Trophies may not be for everyone, but for me and many others Trophy hunting is fun method of achieving that sweet, sweet 100% completion on a game. A much-deserved prize for doing everything there is to do. Lots of games have easy requirements for Platinum Trophies, and often certain quests or challenges associated with them will reward you with cool stuff for going the extra mile. But while collecting Trophies is mostly a lot of fun, sometimes one comes along that makes us question our choices in life. To those we say, “F This Trophy”.
This week’s ‘F this Trophy’ is the DMW Master Trophy from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion. The DMW is a strange slot machine-style mechanic that constantly ticks over during battles, its three reels displaying the faces of characters you have met across the story. When those reels align and display three of the same character, it triggers a Limit Break; a powerful ability associated with that character.
The DMW Master Trophy requires you to achieve 100% completion for each of the 18 Limit Breaks in the game. Now you might be saying ‘Hey, Jada, that doesn’t sound so bad – Limit Breaks are awesome! Channeling Sephiroth’s Octaslash, Aerith’s Healing Wave, and all the other character’s special abilities in battle can help turn the tide, so you want to use them whenever possible.’
Yes, this is true. But in the case of this Trophy, I’m not chasing the actual limit breaks. I already have all 18 of them. Instead, I need to unlock each and every flashback memory associated with each Limit Break. These are cutscenes that trigger in the middle of the battle and call back to prior moments in the story. They’re kind of annoying as they slow down the action in a battle, which is a sin on its own, but that’s not what we are talking about today. The issue with this Trophy is that progress, rather than being awarded based on skill, time, or effort, is awarded based on random LUCK.
Each of the 18 Limit Breaks have six unique memories, but there’s no way of triggering specific ones. These memories are pulled from the story you have already witnessed, so you first must put in the work and complete the whole game to ensure that the DMW system can call on every single memory. But after that, it’s entirely out of your hands: the DMW rolls Limit Breaks at random, and then it will choose one of the memories at random. So to hit 100% completion on the DMW, you… just have to keep playing until it happens.
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You can improve your odds to some degree. The Limit Break system is based on Luck; not just the real-world concept, but the in-game stat, too. Specialized materia and equipment you can equip to boost your Luck does help, but you are still ultimately at the mercy of unpredictable RNG.
Now I know there are a lot of people who may have better luck than me when it comes to this Trophy, but it took me 12 hours (12 hours!) to get it. I hit a point where I only needed two more flashback memories to get the Trophy, and so I left my game running in a level one mission, letting enemies shoot me in the face, in the hope that the right Limit Breaks and the right memories would roll up on the DMW. I left for a birthday party, went out for dinner, came home, played a couple of missions of Mario Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, and then picked Crisis Core back up. I still hadn’t gotten the two final flashbacks I needed. Like, what the hell?
You may ask what made this Trophy worth getting. Well, aside from being one more Trophy closer to the Platinum, DMW Master also unlocks the Genji Armor, which happens to be one of the best pieces of gear ever dispensed by a glorified slot machine.
Before any of you in the comments come for me saying that you got this Trophy faster or easier, I’m happy that you didn’t have as many issues as I did. I love Final Fantasy games and have been asking for a Crisis Core remake since the PS4 released. It is still one of my favorite PSP games of all times. And I’m sure some in the comments will say I just didnt know what I was doing. But this is my second time going through the game, I had maxed out Luck, was optimized with two mastered materias for Cissnei to increase the chances of my slots lining up, and had mastered materias to improve the odds of getting the character Limit Breaks I needed to show up. Just keep in mind the real kicker is that even if the DMW triggers a Limit Break, there is no guarantee you get a flashback, and then if you do get a flashback, there’s no guarantee it’s the one you need.
So F This Trophy, Crisis Core, and F random number generators.