With Star Wars Zero Company and Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave both on the way, I’ve had tactical RPGs on the brain quite a bit lately, and naturally, that also means thinking about just how much time these games can take up. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, either. In fact, I’d argue that’s part of what makes the genre such an easy buy for an RPG fan like myself. It’s already hard enough to put one of these games down when there are generally so many different story routes to take or character builds to try, but when all of that is packed into a game that can take well over 100 hours to fully complete, suddenly you’ve got something that can keep you busy for a very long time.
And there are some tactical RPGs that take that idea much further than others. Plenty of them can last 40 or 50 hours and already feel like a pretty big commitment, but that’s almost nothing compared to the games that can double, triple, or even quadruple that number if you want to see everything they have to offer. Some of them get there through a choice-driven story with multiple outcomes, while others simply have so much optional content and progression to dig into that finishing the main story barely feels like finishing the game at all. So, with Star Wars Zero Company and Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave giving tactical RPG fans like myself plenty to look forward to, there’s arguably no better time to look at some of the genre’s biggest time sinks.
The tactical RPGs on this list are ranked by their estimated overall completion time according to HowLongToBeat, though individual playtimes can vary significantly.
7
Triangle Strategy
One Playthrough Only Tells Part of the Story
At first glance, Triangle Strategy doesn’t seem quite as intimidating as some of the other games on this list, especially since its main story takes around 34.5 hours to finish on average. That’s still a decent chunk of time, of course, but it’s also nowhere near the kind of commitment you’d expect from a tactical RPG that can eventually take more than 100 hours to fully complete. The catch is that Triangle Strategy isn’t really built around seeing everything in one playthrough. Its story regularly asks you to make decisions that can send things in entirely different directions, sometimes changing the battles you’ll fight and even where the story goes next. So, getting to the credits once is really only seeing one version of how everything can play out.
That’s where Triangle Strategy‘s 104-hour completionist average starts making a lot more sense, because seeing everything means going back and making choices you intentionally avoided the first time around. There are different endings to reach, characters you may not have recruited, and entire stretches of the story that can be missed depending on the decisions your group makes. Thankfully, New Game Plus makes going through it again a little easier, but you’re still looking at multiple playthroughs if you actually want to squeeze everything out of it. A 34.5-hour tactical RPG might not sound too outrageous, but Triangle Strategy has a way of turning one campaign into several before you’re truly done with it.
6
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia
Conquering an Entire Continent Is No Small Commitment
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia is another one of those games where the main story doesn’t really tell the whole story. According to HowLongToBeat, you can make it through a single campaign in around 27 hours, which actually makes it one of the shorter games on this list if that’s all you’re looking at. But Brigandine is built around choosing one of six different nations and trying to conquer the entire continent of Runersia with that faction, so finishing it once naturally leaves quite a bit on the table. Each nation has its own ruler and story, and while the overall goal stays the same, going back through the game with another faction gives you a different starting point and another side of the conflict to see.
Put the consoles in the correct order.
That’s a big reason why Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia jumps all the way up to a 127-hour completionist average, because actually seeing everything means doing a lot more than conquering Runersia once and calling it a day. There’s also its Challenge Mode to dig into, which lets you put together a more customized army and gives you another reason to keep playing after you’ve already spent dozens of hours with the main campaigns. So, while 27 hours might not sound all that bad for a tactical RPG, that’s really only if you’re satisfied with seeing one nation’s story through to the end. If you’re the kind of player who wants to see what everyone else was up to while you were busy taking over the continent, Brigandine can suddenly become a much bigger commitment.
5
Wartales
Its Mercenary Adventure Can Consume Entire Weeks
Wartales is already a fairly long tactical RPG if all you want to do is work your way through its main content, with HowLongToBeat putting that at around 42 hours on average. But with a game like this, I almost feel like that number doesn’t tell you much, because Wartales isn’t really the kind of game where you just keep your head down and push toward the finish line. In this game, it feels like you’re constantly finding something else that needs your attention, so even if you go into it thinking you’re going to stick to the important stuff, it’s very easy for that plan to fall apart. And really, that’s where a lot of the appeal is, because so much of Wartales is built around everything that happens in between whatever you might consider its main objectives.
That becomes even more obvious once you look at its 146-hour completionist average, which is more than three times what it takes to simply get through the main content. That’s a massive difference, but it also makes sense for a game that gives you so many reasons to keep wandering off and doing something else. You might head somewhere with one goal in mind, only to end up spending hours taking on contracts, improving your mercenaries, or dealing with whatever you happened to find along the way instead. So while 42 hours is already nothing to scoff at, anyone who gets hooked on the part of Wartales that exists outside that most direct path can very easily find themselves spending well over 100 hours with it before they’re ready to move on.
4
Tactics Ogre: Reborn
Finishing the Story Is Only the Beginning
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is where the time commitment on this list starts getting a little more serious, because even just getting through its main story takes around 54 hours on average, according to HowLongToBeat. That’s already longer than plenty of RPGs take to finish altogether, but the problem with Tactics Ogre is that seeing the credits once doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve seen anywhere close to everything. The story can branch in different directions based on the decisions you make, which means one playthrough is naturally going to leave some things behind. And considering how much of this game is built around those choices and the consequences that come from them, there’s a pretty good chance anyone who gets invested in it is going to want to go back and see what would have happened if they had done things differently.
That’s when those 54 hours can eventually turn into the game’s much more intimidating 176-hour completionist average. Tactics Ogre: Reborn thankfully makes revisiting those other possibilities a little easier with the World Tarot system, which lets you return to earlier points in the story rather than starting completely over, but that doesn’t suddenly make everything waiting for you any shorter. There are still different story paths to see, characters you can miss, and a ridiculous amount of optional content waiting beyond what it takes to simply finish the campaign. So, while getting through Tactics Ogre: Reborn once is already going to eat up a good chunk of time, actually trying to put a bow on the whole thing is an entirely different story.
3
Disgaea 5 Complete
The Grind Basically Never Has to End
Disgaea 5 Complete takes around 53 hours just to get through its main story, and for most games, that would probably be more than enough. But Disgaea 5 has so much going on outside of simply moving from one story mission to the next that it’s very easy to spend far more time with it than that. You can keep leveling your characters, unlock new classes, reincarnate them to make them even stronger, and then there’s the Item World, which basically lets you go inside your equipment and fight through randomly generated stages to improve it. None of that necessarily has to take over your playthrough, but that’s also kind of hard to avoid when getting stronger is such a big part of what makes Disgaea fun in the first place.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)
So it makes sense that the completionist average for Disgaea 5 Complete is all the way up at 198 hours, because actually doing everything means spending a lot of time with all of those systems rather than simply finishing the story and moving on. And since this is the Complete version, there’s even more here than there was in the original release, which certainly doesn’t help if you’re already the kind of player who likes clearing everything off the board before calling a game finished. At 53 hours, Disgaea 5 Complete is already longer than plenty of RPGs, but if you really get into everything it gives you to do, you could almost finish the main story four times in the amount of time it takes to fully complete it.
2
Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children
There’s Always Another System to Master
Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children is a little different from some of the other games on this list, because you don’t even have to go anywhere near completionist territory for it to become a massive time sink. According to HowLongToBeat, just making it through the main story takes around 84.5 hours on average, which is already longer than it takes to fully complete plenty of other RPGs. But then again, Troubleshooter is also the kind of tactical RPG that gives you a lot to mess around with along the way. There are different characters to build, abilities and masteries to experiment with, and plenty of missions to work through, so this isn’t exactly a game that seems interested in getting you in and out quickly. Even if you aren’t trying to do everything, you’re probably going to be here for a while.
And if you are trying to do everything, that 84.5 hours can almost double, with HowLongToBeat putting a completionist run at around 166 hours. What’s funny is that, by this point in the list, 166 hours somehow isn’t even the most ridiculous number anymore, but spending nearly seven full days of your life completing one tactical RPG is still a lot to ask. That’s especially true when the main story is already pushing 85 hours on its own, because Troubleshooter doesn’t need multiple playthroughs just to become one of the longest games here. It starts out as a huge commitment, and then basically gives anyone who really gets into it another 80 hours or so of reasons not to leave.
1
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Seeing Every Side of the Story Takes Forever
And finally, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a pretty interesting one when it comes to length, because according to HowLongToBeat, its main story only takes around 49 hours on average. I say “only” because that’s still a long time to spend with one game, but compared to some of the others here, it doesn’t sound all that unreasonable. The thing is, finishing Three Houses once also means choosing one house and spending most of the game seeing things from that particular side of the story. There are characters you won’t spend nearly as much time with, events you’ll only see from a distance, and entire parts of the story that can play out differently depending on the path you chose. So, once you’ve spent almost 50 hours with one house, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to start wondering what would’ve happened if you’d picked another one.
And that’s where Fire Emblem: Three Houses gets absolutely ridiculous, because its 210-hour completionist average is more than four times the length of a single playthrough. Of course, that makes a lot more sense when you consider how much of the game depends on taking its different routes, because seeing everything essentially means signing yourself up to go through a huge RPG more than once. The good news is that each route gives you another group of characters to get attached to and another perspective on what’s actually happening in Fódlan, so it isn’t like you’re just repeating the exact same 49 hours over and over again. Still, if you’re the kind of person who can’t walk away knowing there are huge chunks of a story you haven’t seen yet, Three Houses can very easily turn into one of those games that seems to take forever to actually finish.
