This isn't true, it was more like 9-10 hours long, the second one was about 11-12 hours so Heavenly Sword has got them both beat if we go by this statement of length.

12-15 hours sounds good, I think it will be closer to 12 not 15.

Edit: Nice attempt at a flame thread though.

"Short" is not necessarily a bad thing ...

In the late years of Rare on the N64 many of their games forced to to go through the exact same content multiple times so they could brag about how their game was a "60 Hour game" ... Jet Force Gemini was one of my favourite games on the N64 and after its first ending (at roughly 20 hours) it would have been a classic game, the second ending took a lot longer to get to because they forced you to go through all of the previous levels as each of the three characters and then they added a similar number of new levels which you had to complete with all three characters.

I just can't play long games period...my attention span is bad when it comes to games...I can get sidetracked with alot...Like I have a PSP and I bought Daxter and Metal Gear Acid 2...When I come home from work I just ignore the PSP and go straight to my computer...when I get extremely bored which really rarely happens I go to it....its like this Girls<360 or PS2< and then PSP...its said but thats my order if I'm sitting at the PC and I cant find anything to do...I try to find something on the PC before I play the PSP or video games...but through it all....Games like Madden, WWE Smackdown, NBA 2K series, Platform games...my attention span is perfect but when it comes to RPG's like PoPoLoCrois or Legend of Heroes...I just lose attention to those games I can leave the game alone for days and never pick it up...I recently bought a DS or my cousin bought it...and I really wanted to play Pokemon Pearl while I played it at the begining..I got 3 badges and dropped the game less than 3 weeks...now thats sad...and I went straight to my PS2 and PC...its sad but really I am a gamer...I'm just a picking gamer....but my attention span to long games is limited....Gears of War and Halo 2 and 3...I will play to death...but RPG's I will drop in a minute....O_O

Although I tend to find that Length as advertised is the length that a bad player will take, 12-15 hours is about average for that game type, and if they are fun hours, you won't be complaining, and hopefully wanting more by the end.

Don't forget menu navigation.  After all, that is what you spend about half your time doing in "classics" like Final Fantasy VII.

with higher production costs and graphical investments, games are just going to get shorter and shorter. Get used to it.

The Wii is probably the only console you're going to see the standard game exceed 20 hours this gen. You simply just cannot produce a high end 360 or PS3 game in less than 3-4 years and expect it to be longer than 20 hours. Unless of course there is a huge investment in the project which would most likely far exceed the return on the game.

Sounds about right for the standard action game. I agree it would be nice if Blu Ray added on some length to action games but it's certainly nothing shockingly short.

Bullshit.

Based on reviews God of War takes around 12 hours to complete for the average player.  For you to take another game with an expected completion time of 12-15 hours and imply it's double the length of God of War is idiocy.

Also why do you bother comparing games in different genres?  What point are you trying to make?  That a game with a longer length is better than one with a shorter length?  Does that mean Oblivion which players can spend over 100 hours in and in which you can play through multiple times in multiple ways (as mainly a thief, or fighter, or wizard) is twice as good as Twilight Princess?

Actually, he has a pretty valid point. The amount of time it would take to put together a game that has over 20 hours of adventuring/action play time would take several years at the absolute minimum. Look at how long Final Fantasy XIII is taking. It's been in the works for years and still won't see a release until early 2009. Developers cannot afford to devote that much time and money into a game on a regular basis. The Wii's development costs are significantly less, and with less focus on graphics intensity, the developers could afford to lengthen their games with the extra time and money they are saving in the process.

EDIT: Granted, FF13 is an RPG, however if you (probably mistakenly, but for argument's sake...) assume that the time/money put into developing action-game fighting engines and platforming operations is approximately equal to the time/money put into developing a battle engine, then the metaphor works.  I have no idea how they actually line up.