Game cliches you've seen entirely too much of

[Raziaar]

"The Chosen One" is a pretty annoying Cliche. Just once, just once, I wish a party member was the Chosen One, not you. Or somebody else entirely, that'd be cool.

Oh, and there was another one... shit, I forgot what it was.

Every man and his dog giving you quests after you randomly break into their houses, that's pretty weird...

Unfortunately the Chosen One cliche applies to all mediums of entertainment.

 

[Warbie]

Perhaps the polar opposite - the unchosen one. Some bitter, old guy, totally unsuitable to the task at hand, slowly hobbling through levels with a shotgun and being too old for this shit. Or a disaster/survival game - out only for no. 1, you have to climb over people, knock them out the way, fight for food. That old lady has a snickers bar, score!

I'd like a game in which you play a completely average guy - say a bus driver - thrown into a crazy situation.

 

[Bad^Hat]

"The Chosen One" is a pretty annoying Cliche. Just once, just once, I wish a party member was the Chosen One, not you. Or somebody else entirely, that'd be cool.

Yeah, it'd be cool to see something different. What I'd really like to see though, is developers giving us good reasons for why we're the "chosen one". OR, better yet, actually give us some semblence of the great powers we're meant to possess! I want to be able to toss people around like ragdolls, split them in half at will, have arrows bounce off my chest like twigs. If a game can do that and still make things challenging, that would be godlike. (think Dynasty Warriors but good)

Every man and his dog giving you quests after you randomly break into their houses, that's pretty weird...

You know what would be great? An RPG where you have a rival who's making his way through the game alongside you, so you actually have to race him to all these quests before he gets them and wins the loot. That'd give it a great sense of urgency and a bit of replayability too. Then whenever you crossed paths you'd fight to see who'd become stronger since you last met - or maybe even ally with eachother temporarily to get a tough job done. Could be cool if done right.

 

[Warbie]

I like the idea of rivals. Something like Highlander could be pretty awesome if done well.

 

[Jintor]

My immediate thought was Pokemon though. ><

 

[Bad^Hat]

The thought crossed my mind...

But I'm talking non-scripted, AI-controlled rivals. Although they'd still somehow manage to elude you at every turn - otherwise they wouldn't be a true rival.

 

[Gray Fox]

Anti-heroes.
I do not have anything against them actually, in fact I enjoy them about as much as good guys. But it's being overdone tbh. I would like to see more nice and decent people as heroes. There is nothing wrong with just helping people for the sake of helping them, it's just a decent thing to do.

 

[knut]

You know what would be great? An RPG where you have a rival who's making his way through the game alongside you, so you actually have to race him to all these quests before he gets them and wins the loot. That'd give it a great sense of urgency and a bit of replayability too. Then whenever you crossed paths you'd fight to see who'd become stronger since you last met - or maybe even ally with eachother temporarily to get a tough job done. Could be cool if done right.

In Fable you ran across this girl (who use to be your friend and is now an also wannabe-champion thingy) every now and again who would challenge you to who could compete this certain quest the fastest/with best score. It wasn't much but it was quite cool.

 

[kupocake]

Standard Female Character load-out. This is easily most prominent in the FF games, but noteable elsewhere. There are only ever 3 female characters in your party, even when you have as many as 14 characters in all. With slight variation either side of the basic type:

1) is the Princess, Nun or otherwise 'Virginial' 'Good' girl, dressed sensibly and adept in helpful restorative magic. She is often the love interest for the main male. Gets agressive at some point for comic relief, gets endangered other times to provide an excuse for you to walk around a bit more.
2) is the violent 'dark' one. She dresses in racier clothing and in recent years is essentially the 'goth' girl. Either uses attack magic or very occasionally, hits things with a big stick. Usually attaches herself to a secondary male.
3) is the child, childish or otherwise simply 'lighthearted' one. She provides comic relief and is usually voiced by the most irritating voice actress who auditioned for the role. Remains upbeat throughout the storyline, with a momentary lapse when you see into her unfortunate past. This past usually involves her being an orphan, and she has usually suffered the deaths of multiple friends and companions, if not her entire race. Usually playfully crushes on the main character. Rarely actually attaches to anyone, but if she does it's usually the Lothario type in the male cast.

 

[lun4tic]

I hate the Overspecialization Cliche. WHY DON'T TANK SHELLS KILL INFANTRY INSTANT? WRRRRRRYYYYYYY?

This is similar to the Rock-Paper-Scissors cliche a la Planetside, TF2, and a few other games. For example, in Planetside anti-armor explosives do almost nothing to unarmored infantry when in reality an explosion is an explosion.

 

[Raziaar]

Standard Female Character load-out. This is easily most prominent in the FF games, but noteable elsewhere. There are only ever 3 female characters in your party, even when you have as many as 14 characters in all. With slight variation either side of the basic type:

Oftentimes they ALL look like females to me. Well, except for the one guy who actually looks like a man.

 

[Bad^Hat]

On the female party members thing - I'm kind of tired of the way they're presented in JRPGs in particular. Where they might be just as tough as the male characters in combat, or even moreso, but they have to act all 'girly' about it. It's in the way they act, how they're always so obnoxiously timid and bashful about everything, despite having slaughtered legions of horrible monsters, aswell as the occasional human - apparently without remorse. But they're still so... effeminate. Even right down to the character animations - the way they hold their wrists up gaily when they run around. The way they bounce about and flick their legs up when they cast spells. And I'm not even going to start on the way they dress... the males are often just as bad with this. GET SOME FREAKIN ARMOUR, NITWITS.

In Fable you ran across this girl (who use to be your friend and is now an also wannabe-champion thingy) every now and again who would challenge you to who could compete this certain quest the fastest/with best score. It wasn't much but it was quite cool.

Yeah, that's actually what I was thinking about, although I've never played through the whole thing myself. Make it like that, but more dynamic, let them make their own choices and find their own route to an extent, thereby changing your path in the game aswell.

This would actually fit quite well with another idea I had for a game (also inspired by Fable... funny since I didn't really like the game at all), where you're a student in an academy of magic and fighting. Thinks Hogwarts but less gay and more militaristic. Your time would be split between attending classes or roaming around the school grounds for grades, and completing tasks in the outlaying towns for reputation. There'd be no real "path" to the game as it would all centre around the school, but more areas would gradually open as you worked your way up through the years. And of course there'd be the obligatory secret passages and dungeons in and around the school. It'd only really work the way I imagine if it actually had alot of open-endedness to it - which is where the idea of rivals could come in. Someone to compete with, for grades, popularity, reputation, strength etc, to give you a more immediate sense of purpose - and of course to try and foil your every exploit, be it good or naughty. If you wanted to, you could even be the bully, recruit a couple of lackeys and make hell for the good kids.

I really need to start writing these down somewhere...

 

[Jintor]

Bad^Hat, I'll help you. I've often thought about that sort of thing (I related it more to GARDEN and SeeD in FFVIII, to be honest) and that sounds like an excellent idea to muck around with.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Once again, that crossed my mind (the SeeD thing).

Honestly, I'd be working on this stuff already if I knew the first thing about game design.

 

[Shift]

Suprised no one has said portrayed cliche attractive female present in game who somehow always gets into danger and you have to rescue her sorry arse. Then at the end, since you have been happily killing things together, you see it appropriate to **** each other.

PLEASE, DONT WANT.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Implied love interests can be just as annoying, really. It's like the whole game is leading up to some massive confession on either character's part, and then you get this terse, awkward scene somewhere around the 3/4 point of the game that basically consists of:


"Hey, you know..."

- Characters exchange a knowing look.

"Yeah, I know."

- Characters hold hands or touch in some equally innocent way.

- Camera pans up to sky just as a shooting star appears. Cause these things can only ever happen at twilight.


Wow, worth the wait!

 

[Shift]

Well Gordon and Alyx's growing relationship is the ONLY love interest in a game I have come to enjoy and not dread. Its been really well thought out so far, but they best not bugger up with some sappy ending in EP3 causing me to cringe in a violent manor lol.

 

[Warbie]

And thus, in ep.3, the gaming public finally get to hear Gordon speak when he asks Alex if she wants 'some fries with that shake' in that squeaky nerdy voice we all know he has

 

[Absinthe]

And thus, in ep.3, the gaming public finally get to hear Gordon speak when he asks Alex if she wants 'some fries with that shake' in that squeaky nerdy voice we all know he has

He should sound like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZShYVXUGM6I

 

[Shift]

Haha mint.

If Gordon does speak though, valvE shall be recieving a very stern letter through the letterbox, one of a nuclear origin.

 

[Bad^Hat]

He'll speak alright. Right near the very end of episode 3:

"Gordon, what is your intention?"

"Sir.... to FINISH THIS FIGHT." :|:|:|:|:|

*cue over-the-top orchestra score set to Gordon riding a rollermine into the heart of the Combine base*

 

[Warbie]

Given how much of a generic action hero he became in HL2, that's quite possible

 

[ríomhaire]

Well Gordon and Alyx's growing relationship is the ONLY love interest in a game I have come to enjoy and not dread. Its been really well thought out so far, but they best not bugger up with some sappy ending in EP3 causing me to cringe in a violent manor lol.

And the best thing about it is, unless something awful happens in EP2, which I haven't played yet, unfortunatly, there doesn't have to be any romance there at all on the part of the protagonist, because you can simply ignore Alyx's affection with the main character forcing you into it.

 

[Emporius]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but one thing that is really overdone is the guy who stays behind on a suicide mission to stall countless enemies (often blowing themselves up) while you make your escape.

ie: Lost Planet

 

[Wanted Bob]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but one thing that is really overdone is the guy who stays behind on a suicide mission to stall countless enemies (often blowing themselves up) while you make your escape.

ie: Lost Planet

True dat. One thing that irks me about any game is when they try to extend the plot via expansion packs or sequels, even though the story wouldve been much better if it was left alone.

 

[Emporius]

True dat. One thing that irks me about any game is when they try to extend the plot via expansion packs or sequels, even though the story wouldve been much better if it was left alone.

Yeah, I find that FEAR seems to have done that. Don't get me wrong, I loved the games, but they seem to just keep milking the series for all its worth without much changes.

 

[Qhartb]

"The Chosen One" is a pretty annoying Cliche. Just once, just once, I wish a party member was the Chosen One, not you. Or somebody else entirely, that'd be cool.

Like in Final Fantasy XII? Unless you play as Ashe all the time, I guess.