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RPGs that last six to eight hours?

M

magomago

Lifer
as the title says, I simply don't have the time or even desire to prioritize so much time to an RPG, but it remains my favorite genre.

Do RPGs , with a good story that factors the limits of time exist?

I'm obviously asking about single player RPGs...not MMOs.
 
Neverwinter Nights 1 had thousands and thousands of mods. Probably many of them being short games. I'm not sure if any of the websites hosting the mods are around anymore though. The good ones had them categorized into different types so that you could sort between action rpg, story rpg, etc.. And then ranked so that You can just grab from the top of the list and not spend hours to find the good ones.

I'm not sure if you would run into mod dependencies though; mods requiring mods requiring mods.
 
I can't really help you, can't think of one fitting that.

But I'd say try some of the older RPG's (today's tend to be 'epic' in size like Skyrim) and enjoy them in parts, those few hours for a bit of the game.

I don't mean the classics like Baldur's Gate II and Icewind Dale that take a lot longer, but lesser known titles like the Krondor series I remember being shorter.
 
Walking Dead series. First game is 15 hours and the second 9 or 10.

Not RPG per se but they have an excellent story and I think would appeal to fans of the RPG genre (they did for me)
 
Shadowrun; first story is roughly 10-15 hours; I have the expansion haven't had a chance to play yet and massive amount of player made campaigns that are awesome.

Escrow; depends on the rpg; what it sounds like for the op is looking for short run rpgs like we used to do; one off campaigns in DND; Gurps; etc.......they would be full stories but only a few hours long.

Walking dead is also good; Murdered soul suspect is also good; very good story; some didn't like the game play but I really enjoyed it; its about 10 hoursish
 
Kalmah said:
Neverwinter Nights 1 had thousands and thousands of mods. Probably many of them being short games. I'm not sure if any of the websites hosting the mods are around anymore though.
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^ Seconded. "Vanilla" NWN has around 40-80hrs gameplay (inc expansion packs), but it is very highly moddable, and was one of the last "PC only golden age" RPG's (where UI was designed solely for 2ft view distance and keyb/mouse only, ie, F1-F12 + CTRL & SHIFT modifiers = 36 quickslots you won't find on any modern "designed for console controller" game). There are hundreds of shorter mods (including any listed required dependencies), and much of the contents of formerly "nwvault.ign.com" is still going strong just under a new site name:-
http://neverwintervault.org/
 
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escrow4 said:
One of the main points of an RPG is length so you can involved in an in depth story. So no.
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Yeah, this is kinda like asking for an epic novel that's less than a hundred pages.

You need a non-standard type of RPG that focuses on one aspect, for instance TellTale's Walking Dead focuses on telling a story and goes very light on the combat, item and ability management, leveling up, etc. It's a good game, it's just not a typical RPG.
 
Bastion or Transistor possibly, not true RPGs but the story and environments are above average at least with solid gameplay and lasts probably about 10 hours max.

Costume Quest might work too. It's a little childish but really quite entertaining if you can just let yourself enjoy it.
 
Bateluer said:
Mass Effect 1, about 6 hours to be, 8 hours if you're a completionist.
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You can easily put 25-30 hours in Mass Effect 1 if you actually do every single side mission and story line. To do it in under 8 you have to skip all dialog, and bypass every side quest. Doable, but pointless.

For the OP, if you have limited time, it just takes longer to beet. I honestly cannot think of how you get a "good story" in a game that is only 8 hours long.
 
Out of curiosity, why not play one good 30-hour RPG instead of trying to find 4, 8-hour ones?

You don't need to keep score on how many games you've completed. And does it matter if, because of limited time, it takes you 2 months to complete that one "big" RPG? If you've bought it there is no real-world deadline for completing it.
 
You can tell who's eyes have been bedazzled by the AAA titles 😛 Now, you aren't going to get some epic story in such short games, but they aren't bad for what they are. Certainly more story than many games have these days.

Cthulhu Saves the World
Breath of Death VII
Costume Quest
On the Rain-slick Precipace of Darkness (there are 4 parts, each are around 2-3 hours part 3 and 4 are called Penny Arcades (and the rest of the name)
Half Minute Hero
Home

As stated Walking Dead can be done in a few hour chunks and while not an RPG per-se it is a great story driven adventure game.
 
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darkewaffle said:
Bastion or Transistor possibly, not true RPGs but the story and environments are above average at least with solid gameplay and lasts probably about 10 hours max.

Costume Quest might work too. It's a little childish but really quite entertaining if you can just let yourself enjoy it.
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Bastion was going to be my suggestion.
 
ImpulsE69 said:
I thought this was going to be one of those addictive impossible games...but I beat it in 3 tries :/

and again in another 3 tries with a higher score! 😛
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It's not terribly hard to beat, but it does get tricky getting high scores. 21,900 is the highest I've ever gotten. You pretty much need an ideal spawn + item lineup in order to get past the 20k mark.
 
Stuka87 said:
You can easily put 25-30 hours in Mass Effect 1 if you actually do every single side mission and story line. To do it in under 8 you have to skip all dialog, and bypass every side quest. Doable, but pointless.

For the OP, if you have limited time, it just takes longer to beet. I honestly cannot think of how you get a "good story" in a game that is only 8 hours long.
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Mass Effect 1's main quest line is actually quite a bit shorter than 8 hours. My first playthrough back in 2007 clocked in at 6 hours and 33 minutes (I still have the final autosave) and I didn't skip any dialogue on the main quest and took the time to play out the full audio in all of the investigative dialogue branches.

It's an very short game if you don't spend time doing the side quests. The thing is the side quests in ME1 are so shallow they are little more than wanted bulletin board quests. There isn't any dialogue or conversations in the ME1 side quests.
 
Child of Light
Bastion
Transistor

All 3 were great, and I mostly dislike the massive Indie infusion into gaming recently.
 
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