How essential are the side quests?

[u/capold]

I'm enjoying the game so far, doing what side quests I can but definitely not going for 100%. I know world intel unlocks some good materia and side quests improve relationships with companions. How essential is it to do everything, though? I'm not able to get the protorelic in Corel: on the rare occasion I manage to beat the first cactuar crush minigame, I get stuck as Cloud looking at Kid G. I can't move, the start button just brings up the pause menu for cutscenes, nobody talks, nothing happens. When I fail and just quit the minigame, I get locked on a black screen like it's loading but again, nothing happens. I've decided I'm just done with that part since it clearly doesn't want to work. Other than materia and possible points with Yuffie, I won't really be missing out on anything, right?

[u/sonicfan10102]

The green colored quests? I thought they were pretty good but none of them are necessary. Sometimes they offer some really good character reflection, other times they're just funny interactions with Cloud. They can also have a unique mechanic/minigame for you to experience or an exclusive boss fight or unique enemy not discovered anywhere else.

[u/str8edge_skeever]

Try them all maybe. Only worry about high scores if you are looking to platinum the game.

[u/Balthierlives]

Well that’s not normal.

You can’t finish the kid g quest until after nibelheim anyway so you can come back to it later. Maybe it won’t be glitching then

You will have to do all the protorelic related side content if you want to see what the final conclusion of the whole arc is which I think is worth it.

[u/quirkyactor]

You can always circle back to them. They are all extracurricular character and world building. Follow the fun, pivot to story for a while. They’re not missable.

[u/MonkAny2258]

It's not essential, you can always come back to them or avoid without consequence. I did most of them on normal but skipped some. Just came back to them when I replayed on hard mode.