But, I LIKE this Cliché!

[DracoSuave]

"Sad thing"? It's one of the few game series in existance with a consistant story

Yes, with the exception of the first one, every game after -consistantly- aborts the story just when it's supposed to get interesting and puts off the climax for another game.

Except Blood Omen 2, which was just bad.

Consistant story my arse.

 

[DracoSuave]

Humans being the kind, benevolent race...give me a break. We're capable of startling cruelty and selfishness, but we like to kid ourselves with the idea that we're wonderful and helpful towards all.

.. how many RPGs did you play yet?

I find this very hard to believe.

Plenty...granted, it needs to be an RPG where there are more intelligent, significant races than just humans, i.e. not Fable. What do you find hard to believe?

Usually the same games have a major villain and evil empire that are also human.

Dragon Age is surprisingly different in that its big bad IS NOT human in any way... altho there aren't very many -good- humans in that game either...

 

[Kavachi]

I find it rather weird but every single RPG in the world seems to have giant spiders in it. Also, the big final boss battle will have a cutscene that goes something like this:

YOU: It looks like this is the end
VILLAIN: *laughs* This has just begun! *Pulls a switch and a legion of henchman start hacking at you*

Oh right, and about that temple stuff, you are so right about that, but I don't like those temples and ruins. I'd rather have an adventure in the woods, or on a mountain or something than in another underground tomb.

 

[Tales of Golden Sun]

A cartoon I saw in my youth subverted the trap cliche`. Rather than guess where to stand and for how long to avoid the firey balls of impaling spear doom, they were able to locate the service passages the engineers used to perform routine maintenance of the death machine and simply walked around.

Haha, brilliant. This should be done in RPGs.

Would make an intereting twist.

The head engineer could be a mini-boss!

 

[Earthmonger]

You left out:
- Our town guards have no weapons, and our blacksmith was slain in a bar fight. Could you make us some, find a new smith, or secure us a cache of weapons?
- A clan of Yetis in the nearby mountains has been terrorizing the town.
- The wood nymphs in the surrounding forest have gone crazy, slaying travelers for no apparent reason.


And of course, the fact that your nemesis always escapes the first and second battle, to make a final stand elsewhere, but this time he transforms into some impossibly freakish demonoid bossmob.

 

[quantum mechanic]

I like how the villain almost always encounters you when you're too weak to do anything to him/her/it, but for some totally inexplicable reason decides not to just shoot/stab you in the face. Saren, I'm looking at you. Multiple opportunities for easy, straightforward PC murder, and all you can do is have odd conversations.

Also, the mentor that dies or turns evil is a fun cliche, although the BioWare connection is a little off because of David Anderson. The ambassador's annoying whining made up for the lack of betrayal, though.

 

[cainx10a]

"Enchantment!"

ENCHANTMENT!

Sandal could get a whole DLC just for himself. I mean, the man is Chuck Norris in disguise. Did you see how he was standing all by himself, bloodied and surrounded by darkspawn during the final hours of DA:O in that Fortress.

ENCHANTMENT!!!!!!

 

[ffs-dontcare]

Dark elves being evil.

Caucasian elves being forest-dwelling archery un-charismatic pansies.

Dwarves.

Fucking dwarves.

But then, I hate these cliches. Can't think of a cliche I actually like, but I guess it boils down to two categories:
- Cliches I hate.
- Cliches I don't mind.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Everquest had a bunch of these weird ones.

The Snake kicks you for 1 point of damage.

You search the body of the snake. You find two snake heads, one snake tail and 4 gold pieces.

But isn't this just an excuse to pull up TVTropes again?

 

[Flying Dagger]

No, you seem to have misheard me, I don't want to buy your inn, I would like to stay one fucking night in it.

Selling infinite arrows, one gold each.

DIY limb re-attachment in the form of a potion.

not all rpgs do it but how can an inn stay in business charging the equivilent of 500 arrows?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Speaking of Balders Gate

A great anti-cliche:

"Aw, look, it's a Kobold Dungeon. Ikkle 1/2HD critters...

Thunk Thunk Thunk Thunk Thunk.

MOTHER OF GOD, BREAK OUT THE FIREBALLS!"

 

[hittite]

Why is my character so willing to exchange the trusty sword that he probably received as a gift from his parents when he graduated from adventuring school and his well-worn suit of armor that fits him perfectly after all these years for some bigger-looking sword and thicker-looking armor that a random bandit leader was using before you stuck him full of arrows? Doesn't anything have sentimental value anymore?

In Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker you get a magic sword at the beginning that levels up and gets new bonuses when you do.

 

[hittite]

Spoiler

Just remembered this one. Yeah, I always wondered about this.

 

[bobisimo]

I remember the one in KOTOR, which pissed me off to no end because the entire quest was a dark side trap. There was literally no way to finish that quest without getting dark side points. I was playing as a light side character for my first playthrough and I had to waste multiple hours trying to finish it in EVERY. POSSIBLE. BLOODY. WAY. After I discovered it was a dark side trap, I had to revert back to a DAYS old savegame. That still pisses me off to this day.

Heh. You're right. I think there were a few situations in the game where you could incur small hits for the light/darkside, which kept you from "perfection". But the designers would tell you to suck it and then they'd tell you that sometimes life is about choosing the best of the available possibilities. Or something. Haha.

 

[Valiance]

Mages wearing dresses...i mean robes...

Had to link it.

Anyway, I think Fallout 1 did a good job with the time-limit thing. But that's the only game I can think of that did it alright. I mean, you could even do some sidequests to extend the amount of time you have.

 

[Calatar]

2. In mere minutes, you become so skilled at magic/combat that you can stand toe-to-toe with battle-hardened mercenaries, often owning them gloriously.

Or perhaps you or a comrade are battle-hardened war veterans yourself, yet you find that you increase in power DRAMATICALLY after fighting a few enemies because despite being war veterans you started out at level 1.

 

[JesterRaiin]

"Lookatyou. Though you lived 20-30 years and wasn't able to reach even 1st level of any profession, now, after only 2 weeks of adventuring you're 40th lev assasin-mage-cleric."

 

[Namewithheld]

I *love* heroic speeches. The speech that Alistair gave in Dragon Age...and the speech the Salarians (sp) gave in Mass Effect...

Bioware does epic speeches well.

 

[Aesir23]

Dark elves being evil.

That is one cliche I definitely love.