FFVII has amazing side quests. From secret characters to secret bosses to secret dungeon, an entire ocean to explore, an intricate chocobo breeding game. I think the classics nailed side quests including the likes of Chrono Trigger.
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What are some JRPG's that actually feature good side quests?
- Thread starter ScOULaris
- Start date
There's like 4 tiers of sidequests in XCX, the basic missions which you get from the bulletin board and refresh infinitely (there's a couple that tie into a normal quest though), the squad tasks which are semi-dynamic kill missions for online play, the normal quests (which are gotten from NPCs on the field) which most people who bring up XCX are referring to when mentioning the game has interesting sidequests. These feature new aliens integrating into NLA and other one off stories that draw from a lot of sci-fi stories such as back to the future. There's a bunch of these that chain together. They even have branching choices that fork into different chains entirely and tie into the gigantic affinity chart that connects every NPC in the game. The last type is the affinity missions which are kind of like mass effect loyalty missions for each playable character.
This pretty much. The board quests are boring filler, but they are also completely ignorable. The quests you get from the NLA citizenry, meanwhile, are really interesting and add a lot to the worldbuilding and general characterization of NLA and the greater world. A lot of them feel like realistic responses people would have if they were told to live with a bunch of alien races, with there also being some really bizarre and surprising ones (The Water Plant, Professor B., Pizza Murderer, The Definian Quests, Celeste 3, and the Manon Politics Quest). The way they link together with each other is really nice too, with some telling surprisingly continuous narratives (The endgame battle tournament sidequest is particularly memorable for this). I also like the affinity quests, though I wish there were more of them.
The bulletin board quests are only for if you want certain fashion gear or want to grind affinity between party members (They refresh infinitely for a reason). The affinity quests and quests you get from people in NLA's various districts and the Miran overworld (looking at you Mia) are where its at.
NieR in particular has the Runaway Son, the best sidequest in all of video games.
In this sidequest you are tasked by a concerned father to find his son on a map, and every time you do he runs away after you get distracted. You eventually corner him and return him home and when you turn the quest in you find out the father was a con artist who stole from everyone in the village, his son was trying to leave a life of crime you just dragged him back into, and you get no reward.
In this sidequest you are tasked by a concerned father to find his son on a map, and every time you do he runs away after you get distracted. You eventually corner him and return him home and when you turn the quest in you find out the father was a con artist who stole from everyone in the village, his son was trying to leave a life of crime you just dragged him back into, and you get no reward.
Man it's been a few years but I could've sworn that the board was presented as "you have to get X amount of points from doing job board quests to advance to the next story chapter" or something. Must have misunderstood something because I had zero appetite for it.
Definitely Yakuza 0 (haven't played the rest) and Nier Automata. Maybe a few in Persona 4 and 5, too. The ones that don't include offensive "jokes."
I think what you're referring to is the exploration percentage of a continent. Tha'ts not tied to the job board.
Nope, some affinity quests (and world exploration for that matter) are required for story progression, but no board quests. They are literally just there to provide options to get special colored clothes. I personally check the gathering quests on the board sometimes just to see if I have any of the requirements for them already completed (in which case they'll complete the moment you accept them).
Apart from those you have Affinity missions with your party members and other NPC side quests, both of which are really well written and some have lasting effects/branching paths.
Definitely Ys IX. The side quests are part of the worldbuilding and add lots of character to the cast and the townsfolk
Exactly. A lot of them build off other ones and often have really good stories.
(Hell, the sidequests are generally more interesting than the main plot.)
I dunno if FFVI's take on the idea in the latter part of the game were specifically sidequests, in that the World of Ruin is spread out as a sandbox you can tackle in any order, and while the only mandatory part of the game after getting the airship is to head to the final dungeon, you're supposed to find all your party members.[/SPOILER]
Mega Man Legends had small little stories as side-quests, that really developed the small little town you're living in while you get your ship repaired. There weren't many, but they each had a ton of character and added so much life to Kattelox Island:
You help this expecting mother from the Fruit and Vegetable stand that goes missing suddenly, found out of breath at the park near the end of the game:
You befriend an artist, who is also the curator of the nearby museum you can help furnish with artifacts you find on digs:
There's a little girl at the hospital who can't walk, but if you're able to pay for equipment for her surgery, you can help her recover. She'll even be able to walk and say goodbye to you by the end of the game :)
You can help these kids you befriend during your exploits build their clubhouse with some items you find during your adventure. It gets bigger and better each time you help:
Your first fight with the Bonnes see a lot of the main town destroyed. You can slowly help with the restoration project and see a lot of people's homes get rebuilt:
There are other little missions like stopping a bank robbery, saving cats, and other small errands too. I just really loved the multi-tiered nature of each sub mission storyline as you get to know the citizens and island better, until they finally get to see you off after your adventure and you know exactly who each one of them waving goodbye is:
You're meant to... but you don't have to. I don't know if it's possible to beat the game at that point but it's really up to the player to determine when they're ready for the final assault
- The monster hunting in FF12 ( too bad the monster hunting in 13 and 15 was way more straight forward unlink In 12 you need to so some investigation for the monster location and some of them you need to do certain stuff to find them
- the social link/ confidant in persona games
- the social link/ confidant in persona games
Legend of Mana. The game was basically composed of 50+ quests that are mostly self contained. Only a small handful of those (like 3-4 total) are part of the main story.
Nier Automata has the thing of having some of the best narrative tied behind sidequests, but the actual sidequests themselves being the most absolutely godawful things to play half of the time. Like for every YorHa Betrayers you have hold L1 and walk around a desert for an hour looking for 4 hidden items, and for how fun things like the game developer sidequests are story wise, it's a case of:
- Go to amusement park
- Enter the main building
- Take the lift down
- Run along to the quest giver
- Run back to the lift
- Take the lift up
- Exit the main building
- Run over, fight the enemy, and get the drop
- Enter the main building
- Take the lift down
- Run along to the quest giver
- Glitch the minigame
- Accept part 2 of the quest
- Run back to the lift
- Take the lift up
- Exit the main building
- Leave the amusement park and fast travel to the abandoned factory
- Run through a bit of that area, fight the enemy, and get the drop
- Run back through and fast travel to the amusement park
- Enter the main building
- Take the lift down
- Run along to the quest giver
- Glitch the minigame
- Accept part 3 of the quest
- Run back to the lift
- Take the lift up
- Exit the main building
- Leave the amusement park and fast travel to the desert
- Run through the desert, fight the enemy, and get the drop
- Run back through the desert and fast travel to the amusement park
- Enter the main building
- Take the lift down
- Run along to the quest giver
- Glitch the minigame
I haven't played X, but Xenoblade 2 was my answer. The style of "collect X items --> quest complete" is nowhere to be found; instead, every sidequest has its own self-contained story with multiple parts. Obviously not all of them are equally memorable but there were a lot that I got pretty invested in. There's one particular chain of quests about two characters with a sister-like bond who lose their memories that's one of the best pieces of story content in any game I've played.
I'd also throw in another mention for XC2. The original game is notorious for it's hundreds of cookie-cutter side quests, while X trades a more satisfying main narrative for deeper, more involved side missions.
But I think XC2 strikes a nice balance. There's fewer side quests than XC and they're generally better written. And sandwiched between the main story and said side quests, are blade quests.
They are essentially little vignettes centered around the characters you recruit throughout the game. They often use parts of the map the story doesn't touch, they shed light on the blade in question, reveal a little bit more about the world... they even occasionally unlock new rooms/tiny locations.
Best of all, there's dozens of them, and they all have several voiced cutscenes with more character interactions. There's a lot of variety in the scenarios too - for example, one blade has a passion for cooking so you help them open up a shop in one of the towns. Another sees you try and track down a lost civilisation because the blade in question is adamant they used to be a king.
JediLink mentions a great one above too. There's got to be like 30 or more of these.
I don't want to say these are some masterclass in game design - it's the same combat, exploration, collecting, etc. you've been doing throughout the game. But it does what the Witcher 3 does (though obviously not to the same extent) in that it packages those things in a little story - and it helps a lot.
It adds so much character to the game.
But I think XC2 strikes a nice balance. There's fewer side quests than XC and they're generally better written. And sandwiched between the main story and said side quests, are blade quests.
They are essentially little vignettes centered around the characters you recruit throughout the game. They often use parts of the map the story doesn't touch, they shed light on the blade in question, reveal a little bit more about the world... they even occasionally unlock new rooms/tiny locations.
Best of all, there's dozens of them, and they all have several voiced cutscenes with more character interactions. There's a lot of variety in the scenarios too - for example, one blade has a passion for cooking so you help them open up a shop in one of the towns. Another sees you try and track down a lost civilisation because the blade in question is adamant they used to be a king.
JediLink mentions a great one above too. There's got to be like 30 or more of these.
I don't want to say these are some masterclass in game design - it's the same combat, exploration, collecting, etc. you've been doing throughout the game. But it does what the Witcher 3 does (though obviously not to the same extent) in that it packages those things in a little story - and it helps a lot.
It adds so much character to the game.
I liked the sidequests in Cold Steel 4 - they were a bit smaller in number than the other CS games but a bit more detailed and revealed a lot of character/world backstory, and sometimes the rewards were even decent.
But I think overall, the Wild Arms games have some excellent sidequests, especially WA3. You have the sokoban-ish block puzzles, some really challenging boss fights, a grueling 100 floor "Abyss", some challenging optional content. Definitely more satisfying than the constant stream of shitty fetch quests and "collect 10 boar hides" mmo/wrpg style quests that crept into the genre in the PS3 era.
But I think overall, the Wild Arms games have some excellent sidequests, especially WA3. You have the sokoban-ish block puzzles, some really challenging boss fights, a grueling 100 floor "Abyss", some challenging optional content. Definitely more satisfying than the constant stream of shitty fetch quests and "collect 10 boar hides" mmo/wrpg style quests that crept into the genre in the PS3 era.