Game Length; what do YOU consider a short game?

[Starwight/ttv]

So this question arose when I was watching someone play Silent Hill 2; they made a comment about how the game was estimated to be 18-20 hours--but then proceeded to say that is a "long game." He further emphasized this later, saying "Yeah, it's about 18-20 hours according to early reviewers, so it's up there."

Now personally, this floored me. I'd never considered a game under 30 hours to be long. But then, I also play a lot of RPGs like Witcher, Final Fantasy, RDR2, etc.

So this got me thinking; is my love of RPGs skewing what, in my mind, constitutes a long game?

What do you think; is 20 hours a long game for you? If so, what is a short game? Where do you think game lengths fall? I'm super curious to see what you all have to say, because the idea that a 20 hour game could be considered long is completely foreign to me.

[Zebedee]

Depends on the game for me. Different expectations for different genres, even different studios (eg indie vs AAA).

There does seem to be a point around 20 hours for a game telling a discrete story to seem to many gamers to be about the right length. To use a real world example, one of the reasons for why CDPR structured Cyberpunk 2077 as it is was that they wanted to give players a way to run through in 20 to 25 hours and have a complete story. (And if you want more than it also offers more storyline branches to pursue if you choose to.) This after their analysis of what went right and wrong with TW3.

I think if you also consider making time to play then it also helps with seeing how maybe a couple of weeks of the same game is about the right length and might be seen as a 'long game'.

[angstlicht]

Originally posted by Starwight/ttv:

So this question arose when I was watching someone play Silent Hill 2; they made a comment about how the game was estimated to be 18-20 hours--but then proceeded to say that is a "long game."

this has a very simple cause, resident evil 2 on ps1 is extremely short and built around the idea that you play it multiple times. it's also one of the best examples of this genre.

obviously if you were talking about a jrpg, 20 hours would only be considered long in the NES era. survival horror is generally more similar to third person shooters or point and click adventure games. a very, very long p&c advnture game would be about 14 hours. silent hill 2's original version was already stretching the definition of what was then considered good pacing, taking about 8 hours to beat rather than 3.

is my love of RPGs skewing what, in my mind, constitutes a long game?

yes, and it's probably also skewing a lot of other things. generally speaking, rpgs have awful pacing and non-stories that bend over backwards to accommodate awful pacing.

[Starwight/ttv]

Originally posted by Zebedee:

Depends on the game for me. Different expectations for different genres, even different studios (eg indie vs AAA).

There does seem to be a point around 20 hours for a game telling a discrete story to seem to many gamers to be about the right length. To use a real world example, one of the reasons for why CDPR structured Cyberpunk 2077 as it is was that they wanted to give players a way to run through in 20 to 25 hours and have a complete story. (And if you want more than it also offers more storyline branches to pursue if you choose to.) This after their analysis of what went right and wrong with TW3.

I think if you also consider making time to play then it also helps with seeing how maybe a couple of weeks of the same game is about the right length and might be seen as a 'long game'.

Fair. I am quite surprised, because I've asked a few other people I know, and they are like "Yeah. 20 hours for a game is on the long side for me." It is so weird, when something you have looked at one way, you find out later is viewed completely differently and that your own viewpoint on the matter may be skewed.

I am expecting some people to be like "yeah, 20 hours feels short to me too;" and I'd be really interested to know what sorts of games those people play regularly. As it stands, I highly suspect that because I lean so heavily into RPGs, that is why I find 20 hours to be short; most RPGs tend to at least break the 30 hour mark.

realizing my own ideas on game length and what is considered short or long by others, has definitely been interesting, lol

Originally posted by angstlicht:

Originally posted by Starwight/ttv:

So this question arose when I was watching someone play Silent Hill 2; they made a comment about how the game was estimated to be 18-20 hours--but then proceeded to say that is a "long game."

this has a very simple cause, resident evil 2 on ps1 is extremely short and built around the idea that you play it multiple times. it's also one of the best examples of this genre.

obviously if you were talking about a jrpg, 20 hours would only be considered long in the NES era. survival horror is generally more similar to third person shooters or point and click adventure games. a very, very long p&c advnture game would be about 14 hours. silent hill 2's original version was already stretching the definition of what was then considered good pacing, taking about 8 hours to beat rather than 3.

is my love of RPGs skewing what, in my mind, constitutes a long game?

yes, and it's probably also skewing a lot of other things. generally speaking, rpgs have awful pacing and non-stories that bend over backwards to accommodate awful pacing.

On the note of JRPGs, that is actually fair. A lot of times, especially in the JRPG genera specifically, the main plot is actually only a very small portion of the game, and the vast majority of them tend to be sidequests, grinding levels, and gearing up. You see less of that in more modern RPGs I think (like RDR2, for example--or BG3. Or to a lesser degree, DOS2; though none of those are JRPGs either).

[FreshRevenge]

I clocked in about 20 hours in my first playthrough. That's was me exploring almost every nook and cranny in the game. There is a point of the game where you meet up with Maria and instead of going where she wants to go, I am off exploring the whole town and she is like "We are going the wrong way".

There are certain points in the game that act like a point of no return. So I used that to explore what I could before triggering the cut off point.

[Starwight/ttv]

Originally posted by FreshRevenge:

I clocked in about 20 hours in my first playthrough. That's was me exploring almost every nook and cranny in the game. There is a point of the game where you meet up with Maria and instead of going where she wants to go, I am off exploring the whole town and she is like "We are going the wrong way".

There are certain points in the game that act like a point of no return. So I used that to explore what I could before triggering the cut off point.

Now do you consider that 20 hours for a playthrough a short game, a long game, or middle?

[Mad Max]

The game is about double the length of the original which is great.

Given the game also has multiple endings and events that only happen depending on your action I'd argue it also has the replayability of the original too.

[KitsuneSama]

Originally posted by Starwight/ttv:

So this question arose when I was watching someone play Silent Hill 2; they made a comment about how the game was estimated to be 18-20 hours--but then proceeded to say that is a "long game." He further emphasized this later, saying "Yeah, it's about 18-20 hours according to early reviewers, so it's up there."

Now personally, this floored me. I'd never considered a game under 30 hours to be long. But then, I also play a lot of RPGs like Witcher, Final Fantasy, RDR2, etc.

So this got me thinking; is my love of RPGs skewing what, in my mind, constitutes a long game?

What do you think; is 20 hours a long game for you? If so, what is a short game? Where do you think game lengths fall? I'm super curious to see what you all have to say, because the idea that a 20 hour game could be considered long is completely foreign to me.

I think 20 might not be long considering I have played very long games like OG Final Fantasy 7 or 9 but also it is not short like playing Streets of Rage 4 or Street fighter, so perhaps medium length?

[FreshRevenge]

Originally posted by Starwight/ttv:

Originally posted by FreshRevenge:

I clocked in about 20 hours in my first playthrough. That's was me exploring almost every nook and cranny in the game. There is a point of the game where you meet up with Maria and instead of going where she wants to go, I am off exploring the whole town and she is like "We are going the wrong way".

There are certain points in the game that act like a point of no return. So I used that to explore what I could before triggering the cut off point.

Now do you consider that 20 hours for a playthrough a short game, a long game, or middle?

Well comparing this to the original game, this does hit a sweet spot. Since lots of the doors and buildings in the game were off limits. Lots of locked doors. I think it's medium length. I never felt that I wanted it to be over or thought some parts was too long.

[Mad Max]

Originally posted by FreshRevenge:

Originally posted by Starwight/ttv:

Now do you consider that 20 hours for a playthrough a short game, a long game, or middle?

Well, comparing this to the original game, this does hit a sweet spot. Since lots of the doors and buildings in the game were off limits. Lots of locked doors. I think it's medium length. I never felt that I wanted it to be over or thought some parts was too long.

Exactly. It's very easy for a horror game to overstay it's welcome.

I prefer a medium length horror game with lots of replayability.

Resident Evil 2 Remake was ALOT shorter than this game but had so much replayability I put in 90+ hours into it over the years.

I get a very similar feeling playing SH2 Remake.

[Kayael]

15-20 hours for a survival horror is long enough for me (1st playtrough, subsequent are shorter since you know what to do), these games aren't suited for more. And I can sink 200h into a RPG no problem. Survival Horror is about replayability anyways. SH2R has 8 endings, so here's your playtime.

[Mad Max]

Originally posted by Kayael:

15-20 hours for a survival horror is long enough for me (1st playtrough, subsequent are shorter since you know what to do), these games aren't suited for more. And I can sink 200h into a RPG no problem. Survival Horror is about replayability anyways. SH2R has 8 endings, so here's your playtime.

Yep. if I wanted to play a long game, I'd pick up Metaphor. (Which I will probably do after I'm done with SH2)

[Starwight/ttv]

So it seems the consensus that I am seeing is that, at least for a survival horror game, 20 hours is on the longer end, or possibly medium. Interesting to me, at any rate.

[Titan]

For this kind of game? Yes, 20 hours is incredibly long. Most survival horror games are 10 hours tops, usually shorter than that.

[Raywhisper]

If you have open world sandbox content blaoted RPG like -insert any assassin creed game here- then yeah it can take you 150 hours to go through. 5 hours will be actual story. 145 hours will be boring gring and "exploration"

SH2 is pure story. Story that lasts 18+ hours. That is a long game.

[Rc0rp3cU3sdoq]

I much prefer well crafted 12-20 hour long games, it means better story, better visuals and very little filler crap. They are becoming a rarity though because the corpo's can't suck endless dollars from you in grind, low quality DLC, skin or loot box gambling, so enjoy while they last.