100 RPG cliches

[Cysma]

Characters that learn ultra-powerful spells quickly will not be able to use them because they don't have enough MP...

Defeating your ultimate nemesis is a multi-step process. First, you must battle them as you have always seen them before, and it's an easy battle. But when he falls, he will refuse to give up and transform into a huge hideous monster.

But that's not all. Even if the main villian-turned-ugly-monster is struck down by your blade, and it seems that everything is over, he will turn into an evil angel with super-cheap attacks.

If you have to battle an evil person that looks like a normal, unarmed person, he will either possess hilariously strong magic powers, summon bodyguards to fight you, or transform into a monster, or all three.

Everyone and everything that dies either explodes or vanishes into thin air, which removes the trouble of having to get rid of the body.

There is exactly one town in every country, except for the country you live in, which may have two or three.

Speaking of which, there are only 10 towns in the entire world ranging from tiny villages to enourmous cities. Oh, and a few lone houses sitting in the middle of nowhere.

Old men are very wise or very girl-crazy. Keep your female party members away from the latter.

You can only hold 9,999,999 coins at a time, as putting in a 10 millionth coin will apparently cause your wallet to explode.

You can fit more items into your invisible pack if you group the same kind together. 99 of the same type of item are impossible to hold but will only take up a single space in your sack.

[Cysma]

You can tell how hard you hit someone or something by the numbers that appear below them when you strike them with your weapon.

If you kill the main villian and his second-in-command is still alive, guess who the final boss is?

The weapons and items being sold in the town you just reached are always stronger than the last.

As a matter of fact, the closer the shop is to the end of the game, the better the weapons are. The town you begin in may have booming economy, but has the weakest weapons in the game, while the guy running the shop near the entrance to the final dungeon has the strongest weapons in the game.

As soon as you set foot outside a town, be prepared to be attacked by numerous groups of monsters on your way to your next destination. When you reach that next town, you don't need to worry about them anymore, as there is obviously an invisible shield around every town that monsters can't get through. It makes you wander why everyone is complaining about the increase in these vile creatures that can't attack you in your town...

At least one bad guy will turn good at some point in the game, either immediately after you beat him, in which case he will help you get to the next area and maybe even provide aid for the rest of your journey, or late in the game to sacrifice himself to buy you time to escape from the main villian as he chases you.

Anyone that has a name is important.

Many quests begin when the hero decides to search for his missing father. If he doesn't find him at the end of the game, he will about halfway through, in which case he will die sometime after.

[ZIPPYDIPPY19]

The silliest/blandest looking monster always has an ability that makes your jaw drop in amazement at its power.

Any monster that doesn't attack in the first turn should be focused upon, as they're planning something very devious or very destructive.

If something has a mark on it and you don't know what it is, don't worry, as a party member you obtain will always have an ability to bypass it.

[Sim Kid]

The guy who's buffed up on steroids is the slowest member of your party.


And you have an enemy who's either thin as a rail or just average and he's twenty times stronger than your buffy party member.

[celebi134]

-There is a spell called "Fire Ball".

-You need to collect some kind of object at a certain quantity to get to the final fight.

-Your Black Mages are allowed into chruches, and can even be revived in said churches!!

-And let us not forget about the typical elements: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Earth, Wind, Holy, Shadow, Gravity. At least Baten Kaitos(sp?) has the Chronos element, which is actually kind of original.

-The typical status problems: "Poison" and "Petrify".

-Girls are usually wimps, guys are mostly tough guys.

-The main bad guy is usually from Hell.

-Perhaps the most heavenly characters have bad experiences(Aeris dying, Colette having all those Cruxis Crystal side-effects)

-And, to top things off, you will get one character that is non-human, even like a half-animal (I.E. all the wolf, bird, and fox-people from Shining Force, Red XIII and Cait Sith, Kimarhi, and so on)

[OcarinaMan]

Absolutely nobody is free from Angst(TM).

[celebi134]

Originally posted by Ace Mercury:
Kids don't go to school, like, ever.

Actually, if you consider Mega Man Battle Network as an RPG, Lan usually goes to school on a regular basis.

[Slife]

Heisenburg City principle: All cities, towns, caves, whatever, all freeze when you aren't there. Any changes that occur happen with you watching.

Frozen time corollary: nothing can happen without you moving. Stand still and no enemies will attack, the final weapon won't fire, and the Main Love Interest won't die.

[Valentine]

All swords are blunt.

Except Odin's.

[Sim Kid]

Females are half as strong as the men are


...and half as dressed.

[Jingle Jangles]

Amnesia is as common as beds in houses.

Theres an ancient weapon in an ancient place guarded by ancient demons and miraculously the local boozehound, who doesn't know where he lives, knows where its located.

The fate of the known world rests on the shoulders of people younger than 20.

[Katyrna]

Even if one of the characters in your party is a member of the armed forces of whatever the heck world/country/town you're in, they probably won't be much better than anybody else. Unless they're the main character.

There is always at least ONE freaky, creepy forest that you HAVE to go through no matter what.

[thunt]

Anything that moves, looks different, or is evn one pixel out of place you can/will/used to be able to interact with.

If there is a way of catalogueing monsters, making a ton of recipies, or anything that has many different tiny things, unless you're doing it for someone there is NO REWARD. EVER.

People often don't have essentials such as bathrooms, kitchens, beds, etc.

No-one EVER has to go to this restroom.

[ January 30, 2005, 05:09 PM: Message edited by: Tigt teh Bandit. ]

[Sim Kid]

^Which is exactly why, in the older RPGs, people are walking but not moving.


There are sewers, but no toilets. (Better than the alternative: Toilets but no sewers)

[thunt]

This is probably very obvious: No night 'till you go to bed.

[Omni_Link]

monsters come out of nowhere with no place or colony amongs themselves

monsters are savage but never fight amongs themselves or differnet monsters

summons usually takes your Mp to use it's powerfull attack

the strongest(i can kill you by just looking at you) boss is never the final, ultimate evil boss

dragons are always a strong type of enemy

you always mostly never know where bosses, people, monsters, and heros learn there skills

for some reason the final boss always lets there enemys grow stronger before fighting them or when they do fight them early never try to kill them

on thw world map the character is as big or almost as big as the town, cave, forest, mt, etc

thats all for now

[Aqsol]

woohoo! they started posting again!

You can tell that a weapon is great if its made of some material youve never heard of

The power to make a missle obliberate your enemies or the power to summon some horrible god is all packed in a small ball that you find in chests in random peoples houses.

You may storm into every NPC's house and steal everything in the chests but you still have to pay for an item from some dork with an apron.

Chests are everywhere. Even in the super paralell dimension or in some palace 1 mile beneah the sea. Everywhere

No matter how much your allies tell you how much little time you have left, there lying

------------------------------------------------
All your base are belong to me

~Aqsol

[ April 17, 2005, 08:50 PM: Message edited by: Aqsol ]

[Shadowking]

Originally posted by Sim Kid:
The best characters are usually killed off quickly.

See: Fire Emblem's Denning, Legend of Dragoon's Lavitz.

Lavitz Pwnz everyone and their mother.

Er...

In the few games where there is a shower, there's usually a funny scene involving someone running out of it half naked. See: Mario and Luigi superstar saga

[Sim Kid]

Originally posted by Perrin Aybara:
The sequel has NOTHING to do with the original game.-jay

Or takes place x number of years (usually something like 10-1,000) after the previous entry took place.


You barge into the final room right when the ceremony to summon a very powerful demon or entity is about to begin or end.

[Inferno Dragon]

if there is a series of games then there will allwaus be someone who has the exact same name in each game but will have a completely different look and personality than he/she had in the previous title.

there is always at least one wise sage/guru/priest

there will allways be dirty old men.

there's allways going to be some matter involving some long lost family member of the main character who was believed to be dead.

there's allways going to be an evil Alien, Demon, or Fallen Angle to deal with in order to save the world.

and there will allways be the fact that no matter how many houses you raid you won't get in trouble for it.