A positive article about FMV games

[Team Andromeda]

If you're simply comparing existing software releases form the overall library . . . then yes, the Saturn obviously has better examples (technically and aesthetically). But I think you'll be hard pressed to find such examples in Saturn releases made while the 3DO was still significantly active on the market (ie 1994 and 1995 releases)

? But lets compare in to Mega CD ? Now the 3D0 had a decent 2 odd years and in 2 years of the Saturn the FMV quality when up dramatically and I would also point out that early games like Astal and Deadalus pretty much were better than any 3DO FMV intro in 1995

[Bones Justice]

Interesting. I have played a lot of FMV games, the first and most of them on SegaCD. Sewer Shark was the pack-in game when I bought my SegaCD, which I actually bought to get Joe Montana Football. I actually enjoyed Sewer Shark a lot at the time but trying it years later, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. My favorite FMV game on SegaCD has to be Double Switch. I also really liked Tomcat Alley and Wirehead. I'm sure it doesn't count but I also really, really liked Rise of the Dragon on SegaCD. I have never heard of Road Avenger before.

I really liked Quarterback Attack on Sega Saturn. It's got great controls but it's just too short as you only play one football game then it's over. What it really needed was a series of discs so that you could play an entire season with playoffs but I guess that would have been too expensive. Maybe they could have sold the original at full price then sequel discs for ten dollars each or something.

[Soulis]

In my country the pack in game was Road Avenger (a decent showcase of the system i think). I also played some other FMV games but i never liked them because they were so limited in gameplay and the ones with real actors looked like b-movies at best. But there is one game that i really liked and not only by FMV standards... Mansion of the Hidden Souls (Or Yumemy Mystery Mansion in Europe). That game was awesome. I don't know if the quality of the FMV was good or not. It was slow. And the window was small. I guess technically there were better FMV games. But it had exploration and, most importantly, great atmosphere. One of the spookiest games i ever played actually.

[bultje112]

man if you liked mansion of hidden souls have you ever check lunacy/torico for saturn. that I think is basiclaly it's sequel. but far better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AucDxVngHT4

imo mansion of hidden souls tried too much and it didn't work but torico did everything right

[sheath]

Games like Rebel Assault and Mansion of Hidden Souls is what legitimized FMV gameplay for me. They offered interactivity that wasn't limited to a simple crosshair or quicktimer events and had enough depth and challenge to last way longer than most non-RPG cartridge games of the day could. Plus, I thought Mansion of Hidden Souls was really well optimized for Sega CD colors at the time, posterized or not. I own Mansion on Saturn as well and for some reason the way they handled the ghosts isn't quite as intriguing.

[Soulis]

Well, one thing that i liked about Mansion of Hidden Souls was the feeling of isolation. The only "people" you meet were cursed and transformed to butterflies long ago and there wasn't a single "normal" person to meet. Sometimes i was wondering if all these voices were in my character's head instead... You also never see your own character, not just because its a first person perspective but also because there are no 3rd person cut scenes during the whole game. The few cutscenes in the game are still presented through your eyes, in first person (think of Halflife series). This means that you always feel like its yourself in the game and not some other character you control. That, combined with the old mansion setting (always the best setting for spooky atmosphere) and the equally atmospheric soundtrack makes this game one of the best i ever played, not just my favorite Sega CD game because that doesn't say much anyway...

I tried some other FMV games similar to Mansion but they don't give me that feeling. I never played Torico on Saturn but from parts of a video playtrhough i saw it seems that you meet a lot of people and there are lots of 3rd person cutscenes where your character interacts and talks with them. It looks more like a movie (unlike Mansion) and that's what i don't like about most games of that style. Heck, even Sega CD Jurassic Park is scarier for me and more immersive compared to most horror adventure-FMV games i played, just because it never distracts you from the feeling that its you who explores the abandoned island where you are completely alone.

Having said that, its not that i played tons of FMV-horror adventures of that era... im sure that i have missed many and i would like to know if there are more games like Mansion of Hidden souls (with the same isolation and lack of 3rd person cutscenes). There's always the Saturn sequel that i plan to play but i never heard a good word for it.

[kool kitty89]

Games like Rebel Assault and Mansion of Hidden Souls is what legitimized FMV gameplay for me. They offered interactivity that wasn't limited to a simple crosshair or quicktimer events and had enough depth and challenge to last way longer than most non-RPG cartridge games of the day could. Plus, I thought Mansion of Hidden Souls was really well optimized for Sega CD colors at the time, posterized or not. I own Mansion on Saturn as well and for some reason the way they handled the ghosts isn't quite as intriguing.

Graphic adventure games are probably one of the most natural genres to transition to multimedia/FMV, and many of the early multimedia hits on PC were in that genre . . . though the Sega CD got few/no ports of those PC hits oddly enough. (though a few multimedia adventure games of its own)
With all the money Sega invested in their own developments (and collaborative productions), you'd think that they could have diverted some of that to getting licenses for some of the major PC productions of the time for the MCD. (or, aside from licenses, put resources towards attracting those PC developers/publishers to directly work on the MD/MCD -including some non multimedia games for that matter . . . no Wolf 3D was certainly odd, unless Nintendo got some sort of exclusivity on that one)

As for crosshairs based shooters . . . yes, those are a bit limiting: it's a shame that the 3rd person on-rails format wasn't more common. (it works very well with the streaming FMV BG on-rails aspect, or at least it can work well with good game design -Nova Storm might be the best example on the MCD, Rebel Assalut is probably better in a few cases, but the video quality is pretty poor and the overall gameplay quality is very inconsistent -not to mention the difficulty curve)

Aside from that, games with FMV mainly limited to cutscenes (and perhaps more limited multimedia -like streaming speech- in-game) ended up working better with a variety of genres (2D and 3D) of the time, and some used multemdia/FMV both in-game and in formal cutscenes too. (for that matter, Sewer Shark already did that very early on)