why during cutscene its always like this ... (small spoiler)

[Riardon]

That means, Culinarian > All class. Kitchen Knife FTW \o/

There is nothing more painful grotesque and long lasting that throwing boiling oil on your enemy's face.

[SendohJin]

we have no control already, every fight should be a fight we can play, even if it's scripted so that the other side can't lose.

i have no interest in cutscenes with my character fighting.

[Gaddes]

At least in the ninja example, that you're very dexterity and evasion-centric is a given because of the class you HAVE to be playing during that cutscene. For main story, they can't make *any* assumptions about race, gender, or class nor your character in general because of those first three things.

The thing is, anyone can be a Ninja, and from what I remember, this particular example happens well before the NPCs even start teaching you their advanced moves, which means that all of our WoLs have such a potential. You have the ability to be any class; there isn't any "assumption" here. Character-wise, even if I'm a Paladin, I also have the potential for a Ninja class, and all the physical ability therein.

People like you grossly underestimate how much work and time is required to animate cutscenes, especially for one-off events that'll have no reuse down the line and call it "being lazy" when it's just not logistically feasible but you're unwilling to actually learn about those jobs.

This is ironic because I am a cinematic animator at a game company. I know exactly how much work and time is required to animate cutscenes.
Also, people such as myself enjoy rewatching cutscenes at a later date an the Inn, especially if my character did something remotely noteworthy in it.

As far as being the hero...what? I must have IMAGINED killing every Primal on the continent, rescuing Raubahn, stopping the Illumanti and everything else. Clearly we're not that special because the protag is downplayed in cutscenes (because DOY, of course they are. Use your brains, people).

There needs to be an overall consistence with our character as a whole. Currently this is extremely lacking. In the actual playable content we've (potentially) killed hundreds of primals, Bahamut, etc. We're a force to be reckoned with. But in the cutscenes we're still very far behind in obtaining that same image. This is sort of funny because FFXIV is the reverse of what is true in most games where usually the cutscenes have us being badass and the playable content is less so. If we want to feel like we really are the same character that's being portrayed in those cutscenes, then there needs to be a consistency with how our power and abilities are portrayed.

[hagare]

Think of it this way: Our friends are willing to fight and die for us. They love us that much, and then some. The reason why we stand around and watch, I'm guessing, is because our friends wouldn't have it any other way.

or we're sadistic b-tards who like seeing our friends pain and misery

[SendohJin]

In the actual playable content we've (potentially) killed hundreds of primals, Bahamut, etc.

yes/no. it only counts if there's a new quest. any time you go back in and reclear, it's you remembering the events more clearly. in game reality it only actually happens once. Titan was summoned and defeated 3x but Thordan and Ultima doesn't even happen more than once.

[Gaddes]

yes/no. it only counts if there's a new quest. any time you go back in and reclear, it's you remembering the events more clearly. in game reality it only actually happens once. Titan was summoned and defeated 3x but Thordan and Ultima doesn't even happen more than once.

Hm, yeah I guess that's true. Still, even in terms of in-game numbers, we've thwomped quite a few primals by this point.

[AdamFyi]

This is ironic because I am a cinematic animator at a game company. I know exactly how much work and time is required to animate cutscenes.

Claims like these aren't really definitive seeing as there is no easy to actually validate it. Not that I completely doubt it; it just doesn't contribute to the discussion in any way. So, just as a heads up, I'll be just ignoring this point in my reply.

There needs to be an overall consistence with our character as a whole. Currently this is extremely lacking.

Side-quests aren't stuck to the MSQ in a sense. You can complete the entire MSQ without touching Binding Coil and Alexander. The consistency here is that they most likely don't take the sidequests into account (though some do get an acknowledgement). Consider it like a story book; You can't just leave Raubahn to his execution and go to find missing inspectors then come back as if the NPCs just stood there waiting for you to enter, can you?

As for the Ninja deal, you have to imagine; which is more time consuming? Animating one shuriken, or an entire NPC? More inclined to say the NPC would have needed to accomodate every single instance - the shortest possible Lalafell and the tallest possible Elezen are some examples. It's not whether or not they can do it (because they can), but whether or not they are able to implement things on time. Spending too much time on the one cutscene might not give them leeway to touch on other aspects of the game. Do remember that the development team isn't very big.

[RiceisNice]

There was a 14 page thread on this already. The game engine would take care of the various racial and armor appearance, but SE would need to make 13 different cut scenes. Do you want them to spend their time making your character block for a second, or would you rather they spend the time adding more content to the game?

Don't forget that you're also gonna be re-watching the cutscene in The Unending journey... which includes all DoL and DoH classes.

[Eul]

There is nothing more painful grotesque and long lasting that throwing boiling oil on your enemy's face.

Boiling oil > Fire IV \o/

[Gaddes]

Claims like these aren't really definitive seeing as there is no easy to actually validate it. Not that I completely doubt it; it just doesn't contribute to the discussion in any way. So, just as a heads up, I'll be just ignoring this point in my reply.

This didn't even need to be said; you just clearly wanted to state it as if to undermine my statement. If you're "ignoring it" why bring it up at all? Thing is, it doesn't matter whether you believe it or not, it's my job and I can base my opinions off of work I've done in game cinematics. Literally means nothing to me if someone doubts my job or not, because I still do it.

As for the Ninja deal, you have to imagine; which is more time consuming? Animating one shuriken, or an entire NPC? More inclined to say the NPC would have needed to accomodate every single instance - the shortest possible Lalafell and the tallest possible Elezen are some examples. It's not whether or not they can do it (because they can), but whether or not they are able to implement things on time. Spending too much time on the one cutscene might not give them leeway to touch on other aspects of the game. Do remember that the development team isn't very big.

There are ways to do a scene like this efficiently and with minimal work time. They clearly use mocap in their more active cutscenes, and a brief skirmish (I'm talking maybe 5 seconds tops of dodging) would involve two mocap actors. Let's say they have access to a mocap studio that can give them body animation turnaround in about 2-3 days (that's approximately how long ours usually takes). They clearly hand-key the faces, and do so in a very limited manner, so that would barely take any time whatsoever.

So the thing that takes the most time is not the animation itself, it's actually the pacing, framing and camera angles. You can spend a day or two doing a short storyboard/animatic for the skirmish, get the cameras in in around the same time, and then plug in the rough body animation and polish it to match the angles used. If a single animator was tasked this, they could be able to do it in under a month total, and that's including scripters implementing it, revisions from supervisors, a sound pass etc. And that's being generous, and assuming it's only one person working on it.

But the other thing is that there's a value in setting aside the resources and time to doing this. It's a FF game, there should be value placed in the storytelling. Spending time on cutscenes is worthwhile. When people say it's not worth it, it's like basically saying having those extra moments with your character aren't worth it to you... in which case, why play a final fantasy game..?