darkSpyro

Just finished the game an it took less time to finish this game than millennium falcon going light speed. Come on already my 6 year old finished it almost all by herself playing it a couple hrs each weekend and she mainly just uses smolder dash, roller brawl and star strike then she just use the ones needed just to pass through a gate then she would switch back to one of the girls. This was the easiest by far series of the three!

If you're only in this game for story mode, everyone is going to be disappointed. If you're wanting a challenge and need to do quests, complete all bonus missions and survival levels, get complete stars etc... this game has more longevity than the previous entries by a long shot.

I agree that 12 complete chapters is a complete farce. If they can deliver 17 non adventure pack levels of at least the size of Swap Force, I'll be satisfied. They should also include pathing in their levels that impact the game later on to encourage replay. That's just my .02.

So, if your daughter is just playing the story...that's about 40% of the game content wise.

I still have 5 chapters to go because I'm working on all of the "extra" stuff you can do before the game ends...and once that ends...there are achievements like time attack, score mode, completion related to Nightmare etc to keep me busy. I will again add it would be nice to make the replay different somehow. Pathing would help...diverse enemy reactions and attack strategies, etc.

Congrats, but all you've done is completed story mode. There is more stuff left to do if you're interested such as:

Bonus Missions
Swap Zone challenges
Arena challenges
Time Attack challenges
Score Mode challenges
Reach portal master rank 80
Unlock/purchase all hats, charms, legendary treasures
Upgrade and complete quests for all your Skylanders
Complete story mode on Nightmare difficulty

Not saying you need to do all of these to "finish" the game, but you do have choices on what else the game has to offer after story mode.

That's one thing that stuck out to me is how "meaty" this game is. Lots of stuff to do, but if your goal is simply to see the story mode ending on the easiest difficulty, then yes you will likely be disappointed. And as a matter of fact, that is true with most games these days.

It's kind of funny though, I paid $49 for one of my favorite old games - Contra 3 - back in 1992. It takes about 20 minutes to play, start to credits. The only thing holding it up is the two higher difficulty levels. No extra modes - at all. It takes longer than that to get through a single Swap Force level. And I never once question the value of it. My, how our expectations have grown.

If you had the 3DS version you'd be more disappointed, but the real fun is to come doing time attacks, 3 star on missions etc. And just replaying some of your favorite levels

I do agree that the main story is pretty short, but there's still a lot more to do after you're done that will make the game worth much more time.You could go back through the levels to try and find all the hidden things, as well as try to three-star the Swap Zone challenges and bonus missions to up your rank. There's also the Time Attack mode and Score Mode, as well as maxing out your Skylanders, and even completing the story mode on different difficulty levels. If you think about it, there's a lot here to do that will extend your time with this game and should keep you occupied until the next new game comes out.

Giants seemed shorter to me. It took me a week, this one took me over a month.

Quote: weebbby

Giants seemed shorter to me. It took me a week, this one took me over a month.

Is this because of story only or the other star stuff you're chasing?

Gameplay wise with story mode I think we are on par despite there being fewer levels. Content wise it's up because of the extra features, etc. PVP doesn't seem as inspired this go around.

Story only.

Yeah, I kind of agree. However, I don't do much PvP, so it doesn't affect me much.

Really? I found Swap Force to be the hardest yet...

This is actually the longest game content wise.

Instead of 3 stars for 26 or 16 levels, you get 9 stars for 17 levels. That's only for Story, Time, and Score Attack. That doesn't include Swap Force zones, Bonus Missions, and Arena Battles, which all adds up to 480 stars. Then there are quests, of course.

This game had the most content I think actually, but I don't feel like coming back to it like I did with SA and even Giants. I'm just so bored of it now, and there isn't anything cool I'll get for doing all the extra stuff. Plus, honestly, I don't think the extra content is that cool- I like Time Attack a lot but while Survival is neat it's nothing groundbreaking, Score Attack is pretty boring, Bonus Missions are pretty uninteresting and PVP is terrible now. There aren't many levels I really enjoy replaying and I've replayed the ones I enjoy so much I'm bored with them.

This comes from having too many toys. If they're going to offer so many toys to collect there should be more to do with them, or they should be easier to max. Or there should be a little "reward" for maxing out each toy or something. I would like to see less toys in the next game so that I can actually spend more time enjoying my favourite characters and less with reposed Eruptors, and so that I don't have to spread my little "rewards" for maxing each character, like playing the adventure pack levels or a new character, less thinly. Or just a better reward than a lame 75-Health bonus so that we have incentive and reason to go out of our way and put effort in to finish this bonus stuff.

I still haven't beaten all the extra stuff yet but I'm just like "leave them as a reward for maxing out my old characters, ehh, I'll get there in due time". I'm kind of looking forward to it, but it's not really exciting me. By the time I get to play them I don't really bother doing it because I don't care for the game much any more. I've got a bunch of stuff I've passed the threshold for that I haven't touched.

I think I've just over-familiarised myself with this series too much by now as well. I feel like playing through SA again because I haven't for months, but that's it. And I don't even feel like doing that badly, there are several games I'd rather replay first. I've played Giants to death now and am sick of all the dialogue-skipping SF requires. I'm not excited by the notion of new characters any more because most of the SF ones were disappointing (Stink Bomb) or underwhelming (Rip Tide) to me and I just don't care for them like the older ones because there's no connection with the toys any more.

I think the best thing to do would be to have a break, but how long would I have to take a break from the game for it to excite me again- a couple of weeks, a month, two months, half a year, a year? I've had a couple of two-week breaks from the game several times now but I haven't really been raring to play it again afterwards. Or get bored and remember why I took a break within five minutes. Replaying from the start won't help and is a poor excuse for new content, it'd just make the situation worse because I'd just over-familiarise myself with the game even more.

And if I'm not enjoying maxing the characters out, why don't I just stop? Well, actually, maxing out characters and playing with new ones is really the bulk of the replay value- if I don't do those, what AM I supposed to do in this game after I finish all the bonus content and levels?

Basically, I feel that a chapter is too long, but the story is to short.
They should've split up each chapter in half so they could fit more story in between and maybe change the scenery a little more. Levels are entered from a menu instead of proper hub world so it's not like there's no room for them.
If you explore everything in a level, it may take you an hour per stage which can be long for one sitting. It also makes certain quests tedious (especially earth).
However, the game still feels short even with the longer levels because the story is just too simple and there isn't really any expansion or elaboration on anything.
Basically everything that goes on in the story:

I don't think it should be necessary for you to feel like you have to play the games in order (especially for an annual game for kids) in order to understand the story, but each game is basically like a TV show where it starts and ends the same with the security that nobody will change at all by the next episode.

Quote: wickedrunt

Just finished the game an it took less time to finish this game than millennium falcon going light speed. Come on already my 6 year old finished it almost all by herself playing it a couple hrs each weekend and she mainly just uses smolder dash, roller brawl and star strike then she just use the ones needed just to pass through a gate then she would switch back to one of the girls. This was the easiest by far series of the three!

Now do it again...on Nightmare mode!

The "No Damage Taken" stars on boss fights are bordering on obscene...

Quote: Angry Rage Quit

The "No Damage Taken" stars on boss fights are bordering on obscene...

I actually like them! Just my opinion of course.

As others have stated if all you want to do is 1 star each mission and rip through the game on easy, yes, this game can be short! However, I myself, will do all the swap challenges, bonus missions, arena battles, survival mode challenges, etc etc...

So yes, if you just want to 1 star each mission on easy and rip through the game...guess what, it's going to be short. If you are like me, you will keep stepping up the difficulty and play it again. Do all the side quests, and all the things that have been mentioned that are in the game so i won't repeat them. But, if you want to get the most out of this game, it will last as long as 'you the person playing' want it to. Simple as that.

I've been playing since it came out months ago, and I'm still loving it.

I'm not going to get into how this game compares to the others as that is not really my point. I'm talking about this game. I personally think the TFB did it best, however that does not mean I do not love this game as well.

I'm pretty sure that Swap Force is a whole lot bigger, in every way, than Giants. The levels are freaken massive - even the traditionally short Swap Force opening level was as long as the later levels in SSA or SG.
Quote: wickedrunt

This was the easiest by far series of the three!

I'd say that hard on this game was just a tiny bit easier that Giants on nightmare, and SF Nightmare is far harder than giants was.

Quote: Tel Prydain

I'm pretty sure that Swap Force is a whole lot bigger, in every way, than Giants. The levels are freaken massive - even the traditionally short Swap Force opening level was as long as the later levels in SSA or SG.
Quote: wickedrunt

This was the easiest by far series of the three!

I'd say that hard on this game was just a tiny bit easier that Giants on nightmare, and SF Nightmare is far harder than giants was.

I see that a lot, but for me this was much easier than giants (nightmare difficulty. I never used even 10 skylanders in this game, but in giants there was some points when I had only three or four skylanders left and I had almost 30 at the time.

Quote: Tel Prydain

I'm pretty sure that Swap Force is a whole lot bigger, in every way, than Giants. The levels are freaken massive - even the traditionally short Swap Force opening level was as long as the later levels in SSA or SG.
Quote: wickedrunt

This was the easiest by far series of the three!

I'd say that hard on this game was just a tiny bit easier that Giants on nightmare, and SF Nightmare is far harder than giants was.

Oh heavens yes, Took the words right out of my mouth! lol

take on some challenges Portal Master!

This is one of the reasons I wish the game went over Portal Master Rank 80. I see a ton tend to get bored when they finally hit 80.