HOUSEKEEPING'S PROFILE

@Corfaisus: First of all, two minutes is not that long before the game throws you into actual gameplay. Second of all, most of that time is the opening credits, not backstory. Third of all, during those opening credits, the player is treated to marching mode 7 mech suits that would make any 12-year-old boy in the mid 90s's dick rock hard.

But, yeah, I agree with most people in this thread. Getting into gameplay soon is good, and I feel like it's preferable in most cases. But, at the same time, cut scenes, dialogue--even the shitty old white text on a black background schtick--can be done well as long as it's engaging. Most people don't use that space well, but I feel that just because games are an interactive medium doesn't mean that they're not ALSO an audiovisual medium, and they can benefit from everything books, film, and music do as well. It just depends on your intent and ability as a developer.

@Biz: Those monitors fit your Homestuck meets Invader Zim sensibilities so well that I just assumed they were yours.

Smart mechanics and humorous characters work together to tell a story about friendship that'll stick with you.

http://rpgmaker.net/games/6541/

FF 7's dialogue could use a good combing through, but I thought Cloud and Sephiroth's struggles with identity were handled well and the save-the-planet aspect was presented in a world far enough removed from ours with characters who were down-to-earth enough to not come off as heavy-handed. Some of the characters could have used more consistent development (like Red), but the cast was pretty memorable. I think it's still worthy of its acclaim.

Cait Sith can go to hell, though.

I know I've seen games that avert this, but none come to mind at the moment (probably because I really don't care about it, haha).

Just thinking, though, if you wanted to do this in RPG Maker you'd have to jump through some hoops. Assuming that you want to have the party switch to a temporary party (through a flashback, for instance) and then swap back, you'd need to set aside variables for every potential item in your inventory, wipe your inventory, and then re-add all the items via those variables. That's assuming you don't want to script. But, that's my guess as to why it's uncommon: it's a healthy amount of work for something most people are willing to overlook.

Edit: I think Hero's Realm did this, actually.