So I’ve been playing some popular RPGs lately and something’s been bugging me. You know how in games like Cyberpunk and Baldur’s Gate 3, they tell you your character is dying and needs to find a cure ASAP? But then you can just mess around doing side quests forever?
It feels weird, right? Like, if I was really dying, I wouldn’t be helping random NPCs with their problems or going shopping. I’d be laser-focused on saving myself. It kinda breaks the immersion for me.
I get why they do it - they want to create tension. But it just makes me feel guilty for exploring the world they made. I think it’d work better if they gave you a longer timeline, like a year to solve the problem. That way you could still feel some urgency, but also have time to actually enjoy the game.
What do you guys think? Am I overthinking this or does it bother you too?
Man, I’ve thought about this a lot. It’s definitely immersion-breaking when games do that. I remember in Fallout 4, your kid’s kidnapped but you can spend 100 hours building settlements. Makes no sense. I think the best solution is having the main quest advance in stages. Give us breathing room between urgent parts to do side stuff. That way the pacing feels more natural.
I feel you on that fake urgency thing. It’s a tricky balance for game designers. They want to give us a reason to care about the main quest, but also let us enjoy all the side content.
Personally, I just headcanon it as my character multitasking or gathering resources for the big fight ahead.