Currently, I’m working on completing the Retro Achievements for Breath of Fire III, the current Game of the Quarter over in the Retro Handheld Discord‘s Game of the Month program. I’ve only ever completed two achievement sets in my time with RetroAchievements, though there are several that are close enough I could likely achieve that badge if I tried. Completing an achievement set isn’t normally something I strive for when playing retro games, and this particular one has honestly been a pretty miserable experience.
Breath of Fire III is one of my favorite games from my childhood, and normally, I would be quite excited for another playthrough. I’ve put in over sixty hours this playthrough and could’ve finished over twenty hours ago. After fighting dozens of Lava Men and catching untold amounts of fish, I caught myself thinking; Why am I doing this?
What are RetroAchievements?
For those who may not know, RetroAchievements is a way for users to earn achievements (also affectionately known as “cheevos”) while playing retro games. As stated on the RetroAchievements website, “It awards achievements by comparing a game’s memory… to achievement code written by an RA developer. Achievement code…is a list of memory conditions chosen by the developer, that when all are simultaneously true on a single frame, will award an achievement.”
Essentially, the RA Developer (often seen and referred to as the “author” of the achievement set on the website) codes a set of memory conditions that must be met while playing the game to earn an achievement. The developer finds which memory addresses within the game are associated with a certain event or task, associates that with the aforementioned memory conditions as outlined in the achievement set, and when a user completes this event, then “pop” goes the achievement.
Achievements can range from collecting a certain number of items to beating a boss without dying, to clearing an entire game on easy, normal, or hard difficulty. These achievements have their own point values, with more difficult achievements earning a higher score. These accumulated points can be displayed on a user’s profile and across various leaderboards.
Achievements have their own point values, with more difficult achievements earning a higher score. A user is also able to see how many people have completed a particular achievement within that set, with anything less than 10% being considered a “rare achievement”, often due to the difficulty involved in obtaining that achievement.
Achievements can also be marked with an icon indicating if the achievement is “Missable” (only occurs once) or “Progression” (obtained naturally as part of following the story). No icon generally means it can be obtained at any point throughout the game. There’s also a Win Condition icon, but it simply means that the achievement is earned by beating the game.
Checking Your ROM
Because these sets are written by certain individuals for very specific memory addresses in a very specific game, you need the correct mD5 hash for the ROM to match against the site’s database. This is essentially jargon to say that the region (PAL, US, JPN) and type of ROM (original vs. hack vs. broken dump) matter when playing with RetroAchievements.
Just because you have a Breath of Fire III ROM loaded on your device doesn’t mean it was the one for which the author developed the achievement set. There are a couple of ways and tools you can use to checksum your ROMs (the most basic of which is to load your ROM and see if the RetroAchievements set loads when the game boots), but personally, I use RAHasher.
Open a folder with the file you want to check and RAHasher.exe in the same directory. In the Address Bar of the File Explorer, type “cmd” to open a Command Prompt. Here you can type RAHasher.exe, hit the space bar, then enter the ID of the system you’re checking. This will be in the URL of the main system page. For example, PlayStation is 12. Then space bar again, then the filename you want to check. Hit Enter, and you have your RAHash.
You can then check that hash against the Supported Game Files on the game profile page on RetroAchievements, which can be found under Essential Resources on the right-hand side of the page. This will take you to a page with supported game hashes. If your ROM matches one mentioned on this page, you’re good to go!
Hardcore vs. Softcore
There are also two “modes” available when using RetroAchievements: Hardcore and Softcore. Hardcore essentially enforces a couple of restrictions on the emulator, namely, no use of save states or rewind. These users participate in leaderboards to see who has earned the most points from their collective gaming achievements, and any achievements earned while using Hardcore mode have a gold border around the achievement and a “Mastered” badge for the game once the set is completed.
Softcore users are not included in any official leaderboards for pretty obvious reasons, as it would be hugely advantageous for the softcore users, but otherwise, the user is free to use save states, rewind, and other methods to make the game easier and more convenient to play. The user also gets a “Completed” badge for the game once the set is completed, as opposed to the mastered badge for Hardcore.
As is the case with most things, there are divisions amongst user bases on which is preferred and, of course, superior. As the name suggests, Hardcore is the realm of purists and masochists; people who wish to earn their achievements by playing the game as it was intended. Softcore, on the other hand, is for casuals who enjoy convenience, jaunting through the game with the use of quality-of-life improvements granted by emulation.
Why Do We Enjoy RetroAchievements?
Why we find ourselves using RetroAchievements likely depends on the individual playing the game. It can be a fun challenge for users on a return playthrough. It can be a great way to engage with other community members playing the same game. It can add an extra layer of engagement to an otherwise boring game.
Personally, I find RetroAchievements to be a fun way to engage with a game on a potentially deeper level, especially if I’m playing something I might otherwise not enjoy or have played before. I rarely push myself to complete entire sets, as this can be a bit tedious and doesn’t align well with my already busy schedule, but it gives me an opportunity to experience a game with an additional layer that would otherwise be absent without RetroAchievements.
Why Don’t More People Use RetroAchievements?
The most common issue with RetroAchievements is that they require an always-online connection, necessitating that a user has their gaming device of choice connected to the internet in order for the game’s memory to match the achievement conditions exactly as they occur. If they happen to complete a condition when their device is not connected to the internet, that achievement does not “pop”, and they have now missed that achievement.
Currently, the only way around this is to either play that portion of the game again while connected to the internet or submit a ticket on the RetroAchievements website or Discord to request a manual unlock. Depending on the method used, a manual unlock is a request to unlock the condition in the achievement set by providing the achievement ID, proof of completion, and potentially a broken achievement ticket. It can be a bit of a tedious task.
Offline achievements have been a request of users for a long time, and there have been some recent developments in this regard. A current fork of melonDS, merely a few weeks old, has included offline support for softcore RetroAchievements. It has the approval of the RA team and is a welcome development in accessibility for these achievements. However, for most other emulators, the need for an always-online connection drives many away.
Afterword
While this experience has reminded me why I don’t complete achievement sets in games through RetroAchievements, I do still enjoy using them. It’s my salt and pepper; it can certainly enhance the flavor, but it’s not necessary, and too much of it can make the whole meal taste bad. It helps when the meal, Breath of Fire III, is one of my favorite games.
As I write this article, I’ve still yet to complete the achievement set for Breath of Fire III. I have until the end of March, and with only ten achievements left, I’m starting to wonder if I’ll be able to finish. The Fish achievement alone requires me to catch the largest specimen of every fish in the game, of which there are 23 types. The size of the fish is entirely dependent on RNG when entering a fishing spot, and there might not even be a maximum-sized fish in a particular fishing session.
Those two extra internet points better be worth it.
