Confessional: Favorite Video Game Cliche

Alright, often in these forums, or really any gaming forum we bitch and moan about cliches and how everything is so formulaic now but let's face it, no matter how jaded you are, there are just some cliches you really love in video games and you are willing to overlook them for your pure enjoyment. This is a thread where we get to confess what are favorite cliches and overused stereotypes in games that we love. From the girl with secret powers the evil empire wants control of, to all barrels and crates being filled with flammable materials, to silent protagonist, to collecting useless items like coins/stars/chips/severed heads in a platformer, what are your faves that you will always jump into without a moments notice.

I'm kind of weird that way, but I can't think of any cliches I dislike because they are cliche. The ones I don't like I dislike just because I have an aversion to the device itself, not the overuse.

On that note, my favorites:
- Protagonists summoning crazy awesome power when in dire need
- Boss battles that don't make sense with the story. Come on, we all love bosses don't we?
- Random monsters dropping money. I'm playing a video game, it doesn't have to make real life sense. Why do I need a middleman of selling vendor trash?
- Main protagonist being a jerk/silent. As it seems the only trade off is for them to be an idiot.

Hm, I googled Video Game Cliches and most of the stuff people call 'cliche' is really just mechanics. And they are used all the time because they work better than the alternatives. Whiny .

- Swords > Guns. Come on, swords are just so much cooler.
- Kingdoms with one town. Have some imagination. Not that I don't think the development staff should have spent months populating the landscape with useless towns.

Stupidity is the only option and/or schmuck bait. It always leads to something good, a funny scene, or the next plot thingy. Personally I like the funny scenes the best. And that's why I will always jump head first into anything that looks suspicious and pull all levers and push all buttons I find.

I like love triangles and childhood friends.

Also, I'm going to be SO MAD if anyone links to TV Tropes. :stare:

The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches
:colbert:

Every single JRPG in history

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

silent protagonist

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This is easily one of my favourites. It's funny that I think that because it can easily be done poorly and end up not being immersive, but I guess I'm just a huge fan of Half-Life and Chrono Trigger. I wouldn't even say it's something that is overused either. It seems like the game with the silent protagonist is more the exception than the rule these days, even if some high profile games use it regularly.

I'll also say I enjoy flammable barrels as well, but no one who's played HL2: Deathmatch could fault me there. :D

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Originally Posted by qwertysaur

The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches
:colbert:

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Just sat and read through all of these and my word they are true!
Thats one very comprehensive list!

Thread was Begging for TVTropes.

I'm a fan of Underground Monkeys and I find Video Game Geography quite amusing.

>>> Hot girls in videogames, thats a cliche I will always love..:luca:

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Originally Posted by Old Manus

Every single JRPG in history

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/thread

There are so many cliches I've come to adore.

The trusted, loyal best friend turns out to be the one true love.

Love triangles. Not as fun in real life by any means, but fun to watch in games and read about in books.

Someone has a secret power that the higher ups like, so they wish to kidnap this person and use their for their evil doings.

The pet turns out to be more powerful than you could ever have imagined. And saves your life. Many, many times.

The best friend that you fell in love with? He's a supernatural being of some sort that tends to rescue you at your neediest times :D

Maybe I'm just a romance junkie xD

9999

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Originally Posted by qwertysaur

The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches
:colbert:

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Ah, is it wrong if I enjoy all of these, though not all at once? But each one makes me think of a new game and I go, "aw".

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The Compulsories
There's always a fire dungeon, an ice dungeon, a sewer maze, a misty forest, a derelict ghost ship, a mine, a glowing crystal maze, an ancient temple full of traps, a magic floating castle, and a technological dungeon.

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Smurf sewer mazes! Everytime I encounter a sewer maze in a game, which is inevitable in almost EVERY GAME, I fill with blinding rage.

I'm fond of evil corporations because there are so many of them in real life. I probably would've been much more fond of Final Fantasy VII if it had stayed focused on Shinra.

Evil empires are a pretty great cliché too.

Now we've gotten it started. Here's only my few.

Jumping from a high place without a sprain or and ow.
Computers without feelings showing higher level reasoning, obidience, and suspicion.
Not all of us likes a 'boss'. They can take considerable more damage than you. They are invincible until the end even if you cheat the game before the final events.
Overall I've gotten use to the cliches and they go unnoticed now.

I really enjoy the inclusion of the silent protagonist stereotype, especially in RPGs. It allows for a sense of connectedness with the main character, an allowance to place yourself in the part of the character and take on certain "attributes" of the storyline for yourself. It can be done incredibly bad, which is humorous, but when done right, it adds an entirely new depth to the video game.

The other one is, and I agree with The Man here, the inclusion of an evil corporation. Even though I dislike the game itself, Final Fantasy VII did a good job with Shinra and, again like The Man said, the game would have been better if it focused more on Shinra's corruption than a super-human evil-doer. Evil corporation are far more believable than one super-powdered psychotic entity wreaking havoc on the world. Or multiple super-powered psychotic entities wreaking havoc on the world.

I love random encounters...

I love the penultimate RPG villains - SLIMES

Villains who say "Fools!!!"

Micro-achievement systems in multiplayer games

and the double-cross

"Yuna's there so we go and get her! It's that simple!" Never mind the hundreds of guards with very lethal guns and Bevelle's other defenses! It always makes for a nice chunk of the game when this sort of thing happens.

Pockets with unlimited space

Load bearing bosses. :D

Villains with British accents!

Bosses with a vital weak spot.

I am completely for gameplay cliches that may not make sense in real life such as:

Weapons getting progessively better at each successive town. The best weapons of the game might be some vendor in an underground cave. It doesn't make sense in life but for a game it does.

A shopkeeper selling stuff at the save point in the middle of a dungeon right before the big boss is the same thing.

I hate when I am only allowed to carry so much stuff. Of course it makes sense logically but it is a pain in the ass doing inventory management every five minutes (Dragon age for example)

I hate when games make you go into a church or an inn or somewhere out of the way to save and or rest. Games like arc the lad do this in an interesting way but I'd rather less interesting and more convinient.

Games allowing you to teleport is a great thing even though its a ridiculous idea.

Storywise cliches: I guess I'm an old romantic and like a good love story, although videogames have generally messed it up. The love or hate it Final Fantasy VIII handles the love story really well I thought (it struggled with other parts unfortunetly.) I liked the quiet unspoken, never quite realized love of Cloud and Aeris. It has to be integral to the story not just put in there to have a love story. I also like Nathan Drake and Elena's relationship in the uncharted series.

My favorite cliche is what I like to call the "Rockstar cliche" i.e. somebody you work for or have dealings with is gonna screw you over! It happens in every single GTA practically at some point & most recently in Red Dead Redemption. Betrayal & revenge storylines are awesome :bigsmile:

digital media

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Originally Posted by blackmage_nuke

Pockets with unlimited space

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hahaha it's so annoying when you have this but then because of the plot you have to choose between two small items because you have room for one. Like in Apollo Justice! Trucy is all like OH LOOK A SHOE AND A MIRROR BUT I CAN ONLY CARRY ONE. Never mind that you can carry entire bicycles in those pockets!

Big tits.

Also, silent protagonist.

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Originally Posted by Raistlin

Big tits.

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Yes, but sometimes games drive me nuts with this when there's no variety. In Dragon Age right now, every female has the same awkward big boobs, and they're really low because when you take off their clothes in the menu you can see there's no straps. So every single female in the game has the same-sized low hanging large boobs.

Vary those boobs up, videogames. It's no fun to see the same boobs on every character. :mad2:

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Originally Posted by Clo

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Originally Posted by Raistlin

Big tits.

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Yes, but sometimes games drive me nuts with this when there's no variety. In Dragon Age right now, every female has the same awkward big boobs

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I feel the same way when I watch porn :[

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Originally Posted by Jessweeee♪

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Originally Posted by blackmage_nuke

Pockets with unlimited space

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hahaha it's so annoying when you have this but then because of the plot you have to choose between two small items because you have room for one. Like in Apollo Justice! Trucy is all like OH LOOK A SHOE AND A MIRROR BUT I CAN ONLY CARRY ONE. Never mind that you can carry entire bicycles in those pockets!

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Whats funnier is in RPG's where you can carry 99 suits of gold, diamond and Iron armour but damned if they'll let you drop all that and carry 100 phoenix feathers!