The Final Fantasy XV Platinum Trophy Road Trip

Trophy 1: Insomnia’s Waking Nightmare

Official Description: Completed the Prologue.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1580

And the grand road trip to go get the prince hitched to his bride begins! You know what happens to beloved parents in Final Fantasy games.

Trophy 2: Blind Spot

Official Description: Performed first blindside link.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1581

I was honestly just mashing buttons during the first hunt, and this one popped when Noctis and Ignis did a thing!

Trophy 3: Brother-in-Arms

Official Description: Issued first ally command.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1582

Gladiolus and his Tempest move were the first one of these I did. Also during the first hunt.

Trophy 4: Noct You Like a Hurricane

Official Description: Initiated first link-strike after parrying an attack.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1583

Now there’s a song by The Scorpions playing in my head. Well punned, Squeenix!

I’m not so good at the dodging and parrying thing but seemed to get one to happen during that first hunt. Three trophies for one battle. I love this game!

Trophy 5: My First Hunt

Official Description: Completed first hunt.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1584

And a trophy for actually completing the first hunt. Better make that 4 trophies for one fight. Can’t complain about that!

Trophy 6: New Power

Official Description: Learned first ability.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1585

Phasing seems incredibly powerful and useful! My first ability on the Ascension tree thingy was the one that reduces the MP cost for it.

Trophy 7: Just Hangin’ Around

Official Description: Performed first point-warp suspension.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1586

This point-warp stuff is so cool! Noctis can launch himself up to high points on the battlefield and do extra damage to enemies by warping at them.

Trophy 8: Magical Worker

Official Description: Crafted a spell for the first time.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1587

The Elemancy system seems interesting. You absorb different elements in the environment and craft spells with them.

Trophy 9: Quadruple Threat

Official Description: Equipped four weapon slots.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1588

Equipping Thunder on Noctis gave me the shiny trophy for having four weapon slots filled. Yay!

Trophy 10: Cooking Rookie

Official Description: Improved cooking level for the first time.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1589

It’s dangerous to go out at night (as I found out the hard way when this big giant monster attacked me). The crew needs to rest at various campsites and lodging areas to level up and whatnot when night starts to fall. Ignis is the party chef who can cook up some lovely stat boosting meals.

Trophy 11: Photo Rookie

Official Description: Improved photography level for the first time.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1590

Prompto reminds me of those annoying Instagram influencer wannabes but he grew on me. He takes random pictures of the crew throughout the day (mostly in battle) and you get to choose which ones to keep at camp.

Trophy 12: Survival Rookie

Official Description: Improved survival level for the first time.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1591

Gladio’s survival skill levels up the more steps you take. He can use this skill to find valuable items dropped from combat.

Trophy 13: Black Mage

Official Description: Used magic for the first time.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1592

Look at that beautiful lightning! Magic use is definitely dangerous in this game. I noticed there is friendly fire and you can get hurt from your own spells. Yikes.

Trophy 14: Learner’s Permit

Official Description: Drove the Regalia.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 15th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1593

Oh Cindy and her fanservice station. Not sure how the hell she gets anything fixed in her uh, outfit, but she got the car up and running for the crew. Ignis is usually the driver but will force Noctis to drive at night.

The car controls are awful (probably because I’m used to games like Grand Theft Auto) but this isn’t really meant to be a driving simulator or anything.

Trophy 15: High Five for Justice!

Official Description: Played JUSTICE MONSTERS FIVE for the first time.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 15th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1594

I found a pinball machine in a diner and immediately wasted a half hour playing it because I assumed there was a trophy for it. Glad I was right!

Trophy 16: Spinning a Yarn I

Official Description: Completed first sidequest.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 15th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1595

Sidequest #1 was getting a set of dog tags for Dave. This helps memorialize the brave monster hunters who fell in battle.

Trophy 17: Departure

Official Description: Completed Chapter 1.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 16th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1596

Main story time! So, um… on the way to the island where Noctis was to meet his bride, the ferry was blocked for some reason. Some reporter/jeweler guy with a New York accent asked Noctis to get a rare mineral for him and he’d help. After I did this (and almost got killed by a giant bird in a stealth section), the crew learned their city of Insomnia was attacked and decided to head back.

Unfortunately, there was a blockade by the bad guys and in a super dramatic cutscene Noctis learns his father (the King) was murdered by these jerks. A dude named Cor asks Noctis to meet him back in Hammerhead so they can figure out what to do next.

Trophy 18: Spinning a Yarn II

Official Description: Completed 5 sidequests.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 16th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1597

Sidequest #5 was fetching a tomato for diner guy in Hammerhead. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.

Trophy 19: No Turning Back

Official Description: Completed Chapter 2.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 23rd, 2021
Overall Earned: #1598

Something something, bad guys are shown after I beat a big robot boss to unlock more of the map. I tend to forget the main story when I get lost in side quests. Down with the Nifs, I think!

Trophy 20: Spinning a Yarn III

Official Description: Completed 10 sidequests.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 23rd, 2021
Overall Earned: #1599

‘The Ever Regal Regalia’ was side quest #10 for me. Cindy wanted paint (or something) from a random tunnel (for some reason).

Trophy 21: Angling Rookie

Official Description: Improved fishing level for the first time.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: June 27th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1600

The fishing mini-game reminds me of Ocarina of Time and that’s probably why I am having fun with it! I make it a point to catch a few things from every spot I find.

Also, I freaking love the fishing introduction quest. It’s all about feeding an adorable cat in a lovely beachfront setting.

Trophy 22: Self-Improved

Official Description: Activated 20 ability nodes.
Type: Silver
Earned on: June 27th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1601

I initially focused my AP on combat skills and the things that make you earn more AP. Seemed like a legit strat!

The 20th ability node I unlocked was Aperture. Chances to get AP from Prompto’s photography addiction sounded great.

Trophy 23: Chocobo Jockey

Official Description: Rode a Chocobo.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: July 5th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1602

The only thing better than cruising down the open road in a convertible is cruising down the open road on a Chocobo! Killing the Behemoth to unlock Chocobo rental was a really cool side quest as well.

Trophy 24: Spinning a Yarn IV

Official Description: Completed 20 sidequests.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: July 5th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1603

‘A Stone-Studded Stunner’ was my 20th side quest. Thanks, reporter-jeweler guy!

Trophy 25: Spinning a Yarn V

Official Description: Completed 40 sidequests.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: August 2nd, 2021
Overall Earned: #1604

Sidequest #40 was about locating a poor lost and hurt chocobo. Glad I was able to help the fluffy little fella!

Trophy 26: Self-Mastered

Official Description: Activated 50 ability nodes.
Type: Gold
Earned on: August 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1605

Roaming around endlessly doing sidequests and hunts definitely paid off in the AP department. My 50th ability unlock on the Ascension thingy was Gladio’s Cyclone technique. I think I used it once just to see what it did.

Trophy 27: Photo Expert

Official Description: Reached maximum photography level.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: August 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1606

I fought literally everything on my way to places and had the Camera Strap accessory equipped (that allows Mr. Prompto to take more than 10 photos per rest period). Most of those photos were probably selfies. I’m sure Prompto is ‘hashtag sorry not sorry’.

Trophy 28: The Open World

Official Description: Completed Chapter 3.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: August 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1607

After a bajillion hours of side things, I finally went to Lestallum to continue the story! That’s got to be a world record for most time spent in Chapter 3.

While there I met Gladio’s sister (Iris) and a few other Insomnia refugees. A little kid named Talcott told Noctis of a treasure hidden behind a waterfall. I followed up on that to find a frozen cave full for demons and another of the Royal Arms.

Back in Lestallum, Noctis starts getting bad visions and headaches which is definitely not a good omen. The mysterious stranger also reappears and introduces himself as Chancellor Ardyn Izunia, a dude who works for the evil Niflheim Empire’s government.

For some odd reason, Ardyn wanted to help the crew and suggested they follow him to go check out the godly thing that’s calling out Noctis and giving him headaches.

Trophy 29: The Power of Kings

Official Description: Called forth the Armiger for the first time.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: August 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1608

The Royal Arm that Noctis found in the waterfall unlocked the Armiger move thingy for me. This lets you unleash all the Royal Arms once you charge a bar. Great attack boost! The first time I used it was during the Titan fight.

Trophy 30: Living Legend

Official Description: Completed Chapter 4.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: August 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1609

Chapter 4 is quite the ride. Noctis ends up fighting the god Titan, a giant dude holding up a meteor at the Disc. Niflheim also wants to kill Titan for some reason so it’s a fun three-way brawl. Once defeated, Noctis learns his wife-to-be Lunafreya asked Titian to help him out beforehand.

Ardyn ends up rescuing the lot in a Niflheim flying thingy, and drops them off in a safe spot before peacing-out. Also, the dudes’ car is missing now. Oh noes!

Trophy 31: Cooking Expert

Official Description: Reached maximum cooking level.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: August 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1610

Chapter 5 is all about running from one tree getting struck by lightning to another. The car is still missing so it all happens slowly on foot.

Just outside of the cave to the last dungeon area in the chapter, I set up camp and that’s where Ignis hit level 10 Cooking. Yay! The dish he prepared was Pit Crew’s Meat Wraps. Yummy.

Trophy 32: Dark Clouds

Official Description: Completed Chapter 5.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: August 14th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1611

Cindy informs the dudes the Niflheim jerks have captured their car. I had to bust into a base to get it back. This included a tutorial on summoning The Six where lightning god Ramuh busts in to toast the boss mech.

After the fight Noctis runs into Ravus (Luna’s bro who now works for the bad guys). He tosses Gladio around before Ardyn intervenes and oddly lets them go again.

Back in Lestallum, Noctis is sad to learn Talcott’s friend got killed by an Nif jerk. Iris decides to take Talcott and go with them to Cape Caem.

Trophy 33: A Way Forward

Official Description: Completed Chapter 6.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: August 19th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1612

The road trip with Iris has a brief tangent to takeout another imperial base. The crew met a flying evil mercenary lady named Aranea there. Once she’s downed, the crew eventually makes it to Cape Caem where Cindy tells them they need mythril to fix the old king’s boat. There’s apparently some in ruins at the Vesperpool.

Before setting off, Gladio inexplicably leaves the party for the entirety of the next chapter to take care of something personal. I never found out what it was.

Trophy 34: Party of Three

Official Description: Completed Chapter 7.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: August 19th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1613

Down a man, Noctis, Ignis and Prompto arrive at the ruins. There they meet Ardyn who oddly helps them yet again. He instructs the merc Aranea (the lady from the second base mission) to let the boys through and help them. She fills Gladio’s spot in the party for the dungeon.

To get the mythril ore at the bottom the ruins the group needs to pwn Quetzalcoatl, a big bird-like monster. After the fight, Aranea mentions the imperials use lab born demons to create their magitek troops. Yikes.

At the end of the chapter, Aranea gives the dudes a lift back to Lestallum and mentions she will cut ties with the imperials. She wants to help people, not work for the evil jerks. I also have to mention I love Aranea’s sarcasm. She rocks!

A more scarred version of Gladio rejoins the party after using the most obvious disguise in the world to help Noctis clear out some monsters in Lestallum’s power plant. What the hell was he doing??

Trophy 35: Immortal Photobomb

Official Description: Caught an image of Gentiana in a photo.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: August 19th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1614

Gentiana the immortal messenger of the gods decided to show up in a photo Prompto took in the ruins. Yay!

Trophy 36: Survival Expert

Official Description: Reached maximum survival level.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: August 21st, 2021
Overall Earned: #1615

Getting Gladio’s Survival skill to max is one hell of a walking commitment. You really have to walk every-freaking-where and it gets quite tedious after a while.

The walking on foot was seriously ruining my enjoyment of the game (I wanted to enjoy chocobo and car travel) so I decided to cheese it. I put elastic bands on my controller so Noctis ran around in circles, then I went to bed and left him overnight.

Shockingly, that still wasn’t enough for the trophy but I managed to get the last little bit naturally.

Trophy 37: Weaving a Tapestry

Official Description: Completed 80 sidequests.
Type: Silver
Earned on: August 24th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1616

I did several hours of sidequests and hunts before powering through the remainder of the story (which ended up being way over 80). Sidequest #80 was ‘The Professor’s Protégé – Myrlwood Firefly’ for Sonia the superb professor lady. This involved going into the Myrlwood dungeon at night to capture the glowy little fellas (I had already gotten the Royal Arm there a while ago at this point).

Also, I needed to help Ignis get back his specs from a chocobo in the dungeon on an unrelated side-side tangent. So much fun stuff to do!

Trophy 38: Angling Expert

Official Description: Reached maximum fishing level.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: August 29th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1617

I went on a nice fishing spree in the lovely waters of Galdin Quay to snag this trophy. The fishing minigame is quite fun and relaxing (if you don’t have a monster fish on your line, that is).

Trophy 39: Divine Intervention

Official Description: Summoned one of the Six for the first time.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: September 6th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1618

I had a hard time figuring out how the hell summoning works in this game. Basically, after you recruit each god you can summon them, but not whenever you want. You have to meet certain battle requirements and press and hold L2 when the prompt appears.

I finally caught a chance to summon in the Castlemark dungeon on my first failure to solve the labyrinth maze. Luckily the lost wind goddess who joined me from the Final Fantasy XIV crossover quest crushed my enemies with her tornado thingy!

Trophy 40: Seaworthy

Official Description: Completed Chapter 8.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: September 6th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1619

It was at last time to blitz through the rest of the main story! I love getting jacked on side content and one-shotting the story bosses in open world games. 😁

Cid and Cindy fix Regis’ boat and the dudes sail off to Altissia to meet Lunafreya and hopefully get to the sea goddess before the Nifs kill the deity. There was lots of talk about trusting your friends and the power of friendship and all that. Classic Final Fantasy!

Trophy 41: Callings

Official Description: Completed Chapter 9.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: September 6th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1620

Altissia is quite the lovely city! It reminds me of the canals of Venice I’ve heard so much about. Unfortunately, I was pretty burned out on sidequests at this point so didn’t do much here other than the main story.

I aced the kingly diplomacy test and convinced the chancellor lady. She offers to help Noctis and Lunafreya summon the Leviathan on the condition he makes sure the civilians would be safe whenever the inevitable imperial attack happens. The dudes help the civilians while Noctis and Luna work on making a deal with the super cranky Leviathan before the imperials succeed in killing it.

The deal happens after a cool floating boss fight and Titan shows up to save the day in a cutscene. Oh, and the super sad thing. While all this was going on, Ardyn finally shows his true asshole colours and stabs Lunafreya. She uses her last bit of strength to save Noctis and give him the Ring of the Lucii. The chapter ends on a dream sequence where Luna says bye. sniffs

Ignis is also severely injured during the fight and has gone blind. The crew pulls themselves together and heads towards the heart of the Nif empire to get their crystal back. Classic Final Fantasy!

Trophy 42: The Heart of a King

Official Description: Completed Chapter 10.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: September 6th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1621

There are some intense emotions relating to grief in this chapter, that’s for sure. The group is on a train heading towards the Niflheim capital city when they take a side trip at a stop to find another Royal Arm. Gladio is super pissed at Noctis for not being very kingly while he’s dealing with the loss of Luna, and Ignis is having a really hard time adjusting to his new disability.

Eventually, the crew discovers the Royal Tomb behind a Malboro nest at the base of some mining equipment. And yes, an infamous Malboro is the boss fight here. Thank god I was super over-leveled! Ignis manages to save the day with a new libra elemental technique to finish off the fight.

At the end, Ignis vows to keep following them no matter what and they board the train to continue on. Oh and we see Ardyn stealthily board the train too. Yikes.

Trophy 43: In the Dark

Official Description: Completed Chapter 11.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: September 6th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1622

Chapter 11 is all about chasing Ardyn through the train and protecting the train from the imperial jerks. At the end, Ardyn tricks Noctis with some kinda temporal swapping ability. This makes Noctis mistakenly throw Prompto off the train instead of Ardyn and they have to leave him behind. Oh noes!

Trophy 44: End of Days

Official Description: Completed Chapter 12.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: September 6th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1623

The now group of three makes a stop in Luna’s hometown of Tenebrae, which the imperial jerks have attacked. Aranea is here to help the people and she assigns her boys Biggs and Wedge to drive Noctis’ train to the imperial capital.

Back on the tracks, they stop at the corpse of the Glaceon (the ice goddess who was killed by the Nif jerks). A blizzard strikes and Noctis chases Ardyn through the train again. When all hope seems lost, Gentiana appears to save the day and drop some seriously complicated story information I’m still not sure I get. Ahem.

Gentiana freezes Ardyn and tells Noctis she is fulfilling a promise she made to Lunafreya to protect him. Then Gentiana reveals herself to be Shiva, the Glaceon ice goddess lady everyone thought was dead. She says some things about The Six gods being at war and how the fiery god Ifrit (also her lover) now despises humanity quite a lot.

Also, some super powerful epic darkness is about to destroy the world. Noctis is the Chosen King and only one who can save everybody (including the six gods) from this evil darkness, or something like that!

Trophy 45: Redemption

Official Description: Completed Chapter 13.
Type: Bronze
Earned on: September 6th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1624

Whoa! Lots of stuff happens here. Time to dig out the ol’ point form list.

• Noctis, Gladio and Ignis destroy the Regalia getting to the Nif base where the crystal is.
• The group gets split up and I chose to follow Noctis.
• Noctis finally puts on his ring since Ardyn has stopped all his other powers from working. This lets him use Death and banish things for an insta-kill.
• Noctis finds the corpse of Ravus and takes his father’s blade from him. Ravus apparently saw the light and betrayed the imperials to get the sword to Noctis.
• It is revealed that the magitek troops are people born in test tubes and corrupted by demons. Everyone in the base is now a demon since the disease spread.
• Noctis gets trapped in a laser room and is rescued by Gladio and Ignis to regroup with them.
• They find Prompto and rescue him too. It is also revealed that Prompto was one of those humans born to be a magitek minion but he was saved from that fate. He was keeping it a secret since he thought his friends would hate him if they knew he was born imperial. No one cares and they all have a beautiful bro moment. D’aww.
• The twisted corpse of Ravus turns up as a boss fight after they stop the thing suppressing Noctis’ abilities.
• They are overrun by demons and Noctis bolts to the crystal in the hopes of saving everyone. It eats him instead and Ardyn reveals himself to be a corrupted ancient king of the Lucis line. So he’s like Noctis’ great, great, great, great grandfather or something? Cool.
• Ardyn promises to keep Noctis’ friends company while the crystal seals him away for a bit. Gladio and Prompto take a few shots at Ardyn, but nothing can kill the immortal asshole.
• Inside crystal land, Noctis has a divine chat with the god Bahamut. His destiny is to kill Ardyn and sacrifice himself to end the darkness after bathing in the crystal’s light for a loooong while.
• 10 years later in a world with only darkness, older Noctis with a cool beard wakes up on a stone island and drives his father’s boat back to shore with Umbra (Luna’s surviving magical doggo guardian).
• All grown up Talcott meets him on the road and drives him to Hammerhead to meet up with his old friends and make the final push into Insomnia.

Trophy 46: Chosen King

Official Description: Defeated Ifrit on Normal difficulty.
Type: Gold
Earned on: September 6th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1625

I did the majority of the side content on easy mode but turned it to Normal for the rest of the story since I knew it was required for some fight. Ifrit is the angry fire god Ardyn unleashes on Noctis near the end of the game. The fight was easy peasy for over-leveled me!

I also loved how the fight ends with Shiva icing her fiery lover. I got the chills!

Trophy 47: Homecoming

Official Description: Completed Chapter 14.
Type: Silver
Earned on: September 7th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1626

Before facing off with Ardyn, Noctis chooses one of Prompto’s photos to take with him (this apparently appears on your certificate once you beat the game). Ardyn knocks out Noctis’ crew and it’s a solo showdown to end the game. It was a fun fight!

After the epic final battle, Noctis sits on his throne and does the sacrifice thing to save the world and kill Ardyn once and for all. Not going to lie, I cried during the credits.

After the credits, it inexplicably shows Luna and a groomed older Noctis together on the throne in a much happier future time. Did his sacrifice restore a timeline and give them all a surprise happy ending? Or is this some kind of wonderful afterlife?? I have no idea, but I’ll take the good vibes!

Trophy 48: Faithful Heir

Official Description: Collected thirteen royal arms.
Type: Silver
Earned on: September 7th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1627

Despite all the side activities I did during my playthrough, I managed to miss a few of the easy Royal Arms. Oops! I used Umbra to take a trip back in time and get those. The last one was the Bow of the Clever in a super easy mine dungeon I totally missed seeing.

Trophy 49: Tortoise Toppler

Official Description: Defeated the adamantoise.
Type: Gold
Earned on: September 7th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1628

I always do things the hard way in games. It took me almost two hours of stabbing this massive rock turtle (an optional post-game boss hunt) in the toes with Noctis to get this trophy (my AI party had trouble finding a spot to attack and ran around in circles for most of the time).

Afterwards, a cool friend told me you can just use the Ring of the Lucii to one-shot the damn thing. Gr!! I r as dumb as the party AI and stubborn af.

Trophy 50: Regalia Pilot

Official Description: Flew the Regalia Type-F.
Type: Silver
Earned on: September 7th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1629

To unlock flying you need to take out all three of the imperial bases. Two are related to the main story but I missed the optional one during my playthrough. Taking out the bases gives you rare car parts and Cindy works her magic to make a car-plane happen.

It’s so fun to fly free, but landing safely is another story.

Trophy 51: The World Wanderer

Official Description: Collected all trophies.
Type: Platinum
Earned on: September 7th, 2021
Overall Earned: #1630

Flying the car-plane was the last thing I needed to do for shiny platinum. It was probably one of the most epic platinum unlocks I’ve ever experienced.

The trophy pops. I fail to land. The car-plane bursts into flames, and the dudes shoot off into the sky as the Game Over screen fades in. All of this to the tune of the Maester Seymour boss fight music from Final Fantasy X (my first Final Fantasy game).