Gaming Completion Wiki

[Altissimo]

I floated this idea around on the Discord for a little bit but figured I should discuss it somewhere more... permanent.

Basically I had the idea for a gaming wiki that goes into detail about what is needed to achieve certain levels of completion in video games. I came up with this idea after being unable to figure out if SNES F-Zero had a special bonus or anything for winning first place overall; all the sources I could find suggested all you need to do is place in one of the top three in every race, but didn't say anything about winning. I thought it might be nice to create a wiki with some information about games that also states what can be achieved for certain "completion objectives", so that completionist gamers like myself have a nice handy source to consult if they're curious about what the game actually tracks and what kinds of things could be counting toward completion.

It was idle musing in the Discord, but then a number of members stated they would be willing to write about specific games or series, so I figured I'd see what the actual interest level looked like before committing to anything. (I am known all over the Internet for incredibly stupid waste-of-time projects that appeal to extremely limited niches and are definitely not worth the time I put into them, but I still do them because of my own obsessive need for categorization. So this project would really be nothing in comparison. The only thing is that I have less time now than I did when I made my previous stupid waste-of-time projects and would rather not commit to this unless I know I'll have a) community support [not just from NSM members either! feel free to spread the word, anyone is welcome on this!] and b) a decent prospective userbase.)

The general formula would be as follows:
1. Description/overview of the game. Basically, a short description of the game goes here. I haven't decided yet if I want it to be pretty formal a la Wikipedia or less so a la The Cutting Room Floor.

2. Game content. This basically tells you what is in the game that might be considered for 100% completion.
Ex. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon contains a 'story mode' (the main game) that is required to progress through in order to unlock more areas of the game and eventually see the credits roll. The player can also recruit other Pokémon to their rescue force, and these Pokémon are tracked by the game, with an achievement being given for obtaining them all. The game also features rescue ranks, which are reflections of how many missions (and the difficulty thereof) the player has taken, with an absolute upper limit on rank. The game also features an achievement system that tracks the player's progress through the story, through recruitment, and through optional extraneous goals (such as using all Pokémon to lead the rescue team).

3. Basic objective. This outlines the game's provided objective to "beat" it. Usually, this means making the credits roll, but in games where credits are located separately or the game doesn't really have an objective (think SSBM, where credits roll after beating any single-player adventure but that is a rather arbitrary point), you could either use the speedrunners' view on what constitutes "any%" or use fans' arbitrary goal points (in SSBM this would probably be 'unlock all characters and stages' since that's making everything accessible for multiplayer, which is the whole point of SSBM.)

4. Additional objectives. This outlines what else you can do to "complete" the game. If the game has a percentage counter that tracks your progress, simply say what needs to be done to get it to 100%. (ex. in Kirby 64, collect all Crystal Shards and beat Miracle Matter again, or at all if it's your first playthrough.) If the game doesn't have a percentage counter, you can use speedrunners' view on what constitutes 100% (ex. 100% Pokémon runs tend to beat the E4 and fill the Pokédex) or other achievements offered by the game (ex. any% Super Mario Galaxy is beating Bowser, 100% is getting all the Power Stars, but then the game also acknowledges if you do it all again with Luigi).

5. Fan objectives. Depending on the game, there may be some options here for fan challenges/fan-suggested 100%-completion objectives. In SSBM, for instance, all of the unlockables and actual rewards are completed once you unlock all characters and stages, beat 1-player with all characters, gain all trophies and bonuses, beat all Event Matches. However, the game will give you special congratulatory messages for, say, beating Event Match 51 without dying once or playing 1,000,000 matches. As far as I'm aware those are not really counted as far as "beating" SSBM goes, and I myself was done after getting all trophies and bonuses, but they do exist as far as the game's programming is concerned and could be mentioned.
For an example of a fan-100% that doesn't relate to the game's own achievement system, consider the Pokémon completion strategy called "living dex". Strictly speaking, the game only tracks what is registered in the Pokédex and will reward you when the Pokédex is full. However, many fans (myself included) will take it a step further and attempt to get one of every species of Pokémon in the cart itself. This provides no benefits and makes the task harder, but for some fans is a version of 100% completion. Special care should be taken to acknowledge that (most) fan-100%s are not tracked in the game. We want to make a comprehensive guide of what the game tracks and what it doesn't, basically.

Of course this all varies on a case-by-case basis but this is generally I think what would work for most games.

Here are a couple barebones sample game analyses that kind of illustrate what I'd be looking for in the articles:

Super Mario Kart (SNES)

Super Mario Kart is a 1992 kart-racing game released by Nintendo for the SNES. It was the first in a long line of Mario Kart games that are now a staple in Nintendo's game lineups.

Game Content:
The game features two single-player and two multi-player modes. Only one of the single-player modes, Mario Kart GP, has attainable goals tracked by the game and that will trigger the credits sequence. This mode involves the player racing in 4 cups of 5 races each. The player can choose from 3 difficulty levels on these cups. Getting first, second, or third in the cup will be remembered and commemorated by the game, which provides the player a colored trophy based on which position they came in. Unlocking the third difficulty level requires getting gold trophies (winning 1st place) in all cups in the two preceding difficulty levels.

Basic Objective:
In order to see the credits roll for the first time, the player must do the following:
-Get a gold trophy (1st place) in all 3 cups in 50cc
-Get a gold trophy (1st place) in the first 3 cups in 100cc. Doing these two steps will unlock the fourth cup, the Special Cup.
-Rank in the top three in the Special Cup.

This is the way to see the first set of credits. In order to see them roll a second time, the player must also do the following:
-Get a gold trophy (1st place) in the 100cc Special Cup. This will unlock the 150cc difficulty level.
-Rank in the top three in every cup in 150cc.

Additional Objectives:
The game will show you the highest level of trophy you have obtained on any given cup. Thus, winning the gold trophy on all 11 cups will be shown by the game and can be considered to be the game's highest level of completion.

Fan Objectives:
The game only tracks which trophies you have obtained, not how well you did in order to achieve that trophy. Nonetheless, if you really want bragging rights with this game, try to get the maximum score on each race - winning it in 1st place to get 9 points, which will get you 45 points for the whole cup (and, by necessity, the gold trophy).

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Kirby and the Amazing Mirror

Kirby and the Amazing Mirror is a 2004 platformer in the Kirby series released for the GBA. The game differs from most other games in the Kirby series in that it is set in a labyrinthine world instead of a linear progression through levels, and the player must seek out treasure chests by solving puzzles and using their Copy Abilities in certain ways in order to traverse the game world.

Game Content:
Progression through the game is marked by defeating eight bosses, each of which helps restore an important mirror. Upon beating all eight bosses, Kirby can fight the final boss. The game also contains 80 treasure chests which can be opened for temporary prizes (heals, 1-ups) or more permanent items (sound test files, extra life points, maps); the permanent treasures can be seen through an option in the menu of the file and are saved by the game. The game also tracks which rooms Kirby has been in, displaying unvisited rooms in red on the map and visited ones in gold. Ones that have been completed (i.e. any and all treasure chests have been opened) will shine. Kirby can also link faraway places to the central hub area by finding hidden switches. Hitting every hidden switch will open a bonus room that contains every Copy Ability.

Basic Objective:
Defeat all eight bosses to unlock the final boss and defeat him as well. This will cause the credits to roll. Treasure chests are not required, but the player will likely run into them by chance as they seek out the bosses.

Additional Objectives:
The game has a percentage counter. To get it to 100%, the player must do all of the following:
-Defeat all eight bosses and the final boss
-Visit every room
-Open every treasure chest
-Hit every switch that connects a faraway map to the basic hub area
Doing so will trigger a message that the player has attained 100% completion.

Fan Objectives:
There isn't much to say here as the game tracks the important things. If you really want to complete additional objectives, you could try to win the game's three minigames on every difficulty level, or retrace your steps through the whole game using the post-final-boss Master Sword ability, either accessing old treasure chests with it or beating all the bosses with it. You could also try to go through every door in the game if you are really dedicated.

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Xenoblade Chronicles

Xenoblade Chronicles is an action-RPG released in 2010 for the Wii and ported to the New Nintendo 3DS in 2015. The game features the character Shulk traveling across the land with his bizarre and powerful weapon, the Monado, to discover its secrets and to fight the creatures, Mechon, that have been ravaging his homeland.

Game Content:
The game is a rather linear JRPG. The main party must move to certain locations and complete plot objectives in a certain order to advance the plot, fight bosses, and eventually take on the final boss. Along the way, the player is able to take sidequests, create links with NPCs, and do things like crafting and leveling up skills in order to strengthen the characters. The player can also engage in a detailed sidequest that involves rebuilding a destroyed colony by taking sidequests there, inviting NPCs to come join it, and collecting items that can be used for the construction. An achievement system keeps track of many of these and gives achievements for things like reaching certain milestones in number of sidequests taken or NPCs spoken to, etc.

Basic Objective:
The credits will roll and the player will have access to a New Game+ upon defeating the final boss. Once this happens, that file will be stuck at the last point the player saved before the final boss fight (unless it is overwritten with the New Game+ file), so the only objective that constitutes "beating the game" is to defeat the final boss.

Additional Objectives:
The game has a lengthy list of achievements. The whole list can be found here. Completing all objectives on this list basically constitutes 100% completion as far as the game tracks it.

Fan Objectives:
Despite the lengthy achievements list, not everything that can be done in the game is covered on the list. For instance, you will get an achievement for completing 300 quests, but there are more than that in the game; that's just the highest number represented in the achievements. So, you could also do any or all of the following:
-Complete all quests. (Note: Some are mutually exclusive. 'All quests' here means 'all possible quests considering mutual exclusivity'.)
-Explore the entire map and reach all areas. If you are very dedicated you may even wish to make the map show the entire region and not have any black spots whatsoever, although this isn't required.
-Register all NPCs on the Affinity Chart. You may also want to get the highest possible Affinity with them all.
-Have all Heart-to-Hearts go perfectly. However, this will lock you out of the one achievement that requires one Heart-to-Heart to go badly.
-Raise all Arts of each character to the maximum level.
-Defeat all of the Superbosses.

[close]

Feel free to post suggestions/criticism/whatever here, I'm still not sure I'm going through with this so I'd definitely like to hear feedback before making a decision!

[MaestroUGC]

I think it'd be a good resource to have a lot of this information in a single place, especially for less popular games that haven't gotten the Wiki treatment. The question I have is to what extent would you like to go with this?

For example I could give a rundown on item locations for games like Banjo-Kazooie and SM64, in addition to just a list of what's needed for 100% completion.

[mikey]

I don't think the intent is to be a guide or even help players 100% their games

it's more trying to unify what is considered 100% by gamers (and I think speedrunning here should have big influence in this metric)

[Altissimo]

Yeah it's more about listing/describing what goes into 100% rather than showing everything on the Wiki itself. That's what guides are for, and I think we could just link to more in-depth guides and such rather than reinventing the wheel. The wiki isn't meant to show how to achieve 100%, it's meant to show what needs to be done to achieve 100%.

[Trainer Ave]

So is this still a thing because I'd definitely contribute and use it.

[Altissimo]

I was expecting more people to comment but it might be a thing if people want it to be a thing

[SuperMarina]

I'm all for this idea. A lot of guides I use are frankly crap, so I have to sometimes use my own intuition to complete whatever. (Korok Seeds, I'm looking at you.)

[The Deku Trombonist]

Is some of this already covered in some way by the category rules on speedrun.com? Or are you thinking of something more in depth?

[Altissimo]

More in-depth really. Like for instance in Kirby's Return to Dreamland you don't need to get platinums on all the ability stages or beat the (true) arena for the game to register as 100%, so I wouldn't think that would show up in category rules, but it's still registered by the game as an achievement so might be relevant for perfectionist gamers.