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Exposition Break: Difference between revisions
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Unlike other visual media, games are interactive. That makes the contrast between interactive and non-interactive periods very stark. An Exposition Break is a specific break in gameplay that exists to provide [[Exposition]] to the player. Sometimes the breaks are short, entertaining, or unobtrusive, in which case the player will generally forgive or even enjoy them. [[Info Dump|Sometimes they're not.]]
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]].
There is often nothing ''visually'' interesting happening during a Exposition Break. In fact, most of them consist only of text or (in more modern games with voice acting) dialogue. If the period is too long, the player will be itching to get control back or else tune it out, valuable info be darned.
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* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' hangs a lampshade on this with an optional subquest where you can get the Sand People's storyteller to tell you their oral history (including a gratuitous bit about Tatooine being the original human homeworld). HK-47 gets increasingly fed up of translating it all, but you can force him to stay there for hours (of in-game time, not play time, thankfully) if you want.
** To paraphrase "This is hours of repetition of meaningless tribal data. Please let me skip this, master." "No." "I hate you, master."
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'' feels the same way as FFX for people who are fast readers. There's always the risk of saying "Yes" when [[Mr. Exposition]] asks, "Do you want me to repeat what I just said?" NO.
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|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.
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty (Video Game)|Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty]]'' is a bad offender, with the final boss preceded by an hours worth of cutscenes, half of which takes place in the codec talking-heads screen. And by the end of it, [[Mind Screw|you]] ''[[Mind Screw|still]]'' [[Mind Screw|won't know what's going on]], even if you don't [[Bladder of Steel|skip out on any of it]].
* The ''[[Monkey Island]]'' series spiced these up by continuing to update the context-sensitive [[Action Bar]] during the sequence, often displaying silly possible actions.
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[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]
[[Category:Exposition Break]]
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