Ludonarrative dissonance overdose when the main quest is about hurrying to save thousands of people from an incoming disaster but the hero keeps playing card games with everyone they meet
Speaking of card games, my favourite example of this is Witcher 3.
I GOTTA FIND AND SAVE CIRI, SHE’S IN TERRIBLE DANGER! …but first, Imma collect every Gwent card
That’s the exactly example I had in my head!
I’m grinding stats okay?
The worst feeling is when you progress the main quest by mistake while trying to clean up side things.
Dead Space has that really cool diegetic “locator” system so if you come across multiple paths you can see which way points toward the story, and take your time exploring the other direction, knowing you won’t accidentally start a story cutscene that locks you out of explorable areas