It's the end of the world as we know it (And I'm at fault)

[Vermachtnis]

So there I was playing Digimon World 3, blowing up whales (for exp.) when it dawned on me. The world is safe, the final boss isn't doing anything and isn't going to do anything unless I move first. Since I beat the penultimate dungeon, I went on a world tour. Jumping into dungeons and beating up nine uninvolved people and taking their valuables and exp. And when I ran out of big people to beat up I started messing around, which was mostly blowing up whales underneath Amaterasu City.

And as long as I don't trigger anything, the final boss will just stand around twiddling his thumbs. Even though he could have probably destroyed the world twice by now. And it happens all the time. Why won't bosses make a move while the hero is running around in optional dungeons. And we see in games like Castlevania 3 and Chrono Trigger what happens when the final boss goes unchecked.

[black orb]

>>> Most of the games/rpgs are like that, running around in optional dungeons is what makes the games fun..

[NorthernChaosGod]

Majora's Mask isn't like that.

[Vermachtnis]

But wouldn't it be awesome to step out an optional dungeon to find that Big Bad got tired of waiting and kill off everyone everywhere?

EDIT: Majora's Mask is an awesome example of what I mean.

[Vyk]

A little sense of urgency would probably be a good thing. Make you feel more needed and involved. I'm not a huge fan of time limits. But there probably should be a little re-working on the whole "triggered event" concept

[Clo]

Maybe if they moved sidequests to AFTER the final boss in some Lunar 2-esque post-game exploration, and had just some minor tasks to take care of beforehand, they could then have some sort of timer. And it would be cool if you could actually initiate the sidequests before the final boss if you wanted to TRY to see how many of them you could get done before really started going down.

[NorthernChaosGod]

What's the point of doing sidequests after you beat the boss? Most of them are to beef you up.

[Rase]

Just make it so when the Big Bad is all set to unleash his plan you are somehow stuck to just stopping him. As long as you make this obvious through dialogue beforehand you're good to go.

[Clo]

What's the point of doing sidequests after you beat the boss? Most of them are to beef you up.

Meh, you're right. I was just trying to think of something exciting that would allow you to chill afterwards and do things like Chocobo Racing or Card Quests and sidequests like that. I always enjoy games with post-game exploration.

However, it totally doesn't make sense considering sidequests like a Ultimate Weapon and Marks and secret bosses/weapon hunting that beef you up.

[Iceglow]

Well look at it this way, generically in action game storylines the main character doesn't have the intelligence on the enemy to know their plan or how to stop them, cutting the head of the beast doesn't always kill it, 2 may grow in it's place (end of hydra references, god I'm living up to my current avatar!) so killing the big bad could be worse than leaving them alive. Also they need equipment say they're doing a stealth mission such as in MGS where Snake has to sneak in to the base undetected. Ok so they might have actually handed him a weapon (silenced ofcourse to fit his mission profile) but making the player get a pistol was kinda neat and in MGS2 Snake/Raiden did get the nifty M9 converted to fire tranq darts to temporarily incapacitate enemies and that was silenced. However they couldn't exactly equip the main characters for a stealth insertion with a full arsenal of weaponry capable of taking down anything or equipping an entire squad of marines could they? Also where would be the fun, everyone would simply utilize the biggest most badass weapon they could and because of how "random" ammo drops tend to work the game code would be biased to giving you ammo for what you need. Making the player find and get weapons and equipment on site makes for a more interesting story and provides many opportunities for the character to learn intelligence what can help explaind the story.

In RPGs it's much the same thing, if the big bad who is the big bad because he's got all this power and is currently abusing it kept acting to a dedicated time line then they'd lose replayability. Who here has tried a no level or a max level all items maxed, max abilities game on an FF? Most of us I would imagine, if the big bad kept doing things to the world then eventually you'd be left fighting with no support or options but to try and end it. However in making his moves reactionary they make it so the game has that edge of replay value.

[Yue Kitsune]

Sandbox games, like Elder Scrolls, and Fallout 3 are probably the best equiped to do something like letting the big bad go nuts on a few random villages while your out questing. Oblivion especialy with all the gates scattered around, just have the evil start pooring out after a few in game days. I probly would have actually gotten around to the main story if the places i wanted to pillage myself got pillaged by the Deidras (or whatever the big bad for it turned out to be, since i never stopped exploring to find out XD) before i had a chance to get to them.