Can we address the episode length?
Alright, now I love Season 3. Writing, graphics, characters, fine. Sure there are flaws (no hub areas, no puzzles, bad flashbacks), and whatnot. But there is something that really bugs me about Season 3. So we all heard that we'd be getting two episodes, with the first part being "so large" that it had to be split into two. Okay, first off was I the only one who thought that Episode 1 was getting split into two parts, so it'd follow the same 5 episode structure? So it'd go like this, Episode 1: Part 1, Episode 1: Part 2, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5. I don't know, it could have been just me, so I was somewhat surprised to see it was just Episode 1: Ties that Bind Part 1, Episode 2: Ties that Bind Part 2, but that's all good. We get two episodes on launch!
But the first episode is an hour, and even the second is an hour. There have even been people saying it's been 47 minutes, and honestly you'd think upon hearing this that the obvious reason is "Telltale had to make 4 different 'Episode ones' to account for the major choices that led to the endings with the 'let the family in'/'don't let the family in' choice not having too much of an effect except their presence, a few lines, maybe something cool or maybe a mention, etc.", and due to how much time, writing, and resources would be needed to truly make these different with different characters, conversations, environments, music, they'd obviously be a bit shorter. If this was like an hour or so and Episode 2 was 90 minutes-2 hours, I'd have a better time accepting it.
But no...that's not it. It's still the same content you'd expect to see in a regular episode, but it's just two episodes both an hour long. What the hell gives here? Telltale, you realise you could have just made Episode 1 2 hours long by putting both parts together? Why the hell are you splitting it, feeding us the same price and some very obvious lies about it "being too big" if this is the result.
Honestly, no matter how good the Season was, this is almost bad enough for a refund. Why are the episodes so short? I remember people complaining about the 90 minute Season 2 episodes (which honestly isn't even that okay either but it's not like Telltale are going to listen to any criticism and change it because "Oh look at these graphics and wow their menu is now responsive and looks decent - wow, they're like one of the real game companies now!" and yes I'm salty and I didn't even mind Season 2 episode lengths all that much), but this is...awful. Like straight up "we lied to your faces" awful.
I'm seriously concerned because if Telltale were telling the truth and this episode was "too big", how bad of an effect are these graphics having on their engine? Because it could mean that we're either going to get some very short episodes in the future or that the episodes are going to be very static, with little to no change of environments or major content like conversational trees, etc.
What gives?
Comments
@Blind Sniper made an excellent suggestion that instead of five episodes a season, we should get around ten episodes for the same price as a Season Pass. If each episode is going to last an hour, around ten episodes should be about the same length as Season 1.
I mean, I guess that'd be great, though truth be told I'd rather have 5 2-3 hour episodes, as opposed to 5 1 and 1/2 hour episodes or what looks to be 2 1 hour episodes and 3 ??? episodes. 10 episodes seems like the story is just cutting at random intervals and makes the game have a very odd pace.
While we're on the topic, I could be making excuses up for them and be totally wrong, but I noticed the episodes are quite a few gigs each on the PS4 in comparison to other TTG products. So, they do seem big. I've no idea what's taking up the extra room apart from the graphics, but that could be one of the reasons they said what they did about the episodes being too big.
Anyway, I suggested they put an estimate of episode length on each season's store page, so people at least have a rough idea of how long the season will be, while also giving them breathing room to make changes (I'd have the estimate be for the bare minimum too, as we can't skip dialog and cutscenes). If people still buy them when they were warned the episodes would just be over an hour, well . . . they only have themselves to blame. Can't say they weren't warned. It's what I do with my stories anyway, as I always give a word count. Granted, my stories are finished, so it's easier for me to be exact. This, however, might not be feasible from a business perspective for Telltale.
As far as I'm concerned, I'm honestly not bothered too much. As long as each episode feels like it's the right length for the story, I'm happy. New DVDs and Blu-Rays tend to be around 90 - 120 minutes, costing about £10 - £12 each? Granted, these episodes were a bit shorter than the 90 mins though (about 77 for me) and I must admit I'm a bit out of touch now due to making use of Netflix, so I don't buy boxsets and films anymore. So, I basically look at it as buying 5 movies with my money, even though they're not all available at once. And if we're honest, that's basically what TTG's stuff amounts to these days, only they're interactive.
PS: Blind's idea might be good. However, I still think people will complain. 'It's not long enough to settle down with the characters!' and all the rest. People will still complain with my suggestion as well though . . . Hell, I was looking at a free game on Steam yesterday, Order of Battle, and people complained that the whole game wasn't free . . . Apparently, the devs are greedy for expecting to be paid (even going as far as to say the game's good, but it's not all free and falsely advertised despite telling people on the store page what's free, so thumbs down). I'm at the point where I expect people to complain about anything, so it's just a case of finding the solution that causes the least complaining.
Agree, love the first two episodes so far, but wish the length was about how it is in the Batman game (perfect length imo)
The problem isn't just the length, season 2 at least slowed down occasionally. Season 3 is so fast paced there is no time to pause and reflect.
Really only burying the kid was the only slow scene and that's determinant
Seriously...
They even had some good camera angle shoots... but they last for 4 seconds...
The episodes certainly could be longer as i was expecting a lengthy beginning since telltale built it up as if this season was far bigger than the previous.