Gaming Most Hated Video Game Cliche

[GuyYouMetOnline]

My most-hated cliches are:


1: The female character inserted just so there can be a love story. I have no problem with female characters (although I do dislike the unrealistic proportions), but don't put one in just to make a love story. I almost never like love stories, but ones involving a female with no other purpose are the worst.

2: The 'I don't want to kill you' type of hero. These heros go around kicking ***, but as soon as a cut-scene comes around, they start whining about how they hate killing and never want to kill anyone. And if they do end up killing, say, the main bad guy, they start whining abut that, too.

3: The hero who sets out to kill the bad guy only because the bad guy's doing bad things. I hate it when characters risk their lives to help some far-away land that they've never heard of. Seriously, why would you do that? I prefer characters like Caim from [i]Drakengard[/i]. He's not fighting the Empire because he wants to save some land he's never heard of. He's fighting the Empire because the Empire killed his parents and is trying to kill his sister.

[satan665]

I really really really hat it when characters cannot swim, you fall into a pit filled with water and instantly drown. That is so Super Mario Brothers old, and I think GTA has just finally allowed you to swim in the game.

I also really think its dumb when you get items from monsters and they make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Why was the L6 attack squirrel carrying a bag of gold anyhow? Birds have potions, all kinds of weird stuff. Only a few games come up with clever ways to avoid this cliche, like Ratchet and Clank has the enemies drop bolts, which can make sense 90% of the time in that game.

[Erika]

[quote name='satan665']I also really think its dumb when you get items from monsters and they make absolutely no sense whatsoever.[/quote]

[size=1][color=royalblue]Ah. Simply put, I was merely referring to this statement. ^_~

[b][u]EDIT[/u]: Oh, dammitalltohell--instead of starting a new post I spaced out and edited over my old one. :( This sucks big time. I wish I knew how to change it back. >_<;;[/b] (Sorry!)

I've also noticed way, way too much of what Sephiroth stated lol. I think it depends on how deep it can get though, so it doesn't end up being predictable like Lunar: SSSC. :rolleyes:

I like it when a love story develops. I don't like it when a key female character's included solely to get kidnapped and/or what Seph said, just for the love story. (I seems to hold true sometimes when the female's the main character instead.)[/color][/size]

[satan665]

[QUOTE=Dark Serena][size=1][color=royalblue]Oh wow, I hear ya--one of the most annoying cliches about video games is that they defy logic and and are never humanly realistic. :rolleyes:

Y'know, logic takes the fun out of video games, unless the deisgner WANTS it to be realistic.[/color][/size][/QUOTE]


Are you serious? Think before you speak (type). Games are fantasy and do not have to be logical, and I never implied that they should be. That being said, good games use clever ideas to create a believable world surrounding you character whether its wacky like Spyro the dragon or realistic like Metal Gear. In Final Fantasy VIII they did away with the weird system of monsters all carrying a unified currency by having Squall actually get paid periodically. Things like that sometimes work better than others, but I think that creativity in designing a game world makes it more fun more times than not. RPG's get lazy and fall into the formula that killing a monster gives you X number of experience points and X number of "gold". I think they just do it because its easy and then don't have to come up with anything new.

I think a cool addition to a RPG would be gaining experience based on how you defeat a monster. For example if there's a monster with good armor, you could just beat away at it with small hits until it dies, or use magic (say exp times 2), or use some trick to remove the armor (exp times 3).

Have higher expectations, and reward creators who make clever games and hopefully we will see more of them.

[Chaos]

James, you're so totally wrong about FFVIII! Rinoa was a WHORE! And Squall was GOD! I mean, come on, how can you deny the awesomeness of; "....................." HUH?![/sarcasm]

Honestly, that game made me mad. Okay, Squall is on his badboy loner kick, fine. Let him be if he so chooses. BUT! Don't change him the second a piece of *** walks on the screen. If you're going to stress a character's supposed badassness, then for the love of God, don't make him reform to someone totally different.

Rinoa did piss me off, though. It's like everyone's getting stomped by these horrid monsters and she calls her damn [i]dog[/i] in to fight. At least summon a damn GF or something.

So yeah. Conflicting personality traits suck, mostly. I'd say the "I'll change my ways for you" love stories are my biggest pet peeves. But not all love stories. Take Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. The Prince and Farah slowly develop a relationship after harsh combat and being the only two [non-evil] humans within miles and miles, with only each other for support. Both dig each other, and they are both royalty. But when the moment of truth passes by, the Prince freezes, suspecting foul play. Big mistake. They forgive and forget, and have sechs in a pool that magically was untouched even though the entire foundation of the castle was corroding away. And then he cries for her at the end. Aww. How sweet.

Now that is some good interaction. They foster a bond through trials and tribulations, only to be almost shattered at the end.

Warrior Within, however, irked me. Kaileena was such a hack for what she did. *****.

Anyway, other than that, my most hated video game cliche is either pushing crates and boxes [though playing as one rawks. GO MGS!], or collecting coins, only to lose them when you get hit by an enemy. Since when does money affect your physical well-being? Ah, since forever, but I mean literally. It's stupid. It's like Sonic and his rings. "I can run so many times faster than you but if you touch me I will lose some rings and I will be sad ='("

God, can't they all JUST DIE!?

No, but eh. Who cares, right? Games are games because they need some sort of variety...but it's not much variety when everyone has the same platforming style, huh?

[JCBaggee]

[color=darkred][size=1][font=verdana]Squall was not a God, but he wasn't an whiny teenager either. He was a stunted loner who'd been treated fairly bad in what little of his youth he can remember. I loved that. I can relate to it.

On to the cliche' thing.

1) [b]16 year old super kid saves the world!![/b]

Why are all my heroes in video games 16 years old? Because its a marketing thing. They feel we will relate better to someone our age. I'm 20 years old, I don't see me using my Summon Monsters to conquer a demon lord anytime soon. Howzabout a Final Fantasy game that doesn't use teenagers. Auron was fantastic, and he was well into his 40s. More Aurons. Yes.

2) [b]Surprise! I knew you back then/We're really related!![/b]

I'm sick of people being related in the past somehow. Edea [spoiler]raised Squall, Rinoa, and the rest of the gang.[/spoiler] Zidane and Kuja [spoiler]are of the same race[/spoiler] and so on and so on. Not every hero needs to be related to the ultimate evil they're about to stop.

3) [b]Will You Collect The Overused Cliche Key?[/b]

Can we just stop running through the 30 floor mansion to find the Red Key needed to open the Door to proceed into the Garden so we can obtain the Super Secret Ultra Rare Ammo Clip? Honestly now. Its ok if we can do that on the side, but too many games require me to run through stuff I really don't want to go through again. Cut me some slack.

(The only exception to this rule is Castlevania. Its at least moderately fun to do so in a Castlevania title...well, usually is at least.)

4) [b]Bet ya didn't know....[/b]

Oh, look, the hero has latent super powers that weren't tapped until a tragedy triggered a memory lapse or he was in an extremely emotional situation. Can't everyone know they have super powers before they set out to save the planet?

5) [b]But its just so cute!![/b]

Finally, cute animals are starting to wear on me. And yes, I'm glaring at Moogles.

Ok. I think I'm done overly ranting. I think I may have went a bit far, but...oh well.

--Chris[/color][/size][/font]