RPGs are known for taking their time. In fact, a campaign that lasts roughly 30 hours would be considered short by the genre's standards. While modern titles have been movin🐼g away from 100+ hour mai🐎n campaigns, the rise in popularity of open-world games has led to an influx in side-content that could potentially double a playthrough's length. If the narrative is well-paced and the hours justified, an RPG cannot be deemed too long.
Rare as they might be, a handful of compac൩t RPGs do exist, and some are also quite fantastic. Here are five RPGs that are surprisingly short, along with five that overstay their welcome.
's data on the average time to com𝕴plet💞e a game's main story will be used as a reference.
10 Short: Suikoden (21 Hrs) 𓃲
Suikoden allows players to recruit over a hundred characters, features a competent storyline, multiple battle systems, and does not waste a single second. Not only can the main campaign be completed in roughly 20 hours, but Suikoden is also nearly devoid of optional content, so even completionists can knock this one out of the park over the course of a week or an intense three-day 🐲weekend.
Compared to its sequels, Suikoden delivers a much-more streamlined and brisk experience; that said, the second and third entries are arguably both better than 1995's orꦐiginal.
9 Lon💯g: Bravely Default (57 hrs) 🧸
Bravely Default is among the better traditional JRPGs published by Square Enix during the 2010s. It features a beautiful world, a solid cast of characters, and some impressive boss battles. The premise is also pretty interesting and hits some excellent story beats along the way; unfortunately, Bravely Default suffers from a lot of pacing issues.
Repetition is a huge part of the game, as the players essentially have to play through the same areas and defeat the same bosses multiple times. Consequently, a lot of users are likely to drop Bravely Default before ever reaching the end.
8 Short: South 📖Park: The Stick Of Truth (12 Hrs)
Although the longer 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:South Park: The Fractured But Whole is probably better, The Stick of Truth is a highly enjoyable and accessible RPG that avoids overstaying its welcome. Fans can explore South Park's iconic town, team-up with the series' legendary characters, and take part in a hilarious "adventure" that genuinely f💃eels like it came out of the imagination of a child.
Battles also make good use of the license's sense of humor to add color to an otherwise basic turn-based combat system. Lasting just a bit longer than 10 hours, The Stick of Truth proves that RPGs do not need to be extreme♎ly long to be great.
7 🗹 Long: Dead Island (19 Hrs) ♒
Blending survival horror, a Diablo-esque loot system, and an open world, Dead Island is a better action game than it is an RPG.✨ After becoming stranded on an island infested with zombies, players complete quests to gain experience points that can be used to level up skills. It is a simple system that works well enough for this type of game; however, issues start to arise when it comes to the story.
Frankly, Dead Island's plot is, at best, nonsensical; at worst, it drags down the entire experience with uneven writing, frustrating characters, and dropped plot points. Stories matter in RPGs and Dead Island needed something better to warrant its length.
6 Sh𝐆ort: Child Of Light (11 Hrs)
Despite being developed by Ubisoft Montreal, Child of Light almost has an indie-esque quality to it. A side-scroller that also happens to be an RPG, Child of Light leads players on an epic journey through the land of Lemuria, as a young girl must rescue the stars, mo⛦on, and sun from the𒊎 clutches of the Queen of the Night.
Thankfully, Child of Light ends just as the🍰 battle system begins to grow stale and the rhyming dialogue threatens to shift froܫm charming to annoying. It is a short but complete RPG from an established studio.
5 Lon💦g: Middle-earth: Shadow of War (21 Hrs) 💜
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Middle-earth: Shadow of War requires roughly 15-20 hours to complete the main story, not counting the epilogue which contains the "real" ending. While bigger than its predecessor, Shadow of War prioritizes quantity over quality; consequently, it is considerably more repetitive than Shadow of Mordor.
That is before taking into account the ludicrously bloated Act IV, the epilogue, that required completing 20 Siege battles to see the true ending. The process was exhausting, boring, and an unnecessary grind. To the studio's credit, Monolith Productions did eventually release an update that streamlined Act IV, altho🌸ugh it should have been liꦚke that from the start.
4 ༒ Short: Under𝕴tale (7 Hrs)
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Undertale is a beloved indie RPG that plays around with the genre's conventions. It challenges players to think about their actions, as it tackles philosophical, psychological, and social themes throughout its campaign. It is an incredibly ambitious project that leaves a long-las🍰ting impression.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Undertale is also pretty short, and that is taking into account the multiple playthroughs required to get the full experience. A single playthrough ca🔯n easily be completed in under three hours.
3 🍰 🤡 Long: Dragon Age: Inquisition (46 Hrs)
Perhaps overcompensating for Dragon Age II's limitations, went big by adding an overwhelming amount of side-content. Almost all of the 12 main areas are huge, take quite a lot of time to properly explore, and feature a lot of secondary quests or character stories. Inquisition's main campaign requires rough♒ly 50 hours tඣo complete, a length that is already rather excessive.
If someone were to do all of the side-content, Inquisition's length can be almost tripled. With the exception of the companion quests, practically none of the optional content in Bi🅘oWare's RPG are worth doing.
2 ♏ Short: Jade Empire (17 Hrs) 🗹
On the other side of BioWare coin, there is Jade Empire, a frequently overlooked 2005 RPG that manages🎃 to deliver a fu𓄧lfilling experience without relying on pointless filler to justify its price tag.
That's not to say Jade Empire could not have benefitted from being a tad longer, as BioWare's eastern-influenced kingdom contains more than enough mystique and mesmeജrizing sights to warrant an extended stay; however, the shorter length does not impede the story and makes the rather divisive combat more tolerable.
1 Long: Persona 5 (ꦇ97 Hrs) 🌟
Persona 5 is fantastic and one of the best RPGs of all time. Along with dungeons (Palaces) f🏅eaturing turn-based combat, a great deal of time is dedicated to developing the social links between the characters. As the campaign takes place over a fixed period of time, and there are only so many h💝ours in the day to develop Joker's relationships and stats, the game feels almost too short when it comes to the social aspect.
However, the same cannot be said for the Palaces. As aesthetically pleasing as most of them are, quite a few of the Palaces overstay their welcome, and they also seem to get progressively less interesting. The worst offender, though, is the Mementos, which are about as enjoyable as the Chalice Dungeons in Bloodborne, albeit ༒with the added benefit of not really being optional.