Do All RPGs Really Need to be So Long?
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After realizing that they have spent the better part of their adult lives engrossed in one role-playing game or another, the editors at Syfy Games/G4 have editorialized about the sheer length of time it takes to finish today's RPGs, and whether developers could potentially shorten them up to "deliver a more focused experience". Of course, Fallout 4 is part of that conversation:
Whenever I think about role-playing games, the first thing that comes to mind is the thought of embarking on a grand-scale adventure filled with hours upon hours of content. In fact, one of the reasons why I decided to purchase Fallout 4 the very first day it came out despite how notoriously glitchy Bethesda games tend to be at launch was because I knew that I was going to spend dozens of hours seeing everything the game had to offer. True to my expectations, I did spend over forty hours exploring the Boston Commonwealth, shooting countless numbers of Ghouls, Raiders, and whatever the wasteland wanted to throw at me. I didn't even finish half the list of the available side quests, or even half of the supposedly short main quest line!
During that, I discovered a little gem called Undertale. While it's enjoyable for its own reasons which I highly recommend that you find out for yourself one of the main things about it that stood out to me was that it was a relatively condensed adventure. Although you won't explore a vast wasteland or anything even remotely comparable, I feel like the game still somehow managed to deliver a satisfying journey. In just around ten hours, I got to meet an interesting cast of characters that I came to love, witnessed a story full of genuinely unexpected twists and turns, and even managed to tear up more times than I'd like to admit. So, it has me wondering: should RPGs be shorter to deliver a more focused experience?
