What's your favorite quests?

[rusty_shackleford]

Of all the RPGs you've ever played, which quests are your absolute favorites? Why?

I'll accept quest chains too if it's a single storyline.
Don't mention Bloody Baron, Beyond the Beef, or the Arcanum gnome quest. Everyone knows about those. Try to pick quests nobody ever mentions but you thought were great.

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Put responses containing spoilers in a spoiler tag.

► Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Varnhold's Lot, A Special Dish

There's a small quest at the inn you visit where it's incredibly easy to get the 'bad' ending without even realizing it. It's setup so well to convince you to end your investigation early.

[traxtan]

I really like the first half of the main quest of Kingdom Come Deliverance, you are basically a detective trying to solve the Neuhof stud farm case. Seems like that's the best quest design in most RPGs is to have the player be a detective of sorts.

► Show Spoiler

Henry himself also has a stake in the quest as he discovers the person who put him in a coma and stole his sword is involved in it, also many many branching paths which elevate it to a whole new level.

Tldr edit: basically every main quest after you get Pebbles but before Vranik is my favorite quest chain in any video game ever made

Man I should play the game again.

[Valter]

The Witcher 1's murder mystery quest was so good. In order to get closer to your elusive target, you assist a detective in hiding that has his sights on the same enemy. Some good twists and turns in abound, and lots of ways to fail or be misled, convincingly so.

[wndrbr]

KCD1's monastery quest is massively ambitious, has a ton of ways to complete it, and is at times intentionally 'not fun' to make a point (you're infiltrating a monastery by pretending to be a novice, you are stripped of all of your equipment, and must do the typical monastery tasks such as copying texts or concocting potions). Naturally, a lot of players did not appreciate the routine life of a monastery novice, and started ******** on this quest.

[traxtan]

KCD1's monastery quest is massively ambitious, has a ton of ways to complete it, and is at times intentionally 'not fun' to make a point (you're infiltrating a monastery by pretending to be a novice, you are stripped of all of your equipment, and must do the typical monastery tasks such as copying texts or concocting potions). Naturally, a lot of players did not appreciate the routine life of a monastery novice, and started ******** on this quest.

I am a massive fan of the game and I can tell you I skip the quest every time I play by lock picking the backdoor and backstabbing the guy it's not enjoyable on subsequent playthroughs, maybe next time I'll give it a try.

[stormvermin]

The Witcher 1's murder mystery quest was so good. In order to get closer to your elusive target, you assist a detective in hiding that has his sights on the same enemy. Some good twists and turns in abound, and lots of ways to fail or be misled, convincingly so.

The only criticism I'd level at that questline is that if you botched the investigation it's kind of obvious from how the quest log presents itself post hoc, or at least that's how I remember it being -

► Show Spoiler

the first time I played I bungled it and accused Kalkstein even though it was immediately obvious he wasn't the perp.

It's definitely a high point of the game though.

[DemoGraph]

Academagia - In one of the corridors of not-Hogwarts you can randomly stumble upon two ghost wizards fighting each other while being blissfully unaware of everything around them. With proper combination of skills and something else you can attract their attention and stop them from fighting.

Anachronox - Beginning quests are pretty cool. I like that cybertrash noir feel, shuffling through the scraps.

Baldur's Gate
Dynaheir quest - I liked trudging through the gnoll fortress, because supplies began to run out,
Chicken quest - he's completely random, but logical when you finish the quest,
Nashkel mines - because mundane weapons sometimes broke in your hands and you've been delving to the root of the problem while already being connected to it. Also because mine exit was in the middle of nowhere and there was a ruin nearby whose inhabitants kicked my *** more thoroughly that peeps from the mine proper.

Morrowind
Dwemer puzzlebox - because it's right near the entrance and you don't have to explore the ruin proper to get it, but if you do, it goes and goes, and there's a big cave in the end with a fucken tower and a balcony above that looks like it has a hidden entrance to even deeper levels. In my headcanon, it has.
Main questline from awakening sleepers to the 6th house base.
Zainab wife quest.
Ajira quests.
Pillow quest.

Thief 3 - Garrett impostor event.
VTMB - Pisha quests and interactions - because they're unforgiving and without tips

Wanderers of Sorceria (WC3 campaign) - These are secrets rather then quests, but I'm pretty fond of them.
The campaign has many encounters during which a NPC might ask you to bring him some mediocre item that could've been dropped in one of the previous missions. Without knowing about these quests, you'll definitely sell that outdated junk. E.g. you get +3 str gloves on mission 1, +6 str belt on mission 2 and on mission 3 NPC asks if you could bring him those gloves and if you do, gives you +300 hp charm (not a spoiler, there's no event exactly like this). These secrets add a complexity layer for newgame or a replay.

[MrTwinkls]

Imyarek's mini quest in ATOM RPG Trudograd. That's the guy who plays accordion in the port, who don't remember his past and gives you mysterious key if you help him with his wound. Small and simple quest with two outcomes both of them leaving strong impact on the player. Quests don't always need to be long to be good.

[Tweed]

The thief's blackbird quest in the QfG series:

► Show Spoiler

There's one real blackbird and four fakes. You get to see the real one in the first game (remake), but because you have no idea what it is or its value, you can't take it. Then you finally learn about it in the second game and get a chance to steal it for Ferrari, except it's a fake. You see another one in the third game in a thrift shop, it's a fake. You find a fourth one in the monastery in town, another fake. Finally, at last in the fifth game, Elsa clues you in about the location of the real blackbird. A fitting end after all the trouble.

It's not like it's an all-consuming quest, but once you know about it, you try to keep an eye out for it.

Lee's revenge in Gothic 3: It isn't much, but I always make sure my bro Lee gets his stone after all we've been through together.

Does the guy trying to get his item returned in all three Mass Effects count as a quest chain?

Ultima VII: Fellowship member has glaring moral fault, gets caught and either has to make amends or dies karmic death. Oh, was that a spoiler?

[Tangerine]

In Deus Ex, I like Smuggler's quest. You have to rescue his friend from a secret Majestic 12 base. It was a rather wtf moment to realize there are people better geared than UNATCO and I thought it was neat that you could be introduced to them before they became plot relevant.

[madbringer]

By far my favourite quest is the one in Real Life where a young jewish programmer took on the alias of a character from King of the Hill and created a website, sucking off of the revenue of an existing website on false premises.

[Bhaalspawn Jr]

The Tali questline in Mass Effect 2 - Amazing writing, really made me care.

The Dark Brotherhood questline in Skyrim - Thought it was better than the main story.

Xenoblade 2 had some really great sidequests called 'Blade Quests' for your Blade companions.

[stormvermin]

Forgot me tax.
Two from VtMB:
-The quest chain for the bartender at the Confession where you find out Fat Larry is a ******* gimp. Nice little chain, I really like the interior of the Empire Arms.
-The quest in Hollywood with the golem gargoyle. Multiple ways to approach the gargoyle itself, you can play both Strauss and Isaac if you want but also has a nice reward for attentive Tremere players.

[madbringer]

On a more serious note, I think my favourite quest/questline is the Night Knives in Baldur's Gate 2. Not many people take the EVUL path in this game, understandably, but it does go a long way to explain why Bodhi is the way she is, gives insight into Irenicus before Spellhold, and also has way cooler quests and rewards than the 'good' path.

Bonus mention to the hotel quest in Deus Ex, where the ***** of a daughter first asks you to kill her boyfriend coz her dad is trying to do good by her and the next you see her is next to burning barrels with bums. Oh, a jew wrote that.

[Brother Michael]

Starfield’s highlight is definitely the pirate/undercover quest line. Good set pieces like the yacht ship and the abandoned prison and opportunities for choice as I remember. Wish there was a way to run off with the money in the end while making enemies of both factions. If you can get the game for free it might be worth checking out just for this, 20 hour investment I’d expect.

[rusty_shackleford]

Starfield’s highlight is definitely the pirate/undercover quest line. Good set pieces like the yacht ship and the abandoned prison and opportunities for choice as I remember. Wish there was a way to run off with the money in the end while making enemies of both factions. If you can get the game for free it might be worth checking out just for this, 20 hour investment I’d expect.

Some of the faction quests were decent, rest of the game is pretty much poo tho

[Tadeusz]

NWN2's court trial and all the related quests are pretty memorable and interesting.
I liked Trudograd's cursed ring quest. It's silly at moments but fun and has a good mystery setup.
Lineage 2 has a pretty good questline about Rune's cursed forest and the history behind it (Tragedy in Von Hellman Forest).
Dude's quests in Underrail are pretty fun, I especially liked the part in the Grey Army base.

[Kolgrim]

A few come to mind:

► The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Whodunit?

Part of the Dark Brotherhood quest line the goal is to kill all the guests at a party. The guests believe that there's a chest of gold in the house and that whoever finds it gets to keep it. Truth is there is no chest and they are unfortunately locked in the house with you the assassin. During this quest you can learn more about the guests through disposition checks and convince the attendees to meet you isolated in another room or to take a nap upstairs because they are tired. You can also hand out poisoned food and wait for it to take effect.

What's impressive to me is how much extra dialogue the writers decided to include. There's three different lines of dialogue depending on disposition for each character as well as new dialogue after every death at the party. You can tell the devs were having fun with this quest and it shows.

► Mass Effect - I Remember Me

A unique mission only for those who chose the colonist background the actual quest itself is very straightforward but I always appreciated how dark and sad it was. The dialogue choices you can make shape your Shepard in a way I don't think the other unique backgrounds provide. Reflecting on the Batarian raid that killed your family you can say things like you never truly escaped or that maybe you are as broken as Talitha since you kill for a living.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

"A Flicker of Hope", the climax of the Alliance side of the War of Thorns campaign in the BFA prepatch.

You arrive in Darnassus as fire is swiftly spreading. You are tasked with saving 900 civilians in 3 minutes. You go out, find buckets of water to douse some entryways so people can escape from their homes, and then you check and... you have only save 30 people, and there is only 90 seconds left. Then you get that heavy feeling in your heart, and you are trying and you are trying but the fire is spreading and the timer is turning red, and then the whole city is on fire and you have only saved maybe 60 people and the quest says "failed", and then you and Genn have to leave everyone else behind and run through the portal to Stormwind.

That quest made me extremely motivated to play through BFA as Alliance.

[DecadeRiptide]

The one I. MW3 where you shoot up the airport

[stormvermin]

Another one, Paperchase from TW3's Blood and Wine. The quest is basically the permit A38 sequence from The Twelve Tasks of Asterix.

I know TW3 has received a lot of hate after the honeymoon ended but this quest is unlike any other in the game.

[maidenhaver]

The moonshiners quest in Atom.