Daily Debate: Does a Collection Quest Make a Good Side Quest?

The Zelda series has always featured a host of diverse side quests. Ever since Link’s Awakening, one of the optional quests Nintendo has decided to give players is the task of wandering the world and collecting a bunch of random items that are mostly useless to you. These items could be seashells, little emblems showing that you killed certain enemies, the souls of ghosts, or the little golden poos of a bunch of plants. A Link Between Worlds even has a quest where you find the lost children of some weird octopus-like creature. In return for finding all of these things, you’re able to get heart pieces, rupees, and many other random rewards, varying from game to game.

The question is, does a collectathon like this make for a good side quest? They can certainly be nice in that they force you to explore parts of the game world that you might not have seen otherwise. But they can also be rather repetitive, considering that each item you collect is acquired in a similar way. And the rewards for these collection quests differ in quality, too. A Link Between Worlds does give you the ability to upgrade every single weapon you have, which is pretty nice. But with the Gold Skulltulas in Ocarina of Time, you end up getting Gold Rupees at a point in the game when you no longer need them. And there isn’t really a reason to get all 900 Korok Seeds in Breath of the Wild, either. Perhaps part of the reward for a collectathon side quest is simply the satisfaction of completing it.

So, what do you think? Are collection quests enjoyable side quests? Or are they just uninteresting ways to force the player to explore more? Leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!