RPG storylines

[Ponzi]

Just how many times is the character I'm playing the @#%$ chosen one foretold in prophecy who has to collect x gems/crystals/amulets in order to defeat the "ultimate evil who will fill the world with chaos and darkness" (ominous thunder and lightning)?!

*sarcasm mode activated*

Oh, here's a new one! The ancients sealed away the "ultimate evil" (ominous thunder and lightning) but weren't able to destroy him? And some modern day rapscallions are trying to release him? Can I stop them before they wake "the ultimate evil" (ominous thunder and lightning) up? I'm on the edge of my seat here! (I should probably scoot back a bit).

What's this? The ancient long destroyed civilization had amazing technology and magic that have all since been lost and forgotten? Brilliant! Edgar Cayce's Atlantis mishegoss is certainly an original source of inspiration!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to save the world from "the ultimate evil" (ominous thunder and lightning).

[EZ_Evilmagus]

Play Chrono Trigger (IMO still one of the 3 best RPGs of all time). Although you are the ultimate brawler in your party, you're not the chosen one.

~Evil

[EZ_Dahne]

You want a break from the average storyline?

Xenogears, baby.

Baldur's Gate and Planescape are different, too. Fight the ultimate evil or be the ultimate evil.
Moogle Charm

Have you hugged a white mage today?

[EZ_Prenn]

When I become an award winning author, the climax of my story will be the 'chosen one' failing miserably and dying in a spectacularly painful way, or being otherwise terribly embarassed. Sensei Pren{Dragon Army}[Tribunal Server]
So I take shelter in tomorrow
Tomorrow will bring a brand new day
Think I can make it right tomorrow,
Think I need more sleep today...

[Elerion]

The Chosen One - Now with extra penile dysfunction!

[Koru]

I want a game in which you're not the Chosen One. And when you go to find the Chosen One to make him fufill the prophecy he's too busy getting drunk of his arse and picking up tavern wenches to bother with that whole prophecy thing. A game in which the princess has kidnapped the dragon to be cut up and sold as magical reagents (shoes and dresses cost a lot after all). Where the vampire rises from the grave and hires you to represent him in legal procedings to regain control of his assets from his descendants. Where the wise elder is actually the ancient evil and the so-called ancient evil you are sent to combat is really just the excuse he uses for the occasional disappearing village or so. Oh and the blacksmith who seems to be able to make the most incredible magical armor - yet still lives in a hovel - he's in on it. Lure adventurers, eat them, then sell their items to the next sucker at an inflated price.

Or Planescape 2. That would do it for me.

[EZ_lenweni]

Tecmo deception series of games have a decent storyline not sure if you would count them as RPG though.

[DarthEnder]

I dunno, Chronotrigger's story is a little bit too close to the storylines he's complaining about. Now that I think about it, I think it has ALL of the storylines he's complaining about. Its just done so well, who cares!

Planescape: Torment is definatly where its at for the bestest in best storylines! "Classes are not that out of balance -AbsorEQ"

[EZ_Prenn]

Yeah, I tried to make a comment about CT, then realized that there are entirely too many similarities on a basic level to what he complained about.

But it does it SO WELL that it's taken us 8 years to realize that :p

Besides, technically, a little past halfway through the game, all of that changes when spoiler spoiler happens, anyway.

[Nenjin]

You're not the chosen one in that one though. You just go out and save the world, no prophecising involved.

[EZ_Dading001]

are you chosen in saga frontier? i remember that game, it was pretty cool... i think... i forget what the story lines were because you could choose from lots of different characters.

[EZ_Dahne]

Saga Frontier was a bad game. I won't lie to you. It was unfinished. There was too little dialogue, it was so openended that most of the time you had no idea where the hell you were suppossed to be going, the battle system could be horribly frustrating...

Man I love that game. Don't ask me why.

[Yalum]

I've been playing .hack lately. You are chosen, but only because you're in the right place at the right time, and you're out to save The World, but that really isn't very important at all...

[EZ_Prenn]

Hmm, no, you aren't, you're right. Marle is the closest, with the pendant, but not quite. You just eventually become the saviour of the world through your own actions, but actions are bigger than any one person, so nobody is actually needed.

That's what I concluded originally, then promptly forgot about when it was mentioned again. I need more sleep.

FF6 really fits the same bill, I'm surprised nobody mentioned it. Oh @#%$ it, spoilers are hard to type, scroll past the rest of my post.














Terra is special, due to being half esper and half human, but there was no prophesy about it, just that the empire knew there was magic to be obtained, did so, and then planned to/returned later. In the second half, your party pulls together from all corners of the globe, again, nobody is individually important besides Celes, who begins the quest, and could have been anybody.

[EZ_Prenn]

Perhaps that's what makes them such good games, and what makes video games one of the best mediums for storytelling.

There's no grand badass who will undoubtedly save the world, but a bunch of different vagabonds, strangers, valorous warriors, who come together and kick ass. The choices you can make in game to shape what happens greatly improves upon stories, and drags you into and involves you in it, making you care more. And the ability to almost completely shape events as in Infinity engine games (your own character class, party makeup, and play style effects things as well - though it doesn't always alter the storyline, it changes the gameplay, which is part of the storyline in a game.)

Trying to tell the story of a group of 14 adventurers in a novel would be extremely hard. You do things in a videogame you can't do in a novel. The reverse is true, but you are free to focus less on painting visuals, and you can add in content and backstory up to your eyeballs that people can freely access without disrupting the plot. (That old geezer in the corner of the Monument to All History of the Planes who you can go talk to about ancient_power03 at any time would need a specific place in a novel to fit.)

[Elerion]

That is exactly the reason I place FF6 head and shoulders above any other RPG to date (I probably would have had CT up there with it, but because it wasnt imported to Europe, I had to play it on a SNES emulator years later, and even then my savegame permacrashed halfway through. FF6 wasn't imported either, but me and a friend pooled our savings together and bought an adapter and the game from an import store.). There were so many unique and interesting characters (can you remember two characters in FF6 that blend together? Thought not), and YOU could choose who was the hero, if anyone. Locke was always the hero for me, although Shadow would probably have been up there with him tagteaming if I had managed to save him my first time through the game. That, and they were all pretty much normal people. Of course, the incredible dialogue, the awesome level design, and the overall epicness of the story does it too. Not to mention the best magic system ever. And . Damn, this makes me want to play it from start to finish for the 8th (?) time. [i]

[Ponzi]

Ah Koru, you're a viking woman after my own heart (no doubt in order to cleave it from my chest with a battle axe for sacrifice on an altar to her pagan gods after throwing my corpse to the polar bears and penguins).

What spurred this rant was the first Wildarms game I picked up the other day. Even in the wild west 9/10ths of the story was the same.

[EZ_Senn Sei]

Just one of many sites dedicated to RPG Cliches .... enjoy

for a lot more, just type 'rpg cliches' into google

[DarthEnder]

Quote:Not to mention the best magic system ever.

I dunno, Magicite was badass, but for some reason, even though I like FF6 much better, I gotta say I love materia. "Classes are not that out of balance -AbsorEQ"

[EZ_Tsukasa The Wavemaster]

EarthBound? Its a good RPG tho.

[EZ_Urusai]

They missed one in that list Senn Sei...

The 'One Bed' rule. In most RPG's you go to the inn with your part of however many and there's isnt enough beds for everyone in the room you rent.
Gets expecially intresting when you are partied with one other female character and theres only one bed.

[EZ_Prenn]

Earthbound starts as the same old thing, but with a complete twist of batshit insanity.

I bought it for like $10 at wal-mart, then the next week it was $60. Came with the strategy guide and everything.

I got to under stone henge, but the stuff there was just kicking my ass and I couldn't figure out why. Never got back to it Sensei Pren{Dragon Army}[Tribunal Server]
So I take shelter in tomorrow
Tomorrow will bring a brand new day
Think I can make it right tomorrow,
Think I need more sleep today...

[EZ_Absolute Master]

Dragon Quest V is really the only game I've seen that doesn't actually have the main character be the 'chosen One' (or in this case, the Legendary Warrior ). Actually in this game you are some 6 year old kid following his dad around as he does the big quests, while as a 6 year old you do your mini quests like ghost busting and such, then your dad gets killed as you watch. You get turned into a slave for 10 years, bust out, do bunch of adventures, get married, have kids, become king of a castle, get turned into stone for 8 years, come back to life to see your kids grown up and ready for adventure ^_^.

You are the legendary warrior's father, go you . So you get to babysit him on his adventures and go kill the evil demonlord with him. He gets all the cool spells and the legendary armor too .

Turonyen

[Kaielen]

Hey...not every game can be as cool as Crystalis.

[EZ_Dahne]

Some of the famous cliches are a good thing. Do you really want to stare at a blank screen for eight hours every time you go to the inn?

[EZ_Ackar]

So will Final Fantasy online have thousands of Chosen Ones?