Jade Empire is... really fucking short.

[Jasede]

All right, I bought this Bioware game hoping for a fun diversion. Gotta say, it delivered. Was certainly a lot more entertaining than KOTOR.

But I got a gripe-

My last savegame shows me at 13 hours and 30 minutes. That's the very last save. I did do all the quests I could find and talked to everyone (skipping all the voice-acting, naturally) and the game still took only ~15 hours if you count the (very few) reloads. Now, I got to say, might be my fault - I played on "Medium" difficulty which was very easy - but come on! Fifteen hours? Not even 15, 13.5! I already was quite pissed when KOTOR (1 & 2) only took me 20 hours each, but 13.5 is a really new low. Now, I'm not that angry - I only paid 15$ for the game and the PC version has a fun New Game+ mode which will likely take ~18 hours because it's vastly more difficult - but still! For an RPG (though I'd call JE an action-adventure with many RPG elements instead of an RPG but that's just me) that's really, really short. Even good old Secret of Mana took me 30 and it had no cutscenes; same for Secret of Evermore and many other older, simpler console games.

So are games really getting awfully short these days? Someone said Mass Effect was short - how short is short? How much playtime can you expect from it? How about Mask of the Betrayer or NWN 2 OC? How long are these? I'd really like to play a long game again for a change. And I don't mean a jRPG (those seem to take at least 40 hours each, but the gameplay isn't my cup of tea most of the time).

(In before Volourn calls me a liar)

 

[JarlFrank]

Yeah, I noticed the same, most RPGs nowadays are just so fucking short compared to the RPGs of old. Maybe it's just the difficulty or the fact that you can walk across the landscape more quickly or something, but I remember older RPGs having taken more time. With games such as the Wizardries it really might be because of the difficulty level, the many reloads, and the fact that they're turnbased which means combat takes longer. Games today feel awfully short compared to the many hours I spent on a single RPG years ago.

 

[Vault Dweller]

All right, I bought this Bioware game hoping for a fun diversion. Gotta say, it delivered. Was certainly a lot more entertaining than KOTOR.

But I got a gripe-

My last savegame shows me at 13 hours and 30 minutes.

A small price to pay for the privilege of playing next generation games, you fucking savage.

I already was quite pissed when KOTOR (1 & 2) only took me 20 hours each...

What took you so long?

Someone said Mass Effect was short - how short is short?

15-20 hours.

How about Mask of the Betrayer or NWN 2 OC? How long are these?

MotB is under 20 hours too, but that's an expansion. NWN2 is longer, but it's so painful you'd wish it was a 10-hour long game.

I'd really like to play a long game again for a change.

May I recommend Star Trail?

 

[MetalCraze]

MotB is 20 hours long
OC is a bit longer
ME is 10-12 hours if you won't bother with planetary side-quests which are ALL copy-pasta anyway and are 90% of all side-quests in the game. I completed ME in 20 hours, but I did almost all planetary quests just for sport. one takes 30 minutes - only because you fight with mako controls all that time, while trying to reach quest-compass-marker.

 

[Jasede]

May I recommend Star Trail?

Not again! I completed Star Trail at -least- four times. I could likely complete it in ~fourteen hours because I know exactly what to do. Lovely game though. I bought RoA 1 (boxed) from Ebay for the CD music and RoA 3 but I can't fucking find the 2-CD edition of RoA 2 - Star Trail. I really want the (really good) CD music.

 

[Vault Dweller]

How about Heavenly Sword then?

 

[Jasede]

What? No. If it has to be something twitchy then it ought to be a real man's game, like Ninja Gaiden. You know, in the end, I'll just end up replaying Ultima 7-2 and Darklands and Betrayal at Krondor while mumbling about how games don't improve.

Really, all of these take ages to finish! Ultima 7-2 on your first try is easily 30 hours, Darklands, hah, if you don't watch yourself 50 hours pass, and Betrayal at Krondor... I spent 15 hours in Chapter 1 just exploring!

 

[Gragt]

What took me the most time in KotOR or Jade Empire is the voice acting, yup. I only skipped it for loops or alien language (in KotOR) though in retrospect I should have, most that is said isn't interesting.

I liked the NWN2 and MotB formula more with most dialog being text only but verbal exchanges with important people (such as party members) is voiced.

Funny thing is that when I think of it, I never really felt like skipping voices in KotOR2... I need to replay it to check why, maybe because overall what people had to say was more interesting?

 

[Volourn]

FO took less than 10 hours. *shrug*

ME, and JE are both 20+ others unless you ar ein rush to brag about how fast it took you. Enjoy the actual playing of the game. It's not a race. ME, btw, is longer than KOTOR and 3 times as long as FO.

Games aren't getting shorter. People just exaggerate how long older games were.

And, P.S. JE is an Action RPG... yet... has more role-playing than most so called full fledge RPGs.

R00fles!


"MotB is 20 hours long
OC is a bit longer"

Bit? L0L MotB is more like 15 hours. 20 hours is pushing it. Still, not bad for an expansion. OC is like 40-50 hours. For some, it's 60+ if you take your time. Unless you one of thsoe toolls who feel the need to race through games.

If a game is so bad youa re trying to finish it as quick a spossible instea dof savouring why the fuck are you playing it in the first place? L0L

 

[gamefan]

Even good old Secret of Mana took me 30 and it had no cutscenes; same for Secret of Evermore and many other older, simpler console games.

Secret of evermore sucked.

Secret of Mana was so good that it changed my life,I havnt played it in aound 8-10 years and I still remember the music from the first boss fight.

 

[Wyrmlord]

I'd really like to play a long game again for a change.

Play Deus Ex with no weapons, augmentations, or skills. On Master.

Struggle to find the key instead of lockpicking. Use health packs that heal a minor percent of health, instead of using regeneration. Check the codes for doors inside computers instead of using multitools.

The game will then take you much much longer.

 

[gamefan]

I'd really like to play a long game again for a change.

Play Deus Ex with no weapons, augmentations, or skills. On Master.

Struggle to find the key instead of lockpicking. Use health packs that heal a minor percent of health, instead of using regeneration. Check the codes for doors inside computers instead of using multitools.

The game will then take you much much longer.

And only use pepper spray for your weapon!

 

[Jasede]

I only completed Deus Ex once, playing on the highest difficulty and killing no one but Gunther, Anna and the end boss.

(And trust me, Pepper Spray, next to the Taser and Crossbow, was my most-often used weapon.)

I'd rather play Terra Nova - if only I can find that site that hosts the .iso along with Ultima Underworld 1&2 again.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Jasede, you fail. You can avoid fighting Gunther, if you call him a Laputan Machine. :p

 

[Jasede]

He still dies, doesn't he? I was trying to see if the game has any consequence for a non-violent playthrough. It didn't. I was pretty disappointed. I could just have used the Dragon Sword, but no, I -taser- the elite soldiers in the last dungeon.

 

[Dark Matter]

My last savegame shows me at 13 hours and 30 minutes. That's the very last save. I did do all the quests I could find and talked to everyone (skipping all the voice-acting, naturally) and the game still took only

There's your problem. PST would be even shorter if one were to skip all the reading.

And then there's FO, which is probably less than 10 hours even if you read all the dialog.

 

[Jasede]

Well, FO is like... seven hours... at most, that's true. And PS:T is indeed short. But what about Wizardry 7? Or Lands of Lore? Then again, maybe things do seem longer in memory...

Also, honestly, did anyone truly patiently listen to all that voice? I mean...

 

[MetalCraze]

people who say FO is short somehow forget about this one thing - replayability. considering that FO gives you 3 fucktons of possibilities to complete tasks - that ~10 hours aren't really true.

however if the game is 20 hours long, of which 18 hours are mindless boring shooting with a totally linear walkthrough - it doesn't count as "more than fallout"

 

[Jasede]

Yes, we know, but in all fairness, gamers these days don't replay games. In fact I remember some game-reviewer complaining about choices & consequences because everything should be accesible in your first playthrough. Oh the humanity.

 

[MetalCraze]

gamers these days don't replay games

I wonder why. maybe because there is no point of going through the very same thing a 2nd time?
then again most gamers today don't know what is "non-linear" and "replayability" so yes.

 

[Dark Matter]

people who say FO is short somehow forget about this one thing - replayability. considering that FO gives you 3 fucktons of possibilities to complete tasks - that ~10 hours aren't really true.

Meh. Only a few quests in FO give you any significant choices. Choosing to fight the Master, or talking your way out of it and other similar choices are insignificant choices that don't really affect anything, it's silly to say that the game can be counted as twice or thrice the real length because it offers lots of choices like these.

however if the game is 20 hours long, of which 18 hours are mindless boring shooting with a totally linear walkthrough - it doesn't count as "more than fallout"

Except that's not the case with KOTOR, JE or ME. Try again.

 

[[Jez]]

however if the game is 20 hours long, of which 18 hours are mindless boring shooting with a totally linear walkthrough - it doesn't count as "more than fallout"

Except that's not the case with KOTOR, JE or ME. Try again.

Good point, KoTOR used light sabers, JE used hand to hand & with ME it was 18 hours of lifts
With those saying FO is very short, is this because you know everything about it now or your first play though was that short?

 

[Binary]

Jasede, size isn't everything.

 

[Cray]

PST would be even shorter if one were to skip all the reading.

Yuppers, I saw a speed run of it in the 1 hour range.

I think PST lasted me about 10 hours when I first played, but I missed a lot of stuff by being skimpy on the wrong stats.

 

[MetalCraze]

@Dark Matter:
I didn't mean only dialogues. diplomacy, multiple choices and results of quests, combat/stealth ways, a possibility to create a truly unique character - anything you like. FO is easily suitable for at least 3 walkthroughs the way you want them.

Except that's not the case with KOTOR, JE or ME. Try again.

I've meant most of those shooters, where devs shout of long play-times. but JE and ME indeed had too much mindless combat. FO has a great share of combat as well - but the combat there is far less repetitive and gives more freedom than in JE and ME where you just rush your enemies. in FO combat also was quite unpredictable at times. (somebody sometime ago made a post about how PC dropped his gun in combat - and enemy NPC just ran to it, took it and killed PC with it)