Your favorite (and LEAST favorite) RPG Tropes

[Alexander Amnell]

Favorite Tropes:

Unconventional Affection: Anytime that a meaningful relationship other than your typical teenage starry-eyed romance occurs. Such as a developing parent/child type relationship or a deep friendship that is unrelated to romantic intent.

Damsel in Distress/Men are the expendable gender combo: I know I'll probably get flak for even saying I like either of these tropes, but I was brought up in the old ways where men are supposed to be protectors. Say what you will about the the sexism that existed when that idea was most popular, I still believe in it(that specific idea) and would risk my life without hesitation to protect those close to me. (though never from a place of martyrdom; I'd fully expect to come out of it alive.) 

Hated Tropes:

Armies of children: One thing I cannot stand most times in games is when children are running around with various weapons saving the village from bloodthirsty bandits while what should be capable adult npc's such as the town guard, blacksmith and so on sit idly by waiting to be saved. It is fully acceptable and realistic for children to be forced to deal with some dark and dangerous circumstances, but if an effort isn't made as for why it falls upon a child to fight a war while the adults go about their business it infuriates me. 

Cash Cows: It's been said before, animals with wallets are just strange...

Kleptomania without consequences: If some random newcomer were to come into my house and start rifling through everything and taking whatever shiny caught his/her eye, that person would have cause to fear for their life. Why should a game be any different?

Morality by Appearance: Any time I see an unattractive, overweight man in a game that is at all important to the story I automatically assume that he is the left-hand man to the main villain; a mindless brute that excites in rape and murder but has nothing else going for him. At least 80% of the time I'd be correct, for there is little reason in most games to include unattractive people than that. As for unattractive women, I can't really think of a game off of the top of my head that really had one included at all as a semi-important/recurring character. (One exception that made my day was Yangus from dragon quest 8) 

 

[amerk]

Hated Tropes:

Armies of children: 

Unless it was a sort of fantasy spin on the Children's Crusade. Extra kudos if the army of children were somehow bent on world domination, and it was the job of a bunch of old farts to play the part of heroes and kick the childrens' butts. Yeah, that's a trope I could enjoy playing.

 

[BlissAuthority]

1) Enemies drop money. I just can't get how in the world does monsters drop money.

2) Accessories are always super powerful in video games. Like most state nullifying effects can be found from accessories

On this note, I always like games where monsters drop furs1 that you then sell.  I'm looking at you, Star Stealing Prince, and I'm giving you a thumbs-up.

1: Furs may be anything a monster might drop that it would logicially have and would logically be a valuable trade good.

 

[sbethune81]

I've never had a problem with monsters and money. Monsters eat adventurers, gold pouches and all. You come along, playing a more capable set of adventurers, and kill those monsters. To the victor go the spoils.

 

[amerk]

I've never had a problem with monsters and money. Monsters eat adventurers, gold pouches and all. You come along, playing a more capable set of adventurers, and kill those monsters. To the victor go the spoils.

Yeah, those damn slimes that keep killing everybody off, even though they take off like a fraction of HP each turn and move slower than molasses.

However, that takes me to another tropes. Slimes! When I see this in an rpg, I cringe. Unfortunately, it's come to the point that developers are at least aware of this... enough to make slimes a formidable foe late in the game rather than an easy prey at the beginning. But it doesn't matter to me. Seeing slimes appear halfway through the game seems more jarring than if I were to see them upfront. Best advice, use something other than slimes.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

yeah, or that small insect enemy that has no way to eat the adventurers more so to store anything that they have


I feel bad for the slimes

 

[Ed19]

Favorite Trope :

Run not walk = I hate wasting time. =)

Repeatable Quest = Why not? 

The first village will always be destroyed = A cliche thing, but I like this. It's just a demonstration of how strong the bad guy is...

Hated :

A Stronger sibling =  In the end, the good side always wins.

Save the Princess = A mixed bag of feeling. The plot is just overused.

 

[Kes]

Not sure that I have a favourite as such.

But oh boy, do I have a hated one.  It's come up before but...

Inexperienced kids who are capable of taking down anything that they come across when adults can't.  Who seem to have adult emotions etc. etc.

These are not children.  Even sophisticated children, or children who, because of circumstances have had to grow up before their time, do not act like this.

I can suspend disbelief along with most people who play RPGs,.  This one I cannot get past.

 

[SLEEP]

i like:

Dealing with fate and destiny and such - Obviously if it's done well, there's a lot of this done poorly and it's pretty much the trash bottom of the barrel garbage. But when done right it's my favorite thing i'm not sorry.

Cel-shading - according to tv tropes it is a trope let's go with that. Realtalk: I'm a sucker for a strong aesthetic sense. (I don't mean aesthetics in terms of fidelity just to clarify)

Rule of cool: BD

Cheesy teenager anime soap opera campy melodrama.

Modern here-and-now settings, especially their tendency to inadvertently end up as period pieces.

The convoluted and contrived I can deal with super-easy as well bring it on.

Practical combat wear, in the sense that it's kind of practical with a few breaks from reality for rule of cool and wish fulfillment escapism, not breaks from reality in the sense of chainmail bikini lol

Combat related I like timed hits (Mario RPGs <3333), varied battle music, weird and wonderful enemy designs, choose-your-own difficulty, useful magic, and did I mention varied battle music because that is important pay attention!!

least favorite:

Damsel in distress - it bothers me how many people hate it because it's "lazy". No it's not. It's sexist and that's why you should hate it, and that's why I hate it. A few twists, inversions, subversion, and such, could make it less sexist but probably not.

Murder as an easy, guilt free act - Obviously the era of the story, and the context matter, but the protagonists of stories end up murderers far more often than I'd like.

Silent protagonists - I don't mind them, but I don't find them any easier to relate to than talky protagonists, or those in between.

Women who exist to be character development for men. On that note I hate men. lmao jk but men are over-saturated in all genres of games.

probably

 more but i am in awe ive typed this much time to go

 

[Alexander Amnell]

Damsel in distress - it bothers me how many people hate it because it's "lazy". No it's not. It's sexist and that's why you should hate it, and that's why I hate it. A few twists, inversions, subversion, and such, could make it less sexist but probably not.

   Nowadays I think using that trope is usually less sexist than it started out. Sure, if you go full on 'girl in a tower lounges around all day until a brave masculine hero comes along to rescue her, then she meekly agrees to become his wife and move into his tower even though she just met him" then yeah; that's really, really sexist. These days that trope is rarely used anywhere near that extreme anymore, and there are many that add twists to it that do succeed in making it 'less sexist'. One of my favorites is when the damsel is in distress because she is so powerful and not strictly because of sex appeal + weakness. (examples of this in games that absolutely fit the trope: Bioshock Infinite, Final Fantasies 6, 7(multiple occasions + reversals), 8 and 10, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and The Fallen Ones.

   Another way of changing it up that is rarer(but shouldn't be as rare) is the "everyone can be a victim" rule. Devil May Cry 4 is a good example of this, when Kyrie first got kidnapped it irritated me because I knew that 1. The series is already kind of sexist. 2. it would create a backlash for them to further establish it as such. But then Nero goes to rescue her, and what happens to him? He gets captured and used to power the giant demon-thing alongside her; requiring an even more powerful "knight"(Dante) to save his ass too. Personally I really like a story where characters are willing to go to extremes to protect those that they care about, some of my favorite stories involve this. Is it sexist that more often than not it's a female character that gets abducted, maybe. But then again, in real life women are many times more likely to be assaulted(by strangers) than a man is and 100s of times more likely to be the victim of an abduction(outside of p.o.w and similar situations.) so perhaps its just a sad reality. 

   It is even better when said protection is in the form of a symbiotic relationship (both people protecting each other.) Like in The Fallen Ones, The Last of Us (mid-late game), and Bioshock Infinite. Up to the point of sacrifice, if a story merits a male and female character choosing one or the other as a sacrifice so that the other can get away, I'll always be bothered by the man accepting and sitting by as the woman fights or dies for his well-being.(I almost rage-quit near the end of the Last of Us, glade I didn't) This mentality might actually be sexist, and I'll accept that I am if modern society actually gets to a point where they are uniformly against the idea. (Thus; series, games and novels that are initially well received would have to stop tanking from the moment they introduced a female taking the fall for a man and stop getting more praise or at least maintaining reception when they have the opposite convention; and women having to register for selective service upon reaching adulthood and thus having the possibility of being sent to war against their own desires the same as men, with society as a whole backing and supporting such an idea.) until then I'll accept that I 'might' be a little bit sexist, but if it is sexist to want to spare loved ones from committing acts of violence and/or dying then so be it. 

Women who exist to be character development for men. On that note I hate men. lmao jk but men are over-saturated in all genres of games.

No arguments there...

 

[Mr. Detective]

Damsel in distress - it bothers me how many people hate it because it's "lazy". No it's not. It's sexist and that's why you should hate it, and that's why I hate it. A few twists, inversions, subversion, and such, could make it less sexist but probably not.

No. Throw that word around all you want, it has lost its meaning. There is nothing that can stop me from having a female character who is weak and gets captured by the enemy. You might not like it, but to call it sexist just show that you're a feminist drama queen or a liberal extremist. You can hate it for personal reason, but you're not going to convince me to hate it because you think it's "sexist".

Trope I think is funny: Male characters are usually slow to get things, brash, delinquent, and not very intelligent, while female characters are always smart and elegant. Let's reverse that.

 

[TheRiotInside]

There are a few other contributing factors to the overall gender stereotyping and sexism in RPG's. Something to keep in mind is that most of these games take place in either Medieval or at least Medieval-inspired worlds. This was a time when, barring some exceptions, men were the noble warriors and protectors, and women were considered frail prizes to be won. These were very sexist times. One could make the argument (not saying that I am necessarily backing this argument) that to portray these general stereotypes is being true to the culture in those times. Of course, these are stories being fabricated, based off of an already very mystical time, so there is no reason why you couldn't just make up what you want, reverse roles, etc. It's your fiction, you can make it however you want, but to say that these gender stereotypes are sexist, it's not 100% of the time because the writer is sexist, it's because the era they are building their story in was.

Also stories in games tend to magnify and exaggerate things somewhat, so if in reality these gender roles were more subtle, the very nature of engaging storytelling is going to polarize and exaggerate these issues anyway.

Side note: I like slimes.

 

[amerk]

Next time a damsel in distress is whisked away by some butt ugly villain, the male lead should tell her to fend for herself so he doesn't appear to be sexist.

 

[BlissAuthority]

Next time a damsel in distress is whisked away by some butt ugly villain, the male lead should tell her to fend for herself so he doesn't appear to be sexist.

There are a few other contributing factors to the overall gender stereotyping and sexism in RPG's. Something to keep in mind is that most of these games take place in either Medieval or at least Medieval-inspired worlds. This was a time when, barring some exceptions, men were the noble warriors and protectors, and women were considered frail prizes to be won. These were very sexist times. One could make the argument (not saying that I am necessarily backing this argument) that to portray these general stereotypes is being true to the culture in those times. Of course, these are stories being fabricated, based off of an already very mystical time, so there is no reason why you couldn't just make up what you want, reverse roles, etc. It's your fiction, you can make it however you want, but to say that these gender stereotypes are sexist, it's not 100% of the time because the writer is sexist, it's because the era they are building their story in was.

Also stories in games tend to magnify and exaggerate things somewhat, so if in reality these gender roles were more subtle, the very nature of engaging storytelling is going to polarize and exaggerate these issues anyway.

Side note: I like slimes.

No. Throw that word around all you want, it has lost its meaning. There is nothing that can stop me from having a female character who is weak and gets captured by the enemy. You might not like it, but to call it sexist just show that you're a feminist drama queen or a liberal extremist. You can hate it for personal reason, but you're not going to convince me to hate it because you think it's "sexist".

Trope I think is funny: Male characters are usually slow to get things, brash, delinquent, and not very intelligent, while female characters are always smart and elegant. Let's reverse that.

Sure are a lot of people on edge about calling the most obviously sexist thing possible sexist.  I'm sorry, there is no way you can spin an unexamined, unsubverted Damsel in Distress plot as anything but.

Also... saying it's 'realistic?'  No.  I'm sorry?  You're defending "the weak girl that needs to be rescued" as realistic in games where you shoot fire with your mind?  Pull the other one, it has a Holy Materia equipped.

 

[Mr. Detective]

So there's a new unspoken rule in RPG Maker that says "You are not allowed to have a female character who is weak and gets captured by the enemy, because that would be sexist. But if a male character is a wuss, delinquent, brash, or idiotic, and get captured by the villain, then that's okay". Fortunately, this rule never works because it never officially exists thanks to Mr. Common Sense.

I'm going to start putting up warnings on my games now.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I don't have an issue with damsels in distress. While I love "strong women" characters, isn't it true that people exist in a very wide range of conditions? I have no issue with a character who is meek and defenseless. I only have issues with characters who I cannot relate to , are one dimensional, and have vague backgrounds. I think the issues with a lot of damsels is you know little to nothing about them. If you take the time to write a character they will have strong and weak characteristics. 

 

[BlissAuthority]

I don't have an issue with damsels in distress. While I love "strong women" characters, isn't it true that people exist in a very wide range of conditions? I have no issue with a character who is meek and defenseless. I only have issues with characters who I cannot relate to , are one dimensional, and have vague backgrounds. I think the issues with a lot of damsels is you know little to nothing about them. If you take the time to write a character they will have strong and weak characteristics. 

Very much so.  Sansa Stark is very definitely a damsel in distress, but the fact that after everything that happened she isn't dead yet is a testament to her strength of character.  She's an interesting and well done character.

Understand, I don't think there's no place for that plotline.  I'm just sick of that plotline being a placeholder for an actual goal, you know?  And a vague "uuuuhhhh a kidnapped princess" is just - no.  Stop that.  At least give her an opinion on her captivity, for the love of Amano.

 

[TheRiotInside]

Also... saying it's 'realistic?'  No.  I'm sorry?  You're defending "the weak girl that needs to be rescued" as realistic in games where you shoot fire with your mind?  Pull the other one, it has a Holy Materia equipped.

I feel like you're taking what I said out of context a little bit and targeting the semantics of my statements instead of the message.

 

[Bonkers]

So there's a new unspoken rule in RPG Maker that says "You are not allowed to have a female character who is weak and gets captured by the enemy, because that would be sexist. But if a male character is a wuss, delinquent, brash, or idiotic, and get captured by the villain, then that's okay". Fortunately, this rule never works because it never officially exists thanks to Mr. Common Sense.

I'm going to start putting up warnings on my games now.

When did this happen?  Oo

The reason I do not enjoy weak willed women is different from the trope of women existing for the purpose of further a male lead's characterization.  I haven't seen many if any RPG maker games with that list of negative traits for a male character, because weak willed men are just as uninteresting.  Probably due to Tidus and and a few other male leads who have been that list to grate on the player's nerves the entire game long.  

You can have strong and interesting characters get captured/compromised.  There is no rule saying they can't be victims.  Being a victim doesn't completely rob a character of good characterization or dialogue.  

 

[amerk]

Well, now that we've gotten to the point that a damsel in distress is sexist, I suppose the next thing we'll hear is that an rpg with primarily white-skinned sprites is racists.