Sub-Zero

What video game cliches do you think are the most annoying?

joeblow69

The worst for me is the "follow and protect this NPC". SO lame.

Koby

I dislike the cliche of fighting someone, beating them in battle easily, then the cinematic cutscene afterwards makes it look like you barely scrapped by and they are some badass that wasn't even trying, only for them to leave after and require you to fight the same person 2-3 more times throughout the game.

Seems almost every game, especially JRPGs use this trope. If you don't want us defeating them for good just yet because of "story", then either don't make us fight them or make the battle end shortly within it. Don't have us fight and come out on top only for the story to dictate that we didn't.

fumanstan

Being a bad ass and getting all your powers/weapons taken away, either in that game or for a sequel.

Dan

Decker

Yup, that's the one. Or the slight variation :
"Here's our most advanced and powerful weapon. Hey new guy who just met us, why don't you use it? But only one time and then forget you ever had it until maybe the end of this game?"

Decker

I'm not sure if it's a cliche or a trope, but the entire concept of side Quest missions in a RPG is hilarious when you think about it.. "Well the fate of the world does hang in the balance, and I am the only person who can save it, but I did make the mistake of talking to you while visiting this random town. So sure, I will go find your lost family heirloom that you claim a band of Bandits took and bring it back to you with the tacit understanding that you will repay me with some tangible reward before I get back to saving the Earth."

robin2099

Trying to add "realism" like breaking weapons, or cleaning guns in games in which you get shot 100 times and walk away, or have a magic sword that shoots lasers.

Rob V

Levels where you hallucinate or are drunk (I'm looking at you, Far Cry)... no thanks.

fujishig

Yeah, escort missions suck.

At least the depowering thing I can understand as a decent way to show you how cool the later game and/or make it even possible for a sequel to work with the same main character.

I'll also say any stealth missions where the game isn't built around stealth. Especially if you're like an overpowered hero character where it's game over when you get caught.

It's not annoying, but besides the side quest thing with RPGs, there are a bunch of other tropes that really make no sense. Like being completely healed by sleeping. Or learning skills and getting stronger by killing a lot of enemies. Or even the "this item you found in the dungeon will conveniently allow you to access other areas in the next dungeon." Or breaking barrels and taking whatever's in them and breaking in and stealing stuff from people's homes.

dom56

I real hate the timed missions the most. I can't tell you how many time I almost throw my controller to the window because I didn't get the missions in time and have to start over. Real annoying.

Noonan

So much this. I remember completely quitting Perfect Dark Zero because of that stupid mission with her dad(?)

story

I remember accidentally shooting Natalya in Goldeneye over and over and being so mad, ugh!

mndtrp

Those or difficult platforming sections in a non-platforming game. I can't remember if it was one of the God of War games or Dante's Inferno, I couldn't pass some sort of jumping section. Admittedly, I did finally get past it, but I had lost a lot of interest in the game afterwards. I seem to recall a game that, if you struggled over and over again on a certain segment, it would ask you if you wanted to completely bypass it. I can't put a name to it, so maybe it's just something I dreamed about.

The side-quest trope is stupid in a logical sense, but they don't annoy me.

Is it a cliche where a game has one type of gameplay for most of it, and then changes drastically for the last 1/3 or so? I'm thinking mostly of Crysis and Brutal Legend.

The Questyen

That's probably my pick also.

ddrknghtrtns

Water levels!

fumanstan

I was thinking of these too. Along with the mention of platforming, the random water level sucks!

joeblow69

Ugh, I'm going to have to also say complicated control schemes. I'm just getting too damn old to remember all these damn buttons. If I start a new game, and take a few days off, I already forgot how it all works, and feel lost. Oh, the gold ol days of the NES and their wonderful 2 buttons!

nickdawgy

Or being thrown in jail and losing all your gear.

And yeah I hate the hallucination levels.

kd5

Ridiculously complicated puzzles in the middle of an RPG, like trying to figure out the combination of a safe to find a weapon or important item you'll need in order to continue the game, and only having a few seconds to do it. I almost always look up the cheat because I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't have to spend hours trying to figure out a random solution to a puzzle in a ridiculously short period of time, and that's not why I'm playing this fucking RPG.

mattysemo247

Cut scenes and dialogue options you can't skip (especially if you are playing over again because you died or missed a checkpoint)

fujishig

I played through Kingdom Hearts again recently in the remix version, and it gave me flashbacks to that darned Riku fight when originally you had to sit through those cutscenes when you failed. Luckily they changed that in the remix.

I'll also say adding RNG or gacha mechanics in a game, where you're basically rolling to try to get rare items/characters. I realize a lot of mobile games are built around that, that's fine, but why introduce it into something like Xenoblade 2? I guess I'm used to it with mob drops but when was really annoyed trying to get blades, and then you can't transfer them to other characters easily.

Fetch quests that don't keep a running inventory or reminder of how many or what you need to fetch. Also, fetch quests with no way to teleport back to previous areas. Or heck, fetch quests in general.

Rob V

Flying levels burn my ass too... or having to go thru specific rings or spots on a map. Far Cry 5 had this and Spiderman is the most recent offender.

mndtrp

Oh, yeah. Every time I go to start up a new game, I make sure to have several hours to invest on the first day to get the controls ingrained.

ddrknghtrtns

The Last Of Us was notorious for complicated control schemes.