Cliches

[jagvang]

What are some of the most cliche statements or actions you seen in every RPG games? I know that I am stating the obvious but it will help me and the rest of the community down the road. List all of it here if you will. Thanks.

 

[Akod]

The last cliche themed contest I hosted used this list. I'd say it's pretty complete.

Here are a few of the big ones

Spoiler

• 99. Maximum number of units of any item of type you can carry, often leading to peculiar situations in which you could carry 99 Potions and 99 Hi-Potions, but not 100 Potions and 0 Hi-Potions.
• Airship. Every RPG has a flying vehicle, usually an airship or a flying dragon, which is obtained near the very end of the game.
• Gas Shortage? There is usually one airship in the world. Despite the bad guys usually being a big empire/company that rules the world, they apparently can't build another airship. Perhaps this is due to a gas shortage... on the other hand, airships never seem to run out of gas.
• Countdown Rule. Whenever you have to escape from a place within a time limit, the location will blow up/collapse as soon as you leave, no matter how much time is left on your timer.
• Energizer Rule. Lights (torches, campfires, lamps, whatever) never burn out or run out of electricity — unless, of course, the story requires them to.
• Fish Out of Water. In almost all games, you fight fish-like enemies when on land, and the fish just float in the air.
• HP Imbalance. The enemies always have far more HP than your characters do, but inflict less damage than your party does, so it all comes out even.
  
• Last Breath Rule. Whenever you find somebody dead, they are not quite dead yet, and live just long enough to give you one last message before they die.
  
• Little Shop of Horrors. RPGs are frequently populated by plants that wander around and attack people. This is not common in the real world.
• Inn Inflation Rule. Each inn in the game gets progressively more expensive for no logical reason.
• Law of Magical Incompetence. A character's physical strength is always inversely proportional to their magical abilities.
• Nomad Rule. Parties never get tired, no matter how far you walk on the map or in a dungeon.
• One Size Fits All. Self Explanatory — all equipment fits all characters.
• Conservation of Death. In most RPGs, one major good character dies, but only one.
• Revival Law. Logical loophole that allows you to revive dead characters in battle with items and magic, but keeps characters dead that are killed for plot purposes.
• That's Enough, Sir. All character statistics (HP, level, attack power) have a limit, which is either a power of 2 (256, 512, etc.) or a bunch of 9s (999, 9999, etc.).
• Too Many Cooks. You can never have more than three or four characters in your party for a time. For reasons that are never explained, you always have to leave the other characters behind.
• Universal System Rule. All game worlds have a universal currency system, and a universal language. This is despite most worlds having lost cities, remote elf villages, warring kingdoms, obscure islands, etc.
• Venus Rule. It is eternally daytime in games, which is weird enough, but it also will suddenly become nighttime during certain scenes.

 

[Bizarre Monkey]

The last cliche themed contest I hosted used this list. I'd say it's pretty complete.

Here are a few of the big ones

Spoiler

• 99. Maximum number of units of any item of type you can carry, often leading to peculiar situations in which you could carry 99 Potions and 99 Hi-Potions, but not 100 Potions and 0 Hi-Potions.
• Airship. Every RPG has a flying vehicle, usually an airship or a flying dragon, which is obtained near the very end of the game.
• Gas Shortage? There is usually one airship in the world. Despite the bad guys usually being a big empire/company that rules the world, they apparently can't build another airship. Perhaps this is due to a gas shortage... on the other hand, airships never seem to run out of gas.
• Countdown Rule. Whenever you have to escape from a place within a time limit, the location will blow up/collapse as soon as you leave, no matter how much time is left on your timer.
• Energizer Rule. Lights (torches, campfires, lamps, whatever) never burn out or run out of electricity — unless, of course, the story requires them to.
• Fish Out of Water. In almost all games, you fight fish-like enemies when on land, and the fish just float in the air.
• HP Imbalance. The enemies always have far more HP than your characters do, but inflict less damage than your party does, so it all comes out even.
  
• Last Breath Rule. Whenever you find somebody dead, they are not quite dead yet, and live just long enough to give you one last message before they die.
  
• Little Shop of Horrors. RPGs are frequently populated by plants that wander around and attack people. This is not common in the real world.
• Inn Inflation Rule. Each inn in the game gets progressively more expensive for no logical reason.
• Law of Magical Incompetence. A character's physical strength is always inversely proportional to their magical abilities.
• Nomad Rule. Parties never get tired, no matter how far you walk on the map or in a dungeon.
• One Size Fits All. Self Explanatory — all equipment fits all characters.
• Conservation of Death. In most RPGs, one major good character dies, but only one.
• Revival Law. Logical loophole that allows you to revive dead characters in battle with items and magic, but keeps characters dead that are killed for plot purposes.
• That's Enough, Sir. All character statistics (HP, level, attack power) have a limit, which is either a power of 2 (256, 512, etc.) or a bunch of 9s (999, 9999, etc.).
• Too Many Cooks. You can never have more than three or four characters in your party for a time. For reasons that are never explained, you always have to leave the other characters behind.
• Universal System Rule. All game worlds have a universal currency system, and a universal language. This is despite most worlds having lost cities, remote elf villages, warring kingdoms, obscure islands, etc.
• Venus Rule. It is eternally daytime in games, which is weird enough, but it also will suddenly become nighttime during certain scenes.

Hey was that by chance that contest I scored second in and by virtue lost my bet that Terra was a lame excuse for a game and had to sing while wearing a rose lalaonde cosplay?

Good times!

 

[Akod]

@Bizarre Monkey Indeed it was! Those were fun times. I really enjoyed watching you sing Santa Baby.

 

[Bizarre Monkey]

I really enjoyed finding out how much I hate Santa baby.

What are some of the most cliche statements or actions you seen in every RPG games? I know that I am stating the obvious but it will help me and the rest of the community down the road. List all of it here if you will. Thanks.

I think Akod brutally murdered your thread with one link. D:

 

[jagvang]

Oh no, not at all. Cliche statements or actions can be seen anywhere if you look closely such as becoming a hero who will save the world from evil or arriving at the last minute to save a "princess". There are more cliches than meets the eye. This thread soul purpose was not posted for voting or fun. I wanted an overall ideas of what was implemented from the past till now for future references in case I or the community want to deviate from the norm. I know that there is much to be said. So, please, share some cliches. It does not have to be directly from all RPG since most RPG are derived from books, animations, movies and etc. Most RPG were design for aesthetic purposes, for teenagers, for adult "Teenagers" or for adults. Lets take that reason out and focus just on the everyday cliches. Thanks . . .

Cliche (Idiot means I love you) (Protagonist is a good-looking, cute or sexy "teenager"(Adult)) ("Mostly seen" - Evil villains are usually portray as ugly, mature or with decent looks.) (Kings are shown to have long beard.) (Protagonist are slender or they clearly have some form of workout.) (Villians have an awkward way to laugh.) (Protagonist always finds love in his troupe.) (Some form of joining the darkness literally means joining with Satan.) (Female characters with "faces" wears revealing clothing.) (Bad vs Good Politics) (Bad vs Bad Politics) (Hentai) (Weak Justice) (Becoming a hero) ("Most seen" - Using some form of a crystal, statue or a person as a saving method.) (Face characters concealed in flashy designs or outfits.) (Protagonist always wants to be a bad ass that carries a sword.) (Anger management) (Stubbornness at critical moments.) (3-4 characters in battle) ("The staples of every game seen" - Ex._Attack/Defend/"Magic"/Item/Run) (The word Phoenix, Gaia, Judgement and etc) (There is at least 1 clown in the party) and so much more . . . . . . .

I am after all types of cliche so keep the list coming.

 

[Macro]

http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

Enjoy.

 

[Micro]

"With the power of love/friendship, we can conquer any evil!"

 

[Bizarre Monkey]

www.tvtropes.org
If you need to waste several hours/days of your life getting lost, journeying in there is a good way to go about doing just that.

 

[Zebestian]

Using TV Tropes is cheating! XD
Anyway, I wanted to bring up a Pokémon-specific cliché that states that "if my mythical animals beat your mythical animals in a battle you must step out of the way and are not allowed to guard the important place you guarded anymore". And also variations of that à la "oh no, I dropped the lift key". Surely you can find this in some other RPGs too but in Pokémon it's especially strong.

 

[Amysaurus]

"if my mythical animals beat your mythical animals in a battle you must step out of the way and are not allowed to guard the important place you guarded anymore".

Okay, but would you want to take a Flamethrower to the face for saying no? I wouldn't want to take a Flamethrower to the face for saying no. xD

 

[Bizarre Monkey]

Using TV Tropes is cheating! XD

Fuhuhu~ If there's a way to do something cheaterly I will find it and do it. :3

Think one of my favourite cliches is "The protagonist and antagonist both have a huge slice of baconsword and this sword is always legendary in some manner."

Mostly because it's so fun to mess with that cliche. In Intel the main character uses his baredhands and the villain is an unarmed caster, in Perseverance the main character uses a variety of bombs and melee weapons, and the least iconic is the sword.

In Menagerie the lead protagonist uses a staff, but we do actually have a swordbearing villain this time.

Finally, Exile's protagonist has a thunderpole spear thing.

oh and in TBBGE the protagonist's weapons are all very silly, I used a metal popcorn bucket, Xzygon has a NERF gun, Xiie has a Rainbow Trout and finally Pjcr has a "Sai", geddit??

 

[Zebestian]

Okay, but would you want to take a Flamethrower to the face for saying no? I wouldn't want to take a Flamethrower to the face for saying no. xD

But that's another thing, Amy. Pokémon are never used against humans; that's another cosmic law of Pokémon (except in the GameCube games for whatever reason). The evil team leaders could easily beat you early in the game. But do they do it? No. Besides, you're the good guy in those games and good guys don't blow Flamethrowers in other people's faces. XD

 

[jagvang]

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Bizarre Monkey]

But that's another thing, Amy. Pokémon are never used against humans; that's another cosmic law of Pokémon. The evil team leaders could easily beat you early in the game. But do they do it? No. Besides, you're the good guy in those games and good guys don't blow Flamethrowers in other people's faces. XD

Pokemon isn't exactly strong when it comes to plot.

Spoiler: And here I explain why, also memorable characters? Um...

That they've gotten away with this over the span of over 30 games is really puzzling, a lot of the same mechanics, same formula, same uninteresting characters and yet people still buy the pokemon games expecting nothing new because they want nothing new, it's pretty soppy.

I've played fire red and Gold, both were entertaining in ways, but I'd never play another of the games because I've got evidence enough now to suggest that like Zelda, like Mario, they basically just make the game exactly like the old one just with some new mechanics, I mean at least in Zelda some of the games have very different vibes, and at least in Mario you do have a whole Galaxy to explore sometimes.

Even with the changes, the literally thousands of pokemon, all of the pokemon games, from the early red, blue, yellow, green until the current X/Y always feel the darn same.

And it'd sure be nice if even one character managed to stand out.

If you asked me to name a single good character from Gold or Fire Red, both which I came close to clearing, I'd be really stumped, sure there's red, but uh... he's not really very interesting despite his twist?

I can name several good characters from both Zelda and Mario, characters from Pokemon? Uh nope, can only remember the annoying characters, like your mum, the professors who never seem to be able to hold the charm professor oak had in the animated series, which is amusing considering the series was an addition to the series after it got popular and not the other way around. Even in the games which professor oak stars in he's not charming.

Then your rival who is usually always 200% annoying and the game would nearly always be better if they weren't there.

Another of my favourites, again, mostly to entirely twist it, is the 'healer has to a saccharine destined shrine maiden or goody-two-shoes'.

White mages in Final Fantasy are possibly the best example of this trope, though Garnet (FFIX) had a bit more sass to her. Which is probably because Nomura wasn't solely behind the design of that game. (Take note of the severe lack of belts and zippers on all the character designs if you need proof.)

I like the more shrewd realized healers who are fully aware how much the party needs them alive, and they'll diddly darn well exploit that.

I'm gonna list a couple personal examples because I love doing that.
Tristy Heals
Very snarky in her approach, but she is the devoted healer, and makes no mistakes in reminding you that if she ends up out of the game you're gonna have a bad time.

Fyori Felicee
She's the not-so-committed healer, she's like a gunner/medic hybrid, and most of the time when she's not healing she can dish out some radical damage.

Trixie Valenthart
I wouldn't trust this girl with my life, an irresponsible alcoholic with a destructive nature who also just happens to be the designate healer.

Unfortunately this still sticks to the trope of 'designated healers are always girls, always'.

 

[Macro]

"The Friendly Childhood Friend That Isn't So Friendly". I see these a lot in RPGs. Let's take Cheria Barnes in Tales of Graces for example, she is described ans "cheerful and motherly", and yet, throughout the entire game she is cranky and possessive.