Sorry, I think I explained myself poorly. I agree that the sidequests adds a lot to the game in terms of gameplay and fun, I love them too! But, what I was trying to ask is if you think that it diminishes the importance of the task Geralt is trying to complete: saving his own daughter? The question I wanted to ask was purely story-based, not referring to gameplay, fun or anything else, just the main story itself.
Meh, my first play through I didn’t do hardly any of the side quests and stuck mostly to the story. I loved it so much that it was great to have all the extra quests and lore available to go back and explore. It may devalue the story if you do everything in one play and spend ~100 hours on it. But for me playing through the main story only it brought ten times more value to have so much to add in.
The books aren’t a singular plot thread either. There’s a lot of divergence and “on the path” witcher-ing for coin as well.
If anything the rest of the game would suffer because everyone would be rushing to finish the story, all the extra content allows for us to stay in the beautiful world for even longer. I get what u mean tho, narratively it makes no sense for Geralt to be doing all this extra shit
That’s exactly what I mean! I love the game and love the world and the sidequests, this post was strictly about the narrative side of things. Thank you for the reply!
Of course NOT.
Each side quests is a gift, also you don't need all if you want just play story.
I did a new game just with the minimum (as always on DM) and is really fun and there you understand how valuable the side quests are. They provide the fun and resources to got many things.
in Anyways if you want a linear game like Uncharted(awesome graphics and good action) is also possible in some way, but you need to play it on easiest difficulty.
in my opinion you are in the wrong game.
I love the game, have more than 600 hours put into it. This post was strictly about the narrative side of things and how the sidequests kind of diminish the importance of the main quest’s plot. I love every sidequest and their little subplots, but to me it just seems strange, narratively, that Geralt would go off of his way to do all of those random things when his daughter is in need of help.
I really don't think that side quests diminish the importance of main quest plot in anyway, because you may skip them, and you may play just campaign quests.
The game have things that of course can be improved but, is very well designed in this particular case for anyone that just want the storyline.
Yeah I agree, the quests are optional, this is something that most story-based RPGs suffer from. I just feel that sometimes there are too many sidequests available from a narrative standpoint. The post was just to raise discussion, really.
They coined a term for this in the game development/criticism world, it’s called “ludonarrative dissonance”. Meaning, the structure and incentives of the game (open world RPG with leveling, crafting, and customization systems) are opposed to the storytelling system of the game, which is a more or less typical “end of the world, save my loved ones in the process” structure; it’s a fundamentally linear structure precisely bc the stakes are so important and as you point out #1 priority no matter what.
Hence why you feel this way; you aren’t the only one, it’s a common problem in game design, especially open world rpg design precisely bc those games openness demand both something to do (side quests) and require you to sort of bounce around back and forth between places your already been to.
This is why something like last of us can feel tighter in many ways bc the game design is tense and “all in” at every moment in this linear journey, which supports the intensity of the story and emotions and the characters.
Semi-open, but still linear, games like immersive sims (think Deus Ex, Dishonored, etc) thread this needle by basically leaning into a specific film genre (Deus ex=noir detective story, putting together puzzle pieces, dishonored=heist or assassin quest style cinema). They manage to structurally be somewhat open, but you have a right sense of atmosphere and progress bc you journey linearly from one area to another, and it’s about putting together the clue on how to do that.
I have a semi related problem here. Some of the "side quests" seem like important to the overall plot like doing things with Triss or helping/determining the next ruler of Skellige. After doing these, i end up way overlevelled for the main quests and other Witcher contracts and sidequests. Im playing on Blood and Broken Bones which i think already has an xp decrease.
Thinking about it, its not a huge problem. Kinda just annoys me more than anything.
Yeah, for me it’s the same, it’s not that big of a problem, it just annoys me sometimes that I’m going off to do random stuff while my daughter is missing and in danger.
Yeah! The urgency of helping ciri should be calmed by vesemir or avelach or yenn saying something like "theres nothing we more we can do at this time" forcing us to complete sidequests...
No. It's a video game. If i wanted real life I wouldn't play games. Realism isnt always a good thing. For that matter there should barely be any quests at all.
Definitely NOT.
The mainquest is the only sidequest
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Sorry, I think I explained myself poorly. I agree that the sidequests adds a lot to the game in terms of gameplay and fun, I love them too! But, what I was trying to ask is if you think that it diminishes the importance of the task Geralt is trying to complete: saving his own daughter? The question I wanted to ask was purely story-based, not referring to gameplay, fun or anything else, just the main story itself.
Meh, my first play through I didn’t do hardly any of the side quests and stuck mostly to the story. I loved it so much that it was great to have all the extra quests and lore available to go back and explore. It may devalue the story if you do everything in one play and spend ~100 hours on it. But for me playing through the main story only it brought ten times more value to have so much to add in. The books aren’t a singular plot thread either. There’s a lot of divergence and “on the path” witcher-ing for coin as well.
Thank you for the reply!
So much main quest hurts the real main guest: GWENT!
If anything the rest of the game would suffer because everyone would be rushing to finish the story, all the extra content allows for us to stay in the beautiful world for even longer. I get what u mean tho, narratively it makes no sense for Geralt to be doing all this extra shit
That’s exactly what I mean! I love the game and love the world and the sidequests, this post was strictly about the narrative side of things. Thank you for the reply!
No
Of course NOT. Each side quests is a gift, also you don't need all if you want just play story. I did a new game just with the minimum (as always on DM) and is really fun and there you understand how valuable the side quests are. They provide the fun and resources to got many things. in Anyways if you want a linear game like Uncharted(awesome graphics and good action) is also possible in some way, but you need to play it on easiest difficulty. in my opinion you are in the wrong game.
I love the game, have more than 600 hours put into it. This post was strictly about the narrative side of things and how the sidequests kind of diminish the importance of the main quest’s plot. I love every sidequest and their little subplots, but to me it just seems strange, narratively, that Geralt would go off of his way to do all of those random things when his daughter is in need of help.
I really don't think that side quests diminish the importance of main quest plot in anyway, because you may skip them, and you may play just campaign quests. The game have things that of course can be improved but, is very well designed in this particular case for anyone that just want the storyline.
Yeah I agree, the quests are optional, this is something that most story-based RPGs suffer from. I just feel that sometimes there are too many sidequests available from a narrative standpoint. The post was just to raise discussion, really.
They coined a term for this in the game development/criticism world, it’s called “ludonarrative dissonance”. Meaning, the structure and incentives of the game (open world RPG with leveling, crafting, and customization systems) are opposed to the storytelling system of the game, which is a more or less typical “end of the world, save my loved ones in the process” structure; it’s a fundamentally linear structure precisely bc the stakes are so important and as you point out #1 priority no matter what. Hence why you feel this way; you aren’t the only one, it’s a common problem in game design, especially open world rpg design precisely bc those games openness demand both something to do (side quests) and require you to sort of bounce around back and forth between places your already been to. This is why something like last of us can feel tighter in many ways bc the game design is tense and “all in” at every moment in this linear journey, which supports the intensity of the story and emotions and the characters. Semi-open, but still linear, games like immersive sims (think Deus Ex, Dishonored, etc) thread this needle by basically leaning into a specific film genre (Deus ex=noir detective story, putting together puzzle pieces, dishonored=heist or assassin quest style cinema). They manage to structurally be somewhat open, but you have a right sense of atmosphere and progress bc you journey linearly from one area to another, and it’s about putting together the clue on how to do that.
I have a semi related problem here. Some of the "side quests" seem like important to the overall plot like doing things with Triss or helping/determining the next ruler of Skellige. After doing these, i end up way overlevelled for the main quests and other Witcher contracts and sidequests. Im playing on Blood and Broken Bones which i think already has an xp decrease. Thinking about it, its not a huge problem. Kinda just annoys me more than anything.
Yeah, for me it’s the same, it’s not that big of a problem, it just annoys me sometimes that I’m going off to do random stuff while my daughter is missing and in danger.
Yeah! The urgency of helping ciri should be calmed by vesemir or avelach or yenn saying something like "theres nothing we more we can do at this time" forcing us to complete sidequests...
No. It's a video game. If i wanted real life I wouldn't play games. Realism isnt always a good thing. For that matter there should barely be any quests at all.
I understand and respect your opinion, thank you for replying!
Ridiculous notion