The biggest problem with the sidequests is that a few of them do have some interesting potential, but it's never explored. Like, let's take Dave for example. He's making you look for all these lost dog tags, right? And then you go to the designated location, fight a few monsters (which I assume are the ones that killed the hunter) and then bail. And I guess that'd be an ok setup for the first 2 quests he gives you or something, but then he gives you another one... And another one... And they all follow the same lazy structure. To mix it up, they could've at least added a little more flavour to it. Hell, instead of only looking for dog tags, he could've given you one mission like "hey, we haven't heard about this hunter for some time, but we're a bit shortstaffed right now, so could you guys check on him? Here's his last known location". And then you go to the place and talk to a few npcs who'll give you a little bit of character and world building ("oh yes, that guy! He was here a few days ago. He heard about the problems our village/settlement are facing and offered to help us out..."), and then you could get to know the problems plaguing that specific place and the hunter's willingness to solve them, and you're told he went to the crater to see the mysterious cause of the problem. When you get there, you find him on his last legs and help him take out some daemon that was the cause behind the citizens problems. You know, structure those side-quests like little vignettes, with some kind of story arc and a few amusing characters and interactions, similar to what you'd find in a Dragon Quest game. It makes your world feel more lively. Doing these kinds of work for the hunter association sure would've been a lot more interesting than "hey, go find dog tag", but I guess the latter is much easier to mass design.
They also could've done a lot more with Vyv. Being part of the press his quests could've been a lot more investigative in nature. It's the perfect opportunity to make you discover things about the empire and the lore of the world for his articles (he does give you a liiiittle bit of lore, I guess, but not enough), and just general background info that the story doesn't give you.
I don't know man, the more I think about, the more I wish they had focused on doing fewer but more engaging side-quests rather than a shitload of mostly repetitive side-quests. At least for the characters that have a little more going for them. Freaking Phil from the bakery store could still give you a generic "go fetch me this ingredient" questline I suppose.
They also could've done a lot more with Vyv. Being part of the press his quests could've been a lot more investigative in nature. It's the perfect opportunity to make you discover things about the empire and the lore of the world for his articles (he does give you a liiiittle bit of lore, I guess, but not enough), and just general background info that the story doesn't give you.
I don't know man, the more I think about, the more I wish they had focused on doing fewer but more engaging side-quests rather than a shitload of mostly repetitive side-quests. At least for the characters that have a little more going for them. Freaking Phil from the bakery store could still give you a generic "go fetch me this ingredient" questline I suppose.
