Open-world RPGs are characterized by their sprawling scopes and the engaging activities players can discover. RPGs tend to be dense with content, particularly in modern open-world titles where the average duration for 100 percent completion could reasonably take over a hundred hours to achieve. But if designed successfully, most if not all of that content will feel meaningful and satisfying to players and market that play-time as an encouraging incentive rather than a slog. One way open-world games can achieve this satisfaction is through optional, intermittent mini-games.

For instance, Red Dead Redemption 2 is full of entertaining mini-games such as Poker, Five-Finger Fillet, and Dominoes that momentarily divert the player’s attention from gunslinging and a plethora of criminal activities. However, some mini-games are more pivotal and influential than others. Open-world RPGs should continue to feature creative and strategic mini-games that immerse players into their worlds and encourage exploration, such as Gwent from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Orlog from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Machine Strike from Horizon Forbidden West.

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Mini-Games Should Complement Their Respective Open-World Games

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Strategic mini-games in an overarching open-world RPG scratch an itch for collectible enthusiasts and casual gamers alike. If implemented well, they are fully optional yet engaging activities that absorb the player and act as a warm diversion from the immensity of the game itself for however long of a period that players decide to dedicate toward it. Their progression is determined by how thoroughly players wish to explore the open world, and players are rewarded for this optional exploration and expenditure by having better items and playing pieces to use in the mini-game.

These mini-games have a meaningful presence in an open-world game’s narrative, where the player actively meets characters who are willing to participate in the mini-game, which often makes the game’s open-world feel satisfyingly holistic and lived-in. This sensation is immersive in some games more than others; for example, character-to-character immersion is less involved in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla or Horizon Forbidden West, where NPCs are relatively cut and pasted into settlements and other bustling areas where the mini-game can be played.

Of course, that should not deter players from wanting to seek out these NPCs and challenge them to win a game piece for themselves. Further, these games are not necessarily difficult themselves and the acquisition of better cards or pieces often results in an easy advantage against the game’s NPCs. Mini-games need to be themed immersively and appropriately to the game itself, its characters, or its enemies: Gwent’s cards resemble primary characters such as Geralt of Rivia or Yennefer of Vengerberg, Orlog’s God Favors resemble characters from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Norse mythology, and Strike’s pieces resemble Horizon Forbidden West’s machine creatures. These mini-games are enlivened through animated effects, such as when pieces are moved and added along the board or when attacks land on either side.

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Gwent's Popularity Demonstrates How Paramount These Games Are

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Gwent is easily the most individually and significantly impactful mini-game of any contemporary open-world RPG. Its influence has spread to its own standalone, single-player titles, such as the upcoming spin-off Project Golden Nekker, as well as its massively popular PvP experience in GWENT: The Witcher Card Game. Gwent’s entertainment is largely derived from its deck-building and card-based systems. Players must triumph in two rounds to win, but it is sometimes a decent strategy to throw the first if the player’s cards are inferior to the ones that an opponent has put down—this way, the player reserves their best cards for hopefully the next two rounds while the opponent has sacrificed some of their better ones instantly. Melee, ranged, and siege-type cards compose the player’s units in any deck, which is identified uniquely by its regional faction.

Much of Gwent’s strategy in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt revolves around exploiting Spy cards and status effect cards, and the player’s ability to do well in Gwent is commonly determined by the cards they have in their hand, rather than the exact strategy they apply mid-match. Still, Gwent’s narrative presence in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and how it plays into exploration and collectible-hunting makes for a fantastic and unforgettable side activity.

On the other hand, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Orlog is perhaps the most back-and-forth of the three mini-games, where the tide could be turned at any moment and strategies are relative to which dice are selected. Because players play against computer-generated AI, it is difficult to say that Orlog depends solely on the luck of which dice are cast each turn. The AI opponent’s God Favors, however, can be counterplayed with reference to whichever RNG comes to fruition from each die, which could either hinder or help the player depending on their own God Favors.

Dice with a hand symbol are easily the most important and let the player and opponent rob one another of their God Tokens, which stack and are spent to use the abilities that their respective God Favors possess. It is in this balance of knowing the optimal time to spend requisite God Tokens and use a God Favor that is most important. The player’s play style is paramount here, since their last Tokens could either go toward replenishing health stones or dealing damage to the opponent based on which Favors they have selected.

Moreover, that balance is disrupted due to the AI frequently using Hand dice to rob the player of their Tokens and leaving them unable to use any Favors. If anyone is unsure of Orlog’s influence apart from its place in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, it has since been translated into its own dice-based, tabletop strategy game with a physical release.

Mini-Games Can Benefit an Open-World Game's Side Activities

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Horizon Forbidden West features a lot of fun and unique side content that helps improve its open-world past that of its predecessor, Horizon Zero Dawn. Machine Strike is a part of Horizon Forbidden West's open-world as much as its Salvage Contracts and Gauntlet Runs, and behaves quite similarly to Orlog in its execution. Like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the player can find NPCs willing to play in predetermined locations that are fairly static and uninteresting, but the mini-games themselves are entertaining and make seeking out better game pieces part of the open-world experience.

Moreover, Strike’s game boards are where implementation and strategy become dynamic. Certain machine pieces will have an attack and defense advantage depending on which terrain it sits on, if it is elevated above an opposing piece, or if it is turned toward or away from an opposing piece. It may be advised to select a machine from each different type available, such as Melee, Gunner, Ram, or Dash, so that any and all strategies may be considered. Besides, some machine pieces simply have better defense points or attack points attributed to them. Strike Carvers are found at Hunting Grounds sites in Horizon Forbidden West, for example, which is a neat way to also encourage a trial or two if players are there anyhow. Soon, players will have a commendable set that is more valuable than the starter set with inferior stats.

For some players, a main campaign’s golden path is all that is needed for an open-world game to be fun. Others may prefer to do a clean sweep of every corner in an open world’s available real estate for collectibles. Mini-games like Gwent, Orlog, and Strike are just icing on the cake of incredible open-world titles, and future open-world RPGs would do well to incorporate their own strategic mini-games to add to the narrative’s lore and the player’s sense of dedicated engagement and meaningful diversion.

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