Also, we had a problem with the design

1. custom is always good. give the player more ownership.

2. a story based game should have PCs that fit the story.

3. a non-story based game should have PCs that fit the game universe.

so you want custom, while still fitting with story or universe.

in a story base game, this might mean a named PC, or a few to chose from, or limited customization that still fits the story.

in a non-story game, anything custom that makes sense in the game universe is ok.

We have the necessary software and skills to develop it, but we would need cutscenes for this game and none of us know how to do that. So, for making cutscenes, should we approach another company?

you should use the game's graphics engine to do cutscenes.

canned ani's from a workstation render farm coupled with game graphics that are anything less is sort of ripping the player off. they think they'll get this great game based on the intro etc, only to discover the game graphics are lame by comparison.

the quality level of graphics should be pretty even, otherwise the good stuff makes the bad stuff look worse.

so no high dollar cut scenes and low budget game graphics. it just makes you look worse than you already are.

instead, spend the time on your graphics engine and make your own cut scenes. and save the money for the next project.

When I play RPGs, I pretty much always want to customize the main character's appearance. You can still make the player character have a specific backstory and integrate it into the story, but a lot of people will identify more with the player character if it can be customized at least in appearance. (I for one, usually try to make the character look like myself) There doesn't have to be a huge amount of customization, but I'd suggest options for male/female, a variety of skin colors, hair colors, and a few different hair styles.

I also think cutscenes should be done within the game's engine if possible, or at least using mostly the same models or sprites from the game if you're making it in some other animation program so there isn't a big difference in quality between the game and the cutscenes. It kind of also depends on what kind of graphics you have (is it 2D or 3D?) and how much action you want to show in the cutscenes (is it just dialogue and backstory, or do you want them to depict epic battles and fight scenes?) Simpler is probably better, since you'd be better off spending most of your time making game content instead of cutscenes.