Fallout creator Tim Cain has weighed in on the pros and cons of long RPGs. You may think the Fallout games are long, but the original can be beaten in around 20 hours, which is pretty quick by modern RPG standards.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Cain says, by "long," he means RPGs that take 100 hours to complete or more. He briefly compares Fallout and one of his later games, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura – which was designed to take 40-80 hours, but could stretch to 100+ if you wanted to do absolutely everything.
Cain's first item in the pros column is that "you can tell a very deep story" in a long RPG, and there's room for "a lot more reactivity." Like, in Arcanum, "we looked for what you were wearing, ways you finished quests," Cain says.
That reactivity is a double-edged sword, however. "Can you telegraph that reactivity to the player?" Cain asks. "Do they have any way of judging how this may affect them? [...] 80 hours later, you find out, 'Uh, I'm totally screwed for the choice of action I picked 80 hours ago.' I don't know anybody who's going to reload a save game from back then, all you've done is really annoy them."
Cain also believes "if you can make a lot of different player builds, people probably will want to replay [your game] more." This can lead to more reviews, more discussions online – all things that he says are good for a developer trying to sell more copies of their game.
On the flip side, the biggest problems with making a huge game is the fact a lot of people might never complete it and the amount of money you'll need to develop it.
"Some players will never finish it," Cain says. "You all know what we're talking about – you people with Steam and GOG and Epic libraries full of games. I won't even get into the ones that don't install them. The longer the game is, the less likely people are to finish."
Cain also mentions that, "A lot of people read a review and go 'oh this game is 120 hours long,' and they don't even start." I fall into this category. There are only so many hours in the week I can dedicate to games, so I'd normally rather finish six 20 hours games than one behemoth.
Cain notes the reverse is also true, where some people think shorter games aren't worth the money, "but I believe the loss is bigger both proportionally and in terms of total numbers for making a long game."
Additionally, "A bigger game is always more money, because you have more maps, more variety of creatures, more NPCs, more voice over, more everything," Cain says. "And all that just costs money [...]. The sheer act of creating all that. Way more time, way more money – I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that as a big con."
Tim finishes with a point about the industry in general: "Some people go, 'Why are games costing 150 million, 500 million, a billion?' That's why."
If reading about long RPGs has got you in the mood for one, check out our ranking of the best RPGs you can play today.
