I can’t because that’s impossible, but is that is a short RPG? (Nevermind)
Well, you see
About 20 hours, maybe 25 if you get super into the game-within-a-game NES-style JRPG hiding in arcades in the various towns around the overworld.
I suppose I didn’t know about the JRPG side effect. That’s on me.
Savage Empire really impacted me as a kid. It was actually my first Ultima game (I immediately followed it up with U6, which was just a phenomenal game as well) and I thought it was super cool combining elements to make gunpowder, and the setting was super cool.
Man I wanna play through those Ultima games again.
The main thread in Disco Elysium is about 20 hours long, but you could easily double that if you really take your time and poke around everywhere. Still, I’ll take any opportunity to stump for DE.
Deus Ex (original), System Shock 2 (maybe first one too, but I haven’t played it). Both routinely take me about ~10-12h and I’m doing a full exploration run every time. I can’t really chalk it up to familiarity either, since it’s usually years between playthrough.
Similarly, Dishonored games aren’t very long either.
I particularly love the Ultima Worlds games. If you haven’t played Martian Dreams, it’s absolutely worth it! Also a great setting. They’re free on GOG and I find them to be still playable, though YMMV.
Over the years, I’ve come to think of them as essentially adventure games built in an RPG engine. The stats-and-combat elements are there but are pretty marginal, especially in Martian Dreams. They’re mostly about solving problems through dialogue and inventory manipulation.
Just dipped into Ultima 5 again a few days ago. It was my first Ultima. Might give that a re-play, though it is definitely not a Short RPG!
I liked the Worlds of Ultima games a bunch because they felt like they were just as much adventure games as they were RPGs. There were problems and puzzles to solve, discussions to be had with characters and to my recollection, not as much combat focus as the standard Ultimas. Which were of course really good games themselves.
There were SWARMS of Myrmidex in Savage Empire that might argue that point…
Those underground caverns got crazy!
Depending on one’s definition of RPG, Suzerain and The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante should qualify as they’re in the 5–15-hour range. Lots of text and choices. Some stat increases. I think they’re both great, but they might be a bit too much like a visual novel for some (and Suzerain arguably has more in common with a strategy game, though in a very different way than a tactics/SRPG would).
Deus Ex Mankind Divided qualifies. It feels more like an RPG than Deus Ex because of all the variety of outcomes and freeform approach. It also takes place mostly in a small city district that is very detailed, but doesn’t force you to explore it all. It also feels like a small game cause apart from the intro and ending you’re mostly in the same city unlike Deus Ex where you fly over the globe.
Chrono Trigger is ~20 hours for an initial playthrough.
FF4 on SNES is around 15 (remakes bump that up a bit with higher difficulty and more cutscenes).
Paper Mario on N64 is around 10.
Might & Magic III-V are fairly breezy, particularly IV.
If you include action-RPGs, loads of them fall in the 10-15 hour range (Secret of Mana / Evermore, Ys Origin / Oath in Felghana, Unsighted)
Maybe we should specify “short RPGs that aren’t packed with filler”?
Ultima V is still my favorite Ultima.*
Gonna get back into Martian Dreams any day now.
*Adjusted for the impact it made at the time it came out, my favorite is Ultima III. But Ultima V feels like ‘objectively’ the best of those I have completed.
*I have not completed Ultima VII. I will, don’t kill me!
** There is no such thing as ‘objectively’
Age of Empires 2 is my favorite short rpg. You play the role of a medieval leader locked in a fight to the death with an opposing kingdom. Really short with a game lasting 30 minutes to an 1 hour or 2. Sorry. If Icewind Dale is going to be an RTS (See RTS thread), then AoE2 can be an RPG :p
Seriously though, I’m enjoying reading the answers. It has been a while since I’ve actually finished an RPG so I don’t have a good answer myself. The Legend of Grimrock games seem like they would be fairly short.
Grimrock is actually a very mean action game!
Two RPGs from times of yore that I distinctly remember being rather short were Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal and Battletech: The Crescent Hawk’s Inception. Both enjoyable, and the latter holds the distinction of being the very first computer RPG I ever played, back in 1988-89, on my beloved C64. However, it was also the very first hard lesson I learned about games of that era - that if you broke sequence, you were either doomed to a broken main quest or you were doomed to traversing the game world for all eternity looking for that one unknown item the game informs you you can’t finish without when you think you’re at the very end. Hence, it was my first rage quit. Ahhh, it was a first for so much.
Oh man yeah, I loved that game! I always enjoyed playing the stock market and getting ridiculously wealthy then I could take all the classes and buy gear to be totally overpowered.
Yeah, that was a blast. I think I made 2 million dollars investing and accruing interest in the bank by the end of the game and was thinking, “I must be a freakin’ financial genius the likes of which the world had never seen! I should try this in the real world! Donald Trump, move on over!” Hey, it was baby’s first RPG so… there ya go.
You just reminded me I own Age of Decadence.
I had been following development when it began way back (Wikipedia says 2004), when I frequented RPG Codex. I was so excited about it. Then a few years passed…then, a few more years, then, a LOT of years passed. I stopped visiting Codex and forgot about the game.
It finally in 2015 and I didn’t care at that point, but I finally picked it up a couple of years ago. Played it for a few minutes, got my ass kicked in combat, set it aside and then forgot about it with my massive backlog.
But 11 hours, you say? Hmmm…