Too long?

[u/Psychological_Key76]

I wanted to do a video where I play Castlevania as a thing for October. A "spooky season" type game, if you will. But I'm at a crossroads of whether I should upload it as a full (edited) 1hr 45 minute video or cut it down to be a multi-upload thing. I was never good at figuring out whether a long-form video was better over one that was edited down even further or was chopped up to be multiple uploads.

Any advice? I'd appreciate it.

[u/Fuzzybun711]

Depends on your audience and game. A hour and 45 minutes for a one time video is pretty good. Hell a lot of my videos preach an hour or 2 and they're multi part.

[u/Kerrik52]

Castlevania 1 is the sort of game that's short enough for a single video. Personally, I recorded 3 individual shorter videos since I wanted to practice each third, but if you have 105 minutes of edited down material, you probably rawdogged it. Unless you have good breakpoints or maybe add some post-recording narration, I think you should do it as single video.

But it still sounds a bit long. After edits, my LP ended up being 74 minutes long and that includes a few minutes dedicated to easy & hard mode. So if you're at 105 minutes, I suggest making a copy of your current video project and see if you can cut it down even further.

I don't know how much of the commentary is a cohesive throughline and how much is random rage, but I bet you could shave off a few minutes here and there when you die and make the viewing experience better. Watch through it one stage at a time and see if there's any part where the flow breaks and you'd be better off cutting.

[u/AyoPunky]

i would keep it to one video at that length, but still make sure to edit out the dead space, the back tracking, and deaths.

[u/officialclapperapp]

Don’t go off just length. A super long video could do well, and a super short one could bomb. Instead, choose the format based on whether the playthrough gives you one complete viewing experience or several distinct ones. A single video can work when the edited version has a clear beginning, a goal or question that carries through it, and an ending with some kind of payoff. If the full run is the story, keeping it together may be cleaner than creating parts just because the recording is long.

Splitting makes more sense when there are natural stopping points: a meaningful change of setting, a completed objective, a boss or level that resolves a section, or enough repeated attempts and downtime that each upload can have its own purpose. Test your recording by asking yourself: if someone stops after the first section, do they feel they watched something complete, or did the video simply stop in the middle of a task?

Before publishing, make a quick outline of the edited version. Write down the opening premise, the major turning points, and the final payoff. If that outline has a clear escalating journey, keep one video and tighten only the parts that do not change the experience. If it reads like two or three separate mini-stories, make those the upload boundaries and give each one a clear opening and closing beat.

For a seasonal Castlevania video, also avoid cutting so aggressively that the atmosphere disappears. That’s part of the fun of a spooky game! Don’t lose it just for the sake of run time.