I reviewed Sword Art Online: Lost Song last week and obtained the Platinum Trophy for the game just a few days after. Parts of Lost Song were fun, but it lacked depth, and the repetitive dungeons and bosses were tedious. For those of you still interested in pursuing platinum, here is a guide to help you minimize your frustration.
First of all, feel free to play on easy difficulty if you’re just interested in blazing through it, seeing the story and getting all the Trophies, as there is no Trophy associated with the difficulty setting. There are 43 Trophies in total: 23 Bronze, 18 Silver, one Gold, and of course, the coveted Platinum, all of which took me about 40 hours to complete. Here are some of the simpler ones, which I won’t cover in much depth:
- 13 can be earned from completing all of the story quests.
- You’ll kill 1000 enemies by just completing the story as well.
- Create and include a custom character in your party (you can create custom characters after completing the first area of the story).
- Let your main character die, and let an ally die in order to resurrect them to pick up two more Trophies (if you’re struggling because your team member is quick to resurrect, go out with a single other weak person. Asuna has a resurrect spell).
- Complete one side quest, which you will do as part of the story.
- Kill five enemies at a time. Chances are, you’ll pick this one up without trying. If you’re struggling, group up a bunch of lower level enemies in the field. If you’re still low level yourself, you’ll probably need to soften them up with weak attacks. Finish with an AOE sword skill, like Kirito’s Final Revolution.
Players can earn five Trophies for developing “deeper bonds” with some female team members. Keep an eye out for event markers in town and in the shops. Completing a few quests and defeating a boss with each of these characters earns you a Trophy: Leafa, Silica, Sinon, Asuna and Lisbeth.
Taking almost all of the girls on a date to the festival will earn you another Trophy. This event quest can be picked up in installments in the smithy, so be sure to start checking there in between your main story adventures. Send Kirito on three dates per night, because players gotta play.
Complete side quests with the following group compositions for four more Trophies: one quest with Kirito & Asuna/ one quest with Kirito, Klein & Agil/ one quest with Silica, Lisbeth & Leafa/ 10 quests (you can also do extra or multiplayer quests) as any solo player. If you’re just going for speed, and you have plenty of weapon improvement items, turn them into complete gathering quests with those parties.
Complete each of those while working towards 100 side quests. Again, gathering quests are easiest and quickest, but pick up hunt quests for the area you’re in. You’re going to be killing the enemies anyway, so you might as well get the extra rewards for it. This helps you level, earn Yuild, and get some gear and consumables.
For the Weapon and Accessory Collector Trophies, save one copy of every weapon (shields don’t count) and accessory you pick up. I didn’t get these Trophies until post-game, where many of the extra quests offer gear rewards, and Agil’s shop stocks more items as well. Once you’ve gotten the 1 million Yuild (currency) Trophy, feel free to buy any items you haven’t picked up yet to speed up your progress. If you need extra gold, go for the extra quest which pits you against dozens of mimics, each giving you 10,000 Yuild or more.
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Another Trophy is earned for adding Sumeragi to your team. You can recruit the aloof protector by speaking to him in the Woglinde area in the post-game. Other unlockable characters include Seven, Black Lotus, and Lux. You can add Seven by following her quest post-game. Add Black Lotus to your roster by following Strea’s extra quest (you will battle Black Lotus, and she will probably decimate you, but you don’t need to win to get her). For Lux, form a group with Leafa, Lisbeth and Silica, and go speak to Undine in town in the post-game. Proceed to Vid’s dungeon in Woglinde (all destinations should be marked if you have the right party composition). You will have to fight some level 400 enemies to save Lux, but I hadn’t leveled any of the three and still managed to squeak through it. Another Trophy that will have to wait for post-game is obtaining Excalibur.
The sword of kings can be found in the extra quest [search] Abandoned Tunnel, which is made available after completing Seven’s questline and defeating Lost Song. The blade is the reward for defeating the last boss in the tough search quest. Don’t be alarmed if you don’t see the name Excalibur or when the Trophy doesn’t pop right away. You still need to go identify the weapon in the smithy.
One of the longer grind hidden Trophies requires players to raise the Original Sword Skills of Asuna, Yuuki, Rain, and Sumeragi to level 100. Asuna’s & Yuuki’s skills are obtained first. Yuuki has low MP, and a single use of OSS costs 2000. You may have to level her before even being able to use it. Equip a ring for added MP. Bring lots of MP pots and remove all other skills when leveling these. Skills level slowly, but this Trophy can be combined with a few others to prevent overly excessive grinding.
Work on the OSS Trophy while building towards Skill Maniac, which requires you to have a character at level 400, also with every weapon class at 400. I was playing as Kirito, leveling each of his weapon classes, while having two of the OSS characters as my teammates. It is also fairly easy to pick up two more Trophies while leveling these. Raise your sword skill to 500 while working on the weapon proficiencies for Skill Maniac, and raise a magic skill to 500 on one of your other most frequent played characters. Absolutely do not try to raise an OSS to 500, as they take massive amounts of experience to level. I used Kirito’s Final Revolution as the sword skill, and achieved level 500 while raising the dual sword skill to 400. Asuna’s Ice Bullet served as my level 500 magic, because she has it from the start of the game and you need her in your party for her OSS anyway.
If you’re using extra quest boss fights to work on these (which I recommend), bring some extra mana crystals so your NPCs can fire off as many OSS attacks as they can: find a boss with high defense that you don’t have trouble with. You need 100 extra or multiplayer quests anyway, so you can knock out several of the toughest Trophies all at once. Try to pick enemies with a high level, as they help skills raise more quickly. High health and easily dodged attacks are two more features to look for (I used the scythe boss Thiazi a lot).
While you’re working on your 100 quests, be sure to pick up the one gold Trophy, Super Player. It is earned for a flawless victory over an extra quest boss. It is easiest to wait until end-game and replay Fafnir, the first boss Kirito and crew faced in the main story. He was tough then, but you can take him out with one sword skill later. If you finish leveling the OSS, Skill Maniac Trophies before you get your 100 extra quests, just keep running Fafnir until you’re done. If you’re really bored, you can set two characters you’re trying to raise as your teammates, go into an extra quest, and proceed to watch some TV. Even if you die, skills are retained!
Feel free to comment below if you have a question about any of the trophies or quests in the game. The next installment in the series, entitled Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, is planned for launch next year. Hollow Realization has already had some details released, which you can check out on PSU here.