To Cutscene, or not to Cutscene?September 11th, 2008 by Suzie
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Jon, from The Clockwork Manual, got in touch with me the other day. As fellow video game fans we hit it off, until the subject of cutscenes loomed its ugly head. Jon was all for them. As a Metal Gear Solid fan he could hardly be against them. I, on the other hand, am vocally anti-cutscene. Jon’s initial email can be read here. He points out some of the defining and memorable video game cutscenes, and wonders how we could ever tell a story without them. My response was as follows.
In the film-making community, flashbacks and ‘dream sequences’ are considered a crutch. It is one of the first mistakes amateur film makers make. It is a weak way to tell most stories, and is usually used as a shortcut, or to cover up weak writing.
There are, however, no rules in any creative media that can’t be broken. Memento used flashbacks brilliantly. Spellbound contains a famous dream sequence. These are great films, and they know exactly what they are doing.
So let’s talk about video games and cut scenes.
In a video game, you have two elements that should reinforce each other: the story and the gameplay. Most amateur game developers, when they want to tell you something related to the story, use a cutscene. Is this bad? Yes. Cutscenes are jarring, they take away our player control, they break our identification with the player character, and in most cases - video game budgets being what they are - they are poorly acted and badly written.
Much like flashbacks, they are usually the ‘most obvious’ way of telling the player something, but rarely the best. Intertwining the story into the game play is a far superior method. Using a ‘breadcrumb trail’ of in-game information to allow a player to puzzle together the story themselves is an art in itself. As an example: the Bioshock audio diaries.
Background dialogue, the responses to our player character’s actions, things we find, plaques and signs - there are so many ways of presenting information to us without ever breaking the flow of the game play for a ten-minute movie.
You cited Final Fantasy 7 as an example of a great game containing a classic cut scene. I would agree. Much of the impact of that scene - although reinforced by the cinematic and the music - was created from the shock - the choice of character, the fact we had expended so many hours building Aerith up, the fact she was an archetypical character; a healer. The cut scene used the game play, the expectations the game play had created, in order to work. In other words, much like a great film breaking the ‘rules’, Final Fantasy 7 used the cut scene in the way it was meant to be used. To support, the define, and to contrast the game play.
Do most cut scenes do this? I would argue not. The average cut scene is filler - boring, badly written, overlong and pointless filler at that. It is a lazy way of filling in the blanks between dungeons, rather than making those dungeons part of the story. It is a way of showing off the graphical team’s prowess, with a bombardment of action, light effects and choppy camera angles. No thought is given to subtlety, no thought is given to nuance, no thought is given to the player and how they have built up the character and story in their own minds.
Final Fantasy 7 is also over ten years old. Games have a unique history, and when they tried to achieve ‘high art’ status they allowed themselves to be influenced by films to the exclusion of all else. This isn’t surprising - films are popular, they are visual, and they are similar to games in many ways. As game development has evolved, however, the idea that games can be something different to films is fast gaining momentum. FF7 was a game of its time, a game that broke the mould in many ways. If it was released today our reaction to it would be very different. Games have moved on, and so have our expectations of them.
You challenged me: “How would you, if directing a Final Fantasy 7 remake, display Aeries death? How would you show a protagonists reaction to events without changing the camera angle? How would you manipulate the player to see what you want them to?”
I would suggest that these are old game design questions. “How can I manipulate the player to see what I want them to?” These days, the question is far more “How can I make anywhere the player chooses to look part of the overall story line? How can I interweave my themes of loss, love, betrayal and friendship into every part of the game?”
September 11th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I’m impressed with your verbal demolition of Jon’s argument, but surprised that Half-Life hasn’t been mentioned yet, especially considering the horrific and emotionally traumatising ending to Episode Two. I died a little inside.
Expect to be shouted at with text the next time I can drag my lazy arse to the Manual.
-love and cuddles,
Trolleydude
September 11th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I’m a little unclear here. Do you feel there is something wrong with the idea of cutscenes? Or is the problem that 99% of existing cut scenes are dumb and terrible?
I agree with the latter, not yet sure if I agree with the former…
September 12th, 2008 at 12:05 am
At times cut scenes can be over dramatic and over used, good example Metal Gear Solid 4. But at other times when they are used well enough for you to still relate to the character and see how he/she feels and acts with good visuals to show it. But when it comes to games that have little to no cut scenes it makes it harder to relate or identify a character.
Such as Resistance where they have little to no cut scenes, and if they do it doesn’t respond or sometimes not even show the protagonist Hale that much. Like when people are dying in front of him, all I could think about is “What is going through his head?! Why isn’t he showing any emotions for the lives of others? ” Unlike Nathan in a small scene where he tells Hale to give him a minute to respect the deaths of his fallen comrades. The only time I actually saw any sort of emotion from him IS during a cut scene. For the longest time, I thought he was just a robotic mute, just in to do the shooting.
Of coarse though that is a first person shooter where seeing the facial expressions are always a no no. But when it comes to such games like RPG’s the story is a little different. Mostly because it’s a role playing game, in some perspectives that means it’s to tell a story visually. Like a lot of JRPG’s do (Final Fantasy), others it’s the exact opposite that mostly WRPG’s (Oblivion) where the story is made from your own doing.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I don’t quite know what to say..
You can’t have games without cutscenes nowadays and story can’t be as involving and gripping without the use of them.
Final Scene of Metal Gear Solid 3 - Example of a brilliant emotive cutscene backed by strong narration.
Call of Duty 4 - The use of dragging you’re useless tied up timebomb of a body before getting executed to begin a story.
Given examples to support both yes? Arguments for both but I throughly enjoyed reading both so props to the pair of you.
Finally, who gets my vote? Jon one of my lifelong best friends or Suzie, a Final Fantasy 7 megafan like myself?
Well it must be obvious it goes to Suzie each time
Oh I kid because I love.. thank you for the entertaining reading material
September 12th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
In think-tank Immersyve’s “Player Experience of Need Satisfaction”, their research said that cutscenes work against the player’s feeling of freedom. I guess cutscenes are kind of the game equivalent of expository lumps in a book; they’ll appear in some way or another, it’s just a matter of how much of a disguise you try to give them.
I hate to say it but I think what James said above is pretty much the truth: Nowadays, you can’t have games without cutscenes. Shux.
But you know, games like Morrowind or Oblivion always did give me a more intimate spot in the story. I felt like it was myself in the game, instead of me guiding a character until we got to an important event so that they could take over and actually do something involving the plot. Unfortunately that’s how it works with so many games that use cutscenes liberally. You handle the monotony, cutscenes handle the story.
September 14th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
While I don’t mind the occasional cut-scene, 10% of my way through GTA IV i found myself skipping every video that popped up. Half-Life did the best in my opinion, make EVERYTHING in-game, even storyline scenes that could be cut scenes.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
You know, I never thought about it, but you are right; cut scenes are really annoying. One major problem I had with the Final Fantasy series (and I’m a FFVII addict) was the animations for the summons. And in FFVIII they made it even better: we know it gets boring after a while, so we’ll let you press square a hundred times to give your summon a boost while the animation is running! Seriously….
I do have one argument for a good cut-scenes: the intro and the end scene. I think those are a must have. I hated FFVIII, but I loved the intro. Maybe not an intro, as sometimes its fun to be just dumped in the game and have to figure out for yourself what is going on, but there needs to be an ending cinimatic or something.
Another cut scene that I can’t imagine a way to express better is in FFX: the love scene between Tidus and Yuna was beautiful, and I enjoyed how they kind of floated around in water/ night sky or something that wasn’t really realistic but was wonderful at the same time.
But cut scenes are not that great in all games. For example, when I play a FPS like Halo or something, I could care less about what is going on. Don’t make me sit back for a cut scene after I just was on the edge of my seat freaking out because I had to use a banchee and I normally kill myself with those. After that I wanted to cheer or something, not sit back and watch a mini movie. If you want someone shouting in the backgroud about what the cut scene would have showen, and I can keep playing the game, sure.
Oblivion is a wonderful game. Graphics, story, game play, just everything can’t be beat. Its a wonderful investment, too; I’ve spend over 100 hours in it and I’ve still got even more I can do. But that is one game that just doesn’t need cutscenes. Every now and then they cut off the player’s control because you’re talking to a Daedric shrine (or you hit Sheogorath. Heh, that was fun (while it lasted)). But that’s not too bad, unless you really don’t care. I usually can’t understand what the daedric princes are saying when I talk to their shrine, so I could live without that, especially since it is re-said in the journal entries anyway.
Good article though.