[General Discussion] Overused Gaming Conventions

You'll also have to keep in mind for most RPG conventions that at most boss battles, the ratio is 3 turns for the player (assuming three characters are used in the present fighting party) versus 1 boss. This pretty much allows the player to execute three commands against the computer's 1 command per turn,whether turn based or ATB. The boss will obviously need to compensate in some departments, usually the max health and increased damage to give the computer's side a "fighting" chance, if you will.

I find that with few exceptons, most turn based RPG battles require little (if any) tactics. Near the end of the game, all but the ultra-hidden-boss are easy to kill just by mashing the attack button over and over. Most battles that don't have this simplicity have maybe one trick, such as attacking only a certain target or using magic attacks only. Using tactics makes even some battles where you are horribly outclassed possible to win, your enemy hardly ever uses tactics (other than if=else reactions and HP triggers).
Just spend a few extra rounds traversing the dungeon and that near impossible boss battle will be much easier. Fights like Yunalesca in FFX are an exception, but you'll find almost any other battle to be insanely easy if your stats are high enough.
The only way most battles are made hard is by enemies doing insane physical/magical damage or having massgve HP.

What makes these boss battles relatively easy, as you have stated, is that bosses which only have one turn. Many of these bosses in various RPGs that I've played so far spend that one turn on the attack command, or basically on a command that will damage your party through a spell or mal-condition. There are bosses which will do special commands, such as a block of some sort, to reduce or nullify attacks. But one thing I've noted is very few of these bosses bother to use that turn to heal themselves.

It looks like the programmers gave the bosses a priority on damage to the opposing party rather than healing the boss. Again, this also explains why bosses have such high hit point values to compensate for their not healing themselves. I personally found most to all of the bosses in FFX very easy, with the exception of the Sanctuary Keeper. After examining why I’m seeing the Game Over screen several times, it noted that this particular boss was exploiting the “Curaga” spell almost every second to give himself 9999 HP. This was the reason why it seemed to take forever to deal any decent damage and actually keep the damage there. If programmers want to make bosses more difficult, allowing them to heal themselves through perhaps an auto-potion or spell.

As well, the player’s party might only seem to have several “weaker” characters against the 40,000 some HP boss, where each of the characters might only have 1000 HP each. For argument sake, let’s assume that there are three characters in this party and each character has 1000 HP. This makes the player’s side have 3000 HP vs 40,000 HP. This isn’t the whole picture though. Recall that many RPGs employ an item system where usually most of these characters will have access to their inventory. Let’s suppose this player has 50 Hi-potions that regenerate 1000 HP and 100 small potions that regenerate 250 HP. This is already an additional 75,000 HP to the player, and this is excluding items which help bring back to life the fallen characters; an ability that is usually lacking in most bosses – to regenerate themselves.

As you can see now, programmers need to find a happy medium for the bosses to pose a challenge to the player without stalling their progress too much. If the bosses do have the ability to restore themselves HP, then the programmers need to be wary of not turning the fight into a battle of attrition, and seeing which side has more potions or abilities to make it out at the bitter end.

Originally Posted by Spatula

What makes these boss battles relatively easy, as you have stated, is that bosses which only have one turn.

Except for Dragon Quest VIII. Two turns. One can be a major blow attack that decreases over 3/4 HP then suddenly launch a group attack also 3/4.

I was mentioning on a general sense. The more "bosses" you have in an individual battle, the more turns the computer gets per round. But, again re-iterating, most of the RPGs I've played so far have just one boss per battle. Also when I say "boss", I mean the general bad dude/monster usually at the end of a particular stage - I'm not referring to "super bosses" such as the Ultima weapon. Of course those bosses are engineered in such a way that even though they have one turn, they're attacks are absolutely devastating. Also note, that I obviously have not played every RPG in existence, so I'm sure my comment does have some holes in it, but at the same time, should make some sense.

'You're on a mission to stop terrorist that have nukes. You must save the world from these bad guys at any cost. You are our best man for the job. We're counting on you!"

"So what do I get to go in there with?"

"A pistol, a combat knife, and all our prayers."

Seriously WTF is up with that!? I don't buy that crap excuse they're throwing around now like in MGS where they say "We don't want them to know you were there, so steal their stuff". I'll possibly let MGS slide with it, but this is getting WAY too cliche. They should make a shooting game where you start with almost every weapon. Come very heavily armed, and all the goods, but you lose it a little bit into the game. That would at least be a bit different from the usual crap...

Under the circumstances of anything MGS3 related, the US wanted to keep the whole operation under wraps, so sending in the marines and a whole battalion of tanks into the USSR would probably start raising a few inquries in the international community.

I understand what you are saying. Games such as Rainbow Six and the like do have world-effecting implications, and at least you have a team to take care of it rather than a one-man army. I'm trying to run other games such as this through my head but can't recollect at this moment. I'll check back later.

Splinter Cell is the worst out of all of them. At least the MGS story is particularly different, and very interesting with's it's message.

Splinter Cell? Same old boring shit.

Splinter Cell (I've only played the first one) was way too heavy on doing things a particular way, and that was the only way to do it. It was basically a trial and error game that tested your patience, in a wrong way.

MGS games in general also tested your patience in waiting for the right moment, but it allowed you freedom to do somethings your way, and you could still get away from "screwing up" the alarm which didn't add as much to the frustration meter.

Originally Posted by Manny Biggz

Seriously WTF is up with that!? I don't buy that crap excuse they're throwing around now like in MGS where they say "We don't want them to know you were there, so steal their stuff". I'll possibly let MGS slide with it, but this is getting WAY too cliche. They should make a shooting game where you start with almost every weapon. Come very heavily armed, and all the goods, but you lose it a little bit into the game. That would at least be a bit different from the usual crap...

I see what you mean, but too many games uses this to an annoying effect. "Wow, you say I have all these mental powers/this humongous mech? Cool!"
*Someone snatches the mech away, gives you amnesia or something like that*
"Oh well, it seems like I must find it aaaaall again.."

Something I have always hated were the "Oh, this creature is all powerful and with it I will take over the world"....a few scenes later "What? Why he's betrayed me/the control device was broken!, you'll have to stop him while I watch over here".

I get bored with the 'madman creates a super being but then it gets a mind of it's own' deal. It gets used so much that I pratically already know what's going to happen in the end of the game after I play it for about 5 minutes.

Explosive barrels get to me the most.

Even in some of the better shooters (Half Life 2) there are explosive fucking barrels. Totally unrealistic that you just have flammable liquid inside of a giant iron drum, just waiting to be penetrated by a bullet hot enough to make it EXPLODE and kill nearby enemies.

I was recently playing Black and they took it to another extreme, where critical enemies such as those armed with RPGs, snipers, or high-power machine guns just happened to be next to something explosive. Sometimes it was fairly realistic, but most of the time you had to wonder why a sniper would perch on a tower that resides over gas tanks. Did they think no one would ever come to shoot in their direction?

I'll never understand.

Originally Posted by Eleo

Explosive barrels get to me the most.

Even in some of the better shooters (Half Life 2) there are explosive fucking barrels. Totally unrealistic that you just have flammable liquid inside of a giant iron drum, just waiting to be penetrated by a bullet hot enough to make it EXPLODE and kill nearby enemies.

http://www.hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2005-06-27

That's part of their plan. Eventually, they're going to start using normal barrels filled with everyday stuff that sane people put in barrels, and you're going to try to kill the snipers by shooting the barrels under the supports of their tower, and they're going to put a bullet in your head while you're distracted with the idea of making a big explosion.

Or put monsters in them. I've never seen that.

Originally Posted by Eleo

Explosive barrels get to me the most.

Even in some of the better shooters (Half Life 2) there are explosive fucking barrels. Totally unrealistic that you just have flammable liquid inside of a giant iron drum, just waiting to be penetrated by a bullet hot enough to make it EXPLODE and kill nearby enemies.

I was recently playing Black and they took it to another extreme, where critical enemies such as those armed with RPGs, snipers, or high-power machine guns just happened to be next to something explosive. Sometimes it was fairly realistic, but most of the time you had to wonder why a sniper would perch on a tower that resides over gas tanks. Did they think no one would ever come to shoot in their direction?

I'll never understand.

"Watch, I'll stand by this barrel full of chemicals that react to lead in such a way that they blow up, so they don't even have to hit me, just in my general direction. But it doesn't matter, because I'm such a badass I'll wipe the sucker out before he even gets to fire."

Summary: FPS enemies are always egotistical. Also, I noticed a distinct lack of these barrels or anything like them in the first Halo. But Halo 2 had them.

That's because the developers realized that no exploding barrels in FPS games make Plush Cthulhu angry.

I stand by the idea of putting your tower over a bunch of nonexplosive barrels.

"One of them must be filled with explosives!"

Collecting X amount of crystals/pendants/etc. before you're able to get somewhere. I've always hated that. Free-roaming environments are getting pretty annoying too. And by this I mean generic New York styled cities. Ever since GTA3 it's been huge cities filled with buildings you can't go into. Also, everyone drives the same car, if not a different color.

For some reason I think this list will mention every gaming convention ever made.

Originally Posted by Kilroy

I see what you mean, but too many games uses this to an annoying effect. "Wow, you say I have all these mental powers/this humongous mech? Cool!"
*Someone snatches the mech away, gives you amnesia or something like that*
"Oh well, it seems like I must find it aaaaall again.."

Or similarly, the main character gets all this awesome stuff, saves the day, and then in a sequel that chronologically takes place not long after the previous game, he/she for some idiotic reason decided to discard all (if not most) of the fun toys.

You'd think Samus would have at least kept the Gravity Suit, or Mega Man X his armor parts, but nooooo... (to my knowledge they only did that for him in X5 and X6)

EDIT: No wonder Dr. Light never lived to see X awaken. He must've about killed himself making oodles of armor capsules to make up for all that.