The “hero shooter” is a popular competitive multiplayer game subgenre where players control characters with powerful preset abilities rather than a customizable loadout. Although “hero” is right there in the subgenre name, and Overwatch proved how well superheroes could work with the concept, we haven’t gotten a true attempt at this style of game from Marvel or DC.
Like the best RPGs, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth gets sidequests right
08.03.2024 - 14:33 / digitaltrends.com / Tomas Franzese
Among its many highlights, FinalFantasy VII Rebirth makes simple sidequests a lot more engaging than I had expected. Take an early-game sidequest called When Words Won’t Do. On a surface level, it’s a simple escort mission where players must get a dog from Under Junon to Crow’s Nest unscathed. I did not initially have high hopes for this sidequest due to the poor reputation of escort missions; thankfully, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth defied that fate. To make this optional content more worthwhile, Square Enix gave it a strong narrative backbone.
When Words Won’t Do is actually a story about parents struggling to let go of their kids. Under Junon’s mayor sends players on this quest to help her son and unborn grandchild, and Barrett wonders if he’ll ever be able to let Marlene go during the mission. That’s thematically fitting for an escort mission where you can’t keep something out of your sight.
Then, as a flourish, the sidequest has its own song. Hours later, When Words Won’t Do is a sidequest that still sticks out in my mind, even though it didn’t radically shake up or redefine Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s core gameplay loops. That’s a testament to how great sidequests are the hallmark of a fantastic RPG.
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Getting sidequests right
As games have ballooned in scope and more commonly featured open worlds, developers have needed to make more and more content to fill these spaces to make exploring worth it for players. That can come in the form of more checklist-based tasks like towers players must activate or items that need to be collected. These can be fun to complete at first but often get repetitive and end up ignored by players like myself after a while. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth does have some systems like those, but it also embraces sidequests in a big way, making them feel like more than checklist fodder.
Every region in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has several narrative-driven sidequests. Each features fully voiced characters with their own motivations, well-made in-engine cutscenes, and some unique gameplay or minigame twist. Sometimes, they even take place in areas of the map or feature music that can be missed otherwise. Each sidequest in this style feels like a carefully crafted experience, deepening the relationship between Cloud and at least one of his allies.
Because of all those aspects, I felt motivated to play all these sidequests. I didn’t get burnt out, even when I eventually started skipping Chadley’s more generic open-world checklist objectives. Other
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