Final Fantasy XV Director Reveals Approximate Clear Time of Full Game and Demo

Director Hajime Tabata shares his estimate for Final Fantasy XV's clear time, as well as the size of the demo in comparison to the full game.

[DarkOcelet]

40 hours only !!! I hope thats the story missions because 40 hours is so goddamn short but then he says exploring things in the demo takes 3 to 4 hours and the demo is 1/40 of the game so that means the game will last us 120-160 hours and i hope its true .

[idlet]

He said the approximation is time to "clear" the game, based on a player who isn't doing side exploration, and who is driving the majority of the time (rather than walking).
So yeah, it will have more playable time. =]

[DarkOcelet]

I am not touching that awesome car . I love walking :) . The game seems to be a mix of kingdom hearts and Final Fantasy XII so thats really amazing . Lets hope we dont have to wait for too long now .

[vishmarx]

40 for story is perfect with enough extra content.
just like every good FF.
ff 12 took a bit too long 60-80 and was heavily criticized for it. i liked that tho but i can understand how its a flaw

[mikeslemonade]

You guys must be new at games^. Every FF took about that time to complete.

[blitz0623]

40 hours is on par with most other FF games actually. It just depends on how long the cutscenes etc will be in this game.

[UltraNova]

Since when 40 hrs is considered short? Damn I thought 4-6 hrs campaigns were short... *weird look

[DevilOgreFish]

40 hrs is fine for story. you know I'm not really a big fan of dlc, but if there is any coming out for this game i would definitely pick it up.

[Mankey]

40 hours is def on the shorter side, but I think he was only talking about the story, not side missions.

Also hope he hears the fanbase feedback about the one button combat system.

[DarkOcelet]

Kingdom hearts had a one button combat system and the game was excellent but then again after the demo's feedback . If its positive then it will be awesome . If its negative it might change since no release date is yet to be seen .

[DragonKnight]

Apparently you can turn off the 1-button combat. I saw a user on here that said they read the game's legal patent and it claimed as much.

[Pozzle]

He's probably just referring to the main story. It sounds like a reasonable length. Most FF games have taken me around 40-50 hours on my first playthrough because I go through the story first, then explore the side-quests during the second playthrough.

[DarkOcelet]

I like to do a complete playthrough when it will comes to final fantasy . If i love it so much then i can go through it a second and third time again . But thats just me.

[Irishguy95]

Must be joking, all FF games have been roughly that length. Unless you are slow at them. Most games aren't that length these days even most RPGs aren't that length. 40 is not short regardless of if he means 40 total or 40 story. I mean *** the last of us is widely proclaimed best game of all time and it lasts 18 hours roughly. Just because a game is an RPG doesn't mean it has to be 100 hours+

I don't understand people these days, 40 hours is a LONG game and always has been. Games like Skyrim are exceptionally long. The most i've put into an FF playthrough is 50 hours and thats doing majority of side quests.

The standard playthrough time for games for the last 10 years has been 6-12 hours on average. Complaining about 40 is ridiculous to me.

Mass effect series, Witcher series, Dragon age, Kotor, I could go on. They take 25-40 hours. They are 'long games' but todays standards and FF has always been about 40

[Magicite]

I dont remember a single mainline FF game, You can 100% in less than 100hours (unless you rush it).
40hours for main story only, is a decent time.
For example star ocean 3 and 4 had ~40h stry time, yet 100% completion took hundreds of hours.

P.S. Yeah, Tabata confirmed, that 40 hours are without full world's exploration *relief*.

[trenso1]

40 hours without doing anything but the story clearly if you take the time to do side stuff and grind you can easily get another 40 hours out it

[Jubez187]

Um what FF game has ever been more than 25 hours lol

[Ratty]

If you only count main questline and not much else, yeah. Pretty much around 25 give or take 5.

[killacal13]

I can bet it will be about 60-70 hours long depending on playstyle, if you take your time you'll get the most out of the game, any game you play in rush mode will feel short.

[KingKelloggTheWH]

That better be 40 hours for main story, man Tabata ...Just stop talking, you are digging this game an early grave.

[hkgamer]

but he did jokingly say that adamantoise would take 30 ingame days (15 hrs) to beat.

40 hrs for a 50-60% complete is fine. anything after that would be stat maxing which takes probably double or trieble the time.

i must have spent 200+ hrs on ffxii on one playthrough that i have not statmaxed yet. probably only 50%completed.though i am trying to collect 99x of every weapon including super rare.

[KingKelloggTheWH]

Why would you want 99 of those weapons XD?

[hkgamer]

no reason at all. i just got addicted to glitching the treasure chest to give me 100% chance of giving me the rarest loot. the biggest problem was just getting the trasure chest to actually spawn though.

was just something funny to glitch at that time. had to constantly hit my own character until i see a recognisable pattern and then open the loot to get item.

actually ffxii glitches are super fun and breaking the game within the first 5-10 hrs was more enjoyable then playing game.

fyi, i am nowhere near getting every weapon or armour piece 99x. would probably take 5000+ hrs for me to accomplish this.

[killacal13]

hkgamer said he likes collecting loot, I don't see a problem with that, I'm like that myself, a lot of jrpg and rpg fans are like that too, so that will add to his hours logged in to the game sir, plus Tabata said that it is 40 hours for story content and driving everywhere, no walking or extensively exploring areas.

[KingKelloggTheWH]

Oh, thank you for the clarification!

[Agent_hitman]

Acceptable for me..

[Squall_23]

40 hours - main story that for sure, or lightning returns is much longer ?! LOL .. the length of the story is amazing + exploration could take 60 before the final boss like the old FF. NOT LIKE XIII everybody that i know finish it in 34 hours

[Paprika]

40 is perfect. I'm the type to take it slow, absorb the scenery... maybe the music. Full side quests etc. I hope for a solid 70-100 hour play through. I got ff13's platinum in 70 hours, and ff12 was w 40 hour game with 60hours extra easily.

Good news! Hope its 40 hours of great story though.

By him saying 40 hours, it means 30-60 depending on play style!

[Idree]

Ni No Kuni took me around 40 as well :)

Any longer would just drag out the plot unnecessary tbh,

Better to add meaningful side quests.

[Lucreto]

It took me 80 hours to complete Final Fantasy XIII, that includes all the side missions up to clear game and it took me 113 hours to platinum.

40 hours main campaign is fine. You could easily double that.

[NBT91]

Yep. I don't usually play FF but it's the same rule for any game, if you finish every side quest and optional thing then you get more gametime than one who doesn't.

But the thing is in Kingdom Hearts for example, there's only a few optional bosses, most of the extra time is just grinding to get to a higher level so I hope in XV the extra stuff will involve exploration and stuff, not just grinding for hours to beat an extra boss.

[die_fiend]

You did well to sit through all that. the first 25 hours of that game were pretty rough, I didn't feel that inclined to do much more

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

it took me 36hrs.

[Becuzisaid]

Every final fantasy game since the snes days has been 40 hours. Hell, I beat ff10 in 32 my first time through. I'm pretty sure I beat ff8 sub-40 also. Like 38 hours I believe. People complain just to complain. The game looks incredible and a clear step in the right direction after ff15.

[Summons75]

40 is like the average time for nealy any jrpg. That's been my average (just story) side quests since ff3(6) on the snes

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

That sounds solid.

[Antnee534]

I got a question guys if I buy type o digital will I still get demo access for this ???

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

40 hrs open world JRPG

ReallyXenoblade is longer than for story it 55+ hrs but 100% over 120+ hrs.

[Bluebird8]

For fuck sakes people, he says the 40h is for the story right in the article.. jesus!

[killacal13]

People these days man, they can never be happy.

[noxeven]

40 or 400 until it is in my hands this game doesnt exist for me personally.

[Revengeance]

40 is the sweet spot for JRPGs nowadays. Don't extend a story for too long or else it gets tedious and boring.

[killacal13]

I somewhat agree, but if you look at Persona 4, that game is easily 80 + hours and it's beautiful. It all really depends on the pacing of the story and how engaging the combat feels.

[Ratty]

I don't know. I loved Xenogears from start to finish and it was around 60 hours for the story. There wasn't much (but there was) optional content in it though. But yeah not tedious or boring.

[Man_Marmalade]

Perfect. My playthroughs of FFVII - X are roughly around 70 hours long between each of them because of the side missions. This is amazing news.

[Xof]

Why do people keep saying, "main story?" Final Fantasy games have never had very much in the way of side quests or optional narrative content.

[Fullmetalevolust]

Getting to the end of the game should be accessible for most players and 40 hours could be the magic number for most.
While, more advanced players and those who can't get enough of the game will probably do 70+ hours on side quests (if they exist for this title), grinding and farming.
We haven't heard about DLC yet, so it's probably something they might look into if/when the game becomes a financial success.

[killacal13]

I will do everything in my power to let my dude bro homies play something like this, I'm going to expand their horizons, word of mouth is better than any game website in my opinion.