Have Epics Like Elden Ring & Baldur’s Gate 3 Killed Short Games?

Once upon a time, the length of a game was limited by space on a physical disc or cartridge. Now, the limit is only how much download space you’ve got left on your console. And that means that video games have the potential to be a lot longer, offering epic stories with in-depth and branching narratives. In recent years, games like Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 have delivered well over 100-200 hours of story, creating epic fantasy realms for players to explore. But has the trend towards massive games turned players off from short ones?

There’s nothing quite like sinking into a fantasy world you can really get immersed in. My sheer number of hours in Skyrim and Baldur’s Gate 3 prove that I am very much down for a lengthy RPG. But does every game need to have enough completionist content to keep us busy for 100+ hours? In a time when games are getting more expensive, it’s a tricky question to answer. You want to get a good value for the price, but whether that means sheer hours played will depend on your perspective.

Games Are Getting Longer, And There Are a Lot of Games Out There

Playing a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 all the way through is a commitment. Especially if you go in with a completionist attitude, you can reasonably take months or even years to get through it. For many of us, gaming time has to fit in around work and other life responsibilities. And that means that, if we’re only playing longer, epic story RPGs, we’re going to miss out on a lot of games.

Some people prefer it that way, of course. If you play and love one long game a year, that’s a perfectly valid way to enjoy video games. But the FOMO is real, and it can be fun to keep up with what other people are playing to join the conversation. And that means, gamers have some choices to make with both their time and budgets.

When a game costs anywhere from $60-80, you want to feel like you’re getting your money’s worth. And for some gamers, that has come to mean sheer hours of gameplay. That can mean replayability for a game like BG3, which can become a very different story each time, or something with enough side quests to keep you roaming Tamriel for ages like Skyrim. But spending that much on a game and devoting time to it can mean missing out on other releases, because there’s only so much time and gaming budget to go around. Sometimes, a few shorter games might actually give you a more enjoyable and varied gaming experience all around.

When you price it out by hours per dollar, a longer game can often look like a better deal. And when epic RPGs offer stories that can take 100s of hours to complete, it can seem strange to consider buying a game you know will be significantly shorter. But I don’t think that means that shorter games don’t have a place. Just spending a lot of time on a game doesn’t necessarily make it the best gaming experience. There’s more to a good game than just the amount of content on offer.

A Story Can Be Impactful Without Being 100 Hours Long

People don’t love games like Dark Souls or Baldur’s Gate 3 for the sheer number of hours on record. These games also offer epic, in-depth stories. They have memorable characters like Astarion or Solaire. There are often hidden secrets to explore, unlocking more lore that rewards you for taking the completionist route. Somehow, epic RPGs like these have managed to offer not just longer stories, but stories that feel worth playing. But a game doesn’t have to be long to be impactful.

In fact, some of my favorite gaming experiences in recent years have been shorter games. There’s something to be said for the feeling of actually getting to fully, 100% finish a game without making it your part-time job for months. And even games with a shorter playtime can still pack a powerful punch, making them perfect for people with less free time to devote to massive games designed to take a long, long time to beat.

For instance, I still think about Tavern Talk on a regular basis. The D&D-inspired game is a visual novel in an RPG universe, and it only took me around 15 hours to finish. Trying to find all of the endings took my play time up a bit, but even so, it came in at around 25 hours total. But in that time, Gentle Troll Entertainment managed to tell a story that’s stuck with me. The same goes for Metroidvania Magical Delicacy, which comes to a definitive close after only around 30 hours but delivers a fun, engaging experience in that time. With memorable characters, fun mechanics, and real stakes, even a short game can be a worthwhile experience.

Of course, the price does come into play here. A game like Tavern Talk being priced at $17.99 is one thing. It’s definitely harder to debate between two $60 when one has double the playtime, and it’s valid that people want more playtime for the rising cost of games. But even so, length isn’t the only consideration when thinking about price. If a game offers a lot of content, but runs poorly or lacks depth, it may still not stack up to a shorter game that’s had a little more love put into all its details.

At the end of the day, I do think some players are going to want every game to deliver hundreds of hours of content for their money. But I do think there are still players who want shorter games sometimes, ones that we can finish and digest in a shorter span of time. There’s room for both, especially if they are priced and marketed accordingly.

Do you have a preference for longer or shorter games? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

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