Pokémon Sword & Shield’s length will be the same as previous games, but hardcore fans will have plenty left to do once the main storyline is done.

The countdown to the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield is well and truly on. At the time of typing this, there’s only a little more than two weeks to go until the Switch gets its first fully-fledged, original Pokémon games. Trainers are eager to get their teeth into the Galar region, and have already been given plenty of sneak peeks as to what we can expect from Pokémon’s take on Great Britain.

The Galar region looks pretty extensive and will offer up a bunch of brand new Pokémon as well as Galar versions of some old favorites. Trainers didn’t ask for Weezing wearing stovepipe hats but will be pleased that they have them. On the downside, these games will be the first not to feature a full Pokédex. There are almost 900 Pokémon now—cut the developers some slack.

A limited dex might have some players worried that Sword and Shield won’t offer up as much playing time as previous Pokémon games. Well fear not, the games’ director Shigeru Ohmori revealed to Game Informer that Sword and Shield will be “comparable to other Pokémon generations that we’ve played” in terms of length.

That means about 30 hours of playing time to get through the game’s main story. As with all Pokémon games though, Sword and Shield will be so much more than that one straight line. There will be a dex to complete, quests to accomplish, and most exciting of all, the games’ Wild Area. Sword and Shield’s Wild Area will add a lot of content and make them the most in-depth games of all for hardcore fans looking for as much to do as possible.

Ohmori claims that the Wild Area will add a lot of “reply time” for players looking to go well beyond those initial 30 hours. The area will also include max raid battles, similar to those trainers will have come across in Pokémon GO, to which the director admits even he has struggled to make it past the most difficult of them. Players might have a 30-hour quest ahead of them come November 15, but chances are they’ll still be playing Sword and Shield well into the new year if they so choose.

Source: Game Informer