The RPG Maker Resource Kit

I've got a hand on VX, now I'm looking to make a project. This will hopefully help me with a non-cliche story

Airships are ok, and the whole religion thing isn't too bad. (But try to stay from that)

You want to keep away from crystals and the princess thing like the plague.

And war. Every third fantasy game involves a war or a country that could potentially go to war. Even I'm doing it. Sort of.

And castles as a player base gets pretty annoying at times.

Legendary swords, oversized swords, and other sword related mumbo-jumbo, thats al too cliche

Really big, tough guys have axes (except Presea from Tales of Symphonia)
Give a small child a huge honking hammer. That would shake things up.

Hand-to-hand heroes are a little overdone as well.  It's been awhile since a good polearm-wielder took center stage.

And if you give said small child said huge honking hammer, either make certain there's a reason for it, or make it one of those plastic ones that actually /does/ honk when it hits stuff, :P

"Religion is evil" has appeared in alot of games. But "ZOMG GOTTA RESCUE THE PRINCESS" storylines are as cliche as it gets.

Princess things are cliches for every game, except fighting and shooting games.

see the thing is, cliche doesn't necessarily mean bad. when you aren't being cliche your being original..ish...sorta and that leads to space/air pirates. there are many phrases that describe space/air pirates, but i think the most accurate one is: DO NOT WANT.

Don't let Ron Jeremy have a cameo either.... Actually I lied. Let him have a cameo because that would be epic.

Quote from: Volt Catfish on June 05, 2008, 03:42:50 AM
Don't let Ron Jeremy have a cameo either.... Actually I lied. Let him have a cameo because that would be epic.

QFT

And yes, I suppose that, even if you are working with a fairly cliche plot, if you can put an interesting spin on it, it no longer becomes cliche.  Like, if you /do/ go to save the princess, only it turns out she orchestrated the entire thing in order to capture you and force you to help her overthrow her father.

That's fairly different.

Just...putting little twists like that on things makes it much more entertaining to play, because then you can just imagine a player going, "Wait...what...?"  when they expect the big bad guy to have been the mastermind behind it all. 

Quote from: Kularian on June 05, 2008, 01:59:59 PM

Quote from: Volt Catfish on June 05, 2008, 03:42:50 AM
Don't let Ron Jeremy have a cameo either.... Actually I lied. Let him have a cameo because that would be epic.

QFT

And yes, I suppose that, even if you are working with a fairly cliche plot, if you can put an interesting spin on it, it no longer becomes cliche.  Like, if you /do/ go to save the princess, only it turns out she orchestrated the entire thing in order to capture you and force you to help her overthrow her father.

That's fairly different.

Just...putting little twists like that on things makes it much more entertaining to play, because then you can just imagine a player going, "Wait...what...?"  when they expect the big bad guy to have been the mastermind behind it all. 

Mind if I use that>?

Thats an awsome idea that i want to develope...

Quote from: Fr00bs on June 05, 2008, 03:24:09 PM
Mind if I use that>?

Thats an awsome idea that i want to develope...

Well, if you want the Ron Jeremy thing, you'll hafta ask Mr. Sailorman, ;)

But as for the whole princess trying to overthrow her father thing...sure.  The 2.5 games I'm making don't use that plot, so feel free. ^^

http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

All you need to know, really.

Quote from: Atemu on June 05, 2008, 06:59:02 PM
http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

Very helpful, but now EVERYTHING is cliche?

Most everything's been done, and done to death.  :\

'everything' has been done before.
don't worry about a game being 'cliche'
every storyline starts with a cliche.  The idea of good vs evil is a damn cliche already.  It's the detail, development, and plot that makes the game original.

take a base storyline, even if its a cliche goal, there's the base.  now with interesting characters, events, twists, and events, you can flesh it out and make an original game instead of just that worn out cliche.

First off, most stories are cliche no matter what. It's the characters that change it. Work really hard on your characters.

For more help, check out these articles: http://toolkitzone.com/library.php?cat=5 (http://toolkitzone.com/library.php?cat=5)

They should be helpful. That is all.

Super helpful Revo, thanks  :D

Quote from: Fr00bs on June 05, 2008, 03:24:09 PM

Quote from: Kularian on June 05, 2008, 01:59:59 PM

Quote from: Volt Catfish on June 05, 2008, 03:42:50 AM
Don't let Ron Jeremy have a cameo either.... Actually I lied. Let him have a cameo because that would be epic.

QFT

And yes, I suppose that, even if you are working with a fairly cliche plot, if you can put an interesting spin on it, it no longer becomes cliche.  Like, if you /do/ go to save the princess, only it turns out she orchestrated the entire thing in order to capture you and force you to help her overthrow her father.

That's fairly different.

Just...putting little twists like that on things makes it much more entertaining to play, because then you can just imagine a player going, "Wait...what...?"  when they expect the big bad guy to have been the mastermind behind it all. 

Mind if I use that>?

Thats an awsome idea that i want to develope...

Go ahead, give him a Cameo. It's best some one uses the idea since I don't use RM anymore.

I'm the only one that voted airships? Seriously? I mean, you've all noticed that there isn't a single RPG out there without some kind of airship in it right?

Excuse me, every single RPG that isn't Earthbound?

Agreed. Although, how else would you get around? (Granted, Earthbound has PSI Teleport) I can't think of many RPGs that don't have airships, so they can definitely be called cliche. The "Tales of" series and Final Fantasy always seem to have airships at some point in the game.

Cliches aren't bad, the way they are executed determines if they are negative or beneficial. Of course, that's already proven here so I might as well not need to say that. ^^;

Quote from: droginator on June 12, 2008, 06:26:38 AM
Agreed. Although, how else would you get around? (Granted, Earthbound has PSI Teleport) I can't think of many RPGs that don't have airships, so they can definitely be called cliche. The "Tales of" series and Final Fantasy always seem to have airships at some point in the game.

It is extremely to recall any RPG that does not have an airship, but currently the Fire Emblem franchise tends to avoid this vehicle. I don't think Golden Sun has any Airships to recall either, but I never played that game (I may in the future, don't burn on me for my feebleness :(), but you are correct. It is hard to think of an RPG without the use of an Airship. That doesn't mean it's bad though and of course, having an airship isn't exactly dull or it makes the player shrug and turn off the game...usually the player would just accept it and maybe like it, then go on with life. :3

Quote from: Starrodkirby86 on June 13, 2008, 10:33:17 PM
It is extremely to recall any RPG that does not have an airship, but currently the Fire Emblem franchise tends to avoid this vehicle. I don't think Golden Sun has any Airships to recall either, but I never played that game (I may in the future, don't burn on me for my feebleness :(), but you are correct. It is hard to think of an RPG without the use of an Airship.

Fire Emblem doesn't need vehicles at all, due to the fact that there's no overworld. The Sacred Stones did have an overworld, but they still didn't need an airship, because it was so easy to get from one place to the next, due to the places being spaces on the map (meaning you could instantly walk from one place to the next). Fire Emblem does have something where you can have one unit "carry" another unit.

Golden Sun did have an airship, but I think it was only close to the end of the 2nd game, where your regular ship gets wings added onto it.

Would you consider Pokemon an RPG? I wouldn't consider using FLY an airship, but I guess you could..

Using FLY is not an airship. That's a convenient teleportation system, and that is the opposite of a cliche. It's Something that isn't used NEARLY often enough!

Does this mean I win or lose?

Greetings. I know this is about two months late (in reference to the last post), but I have a couple of cliches I could add to the list. That is, if you are interested in knowing my opinion.  ;9 This is my first post, so please excuse my newbishness.

- A cliche I see in many video games (then again, my expertise is limited...) is that the main hero usually falls in love with the main heroine. It'd be kinda nice to be able to choose who the main character ends up with at the end, no? Like star ocean 3 or something.

- Lock doors or treasure chests that can't usually be opened any other way except with using a certain key. Even if the player has a hammer that can smash open the enemy's skull.

- 'Light' and 'Darkness'. Very, VERY cliche. I always wondered why people/things get labeled as such. How the heck did darkness ended up representing evil and light = good? The light from the sun let's me see and stuff, but it burns to stand under it. And the darkness of the night blinds me, but I can rest peacefully in bed because of it.  ;9

Quote from: 3BJSandW on August 11, 2008, 12:29:26 PM
Greetings. I know this is about two months late (in reference to the last post), but I have a couple of cliches I could add to the list. That is, if you are interested in knowing my opinion.  ;9 This is my first post, so please excuse my newbishness.

- A cliche I see in many video games (then again, my expertise is limited...) is that the main hero usually falls in love with the main heroine. It'd be kinda nice to be able to choose who the main character ends up with at the end, no? Like star ocean 3 or something.

- Lock doors or treasure chests that can't usually be opened any other way except with using a certain key. Even if the player has a hammer that can smash open the enemy's skull.

- 'Light' and 'Darkness'. Very, VERY cliche. I always wondered why people/things get labeled as such. How the heck did darkness ended up representing evil and light = good? The light from the sun let's me see and stuff, but it burns to stand under it. And the darkness of the night blinds me, but I can rest peacefully in bed because of it.  ;9

I agree with you very heavily in all points (Except #2 isn't cliche so much as annoying :P.) But cliches are just sort of unavoidable after a while, and sometimes, in a story, that's just the way the chips fall, so to say.

hero's.

let me play as a bad guy for once.

Quote from: Nouman on August 11, 2008, 03:32:01 PM
hero's.

let me play as a bad guy for once.

:C & One that actually Kills the Innocent & Burns Cities, that would be awesome. (lol).

     Or one neat thing you could do is take the save princess cliche, and turn it on its head. Make the goal the opposite of saving the princess.

An ultimate evil that fights against the humans only to be defeated and sealed, not completely destroyed where his minions await the day for his revival only to be defeated by either a ragtag group of adventurers or the CHOSEN ONE.

With legendary equipment in tow. :3

Fantasy setting. Biggest. Cliche. Ever.

It's a genre, silly :P

Maybe, but having your RPG set in that "genre" is still terribly cliché.

Anime is cliche.

Everything is Cliche
a Cliche is an archetype, a story that was used repeatedly in the past as a framework.  A cliche should be used as nothing more than just a plot skeleton.  The details you add is what makes the story original.

Nothing is new under the sun.

Quote from: Dark Seraph, Caro on August 13, 2008, 01:52:55 AM

Quote from: Nouman on August 11, 2008, 03:32:01 PM
hero's.

let me play as a bad guy for once.

:C & One that actually Kills the Innocent & Burns Cities, that would be awesome. (lol).

I believe the game is called 'Overlord'

fable

most people i know just kill villagers all day .-.

Quote from: Kathryn McKay on October 29, 2008, 08:31:04 PM
fable

most people i know just kill villagers all day .-.

My friends were bragging about that today  ;8 and said they hid the bodies.

Quote from: Austin Demand on June 04, 2008, 08:54:31 PM
Really big, tough guys have axes (except Presea from Tales of Symphonia)
Give a small child a huge honking hammer. That would shake things up.

Oh yeah, man. But Presea was so cool with that axe.

And actually, in reply to someone's post up the line, I don't think wars will ever enter a cliche level. It's an interesting subject and easy to build a story off of. One hting I don't really hate, but think is cliched is the fact that tons of RPG characters are always one of this:

don't know who they are
have a really dark past
have to save the world
are fated/destined to do w/e
are pitted against a whole army and somehow win
are maybe too heroic
it's always a guy! The last time I saw a half INTERESTING female lead character in an RPG was Tales of Symphonia, and the lead character was technically Lloyd

and there are games where you can play as the bad guy. Though, I hate killing innocents, and so do a lot of people.