I think that TES games are becoming too predictable. They seem to follow a very standard line in most of their quests, and a very similar way in finishing them. After playing these games for long enough, now I generally already know what I'll probably end up doing and how it will probably end up finishing. For example, let's say that there is a big evil monster. Person A will tell you to go talk to Person B in some far away realm (people like their long distance relationships). Person B will be in distress; you will save him/her, but he/she will be trapped! And to untrap them you need a key that is to be found in the farthest corner of a dungeon.

You get the key, and unlock Person B. He/she tells you to meet them at magical palace (which is also in another realm). When you get to magical palace, they will send you to a dungeon. That dungeon will lead you to another dungeon. This dungeon will give you a book! This book will lead you to...NOT a dungeon...a cave (it's a cave guys, not a dungeon). Then the most obvious person who they have clearly marked as suspicious will betray you, but you will slay him.

Then you will be given a choice: be good or be bad. Be good: hurray, XYZ happens! Be bad: same outcome.

I think TES is in serious need of a unmainstreamifying, or some new quest designers!

Do a game in a mysterious province such as Black Marsh, and there goes the predictability!

Yeah, but it will be the same. Just in a different province.

Not only were they predictable, but short as hell. Its like the writers just wanted to get quests over with.

It might be nostalgia, but I do believe quests are getting progressively crappier as the series advance, and I suspect it is to cater to the average who dislikes reading and just wants to have an excuse to swing around.

I think Bethesda needs to abandon the old "must have X to defeat Y". Needed the Wraithguard/Tools to defeat Ur. Hannibal Traven's sacrifice to beat Mannimarco. Dragonrend to defeat Alduin. Staff of Magnus to defeat Ancano. Likely missing a few others.

Bosses don't need to be invincible to be worthwhile.

As with all franchises some things are bound to be the same. But there is comfort in familiarity. It's what draws people back.

There is a fine difference between familiarity and repetitiveness. Repetitiveness is what drives people away.

The only thing I might complain about is that if some person is going to betray you, it's more or less obvious right from the start. Apart from that, I'm either terribly lowbrow, or they're doing a good job most of the time.

After several dozens of years of fantasy rpgs, there isn't much that has never been seen before in some way. Come up with some quest, and I'm sure you'll get a lot of people complaining about it as unoriginal and shiftless.

What is love-making but a series of repetitive motions? What is NASCAR but a series of repetitive left hand turns? What is a Team Deathmatch but a repetitive carousel if "I kill you, you kill me"?

It's all in the presentation and execution that makes the difference.

This isn't limited to TES games. Play Bethesda's Fallout game(s) and you can expect the same thing ... with guns!

It's how they craft games. I don't really mind.

The one twist I remember I didn't see coming was the one in Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood questline,
I loved DB's questline there.

Considering Oblivion's quests were much better than Morrowind, Daggerfall and Arena's, I'd say that is wrong.

Many of Skyrim's quests are lackluster because of reliance on radiant story and the fact that the game was clearly rushed. I think overall the quests aren't bad when you count the DLC's.

I agree, totally.

Most of the dungeon-related quests in Skyrim usually have these 2 main outcomes:

Case #1
You enter a dungeon, you find a person in the main hall (usually a woman) she needs help getting something back to them, so you kindly give your help, you proceed by slaying an absurd amount of enemies (which are mostly all clones of each others) then you get to the end of the dungeon and BAM the big boss shows up. You successfully kill him, get the preciousss, and give it back to the the NPC. Yay.

Case #2
Same as above but at the end, the NPC in troubles betrays you and obviously kill them. And keep the precious for yourself.

In some cases you could even help an NPC that is generally hostile like a Hagraven, which is pretty sweet actually. But that's very rare.

Case #3
You find more than one NPC right outside of a dungeon (usually 2, and usually only one of the 2 is particularly willing to talk to strangers in a nice matter) you talk to them to learn one of them "would happily like to retrieve some precious mysterious thing inside for the lulz" (usually later in the quest you find one of the 2 is actually obsessed to find the thing inside, which, oh how strange, later drive him mad.

You always keep slaying an absurd amount horde of enemies til the boss, which is usally overpowered (safe prediction: you will fail the first try) you kill it, and BEFORE getting the precious, the not so nice NPC gets mad beyond reason and betrays both YOU and the other NPC. BAM you kill him, get the preciousss for yourself because the other NPC alive will be like... Oh, I'm so confused, just take it and go away... Prediction: the NPC that remains alive is usally a hot woman that you cannot marry and is destined to vanish from the game entirely trolololol.

Joking aside, most of the quests in Skyrim are well written, but other ones are just the result of some lazy copy pasting.

I've literally never played a quest like the one you described in the OP.