By the skin of your teeth, you made it. You cut through those demons like butter, rotated those blocks in the just the right order, or snuck through the enemy defenses. You got the job done. Then you see the results screen. You got a “D” for a grade, or a bronze medal. We want to know: how much does that bother you?
With Devil May Cry 5 hitting in March I’ve been replaying Devil May Cry 4, and boy is it obsessed with letter grades (as are most action games, to be fair). I’m finding it more fun than I remember, even if the puzzle and exploration puzzles are already starting to feel dated, just a few hours in. But at the end of every mission, I’m getting pretty low grades, mostly for idling around or not finding all the red orbs in a mission. I’m still plugging away at the game, but whenever I see a letter grade that isn’t the best it can be, I get this nagging feeling in the back of my head to go back and do it again for full marks. I’ve done this with lots of games in the past (I played Metal Gear Solid V until I got an S-Rank in every mission), but I’ve tapered off in recent years, though I recently got back on the bandwagon with Tetris Effect.
What about you? Do you obsess over letter grades or gold medals in games? Does it depend on the game you’re playing, or do you find it to be a pretty universal tick for you as a player? Have you replayed a mission you don’t necessarily love just to clean up that board where all your letter grades are? What exactly are you willing to do for that coveted S-Rank or Platinum medal? Let us know in the comments.
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