What's the point of hiding achievements?
How am I supposed to earn them if I don't even know what they expect me to do for them? Why do these exist? I haven't even encountered a game (not even a Fromsoft game, and those guys are notorious for being vague and not forthcoming with info even for guide books) where the hidden achievements were not already listed by a 3rd party somewhere outside of the game day 1, so why not just show them in the damn game?
The only time I don't mind them is when they're hiding story spoilers.
I can agree there, but I also think they could simply reword the goals so as not to include spoilers.
Like instead of "Kill or Show mercy to Krai'g, Kraken of the Deep" just a simple "deal with the final boss" would suffice.
Reminds me of a time when in Final Fantasy XIV they added a character title that was a spoiler for an expansion ending. Character titles appear under every character name out in the open, and hundreds of people across servers, who had finished the game, changed theirs to be a spoiler. Resulted in the quickest patch roll out that I've ever seen.
I think this is a step in the right direction.
However, what if it's a secret boss? Should the hidden trophy say "defeat the secret adversary"?
I'd rather stumble upon these things completely blind so I don't know how they can give the trophy a meaningful unhidden label without spoiling something.
Stuff like this is another reason why I believe trophies are useless, outside of a miniscule dopamine dose from hearing that jingle upon beating a hard challenge, and knowing what % of players beat a certain story boss and seeing that % go down the further you progress in a game and start feeling like some badass...
Nah I think we'd be better without 'em.
I can agree there, but I also think they could simply reword the goals so as not to include spoilers.
Like instead of "Kill or Show mercy to Krai'g, Kraken of the Deep" just a simple "deal with the final boss" would suffice.
spoilers if they are related to the games story
I like how PlayStation lets you view hidden trophies if you want.
That is really great and a good way to yo handle it.
Steam also sort of let you do that beforethe ui change. If you looked at global achievements the hidden ones was shown. I definitely understand why they change that, but I wish they gave you a button to choose if you want to see them or not.
Or maybe they have and I haven't found it, if that is the case can someone tell me where it is.
Sometimes it's story related spoiler stuff. But I agree, when it's just challenge based achievements it's dumb to hide them.
Just as a quick FYI, on the PS4 (and presumably the PS5 too), if you click on any of the hidden trophies, you can press square (I think) to show the description of how to earn it. This wasn't possible in the PS3 era, but it's one of the upgrades they implemented in PS4. That'll save you a Google search.
As for why, as others have mentioned, it's mostly for spoilers or hiding easter eggs that are more fun if you find them naturally rather than going out of your way looking to earn a trophy.
Well, the fact that you CAN pull up the info at any time is part of the reason why developers can do it with complete confidence that it won't negatively impact the experience. I personally appreciate unlocking a hidden achievement I had no idea about for doing something unusual in a game but then again I don't generally achievement hunt in games unless I find them cool to 100%.
By this logic, you can look up the solution to puzzles, so why do puzzle games exist?
There's a difference between knowing there is a puzzle to be completed and being given the solution to the puzzle. Achievements should direct you to the fact there is a puzzle; they don't need to give the solution to the puzzle.