Things that you will NEVER include in your game, or hope to never see in another's.

[Jacket]

Over tutorialization.

I was just playing a forum friend's game on another site, and deleted it off my drive because he, in all seriousness, actually had a tutorial house (similar to FF2 I believe it was) including a guy who, once you spoke to, told you how to press enter to speak to someone. You know, after you pressed enter to speak to them. HE EVEN HAD A SHOW PICTURE COMMAND TO SHOW YOU WHERE THE ENTER KEY WAS ON AN AVERAGE KEYBOARD! And another who, again in all seriousness and no sense of irony, told you to check out doors to enter shops and buildings. You know, after you walked into the building from a door.
This is why I don't betatest anymore

Though generally any over indulgence of silly li'l hand holding. Is the system very complicated with a steep learning curve? Sure, fine, give the jist of it and the option to delve into the full step by step of it.
"Do you know how to play?"
>"Yeah, it's easy!" > skips tut
>"Kind of." > lite tut/reintroduction
>"Not at all." >full on hand holding step by step explanation of every possible conceivable use
I'll accept crappy choice systems like that even.

If it's a elemental rock paper scissors, I think I'm smart enough not to need to be told "Fire beats Ice" or "Magic beats Attack" and then have to watch the "in game" example of a character attacking to prove the point. Especially if it's at the start of a combat, let me just fight and figure it out. If it's that important, have someone mention it off offhandedly in the town. Make an NPC and a kid.
"Daddy how come you know fire magic?"
"I hate ice billy, that's why I learned fire. Fire always beats ice. That's why I won't help you build snowmen."
"Aww, but daddy I like snowmen!"
"BILLY! Go. To. Your. Room. Now!"

Good, awesome, job well done. You rewarded me for my exploration by walking around and talking to random people with a helpful hint without breaking the game flow or immersion.

[Samven]

Sphere Grid-style upgrade systems.

I'm not saying that you can't have a deep, complex system of customisation. I just fell out big time with FFX's offering because you get the upgrade spheres from random drops. From random battles. That and the fact that, honestly, I don't want to upgrade every single stat from HP to Evasion to Egg-Salad Sandwich Making manually. It just eats too much of my battling time up (yeah, I'm kind of a blood knight when it comes to games XD).

[NnsNightshade]

Some of the things mentioned here I actually enjoy, opposite of what seems to be popular. I LOVE random encounters. I hate when you see enemies running at you across the field.

I adore characters with annoying voices, if they're supposed to be annoying type of characters. I hate when all characters have the same type of voice no matter how "professional" it sounds.....like, the kinds of voices you hear in EVERY game out there. =.= Bad, bad, bad.

But let's see....I hate easy games. I'd rather a game be too difficult than too easy. I LOVE grinding games where you have to level up extensively for the next part to be comfortable challenge-wise.

Corny dialogue is fine as long as it pertains to the situation at hand. I hate if an entire game is full of it, though. A healthy balance is great.

I HATE unrealistic one-faced characters where each character is driven by mainly one thing and one thing only. I LOVE complex characters in games, and diversity in said characters (because in reality some people are more simple than others!).

I like games where the party of characters is varying in ages, even if some of them are younger. I hate parties full of only teenagers unless the plot specifically calls for it (i.e. It happens at a school)

And I love plot twists in games, but hate it when it makes no sense......

Um, I really hate when a final boss has more than 1-2 transformations. Because it seems like nowadays the final bosses just keep coming back even after you kill them 50 times....Not so final after all. Just have it build up in another way......transformations are great, but don't overdo it. =.=

[KasperKalamity]

i don't like the whole 'teenagers saving the world' idea. i hate HATE teenagers. they're stupid and whiney and immature and i hate them. Earthbound is my one exception due to the whole freudian ideal mentioned above.


i also hate pointless fetch quests that advance the story. i finished dragon quest 8 out of my own obsession with finishing every game that i buy. i really wanted to throw my ps2 out the window when i had to go to some castle to find this guy, and then go find his son, but then go to the moonshadow realm where i then had to go find a new string for the moonharp in another dungeon, and then go all the way back to do the quest i set out to do in the first place. THAT'S NOT GAME MAKING! stupid length padding like that grinds my gears above anything else.


from the grand list of rpg cliches: http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html


Any character who actually has a name is important in some way and must be sought out. However, if you are referred to as a part of a posessive noun ("Crono's Mom") then you are superfluous.



this is dumb. everyone has a name. it's just laziness on your part if you don't want to name them.


There will be several items or effects which depend on the numerical value of your hit points, level, etc., which makes no sense unless the characters can see all the numbers in their world and find it perfectly normal that a spell only works on a monster whose level is a multiple of 5.



cop out.


Any townsperson who is dressed oddly or otherwise doesn't fit in with the rest of the townsfolk will either:[list=][*]Join your party after you complete some task,[*]Be in the employ of your enemy, or[*]Befriend any female member of the party, and then be immediately captured and held hostage by the villains.[/list]
weird eccentric people exist, but their medication does not.

All characters wear a single costume which does not change over the course of the game. The only exception is when characters dress up in enemy uniforms to infiltrate their base


i don't like this either, i like when my character's appearance changes.