Game played: The Adventures of Elliot (PS5)

Today is technically a holiday, but not one I have ever been excited for. I once had fireworks as a teen and was bored, so I started burying them and lighting the fuse, blowing holes in the dirt until a stray rock flew into my face and JUST missed my eye. Fireworks aren’t more fun than having stable vision, so I quit that action fast. I also used to live in a trailer park just on the other side of the 5 freeway in Orange County, by Disneyland. Depending on the wind direction, their nightly fireworks would rain down ash all over us. The charred sulfur ash and the smell made me feel like I was living in some post-apocalyptic world, but I was just living in capitalist America.

I started my day with some Elliot. I did make more story progress, fighting my way through new spaces and confronting more bosses. Business as usual. I started to feel fine on my main route path, not worrying much about min/maxing side quests and items, and thought today might be the day that I see those end credits. But then, a small message appeared on the side of the screen. It stated, “Certain quests will soon become incompletable.” What the fuck?! What sick world was I trapped in? I was doing so well, breaking compulsive habits and just enjoying the game, now I was being taunted with a warning of missing content? There was only one thing I could do… Compulsively complete all the side content and quests I could to be sure I didn’t miss anything or lock myself out of that potential platinum trophy.

Luckily enough, there were only two quests I needed to complete that were available to me, and only one would have been locked out after passing the potential point of no return. So I knocked that out, got a few more cats and health shared, then got back on that main route towards the end. I knew I was onto something good when I came across a new and even lower level to the northern dungeon, with four other elevators that descended into a Mega Man-style boss rush. This is pure endgame design. Because I have so many health points and all the best weapons, I blasted through these fools again, making easy work of this barrier to the final boss.

I did do a bit of reading to make sure I was safe with a few save files, so I could stay on track for the platinum trophy. The game has a couple of endings, and if you do them in order, you’re safe to keep plugging away and not be stuck having to do a completely new play-through to finish it all off, as long as you’ve done all the side quests up to this point. Which I have.

After all this, I slayed the “final” boss pretty easily, and then I progressed to the point where I acquired a new and potentially final ability that lets me travel to the last few locations on each map. This is where I can do that final “finish everything” stage and then complete the last fight two more times to get these endings. I will say that, at 17 hours of playtime to this point, I am still not feeling fatigue or boredom. I am still skipping most cutscenes, but the gameplay is still engaging and quick, and I am happily completing this all 100%. I will likely be wrapping it all up on my next session, and then on to something new.