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Longest Intro To A Game Before You Gain Full Control
- Thread starter ThatStupidLion
- Start date
hardcastlemccormick
Banned
Under your definition, you do get control within the first half hour through a few choices in most conversations. You get to move the character around within the first hour at least.
I was just contrasting the intro versus the actual game. You just can't influence the game's systems until much later. The same stuff in Persona 3: picking what to do after school, who to hang out with, when to go into battles and dungeons, how to approach your character build. All of that stuff comes much later.
A Zelda clone through and through. I agree, haven't been able to do it again even though it's a great game
ThatStupidLion
Member
god Twilight Princess was SO boring and slow before the first dungeon. It doesn't fully qualify as intro because you gain control of link. but it infuriated me how boring it was.
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
This. Persona 4's was incredibly long, but it made up for it by being entertaining.
People saying FF13 are nuts. You get into your first battle within 10 mins tops and start having more battles not long after. You just do not start leveling up your characters for 2 hours.
For the real winner...DQ 7. You basically wander around an island and an battle less dungeon for THREE HOURS.
For the real winner...DQ 7. You basically wander around an island and an battle less dungeon for THREE HOURS.
I think it was longer than two hours before you have access to all six characters and can reorganize your party as you see fit.
I remember Yakuza 4 having a real long intro and cutscenes. I started it and wasn't feeling it too much after about an hour or two. Saved the game (or so I thought) came back later to play with no save file and instantly returned the rental lol.
KH2 definitely takes the cake for me. Most pointless boring tutorial/intro/prelude whatever the f' they wanna call it ever.
KH2 definitely takes the cake for me. Most pointless boring tutorial/intro/prelude whatever the f' they wanna call it ever.
Kingdom Hearts 2 was unbearable. I quit that game for a few weeks because the intro was so bad.
I can't wait to dive into Skyward Sword but I'm really dreading the standard, 3-4 hour Zelda tutorial.
I can't wait to dive into Skyward Sword but I'm really dreading the standard, 3-4 hour Zelda tutorial.
Aaand, I son't see anything else topping this.
The most amazing thing about KH2 is that after that prologue section, the rest of the game is fine. Dare i say, the rest of that game is pretty fantastic.
hardcastlemccormick
Banned
I thought Skyward Sword was better on that capacity. Better than Okami or Twilight Princess at the very least. I had issues with the game, but the intro was a pretty decent one.
BrokenEchelon
Banned
Xenosaga Ep. I?
I don't remember how long all those cutscenes were though.
I don't remember how long all those cutscenes were though.
Goldenroad
Member
I seem to remember controlling a character within the first 5 minutes of that game starting up. Probably why it was not mentioned.
RPS said something about 4+ hours of hand holding, and I know I read similar complaints on this forum.
The Bookerman
Member
Didn't xenosaga Start off with a 45 min cutscene?
Zenaku
Member
Yes! This annoyed me starting up P4G a few weeks ago. I actually took 4 hours as I was giving a little attention to the TV at the time. Man was I happy to get past all that.
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
You can press x to advance dialogue, and there's a couple of places where you can briefly control your character. The only things you can do at that time are save or walk five feet to trigger a new cutscene.
It's two hours before the first battle (up until that point it's all cutscenes with no control outside of those very brief moments where the game lets you save before walking into a new room). Around the three hour mark, the game gives you a little help box that informs you that you can now control your character.
I love Persona 4, and I think the intro is fine, but it's definitely the longest intro to any game I can think of.
That sounds approximately correct. And I loved it.
Just like I loved the Persona 4 intro.
The intro is far more palatable and interesting than TP, sans a stupid flying mini-game. I think it was a bit shorter too. The whole 3D Zelda tutorial is still terrible in how it's implemented in SS as usual, but like I said... getting through it was not the chore that TP was.
Oddly enough I seriously clicked on this topic thinking of Shining Force 3. I recently got my Saturn and several game discs, and just wanted to check out all of them to make sure they worked. SF3 was the one I most wanted to play, but man did the intro take forever. Worst thing is, I still haven't replace the old battery in the thing, so next time I want to play I'll have to watch it again.
Deified Data
Banned
This would be relevent if battling was the primary draw of P4's gameplay. The social aspects are every bit as important as the fights. Perfectly paced game.
I love Skyrim, but I'm going to rip it a new asshole.
I'm sick and tired of playing through this game's shitty, scripted intro segment. I'm sick of the terrible voice acting, the bugginess, and the lack of any real gameplay outside of being led on rails from one segment to another. I hate that I can't look at my character in 3rd person until I run the stupid fucking gauntlet, only to discover his lips are too red so I have to start all over again. Every Bethesda open-world RPG since Oblivion has given me the chance to re-edit my character at the end of the intro segment. But Skyrim, the game with arguably the worst intro? Fuck you, if you mess up you have to start all over again. If you want to make a new character, you have to go through the same rigamrole as last time. None of these scripted moments are cool enough for the game to force me to listen to them/watch them every time. It's gotten to the point where I'll start the game up, and then switch to TV and watch a few minutes to wait for the inane dialogue to finish...then I turn it back and it's still going! Tulius is still berating Ulfric for USING THE POWER OF THE VOICE TO MURDER HIS KING AND USURP HIS THROOONE.
My least favorite intro in gaming history. Love the game, cannot stand the beginning.
Sir_Crocodile
Member
Dragon's Quest VII from memory was hours before your first battle & ability to save.
Seventy_X_Seven
Member
And the majority of fingers pointed at Japan, as expected.
BabeSlayer
Member
Assassins creed 3 seemed a bit lengthy before you got control.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
Super Paper Mario took forever.
It's much better than TP. SS's intro didn't bother me too much.
recently RE6 takes like 15-20 minutes before you can control of all of your actual usable skills (including cut scenes etc). its annoying. i might be overestimating, but it feels like forever until you can actually fully control Leon.
Dragons Lair? whats that take like 20-30 seconds tops? its an arcade game. probably doesnt even take that long.
Dragon's Lair?
Heavy Rain?
Uncharted series?
Dragons Lair? whats that take like 20-30 seconds tops? its an arcade game. probably doesnt even take that long.
I'll nominate Yu-No: The girl who chants love at the end of the world here, since many of the more popular and more recent games have been mentioned. Yu-No is a visual novel/adventure game. In the long prologue and epilogue parts of the game, there is basically no real control.
You can select select very basic options like moving between areas and talking to characters or looking at certain objectives, but this is only available using a fixed text menu. So for these "locked" parts of the game, there is no real interactivity or gameplay, and it's literally like reading a novel. When the game actually starts, you can use the mouse cursor to interact with screen itself, like a point and click adventure, and you have full control over your time travel "bookmarks" which is a major part of the game mechanics.
Considering the prologue is probably about 1-2 hours, and the epilogue is like like 5 hours or more, I'll say this game has the longest intro and outro without full control. But the game itself is really long too.
You can select select very basic options like moving between areas and talking to characters or looking at certain objectives, but this is only available using a fixed text menu. So for these "locked" parts of the game, there is no real interactivity or gameplay, and it's literally like reading a novel. When the game actually starts, you can use the mouse cursor to interact with screen itself, like a point and click adventure, and you have full control over your time travel "bookmarks" which is a major part of the game mechanics.
Considering the prologue is probably about 1-2 hours, and the epilogue is like like 5 hours or more, I'll say this game has the longest intro and outro without full control. But the game itself is really long too.
Acquiescence
Member
Dragon's Lair?
Heavy Rain?
Uncharted series?
Heavy Rain gives you control of Ethan Mars within about a minute of pressing New Game on the main menu.
Yeah, I was going to bring up Dragon Quest 7. You do an entire dungeon before you get into your first battle, as crazy as that is. Then you have to get about 20 hours into the game before they finally hit the job system, which is the most important gameplay system.
Golden has a fast forward feature, right from the beginning, but even then it still takes a pretty long time.
Except you don't gain access to any social links until after that first battle.
Haha so glad I played in first person
Was gonna go with Eternal Sonata (seriously, the whole intro is basically meaningless and boring, even the guys at Unskippable laughed about this), but after reading the thread it seems that Persona 4 is an even bigger offender. Still, I'd like to play it in the future.
Deified Data
Banned
Golden has a fast forward feature, right from the beginning, but even then it still takes a pretty long time.
Except you don't gain access to any social links until after that first battle.
Eh, you still get introduced to important characters and the story progresses. I stand by my statement.
TAJ
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Going by the comments about MGS4, it seems like we're counting installs and movies meant to hide loading.
In that case, FFXI is the all-time champion. The last time I installed it, it took NINE HOURS to install and update.
But once that's done, there's just this intro CG...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlWeE0cRr4U
... which is skippable, and then you can be outside killing shit and leveling up within a minute.
In that case, FFXI is the all-time champion. The last time I installed it, it took NINE HOURS to install and update.
But once that's done, there's just this intro CG...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlWeE0cRr4U
... which is skippable, and then you can be outside killing shit and leveling up within a minute.
Honestly, why is that crazy?
DQ7 gives you control right away, and then the game establishes the world as being small (a single island) and peaceful with the hero and his friend desperately wanting something more, eventually finding way more than they'd bargained for. The story in DQ7 wouldn't work nearly as well had it been set up differently. It was really important to set the world up as a peaceful and small place.
The fact that you do an entire dungeon without having fights. That's what I consider crazy. Fights are what create tension in a DQ dungeon: Can you reach the end without running out of resources? The puzzles are simplistic at best. Without that tension, the whole thing feels tedious.