RPG Maker Good vs Bad Cutscenes

For the people complaining that the second cutscene is too drawn out and exaggerated for such a scene, answer these questions. What if the same fairy re-appears multiple times later in the game and if you appease her enough, she becomes a playable character - would that justify the latter style of cutscene? Is the latter type of cutscene good for important party interactions and story moments only, or is it never good? Also, why is it important to you to be able to speed past the RPG cutscenes?

The second definitely looked more "professional", but the first succeeded in not dragging on for way too long with unnecessary chit-chat, along with the text boxes being so narrow that they often can't hold one line.

Good cutscenes have spelling mistakes

As a rule, if you have to preface your cut scene with "Sorry, the cut scene goes way too long, but trust me--"... you probably should rectify whatever is causing you to feel the need to say that before releasing your cut scene. In saying that, you illustrate that you already know it drags on, before you've even shown it to anybody. As a player, I'd actually prefer the first one, because it respects the player's time.

There's a mistake I see a ton of RPG Maker users make as well as some that are even present in tutorials and thus teaching other users the same mistake. A good cutscene is not necessarily a long one unless something very significant to the story happens. It is important to note that once you take away too much time of the player to actually play the game, you make them lose interest, especially with 2D games. Another mistake I often see is that there's so much unnecessary dialogue in addition to too much information at once or just overall a cheesy dialogue. (For example "Besides, you're adorable." without there being a comedic effect to make it not seem out of place or forced, which I felt being the case with the example shown.) Often shorter sentences are the best in normal dialogue and then you should let the game itself handle further explanation or giving the player more info through moments during gameplay (great if done before a lengthy cutscene or directly afterwards) or through random facts given via NPCs, side quests, etc.. If you have to make the cutscenes give the player all kinds of information so that they understand the world better, you're not doing the world you're creating a favor. The world won't feel alive. Imagine if you went to a info center in a shopping mall and the informant there decides to tell you why she or he's standing there or why there's a shop for this and that there, etc.. Play games that are well received like Chrono Trigger, Xenoblade Chronicles, etc. etc... The characters never say more than they need to and very often the main characters have a background that gives them a reason to need to learn more about the world, just like the player themselves. The NPCs and the little things you do in these games help make you understand the world. The world is an important part of the story and the whole game, but do not make it the center either. (continuation in my own reply...)

Longer cut-scenes with more drawn out animations are not necessarily better. These are games we're making, not movies, so keeping the player involved is important. I think I'd have the player themselves walk up to the pool and have the fairy splash out of it with lots of sound effects, splash effects and maybe a cackle from the fairy - then I'd have her say the vital information and at the end of it ask the player a gated question like "Isn't that great?" with two positive answers "Yes!" and "It sure is!" before having the fairy then explain where they need to go next.

Second one was a tiny bit too long, but definitely better than the first one. With a few adjustments, an overly-extended cutscene can be shortened without sacrificing the feel of it. I'll definitely take all these tips in, though, because they're good for writing. Good video.

I get what you mean by the comparison, but the "good" cutscene is inherently bad as well. I won't touch the anime love tropes or the incorrect grammar and spelling, but insofar as the cutscene itself... it's far too long, and tries to add too much exposition to an otherwise dull moment. Depending on the length of the game, you want to be careful where you have the "deep dive" moments and not have too many of them. People get bored easily. I do agree that production value should always be important. Emotes and using animations where they won't clash are key.

Tutorial with a project file here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cwia_hkyr8

You can make a good cutscene with just portraits, you can make portraits have emotion too.

The funny thing is, I liked the 'bad' cutscene more. :)

I’m rewatching this video after 3 years just because it’s literally just so........ good......

Let's be objective, the second one is way better. Yes, it's a long cutscene for a moment in the game which may be not important, but this was just done as an example.

It's all about taste I think. If you want Kojima long cutscenes, you'll go for the 2nd one. But if you're the kind of player who's ok with cutscenes but you don't want them to be too long, you will probably appreaciate the 1st one over the 2nd.

OK first 'bad' cutscene I'd expect out of... oh... say FF4.The second one, however, looks like something out of Tales of Phantasia where you don't just have your characters being dynamic, but also the little chibis, the popup balloons, and other dynamic bits to give personality. First one is 'bad' in that 'ok we've seen this before' and for small bits like 'welcome to random shmucko town' fine, works, but not for a 'cinematic' moment. However, the second one takes a whole lot more planning and thought which newbies (like myself) might give up on halfway because 'crap which variable hosed? Fine I'll just throw the simple one in till I get around to fixing this' and... never fixing the proper cutscene. I see time and again advice i quite frankly believe. Before you do anything on an actual project start planning. For tutorials or 'oh hey I want to try a thing to see if I can make it work' fine, improv. However for a game that goes past the tutorial phase where you want to make something to show off? You can't hold it all in your head no matter how good you are there's just tooo much you have to have ordered and sorted.

You know it's bad when you find yourself skipping the cutscenes that the entire video is about...

Well, the good one was okay, but it simply comes down to a personal taste. I didn't care much about the black bars, or the two row text box, but I understood why they were there. My own cutscenes are probably somewhere between these two. There will always be those who love your work and those who hate it, no matter what you do. Personally, I like longer cutscenes and storytelling, rather than spamming enter and frustrate when I can't get back in the action. But that's just me.

Nice tip, but take note that the second one is a bit annoying for the beginning part as it's slow, and for a cut scene that isn't that important make it weird looking. Other than that it's not a bad tip video on how to make a good cutscenes (but please take not that only the player can judge if the cutscenes is good or not, we can't read their minds you know?).

"And now let's watch the same cut-scene, but made with more effort..." => Ad-break to some modern 3d-Action-RPG. Oh! Wow. MV surely came along nicely over the years :D

Aside from what Mystic Song already said. There is another issue with this example. And that is the positioning of your character emotions. Personally, I think stuff like that should be in the character sets themselves, however if you are going for that faceset format, then it's more important that the image is actually starts from the left like the original faceset position. Unless you're in specific parts of the world that reads from Right to Left, this is not a good position. Think of it this way. As I'm reading the dialogue, I'm having my own interpretation, and suddenly an image to accompany that dialogue, then it becomes, oh. So that's what they're feeling. You want to show the player the emotion of the character with that image. But instead it becomes an afterthought.