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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
00:38up
00:38with an ending where you don't feel like an absolute monster, or you get a full-on tangible reward.
00:43And the warm fuzzies. Mostly the reward.
00:46I'm Jess from WarCulture, and here are 9 games that reward charity.
00:509. 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.
01:10But as 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
01:36Night Song. And I have a little bit of a spoiler here, so I'm giving you five seconds to mute
01:42me.
01:43It turns out, the Night Song is in fact a person. So handing over said Night Song is a bit
01:49s***y,
01:50because… human being.
01:51Now, one particular character called Balthazar wants you to kidnap her and give her to him.
01:56You 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 and 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.
02:11This is because Shadowheart's storyline is tightly woven in with Night Song and whether
02:16or not she chooses to kill her. Once the encounter concludes, Shadowheart will permanently leave
02:22the party with some stinging parting words about how you robbed her of her moment.
02:27So yeah, better to be nice at this juncture. And for that matter, a lot of junctures,
02:31because there are a bunch of things you can do where if you upset your party members too much,
02:36they will just take off.
02:378. Join the Thieves Guild
02:39The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion The Elder Scrolls games are riddled with the
02:43aforementioned useless NPCs who can't seem to get it together enough to solve their own problems,
02:49as well as generally getting better things if you turn down the cold, hard septums. But Oblivion has
02:53an even more interesting reward that's set in motion if you're kind and charitable. The central hub of
02:59Cyrodiil is the Imperial City, which is divided into seven districts, one of which is the Waterfront.
03:05This consists of the majority of the city's homeless, called beggars. I know, it's not the best term,
03:12but it's the one the game uses, so we'll just go with it.
03:14In Oblivion, these beggars are the key to the Thieves Guild, and you need to give them gold and
03:19or ingratiate yourself to them via persuasion to earn yourself an in with the guild. If you want to
03:24get access to some of the coolest and most lucrative quests in the game, bar the Dark Brotherhood,
03:29you need that hookup. Additionally, you can only get Master Speechcraft training from the Priestess
03:34Tandleway if you find every single beggar across the game world, and there's 19 of them, so it's no
03:40small task, but there you go. Number 7, The Good Ending. Life is Strange 2. It's fair to say the
03:47majority of games reward good and punish evil, which isn't so bad when you're trading out money for a
03:52cool bit of gear, but what about when the reward isn't instant, but a much better ending that won't scar
03:58you
03:58for life. Enter Life is Strange 2, where you play the elder of two brothers who are on the road
04:02trying to make it to Mexico. As you can imagine, supplies, food and whatnot are pretty scarce,
04:09so you're going to want to get your hands on as much as you can, which means you're not exactly
04:13going to be the most virtuous. The game is super cheeky too, because while you might feel self-sacrificing
04:19enough to go without if you were just considering the 16-year-old Sean, you also have your 9-year
04:24-old
04:24brother Daniel to worry about, so you might assume you'd better break bad and beg, borrow and steal
04:29in order to provide for him, but there's another catch. You see, the game has a mechanic where the
04:35younger brother Daniel learns from your behavior, so if you swear, he swears, if he sees you stealing,
04:41he starts stealing, and if you do things like lose your crap at people or just get violent and ragey,
04:47then he'll start doing the same, which is a problem because he has supernatural telekinetic powers.
04:52Since 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 you
05:08feel 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 cowboy
05:18and
05:18get rewarded for it. I mean, you're literally playing the game as a criminal. Interestingly,
05:23though, you'll actually get way better rewards if you play as a nice western gentleman instead of a
05:29bad boy. Without spoiling anything for you, the game hits you with a massive bummer of an ending
05:34if you decide to play Arthur as a ruthless arsehole. You'd be forgiven for doing so, since all the
05:40funniest things you can do in the game give you evil points, and your fellow gang members can really
05:44rub you the wrong way. Like when you donate a bunch of money to the camp and Dutch still hassles
05:50you for
05:50not contributing enough. On that, it is worth donating to camp as you'll upgrade facilities
05:55so you'll have access to gear and different bits and pieces, but most crucially, it's the way to
06:01access fast travel and you're gonna want that. But the best rewards are probably related to cheaper
06:06shopping. Save someone out in the forest and they'll repay you when you see them back in town,
06:11or take you to the gun shop and offer to buy you anything you want for free. You'll also get
06:15better quality loot and new outfits, as well as a healthy discount in stores, which maxes out at
06:21a massive 50% off. Comparatively, there's basically no bonus to being low honor other than the joy of
06:28being a misfit and the fast cash. So help those strangers pay off your debts and try not to trample
06:34NPCs, as funny as it may be. Number five, super strong party members. Persona 5 Royal.
06:40There are a decent handful of games, many of them JRPGs, that feature kindness as a stat that you
06:46need to work at in order to make your character the very best they can be. And Persona 5 Royal
06:51is
06:51one such game. Kindness is one of the five central stats which checks out since the whole game is
06:57about trying to help people through their worst and most difficult moments, as well as encourage
07:01them to 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
07:22most of the perks you're going to use in the game. Choosing to spend your limited time with a friend
07:27and
07:27picking thoughtful dialogue options deepens your connection and subsequently their effectiveness in
07:33battle. Just like in the real world, characters also really appreciate it when you give them gifts,
07:38so 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 Arnn or Futaba, and if you don't hang out with them you'll be unable to rank them up
07:57to
07:57the powerful party members they can become. 4. Erundyte
08:01The Witcher 3
08:02Geralt can be a surly dude, but to his credit he does take on a bunch of wild gigs and
08:07he ends up
08:08doing plenty of kind things for people anyway. A simple reward that not everybody knows about is
08:13that if you turn down money for a gig you'll actually get more experience in return, but the
08:18reward 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,
08:27Erundyte, 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.
08:37You need to prove you have each of the chivalric virtues, which are valor,
08:41honor, compassion, generosity, and wisdom. I don't know about you, but I think we can chuck
08:46two of those if not three comfortably under the charity category. There are loads of ways you can
08:51go about this, sparing lives, enthusiastically partying with your money, refusing rewards,
08:56and generally being a good dude. You'll also need to kill some stuff for the valor bit and
09:01know some stuff for the wisdom bit, but charity is doing the heavy lifting here. And what do you
09:06get for it? A sick sword. Nice.
09:083. Hero Powers Infamous 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
09:23if you decide to fight your instincts and lean into Infamous 2's hero route. This is largely because
09:29lots of players reported having a better time with the hero abilities, like the machine gun bolt stream
09:35or the ice grenades that explode on impact. The best icy time you'll have though is the awesome
09:40traversal power ice launch, which makes catapulting yourself across the city much more efficient,
09:45and let's face it, just a lot more fun. On top of some of the best abilities, being good guy
09:50coal
09:50means you won't have to fight the cops and the civilians will eventually feel the fire of revolution
09:55and start attacking the bad guys themselves. This is in stark contrast to the baddie route where
10:01they'll throw rocks at you and tell you to get out of town and unalive yourself. When you're good
10:06though, the civilians tell you you're hot, so maybe that's a better reward, is it? I could have titled the
10:11Entry that. Let me know. Number two, a potentially life-saving health boost, Elden Ring. The last
10:17couple of entries we have on this list will give you the warm fuzzies, not just because they're
10:21lovely things to do for your fellow IRL man as opposed to NPC man, but because you get a little
10:27something back for doing them. Souls games and Elden Ring let you leave little messages for your
10:32fellow likely suffering players that they can read in their own games and approve of if they so choose.
10:38This is a 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
11:01with
11:01videos that show how someone narrowly avoided death thanks to a health boost that came from others
11:06appraising their messages, so keep on appraising. Number one, level up faster and increase your
11:12bridge link. Death Stranding. Death Stranding is a single player game where you venture alone
11:17between 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
11:27see, leaving items in post boxes for them to pick up, and going as far as to build structures like
11:32protective time fall shelters or even roads and bridges to help them on their journey. It's really
11:37something when you're running low on gear and you find that you're about to get stuck in some time
11:42fall that will probably kill you off, and then just when you think all is lost there's somebody's
11:47time fall shelter that you can just sit under until it passes. You only see other people's
11:51structures once you've finished the main mission objectives in the area, but being able to use
11:56shelters, roads and bridges, especially in the late game, is a massive help. Creating these means you get
12:02likes too, and likes boost your bridge link, which in turn contributes to your level progression
12:07and opens up the ability to form strand contacts with more players, meaning you're more likely to
12:12see their items, equipment and structures in your game. Ergo, being nice gets you that sweet tangible
12:19reward. On top of that, leveling your bridge link and getting more strand contacts ups the number of
12:24buildings that you can cooperatively create with other players, which is super helpful if you've ever
12:29tried to build a bridge by lugging all of the materials yourself. There's a beautiful moment
12:34where you need to venture back across the entire continent and you can really appreciate the
12:38extensive user-built roads and bridges. Loads of these cover the terrain over threatening areas,
12:44consequently letting you soar above a BT minefield that probably had you overwhelmed the first time
12:49through. You 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
13:16place
13:17and then mushrooms grow. Yeah, it's a weird game, but I like it.
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