Board 8 > Worst Video Game Story Cliche?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Paratroopa1 posted...

I am a little more 'amnesia again?' when it comes to it applying to other characters vs the main character (which is almost always to serve some sort of mechanical function that has a purpose), but even then it often leads to pretty fun mysteries.

KamikazePotato posted...

Yeah I do think amnesia works best when it's with the main character. Disco Elysium, Planescape Torment, and The House in Fata Morgana have their entire plots centered around waking up with lost memories, and those are three of the best game stories ever constructed. (Also not a spoiler to mention those because it's made clear from the beginning)

That's a great point. The more central the character is, the stronger the amnesia impact is. Fata Morgana only works because of the amnesia (I haven't played the other two yet).

Are we naming good stories where the main character's amnesia is a central conceit from the start?

Ghost Trick is also good.

Amnesia works great if the plot is built around it, but it's incredibly stupid when it's just thrown in as cheap drama or as a plot device. I associate the latter more with, like, serial television than video games though.

Kenri posted...

Amnesia works great if the plot is built around it, but it's incredibly stupid when it's just thrown in as cheap drama or as a plot device. I associate the latter more with, like, serial television than video games though.

Good call. 24 had a bad amnesia subplot in Season 1 that immediately jumps to mind.

Tales of Arise had a good amnesia story but then the revelations and exposition happens and it is not very good.

As far as worst video game cliches go, as someone mentioned already in the topic, it easily goes to 'group of teenager defeats a god.'

Another similar cliche that is just as bad is, average Joe main character is the chosen one and saves the world.

Edit: And for that reason I voted for Nakama power which is an obnoxious asspull plot device not only plaguing video games (especially the average JRPG) but many animes as well.

Gaming is a broad swathe

If the worst thing in your game is that the choices don't matter as much as you'd like, you're playing a decent game

Speaking as someone who loved ps1 era final fantasy, I was recently introduced to truly generic anime style jrpgs and that is the worst thing

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

Tales of Arise had a good amnesia story but then the revelations and exposition happens and it is not very good.

Talk about a game whose story fell off a cliff...God I wanted to like that game so much. Still do, but Berseria punts it in the balls. Goes to show how you have to stick the landing.

Strife2 posted...

Talk about a game whose story fell off a cliff...God I wanted to like that game so much. Still do, but Berseria punts it in the balls. Goes to show how you have to stick the landing.

Haven't played Arise, but Berseria is a great example of a story that commits to its dark premise and nails the landing.

Arise has a simple and effective story but decides to eat stupid pills 90% of the way through. I've heard that's Takes' M.O., but fuck

Strife2 posted...

Arise has a simple and effective story but decides to eat stupid pills 90% of the way through. I've heard that's Takes' M.O., but fuck

I've played about a half-dozen Tales games. Most stories were either consistently bad (Graces f, Symphonia 2) or consistently good (Berseria, Abyss, Symphonia).

That said, you're not the first person to mention Arise having that issue where it falls off at the end.

The first 1/4 of Graces is really good! The falloff happens early. Vesperia is a good example of a late game falloff.

KamikazePotato posted...

The first 1/4 of Graces is really good! The falloff happens early. Vesperia is a good example of a late game falloff.

Haven't played Vesperia yet, although the definitive edition is in my backlog.

These comments making me glad I stopped playing Arise after the first 1/4 of the game didn't click with me >.>