5 Video Game STORY CLICHES That I Hate 

One trope that bothers me is when the massacaring hero suddenly feels a moral conflict about killing the final villain. Think of the Uncharted Games. The defeated villain will taunt Drake, and tell him that he doesn't have it in him to finish him off. He's just not a killer. Um, there are 500 corpses, all felled by Drake, who would say otherwise. Yet, Drake always screws up his face and seems deeply troubled by the terrible choice before him. Sorry Drake, that ship sailed about 30 seconds into the prologue.

I hate when a character is super strong when fighting against you but is super weak when fighting with you. They did that with Quiet in MGSV and it was a major buzz kill.

The oposite of the unstoppable hero. When you strugle in the game, with limiting mechanichs, and then a cutscene comes and the character starts doing shit you wish you could during playtime. (examples FFVII remake, Cloud making super jumps, Metal Gear solid 3, Snake taking out Ocelot´s men in an instant, face to face)

Idk if I'd say I HATE it. This kinda thing more makes me laugh and breaks immersion. But... When a game's story is 100% unchangeable, but they let you do things in gameplay to contradict the story. Last of Us 1, for instance. There is a section of the game where you are escaping from a bunch of men, and main character Joel gets injured. You find out later that those men are from a local group of cannibals, and the leader of the cannibals is very upset at Joel for killing so many of his people. While replaying the game, I tried to escape the place without killing anybody. Basically just running for my life anytime one of them encountered me. And I did pretty good, I managed to avoiding killing all but one guy. And I'm thinking there's no way the guy can be mad about losing only one of his men. But cannibal leader's scripted dialogue played out exactly the same, saying "I sent a group of men out to look for food, and only a few came back" and "the others were slaughtered by a crazy man travelling with a little girl". And I'm just laughing like, "Must've been some other crazy man with a little girl, cause it sure as hell wasn't me lol"

Surprised. But love the insight you can provide for this medium! My most hated cliche is when the death of side characters is emotionally processed in about two lines of dialogue before the heroes go on and do whatever their big mission is. (While in the same universe the death of a loved one can be the catalyst for a whole revenge journey for the villain.)

I don't mind silent protags - in Metroid, Samus having no dialogue adds the whole sense of mystery that makes the exploration so great. And when she finally speaks to the Chozo in Metroid Dread, it's certainly a moment that couldn't have been possible if she talked all the time (btw Other M doesn't count). My worst cliches would be - endless fetch quests (your #3 about macguffins) - main character being forced to make out-of-character decisions (in Other M, Samus could have turned on any of her locked abilities at any time but only does so at the end when the plot and game progression need her to) - fake-outs where you think the story's finished, only for extra levels with out-of-nowhere plot points are thrown in to increase gameplay time.

My first mmo cliché is the tedious harvest quest. "Go into the forest, kill beavers, bring me 150 tails." Second is the unearned Chosen One-ness. I don't mind power fantasy or big destiny per se, but it really disappoints me when all your character has to do is show up and one little dungeon run later your halfway to guildmaster.

2 game cliches i hate. 1 winning the fight then losing in the cutscene right after. 2 the big bad letting you live at the beginning of the game cause you're not a threat.

I hate it when you identify who the bad guy is in 10 seconds while the game waits to actually reveal it halfway through or at the end.

When it comes to Quest, I cannot stand that if a little girl NPC has a quest for you, it will always be something along the lines of "I lost my dolly. Please find it for me!"

Silent protagonists can work very well in some games. Portal and portal 2 have some really funny dialogue sequences that are based around the protagonist being mute.

Mario never seemed like he needed dialogue, and it may have been a cartridge space issue for Super Mario 64 to only have little catchphrases (which have just stuck around ever since)

I understand what you mean about the silent protagonist, but in some cases, I believe the silent protagonist is the best choice, specifically for games that have the creation of your own unique character as the main draw, like New Vegas. Having a voice or voice lines that might contradict the character you want to play as would be frustrating which is one of many reasons why a lot of people didn't like Fallout 4s voiced dialogue. Still a great video though! I would love to see more video game related videos.

This is a change of pace, I hope to see more videos like this! I think you're #5 is my #1 lol. I've always hated how unstoppable characters are halted in a cutscenes by events that wouldn't harm them in gameplay. The opposite is also true. Where a cutscene showcases a character's ability that is otherwise not possible in gameplay. I think the latter is actually more common, and its a super pet peeve of mine. Makes me think the character is only extremely strong when the story requires them to be.

tbf telltale games probably only sold because of their story and not their pseudo choices, but then anyone could view the story on the internet to experience it and therefore there is no point in buying the game and that is probably why their company went bankrupt... i feel really bad for them because their games had some of the best stories i have experienced, the ending of the walking dead legit got to me and even though you didnt have any real choices... playing batman the telltale series and batman the enemy within legit made me feel that these things mattered a lot and I actually felt like the protagonist instead of just a passive observer... same with minecraft story mode... RIP telltale... you will always be in my heart...

When the Lead hero is suddenly incapacitated be the thought of loosing a dear close ally and almost can’t carry on even though he wades through the corpses of his enemies for nearly the entire game.

Link has a reason in BOTW to not talk. In Zelda's diary, she says that Link talked to her once, and said that he doesn't talk because with so many eyes on him, and so much pressure to save Hyrule from evil, he took a vow of silence.

Hard agree with you on the silent protagonists. And the worst part about Link is: they did a FANTASTIC version of him in Skyward Sword. While he was still silent, not only did he have a ton more options for dialogue, but he was severely more expressive in cutscenes. There is even a character development in his emotions as you go through the game, from a meek childhood friend who always has to be saved to a confident hero tearing through hell to get your girl back. In this case, some of his silence can speak volumes. So I was really disappointed that they just kind of made Link boring and uninteresting again in BotW and TotK. I think my most hated story cliche is the same in videogame as it is in other medium: the love triangle. I've seen very few love triangles that are actually interesting (and by 'very few' I mean once), and most of the time it's added in the middle of the story to create cheap drama between the main couple. Not at ANY point do you believe these characters will end up with literally anybody else so this entire third wheel entering adds nothing but padding to a plot. If there are actually other stories out there with good love triangles, I'd love to know that they exist beyond the one I know, but highly doubtful. EDIT: Also, while we're on the topic, I'd love to see another video on this subject, but on videogame tropes that you LOVE instead. I'd love to know what cliches you can do exclusively in videogames that are great examples of the medium.

You know what game actually urks me with the silent protagonist? The old call of duty modern warfare trilogy! As much as I love the story, whenever you played as a specific character they suddenly go completely mute or were completely mute from the start. Think about Soap, who were introduced to in Cod 4. He's silent until Mw2, where he takes the role of captain and you're no longer in control of him. He's very talkative, until one of the later missions where you begin playing as him and all of a sudden he doesn't speak, lol. Same thing with characters like Yuri in Mw3, really takes me outta the story for a little

When there is supposed to be a time sensitive moment in the main quest but the gameplay reflects no sense of urgency, encouraging you to explore, grind or even take on trivial side quests.

Love the fact that you give attention to video games. I love books but some of my favorite stories are from video games too. Great video!

It frustrates me when a character is super powerful in cutscenes but mediocre in gameplay. An example is Jack in Mass Effect 2. When you meet her she's annihilating giant mechs that have multiple health bars and are difficult opponents in gameplay, but when she joins your squad she's one of the most useless squadmates in the game.

I’ll be honest, I actually really like the silent protagonist trope. I don’t think every protagonist should have lots of dialog, and it does work better for characters like Mario and Link to be silent instead of speaking full sentences.

I really dislike when games stories move the goalpost too much. Like the objective will start out as 'go to blank city major story stuff is going to happen there'. But then there a an unopenable gate or something in the way and you have to go on a wild tangent to a side dungeon to get the key for the gate.

Do you think Freeman from the Half-Life games should have had dialogue? For the most part I felt immersed by his silence but when Alyx talks to him and he doesn't respond it felt awkward.

While I do get the point about Ocarina Of Time, I actually like that you inadvertently help Ganonforf to become more powerful and take control of Hyrule. I don't think it's somthing we had seen yet in a videogame, and to me it actually gives more motivation to the *player* (not only the in-game characters) to defeat him and set things straight. You (and Zelda) being naive and contributing to the downfall of Hyrule despite the best intentions helps to make things more personal. When the credits roll, I feel like I've truly grown by not only becoming more powerful, but also by fixing everyone's evil acts or mistakes (incl. Link's).

Ah yes, you did it at last. :) I'll just quickly point out that some of these can apply to other art forms too. For example, the one about having too many McGuffins could come up in books, movies, tv series, etc. There's probably a lot of self-published fantasy adventure ebooks with too many McGuffins to keep track of. And the self-insert protagonist is something I've seen people complain about in other art forms too. Namely, there's an ongoing debate over whether it's necessary to make main characters relatable. A lot of book publishers say you have to have a relatable protagonist, but tons of people disagree with that because relatable protagonists are usually boring. Anyway, love the video, and I'm glad to see it getting a positive reception. :)

Two minutes in and I’m loving the video already! Love the dissection of video game writing, and seeing FF8 and FF10 as an example was wonderful.

Oh maybe someone did mention this game earlier, but there is that game where the silent protagonist is done WELL ! And I of course speak about Lea from CrossCode. Lea is genuinely silent so the developers chose to use the signs language to help Lea express herself. The work they put on her face expressions in order for her to convey messages without speaking a word is marvellous. So you can, like you said, have good silent protagonists, there is another example. Crosscode is my GOTY 2018 (the year it was released) and easily one of my top ten favorite games or ARPG. By the way, Mr McNulty, I subscribed to your fantastic channel, thanks for your very instructive and interesting videos !

I HATE the first cliche. It made me swear very loudly when playing Far Cry series. I mow down whole island of bad guys, learn how to sneak and kill in a hundred ways and Vaas just catches me in an instant because he... um... was hidden behind the door.

Final Fantasy devs actually gave an explanation for why you can destroy hordes of enemies during gameplay, but still easily die during a cutscene. It's because all the in-game random battles and all the leveling is not part of the story canon. It's mainly done as an RPG gameplay mechanic to drag out the story. That's why when a character dies (knocked out) in battle from an explosion you can resurrect them with a Phoenix Down or with magic, but if it happens during a cutscene, they are gone for good. When I learned that, it made the leveling seem pointless, because lorewise none of the random encounters actually occurred. It's also part of the reason why I prefer western RPGs like the original Fallout games, because various NPCs will recognize that you killed all those people and you might even lose Karma and/or reputation with various factions/towns. How you choose to play those games has an impact on the in-game world. The only time it doesn't matter is when you have random encounters while traversing the world map.

Bosses that take forever to beat

I have two, one main problem is when they try to make a quick introduction like - he is the best detective in the world! - and a couple of NPC say this to me. Show, don't tell! And second one is when I fight a boss enemy and then he become part of my team and all suddenly his power level is reduced to minor nameless mob.

If there is a "unstopable hero" and "silent peotagonist" i can get behind, is the Doom Slayer, you are unstopable during gamrplay, and everyone shit bricks in your presence during cutscenes, and he is also, not completely "silent" you can pretty much understand whar he is saying or expresing for his mannerism

Yes, I absolutely HATE silent/self-insert protagonists! My favourite video game Genshin Impact has a self-insert protagonist who literally has no personality. The supporting cast are all fleshed out really well and have unique personalities and backstories and dialogue, but it creates a massive rift between the MC and the story because while everything else is so well fleshed out, the MC is not. And everyone also treats the MC as a great individual and stuff when they basically didn't really do anything except fight. Also, there is no dynamic between the protagonist and the other playable characters--they all think the protagonist is the greatest being to walk the earth. Full stop. Honestly it's like a mary sue but in a video game. That was a bit of a rant, but yeah. The MC doesn't even have a fleshed out backstory, just a vague idea--it's not supposed to be revealed until the end of the story, lol.

When the villain wants you dead as their main ojective... only for them to not kill you when they got the chance. When the final boss fight happens with that villain, I be like: "what, so NOW you wanna kill me, and not before?? LMAO YOU HAD THE CHANCE EARLIER"! Breaks the immersion and undermines the villain A LOT!

Problem with McGuffins in Mass Effect is how confusing they are. Series doesn't have a LOT of them, it's usually one thing you're looking for. First has the Conduit, which is a backdoor to Citadel where you talk to the Council. BUT you need to find Cipher to access it. You see the problem in 4 vague things using an uncommon word starting with C and having i-l in them. Second ME has you find a path through Omega 4 relay, the only McGuffin-like thing in main story is Reaper IFF which lets you pass through. It is considered best in trilogy for a reason, stories are self-contained, nothing is confusing, focus is on well-written characters, and most of all, no stupid Ci-things to track. Citadel is still there but it's one of four shopping hubs (one of two in ME1 and the ONLY one in 3). Third game, however, has everyone building Crucible, which is something nobody knows anything about apart from it being able to stop the Big Bad. Okay, but to find it you go through the Conduit, AGAIN, which is A DIFFERENT thing from Conduit in ME1, and you arrive at Crucible through Citadel and speak with Catalyst there, THIS IS AT LEAST SIX SEPARATE MCGUFFINS ALL HAVING C-i-l IN THEIR NAME! I played through series enough to memorize half the dialogue and STILL had to Google the various C-things to write this. It's that bad.

I actually released a video recently addressing the sleugh of complaints that fallout 4 gets because it actually has a voiced character with a backstory. the backstory isn't great, but simply replacing the protagonist with a voiceless blank slate doesn't help the story when it's based on the premise of a person searching for their kidnapped son. it was not well received...

My MOST HATED! cliche in video games is forced quest. There are two awful ways to execute this in RPG'S 1: "Hey I know where that place is, but first do this thing for me." Me: NO. NPC: Good luck finding it then. And it is IMPOSSIBLE to find the place so you have to accept to advance the plot or else game just stops. 2: "Hey I know you for 5 seconds but please help me save this random person." Me:NO NPC: Please reconsider. NO! please reconsider. Ed Nauseam until you say yes. You can't even exit dialogue tree!

As a writer (and someone who doesn’t like talking aloud), I find the “silent protagonists only exist as self-inserts” argument to be in bad taste. It gives off the idea that verbal speech (and only frequent verbal speech) is what gives a person character. There are indeed people who only speak when they feel that they have to (like dialogue options). And some characters simply choose to show their personality through their actions, or how they dress, or how they decorate their home. Judging a character simply by speech feels like an unnecessary limit to a person’s experience. And sometimes… a character is better off without voiced lines. Look at the Zelda cartoon or CDI games; Link speaking would be cursed at best.

Really enjoyed this video! (also the prologue video) As someone whose played games for years, I often hear these common criticisms about these cliches. I have my own thoughts on each: #5: That's pretty much my number one. It's difficult because game developers want to give a power fantasy to their players, but also want to tell a compelling narrative. That constant tension is a big reason why scenes like FF10 happen. #4: Its sounds like forced final bosses aren't the problem (isn't every final boss technically forced?) but instead final bosses that feel hollow or don't use the skills you learned in a satisfying way. For example, you used the final boss of Asylum as a bad boss, but one of the best bosses is in Arkham City with Mr. Freeze, where he forces Batman to use different tactics to take him down. #3: Personally, I disagree. In video games, players need goals to have a sense of direction, but the fun comes in the journey & characters you meet along the way. Plus, unlike a movie, you control how long/short the time takes to get the macguffin. Ocarina of time is ironically a great example of doing macguffins right: I could go straight to the item ignoring everything else, or I could take my time & do a side quest or a mini game. Plus, you learn different skills/ abilities (hookshot, bow & arrow, Epona, etc.) that make you & your character feel stronger together in a way you really don't get in other media. (Also, I like the twist that Ganondorf was secretly manipulating the heroes to do the work for him, as it shows a level of cunning & strategy, especially because he was unable to get the stones himself, so he adapted his strategy). Side note: the problem is to many uninteresting, unnecessary macguffins, especially ones that do not impact the story. For example, Donkey Kong 64's ridiculous number of collectibles for no reason other than the game says so. #2: YES, pretty much agree with everything you say here. As I mentioned earlier, it's hard because game developers want to give players freedom but also have a pre-determined narrative they are trying to tell. Most of the time these "choices" could be removed & nothing of substance would be lost. #1: I may be the only one who feels this way, but I actually prefer the silent protagonist. There are only so many ways you can write dialogue for a hero/anti-hero that doesn't feel like we have not already seen it millions of times in books, tv, movies, etc. There is nothing wrong with characters who do talk & have personalities, but video games are unique in that you can project your own thoughts & feelings, something you cannot do in other media. Side note: You mentioned Persona 5 with Joker, it seems like the problem isn't silent protagonists but the story & gameplay conflicting as mentioned previously. This breaks the immersion as it makes no sense to the player. Link works because he has always been seen as the strong silent type, so his silence makes sense; Joker doesn't work because he is supposed to be charismatic when the game does not allow him to be. Just my personal thoughts, enjoyed your video!

I love that you did a video about video game stories. An RPG on PS2 called Rogue Galaxy was honestly a major part of what inspired me to get into writing. It has 8 party members, all of whom have their own plotline that's explored along the way and they tie together at the end. Some of them are a bit cliche, yeah, but the way they pulled that off is a mark of good storytelling.

Mine is when you acquire a god like weapon that the antagonist uses against you but it has 0 of the same ability and is just a normal weapon once you get it

ivereally come to enjoy your content. thank you for all the great and practical advices. i hope youd be able to do some vids specifically to help with writing tabletop rpg stories. your other vids were extremely helpful but im looking forward to hear what you can share about writing ttrpg stories :)

a silly one but, when enemies have inifinite ammo/resources, until you kill them and then they just had 2 bullets left.

A yes, choices that don't matter. Just like the Pokémon games diologues. When they offer you the "no" option, it's usually as a joke and they always repeat "No way, it's too shocking. Let me ask you the question again" or "Ha ha, nice joke, but you really became a champion, right ?" until you choose "yes". A fun example in Black/White 2, when your mom asks you as the protagonist if you want a Pokedex since her friend wants to give one to the protagonist, if you reply back "no", your mom litteraly says "I wish you could be a bit more grateful ! Now, let me ask the question again, do you want a Pokedex ???". Yep, that's my mom alright. Telling me I'm ungrateful until I agree with her. 😂

Have you ever played Detroit: Become Human? If so, would you say that game is also a case of choices don't matter or no? Because it's one of the few games where the smallest of choices in earlier episodes dramatically change the direction and tone towards the endgame. Like on one my play throughs, I had forgotten that if you use one protagonist to find a secondary character, then that character will not be alive for a later episode where you're playing another protagonist. And because of that, you can actually get that protagonist killed by accident, effectively ending the remaining the 10 or so chapters you were suppose to play as him; also dramatically altering the storylines of the other two protagonist.

Meh. The silent character is just probably not a fit for you. I think it's not a cliche to be hated. It makes some games better and more inmersive. It would depend on the eye of the player then.

We all know about the armor that has way higher defense than it looks like it should. Also, some characters do really silly things to let the story keep going (ex. Mario beats Bowser Junior but lets him run off to the next tower)

so i know that's absolutely not the point but since i see so many people giving their opinion on the silent protagonist, i just got reminded of the game "Rain", in which you play a boy that becomes invisible and that you can only perceive when rain is falling on him. As in the Samus game mentionned in the video where she doesnt really have anyone to talk to, the boy doesnt interact with anyone for most of the game. However, at some point, he meets a girl in the same situation as him, and it is revealed that they cant talk to each other because the wind steals their voice, which actually fits the story, and i just thought it was quite cool

New subscriber. You are an amazingly clear and concise teacher. Thank you for your generosity.

Great video! I can't think of a worst cliche number 2 example than the finale of mass effect 3. Geez, that was horrible. After all that great plot, the fighting, the sacrifices and the hard choices in all the three games, you end up discovering that none of that really mattered, except for a third ending choice that provided a slightly different cutscene from the other two. No surprise mass effect andromeda backfired hard.

In Zelda Breath of the Wild, it is built into the story the Link is silent, so I feel like it works, expect for the NPC dialogue

Super Metroid is such a gem you can learn from. I was a youngin' when that game came out, and its atmosphere spooked me so bad lol. The music, the sounds, the emptiness, man, it was great. That set the bar for spook/horror for me. Metroid Dread also did a lot of things extremely well, like having Samus continue the silent protagonist bit in a way that made perfect sense until about halfway or so through the game and then she speaks. It's a terrific moment. And then the final boss? Hoo boy. It was something to see Samus rage so hard.

My two favorites are endless dumb side quests that never advance the plot (but I do them all anyway). Skyrim and Fallout are great examples. The other is forcing the player to solve a problem in an overly complicated and stupid way. Assassin's Creed is notorious for this one.

Depends on the Silent/Self-Insert Protag, I agree that it can be terrible. Like in the Metro series for example, where the story suffers a lot from main character, Artyom, being silent with the exceptions being loading screens which are his thoughts speaking and the occasional grunts. But in the books, he is depicted speaking or at least giving his thoughts out. Honestly, a lot of scenes in the Metro games drive me nuts as characters are speaking to him but either someone fills in Artytom's spot to speak or continue their dialogue/action without input, let alone the lack of dialogue options to interact with the characters. Fallout: New Vegas benefits having a Silent Protag, as not only has great dialogue options, the choices do actually matter and it's easier for the player to envision what the character sounds like while they progress the story as a violent murderer, pacifist or whatever the player wants. Allows for great flexibility and roleplay.

6:07 Prime example: Heavy Rain. There are two playable characters that no matter what you did, no matter how risky the choices you made, these two will never die until the final chapter because if any of them died midway throughout the story, the game is over so the choices regarding to these didn’t really matter to the outcome.

Something that really bugs me in games like Resident Evil and others is when I have to go 20 miles away to fetch a damn key just to open a wooden door that I could have blasted with my shotgun or even just my shoulder... Or when the way is blocked by a tree trunk or whatever that you could just walk over but can't for some reason

I don’t know if this is a cliche but I don’t like over exaggerated emotions in movies. It has to make sense and be sincere or it just annoys me deeply

1:19 when sora Donald and Goofy get overwhelmed by heartless…like guys…really? YOURE THE AVENGERS AT THIS POINT. 😂

The Zelda games where Link goes solo are the most boring to me, because I don't feel the weight of the plot. All character cherishing Link like "You're mi best friend", or love and he said nothing at all just swing a sword while screams. On the opposite side the game Deponia I wished everyone just shut up because all characters were insufferable. Games with silent protagonist going solo tend to bore me but when it has a companion who carries the story things changes like Zelda Twilight Princess or Okami.

I think the silent protagonist/self insert protagonist is very dependant on the game, I can understand why it would be frustrating in the game you mentioned but I find it really works in many other games. in the game Undertale we have a silent protagonist/self insert protagonist in frisk, however that works because we don't need a lot of dialog for them to make choices that matter and in the genocide run of Undertale the silence makes frisk so much more intimidating, even to the player, there are literally scenes in that run where other characters point out the silence and start getting scared of frisk which is such a jaw dropping moment in the game. and self insert can also really work in games like fallout or Skyrim, where it feels like you are making your own story.

Worst lazy writing in a videogame ever, the "I don't have time to tell you how I don't have time." Destiny 1 When I heard that, I literally yelled out loud, "Oh no you do not give me that bullshit! You get your ass back here and tell me what the fuck is going on!!!"

Amnesia! Not the game, but the cliche of not knowing what's going on.

What video game story cliches do you hate the most? Let us know!

Mine is the inevitable betrayal trope. It's usually pretty obvious and that makes it all the more annoying.

I'm curious if you have any advice on how to build "dialogues" for the silent protagonist in the game, and what to avoid. I'm serious! Have a nice day! :)

Regarding choices that don't matter: games can also go in the complete opposite direction and you end up with something like Detroit: become human which has a bajillion different endings. At that point, it's unclear what kind of story the developer is even trying to tell and it all feels kinda hollow.

I really dislike when open world games don't acknowledge when you do stuff that sequence breaks. Tears of the Kingdom did this recently. Everyone is driven by the question "Where's Zelda?" But if you do the quests that reveal where she is, you can't tell anyone, and no one changes their behavior based on what you just did an entire questline to find out.

Mine is related to your number 5, though not exactly the same. Cocky, teenage heroes who act like mortal danger is just some casual game or a simple task like "please shop for groceries before you come home." They're confronted by professional, heavily armed soldiers, or mass produced anti-infantry robots, or apex predators, and will make comments like "oh, this is gonna be fun!" or "Bet I can kill more of them than you!". It makes a mockery of heavy themes (war/combat); no reason is given for either their confidence (they're just ordinary humans, and inexperienced ones at that) or for the fact the enemy is not reluctant to engage (since for whatever reason they ARE almost invincible). It makes you wonder how the state of the art killer droids keep getting mass produced and the barracks keep churning out such incompetent troops who can't even stop a few teenagers with spiky hairdos. It's like the general population of the world has no agency at all.

I think having choices in games is awesome, and the best I've seen is The Dark Pictures anthology. As for your first point, YES. The exact opposite is why I love Devil May Cry. You may be having trouble fighting enemies but once it reaches a cutscene, your character is an action movie hero dodging everything or brushing off fatal blows. At the start you don't feel like that but with experience and new abilities, you feel like the heroes in the cutscenes.

I hate it when there is a chosen one of a prophecy. It is always told in the same way. I wanna choose my destiny myself in a game or a story where the hero makes its own descisions. The trope is a cheap excuse of the lack of character development of the protagonist and its invincibility.

when I read the title I was like: “wtf is a clich?” and then clicked on the vid he finally said it and I was like: “OHH CLICHÉ!”

Genshin Impact is a good example that I can immediately think of that uses choices and the silent protagonist tropes, for NO REASON. It does not feel immersive nor does it feel like I'm putting myself in the main character's shoes. To add insult instead of the MC doing the talking, Paimon does it and it's always painfully long, awful exposition dialogue. For an MC looking for their lost sibling as the game's main plot, they should be the one doing the heavy talking.

I wish you would do something lazy writing plot points. By that, I mean lazy things to move the plot forward. The one I hate the most out of everything is the "stupid kid". Ok, there are 10 trillion trees on this planet, just don't touch that one. Kid immediately touches it. Ok, just stay here and you'll be safe, kid immediately runs at the villain with a slingshot so the villain now has leverage over the hero. Horde of zombies coming, but the kid runs back towards them to get the stuffed animal. Two, the hero who won't sacrifice said stupid kid. They always have to "do the right thing". Or they are under siege and decide to take prisoners instead of just killing them because it is the right thing to do. Then of course that prisoner gets free to warn the villain. This is also when the hero can't kill the villain at the end and walks away. That is until the villain makes the last attack and then the hero kills him to defend himself. Three. The bond villain. They always have to monologue then leave the hero to die in some contrived way rather than just shooting them. Four. When the villain conveniences the hero to give up their advantage in a fight. Hero finally got the gun but he puts it down to fight the villain in a fair fistfight. No one would be that dumb. The cousin of this is the villain who goats the hero into attacking. Jon Snow tells everyone to hold formation, they will all die if they break formation. Seconds later Ramsey shoots his brother, he breaks formation. Again, just lazy writing. Five. I hate when the laws of a universe are inconsistent. The hero can sometimes fall faster and break physics. Even if they aren't real physics, at least keep them consistent. People can't swim but suddenly can when the plot calls for it to move it along. Six. The "you better come see this". No one is ever able to describe something over the phone. Or where a simple line of dialogue would have cleared up this whole mess and misunderstanding but for some reason they never say it. The cousin of this is the magical coincidence? What? Batmans mother was Martha? Oh, ok, we are friends now. The kidnappers only speak Portuguese, well I might just be a cab driver but my housekeeper was Portuguese and so I can speak it. If you could show how to fix these stupid writing points, that would be great.

Unnecessary bosses are also bad from the gameplay perspective. Imagine you're Adam Jensen, an operative of Sarif Industries. You're sneaking through a secret FEMA camp, silently taking down enemies one by one and clearing the path forward. Suddenly, you see a huge guy with a minigun attached to his arm. What do you do? You stand up, walk to the center of the room the enemy is in and promptly get turned into swiss cheese by the rapid-firing gun. For the last X hours, you've been training how to evade your enemies and sneak up to them undetected and suddenly the game pushes you into an arena, which demands a completely different set of skills -- ones you never tried before in the entire game. Unsurprisingly, you die time and time again until you finally clear the stage and can continue the game. The boss fight is the final exam of the game, which tests whether you've learned the mechanics. Usually, the mechanics are about combat, so the exam is also a difficult combat encounter. But if the skills you're honing during the game are different, then don't put a stupid combat arena with a boss in the end.

I'm not sure this qualifies as a cliche, but shooter games where the bullets aren't affected by gravity drive me nuts--which is all but one franchise.

I can agree with the silent protagonist, I just dislike the fact that they forget the protag is a *character* in the story. However one way to maintain the silent protag and do it right, is remembering that *ACTION* can speak louder than words. And this is where Link comes in. Link has gotten many incarnations but my fav is BOTW's, simply by how...*real* he feels. The memories quest is what sold it for me. There is one memory where he is keeping an eye on Zelda, her praying to Hylia in the spring of wisdom. He is giving his back to her, but looks back slightly and *listens* to her grief. That was amazing. He also sings tunes while cooking, laughs and has fun while shield surfing. There is also Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask Link and the most tragic one. And Toon Link is the most expressive. Other protags in JRPGS just feel soulless and generic. I wish more silent protagonists were like this, don't just make them feel like a damned mannequin. If they don't speak, make them *act* to both external and internal situations with other characters.

In contrast with the silent protagonist, I despise games where the protagonist needlessly babbles inane quips during gameplay because the writer fancied himself Joss Whedon or Quentin Tarantino.

The Chosen One. Undoubtedly one of the most played out clichés in gaming history.

I actually like the silent protagonist, but for the rest i agree. I also hate when you, the player, have already spotted the villain but nobody of the game characters did, and you are forced to play along with him even for hours until the inevitable betrayal. Writers, do it for the giggles, but not if i am supposed to take the game seriously

It's interesting to see a writers perspective on games...of course the biggest issue would be dialogue! We should keep in mind however that the fundamental of game design is not story but rather the game play. The story is only additional but happens to be what we feel most attached to. The biggest issue I have with cliche stories is that almost every fantasy RPG has the same exact plot. There's the good guys, an evil villain, a princess, maybe a dragon, and only you the hero with your trusty sword who can save the world. It's been done over and over again a million times.

100% agree, especially on the silent protagonists. I rather hate a main character for what they say and who they are than get nothing at all. Just NPCs talking to a wall for the whole game. I want to know why the MC is important and what's their view of whatever universe they're in if I'm to care for the story.

Prophecy. It's such a cliche. I love the Legend of Zelda series, but I if I have to sit through one more cutscene the prophecy of the goddess's chosen one who is destined to defeat evil...

Yea I think I have to agree with the ppl saying that silent protagonists are preferred for rpg's. Maybe it's a personally thing, but in games like Cyberpunk, Mass Effect, or (vanilla) fallout 4, this person who is supposed to be "me" saying things I never would and using a voice that isn't mine just takes me right out of the game. Even in the call of duty games where the player character start talking, it's just kind of a weird out-of-body sort of experience when you hear dialogue start up and wonder where its coming from and then realize its coming from you. Maybe it's a first-person perspective related thing. Regardless, great video brother

Mine is forcing gameplay from one genre into games that are otherwise a different genre. Zelda is loysy with games that force a stealth section but otherwise dont rely on stealth. This is especially irritating in Gerudo fortress, where Link surrenders whenever a Gerudo guard spots him, presumably because he doesnt want to hurt humans, but whenever he frees one of their prisoners, he fights a Gerudo warrior anyway. BotW and TotK fixed this by making stealth helpful, but not necessary.

The princess being in another castle.

There being an urgent quest your jet has to complete or a catastrophe happens. Except you have all the time in the world to do a hundred side quests with zero repercussions.

Are the seven medallions in Oot really that bad? You are after the SAGES, after all, the medallions are just there to represent them. All but two of them is a character that had a somewhat meaningful role in the story before they became a Mcmuffin. It's actually a fair improvement compared to LttP. Although it could be said that they largely cease to be characters at that point and have zero role in the story after they are "collected", until their brief appearances in the ending. So they're all half of a Mcmuffin, really...

The Portal games should not have had a silent protagonist. I know the main point of the game is the mobility mechanics, but my personal favorite part is the relationship arc between the silent protagonist and the main antagonist. Which couldn't be fleshed out properly, because the protagonist can't/doesn't talk and as a result is never properly characterized! The reason she does half the things she does is up for interpretation! It also ends up making me root for the villain, because she DOES talk, and she is a funny, creative, clever character with a lot of tragic elements to her story and personality. The fact that she's fairly cruel to the protagonist is a little hard to take seriously, given that the protagonist doesn't even feel like a character (even though she is clearly not a blank-slate self insert; she is someone within the game world). It's a little hard to care about the antagonist's emotional abuse of the MC when, as far as I can tell, the MC doesn't have any emotions. This isn't relevant to the question you asked. Just, you said you hated this trope, and I hate this specific instance of it, so I wanted to vent.

As of late, my most hated video game cliche is the strong female protagonist.

Am I glad I didn't finish the Arkham Asylum game. That ending would have ruffled my feathers.

Most hated cliche: Chosen one

Here's a question: would you rather have a silent protagonist, or a protagonist who NEVER SHUTS UP? Suikoden, oddly enough, is guilty of both, with Tierkreis being the poster child for the latter (and Suikoden 3 being the exception to both). Also, does it count if the silent protagonist suddenly starts talking for the second half of the game, like in Chrono Cross?

The forced final boss ruins a game for me. It was part of the reason I finished Tales of Arise and never picked it back up again

For choices that don’t matter, I believe that such a mechanic is effective in games where part of the theme or point of the game is that your choices just don’t matter. Take Doki Doki Literature Club, for example. No matter what you do, all the girls die and Monika takes over. None of the choices you make during Act 1 actually matter, since the ending is the same anyway. And that works! Because it shows how much control Monika has, and how little control you, the player, has.

I agree with you on silent protagonists when the other characters are voiced (ofc if game has no voice-over or one for select characters like Fallout or Baldur's Gate that's a different deal). I think that's actually an unpoplar opinion since I've read articles explaining how voiced protagonists ruin gaming or something, i.e. the lower the options or put devs into narrow limits or whatever. Revan and Exile in KOTOR sound awkward and so do the Grey Warden in Dragon Age and Knight Commander in NWN2. Hawke in DA2 is a better character because they have a voice. And self-insert can work either way since tons of things characters do are more immersion breaking than them having voice that can differ from yours.

dude - i love these videos

"This isn't even my final form"-bossfights. They can be fun, but it's such an overused grip that we kind of expect it now. Much more interesting to see a healthbar from here to Kathmandu and think "oh, crap... this is going to take some skill to take down".

I hate it when story potential is undercut by the 'need' for an action sequence. Jak 2 has a particularly frustrating example for me: After winning the final cup of the city's big racing tournament, Jak comes face-to-face with Baron Praxis, against whom he's been waging a personal war for the torture he's endured in Praxis' "Dark Warrior" experiments. Jak says, "Just a little closer - we need to talk..." hinting that they may be about to set aside their mutual hatred in light of the bigger stakes of the story, namely, an impending invasion by the Metalheads. Then, after Praxis shrugs off Jak's comment with a brief megalomaniacal speech, they're interrupted when Erol, Jak's racing rival, attempts to ram him with his racer, but crashes and dies. The scene ends with Jak fleeing and Praxis ordering his guards to seize him, effectively leaving the status quo disappointingly unchanged for the next action mission. The whole sequence smacks of wasted story and character possibilities.