Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 is 'about 50 hours' long

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13, the upcoming closer to the trilogy that began with Final Fantasy 13, will contain "about 50 hours" of content, said gameplay director Yuji Abe in an interview with IGN.

Completing missions with Lightning can affect the 13-day timer of the game's fiction, Abe told Polygon in a previous interview. But he explained to IGN that although a day in the game runs for two to three hours of real time, actions like talking to people, interacting with menus and customizing characters will pause that clock.

"It isn't quite as short as you’d think," said Abe. "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."

That puts Lightning Returns at about the same length as the original Final Fantasy 13, and somewhat longer than its sequel, Final Fantasy 13-2. Publisher Square Enix will release Lightning Returns next month in Japan, and in North America on Feb. 11, 2014.