"Wait, the game is already over?"
 

What games just seemed too short for you? How quickly were you able to finish the game?

There are many I can think of, but the three that surprised me the most were Terranigma (SNES), The Bouncer (PS2), and Xenosaga Episode II (PS2).

I didn't know much about Terranigma when I started, and unlike the games I play today, I also didn't ask anyone about the game's length. I enjoyed Terranigma thoroughly though, so I think everything just seemed to end too quickly for me.

The Bouncer was a game I purchased because it was under $10, and I wasn't playing anything at the time. I managed to finish that one in one sitting. Xenosaga II simply had too many in-game movies so the whole game wasn't satisfying in terms of actual input on my part.

I might or might not surprise people by saying this, but I thought Shadow of the Colossus was a bit on the short end. I clocked in aboout 14 or so hours, mainly because I was busy shooting apples and lizards. One may argue, well, the Gods certainly aren't that cruel to make him have to fight perhaps 32 or even 64 colossi now, so why bother adding more of them? Plus they'd start to get repetitive. Plus, I think Wanda would say "TOO HELL WITH IT! 100 Colossi to save this bitch?", and ya know, he's only human(like). I really don't think SOTC needed to be any longer, but part of me wants to slay more colossi than redoing a new plus game.

Oh, and Ico is the perfect length for that particular type of game, sup Q.

I also found Mercernaries surprisingly short (about 30 hours) for a GTA type game. There's perhaps 10-12 missions per each Ace stage, so 45 some missions in total. If you have cheats, then a mission can easily be beaten under 3 minutes thanks to God mode. I also found the side challenges lacking in fun or innovation.

Ace Combat 4. Just when I got settled into it, the last level was right up on me. Took me awhile to figure out, but the road getting there completely blew by. I was disappointed to see Belkan War was only 18 missions long.

Also, Ys: Ark of Napishtim...I thought it would be a tad larger than it was. The end was like: Major Boss Battle, Next-to-Last Boss Battle, Last Boss Battle, End. I fully expected there to be another level between 'Major Boss Battle' and 'Next-to-Last Boss Battle'. Oh well, at least I still have the Trials of Alma to screw around with.

And I'm playing Princess Peach and New SMB very slowly right now...Reason being, I don't want to beat them too fast, considering how long the wait has been for awesome new 2D platformers. I could probably knock both out tonight if I wanted to (I'm in World 6 of Mario, World 5 in Peach), but I just take them level-by-level.

And I'm still amazed how Suikoden 1 gets everything into under 20 hours everytime. Even my 108 Stars run was only 20 hours. It's just a lot of stuff happens in a short amount of time.

Oh, and Street Fighter EX3...6 fights and you're at the end, none are 2 out of 3 falls. Normally doesn't take even 8 minutes. I second The Bouncer as well...Early PS2 gamers weren't exactly getting much in the way of length for the money.

Somehow the story mode in Dynasty Warriors 5 is only 5 or 6 fights long (at least for Sun Shang Xiang). Pathetic, compared to the 20-30 hours and 18 or so levels it can take to finish DW4.

Lot's of classic games that could've benefitted from being longer...I could handle Ducktales in maybe 20 minutes as a kid, I normally pull it out in 8-10 now.

Hmm, I'd say Tomb Raider: Legend. I really enjoyed it, and I didn't see the ending coming. Talk about a cliff hanger:( A couple of level more wouldn't have been bad.

Hmm I always thought Suikoden 4 was short, for some reason i didnt see the ending coming. My god thats oen of the most boring endings ever, even bad guy sucks although he looked cool at first. (not even a backstory for him bleh)

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
When I saw the credtis roling I couldn't belive my eyes, compared with Soul Reaver 1 that one was a joke.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Zone of the Enders games for the PS2 yet. They were both surprisingly short, but they were still great nonetheless.

It was funny though, because the first Z.O.E. was the very first game I played on the PS2. Suffice to say, I was pretty shocked when I beat the game in less than six hours. Not a very good opening experience with a new console, but I eventually came to love the game (after initially trading it in and then buying it again later on).

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6...nstimpy5fy.jpg

You could clock this shit in 28 minutes.

Also, Final Fantasy 6.

Halo 2. Maybe not short but the ending came out of no where.

Tomb Raider legend. I wanted 2-3 more levels :(.

I don't know if repeated play throughs count, but I'll go for Sonic R. Once you know the stages well enough (about the same time you've perfected the lyrics you're singing along-

we all need, to work together
to build a better life, to make it what we feel
we have to make it real)

then you can unlock all the hidden extras and best the games 2 endings (with emeralds; without em) in about half an hour, without any sort of difficulty.

It's a shame because it seems like so much effort went into crafting the intricate stages, but in the end the major shortcuts just ended up extremely over effective and most of the routes through the stages become pointless.

Um, there's quite a bit of stuff that happens between the first event and you going after the antagonist. I'd say, if you have any appreciation for the characters, you'd go out to find them as each character you find, you learn much more about that characters story and personality. Terra in Mobliz, Strago's old enemies, Relm's Painting, Shadow's Past, Cyan's Past, and let's not even go to Locke's relationship with Rachel. It's pretty deep even after the midway point. You find their motivation and as you progress, you learn to hate Kefka more and more constantly.

I heard TR: Legend was quite small... long gone are the days of Tomb Raider 4 where I wasted way over 100 hours to finish that game.

Well i loved the game, even if it was short. I liked the time trail aspect of it and there are a bunch of new costumes to download and i personally enjoy that a lot . I still replay a couple of the levels now and then.

Seconded. I rarely beat games quickly and this one just shocked me especially as I was getting into it. It didn't help that many gaming publications hyped it up as Zelda with mechs. I was under the impression that the game would feature at least 20 hours of gameplay and some clever dungeons and puzzles. Nope. None of the sort. However I hear that Z.O.E.2 is supposed to be superior to the original.

Yeah, The Second Runner is the better game, but its main game still isn't that much longer than the first one's. It does have more extra stuff to do though, so that gives it a little more length as well.

:) These instantly popped into my mind:

Psychonauts - The humour here was golden and the concept of going into everyone's mind fascinated me! I was very saddened from the point when some of the teachers' minds disappeared. Sure you have a couple of really spacious minds to explore after that (Napoleon World anyone?), but when the friendly camp atmosphere went away, I had a feeling that the game was ending soon, and it ended way too soon :(

Wild Arms 4 - It was so sweet to keep fighting all the members of the elite forces throughout the game. When you get to the last member of the elite forces, you are actually smack at the end of the game. I was totally caught off guard by this, and saddened as well. That last area didn't feel as brutal as some other final rpg areas.

I thought psychonauts was the perfect lenght. It finnished good and strong. Only thing i wanted is to able to explore after the game.

As crazy as this may sound, Xenogears seemed a little short. I did put 80 hours into the game, but the entire 2nd disc went way too fast.

I also felt like Ico went really fast. It didnt take me longer than 2 days to beat it.

Metal Gear Solid. The first run through felt pretty substantial but my later runs just felt so short. I think I beat the game in less than 4 hours my last run.

Katamari Damacy. Its pretty much over before you know it. But its worth it for 20 bucks for sure. As well as all those crazy images.

Oh yeah, I forgot about this one. I felt I progressed too fast and on Dec 26, I beat this Xmas present. So much for long lived fun. And WLK didn't seem that much of a difference too, although it depends if you got the missions successful the first time around.

Thirded. Beat it in less than 10 hours, and that was going slowly and re-playing levels now and then. It's one of those games that's more about going back and beating your high scores than about seeing the credits roll, but still... Good game, just way too damn SHORT. Especially when you consider that some maps are re-used upwards of three or four times.

Total Annihilation: Kingdoms wasn't TOO too short, but enough that the ending came absolutely out of the blue. When I saw the credits start to roll after doing what seemed like a mid-campaign filler mission, my reaction was, ".........that's IT?!"

Same with Thief 3. It felt too short anyway, but the final mission is just so lacking that it made a bad thing worse. The endings of both games come utterly out of the blue because of (1) a lack of any significant plot developments in the last mission or any real lead-up to to final boss, and (2) the fact that said final mission isn't even as hard or interesting as some of the mid-game areas. Disappointment.

http://www.ioffergames.com/gimg/6054...is-Missing.jpg

Mario is Missing - NES
I must have finished this in about 3 hours.

Then you, sir, are a complete hero. The half hour I spent with this had me totally lost. "WTF do I do with this shit" I would say, then turn it off and load up another run of Mega Man X. =\

Silent Hill 3. Awesome game, but it only took me about five hours to beat it the first time. My record is one hour and forty-two minutes. The game is truly, utterly, short.

I played Silent Hill 3 at college with the rest of my co-ed floor. It was really fun because people who hate video games came out and watched me play. It was like an interactive horror movie. Too bad it was such a good game.

Man almost ALL the early PS2 games. To name a few that havent already been said, Onimusha and Shadows of Destiny.

I played Mario RPG for the first time a year ago and was surprised about how quickly I got through with the same. Damn that Smithy.

Any game with a level cap of 30 isn't destined to be very long, sadly. It's short enough that it's one of the few RPGs I've ever seen anyone do a speed run for (3 hours, 57 minutes).

Hmm, nobody mentioned Chrono Trigger in this thread? I think it is one of the shortest duration rpg in history. I forgot how many times I've beaten it already. maybe around 20 or something beyond that.

Final Fantasy VIII, my best record is 20 hours of gameplay. Just...too... damn short.

Parasite Eve, obviously. Only took around 12 hours to beat this great game. The customization and the level bonus is addictive though.

In a straight through game, Final Fantasy Tactics was pretty short. If you don't do any of the side quests and such, the thing can be beat in 1 day if you know what you're doing. It's a fun game though.


The Early Tony Hawk Pro Skater games were extremely short too. A playthrough once took about 30 minutes. The problem was doing it with everybody.

Of course, this isn't a thread of the most random endings so my post stops here, but there are a lot of candidates for most random endings.

To be fair, you can't really complain about the length of a game if you cheat your way through it.

I wish Parappa haad been longer. It's barely an hour's worth of game (Although I have played it through many, many times).

My first play through Suikoden took about 20 hours. You can get through much quicker as well if you aren't fucked about picking up all the characters.

Breath of Fire II. It ended waaaay too fucking quickly. I mean, you discover a and you're not even allowed to go exploring? Boo. I was expecting a

I'd say that if you're like me, and don't collect everything in a game, then Spider-Man 2 and Ultimate Spider-Man can be finished pretty quick. USM was almost embarassingly short, since it took about two sittings to complete the main quest.

Freedom Fighters was a total "..what?" for me.
I remember I got sick of it and had a little break. Some months later I booted the old log up and tried it again, and after 1 level played I get to some kind of movie. "Ooh, mid-story event... Is that credits?".

It ended so suddenly.

You people are mad! There's hardly an RPG that can keep me entertained beyond 20 hours, yet you claim this is too short? Final Fantasy 4, Chrono Trigger, Lufia 2, those were the days. Ah, when I could beat and enjoy an RPG in just a few days. When dungeons rarely took more than 10 minutes of my time.

Hell, I'm more than happy with a game that takes me about 10-15 hours to beat the first time through.

But if you want a recent game that's just too short that I've actually played then I'll say Gunstar Super Heroes.

It's not so much the length that bothers me (you can beat it in 20 minutes if you like), it's just that there's not a whole lot there. For a short game like this I want the levels to be packed with action, and yet for almost the entire game the levels are short and empty. It needed more challenging bosses and less stand around do nothing levels.

At least it wasn't too long like the original Gunstar Heroes (an hour through) where levels went on forever with little to no variation in design.

Ah, Alien Soldier, you did everything so well in comparison.

I half agree and half disagree, the main game is pretty short, only a few hours, but that game had great replay value in getting all the endings.

Recently, SiN Episode 1 and Half-Life 2 Episode 1 were pretty short, but that was to be expected I guess.

Tomb Raider Legend was an excellent game which was just too damn short, I clocked it in just over 6 hours, but it did well and there was the cliffhanger ending so bring on another.

Both Resident Evil Outbreak 1 and 2 were pretty short, and Survivor was too. I could look past it with Survivor as it was a light gun game but I think Outbreak could have used a few more levels.

I can't help but feel I need to mention the opposite to these but, recently, Zettai Zetsumi Toshi 2 AKA Disaster Report 2 AKA SOS The Final Escape 2. That game went on and on, until you completed it, to unlock 5 more scenarios which meant that in the end it was a pretty long game.

Resident Evil 4 was damn long too, not that that was bad, until some of the replays

Psychonauts. Already mentioned, but I think it's a good example. All the levels up to Lungfishopolis feel like warm-up stages (mostly since you're only there to learn a new move). Waterloo and Black Velvetopia were also very disappointing stages, but anything that comes after the hilarity of Boyd the milkman is destined to feel half-assed. I was really disappointed to see that you never go back to any of the old stages to deal with Razputin's personal problems, go into Dogen's mind (a Teletubby-esque place perhaps?). I thought for sure his mind would be a level because in the beginning of the game when if you kill the squirrels he acts traumatized. The biggest WTF for me was the fact that you didn't do anything at all about Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando. You find out that Abercrombie Fizzwidget was At least one more level would have been sufficient enough to make the game feel complete.

Metal Gear Solid 2. It would have helped the storyline if they hadn't totally shit on it before and after the final boss battle. There's about 20 hours worth of plot twists (not that any of them were any good) packed into a pair of movies, where the cast conveniently assembles to make drama and die. Here's what the ending sounded like to me (spoilers, but since the story blows there's noting to spoil):

No way!!! By the end of the game I wanted more!!! It was IMO too damn short but I guess its probably because I wanted more of that "edge-of-your-seat" feeling that was present throughout my whole time playing that game.

And Zelda Wind Waker was too fast. I played it, beat two dungeons, stopped for 2 months, got back and defeated two dungeons before reaching Ganon. Don't give me the bullshit about exploring the sea, Aonuma: Where was the quality (and quantity) of the main quest?

So Wind Waker has four dungeons and Ganon?

Spoilers. ;_;

I don't think he posts here, but it was all hidden under the sea, with talking crabs and a city ruled by an old man with an novelty sized dinner fork. You must have missed it all!

Sorry, only JUST learnt how to do the spoiler tag -_-'

And Infernal Monkey, I do post in General Gaming and Mario Warp Pipe, only not as frequent as some members here.

And finally to clear myself up: Of course the game wasn't only just those dungeons but BASICALLY that was what comprised of the main quest. Add the undersea section, a few "side-main quests" (triforce hunting) and that was what an impatient gamer got.

No no! You were asking Mr. Aonuma why it was so short, but I don't think Eiji Aonuma posts at GFF. So I filled in. http://img105.exs.cx/img105/9195/j5bmutantbaby.gif

No. Infernal was saying that Aonuma doesn't post here. (o shi! beaten)

Anyone here think that Golden Sun was too short? I thought when they sailed away at the end and after the credits it would suddenly open the second half of the game or something. No such luck. And because of that and a year or so of waiting I never got into the sequel. Good job, Camelot. Your next RPG better be long and awesome as possible. Seriously they've been working on one for like I dunno 5 or so years I think.

Woops! Misquoted. Sorry dude -_-'

Metal Gear Solids are quite quick, as most have said in this thread.

I'm suprised Fable wasn't mentioned. It's possible to finish that game in less than 4 hours if you don't do any sidequests.

Oh and the Celebrity Deathmatch game. It doesn't take even an hour to finish that.

Someone once said that a good movie can never be too long, and a bad movie can never be too short. I think this holds true for games too; a lot of really good ones seem short because you don't want them to be over already.

That said, here are a few games I would really have liked to see some extra innings for:

Beyond Good and Evil Someone was totalling dungeons awhile back; this game has 3. That, plus the enormously endearing characters and terrific plot, make it a prime candidate. Too bad we'll never see a sequel :'(

Koudelka Not a great game, but one with potential. I hit the final boss after about 10 hours of gameplay, including level-up stops. This one probably holds a PS1 record for discs-to-playtime ratio.

Xenogears Disc 2 The beginning of the game was lovingly crafted and complex. Then, it's as if someone said "Oh shit! The game ships tomorrow and we're only half done!" The true inspiration for Xenosaga.

Monstania An obscure SNES strategy RPG that has a nice battle system and good characters. It can also be beaten in the time it takes to microwave a burrito.

I love the Sonic series, but I find many of the later 2-D games annoyingly short.

I beat all three Advances without emeralds in under 3 hours. Subsequent runs allow me to do perfect runs (get the emeralds and beat the lass boss) in under 5 hours playtime. The only perfectly long Sonic games are 3-K and Rush. -_-

2 is too long without a save feature. :(

I love it that way, so I can play it in two sittings and ride the rollercoaster.

The only thing that ended sooner that I expected was in fact a movie- the back of the case for Serenity said 180 minutes, I sat down ready for a good three hours of Firefly, and it ended after two. They included the extras in the duration, dammit.

Super Metroid. Of all the times I try to make it last for as long as I can, I always fail miserably. ;_; I can't help but try to beat the game in under three hours. >_<

i think GUN was pretty short, way short compared to Red Dead Revolver and also tomb raider legend.

Soemtimes if I have 50 minutes spare I might play through Lylat Wars / Star Fox 64. The game is ridiculously short so long as you avoid the Aquas mission.

compare that to double dragon (NES) and mario bros 3. I could finish them around hour. the original mario bros still the hardest though.

I don't understand this either, I'm kind of sick of these 80+ hour games that require me to commit a lifetime to complete. The best game is when it's short enough for people to play through relatively unscathed (30ish hours is plenty) but has enough extras to keep you busy for hours past, if you so want to partake.

I hate being forced to go back to every village I've visited 5 times just so they can bloat the game to 10 times the length. Quality over quantity, the longer the game does not automatically mean it is any better.

I find it funny how close to the end I am with Xenosaga Episode 2 with about 20 hours of gameplay. Not that I'm complaining. The sooner it ends the better. I can't stand the crappy battle system Namco gave the game anyway, and I'm only finishing this game so I can be ready for Episode 3.

ENTER BATTLE
STOCK
STOCK
ENENY ATTACK
ENEMY ATTACK
ENEMY ATTACK
STOCK
STOCK
STOCK
MULTIPLE ENEMY ATTACKS AGAIN
STOCK A FEW MORE TIMES
KILL ONE ENEMY
REPEAT UNTIL THE OTHER 3 ENEMIES ARE DEAD

>.<

Kingdom Hearts II. I was on the hardest diffuculty and found myself on The End of the World, the last level, by a day.

You my friend have some skills. I'm gonna have to also go with Metal Gear Solid 2...after the final fight was over, I was expecting more like, oh I don't know...going back to playing as Snake. Instead, I get an ending that left me hanging for MGS3 (and we all know what happened there, not what I expected but a much better game than MGS2). I don't wanna pass the freakin torch, I don't want to play as the blonde haired kid anymore...just give me Snake for another 10 hours to even everything out.

Now I've also heard complaints about Halo 2 ending sooner than expected. I'll have to get around to playing that when I have some time on my hands.

Avoid it? I could never get to it (granted, I only ever hired it, when I sucked at games).

I could damn near p00n the hell out of Mega Man X6 in under an hour. Most of the enemies didnt even need to be killed, just dashed past. With Zero, the enemies weaknesses could be abused massively becuase the attacks could be used in rapid succession. Maybe it was too fast becuase I played it ALL the time.

I agree with kat. I played Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter and had a blast. It was just under 20 hours. As I've gotten older I have a new preference for shorter games.

Metal Slug 2 for PS2 was way too short... probably because no matter how many times you reach "game over" you can keep going, the only consequence is that you start with zero points.

For Arcade, that's a different story.. you gotta be good if you want to play through on minimal quarters.


I'm playing Children of Mana in Japanese now... if it turns out the way I have a feeling it's going to, it might be too short, but maybe there's a lot to it that I just haven't gotten to yet... I'm hoping that's the case.

Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando This is only because of the lame ass final boss. If they had a better final boss I would've been "awsome game" instead of "Wait, that [pussy] was the final boss"? It's still the best R&C game in the series.

Honorable mention goes out to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver so such an anti-climatic ending, forcing you to play the sequel to find out more that happens and providing no reason to finish the first game and consider it a story (since it has no end, it's not a story with a 'true' plot).

Not missing anything. The mission is a bitch to control, the boss a mystery to kill and it's slow slow slow.

I thought Aquas was the only way to get to Zoness, which is awesome.

And 50 minutes isn't even that short. Check my Ava/Sig out.

But anyway back on topic... um... Psychonauts is prolly the only game that fits the description here. Someone already mentioned it. I seriously thought that the Asylum was only the halfway point in the game, although I knew when I hit the meat circus, the game was pretty much over.

The last games I remember being too short are Gameboy games, via Ducktales, Adventure Island, and Super Mario Land 1. I enjoyed GB games, but you could run through some of them really quickly. On the other hand, Super Mario Land 2 was much longer by comparison to the first, Gargoyle's Quest was fairly long, etc.

Metal Gear Solid was far too short, between the FMV there was about 2 minutes of total gameplay. It's just like watching a movie except having to push a few buttons every now and again.

A few comes to mind, but these ones are what I can easily recall.
- Fatal Frame 2
- Resident Evil 3
- Resident Evil Remake (GC)
- FFVI (not including side-quests)
- ZOE2 (!! too fucking short)

That's all that I can think of.