Platinum Trophy #24: Guacamelee! 2
Date Earned: 18th November 2020
Dopamine Index:
You don’t often hear the Guacamelee series come up in conversations about the best Metroidvania games nowadays, but I really think it deserves that recognition.
I love both of these silly luchador adventures. They’re both so tightly designed, controls are smooth, and the level of challenge feels just right.
The only thing I think you can really say against them is that maybe some of the humour has aged a little, but there are so few games doing this sort of Saturday morning cartoon style that I think they can get away with it.
I reviewed the sequel, and even though it treads familiar ground to the first, the additions it does make are smart and expand things just enough without overcomplicating the action. It’s a great game.
Guacamelee 2 released back in August 2018, and once the review was done I largely forgot about it, such is the relentless march of what comes next when you’re in a job like this.
I got the vast majority of the game’s Trophies while playing it for the site; I probably could’ve gotten the platinum much sooner, but I moved on and that was that.
It wasn’t until over two years later that I returned to the game to polish off the Trophy list.
Any keen followers of Going Platinum should know I don’t make a habit of replaying games these days, and one of the few Trophies I had left over was to beat the game on Hard difficulty. In other words, play it again, but everything’s tougher.
Another thing to know about me: I’m a Normal difficulty man. Playing anything on harder difficulties just isn’t my style. I can’t think of another example of going beyond the standard. Actually, I can think of one, but that’s for another time.
Anyway, the reason I went back to Guacamelee 2 was partly for science, and partly for Trophies.
Sony had recently introduced the new Trophy level system, and I had it in my head that I could test out how much a platinum would bump up my level, to try and understand the value.
The reality is that was a pretty thinly veiled excuse to add another one to my collection. For this so-called experiment I remember going through my past games looking for a near-complete Trophy list. Guacamelee 2 was the best I could do.
But yes, it would mean playing through the entire game again on Hard mode, as well as picking up one or two other stragglers along the way.
I suppose I thought it’d be worth it if I could learn about the Trophy values in the new leveling system while I was at it.
What really happened is that I learned almost nothing about that, and instead just fell in love with the game all over again.
I love the vivid art style, the wacky characters, the snappy combat, the range of abilities you unlock — it’s honestly one of my favourite Metroidvanias I’ve played.
What’s funny is I don’t remember it being that much more difficult on Hard? I mean I had played it already but that was years ago. There must’ve been some pain points but I can’t think of any.
That’s the best, though, isn’t it? I was expecting Hard difficulty to be a more gruelling experience, but instead I just come away from Guacamelee 2 with so much fondness.
Cheers, Guacamelee 2.
Do you have the platinum Trophy for Guacamelee 2? Tell us in the comments section below.
