Greedfall

Maybe I need to clarify why I am enjoying them so much (turned into a wall of text). First off, I played Kingdom Come Deliverance just recently. And the side quests there are a massive, boring chore most of the time with no real world building to them, mainly involving sending you on a marathon back and forth across the map to tag a bunch of NPCs. So yeah, in comparison Greedfall has awesome and tight quest runs This timing might contribute to why I like them as much.

Second - almost all of the side quests so far contribute a lot toward revealing you the world and it's dynamics. One thing I hated a lot in DAI, that was also very prominent in MEA, was that the side quests were just there as fetch tasks without a story and zero world building. You want to know about what is happening in the Emerald Graves, Western Approach, Exalted Plains, etc. and how it all came to be? Then read a damn Codex entry (or worse - find it first), because the game doesn't give a fuck to show it to you with it's most powerful tool - experiencing it through gameplay by story driven side quests (but by the Maker, will it send you to kill X creatures and gather plants). It's why I enjoy DA2 and especially ME2 so much. Both games feel like one giant side quest and engage you personally in the world by means of showing, not just telling. How do I know the nobles in Kirkwall are dirtbags, how did I learn so much about the Qunari and Asari cultures (let's face it, in ME1 the Asari were hardly shown as anything more than blue boobs), the shady sides of the DA and ME universes, etc? Well, I had the pleasure of dealing with and seeing all of it first hand. Not by reading a book.

I actually didn't even bother reading Greedfall's codex. But I already know a lot about the Naut's traditions, the trade laws of the different factions, the culture of the natives, the good and the bad about the Coin Guard's traditions, the growing tensions between native tribes and their lack of unity and some history about pretty much everything happening on the island. And it's all been shown to me by the side quests. This is my preferred way of world building and I think the game nails it pretty good thus far.

Third - all side quests have their own story (hence the world building plus) that is different enough for each quest and gives you the illusion you are not in a repeat loop. Remember the Witcher 3 and that is lauded for it's awesome quests... 90% of them boiling down to talk to NPC/follow Witcher sense/click on quest markers/listen to Geraldo monologuing/follow Witcher sense/kill stuff/go back to NPC. Greedfall takes the same formula (I think Spiders did the smart thing of emulating the better parts of many games) - yeah, the base activity is the same, but the story behind it is what is selling it. Also I just love how almost all quests give you the opportunity to show off (or hate the lack of) your build. Stat checks left and right. And yes, you can go get the key by the table and open a door, but isn't it better to blow up the wall instead or show off your acrobatic skills or convince the NPC to open the door for you? This adds well to creating the illusion of diversity to what actually is the same base side quest formula. I admit, I might be willing to be more easily fooled than other people by this approach, but give me a cinematic story, dialogue and stat checks and I will keep running back and forth even in ME1's copy-pasted storage rooms.

Fourth - this is a weird one, but... RPing through questing... Yes, we had this discussion somewhere in the posts above. You can't RP much by dialogue in this game (although there are such options now and then. I was confronted to confirm or denounce my faith and then quizzed if I know my scripture, lol). But you can RP by the manner in which you solve the side quests. Stealth, Science, Vigor, Lockpick, Charisma, crafting, good old bribes, brute force - so many possibilities. This is something usually more common in isometric RPGs and Bethesda sandboxes, but is rarely used in the Bioware type RPGs (we usually get one skill to build up for Persuade and it solves everything, otherwise it's combat). I already plan a next PT where my De Sardet will be a spoiled rich brat, trying to solve all problems with gold (might use a gold cheat for the lulz). No points in Charisma, Intuition, Crafting, Science or whatever skill might be considered honest and hard work, no disguises, no stealth, limited diplomacy. The game allows you to solve many quests by throwing money at them, but many other are different. I am curious to see how things will turn out and where De Sardet will fall hard on his butt. I am expecting major hate from factions and some companions. I also consider a pure diplomacy PT, focusing on Charisma/Intuition/Stealth and avoiding confrontations by any means necessary.

So far I still think Greedfall has an edge over MEA in the companion department. Visual/graphical quality is no contest of course, different engines, different budgets, MEA looks better, while Greedfall made a mistake going for photo-realism with an engine that either is not very good at it or needed more polish (I swear, in certain light Kurt looks like he has the Blight). Outside of that though, Greedfall so far invests me into the followers more.

Companions in GF start to shine when you begin their personal quests - far more interesting story wise than MEA, while also fitting quite well into the main narrative. MEA had decent companion quests compared to the rest of it, but that doesn't mean much for a game where side quests were so bare bones. And in MEA the comp quests felt somehow too detached from the rest of the story/world, but that was an issue with other stuff in the game too. Frankly I liked only the development of Jaal and Cora and that was after I finally managed to finish their personal quests, the rest of the team never made a lasting impression. Drack was ok, but he never filled the big boots of Wrex/Grunt (it's a problem with being a sequel). I really wanted to like Vetra, but she was just potential wasted. Liam was also ok, had the best side mission, but I swear I could not understand why we ended up doing it the first two times around, it just came out of the blue and he didn't explain it well. Peebee could have been better if her development wasn't so fragmented all over the place. She was a comic relief that was too sporadic to leave a lasting impression.

Yes, if you edit a video and cram all MEA companion stuff one after the other, it looks better...than how it is in the game. And you can also see how much unrealized potential the companions have, which alone leaves a bad taste (cmon, you have a friggin female Turian as a companion. She alone could have carried the game if given more attention. Nobody would have cared if there wasn't a Peebee or Liam). And while I appreciate the attempt at being light hearted, it fails more often than it succeeds with the companion dialogue. MEA had the issue of being a 60+ hours game on a normal run, that had too little companion interaction for this much game time. That lead to bad pacing, sprinkling crumbs of companion content far too much apart, which often made them feel detached from everything else you did at the time.

MEA feels like it tried to fill too many checkboxes with the companion content (can't have less than the MET now, can we). And while it did manage it, the end result is less than the sum of it's parts. Serviceable at best, but not engaging enough and way too fragmented as an experience. An example - You know what I hated the most? The movie night quest! Liam says "we should do a movie night". I am all "hell, yeah, man, this sounds like fun, Citadel DLC shit right there, team building for the upcoming adventure, let's do it now!" And it fucking took me the whole bloody game to slowly collect the stupid crap everyone needed, because "oh, no, not all at once, unlock it by moving the main story". All the initial hype I had for this quest slowly turned into annoying chore to a point where I didn't care anymore and just wanted to kick it away from my quest log. The end result wasn't anything to write home about either. Too much of the companion stuff felt the same as this.