A question that is bothering me since playing the Star Wars:TFU demo recently:

Why do developers put in action sequences?  I'm referring to the last "boss" you fight (the AT-ST Walker that ends the demo.)  I found it was impossible to kill this thing unless I got in close and triggered the action event.  I could have easily stayed at range and thrown miscellaneous boxes, people and objects at it to kill it, but using this method the walker would "heal" itself when it got below a certain point.

What purpose does this serve?  All it does for me is force the feeling that the game is on rails.  You lose the open feel when you are forced to beat a creature in only one fashion.  Other games, (I am running through Dark Kingdom again this weekend) allow you to kill a boss creature in whatever way possible.  You can brute force it, lead it to a lava pit if available or follow the sequence of lever presses to trigger the events.  Some are easier than others, but you have a choice.  With SWTFU, I lost that choice.

Another example of this kind of thing was in the beginning of the Heavenly Sword demo.  It involved sliding down the ropes to get to the area where you fight.  I didn't like this either and would have preferred a system similar to Ratchet and Clank's Train rail system.

There was another game as well where the demo would have you jump down a pit and hit buttons to trigger wall slide events.  I had the same feeling about this as well. (Sorry, don't remember the name.  I deleted it after hitting this sequence event.)

Are these meant to lower the difficulty of the game?  (or the opposite?)  What purpose do they serve to you?

I guess this could have gone in Gaming ... but I referred to a lot of Sony specific titles.  I know other games do this as well.

Also, another question to pose:  Do these systems break the monotony of some games by giving you a mini-game of sorts?  Personally, I'm not a fan of mini-games.  I hated all the mini-games in the Final Fantasty 7 and later (cards, Blitz-ball, etc.)

I think they're there to be cinematic rather than difficult/easy. I generally don't like QTEs, but the sight of Starkiller tearing apart that AT-ST was pretty awe-inspiring. A lot of other QTEs are similarly spectacular, like those found in Conan and Viking: Battle for Asgard where you use them to slaughter massive beasts or giants.

I think it can get a little weird in a game like The Force Unleashed where you have all this freedom in deciding how to dispatch your enemies until you get to a boss. But I should also say, while I know a lot of people disliked the demo, I had been starting to doubt the game and it put TFU back on my must buy list.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the demo.  The QTEs (Quick Time Events... had to look it up   but thanks.  I never knew that to call them) were the only thing in the game that made me second guess purchasing the game though.  I'm still at odds as to if I want to suffer through these to enjoy the rest of the game.

I don't have a problem with quick time events if they're for big moments like to kill off a boss, but it's been overused.

My pet peeve is when they don't make sense in relation to how you've played the game uptil that point i.e you've been pressing one button to melee the entire game but the QTE wants another button thats been used for something else the entire game to punch somebody.

I like them.

Go play god of war there are soem great QTE to trigger hile fighting boss or monster.

I am not a fan to end a boss battle at all I feel cheated

I think that while they are nice to have, you shouldn't have to be railroaded into them. They should have allowed you to kill that Walker any which way you choose, but if in the event you perform the button combination to trigger the cutscene, then that happens instead. It'd be a nice surprise for gamers to find badass ways to take out the boss a little quicker, but not be forced into them.

I don't think that's possible by todays (or at least last gens) standards, as you'd need a different cutscene depending on what your finishing move is AND you'd need never need a QTE as you can just keep hammering a button until life becomes 0.

But I would like to see that as well, it gets kind of annoying having a challenging boss fight until the QTE hits you and you die, just to breeze through it the second time because you know what button is going to come up.