I don't think there is a minimum length or a range where it's "just right." An RPG, or any game, should go on as long as it's built to. I just finished Vagrant Story and clock in 30 hours, and I don't think it could have gone on any longer without becoming tedious. A game's mechanics can only carry it so long before it becomes a struggle just to finish. Hell, I think most games are too long these days, though that may be because of my huge backlog.
I'm gonna go with 20h. My favorite RPG of all time, Terranigma last about this long. Mass Effect was nice as well since you could rush through the game in considerably less than a day (if you just wanted to get through the game on a higher difficulty setting).
In terms of western RPGs, I'm happy with a relatively short main story, but with lots of side stuff. For example, when I set my mind to it, I finished the main Oblivion quest line in about 6 hours, give or take. However, factoring in all the side stuff I did, I've spent about 300 hours playing.
As long as it needs to be so that it can properly convey it's story. RPGs are the most boring when you know they added "x" quests or made grinding a pain just so they could have a higher number on the back of the box.
I would'nt know.. I could never swallow RPGs and their complexity and depth. I only became RPG-tolerant a couple of years ago, and i found that Mass Effect 1&2 has reasonable lengths, whereas i've been playing Oblivion and The Witcher for ages and they just won't end.. I also ditched Fallout 3 and Dragon Age: Origins for being just too.. too long and stuffed with content.
Length is frustrating, man. Too much content is just too much
An RPG should last for as long as it's engaging and fun. If it ends without before you feel satisfied with what you saw, it's too short. If it feels like a grind or you get that fatigue when you haven't seen anything good in awhile, it's too long. There's no one right length. For some games it could be 6 hours and for others it could be 200.
It also depends on the player. I know people who put 200 hours into Fallout 3 and wanted more. I spent about 80 hours on the game and then when I went into the DLC I felt that fatigue.
However long it is designed for. I don't want padding, I don't want a studio to over reach by trying to make it long to appease hardcore RPG fans. It needs to be as long as it can sustain itself.
Don't think there's a realistic upper limit, as long as the story/side quests continue to drive the game forward. The problem is when you have to spend extended periods of time grinding so you're able to compete with a boss.
This's why the Bethesda RPG games tend to kick ass, because the main campaign is quite short (25-30 hours long) and also you can pick and choose what you do and when from a non-campaign related standpoint Fallout 3 had a length range of 25-120 hour gameplay time, maybe even more if you were just playing to to see everything, even the things that didn't give you insignificant info, ie: subways that had no quests in them etc.
30h, everything much longer than that quickly becomes just a tedious waste of time, as the game is either repeating itself or moving at such a slow pace that it just isn't fun anymore.
I want at least 30 hours from an RPG, but usually more. I like being able to level everyone up, work towards getting unnecessary but useful extra weapons or skills and pouring lots of time into exploring every area I can if it's a good game. When I buy an RPG I expect all of these things now so if they aren't there then I'm usually really disappointed.
I think 40 hours is the sweet spot for an RPG but it depends on the story and the gameplay. If the game is good enough then I would prefer it to last longer.
Main line story quest should be 20 to 50 hours depending on the type of RPG. Anymore than 50 for the main story is pushing it. The Persona games, for instance, run too long in the tooth just to get through the main story for my taste.
aslong as the story is compelling and gameplay fast and fun i dont really care how long it is.
Tales of Symphonia is my favorite RPG. advertises an 80+ hour story(i beat it in 60, my friend did it in 30). despite its length the story moves you along quite quickly, plenty of twists and interesting developments. It's the only game that ive beaten 3 Times.(around 60 hours each time)
it depends on the pace of the game. i don't need a fast-paced game like fable to be 30 hours long, but a game with slow, methodical combat with a lot of dialog like dragon age should be around that long, i think.
You know, I think it's about a cost/value deal, even though I don't think most players are hitting on that angle right now. If the game only costs $20 or even less, then you can get away with having only 20 hours of content. When you're dropping $60 for a game, you don't want for it to be worthless to you after 10 hours (as RPGs tend to be after completing them the first time).
There's a frequent comparison to books, and I think that's fair for RPGs, especially those that focus on story. But a paperback costs ~$8 brand new, much less than that used, and you still probably take a few days to get through it. A 10 hour game can be completed in two days (or one if you're obsessed/intent). Maybe using books as a standard is more clever than we thought.
I wouldn't want a Persona game to be any shorter than 70 hours. On the other hand, I think the ideal length for a Final Fantasy game is somewhere between 20-40 hours.
Mass Effect 2 took me 41 hours on insanity with all the DLC, that's a decent amount of time. My first playthrough took around 25 without any DLC on normal mode.
Persona 4 took me around 52 hours, but that's not including the many times I spent dying on boss fights and how much re-leveling I had to do after getting cocky and going too long without saving. @___@
I would argue that even the best games have a hard time beyond the 30+ hour mark, without getting to feel extremely grindy. Of course there are some cases where that rule doesn't apply, your personal opinion and affection to the game, like ME2 I spend a little over 50 hours and completed every single sidemission. But I mostly play singleplayer for the story, and of course the gameplay is important too, but if I feel like the gameplay starts to drag on I will eventually also lose interest in the story. It's a delicate balance of keeping the story moving forward and keeping the gameplay fun and challenging.
A lot of my favorite games have actually been around the 12-20 hour mark, simply because those kind of games have a better pace than 50+ hours games.
Long enough to give me all I want, short enough to not get uninteresting and boring. The lenght of an RPG is not a fixed number, it's the result of intereseting story, sidequests and gameplay put together. Mass Effect nearly nails it, so does Final Fantasy VII.
Here's my question to the general public: How much of that RPG gameplay time do you think is grinding? How much do you think consists of cutscenes nowadays?
Grinding, not much really and some RPGs don't even have proper cutscenes...
RPGs are probably the worst at forcing people to repeat content though. The only RPG I've played that never got repetitious was Kingdom Hearts 2. Those game dev's knew how to make every level a different experience.
The people saying that Dragon Age took them more than 50 hours to complete makes me feel as if I missed out on a lot of stuff. My first playthrough took me ~40 hours and I was sure to explore every nook and cranny of that game. The second one took ~30 hours, I skipped a few filler sidequests in this playthrough. Are you guys playing the game with the Awakening addon or something?
As for how long I think a typical RPG should be: As long as it can provide quality content. Anything more is needless filler. Chrono Trigger is the perfect example of an RPG that knows its limits.
If they can keep the story interesting, and the characters engaging, then I don't want the story to end.
However, on average , a good RPG should last at least 30 hours.; And most of those hours should be based around the story, not extra activity.
For example, I really enjoyed The Witcher 2. But just when I was getting into it, the game ended. Now I'm playing though it a second time and making sure to do every quest and make different choices to get more out of it.
Speaking of which, I really need to update my RPG list.
I think 20 hours works out the best. It's long enough to offer an in depth experience, but at the same time it isn't so long that you start to lose interest.
As long as it needs to be. If you can speed run it at 4 hours, well great, but if you can squeeze out every bit of content at just over 30 hours, well that's awesome too.
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