I've lately gone about to find every cliche in RPGs, my personal "favorites" are "reptiles=evil" "the villain has no redeeming qualities" and "High fantasy always means drunken dwarves and tree-hugging elves"

But enough of my rant, what about everyone else, what cliches in RPGs are guaranteed to drive you berserk?

What would RPGs be without cliches? They're basically exercises in tradition...

I want the Mary Sue female lead cliche to die. This is the only big cliche that really bothers me though.

By the way, go here for the best list of cliches.
http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

My favorite is the McGuyver rule.

"Oh wait! You've been fighting for the wrong side for 95% of the game!"

"Oh wait! The villain is actually your dad!"

"Oh no! You're the chosen one!" Though that one's not a sanity killer, just annoying.

"That thing you JUST sold me? No.... no I already lost it."

that obvious square enix opening to rpgs that are not Final Fantasy

"Son, will you go pick me a flower"
"NO! NEVER GRANDMA!"
"Why not pooky"
"because, the moment i turn around, the village will be on fire, you will be dying, and telling me im not like the rest of you"
"pooky, thats crazy"
"Really? I got pink hair, Devil's wings, A tail, hoof feet, and i swing a sword that could make up for the entire village's manhood"
"Pooky, your grandpa used to pick me flowers"
"oh fine!"
*turns around, the village is on fire, his grandma is dying"
"Pooky...your not like the rest of us...."
"Call square enix, i QUIT!!!!"

-You wake up with no memory of who you are.

-You are the 'one' that every prophecy has foretold about.

-Your sidekick is usually some sort of dumb comic relief.

-You hold the 'key', 'the code', 'the formula', 'the whatever' that will change the fate of everything.

-Your world is dead/dying.

Alone Disciple:
-You wake up with no memory of who you are.

-You are the 'one' that every prophecy has foretold about.

-Your sidekick is usually some sort of dumb comic relief.

-You hold the 'key', 'the code', 'the formula', 'the whatever' that will change the fate of everything.

-Your world is dead/dying.

the wold is dead/dying worked well in Wild Arms 2, dont knock it too much.

Good Guys: Let's gather all the shiny stones before the bad guy can get them!

Later...

Good Guys: Yes! We have all the shiny stones!

Villain: Bwa ha ha ha! Little did you realize that I wanted you to gather the shiny stones so that I can take them from you all at once!

Every. Fucking. Time. This is also related to another stupid plot device:

Good Guys: We have to open the special door that holds the source of ultimate power!

Villain: Thank you for opening the special door that holds the source of ultimate power! YOINK.

A gameplay cliché rather than a storyline one, turn based combat. Either do proper strategic stuff like XCom or do actual proper combat. Turn based 1 on 1s aren't fun.

I have to agree with that, to me, combat means "kill your enemies without discretion" not "sit around taking turns like children"

unholy vagrant:
I want the Mary Sue female lead cliche to die. This is the only big cliche that really bothers me though.

By the way, go here for the best list of cliches.
http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

My favorite is the McGuyver rule.

BS.

I just realised how many of these now apply to the Golden Sun games. Except they started them. Ahh, its always fun to see something like that. Anyway, the things that annoy me... possibly the whole 'We're only 12, yet we can lift huge Fuck You swords that could cleave a man in half. Except they cant, because they're blunt as a bloody foam mallet.'

People simply like stuff like this stuff, live with it. I've been living with the horrible thought that the Mario franchise will never end for 5 years now. Just leave it be. At least Mario is not invading my dreams anymore.

random encounters need to die, you should be able to see all enemies beforehand, they shouldn't just pop out of nowhere while the screen swirls into a battle scene.

I've also noticed how the high priests are always in the evil religion that sacrifices virgins, I think its weird how there's no middle ground between saintly virtue and obnoxious malevolence.

Fighting rodents at low levels. I want to save the world, not chop up friggin' rats with swords!

TheMadDoctorsCat:
Fighting rodents at low levels. I want to save the world, not chop up friggin' rats with swords!

I am TIRED of these MOTHERFUCKING rats in this MOTHERFUCKING cellar!

Honestly...what do they FEED those things?

"Son, will you go pick me a flower"
"NO! NEVER GRANDMA!"
"Why not pooky"
"because, the moment i turn around, the village will be on fire, you will be dying, and telling me im not like the rest of you"
"pooky, thats crazy"
"Really? I got pink hair, Devil's wings, A tail, hoof feet, and i swing a sword that could make up for the entire village's manhood"
"Pooky, your grandpa used to pick me flowers"
"oh fine!"
*turns around, the village is on fire, his grandma is dying"
"Pooky...your not like the rest of us...."
"Call square enix, i QUIT!!!!"

I've seen that before, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.

As for me, I want goblins to pose a real threat to people. Not the pussies you see these days. That way some RPG enthusiast will see a goblin and think "Easy kill!" and charge right in. The goblin will then stun the enthusiast and summon two dozen of his friends and rape said enthusiast with their weaponry.

unholy vagrant:
I want the Mary Sue female lead cliche to die. This is the only big cliche that really bothers me though.

By the way, go here for the best list of cliches.
http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

My favorite is the McGuyver rule.

its simple, i agree with him

N1ghtNinja:
People simply like stuff like this stuff, live with it. I've been living with the horrible thought that the Mario franchise will never end for 5 years now. Just leave it be. At least Mario is not invading my dreams anymore.

you lucky son of a mushroom...

I'd like female characters that aren't distinctly sex symbols and go against the grain. Let's face it, Bastila and Ashley are pretty developed, but they're still stereotypically attractive, both in personality and appearance.

Another big problem I have is that every Japanese role-playing game has a male lead that looks like a girl and carries a big sword. In fact, all their characters seem to fit into very clearly defined roles without variation at all. You do see this in Western role-playing games, but not nearly as often. I'm not at all a fan of Japanese role-playing games and this is one of the reasons why.

Another trend I dislike (though not a cliche) is the tendency today to package action games as role-playing games because you can choose a few skills and the gameplay doesn't consist entirely of shooting stuff. "RPG elements" is a hot term tok use these days and it's pretty annoying to see so many games with these "RPG elements" but not see any real, hardcore RPGs. Everything has to be a fusion to hit the largest target market. A title like The Witcher is so refreshing for me just because an 80-plus-hour game with three distinct story paths, enjoyable yet fast-based turn-based combat, a heavy emphasis on character building, lots of meaningful side-quests (seriously, there's at least a hundred of them in the game, literally dozens per chapter), and non-essential but depth-adding features like alchemy, gambling, drinking contests, etc. are all in abundance. It's true that the game isn't the most polished out there, but seriously, it seems like people will take flashy and shiny graphics over substance every time (not just in games, of course) and it's disheartening that the market for a game with real complexity and value to it is considered a niche.

At some point in the game,a Kid will join your party(younger than the other kids in your party.)He will not be proficient in Armed combat,but will have some sort of Power(always capitalized.) See: Ivan from golden sun.

Baby Tea:
Starting in a bar, going to a bar to get quests, or going to a bar to get new characters/pick up old ones.

I dunno, man. The bar is a classic, a stand-by. Everyone loves wretched hives of scum and villainy. It's like... it's like elves. You can't get rid of elves.

"You have defeated me, but that is not my true form. Muhahahahahah!"

I've had 10 hours of this shit while I've been playing FFIV

HalfShadow:
Elf = stuck-up pointed-eared asshole.

Seriously, that gets tiring.

that makes them all the more fun to kill though...

The Colosseum Rule, not overused but utterly ridiculous:

"Hey Hero, there's a huge Roman-style colosseum where gladiators are happy to fight to the death for very little pay and a faint hope for life. Wanna join?"
"No."
"But you have magical powers/huge swords/lots of healing items/a HUGELY unfair advantage over the other fighters."
"Oh yeah. All right, I'm in!"
*5 minutes later*
"That was easy."

The existance of elves. They are annoying hippy trippy androdganous jerks who should all be beaten to death with their own junk.

Ageisim. Everyone over the age of 30 seems to have no combat skill. What ever happened to good old fasioned experience?

The poor treatment of non-sword melee weapons. Pretty much every main character has to have a sword. What about Axes spears and hammers? They are all far more badass but far more overlooked.

I wish that the main characters would not always end up saving the day and living through it to become heroes.

I realize that a few games have stirred things up a little bit, such as Mass Effect forcing you to choose between one crew member dying/saving the council or letting them die. KOTOR also lets you choose to destroy all that is good in the universe at the end, but these cookie-cutter endings need to be examined, and chucked out the window.

The stupid way that RPG females run (like Yuna). I HATE IT!

Can I summarise this thread real quick?

"Everything about JRPGs."

I hate the "I cant be the hero I dont like to fight *insert good long cry*..." hero and the nerdy magic user.