Hated gaming cliches

[Flux]

Well, not that I care in this case, but the amount of time a game has been around has nothing to do with spoilers. Some people purposefully avoid looking up all the memes, jokes, videos, gifs, and whatever to avoid spoiling the game for themself. (Me for example.) The length of time it's been around has nothing to do with it. I buy games for older systems all the time, but that doesn't mean I've already googled all the plot information.

[Nagalfar]

We are talking about a game who has been around for over 6 years, and memes, jokes, videos and gifs involving Adachi are everywhere on the internet... How can that be considered a spoiler? O.o

I already know this game and all, that's just for the... principle?

If you hear about a game, even old and you want to play it, if you have the misfortune to see a spoiler without warning in some place who had nothing to do with this game originally you're not gonna be happy.

Sorry for that though, didn't mean to cause trouble.

[Felicity]

Persona also isn't exactly a mainstream hit, I dn't know ANYONE irl who's played it.

I guess I'd also have to say long introductions (KH2 comes to mind). It's one thing to teach someone the ropes. It's another to drag it out for sooo long. Persona 4 also offends in that regard, the first two hours have a total of like 20 minutes gameplay. The rest is just huge, huge chunks of admittedly good dialogue. Eventually you get tired of talking, you know?

[Peepeepoopoo]

Eventually you get tired of talking, you know?

This so much, let me play the game already.

[Tomas Elliot]

It's one thing to teach someone the ropes. It's another to drag it out for sooo long.

If you want to go there, Ar Tonelico 2: it is divided in 5 chapters, and the first two chapters are NOTHING BUT TUTORIALS. It gets VERY frustrating very fast... Fortunately, the remaining 3 chapters are awesome so they kinda make it worth it...

[Chevaleresse]

I absolutely LOATHE these two tropes:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OneWingedAngel

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BishonenLine

Why must every monster become more and more humanoid over time (points at most Digimon in their final form)? And why must cunning humans who manipulated the player throughout the game transform into hideous beasts before squaring off in the final battle? I like it when monsters stay monsters and humans stay humans!

The "One Winged Angel" one actually bugs me the most: in my long life of gamer I have never, AND I SAY NEVER, faced a human as a final boss. No matter how clever, deranged or badass the human villain is, you just never get to face him, or at least, not in human form. WHY? I mean take Persona 4: you, a Persona-wielding human, have been going around kicking eldricth abominations left and right, so that makes it obvious that a Persona-wielding human is stronger than whatever hideous monster can pop out the TV world... So it made PERFECT SENSE for Adachi, a Persona-wielding human, to be the (supposed) final boss in december... BUT NO! Ame-no-sagiri has to come out of nowhere and take over as the boss!

fable two's final boss was just a regular guy. It was also quite possibly the most disappointing final boss in any game ever.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Here comes Hukuna with probably a controversial one... possibly but I think some people will agree with me.

UNSKIPPABLE TUTORIALS.

Seriously... it is annoying. I cannot stress enough the skippable part because my lord do I hate them so much. Now, I understnad the point of tutorials, as they are important to some degree, though I am from the school of beleif that the palyer should be allowed to opt out of it if they wish not do to it for a lot of reasons.

These are not ranked in any order, this is just a list.

Reason 1: Some prefer figuring things out on their own. After all a lot of older games did do this to us by dropping us into the game world with little to no information. It was part of the game to learn it's controls and master them. Something was satisfying about finding new commands or things that you could do even if you weren't told by the game about it. An example, there is no tutorial in a game such as Crash Bandicoot 2. THe early levels serve as a sorta of tutorial to hone your skills for later on by being a place with less obstacles etc to kill you and the like. However, many things were hidden in the level some even in plain sight and this made players wonder how to get to things. As A result seeing these things made you want to try and get them or figure out how to do that. THis encouraged you to try and explore the buttons etc. Many other games, especially platformers, used the approach of teaching through Showing or hinting rather than jamming text down one's throat.

Reason Two: Hi game I want to replay and have been playing for years! I already have beaten you to completion many times, I don't need your silly forced tutorial anymore. As such being able to opt out would be a good solution, however you are rarely given this chance etc... Even RPGs tend to force you to as they put all the tutorial text before a choice to repeat that text... this is annoying to me as well. Why not have the characters ask you first if you need that and then go through it if they answer yes?

That is a purely mechanical thing I have gripes with and I will leave this lying here for now. I do have somethings that are storyline related but I will leave those for another time.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

Layers on layers on layers of "you need to get this item to continue, and to get this item you need to do this quest, which requires this other item that you also need to do a quest to get"

or

"you need this item to continue, and to get this item you have to collect all the pieces scattered around the area, and you'll need to do this about 100 times throughout the game".

1. The quests can be fun, but eventually I forget why I even needed the item in the first place and wonder why I'm even doing this.

2. Again, it's fine if it's just occasionally, but it gets tedious after the third or fourth time. In some games it feels like half the game is just going around looking for broken pieces of things to put back together. Someone should just make a Glue Simulator.

Edited June 15, 2015 by Ice Cream Sand Witch

[Rezilia]

Here comes Hukuna with probably a controversial one... possibly but I think some people will agree with me.

UNSKIPPABLE TUTORIALS.

Oh, definitely. I've actually heard people rant about being given a paper-based guide for a game but no tutorial in-game. Are you serious? You'd rather have to go through 20+ minutes of someone telling you how to MOVE FORWARD than get a guide showing you legitimate tips and tricks?

I HATE tutorials. There is a bunch of text in a pamphlet, on one page of a website, WHATEVER to tell you how to press buttons. You don't need to waste anyone's time telling them basic sh*t they could figure out if they just push the few available buttons or look at the hotkey settings. Seriously.

--

As for the no humanoid final bosses thing, I've seen plenty of those. I think a purely HUMAN end boss is kind of ridiculous, though. Oh, you want to fight an end boss that can be killed by a bullet between the eyes? Noob. I, personally, would want to turn into a demon-dragon-goddess when faced against plot armor, plot weapons, plot magic, plot holes, etc. If I had to face those as a normal human, I wouldn't last a second.

Edited June 15, 2015 by Rezilia

[AuthorReborn]

INCONVENIENT BARRICADES

Pokemon, as well as many other franchises such as Fire Emblem, are notorious for this cliche. What is it exactly? Well you know how there's a really cool item right over there that you can use to become more powerful? Yeah, you can't get to it because of the little kid learnign to tie his shoe in the middle of the road. Yes, he takes up the entire road. Yes, he is five. Yes, when you obtain another element "crucial" to the plot, he will have tied his shoes and be standing by the side of the road so you can finally pass. What's the point of being the hero of an RPG if you can't even politely ask a little kid to let you passed so you can, oh, I don't know, save the universe from unending darkness? But na, that kid really just needs to tied his shoe. Or an old man i laying in the street until he gets his coffee. Or you can't advance towards that castle until you take a different one, thus allowing another event to take place and a new enemy force to spawn.

More examples here because I'm lazy and/or tired:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InsurmountableWaistHeightFence

[Myst]

Yea, the unskippable tutorial thing is annoying.

No matter how many games I play with them, I cant get used to it. Especially the longer ones which last well over and hour. By that time, I just lost all my excitement for the game.

[Felicity]

unskippable tutorials get tempered for me when they're weaved into actual story. I complained about it earlier but KH2s start, whilst insanely long, does quite a good job of at least easing you into the gameplay. If only cuz you only get to dip a toe at a time into the pool.

[Rezilia]

KH2's tutorial was so natch. I loved it. *0*

[FraRPetO]

Random enemy drop rates of items you need for certain things. Like for trophies. I hate grinding.

[Rezilia]

Random enemy drop rates of items you need for certain things. Like for trophies. I hate grinding.

*inb4 .01% chance of Unicorn Horn drop from unicorn*

[Flux]

I just remembered the other thing I HATE in a game -- Invisible walls.

I absolutely hate hate hate when it looks as if you could walk right over there, but you can't for no apparent reason other than an invisible wall. Also tied into this are unclimbable hills (which usually aren't even steep -- See Dark Souls and almost any other RPG for this hill thing.) and other things that should be passable. (Like a low fence that you could easily step over). I realize that the developers only have so much data to work with in a game, but I hate it when they show me that nice beautiful area that I can't explore because they want me to stay on this path. I guess I would just love for every game to be open world.

[Gaunt]

I just remembered the other thing I HATE in a game -- Invisible walls.

I absolutely hate hate hate when it looks as if you could walk right over there, but you can't for no apparent reason other than an invisible wall. Also tied into this are unclimbable hills (which usually aren't even steep -- See Dark Souls and almost any other RPG for this hill thing.) and other things that should be passable. (Like a low fence that you could easily step over). I realize that the developers only have so much data to work with in a game, but I hate it when they show me that nice beautiful area that I can't explore because they want me to stay on this path. I guess I would just love for every game to be open world.

But even open world games have "borders" that you can't pass i too don't like this but it's part of the "core limitations" of games

[Flux]

Not all do. I don't mind if the limitation is a cliff or an ocean or something. Just when it's something that you should obviously be able to pass, like a hill or a short fence. (Or the worst case, invisible walls.)

[Felicity]

i mean, some games are so big you don't find those walls without searching for them. I went exploring in the skyrim tundras loads but never did I reach the edge of the Arctic ocean

[Flux]

i mean, some games are so big you don't find those walls without searching for them. I went exploring in the skyrim tundras loads but never did I reach the edge of the Arctic ocean

I did. Guess that just shows how much exploration means to me in a game.

Though that was a wall I didn't mind as much. Still bothered me though.

[Rezilia]

I always scoff at things like that. Most RPGs with those walls fall victim to my l33t jumping skills. Seriously. TERA and ArcheAge are the worst about this - you're supposed to have these giant cliffs separating low level areas from high level ones yet jumping at just the right angles in just the right places will give you easy access to them.

I loved games back when doing things like this was rewarded, like in the original Spyro series. Ah, Insomniac Spyro~ <3

[Myst]

It takes me out of the experience. I can be exploring a giant grassy plain, then bam, invisible wall.

I guess less of a cliche, but, its a little distasteful to me when games reuse mobs, but of different colors everywhere. Like to where theres less variety. Even in areas where the fauna should be its own to that area do to the areas unique ecosystem.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

It takes me out of the experience. I can be exploring a giant grassy plain, then bam, invisible wall.

I guess less of a cliche, but, its a little distasteful to me when games reuse mobs, but of different colors everywhere. Like to where theres less variety. Even in areas where the fauna should be its own to that area do to the areas unique ecosystem.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UndergroundMonkey

It is on Tv Tropes so it is definitely done enough to be considered a trope. ((which by their nature are cliches))

Oh and uh... this

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoExperiencePointsForMedic

like in every freaking TRPG in existence. Because seriously... it makes one not even want to use Healing Units sometimes. THey feel impossible to level up and it is a nightmare.

[Rooreeloo]

Two Words: Escort Missions.

(especially ones where the person/thing/whatever being escorted is dumb/squishy/suicidal/all of the above)

[Rezilia]

Two Words: Escort Missions.

(especially ones where the person/thing/whatever being escorted is dumb/squishy/suicidal/all of the above)

Mabinogi's G9 Shadow Mission "Entrance of Noitar Arat" back when you had to solo it. Since it was scaled to your level, you had to fight 8 waves (or fifteen minutes) of enemies wherein each enemy had the same power level as yourself, except for the golems which were far more poewerful and covered a large area with high damage AoE attacks on everyone. If any of the 3 NPC leaders died, or any two guard NPCs under any leader died, the mission automatically failed. Since all of the NPCs were so weak they never dented any mob, you had to fight every mob while healing (note: most people didn't have the level of healing needed to heal NPCs in this properly) all NPCs.

Perfect video example: