Video Game Cliches Options

[Dyhalto]

-The hero always begins his journey in the exact geographical location where the weakest monsters live.
-Stronger monsters are on the other side of the bridge.
-Hardened military soldiers with years of training are weaker than the local wildlife.
-The best town with the best shops selling the best equipment is located in the worst accessible area.
-Big Bad Bosses always turn angelic after you kick their ass once.
-Showdown with old friend!
-The two guards on either side of the gate they're watching say the exact same thing.
-Rabbits attack.

[solusandra]

Here's a list I've thumbed through from time to time over at TVTropes. It comes with examples, too:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideogameTropes

I'm playing Star Ocean at the moment, and am guilty of this one in creating my own game:

- Let me get back to that later: There's an obvious cave / chest that is just out of reach. Naturally you'll acquire the ability to get there later in the game.

Can also be mixed with the ominous obelisk of doom, an object that you examine and are told "you have a really bad feeling about". Naturally, it's a secret boss later on when you have the right items to fight it.


- The Arena: Somewhere in that big wide world, there's a fighting arena with various combat leagues, staggered at just the right difficulty so you can use it to power up after passing the appropriate point in the game. There's usually also a special round against a super-boss, and an endurance league pitting either one character against 10-15 battles or your entire party against 50+ battles. Naturally, it mainly takes place outside of the framework of the story and is up to the player if they want to go there or not.


- Monsters: The party is always fighting horrible creatures and demons, if only because fighting wild animals and evil humans all the time would be boring. This is especially evident in games such as Arc the Lad II and Breath of Fire (series) where you never fight "normal" humans, but every single one turns into a monster to fight you. Arc the Lad II is especially irritating for this, because some of the humans have really cool designs but they all mutate into (usually mundane and pallet swapped) beasts.

[blue_fox]

-No matter how long you wait in one location the time of day will never change
-(for any turn based rpg) Every character has to wait his/her turn to attack, for whatever reason.
-There will be magical talking animals that are somehow essential to the story line.
-The main character has to overcome some physical or mental adversity before they feel ready to confront the main mad guy.

That's all I could think of...

[Midnight Assassi...]

• Walking into walls doesn't stop you from stepping,
• You can somehow survive three slashes with a weapon to the head,
• Hermits are always magical.

[phoenixmagelord]

These are based on Fire Emblem, but can apply to other games as well.

• Talking to enemies almost always converts them to allies, often against their will, often causing them to betray the ideals they have followed for years.
• Enemies with a portrait are almost always potential allies if they are not bosses.
• The main hero almost always loses a parent (or two) to a major antagonist.

[Skully]

-every town/shop/beggar/ect
use the EXACT same currency

-currency can be found under bushes
-inside blocks that fly
-inside monsters

-if it follows you when out of a town
-it WILL try to kill you

-needing points to use magic

-characters don't get visible wounds

-eating can heal a sword wound

[yuna21]

Thank goodness I steer away from most of these cliches in my game. 'big sigh of relief'. Most of them... Somehow you just can't seem to avoid them though...I actually came across a site that listed virtually every single RPG cliche...and there are nearly 200 of them.

And teenage main chars...hate these guys. Just hate them. Pet peeve of mine... RPG cliches.

EDIT: Aaah...here we go.

http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

These might save your life when trying to make your own game one of these days.
Enjoy!! I don't know if anybody posted this yet...but if they did, then my bad.

[Kul.Kuthura]

Many, many last bosses have exactly 3 forms: a weak form, a strong form, and a ridiculously over-powered angelic form.

[Skully]

^and occasionally a cutscene form that you cannot lose too.
(final fantasy x for example)

[Kanosint]

-Despite the fact that the big bad bosses know of the heroes' presence, they refuse to beat 'em up while they're weak. If they do, the heroes just barely survive and get better. Instead, the bosses usually just twiddle their thumbs to watch the heroes grow stronger.

-Every problem can be solved by applying enough violence. Need to collect something? Kill stuff until you find it. Need to convert someone? Beat him up.

-Exception to the above: Sneaking into castles apparantly requires you not only to not kill anything in sight, but also to stay out of sight. Failure to do so results in death/capture.

[blue_emerald777]

All hidden passages/items would be horribly obvious from the hero's perspective, but from yours, everything is hidden.

You can't just break open a locked chest or break down a locked door. That would just be rude. Let's find the key that was somehow hidden inside a large dungeon guarded by a boss with special battle features. ( Think battles against creatures like Demon Wall, Atomos, Ghost Train, etc. )

Somehow when you fight in space, you can just breath and breath and breath, and you're perfectly fine.

Traveling through inter dimensional rifts seems to have no negative effects on the party.

[Maoumaou]

-The Female protagonist is a Princess.
-You for some reason have to find something to cure the Female main character of some sort of ailment.
-The said cure is found on a mountain with an evil beast that only you and your band of misfit kids are able to defeat.
-The Male protagonist has blond hair and blue eyes.
-Deserts @.@
[edit]
-You fight a dragon in some point of the game..

[megaman8x]

BOSS FIGHTS

[NES Player]

^This

Boss fights in almost every game!

[RPG Hacker]

Graphics! Totally cliche! Why do all the games use graphics? God, can't they think of something themselfs?

[Lyric Induced]

And music, my goodness, like every game has music while you play.

[NES Player]

Power-ups
Lives
Puzzles
Score
Points
Enemies
Levels
Characters
Jump
Platforms
Weapons
Mission Objectives
Checkpoints
ABS
Magic
Monsters (friend or foe)
Quests
Currency
Shops
Inns
Cut scenes
Title Screens
Save/Load
Pause Menu
Loading Times/Screens
End Credits

Pretty much the basics of any video game are cliches!

[Lyric Induced]

- If the party is in need of money, their first idea is to compete in an Arena

[megaman8x]

INTERACTIVITY

shit makes me sick.

[Dyhalto]

Blue.
Been used since Dragon Quest 1. Waaaaay overused.

In fact, so is this running gag of obvious shit