Good thing they are optional: Worst sidequests ever

[Bakuma1997]

Everybody here loves sidequests

"Not me, they are dumb and distract from the ga..."

That heretic aside, we like them, be to make the game feel alive, to get a break of the plot of for the cool gifts, HOWEVER

Some of them are abominable dogshit, even if you aren't a 100% junkie, you may still want to do them for a neato thingamajig, but wisely you may want to give a pass, which was your case?

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

There's one tucked at the very end of Fallout: Brotherhood Of Steel that involves retrieving some girl's lost family heirloom, but it's complete BS because...

A) It involves significant backtracking when the final area is just up ahead.

B) It risks resources you have no easy way to replenish.

I appreciate it being there for the extras and the character arc but no... Progression-wise, it's a senseless addition that just wrecks the flow and distracts from the final chapter of a pretty long game.

 

[RetroPixelLizard]

I remember Ultima 9 having a side quest where you need to find a bunch of gigantic gems which are used for a lighthouse for some reason, scattered all around Britania and when you bring them all...

You just a measly amount of gold for a reward.

 

[DayBreak_Illusion]

In Assassin Creed 2 you have to collect all these feathers scattered in every map; for your mother in remembrance of your family being murdered and the only thing you get was a thank you and a cape that makes you wanted indefinitely.

 

[PSVitaForever]

I can't pinpoint a game, but the ones where you have to traverse (too) difficult optional dungeon to have a not-so-great-reward, the ones where you have to talk to A then B then A then so on, maybe without teleport, the ones involving random drops with 0,1% chance to obtain.

 

[myhosea]

most of FFXV, all of its sidequests... braindead gaming
the worst offender:

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

I like to do sidequest, and do many of them unless the main plot gets so interesting I just need to know what happens now.

Yeah, many of them are trash, but usually the worse ones are quick to do and it helps you to level up so you can be over level on the main quest and have your power fantasy.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Kingdom hearts 3- no wait, that’s the main game.

 

[No_Life_King]

Pretty much almost all of Xenoblades 1s quests.

 

[Bakuma1997]

A Twofer for Etrain odyssey since there are two sidequests that are similar

In Both Etrian Odyssey 1 and 2 they are two quests that involves a deceptively simple task, stay five days inside a single, you can't leave and you need to stay there five days, nothing too hard right, except for three small issues:

First of all, time only advances with each step you make, and day requires a given amount of steps to make
Second, those quests are given by the time you are struggling to figure out how to build your party
Three and the worst of all: THE RANDOM ENCOUNTER RATE IN THOSE GAMES ARE AN ABSOLUTE BITCH EVEN IF YOU USE CHIME BELLS (the game's encounter repellents)

You have two ways to make the missions """"""Easier"""""", either you leave it to rot until your party is strong enough to oneshot the strata's enemies or cheese it, even then the mission is WAY TOO TEDIOUS, in 2 is relatively easy, since there is a hidden area with lower enemy encounter and you have Auto Battle, but in 1 the mission is my existence's bane because there is an area with zero encounters... BUT THE ENTIRE FUCKING AREA IS A SINGLE 3X1 LINE!!! you must imagine how shitty it was to press up and down back and forth in both games for a crappy staff, the rest of the missions, if hard, are at least tolerable, but fuck those missions, seriously

 

[SpcDaicon]

FFX hunt for the Celestial Weapons.

If we look close, this sidequest is just a bunch of minigames designed to annoy you.
Tidus's Caladbolg - win a chocobo race under 0:00 with the worst controls known to man
Wakka's World Champion - win Blitzballs tournaments, the jankiest sport ever
Lulu's Onion Knight - Dodge 200 lighting bolts in one go. You gotta have God's reflexes and patience
Kimahri's Spirit Lance - Capture blue butterflies while dodging red ones with the most obnoxious hitboxes ever created

Auron's Masamune is tied to the Monster Arena and, although a bit grindy, you will get it naturally while capturing monsters

For Rikku's Godhand you will need to complete the Cactuar quest. Although you have to go out of your way to complete it, its short and actually fun.

Yuna's Nirvana is the only weapon with a sidequest that actually makes sense in a game play and story point of view. You gotta have all the Aeons (secret ones included) and have to defeat a rival summoner several times

The Celestial Weapons are broken and the best for each character but its possible to customize weapons as good as the Celestial ones with half the hassle

 

[RestoredaftrLostv2]

Sidequest are only useful if the reward is good. I know FF9 had a quest where you had to play most of the game quickly just to get a sword for steiner....it's not worth it. FF4 had a similar quest for Xcalibur. This was worth the effort.

Also Class of Heroes is the worst offender. It is a Wizardry clone of the WORST notions. You have to complete stupid quest just to even progress through the game...not to mention collect parts to craft stuff that either require hours of grinding to get your alchemist only to high level to make, or spend tons of gold just to do it. Chemist is worst as appraisal is also level based and no early super gear. Wizardry was different. It was tough, but god it was fair. And it came out in 1980

 

[SpcDaicon]

I know FF9 had a quest where you had to play most of the game quickly just to get a sword for steiner....it's not worth it.

I think time gated rewards are one of the worst decisions in game design ever. Wdym I have to rush the game to get somethin? It basically saying "don't bother playing the early game, just skip to X point" as if the devs don't want us to take your time and appreciate the game

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

I love the game to death, but Final Fantasy IX has a really shit side quest.
It's one that many players to this day still don't even know about and that's the Nero Brothers side quest. Basically, once you reach disc 4 you can start the quest, and it revolves around meeting some characters at their home in Lindblum (A city in the game) and watching some scenes play out. There's 9 scenes to watch in total. Doesn't sound too bad, except for the fact you can only visit and get a new scene after VERY specific events have taken place, and it just so happens pretty much all of these events that trigger a new scene unlock are in Memoria, the longest area of the game and technically the last area before you go on to fight the final bosses. This means you have make some progress in Memoria, triggering a new Nero scene unlock, leave Memoria, fly all the way to Lindblum, go to the Nero's home and watch the scene, fly back to Memoria, make a bit more progress and repeat this 9 times. It is without a doubt the most monotonous side quest I've ever seen. What makes it worse is the deeper into Memoria you get, the longer it takes to travel back to Lindblum each time, and this game has random encounters as well, on top of Memoria having the toughest enemies in the game too. The reward you get is actually quite decent tbf, but it really isn't worth all the time you have to put in to get it.

 

[Appiplyer]

A Twofer for Etrain odyssey since there are two sidequests that are similar

In Both Etrian Odyssey 1 and 2 they are two quests that involves a deceptively simple task, stay five days inside a single, you can't leave and you need to stay there five days, nothing too hard right, except for three small issues:

First of all, time only advances with each step you make, and day requires a given amount of steps to make
Second, those quests are given by the time you are struggling to figure out how to build your party
Three and the worst of all: THE RANDOM ENCOUNTER RATE IN THOSE GAMES ARE AN ABSOLUTE BITCH EVEN IF YOU USE CHIME BELLS (the game's encounter repellents)

You have two ways to make the missions """"""Easier"""""", either you leave it to rot until your party is strong enough to oneshot the strata's enemies or cheese it, even then the mission is WAY TOO TEDIOUS, in 2 is relatively easy, since there is a hidden area with lower enemy encounter and you have Auto Battle, but in 1 the mission is my existence's bane because there is an area with zero encounters... BUT THE ENTIRE FUCKING AREA IS A SINGLE 3X1 LINE!!! you must imagine how shitty it was to press up and down back and forth in both games for a crappy staff, the rest of the missions, if hard, are at least tolerable, but fuck those missions, seriously

well i believe this is considered easy (at least for me) the only problem i usually have at EO was probably the search quest like you know there's this side quest in EO 2 that needs you to go search for a sick tree and then after that IIRC you'll escort the medic to the location and return without using ariadne thread. But i believe there's a quest that combine this gimmick searching then teleport banning.

 

[CheesyExplosive]

*SIGH* monster hunter is a exhausting game

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

Thank goodness the missions for Zero in GTA San Andreas are optional:

In a weird way, knowing they were optional helped me feel less pressure to finish them and I think actually helped motivated me to finish them in the end.

 

[Bakuma1997]

well i believe this is considered easy (at least for me) the only problem i usually have at EO was probably the search quest like you know there's this side quest in EO 2 that needs you to go search for a sick tree and then after that IIRC you'll escort the medic to the location and return without using ariadne thread. But i believe there's a quest that combine this gimmick searching then teleport banning.

That one is easy, simply remember the directions given by the medics, if you (I hope so) already made a good map of the floors tasked, you may see lonely dead ends with small square or rectangular shapes, mostly they will be there, since i level to level 40 in strata 2, i am never underleveled for the task, if you find the shortcuts and wipe previously any FOE you are on your way

 

[RestoredaftrLostv2]

I think time gated rewards are one of the worst decisions in game design ever. Wdym I have to rush the game to get somethin? It basically saying "don't bother playing the early game, just skip to X point" as if the devs don't want us to take your time and appreciate the game

Actually the worst would be the Cloud sidequest for Final Fantasy tactics. Not only did you have to find the right town for him, but you had to go to a specific battleground, be equipped with the search ability, stand one single tile out of the place just to find his weapon so you can use his skill for his soldier job...WITH NO CONTEXT outside of using a guide. EVERY other character you got didn't have these requirements, and most were just ready to go and kick butt.

Final Fantasy sidequests are some of the worst now I think about it.

 

[CG4R12I4N]

it's not just Final Fantasy really, most of Square-made games have absolutely garbage sidequests by principle it's absolutely not worth investing other than to 100% complete them.
Remember the Card Club sidequest in FFVIII? That's such a bullshit even most people who loved Triple Triad minigame would just abandon it, it's not like the rare cards can't be obtained by other means anyway.

 

[Masterofthefalcon]

The figurine sidequest in The Legend of Zelda: the Minish Cap is just awful to complete. The amount of grinding you need to do to have enough seashells to continuously roll for figures is absurd. Especially given how expensive they are to buy and how little the game gives you in comparison to the amount of times you need to spend them. It wouldn't be so bad if you couldn't get multiples of a figure. Also you can't even get them all until finishing the game......and all you get is a piece of heart and some rupees. A strange decision that you can't get every heart until already beating the game.

 

[SpcDaicon]

Not only did you have to find the right town for him, but you had to go to a specific battleground, be equipped with the search ability, stand one single tile out of the place just to find his weapon so you can use his skill for his soldier job...WITH NO CONTEXT outside of using a guide.

Almost as hidden as the A Ending in Valkyrie Profile.

Guess really convoluted methods with no context or hint whatsoever was a trend in the 90's

 

[Bakuma1997]

View attachment 179681
The figurine sidequest in The Legend of Zelda: the Minish Cap is just awful to complete. The amount of grinding you need to do to have enough seashells to continuously roll for figures is absurd. Especially given how expensive they are to buy and how little the game gives you in comparison to the amount of times you need to spend them. It wouldn't be so bad if you couldn't get multiples of a figure. Also you can't even get them all until finishing the game......and all you get is a piece of heart and some rupees. A strange decision that you can't get every heart until already beating the game.

Ugh, 'Nam flashback on that BS quest, any sidequest that relies on luck is ultimate garbage, that alone made the Heart piece you need to dig look compasionate in comparision

 

[Zerpina]

Worst sidequests ever?

Being an Adult.....

 

[SpcDaicon]

Worst sidequests ever?

Being an Adult.....
View attachment 179692

All grind and no payoff...