Skyward Sword's Story Cutscenes

[Azure Sage]

When I say story cutscene, I mean, for example, Ocarina of Time's scene where Link meets Rauru in the Chamber of Sages. Zelda games have always portrayed these with the same graphics as the actual gameplay. What do you all think about a change of pace with this?

To use as an example, in Prince of Persia: Rival Swords, the story mode scenes were in about the same graphic style as Twilight Princess, kind of, maybe a little better. But the gameplay graphics were the average PSP graphics. I think Nintendo shouldtry something like this, just for a little variety. What are some of your thoughts?

...You may've guessed that I'm starting to run out of thread ideas. You're right =P

 

[Ramaral8]

If you just mean higher definition i'd like it. But if you mean changing it to more realistic graphics i'd be against.

 

[Azure Sage]

If you just mean higher definition i'd like it. But if you mean changing it to more realistic graphics i'd be against.

Well, either or. Whichever works better, higher definition of more realistic. I'm not sure which would work better; probably higher definition.

 

[Djinn]

It is very rare for Nintendo to do this. Squaresoft is more well known for having very high quality cutscenes between gameplay with greater graphics that looks as if they were cut from a movie. Although Nintendo is slowly coming along, there were a couple good scenes in Metroid Other M. The quality in gameplay graphics has come so far there is not much need for a real change in quality for scenes though. It was amazing for the PS1 days when the gameplay graphics of FFVII were blocky and limited while the cutscene graphics high quality. Little less so for the PS2, but the Wii is perfectly capable of matching gameplay and cutscenes.

For story purposes I would love to see some high quality scenes with Link interacting with other main characters or escaping from a dying temple boss. Of course this would also bring up the debate of voice acting again. Unless the scenes were only seconds long and just showed a very simple scene such as Link entering a dungeon or opening a door. With something that small it does not seem worth it. I suppose it could be possible if the sidekick character was not so hidden from all other people such as Midna and interacted with other NPCs in Link's place when conversation was needed. That way Link could remain silent but there would still be conversation and a character driven story for the game.

 

[Artemis]

The creators of both Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (can't remeber japanese names for either) did something like this. Even though in Fire Emblem is was mainly like one movie per book I think. Can't remember exactly what it was, since it's been awhile since I played it.

Also in Tales of SymphoniaotNW, they used HD cinemas before something major happened or it was an important part of the story/plot. I think it was handled quite well, and it's what made the game a bit more bearable.

Anyway, that would be really nice if they did use some sort of different graphics/better graphics for the cinemas in Skyward Sword. I think they did experiment with this in Twilight Princess, since in some of the cutscenes Link's body moved more realistically than in actual gameplay.

 

[Kazumi]

So what you are asking for is a separate utscene Engine that Nintendo could use for the cutscenes in Skyward Sword? I think that is an excellent idea. I've always been really disappointed by the cutscenes in most Nintendo games, especially on the Wii since it really shows how archaic the graphics and engine are on the Wii compared to the beautiful cutscenes of the PS3, 360 and PC. Since cutscenes are such an important part of portraying the story in video games, I feel as though it is important to have really nice ones that can convey emotions and ideas in a successful manner. I wouldn't say that an engine that is tearing at the seems is a good way to deliver the powerful story of Zelda games.

I know that Square Enix has always done an excellent job of having a good cutscene engine. The engine in Final Fantasy X that was used for cutscenes was and still is amazing, especially for a PS2 game. It looks really nice; a lot better then most cutscenes on the Wii. I'm sure it was a lot of extra work, but it was definitely worth it. If it's true that Nintendo is just finishing up Skyward Sword, then they have plenty of time to do something like that. Well, you'd think they would anyway but there is probably a whole bunch of things still left to do...

Either way, as much as I would like it, I highly doubt that Nintendo will ever use a proprietary engine for cutscenes. It's just not something that they do. I wish it was though...

 

[Caeda]

The creators of both Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (can't remeber japanese names for either) did something like this. Even though in Fire Emblem is was mainly like one movie per book I think. Can't remember exactly what it was, since it's been awhile since I played it.

Radient Dawn's Japanese name translates to Goddess of Dawn (which is a far more accurate name...). And I THINK that all but part at least two had two movies in it.

But yeah, I don't think it would make a huge difference. Of course, I love the graphics, so maybe I'm not the best person to give an opinion.

 

[Cococrash11]

All The Legend of Zelda games should have a cutscence. Skyward Sword is no exception.