When you get made to wait until the main story can continue, if the only way you can get me to engage with side stories and missions is by forcibly pausing the main story then I count that as a mark against.
Dragon quest 11 is one of the best games Ive played in the last 15 years or so jrpg wise. Theres nothing wrong with a games length. Maybe it just isnt for you.
DQ games normally have a pretty short way to level up quick (metal slime family) but for the main story you generally don't have to even do that. That's just optional boss and sidequest stuff
I prefer my games longer to be honest. I play them but when a game is 8 to 10 hours I feel I want more. Simple solution if a games to long dont play it. Dont try to change the way things are because some of us prefer longer games. O know im not alone. Problem I see is people dont have an attention span these days and need instant gratification. If they cant beat it in a day or two they stop playing. I see it all the time. News flash You dont have to beat a game in 2 days, hell dq11 definitive edition took me 200 hours before I went and finished it. Took me a few months and when I beat it I was extremely satisfied. I play all types of games besides racing and music games. Just let devs do wtf they want and stop trying to sway them.
Witcher 3 and Persona 5 are 100h-ish games that don't get too boring during their main story, nor do they ever artificially block you from engaging with it. I don't consider them too long at all.
The latest Assassin's Creed trilogy (Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla) are 40-60 hours games that force you to grind XP at some point in your journey if you focus too much on the main story. This gets annoying, especially in Odyssey and I wish they were a bit shorter.
Tunic is a 12-hour game that I personally consider too long because one of the last sections has you lose all of your stat upgrades. You are then forced to backtrack and regain at least some of them before you go into the final fight.
Probably everyone here has a single-player experience they put 100s hours into and don't consider them too long while wishing that some 10-12 hour experiences ended sooner than they did.
When something that can otherwise be a minute long gets stretched out to 5. I'm noticing so many games doing this now that it's sucking the fun out for me. It's when you're forced to travel across the city to different locations to turn on the lights in a single building, or forcing you into a combat during an otherwise short puzzle section. Or when you're forced to sit through slow on rail exposition dumps. I just turn off the game when I see that and come back after an hour.
Depends on the game. Right now I'm 50 hours into Hollow Knight and I just want to explore every corner of the game. Almost done, but it's tough and also a blast to play.
When I get tired of them and I still haven't finished the story. I know that sounds dumb at first, but that point hits at different times in different games.
I'll enjoy playing a game much longer if the game itself is more engaging and fun. Some games have combat systems that feel fun at first, but get stale fast. Others have combat systems that don't get stale for quite a while.
The actual length of the game is not usually how I judge if a game is too long. It's whether or not I'm still enjoying the game when the credits roll. If I'm hoping for the game to end, or if I see no end in sight, then the game was too long for the amount of fun it offered.
There have been shorter, 20 hour games that I wanted to end, and there are 100 hour games that I didn't want to end. The length in time doesn't matter. Its how fun or interesting the game itself is that matters.
I check out if a game is too long - especially when its a big grind or errand fest. at some point I just get bored. I am also admittedly fairly ADD tho with a dose of impatience so my finishing a game is dependent on me getting to the end before my mind starts to drift to the next thing... but... I also feel like a lot of content on longer games is just filler. meaningless, unfulfilling side quests, chores, errands... if you're going to give side quests make them have more value and impact feels like they are often time just cheap ways to inflate game attachment. works the opposite for me tho. .
Simple. When it becomes a chore to play. No enjoyment to continue. Doesn't mean the game sucks. It just means you might in some instances, have to put the game down and play something else.
I've come back to some games later and it was fun again. Just needed a break. Since I'm selective of what I buy, it's very rare that it was an average game I've walked away from that I came back to. All the compelling games I finish. Some were so good, I purposely extended the game by not doing final missions or bosses it was so good. I would do previous missions for some time. Artificially lengthening the game. There's that too.
When things start to feel repetitive, in a bad way. Alien Isolation started to feel a tad too lengthy towards the last fifth of the game. But only because of its repetitive nature. If they would have just implemented some kind of unique ability, or game changing feature, I would have enjoyed the full length of the game. Instead, it started to feel stale because I was sitting there thinking to myself, "This is sum boo sheet. Neither my laser beam NOR my shotgun can kill an alien?!?!? That doesn't align with the lore. My playable character is so weak and helpless 😐."
When there's filler in the main story
When you get made to wait until the main story can continue, if the only way you can get me to engage with side stories and missions is by forcibly pausing the main story then I count that as a mark against.
Anything that forces you to grind hours and hours for XP is ultimately a long game. Looking at you Dragon Quest franchise.
I prefer my games longer to be honest. I play them but when a game is 8 to 10 hours I feel I want more. Simple solution if a games to long dont play it. Dont try to change the way things are because some of us prefer longer games. O know im not alone. Problem I see is people dont have an attention span these days and need instant gratification. If they cant beat it in a day or two they stop playing. I see it all the time. News flash You dont have to beat a game in 2 days, hell dq11 definitive edition took me 200 hours before I went and finished it. Took me a few months and when I beat it I was extremely satisfied. I play all types of games besides racing and music games. Just let devs do wtf they want and stop trying to sway them.
When they have Assassins Creed placed in the title.