Tales of Sidequestia

Wow.  That's actually a lot of sidequests.


T
ales of Graces f is still going strong.  I've encountered the part of the game that I both love and dread: the run up to the final boss (though it's not the actual final boss, which helps a bit), where you run around like mad doing sidequests and little errands for everybody.  They've been mostly fun and harmless little things (no Final Fantasy style chicken races...I hope), that both serve to flesh out the game and give you extra bits of oomph for your combat needs.  This game's version of the traditional Tales of titles system was integrated pretty well into it. 




To wit:  All your playable character have tons of titles to find and choose from.  Traditionally, you get some for completing parts of the storyline, side missions, and performing certain actions or challenges.  Also per tradition they give little bonuses or special effects; stat boosts, drop rate modifiers, costume changes are the most common ones, though you can see other things.  Most of the 'good' titles have been linked to sidequests since time immemorial, and some have...vexatious...requirements.  Graces f follows tradition, but takes things one step further by having each title hold sets of skills, which you acquire through skill points (think FF's ability points) and give you things like access to new artes, stat boosts, or other things like new costumes and such like.  They've pretty much turned Titles into FF7's Materia on crack, since these skills are both permanent and cumulative upon being unlocked.  There is a "master" level for each title that I haven't gotten to the bottom yet (I'm looking at you New Game Plus). 




What this all does is encourage the player to tear around and root through everything for new titles (which is what a good RPG-er should do anyway).  I have a hard time of it sometimes because I get too caught up in the storyline and saving the world, but them I remember my training and remember that the path to awesomeness lies in fiddling about and taking a break.  You can literally gain power by doing things like give plushies to a little girl and hang out at a beach resort.  Screw the Dark Side, join the Dork Side and channel the power of silliness!


Anyway, the gist of it is that they've managed to cram tons of sidequests, plus incentives to pursue them.  And this is the base game, without going into DLC or NG+ stuff.  That's scary, and kinda awesome.  The Harvest Has Much To Do!