Role-playing game clichés

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Role-playing game clichés are overly used plot elements, enemies, situations, or characters that are present in console role-playing games and computer role-playing games.

[edit] Various RPG clichés

Cloud Strife has an outrageous hairstyle, and an even more outrageous sword.

For a more complete list, see here: [1].

• The players can carry a near unlimited amount of money, even gold, despite its weight. Usually the number caps at 999, 255, or some cases, 65535. It is 999999 in the Pokémon games, although the worth of 1 Pokémon Dollar is absymal. A somewhat related storyline cliché is an NPC with an item the player needs will ask for 1 more than the max amount of money that can be carried. Instead the party has to complete some task to gain this item. ^[1]
• A character will hardly ever have both parents still alive. If there's only one parent, they will usually be the opposite gender of their child. Otherwise, the character is an orphan. (Protagonist in Pokémon series games) ^[1]
• A male protagonist will often have a very attractive female childhood friend. In some cases, this male protagonist will also have another childhood friend of the same gender, usually creating a love triangle that is minorly incorporated into the plot.
• The places the heroes visit are littered with tombs and grave sites filled with ancient magical loot which, apparently (although implausibly) nobody in the game's universe had thought to steal in the centuries before.
• Citizens of any given town tend to stand in one spot or patrol a particular area at all hours of the day for their entire lives.
• Additionally, if it is day when the player characters enter a village, it is always day regardless of how much time passes while they are there, and on any subsequent visits. The same is true if it is night, sunny, raining, etc.
• Ancient ruins, no matter how close to civilization, are always untouched and up to the protagonists to explore, even when there's no obvious danger and those who sent the protagonist on this quest could have done it years ago.
• If any female character, in a burst of anger or enthusiasm, decides to go off and accomplish something on her own without the hero, she will be captured and have to be rescued.
• No matter how many times you attempt (and lose) a contest of skill, your opponent will always be willing to accept your challenge and will be astonished when you finally win.
• The more outrageous his hairstyle, the more important a male character is to the story. Thus, the hero often has a hairstyle considered "cool." Cloud Strife is an example of this.
• If the hero comes from a rich and powerful family, it will have fallen on hard times and be broke and destitute by the time the game actually starts.
• No matter what their original objectives were, the party always ends up saving the world.
• The protagonist is usually mute or has few lines other than what the player chooses in a dialogue. See silent protagonist.
• You can enter a person's home and take their possessions, and they will never complain (except in a humorous way) or seek reparations. However, some games punish theft or prevent items from being taken.
• Items are hidden in most unusual places (in clocks, for example).
• Treasure chests can be found anywhere, whether it be in someone's house, in a monster-ridden dungeon, or on the side of the road. Nobody cares when you take what's inside. This is a strange phenomenon, as there seems to be no visible reason for there to be treasure chests everywhere except to say "please take this item," even though nobody ever thought of this before you.
• Doors and chests are always locked and you need to go on a quest or make a huge effort to fetch these keys while you simply could have crushed that door or chest with your weaponry.
• RPGs usually have blue dialogue screens. If the game does not come with a blue dialog screen by default, there is usually an option to change the color screen of the dialog screen to the defacto blue scheme.
• Although you are the chosen one and the only one that can save this world, you still have to pay for the weapons in the armory of that town which you can't afford at that time.
• Many Maps appear similar to the map of our Earth.
• Notoriously, areas based on elements always have a counterpart. (i.e. A fire area will be followed with an ice area)
• In battles, you often see a yield with the sword hit that enemy and still get that message "missed."
• An item or piece of equipment encountered that cannot be obtained at the moment (such as a locked treasure chest) will always become accessible later, and will contain something very important or powerful.
• When the player encounters two people in a position of power (e.g. a king and his minister), one of the two will invariably turn out to be an undercover antagonist.
• The main character will be forced to leave his home early in the game: either it is destroyed in the introduction, or very early in the game; or something happens to get the main character banished or sent away, often they will leave of their own will to "branch out" or carry out some sort of quest.
• The main character is usually male, in his teens, and has also had a very tragic past.
• In almost every RPG game, the main male and female usually develop a love throughout the story and express it towards the end.
• No matter who they are or how randomly they meet, at least two and probably more characters will have a secret back story that involves the villains, a long dead civilization, or the god and/or gods.
• The backstory of every single playable character will either connect with another playable character or villain at some point. Occasionally a character will have no backstory whatsoever.
• The main protagonist will be plagued with complete memory loss at the beginning of the game and will gradually recover bits and pieces of his or her memory.
• Later enemies will always include more powerful versions of earlier enemies (which are identical apart from a different color scheme).
• Bosses always have much more HP than the character should at that point in the game, and often more than the characters ever will.
• The final dungeon usually features several sub-bosses as well as the final boss or bosses.
• Female characters are more often magic users, while physical attackers are more often male.
• The current group of heroes has usually been preceded by one or more groups that somehow failed to bring peace to the world, or who only brought temporary peace. Also, at least one character in your party has some connection to a member of that party.
• There is usually at least one boss that one character, most often the hero, must fight alone, even if the hero has his companions with him.
• There is usually at least one character from the hero's past waiting for him, usually an antagonist.
• The best weapon/magic spell is usually found as a result of a side-quest.
• Almost every RPG will take names from mythological people, places, things and/or events.
• When casting a magic spell, heroes must spend a moment striking poses and pulling power before anything manifests itself. Enemies have no need to do this, with the exception of those characters who either have or will change sides at some point in the game.
• The majority of RPG games, as well as many other games, use the four Greek Classical Elements, with the possibility of an extra "spiritual" or "universal" element to counterpart Aether. Usually, there are dungeons or levels that correspond to the elements, also likely ventured through to obtained an object aligned with the respected element.
• If they use a larger list of elements, it usually includes Poison, Ice, Thunder, Holy, Dark, Light, Soul/Spirit, Death, Chaos, or any variation of each included many others.
• Poison is always represented by a pale green color. In some cases, the afflicted hero will instantly have his entire body (including armor) turn green.
• In MMORPGs set in a pseudo-Medieval time, Alchemy is commonly used to label the system of medical or supplemental creation. (World of Warcraft is one of the more popular examples of games using this.)
• Zombies or characters in Zombie-state are harmed by beneficial/curative attacks, which means there will be only a single zombie boss, if any, in the game, seeing as how they can be beaten by a single Life spell. This may originate from D&D, where the undead, powered by negative energy, will be harmed by positive energy.
• Typically there is a joint system of a well-balanced Main Character, a Mage, a Fighter, a Thief, a Healer, and a Long Range fighter, among others. These classes usually have counterparts in MMORPGs.
• There are statuses similar to Time, Death, Petrify, Freeze, Silence, and Stun. However, unless you have a weapon that causes one of these effects, you'll never use them yourself. Or, by the time you have the ability to use these statuses against an enemy, they'll be of very limited use. Most enemies at that point will be immune to them (or be highly resistant as to have the spell miss most of the time or have a very short duration) save for an otherwise strong enemy that will be heavily disadvantaged under that certain status effect. Usually this enemy will be a boss, in this case having the ability to inflict the status effect is crucial to its defeat. However, your entire party will be highly susceptible to these harmful effects even at maximum level/stats. There will usually be an item that nullifies any of these spells, but this item is almost always unique (and thus cannot be worn/used by more than one party member).
• The plot usually begins at the hero's house as he wakes up, or he is sent out on an errand and ends up stumbling upon the plot. That plot usually also involves the hero's village catching on fire.
• There will always be one character who uses a sword (size varies from game to game), one who uses a staff, one who uses either a ranged weapon, one who uses a dagger or other stabbing weapon, and one who uses a weapon meant to be thrown and, somehow, return to the user (if this is meant to bounce off the enemy to return, it will usually indicate a miss by the user throwing it straight down in a way that it could never strike the target). Conversely, there will be very few occasions of characters using spears, maces, flails or claws (but they'll still use their bare fists). There will also be at least one character who fights with a weapon that could never be used in real life, such as shields, cards, dice, megaphones, balls, giant keys, guitars, and a ball on a stick. Somehow, every weapon shop will sell different versions of these very weapons, including the guy who fights with vambraces and would logically get their weapons from armour vendors.
• After a day of going through low level dungeons and fighting the enemy lackeys, your group of former farmers and school children will be more powerful than any friendly or enemy army. After a week, your character will be able to beat the entire council of enemy villains. After two weeks, you'll be able to beat the main villain and his entire fleet of futuristic tanks. And after a month, you'll be able to easily beat the 1,000 year old evil deity god/final boss and squeak through the hidden bosses. To add to this, any soldiers who join your party will have the same fighting strength you have, no matter what stage of the game you're on. However, in the sequel; whether it take place two weeks or two years after the game's conclusion; you'll be right back to square one.
• More recent RPGs feature lengthy sequences for spell and summon effects based around flashy visual effects. This has the detrimental effect of bogging down gameplay when it often takes excessive amounts of time to go through a small number of actions. Ironically enough, Final Fantasy VII practically spoofs this cliché before it even became one with the final boss using a nearly two minute long move that destroys most of the solar system, but doesn't kill the party in spite of the fact that the whole planet should be destroyed in the process (deals 93.75% of current HP in damage). He can also use it as many times as he wants, with all the planets and the sun mysteriously being restored between each casting.
• Entering an elevator will almost always lead to an epic battle.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Top 10 Gaming Cliches from 1UP.COM
• A Gamers' Manifesto
• The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés
• Picture collection of crates and barrels in video games
• Top 10 RPG Cliches from Askmen.com