Many consider the 1991 arcade classic Donkey Kong to be the first video game that used cutscenes to tell a story. Since then, the advancements in technology and the push towards narrative-driven gameplay have led to a big change in the way that cutscenes are used in video games. Cinematic experiences are becoming the norm.
Although some genres utilize them more than others, pretty much every game released in the modern age features cutscenes in some way, shape, or form. They can be used in a variety of different ways, like recapping past events or telling parts of a story that just wouldn’t work as a gameplay segment. They can also be used too much.
Certain developers are notorious for their overuse of cutscenes to the point where some titles feel more like movies than video games. While many may argue that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, others find that it can really break the player’s sense of immersion. Whichever is the case, these are some of the longest cutscenes that have ever featured in gaming.
10 Freedom Planet (13 Minutes)
Freedom Planet is an underrated gem that flew under the radar of many 2D platformer fans. It’s a great game, but it features some pretty long cutscenes – often at the beginning of its stages. Although most aren’t too bad, they can drag on a little at times and slow down this speedy little title to a snail’s pace.
The worst offender is probably the 4th stage, where Milla first meets Lilac. In total, the whole thing takes 12 and a half minutes to play out. This wouldn’t be so bad were it not for the fact that the stage itself can be beaten in around 8 minutes. That works out at just 40% of the total time.
9 Kingdom Hearts Union X (15 Minutes)
Kingdom Hearts X has been rereleased and rebranded so many times that it’s hard to keep track of its name. Whatever name players choose to refer to it by though, there’s no denying that it’s a game that leans quite heavily on its cutscenes.
The longest found in the game comes in at around 15 and a half minutes. What makes this cutscene stand out though is not its content or even its length, but instead its placement. Long cutscenes at the beginning and end of games are often to be expected, but it’s rare to find so much time dedicated to cutscenes partway through the story.
8 Final Fantasy VI (23 Minutes)
To many Final Fantasy fans, the series’ sixth entry is one of its strongest. It features one of the best villains of all time and a wonderful story that takes a new twist on an old angle. Its narrative is broken up into two distinct sections and, unlike most games, continues onward long after the final boss has been beaten.
There are 23 minutes between the party landing the final blow on Kefka and the point when the ‘The End’ message appears on the screen. Admittedly, the game’s credits do roll during this time, but story events continue to happen throughout. Even accounting for the time where the airship is traveling with no dialogue, it still clocks in at around 18 minutes.
7 Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (23 Minutes)
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core was a PSP exclusive and served as a prequel to Final Fantasy VII. The game performed fairly well although sales were held back by the limited install base of the PSP. Much like other Final Fantasy titles, cutscenes played a big part in the game’s narrative and made up a large chunk of the total playtime.
As one might expect, the longest cutscene came at the very end of the game. From the moment that the player defeats Genesis, there are 23 minutes that lead right up to the original intro for Final Fantasy VII. It actually pieces together really nicely and helps to connect the two games in a way that only Square Enix could.
6 Yakuza 2 (23 Minutes)
Cutscenes can be a great way to flesh out a game’s story or provide exposition that just doesn’t mesh well with the gameplay. Finding long cutscenes at the end of a game is often par for the course, but when they’re overused at the game’s beginning, it can be incredibly frustrating for players. Yakuza 2 is a great example of this.
Much of the game’s opening is made up of cutscenes. In total, there’s around an hour’s worth to sit through during the game’s opening stages. Although there are small playable sections thrown in here and there to break things up, we’re talking around 20 seconds of gameplay for every 20 minutes of cutscenes. The longest section without any player input is 23 minutes, which is just too much – especially so early on in a game.
5 Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (24 Minutes)
The words ‘Kojima’ and ‘Cutscenes’ are used together in the same sentence quite often. Typically though, people are talking about Hideo Kojima rather than Xenoblade Chronicles director Koh Kojima. However, both are equally apt. All three entries in the Xenoblade series are renowned for both the volume and length of their cutscenes and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the worst offender.
The game’s ending cutscene plays out at just under 24 minutes. If the credits and post-credits scene are included, this rises to a rather ridiculous 33 minutes. As nothing of significance is happening during the credits though, they’re generally considered to be two separate scenes. All the same, 24 minutes isn’t exactly short.
4 Xenosaga (25 Minutes)
Xenosaga is a title known for its heavy-handed use of cutscenes. Across the game’s three parts, there are no fewer than 464 distinct cutscenes. It’s never been calculated, but it’s highly probable that players spend more time watching the game than they do actually playing it. The longest of these cutscenes comes at the very end of the third entry and lasts for 25 minutes. That’s not including credits, either.
Interestingly, Xenosaga‘s spiritual predecessor Xenogears actually featured a 40-minute cutscene of sorts. Unlike Xenosaga though, Xenogears‘ cutscenes aren’t pre-rendered and so require players to press a button to advance dialogue. As such, it could be argued that they don’t count as cutscenes in the traditional sense.
3 Metal Gear Solid 4 (27 Minutes)
Hideo Kojima has made no secret of his desire to one day work on movies. Many of his titles take a cinematic approach to their storytelling, with long blocks of cutscenes often taking up much of his games’ total playtime. Metal Gear Solid 4 is no exception.
The game actually held two separate Guinness World Records relating to its cutscenes. The first was for the longest cutscene in a video game with one clocking in at 27 minutes. The second was for the longest cutscene sequence, with four of the game’s ending cutscenes adding up to a whopping 71 minutes of non-playing time.
2 Death Stranding (31 minutes)
Many consider Death Stranding to be Kojima’s magnum opus. Regardless of one’s thoughts on the final product, it’s hard to argue that it doesn’t provide a true Hideo Kojima experience. It is about as close as the auteur has come to realizing his dream of creating movies and some may even argue that the game’s ending is, for all intents and purposes, a full-length movie in itself.
The game’s climax takes about two hours to complete and – aside from a few short sections where the player runs around a little – it’s pretty much one long cutscene. The aforementioned sections do help to break things up a little, but just barely. The longest amount of time between player inputs is 31 minutes – which is longer than an episode of most television shows.
1 Star Ocean: The Last Hope (46 Minutes)
It’s not exactly clear how the team at Guinness World Records decides what constitutes a cutscene and when to award records. Anyone who’s played Star Ocean: The Last Hope though will know that the game was, for some reason, overlooked when it came to the ‘Longest Cutscene’ record.
The game is full of lengthy cutscenes, with the longest lasting for a staggering 46 minutes. It comes towards the end of the game just before the final battle and, like the Ocean of Stars itself, seems to go on forever and ever. Long cutscenes are normal for JRPGs, but Square Enix perhaps went a bit too far here.
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