You know its a Final Fantasy...

[MJN SEIFER]

I do! I find it very ofensive!

[UltimaMasamune]

When everybody rushes out to buy it just so they can go to a forum and bitch about how awful it is.

This one is my favourite

[Skyblade]

There is always a secondary villain, who you fight throughout most of the game, but who is defeated before you reach the final battle against the main boss.

When Biggs and Wedge show up with no relation to X-Wings.

Contains odd pom-pom sporting critters who say "kupo".

Contains giant ostriches that look cool and are usually capable of insanely good transportation.

[Frostwake]

Well lets see

1 - When there are Fire, Bolt, Ice and Cure spells
2 - Masamune
3 - Cid since FF 2
4 - Airship and boat
5 - Theres almost always an optional superboss stronger than the main villain
6 - Chocobos since FF 2
7 - Flare and Holy (Nuke and Fade in the original FF)
8 - Incredible plot twist near the end
9 - Bahamut (although bahamut wasnt in FF 2 for some reason)
10 - Shiva, Ifrit and Odin since FF 3
11 - Final area is always a really weird place with super monsters
12 - You can finish the game below level 10
13 - Too many random encounters
14 - Invincible boss you have to fight several times throughout the game because even if you beat him the battle ends with some fancy move (Beatrix and Kuja, Edea, Ultima weapon, etc)
15 - There is a 9999 cap on damage and character hp, 999 cap on mp (removed in the latest ones), exception being ff1 with 999 hp cap and spell charges maxing at 9
16 - Save points
17 - Gil/GP as currency

Thats it for now

[Kita]

When someone wears some form of eyewear.
Eyepatchs, goggles, glasses..

When you have to save the world, of course!

[Mirage]

It's been a while since I played VII so I might be off, but (SPOILER)I think in Shinra HQ Cloud and co. get caught and put into cells. They're able to break out when all the guards are killed...or something like that o_O

Very true. In fact, it happens twice. (SPOILER)Desert prison, anyone?

(SPOILER)Three times, in fact. They were to be executed after the Weapons started rampaging too.

4 - Airship and boat
5 - Theres almost always an optional superboss stronger than the main villain
8 - Incredible plot twist near the end
11 - Final area is always a really weird place with super monsters
12 - You can finish the game below level 10
13 - Too many random encounters
14 - Invincible boss you have to fight several times throughout the game because even if you beat him the battle ends with some fancy move (Beatrix and Kuja, Edea, Ultima weapon, etc)
16 - Save points
17 - Gil/GP as currency

Those are common in just about every RPG :p

When someone wears some form of eyewear.
Eyepatchs, goggles, glasses..

My mother wears glasses! That means we're in a Final Fantasy game, awesome!