Irrelevant Sidequest: Difference between revisions

* ''[[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).

* 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!

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Gameplay and Story Segregation]]

[[Category:CRPG Tropes]]