I’ve a excessive tolerance for fetch quests. If Genshin Affect desires me to exterminate the identical group of hilichurls time and again to seek for a vengeance-obsessed NPC’s misplaced sword, then I will do it—I’ve obtained time to kill. However when an RPG jams that form of drudgery entrance and heart into the principle storyline or sends me down a protracted, tedious questline with the reward pushed to the very finish, even I begin to suppose: is that this actually the perfect they may provide you with?
Fetch quests, which have earned a status because the lowest type of RPG sidequest, sometimes contain discovering gadgets and bringing them again to a recipient. The notably dangerous ones make you run from space to space between strains of filler dialogue, compounding a boring goal with a limp justification for doing it.
“At their coronary heart, virtually each quest is ‘go get a factor’ or ‘go kill an individual,'” Avowed sport director Carrie Patel mentioned in a latest interview with PC Gamer. “When quests fall flat, it is simply because there’s not sufficient curiosity in what you are doing.”
Final 12 months in One Piece Odyssey I did solely too many errands for NPCs within the desert city of Alabasta, every of them telling me that I should ask the opposite man for a key I wanted to progress within the story. Honkai: Star Rail, a sport I publicly love, additionally dragged me by fetch quests for its Belobog museum occasion. It was a chore regardless of some good-looking rewards; I might commerce that bounty for quests that requested extra of me than quick touring someplace, strolling for 30 seconds and urgent one button. It is attainable for a fetch quest to return throughout as an trustworthy try to inform an actual story, however too usually they fall brief, in the event that they’re attempting in any respect. Patel says that “even when it is a fetch quest at coronary heart,” a quest ought to have “some second the place your expectations change, or one thing surprises you or issues get extra sophisticated.
“If it truly is ‘go choose up this factor after which carry it again,’ you are simply lacking one thing.”
However these sorts of quests do nonetheless exist in video games. After so a few years of gamers rolling their eyes on the fetchiest of fetch quests, are they nonetheless haunting our RPGs simply so video games can promote longer playtimes? Builders say the reality is extra nuanced.
So why are there nonetheless so many fetch quests?
Most quests are mechanically constructed from the identical primary items, but solely a few of them get labeled fetch quests. All quests want a quest giver and an goal, which ought to—large ask right here—ideally entertain the participant and match into the overarching story. It is as much as writers and designers to construct on these factors to create a quest price our time, layering in sub-objectives, scattering lore all through, or amusing us with a vigorous NPC. Discovering which answer hits the candy spot is the laborious half.
Adam Dolin, a author and narrative designer who presently works at Night time College Studios and used to work for God of Warfare’s Santa Monica Studio, factors to execution as the issue in lots of fetch quests reasonably than the premise. “When there is not a lot complexity past that preliminary construction, or there’s TOO a lot of it, or the narrative wrapper feels arbitrary… that is when the hunt is susceptible to being labeled ‘simply one other fetch quest,'” he says.
“The rationale fetch quests are so frequent is as a result of discovering that good stability is tough and time-consuming. It requires MASSIVE quantities of collaboration between many alternative departments, and much and many playtesting, iteration, after which extra playtesting.”
Exterior components can flip a probably intriguing quest right into a flat one. Many instances sport writers and narrative designers have an thought of learn how to enhance a quest and simply do not have the means to do it. Guild Wars 2 sport designer Emily Morrow factors to the boogymen so usually outdoors of designers’ direct management: time and funds.
“Typically that large, participating quest you are designing seems to be too costly, or it’ll take too lengthy to implement and check, or there is not sufficient broader workforce assist to present it the consideration it deserves,” she says. “I discover that originality often is not a difficulty when developing with quests: concepts are low-cost, and it is easy to brainstorm plenty of new and distinctive ideas.
“Sadly, real-world issues usually get in the way in which of that.”
Fetch quests could be… good, really?
Jeff Howard, senior lecturer within the Video games Academy at Falmouth College, research how totally different sport design parts can strengthen a narrative—or fail it. To him, fetch quests are “underrated” for his or her untapped narrative potential and the leisure they will provide gamers after they have a extra advanced goal behind them.
Howard factors to The Elder Scrolls and Planescape: Torment as examples of video games that do fetch quests proper. He highlights the Daedric quests in Oblivion specifically, which job the participant with amassing artifacts for demonic gods. “This stuff embody the Sanguine Rose and the Masque of Clavicus Vile, that are each embedded within the eldritch mythologies of their related daedric lords. Equally, Planescape Torment includes the seek for summary concepts, akin to songs and recollections, which may function as keys to open interdimensional portals.”
Not each quest is meant to be a story marvel, anyway—in comparison with the protagonist’s final aim of saving the world, it would really feel inappropriate for a sidequest to all of the sudden take the highlight when all it rewards you is a few further bucks.
“Not each quest in a sport, notably a big sport like an open world journey sport or MMO, must be wholly unique or a showstopper,” Emily Morrow says. “Having combine of straightforward and sophisticated quests provides gamers a wide range of actions to take part in no matter their talent stage or experiences.”
She additionally factors out how fetch quests may even be essential for the general well being of the sport. “Fetch quests are a option to acquaint new gamers with a sport’s mechanics and provides present gamers a second to breathe in between large beats. They may also help make a world really feel extra vibrant and energetic, and they are often adjusted to suit nearly any story setting.”
Achieved effectively these quests do not simply really feel like chores, even after they’re easy.
“Aloy searching raccoons for a selected bone or pelt has a purely useful reward: higher gear,” says Dolin, utilizing his time engaged on Horizon Zero Daybreak to focus on how smaller fetch quests could be efficient. “The emotion you are feeling as a participant when finishing that quest is totally different from, say, one with cinematics and dialog and attention-grabbing NPCs. However the feeling of lastly discovering that final rattling raccoon bone and getting an even bigger ammo bag continues to be a optimistic feeling! Including quest givers and cinematics and tons of dialog to this straightforward ‘fetch quest’ is overkill.”
Avoiding “simply one other fetch quest”
So then, how do devs hold the “good” fetch quests that do not set off busywork klaxons in gamers’ heads?
“I attempt to ask myself: what goal does this specific kind of quest serve right here? Is it meant to be an enormous second, or is it OK that it is extra of a facet exercise or a approach for gamers to grind?” says Morrow. “The solutions to those questions play an enormous half in what a quest will in the end be.” Briefly, gamers simply want cause to wish to end a quest.
“If I am engaged on a fetch quest or one thing that has the potential to really feel tedious, I attempt to insert one thing else that makes it attention-grabbing or distinctive. It might be a humorous character, a well-known merchandise or setting utilized in a brand new approach, or participating dialog.”
“A foul fetch quest is one which feels pointless or a waste of time,” says Dolin. “If you are going to ask your participant to spend their time to go fetch one thing, ask your self, “Why would gamers do that?” If there is not a solution in addition to “expertise factors and/or gold,” then there is not any emotional funding.”
His recommendation for junior devs: “Give your quest giver some persona, imbue the merchandise you are fetching with a private story, and lean in your themes for inspiration.”
Weaving worldbuilding or character growth right into a quest can flip one thing that is a fetch quest by definition right into a significant story. Dolin appears to be like again on The Anatomy of Hope from God of Warfare, when designers gave him a easy description that he wanted to jot down right into a quest: “Whereas exploring the Lake of 9, Kratos and Atreus encounter a spirit who asks you to gather his lover’s bones so she will lastly relaxation in peace. As soon as you come back all of the bones, they flip into a strong Revenant it’s a must to battle.”
“I might been conditioned by Matt Sophos (narrative director) and Wealthy Gaubert (lead author) to at all times reply the query, ‘why would Kratos agree to do that?’ The strongest reply was often ‘to show Atreus a lesson.’ I assumed having the spirit promise a reunion with the recently-deceased Faye was sturdy motivation for Atreus, however Kratos is aware of from expertise that that is bogus. So the lesson turned: ‘Let the child burn his hand on the range.’ It additionally gave me the uncommon alternative to let Kratos and Atreus discuss brazenly about their grief after amassing a bone and boating to the subsequent location.”
That little bit of the sport acquired the care wanted to nurture one thing that could be a fetch quest at its core right into a significant second. There was additionally a private expertise at its heart, creating for Dolin the identical form of emotional funding he hopes to invoke in gamers. He wrote the hunt not lengthy after his father died in 2016, and was processing his grief whereas Kratos and Atreus had been processing theirs.
“Authenticity resonates with audiences. Do not be afraid to mine your individual private experiences for inspiration,” he says.