How important are side quests and grinding?

[John Stamos]

I'm currently going through the game for the first time and kind of rushing through it. I was just wondering if I'll screw myself over my avoiding most side quests and keeping grinding to a minimum. Reason for skipping them is that I'll likely play through a second time and 100% to the best of my ability then and that way I won't be doing a majority of the quests twice.

[Gabby]

You get pretty nice bonuses in SC for doing everything. The world also has so many side stories and interesting things to see happen that it's just plain recommended. This game is more about exploring the world than it is about pushing through the story.

[Letari]

The game also reduces the exp awarded the higher you get in levels and soft caps at around 40-42 which is higher than you need to be for the end of the game. Depending on the difficulty you chose, you should be fine if you ignore grinding in general and only grind if you find you can't beat a certain fight because of your level.

[Iridium]

I'd recommend doing sidequests simply because "the journey mattering more than the destination" is pretty much the entire point of FC (this game), but you shouldn't have too much trouble if you don't want to do them.

You'll probably be fine without grinding, too, as long as you don't run from every battle. You can gain experience really quickly in the last chapter so I wouldn't be too concerned.

[Stabbey]

You probably shouldn't have too much trouble avoiding sidequests, but you occasionally may want or need to spend more time fighting roadside monsters than a full-sidequester would.

Playing this game twice is not a bad idea, because the second time you'll often go "Oooohhhhhhhhhh, that's that that meant" at all the things that you missed the first time. Plus the second time you can use a guide without accidentally spoiling yourself, and get full BP.

[sorathecrow]

You don't need to grind at all if you do the sidequests and fight most everything along the way. But if you want to save it for a second plathrough, go for it.

[Mipak]

The only grinding part is the "Why Do You Have This Many?!" achievement. Was for me a 2 hour grind but that was when 7.777 was required. Now its reduced to 3.000.

After my normal playthrough i had about 2.500 so not much grinding involved or even none if you do not get full BP and go for a second playthrough for full BP.

[Erpy]

Grinding isn't important due to the level scaling, meaning that if you're overlevelled you'll get decreased experienced and if you're underlevelled you'll catch up quicker than usual. That said, sidequests (bracer quests) are more important. Monsters don't drop money in this game, they'll drop sepith which can be used to either refine quartz (for magic and stat boosts) or sold for cash. If you don't fight a lot, you'll want to spend your sepith on quartz in which case the only way to make money is to do sidequests. In fact, they're the general way of making money in the game.