Games you like but take forever to finish

[hanselthecaretaker]

Bit of an offshoot from this thread [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.945557-Games-you-dont-like-but-keep-trying-to-go-back-to].

It made me think of how long it's taken me to complete some games I like, for one reason or another.

Examples:

Silent Hill series. I think mostly because they were intimidating, ie unsettling themes, atmosphere (and controls haha).

Souls. Love the gameplay and atmosphere, building characters, etc. but they can be repetitive as hell. With limited time to game I often find myself going to lighter titles in between sessions.

Deus Ex. It took years to play through the first, and looking like as long for HR. The action gameplay itself is fine, but overall design is again tedious unless fully immersed. Too much hacking, reading emails for codes, etc.

The Witcher. I loved the first, but could've done without so much fetch questing x number of items. The second one wasn't so bad for that, and it sounds like the third has the best side quests in the series which is goood news.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Dark Souls. I'm 75 hours into my first playthrough, JUST made it to Gwyn and haven't started the DLC.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Easily the most time I ever spent on a single-player experience at over 400 hours on a single character.

Splinter Cell series. Maybe it's just me, but I'm a perfectionist when I play Splinter Cells; I need to complete each level without being seen, heard or arousing an iota of suspicion which leads to meticulous planning and often hours spent on any given level.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

FTL. A game of FLT is short, but just long enough that your not going to be able to finish it in one sitting.

 

[Nick Cave]

New Doom, actually. I was a bit hesistant to the start, since collection-a-thons are never fun, but upgrades don't really matter, so i started having fun, kept having fun, and then the game just kept going. Five hours down and it's honestly just more of the same. Now, I like the same because it's fun, but with such a high pace and very simple neverchanging game, 10 hours is honestly very long.

Also, bollocks to everyone that said "oh doom guys personality is revealed so much through him breaking stuff!", that only happens twice you lying cunts! Other than that it really is just your bogstandard shooter "wait in a room for everyone to tell you what to do next", revolutionary my fucking arse it is.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The Witcher 3

The game expects you to be an immortal vampire if you want to finish it. Now, me being a bit of a dummy I downloaded the Blood and Wine expansion, only adding to the trough, but it just looked too darn appealing. So yeah, it's on hiatus again.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

It took me 150 hours to beat persona 5. So much story-driven content in that game it's crazy.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Dark Souls. I'm 75 hours into my first playthrough, JUST made it to Gwyn and haven't started the DLC.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Easily the most time I ever spent on a single-player experience at over 400 hours on a single character.

Splinter Cell series. Maybe it's just me, but I'm a perfectionist when I play Splinter Cells; I need to complete each level without being seen, heard or arousing an iota of suspicion which leads to meticulous planning and often hours spent on any given level.

Dark Souls. I'm 75 hours into my first playthrough, JUST made it to Gwyn and haven't started the DLC.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Easily the most time I ever spent on a single-player experience at over 400 hours on a single character.

Splinter Cell series. Maybe it's just me, but I'm a perfectionist when I play Splinter Cells; I need to complete each level without being seen, heard or arousing an iota of suspicion which leads to meticulous planning and often hours spent on any given level.

That last one reminded me of another: Hitman Absolution. I've already gone through it once and like it enough to consider getting Platinum. Thing is, over half the levels are pigeon-holed stealth with very few options to progress. I've been chipping away the last few months on higher difficulty and the level where you have to take out the nuns is ridiculous going stealth.

 

[Catfood220]

The Witcher 3

The game expects you to be an immortal vampire if you want to finish it. Now, me being a bit of a dummy I downloaded the Blood and Wine expansion, only adding to the trough, but it just looked too darn appealing. So yeah, it's on hiatus again.

And there is the chance you could get lumbered with the bad ending. I finished it last week after playing it in my tiny 2-3 hours a day sessions doing everything that I though was right. And I got the bad ending. I have no idea why. So yeah, the expansions can wait until I get over the ending, that really bummed me out.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Most games I play. I hate short games, especially sold at full price. Titanfall 2 was only like 5 hours long. I like games where I sit down and just get involved.
Dragon Age Inquisition, Shadow of Mordor, Bioshock/Infinite, Elite Dangerous, Fallout 4/NewVegas/Skyrim. Games that actually feel like they were worth the price.

 

[meiam]

Xenogears, love it but damn its long! And like a third of the game had to be cut, would have been nuts with all the content.

Final fantasy tactics, when trying to get all the job completed and finish the secret dungeon (who thought it was a good idea to have a dungeon set entirely in the dark?).

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Took me over 100 hours to finish Dragon Quest VIII and Ni no Kuni.

 

[Hawki]

Took me 100 hours to beat Xenoblade.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

The Witcher 3

The game expects you to be an immortal vampire if you want to finish it. Now, me being a bit of a dummy I downloaded the Blood and Wine expansion, only adding to the trough, but it just looked too darn appealing. So yeah, it's on hiatus again.

The DLCs were on sale on PSN last week and I had them in my cart the whole week, but I never bought them. I just went back to finishing the main game (finally located Ciri) and the gameplay is just ass, just moving around is annoying as hell. I feel like if I use any magic I'm basically cheating as Quen and Axii are straight up broken mechanics. Even the witcher buffs are so OPed when doing the hunts. Combat pretty much boils down to just mashing square. I even have a ton of unused skill points because what's the point in getting even more OPed? I feel I should definitely watch LPs of the expansions but I hate watching LPs over playing a game.

 

[Maximum Bert]

It tooke me 18 years to finish Mario the lost levels I just could never do the final stage and that was the easier one where they allow you to start at the start of the stage if you lost all your lives instead of putting you back to the start of the world.

Think Oblivion took just over 300 hours for me because I was just ignoring all story content and discovering the world its also one of the reasons I still havent properly started Skyrim I just cannot do that anymore it would literally take me years to put that much time in now. The other reason is just I am burnt out on Elder Scrolls still.

Seem to remember Tales of Symphonia taking a long time to finish as well but I really cannot remember the time. I know I spent 169 hours on FFX when it came out maxing out everybody (had to rewrite the whole grid) as well as getting the best Blitzball team and ofc beating all the Dark Aeons and Penance.

 

[09philj]

It took me 150 hours to beat Dragon Quest IX, but I was reasonably young when I played it. It took me 90 hours to beat Bravely Default. I'm 73 hours into Stardew Valley and haven't finished the community centre yet.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Hmm, recently it took me about 64 hours to finish Dying Light. I know some people finish it in much less time, and some in much more time obviously. And I even put 100 hours into games like Witcher 3 and Skyrim. I only say it took me too long to finish it because I kept getting sidetracked. Did probably 90% of the sidequests, grinded a few levels to max, and ended way too damn overpowered with weapons that took enemies out a bit too quickly. Only to have significant boss fights limit you to some shitty weapon you have to use because you lost yours or whatever, and the last boss a goddamn QTE. I might start on the DLC sometime in the future though, the game has great mechanics and interesting combat when you get creative with it.

Another game I liked initially but ended up far worse was Assassins Creed 3, which was probably a bad idea because it killed the series for me. I never touched another AC game since, and probably am not going to.

Another game I love is Grim Dawn. I love that game so much, but I only play it as a light in between other games type of game. So I've only put 21 hours into it, but it's taking me months.

 

[Fox12]

It took me about a year to beat Persona 3. I played it pretty regularly, though.

 

[iwinatlife]

Xenogears, love it but damn its long! And like a third of the game had to be cut, would have been nuts with all the content.

Final fantasy tactics, when trying to get all the job completed and finish the secret dungeon (who thought it was a good idea to have a dungeon set entirely in the dark?).

See my issue with Tactics is that i tended to overgrind to the point where the random scaled encounters were so much more threatening than the story

 

[aozgolo]

I almost never play a game anymore with the intent to be to "finish it"... as bizarre as that sounds, and while it is indeed the ultimate goal for many games I enjoy, I tend to be much more extremely fascinated by the journey, and not the destination. In fact it's often prevented me from finishing games I very well could have. As a few examples:

Dragon Quest VIII
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy XII
Chrono Trigger
Secret of Mana
Earthbound
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Baldur's Gate II

are all games I have played, and put lots and lots of hours (in some cases several hundred) and reached a point late in the game's narrative, in some cases where all that is left is the final dungeon, yet I have NOT beaten them. Simply because there is more to do. I am like a completionist who doesn't care so much about actually completing the game, I love games that offer side quests, big worlds to explore, sandbox elements, and side activities to do that keep you plugging away at the game.

I truly look to play games for immersion sake, and while there's plenty I have "finished" I typically only do so because it's "right there". I will often put off a game's ending if I know it truly ends the game, and continue tinkering about the world looking for more to do. I still have monsters to collect, codex entries to fill out, weapons to craft, side dungeons to tackle, and chocobos to breed! In truth it's these elements that make a game appealing to me and I will go out of my way to look for games that take LONGER to complete because I feel they have more to offer (though admittedly in some cases their padded fluff isn't all that interesting). In fact if I'm often torn between two similar games to buy, I will go to "howlongtobeat" website and see which one offers more playtime.

Now if you'll excuse me, I only have 253 hours put into The Witcher 3, and I haven't started the expansions yet... lots to do, lots to do (as an aside I have actually beaten that one... once)