FFXIII is 50-60 hours long

Hmm. When they say ’50-60′ that usually means ’30-40′. Still lengthy, though.

Very cool

But if that’s just for the main run-through you could be looking at double that to do everything. I easily cracked 100 hours on XII and that was about 90-95% completion.

More is not necesarilly better though. You could pretty much wring every drop of gameplay out of IX in 30-odd hours and it’s still one of the best in the series.

I totally agree. I’d much rather they left out the ‘padding’ and made a shorter but more interesting game.

When the Japanese say 60 hours they mean 60 hours not like how the western developers say 60 hours and they mean doing everything very slowly.

@Scratchy

I disagree FFIX was good but was not the best for me that would easily be between 6,7,8, 10. All of them gave me over 100 hours of gameplay.

IT’s an RPG. It’s a JRPG. It’s Final Fantasy.
F I N A L F A N T A S Y !!!
It’s supposed to be long!

When the Japanese say 60 hours they mean 30 hours of game and 30 hours of backtracking/wandering around lost/teleporter mazes/pointless conversations with NPCs/unskippable summon animations/angry young men saying “…”.

That is part of the charm, I suppose.

Thats how I like my RPGs, my favorite RPGs of all time are those one of them being Digital Devil Saga.

ANd if you don’t like that Blerk, there is a thing called a guide and the summons length on animations always have had options since FF7 to cut them short.

I’m just messing.

I actually wish FF would take a few hints from the various Megaten games. They always feel far less waffly than Final Fantasy does (although they do still occasionally like their teleporter mazes, curse them).

Yeah the infamous Tower dungeons.

Edit:

You know its not just the length of the game that makes it so much better but the story. The best stories were that of Final Fantasy. I can not honestly remember a RPG that made me dumbfounded by the twists FFX with TIdus, FF7 with Aerith and with Cloud and his memories, FF8 with Rinoa. THose were pretty epic twists.

You need to play more RPG’s dude

FF8′s story is woeful, and I don’t think much of 10′s story either though I love the characters.

I much prefer Megaten stories, too.

I still think FF7 is a stand out story in the RPG genre. Aside from the end you aren’t saving the world from impending doom, you are just chasing your personal goals which I thought was great and for some reason seems to be generally an ignored story technique. Same with Planescape: Torment too, no world saving going on there.

Persona 3′s story is pretty amazing though, mostly because of the TV show style aspect to it, each month in game being like an episode in a long arc sowing a subtle story with a nice big finish.

If the main game turns out to be about 40 hours long than that will live up to my expectations. Hopefully after some time they will also release some DLC with an additional 20 hours of gameplay.

I’d agree about VII’s story. I don’t think Square successfully recaptured that in any of the games that followed. I think Persona 3 still edges out even VII, though. Such an amazing game.

YOU CAN’T HAVE YUKARI, SHE IS MINE!

I liked Yukari, but I could never have cheated on Chihiro.

Isn’t she the one scared of men? That says something rather suspicious about you Blerk.

Persona 4 > all, innit.

Persona 3 is better than 4.

Yes, she’s the bookish one with the glasses.

/googles for pictures of bookish ladies with glasses
/to protect
/obviously

You just enjoy feeding off the sexual fear of women and you know it.

@11

I have played quite a bit of RPGs. Not saying FF8 was the best but it was the most memorable not the overall impending doom from Ultimecia but the CHaracter develope and the relationship that developed between Squall and Rinoa.

I have never played Persona 3 but that is because isn’t it tied to the previous series or is it just like FF with it just being a name?

Forget Final Fantasy and play Persona 3 (preferably the FES edition) right now, Phoenix. You don’t need to have played any of the other Persona games and if you’ve played DDS then you’ll already be in good stead for the battle system.

Just leave Chihiro alone or we’ll have a problem. Right?

/cracks knuckles

I would but Ps2 on HD tv looks like crap. Its why I have an untouched library of PS2 games because of the Ps2 having the inability to play on HD tv.

@Hunam ” Aside from the end you aren’t saving the world from impending doom, you are just chasing your personal goals which I thought was great and for some reason seems to be generally an ignored story technique. ”

have you guys played anything aside from FF or Atlus games, seriously? Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, the first two Suikodens and Shadow Hearts. just to name a few.

I have. I have played all of those. Vagrant Story is one of my top ten with Chrono Trigger. I didn’t want to name those because its the same company and even some of the same designers. THe original creator of FF did Vagrant Story and Kitase (who is doing FFXIII) started with Chrono Trigger.

I’ve played and completed all the games you mention except for Suikoden as I watched a mate play a whole bunch of it and didn’t really seem my thing.

You failed to mention Xenosaga though, which annihilates Xenogears tbh.

Oh, and what’s wrong with Atlus games? If I could only have games from one publisher Atlus would be a decent bet to keep me busy forever.

well, I don’t quite see how is that ‘generally ignored’ then. I mean, more like most of the jrpgs were crap even in the 90s.

Xenosaga was awful I thought. they’ve butchered pretty much everything that made Xg so good. the first episode was somewhat decent for a ‘prologue’ but it went just completely downhill with the second game. was a nice idea though, I’d say it ‘could’ve annihilate’ the original Xg if it was made right.

Edit: nothing is wrong with them, but I wouldn’t put them alongside old Square classics. they also lack a decent combat system imho.

50-60 hours?
I’d say 60 hours if you do all the extras.
If I take my time as I normally do I reckon I’d break the 50 hour mark without doing all optionable extras.

expect 40-50 hours maximum…sidequests included

The second one was a bit crap, the third was was megarockets of fun.

Still, in most of the games you mention you are out and out saving the world after the first 10 minutes or stopping wars of something like that.

they did manage to partially ‘get it’ in the third, but it was too little too late imho.

how so? I might as well say that you’re up against the Evil Corpration and Sephi almost right from the beginning.

you practically don’t even do that at all in CC, Xg plot was nothing about saving the world up until the final Deus appearance, the game is like 60% about Fei and Elly btw. Shadow Hearts was nothing like that as well, especially the first game. CT does that only in the very end as well.

But you’re not trying to stop Sephi because you don’t even know he’s alive till a fair chunk of the game and you aren’t even going after Shinra for anything more than because there isn’t much else to do other than casual terrorism.

In XG there is a giant War going on almost from the offset which is being fuelled by those nasty folks you in turn punch in the face. CT has Lavos from a pretty early stage, CC you’re probably right on, I can’t remember much of that game to be honest. Shadow Hearts has a wizzard trying to use your ladyfriend to summon a god to destroy the world.

I think the problem with Xenosaga for most people is that it wasn’t trying to be any part of Xenogears, it was using XG as a reference point and telling a new, and more awesome, yarn.

I don’t quite see how Avalanche clearly being against a huge evil Corporation that’s slowly ruining our planet and Cloud realizing he should care about the stuff as well is one thing , and Xg having a background war or Lavos appearing in the second half of CT is another.. that’s just biased to be honest.

Shadow Hearts did that very subtly, comparable to say FF7 actually. and the plot also had more than enough other stuff, like Yuri’s character development or that female officer side story.

“I don’t quite see how Avalanche clearly being against a huge evil Corporation that’s slowly ruining our planet is one thing and Cloud realising he should care about the stuff as well.”

Not to mention the whole “Sephiroth summoning a giant meteor to damage the planet in order to help him become a god” thing.

Anyway, Disgaea owns all of you.

Anyway valkryia chronicles owns Disgaea, that game was Japanese gaming at its best

Maybe you’re right DaMan, not about FF7, the world never felt in danger in that till the end but with the others they all have war in them as an aspect (not the Chrono games mind) so from the onset everything looked a little fucked from the get go. I know Shinra were eating the planet, but that’s no more fucked than our world is right now and I’m not diving for cover yet.

Michael, you’ll notice reading the thread that I mentioned right away about the world being in peril at the end of FF7, but it litteraly starts up right at the end.

And Shin Megami Tensei 3 owns Valkyria Chronicles. Screw Persona 3, SMT 3 is the defining game of the entire franchise.

@ Hunam well, I see what you mean. but to be honest Fei’s personality was way more fucked than the continent of Ingas xD. I mean, the two protagonists’ character development was the central point, the war was a background really.

Ooh, I have to disagree there. I really liked SMT3 but DDS kicked its arse and Persona 3 dropped a piano on both of them while they were scrapping.

I never got that far into SMT3 to be honest. DDS got me really into the megaten gameplay and Persona 3, or about 42 hours into I should say is when it just clicked with me and I learned every nuance of the battle system and learned how to use the fusion system. I bet I could go back and get a lot more out of SMT3 and DDS now I know how everything works underneath the gameplay.

What’s really turning me of Persona 4 is that the overworld is a little more drab and down to earth compared to 3 and whilst yes, having control of your team is much better in gameplay it sacrifices other aspects, like mastering the fusion gameplay because now you only really need one or two top line persona’s where in P3 you needed a team that could do everything but at the same time you got to know how the AI reacts with your team mates and you start to grow a bond of trust with them, praising them when they get a timely heal or cursing them when they let you get your ass kicked. Plus I prefer having one big tower vs little dungeons.

“And Shin Megami Tensei 3 owns Valkyria Chronicles.”

BULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLSHIT! BULLSHIT!

I’m sorry, but nothing can be better then VC. It’s automatically better then any other RPG in the past two years.

VC is about as much RPG as Bioshock is.

Indeed it is, VC is an RPG btw as if you dont level your squad up you will not get anywhere in that game.

I find it a stretch to call Valkyria Chronicles an RPG. It’s an amazing game, don’t get me wrong, but it’s very much a strategy game with some (very, very light) RPG elements added on top.

Shin Megami Tensei 3 is, and probably will be for a very long, on my favourite RPGs of all time. From a pure gameplay perspective, it kicks every other title in the series out of the water.

The system is balanced perfectly. While playing well has always been a requirement of the franchise, Shim Megami Tensei 3 is such that when you die, it’s entirely your own fault. Its challenging and its hard but it’s never unfairly so. Persona and Digital Devil Saga are challenging, but SMT3 would spit them on the floor for breakfast.

Aesthetically and story-wise, the game is a work of art. It’s story is muted but compelling with lots of layers for those who appreciate the underlying mythological and religious elements, and is willing to explore them. Elements which are largely just tacked on in the later games with little or no relevance to the actual mythos of the game’s story.

The later games also got far too wrapped up in their teen angst, school girl outfits and other such generic RPG cliches for me to be able to take them seriously or maturely.

I didn’t feel the occult aspect was tacked on in Persona 3 but I can understand if the school drama thing doesn’t appeal to you as I guess it’s just a matter of taste. But when I was a young teenager I was a big fan of Buffy which again is another school based occult fest (obviously less researched than Persona) but obviously not a game.

Did you finish Persona 3? Because it also has a muted story through a lot of it. There is always something going on in the foreground, but the story which is culminates at the end is basically built up through the 70 hours it takes to get to the final chapter in a slow and stirring way and you get more out of it the more you put into it.

I will get back to SMT3 one day, probably after I’ve done Persona 4 and Persona 1 PSP (and maybe Persona 3 PSP if that’s out before I’ve done the other two) but Persona 3 was the game that I ‘got’ the most.

You mention Persona 3 for the PSP is that the same one that was on the PS2? If so thats another reason to get a PSP.

Unfortunately it’s not the exact same game per se, I think the dungeon crawling is exactly the same, but then school/overworld stuff is now all 2D screens and you just go from screen to screen with a cursor to talk to people.

Bit gutted about that change to be honest.