Great RPGs can take many forms. Sometimes you have an engrossing fantasy tale, taking you through a world-spanning conflict to stop an evil presence. Other times, you might be asked to dive into a complex gameplay system and master it to progress through a space-faring adventure. Regardless, most RPGs require a chunky time sink to finish. With so many games releasing all the time, it can be difficult to find 40 hours to play through a new RPG, let alone finding the time to drop 100+ hours into one game. Thankfully, there are a few excellent RPGs that don’t have a huge time commitment.
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Here are three RPGs you can easily finish in a weekend.
3) The Outer Worlds
Developer Obsidian Entertainment is launching The Outer Worlds 2 on October 29th, so there’s about to be a new sci-fi RPG to dig into. However, early reports claim the developers have expanded nearly every aspect of the sequel, which means it’ll stretch beyond the limits of this list.
Thankfully, the original game is a trim, captivating RPG experience. You can play through the story in about 13 hours. You’ll need around 25 hours to play through all of the side content, but you can easily get through the good stuff in a weekend.
The action RPG is essentially Fallout in space. In fact, Fallout creators Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky were the directors on The Outer Worlds. If you were annoyed at the dialogue changes Bethesda made in Fallout 4, The Outer Worlds is the game for you. It’s not perfect, but you won’t be disappointed. And if you love it, the sequel will be waiting for you.
2) South Park: The Stick of Truth
South Park: The Stick of Truth only takes about 12 hours to complete the main story. Tack on a few extra hours if you want to complete all of the side content. Either way, if you’ve ever wanted to play through a season of South Park, this is the game for you.
Not only does it bring the trademark South Park humor, but the combat is surprisingly competent. If South Park puts you off, you can skip this one, but fans of crude jokes will find a chunky open world to explore filled with references and inside jokes.
Like The Outer Worlds, there’s a sequel to The Stick of Truth. The Fractured but Whole ditches the fantasy theme for superheroes and tries to add more depth to the combat. It’s a solid game, but it doesn’t hit quite as hard as the original. The main story is also about 10 hours longer, so it doesn’t quite fit this list.
1) Super Mario RPG
Even completionists can finish the 2023 Super Mario RPG remake in under 20 hours. The main story takes most players about 12 hours, and there isn’t a ton of side content. That said, the side quests that are there are worth seeing through, so expect to spend around 16 hours playing through to see everything important.
The remake does include a handful of updates and fixes. That includes small changes like changing Princess Toadstool to Princess Peach, and large ones like new battle mechanics. You can now swap party members (not including Mario) mid-battle and access team-based triple moves for extra damage. And if you really want to speed things up, there’s even an easier difficulty option.
Unlike the other two games, there’s no sequel to jump into if you fall in love. That said, Nintendo did recently release a remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It’s another exceptional RPG starring Mario, but you’ll be strapping in for at least 30 hours to see it to completion.
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