Current Events > What's wrong with 20-30 hour RPGs?

(+) Yeah! (+)

That's the perfect length.

20-30 hours plus 50-60 hours of side content.

30-50 hours is perfect.

100+ for side-content.
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A perfecter length would be about 10-15 hours, and theoretically infinite side content.
Basically Disgaea.

Lunar. Though it takes me longer since I'm a texthog.

The best rpg I ever played was 24 hours long

edit:
Mystere posted...

Lunar. Though it takes me longer since I'm a texthog.

I was actually talking about Lunar

I get double that because I go back and talk to every NPC each time I even slightly progress the story. It's almost always a good idea too. There's always more to read and it makes it so much more immersive.

I can't rush a Lunar. Sorta sucks since I read everything twice needlessly when I play other RPGs in hopes of more story and side lore.

I'd be pissed if I played an RPG that was that short.
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I'd kill for that length. Fuck all these 150-200 hour RPG epics as if anyone has time for that shit.
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Makeveli_lives posted...

I'd kill for that length. Fuck all these 150-200 hour RPG epics as if anyone has time for that shit.

That concept is a wet dream as a child but now that adulthood limits our free time, we gotta say "fuck filler."

Mystere posted...

Makeveli_lives posted...

I'd kill for that length. Fuck all these 150-200 hour RPG epics as if anyone has time for that shit.

That concept is a wet dream as a child but now that adulthood limits our free time, we gotta say "fuck filler."

Damn straight. I'll take a 15-20 hour game that gets to the fucking point over a 40-50 hour game where 30% of that time is simply walking/flying/etc. from point A to B to advance the plot.
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radiant historia is a great example
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Short but with lots of options for replayability (see: character customization)
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i prefer 20-30 hours. they don't overstay their welcome.
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It's all relative. I'd take a 10 hour game with 10 hours of great content rather than a game that pads its length with filler by an extra 20-30 hours.
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Blo posted...

Short but with lots of options for replayability (see: character customization)

that
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fenderbender321 posted...

If done right, the main story of an RPG should last about 50-75 hours. If you want the story to end sooner, then it's not a good story.

Factually false. A story that drags on forever is worse then one that ends early. Case in point, shows like Walking Dead and Supernatural compared to Firefly or Sarah Connor chronicles.
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Needs more grinding for the opportunity to wear pink wrist bands.
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It's been so long since I've had time for even a 20 hour RPG

I used to live on that shit.
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Makeveli_lives posted...

Factually false. A story that drags on forever is worse then one that ends early. Case in point, shows like Walking Dead and Supernatural compared to Firefly or Sarah Connor chronicles.

And all these 10-20 hour RPGs have trash stories so...
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Xelltrix posted...

Makeveli_lives posted...

Factually false. A story that drags on forever is worse then one that ends early. Case in point, shows like Walking Dead and Supernatural compared to Firefly or Sarah Connor chronicles.

And all these 10-20 hour RPGs have trash stories so...

the Shadowrun Returns games say otherwise
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Xelltrix posted...

Makeveli_lives posted...

Factually false. A story that drags on forever is worse then one that ends early. Case in point, shows like Walking Dead and Supernatural compared to Firefly or Sarah Connor chronicles.

And all these 10-20 hour RPGs have trash stories so...

Mass Effect?
Witcher 2?
Parasite Eve?
Fable?

Granted Fable has never been accused of having a brilliant story but still, it's a solid series if you ignore the broken promises which no one should've fell for to begin with.
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Fine, all is harsh. Every now and then they make it work, but unless a game has very little action and mainly just cutscene after cutscene, you're not going to get much time with the characters to see them grow and develop. That and I prefer to spend most of my time in a story-driven RPG feeling like I'm building up to something climactic and encountering new story characters/aresa/etc. A game that's main story ends in, like, 20 hours and then has 100+ plus hours completely unrelated to the main story completely misses that for me. It's fine when it's game designed around that, like Skyrim or something, but those games I don't care about the story at all or very little (and they usually don't make their stories very good anyway).
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Wait what are these 150-200 hour epics >.>
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agreed, RPGs are just expected to be too damn long, and they often have filler for it.

I hate having to dedicate a month of my life to just one game

Xelltrix posted...

I'd be pissed if I played an RPG that was that short.

chrono trigger?
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20 hours is too short for me, 50-60 hours is my ideal time.
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i'm sick of games with walking in empty fucking fields and shitty dungeons and mountains of backtracking
it's even worse when fans defend it

Wish people would list examples
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I dunno, I've played a lot of great lengthy RPGs lately. A lot of them are actually SRPGs, but just RPG wise, SMT4: Apocalypse, terrific and about 70-100 hours long with a repeatable side content that gets significantly harder. Stella Glow, which a single playthrough is 70. A 2nd playthrough of Xenoblade, though it was on the inferior 3DS version, requires about 40 hours of just straight up trying to beat the game but will take 120 hours for all the fun stuff and exploration. Fire Emblem Fates is a freaking time hound. I swear I have 200+ hours on it because all 3 games and lunatic playthrough.
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FF6 was only around 25-30 hours when I played it

Nier Automata is only around 8-10 hours but dat replay value
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Xelltrix posted...

Fine, all is harsh. Every now and then they make it work, but unless a game has very little action and mainly just cutscene after cutscene, you're not going to get much time with the characters to see them grow and develop. That and I prefer to spend most of my time in a story-driven RPG feeling like I'm building up to something climactic and encountering new story characters/aresa/etc. A game that's main story ends in, like, 20 hours and then has 100+ plus hours completely unrelated to the main story completely misses that for me. It's fine when it's game designed around that, like Skyrim or something, but those games I don't care about the story at all or very little (and they usually don't make their stories very good anyway).

30 hours is plenty of time to have both action and story. This was basically what Bioware did from KOTOR to Dragon Age Inquisition.

Longer games generally don't have more story unless it's something like Persona. Generally it's spent fighting things or doing fetch quests.
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slmcknett posted...

30-50 hours is perfect.

100+ for side-content.

This. I feel some drag on for far too long. 80+ hours is a bit excessive.
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Illuminoius posted...

i'm sick of games with walking in empty fucking fields and shitty dungeons and mountains of backtracking
it's even worse when fans defend it

I'll take the illusion of freedom over obvious hallway linearity, though. Gotta have a middle ground.

KobeSystem posted...

Wait what are these 150-200 hour epics >.>

Only thing I can think of is some of the Bethesda RPGs can take that long if you try to do every single sidequest.
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I don't play TES games because of my go everywhere and do everything nature. It also has me wondering if I'll enjoy the new Zelda.

i have been trending away from caring about story in games because it's so often hot garbage with bad acting
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KobeSystem posted...

Wait what are these 150-200 hour epics >.>

I was thinking of completed runs Witcher 3, elder scrolls, fallout, xenonblade and such. Obviously not a requirment but why in God's name would any developer find that reasonable to me.
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nothing. stick of truth is one of my favorite rpgs and it's like 15 hours. also planning on playing nier at some point, which I heard is about 20-30. I'm also playing persona, which is 100 hours. it's going to take me forever, but I'm cool with it.
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I was thinking of completed runs Witcher 3, elder scrolls, fallout, xenonblade and such. Obviously not a requirment but why in God's name would any developer find that reasonable to me.

Crazy thing is RPGs aren't even the biggest culprits.

I have more than 160 hours in Peace Walker HD, and I'm not even close to doing everything. In fact, that's just where I drew the line and said "no thank you, I will not level up every rank of every gun to maximum and I will not play 200 missions shirtless and I willl not..." this is just to get S Rank on every mission, collect all the monster hunter item drops, comple the outer ops, get the multiplayer trophy, and collect all the AI boards and parts. I don't even want to think how much time would go into getting all the emblems, even if I hadn't already made some of them virtually impossible. Probably no joke a thousand hours.

And one of the Gran Turismo games has a howlongtobeat of literally like 400 hours for completion (100%)
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Balrog0 posted...

Wish people would list examples

Some of these may be a little off, but they're not a million miles away:

Chrono Trigger
Deus Ex + Human Revolution
Alpha Protocol
Diablo II
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

I am fine with shorter RPGs as long as they are good. I am also fine with longer RPGs as long as they aren't packed with grind/filler. Most longer RPGs, sadly, are filled with garbage.

The only really long RPGs I've enjoyed lately are The Witcher 3 (which was just a masterpiece) and the Fallout games because I can happily screw around in the Fallout universe forever.