Can we please stop with Cutscenes where we just stand around?

[Raoul9753]

I just rewatched some Cutscenes, and it is really getting annoying to see how often we just stand around while people literally die around us.

Someone gets attacked, and best we can do is "ANGRY LOOK!". This is not a Dawntrail problem, I watched cutscenes from all over the game, and the amount of time bad stuff happened because for some reason our WoL just couldnt be bothered to do more than stare is baffling.

Is it really so hard to at least add a reason why we are not doing something? Add some enemys that delay us just long enough, have us trying to cross some physical barrier, or have us restrained by magic or whatever that we need to break out of.

Just have us do ANYTHING at all. Or just bring Solo Dutys back.


SPOILER FOR DAWNTRAIL MSQ AHEAD!!!!!!

Imagine the Dawntrail Thrown room Scene if instead of just standing there and watching the Regicide, we get to see the intro, and then have a Solo Duty where we have to make our way to the Throne through an Army of Robots, while we see Gulool Ja Ja and Zoraal Ja fight, in the middle we see the cutscene of Zoraal Ja powering up, and then try to reach them in time, but just as we kill the last Robot, we see Zoraal Ja delivering the finishing blow.

Wouldnt that make the scene way more awesome that just have the WoL, the 2 CHILDREN OF THE GUY WHOS GETTING MURDERED, and 3 Scions, one of them able to create Barriers, just standing there and watching? And then have the line "We did everything we could!" from Alisaie... girl, we did nothing...

[No_Nick_Needed]

I couldn't agree more, either have us too far away to intervene in time, like with Tesleen, or at least give a reason why we just stand around.

In case of Zarool Ja, the solution is already there, in the very same room a scant few minutes of cutscene and dialogue later: After he kills Galool Ja Ja he threatens Wuk Lamat into doing what he wants, or he'll have his airfleet annihilate Tuliyollal.
So just have him threaten the destruction of the city, if anyone interferes in his duel with Galool Ja Ja, right when he comes through the door, rather then after finishing that duel.

[Zakuyia]

Hildebrand moments where we actually do stuff

[ConantSivrha]

My big “WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE!?” moment was the attack on Tuliyollal. WoL arrives in the middle of a mass slaughter and just watches. It’s not like we didn’t have this issue in ARR, but I feel like it’s never been quite as bad as it is now. I’m convinced that if ARR was written by the same guys who wrote Dawntrail, we would’ve arrived in the middle of the Empire’s attack on the Waking Sands and stood around slack-jawed without even trying to stop them.

If it’s too much work to animate the WoL fighting, or doing anything useful at all, we don’t need to be there. We already have a solution for these situations: arrive after everything already happened, and witness it through an echo vision. Just as lazy, yes, but not nearly as bad from a characterization perspective. Besides, if we spent all that time in Shaaloani waiting for transportation because walking was too hard, how come we’re suddenly sprinting after flying warships like we can keep up with them? And, more importantly, why are we doing that if we have no plans to intervene when we get there?

Actually—why was this a cutscene in the first place? Make it a solo duty. Or, even better, a dungeon. It could’ve been a good parallel to the Alexandria dungeon: running through a warzone, tearing through machines, but ultimately being powerless to stop the chaos around you.

What are they spending the budget on nowadays, anyway? Homogenizing our faces and making the game run worse? I’d rather get at least one extra dungeon per expansion, especially if the expansions are going to be 2/3rds the length of ARR in number of quests, with somewhere between two and three times the cutscene-hours.

[PorxiesRCute]

Actually—why was this a cutscene in the first place? Make it a solo duty. Or, even better, a dungeon. It could’ve been a good parallel to the Alexandria dungeon: running through a warzone, tearing through machines, but ultimately being powerless to stop the chaos around you.

But you don't understand! If they gave us a dungeon at level 96 the game would explode!

You're right, though, it should have been a dungeon, or at least a solo duty. We could have made it to the throne room too late to do anything.

[Cleretic]

The attack on Lakeland should've been a solo duty. (The second one; the first one already was.) The fell beast outbreak at Radz-at-Han should've been a solo duty.

But honestly? This one works better if it's not.

I think the fact that we never see the robot soldiers die actually really helps the scene; we see them as this implacable, unstoppable force, one that we've never fought before and so can't, ourselves, be sure on their strength. It also lets them do specific animations and movements to characterize these things; the fact they're not even running, that they're just performing their massacre at a leisurely pace is actually kind of terrifying, and what they do to that woman's soul tells you that they're clearly not just here to make heads roll. They're chillingly purposeful, actually, in a way that wouldn't be sold if the scene was instead 'walk around and perform your basic rotation on a bunch of enemies that won't plausibly kill you'. Sure, the near-invincibility of the robot soldiers doesn't last long, but it's there for the scene it needs to be there for. And frankly, the first person to clearly score a kill on one being Estinien still lets them stand pretty tall, they ain't chumps.

Plus, it doesn't get your adrenaline up to think that you'll be fighting Zoraal Ja, letting him and Gulool Ja Ja have their fight scene. And frankly, those two are more compelling Vipers than any of us, that cutscene needs to stay.

[EdwinLi]

Hildebrand moments where we actually do stuff

They been doing a bit more of this in side quests as well though still small.

In the new Tank Role quest as a example, WoL actually does his job as a Tank in the final cutscene by performing a dive into a attack to take the hit for the NPC since he/she was hired to be a bodyguard for him so the NPC can perform his attack in the cutscene.

It seems Hildibrand (gets more and more as WoL Embrace the Chaos) and the Job Role quests (well slowly each expansion) is where WoL been given a bit more actions in cutscenes.

[Cleretic]

They been doing a bit more of this in side quests as well though still small.

In the new Tank Role quest as a example, WoL actually does his job as a Tank in the final cutscene by performing a dive into a attack to take the hit for the NPC since he/she was hired to be a bodyguard for him so the NPC can perform his attack in the cutscene.

It seems Hildibrand (gets more and more as WoL Embrace the Chaos) and the Job Role quests (well slowly each expansion) is where WoL been given a bit more actions in cutscenes.

Which itself makes a lot of sense when thinking about the limitations of the game. The MSQ can't give the WoL a lot of combat scenes, because they'd have to account for every single combat style; basically the only example to my knowledge is right at the end of the Zenos fight in EW, and even that brief shot is super complex behind-the-scenes as I understand it. Role quests at least have a more pared-down skillset and character being called for; you can have the WoL jump in front to protect someone in a tank role quest, because you know that they're playing a tank.

And Hildibrand is just entirely off the reservation and giving the WoL tailor-made animations for dunking a basketball or something. No job is doing that, so any job can do that and it's not weird!

[Kennar]

In the new Tank Role quest as a example, WoL actually does his job as a Tank in the final cutscene by performing a dive into a attack to take the hit for the NPC since he/she was hired to be a bodyguard for him so the NPC can perform his attack in the cutscene.

But that wouldn't have had to happen at all if, during the lvl94 quest, our character had acted instead of standing there glaring menacingly while the evildoer gave her speech and peaced the eff out; only after did we stain the snow red with the blood of three of her henchmen. That story should have been over in time it takes me to press Intervention.

I'm with the OP on this, and it's something that I've complained about for a long time. I'm still mad I didn't get to take out Zenos when he was giving his speech in the Royal Gardens at the end of SB. It's one thing if a plot point happens because our characters are prevented from acting, but it is another thing entirely if the plot can only happen if our characters choose not to act. It's a cheap and lazy way to move a story forward.

[Raoul9753]

Which itself makes a lot of sense when thinking about the limitations of the game. The MSQ can't give the WoL a lot of combat scenes, because they'd have to account for every single combat style; basically the only example to my knowledge is right at the end of the Zenos fight in EW, and even that brief shot is super complex behind-the-scenes as I understand it.

I dont think thats too hard to solve.
Sure, you cant show the WoL do specific things without breaking class fantasy, but one easy solution just from the top of my head would be to show the WoL in close up, have him dash out of frame, black screen for a moment with a light flash and the sound effect of your first job skill (If FF14 doesnt have the worst code, one simple "If Job then" option shouldnt break the game) and then show something has happened and our WoL was involved.

Example: An enemy attacks another Scion while they are Distracted. Close up on the WoL, doing the serious face, then have the WoL just run out of frame. The screen goes black, a white light flashes, we hear either the sound of a blade hitting or a magc explosion based on our job, next thing we see, the enemy drops to the ground defeated, and we now stand between the Scion and the enemy. The Scion looks over his shoulder and says "Thanks for having my back!"

Bam, we did something in a cutscene, it took one movement command and moving our Character model during a blackscreen, everything else was just one small visual and one small sound effect, and only one of those had to change based on our job.