I think in general Japanese RPGs have had the most naturally integrated side quests, as opposed to the check listed style that has become so common in Western RPGs. The side-quests in games like King's Field and Demon's/Dark Souls are all unmarked and never activate any sort of quest checklist, you have to really pay attention to the environment, talk to the npcs and listen to what they are saying in order to get a sense of how to progress the quests. There are some cases where you don't even realize you have engaged a script trigger to start a quest, which is as it should be; an RPG should seek to maintain the illusion of its in-game world (rather than have a quest title pop up on screen and a little musical cue play whenever you get a new quest or complete it, sorry New Vegas). It might be argued that some of them are too deliberately obscure and there is no chance of finding them in a single playthrough, or maybe never finding them at all, but so what, the idea that every quest has to be easily found and completed leads to the completely unnatural check listing design structure.
Although I enjoy it personally games don't have to go to this extreme to have quests feel more natural. I think Deus Ex hit a good middle ground. It has the Goals/Notes screen that will show you quests, but it rarely guides you precisely through the steps of how to complete the quests, and a lot of solutions are left entirely to the player to find. Imagine now days the whole encounter with Anna would be laid out as a checklist (Primary Goal: Showdown with Anna Navarre Secondary Goal: Hmm, maybe there is a clue on Manderly's computer, you should check it out! *computer glows brightly to let you know you can interact with it*)
I think most people agree that unmarked quests are often the best quests a game has to offer, because it feels like you are stumbling on something that is already in the world and following clues naturally, they make the world feel lived in. See: the survivalist quest in New Vegas Honest Hearts. The Siamese twins quest in Arcanum (not necessarily unmarked but highly obscure in how to progress with very little direction, and I would argue the fact that it has such an unsatisfying ending makes it more memorable and real because it breaks that checklisting sensation). These are quests that I see talked about most often. Hell even with Oblivion, the one good part of the entire game were the select few unmarked quests that you can stumble upon, like this one http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:The_Horror_of_Dive_Rock. So why not have all quests be like this.
Although I enjoy it personally games don't have to go to this extreme to have quests feel more natural. I think Deus Ex hit a good middle ground. It has the Goals/Notes screen that will show you quests, but it rarely guides you precisely through the steps of how to complete the quests, and a lot of solutions are left entirely to the player to find. Imagine now days the whole encounter with Anna would be laid out as a checklist (Primary Goal: Showdown with Anna Navarre Secondary Goal: Hmm, maybe there is a clue on Manderly's computer, you should check it out! *computer glows brightly to let you know you can interact with it*)
I think most people agree that unmarked quests are often the best quests a game has to offer, because it feels like you are stumbling on something that is already in the world and following clues naturally, they make the world feel lived in. See: the survivalist quest in New Vegas Honest Hearts. The Siamese twins quest in Arcanum (not necessarily unmarked but highly obscure in how to progress with very little direction, and I would argue the fact that it has such an unsatisfying ending makes it more memorable and real because it breaks that checklisting sensation). These are quests that I see talked about most often. Hell even with Oblivion, the one good part of the entire game were the select few unmarked quests that you can stumble upon, like this one http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:The_Horror_of_Dive_Rock. So why not have all quests be like this.
