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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition (2016)
9.7/10on IGDB
Released
A Towerful of Mice turns a local haunting into a problem of trust, while Carnal Sins gives a city investigation room to unsettle your assumptions. Their contained casts and difficult judgements can feel more immediate than following another stage of the central pursuit. The Complete Edition includes the expansions, though these examples belong to the base game. Choose it for substantial side stories; ordinary contracts and travelling still fill the spaces between them.
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Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
8.3/10on IGDB
Released
Dream On and the Sinnerman chain make Night City's power structures personal through people whose troubles do not fit a clean mercenary solution. Their uneasy questions can linger longer than the main plot's race against time. These are base-game side jobs, so Phantom Liberty is not required for the examples. Expect disturbing material and uncertain moral footing, rather than assuming an impressive build will let you repair every life you enter.
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Fallout: New Vegas (2010)
8.7/10on IGDB
Released
Beyond the Beef makes a casino's social world worth investigating, with different approaches depending on the courier you built. Come Fly With Me shows how a seemingly incidental group can sustain its own odd, memorable story. These detours give the Mojave texture beyond deciding which major faction should prevail. This is the original 2010 game, with dated combat and technical roughness; the reward is the local possibility rather than uniformly polished presentation.
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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (2025)
6.8/10on IGDB
Released
Whodunit? gives you a small cast, a confined house and unusually playful room to manipulate a situation. Other guild adventures supply similarly distinctive premises, making them a stronger attraction than another trip through a familiar Oblivion gate. These faction chains are optional relative to the main campaign, though they require joining and progressing through their organisations. The 2025 remaster updates presentation while retaining much of the original game's eccentric structure.
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition (2016)
8.8/10on IGDB
Released
Lost to the Ages gives a ruin expedition a particular companion and a purpose beyond collecting another quest object. A Night to Remember uses a very different, comic premise to pull you off the dragon crisis's familiar route. The Special Edition includes Dawnguard, which contains Lost to the Ages. Choose it for following an intriguing lead into a self-contained adventure, with the understanding that plenty of other side activities are much more routine.
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Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (2025)
9.2/10on IGDB
Released
The Thunderstone gives an allegedly magical object a trail of ordinary desires and competing claims. Its local absurdity offers a memorable change of scale from Henry's political and military obligations, while still belonging to the same lived-in world. This optional base-game quest becomes available as the campaign opens up. Expect the broader game's demanding systems and long conversations; the attraction is an involved human detour rather than a quick reward pickup.
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Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2018)
7.9/10on IGDB
Released
The House of God turns trouble at a building site into a local investigation where listening and following conflicting accounts matter. Its smaller concerns can feel more tangible than moving between the main campaign's powerful patrons and battles. The quest is optional and belongs to the base game. Choose it for a medieval mystery with a grounded setting, while allowing for old rough edges and a combat and saving system that asks for patience.
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The Outer Worlds (2019)
7.7/10on IGDB
Released
Parvati's Drinking Sapphire Wine and Don't Bite the Sun chain finds a warmer reason to cross the colony than another corporate dispute. Helping someone navigate affection makes small details and conversation carry the adventure. These are optional companion quests, dependent on keeping Parvati involved, in the original game's base content. Some preparation becomes a shopping trip, but the personal voice can outweigh the larger plot's more distant arguments about who should control the colony.
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Baldur's Gate III (2023)
9.5/10on IGDB
Released
Save Mayrina and Astarion's The Pale Elf arc give individual wants and vulnerabilities room to complicate your decisions. Their relatively personal stakes can feel sharper than the central threat's escalating scale, especially when you care about the people involved. One is a local optional quest; the other depends on a companion and develops across acts. The main campaign remains strong, so this is a preference for intimate dilemmas within a long, combat-rich party RPG.
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Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition (2013)
8.4/10on IGDB
Released
The Umar Hills and Trademeet investigations feel substantial enough to be adventures of their own, with communities, strange threats and room for the party to establish itself. They can be more inviting than rushing back to the central pursuit. These detours sit outside the compulsory main route, although the early campaign gives you practical reasons to seek work. Expect older rules and interfaces; their strength is the density of authored adventures, not modern convenience.
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Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition (2010)
8.6/10on IGDB
Released
A Golem's Memories makes a companion's identity the reason for another journey into the Deep Roads. Its personal focus can make the familiar darkspawn fighting feel more meaningful than another step in the main campaign's alliance-building. This is Shale's optional companion quest, requiring The Stone Prisoner content included in the Ultimate Edition and the right progress with that character. The quest is comparatively brief; its value depends on caring about the companion you bring.
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Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014)
8.3/10on IGDB
Released
Companion stories such as Dorian's Last Resort of Good Men draw their force from a relationship you have spent time developing. Their conversations and uncomfortable personal decisions can matter more than clearing another zone for the Inquisition's larger cause. These Inner Circle quests depend on progress and companion relationships. Choose it for those focused stories within the campaign, with considerable travel, fighting and more repetitive open-area tasks around them.
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Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021)
9.0/10on IGDB
Released
The second game's optional loyalty missions, particularly Mordin: Old Blood and Tali: Treason, let a squadmate's history become the centre of an entire operation. They often provide a clearer emotional dilemma than the trilogy's larger enemy threat. This collection includes all three main games, so the recommendation is specifically for the companion work inside Mass Effect 2. Recruitment, conversations and timing affect access; its focused missions still include plenty of combat.
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Divinity: Original Sin II - Definitive Edition (2018)
9.0/10on IGDB
Released
A Taste of Freedom turns poking around an ordinary-looking location into a troubling decision with consequences beyond the immediate puzzle. Companion stories, particularly Lohse's, add a more personal reason to keep going than the general struggle for divinity. Those stories are optional relative to the main route and depend on whom you bring. Expect demanding tactical battles and a long campaign; the side writing works best when experimentation makes you responsible for what follows.
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Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (2018)
8.3/10on IGDB
Released
Family Pride shrinks the archipelago's competing interests into a feud you can investigate, influence and become entangled in. Its local relationships can make the politics more engaging than following the main campaign's enormous divine footsteps. This is an optional Neketaka quest, and earlier dealings affect how its opportunities unfold. The game asks for substantial reading and tactical combat; choose it for decisions about a particular community rather than expecting every island errand to match this one.
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Pillars of Eternity: Definitive Edition (2017)
7.9/10on IGDB
Released
Blood Legacy begins as a local missing-person problem and becomes one of the setting's most disturbing moral encounters. Its concentrated cast makes the world's cruelty feel more immediate than the main story's larger metaphysical questions. It is an optional base-game side quest; the Definitive Edition also includes the expansions. The material involves abuse and offers little comfortable reassurance. Choose it for a grim, consequential detour within an already dialogue-heavy party RPG.
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Disco Elysium: The Final Cut (2021)
9.4/10on IGDB
Released
Helping the ravers start a nightclub lets an apparently marginal request become a surprisingly generous way to engage with Martinaise. Its people, music and possibility can be more memorable than making another increment of progress on the murder case. The church-related task chain is optional and depends on the choices you make along it. This remains a densely written investigation; the detour's strength is its particular human energy, not a separate action minigame.
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Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020)
8.4/10on IGDB
Released
Forget Me Not gives a chance encounter with someone who remembers Ichiban a personal weight that the sprawling criminal conspiracy sometimes loses. Around it, Yokohama's optional substories make generosity, embarrassment and small ambitions feel worth interrupting the main plot for. This is the turn-based Ichiban adventure, not an earlier action-led Yakuza entry. The tone swings widely, and many encounters are intentionally silly; its best short stories earn their change of mood.
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Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2024)
8.3/10on IGDB
Released
Let it Snow turns an improbable request in Hawaii into a story driven by kindness and the limits of what someone can provide. Its compact emotional purpose can land more strongly than the main plot's expanding complications. It is an optional substory in the base game, reached as the campaign opens the relevant area. Expect illness and sadness alongside the humour, within a much larger turn-based RPG whose optional activities vary enormously in tone.
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NieR: Automata (2017)
9.0/10on IGDB
Released
The Wandering Couple makes two people's hopes and requests an unusually revealing part of the androids' world. Following their small story can expose more about dependence and identity than another official instruction from command. This is an optional side quest with progress requirements, and it involves errands and a substantial resource request before its payoff. The main story is strong; the case here is for how a modest detour complicates the ideas beneath that larger war.
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