Many games treat 100% completion as their reward. You did something, here is the number, goodbye. The worst pirates (looking at you, Yoshi’s New Island) give you nothing, or maybe an achievement that appears on your screen for three seconds and then disappears forever. The slightly better ones give you the makeup no one asked for. Then there are the games on this list that understand that players who are willing to go the extra mile deserve a generous return.
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What separates a good completion reward from a bad one is whether it feels like the game was saving something for you, instead of taking the bonus as an afterthought. It may be a secret boss that is the most dedicated players have ever fought. It might be the ending that finally resolves something the main story left open. It could be a message from the developers thanking you personally, which sounds small but always warms my heart.
No matter what form it takes, the best completion rewards feel like the game is shaking your hand and saying it. These ten got it right.
10
Spyro: Year of the Dragon
The Second Battle of the Tenant You Must Win
Most collethons reward 100% for a cutscene or achievement. Spyro: Year of the Dragon gives you a Super Bonus Round – a full extra round with its own growing series of challenges. You fight thieves for treasures, then take Hunter’s submarine to destroy the Rhynoc subs, and race the Sasquatch Six on hoverboards in what is one of the toughest optional challenges in the game. Win that, and you get the Superflame power-up to take down the flying saucers. And then the final door to return to the Witch opens.
The battle of the Witch is difficult. He’s fast as the battle progresses, his fireballs are hard to dodge, and flying into the acid below kills you instantly. The 150th egg, Yin and Yang, drops when you hit it. It’s a complete bonus level that’s hidden behind full completion, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that makes collecting everything built into one final love letter for everything you’ve seen in the game.
9
Legends of Pokémon: Arceus
He finally caught God
Completing the Pokédex in Pokémon Legends: Arceus – which means reaching Level 10 in every entry, not a complete research, but still a valuable investment – rewards you with a Shiny Charm, which greatly improves your chances of getting shine. During an outbreak of Miss with Charm armed, the ratio jumps to 1 in 140. That alone may not be enough for many players.
The real reward, however, is Arceus himself. The true god of the Pokémon universe, the game’s namesake, can only be caught after completing the Pokédex. The game tells you at the beginning that you will meet him again after you find all the Pokémon, and he keeps that promise. Fighting and catching Arceus is the best Pokédex reward any game in the series has ever offered. It is not a charm or certificate. The real end of the story.
8
Super Mario Galaxy
A Message From Developers
Collecting all 120 Power Stars and defeating Bowser a second time unlocks Super Luigi Galaxy – a full replay of the game as Luigi, with his unique moves and physics. That alone is a great reward and a fun take on the classic New Game+ slogan. Collecting all 120 stars as Luigi and beating Bowser also unlocks the Grand Finale Galaxy, the final short stage and the last Power Star of each mode.
The part that really got me was what happened after doing that, though: talk to Mailtoad and you get a message posted on the Wii Message Board: a congratulatory note from the Super Mario Galaxy team, thank you for playing to the end. Gratitude the size of the galaxy, signed by the staff. In the Switch port, it’s read in-game. It’s a small gesture, but it’s really warm in a way that no trophy or achievement can be.
7
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
The Most Powerful Weapon in the Games, Only for Bosses
Collecting all 20 Immutable Masks and trading them to the Moon Children inside the Moon earns the Fierce Deity Powerful Mask – A powerful Link, wielding a double helix sword that blasts magic beams and tears at bosses in seconds. By default, you can only use it in boss rooms, which is where you need it most.
The catch is that using the Fierce Deity Mask prevents you from seeing certain cutscenes – nine of them, chained together each with its own mask associated with it. The game builds on the real tension between power and closure, and it’s the kind of design choice that respects the player enough to make the reward meaningful rather than unconditional. In the 3DS remake, you can also use it in fishing ponds, if that’s important to you.
6
Stardew Valley
A Hat That Makes You Look Like an Engineer
Stardew Valley’s Perfection program rewards full completion with a layered set of adorable openings. A conference opens – a path blocked by a rock that only goes through the night once you’ve hit 100% – leading to a cutscene with your spouse or favorite NPC. The Statue of True Perfection produces one Prismatic Shard per day, which is very useful. Golden chickens are available, they produce golden eggs. Grandpa’s Shrine gets a Stardrop recording. A flock of Ginger Island parrots flies over your farm.
My favorite is him??? Hat. Go to the top of the Volcano Caldera and find a monkey sitting in the mud. Join it. You get a mask that makes your character look like the ConcernedApe logo from the beginning of the game. It’s completely and utterly stupid, and it’s kind of thankful that only an indie developer with a personal relationship with their game would consider leaving.
5
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
Seeing the Future
Kingdom Hearts’ secret ending, “Another Side, Another Story,” was already something special in the first game. The Final Mix version expanded it to “Another Side, Another Story [deep dive]” – a long, cryptic sequence that poked fun at the Kingdom Hearts mythos years before anyone knew what it meant.
On normal difficulty, unlocking it requires completing the Hades Cup, finding all 99 puppies, closing each Keyhole, completing Jiminy’s Journal, and ending the game. A real commitment checklist. What you get in return is the secret ending that the community spent years analyzing, thinking, and debating — a prize that was not just content but mystery.
4
Donkey Kong World: Hot Ice
Hard mode with no checkpoints
Reaching 100% in Tropical Freeze – all KONG characters, all stages, all bosses – unlocks Hard Mode. In Hard Mode, you start all levels with one heart, there are no checkpoints, and no store is available. It’s brutal in a way that the main game sometimes isn’t. You can advance to 200% by completing Hard Mode and collecting all the blue KONG characters, but that only earns you bragging rights and a completion percentage.
What I like about this is that it doesn’t give you makeup or a gallery. It gives you a harder version of the game you already love, with a gate after you prove you can handle it. That’s a good design choice for this type of game.
3
Mine
Infinite All, One Run Later
Collecting all 100 missing beads in Okami earns you a String of Beads – a resource that grants unlimited ink, infinite solar energy, invincibility, and a tenfold attack multiplier. The catch: 100 beads are awarded for defeating the final boss, which means that String of Beads can be fully used in the New Extra Game.
It’s technically a reward that you have to wait the entire game to use properly, which sounds frustrating until you realize that it turns your NG+ into an incredibly satisfying victory streak. You’ve mastered the art of becoming invincible in a game you already love. Time makes you feel more accomplished, not less.
2
Final Fantasy X-2
The End That Makes Everything Right
Final Fantasy X-2 wasn’t designed for 100% completion in one playthrough, and most players won’t beat it on their first run. The percentage exceeds the gameplay, and the reward for getting there – combined with saying the right things in sequence after the final boss – is a great ending. One that resolves the heartbreak of Final Fantasy X in the most satisfying way possible.
I won’t say more than that to anyone who hasn’t seen it. What I will say is that if you finished Final Fantasy X feeling frustrated and didn’t go back to X-2, this is a reason to go back. The good ending is there, it is earned with real effort, and it is worth everything it costs to get there.
1
Hades
The True Ending Takes Eight Attempts at Impossible
Escaping the Underworld from Hades for the first time is an achievement in itself. It is not the end. The real ending requires Zagreus to defeat Hades and reach the top eight times, then build his relationship with all the main Olympians to the highest level – each of them appears by chance, which means that the process requires patience and persistence to run a huge amount.
What awaits at the end of it all is truly moving. Meeting. Reconciliation. Family conflicts are resolved. Hades himself, unburdened, behaves warmly towards Zagreus in what may sound like a first. The game gets all its hits because you earned the right to see it. Supergiant built a true ending that is only available to fully committed players, and they made sure it was worth committing to.
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