But the pack quest!!!
Pack-quest with us starting from Ep.6, has nothing to do with episode formats, occurs in one of the free-roams
The halloween event wasn't that bad. The HOTs house in episode 7 was way worse.
What I do find annoying in season 3 compared to the previous ones, is that a lot of them are now during storymode instead of only freeroam and minigames, so even easier to miss.
I am not against Ep.9, on the contrary, I defended it. But such a format should be a one-time thing, because with a long multibranching game it gets tiring and turns into routine work. Good game design is a combination of different game elements that don't let the player get bored, changing the activity in time. A break for an easy mini-game, or a phone - after a long time of reading and scrolling renders. Distract the player and give variety. Free-roams optimized for the update size, which immerse you deeper into the game.
When one element dominates over another, people get tired and dissatisfaction comes, like with Ep.9 or the mini-games of Ep.10