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There's nothing worse than a good game that just doesn't know when to end

Belthazar

Member
You're having a blast playing a game and it's seemingly coming to a conclusion. You're ready for that final dungeon, another 1 hour at most and you'll be rewarded with the conclusion of the amazing time you spent with the game... and then the game just goes on for another 10 hours just to fill an arbitrary playtime metric or something. Yes, I'm looking at you Tales of Arise.

I was enjoying that game a lot. The exploration aspect was spot-on to my tastes, the discovery of new realms was always interesting (not to mention stunningly beautiful) and there was always something fun to do in each one... And then the game just decides to drop you into the most drab and uninteresting environments and to dump you with lore in VERY LONG cutscenes that are placed almost back-to-back with 15 seconds of walking in-between. What was supposed to be the final stretch is instead spread so thin that nothing feels meaningful anymore and you just want it to end... Only it doesn't. What was an otherwise amazing experience became something I wanted to finish and never touch again.

Any other examples of games like this?
 
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Pacing is the secret sauce in most 10/10 games. Chrono Trigger, Resident Evil 4, Metroid Dread, etc. It just manages to hit that perfect balance that keeps you playing between action points and lulls without ever feeling the momentum slip much. A lost art in most open world games these days for sure.
 

BlackM1st

Banned
I punched Zeus in the face for like 10 minutes at the end of God of War 3 and I thought that was kinda excessive

The Simpsons GIF
 
Days Gone went on about 4 hours too long and it might be my favorite game from last gen. RDR1 went on too long too. I was ready for it to be over when it got to Mexico. Didn't play RDR2 yet.
 

.Pennywise

Banned
Delete that good in the title, it's even worse with bad or medicore games. To me Days Gone was way too long, the whole military storyline at the end was unnecessary.
When a game is mediocre or bad you hardly finish it (unless you're working on a review or you're a masochist).
 

Belthazar

Member
Yep, anything with Assassins Creed in the title.
Re Tales of Arise, I feel your pain with this one. I played the game for 35 hours to receive the suggestion that my adventure had only just started. Madness.

The worst part is that what came before was an adventure. What came after that was... something else.

It's like it was a completely different game, all the wonder was gone for the entirety of that second half.

Even going to Lenegis and Rena (which were places I was curious to see since the start of the game) wasn't interesting, as everything was just so gray, drab and bland
 
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Tschumi

Member
Dungeon Siege has a case of this midway through the game... You've gone through like 3 cave systems and emerge into a lovely green forest, starved for supplies you eagerly anticipate a camp.. doesn't come for ages, doesn't come until you've burnt through multiple groups with new, resistant enemy types like trolls...

This is actually kinda hard...

Oh oh oh oh

Warhammer Total War 2, I never get anywhere near completing the grand campaign because the map becomes homogeneous and boring after you start dominating. Conquering the eastern mountains as dwarves was fun, heading into the South etc in search of appropriate terrain was a chore.
 

Belthazar

Member
Could've dropped the Island imo

For me the perfect example is Days Gone, you get to a natural conclusion and then bam! Second massive area and what could've been a sequel is thrown on you
Yup, also if they used the time needed to make that second area to polish the game it would probably release in a better state and become a 8+/10 game instead of what it was.
 

SCB3

Member
I played RE3 remake. The clock count 6:30 hours but I swear it felt longer than that. Anyway loved it. Kinda felt going back to the x360 era games wher short and sweet.
But again I blame gamers for this one, first thing they do is attach playtime with money shrugs
the game with an opposite problem, they cut so much from the original when in reality it needed more adding to it
 

Markio128

Member
The worst part is that what came before was an adventure. What came after that was... something else.

It's like it was a completely different game, all the wonder was gone for the entirety of that second half.

Even going to Lenegis and Rena (which were places I was curious to see since the start of the game) wasn't interesting, as everything was just so gray, drab and bland
I’d have been satisfied with the first game ending tbh, I enjoyed the game immensely up to that point. Plus, the difficulty really ramped up in the volcano area.
 

Belthazar

Member
The final stretch is where the great stuff starts coming out.

I love when the final boss has 4 forms, then someone who was actually controlling the final boss comes out and has 2 more forms, then they get taken over and fuse for 3 more forms.

Now imagine if each of those 4 forms has a 2 hour dungeon, and then there's 2 hours of cutscenes back-to-back to reveal the lore explaining who controls that final boss and then you have a 2 hour dungeon for that new final boss and another one that's 4 hours long to fight the fused version of the boss. That's what I'm talking about. Oh.. and all that happens in very bland, samey and gray environments.
 
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Thanati

Member
I was like this for Red Dead Redemption. Towards the end I was just wanting it to end, especially when the missions kept saying, "Hey, one more thing to do...I promise...oh wait...one more thing....nah, one MORE thing"

So yeah, this really bugs me!
 

SLB1904

Banned
the game with an opposite problem, they cut so much from the original when in reality it needed more adding to it
I mean yeah you could say that. I barely remember the original. And I went in just for what it was. I was trying to compare with the original. I wanted to be longer because I was having so much fun. And see parts of remake 2 was kinda neat
 
I think it's worst when the game is good, as when the game is mediocre or bad anyway nothing was really lost due to poor pacing.
I don't mind if good games are too long. I mean RDR2 could have been shorter, but i enjoyed it anyways.
When a game is mediocre or bad you hardly finish it (unless you're working on a review or you're a masochist).
Yeah, but sometimes you already invested so much time, you just want to finish it and then it really sucks when it drags on. In the case of Days Gone it was fine for let's say 15 hours or so, but then you became John Cena and have seen all the repetetive and grind stuff.
 

CitizenZ

Banned
I could not agree more, some games that come to mind recently was Greedfall, Days gone, Evil within 2. Good games that would have been a whole lot better with editing out 10+hrs of either backtracking or built in repetitive content. And if I played other newer titles, which Im avoiding like the plague, i would probably be saying the exact same thing.

Just thought of one that i even wrote in my review, "I could not wait for this game to end" and that was The Bards Tale reboot from a few yrs ago. Holy shit, good game but fck me it was way too long for what it offered.
 
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SCB3

Member
I mean yeah you could say that. I barely remember the original. And I went in just for what it was. I was trying to compare with the original. I wanted to be longer because I was having so much fun. And see parts of remake 2 was kinda neat
Oh don't get me wrong its a fun game and I did enjoy it, but compared to the original it was clearly a quick cash in before Village came out

it did however give us the best Jill model
 

Alpha Male

Member
All Borderlands games
Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Valhalla
Uncharted 4
Days Gone
Red Dead 1 & 2
Mad MAX
Ghost Recon Wildlands
Just Cause 4

I really enjoyed all these for the record.
 
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Aesius

Member
Pacing is the secret sauce in most 10/10 games. Chrono Trigger, Resident Evil 4, Metroid Dread, etc. It just manages to hit that perfect balance that keeps you playing between action points and lulls without ever feeling the momentum slip much. A lost art in most open world games these days for sure.
Chrono Trigger is only about 25 hours long if you do everything (not counting all endings), and it feels epic as hell.
 

Fbh

Member
Bad pacing, padding and an overall sense of being stretched out has increasingly become one of the main reasons making me skip games.
These days if I see the average playtime for a game on howlongtobeat is 30+ hours there's a good chance I'll skip it unless it's by a limited list of devs which I really like and have shown they can make longer games that don't feel like padded out slog (like From Software or CDPR).
 
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Mossybrew

Member
I found Tales of Arise highly entertaining the whole way through, so I disagree with OP's particular example. I usually like long games so this is rarely an issue for me, but AC Valhalla definitely overstayed its welcome.
 

FritzJ92

Member
I’ll say it for everyone.
Almost all of Sonys big budget games felt like they went on a bit too long or just way too long.
Felt that way especially with Spider-Man and GoW.

Gears 5 also over stayed its visit.
 

drotahorror

Member
Ghost of Tsushima dragged on a bit as well for such a great game. It's not that I wanted less content, but they didn't mix it up enough.

I'm 25 hours in and wished I hadn't cleared the first zone. The 2nd zone is just more of the same shit and it's tiring. I was thinking I was going to get like, crazy abilities or something since I think the Legends mode has some more mystical things? I've never played it.
 
JRPGs, RPGs and open world Action-RPGs should never be longer than 30 hours. Action games should never be longer than 15 hours (usually, even 10 hours are too much).

There are plenty of games to play if you want to play endlessly, either online games or games that have no real end like Football Manager or Civilization/Stellaris etc.

There's no need to pad story-driven single-player games that much.
 
True. Third act of Tsushima destroys the game, for example.
That's where I bailed on it. The game's amazing too. Really just shows how important pacing can be. I wanted more content, but I didn't want to just literally do the exact same thing again. Shorter games aren't always the answer, but the longer you ask the player to stay, the more you have to craft their motivation for staying.
 

Hollowpoint5557

A Fucking Idiot
Looking at you IT TAKES TWO. Awesome game but when I got to the snow levels I thought for sure I was almost done the game but nope I'm reading that I am maybe only halfway there. Sometimes less is more and now I think I'm going to drop the game because I didn't think I would have to invest this much time into it. It's not easy scheduling a friend to play it with for that many hours.
 
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Lethal01

Member
Now imagine if each of those 4 forms has a 2 hour dungeon, and then there's 2 hours of cutscenes back-to-back to reveal the lore explaining who controls that final boss and then you have a 2 hour dungeon for that new final boss and another one that's 4 hours long to fight the fused version of the boss. That's what I'm talking about. Oh.. and all that happens in very bland, samey and gray environments.

As long as I imagine it in a game that was actually good then 12 hours of more dungeons and story will only be a positive.
If it's not, then the game was never good in the first place.
 

Kuranghi

Member
Looking at you IT TAKES TWO. Awesome game but when I got to the snow levels I thought for sure I was almost done the game but nope I'm reading that I am maybe only halfway there. Sometimes less is more and now I think I'm going to drop the game because I didn't think I would have to invest this much time into it. It's not easy scheduling a friend to play it with for that many hours.

Thats not true dont worry, you're 75% done, only a couple more areas after snow area. Worth finishing it imo.

I'd say 3 hour max left if you do minigames and piss around, but if you just mainline it you can cut that down by 30-45 mins I'd say.

Get a gram of coke in when your friend next comes round and you could do it in 2 hours prob. If thats not your bag then try caffeine chews.
 
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