Sidequest-itis...?

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So, it's pretty much a staple of the genre: RPG games have sidequests, usually loads of them.

But, you ever just get...tired of it?

Some games will just sidequest you to death...

I've noticed NWN1 and 2 are especially bad about this. Lots of community made mods are so loaded with sidequests that sometimes I can't remember what the original plot even was.

Heck, some games give up almost entirely. I like Sacred, but the main plot line is almost non-existent. Instead, hundreds of sidequests (which are at least pretty short, for the most part.)

Not that I'm saying that RPGs should be totally linear, with no sideplots, but I just don't like too many sidequests that are not related to the plot.

"I have to save the world from an evil, dark god. But first, let me help this old woman find her cat's food bowl."

OK, so that's great for PR, but what about saving the world?

...

Or is it just me?



-D

 

Well... if you don't like sidequests, then why do you do them? There is nobody forcing you to do them.

 

What Morgoth said.

The nice thing about sidequests is that they are optional. You can do as many or as few as you like. I'm a bit of a completionist so I do each and every sidequest in most RPGs I play, but there have been cases where I found some irritating and in that case I just skip the ones I don't like.

 

To me, it depends on how they are presented in the game.

For Ex. - IWDI
- Easthaven(Prolougue) - You find the plot is taking you on a trip to Kuldahar to investigate some problems there.
- But 1st, Hrothgar needs you to check out the missing caravan. Ok, it's adds some early combat experience for the characters, introduces the games battle system to the player and puts a little gold in your pockets. Definitely advances the game.
- Buying the wine for the whino or convincing the whino not to drink anymore is pretty a boring side-quest. Would of been alot better with some humor added, not jsut asking the old man if he's been hitting the sauce.
- Helping out Jhonen and setting up getting his ancestor's sword for some Belhifet stomping at the end of the game is a great side-quest.
- Helping the little guy get his fish back from the Goblins is a pretty ridiculous and somewhat annoying side-quest. It's amazing they can nail you with the bow, but miss all day with the handaxe. I didn't know goblins were marksmen or could even make a bow.

So to me, some of the side-quests fit into the game, advancing the party and giving some overall flair to the whole gaming experience, making it pretty diverse. But some of the side-quests are just tedious, boring and completely lack anything that advances the game. They are just filler.

 

When you get right down to it Morrowind (and to a lesser extent Oblivion) was nothing but side quests with a main story you didn't even have to do. It's an example of sidequesting done right I think.

 

It's not that I dislike sidequests exactly, but sometime it seems like they take over the main plot. Like Blades said above, it depends on how they are presented. If they tie in with the plot, it's nice. But sometimes it just feels like...filler.

Morrowind to me was like that...the sidequests kind of distracted from the main goal, instead of supporting the story.

But, your mileage my vary, I suppose...

 

Sidequests are often required indirectly. You gain experience doing the sidequests and that experience is often assumed by the designers -- they make the boss fights tougher accordingly. Without completing the sidequests, you often do not have a powerful enough character to defeat the game.

 

Plus, often sidequests reward you with better equipment.

Which is another reason not to skip them.

I guess I just want more interesting sidequests. I'm bored with fed-ex quests...

-D

 

There are no optional quests, everything is mandatory. So when I play a CRPG, I will turn over every stone to find all the mandatory side quests :-).

 

Morrowind and Oblivion are prime examples of games having so many side quests that most of the time you forget that the main quest is even there. I've played through Morrowind around 7 times, but only finished the main quest twice, though I became guildmaster of every guild in every playthrough. Oblivion does this as well, but the main quest has less trudging around and makes you feel more like you should complete it once you start.

Actually, Fallout 2 was a lot like this as well. In fact, I think there was even a comment of the PC in the game saying something like that... Ah, found it:

--The Chosen One

I don't really mind if there's a ton of side quests or if they're just filler material. If the game is good, it adds to the playing time because I'll do most side quests, and if the game's not so good, I'll skip them and just stick to the main story. Occasionally it does happen that side quests are just too generic or boring for me to bother with them, even though the game is good. But then, they're side quests, so I can just ignore them.

 

Everytime I see the title I keep wondering what game has mammaries as a side quest....

 

Morrowind is far from the first or only one where the sidequests take over the main quest. I remember way back in the late 1980s playing Might and Magic II (NOT Heros). There was very little direction on the main quest, it seemed like I was just wandering aimlessly looking for quests to do. Of course there were also few hints on how to accomplish the side quests aside from wandering the globe aimlessly. Yes, there was the occasional hint in the castle dungeons, but even those didn't give me a good reason to go into them other than "because they are there".

It took me forever to figure out what needed to be done to complete the game.

 

All of the Might and Magic games to a certain extent have a "hidden" main quest, where a good portion of the game is spent actually finding out what the quest is. M&M 2 was particularly bad about this because most of the steps leading to this finding didn't make sense. The main quest itself consisted of a lot of padding around a very simple premise, but because all the padding was as random as the side quests the whole game felt very unsatisfying (in my opinion the side quests are the weakest in the series). I think M&M 3 to 7 were the best both in terms of quality of sidequests and because they do lead you to explore areas that are important to the main quest, even if they're unrelated to it themselves.

 

My only honest suggestion that if you really can't be doing with sidequests in a rpg then you should probably ditch rpg's as a genre and switch to somthing more directly involving like adventure games, nearly every D&D based rpg has sidequest traits, unless you look at games like Final Fantasy which probably have more of a linear approach to them. In some of the more involving games sidequests are there to not just get you experience cash and gear, but to develop character or the party of characters personally, give you more insight to the NPC's in the game that also tie into the story line.

Yes you may do a "Fed-Ex" quest to the next village that opens up a bunch of boring sidequests that you don't wanna do but you may find out that the village has been directly impacted by you or somthing to do with your main quest actions making you feel more personally involved or giving you certain "clues" to help you inthe future with other side quests or even the main quest.

As for the example of the Might & Magic series I've always liked the fact that you have little idea of what is going on and have to find out on the way, its like reading a book without checking the prologue and if you like it you can fight your way to the end, mystery can always drive people to dig deeper, thats just the human condition.

 

You do side quest to have a high enoug level to make the final fight a tad bit easier. Imagine trying to beat NWN1 or NWN2 without doing any side quest.