15) Level Caps Who cares? When you play a video game, you play by the rules designed for that video game. Perhaps a level 20 cap is required to make the game's difficulty curve and mechanics work?

14) Enemy Levels that Scale
To be a cliche you sort of have to like ... appear a lot. I have not played many RPGs with this gameplay element, and further, who cares?

13) Fetch Quests
I dislike these greatly and they should be abolished completely because I would rather have a quality 10 hour RPG than a skullskullskullskullty one filled with fetch quests and other useless gameplay elements to bump up the play time.

12) Multi-Stage Boss Fights
NO. I LOVE THESE THINGS <3.

11) Scripted Battles You Are Forced to Lose
These are very annoying for the reason roto stated (item useage, etc.) but, in the 16 bit era they were pretty useful for being cinematic. I enjoyed them more when I didn't have to control my characters, though, because then I KNEW I was supposed to lose.

10) Bosses That Are Immune to All Status Effects
This is a really big pet peeve, actually. I think that status effects, if used correctly, add a lot of depth to gameplay. FFX, for instance, I thought handled status effects pretty well.

9) The Destruction of a Home Village
I dislike this because I have seen it a million times.

8) Amnesia
H8.

7) Overly Complicated Puzzles that Require a Strategy Guide
Obviously. This isn't a cliche though, again, this is merely bad game design.

6) Weapons that Can Only be Received After Meeting Very Specific, Secret Parameters
I am indifferent to this because half the time I don't even know these items exist.

5) Overly Chatty Cutscenes During a Cataclysmic Moment
Blegh, I never notice this.

4) Constant Party Switching
Annoying. Case and point - Vaan, Basch, and Ashe = level 12, Fran, Penelo, and Balthier = level 62.

3) Boys Up Front, Girls in the Back
I dislike this just based on the inherent sexism. Female characters are far too often given the "healer/nurturer" role or the "strange arcane magic user that no one understands because they are a strange woman" role. Let's break the molds, people.

2) The Nearly Invulnerable Random Encounter Enemy
Eh, L2+R2 always worked for me.

1) The Plot Starring an Angsty, Unassuming Teenage Hero Who Will Save the Universe
This can be done right and proper. But it usually isnt.

I also agree with MILF's comment on silent protagonists, which are quite possibly the simplest way to alienate the player from the character who's role they are assuming.

In all, that article was kind of silly. 80% of the author's points on the list were just bad game design as opposed to actual cliches.