TL;DR
- Main story completion takes 25-30 hours with 10-15 additional hours for full completion
- Game follows four-act Chronicle structure with Metroidvania-style backtracking mechanics
- Haunting Cases offer moral choices affecting Antea’s resurrection or ascension path
- Difficulty settings significantly impact boss encounter timing and resource management
- Side content completion is essential for unlocking advanced skills and abilities
Red and Antea’s epic journey through the haunted settlements of New Eden offers substantial gameplay duration, but exactly how extensive is this supernatural adventure?
Unlike sprawling open-world RPGs that demand hundreds of hours, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden delivers a focused 25-45 hour experience depending on your completion goals. The game employs a sophisticated Metroidvania design reminiscent of God of War (2018), where strategic backtracking becomes essential for uncovering all narrative layers and collectibles. This structural approach creates a dense, interconnected world rather than an expansive one.
The central narrative divides into four distinct Chronicles (acts), each containing multiple main quests. Beyond the primary storyline, players encounter optional Haunting Cases—complex moral dilemmas where you must determine guilt between settlers and spirits. Understanding the time investment required helps plan your approach to this emotionally charged supernatural mystery.
Focusing exclusively on main story objectives typically requires 25-30 hours from the initial New Eden Town prologue through the climactic confrontation with The Nightmare at the meetinghouse. This timeframe assumes minimal engagement with side content and standard difficulty settings.
For completionists aiming to experience everything New Eden offers, expect to invest an additional 10-15 hours. This includes resolving all Haunting Cases, locating cursed chests, clearing void breaches, destroying nests, and discovering hidden altars. Higher difficulty levels dramatically increase boss encounter durations due to enhanced enemy resilience and damage output.
The central narrative unfolds through meticulously crafted missions that guide Red and Antea deeper into New Eden’s supernatural mysteries. Here’s the complete progression of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden’s main story missions presented in their intended sequence:
Strategic planning for your playthrough involves understanding the four-act Chronicle structure. Each Chronicle introduces new gameplay mechanics and expands your investigative tools, making previously inaccessible areas reachable. This progression system encourages revisiting locations with new abilities to uncover hidden content and additional narrative threads.
Common mistakes include rushing through main quests without developing necessary equipment or skills, which can create significant difficulty spikes. Optimal progression involves balancing main story advancement with targeted side content exploration to maintain appropriate power levels.
The haunting case system begins with ‘The Flesh is Weak’ when encountering Jacob Lynde in his forest dwelling. Numerous additional cases scatter throughout New Eden, each presenting settlers tormented by spectral figures from their past. These apparitions remain tethered to the mortal realm through significant possessions or unresolved emotional attachments.
Typically, investigations reveal complex moral situations where either the settler, the ghost, or frequently both parties share responsibility for the haunting. Red and Antea must conduct thorough investigations by interviewing both living witnesses and spectral entities to piece together the complete story behind each supernatural occurrence.
Each case culminates in a critical decision point: blame and execute the living settler, banish the ghost to end the torment, or permit the spirit to ascend if neither party deserves full condemnation. These choices directly impact your overall narrative direction and available endings.
Players essentially assume the roles of judge, jury, and executioner. Your initial oath choice regarding Antea’s fate should guide every haunting case decision. Pursuing resurrection requires blaming as many settlers as possible, necessitating completion of all haunting cases before returning to Antea’s physical form at the meetinghouse. Alternatively, choosing ascension demands consistently banishing or allowing ghosts to ascend throughout your investigations.
Advanced strategies include documenting each case’s evidence systematically and considering long-term skill unlock requirements. Certain abilities remain inaccessible unless specific haunting cases are resolved in particular ways, adding strategic depth to your moral choices.
Action Checklist
- Choose your initial oath carefully based on desired ending (resurrection vs ascension)
- Balance main story progress with haunting case completion for optimal skill development
- Document haunting case evidence and decisions to track narrative consequences
- Return to previously explored areas with new abilities to access hidden content
- Complete all haunting cases before the final meetinghouse confrontation
No reproduction without permission:SeeYouSoon Game Club » How Long To Beat Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden – Mission List And Haunting Cases Explained Complete guide to Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden playtime, quest structure, and haunting case mechanics
