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Cyberpunk 2077's main story is shorter than Witcher 3's due to "tremendous" amounts of people not completing it

Saucycarpdog

Saucycarpdog

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,346
Thought this was an interesting factoid. Senior quest designer on Cyberpunk, Patrick K. Mills, said on the Night City Wire stream that the main story was shortened due to complaints and "tremendous" amounts of people not completing Witcher 3's main story.

 
Tecnniqe

Tecnniqe

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,743
Antarctica
Well thats because the Witcher 3 had god awful combat, not because the story sucked.

Shame, but looking at all the paths you can probably go, content for days!
 
Fiery Phoenix

Fiery Phoenix

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,838
Is that a good excuse to make it shorter? What do they gain or lose by people not completing the main story?

FWIW, I do think Witcher 3's main quest was a tad too long.
 
Jamrock User

Jamrock User

Member
Jan 24, 2018
3,163
100hrs final playtime after all the dlcs.

Not many people can dedicate that kinda time so I don't wrong em.
 
Philippo

Philippo

Developer
Verified
Oct 28, 2017
7,913
Honestly I undestand it.
And considering the amount of backgrounds and choices you can make, I'll gladly take a game long half of TW3 in exchange of a completely different playthrough.
 

Deleted member 36578

Dec 21, 2017
26,561
I believe they'd shorten the time it takes to get to the ending while extending the side scenarios with more content.
 
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Nigel Tufnel

Nigel Tufnel

Member
Mar 5, 2019
3,151
I have played the Witcher 3 twice, 50+ hours both times, and never made it past Skellige. Looks like I'm typical of their market research lol.
 
Mossiah

Mossiah

Member
Aug 28, 2018
206
New York
I think being able to replay with completely different builds will make the trade-off okay.

Though I also believe that long-form storytelling in games should remain, it is okay that not everyone finishes your work. The Witcher 3 is still one of the most legendary pieces that we have in the industry, with more content than hundreds of games house.
 
plagiarize

plagiarize

It's not a loop. It's a spiral.
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
27,545
Cape Cod, MA
Honestly? I prefer games not to be 100 hours long, so I'm happy to hear this, but obviously for people that liked their last game, it sucks.
 
Kyoufu

Kyoufu

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,582
The Witcher 3 was too long for me personally. Not that it's a bad thing but it burns me out if I'm at the 75 hour mark and still not done.
 
NameUser

NameUser

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,011
Good. I've gotten to the point where super long games don't excite me. Make the main quest short and just have tons of side stuff for those who want it.
 
808s & Villainy

808s & Villainy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
42,700
It seems like in a game like this if you're PURELY doing the main story and none of the sidequests you're not doing it right, and it seems like the sidequests in this game are fairly involved and consequential
 
DGxO

DGxO

Member
Oct 21, 2018
432
I'd take a smaller campaign with greater replayability then something that is stretched to the near-breaking point. I'm aokay with this change by CDPR.
 
Blade30

Blade30

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,613
I think that's mostly due to the roundabout Ciri chase quest. You have to go through a lot of quests etc. to find about what happened to here and where to find her which I agree with, that could have been more tight.
Also for anyone who doesn't know the game itself isn't shorter, they just changed the main quest and side quest ratio so there are more and/or longer side quests in Cyberpunk.
 
Nickerbocker98

Nickerbocker98

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,363
Honestly, I am fine with it. Would rather have a really good story that doesn't overstay its welcome that something that gets padded out because people expect it to be a long game.
 
Dolce

Dolce

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,252
The initial wording is "slightly shorter."

There is also implication that instead that effort was put into side stuff/fleshing out the world but he didn't want to give actual numbers there so I don't know.
 
kyle mechlachlan

kyle mechlachlan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,297
Length of the main story is irrelevant. You'll spend 100 hours doing side stuff and then realize you didn't finish it, then wrap it up in a few hours at the end.
 
DJ_Lae

DJ_Lae

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,868
Edmonton
If there's a good amount of sidequests then I don't really see it being an issue.

Also glad to see that we got some 'Witcher 3 combat sucks' in record time.
 
Crayon

Crayon

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,580
I'm actually okay with it. W3 is kinda surprisingly huge. I'm still chipping at it.
 
Redstreak

Redstreak

Member
Jan 17, 2018
590
Well I finished the witcher 3's main story, almost all the side quests, and the DLC all the way through twice so this is sad to hear
 
Roytheone

Roytheone

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,155
The main story was fine, but the side quests was why I loved the game. So if they focus more on that, that's a-ok for me!
 
Eeyore

Eeyore

User requested ban
Banned
Dec 13, 2019
9,029
f4u1dfb6 said:
I have played the Witcher 3 twice, 50+ hours both times, and never made it past Skellige. Looks like I'm typical of their market research lol.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's because Skellige is the worst part of the game imo. Seeing all those question marks and having to use those boats that break apart because those stupid flying monsters constantly attack you has to be one of the most puzzling design decisions in the game.
 
misho8723

misho8723

Member
Jan 7, 2018
3,719
Slovakia
Tecnniqe said:
Well thats because the Witcher 3 had god awful combat, not because the story sucked.

Shame, but looking at all the paths you can probably go, content for days!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well, that's not true and definitely not the reason why many people didn't finished the game - look how many people finish massive open-world games ..people have a problem today to finish a linear game (or not a linear game) if it's longer than 20 hours
 

Dodgerfan74

Member
Dec 27, 2017
2,696
Having a game be 60-70 hours, for example, instead of 100 actually isn't a problem for me. The game should be as long as the quality content they've made. No reason to try and make it longer for reasons or bloat it up with garbage to pad the number.
 
SunBroDave

SunBroDave

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,156
Not that there's anything wrong with a long game, but if this means that they were able to cut the campaign length in half (compared to Witcher 3) and devote the leftover resources to other aspects of the project, then that's great news.
 

Deleted member 31333

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 6, 2017
1,216
I'm good with it. Follow Nintendo's lead and have the story completable by most players but have lots of additional content for those that want to keep playing.
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
43,583
The vast majority of games have a small completion rate anyway, I doubt it will change.
 
Snake Eater

Snake Eater

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
11,385
Good, doesn't matter how good a game is you can't expect people to invest 100+ hrs of their lives
 
TrojanAg

TrojanAg

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,538
Good. Pretty much the only games in my backlog at this point are 50+ hour games. I don't have that kind of time anymore.
 
mhayes86

mhayes86

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,248
Maryland
That's fine, I guess. Main quest length doesn't make a game/story any better. It took me years to finally get around to finish any Elder Scrolls games, but that was due to all of the distractions. I limit myself with side stuff in open world games in order to focus enough to finish the main story, like Witcher 3's, but much of the time the side content discovered from exploring is the best part. That and I can't always dedicate 100+ hours to a game.
 
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