Unskippable cutscenes in games.

DYRE

These are terrible.  Even if the game's story is actually good, there's a decent chance I don't want to watch a cutscene about it, especially if I've already played through the game.  The fact that very often the story isn't good just makes matters worse, because in these cases I'd rather not even watch the cutscenes my first time through the game.

Naturally, this is more forgivable if cutscenes and dialogue and such actually factor into the gameplay somehow, but this is not always the case.

Discuss.

Vorpy

I hate it when Visual Novels or H-Games do this.

Alkthash

I hate this when the scene is ridiculously long and right before a rather difficult sequence, where there is a decent chance you will die and have to try again.

┻━┻ ︵ ヽ(`Д´）╯︵ ┻━┻

I'm generally fine with this as long as it avoids these two cases:

When pressing the retry button after you get owned by a boss or something, do not show the damn cutscene again.

Don't make me go through the exact same path from the start just to go into a different direction in visual novels.

Vorpy

Or when it happens in games where you immediately jump into the game without unfolding of the scene and the enemy is already wailing the shit out of you.

DYRE

^^^ Yeah.  Especially since often, if it's something you needed to retry once, there's a good chance you'll have to retry it far more than once.  And after the 10th time of watching the same cutscene in the past few hours, even short cutscenes are going to get very irritating.

^^ That (about visual novels) also seems pretty frustrating, and just seems like pointless padding.  And even if you turn the text display speed up to the maximum, etc.  it can still potentially take a very long time to reach a part that you haven't seen yet.

Stormtroper

I hate this when the scene is ridiculously long and right before a rather difficult sequence, where there is a decent chance you will die and have to try again.

Final Fantasy X called, said Yunalesca says hi.

Saigyouji

As did FFIII. Longest cutscene in the game, right before the endgame dungeon that contains 5 bosses, including the final boss, and no savepoints? Have fun!

BecNoir

Porno Trigger has the infamous Ocean Palace cutscene.

Wicked223

Porno Trigger

is this an actual thing

BecNoir

Yes. (NSFW, although I doubt that you're at work at this hour.)

Vorpy

Marle (and Ayla) have their clothes disappear and reappear at random
times due to a temporal anomaly releasing anti-time particles originating
in the Devron system as a result of three Tachyon beams in three different
time periods penetrating the same exact point in space. Will Captain Jean-
Luc Picard solve the mystery of the temporal anomaly and collapse it?
(Hint: The chicken and the egg, Will! The chicken and the egg!) Find out
or not find out by playing Porno Trigger today!

Chagen

Don't ever play Metal Gear Solid, then, DYRE.

Though those are so long it's awesome. An hour long cutscene? You could cook dinner and be finished before it's over!

MillerCross

You can skip MGS cutscenes, actually. Although they are quite enjoyable. At least, to me, they are.

glennmagusharvey

Oh gawd FFVII cutscenes.

They're nice the first time.  Maybe.

After that...no.  But they're unskippable.

Also, IJBM: emulators that have no turbo function.

DYRE

Yeah, see, the Metal Gear Solid series had two things going for it, regarding its cutscenes.  One, they were actually skippable, so complaining about them would be silly, and two, they don't suck.

^ There are emulators without a turbo function?

Chagen

Ah. I've never played an MGS game.

Mainly because I'd have to play them all to get the apparently insane storyline...though it's apparently so crazy that even after playing them all it doesn't make any sense.

DYRE

No, you really don't.  Except MGS 4, where playing the previous ones would be helpful for understanding the story, apparently, though I haven't played it so I'm not sure.  The stories of 1, 2, and 3 are relatively standalone.

Chagen

Well...I don't have a PS2, Gamecube, or SNES, so it's not like I can play them anyway.

MillerCross

I only played 3, 4 and had wikipedia at the ready. It should say something about how good the writing is, that I almost cried during Act 4 in MGS 4 without having played MGS 1,

^ Emulators. Or ask for a PS2. 

glennmagusharvey

DYRE: Fusion might but I'm not sure.  I'm not sure if Dega has one.  pSX doesn't seem to, nor does ePSXe.  And I don't think NO$GBA has one.

DYRE

I'm certain ePSXe has an option to remove the limit on the framerate, at least, since that's what I'd always do when grinding in RPGs.

Fusion definitely does.

Unless by "turbo" you mean something other than "make the game go faster".

In retrospect, I guess you could have meant "press a button really fast while you're just holding the key down" which I dunno if those emulators have, I guess.

GLORIOUSLeader

Actually, while the stories are standalone, you really don't get the full MGS experience unless you play all of them. 

And this bugged me about Other M's cutscenes. 

glennmagusharvey

I do mean that.

Fusion probably does but it's just inconveniently placed; in Nestopia/SNES9x/VBA/etc. the turbo button is "hold down Tab".  In Fusion, Tab resets.

Noimporta

One brand I dislike is Nippon Ichi's: Before every story segment, you can choose to skip it, but once you make your choice, you can't change your mind (skip mid cutscene), and it'll skip all the scenes in that segment, which is annoying when there are different choices within them.

MillerCross

Actually, while the stories are standalone, you really don't get the full MGS experience unless you play all of them. 

True, I guess, but that doesn't stop it from being incredibly enjoyable.

The_Edge

I was getting this in Sonic Adventure 2 yesterday. These cutscenes are especially bad because the music is often louder than the dialogue. Not that the dialogue is ever really gripping in a Sonic game for that matter.

dmboogie

Guilty Gear also has two very annoying versions of this.

1. In certain story mode fights, the characters will fight a little bit at the start, usually lasting about thirty seconds. This doesn't seem that long, but it is unskippable, and if you suck at fighting games like me then you will be seeing the fight MANY. MANY. TIMES.

2. In arcade mode, if you get defeated, there is about a ten-second gap from when your opponent's victory quote shows up and when you can continue. Again, not the long, but it will slowly drive you insane after the twentieth time you see it.

snowbull

Kingdom Hearts not only has unskippable cutscenes, but it also has them after checkpoints before hard boss fights! What a load of shit. Thank god they changed that for the second one and subsequent installments.

I haven't actually ever played a metal gear game despite owning all of them except for MGS 1 and 4. I guess I'll have to do that eventually?

The_Edge

Are you specifically talking about the Ansem-Riku boss battle?

snowbull

Yes. Christ almighty, by the time I beat that fight I had the exact timing of every idiotic line they said memorized.