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If the complaint is about Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, the frustration is understandable—but the available evidence does not show that every modern game is padded. It shows a franchise deliberately changing direction after A Plague Tale: Requiem, with more dynamic play and a larger combat role. Whether that feels like welcome variety or unnecessary length remains a matter of how each player experiences the pacing.
The game this complaint most likely means
“A Plague Tale Resonance” appears to abbreviate the official title Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy. It is not the same game as A Plague Tale: Requiem. The new title is presented as a fresh direction for the series, with Sophia at its center, while Requiem followed the siblings’ journey through stealth, weapons, tools and supernatural powers.
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The distinction matters because “padding” is often used to describe a familiar feeling rather than a measurable feature. A chapter can feel padded when its travel, combat encounters or puzzles repeat without changing the stakes. Another player may read the same material as atmosphere, character development or a necessary breather. Neither reaction can be settled by game length alone.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchThe developer has described an intention to alter the rhythm. In the Official Xbox Podcast published August 24, 2026, Asobo Studio producer Eric Chort said: “We wanted to be more dynamic. We wanted also to have combat.” That is a statement of design goals, not proof that the finished game is shorter, tighter or free of repetition.
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Is there evidence that all games are heavily padded now?
No. The available coverage does not provide an industry-wide statistic measuring padding, nor does it establish that padding has increased over time. It offers a developer interview, a publisher description, one dated review and hands-on reporting. Those sources can explain this series’ direction and one critic’s experience; they cannot support a blanket claim about every current game.
That does not make the complaint meaningless. Players encounter padding in recognizable ways:
- the same encounter is repeated after the player has already mastered it;
- optional objectives add distance without adding a new decision;
- story scenes pause for errands that do not change the characters or situation;
- an upgrade system asks for grinding rather than experimentation;
- hints or tutorials interrupt a puzzle before the player has had a fair chance to solve it.
These are useful tests for a particular game. They are not evidence that the whole medium follows one trend.
Why Requiem is part of the argument
Focus Entertainment’s description of A Plague Tale: Requiem emphasizes a dangerous journey for the siblings and a toolkit combining stealth, weapons, tools and supernatural powers. That mixture creates deliberate variation, but it can also produce long stretches in which the player moves between exploration, stealth, combat and environmental problem-solving at a pace that some players find uneven.
Chort’s account adds an important piece of context: after Requiem, the team felt emotionally exhausted and wanted a more dynamic game with combat. The statement explains why the next project is not simply repeating the previous formula. It does not say that Requiem was objectively padded, and it does not promise that Resonance will eliminate slow sections.
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Intent is not the same as result
“More dynamic” can mean faster encounters, more frequent changes in activity or a broader range of player choices. It can also mean that combat occupies more of the campaign. A game can be more dynamic and still feel overlong if its new systems are introduced repeatedly without developing.
That is why a producer’s quote should be read as a hypothesis about the experience. The relevant question for players is whether each additional section changes the way they play, understand Sophia or interpret the story.
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GamesRadar+’s hands-on report says the new game pursues a more dynamic tone and pace, with more involved puzzles. It also reports that players can ask companions for hints instead of receiving forced hints. That is a meaningful design choice: optional assistance can preserve the satisfaction of solving a problem while still helping players who are stuck.
The report supports a change in puzzle and hint design, not a verdict on the campaign’s total length. “More involved” puzzles may make a chapter last longer while also making that time feel more purposeful. Conversely, a difficult puzzle can become padding if its solution is opaque and the player spends time retrying without learning anything.
Creative Bloq’s review, published August 26, 2026, assessed the PS5 version. The review praised the art direction and story but criticized the Theseus combat as undercooked. That combination is especially relevant to the padding debate: a beautiful, story-rich game can still lose momentum when a central combat system does not provide enough depth or variety.
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One review cannot establish a consensus or provide measured pacing data. It does, however, identify a concrete place where a player might feel the game is stretching a system beyond what it can support. If combat encounters rely on an underdeveloped mechanic, additional encounters are more likely to feel like filler.
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Instead of asking which game is “padded,” compare the experiences along specific axes. The evidence currently supports differences in intended design and reported impressions, not a definitive ranking.
| Axis | A Plague Tale: Requiem | Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy |
|---|---|---|
| Series role | Described by Focus Entertainment as the siblings’ journey through stealth, weapons, tools and supernatural powers. | Presented by Asobo as a new direction for the franchise, centered on Sophia. |
| Developer’s stated emphasis | The cited material does not include a retrospective claim that its campaign was padded. | Producer Eric Chort said the team wanted a more dynamic game and wanted combat. |
| Puzzle and hint design | The cited material does not describe a revised hint system. | Hands-on coverage reports more involved puzzles and optional companion hints. |
| Combat evidence | The publisher description lists weapons among the available tools. | A PS5 review praised the story and art direction but called the Theseus combat undercooked. |
| What can be concluded about padding | Players may disagree about pacing; no measured padding statistic is supplied. | Intentional changes are documented, but no source proves the game is shorter or avoids repetition. |
How to decide whether a section feels padded
Use a simple test while playing rather than relying on the campaign’s raw hours.
1. Track what changes after each encounter
After a fight, puzzle or traversal sequence, ask whether you gained a new option, learned something about a character or entered a different kind of situation. A repeated activity earns its place when it raises the stakes or teaches a new application of a tool.
2. Separate friction from atmosphere
Slow movement is not automatically padding. A quiet section can establish danger, give a character room to react or make a later escalation effective. It becomes padding when the same emotional and mechanical information has already been delivered and the player is only covering distance.
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3. Look for meaningful variation in combat
More combat does not automatically mean better pacing. Check whether enemy behavior, terrain, equipment or objectives change. If every encounter asks for the same solution, the extra battles will feel longer even when individual fights are short.
4. Judge puzzles by decision quality
A puzzle should reward observation, experimentation or planning. Optional hints can be a strength because they let players choose when to receive help. If a hint arrives before a player has time to form a theory, it can undermine the puzzle; if no useful feedback arrives after several attempts, the puzzle can become dead time.
5. Notice whether story and mechanics reinforce each other
Story-focused games often repeat an action to make it emotionally significant. Repetition feels justified when the mechanic expresses the character’s situation or changes its meaning. It feels padded when the narrative pauses for an activity that could be removed without affecting either plot or character.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The Theseus combat concern
The Theseus criticism deserves attention because combat is part of the stated new direction. If the system is undercooked, players may experience a mismatch between the promise of a more active game and the depth of the activity they are asked to perform.
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Players who prioritize story and visual direction may accept that trade-off. Players who expected combat to become a fully developed pillar may find the same encounters conspicuous. Both reactions are consistent with the review’s combination of praise and criticism.
Why optional hints matter to pacing
Forced hints can make a game feel padded in an unusual way: the player spends time waiting for a solution while the game also removes the satisfaction of finding it. The hands-on report’s description of companion hints that players can request addresses that tension by putting the timing under player control.
Optional assistance is not a guarantee of concise pacing. A player who never asks for help may spend longer on a puzzle, while another may use a hint immediately. The feature changes who controls the pause, which is more useful than claiming that the game is simply faster.
A better way to discuss “modern game padding”
Broad complaints become more useful when they name the design choice that caused the irritation. Instead of “all games are padded,” ask:
- Are open areas repeating traversal without new encounters or discoveries?
- Does the upgrade economy require activities unrelated to the main strategy?
- Are combat arenas reusing the same objectives and enemy combinations?
- Do story transitions add context, or only add distance?
- Can the player control tutorial and hint timing?
Those questions can be applied to Requiem, Resonance or any other release without pretending that one player’s pacing preference is a universal measurement.
What the evidence supports right now
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is a deliberate change in direction, not confirmed proof of a shorter campaign. Asobo has stated a desire for more dynamic play and combat. Hands-on coverage reports more involved puzzles and optional hints. A PS5 review praises the art and story while finding the Theseus combat underdeveloped.
Those details give players a grounded way to set expectations. If you wanted Requiem to move between activities more aggressively, the new design goals may sound promising. If you disliked combat that lacked depth, the Theseus criticism is a warning sign. If your definition of padding is any quiet traversal or extended puzzle, neither the developer’s intention nor the early coverage can guarantee that the game will suit you.
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The fair conclusion is narrower than the headline’s frustration: some modern games contain sections that individual players experience as padding, but no evidence here establishes an industry-wide increase. For Resonance, the meaningful test is whether its added combat, puzzle design and companion-hint system keep changing the player’s decisions—and whether those changes earn the time they consume.
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