Bless the Skippable Cutscene

There’s a new pope kicking around, and while I’m sure his schedule is fairly busy I have a request: please bless the skippable cutscene.

During his next visit to GamesReviews.com, I’m hoping he sees this and fully understands the absolute sincerity in which I ask this. The skippable cutscene is potentially one of the most beautiful inventions in the modern world. Firstly because it doesn’t require a subscription, but mostly just because of the pure convenience of it all.

This is really a story of two RPGs. I’m playing the original PS2 version of Kingdom Hearts and also Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Both are fantastic games. One of them has skippable cutscenes.

I derive no small amount of pleasure from hearing a hodge podge of giant actors, respected voice actors and Disney legends join up for one of the biggest “how did this happen?” moments in gaming. I mean, imagine pitching Kingdom Hearts today. “Yeah, it’s going to be an RPG based on Disney properties, and it’s going to be filled with angst and ruminations on the meaning of friendship. Kids won’t get it, adults might pass on it because your best mate is a duck.”

Kingdom Hearts is awesome and I’m not sure we realise how awesome it is. And yet the punishment for every lapse of judgement, every delayed cure, and every accidental dive into an abyss is to rewatch something you’ve already seen twenty times before. You have long enough to lose all muscle memory and any sense of timing. Frazzled and frustrated, you instantly fire yourself exactly where you don’t need to be and get to repeat the process again.

Expedition is one of the great games of the year. It’s not only because it has skippable cutscenes.

A Journey Through Skippable Cutscenes

This game is hard. I constantly feel under levelled, but that’s only because I am terrible at parrying. Parrying is this game’s most important feature and I’m sure someone talented in it could get through the whole thing without taking a single hit and without levelling anything up. If cutscenes were forced on us, it would be hell. But once you’ve enjoyed a slice of story once, you can easily skip through. It takes you straight to the next section of gameplay and does it in seconds.

The difference between these two experiences are huge, and not just in terms of wasted time. It makes a huge difference in gameplay as well. When something plays I’ve already seen, I’m putting my attention onto something else. I’m getting out of the vibe. On more than one occasion I’ve forgotten to keep an eye on it and been hit before noticing I’d taken control. More than that, it makes me angrier about dying. That means I’m less likely to take risks, and less likely to play with different features and playstyles. Dying has a time cost, and it influences every other area of the game.

Skipping is such a beautifully simple offering. So simple in fact that it doesn’t always get recognised for its greatness. It deserves more appreciation. So if the pope is reading this – and I know he is – please consider blessing the skippable cutscene. And if this pans out, maybe this can become a regular feature. I have strong opinions on timely autosaves and I’m sure his Holiness does too.