What's the dumbest sidequest idea that's ever been in an RPG?

The quest itself might not be dumb, but in Tales of the Abyss, obtaining Natalia's best move has an insanely small window of availability and requires the player to go somewhere that they have no other reason to go at that point in the game and with no hint that they should go there at that point. Once you see the very next cutscene, it's gone forever. In fact, for a long time players wondered how to get this move and it was ultimately discovered by a player fucking up and going there by accident during the window of opportunity. THAT is dumb.

I just find it funny when you're in a game where your character is expected to save the world or whatever but you take the time off to enter cooking competitions, be someone's defense attorney, help someone become a pop idol, etc.

I am currently playing a game with all three of those things. >_>

Probably Excalibur II in FFIX. Iirc it's impossible to even get without doing stuff like skipping cutscenes?

I just find it funny when you're in a game where your character is expected to save the world or whatever but you take the time off to enter cooking competitions, be someone's defense attorney, help someone become a pop idol, etc.

This is an interesting idea but I'm having a hard time coming up with a good answer

I think I would definitely lean toward side quests that are physically hard or impossible to do (for some people)? Surely there's something that doesn't respect colorblind people. I know I was never able to do the lightning bolt thing in Final Fantasy X because my reaction speed just wasn't physically fast enough, and surely people with motor issues ran into that problem there and with other side quests.

I feel like this is the Yakuza series summed up. It's to the point where a good portion of the fanbase considers the main story and the side quests to be two different canons.

The quest itself might not be dumb, but in Tales of the Abyss, obtaining Natalia's best move has an insanely small window of availability and requires the player to go somewhere that they have no other reason to go at that point in the game and with no hint that they should go there at that point. Once you see the very next cutscene, it's gone forever. In fact, for a long time players wondered how to get this move and it was ultimately discovered by a player fucking up and going there by accident during the window of opportunity. THAT is dumb.

I love Tales of the Abyss, but my mind went here too. One of the few nitpicks I have is just how stupid the side quest setup is at times and this is easily the worst example of it.

I'm hoping for an HD remaster similar to what Symphonia is getting and that they rectify this by putting that quest in a logical place.

All of the idiotically rare Pokemon with unbelievably stupid conditions attached to make them show up.

Fuck you, Feebas.

Something from Yakuza: Like a Dragon, probably.

Ok what the fuck were they thinking

Probably Excalibur II in FFIX. Iirc it's impossible to even get without doing stuff like skipping cutscenes?

FFIX is a game full of terrible sidequests and Mognet

FFIX is a game full of terrible sidequests and Mognet

I could never impress all 100 nobles

May the one or two unimpressed nobles be damned to live in hell.

my favourite is this odd man you have to listen to for a few minutes without interrupting while the text speed is slowed

Imo if they can't die then it's not an escort mission

Some players would randomly stumble on Feebas as a cool secret, breed a bunch of them and trade it to others to spread it around.

Atreus is escorting you around and you can most definitely die, so