Elden Ring is the Soulslike every RPG must be measured against, and most games fall short of that masterpiece. However, side quests are the biggest exception, as FromSoftware's cryptic scripting collides with the nature of 100+ hour open-world romps. Filled with nonsense boundaries, NPC teleportation with no contextual clues, and easily broken narrative chains, Elden Ring doesn't make it all that easy to access, let alone enjoy, its side quests; fortunately, these Soulslikes do it better.

While many projects in the genre copy Elden Ring's playbook down to a T, a few titles knew better than to replicate FromSoftware's quest structure, opting insteadfor a system that doesn't require players to jump through arbitrary hoops. I'm not specifically talking about the quality of the lore or writing, but rather how these games present their side quests.

If Elden Ring overcomplicates side quests, then Nioh 2 reduces them to their simplest form. You don't have to talk to hard-to-find NPCs, collect obscure items, or stroll through this gate at exactly 6:03 PM without leggings to trigger optional quests. Sub-missions appear on your overworld map when you complete their simple-as-heck prerequisite, which often means clearing a main mission, talking to a spirit in the late-game hub, or reaching weapon-proficiency thresholds.

Nioh 3 tries to find a middle ground between Nioh 2's sub-missions and Elden Ring's side quests, and mostly succeeds. Nioh 2 handles it better, though.

Sub-missions are easy to find and start, and Nioh 2 gives you all the information you need to decide whether to tackle a quest right now.

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