Only 2 FF games took me over 35 hours, FF9 and FF12; I think 90% of people, however, find their favourites in FF6, FF7, and FF8, and most of the other 10% in 4 and 10.
Anyway, personally, I find the 15-25 hour mark to be about right for RPGs, otherwise I feel they have too much filler and fluff. Even the most popular FF game, FF7, could have been a superior game with shedding half of the stuff in it; seriously, how many people gave a crap about the Sephiroth world tour? The whole Midgar avalanche vs. Shinra thing was absolutely awesome; the Sephiroth/Cloud clone story that both interrupted that awesome story and took up the majority of the game, kinda blew.
Anyway, developers should save their engines and bring out a new RPG every year; it has beeen working VERY well with the DS Dragon Ques/Final Fantasy series; and helped strongly convert me to a Nintendo system fan. Sure PS3 has FF13 coming out for it, and Versus; but that's not going to trump all the joy the DS has given me over the years in terms of RPGs.
Actually, to be quite honest, only two RPGs have taken me over 65 hours; Xenogears on PSX, and that was mostly because I read every singgle line of text in that game out, using my own voice acting, for the entertainment of my wife. I am talking even the towns peoplee; I loved that game SO much. Then there is a Wii game called Rune Factory Frontier which I found to be surprisingly satisfying to play, and at over 70 hours now, I am still playing it, and it is my longest played game ever.
One game that came really close is Skies of Arcadia on Dreamcast. Anyway, some long games are good, but not if they feel like a bunch of fluff was put in to boost them up to some quota. It's ridiculous that a lot of developers do that. If a great story can be told in a 7-10 hour RPG, then do that instead of a 100 hour game with 7-10 hours of good stuff. I'd rather play a game in a 2 week period and be happy with it, and play it again in a few months, then have a game that I played for 3 months and got bored of and felt totally unfufilled with.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
