LogFAQs > #965221226

Ordering from most obnoxious to least....

Choices that don't matter
Yeah, this is obnoxious. You build up this choice mechanic only for its results to be insignificant. Saints Row The Third is very guilty of this, with only the choice of ending actually mattering. If you're gonna have choices, at minimum make it so they affect which ending(s) you can get AND having different perks unlock.

Silent Protagonist
This isn't the 2D era anymore. Silent protagonists just don't work these days since self-inserting is a flawed psychological concept. I don't mind it with Link because we know how cringe he is when he's talked, but with everyone around the protagonist gabbing it up, silence doesn't make any sense.

Unstoppable Hero Until there's a cutscene
This one's pretty problematic. A cutscene just to neuter the badass is just dumb, often because there's some lame excuse made up on the spot just to do it. These stories need to be realistic within the confines of their reality. This trope is a MASSIVE *sigh* every time.

Power of Friendship
I don't see this one that often anymore because it was done to death and enough people complained that it was stale. Back in the day, however, it was SO annoying. The few times it worked were because it wasn't a focal point at all, and was just "If we work together, we can do anything" subtext despite a party with a lot of infighting.

Dead character gets resurrected
This depends on how cheap the resurrection is. "Oh, I miraculously survived!" is dumb unless the character is a rat and you get to actually kill them later. Going out of the way to "kill off" a character just to go "HA HA GOT U" is bad. But then there are things like Persona 4 (can't not name the game here - if you played it, you know what I'm talking about) where it's done beautifully as emotional fuel and actually makes sense in the medical environment.

Villain hellbent on World Domination
Sometimes this is the best kind of villain for the story. Other times it isn't, and having a "HA HA HA I AM BIG BAD I DO BIG BAD THINGS" villain for the sake of one (*cough*Vesperia*cough*) does not work.

Character who joins, leaves, joins, leaves, and joins your party again
I really only mind this if it's my favorite character to use or if it happens all the freakin' time through needless cutscenes that seem to just exist to pad game length.

Amnesia
Not bad if done correctly. Ace Attorney case 2-1, for example, used it effectively as a tutorial (not a spoiler: It happens first thing in the game), and made it hilarious. It can also be good if it's just a small side plot device. It's hit-or-miss and games that don't do it right tend to do other things wrong too.

"Let's split up, even though it's smarter to stick together!"
Can't say this is that annoying because I don't see it that often, and when I do it's only brief.