Games with the worst cutscenes.

[Heroine of Winds]

Had this idea for a thread lately. Which game have you played that has the worst cutscenes in terms of nothing much happening or with a terrible script?

I have three games in my head that pretty much felt the worst to me when it comes to cutscenes.

-Freedom Planet: Good game, but the cutscenes are way too long & they never give out any important information. This is why I'm glad Classic Mode exists since you can play the game without the story. It's an example of a game that doesn't need any kind of story whatsoever.

-The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Stupidly long cutscenes that drag on & half of the time nothing happens. Normally I don't mind cutscenes from previous 3D Zelda games, but this is a rare case that I wish you can skip all of them. I just want to play the game, dammit!!!!!

-Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal: Ugh, the cutscenes for this game are atrocious. They're downright boring, nothing much happens, and the script is very awful. How awful is it? Well, I'll give you a couple examples. Selfie joke & coming out of the shadows joke. And yes, the script is done by the same wonderful people that brought you the terrible jokes from Colors, Generations, & Lost World. They haven't gotten any better.

 

[pokemario]

Zelda CDI... Duh.

 

[JSG]

As much as I loved playing the game as a kid, looking back, Sonic Adventure had some pretty... bad cutscenes. I mean, they got the point across and all, but it mostly comes from the strange animation, bad lip syncing, iffy movement and models, and awkward silent pauses.

 

[pokemario]

As much as I loved playing the game as a kid, looking back, Sonic Adventure had some pretty... bad cutscenes. I mean, they got the point across and all, but it mostly comes from the strange animation, bad lip syncing, iffy movement and models, and awkward silent pauses.

I remember my brother playing Sonic Adventure... Those cutscenes haunt me...

 

[Heroine of Winds]

As much as I loved playing the game as a kid, looking back, Sonic Adventure had some pretty... bad cutscenes. I mean, they got the point across and all, but it mostly comes from the strange animation, bad lip syncing, iffy movement and models, and awkward silent pauses.

Yeah, the cutscenes from that game are pretty terrible nowadays. Despite still thinking the game is good, Sonic Adventure 1 still aged pretty poorly when it comes to some of the gameplay elements and the cutscenes.

 

[Hipersonicc]

Yeah, Skyward Sword cutscenes are ridiculously long (but there are some epic, though).

I find Drawn to Life cutscenes may be a bit boring, but i loved the game when i was younger.

 

[Minato]

Yeah, as much as I had issues with Skyward Sword, I don't think the cutscenes were bad. I didn't mind watching them the first time, and some were pretty nice (that bittersweet short reunion). Just give me faster ways to read and proceed to the next dialogue box though and I'm good. Second time around though, glad I'm able to skip it.

Worst cutscenes though? Not worst, but Mario Sunshine gets a mention from me. It didn't feel like it had a ton of charm. Plus they just felt a little out of place for a Mario game. For a real worst contender, I'm going to have to think a little more on that.

 

[finalark]

I know a lot of people like the humor in Sonic Colors, but the cut scenes actually grate on me a bit. IMO they lose their Saturday Morning charm very quickly. I end up skipping them every time I replay the game.

There's also The House of the Dead series, although I'm not sure that I'd count that since the story in those game is intentionally supposed to be recommencement of a B-Movie.

The cut scenes from the original Devil May Cry could get goofy. Although 2 has a weaker story, it's cut scenes are just kind of boring rather than noteworthy.

And I'd also like to agree with @ pokemario on Sonic Adventure. They're weird, haven't aged well and all of the characters move in absolutely bizarre ways. Although IMO they're cheesy enough to be enjoyable.

Also, I may have enjoyed Xenosaga in my young teenage years but goddamn did those cut scenes overstay their welcome.

-The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Stupidly long cutscenes that drag on & half of the time nothing happens. Normally I don't mind cutscenes from previous 3D Zelda games, but this is a rare case that I wish you can skip all of them. I just want to play the game, dammit!!!!!

You should probably never play a Metal Gear game.

 

[~Radiance~]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5FTJxfV3pc

If there was ever a cutscene worse than this, i have yet to see it. Love you tidus <3

 

[The Dom Bomb]

I'd say Paper Mario: Sticker Star, for the bare disappointment factor. The previous Paper Mario games all had brilliant dialog and hilarious characters, and Sticker Star decided to ruin it by removing any personality whatsoever.

 

[Spak]

I'd say Kingdom Hearts. Don't get me wrong; the cutscenes were brilliant, but unfortunately, you couldn't skip them. That meant if you lost the battle against Riku, you would watch this scene. Again. And again. And again. All 2:28 of it every time you lose.

EDIT: Fixed a couple tense issues and made the repetition make more sense. Can't let those grammatical issues run rampant!

 

[finalark]

I'd say Kingdom Hearts. Don't get me wrong; the cutscenes are brilliant, but unfortunately, you couldn't skip them. That meant if you lost the battle against Riku, you will watch this scene. And again. And again. And again. All 2:28 of it every time you lose.

I see you too spent your childhood stuck on that fight. I've seen that cut scenes so many times that I used to be able to flawlessly recite it.

Speaking of KH, while the cutscenes are usually pretty good there are times when the recreations of scenes from classic Disney movies just doesn't go over well. Like in KH2 when Shan-Yu is charging down the mountain with an army of some of the derpiest enemies the game has to offer.

 

[Hipersonicc]

I'd say Kingdom Hearts. Don't get me wrong; the cutscenes were brilliant, but unfortunately, you couldn't skip them. That meant if you lost the battle against Riku, you would watch this scene. Again. And again. And again. All 2:28 of it every time you lose.
rampant!

Wow, i've seen that scene like 15 times when i was 6 (damn that battle was harder than the final boss).
Happily, Kingdom Hearts 1 from the PS2 is the only one in the saga that doesn't let you skip cutscenes. This is however corrected in the HD 1.5 ReMIX

 

[Daxter]

As much as I loved playing the game as a kid, looking back, Sonic Adventure had some pretty... bad cutscenes. I mean, they got the point across and all, but it mostly comes from the strange animation, bad lip syncing, iffy movement and models, and awkward silent pauses.

"Watch out. You're gonna crash. Ah."
(Sonic)

I'd say Paper Mario: Sticker Star, for the bare disappointment factor. The previous Paper Mario games all had brilliant dialog and hilarious characters, and Sticker Star decided to ruin it by removing any personality whatsoever.

100% agree, especially in comparison to the Thousand Year Door script.

 

[Slattman92]

I don't think anything will match the cheesiness of Resident Evil 1 on the Playstation 1.

 

[Minato]

I don't think anything will match the cheesiness of Resident Evil 1 on the Playstation 1.

Thankfully it's reached the so bad that it's good category for most people XD

 

[Heroine of Winds]

I'd say Paper Mario: Sticker Star, for the bare disappointment factor. The previous Paper Mario games all had brilliant dialog and hilarious characters, and Sticker Star decided to ruin it by removing any personality whatsoever.

Don't get me started on this game again. Sticker Star was so inferior to the previous games when it comes to how bare bones it was. The cutscenes were indeed pretty bland compared to the cutscenes from TTYD (definitely the best game in the series).

 

[Twewy]

I don't think anything will match the cheesiness of Resident Evil 1 on the Playstation 1.

I see you've never touched on House of the Dead 2. Or Mega Man 8. They're both pretty bad.

 

[Zink Imp]

Any cutscene that goes above 15 minutes is automatically bad in my book. I like a good plot for my games, but I want a game first and movie later.
This is actually really why I can't get into Metal Gear games. I'm not kidding.

 

[finalark]

Any cutscene that goes above 15 minutes is automatically bad in my book. I like a good plot for my games, but I want a game first and movie later.
This is actually really why I can't get into Metal Gear games. I'm not kidding.

That's actually a pretty valid reason. I first discovered MGS when I was fourteen or so and at the time I thought the heavy focus on story was the greatest thing ever. I loved the characters, the themes, the codec calls, all of it.

These days I skip through most of the cut scenes whenever I replay them. Kojima is in dire need of an editor who is willing to take a pen to his scripts. Because goddamn do those games have the ability to say so little in so many words. As excited as I am for MGS5 I do worry that I'm just not going to enjoy it as much as I would seven or eight years ago, primarily due to the lengthy cut scenes.

 

[Twewy]

Any cutscene that goes above 15 minutes is automatically bad in my book. I like a good plot for my games, but I want a game first and movie later.
This is actually really why I can't get into Metal Gear games. I'm not kidding.

I agree wholeheatedly with you on the game first movie later bit, though I admit I like to make exceptions. I'm too much of a fan of Metal Gear, especially Solid 3, to not sit through 'em.

That being said, the "A DUD?!" cutscene from MGS2 is so hilariously bad. Just the way the Navy SEAL says it makes the whole scene so damned silly.

 

[Zink Imp]

stuff

stuff

Yeah, there are people that can appreciate it. When I tried playing MGS4, I got really annoyed by the cutscenes. Not only because of the quantity, but because of how long they were. I was really baffled that it was common for cutscenes to be 30+ minutes. I didn't feel like I was making progress in my game, and I wasn't engrossed in it as a movie because the gameplay (and the writing, really) interfered with the narrative. It's cool that some can get into it. Just not me. Kojima has said that he wants to win an Oscar more than anything. And I think that's really sad, really. It doesn't do the games justice.

Sometimes I can get into cutscenes. FFXIII had a whole lot of them, but they were smartly cut in with gameplay, so I felt I was still making progress and actually immersed.

Rarely do I skip cutscenes. But when I do, I'm still annoyed by them. Sometimes they come up every five minutes that it becomes a nuisance to hit "Start" then "X" or whatever.

Also **** games that don't let me skip.

 

[Twewy]

The problem is you started with 4, the one that has absolutely long cutscenes.

 

[finalark]

Not to mention that 4 is meant to be the series finale. The game is a hell of a lot more engaging if you've played MGS1-3 first.

 

[Chapter Serf]

Mass Effect 3's ending CS was, well... Mass Effect 3's ending. It managed to ruin everything that came before it. Including the other two games.

 

[Twewy]

Mass Effect 3's ending CS was, well... Mass Effect 3's ending. It managed to ruin everything that came before it. Including the other two games.

Bioware is known for QUALITY lately, but not the good kind. I agree, the ending cutscene is awful, but reminds me of this:

So it wasn't all that bad.

 

[Zink Imp]

I actually started with 3.

 

[Twewy]

I actually started with 3.

I'm noticing a pattern here...

Btw, remember Link's rival cutscene in Soul Calibur 2? For some reason I find it so damn cheesy, between Link's hopping on the little parts of the church and Raphael's dialogue.

Spawn and Heihachi's were pretty rad, though. The vid's in Japanese VA-wise so it might not be as cheesy as the English dub.

 

[Mega Rayquaza]

Unskippable cutscenes
Bonus points of it's a cutscene before a really hard part of the game that you're destined to lose at least a few times so you have to see the same cutscene over and over.

 

[finalark]

Unskippable cutscenes
Bonus points of it's a cutscene before a really hard part of the game that you're destined to lose at least a few times so you have to see the same cutscene over and over.

PS1 RPGs were particularly notorious for this. Especially since they like to put their hardest bosses right after major revelations in the story, meaning longer cut scenes. And don't even get me started on final bosses where the game has to wrap up any loose ends and provide a series of challenging battles at the same time.

 

[DougX]

As much as I loved playing the game as a kid, looking back, Sonic Adventure had some pretty... bad cutscenes. I mean, they got the point across and all, but it mostly comes from the strange animation, bad lip syncing, iffy movement and models, and awkward silent pauses.

As for the topic itself... Bubsy 3D... Even though I technically haven't played that nor do I ever want to. c:

 

[Fusion?]

I was going to say Ninety-Nine Nights' deliveries leave much to be desired, but some of these answers are pretty agreeable. Particularly GOLDMAN! House of the Dead 2 as a whole.

 

[Twewy]

I was going to say Ninety-Nine Nights' deliveries leave much to be desired, but some of these answers are pretty agreeable. Particularly GOLDMAN! House of the Dead 2 as a whole.

Suffer like G did?

 

[Fusion?]

Suffer like G did?

Did a successor ever come in time to protect the loife cycle?

 

[Claire Diviner]

It should be a standard practice to allow any cutscene to be skipped, especially when playing a game where you save before a boss fight, go to fight the boss, but have to sit through a cutscene before the fight. Should I lose, I don't want to have to sit through that 5+ minute cutscene over and over again; just take me straight to the damn boss fight!

 

[Jae]

I appreciate it when devs give you the option to skip cutscenes after watching them the first time but I really appreciate it when you're given the option to skip immediately, though I will admit, having that option kind of tempts me to skip despite not seeing it yet

 

[Twewy]

I sound really hypocritical saying this, but as much as I am a guy who prefers gameplay>everything else, if the cutscenes are good I don't mind watching them for extensive periods/if they're unskippable. I'm playing through the Legacy of Kain series right now and I would never even think of skipping the cutscenes. Especially with the great VAing they have. Then again the Soul Reaver games are kind of...easy. I beat Soul Reaver without dying once.

...Oh right. Bad cutscenes. Hmm.

There's a major cutscene in the new World of Warcraft expansion that comes off as "Okay, get this **** done ASAP so we can go corrupt another character to make a raid out of". It's very spoiler-centered, but...

Spoiler

The fight scene between Garrosh and Thrall. The one where Thrall curbstomps Garrosh and practically cheats in their supposed "duel to the death". I don't like Garrosh but damn Thrall, you know how to kill a mood with your Orc Jersus powers.

 

[finalark]

There's a major cutscene in the new World of Warcraft expansion that comes off as "Okay, get this **** done ASAP so we can go corrupt another character to make a raid out of". It's very spoiler-centered, but...

Spoiler

The fight scene between Garrosh and Thrall. The one where Thrall curbstomps Garrosh and practically cheats in their supposed "duel to the death". I don't like Garrosh but damn Thrall, you know how to kill a mood with your Orc Jersus powers.

This is part of the reason I stopped giving a **** about WoW's lore around the time Cata came out. Like, ****. Way to turn Thrall from a fan favorite to one of the most widely disliked characters in the game, Blizzard.

First, he appoints Garrosh to as the new leader of the Horde. Okay, I get that he needs someone to keep an eye on his empire while he's away studying to become Jesus Christ the most OP Shaman WoW has ever seen. So why the **** does he promote some blood-thirsty upstart who clearly has zero leadership skills instead of an old friend he trusts like Cairne or Vol'Jin, both of which have proven time and time again that they're good leaders who won't screw everything up?

Okay, so after making that mistake Thrall leaves to become a super Shaman. There he meets his personality-less wife who Blizzard constantly is trying to convince us that he totally in love with. Fine, whatever. Then, throughout Cata he as appointed as the savior of the world. Who gets to land the final blow on Deathwing? Not ****ing you, that's for sure. It's Thrall. Because Thrall is the one with a greater destiny who will lead Azeroth into a new glorious age ect. ect. ect.

I was okay with Blizzard retconning the Dranei in BC, making Kael'Thas, Illidan and Lady Vaj into bad guys. Sure, they were closer to morally ambiguous in WC3 but such is the way of MMOs. TBC needed bosses and they managed to make their turns believable enough for me to be okay with it. But Cata's story was the lowest the series has ever gotten. When you get down to it, the whole damn thing is basically an overly contrived reason to "keep the war in Warcraft" so Blizzard doesn't have to find ways to keep justifying it's pointless faction system that everyone needlessly apes. Not to mention it turned Thrall into a complete Mary Sue on top of that. I'd cite him poorly choose Garrosh as the new leader of the Horde as an acceptation to his Sueness, but when Garrosh confronts him about it in the previously mentioned cinematic the game treats Thrall like he's in the right. On top of that, who gets to kill on of the most hated characters in all of Warcraft? Not the players who worked so hard to take him down, no, it's Thrall again. I have no idea what the story is like in Warlords but by the looks of it things are still stupid.

tl;dr for a rant nobody will read: WoW's story has gotten really stupid and I'm glad I quit for FFXIV.

 

[Deleted member]

Hotel Mario and the Zelda CD-i games of course!
...No, that's way too easy to say (but they are still bad).

In terms of actual quality, Sonic Adventure has some of the worst animated cutscenes that I've ever seen. The voice acting is cheesy, you might see the same cutscenes over and over again in some stories, and... dear god the animation is atrocious.

 

[AirshBornely]

F-Zero GX had some...odd cutscenes.