There's been a trend toward longer, more expansive games that can potentially eat up dozens of hours of time, and although there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, Farsiders seeks to provide players with a more focused experience. As an action RPG, Farsiders certainly could have padded out the game with dozens of hours of procedural endgame content, grinding, or seasonal battle passes, but Thai indie game studio Gambit Ghost is more interested in reaching players who aren't looking for a massive time commitment.
In an interview with The Best War Games, Farsiders developer Tanakom Viphavaphanich spoke about the team's views when it comes to game length, and how their personal experience as generally busy people with little time to play games inspired them to create something that can be approached casually and in more brief sessions. However, they also recognized that there is obviously a market for larger games and that massive games like Elden Ring are an incredible feat of game development.
Farsiders Doesn't Want To Be A Time Sink
When reflecting on Farsiders' inspirations during development, Viphavaphanich cited more linear titles like God of War and Uncharted, both of which are well-regarded single-player games with excellent stories and games from those series tend not to take a lot of time to beat compared to other AAA offerings. For story-oriented players, this is often appreciated, as it can be fatiguing to slowly unravel a story over the course of 60 hours that could have potentially been told in 10.
Growing up, you have less time to play a game. Like Elden Ring, I cannot play it. I don't have enough time to play it, but I want to play it so badly! There are a lot of games that I want to play, but I don't have enough time to play because it just gets so big. Games that inspire me are God of War or even Uncharted which have linear storylines. You don’t have to farm that much, you don’t have to explore that much, but you still get to complete and enjoy the full experience in like eight to 10 hours. We don't see a lot of that in recent years, so we wanted to try and do that.
Although Farsiders does have some progression mechanics, a talent tree, and a grimoire full of collectible spells, the game doesn't call for players to grind repeatedly in order to progress. The focus is instead on exploration and following the narrative, and this has the benefit of making each sequence feel more meaningful since players won't need to spend multiple hours in one location grinding for a particular drop or trying to increase their level. They're given breathing room to focus on what matters: the gameplay and the story.
Farsiders Looks To Roguelike Games For Their Shorter Sessions
Of course, Viphavaphanich regards massive open-world games like Elden Ring as monumental feats and understands why developers may want to go that route on a creative level. It's fulfilling to create a huge sandbox and populate it with activities and content, but smaller indie studios often lack the resources and time to commit to such an undertaking.
I do understand developers who want to do it that way. You build this whole sandbox that takes so much effort to create, so you want to put in as much content as you can, and I understand that. But for people who need to take a lot of time to focus on something, you cannot play Elden Ring for one hour and stop and play the next day. You need to spend the whole day getting used to it. Farsiders wants to eliminate that issue. So on Saturday or Sunday, you can just go home and open your computer and just play for 20 or 30 minutes. If you lose, then just go do other stuff.
Although Farsiders is not a roguelike, Viphavaphanich looked to roguelike games like Hades as they are extremely accommodating to players that might only have time for a quick run or two. Farsiders won't take 60 hours to beat, it doesn't have an endlessly replayable endgame, and that's a breath of fresh air in a genre that has become increasingly time-consuming as games like Diablo 4 and Path of Exile can practically become hobbies in and of themselves. The studio does have plans for DLC and potentially sequels in the future, but Farsiders intends to stick to a more easily approachable and linear format.
Farsiders releases July 19 on PC.