Favorite "marathon-length" video game

[henrymidfields]

In contrast to another thread asking for people's favorite short games, I am going to ask your favorite game that requires numerous hours to complete. People's opinions would differ quite a bit, so ultimately, I'll leave this up to you, but my thoughts are, say, at least 40-50 hours to complete the main story (or the main part of the game), not including post-game content or New Game Plus.

Persona 4 Golden is, so far, the game that I've played at least twice and spent 100 hours each on both playthroughs. And I'm even thinking about doing a third run after I finish Persona 3. Fantastic story, memorable characters, a valuable lesson on the dangers of fake news and de-humanizing rumors, an overall accessible gameplay, what more would I want?

Edited December 7, 2018 by henrymidfields

[Sub Zero]

I would say Persona 4 Golden as well. Game's great.

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

i have over 100 hours in Final Fantasy VIII from one single playthrough, but that's because i took my time with side quests. otherwise i'm sure there would be around 50~60 hours of main story alone.

played it 3~4 times before, so i guess summed up it would be well beyond 200 hours.

[VincentASM]

Hmm, mine's a toss up between Xenoblade Chronicles or the Trails games.

I really enjoy exploring the open worlds in Xenoblade and the story is fairly entertaining as well. Especially in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, they've put a lot of effort into the cut-scenes. That said, even Xenoblade feels kinda short to be a proper marathon for me.

In which case, the Trails games (Trails in the Sky etc.) are definitely marathons or slow-burners at the very least. The main story is already pretty dang long and there are so many sidequests to do. Anyway, I really enjoy the world-building and all the character dynamics.

Plus all the games in the Trails series are connected, so after you've played a few games, you can get really invested in the world and characters.

Edited December 7, 2018 by VincentASM

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, VincentASM said:

I really enjoy exploring the open worlds in Xenoblade and the story is fairly entertaining as well. Especially in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, they've put a lot of effort into the cut-scenes. That said, even Xenoblade feels kinda short to be a proper marathon for me.

Idk, Xenoblade stories take me around 80 hours to complete (with the execption of Torna, that only takes me like 15-20 hours). I'd defineitly say they are proper marathon length. At any rate though, i agree with you, Xenoblade is a great series to marathon. The world, story and characters are great and while Xenoblade 1's combat is a bit dated, Xenoblade 2 and Torna's are super satisfying. Torna is also tied with Xenoblade X with some of the best sidequests in the genre.

----------------------------------------

I've spent about 190 hours in Xenoblade 1 and 470 hours in Xenoblade 2. Torna, due to have much less content due to being an expansion, has made me spent about 40 hours.

In addition to that, i like to marathon the older Xeno games (Xenogears and Xenosaga). Xenogears has, in my opinion, the greatest story in the JRPG genre (and i'd say gaming as a whole but i don't want to be too biased). The Xenosaga trilogy is a great space epic although it's a bit hard to marathon that since you'd want to simply watch Episode II's cutscenes due to that game having the absolute worst gameplay in all of Xeno.

The Hyperdimension Neptunia games are rather short but the series' hilarious meta humor and super entertaining dialouge ensures that playthroughs of the games never get old, even if the dungeon design leaves a lot to be desired.

On that note, Kid Icarus: Uprising is also amazing because like Neptunia, the meta humor and super entertaining dialouge ensures that repeated playthroughs of the game never get old.

___________________________

1 hour ago, VincentASM said:

In which case, the Trails games (Trails in the Sky etc.) are definitely marathons or slow-burners at the very least. The main story is already pretty dang long and there are so many sidequests to do. Anyway, I really enjoy the world-building and all the character dynamics.

Individually, i feel each Trails story is a bit longer than short (about 25 hours), but the interconnected nature of the series makes it perfect for marathoning.

The best method is to play the Cold Steel and Crossbell arcs simultanously to try and best sync up the events.

Edited December 7, 2018 by Armagon

[Karimlan]

23 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Xenogears has, in my opinion, the greatest story in the JRPG genre (and i'd say gaming as a whole but i don't want to be too biased).

What the hell, I share your bias. I love that story.

Aside from the above, here's my list:

• Tactics Ogre
• God Eater: Rage Burst
• Persona 2: Innocent Sin
• Final Fantasy V/VI

[Zkitty8]

I enjoyed the Bravely Default games (especially Bravely Second). The battle system was pretty fun, and I liked being able to mix and match with the different classes. I liked the job system in Final Fantasy 5 too and these games expanded on it.

As for shorter games (around 20-30 hours), my favorites are Fire Emblem (of course) and Pokemon because I like to experiment with different characters.

[indigoasis]

Ah, you have good tastes in topics, I see.

I think I've put in more than 450 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles X, although it's been over multiple files. The game usually takes me 150 hours or so to complete. Breath of the Wild is another game that I loved, and it took me about 100 or so hours to 100% the game, but that's a rough estimate since I'm too lazy to check my Wii U's Play Log.

[Fabulously Olivier]

Persona 5.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

The Witcher 3.

[henrymidfields]

Now that I'm starting to progress through Persona 3 Portable, it might end up as my new contending favourite. Minako is awesome <3

[Jedor]

Probably the original Mass Effect, really. Although that 40+ time might be inflated by the wonky and sometimes slow gameplay. It doesn't quite hold up so much these days, but I've just got such fond feelings for it that I can't help but push past them and keep it at the top of my list, or even find the appeal in its quirks.