Top Ten Cliches in Japanese Role-Playing Games

Let's see, I have been playing many role-playing games, with the most famous ones being Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs), and I never really bothered to make a list on the topic of clichés. Since some recent lists have been made about clichés, I figured I would make one too.

There's actually a grand list somewhere on the internet about these things, but I will, of course, NOT be using that as a source or delving too deeply into it. However, I will comment on notable examples of where each cliché occurs.

The Top Ten

  1. Hero's home village or town is destroyed by enemy forces

    Examples: Xenogears (though Fei actually is the one to do this), Arc the Lad II, Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Symphonia, several Final Fantasy games where heroes have their homes destroyed, and Thousand Arms.

  2. Enemy dungeon collapses upon defeating the main boss

    Examples: Suikoden II, Suikoden IV, most Final Fantasy games AGAIN, and actually, a lot of JRPGs in general.

  3. Flying airships or other flying vessels as a mode of travel late in the game

    Examples: Final Fantasy games, Lufia II, Tales of Symphonia, and the Wild Arms games (worth noting that in Wild Arms 2 and 3, you get to fly on a mecha-dragon).

  4. Clash of technology and fantasy

    Examples: Final Fantasy games, Dual Orb II (some of the enemies are living syringes and laptops, but then there are actual critters and knife-wielding thugs), and Wild Arms games.

  5. Villains who are actual gods who control all the overworld villains from behind the scenes

    Way too many examples of this, but the most notable examples to me are Deathevan from Breath of Fire II and Rhapthorne from Dragon Quest VIII.

  6. Main hero is a simpleton and not really smart

    Examples: Lloyd in Tales of Symphonia, Stahn in Tales of Destiny, Wain in Lufia III, and Prier in La Pucelle: Tactics.

  7. Enemy characters who are strong bosses when you battle them, but when they join your party, they end up not being great at all

    Examples: Magus from Chrono Trigger, a few Chrono Cross characters, Lakilester from Paper Mario, and Garr from Breath of Fire III. Some of the characters I mentioned are okay or even decent, like Magus, but there are always some characters who are strong bosses but weaker party members.

  8. Main characters can take treasures from townsfolk without any security

    Every game has this. Some even have people say, "Oh yeah, go ahead, you can take our treasures," usually after you've already accomplished a mission or something.

  9. At least one gimmicky boss

    Because, of course, you can't have "beat the boss until it dies" each and every time. Sometimes they have to have conditions such as a time limit, or you have to hit certain parts of a boss, or a boss simply has to be lost to (or there's a condition where you can beat a hopeless boss, yet it's not something you have to do). And this applies to many different games.

  10. Ancient prophecies that come true during the main character's journey

    The biggest example of this might just be Xenogears because Fei and Elly, the main two characters, have multiple incarnations spanning multiple years, and it's super complex, but then there's a whole bunch of terms and stuff that awaken from their long, eternal slumber to eventually be a part of the game's plot.

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