Boy was I wrong.
 
I just started Final Fantasy 13 for the first time today, and I never thought I'd say this about a game, but there are too damn many cutscenes. I figured the hour long intro was Square Enix being ambitious about its game. I accepted it, and got excited when I finally could start interracting with this video game. "Let's get it ON!" I thought to myself, ready to embark on another epic Final Fantasy journey, only to take five steps, and to encounter yet another cutscene. "Allright" I thought, disappointed and somewhat confused.
 
30 minutes later I could yet again interact. I fought off a couple of mobs, and was rewarded with one more episode of season one. Although, I started to feel more punished than anything else. History repeated itself as I fought off mobs, and was forced to watch more cutscenes. At this point my roommate asked "can't you just skip it" on which I replied "I wish I could *sigh*, but I have to understand the story." After a while I finally got into an area with lots of mobs to kill, and with that the chance to explore the combat system. I also remembered from previous FF games that it could be a good idea to grind XP for future fights. I could take a left to continue the story, but I turned right to take a detour through the mob infested path. So I grinded for a good while only to find out I am not far enough into the game yet to get experience points.
 
I've been playing for three hours.
 
Jesus.
Mary.
And Joseph.
 
In all fairness, I guess it should be mentioned that I have not really been playing for three hours... take away all the cutscenes, and I guess I've only been in game... wow, this is a perfect opportunity to make my point and say something like five minutes, but I'm gonna be realistic and say 30 minutes, because that fact makes an even bigger impact. So much wasted time! All the time that could have been used to study! ... ah. Who am I kidding... IT'S BORING!
 
I will play through it though. *Sigh* .... wish me luck.

Boy was I wrong.
 
I just started Final Fantasy 13 for the first time today, and I never thought I'd say this about a game, but there are too damn many cutscenes. I figured the hour long intro was Square Enix being ambitious about its game. I accepted it, and got excited when I finally could start interracting with this video game. "Let's get it ON!" I thought to myself, ready to embark on another epic Final Fantasy journey, only to take five steps, and to encounter yet another cutscene. "Allright" I thought, disappointed and somewhat confused.
 
30 minutes later I could yet again interact. I fought off a couple of mobs, and was rewarded with one more episode of season one. Although, I started to feel more punished than anything else. History repeated itself as I fought off mobs, and was forced to watch more cutscenes. At this point my roommate asked "can't you just skip it" on which I replied "I wish I could *sigh*, but I have to understand the story." After a while I finally got into an area with lots of mobs to kill, and with that the chance to explore the combat system. I also remembered from previous FF games that it could be a good idea to grind XP for future fights. I could take a left to continue the story, but I turned right to take a detour through the mob infested path. So I grinded for a good while only to find out I am not far enough into the game yet to get experience points.
 
I've been playing for three hours.
 
Jesus.
Mary.
And Joseph.
 
In all fairness, I guess it should be mentioned that I have not really been playing for three hours... take away all the cutscenes, and I guess I've only been in game... wow, this is a perfect opportunity to make my point and say something like five minutes, but I'm gonna be realistic and say 30 minutes, because that fact makes an even bigger impact. So much wasted time! All the time that could have been used to study! ... ah. Who am I kidding... IT'S BORING!
 
I will play through it though. *Sigh* .... wish me luck.

I gave up halfway through, and by that point the battle music was pretty much the only thing which kept me going.
 
Godspeed, sir.

Brace yourself for chapter 5 and 10,those are the worst.

Persona 4 does basically the same thing, although with even less actual gameplay.

It's not the fact that there's too much story. It's the fact that there's too little actual game.

" Persona 4 does basically the same thing, although with even less actual gameplay. "

" Persona 4 does basically the same thing, although with even less actual gameplay. "

Sigh, I was hoping this was just during the beginning of the game. Through disc one maybe, but by the looks of it... -_-
 
And I guess I'm never touching Persona 4.

There can never be too much good story in a game. The reason I haven't gone back to finish Final Fantasy 13 (which I was actually enjoying on some level) is because I've forgotten what the hell is going on. I remember the highlights, but the details ... no. Mostly because they just weren't that interesting. I told myself I'd watch all the cutscenes my first time through the game and after fifteen hours or so I started skipping, partly because they were boring, and partly because one character's voice in particular was so annoying I could barely deal with it. I did like Lightning, though, and wanted to see how her story wound up. But I can get that by looking at a wiki rather than suffering through another 30 hours of that "game." 
 
@FourWude said:

" It's not the fact that there's too much story. It's the fact that there's too little actual game. "

FfXIII is much like MGS4 takes its self much to seriously and tries to force a cartoonishly dramatic story down your throat and hopes you're simple enough to care for it.

I actually had the opposite happening :p, I loved all the cut scenes and was playing (read watching) this game like shit until I got near the ends and without all too much backstory and directions you are dropped on huge plains with stupid side quests and a whole lot of enemies, and those appeared to be there for one reason and one reason only: grinding. cause try to advance without #@! grinding and you will be brutally slaughtered, at that point I threw this game out of the window and never popped it in again

I don't think there can be too much story in games. Tolerance for long cutscenes really depends on how interesting the story itself is. Though I will say that modern storytelling in games is at its worst when it tries to escape its own medium.