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What are the longest RPGs?
- Thread starter ULTROS!
- Start date
MatrixMan.EXE
Member
I doubt many people will be able to finish Witcher 3 on their first run in 50 hours. The game is huge. Bigger than most of the games listed in this thread so far. Dwarfs any Dragon Quest game I've played too for example, except maybe VII and even then they're probably about the same.
Cropduster89
Neo Member
This is true. It might have a map the size of an irl country, but you can see all the content in about an hour.
Dark_castle
Junior Member
That is because since Witcher 3 is open world, it's simply too easy to not stick strictly to the main story and running around, exploring, doing random side quests you encountered along your way of the main quest. JRPG like DQVII don't really have such situations. They're very linear, you move from point a to point b most of the time, constantly following the main story. Witcher 3 had player following a story that branches in and out, often with few side quest, that are not essential to do to beat the game.
Statistic was out there. Consciously just do the unavoidable main quests, skip all exploration, sidetracks, sidequest, Witcher 3 will end up a lot shorter than most would incline to believe. Do the same again for say DQVII, the numbers might just come out differently.
I'm surprised (I guess I shouldn't be) most people don't mention games like Baldur's Gate 2 or Fallout 2, but jRPGs that sometimes involve a substantial amount of grinding. Amount of "content" means nothing too, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Fallout 4 also had great amount of "content", but they felt like offline MMORPGs more than anything - finish a generic quest/clear the location on the map and move into another, level up and gear up. Baldur's Gate 2 on the other hand became a benchmark for cRPGs in terms of sub-plots, making each playthrough feel like starting a new adventure, there's always some side quest, story or event I missed or chose a different path to its completion. Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin definitely scratched that itch too.
Azure Phoenix
Member
Persona 4 topped 110 hours on the game clear save, Persona 3 was about 90 if I remember correctly. Technically I put about 300 hours into Oblivion before beating the main quest, but I don't really qualify that since you can make a straight line through the main quest in a few hours.
LifeBrandRobot
Member
In total the longest RPG I've played was Persona 4 Golden. 134 hours for two blind runs and a perfectionist run.
Dark_castle
Junior Member
Actually, I'm not sure if I trust howlongtobeat now, after seeing that it listed main story for DA:I averages at around 44 hours too. Pretty sure it was way,way shorter if we strictly do the main story and ignore all the filler bullshit or the inner circle quests, which are optional. I am talking like less than 20 hours long.
Isn't FF12 the shortest one in terms of pure story??
water_wendi
Water is not wet!
Most of the main ones have been mentioned already. Was going to say Tactics Ogre but i see someone beat me to it. As for a game that hasnt been brought up yet, how about the longest Ultima-like game i know of.. Deathlord. Maybe its because there were no guides or internet but my and my friends didnt finish it over a summer vacation despite playing for hours every day.
Cropduster89
Neo Member
It has a huge amount of end game bosses and item hunting (re:grind) though, the International/PAL version of 10 is the same way.
ULTROS!
People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
FFXII took me like 35-40 hours to complete. Dunno how it became 120 hours.
mikemandey
Member
As already mentioned before, cRPGs usually have insane amount of content especially the older ones
I've played these games for 70+ hours and haven't finished some of them:
Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale 2, wizardry 8, Arcanum
I've played these games for 70+ hours and haven't finished some of them:
Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale 2, wizardry 8, Arcanum
broncobuster
Banned
Including expansions, Morrowind is my only RPG north of 100 hours in a single playthrough.
Silver-tongued
Banned
Shouldn't you be looking at the time needed to finish all the content? if a game is linear, that simply means doing all the content doesn't require much effort to seek it out. Fallout 1 for example can be legitimately beaten in a few minutes, but that obviously isn't an accurate indication of the length of the game.
There are a few issues with comparing games in this way. In RPG's with voice acting, conversations will take much longer than if they were not voiced, because you read much faster than NPC's speak. Some RPG's have a very high rate of random encounters, while some allow you to avoid combat altogether. In some RPG's large amounts of content can be locked out depending on your choices, in others not so much. Some RPG's take longer simply because the combat animations are slow-paced, while others have faster animations or even let you auto-resolve combat.
TheDarkKnight774
Member
Xenogears (70-80) and Persona 3 (100) are two games where I put in a lot of hours. And Xenogears had cut content. Imagine how long it'd be if it had the real disc 2!
SeeNoWeevil
Member
I can't think of many RPGs that won't top 50+ hrs if you go in unguided and do a bunch of optional stuff. I'm easily over 100hrs in Divinity, but that's partly because the game likes to not tell me what it wants me to do.
Lord of Ostia
Member
All the Xenoblade mentions are funny to me, I beat the game in under 40 hours. I focused mainly on the story, but I'm not sure how so many get such inflated play times from the game.
dreampeppers99
Member
Pyros_Eien
Member
It didn't take nearly as long though, it was just a bullshit statement, like many of them are(devs saying their game takes x hours before release that is). I don't want to bother launching Origin but I'm pretty sure I had only like 50ish hours with everything cleared(not all achievements but that's not what I'd consider content, any game can require 400hours if they have stupid "finish the game 30times" achievements).
I think Skyrim is probably up there, I had a 150+hour game that didn't have everything cleared. Granted a lot of the "content" is kinda crappy, and the core content(main quest+side quests, not just random caves) is quite a bit smaller, but still pretty big.
Divinity:Original Sin was 100+hours on a first playthrough.
Baldur's Gate 2 as mentionned has a ton of content, although I haven't replayed it so I have no idea exactly how much.
Manmademan
Member
FFXII, DQ8, and Persona 3 FES were probably the three it took me the longest to do everything in. over 100 hours for all of them.
I wouldn't recommend the post game dungeons in FES though. what a slog, ugh
I wouldn't recommend the post game dungeons in FES though. what a slog, ugh
I'm not sure there is a longer one than Dragon Quest 7, it took me years to finish (I tried to 100% it) and I still didn't manage to do everything, I can't say how many hours I spent with it but it was way past 170.
I also happen to know that 100%-ing Star Ocean 4 took people something like ~500 hours, that's why I never attempted it.
The same is true for Kingdoms of Amalur, although I'm not sure anyone really 100%-ed it, or is it even humanly possible.
I also happen to know that 100%-ing Star Ocean 4 took people something like ~500 hours, that's why I never attempted it.
The same is true for Kingdoms of Amalur, although I'm not sure anyone really 100%-ed it, or is it even humanly possible.
lightchris
Member
According to http://howlongtobeat.com/ it's actually the longest FF to play through (longer than Witcher 3 btw.).
I think the RPGs I took the most time just for a story-focused playthrough were Persona 3 and 4 with 70-80 hours.
TheMoon
Member
By not ignoring sidequests and actually exploring the world, not just critical pathing the story.
SliceSabre
Banned
Dragon Warrior 7.
The minimum to beat that game is 100 hours. I remember people gave it lower reviews because it was such an insanely long game. I remember I was well within the 150~ range by the time I beat it and I normally finish RPGs much faster than the average player.
The minimum to beat that game is 100 hours. I remember people gave it lower reviews because it was such an insanely long game. I remember I was well within the 150~ range by the time I beat it and I normally finish RPGs much faster than the average player.
how long to beat isn't reliable at all, and FF12 certainly wasn't longest of FF that I played, FFX-2 was, granted that's 3 playthroughs combined, but I don't think you can 100% it without using a guide in less runs, even with 3 is rather hard and it's totally possible to miss some things.
Personally I think I put something close to 170hrs into P3FES and 130hrs into P4 Golden. I tended to take a moment to figure out what I wanted to do any given day and check like every available location before making a decision. I also revisited dungeons or floors in both.
Western RPGs usually eat up north of 60hrs, with Skyrim taking me 110hrs to clear the main campaign. I basically ignored it up to about hour 100.
Western RPGs usually eat up north of 60hrs, with Skyrim taking me 110hrs to clear the main campaign. I basically ignored it up to about hour 100.
AgentLampshade
Member
Dragon Quest VIII is hellalong if you're including the sidequests. Even ignoring them, there's the "true" ending which has you go through an extra super tough dungeon and fight another boss. You are rewarded with another optional 10 bosses or so, prefaced with a dungeon and another boss each time. Then you have to fight them all at once and it gets a bit silly.
From the JRPG I have played the longest ones have been Final Fantasy XII, Xenoblade Chronicles, Bravely Default, almost all the SMT games released on the PS2 (except Digital Devil Saga Vol. 1), Dragon Quest VIII (game is VERY slow and lowkey grindfesty) and IX but I think Xenoblade X has beat them all for me.
I mean, I just completed the Flight Module sidequest and I am at Chapter 9 of
for the main story and yet:
I have not been bothered to do the filler quests, explore in depth the crafting system or even affinity or material grind.
EDIT: Oh shit, forgot to add Tales of Graces f since that game + Epilogue is fucking ace and really long... in the other hand you have Xillia with 2 main characters but thisbis kind of messy since Jude story is really the main one and Milla is more like a shallow complementary material.
I mean, I just completed the Flight Module sidequest and I am at Chapter 9 of
12
I have not been bothered to do the filler quests, explore in depth the crafting system or even affinity or material grind.
EDIT: Oh shit, forgot to add Tales of Graces f since that game + Epilogue is fucking ace and really long... in the other hand you have Xillia with 2 main characters but thisbis kind of messy since Jude story is really the main one and Milla is more like a shallow complementary material.
even 100%-ing, it's not even 100 hours, that doesn't count as long even, let alone hella long!
I think it took me something like 80-90 hours for everything.
Yep, even if you're focusing just for story completion and not every sidequest, it takes 85-90+ hours just to finish the game.
No other JRPG even comes close to DQ7 when it comes to this (for the bare minimum)
AgentLampshade
Member
Haha, well I'm at the 140 hour mark and haven't even finished the trials. That's pretty long for me.
Lord of Ostia
Member
I did quite a few sidequests and a good bit of exploring in my play through as well. Found a lot of the secret areas and such. I didn't bother with Colony 9 though, that might be part of it. Point is, I didn't rush the game, I just did the amount of side content I thought necessary then did the story when I felt I wanted to continue. The story is very gripping so that wasn't a hard choice.
RespectThySole
Member
Baldur's Gate 2
Persona 3
The Witcher 3
Persona 3
The Witcher 3
PastorOfMuppets
Banned
Baldur's Gate 2 itself was easily an 80 hour campaign. When you combine it with the Throne of Bhaal expansion, it easily topped 100 hours.
Witcher 3 deserves a special mention because unlike a lot of open world games, it's main quest is very long and detailed and takes quite a long time to complete. I'd estimate that if you ignored all the optional quests in the game, the main questline would still easily be 50 hours.
Witcher 3 deserves a special mention because unlike a lot of open world games, it's main quest is very long and detailed and takes quite a long time to complete. I'd estimate that if you ignored all the optional quests in the game, the main questline would still easily be 50 hours.
Inferno313
Banned
Oh yeah. I did the main quest, plus maybe 50-75% of side stuff, and hit 120 hours.
hey, I'm not saying you can't spent more than 100 hours in that game, it's gorgeous and fun, the heck I once spent 220 hours in FF7 back in a day when we still didn't know that many of those hints or items don't lead anywhere, simply because of things not getting into the final game or just left unfinished for the heck of it. Revisiting every location many times, talking with folks, searching every nook and cranny will do that.
What I was trying to say, 100 hours is not really necessary to 100% it, then again it depends on how efficient you are.
now I'm scared to play it, still haven't but I will, usually I try to 100% games and get somewhat upset if it takes too much effort or time.
Finale Fireworker
Member
My own supremely pathetic life has been trudging on for more than twenty years. I just want it to end.
have you tried playing those videogames people say are fun? That could help with your problem.
Manmademan
Member
nah, sounds like he just desperately needs a co-op partner
Easily Dragonquest VII. I remember it took me like 110 hours and that was without doing any of the sidequests or grinding or anything. It was just a very long game (iirc it was pretty poor paced too, but it's been a long time since I've played it).
I've put 100 hours in other games (like SMT: Nocturne), but that was because I spent time filling out the compendium, doing sidequests, or grinding (since you need to be a high level to fuse the high level demons). Dragonquest VII was just long.
I've put 100 hours in other games (like SMT: Nocturne), but that was because I spent time filling out the compendium, doing sidequests, or grinding (since you need to be a high level to fuse the high level demons). Dragonquest VII was just long.
Dark_castle
Junior Member
Well there are two ways to go about this. I prefer the purer way, that is to compare just the main story. I don't know about Fallout 1, but it means no cheating out of the game, like I know one of the newer Far Cry game has an easter egg that lets player win early in the game. But actually following the story, playing normally but strictly sticking to the main events, no sidetracking or optional exploration.
Or you could count content as whatever, like going out of your way to pick up random herbs on the ground. That counts as content to you? You could do that in say Witcher 3 and have endless amount of content. Because content is an uncountable matter. Exploring around, fighting enemies to gain exp, counts as content right? Repeat that for many hours, there, thousand hours of content.
Yeah, I'm going with the former.
T.Slothrop
Member
I feel like all Matsuno games are like that. You could run through tactics ogre in like 50 hours, but everybody plays it for a 100 because the cool items and characters take a ton of time to get. Theyre oddly compelling and at the same time off-putting games.