Summary
Back in the olden days of gaming, RPGs were 90% the main story with some optional extras and side quests thrown in. Today’s RPGs are a different story. In many cases, developers have taken a “more is more” approach and are stuffing their games with dozens of hours of optional side content. This content often outweighs or is just downright better than the main storyline.
Some modern RPGs don’t even have main stories anymore, something that would have been considered sacrilege among fans just a few years ago.RPGs have become deeply immersiveand it’s easy to spend 100+ hours in their worlds without giving the main story more than a second glance.
It’s not an exaggeration to sayWartalesdoesn’t have a main storyline; it doesn’t even have a main character. Instead, from the get-go, the game is 100% optional content. Players create their band of mercenaries and travel the open world doing whatever they please.
Instead of a main questline, each region of the game’s map has its storyline, which is navigated through optional side quests, tasks, and narrative choices (most of which boil down to picking a faction to betray). It’s the definition of a"choose your own adventure" style of game.
Fans likely haveBorderlandsto thank for the continued popularity of looter shooters, and it’s stillone of the bestin its class. The original game had very little main storyline (find the vault, kill the monster, rob the vault) but was stuffed full of optional content, especially side quests and optional bosses.
Later games in the series, likeBorderlands 3andTiny Tina’s Wonderlands, tried and largely succeeded in injecting some much-needed story while keeping the focus on optional content and loot.
Techland knew when making the originalDead Islandthat gamers only cared about two things - stomping zombies and finding new ways to stomp zombies. That’s why most of the time spent playingDead Islandis taking on optional side quests that unlock new weapons and blueprints.
There is a story - it revolves around escaping the island - but it’s really not the focus. This trend continued with the sequelDead Island: Riptideand the more recentDead Island 2.
BioWare made their name creating some of gaming’s best story-rich RPGs andDragon Age: Inquisitioncertainly lived up to that reputation. With this title, the developers took everything they were famous for and dialed it up a notch.
The game is enormous and besides the lengthy main quest, there are countless NPCs to help out, territories to take, and legendary beasts to slay. It’s one of thelongest open-world gamesever made, and the main storyline can easily take a backseat for dozens of hours while gamers tackle the seemingly endless side content.
Outwardis a staggeringly difficult blend of open-world RPG and survival sim. There is an over-arching story, which takes the form of time-sensitive quests attached to the game’s main factions, but most players won’t spend much time thinking about it.
Outward’s main quest is just used to introduce new regions of the world. Regions where fans will spend the majority of their time just trying tosurvive in one of the hardest RPGs ever madewhile taking on optional content in the hopes of becoming stronger and surviving long enough to take on their next quest.
A lot of people don’t play theFalloutseries for the main storylines. They play them for their top-notch world-building and mostly excellent optional content. The best stories inFallouttend to be found in the myriad side quests and hidden random events on offer.
This trend began withFallout 3but was solidified in the fan-favoriteNew Vegasand newbie-friendlyFallout 4. The vast majority ofFalloutplayers spend far more time exploring the world and helping NPCs than they do following the main story. The latest entry in the franchise, MMORPGFallout 76, is basically 100% optional content and full of great side quests, daily tasks, expeditions, and public events.
To callElden Ringa big game would be an understatement. It’s gigantic but, if players want to, they can complete the main story while barely scratching the map’s surface.
FromSoftware has always taken an economical approach to storytelling andElden Ringcontinues that tradition. Most of the game’s story is told through interactions with the world’s many NPCs and by reading item descriptions. The majority of the map and the dungeons players will explore are completely optional. Some areas are the size of entire games. Others are so hidden away that many gamerswill never find them.
For a lot of players,Skyrim’smain quest ends with them meeting the Greybeards and learning their first shout. Getting that far will take no time at all, while for others, it could take dozens of hours. That’s becauseSkyrimis all about the optional content.
The map may not be that big by today’s swollen standards, but it’sdense. It feels like every NPC has their own multi-hour questline to complete and everywhere the player looks there’s a new dungeon to explore, mountain to climb, or faction to join. The best thing aboutSkyrimis how most of its optional content feels meaningful, not like filler, something many more modern RPGs struggle with.
