The Usefulness of Side-Quests

by T.G. Flintedge 

Submitted by:	flintedge@hotmail.com (T.G. Flintedge)
Spelling	2
Grammar	2
Coherency	2.5
Strength of Arguments	4
Presentation	1.5
Originality	3
Penalties	0
Total	15
Grade

How important is the plot to a game exactly? One might think that compelling storyline is what makes an RPG great. It's a pretty sure bet that the developers have completed their goal if a player can't turn his or her game off because he or she really has to see what happens next. However, when a player just runs from one cut-scene to the next, he or she will miss important parts of a game. Whether it's searching for treasure in a nearby cavern or simply gathering information from townspeople, players need to take a break from blindly following the plot, and to stop and smell the flowers along the way. Unfortunately, this appears to be a vanishing legacy.

Compare today's games to those of ten years ago. Games today have better graphics, better music, and usually better plots. However, for the most part, games are also more linear than those ten years ago. For example, in Final Fantasy, once the player has the airship, he or she can go wherever you want in the world. The player doesn't need to beat the Fiends in order, just as long as he or she beats all of them. Now look at Dragon Warrior. With the exception of being unable to enter a certain town (Cantlin), the player can go anywhere, and get the best weapons and armour available right off the bat, as long as the hero can survive long enough to get them. However, in a game such as Final Fantasy IX, the player can't enter any dungeons prematurely, so he or she won't overpower the enemies he or she should be fighting, or vice versa. While this seems like a good, not to mention sensible, idea, it also detracts from the freedom of the players.

But what Final Fantasy IX lacks in non-linearity, it makes up for in its generous side- quests, many of which are both interesting and beneficial to the party. The side-quest "Chocobo Hot and Cold" is quite time consuming, but it's a lot of fun to search for treasure on the world map, which in turn rewards the player with powerful weapons or cards. Mognet is also an innovative idea that rewards the player by challenging his or her exploring skills and memory. Final Fantasy IX also includes the amazingly powerful secret Boss, Ozma, who is, by all rights, perhaps harder than both Emerald and Ruby WEAPON in Final Fantasy VII and Omega Weapon in FFVIII. While the party gets a nice item for beating Ozma, nothing compares to the satisfaction the player gets. And satisfaction is a big part of an RPG. If players aren't satisfied with a game, then quite frankly, it's not a very good game.

Now, look at Final Fantasy VII. This game has what may be the most famous mini-game area in RPG history: The Gold Saucer. It had tons of ways to spend your time (and Gil), and it is accessible for the majority of the game. It ranges from games such as a basketball game and an arm-wrestling machine to the Speed Arena with the roller coaster "quick-shot" game and the Battle Arena where characters can fight away to win great prizes. And since these prizes are helpful to the party, the player may as well get them. After all, it can't hurt.

Take a look at a lesser-known game like Grandia. Though this game was pretty linear compared to some others of its time, it still has three long side-quests. Grandia even tells the player beforehand if he or she is walking into a side-quest, by giving him or her a warning message. This is helpful because everyone has learned from other RPGs that a mysterious castle or cave in the middle of a desert, or a tower in the Savannah Plains, that usually some manner of evil villain lives there. Not in Grandia, however. These dungeons are merely places to hunt for treasure of action.

On the other hand, some games, even today, are completely plot-centred and leave very little for the player to do other than follow the story. Chrono Cross is an example of this. The game features very little in the way of mini-games. Plus, while getting all of the 44 characters may seem like fun, it eventually, unfortunately, becomes a tedious chore, as the player has to play through the game FOUR times to get everyone, and maybe even five if he or she doesn't plan his or her choices right. The really bad thing about this is that the plot is the same every time through! Not that it's a bad game, it's just not set up as well as it could have been. Players shouldn't really have to play through a game five times to find everything, unless we have some sense of freedom while we're doing it.

Of course, there is the traditional practice of RPG players since Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy for the NES, incredibly boring, but just as practical: Levelling Up. If you're feeling rushed along in a game, short on cash, and overpowered by most of the monsters you are up against, why not just spend a while levelling up outside town to build your characters stats and fatten their wallets, and cool down. Even though levelling up may seem like a good idea, some games, such as SaGa Frontier, Final Fantasy VIII, Lunar, and even Ultima: Exodus, make monsters and/or bosses stronger as you get stronger. This is a good way to stop players from overpowering the bosses with super-powered party members!

We don't need to be blindly led around in RPGs. Ten years ago, we had a lot of freedom, but now it's dwindling away. The less freedom we have, the less replay value we get from a game, and who wants to pay 60 to 100 dollars on a game they'll finish in a couple weeks and never play again? The games we need are the ones that, ten years from now, we'll dust off our old PlayStation and push the PlayStation 4 aside just to be able to play them again, to find the sword at the back of the cave, to find that secret character, or to find a hidden scene we never saw in 2001. That is the way games should be, and hopefully that is the way games will be. They ARE games, after all, and games are meant to be fun.

Notes:
Well, this editorial is somewhat interesting, but unfortunately has a few minor flaws in it, which made it somewhat confusing, cutting coherency. This has mostly to do with how he prsented his editorial.

The main problem is that it seems that it's unclear, particularly late on, where this is being directed. The main point that was intended by the ed never seemed to eventuate, it seemed to drift around the point it was trying to aim at somewhat. Also, it was never really explained how levelling up supported the main point. And there is one particular phrase which would leave a few puzzled... "treasure of action". It's not wrong in a technical sense or spelling, it's just doesn't make sense.

Other than that, this editorial was pretty well done. With a little more focus, it could have proven to be a good contender.