Video game plot and universe clichés
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The following is a list of clichés or overused elements that appear in the plots or general universes of various video games.
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[edit] Multiple, similar worlds
This element arises in one of two different ways:
- It can arise from the existence of parallel universes/worlds/towns/buildings/castles/etc..
- It can arise from time travel, whenever the same location exists in two or more time periods.
Examples of the former include Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Chrono Cross, and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
Examples of the latter include Chrono Trigger, Tales of Phantasia, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
[edit] All characters speak the same language
In most games featuring aliens, the developers make the aliens speak perfect English (or the language the game is in), for the player of the game to understand what they are saying. This cliché is also used in many movies and television series.
Similarly, despite vast geographical, cultural, and possibly temporal differences, civilizations either speak perfect English, or claim to share a common language, which helpfully resembles English apart from some minor vocabulary added for flavor.
A prime example is the Halo series, in which Grunts, from the lower caste of The Covenant, speak perfect English. The Covenant Elites originally spoke digitally reversed and slowed English, but spoke perfect English in Halo 2. This was justified with the Master Chief having an "improved translator."
Exceptions to this rule include the Knights of the Old Republic games where the player character knows several languages. When aliens speak Huttese or other languages, they are translated in subtitles for the player (although the 'speech' is often a randomly repeated audio loop which does not correspond directly the subtitles). In the Breath of Fire series, the player needs to not only find an instrument but also learn the language via an object, and Final Fantasy X included a cypher-based language called "al Bhed" which could be learnt throughout the game by finding books. The original Final Fantasy had a race of beings that spoke a different language. Tomba! required the character to learn dwarfish by jumping on them. The prologue to Starfox Adventures involves an alien race that contains their own language. Slippy later creates an automatic voice translator to help Fox better understand them. In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, one cutscene has a character compliment the protagonist on his Russian, informing the player that some or all of the game's dialogue has been transparently translated (a la The Hunt for Red October); when a certain Russian character later speaks English, he does so with a Russian accent.
[edit] Sequels, midquels, and prequels
In most roleplaying game series, sequels have little to nothing to do with the previous entry. This is often because they either take place a long period of time after the previous game (Usually 5 - 1,000 years), on a different continent or maybe even in a different universe/planet/world, as in the Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy series. Often, the story is built to fit around the gameplay, so pre-existing geography in earlier games is completely disregarded in future installments (Zelda is famous for this, with one version of Hyrule looking nothing like the next). Sometimes a game may take place before a game in the series explaining how something came to be, like Tales of Symphonia. Often these expand the storyline behind the series or create further confusion as to what order the games really take place. Prequels and sequels having nothing to do with each other have created much confusion, most of them being in the Mega Man and The Legend of Zelda series. The storylines of Mega Man and The Legend of Zelda have been ravaged by plot holes, creating confusion and controversy over when the games take place and which have even created new story arcs in the timeline, many of them created by fans trying to resolve the continuity problems (see fanon). Some sequels may only have spells, abilities, recurring characters or references in common with the previous game.
Some series simply have very ambiguous timelines, with virtually nonexistent continuity, and containing few or no hints given as to when the games take place in relation to each other; the Mario series is a good example. Some series, like the Legend of Zelda series, do follow a certain timeline, but the order in which the games take place is often wildly different from the release order, and often has little, if any, rhyme or reason to it; as previously mentioned, the timeline is a tangled mess, with plotholes all over it. Therefore, this type is almost as confusing as the ambiguous timelines.
Others tend to have the games occur in roughly the same order that they were produced, like the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the Star Fox series or the Tomb Raider series (before Tomb Raider: Legend).
Games where the storylines are direct continuations of each other are very rare and the series tend to be very short. Common examples of these are Golden Sun, Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, Megaman Battle Network, .hack or Half Life.
Games in which the sequels have little to nothing to do with the original include The Legend of Zelda, where the games all take place in the same world but hundreds of years apart , Namco's Tales series, and the most famous Final Fantasy, in which each game is totally unrelated to the others and takes place in a different world with different characters with the exception of Final Fantasy X-2 and an unimportant connection between the worlds of Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy X and X-2.
In some RPGs where the story is continued, the sequel starts off with a new character in a new location. Throughout the rest of the game, the player learns the connection to the previous game(s) in the series. (Such as Chrono Cross.)
[edit] Multiple and Non-canonical endings
Multiple endings in a game have often increased replay value of games, with the ability to go back and play the game for a new (though not always better) ending. There are usually a majority of factors that decide the ending of a game, including stats/dialogue choices in an RPG (Star Ocean), moral decisions (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or Jade Empire), a series of tests or trials to decide the ending (Kingdom Hearts II), completion time and/or ratio (Metroid series), the method used to defeat the final boss (Chrono Cross and Deep Labyrinth), or simply one factor (the torture test in Metal Gear Solid or the Flanoir balcony scene in Tales of Symphonia).
The use of multiple endings, however, can lead to one of the biggest problems in gaming. While multiple endings allow for more openness and higher replay value, many times it can lead to confused endings and supposed "non-canonical endings." More than one of the endings may provide a plausible conclusion to the story, which often leads to fan debate over the "true" ending of a game. Other games may have the true, or "Good" ending, and a "Bad" ending, in which the hero ultimately fails, or loses someone close to them. In Shadow Hearts, the "Bad" ending turns out to be the real ending that the sequel continues from, and in Astro Boy: Omega Factor, the player can only get the "Bad" ending, then gets the ability to skip back and forth through each stage, and play them until they can change the situation enough to get the true "Good" ending. In some games, the sequel will allude to events happening across multiple endings, even though the events may have been exclusive to one ending.
An example of this is Resident Evil 1 and 2. In the original version of Resident Evil, there were four possible endings to the game. However, each possible outcome had different people dying, as well as events changing. By playing Chris Redfield, there is a possibility of rescuing Jill Valentine and Rebecca Chambers. However if the player is Jill, there is a possibility of rescuing Chris Redfield and Barry Burton. This even further mixed up by allowing the player to rescue only one, or neither of their supporting characters with the inclusion of a GameCube remake, and a director's cut. This raises the question of continuity, since no matter what, all of the characters are still alive in the sequels.
In Resident Evil 2, there are two possible endings. First players play through as Leon Scott Kennedy, then Claire Redfield in the second game. The opposite is possible as well, playing Claire first, then Leon. An analysis of the plot would support that playing Claire in the first half and Leon in the second would support the best ending, because Ada Wong, Leon's sidekick during the game, only survives in Leon's B story (Ada would later reappear in Resident Evil 4). However, in Hunk's special mission, an extra side mission to play in the game, shows Hunk retrieving the vial of virus thrown by Leon, something that only happens in Leon's A game. This has led to much debate over which ending is the canonical one, or whether a mix of the two stories must be taken into account.
Many other series have had similar problems. Silent Hill contained a non-canonical ending involving UFOs. However, a newer ending in Silent Hill 3 suggests that it may be the real ending.
Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid series was hit when the non-canonical Snake's Revenge was sent to America instead of the real Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Resident Evil has also had several spin-offs, including the Resident Evil: Gun Survivor series.
A non-canonical ending in Halo: Combat Evolved, upon the player completing "Legendary" mode (the hardest difficulty), features Sergeant Johnson hugging a Covenant Elite as the Pillar of Autumn explodes in the background, presumably because they both realize they are going to die. This raised questions about how he escaped Halo to appear in Halo 2, later explained away by a regenerative disease.
- Seen in: Metal Gear Solid, Indigo Prophecy, the Silent Hill series, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, Shadow the Hedgehog, Halo: Combat Evolved, Red Faction 2, Star Fox Command, Chrono series (Trigger and Cross)
[edit] Boxed off worlds and levels
Many games, especially earlier ones, feature boxed off worlds and linear levels that seem to serve no purpose but to further the player in his quest or goal. Many games will feature a city level that may feature jumbled architecture and terrible infrastructure. Roads will often lead to nowhere, and many times would be completely inaccessible to cars had they been present. For FPS's, these levels will often be boxed in areas, and despite being presented as an urban area, may have only one exit and one entrance. In areas are open to entirely explore, they may lack necessary institutional buildings such as police stations, stores, or schools.
In indoor levels, hallways can be dull gray areas with no way in or out besides where the player has entered and exited. In facilities such as the one found in Half-Life, despite real life buildings requiring multiple exits as a fire safety precaution, buildings may only have one, tiny, out of the way connection between different branches of the facility. Despite being a public building, many doors and area are also be locked simply to restrict the movement of the player. Presented living spaces may also be lacking necessary elements such as bathrooms, kitchens, and beds (prominent in various role-playing games). The practicality of both indoor and outdoor areas are compromised when players are forced to perform different acrobatic stunts and time-consuming puzzles just to access simple areas, which brings up the question of how a normal or even handicapped person would be able to access that area if the situation ever came up.
In military and war games, areas that the battle take place on are restricted to an often very well-defined shape, such as a square, circle, or diamond. Despite the fact that land outside the map is devoid of obstacles, players may not access or build outside of it, even if the player resides at the edge of the map. Many FPS multiplayer games feature boxed in levels that seem to serve no strategic or practical purpose other than to kill each other in (Halo series) This is parodied in the machinima Red vs. Blue.
[edit] Arbitrary Barriers
One of the most notable clichés in video games, in order to prevent characters from going out of the area of play arbitrary barriers are called into play to help with such a task. The most of arbitrary of these would be the “invisible wall” trick, where players are completely stopped from leaving the area through nothing but an invisible force that keeps the player back. Terrain is often called into play in order to make barriers seem more believable. Common terrain barriers are often oceans, cliffs, and dense forests. However, trying to get around these barriers is out of the question. Even if the character has the means to do so, cliffs or mountains cannot be scaled, oceans cannot be bypassed, and main characters can never go through, crush or destroy trees or bushes no matter how abysmally small those trees or bushes are. Occasionally, a locked door may prevent the character from moving on, however no matter how much the character tries the door cannot be bypasses by sheer brute force, even if the door is made out of wood. Every so often the character itself will prevent the player from leaving the area of performing a certain action. A dialogue box on the screen will appear, with the character talking to the player saying “I shouldn’t go back without rescuing my friend”, or “I shouldn’t go outside, it’s too dangerous” (the reason why the player can’t leave the mansion through the front door in Resident Evil). Alternatively, it may be a simpler message, like "This door will not open" or "This door is locked", as seen in the Medal of Honour series and other FPS games. A more realistic approach taken by some games is to have the insurmountable door make a noise indicating that it is locked (ie, a rattling door knob sound effect).
Many modern games avoid this rule by allowing players to leave, but killing or otherwise deterring them before they can reach the limits of the virtual world. This is often used in sandbox games to maintain the player's illusion of complete freedom, particularly games that offer the means to bypass any physical obstacle (e.g. aircraft to fly over mountains, swimming to escape an island). In Star Wars: Battlefront and Star Wars: Battlefront 2, players leaving the battle area are considered deserters and are "shot"; they drop dead for no visible reason. In Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, entering a "restricted area" (including the edges of the game world) results in aircraft fatally bombing the player. Both series use audio and visual warnings beforehand. In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the player may fly or swim away from the island, but makes no further progress beyond a certain distance. He is at times barred from moving from one part of the state to another due to collapsed (and closed) bridges. If the player moves around those barriers, he will be immediately assigned a four-star wanted level, which cannot go away at all until he returns to the area he should be in (once there, the stars may be removed normally). Shadow of the Colossus uses a hybrid system, with escape prevented by means of mountains or cliffs for land, waves for water, and wind for the doorway used to enter the game world. In Far Cry, a chopper appears and fires at you. In these last cases, the only thing to do is go back.
In The Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker, Link cannot leave the island in the intro sequence because he lacks the stamina to do so. He drowns long before he can even see the next island.
In Family Guy: The Video Game, a mime makes an invisible wall to prevent movement outside the city level.
[edit] Overuse of new technology and visual effects
Whenever a new visual effect - such as colored lighting, normal mapping, particle effects, or most recently HDR bloom - is developed, there is a tendency for developers to over-use them in games. When colored lighting was introduced, this resulted in games that looked like nightclubs, even in fantasy settings. Occasionally this also occurs with gameplay devices. Other overused effects and gameplay devices include: Cel shading, telekinesis (both in 2003-4), stealth sections (around the time the Metal Gear Solid series became popular) and "near future" story settings (Battlefield 2).
[edit] See also
- Video game item clichés
- Video game events and occurrences
- Video game settings
- Role-playing game clichés
