Most Hated Game Clichés!
 

They're in every game; no matter how original or how innovative it is - clichés. Some of them might not be all that bad, but there are a good deal out there that I'm sure we could do without. So, what are your most hated game clichés, and which games do you think are the worst offenders?

My personal most hated cliché is probably one of the big ones for anyone who's ever played any Western developed RPG's, the Undead. I cannot stand the Undead in an action RPG. Whether that be in Baulder's Gate, Oblivion, or the game that made me think this whole thing up, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic.

There are just so many horrible problems that stem from battling reanimated corpses.
1) They have zero AI. Fighting them is always made more of a chore, just because they have one move, slapping. The furious girly smacks of the Undead are easily one of the most annoying attacks a foe can hurl at you. Not only is it completely emasculating, but it also looks incredibly stupid. They also never do anything accept run headlong into your weapon, which wouldn't be so awful if...

2) They weren't so f*cking impossible to kill! The Undead in games like Dead Rising or Resident Evil aren't so hard to handle. A couple well placed shots or a bowling ball to the head is enough to take one down. Total time: 1-10 seconds. However, get into an RPG and the Undead are usually damage sponges. You'll swipe away and swipe away, but somehow this squishy festering pile of half decayed flesh and organs will soak it all up! Top that with the fact that once they do go down, there's a good chance they'll get up for another round. Fighting hard to kill enemies isn't THAT bad, but when they take such a long time to kill, it's a complete bummer, a fact made even more tedious and frustrating when they also...

3) POISON YOU! If there's one thing I hate almost as much as the Undead, it's being poisoned; and when you mix the two together it pretty much ruins what little fun you could be having. The Undead never seem to have the same effect on you as they apparently had on the other 8 billion people who seemingly lived in this four house village; who's basement you're searching when you stumble across them. Instead of turning into a zombie, joining and growing their nefarious ranks, you and/or your health bar will turn that sickly green colour and you'll rapidly loose health. If taking forever to kill a boring, constantly reanimating and poison inducing opponent wasn't bad enough, there's also the best thing about those Undead bastards...

4) They never...ever...ever seem to stop coming! You'll be lucky to face fewer than three at a time, but three-four is usually the lucky number when it comes to Undead encounters. Of course, this can also reach ridiculous numbers like seven or eight, and sometimes even more. Being surrounded by a bunch of them is frustrating to be sure, but not as horribly frustrating as fighting your way out of that pack of Undead, taking ten steps and then running into even more! Over...and over..and over, until seemingly you've spent three hours clearing out a room that you could traverse completely in 15 seconds. God forbid you've entered the stereotypical "crypt" area of the game with more than five seperate rooms. You may as well set up a f*cking tent in the living room, because you're going to be there all night.

Worst Offenders: Baulder's Gate, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Icewind Dale, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic.

So, yeah. Those are my very valid reasons for hating and wishing (another) death upon the Undead.

Come on, people. Let's hear those thing that piss you off about games.

The mysterious and beautiful girl whose life story you must unravel to find the way to save the world!

Top Offenders: Skies of Arcadia, Tales of Symphonia, Final Fantasy VII.

Oh, man. Our conversation about JRPG clichés was epic. That story we crafted could rival any Final Fantasy.

Okay, so I have a few of them that I can't stand.

1.) NES Platformers. Back in the day, the programming was terrible. When you would jump from one platform to another, it was a very rigid jumping pattern. So you had to time your jumping just right to get to the other side. If you missed the ledge by a single sprite, you would fall into the abyss, never to return.

Worse Offenders: Castlevania, Super Mario Bros., Mega Man

2.) Random battles. Even though this is an integral part of the Japanese RPG experience, it is also the most annoying part of the game. I'd get on the world map and cross my fingers that I get to the next town without a random battle. Then I'd get all pissed because I just saved and restored my HP/MP before the boss battle ahead and I have to fight a battle before the boss, and my HP would be lost by a little. I HATE THAT! SO MUCH!

World Offenders: Every J-RPG ever made?

Yeah, I can't think of anything else right now. Maybe annoying game over screens? They're so insulting. They just laugh in your face.

Worst offenders: Zelda II, Resident Evil (series).

Oh God, YES! ZELDA! Ugh!

That's why I love Chrono Trigger, man. You can see them coming AND none on the world map!

I hate how the new thing in racers is to pimp your ride, or whatever. It was cool in NFS but now it's too much.

Yeah, but Chrono Trigger is just awesome like that. Add to more to that annoying game over screen list.


DKC3 (yuck), and Kid Icarus. "I'm Finished!" I swear, if I ever see that stupid Grim Reaper again, I'm going to choke a kitten.

The 'classic' JRPG cast. There's 'Cool Hero Guy', 'Sweet Love Interest Girl' (May or may not be the last of an ancient race or fulfill a similarly critical role), 'Sassy Fighter Girl', 'Witty Fighter Guy' (These two are usually of no importance to the main story at all), 'Frigid Mage Woman', 'Badass Mysterious Man' who are on a quest to stop 'Effeminate Insane Bad Guy' (Though sometimes 'Sympathetic Honorable Bad Guy' takes his place) and his plans for world domination/destruction. Did I leave anyone out?

Now of course almost every character is cliched to some extent, but it's annoying to the point of being ridiculous to see the same bunch of charicatures banding together for the same flimsy reasons over and over again. It's even worse when the game pretends to have 'character development', which always boils down to the same thing anyway.

Yeah, and random battles of course, though that's not really a cliche as much as it's just an outdated annoying mechanic.

I also hate escort missions. Like, "protect your own ass while also protecting this helpless and defenseless character". It always pisses me off.

Top Offenders: RE4 and recently

I have to agree with your complaint, but disagree with the games. The one time you do it in is easy. All you have to do is kill people.

And RE4, while you have to do it A LOT, the controls for it are fairly well done IMHO. It can get annoying if you get too far from her and she starts spazzing out, but for the most part I found it doable.


The absolute worst offender of this is Dead Rising hands down. You have to escort crowds of survivors through a sea of the undead. The controls are a pain. They get stuck all the time. Getting them to climb out of the damn water fountain takes an act of god. Some of them are so freaked out by the zombies that you have to freakin carry them, which means that you can't participate in combat at all. And the survivors that can fight, don't do it very well, unless you give them a submachine gun, in which case they just shoot you instead. And of course if a crowd of zombies is crowding your survivors you want to just run up and kill them all with your chainsaw, but you need to be careful not to hit your person too, WHICH IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE. And as soon as you see them you HAVE to take them with you. If you leave them behind they mysteriously die, even though they're in a secluded store with no zombies around. And then if one of them dies, you better load the last saved game or you are never going to get that achievement. :P

Despite all this, it's still one of my favorite games on the 360.

This has to be the biggest offender in my book. All the racing games are starting to seem more and more like carbon copies of each other.

You practically know what the story is before you read reviews for the game or even play it. The general formula is always as follows: Juice up the car, be the best racer, and maybe blow a guy's head off once in a while if you get to control the driver outside of the car...yadda, yadda. As fun as that is, it kinda gets old after awhile if every single racing game is doing it, you know? :ohwell:

Man, I keep thinking of things for this as time goes by.

Water levels! Not that I hate them, per se, they just always bore me. The music is always really serene in these levels and everything is slow moving cuz well, it's water.

I alway enjoy ice levels, or levels that feature snow at least. Some of the stages in Banjo-Kazooie and Yoshi's Island come to mind.

However, I hate water levels. Whether it be the Water Temple in OoT or Dire Dire Docks in SM64. The music always sucks and they're always super boring.

Battletoads, baby. That ice stage -- I forget what it's called -- is insanely fun and challenging. And it features the coolest level music the NES ever mustered, I might add.

Ever played ICO for ps2... wow, total suckfest.

ICO was fantastic, end of story.

I've yet to play that. I keep meaning to find a used copy and always forget. I'm guessing it comes with a high recomendation from Barkworm then?

My pet peeve? Start screens. The way the text blinks, inviting you to come in and fail the damn game over and over again.

Worst Offenders: Any game that was made in the 1980's and required quarters to play.