My ongoing playthrough of the Dragon Age games brought one to mind. So in DAO, you have two companions who consider themselves pragmatic: Sten and Morrigan. Both of them believe in survival of the fittest and using the most direct approach to solve the problem at hand, notably the big ass ZombieOrc Horde ravaging the kingdom. In Morrigan, this manifests mostly in her bitching whenever you help anyone other then yourselves, whereas Sten gets really annoyed with your sidequesting if you bring him along because he feels like you're wasting time. And character wise, it works and makes sense. Hell, even in universe, it makes some sense because the horde is messing shit up offscreen while you're running around(One location eventually gets wiped from the map completely after a certain amount of plot has happened)
Where it runs into issues is from a meta/gameplay perspective, because you're playing an RPG and one where levels are precious(Level cap for the base game is 25 and you'll probably finish around Level 20 unless you're doing and killing Everything), EXP is limited and finite and there's no actual time limit(but there's one or two Points of No Return based on story progress). So as a game player, it's in your interest to do as much as possible to get stronger, get better gear, etc. So hearing Morrigan and Sten whining about wasting time doing side stuff can be fucking grating because trying to mainline would likely result if you all getting killed and everyone being completely fucked and creates a sense of story/gameplay separation because the sense of urgency is in no way enforced by gameplay mechanics. Hell, DAO in particular has an issue where IF you have a certain DLC, you get a storage chest for your excess shit....except the only way to access it is to hike up into the mountains to dump shit off in the chest....and thus every time you accrue enough stuff you think you might need later(this will happen quite often, BTW), you need to hike up there to dump stuff off, because how dare you have a storage container in your camp. Nope, time to waste time taking a weeklong side trip to drop off the chunk you can't carry and don't wish to sell, so Morrigan and Sten can cry that you're wasting time.
Arguably this is an issue with RPGs in general(Witcher 3 famously has you perpetually a week behind Ciri until you finally catch up with her, creating a false sense of Urgency) and FF7 has a giant world destroying meteor hanging in the sky for the last chunk of the game that doesn't do anything until the very end. It's just when your companions badger you about it gets obnoxious. It feels like the game devs trying to narratively chide you into getting on with it while at the same time making you spend more time then needed because the gameplay enforces it due to development choices. If you want me to RUSH to deal with the problem at hand, at least don't make me waste my time because there's no easier/faster way to do things.
Where it runs into issues is from a meta/gameplay perspective, because you're playing an RPG and one where levels are precious(Level cap for the base game is 25 and you'll probably finish around Level 20 unless you're doing and killing Everything), EXP is limited and finite and there's no actual time limit(but there's one or two Points of No Return based on story progress). So as a game player, it's in your interest to do as much as possible to get stronger, get better gear, etc. So hearing Morrigan and Sten whining about wasting time doing side stuff can be fucking grating because trying to mainline would likely result if you all getting killed and everyone being completely fucked and creates a sense of story/gameplay separation because the sense of urgency is in no way enforced by gameplay mechanics. Hell, DAO in particular has an issue where IF you have a certain DLC, you get a storage chest for your excess shit....except the only way to access it is to hike up into the mountains to dump shit off in the chest....and thus every time you accrue enough stuff you think you might need later(this will happen quite often, BTW), you need to hike up there to dump stuff off, because how dare you have a storage container in your camp. Nope, time to waste time taking a weeklong side trip to drop off the chunk you can't carry and don't wish to sell, so Morrigan and Sten can cry that you're wasting time.
Arguably this is an issue with RPGs in general(Witcher 3 famously has you perpetually a week behind Ciri until you finally catch up with her, creating a false sense of Urgency) and FF7 has a giant world destroying meteor hanging in the sky for the last chunk of the game that doesn't do anything until the very end. It's just when your companions badger you about it gets obnoxious. It feels like the game devs trying to narratively chide you into getting on with it while at the same time making you spend more time then needed because the gameplay enforces it due to development choices. If you want me to RUSH to deal with the problem at hand, at least don't make me waste my time because there's no easier/faster way to do things.
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