A Guy Named Guy
Green Slime
Spoiler Warning
I'll be avoiding spoilers as much as possible, but be warned if you're going in blind that how things are described can give some details away for how the game ends.
The "Challenge Accepted" achievement currently requires playing a run start-to-finish in Expert mode. More specifically, it requires achieving the true ending, which includes collecting every enemy card, completing a secret boss fight, and completing an end-game questline to unlock the true final boss.
Playing through basically the whole game up until the true final boss, while definitely more difficult, follows a reasonable and pretty natural difficulty progression. However, the true final boss on Expert mode is a significantly higher difficulty to playing even the entire rest of the game combined. Of such a difficulty that turning to game to Expert mode alone to do that specific fight is a feat in itself.
I suggest that "Playing through the game on Expert" and "Beating the true final boss on Expert" are two very distinct achievements that are worthy of splitting the Challenge Accepted achievement into two: One for simply beating the game on Expert (perhaps including collecting every card as well), and one for beating the true final boss on Expert mode specifically. As it stands, "Challenge Accepted" implies its merely asking to beat the game at all, and if a player reaches the end and realizes the kind of fight is required, it can hold the full Expert save playthrough hostage over whether to weather a grueling several-day attempt grind on beating the boss legit, or sacrificing the Expert flag to play normally and be able to see the game end.
Reasoning
The main reason I suggest this is worth changing is because for a player choosing to start in Expert mode blind because they see there's an achievement for it is not going in with full information.
For anyone not in the know, essentially what Expert mode changes about the true final boss is that health potions and the shield spell are effectively disabled. Although there is a way to make the fight much easier with a secret item, it makes survival feasible rather than fully solving it. Even having this advantage leaves a several minute endurance match that requires exceptional execution, as any amount of damage is effectively permanent across the longest and most complex fight in the game.
The True Final Boss on Expert is a tremendous achievement, 100% worthy of being attached to earning one as well as having every reason to be as difficult as it is.
However, the achievement that represents this is effectively the "Challenge Accepted" achievement, which merely describes "Play the game on Expert mode from start to finish". What "start to finish" means is vague, and if you're like me, you go in starting a file assuming its at least beating the game normally.
Someone playing through the game on Expert gets the vibe of the kind of difficulty expected. It is possible to reach the very final boss (not the true one) and even beat him while still feeling like standard difficulty progression. It is only when facing the true final boss that it hits what is truly required to earn the achievement.
The Problem
Someone who plays the game up until realizing they must defeat an outstandingly difficult boss now faces a dilemma on how to proceed to see an ending. Though someone who lacks a catalyst can beat the game just fine, someone who has obtained all three catalysts may not be able to see any end to the game at all. Not without achieving what is frankly one of the most impressive feats of difficulty seen in a video game.
This leaves one of either:
Buckle up for a several hour long, possibly multi-day long struggle, necessitating a complete overhaul of your character as nothing but the most optimal damage and compromising a severe handicap to your survivability is gonna give any chance of seeing the end,
Ruin the playthrough's Expert flag and drop to Hard or Normal to face the fight now complete with survivability options that give leagues worth of leeway in execution, at the cost of now needing to complete a second Expert file from start to finish to get the achievement later,
Drop the Expert file and play through a fresh file on Normal to see both endings while still keeping the Expert achievement open,
Or cheat, one way or another. Whether that be force-deleting a catalyst to see the normal ending or over levelling the player to whatever degree seems fit to force the Expert playthrough to reach a conclusion.
The core issue with this achievement is that attaching a full Expert playthrough on top of this boss adds several strange caveats and layers to something that threatens a several dozen hour playthrough. Beating this boss has the potential to hold a file hostage over an achievement that was pretty innocuous at the start. Meanwhile, simply splitting the achievement up so the boss is its own achievement would solve all sort of problematic angles to choosing how to end the game.
The Solution
It'd be a lot more appropriate to split off beating the true final boss on Expert into its own achievement. Avoid all this baggage and fully illustrate that something huge was accomplished.
To this end, I have a plan to go about implementing this split:
1. Change the "Challenge Accepted Achievement" itself to the achievement for beating the true final boss on Expert.
The problem of implementing this change to grandfather in people who earned it prior would be solved by simply using the achievement itself to check who has or hasn't achieved it.
I would also suggest keeping the achievement name relatively vague, but clearly stating "Defeat the True Final Boss on Expert mode". That way it can be a public achievement that's clearer what is supposed to be impressive about it, and being easier to balk on once someone realizes what it's asking for.
Though if the fact there even is a "true final boss" at all is something that is desired to be kept hidden, keeping the achievement hidden is fair enough.
2. On this new True Final Boss achievement, change the requirement to solely have the Expert flag on from the fight's start to its conclusion
Although the former "Challenge Accepted" implies having weathered the game in Expert start to finish, it is honestly the least impressive part of the whole achievement. If you can do the true final boss on Expert, you 100% could've easily done the entire rest of the game regardless and had a far easier time doing it.
3. Add a separate new achievement, probably keeping the "Challenge Accepted" name and description in its entirety
As much as I'm diminishing beating the game otherwise on Expert, that's in comparison to the final fight. Every boss on Expert is still a fair challenge, and the card grind is more difficult to approach. It's worthy enough for its own achievement.
Unfortunately I don't have as clean of a solution to grandfather this one. My best suggestion is that anyone who plays a file in a post-game state with the Expert flag intact could earn the achievement on starting the file.
The more complicated question has to do with, given the true final boss implies full game completion, whether or not to check full completion and how to do so.
Easily the most impactful part of the Expert run in the card grind. The preliminary secret boss and the side-quest are peanuts compared to the true final boss, though it could be fair to plant the flag onto the check for having all three catalysts. Bit of an unorthodox place but it's the most literal solution to cutting off a save file from a fight that stands alone in what it demands.
The Benefits
On writing this out and realizing how defeating the True Final Boss one way or another locks the file out of another attempt regardless without cheating, it's not a 100% fix for avoiding having to fully play through a file if someone wants to beat the true final on Normal and get around to Expert some other time. However, having the option to play through normally until the end is good for QoL, and perhaps re-challenging the true final boss could be incorporated some other way to allow one file to have the option to go both routes (If refighting the true final boss is not an option as it stands. I don't think it is, far as I know)
Having the two separate achievements also subtly explains that the true final boss has some kind of reason for being split off from completing the game otherwise. Where as it stands it's completely miss-able that the true final is a part of the Expert achievement until the last minute, likely after "beating" the game lacking catalysts and seeing it hasn't been achieved yet, or having all three catalysts and realizing it's a point of no return.
And finally, the achievement would get the weight it deserves. "Challenge Accepted" looks like a very innocuous achievement, as stated before. The one hint that it's something greater is its unusually low achievement total. Even its description feels like its just asking to beat the game, not really complete it. It'd be a much grander achievement if it was a little more clear on what the feat was, that being defeating a boss on a high difficulty. Complete with such a low achievement count, that illustrates exactly that something was going on there. It sets up expectations better for people looking into it, at the very least.
For as relatively niche as this whole dilemma is, the final fight is plenty hard enough that it's worth splitting it off from the Expert playthrough. The expectations for achieving one or the other are completely different, so splitting "Challenge Accepted" in two for this would make a lot of sense and prevent a lot of headache for the niche but very possible situation of someone getting in too deep before it's too late.
Although all this harsh talk is over a steam achievement, remember that this achievement gets a whole playthrough's worth of buildup without any mental-preparation to assume it's not a given. It just sucks to try and let go of that far into a playthrough, or to stall out at the finish line trying to beat the boss legitimately.
With NG+ hopefully coming out, it maybe a clean chance to give the change some consideration
If a dev reads this far, thank you for giving this a read, whether or not you agree I appreciate you giving the time to listen
I'll be avoiding spoilers as much as possible, but be warned if you're going in blind that how things are described can give some details away for how the game ends.
The "Challenge Accepted" achievement currently requires playing a run start-to-finish in Expert mode. More specifically, it requires achieving the true ending, which includes collecting every enemy card, completing a secret boss fight, and completing an end-game questline to unlock the true final boss.
Playing through basically the whole game up until the true final boss, while definitely more difficult, follows a reasonable and pretty natural difficulty progression. However, the true final boss on Expert mode is a significantly higher difficulty to playing even the entire rest of the game combined. Of such a difficulty that turning to game to Expert mode alone to do that specific fight is a feat in itself.
I suggest that "Playing through the game on Expert" and "Beating the true final boss on Expert" are two very distinct achievements that are worthy of splitting the Challenge Accepted achievement into two: One for simply beating the game on Expert (perhaps including collecting every card as well), and one for beating the true final boss on Expert mode specifically. As it stands, "Challenge Accepted" implies its merely asking to beat the game at all, and if a player reaches the end and realizes the kind of fight is required, it can hold the full Expert save playthrough hostage over whether to weather a grueling several-day attempt grind on beating the boss legit, or sacrificing the Expert flag to play normally and be able to see the game end.
Reasoning
The main reason I suggest this is worth changing is because for a player choosing to start in Expert mode blind because they see there's an achievement for it is not going in with full information.
For anyone not in the know, essentially what Expert mode changes about the true final boss is that health potions and the shield spell are effectively disabled. Although there is a way to make the fight much easier with a secret item, it makes survival feasible rather than fully solving it. Even having this advantage leaves a several minute endurance match that requires exceptional execution, as any amount of damage is effectively permanent across the longest and most complex fight in the game.
The True Final Boss on Expert is a tremendous achievement, 100% worthy of being attached to earning one as well as having every reason to be as difficult as it is.
However, the achievement that represents this is effectively the "Challenge Accepted" achievement, which merely describes "Play the game on Expert mode from start to finish". What "start to finish" means is vague, and if you're like me, you go in starting a file assuming its at least beating the game normally.
Someone playing through the game on Expert gets the vibe of the kind of difficulty expected. It is possible to reach the very final boss (not the true one) and even beat him while still feeling like standard difficulty progression. It is only when facing the true final boss that it hits what is truly required to earn the achievement.
The Problem
Someone who plays the game up until realizing they must defeat an outstandingly difficult boss now faces a dilemma on how to proceed to see an ending. Though someone who lacks a catalyst can beat the game just fine, someone who has obtained all three catalysts may not be able to see any end to the game at all. Not without achieving what is frankly one of the most impressive feats of difficulty seen in a video game.
This leaves one of either:
Buckle up for a several hour long, possibly multi-day long struggle, necessitating a complete overhaul of your character as nothing but the most optimal damage and compromising a severe handicap to your survivability is gonna give any chance of seeing the end,
Ruin the playthrough's Expert flag and drop to Hard or Normal to face the fight now complete with survivability options that give leagues worth of leeway in execution, at the cost of now needing to complete a second Expert file from start to finish to get the achievement later,
Drop the Expert file and play through a fresh file on Normal to see both endings while still keeping the Expert achievement open,
Or cheat, one way or another. Whether that be force-deleting a catalyst to see the normal ending or over levelling the player to whatever degree seems fit to force the Expert playthrough to reach a conclusion.
The core issue with this achievement is that attaching a full Expert playthrough on top of this boss adds several strange caveats and layers to something that threatens a several dozen hour playthrough. Beating this boss has the potential to hold a file hostage over an achievement that was pretty innocuous at the start. Meanwhile, simply splitting the achievement up so the boss is its own achievement would solve all sort of problematic angles to choosing how to end the game.
The Solution
It'd be a lot more appropriate to split off beating the true final boss on Expert into its own achievement. Avoid all this baggage and fully illustrate that something huge was accomplished.
To this end, I have a plan to go about implementing this split:
1. Change the "Challenge Accepted Achievement" itself to the achievement for beating the true final boss on Expert.
The problem of implementing this change to grandfather in people who earned it prior would be solved by simply using the achievement itself to check who has or hasn't achieved it.
I would also suggest keeping the achievement name relatively vague, but clearly stating "Defeat the True Final Boss on Expert mode". That way it can be a public achievement that's clearer what is supposed to be impressive about it, and being easier to balk on once someone realizes what it's asking for.
Though if the fact there even is a "true final boss" at all is something that is desired to be kept hidden, keeping the achievement hidden is fair enough.
2. On this new True Final Boss achievement, change the requirement to solely have the Expert flag on from the fight's start to its conclusion
Although the former "Challenge Accepted" implies having weathered the game in Expert start to finish, it is honestly the least impressive part of the whole achievement. If you can do the true final boss on Expert, you 100% could've easily done the entire rest of the game regardless and had a far easier time doing it.
3. Add a separate new achievement, probably keeping the "Challenge Accepted" name and description in its entirety
As much as I'm diminishing beating the game otherwise on Expert, that's in comparison to the final fight. Every boss on Expert is still a fair challenge, and the card grind is more difficult to approach. It's worthy enough for its own achievement.
Unfortunately I don't have as clean of a solution to grandfather this one. My best suggestion is that anyone who plays a file in a post-game state with the Expert flag intact could earn the achievement on starting the file.
The more complicated question has to do with, given the true final boss implies full game completion, whether or not to check full completion and how to do so.
Easily the most impactful part of the Expert run in the card grind. The preliminary secret boss and the side-quest are peanuts compared to the true final boss, though it could be fair to plant the flag onto the check for having all three catalysts. Bit of an unorthodox place but it's the most literal solution to cutting off a save file from a fight that stands alone in what it demands.
The Benefits
On writing this out and realizing how defeating the True Final Boss one way or another locks the file out of another attempt regardless without cheating, it's not a 100% fix for avoiding having to fully play through a file if someone wants to beat the true final on Normal and get around to Expert some other time. However, having the option to play through normally until the end is good for QoL, and perhaps re-challenging the true final boss could be incorporated some other way to allow one file to have the option to go both routes (If refighting the true final boss is not an option as it stands. I don't think it is, far as I know)
Having the two separate achievements also subtly explains that the true final boss has some kind of reason for being split off from completing the game otherwise. Where as it stands it's completely miss-able that the true final is a part of the Expert achievement until the last minute, likely after "beating" the game lacking catalysts and seeing it hasn't been achieved yet, or having all three catalysts and realizing it's a point of no return.
And finally, the achievement would get the weight it deserves. "Challenge Accepted" looks like a very innocuous achievement, as stated before. The one hint that it's something greater is its unusually low achievement total. Even its description feels like its just asking to beat the game, not really complete it. It'd be a much grander achievement if it was a little more clear on what the feat was, that being defeating a boss on a high difficulty. Complete with such a low achievement count, that illustrates exactly that something was going on there. It sets up expectations better for people looking into it, at the very least.
For as relatively niche as this whole dilemma is, the final fight is plenty hard enough that it's worth splitting it off from the Expert playthrough. The expectations for achieving one or the other are completely different, so splitting "Challenge Accepted" in two for this would make a lot of sense and prevent a lot of headache for the niche but very possible situation of someone getting in too deep before it's too late.
Although all this harsh talk is over a steam achievement, remember that this achievement gets a whole playthrough's worth of buildup without any mental-preparation to assume it's not a given. It just sucks to try and let go of that far into a playthrough, or to stall out at the finish line trying to beat the boss legitimately.
With NG+ hopefully coming out, it maybe a clean chance to give the change some consideration
If a dev reads this far, thank you for giving this a read, whether or not you agree I appreciate you giving the time to listen