I’ve recently been playing (and enjoying) the PC port of Persona 4 Golden. I had previously played the original Persona 4 and was eager to return and see the new additions to the game in the upgraded Golden version. Amongst the many new additions to the game, of which there are many, there are a few new anime cutscenes that have been added to bolster those found in the original game. This made me think about the usage of anime cutscenes in video games and how different they are to regular cutscenes.
Just in case some of you are unfamiliar with the concept of a cutscene, these are typically non-interactive sequences where a scene within the game plays out linearly with many pre-animated elements. An easy comparison to make is to compare these cutscenes to typical linear media such as movies or television and they have received criticism for taking away control from the player. Nonetheless, cutscenes remain a very important aspect of storytelling in video games.
Returning to the topic of this article, anime cutscenes refer to cutscenes in video games that are animated in 2D by anime studios to tell specific sections of the story. While there are examples of 2D animation being used in Western games with an excellent example being the Dragon’s Lair games, my focus will be on the animated cutscenes of Japanese video games.
For games that feature an art-style replicating anime/manga, it makes sense to include anime cutscenes to flesh out the world and story. One of the first games that I can remember actively taking note of these cutscenes was Atlus’ Catherine. These lovely cutscenes were animated by Studio 4°C and fit exceptionally well within the atmosphere of the game. They also help to bring additional focus to little details such as the ants in the scene below and contribute to the overall stylish nature of the game.
Since then, I have come across anime cutscenes in a variety of games such as the Tales series, Chrono Trigger, the Ni no Kuni franchise, the Ys games and more! While some of these cutscenes look better than others due to technological restrictions, an example being the cutscenes from the original Grandia where the 3D CGI elements clash strongly with the 2D animation, I can’t recall any where I thought to myself “I’d rather have a normal cutscene” although I’m sure an example or two of that does exist somewhere.
In fact, my biggest criticism of anime cutscenes actually comes from the fact that they are too infrequent. While the ratio of anime cutscenes to normal cutscenes worked well in Catherine with an average playthrough of about 13 hours, in the case of my other examples, all of whom are JRPGs, 20-30 minutes of anime cutscenes in a 50 to 80 hour adventure feels more of a tease than a reward.
To conclude, I believe that anime cutscenes can be a beautiful way to portray the story and events of a game and have greatly enjoyed all of the examples that I have encountered. It’s true that I would like more of them in many of these games but that does make the few cutscenes that I do come across all the more special. Let me know what your thoughts are on anime cutscenes, what some of your favourites were, if there were any that made you wish you were watching a regular cutscene instead etc.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.