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What are the biggest RPG cliches?
Nintendo Power (issue 238) has an RPG blow-out of sorts. I’m not a role-player, but I chuckled after stumbling upon the magazine’s “RPG Checklist,” which includes: Spikey-haired protagonist Earnest/clueless female lead Amnesia a key plot point Events foretold by prophecy Random battles Orphaned party members Airship travel Underage hearoes Technology is evil For those who […]
Infendo·January 14, 2009
Nintendo Power (issue 238) has an RPG blow-out of sorts. I’m not a role-player, but I chuckled after stumbling upon the magazine’s “RPG Checklist,” which includes:
- Spikey-haired protagonist
- Earnest/clueless female lead
- Amnesia a key plot point
- Events foretold by prophecy
- Random battles
- Orphaned party members
- Airship travel
- Underage hearoes
- Technology is evil
For those who know, what are the biggest RPG cliches?
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Great subject! Lets see:
multiple worlds / universes
The main boss could easily kill you when you are weak, but he decides to let you get strong so you can kill him
strange friends / co-explorers
some kind of love story
a key weapon that you alone can find / use
An over-talkative main enemy (he always wants to make sure you understand why he is about to kill you)
Male lead will be oblivious to any females showing interest.
haha-love it.
don't forget the good guy who becomes a bad guy! (or whichever way have you)
or the bad guy who was actually not the head honcho! but you only find this when you defeat him!
Blake!? You're doing it wrong!! Nintendo Power knows Jack.
10. Cataclysm that can only be prevented by 4-6 Teenage or young heroes.
09. The main characters parents are dead.
08. A story about revenge that quickly shifts to saving the world.
07. Gaining mysterious magical powers by accident.
06. Being proclaimed the chosen one, passed down by legend.
05. Magic spells are never named normally.
04. After defeating random animals in the forest, you find 600 gold and a magic ring.
03. The shop owner is always the same person.
02. Oversize weaponry that the main character can use without breaking a sweat.
01. Losing that one character you invested so much time into because they either die, switch sides, or are the true bad guy.
Androgynous characters.
The hair. Oh god the hair!
That's a tough list to make. The vast majority of rpgs are massive cliches in themselves.
how about the main character's village getting destroyed? that fucking happens ALL THE TIME.
You forgot "religion is evil" I have yet to encounter a JRPG where a holy organization was actually siding with the main characters
Religion is evil is like only a few games.
HATE = RANDOM BATTLES
…I cannot say that enough.
The first thing I said when I saw the name of this article in my RSS reader is spiky hair lol (WOO FOR GUESSING NUMBER 1!!)
Random battles are slowly dying away now, especially on PS3/360, come to think of it, most 3d RPGs on any consoles I can think of has done away with random battles, even Final Fantasy XII and XIII have got rid of them. And actually, technology isn't evil in most Final Fantasy games, It's magic that is deemed as evil (in FF6), machines were made to compensate for the lack of magic after the war. FF7 had machinary but they weren't evil, only the company using it was evil and at the end of the day, none of that machiney is that bad anyway. FF8 had awesome tech but it wasn't evil, FFX had no 'evil' technology (yeah I know I'm generalising RPGs to just Final Fantasy games)… even Tales of Symphonia had the rhiards (sp?) and they were beyond cool, not evil in the slightest.
That's not meant to be a rant, just defending the RPGs originality (of which I know there is very little… ^_^)
airship travel lol
lol @ will
Slimes. Every freakin' RPG ever made has Slimes for enemies in some way, shape or form.
My other favorite is always the "princess who refuses to just sit on her throne and insists on accompanying the hero despite the fact that she'll have little to no real contribution in battle until late in the game when ONLY she can accomplish some particular task foretold in some abstract prophecy."
Dead or lost or missing parents has to be the biggest RPG cliché… Is there actually any RPG without that one element in the plot?
greatest topic ever.
lol spikey hair, i never really noticed most of these things, but now that i look back, i can't help but rofl-copter till there's no tomorrow
Characteristic Japanese RPG traits:
Random battles
Protagonist with some sort of antisocial disorder
Every character has some sort of ADHD
Random battles
Amnesia
Gender-indefinite, annoying, characters who were placed there for comic relief, but only succeed in forcing hundreds of thousands of players to turn off the voice acting.
Starting the story in your bed and waking up, going down the stairs to find a parent or sibling who will tell you what to do.
Most those cliche's however are straight up JRPG conventions I haven't seen any one of those ten cliche's in an Western RPG such as Fable, or Oblivion. But then again isn't every game a cliche on something at this point?
Anyone know what the next issue will be about? It gives a hint in the back, but I can't figure it out!
Um.
I guess I'll give this a shot…
1.We've agreed on the abnormal hairdos.
2.Annoying random battles.
3.Disposable party members.
4. Either no technology, or technology belongs to the villian.
5.There's always that one sword or something you need to kill the main villian.
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