7 JRPGs That Went On For Too Long

[@miraihibino1277]

Trails of Cold Steel 2 is my favorite game in the series. I love the epilogue, it’s the perfect end to the game leaving you with this bittersweet feeling.

[@ataridc]

You wish

[@darknesswave100]

That's definitely....an opinion that not many people share

[@004307ec]

Yeah, not many game ends like this. Trails of Cold Steel 2 does a good job telling you want Rean feels.

[@gamekiller64]

Exactly. I was ready for what to come next in the main story. Since I didn’t played the Sky or Crossbell games yet I was excited to play some of those characters and learn about their their situation. Then the final dungeon was fun too being able to switch up the party with everyone. Cold Steel 2 is a special game for me

[@anqeal]

the older i get, i think the harder it is for me to play very long games

[@Emajenus]

How is Bravely Default not on this list? The entire second half of the game was just repetitive insanity.

[@anqeal]

i loved BD but that really did feel extremely soul sucking

[@QueenCrimson]

crazy how a game being too long is one of the main things i look for

[@viewtifuljoe99]

Maybe it's because I played with a bunch of Draconian Quest modifiers but I can't imagine speeding through DQXI in only 65 hours for all 3 acts. My first full playthrough was 175hrs.

[@BillyBoy-hr9rl]

Lol 🤣 it don't make sense does it? I can't for the life of me figure out how he did that? I put about 130 and only beat the game normally but never did the end game stuff. I can only imagine how much more time I could have put into the game. Seemed like even after you beat it, you have a whole other game to play from the story bits I was getting. I still plan to go back and beat the end game stuff just to clarify that... 😂

[@alangrant2728]

@@BillyBoy-hr9rl I don't see how anyone could take more than around 80 hours to get through all three acts. I was able to 100% the game in around 115 hours.

[@BillyBoy-hr9rl]

@@alangrant2728 I do play games slower then most people. I have ocd. I have to walk every inch of a map. Talk to all npcs in the world after every event that changes up dialogue in games. I have to do all side quests and extra stuff. Plus I like to walk around real slow in beautiful games like DQ11,FF16 and Elden Ring and take screen shots and soak it in. Lol 🤣 so I guess I can't criticism anyone for how they play, when I play like a damn turtle trying to map planet earth... 530 hours in Elden Ring, in one single play through . I did everything and seen everything though so it was worth it.

[@jrpgaddict7726]

I absolutely knew a Trails and Tales of game would be in this list 😂

[@guruthosamarthruin4459]

Multiple routes are great in SRPGs, but they need to be almost completely different. Three Houses routes are WAY too similar.

[@darknesswave100]

Especially the first part of the game in the monastery. It's legit the same every route

[@therealjaystone2344]

And still no golden route, for why IS feared after Revelations DLC from Fates experience.

[@livingstoner6250]

@@therealjaystone2344 no golden route is a good thing thatd beat the entire purpose of what TH is going for lol

[@therealjaystone2344]

@@livingstoner6250 3H rotes aren’t canon at all lol

[@livingstoner6250]

@@therealjaystone2344 Yeah exactly. Its up to interpretation.

[@millasgameroom]

Not surprised this list is full of modern games. It tends to be a common theme with modern JRPGs not respecting the player's time by adding a lot of padding to lengthen the playtime. Which is worse than how grinding was used to pad out older RPGs IMO.

[@Chelaxim]

This trend kinda started with the PS2. Developers got a little crazy with the storage space capabilities.

[@arriaraara]

Funny how there will always be people that complain that games are too short, but when they are long, they also still complain. You can never satisfy anybody.

[@JetsDuck]

​@@arriaraaraDifferent people have different preferences.

[@makikuma91]

Interesting to see your opinions, I personaly enjoyed the Trails of Cold Steel 2 epilogue. I even went through the bonus dungeon I think? Don't know, it's been a while. You could unlock so much fun stuff. And I couldn't even get through Fire Emblem because the Monastery parts "went on for too long". Can't even imagine playing this a second or even third time.

[@004307ec]

I took a year to finish 4 routes... Too many repetition in the game. Engage is much better, but the story is meh.😂

[@makikuma91]

@@004307ec That's what I heard about engage, wanted to try that game at some point.

[@Nikita_Akashya]

@@makikuma91 Engage is not really that bad of a story. The main theme of the game is family. I liked the family theme throughout the game. Just basically how your family doesn't define who you are as a person and how found family can be very comforting and make you happy. And the DLC Story was depression the game basically. And hard! I played on normal and chapter 5 of the DLC almost broke. But it was also very late at night and I wanted to go to bed. But Engage is really fun and the mechanics are great. You can do insane starts later on and i mostly watched those form other people. I am very bad at videogames. But my favorite FE games to this day are still the GBA titles. Simple, fun and to the point. Balanced as all things should be. I hope you have fun with Engage when you play it.

[@makikuma91]

@@Nikita_Akashya didn't expect such a wall of recommendation, now I definitly have to try it XD

[@ltb1345]

I felt the "super long final chapter" fatigue when I played Trails to Azure recently, especially since I had the goal to finish it by the end of last month, and so was playing it every day. Even though it's my favorite Trails game so far, it did not need to be that long.

[@semblance6433]

i’ve actually been seeing this exact take crop up here and there now that more people have had the chance to complete azure, but i’ve never understood where they were coming from (perspective-wise). if you don’t mind, could you elaborate on what you felt could’ve been trimmed down/shortened? not here to bash this take, if you were wondering. i’m just curious, as, while the final chapter is undeniably the longest, it didn’t FEEL long to me, as everything that occurred felt purposeful and happened in a logical order of events without much, if any filler.

[@Zuhnado]

@@semblance6433 I do think the last chapter felt like a huge boss rush but im glad some turn-based jrpgs have turbo mode or else a chapter would easily cost a whole day of playing.

[@Nel_Annette]

I love the Trails series but I do kind of feel that way about a lot of their final chapters. Waaay too long.

[@JaredScott]

Azure was the worse for me as well but that’s mostly because the last half of the game felt like such a downer story wise. Probably the most depressing game I’ve played lol

[@semblance6433]

@@JaredScott haha, even more depressing than Sky the 3rd?

[@darknesswave100]

Tales of Arise did kind of suffer from filler stuff I'd call it. Like a couple things could have been shortened for me. Other than that it's my favorite tales game to come out

[@acidwizard6528]

I agree. The Tales series has regained it's footing after Zestiria and the most recent two games have been the best in it's long history.

[@BillyBoy-hr9rl]

It was my game of the year. Probably my favorite Tales game over Symphonia and Vesperia. People forget, but Tales games are always way to long and have a lot of filler. Tapes of Symphonia, and abyss both felt like they could had ended halfway through but kept going

[@Terranigma23]

Part 2 of Arise was horrible. Main antagonist + the final boss were so bland. Final dungeon also horrible. I miss when Tales of games has interesting dungeon/puzzle like Symphonia, Abyss, Vesperia. I'm so happy that I have discovered the Trails, Ys, Xenoblage game series. It's sad because I really liked Tales of and Final Fantasy back then. PS: Berseria was good just because of Velvet and especially because of the outstanding voice acting from Christina. 😅

[@acidwizard6528]

@@Terranigma23 I thought Magilou's voice actor did a great job in Berseria as well.

[@Terranigma23]

@@acidwizard6528 a little bit annoying, but better in the end game.

[@xrenzo1991]

Trails II Epilogue is probably one of my favorite epilogues in gaming, and one of the best parts of the game for me. It felt very rewarding, and made me want to play the Crossbell games. But I agree that I felt burned out a little before infernal castle, especially because I jumped to TOCS 2 straight after TOCS 1 (cliffhanger issues =P).

[@Javifaa]

Trails II doesn't have an epilogue… neither the infernal castle. What it has is the Liber Ark as the final chapter.

[@malaynyanmeow4190]

I've been bouncing from Trails FC (done) to SC (on hold) to Third(on hold) to Zero(done) to Azure(done) to CS I (playing) since March this year. I've no idea how it kept me coming back even though I couldn't quite finish a few due to lengthy dungeons

[@ShockStormRPG]

I think for devs kind of aiming for a shorter game length could solve a lot of problems of games ending up rushed or going on too long. I feel like stuff like Tales of Arise was massively rushed in second half and it seemed to be cause the devs ran out of time to finish developing the game and kind of had to rush it out. I liked Tales of Arise a lot too just think it being a little bit shorter could have helped it.

[@ataridc]

There are too many people, including reviewers, praising games for being 100 + hours long that devs feel like they have to keep bloating the games out. That's why I am a big time roguelike gamer these days. I get nice little compact gaming experiences in 40min-hour generally, and they are highly replayable.

[@wisteriaotaku]

@@ataridcbut that is a completely different genre. JRPGs are meant to be played for story not the gameplay (which is often not groundbreaking by any means)

[@ataridc]

@@wisteriaotaku sadly the stories are often bad these days, and there's no saying the gameplay has to be bad. part of the reason I still play JRPGS is because of the gameplay, personally. I think there is still a lot of room to innovate in turn based combat. look at Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler

[@wisteriaotaku]

@@ataridc that’s ignoring the point that JRPGS and roguelites are completely separate kinds of experiences. And let’s be honest people play a JRPG for the RPG part which is the story and world building. Almost always gameplay takes a secondary seat in JRPGs, as it should for the genre. If you aren’t enticed by the story of a JRPG then maybe the game isn’t for you. If you are wanting to play a game for gameplay than JRPGs is the last place anyone should be looking and it encourages devs to focus on gameplay which is arguably less important than story in the genre.

[@Llortnerof]

Frankly, i think the biggest issue is actually a lack of self-awareness and most importantly proper gauging of their own capabilities. They tend to overcommit and end up not being able to deliver. It's not that you can't make a game that long in theory, it's that they try to do so with the resources for a shorter game. Also, trying to build the game sequentially, invariably running out in the last parts.

[@bladecode]

Xenoblade infamous gacha, I hate farming to get "gacha" blades. It took me like 15 hours to get Kosmos lfkdjasklfdjasfldkja Never again.

[@FlyingFocs]

Having recently beaten my first playthrough of Three Houses, yeah it did seem to go on a bit. That said, I also started a new playthrough like immediately after, so I guess it didn't bother me that much.

[@fredvdp5029]

I also just completed Atelier Ryza 3, and in my Steam review I wrote that it's a great game that's much longer than it needed to be. Now, I did do pretty much everything. All the character quests, side quests, and world quests, so I guess it's partially on me, but I also did everything in Ryza 2 and the pacing in that felt fine.

[@tombeauvais7025]

For Atelier games "did everything" can vary a lot, and Ryza 2's alchemy system and lack of endgame does mean that it's somewhat shorter yeah, but, huh, if you spend time to do everything alchemy wise it's because you enjoy it.

[@therealjaystone2344]

Ryza 3 is an open world game unlike the first two no wonder why it was too long

[@fredvdp5029]

@@tombeauvais7025 When I said I did pretty much everything, I meant quest-wise, which is why I specifically listed quest types. The "pretty much" refers to me ignoring a lot of random quests near the end. My issue with the game's length was with the story pacing, not the actual hours played. I enjoyed the crafting, but that's irrelevant with regards to story pacing.

[@zodiarkkenway279]

I remember feeling that fatigue on CS2 just before the infernal castle. It just feels like that act should’ve been cut in half. The epilogue tho is a good icing on that cake. Specially since when I played it I never expected a 3rd nor a 4th game at that point.

[@UltimateGattai]

I feel like alot of the Cold Steel games could be half the length and end up as better games.

[@yojimbo26]

The problem is the way Falcom did boss battles. Each time you beat - the same - bosses they went SSJ on you just laughing it off. Even with one shot Laura which is ridiculous. Yes this is true for most Falcom games but it's very bad in CS2. You're fighting the same group of guys over and over and over, each time with the same result, and by the time of the Infernal Castle you already know what's going to happen. And to add insult to injury you keep getting bailed out in the same way by the true heroes of the story (who spend most of the time off screen) making your struggle meaningless especially if you start thinking on "wait how did these people get here"? Combined with that the Infernal Castle is one big corridor with not much to see it becomes a bore.

[@lucinae8512]

I get how draining some features get when you don't have to do them, but bonuses and story content you want are locked behind them, and it feels like it was done just to extend the game's length. I also get how exhausting Three houses's Monastery and P5's Social Links get for replays. I don't remember how long the epilogue of CS2 felt since its been so many years since I played it. But I do remember hating the fact you needed a New Game+ and find all of the Black Records to get an important plotline for CS3.

[@Inuzumi]

lol, I beat Trails of Cold Steel II two or three months ago and I already forgot that epilogue. I was watching the video and was like: "ToCSII? What are you talking about man?" Then you mentioned the epilogue and I remembered it. It was kinda unecessary but I still remember the game very fondly so it didn't hurt the experience too much from my point of view.

[@Silvamoon]

I understand the complaint but I disagree with most of the examples and the only reason I say “most” is because I haven’t played some of them. The games I have played were long but I loved every moment of each one. They were games I WISHED were longer because I didn’t want the story to end. Persona, tales, xenoblade, dragonquest. All 9 or 10 out of ten games for me. When you enjoy the game, you don’t feel it drag. At least for me. Other games, yea I get it. But these games were worth the time.

[@JaidynReiman]

I really, really don't like Three Houses literal 3-4 story routes mechanic. I think it would have been better if you don't decide your route when choosing the house you're part of, but instead you can see almost all of the events that happen regardless of which house you chose, and the official decision doesn't actually happen until the end of the Monastery section. That way you can just start over from the end of the Monastery section when you make your choice instead of having to repeat the monastery every time. Relegate the dialogue from the other houses to speaking to them inside the monastery or something, so you can still understand the basics of what's going on. And even allow you to go with Edelgard to visit the capital to access her route. White Clouds is way too samey to make that kind of decision at the start of the game. The differences in dialogue isn't different enough to make a huge difference here. Have Dimitri always find out the Flame Emperor is working with the slithers and have his reaction be the same regardless of what route you're on (so all three house leaders show up inside the tombs no matter what). The other teachers can jump ship to be taught by Byleth. I don't see why you couldn't decide to switch sides at the end of White Clouds to teach a different class. Then on NG+ you start from _that_ point instead of the very beginning of White Clouds. Or at the very least, give you the option to start from that point. EDIT: On that note, I never even finished a _second_ playthrough let alone a third. I did do it on Verdant Wind by getting all characters I could possibly recruit, then I stopped towards the end of the game.

[@JaidynReiman]

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 LMAO! I've now been on this game over 200 hours since finishing TOTK earlier this year. I've been holding off on it for so freaking long at this point. I'm trying to complete as much as I can. Getting the Rare Blades are obnoxious. I have like 5 left including KOS-MOS (not including NG+ which I don't plan on playing). I've also been maxing out Affinity Charts too which can get _really_ grindy as well.

[@kingkryptonite0]

Shocked you chose Cold Steel 2 and not 4. 4 is looong mainly cuz of sidequests. So much so a KZbinr I watch stopped playing it after getting Rean back a year ago. I asked recently if they'll continue so they could get to Reverie but his stance hadn't changed and most likely won't continue it. It's a shame cuz the main story is great seeing everyone come together to face the one big threat to save the world

[@skyknight0408]

Three words: Tokyo Xanadu eX+ By the the time the final dungeon appears, I was already a bit tired because every chapter doubled in lenght compared to the previous one. So I wasn't very thrilled that you have to do a couple of smaller dungeons first, to remove the seal that stops you from going to the final one. But it didn't stop there. The final dungeon is actually multiple dungeons in one and you need to split your party and do all of them. Then after you beat the final boss, it tells you that you have done enough side stuff to unlock an extra chapter to get to the true ending. And after you've done that and seen another credits roll, it opens up the DLC chapter which has a couple more dungeons that open the path to another final one. I love the game, but it overstayed its welcome quite a bit after suggesting that your in the final stretch, it just keeps going....and going...and going! The best thing about this is, that I played this before starting the Trails series, so CS2 was pretty tame in comparison!

[@markphillips8605]

I hear you with regards to final dungeons that seem to go on for hours. I'd go further and say that continually evolving boss battles that go on and on are just boring and I actually really enjoy long RPGs

[@cranesalvation8391]

Oh no this is a list of my favorite video games. What does this mean

[@TheAwsomeuser]

I totally understand with the stuff u said about cold steel 2's epilogue. I remember during my first playthrough I gt fed up and didn't even bother finishing the real final dungeon since they said there was no reward, but after playing cold steel 3 and 4 then I realized the importance of tht final dungeon. Also cold steel 2 made me discover tht there were prequels to the game, its thanks to cold steel 2 tht gt to play trails in the sky trilogy and the crossbell story.

[@jorgeavilesf]

The thing with FE3H is that you don't need to play it 3 times. You can of course and you'll likely get more of it, but you can chose 1 route and stick to it (specially if you don't like social injustice and correctly chose Edelgard's :P)

[@JimC1984]

750 hrs in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 not proud of it lol

[@gamekiller64]

I agree with three houses. Glad I did the golden deer first cuz I lost interest or got distracted with something else before I got to the time skip for blue lions. It’s a shame they couldn’t have a few route exclusive maps in the first half

[@NachtKaiser666]

Ah man, I hear you about Cold Steel 2. I remember finishing it for the first time and feeling both too exhausted for a second playthrough and hyped to jump on Cold Steel 3 despite the Black Records NG+ subquest... and early on in Cold Steel 3 having the game insinuating that I was expected to do it. I was definitely annoyed, despite the overall positive feeling i had on the game (I also missed one single chest for the trophy, which definitely added to the annoyance) I'll probably go back to platinum Cold Steel 1, 2 and 4 after I'm done with Reverie, but it's telling that I finished the rest of the series before wrapping up Cold Steel...

[@marvin8234]

Funny :D I revisited CS2 in the last weeks and, coincidentally, finished it today after this extreme long Epilog! So i had to laugh after you talked about it in this video and agree with you completely

[@jclosed2516]

I certainly agree with you with many games, although there are a few I felt a bit less troubled about it. Maybe because I did not want to say goodbye to the characters or something like that? I still had that feeling of wanting to hang on a little longer with those characters. Tales of Arise and Atelier Ryza 3 had that "thing" for me. I completely agree with Cold Steel II though. That last dungeon would have been far more powerful if the length was cut down at least by a half or more. But the biggest of offense for me was hiding a very important scene behind a complete NG+ replay. That is completely inexcusable. Replaying a complete game just to get a piece of important info is not the way to do it! Period! Lucky enough Falcom never did that again, but it would have been nice if they made the scene available in the first play through with a patch. I cannot comment on Xenoblade Chronicles II and Fire Emblem: Three Houses, because I have not played those games. Not because I don't want to, but because I am a PC gamer, and those games are not available for that platform. The only hand-held I have is the Steam Deck, so that's not helping either...

[@ltb1345]

You should get a Switch, tons of exclusive JRPGs.

[@jclosed2516]

@@ltb1345 Well - I already have my gaming PC, that dual boots with my Linux work OS. On top of that I have a dedicated PC for CAD, DAW and graphical design. On my workbench I have a Raspberry Pi 400 to steer my 3D printer (and do some easy browsing), and lastly I have a Steam Deck as hand held. I really have no urge to purchase another (relatively expensive) device (and even more expensive games). Thanks for the advice, but I think I have enough stuff already. 🙂

[@himeko1723]

For me personally CS2 is my favourite game of the whole Trails series especially because of all these emotional moments like the reuning of Class VII, the liberation of Triste or what happend with Crow. And the final epilogue was especially important for Millium as until this point she still somewhat did not feel as much part of the gang as the rest. But this scene in the end with Millium crying for the first time and learning was sadness rly is by getting seperated from her friends made such a huge impact to me. Also the final scene where everyone is thanking Sara was another hit right into the heart.

[@yojimbo26]

I personally thought CSIII and CSIV did the emotional stuff better. Even though I was somewhat spoiled for CSIII and the game somewhat telegraphed the ending it still got me in the feels. And the goodbyes after each rivalry were great too in CSIV. And of course class VII reuniting after the events of CSIII.

[@NickEnlowe]

Final Dungeons are my favorite thing about jRPGs. They ramp up the boss fights (and boss fight music) to 11, and the artistic team can go hog-wild with their designs, sometimes even getting surreal and dream-like.

[@eriponchi]

Funnily enough, I am replaying Tales of Arise right now. I really love the combat of this game, it's right there at the top together with FF7Remake, and that probably made the experience somewhat enjoyable to me. Admittedly, the final dungeon was really long and filled with basically damage sponge enemies, but to me personally, that made it more satisfying to unleash my combos. This was my first tales game, and I really loved it. I'm with you on Ryza 3. They definitely tried to cramp so many things in there. I feel like there was a bit of back and forth in the story, and the constant distraction of side quests probably added more than it should to my playtime. Ryza 1 is still probably my favorite from the trilogy, although arguably, 2 is the most refined game imo.

[@dohalimilqarasdeldemenanci8483]

yeah I didn't understand the complaint about the combat being repetitive when it's in top there when it comes to action rpg. The combat is very rewarding especially when you go deep and pull some crazy combo that seem endless. Then again this is just my opinion as a big fighting games fan.

[@xsonicdragon]

A lot of Tales fans dislike it (including myself) because of how at odds the game's systems is with itself. You are given various artes to work with and combo, yet large sized and boss enemies never stagger from your Arte combos, which discourages the Arte comboing you've been using on normal enemies. You can't dodge cancel out any of your artes, which encourages either a hit and run tactic (and this discourages comboing) or just asks you to use long range attacks. Alphen's special technique and boost attack consumes his HP, which forces the player into using their limited CP pool that is expensive to refill in the middle of battle (orange gels are made extremely expensive). You are supposedly encouraged to create long combos so you can use the boost strike, yet the game won't led you against the large enemies and bosses cause they only flinch from boost attacks, and you can't keep them in a staggered state with your artes even after staggering them with the boost attack. Party ai is pretty bad and you can't adjust individual party member ai settings like you could in all previous tales games, which means you have to use the same ai settings for all members at once even if one of the members is better suited for something else. There's a lot more I could list, but Arise's battle system feels like a confused mess that doesn't understand what it wants to be.

[@Aranethify]

You chose 6 games(haven't played ryza)I didn't want to end hahaha. It was good to me that they were so long

[@comic-brad6382]

I definitely disagree with you about the third semester in P5R, but I respect your opinion. For me, P5R started out really strong with Kamoshida's palace, then dropped in quality with almost each palace afterwards (most of the villains weren't compelling to me, being a bad case of tell don't show) but the third semester brought things back up to Kamoshida's level imo.

[@darknesswave100]

I think that's a problem with a lot of people myself included. Kamoshida was personal and you were directly involved in it. The rest of the palaces besides I'd personally say futaba's and shido's palaces, felt like you said it was more tell than show. Then when you got to the 3rd semester it felt personal again since it's directly effecting you. Worst one by far imo was Okumura. I didn't not care for haru at all and she was next to useless in her own palace introduction

[@morriganrenfield8240]

Fully agreed there.

[@wheresatari668]

I'm split on all this. You like what you like from genres to length to music and I don't hold that against anyone. I certainly have my preferences and I won't let anyone tell me otherwise. That said, I looooove a long game. Love it. I have spent hundreds of hours on many a title without counting subsequent playthroughs and I am no completionist. However, I can see the other side of the spectrum as well, especially since I have an almost 2 year old now. Time is an issue and I have too many life responsibilities and too many games to play to spend 200 hours on a single experience. The longer the game, if I like it, the better I feel and the more I think I get my money's worth, but now I mostly play on easy (which was mostly normal/hard/critical back in the day) and use a guide just to get the story of a series I like. I see both sides🤷‍♂️

[@BenjaminDarlingMusic]

I find many JRPGs to be a tad overdone. I think that sweet spot is 30-40 hours, with some being great up to 50 hours. Once we’re 60+ though, I tend to get fatigued or bored and just start rushing through to see the end.

[@LightMageMike]

Yeah, Three Houses... Has it's problems. I still have really fond memories of my first playthrough. But I genuinely do not want to pick up that game ever again. Which really stands out to me when compared to some of the other games in the series that I hop back to regularly every now and again. Like, I know it's not everyone's favorite FE game, but I feel up for a playthrough of Awakening every few years or so. I even circled back to Fates and enjoyed them a lot more than I remembered. Or rather remembered that I enjoyed them more than their reputation. But Three Houses I just feel like I've exhausted it and it's exhausted me. Playing through it so much highlighted its flaws in more than just the repetition and I really would've been happier if they'd just made a single route game and focused more of their time on making that route shine. Anyway, thanks for the video!

[@ataridc]

Surprisingly i agree about final dungeons. They tend to be a momentum killer for me. Ive even stopped games at the final area because id got what i wanted and didnt want to end with a bad taste in my mouth. Thought i was crazy but at least one person agrees.

[@alexanderackerman3807]

I like JRPG'S but for me my least favorite part of almost all of them is the ending. The dungeons are usually boring and way too long with HP sponge enemies and the plot is usually too much.

[@ataridc]

@@alexanderackerman3807 Tales of Berseria was a fairly recent one that made me want to smash my Ps4. It was like 50 levels of the same tileset over and over. At least that's how I remember it.

[@alexanderackerman3807]

@@ataridc Seems like it’s an issue for the entire Tales series because both of the ones I played (Vesperia and Arise) I went through the final act going “can this please end already!?”

[@eliotwildermann]

Dang ryza has 3 games that's a lot to cover 😊

[@nopenope2550]

I don't understand how there are still people who put Three Houses over Engage. The story and characters weren't as good (though 3H is WAY overrated in that regard) but literally everything else is better by several orders of magnitude, including the character designs. Yes, I will die on that hill.

[@lunis6898]

Dragon Warrior VII for PS1 has a 15 hour prologue and another 70-90 hours after that.

[@Olphas]

Oh yes. That is something I completely agree with and with several of the examples in the video, too. When I finished Ryza 3 recently I was not sure if I should be happy that EVERYBODY got an ending or just be annoyed. Because it just kept on going and going and going ... that is the most recent example for me. I am also not a fan of the never-ending "final dungeons" many JRPGs throw in.

[@laxur1312]

I would add Trails into Reverie to the list. That fucking game just REFUSES to end.

[@calendar6526]

I really thought that they will keep the dancing to the XB3, it just such a funny and sweet little thing.

[@Private0Ryan01]

I felt the exact same thing people had for Cold Steel II to Reverie’s Coda epilogue. This added 25-30 hours of gameplay trying to do all the extra stuff and felt like pointless padding, couple with a lackluster final boss to a game that already felt unnecessary even from the main story.

[@Eagleknight815]

I won't ever forget when I thought I finished CSII and it kept going. Told my wife that very early morning, "It won't let me go....it won't end!"

[@animesoul479]

I don't think Dragon Quest 11 went on for too long, personally. Just that because of how the last bit of the game is it forces you to level grind if you want to be at a decent level for the last boss. Depending on how you go about that will depend on how long you spend. Although, least for me, I stop playing after the main story is finished as I don't like the direction the story takes after that point (if you know, you know)

[@animesoul479]

@NaNoRarh I never was able to play that one. Sounds like it was a nightmare

[@animesoul479]

@NaNoRarh I've been trying to track down a lot of the older ones I missed. I didn't get into the franchise until Dragon Quest 8. 11 was the second one I've played and overall I enjoyed it

[@CarDaMax1770]

Hi TKN! A bit unrelated, but will you be doing another community popularity poll for Trails into Reverie in the future? I actually really enjoyed seeing what other people thought about the characters in the previous Trails arcs, and am really curious about how their perspective on certain characters might have changed since Reverie, as well as the newcoming characters.

[@TheKisekiNut]

I won't rule it out, but I wouldn't say it's happening any time soon especially since many haven't finished the game yet.

[@TaiketsuG]

Yeah the final dungeon of ToA sure was suffering even thought the rest of the game was cool

[@mrdarkstar3756]

Great list. You make me want to give Ryza a go

[@theultimatedragoon2231]

Regardless of the different perspectives, Cold Steel 2 is my second favorite trails game. Sadly, after it the arc went downhill a lot (NEW C7 wasn't necessary EVEN if I actually like them more than the OG C7).

[@megasoniczxx]

I played Star Ocean 4 for the first time last year and not only was that games final dungeon/planet nuclear levels of long, but the final boss is like 3 hours of gameplay with a boss rush inbetween and no checkpoints at all and even though I somehow managed to scrape my way through (never before have I mained a healer in a JRPG as hard as I did for this one segment) it just felt like a slog and I think if I ever do another playthrough of the game, i'm probably not touching that section again.

[@lunarath1]

I love the epilogue in Cold Steel 2. I think it was a wonderful send off, but I'm also the type who will take a month+ beating these games at my own pace, so I never really feel the fatigue. I'll just stop playing if I get bored. With dragon age XI it took me 65 hours to beat the first 2 chapters, and then I stopped. For what I'm concerned the game ended after chapter 2, and everything else is post game of which I don't care about. Persona 5 I completely agree with. I put 120 hours into the game (Royale) and still don't think I was near done. I just stopped because other games came out and It got too repetitive. I want to go back to it, but it's so daunting.

[@wheelotime2581]

I agree with you on CS2, also I really shouldn't have played it before playing the crossbell games...

[@tadashiminami7595]

I'm not gonna $50-$60 dollars for a game I can complete in

[@Marty-V]

To me this whole list could have just been the entire trails of cold steel series.

[@malaynyanmeow4190]

I wonder how I could ever finish Arise dungeon since I've already spent 4-5h for Tartarus monthly dungeons in Persona 3 FES/Reload

[@Xenaximus]

Still have yet to finish Three Houses even once. The monestary sections between battles kinda burnt me out as well. Too many characters to deal with each day, so they do drag on after awhile. On the backlog for someday in the future.

[@Moffattt]

if you dont know anything about 3 houses after the monestary then i would recommend chugging through it at least once. cant say much for edelgard since i never got to her but both dimitris and claudes routes are amazing. the game is kinda boring during the school section but it ramps up FAST after that

[@WanderingMindSR]

I did Crimson Flower for my first playthrough in Three Houses, and it took me 70 something hours because I recruited most of the characters, went around the monastery, and talked to everyone I could. While I really enjoyed my playthrough, I was worn out by the end. I've taken a break from this game for the last few months because I didn't want to deal with the monastery stuff so soon again. I'm probably going to take it much easier with that stuff on my other playthroughs. Hopefully it should help.

[@Sasu556]

I kinda liked Cold Steel 2 ending. Maybe it was because of the phantasmal mirrors, but I just had a lot of fun with it. Altho yes, the dungeon didnt need to have like 5x5 floors like it had, I think 3x3 wouldve been enough. And as for the final dungeons, I also dont mind those as much. For me these are like the final playground, where the culmination of all my grind comes together and I can just unleash all of it and have a blast before its over. That being said, if you are mostly interested just in the story, I can see how they can be a drag. Also its comin from someone who clocked over 100 hours on every single trails game (some of them even over 200), so I suppose I just really enjoy those in general and dont perceive the time spent on even some of the less-interesting parts as negatively lol.

[@adamstrakna6270]

Man, 3rd semester might be my favorite part of royal tbh

[@arcanegale285]

You say you only put over 100 hours into P5Royal, that is baffling to me personally, because on my first playthrough of Cold Steel 4 I had around 200 hours on the game and while yes, I was doing as much as possible, it's still weird to think that I had over double your time on the game.

[@Eldred91]

I share the same sentiment as you. Every single Trails title has taken me at least 100h+ to complete, with CS4 taking me 220h on my first playthrough and then I see all these people saying they complete a Trails game within the 60h mark. I didn't understand how at first but I think most people don't bother with doing all the side content, they don't bother much with thinking up builds for all the different characters and they make liberal use of turbo mode (which is all fair enough). I don't have concrete data on this or anything but based on lots of comments I've read from different people, these particular points seem to often be true.

[@arcanegale285]

@@Eldred91 well generally how I have it is: Sky FC 40ish hours Sky SC 80ish Sky the 3rd 60ish Zero 60ish Azure 100ish Cold steel 1 120ish Cold steel 2 120ish Cold steel 3 150ish Cold steel 4 200ish Edit: typo

[@eliotwildermann]

I don't feel games r too long i usually get sad towards the ending i really loved dq11 😊😊

[@MichaelIlos]

I laughed when you said It takes 35-45 hours to beat one three houses campaign. It took me 140 to beat crimson flower on my first playthrough(I played on classic maddening, recruited everyone available, maxed out all supports and completed all paralogues). It's the shortest route. And considering how many things are left unsaid in that route, game basically expects you to play another. I'll probably clear a route every year or two and finish it in the next 5 years. That game is way too long for me.

[@KisekiFan]

honestly i too had issue with the last dungeon in Arise, not helping was the fact that there are literally no new enemies, its just the same enemies with a different coat of paint. I had no problems with the epilogue of Cold Steel 2, as you said it was necessary especially for Millium and all of the Class VII, and then on an unrelated thing there is Anton, dear dear Anton who actually managed to strike something here, lol. Also what i really like about the Trails series is that you can skip alot of the fights if your character is over levelled. My biggest issue with Persona 5 Royal is that there is very little difference with the ending between the Vanilla ending and Royal ending. Then there is Kasumi/Sumerie's bonding event, i like her but alot of events like Christmas you cannot have her because half her confident is locked until you reach a certain point which is about 3/4 of the game and by that time almost everything is over.

[@jonate79]

I didn't even bother playing Persona 5 Royal because the first game was so dam Long!!! Took me over 150 hours to beat the game and I was ready for it to just End! Trails of Cold Steel 2 I thought it was over and then Bam!! A whole 15 hours to go 🤦🏾‍♂️

[@SatchetSyrup]

only played 4 out of these 7 games. Ryza 3, DQXI, Three Houses, and Arise. Can't agree with you for the Ryza 3 and DQXI part since this two is one of my most fav jrpg I've ever play. but for Arise and Three Houses? kinda agree with but not in the same time, arise is on a weird side for me since im a sucker for story yet the battle mechanic is what make me stay, it just fun. story start strong yet nothing really... arise after that, in the later part its not even jrpg anymore, it's visual novel, as you said, lore dump. that part make me enjoy the last dungeon a lot like "finally, gameplay!!!", well still long tho. still 8.5 overall for me. Three Houses? other than what you said im just that type of person who despise "alternate ending", once i play black eagle that's my canon. 9.5 still overall i finish all of it, spent hours there, if i dont enjoy them ill never spend that much. Like your video, here for more :)

[@johnnymcjohnson1373]

5:26 for JRPGs FFX takes the crown for me, but only because I decided to 100% it

[@andrewstencel]

Persona 5 alone got me 140 hours already, so I couldn't think of how much Royal would have been.

[@Jediknight4jc]

I have loved Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but am about 75 hours or so in on my first play through and certain elements really started to get too repetitive about 5 to 10 hours ago.

[@uppernimbus]

Was gonna say that the original Xenoblade I believe has a longer story than Xenoblade 2, but if you wanna 100% complete them, Xeno 2 takes the cake for side content, from memory at least.

[@Saru245]

I knew I Was going to disagree with some of the games here but there were more games I loved BECAUSE the story was really long/clocked in high gaming hours just from the story alone that it shocked me lol Arise: Though I wished the game looked more like Vesperia/played like Vesperia cause I still think that's the best Tales Of game looks and gameplay wise, I liked the story and the 3rd act. Considering I was expecting another planet to explore but sadly didn't get it, it was shorter than I wanted it to be lol The final dungeon didn't feel too long cause it felt straight-forward with good amount of cutscenes which I love. Trails CS2: I always want these games to be long(though that can be said for every game I get lol) so I can spend more time with the characters/story so seeing there was more I freaking loved it! Playing as those two after the finale was a surprise since I didn't know them too well when I 1st played the game but it was super cool. The epilogue was bitter-sweet but I'm glad we got it. Made me get the feels. Around 130 hours it took me and I wished there more lol P5R: Another one where I spent over 100 hours in the vanilla version so I was expecting Royal to be longer which I was happy it was. The 3rd Semester was so much fun to play, I love the morals and story there and that final boss theme was super hype, I even liked it even more than the one that plays in the Ship Palace(forgot the name of the song) and I love that one for long time. Took me around 200 hours and once again I wish there was more cause I loved the story and characters so much. XB2: This one took me a while but that's cause of the gameplay/big open world. This is a case where I don't like it taking me a long time. When I just battle and explore more than seeing cutscenes/character interacting with each other, I get bored. I know it's crazy but yeah, I rather sit through 2 hours of pure cutscenes than 2 hours of just battling any day of the week cause I love that shit! lol It's why Tales Of, Persona, and Trails are my Top 3 game series of all time, due to their focus on the story and characters more than gameplay. I loved the story(stories with the DLC), characters, definitely character designs, and funny moments in this game a lot. Says it took me over 200 hours buuut it didn't feel that long. Hmm, don't know if the clock keeps going when I don't play the game like some games do so that could be why. Ryza 3: Not much to say about it since I never played it but hearing you say that it was the longest story out of the 3 got me super excited but I don't think I'll be playing it since it sadly doesn't have an English Dub. These 3 don't have the horrible/stressful timer/deadline over my head which is great to hear but no English Dub just sucks. So close yet so far. I did get the 1st one but that was from a twitter contest by Koei. So far Trails CS4 is my longest JRPG game to beat to date I think with around 210 hours and I can tell you now, even though it was around 6am when I beat it I thought I wish it was longer cause I didn't want it to end. I wanted to spend more time with these characters and story and made me sad to see it end lol I still feel like we should've played that epilouge/scenes where it's just pictures/character stills. That would've been SO cool, especially hearing ALL those characters in English for the first time/Dub actors reprising their roles after so long. I AM getting it with Reverie now which is REALLY AWESOME and really makes the scene hit hard but I does make me wish the Crossbell games were dubbed in English with this cast even more lol So far I'm 63 hours into the game and thankfully not near the end(I hope) cause I want to spend time with these characters in these lands more before it's all over and I never see them again for who knows how long(and if the Dub actors can/will reprise their roles in a future game). At the end of the day, if a JRPG game takes me HOURS to beat due to all the story and character interaction, I welcome the 10's to 100's of hours I put in it. Gives me a bang for my buck. ^_^

[@nr2676]

Strange Journey Redux is even longer game (300 hours - All 6 Endings).

[@Nemy10X]

I just finished P5R for the first time and I agree that the section added for Royal was interesting but just kept dragging on and on. I was not a huge fan of Persona 5, and loved the QOL enhancements with Royal, but didn't really need the added dungeon and semester, despite the story being decent

[@moonsong2341]

It took me 173 hrs to complete P5R and because I wanted a perfect playthrough (all social links) i carefully planned the whole game and actually had all social links except 2 finished in 3rd semester. Which made it very boring... . Usually i start to burn out in those type of games at the last stretch because most of the time you have to do some grinding before the last boss/part. I don't even know how many games I put aside to finish later and never touched them again.... :(

[@marksayosmejia7251]

Did not expect ryza3. Im playing red dead 2 and im trying to rush the story, so i can finally begin ryza 3.

[@notyoursavior78]

Cold Steel II is my favorite of the series, but that epilogue was pointless. I remember trying to rush that final repeat dungeon as fast as possible and cheesed the shit out of the repeat final boss with S crafts and items because that didn't need to be there. Then there was that stuff with Rixia and Lloyd which was fine, but I was so annoyed when they pulled out that crap before.

[@carlosrueda9204]

Oh man. I was about to start tales of arise from my backlog. Thank you for the spoiler warning for TOCS2. I only completed trails of cold steel 1. I loved persona 5 but yes! Waaaay too long.

[@elasmojones]

So basically all the great JRPGs of the last few years

[@luizfib]

Every Cold Steel game left me really fatigued. The plot is amazing and that made me go on but they are just too long. Im a grown up man I dont have time to 70+ hours in the same game. I feel it would be very hard to go back to the series and other entries because the games i've played just left me really tired, which is sad.

[@reginaldedwards6194]

I thought Cold Steel 2was fine including the epilogue but I felt Cold Steel 3 went on a little too long (although I enjoyed that as well). Currently playing 4 and so far, so good

[@CosmicNova1000]

I disagree with you on P5R I loved the extra content because I get to keep playing and continue to enjoy this wonderful game and its characters, so the fact that you’re complaining about the extra content added to the game irks me, also I don’t mind at all for my games to be long because I get to continue playing the game especially when I I’m loving every second of it.

[@darknesswave100]

Yeah I hard disagree with saying the 3rd semester had nothing going on. To me it's one of the best parts of the entire game. The 2nd to last dungeon is amazing and honestly heartbreaking when you find out everything. To say nothing was going on is just....factually wrong

[@Synanova]

Your personal feelings do not matter when it comes to whether the game is objectively too long. No matter how good a game is, fatigue will start to set in for a lot of people when the game starts to drag on because of a lack of plot and *real purpose* of doing overall meaningless tasks just to move or complete a story. The director or writer does this because it covers the lack of real content or the story losing direction due to outside interference, such as development hell cycles.

[@sordis3309]

​@@Synanova Could you tell me how long is Objectively too long? And please cite your sources other than yourself.

[@JaredScott]

I got to play CSII a couple months ago. Tbh i had no issues with the pacing. Of the CS arc it’s my favorite one. The last 10 hours did seem weird but the further along I got the more I understood what they were trying to do. The only part of CS II I didn’t like was they did a poor job of making me care about Crow. I honestly don’t see why any of them thought they could all go back to how things were. Really weird imo

[@nickwick35]

Tales of Arise was a fantastic game but oh my god, the final dungeon mixed with all the skits was ridiculous. I also didn't like how it forced you to use CP which was already drained throughout that final dungeon to begin with and the high cost of potions/items. The lack of enemy variety is appalling too considering the enemy variety in all Tales is very good except for Arise.

[@LexMarston]

Very solid list. Even just the base game of Persona 5 felt like it dragged on way too long. It didn’t help that you’re basically doing the same plot point over again some 5 times. P5 took me years to get through, and the only reason I was determined to finish it was because I had put some 80 hours into the game already. P5 is a game that’s mostly style and little substance IMO.

[@EHnter]

I wouldve loved these when I was younger

[@binnybros]

I could live in the persona 5 royal world for another 100+ hours

[@saintfayde4438]

I find it hilarious that this video is about games that went on too long and then when you say your playtime it's like sub 60 hours. What's also surprising is that P5 is the only game you put 100 hours into? How you managed to beat ANY Trails game in under a hundred is beyond me. Even if I didn't do all the side quests and find all the treasures I'm positive I'd still be over a hundred

[@Eldred91]

I've been wondering about how people complete any Trails game within the 50-60h mark like some claim as well. I'm pretty sure it's because those players make very liberal use of turbo mode but that's an assumption and I can't say for sure. I almost never use turbo during the main story, it's only for stuff like Vantage Masters that I do, so I think that's one of the main reasons to why my play hours clock in much longer than the seemingly vast majority (took me 115-130h for all Sky games each).

[@usbmindlink]

Arise is actually the only Tales game I've ever played where I didn't feel like it dragged on at any point, but I was level 99 long before I hit the final dungeon, so that probably has something to do with it. DQXI is... bloat incarnate. I love the series, and I enjoyed the game, but there's the stink of "It needs to be bigger for bigger's sake" all over it. I wouldn't have minded it so much if the 2nd and 3rd act actually had completely different monster lineups instead of "oh now they have red eyes. Oh, now they have green eyes" and so on. Not to mention the crafting system (and all crafting systems for the most part) add a monstrous amount of time bloat to any game. Hard agree on Cold Steel 2 though. Every word.

[@kuvjason7236]

For Fire Emblem, I couldn't even get past the monastery stage in the 2nd playthrough. My first Golden Deer run was more than enough for me before I burned out and dropped 3H

[@mako5871]

Oh yeah...Xenoblade 2 really was kind of a drag for a completionist. Now, I dont complete every single game entirely, only those I really enjoy. XC2 was one of them, but the thing that really put me off in the long run was the Gacha mechanic for getting blades. I was already 190 hours into the game (DLC included) and was still 2 rare blades short, to get every blade quest. And I couldn't get those for another 2 hours, so I gave up eventually. The epilogue of Trails of Cold Steel 2 really dragged it's feet, but I understand its importance. But to me the 4 or 5 fights in the Reverie Corridor, one has to go through to arrive at the final boss, were my biggest problem. Had they just put a longer corridor (like you proposed for Tales of Arise) with maybe 1-2 bosses, it would have been a lot better.

[@veespa_]

wait you’re “The Kiseki Nut” but you’ve never had a 100+ hour playthrough of a Trails game? I just played through Crossbell, Cold Steel, and just beat Reverie going through post game (started in August), and each game I played 100-250 hours.. without NG+ on any yet… how did you speed run these games without grinding / not skipping dialogue or content / not playing on easy??

[@TheKisekiNut]

Yep, I rarely play through a game twice. Much rather move on to the next thing.

[@veespa_]

@@TheKisekiNut I don’t mean it as a dig at you or anything; it just surprises me that I’ve spent so much time playing through each of those Trails games and you somehow got through each of them in sub-100 hour runs. Thanks for the response.

[@dangox3370]

How is it even possible that Persona 5 is the only rpg you've put 100 hours in?! my completed save file for cold steel IV clocks in at 259 hours.

[@Demi-kid]

Trials in the sky 2 is hella long I'm on chapter 6 and I've clocked in 60 hours.

[@julians_ssplinter]

Final dungeons are definitely the part I least look forward to. When I replay a game, once I reach the final dungeon I just stop playing, because whatever stuff I enjoy about the game, most of it is done.

[@r.c.3813]

my experience with trail of cold steel 2 final dungeon was very different because i was really hyped for it you could use so many characters that it made it fun for me as somebody who only played the first cold steel before that point. i personally had a bigger isue with cold steel 4's length like i feel that you could cut down that second arc a lot where you go around freeing a few characters and than after that there was still a lot to go through the fatigue hit me hard in 4. because of my struggles getting through cs4 on switch i still haven't beating azura on switch i know i don't need to play it because i played it before but i still want to for the -bonuses and more importantly the noel romance round because i didn't think she was gone be a option when i first played. this list also made me realize i still haven't beaten xenoblade and tails of arise because of fatigue and now i have no clue what is happening in the story where i was so rip me i guess.

[@eliotwildermann]

65 hours in dq11 wow i had over 100 hours doing all quest 🙃 😊