Exposition Break: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|"And that, as they say, is that."|'''Maechen, master of the [[Rambling Old Man Monologue]]''', ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''}}

 

They often have valuable game or plot information, so it's best not to skip the Exposition Break during the first playthrough if you want to beat the game. That said, [[Shall I Repeat That?|many games will ask if you'd like to hear it again]] just to be sure you ''truly'' understood all of it, sometimes [[Stop Helping Me!|too much]].

 

 

They can be especially annoying if they can never be skipped or if an important part of the gameplay is inextricably tied to one that is somewhat less than entertaining. This kind sometimes overlap with [[Forced Tutorial]].

 

 

See also [[Exposition]] and [[Intro Dump]].

 

{{examples}}

* [[Assassin's Creed]] is particularly bad with this. Even though you can move around (and occasionally change the camera position), the cutscenes are very long-winded and don't add much to the plot.

** There are also plenty of cases where you are trapped in a tiny featureless room with an indestructible window while something happens on the other side.

* ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' had a particularly infuriating one; before you fight [[That One Boss|Miguel]], you have to sit through a 5+ minute long [[Contemplate Our Navels|navel-gazing]] monologue about how he got here, what his past is, and how he's connected to Serge. It's interesting the first time you read it, but scrolling through it gets old fast. Thankfully, if you know that you can run from boss fights, you can run away, go save, and never read it again.

* The [[Sarcasm Mode|scary]] [[Pipe Shooter]] ''[[Clive Barker's Jericho]]'' hits mandatory 10 minute speedbumps in gameplay for [[Info Dump|Infodumps]].

* ''[[Eternal Sonata]]'' has a 10-minute narration sequence recounting the love life of Frederick Chopin that consists entirely of words on the screen sloooooowly appearing while you see background pictures of...well, honestly, they're pictures of things that have NOTHING to do with Frederick Chopin or his girlfriend.

** You can skip these cutscenes and read them in the menu at your own pace though.

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'', you earn a mask by staying awake during an old lady's long, rambling speech (but dozing off is also a fast way to skip all the way to the Third Day without spamming the Song of Double Time)

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'', there're a couple of these, but there's generally something interesting going on while it happens. In one case, it was a ''huge'' mindfuck.

* The ''[[Monkey Island]]'' series spiced these up by continuing to update the context-sensitive [[Action Bar]] during the sequence, often displaying silly possible actions.

** The first game was the undisputed champion of this - the scene where Guybrush steals the Idol Of Many Hands went haywire.

* ''[[Odium]]''. Only at the very end of the game, when you finally defeat the final boss, a NPC provides a long explanation of what exactly happened in the monster-infested city, before dying.

* ''[[Okami]]'' has a few of these, perhaps most notably from the period around when you gain access to the Dragon Palace to when you {{spoiler|reach Oni Island}}, when there are 4 or 5 ''very'' long cutscenes for gameplay that amounts to one dungeon and a boss fight.

* In ''Saw'' (the video game that is a sequel to Saw and a prequel to Saw II), this occurs numerous times through the game. Very often the door you need to go through is locked tight until you pick up a tape and listen to Jigsaw's exposition, or watch a piece of exposition between Jigsaw and one of his test subjects.

* There's somewhat of an example in ''[[Suikoden V]]'' with the character of Egbert, a rather eccentric man prone to long, rambling outbursts about people who have wronged him in the past. The thing is, to recruit him you need to sit through one of his speeches at the lowest text-reveal speed. If you press a single button during it (which would usually advance the text) then he refuses to join you, and you have to walk all the way out of the dungeon and come back in order to try again. A particularly annoying example of why ''[[Suikoden V]]'' is a [[Guide Dang It]] game.

* The ''[[Baten Kaitos]]'' games often have these before boss fights, but they do try to avoid annoying you with them; if you die to a boss, the game gives you [[Anti-Frustration Features|the option to restart the fight from the beginning]], as opposed to kicking you out to the menu and making you sit through the cutscene again. Given how ferocious late-game bosses can get, this is a ''very'' good thing.

* ''[[Mother 3]]'' has {{spoiler|Leder's}} ten+ minute [[Info Dump]] in Chapter Eight, which explains the backstory of the Nowhere Islands, Tazmily Village, and how the world came to be. It's easily one of the game's most shocking scenes.

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{{reflist}}

[[Category:Exposition]]

[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]