Summary
Storytelling has become a vital part of video games. While simple platformers still exist, you’re far more likely to come acrossan immersive worldfull of vivid characters and a plot that will enthrall you.
Cutscenes are important when it comes to storytelling. They’re an easy way to convey information, often using different forms of animation to make them stand apart from the game. There’s a balance between cutscenes and gameplay that some creators seem to struggle with. Get the popcorn ready because you’re in for a long ride with some of these scenes.
Updated on July 18, 2025, by PJ Molloy:Story-based games are great, but some of them have cutscenes long enough to be an episode of television. We’ve updated the list with some of the very worst offenders.
15Freedom Planet
Cutscene Length - 13 Minutes
Freedom Planet is a wonderful homage to the Sega Genesis and classic Sonic games, featuring a similar 16-bit art style and high-speed gameplay. The story is an epic sci-fi adventure about a dragon girl named Lilac trying to save her world from an alien invasion. With such an in-depth plot comes some pretty lengthy cutscenes.
The longest cutscene occurs right after the second level. Get ready for 13 minutes of exposition, world-building, meeting characters, and catching up with the villain. Thankfully, the voice acting and excellent story should keep you engaged.
Nintendo’s Xenoblade Chronicles is undoubtedlya lengthy RPG, largely thanks to its 10 hours of cutscenes. You control Shulk, who’s tasked with ending a decades-long war with the help of the legendary blade, Monado. Featuring a mix of expansive world-building and intricate lore, Xenoblade Chronicles tells one of the biggest stories in Nintendo’s history.
With such a long story comes a lengthy epilogue to wrap up all plot lines. Xenoblade’s last cutscene is about 17 minutes long, depicting everything from Shulk’s killing blow against the final boss to his introspective, beachside conversation with his friends. If you include the credits, the sequence becomes five minutes longer.
Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3 is the 16th game in the Legend of Heroes series, the 11th game in the Trails subseries, and the third game in the Trails of Cold Steel arc. It takes place one year after the events of Trails of Cold Steel 2, introducing a completely different cast of characters. This time, you follow the new students of Class 7 at Thors Military Academy, now taught by Rean Schwarzer.
The cutscenes are tasked with summarizing the Cold Steel arc so far, which is no easy feat by any means. Fitting a concise summary into 20 minutes is a rather impressive accomplishment.
SNES games aren’t exactly known for long cutscenes, but Final Fantasy 6 manages to pull it off. After defeating the final boss, you can put the controller down and grab a snack while you watch a 23-minute-long cutscene depicting your party escaping from Kefka’s tower.
The lengthy runtime is largely thanks to the credits, which are sprinkled throughout the escape sequence. However, even without the constant interruptions, the final cutscene would still be incredibly long.
The Yakuza games are famous for being narrative-driven, and the second entry is no exception. You know you’re in for a cinematic experience when the game starts with a whopping 11-minute-long intro cutscene, followed closely by 12 minutes of exposition.
The longest cutscene in the game is a staggering 23 minutes - roughly the length of the average TV show in a half-hour time slot. Luckily, the thrilling drama and excellent characters should keep you thoroughly entertained. Grab some popcorn and buckle in for the ride.
Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core was a PSP exclusive and served as a prequel to Final Fantasy 7. While long cutscenes are more common in consoles and PC games, handheld titles aren’t exempt from them. Square Enix practically has them down to an art.
After defeating Genesis, you can enjoy 23 minutes of exposition, which leads you right into the original Final Fantasy 7 intro. It’s well done and worth it, especially if you enjoyed Final Fantasy 7.
Quantum Break proudly calls itself part game, part live-action show. It’s a third-person shooter that follows Jack Joyce, who receives time-bending powers after participating in a failed time travel experiment. Things quickly get heated when Jack must find a way to prevent the End of Time while facing off against a violent future version of his best friend, Paul.
The game is split into five acts, each separated by a roughly 25-minute-long live-action cutscene written, directed, and edited like a TV episode. You may even recognize a few cast members, including Shawn Ashmore (X-Men, The Rookie) and Aidan Gillen (Mayor of Kingstown, Bohemian Rhapsody).
In a series full of impressively long cutscenes, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 wins by just a few minutes. The 24-minute scene occurs at the end of the game, wrapping up the story you’ve played through.
If you’re someone whowatches through the credits, you can add nine minutes to that endgame, totaling 33 minutes. The credits aren’t required watching, however, and you won’t miss much if you skip them.
7Xenosaga
Cutscene Length - 25 Minutes
This episodic RPG wasn’t afraid to utilize cutscenes to tell its story. Overall, Xenosaga featured roughly 500 cutscenes across three episodes, with the longest occurring toward the end of episode three and lasting a total of 25 minutes.
The complicated story involves fighting both an alien race and humans, trying to find an artifact with god-like energy, so the long cutscene was probably necessary.
The Metal Gear Solid series is no stranger to lengthy cutscenes, and the third entry starts off with a doozy. Set in 1964, the plot follows Naked Snake (also known as Big Boss) as he infiltrates a Russian military facility to sabotage their superweapon development. Needless to say, Snake needs a lot of information to pull off the mission, and the game wants you to know every single detail.
Right after starting a new file, the adventure greets you with a roughly 27-minute-long cutscene in which Snake is debriefed and deployed into a Russian jungle. Get ready to learn a lot about the Cold War and hear extensive amounts of dialogue.
