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

[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..?