Anyone else suck at finishing RPGs?

[bikingjahuty]

Each year, I usually complete no more than 2 or 3 RPGs. Whether that's WRPGs, JRPGs, more action oriented RPGs, it doesn't matter. If a game is over 20-hours long there's a pretty good chance I won't finish it. I've really tried to figure out why this is, however my best guess is most of my life, including my formative years as a gamer I primarily played and enjoyed platformers, action games, racing games, and arcade style games. I'm still mostly drawn to these genres and offshoot genres associated with them. I enjoy games that are focused, action packed, shorter, and don't have any long, drawn out elements, at least at this point in my life.


What's even more sad is I used to LOVE RPGs, especially JRPGs. I remember enthusiastically playing anything Final Fantasy related I could get my hands on in the late 90s and early 2000s. I was also into Lunar, Pokemon, and Legend of Dragoon to name a few. However, as I got older, I found myself starting and not finishing RPGs more and more. I honestly feel like I only complete 1 out of 5 RPGs I start anymore.


I'm currently playing through FF XVI, which is the first new FF game I've been excited about since XII. I am mostly really enjoying it, however I've found myself struggling to get motivated to play it a lot which seems weird since I swear I've liked it so far for the most part. I guess in a way it just feels daunting and like it will never end. That probably sounds silly, but honestly I'm at a loss for while I struggle with these games so much despite really wanting to like them more, and genuinely liking several of them quite a bit.


Does anyone else have this issue with completing RPGs?

[galaxygamer102]

Totally for me.

For me at least, I usually get stuck at some part of the game (whether that be a puzzle or a difficult boss) and never get the energy to pick it back up again.
I experienced this especially with Pokemon games. I tried to pick some up recently, but I get stuck on the 2nd or 3rd Gym and can't find myslef able to pick it up again.

tbh I've only ever completed 2 RPGs I've ever played, That being Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (the 3DS remake) and Miitopia (Switch remake).

[BinaryMessiah]

Story of my life. RPGs (specifically JRPGs) are the bane of my existence. I purposefully have to set aside all of my gaming time to finish one. I have to not play any other games and just dedicate a couple of weeks to that RPG. I usually have to make sure it's worth doing this such as having a good story. The last JRPG I finished was Persona 5 Royal and it took me about two weeks and 90 something hours. I rarely ever finish them. Usually, if the story doesn't capture me I stop around 4-6 hours in and don't bother again.

[vivigamer]

I find in general with games I have lost interest with post game content - unless it has interesting story details I'm already over the game. This also goes for DLC, if there is big stroy content in DLC and I have already moved onto my next game, iwont go back and play it until I re-play the game years later. When the game ends I am sucked out of the experience and invested in anotehr so new DLC almost feels like I would be experieincing it out of context. i still haven't played all the DLC epsiodes for Final Fantasy XV - Partly because I know they cut the 2nd Season pass and put it in a book...

I try to keep to one main story game at a time, but took so long with Legend of Dragoon it has fallen on the side, I won't touch it again until I beat XVI at the very least. Then for games like Persona, while I enjoyed Persona 3 FES it DRAGGED ON!!! Due to Persona's calendar game structure, it's not like other games where you explore extra content at your will you have to experience each day as it is and usually the main story of JRPG's can be 40-60 hours, Persona 3 FES took me 120+

I think I will be fine with Final Fantasy XVI, but I have heard there are other difficulty modes upon completion, I won't be bothering with that, I just want to experience the game and be done with it.

[kamikazekeeg]

Depends on the type of RPG.  FF16 is great because it's a got actiony combat, it's "open world" aspect is rather light compared to something overloaded like Tears of the Kingdom, so it's solid so far.  I only took a break from it because I got randomly absorbed into a second run of Grounded and I think I'm still slightly dealing with some residual burn out from Tears of the Kingdom.  I also looked it up and it's like a 30 to 50'ish hour experience. 

I'm worse off when an RPG is incredibly long winded for the most part.  Like I put 25 hours into Persona 5 and was liking it, for the most part, but I was kinda feeling the grind, some aspects like the social link and school stuff was very uninteresting, and then I looked up the games general playtime and it's like a 100 hour minimum game.  Add to that being turn based combat and I was like "I'm good" and stopped playing.  Love its music and aesthetics, but those style of RPG's can really wear me down these days.

Xenoblade Chronicles would be almost along that line, I played Xenoblade Chronicles 2, loved it, but I put a ton of time into it, probably 100 hours easy.  And then I think about going to play XC1 Remastered and that's another 70 to 100+ hours and then getting to XC3 is another 70 to 100+ hours and my soul leaves me just thinking about them even if I think I could maybe enjoy them lol

[telekill]

I'm not sure if it's RPGs per se, but bloated games are where I have difficulty. I also find that I'll lower the difficulty just to save myself from bullet sponge bosses and ridiculous spikes in difficulty. I really don't have the time or energy for that anymore.

The bloatware games that I've more recently given up on include Horizon FW and AC Valhalla. They weren't bad, they simply could have used 40 hours less content or at least make side quests not mandatory. There were other games that I know aren't really RPGs but just seemed to go on forever, making me lose interest. Primary example for me is MGS V.

If I finish one of the longer games, they did something right. Just finished Zelda. Now I'm replaying FF7 Remake (PS5). Question for the group... does FF7 Remake count as finishing an RPG when it's basically disc 1 of the original?

[kamikazekeeg]

I'm not sure if it's RPGs per se, but bloated games are where I have difficulty. I also find that I'll lower the difficulty just to save myself from bullet sponge bosses and ridiculous spikes in difficulty. I really don't have the time or energy for that anymore.

The bloatware games that I've more recently given up on include Horizon FW and AC Valhalla. They weren't bad, they simply could have used 40 hours less content or at least make side quests not mandatory. There were other games that I know aren't really RPGs but just seemed to go on forever, making me lose interest. Primary example for me is MGS V.

If I finish one of the longer games, they did something right. Just finished Zelda. Now I'm replaying FF7 Remake (PS5). Question for the group... does FF7 Remake count as finishing an RPG when it's basically disc 1 of the original?

I looked it up and the remake takes generally as long as the entire original game to beat, so I think it counts lol

[telekill]

I looked it up and the remake takes generally as long as the entire original game to beat, so I think it counts lol

Ok... phew. Glad to hear that.

[randomstranger]

Only on first time playthroughs. I usuall play someting between 2-8 hours than come back a year or two later and beat the rest in a week.

That doesn't necessarily apply to sequels. For Mass Effect, I've played about 10 hours of the first game, then 6 years later I beat the rest of the trilogy over a month   

[sworddude]

If the rpg is good I have no issue finishing it. If I have fun in the process the time doesn't matter. That being said rpg's are not high in my favourite genre list I do prioritize other genre's more

[dhaabi]

Only on first time playthroughs. I usuall play someting between 2-8 hours than come back a year or two later and beat the rest in a week.

That doesn't necessarily apply to sequels. For Mass Effect, I've played about 10 hours of the first game, then 6 years later I beat the rest of the trilogy over a month   

Why is that? This is such an unusual way to play from my perspective, and it doesn't seem efficient at all. At the bare minimum, do you not forget plot lines?

[telly]

There are a couple RPGs that I've started in the past that I wasn't able to beat, mostly because I thought they were good, but they just didn't grab me enough to keep going. The three I can think of were

Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits
Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter - I played until the first reset and didn't pick it up after that
Rogue Galaxy - I probably put about 20 hours into this one but stepped away from the game for bit then when I returned I found it too difficult to continue.

EDIT: Totally forgot about Final Fantasy V. Same story as Rogue Galaxy. Put it down for a while then couldn't remember where to go next.

[kashell]

This year, there were four RPGs I dropped: Avalon Code, Shadow Madness, Jeanne d'Arc, and The Caligula Effect: Overdose. It's hard to pinpoint a reason why four very different RPGs grabbed me. On paper, they all sounded like a lot of fun.

Otherwise, chances are that I'm going to finish an RPG. Looking through the 52 Challenge, I knocked out 15. Not all of them have been stellar, but they at least had a certain something that kept me engaged until the end. As long as the game has that "something" then I'm going to finish it. RPGs are my favorite so I guess that helps me with finishing them.

[randomstranger]

Only on first time playthroughs. I usuall play someting between 2-8 hours than come back a year or two later and beat the rest in a week.

That doesn't necessarily apply to sequels. For Mass Effect, I've played about 10 hours of the first game, then 6 years later I beat the rest of the trilogy over a month   

Why is that? This is such an unusual way to play from my perspective, and it doesn't seem efficient at all. At the bare minimum, do you not forget plot lines?

Don't know, I don't stop myself from playing intentionally and it's not like this for all RPGs, but it's not uncommon for me. It just happens. And the most interesting is, that no, I don't have issues remembering the plot even after years.

[emporerdragon]

If I get into an RPG, I can usually complete it, but there can be times where I wind up losing interest. There tend to be two big hurdles for me. The first is when I hit a wall where grinding is the only solution, and grinding for the sake of the grind is not typically fun. The other is when the world becomes a little too open and then gives no sense of direction or purpose; Like you just get the airship, allowing you to visit every town in the game and your only objective is something vague like "find the orbs" or "prepare to fight Lord Darkness". You never feel like you're going the right direction as well as potentially missing something. This doesn't apply to games like The Elder Scrolls or Fallout as those were designed with random exploration in mind.

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.