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[SneakyStephan]

Good , I hope it doesn't have a single one.
The only fetch quests I can stomach is ones that are bounties on big monsters (bring back its head or w/e) where there is a worthy well thought out bossfight and hopefully a memorably journey to get to it.

Dragon's dogma is an example of this.
It had an optional quest board of 'kill 10 wolves/a cyclops' or whatever quests but they were things you automatically did while exploring and following the story and the exploration was super memorable and the big story quests (e.g bluemoon tower) were awesome adventures.

You wana tag a reward for killing the boss at the top of the tower onto that adventure? Sure whatever

The thing is fetch quests are generally the very opposite of memorable... just throwaway forgettable fluff, "content" for the sake of content

A quest should be a tool to lead the player into a great adventure, not just a fucking chore to kill some time in some area you 'd otherwise never want to go to or revisit.

 

[Sanctuary]

Good thing those quests are optional, right?

This is a terrible argument. One of the selling points of the game was the supposed playing time, which they boasted was "150 hours" if you wanted to complete everything. Many probably already suspected that the game was going to contain a ton of filler thanks to that statement. For people who actually try to complete as much as they can, those "optional" quests are pretty awful and a reason to skip "content" to move on out of sheer boredom.

 

[Renekton]

This is a terrible argument. .

How is yours better? <_<

You point to specific completionist use cases, and automatically assume (without data) said completionists will dislike quests such as collec-a-thons and be bored by DA:I. You also imply an arbitrary obligation that "boasting xxx hours" should be restricted to non-fillers.

 

[Denton]

I wouldn't think many game designers think fetch quests are just a brilliant way to spend time. But when you have limited time and resources, its probably hard to create tons and tons of well thought out and scripted missions to populate the world, so inevitably fetch quests become a prime 'go-to' way to squeeze in more content. Hell, even The Witcher 1 had its share of fetch quests.

So uh, now that we got to play both games, what's the verdict here ?

 

[WadiumArcadium]

So uh, now that we got to play both games, what's the verdict here ?

The Witcher's side quests are a hell of a lot more varied and interesting.

 

[N7Commander95]

So uh, now that we got to play both games, what's the verdict here ?

Imo, the Witcher 3 defo has better quests, but its also guilty of filler.

Specifically in Skellige

Plus the novigrad campaign is ridiculously convoluted and not fun in the slightest.

But dat Velen tho

 

[Turin Turambar]

Imo, the Witcher 3 defo has better quests, but its also guilty of filler.

Specifically in Skellige

Plus the novigrad campaign is ridiculously convoluted and not fun in the slightest.

But dat Velen tho

Novigrad is great, better than Velen.

There aren't filler quests in Skellige. There are totally useless sunken treasures but they can be ignored more easily that the hundred crap collectathons and fetch quests from DA:I.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

I like these guy. And he's earned the right to criticize lesser, factory produced RPGs.

"Well, my favorite open world game is Fallout: New Vegas,"

And that's the icing on the cake.

 

[Salvadora]

Yeah they are leagues apart.

Witcher does have some less than compelling quests, the billion treasure hunts (outside Witcher gear) for example, but they are class ahead.

At no point was I grinding "power" or collecting shards.

 

[Marvel]

I just started it last night straight after finishing W3.

I'll probably regret doing it in that order.

 

[N7Commander95]

Novigrad is great, better than Velen.

There aren't filler quests in Skellige. There are totally useless sunken treasures but they can be ignored more easily that the hundred crap collectathons and fetch quests from DA:I.

Nah, I found Novigrad very convulted in execution. By the time it got to priscillas quest thing, it was a case of'how long is this going to go on for?'

 

[WadiumArcadium]

I just started it last night straight after finishing W3.

I'll probably regret doing it in that order.

Yeah, I think I probably would.

 

[Denton]

Imo, the Witcher 3 defo has better quests, but its also guilty of filler.

Specifically in Skellige

Plus the novigrad campaign is ridiculously convoluted and not fun in the slightest.

But dat Velen tho

I loved Novigrad, it was a great change after Velen. But I am one of those who loves good dialogues, and Novigrad was full of those. Of course it was not very exploration based there.
I didn't find much (well, any) filler in Witcher 3, but I disabled the question marks and explored naturally, as opposed to checking things off the list.

 

[Nabbis]

Filler everywhere i go. Back in the day of WoW release i was annoyed as fuck for MMOs doing those types of fetch quests that RPGs didn't have. Looking around now it seems that WoW has better quests than these two RPGs. Oh how did the tables turn.

 

[Mendrox]

So uh, now that we got to play both games, what's the verdict here ?

No contest here. He was absolutely right in saying this and DA Inquisitions quests are just bad in comparision to Witcher 3. Witcher 3s sidequests always feel like a good fantasy short story even though there are many "Go there, search that in detective mode, follow the trail, prepare yourself for fight" but the dialogues, scenerey and everything is just fitting so that I don't feel like that the games makes me feel like "working".

 

[ValfarHL]

Filler everywhere i go. Back in the day of WoW release i was annoyed as fuck for MMOs doing those types of fetch quests that RPGs didn't have. Looking around now it seems that WoW has better quests than these two RPGs. Oh how did the tables turn.

notsureifserious.gif

 

[Nabbis]

notsureifserious.gif

Yeah im serious. Aside from the main plot most of the content is crap. Both games have horrible combat as well.

 

[WadiumArcadium]

Yeah im serious. Aside from the main plot most of the content is crap. Both games have horrible combat as well.

Don't agree with that at all. The combat's grown on me over the course of the game. Admittedly it becomes a bit too easy as you get closer to the end, but the combination of signs and deciding what kind of attack will work best on a specific enemy is pretty enjoyable. It's not the strongest part of the game though.

 

[Super Stardust]

I loved Novigrad, it was a great change after Velen. But I am one of those who loves good dialogues, and Novigrad was full of those. Of course it was not very exploration based there.
I didn't find much (well, any) filler in Witcher 3, but I disabled the question marks and explored naturally, as opposed to checking things off the list.

I played the game the same as you and I agree. Novigrad is a nice change in pace that shows the difference between being in a city and being in the wild. Also I really like all the characters so I enjoyed seeing Geralt spend some time with his friends.

 

[Mendrox]

Yeah im serious. Aside from the main plot most of the content is crap. Both games have horrible combat as well.

World of Warcraft is the definition of fetch quests. You also have your "dailys" which are the same, and just with Cataclysm they changed a few quests to make them more varied. Wow. Also WoWs combat is even more boring.

Yes I played WoW for about 4-5 years.

 

[toddhunter]

Good thing those quests are optional, right?

Bad thing the mandatory quests are crap as well.

TW3 has more than its share of fetch quests too, but at least it includes something worth playing to go with it.

 

[Scrabble]

He's not wrong about fetch quests, and their goal to create more story driven quests definitely payed off, but they also kind of fucked up making a main quest that's essentially just "find person x, do favor for person. gets information to find person y, go to person y, do favor....etc,

 

[bede-x]

So uh, now that we got to play both games, what's the verdict here ?

The Witcher 3 does have a lot of the crappy content filler I hate in games like Inquisition and Ubisoft Game, but the actual quest design - main/secondary and even contracts to a certain extend - is leagues ahead of anything else in the genre.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

The Witcher 3 does have a lot of the crappy content filler I hate in games like Inquisition and Ubisoft Game, but the actual quest design - main/secondary and even contracts to a certain extend - is leagues ahead of anything else in the genre.

Leagues ahead of New Vegas in terms of quest design? Yeah right.

I've yet to see a game come close to that.

 

[Fuz]

Bad thing the mandatory quests are crap as well.

TW3 has more than its share of fetch quests too, but at least it includes something worth playing to go with it.

It doesn't have any fetch quest. If you're referring to contracts... well, that's how contracts are supposed to work. They're not fetch quests.

 

[Denton]

Filler everywhere i go. Back in the day of WoW release i was annoyed as fuck for MMOs doing those types of fetch quests that RPGs didn't have. Looking around now it seems that WoW has better quests than these two RPGs. Oh how did the tables turn.

I assume you are living in another universe than me, one where WoW was created by CD Projekt and Witcher 3 by Blizzard.

 

[Scipio]

I feel the main thing the Witcher has over Inquisition is that it's not stuck in this strange MMO/RPG limbo. Every quest gets you a closeup cutscene and feels personal, in Inquisition everything feels very abstract.

I only played it for 6 hours or so, but I already cannot see me going back to Inquisition.

 

[Auctopus]

Leagues ahead of New Vegas in terms of quest design? Yeah right.

New Vegas has stellar quest design, it's too bad the characters and story are dull and sterile. I'd rather collect 10 Sheepskin if the game gave me emotional/narrative reasoning. The Witcher 3 takes care of 95% of its characters, including the ones in a 3 minute side quest.

 

[bede-x]

Leagues ahead of New Vegas in terms of quest design? Yeah right.

In terms of emotional impact, absolutely. Don't care too much for large branching quest trees by themselves, if they aren't accompanied by memorable scenes and emotional payoff. A personal preference, but I stand by the opinion.

 

[spekkeh]

So uh, now that we got to play both games, what's the verdict here ?

I don't think there are many fetch quests, though there are a lot of go to point A then to point B then to point C, back to A, back to C style busywork quests that feel sort of similar. All the traversal in this case seems more to pad things out than to really create an engaging story dynamic. That said, the stories of the quests are definitely a few notches above DAI's. There are actual twists, reversals and denouements, instead of arriving at a spot and simply seeing 'quest finished'. There's almost no junk filler, of which DAI was filled to the brim with.

I just wish there was a bit more gameplay variety in the quests.

 

[Dmax3901]

Leagues ahead of New Vegas in terms of quest design? Yeah right.

I've yet to see a game come close to that.

I feel like some of the quests in the Witcher 3 could easily be laid out like this.

 

[bede-x]

There's almost no junk filler, of which DAI was filled to the brim with.

There's tons of garbage filler, but it has a lot of meaningful content as well, which Inquisition was lacking. This is almost pure junk, which you mostly get by touching a board in the villages:

Eliminate X bandit camps
Destroy x monster nests
Clear x abandonded sites
Free X persons in distress
Find X guarded treasures
Find X smuggler's caches
Draw from X places of power

Many of these are repeated 20+ times in the game, some even far more. Had Ubisoft made it, you would have gotten them by climbing a tower

 

[spekkeh]

There's tons of garbage filler, but it has a lot of meaningful content, as well which Inquisition was lacking. This is almost pure junk, which you mostly get by touching a board in the villages:

Eliminate X bandit camps
Destroy x monster nests
Clear x abandonded sites
Free X persons in distress
Find X guarded treasures
Find X smuggler's caches
Draw from X places of power

Many of these are repeated 20+ times in the game, some even far more. Had Ubisoft made it, you would have gotten it by climbing a tower

Oh I hardly ever do the town board quests, so I didn't know that .
It at least seems less obvious than DAI, because you don't need to farm some arbitrary Power statistic to proceed.

 

[VariantX]

Leagues ahead of New Vegas in terms of quest design? Yeah right.

I've yet to see a game come close to that.

I got this in a steam sale 2 years ago and I have yet to play it. I need to play this now. This one post has finally convinced me to hit the damn download button.

 

[bede-x]

Oh I hardly ever do the town board quests, so I didn't know that .
It at least seems less obvious than DAI, because you don't need to farm some arbitrary Power statistic to proceed.

Inquisition is far worse off no doubt about that. Aside from the typically well done Bioware party banter, it's completely forgettable.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

There's tons of garbage filler, but it has a lot of meaningful content as well, which Inquisition was lacking. This is almost pure junk, which you mostly get by touching a board in the villages:

Eliminate X bandit camps
Destroy x monster nests
Clear x abandonded sites
Free X persons in distress
Find X guarded treasures
Find X smuggler's caches
Draw from X places of power

Many of these are repeated 20+ times in the game, some even far more. Had Ubisoft made it, you would have gotten it by climbing a tower

See, I wouldn't call that "garbage filler". Those are things you can do in the game. It's a game about killing things, finding stuff, and following the story/sidequests where they go. Everything you listed is 100% optional, much like most of that stuff in DA:I.

W3 has a lot more and varied content when it comes to the actual side*quests* in a way that DAI doesn't. Both games happen to also feature plenty of traditional open world stuff that's just part of the gameplay loop for people who are enjoying the gameplay, and can largely be ignored for the people who don't like it.

W3 wouldn't be a better game if you removed the stuff on that list. There'd just be fewer things to do.

 

[DoctorPayne]

There's tons of garbage filler, but it has a lot of meaningful content as well, which Inquisition was lacking. This is almost pure junk, which you mostly get by touching a board in the villages:

Eliminate X bandit camps
Destroy x monster nests
Clear x abandonded sites
Free X persons in distress
Find X guarded treasures
Find X smuggler's caches
Draw from X places of power

Many of these are repeated 20+ times in the game, some even far more. Had Ubisoft made it, you would have gotten it by climbing a tower

None of these are actual quests in your quest log, though. The boards are just adding markers on your map that you're free to ignore. There's 100+ hours of real, story-focused questing in TW3, easily. Whereas in DAI, Ubisoft-style fetch-quest bullshit is the meat of side content.

 

[roytheone]

Leagues ahead of New Vegas in terms of quest design? Yeah right.

I've yet to see a game come close to that.

I will be pleasantly surprised if the best quest in fallout 4 will have even half of the depth as this quest had.

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

There's tons of garbage filler, but it has a lot of meaningful content as well, which Inquisition was lacking. This is almost pure junk, which you mostly get by touching a board in the villages:

Eliminate X bandit camps
Destroy x monster nests
Clear x abandonded sites
Free X persons in distress
Find X guarded treasures
Find X smuggler's caches
Draw from X places of power

Many of these are repeated 20+ times in the game, some even far more. Had Ubisoft made it, you would have gotten it by climbing a tower

I think the key thing with all those kinds of filler"quests" in TW3 is that unlike DAI, the game doesn't even really qualify those as proper quests in the game. They don't show up in your journal/quest log, they're just little things to stumble across in the open world. It's when you have all of those on your map as icons and you start just checking them off that they can feel like a grind.

Difference with Inquisition is that most of the game's side quests are just the equivalent of those filler type activities in TW3, with Inquisition going so far as to legitimize those sorts of copy/paste activities by putting them in your quest log as proper side quests.

I don't think there is anything wrong with some filler content like this in open world games. Where DAI fails and TW3 succeeds is that TW3 has solid main questlines and some great side quests that feel like they have had as much care and presentation quality as the main quests. Whereas DAI's main questlines are generally fine, the side quests feel wholly disparate in terms of presentation with no proper cutscenes or even the camera zooming in during dialogue and the stories rarely evolve beyond "go here, kill/collect x number of thing y, return for reward." That was horribly disappointing in DAI.

 

[Super Stardust]

There's tons of garbage filler, but it has a lot of meaningful content as well, which Inquisition was lacking. This is almost pure junk, which you mostly get by touching a board in the villages:

Eliminate X bandit camps
Destroy x monster nests
Clear x abandonded sites
Free X persons in distress
Find X guarded treasures
Find X smuggler's caches
Draw from X places of power

Many of these are repeated 20+ times in the game, some even far more. Had Ubisoft made it, you would have gotten it by climbing a tower

But those are just random stuff you find out in the wild when exploring, you can ignore it if you want but I understand what you mean.

 

[R_thanatos]

Leagues ahead of New Vegas in terms of quest design? Yeah right.

I've yet to see a game come close to that.

Actually , several big quests in witcher 3 are very similar if not as complex.

The baron quest line is in similar structure..it's just broken within little sidequests but they are requirements.

Also in term of fetch quests, i never felt like they were fetch quests in this game. Even outisde the "requisitions", DA has too many "Get there, do that, report and done". Witcher actively spices up big having multiples hidden triggers leading to decisions that you think are not impactfull, but actually are.

Witcher 3 wins easily.

 

[misho8723]

Leagues ahead of New Vegas in terms of quest design? Yeah right.

I've yet to see a game come close to that.

Man, I love FNV (one of my favorites and way better than F3) - but, W3 has many quests that have many similar structure - yes, you can't use stealth or hacking in W3, but still you have many options how to approach missions and the choices and consenquences are great too

And many of those - kill bandits, destroy monster nets, etc. aren't even in the quest log, they are more natural and make sense in the world and his systems.. and the main and side quests, even witcher contracts are mostly fantastic in this type of big open-world game..

Obsidian and CD Projekt RED are my own favorite companies right now - they just know how to make great RPG games

 

[KHlover]

There's tons of garbage filler, but it has a lot of meaningful content as well, which Inquisition was lacking. This is almost pure junk, which you mostly get by touching a board in the villages:

Eliminate X bandit camps
Destroy x monster nests
Clear x abandonded sites
Free X persons in distress
Find X guarded treasures
Find X smuggler's caches
Draw from X places of power

Many of these are repeated 20+ times in the game, some even far more. Had Ubisoft made it, you would have gotten them by climbing a tower

Dude those are landmarks, not quests. They're just in game to give you a reason to not use quicktravel.

 

[Dark_castle]

There's tons of garbage filler, but it has a lot of meaningful content as well, which Inquisition was lacking. This is almost pure junk, which you mostly get by touching a board in the villages:

Eliminate X bandit camps
Destroy x monster nests
Clear x abandonded sites
Free X persons in distress
Find X guarded treasures
Find X smuggler's caches
Draw from X places of power

Many of these are repeated 20+ times in the game, some even far more. Had Ubisoft made it, you would have gotten them by climbing a tower

As others already explained, those are NOT considered as quests in Witcher 3. They're like enemy encounters/hidden treasure you come across while exploring the world. Does that mean Witcher 3 has absolutely zero filler-ish side quest? No. I think some of the witcher contracts have relatively little dialogue and are straight up monster hunting business. But as a whole it has tons of proper quests with fully voiced dialogue lines and occasional branching solutions, with meaningful choice and consequences at every corner.

 

[Fuz]

There's tons of garbage filler, but it has a lot of meaningful content as well, which Inquisition was lacking. This is almost pure junk, which you mostly get by touching a board in the villages:

Eliminate X bandit camps
Destroy x monster nests
Clear x abandonded sites
Free X persons in distress
Find X guarded treasures
Find X smuggler's caches
Draw from X places of power

Many of these are repeated 20+ times in the game, some even far more. Had Ubisoft made it, you would have gotten them by climbing a tower

Those are not quests, your argument is invalid.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

Man, I love FNV (one of my favorites and way better than F3) - but, W3 has many quests that have many similar structure - yes, you can't use stealth or hacking in W3, but still you have many options how to approach missions and the choices and consenquences are great too

And many of those - kill bandits, destroy monster nets, etc. aren't even in the quest log, they are more natural and make sense in the world and his systems.. and the main and side quests, even witcher contracts are mostly fantastic in this type of big open-world game..

Obsidian and CD Projekt RED are my own favorite companies right now - they just know how to make great RPG games

That's good and all but how does that make Witcher 3's quest design "leagues better than anyone's in the genre"? Furthermore, Fallout 3 has virtually no fetch quests at all. I honestly don't see it getting dethroned anytime soon with regards to quest design.

 

[EatChildren]

Almost every RPG in existence has "filler" content, whether it be shit to kill, stuff to find, or areas to explore, that are "marked off" on the map or some kind of log. As with every game what matters most is how that content is presented, especially the given context.

The problem with Inquisition's filler content is the context. It's often explicitly presented as a quest, given bare bones (if any) narrative or aesthetic relevance, and used in abundance with little diversity within recycling. I feel this is where Wild Hunt does almost the complete opposite. "Filler" content is rarely marked as an actual quest, it's just stuff to find and interact at with, built under a certain category of play. Narrative and/or thematic context is consistent; whether it be a note detailing a person's life or event past, or simply the placement of monster nests in a location logical for them to pop up, like an abandoned battlefield.

In Wild Hunt I feel the "filler" content is integrated seamlessly into the game world itself. It's logical, believable, given context, and just so happens to be interactive and tethered to XP gains and/or a marker on the map. In Inquisition the context is more often than not forgettable or non-existent, the "gamey" element more transparent, and both the objective and subsequent success not much different from being given a list of arbitrary game goals that have no real relevant to what is going on. It's a problem Ubisoft open world games also suffer; transparent game design checklisting over seamless, contextual integration into the game world and act of play.

EDIT: RE: Quest design. Wild Hunt doesn't shy away from similarly enriched quest trees, but structurally it's a very, very different design philosophy to something like New Vegas and this is not without impact. Wild Hunt, like the other Witcher games, is generally action driven with a locked set of character abilities and available functions, guided through a cinematically presented narrative. New Vegas follows a more table top-like CRPG approach (like old RPGs) where player agency and freedom of play extend deeper into stats, functions, and available actions. And thus the quest design more frequently needs to accommodate for these variants.

 

[SkyTurnsRed]

That's good and all but how does that make Witcher 3's quest design "leagues better than anyone's in the genre"? Furthermore, Fallout 3 has virtually no fetch quests at all. I honestly don't see it getting dethroned anytime soon with regards to quest design.

Neither does The Witcher 3.

 

[bede-x]

In Wild Hunt I feel the "filler" content is integrated seamlessly into the game world itself. It's logical, believable, given context, and just so happens to be interactive and tethered to XP gains and/or a marker on the map. In Inquisition the context is more often than not forgettable or non-existent

Sure, it's more logical than Inquisition where they send the leader into the field to collect stuff manually every time the army needs more blankets, weapons or similar, and mostly the activities in The Witcher 3 makes sense in terms of what a Witcher would spend time doing. Mostly..

But that's as far as the logic goes. There's nothing believable about having a narrative urging Geralt onwards to hurry finding Ciri before the Wild Hunt does and then having the player proceed to travel all over the world removing question marks from his map, doing horse races and playing Gwent with god and every man. It's the very essence of cognitive dissonance. It doesn't make sense and is only made as such to accommodate AAA checklist design and to conform to player expectations. It isn't designed that way because it's logical or believable.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

Neither does The Witcher 3.

In my experience "fetch quest" is almost always defined by people as "quests I don't like", because arguably, every single quest that isn't explicitly about fighting enemies or talking to people is a "fetch quest".