4 ms·

I've tried so many times to play the classic JRPGs only to be met by loooooooong cutscenes before even allowing me to control the characters. Grandia is unfortu

by TavsiE9s 10mo ago

I've tried so many times to play the classic JRPGs only to be met by loooooooong cutscenes before even allowing me to control the characters. Grandia is unfortunately no exception: 10-13 minutes if I remember correctly from booting the game to actually being able to do anything besides mash buttons to try and skip the cutscenes.

jamesbelchamber 10mo ago
This is very frustrating, but I'm not sure it's a problem only with classic JRPGs - recently I sat down to play Bayonetta 3 and it had a similar problem (along with.. others). FF7 really had this nailed - flashy, mysterious cut-scene to first battle in, what, 3 minutes?
- ozbonus 10mo ago
  Most of the Final Fantasy games have been like that, which is why I've (most of the time) been a fan since since FF4/2. I can't remember how many times I've been turned off by a game when it starts with the protagonist being woken up by his mom, followed by endless wandering around town.
- FieryMechanic 10mo ago
  It the same with Spiderman: Miles Morales. There are some cut scenes you cannot skip. Worse they they are cut scenes that don't actually affect the main story arc. This makes replays painful as the story isn't particular interesting and in some places actually quite nauseating to watch (Miles is constantly conflicted on very straight forward things), but the game play itself is quite fun. I've looked for a mod for this game where you can skip all cut-scenes but it doesn't seem to exist.
- kokada 10mo ago
  > FF7 really had this nailed - flashy, mysterious cut-scene to first battle in, what, 3 minutes? Except when you use the Knights of the Round summon, then you go grab a coffee while waiting for the animation to finish :).
jeppester 10mo ago
Play the game in an emulator that has a shortcut for fast-forward. It makes a world of difference when it comes to "enduring" overly long cut-scenes, load screens, repeated spell animations, endless combat encounters, etc. I wish modern games would have the same feature!
- TavsiE9s 10mo ago
  Fair point, I was playing on MiSTER.
nottorp 10mo ago
> 10-13 minutes if I remember correctly Mmm played any Kojima games? :)
- FieryMechanic 10mo ago
  You can typically skip most dialogue and cut-scenes in the MGS games. Also quite a number of the cut-scenes are interactive and can actually help you in game play (codec numbers are show, clues etc). MGS-4 though is has ridiculous cutscene length.
  - phantasmish 10mo ago
    MGS4 would be like 10% shorter if you had a mod that just cut every line in a cutscene that’s someone repeating someone else’s previous line, but as a question.
    - FieryMechanic 10mo ago
      I never finished it. So I wouldn't know.
- TavsiE9s 10mo ago
  Nope, MGS was big on Playstation when I was growing up and the whole stealth gameplay does not appeal to me.
  - ethagnawl 10mo ago
    I haven't seriously tried playing it again since it came out but it didn't appeal to me either and my friends all thought I'd lost it. I also remember the clerk at Electronics Boutique being gobsmacked when I wanted to return it. I do generally find stealthiness to be engaging and great fun _as a component of game play_ but as the main draw and, especially, from the jump I just found it to be frustrating and annoying. Maybe I'd feel different these days, though. I'll try it again some day.
kouteiheika 10mo ago
> 10-13 minutes if I remember correctly from booting the game to actually being able to do anything besides mash buttons to try and skip the cutscenes. Genuinely curious - if you don't care about the story then why play an RPG? When you're speedrunning - sure, skip all of the cutscenes, but when you're playing casually - why would you want to do that?
- opan 10mo ago
  I agree with your take here that he should care about the cut scenes/story if bothering to play, but this has gotten especially bad in newer games where they try to shove you right into the game before you can tweak settings. I never played through Bravely Default on 3DS because the opening scene used the English dub instead of the original audio, and I had to skip it to access the settings and change languages, then there was no way to rewatch that opening scene. I've similarly avoided their other games like Octopath Traveler as I suspect they have the same issue. It seems like an accessibility issue. I don't think they should ever stop you from getting to the settings first thing. I am not entertained by them trying to be overly cinematic. I don't think it would kill them to wait until you hit "start new game".
- xandrius 10mo ago
  I could ask you a similar question: why play an RPG if you don't care about playing? Go watch a movie. The point of many posters, I imagine, is that there is too much non-playing parts all at once, it's not strictly about them not being skippable. This is especially damning when the long unskippable cutscene is during a boss fight or something which you might fail afterwards and cannot save.
  - ThrowawayR2 10mo ago
    Unlike a movie, when done well, the combat/grinding add to player engagement because it places the player in direct charge of the characters' growth from a nobody to a legend. You can't get that from a movie.
  - JoshTriplett 10mo ago
    > This is especially damning when the long unskippable cutscene is during a boss fight or something which you might fail afterwards and cannot save. Some games have started to get this right, either by making cutscenes you've seen skippable, or by just automatically skipping straight to the battle if you've already been through it once. I suspect one reason it didn't happen on older games was the need to explicitly save, rather than autosaving.
FieryMechanic 10mo ago
It often gets worse. I stopped playing Final Fantasy X (on the PS2) because there was a boss battle where there was a 10 minute un-skippable cutscene between each stage of the battle and if you died you had to re-watch each one.
- TavsiE9s 10mo ago
  I think at that point I'd call it and mark that one as "finished it".
  - FieryMechanic 10mo ago
    I don't think I will ever play a JRPG again. In fact it was the last one. These days I want my games to be actual games.
    - bigstrat2003 10mo ago
      Look, complaining about unskippable cutscenes is one thing. Everyone has that complaint about FFX, I even know what boss you're talking about because it's so infamous. But saying that JRPGs aren't "actual games" is ridiculous. They are games, whether or not you personally enjoy them.
      - FieryMechanic 10mo ago
        I am not saying they aren't games. What I am saying is that I enjoy stuff now that has basically no plot and let's me get on with the game. Half of Final Fantasy X (and I think a little later they released a movie both for Final Fantasy VII and the standalone movie the Spirit Within) was Square showing off how good their CGI animation was, which at the time was very good. CGI cut scenes went from "this is a cool thing I see between levels" on the PS1 to "this is a tedious interruption".
- phantasmish 10mo ago
  FFX’s balance is awful if you go straight from point to point and don’t take some long grinding breaks. You’ll hit exactly the kinds of boss-walls you mention, and yeah, the cutscene placement is simply abusive. Last couple plays I’ve used zig-zag approach when traveling through random encounter zones, effectively ~doubling distance traveled, and encounters. Stretches those out, but removes most of the separate, dedicated grinding. (Not defending the game design that makes this necessary, mind you)
erfgh 10mo ago
JRPGs are like movies that you can interact with. If you don't enjoy the cutscenes then it will be a drag. I did play FFVII when it came out and I was extremely impressed and couldn't get enough of it. But I could never get into other JRPGs later.
lanfeust6 10mo ago
Yes, and for as much as that's an annoyance, games are far worse now. This has infected everything AAA, not just JRPGs. See: the God of War reboot, Tomb Raider, etc. Narrative is one thing, but at least with 90s JRPGs you could go through dialog on the field screen at your own pace, generally. It doesn't take long to get to the action.

jamesbelchamber 10mo ago

This is very frustrating, but I'm not sure it's a problem only with classic JRPGs - recently I sat down to play Bayonetta 3 and it had a similar problem (along with.. others). FF7 really had this nailed - flashy, mysterious cut-scene to first battle in, what, 3 minutes?

ozbonus 10mo ago
Most of the Final Fantasy games have been like that, which is why I've (most of the time) been a fan since since FF4/2. I can't remember how many times I've been turned off by a game when it starts with the protagonist being woken up by his mom, followed by endless wandering around town.
FieryMechanic 10mo ago
It the same with Spiderman: Miles Morales. There are some cut scenes you cannot skip. Worse they they are cut scenes that don't actually affect the main story arc. This makes replays painful as the story isn't particular interesting and in some places actually quite nauseating to watch (Miles is constantly conflicted on very straight forward things), but the game play itself is quite fun. I've looked for a mod for this game where you can skip all cut-scenes but it doesn't seem to exist.
kokada 10mo ago
> FF7 really had this nailed - flashy, mysterious cut-scene to first battle in, what, 3 minutes? Except when you use the Knights of the Round summon, then you go grab a coffee while waiting for the animation to finish :).

jeppester 10mo ago

Play the game in an emulator that has a shortcut for fast-forward. It makes a world of difference when it comes to "enduring" overly long cut-scenes, load screens, repeated spell animations, endless combat encounters, etc. I wish modern games would have the same feature!

TavsiE9s 10mo ago
Fair point, I was playing on MiSTER.

nottorp 10mo ago

> 10-13 minutes if I remember correctly Mmm played any Kojima games? :)

FieryMechanic 10mo ago
You can typically skip most dialogue and cut-scenes in the MGS games. Also quite a number of the cut-scenes are interactive and can actually help you in game play (codec numbers are show, clues etc). MGS-4 though is has ridiculous cutscene length.
- phantasmish 10mo ago
  MGS4 would be like 10% shorter if you had a mod that just cut every line in a cutscene that’s someone repeating someone else’s previous line, but as a question.
  - FieryMechanic 10mo ago
    I never finished it. So I wouldn't know.
TavsiE9s 10mo ago
Nope, MGS was big on Playstation when I was growing up and the whole stealth gameplay does not appeal to me.
- ethagnawl 10mo ago
  I haven't seriously tried playing it again since it came out but it didn't appeal to me either and my friends all thought I'd lost it. I also remember the clerk at Electronics Boutique being gobsmacked when I wanted to return it. I do generally find stealthiness to be engaging and great fun _as a component of game play_ but as the main draw and, especially, from the jump I just found it to be frustrating and annoying. Maybe I'd feel different these days, though. I'll try it again some day.

kouteiheika 10mo ago

> 10-13 minutes if I remember correctly from booting the game to actually being able to do anything besides mash buttons to try and skip the cutscenes. Genuinely curious - if you don't care about the story then why play an RPG? When you're speedrunning - sure, skip all of the cutscenes, but when you're playing casually - why would you want to do that?

opan 10mo ago
I agree with your take here that he should care about the cut scenes/story if bothering to play, but this has gotten especially bad in newer games where they try to shove you right into the game before you can tweak settings. I never played through Bravely Default on 3DS because the opening scene used the English dub instead of the original audio, and I had to skip it to access the settings and change languages, then there was no way to rewatch that opening scene. I've similarly avoided their other games like Octopath Traveler as I suspect they have the same issue. It seems like an accessibility issue. I don't think they should ever stop you from getting to the settings first thing. I am not entertained by them trying to be overly cinematic. I don't think it would kill them to wait until you hit "start new game".
xandrius 10mo ago
I could ask you a similar question: why play an RPG if you don't care about playing? Go watch a movie. The point of many posters, I imagine, is that there is too much non-playing parts all at once, it's not strictly about them not being skippable. This is especially damning when the long unskippable cutscene is during a boss fight or something which you might fail afterwards and cannot save.
- ThrowawayR2 10mo ago
  Unlike a movie, when done well, the combat/grinding add to player engagement because it places the player in direct charge of the characters' growth from a nobody to a legend. You can't get that from a movie.
- JoshTriplett 10mo ago
  > This is especially damning when the long unskippable cutscene is during a boss fight or something which you might fail afterwards and cannot save. Some games have started to get this right, either by making cutscenes you've seen skippable, or by just automatically skipping straight to the battle if you've already been through it once. I suspect one reason it didn't happen on older games was the need to explicitly save, rather than autosaving.

FieryMechanic 10mo ago

It often gets worse. I stopped playing Final Fantasy X (on the PS2) because there was a boss battle where there was a 10 minute un-skippable cutscene between each stage of the battle and if you died you had to re-watch each one.

TavsiE9s 10mo ago
I think at that point I'd call it and mark that one as "finished it".
- FieryMechanic 10mo ago
  I don't think I will ever play a JRPG again. In fact it was the last one. These days I want my games to be actual games.
  - bigstrat2003 10mo ago
    Look, complaining about unskippable cutscenes is one thing. Everyone has that complaint about FFX, I even know what boss you're talking about because it's so infamous. But saying that JRPGs aren't "actual games" is ridiculous. They are games, whether or not you personally enjoy them.
    - FieryMechanic 10mo ago
      I am not saying they aren't games. What I am saying is that I enjoy stuff now that has basically no plot and let's me get on with the game. Half of Final Fantasy X (and I think a little later they released a movie both for Final Fantasy VII and the standalone movie the Spirit Within) was Square showing off how good their CGI animation was, which at the time was very good. CGI cut scenes went from "this is a cool thing I see between levels" on the PS1 to "this is a tedious interruption".
phantasmish 10mo ago
FFX’s balance is awful if you go straight from point to point and don’t take some long grinding breaks. You’ll hit exactly the kinds of boss-walls you mention, and yeah, the cutscene placement is simply abusive. Last couple plays I’ve used zig-zag approach when traveling through random encounter zones, effectively ~doubling distance traveled, and encounters. Stretches those out, but removes most of the separate, dedicated grinding. (Not defending the game design that makes this necessary, mind you)

erfgh 10mo ago

JRPGs are like movies that you can interact with. If you don't enjoy the cutscenes then it will be a drag. I did play FFVII when it came out and I was extremely impressed and couldn't get enough of it. But I could never get into other JRPGs later.

lanfeust6 10mo ago

Yes, and for as much as that's an annoyance, games are far worse now. This has infected everything AAA, not just JRPGs. See: the God of War reboot, Tomb Raider, etc. Narrative is one thing, but at least with 90s JRPGs you could go through dialog on the field screen at your own pace, generally. It doesn't take long to get to the action.