The RPG genre is now a mainstream class of game in the mainstream, showing an impressive range from JRPGs like the upcoming Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion to western juggernauts like the highly-anticipated Starfield. The side content on offer is a critical element of this genre's gameplay loop.
It's only natural since RPGs are meant to immerse players in rich worlds that tend to reward player customization and choice, and many over the years have excelled in this department. From more recent acclaimed hits like The Witcher 3: Wild Huntto modern cult classics from generations ago like Fallout: New Vegas, fans on Reddit have chimed in on the games they felt offered the best side quests.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Still regarded as one of the best modern fantasy RPGs, CD Projekt Red's take on author Andrzej Sapkowski's book series in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt proved to be also one of the greatest games of the last generation. Redditor master_criskywalker believed the game to be exceptional in this regard, going as far as to say, "Many of the side quests are even better than the main story."
Worldbuilding and storytelling are pivotal to an RPG, and even more so in an open-world fantasy one. The Witcher 3 had a gripping main story that brought Geralt of Rivia's story to a satisfying conclusion, but the side quests and DLC expansions managed to flesh out an already story-rich experience with meaningful side stories and more characters.
Disco Elysium
As far as RPGs go -- and CRPGs, specifically -- publisher and developer ZA/UM's Disco Elysium is one of the most unique. It doesn't feature any actual combat, making its gameplay more intrinsically tied to effective storytelling than normal. And its emphatic acclaim showed the formula paid off, and fans like Redditor King_Allant thought that the "optional content is written to such a high standard and incorporated so seamlessly that I often couldn't distinguish it from the mainline story material."
It's an ingenious experience, making both the main and side-questing experience revolve around incredible attention to detail in narrative writing. The detective angle on the part of the playable protagonist was the perfect catalyst for such a gameplay loop.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Indie developer Warhorse Studios' Kingdom Come: Deliverance is another refreshing experience in the genre, both in its mainline storytelling and optional quests. The major appeal behind the game is that it's a historically-accurate RPG grounded in realism. Redditor ImRadicalBro held high praise for the game's side quest and said, "Some of the side quests are boring, but many of them are f****** great; very well written with great characters. Some of them are just hilarious."
The game launched with noticeable technical issues, but the team's support of the game afterward allowed the game's best qualities to shine. Even without a fantastical setting, Kingdom Come: Deliverance succeeded in having a creative variety of optional story content to fill out its world.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the gift that keeps on giving -- whether players want it to or not. Even though the wait for The Elder Scrolls VI has been excruciating for longtime fans, Skyrim has thrived thanks to the game's immense replay value. Redditor VVen0m cited its side quests for this longevity, specifically how they're "presented in an appealing way and having their own little stories or even entire storylines separate from the main one."
The main questline was a solid if safe high-fantasy tale, but it's this factor alongside the deep modding community that makes Skyrim such an enduring game. The likes of the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild provided for some of the game's most riveting storylines as well.
Fallout: New Vegas
While Bethesda's Fallout 3 earned widespread critical acclaim for its own reasons, it's Obsidian Entertainment's spinoff New Vegas that has become the franchise favorite. It launched in an admittedly buggy state, but with post-launch support and another impressive modding community, New Vegas still stands as an addicting game with all the main and side story content available.
Redditor CynicChimp noted in a comment highlighting The Witcher 3 and New Vegas that their side quests "add stories to pretty much every single one. Charming characters, lore, mysteries, etc." Quality over quantity is key in the RPG genre. And in the case of open-world RPGs like this, it's both a welcome and refreshing feat to have so many side quests have something important to offer the game's wider experience.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Skyrim has been getting the lion's share of the attention since its release -- in part for still being the most recent mainline release -- but many longtime fans still hold up Oblivion in high regard. And in many veteran circles, those fans even consider it to be the best in the series.
Redditor radenthefridge responded to another user that gave Oblivion a shout and said, "guild quests are so good. To this day I often think of the fighters guild quest almost a decade later." Mechanically, the game certainly shows its age since 2006. However, it's still a memorable classic to dive back into and the nuanced writing and gameplay loop of the side quests hold up today.
Cyberpunk 2077
The game launched as one of the biggest disasters in the industry, but thanks to extensive post-launch support to right some wrongs, Cyberpunk 2077 is now seen as a great recent RPG. In a response to another user vouching for Cyberpunk's side quests, Redditor OkayAtBowling said, "the side quests in Cyberpunk were every bit as fleshed out as the main quests."
It was a bit of a give-and-take for some players, as while the main storyline was generally well-received, some players felt that the layered side quests came at the cost of the former's short runtime. Nonetheless, it's great to see a triple-A cyberpunk-themed RPG succeed -- even if it took the long way around -- and the upcoming Phantom Liberty expansion should only sweeten the game's overall story content.
Divinity: Original Sin II
Big-budget western RPGs undoubtedly get the most fanfare, but the smaller-scope CRPG subgenre has seen a bit of a return to prominence in the "double-A" space. Larian Studios -- currently working on Baldur's Gate III -- put out one of the current best CRPGs in the form of Divinity: Original Sin II, in part because of its breadth of substantive optional content.
Redditor alfons100 appreciated the diversity in Divinity: Original Sin II's side quests and said it "has some great, tragic, and funny sidequests." The game has been widely lauded since 2017, but its ability to capture that adventurous high-fantasy atmosphere of Dungeons & Dragons was a particular highlight. It does a great narrative job of balancing a wide range of colorful emotions and drama.
Mass Effect 2
In the glory days of EA as a publisher and BioWare as a developer, the Mass Effect series established itself as one of the greatest sci-fi RPGs in the industry. The series is arguably the best in the genre at large as well, with the story writing being a big reason for this. A now-deleted Reddit user who thought that Mass Effect 2's "companion quests were really fun and contributed a lot to the main narrative, especially the ending."
The real-time action combat was consistently engaging, but it's rare for a game's optional content to be so simultaneously rewarding as isolated stories and elevating the main story's climax. The impact of these quests also had lasting implications when carrying over to ME3.
Baldur's Gate II
Even before the likes of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect studded early-era BioWare's resume, Baldur's Gate II was a beloved effort of the team in the CRPG space. Based on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Baldur's Gate II was a rich high-fantasy RPG with incredibly diverse side quest content.
Redditor Finite_Universe thought highly of the game and said, "I think what separates a well-designed side quest and a generic fetch quest is the writing." Many open-world games in general suffer from side quests/missions that are thinly veiled busywork. But games like Baldur's Gate II show how substantive optional content can be, with side stories full of compelling drama and surprises.
Source:gamerant.com