History Main / SidequestSidestory

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'' has multi-quest story arcs distinguished from regular, standalone side quest by being under the "Side Adventures" tab. Some are centered on individual settlements, like the Hateno Village mayoral election and rebuilding Lurelin Village. Others take you across a good chunk of Hyrule, like the Stable Trotters' missions and Penn's investigations into rumored sightings of Princess Zelda.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' has one involving the characters Anju and Kafei, and indirectly many other characters in Clock Town; it requires performing numerous actions in an interval that makes use of all three available in-game days. Out of the 20 regular masks that can be earned in the game, ''four'' are acquired here, and in turn those four masks are required in other circumstances to obtain additional prizes. To a lesser extent, there's also the string of sidequests involving Romani (where Link has to help her protect the ranch's cows from some alien-like ghosts), Cremia (where she and Link and to safely transport the milk obtained from the saved cows to Clock Town), Toto and Gorman (where Link and the former perform a melody from the Indigo-Go's to make the latter feel better).

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' is [[LoadsAndLoadsOfSidequests filled with sidequests]] that involve [[NominalImportance named NPCs]]. Completing these sidequests affects relationships between these characters, something shown in the global affinity chart; and there are many that connect with each other, further evolving these relationships. Furthermore, there are some overarching sidequest arcs that progress alongside main plot, and whose connection between individual quests becomes apparent as they are completed; one of them in particular ending with a rather special BonusBoss.

** The UpdatedRerelease, ''Skies of Arcadia: Legends'', has the exclusive Piastol / Moonfish sidequest, which runs alongside almost the entire game and requires you to fight [[BonusBoss Piastol]] three times, while collecting Moonfish for Maria, who's found on Doc's ship. During which, you learn that [[spoiler:she's Piastol's missing sister and eventually reunite them.]]

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'': Sequential quests became common from the fourth generation onwards (starting from ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter4''), thanks to them being more story-minded than previous installments in the series. In ''4'' and ''4 Ultimate'', as you play certain single-player quests, you'll learn about optional developments or events related to the quests' clients; however, you won't get to see how their stories go until you raise your Hunter Rank (for high-rank quests) or hunting license (for G Rank ones) so you can unlock the subsequent quests. For example, there's a coward Palico in Cheeko Sands who is afraid of monsters, so he'll ask you to deal with various monsters via quests. His last quest in Low Rank is about hunting a Iodrome and a Gore Magala; when you reach HR 4 (the first tier in High Rank), he'll ask you to deal with a Nerscylla; when you reach HR 5, he'll ask you to take down a Najarala; finally, when you reach HR 7 (nothing happens when you unlock HR 6), he'll reveal that his lack of courage is the result of the death of his human companion due to an Akantor, so his last quest has you slay that monster (which is as powerful as an Elder Dragon). Completing this final quest will give the Palico newborn courage and will make him eligible to be one of your recruited Palicoes.[[note]]Interestingly, completing this string of quests eventually unlocks a G1-tier quest involving the Argosy Captain, of ''Monster Hunter 3'' and ''3 Ultimate'' fame; but his problem is entirely unrelated to the Palico's[[/note]] This ''modus operandi'' also applies for many other quest chains, and a few of them don't even require raising your rank during multiplayer quests, only advancing through single-player quests.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'': Sequential quests became common from the fourth generation onwards (starting from ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter4''), thanks to them being more story-minded than previous installments in the series. In ''4'' and ''4 Ultimate'', as you play certain single-player quests, you'll learn about optional developments or events related to the quests' clients; however, you won't get to see how their stories go until you raise your Hunter Rank (for high-rank quests) or hunting license (for G Rank ones) so you can unlock the subsequent quests. For example, there's a coward Palico in Cheeko Sands who is afraid of monsters, so he'll ask you to deal with various monsters via quests. His last quest in Low Rank is about hunting a Iodrome and a Gore Magala; when you reach HR 4 (the first tier in High Rank), he'll ask you to deal with a Nerscylla; when you reach HR 5, he'll ask you to take down a Najarala; finally, when you reach HR 7 (nothing happens when you unlock HR 6), he'll reveal that his lack of courage is the result of the death of his human companion due to an Akantor, so his last quest has you slay that monster (which is as powerful as an Elder Dragon). Completing this final quest will give the Palico newborn courage and will make him eligible to be one of your recruited Palicoes.[[note]]Interestingly, completing this string of quests eventually unlocks a G1-tier quest involving the Argosy Captain, of ''Monster Hunter 3'' and ''3 Ultimate'' fame; but his problem is entirely unrelated to the Palico's[[/note]] This ''modus operandi'' also applies for many other quests, and a few of them don't even require playing multiplayer quests to raise your rank.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'': Sequential quests became common from the fourth generation onwards, thanks to them being more story-minded than previous installments in the series. In ''4'' and ''4 Ultimate'', as you play certain single-player quests, you'll learn about optional developments or events related to the quests' clients; however, you won't get to see how their stories go until you raise your Hunter Rank (for high-rank quests) or hunting license (for G Rank ones) so you can unlock the subsequent quests. For example, there's a coward Palico in Cheeko Sands who is afraid of monsters, so he'll ask you to deal with various monsters via quests. His last quest in Low Rank is about hunting a Iodrome and a Gore Magala; when you reach HR 4 (the first tier in High Rank), he'll ask you to deal with a Nerscylla; when you reach HR 5, he'll ask you to take down a Najarala; finally, when you reach HR 7 (nothing happens when you unlock HR 6), he'll reveal that his lack of courage is the result of the death of his human companion due to an Akantor, so his last quest has you slay that monster (which is as powerful as an Elder Dragon). Completing this final quest will give the Palico newborn courage and will make him eligible to be one of your recruited Palicoes.[[note]]Interestingly, completing this string of quests eventually unlocks a G1-tier quest involving the Argosy Captain, of ''Monster Hunter 3'' and ''3 Ultimate'' fame; but his problem is entirely unrelated to the Palico's[[/note]] This ''modus operandi'' also applies for many other quests, and a few of them don't even require playing multiplayer quests to raise your rank.

* In ''VideoGame/GrowingUp'', there are non-academic skills that you can learn, and going through their {{Skill Tree}}s unlocks a side story for each of the adults that guide you in mastering those skills.

In a typical RPG videogame, it's basic practice to stuff a few [[FetchQuest fetch quests]] and collectable hunts in to beef up the play time. Some games go the extra mile, and make these [[SideQuest sidequests]] string together to tell the backstories and continuing tales of the [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] around you. For example, a sidequest could be to fetch a [[PoisonedWeapons poison sword]] for someone to help them win an upcoming duel, and a follow-up quest deals with everybody calling that person a cheat for using poison and ostracizing them (real example from ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}''). Done well, this can lead to the feeling of playing within a living, breathing game world.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' used to overuse this trope to the point that it was almost impossible to distinguish main quests from sidequests. They generally have an area-wide story arc, along with many many smaller story arcs that you could pick up while you are running about. A lot of leveling guides take advantage of this by making you pick up quests that go in the same area.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' has planets that each have their own quest chain that usually revolve around the situation going on there at the time the player arrives. Most if not all of the planets in the game have stories that revolve around the war with the Republic or the Empire and, depending on faction the player is on, will determine what types of quests you can do there.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has several side stories separate from the main story quest, usually referred to collectively as "Chronicles of a new Era". Most broadly, there's [[BreatherEpisode Gentleman Inspector Hildibrand's]] hijinks, which are almost always hilarious and are there to take the edge off of the main story when it gets too dark ([[MoodWhiplash most new Hildibrand chapters are added when the Main Story gets at its most heart rending]]), other than that, there's getting your [[InfinityPlusOneSword Relic weapon]], and an arc devoted to whatever the 24 man raid is.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' is [[LoadsAndLoadsOfSidequests filled with sidequests]] that involve [[NominalImportance named NPCs]]. Completing these sidequests affects relationships between these characters, something shown in the global affinity chart; and there are many that connect with each other, further evolving these relationships. Furthermore, there are some overarching sidequest arcs that progress alongside main plot, and whose connection between individual quests becomes apparent as they are completed; one of them in particular ending with a rather special BonusBoss.

* The VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto series features this. In some cases they are required to achieve OneHundredPercentCompletion.
** The most prominent example is in VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity, where Tommy can purchase several assets. Many of these assets unlock sidequests not directly relevant to the main story.

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' has several side missions which involve plots by the Riddler, Zsasz, Bane, Deadshot, [[spoiler: Hush and Azrael]].

* There's a fair amount of this in the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' series, but since each game is pretty much ''made'' of sidequests...