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Regarding the new simulation RPG Fire Emblem: A Thousand Blooms, a Switch 2 exclusive, a walkthrough site’s estimate of clear time became a hot topic on 5ch’s Hardware & Industry (Geha) board. Even a speedrun-style playthrough done specifically to build the walkthrough reportedly took 140 hours — surpassing the roughly 70 hours for the 3DS version of Dragon Quest VII and the roughly 100 hours for Persona 5. Opinions were divided between surprise that a 140-hour clear report had appeared so soon after launch, and speculation over how long an actual playthrough — including repeat runs — would really take.
[A Thousand Blooms] Estimated Clear Time and Volume [Fire Emblem: A Thousand Blooms]
Last updated:
September 21, 2026, 17:16
Source: gamewith.jp / Original article here
What people said
This sets a kind of benchmark for how much content Nintendo packs into its ¥9,980 premium-priced games — but if Xenoblade gets bumped up to ¥9,980 and tries to match this scale, the padding and busywork could get brutal.
Whoever decided to scatter a ton of barrels and ore deposits all over the dungeons is an idiot.
Yeah, it's right there in the text lol
Since it takes so long to clear, there's a real problem with too many people faking a quick clear without actually playing (エアプ, 'air-play' — claiming to have played without really doing it).
I don't think I could finish an SRPG like this.
Even with 28-hour days and being a short sleeper like some Tuber out there, that still wouldn't cut it lol
You can auto-train and fast-forward time all the way up to the day of the event, so if you're 'just' clearing it, it doesn't actually take that long.
Sure, you'll miss a lot along the way, but on Normal it's not that hard a game to begin with.
Even in the mobile gacha scene people don't cite it because it's full of folks who haven't actually played (エアプ).
That's about the only place they can dig up comments convenient for their argument.
Those guys probably never cared much about Engage lol
So what exactly is different about A Thousand Blooms?
Go listen to Lord Dietrich's (voiced by Satoshi Hino) gorgeous voice already 😡
Main game: approx. 10 hours
Cutscenes only: approx. 4 hours
Actual gameplay = 6 hours
No post-clear content
There's no end-game-style content added after you clear Part 3.
Once you've cleared all three parts, the idea is to go back and replay each chapter of each part to your own satisfaction.
So what's actually fun about that?
Someone explain it to me.
Collecting support conversations
Recruiting everyone as an ally, stuff like that, probably.
It's not some chat game with gals, so you need to actually enjoy the map battles or…
Apparently Three Houses fans genuinely enjoy that kind of thing though.
If you just want tough enemies, there are ones near level 40 in the southeast area even early on.
But doesn't time keep passing while you do that?
If it weren't for that annoying mechanic I'd consider it, but as it is you're just locked in and stressed out.
There's a carry-over feature
It gets easier from the second playthrough onward.
Clear it twice and you can estimate the time for four playthroughs from that.
Is everyone on Geha a middle-school dropout or something?
At that rate it might end up a 200-hour pace for me personally.
Yeah, that's right — Re: #1's 'Part 1: about 30 hours to clear with the first protagonist' is roughly what you get playing smoothly.
The clear reports people have posted in other threads line up with about that much playtime too.
The bandit chase in Kai's Chapter 2 —
I ran into the trigger character and the chapter cleared before I'd finished collecting all the treasure chests,
so I reset it.
There's probably a lot of stuff like that.
If that bothers you, Wolverine is right up your alley.
Yeah, with Wolverine you get a 10-hour clear time, nearly half of it cutscenes, plus a ton of bugs — maybe that really is 'the best.' (sarcastic)
Don't sulk just because third parties keep fleeing the platform.
Coming from the PS5, which has almost no exclusives left compared to the PS4 era, that just sounds hollow.
Background and Key Points
It’s worth noting that the “140 hours” figure is a walkthrough site’s estimate from testing the shortest possible route, not the time an average player would feel they spent. Like Fire Emblem: Three Houses, this title has a three-part structure with multiple protagonist routes, so clear time varies a lot depending on whether you play through every route. While some want this level of volume from a ¥9,980 Nintendo title, the thread showed no consensus — there was skepticism that a 140-hour clear report appeared so soon after launch, and disagreement over how to estimate time assuming repeat playthroughs. A point readers can easily get wrong: this figure isn’t the “minimum time needed to clear” the game, but playtime under the special conditions of building a walkthrough.
*This article excerpts and summarizes the 5ch (Hardware & Industry (Geha)) thread “Switch 2-exclusive Fire Emblem: A Thousand Blooms takes 140 hours to clear — a grueling game that beats DQ7 and Persona 4/5.”
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