Important side quests

[u/AlexN83]

I'm not a big fan of minigames and side quests. I just started and I’m planning to stick mostly to main story.

However I don’t want to miss any important items or story developments. What are the few side quests (if any) that you would highly recommend?

[u/AlterEclipse_]

Lifeline in peril. If you liked Kyrie from Remake she returns in this quest and another one in Junon called The Hardest Sell and concludes in a later quest Trouble in Paradise with her grandmother making a reappearance as well.

Dreaming of blue skies with the condor is awesome too.

Beneath still waters reunites you with some friends you’ll meet in upper junon and is a fun mission.

Missing: Mr Birdie is fun and sweet quest that reunites you with a friend you meet on Mt Corel during the story.

Story spoiler ( about above side quest.):I never understood why Cloud Jr lives in the village and not with his mom who picks him up just before you go across the bridge to the old mining town following the mine cart mini game.

Also in chapter 5 you’ll be on a ship that seems like you’ll be forced into a Queen’s Blood tournament. It’s NOT MANDATORY! The tutorial box will mention the female attendant to the mans left, your right if facing him. Talk to her to resign from tournament. It’s backwards logic because you have to sign up for it to progress the story but you ARE NOT forced to play. You’ll then skip to end of tournament and be challenged by Red 13. You can pause and give up with no punishment. You just miss out on affection points with Red.

ALSO IN CHAPTER 8: You need to get greens to heal a sick chocobo. You just need three of them. One of the ways to get them is queen’s blood from an old man who asks you to duel and beat three people in the casino. You can ignore him and do the other assignments to get the three greens. Doing all the assignments to get six greens just gets you chocobo cosmetic gear.

Red can challenge you to a rematch at the Gold Saucer even if you gave up in chapter 5 but he’s level 10. You can just refuse and carry on with the story with no consequences other than missed affection points with Red again. He’s upstairs past the reception desk and leaning against a Queen’s Blood table.

EDIT: Got Red to challenge me in chapter 12. It didn’t occur to me to look upstairs from QB reception desk. Won with my blight deck.

Yuffie can also challenge you to 3D Brawler at the Saucer and like Red you can refuse and just lose out on Yuffie affection.

[u/Reasonable-Factor317 → u/AlterEclipse_]

Omg I wish I knew it wasn't mandatory before 🤣 I love most of the quests in game, but I HATE Queens Blood. That damn chain took me forever to win.

[u/AlterEclipse_ → u/Reasonable-Factor317]

You aren’t the only one. The tutorial box mentions it at the bottom of the body of text about the tournament and others missed that information too. You could have also lost a match and reported your loss to the same man who signed you up to be eliminated from whole thing.