Why do so many open-world games forget how to do good side quests?

The most common type of side missions in RPGs, open world gamesMMOs and so on are fetch quests. These usually involve little effort on the player's part to collect items or kill enemies for equally minimal rewards. They aren't useless, as they can be good ways to grind for money or EXP, but they aren't exactly incredible.

Other games put a spin on fetch quests or offer something different in how side quests are structured. In these cases, it may be surprising to see that other games have not copied these types of missions in their games. The following example, which Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Red Dead Redemption 2are not only compelling open world games with memorable missions, but they are memorable because their variety keeps things interesting. More games should copy these side quests, and let's get into why.

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Deliveries that matter

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a game with mostly one type of mission: making deliveries. In the main story, players receive packages to open up relationships between underground bunkers and then connect them to a network. After that, players can continue to accept and make deliveries for these bunkers, which in turn will increase their relationship levels. As levels are completed, players unlock new recipes for 3D printing gear, from cars to weapons to new travel gear like anti-gravity nodes that can lighten backpacks and make travel on foot easier.

While not a specific mission type, there are also bandit camps that hold incredible amounts of supplies, which can also aid bunkers, and players can choose to raid them by going high or sneaking to take them down. Anyway, the core structure of the delivery system is so well done that it surpasses the delivery systems of other games like this. It develops the idea of ​​fetch quests to give them meaning, and it's pretty special for Death Stranding 2: On the Beachwhich other games should consider using.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Mini-games that expand the story

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has traditional side quests for NPCs, such as fetch quests that involve collecting a certain number of items or defeating monsters to make areas safer. While rewarding, the most interesting quests revolve around some of the larger minigames in the game Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. In each region that players travel to, there will be chocobos that players must catch stealthily, and when they're done, they can ride them around to unlock new areas that only they can access.

Queen's Blood is a card game and the biggest side quest in the game. It has players competing against certain NPCs, all of which lead to a grand finale with a twist. There's also the hunt for Gilgamesh, which involves several different ideas, from playing an RTS to hunting down his giant sand form. Many games have one-time missions, though Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth expands the idea of ​​them to get players more invested in their individual stories, and these examples are just the tip of the iceberg of what the game has to offer.

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Animal Crossing: Hawaii

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is another example of a game with many minigames that take longer to complete and are tied to NPCs that reward players with items, but also interesting interactions. An example is Sujimon, who is a Pokémon-like clone. Players can recruit enemies to join their Sujimon League and then compete in underground tournaments. Another major side quest involves players going to a separate island, called Dondoko Island, and renovating it with NPCs and housing to make it habitable.

Unlike the rest of the game, which is turn-based, the battles on the island are real-time, and players must defend it from bandits from time to time. There is also a quest where players must find NPCs around Honolulu and befriend them. A complete Pokémon clone, befriend a city and a life sim clone are incredibly well thought out side activities within Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealthand there is so much more variety beyond these examples.

Batman: Arkham City

Put on your detective hat

The best with Batman: Arkham City is the reverence it deserves for longtime Batman fans of comics and cartoons. There are major villains tied to the story that players must defeat, but there are also major Batman villains tied to side quests that players can completely ignore. The game doesn't just say “Deadshot is wreaking havoc on this side of town” because many of the missions are set up as mysteries, which makes sense considering Batman is the greatest detective in his universe.

Players can go to areas, investigate a crime, which then leads to a big conflict with a villain, which is always a surprise, like when the Mad Hatter shows up. Not every villain gets a killer assignment, like The Riddler, which is more like filler, but overall, Batman: Arkham City does a great job giving players the opportunity to explore. Being able to scan areas and recreate scenes with powerful tech is much cooler than many mission types in games.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

A fantasy detective

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is also a kind of Batman-like game, as the hero, Geralt, has a sharp mind and a great sense of smell. Every mission players go on requires some detective work. There are rarely any quests that require picking berries or just going out to kill multiple monsters. They may start out as simple, standard RPG quests, but they always evolve.

The missions are dynamic and require a bit more observation, often asking players to make difficult decisions based on the facts they've gathered. For example, should they let a soldier who abandoned his post go so that he can raise his newborn, or should they support the mob and execute him for actually abandoning his post? The missions are complicated, varied and always tell a good story The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Gather allies

Players will go on missions in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain from their headquarters called Mother Base. There are a large number of request types, including dropping into open zones to eliminate soldiers, rescuing POWs, investigating areas with mysterious entities, or collecting supplies. They are common mission types, with the most interesting ones involving rescue missions, which video games don't have enough of.

What sets these rescue missions apart is that the individuals are the rewards themselves. Rescued civilians or soldiers can be recruited at the Mother Base and then sent on missions or to various facilities to build equipment, which is how players increase their mercenary force. Rescue missions with a purpose are great, and building the best possible base also requires obtaining materials, which is why those mission types are valuable.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Stranger, stranger

Red Dead Redemption 2 is an open world western and one of the best of its kind. Robbing banks and skinning animals for sale can be worthwhile endeavors, but they aren't the best quest types in the game. Alien quests come in all varieties, and players will encounter high-profile NPCs when they get close to their location, similar to how locations are shown with question marks in other open-world games.

Finding strangers is always a pleasant surprise, especially when riding long distances in open areas of nowhere. Players can help a biographer find and interview famous shooters for his book, find missing artists, investigate a series of gruesome murders, and so on. Each Stranger mission is hand-crafted and well-written to give players an authentic western frontier experience on a similar scale to the writing in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.