So I want to talk to you about something that has become quite common nowadays, specially on open world games: fetch quests.

Seriously, is there anyone who find them interesting? Somehow, often it seems like the fact a game is open world instantly means it will get 90 - 100 reviews, even when it's filled to the brim with boring fetch quest crap, such as most Assassin's Creed games, Red Dead Redemption games and 90% of RPGs out there.

Yet the disease has spread so far it affects even Nintendo games. Breath of the Wild has its share of those, and Super Mario Odyssey is overbloated with the uninteresting search for more power moons. But... like I mentioned, the 90 - 100 reviews. Open world? Zero chance there won't be a lot of hype and at least an 80 on Metacritic, even when flaws abound.

And don't even get me started on games where you have to follow someone who walks slower than you... seriously, who is even programming this stuff and thinking "yeah, we're good at designing games?"

Eh I don't agree with it being a problem for SMO.

BOTW though? Yeah.

I feel like linear games are way to under appreciated.
Stuff like narrative & set-peices are much more controlled, level design & difficulty can be meaningfull (without wrecking you, if your in the wrong area ect).

Some will say stuff like "Open World allows for discovery & exploration", but seriously you can have that in a linaer game too.
Think of all those old Final Fantasy games, with hidden places, tresure chests ect, and the world map, even if you where guided where to go, there was freedom & exploration there.

What?... thats like the "core" concept of the 3D mario games.
Thats not a issue, thats a game design choice concept.... and it works wonderfully.

Its what encurages you to go explore and look around, which is atleast half the charm of those 3D mario games.

Find the hidden thingy, find out how to platform there, do the platforming ----> 3D mario formula.
Time from time, theres a boss fight that requires you to make use of the enviroment too.

Without the moons & collectables SMO would be a lesser game.

I never got all the Star's in Mario64, but I remember collecting those too.
Could it be frustrating? yes. Was it heavily rewarding when you did manage to find one? hell yeah.

Yeah they are boring. Luckily the good open world games are mixing it up with their side quests and giving them variety and narratives.

You can say they're bad design but the developers put them in for a reason. If they didn't, then there are quite a few players who would simply never stray from the beaten path and miss entire areas. Those quests are for players who desire to be pulled around by their nose ring and play open world games as if they are linear games.

I read about players who beat certain open world games in like 30 or 40 hours, then declare it good or bad. How the hell would they even know when they've only played a fraction of the content? Yeah, fetch quests are often boring and annoying, and there are players who don't need them, but I can certainly see why developers add them to the game.

If you start to think about it, it makes a whole lot of sense. If the AI was as fast as you or even faster you could lose sight of that NPC and never catch up. Thus have no idea where to go and/or miss crucial plot points since you're too far away to listen to what the NPC says. Also, games use the analog stick to control your movement speed. You can absolutely move as slow as them or even slower if you want.

I hate the kind of fetch quests where the drops are rare and the quest-giver doesn't even give any indication where you might find the thing you need. One of my few complaints about Xenoblade really

Red Dead Redemption? So far the side quests have been great, definitely not fetch like.

The problem with a few of the moons, if not most of them, is that they feel completely anecdotal (they are too easy to obtain) and some are repeated a lot throughout the game.  The moons that are somewhat intended to be tied to the main quest are fine, but as you go for the filler ones, it drags.