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Member of the Month - January 2014


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To start off 2014 our January MotM that may have flown under the radar for some people but has been on the Staff radar for sometime, he's become something of a fixture in the forums for various Japanese games e.g. Tails of Xillia, Tales of Vesperia, The Idolm@ster 2 etc. but is best known for some of the most in depth Japanese Guides and Supplements we've ever seen e.g.: Tales of Vesperia ~ Appendix, The Idolm@ster 2 etc.

 

Without further ado I give you AppleKratue!

 

Can you tell us a bit more about the person behind the PSN ID?

 

My name is Christian and I'm 25 years old. I live in Germany and work as a software engineer. Besides gaming, I like to swim, read Mangas and watch animes.

 

The PSN ID is put together of the two words Apple and Kratü which are my nickname and my girlfriend's nickname. Her's is derived from Kratos Aurion from Tales of Symphonia, one of her favourite characters. I call myself Apple because I eat them a lot (and I really mean a lot, more than one a day is no rarity) and apples were my primary school food. Everyone had their breads and I had my apples :). PSN doesn't allow the German letter ü so we used –ue as this is the alternative writing for ü in the German language.

 

What sort of setup do you have going back home for your gaming?

 

I have a standard 42" HDTV, nothing fancy. Connected game consoles are the Wii, Wii U, PS2 and of course the good old phat 80gb PS3. Not permanently connected are older consoles like N64 or SNES so lot of gaming systems to choose from :D.

 

How long have you been gaming and what made you decide PlayStation as your gaming companion?

 

My first contact with the gaming world was at the age of 4 when I played Excitebike and Super Mario Bros. 2 on my Grandpa's NES. I remember that I knew everything perfectly until the first Birdo battle but I couldn't figure out how to defeat Birdo at that time :(.

 

Years later, Pokémon was in among the kids and everyone had a GameBoy. It took a long time until my brother and I convinced our parents to buy one but we eventually did it so the first consoles we owned were the GameBoy Colour and the N64. Nintendo's GameCube from the generation afterwards was still my main and only system but then a miracle happened. I found out that not only there are games which aren't released in Europe but also that Tales of Symphonia, a really awesome RPG, belongs to a series whose all other titles are on PS2 though not available in Europe. That was when I began importing with F-Zero Climax being my first imported game in 2005. I eventually bought a Japanese PS2 and other Tales games.

 

For the next generation the PS3 wasn't my primary choice. Anyone remember that $599 fiasco and that you need to work hard to be able to buy a PS3? Besides, all the cool games got released on 360 in the beginning of the generation so there wasn't a need for the PS3. Sony got their act together though eventually and became the primary RPG system again. Besides, Nintendo was lacking with the Wii compared to previous generations. While there are truly great masterpieces like Super Mario Galaxy, it was disappointing overall. Anyway, in 2009 Tales of Vesperia was about to be released on PS3 so it was time to finally buy one with Metal Gear Solid 4 and Valkyria Chronicles as my first games. Catching up with old games and constantly newly released games kept me busy with the PS3 until today but I also continue to play the other systems as well. In the end, it all depends on the games and which system you need to play them :).

 

What was the last game you bought, and what's the next one you're looking forward to?

 

Does pre-ordering a game count :p? I pre-ordered the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD remaster recently but only because I listened to the HD Remaster soundtrack and it brought back good memories. Originally I wasn't interested in it but now I am ready to play this again, dodging those lightning strikes will be no fun though :D.

 

The next game I am looking forward to is Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Returns. The changes to the battle system look really interesting and it could even top the previous two which were already excellent to play. Another game is Tales of Symphonia Chronicles. Although I am currently playing the Japanese version of it, I am looking forward to the European version as well because this is the game that started my love for the series and it will be great to play it again.

 

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/images/screenshots/1700/med_Event_49.jpg

 

If you had the chance to improve the PlayStation and/or PSN store, what one thing would you like to see implemented?

 

Well, the new PSN store got mentioned a lot already at this point and bringing back the old search function is probably what we all wish. I'd like to have Sony fix the account system on the Vita though as being limited to just one account is beyond stupid and the whole procedure to change the account is not very customer friendly.

 

If you could add one title to the PSN store from any gaming system past or present what would it be?

 

Definitely Rez HD. It is available on Xbox 360 and I don't understand why it's not available in the PSN store especially since its sequel, Child of Eden, is available on both systems. I bought it years ago but it's on my brother's 360, so I can only play this game whenever I visit him. This is actually a running gag as he always asks me to finally get that 200/200 GS :p.

 

For the people who don't know, what's stopping you from getting the 100% in Rez HD?

 

There is actually a simple reason for that. The game came out 6 years ago and I wasn't into achievements then, one achievement requires you to defeat 95% enemies in each area and I think getting this in Area 5 is pretty hard. The boss rush mode achievement is dependant on this so I haven't achieved that either.

 

What would you say was your proudest platinum and why?

 

That would be BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. Back then I was less experienced with fighting games than I am today and doing random stuff for the character trophies, beating arcade mode on highest difficulty and beating the score attack mode was very hard. The second controller trick for score attack was handy to not to have to start again from the beginning but annoying to keep track of the opponent's health. Actually my girlfriend beat the last opponent, I was sitting there for hours when she came in and said: Let me do this! She then button smashed and beat him with the first try. Well, good job.

 

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/images/trophies/168/02.jpg

Edited by Terminator
Editorial Sweep.
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In Blazblue: CT, are you any good at using Jin and are you thinking of getting any of the other Blazblue games?

 

If you mean good in the sense of simple mode Jin ice riding across the stage, then yeah, I used him to beat the score attack mode and beating arcade mode on hell difficulty :p NII~SAN.

 

My favourite character to use is Taokaka though so you can watch me bouncing randomly all over the stage. Naturally with Calamity Trigger being so good, I bought all sequels though I wasn't lucky in getting the (P) in them due to the hard challenge mode in Continuum Shift and the randomness in getting all items in Abyss mode in Continuum Shift Extend. I even imported Chrono Phantasma already for the Rachel nendo because waiting in Europe for the fighting games takes too long. While NA gets the game in March, there has been no announcement for Europe.

 

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/images/screenshots/1313/med_4.jpg

 

Since you're a big "Tales of" fan (Xillia, Symphonia etc), what was the first game in that series you played and what do you think of the current games?

 

Tales of Symphonia on the GameCube was my first game in the series. It's awesome and I hope everyone buys Tales of Symphonia Chronicles here in February, especially if you have enjoyed the original and don't know the new extras yet.

 

The Tales series had an interesting turnaround this generation. While every PS2 Tales didn't come over to Europe, we have come so far that the newest entry, Tales of Zestiria, is announced for Europe at the same time as the game is revealed for Japan and for the future (Tales of Xillia 2 aside), you can even expect that they include the Japanese VA, which they now do for the first time with Tales of Symphonia Chronicles. For Tales fans that's really exciting.

 

The Tales series is a great series but each title in the current generation has some (minor) flaws. To understand this, you have to know a little bit history in the series. The Tales studio has been split in two teams during PS2 era i.e Team Destiny and Team Symphonia. Generally spoken, Team Destiny made games with the better battle systems and Team Symphonia made games with the better stories. For Tales of Xillia both teams basically got combined but due to the 15th series anniversary date, development was rushed. Now that they have more time for Tales of Zestiria, they have the opportunity to create the perfect Tales. Let's see how they'll do.

 

If I have to rate the four PS3 Tales, I think Tales of Xillia 2 is the best, followed by Vesperia, Graces f and Xillia 1. The order is temporary though as I want to fully experience Tales of Xillia 2 localized first. From what I saw in the Japanese version, the story is even better than in Tales of Xillia. All four are great games.

 

 

Which Final Fantasy game got you started in the franchise and which one is your favourite?

 

Time for the truth. I didn't grow up with Final Fantasy but I've always heard that they are great. My first Final Fantasy was Crystal Chronicles on GameCube, though it probably doesn't count as it is just a spin-off title. Great game though. Years later, I borrowed a PS1 and FF VII, FF VIII and FF IX all at once from a friend during one holiday because you always heard that FF VII is the best game ever. I made it to disc 3 in both FF VIII and FF IX but only ~2 hours in FF VII. All FF VII fans will hate me now but without having nostalgia I think this game is not good :p.

 

As for my favourite, that's a really tough question. Besides FF VIII and FF IX, I enjoyed FF X and the FF XIII games and it is hard to decide which one is the best. I pick FF X though simply because it was my first Final Fantasy game I actually finished.

 

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/images/screenshots/1184/med_dark_ifrit.jpg

 

If the end of the world was nigh and you had to grab three games/franchises to take with you to play out your final days to, what would they be?

 

It's very hard to choose just three games but I'd replay Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Metroid Prime and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask, simply because I consider these games to be the greatest games ever made and for the final days you should at least enjoy true greatness as long as you can.

 

How much of a certified trophy whore are you? Does the trophy list play any part in the decision to play or buy a game, or do you base that decision entirely on the game?

 

Trophies play no part in my plans whether to buy a game. The most important thing about games is to have fun, especially when your time is limited. I see trophies as an additional feature of a game but it is not the most important aspect. I try to earn as many as possible in my games but when it's becoming too much work, then there is clearly something wrong.

 

The best thing about trophies though is that you have basically a time line of the games you have played the last years. Browsing through it brings back good (and bad) memories. For the harder (P), you can still feel the accomplishment and the feeling "It was hard but I did it!".

 

What brought you to PS3T and what keeps you coming back?

 

I was lurking the site for months before I signed up but I cannot remember which game brought me to the site. The trophy guides are a huge help so I visited the site pretty often. I had a problem with a trophy in Arcana Heart 3 so I finally decided to sign up. After being registered for many months and using many guides, I thought to myself that I could give back to other people and write guides for games which don't have one. However, the selection of games I own but didn't have a guide yet was pretty small and basically Japanese games only. I was playing The idolm@ster 2 at that time so I chose that as my first guide.

 

Due to the nature of this game being Japanese, I figured additional information is required besides the regular trophy guide so I wrote an appendix with gameplay information and translations. The truth is I don't know much Japanese myself either so I know how it feels to get stuck. For the appendix I asked myself, what does anyone with no Japanese language knowledge needs to know to be able to Plat this game. This is the one question that I want to answer with my guides. I keep coming back to this site because of the awesome guides and the friends I have made over the years. This community is truly something special.

 

If you were an admin of PS3T for a day, what would you do and why?

 

Oh there would be many things I would do

  • Disable the chair smiley for Darth_Krid :devil:.
  • Implement a purple board theme because purple is awesome and it never hurts to have more options.
  • Post random mysterious rumour posts about the Awesome Mystery Award.
  • Hand out some custom user tags :devil:.

Any final words for the community?

 

I would like to thank the guide writers for their hard work so that we have to worry less about how to unlock certain trophies. A huge thank you also to the staff for their hard work they do every day. And last but not least thanks to all members who contribute with helpful posts to this forum to make PS3T an awesome community :applause:.

Edited by Terminator
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