Sidequests - How Do You Want Them To Expand?

[Ventus]

Sidequests have been part of the Zelda series since day one. Whether it's scouring the land for Pieces of Heart or just aiding a Skyloft resident for a few rupees and a Gratitude Crystal, Link has been doing things off the beaten path. Something that has struck me as of late, though, is that sidequests have had a sort of formula: at any one point in the game, a list of events "opens up" and you talk to someone to initiate the sidequest. Usually, the quests involve finding an item and hauling it back to the start NPC, or finding a medicine and bringing to NPC B. Whatever the case may be, sidequests have become monotone in nature.

So, I was wondering: how do you all want to see sidequests evolve or expand? Would you like to see randomly-spawning events? Perhaps puzzle-related, combat-related or both? Maybe even quests spanning a timeslot as large as even the main quest? ^^

 

[Spirit]

I've never cared for side-quests in Zelda or really any other game. Zelda is the worst for it though because i don't even need the extra life they supply me with to have an easier time in the game.

I've always just wanted to get through the game and learn the story and for replay value, since zelda doesn't have much, i'd just go back and do them all after the game has ended. I've done that with almost every Zelda game (WW was the best to do it in, i spent hours just filling in my map it was great).

So to evolve the side-quests is something that might annoy me but since thats what this thread is for I'd say a few cool things to do with them would be:

-More combat based side-quests: in that you must use certain moves at certain times or ensure that you use required moves before the fights are over like DoA5 does, which is something I thought was really cool and gave me a reason to go back to a fighting game of all things. (I don't know if its just me but recent Zelda games have been really low on the combat aspect).

-Side-quests instead of dungeons: don't recoil in horror at this one, but most dungeons in Zelda are just tutorials for an item that you aren't going to use again, so how about side quests that serve as tutorials for items instead of a full on dungeon and keep the dungeons for some interesting elements.

I'll to this if i think of any more.

 

[JuicieJ]

I've talked about this before, and basically I just want more choices involved in the sidequests. Skyward Sword had two sidequests like this, and I was glad to see these, but also kinda sad to see that it was only two out of however many there were. Hopefully in the future there will be more sidequests like these.

 

[Cfrock]

I want the side-quests to have their own developed story lines. The best side-quest in the series for me is Anju & Kafei in Majora's Mask because it tells a deep and emotional story. That was more rewarding than a Piece of Heart or an Orange Rupee or a pat on the back.

The side-quests do have their own stories, yes, but it is almost always just a tiny little thing which relates only to the specific character or task you need to do. A lot of The Wind Waker's were just elaborate collect-a-thons with no reward other than Heart Pieces and money. Oh, and that one that gets you the Hurricane Spin which I never use. They didn't add any character to the game world like Anju & Kafei did.

So that's how I would want side-quests to expand. Make them richer and more story focused. Use them to add to the depth of the world more than they currently are.

Oh and bring back the 5 Heart Pieces from Twilight Princess. Same number of Heart Containers, 20% more Pieces to go and find, more exploration. I would be all over that like a nasty rash.

 

[JuicieJ]

Oh and bring back the 5 Heart Pieces from Twilight Princess. Same number of Heart Containers, 20% more Pieces to go and find, more exploration. I would be all over that like a nasty rash.

I felt that was a rather cheap way to add onto the amount of content the game had. If you ask me, it seemed the developers knew there was less exploration involved in the title, so they added in the 5th heart piece thing to help compensate for it, which wound up only artificially adding more things to find. They were also just lying around everywhere, so finding them wasn't as special (at least in my experience).

 

[Cfrock]

I felt that was a rather cheap way to add onto the amount of content the game had. If you ask me, it seemed the developers knew there was less exploration involved in the title, so they added in the 5th heart piece thing to help compensate for it, which wound up only artificially adding more things to find. They were also just lying around everywhere, so finding them wasn't as special (at least in my experience).

I can understand that view. A lot of The Wind Waker and Skyward Sword's Heart Pieces came from quests and doing things for people whereas Twilight Princess had lots in chests in the overworld. It never bothered me but I can see how that would be less appealing.

I do think that having Containers require 5 Pieces instead of 4 was a good decision on the whole. Perhaps if they just implemented it better, made more of them rewards for side-quests and more of them more difficult to find.

 

[DarkestLink]

I actually don't want sidequests to be expanded on. I want them cut back so Nintendo can add more to the main quest. With some luck, we could get a game with 15 dungeons. I don't want all sidequests gone, just the trivial forgettable ones. There's too many unmemorable sidequests "Get random piece of heart at random location and forget about it later".

I like Mini-Game sidequests because they have replayability. Stuff like Cave of Ordeals and Lightning Round are good too. I like some of the meaningful mask sidequests in Majora's Mask. like the Anju/Kafei sidequest or the Romani Ranch sidequests.

In short, lessen sidequests to only the stronger, more memorable ones. Use the time normally spent on the generic sidequests on the main quest or even the story.

 

[Random Person]

Rather than expand or update, I want sidequests to go back to a formula that was used prior. And that is the Majora's Mask formula (which other Zelda games have implemented). Majora's Mask sidequests varied a great deal. Some of them were along the path, while still a good majority of them you had to go out and find. Majora's Mask also held developing sidequests. Like Cfrock said, some of the sidequests were long stories with endings. There was also the concept of decision. Rather than you do things and leave, you would do something and it would effect other sidequests. With Majora's Mask it was easier to pull this off because of the 3 day mechanic, but still, that made it very enjoyable. Skyward Sword in a sense brought this back in that certain events had two possible outcomes, but I think MM did it best. And of course, the difficulty. MM's sidequests varied in difficulty. Some were really hard to figure out yet easy to do while others were easy to figure out but hard to do and still others were a different sort of combination. There should be a good sense of balance, unlike recent Zelda releases (TP and SS) where there are clues everywhere to tell you what to do. I also think that some form of organizer helps out, ie the Bomber's notebook. With this, you know if you've done a good majority of sidequests. There are many things I missed in Zelda games simply because I did not know they existed. However, it needs a balance because I don't want my checklist telling me too much. I think MM pulled it off well. Again, SS kind of brought this back with its checklist, but there were differences that I don't feel like going into right now. And of course, MM had numerous sidequests in which it was always difficult to say whether you did the last one the game had to offer. With secrets around every corner, you were always looking for the next sidequest and occassionally ran into one unexpectedly.

All in all, other games incorporate some of these antics, but MM had the best balance (imo). I want the best of everything in my future Zelda games and MM had the best sidequest style.

 

[JuicieJ]

There should be a good sense of balance, unlike recent Zelda releases (TP and SS) where there are clues everywhere to tell you what to do.

Exactly what cues told you what to do in either of these games? Twilight Princess had things lying out in plain sight, sure, but that's different than a cue telling you what to do. That's just bad hiding. Skyward Sword had the ellipses above people's heads, but that's telling you that someone's in a delima, not what to do. Each quest required you to figure out what to do and where to go, some of these being extremely challenging. I just fail to see where you're coming from with this statement.

 

[Zorth]

I've never liked the fact that in Zelda games after you beat the final boss you have pretty much beat the game, I know there are collectible side quests and stuff elft to do but there is no more story for you to explore for the most part. I wish that the main story was just one out of many stories to be explored in the game. MM did sort of a good job at this where you have people with their little daily dilemma's and you could choose to help them, most brilliantly made was the "Anju & Kafei Quest" but this should expand even more. The side quests should be at least half the length of the main story line and contain at least half as many dungeons, Add collectibles along the way and lots of mini-games to upgrade your equipment and the game will live longer.

For instance if OoT had the technological potential as it would've today then maybe Nintendo could've made 4 new story arcs centered around for instance; the Gerudo and their culture, the origins and what happened after we defeated Ganondorf or maybe he Gorons, Zora, Kokiri or even the Lon Lon Ranch. There is really lots of things they could do in the next game if they just focus on these other areas of the game and add more story tot hem instead of just sending the player off onto some brainless collectible quest. For mini-games they could add some sort of gladiator arena styled battle tournament or whatever, Inspired by the concept of Cave of Ordeals where you fight tougher and tougher enemies. Except that here maybe Link encounter's new bosses instead of just packs of Iron Knuckles. Then as a reward for completing this tournament type of thing give us pieces of enhanced equipment then give us the option to do it all over again put on a harder difficulty..

If they would implement the above the Zelda games wouldn't be so shortlived, It would basically be like 5 games in one if they add my idea of more storylines exploring the origins and aftermath of different regions of the overworld. This will definitely be possible with the Wii U.

 

[MsNerrrrd]

MORE SIDEGUESTS, YES PLEASE! I mean anything! Combat including, travelling, racing, puzzles, ANYTHING! But then again, it would be more like of a RPG, rather than an adventure game, but I'm a HUGE fan of RPG's, so I won't mind.

 

[Wasteland Dream]

I don't know about enhancing the sidequests I mean I love Majora's Mask for all it did and the sidquests felt like smaller parts of a larger story but Majora's Mask was also difficult and its my understanding that sidequests are bits on the side to help enhance your character when you're stuck right?. Enhacing sidequests for players who suck and need extra heart pieces would slow then down further and they may give up on the game if they can't do it. Skyward had it right with the sidequests being constant fetchquests because you really would need to suck to fail them.

 

[Zorth]

I don't know about enhancing the sidequests I mean I love Majora's Mask for all it did and the sidquests felt like smaller parts of a larger story but Majora's Mask was also difficult and its my understanding that sidequests are bits on the side to help enhance your character when you're stuck right?. Enhacing sidequests for players who suck and need extra heart pieces would slow then down further and they may give up on the game if they can't do it. Skyward had it right with the sidequests being constant fetchquests because you really would need to suck to fail them.

Side quests should always be 100% optional for this reason.

Or at least implement a difficulty feature, It's really not fair for the hardcore players either to have to play what to them is a ridiculously easy game just because the other part of the Zelda community had a hard time and Nintendo were too lazy to implement difficulty choices.

 

[DarkestLink]

@Zorth

I agree the sidequests should have some story, but I disagree about it having so much emphasis. The fact that Sidequests can be skipped makes their stories feel rather irrelevant and unimportant. That was my main issue for Majora's Mask. Most of the story was sidequests and, to me, it made the entire adventure feel a little unimportant.

Also I doubt Nintendo is going to give us difficulty choices. It doesn't really fit the spirit of the game. I don't think it matters, really, seeing how easily satisfied the Zelda community is with difficulty. For some reason, a majority of the users seem to think that higher damage, not enemy intelligence, is what makes difficultly. Hell, no reason for Nintendo to do anything. Just do the 3 heart challenge and there's your "difficulty".

 

[Sinharvest]

As long as they have a side quest where there is a guy living in the toilet I'm happy.