One important thing that open-world RPGs have to do is justify the enormous size of their world maps. There’s nothing worse than a great, empty expanse of land. Players will typically bypass a lot of this through fast travel, of course, but that can be detrimental to the experience in a well-designed open-world game. We want high-stakes narratives that threaten a whole realm, but also need to be able to put those stakes on the back-burner so we can hoover up some sidequests.
6 Most Relaxing Side Activities In Open-World Games
When players get worn out by the intensity of an open-world story campaign, these relaxing side activities are there to give them a break.
Sometimes, I only have an hour or so spare to play, and that can make progress extremely slow in these epic RPGs. Other times, I may have most of an afternoon to really lose myself in them. With bite-sized sidequests intermingled with larger areas, you can achieve something substantial at your own pace in these great titles.
Scratch & Peek
Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as
possible.
Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as possible.
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When Sidequests Are Better Than The Main Story
Famously, Skyrim is a game that many players have gotten several hundreds of hours of entertainment from, without ever seeing the end. It’s difficult for an open-world title to make its side content as engaging as the main story, because the former will often revolve around finding collectibles or simply fetch quests. For me, though, the optional content of Skyrim is where the team got the most creative. I don’t want to be pushed into accepting and fulfilling my fate as the Dragonborn, I want to forget about that and earn the Guild Master’s Armor for completing the Thieves’ Guild questline.
When sidequests are actually interesting and rewarding, I can entirely forget about the main quest for days or weeks at a time. I try not to, because I also don’t like blasting through the story with zero challenge because I’m overleveled, but sometimes it happens organically. That’s one mark of a good open-world RPG, for me: Its side content is worth exploring in its own right and isn’t just optional busywork.
After its expansions, there’s just so much to do in the realm of Skyrim, and that’s not even including everything that its huge community of talented modders have added over the years.
6
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Sephiroth Can Wait A While
The original Final Fantasy 7 is one of my favorite games of all time, and I know the story like the back of my hand. The remake project makes some significant changes to that narrative, and while that’ll always be controversial for some, I don’t mind the concept at all. Just like deleted scenes from a beloved movie, I always like seeing brand-new content in media I’ve enjoyed many times before. I was eager to advance the story of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth for this reason, but the game was just as keen to slow me down with endless minigames and other pieces of optional content.
According to How Long To Beat, players can expect the story of Rebirth to last around 48 hours, with a completionist run taking about 163 hours. That’s a testament to the sheer amount of additional content available in the game, and it doesn’t try to funnel you through the main campaign at all. With the chapter select feature unlock, there isn’t really anything that’s missable at all, and this offers a nice balance: You can complete the story quite quickly and then return, or work on clearing out each area as you go. Cloud’s party, as such, can be at just the level you’d like them to be, for either the campaign or the optional battle challenges and so on that await across the six main areas, which include the familiar Junon, Nibel, and Cosmo Canyon regions.
I also have to give a particular shoutout to Queen’s Blood, which consumes tens of hours of my playthrough by itself. Final Fantasy 8‘s Triple Triad is my favorite series minigame by some distance, and this brilliant addition more than made up for my disappointment that Final Fantasy 7 didn’t have a card game. It’s the perfect blend of approachable and strategic, and claiming those special cards from each player aruond the world was a real pleasure. There was no rush to save the world (although we can’t really do that unti the final remake entry is released), I could just play cards at will until I’d had my fill.
5
Elden Ring
Take Your Time To Explore The Lands Between
We all know just how harsh the Soulsborne games can be for the player. Monstrously difficult bosses, tragic NPC lore to ruin our days, and deceptive choices that can actually lock us out of something important for that playthrough. They do tend to give us a break in one area, though: They’re very open-ended, allowing the player to freely travel between areas farming for levels and upgrade materials as much as they wish. If you know where to look, there are some great farming areas in each game. I know I’d never have earned Bloodborne‘s platinum trophy without a ton of Blood Echo grinding in the Hypogean Gaol, for instance.
7 Open-World Games With World-Building That Rivals Elden Ring
Elden Ring’s world-building is among the strongest in gaming, but it does have a few rivals that deliver just as much depth and quality.
Smash hit Elden Ring was the first open-world Soulsborne title, and as huge as The Lands Between are, they have that same sense of freedom. Players can rush from main objective to main objective, or they can take their time to slowly and steadily explore everything this cursed realm has to offer. As with the rest of the titles on this list, it would be a real shame to rush, because it just has so much to offer. I’m one of those players whose stubbornness just keeps me going until I eventually prevail, which is what kept me coming back several times over until I eventually toppled the Tree Sentinel early in the game (the Golden Halberd is one of my favorite weapons and was well worth it).
This is just one of many fights that’s entirely optional, and that’s the point. Though there’s a main questline, the Tarnished’s adventure is the one you make for yourself. If you want to spend countless hours hunting Deathbirds, for instance, you can go right ahead and enjoy yourself.
4
Final Fantasy 16
The Story’s Very Heavy, so Take a Break
The Final Fantasy series, I think it’s fair to say, has always been very heavy on the fantasy. The ninth mainline entry is my favorite, and probably the most whimsical of them all. In contrast, I was quite surprised by how heavy-going Final Fantasy 16 felt to play. This is a harsh world, overwhelmed by both warfare and the spreading Blight, and Square-Enix certainly didn’t sugarcoat any part of stressing these awful events to players.
Our abrupt antihero Clive Rosfield is certainly channeling the spirits of Cloud Strife and Squall Leonheart, but in the circumstances, this is no surprise. The one-time future successor to Rosaria’s throne, an attack on his realm and the seeming death of his younger brother at Ifrit’s hands leaves him cast out and searching for answers. Learning to his anguish that he is Ifrit’s dominant, he and a small band of allies set out to end the Blight by destroying the world’s Mothercrystals.
It’s a vital, solemn mission, but one that’s conveniently broken up into largely digestible pieces. There’s so much to explore and a lot of sidequests too, which typically offer worthy rewards and new insight into the world. I particularly like that some of these optional quests have chains, such as the multiple Blacksmith’s Blues missions that ultimately lead to the formidable Gotterdammerung weapon. This sword also requires multiple materials from optional content like Notorious Marks (essentially bounties) to unlock. I’m always a fan of bounty hunts in games, as they can present unique enemies and new tests of combat systems, and offering rewards to make it worth my while is even better. A huge and engrossing game, I’m very interested to see where Final Fantasy goes next.
3
Dragon’s Dogma 2
One of the Deepest and Most Varied RPGs Around
You’ve got to know what you’re getting into with a game like Dragon’s Dogma 2. RPGs are often huge timesinks, and How Long To Beat confirms that there’s a very lengthy adventure to be had here: A manageable 31.5 hours to complete the campaign, but around 93.5 hours for completionists. There is a (signposted) point of no return that will prevent you from returning to unfinished sidequests, so you’ll need to tread lightly, but the story itself isn’t obtrusive at all if you put it on the back burner.
What drew me to this title is that its destiny-embracing story is so similar to that of the iconic Skyrim, dragons and all. As the chosen Arisen, the player must accept their dragon-battling destiny while attempting to free the world of its cyclical nature (in which the next Arisen is chosen by the dragon on the previous Arisen’s death).
It’s true that you’ll have a time limit in which to complete certain side quests, but for the most part, you can make your journey your own and tackle it as you wish. It’s worth tackling side quests, because they’re interesting from a gameplay and storyline standpoint. In some, such as Every Rose Has Its Thorn (which has you supporting Wilhelmina in finding evidence of Allard’s crimes), there are multiple possible endings, each with different rewards and implications for the NPCs and the player’s world more broadly. Depending on your actions in certain quests, for instance, you may end up creating a safe hideout for a group of enemies later, or you may make an NPC unavailable to support you elsewhere. It’s a game where repeated runs can be very different depending on the choices you make. Personally, I was keen to fight at every opportunity, because the game’s battle system is absolutely stellar.
2
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Taking a Sprawling Adventure One Day at a Time
I was quite intimidated when I started my adventure in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. As a history buff, I find it hard to resist a game that lets you live a Medieval life, but the scale of the adventure and its world made it quite a journey to embark on. The second half of Henry’s adventure is conclusive, after all, with the player’s choices defining his fate in this war-torn world.
The game’s well known for the freedom it offers, and I took off for as long as I could before the wedding had even taken place (not that anything actually goes to plan). It’s a world with settlements that just feel alive, rather than full of a couple of shops and lots of NPCs who only have a repeated phrase or two to offer. Whether allies or enemies of Henry, supporters or indifferent to his plight, I never tired of speaking to everybody I could and thereby getting a broader insight into the world Warhorse Studios created.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 – All Bathhouses (& How They Work)
Keep those nasty, dirt-related stat penalties away by taking a full bath in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
As opposed to the first game, Henry is an established military man here, and his position as a man-at-arms sees him buffeted along in the plot by the schemes and campaigns of those he serves. From being held in Trosky Castle to the attack on Suchdol, he has a harrowing time of it, and there are points in the story at which you aren’t free to simply tackle sidequests at your leisure. Typically, though, the world is your oyster. This is another title in which I prioritized sidequests whenever they were offered to me, and in doing so, unlocked new ones later on by completing their prerequisites. Inevitably, some of them are quite bland fetch quests, but others are just as engaging as any main story mission.
1
Shenmue 2
Doesn’t Know The Meaning of the Word ‘Rush’
The Shenmue games are known for some very specific qualities: Martial arts action, quicktime events before they became utterly obnoxious, and their lack of urgency to get the player to advance the plot. Continuing on from the first installment, Shenmue 2 furthers Ryo Hazuki’s journey to avenge the death of his father, pursuing the criminal gang responsible across different areas of Hong Kong.
Skipping ahead in time allows you to mitigate some of the waiting around, which is extremely convenient when you just need to stock up on supplies at the store. As a night owl, I find store opening times a real pain in series like Animal Crossing, and it was very nice to have an in-game workaround for that. However, I spent an outrageous amount of time wandering the city streets all the same. Because the game is so focused on its setting, it had to make it interesting to explore, and it absolutely is. For its vibrancy, its variety, and the sheer amount of colorful characters to encounter, I don’t think there’s anywhere else in gaming quite like the regions of Hong Kong that Shenmue 2 brings to life.
The optional tournaments were very valuable for sharpening my combat skills for the main game, and I didn’t expect to put nearly as much time into duck racing as I did. The stamina management reminds me so much of the chocobo racing of Final Fantasy 7, and the need to engage with other side activities in order to unlock it just highlighted the fact that there are so many surprises to be enjoyed when you take your time and explore. Slow exploration is a joy in a lot of open-world titles.
5 Forgotten Open-World Features That Deserve A Comeback
These forgotten open-world mechanics, from Shadow of the Colossus’ minimalism to MGS5’s adaptive AI, are begging for a modern revival.
