Main story to side mission ratio. What is the ideal balance?

[BananaKing]

I guess you can count this in different ways. But for me I feel like the ideal would be a 50/50 split. So if I have 15 hours of a main story is want 15 hours of side missions. 

Maybe a 40/60 split (main story being 40) is good too.  But I don't want to spend most of my time doing side missions and lower quality content, specially if a game is very much story driven. 

[Legend]

I really struggle with saying no to side missions. I will ignore content if it's obviously not my thing but if the side mission might be good then I'm going to do every single one.

If I start skipping a few then I'm going to end up skipping even main story stuff and just racing through the game. Which kinda sucks.



So I guess I don't care about the ratio itself. I just want it to be very clear what the intent of side content is. If it is non mandatory but still worth my time, or if it's just filler.

[kitler53]

i'm a completionist so i guess the ratio doesn't matter.  but my honest answer is 0%.   i'd just rather play a well paced linear game then a open world sandbox.

[BananaKing]

I actually hate it when linear games add side content. Like it was so out of place in uncharted when they did that in lost legacy. 

[Legend]

I actually hate it when linear games add side content. Like it was so out of place in uncharted when they did that in lost legacy.

Oh lost legacy has side missions? Didn't know that.

[nnodley]

Oh lost legacy has side missions? Didn't know that.

not really side missions, just side exploration. I liked it, but it definitely isn't necessary for something like Uncharted