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[Storm Kyleis]

The issue is more about hand-holding and pacing.

One example is Zelda: Twilight Princess - the game begins with two hours of world building and tutorials disguised as minigames, before you're even allowed to step into the main area/hub of the game. This kind of introduction is worthless in games that aren't strictly focused on the story.

 

[patapuf]

I don't mind the story being slow.

But the gameplay better be engaging. I finished FF13 but that was really not good pacing.

Some Zelda games also have a very slow start, twilight princess was the worst i've played in that regard. OOT was a breeze in comparison.

 

[red731]

...the game loads?

*leaves

 

[DavidDesu]

And just to add...

A game like The Last Of Us features all the world building and atmosphere setting you need. Does it with aplomb and makes you really care about the characters from about 5 minutes in, then you play quite an epic, US spanning campaign in about 20 hours or so.

 

[danowat]

People were saying that about No Man's Sky, the game got good after 20 hours.

 

[sphinx]

3D Zelda's (all of them) first couple of hours are my limit regarding "introductory areas" or shit like that.

 

[rottendevice]

I don't mind the story being slow.

But the gameplay better be engaging. I finished FF13 but that was really not good pacing.

Some Zelda games also have a very slow start, twilight princess was the worst i've played in that regard. OOT was a breeze in comparison.

And in the case of OoT, stuff happens in the beginning. Kokori Forest rocks.

 

[KojiKnight]

Persona 4 nearly killed me with it's 2+ hours of nothing... If it takes more than an hour to "get going" you've made a bad decision with your game.

 

[geordiemp]

Dragon quest inquisition.

Boring until you can specialise and get new powers, especially knight enchanter turns you into a light saber wielding madman which I enjoyed, but took so long to get there.

 

[KDR_11k]

It doesn't have to be blasting at full intensity from the start but it should keep you engaged and willing to come back even before the "good" part starts. Probably the worst way to do that is to keep throwing unexplained terms or story snippets at the player and thinking figuring out what the hell the game is saying is that motivation. Many games fall into the trap of starting out with characters talking about a lot of detail on things that you cannot understand without more context that you get later. When you're spending the first few hours piecing dialogue fragments together just to figure out which side is yours and which is the enemy that's not really engaging.

 

[LordOfChaos]

This is why I /still/ haven't been able to get into The Witcher 3. I had someone tell me it gets into the meat of things 40 hours in. 40 hours? That's how long it took me to beat Boodborne as my first Soulsbourne game and I was ready for that to end by then!

 

[takriel]

Bad game design imo. If a game isn't fun from the beginning it's not worthy of my time.

I don't want to slog through 20 hours of boring crap before finally getting to the interesting stuff.

 

[10k]

I've heard this defense used for Persona 4. Got maybe two hours in without a battle and I quit it for good.

 

[theofficefan99]

I hate how people have applied this saying with FFXIII... it doesn't take 20 hours to get going. I would argue it takes about an hour and a half for the real gameplay to show up. Story urgency occurs pretty much immediately. The only thing that occurs 20 hours in is the gameplay opens up, in the sense that you could pick your own party, and the area you reach isn't linear. That's it.

 

[Playsage]

Okami has a couple of really boring hours until you kill... umm... Orochi? after that the game is a marvel.

Lol

Spoiler

Maybe you mean Spider Queen? You get to Orochi around hour 20

 

[VendettaRed07]

FF-xiii is the only game I've ever seen people argue it took that long for the game to get good.

The game still sucks after that point but it does suck a little bit less I guess

i can't think of a single game that I've played that had a slow opening where it literally took longer than 3-4 hours to where I was enjoying myself at all

 

[Palehorse]

I found this with the Jedi Knight games. You play for several hours as just a basic FPS until you get your light sabre and the whole game changes.

I had to tell a buddy to just stick with the game, to force his way through. Totally worth it.

 

[JackelZXA]

For some people the setup part doesn't bother them, or they like what ends up happening so much to make it cool that they don't see their time as wasted. It's really kind of a simple explanation and it isn't for everyone.

 

[redcrayon]

I don't mind the story being slow.

But the gameplay better be engaging. I finished FF13 but that was really not good pacing.

Some Zelda games also have a very slow start, twilight princess was the worst i've played in that regard. OOT was a breeze in comparison.

Some Zelda games also have the best ones.

LTTP is dramatic from about ten seconds in, and doesn't really calm down until twenty minutes later as you exit the first dungeon having already woken on a stormy night, followed your uncle, found him dying, taken his sword, fought enemies, solved puzzles, found items and saved the princess. What a start, it's like a microcosm of a heroic questline.

 

[PackAPunchedMick]

GTA Online?

Takes approximately 15hrs to load and then another 3hrs in the lobby searching for players, finally the heist is over in about 2hrs.

20 hours later I finally have enough for the Armored Kuruma, Let the fun begin......

 

[SephLuis]

I think Trails of the Sky FC falls under this category? Not sure.

Trails in the Sky FC and Trails in the Cold Steel are prime examples of this.

Mostly because you won't see the actual main conflict until their ending and even those are mostly teases for the actual conflict in the second games (Sky SC and CS II).

Trails takes a lot to "get going" because the build up to the actual conflict is very, very important. By the time everything happens, you know exactly why and how things got to that point. That construction takes a good while but the pay off is among the best I have ever seen in any genre.

Funny enough, Trails in the Zero (unlocalized) get things going much, much faster and it's probably the best Trails game.

 

[KojiKnight]

I hate how people have applied this saying with FFXIII... it doesn't take 20 hours to get going. I would argue it takes about an hour and a half for the real gameplay to show up. Story urgency occurs pretty much immediately. The only thing that occurs 20 hours in is the gameplay opens up, in the sense that you could pick your own party, and the area you reach isn't linear. That's it.

You're right, the game and story never get better.

 

[Cow Goes Moo]

"It gets better when you get your skell"

 

[SporeCrawler]

Which game takes 20 hours to get going?

Dragon Quest 7

 

[Firemind]

Which game takes 20 hours to get going?

Twilight Princess

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

I love Trails, yes it starts slow but if it wasn't for that building then the more impactful moments wouldn't mean as much.

 

[Maxios]

This is why I /still/ haven't been able to get into The Witcher 3. I had someone tell me it gets into the meat of things 40 hours in. 40 hours? That's how long it took me to beat Boodborne as my first Soulsbourne game and I was ready for that to end by then!

Whoever told you that is crazy. It's only around thirty minutes until the tutorial's over and you can fully explore the game's first zone, and only a couple hours (maybe more depending on how many side quests you choose to do) until you gain access to the main one.

 

[SporeCrawler]

Twilight Princess

The game is over in 20 hours. The first introductory scenes are bothersome but take 20 minutes max. Hunting down the bugs as a wolf is really annoying though

 

[Omega Kirby]

Many people would probably say Steins;Gate. I'm not one of them.

The anime took 12 episodes before it got good

 

[LotusHD]

People were saying that about No Man's Sky, the game got good after 20 hours.

This was always the saddest defense to me, it became pretty clear that the first hour or so wasn't any different from the 20th, 30th, 40th, etc.

Also that "ending" is still the biggest middle finger I've seen in a minute. I imagine it'd just make you retroactively hate the game even more for so blatantly wasting your time.

 

[Jailer of Hope]

For me I think it just comes down to expectations. If I go in completely blind, I think I'll stick with long build ups more because I'm not "waiting" for whatever it is I think I'm waiting for. There are some exceptions where I kind of know what to expect, like with Zelda, but I enjoy the long intros anyway.

 

[grumble]

Trails in the Sky FC and Trails in the Cold Steel are prime examples of this.

Mostly because you won't see the actual main conflict until their ending and even those are mostly teases for the actual conflict in the second games (Sky SC and CS II).

Trails takes a lot to "get going" because the build up to the actual conflict is very, very important. By the time everything happens, you know exactly why and how things got to that point. That construction takes a good while but the pay off is among the best I have ever seen in any genre.

Funny enough, Trails in the Zero (unlocalized) get things going much, much faster and it's probably the best Trails game.

I don't agree that the amount of time dedicated to the build up was required. I played through first chapter, and found it pretty aimless. They could have pushed through that in a few hours max and it took 50.

 

[Firemind]

The game is over in 20 hours. The first introductory scenes are bothersome but take 20 minutes max. Hunting down the bugs as a wolf is really annoying though

Well, I mean, the moment you get the double clawshot is the only memorable part of the game...

 

[BluePikmin11]

YO-KAI WATCH 2 does do this for at least the first few hours, but after that, the game gets super interesting with the time-travel aspect.

It's a shame some reviewers found this to be a big flaw with the game.

 

[Zakalwe]

The games OP is complaining about don't really exist outside of online gaming. FF13 can be described like this /if/ you find the open world (ish) latter parts appealing, but the amount of offline games that fit this premise are probably far too minute/niche for it to be worthy of the worry OP put in.

This is why I /still/ haven't been able to get into The Witcher 3. I had someone tell me it gets into the meat of things 40 hours in. 40 hours? That's how long it took me to beat Boodborne as my first Soulsbourne game and I was ready for that to end by then!

That someone was talking many levels of bs.

 

[disappeared]

The game is over in 20 hours. The first introductory scenes are bothersome but take 20 minutes max. Hunting down the bugs as a wolf is really annoying though

Twenty minutes? Twilight Princess's first like 5 hours were insufferable. By contrast, Wind Waker took maybe an hour and you're out on the ocean heading toward that scary fortress. There was near instant escalation. TP had you fumbling around like an idiot for half a dozen hours before anything remotely interesting happened. But hey, you could turn into a wolf and hop around biting enemies! That was cool, right?

 

[Shinypogs]

Persona 4 Golden - as a first time Persona player - was brutal to get through in the beginning.

I love that game and I agree so hard. Let me do shit and stop railroading me jfc. I mean it's not that nothing is happening within the first section but you have so little agency until after the first dungeon.

I always tell people the game is totally worth it but I understand anyone who doesn't wanna invest the time.

 

[Rexatality]

This is why I /still/ haven't been able to get into The Witcher 3. I had someone tell me it gets into the meat of things 40 hours in. 40 hours? That's how long it took me to beat Boodborne as my first Soulsbourne game and I was ready for that to end by then!

I'd say it takes about 5-10 hours to get the hook on players.

I was hooked during its first few hours. Then again, I have a lot of love and devotion to the Witcher series.

 

[Some Nobody]

I feel like this thread is, basically, about the Trails series. I've only played Cold Steel but I can basically say: the game gets started the moment you get past the intro dungeon in...Chapter 1, I think?

Once you have access to all the stuff in the game, once you can fight and upgrade your characters and their Orbments and shit---that IS the game. People saying "well, the plot's not really moving" yet? That's basically like saying a movie doesn't get started until the climax.

If you don't like worldbuilding and storytelling then go play a multiplayer game. People saying an RPG (of all genres!) should last less than 20 hours make me itch. If well told, the story can be over in 10 hours or 100 hours. If you don't like long games, pick up a fighter or a first-person shooter--stop crying about single-player campaigns with fleshed out characters and world FFS.

I feel like this "why isn't this game over" nonsense is furthered by people with backlogs.

 

[Galafar]

Kind of Dragon Quest 7 but I enjoyed the first 20 hours regardless.

 

[LiK]

FFXIII takes 13 hours to get good, not 20. Get it right, buddies.

 

[Firemind]

Twilight Princess's first like 5 hours were insufferable. By contrast, Wind Waker took maybe an hour and you're out on the ocean heading toward that scary fortress. There was near instant escalation. TP had you fumbling around like an idiot for half a dozen hours before anything remotely interesting happened. But hey, you could turn into a wolf and hop around biting enemies! That was cool, right?

Midna: "Oh, hey, can you find a bridge for me? I don't know where you can find one, but we need it to cross something and continue the game even though I can teleport stuff from A to B. Now fetch!"

 

[disappeared]

Midna: "Oh, hey, can you find a bridge for me? I don't know where you can find one, but we need it to continue the game. Now fetch!"

Jesus Christ I think I actually must have mentally blocked that shit out. Terrible.

 

[CielTynave]

Pretty much why I dropped Dragon Quest VII after a little over 10 hours. Didn't find any of the vignettes or characters particularly engaging, combined with the game play (with which I was apparently still 10 or so hours away from getting the job system) and I just couldn't force myself to go any further.

 

[JeffZero]

I feel like this thread is, basically, about the Trails series. I've only played Cold Steel but I can basically say: the game gets started the moment you get past the intro dungeon in...Chapter 1, I think?

Once you have access to all the stuff in the game, once you can fight and upgrade your characters and their Orbments and shit---that IS the game. People saying "well, the plot's not really moving" yet? That's basically like saying a movie doesn't get started until the climax.

If you don't like worldbuilding and storytelling then go play a multiplayer game. People saying an RPG (of all genres!) should last less than 20 hours make me itch. If well told, the story can be over in 10 hours or 100 hours. If you don't like long games, pick up a fighter or a first-person shooter--stop crying about single-player campaigns with fleshed out characters and world FFS.

I feel like this "why isn't this game over" nonsense is furthered by people with backlogs.

I wish I had a hard time sifting through a mountain of modern RPGs with fleshed-out characters and world. I really wish I had this problem.

By the way, I just finished Trails in the Sky SC yesterday evening. You're in for a real treat with that one should you try TitS. I, looking forward to Trails of Cold Steel.

 

[LotusHD]

Jesus Christ I think I actually must have mentally blocked that shit out. Terrible.

Maybe Wind Waker was my favorite Zelda game after all...

 

[Corpekata]

I feel like this is another of those "pretends to not understand common phrases because it's aimed at something I like" threads.

Like, for you, the world building of character development are a highlight in the Trails series. I'd agree with you on Trails FC, overall. But take Cold Steel, which didn't have nearly as many interesting or likable characters, a tired setting, and world building I largely had already received in other games, and I would say it's a pretty accurate description of my experience with the game.

"I guess the bottom line is, I'm also not sure I understand the mentality behind "if there is no death and destruction and evil monsters fucking shit up right now, and there isn't any perilous conflict, when the hell does the actual game begin so I can skip all the pointless crap before that?"

Like this is such a reductionist and misrepresentative argument that it's hard to think this thread was created in good faith.

 

[Platy]

...the game loads?

*leaves

Hey ! Lego City Undercover is a pretty good game ! xD

 

[Arrogant Bastard]

Pretty much why I dropped Dragon Quest VII after a little over 10 hours. Didn't find any of the vignettes or characters particularly engaging, combined with the game play (with which I was apparently still 10 or so hours away from getting the job system) and I just couldn't force myself to go any further.

Is it really that bad? I was going to get that as one of my first 3ds games.

 

[qazqaNii]

Felt this way for me on FF13, got to the open world part which is supposedly when the game "starts". I realized I still didn't understand the paradigm shift and gave up the game, I couldn't take another corridor.

The graphics were nice tho!.