Game quests are how players engage with and change a game’s world. Quests in video games give players reasons to interact with the world’s inhabitants and locations while becoming immersed in the story. Rewards for completing quests range from granting players items or equipment to unlocking new areas to uncovering hidden lore. Side quests, separate from the main narrative, offer a chance for humorous, self-contained stories or a chance for players to learn more about a NPC, location, or piece of lore.
Designing game quests that resonate with players and become memorable starts with understanding what quests are and their purpose in video games. Researching memorable quests across different video games is a start to understanding quest game design. Learn about game quests by reviewing the definition of quests in games, the games with the best side quests and most total quests, the best game with missions, and a few video game quest ideas.
What is the definition of the quests in games?
Quests in games are objectives that players must complete to earn a reward or push the game’s narrative forward, while giving players a reason to explore the world in an interesting way. Common quest structures include fetching an item, defeating an enemy, talking to an NPC, escorting NPCs, and exploring a location. Game designers use quests to give players direction and deepen their immersion in the world.
Games have different categories of quests based on their priority and relevance to the game’s narrative. Main quests are mandatory for completing the game. Each main quest drived the narrative forward and provided the bulk of character growth and level progression. Side quests are optional to complete, but they’re useful for giving players extra rewards to help them advance and grow stronger. Personal side quests related to NPCs let players dive as deep into the narrative as they want and make the game world feel more lived-in.
Quests have different structures, with each structure changing variables to remain fresh and interesting to complete.
- Fetch quests require players to gather an item or resource and bring it back to a NPC or a location.
- Kill quests have players hunting down a target or targets and eliminating them. More challenging kill quests have a timer or ask the player to eliminate the target in a specific way.
- Move and talk quests have players traveling to a location to speak with a NPC. Move and talk quests set up or conclude other questlines or guide the player to the next major location where the narrative continues.
- Escort is a popular quest structure that has players protecting a NPC or object while it makes its way to a designated area.
- Exploring a location is a common quest structure related to investigation-focused quests. Players have to search an area to find clues or other objects to complete the quest.
What game has the best side quests?
The game that has the best side quests is Red Dead Redemption 2, due to its immersive world integration and exceptional writing with memorable characters. To define the best side quests, it’s vital to know the criteria. In this case, the best side quest is determined by its ability to integrate with the world and the quality of its writing.
Red Dead Redemption 2 has the best side quests because of its immersive world integration. Side quests occur organically in the environment instead of having an icon appear over the character’s head to indicate that someone wants their help. NPCs shout at the player, or the action begins right in front of them as they ride up on their horse. Side quests that players just stumble upon and seem spontaneous make the world feel alive and real.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s high-quality writing extends to its side-quests, with a prime example being the Oh, Brother side quest. Two brothers fight over the same woman and pull Arthur Morgan into their antics to decide who between them is worthy of the girl. The player has to shoot bottles off their heads, help them ride barrels over waterfalls, and witness a whole lot of nonsense in the process. Oh, Brother is a simple side quest, but its writing is funny and memorable.
What video game has the most quests?
The video game that has the most quests is Final Fantasy XIV with over 1800 quests. Fallout 4 comes in second with 268 quests and Final Fantasy XV has over 100 side quests and bounty hunts. MMOs, such as Final Fantasy XIV, have the most quests in general because they’re ongoing. As new content chapters are released, the game receives more quests for players to complete.
Final Fantasy XIV has the most quests with over 850 main story quests and over 1,800 side or leveling quests. Final Fantasy XIV is an ongoing MMO that still actively releases new content every few months. Its number of quests is planned to continue to climb until the MMO eventually goes offline.
Fallout 4 has over 268 quests, but it has a series of side quests that are continuously ongoing, allowing players to continue to complete quests long after the main story has finished. The repeatable side quests are related to settlements that players build throughout the game. The settlements face attacks and other problems that players must resolve to keep the residents alive and healthy. Since the attacks occur at random and repeat, players are constantly receiving a quest to protect a settlement.
Final Fantasy XV has over 200 quests in total with over an additional 100 quests related to hunts. Final Fantasy XV has repeatable quests, such as hunts or other challenges, that keep players engaged with the game before they reach the point of no return and finish the main story.
What is the best game with missions?
The best game with missions is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt due to its side quests that rival its main quests for emotional impact, player agency, and world integration. Narrative integration is the main criterion that sets the best missions apart from decent ones, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt ties its meaningful side quests into the larger story and game world masterfully.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the best game with missions due to the emotional impact that its quests provide, regardless of whether they’re a main quest or optional side adventure. The writing quality doesn’t drop off outside the main narrative. The Whispering Hillock is an example of the depth that the writers and game designers were willing to build into a side quest. The side quest forces players to face moral dilemmas with lasting consequences for the world. One of the moral dilemmas has the player deciding what to do with the spirit locked away inside a tree. Players who decide to free the spirit later discover that an entire village was destroyed by it, although they save the orphans, while players who destroy the spirit save the village but discover that the orphans have been whisked away to be eaten by crones. The decision impacts major NPCs, too, with the Bloody Baron either leaving the region with the remains of his family or ending his life in despair.
Player agency is a major reason why The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the best game with missions. Several quests force players to make difficult choices that carry weight across hours of gameplay. Family Matters remains a shining example of a quest that mixes player agency with incredible storytelling and mechanical variety. The quest offers major moral decisions that at first seem small in scale, such as choosing to rescue a NPC from a burning stable. Each choice ultimately determines Geralt’s growth from a mere monster hunter to a reluctant hero saving people despite their cruelty.
Side quests are integrated smoothly into the world. Players find quests both directly by checking notice boards and indirectly through events like a person crying out for help along the road. There aren’t icons denoting every side quest out there, which frees players to discover a bulk of the game’s content on their own. The quest design approach encourages exploration of the world, since players never know what they’re going to find or who they’re going to encounter while making their way from one village to the next.
What are video game quest ideas?
Video game quest ideas include retrieving the Crown of Stars from a goblin-infested tower, guiding a wounded oracle across bandit camps to a sacred grove, and eliminating a plague-infested enemy before it reaches a village. Game designers are able to find inspiration for new video game quest ideas by examining existing quests and putting their own spin on them. The main aspect to keep in mind is to ensure quests are engaging and unique enough that players stay motivated to complete them.
Retrieving the Crown of Stars from a goblin-infested tower is an example of a fetch quest. The player has to find and pick up the Crown of Stars, an artifact that legitimizes the ruler of the land. To make the quest more interesting, game designers are able to add moral choices, such as having the player choose who to give the crown to at the end of the quest. Emphasizing player agency and then having the world react to their choice makes the quest more interesting and memorable.
Guiding a wounded oracle to a location is a typical kind of escort quest. A wounded oracle needs the player’s help to get to the safety of their temple, but there are a number of dangers in the way. To make the quest more exciting, players have the opportunity to choose how to transport the oracle. Fighting their way through, sneaking around, and making clever use of the environment to overcome obstacles are all viable solutions. The player’s choices have to be meaningful, such as impacting the oracle’s prophecy. Players that choose a violent course of action receive a different prophecy than devout pacifists.
A bounty side quest example has a plague-infested creature heading toward a healthy town. Players are tasked with finding and eliminating the target. Adding elements such as a timer or multiple search areas where the target was last seen enhance the challenge and make the quest stand out. The race to stop the target before it infects everyone in town gives the quest high stakes, pushing the player to resolve it before they face the consequences of inaction.
