Do you like the AAA trend of Letterbox Cutscenes?

[jman1954goat]

I just started playing Ghost of Tsushima and noticed most of the cutscenes. I remember getting super annoyed at Evil Within back in the day for it but I am finding myself liking it in Ghost despite being a little jarring with bad quick transitions . (Helps that gameplay is free of it.)

my favorite implementation is Red dead 2. The way the letterbox slowly slides in when approaching a cutscene is really neat and smooth. In general red dead had some surprisingly good shot composition.

I also really like when media besides games play with letterbox 's like how WandaVision has a couple of scenes with Red dead redemption type slow and smooth aspect ratio changes or like how kill la kill has flashbacks in 4:3.

Edit: I also like the subtitles being over the black letterbox making them easier to read.

so what do you think? Do you like it dislike letterbox and aspect ratio changes?

 

[AshenOne]

i don't appreciate it in video games. It interferes with my immersion personally. I'd like to see all of the stuff on my screen without artificial barriers.

 

[Aurica]

I also really like when media besides games play with letterbox 's like how WandaVision has a couple of scenes with Red dead redemption type slow and smooth aspect ratio scenes

Click to shrink...

I just spent the last several minutes trying to remember if there was a game, show, or movie that was doing weird things with aspect ratio and letterboxing, and I couldn't remember at all so I came back to the thread. All I had to do was read more of your post to remember that was it. haha.

As for games, I find it to be obnoxious since there's no natural reason to do the letterboxing. I just feel like I'm losing screen space. It doesn't feel more immersive or anything.

 

[Linus815]

it depends. As you say I quite like it in rdr 2 for example, the smooth transitions look really good and in my opinion without them sometimes it would be a little awkward to know when you actaully have control and when you don't as the transitions often start while you're still in gameplay camera mode. And despite the black bars added after the cutscenes already been implemented, it does feel that a lot of the scenes were made with a more filmic aspect ratio in mind as the composition is indeed really neat in especially the key scenes.

I aboslutely hated it in yakuza 0 though because the game already employs a lot of different style of "cutscenes", high production value ones with custom animations and higher quality models/assets, the lower quality ones where its just the gameplay models and then the even lower quality one with text boxes, and finally the kinda comic book style image stills. And only one of them had black bars... which felt completely pointless and made it even more jarring.

 

[Dead Man Typing]

I dont hate it but I do prefer a full screen image so you get consistency between gameplay and cutscenes.

When I heard that Red Dead Redemption 2 changed to bordered cutscenes late in the development, I was disappointed. Both because I prefer consistency and due to the amount of work it placed on the team to re frame all the scenes.

 

[jman1954goat]

I appreciate how the subtitles are over the letterbox in ghost making them easier to read.

 

[TheMadTitan]

I didn't buy all this screen for chunks of it to not be filled up!


But in reality, I don't really care either way.

 

[Kanann]

I fear it will cause burn in on my OLED so I choose to hate it.

 

[julia crawford]

I have no opinion whatsoever.

I wish there was more 4:3 tho.

 

[Sulik2]

No, I actively dislike it. The screen that almost everyone uses now is 16:9. All media should just be shot, created or rendered in 16:9 now. If the majority of your viewers are using that ratio just make your media use it.

 

[Faceless_Caesar]

It's weird when you are using a 21:9 display and the 21:9 cropped cutscenes still have black bars. This was also a thing that happened when the switch from 4:3/5:4 to 16:9/16:10 happened

 

[SirKai]

I adore letterboxing for cut-scenes, especially in older 4:3 games. Still looks great in modern games too. It doesn't need to be done in every game with cut-scenes or cinematic presentation, especially ones that do their best to blend cut-scenes in and out gameplay seamlessly like Last of Us, but I generally think it's a good and visually attractive decision.

 

[Vic20]

Only in red dead

 

[DPB]

It's fine on console games on a larger TV but I don't like it when I'm playing PC games on my monitor, my screen is small enough as it is.

 

[Jonnax]

I've got no strong feelings.
Thoug I wonder if with HDMI VRR, we'll be seeing 24fps cinematic cutscenes

 

[The Praiseworthy]

I hate it.

Especially in Nier, I mean WTF is this? so disturbing for me:

 

[Raskol]

I can't recall it ever bothering me. Don't really care either way I guess.

 

[nullref]

I don't have a big problem with it and can understand why a game would want to shift to a single consistent aspect ratio for cutscenes of composed shots, but using some CinemaScope-style ratio for content that was never designed for a cinema screen can feel like an unjustified affectation. And poor implementations where content doesn't at least best-fit to the user's particular screen are obviously not great.

 

[Fawz]

I prefer a smealess transition but it can work in some situations, but it has no place during gameplay like Dragon's Dogma & The Order did (Pretty sure that was just to save some performance anyways)

RDR2 cropped the aspect ratio for cutscenes and based on leaks it was a last minute choice for artistic reasons. Comparing the uncropped cutscenes via the PC Mod I don't think it added anything of value other than to let you know control is being taken away

 

[nolifebr]

Games that have photomode and do not allow it to be activated in cut scenes annoy me way more.

 

[MidnightCowboy]

No, I actively dislike it. The screen that almost everyone uses now is 16:9. All media should just be shot, created or rendered in 16:9 now. If the majority of your viewers are using that ratio just make your media use it.

Click to shrink...

You're really advocating for the death of 4:3 and ultrawide aspect ratios? There are certain things 16:9 just can't possibly accomplish.

 

[dgrdsv]

No. Cutscene is a part of the game for me. There is no need to stylize it as if it's a movie unrelated to the game I'm playing.

 

[BrickArts295]

The Order and Evil Within send their regards.
As a film guy, I like it.

 

[Enduin]

They're great when done well and used appropriately. It's a legitimate tool and like most things comes down to execution.

 

[Modest_Modsoul]

🤷 I'm fine either way.

 

[Deleted member 2533]

It's a good cue to knowing when you can or can't perform actions. The worst is a long cutscene going right into action without any kind of differentiation and then getting hit by an enemy because you didn't think you could move yet.

 

[Keym]

I hate it.

Especially in Nier, I mean WTF is this? so disturbing for me:

Click to shrink...

That one bothered me SO MUCH

It just looks like a visual bug

 

[canderous]

If they compose the shots differently so there's actually a reason, sure it's cool. But if they just drape black bars over an existing shot for that CiNEmAtiC LoOk then meh.

When it's done right, I don't notice the aspect ration transitions happening in movies/shows that do it.

 

[Vonocourt]

I don't mind it one way or the other for cutscenes... except for the Nier games that operate kind of like older Japanese home video letterboxing with disproportionate black bars that are actually translucent.

I can understand the rational behind not wanted subtitles intruding on the image, even if I don't agree with it. Translucent bars though, it just seems to call to attention that you're cropping the image.

 

[spam musubi]

Hard to call it a "AAA trend" when it has both been done for over a decade and also by non-AAA games

 

[DiipuSurotu]

This isn't a trend. This has been a thing since Ninja Gaiden 1 on the NES lmao

 

[Lukemia SL]

Playing Ghost of Tsushima I was wishing there was a way to play the whole game that way as an option. I wouldn't mind it in a lot of games actually.

 

[Rimpim]

I like it, even more during gameplay. Gives it a more cinematic feel.

 

[Zemst]

Wasn't tais a complaint of the original bioshock so much so that they did away with it for infinite?

 

[LastNac]

Yes, I loved that aspect ratio in the actual gameplay for The Order too...

 

[EggmaniMN]

This has been a thing in games for an extremely long time. There are games on the Dreamcast that have letterboxed cutscenes.

 

[StrappingYoungLance]

It doesn't bother me and I don't feel strongly enough about it to say I like it? Typically I prefer cutscenes to be delivered in full 16:9 but I really don't mind.