Some video game stories are so good that players cannot help but focus on going through the main missions and ignoring the side content. In other games, the side content is so good that even if the main story is great too, players will be pulled in for hours just exploring or helping out NPCs. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a good example, but there are other games where the side quests matter.
8 RPGs Players Always Recommend To Friends
Find out why these RPGs are must-play experiences that players are always eager to share with friends and family.
While there may be filler in the following games, most of these experiences have such good side content that even the little fat that may be there is negligible. Players will not easily forget the quests in these games anytime soon.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
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Baldur’s Gate 3
Make Your Story
Baldur’s Gate 3 is divided into chapters, where each set piece is like a big, expansive world to explore. Players can go straight through the narrative, or they can explore each region in depth to uncover secret routes through the main story, or perhaps ways to bypass conflicts.
The great thing about the game is the open-ended structure and branching storylines, making no two campaigns alike. It’s not a typical turn-based tactical game where getting the best loot is the goal. It’s all about immersing players in the world through dynamic interactions, rewarding the curiosity of players, and blurring the lines between what is and what isn’t a side quest.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
A Great Third Act
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an homage to classic turn-based JRPGs but with a French twist. There is a world map, for example, with side areas often leading to a deep dungeon to explore or a secret boss/NPC that will deepen the lore within the game.
These side quests are minimal throughout most of the game, but things are expanded in the later third when players gain the ability to fly around and explore the game’s world fully, just like the third act in most JRPG franchises from Dragon Quest to Final Fantasy. Some of these side areas and bosses are so well-designed that they can outshine the main ones, like an unfinished tower stretching into the sky or a secret dungeon in the ocean.
Mass Effect 2
All About Companions
Mass Effect 2’s world design is fairly linear, as players cannot explore big, expansive worlds. Instead, they go to specific locations on planets or in space stations for missions. Most of the game is focused on the story, but when there is side content, it will usually lead to interesting asides that are more than just simple quests to get gear.
The best quests in the game are tied to the companions, and the greater the bonds, the more missions will unlock to deepen these characters, which is why the Mass Effect series is so well known for its party members, let alone its squad-based gunplay.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
No Black And White
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an action RPG that takes every type of typical RPG quest trope and subverts expectations. There’s an early quest where players have to break into a hut to retrieve a frying pan, and while it may seem like a simple fetch quest, the mini-story within this quest goes harder than it needs to.
8 Open-World Games Where the Side Content Is Better Than the Main Quest
The main quest isn’t necessarily bad, but it simply gets overshadowed by the brilliant side content in these open-world games.
This is only a small example, but the bigger quests will imbue an even greater sense of mystery and drama that are so well written they could branch off into entire subplots within any RPG. There’s not a single quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that won’t make players think.
Chrono Trigger
Controlling Time
Chrono Trigger is a classic turn-based SNES RPG that doesn’t waste time with an endless sea of quests. When one presents itself, there are typically a lot of steps involved within each time period or across several to change things. For example, players can look into how Lucca’s mom lost the ability to walk properly, or they can investigate building a church.
Even without voice acting, players will feel deeply connected to each quest, and that’s not even mentioning the game’s main story as a whole being fantastic, well-paced, and easily one of the best on the console.
Suikoden 2
Assembling An Army
Suikoden II
- Released
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September 29, 1999
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ Due To Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes
Most of Suikoden 2’s side quests are tied to collecting every party member in the game, and it is a journey. The Suikoden series is known for the 108 Stars of Destiny, which is what the party members are referred to. This includes the protagonist and the characters that unlock through the story, but most are extras.
Suikoden 2 is a prime example because players will try to build a resistance army, and the more characters they get, the greater their strength for big, important battles will be. Not every party member gets an epic story, as some require just finding them or giving them an item to join, but even the little interactions are worthwhile.
Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars
An Evolving 16-Bit World
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is another turn-based SNES RPG where the quests are few but mighty. This was Mario’s first RPG, and it incorporated the action elements of platforming well into the combat system and exploration segments. Most of the side quests were aligned with hidden areas or secret bosses, like Culex, which helped fill out the world.
This is a great example of an RPG that changed how areas were based on where players were in the story. Old locations may have new NPCs and quests available late in the game, and that was rare for an SNES game.
Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
Expanding The Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is another game from BioWare that demonstrated they knew how to fill an RPG with activities that mattered. Set a thousand years before the prequels and allowing players to essentially create their own Jedi, this game allowed fans to explore the galaxy far, far away that no game before this could.
10 Open-World Games Where Small Discoveries Matter More Than Big Quests
The wonders never cease in these open-world games if you know where to look, and what you find is often more important than the main quest.
Each planet they visited, from Tatooine to Kashyyyk, was filled with side quests that helped expand the lore. It was the ultimate fan game at the time, and even though it looks graphically dated compared to new Star Wars games like Star Wars Outlaws now, no other game did world-building better through quests than Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
Parasite Eve
A Linear Detective RPG
Parasite Eve was mostly a linear RPG set in New York City, following a detective, Aya Brea, on the brink of a big supernatural case. When players moved around the city, they had limited access to the world map, and locations typically unlocked as they progressed. There were some side areas, though, like a warehouse containing some rare items and a challenging crab boss.
More significantly, there was a massive side quest dropped in the New Game+ mode that added the Chrysler Building as an area, which unlocked a hidden ending, which may be an example of the most significant side quest in a PS1 RPG of this era.
Persona 3 Reload
Your Friends Are Powerful
Persona 3 Reload is the remake of the turn-based PS2 original game that updated a few things to make progression through this linear RPG quicker. While there are fetch quests that don’t amount to much other than filler, this game has one of the best quest systems that persists throughout, in any RPG, called Social Links.
By spending time with party members and NPCs around Japan, from training at school to eating ramen to going to a movie, players can get to know these characters way beyond what is presented in the main story. There is a combat bonus to these bonds as well, giving players an extra incentive, but the stories they will unlock are the real reward.
RPGs With the Best Companion Systems
These companions will never let you down. Let’s take a deep dive into what makes them and their systems so special in the following games.
