10 Things Video Games Really Need To Stop Doing

6. Characters In Cutscenes Having Different Skill Sets Than In Gameplay

This one sort of exists counter to our earlier entry about not getting to actually play the cool bits in cutscenes but they revolve around the same issue which is that sometimes the character we’re playing doesn’t match up with the character in cutscenes. Whether it’s their personality, equipment, or skill set, there are a few occasions where the ludonarrative dissonance hits a little too hard.

If you’re not familiar with that one, it’s basically when the story and gameplay mechanics don’t line up with each other.

For instance, Red Dead Redemption 2, fantastic as it is, falls into this trap as the whole story revolves around the Van der Linde gang repeatedly putting themselves in harm's way to scrounge together enough money to hightail it off to Tahiti. Which is fine except if you’ve been busy off earning money as Arthur you’ve got plenty of cash to throw everybody’s way and solve any problem that comes up but the game needs to ignore that so the story makes sense.

Other prime examples of characters acting curiously differently in cutscenes include Cloud getting cornered by Shinra soldiers in Final Fantasy 7 even though he’s blasted through the dudes without breaking a sweat for the last hour, and infamously hated Mass Effect 3 baddie Kai Leng donning unparalleled plot armour despite Shepard taking down entire Reapers by this point.

Then there’s watching your level-capped beastly hero get done in by a sucker punch out of nowhere just to kick off the villain’s last stand. Make it make sense or don’t do it.