11 Best Final Fantasy Side Quests

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Final Fantasy games are known for their compelling stories, and that’s understandably the focus for many players. But rushing through the game just to see the ending isn’t the best approach.

Honestly, skipping the side quests in this game is a huge mistake. They’re not just filler – some of them are seriously amazing. I’ve lost count of how many times I got totally absorbed in a side story and completely forgot about what I was supposed to be doing in the main game! There are eleven of these quests that really did it for me, and they all managed to pull me in so completely that the main plot just faded into the background.

11. Final Fantasy V: Sealed Temple

Post-Game Content That Earns the Trip


Final Fantasy Wiki

The Sealed Temple is a challenging underwater dungeon located south of Phantom Village. You can only unlock it after finishing the main story. Inside, you’ll face incredibly powerful enemies and bosses like Omega Mk.II and Neo Shinryu. It also leads to the Cloister of the Dead, a difficult series of boss battles designed to push your skills to the limit.

Three of the four new character classes in the Advance version – Cannoneer, Gladiator, and Oracle – become available after completing the Sealed Temple, giving players extra motivation to tackle this difficult challenge. The Temple is intentionally tough – it’s designed to test players who think they’ve finished the main game, and it often reveals there’s still more to discover. That’s exactly what the game wants you to realize!

10. Final Fantasy VIII: Triple Triad

A Card Game That Makes the World Feel Real


Final Fantasy Wiki

Triple Triad is a card game for two players, played on a 3×3 board. You win by placing cards with higher numbers next to your opponent’s cards to capture them. While the basic rules are easy to learn, different versions of the game can get quite complicated. Plus, there are a lot of cards to find and collect throughout the game.

What truly makes Triple Triad special isn’t how the game works, but how it brings the game’s world to life. The fact that you can beat a Galbadian soldier and then casually play cards with them, as if they’re just a person taking a break from fighting, is a small detail that makes the world feel incredibly real and lived-in.

Collecting cards adds a lasting appeal to the game, and there’s always someone eager for a card match, even if other parts of the experience aren’t perfect.

9. Final Fantasy VII: Chocobo Breeding

Catching, Loving, Racing, and Breeding Little Birds


Final Fantasy Wiki

The Chocobo breeding quest in Final Fantasy VII is known for being one of the most time-consuming and complex optional things you can do in the game.

You can find and capture Chocobos in the wild, then take them to a stable. At the Gold Saucer, you can race them to make them stronger. Giving them special greens boosts their speed and stamina. Eventually, you can breed Chocobos to get different colored birds, each of which can travel across different types of land. For example, green Chocobos can climb mountains, blue Chocobos can swim across rivers, black Chocobos can handle both, and gold Chocobos can go anywhere!

People want a Gold Chocobo because it’s the only way to reach a hidden island where you can find Knights of the Round – an incredibly powerful and game-breaking Materia.

It’s a really enjoyable and time-filled hobby, and I’ve never regretted a moment of it. I adore these small birds, and I love the process of raising them. What’s especially great is that the game rewards you with its strongest creature by making you focus on genuinely caring for animals.

8. Final Fantasy X: Monster Arena

Pokémon Said Jump, Final Fantasy Said How High


Final Fantasy Wiki

Final Fantasy X’s Monster Arena is a fun addition to the game. You can capture monsters by weakening them with special weapons, then bring them back to fight your party. This encourages you to explore every part of the game world, which is more than many optional activities require.

The real excitement begins when you start building a large collection. As you breed more monsters, unique and powerful creatures, called Special Creations, will appear – and some of them offer incredibly difficult battles. The arena owner will also reward you handsomely for discovering each new creation.

You’re invincible inside the arena, so you can try out different strategies without worrying about losing. Defeating enemies there gives you double the loot, which made the combat really rewarding and kept me playing for much longer than planned. The toughest fight, against Nemesis, costs 25,000 gil each time, but I kept paying for it – it was absolutely worth the cost.

7. Final Fantasy VI: Eight Legendary Dragons

Kefka Ended the World, and This Is What He Released


Final Fantasy Wiki

In Final Fantasy VI, a massive disaster unleashes eight powerful dragons onto a transformed world. After the disaster, these dragons roam the land – you can find them in dungeons, at key story locations, or tucked away in hidden spots if you explore carefully. They won’t come after you; they simply live their lives within the game world. One dragon has even taken residence on the stage of the Opera House! The game makes it quite clear where they are, though – it doesn’t try to hide them.

There are eight dragons, each embodying a different element. Defeating them all releases the Esper Crusader, who has been imprisoned for a thousand years – a great reward in itself. However, starting with the Game Boy Advance version, completing this challenge also opens up the Dragons’ Den, a bonus dungeon with tougher versions of each dragon and unique new challenges. At the very bottom of the Den, you’ll find the Kaiser Dragon, a powerful superboss. And if you can defeat him, you unlock access to the Soul Shrine.

This adds a significant amount of depth to an already enjoyable side quest, and it blends seamlessly with the bleak and broken world of the World of Ruin.

6. Final Fantasy XV: The Perfect Cup Noodles

An Excuse to Fight The Scariest Thing in the Game, Hunger


YouTube via Chaos Productions Inc

As you get ready to depart from Lestallum in Chapter 8, Gladiolus insists on a very important task: finding the perfect instant noodles. He’s serious – he genuinely believes a specific brand of Cup Noodles is the best, and he won’t let anyone leave until the matter is settled.

Your journey to create the perfect cup of coffee will lead you to search for a special ingredient. Finding it could mean battling a powerful Behemoth, a Zu, or even a Karlabos.

It’s funny how we sometimes get a really strong craving for a specific food and will go to great lengths to satisfy it. And the best part is, once you finally get it, the reward – like a recipe you earned – feels pointless! That’s the humor of it, and I think it’s brilliant.

5. Final Fantasy X-2: Den of Woe

The One That Should Have Been Mandatory


Final Fantasy Wiki

I recently learned about this place called the Den of Woe, and it’s seriously tragic. It’s a hidden cave in Mushroom Rock Gorge where Shuyin has been trapped for a thousand years! Apparently, he’s been consumed by sadness and rage the whole time, and the only thing keeping him going are these glowing bugs called Pyreflies that surround him. It’s a really sad story, and makes me feel for the guy.

To access this content, you need to find all ten Crimson Spheres hidden throughout the game and learn the backstories of Nooj, Baralai, and Gippal – specifically, what they experienced while training for the Crimson Squad. Understanding their history is important because it makes the events that unfold in the Den much more meaningful.

Prepare for a truly difficult experience: Rikku and Paine fall under Shuyin’s control, Yuna witnesses the tragic deaths of Shuyin and Lenne, and Shuyin conjures illusions of Nooj, Baralai, and Gippal to battle her. It’s going to be a rough time.

This side quest feels truly connected to the game’s main story, unlike many others. I still question why it’s optional, though. If you play X-2 and skip it, you’ll miss out on a significant part of the overall story and depth.

4. Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift: Heritor Questline

The Job Class You Have to Find


YouTube via J7Jase

The Heritor is a special job class only available with Adelle, and it’s easy to overlook. It becomes available after completing certain story events, but you won’t find the weapons needed to learn Heritor skills listed at the pub. Instead, you’ll get these weapons by completing specific battles or events, learn the skill on each weapon, and then repeat this process several times to unlock the full class.

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Your goals are definitely achievable. Adelle, as a Heritor, is a versatile character who can use almost any weapon or armor. She has balanced stats and gains access to strong abilities that become even more powerful as you find new equipment and learn to use it effectively.

The game’s storyline unfolds at a deliberate pace. You can’t jump ahead – you’ll only discover new weapons and abilities once you’ve fully learned the previous ones. This gradual progression feels right for the game’s overall atmosphere, and unlocking each job significantly alters how you play the rest of the game.

3. Final Fantasy XII: Espers

More Lore Than They Get Credit For


YouTube via FuzzfingerGaming

Let’s be honest, the Espers in Final Fantasy XII aren’t the best summons the series has to offer. However, most of them aren’t essential to the story – only five are. The other eight require some exploration to find, and often involve surprisingly challenging battles.

The real heart of the game lies in the Bestiary. Each Esper has a rich backstory – tales of powerful beings who fought against the gods, were defeated, and then cursed to exist as the creatures you find. Their current forms are a result of this punishment for daring to rebel.

The writing itself is quite strong, offering detailed and somewhat sad descriptions that aren’t always reflected in the overall story. While finding all thirteen creatures doesn’t drastically change the gameplay, reading the Bestiary’s entries about them is a subtle but rewarding experience for players who take the time to explore. It’s one of Final Fantasy XII’s hidden gems.

2. Final Fantasy XIII: Missions

The Open World the Game Almost Forgot to Include


Final Fantasy Wiki

Final Fantasy XIII is well-known for its very structured, straightforward path for much of the game. This makes the sections set in Gran Pulse feel like a completely separate experience, largely due to the game’s Mission system.

The Cie’th Stones are found throughout the Archylte Steppe and become active as you progress through the game’s main missions. Each stone sends you on a hunt for a target somewhere in the vast world. Essentially, they provide the open-world exploration and challenges that are missing from the rest of the game. These hunts vary in difficulty, from easy to quite challenging, and the game’s difficulty ratings are a good indication of what to expect.

Focusing on just one mission at a time forces you to carefully choose what to do next, preventing the game from feeling rushed or chaotic. After a lot of guided exploration, being given a large open area with multiple objectives feels refreshing, and the mission system helps you navigate it all effectively.

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2026-05-16 01:41