will not support a game that aims to destroy it.

[Pamela-Ibis]

So i can buy an impossible to earn trophy? Nice! Wish is this was in ffx remake. 200 lighting dodges in a row -_-

[rainslacker]

For me, it was the chocobo race with the balloons. After that, I didn't have to worry about the lightning strikes, because I never enjoyed that part of the game whenever I played it to begin with. Would love the plat, but not going to spends hours on end doing something I don't enjoy much.

[Last_Boss]

The trophy, comes with the challenge. Simple

[Teflon02]

I wish this feature existed for online trophies that you can't get anymore
Also wouldn't mind it for hardcore rosette fan. That trophy is literally b's. I haven't been able to get that trophy because I play too smart and don't get enough lines. I'm literally stuck on that last trophy because it's basically luck and no factual details exist on it.

[akiraburn]

I'm guessing you're talking about Persona 4, with the Harcore Risette Fan trophy. I wasn't able to get that during my first playthrough, but there are guides specifically on it. From the moment you get Rise, you need to get her to have 250 lines of dialogue, while there should be over 400 lines specifically for her dialogue in the game, not including scans, because it sounds like the non-text dialogue about scans won't count (however, hearing their elemental weaknesses will count, and there's quotes for each character). I'll link the guide for it in case you haven't seen it.
https://www.gamefaqs.com/vi...

On topic, I think there's some mis-reporting or missed details on this issue. This is just a game mechanic - one which requires you to play through the game three times, find the guy who actually sells them (secret shop), only allows trophies #20-47 to be bought (the others aren't all natural progress unlocks and still are apparently still difficult), and these could potentially even be connected to other in-game related unlocks (though I'm not positive on that one factor just yet).

That said, I don't personally see any issue for this. There are plenty of other games that have very similar (or more subjectively concerning) features which people aren't raising any fuss over. Other RPGs out there have microtransactions where you can purchase DLCs that provide overpowered weapons, armor, or even level boosts which sometimes result in trophies. Those also make killing anything a total faceroll - thus eliminating the challenge and allowing hard bosses that reward trophies to be done with little to no effort. Or even in shooters, there have been microtransactions for shortcut packs which unlock all the weapons and items in a class (which sometimes also unlock trophies). The Lego games' only real challenge is fighting the oftentimes glitchy trophies, and they too require you to perform in-game purchases which instantly unlock trophies, including purchasing cheats (red bricks) which are required to unlock some trophies.

So seeing that there's a decent amount of instances with this kind of design already in existence, I think a number of the people disappointed with this situation may not have been aware of the full context. There's a number of games that are literally impossible to 100% complete now due to various factors - online systems taken down entirely, certain bugs within the game that prevent it, or a lack of people on online/co-op servers you can even manage to play with anymore. If there was an alternative solution to get those trophies working, I think a lot of trophy hunters would appreciate that. I'm not suggesting that every game has this feature, or that this is the best implementation of it, but I also don't think it's anything to get worked up about at the moment. Video below is of the actual shop in use, expect potential spoilers: https://youtu.be/QEuQ7kdIWH...

[feraldrgn]

Even without real money, that has to be the worst use of Trophies I've seen.
Before Trophies we had self-accomplishment. After Trophies we had leaderboard competition, listed self-accomplishment & an extra layer of OCD.
You aid in the ridding of the OCD, but you make those Trophies even more worthless than they arguably already are.

You may as well not include Trophies in your game if you're willing to sell them for in-game money.
It also means Trophy hunters will question whether you actually passed the challenges to get the Platinum or if you just bought it.

[Klonoa-dreamtraveler]

if they are serious in doing this they should at least make some kind of indication on the trophy if it was earned or bought. that way the intimidated will still be intimidated to buy it and look like they took the easy way on a silver platter.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

I realize its not real money...but this 100% kills the validity of rare trophies in this game if you can just grind through long enough and buy them via ingame money. The whole point of rare trophies/acheivements is they are not easy to get. I am kinda shocked Sony allowed this to be done.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

What validity did trophies have before? As someone who 'completes' games, I never really seen any value in a Plat.

[Gwiz]

Me neither,you used to get items or different modes when you played a game very well.
Now they've locked it behind a paywall and give you pictures of trophies to make you feel better.

Trophies have given a false sense of value while achievable content has given the industry real value ($).
We lose (well those holding value to trophies that is) the real value.

[rainslacker]

Why does it matter? Does it take away one's achievement of getting a trophy the normal way if someone else pays for it?

The value of a trophy lies solely in one's personal feelings for the trophy itself, and if other people devalue the trophy system because of something like this, then it still shouldn't matter to one on an individual level unless them hunting for trophies is merely a way to boast some sort of social status. If that's the case, then they probably won't care about this either, and will proudly sport their platinum for nier right next to their Hanna Montana plat.

[GrizToof]

Way to make trophies pointless. Really looking forward to this game but not really happy about that. Next thing we will find out they censored the game for us westerners.

[mogwaii]

This would have been an all time low.

[Hendog1981]

Wow........ just wow...... pathetic and probably soon the norm.

[Sm3000]

Kinda zaps the whole reason to earn a trophy. Can you buy trophies in real life instead of earning them? Not to my knowledge so it shouldn't be any different here as well

[Majin-vegeta]

Honestly if you buy a trophy it should have a little $ symbol next to it.That way we know who to laugh at😂

[Mr Marvel]

If the title is misleading then either change it or f**king DELETE IT!

[Dan_scruggs]

Never let the truth get in the way of a good headline I always say.

[Silly gameAr]

Get them clicks.

[MagicBeanz]

Don't care for it myself but its not going to stop the world from spinning so we'll all be ok.

[Jimneous]

I'm not against something like this as a whole. I think it would be particularly useful for those games that have multiplayer trophies but little to no online presence, or if the servers for those games no longer exist. Though I think being able to complete the trophy objectives in a private lobby filled with bots would be preferable, then you still have to earn them.

[guyjean]

See Admin note. Understandable that loser sites are going for click bait titles, but it's at the third playthrough and requires a lot of ingame currency. This system is way better than those games that force you to play games on hard, nightmare, new game plus normal, new game plus nightmare and all that crap to get a platinum trophy.

[link2Dpast]

Oh man, I was gonna definitely give my to sense on this but it's a misleading title so......I'll still give my to sense lol. I wouldn't be surprised though if they ever actually gave they ability to buy trophies how popular that would be, I mean people are supporting these new upgraded systems which I just can fathom why people are. Why not just make a whole new system, it's small upgrades that are being sold for brand new system price. It's like when people complain of games being half made and the rest of the game is on disk DLC, frustrating right. Well to me this whole idea of with the systems is the same, a time will eventually come where we are in someway forced to buy these "new upgraded systems" . Unless the upgraded system is like what there doing with the switch, it's basically the wiiU but better, at least there new things to it, new capabilities, Unlike the pro which is basically giving you 4K and is the only difference for the consumer