I platinummed every Batman Arkham game on PS VITA

Hello everyone. I recently platinummed every Batman Arkham Game on the PSVITA and would like to talk about the experience.

Lets start with the first Arkham game released on VITA, 2013's Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate. A sort of sister game to Arkham Origins. Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate (which I'm just going to call BAOB for short) was initially released for the 3DS and VITA and has been ported to other PS4, XB1 and PC. Unlike other Arkham games, BAOB is a 2.5 side scrolling Metroidvania-type game. It has a sorta similar freeflow combat system and predator sections comparable to the console games. The premise of the game is that a few months after the events of Arkham Origins, a riot breaks out at Blackgate penitentiary. With Joker, Black Mask and Penguin taking control of different sections of the prison. Batman has to work with Catwoman (her first canonical appearance in the ArkhamVerse) and explore different sections of the prison to contain the situation.

The game really takes advantage of its metroidvania premise. Batman enters Blackgate with just the baterang and a basic Cryptographic Sequencer that can only hack the most basic looks. You must then explore the rest of the prison, going in between areas to collect the rest of Batman's gadgets (it's a little weird why Batman's gear is in various WayneTech crates scattered randomly all over the place but eh, you kinda need that for a Metroidvania) to overcome obstacles.

Batman's final goal is to reach the Arkham Wing of the prison. To this, he needs to take down the 3 main bosses, Joker, Black Mask and Penguin to gain access as Joker has the administration codes and has taken control of the Admin building. Black Mask has shut off the power to the Arkham Wing (and his tampering of the generators risks blowing up the place) and has taken control of the Industrial Section of Blackgate. Penguin has taken control of the Cell Blocks and is directly guarding the door to the Arkham Wing.

The main "gimmick" here is that you can tackle these bosses in any order you want. And the game changes depending on which order you choose. Like, the entire final sequence of the game is entirely different depending on which boss you did last. Doing Joker last has him rig these 5 gas filled presents you must disarm. And these presents are placed all over Blackgate. Doing Penguin last changes the ending sequence to needing to rescue 5 hostages guarded by elite minigun enemies that need to be taken out by the Batclaw. These hostages are in completely different areas to Joker's presents. Doing Black Mask last has the ending sequence consist of needing to get to 5 different junction boxes, "activating them", then racing to find the 3 panels they connect to nearby in a short amount of time to hit them with the explosive gel (I personally found this to be the most fun of the 3 ending sequences). These junction boxes are in different areas to the presents and hostages. The final cutscene is also different.

In addition, there are also more minor changes depending on your order. For example, saving Penguin for last has a mini-segment where when you are chasing him, he is able to lock Batman in a room and disperse some poison gas since he had more time to prepare traps for Batman as Batman was busy taking the other bosses down first.

The gameplay is also different but not in the way you expect. Like, the actual fights don't change depending on which order you do things in. Penguin will fight you the same way regardless of if he's the first or final boss you pick. But how you can fight him is different depending on which gadgets you picked up and when you choose to fight them.

Like, during my first playthrough of the game, I went after Penguin first and I found his boss fight extremely difficult. He packs these minigun wielding henchmen that can melt you if they see you. You cannot brute force or attack them like you can with other armed enemies. And there are no hiding spots so losing these alerted enemies is difficult. The only way to eliminate these enemies is to use the Batclaw on them but that takes a few seconds and alerts every enemy to you. If you get shot at while doing this, it deals heavy damage and frees the enemy. He also sends these drones out after you which cannot be dealt with. Suffice it to say, I died a lot. I barely squeaked through this fight.

On my second playthrough, I did Penguin second. As a result of doing Joker first and a good chunk of Black Mask's section, I had more armour and gadgets like the Shock Baterang and Explosive Gel Launcher which made Penguin's fight more manageable. You can use the Shock Baterang and Explosive Gel to destroy the drones and draw enemies to them. The added armour also helped me take a few more shots.

The most extreme example of this is with the Solomon Grundy Boss Fight you get as you are exploring Black Mask's sections. Normally, in this boss fight, Grundy charges Batman. You have to use the explosive gel launcher (that you get from Black Mask's section) to blow up these vents as Grundy charges through them which blinds him, and then blow up these junction boxes as the stunned Grundy goes underneath them. This shocks Grundy and damages him. He then destroys that Junction Box. You need to repeat this 2 more times with different junction boxes. But, if you have the Shock Batering (which you get from doing a good chunk of Joker's section first), you can just shock the water in front of Grundy as soon as the fight starts and beat him up to instantly KO him. So instead of a 3 phase fight where you need to time 2 different explosive gel uses and dodge a charging Grundy 3 times, it's a 1 phase fight where you just throw a Shock Batering and be done with an entire boss fight early. The game even gives you a trophy for it "Bad Case of the Mondays - Defeat Grundy using the Shock Batarang and water" (also, sidenote but Batman seems to be familiar with Grundy here. I thought this was supposed to be the first time Batman and Grundy met?).

Speaking of which, lets talk about what it takes to platinum this game. If you've read my prior platinum reviews, you'll notice I usually start by describing what the trophies are, how I got them and then a review of the game itself. I chose to instead do a summary of the game, then the trophies, then a review because this game is really confusing to platinum. Being a VITA game released in 2013 means there isn't as much info or resources on some aspects of the game or its trophies.

The game has 31 trophies. 16 of which are missable and requires at least 2.9 playthroughs to get all the trophies.

Part of this is due to Metroidvania nature of the game. Depending on which order you play the game, you can miss sections that house collectibles (for example, if you do Black Mask last, destroying the Junction Boxes takes you to an area of the Cell Blocks you have to no reason to really go to. Which houses 2 of Penguin's collectibles. Some armour and gadget upgrades can no longer be collected if you don't collect them before completing a playthrough), or not have the means to complete a challenge or once you complete it normally, it is no longer present to reuse. Such as the aforementioned Grundy trophy. Another example is the trophy "Unnecessary Roughness - Get a 50 hit combo" and " LEAGUE OF SHADOWS - Get a 100 hit combo". That trophy can only be gotten in one specific place in Joker's section as there is nowhere else in the game with enough armoured enemies for you to beat up on to get close to 100. And once you complete this fight, the enemies don't respawn. There are no challenge rooms or any equivalent.

I even tried doing this on other combat encounters and the most I was able to get was 83 even after playing perfectly and farming for high hits. In that one Joker section, I managed to get 123 and that was after multiple attempts. Though, I've read from others on other sites that this is RNG and results aren't consistent.

 

The collectibles were confusing to get. Both in collecting them and what to do for the trophies. BAOB has quite a few different collectibles. The first are Detective Cases. These shed light on the lore and background of the story and are really cool in that regard. I loved reading them and trying figure out the mystery before it was solved. However, they can be extremely annoying to find. Each Case requires you find between 2-6 corresponding clues scattered all over the game. These clues can be anything from a large broken door to a tiny USB flash drive to generic rubble. Unlike other Arkham games, Detective Vision doesn't automatically highlight items of interest for you. Instead you must stop and manually scan an area by dragging your finger across the touch screen to move a cursor. If the cursor lands on an item of interest, it will be green. Then it scans the item which takes about a second. It then becomes yellow in Detective Vision. If it's a Clue, the game will inform you you've found a Clue and which Detective Case it belongs to.

I love the idea of these Detective Cases and Clues, but the way the game handles them is pretty annoying. Like I said, the game doesn't highlight them beforehand and they can be literally anything. Often they are innocuous things that don't really stand out. Especially given how cluttered environments can be. It can be really hard to tell if a particular area even has a clue never mind what it even is. Especially as there often isn't much consistency in what clues can or can't be. Like, in a room filled with say, paper, computer monitors, rubble on the ground, lights etc any of these can be clues. In fact, all of the items I have listed are clues in other rooms. On top of that, some clues cannot be scanned unless Batman is in the correct position even though the perspective doesn't reflect that and you can see the collectible. For example, one of the clues, a USB Flash Drive, requires Batman to be next to it as there is a table blocking his view to the USB Flash Drive even though the player can see the USB and hover over it. And some Clues don't require this. One Clue was scanning this white cloth which was in the cross section of a wall while Batman was in a vent and couldn't even "see" from his perspective. But you could scan it from seemingly anywhere.

There is some signposting when the player might have found an area that houses a Clue. If the player finds a secret area like a vent that leads to a random cluttered room with nothing to interact with, that usually houses a Clue. But I feel that still highlights an issue, if aren't using a guide, you wouldn't know where or even if a Clue is in an area. And if it is, if you can even scan it or need to do something first. The end result is that it really slows the pace looking for Clues. The game doesn't have the equivalent of Riddler Maps that give you an accurate idea of what you're looking for and where (I can't believe this game made me miss Riddler trophies lol).

 

Detective Cases are also required for multiple trophies and carry over between NG+ runs. Meaning if you find a Clue in one playthrough, you do not need to re-scan it in a NG+ run. So if you can get all the Detective Cases early, you're set for the rest of the playthroughs. There are 2 trophies related to Detective Cases, "World's Greatest Detective - Complete all detective cases" which you can do on first playthrough (I recommend it as you're then set), and "The Collector - Find all detective cases and have all pickups and upgrades" which requires you have all the Detective Cases but cannot be achieved until the very end of your final playthrough.

The second set of collectibles are "Gear, Armour, Gadget and Gauntlet Upgrades". These include stuff like armour pieces (4 of which gives you more health which can be really helpful), Rush upgrades (Rush is a mechanic where if you have full health when you attack enemies, you do extra damage. I personally never saw much use in it) and Gauntlet Upgrades (increases the base damage of your attacks. But I personally never felt like they were that powerful). Gadgets also get upgrades. Such as the Batering being upgraded to the Shock Baterings or the Explosive Gel Launcher getting upgraded to the Explosive Glue Gel Launcher. You will find most of the gadget upgrades as part of the main story as they unlock more tools to explore the map. Wheras only one gadget upgrade (the proximity upgrade for the Gel Launcher) and all the Armour, Gear and Gauntlet ones are entirely optional and missable.

I like the idea of these upgrades. They are typical in Metroidvanias. But they aren't very useful in BAOB. Aside from armour which can help you in your first playthrough (but can be potentially redundant if you get a specific suit), Rush and Gauntlet don't make much of an impact. They don't even make bosses easier since you deal with them in preset ways anyway. The gadget upgrades are mostly mandatory anyway. But unlike Detective Cases, they appear as these black boxes/crates and if you scan one with Detective Vision, the rest will be highlighted in Detective Vision as well. So at least you "know" what they are when you see them.

These collectibles do not carry in between NG+ runs. So if you find all the upgrades in one playthrough, they will be present for another and you can collect them again to get the same upgrades as before. There are individual trophies for getting all the armour, gadget and gauntlet upgrades which you can get in any playthrough. However, you will need to re-collect them all for your final playthrough in order to get the Collector Trophy.     

I really dislike this aspect. Aside from the fact you have to re-collect them to get the Collector trophy, even just for a casual NG+ run, one of the coolest aspect of a NG+ in a playthrough of any game is that you're powered up from the upgrades you got in prior run. In the other Arkham games, when you do a NG+ run, you have all the upgrades and most of the collectibles from your last playthrough (these games do compensate by taking away counter indicators). Which means in the case of BAOB, it's not really that much of a NG+ in terms of gameplay (ignoring the suits that is). I can understand not giving the player all the gadgets and their upgrades since that blocks progression. But I feel in the case of BAOB, you can already get most of the gadgets and their upgrades before you take on any of the big 3 bosses. Aside from the Cryptographic Sequencer upgrades, I genuinely feel you can give the player all the other gadgets and upgrades from the start of the game and it wouldn't break the game.

The third set of Collectibles are what I call "Boss Collectibles". These consist of 20 Joker Teeth (found in the Administration Building), 20 Penguin Birdcages (found in the Cell Blocks) and 20 Black Masks (found in the Industrial Building). You break them by throwing a Baterang at them. Though some Joker teeth and Penguin Birdcages will explode if you get close them since they are designed to be traps. That still counts as breaking them.

These Collectibles do not carry over in between NG+ Runs. So if you destroy 15 Joker Teeth in a playthrough, in NG+ it will act like you haven't destroyed any Joker Teeth. So all 20 are back in the world. There are individual trophies for getting each set of these collectibles but no trophy for getting them in conjunction with other trophies. The Collector Trophy doesn't require you get these collectibles as well (which none of the VITA guides I looked at mentioned. I had to go to Xbox Achievement forums to find that out). Meaning if you get all of these collectibles in a playthrough and get their corresponding trophies, then in NG+ run, they will still show up but you don't have to collect them again.

I'm not complaining that I don't have to re-collect these. But I ask why they respawn if they aren't counted for additional trophies? Surely it would be better if they stayed gone for NG+? My only guess would be that they indicate to a player they haven't fully explored an area yet?

Also, the trophy for the 20 Joker Teeth and 20 Penguin Birdcages are Silver. But why is the trophy for the 20 Black Masks Bronze? This is an insult to Black Mask! The Arkham Games really do Black Mask dirty. In Origins, he gets ousted as the main villain by Joker and in BAOB, he doesn't even get the same tier of trophy as the other 2 main bosses' collectibles.

The fourth set of collectibles are Suit Pieces. There are 5 suits you can get in BAOB. Only 3 of which are needed for any trophies. You have the standard Arkham Origins suit you start with (the game's description says it provides "minimal ballistic protection and offensive capabilities". Which is odd given how bulky and armoured it is. Like, it looks more powerful and armoured than all the other suits in the game lol). It offers no additional bonuses. You have the Beware the Batman suit from the CGI Animated show Beware The Batman (I remember watching a few episodes when I first came out. I remember liking it). It isn't "Batman wearing a suit inspired by that suit", it's that 3D model of Batman in the game. His proportions look whack. Like his chest is comically large since its not "realistic" like the other models in BOAB. If you've been the Animated Batman Suit in Arkham City, it's like that. I do like this skin. It's really cool and it offers a bonus in that reduces damage from firearms by 50% (I guess that animated chest is more powerful than Arkham Origin Batman's armour). You can only unlock this suit if you have played Arkham Origins on PS3. Fortunately, even if you haven't, it's not required for any trophies. The suits that are required for trophies are the Red Son Batsuit (which increases health regeneration by 50%), the New 52 Suit (increases damage by 25%), One Million Suit (decreases all damage taken by 25%) and the Darkest Night/Zombie suit (makes Batman invulnerable to all damage).

Apparently, on the remaster for PS4, XB1 and PC, there are more suits like the The Dark Knight Returns suit which makes you invulnerable and increases damage by 25%. But I won't be talking about that.

To unlock a suit for the trophies, you need to find the 5 pieces of the suit scattered over the game. The suits and all their pieces you've found carry over into NG+. So if you've found all the pieces for the Darkest Night suit and 4/5 pieces for the Red Son Suit, on your NG+, you will have access to the Darkest Knight suit and have 4/5 pieces for the Red Son Suit.

There is one catch with the suits, you cannot collect all the pieces in one playthrough. Remember earlier when I said the game has different ending sequences depending on which boss you fight last? This sequence also gives you a different final piece for one of the batsuits. Like, if you fight Joker last and do the present sequence, the final present contains the final piece of the Red Son Batsuit. If you do Penguin last, the final hostage contains the final piece of the New 52 Suit. And same for Black Mask and the 1 million suit. Meaning that in order to get all the suits, you need to NG+ this game twice so you can get the final pieces (and also the trophy for completing each of the sequences).

By the way, it is possible to accidentally miss picking up the final piece here. Requiring you to NG+ the whole game again and fight the same boss again last to get the piece again. So make sure you don't miss it.

But, any benefits these suits would give you is rendered moot by the Zombie suit. This is the only suit whose 5 pieces don't depend on how you play the game so you can get it no matter the playthrough. And it breaks the game. You are invulnerable to any damage. Including stuff like Joker gas so combat is a joke. The only place where you can still die is in Black Mask's boss fight as, if he shoots you, you die automatically for some reason. But that's not really a problem since you don't really fight him directly anyway. Every other combat encounter is trivial now. The only "downside" is that you are invulnerable but not invincible. Meaning enemies can still hit you which can stagger and stun Batman. This can interrupt any combos or moves he was doing. But that can be dealt with easily since you don't lose any health anymore.

Putting all this together, if you want to platinum this game (or more likely, the PS4/XB1/PC version since you aren't going to be playing this on the VITA lol), here's my "optimal" plan.

Playthrough 1: Try doing as much as you can of the Administration/Joker section first. This also gets you the Shock Baterang and Line Launcher gadgets. And the chance to try for the 100 hit combo trophy. Hopefully it's more doable if you go for it early and don't have any damage upgrades. Spam that stun beatdown move.

Once you rescue the Warden, go the Industrial Area and play through enough of Black Mask's section until you get the Explosive Gel Launcher.

At this point you are set to go after Joker or Penguin as you have all the tools you need to get to them (as you can get the remaining tools to get to them like the Batclaw and Tightrope upgrades are found along the way to the boss). The Shock Batering will make quick work of Grundy and make Penguin's boss fight easier.

I would recommend playing more of Black Mask's section until you get the green upgrade for the Cryptographer Sequencer as that can save you a second run all the way back to get the Glue upgrade but you can do this later if you want. It is a little confusing anyway if you haven't played the game before. The game eventually marks on the map where you have to go if you play "naturally".

 

Lets say you want to do Joker last for this playthrough and Penguin first. Head to the Cell Blocks and complete it as much as you can until Penguin hides in the Arkham Wing and Catwoman tells you that you can use the Lighthouse to get to Penguin. Before you leave the Cell Blocks to get to the Lighthouse, if you have the Green codes, you can get the Glue Gel upgrade and save yourself a trip. It is quite out of the way so if you're unsure where to go, you can ignore this and go straight to the Lighthouse and through it to get to Penguin.

Once Penguin is down, you can return to the Industrial Building and continue pursuing Black Mask. If you haven't gotten the Glue Upgrade yet in the Cell Blocks, the game marks for you where it is on your map. After you get it, you can go after Black Mask and take him down. Then backtrack to where Joker's section starts in Industrial. Follow it until you beat Joker.

You can then enter the Arkham Wing. Enter it, make sure you nab the Zombie Suit Piece located here. Then do Joker's Present Ending Sequence, making sure to grab the final Red Son Suit piece. Then, before you go to the Lighthouse for the final confrontation with Catwoman, try scouring the 3 main areas and get the collectibles of interest. For a first playthrough, I advise getting all the Detective Cases, Joker Teeth, Penguin Birdcages, Black Masks and all remaining suit pieces. That way, you don't have to worry about them again. You can ignore any optional armour, gauntlet and Rush upgrades for now. I recommend collectibles guides online.

Once you beat Catwoman, start a NG+ on the same save file you just beat the game with.

Playthrough 2: Lets say you want to beat Black Mask last for this one.

Put on the zombie suit for the invincibility.

Repeat what I said earlier about Administration first, then Industrial and get the Explosive Gel (and Green Codes early if you want).  You can then backtrack and go after Joker since he's in the same building anyway. Then go to the Cell Blocks and go after Penguin. You can then get the Glue Gel upgrade along the way. Leaving you set for Black Mask. Make sure to grab his suit piece. Complete the story and do another NG+ on that save file.

Playthrough 3: Now lets say you want to do Penguin last.

Same deal. Admin first. Then industrial. Only now, you have to get the Green Codes early. You can go after Joker now. Then go to the Cell Blocks. You can choose to play some of Penguin's section until he flees to the Arkham Wing and then get the Glue Gel upgrade here if you want. But you have to get the Glue Gel Upgrade here to be able to go after Black Mask. 

Once you do that, and then go after and take down Penguin and then get his suit piece. You are now free to go after any remaining upgrade collectibles one final time. Then you're done. No need to beat the game for the 3rd time.

So yeah, BOAB isn't difficult to platinum once you know what to do but it is confusing to even know what you have to do even if you have a guide at times. 

As for the game itself, my feelings on it are complicated. If you asked me what I thought of the game during and even after my first playthrough, I'd tell you I really disliked the game. Maybe even that I hated the game. Because BOAB doesn't make a good first impression.

Let start with the combat. On the surface, it looks similar to typical Arkham combat. You do strikes, can bounce between enemies, counter attacks, cape stun, jump over enemies and ground takedown. Only on a 2D plane. Enemies can move a bit "up and down" on that plane but Batman will usually adjust his position as well to compensate. The issue is the flow and responsiveness. Like, in the main Arkham games, when you're fighting a group of enemies and there is a knife or armoured enemy coming at you and you need to respond, you can typically either try cape stunning them early or jumping over/around them to evade them. If you do this, Batman will typically "lunge" at the enemy which closes the distance and keeps the flow going. If you have to cape stun an enemy, the game will help you out by prioritizing the most dangerous enemy and even cape stunning multiple enemies if your cape stun gets them as well. This is a bit forgiving, sure, but it ensures the controls are responsive and the player's intentions are read.

BAOB messes this up royally. Moves like the cape stun and counter have no "lunge" nor can they work on multiple enemies at once. So if you do a cape stun, Batman will do it right in front of him. If there isn't an enemy exactly right in front of him, the attack will whiff and you will take a lot of damage. If an enemy is about to attack you and you try responding but there is another enemy close by or next to him, Batman may target that one instead and you will take a lot of damage. Even the dodge/evade move is whack and arguably even less responsive. You are supposed to be able to jump over enemies that are right in front of you by double tapping X but there were times I mashed it and it wouldn't work (and other times it did). And other times when it did register, Batman would do a normal roll which is useless and would result in taking damage. The end result is a combat system that works against the muscle memory learned from every other Arkham game and is still less fun because of how unresponsive it is.

The game has Predator Stealth Sections but they aren't as fun as the main versions. In part because of the limited gadgets and moves. But also partly to the design. Armed enemies do crazy amounts of damage, have great eyesight and can track you much further. Many environments often aren't even big enough or offer enough ways to lose enemies' attention. Resulting in a much slower "trial and error" approach as you find the one set of moves and silent takedowns that work. Even standard moves and approaches in other Arkham games aren't as helpful here. For example, snaring enemies onto gargoyles/vantage points is useless because it attracts too much attention and enemies will see you moving away after doing it.

The other Arkham games were more fun here because the areas were designed with multiple routes so there were multiple options and ways to both take out enemies and escape when you made a mistake. On top of that, enemies didn't have the best eyesight and would even be startled for a few seconds if they saw you. Giving you time to respond by trying to take them out or get away or use smoke bombs etc.

To BAOB's credit, there are some good ideas here. For example, some Predator Sections have chandeliers you can hit with a baterang to make it fall and KO enemies. Some have bells you can hit with a batering to draw enemies attention. But the game never expands on these ideas or fleshes them out so Predator Segments never feel great to play. So I don't believe it's a flaw of the perspective and hardware. I truly believe it was possible for BAOB to have pretty fun and good Predator Segments (hell, Mark of the Ninja shows you can do it in even stricter 2D).

The pacing of the game is also whack. Like I said earlier, Detective Vision doesn't automatically highlight stuff so you have to stop and manually scan stuff. But this also extends to objects you can interact with the environment. Like, if there's a wall you can blow up with the explosive gel to progress, you can't put explosive gel on it until you scan it first. Even if you know that wall is there, you can't target it with the Explosive Gel Launcher until it is scanned. Same for debris or switches you can interact with using the Batering and Batclaw. On top of that, many of these interactibles don't look distinct. Like, in Batman Arkham Asylum, walls you can use the explosive gel on have a crumbled look you can recognize even without Detective Vision. But not so in BAOB where Explosive Gel walls and regular walls look the same. The end result is that it makes a first playthrough extremely stop and go which prevents a good flow going. You're always stopping and looking for things to scan. And once you do,  waiting an extra second for it to complete scanning. And doing this hundreds of times for around 8 hours? It really drags the experience down. The experience would be a lot better if the scan was an optional tool beginners could rely on if they were stuck or confused. While if you were more experienced, you could just play normally and use gadgets directly without needing to scan first. And also if the scan was instantaneous.

With all these aspects, I don't blame anyone for dropping this game or disliking it.

However, when I was doing my second playthrough on NG+ for the trophies, something weird happened. I believe it's called Stockholm Syndrome because I was genuinely enjoying myself. I was surprised. Why am I enjoying myself?

I think it's because at that point, I was so used to the game's flaws that I could bypass them and, as a result, see its positives?

Like, the combat still has its issues, but by then, I knew how to position myself beforehand so knife, armoured and baton enemies were less of an issue so I could focus on bouncing between enemies with strikes and counters. Predator Segments were still an issue but I knew from prior trial and errors where to position myself and take out enemies. Navigation was no longer an issue since I already knew where everything was and didn't need to find any collectibles. So I could focus on using my knowledge of the game to speedrun. And that was fun. It was fun charting my own path to play the game in a way as to get all the gadgets and upgrades and hit the bosses in the desired order. And I could appreciate how truly open ended the game was and how it rewarded me for my knowledge by letting me save time by getting gadgets in fewer trips and easily stomping bosses. I truly felt like I was the master here.

The closest analogue would be like a Hitman level where you know exactly where everything is so you just go and get the things and be an absolute master.

Even the story was more interesting. I could read the Detective Cases and see all the background and it's really well thought out. Stuff like how the main bosses each orchestrated their own breakouts and took control or other DC characters like Toy Man were involved.

Of course, the main difference here with something like Hitman, or even other Metroidvanias is that the experience is fun on the first playthrough and that the mechanics are solid enough that you don't need to "get used to the flaws" to have fun. Like, it's nice that I eventually came to enjoy and appreciate BAOB, but the experience would have been better if the combat flowed better, if Predator Sections were more open ended, if the game didn't require you to scan everything. Then even a first playthrough would be more fun and more people would see the game's more unique aspects.

Playing BAOB made me wish for a modern remake of this game. One with those improved combat/stealth etc but also more open ended design.

Imagine a 3D version of this game. Like, Batman Arkham Asylum but a complete Metroidvania where you can explore different parts of the Asylum, pick up gadgets in different orders and boss fights and sequences would be different depending on when you do them. Basically, BAOB but on steroids.

In closing, BAOB is arguably the worst Arkham game. Its execution of many of the gameplay features of its console counterparts is often lacking. But it's arguably the most unique Arkham game for how truly open ended it is and how cool it is as a Metroidvania. I wish this game had more time and resources during development because it could have been one of the best games in this series and on the VITA.

This is probably going to be my last platinum for a while. I might do Lego Batman 2 VITA at some point in the future. I'm currently playing Rainbow 6 Siege and it's quite fun. Don't have any plans to write about it though.

See you all in 2024.