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Dragon Quest Creator: 40 Hour RPG Ideal

Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii recently spoke on the ideal length an RPG story should be, along with additional content.

The number of hours a player can pump into a game has been one of the key factors for many story-driven games in recent times, with the "X hours of gameplay" slipped neatly into press releases and packaging, but is it really that important?

Horii reckons a game with at least 40 hours is ideal, and an an interview with Kotaku he hopes the latest installment for DS has an "almost endless" amount of play time.

Probably to complete the main story, around 40 hours would be ideal. However, with Dragon Quest VII it took about 100 hours to complete the game. What we focus on is not the time constraint but the amount of content we put in.

Horii wants to make a game that, along with a solid 40 hour story, has a additional multiplayer content and replay value to really extend the experience as much as possible, and feels the price point should reflect this.

The latest Dragon Quest game, Sentinels of the Starry Skies is out now in North America, with Europe to follow on July 23rd.

What do you think an ideal length for an RPG/story-based campaign should be - should it really matter?

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Jimmy2000 13.07.2010#1

Probably could do with being even shorter but yeah I hate RPG's that drag stories on waaaaaaay too much.

PMD 13.07.2010#2

That sounds reasonable, but as long as there is enough to do to extend the time. For Pokemon, I usually beat the Elite 4 after 100 hours (less for HGSS since it is shorter) and I am almost at 100 hours for Monster Hunter Tri have just beat Lagiacrus for the first time.

darkflame (guest) 13.07.2010#3

Depends on how repetitive a game is really.
RPG's tend to be a lot more repedative then most genre's, so we demand better storys and longer lenths to make up for it.

A great adventures (Beyond Good and Evil) or a totaly unique game with a superb script (Portal) and we can have a 6 hour game and still feel its kick-arse because its unrepedative and thus replayable.

RudyC3 13.07.2010#4

If that's 40 hours in which virtually nothing exciting happens and what you do most of the time is levelling up your character... then no, i don't agree.

Then again, for a handheld RPG this length sounds good to me, but for a big hit console RPG it shouldn't go below 55~60 hours for me.

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Jimmy2000 13.07.2010#5

Kafei2006 said:
If that's 40 hours in which virtually nothing exciting happens and what you do most of the time is levelling up your character... then no, i don't agree.
.

lol I think developer would have to actively try to make there game shit where nothing happened in 30-40 hours.

Some of the better RPG's are usually short
Final Fantasy from 1 to 8 where quite short
Any mario RPG

If they have optional side quest to extend the gameplay thats ok but the main quest should be short and sweet.

( Edited 13.07.2010 20:14 by Jimmy2000 )

Darkflame 14.07.2010#6

Superstar Saga is about 35-40 hours and utterly brillent all the way Smilie
Dunno the length of Bowers Inside Story, but SS was *massively* longer then Partners in time, and there was a lot more to do too. (that is, more minigames/variation).

So overly long lengths doesn't always result in more boring games. Just mostly.

Final Fantasy 1/2 I'd pretty much some up as

game shit where nothing happened in 30-40 hours.

Smilie
Then again, the age gives it a big excuse.

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JoshSL 14.07.2010#7

Depends on the game really.

Some games I find much too short.
Darkflame said SuperStar Saga was 35 hours, but I'm on the final boss at just under 20 hours.

As for Tales of and Persona games, I just love that they're so long, because I can't get enough of them. I've played Tales of Vesperia 4 times and I have a collective playtime of around 300 hours. The first run took me just over 100 hours, and my first run of Persona 4 took me 120 hours.

And those two are my favourite RPGs of all time, as well as being in my top 5 games.

So I don't really agree. If an RPG is really amazing then 40 hours just isn't long enough for me to really get involved in it, get to know all the characters and get attached to them, the plot details, etc etc.

I'm going to finish it perhaps unsatisfied and want much more.

EDIT: Now I think about it that's not entirely true. Chrono Trigger is a short game and it's thoroughly brilliant, I got attached to the characters, and despite how badly I want the series to continue I was fully satisfied with it.

So yeah! Depends on the game.

( Edited 13.07.2010 21:54 by SuperLink )

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jb 14.07.2010#8

Definitely dependant on the game and story. Good story - you'd want to play more for sure. Shit/boring, then you'd want to wrap up as soon as you can.

Kinda like Zelda - when the story is different (Majora's Mask, Link's Awakening etc) then you wouldn't mind it being longer and more involving.

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