/v/ - Video Games

>Our wishes do not come true. We just cling onto our dreams, our phantoms, mine and yours. But I think this one is coming to an end. After all, you've figured it out now.

Paz referring to Venom's psychological conditioning, his dream, breaking apart.

>You can kill Skull Face, murder Huey, Slaughter Zero, burn the whole world down, and it still won't bring me back. Me, or any of the dead.

>…You know, Mother Base was never the heaven we wanted it to be, but I was still happy to have lived with everyone there. It was such a short time, such a hypocritical peace, but while I was on Mother Base, I was happy.

>So, I hope I'm not the only one who looks back on those days with happiness. There's more to remember than hatred and rage. But of course, this is you thinking that I should think that. It is no mystery now. I am just a phantom, a fragment of the mind you have lost. The real me died a long time ago

>But even so, more so, I can tell what you are really feeling. The real emotion locked in the bottom of your heart. Let it fly out. Let it guide you. Live. I think it's my job to tell you that. That's why I exist.

For maybe the first time in a game about replacing the pain you feel with hatred and revenge, about taking back what you lost from the people who took it from you, Paz, even if she's just a phantom, instills the acceptance of loss in Venom. She encourages him to carry that weight and let his pain free instead of hanging onto it like Miller or Skull Face. She speaks directly to his guilt over being unable to save her. And if Venom was able to remember that Paz really did die on that chopper, then his fragmented memories must've put themselves back together well-enough so he could remember that he's not really Big Boss.

>So this tape…is the last one. After you're done listening to it, I am one phantom limb that will be gone for good.

>My flesh…my bones…joining the silt on the ocean floor. But do not forget. As long as you remember me, I will always live within you. Not as a phantom limb, or a phantom anything. As part of your heart. I will always be your angel of peace.

>So, I know exactly how to finish.

>Say…Peace!

Paz will always live within you, as part of your heart. Literally. Back in the first mission, the doctor did tell you that you have 108 fragments of bone and teeth, presumably belonging to Paz, embedded within you. You also have two dangerous pieces of shrapnel stuck in you that could kill you later on. One is in your skull, and the other is close to your heart. And of course, Paz says goodbye in a way that only Paz could. By the time you finish this quest, you're already beginning to lose everything you brought to Mother Base. Eli and the kids disappeared along with Sahelanthropus, Quiet was forced to fuck off after speaking English to save you, Huey was exiled, Miller had completely lost himself, and the Paz you thought was real was just a hallucination.

Using the ordeal with Paz as pretext for Venom remembering how things actually went down was one of the few impressive moments in the game for me. So it only boggles my mind further to know that it was completely missable. They force you to come back for when Huey completes the battle tank, but they don't for the Paz side quest? It's a shame the game is so unfinished. Would've been nice if they implemented Chico in the story to further compliment the Paz quest, but alas, after being given five years and 80 million dollars, Kojima still managed to release an unfinished game. Not that Konami was any fucking help when they focused more on punishing the man personally and tarnishing his project rather than trying to save the game's life.

That said, it's still one of the most mechanically brilliant, stealth/action sandboxes I've ever played.

>>14657821

>What do you think makes a side quest good or memorable?

It's usually subverting your expectations

There's a really good example in Red Dead Redemption which starts out really simply. John meets some old man picking flowers for his wife and he asks you for help collecting them. Ubisoft games do this in every single fucking game they make.

However what made it brilliant is when you collect all of the flowers and give them to him. He lets you into his house and it turns out his wife is a decaying corpse and he's completely delusional and thinks she's still alive

This entire game is full of brilliant side missions that feel like their own self contained stories that are worth telling. And that's the difference to me. Most sidequests feel like pointless busywork and not like an actual legitimate story you want to see told.

There's one in Nier that starts out as another fetch quest until feels.

You start out by getting this nagging old lady her mail, you get there, the guy "broke his leg" and can't deliver mail", so he just sends you out with the letter to deliver to the old lady, this happens twice.

Later into the game the old lady is restless that she needs to meet "him" and is pissed off that the mailman won't let her leave. He gives you some bullshit excuse about her being the only one able to operate the lighthouse and leaves it at that.

Turns out the old lady has black scrawl, an incurable disease, and it's at an advanced stage, the old lady doesn't have long to live and wants to meet her husband she's only talked with by letters for years.

You go back to the mailman and keep trying to convince him but he won't give in. Eventually he tells you that he forged the husband's letter. Her husband died 50 years ago, the mailman's father couldn't bear to tell her and started making fake letters. The entire village knows the husband's dead, but no one has the courage to tell the old lady.

After you tell him that she's going to die, he gives you one last forged letter from her "husband" telling her that he's coming home and leaves it up to you to tell the truth or give her the letter.

I choose to give her the letter, I didn't want her to suffer during her last days. A couple days later the mailman asked me to come back to the village, just to thank me, the old lady had died with a smile on her face.

>>14657994

There's another one with feels in Nier, though it's pretty short.

You start out with an old man asking you to find his dog that had ran away to some dangerous area and didn't come back.

You go in there, fight some monsters and find the bloody body of the dog. The dog is biting a leaf tight, so you decide to at least bring that back.

When you return to the old man's place his son is in front of the house. You talk to him and he tells you that his father had just died of his disease the previous day.

You give him the leaf and it turns out that leaf was needed for the old man's medicine.

The dog died trying to save it's owner, and so did him.

The game is a feels heavy masterpiece and I'm still not sure whether I like it or hate it.

The quest to go find the village girl after she vanishes in dragon's dogma. It expires, is required for and ties into a bunch of other later quest, is miles away from where the main quest leads you so backtracking to finish it after gaining skills and levels is a pain in the ass, and it tries to corral you into a bunch of bandits strong enough to practially one shot you since you've practically just walked out of the second tutorial. I remember it because it's fucking bad game design, make the bandits plausible for an inexperienced low-level player with no skills to get through, or make it so the quest doesn't expire so quickly. Sure you can get through it

To be fair, dragon's dogma did get fucked pretty hard by capcom partway into development, so it was likely the result of some bad comprimise between scrapping the quest elements entirely and an unrealistic initial goal.

>>14657821

The side quest in Nier where you try to get Popola to sing together with her sister. You have to get Popola a special kind of drink so she can get over her stage fright and sing with Devola. The exposition of the quest also reveals some cute personality traits about the sisters, when Devola has too much to drink she becomes flirty and friendly and when Popola has too much she becomes an angry drunk. At first it starts off like a lot of the other quests in the game where it's collect X and Y amounts of this and that and it is a bit grindy to get all of the necessary materials. Going off of the previous quests in the game the player would expect once they complete the quest that they would be rewarded with some money and dialogue and maybe some voiced lines as well. However once you collect everything you're rewarded with an incrediblely amazing song as the two sisters sing together in the bar and you can stay as long as you want and the song would continue playing through out. The song was a perfect harmony of both their versions of Song of the Ancients. The music and mood of the bar blended absolutely perfectly together creating an amazingly relaxing atmosphere.

Just you and a few others in a small little bar as incredible music filled the room, it was extremely difficult having to exit the bar eventually. The first time I completed this quest I stayed in the bar for over 30 minutes just mesmerized by the song, even during future playthroughs I would always manage to stay in the bar for at least 15 minutes. That was one of the defining moments I really fell in love with the game and especially its music. Even today that quest still sticks out to me as well as many other quests in that game including the Old Fishermen quests, the Light House Keeper, the Missing dog, and the Cheating Man. The moment you shared with the sisters during that quest only made what happens during the end of the game when you confront them all the more personal and painful.

>>14657850

The Cheating Man quest in Nier is similar to what you described. It starts off as a seemingly random quest that seems like it'll have no real significance to the larger story or any character development where you have to hunt down an adulterer, but it ends up tieing back to a character you encountered earlier in a completely unexpected way. As you begin to track him down and find the past victums of his pumps and dumps you hear nothing but negative traits of him and the game describes him in a bad light. Suddenly the quest ends when you realize you had already encountered his corpse in an earlier part of the story. It turned out he and the mother of the brothers in the mountain tried to elope and abandon the children to run off together but were killed by shades when they tried to run off. You found the bodies when the brothers tasked you find their missing mother in an earlier quest. The game did a good job subverting your expectations making you think the guy was nothing but unsavory, but managed to add a bit of sympathy to him when he finally managed to find a woman that he really loved while at the same time making the mother a morally grey character too.

>>14657982

>>14658030

My brothers.

>>14657982

That's pretty sweet.

Wish I had an example that was just as good. The only thing I can think of which kinda stuck with me was Randall Clark, or "The Survivalist", in Honest Hearts.

Read the terminal entries on the wiki if you want the full story.

>>14658104

I forgot to mention the quests with Yonah, those were some really sweet and cute moments with her. Most quests were taken up as paid jobs and favors, but the quests for Yonah were simply a father spending some quality time with his daughter and the sacrifices a parent undergoes for their children.

This is why Troika and Sierra were killed

>>14658212

Activision was a gun, the chosen pulled the trigger.

Just a little bit of happiness.

>>14658241

it's a (((gnomish))) conspiracy to breed half ogre's by kidnapping humans and elves to be raped to produce them.

I don't know why I like this quest so much, maybe it's because you have to collect a bunch of clues for the treasure's location and if you tried to get it without the clues you get a shit version of the frying pan

It's about the journey, not the destination.

>>14658245

That's a good one. MM has a lot of good side quests, I'm also fond of playing the music in the Milk bar for Gorman.

>>14658245

It's more than that. They were convinced they were about to die. They wanted to face the end together.

It's shit like that that makes Majora's Mask such an amazing game. As simple and small as it is compared to more modern games, it accomplishes something so few of them do. It's world feels alive. You get to know these characters. You can relate to their suffering. And you want to save them.

Not really a sidequest, but sort of. In Shadow of the Colossus, there are large trees throughout the land that grow a peculiar orange fruit. You can knock them down and eat them, increasing your maximum health. They're helpful.

Spoilers ahead, in case anyone hasn't played it yet. The game takes place in a forbidden land, home only to wildlife and 16 Colossi, each of which is tasked with safeguarding a piece of the evil god, Dormin, to prevent his resurrection. Anyway, the land is beautiful, but cursed, as is everything in it. However, the temple that you are repeatedly pulled back to after defeating each colossus is a holy temple, built to contain the evil god. The temple has a bunch of moss and ivy growing on the outside walls, which you can climb, but most of it leads nowhere. You'd never notice it unless you looked, so most players who just ride for the next colossus will never notice. However, on one part of the wall, there's a section that you can climb all the way to the top. But you can't do this unless you've beaten the game 2-4 times, or your grip will fail long before you reach the top. But with each colossus or white-tailed lizard you kill and consume, your grip meter gets a little bit bigger. This carries over between each new game+.

Eventually though, you can climb to the very top of the temple, a long way. It's pretty up there but most notable there are trees that look a lot like the plants that drop the health-increasing fruits found throughout the rest of the land. But when you eat these fruits, your maximum health actually permanently decreases. The implication is that even the fruits of this land are cursed and even though they increased your health, they were making you less human. In contrast, the trees that grew on top of the holy temple gave fruit that purified your body, reducing your health, but helping purge your body of the curse that accumulated in your body with each fruit you ate elsewhere and with each colossus you killed.

So not really a sidequest, but an interesting bit of side content that the game never even slightly helps you come across, only your own curiosity and attentiveness (or reading about it online) helps you find. Helps flesh out the lore, and serves as an interesting story in itself. Temple seen in pics related.

>>14657821

Pretty sure this song was made with this moment in mind. Shame it was never used in game.

>>14657821

I always seem to find Siegmeyer of Catarina's sidequest in Dark Souls 1 to be pretty tragic. I mean this is a knight that went undead and tried to find his own adventure / purpose in Lordran, all the while his daughter (who's probably not an undead) trying to get him out of trouble. However, Siegmeyer just bumbles his way through the world only to be saved, time after time, by the PC. When he was given the chance to shine and to be of help to his benefactor, only to be realized the his help was unnecessary and that he's just a bumbling onion knight. Finally, he went hollow and Sieglinde put him down at the Ash Lake.

But, there's a path where Siegmeyer (can be inferred to) have wisened-up and quit his antics after he realized how fruitless it is, so he left you a (pretty useless) ring and left Lordran for the remainder of the game. Or you could just let him die a warrior's death, your choice.

Some anon storytimed a fancomic about Sieglinde, its pretty great and you should read it if you like Dark Souls. Link to the thread :

https://8ch.net/v/res/14646922.html

>>14660122

Holy shit, that's really neat. I never gave a shit about the temple and just went hunting lizards and fruits to buff myself up.

>>14660709

>Haven't played SoTC

You're the newfag here

>a bunch of people gets eaten alive one by one while the rest are watching

>research facility gets infected by ayylienes that infect and transform people into their own

>niggress uses local idol as money laundry and when found out shoots herself

>a race of shapeshifters ruled by AI that that you can either genocide or integrate into society

>time traveling scientist, that can be con artist, is on the run from human mafia

Off the top of my head.

Basically most side quests are better than the main story.

>Paz quest

I did not need to be reminded

I know the stigma some niggers have against the Witcher 3 but the sidequests were a step above the rest for most RPGs coming out now. Not to mention each one was unique and hand crafted without a single renewable quest in the game. Stuff like the Cheesewizard dungeon, the bloody baron's plotline and all those major sidequests that alter the main story.

Hearts of Stone is still one of the best stories in videogames

>>14660895

I don't know why, but that picture speaks a lot to me.

>>14660912

The creb lives in a terrible place and anime is it's only ray of light in the darkness, just like us.

>>14660955

You're first over the wall when it's done being built, carlos.

>>14660999

True, your waifu agrees with that as well after I fucked her.

>>14657821

That side quest hit right in the feels.

>>14660927

Jeez anon, don't be a fucking sperg i didn't know that you were one of those (1) and done, not to mention that you replied to the wrong person.

Good job

>Go back to where you came from with this weak ass shit.

What did you mean by this?

>>14660940

>>14660964

>>14660955

its not a fucking crabbo, its a fucking cray-cray

get your crustacean pronouns right, you fucking primates

>>14658245

My memory is fuzzy so help me out here. I also remember a little farm girl and her sister (or mother?) having a side quest. When the end was approaching, the little girl was allowed by her sister to have an alcoholic drink but had no idea why, and the sister remained silent. Knowing they would die, the sister suggested they sleep in the same bed that night, and the little girl was really excited but still had no clue why she was being given such great treatment all of a sudden.

God this game was awesome

>>14660797

They did have some similar piano themes playing at least. What really hit me was listening to the final tape and hearing Love Deterrence Play in the background as Paz starts saying how happy she was to be on Mother Base

>>14661302

Here's that, and a few extras.

>>14661327

>>14661368

I remember when I played it on the N64 as a kid, and I got to the section where I reunite some kid with his grandpa. It's the section where you get the stone mask iirc. I just remember them having a really touching moment together and I thought it would fit the scene perfectly to put on the stone mask and just walk out of their lives. The stone mask makes link invisible to others if I recall correctly. Majora's mask was really well done on so many different levels.

Not really a side-quest but many events in "Fragile Dreams", Especially the one from Chiyo

"But for you, I'm sure there are many tomorrows still waiting."

>>14660895

I'm currently replaying it hardest difficulty to see if it's actually difficult or not, it's not as long as you use potions, oils and other tools like bombs

I randomly came across a bandit camp roasting a pig over a spit in the middle of an empty village save one crying beaten up guy trying to plead with the bandits. They offer Geralt some pork, I agree but the upset beaten up guy pleads that I don't, the bandits turn to thump him on the head gives me the option to stand aside and let them or intervene. I intervene.

Spoilers ahead if you haven't played this quest

It turns out the village apart from this beaten up guy is populated by pigs, you have to go to investigate why and it turns out they have been cursed, the people turned into pigs because they robbed the pig temple nearby of it's gold, the pig roasting on the spit was a person.

There are a few other side quests that are memorable and stayed with me, the pellar quests and his goat for one, meeting Letho again as well that was a nice surprise the first time I saw it.

>>14664890

Quiet can't die from the English Strain because she has no lungs for the parasites to feed with. And she probably can't die of old age either. Or at least the parasites will keep her alive for a good two hundred years.

My guess is she probably did her own thing and either wandered from battlefield to battlefield or lived in isolation.

tfw Venom will never make a big beautiful white family with Quiet and live a perfect happy life together. Both die with no one ever knowing these two saved the world

Not really side-quests but it made Demon's Souls for me. The interaction of the one npc that just sits there. He goes more and more insane the more you go out and conquer the bosses until he kills himself.

Also the whole Yurt, the Silent Chief I rescued him and that motherfucker is only there to cleanse the world of all the surviving members in the nexus.

Also a shout out to Todds game Oblivion the Dark Brotherhood quests where the only memorable quests in that game.

As for myself, the major FromSoft sidequests are nicely executed. Siegward and Gascoigne's daughter were highlights of the series imo.

>>14672137

>The time when you could summon Gascoigne for help with the Cleric Beast and should you play the Music Box with him around he'll give a slight chuckle

>Upon playing the Music Box again with his boss fight he gets stunned remembering that was how his wife always called him back from a hunt

>Presenting the girl with her mother's red brooch causes her to be eaten by the sewer pig because she didn't want to be alone