'Cinematics' tends to be more directive and restrictive to your imagination and for certain purposes, of course, it's the right choice. For me personally a 'cinematic' dialog between Esmeralda and Septimus could never be done so well that it would achieve what one can imagine when she says 'Oh, catch me, for I might faint!' and her voice raises theatrically (Classic Version) and one can 'see' her tiptoeing and slowly bend her back until she falls... and Septimus fly's to her side to catch her - it was never visualized, not even visually suggested that this happened right now. It's an imagination that is implied by her words and the outstanding voice acting.
It's not
implied at all. She's describing exactly what she's doing.
Hang on a moment, I just need to grab a coffee.
Mmmm. Great coffee. Anyway...
I dunno, I guess if I wanted to make my imagination fill in the gaps, I'd rather read a book:
There is actually a great point to make here. Pick up your favourite book and read it again. Pay attention to how much time is spent describing
things and
people doing things. When it comes to imagination -- they're telling you exactly what to imagine.
Larian could possibly try to get away with having a 100% fixed perspective (like Baldur's Gate) but all writers -- whether for novels or cinema -- are told to follow the rule of "show, don't tell". Zixzax even mentions this (shortly before telling everything that's happening). The easiest and cheapest option would be simply to add some in-game description so that we know what to imagine. Some of the best parts of Baldur's Gate were the narrations that could have been literally lifted directly from a novel.
Game developers generally recognise that video games are a visual medium and so they should take more influence from cinema than from novels. But either method is acceptable.
However, every time you decide to complete an action, you then have to watch your character complete the animation for that action. This is a good opportunity to get more cinematic. This is what XCOM 2 does.
And this would even force the problem of combat being a bit too slow at some points. Accelerating some animations would fit better, in my opinion, than to extend this to a 'cinematic' enactment of combat actions and to implement a dynamic combat camera that intermits tactical view every time your characters perform an action (even if it's just in case of attacks).
You don't need to drag out the animations at all. It's very easy to cut to a close up just for 1-2 seconds. It also doesn't have to be for every action, but if you're doing something awesome (finishing someone off, or using a special attack), then you'll probably enjoy a chance to soak it in a little.
