Top 10 Game Plot Cliches'

Who all agrees with me here?

Note:  This is a listing of all plot lines that were baddass at one point, however, at this point in time they are nothing more than cheap cliches.  This does not mean you should not use them, it simply means you should take consideration of orignality into account before going ahead with these forms of plotlines.

I (The Biggest of Them ALL)}   Final Fantasy (Insert Numeral), Breath of Fire (Insert Numeral), Dragon Warrior (Insert Numeral), Disgaia I/II (including Makai Kingdom), Grandia (Insert Numeral), Suikoden (Insert Numeral), etc plot lines: Please don't mimic the classic awsomeness of other games.

II } Any kind of Badass longhaird prettyboy trying to destroy mankind/the planet (Reference: Final Fantasy VII)

III } The Sad Lived Empire taking over the Beautiful Prosperous Kingdom for any reason (Reference: Suikoden V)

IV } The Council/Royal Attendant of any kind or wizard, sorceror, jester, etc over-throwing the King/Emporer (Reference: Dragon Warrior VIII)

V } The King/Emporer's kin of any kind killing him for his throne (Reference: The Lion King)

VI } The ancient evil (insert title [god, diety, monster, etc]) reawakening or being reawakend to destroy the world (Reference: Dungeons & Dragons The Movie    II: The Dark Dragon God)

VII } The new or previous hero becoming evil or evil's kin in any way (References: Diablo-Diablo II/Star Wars)

VIII } Main character is secretly the hope of the entire world as he is realy the decendant of some ancientness or diety and or turns into one (Reference: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask)

IX } The virtual reality simulator went out of control and your all trapped in it and must find a way out (Reference: Yu-Gi-Oh [the original series])

X } The badguy is a mysterious force that you eventualy find out is a virus to quell some of the over-populous of your universe because your actualy an    intricate part of an advanced virtual reality world (Reference: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time)


Edit> Wow, lol, so many crittics in the crowds, and yes I admit I did forget about the whole non-human to human thing.  And to answer the question of what a cliche is, it's quite simple: A cliche is an article of sorts that has already been used several times or by dictionary terms: A trite (trite: used commonly) article.  And I'm not saying that these plots cannot be replicated any more in games for fear of commoness but rather am simply stating that since these specific plot-lines are in fact cliches that you should use them wisly, integrating originality into them for new twists rather than spent ones.  And no this probably doesn't entirly qualify as a tutorial, however, this seemed like the most appropriate area of the forum to list it.

This looks good, but there are a few personal ones I would like to point out... but I'll save it for my common sense tut, I really need to update...thanks for the idea and topic, these are really the top 10..or atleast around the top 15

~Winged

Ok, and now tell me is there any plot left for any game? You can't declare everything you find as a cliché. (Some of them ARE cliché like the second one...)
Now where you defined them all as cliché, now tell us: What is not cliché? See? This is the same thing as to say all FPS use a first person camera and that it is a cliché.

Well the "legendary warrior" cliché is a bit over used, some people are a bit tired of it I must say

~Winged

You're forgetting one.
If there is any technology in the game, only the bad guys can use it. (Reference Tales of Symphonia)

Wait, wait, wait, wait....your forgetting the cliche: Non-human race decided to attack the human race, therefore the farmer boy learns swords and spells in order to kill them (Thinking of: the beginning of dungeon siege)

Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 can go right along with the long-haired "badass" pretty-boys trying to do whatever and blah blah because of "Ansem" and even more so, "Ansem" and Sephiroth's love-child: Xemnas.

I have no idea why this is considered a tut. I personally don't think there is enough substance for this to qualify as one.

...I didn't even notie the thread... Heh.

See what I mean? You can say a million things and say they are clichés. I could also say: "The bad guy uses a sword just like the good guy, so just look at the beginning of the game who is using a sword, that's the bad guy!" only because Seifer in FF8 used a sword like Squall and because he was kind of the bad guy. You should better make a topic that says: "Clichés that are actually none"

Seifer in FF8 used a sword like Squall and because he was kind of the bad guy.

Seifer was not a bad guy... He was under the control of a bad guy and when he was not he was just confused...


BIGGEST CLICH EVER! IT HAS BEEN DONE TO DEATH!!!
Is... drum roll...

                  ...The Hero(s) have to safe the world! It doesn't matter what but they alway have to save the world from freaking something... and they are the only one doing it, sure the king has a vast army but let the three MIGHTY warriors safe us.

BIGGEST CLICH EVER! IT HAS BEEN DONE TO DEATH!!!
Is... drum roll...

                  ...The Hero(s) have to safe the world! It doesn't matter what but they alway have to save the world from freaking something... and they are the only one doing it, sure the king has a vast army but let the three MIGHTY warriors safe us.

Totally. I've actually got a game that my older sister made way back when, when there are about 3 different GROUPS of people all trying to save the world, and the person you think is going to save the world just ends up screwing up and someone else does it. So the main character turns up to being a loser without any glory, and the npc is turned into the big glory hog.

Probably one of the greatest rpgmaker games I've ever played...

Seifer in FF8 used a sword like Squall and because he was kind of a bad guy.

Seifer in FF8 used a sword like Squall and because he was kind of a bad guy.

no need to YELL

You can't yell on the internet... just type in really big words.

VI } The ancient evil (insert title [god, diety, monster, etc]) reawakening or being reawakend to destroy the world (Reference: Dungeons & Dragons The Movie    II: The Dark Dragon God)

Ew, you actually watched D&D The Movie?  I weep for your soul.



Anyway, like others have said, some of these are indeed cliches, but others are just genres.  But cutting out all of those, there isn't much left to work with.

There are plot devices that haven't been used in RPGs, but people are too lazy to think outside the box anymore.

ha, whats next? "The hero always gets the girl" heck "THe hero likes a girl" maybe some gay people in a game would add to creativity?

there is an expression "if it isn't broke, don't fix it"

sure, cliche`s tend to be overused, but so what?  if u can add a new twist to it, do it in a new, original way, or modify it enough to keep the audience's attention, ur job as a storyliner is done.

u can have a cliche` base storyline, like "ohs no an evil orginization is trying to revive gordollik the great and bring the end of humanity and we have to stop him" as long as u do it intestingly enough to keep the audiences attention.

The basic plot is one thing, the complete storyline another. You can have a totally cliché plot, but the storyline can be original as nothing before. A plot is just a thin shell after all, it's the story that counts and makes movies/novels/games/etc. interesting.

The basic plot is one thing, the complete storyline another. You can have a totally cliché plot, but the storyline can be original as nothing before. A plot is just a thin shell after all, it's the story that counts and makes movies/novels/games/etc. interesting.

exactly

I KNOW I KNOW! the biggest cliche ever is a giant mana tree in the middle of the world map, or any game revolving around depeleting or the usage of MANA! (Tales of,  the Mana series, etc etc)

being too lazy to read the whole thread after the first post and this page, i have to say something.

All the "cliches" only had 1 example. Wtf?

you realize that means that each game is being original by how the thread starter posted?

also...

did anybody post about the elements being used? crystals? a "chosen one"?

question, is basing a game on "revenge" that bad?

... um what?

ok... did you mean...

A) Bashing a game to take revenge on the maker
OR
B) A game that revenge is the plot and bashing it?

question, is basing a game on "revenge" that bad?

depends.

Why is it revenge? if its getting your village burned down, your uncle killed, your parents killed, somthing stolen, or your kingdom getting taken over, then yes.

very yes.

There is also the whole "chosen one" in all games. Like, chosen to wield the Keyblade, chosen to save the world, chosen to kill XXX, chosen to be the heir of XXX, chosen by XXX for personal training from XXX, chosen to be the main character of the game, etc. So you see, EVERY game has chosen SOMEONE or SOME PEOPLE to be the main character of the game.

~Winged

being too lazy to read the whole thread after the first post and this page, i have to say something.

All the "cliches" only had 1 example. Wtf?

you realize that means that each game is being original by how the thread starter posted?

You should have read it, I said something like that in my first post in this thread.

Hell, I've said this should be fully removed from the tut section because it is by no means a tut.

being too lazy to read the whole thread after the first post and this page, i have to say something.

All the "cliches" only had 1 example. Wtf?

you realize that means that each game is being original by how the thread starter posted?

You should have read it, I said something like that in my first post in this thread.

oh. sorry blizz.

Lol, I just realized I skimmed Yossy's post, too. >.<

@Yossy: I watched the D&D movie and it was... too Disney-stylish.

My two cents:  Just about every idea has been done.  What seperates cliche from good stuff is what you do with the idea.  For example, the hero sacraficing himself to save the world has been done countless times (everything from the story of Jesus Christ to Neo in the Matrix).  But if you can take that basic premise and do something unique or orininal with it to keep it fresh and interesting then there isn't a problem.  Don't rehash the same old tired stuff, but don't feel restricted from using an idea just because it has been done before; because "it's all been done" (Barenaked Ladies song  )

darkace77450

Actually it's not all already been done. But the stuff that isn't is actually that crappy, nobody would do it. I guess parodies are the only things that are kind of 100% original these days.

I had an idea for a game... ok, a guy hears that a demon will attack the world and kill millions (he hears from a fortune teller) and he sets out on a quest to get more power so he can slay the demon... slowly as he gains more power he loses more of his mind... and in the end it turns out he was the demon.

I was trying to make as CLICHless as possible. Did I succeed?

Almost. I did 'the hero goes crazy' in the first Soul Refrain.

Hero goes crazy and becomes the villain -> Diablo 2

How about some badass guy who summons the soul of a legendary hero and control him. With this powerful ally he wants to crush the evil organization/kingdom/empire that controls the world to take over the world himself. The "game's hero" is supposed to be the only one who can stop him, because he is the one who knows a lot about the hero's past. Now... YOU PLAY THEM BOTH! One third of the game you play the game hero, one third you play the summoned hero. At the half of the game (or better the 2nd third) they meet in a final encounter. The game's hero tries to gain control over the summoned hero's soul (he didn'Ät know somebody is controlling him...) and the fact that 2 different persons are trying to control him, let's him free himself from both. Now you play them both and try to stop both of the villains: that summoner and that organization (as the game's hero realizes they actually are evil and the summoned hero knows they are evil as he has fought them while under the control of the summoner).

THAT'S what I call using a cliché in the shell, but making a good story.

AND IF YOU USE THE STORY I JUST WROTE, I WILL FIND YOU AND EAT YOUR BALLS!!!

Hmm... what if the person who steals the story does not have said reproductory organ?

Hmm... what if the person who steals the story does not have said reproductory organ?

The I will eat the thief's soul. :diablo: