The neverending cutscene story

Captain Caveman · Post by **Captain Caveman** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 10:30 pm

After recently finishing "Return to Mysterious Island" in just a couple of sittings, I was seriously jonesing for some more old school adventure game action. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a used copy of "The Longest Journey" the other day, and gladly plopped down 7 bucks in order to own what I have been told is one of the greatest adventure games ever made. Well, for the most part I'm loving it so far, but my goodness, some of the cutscenes in this game last forever. For instance, I just endured a nearly 15 minute monologue delivered by a high priest concerning the storyline's moderately interesting but totally redundant background history. During his seemingly neverending diatribe, I began to wonder if I might be witnessing the longest cutscene in the history of gaming. This alone made me want to endure it to the bitter end.

So, tell me gaming gurus, does anyone know of any other games with cutscenes longer than this one? And are the rest of you as bothered by lengthy cutscenes as much as I am? I'm all for a good story-- I wouldn't play adventure games if that wasn't the case-- but anything over 5 minutes and I begin twitching for some action, or at the very least, the opportunity to pull a few levers and decipher a few cryptic riddles.

O.DOGG · Post by **O.DOGG** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 10:39 pm

Heh, try playing Metal Gear Solid 2. Some of these cutscenes towards the end easily last more than 15 minutes. I don't mind, though. They were nicely done and I've always loved watching CGI animations ever since the old DOS games where the CGI movies were a rarity given as a reward at the end of the level or when you beat the game.

warning · Post by **warning** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 10:46 pm

Nothing compares to the original Xenosaga.

Jolor · Post by **Jolor** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:26 pm

15 minutes? Just how much are you exagerating this by? <curious>

I just finished Anachronox and thought that this game set the record for longest scenes; but they couldn't have been more than two minutes or more at longest. Even the sniffy, romantic ones.

edit = I could start a thread on "Your favourite cut scene from Anachronox".

Captain Caveman · Post by **Captain Caveman** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:33 pm

I guess "cutscene" may not be the correct term for what I endured. The scene primarily involved just one voice-acted character delivering the most pedantic of speeches (and no, 15 minutes is not an exaggeration, at least not much of one

). A few times, the image on the screen would change to another still-shot of some painting the windbag was decoding for you, but really, it was just one looooong voiceover.

ChrisGrenard · Post by **ChrisGrenard** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:52 pm

NOTHING has cutscenes like the Metal Gear Solid series. If we were to talk about what percent of the game is just cutscenes, Metal Gear would be close to 30%. Depending on how fast you were, maybe even 40%.

Sure, Xenosaga had some long cutscenes, but they didn't take up almost half the game!

Faldarian · Post by **Faldarian** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 12:20 am

To make it worse, Metal Gear Solid 2's cutscene and story creators were made honorary members of the Department of Redundancy Department.

Inane dialog? Check.
No cohesion or sense to what's going on whatsoever? Check.
Stupid names for everyone that makes everyone seem like a silly caricature of what they should? Check.

Extremely long cutscenes to describe what has to be one of the most incomprehensible and idiotic stories included in any video game? Bingo.

I can't believe I finished that game. I still cringe when I think about the story and dialog... And that they bothered with the long movies in the game to showcase the story. Yeesh.

Huw the Poo · Post by **Huw the Poo** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 1:37 am

This is precisely the one and only reason I never played MGS2.

Impervious · Post by **Impervious** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 1:40 am

Metal Gear Solid 2 is the only game that I have ever fallen asleep while playing er watching. I swear the game starts out, and I'm getting pumped "sweet i get to fight this dude" no just a cutscene. Oh well maybe when I walk through this door somethign will happen, no just a cutscene. Well maybe after the first half and hour they will slow down, no just another cutscene.

EddieA · Post by **EddieA** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 3:32 am

It depends on the quality of the cutscenes. I've gotten bored watching ones that are a minute long because they aren't well-made, yet I loved the 20+ minutes one in Xenosaga.

Noman · Post by **Noman** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 3:35 am

Longest Journey indeed had too many dialogues - something that its designers acknowledged as well.

In my opinion, it has excellent graphics and artstyle but the gameplay, puzzles and writing are quite mediocre. I remember the 15 minute temple speech that the original poster mentioned. Only that, I slept about 5-10 minutes during that scene.

For TLJ, I had to turn spoken dialogues off. The game had an excellent journal which could record all the dialogues. Skipping over never-ending conversations and then reading quickly through the journal were the only reasons I was able to finish the game.

Padre · Post by **Padre** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 7:57 am

Man, I loved the speeches in TLJ. But the game was more like a book than, well, a game. I guess you sorta had to bend your attitudes around that. Certainly it was slow paced, but I just enjoyed bathing in the nuances of the games backstory and atmosphere.

edosan · Post by **edosan** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 9:56 am

I played an adventure game once called Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy -- it seemed like three huge cutscenes split up by about thiry minutes of gameplay. (and really boring too, if I recall correctly)

Besides that, TLJ probably has the longest cutscenes in any game I've played semi-recently, but then again, most adventure games I turn on subtitles and zip through cutscenes as fast as I can.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 11:55 am

I dont know but thats why I quit playing TLJ. I have'nt touched it in many months. Boring. They shoulda just made it a cgi movie so I could be done with it.

yossar · Post by **yossar** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 1:19 pm

I think I missed some of the story in TLJ, because I would just zone out and blow through some of those long speeches (and I know exactly the one you're talking about).

I have Metal Gear Solid 2 sitting unopened (got it used for $5) but I haven't played it yet because I'm worried about the cutscenes.

I hate cutscenes. If you can't tell me the story ingame while I'm playing, I don't want to know it. Planescape:Torment was about as much story as I could take, and that might only be because the story was so much better than any other game. And it didn't have cutscenes.

Caine · Post by **Caine** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 1:47 pm

xenosaga had the longest cutscenes of any game i have played. long enough to warrant a save in the middle of them. think about that. in most games, when save points are used, it's after a big boss or a lengthy dungeon.

in xs, they figured that after the first 30 minutes of one bit, you might want to take a break and start from the mid point later on.

i really wanted to like that game.

O.DOGG · Post by **O.DOGG** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 2:40 pm

yossar, I think you're making a big mistake by not playing MGS2. It is an excellent game - nay, a top notch game - and you're doing yourself a disservice by not playing it. And the cutscenes are GOOD! Even though there are many long cutscenes, the gameplay is not lacking in any way because of them.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 4:34 pm

not to hijack..but I saw where Runaway a Road Adventure is now like $5...I heard good things on it and loved the demo. I think I may try it. Maybe you'd like it also.

yossar · Post by **yossar** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 9:39 pm

O.DOGG wrote:yossar, I think you're making a big mistake by not playing MGS2. It is an excellent game - nay, a top notch game - and you're doing yourself a disservice by not playing it. And the cutscenes are GOOD! Even though there are many long cutscenes, the gameplay is not lacking in any way because of them.

I'm not avoiding it, per se. It's just hasn't reached the top of my queue yet. And if I keep buying games, I'm not sure it ever will. Just on PS2, if and when I ever pick up God of War or Mercenaries, those get bumped ahead of it in the queue. And then there are also PC games...

Part of the problem is that I only paid $5 for it, so I don't feel bad not playing it. Weird logic, I know.

Jolor · Post by **Jolor** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 10:53 pm

Daehawk wrote:not to hijack..but I saw where Runaway a Road Adventure is now like $5...I heard good things on it and loved the demo. I think I may try it. Maybe you'd like it also.

Yup. Give it a go for sure. Some of the puzzles require heuristic logic

but no worse than Grim Fandango or Monkey Island, imo.