As a 31 year old father and husband I just can't physically devote that much time anymore to jrpgs. I think 20 to 30 is the perfect length nowadays. I can do 40 or more but at some point it's going to feel cumbersome. I recently sank 88 hours completing the True Demon Ending of SMT Nocturne. I felt so burnt out, and went to play Chrono Trigger for the first time ever. Oh man what a night and day difference. (Mind you, I still consider Nocturne one of my top 5, but it's so hard to devote that much time and energy to one thing)
Dropped the difficulty down toward the end of Nocturne, not because the game was hard, but because I was done fusing more demons. It's not my first Atlus RPG, been there done that. While the world and characters were fun and interesting, the fusing aspect of the gameplay just got tiresome.
For me it's the grinding that all feels necessary in order to prepare for the next phase. I can get by with long games for as long they keep me tuned in to the characters and the adventure that they set themselves in. Grinding gets boring after a while. Sometimes it's also this thought of not wanting the game to end yet. As a consequence, I shelve the game away and not play it for a long time...a really long time.
Yeah the smt games a brutal as an adult arent they? I beat persona 3 this year and I had to use ever bit of my free time over the course of 3 months. By the end I felt so burt out
Over the last couple console generations I've really grown to appreciate shorter and sweet experiences. I love a well crafted 10-15 hour game. I can still get into a 40+ hour game, but they have to be something special with good pacing and combat to keep me engaged. I'd love to see more bigger budget rpgs aim for 20-30 hours.
I would prefer a game that is between 10-15 hours on the first run, but has plenty of reason for repeat playthrough's. Resident Evil games are usually great for this. Chasing special weapons, faster clear times, etc. Mario games, where you reach the end credits and can 'feel' done, but then are left with a ton of extra stuff to do if you choose. Platinum usually makes games like this as well. I used to love Souls games for that. NG+, PvP, challenge runs, different builds, etc.
@@phant0mdummy ye but for me i prefer it to be around 50 - 60 hours main story, because i want to at least get 50 hours in on something that i pay 60$ for. The problem with new jrpg is the price, all these new jrpgs are good and all but paying 60$ for 30 hours of gameplay that you beat in a week and then not touching it again can be expensive to some people. Reason why games like league, valorant, dota 2 are so popular is because they are free, anyone can play it and you get thousands of hours in. Prices is what killing single player games not the players.
I also wholeheartedly agree with your Chrono Trigger take. I also played that game way after it’s release when it came to the DS and as I played I thought “now I understand why this game gets the praise it does. WELL DESERVED.”
The games that can fit the most amount of personality and story into the shortest amount of time possible while still making it seem natural and not rushed is what makes a great game.
@@hyperplayrpg if you play more recent games generally playing on easy boosts experience for your party or reduces enemy stats(either way is less grinding). That could help with future games. Although, I guess it depends on what you're playing a game for.
@@GamingTranceSeer Thank you! You're quite right: Xenoblade 3 allows players to play however they like, with generous bonus EXP and other nice touches.
Try Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming. Amazing game only about 20 hours or so kong for the main game. But by the end it feels like you've been through 40. Just so much happens and so quickly that it just feels like it's much longer. Plot is just good fun as well with a few really standout moments.
My favourite jrpgs for a replay would be these for sure: -The Alliance alive -Suikoden 1-2-5 -Suikoden Tierkreis -Radiant Historia -Chrono Trigger -Shadow hearts 1-2 -Dragon Quest 9-8 -Final Fantasy 5-6-9-10 -Bravely default & Second -The 4 heroes of light -Summon night X Tears Crown -Golden Sun 1-2 -Lunar Legend PSP -Romancing Saga Minstrel song -Ni No Kuni DS -Metal max 2-3 DS A perfect length for a jrpg imo is around 20 hrs for the story, and 30-40 hrs including side quests.
Man, I must have been playing Suikoden 1&2 the wrong way. I see now people saying it should take 40-50 hours to beat. I feel like it took me 20 hours or so more than that to beat 1, and I got burned out playing Suikoden 2 right after and never finished it. I couldn't convince myself to care about more than 5-10 characters. Having 108 or whatever was just ridiculous.
Length is the ultimate reason why I had finished so few JRPGs and played so many. And each time I finished it was for 90% due to an outstanding story which could keep me playing through many hours of boring gameplay.
All that matters is that I'm having fun I don't give a shit if anyone else thinks it's too long I don't care I just want to have fun and as long as I'm having fun it can be as long as it wants, eventually I will finish it.
@UncleJD that's how I was with assassins crees valhalla and odyssey. Such big games with so much side content I got burnt out. Forgot about the games. Came back months later and finished them and loved them.
The length of JRPGs was one of the reasons I got into them when I was younger. I didn't have much money and I could only get a couple of games per year, so the length was super important. However, now I can't play as much as I did as a kid, so a JRPG might take me a couple of months to complete. I have the money to get any game I want, but that means I not have an insane backlog because I just lack the time.
Pacing is definitely the big thing that determines the perfect game time. I think that's why I like FFX so much, the pacing feels just right, and when the game opens up for minigames, it's often at locations where the game makes it feel like you've deserved a little break. Such as Blitzball after Luca and pretty much almost every side quest when you finally reach The Calm Lands. That's also why I like Grandia, you feel like you're on an adventure, and the game never overstays its welcome when it comes to locations, with the older areas slowly locking you out as you progress. And it's always with events that make perfect sense. Can't go back to the starting areas if you've crossed the ocean.
It's not just JRPGs that are suffering from length bloat. I recently finished Pathfinder: Kingmaker and by my estimation I put a bit over 140 hours into that playthrough. Now, part of that is because it's based on the tabletop Adventure Path of the same name, and thus has to adapt literal months worth of playtime. I was also trying to do most of the content the game had to offer and I mainly played with turned-based combat. Both can be changed to cut down the playtime. Yet, I loved the game. It COULD have been much shorter, undoubtedly, but I still enjoyed it.
I believe the main part for me is that when I lived with my parents I didn’t mind being in my room or at my buddies gaming the entire time but now that I have my own life as an adult with a family, job etc I just can’t sit down and fully commit to every 30+ hour rpg anymore
15-20 hours is a great length for me but even short is good too. My favorite thing about Live A Live is the short length of the individual stories. It lets me get in a complete story after work and then I can come back to it in week or two to do another story. It works really well with the stage of life I’m in right now. Also… SURF NINJAS!
FF3 and FF6 are two RPG that surprised me most. FF6 especially, because the post-appocalyptic themed on the other half of the game progress, the map changed creating entirely different places to explore, and this was coming from the 2D era of FF and SNES release.
Have you played 5? It might not be as polished aesthetically or have the same depth story and character wise, but the gameplay and job/class system is so good regardless. FF5 has more than one world too!
Excellent video and dang, the visual scenes were perfect. Blended good points with nostalgic viewing. Couldn't agree more, 25-35h is my favorite game legnth. Its like a single season anime, nothing more than just a tight storyline with a few side bits here and there to break up the pacing a little. Snes and PS1 games just do that so well.
Exactly, but ocassionally an 80 hour XenoBlade is appreciated. Just needs to be done well. Plus playing on switch/steamdeck with a sleep mode is a game changer.
I would say the perfect rpg to me would be like having a decent length on the main storyline (25-35h), but being jam-packed of content and extra stuff, like side-quests that would flesh out the world. I'm actually playing DQ9 on ds, and it is kinda like that. It's nice to chill and go for a quest here and there.
The thing with rpgs is that they should at least be long enough to let you utilize all or most of your skills and the character that you built over that time with a sense of progression. If they end too soon without enough challenging content it feels dissapointing.
I think of it like reading a book. I like books, but sometimes I realize the quality isn't there the whole way through, so I stop and find something better to do with my time. Sometimes, though, It's not the game's fault, but extenuating circumstances that force me to stop. I'll always come back to try again, but even that can be hard because I might have forgotten the story. I like when RPGs give you a recap when you load up a save, so you don't feel lost, and don't have to replay earlier parts. I feel that's a considerate move by the developer that values my time.
I had to restart so many RPGs when I was a kid because I forgot what I was doing after awhile. Agreed on having recaps or some type of synopsis log that you can always go back to and read that fills you in on the events of the game, the Tales series is great with this
I'm in my forties and have been playing through the Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy since last October, putting 120 or so into each (now 40 into 3, maybe half way). These games are amazing. The characters are fleshed out and often funny. Even the grinding is pretty fun. The story is bonkers, but everything is more or less explained by the end. In other words, I still like a long JRPG as long as it's one of the best ever lol. Edit: Tales of Symphonia Remastered just came out for Switch yesterday. Highly recommended.
I'm in my twenties playing through all 4 Xenoblade games. Finished the first one (the wii version because at the I didn't have a Switch), clocking in at about 100 hours. I've been playing X for about 90 hours and feel like I've barely seen half of what the game offers, though I am really taking my sweet time with it. I'm about 55 hours into 2, just a little past the Kingdom of Tantal. Eventually I'll pick up 3, it'll still be on store shelves a couple years from now when I'll probably be ready to play it. I rarely played RPGs outside of Pokémon growing up (and while I thought they were fun, I really don't consider those 'real' RPGs), so Xenoblade was one of the best things I've ever decided to put time into. It's literally changed how I think about a lot of things, I can't recommend it enough to people.
Excellent video. I never got to play Suikoden 1 or 2 but after watching this and understanding they are more of a manageable gameplay length I’m excited to give them a go when the remasters drop this year.
god I wish I could experience them for the first time. Suikoden 1 is one of my top 3 favourite games of all time (along with FFIV and Secret of Mana) the soundtrack is absolutely god tier
Suikoden 1 and 2 felt too short for me Its like a good show that ends in like season 3 but with enough good content for at least 2 seasons more When quality is good you dont mind the time
They are much more manageable with time compared to most other PS1 RPGs back then. They’ve aged pretty damn well I think, hope you enjoy your time with them
I may be a freak, but I like them to be around 100 hrs or so. 50 to 70 hr storyline with about 30 hrs of side quest 🤷♂️ I don't dislike shorter games, but I'm the type that wants to stay in these worlds as long as possible. Lol it's rare if I revisit a game I've completed so that probably has alot to do with it.
@@drnanard9605 you don't play the game in one sitting. You play when you play, then save the game and turn it off, then pick it up later. Whether the game is 30 hours or 200 hours makes no difference to your daily schedule
@@MinecraftMartin it does mate. Do you expect people to want to play a single game over a whole year? It becomes boring quickly. And you lose track of the story and what you're even supposed to do. Adults often have to stop playing for long periods of time and only have a few hours each month.
@@drnanard9605 hasn't been such a detriment for me, at least. I have kids, work full time and am in school. Somehow I've been able to manage whatever game I've got my eye on. Just recently finished Dragon Quest 11. Took me 140 hours and a long ass time, but wasn't catastrophic. I think being busy isn't the factor. It's a mix of your personality and nuances to the way you manage your time, how alert you are to remember where you left off. So to you it does, mate. To me it doesn't. Sorry
Hilarous that you put a clip of the Thunder PLains of FF X😆 I used to think as a kid, I had to complete all of these nonsence side quests. Be a 100% Completionist in every game I ever played. I even spent 400 hrs mastering the sphere grid on the PS2 back in the day. Now I ask my self, why in the hell did i do that? What just so a few friends of mine can see my progress because this was back in the day where you didn't really didn't have social online communities or anything like that. So much time in my opinion wasted that Could have been spent playing other games and with so many games in the world to play, time is everything and as a gamer I have now learned to priorize my self alot more effeciently.
Yeah we spent our lifetime in games cause we do not understand how precious it is and how many good choises around. It is cool that you still playing hard and so like it but i wish in my 15 i rather spent all times to friends and girls than to games but no one told me then how do it right
I completely agree on pacing, even a brief pause on bubble dialogue could add up and kills the flow for me. “If you can't make it fun, at least make it quick”. Combat in ATB games only consists of like 5 actions max per random battle, but ATB add unnecessary layer to make it feels like I already did twice the action. Trails was popular for its world building and attention to details, but sometimes I found that you can cut almost half of the dialogue in it *and still provide you the same details*. I just found “lengthy” is the worst way to implement any sort of content. Yes some games can have that 60 hours contents of worth, but surely some tedious part can be trim down and doesn't reduce any value the game has except playtime. The biggest example is that I never really completed lots of JRPG on PSX, just because lots of it has this “invisible padding” where everything is just slow. Manage to complete them on emulator where frameskip exists, which really helps the pacing on random battle and backtracking.
Skies of Arcadia 🔥🔥🔥 ~40hrs Just replayed it last year, just as good as the previous half dozen times I've completed it! Story, characters, world, gameplay are all fantastic! AND THE MUSIC!!! ❤😭💪 Game needs a remaster-battles could easily be sped up, make it high def maybe even higher poly count, add a couple new places to explore-everything else is simply perfect 👌
I love the fact that you guys have FF9 as your favorite FF cuz thats mine too. Being such, my favorite JRPGs to replay have been Tales of Symphonia (my fav JRPG and game of all time), Kingdom Hearts 2 (second fav JRPG and game of all time) and FF9. Those are my top 3 more replayed JRPGs and games in general.
A person of culture I see, you have some great taste. Tales of Symphonia is my favorite in the series and one of my all time favorites as well, I have such fond nostalgic memories with that one. I had a blast replaying it last year
FFIX tough is hard on replay compare to FFVII or even VIII due to the very slow animation in combat and even how slow the ATB fills compare to VII or VIII, thank god for the speed up option on the Latest ports.
I think my top 3 in order are chrono trigger, FF tactics, then FF 9 or xenogears also I great game I played recently was chained echoes... man so good 👍
Always love your guy's vids. I think were about the same age based on what games you played as a kid, and we seem have a lot in common. Keep pushing videos like this out. I really like the look of the videos and the commentary. In fact, I went ahead and joined your channel. Never done that with a RUclips channel before. Keep the content coming.
Wow, thanks so much. Really appreciate that. Always really cool to see others from the same generation who grew up playing a lot of the same games. Not sure if you use Discord, but I’m going to make a post for our RUclips members specifically later today giving access to our server where us and our Patreon supporters just talk and hang out. It’s a lot of likeminded people from a similar generation so we have a good time in there
Dude I’m 36 and it took me 150 hours to beat Persona 5 Royal. I have heard people beating it between 115-130 hours. Play at your own pace. I enjoyed it.
Excellent video. This is definitely a topic that seems to pop up the older I get. I guess when you’re young and the years seem to last forever, 60+ hrs doesn’t seem all that intimidating. If anything, with all that time I had on my hands, length was never a factor. So of course, as I got older and life became a needy bitch, time became a much more limited resource. At 40, I’ve become acutely aware of how long a game takes to complete and it’s one of the first things I consider when deciding what to play. Now, 10-20/25 hrs is kind of the sweet spot for both my attention and what I’m still willing to commit to. Long-ass RPGs will always have a place, but a tight, well-made adventure will always be preferred. I’m just glad I’m not the only one to feel this way. I mean, my generation that was raised on first-gen Nintendo, PSX, Xbox, etc., and now we’re all busy with lives and kids and careers, and not endless summers with nothing to do but play games. Jeez, this turned into a rant.
Funny you say that 60 hour JRPG's were not intimidating for you as a kid, but as an adult you stick to 20 odd hour JRPGs. I'm the opposite, as a kid I went out a lot so I only had time for short games. Now that I'm older (and after XenoBlade/FE Awakening broke the shell) I find myself "binging" more on long games. Xenoblade, Zelda, and recently Grandia PS1 were really fun games to play over 3-6 months bit by bit. End of the day, Tactics games are my go to. Can play a "level" in an hour, very episodic and easy to stop.
exactly, i just finished Grandia 1. 30 years ago i wouldn't complain much but now i just feel the game can do away with or half the size of a lot of the dungeons to reach the next plot point
This topic hits so hard right now. I’ve always loved JRPGs and wanted the 80-100 hour epics. Now being 35 with a wife and 2 small kids (1 and 3) I get maybe 3-5 hours a week to play usually after everyone goes to bed. While I bought Xenoblade 3 it’s nearly impossible to play it right now. If it was 15 years ago and I was in college with a ton of free time I’d probably be singing the praises of Xenoblade 3 right now. Chrono Trigger would be the perfect length for me right now and it’s pacing is amazing. It’s like watching a Shonen anime without the filler.
Definitely agree with the “games that respect your time” sentiment. I usually skip over crafting and collecting when I can because a lot of the time it doesn’t add to the story for me. Also as a 40-year-old, it’s really hard to go play PS1 and some PS2 JRPGs because I just don’t have the patience. It’s not even necessarily load times, but the long, drawn-out battles. I’ve restarted Legend of Dragoon so many times because the battles just bog me down. I got to disc 4 when I was in college, but lost that save file, and it’s just so hard sitting through the battle system with the long animations, load times, and QTEs. That’s a game I want to finish and want to love, but I don’t feel like it respects my time in 2023.
*Transistor* was one of my favorite recent gaming experiences; despite only being about 5-7 hours long if you're not rushing, it's pure magic. And dirt cheap on any sale!
One thing that makes longer RPGs more fun is if their plot is more episodic, as it you get a story with beginning middle end villains victims and heroes and maybe a mystery to solve in just a few hours then you move onto the next town and get another one. Then it isn't a question of spending dozen of hours to resolve one story but one or two more to resolve the next. Dragon quest 7 did this very well until near the end where the dungeons got too long and each other told part of a story and the villain was a generic ultimate evil dude those name I forgot. Same with 11. That's the main reason I live Sryth - it keeps up the plot density of the first quest through hundreds of hours of gameplay.
Another excellent video! Shout out to the Surf Ninjas (a hidden gem in its own right) nugget at 9:31, and congratulations on the sponsorship! Much deserved
@@GamingBroductions the plot point of the kid's video game affecting real life was ahead of its time for sure. Also I really wanted the video game he was playing to be real so I could buy it, alas that wasn't the case
I remember when I played Dragon Warrior 7 for the first time. I put over 120 hours into it and still had a lot of stuff to do! And this was in the early days of the internet, so there weren't FAQ's readily available.
It’s crazy how long the game is lol, so much stuff to do. I remember spending way longer on some RPGs too back in the day before I found out about GameFAQs and places like that
Great video. I think having the “save anywhere” option and/or a game being available on a portable console like the Switch definitely makes me more likely to go all in on a longer game. I also really like games that make good narrative use of their side quests. I really liked the way Tales of the Abyss did that. There’s actually a lot of lore and world-building for Abyss (so much they couldn’t fit it all in the game) and many of the main characters have their plots developed moreso through side quests than the main story. It makes the main game compelling but reasonable to get through, but then there’s plenty of side content with actual narrative depth if you’re really enjoying the story and cast and want to go deeper.
The side quests in Abyss are indeed super fleshed out, I remember being impressed by how story/character relevant they were and how a lot of them easily could have just been part of the main game. My only gripe is the window to trigger some of them is so small that it’s basically impossible to see them all without a guide. Some of them span across the entire game too so if you miss that first trigger you’re screwed. Love the concept behind the side quests, just wish they would have been a little more forgiving with how missable they are
I agree totally with the pacing of Chrono Trigger. I would have liked a bit more of a complex story however. Another game with about as good of a pacing (at least once you get to Tormund) is Chained Echoes. The plot is almost as well paced as CT and the side quests feel meaningful and usually adds to the world building or the character arcs. Masterful game really and in my Top 5 rpgs of all time.
I have a feeling that Final Fantasy XVI will definitely be a great example of this when it releases in a few months. Hopefully it does well and helps curb the over-abundance of way-too-open worlds in the RPG space these days.
It's very interesting you have clips of Chrono Cross in there because while I definitely enjoyed the game and would recommend it to anyone, GOOD GREIF am I glad I played the remake because some of those battles can really drag on. Other than that though, definitely recommend it!
Great video! I only recently began playing my favorites, and I am so excited to relive and reignite the passionate love I have for games - especially a good RPG. Currently have Chrono Cross, Breath of Fire 3, and Grandia 2 on my list. I can't wait to get going on them! Keep up the wonderful work! ʕ ꈍᴥꈍʔ
Great video! Awesome topic too - I like 20-35 ish hour JRPGs because while I have played some 100 hour games that I LOVE...they take me so long that it becomes frustrating. Takes me 3 months when I could have beat three other games in those three months. I don't want to spend 100 hours on anything really...so it gets tough lol
One thing that makes RPGs long is the battle intros. Like Legend of Dragoon. Every time you entered a battle you get like 10 seconds of an intro. You should be able to turn that crap off! Speaking of LoD, at least they let you turn off the Dragoon transformations!
I think quantity of time is fine as long as it's quality and well paced time, sure, it will take longer and can seem overwhelming, but putting down a game and playing something else for a bit exists, I am a massive Xenoblade fan, and I have 100%'d all the games, but I always broke up my 100-200h playthroughs with other games so I wouldn't be burnt out, except for Xenoblade 3 which was so gripping I stayed on board for nearly 170h straight, though that is a major exception, Xenoblade 3 is my bew all time favorite game, dethroning a shorter end game I adore, Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, a well paces 30h to 100% (which I personally always do lol) masterpiece.
This was an awesome topic! I love this channel even though I rarely play RPGs anymore. As a father of three it’s hard enough to get time to play anything anymore… I got into JRPGs during the PS1 era and that’s all I played! Xenogears to this day is probably my favorite game! But I’m with you on games over a hundred hours. I just can’t do them. Hell, I would have a hard time at 50 hour games… I actually haven’t played any RPGs since the PS1, even though I do own a PS4. Although I think I may pull the trigger on CrossCode. I think it’s the graphical style that is pulling me in. But anyways. I’ve been having a hankering to get back into the genre and those older SNES era RPGs are starting to look like a great option for me since some of them are as little as 10 hours! I’ve got a handful of them from collecting over the years but never played them since I felt they couldn’t hold a candle to the PS1 stuff at the time. (Haha! How naive) One of my most precious games I own is a copy of Lufia II that a good friend and coworker loaned me to borrow and said It was his favorite game. Well the years passed and we both forgot I had it and several years ago he actually committed suicide and I never had the heart to delete one of his save files…. I should though since he told me to play the game and most likely the save battery will die soon anyway. Sorry for the long story, really did enjoy this interim shorter video! Keep up the great content!
That's one way to go, of course the other is modding Skyrim with things like Requiem and Legacy of the Dragonborn, and dialing back the xp rates to the point you've put six months into a character before you have any shot at fighting dragons. Of course I took a break from that to play FF7 (PC) with the New Threat mod.
In my younger years I loved how long some of the Jrpgs could be. It was so much value to find all the secrets, grind those end game dungeons and 'max' every little detail. I poured hours into FF3, Chrono Trigger, Ff7,8, fallout 2, Star Ocean and many...many more. These days I find myself getting a little bored around 35-40 hours. I'm playing through Dragon Quest 8 on 3DS and getting to the point where I feel inclined to start grinding liquid slimes for XP is kinda taking the wind out of my sails (I'm about 40 hours in). I feel inclined to find all the loot... but sometimes that just takes some fun out of enjoying the story and actually completing the game. I think game developers respecting your time us a really good way to look at it. Anything they can do to cut the fluff out (mandatory tasks that don't add to the story) and make leveling more efficient (i.e. fast forward combat in Bravely Default) is much appreciated. The days of me spending 250 hours goofing off on a game are more or less gone with a few minor exceptions. Diablo 3 has been one of my time sinks since release. 😉
Yup, RPGs being shorter is often a good thing. The RPGs I replayed the most as a kid are things like Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars and Paper Mario. The Mario RPGs are usually intended to be good entry games, so they don't overstay their welcome. They're not "overstuffed" as I like to say, so each playthrough doesn't feel bloated, it feels just right, meaning that I don't mind coming back for more if I feel like it. I like a good epic long game that uses that time well too, but it's harder to come back to on a whim. Chrono Trigger is great for this reason too. Part of the point of CT is to replay the game using New Game Plus (the world's first NG+) to go back and find all the different endings, so it makes sense for each playthrough to not be filled with fat that needs to be trimmed off.
I loved playing all the older RPGs like DW1, 2, 3 and FF1-10. Most of them were about 12 - 30 hours which was fine for myself in my younger days. Now as a father working 50+ hours a week I view the hours spend on a game as an forgone investment. Like if I would spend 80 hours grinding FF7 to get all the weapons and stats that would be like 80 hours x $100/hour = $8000. If the game was 200 or 300 hours long then it would be crazy. I could play the game for an hour or two during the weekends but that would have taken a year just to finish one game. That is why I just play something quick like Clash of Clans for like 5 minutes a day and that works for me.
Very well written and concise video. For me after about 30-40 hours of a game I start to feel like I have to play something else to have variety and often forget the previous game I was playing. So the 30-40 hour mark is the sweet spot for myself.
I think smaller, contained stories would be great. Like the games you mention, early FFs, Crono, Super Mario RPG, Lufia, etc are easy go-tos to replay over and over, BUT, I'd love more in their universes. Like, I love FF4:The After Years. I know it's objectively not fantastic, but it's the characters, world, and (mostly) system I love, only 20 years later so I can have more stories. That's fantastic. Meanwhile, I LOVE games like Legend Of Heroes; Trails in the Sky / Cold Steel, but I'll probably never replay them. Their stories and gameplay are beautiful....but they are soooooo long. Great content!
I also played Chrono Trigger for the first time a couple months ago and it is perfect in length. I also loved how in the beginning, your actions have consequences, i.e. the trial. That seemed revolutionary compared to even modern day JRPGs where players answers ultimately leads to the same path. You might get a different response depending on the character but that has no significance to the story - its not a bad thing but I like games with different endings, and boy does this game have plenty! Its very charming and easy to play as well. I did all the side stories for the main characters before the final area. Its now one of my favourite RPGs ever.
I'm really enjoying this millennial RUclips channel. Time is a big factor as we all get older. It's the main reason I don't play games all that often, and when I do, I take long breaks in between. Thank you for the great content.
Coincidentally, I used to have a voracious appetite for RPGs as well, and then hit a wall with RPGs I didn’t finish: Dragon Warrior 7, Final Fantasy 9, Legend of Legaia, and Breath of Fire 3. That’s not to say I didn’t finish RPGs after that. I still finished Suikoden 2, Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, and Final Fantasy X. Even some later longer RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and X, as well as Witcher 3 and its expansions. Also some shorter ones, mainly on the DS and Switch, many were remakes of older RPGs.
@@JFinns There are some 100 plus hour games that I think are totally worth completing, but I feel like they need to have that rightfully satisfying gameplay loop for the individual. Persona 5 is one of my favorite games of all time, but there are other long and we'll reviewed games that I had to drop because I just didn't feel like playing them anymore. Elden Ring is a blast for sure btw.
Alundra 2. Kind of a Zelda clone. Charming world, SFX, music, and voice talent. Got a bad rep because its dev team took it far away from the the original look/feel of the highly acclaimed predecessor. (sort of reinventing the wheel before they even had a cart). But I put it into a category I call "Slice of Life RPGs". Which is akin to Saturday morning cartoons, anime, and video games. Mechanics are a bit clunky compared to Zelda 64 or Mario 64( which were well established at this point), but I enjoy the slower pace and ability to soak up the world here.
I don't think there is any standard perfect length for RPGs in general, there are only lengths that work well for specific games so that the experience of playing it remains engaging and doesn't become tedious or overwhelming in length. Your example of Chrono Trigger having an ideal length for that game is spot on, it's a short and sweet experience that feels satisfying after you've played through it even though it isn't a very long game. The short length of the game is also something that fits well into the replay value of the game via the new game+ feature and the option to seek out different endings in the game. You can do multiple back to back playthroughs of the game and still not get burnt out on it. Another kind of game length issue is regarding RPGs that can greatly vary in length not just due to whether someone decides to pursue extra content, but depending on how the main part of the game is played and the difficulty option that is selected. A great example of this would be Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. If you play on normal mode and go for any of the endings other than the True Demon Ending route (which requires many more boss fights, completing a gigantic dungeon that is more like five dungeons put together, and fighting a very difficult superboss right after the fight with the normal final boss), then you can complete the game in about 50-55 hours. If you go for the True Demon Ending on Normal, then it will probably take 65-70 hours. However, if you play on hard mode, all of these routes will take considerably more time. When going for the True Demon Ending on hard mode, a 120 hour playthrough isn't uncommon. Having the game take that much longer might sound crazy, but you have to be kind of crazy to play a mainline SMT game on hard mode and Especially Nocturne because it is one of the most difficult if not the most difficult game in the series. But I love it like that and wouldn't have it any other way. For me, Nocturne is in a tie with Phantasy Star IV as my absolute favorite game of all time. It's not a game for everyone, but if you have the temperament for it, the game is an extremely satisfying experience.
Playing on my phone is the main way I'm able to play through JRPGs now because I can chip away at them minutes at a time in any small amount of free time whether I'm at home or not. Square Enix has been great at releasing a lot of their catalogue both new and old on mobile and JRPGs are a great option for emulation as well because they don't need to run at a perfect frame rate to be playable (plus the fast forward feature is great for battle startup sequences)
Although I have played Chrono Trigger and Dragon Warrior VII. I haven't beaten both. Both have the same episodical tales: Visit a new place, recollect info, defeat the villian. And your actions affects in the story. But Chrono Trigger has a following storyline. If you don't remember what you did after stopped playing for a long time, you cannot remember what you did in the past, and if the actions you made affected the storyline. Dragon Warrior VII has a episodic storyline. What you did in the past only affects the present, but it didn't affect the storyline outside of gathering some items. People nowadays wants to play a quick game to play another one. But back in the day, If you only had one game, you played over and over, playing and exchanging secrets at the school, even making your own walkthrough to beat that specific game. I play to fully complete the games, even completing the bestiary and the items, and I do that for fully enjoy the game it was made. I left the play a game and move to the next one dynamic. I have 180 hours playing Dragon Warrior VII since 2020, and I look back to play, because there's so much content, you can do so many things, like collecting monsters, try a lot of classes or even talk to the villagers to talk with my party afterwards, the story becomes an optional thing. In Chrono Trigger, you can do so many things, but if everything changes, you have the fear to complete the other way around to see what's happen, because these change turn around the storyline to another outcome.
We had access to a much smaller pool of games back in the day and most of us were kids so the amount we could buy was also limited. Long or replayable games were a much bigger deal. Now we have an oversaturation of games, life stretching our time thin, and shorter attention spans. In the 90s we needed to make a handful of games last. Now we need to squeeze games into our limited free time. Of course we switched from long to short games.
CT and the early Suikoden games are in a sweet spot. 20-25 hours, not weighed down by a ton of obnoxious grinding. Although they could've pushed out another 5-10 hours and no one would've minded, they gave you a complete experience and didn't overstay their welcome. I loved DQ 11, and spent 100 hours on it, but those last 10 hours or so on chapter 3 really started to become a slog.
One thing I think nearly every JRPG should start implementing is a chapter select feature in new game plus. NieR Automata and Final Fantasy VII Remake have this and it's glorious. Super long, linear games like Persona 5 or a Trails of Cold Steel game would be so much more replayable if you could skip around to just the sections of the game you want to replay.
I play only jrpg games. Is spending time issue for me? No, because there are not enough game releases. And i am picky what i play, but 100+ hours is no issue for me Still loving the genre so much!
I used to listen to the song that plays during the outro all the time a couple months after it dropped and I just got hit with nostalgia hard lmao great vid too
Chrono trigger is one of the few jrpgs I've actually finished. Breath of the wild is one of the few open world games I've actually finished. Both games have something in common: they give context and motivation to the amount of time you spend playing them. In fact, both of them have the exact same gimmick of letting you face the final boss basically whenever you want past a specific point marking the end of the more linear parts of the game (accessing end of time and finishing plateau respectively). Both games place a clear endpoint right in front of you and I find it more motivating to face a vastly superior foe or extremely dangerous territory as a matter of gameplay rather than a matter of plot (looking at you, every single scripted loss where the enemy is scaled to your current level despite being presented as extremely powerful)
20 hours is usually the make or break for me. I drop a lot of JRPGs at this point because they haven't given me enough to want to play them for another 40+ hours. Or I burn myself out on them, take a break, forget everything in the story, and then not come back because I'd either have to restart or continue playing at that 20 hour mark while not remembering anything about the story.
Skies of Arcadia, could have been one of my favorite JRPG's of all time. But the long drawn out battles took it from a top tier game, to just a good game.
I loved Chrono Trigger and I mostly agree. But I think that its pacing breaks down at the end when they introduce character side quests and the lizard village.
In the battle between Quantity and Quality I think the advancement of technology has added another layer of complexity. Being a big RPG isn't bad, but it needs assistance to help players see the end. We've all at some point dropped a big RPG (due to life or a new game or something coming up) and when you return, you don't recall where to go or what to do. Kingdom Hearts 2 has this big Journal that keeps you informed on what's been happening, making it easy to jump back in, despite the length of the game. Similarly, remasters of old games often include a way to speed up battles, which can make all the difference. Typically, the longer a JRPG, the bigger build up it can have in terms of story and how powerful your team can be (which to me is the fun part, the customization and growth of characters through skill trees or other upgrade choices). It's why games like Live A Live are so rare, turn based benefits from having more time, not less. Triangle Strategy does both I think. Either you finish with 40 and call it, or you go for a second playthrough and nearly double your time. However the 80 hours doesn't feel daunting because the constant voice acting push the story forward, and other paths offer new characters and battles. It also has a War Chronicle that shows the path of the story and the path you've taken so far. Hopefully more new games follow suit. FF6 and Chrono Trigger differ greatly in length, but they both allow you to explore the whole world and see things through. I don't need Trigger to be longer or FF6 to be shorter, they are both excellent. An ideal length is irrelevant since each game is so different in every way, despite being on the same system.
I was excited to play Dragon Quest 11, however, two-thirds of the way through i was dragging feet and wishing it end already. And when i finished it i was still angry how they kept dragging it out that i didn't feel a sense of accomplishment and decided to not play another dragon quest game again.
You can also make the long grind or some of the extra length, optional content, such as when near the end of a game the world opens up to you to explore and revisit places. That way your initial play through can be as long as you want of it, and replays can be done much quicker, or you can select which side content you care about for like your main characters special weapon or something.
For me about 30-40 hours is the sweet spot. I'm in my 30s and have a family to think about now so I don't have an infinite amount of time to devote to games anymore. I just finished a "get all the achievements" run of FF7 on Steam and it took about 60 hours to do all the sidequests and grind all the materia to master level. I really felt the grind the last 16 hours or so.
Quality of time is one of the big reasons why I enjoy Fire Emblem Engage a lot more than Three Houses and its much more replayable for me. 3 Houses has 4 different routes and much more detailed customisation of all the different characters you can use and its up to the player when different people are recruited, while Engage only has one route and every character joins at a different set time. In theory this means that 3 Houses should be more replayable but the first half of the game being mostly the same every time, 3 of the 4 routes being very similar and the repetitive downtime really drags on the experience so its hard to actually get to enjoy the whole game. Engage meanwhile has the exact same story and maps every playthrough, but the level design and overall gameplay is much tighter, and the difference in game knowledge and what characters and classes I use varies my playthroughs in a very natural way. Also helps that the downtime between chapters, while less fleshed out is also much briefer and I don’t feel like I’m losing much by not doing the minigames.
30hrs is the perfect length and varying amounts for meaningful side content and dlc. I do enjoy replaying Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger. Along with Kingdom Hearts because it's in my comfort for length. That said, Persona's gameplay loop can keep someone like me who is certain the long time is too much held in almost to the end. I choked in P4G at the final dungeon because of difficulty setback causing me to lose patience. An amazing thing that, to disrupt one's high with a weird difficulty spike, despite being right at the end. I went back to it sometime last year to begin the process of grinding. So, I'll see it done *eventually*
As a 31 year old father and husband I just can't physically devote that much time anymore to jrpgs. I think 20 to 30 is the perfect length nowadays. I can do 40 or more but at some point it's going to feel cumbersome. I recently sank 88 hours completing the True Demon Ending of SMT Nocturne. I felt so burnt out, and went to play Chrono Trigger for the first time ever. Oh man what a night and day difference. (Mind you, I still consider Nocturne one of my top 5, but it's so hard to devote that much time and energy to one thing)
Dropped the difficulty down toward the end of Nocturne, not because the game was hard, but because I was done fusing more demons.
It's not my first Atlus RPG, been there done that. While the world and characters were fun and interesting, the fusing aspect of the gameplay just got tiresome.
For me it's the grinding that all feels necessary in order to prepare for the next phase. I can get by with long games for as long they keep me tuned in to the characters and the adventure that they set themselves in. Grinding gets boring after a while.
Sometimes it's also this thought of not wanting the game to end yet. As a consequence, I shelve the game away and not play it for a long time...a really long time.
Yeah the smt games a brutal as an adult arent they? I beat persona 3 this year and I had to use ever bit of my free time over the course of 3 months. By the end I felt so burt out
Pouring one out for a fellow true demon nocturne ending person. ✌️
I absolutely agree, 36 year old father of 5 checking in. I’ll take a shorter rpg any day these days. Time simply does not exist anymore
Over the last couple console generations I've really grown to appreciate shorter and sweet experiences. I love a well crafted 10-15 hour game. I can still get into a 40+ hour game, but they have to be something special with good pacing and combat to keep me engaged. I'd love to see more bigger budget rpgs aim for 20-30 hours.
Same. I just finished cloudpunk. Only about 10 hours, but there’s so little fluff that the story hits way harder.
I would prefer a game that is between 10-15 hours on the first run, but has plenty of reason for repeat playthrough's.
Resident Evil games are usually great for this. Chasing special weapons, faster clear times, etc.
Mario games, where you reach the end credits and can 'feel' done, but then are left with a ton of extra stuff to do if you choose.
Platinum usually makes games like this as well. I used to love Souls games for that. NG+, PvP, challenge runs, different builds, etc.
@@phant0mdummy ye but for me i prefer it to be around 50 - 60 hours main story, because i want to at least get 50 hours in on something that i pay 60$ for. The problem with new jrpg is the price, all these new jrpgs are good and all but paying 60$ for 30 hours of gameplay that you beat in a week and then not touching it again can be expensive to some people. Reason why games like league, valorant, dota 2 are so popular is because they are free, anyone can play it and you get thousands of hours in. Prices is what killing single player games not the players.
I also wholeheartedly agree with your Chrono Trigger take. I also played that game way after it’s release when it came to the DS and as I played I thought “now I understand why this game gets the praise it does. WELL DESERVED.”
The games that can fit the most amount of personality and story into the shortest amount of time possible while still making it seem natural and not rushed is what makes a great game.
Very good! Sounds like you know your stuff. Which examples can you think of, please (apart from those mentioned in the vid, of course)?
@@hyperplayrpg if you play more recent games generally playing on easy boosts experience for your party or reduces enemy stats(either way is less grinding). That could help with future games. Although, I guess it depends on what you're playing a game for.
@@GamingTranceSeer Thank you! You're quite right: Xenoblade 3 allows players to play however they like, with generous bonus EXP and other nice touches.
Try Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming. Amazing game only about 20 hours or so kong for the main game. But by the end it feels like you've been through 40. Just so much happens and so quickly that it just feels like it's much longer. Plot is just good fun as well with a few really standout moments.
@@hyperplayrpg a short hike
My favourite jrpgs for a replay would be these for sure:
-The Alliance alive
-Suikoden 1-2-5
-Suikoden Tierkreis
-Radiant Historia
-Chrono Trigger
-Shadow hearts 1-2
-Dragon Quest 9-8
-Final Fantasy 5-6-9-10
-Bravely default & Second
-The 4 heroes of light
-Summon night X Tears Crown
-Golden Sun 1-2
-Lunar Legend PSP
-Romancing Saga Minstrel song
-Ni No Kuni DS
-Metal max 2-3 DS
A perfect length for a jrpg imo is around 20 hrs for the story, and 30-40 hrs including side quests.
I seriously need to steal your list)
Man, I must have been playing Suikoden 1&2 the wrong way. I see now people saying it should take 40-50 hours to beat. I feel like it took me 20 hours or so more than that to beat 1, and I got burned out playing Suikoden 2 right after and never finished it. I couldn't convince myself to care about more than 5-10 characters. Having 108 or whatever was just ridiculous.
Length is the ultimate reason why I had finished so few JRPGs and played so many. And each time I finished it was for 90% due to an outstanding story which could keep me playing through many hours of boring gameplay.
I remember ps1 games like ff9 8 and 7 being multiple disks and loving it!
me too! And they weren´t full of lame side quests or backtracking either. It was quality from the beginning to the end!
@Steven Goodman exactly. Today's 100hr games r big but it's got too much filler not enough substance
Word i remember when your mom was multiple disks
All that matters is that I'm having fun I don't give a shit if anyone else thinks it's too long I don't care I just want to have fun and as long as I'm having fun it can be as long as it wants, eventually I will finish it.
@UncleJD that's how I was with assassins crees valhalla and odyssey. Such big games with so much side content I got burnt out. Forgot about the games. Came back months later and finished them and loved them.
The length of JRPGs was one of the reasons I got into them when I was younger. I didn't have much money and I could only get a couple of games per year, so the length was super important. However, now I can't play as much as I did as a kid, so a JRPG might take me a couple of months to complete. I have the money to get any game I want, but that means I not have an insane backlog because I just lack the time.
Pacing is definitely the big thing that determines the perfect game time. I think that's why I like FFX so much, the pacing feels just right, and when the game opens up for minigames, it's often at locations where the game makes it feel like you've deserved a little break. Such as Blitzball after Luca and pretty much almost every side quest when you finally reach The Calm Lands.
That's also why I like Grandia, you feel like you're on an adventure, and the game never overstays its welcome when it comes to locations, with the older areas slowly locking you out as you progress. And it's always with events that make perfect sense. Can't go back to the starting areas if you've crossed the ocean.
Grandia has amazing pacing. You keep finding a bigger and bigger world and your characters grow naturally.
Agreed
Xenogears OST gave me goosebumps, still the best JRPG ever made imo (even counting CD2 )
It's not just JRPGs that are suffering from length bloat. I recently finished Pathfinder: Kingmaker and by my estimation I put a bit over 140 hours into that playthrough. Now, part of that is because it's based on the tabletop Adventure Path of the same name, and thus has to adapt literal months worth of playtime. I was also trying to do most of the content the game had to offer and I mainly played with turned-based combat. Both can be changed to cut down the playtime. Yet, I loved the game. It COULD have been much shorter, undoubtedly, but I still enjoyed it.
I believe the main part for me is that when I lived with my parents I didn’t mind being in my room or at my buddies gaming the entire time but now that I have my own life as an adult with a family, job etc I just can’t sit down and fully commit to every 30+ hour rpg anymore
15-20 hours is a great length for me but even short is good too. My favorite thing about Live A Live is the short length of the individual stories. It lets me get in a complete story after work and then I can come back to it in week or two to do another story. It works really well with the stage of life I’m in right now.
Also… SURF NINJAS!
Xenogears is one of my favorite games ever! But I do rarely like super super long games. Unless like you said, well paced!
FF3 and FF6 are two RPG that surprised me most. FF6 especially, because the post-appocalyptic themed on the other half of the game progress, the map changed creating entirely different places to explore, and this was coming from the 2D era of FF and SNES release.
Notice how they never even mentioned this game, but plugged ChronoTrigger over and over?
Lame.
Have you played 5? It might not be as polished aesthetically or have the same depth story and character wise, but the gameplay and job/class system is so good regardless. FF5 has more than one world too!
@@Liminal-Escalator Yeah FF5 job system is like the upgraded version of FF3.
@@mrdeatheli Maybe he (the content creator) haven't played FF6 yet, so he cannot put it on the list? No need to be that salty
Excellent video and dang, the visual scenes were perfect. Blended good points with nostalgic viewing. Couldn't agree more, 25-35h is my favorite game legnth. Its like a single season anime, nothing more than just a tight storyline with a few side bits here and there to break up the pacing a little. Snes and PS1 games just do that so well.
Exactly, but ocassionally an 80 hour XenoBlade is appreciated.
Just needs to be done well.
Plus playing on switch/steamdeck with a sleep mode is a game changer.
Speaking of quality; Mitsuda’s soundtrack to CC ❤❤❤ Best video game soundtrack ever created.
I would say the perfect rpg to me would be like having a decent length on the main storyline (25-35h), but being jam-packed of content and extra stuff, like side-quests that would flesh out the world.
I'm actually playing DQ9 on ds, and it is kinda like that. It's nice to chill and go for a quest here and there.
Thats what i like with FF7 crisis core, its perfect for short bursts of play.
Sure, that has got to do with its portable roots..
The thing with rpgs is that they should at least be long enough to let you utilize all or most of your skills and the character that you built over that time with a sense of progression. If they end too soon without enough challenging content it feels dissapointing.
FF12 still has some of the best end/post-game to this day for this exact reason.
Thumbs up for that 90 plus hour Xenogears playthrough. Good club to be in.
An awesome club for sure. After all those hours it was bittersweet to finally beat it
@@GamingBroductions I have both dreams and nightmares of what could have been, had they the time and budget to properly do the second disc.
The last dungeon alone was probably 30 hours of finding out where to go
I think of it like reading a book. I like books, but sometimes I realize the quality isn't there the whole way through, so I stop and find something better to do with my time.
Sometimes, though, It's not the game's fault, but extenuating circumstances that force me to stop. I'll always come back to try again, but even that can be hard because I might have forgotten the story. I like when RPGs give you a recap when you load up a save, so you don't feel lost, and don't have to replay earlier parts. I feel that's a considerate move by the developer that values my time.
Well said. That's why a website like timetobeat is so valuable. Know in advance of the necessary time commitment.
I had to restart so many RPGs when I was a kid because I forgot what I was doing after awhile. Agreed on having recaps or some type of synopsis log that you can always go back to and read that fills you in on the events of the game, the Tales series is great with this
I'm in my forties and have been playing through the Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy since last October, putting 120 or so into each (now 40 into 3, maybe half way).
These games are amazing. The characters are fleshed out and often funny. Even the grinding is pretty fun. The story is bonkers, but everything is more or less explained by the end.
In other words, I still like a long JRPG as long as it's one of the best ever lol.
Edit: Tales of Symphonia Remastered just came out for Switch yesterday. Highly recommended.
I'm in my twenties playing through all 4 Xenoblade games. Finished the first one (the wii version because at the I didn't have a Switch), clocking in at about 100 hours. I've been playing X for about 90 hours and feel like I've barely seen half of what the game offers, though I am really taking my sweet time with it. I'm about 55 hours into 2, just a little past the Kingdom of Tantal. Eventually I'll pick up 3, it'll still be on store shelves a couple years from now when I'll probably be ready to play it. I rarely played RPGs outside of Pokémon growing up (and while I thought they were fun, I really don't consider those 'real' RPGs), so Xenoblade was one of the best things I've ever decided to put time into. It's literally changed how I think about a lot of things, I can't recommend it enough to people.
@@Sacren365 I don't have a Wii U so I can't play X. Hopefully it will be ported to Switch since 3 was so successful (GOTY nominations).
Gameplay has to keep me engaged. Legend of Dragoon, FF7, FF8, Wild Arms 1 has fun gameplay that will keep you hooked for that long time.
Excellent video. I never got to play Suikoden 1 or 2 but after watching this and understanding they are more of a manageable gameplay length I’m excited to give them a go when the remasters drop this year.
god I wish I could experience them for the first time. Suikoden 1 is one of my top 3 favourite games of all time (along with FFIV and Secret of Mana) the soundtrack is absolutely god tier
Suikoden 1 and 2 felt too short for me
Its like a good show that ends in like season 3 but with enough good content for at least 2 seasons more
When quality is good you dont mind the time
They are much more manageable with time compared to most other PS1 RPGs back then. They’ve aged pretty damn well I think, hope you enjoy your time with them
@@GamingBroductions 5:59 HOW did you get to walk around on that map in that timeline?!
I may be a freak, but I like them to be around 100 hrs or so. 50 to 70 hr storyline with about 30 hrs of side quest 🤷♂️ I don't dislike shorter games, but I'm the type that wants to stay in these worlds as long as possible. Lol it's rare if I revisit a game I've completed so that probably has alot to do with it.
Yeah I feel that. So many games out these days. Harder to revisit games you played when your list is longer
Ok but you probably have more time than most. Try playing JRPG when you have a family and a full-time job.
@@drnanard9605 you don't play the game in one sitting. You play when you play, then save the game and turn it off, then pick it up later. Whether the game is 30 hours or 200 hours makes no difference to your daily schedule
@@MinecraftMartin it does mate. Do you expect people to want to play a single game over a whole year? It becomes boring quickly. And you lose track of the story and what you're even supposed to do. Adults often have to stop playing for long periods of time and only have a few hours each month.
@@drnanard9605 hasn't been such a detriment for me, at least. I have kids, work full time and am in school. Somehow I've been able to manage whatever game I've got my eye on. Just recently finished Dragon Quest 11. Took me 140 hours and a long ass time, but wasn't catastrophic.
I think being busy isn't the factor. It's a mix of your personality and nuances to the way you manage your time, how alert you are to remember where you left off.
So to you it does, mate. To me it doesn't. Sorry
I think you hit it on the mark. Just goes down to how much we are enjoying a game and how long it can keep us engaged.
I love JRPG with branching storyline and post game content like Chrono Cross.
Ff7 is also pretty open ended
Great video. This is why I loved Chained Echoes so much. It had incredible pacing. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves Chrono Trigger.
Totally agree. It's the only rpg in years that I haven't given up on!
Hilarous that you put a clip of the Thunder PLains of FF X😆 I used to think as a kid, I had to complete all of these nonsence side quests. Be a 100% Completionist in every game I ever played. I even spent 400 hrs mastering the sphere grid on the PS2 back in the day. Now I ask my self, why in the hell did i do that? What just so a few friends of mine can see my progress because this was back in the day where you didn't really didn't have social online communities or anything like that. So much time in my opinion wasted that Could have been spent playing other games and with so many games in the world to play, time is everything and as a gamer I have now learned to priorize my self alot more effeciently.
Yeah we spent our lifetime in games cause we do not understand how precious it is and how many good choises around. It is cool that you still playing hard and so like it but i wish in my 15 i rather spent all times to friends and girls than to games but no one told me then how do it right
I completely agree on pacing, even a brief pause on bubble dialogue could add up and kills the flow for me. “If you can't make it fun, at least make it quick”.
Combat in ATB games only consists of like 5 actions max per random battle, but ATB add unnecessary layer to make it feels like I already did twice the action.
Trails was popular for its world building and attention to details, but sometimes I found that you can cut almost half of the dialogue in it *and still provide you the same details*. I just found “lengthy” is the worst way to implement any sort of content. Yes some games can have that 60 hours contents of worth, but surely some tedious part can be trim down and doesn't reduce any value the game has except playtime.
The biggest example is that I never really completed lots of JRPG on PSX, just because lots of it has this “invisible padding” where everything is just slow. Manage to complete them on emulator where frameskip exists, which really helps the pacing on random battle and backtracking.
Skies of Arcadia 🔥🔥🔥
~40hrs
Just replayed it last year, just as good as the previous half dozen times I've completed it! Story, characters, world, gameplay are all fantastic! AND THE MUSIC!!! ❤😭💪 Game needs a remaster-battles could easily be sped up, make it high def maybe even higher poly count, add a couple new places to explore-everything else is simply perfect 👌
This just popped up on my feed and I’m listening to it first thing when I get to work this evening. Thanks dudes!
No problem dude, hope you enjoyed it!
I love the fact that you guys have FF9 as your favorite FF cuz thats mine too. Being such, my favorite JRPGs to replay have been Tales of Symphonia (my fav JRPG and game of all time), Kingdom Hearts 2 (second fav JRPG and game of all time) and FF9. Those are my top 3 more replayed JRPGs and games in general.
A person of culture I see, you have some great taste. Tales of Symphonia is my favorite in the series and one of my all time favorites as well, I have such fond nostalgic memories with that one. I had a blast replaying it last year
FFIX tough is hard on replay compare to FFVII or even VIII due to the very slow animation in combat and even how slow the ATB fills compare to VII or VIII, thank god for the speed up option on the Latest ports.
I think my top 3 in order are chrono trigger, FF tactics, then FF 9 or xenogears also I great game I played recently was chained echoes... man so good 👍
@@noble61483 playing chained echoes now, the story has been a pretty wild ride so far
@@CubicleJ0ckey agreed protagonist has a ff7 or xenogears vibe to it. It was done so well!
Always love your guy's vids. I think were about the same age based on what games you played as a kid, and we seem have a lot in common. Keep pushing videos like this out. I really like the look of the videos and the commentary. In fact, I went ahead and joined your channel. Never done that with a RUclips channel before. Keep the content coming.
Wow, thanks so much. Really appreciate that. Always really cool to see others from the same generation who grew up playing a lot of the same games.
Not sure if you use Discord, but I’m going to make a post for our RUclips members specifically later today giving access to our server where us and our Patreon supporters just talk and hang out. It’s a lot of likeminded people from a similar generation so we have a good time in there
Dude I’m 36 and it took me 150 hours to beat Persona 5 Royal. I have heard people beating it between 115-130 hours. Play at your own pace. I enjoyed it.
Excellent video.
This is definitely a topic that seems to pop up the older I get. I guess when you’re young and the years seem to last forever, 60+ hrs doesn’t seem all that intimidating. If anything, with all that time I had on my hands, length was never a factor. So of course, as I got older and life became a needy bitch, time became a much more limited resource. At 40, I’ve become acutely aware of how long a game takes to complete and it’s one of the first things I consider when deciding what to play. Now, 10-20/25 hrs is kind of the sweet spot for both my attention and what I’m still willing to commit to. Long-ass RPGs will always have a place, but a tight, well-made adventure will always be preferred. I’m just glad I’m not the only one to feel this way. I mean, my generation that was raised on first-gen Nintendo, PSX, Xbox, etc., and now we’re all busy with lives and kids and careers, and not endless summers with nothing to do but play games.
Jeez, this turned into a rant.
Funny you say that 60 hour JRPG's were not intimidating for you as a kid, but as an adult you stick to 20 odd hour JRPGs.
I'm the opposite, as a kid I went out a lot so I only had time for short games. Now that I'm older (and after XenoBlade/FE Awakening broke the shell) I find myself "binging" more on long games.
Xenoblade, Zelda, and recently Grandia PS1 were really fun games to play over 3-6 months bit by bit.
End of the day, Tactics games are my go to. Can play a "level" in an hour, very episodic and easy to stop.
exactly, i just finished Grandia 1. 30 years ago i wouldn't complain much but now i just feel the game can do away with or half the size of a lot of the dungeons to reach the next plot point
This topic hits so hard right now. I’ve always loved JRPGs and wanted the 80-100 hour epics. Now being 35 with a wife and 2 small kids (1 and 3) I get maybe 3-5 hours a week to play usually after everyone goes to bed. While I bought Xenoblade 3 it’s nearly impossible to play it right now. If it was 15 years ago and I was in college with a ton of free time I’d probably be singing the praises of Xenoblade 3 right now.
Chrono Trigger would be the perfect length for me right now and it’s pacing is amazing. It’s like watching a Shonen anime without the filler.
Get a deck. 20 minute gaming intervals will add up and chew games down.
Get a deck. 20 minute gaming intervals will add up and chew games down.
Definitely agree with the “games that respect your time” sentiment. I usually skip over crafting and collecting when I can because a lot of the time it doesn’t add to the story for me. Also as a 40-year-old, it’s really hard to go play PS1 and some PS2 JRPGs because I just don’t have the patience. It’s not even necessarily load times, but the long, drawn-out battles. I’ve restarted Legend of Dragoon so many times because the battles just bog me down. I got to disc 4 when I was in college, but lost that save file, and it’s just so hard sitting through the battle system with the long animations, load times, and QTEs. That’s a game I want to finish and want to love, but I don’t feel like it respects my time in 2023.
*Transistor* was one of my favorite recent gaming experiences; despite only being about 5-7 hours long if you're not rushing, it's pure magic. And dirt cheap on any sale!
One thing that makes longer RPGs more fun is if their plot is more episodic, as it you get a story with beginning middle end villains victims and heroes and maybe a mystery to solve in just a few hours then you move onto the next town and get another one. Then it isn't a question of spending dozen of hours to resolve one story but one or two more to resolve the next. Dragon quest 7 did this very well until near the end where the dungeons got too long and each other told part of a story and the villain was a generic ultimate evil dude those name I forgot. Same with 11.
That's the main reason I live Sryth - it keeps up the plot density of the first quest through hundreds of hours of gameplay.
Another excellent video! Shout out to the Surf Ninjas (a hidden gem in its own right) nugget at 9:31, and congratulations on the sponsorship! Much deserved
Surf Ninjas is such a 90s movie in every sense of the term, it like epitomizes that decade lol. And thank you very much!
@@GamingBroductions the plot point of the kid's video game affecting real life was ahead of its time for sure. Also I really wanted the video game he was playing to be real so I could buy it, alas that wasn't the case
I remember when I played Dragon Warrior 7 for the first time. I put over 120 hours into it and still had a lot of stuff to do! And this was in the early days of the internet, so there weren't FAQ's readily available.
Same thing with FF12, i spent tons of hours to seek some secret monsters cause without any clue it was blindly searching
I bet you had fun.
It’s crazy how long the game is lol, so much stuff to do. I remember spending way longer on some RPGs too back in the day before I found out about GameFAQs and places like that
@@GamingBroductions when I played it again years later, I made about the same progress but about 40 hours less playtime!
Great video. I think having the “save anywhere” option and/or a game being available on a portable console like the Switch definitely makes me more likely to go all in on a longer game.
I also really like games that make good narrative use of their side quests. I really liked the way Tales of the Abyss did that. There’s actually a lot of lore and world-building for Abyss (so much they couldn’t fit it all in the game) and many of the main characters have their plots developed moreso through side quests than the main story. It makes the main game compelling but reasonable to get through, but then there’s plenty of side content with actual narrative depth if you’re really enjoying the story and cast and want to go deeper.
The side quests in Abyss are indeed super fleshed out, I remember being impressed by how story/character relevant they were and how a lot of them easily could have just been part of the main game. My only gripe is the window to trigger some of them is so small that it’s basically impossible to see them all without a guide. Some of them span across the entire game too so if you miss that first trigger you’re screwed. Love the concept behind the side quests, just wish they would have been a little more forgiving with how missable they are
@@GamingBroductions definitely agreed! We missed one of the triggers for the Contamination sidequest with Jade and Dist and realized it too late.
I spent 200+ hours on dragon quest 11. Loved it.
I agree totally with the pacing of Chrono Trigger. I would have liked a bit more of a complex story however.
Another game with about as good of a pacing (at least once you get to Tormund) is Chained Echoes. The plot is almost as well paced as CT and the side quests feel meaningful and usually adds to the world building or the character arcs. Masterful game really and in my Top 5 rpgs of all time.
Man I’ve heard so many great things about Chained Echoes, I really need to check it out here soon enough.
Gz on the sponsorship and mad respect for only using one you actually support
We didn't have a lot of money so never could afford a lot of games, but the ones I did have were RPGs because they were so long.
I have a feeling that Final Fantasy XVI will definitely be a great example of this when it releases in a few months. Hopefully it does well and helps curb the over-abundance of way-too-open worlds in the RPG space these days.
3 channels I subbed to all had wandering sword as their sponsor today. No complaint, it truly is a good game haha
It's very interesting you have clips of Chrono Cross in there because while I definitely enjoyed the game and would recommend it to anyone, GOOD GREIF am I glad I played the remake because some of those battles can really drag on. Other than that though, definitely recommend it!
Great video! I only recently began playing my favorites, and I am so excited to relive and reignite the passionate love I have for games - especially a good RPG. Currently have Chrono Cross, Breath of Fire 3, and Grandia 2 on my list. I can't wait to get going on them!
Keep up the wonderful work! ʕ ꈍᴥꈍʔ
All classics right there, some good times await you! And thank you friend!
Breath of fire is soooooo good
Great video! Awesome topic too - I like 20-35 ish hour JRPGs because while I have played some 100 hour games that I LOVE...they take me so long that it becomes frustrating. Takes me 3 months when I could have beat three other games in those three months. I don't want to spend 100 hours on anything really...so it gets tough lol
Totally, it gets a little harder to manage a 100 hour game with life gets in the way you know lol
One thing that makes RPGs long is the battle intros. Like Legend of Dragoon. Every time you entered a battle you get like 10 seconds of an intro. You should be able to turn that crap off! Speaking of LoD, at least they let you turn off the Dragoon transformations!
I think quantity of time is fine as long as it's quality and well paced time, sure, it will take longer and can seem overwhelming, but putting down a game and playing something else for a bit exists, I am a massive Xenoblade fan, and I have 100%'d all the games, but I always broke up my 100-200h playthroughs with other games so I wouldn't be burnt out, except for Xenoblade 3 which was so gripping I stayed on board for nearly 170h straight, though that is a major exception, Xenoblade 3 is my bew all time favorite game, dethroning a shorter end game I adore, Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, a well paces 30h to 100% (which I personally always do lol) masterpiece.
This was an awesome topic! I love this channel even though I rarely play RPGs anymore. As a father of three it’s hard enough to get time to play anything anymore… I got into JRPGs during the PS1 era and that’s all I played!
Xenogears to this day is probably my favorite game! But I’m with you on games over a hundred hours. I just can’t do them. Hell, I would have a hard time at 50 hour games…
I actually haven’t played any RPGs since the PS1, even though I do own a PS4. Although I think I may pull the trigger on CrossCode. I think it’s the graphical style that is pulling me in.
But anyways. I’ve been having a hankering to get back into the genre and those older SNES era RPGs are starting to look like a great option for me since some of them are as little as 10 hours! I’ve got a handful of them from collecting over the years but never played them since I felt they couldn’t hold a candle to the PS1 stuff at the time. (Haha! How naive)
One of my most precious games I own is a copy of Lufia II that a good friend and coworker loaned me to borrow and said It was his favorite game.
Well the years passed and we both forgot I had it and several years ago he actually committed suicide and I never had the heart to delete one of his save files…. I should though since he told me to play the game and most likely the save battery will die soon anyway.
Sorry for the long story, really did enjoy this interim shorter video! Keep up the great content!
I was 110 hours into Xenoblade 3 before I beat it and I loved every minute. Some of the best side content I've ever played in a video game
Weird, I had the completely opposite experience.
BEST CHANNEL EVER!!! You had me at Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG in the thumbnail ❤
That's one way to go, of course the other is modding Skyrim with things like Requiem and Legacy of the Dragonborn, and dialing back the xp rates to the point you've put six months into a character before you have any shot at fighting dragons.
Of course I took a break from that to play FF7 (PC) with the New Threat mod.
In my younger years I loved how long some of the Jrpgs could be. It was so much value to find all the secrets, grind those end game dungeons and 'max' every little detail. I poured hours into FF3, Chrono Trigger, Ff7,8, fallout 2, Star Ocean and many...many more.
These days I find myself getting a little bored around 35-40 hours. I'm playing through Dragon Quest 8 on 3DS and getting to the point where I feel inclined to start grinding liquid slimes for XP is kinda taking the wind out of my sails (I'm about 40 hours in). I feel inclined to find all the loot... but sometimes that just takes some fun out of enjoying the story and actually completing the game.
I think game developers respecting your time us a really good way to look at it. Anything they can do to cut the fluff out (mandatory tasks that don't add to the story) and make leveling more efficient (i.e. fast forward combat in Bravely Default) is much appreciated. The days of me spending 250 hours goofing off on a game are more or less gone with a few minor exceptions. Diablo 3 has been one of my time sinks since release. 😉
Yup, RPGs being shorter is often a good thing. The RPGs I replayed the most as a kid are things like Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars and Paper Mario. The Mario RPGs are usually intended to be good entry games, so they don't overstay their welcome. They're not "overstuffed" as I like to say, so each playthrough doesn't feel bloated, it feels just right, meaning that I don't mind coming back for more if I feel like it. I like a good epic long game that uses that time well too, but it's harder to come back to on a whim.
Chrono Trigger is great for this reason too. Part of the point of CT is to replay the game using New Game Plus (the world's first NG+) to go back and find all the different endings, so it makes sense for each playthrough to not be filled with fat that needs to be trimmed off.
The Xenogears music in this video is really taking me back. So many memories with that game.
congrats on the sponsor!
love coming home from a long day and watching a gaming broductions vid
love your videos, not sure how i found your channel way back, but i recognized your voice. Great work on this.
I loved playing all the older RPGs like DW1, 2, 3 and FF1-10. Most of them were about 12 - 30 hours which was fine for myself in my younger days. Now as a father working 50+ hours a week I view the hours spend on a game as an forgone investment. Like if I would spend 80 hours grinding FF7 to get all the weapons and stats that would be like 80 hours x $100/hour = $8000. If the game was 200 or 300 hours long then it would be crazy.
I could play the game for an hour or two during the weekends but that would have taken a year just to finish one game. That is why I just play something quick like Clash of Clans for like 5 minutes a day and that works for me.
When you say 100% Chrono Trigger, you don't mean to get all the endings too. You can usually get all the endings by doing two play throughs.
Wandering Sword almost looks like a rom hack of Live A Live
Very well written and concise video. For me after about 30-40 hours of a game I start to feel like I have to play something else to have variety and often forget the previous game I was playing. So the 30-40 hour mark is the sweet spot for myself.
Wish I could have explored 1999 AD in Chrono Trigger...
I think smaller, contained stories would be great. Like the games you mention, early FFs, Crono, Super Mario RPG, Lufia, etc are easy go-tos to replay over and over, BUT, I'd love more in their universes. Like, I love FF4:The After Years. I know it's objectively not fantastic, but it's the characters, world, and (mostly) system I love, only 20 years later so I can have more stories. That's fantastic.
Meanwhile, I LOVE games like Legend Of Heroes; Trails in the Sky / Cold Steel, but I'll probably never replay them. Their stories and gameplay are beautiful....but they are soooooo long.
Great content!
I also played Chrono Trigger for the first time a couple months ago and it is perfect in length. I also loved how in the beginning, your actions have consequences, i.e. the trial. That seemed revolutionary compared to even modern day JRPGs where players answers ultimately leads to the same path. You might get a different response depending on the character but that has no significance to the story - its not a bad thing but I like games with different endings, and boy does this game have plenty! Its very charming and easy to play as well. I did all the side stories for the main characters before the final area. Its now one of my favourite RPGs ever.
I'm really enjoying this millennial RUclips channel. Time is a big factor as we all get older. It's the main reason I don't play games all that often, and when I do, I take long breaks in between. Thank you for the great content.
Coincidentally, I used to have a voracious appetite for RPGs as well, and then hit a wall with RPGs I didn’t finish: Dragon Warrior 7, Final Fantasy 9, Legend of Legaia, and Breath of Fire 3.
That’s not to say I didn’t finish RPGs after that. I still finished Suikoden 2, Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, and Final Fantasy X. Even some later longer RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and X, as well as Witcher 3 and its expansions. Also some shorter ones, mainly on the DS and Switch, many were remakes of older RPGs.
You nailed it man. 20 to 50hrs for a game is perfect.
In general, but Elden Ring took me 120 hours to beat and was amazing from beginning to end.
@@JFinns There are some 100 plus hour games that I think are totally worth completing, but I feel like they need to have that rightfully satisfying gameplay loop for the individual. Persona 5 is one of my favorite games of all time, but there are other long and we'll reviewed games that I had to drop because I just didn't feel like playing them anymore. Elden Ring is a blast for sure btw.
@@bobbysturdy8727 Agree on Persona 5 that's another top tier 100 hour game from beginning to end.
Alundra 2. Kind of a Zelda clone. Charming world, SFX, music, and voice talent. Got a bad rep because its dev team took it far away from the the original look/feel of the highly acclaimed predecessor. (sort of reinventing the wheel before they even had a cart). But I put it into a category I call "Slice of Life RPGs". Which is akin to Saturday morning cartoons, anime, and video games. Mechanics are a bit clunky compared to Zelda 64 or Mario 64( which were well established at this point), but I enjoy the slower pace and ability to soak up the world here.
My favorite games to replay are suikoden 2, atlier iris 2, and chrono cross
I don't think there is any standard perfect length for RPGs in general, there are only lengths that work well for specific games so that the experience of playing it remains engaging and doesn't become tedious or overwhelming in length. Your example of Chrono Trigger having an ideal length for that game is spot on, it's a short and sweet experience that feels satisfying after you've played through it even though it isn't a very long game. The short length of the game is also something that fits well into the replay value of the game via the new game+ feature and the option to seek out different endings in the game. You can do multiple back to back playthroughs of the game and still not get burnt out on it.
Another kind of game length issue is regarding RPGs that can greatly vary in length not just due to whether someone decides to pursue extra content, but depending on how the main part of the game is played and the difficulty option that is selected. A great example of this would be Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. If you play on normal mode and go for any of the endings other than the True Demon Ending route (which requires many more boss fights, completing a gigantic dungeon that is more like five dungeons put together, and fighting a very difficult superboss right after the fight with the normal final boss), then you can complete the game in about 50-55 hours. If you go for the True Demon Ending on Normal, then it will probably take 65-70 hours. However, if you play on hard mode, all of these routes will take considerably more time. When going for the True Demon Ending on hard mode, a 120 hour playthrough isn't uncommon.
Having the game take that much longer might sound crazy, but you have to be kind of crazy to play a mainline SMT game on hard mode and Especially Nocturne because it is one of the most difficult if not the most difficult game in the series. But I love it like that and wouldn't have it any other way. For me, Nocturne is in a tie with Phantasy Star IV as my absolute favorite game of all time. It's not a game for everyone, but if you have the temperament for it, the game is an extremely satisfying experience.
Playing on my phone is the main way I'm able to play through JRPGs now because I can chip away at them minutes at a time in any small amount of free time whether I'm at home or not. Square Enix has been great at releasing a lot of their catalogue both new and old on mobile and JRPGs are a great option for emulation as well because they don't need to run at a perfect frame rate to be playable (plus the fast forward feature is great for battle startup sequences)
Although I have played Chrono Trigger and Dragon Warrior VII. I haven't beaten both. Both have the same episodical tales: Visit a new place, recollect info, defeat the villian. And your actions affects in the story.
But Chrono Trigger has a following storyline. If you don't remember what you did after stopped playing for a long time, you cannot remember what you did in the past, and if the actions you made affected the storyline.
Dragon Warrior VII has a episodic storyline. What you did in the past only affects the
present, but it didn't affect the storyline outside of gathering some items.
People nowadays wants to play a quick game to play another one. But back in the day, If you only had one game, you played over and over, playing and exchanging secrets at the school, even making your own walkthrough to beat that specific game.
I play to fully complete the games, even completing the bestiary and the items, and I do that for fully enjoy the game it was made. I left the play a game and move to the next one dynamic. I have 180 hours playing Dragon Warrior VII since 2020, and I look back to play, because there's so much content, you can do so many things, like collecting monsters, try a lot of classes or even talk to the villagers to talk with my party afterwards, the story becomes an optional thing. In Chrono Trigger, you can do so many things, but if everything changes, you have the fear to complete the other way around to see what's happen, because these change turn around the storyline to another outcome.
We had access to a much smaller pool of games back in the day and most of us were kids so the amount we could buy was also limited. Long or replayable games were a much bigger deal. Now we have an oversaturation of games, life stretching our time thin, and shorter attention spans.
In the 90s we needed to make a handful of games last. Now we need to squeeze games into our limited free time. Of course we switched from long to short games.
CT and the early Suikoden games are in a sweet spot. 20-25 hours, not weighed down by a ton of obnoxious grinding. Although they could've pushed out another 5-10 hours and no one would've minded, they gave you a complete experience and didn't overstay their welcome. I loved DQ 11, and spent 100 hours on it, but those last 10 hours or so on chapter 3 really started to become a slog.
One thing I think nearly every JRPG should start implementing is a chapter select feature in new game plus. NieR Automata and Final Fantasy VII Remake have this and it's glorious. Super long, linear games like Persona 5 or a Trails of Cold Steel game would be so much more replayable if you could skip around to just the sections of the game you want to replay.
I would love to see that feature in more JRPGs.
Watching the Chrono trigger part while coincidentally wearing my Chrono trigger t-shirt makes me glad I found this channel
Hell yeah, you are in the right place my friend!
I play only jrpg games. Is spending time issue for me? No, because there are not enough game releases.
And i am picky what i play, but 100+ hours is no issue for me
Still loving the genre so much!
I used to listen to the song that plays during the outro all the time a couple months after it dropped and I just got hit with nostalgia hard lmao great vid too
Chrono trigger is one of the few jrpgs I've actually finished. Breath of the wild is one of the few open world games I've actually finished. Both games have something in common: they give context and motivation to the amount of time you spend playing them. In fact, both of them have the exact same gimmick of letting you face the final boss basically whenever you want past a specific point marking the end of the more linear parts of the game (accessing end of time and finishing plateau respectively). Both games place a clear endpoint right in front of you and I find it more motivating to face a vastly superior foe or extremely dangerous territory as a matter of gameplay rather than a matter of plot (looking at you, every single scripted loss where the enemy is scaled to your current level despite being presented as extremely powerful)
20 hours is usually the make or break for me. I drop a lot of JRPGs at this point because they haven't given me enough to want to play them for another 40+ hours. Or I burn myself out on them, take a break, forget everything in the story, and then not come back because I'd either have to restart or continue playing at that 20 hour mark while not remembering anything about the story.
Skies of Arcadia, could have been one of my favorite JRPG's of all time. But the long drawn out battles took it from a top tier game, to just a good game.
I loved Chrono Trigger and I mostly agree. But I think that its pacing breaks down at the end when they introduce character side quests and the lizard village.
I did my first playthrough of Chrono Trigger last weekend and it still hooked me.
In the battle between Quantity and Quality I think the advancement of technology has added another layer of complexity. Being a big RPG isn't bad, but it needs assistance to help players see the end. We've all at some point dropped a big RPG (due to life or a new game or something coming up) and when you return, you don't recall where to go or what to do. Kingdom Hearts 2 has this big Journal that keeps you informed on what's been happening, making it easy to jump back in, despite the length of the game. Similarly, remasters of old games often include a way to speed up battles, which can make all the difference.
Typically, the longer a JRPG, the bigger build up it can have in terms of story and how powerful your team can be (which to me is the fun part, the customization and growth of characters through skill trees or other upgrade choices). It's why games like Live A Live are so rare, turn based benefits from having more time, not less.
Triangle Strategy does both I think. Either you finish with 40 and call it, or you go for a second playthrough and nearly double your time. However the 80 hours doesn't feel daunting because the constant voice acting push the story forward, and other paths offer new characters and battles. It also has a War Chronicle that shows the path of the story and the path you've taken so far. Hopefully more new games follow suit.
FF6 and Chrono Trigger differ greatly in length, but they both allow you to explore the whole world and see things through. I don't need Trigger to be longer or FF6 to be shorter, they are both excellent. An ideal length is irrelevant since each game is so different in every way, despite being on the same system.
I was excited to play Dragon Quest 11, however, two-thirds of the way through i was dragging feet and wishing it end already. And when i finished it i was still angry how they kept dragging it out that i didn't feel a sense of accomplishment and decided to not play another dragon quest game again.
You can also make the long grind or some of the extra length, optional content, such as when near the end of a game the world opens up to you to explore and revisit places. That way your initial play through can be as long as you want of it, and replays can be done much quicker, or you can select which side content you care about for like your main characters special weapon or something.
Rhapsody Musical Adventure and excited for the Marl Kingdom Chronicles
For me about 30-40 hours is the sweet spot. I'm in my 30s and have a family to think about now so I don't have an infinite amount of time to devote to games anymore. I just finished a "get all the achievements" run of FF7 on Steam and it took about 60 hours to do all the sidequests and grind all the materia to master level. I really felt the grind the last 16 hours or so.
You talk about long games in a short video i like that
Didn't expect hearing Amerie - All I Have beat in a video talking about JRPGs 😂
Honestly, I ust loved getting to see so many clips of all of my favorite games :)
Quality of time is one of the big reasons why I enjoy Fire Emblem Engage a lot more than Three Houses and its much more replayable for me. 3 Houses has 4 different routes and much more detailed customisation of all the different characters you can use and its up to the player when different people are recruited, while Engage only has one route and every character joins at a different set time. In theory this means that 3 Houses should be more replayable but the first half of the game being mostly the same every time, 3 of the 4 routes being very similar and the repetitive downtime really drags on the experience so its hard to actually get to enjoy the whole game. Engage meanwhile has the exact same story and maps every playthrough, but the level design and overall gameplay is much tighter, and the difference in game knowledge and what characters and classes I use varies my playthroughs in a very natural way. Also helps that the downtime between chapters, while less fleshed out is also much briefer and I don’t feel like I’m losing much by not doing the minigames.
30hrs is the perfect length and varying amounts for meaningful side content and dlc. I do enjoy replaying Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger. Along with Kingdom Hearts because it's in my comfort for length. That said, Persona's gameplay loop can keep someone like me who is certain the long time is too much held in almost to the end. I choked in P4G at the final dungeon because of difficulty setback causing me to lose patience. An amazing thing that, to disrupt one's high with a weird difficulty spike, despite being right at the end. I went back to it sometime last year to begin the process of grinding. So, I'll see it done *eventually*