Eh, I was expecting FF13 to go on longer. 35 hours later, I'm done. I realize that the other 25 hours or so is spent on sidequests and whatnot, but without any aside from killing monsters (no card game, gold saucer, blitzball *ugh*, etc.), I don't think I can spend all that time just fighting over and over. I mean the battle system is cool, but I don't think it can tide me over for another two dozen hours.

I truly was expecting the story to last 60 hours. Secrets/collectibles seem rather irrelevant in the game because the items are simply random names, there are no towns and no world map to explore, and filling up the crystarium/upgrading weapons don't seem to have any point behind it because there just isn't anything else to do beyond fighting.

I dunno.. I was having a great time with the game up until beating it. Now I realize that beyond the story line, there's just not much to do. I'm used to Final Fantasies having a heck of a lot of variety in sidequests with a bunch of different things to collect. In Final Fantasy 7, I spent 80 hours in the game even though I can beat the thing in under 30 hours, because there are chocobos to breed, awesome materia to collect, gold saucer activities, secret areas, etc. All the other Final Fantasies I played had something different to do at end game. It's disappointing that there's pretty much nothing to do now in FF13 except fight.

edit: another thing about the cieth stone missions. I just felt no reason to do them because it's just a random stone telling me to kill some random monster to get some random treasure. It doesn't feel epic at all, unlike fighting something like omega weapon.

Also, the weapons all seem so insignificant coz you just get them out of random chests in random areas, and they just have random properties and random upgrades from random components.. none of them feel epic, like say, getting squall's ultimate lionheart weapon.

So I just don't feel like collecting anything in the game. Everything about the sidequests, aside from being repetitive (the fighting only thing), they also feel really really random. "Fight random monster and get random treasure for random stone dude".

really? i heard roughly 80hrs for gameplay and +200hrs with sidequest XD i must be reading stuff wrong then.

It is roughly a 40-45 hour game story wise. I was also expecting something longer. But I guess you get what you get nowadays with games being so short.

But getting the Platinum took me 88 hours so I got my moneys worth.

Took me 60 hours 14 minutes - was my time after i beat the end boss. Although I did spend tons of time grinding money and mobs

Right now im at 87 hours 54 minutes - time it took me to get 840/1000G (33/35). I will not be going for 5 stars on every cieth stone quest nor aquire every accessory.

And you're right, this FF is uber barebones. Add that on top of the linearity, no towns, and super AWFUL story with no plot and its one heck of a below-average JRPG...

I have been playing for 61. I'm at the end but im earing cp and leveling up my weapons for the last fight with barthandelus (he is such a bastard).

You obviously didn't take your time to look around or anything

It took me just under 50 hours to get to Pulse, if i remember correctly

Finished the game in just under 50 hours. Haven't played all "subquests" though, and have not intention to: "Go kill that" being all there is.

Wow, 35 hours, that's certainly a rushed game :P. You probably just went to every objective and didn't explore for treasure and what not.

Anyway, give Gran Pulse a go after the post game. You'll be there for much more than just 25 hours, especially if you try to do every monster hunt, as the last missions will have you upgrading everything to the maximum in order to finish them.

^ the point is, while you can keep fighting again and again, there's certainly no point to do so. it's just... the only thing to do. i'm not gonna spend another 25 hours to fight outside the storyline. i've been fighting for 35 hours. i don't want to keep doing that again.

Side stuff isn't for everyone. I do it with FF games because I have to wait so long in-between.

SE should go back to PS1 graphics and release every year! :D