After discussing between the mods as well as some runners, we have decided to update the rules for Crash 1 105%; you now only have to collect 26 out of the 27 Relics in the game to finish the run (note: the ones you collect still all need to be Gold or Platinum).

In order to address some potential common questions:

1) Why is this changing? How come we suddenly need one less Relic?

The reason for this change is simple: we have never needed all 27 Relics in order to get 105%. The game has always awarded the extra percentage for Relics by simply having 26 of them, likely due to the game's programming not factoring in the existence of Stormy Ascent as a bonus level. The decision to require all 27 Relics anyway was made years ago, when Stormy Ascent was freshly released, partly because we were not sure whether this was a legitimate mistake that might be fixed later on in an update. Nearly three years into the game's life, I think it's pretty clear that Vicarious Visions has no intention of patching the game to fix this (or anything).

2) But why change it now?

For those who don't know, it was recently discovered that in Crash 3, you can acquire 108% with only 30 of the 31 Relics in the game being Gold or Platinum (i.e. one of them can be Sapphire). It was quickly decided that in 108%, finishing the run with one Sapphire Relic should be allowed, as not only does it allow for the possibility of new one cycles, you also still get 108%.

That last point is the most critical. The full completion categories in NST should be concerned with doing whatever it takes to get the maximum percentage. This is also the case with other games in the Crash series that skip things that don't contribute to percentage, but for the sake of keeping things simple, let's keep this focused on just NST. Crash 2 102% does what it takes to get 102%, which is the maximum percentage. Crash 3 108% does what it takes to get 108%, which is the maximum percentage. Crash 1 105% is the outlier here; not only does it require doing what it takes to get to 105%, it also requires going further by collecting a Relic that isn't even needed, which is an arbitrary restriction.

We want to be consistent between all three categories, and if we aren't putting an arbitrary restriction on 108%, it makes no sense to keep the restriction on 105%. All three categories should be solely concerned with doing what it takes to get the maximum percentage possible in each game.

This was less of a concern when the only game in question was Crash 1, but now that a similar situation is known to exist in Crash 3, it is better to keep things consistent between the two, instead of having one be treated one way and the other be treated another way.

3) Why not just make it so it's like 108%, where you have to collect every Relic but one of them can be Sapphire?

This sounds great in theory, but this argument falls apart when you realize that the way Crash 1 handles Relic percentage is completely different from how Crash 3 does it. In Crash 3, every single collectible item, including each individual Relic, provides 1%. This means that even if you don't need the 31st Relic to be Gold, you still have to collect it, otherwise you will end the game with 107%.

Crash 1 (and Crash 2) both handle this differently. These games only check if you have the total number of desired Relics (26 in the case of Crash 1, 27 in the case of Crash 2), and give you 1% if you do. You get an additional 1% if all of the required Relics are Gold or Platinum. Each individual Relic doesn't contribute any percentage by itself.

Because of this, while you need to at least collect the 31st Relic in Crash 3, regardless of what color you get, in Crash 1 you can skip the 27th Relic entirely. Requiring we collect the 27th Relic, but allowing it be Sapphire for the sake of being similar to 108%, puts a restriction on the category that is even more arbitrary than the "require all 27 Gold Relics" requirement that was already in place. It makes much more sense to just omit that Relic entirely.

4) I really liked having to collect all 27 Relics. Is there any way we can have a category that still does that (e.g. All Gold Relics, Gems, Bosses)?

Nothing is stopping you from running the game in whatever way you want. And we would not be against allowing a category like this to be Miscellaneous if it gained traction and popularity. Our primary concern with this suggestion, however, is that the category would be near identical to 105%, with the only difference being the addition of one Relic. However, we are open to the possibility, or any other potential ways to make it more distinct as a category (All Achievements/Platinum Trophy is a potential option).

If you would really like to continue doing the 27th Relic (which for most people will probably be Stormy Ascent's), you can always do it after the fight with Cortex; this would let you stop your submission time on the final hit of Cortex, but still collect the last Relic if you wanted to.

Thanks for reading! I hope you all continue to enjoy running NST!