Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will have at least 50 hours of gameplay, Square Enix has announced.

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Speaking to IGN as part of a First Look event, gameplay director Yuji Abe addressed fan concerns that the game would feel short when compared to other Final Fantasy titles, thanks to the unavoidable countdown-to-the-apocalypse feature "The way the game moves, one period of 24 hours within the game world itself will take play time in the real world around two or three hours of actual, real time," he explained. "Having said that, opening menus, customising your characters, talking to some people or just listening to certain things will cause time to stop. So it isn’t quite as short as you’d think."Overall, when I did the test plays during the development period, I played through from start to finish trying to see almost all of the aspects of the game and it took roughly about 50 hours."So no, I think this is one that’ll take a good chunk of time, and people will be able to enjoy it for a good long while."For the full developer Q&A, be sure to check out the video at the top of this article and check back to IGN early next week to see what Yuji Abe and game director Motomu Toriyama had to say when we sat down with them one-on-one.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Junior Editor and long-time Final Fantasy fan. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter