Final Fantasy 14 the thread.
I jest. No, but really.
You're absolutely right about this.
Balance or 'merihari', as they say in Japan, is crucial to solid game design. This includes the pacing.
Tales of Arise didn't feel that bad to me. I agree that it was unnecessary the way they made it seem like the second half was gonna be really long, but after that point it's a straight beeline to the ending in a rushed third act. I think in that case, they were just keeping with Tales tradition. (A dumb tradition perhaps.) Nothing will be worse than the drudge that was the end of FF15 or parts or 14's run here talk to person A, B, C, and D quests. Still bitter from it all.
This is a common issue these days as everything is about the amount of content. I can't blame companies though. There's so many gamers, even on this very board always going on about how there wasn't enough something or rather. I guess companies are doing things to keep people involved with a game as long as possible for extra profit, but also to hold them out until the next big release.
I will always prefer medium-length well designed games over games with a million different mediocre quests, tasks, etc..