He 2023 It’s been a really exciting year: Microsoft, Activision and Sony delight us with an endless legal dance, Rockstar Games continues to play hide-and-seek with GTA VI and distraction with the remastering of Red Dead Redemption, Bethesda praying hard that Starfield doesn’t implode on day one, Ubisoft canceling a thousand projects, Redfall, Henry Cavill It’s neither Superman nor Geralt… From controversy to controversy and I shoot because it touches me.
What I did not see coming is that 2023 would end up bringing out a remake of a legendary issue (and I thought it was settled) in the video game industry: side missions. Final Fantasy XVI is responsible for thousands of people once again discussing these optional activities in video games.
Many players tend to despise side quests due to their optional nature and/or simply because they stray from the main plot. There each one with their opinion and way of playing. However, they have become such a taken for granted concept that many have forgotten that they have a function within experiencebetter or worse executed.
What are side quests and why are they the way they are?
The secondary missions of a video game are a series of optional objectivesnormally distributed throughout the worlds in which the story takes place, and that fulfill certain experiential features of the player. They are usually represented with different icons and colors, and even have their own tabs in the mission menu sections.
The concept it’s simple, so much so that most video games don’t even explain what they are… unless they have a strange name or have special requirements. Most players tend to stay in this first layer, but have a deeper second: its function.
There are different types of side quests and each one is designed to fulfill a function within the video game. It may seem more or less necessary to you, but most are usually present in all video games.
- tutorials: Tutorial missions are usually integrated into the story, although more and more games allow us to skip or evade them. Its function is to teach us how the controls, mechanics and other sections of the game work. One of the first side quests in Diablo IV is to go “cheer up” a group of NPCs. It sounds like a bullshit, but the game is teaching you how to use the action wheel.
- additional stories: The best side missions are usually located in this category. They are not usually abundant. Their goal is to bring more experiences and richness to the world. They range from a single quest to a thread of quests that tell additional stories that may or may not be related to the main story. Elden Ring, The Witcher 3, Skyrim, GTA V, and Red Dead Redemption 2 all feature side quests that trump many primary ones.
- Equipment and resources (from farming): the most common side quests. Companies like Ubisoft often abuse these for their open worlds. They range from going to pick flowers in a field to eliminating a designated enemy. Dungeons and raids are included. Its ultimate goal is to give us resources for the manufacture and/or equipment necessary to advance at that moment in the adventure. All RPGs have kicks. World of Warcraft, Diablo IV, Destiny 2, The Division 2etc.
- collectibles and bestiary: They are usually considered as “tertiary missions”, but they are still secondary missions with less weight. They are not usually very well worked and their function is to take us to certain collectibles or elements to fill out the bestiary. The The Witcher 3 Warlock Contracts They are a hybrid of these with the previous type.
- discover map: These secondary missions are usually hybrids with the rest of the types, but their main function is for us to move around the world. The objective does not matter (carrying a package, escorting and/or rescuing someone, killing an enemy, clearing a camp…) because for practical purposes the idea is that we go from one point to another and discover everything that path.
- Seasonal, Daily, Weekly Missions and Challenges: missions of any of the above types designed to keep us hooked until the release of the next big content. They usually come in Seasons and basically it is repeating similar objectives for days and weeks. Fortnite, Warzone, Destiny 2… They are the most repetitive and the least bitchy, since the concept of “side mission” is often compared to “history games”.
some video games disguise their side missions with secondary objectives within the main missions. Dead Space is a video game that does it very well: the objective is to go from Room A to Room B, but 4 batteries are missing to open the door, so we have to go to Room C and D to get them. For practical purposes it is a “mandatory Secondary Mission” and integrated into the main objective.
Before moving on to the next point, I want to say something obvious so that no one throws their hands up in the next section: yes, there are bad side missions and sagas like Assassin’s Creed (among others) have them kicked.
Side Missions: A Matter of Perspective and Time Management
The quality of side quests has been debated for many years. The problem with the debate in many cases is that they tend to be compared to the main missions and that is not fair. At the beginning of the publication we have established that they are secondary objectives, optional and that they serve a series of needs. The main missions are THE OBJECTIVE. They are not the same.
I guarantee Starfield is going to have some of those missions (“the ones that make you go after a lost animal and give you a slightly better pair of gloves,” interviewer reference to Diablo IV). In the end, this is about us making all that content by hand, and our team has done a great job and there are a lot of specific missions… But what you’re saying about the almost random missions, I don’t think they are exclusive and we will have some how many. You can reach a planet, enter an outpost and a mission will be generated for you in the surroundings. I think that’s fine and those activities can be fun if the gameplay is good – Todd Howard in an interview for Kinda Funny Games.
We must judge the side quests for what they are. The gameplay is an important section, as Todd Howard says. If the gameplay is bad, it doesn’t matter how original or cool it is because it’s not going to be fun. We must also talk about two equally relevant aspects: the perspective y time management of each player.
A matter of perspective: the sense of belonging
The quality of side quests depends on each person’s perspective. While some can’t explain how Clive Rosfield’s Final Fantasy XVI can go for garlic after facing a ciborium turbotitan, others see it totally necessary that Arthur Morgan from RDR2 collect all seven plants within reach while escaping a heist because (standard NPC) needs them. Video games ARE NOT CUSTOM MADE.
If the player wants go to the goal and without distractions, it is normal that a mundane task such as doing a favor, serving food, collecting plants or cheering for recruits is a waste of time. If it is not the time or it is not “measured in the roll”, everything that does not contribute to the objective is going to make you feel like an errand boy sooner or later.
On the other hand, if you have open mind and patience, so (almost) any side quest is an opportunity for adventure. Here they come from people who have a good time doing secondary missions to those who are dedicated solely and exclusively to trading with a very specific mineral in No Man’s Sky o Star Citizen. And let’s not talk about those who dedicate themselves to history, archaeology, zoology or botany in video games.
Our willingness to get caught around the world now spend hours to a video game is vital when receiving the secondary missions. I’m not telling you anything magical: we’ve all ended up getting burned at some time by doing these missions in automatic mode.
Time management: awareness of expiration
Experience has taught me that ALL video games have Date of Expiryalbeit temporary in some cases. Sooner or later, we all feel that the game has given us all he could give us. It can happen at 5, 10, 100 or 500 hours. I don’t think it’s a feeling alien to anyone.
A lot of people’s problem with side quests is that they start out really strong, completing all of them, and they get to the middle of the game asking for the end and wanting to jump out of a window. The same case for other people can be a plea that never ends.
Considering the industry speed and the video game saturation to which we are accustomed, it does not hurt to know yourself when choosing the game. And once chosen, be aware of how far we want to go: is it enough to complete the campaign? Do we also want to do the secondary ones? Or rather go for the Platinum Trophy?
The point of this section is not to take responsibility away from the developers and their side quests, but rather to add the self-awareness of each to the equation to calculate how deep we want to go in the adventure. In this way we will avoid upsets and lose two very important resources: energy y time. Just be honest with ourselves.
In conclusion: Side quests are a way to broaden the experience, enrich the world and give us more interesting stories. The creative work of the developers will always be essential, but we must not forget that we (the players) also play an active role in this matter. In other words: our circumstances influence how we receive video games, which include these missions.
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