Well, Ok, it has all of what you mentioned, but combat is super brisk (and not too frequent), cut scenes are very short comic book style panels with not much text, and melodrama is tame compared to others. And it’s relatively short. Under 20 hours, if I remember correctly.
The classic JRPGs before FF VI were relatively short. Dragon Quest 1 and 2 were under 10 hours, Suikoden was around 15 to 20 hours. FF IV was also about 20 hours (it felt a bit longer - in a good way - because a lot happened in that game, plot-wise).
My best advice is to avoid combat completely and play as a Loremaster the first playthrough. Put all your skill points into Lore, Persuasion, and Street Smarts.
It was the first Ultima Garriot didn’t “win” the night of the Origin “people sit down and play and race to see who wins”. He ran a full party, the person who won just went solo Avatar and his rings lasted much longer (and you can cheese through a lot of combat that way).
Undertale is pretty short apparently, like under 10 hours. I should probably play it one day, it’s been percolating near the top of the backlog for a while… :)
Oh! I didn’t even know this was a tradition at Origin. Seems crazy for that kind of game. So, is there any record of how long it took them to get through it? Less than 10 hours?? If so, it’s a Short RPG!
It was in the teens at most IIRC. They basically marathoned it (staying up all night and going until someone won). But they obviously have the advantage of knowing everything up front. So there’s no need to e.g. collect mantras (and find all the shrines, including figuring out how to get to spirituality), go hunting down the clues to tell you where to look for the gems and LB’s artifacts, etc. It had been a tradition going back a few games, as I recall it being mentioned.
I tend to think that someone on a new playthrough (with no U4 experience) would be in the upper bounds of short at best for purposes of this discussion, and that’s how it should be counted. But OMMV.
ATOM RPG Trudograd is pretty focused, and should easily be beatable in less than 20 hours. Only problem is that it’s a standalone expansion to the longer ATOM RPG.
Each of the Banner Saga games clock in at around 10-15 hours.
This is the most recent thread to mention Suikoden.
Suikoden 1 and 2 are getting remastered releases in 2023.
I played through Suikoden 3 and really enjoyed the first half of the game. And hearing from ahythematey that the first game is short sounds great to me.
Ooooooh nice! The screenshots look pretty good, as long as it runs well I’m there! I hope my memory wasn’t misleading me on the playtime for Suikoden 1…
As a related aside: I’ve been going through Octopath Traveler lately and, while I do enjoy it mechanically, the game has been reinforcing my longing for RPG’s being only as long as they need to be, especially if they can give you a tidy 20 hour or less experience.
Oh yeah, I played Dragon Quest XI when it came to Game Pass and I really enjoyed it but good grief that is a huge and very long game. I remember trying Suikoden back when it was on the Playstation and I couldn’t really get into it - but I may give it another shot, especially if it’s a relatively short game. I like short games.
That is awesome news. That series has been so neglected. It was never Final Fantasy level of popular, but it has its fans and I’m surprised they haven’t remastered these or the later games. .
I was playing the first game just recently on my Vita - first time replaying it since original release, I think it was 1996 (still have my PSOne copy). Replaying it to finally play 2 for the first time and I guess now I can just wait for these remasters.
And the length of that first game was just right; there was never a lull in the story or action, so by the end of the game you feel genuine satisfaction. One of my favorites of all time and replaying it recently, aside from the clunky inventory interface (which I hope they tweak), it holds up very well. The soundtrack is still one of the greatest (rivaling Final Fantasy’s best) and the battles are fast paced (definitely not a product of its time).
