Consumers naturally want the most bang for their buck, especially with the rising cost of video games. However, the desire for extended enjoyment can sometimes lead to games that overstay their welcome. These titles, while aiming for an epic experience, can become endurance tests due to padded gameplay and narratives that extend beyond their natural pace. The result is an abundance of content that isn't always worthwhile, transforming potentially engaging adventures into chores.
Dragon Quest 7
The Dragon Quest series is known for its whimsical adventures, and the seventh entry is no exception. Players control Auster as he explores his island and discovers ancient ruins that reveal a world with many continents. Through mystical tablets, Auster and his allies travel back in time to confront calamities and restore these lost lands. The game's premise of restoring each island involves multi-hour adventures with distinct stories and characters. However, the sheer number of islands becomes overwhelming, leading to repetition and diluting the main plot. The extensive class system, initially engaging, eventually becomes tiresome. The remake, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, even omits several islands for brevity, highlighting the original's excessive length.
Grand Theft Auto 4
In contrast to the escalating stakes of its predecessors, Grand Theft Auto 4 adopts a more grounded and downbeat crime saga in Liberty City. The game follows Niko Bellic, a Slavic soldier seeking revenge in America by working for the city's major criminal organizations. While the cover-based gunplay was an improvement, the mission structure often devolved into repetitive "go here, shoot people" scenarios. This lack of variety, combined with a gray, desaturated color palette, contributed to a sense of fatigue. Despite being shorter than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, GTA 4 can feel longer due to its monotonous gameplay loop.
Yakuza 5
Yakuza 5 features a shifting power dynamic within the criminal underworld as peace between the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance deteriorates. Players follow Kazuma Kiryu, along with several other characters, as they become entangled in a conspiracy. The game divides its narrative among multiple protagonists, each with their own small-scale stories contributing to the overarching plot. However, these tales are largely separate until the final act, with each chapter establishing new settings and characters that have little connection to one another. This fragmented approach prevents the plot from gaining momentum, as the game frequently restarts the narrative threads.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Continuing the RPG direction established in Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Odyssey places players in Ancient Greece as a Spartan mercenary, either Kassandra or Alexios. The main quest involves uncovering their family origins and confronting the Cult of Kosmos, a group manipulating the country. While this sets the stage for the Assassin-Templar conflict, the game suffers from a meandering structure. Mundane busywork, such as raiding forts, traveling to distant locations, and killing specific enemies, pads out the thin story. Furthermore, basic enemies often require a significant number of hits to defeat, necessitating grinding to avoid being overwhelmed. The game's vast depiction of Ancient Greece feels less like an invitation to explore and more like a tour forced upon the player.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Assassin's Creed Valhalla doubles down on the lengthy, sprawling nature of its predecessor. Players take on the role of Eivor, a Norse warrior who leads settlers to England, forming alliances and expanding their influence. However, the narrative becomes bogged down by the sheer scale of conquest. England is divided into over a dozen regions, each requiring a roughly three-hour story arc focused on bland characters and objectives. The overarching narrative takes a backseat to this repetitive structure, compelling players to simply grind through optional content to level up and progress to the next territory.
Tales of Arise
Tales of Arise depicts a conflict between the medieval world of Dahna and the technologically advanced Rena, with the latter oppressing the former. Players control Alphen, a slave who joins a resistance group to overthrow the five Lords ruling Dahna. While the initial journey is engaging, the game's final third shifts focus to a deeper mystery surrounding the Renans' origins. This latter portion lacks the momentum of the earlier game, feeling like an extended epilogue filled with lengthy exposition rather than character development. The constant boss encounters in the final hours, which already take a significant amount of time to defeat, further exacerbate the feeling of tedium.
God of War: Ragnarök
God of War: Ragnarök concludes Kratos's journey through Norse lore with a lengthy adventure. Kratos and his son Atreus find themselves pursued by Odin and the Aesir, leading them through various realms to escape and confront the prophecy of Ragnarök. The game's structure, however, feels like three separate games mashed together. The story is comprised of numerous side quests that send the characters to different realms for often flimsy reasons. These linear errands are laden with excessive cutscenes, slowing the narrative to a crawl. Despite the effective combat mechanics, the action is overshadowed by lengthy dialogue segments, making the game feel more like a walking simulator than an action title.
Days Gone
Days Gone attempts to revitalize the zombie genre with a biker theme, following Deacon St. John through post-apocalyptic Oregon. After his wife's presumed death, Deacon and his friend scavenge for resources. They eventually join other survivors, finding a sense of home, but Deacon's quest to find his wife leads him north on a solo mission. The subsequent tasks feel disconnected from the established characters, and a cartoonish colonel serves as a mere plot device for a final act battle. The game's introduction of massive zombie Hordes, which players must exterminate, becomes agonizing due to Deacon's slow speed, low stamina, and subpar aiming mechanics, turning what could be intense encounters into frustrating slogs.
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age: Inquisition returns the series to a more traditional RPG format, but at the cost of player agency and pacing. As the Inquisitor, players must thwart a demonic invasion by building influence. This progression system, however, mandates the completion of numerous side quests, treasure hunts, and optional objectives to earn influence points before story missions can be advanced. This structure forces players to constantly postpone the main plot in favor of menial tasks, effectively turning the Inquisitor into an errand runner rather than a decisive hero.
Persona 5
Persona 5, and its expanded version Persona 5 Royal, are lengthy JRPGs that break the series' typical playtime records. The story follows a protagonist nicknamed "Joker" who, after being framed, transfers to a new school in Tokyo. He and his friends discover the Metaverse, a realm of distorted desires, and use their mental powers, or "Personas," to fight against its influence. This quest spans an entire in-game year, leading to an exceptionally long playtime. While the game masterfully refines the series' turn-based combat, social simulation, and monster-taming mechanics, its structure lacks variety. The cycle of social interaction, dungeon crawling, and boss battles becomes a repetitive grind, mirroring the mundane daily life it seeks to escape. This culminates in a multi-hour climax that can leave even dedicated players feeling drained.
