by Sharon Smith
When people think of massive open-world RPGs, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is usually one of the first titles that comes to mind. Its snow-covered mountains, dragon battles, and endless quests made it a game that players could live in for years. Even a normal playthrough can take dozens of hours, and completionists often spend more than 200 hours exploring every cave, defeating every boss, mastering every guild, and collecting every item.
However, Skyrim isn’t the longest RPG out there. Some RPGs officially demand far more playing time to see and do everything. These titles go beyond long main quests. They fill their worlds with side missions, hidden bosses, and systems so deep that a single playthrough barely scratches the surface. Some of these RPGs even blur the line between single-player and online play, giving players dozes of reasons to return again and again.
Note:
Completionist times are from How Long To Beat.
World Of Warcraft
Solo 1391 Hours/Co-Op 2220 Hours/Vs.1769 Hours
World of Warcraftisn’t a game that truly ends. The average playtime for solo content is in the region of 1,391 hours, co-op at 2,220 hours, and PvP at 1,769 hours. That makes Skyrim’s 237-hour completionist time look small. The difference comes from how World of Warcraft works. It’s not a single story that can be finished and put down. Players create characters, level them up, improve their gear, and keep returning for new expansions.
Even playing alone can take hundreds of hours. Leveling to the cap, completing the main questlines of each expansion, and collecting mounts, transmog items, or achievements quickly fills time. Playing with others increases playtime even more. Raiding with a guild or running Mythic+ dungeons every week can keep players busy for months, or even years.
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
Completionist Time: 838 Hours
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate takes the series back to a time when portable gaming demanded patience and skill. It’s not exactly as fast-paced or story-driven as Skyrim. Instead, it’s a slow climb built around learning monster behavior, upgrading gear, and testing attack timing in long, intense battles. The goal here isn’t to save a kingdom, but to survive every hunt and slowly become a better hunter.
The main story is 63.5 hours longer than Skyrim’s. It also takes roughly 171 hours to complete the side content, and 838 hours for a full completion run. That means Generations Ultimate lasts almost three times longer than Skyrim for those who aim to see it all. The game’s length doesn’t come from endless talking or filler quests, but from tutorials, repetition, and skill-building. For instance, to make a strong weapon, players might need rare monster items, and those resources don’t drop easily. Players might have to fight the same creature several times, learning its attacks until they finally get exactly what they need.
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Completionist Time: 251 Hours
Xenoblade Chronicles X is one of those JRPGs that keeps players busy for hundreds of hours because of how large and layered it is. The game takes place on a massive alien world, Mira, where humans crash-land after the Earth is destroyed. Finishing the main story alone takes about 68 hours for most players, and that makes sense once the scale of the world is clear. Mira is divided into five huge continents, each with its own terrain and level of danger.
Players who want to explore every inch of the world will spend well beyond 250 hours doing it. The toughest part is that some creatures are hidden in remote corners of the map, and some items only appear under certain weather or time conditions, which adds even more playtime.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Completionist Time: 256 Hours
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 returned the series to a story-driven focus when it launched on the Nintendo Switch in 2017. Even though the main story has only 10 chapters, it takes more time to finish than the first installment, which had more chapters. Unlike the open-ended structure of Xenoblade Chronicles X, this entry focuses on character-driven storytelling. It’s more about identity, loss, and the meaning of life, while building strong relationships between Drivers (humans) and Blades (sentient weapons). In the blink of an eye, most players will have spent over 60 hours just following the main storyline.
Completionists can easily surpass 250 hours because of how much there is to do. Finishing everything means collecting all Rare Blades, completing every quest, finding every Heart-to-Heart scene, maxing out every Affinity Chart, and defeating the toughest end-game bosses. The Trust system also requires heavy grinding to unlock full Blade potential.
Disgaea 3: Absence Of Justice
Completionist Time: 370 Hours
When Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice came out, it looked better than the older titles but kept the same wild humor and over-the-top gameplay the series is famous for. The main story takes about 34 hours to finish, which is roughly the same as Skyrim. However, the level cap goes all the way up to 9999, so reaching it takes some serious dedication.
There’s also the Item World, which lets players unlock more powerful weapons and armor as they fight through to 100 random floors (or even 300 for legendary gear). Every floor is its own full battle, each of which will take some time to clear. Players can also unlock crossover fights with characters from past games, use the Dark Assembly to open new content, and take on new classes, weapons, and powerful enemies. Doing all these as a completionist can take up to 370 hours.
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This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
