Quest for the Sidequest!
- Thread starter Shamus Young
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First of all, great article, well written and to the point.
I really can't stand all the pointless and frustrating key finding quests. They add nothing to the overall game experience. Oblivion I found was guilty of this to a huge degree with the guild quests. Most of the guild quests (killing the rats/goblins/necromancers in someone or other's tomb/basement/dream sequence to get an item or spell identical or nearly so to one that you already had, only yours is slightly better, so that you can go up a rank) could have been avoided if the members of the guild actually took care of the rats/goblins/necromancers themselves as you would assume they're supposed to do and didn't keep losing their items in alternate realities or on top of high mountains, instead of sitting around on their arses drinking tea and talking about themselves to each other in the third person. And even once you've done all the quests, become head of all the guilds, and amassed all the items and spells that you'll never use because yours are better, nobody in the game knows who you are! So not only frustrating, but pointless.
Also, let it be said that if the Mage's Guild had sent me to fight ogres in order to retrieve the magical rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle so I could get to Hook Island, then I wouldn't be complaining right now.
I really can't stand all the pointless and frustrating key finding quests. They add nothing to the overall game experience. Oblivion I found was guilty of this to a huge degree with the guild quests. Most of the guild quests (killing the rats/goblins/necromancers in someone or other's tomb/basement/dream sequence to get an item or spell identical or nearly so to one that you already had, only yours is slightly better, so that you can go up a rank) could have been avoided if the members of the guild actually took care of the rats/goblins/necromancers themselves as you would assume they're supposed to do and didn't keep losing their items in alternate realities or on top of high mountains, instead of sitting around on their arses drinking tea and talking about themselves to each other in the third person. And even once you've done all the quests, become head of all the guilds, and amassed all the items and spells that you'll never use because yours are better, nobody in the game knows who you are! So not only frustrating, but pointless.
Also, let it be said that if the Mage's Guild had sent me to fight ogres in order to retrieve the magical rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle so I could get to Hook Island, then I wouldn't be complaining right now.
In Eternal Darkness, Anthony's chapter was one giant fetch quest for the key to a door right next to the start that could easily kicked down by an able bodied young man with a sword. Not to mention that inside is the king and some potential assassins. I think he should have been capable of more considering the urgency of the situation.
And to cap it all off, by the time you find the key, you've turned into a zombie and the king was assassinated anyway. Yay for you.
I love the section of the article where you alphabetically list all possible "keys"! Cracked me up to no end! Great article as usual.
I do recall the final few Theives guild quest in Oblivion being well done. They were absurd fetch quests, yes, but all with a purpose. You needed the weird arrow, the boots, and some other mcguffin to get the biggest mcguffin of them all, an elder scroll, from the flipping Imperial Palace.
Resident Evil 5 keeps up the spirt of 4. Your standing in front of a door made out of frackin wicker holding a shotgun but you have to get on a raft and dodge a giant man eating crocodile to open the gate from the other side nice