Less than 10 hours for one of the best stories ever? Sign me the fuck up. Immensely better than Search For Eden in every way and by far the best game on the PC-98. Be sure to use Retroarch for the speedup options. There are a lot of endings, but they are mostly joke endings and each one can be gotten in a matter of minutes with a checkpoint sending the player back right afterwards. The fan translation is stunning too

Takes around 10 hours to 100% the NA version with all the magic and HP/MP upgrades. Might miss a few potential villagers for the overall population but that's ok. Might take longer with the Japanese version or the JP -> EN fan patch. This is one of the few games that was made easier when localized outside of Japan after all. A great genre blender and my pick for GOTY 1991, avoid the demake tho. Also, Actraiser 2 is another short sequel, but it is extremely hard and not even a JRPG

20ish hours for the main route or a bit less. Getting the golden ending will run about 25 to 30 hours but the pacing is so swift it will fly by fast. Note that for new game+ mode, each alternate ending can be obtained extremely quickly since battles can be blazed through. In particular I acquired the hilarious developer's ending in less than 30 minutes, though make sure to bring Marle to it for an easier final (and only) boss fight of that route. Still the best to ever do it and a must play even for non-RPG fans

I rec the Steam port for features like the ability to choose between both official translations, a widescreen mode which expands the camera + draws objects that were offscreen in the original rather than stretching, a battle speedup which does not affect the music, and much more!

I beat this game in one night. It's like Sweet Home but there are no random encounters, and the JRPG battle system doesn't even come into play until the very end strangely. Maybe 3-4ish hours with a guide handy. I rec the RPG Maker XP rebuild of the pc98 game, personally. It is less comedic than the remakes, and the remakes even remove parts like the RPG battle system

I remember this being kinda long but I was informed it can be easily beaten in like 5 hours so I think I just sucked as a kid lol, great game anyways and one of SNK's best. Avoid the GBC port. Probably want a turbo controller for one section of this game as well. Use the audio buzz fix patch and probably the fan retranslation too

I only had to grind in 1 expedition mission tbh. Once Arioch is acquired the ground missions play themselves. It should take less than 20 hours to get ending D, with only the joke ending E taking a significant amount of time should the player be enough of a masochist like me. 0 issues with PCSX2 nightlies

I don't exactly consider this a JRPG but fuck it, it's a must play for Front Mission fans anyways. With a unique genre blender of ARPG, metroidvania, run n gun, action-platforming, and visual novel elements, Front Mission Gun Hazard is one of the most unique games in existence. Roughly 10 hours to 100% and has one of my favourite stories ever told. It's very fun to customize the mechs and it's even playable in multiplayer. This can be played in any order since it's an AU. The fan translation is pretty great, I have no issues with it. I rec playing with headphones for the binaural audio experience, since the game shockingly has binaural sound effects

I spent over 80 hours in this game because every single NPC has like 4 unique dialogue prompts, and then an additional 4 unique conversations after each main story-relevant cutscene to the point I found cool undocumented shit in this game (ie the drunkard father-son mail sidequest which was pretty heartwarming) but if you play this at a normal pace supposedly it is only about 20 hours long
My personal pick for the best game on the Dreamcast. I like the new PC port since it adds a hard mode that turns battles from a cakewalk into genuinely challenging experiences requiring tactical usage of status ailments. But just playing normal mode for the incredible story works too! Probably the best English dub for an RPG ever, thanks Cam Clarke very cool

The story is separated into 7 scenarios (at first anyway) and some of them can be insanely short such as Masaru's which is more or less just a fighting game arcade mode in JRPG form. I don't want to give away too much else but it is an insanely replayable game due to factors such as morality-based runs in Oboro's scenario. I much prefer the charming crudeness of the SFC version fwiw

This game should have taken me 15 hours but the last 2 hearts (which are optional ofc and only change 1 line in the ending) took me 5 hours each for the rocket minigame and fishing. A very unique JRPG where level ups are gained through love instead of battle. Play the official translation for sure, it has a great Steam and Switch port

Yes it's 4 discs, but they're all crammed with voiceclips and FMVs since the game is fully voice acted lol. Each disc can be beaten in roughly 3 hours. A breezy masterpiece, and the player need not start with the first 2 games

Only 7 days of in-game time, with each day lasting 1-2 hours. Even completing the warehouse only slightly expands the length, as challenging as that sidequest is. My first attempt at a speedrun only took a couple hours or so even with the 100% (ROCKET LAWNCHAIR) subcategory, though be warned I had to keep scrapping my old guns just to not run out of bullets. Playing normally, it's still a sub-15 hour game that awards plenty of bullets. Feel free to ignore new game+ since it's bad. Parasite Eve 1-2 are both great quickies, but 2 is not a JRPG while 1 is probably the most deservedly iconic survival horror JRPG out there

Even drawing every dungeon with graph paper, it definitely didn't take longer than 15 hours for me to clear. Very nicely paced! That said, play the amazing fan retranslation since the shitty official localization fucks up badly with some hints. If one doesn't care about the story, the AGES port also has an auto-mapper, but I'd still rec at least considering just playing it with maps open on a second monitor. Best game on the Master System ez

Should be under 20 hours to 100% this. I rec using RPGClassics' guide to find things like the hidden dual techs. There is some cool side stuff like taking guild quests and house decoration, but nothing particularly mandatory. One of the best RPGs on the Genesis, and of all time

1 hour spent getting used to the controls and about 10 to 15 hours just purely having a blast dungeon crawling. Still not From's shortest JRPG though

Can be played via the PS1 mouse with a hack if so desired, but I just forced dual analog controls into the game via Mednafen's remapper

Insanely replayable due to the essentially infinite party combinations, and designed with short playthroughs in mind as a result. The main story has little in the way of side content unless I suppose one should desire fighting the Black Rabite (only applies to runs with Duran or Angela as the party's leader) or constantly revisiting the black market which sells some busted as hell items. Oh and the class change seeds I guess, but in the SNES original it's easily possible to manipulate their RNG with data save/load strats. It took me about 20 hours to clear this game the first time through, specially in multiplayer where a competent partner is there to help as opposed to AI

Quite possibly my favourite ARPG ever. Be sure to use the new release from the Collection of Mana since it has a far superior script to the fan translation. The reimagining is roughly equal in length and probably worth trying after, even if I don't fuck with it very hard. However, it is 1000000% not a replacement remake

The best conversion of Wizardry 1-3 bar none. You can literally skip the entire 2nd half of Wizardry 1 by grinding off of the ghost enemy, farming money from a certain cursed item, and saving the one-hit kill spell for the final boss. With all this cheese it was still an insanely hard game, but one that was doable in around 10 hours. Still one of the most important games of all time with combat depth that blows many later RPGs out of the water.

PCE versions for sure are rec'd. The first game is easily beaten in under 10 hours and the sequel is maybe twice as long tops. The post-PCE versions were made much harder and lose a lot of charm due to things like voice acting being removed. Some of the most important ARPGs ever, well worth a play for the OSTs alone (thanks Koshiro)

I just went for the most approachable mission of each story split and took about 20 hours to finish the game. I swear a solid ~5 hours of the run was spent on that notdarthvader fight though jeez

This was originally made for the Neo Geo CD and as a result the load times are rather unbearable, but on Fightcade one can find a cartridge conversion that vastly improves the pace and is pretty damn fun with a friend. 1-2 hours long

Quite likely the shortest JRPG on PS2? Maybe not a traditionally good game, but a stunning experience. I rec playing with a pressure sensitive controller, of which there are guides to use with PCSX2 online. 0 issues in PCSX2

I just replayed this one and it only took me around 12 hours but definitely look up a guide for that palm tree puzzle lmao. Cool game with a shockingly dark story, probably the GB's best

Treasure actiony dungeon crawler is fast-paced, whoda thunk. This gets a bad reputation since it's Treasure's only JRPG, but it's worth experiencing a unique ARPG with a complex physics engine for the absurdity alone. One of my personal favourite games from what I consider the #1 game developers ever. Sub-10 hours long especially with a guide handy

Only a couple hours. Highly influential to the RPG Maker scene, rec'd on Retroarch for the speedup options. Great English fan translation too

The first playthrough should only be 2 or 3 hours max and it probably took me less than 10 hours to get all the joke endings too tbh. I highly rec playing the new official release since the translation is immensely better than the fan translation. This is what I consider the true sequel to Chrono Trigger over Chrono Cross, and it's a unique experience for the VN + RPG battle hybrid mechanics alone

Well, running through the story on normal mode is 15ish hours, but the hard mode (which is ironically easier) is so memorable to 100% that I kinda rec doing that instead anyways? do NOT play the undub unless you have a solid grasp of Japanese as a language

Maybe more of a metroidvania but still, nice sub-5 hour game that's shockingly atmospheric for an NES game. Use the fan retranslation + bug fix patch or bust lol

It's like it's an unspoken rule survival horror and JRPG hybrids are required to be super short. 10 hours or so, cool survival horror JRPG and the first in the Shadow Hearts series

Fewer than 10 hours to clear a huge chunk of the substories and fight the final boss in the HD release, albeit I was playing multiplayer rather than using AI. I don't remember how long this takes to 100% but it's a relaxing experience for sure

No use 100%ing the red orbs on a first playthrough tbh, might as well just run through the main story and even sidequests which will only take in the realm of 5 hours. Levels can be revisited after beating the game once should the player truly care. 0 issues with Dolphin Nightlies edition

A nice and quick adventure that's a great followup to the first game. Once again, just run through the main story and don't worry about completionist gaming. Roughly 5-10 hours. 0 issues with Dolphin Nightlies edition

10 hours or so, probably the best JRPG on the 3DO for whatever that's worth. I rec using an AutoHotkey script for 1-button speedup with the big 3DO emulator

I beat this game in 1 sitting. It's just a JRPG that takes place in a single town and has fighting game segments for encounters and boss battles. Comfy game!

Ez sub-10 hours to my memory. Probably worth playing just for the canon connections to spot in Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma, if anything tbh

It legit took me maybe 15 hours to get all 108 party members lmao, just be careful about the woman in the prison after fighting her (she says something about being friends with Tir's father, make a mad dash to her after her boss fight to avoid losing the gold ending)

The speedrun route of Suikoden 2 is also pretty short should one desire to go after that quest but this should REALLY only apply to replays. 2 of the greatest games on ps1, 100% play them in order and use the memory card transfer features for max enjoyment. Also use the fanhack for 2 to fix a shitload of extremely noticeable bugs

Use the knights in the icy room to grind for an hour or 2 and the rest of the game becomes easily manageable even with the extremely limited resources. I beat the new translation in about 3 sittings even with limited guide use, but be warned it has different RNG seeds if one plans to speedrun. One of the most important video games period and worth playing for that reason alone; the original tokusatsu is decent too

I'm not sure if I'd call this an RPG, but it's a fun time. The PCE version is in English and is about an hour long. The same goes for the arcade version which is JP only but has multiplayer and is also playable on Fightcade easily

Took me like 4 hours on the PCE. Worth playing the English translation for Chester's voice acting alone. This game has a bad reputation since the SNES and Genesis conversions are rather shite, but it's a great game on PCE

Like 1-2 hours. Fun enough with a friend on Fightcade

LMAO nobody reading this will buy a LaserActive just to play a fucking Don Quixote tie-in

Easily beatable in 1 sitting at the very least with a walkthrough. However, the hints are pretty damn straightforward in the NES localization to my memory

I think this one took me well under 20 hours but I rec not getting the human evolution. it's ok enough

I beat this game in 4 hours, easily one of the shortest JRPGs I ever played. There is replay value however due to all the alternate branches, but still they only lead to the same ending. The fan translation apparently adds liberties but it's still enjoyable

Specifically the game bundled with it, Gobli's Quest. It's super hard but only a few dungeons long so just grinding a lil bit and hugging save points should be enough to clear it in 5ish hours

Suikoden 1 tier length

Just play the English patch for the PCE

Apparently this one is mostly just cutscenes and some field encounters that aren't particularly long. Can confirm it seems to internally upscale fine on Redream

I watched a YT playthrough lol

Haven't actually finished lol

An amazing predecessor to acclaimed Vanillaware works like Odin Sphere. Unfortunately, Princess Crown is locked in Japanese but I am told there are some translation guides online to help English speakers. I played it on Saturn