*Possible FFXVI spoilers*
I have always understood the nonsensical FF side quests. Normally I'm quite happy to play along and upgrade my chocobos, find the missing moogle mail, play the Queen of Cards, complete all the hunts, etc. all while the world is ending. But for some reason - could be my age showing - FFXVI is really getting to me with the repetitive sidequests.
Case in point: I'm in the endgame and it looks like every possible loose end has popped up with a last side quest. So at the Hideaway, I start a quest to make Jill less sad. I'm supposed to get snow daisies, so off I go with Joshua to get the daisies, except the Blight killed the daisies at the spot Clive knew about, and the ONLY solution is to go right back to the hideaway to ask where else we can fast travel to...I wish I knew why that got under my skin and made me trot over here to vent, but boy did it! I think it's the number of quests in this game that have you start at A, go to B, and then instead of going on to C or completing the quest, you go back to A to get the actual next step of the quest. It makes you *feel* the mechanical fetchiness of it all and it is such a sour experience.
It could be that the game gives you a base full of hyper competent people, but ONLY YOU can go and collect the mundane thing. It's like...why am I leading a rebellion if one of my cursebreakers can't go and get Mid some oil? Or Gods forbid Harpocrates and Vivian cross the base to talk to each other instead of having me run messages back and forth. Or it could be that because the game has such a grim tone and dark color palette, it's less entertaining to trek hither and yon.
Anyway that is my whinging done. I guess I'm gonna go find out where yet another in-game VIP flower can be found. Because that's the thing - I want to see how some of these small stories go. There is some really good storytelling in the side quests. I just wish the game wasn't so obvious.