Random: "Let Them Play, First Thing!" - Sakurai Is Tired Of Slow Game Openings

I've been playing more and more arcade (action) style games (read old games) over the past few years. So yeah he's right, it's all about the action (adrenaline/dopamine boost) in the end. Video games are not art imo, they're just a fun way to kill some time.

I don't mind a quick video to give you a jist of the strory, but I dind many games have this tutorial type section which I don't like.
I nearly gave up on the recent Zelda before I got out of the sky island part.

It really depends on the game. for example, games like Mother 3 (Apologies, I love this game) have quite a long intro if you're looking for some action and gameplay. but it sort of is fine, because when it does get into the action, it's really intense, especially with the (Spoilers:)
||sunshine forest getting set on fire by the Pigmasks, and the F-F-FIRE!!! theme playing. for me, that really hits the spot. || but that's sort of my opinion.
but it also depends on the person too. whether someone really likes story, or gameplay.
so whichever one you are-Cool.

HE'S RIGHT. He's so right and should say it.

I'm too old to care about longwinded intros. I've dropped multiple games that failed to just get to, y'know, the game. People play games to play.

I think another great quote on the subject, comes from John Carmack: “Story in a game is like story in [an adult] movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not important.”
Gameplay first. If the gameplay isn't there in a video game then there is no point.

I like exposition tutorials. Dragon Age Origins is still my favorite. Followed by Jade Empire.

I prefer lots of information up front. Give me a reason to be invested in your world. However I want to learn the controls at the same time since manuals are dead.

Except fighting games. I absolutely don't care why we are punching each other. I loathe story in fighting games. Just let me hit somebody.

I hated Super Paper Mario for having an unskippable 30 minute intro (or whatever it was, it felt like 30 minutes). I was so bored with my new Mario game that I found the nearest save point once o could finally start playing and turned it off.

@Yousef- Ok, I was probably a bit "bombastic" in my statement (just had my weekly beer - that's one beer mind you). But yeah I've gotten tired of AAA story heavy games the last few years. Just feels like you have to put to much of an invest into them before you get anything back.

Even Resident Evil games I've grown tired of; too much emphasis on being scary the last 5 games or so. They were never really that scary back in the day anyway. Creepy yes, but more like action blasts really (too a varying degree of course - but the action was satisfying right from the first one imo).

It depends on the genre, but typically I prefer to get right into the gamplay and figure out the narrative as I go. Like BotW or Metroid Prime.

I really don't care for cutscenes and excessive exposition, for the most part, and too many games have gone overboard in this respect.

What I love so much about Zelda BOTW/TOTK is that it gives you just enough "story" to not overwhelm the experience, but ultimately, the player is in the driver's seat.

I feel like Kingdom Hearts 2 and Twilight Princess are two examples that get used a lot to represent a slow opening, but in both of those cases I adore the beginning.
The slice of life introductions really ground me in a story the way other openings don’t. (Also I will tolerate just about anything from a game if I like the writing, see Color Splash)

Alternatively Persona 5 Royal’s intro kinda didn’t work for me because how confusing everything was. Sakurai’s tastes may just be different from my own

@shgamer I’d say that the main problem with a lot of modern AAA is that they’re trying to be movies rather than games. They spend so much time and effort crafting “Cinematic” and “Immersive” experiences that they often forget games are supposed to be fun first and foremost.

And while I disagree with the idea that games aren’t art, I do believe there’s a great deal of unexplored potential when it comes to conveying an artistic vision through gameplay.

@shgamer How are video games not art, when they're in fact an amalgamation of writing, painting, designing and making music?
Staying on topic though, I dislike cutscenes and tutorials. I'm already invested when I start a game, so I want control from the get go. If I weren't, I'd be watching a movie, listening to music or reading a book instead.

@Aurumonado The intros to both of those games are masterful

I feel like Tears of the Kingdom did this the PERFECT way with Link & Zelda in the dungeon at the beginning, leading into Gannondorf awakening and the things that happened. And then you get the tutorial.

And the worst example is also in Nintendo's house: Pokémon Sun and Moon. But that slow opening was fixed with the Ultra games.

Nah, I don't have tiktok-gen attention span. I like slow starts, they make more exciting the parts where everything goes wrong. It's the classic "the calm before the storm"

@RupeeClock Actually I didn't really mind the story part in PLA, because in that game it was actually needed to set the story (and plot twist), sure the tutorial part could've been shorter. But after it you're basically free to do whatever you want.

@shgamer You can reduce other mediums to being just “a fun way to kill time” though. Plenty of films that you can switch your brain off to, songs that are nothing but pleasant and catchy, books that don’t challenge the reader but are fun to read. Games are the same way and there’s no reason to box them into just being “things to kill time” when they can be that and more

It depends. If it's poignant and sets the stage, I can take a few seconds to a couple minutes, but not much more than that. If it's dragging, or beating me over the head with a ton of expo, then no, that's unnecessary and a bit much.

I strongly support this. I've always hated games with long opening cutscenes and narrative. Like, could you be any more boring? I played the Demo of Trails from Daybreak and I wanted to throw my Switch at the wall out of sheer frustration. A huge part of the reason I will not consider getting the game.

@LadyCharlie Strongly agree!!

I think it’s more of a case by case basis

I’m always reminded of the VLDL skit where as soon as the opening cutscene breaks, the PC gets slaughtered because there was no tutorial (or that is the tutorial) and Ben can’t control the character well.

“Protect me!”

Honestly I don’t mind the opening being a bit slow.
Heck I really liked the phineas and ferb game on the DS but some people didn’t like it because of the long tutorial. Yeah give players an option to turn off tutorials so people can play the game faster. As for long cutscenes at the beginning is something I also don’t mind since I like games with great stories

@Gryzor I believe more in craftsmanship than art these days (I'm 56). I prefer a well paced crime novel with a good social realistic plot over the more grandeur "very important tale" (philosophic) novels.

It's the same with music really; a really well crafted song (that can be as old as it takes) does it for me, as long as it has a good (not too lofty) lyric a good melody and some good harmonies under it (basically if it works with some guitar chords underneath the sung words/melody).

It's the same with video games really; some fun mechanics to play around with plus some characters I can relate to. I don't like playing as criminals or bad guys in general (although there are few omissions to the rule, like Wesker from the Resident Evil series or Vega from the Street Fighter games).

In medias res is a technique in writing and film as well, so it makes sense to also be applicable in games. Nobody should take it as a requirement though.

Not only is it case by case based on what a game is trying to achieve, but even my tolerance for a fast/slow opening will vary a lot by the day, what time it is, how I’m feeling etc.

It really depends on the game.
RPGs need an long opening/introduction, other games like beat 'em ups are fine with an short opening (Final Fight, Streets of Rage).
Also, I like when fighting games have an Story mode.

if theres a opening segment in a game, please be brief, i/we dont want to spent 1h or more that only procrastenate the game, i hate when game does that, why do i need 1h of tutorials/prologue when i am a longtime fan of this franchise, take Mario e luigi Dream Team and it endless tutorials.

The Game Boy Advance was sure advanced in that we probably didn't think PORTABLE GAMES would make us sit through long intros.
I grew up with the original Game Boy and so I'd often play it on 20-30 minute car rides as a kid.
Some GBA devs didn't think about how some people might take their console to place where that intro was your entire game session.
(looking at Breath of Fire II... nice they considered the portable nature by adding a quicksave feature and doubling EXP and zenny from enemies, compared to the SNES original. But how about an option to just skip that entire boy Ryu sequence? How skipping to that "10 years later" part? On a portable that 15 minute opening sequence might as well be making us wait 10 years to play the game.)
Yes, it's a port but that principle still applies.

Also, I'm shocked at just how many GBA games bothered with a "quit game" menu (if a few sessions of Twitch Plays Pokemon playing GBA games swapped randomly by a bot. How often they'd devolve into one person trying to quit games as soon as possible). GBA didn't have an OS, so when you want to quit a game you just turn the system off. What was wrong with that?

This is why I prefer Ocarina of Time to Twilight Princess, for example. You can get into the gameplay so much sooner.

@Arcane-Fer Even then, RPGs could do with a "skip opening" option. Like a prompt "Have you played before and would like to skip the opening?"
I liked renting Breath of Fire II and Lufia 1 on SNES as a kid, but the opening sequences to both of those were like 15 minutes. That was quite lengthy by SNES standards, and the one thing I didn't like was having to replay them every time to get to the primary game story.

Totally agree. This is one of the reasons I prefer Nintendo or indie games. Nothing kills my interest in a game more than a prolonged opening cut scene or tutorial. If I want a long video I’ll watch a movie, if I want detailed instructions I’ll play a board game.

Exactly right. If a game doesn't have me playing within a minute or so I'm tuned out and checking if I can skip it. Anything relevant will be repeated later in the game anyway. But what's worse to me is what Tears of the Kingdom pulled - taking the controller from me every few steps. That annoys me even more because it's a stealth unskipable cutscene, where you can't even get up and do something else while it plays out the boring bits. I don't want my games interrupted by walking simulators. A shame after BOTW that TOTK has such a lousy opening segment.

@Ade117 Don't force me to pass a sword tutorial before I can play. Let me figure out the old fashioned way, whacking things in due time!
I also still remember how the Wii version required completing the fishing minigame to proceed but how to play it was the ONE thing it didn't explain ingame in excruciating detail. I had to actually read the physical instruction manual to learn how to play that one.
But the game made sure I know a yellow rupee is worth 10 rupees.

@Coalescence If I remember, Wind Waker put one (maybe more Heart Piece) behind unreasonably long fetch quests.
One in particular I recall, during a 100% playthrough, they edited in a simultaneous video of them starting a new game of Ocarina of Time to see how much of the game they could play in the time it takes to get that one Heart Piece.

I also recall ProtonJon playing the entire Game Boy Superman game to completion, in the same time it took him to finish just one of the later ring stages in Superman 64.

@Hoshiko And as far as movies go, I've seen plenty of better ones. I'll take a Mission Impossible over a Metal Gear Solid any day.

@KingMike that was crazy. For a while I think someone at Nintendo liked to put one heart piece behind the most ridiculous goals just to torture completionists. Like that baseball heart piece in Link Between Worlds.

For me it all depends. If I'm really into the game the longer the better. If not then ofc short. Maybe like other games I've played make them long but skippable.

@KingMike The game taught you wrong. A yellow rupee is worth 13.5 rupees

I should give Pikmin 4 another chance. The demo of the intro just seemed bloated with cuts or dialogue or something and I couldn't get into it.

I think "in media res" is overvalued in books, but I do appreciate a game that just gets into it.
That said, I have also really enjoyed games with slow openings, like most Tales of games. Tbh, I enjoyed LoZ:TP's opening, too, at the time (though it has probably prevented any replays).
Still, if you have co-op or MP, please do not require any single-player tutorials or opening missions before we can play together. Please. Yours truly, me.
(I recognize that Tales of games typically make you wait to get a full party, and I accept that.)

I still remember when Sonic Colours put the first level before the opening cutscene, and how refreshing that was the first time I played.

"Oh, what? The actions started already? Brilliant!"

On the other hand, Frontiers I felt did a great job of teaching me to roleplay as Sonic because I just wanted all the talking to end so I could run around and do stuff.

Yes give me the control right away. A slow opening is not bad and some of my favourites have a slow opening, but I prefer giving instant control and action. Best examples are BotW/TotK, Prime Trilogy, SoulsTrilogy etc.

in theory, games should be aiming to tell the story with/during gameplay for the most part.

Okami had a 18 minutes unskippable opening

Xenoblade Chronicles had one of the best openings of all time, controlling Dunban with the Monado battling an unsurmountable Mechon army, with the best stinger ending of the 'opening' with the camera zooming out through the entire world...

@Bass_X0 Ha! I was the opposite with that game. I think I played the opening without saving (so i could start over) for about two months. I say this with the caveat that undergrad was whooping my butt 'round about that time so coming out of the observatory at 4am I was just grateful my brain still worked. I might fire it up this weekend to see if it still hits the same or if that was the pain talking.

Sakurai’s right, in most cases. All games need a hook, and there’s no better hook than an exciting action scene right at the beginning. How We Got Here intros are really effective for story-driven games in my experience; throwing the player into the climax with no context definitely makes players eager to get that context.

Yeah, long cutscenes in general — MGS4 absolutely broke me; I never want to return to that game again (and unskippable cutscenes should be outlawed) — ideally you want to be playing the game while you're being exposited to.

Though I do like a whole bunch of games that have a slow opening, I really agree with Sakurai. Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal do a fantastic job at throwing you right into the action and mostly keep the story delivered to you as you play. That's one of the reasons why I really liked the newer Doom games.

man yes thank you

BOTW does this perfectly, even more so than TOTK, as much as I love TOTK. The game immediately puts you in control, and lets you discover the story as you see fit. I think so much of life works in this way: everything in the world is out there waiting for you to go out and discover for yourself. That is why this approach feels the most immersive in practice.

My ideal game is similar to old-school Monster Hunter's: start the game with nothing in a humble little town, and as you explore and interact with characters and events you gradually become more involved with the game world as you go, including its characters and overarching storyline.

In the same way, I prefer it when the protagonist begins the story relatively irrelevant within the context of the world, and slowly gains more prominence as the journey continues.

I’m more or less okay with a slower opening in jrpg not that they need to, you can still have a lot of your story in a opening without a long one, which a older jrpg like ff7 does pretty well, you’re thrown into combat minutes after the first cutscene, then they get to all the other stuff later. so in short I pretty much agree!

I like a good mix. I like games that throw you into the action, but I also like games with a slower, more story driven build-up. I think either approach is good if it's done well. Some games are just for fun and need a quick jump into the action, while others are focused on telling a story, and they can have a little slower of a start. As long as whatever they're doing is engaging, either from a gameplay or story perspective, I don't mind.

For game testing it's a pain. To set the scene sure but some people want to PLAY the game or catch up on the story later. Too much dialogue or fancy animated scenes even if impressive can be annoying.

Balancing scenes and gameplay moments, puzzle, exploration, combat, dialogue that plays over the scenes, actual cutscenes taking up the time to load a level or show a scene happen that doesn't look good to them in-engine or moving the models in such ways, etc.

Earning story through gameplay makes sense. Skipping cutscenes and playing them back in the cutscene menu if the game has one which many don't.

As annoying as logo intros are they make sense but many devs that can allow them to be skipped and aren't trying to do something behind the scenes the same can happen for cutscenes prepping the level, that's fine. But making it TOO long and unable to be skipped is just wasting our time, pushing lore/scenes we may not care about unless they set the scene, answer questions or bring up questions, otherwise it's situational fluff we don't need.

Visual novels make the CGs, particular scenes/endings, particular artwork/other content a reward or a failure, how can other games with too much 'inspired by movies' or doing this and that story telling focus on it too much, but they couldn't get into live action or animated movie writing but push it to us on games.

Then again some combat or dialogue systems don't allow for somethings to happen and are restrictive, but with how scripted games are these days more cutscenes and nonsense doesn't make them less appealing of games over time the more we see priorities then gameplay being so dull yet tech/story get pushed and we seek arcade experiences or puzzle, platformers or other gaming focused genres with little to no story or skipping dialogue as an option anyway in their story modes.

I went little backstory but want to get into the action. I can take story but I do come to play a game. Unless it's a visual novel or an FMV game why do we have so much story to push, people's worlds and passion are fine but they do push it too far sometimes.

Even if fantasy/sci-fi to world build many are still similar (give us but then again isekai go off oh you know already and that's pretty weak writing too to 'build their world' so plainly and safely with not much details to set them apart other than a gimmick or 'push the self insert fantasy already' then explaining how they died and not just a doorway and a way back to the real world like a Narnia anymore).

So I don't disagree with Sakurai he has a point.

Programmers camera can be annoying with some buttons to open doors too unless it was unclear where to go.

Gameplay needs to EARN my interest in a story. I love more story as a good game goes on.

ive seen it done well both ways, but it certainly seems like the "throw me straight in" strategy tends to work more efficiently to get me into a game more often

@Andee came here looking to see if someone would mention MGS4. I absolutely loved MGS4

This reminds me of every Fromsoft Souls game and their tediously dull opening cinematics. I force myself to watch them once and then never again. I prefer being chucked into the middle of action and then have the lore and story built up as I play. Information dumps being the first thing you experience in a game is never fun.

I can’t stand long openings. But nothing is worse than a momentum killer. I’m thinking specifically of Astral Chain. That game started SO STRONG with you taking control of a motorcycle in the middle of a police chase. Then within, like, 5 minutes, you were stopped dead in your tracks for what felt like an eternity waiting to get back into action. ANY action. It was grueling. And as much as I love Platinum’s games, no one kills momentum like them.

I'm remembering Pam in the Office episode "Dinner Party..."

"I don't care, I just wanna eat. And, I know that's a crazy thing to expect... at a dinner party."

So, too, do I expect to be able to play a video game.

Agree even in story-heavy games like RPGs jumping into the gameplay is good.

FFVII mentioned in the video for jumps right into the action with and then spreads its deeper exposition about the state of the world into various scenes after the sequence.

They forgot that with FFXII, it's front loaded with about 30 minutes of cutscenes and two sections of a narrator just reading text. With about 3 mins of heavily tutorialised gameplay in-between. There's over 10mins before you even touch the controller.

And about 35 mins before you've started the game in earnest with Vaan. FFVII has lots of story too, but its better pacing makes it more engaging.

The Another Code remake showed how to not do it. It's the last game that needs a "record scratch - how we got here" opening, but here we are. Sometimes linear storytelling and a slow opening that sets the mood can be a good thing. (They could have easily started with the player controlling Ashley finding a letter at home or exploring the ship.)

Doom 2016 was a GREAT example of this, as Doom games have almost always been. However, I am okay with slow openings if it serves the story. Sometimes the hero's journey begins with the character's routine life for a very good reason.

@FunGuy Nope — by definition 50% of your video game experience must be spent watching a video

@Andee ...Technically, 100% of the experience is watching a video. I just want the first 1-10% of it to be me interacting with it.