Test Trophy Please Ignore: Achievements as Paratexts in Palimpsestic Readings of Remasters and Remakes

This paper argues that achievements, or trophies, function as paratexts in Genette's sense, offering authorial commentary that reveals the palimpsestic relationship between original video games and their remakes and remasters. Its central thesis is that trophy lists, which typically persist, change, or are newly created across versions of a game, provide traces of the revision process and can be read as interpretive, navigational, and commercial thresholds. The authors note that while the commercial effects and gamification role of achievements have been studied, their interpretive function has received little theoretical attention, and that existing scholarship on remakes as paratexts has largely omitted achievements.

The analysis is framed by the distinction between remasters, which mainly enhance graphics with limited changes to story and gameplay, and remakes, which may introduce new narrative or gameplay elements. The paper traces achievement systems from the Xbox 360's 2005 launch and cites a 2007 industry study correlating higher achievement volume with higher Metacritic scores and sales, noting that achievements became mandatory on Microsoft and Sony platforms. Its examples span Silent Hill 2, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Stanley Parable, with The Last of Us serving as the main case study.

Comparing the PS3 (2013), PS4 Remastered (2014), and PS5 Part I (2022) versions of The Last of Us, the authors show that the difficulty-based platinum requirements of the earlier releases were removed in the latest version, allowing the platinum trophy to be earned on easy mode. They interpret this shift as evidence that narrative engagement has displaced skill-based challenge as the priority across the nine years separating the original and the remake. The paper concludes that achievements reveal design changes, references to earlier versions, and encouragements toward new ways of playing, making them valuable sites for reading the palimpsestic nature of revised games.