Summary
The bigger you make your game’s world, the more content you need to fill it with to justify its own scale. If you can explore a whole country, it wouldn’t make sense for there not to be people looking for your help, after all. And sometimes, those little stops along the way make the journey all the more memorable.
More memorable, at times, than the reason you’re out on a quest in the first place. Getting an insight into the lives of those around you can be an enriching experience, something certain games choose to capitalise on. That’s not to say the main story is bad, but that the side content is what really breathes life into the world.
The Fable games have always stood out for their distinctly British style. It is more tongue-in-cheek, less serious, and pulls quite casually from genuine folklore. And while their main stories have never exactly been ground-breaking, they have been nice experiences all the same.
Except where Fable really excels is in the life sim elements. Changing your look, settling down with your family, doing odd jobs. To join an evil cult you have to eat baby chicks. Help people seal up evil books, re-enact the events of Frankenstein. Average day in the life of a hero.
While Don’t Nod are most well-known for their story-focused endeavours with Life is Strange, the studio is no stranger to more action-oriented games either. Vampyr is one such game, forcing you to contemplate the dilemma of needing blood to live as a vampire, and needing to care for patients as a doctor.
This dilemma is woven into every part of the side content as you help navigate the tortured lives of London’s characters. The main story delves deeper into the lore and mythos of vampires, though it is never so enticing as the actual leaving, breathing people or London you can choose to help or hinder.
In Dragon’s Dogma 2, there is an intentional choice in making it so that the delineating point between the main story and side quests is incredibly vague. You come across quests organically, meeting the actions of what people actually say rather than what the games tells you to do. In a way, everything is the main story, and nothing is.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 has a story that is strong in themes, though at times the pacing of that plot leaves elements to be desired. All of that is met in the side quests, the little stories you experience along the way. It makesthe journey from place to placememorable and well worth the hassle it invites.
When was the last time you played an Elder Scrolls game and could remember exact details of the main plot, the memorable actions of a specific quest in it? Maybe bits and pieces, but almost always in broad strokes. In the case of side quests, in Skyrim especially, they pour forth from the mind in great memories, the way in which you experienced them.
Trapped in the prisons of Markarth, helping vampire cults, hearing the requests of Daedric Princes. Self-contained little stories that let you see just how much this world exists beyond the exploits of the Dragonborn. While Skyrim is not afraid to lavish you in praises, it still gives its world plenty of character and agency of its own.
Ghostwire: Tokyo had a troubled development, and the general lack of focus in the main story reflects that. The dynamic between the two protagonists is excellent, though their motivations within the story seem both rushed and underdeveloped.The vast, deserted expanses of the cityof Tokyo itself do not suffer the same flaws.
You will enter homes and see the lives of their denizens, warped by the spell over the city. Corrupt landlords, broken relationships, issues of hoarding, unpaid rent. The way yokai and spirits intermingle with reality. These smaller stories make desolate Tokyo scream with life, giving each little section its own personality independent of, and indeed surpassing, the main story.
Zelda games have always been relatively lightweight on their stories. This is not to call them weak, but that they rely on tried-and-true methods here. It is in the smaller aspects of their storytelling that they showcase more interesting ideas, and Breath of the Wild is one of the strongest in this regard.
With Hyrule mostly desolate and the heroes long passed, the story can be beaten in minutes without missing. Exploring Hyrule is the real joy, finding missing chickens, healing ancient dragons, and just hearing the woes of those around you. The main story is grand, but the side content highlights that it is people who make a world, not just legends.
The Witcher 3 of course has exceptional storytelling in most regards, and indeed some ofits main story quests are some of its strongest. But the fantasy of a Witcher is in the journeying, the accepting of contracts and the obscura that perplex the average pedestrian. This is where the Witcher 3 truly excels.
If The Witcher 3 works in harmony with its side content, though the sheer variety of it at times lets it shine above the main story. It holds no extra baggage of previous entries and book knowledge. It pulls from real folklore, lets Geralt show where his own expertise lies. To hunt down a monster, to appeal to its own morals, to reject money because he’s too pure of heart. That’s what The Witcher is all about.
Xenoblade Chronicles X is the odd one out from the series in many regards. A single open-world, disconnected from the story of the other games, more American voice-acting, and plenty more. But perhaps most keenly is that while other Xenoblade entries are priased for the quality of their story, Xenoblade Chronicles X definitely falls to the wayside in that regard.
In exchange, it has some of the most thematically-consistent quests in the series. Everyone is an alien to the planet of Mira (Nopon excluded), and so everyone must learn to live in tandem. Integration over assimilation. The quests all deal with this directly, how to adjust to a new home, how to foster diversity and acceptance. It is the Xenoblade game that most directly deals with xenophobia.
