Too Short?

[LunarWeaver]

I know what you're saying, I'm only pointing out that you can't agree a game has a 100 hours of content and then still claim it's short. That's more a problem with...pacing. The pacing of it is bad. You go very long stretches in XII with no plot advancement at all, and then lots of stuff shoved at the end and then it's over. And that's a good complaint and all, but the game is still pretty long regardless of pacing problems ;o. That's all I meant. I dunno, just ignore me .

[Tavrobel]

Thin plot and total game length are often directly proportionate. Thinner the plot, the longer the game.

55 hours? Seriously? That's somewhat long for ANY RPG, much less a Final Fantasy game. FFX must have been 35, all the ones before VII maybe 25 at best, VII-IX were progressively longer, about 35, also.

[Zeromus_X]

It took me somewhere around 63 hours to complete the main story, without doing any real hunts or exploring any secret areas. Just because the pacing of the story is questionable doesn't mean that the game is short.

[Timerk]

Besides, i just want longer storyline and more character development.

That sounds like more of a problem with plot.

EDIT: For example, if you would have went to three more dungeons to get two more shards and a sword, I still don't think you would have been happy, because the characters wouldn't have been anymore developed even though you would have played longer.

I actually thought XII was sneaky long; I was always surprised when I saw how many hours were on my save file.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I like this game so much, I wish it lasted twice as long. But as it is, I wouldn't count its length against it.

[skillzboy4]

This game was extremely long im finished with eveything and it took me about 130 hours playing it.. never touching this game again.

[Roto13]

No game can be considered short at 55 hours.

[VengefulRonin]

I'm 47 hours into it and only halfway through, and i havent even done sidequests...i dont see how the hell it can be finished in 50-some hours, at least not the first time through.

[LazarCotoron]

You consider that Square usually builds the story to be 60 hours, and suddenly things start to click together.

I dunno how you dragged FFX out to 90 hours. There was nothing in that game to warrant that kind of play file EXCEPT being one of those OCD whackos who wanted to break all the damage and health limits and retrieve every ultimate weapon in the game. There wasn't a hard fight in FFX at all-another point where the game kinda' bored me in spite of its considerably better battle system.

I mean geeze, all it took was using Rikku's Alchemy skill and you could end the games harder random encounters in the first round. If you fought a boss, you just used Rikku/Auron, Lulu, and your choice of White Mage to endure the battle just long enough to make the thing dead. FFXII is actually making me go back to some of the cheapest, oldest tricks in the series because the monsters are finally dangerous enough to warrant them.

[daiyu]

It took me ~110 hours to finish, because I was desperately trying to find some additional plot in the so-called "sidequests," to no avail (though the Gilgamesh hunt was lots of fun ). I too was left thinking "that's it?" when the story finally sputtered out. Thinking "that's it?" at the end means that the game was too short.

Tavrobel is on to the right idea. A major problem with the game was that there wasn't enough of a storyline to sustain the rather large amounts of time you spent traversing the world. Part of the reason why FFX's story was more compelling is that it is delivered over a much shorter gametime: the game, w/o sidequests, can be finished ~40-50 hours. I am personally willing to give up game hours in exchange for stronger or at least more effective storytelling. A tighter story makes you want to go back and play again, which I don't think I ever want to do with FFXII.

Why don't they make them like they used to: FFVI was a hugely long game, yet it never for an instance stopped paying attention to storyline. Can't imagine yawning at the end of FFVI like I did at the end of FFXII.

[Crossblades]

finishing the hunts are not exactly part of the storyline. The plot doesn't change just because you beat Ultima or Gilgamesh. If i had done all those sidequests, then yes, i would've taken over hundreds of hours into it but FFX took 90 hours for me just to beat the game itself without any sidequests. And yet, i understand the characters really well. I feel for those characters but in FF12, the only people i feel for are Ashe, Basch, and Balthier because they're actually part of the events in the game. There's nothing special for Penelo except for the fact that she wants to come with Vaan. Fran is just there because Balthier is. Vaan is there because he wants to be a sky pirate.

Everything was so exciting and all of a sudden (SPOILER)i have to go to Bahamut and a little bit later, the game ends. The sudden change is surprising.

How could it take you 90 hours to beat FF X? It took me 57 hours to beat the game AND I did 90% of the game's sidequests.

As for FF XII, I sort of find it long without the sidequests, but tthat's just me

[VengefulRonin]

finishing the hunts are not exactly part of the storyline. The plot doesn't change just because you beat Ultima or Gilgamesh. If i had done all those sidequests, then yes, i would've taken over hundreds of hours into it but FFX took 90 hours for me just to beat the game itself without any sidequests. And yet, i understand the characters really well. I feel for those characters but in FF12, the only people i feel for are Ashe, Basch, and Balthier because they're actually part of the events in the game. There's nothing special for Penelo except for the fact that she wants to come with Vaan. Fran is just there because Balthier is. Vaan is there because he wants to be a sky pirate.

Everything was so exciting and all of a sudden (SPOILER)i have to go to Bahamut and a little bit later, the game ends. The sudden change is surprising.

How could it take you 90 hours to beat FF X? It took me 57 hours to beat the game AND I did 90% of the game's sidequests.

As for FF XII, I sort of find it long with the sidequests, but tthat's just me

Seriously...its almost impossible to put 90 hours into that game.

I find XII pretty long just from having to lv to progres through the story, but with the large amount of hunts you can do (not to mention just taking the time to find the creatures) and the quests to get optional espers, XII would take a pretty friggin long time. Not to mention there's just so much exploring you can do in areas, and whats the fun of such massive area maps if you dont take the time to explore them?

[atlanteay]

i have NO idea why it took so long for me to beat FFX... guess because it sucked so much, i just leave the game and go off somewhere else for hours and hours and come back just to see the TV still on but yeah... i was pretty surprised that the end came so quickly. i guess 55 hours is pretty long but not compared to the other RPGs i've played. FF6 is just amazingly long but also interesting. This one sorta lost me on the Ridoranna Cataract.

[GuitarGuy1181]

finishing the hunts are not exactly part of the storyline. The plot doesn't change just because you beat Ultima or Gilgamesh. If i had done all those sidequests, then yes, i would've taken over hundreds of hours into it but FFX took 90 hours for me just to beat the game itself without any sidequests. And yet, i understand the characters really well. I feel for those characters but in FF12, the only people i feel for are Ashe, Basch, and Balthier because they're actually part of the events in the game. There's nothing special for Penelo except for the fact that she wants to come with Vaan. Fran is just there because Balthier is. Vaan is there because he wants to be a sky pirate.

Everything was so exciting and all of a sudden (SPOILER)i have to go to Bahamut and a little bit later, the game ends. The sudden change is surprising.

How could it take you 90 hours to beat FF X? It took me 57 hours to beat the game AND I did 90% of the game's sidequests.

As for FF XII, I sort of find it long without the sidequests, but tthat's just me

it took me 75 hours to finish X.....thats with all ultimate weapons except Wakka's, and defeating Nemesis.

[Wolf Kanno]

90 hours?!? Damn, did Yuna's total lack of a personality bore you to the point of falling asleep while playing? I mean I can see it happening, Yuna trying convince you she isn't a two dimensional stereo type, the nice soothing music of Besaid...

Seriously though, the older games are not that long either. FFIV ranks at 25 hours on average for me and that's getting everything but the rare weapons and Adamant Armor.

FFVI clocks in at 40 hours for me at the most and that's counting uncursing the Paladin Shield.

Every other game in the series has usually clocked in 30 to 40 hours, not counting trying to max levels and the insane optional boss fights.

I mean to date, the only game I've ever played that has clocked in 60 to 80 hours of gametime and it was mostly storyline was Xenogears.

I finished FFXII at 125 hours and am quite satisfied with my experience. Also, there is one loose end in the plot that is tied up in the Clan Hunts.

FFXII is designed around not having a main character, if you pay attention to the interviews, you'll notice the staff never said anything about Vaan being the main character. If I had to name the games real main character, it is Lady Ashe. I agree that Penelo and Vaan don't get much screen time, but I never cared for either character really so it was fine by me. I'm sick of RPG's revolving around teenagers who are trying to "come of age". Fran was disappointing but I toss that up into the FF "non-human character" curse. It's a shame too.

Honestly, if you were just blasting your way through the game to watch all the story, then you have sadly missed the entire point of this game...