Exhuminator wrote:So if you beat Demon's Souls but died even once you never learned its mechanics? If you fall in a hole and die once beating Super Mario, you never learned to appreciate its mechanics? If you get second place even once while completing a Gran Turismo cup, you never learned its mechanics?
That is a false equivalence. Like "checkpoint" shmups, all of the games you listed push you back to a starting point or checkpoint whenever you fail; so, you are required to learn their mechanics to progress. Many shmups are autoscrolling, however, and they progress as long as you keep feeding them credits and, presumabley, hold down the "fire" button whenever you encounter a boss. (Certainly, it would take a lot of credits to beat a shmup this way.) Accordingly - and with regard to that particular type of shmup - I do not think that learning the game's mechanics is required to "beat" them if you engage in credit feeding.
Exhuminator wrote:I'll just say that mastering a game VS beating a game, these are not the same thing.
I agree completely, and I have no intention of setting some sort of arbitrary criteria for considering a game "beaten" for the purposes of this thread. I was just noting that, with regard to certain types of shmups, a significant part of the gameplay experience and nuance is lost if you engage in credit feeding. (I also do not think that a 1CC is absolutely necessary to obtain the full gameplay experience. IMO, just limiting yourself to a set number of credits is a great way to ensure that you do not miss out on anything.)