If you had asked me sixteen years ago, when PlayStation launched its trophies system, did I ever see myself sitting on a couch grinding out a rock, paper, scissors mini-game embodied by scantily clad Japanese women partaking in UFC-style combat to win ten tournaments (three rounds of “combat”) simply for a trophy, I would have looked at you with great confusion before returning to Assassin’s Creed. I never imagined myself playing a game with mini-games even remotely matching that description, yet alone grinding out one of these new-fangled “trophies” while playing one.
Now, I didn’t really grow up on traditional Japanese games; I loved Kingdom Hearts and Pokémon, but I never played Final Fantasy, or Castlevania, or Mega Man, or Dragon Quest. I cut my teeth on Spyro, Crash, The Sims, heck, even those Tonka Construction PC games! But the quirkiness of Japanese games was not something I was familiar with, nor was the grinding. My first exposure to grinding came through World of Warcraft, grinding for gear and reputation. But when Blizzard introduced their own achievement system in World of Warcraft, just a few months after PlayStation implemented trophies, I didn’t care then, either.
I always enjoyed seeing trophies pop up in a game; it was nice hearing that ding sound, indicating that I have done something cool or gotten to a certain point in a game, but it never meant anything more to me at that point. But, as I grew older, I found that there was something enjoyable about trophies, almost like they meant you had a special love for the game when you got them all. The first game that I ever got the platinum trophy for was (and this will be no surprise to Seasoned Gaming regulars) Dragon Age: Inquisition, my favorite franchise. And that was it for years, until Assassin’s Creed: Origins. Then came Spider-Man. Then Horizon: Zero Dawn. Then Spyro (the Reignited Trilogy remake). And on, and on, and on.
I began to really love getting platinum trophies in games I loved, but I refused to put an excessive amount of time into the grind. I started playing Yakuza in December 2017, beginning with 0. I did one a year for a few years because they’re so long and heavy, but, eventually, that became two a year in an attempt to maybe catch up someday. However, I was not focused on the trophies, just the story and the characters, until I finally hit Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (GOAT title, I think we can all agree). They had nerfed the difficulty of getting the platinum trophy, after all these years! A series that, by 2023, I had fallen in love with, finally gave me a break to get a platinum! So, of course I went for it, and I got it, satisfied. Yakuza: Like a Dragon was next, which wasn’t quite as easy as 6 but still lacking the grind of the previous titles, so I wasn’t thinking that maybe I can get these platinums in the future because they’re making them easier.
Then came Judgment. I had ignored Judgment because they weren’t connected to the main series, really, until 2023’s Like a Dragon: Gaiden – The Man Who Erased His Name released (also, come on, GOAT title!). But knowing they were connected, I decided to play. I checked out the trophy list and I saw…it’s back to the grind of yesteryear! I couldn’t believe it; I thought we had moved past this! But, alas, I was wrong.
‘I don’t have time for this.’ ‘I don’t know how to play Shogi, or Koi-koi, or MAHJONG!’ ‘Classic arcade and fighting games?! I hate arcade games; they’re boring and not fun, and I’m not good at them!’ ‘I can’t do this; I’ll just play the story and move on, like before.’ I thought all of these things upon realizing the monumental task that laid before me. But then, I dabbled. I dabbled in fighting games. I dabbled in Shogi. I dabbled in Mahjong. And I realized, ‘Hey, these aren’t so bad (except arcade and fighting games, I hate them and will always hate them forever)!
Having come to that realization, I started playing them. I began to learn Shogi, that’s it’s Japanese chess with some interesting twists. I never got very good, but I managed to understand how to play, and I checked them off the completion list. I grinded my way through those awful arcade games, like Outrun, and I beat the secret boss in Virtua Fighter 5. I even conquered Mahjong and learned to love it to the point where I’m a member of a local Riichi Mahjong Discord server and have played in-person.
This ridiculous game universe, where you play as two different ex-Yakuza and an ex-lawyer (primarily), in all manner of absurd scenarios, convinced me to learn traditional Japanese and Eastern gambling games just because I wanted to hear a pretty, little ding. I spent hours in fighting games that I can’t stand to reach 100% completion, all so I could watch a digital icon pop up on my screen and have a record that I did it.
I truly love this franchise. I think that they are creative games, and they’re fun with amazing stories, plots, and characters. I love encouraging other people to play, and I have bought copies of 0 a half dozen times for friends so they can play and experience the incredible game. One of the people I have done that for has become a big fan, but he’s a completionist, and he decided from the very beginning to 100% these games. He’s done 0 – Kiwami 2 thus far, and he’s working on 3 Remastered. After Lost Judgment’s platinum, he encouraged me to go back and get 0’s platinum done. I was hesitant, at first, but I thought it over. And I did some research on the requirements and what I had left, and I decided to do it.
Yakuza 0’s platinum trophy is brutal. It has missable story trophies, a requirement to play the game on the hardest difficulty without New Game+, and “Climax Battles” (extremely tough and/or annoying battles outside of the game). I had done 50% of the completion list in the game six years ago, but none of the other things. So, I buckled in for a grind, and, slowly but surely, I got the missable trophies, I got the Legend playthrough done, and I beat the Climax Battles. All that remained was the completion list and various trophies from minigames.
So here we are, in 2024, when, as an adult now, I have less “playtime” than ever before, and I find myself sitting on a couch grinding out a rock, paper, scissors mini-game embodied by scantily clad Japanese women partaking in UFC-style combat to win ten tournaments, simply for a trophy. ‘Why am I doing this?’ I ask myself. And, after a moment’s reflection, I knew the answer. Because I love these games, and I love these trophies. I love what they represent: a pure adoration of these games, not despite the grind, but because of the grind. I’m forced to spend so much time looking at the back of Kiryu, or Yagami, or Ichiban’s head, seeing the world as these characters, and it endears them and the world to me. I love the dedication and challenge of learning obscure Eastern gambling games and coming out on the other side as a huge fan of them. And, yes, I even love the totally random chance mini-games, like the Japan Catfight Club because…sometimes, you just need something to do while you’re listening to the Bitcast.
