Dark_castle
Junior Member
FFVII is a long game with good pacing. A more difficult feat than short game with good pacing.
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Games with great pacing
- Thread starter The Hermit
- Start date
Absolutely, it's one of the tightest RPGs that there is. Never spend too much time dicking around in menus or dungeons - nothing gets redundant.
Barnstorming
Neo Member
Ace Combat 4 had the best length (short) and pace (fast) out of the series. 5 and Zero overstay their welcome with branching paths and unnecessary in-game sections of dialogue with no action. 6 also gets bogged down in the melodramatic cutscenes.
Ace Combat 4 comes in, blows open the doors, shoots everybody with missiles, and then leaves in a timely fashion, all set to bangin' music.
Ace Combat 4 comes in, blows open the doors, shoots everybody with missiles, and then leaves in a timely fashion, all set to bangin' music.
Zelda: Links Awakening on GB; you always know your goal, fetch quests are short and clear, and dungeons never stop you or force a ton of backtracking. I think it and ALBW have the best pacing in the series, followed by a run of the first game accompanied by the map the game came with.
bati
Member
System Shock 2, Deus Ex (first one, HR not so much), Dead Space 1 & 2.
What these games have in common is that you're mostly left to your own devices, story exposition through cutscenes is relatively minimal. Another important factor is managing a single character instead of a party and either simple or complete absence of crafting, which really cuts down on the inventory management and the mental burden of keeping track of too many items.
What these games have in common is that you're mostly left to your own devices, story exposition through cutscenes is relatively minimal. Another important factor is managing a single character instead of a party and either simple or complete absence of crafting, which really cuts down on the inventory management and the mental burden of keeping track of too many items.
His Majesty
Banned
The Witcher 1 is great in that regard. It allows the story to breathe, gives room for characters to develop themselves. An example is the inclusion of chapter 4. Just when shit is about to hit the fan you are transported across the lake, to a place that has very little to do with what is going on around you at that moment. It is a great moment to come to your senses, reflect on the world and prepare for the finale.
Brainfreeze
Member
This is another good example I forgot about.
I think MGS1 comes very close too, if it weren't so stop-and-start at points with cutscenes and codec calls.
Fancy Clown
Member
Or you know, the entire key card sequence that makes you do a bunch of menial shit right when you're about to get to the climax. Or when you have to go all the way back and get a sniper right as sniper wolf takes down your girl in front of your eyes.
2 & especially 3 are much better paced.
The Hermit
Member
Yeah, portal 2 is pretty much a great example of drag on
And I totally forgot about RE4. Perfect pacing
Superlosia
Banned
Uncharted 2, RE4 and Dark Souls comes to mind immediately.
triplestation
Member
UNCHARTED 2
What? If anything the first part of TLOU drags a bit too much, but by the time Summer ends the game has perfect pacing. Uncharted 2 in the other hand has amazing pacing through the whole game, beggining to end. Resident Evil 4 has great pacing too, but the island in the end drags too.
There is no perfect pacing, but these games are the nearest we got IMO.
So yeah, by that analysis I would say Uncharted 2 is the one game with the best pacing yet. If it wasnt for TLOU's summer dragging so much though, it would be TLOU by a country mile.
possiblyphil
Member
Chrono Trigger and Borderlands 2 were the two standouts for me. I often get bored with games and feel like I am just going through the motions.
Lumpy Onion
Member
Ys Oath in Felghana is a perfectly paced action RPG. Never felt my time was being wasted with padding and needless backtracking. And the little backtracking there was to pick up extra goodies in dungeons was my choice and always worthwhile in the end (felt like Metroid because you used new skills to get them). It had a nice small amount of areas that progressed you through the rather tight story. Story was a simple revenge tale taking place in a single land that didn't try and have stakes with the world exploding. I found that refreshing.
Compare that to Ys Celceta which I feel could have chopped off several dungeons towards the end.
Compare that to Ys Celceta which I feel could have chopped off several dungeons towards the end.
Brainfreeze
Member
I'll admit I haven't played the game in a while, so maybe those parts are worse than I remember, but there's no way MGS1 is worse than MGS2 or MGS3 when those two games force you to mash through like 20 minutes of codec just to gain control of your character (as a single example).
I've just replayed the Uncharteds through the collection and UC3 has awful pacing.
UC2 and UC1 however are both excellent.
The pacing in this game was terrible.
StarFox 64: It's probably the easiest type of game to pace well but in the whole series 64 is the only game that gets the enemy choreography right. The whole level string from Area 6 to the end of the game feels like Tony Scott at his best.
Diablo 2: Many loot games have tried to emulate the sawtooth pacing of D2 but few come close. D3 is probably the closest but unfortunately the difficulty balance in the lower difficulties is too flat and most players won't engage with the interesting combat mechanics.
Diablo 2: Many loot games have tried to emulate the sawtooth pacing of D2 but few come close. D3 is probably the closest but unfortunately the difficulty balance in the lower difficulties is too flat and most players won't engage with the interesting combat mechanics.
digita1alchemy
Member
Contra Hard Corps. Almost zero modern games have good pacing.
CrichtonKicks
Member
I love Chapter 4 in a bubble but honestly it slammed the brakes so hard on pacing that it brought my first playthrough of The Witcher to a dead stop. It took me a couple of years to go back to it and finish it.
My vote goes to Uncharted 2. They made an 8 hour game feel like a 2 hour movie and I mean that in the best way possible.
Especially from Nepal. Chapter 5 -22 has the best pacing I have ever seen in a game. Every encounter, every banter flows from one to the next. I still think that ND somehow did some black magic when developing those parts of the game.
Garrett Hawke
Member
The backtracking at the end of 1 is shit. Backtracking once... ok, fine. Backtracking twice?
Utter filler.
TheSpoiler
Member
I'd say the very first time you run through Dragon's Dogma, it's pretty well paced. This assumes the player is actively engaging in the quests on the board and not running around lost.
You go from a good intro (the first time) that explains the battle mechanics, to a winding down OH SHIT IS THAT A DRAGON HE TOOK YOUR HEART, go to this place fight some huge ass giant, now slow it down with a trek to the biggest city in the game, then FIGHT A GRIFFIN.
It rarely ever got boring or trite for me. It immediately picked up the second it slowed down.
You go from a good intro (the first time) that explains the battle mechanics, to a winding down OH SHIT IS THAT A DRAGON HE TOOK YOUR HEART, go to this place fight some huge ass giant, now slow it down with a trek to the biggest city in the game, then FIGHT A GRIFFIN.
It rarely ever got boring or trite for me. It immediately picked up the second it slowed down.
ispendtoomuchmoneyongames
Member
Both Dangaronpas have great pacing. DR1 eases you into the killing game and then it ramps up from there leading up to a crazy ending, making sure to give you morsels of the bigger picture now and then.
DR2 makes sure to start right in with the craziness because it thinks "hey you've already played DR1, you get the gist of this, we're not even going to go through quite as much story explanation as we did in the first game"
For this year I thought Undertale and Tales From The Borderlands had wonderful pacing.
DR2 makes sure to start right in with the craziness because it thinks "hey you've already played DR1, you get the gist of this, we're not even going to go through quite as much story explanation as we did in the first game"
For this year I thought Undertale and Tales From The Borderlands had wonderful pacing.
OrbitalBeard
Member
OP, I feel like the games you listed all have great pacing.
I'd add Chrono Trigger, Resident Evil 4, Portal 2, and The Last of Us to the list.
I'd add Chrono Trigger, Resident Evil 4, Portal 2, and The Last of Us to the list.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
The beginning tutorial sections are a slog for replayability. RE4 on the other hand, is a masterclass.
Vincent Grayson
Member
I've always felt that the first trip to the future kills the pacing of the game.
Same with FF6 and the first party split.
I'm going to be the odd one out here and say Half-Life 2. I really don't get the sentiment that that type of game being released today would be panned across the board. It's more of a "speed" shooter than anything, closer to the Quakes and HL1 rather than what we know today of the much slower Call of Dutys and Halos.
I agree it's not perfect pacing, but I think the dune buggy section is more guilty of this than the airboat. The airboat section felt fast and fun. That part where the Combine sets that debris on fire and you have to take the ramp and jump over it, or that part where you're driving behind that ship that's dropping the mines, taking down the chopper and then jumping off of the dam. I thought it was all pretty cool.
The on foot sections of the game though are the best paced, bar none. A lot of people see this as a complaint about HL1 and HL2, but I honestly like the situations where your closest save was one where your health was very low, and you have to make a plan to move quickly and get through to the next Health and HEV stations. It gives you a reason to really think on your feet, and think before you start moving and everything just falls together in one swift motion.
The famous bridge in HL2 is one thing that people love or hate, and I loved it. It was a very tense feeling moment and an interesting change of pace from "Here's some Combine to shoot". They found cool ways to use the mechanics in the game, and the Antlion Grub was one of my favorites. I was a little bit disappointed that thing didn't come back in Episode 1 and 2.
I agree it's not perfect pacing, but I think the dune buggy section is more guilty of this than the airboat. The airboat section felt fast and fun. That part where the Combine sets that debris on fire and you have to take the ramp and jump over it, or that part where you're driving behind that ship that's dropping the mines, taking down the chopper and then jumping off of the dam. I thought it was all pretty cool.
The on foot sections of the game though are the best paced, bar none. A lot of people see this as a complaint about HL1 and HL2, but I honestly like the situations where your closest save was one where your health was very low, and you have to make a plan to move quickly and get through to the next Health and HEV stations. It gives you a reason to really think on your feet, and think before you start moving and everything just falls together in one swift motion.
The famous bridge in HL2 is one thing that people love or hate, and I loved it. It was a very tense feeling moment and an interesting change of pace from "Here's some Combine to shoot". They found cool ways to use the mechanics in the game, and the Antlion Grub was one of my favorites. I was a little bit disappointed that thing didn't come back in Episode 1 and 2.
OrbitalBeard
Member
I agree about the early sections of TLoU on replays but I do feel like the pacing is perfect during the first playthrough.
Final Fantasy VI has a killer pace all the way up until The World of Ruin, that literally ruins the pacing, at least for me.
Sword Of Doom
Member
I agree with you that downtime is important but I didn't like the way it was handled in that game. I prefer something like bioshock where between the action you are exploring this beautifully crafted world
I guess I just didn't find the down time in Wolfenstein all that interesting. Felt like a chore and it took me out of the game
Jazzkokehead
Member
There are other correct answers to this question, but this is by far the most correct answer. The New Order's pacing is damn near immaculate.
Wowfunhappy
Member
Pacing is something that far too many games screw up.
I'd say:
-Life is Strange
-Portal 2
-Tomb Raider 2013
-Bayonetta 1/2
Honorable mention to Persona 4—the pacing isn't perfect, but for a game of that length, it's incredibly good.
I'd say:
-Life is Strange
-Portal 2
-Tomb Raider 2013
-Bayonetta 1/2
Honorable mention to Persona 4—the pacing isn't perfect, but for a game of that length, it's incredibly good.
KeyChainDude
Member
Journey. That's the best answer I can think of, by far.
Shadow Hog
Member
They've all already been mentioned, but just to re-emphasize:
Chrono Trigger: A short game, but it's intended to be replayed in New Game+ to unlock new endings, and there's not really any filler to speak of contained therein.
Panzer Dragoon Saga: Also a short game, with nowhere near the number of sidequests Chrono Trigger had, nor its New Game+ mode, but the experience is unlike most other RPGs, keeping it engaging throughout, and the story is kept well self-contained, so it doesn't feel much like it's lacking.
Undertale: Like Chrono Trigger, it's a short game that doesn't have much in the way of filler (well, YMMV on Hotland, anyway).
Chrono Trigger: A short game, but it's intended to be replayed in New Game+ to unlock new endings, and there's not really any filler to speak of contained therein.
Panzer Dragoon Saga: Also a short game, with nowhere near the number of sidequests Chrono Trigger had, nor its New Game+ mode, but the experience is unlike most other RPGs, keeping it engaging throughout, and the story is kept well self-contained, so it doesn't feel much like it's lacking.
Undertale: Like Chrono Trigger, it's a short game that doesn't have much in the way of filler (well, YMMV on Hotland, anyway).
It, too, is intended for multiple playthroughs, but unlike Chrono Trigger, things you did in previous runs that should theoretically have been disregarded when you started a new run instead have a small manner of plot relevance.
Games that stick out in my mind as of late are Until Dawn and MGS V. I know some may disagree with MGS V, but once you get past the intro section I love the amount of freedom you get. I love that game. Speaking of Metal Gear, 3 had good pacing imo. I also think all of the Souls games and Bloodborne are good in terms of pacing. That game is non-stop once you get going, I love it. I guess it also depends on what you like in your games as well.
The first two acts of Uncharted 2 are paced perfectly. Everything after the tank tears through the village drags on way too long.
The Last of Us on the other hand is paced almost perfectly. Boston goes on a little too long, but the ups and downs throughout the game are so well done.
The Last of Us on the other hand is paced almost perfectly. Boston goes on a little too long, but the ups and downs throughout the game are so well done.
Werewolf Jones
Member
Felt like it ended exactly when it should. Never felt bored or rushed.
Only took me 14 hours I wanted more but I do agree, you could always run through it again with length like that.
Obsidian's Alpha Protocol was on similar length too with all the problems it had it was never drawn out or too short, straight to the point. I'd say Majora's Mask is about the same too.