kohlrak: The the gameplay to cutscene ratio between the later FF games compared to the neptunia games are no where near similar.
darktjm: You're right. The FF games (and Xenosaga) have a much higher cutscene to actual gameplay ratio (well, given that you imply the opposite, I guess I mean you're wrong). You can't get 20 characters to level 999 by watching cutscenes. You can also ignore/fast forward through the cutscenes in Neptunia games, which isn't usually true of FF and similar games. I feel like you're just complaining about the format of the cutscenes.
Anyway, forget it. I won't argue the point any more. Call it what you want, since it doesn't affect me in the least. i just hope gog doesn't follow suit. They did actually correct Mary Skelter Nightmares, it seems, so there is hope yet. Then again, gog's tags are mostly worthless (with such oxymoron gems as "Metroidvania Roguelike"), anyway, so I guess gog can call them what it wants as well.
To be honest, i think you're just worried about winning a fight without any concerns for whether or not you're right or wrong, and you're taking another jab which is even easier to take down: Metroidvania and Rogulike are a false dichotomy. I won't deny it's difficult to make randomly generated metroidvania, but it's actually not impossible. Some might argue the randomizers for many metroidvanias make them roguelikes, but that's a whole other kettle of fish and i wouldn't make the same claim.
Keighn: I don't mind text heavy scenes so long as there is option for extended gameplay sections or grinding or whatever. If it is a battle then lots of dialogue, maybe a battle or option in the dialogue then more VN NPC chatter with little input then I feel like the majority is just VN. I tend to like the characters so it isn't a big deal. If the characters were unlikeable then I'd be annoyed. I enjoy there are English voice actors in many of the games. Of the 11 new I bought 9 as I'm not really that interested in the Samurai atm. Maybe they are good but not my taste for now. Perhaps if sales of IF/Compile etc are high enough here on GOG they'll release more in a year's time or less.
Outside of grinding to max level or something, IF games tend to be very dialogue heavy. A cutscene every new room you walk into it seems like. I'd say there's no warning or buildup, thus it's jarring, but it's frequent enough that you actually do know it's coming. They're not bad games, nor is the dialogue that bad, but it can be a roller coaster ride at some points. I remember in Cyberdimension neptunia for example, there'd easily be 5-10 cutscenes between each dungeon. Now most of these were optional, but if you're just playing the game straight and not grinding, i'd say the game to cutscene ratio is 1:3, that is to say 3 hours of cutscenes for ever hour of gameplay. The aspect that you can grind (not that you'd need to) is what tends to defend them. Not unusual to unlock cutscenes while grinding, too, but they're fewer.
Mind you, i don't think IF games' problem is the constant dialogue, but the fact that it has little spacing unless you spend alot of time grinding. It's not like Final Fantasy series where you might expect really short cutscenes a few times within a dungeon and one or two between dungeons explaining why you have to go to the next area, but rather constant backstory, banter, etc.The worst part is, until you know and/or actually like the characters, it's pretty annoying, because it's mostly not about what's actually currently happening but things like random tea facts.
