I think not mentioning genre in this does miss quite a large part of things. RPGs should be long, because the point is an immersive world that you can explore and play around in as a character. many games are very different on subsiquent runs; rouge likes and strategy games get thousands of hours out of me, but no 2 instances of the game are the same as say RPG quests can sometimes be.
action adventure games have been getting too long imo. this is because they’re a genre that lends itself to a simple gameplay loop, combat, set peices, and a linear story that is the driving factor for playing. sometimes, after a few years, I will go back to say portal 2, but I would not find it that weird if somebody had only ever played it once. the RPG-lite aspects being tacked on to what really should just be a straight forward action adventure game, are something that bloats these games imo. like he said in the video, if disco elysium had added a combat system it would bloat the game beyond the core that it should be.
basically, many modern games have scope creep that turns into bloat, and this happens due to marketing teams leading design because they think this will make more money if they have a crafting system and open world
I actually disagree RPGs should be shorter, I remember playing Dragon Age Inquisition and it just being a slog, and even now replaying the old infinity engine games they are all very nice and tightly paced that I can finish a game in 2 weeks so roughly 20-30 hours while BG3 is more than 100 hours and it also becomes a slog after the first act which is roughly around 30 hours.
If anything a shorter play experience is vital for RPGs because they allow you to play different characters who perceive the world differently. One thing that Disco Elysium did really well is depending on what your character does well they perceive different things. There’s no ‘universal’ world and RPGs should lean more into the roleplaying and what you can do with it. Pathfinder:WotR does this but that also feels a tad too long and a bit shorter would’ve really made it so you can’t wait to play through all paths.
I just remembered Fallout:NV is also one of those games you can have a full experience in 20-30 hours.
Tyranny is also a great mention I think I did like 4 playthroughs ranging from warrior to lawyer because it doesn’t take that long to get through it just once.
I think not mentioning genre in this does miss quite a large part of things. RPGs should be long, because the point is an immersive world that you can explore and play around in as a character. many games are very different on subsiquent runs; rouge likes and strategy games get thousands of hours out of me, but no 2 instances of the game are the same as say RPG quests can sometimes be. action adventure games have been getting too long imo. this is because they’re a genre that lends itself to a simple gameplay loop, combat, set peices, and a linear story that is the driving factor for playing. sometimes, after a few years, I will go back to say portal 2, but I would not find it that weird if somebody had only ever played it once. the RPG-lite aspects being tacked on to what really should just be a straight forward action adventure game, are something that bloats these games imo. like he said in the video, if disco elysium had added a combat system it would bloat the game beyond the core that it should be.
basically, many modern games have scope creep that turns into bloat, and this happens due to marketing teams leading design because they think this will make more money if they have a crafting system and open world
I actually disagree RPGs should be shorter, I remember playing Dragon Age Inquisition and it just being a slog, and even now replaying the old infinity engine games they are all very nice and tightly paced that I can finish a game in 2 weeks so roughly 20-30 hours while BG3 is more than 100 hours and it also becomes a slog after the first act which is roughly around 30 hours.
If anything a shorter play experience is vital for RPGs because they allow you to play different characters who perceive the world differently. One thing that Disco Elysium did really well is depending on what your character does well they perceive different things. There’s no ‘universal’ world and RPGs should lean more into the roleplaying and what you can do with it. Pathfinder:WotR does this but that also feels a tad too long and a bit shorter would’ve really made it so you can’t wait to play through all paths.
I just remembered Fallout:NV is also one of those games you can have a full experience in 20-30 hours.
Tyranny felt so fresh because of it, as it was something like 10-15h if I remember correctly.
Tyranny is also a great mention I think I did like 4 playthroughs ranging from warrior to lawyer because it doesn’t take that long to get through it just once.