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00:00Sometimes it's nice to just be nice, as kindness can be its own reward.
00:04But do you know what's better than kindness? Actual stuff. Yeah, an actual reward.
00:09While plenty of gamers like to play the good guy out of the warm fuzziness of their hearts,
00:13a lot of us are in it for the stuff. And if that last category includes you,
00:18then I've got just the list. There's no pointless paragon points or gross gushings
00:22of gratitude here, just cold hard cash, sweet new gear, bumps in your stats,
00:27a lucrative guild to join, and a cool sword. Alright, there's a little bit of how nice did
00:32it feel to do that nice thing in here, but trust me, for the most part, it's because it ends up
00:38with an ending where you don't feel like an absolute monster, or you get a full-on tangible reward.
00:44And the warm fuzzies. Mostly the reward.
00:46I'm Jess from WarCulture and here are 9 games that reward charity.
00:50Number 9. Keep Shadowheart in your party. Baldur's Gate 3.
00:54Many RPGs, including this one, give you a bunch of NPCs and their medium-sized problems,
01:00or tiny-sized problems, for which you are apparently the only person equipped to solve them.
01:06This isn't so terrible, though, as you always get some experience for your trouble. But,
01:10as I mentioned, we're not here for basic experience, we're here for a genuine reward,
01:15and being charitable, as long as the charity leads to something we want.
01:19Often when you hand in a quest in Baldur's Gate 3 and refuse payment, the NPC in question says,
01:25Oh, that's so generous. Here, let me pay you with a priceless family heirloom.
01:30But the reward we'll be talking about is even better.
01:32You'll come across multiple characters in the game who are after the quote-unquote
01:37Night Song. Now, one particular character called Balthazar wants you to kidnap her and give her to
01:55him. You can do this and save yourself a big fight, but doing the nice thing and not giving the woman
02:01over to a bloody-faced mage in his undead horde is the better call. This isn't just because it makes
02:06you less crap, it actually is the only way to avoid Shadowheart leaving your party altogether.
02:12This is because Shadowheart's storyline is tightly woven in with Night Song and whether or not she
02:17chooses to kill her. Once the encounter concludes, Shadowheart will permanently leave the party with
02:22some stinging parting words about how you robbed her of her moment. So yeah, better to be nice at this
02:28juncture. And for that matter, a lot of junctures, because there are a bunch of things you can do
02:33where if you upset your party members too much, they will just take off.
02:378. Join the Thieves Guild The Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion
02:41The Elder Scrolls games are riddled with the aforementioned useless NPCs who can't seem to get
02:46it together enough to solve their own problems, as well as generally getting better things if you
02:51turn down the cold, hard septums. But Oblivion has an even more interesting reward that's set in
02:56motion if you're kind and charitable. The central hub of Cyrodiil is the Imperial City, which is
03:01divided into seven districts, one of which is the Waterfront. This consists of the majority of the
03:07city's homeless, called beggars. I know, it's not the best term, but it's the one the game uses,
03:13so we'll just go with it. In Oblivion, these beggars are the key to the Thieves Guild, and you need to
03:18give them gold and or ingratiate yourself to them via persuasion to earn yourself an in with the
03:23guild. If you want to get access to some of the coolest and most lucrative quests in the game,
03:28bar the Dark Brotherhood, you need that hookup. Additionally, you can only get Master Speechcraft
03:33training from the Priestess Tandelway if you find every single beggar across the game world,
03:38and there's 19 of them, so it's no small task, but there you go.
03:427. The Good Ending Life is Strange 2
03:46It's fair to say the majority of games reward good and punish evil, which isn't so bad when you're trading
03:52out money for a cool bit of gear, but what about when the reward isn't instant, but a much better
03:56ending that won't scar you for life? Enter Life is Strange 2, where you play the elder of two brothers
04:01who are on the road, trying to make it to Mexico. As you can imagine, supplies, food and whatnot are
04:08pretty scarce, so you're going to want to get your hands on as much as you can, which means you're not
04:12exactly going to be the most virtuous. The game is super cheeky too, because while you might feel
04:18self-sacrificing enough to go without if you were just considering the 16-year-old Sean,
04:23you also have your 9-year-old brother Daniel to worry about, so you might assume you'd better
04:27break bad and beg, borrow and steal in order to provide for him, but there's another catch.
04:33You see, the game has a mechanic where the younger brother Daniel learns from your behaviour,
04:37so if you swear, he swears, if he sees you stealing, he starts stealing, and if you do things like
04:44lose your crap at people, or just get violent and ragey, then he'll start doing the same,
04:49which is a problem, because he has supernatural telekinetic powers.
04:53Since this is the choice-heavy game, everything you do has massive repercussions for the progression
04:58of the journey and the endgame. Ultimately, choosing to be nice, go without, not steal,
05:03and try to pass on good values to Daniel makes for a more satisfying journey and an ending where
05:08you feel like less of a monster. 6. Massive Store Discounts
05:12Red Dead Redemption 2 Red Dead Redemption 2 seems like a game where you could just be a badass
05:18cowboy and get rewarded for it. I mean, you're literally playing the game as a criminal.
05:22Interestingly though, you'll actually get way better rewards if you play as a nice,
05:27western gentleman instead of a bad boy. Without spoiling anything for you,
05:31the game hits you with a massive bummer of an ending if you decide to play Arthur as a ruthless
05:37asshole. You'd be forgiven for doing so, since all the funniest things you can do in the game give
05:41you evil points and your fellow gang members can really rub you the wrong way. Like when you
05:47donate a bunch of money to the camp and Dutch still hassles you for not contributing enough.
05:52On that, it is worth donating to camp as you'll upgrade facilities so you'll have access to
05:57gear and different bits and pieces, but most crucially, it's the way to access fast travel and
06:02you're gonna want that. But the best rewards are probably related to cheaper shopping. Save someone
06:08out in the forest and they'll repay you when you see them back in town or take you to the gun shop
06:12and offer to buy you anything you want for free. You'll also get better quality loot and new outfits
06:18as well as a healthy discount in stores, which maxes out at a massive 50% off. Comparatively,
06:24there's basically no bonus to being low honor other than the joy of being a misfit and the fast cash.
06:30So help those strangers pay off your debts and try not to trample NPCs as funny as it may be.
06:365. Super Strong Party Members Persona 5 Royal There are a decent handful of games,
06:42many of them JRPGs, that feature kindness as a stat that you need to work at in order to make
06:47your character the very best they can be. And Persona 5 Royal is one such game.
06:52Kindness is one of the five central stats which checks out since the whole game is about trying
06:57to help people through their worst and most difficult moments, as well as encourage them
07:01to see themselves for who they are and overcome their deep-seated issues. Which coincidentally
07:07works out great for you because doing this results in them being way stronger fighters when you do the
07:13dungeon segments. In fact, endearing yourself to any of the game's characters, whether they be members
07:17of your party or just confidants you get to know around Tokyo, is the central mechanic to unlocking most
07:23of the perks you're going to use in the game. Choosing to spend your limited time with a friend and
07:27picking thoughtful dialogue options deepens your connection and subsequently their effectiveness
07:32in battle. Just like in the real world, characters also really appreciate it when you give them
07:37gifts, so it's worth picking up a bunch of hideously expensive bits and pieces so Joker can give them
07:43to him whenever he gets the chance. It's good for the gameplay, it's just rough on your wallet.
07:48Ranking up your kindness stat isn't just a good idea, it's essential if you want to hang out with
07:52characters like Ahn or Futaba. And if you don't hang out with them, you'll be unable to rank them up,
07:57to the powerful party members they can become. 4. Erendite
08:01The Witcher 3
08:02Geralt can be a surly dude, but to his credit, he does take on a bunch of wild gigs,
08:07and he ends up doing plenty of kind things for people anyway. A simple reward that not everybody
08:12knows about is that if you turn down money for a gig, you'll actually get more experience in return.
08:18But the reward we're talking about is a little more complicated and a lot more exciting than that.
08:22The quest There Can Only Be One will ultimately reward you with the legendary silver sword,
08:27Erendite, bestowed on you by the Lady of the Lake. The quest is a touch obtuse though,
08:33and actually makes a note of your actions throughout the Blood and Wine expansion. You need to prove you
08:38have each of the chivalric virtues, which are Valor, Honor, Compassion, Generosity and Wisdom.
08:44I don't know about you, but I think we can chuck two of those if not three comfortably under the
08:48charity category. There are loads of ways you can go about this. Sparing lives, enthusiastically
08:54partying with your money, refusing rewards and generally being a good dude. You'll also need
08:59to kill some stuff for the Valor bit and know some stuff for the Wisdom bit, but charity is doing the
09:04heavy lifting here. And what do you get for it? A sick sword. Nice.
09:083. Hero Powers
09:10Infamous 2
09:11Yeah, the game's called Infamous, but you're actually better off being a nice guy if you want
09:15the best rewards the game has to offer. That isn't to say it's not narratively or mechanically
09:19interesting to go full bad dude, but you're going to have a better time narratively and mechanically
09:24if you decide to fight your instincts and lean into Infamous 2's hero route.
09:28This is largely because lots of players reported having a better time with the hero abilities,
09:33like the machine gun bolt stream or the ice grenades that explode on impact. The best icy time you'll
09:39have though is the awesome traversal power ice launch, which makes catapulting yourself across the city
09:44much more efficient and let's face it, just a lot more fun. On top of some of the best abilities,
09:49being good guy coal means you won't have to fight the cops and the civilians will eventually feel the
09:54fire of revolution and start attacking the bad guys themselves. This is in stark contrast to the
10:00baddie route where they'll throw rocks at you and tell you to get out of town and unalive yourself.
10:05When you're good though, the civilians tell you your heart, so maybe that's a better reward.
10:10Is it? I could have titled the entry that. Let me know.
10:12Number 2. A potentially life saving health boost.
10:16Elden Ring. The last couple of entries we have on this list will give you the warm fuzzies,
10:20not just because they're lovely things to do for your fellow IRL man as opposed to NPC man,
10:26but because you get a little something back for doing them.
10:29Souls games and Elden Ring let you leave little messages for your fellow likely suffering players
10:34that they can read in their own games and approve of if they so choose.
10:38This is the situation in which it definitely pays to be nice or supportive or entertaining as you're
10:44more likely to get approval on messages that are telling players about an enemy that might be up
10:50ahead or that a chest actually has teeth or maybe it's just you've found a clever way to combine the
10:55words butt and hole. If you want to see some joy in the world, the Elden Ring subreddit is peppered with
11:01videos that show how someone narrowly avoided death thanks to a health boost that came from
11:06others appraising their messages. So keep on appraising.
11:09Number 1. Level up faster and increase your bridge link.
11:13Death Stranding. Death Stranding is a single player game where you venture
11:17alone between small settlements in a post-apocalyptic United States. Things can feel pretty isolating,
11:23but there's a cooperative style mechanic which involves setting down emotes for other players to see,
11:27leaving items in post boxes for them to pick up and going as far as to build structures like
11:32protective timefall shelters or even roads and bridges to help them on their journey.
11:37It's really something when you're running low on gear and you find that you're about to get stuck
11:41in some timefall that will probably kill you off and then just when you think all is lost there's
11:46somebody's timefall shelter that you can just sit under until it passes.
11:50You only see other people's structures once you've finished the main mission objectives in the area,
11:55but being able to use shelters, roads and bridges, especially in the late game, is a massive help.
12:00Creating these means you get likes too, and likes boost your bridge link, which in turn contributes
12:06to your level progression and opens up the ability to form strand contacts with more players,
12:11meaning you're more likely to see their items, equipment and structures in your game.
12:16Ergo, being nice gets you that sweet tangible reward.
12:19On top of that, leveling your bridge link and getting more strand contacts ups the number of buildings that
12:24you can co-operatively create with other players, which is super helpful if you've ever tried to
12:29build a bridge by lugging all of the materials yourself.
12:33There's a beautiful moment where you need to venture back across the entire continent,
12:36and you can really appreciate the extensive user-built roads and bridges.
12:41Loads of these cover the terrain over threatening areas, consequently letting you soar above a BT
12:46minefield that probably had you overwhelmed the first time through.
12:49You can drop multiple thumbs ups on every rope, bridge, shelter, construct and emote you see,
12:54which will help the player who placed it level up, and you receive the same back for your contributions.
12:59While the world of Death Stranding can often feel really isolating and devoid of life and cold,
13:05this co-op feature is really cute. It's injecting this sort of multiplayer cooperative community
13:11aspect into a single player game. I mean, it's even nice when a bunch of people pee in the same place,
13:17and then mushrooms grow. Yeah, it's a weird game, but I like it.
Recommended
8:56
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