How do you think cutscenes will be handled?

[The DanMan]

SoV did something interesting with its cutscenes compared to Awakening and Fates: its cutscenes were almost exclusively done using dialogue portraits and backgrounds, with the odd dynamic 3D, no portrait cutscene thrown in (Clive VS Fernand and Berkut VS Alm both stick out in that regard, happening pretty close to eachother). Awakening and Fates had a mixture of cutscenes done exclusively with 2D portraits and 3D character models-- but with entirely canned animations and dialogue portraits still used.

So, what do you think they'll do for FE Switch: go back to the setup Awakening and Fates had? Or do you think it'll go the more visual novel style of SoV with its cutscenes? Here's what I personally expect: they'll phase out the "mixed" cutscenes from Awakening and Fates, instead focusing on dynamic 3D ones. I don't see them fully phasing dialogue portraits out, of course-- supports and some non-key cutscenes will likely use them.

SoV felt like it was testing this out, but ended up going with mostly portrait cutscenes to keep the budget down. But for the first HD Fire Emblem title, going bigger in this department doesn't seem unreasonable. 

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Those SoV scenes I definitely feel were the exception. Where character models clash and have their mouth agape for the duration of their voice line (seriously, that was so unflattering). Had the development team just a bit more of an animation budget and/or development time, I'm sure they would have preferred to make those scenes in the same 2D animation style as every other cutscene.

As for whether I prefer 2D or 3D animation, that's a tough one. SoV is our only basis for the former, and I thought those scenes were great. Fire Emblem games with 3D animated scenes have a considerably worse track record. You'd be forgiven for mis-remembering PoR had animated scenes other than its opening movie. And Fates' 3D cutscenes were dedicated almost 100% to introducing royals and the final boss character of that version. Meanwhile, I felt Radiant Dawn and Awakening had a much better collection of cutscenes that served to do something more than introducing a singular character (though we still got plenty of those). 

However they handle cutscenes, I hope we haven't seen the last of 2D CGs. Totally iconic, a crucial aspect of Fire Emblem story telling since FE6, and they've remained good up to and including the most recent game, SoV. Furthermore, dialogue boxes and portraits I definitely think are here to stay. Still a fashionable choice for Japanese games after decades, and the only real evolution they've seen is portraits started to blink and smile with FE7, and started to have more dynamic facial expressions with 3DS era. In fact, I somewhat expect FE Switch to have for us multiple portraits of the same character in different poses. FE Warriors does this, though I suspect that is the result of them simply taking their 3D Model of each character and a 2D image of each pose, edited afterward with proper shading. Since I expect FE Switch to have beautiful, HD models of its characters, they may be inclined to use the same strategy rather than rely on the slower, more expensive work of 2D artists. But that's just my speculation.

[The DanMan]

10 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Those SoV scenes I definitely feel were the exception. Where character models clash and have their mouth agape for the duration of their voice line (seriously, that was so unflattering). Had the development team just a bit more of an animation budget and/or development time, I'm sure they would have preferred to make those scenes in the same 2D animation style as every other cutscene.

As for whether I prefer 2D or 3D animation, that's a tough one. SoV is our only basis for the former, and I thought those scenes were great. Fire Emblem games with 3D animated scenes have a considerably worse track record. You'd be forgiven for mis-remembering PoR had animated scenes other than its opening movie. And Fates' 3D cutscenes were dedicated almost 100% to introducing royals and the final boss character of that version. Meanwhile, I felt Radiant Dawn and Awakening had a much better collection of cutscenes that served to do something more than introducing a singular character (though we still got plenty of those). 

However they handle cutscenes, I hope we haven't seen the last of 2D CGs. Totally iconic, a crucial aspect of Fire Emblem story telling since FE6, and they've remained good up to and including the most recent game, SoV. Furthermore, dialogue boxes and portraits I definitely think are here to stay. Still a fashionable choice for Japanese games after decades, and the only real evolution they've seen is portraits started to blink and smile with FE7, and started to have more dynamic facial expressions with 3DS era. In fact, I somewhat expect FE Switch to have for us multiple portraits of the same character in different poses. FE Warriors does this, though I suspect that is the result of them simply taking their 3D Model of each character and a 2D image of each pose, edited afterward with proper shading. Since I expect FE Switch to have beautiful, HD models of its characters, they may be inclined to use the same strategy rather than rely on the slower, more expensive work of 2D artists. But that's just my speculation.

Those SoV cutscenes definitely were the exception-- but why even have them at all, then? Surely it would've been easier to just do a 2D background with character portraits rather than actually animating the models? Heck, the former is often done with fanhacks for the 3DS titles.

I'm not expecting dialogue boxes and portraits to go away, of course-- supports, mid-battle stuff, and less crucial cutscenes will probably use them. But I'm thinking they may jump into fully animated 3D cutscenes for a lot of main story moments. Plenty of JRPGs use both that way, after all, and this'll be the first mainline HD FE game-- wanting to rub in more details and higher production values is something I wouldn't be shocked about.

[The Geek]

Yeah, I think the Awakening/Fates style of cutscenes were much better than the cutscenes in SoV.  I was excited when I heard they contracted a well-known animation studio to do the cutscenes, but in the end it turned out they were of the same quality as Berserk 2016.

Maybe if they got a good animation studio and gave them a worthwhile budget, then we could have anime-style cutscenes, but IMO the Awakening/Fates ones are great.

[The DanMan]

11 hours ago, The Geek said:

Yeah, I think the Awakening/Fates style of cutscenes were much better than the cutscenes in SoV.  I was excited when I heard they contracted a well-known animation studio to do the cutscenes, but in the end it turned out they were of the same quality as Berserk 2016.

Maybe if they got a good animation studio and gave them a worthwhile budget, then we could have anime-style cutscenes, but IMO the Awakening/Fates ones are great.

I was talking less about FMV cutscenes and more about the real, in-game ones. Awakening and Fates did a mixture of portraits + 3D background and portraits + character models using canned animations acting in an 3D environment. SoV was almost entirely portraits + 3D background (which I do believe was a sign of lower budget), but also had a few rare fully 3D cutscenes in-engine with no portraits.