[Kazuya]

Damn, it's been a while since i have played minigames and sidequests as adictives as the ones in FFVII or the card game in FFVIII.
Last month i spend a grand total of 8 hours just walking through the world of xenosaga 2 just to complete some sidequests and be allowed to get some items. The problem was the mindless repetition for 8 hours straight and with A GUIDE. Imagine how long it would have taken without it. The usual was:

-Talk to someone in Second Miltia. Wait 7 seconds of loading time.

-Run through the map and go the the space port. Another 5 seconds while loading, 15 seconds just running through the space port and being stopped by a dialogue box saying i should continue that path if i want to board the Elsa. Just notice: i'm the only one trying to board the Elsa and by the 15th time i know the Elsa is there :hdbash:

-Loading time and you are in the Elsa, talk to Mathews and ask him to take you to the Kukai Foundation, Fmv which can be cut asap and loading time.

-Exit the Elsa and you are in the Durandal, move upward and board the little Ship to the Foundation, answering yes to the question about boarding it. Loading time.

- I'm in the Foundation map, run to the town and walk to the second part of the town: 30 seconds to 1 min. with loading times and a long straight walk.

-Now I CAN FINALLY TALK to some guy who will give me something i should return to the first person i talked before who, by the way, is 7 minutes away and i have to repeat the same process in the inverse order.

-Optional step: hope, ask, pray, whatever. If you are in luck then you get the item once you reach the first guy. If you are out of luck (read: in 90% of the quests) you need to backtrack everything once again so you talk to the second guy again and the quest is finished.

-Repeat until boredom because there are more than 36 identical quests.


And i don't even want to mention FF X-2.
The card game in FFIX was stupid and lacked the joy of the one in FFVIII plus it was not understandable at all.
Kingdom Hearts is plain.
The Blitzball in FFX was awfully boring and long.

Seriously, the Rpg games have become too serious lately.
In FFVII i could be saving the earth but it seemed as if the characters were having fun themselves playing the minigames and sidequests. Chocobo hunting, the snowboard game...The Golden Saucer was IMO the best source of minigames invented and was incorporated as a part of he world, not something artificially done to extend the game's hours with mindless repetition.

Who had all the cards in FFIX?

 

[Vanit]

I'm not really a fan of sidequests. I always thought if it wasn't fun its not worth my time. Some games really rub them in heavy too and it really annoys me because I have to work hard for something I don't particularly want or understand the value of (.hack//infection anyone?).

 

[Zer0Soul]

I agree, I'm currently sitting through the GS quests on XenoSaga II as we speak. I feel your pain.

It wouldn't be bad if the side-quests were fun or relevant. Whatever happen to the days of sidequests, that would net you a hidden charachter or really strong weapon.

Anymore, it feels like they are there just for the mere fact to make the game longer.

 

[Vanit]

Let me continue rambling about the pain that is .hack//infection. The game is exactly like an MMORPG, this also means that you have to walk around in a huge world by yourself doing and collecting items to show them off to people that aren't real! XD

I'll show blasphemy to Elune so I don't offend anyone...

Elune! What a crappy game!

 

[Zer0Soul]

.Hack series was a tedious chore to begin with, it wasn't just the side-quests. Don't get me wrong I find the .Hack series a interesting set-up. (loved the anime + storyline of game) The side-quest in .Hack wasn't really a side-quest as much of it as a part of the gameplay mechanic. The entire game was nothing, but a fetch quest/point A to point B type game.

The XenoSaga II GS Campaign, dosn't have to be done either. Yet, in order to get half of the unlocked skills for your character's, not to mention the ability to stand a chance agaisn't bosses. You need to do them. They wern't fun or had any relevance to the game. They were just there like Kaz had said. Get this item for this person, spend 20 minutes doing so etc. etc.

I think a side-quest, while being seperate from the main etinity of the game. Should still be connected storywise. Be it information on the past of a character or showing someone.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant had some interesting ideas on SQ's. The pedometer quest was easy enough to not interupt you from the main game. The rest were almost all inter-connected with the storyline in some way. Plus the rewards were something that you didn't feel cheapend by.

 

[Vanit]

Hopefully when dance mats are wider owned one of the Final Fantasy's will have a dancing minigame in it... I'd love that.

 

[cloudsBro]

i think the most boring sidequest in the final fantasy series has to be fighting those tonberries in toneryy castle in ff8. It takes bout one and a half hours to get a tonberry Gf, is it even worth it??
I enjoyed tetra master over the ff8 card game as tetra master it was more complex to play imo...
The one time i loved using my psx emulator was when doing the chocobo racing sidequest where i turn on the frameskipping and turned off fps limit. man that speeds it up!

 

[ChankastRules]

A very good topic!, I feel that mini-games and side-quests in most games today are just there to make the games longer instead of acctually adding something to the game.

This was not the case in FFVII for example one side-quest was to get Yufie!, which felt much more pointfull than to bring potion A to person B to get a statue to bring to person C so he can tell us something pointless to say to person D, so boring GONE WITH IT! I say. In my latset roleplaying game, I've taken the approach of making sure that there are no boring mini-games or side-quest to make it longer, just when I feel there is a good reason for them, or that they make the game more fun. I'd rather have a shorter game with more replayability.

Lastly, I have to say there's a big exception for me, as I personally loved Tales of Eternia, it's jam-packed with mini-games of varying quality but it was a blast to play, probably my favourite game for the PSX.

 

[Hard core Rikki]

Yeah, sometimes (too often) game developpers put too many - read boring - sidequests/minigames 'til it become un-enjoyable.
When sidequests add value to the gaming experience, it's more than welcome, but spoiling the fun? Too bad. Better stick with the normal storyline then.

The Final Fantasy series has an excellent array of exciting sidequests. Definitely gets a thumbs up.
Wild Arms 3 wasn't too bad, but some sidequests take FOREVER to complete for pointless rewards (the 100 floors Abyss).

 

[Cid Highwind]

Shenmue's got some of the best sidequests ever, but also some of the most boring ones. Perhaps someone remembers the darts sidequest :yawn:

Another frustrating one was the moogle sidequest in FF7, I never knew what to do... Perhaps when I replay the game I will understand

 

[n_w95482]

You mean that Mog House game at Gold Saucer, or something else?

 

[Exodus]

only mog game in FF7 i can think of is that one. the one where you feed him nuts until he flies.

but yeah, i agree that sidequests in many games are beyond lame. if i weren't a completist i wouldn't touch half of them.

 

[Zer0Soul]

Wasn't there a Moogle quest in FFIX? The mail moogle quest. I always you use to loose interest in that one.

I think the key here is, are we talking about mini-games or side-quests. There seems even on my part to distigush the two. I was sitting here and just realized one. Dark Cloud II, talk about full of mini-games & Side-quests. Alot of fun..

 

[fireblaster_lyz]

How about avoiding 200 freaking thunder strikes in FFX?

 

[_mr_m_]

Who had all the cards in FFIX?

i did. after cheating of course. thats how little interest i had in that part of the game, despite the fact you had to play part of it to continue the game story

Wasn't there a Moogle quest in FFIX?

yeah, and after i read what you got for completing it, i said 'screw it'

on FF9:
what about that chocobo hot-or-cold quest? you got some *decent* items (ragnorok, pumice piece, ultima weapon, etc...), but you had to find a bunch of crap first. gosh, i spent almost a whole day off-and-on doing the ENTIRE chocobo quest..

on ff7:
those side quests were fun! i liked the bike chase game

 

[Vanit]

Here's my opinion on the difference.

Sidequest: An event/s that contains story that is irrelevant to the mainplot and doesn't change the main plot directly.

Minigame: A game that may contribute to the outcome of the main plot but does not, in itself, forward the plot. A game that does forward the plot significantly is considered a challenge or boss battle.

 

[Kazuya]

How about avoiding 200 freaking thunder strikes in FFX?

I made a little counting and i realized it was going to take me 2 hours to do it. My completist side tried to do it but i failed in the thunder number 59 and was supposed to start over, yeah right, after 1 hour and 20 minutes, right....

The chocobo hot and cold in FFIX took me half a day with epsxe. I turned off frame limitation and the one minute available becomes like 15 seconds and used savestates everytime i found something so i could reload those last 20 seconds when i couldn't find anything and i knew where not to search next time.

 

[Cid Highwind]

Yes, I was referring to the moogle feeding minigame in FF7

I liked the moogle mail sidequest in FF9, mainly because most of those moogles were along the path you travelled anyway, so you didn't have to go out of your way to deliver the mail. However I don't think I completed the quest so I don't know if it was this way when you had to deliver the last couple of letters.

When I first played the game I played Chocobo Hot and Cold a lot. The second time I didn't even bother. The game is easy on its own so why go out of your way to get a stronger weapon?

 

[Hard core Rikki]

How about avoiding 200 freaking thunder strikes in FFX?

I was about to throw the TV from the window after the 3rd failed atempt (at the 180th).
The chocobo race you had to finish with a time record of LESS THAN 00:00:00 was upsetting as hell, although i managed to do it after some practice.

 

[D.D.]

the thunder strikes thing i thot was pretty easy...no brain power required. i just sat there, did a few took a break, repeated.