10 Frustrating RPG Gaming Cliches That Need To End According To Reddit

10 Frustrating RPG Gaming Cliches That Need To End, According To Reddit

Reddit users weigh in on RPG cliches that keep cropping up time and time again.

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While RPG games are already an incredibly diverse genre, there are some cliches that won’t stay dead. Some of these tropes may be more forgivable than others, and many have been subverted and reworked in game-changing ways. In a year that saw many exciting RPG releases like Monster Hunter Rise and Wildermyth, some of these tropes are still common enough to be tiring for experienced RPG players.

Whether it’s the game’s mechanics, characters, or plotlines, there are several recurring tropes that for some reason keep appearing, and these Reddit users have weighed in on what they find to be the most frustrating.

Ivory Tower Design

An Ivory Tower Design is a trope describing game mechanics that privilege experienced players who are in the know over newcomers. While this can apply to many game genres, it’s particularly frustrating in RPGs where a simple upgrade or change in skill points can significantly improve the difficulty of the game.

Reddit user durrandi chimes in with this suggestion saying that “this kind of mentality is alright in games in which player’s choices are not permanent,” but of course can be incredibly frustrating to newcomers in games with permanent decisions.

Go Kill Rats

Reddit user karlosmorale chips in with the simple”‘Killing rats. Sewer levels. Combining these things.” A trope that perhaps exists when out of ideas, rats are a ubiquitous enemy for early-game levels, that often can offer little to no challenge at all.

There are countless examples of them appearing in RPG tutorial quests, especially in the Skyrim and Fallout franchises. None are perhaps quite so devilish as in Fallout and Fallout 2, where the games’ rats can put up a fight and even kill unprepared payers.

Power Discrepancy

This trope, illuminated by Reddit user eternaladventurer, highlights the odd discrepancy between the power of the character and that of the player. Summed up by the Redditor as “I’m a teen fresh from a tiny village and have a wooden sword, but I’m killing trained adult soldiers,” this can often kill any immersion an RPG is trying to create from the offset.

This happens frequently in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, most notably with how fighting Sith warriors can be arbitrarily difficult and weaken their status in the story. Although not unique to KOTOR, this conflict between gameplay and story is a tricky one to navigate.

But Thou Must!

While understandable in some RPGs, this trope is especially egregious in games that highlight the player’s choice over character decisions. In summary, the “But Thou Must” trope forces players into an action that they must do in order to advance the game’s narrative. If they do not do what is requested, they either perish or are stuck in permanent stasis until the requested deed is done.

Reddit user SNESdrunk describes this choice as when “a yes or no choice isn’t really a choice” and the narrative continues in the same direction regardless. The trope is named in reference to the original Dragon Quest game, where refusing to let the princess accompany the player results in the phrase “But Thou Must!” and a return to the previous dialogue selection.

Urgent Missions That Aren’t So Urgent

While an in-game timer to complete quests can be tedious in itself, a lack of incentive to continue the main quest can diminish any sense of urgency the game may want to create. Reddit user PtTheGamer remarks that ‘if there is something that I feel [is] really stupid in games is the ‘urgent missions’ that you can wait years to do.”

Mass Effect has an example of this with the quest “Race Against Time,” which ironically can be put on hold while the player completes various side quests throughout the game. While this trope has its benefits compared to a tense ticking clock, it can still take away from the importance the game may try to place on certain quests.

Playing As The Chosen One

The Chosen One trope is one that has been reworked countlessly not just in gaming but in books, film, and television too. Reddit user FatDragonQuest lamented how “they try to hype you up way too hard” resulting in an experience where the player’s significance can be overblown.

While power fantasy is a frequent reason why players will be drawn to RPGs, this trope can often work against that effect by removing any player choice in the matter. Granted, this trope has been subverted frequently, with Dark Souls’ Chosen Undead being a notable protagonist who is only one in a long line of destined characters.

Unwinnable Fights

While many games will have enemies that are difficult if not impossible to defeat without a character reaching a certain level, this trope is mostly focused on fights that cannot be won due to the demands of the story.

Reddit user pavlovsdawgs comments on this simply by quoting “you are not allowed to win this fight” as an especially frustrating cliche. While this can be forgivable during a cutscene, user LonePaladin responds with how players can “wind up burning through your entire supply of consumables” without knowing that the fight is unwinnable.

Broken Bridges

User maxis2k lists off several frustrating cliches in RPGs, with a notable one being that “random NPCs/fences/animals block you from entering a new area until you progress the story to a certain point.” It’s perhaps the arbitrariness of these boundaries that can be most frustrating, especially in games with more open worlds.

A notable example of this trope comes from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which features a literal broken bridge that prevents Link from crossing into Gerudo Valley until he has recruited Epona. This can be viewed as a limitation on the game’s sense of freedom, with minimal choices as to which locations, scary or not, Link can reach first.

Fetch Quests

Possibly the most tedious type of quest, this can often be used to cynically pad out content in a given game. Perhaps the most egregious aspect of this cliche is that it can distract from the main narrative and the world of the game.

Reddit user akcaye highlights this trope while underlining the exception of The Witcher 3, which avoided the tedium “by making almost all side quests somewhat related to the main quest.” That isn’t to say that fetch quests can’t work, and they can still be rewarding in their own way if they enhance the world of the game.

Unbalanced Character Builds

Reddit user gibmelson comments on this trope as one that hasn’t really been overcome by many RPGs, as “game systems generally heavily favors specialization and focusing on a single path – all out warrior or all out mage, or be mediocre at both.”

This is an extremely common feature in RPGs, especially when it comes to choosing between skills that benefit combat, or those that benefit speech and intelligence. While it may be frustrating for some though, there are few examples of RPGs that successfully subvert this mechanic.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/frustrating-rpg-gaming-cliches-that-need-to-end-according-to-reddit/

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