Daily Debate: What Kind of Sidequests Do You Want to See in Tears of the Kingdom?
Posted on October 27 2022 by Michaela El-Ters
The Zelda games have a reputation for featuring high-stake stories and compelling sidequests. Many sidequests, such as “Anju and Kafei” in Majora’s Mask and “From the Ground Up” in Breath of the Wild, greatly enhance the player’s experience with the game. Whether you learn more about the story, characters, or make a meaningful impact on Hyrule’s landscape, these sidequests can often be just as satisfying as playing through the main story. Of course, not every sidequest can be this excellent. The dreaded “fetch quest” that’s often the bane of many JRPG fans will inevitably crop up. Recently, I’ve been playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and the way this game approaches its sidequests is one I think other JRPGs (Zelda included) could take notes from.
I was pleasantly surprised by Xenoblade Chronicles 3‘s approach to its sidequests. It’s very smart in its approach. While you could argue it has “fetch quests” like any other JRPG, where it excels is its Hero quests. These Hero quests prominently feature important side characters that players can recruit and fight alongside throughout the game. It adds to the worldbuilding and lore, and by tying almost every sidequest to a specific character, it rewards the players for putting in the extra work. I felt far more incentivized to complete all of the Hero quests as I unlocked them because of how they added to the story and characters. Not every side quest is perfect, but when it succeeds, it really works.
It makes me wonder if Tears of the Kingdom could take a similar approach. I remember seeing the epic official art for Ocarina of Time depicting Link and Sheik fighting hordes of Stalfos Knights together, but a team up doesn’t actually happen in-game. Wouldn’t it be cool to fight alongside the new Champions like Sidon and Riju again, but instead of being limited to a single fight, you could help them in a side quest? Overall, I’d love to see more story and character-driven sidequests tied to established characters we can meet over the course of the game and maybe even fight alongside.
What do you think? What kind of sidequests would you like to see more of in Tears of the Kingdom? Let us know in the comments!
Michaela El-Ters is a Senior Editor for Zelda Dungeon. She is also an Senior Writer for Boss Rush Network, and writes blogs and streams games on Objection Network. Her favorite Zelda game changes with the seasons, but the series as a whole is near and dear to her heart.
