People on the internet like to say “God gives His toughest battles to His strongest soldiers,” and I think that statement applies to people like me who love RPGs but can’t earnestly recommend them to friends because so many are several dozen hours long.
This problem is often worsened by remakes or re-releases of old RPGs, which add new content that extends their already substantial playtimes. Dragon Quest VII Reimagined from Square Enix is a fascinating exception to this trend, as it takes a famously 100+ hour game from 26 years ago (which already got an expanded remake on 3DS in 2013) and actually condenses it down into a format that’s a lot more digestible for players who don’t want to devote that much time to a game.
Square Enix went so far as to cut entire areas and storylines out of the game, and also accelerated the upgrade mechanics. The end result is a much leaner, quicker, almost entry-level version of DQVII. It’s a great game for Dragon Quest first-timers like me, but admittedly, it left me wanting to see what was left on the cutting room floor.
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