A title with the biggest gaming cliffhanger of the decade has me reflecting on what ‘well spent’ gaming time should look like.
This is a republished version of an article published 12 months ago with some new context. I’m on a break until April.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II was perhaps the first open-world game I’ve played in a while that I felt got it right in terms of its volume of side content and not thrusting it on the player.
I often wonder if this is an age thing or sign of changing tastes among gamers? Now in my 30s, I have less time to play games. So I prefer them to be shorter and to the point than more immersive. But it’s a criticism I’ve seen across the board from a myriad of reviewers of all demographics, so perhaps it’s just a trend in gaming.
Another key game worth pointing out here is Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s a long game. But it encourages multiple playthroughs by actively barring access to parts of the game as a result of your decisions. No matter what you do, you can’t see it all in one playthrough. I ended up playing it three times to see bits that I missed, and rectify aspects of earlier runs that I screwed up.
Maybe that’s the ticket? And why side quests feel so clunky. The story often motivates me to finish the game, and when I’m done, I move onto the next game not go back and do side content. But if there’s another ending or parts that I’ve missed, I feel compelled to go again.
In short: I’d rather do two 40-hour play-throughs of a game, rather than one long 80 hour run. But where do you land on this?
Original article below.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
After a mammoth 80-hours over three weeks, I have finally cleared Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. But looking back I can’t help but wonder how much of it was wasted time?
An article from Game File got me thinking about this. The editor Stephen Totilo posits that Rise Of The Ronin – Sony’s next big release – does players a favour by respecting their time.
As Totilo outlines, Rise of the Ronin – a new action game released this week set in Feudal Japan – automatically skips cutscenes you’ve already seen, implements an early and effective fast travel system and removes inventory frustration by automatically clearing out loot.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has a lot of these systems too – including an excellent fast travel system – that helps you grind out tasks with ease. Yet, one of the main criticisms of the game is its bloat.
What is bloat?
For those unfamiliar with the term, bloat essentially means padding out the game with side quests and activities that don’t actively and meaningfully add to central plot of the game. At their best, they are diversions that add colour. At their worst, they can create a sense of “doing chores” to experience more of the game.
There’s a fine line between the two. In the latest Zelda series for instance, locating the map towers unlock reveals large portions of the map and adds meaningful addition to your gameplay. In Rebirth, finding the map towers only unlocks the location of other activities nearby. Given there’s so many towers in each area, it gets monotonous.
Having now finished the game, I’m in a weird headspace with Rebirth’s “bloat” critique.
The pros
On one hand, I enjoyed how dense and rich the open world is in Rebirth. With such a wide open world, it would be a real shame if there was nothing to do in it. Contrast this to Pokemon Violet and Scarlet. They are huge open world games – a first for the Pokemon series – but they feel empty by comparison. There’s very little in the way of side activities, mini games and discoverables. The world feels sparse, and poorer for it.
The cons
But there are points in Rebirth where you just want to get on with it the story, and the game shovels side quests and odd-jobs in-front of you. It presents one rich open world area – full of quests, collectibles and side activities – after another and it grinds the game’s overall momentum down to a halt.
This is fine if you aim to play the game patiently (which is my strong advice for anyone picking up this game).
But it’s teasing a re-imagining of one of the biggest tragedies in gaming history – whether or not lead character Aerith will die like she did in the original game (this is not a spoiler now, the original death happened 20+ years ago!).
Worth my time?
There are plenty of other games that I’ve followed a similar design style: Horizon Forbidden West, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Spider Man 2 for example. The common thread: They are all open world, narrative driven games sequels that aim to expand on an original game.
But there are sequels that I can think of that break the pattern too. Mass Effect 2 was full of odd-jobs and chores like mining (yes, mining) planets for minerals. But it worked, because your level of completion determined how many of your crew members would survive the final “suicide mission” at the end of the game.
The same could be said of Baldur’s Gate 3 – side content there is meaningful because your decisions affect the story.
Rebirth raises some fundamental questions about modern games though.
Maybe it really is time to ask: Is bigger better? And what should big actually look like?
Role playing games are often measured by their length, breadth and depth of gameplay, but what about their ability to deliver a story in a meaningful timely way?
And I wonder how much of Rebirth’s side-content should have been unlocked post-game, after its biggest narrative payoff. (Now I think about it… Was narrative pacing the reason why I’m even asking these questions?)
Don’t get me wrong. I really enjoyed this game – in fact I’m still polishing off parts of it.
But one thing I will be thinking of as I continue to delve into longer games whether the developers actually value my time.
After all, if you are going to put 80 hours into something that isn’t work, you’d hope that you would enjoy every single minute of it.
- Harrison Polites writes the Infinite Lives newsletter. Follow him here.
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