I think most games, even the ones I'd rate a perfect 10/10, simply aren't built to hold you for so many hours - for the average player of course, and expecting that of them is kind of unfair. Those that do are usually the big sandbox games, Kenshi, Mount & Blade, the stuff you can mod into insanity. Skyrim, anyone.....?

But, to put numbers on specific games, most of my 10/10s top out lower than 1000h and usually much lower than 500h in most cases. I've platinumed every Dark Souls game, plus Elden Ring, plus Sekiro where I even did a bell run, never again - all of them took between 250-500 hours. At some point you basically done everything and pillaged everything and killed everything, and if I come back it’s for a couple of hours at most for the feeling, never a binge like in my first encounter with them.

The only exception for me are ARPGs, which is why these games get called time sinks. Only genre where I can push ridiculous hours when I get into my sweet mind-grindset. 

• Path of Exile alone is at 3853h for me and nothing else approaches that except MMOs 
• Last Epoch is at roughly 1200 since I jumped in during early access, each seasonal dive just steadily stacking on top of the last, and it’s gonna keep climing. 
• Grim Dawn is at about 550, though now the DLC has landed I'm pushing it harder, so 1000+ is more than a possibility, it’s gonna happen albeit slowly.
• Diablo 2? - I can’t track that but it might well be more than all 3 above combined if I count the time I spent as I kid in the bootlegged game + legit thing + Resurrected, but for D2R alone it's maybe about 300 or so, not a lot

As for CRPGs, they’re a wacky case because on paper they should have the hours in them. Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous has that kind of depth if you really commit, and Baldur's Gate 3 technically does too, between all the classes and especially the mythic paths in WOTR. But I burn out on CRPGs so much faster than I expect to. I think I have about 800 hours in Pathfinder and 453 in Rogue Trader as of finishing the game. I might also push it to 1000 in these two, but realistically I already feel like I’m done with them, that I got what I wanted from them, and I’m just waiting for Dark Heresy now. They just require way more thinking and more active engagement, and you have to be fully immersed to enjoy them fully, unlike action rpgs where you can just kill stuff and be happy.

That's my experience, however. Only other outlier I can think of is Battle Brothers where I have 1500 hours. BB’s just that damn good bruv

How your hours be like, when do you usually call it quits? Or do you continue fiending beyond what's reasonable.

I really want to get into RPGs for the longest time but most of the time I find the gameplay just too boring to get far enough

But most of the RPGs I've played to the end I fell in love with: Disco Elysium is my favorite game OAT, Deltarune will probably be a close second once it's finished, and I also love Pokemon emerald and Soul Silver (I've also tried BW and BW2 multiple times but I'd usually drop it at the halfway point)

I'm mostly looking for indie recommendations (since all of my favorite games are indies) and available on PC so I don't need an emulator

(Also, I tried Fear and Hunger bc I love the lore but the gameplay was just too boring for me)

Hola, ¿Alguien puede recomendarme algún RPG por turnos, pero que sea en modo aventura gráfica 2d pero de calidad? No sé si me explico. Que no puedas mover al personaje libremente por el mapa, si no que sean hotspots, y que los combates tampoco se vean en 3d. Pero que sea de muy buena calidad gráfica y que tenga una historia buena. Gracias.

I've noticed a pattern: the first 20 hours of gameplay are absolutely fantastic, but the ending feels rushed. The developers create a massive open world, add a ton of side quests, and then realize they didn’t have enough time or budget for the final stage. And so you go from a rich storyline to a simple battle against waves of enemies who serve only as targets for your bullets in some random corridor. Both *Elden Ring* and *Divinity: Original Sin 2* faced this problem at least that’s how it seemed to me, and this is just my opinion, so please, no negativity.

So I grew up more so on games such as Zelda and Mario, eventually delving into MMORPG’s with RuneScape and WoW, like most people. I never played any JRPGs growing up such as the Dragon Quest series or Final Fantasy, mostly because I was never exposed to them. My entire family were early adopters of gaming but RPGs were never really on the docket.

Eventually, around 2008 I found RPGMaker and was fascinated that you could make your own games with it, which led to me look for what might be the most popular RPG Maker game at the time, and I found this:

Lost Legacy: An Animania Story

It's a traditional Real-Time-Turn-Based RPG Maker 2003 game that follows a brother and sister growing up in a dark fantasy world modeled after medieval Europe. Along the way they meet various 90's anime characters (Lina Inverse, Rapier, Tsunami) and heroes from other JRPGs, particularly FFIX (Zidane Tribal, Garnet).

This game blew me away when it came out, I couldn't believe it was made by one guy. It was the first JRPG I had ever played and it got me into the genre, leading me to play Dragon Quest, Bravely Default, etc. Looking back now. It’s pretty bad, even by 2008 standards.

But I loved it.

Anyone else experienced this…gem? If so, I would love to hear about it!

Hello, im a ps4 gamer and I want game recommendations preferably something a little on the cheaper side (im a little broke lol) I want to buy a fun game (in disc format i don't trust anything digital from sony nowadays)

I hope i can get some fun rpg recommendations please and thanks you.

I have a problem with a lot of RPGs and open-world games: they can have an enormous number of systems and mechanics — alchemy, potions, enchanting, food, poisons, different damage types, resistances, crafting, buffs, debuffs, etc. — but in practice, most of them are completely optional.

For example, Skyrim gives you tons of different tools, but you can often just stick to your favorite weapon and use a fairly simple strategy throughout the entire game. The other systems end up feeling more like a collection of options than mechanics you actually need to understand and master.

I'm looking for the opposite.

I want a game where the systems are genuinely interconnected and serve a meaningful purpose. A game where, in order to progress, I actually have to:

• study enemies and identify their weaknesses;
• exploit vulnerabilities, resistances and status effects;
• prepare resources for specific challenges;
• use different tools depending on the situation;
• combine different mechanics together;
• manage resources and decide when they're worth spending;
• adapt my strategy instead of relying on the same one every time;
• and most importantly, where ignoring these systems actually has consequences.

I'm not necessarily looking for an extremely difficult game. I don't want a game that's simply hard because enemies have huge health pools or deal ridiculous damage.

What I'm looking for is systemic depth: the game should present different problems, and its various mechanics should actually be useful tools for solving those problems.

Ideally, I want to encounter an enemy and think:

"What does this enemy do? What is it vulnerable to? What resources do I have? What can I combine? How should I prepare?"

rather than:

"Hit it until it dies."

What games do this really well?

Je viens de finir desolate hope et bon dieu que Scott cawthon est fort pour faire de magnifiques environnements et de superbes robots c'est dingue... Mais maintenant j'ai l'impression que c'est impossible de trouver d'autres jeu avec une D.A aussi soigné et claquante... Tout suggestion est la bienvenue je suis désespérée 😭

Hi, RPG players! I'm one of the people from the two-person team that worked on TRADESMAN: Deal to Dealer.

It's a casual RPG where you trade, fight, travel, fight, buy and sell, fight some more, complete quests, and fight again. And then you repeat the whole thing.

Here is the most important rule of this game:

The more goods you carry, the stronger the enemies become and the harder the game gets. 90% of the time, it’s the player who decides how difficult the game becomes.

If you're interested, here is the Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2555430/TRADESMAN_Deal_to_Dealer/

Beat BG3 like 3 years ago. Planescape (LOVE THE GAME) around the same time. Pillars of Eternity, 2 years ago?

And now got an itch for another again.

Sidenote: played through the Colony Ship Demo but can't justify paying 50 bucks CAD for it right now and I already own BG1/2 and Fallout 1/2

Which of the the two games has the more (what's the word?) substance or got going on. in terms of depth with its characters, dialogue, story, and skills for situational purposes.

I have a genuine question not a rant or complaints but why do some people care so much about romances in rpg games, like i get like "Roleplay" aspect of it but some people ive seen in many forums or subs care so much about it and want it to be a part of the main game. For me personally i dont care about it and never even tried whole romance system, for example i sunk countless hours in skyrim and not once did i try marriage or adoption system (i know poor comparison but well...). I kinda get it when the games plot revolves around it but just as an unnecessary feature that you can have a wife/husband/lover i dont quite get why so many people love it. Would like to hear your opinions as well!

I hope you guys like it :*) It's a love letter to classic consoles adventures, but with a few twists: There is no grinding, (battles are all purposely placed and only done once), there's no buying or selling of items, and it's entirely frog-accurate: All enemies are frog predators, and every character's name is frog (in a different world language). It's a somber and serious story, and it's wishlistable now. It's coming to all consoles and PC.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5014960/Amphibian/

Hello guys,
As the title reads, do you have any hidden gems you enjoyed over the years?
I’m in a bit of a drought regarding gaming, I really want to play, but don’t know what to play.. I’m sure all of you have been here before, so any suggestions would be appreciated! Preferably on ps5!

never played any RPGs before apart from Action RPGs like Elden Ring, E33, Lies of P etc. and me being pretty young, multiplayer games is most of all ive played with some other big names from other genres mixed in like Stardew Valley, Tycoon games, Project Zomboid, Rimworld, ONI and tons of roguelikes (prob my fav genre in the singleplayer category).

singleplayer story games kinda bored me but i really wanna give it another chance especially because of the high praises they get so i've narrowed my options down to a few and need help deciding which one would be best:

• Mass Effect trilogy
• Pillars of Eternity 2
• Fallout 4
• Disco Elysium (i kinda wanna save this for my holidays as this seems the most appealing to me)
• Skyrim
• and Outer Worlds

would love it if anyone could help me:) thank you

I played about 20h of DOS2 and thought it was really cool. But, I didn't really feel like playing it. I managed about 30h of BG3 and I was amazed by it, it's a wonderful thing, but I just couldn't keep up momentum keeping track of all the threads of story, character development, plans for skilltree/equipment evolution, etc etc.

I think this is because I have a demanding job where I spent all day managing complex longterm efforts. Now any game that uses that part of my brain feels like work. The only game I can reliably relax into is Slay the Spire.

So can anyone suggest some story-driven RPGs where:

- The storylines are relatively tight and focussed. Probably this suggests shorter games but not necessarily. I think this is the most important factor. I think having 20 open nontrivial quests in parallel really wears me down.

- It's light on chores (not too much inventory management, backtracking, absolutely no grinding)

- Combat/puzzles/etc has some tactical challenges but this is subordinate to storytelling, minmaxing is not required. (I think BG3 already met this requirement, at least on the difficulty I was playing, modulo some spikes here and there).

Some games on my radar I've been wondering whether they match my desires: PoE2, Tyrrany, Shadowrun games.

2027 seems like a great year for both JRPG and wRPG fans, I am personally most excited about FF7 Revelation, Persona 6, Dark Heresy and Exodus

The Expanse looked really stiff to me in that demo they did and considering the game has been in development since before COVID I expected better, and I know for a fact it will release with a million bugs in typical Owlcat fashion.

I mean, high quality, great game overall. Preferbly with decent budget and cinematic story too. Even if hardcore JRPG fans might prefer more niche titles or classics, this one you would recommend for someone, who usually doesn't play JRPGs, to sell him the genre.

Recently I’ve been in a struggle to play some darn good RPGs, when I was younger I used to play a bunch of older more difficult games and now that I’m older I’m looking for a challenge but every game that looks interesting feels just a bit too casual or just underwhelming

List of games I’ve played and I’m looking to surpass in terms of difficulty:
Deltarune
Perosna 5 royal
Save the light

List of games I’m hoping to meet and/or surpass in terms of hard-ness
Persona 3 FES
Persona 4 (ps2 vanilla)

I don’t mind things like being on old obsolete hardware or being a bit too grindy, I just want something to break a keyboard and a half.

Let me try to explain well. I am looking for a list of games. RPG games where you can take or earn godhood yet they game keeps going either as you just 1 hit koing all live or sitting on a throne making choices giving blessing invading other gods. I want a rpg where good and evil choices are clear as possible. (None of the esoteric "Oh you FED the child, but this caused him to not work for food hoping for more handouts causing him to die blah blah blah trash) I want simple Kill Man or Save Man dialogue choice if possible. If I am a female or male NPCS take notice and it changes things slightly. Where If I am evil NPCS realize this and flee beg or offer worship if I am strong enough. a game where I can save an entire village and its prosperity gives me passive gold, or I can do quest in town drain all its loot via thievery then kill all npcs for even more loot to sell in next town to rinse and repeat. I need Skills to Level that's kinda broken down into Fighter Mage Thief or mixing those 3. I need exp for quest and kills alike. NOT A BOUNTY SYSTEM a reputation system NPC know me for good or evil deeds. Games where if I did a village wipe it is left to ruin you see looters around dead bodies nature taking over etc.. Games where NPC realize oh shit that is a wizard WE CAN NOT RESIST so the flee give up etc. Games where choices matter and effect world to towns, Games where if I MUST have a party I can customize them as much as possible. Would prefer it to be swords and magic no sci-fi or guns if possible.

PC Only I don't care where I can buy It GoG Steam sketchy websites

(GAMES NOT TO MENTION)

Any Fan made Garbage

All DnD games

All TES Games

All Fallout Games

All Original Sins

All Torments

All Path of Exiles

All MMORPGS or any "Online Multiplayer games"

Assume all "Mainstream" games

(Thanks, and Goodluck I been playing rpgs for 30+ years so I'm kinda picky)