Ever play a game and think that was too long, or just long enough? For example, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Persona 5 are two notoriously long games, and it would be hard to find anyone to say those games were too short or that they could have been longer. In those cases, they actually were elongated through DLC and expansions.
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Sit down and take your time in these open-world games for weeks or months on end, as there is so much great content to experience.
So, what games should get an increase in playtime that desperately need it? The following games are perfect the way they are, but they’re also so good that more would have been even better. From RPGs to shooters, let’s imagine a world where these games got more time to shine.
Star Fox 64
Gone Before You Know It
Star Fox 64
- Released
- June 30, 1997
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- e
- Genre(s)
- Rail Shooter
- Average Playtime: 2 Hours
Star Fox 64 can be completed in just two hours, and that’s being generous, as it’s a very short game. Still, it’s one of the best N64 games of all time, but it could have been better if the developers made it a broader game instead of just following a set path through on-rails shooting.
Any kid who waited to get that back in the day, which was very expensive, like all N64 games, was probably disappointed at its length and replay value. Even the 3DS version didn’t add much to the core game, beyond great-looking 3D effects.
Resident Evil 3 (2020)
The Sprawling Streets Of Raccoon City
Resident Evil 3
- Released
- April 3, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Genre(s)
- Horror
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Average Playtime: 6 Hours
Resident Evil 3, both the PS1 original and the 2020 remake, is one of the shortest mainline entries in the franchise. As Jill Valentine, she will return to Raccoon City to try and investigate Umbrella one last time, but they have other plans in mind, sending an experimental mutant after her: Nemesis.
In the remake, players can easily breeze through it in about six hours with more action than puzzles. The replay value is high thanks to the short runtime and the ability to buy weapons for the next playthrough. That said, it would have been great to see Capcom expand the scope of the original game more, lengthening Raccoon City into a bigger, interconnected, sprawling area.
Titanfall 2
BT, Catch!
Titanfall 2
- Released
- October 28, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Violence
- Genre(s)
- FPS
- Average Playtime: 6 Hours
Titanfall 2 will last about as long as Resident Evil 3’s remake, but it will feel even shorter because it’s a high-octane shooter that goes from set piece to set piece in the blink of an eye. Between Jack and his sentient mech, BT, players will gun down mechs and enemy soldiers alike, grappling past obstacles like they were in an anime.
It’s one of the best mech shooters of all time, giving fans a glimpse at the narrative talent at Respawn Entertainment. It’s not unusual for shooter campaigns to be this short, as Call of Duty often runs around this playtime, but it certainly would have been better if the narrative had taken its time to ramp up. Maybe one day, a third entry can be a bit more open.
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny
Samurai Showdown
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (2025)
- Released
- May 23, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Genre(s)
- Action, Hack and Slash, Survival Horror
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
- Average Playtime: 9 Hours
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny was released first for the PS2, and like most Onimusha games, it’s incredibly short. The 2025 remaster made it more accessible on consoles, but it also made it easier to breeze through thanks to the fixed controls.
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Estimates put the game at around nine hours, but that’s being incredibly generous, even with fulfilling side content, as it’s more like a five-hour game depending on familiarity and talent. There are reasons to replay it as there are branching decisions, but there is no New Game+, so it’s not like progress can carryover. That’s something that would have encouraged players to keep going in the remaster, besides adding more content.
Halo 2
Master Chief’s Master Cliffhanger
Halo 2
- Released
- September 4, 2004
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Shooter
- Average Playtime: 9 Hours
Halo: Combat Evolved was a big deal, but Halo 2 was an even bigger sensation at launch with a bigger campaign and more multiplayer modes. The addition of dual-wielding certain weapons was a new feature that helped skyrocket Halo 2’s popularity, too, but the campaign did have one flaw.
The cliffhanger was met with a divisive response as the game just sort of ended as if Bungie ran out of time. The cliffhanger was even worse as fans had to wait three years to get a resolution, so at the time, Bungie could have made the game longer to even things out.
Parasite Eve
A Cry For a Bigger Big Apple
Parasite Eve
- Released
- September 9, 1998
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Animated Violence, Mature Sexual Themes
- Genre(s)
- Horror, Action RPG
- Average Playtime: 10 Hours
Parasite Eve is a unique PS1 RPG that blended turn-based action with survival horror vibes. As a detective in New York City, players would go around the city fighting monsters with various guns, all of which required ammunition.
Ammunition was plentiful, though, so it was nowhere near as bad as a game like Resident Evil. On one hand, the tight campaign made the New Game+ enticing to replay right away to unlock a new dungeon. That said, fans would agree that if the game were the same length as a Final Fantasy game, or got close, it could have made Parasite Eve even better.
Mega Man Legends 2
Improved But Empty
Mega Man Legends 2
- Released
- October 25, 2000
WHERE TO PLAY
- Average Playtime: 11 Hours
Mega Man Legends 2 was an improvement over the original because it no longer took place on one island. Players got to take their airship to several islands, from tropical ruins to an ice-covered land, which helped with dungeon variety.
That said, the game was about the same length, so the play time wasn’t increased. Compared to other action-adventure games at the time, like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Mega Man Legends 2 fell short. Also, like Halo 2, the cliffhanger has been killing fans since 2000.
Super Mario RPG
Mario’s First RPG, Remade
Super Mario RPG
- Released
- November 17, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Genre(s)
- RPG
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch
- Average Playtime: 12 Hours
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is a SNES classic that was a short and breezy turn-based adventure, and the first RPG for Mario. Decades later, it was remade as Super Mario RPG for the Switch in 2023, but not much was added beyond some quality-of-life choices.
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An easy difficulty and group attacks likely made the game an even quicker playthrough, but even on the normal difficulty, it can be beaten over a weekend. It’s a shame a brand new area wasn’t uncovered, or that areas weren’t expanded as remakes should take more chances like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, especially with short games.
Anthem
No Road Map In Sight
Anthem
- Released
- February 22, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- Average Playtime: 14 Hours
Anthem’s entire run was divisive, as there were many negatives and positives about the whole experience. On one hand, there was nothing else like it as a live-service game, thanks to the mechanized suits players could go into, sort of like playing an Iron Man RPG. The downside was that the town hub was small, with little interaction with NPCs, which was strange for a BioWare game.
Also, the main campaign was very short, and even if players dived into every piece of content at launch, it would have only been sixty hours. For a single-player RPG, sixty hours is a lot, but not as a live-service game. The updates were slow and didn’t add much over the years, and now it’s gone forever.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered Edition
A Yearly Pilgrimage
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition
- Released
- August 27, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Genre(s)
- RPG, JRPG
- Average Playtime: 17.5 Hours
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles was an interesting action RPG spinoff for the series, letting players create a character and then go adventuring across the land to stop the Miasma poison from spreading. Players would go through dungeons, make it to the end, and then have to repeat their pilgrimage year after year to keep the peace.
This meant having to retread the same dungeons on a loop, and without many, it could get repetitive even in co-op. As just a remaster, it would have been a lot to ask for Square Enix to add more content to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered Edition, but it also wouldn’t have been that strange.
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