Ahhh, there’s nothing like taking a detour in a video game. From sprawling open-world games to turn-based RPGs, sidequests are an almost essential part of the adventure. After all, can you really say you’ve saved the world or uncovered the secrets of your friends if you haven’t collected all of the magical coins or you haven’t helped the village mayor pay off a debt?
As we’re approaching the end of the Switch’s life, at Nintendo Life, we’ve been pondering all of our favourite sidequests we’ve experienced (or re-experienced) on the lovely little hybrid console. And there’s no shortage of those optional yet magical expeditions.
What do we mean by sidequests, then? Essentially, any optional quest unrelated to the main story that will often reward you with new weapons, items, or even lore.
We’re talking special moments like The Witcher 3’s ‘The Bloody Baron’ is a huge sidequest that sees Geralt try to find his family in Velen in exchange for information about Ciri’s whereabouts. Anyone who’s played through even part of that quest knows things aren’t isn’t that simple — it’s an incredibly emotional and taxing quest and a rare feat where the quest itself and the payoff are equal in measure. The Witcher 3 is the gold standard for sidequests in video games, and this questline is just one of many examples.
To look at a standout Nintendo example, let’s go to Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which arguably has some of the best sidequests in a series packed full of them. Quests focusing on the main party, such as Eunie and Taion, bring even more life to the cast; Hero Quests that net you new support characters, like Ashera, flesh out the world of Aionios. And don’t get us started about An Off-Seer’s Anguis. It still brings a tear to our eyes.
It doesn’t matter whether the game is a Nintendo Switch exclusive or not — if it’s got a stand-out sidequest, then we absolutely want to hear you gush about it. And yes, NSO games absolutely count — we’re sure we can think of one or two games on that service that have some lovely side activities.
And look, we know Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have some outstanding sidequests — are you really playing these games properly if you don’t dive into 20 different quests at once or rebuild Tarrey Town? — but there are so many of them that we don’t want to be bombarded with just hundreds of quests from those games. Heck, Echoes of Wisdom and Link’s Awakening are right there!
Tell us about your favourite sidequests on Nintendo Switch in the comments below, and we’ll pick out the very best from your picks below and combine them with ours for a piece… coming soon!