Game cliches you hate

[Hides His Eyes]

(Apologies if there is thread like this, if there is I couldn't find it).

Is it just me or does everyone have a list of pet-hate game cliches that developers need to stop doing, right now? I don't mean flaws, bugs or mistakes. I mean things that are there deliberately, presumably because someone thought they were good, but they're actually really bad and annoying.

Currently irking me: bosses who stop fighting to laugh, taunt, insult or threaten you. Especially in RPGs when they can afford to do this, and let you stab them or blow them up several times while they do, simply because they have a trillion hit points.

 

[electric_warrior]

Being separated from your partner and having to find them again

Being within sight of your goal when something goes horribly wrong and you go back to near the beginning

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Most JRPGs.

Yup, JRPGs are a cliche in their own right (not all of them of course).

Angsty kids? Check. Andrgynous males wielding big swords? Check. Female child-hood friend who secretly loves the protagonist? Check. Characters that look like they've just fell out of a wardrobe? Check. The power of good and righteousness conquering all? Check. Terribly predictable character development? Check. And much, much more...

That's not to say they're bad games, but damn, they are steeped in terrible Japanese soap drama.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Enforced stealth bits in otherwise action dominated games.

I like the option of sneaking around, seeing what's going on and picking off mooks one at a time. But I hate not having the option to simply kill everyone if I choose, or if I get caught sneaking. Especially since stealth is often rather awkwardly handled.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

But wait! You mean the people I've been fighting all this time have only been minor antagonists, and the real bad guy is my boss/mentor/father figure who has just been using me to do his dirty work? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!

-_-

 

[SEPECAT]

Time limits during fights. I understand why the developers would attach a time limit to a fight to make you get more involved with the situation, but when often it's when (for example) the place you're in is going to blow up. It makes you wonder, how do we always have a time limit that's nice and round, like 2 minutes, and how the hell do we know how long until the time limit runs out? It just seems weird that so many game characters have a magic watch just to tell them how long they have to finish their business and get out.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

But wait! You mean the people I've been fighting all this time have only been minor antagonists, and the real bad guy is my boss/mentor/father figure who has just been using me to do his dirty work? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!

-_-

Search your feelings NinjaDeathSlap, you know it to be true.

 

[Hides His Eyes]

I think enforced stealth sections are just a gameplay issue, not what I'd call a cliche. But I agree, they're annoying.

Rat-killing quests near the start of RPGs, I assume don't even need mentioning.

 

[Speakercone]

The guy you killed in the last game wasn't actually dead despite the whole 'splitting him in half with a vorpal sword' thing. So yeah, you have to kill that guy again because the publisher thought that a new villain would reduce sales.

 

[TheFinalFantasyWolf]

Oh no, my closest mentor is actually my enemy.

Oh no, despite our efforts we arrived too late, now our goal has been moved further along.

Oh no, whilist trying to save thousands of other people from my enemy, the only person I hold dear was kidnapped by him/her.

 

[Hides His Eyes]

The guy you killed in the last game wasn't actually dead despite the whole 'splitting him in half with a vorpal sword' thing. So yeah, you have to kill that guy again because the publisher thought that a new villain would reduce sales.

Yeah, and on a related note, I hate the annoyingly common phenomenon of ultimate weapon escalation. "I thought you said using the vorpal sword was the way to kill him forever." "Yes but he had stored his soul in a crystal, so now you have to kill him again with an anti-soul-crystal sword". "Ok, done." "Ooh... looks like he's managed to transfer his consciousness into a really big computer..." etc.

 

[badgersprite]

I'm getting really sick of the "this is the character who will only live as long as the tutorial" shtick. It's so predictable. More often than not, when I start up a game with any kind of coherent story arc, I'm able to go, "Well, this guy talking to me will be dead in five minutes. Not forming any attachment to him."

Those characters who stick around just long enough to die are becoming a real pain in the arse.

Also, if they don't die, they turn evil.

 

[Rylot]

I've gotten tired of the whole male space marine #4394, who's usually bald, be muscled, and dripping with machismo. I strictly play FemSheps just to try and get away from that.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Huge enemies that dash at you and must be defeated by sidestepping their charges so they run into walls.

Extremely obvious "secret" antagonists that somehow skirt the protagonists/party common sense. (Seymour Guado.)

Speaking of Seymour; Villains that keep coming back after you keep fucking killing them.

 

[AlternatePFG]

I'm getting really sick of the "this is the character who will only live as long as the tutorial" shtick. It's so predictable. More often than not, when I start up a game with any kind of coherent story arc, I'm able to go, "Well, this guy talking to me will be dead in five minutes. Not forming any attachment to him."

Those characters who stick around just long enough to die are becoming a real pain in the arse.

This has happened in every BioWare game ever made, no exception. It gets incredibly annoying and predictable.

I personally hate the "Your hometown was burned down/attacked/sucked into another dimension cliche". It's just an excuse so you can't return to the beginning of the game later on.

 

[Richardplex]

Time limits during fights. I understand why the developers would attach a time limit to a fight to make you get more involved with the situation, but when often it's when (for example) the place you're in is going to blow up. It makes you wonder, how do we always have a time limit that's nice and round, like 2 minutes, and how the hell do we know how long until the time limit runs out? It just seems weird that so many game characters have a magic watch just to tell them how long they have to finish their business and get out.

I think only portal and portal 2 did this well, can't think of another.

The arbitrary ways the game stops you moving forward. A trail of ants is crossing the path, you cannot pass! Though on the flipside, it adds to the hilarity of the Mother series.

Huge enemies that dash at you and must be defeated by sidestepping their charges so they run into walls.

Extremely obvious "secret" antagonists that somehow skirt the protagonists/party common sense. (Seymour Guado.)

Speaking of Seymour; Villains that keep coming back after you keep fucking killing them.

Here here! Bastard stopped my playthrough of FFX after killing him twice. I mean, common, I won best out of 3.

 

[teh_Canape]

Speaking of Seymour; Villains that keep coming back after you keep fucking killing them.

Spoiler

problem?

 

[GrimSheeper]

Oh there's many. I would first of all say lockpicking minigames or the entire concept of locked doors as a whole. I think every RPG player wished for the ability to just cast one of the many armageddon-level spells of destruction on this freaking flimsy wood door that will only open after I've decapitated the Lich King of Morzul'Ra using the sacred Eagle's Talon battleaxe or something. Just kick the damn thing in. Same with scripted rockfalls to separate the party. You'd think you could at least carefully move the rocks to make a passage. Blowing that up might be detrimental to the corridor you're in, but it's still stupid to have a few boulders in the way and everyone immediately assumes there is a way around. What if there wasn't a convenient side passage that opened just now? What if that corridor was really the only way and now it's blocked, in game characters? Put your back into it, you lazy looters!

Moving on from that, I think everyone dislikes escort quests with a shoddy subject of protection that stands perfectly still while demon goat zombies from space gnaw their eyebrows off, waiting until you kill every last one of them and then run straight into the next section of enemies. Why not put the person to be protected into a safe spot, move forward a little, have him or her follow you again and repeat?

And what's up with these hilarious captchas? "Hard Cheese"...I pass.

 

[surg3n]

* Loosing all your weapons and having to fight with some shitty silenced pistol.
* Funnel designs, where you go from enclosed into an open area, ohh, wonder if there'll be enemies to shoot...
* Enemies running by in the distance.
* Enemies shadows running by in the distance.
* Retarded NPC's that have to be escorted somewhere.
* Retarded NPC's that have to be defended while they do something.
* Holding an area for a set amount of time while various waves of enemies attack... Yawfuckinghawn.
* Patrols that act as sniper fodder and fail to notice their friends being sniped.
* Enemies that refuse to fear me, no matter how efficiently I dispose of them.