What was your favourite quest in an RPG? Why?

[Dawn_]

BG2 Valygar quest (the sphere and his grandfather).

 

I liked it because it was long and epic and also you could inherit the sphere if you were a mage, having side quest in it and create items (even having apprentice).

Edited October 27, 2012 by Dawn_

[motorizer]

This thread is bringing back memories its an age since I played baldurs gate, tried arcanum again recently but I couldn't get on with the awful combat

 

the arcanum half ogre island stands out

some of the oblivion dark brotherhood missions (the overnight party where you murder the guests)

bloodlines had a few but I can hardly remember it was that long ago... the guy who fights you with the severed arm as mentioned above was good, the hotel was good for one playthrough, but wasn't the least bit spooky the second time

Liked the ones in baldurs gates 1 and 2 where you were dealing with a whole mini subplot away from the main areas such as the werewolf island and the whole underdark and undersea world parts

[jethro]

Thing is, my memory is so bad I even forgot the resolution of PS:T's main story even though I remember it as the best quest I ever witnessed. I don't even remember one side quest from all those classic games at all.

 

So the only quest I can offer as outstanding to me is from recently playing Fallout 3. It is the Survival Guide Book quest. Because the dialog with the quest giver (don't remember her name) is really brim full with dark humor. It also shows that it isn't the quest mechanic itself that makes a quest memorable but mostly how it is presented.

[Sacred_Path]

I can't come up with a favorite quest, but some quests come to mind:

 

- Getting out of Shrouded Hills in Arcanum. There just were so many ways to accomplish it. Also, it tested the viability of your character build, especially in Hard mode.

 

- The Planar Sphere in BG2. Again, several ways to this, and some good writing.

 

- getting through that Dwarven mine in Realms of Arkania 2. Very atmospherically dense, and a good mix of puzzles and combat.

[Cynric Aldrich]

I personally enjoyed the quest from BG II with the shadows. The darkness temple with Mazzy. I loved that adventure. Traps everywhere and you had to explore every part. It was great. I personally love the exploration in BG II. I believe that you should be able to find random quests in the wild, after all, not everyone lives in a city.

[quechn1tlan]

Fallout's quest initiating you into BoS. Where they send you on a "journey to find lost tech" in the Glow IIRC. How the guards gave you the quest just so you stop bothering them and go die, how you can complete the quest and die of radiation poisoning days later with no means of saving yourself, and how I imagine their faces have been when you actually returned with their tech.

 

KotOR's trial quest. Years and many playthroughs in I discovered that you actually could let the old man loose, not just reduce his sentence. This was a real shocker. Plus, Glupor. Probably one of the funniest NPCs ever.

[stkaye]

Such a hard question! I think I like quests from across the range of types outlined by the OP.

 

How about I give the Elder Scrolls a little love here? (Spoilers if you haven't played them, I guess.)

 

In Oblivion I remember enjoying a particular adventure that involved being sucked into a painting. The game mechanics and structure actually didn't change one jot, but I really appreciated the effort that went into making it so visually interesting.

 

In Skyrim, I enjoyed infiltrating the Thalmor Embassy. It had an almost Deus Ex-ish feel to it, with multiple solutions to each new problem, rewards for risky off-track exploration and an exciting and revealing conclusion followed by a mad sprint down a snowy hillside.

 

But beyond the scripted quests, the ES games are getting increasingly good at presenting the player with emergent 'situations' as you go from A to B. When I took three companions to discover the location of the mountain hold of the Blades, the bridge crossing transformed into an epic encounter - hordes of Forsaken peppering us with arrows, some mages summoning monstrous creatures, and a fluid battle spread out over the landscape. Which was interrupted by the arrival of two dragons, who set about attacking everyone.

 

It's a different kind of strength to that found in the tightly-scripted quests of an IE game, I suppose, but there can be a lot of value in these emergent, spontaneous adventures as well.

[cosmin haraga]

How about in nwn 2 when you had to help the dragon and/or the giants and you could play one side against the other and win both hoards?

 

 

Since we have two major cities we could have two guilds fighting.

[Metabot]

I liked the first part of boone's quest in fnv. It just hits you just how ****ed up people can be and how tough survival in the wasteland could be, that and simple greed. I also like vault 11 in fnv a lot.

[Kore]

The mission in ToB where you subcontract three hapless adventurers to fetch the Bronze Pantalets for you. That was priceless. On that note, the three game long pantaloons quest was pure genius!

[Felithvian]

Hobart Stubbletoes quest, to a place of great wonder. A ruined castle in an unfamiliar land, the Anauroch desert.

 

A place where a mad spirit of a bard named Luremaster is constantly cheating adventurers with undetectable traps, nearly undefeatable monsters & incomprehensible riddles.

 

Oh yes, that's the Luremaster alright!

[IcyDeadPeople]

For me it's a tossup between "Whodunit?" from Oblivion, "Tranquility Lane" from FO3, "A Night to Remember" from Skyrim and "Beyond the Beef" from Fallout: New Vegas

[Sordel]

My personal favorite is in Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood quest in which you're in a house with six other people trying to survive the night and you can pick them off one by one and the other people start panicking. One of the most satisfying quest in my mind.

 

I was idly scrolling through the top of this thread trying to decide what my favourite was and I settled on this one immediately before reading your post! Some say coincidence ... others recognise the dark hand of Sithis at work in our minds.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Sordel

[IcyDeadPeople]

My personal favorite is in Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood quest in which you're in a house with six other people trying to survive the night and you can pick them off one by one and the other people start panicking. One of the most satisfying quest in my mind.

 

I was idly scrolling through the top of this thread trying to decide what my favourite was and I settled on this one immediately before reading your post! Some say coincidence ... others recognise the dark hand of Sithis at work in our minds.

 

Yes, "Whodunit?" was one of the most memorable quests I've encountered in any game.

[PsychoBlonde]

My favorite has to be escaping from the Peragus IV outpost in KotOR2.

 

I really do enjoy the more puzzle/maze oriented quests in DDO: The Pit, Spies in the House, the Crucible, Chains of Flame, The Chamber of Raiyum. What I DON'T enjoy is trying to do those quests with a group of people who don't know what to do and then won't or can't follow instructions and then whine incessantly about how bad the quest sucks.

[Tarrasque Cult]

For me, by far, was the "Half Ogre Island Conspiracy" in Arcanum.

[Chabneruk]

In every RPG there are a few quests that simply stand out.

 

One of my favorites is the (already often mentioned) "Half Ogre Island Conspiracy" from Arcanum. Not only because of what it did, but because of what it did not: It didn't offer you a cheap standard quest ending, giving some gold and xp and the feeling of having solved a riddle. No, this quest made you lose. And it made you lose in such a way that you regarded the gnomes (which seemed to be quite harmless small people up to that point) from a new and frankly terrifying perspective. Especially when you realised that no matter what you would do, you could not prove what they did - and that all other witnesses vanished... You could not even be sure that what you suspected actually had happened or if it was simply a conspiracy theory. It was a brilliant mind****.

 

Other quests also come to mind. Wandering through the old dwarfen tunnels, fighting the darkspawn in Dragon Age: Origins and suddenly hearing that eerie rhyme... Or helping a street give birth to an alley in Planescape Torment... I think the best quests surprise you with something unexpected - which still fits into the world of the game.

[Frenetic Pony]

The entire main quest in Dragon Age, because it was one of the only game's I've ever completed solely for the story

 

But seriously, a single quest? The most memorable RECENT one actually comes from Borderlands 2. Claptrap's Party. For those who don't know, Claptrap is a kind of annoying comedic relief robot of the Borderlands series. As a quest you have to hand out invitations to what amounts to his birthday party. Everyone you ask refuses to come. You end up there with just him. Spending two minutes sitting there with him as he tries to have a party even though he realizes your the only one that came.

 

It was, in it's own way, probably the saddest quest I've ever done in an RPG. I felt more sorry for this comedic relief robot than I did for many characters in RPGs that tried a lot harder to be "sad" or tragic. Probably because it felt like he was a real character, with a purpose in the world, and one that you spend enough time with to know as a character. Other RPG's... just push it too much, like most of the characters that are tragic feel like they're there to be tragic, it's their lot in life. This was, not out of the blue, but a character with an entirely different purpose that suddenly was seen in a very different light. One that you laughed at, and thus kind of enjoyed having around, and suddenly your the only one there that likes him at all.

Edited November 12, 2012 by Frenetic Pony

[sparklecat]

That Icewind Dale 2 quest with the time loop.

[laytonater]

The best quests in gaming history are Murder Mystery quest so that would be a great addition. Such as someone is killed in the castle and you have to gather witness report from everyone who lives and works there. Also quests where you enter someones dreams, that would be amazing!

Edited November 16, 2012 by laytonater

[Calmar]

I liked the tangle of small mystery quests in Lonelywood, the town of Heart of Winter, very much. The the former red wizard, the mysterious murders and the werwolf were very exciting and athmospheric.

Edited November 17, 2012 by Calmar

[thracian]

skyrim's one of daedric quests was lots of fun

the quest where you have a drinking contest and have hangover

Edited November 17, 2012 by thracian

[JFSOCC]

I think investigation quests are popular here because they give the player the feeling that they are not on a pre-set path, but are finding things out themselves. this is of course very immersive.