what makes a quest epic?

in my mind, high challenge makes it epic. and that basically translates to epic combat. say at best somewhere around 50-50 odds of winning. long time or long distances involved seem to also make it more epic, but don't seem to be sufficient in and of themselves to make things epic.

so what in your mind makes for an epic quest?

Epic is such a great word for a personal feeling. For my feeling a quest is epic when there is a great story with suprising switches and choices away from "decide to ride to camp a or camp b" when you have the preasure of small time but big choices for life and lives. A great battle of 50/50 characters dosent make it epic automaticaly

An epic quest is abnormally important, more because of its power level than because of its plot importance.

For example, if king A pays a servant to slice king B's throat in his sleep, it's not epic. It king A asks fairies to find king B for him, then king A rides his tame dragon to chase king B's flying ship, then king A boards his enemy's stronghold and beats a number of bodyguards of superhuman skill with a magical sword, and finally king A and king B summon their respective patron gods to assist in the showdown, it's epic. The objective and result, in both cases, is king B dead with unimportant collateral damage.

seems there are a lot of meanings for epic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_(genre)

Big and/or long or/and hard. Three easy words to remember. These are the qualities of an epic quest.

Epic. Epic is different for every person.

For me an epic quest is something, where i can feel with the person i am playing.

It has to has a fascinating lore, story and the ambience has to be great.

Maybe nice music in the background?

It should shine out of all other quests or respectively be a lot different than them.

So what in your mind makes for an epic quest?

An epic quest is pretty much the book-ends of an entire game.

All subjective, mind you.

• High odds/stakes
• A long duration that maintains interest
• Multiple pathways/solutions
• Learning something
• Gaining new abilities/skill/technology
• The unexpected
• An emotional payoff
• A satisfying epilogue

Maybe nice music in the background?

Good point. That's one that gets overlooked.

looking over the responses...

a great story: a quest can be non-epic and still have a great story. so a great story alone isn't enough.

power level: (epic-ness?) everything is on a grand scale. summoned gods doing battle vs servant with dagger. this could be a contender.

big / long / hard: big must mean power level / epic-ness, not length. these also seem to be contenders.

immersion, story (again), ambiance, music: games can have all these things and no quests whatsoever - epic or otherwise. so these don't seem to be core components of epic quests, just nice to have.

shine out (uniqueness): it would seem possible to have two similar quests that are both epic, so uniqueness doesn't seem to be a requirement.

high odds. long duration: once again these seem to be common in "epic" quests.

multiple pathways, learning, gaining skills, the unexpected (IE plot twists), an emotional payoff, and a satisfying epilogue are all possible in non-epic quests. so none of those makes a quest "epic". once again they are just "nice to have".

once you strip out the bits that don't necessarily make a quest epic your left with:

grand scale, long time, and high difficulty.

do classic epics pass this test?

are the following epics grand scale, long time, and/or high difficulty?

beowulf

gilgamesh

lord of the rings

the hobbit

the illiad

the oddesy

the golden fleece

the twelve labors of hercules

any other examples?

can anyone name a classic epic that doesn't have at least one of: grand scale, long time, or high difficulty?

can anyone name a non-epic quest that has one or more of these?

So does that mean, the 'essence' of an epic quest is a longer bigger tougher quest?

Any scene or scenario takes you to the edge of your seat and has you constantly doubting whether or not you'll be able to stay on that seat is, IMO, epic.

Faux epic is, again IMO, throwing every top-tier battler, skill, and scenario you can think of and in a long yet exciting sequence(s).