Anyone else suck at finishing RPGs?

[randomstranger]

I think replayability does also help in making an RPG finishable, as if it's good enough to play through more than once, then getting though that first time is a bit easier.

If it's not replayable, it isn't even a real RPG. Imho the two most important playthrough for an RPG is the first and the third. The first (blind) playthrough because it shows if it's a good story with good gameplay mechanics, the third because it shows if it's a good RPG with real role playing choices that matter.

[mastodon]

I do wish I had a RPG buddy to power through some classics. Moved to the east coast a couple years ago. Still dont really know anyone here.

[turf]

I suck at starting them.

[dhaabi]

I suck at starting them.

Definitely applies to me too. Once I actually start playing, I generally don't have any issue finishing.

[bikingjahuty]

I suck at starting them.

This is slowly becoming me as well. When I know there's a very good chance I won't beat the game, it's hard to get the motivation to even start it.

[megasilverx1]

At this point I pretty much just stick to my favorite RPG series: Dragon Quest. I've dabbled in other RPGs but rarely finish them even if I thought they were fun. I'm currently giving Mega Man Battle Network a go and am enjoying it enough to the point where I could see myself finishing it and continuing on to Battle Network 2. I'm down to replay RPGs I've beaten like the pre-Switch era Pokemon games or Paper Mario 1-3. Outside of DQ, Pokemon, and Paper Mario, the only other RPGs I've finished have been: Mother 3, Chrono Trigger, and Persona Q2.

[bikingjahuty]

Well, I did it! I beat FFXVI tonight!


I decided to forgo a lot of the side quests since I felt like the majority of them were fairly boring and just focus on the main story. This definitely helped my motivation to power on through the game. In the end I really enjoyed FF XVI! Still, I'm relieved I'm done with it and am ready to play a bunch of shorter games for a month or two before the RPG bug starts nipping at me again and I tackle a new one. One that I hope I'll see through to the end lol

[Cartagia]

I suck at starting them.

This is slowly becoming me as well. When I know there's a very good chance I won't beat the game, it's hard to get the motivation to even start it.

This is definitely me.  It's very rare that I don't finish a game I start, but there are lots of games I don't start because I'm afraid of tge length and / or complexity.  Really have to be in the right mood.

[undertakerprime]

I love RPGs, but whether I finish them really depends on how invested I am.

For example, on one end of the spectrum, I have Dragon Quest XI. That game had me so invested I spent 120+ hours doing every quest I could, and I felt like I could play another 120 with these characters and not get bored.

Final Fantasy VIII, OTOH, I quit very early on. Boring characters, weird Junction system, dumb story, etc. Eventually came back to beat it years later but I had to force myself through it. GOD this game is so dumb. And it has maybe the most ridiculously contrived moment in any game I’ve ever played.

Final Fantasy IX is a weird bird for me…I love the characters and music, plot is ok, though Kuja is kind of a weak villain. Yet, more than once I’ve quit in the same spot: always on Disc 3 during what I call “The Great Kuja Chase”, where you’re constantly chasing Kuja from one location to another in what feels like blatant padding. This part is so incredibly boring it just completely sucks any interest out. Like FFVIII, one time I forced myself through this part and the rest of the game is ok.

[tripredacus]

It depends on the type. CRPG are not usually a problem. JRPG based seems to be for me, but I really haven't played that many and not any until just recently. The process seems to be that it is easy, then you hit some skill wall. You can luck through it (usually a bad thing) or you have to grind to get past it. I can see many people can quit at this first wall. If you overgrind, then the game will become too easy for awhile and then you can hit another wall which can cause problems.

I have this issue now in Citizens of Earth, which is a JRPG type game. Because it is open-ended with where you can go, you can end up going into areas where you cannot win. There are portions of the map blocked off to you because you need specific party members, or you need to do something else but the game doesn't tell you. For the one where you need party members, some of them you can't get to because of other blocks, or you need to complete mini-games to get them. These mini-games are quite terrible.

So I can see that people can not finish an RPG if it is too easy, or they do not know what to do next. Maybe not all JRPG are like this. I never finished any other ones, but I recall ones I have tried in the past I had not completed because of having the requirement to do some mini-game to proceed.

[pzeke]

I suck at starting them.

I usually don't have a problem starting an RPG, it's when the time comes to finally let go that I tend to refuse to drop the game until I've completely managed to achieve everything there is to do. Perfect examples that first come to mind are Kingdom Hearts II, Blood of Bahamut, and Final Fantasy X, all by Square-Enix, funnily enough.

Overall, as someone who used to be completely oblivious to the genre back when I was essentially still on training wheels as a gamer, RPGs are easily one of the genres where I can sink hours upon hours and truly enjoy the time invested. Sure, there are games I started, then dropped midway or somewhere in between and haven't picked up again, but I enjoyed my time and hopefully will revisit them sometime, someday.