Agreed, the side content in Witcher 3 is fantastic. It’s not like little errands, it’s multi step story plots that add real context to the world. Fucking fantastic.
I'm classing it as a side quest because it's not mandatory to complete the main story (despite being dlc) but Citadel in Mass Effect 3 is the most brilliant piece of fan service in gaming. This is MY favourite side quest on the citadel.
There are so many in The Witcher III and AC Odyssey I could mention, but I'll instead mention the Final Fantasy XII sidequest where you have to track down and battle Gilgamesh from FFV.
It even plays the music from the Battle of the Big Bridge! I enjoyed that more than most of the FFXIV story.
I have no idea of the name but there's a puzzle side quest in Sword and Fairy 7 that I adore. It was so clever and felt challenging without being impossible. Puzzles are usually fairly easy for me but this one really made you think outside the box to untangle it.
I don't know if it's my favorite and, to be honest, I don't think too much about these things but one that comes to mind every so often is the intricate one from Majora's Mask, the one where you have to do things at very specific times and deals with the relationship of someone staying at the inn. 👺
See what I mean with the overwhelming amount of details I give about such things. I just remembering it making me feel happy. That's the main thing I felt. 😅
I'm glad I had people giving me advice and telling me to NOT miss Castle Cainhurst in my first run lol, I didn't even know it was side content, but the fact it can be missed and had such rich lore and boss fights makes it a top tier choice for sure.
The Harvester from Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. You start with investigating a murder, but you can find that it's neither of the suggested suspects, and then do another sidequest to find the real killer.
There's also another really good quest in the same game that starts with a glitchy ad screen.
I want to give a genuine answer, but my brain got literally boiled by the amount of options that came flooding in. That's a good question...Beyond the Beef came up the quickest, though. From Fallout New Vegas.
These sort of questions remind me of the very obvious games I should have finished 😭 cause I remember playing New Vegas but never really rolling credits. And no doubt some of the stories I found there were mindblowing.
The Bloody Baron in The Witcher 3. Or at least I'm pretty sure it was a side quest. That quest specifically is what convinced me The Witcher 3 was doing something special.
The first thing that comes to mind is Rock Hard from AC Odyssey. I laughed so hard when I realized what they were talking about. Or maybe The Blind Blacksmith or Delivering a Champion. There’s so many really damn funny ones. Also brutally sad ones but I’m not focusing on those right now.
Bringing the pale flower to Elderbug in Hollow Knight.
You're supposed to bring it to a grave - but if you instead manage to bring it all the way back to the town, you can offer the flower to him in a touching scene.
There's no reward or gameplay change, just a lovely moment between two characters
I'm not sure about all-time favorite, but certainly of recent memory -- there is a little-known indie RPG called Eve of Calamity. I received it last year via email for review, gave it a shot, and ended up loving it. There is a side quest involving helping a revived skeleton solve the mystery of...
his missing necromancer master. Since the necromancer is gone and not practicing magic, this skeleton and his people (other revived corpses) are re-decaying and so he's trying to save himself & others. Agreeing to help him takes you down a pretty riveting, totally optional path. I enjoyed ...
this game, this quest, and the character you help, Alfred, so much that I've made fan art in the past. Though the video I made about the game surprisingly took off on YouTube, the game is still quite obscure. Here's a wallpaper I made, as well as a hand-drawn sketch I did based on his redesign.
So many of the side quests in Witcher 3 are soo deep and meaningful and impacted by your choices. My favorite though is probably a really simple & silly one from an ARPG that's not really story or choice heavy, Last Epoch.
There's this side quest where an old man in a town asks you to get ingredients for him for a medicine he urgently needs. When you turn the quest in, he seems oddly bothered, and offers to tell you why he needed the medicine. Even if you refuse and try to exit dialogue, he tells you that
Witcher 3 deeply changed side quests when they had gone stale.
However, “side” quests were often completely unannotated, thus unknown, in 8-bit time. One quest sticks out cause no one believed me about it until I showed them. Bionic Commando (NES) had a hidden machine gun and cryptic quest that 🤯
If you do play it, I'd love to hear your thoughts. There's no real combat in the quest so you can do it as soon as you're able to access it without worrying about your team's strength.
Comments
(I'm a huge Michael Jackson fan)
One of the first side quests that showed me what a side quest could be
Personally I still think The Witcher 3 has the best side content of all time
The Gold Standard
I particularly loved Judy's, Kerry's and Johnny's questlines!
Whodunnit from Oblivion is also an amazing sidequest!
Kafei and Anju
Emotional and complex, you become aware of it early on but it takes late game capabilities to finally see it through to the end in one cycle
It even plays the music from the Battle of the Big Bridge! I enjoyed that more than most of the FFXIV story.
I can't think of a single game that has that insane of a dungeon that is completely optional. With a whole storyline, and covenant too.
This is a great choice
There's also another really good quest in the same game that starts with a glitchy ad screen.
You're supposed to bring it to a grave - but if you instead manage to bring it all the way back to the town, you can offer the flower to him in a touching scene.
There's no reward or gameplay change, just a lovely moment between two characters
Or
For whom the bell tolls - Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
You get Bauhamet and Eden if you can figure out how to get to the bottom.
One of my favorite features of BG3 is its interesting choices, so hard to predict the outcomes. That quest encapsulated it all.
ik it's silly to like a quest that's basically just fetching viagra but it's stuck in my mind 'cuz it was really uncharacteristic for the game
However, “side” quests were often completely unannotated, thus unknown, in 8-bit time. One quest sticks out cause no one believed me about it until I showed them. Bionic Commando (NES) had a hidden machine gun and cryptic quest that 🤯
https://bsky.app/profile/pawesasko.bsky.social/post/3lpn3ws6by222
Also known as Bari's Side Story.
I just wanted to cry buckets when I was done with it.
You can watch it on YouTube but the game is also free (Mobile/Switch) and I highly recommend playing it yourself.