Topic: Skyward Sword Will Include More Than 100 Minutes of Cutscenes

[TalesOfFan]

Skyward Sword will also have similar features to Ocarina of Time 3D.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/27834

According to the official Legend of Zelda Facebook page, Skyward Sword will be packed with more than one hundred minutes of cinematic cutscenes.

The game will also implement some elements that were introduced to the Zelda series by Grezzo’s Ocarina of Time 3D, such as the inclusion of a boss-challenge mode and hint movies.

[TurdFurgy]

The hint videos don't count towards the 100 minutes, do they?

[Crimm]

Metal Triforce Zelda: The Legend of Silent Protagonist

[TalesOfFan]

The hint videos don't count towards the 100 minutes, do they?

No, the hint videos are separate.

[oohhboy]

Don't supose they would have a movie mode like they had with Twin Snakes.

[Chocobo_Rider]

yes!!

I only say this because plot sucks me in to a game more than anything else.  I don't care about bloating numbers like "100 minutes of ____" as a feature, but Other M is my favorite Metroid game because not only was the gameplay intense, the game actually had the guts to stand up for itself and say: "video games are a story telling medium! not just a violence simulator!"

... I am exaggerating for effect.

also, I know Link isn't going to be talking yet... but the further away we get from games that feel no plot/no character = immersive/relatable, THE BETTER!!

[Crimm]

Don't supose they would have a movie mode like they had with Twin Snakes.

Starring Buster Keaton

[Enner]

If the game is as long or longer than Twlight Princess, I can see how it can be sprinkled with that many minutes of cinematics.

[King of Twitch]

How awkward is it going to be when we realize that 30 minutes of that are devoted to Link stuck in the attic watching home movies of himself playing with a hula hoop and opening presents in an epic way?

[Thaneros]

I hope they don't go the TP route by building up a story then dropping it half way in.

[Chocobo_Rider]

I hope they don't go the TP route by building up a story then dropping it half way in.

what are you talking about? the ending was the best moment I've ever seen in a Zelda game!

[leahsdad]

what are you talking about? the ending was the best moment I've ever seen in a Zelda game!

Yeah, I have to agree with NinSage.  When  [Spoiler Alert for 6 year old game below]


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You found at Midna was a chick, and a very hot chick at that, and she said goodbye to Link forever, breaking the mirror?   I cried.  Seriously. 

[Adrock]

That's excessive especially with no voice acting. I seriously don't want to watch that much of a video game.

[marty]

I hope they don't go the TP route by building up a story then dropping it half way in.

what are you talking about? the ending was the best moment I've ever seen in a Zelda game!

If you feel that way, that's fine by me... but don't you think that's a bad thing to happen in a GAME?  Shouldn't the best moment be something YOU as the player DO?

In passive entertainment the rule is show don't tell.  The rule for interactive entertainment should be DO don't show--and it used to be that way until dev's decided that showing THEIR story was the focus of the game, not the PLAYER'S story of playing the game.

[Chocobo_Rider]

@leahsdad

yea man, I didn't cry but I was certainly getting a little misty.  *bro hug for you*

@marty

That all sounds nice.  But, no, it don't work that way.

The only games were you "do" something to reveal the story are the ones like Heavy Rain or LA Noire or the visual novels where the characters actions involve things like making dialogue and plot choices.

The other 99% of games' characters abilities are limited to things like: "shoot this or don't shoot it," "jump over this or run around it."  Kind of silly to make meaningful plot developments EMERGE from THOSE activities.

I am also of the opinion that games with ONE plot tell the best stories.  If that means relinquishing control of said plot - I'm cool with that.  Let us, the gamers, be immersed and have control of HOW the character advances through the plot, not WHAT that plot is.

... again, just my perspective and you are entitled to yours.  If you can explain how yours can and should apply to (most? all?) games, I'm all ears!

[Ian Sane]

With almost any other company it would be fine.  With Nintendo?  I'm anticipating my groans already.  Companies that consider story an afterthought to be thrown in at the last minute should not waste the player's time with 100 minutes of cutscenes.

And the one time they did focus a lot on the story they came up with something I would have been embarassed to write when I was 13 years old.  I'm would like Nintendo to treat story with more importance (the constant "Bowser kidnaps the Princess" routine has gone from quaint to lazy and insulting) but I don't trust them, as is, to deliver on that front.  They have to change in two ways: in treating story with more importance and in having the writing talent to deliver a good story.  Sakamoto is on par with Ed Wood as a storyteller.  The more Miyamoto and Aonuma expand on the Zelda story and timeline the more incoherent and stupid it becomes.  And let's ignore the furry fan fiction that is Star Fox.  If they're going to come up with sucky stories they shouldn't bother and if they're going to put some effort into it they need to bring in better writing talent.  It's all or nothing.

[KDR_11k]

The hint videos don't count towards the 100 minutes, do they?

I hope they do, Nintendo isn't very good at making cutscenes that are worth the time they waste.

[Luigi Dude]

100 minutes of cutscenes for a game as large as this isn't that long people.  Twilight Princess is currently the biggest Zelda and that seemed to take the average person 30 hours to complete the main story.  Since Skyward Sword is suppose to be a bigger game, we're probably looking at at least 35-40 hours to complete the main story part of the game.  Combined with the fact the openings, big halfway point plot twist and endings to Zelda games usually contain the majority of the cutscenes anyway, these will basically be a non-issue for about 90% of the game.

[Ceric]

I think lots of little things.  Boss Intros, Dungeon Intros, Beginning Plot Points, Item Demos, Obtain a notable item, Fairies, New Important character, Scene changing Transitions, etc.

Once you diffuse those out within 40-50 hours it be very easy to put in a lot of less then a minute stuff that makes sense but, you wouldn't be sitting there going when will this scene end.  Using the 50 hour number we're talking only 1/30th of the game.

[UltimatePartyBear]

I think Ceric's right.  And I sincerely hope these are not pre-rendered.  If I'm wearing a bunny hood, I want to see it in the cutscene, by Din's fire!

[broodwars]

I don't even know what to say to Skyward Sword having 100 hours of this: ".........."  If you're not going to have voice acting or even dialogue, do you really need that many cutscenes in a Zelda game?

[Ceric]

I don't even know what to say to Skyward Sword having 100 hours of this: ".........."  If you're not going to have voice acting or even dialogue, do you really need that many cutscenes in a Zelda game?

Yeah, 100 hours.  All the gameplay must be QTE with 2 minutes of cinematic for 1 minute of gameplay.  :-P

I be very surprise to see more then two cutscenes 5 minutes and over.

[NWR_insanolord]

Minutes. 100 minutes. Out of what they call a 50-60 hour game. Less than two minutes out of every hour of gameplay is cutscenes.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Minutes. 100 minutes. Out of what they call a 50-60 hour game. Less than two minutes out of every hour of gameplay is cutscenes.

A rational and logical opinion! Seriously it is not a big deal, and the fact is that the stories have been decent in the Zelda series, at least on par with most games that are out now. Twilight Princess's story was interesting, maybe not stellar, but it was entertaining, Wind Waker had some of the best dialogue of the series, including humanizing Ganondorf, and let's not forget Majora's Mask which had an off the wall story and characters (Which is one of the things I enjoyed about the game). Zelda stories need to be understood in the context of their world, and the series has never focused on story, it has always been more of a background thing. Zelda, is NOT final fantasy or Heavy Rain.

I recently went back and played Twilight Princess, and was even more impressed with the world, and the decayed world from Ocarina of Time. Not to mention I enjoyed the story as well, what little there was. It did its job, tied the game together.

[broodwars]

Folks, it's called a typo.  I mean to type "minutes", but was thinking about something else and put "hours".  Usually, I catch stuff like that, but I'm in the middle of playing a rather engrossing game at the moment so I didn't go back and re-read my post after I submitted it.  Surely, in the vast wasteland that is the internet, you've seen it before.  Aside from the typo, I stand by everything in that post.