Last year a number of the WellPlayed lads, being Jordan Garcia, Kieron Verbrugge, Dylan Blereau and Zach Jackson, pledged that they would complete a number of games in their backlog lest they suffer a punishment chosen by the rest of the group (give WellPlayed DLC Podcast Episode 9 a listen to for all of the details of last years pledges).
Given a number of months to complete their games, only Jordan came out the other side victorious, with the other fellas falling victim to some rough punishments (Dylan recently livestreamed his first punishment of getting the platinum trophy for Troll and I).
Well, the time has come again for pledges to be made, punishments to be chosen and some interesting challenges to be set. This year every member of the WellPlayed team is getting involved, so the playing field has gotten a lot larger. Before we get into the meat of it, let me explain the rules:
- The pledge begins April 14 and all games must be completed by December 15.
- Your pledge must be challenging but within your own limitations – the total amount of hours must be roughly 200 (using How Long To Beat as a guideline).
- If you don’t finish all of your pledged games before the end date you must complete the punishment given to you by another pledger.
- Only the main story is required for the game to be considered complete, but extra conditions can be added (platinum trophies/DLC) to add time.
- Games that have already been started can be pledged, though the amount of hours played will be subtracted from that pledger’s total.
- One wildcard game may be substituted (per person) for a pledge game at any time, though the wildcard must equal the same amount of hours to complete, or multiple games that make up the required hours.
- Previously pledged games from last year don’t need to be completed, though punishment games do (though they can be played in any order).
- Challeneges can be made between pledgers as long as both parties agree to the terms.
- In order to prove that pledge games have been completed, a screenshot of each games credits/completion screen must be provided.
- No speedrun tactics or exploits can be used (we are looking at you Jordan).
The podcast lads (Zach, Dylan, Jordan, Kieron and Adam) set punishments for each other on Episode 43 of the WellPlayed DLC podcast, so be sure to give that a listen below.
Alright, with the rules sorted, let’s get into what games and punishments the WellPlayed team have this year:
Eleanore
Pledge games:
- Fire Emblem Three Houses (main story + DLC)
- Hyper Light Drifter
- Astral Chain
- Lego Harry Potter Collection
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy
- Ty the Tasmanian Tiger HD
Punishment (Set by Zac): Complete Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
Kieran
Pledge Games:
- Final Fantasy X
- Final Fantasy X-2
- Final Fantasy IX
- Persona 5 Royal
- A Plague Tale: Innocence
Punishment (set by Ash): Complete Darksiders 1 on Apocalyptic difficulty
Aza
Pledge Games:
- Octopath Traveller
- Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
- TimeSplitters 2
- MediEvil (OG)
- Painkiller: Black Edition
Punishment (set by Eleanore): Complete Ride to Hell: Retribution
Zac
Pledge Games:
- Yakuza Remastered Trilogy (3,4,5)
- God Of War (2018)
- Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
Punishment (set by Kieran): Final Fantasy XIII
Ash
Pledge Games:
- Star wars Jedi: Fallen Order
- The Last of Us
- Tomb Raider (2013)
- Darksiders 2
- Sonic Lost World
Punishment (set by Aza): ONE DAY for Ched
Zach
Pledge games:
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Control
- GreedFall (previously played a portion)
- Kona (previously played a short amount)
- Afterparty
- The Occupation
Punishment (set by Adam): Complete Shining Resonance Refrain (on Refrain Mode) without skipping cutscenes or dialogue
Kieron
Pledge games:
- Dishonored 2
- Wolfenstein The New Colossus
- Doom Eternal
- Horizon Zero Dawn (main story + DLC)
- Ni no Kuni (main story + platinum trophy)
Punishment (set by Zach): Complete Gene Rain
Dylan
Pledge games:
- Bioshock (main story + DLC + platinum trophy)
- Bioshock 2 (main story + DLC + platinum trophy)
- Bioshock Infinite (main story + DLC + platinum trophy)
- Doom Eternal (main story + platinum trophy)
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Punishment (set by Kieron): Platinum Beast Quest
Adam
Pledge games:
- The Witcher 3 (main story + DLC)
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Prey (2017)
- Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
- The Order: 1886
Punishment (set by Jordan): Complete Eternity: The Last Unicorn
Jordan
Pledge games:
- A Plague Tale: Innocence
- Hate of Fate 2
- Celeste
- Sundered: Eldritch Edition
- Moonlighter
- GRIS
- Divinity: Original Sin 2
- A Hat In Time
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps
- Complete every raid Final Fantasy XIV
Punishment (set by Dylan): Complete Elex…again
Challenges
- Zach vs Kieron: Race to finish, the loser must complete Alekhine’s Gun.
- Dylan vs Jordan: If Jordan can finish all of his pledges as well as Elex and Dylan fails to finish his pledge games, he must complete Elex.
There are some huge commitments being made this year and some truly awful punishments on the line (again…looking at you Jordan). But will all of the WellPlayed crew get through their pledges? Or will last year’s efforts repeat themselves, leaving us with a lot of sad sacks? Let the pledges begin.
Who do you think has the hardest pledge ahead of them? Who has the worst punishment? Let us know.
