Top 3 Cinemas

[Serega81]

One of the things that attracted me to the Turbo Duo, were the glorious cinematics cd/scd games had.  In 1993 I was just starting to get into anime, and the PC engine/duo game screenshots I saw in us magazines like egm and Gamefan really wet my appetite for the system.

The three games that have the most memorable cinematics for me based on 3 factors : relation to plot, color/graphics, nostalgia are:

Exile:WP - Was the first game I played for the duo, was blown away by saddler's design, voices , and how colorful they were.

Babel - Character design reminded me of old school robotech, cinematics had blood and titties. One of the most mature titles.

YS IV - awesome character designs, great dub (thanks NightWolve), and of course it's Ys. I.e. familiar characters plus scenario

Honorable Mention - Neo Metal Fantasy - Battle centaurs, What??!! detailed cinemas, great character designs . Reminded me of FOTN anime, long legs short torso.

What are your top 3 titles with great cinemas ?

[ccovell]

I haven't watched a lot of the more cinematic games' cinematics, but:

Star Parodier, NEXZR, Ys III/IV.

[jtucci31]

Between each area The Legend of Xanadu had some pretty amazing cutscenes for the PCE

[NecroPhile]

Hands down, the cinemas in Ys I and II are the most memorable to me.  Quick on its heels are Cosmic Fantasy (bathing scenes!), Ys IV, Gotzendiener, cute and funny Magicoal, and Final Zone II (so bad they're good + a nice bitch slap).

For technically impressive ones, it's hard to beat those in 3x3 Eyes, Gulliver Boy, and Xanadu.

[majors]

Hands down, the cinemas in Ys I and II are the most memorable to me. 

^ This. Such nostalgia! Getting that copy of Y's from Software ETC for $59.99 and taking it home(tossing out the cardboard, b/c that is what we did then!) and experiencing the double intro for the first time...priceless(well, $59.99 + 299.99 + whatever I paid for my TG-16 back in '90).

Drac X has a sweet and tight intro. I recall memories of Fiend Hunter being good, but it has been a while since I've messed with it(forced intro...ugg). The 3x3 Eyes with the ACD was impressive also.

[Dicer]

US cinemas

Ys book I&II: hands down my favorite cinemas sequences bar none, period...forever.
Dragon Slayer: I love that opening so much...
Dungeon Explorer II: Top fucking notch stuff...can tell they put love into this.

Will comment on PCE later, need to think a bit.

[CrackTiger]

If I'm going to honestly pick cinemas that had the biggest impact on me under the given criteria, two are from the same game and I must include SPOILERS.


Kabukiden: The entire sequence once you match up the final druid shrine branch after defeating the spirits of the four priests and party members. The game was obviously a Tengai Makyou parody of Final Fantasy IV and even though I was long past the point of now believing that anything was possible, it was still a shock to see the overworld zoom out like key scenes in FFIV. Taking it a step further and shifting the landscape, accompanied by top feature film quality music performed by a real orchestra, mixing in cinematic shots... all leading into the all the more unbelieveable blue wolf cinema... followed by Garp's response... it was as epic as 16-bit games ever got and was so long. Real sound effects and voice, redbook, adpcm and chiptunes. In-game and cinematic elements blending together seemlessly. One of the many reasons this will always remain my favorite game.


Kabukiden: the game leading up to and including the ending and credits cinemas after defeating Garp was already more satisfying than any game I've ever experienced. The orchestral music playing in sync with perfectly storyboarded cinematic shots, perfectly topping off the story... before abruptly doing a 180 and turning the game as you knew it on end and setting up the events leading to an even greater send off of the greatest game that will ever be.


Ys I & II: To make the end of battle. Y's for SMS was one of my favorite games and had such a great ending. It was all the more moving when the transition from Ys I to II played off of the line in the ending saying that "Adol was surrounded by a soft white light". When I first saw shots of the PCE game in magazines, all of the little improvements were everything I'd dreamed of and I never thought that a sequel would attempt anything as ambitious as trying to flesh out and have you experience the ancient land of Ys. That alone was moving, but the way that the TG-CD version handled the cinema with such a perfect version of the bgm effected me as much as anything in a game and I feel it every bit as strong each time I play through the game.


Honorable mention: The opening of Dawn of Ys. For similar reasons as above. Plus the fact that it was the introduction of a game that was attempting to once again flesh out the backstory of Ys. Abosolutely perfect.

[Gypsy]

Not adding anything that hasn't been mentioned but Ys and Nexzr both had very nice animations. Those were two that stuck with me.

A non-turbo opening I liked was Vanguard Bandits. *runs away*

[Otaking]

These stick out to me, I used to use them to show off my PC Engine DUO to friends.

1. Pop 'n Magic

2. Dungeon Explorer 2

3. Exile 2

Honourable mentions to: Ys I & II, Gate of Thunder, Winds of Thunder

[esteban]

North America:

I've narrowed it down to favorite scenes:

1. Ys I & II—the bell tolls, the winds howl, the sun sets on Darm Tower...

2. Guy Kazama—ending cinema where he is floating in the ocean. I can't explain exactly why I love this so much...but it is partially because it captures a feeling/mood that I love...and the song that plays immediately following this is fantastic (one of my faves).

3. Cosmic Fantasy...the cinema scenes were the entire reason for playing, IMHO. I guess I can't just pick one scene.

Pico!

[geise]

Ys I & II: To make the end of battle.

This

Dungeon Explorer II intro"s"

Tengai Makyo II intro

[NoSexGex]

The Legend of Xanadu

Xanadu is just amazing, this or Y's (especially the intro). From what i've seen so far**

[elmer]

The Legend of Xanadu

Xanadu is just amazing, this or Ys (especially the intro). From what i've seen so far**

I'm ignorant of so many of the others, and obviously biased at this point, but I've gotta say that the LoX 1 "Opening" cutscene, that you don't even see until you've played through 3 levels of the game, is my personal favorite.

It's beautiful, and has my favorite music track of the 2 games ... and is crazily positioned, because it's too late to act as an intro, and you don't actually understand it anyway until after you've finished the game ... at which point you can then finally go back and watch it as an unlockable and really see just how cool it is.

[Psycho Punch]

2. Guy Kazama—ending cinema where he is floating in the ocean. I can't explain exactly why I love this so much...but it is partially because it captures a feeling/mood that I love...and the song that plays immediately following this is fantastic (one of my faves).

"Leonard, I said I could never trust anything you said, but it seems you were right."

I have too many lines from that game memorized. All cutscenes are good.

[JoshTurboTrollX]

Ys I&II and Ys IV

Dungeon Explorer II

Cosmic Fantasy 2

Also I loved the paintings/still pics intro for Beyond Shadowgate. I thought it did a great job with the storytelling.  Also, Loom was very pretty too, even with it's limited use of colour.

[Serega81]

Hands down, the cinemas in Ys I and II are the most memorable to me.  Quick on its heels are Cosmic Fantasy (bathing scenes!), Ys IV, Gotzendiener, cute and funny Magicoal, and Final Zone II (so bad they're good + a nice bitch slap).

For technically impressive ones, it's hard to beat those in 3x3 Eyes, Gulliver Boy, and Xanadu.

I have to second Necromancer on Final Zone II, it's one of those its so bad its good moments, kind of like Steven Seagal movies especially the later ones.. I just finished Blood Gear for the 3rd or 4th time, I like some of the cinemas there, especially the intro, and ending sequences.  From what I recall Star Breaker had a few good cinemas as well, I liked some of the villain designs and animations.

[geise]

Yeah Star Breaker has some pretty rad cinemas.

[seieienbu]

I think the opening to Ys 4 is my favorite overall.  I loved watching the events that transpired at the close of Ys 2.  It gave me tons of nostalgic feelings when I first saw it many years ago and I feel that it aged very well and continues to look great today.

I never played all the way through the game, but the intro to 3x3 Eyes always looked great in my opinion.  Tons of fluid animation and it was the clearest example I can think of to demonstrate the potential differences between what an arcade cd game and a super cd game could do.

I guess in third place I'd put the intro to Ys 1.  I showed it to all of my friends and used it to explain why CDs were the future of video games.  There was something magical about seeing that intro when I saw it; there was nothing else comparable.

[JoshTurboTrollX]

Download 2 should be mentioned as well.  Love the cutscenes at the beginning and in between stages. 

[pixeljunkie]

Louga 2

Also most Riot games had great cut scenes...the games themselves are another issue