Irrelevant Sidequest: Difference between revisions

 

Can become a [[Plot Tumor]]. Related to [[Apathetic Citizens]] (your clients), [[It's Up to You]] (nobody else will do these things for you), and [[Take Your Time]] (do as many sidequests as you want!).

 

* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' has lots of them, where you need to pick up rings, gems, books, nymphs... whatever, for no real reason that has anything to do with the plot. Fortunately, many provide experience, gold, and reputation, as well as making your journal quite an interesting read.

** ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' 2 is much better about it: the sidequests are ''just'' as irrelevant, but you either a) have a personal stake, b) make it clear that you're looking for a large sum of cash for a personal quest, or c) given to you ''because'' you're an ass-kicking demi-god. Throne of Bhaal is also significant in that there are ''no'' irrelevant sidequests ''per se'': some seem that way, but end up being relevant later.

* These are arguably the whole point of ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' series. There are dozens upon dozens of irrelevant side-quests (The first two had infinite quests that were procedurally-generated on-demand), all of which are optional. Even the "main quest" a.k.a the game's entire plot, is optional. Players are expected to pick-and-choose which ones to complete on their own.

** This doesn't keep four out of five games from having main plots with good in-universe reasons for why you ''[[Take Your Time|shouldn't]]'' keep them hanging (the exception is [[The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall]], which instead has reasons ''why'' you'd go off and do entirely unrelated things for a while).

** Subverted, however, in that none of the sidequests in the game are truly irrelevant; the hero is, in addition to trying to save the day, is looking to constantly improve. Sidequests are optional, but never worthless.

* Taken to ridiculous extents in ''Sacred'' and ''Sacred 2''. One moment you're crawling through fetid sewers, fighting off thieves, cultists, undead, dragons and gods know what else, another you're approached by a tearful girl asking you to help find her pet bunny.

* Mostly averted in ''[[The Witcher]]''. Geralt is a professional monster-slayer and he can take out lots of contracts in each chapter of the game, though ultimately these amount to [[Fetch Quest]]s; even if your contract is to kill the Drowners harassing some poor villagers, all you need to do is return a bunch of Drowner Brains to the contract-giver, regardless of whether or not you actually killed those specific Drowners. Still makes sense in the context of his job, though, and there are some quests that do require you to kill the right monster(s).

* The main character of the ''[[Ryu ga Gotoku|Yakuza]]'' games is extremely community minded, which seems to be a open invitation to provide him with ridiculous requests for help. "Please, you have to stop my corrupt boss by becoming a male escort!", "Please, you must run my Hostess Bar while I go to see my sick mother!".

* In ''[[Okami]]'', you can end up helping an old lady with her laundry, getting ingredients for a restaurant (twice!), racing messengers, taking vases as offerings to shrines, feeding kittens, and what-have-you. And you're playing as ''god''. Heck, the plot ''requires'' you to do some of the odder ones, like helping clueless people fish with no line and having a turnip-digging contest with a kid's pet dog. Vaguely justified in that you need to re-earn the people's faith, but still, you'd think that there would be better ways to do it.

* [[Borderlands]], which provide the fastest route for experience to level up your characters. They're less important late-game.

* In ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' and ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'', you are frequently tasked with doing silly side missions, oftentimes to get NPCs out of debt. If you are someone who spends a lot of time roaming the [[Wide Open Sandbox]], you can easily have enough money to settle these debts for your friend without jumping through the hoops, but this is not an option.

** Many Grand Theft Auto games are like this. In ''San Andreas'' your beloved Grove Street is overrun by drug dealers, smackheads and people who personally hate you. But hey, let's go race cars and dance!

* Used a lot in ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'', to the point where resident team [[Jerkass]] Gig openly lampshades it. {{spoiler|Then completely and utterly subverted with [[The Reveal]] that every single one of these sidequests was set up by World Eater Raksha in order to remove any obstacles that would prevent him from taking over the world}}.

* There are several in ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'', but they tend to pay well and so usually worth doing in a game built on [[Anti-Grinding]] and [[An Entrepreneur Is You|anti-gold farming]].

** Also, Sten gets frustrated with what he believes is this trope:

{{quote|'''Sten''': Are you planning on running until north becomes south and you sneak up on the Archdemon from behind?

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Gameplay and Story Segregation]]

[[Category:CRPG Tropes]]