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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"For a bunch of guys on a mission to save the world, you sure do love your detours."''|'''Gig''', ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]''}}
A very fundamental video game trope, a sidequest (or optional quest, or side mission, etc.) is any part of a video game that is not required to complete the game. Sidequests come in a variety of forms, and completing sidequests generally brings reward to the player such as additional equipment or abilities, areas to explore, supplemental plot related details, or fun unlockables.
Going out of your way and completing all sidequests results in [[
Some side quests such as the [[Bonus Dungeon]] and [[Bonus Boss]] may provide challenges more difficult than any content available through the main storyline. This allows more casual players to still complete the game and see the plot resolved, while also giving gamers seeking an additional challenge something to go after.
Tends to be [[Irrelevant Sidequest|irrelevant]] to your main quest. Also see [[Infinity
Important to note that this trope appears in practically every game which gives the player even a slight amount of free rein, and is one of the best way for a developer to add more content and extend the length of a game.
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Action Adventure ==▼
▲=== Action Adventure ===
* Featured in every single ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' game since the beginning of the series. A well-known example is ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
* In ''[[
* ''[[Solatorobo]]'' has a plethora of sidequests. They're optional, of course, unless you happen to need to be a slightly higher Hunter rank to take a plot-relevant quest. Not all quests will increase your rank, however.
=== Platform Game ===
* Even the ''[[Mega Man (
=== Real Time Strategy ===▼
▲* Even the ''[[Mega Man (Video Game)|Mega Man]]'' games are not immune. Collecting plates in the Classic series; the armors from ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]]'', the Cyber Elves from ''[[Mega Man Zero (Video Game)|Mega Man Zero]]''; and the RPG games ''[[Mega Man Battle Network (Video Game)|Mega Man Battle Network]]'' and ''[[Megaman Legends]]'' haven't even been mentioned yet...
* Most [[Command
▲== Real Time Strategy ==
▲* Most [[Command and Conquer]] games features optional objectives in missions, but Tiberian Sun went one step beyond and featured optional missions, unnecessary to progress further in the campaign but granting some sort of advantage in the associated main mission.
== Roguelike ==▼
▲=== Roguelike ===
* ''[[Nethack]]'' has two:
** The Gnomish Mines, a [[Bonus Dungeon]] which has Minetown halfway down (with guaranteed shops and a temple) and a guaranteed {{spoiler|luckstone}} at the bottom.
** The ''[[Block Puzzle|Sokoban]]'' [[Bonus Dungeon]], four levels with lots of food, a guaranteed ring and wand on each level, and either {{spoiler|a bag of holding}} or {{spoiler|an amulet of reflection}} at the end of the final level.
=== Role Playing Game ===
* ''[[
* ''[[
▲* ''[[Final Fantasy X 2 (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X-2]]'' is a game constructed almost entirely out of sidequests.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] IV: [[Oblivion]]'' has many side quests, several of length and depth to rival the main plotline. ''[[Morrowind]]'', its prequel, had much more sidequests, but nowhere near as many as ''[[The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
▲* ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]] Episode 2'' was condemned for having what many have argued the vast majority of its gameplay be in the form of crappy Fed Ex sidequests and minigames.
▲* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] IV: [[Oblivion]]'' has many side quests, several of length and depth to rival the main plotline. ''[[Morrowind]]'', its prequel, had much more sidequests, but nowhere near as many as ''[[The Elder Scrolls II Daggerfall (Video Game)|Daggerfall]]'', predecessor to both games, which was 99.9% sidequesting and a bigger game in general.
** Though ''Daggerfall'' was filled with randomly generated side quests in a (more-or-less) randomly generated game world, while the later games had far more detailed, manually created side quests.
** ''Skyrim'' and its Radiant Quest system treads on a lot of the same ground as Daggerfall's procedural generation to the same effect.
* ''[[
** ''Baldurs Gate'' is just full of lazy, lazy gits always asking you to go and fetch them a book, a sword, a dead body, a scroll, or something else that's often less than thirty feet away. To the point where your character has the [[Lampshade|opportunity]] to go on [[Rant
** ''Baldurs Gate 2'' is famous (amongst other things) for having ''no'' pure [[Fetch Quest
** It also has ''one'' pure [[Fetch Quest]] but you have to go out of your way and [[Be Careful What You Wish For|wish]] for "[[Exact Words|A quest unlike any other]](Sic)". [[Hilarity Ensues|You then have to find a gong which ends up being]] [[It Makes Sense in Context|a cow dung shovel]].
* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' has a clever subversion of optional [[Fetch Quest
* ''[[Paper Mario (
* It is traditional in ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' for every playable character to unlock a personal sidequest once [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] shows up on the world map. These sidequests contain the character's [[Infinity
* This idea has unfortunately spread to the PSP game ''[[
* ''[[The Last Remnant]]'' has a wide variety of sidequests, which is the main way to unlock map locations and the ability to hire some powerful people. There's also Guild Tasks which are similar in function but aren't classed as quests.
* ''[[
* ''[[Final Fantasy]]''
** ''[[
** Similarly, ''[[
* The ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' series has quite a few of them, but the one that stands out is [[Dragon Quest IX]], which has ''one hundred and twenty'' of them... that came in the box. With DLC, this gets upgraded to over one hundred and eighty. True, the majority of them are either [[Fetch Quest
* In ''[[
* ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]''. Hey, this Masterson guy in the Docks wants me to find his amulet (and I really wish they'd bothered to mark him on the map). Oh wait, my henchman wants this silver ring I found somewhere. Hmm, I wonder if the other henchmen want anything, like maybe this leaven bread recipe or this weird little brooch. The Many-Starred Cloak people want me to do all this magic stuff for membership and discounts. Oh, I can get money and quest XP for helping with the Tomb of Halueth Never thing. Oh, random if insultingly simplistic escort missions through areas I've already cleared of zombies. Hold on, some random druid wants me to engage in a minor act of ecoterrorism, there could be some dough in it for me. Oh, and my mad rogue skills mean I've been employed to burgle these random nobles. Bear in mind that this is a ''partial'' summary of ''the first chapter of four''.
* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' has a subversion. The loyalty missions are under the plot-relevant "Missions", but are mostly kinda-sorta optional. You had ''better'' get [[One Hundred Percent Completion]] of them [[Earn Your Happy Ending|if you know what's good for you]].
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' not only has a ton of side-quests, it even gives you an Achievement for completing 75% of them. The achievement is called "[[Take That, Audience!|Easily Sidetracked]]".
* [[
== Simulation Game ==▼
▲=== Simulation Game ===
* ''[[Rune Factory]] 2'' has an optional sidequest composed almost entirely of fetch quests. The townspeople post requests on a message board that you fulfill to win their money and affection. Marvelous and/or Neverland apparently thought that wasn't enough, so ''[[Rune Factory]] 3'' adds a mailbox and a message-delivering owl in addition to the message board. (Each one can only have one request fulfilled per day, so a total of three can be done per day if each one has at least one request.)
=== Turn Based Strategy ===
* ''[[
=== Wide Open Sandbox ===▼
▲* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' and its sequel both have tons of sidequests (out of 300 missions, around 30 are mandatory to see the ending). The sequel has up to 400 missions if you count random encounters etc.
* Pretty much every [[Wide Open Sandbox]] has side quests. ▼
▲== Wide Open Sandbox ==
▲* Pretty much every [[Wide Open Sandbox]] has side quests.
* The ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' games all feature numerous side-missions that are not essential for completion, but often give you abilities that will make the game easier, such as fireproofing (for completing the firefighting mission) or the ability to get out of jail for free (for completing the vigilante mission).
* ''[[The Simpsons Hit
▲=== Non-video game examples: ===
== Mythology ==▼
* [[Classical Mythology/Characters|Herakles]] makes this trope [[Older Than Feudalism|Older than Feudalism]] as he frequently had unrelated adventures ([[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu|like wrestling '''Death''' to return someone that had died]]) while performing his [[Fetch Quest|12 Labours]]. To the Ancient Greek tropers this was known as a Parerga▼
== Web Comics ==▼
== Non-video game examples ==
* ''[[Adventurers (Webcomic)|Adventurers]]'': Karn is obsessed with these, defending them with "Sidequests are an efficient way to increase experience", and once admonishing Ardam that he needs to get his priorities straight when he complains about the team going on sidequests instead of saving the world.▼
▲=== Mythology ===
* [[Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Roy Greenhilt]], on the other hand, hates [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0349.html wasting time] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0134.html on sidequests].▼
▲* [[Classical Mythology/Characters|Herakles]] makes this trope [[Older Than
=== Web
▲* ''[[Adventurers
▲* [[The Order of the Stick
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''Ian's Adventures in Morrowind'' ([
{{quote|
'''Ren''': Correction, you ''were'' the end boss. That's my job now...
'''Dagoth Ur''': But you can't just skip to the end of the game without doing any of the 400 side missions!?
'''Ren''': Fine then, you can go tramping around this God forsaken rock for years on end, doing odd jobs for complete strangers, which in some twisted way ends up saving the whole world for no reason at all... }}
* [[Deconstructed]] beautifully in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbUqEPUZ-ds this YouTube video].
{{reflist}}
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