As an RPG fan, I play plenty of lengthy games. Final Fantasy games typically run a solid 60 hours. When a new Persona game comes out, I plan to hand over around 100 hours of my life. I've heard of players dropping hundreds of hours into games like Oblivion and MMOs. But Square's recent handheld magnum opus, Dragon Quest IX? One hardcore fan recently hit 100% after an astounding 773 hours.

Tiny Cartridge has an interview with hardcore gamer Steve Stolin, who finally hit the 100% mark in DQ IX last week following the release of the game's final downloadable quest. Stolin says on NeoGAF that most of his playtime for the last few months has been a mere hour every Friday as each new quest has released, but clearly that play time has added up.

Stolin was rewarded for his efforts by receiving a special note from Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii upon completion of the final quest. I'm sure some readers are tempted to make jokes about sinking so many hours into a single game, but honestly? Dragon Quest IX is pretty cool, and if you get enough enjoyment out of a game to keep playing it for that long, I say good for you! He got his money's worth.