During the final battle of Okami, there's a point where you see a group of people standing around and only the chest down is visible. I commented to Alex during our playthrough that I've played the game so much that I was able to recognize each NPC in that shot. And really that was one of the amazing parts of Okami: Each NPC was unique. I can't think of a single sprite they replicated except for some of the guards. Talking to each one gave me a taste of their personalities and really expanded the game to feel like a world.

I'm bringing this up because of Final Fantasy XV. Again, I'm early in the game but I'm worried because so far all the sidequests have been variations of fetch quests or bounties. And half of them come from the same three people! It's gonna get pretty tedious after a while.

See, Okami had fetch quests, but they never told you it was one. You would talk to an NPC and he'd mention he's visiting the city and is looking for a hairpin for his wife. Or another would say someone took his mask. And later on you would find that shit, remember the NPC had mentioned it way back when, and returned it to him. That's part of what made the game immersive. I learned a bit of the people's lives by talking to them -- how he fears his wife's wrath or what that mask meant to him -- and along your journey you bring up those memories when you happen to find it. And when you bring back those objects, you're given another window in the NPC's psyche with how he expresses his thanks. That's what makes a game interesting. Not going back to the same dude and he says, "Hey, thanks for this stuff. OK, I need more of this stuff."