What Game Took You the Longest to Finish?

[Malkav]

A lot of games I played as a kid took me months or even years to complete.
Some of them I couldn't finish, but eventually completed them over ten years later on nostalgia trips. Those would be The Lion King (NES), Chaos Break (a PS1 Resident-Evil-ish clone, I got stuck on the sudoku puzzle as a kid), and Xargon (my very first game, which I loved, but only had a shareware version of). For the last one, I basically saw the end boss over 15 years after playing the first level for the first time.

It's crazy to think I finished each one of these games in one day, once I picked them up again.

 

[AnarchistFish]

Think it took me something like 5 or 6 years to finish Halo CE cos I got stuck on the level where you first meet the flood and couldn't be bothered to find a way out til a friend of mine did it for me. Finished the game within a week after that.

 

[Owen Robertson]

In terms of hours it took to beat a story mode, I'd say GTA Vice City Stories. I got stuck a lot. Like a lot, a lot.

But like many other posters I'd started and never finished games for years, So Super Mario RPG (started at 6, finished at 14 when I emulated) took the longest. I still haven't beaten Folklore for the PS3 though, and I have no intention of even playing it again.

 

[McMullen]

I started FFIV when I was something like 8 years old, and didn't beat it until I was 12 even though it was one of the games I played more often (I had a habit of restarting a lot). By the time I got to the end, it actually seemed strange for the game to have one.

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

steam say I played over 1000 hours of new vegas. I don't have the individual times it took for a single playthough but it somewhere above 100 hours each for the ones I did beat.

snip

Once you add quest mods to the game it gets even longer. but going for 100% everything is just crazy.

I once tried to collect every weapon(including one that came with mods) and have each of them equipped with all possible weapon mods. I never finished that playthough. I gave up on that long ago but I still collect unique objects and some shit I never will use on my current playthough.

 

[mrdude2010]

Depends on whether you mean "beat" or "100%ed."

If you're talking about games I haven't beat yet, I have to admit I'm still like one bossfight short of beating Psychonauts. I've literally lost my save file 3 separate times, every time after Coach's brain. So frustrating.

 

[kilenem]

Do games from Child hood count that I was to stupid to finish as a kid. I picked up Legend of Zelda Link's awaking, Super Mario Land and Sonic 2 about 5-7 years after I first played them. In my denfese of Zelda just cutting down plants and digging up the ground for rubies was its own Meta game. I think that actually could be a facebook game.

 

[Tsurani]

Knights of the Old Republic. I started playing shortly after it came out but then got to Dantooine and didn't play it for 2 1/2 years. Other things had came up along with other games to play(Morrowind) and Dantooine was just boring to me at the time as well. When I did pick it back up I breezed through the rest of the game and have beaten it 2 other times since then as well.

As far as hours back in the day Xenogears was a very long endeavor that took me about 80 or so hours to beat. I actaully played it and beat it within a month though. The longest game I've played of all time was Morrowind. 200 or so hours of gameplay and questing and whatnot. One of my favorite games of all time and would easily go back for another 200 hours.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

There are two very memorable games that took me a great deal to finish.

Spoiler: Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy X was one of the first JRPGs that I ever experienced and I instantly loved it. I first rented this title and I remember spending the entire week playing this game, leveling up my characters, getting stuck on some bosses, and generally doing everything I can before I had to return it.

This was when I was still in high school and I didn't have much in the way of income in order to make a full purchase. So instead, I would occasionally rent the game when I could over the course of two years. Afterwards, the game come out as a 'Greatest Hits' I purchased it and went on to continue playing, at which I was about 60% done with the game. I would continue to come across tough and challenging bosses that would get me frustrated, stop playing the game completely, then come back after a while, grind, and then continue on. I would also do as many of the side missions as I could, which involved getting all the Aeons, getting the materials for the Ultima Weapons, getting most of the Ultima Weapons, and playing Blitzball.

After another 3 years of on-again-off-again game play, I was about 90% done with the game. So one weekend, I was committed to completing the game. I finished the last 10% in under 3 hrs. My characters where so powerful and bad-ass that I could basically mow down anything that got in my way.

I look back at that game and I realized that I could have beaten the game a long time ago, but didn't want to because I really enjoyed playing this game. Even now, I don't want to restart a new game because in my mind, I still haven't completed my initial run of the game.

Spoiler: Disgaea 2

Disgaea 2 was also one of the earlier experiences with a SRPG. I was mostly weary of Strategy games because they didn't seem all the interested to me. After seeing the awesome opening and a few trailers about reaching level 1000, I was hooked and bought the game.

I had no clue as to all the little mechanics that were present in some of its predecessor and some new elements makes the game play great. So through my initial run I completed 125+ hours, and I was about 3 chapters away from completing the game. However, I was grinding a bit for a battle and instead, I decided to play another game that I had got recently and I didn't return to the Disgaea series for another year.

However, I played both Disgaea 3 and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness instead. This time, I was able to get a grasp of the mechanics and completed both titles. Now knowing how to create an effective small party, I decided to restart my save file after almost 2 years of inactivity. This time, I was able to breeze through the game easily and create a stronger and more effective team. It took me only a few moths and 135 hours of game play to complete the game.

As much as I'd like to go back and do the extra stuff (like the World of Carnage, recruiting Flonne, and fighting Laharl), I'm really looking forward to either tackling Disgaea 4 or Disgaea D2.

 

[lacktheknack]

I tend to really play the long game. Tomb Raiders III and IV took me about eight years to finish, while Uru and Myst IV took me seven. (dat final world in Myst IV... what the even what)

In terms of actual playing, well... probably Myst Online/Uru if I'm perfectly honest. I've probably dumped 200+ hours into it.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

If we're talking straight hours, probably one of the Persona games, or Tales of Symphonia at 63 hours. If we're talking about beating everything the game has to offer, 465 hours for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (Spread out over a 1 1/2 year time frame. 1 year if you count the times I did other stuff then came back to it)

 

[DementedSheep]

From games I actually have finished X-Com: EU, because I lost my save right before the last mission 3 times and I was determined enough to finish it that I actually played it 4 times.

or possibly one of those really long rpgs that I don't how long it took me.

Skyrim I never actually did the main quest because it keeps breaking and finished = if 100% complete I will never finish it. I've never successfully managed to take over the whole continent in M&B.

 

[Shuguard]

in terms of playing straight through the game without long breaks for me was dark cloud 2. I even put in cheat codes to make the male character immortal and that game still took me one month (was also in school at the time).
Though one day i'm gonna have to go back and finish Donkey kong 64. I could never finish the last boss because I was super young and slightly bad at video games.