Cold Coffee: Lengthy Cut Scenes

Let me start by saying I'm a huge fan of the RPG genre, specifically JRPGs. It was the first genre I was introduced to back in the early ‘90s and it was from there that I took my first steps into the world of video games. That being said, what's the goddamn deal with these lengthy-ass cut scenes?

I'm a firm believer that a strong story is one of the most important aspects of a good game. You can sugar coat a game all you want with breathtaking graphics, explosive action and unrealistic (yet enjoyable) cleavage but the games that really stand the test of time nowadays always have strong stories. It's one of the main reasons why characters like Duke Nukem simply can't find their footings in our modern era of gaming. A story, however, is a fickle element and can easily be ruined at any point during the writing process. You have to make sure the story runs smoothly from start to finish and isn't too short...or too long.

As a fan of the work of developers such as Square Enix or Bethesda, I expect there to be a certain degree of reading and watching during my gaming sessions but not to the extent that some of these games go to. Please tell me who the hell thought it would be a good idea to waste tons of time and money on overly lengthy cut scenes in video games? These are games people…they're meant to be played and not watched. I feel as though when I'm playing some of these games like Lost Odyssey, while I'm enjoying the game overall, I'm left thinking ‘can I play now?' It's like when a character is finally revealing a key plot point during a cut scene and you're starting to piece everything together; you're ready to get this show on the road now but….what's this? That's right…he's not done yet. He's going to tell you where he grew up and all about his first girlfriend, both of which have absolutely nothing to do with the story at hand. Oh you're dog used to love running down the beach? I could care less, buddy…

It's really unfortunate how much I'm seeing this in modern day gaming. People are claiming their games offer over thirty hours of gameplay when, taking the hours of cut scenes out of the equation, it's really more like twenty-five at max. Don't believe me? Test it out yourself by playing through a game and just skip all the cut scenes. You'll notice that this game might not be SO long after all. Don't even get me started on the games that won't even let you skip the cut scenes…

You just had to push that button didn't you? I can understand that game developers don't want you accidentally skipping an important cut scene by accidentally pressing a button but, if they're so confident that their games will be played over and over, they should really allow veteran players to cut through the stuff they've already seen a thousand times before. Luckily, this is becoming more of a regular thing in modern games. I used to multitask during a gaming session strictly for something to help pass the time during, yet another, character monologue.

Cut scenes are great, but scale them back and bit and let me actually enjoy what I just coughed up $70 for. At least make them interactive like Heavy Rain or visually stimulating like inFamous.