Cliches?

[Legacy of Elecrusher]

As TvTropes puts it.
Though there's not much you can do about it since everyone would just rage quit the game.

[Cerebus]

Yeah. There are some clichés that I guess need to be there.
It would be kinda lame to fight the hardest boss on start.

[_JeT_]

Hell, just glean this madness. The armored knight is the attack character, while the vulgar, loud-mouthed brigand is the defensive one. The **** sense does that make.

Well, I like the idea of people not looking like what they are. You know, makes it so they can take advantage of assumptions and such. But... With what this person did... Nm... I think I just want to go play Trymaker's game to feel better.

[Valiere]

@AFL: Just say "All these books are too complicated." or "I cant read" or "Crammed full of pokemon books".
But you know, games like Morrowind or Oblivion actually have books that you can read. Most of them are 2-5 pages long. I have no idea why they do that. I never read them anyway.

I think the logical way around this is to just list a few book titles that you see on the shelf. It seems more natural for someone to skim a few titles than to open a book to a random page. And it looks less lazy than "Crammed full of Pokemon books!"

If you need to relay information to the PC, just put an open book on the table. It's natural to go scanning an open book, but you probably wouldn't turn the page since someone could be reading it. So that explains why you don't need to write all 856 pages.

Of course, we're not going for what's logical here!

If you are surrounded by a small army, the soldiers will always take it in turns to attack you in groups of however many is normal for the game. This is followed by the obligatory General fight who is tougher than fighting the rest of the army at the same time!

There's the Authority Equals Asskicking trope. It seems the general wasn't promoted because of his leadership skills or tactical prowess. He was promoted because he's a beast with a spear.

[Cerebus]

Well you could also simply do... nothing. Like, you go in front of a library, press the action buttons and... nothing happens. Just like nothing happens when you check the table, the clock, the fire, the desk, the candle, the barrel, the box, the chair, the portrait, the bed, etc. Of course there are some exceptions, like having items in boxes or such, or some game includes a "Ouch!" when you check the fire (because of course the Hero thinks it's a good idea to touch the fire rather than simply looking at it for some reason) or maybe tell what time it is when you check the clock, but usually, not much happens.

[MissingName]

Goddamn, cliche overload.  I was just looking for your least favorite cliches...

How about everyone tells me their SINGULARLY most hated cliche? How dat?

[Valiere]

What are you, lazy? Do 'em all!

Your game can't be that packed with content already.

[Cerebus]

Okay. Items getting more expensive in later village. Seriously.
You'll never be able to get actually good equipment in starter village. Not because you don't have enough money or you don't have the required level, no, the merchants simply won't have it. They'll sell short swords and wooden shields only. Even though they are capable of making the long iron sword and tower shield the guards are carrying, they'll have none in stock, only that cheap short sword and wooden shield.
But of course, the poor village you'll find later in game will sell you better end more expansive swords than the rich city you started in. And no, they won't have the cheap sword you bought earlier or anything else, only the expensive and better ones. And of course, the INNs are more expensive as well. Because after all, you get to that poor village later, so they have to sell better and more expensive stuff.

And for some reasons, it's always more expensive in the next place you visit. Never will you arrive in a town which sells less expansive items or have cheaper INN than the village before. No! Because you found that town after the village. So it has to be more expensive.

Yes. That's the one I dislike the most, I guess.

Sure, you could say it's because they don't want you to get too good equipments at start... but hey, if you manage to get the required amount of money for that Mithril Sword in the first village, why shouldn't you be able to get it? The monsters you fight in the first zone have cheaper rewards, so it would take a while anyway. Because of course, just like prices, monsters get tougher and give better rewards as you advance in game. But well, of course it would be lame to encounter a level 50 creature in starter zone, so at least this has a good excuse...

TL;DR The more you advance, the more items and INNs get expansive.

[supasora]

Okay having the super speacial Item you need to make the ultimate weapon located in an area you can only go to once around the begining of the game.

[Deathreaper]

1) Darkness = evil, Light = good, even though both are just tools with no real affiliation and in reality Darkness is alot kinder than light. Since if Darkness kills you, it's going to be the cold, and that's more like sleeping. While light can have you suffer a rather painful death from UV rays and heat

2) Villians just randomly decide one day that they want ultimate power. It's enough of a cliche that they typically want ultimate power, but usually there is no reason for it other than just to be god-like or something

3) The main cast is a bunch of stereotypes. We typically have a softspoken gal, a fiery gal and a motherly gal following up the Macho man, the hero and the mystery man.

4) The role of oddballs is diminished to being a one time villain or just comic relief. Oddball characters in appearance or personality rarely step over these bounds. We never get to really have the oddball be important to the story or anything and that's disappointing

5) Non-Human races that are exactly like humans just with longer lifespans or use of magic or pointed ears and crap. I'm sorry to say but elves, gnomes, and the like are HUMAN. They only have differences so minor that emphasizing on them just to create an all new race is retarded. If they have the same red blood, the same five fingers, the same two eyes, the same anatomy but with minor differences, they are still human.

6) "Mysterious character" being an excuse to have an under developed character. Just by slapping this title on a character they are given the excuse for them to barely talk, emote, and do nothing but what the plot requires them to do. It gets annoying fast.

7) Lack of real female villains. Female villains are usually given the wonderful job of being eye candy and spellcasters to the heroes. Rarely are they not just spell casters and can fight hand to hand. And... well, they seem to have less motive than the male ones half the time. They just run around like "MWHAHAHAHA! I'M EVIL!", leave and than come back as the final boss if they have been taken THAT seriously.

White Asians. The typical RP characters look like a bunch of white people. Now, I'm guilty of this too, even though I'm black, but I've made a bunch of others from other races around the world too for my RPG/story.

9) The cast is BORING to look at. Yes, the typical RPG cast is simply boring to look at to me. They are usually a bunch of humans (I'm counting those so called "non-humans" too from above) with MAYBE one real non-human there. But the non-human doesn't really do much so it doesn't matter (FF10 >_>). Although they may have silly hair and outfits that are so complex that they will never take them off from the weeks they travel, it doesn't really save this for me. Every once and a while we should have a more different cast and maybe give some of those abnormalities a real shot at being serious.

10) The female lead's abilities and role. Usually the role of the female lead is... standing there looking pretty so she can be kidnapped. Her abilities typically are... healing and support. Her abilities are the opposite of the males and her attack power is way below everyone elses. Let's be more original, shall we?

11) ANY STORY INVOLVING COLLECTION A BUNCH OF THE SUPER SPECIAL AWESOME MAGIC ITEM (plotdevice). Whether it's the ultimate sword or the ultimate slice of pizza, it's just going to be stolen by the villain and used for his final form anyway.

EDIT:

12) Angelic final boss forms. Now I'm going a bit into my faith here, but technically angels bow down to us. So to be technical here, they are on a lower level to us or were before the fall. So, any human turning into an angel is a considerable downgrade if you follow this logic. But even without it, it's overused anyway. Either they turn into an angel or some kind of devil.

[supasora]

Your right. Wheres the Black people or the mexican people (latin politically correct). Barret and the one guy from ff8 are like the only non white asian people in rpgs. And angels are always portrayed wrongly in games. Espacially the fuffy and female ones. In the bible They are Masculine warrior beings that could explode you because they're warriors, Not pansies or sepheroth like thingies.

[Drakiyth]

Oh, and swords do way more damage than guns. Yes, I know getting smacked with a sword would probably hurt, but can't they find a way to express the superiority of guns? There's a reason we're not carrying around claymores and crap anymore.

Being sliced into 2 pieces by a great axe/sword and shot with a 44 have different damage values.  If you're shot with a 44 magnum in say your chest it would more than likely kill your ***.  If you're cut into 2 pieces 2PIECES! by a great axe/sword..  Umm.. you're beyond saving.   I think the reason we have guns more than melee weapons now is ranged attacks are king in wars.  Overall, guns and even a quick dirk to the throat are deadly weapons if used correctly. Hell, even a kick to the head if used with chi energy can be very fatal.

Anyway, to get to your point of why you think guns should be better damage than swords..  It totally depends on the situation.  A mini gun will pretty much end anything and quickly. Not to mention everything in the spread area.  Bigger guns are way more powerful than a sword if you want to put it that way LOL.  Think of a rocket launcher for **** sakes.  But, that does not mean a sword against a single target could not kill their *** just as fast.. It might not OVERKILL them but it does the job.


In my game Asiyla, the Desperado class uses guns and he will have very fatal shots that do tremendous damage.  Will it be stronger than a sword user of his class type?  It will be balanced damage. If anything it will be heavy piercing damage on his part and explosives that do more damage than a heavy fighters attacks but a spellblade class that uses swords will do just as much damage as him because of how I do my game.  This just shows it's not about the WEAPON it's how you use it.

[Darkfox]

Don't forget: Old guy in black is evil and does all sorts of evil... stuff. Old guy in white is good but useless and doesn't do much.

[Deathreaper]

A few more

13) The villain is never testing the heroes or just using unusual methods to do good. They're just flat out evil

14) The hero is never wrong! The hero never kills a good person or anything by accident. They are just never wrong on anything.

15) Unless it's important to the main character, most non-humans whom are extension beings of the cast (or atleast what they may call them) are unsavable.

16) The softhearted gal is never a villain or fought against unless they are possessed or something. This somewhat goes back to 14. It's very rare that a good hearted person is even really fought against unless they are rough around the edges. It's been very rare in games where the quiet softspoken gal was a boss battle, except maybe for their introduction. If you end up doing so, their usually possessed by something

17) The way possession is used. Now I do have quite a few problems with how the process has been used. Live an old person possessing a young person for a new body because apparently they are not powerful enough on their own. Other times it gets really creepy with a male possessing a woman or vise versa. Now that is just sick, man!

18) Swords are the common weapon. Yes swords are easy to use, but they shouldn't be the weapon for the main character all the time! What about axes? Lances? And the like? They end up being weaker than most swords in the games they are in despite being more effective in real life. Also, I want to see a MC with nunchucks! Yeah!

19) Girly male villains in place of female ones. Now this again goes back to the female thing, well it deserves much comment. It's bad enough to have a guy look girly, but to have an effeminate name and female voice actor? Why not make it a damn woman then? Capcom is very guilty of this, but Square shares in with the guilt too

20) The lack of any critical damage done to the main party. I've never seen a villain come in and break the main characters arm and such. The villain usually just does some slash that is apparently a serious injury but they recover from it in 4 seconds anyway

21) A villain that just talks **** all the time and runs away when they're about to do something. That's annoying, villains do it alot in these games, they should stop doing it

22) Evil version of characters have "Dark" or "death" in some form in their name. Oooooh! Scary! >_>

23) DRAWN OUT ROMANCES! OMG! I HATE THAT SO MUCH! I can understand developing one, but one that's just drawn out to hell is annoying

24) Dress-code: Bad guy wears black, good guy wears white or something. The reverse is true too

25) Power vs Technique. Technique is rarely seen in these games, but power takes its place. Even though fighting technique is all about creating an advantage over something regardless of power

26) Not much weird looking things with the main character. The main character rarely has a really odd physical quality

EDIT: UPDATE ON 24!

[SaiKar]

a kick to the head if used with chi energy

Drak, you were THIS close to making a reasonable post about reality.