Top 10 WORST JRPG Clichés Ever!
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
- JRPGs are known for being heavy on clichés and stereotypes, right? These are the 10 worst of them I came up with.
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The game begins with the main protagonist waking up in the morning.
"Hero. . . Hero. . . Wake up, Hero!"
Hahaha, yeah, classic.
A boy with an amnesiac childhood female friend who looks up to the protagonist who are both orphans that live in a quiet village go to the woods without permission from the village elder sees a crystal that for tells a prophecy that they are the chosen ones. They return to the village to see it up in flames the empire was looking for the girls pendant to bring back the dark God that was sealed by the legendary heroes in the Great 15 years war. They meet a womanizing thief, a elderly war general who turned against the empire, a talking cute animal, a loli summoner who just so happens to be the last of her race and a monk. The protagonist finds out his dad was the legendary hero who sealed the Dark God and his childhood friend is actually a princess from a Kingdom in a parallel world. They finally fight the Dark God and they find out he was actually trying to save his world. Also the biggest chiche is the battle system is perfection,because developers can't make a good story with a great battle system.
Hahhahahahahahahahaha, this comment made my day xD
What a great story man that sounds like an awesome game.
What is this game called and when is it being released? ;)
Awesomeness
You should've ended it with the heroes finally defeating the Dark God with the power of "friendship and love", which would've made your comment nail it perfectly.
How about female healer party members (with light or water elements)
A.K.A the White Mage, also almost universally pure and maidenlike. I'm not sure that's only a JRPG thing, though.
Makes me wonder if any game had a female healer who was jaded and went through a bottle a day and a boyfriend (or girlfriend, or either) a week. I'm pretty sure it's too scandalous for Japan, though.
Yuna from ffx
swap the elements (dark - fire) and you got Yukiko from P4
Yeah, that trope is annoying as well. It's not only rpesent in JRPGs, but certainly is present on thosr.
I hate the female healer that dies in 1 hit pretty much n can't fight for crap.
All of these cliches could actually be used as the core of a compelling story. Their misuse is what makes them annoying.
Amnesia = Could you imagine how traumatizing it would be for someone you knew closely to suddenly forget you? Beyond just romance, the loss and recreation of memory and could be a heartbreaking or heartwarming plot thread.
Ancient Evil = If a force of evil has been a threat for so long, imagine how depressing everyone in the world is about how this evil will seemingly always be around. Society would probably become apathetic towards it, or even try to get on its good side.
Peaceful Village = Having a protagonist from out in the boonies is an excuse for other characters to give tons of exposition about how the rest of the world works. If the player is new to a world like the protagonist, how about make them feel just as lost and encourage them to find books or other believable sources of information to get their bearings?
Unfair Boss Fights = Build up a ton of hype for this boss. Let the player know this fight is gonna be a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. Maybe it's even a character who has already proven their power before.
Protagonist's Sword = What if the protagonist was given a sacred sword, but was better trained in a different weapon? This could play into gameplay, where the protagonist has to really build up their skills before the sword is a better choice than their native talents.
Sibling Complex = I mostly find it annoying because it doesn't go anywhere. No romance, no emotional tension, just cheap fanservice. The appeal of a sibling romance is that the two probably really know and trust each other. So when a character who the player has no connection with is shoving their affections onto them, it's gonna be difficult to invest emotionally.
Chosen One = This could be so easy to work with. If someone is destined to be a hero, what might that mean if the chosen one doesn't want to be a hero, or has questionable morals? Could the chosen one become the villain?
Lolis = I like when a particularly young character is in the group because not only do they often have a different outlook on life than the brooding teens or adults, but their presence on the battlefield sometimes reflects on the fantasy world's culture. Are children expected to be soldiers, or was this kid brought up under traumatizing circumstances? If their outfit is revealing, does this symbolize the sexual curiosity that begins to emerge at that age, or their innocence to the sexuality in outfits the older women they idolize wear?
Childhood Friend = Make a story about finally saying goodbye to a childhood friend. Acknowledge how rare it is to be friends with someone for so long. Make me cry.
Kids Saving The World = I honestly don't want to see this cliche go away. The young ages of the heroes are to let players of a similar age relate and aspire to be like them. In our world, we are quick to withhold freedom from younger people for better or worse. I think having young main characters helps instill either escapism, or a sense that youth is still important.
Thanks for explaining the obvious
You are right, the cliches aren't bad themselves in a good story, using them excessively in order to keep a mediocre story somewhat interesting is what is wrong. Thanx for illumimating this point so thoroughly
👏👏👏👏
FF Type-0 potray "kid saving the world" pretty well. Our characters just bunch of school kid go in war and in the end we realize how bizzare this situation.
You lost me at sibling complex and loli lmfao
He didn't even say anything about incest in the video
They may be pretty, but I get tired of magic crystals.
Yeah, the holy shards that you need in order to beat a boss or reach the end.
They aren't magic crystals, they are THE MAGIC CRYSTAL that make no sense!
Stop playing Final Fantasy and you'll be fine.
The worst part of these cliches is that I love them :v
Me too, when I finally fulfilled my childhood dream of creating my own jrpg I literally checked off doing as many of my favorite cliches.
One cliché that's usually up there is that the main protagonist only has one parent alive (who's often the mom)
Also, the main protagonist in Nier isn't an adult in the original Japanese version (since he's a teenager and is a brother), the western version of the game changed it.
You forgot one very important one: caste systems and royalty. Also, a religion or church being secretly evil.
Japan literally barred missionaries from entering the country at one point....people think of the anti-religious messages in Japanese media as being "anti-establishment" because Christianity IS the establishment in the west, but it's actually quite radical to be a Catholic in Japan.
One of my religious studies professors (Japanese, naturally) told me that - in Japan - Christians tend to be much more liberal while Buddhists tend to be conservative. Obviously, it's the opposite on this side of the world.
@@exquisitecorpse4917 I think Japan also has a very cynical view of Western religions conceptually. The SMT series being the most clear exploration of what seems like a very prevalent attitude.
That and some historical incidents seem to be the main source of the trope.
Indians love caste system
Your comment SCREAMS Final Fantasy Tactics in EVERY way which is why I am in the 1% that doesnt like that game
Its not a clishe, those are straight facts from our real world.
I read this title in your voice
Thank you for having literally hundreds of amazing videos... They seem endless and yet never repetitive and I've learned about and ended up playing so many games because of your videos and fallen in love with them (and gaming all over again). Thanks for having such amazing content and committing to it so much
I don't know if is a cliche but... I hate when the main protagonist has an amazing power or is a gifted fighter... but starts at level 1... Like really? 7_7
Have ya seen the part where the character you leveled in one game goes back to level 1 in the sequel?
@@nealforreals2098 levels in general don't make much sense. I've often thought "why the heck did people build this village in the area with level 50 monsters? I would figure everyone would want to live in the area with level 3 enemies"
MMORPG Idea
THE CHOSEN ONE
The chosen one from every place across all time, all multiverse combined.
Who is truly the chosen one.
Are you chosen enough?
I have a cliche to bring up : sometimes when you go to the inn to sleep, and the protagonist wakes up in the middle of the night and go outside to think about something sad ,or to make up his mind about something.
Or "A good night''s sleep cures all illnesses, exhaustion, curses and sometimes resurrects the dead."
Erick Landon RPG yeah , it would fit in a list about good rpgs clichés
The age issue in Japan and what causes the cliches dealing with age is that after you hit adult hood, you lose basically all choice in your life.
A job determines what you do with your life. You do not have time to do what you want. You work the hours they give you and working 60-80 hour weeks is not abnormal.
That also leads to you not having time to have a romantic life. Most marriages are arranged. Love is not what leads to them. This means that love is something that is limited to people who are not adults.
Same idea with childhood friends. You try to hold onto them for as long as you can. But, you can lose them way too easily there.
All of that adds up to using games as a way to try and get the feeling back... and things like pedophilia being way too common in Japan.
I didn't know that about Japan. That was some good insight, thank you.
Even in jrpgs, they have shown that it is possible to have an adult character that is fun to play. Stocke, from Radiant Historia, is an adult. He has a job, but it is a badass job. He's a government agent/spy. That's the perfect kind of fantasy for an adult gamer to get into.
@@ErickLandonRPG Video games are fiction, they don't make you a pedophile whatsoever dude. They're not real children so I don't get where this complaint is coming from.
Very well made video as always Erick the part about the child hood friend really did hit me in the feels, it’s true and I can relate ALOT however the most hardest and important part is maintaining the chemistry you had with that old friend, peoples personality and interests sadly change through out the years,in a way that it just does not feel like you are talking to the same person you knew back then even if they were your bestest best friends.
I'm sorry to read that, I hope you're okay now.
I hard agree on the "villain shows up just to be an asshole for 5 minutes and then dissapears cliche". It just feels jarring. I think it honestly happened more in Tales of Symphonia than any other game I can think of.
The "kids save the world" cliche annoyed me even when I was a kid. It is just silly and it's one of the cliches that give the genre its reputation for being intended for immature audiences.
Even kids just destroying entire evil coorporations seems more plausible.
About protagonists with swords, two great JRPGs they don't use them: Final Fantasy 9(Zidane uses mainly Daggers) and Tales of Destiny 2(Farah punches and kicks her enemies).
About the chosen one, a great one is Dragon Quest 5, where the protagonist is the father of the chosen one.
Suikoden protagonists also don't use swords. The second game protagonist even got the Shield rune, while his rival got the Sword one. 😁
But isn't Reid the protagonist in Tales of Eternia/Tales of Destiny 2? Senel from Tales of Legendia, however, does fit the bill.
Zidade technically uses swords (just not the conventional ones).
Chrono Cross?
JRPGs aren't the only one that has the trope of the "chosen one" tbh Western RPGs are even worse when they do this as the main difference I see between the two is that often WRPGs try to make "you" the hero and they often don't employ party mechanics. So you get a mostly silent dude that is the chosen hero.
The 'cliches that are pretty good' are called Tropes.
One that cracks me up with the over sexualization of women is that the majority of the time they are also like a doctor,mage,or scientist. Its like yeah I'm sure the smartest character is going to run around in all climates and dungeons in a bathing suit/underwear!
I'm actually a fan of the repeated boss fights if done right, like having a enemy who is trying to power of up to finally defeat you! Most bosses in games only exist to be killed and have no real purpose so seeing some that actually have a story throughout the game can be refreshing.
Fan service rarely makes sense, hahahaha. And about the bosses... I kind of agree; if done right, it doesn't really bother me. But there are tons of games where you fight the same bosses over and over again...and each time is no different than the last one -_-
Yea I agree the goon characters that show up repeatedly in games that are just the same fight with more hps if even that is just a waste of time filler. Most of the time trying to be funny but it loses it after like the second time lol.
yeah tbh I much prefer having a story driven boss fight over just another boss fight. Many times the build-up to the boss is even cliche and predictable. Oh hey look we are nearing the end of this dungeon. I look at the map and there is a big circular room just ahead and oh what's this? Is that a healing/save point? Hmmm I think I'm about to fight some sort of crazy looking monster that no one in the party will ever comment on again after we defeat them!
So? Men are sexualized in video games yet we aren't complaining about them are we??? The female characters can dress up in anyway the developers can imagine because it's a video game. A lot of stuff doesn't make sense in video games but that's the whole point, it's a fantasy dude.
@@ErickLandonRPG Uh, that's the whole point. It doesn't have to make sense, it's fiction.
Make a list of JRPG the protagonist not using a sword.
I can give a top 5 list allready
1. Yuri from Shadow Hearts (Knuckles)
2. Shion Uzuki
from Xenosaga (M.W.S.)
3. Oliver from Ni No Kuni (Wand)
4. Every Female Protagonist from Atelier Series (Wand or Staff just not Swords)
5. Riou from Suikoden II (Tonfas)
Wild Arms protagonists used guns too.
My favorite is WA2 where the hero used a bayonet.
There are more kids in Japan that have woken up with amnesia, been taken in by a kind family that has a kid of the opposite sex that they will later fall in love with... after they've saved the world when they turn 10. None of these kids ever have parents looking for them and the foster family is happy to send both kids off to fight evil long before they graduate middle school. Once the are out in the world, the boy will inevitably attract a harem of girls that worship him even though he is worse in battle than they are which will bring on jealous behavior from his "sister" which creates a ton of dialogue denying any sort of attraction. These are the main tropes that trigger me. But you're right, we keep playing anyway because hopefully there is more to the story!
Lol, exactly. The same thing doesn't happen with anime, though; at least not in my case. If it's full of clichés during the first episodes, I quit watching it forever. But with JRPGs, at least there's a gameplay that will (maybe) keep me entertained, so I keep playing the game despite having a really lame-ass clichéd story.
Great video, with lots of intriguing footage from games I don't think I know of! Is there a list of the games you've used footage from somewhere?
I agreed with you with all those cliches, but one more that annoy me so much is the boss who came in, beat the main characters and suddenly have some urgent issues to resolve, and fly away. It would take like 10s to finish the job, but the damn stupid creature just teleports to the furthest place in the world just to let the protagonists build themselves to beat him later. No sense at all.
Always a small group of young rebels agains a giant evil empire....
I dunno, if it's well written I think all of these cliches can be effectively used. Oh and Velvet from Berseria is one of my favorite modern game characters because she owns her sexualization. Xenogears is my favorite JRPG and it falls for a lot of these but I'm oddly ok with that.
Xenogears is too dark. I can't stop thinking about it's storyline until this day
How does Velvet own her sexualization when she isn't even real???
My childhood friends and I are still tight to this day.
Me too, and she's a girl and we sometimes tease that we'll fall in love and live happily ever after... it's been 25 years though :(
How about :
1. "Win the fight, lose the cutscene". When you beat the boss only for them to win in the cutscene following the battle. If you want to make the boss look powerful why let me beat them up first?
2. "Silent Protagonist". When the protagonist says nothing at all (or almost nothing) for the entire game yet somehow the plot revolves around them. Just give them some dialogue FFS. Looking at you dragon quest, suikoden, breath of fire etc etc. I think this is supposed to make it feel like you are the character but I am not a mute! how about we.. I don't know.. role play in a RPG?
3. "monsters for the sake of monsters" Enemies should make sense within the context of the world not just be there to give XP. Why am I attacking the local wildlife to train my fighting skills in every JRPG ever? Am I supposed to be playing a psychopath? Why do sentient playing cards want to kill me? is it normal for houses to grow arms and legs and attack people in midgar?
I'll stop there but I have a long list of these... including many of the ones you already mentioned.
Lol, those were good ones.
Great video! I agree with all the points. Just saw your channel and it's really good
Thank you and welcome!
I’d have to agree,..amnesia tends to be the go to for driving a story in jrpgs. I would love to ….eh….I’d love to….ah….what was I saying? Who am I?
"acient technology" like grandia with the space station
Also the boss rush, or extra dungeon with the bosses being THE EXACT SAME BOSSES AS IN YOU JOURNEY, but instead of being a silver dragon its a pink dragon.
When a character needs to sacrifice themselves to hold off the enemies, and the protagonist is fighting to try to stop them and screaming "No! You can't do this!" The harder the protagonist fights, the more annoyed I get. Just once I would like a character to say "I'll stop them here, you all go on living" and the protagonist to be like "Alright, thanks."
Really enjoyed this video! Night I suggest a part 2? Afterall there are so many tropes in JRPGs such as....
Healing being a girls job, especially in SNES and PS1 era. All the best healers are female.
- Aerith of Final Fantasy 7
- Princess Marle of Chrono Trigger
- Rosa of Final Fantasy 2/4
- Princess Peach of Mario RPG
- Primm of Secret of Mana
- Mint Adnade of Tales of Phantasia
- Rutee of Tales of Destiny
Are all examples of this.
Guys being willing to fight to the death for girls they meet along the way.
-Locke Cole saves Celes in Final Fantasy 3/6
-Claude saves Rena at the start in Star Ocean 2
-Chrono jumps into a portal to save Marle in Chrono Trigger
-Serge repeteadly has the option of saving Kid in Chrono Cross are examples of this
Orphans are another trope
-Tidus and Yuna are of Final Fantasy 10
- Terra of Final Fantasy 6
- Randi of Secret of Man
-Entire Party in Final Fantasy 8
Anyways sorry for the wall of text, I just wanted to share some of the cliches I've noticed.
You can blame players for this too. When something original, a good but complicated story is being told or whatever they try to change people will bitch about it. Im okay with plots that make you wonder, think, even when the ending dont reveal everything so you can use all that story that got you there to make your own conclusions.
One of the reasons why ff13 was/is hated. It has an original story. Falcies (evil kings) turn people into L'cie (evil kings' followers that can use magic and turn into crystals after they complete specific tasks, be them destroying the world or saving it). The ones who fail to complete the tasks (Focuses) before the expiry date get turned into Cieths (the zombie things).
Digging the Brainlord soundtrack in the background.
I fucking LOVE that song!
dig the hole soundtrack!
i love the whole soundtrack!
Mecha Kyle I was digging that arc the lad towards the end
This RPGs where you are a youth with a sword from a piecefull village and have a childhood girlfriend with amnesia and she has a godess in her heart. Later a cute loli joins your team. Then an unfair boss battle and the main antoganist appears that can teleport himself AND your team plus has telekinesis power. The Lore is about an ancient war about the goddess and the main antoganist blablabla and the final attack is pure light and love. Dont forget the perv cutscenes at every INN you sleep the first time.
Every Tales game ever.
What about "Character (usually female) who has supernatural powers and is frightened of them and never uses them except for a few rare deus-ex machina moments."
And the "Warrior Mage Bad Guy"
Oh and the "Hooded mystery character who is ALWAYS important to the plot"
I'm definitely making a part 2, lol.
I've got three cliches to mention. 1. Carrying an entire arsenal of items and weapons without traveling with a single piece of luggage. Where does it all go? 2. Why do I have to slay ten dragons for the chance to collect a single dragon fang? You'd think I'd be swimming in the damn things. 3. Chests. Who put them there? Why did they put valuables in them. In Tales games, would you really eat food you found in a box in the middle of nowhere!?
OtakuDaiKun Those aren’t cliches though.. those are video game logic problems...
Hammer space?
You are so right about the cliche about main characters using Swords. It's so damn annoying. I can count on the top of my head in one hand how many main characters that don't use a sword. And if they are not using a sword then they are using a gun. What about spears, pikes, bows, scythes, axes, or ANYTHING ELSE!!!
Characters with swords are awesomee
One frequent cliché I personally enjoy (not just in games, it's really usual in anime) is the one where some really hard boss/enemy/nemesis you managed to defeat at some point in the story, appears later on to help you fight against another stronger enemy for whatever reason. And that "frenemy" usually acts tsundere-like, hahaha.
Like Magus in Chrono Trigger?
“What the f#%* is wrong with Japan”?
Hahaha
I say the same thing!
because people tend to care more for children because they are cute, therefore adults who look/act cute also get more attention, care, and then offspring... at least that's the explanation I hear... and btw it's not uncommon for a 30 year old asian women to look/act that way, I once totally thought this girl I knew was like 16 maybe, turned out she was 36...
My most hated cliche is the protagonist's friend character who constantly gets beat up by the female party members for no reason
Lol,amnesia was the first thing that came to my mind,it's everwhere!Other cliches i don't like
1)The villain is a relative of the hero. Usually the villain is the hero's brother,mother,father etc. In some cases it's done well,like in FF X,but it's definitely overused
2)The 4 crystals of power. Ok,final fantasy is my favorite game series but the ''collect the magic X of power to defeat evil'' is overused
3)The hero is a goody two shoes. I understand you are playing the good guy but the hero doesn't have to be perfect,he can have some negatives and be allowed to make mistakes because he is human. By making a protagonist perfect,you end up with a boring hero
4)Chosen one/magic weapon. We need more underdog RPGs,like saga frontier 2,where the hero achieves greatness with his own power and wits and not with the help of a magic weapon
5)THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP! No,shut up with that kingdom hearts crap. Friendship doesn't give u the power to kill god-like monsters.The only exception i make is if your friend is killed in front of you and u get an adrenaline rush,only then.
6)The main villain was just the puppet of a powerful being. The game presents u a powerful,interesting villain with personality,but near the end of the game u find out that he/she was just a puppet of an ancient deity .The problem is that the real bad guy doesn't have time to develop(since he is shown near the game's end),so you end up with a villain that nobody freaking cares for and agrees that the other villain was way cooler.
7)Mind control/Curse. ''I was just being mind controlled,bro!'' It's a staple in stories and rpgs but ends up overused and a get out of jail free card.
8)Kids save the world. That one annoys me too,as if a 10 year old would have the physical or mental strenght to defeat a monster.Also,their personality will either be non existant or be presented as if the kid is 25 years old,developed and mature ... yea right.
9)One of the heroes is a prince/princess but doesn;t know it. Everyone knows this one
10)This isn't even my final form. This is in the category of recycled bosses but a bit different. It's when u beat the crap out of an enemy,only for him to scoff at your victory by saying that he wasn't using his full power and he was just toying with you. Freaking hate that!
This video definitely deserves a 2nd part,just put a spoiler warning and no one will complain
I thought the same. Spoiler alert and then part 2.
very ,very,very valid points,my friend.as a rpg player i have saw this things A LOT!!!
Yeah, I'm not fond of the "Power of Friendship" cliche either. And I absolutely agree with number 6(Fuck you, Kaguya!).
J-RPGs is almost always about saving the world.
Why do you have to save the world?
Movies and novels aren't always about saving the world, so why can't the J-RPGs be about something else?
(This is btw one of the reason why I love so much the Breath of Fire series: it's the first one I've ever played who wasn't about aving the world)
In persona 4 it doesn't come out of nowhere though and is related to the developing relationship between the mc and nanako
My most hated cliche is the accidental bathroom/bathhouse/hotspring "eewww you pervert" thing it's been done to death in JRPGs so much I facepalm and rage sometimes
Hahaha, yeah, especially in anime.
The one that is worst for me is the high school setting. Maybe it is more so in anime but always dealing with Teenagers. Like you said as an adult I want regular adult characters ( not over sexualized which not necessary)
I used to think this way, but learned it really, really comes down to execution, and who it's appealing to. High School is often a setting for shallow pandering fantasies. But just as often, it's not. A lot of people forget Death Note stars a high-schooler, from the maturity and depth of that (it's basically a Batman story with Joker as the protagonist).
Star Ocean games, as well as Final Fantasy VII star 20+ year olds. Cecil in Final Fantasy IV is 20, as is Noctis in XV. Some Tales of... games qualify here as well. So yeah, these are a couple of suggestions that might pique your interest, albeit 2 years late 😂
@@denispodic7780 I think part of the reason people like to use High Schoolers or young adults is because of it being the "formative years". Adults are seen as unchanging and have already decided who they are going to be as a person. These characters can be a source of wisdom and knowledge for the main characters but are shown to have very little character growth throughout. One of the most appealing things with a character is seeing them grow and change throughout the story as their worldview is challenged and expanded upon. It's much harder to do this with an older character than one who is younger.
Over Sexualized is just a petty term use to say "too sexy". Why don't you just play the ones that don't have female fanservice in them instead.
@@fantoniumnitrous That’s what exactly I do. And there is no such thing as too sexy just don’t need sexiness out of context to the situation
Not too long. Wonderful and funny video as usual!
Worst cliche? Well, I have played recently Fire Emblem Awakening. And now I'm playing Birthright and there's one thing that irritated me in Chrome, which happens in Corrin's case also. They are both naive in trusting people. And given the fact that everything works in their favor because of... luck, I guess, makes them unable to learn from it. Too much trustworthiness. How any JRPG's except these two have it?
Also, another cliche is a demon/angel transformations/forms
'Capitalists decisions' that one made me laugh so much xD
And you are 100 % about sexualisation. It's ridiculous. I actually boycott some games because of that now.
I didn't use to have a problem with that, but now it's fucking everywhere. Like, seriously, developers?
Excellent as always! Thanks, you reminded me that I have to pick up my sword from the shop! But for some reason I can't remember, why I have a sword in the first place!
It all could be that horrible fight I had with my Ex! It's like she had these words that I couldn't block even with my strongest comebacks! But, I have awoken because of you my friend, I am ready for battle! Um...excuse me for a sec...there is this annoyingly cute girl tugging my shirt asking for
Snacks!
Hahahaha
One cliché I hate: the very first scene in the plot being the protagonist waking up in an usual morning. This happens more often than you think. The only games that pulled it off properly were Chrono Trigger because of that one ending that subverts the trope, and Legend of Mana because it was literally the only good way the player could be eased into the rather strange and imaginative world of the game. But everyone else just do this out of lazyness of starting the story in an interesting way.
One of my most disliked cliches is that of the "Macguffin Delivery Service". That's where there are X number of (ancient relics) that the bad guy absolutely MUST NOT GET. So the party gets the brilliant idea to scour the world for these items "to get them before the bad guy does". Little does the party know, however, is that the bad guys are just waiting for them to get all of the (ancient relics), so they can rob them from the party all at once. I hate when the good guys are idiots whose actions make the bad guys' plans easier to achieve.
I would like to add the possessed king/queen/ruler cliche and the holy church of all goodness which turns out to be the cult of the evil god/worshippers of unholy evilness cliche. For the first one, you know it's coming as soon as a character says I do not know what happened to *insert name of ruler here* , they used to be so kind and just and cared dearly for the people. And when a similar instance happens in a direct sequel and your party doesnt notice it's like really. Lol For the second, you dont even need a line to clue you in. Chances are if there is a church, it's going to be bad in some way. I really hate this one, not because I'm religious, but because it's so predictable and downright boring. You characters always end working for/with said church and one or more of your characters is part of the church in some way (usually a female priestess/songstress/otherwise important but blissfully ignorant figure) and when the reveal comes the party is like "omg wtf rly no way I cant believe it how could this be I never saw it coming i feel used how could I be so stupid ok it's all good now who do we smash" lol And of course the holy god/goddess everyone prayed to was really the dark god/goddess who you now helped resurrect . And of course many of the other cliches tie into this one so well.
i enjoy the group of kids saving everyone storys tbh
Care to share why?
I think there's charm to them I suppose, as well as a nostalgic feel (who didn't want to be some kind of hero when they were kids) also when you say you can't buy a 12 yr old going through all that I somewhat agree but realism is rarely something I care about in games anyway
oh and thanks for reply i really enjoy your vids (:
Thanks for the feedback.
What’s the music at the beginning of the video?
This video is so funny because I love how accurate it is and I really agree with it.
where is the music at 7:13 from?
I will add two cliches
1 high random encounter rate: If made correctley this can be great feature but in most cases random encounters are horrible because every 2-3 steps are new battle and if you play on easy you will still struggle cause you will forget what you were doing.
I have this issue in persona 2 there every step is battle because i know where to go then boom fight and i forgot where i and i am running in circles and random encounters are not just there but in games like Digital devil saga, Suikoden, final fantasy and so on.
2 forced companion or characters.
You know people who drives you crazy (in the worst sense) and you cant kill them off nor ignore them.
Everyone has their own hated characters.
for me its tingle from Legend Of Zelda, Futaba from persona 5 and almost every final fantasy protagonist.
High random encounter rate is not a cliché. Not every unlikeable thing is a cliché, if you think that's what it means. Cliché is overused plot (ie. Find legendary sword to beat the big bad guy) or overused character type (ie. Shy healer as protagonist's love interest) or overused story (ie. A war between empire and kingdom). Cliché I love: Heroes saving the world. Cliché I hate: Villain calling himself a God.
The story starting with the hero living a tranquil life in his village\city until some event that triggers the call to the adventure is the base of the monomyth. Returning to the village is also the final step.
This was already a cliché in every story across the world thousand years ago.
I thought this while watching the video. Some JRPG cliches are more story telling devices or motifs that go back thousands of years. It’s no surprise they show up in JRPGs which tends to draw heavily from mythology
tbh I don't have a problem with the monomyth setup but I don't like the characters that are called to adventure we find out halfway through the game were destined for greatness or were actually really important but they are unaware of their origin stories and were dropped in this village as a baby type of nonsense. I like the concept of an ordinary person facing extraordinary circumstances having to rise up to the challenge and being forced to become the hero. I really do think Lord of the Rings did this well with Frodo as there isn't really anything special about Frodo. He simply has this responsibility thrust upon him and just like any sane normal person would be very reluctant at first.
What's messed up is that I was going to use the idea of a resurrected dark deity being brought back with a fraction of its power as a part of a story I was going to write
It is my opinion that you can take a concept, even if its overused and bad, and make it great with proper execution.
I think you can execute it well, you just need to research on HOW.
Which may be difficult.
Almost everything is a cliche at this point. I do believe though they really need to get rid of the fan service and young teen characters. Those are above the rest you talked about.
A lot of these, even though super common, aren't even bad if done properly.
The sword hero completely makes sense, mostly because sword is a cool weapon in and of itself.
The peaceful town trope also works most of the time and is a callback to the Lord of the Rings, which gave rise to dnd, which in turn paved way for RPGs. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Kids saving the world... If the story is good, the age of the characters doesn't really matter.
Some of these I definitely agree with(lolis, for instance), but most are simply pointless rants. Like, the whole destroying the world tidbit. Yeah, it's often either destruction (Kefka) or domination (Sephiroth) but I don't see how it's annoying. Saving the world always makes for a good plot in JRPGs.
so true; I had not really thought about this subject until now
I'm a bit late to the party on this one. But one cliche I see a lot, is usually in the beginning of the game, when the protagonist leaves their home village for some mundane quest, but when they return, the village is burning down to the ground. Now the protagonist has the motivation to search the world to find whoever destroyed their home.
Hahahaha, yeah, classic.
@@ErickLandonRPG Very classic. Goddammit. I wrote it in my story. fuck! well i can turn back now
This helps me appreciate Final Fantasy IV. Sure, FFIV has some clichés, but the MC is an adult that is feeling guilty about what he has been doing instead of some innocent teen. That brought a lot of things to us for the first time, like a love triangle and being betrayed TWICE.
IV is the best one imo
Just started replaying ffIV, it seems to avoid lots of these cliches, and still feels unique...
Erick - how about The evil Army, the old dreaded evil gardener (yes, that was a thing for a couple years haha), fighting the devil (if you believe in that) or some evil entity (See Phantasy Star series).
The evil army/corrupted empire is a classic cliché too, hahaha, you're right.
Many bosses tried to destroy the world for extremely important reasons for them, but I can't remember any of the reasons.
I also hate with a passion "teenager heroes" in JRPGs... It's so dumb to see some random 15 years old kid being able to beat monsters with ease or some veteran general/warrior, with some forced excuse, like him "having hidden potential inside him".
Alex, from Lunar, is one of the greatest offenders of this trope.
I agree with your list for the most part. Though Amnesia is a clear #1 for me rather than 10. The thing is with the other cliches is it will have that moment of 'oh man, not again', but you get over it after an hour or something, or it's not really in your face the whole time. But with amnesia protagonist rpgs, it's part of the dialogue with every effing new town, new character, new situation, every damn time throughout the entire game pretty much... or at least a hell of a lot more often th an any of the other cliches being announced to the player 'hey look, it's this cliche being the focus of the story again!'.
What's worse is that the amnesia protagonist was used a TON during the last snes/early ps1 era, between that, and how much I didn't like final fantasy 7 or 8, and not getting a ps1 until late, I felt like there were no good rpgs to love anymore after it being my favorite genre thoughout my life. Not until Xenosaga time did I rekindle my passion (which is also when I got xenogears. I never heard of xenogears for quite some time upon its release, nor have I ever seen it, but then I learned about it and had to look for MONTHS to find a copy cuz it was so rare and expensive, and like the week after I bought it they re-released it as a greatest hit. DOH
@TheWhiteFang284 i own it actually. But never played for more than an hour or two. I saw the amnedia thing back when it was at its worst and quit then and there.
What about women wearing 'armor' that is basically a metal bikini and would offer no actual protection whatsoever in a real fight?
The Otherworld Cliché seem to be appear almost every RPG games
The game I'm playing now has a protagonist with a crossbow. It's a sequel to a game where the protagonist has staff. Can you guess what game it is based on just that info?
Also, I really wanted to play Lost Sphear because it was peak amnesia.
There are tons of JRPGs where the protagonist doesn't have a sword (Wild ARMs games are a good example), but the majority of them fall into the sword cliché.
Erick Landon RPG I haven't played a lot with a crossbow that are the sequel to one with a stuff. I was curious if you or anyone else could guess my little trivia question. 😅
Its legends of heroes trails in the sky the 3rd! I love those games so much, as much as they stick to the cliches they do it right imo.
Martino Magic I knew it was a good clue. Thanks for replying. 😀
I'm still hoping we get a release date for Cold Steel 3 by the end of the year I can't wait to play that game!
I actually like the protagonist with a sword one
11:50 what game is that? Overworld map looks cool.
Are you for real? How the hell can someone that plays JRPGS and is unable to recognize a map from Chrono Trigger???
I like the music in BrainLord; good choice
I have other cliche to talk about: when you fight a boss thats extremely powerful and finish the fighting w a little amount of HP , and just when you think the fight ended, then the boss transforms and become even stronger than before, and start the fighting all over again .
Yeah, it's the "final boss with multiple forms" cliché.
bro telling japanese role playing games devs to change from blades to something else, is the same as telling western role playing games devs to stop using guns, bombs, nukes, tanks, war weapons, and world wars eras for a set up to their games! and enough killing hitler and purging vietnam for the billionth time! games reflect culture, that's all.
i the old japan due to the governmental laws, every family only had the right to a single child, thus having your cousin as your younger sibling wasn't too weird, also calling those older than you "big brother, big sister" honorifics, is just morality teaching, so having lust between "close cousins" wasn't a big issue since they weren't related by blood, also what reality lacks, games replace, and a close united family built is not an exception.
the chosen one syndrome, the same things goes to the west's army of a single man, or the embodiment of jesus 1 man god.
also when they give you the fucked up concept of "the main character killing god!"
now about the "loli" problem ... you realize that beast-kin, fairy-kin, and other half - humans don't age the same as us cursed mortals right?
loli characters are made to give the player the "cause to protect this helpless appearance of a little girl" also younger girls reflect purity, innocence, and triggers within you the parenthood. not to sound agist, the world is NOT united around the idea of 18 being the DIVINILY WRITTEN IN STONE AGE FOR ADULTHOOD! you are talking about japanese laws and rules! 16 is the adulthood age for them! not 18!
also attacking the loli stereotype is the same as the east attacking the "escort the little girl" games or "save the divorced cheater woman with her bastard daughter" quest. it's the same thing literally! you have to protect what supposedly resembles the purity, and helplessness, it's kid of karma, that's all. also many adult women ARE BLOODY FUCKING FLAT and child like, it's named MARKETTING!
i am a straight man as well i love healthy slender bodies, with big breasts, and a cute over all figure face, and torso, i don't go any lower.
and since faces are the most important in a culture that NORMALLY LACKS THE BREAST SIZE, while the west worships all that is between the belly button and the ground, and nothing above it, more than they worship in religions, having lolis around is not too much of a big deal, they are only here to market, and as a bait for protection goals, that's all.
also if you are going to stick with "age" alone in lolis case, and not ANYTHING ELSE .. you might as well ATTACK THE ENTIRE AGES DIFFERENCES OF ALL THE CAST! THEIR BELIEVES, THEIR COOKING, THEIR FUCKING LOCATION ON THE WORLD MAP. i mean it's not like there is an entire WORLD between the east and the west right?
what the fuck is wrong with japan and western MAPs, and what the fuck is wrong with the west and their obsession with wars?
the west fucks with wars and guns as much as japan fucks with lolis. not a fair comparing? then the west fucks with single parenthood.
maybe, just maybe, because in childhood you are filled with dreams, creativity, possibilities, and whatnot, and once you grow up, your curse your parents every passing cursed moment once you realize how fucked up the hell you were born into is!
thus childhood life is seemed more worth investing into, than the hell that is adulthood.
female sacrifices are MORE frowned upon and since virgins are more valuable than any male will ever dream about being, females are always seen as the more desired sacrifices, just face it, males in games only exist to be killed.
how about Top 10 WORST WRPG Clichés Ever! not japanese, but western! show me!
I agree with the sword one, the others do not really bother me.
One thing that really bother me is when a game prompts you for a decision, if you pick the "wrong" one you are asked it again (*coff* Last Story *coof*). Not really a cliche, but I have seen some doing it.
Ah, yes, I've seen that illogical decision making thing. Why would they ask you something if they're gonna force your answer either way?!
About the top... overly sexualized little girls doesn't bother you? Really?
Erick Landon RPG not really, I grew up watching anime and playing those games. I honestly barely notice it, I remember after I finished Tales of the Abyss, my friend said something about the loli and only then I noticed that the girl with the giant doll was a loli :p
PS: on a side note, those half cat girls actually bother me, not sure why, ever since star ocean they do.
For me it's the ghost ship. If I need to explore one more ghost ship in an RPG I'll shoot someone.
I actually like ghost ship levels and I don't think there are that many JRPGs that have one.
@@guilhermegmoreir They fell out of fashion around 10 years ago, but almost every older JRPG that I have played has one in some form.
Any ancient civilizations in JRPG games are inexplicably much more advanced than the current one, especially 1000-2000 years ago.
Estelle and Joshua cliché yeah sure
you need to go to jail for that x)
Call the police and have them arrest me then. x)
The one that drives me crazy is when you beat a boss and then suddenly it is revealed that they were "holding back" the whole time and they kick your ass. Or scripted boss fights where you lose even when you win.
I actually really love boss fights where you are supposed to lose but it is possible to win. A good one that comes to mind is how you are meant to lose against the Golem in Zeal but by using good tactics you can beat him and get a slightly different cutscene with Dalton being pissed. It doesn't change the overall narrative but it's nice they allow you to win the fight.
And some of these things happens too in the actual anime.
While I can agree that main protagonist with sword is fairly common, I still kind of like it. In plenty of jrpgs, you can chose the class of your characters, including the main one, and I still go with the basic sword guy. From all the weapons Firion from final fantasy 2 could use... SWORD, Lunteh could be any job... Warrior. But they can also wield axes.. NO, SWORDS. Bartz could be any job.. KNIGHT, and so on. One guy in this comment section wrote that female white mages are often seen as well, but even if I was given the chance... Final Fantasy 3 has 3 guys: Luneth, Ingus and Ark, and one female one - Rafia. Who do you think I chose as my white mage? Heck, even if genders in final fantasy 1 are not mentioned anywhere, white mages are still considered female by many. My point is that even if some of of these Clichés are fairly overused, I and I believe I'm not the only one still like these things and want them. Maybe it's just that I haven't played enough of jrpgs to get sick of these things, but I personally really like the idea of main character wielding a sword as well as some other very overused Clichés.
Two of these cliches actually go hand in hand. Growing up in a small village, of course the people that were friends as kids will remain that way as adults. I think the idea that somehow these villages can always seem to survive when they don't do any kind of trading with the outside world is odd. There's always enough food and weapons to go around, but for some reason there's a general store. Sometimes there's even an inn even though nobody visits the village.
I don't have much of an issue about chosen kids saving the world (combined two more there) because that's what jRPGs tend to be all about. wRPGs are more about a singular adult being the chosen one, but I know what to expect out of my jRPGs so I don't get sick of having a cast of younger people.
While I don't agree with the swords, I definitely can see where you're coming from. I've come across a handful on jRPGs that utilize a girl that you meet in the beginning who turns out to be the special goddess. Ys, Lunar, Mimana are examples.
One thing that I'm a little surprised that you didn't bring up was how first area that we can usually walk around and fight monsters in tends to always be some kind of lush forest or some area full of greenery.
I don't think the lack of outside trade is all that much of a problem. Back in the day towns and villages were alot more self-sufficient than modern towns. Trade was more used for oddities and rare goods that couldn't be obtained in the local area. However the basics of life were generally all produced locally.
Everyone is either an orphan, becomes orphaned early in the game, or their parents are just never mentioned or seen, leaving the teens free to go off and have adventures.
All true, good stuff. Wish there were more quality sci-fi rpgs
Anyway for me, besides some of those you mentioned, I hate jrpg mascotte/animal character.
I can MAYBE appreciate just RedXIII from FFVII. But... what the hell with... Repede (Vesperia), Angelo (FFVIII), Koromaru (Persona 3), Teddie (Persona 4), Morgana (Persona 5), Riki (Xenoblade) etc
>Kids saving the world
I loved Persona 2: Eternal Punishment specifically because all the main party members were adults. I really wish the developers would being that back in the next title, especially with the introduction of romance elements into the series. If I've got the option to pick a waifu, I'd rather the player character and NPC both be adults. In P5 I ended up romancing one of the adults despite the fact that, in-universe, it would be an age-inappropriate relationship because that felt less creepy than me sitting there like, "Okay, which of these teen girls do I, adult player, fancy the most?"
Why when people do cliches like this they always forget the light vs dark one?
How about your characters just barging into people's houses and stealing their money from chests and pots even if their money could have been anywhere else like their drawers or their pockets?
And what about rpg sequels that aren't even connected to its previous game(s)?
Those are cliches too right?
Not sure if anyone has said this yet. But i think my least favorite jrpg cliche is the hot springs scene. Doesn't matter what type period it is or whete it takes place. There is going to be a hot springs scene where all the female characters do two things. Compare breast size and comment how jealous they are of each others bodies, and talk about the male main character as if he were the center of their world.
True. Also toward the end of the scene the MC always somehow mistakens the girls side of the spa for the guys side, he walks in on them naked, and they start throwing shit at him in a blind rage. Seen that scenerio probably a hundred times in anime.
The ancient evil one is really annoying because the worst part of that tope is "they couldn't defeat said evil so they had to seal it" and now it's back after millenia and you....kill it? Like....okay? Why couldn't they back then?
The reason for all these clichés: JAPANESE.
Lol.
Like Westerns doesn't have any cliches of their own. lol
JRPGs have Japanese clichés, indeed.
Imo the one that annoys me the most is the sudden plot twist at the end of the game where everything bad that has happen was actually done by the unseen hand of some godlike being and we must now defeat this godlike being.
This is a terrible Cliché because it makes the final boss not an appealing antagonist. I mean sure you might think it's "Epic" to fight an enormous powerful foe as your final fight but you have almost no connection with this enemy. It becomes more like a force of nature that needs to be stopped and being pulled out at the last minute robs any dramatic build up to the fight.
I want to go into the final boss with the emotion of "I want to take this guy down!" I want someone that has personally and directly impacted the characters I've grown to care for in a negative manner to be the SOB that I am going to defeat. Having it be "well no you see actually the supreme dark god was controlling this character the entire time and is actually the true final boss" is very obnoxious.
Also there is a bit of lack of realism in all of this. So you are telling me that my characters can fight a being that is supposedly powerful enough to destroy entire worlds with a sword and some simple magic?
Well, I guess a jrpg where 30-40 year olds fight against bills and living costs wouldnt sell so well😂
Maybe it's just me, but one thing I'm getting real tired of is the putting a major spoiler event at the start of the game. I know some devs do this to try and get people more engaged or interested but most of times I see this it actually ruins that moment. It can be a dream or a timeskip before jumping into the past, but I rarely see it work well. I think the best example of this is Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
I see. That's not a cliché but it is indeed something really stupid the devs do, especially with their openings or intros. I'm tired of that too.
I haaaaaate the intro spoiler thing, also in movies... I don't understand the appeal of it
At mark 12.28. Who is the character standing next to Sora and what game do they originate from? Thanks.
Shion Uzuki from Xenosaga.
Erick Landon RPG Thanks