LogFAQs > #956739106

Average regular playthrough for the main 3 games is probably 20 hours each if you do story only (totally viable), maybe 25 if you do some side stuff that you just stumble upon. There's a very extensive amount of extra content for completion isn't which could easily add another 15-20 hours, but there's no story locked behind that, just items. The new volume 4 is maybe 10-15 hours, I unfortunately have no idea how much additional content is in that one because I never went for it, just did the story.

In terms of just the general spoiler free pitch, its a very unique jRPG with a great story, some fantastic characters, and interesting setting. This is from a time long before the characters playing an MMO and things get real genre became stale overused crap thank to SAO, and it completely stands on its own. Unlike the older games in the series, GU is actually fun to play. The combat is hard to describe though, nothing I can think of to compare it to without caveats. Theres a demo if that helps.

As far as the two things that get asked a lot for those more in the know:

I didnt like the original quadrilogy, is this more of the same? No, these games may take place in the universe but they are very different. Those old games, honestly were pretty bad. They were certainly COOL and stood out as different than the rest of the market, but they were very repetitive and a very poor value proposition. Stuck way to rigidly to the fake MMO idea in places and suffered for it.

Do you need to play those older games for the story? Absolutely not. It definitely adds a lot of flavor to some of the plot beats, but is in no way required whatsoever. Its one of the things I like a lot about the GU story, it stands completely on its own while still having some very interesting tidbits for fans that arent just fansevice. The setting makes that a lot easier to pull off, honestly.


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