Is there a reason behind unskipable cinematics?

[Jandau]

Why do some developers still neglect to put a "skip!!!" button of some sort in their games? Is it some form of torture? Testing the player's endurance? Perhaps a way to get the players to get off their arses for a few minutes while the damn thing plays out? Or just crappy design?

Specifically, how can one possibly justify putting a several minute long cutscene right before a tough boss fight? How can anyone think that's a good idea? Haven't the years of feedback from gamers gotten through? And yet, these things still happen...

As you might have guessed, the questions posed in the previous paragraph were motivated by a specific occurence. Namely, The Last Remnant (PC version): Mostly I can sing praises to this game. Truly it does honor to the genre. But I've ran into a bit of a snag. At the end of one of the early dungeons, a cutscene occurs. It is a good cutscene, featuring emotion, intrigue, shiny spells and 20 meter tall swords. It also lasts several minutes.

After this cutscene comes a boss fight. This fight is entirely luck-based, to the extent that I've had my units drop dead before they got to do anything in the FIRST ROUND! This is compunded by the fact that 3/4 of your units are controlled by the AI, so forming a plan is useless. Overall, the battle is a mess, but I'm bound to get a lucky break eventually.

HOWEVER! I've had to suffer through the cinematic four times already. It was especially fun in the aforementioned "Death on the first turn" instance, where I barely got to press 2 buttons before having to watch the damn cutscene again. HOW can this be good game design? How can this NOT be obsolete at this point?

This also reminded me of other similar situations, such as a certain cinematic in FF9 involving a lot of dragons and a skyship fleet. That one was awesome and didn't deserve to be remembered with hate. Yet it is, since it preceedes a damn boss fight...

This thread is as much of an actual topic as it is just me venting. However, I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on the subject.

 

[Dudemeister]

Well maybe it's just to make sure players don't miss cutscenes that are important to the plot of the game.
Still, having said that, Metal Gear Solid's movie length cutscenes take the piss.

 

[Alucarde666]

I had a game like that it had a cut scene before a boss fight I had to do like 12 times.

 

[Shycte]

Cuz' they want us to suffer.

No, but I guess it's there so we don't miss any story development

 

[sirdanrhodes]

So we get a new series on the Escapist.

 

[The Oddfellow]

If its a game with a complex storyline and doesn't explain it in-game, they need somewhere to chuck explanations in.

 

[Naeo]

Cuz' they want us to suffer.

No, but I guess it's there so we don't miss any story development

Makes sense, kind of.

Why can't they do it this way: you have to watch it the first time, and after that it's skippable?

The only reason I can think of that has any ground as to unskippable cutscenes is so people don't accidentally hit the button and skip them. Which if they do, it's their own fault. Get around this with what Tomb Raider: Legends did- skip from the cutscene menu. A quick and relatively painless solution.

Or just have a designated "skip cutscene" button like all sensible games do.

 

[AdmiralWolverineLightningbolt]

cause it takes them several hundreds of hours to program these games which are finished in under twenty often, they therefore wanted a way to completely screw over the player - basically for chuckles

 

[Metalchair]

maybe their game isnt that good so they need something for us to look at. enter unskippable cinematics

 

[Sparrow]

So we get a new series on the Escapist.

/thread

 

[gamegod25]

@Topic

yes it's called lazy programming.

 

[KaZZaP]

Because some people spent weeks slaving over a computer to make that god damn scene and the least you could do is not skip over it just to get to the bloodshed faster.

 

[Kiutu]

Because some people spent weeks slaving over a computer to make that god damn scene and the least you could do is not skip over it just to get to the bloodshed faster.

Do realise that it is not always that reason people want to skip them. I always watch any cutscene the first time I see it, but if I lost and had to redo it or perhaps am playign a second run and know the scene already, would be better to skip it. Besides, it is counter-productive to annoy the people playing the games if you want them to like it. I am pro-gallery sections, people who want to watch the scenes again will. I know I do sometimes.

 

[entwinex]

I think it's just asinine game design, it's shocking how minor details like this are often overlooked in a game they work years on.

But I guess in theory an unskippable cutscene could also be used so that the game would have time to load the next level or whatever in the background, I doubt this is the case tho.

 

[KaZZaP]

Because some people spent weeks slaving over a computer to make that god damn scene and the least you could do is not skip over it just to get to the bloodshed faster.

Do realise that it is not always that reason people want to skip them. I always watch any cutscene the first time I see it, but if I lost and had to redo it or perhaps am playign a second run and know the scene already, would be better to skip it. Besides, it is counter-productive to annoy the people playing the games if you want them to like it. I am pro-gallery sections, people who want to watch the scenes again will. I know I do sometimes.

Ya if the game doesn't let you skip it the second time threw that is a little annoying.

 

[KamachoMcSagget]

if the cutscene is really important, than i guess it would be okay, but the longest unskippable things usually come before boss fights, which gets annoying.
I wish developers would put in some kind of system that lets you skip cutscenes if you've all ready seen them once

 

[vamp rocks]

im all for games forcing you to watch cutscenes for plot etc.. but i think that these cutscenes before hard bits seriously piss me off.. what i have seen a few games do and what i want to see more of, is the cutscene is only unskippable the first time you watch it.. and from there on it is skippable.. that seems fair to me.

 

[Thomly]

Rofl google for it, you can skip cutscenes in "The Last Remnant" xD