Game length

[sjwilkin]

If say I dont have much free time anymore and I just want to be able to play and finish this game as quick as possible... how fast can I do it? and what is the shortest length route you can take? Do you have to play all 8 stories?

[Melodia]

You can play as many of the stories as you want. 'Have to'? I mean, it's up to you. The credits roll after you finish your first chosen character's story, but you can do every story outside your first character's chapter 1 in any order you want. There's a 'true final boss' which you need to do all eight stories for but it's effectively the superboss of the game rather than the actual finish to the game, as it were.

[sjwilkin]

Ah, so is each characters arc around 8-10 hours? Then you go back to the main menu and pick the next character?

[Sakhari]

No. All of the characters are available in a single playthrough without needing to restart. You select one of the eight to start with (and you're required to keep that character in your party until their story quests are complete) but you can recruit the others by traveling to their starting locations around the world.

Basically, what Melodia is saying is that if you don't have the time, you're naturally free to simply stop playing once you've finished the storyline(s) for the character(s) that you're interested in. The first one is more than likely going to take the longest amount of time which, for someone going in completely blind, I'd probably put in the 15-25 hour ballpark (After that, the other story quests are likely to go much faster - if you're strong enough to finish one, you're generally strong enough to finish any of them). The other stories still show up as available quests on the map after you finish one and the game simply continues after the credits roll.

Overall, if you're looking to complete all of the stories, my first unassisted run through all stories, sidequests, and final areas clocked in at about 65-ish hours. If you're looking to just speedrun a character as fast as possible, technically, people have plowed through Tressa's story in about 45 minutes but she's an outlier for various reasons and going that quickly requires detailed knowledge of the game and a plan. Mileage can vary wildly.

[Melodia]

Actually the varience in single story speedruns isn't even huge. All top times are under an hour, the longest being Olberic at 57 minutes.

But yeah, it's not like a SaGa game where you play a character and then play another character with some differences in the 'same' parts....well the above explains it well. I actually wouldn't suggest on a first try only doing one story, even with recruiting three others as that would get difficult, but a party of four doing those four stories (preferably with all path actions covered) and then the other party with the better gear and stuff is a pretty common method.

[sjwilkin]

Awesome info guys really appreciate it. I have spent many many many hours on JRPGS in my time but the older I get the less time I seem to have. So on this basis I was curious to know how fast (or how long it would take) to *finish* the game. I shall attempt character 1 on my return from annual leave!