yeah, there was a real trend a few years ago of padding rpgs out with pointless busy-quests to make the game seem bigger than it needed to be. I think that's starting to be less of a thing which is nice. I'd rather play a 40 hour well told narrative than 100 hours of "go and find me 10 doohickeys".
It's a big game and can get overwhelming, so I definitely recommend breaking it up into small achievable things. When your characters need a long rest, take one yourself!
Same for the longest time - I just didn't have patience for long games until Baldurs Gate 3 which grabbed me because of the story and characters. Dragon Age Veilguard (not as long as BG3 but still 80+ hours if you do the side quests) is the same.
If a game is long and repetitive, filled with fetch quests and not much plot I lose interest quickly, but a well-crafted story will keep me hooked.
I still like to play in short sessions, a couple hours at a time, which helps break the long games up into "chapters" and make them feel less like a slog.
@innkeeper @thegamertavern erm yes, not me either! š©ļø