Extra Punctuation: Sidequests Good and Bad
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
Hit the nail on the head Yahtzee. I totally agree (and a huge reason why infamous 2 and RD:R are two of my favourite games of all time).
I also enjoy it when a game gives you an odd mission in the main quest, like the snowboarding and chocobo racing in FF7. And then while never requiring you to do it again allows you to explore that mini-game on your own. The tutorial part of the mini-game is baked into the story but it's a side quest after that.
I also love all the package collecting, rampaging and ambulance driving in GTA3. That game still brings back good memories.
I also love all the package collecting, rampaging and ambulance driving in GTA3. That game still brings back good memories.
Pokémon anime damn it. And I agree, side quests that make me forget what I was supposed to be doing because the quest is so disjointed from the main storyline generally make me feel like I've finished the game without doing the main storyline. F:NV, I'm looking at you.
Anime is the cartoon extension of the art style that is called manga, not a genre or medium in and of itself.Richardplex said:
I like the delivery boy analogy. Even if they're not fetch quests, they usually feel like it. And part of it is because you take the "order up!" approach.
Saints Row 2 didn't really require sidemissions, though. They mostly just require you to play the game. It's hard to walk five steps and not gain respect. You get it for killing people, driving, buying clothes, taunting, possibly even robbing people, tagging gang signs, streaking, taking hostages....
Unless you count all activities as side missions, in which case even travel from point A to B is a side mission. I wasn't even halfway through the story when I earned max respect (Which becomes unlimited), and I wasn't particularly trying.
This is part of what I love about SR2.
Saints Row 2 didn't really require sidemissions, though. They mostly just require you to play the game. It's hard to walk five steps and not gain respect. You get it for killing people, driving, buying clothes, taunting, possibly even robbing people, tagging gang signs, streaking, taking hostages....
Unless you count all activities as side missions, in which case even travel from point A to B is a side mission. I wasn't even halfway through the story when I earned max respect (Which becomes unlimited), and I wasn't particularly trying.
This is part of what I love about SR2.
On that note, what do you think the odds are he said cartoon to be deliberately inflammatory?Richardplex said:
Why guy wasn't intended to be Mexican, but I had him running around in a similar outfit. Once I had a sombrero, I simply HAD to.DVS BSTrD said:
I wish they had a deal like Rock Band, where you could set up character shots easily enough through the web.
To the extent that side-quests are available, they should be SIDE-quests and purely for entertainment, extra non-essential gear/cash/xp, and exploration.
Nothing annoys me more than "side-quests" that are actually necessary. The GTA series has it right. You can do the pizza-delivery quests if you want and the rewards are worth the time and effort, but it's 100% optional and not necessary to finish the main storyline. On the other end of the scale is the Final Fantasy series where it seems that EVERYTHING is a side-quest and most of them are mandatory to successfully complete the game (I'm looking at you, FF7 and your bullshiat Golden Saucer games to get Omnislash and Knights of the Round Table!).
Nothing annoys me more than "side-quests" that are actually necessary. The GTA series has it right. You can do the pizza-delivery quests if you want and the rewards are worth the time and effort, but it's 100% optional and not necessary to finish the main storyline. On the other end of the scale is the Final Fantasy series where it seems that EVERYTHING is a side-quest and most of them are mandatory to successfully complete the game (I'm looking at you, FF7 and your bullshiat Golden Saucer games to get Omnislash and Knights of the Round Table!).
They are awesome, you can do them if you want, if you want. Me, i accept all quests and complete them if im in the area as long as the map marks them all on the map. The Batman AC ones were good. Hate the fetch or collectible ones.
Calm down weeabo. English speakers just use the word anime to distinguish Japanese cartoons to others. Calling Pokemon a cartoon isn't wrong. Just like a Japanese person could generalise all cartoons as anime despite the origin.Richardplex said:
Not innately.DVS BSTrD said:
If you can run it through a PC, you can capture images. Alternatively, there are commercial capture devices, but from what I know, they tend to suck. Hard.
How can we forget that you used to watch Pokemon? You've mentioned it, like, four times by now.
Anyway, insightful article as always- but it's a shame you didn't offer your own demented solution to the problem this week, instead rely on per-existing solutions (or, rather, one good solution from a few games).
Anyway, insightful article as always- but it's a shame you didn't offer your own demented solution to the problem this week, instead rely on per-existing solutions (or, rather, one good solution from a few games).
i would like to disagree to that
for me it would be a total break of immersion if there are side quest just popping up along my way as if they "just waited for me"
it seems just logical that if you have some urgent(or not so urgent) problem you'd go to a place where there are many possible problem solvers to said problems... for example...a town!
i would declare anyone who just waits in the wildness for someone instead go looking for help in a town outright stupid
it's just the symbiosis of the the whole quest thingies
quest givers are weak and have problems and cannot go outside or they get killed
quest solvers don't have problems, lots of time and are strong enough to go outside
for me it would be a total break of immersion if there are side quest just popping up along my way as if they "just waited for me"
it seems just logical that if you have some urgent(or not so urgent) problem you'd go to a place where there are many possible problem solvers to said problems... for example...a town!
i would declare anyone who just waits in the wildness for someone instead go looking for help in a town outright stupid
it's just the symbiosis of the the whole quest thingies
quest givers are weak and have problems and cannot go outside or they get killed
quest solvers don't have problems, lots of time and are strong enough to go outside
Dead Island has those "on the way" side quests as well. Usually in the form of some disembodied voice that you hear and then have to find the source of. But, those are few and far between. But I always wanted those NPCs to be more...involved in the main crisis. I mean...once that's over, that's it for most of the side quests. Like the woman who had me help her husband out of their overturned SUV. Then they just....stand there. I never went back to where they were. I probably should. Wonder if they died, like those guys in the gas station.
You just need a graphics card that can accept in inputs. I need to get me one.DVS BSTrD said:
Did you see his mention of Red Dead? They weren't exactly waiting for you.vivster said:
Also handled in Red Dead. And mentioned by Yahtzee. Only one or two quest-givers or starters exists outside of towns, and they have pretty good story reasons for not being in town.
But seriously, it's completely organic to have things going on between towns. Like, in the early 20th century people traveled from time to time for some reason. Historical analysis is unclear on why, but I'm certain they had their reasons.
Kinda makes you wonder how those isolated communities can be self-sufficient, as even most real-world townships relied on some form of trade and reliance on heroes is impractical. Further, it begs the question of how these people are so knowledgeable of places they can't go without dying and why any of this is less immersion-breaking than any other contrived system.
