Yeah, it's hard to find a set of rules that apply to everything. We run into gray areas like that one all the time.

Honestly, when it gets to something really minor like that, we tend to decide based on how much we like the game. If it's a completely awesome game like Galaxy, I'd be more inclined to do it. Squeeze every last drop of fun out of the good ones. But if it's a game that's started to overstay its welcome with me, I may ignore the borderline requirements.

Enjoyment should trump nitpicks in the end.

Nope, I didn't get all the recipes in any of the Paper Mario games.

We actually had some pretty lengthy discussions on this during the creation of the site. Our goal was to make completion thorough but not crazy obsessive. RPGs were a particular concern. I know some people would go so far as to say an RPG isn't completed until all your characters were at their maximum level, which personally, I think is insane. We ended up settling on this:

Completed - Must meet the following requirements (where applicable):
-Overall game completion percentage is maxed out
-All unlockables are acquired
-Every game mode is finished
-Beaten on the hardest difficulty level
-Optional levels/dungeons and bosses are beaten
-Best ending viewed
-All major item-based upgrades are collected
(Minor items not included in the above are irrelevant)


We cut out the minor items so RPGs and similar games are reasonably completable. You don't have to find every single weapon/armor/item in the game but you do need things like all the "Max HP Up" items. You'd also need to collect a set of items if they give you a reward, like all the skullulas in Ocarina of Time. As far as I know, you don't get anything from learning all the recipes, so I considered them irrelevant.