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[Prime Blue]

I took 100 hours for my first playthrough of Twilight Princess, but they never stop the time counter on menu screens (and I am one to often leave a game idling there, doing something else for hours, sometimes I let the console on over the night, even). Pretty cheap way of doubling game time.

 

[Reuenthal]

I like to absorb the atmosphere and if there is an NPC I can talk to in a game I will try to get as much new dialogue as possible from him and talk to as many NPC in a game as possible. That means I take more hours to finish games but I don't have a problem with that.

 

[Thunderbear]

Hmm, I know this isn't an RPG but I clocked in at 16 hours on Rage which I think is on the high side and I didn't even do all the stuff I know you can do. I like to look at stuff and really explore, especially in games that have something that encourages that. When I was younger I remember being really impatient with my friends because they would be slow and I just wanted to rush through the games. I think putting an hour number on a game can be difficult. Like the speed-run in Skyrim was said to be 2 hours something by one of the testers. Obviously he knows the game inside out but depending on the type of player you are, you are going to get different amounts of hours out of a game.

Makes sense right?

I took 100 hours for my first playthrough of Twilight Princess, but they never stop the time counter on menu screens (and I am one to often leave a game idling there, doing something else for hours, sometimes I let the console on over the night, even). Pretty cheap way of doubling game time.

This is an issue I've noticed too when trying to look at my save files to see how long I've played the game. With Rage I never left it on pause though. But it's a good point.

 

[Schlomo]

On my first playthrough back in the day, Xenogears took me just over 100 hours. When I played the PSN version on PSP last year I was finished after 60 hours.

One factor that we shouldn't forget (I don't know if it has been mentioned yet): Some people leave their consoles running while they eat/are on the phone/whatever and forget that this will heavily influence their finish times, especially in long games like RPGs.

Edit: Beaten twice, I should post faster...

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

People were throwing around huge numbers for Twilight Princess before it was released... the game ended up taking FAR less to 100%, let alone complete the main quest.

Still takes me about 35-40 hours to get through each time. That's more than long enough! Hell, achieving that level of enjoyability without worthless padding (hello most modern RPGs!) for 40 hours is a massive accomplishment!

It's a shame that so many people place a higher value on how long a game is, than how enjoyable it is for those hours. Most non RPGs longer than 10 hours (and RPGs longer than 20-30) are usually filled to the brim with time wasting padding and filler to get that extra bullet point on the back of the box.

 

[Trick_GSF]

The base game of Dragon Age Origins normally takes me around 60+ hours. With the DLC and expansion on top it comes to about 100+. Not amnesia, or exaggeration. Though I do usually complete every quest available to me.

My last play through of Fallout New Vegas was about 124 hours long, all DLC included, of course.

Now the time continues to be counted while the game is paused, etc. And not necessarily how put you've played. However, while I'm sure some people can race through these games, the length can be extend by talking with companions/NPCs exploring the world, doing side quests and generally just taking your time and savoring the game.

So while some people may race through a game in 30/40 hours, it isn't completely ridiculous to imagine it taking someone else 50/60 hours.

It's all how you play the game.

 

[RedAssedApe]

This pretty much applies to most RPGs.

 

[linko9]

I'm very much a completionist, so I often take a long time in my first playthrough. Some ones I remember off the top of my head:

Dragon Warrior Monsters: ~100hrs
FFTA: ~100
SMT: Strange Journey: ~80
Dark Souls: ~90 (lots of idling though...)
DW7: ~100 (with everything done, and maxed out party (lots of farming on slime island)
FF5: ~70 (lots of grinding near the end)
FF6: ~60 (pretty much perfect party, with everyone at level 70 or so)
Pokemon Gold ~110

And most of my other super long first playthroughs are JRPGs, but rarely more than 60 hrs. At the end of the day, I'm not going to buy a game because it advertizes a very long playthrough; if the game's good, I'll probably want to do everything in it, which can often take quite a while. Also, how do you treat a game like Smash Bros. Brawl, or F-Zero GX, both of which I've spent well over 200 hrs with. You can't really call it a 'single playthrough,' because that terminology doesn't apply for those types of games. Just some scattered ramblings. I should get to sleep.

 

[Mael]

AHAH FFTA....
Took me....200 or 300 hours to finish everything and load up all my 24 chars with all the skills...
Looooooooove that game.

 

[kyubajin]

A friend of mine says he's put some 100+ hours in Xenoblade Chronicles and he hasn't even finished the main story... He's quite decent at RPGs so I take his word for it.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

I am sick of all the bullshit reasons people give for long playthrough times:

"Did you stop to look at EVERYTHING?"
"Did you talk to EVERYONE?"

I could honestly stand it if it were in the context of "well, in MY run". But it's not. It's like if you didn't do exactly what they did, you aren't a Real Gamer.

 

[Kong Fisso]

Mass Effect 2 took something like 20 hours to complete. Thought it'd be longer.
Also didn't know it was a stupid cover based shooter, so I guess 20 hours is pretty impressive in that regard.

 

[Trick_GSF]

I am sick of all the bullshit reasons people give for long playthrough times:

"Did you stop to look at EVERYTHING?"
"Did you talk to EVERYONE?"

I could honestly stand it if it were in the context of "well, in MY run". But it's not. It's like if you didn't do exactly what they did, you aren't a Real Gamer.

Real gamer?

Some people explore thoroughly some don't. Some do on their first playthough, some do all the time. Either way, both groups, are "real gamers".

Play the game how you want, it's your game/money/time.

 

[Zzoram]

morrowind it's 4 minutes long
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_fFApDyki4

RPG speed runs are so good.

Demon's Souls can be done in 54 minutes if you've memorized all the levels, enemies, shortcuts, and have perfect execution of melee combat and dodges.

Dark Souls can be done in 90 minutes, but it's still new so as these Japanese speed runners get better, they may shave down some time.

 

[mclem]

Ok how do I go about getting this god damn game in the Ameericuhn language.

Import.

sed s/ise/ize/
sed s/our/or/

Done!

 

[mclem]

Xenoblade was one of those games for me, took less than 50 hours for me even doing some sidequests.

Yeah, the pure story is fewer than 80 hours. But there's so much content in conjunction with the story that it's quite possible - easy even! - to double that.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

Dragon Quest VII is really that long.

http://howlongtobeat.com/gamebreakdown.php?gamename=Dragon Warrior VII

And some people like to explore and do all the side missions in games. That adds a lot to the play time.

Wow@Baldur's Gate 2 and Morrowind

 

[Papa]

The problem with Dragon Age is that the clock keeps ticking even when the game is paused. It's hard to get an accurate gauge of how long it actually took to complete that game.

 

[immortal-joe]

I'm always confused about how people whine about the length of games. If you love the game, I would think you would take your time, explore, and enjoy it while it lasts. Instead, I sometimes get a sense that some people actively move forward, as if wanting to finish the game as fast as possible.

Example:

Resident Evil 4 is not a long game by GAF standards, but my first (hell, even second and third) run took me waaaaay longer than the proposed 8 - 10 hour length people talk about. That's cause I explored every corner of every room, took my time to plan my moves and just enjoyed the game at a deliberately slow pace to really take it all in.

 

[storafötter]

Tales of Symphonia is a game that was promised on the back of the game cover 80 hours of gameplay. I used close to half of those.

 

[Electivirus]

I tend to leave my systems on overnight while I sleep, so I usually end up with 100+ hours for 20 hour games. >_>

 

[StarEye]

Tri-Ace games can usually end up being pretty long too because of all the post-game stuff.



Off topic, but two big rules for any RPG, especially JRPGs:

-"Go the wrong way first", IE explore dead ends for extra chests/items/etc.

-You walk from Room A to Room B, where a scene takes place. The scene ends with you back in Room A. Go back to Room B because 90% of the time, there's an item or something hidden there.

I sometimes get annoyed when exploring because of the rule number 1. When at a crossroad, I think "aaaaah, which is the 'wrong' way!!??", and fear that if I take the wrong turn I end up getting past a point of no return, thus leaving potential secrets undiscovered.

 

[Unai]

I'm a slow player, not because I'm bad, but because I like to soak up the atmosphere. I love taking my time to explore every corner, marvel at the art direction and little details, and generally relax my progress. I can always tell I'm playing a game I really love when I'm not consciously pushing myself towards the finish as fast as humanly possible.

So yeah, I'm one of those guys who has an huge end game finish time on the first run. But its entirely deliberate.

Same here.

It took me 50 hours to finish Ocarina of Time 3D and I even didn't do everything.

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

A friend of mine says he's put some 100+ hours in Xenoblade Chronicles and he hasn't even finished the main story... He's quite decent at RPGs so I take his word for it.

I'm at 60 odd hours. Still haven't finished the main story (and I have a ton of sidequests unfinished and loads of areas unexplored!)

No filler either! (almost all of the quests are entirely optional)

 

[GorillaJu]

Depends on what "beating the game" is. To me it's somewhere between a platinum trophy and barebones story completion. Basically exhausting the content until its overly repetitive and no longer enjoyable. Yakuza 4 I've played for 15 hours and have spent almost all of that doing side stuff because there's so many different mini games and such. GTA4 had only two types of subquests so I had a much lower tolerance for them. Beat the story and didn't have the willpower to force myself through anything more

I spent 68 hours on my first Persona 3 play through and 52 on my first FF6 play through back in the day. Those are the longest I've ever managed I think. I suspect I'll easily hit 65 before I finish Yakuza 4

 

[Replicant]

I spent 60+ hours on Mass Effect 2. This counting ALL the DLCs though and playing on Normal for the 1st time. It was slightly longer on hard.

 

[K.Sabot]

I tend to leave my systems on overnight while I sleep, so I usually end up with 100+ hours for 20 hour games. >_>

I beat Tales of Eternia for PS1 without turning off my system.

It came out at around 230 hours.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

I guess I sort of understand what the OP is talking about but his examples are absolutely terrible. Who ever said FFIV was an 80 hour long game? And then you say dragon age is a good example but you've never played it to know how long it is...

 

[Emerson]

I always cut developer's claims for game length in half and it comes out about right. Off the top of my head I can't even think of a game it didn't work for.

They said Oblivion was 100 hours and I spent about 50. They say Skyrim is 300 so I'm saying 150, which is still incredible.

 

[Derrick01]

Every Bethesda game I play through the first time takes me close to 100 hours but I haven't been able to get more than 40 for 2nd and further playthroughs. I guess it's because I already know where stuff is and how to do things but I never thought it would be that much of a difference.

Also, Witcher 2. They said it was going to be as long as the first which was a solid 50-60 hour game and I finished 2 in 30 hours. Of course if you count the second version of chapter 2 that's another 10 hours or so tacked on but I don't count that because it cannot be done in 1 playthrough.

 

[Blader]

Tales of Symphonia + Tales of the Abyss

What the hell were you guys spending so much time on?

 

[Gillian Seed]

I'm a slow player, not because I'm bad, but because I like to soak up the atmosphere. I love taking my time to explore every corner, marvel at the art direction and little details, and generally relax my progress. I can always tell I'm playing a game I really love when I'm not consciously pushing myself towards the finish as fast as humanly possible.

So yeah, I'm one of those guys who has an huge end game finish time on the first run. But its entirely deliberate.

Exactly how i am with my games.

 

[Philia]

That Dragon Warrior VII hours is about right. 189 on average? I spent 246 on that completing it. It was the Monster Park that took forever (based on luck on encountering them) besides the slow grind but man what a fantastic game though. It takes you 4 to 6 hours before you finally do a battle in the intro!

But yeah, I'm a slow player but I do go about slowly in games I'm in love with though. Just to soak up the atmosphere and to appreciate the other finer touches they offer in the game. With that said though, Xenogears took me 80 hours on my first playthrough. I'm loving the fuck out of Xenoblade right now and I'm 140 hours half way in the story after doing 300+ side quests.

With all that said, I did find some rpgs that are obnoxiously shorter than I thought... not that they're bad games at all but just surprisingly lacking in content. Okage the Shadow King is one of those.

 

[EvilMario]

Up to 75 hours on Xenoblade, with a bit left to do. There's a playtime clock on each save file. I could probably spend over 120 hours if I was insane enough to do all the side quest.

That said, if I wanted to rush through the title, it would probably take me more around 50 hours. But I did do plenty of side quest, rebuilt a city from the ground up, mapped out each area by walking around.

Some people stretch, or have no sense of their play times.. but sometimes it comes down to the style of play for each person.

 

[Son1x]

Tales of Symphonia + Tales of the Abyss

What the hell were you guys spending so much time on?

I got only 32 in ToS, 30 in DotNW
64 hours for Abyss, but I did play through the whole thing with a friend and we did quite a lot of side quests.

 

[Foliorum Viridum]

I nearly always half the time I expect a game length to be because of this.

DE:HR I finished in 17 hours, not 50. Twilight Princess took me about 25, not 50. Etc etc.

 

[dark10x]

Honestly, when I see "80 hour+ game" thrown around, I am immediately turned off. I don't have the time or patience for a game that long. It's virtually impossible for a single player game to continue to offer unique content for such a lengthy period of time. Those games almost always devolve into a series of repetitive tasks that require more time than they should.

 

[Rolf NB]

People are different. Leaderboards can be eye-opening. There are plenty of spots on the RE4 leaderboards where people have maxed out the play timer at 99:59:59. I did it in 25. Then I did it again in 17. Others have done it in less than two hours. TWO HOURS.

I've never lied about playtimes, but I suspect people often do. It's an easy way to make a game they love, or a game from a series or developer they want to support, appear "meatier".

 

[Red]

People were throwing around huge numbers for Twilight Princess before it was released... the game ended up taking FAR less to 100%, let alone complete the main quest.

Was almost exactly 45 hours for me at 100%, which I was quite happy with.

The Witcher 2 most recently took 60 hours for me, according to Steam. Single playthrough, Iorveth path, every side quest.

I'm at 40 hours in Dragon Age, and have only finished the mage branch of the story :/

 

[hank_tree]

Dragon Age took me 30 hours on my first playthrough. 7 hours on my third.

 

[-Stranger-]

Persona 4 took me around 110 hours
Dragon Quest VIII took me 120 hours

FFVII & FFVIII only took me around 40 hours
Tales of Symphonia only took 40 hours, but i didn't do many sidequests.

 

[Conciliator]

I think I remember people saying they played 80 hours of Dragon Age. I played 30 something, and completed almost every sidequest.

That's amazing. I put 100 hours into Dragon Age and I didn't even finish it. Game is too long as far as I'm concerned.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

I would like is Persona 3 didnt last 70 hours and lasted 10 or 20 less.
Being my second walkthrough because the first time I nearly arrived at the end of the game and had to leave it becuase of exams and work, that was like 2 years ago. Then I got FES so this month I sarted a new game because i didnt remember much of it. Im at the middle of the game (30 something hours) and I think it drags (also im starting to remember all that happens middle to end of the story).

Persona 4 on the other hand, I dont mind.

But thats probably because I like much more Persona 4's characters, the atmosphere, the detetctive theme, the music... (i just found that you could change the horrible dungeon theme in P3 to other music, and they are much better).
I dunno, I find the Persona 3 characters to "emo" (i know thats not the exact word) for my tastes and they dont act really as friends. Even if the two games are generic anime tropes, I find more pleasant the genric fun anime characters and themes from P4 than the generinc drama anime character and themes from P3.

BTW, is that hard for Atlus to put some fucking RPG minigames in their persona games instead of using the shitty luck factor and text when you are doing something like the crane game in P3. The game would be MUCH better if all that types of draw your look games were some type of minigames.

Apart from that I like to take my time in games with great ambient and some western RPG's.
Western rpgs usually do the encyclopedia thing that make me read all the info about ingame things, and suck lots of hours.

 

[Brandon F]

Star Ocean 3 - 125+ hours for completion(doing everything)
FFXII - 125+ hours(doing everything...minus a couple of the extreme final hunts)
DQVIII - 110 hours(doing everything)
DQVII - 110 hours(doing everything)
Oblivion - Over 100 hours(all questlines and Shivering Isles)
FFXIII - 92 hours(everything minus the final Treasure Hunt achievement)
Witcher 1 - 65+ hours(Everything)

Doing the pure critical path to the ending cuts each of those games to a mere fraction of the time listed, but these are my final logged times.

 

[quickwhips]

is that with or without help online?

 

[Curufinwe]

Resident Evil 4 is not a long game by GAF standards, but my first (hell, even second and third) run took me waaaaay longer than the proposed 8 - 10 hour length people talk about. That's cause I explored every corner of every room, took my time to plan my moves and just enjoyed the game at a deliberately slow pace to really take it all in.

People don't say RE 4 is an 8-10 hour game, not on a first playthru. 15-20 is more usual, and if you really take your time and do all the shooting range mini-games it can easily be 25.

 

[Retro_]

Took me like 60 hours to do everything in okami

longest I've ever spent just completing a game

 

[LuchaShaq]

I'm stagered a people completing mass effect 2 in 50 hours. I wrapped up everything under 25 hours and took more time than I ever did to look around, watch sceneries and go back to hubs for shopping

Reading the planet descriptions/all of the codex takes awhile and I loved every moment.

 

[Seraphis Cain]

I remember when Atari was boasting a 60+ hour story mode for DBZ BT3.

Yeah, it was like ten, tops.

 

[djtiesto]

Honestly, when I see "80 hour+ game" thrown around, I am immediately turned off. I don't have the time or patience for a game that long. It's virtually impossible for a single player game to continue to offer unique content for such a lengthy period of time. Those games almost always devolve into a series of repetitive tasks that require more time than they should.

Dragon Quest VII, for the most part, offered very unique content and interesting vignettes to make the 100+ hours you spend playing it virtually free of filler. There are a few places where the game wears its welcome

Spoiler

namely after you revive "God" and then have to go back to the shrines and rescue the elementals

, but I was impressed that there was enough content to justify the game's length.