Should Cutscenes only show stuff you can do ingame?

[traceur_]

No, otherwise the cutscenes would be boring.

 

[thehoff]

It can be annoying watching a great cutscene before being left with abysmal gameplay in comparison. But then again it would be pretty boring cutscenes if it just showed stuff you can do yourself, they are there to liven up the game.

 

[bodyklok]

Maybe, if a company can say that they made an awesome trailer with only in-game stuff then I'd be more interested in it. Though I don't think they should be made to do so it should be encouraged, I think.

 

[Woodsey]

No, and that's a stupid suggestion.

Cutscenes would then limit the entire story of the game - it's called a cutscene for a reason (because you're not playing it) and if you're not playing, then they can get the character to do whatever they want for the purpose of the story.

That's like saying the scene near the end of Mass Effect with Cpt. Anderson releasing the Normandy shouldn't happen because you can't control Anderson or punch someone - nor can you type.

 

[Aardvark Soup]

@ IdealistComm

I agree because then snake and raiden would be unable to jump in cutscenes...

come to think of it so would a lot of other really poorly designed game characters.

Actually, most things Snake and Raiden do in cutscenes is actually possible in-game. Even some of the advanced CQC moves in Metal Gear Solid 3. Of course this doesn't count for The Twin Snakes...

 

[Librarian Mike]

As awesome as it would be to, say, do all the stuff Cloud does in Advent Children/FMVs in FFVII's battles, There would be no point to watching the cutscenes then, would there? Sure, there's story to tell, but we all know that we play games for eye candy; If we wanted a good tale, we'd read a book.

Now I've got this image in my head of its cutscenes being consistent with the playable part:

"Cloud runs over to the enemy, hits once, and stands there until his turn comes up again"
Riveting. haha

 

[Grampy_bone]

I say yes. The cutscenes might show a different blend of action or stunts from the "boilerplate" moves the characters can do, but the cutscenes should not showcase power levels greater than that of the actual gameplay.

The worst offender of this by far was the Twin Snakes gamecube remake of MGS. All of Snake's moves are identical to that of MGS2, but in the cutscenes he becomse a superpowered ninja. Dodging explosion-propelled debris in slow-motion, doing a backflip off a mid-air missile while firing a rocket launcher... it was just ridiculous, and it made me mad I could do none of these things in the actual damn game.

RPGs usually go the other route; instead of "Cutscene power to the Max" you usually get Cutscene Incompetence. The bad guy kills people in one hit, the party loses their ability to heal/fight back/cast spells/absorb bullets/etc. That always bothers me. Anyone who says that this is required for an "effective narrative" or whatever is a moron. It's lazy game design, pure and simple.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

I think that it doesn't matter. It kind of takes me out of the experience in the beginning of Left 4 Dead where Louis pushes himself against the door to block the witch in and stuff like that. It makes me think "Wait, I can't do that in the game!" but it's alright. It's not like it is causing me any harm. It's also a way to make it more realistic because it's just plain hard to program the in game character to be able to do all this cool stuff but still builds the character as being super cool and indestructible.