Xenoblade 1: How important are trade quests?

[Nuvendil]

bigtakilla said:

Nuvendil said:

With XC the sidequests aren't that interesting.  There are a few but not enough.  And the rewards aren't that interesting.  Now, if you play XCX next (assuming you haven't already), totally different.  Side content is both good (normal missions and affinity missions) and also imo playing a good number as you go is essential to having the best experience. 

You get a LOT of rare augment materials too. Sidequests in Xeno X is almost a must. But agreed, Xeno 1 you don't really need too, but it makes you feel awesome to see the affinty tree end game and how many peoples lives you have had direct or indirect impact on.

Yeah, the affinity trees are cool.  Ufortunately, the affinity system is also annoying cause there are some cool quests I have read about that are locked behind town affinity requirements which, in order to build, you need to do a lot of the more mundane stuff.  Which is why I appreciate that XCX keeps the mundane (Basic Missions) segregated from the substantive (Normal Missions) rather than using the former to gate the latter.

There are some gems in XC though, such as the one side quest with Melia and her half sister that is, to my knowledge, the only fully voiced sidequest in the entire game.  It's just that they are hidden among the more blah stuff cause there is no clear division or identifier.