Achievement Hunting and Too Much Content

For the longest time, I didn’t know what could possibly qualify as ‘too much content’ in a game. More content means more stuff to do, and thus more time spent playing a game. As I age, however, I tend to value my time a bit more than I have in the past, and the variety of games I have available lets me be pickier with what I choose to spend my time with. This can be expanded upon further when considering the time cost of experiencing everything a game has to offer – or in other words, going for one-hundred percent.

Classic Completion

In times past, what counted as ‘everything’ in a game was much smaller in scope. Some games had a menu that showcased a variety of collectibles, such as The Legend of Zelda or Super Mario 64. Others had a clear indicator of when the game was done, either via a percentage meter like Donkey Kong Country or Super Metroid or simply by nature of being a linear experience like Mega Man. When it came to more open worlds like Final Fantasy though, it was not very clear. Even after the credits roll, there were other side objectives that could be completed for additional loot. The game was over when the player was done playing with it, which could leave an air of uncertainty if there actually was anything else left to experience.

Enter the modern age with the advent of the achievement system. Nearly every game released nowadays has some list of achievements (there are some notable exceptions such as Undertale). This can be a good thing: no longer are people uncertain whether there is anything left to experience when the developers plaster what counts as full completion. Unfortunately, these lists can also be a negative when the achievements go beyond the original scope of the game. When all achievement lists are treated equal (each platinum trophy is worth the same amount for PlayStation’s user level, for instance), it can be frustrating when a few elusive achievements take up the vast majority of the time. Even worse still is when these last few achievements are not fun.

Crash Course

A clear example of achievement lists gone wrong is the Crash Bandicoot series. The PlayStation 1 (PS1) Crash trilogy was an integral part of my childhood. There was always a clear set of collectibles and a percentage meter to indicate how much left there was for me to get. Each level had a preview of some sort telling me what I could find within it. This extended further into the levels themselves, where there was a crate icon at the top of the screen telling me how many there were left to break. 

Completion in Crash Bandicoot, the first game in the series, presented the player with two simple main collectibles: gems and colored gems. Both were awarded simply for destroying every crate in a level without a death. The sequel, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, changed the colored gems to be hidden within certain levels and removed the death requirement, but the indents above each level were still obvious enough to help guide the player as to where they could be obtained. The third Crash game introduced time relics, which were retroactively added to the first two games in the 2017 N. Sane Trilogy remaster. 

These relics are the most notable crack in a completionist’s resolve to get everything. Each relic is obtained by completing a level within a set time limit. However, there are multiple levels of these relics: sapphire, gold, and platinum. In the original PS1 release, the percentage meter only cared if a relic was obtained at all, so the gold and platinum ones were only for bragging rights. If I so desired, I could go back and try to improve my time, but I had otherwise fully completed the game. 

In the N. Sane Trilogy, the trophy requirements are slightly different from the in-game percentage meter – each game in the trilogy has an achievement for getting every relic in at least a gold version. For the average player, these are much more difficult than the base sapphire relic and could potentially be unobtainable for many players who would normally have been more keen on doing everything the game had to offer. 

Taking a look at the Steam achievement rates, all of the gold relic achievements were obtained by less than 3% of the players, while obtaining all of the gems ranges from 8% for the first game to 5% for the third. Gem completion does trigger the ‘true’ ending in each game, so perhaps there is less motivation to go beyond that threshold. Regardless of the gold relic issue, I found the completionist aspect of the Crash Bandicoot series to be one of the most enjoyable parts of it. Then came Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, and everything came crashing down all at once.

Crash and Burn

Crash Bandicoot 4 is what happens when achievement goals are taken too far. First off are the gems – instead of there being a guaranteed one from crates and sometimes a hidden gem, every level had a grand total of *six* gems, not including the rare colored gems. three gems are obtained from getting enough fruit, one is from breaking all of the crates, one is hidden, and one is from dying less than three times. 

This all seems perfectly reasonable, and feels more like padding out the original requirements rather than keeping them as is, until a look is taken at the crate counts. In the original trilogy, crates rarely ever go above 100, with an average of around 60. In Crash 4, however, crate counts can reach over a whopping 400, with averages being nearly 200. On top of that, Crash 4 likes to hide crates out of view from the camera multiple times per level, resulting in a conundrum: reaching the end of a level a few crates short and being unable to backtrack. That situation is completely insane (or should I say N. Sane?).

Unfortunately, things only get worse from here. In addition to standard levels, there are “N. Verted” levels, which are simply mirrored left-right with a visual filter applied. Every single one of these levels has six gems, with the hidden gem’s location being the only difference from the standard variation. There are also some slight level variations where half of the level is played as a different character, but then the second half is the same as normal, and all of those levels also have N. Verted variations, causing some levels to essentially be played through four times.

Crash 4 also introduces the N. Sane Perfect Relic, which is obtained for completing all 6 gem objectives without dying. Thankfully relics only need to be done for the standard (non-N. Verted) version of a level — though every single perfect relic and N. Verted gem needs to be obtained for the in-game percentage meter, not just the achievement list. In addition, the normal relics have gotten worse as well. Now the platinum relics are all required for an achievement, creating yet another jump in skill level required for total completion. As if that wasn’t enough, Crash 4 also adds developer relics for those masochistic players who want to really prove themselves, but thankfully developer relics are optional for completion, unlike everything else in the game.

With all of this nonsense combined, it’s no wonder that Crash 4 has a low rate of completion compared to simply beating the game. I loved getting everything in the original trilogy and considered completion one of the most important aspects of it, but the ridiculous requirements — for the gems, the repeated levels, the perfect relics, and the platinum relics — were enough to drive me away from a series that I love. I can only hope that the rumored new Spyro game doesn’t suffer the same kind of treatment.

That One Last Achievement

Of course, Crash 4 is a severe case of every collectible in the game being turned to the extreme. Many games tend to have one or two achievements that make completion frustrating, either from a developer oversight or simply not caring enough to avoid an unnecessary grind. Flora Eloise, writer and editor at Epilogue, recently wrote a piece on Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s True Final Millenium Tower achievement, a gruelling final dungeon that requires a ton of grinding beforehand. This achievement alone could take more than half the time everything else in the game takes combined.

That final grind is a small, easily correctable mistake that can tarnish an otherwise fantastic game. Something similar recently occured for me in Persona 5: Strikers. The main storyline is fun and enjoyable, and even the small amount of post-game content was fine for getting a few remaining achievements. The problem came when I reached all of the other achievements and only had one left: maxing out all bond skill levels.

This one last achievement is what finally told me to stop playing. Bond points are given for completing missions, cooking each meal for the first time, and (sometimes) for story objectives, and are then spent on upgrading skills. At the end of Strikers, when the post-game NewGame+ mode was about to happen, I hadn’t even reached a third of the required bond points — and didn’t even reach half after completing the rest of the achievements. My only choice was to either grind for hours on end just for an achievement pop, or to simply give up and decide that my time was better spent elsewhere. I decided on the latter.

An Unending Cycle

The aspect of time spent on a game is one that can impact how I perceive a lot of games. In general, if I’m spending over a hundred hours on a game, I must really enjoy it — even with repetition. The roguelike, in particular, is a genre that is based on replaying the same content over and over again, and a genre I can enjoy despite the repeated nature. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, for instance, is one of my favorite games of all time, one that I have dumped over 300 hours into.

In the base Isaac game, reaching endgame content is a matter of beating the previous endgame boss multiple times. This can be a gruelling repetitive process, but for newcomers it’s a way to teach the game without the goal feeling out of reach. As more attempts are won, more floors open up, eventually reaching the final floors in the Chest or the Dark Room. As the game is explored more, optional routes are found leading to a boss rush and a final boss in Mega Satan.

Completion in Isaac is noted by a paper note on the character select screen, with marks added for each endgame boss defeated. Each character has its own set of marks, so the final goal is to complete every endgame boss with every character (along with some other smaller objectives that will likely be done on the way). This was a long repetitive process that involved a lot of luck and run resets to get the right items, but I managed to do everything in The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.

Each DLC for Isaac added content both in additional characters and in additional completion marks. Thus, with each new DLC release, the completion requirement multiplied, both with having to replay as old characters and having to redo everything with the new ones. This was again a repetitive, luck-intensive process, but I loved the game so much that I grit my teeth and persevered.

With the advent of The Binding of Isaac: Repentance, I finally reached my limit. In addition to two new endgame marks to get, the number of characters more than doubled. With previous DLC, the number of characters only increased by a couple, but Repentance bumped the number from 15 to a whopping 34. This, to me, was simply too much content, and I threw in the towel. Even outside the scope of the achievement lists, there will forever be incomplete checklists in-game. I’ll probably go back to Isaac and attempt a few marks every now and then, but my addiction has long since passed because of this reason.

Hope in the Future

It’s not all doom and gloom for the achievement hunters out there. Persona 5 Royal modified its list from the base Persona 5, cutting out the grindy nature of completing the persona compendium and the potentially missible nature of the game’s social links in favor of having a small taste of each of the new things Royal had to offer, such as billiards and the jazz club. This small change improved the completion aspect to something that lets the story shine rather than relying on a guide for perfect time management.

Because of games like Persona 5 Royal, I’m hopeful for the future of achievement hunting. Developers can make such small changes to the achievement lists to make the process a lot more enjoyable. They can also cut back on content for the sake of having a more streamlined and pleasurable experience, rather than shoehorn in ‘perfect’ trophies for various system requirements. Some people like the added challenge of having to be perfect at a game to complete it, but those are best left as optional challenges rather than affecting what it means to one-hundred percent a game.

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