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.
Completionist times are from How Long To Beat.
World Of Warcraft
Solo 1391 Hours/Co-Op 2220 Hours/Vs.1769 Hours
World of Warcraft isn’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
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice
- Released
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January 31, 2008
- ESRB
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T For Teen: Alcohol Reference, Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
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Nippon Ichi Software
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.
Kenshi
Completionist Time: 273 Hours
Kenshi is one of the most unusual and gripping sandbox RPGs out there. Saying the “main story” lasts 83½ hours is a bit misleading, because Kenshi has no traditional story. Players set their own goals. It might be to free slaves, build a thriving settlement, conquer a faction, or simply survive long enough to become strong. So 83½ hours is basically how long a typical player spends achieving personal milestones before feeling accomplished.
Kenshi is not a conventional hero’s story, so players can expect to lose as often as they win. Completionists should be ready to spend around 273 hours exploring every playstyle, from slaves to traders, nobles, or wanderers. They will have to build multiple bases, master all crafting and combat skills, explore hidden ruins, take down legendary bosses, and develop characters to their maximum potential.
White Knight Chronicles 2
Completionist Time: 532 Hours
White Knight Chronicles 2 is basically a new sequel and a remastered version of the original White Knight Chronicles. The plot is fairly standard JRPG fare, as players are on a mission to rescue a princess from danger and uncover long-lost secrets about the world. With that said, the epic scale, cinematic presentation, and giant robot battles make it something special.
It would take players just around the same time as The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim to complete the main objectives. Completionists chasing 532 hours face huge challenges, as they’ll be maxing out all characters, fully upgrading every weapon and armor piece (over 400 in total), completing all guild quests, building a complete Georama town, defeating all bosses, and collecting every customization item.
Dragon Quest 9: Sentinels Of The Starry Skies
Completionist Time: 699 Hours
Dragon Quest 9: Sentinels of the Starry Skies is a JRPG that lets players create their own hero and party from scratch, adding customizable appearances and personalities while keeping the classic turn-based battles the series is known for. Quests alone are massive, with over 120 side quests on offer, including scavenger hunts, rare item hunts, and monster challenges — like fleeing metal slimes — that demand patience and skill.
Then there’s the treasure map system, a nearly endless dungeon generator. Players find maps through Tag Mode or story encounters that lead to multi-floor grottos filled with random monsters and powerful bosses. Some maps have over 90 floors with level 99 bosses guarding legendary gear, offering hundreds of hours of post-game exploration. It’s also worth stating that Sentinels of the Starry Skies is a text-heavy RPG, so players will be reading a lot. With all these elements in play, it’s easy to see why completionists spend almost a month on the game.
- Released
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November 11, 2011
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol
- Developer(s)
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Bethesda Game Studios
- Publisher(s)
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Bethesda Softworks
