RPGs are difficult to get into for some due to their long lengths and sometimes slow pace. Completing sometimes drawn out introductions and committing to the full journey afterwards can be a real challenge for many, though it is usually worthwhile.
With the recent release of Wasteland 3, the third entry in a series whose games are notable for their grand scopes and long run times, it has some reminiscing about other massive RPGs too long for most people's tastes and patience. The fact these games are too long for some does not make them bad; there are just too many choices for most to dedicate dozens of hours to a single product.
10 Fallout 2 (30 Hours)
Bethesda has had control over the Fallout franchise for over a decade, but it was created by Interplay Entertainment as an isometric RPG. While thirty hours is a humble run time for this list, one also has to consider the game's extreme difficulty further extending this. Spec the main character wrong and one may find themselves stuck and needing to restart the game to better prepare their avatar for the harsh world.
9 Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall (32 Hours)
As important Elder Scrolls Arena is as the franchise's debut, Daggerfall introduced many elements which differentiated the series from its peers, most notably upgrading stats by using the techniques and mechanics in gameplay instead of manually allotting points.
Like other older games on this list, its age and inconvenience makes players spend more than thirty two hours as they wrestle to understand the quests and how to comfortably maneuver through the massive world.
8 Xenosaga (40 Hours)
In between Xenogears and Xenoblade Chronicles, Tetsuya Takahashi directed the Xenosaga trilogy for the PlayStation 2. What makes this game a little harder to stomach for some is its extreme linearity even when compared to other Japanese RPGs. The cinematic are also notably long. Some fans of the genre ate it up like candy, while some put it down for feeling more like a movie than an RPG.
7 Kingdom Come: Deliverance (40 1/2 Hours)
Many first-person RPGs delve into fantasy or science fiction. Kingdom Come: Deliverance differentiates itself from the crowded genre by being a grounded historical fiction epic taking place during the early fifteenth century in the Kingdom of Bohemia. While it is constantly compared to modern Elder Scrolls, it retains deep systems and stat micromanagement of older first-person RPGs.
6 Witcher 3 (51 1/2 Hours)
CD Projekt Red worked for years localizing games for Polish gamers before deciding to craft an original game based on The Witcher book series.
The first two games were beloved by a niche audience, but the third one was a mainstream success and was the studio's first true open-world game. There's so much content, one might fill themselves up on side quests and hunts before completing the main quest, never reaching the end credits.
5 Xenogears (56 Hours)
The first game bearing the Xeno prefix was an epic science fiction adventure on the PlayStation One. It bears more similarities to Xenosaga than Xenoblade Chronicles, being more linear than most RPGs. The title came on two discs, though most who played it will remember the second CD mostly consisting of narration which serves to wrap up the story. Despite this rush towards a conclusion, going through this journey still takes well over fifty hours.
4 Wasteland 3 (60 Hours)
InXile Entertainment brought back Wasteland after twenty five years in 2014. Thankfully, fans did not have to wait another two and a half decades for the third entry, which released on August 28th, 2020. Sixty hours is an average length. Going out of one's way to turn over every stone and complete every side quest will easily extend this to over one hundred hours. Similarly, Wasteland 2 is also a mammoth-sized adventure.
3 Final Fantasy XII (60 1/2)
Final Fantasy XII changed up the legendary franchise's formula, being the first single-player mainline entry to put the action in real time, though the player still has to wait for a bar to fill up before performing an action. The bloated runtime is mostly thanks to the time spent journeying across the expansive map to reach new towns, cities, and settlements. Thankfully, the re-release allows players to speed up gameplay during these long treks on foot.
2 Xenoblade Chronicles (62 Hours)
After switching from Bandai Namco to Nintendo, Monolith Soft made the Xenoblade Chronicles series. This series eschews the linear nature of the prior Xeno- games. This series features more open environments and stresses side quests. Since the first game's release on the Wii, there has been a spin-off, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and a sequel, Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The first title was recently remastered for the Nintendo Switch, updating it with much needed quality of life improvements as well as graphical enhancements.
1 Persona 5 Royal (103 Hours)
As if going through Persona 5 once was not daunting enough, the game was re-released with more than a full game's worth of new content. The Japanese RPG series is notable for almost unreasonably long entries, but even Persona 5 Royal is huge by the franchise's standard. One should not feel bad if they could not make it all the way through, as playing even half the title is enough to get your money's worth.