The story pacing always plays a pivotal role in deciding just how good a game is. If the pacing is terrible, then the overall experience also gets degraded and deeply hurts thereplay value.
Some games have a lukewarm beginning and absorb you into their world as you progress, while others have a very climactic start and get stale as you continue playing further.
10 Games With Enormous Main Quests
These games have such massive main quests that they’ll eat up days' worth of playtime, even without the lengthy side quests.
Regardless, we can all agree that bad pacing can become one of the worst aspects of any game, so here, I will be listing the top10 games that have abysmal pacing, but are absolutely worth playing due to how amazing they can get later on.
Abundance Of Empty Fields
Red Dead Redemption 2
Fextralife Wiki
Red Dead Redemption 2is a masterpiece suffering from the curse of bad pacing. While it is a straight-up phenomenal game, its pacing is another story at times, especially in the first twochaptersand most notably, in chapter 5.
Aside from the story’s pacing,the long distances and abundance of fields make getting between towns or areas of interest a lot longer.
I understand that the developers were prioritizing realism and capturing the true essence of the 19th century.Unfortunately, a realistic world comes at the cost of great distances and a dragging experience.
Funnily enough, at times you will feel as if you are playing a horse-riding simulator because you will be exploring on your horse for the majority of your playthrough. However, for most people, I don’t think it will be a major issue, and you are generally in for a great time with Red Dead Redemption 2.
8God Of War: Ragnarök
Sleep-Inducing Atreus Sections
God of War Ragnarok
As much as I love Kratos, his and Atreus’s journey through thenine realmscan get snoozy rather fast in the first half of the story.
Similar to God of War (2018),Ragnarökshares the same blueprint of an incredibly bland first half and a second half so phenomenal.It’s hard to stick with it in long playtime bursts.
But honestly speaking, the main reason why Ragnarök even lands on this list is the Atreus sections, especially the section where the boy reaches the Ironwood for the first time in Jotunheim.Aside from being extremely bland, it is also unnecessarily long.
And it is not a single occurrence either, as there are multiple sections with Atreus as the protagonist, each of which only brings one thing to your mind: when am I shifting back to Kratos again?
The Beginning Of It All
Yakuza (or Like A Dragon) is more of an underdog in this list of all-star games, but it is one of my favorite franchises. Yakuza 0 is the prequel to the original Yakuza 1, released on the PlayStation 2, and gives a more in-depth intro to the Tojo Clan and our beloved main characters, like Kiryu and Majima.
However, while Yakuza 0 is one of the fans' most beloved games of the franchise, it is also the title that suffers the most from slow pacing.The initial sections feel incredibly dull and slow, with the infamous chapter 2 being one of the worst chapters in the franchise as a whole.
If you are lucky enough to make it past chapter 2 without dropping the game, you are then greeted by nearly an hour-long cutscene at the beginning of chapter 3, easily the worst segment in the franchise.
Frankly, Yakuza 0’s first chapters are the only reason why it even landed on this list, as the rest of the game is straight up phenomenal.
6Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Your Snoozy Neighborhood Spider-Man
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
While I agree that swinging (or gliding) through Manhattan can get addictive at times, what’s not addictive is the pacing.Marvel’s Spider-Mansuffered from a very slow-paced first half, but got better if players solely focused on the story and reached the second half as soon as possible.
WhileMarvel’s Spider-Man 2tries to address this by including an incredibly fun section and aboss fightright from the get-go,its story soon settles down and falls into the same category as the first Spider-Man.
Typically, side content is used to give players a breather from the story. But when the story is already so poorly paced, and the side content is primarily a barebones collectible hunt, it was hard for me to even complete my first playthrough.
5Persona 5 Royal
A Story That Takes 40 Hours To Set Up
Persona 5 Royal
I lovePersonaas much as the next person, but I can’t deny thatevery Persona game suffers is a slog, with Persona 5 being the worst offender of them all.
It starts off intense, stronger than any of its predecessors, with a heist gone wrong and the protagonist captured. Now, you have to live through his past to find out what really went down. Straight off the bat, you are introduced to one of the best and most hateableantagonistsin the franchise.
8 Best JRPGs That Aged Like Fine Wine
These JRPGs can still teach a thing or two to their modern counterparts.
Once the game hooks you in with its fantastic start, it unloads its shortcomings. After the first dungeon, you now have to go through 4 more dungeons just to reach the failed heist section of the game (which, by the way, is another dungeon), with each stage being at least 4 hours long.
Let’s not forget that you will also be upgrading social links and exploring Mementos along the way,so you are pretty much forced to play the game for 40 hours for the story to actually pick up and reach its “present” point.
4Death Stranding
Most Famously Known As The Walking Simulator
Death Stranding
Death Strandingis one of my favorite games of all time, but no matter how much I wish to experience it again,I’ve been unable to replay it due to the poor pacing.
And I am not talking about story pacing, as the narrative is well-paced; rather, its gameplay is its weakest point. You know, we have to make deliveries that sometimes span across half the map, collect resources, and build roads and structures to at least try to make our journey easier.
Some deliveries in Death Stranding are flawless. Being greeted by a ray of sunshine and heart warming music after a brutal journey through BTs will always be one of the best moments in gaming.
On the other hand, the optional deliveries have you moving through the same areas again and again, bringing out the repetitive nature of Death Stranding’s gameplay.While its storytelling is one of the pinnacles in the industry, the game itself is unfortunately held back by its gameplay.
3NieR: Automata
Slow Yet Beautiful
NieR: Automata
Some of you might hate me for putting Nier Automata on this list, but hear me out. I love 2B as much as you all, and whileNieR: Automataoffers a breathtaking world, a first-class soundtrack, and characters with emotional depth, it’s still an action game.
Good and unique gameplay is vital for a hack-and-slash game, and, unfortunately, Nier Automata’s combat system can get old and repetitive very quickly. Not to mention, it is also a bit basic and too easy.
Plus, the story itself takes a reasonable amount of time to gain momentum. To grip you in its complex world, and give you a reason to keep playing.In fact, it took so long that I actually dropped this game the first two times I started playing it.
2Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Terrible Pacing And Filled To The Brim With Fluff
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
While I agree that Valhalla is substantially worse than Odyssey in terms of pacing,let me remind you that this list consists of amazing games with terrible pacing.To sum it up, I do not consider Valhalla a good game.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, on the other hand, is an incredible entry (provided that you don’t consider it an Assassin’s Creed installment). However, it is filled to the brim with fluff.
Alongside having abigger mapthan any of its predecessors, it also features an unnecessarily lengthy story, with most of its side content being fetch quests.The fetch quest system is even incorporated in some of the story sections, damaging the pacing even more.
If I shift my attention to its expansions, then the situation gets worse. While it’s no secret that Ubisoft took inspiration from the Witcher 3 DLCs, they unfortunately madeAC Odyssey’s DLCstoo long for their own good.
Even though you will have a lot of fun with Odyssey, its pacing will only leave you wondering what direction this story is taking and when it will end.
1Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth
An Already Lengthy Story Padded Out Even More
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Ask yourself: if a company takes a story from one game and divides it into a trilogy, should it have pacing issues? That is precisely what is wrong with this ongoing Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy.
When I played the Final Fantasy 7 Remake,its pacing and fluff were very apparent, and I was shocked that its story didn’t even cover half of the original’s.
Now,Final Fantasy 7: Rebirthtakes it a step further by making it a full-blownopen-world gamefilled with a ton of mini-games and side content. Focusing solely on the story is not an option, as your team needs to be strong enough to survive its wilderness and main story segments. Therefore, you have no choice but to engage in side content as well.
Let me remind you that the game is not bad by any means. Sure, it has pacing issues, butthe remake also succeeds in properly fleshing out its characters, is rich in content, and offers a hybrid action turn-based combat system that truly tests you and your strategies. You are bound to have a great time with it
But in a nutshell, after spending 40+ hours in the 2020s FF7 Remake, you now have to spend 100 hours in Rebirth, and God knows how many more hours in the final entry of the remake trilogy. All to re-experience the 40-hour story of the original Final Fantasy 7.I can’t say I’m a fan of this approach.
