The side quests that make recent RPGs unforgettable

The best role-playing games do more than move a hero from one major battle to the next. Their optional missions create small worlds within the larger adventure: a grieving family, a strange local legend, a doomed romance, or an ordinary person trying to survive while legendary figures reshape the continent. These stories can feel more personal than the main plot because they give players room to wander, listen and make choices without a kingdom’s fate hanging over every conversation.

For Australian players, that freedom is especially welcome after a long day, whether you are squeezing in a session after work in Melbourne, settling down for an arvo of gaming in Brisbane, or waiting for a lengthy download over a regional NBN connection. With new releases often costing around $100 or more at Australian launch prices, side content also matters. A great RPG should offer enough memorable optional adventures to make the purchase feel worthwhile, rather than treating its open world as empty space between cutscenes.

The Witcher 3 turns ordinary lives into epic stories

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt remains one of the clearest examples of side quests eclipsing a main campaign. Its central story is enormous and often excellent, yet several optional missions are written with such confidence that they can become the moments players remember years later. “The Bloody Baron” technically belongs to the main storyline, but its branching family drama demonstrates the game’s greatest strength: every monster hunt is connected to human damage, political violence and difficult choices.

The real standouts arrive in the surrounding contracts and character quests. “A Towerful of Mice” turns a haunted island into a tragic investigation involving a cursed noblewoman, a plague and a lover whose desperation has terrible consequences. “The Last Wish” gives Yennefer and Geralt a tense, emotionally complicated adventure that develops their relationship far more effectively than many standard romance scenes. The quest combines a sea monster hunt with old magic, but the supernatural spectacle serves the characters instead of replacing them.

The Hearts of Stone expansion pushes this quality even further. “Scenes from a Marriage” traps Geralt in a decaying estate where grief, resentment and regret have become almost physical forces. Its eerie visual design and cruelly intimate dialogue make the quest feel like a gothic short story. On a broader level, The Witcher 3 understands that side missions should not feel like errands. They should reveal how ordinary people respond to a brutal world, with outcomes that can be funny, bleak, tender or all three at once.

Red Dead Redemption 2 finds drama in the quiet moments

Red Dead Redemption 2 is usually described as an open-world western, but its optional encounters often resemble carefully directed television episodes. Arthur Morgan’s major journey is powerful, yet the side content allows him to become more than a gunslinger trapped in a declining outlaw gang. He can help a former soldier confront the consequences of war, assist a stranded traveller, meet eccentric artists and scientists, or simply spend time with people who would otherwise disappear into the background.

The series of missions involving Hamish Sinclair is particularly memorable. Arthur meets the one-legged veteran while trying to recover a lost horse, and their relationship develops through fishing, hunting and conversation. The quests are deliberately low-key, giving the player time to experience Arthur’s capacity for decency outside the gang’s constant demands. The final mission carries emotional weight because it feels earned through these quiet encounters rather than forced through a dramatic speech.

The “Stranger” missions also show how much personality can fit into a brief detour. The serial killer investigation is grim and unsettling, while the photographer Albert Mason provides a lighter set of wildlife adventures. Even small encounters can reveal the game’s changing America: wealthy tourists, displaced Indigenous communities, struggling settlers and opportunists chasing the next scheme. For Australian players used to vast distances between towns, the journey itself becomes part of the storytelling. Riding for several minutes across a dusty landscape may sound slow, yet it makes every unexpected meeting feel like a genuine discovery.

Baldur’s Gate 3 makes every detour personal

Baldur’s Gate 3 treats side quests as flexible stories rather than optional chores. Almost every area contains a problem that can be solved through combat, persuasion, stealth, magic, theft or sheer curiosity. The result is a role-playing experience where the player’s character does not merely collect missions from townsfolk. They change the balance of power in a community, rescue people who may later return, or create consequences that emerge many hours after the original decision.

The investigation of the Shadow-Cursed Lands is packed with examples of this design. Helping Arabella search for her parents begins as a small personal request, yet the outcome connects with the wider tragedy of the region. The quest involving Thaniel, Oliver and the curse mixes eerie exploration with a childlike figure whose games conceal something genuinely sinister. These missions work because they remain focused on individual lives even while the surrounding plot deals with gods, armies and ancient powers.

Companion quests are equally important. Astarion’s confrontation with Cazador, Shadowheart’s decisions about the House of Grief and Lae’zel’s struggle with the githyanki all feel like major narrative arcs, but they are technically optional in the sense that players can ignore or radically alter them. Their strength comes from responsiveness. Companions remember what happened, react to the player’s methods and sometimes challenge decisions that seem convenient. A side quest can become heroic, tragic or absurd depending on who is present and what the party has already done.

Baldur’s Gate 3 also understands the value of funny optional content. A conversation with a strange animal, an argument between rival adventurers or an absurd dungeon trap can sit beside serious material without weakening it. That tonal variety keeps exploration fresh. Players comparing prices across Australian retailers, waiting for a sale on Steam or picking up the console version at JB Hi-Fi are buying a game with an unusual amount of replayable side-story content.

Cyberpunk 2077 proves a small story can hit hardest

Cyberpunk 2077 had a troubled launch, but its later updates and Phantom Liberty expansion revealed just how strong its character writing could be. The main plot gives V a race against time and a memorable cast, yet some of the game’s most affecting scenes happen away from the central conflict. Night City is at its best when it stops presenting itself as a playground of neon skyscrapers and focuses on people who have been discarded by its systems.

“Dream On” is one of the most unsettling side quests in the base game. What begins as an investigation for a wealthy political couple gradually becomes a paranoid thriller involving surveillance, manipulation and the possibility that personal identity has been compromised. The quest refuses to provide easy answers, which makes its final moments linger. It asks whether a comfortable life is still authentic when the people living it may have been carefully shaped by forces they cannot see.

“Happy Together” offers a much smaller story with an equally sharp emotional effect. A neighbour’s silence and isolation can be easy to ignore as V moves through the building, but taking the time to check on him reveals a believable portrait of grief and trauma. The quest does not offer a glamorous reward or turn the character into a superhero. Its importance lies in whether V notices another person in trouble and responds with care.

Phantom Liberty adds several standout missions, especially those involving Songbird and Solomon Reed. The expansion’s choices are difficult because each path carries emotional and political consequences, rather than presenting one obvious moral answer. “The Killing Moon” and “Somewhat Damaged” are built around pressure, betrayal and fear, with the player forced to decide how much loyalty is worth when everyone involved has been manipulated. Night City’s slang, rain-slick streets and crowded markets provide the style, but the side stories supply the soul.

Elden Ring hides unforgettable stories in the wilderness

Elden Ring takes a different approach to optional content. It rarely labels a side quest clearly or explains what the player should do next. Characters move across the Lands Between, disappear after major events and sometimes require the player to remember a line of dialogue from dozens of hours earlier. This can be frustrating, particularly for players fitting a session around school, work or a family schedule, but it also makes the world feel less like a checklist.

Ranni’s questline is the most famous example. It leads through underground cities, strange towers, rival demigods and one of the game’s most spectacular hidden regions. The journey also introduces Blaidd, Seluvis and the mysterious miniature Ranni, allowing the player to piece together a story about rebellion against cosmic authority. It can eventually unlock a distinctive ending, yet its real appeal comes from how much lore it reveals without ever presenting a conventional exposition dump.

Millicent’s story is quieter and more tragic. Beginning with a sick young woman in Caelid, it expands into a journey involving a lost identity, rot, betrayal and the possibility of choosing dignity in a world that offers very little mercy. The player can help Millicent, invade her, or make decisions that alter her final fate. None of the outcomes feels entirely clean, which suits Elden Ring’s view of heroism. Good intentions can still produce suffering, and victory rarely restores the world to what it was.

The game’s environmental storytelling makes these quests especially memorable. A ruined church, a bloodstained road or a locked tower can communicate as much as a long conversation. Australian players exploring after a summer storm or during a quiet weekend can easily lose an evening to one suspicious cave, only to emerge with a new weapon, a disturbing piece of lore and no idea how the story became so strange. That sense of discovery is the reward.

Final Fantasy XVI gives side characters room to breathe

Final Fantasy XVI’s main plot is grand, dramatic and heavily focused on political conflict, supernatural powers and enormous battles between Eikons. Its side quests initially seem straightforward, but the later missions become much stronger as the game’s world develops. They show the practical consequences of the story’s major events: who is rebuilding towns, who is learning to live without oppression, and who remains trapped by prejudice even after a tyrant falls.

The questline around Martha’s Rest is a particularly effective example of grounded world-building. What begins with local trouble expands into a story about displaced people, exploitation and the difficulty of creating a safe community. The characters are not merely waiting for Clive to solve everything. They have conflicting needs and limited resources, and the player’s involvement helps reveal how political change affects everyday life.

Later side quests at the Hideaway offer more personal rewards. Clive can help companions revisit painful memories, repair old relationships and imagine a future beyond war. The “Where There’s a Will” quest is powerful because it connects family, legacy and the fear of being forgotten. “Priceless” provides a gentler emotional note, letting Clive and Jill share an experience that would have been impossible during the main campaign’s most intense moments.

These missions also improve the sense of place. Valisthea becomes more than a sequence of dramatic battlefields when players see merchants, refugees, farmers and craftspeople trying to build something stable. The writing does not always avoid repetition, and some errands still feel like padded fetch quests, but the best optional stories give the world a future worth fighting for. They are a reminder that saving a realm matters because of the people who must live in it afterwards.

Side quests often outshine a main story because they are allowed to be specific. They can focus on one relationship, one village or one unresolved wound instead of carrying every theme in the game at once. The Witcher 3 finds tragedy in a haunted island, Red Dead Redemption 2 finds tenderness beside a campfire, Baldur’s Gate 3 lets a minor decision reshape a community, Cyberpunk 2077 turns a neighbour’s crisis into a moral test, Elden Ring hides heartbreak behind cryptic exploration, and Final Fantasy XVI shows how ordinary people rebuild after catastrophe.

That is why the strongest optional missions deserve time rather than being rushed for experience points or equipment. Explore the strange path, speak to the character who seems easy to overlook and return to an old location when the story changes. Add these games to your backlog, revisit a favourite quest, and share the side adventure that stayed with you long after the final boss was defeated.