Is there any excuse to not make cutscenes skippable anymore?

[bartholen_v1legacy]

A question that popped into my mind a while ago when playing the FFX remaster for PS3. The game is great, holds up really well, and thanks to the remaster, looks really pretty. So why am I still, 13 years after the original release, being forced to sit through the hours worth of cutscenes in the starting hours of the game when I hate the story, hate almost all the characters, and just want to get to playing the damn game?

The question is in the title. To my understanding it was sometimes mandatory in the past because of all the rendering games had to do in the background and the technology wasn't there yet. But I seriously doubt it's necessary anymore.

 

[MetalDooley]

The ability to skip,pause,rewind and fast forward cutscenes should be an industry standard and the fact that it's still not in 2015 is a joke.So to answer your question OP no there is no excuse

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Well a lot of game still do loading behind the cutscenes so there is that. I guess the reason you don't want players to be able skip the cutscenes is simply that they might actually do it and miss out on all that storyboard work. I could be difficult and complain why are you bothering to play at all if you plan to skip the most important part, but I am trying to tone down on that... Oh wait.

 

[MetalDooley]

I could be difficult and complain why are you bothering to play at all if you plan to skip the most important part, but I am trying to tone down on that

What if I'm replaying a game and don't fancysitting through hours of cutscenes again?On top of that I'd argue that the most important part of a game is the gameplay rather than the story

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

I could be difficult and complain why are you bothering to play at all if you plan to skip the most important part, but I am trying to tone down on that

What if I'm replaying a game and don't fancysitting through hours of cutscenes again?On top of that I'd argue that the most important part of a game is the gameplay rather than the story

Well I guess in I might as well, you know now that I am here. Some games have the mechanics as the most important part, but I don't know if you can make that argument for all games and a FF game is a good example of one where the story is a very important part.

Now if you don't fancy sitting through a cutscenes again, I can understand that. If I was to play it over I can think of a few elments I would like to see cut out. That chocobo race, lighting dodging, all that time you have to spend capturing monsters and then the random encounter grinding. You don't always want to slug through all the bad to get to the good

 

[Tony2077]

they should be skippable after you've seen them

 

[Ronald Nand]

A question that popped into my mind a while ago when playing the FFX remaster for PS3. The game is great, holds up really well, and thanks to the remaster, looks really pretty. So why am I still, 13 years after the original release, being forced to sit through the hours worth of cutscenes in the starting hours of the game when I hate the story, hate almost all the characters, and just want to get to playing the damn game?

The question is in the title. To my understanding it was sometimes mandatory in the past because of all the rendering games had to do in the background and the technology wasn't there yet. But I seriously doubt it's necessary anymore.

To be fair FFX is an old game relatively speaking, so there probably engine limitations which stopped them from allowing cutscene skipping, at the time it was probably acceptable to have unskippable cutscenes. I ran into a similar issue with MGS3, where I couldn't pause cutscenes, which became a problem during one of the long Virtuous Mission cutscenes.

You should probably check out the Spoony Experiment Review of FFX, if you haven't already, the reviewer is just like you he really likes the battle system but hates to story and characters. Story is a big part of all the FF games, wouldn't you be better off finding a modern JRPG that is influenced by the battle system.

Anyways, all games should have some kind of skip cutscene button, a pause button is a nice bonus too. Even if the game is as story focused as FF, people whom play the game a second time might want to skip certain parts of the story.

 

[Akjosch]

Well, you have this amazing artistic vision for a story which frankly everyone in the world should experience in the fullest, unabridged form, because only this way it will change their life ...

(I never claimed it was a good excuse, but I saw it often enough.)

 

[Creator002]

No. I make 2D games with the character art done in GIMP and background art in MS Paint (and edited with GIMP). Even there I can make cutscene skippable and usually do. When I don't, it's because I forgot.

EDIT (for an added point): I don't even mind if skipping the cutscene means the game has to overtly load. And I would love if every game at least added pausing to a cutscene. Restarted Dragon Age Inquisition recently (due to Origin confusing me on which save was most recent and deleting my only save) and nearly every other cutscene, I've wanted to pause. Whether it's been messages on my phone, someone coming in to talk or just because I needed to pee. Can't do it.

 

[Drakmorg]

No. Also let's make an addendum that all cutscenes should be able to be paused as well. It is not always possible to play games in a state where I am guaranteed to not have my attention needing to be torn from it at any given moment, do not punish me for things beyond my control by forcing me to miss parts of cutscenes if I have to do something else in the middle of one, game developers. Hell, Final Fantasy XII got that right, and that was well over 9 years ago.

 

[BeeGeenie]

Hey, Terry worked really hard on those. The least you can do is sit through them politely.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Ride to Hell Retribution, the lowest scored retail game on the xbox 360 and PS3, had cutscenes that could be both paused and skipped. No, there is no excuse.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Nah, cutscenes are great. You can go get a sandwich, take a leak.

Unless they're those cutscenes where you still have to advance the scene with button presses. Those suck. Of course, that also describes 95% of the combat, and I figure you should be able to skip that too.

 

[PureChaos]

If it's the first time you're paying a game it's fair enough the cutscenes can't be skipped just in case there's something important happening that would mean the game won't make sense if you accidentally skip it but, after that, yes, there's no reason they shouldn't be. Worst offenders are long cutscenes just before hard bosses so you have to sit through it every time you die and try again.

 

[CrystalShadow]

A question that popped into my mind a while ago when playing the FFX remaster for PS3. The game is great, holds up really well, and thanks to the remaster, looks really pretty. So why am I still, 13 years after the original release, being forced to sit through the hours worth of cutscenes in the starting hours of the game when I hate the story, hate almost all the characters, and just want to get to playing the damn game?

The question is in the title. To my understanding it was sometimes mandatory in the past because of all the rendering games had to do in the background and the technology wasn't there yet. But I seriously doubt it's necessary anymore.

Although I understand your complaint, (and I don't think it's OK really, for any game to have unskippable cutscenes), I do find it slightly odd that anyone would want to play a jrpg when they don't like the story.
JRPG gameplay, to me at least, is usually rather on the annoying side, and I would not typically consider them worth playIng without their story.
So to hear that someone wants to skip the story feels very, very weird to me. That feels like throwing out most of what a game is about, and only paying attention to it's badly implemented minigames...

Still, on-topic, cutscenes should be skippable. And ideally, it should be possible to rewind, fast-forward and pause them too.
(because sometimes part of the cutscene is dull, but you still want to see some parts of it, or you miss an important bit.)

Especially long cutscenes could also definitely do with a pause button. Eferything needs a pause button sooner or later. >_>

 

[Casual Shinji]

Yes, there's an excuse; Shitty loading. *looks at Max Payne 3*

 

[FPLOON]

Because video games aren't movies that you buy on Blu-Ray and/or on a digital format... Video games are movies you see in theaters....

Oh wait...

Anyway, I sure the developers just want to showcase how cool the cutscenes are (aka to showcase the story like you're suppose to care about and shit) without someone skipping it all the [damn] time... I mean, they put a lot of work into those cutscenes and here you, the general you, go metaphorically saying "Fuck that" by pressing the skip button? For shame!

Oh wait...

I guess what I'm trying to say is that they don't wants players to miss out on anything that they have been working on for some time now... It must dishearten them that they even have to put in a skip button, especially when those QA testers have to test it out on every single frame of the cutscene so that you don't end up with any game-breaking glitches or some shit like that, but hey... It's all about the gameplay, so there's that, right? For me, I don't honestly care if I could skip a cutscene or not... I only care if I die and I can only restart right before the long-ass cutscene with the plot twist and shit... I mean, you couldn't have put a checkpoint after that, right developers?

Wait... What was the question again?

 

[Risingblade]

Of course there's an excuse, your convenience isn't worth the resources ;D

 

[Smooth Operator]

No excuse other then laziness.
In fact we should be getting a steady stream of improvements over the years resulting in more and more options regarding cut-scenes.