So, I've been playing Star Ocean: Till the End of Time for a while now. And, I'm thinking of quitting it.
It's not that it's not a good game, it's that it's not a great game. I've found that, the older I get, and the more games I play, the less willing I am to deal with sub-par, average, or even just good games.
When I play a great game, I feel invigorated, back on a high, and I start buying games up 2 at a time, hoping they'll spark the same feeling in me. But, by the time I'm half-over, I always have to re-evaluate the game, and decide if it's worth my time. As much as I liked Dark Cloud 2, I started feeling weighed down by the repetitive level structure and creatures. As exciting as Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy originally seemed, the predictable storyline and uninspired direction left me feeling like I was wasting my time. Both games sit in my sock drawer now while I push through Star Ocean.
I think the other side of the problem is that I'm a very thorough gamer. When I play a level, I look at every space, every nook and cranny, and see what it has for me. Where this gets me in trouble is when games have nothing more to offer than bland information or bitmap paintings. Think back to, say, a Final Fantasy X (one of the only games I've ever replayed). There were some cinematics, although very important to the story (IMHO), that you wouldn't find without doing some digging and searching around. I feel satisfied when I search around and look in every possible area and find something wholly unexpected, cause, I guess, who doesn't want to see their hard work pay off?
But, maybe it isn't even about the levels or lack of extra details or anything mentioned, as much as it's about the length of the games. Dark Cloud 2 seemed to go on forever for me, especially when I was trying to figure out what to invent (Penny Arcade made a hilarious comic about this). Star Ocean has sucked up at least 30 hours of my life, and I have yet to feel like I've scratched the surface of it.
On the flip side, most games that have been called "too short" by most (the Max Payne series, for instance), have been just enough to keep me interested and ended just in time, to me.
Can a game be too long?
When I'm faced with these enormous worlds, full of possibility, I'm originally so excited, so captivated, so quick to try everything out. But, as I spend more and more time in the world, and find less and less exciting results, I get fed-up. It's like, when too many options with too little payoff are presented to me, I don't even want to bother. I essentially feel like I'm being forced to pick from a plethora of super-steep mountain paths when all I want to do is curl up in a chair and watch a good movie (or, in the case of videogames, fight some truly detailed and interesting battles, then watch an emotionally effective cutscene). Obviously, there's something to be said for getting the most bang for your buck, but why add repetitive extra levels and pointless extra story if you can say more and affect the player more with less? I guess what I'm trying to say is ... Sometimes, less is more, huh?