Over the holiday period I’ve managed to sink many many hours into the cult Japanese RPG Persona 3 which has simultaneously delighted me because it’s so different and also reminded me of why I don’t really play jRPGs.
I was really enjoying myself until about 30 hours in where I encountered one of the monthly boss battles and found myself way, way underskilled to win the battle. One walkthrough that I looked at recommended that I have a character at level 45 – A full 8 levels higher than I was, which means about 4 hours of just pure grinding, running around and getting into fights.
I usually play through games quite quickly and don’t bother to grind my character, because I like to see new things and progress the story – and besides, I’ve got a whole lot of other games sitting on my shelf unopened. But now I have to grind if I want to get on with the game.
Theres just a little too much grinding going on for an otherwise excellent game. Many have reported that it takes around 80 hours to finish. Which is a pretty large time investment – Heck, I think I wrote Attack of the Meeplings in round 80 hours.
I think for the RPG I’m developing I’m going to target around 20 hours of gameplay, which is about how long Eschalon Book 1 lasted for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed that. I’d rather have a shorter experience, but one that isn’t feel a bit drawn out.
But if you do have a spare 80 hours, Persona 3 is a really excellent game.
I would like to pick up Persona 4 which was recently released, but I might have to wait until retirement before I playing it.