Videogame CGI scenes that left you breathless...

Post and discuss all your favorite FMVs (Mark spoiler ones with a spoiler tag ;D).


Here's my favorite:
The conflict of bright light and pure darkness.

Theres this one part of where I just stopped and said "Wow...!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I've always been fond of some of the .hack//GU cutscenes.

Like this one.

And this one.

Hmm, FMVs... no particular order here:

Soulcalibur 3: the intro

Tekken 5: Wang Jinrei's ending

Dirge of Cerberus: During the ending, when(SPOILER) Vincent finally destroys Omega during its ascent

(SPOILER)Final Fantasy VII-XII have altogether too many mind-blowing FMVs to mention them all here. The inntro, major twists and ending of each tend to be pretty amazingly depicted.

Lots of FFIX ones. But my favourite probably is:

YouTube - Final Fantasy XII Intro American Version

Its so amazing.


First vid was pretty cool.

From recent memory Im going to say the Sephiroth and Genesis battle in Crisis Core. You always think its about to end and then gets even more incredible. I dont think anything in Advent Children was an exhilarating as that CGI.

Oh yes! that fight scene is brilliant!

They also played the right music at the right time.

Sound is a huge compliment to these things =]

Without a doub the Sending in FF-X. I literally sat with my mouth open in awe when I saw it the first time.

Basically anything that Blizzard does tends to be fairly amazing. The opening cinematic in WoW, various ones from Diablo II... things such as that. They've always had some of the highest production values with the CGI scenes in their games.

Pretty much all of the CG cutscenes in Chrono Cross (especially the intro) left me more slack-jawed than any of the FFs of that era, although FFVIII and IX had plenty of strong ones as well.

The PS1/Saturn remakes of Lunar and Lunar 2 have THE best anime cutscenes this side of ZOE2. Absolutely sublime.

Digital Devil Saga 2: (SPOILER)Holy hell, the whole scene where Meganada kills Roland and Argilla. Both DDS games have incredible cutscenes, but this one takes the cake.

The CG in Panzer Dragoon Orta is, hands-down, THE best of the entire 128-bit generation. Sweet GOD.

taking into consideration of the time of release: FFVIII = smurfing win.

Back then, Total Annihilation's intro was really really cool at first impression. It still holds up very well today.

I can't believe I forgot a few prime examples, but I suppose it happens.

First off, the glorious intros to both Soul Reaver games. Both games were incredibly progressive both technologically and artistically for their respective years, and nothing kicked that off quite like the intros. Amazing, and definitely a point where Defiance disappointed, with its complete lack of one. :/

Next up, the Panzer Dragoon trilogy on the Saturn. The use of CG in these games is rather unique. For '95, the original Panzer Dragoon's intro was a technological marvel. The key thing to note here is that, unlike games like the first Blood Omen, this scene is STILL enjoyable even today. I think the key lies in that the use of CG in Team Andromeda's trilogy was not to necessarily be more realistic: the CG felt more like an extension of the in-game engine to punctuate key points, rather than a completely separate beast. Panzer Dragoon Saga really brought that to the forefront, using the CG to do facial expression renders during quiet cutscenes as opposed to FF's habit of using it to render primarily action scenes. It was used to accentuate and enhance the sublime in-game engine that the developers had worked so hard to craft, and it's aged all the better for it. It felt as though it had a real purpose, instead of just jumping on the CG bandwagon.

FF IX - The Scenes involving Black Waltz #3.

Persona 3 - The awakening of Orpheus.

Xenosaga 2 - Jin Vs. Margulas Round 1

Xenosaga 3 - The ending scene was all sorts of amazing.

Thats all thats coming to mind right now. :p