ArtznCraphs on 26 July 2008
WRPGs are not about a race to the finish line, the ending. Even one's with focused main quests have side quests that have direct tie ins and effects to the main quest.
Plus the best WRPGs have quite challenging battles, requiring alot of time consuming micromanagement and many reloads.
But the shorter game times are symptomatic of the current dumbing down of RPGs. Games like Mass Effect, recent Final Fantasies, etc. are cakewalks compared to the RPGs of a decade ago
