This is more of a gameplay than a story cliché, but I really hate it when you have a party of eight, but the frontline gets wiped and it's game over. What were the others doing that they couldn't jump in and at the very least by time while I revive them? Final Fantasy XII, Type-0, Breath of Fire IV, and Neptunia Re;birth3 are the only games I can think of that don't do that.
And related, when your team splits up later in the game. At the start of them, it serves the purpose of world building and character development. Late in the game, it serves the purpose of informing you that you're going to have to do a dungeon twice when the team that the main character isn't on, smurfs up. Also someone from the B-team is probably going to die or get a booboo and be out of commission for awhile.
One of my biggest annoyances: Every party member is a teenager.
everything is wrapped in gray
i'm focusing on your image
can you hear me in the void?
Hey see the thing I want to grab on the other side of that tiny rock that is as high as your ankle? I know you could just reach over and grab it, but instead you have to walk halfway around the town, hit a secret passage, then you can get it. Don't worry, they will let you jump over the rock from the other side.
Invisible walls, they're called
everything is wrapped in gray
i'm focusing on your image
can you hear me in the void?
My girlfriend and I spend many evenings discussing these things whilst playing a game. Especially a JRPG. Last good example was Jude from Tales of Xillia. A 15 year old, working on his doctorate/PhD, and is the most insufferably gullible and lacking in common sense out of the whole team. So his world experience is definitely that of a 15 year old. He should be in High School, or he should be 23. Pick one, you can't have both
And my girlfriend is constantly calling out all the girls how they have to show off all their assets and make it blatantly obvious they were designed to appease lonely basement dwelling old men, with no real creative thought put into their character design. Even worse is the fact that Japan is obsessed with the demure squeaky little girl voice for all female characters, so they all end up sounding the same. And unless it's professionally dubbed, your only options will be either mousy pre-teen voice actors, or door-knob quality inflections. Which is getting better, now that voice acting for a video game is a thing in the West, but since a lot of this topic is old tropes and stereotypes, good lord, just ... women in JRPGs
And I will reiterate. I want to play someone of age. And lacking in world experience is no excuse. Let me play as the cook for the local inn, having to choose to go save his village. He's just as inexperienced with the world and the sword as that damned 15 year old Japan is obsessed with
I wish I lived in a JRPG world. I would have an entire Kingdom by now, and a family, and be mentoring my son/daughter to take my place.
everything is wrapped in gray
i'm focusing on your image
can you hear me in the void?
Yeah I wasn't suggesting a twenty year old is a realistic idea for a grizzled world adventurer. Just that twenty something would be more realistic an age for someone in college about to become a doctor (Jude)
That's what i meant. You said 20somethings are portrayed as adults and experienced, when in reality they are close to jrpg teenagers than they are to real world "proper adults".
everything is wrapped in gray
i'm focusing on your image
can you hear me in the void?
I know a lot of people have a problem with "We Beat The Boss in the Boss Battle But Afterward He's Just Fine in the Cutscene and it's More Like We Lost" cliche.
I actually find it very amusing how much this popped up in Xenosaga Episode III. As in, every other boss did this. I can't wait to watch this guy on another board LP EP3 and several of his friends/commentators are going into it blind. It's gonna be glorious watching their reactions to Virgil, Voyager, Virgil, Yuriev, Kevin and probably others I'm forgetting all just laugh at you after the boss fight.
I can't wait to post in that thread and talk about how the villains actually did more to stop each other than our heroes ever did.
On a related note, and because I'm playing FFV, the cliche of "The Heroes Actively Make Things Worse and Then Are Only Heroes At All Because They Fix Their Own Damned Mess." Or Nice Job Breaking it Heroes.
In the RPG Cliches List it was originally called "Way To Go, Serge!"
Poor Serge....
True beauty exists in things that last only for a moment.
Current Mood: And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe. Maybe this year will be better than the last. I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself. To hold on to these moments as they pass...