The original Oxenfrey had a boring platinum, symbolized by a trophy that required the player to finish the game without saying anything. At best it was dull, at worst it was full of bugs. Oxenfree 2‘s trophy list is surprisingly even more cumbersome. However, rather than pointing out problems specific to this franchise, it represents a broader trend of annoying platinums in story-driven adventure games.
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Alex seemed lost until the end of time. 2016’s Oxenfrey had a darker side…
These platinums are a problem mainly because replaying titles of this kind is very tedious and often requires several playthroughs. As the Resident Evil 4 remake and Dead Space remake show, replaying the game for trophies isn’t a bad proposition, but it can happen in this genre. Dialogues and cutscenes are often unskippable, and walking speeds are usually incredibly slow. Having to go from part of the story to part of the story and hear most of the same dialogue again means trophy-related replays aren’t smooth. It takes him a very long time just to get one of his collectibles.
Oxenfrey 2 also falls into this trap, as Riley’s movement speed is slow and there is no way to break through anything. The player again hears about Jacob’s fears and must scale the same rope with little facilitation. If every game had a limit like this, and a player had to hit the credits at least twice, his hunting for trophies would become even more of a hassle.
Supermassive Games’ title had the same problem, devising multiple trophies to encourage another play or two, as well as forcing players to watch the same scene over and over again. This approach does nothing for the genre as it points out how it is often limited. Games like The Dark Pictures Anthology and Oxenfree pride themselves on diversity, but often don’t make much of a difference on your second playthrough.
Oxenfree 2 has several branching points, but many of the choices presented to the player are related to how to interact with Jacob. Some lines are different, but that’s not too distracting from how similar the rest are. Few games are this unique every time, and a look at the list of trophies shouldn’t reveal that any more.
Oxenfree 2 also has a lot of very specific and easy-to-miss trophies. Pinging Evelyn or not tuning into Maria’s radio station per transmitter to unlock the ‘Food Friends at 3am’ and ‘Merry Scary Christmas’ trophies for specific conversations in two scenarios It’s easy to forget to even select a choice. The Supermassive title is rotten with these kinds of trophies, but it doesn’t do much better here. Guessing how to trigger certain events or sticking to guides isn’t the most ideal way to play these games either. Especially when ignorance or failure can force you to the next game.
Detroit: Become Human also has some scene-dependent trophies, and 1979: The Revolution requires players not to miss a single quick-time event, but these games include Oxenfree 2 and Unlike, it at least has a chapter selection feature that makes it less frustrating. For some inexplicable reason, this sequel doesn’t allow you to skip and mop up collectibles or earn the aforementioned missable trophies. Even the final autosave of the game does not allow the player to choose any other ending. Anyone who didn’t back up their saves just prior to that selection is completely out of luck.
However, there are some narrative adventure games with more descriptive trophy lists. In the Life is Strange series, not only can players skip, but each entry also has a collector mode that allows you to skip the story and easily access collectibles. Telltale Games also takes the easy road and rewards players with platinum for reaching the end, with a few exceptions. Not all narrative titles like this have to be so simple, but it also shows that less messy ways are possible.
Games like Until Dawn, The Quarry, New Tales from the Borderlands, Heavy Rain, Last Stop, Beyond: Two Souls, and The Medium all suffer from many of the aforementioned problems. , Oxenfree 2 remains one of the most hostile games for completionists. Compared to many similar genres. Its glacial travel speed, inability for players to skip dialogue, near-identical events, lack of chapter selection, and highly specific and very easy-to-miss trophies make it a real chore to beat. PS5 also has one trophy that is completely buggy (What Night School Studio Knows), but that’s not the biggest problem. Its biggest problem is that it’s a multifaceted pain to clear, as it succinctly illustrates the genre’s trophy-related struggles.
