The Famitsu review scores were recently released for Persona 5, and things are looking really good! I noticed that it scored a 39/40. I know Famitsu review scores are generally very lenient these days and Persona 5 was a shoe-in for great reviews, but it’s still encouraging to see. I noticed something else, as well, something I’m not sure I wanted to see. It seems that a few of the reviewers spent upward of 80 hours with the game before they were finished.
Middle-school Matthew is leaping for joy at the prospect. There’s nothing I love more than a long, good story. When I was kid I remember the day I saw that my Final Fantasy VII save file had a little over 88 hours of play time logged, and I was so proud of that. I remember wishing that I could squeeze that much time out of every RPG. Sadly, I’m not in middle school anymore, and I feel like Persona 5 has already earned a place in my ever-growing backlog.
Would you like to know what other games are currently in my backlog? I’m currently behind on Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Grand Kingdom, Persona 3 Portable, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, and Grandia II . Those are all games that I want to finish, and intend to finish. Those are also all games that will require more than 30 hours of my time to finish, and as a working man who likes to play all kinds of games, I’m just not sure I have time for that anymore.
Big, beefy RPGs are my favorite things in the world. I love getting invested in a grand story. I love getting addicted to progression systems, skill trees, and loot upgrades. Give me multiple discs. Give me optional side-quests. In Persona 5 give me more social links than I can handle and, by God, I will attempt to handle them. I’ll take the cat out on a date if I have to.
Only, I’ll still have a wife that needs to know I’m alive. I’ll have work weeks that spill into the weekends. I have projects queued up on my priorities list, and new skills I’m learning. The older and busier I get, the more I tend to appreciate shorter games. Every night the icon for Mankind Divided shines and whispers “come hither” through the screen, but I look at the clock and decide to load up Driveclub or Rainbow Six Siege instead.
Now, Persona 4 Golden I was able to beat no problem. I’ve spent over 100 hours on that game, but it’s also on a portable system. My PS Vita can hang with me in bed, on long car rides, flights, in the bathroom, and on vacation. Portability made the going much easier because it enabled me to take on an enormous story in many, smaller chunks. With Persona 5 I won’t have that luxury, and I’m not sure I can bring myself to sit down in front of my TV for marathon sessions of Persona 5 and nothing else for a period of weeks.
Does anyone else have this concern? Are any of you like me, and unable to just rush through an RPG that you care about without exploring every nook and cranny? A game as good as Persona 5 isn’t worth playing if you’re just going to slam through it and let all of the little details and side-quests go unappreciated, but damn if it isn’t a major time commitment. Sound off in the comments and let me know the RPG that you played – and finished – that took more than 30 or 40 hours. Do you have it in you to tackle an 80 hour monster this February?