Has my trophy addiction officially gone too far?
While not nearly as smooth as what’s able to be done on opposing platforms, the PlayStation 5 has been seeing its own fair share of upgrades to last-gen games. As someone with a crippling addiction to PSN Trophies, however, a problem I often stumble upon is deciding which version of a game to prioritize playing through.
Alright, so right off the bat I do want to acknowledge how niche of an issue this is and I understand that the majority of people really couldn’t care less at the end of the day, but roll with me here.
With that said, for those unsaddled by these problems, it’s worth noting that when making the upgrade to a current-gen version of a game (and going through a cumbersome save-data transfer) you’ll see a number of your various achievements pop in the corner of the screen. This indicates that not only did you receive these meaningless shiny goblets on the PS4 version of a title, but also on a separate PS5 listing on your profile.
It’s easy, quick, and it’ll power you through those PSN levels in no time. The issue I’m having however is if I’ve already started the PS4 release of say Final Fantasy VII Remake and want to do another playthrough on the free upgraded release, I’m going to have to toss away that old list of trophies like yesterday’s jam and move on with my new SSD powered partner.
As a result I’m finding myself never actually playing the shiny new PS5 games, rather I’ll run that PS4 copy into the ground, grinding every last trophy before sending my save game over and automatically popping a duplicate of each achievement.
I’m never actually playing that “Definitive” version, instead, all my hours are being put into a lesser experience, one that makes little use of the investment in a new console.
There are some games doing it right, Final Fantasy for example has a new expansion available exclusively on the newer console and encourages dipping back into the main game for a couple of treats. Here, I’m getting the best of both worlds and incentivized to keep playing this new, shiny copy of a game I love with additional rewards.
It isn’t the most elegant solution, but at the very least I’m encouraged to put in some time and appreciate a more refined version of a title I’ve stuck with.
Fascinatingly, this wasn’t so much of an issue with PS3 to PS4 games all those years ago. Rather what was most often the case back then was both titles were completely separate with no progress carry-over whatsoever. In a selfish way I almost kind of preferred it, this meant that if I enjoyed the PS3 release there was a shinier version waiting for me to tackle in a few years when I got the itch to replay Life is Strange or Sound Shapes.
Alright, rant over.
Let me know what you think! Are improvements in current-gen rereleases negligible enough to warrant sticking with the PS4 versions? Or have I let my trophy-popping habit go a little too far?