Poll - Length

JuMeSyn · December 2016

What's your preferred RPG length?
Under 5 hours
5 to 10 hours
10 to 20 hours
20 to 40 hours
40 to 80 hours
More than 80 hours

smacd · December 2016

I picked 20-40, however realistically speaking, the shorter the better. The low 20s though seem like a sweet spot for being able to tell a reasonably interesting story without too much fluff, and without overstaying their welcome. Shorter games are welcome too. Longer games though are becoming too much of a burden to play more than a couple in a year now.

10 years ago, I would have said "The longer the better". Then I had the time/money situation flip and my backlog exploded in size. Now, when I hear games tout exceptionally long lengths, its gone from a selling point to something that makes me seriously consider not getting the game at all. I can think of a few games off hand that I ended up passing on simply due to estimated lengths being much longer than I'm interested in playing.

Lord Golbez · December 2016

Yeah, I agree. I lean more toward the 40 end of it, but I wouldn't want most RPGs to go into the 80s these days (I enjoy 80+ hours for truly great games that don't come out every year though, like Persona). Especially since I take my sweet time with RPGs, which means if the estimate is 80, I'm probably logging over 100 by the end. Whereas if the estimate is 30-40, I'm likely logging 40-50+, which is pretty ideal...and still maybe too much except for a couple or few games a year. 10-20, on the other hand runs the risk of being too underwhelming in scope, but can actually be great if it's really tightly made with little to nothing superfluous. Less than 5 hours is not good for RPG format, but can be a good, fun, cheap indie game length. 5-10 is also pushing it on acceptable length, but you could probably do a decent action rpg in that length (and I'd probably take 8-15 hours, so not terrible).

TheAnimeMan · December 2016

20 - 40 is what I like. I don't mind longer and some games I will push way longer (DQ7 most recently). But games that taught long hour completions is cause
A. It's mostly extra stuff to do and not actually main line content.
or B. Really badly designed and needs those extra hours to play

DarkRPGMaster · December 2016

20-40. I don't have as much time as I used to for pulling the longer gaming hours anymore, and I have a feeling it's the same for a lot of us.

flamethrower · December 2016

It's about having a decent-length adventure without padding.
It is decidedly NOT about having an average play time / finish time that's over or under a certain number. Aside from cost efficiency.

Okami has padding because you can't skip or fast-forward the dialogue but hopefully you get the idea.
It's a trope in Dragon Quest games to have a hard last boss the requires grinding; this I consider padding.

For example, the recent Final Fantasy game World of Final Fantasy would have been better if they rebalanced such that enemies give more exp for defeating them. To the point that I'm sure if the grinding was balanced better it would have received a higher score. When players need to grind it's a sign of poor game balance. How much more I don't know, I'm not a game designer.

smacd · December 2016

The grinding/padding factor is definitely an important caveat. I used to enjoy grinding, but mostly because I like being overpowered and I had the time to do it. But today, I find it insulting as a gamer if I buy a game that is 20 hours of story and 60 hours of grinding or other types of pointless padding that is more required than not.

That said, I do find myself less opposed to longer games that fall into the category where its 60+ hours because its 60+ hours of plot (with optional but not necessary grinding), such as Dragon Quest 7, or because the game itself is so well realized that I can choose to spend 200 hours in the game and still have interesting things to do or explore, such as TES/Bethesda-Fallout.

I am finding myself leaning toward PC for longer games now though, because that gives me the option to mod/cheat away the time consuming parts away. I'm finding myself far less opposed to some types of cheating in single player games as my time becomes more limited. God mode should exist in every game.

Lord Golbez · December 2016

smacd wrote: »

The grinding/padding factor is definitely an important caveat. I used to enjoy grinding, but mostly because I like being overpowered and I had the time to do it. But today, I find it insulting as a gamer if I buy a game that is 20 hours of story and 60 hours of grinding or other types of pointless padding that is more required than not.

That said, I do find myself less opposed to longer games that fall into the category where its 60+ hours because its 60+ hours of plot (with optional but not necessary grinding), such as Dragon Quest 7, or because the game itself is so well realized that I can choose to spend 200 hours in the game and still have interesting things to do or explore, such as TES/Bethesda-Fallout.

I haven't finished DQ7 yet, but it doesn't seem to have what I'd call 60+ hours of plot per se. It may not require grinding, but I wouldn't equate repetitive fighting of the same monsters while navigating dungeons "plot." I'd tend to agree that the length in DQ7 feels pretty worthwhile with some caveats, such as too much limitation on warping magic that makes for a lot of wasted walking time.

smacd · December 2016

My point was that you are always actively pursuing some end in DQ7, which is through a large number of smaller stories hinting at and eventually leading into the main story. While the original had a lot of padding (finding tablet pieces, etc), that is largely dealt with in the remake and made a non-issue. Since grinding is completely irrelevant in DQ games when you play them the right way (aside from purely voluntary grinding), DQ7 is a long game where you are always doing something that feels relevant and interesting and part of the vignette you are currently in.

watcher · December 2016

20-40 is best in general. It's a rare game that can pull off 60+ without being a slog.

As an aside, I feel like many design choices these days are intentionally done to fluff the "XX hours of content" tag on the box without providing any value to the player. Particularly, in modern JRPGs they have all these boring travel/connector zones that took the place of the old "world map" that you get forced to run through multiple times, between all the places with actual content.

Strawberry Eggs · December 2016

Considering that I have the uncanny ability to stretch a game to unnecessary lengths, it really doesn't matter how long a game is suppose to take.I probably spend on average of 70 hours on a any given RPG, and can and will spend 100 hours or more on something.

scorpio_7 · December 2016

For me an RPG should be no less than 40 hours. Now I say that with side-quests in mind. The main story could be about 20hours, but there should be enough content in the game for those who wish to go beyond the main story - whether that is simply exploring an open world like in Fallout - or with numerous side stories/bounties/tasks that can be done along the way.

I always feel like a 20 hour or less RPG is just not enough to warrant my investment or interest.

It is very clear in this poll that the vast majority of players still want longer RPG's.

Macstorm · December 2016

I like your suggestion that the main story can be shorter, but optional content can add up to more.

The Last Paladin · December 2016

60 Hours seems to be the hotspot for me as the bare minimum. I do tend to like it to be longer, but lately, I been feeling the fatigue with games like Xenoblade Chronicle X (which is ridiculously too grindy to me) to the point that I been putting off other big open world RPG games like Witcher 3.

JuMeSyn · January 22

Time for results!

40 to 80 hours 876 42.63%
20 to 40 hours 608 29.59%
More than 80 hours 493 23.99%
10 to 20 hours 59 2.87%
Under 5 hours 11 0.54%
5 to 10 hours 8 0.39%
Total Votes 2055

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