Its hard to be original when it comes to RPGs. Some do it well, some dont. Some like to be realistic, some like to be totally obscure. Its starting to get silly at some of these cliches and some people may consider themstaples. Some actually LIKE these features. Its rare when things (for me anyways) dont get watered down by these cliches that pickle RPGs old and new. Id like to discuss a few
Sex Sells: Probably my most bothered RPG cliche. Most protagonist are usually some boyish exotic haired hero. Or some brooding rugged looker with alluring gazes. Even other sub characters tend to be blond bombshells or BIG BREASTED slender super models. I know Im takeing a realistic view point but it would be refreshing to see just a little bit of fat people. A little mal nurished and out of shape. I KNOW there heroes but its just over done. I understand there heroes or warriors ect but its getting silly. Some sexy slender babe with a great pair usually arent professioned in fighting. CASE CLOSED. Plane Scape torment was an awesome example of how not to do that. An undead guy. Fable 2 had a fat chick with dread locks. Just a few examples I can think of right now. IM JUST TIRED of seeing the sex factor overshadow things.
How old are you?!: Almost every RPG of every kind has a very young kid. Can a 17 year old really fight that well? How old was cloud in ff7? He joined a military faction when he was 16?! I may be mistaken in my facts. But its too bloody young. All these boy toy heroes coenspire with the sex sells topic above. How could kid, that barely had there ballz dropped be takeing down giant monsters and weild huge swords. Whers the middle aged wise individuals. Whers the seasond veterans takeing life and the world head on? Oh those are usually the ones that die.
Horrible endings: Rpgs are supposed to be about the story. And usually the endings are garbage. Too short, a cliff hanger, un explained events. Un exemplified characters. ZERO character development. You play long and hard and just to get one dinky cuttscene of a quick recap and quick narrative of what happend next. No emotion. Kinda feels cheated. The same could be said for all games not just RPGs. But RPGs its expected and wanted even the more. A few examples that dont do this is Tales games from namco. Final Fantasy 4, 6, 8 and especially 9. The rest were crap. Baldurs gate 2 had a good ending, with cool character epilogues at the end with gorgeous music to compliment it. Character development is the most important for me. Lot have good endings , but MOST do not. And its cliche
Death Penalty: I dont understand why some games out there penalize you for dieing. Point of a video game is supposed to entertain not scold. I understand the need for challange but theres a difference between makeing you suffer for either a mistake or inaquitity, and challangeing experiance. Now Im obviously refering to MMORPGs. But what about ofline crap in alot of these rpgs like diablo, titans quest. They require you to save before hand but you never know when. You simply forget. Or are given a save point way before the tribulation is.Its unessessarry. Forceing you to start all over. Experiance debt, experiance loss, repair bills, money loss, gear retrieving , down times. These things dont make a player feel good. I know and you know its all a marketing ploy to prolong the gamers monthly fee on MMOs. Bravo....
Long winded: How many RPGs have alot of useless dialogue that wear and tare on your patients. Its usually in the form of bad writting. If the dialogue and monologue are gonna be there make sure it holds merrit. Dont interupt or waste time talking about useless lore and conjured fantastic histories that have no effect on anything. Youl find yourself mashing through the text so you can continue. good voice acting helps. So does interesting bartering. It is indeed all about opinion but, then again no one can deny they havent skipped through all this dialogue.
Enemy Redundancies: Sick of fighting small rodents at the start? Want to start with something with more depth and emersion? Me too. Tired of the slimes and rats and badgers and little crawling pumpkins. AND BOARS! What if the rats came at the end of the game?
Music: I think in these days of realisticness and graphics the music is forgotten. Its the same rehashing and glib reiterations through out the game. The battle music is some symphony like score that has no merrit or tune. Its all to atmospheric. Most of the rpgs dont even have music! Its mostly a 20 second tune then silence! WHY? Make soem good music for the overlay. Make it gripping. Good composing. Make theme songs. Characters should have a snappy theme. Like the old chrono trigger and final fantasy days.I think the cast on dragon age would make interesting theme songs.
Thats only part of my list but the most important. Other are minor cliches like repairing gear, love drama, drawn out leveling systems. Lack of equipment variety.