Good RPGs shorter than 24 hours ?

[rusty_shackleford]

All the Cyanide/Spiders (dev) RPGs are about 10-20hrs.

technomancer was definitely longer

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Codex-approved? Maybe NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Expeditions: Conquistadir fits, I'm not sure about its second campaign, but the first one won't last more than 6 hours.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[buffalo bill]

Infra Arcana
DoomRL

They're also free, and great.

 

[V_K]

Basically any Adventure/RPG - Heroine's Quest, Quest for Glory, West of Loathing - can be finished within 10-15 hours at most.
Voidspire Tactics and Alvora Tactics are pretty short too, if you're looking for something more tactical.
Legend of Grimrock 1 is under 15 hours, and LoG2 is maybe in the 20-30 hours range if you try to do everything. Don't remember about the original Dungeon Master, but I would't expect it to be much longer than 15-20 hours either.

 

[markec]

Dink Smallwood, few hours of great fun.

 

[Ninjerk]

NEO Scavenger

Spoiler

lmao

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The Faery Tale Adventure (1986) by David Joiner can be completed in well under 24 hours (though if you play without a walkthrough or guidebook, you'll probably spend more than 24 hours exploring the land thoroughly).

 

[SophosTheWise]

You can do the main story of Arx Fatalis in about 20 hours

 

[Fishy]

Tyranny should be 20-25h if you don't get obsessive with sidequests.

Shadowrun games are a good call too. Returns is pretty short and the best fit for you, although I'd actually get Hong Kong and play the mod "Dead Man's Switch: Vox Populi" that reimplements and improves the Returns campaign in a better game engine. Dragonfall is longer and will possibly take you over your stated 24h. Hong Kong is comparable to Dragonfall but likely to take longer due to a lot of protracted dialogues in-between missions, as well as an additional mini-campaign which ties up the story for good and should absolutely be played imho.

 

[Shaewaroz]

System Shock 2
Dex

 

[Mikeal]

Alpha Protocol and Mask of the Betrayer.

 

[EverlastingLove]

Ultima I

It's very short, has great pacing and you can go to spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!

 

[Zer0wing]

Fallout 1.5: Resurrection. Around the same amount of locations as Fallout 1 but with more content in each. Can be finished in just about 20 hours.

Shadowrun for Sega Genesis.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Alpha Protocol and Mask of the Betrayer.

Thread title: Good RPGs shorter than 24 hours.

Spoiler

And for Alpha Protocol,
Thread title: Good RPGs shorter than 24 hours.

 

[Sinder Velvin]

I wanted to find out almost the same thing as you recently, so I took all the games from RPG Codex's 2014 vote for the top 70 RPGs + the top games from the 2012-2016 GOTY vote, the 2017 GOTY vote and the 2018 GOTY vote, and I put them through the infamously inaccurate HowLongToBeat, thus coming up with the following list of games where the main story can conceivably be finished in less than 30 hours:

Fallout
Main Story: 16½ Hours
Main + Extra: 22½ Hours
Completionist: 32 Hours

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Main Story: 23½ Hours
Main + Extra: 28½ Hours
Completionist: 40½ Hours

Fallout: New Vegas
Main Story: 28 Hours
Main + Extra: 60½ Hours
Completionist: 133 Hours

Deus Ex
Main Story: 23½ Hours
Main + Extra: 28½ Hours
Completionist: 37½ Hours

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
Main Story: 16½ Hours
Main + Extra: 25½ Hours
Completionist: 31 Hours

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
Main Story: 26½ Hours
Main + Extra: 30½ Hours
Completionist: 36 Hours

System Shock 2
Main Story: 13½ Hours
Main + Extra: 18 Hours
Completionist: 22 Hours

Gothic
Main Story: 22 Hours
Main + Extra: 29 Hours
Completionist: 37 Hours

Knights of the Chalice
Main Story: ?
Main + Extra: 23½ Hours
Completionist: ?

Alpha Protocol
Main Story: 13 Hours
Main + Extra: 17 Hours
Completionist: 25½ Hours

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
Main Story: 24½ Hours
Main + Extra: 33½ Hours
Completionist: 36 Hours

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
Main Story: 27½ Hours
Main + Extra: 33½ Hours
Completionist: 50 Hours

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Main Story: 24 Hours
Main + Extra: 33½ Hours
Completionist: 53½ Hours

Wasteland
Main Story: 29 Hours
Main + Extra: 38½ Hours
Completionist: 42½ Hours

Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness
Main Story: 15 Hours
Main + Extra: 15 Hours
Completionist: ?

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny
Main Story: 25½ Hours
Main + Extra: 44 Hours
Completionist: 70 Hours

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Main Story: 29 Hours
Main + Extra: 35½ Hours
Completionist: 46½ Hours

Anachronox
Main Story: 27½ Hours
Main + Extra: 31 Hours
Completionist: 36 Hours

Arx Fatalis
Main Story: 20½ Hours
Main + Extra: 34½ Hours
Completionist: 57 Hours

Drakensang: The River of Time
Main Story: 29 Hours
Main + Extra: 36½ Hours
Completionist: 52 Hours

Risen
Main Story: 26½ Hours
Main + Extra: 35 Hours
Completionist: 46½ Hours

Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds
Main Story: 19½ Hours
Main + Extra: 23½ Hours
Completionist: 40 Hours

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Main Story: 21 Hours
Main + Extra: 29½ Hours
Completionist: 43 Hours

Dungeon Master
Main Story: 16 Hours
Main + Extra: 18 Hours
Completionist: 18½ Hours

Mass Effect
Main Story: 17 Hours
Main + Extra: 29 Hours
Completionist: 43½ Hours

System Shock
Main Story: 13½ Hours
Main + Extra: 16 Hours
Completionist: 16½ Hours

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
Main Story: 26 Hours
Main + Extra: 35 Hours
Completionist: ?

Champions of Krynn
Main Story: 18 Hours
Main + Extra: ?
Completionist: 22½ Hours

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos
Main Story: 14½ Hours
Main + Extra: 15 Hours
Completionist: 19 Hours

Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters
Main Story: 7 Hours
Main + Extra: 13½ Hours
Completionist: ?

Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok
Main Story: 16 Hours
Main + Extra: 17 Hours
Completionist: ?

Age of Decadence
Main Story: 17 Hours
Main + Extra: 22 Hours
Completionist: 62 Hours

Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut
Main Story: 21 Hours
Main + Extra: 29 Hours
Completionist: 43½ Hours

Neo Scavenger
Main Story: 12 Hours
Main + Extra: 67½ Hours
Completionist: ?

Legend of Grimrock II
Main Story: 22½ Hours
Main + Extra: 30½ Hours
Completionist: 39½ Hours

FTL: Faster Than Light
Main Story: 11 Hours
Main + Extra: 29 Hours
Completionist: 125 Hours

Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Main Story: 20½ Hours
Main + Extra: 29 Hours
Completionist: 44 Hours

Expeditions: Conquistador
Main Story: 28 Hours
Main + Extra: 28½ Hours
Completionist: 32 Hours

Dungeon Rats
Main Story: 11 Hours
Main + Extra: 17½ Hours
Completionist: 25½ Hours

Legend of Grimrock
Main Story: 16½ Hours
Main + Extra: 20 Hours
Completionist: 29 Hours

Invisible, Inc.
Main Story: 7½ Hours
Main + Extra: 20 Hours
Completionist: 60½ Hours

Prey (2017)
Main Story: 16 Hours
Main + Extra: 27 Hours
Completionist: 43 Hours

Battle Brothers
Main Story: 20½ Hours
Main + Extra: ?
Completionist: ?

Expeditions: Viking
Main Story: 28 Hours
Main + Extra: 41 Hours
Completionist: 50 Hours

Nier: Automata
Main Story: 20 Hours
Main + Extra: 37 Hours
Completionist: 60½ Hours

ELEX
Main Story: 25 Hours
Main + Extra: 48 Hours
Completionist: 71½ Hours

West of Loathing
Main Story: 7½ Hours
Main + Extra: 11½ Hours
Completionist: 16½ Hours

Ghost of a Tale
Main Story: 10 Hours
Main + Extra: 14½ Hours
Completionist: 18½ Hours

Star Traders: Frontiers
Main Story: 25 Hours
Main + Extra: 30 Hours
Completionist: 77 Hours

 

[HarveyBirdman]

You can finish pokemon in a few hours

 

[Lord_Potato]

I wanted to find out almost the same thing as you recently, so I took all the games from RPG Codex's 2014 vote for the top 70 RPGs + the top games from the 2012-2016 GOTY vote, the 2017 GOTY vote and the 2018 GOTY vote, and I put them through the infamously inaccurate HowLongToBeat, thus coming up with the following list of games where the main story can conceivably be finished in less than 30 hours:

Thanks for compiling it for us, man. I am also sometimes in need of a RPG of a reasonable length, mostly to rest from those ridiculously large and packed with content. Willl refer to this list when in need!

 

[TheGameSquid]

Had to think about this one for a while...

The ones that immediately spring to mind:
- Fallout 1
- The Age Of Decadence
- Alpha Protocol
- Legend of Grimrock 1 (2 is quite a bit longer)
- Serpent in the Staglands (25 hours might be cutting it close, but I don't think it's that much longer either)
- System Shock
- Knights of the Chalice? (Somebody fact check me on this, I seem to recall it wasn't the longest game but I'm not sure)
- The Bard's Tale Trilogy (I recently finished the first game in about 25 hours, this remaster cuts down on the grind a little it seems)
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
- Expeditions: Conquistador (more along the lines of 30 hours)
- The Witcher 2 is actually not very long either

If you're willing to venture outside of the realms of Official Codex Approval:
- Driftmoon (more of a charming adventure with light RPG elements, but you might still enjoy it)
- Freedom Force (also not really an RPG and more of a real time tactics game, but I like this one nonetheless)
- inkle's Sorcery! games are actually CYOA games with some RPG elements (AoD anyone?), but you also might enjoy them and they're pretty bite-sized
- All three Banner Saga games
- Hard West (again not an RPG but I do believe some people on the Codex, including me, do like it)
- Both South Park RPGs

EDIT: Started writing this down before the post by David Cernat, sorry for the duplicates

 

[unfairlight]

Expeditions: Viking

Viking took me 26 hours and 30 minutes instead. Please withdraw your post.

 

[Mustawd]

The Faery Tale Adventure (1986) by David Joiner can be completed in well under 24 hours

Alpha Protocol and Mask of the Betrayer.

Thread title: Good RPGs shorter than 24 hours.

Spoiler

And for Alpha Protocol,
Thread title: Good RPGs shorter than 24 hours.

These two posts don’t make sense together

 

[Reinhardt]

No such things.

 

[majorsoccer]

i am pleasant by all the suggestions here people,but some users said Dragons Dogma is better than Dragon Age Origins...if Dragons Dogma is better than Dragon Age Origins then that means Dragons Dogma is a ultra masterpiece since Dragon Age 2 is a masterpice and people said Dragon Age Origins is even better than Dragon Age 2...so i going to play Dragons Dogma,by the way how long is Dragons Dogma ?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

how long is Dragons Dogma ?

Coupla hundred feet, give or take.