Poll: What RPG plot twists need to die? *possible spoilers in topic*

[Danzaivar]

Infinite Undiscovery started strong story-wise (You look like the hero, first half of the game is being a side-character to the main hero kicking ass) but it inevitably turns to the 'You ARE the chosen one after all' school of thought of every major game.

Fate and Amnesia are SO annoying.

 

[meatloaf231]

Amnesia is the most common, and it's the most annoying. Figure out how to tell a story without having someone have flashbacks every five minutes.

 

[the protaginist]

One that really suprised me was when

Spoiler: FF: Crisis Core spoiler

Angeal betrayed you to go along with Genesis. I Haven'y played FF:7,so maybe it's hinted there, but it REALLY shocked me. A good use of the Plot twist.

Oh, as for bad, the entire plot of Fable 2. And Oblivion. The Dark Brotherhood story was more interesting than the plot in Oblivion.

 

[SquirrelPants]

Dreams are my pick from the list. Amnesia is a fine plot device, if overused, especially since it creates a sense of mystery. I was never a fan of "all a dream" scenarios as most of the time they are just real but then it turns out it means nothing. A decent dream sequence needs to be freaking electric! Lets see birds replaced with flying hands! Virtual worlds can work in situations like Assassin's Creed so I'll let it slide.

But Assassin's Creed blatantly TOLD you it was happening, they weren't trying to make it become a plot twist later on.
EDIT: Oops, forgot to add "And that's why it worked so well in Assassin's Creed."

As for the one that needs to die, I'm still thinking on it.

 

[alloneword]

this should cover just about everything

http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

 

[SquirrelPants]

Also: "Haha! I turned into your shadow and followed you around until I could grab whatever you took from me! Now you must fight me again, only three times as powerful!"
Fighting the same boss more than once pisses me off. It just seems like lazy programming/plot elements to me.

As for your list...They all need to go, I'm not sure which one I would say needs to go the most...

 

[Flying-Emu]

Bad guy is father.
So annoying.

Cliche cop-out is cliche.

 

[Nexus424]

I'm an stuck. All of these are so bad from the family fighting to the dreams and simulation. Surely these can't be the only way to draw a story. Also i'm sure a few of these can be flipped to make new styles.

 

[Rodger]

I'd like to nominate all of the above. I don't think many of these, when included in the plot, are actually thought out very well at all.

Lets start with Amnesia. How can we make this interesting? Well, take an 'amnesiac' that can only remember a few years back. Lets say they're 21 and can't remember anything from before their 18. Later in the story you discover they weren't actually suffering from amnesia, they just have NO MEMORIES AT ALL before that age. Maybe because they're actually some sort of artificial being. Or heck, maybe they're the only one whose memories are actually unaltered, and everyone else has false memories going before that point in time.

All just a dream? Sure, we'll go with that, but do it one better. For the first quarter of the game you were actually trapped in the dream by the REAL villain. Same could go for a game/virtual reality. Or make the point of the plot to actually venture into dreams/games/virtual realities.

Party member obviously going to betray you? It'll be all part of one master plan (one the player is let in on for a change while we're at it) wherein he/she is actually going to betray you, then betray the villain and rejoin you, and this was all planned between the 'traitor' and the main character all along. Or have the main character able to realize this guy is going to betray the party and somehow use that to set him up for a fall. Or have him be a really nice guy and have the least suspicious party member betray you.

Thats just a few ways to spice up these cliches a bit. There's really no idea, no matter how overused, that can't be turned into something more interesting. Thats my opinion. Because once you start taking an idea in a new direction, going back to the old setup becomes more acceptable. If you can trick people into thinking amnesia is never really amnesia in your games, it will actually be a shock when someone actually IS suffering from amnesia.

I guess my real opinion on the matter is that people should think about taking an old cliche in a new direction if they're going to use one at all. And if you successfully turn a cliche into randomly cyclical cliche then no matter how many times the amnesiac princess shows up, people will be forced to think about what is actually in store for them.

 

[dragonflygirl]

I hate the plot where you find out the villian or person that has died was/is your brother/sister/mother or father

 

[Dorian]

The virtual world thing by far. Assassin's Creed did it acceptably with the telling us in the very beginning, but everything else has just ruined it. 'Oh, hey! You just beat the game! Let's do this dick-move and make everything rendered useless!' Few things make me angrier than making an entire game a useless prequel.

 

[Pumpkin_Eater]

There's no plot twist that's so cliche it can't be done well, what needs to be done away with is mediocre writing (I realize that's easier said than done). If I had to pick one from the list I'd say the dream/simulation thing. It's the hardest one to do well and gets botched all the time.

 

[Khazoth]

Dear Gaming Industry.


We pay fifty god damn dollars on average for your fucking video games. QUIT LEAVING UNSATISFYING ENDINGS THAT SET UP FOR A SEQUEL YOU SCUM BAGS. No, I will /not/ buy the sequel if you withhold a real ending from me the first time.

 

[KaiRai]

When all the cool characters have to die because they turn evil or because the story writers hate you

/hatefestonInfinityWardforkillingGazandCaptainPrice

 

[Lord_Mordja]

Godamn amnesia if you set one foot in this fucking town-

Seriously the only game that handled it alright was The Witcher, and that's because it's used more as a gameplay mechanic rather than a real story element.

 

[sonicmaster1989]

Here. This contains every single one...ever. http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

You can thank me later.

PS: My favorite is #189

 

[Minimike3636]

It really sucks when the awesome side-characters die, especially since most of them don't even help develop the plot or are not necessary to finish the game. BUT THEY ARE STILL AWESOME!!


SPOILER!!!!!


I REALLY REALLY hated it when Eli died at the end of Half-Life 2 Episode 2. I saw him get his brain eaten or whatever those giant floating maggots did to him, and I was like WTF. Really? Eli, of all people, needed to die? It's all your fault, Kleiner.

 

[nikomas1]

Of the top of my head, why I hate the amnesia stuff... And the RPG genre and me are separated by a huge wall... well, Valkyria Chronicles does not count... nor does some GBA games... okay, I do play some. Still I hate that stupid plotline.

The Witcher
...
...
Help?

(Told you I'm not good with this genre)

 

[Remleiz]

i think the only 'virtual world' plot that actually worked was in digital devil saga, when part one was the 'sim world' and part 2 was the real world which was even more fucked up

 

[zacaron]

amnesia needs to be taken out of games... and then shot, thrown into a river and burned to death.