This is a sandbox entry for Website.The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Cliches to try to make it tropable before it falls into the Cut List.
Tropes observed by the Grand List:
- Anime Hair: "#13: The Higher to Hair, the Closer to God": One can usually spot an important character (protagonist or not) by their non-standard hair color/hairstyle when compared to other characters.
- Bag of Spilling: "#11: Let's Start from the Very Beginning": In direct sequels to RPGs, heroes rarely ever keep their high-level skills or equipment from their previous adventure, forcing them to either find them again or obtain a new set of equipment and abilities.
- Competence Zone: "#5: Logan's Run Rule'': RPG protagonists tend to skew young, usually in their mid- to late teens, with anyone older than that being a sidekick or mentor figure at best.
- Doomed Hometown: "#2: 'No! My beloved peasant village!'", when the RPG protagonist's village gets destroyed by bandits, monsters, or some kind of natural disaster before their quest can truly begin.
- The Dulcinea Effect: "#3: Thinking with the Wrong Head", for the tendency of (usually male) protagonists to swear to help/die for any girl with major plot significance they've only known for a few moments.
- Good Morning, Crono: "#1: Sleepyhead Rule" states that the main character of an RPG will often have to be woken up before starting the adventure.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: "#19: 'Silly Squall, bringing a sword to a gunfight...'": The main protagonist and antagonist will usually wield swords of some kind, and if swords are a primary weapon in the game, then they will be the most powerful weapon type in the setting.
- Heroic Mime: "#18: Crono's Complaint": Some main characters in RPGs will not have any written dialogue, but other characters will either try to speak for them, or understand their intentions just fine.
- Impoverished Patrician: "#12: Poor Little Rich Hero": If a protagonist comes from a rich or noble background, chances are high they'll be destitute and unable to use any of their family's wealth to help them out on their quest.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: "#14: Garrett's Principle": Often, making progress in a game will have you breaking into people's houses unannounced and rooting through their personal belongings for items.
- No Guy Wants an Amazon: Rule #15 corollary: Compared to the "spunky princess" and the "soft-spoken mage", the "tough-as-nails female warrior" is much less likely to be a love interest for the protagonist.
- Nominal Importance: "#8: Nominal Rule": Only characters with given names will be important to the plot, unless the name is part of a possessive noun (e.g. "Crono's Mom").
- Only One Name: "#7: Some Call Me... Tim?": RPG characters in general only tend to have first names or last names. Any existence of a character's full name will usually only be All There in the Manual.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket: "#4: Cubic Zirconium Corollary", a follow-up to Rule #3, states that the girl the protagonist is focused on will carry some sort of necklace or pendant that may be key to Saving the World or causing The End of the World as We Know It.
- Parental Abandonment: "#6: Single Parent Rule": RPG protagonists, if they have living parents at all, will only have one parent shown throughout the game. If male, then the parent will be a mother, and if female, then the parent will be a father.
- The Plot Reaper: For really unlucky protagonists, Rule #6 states that circumstances will find a way to kill their only surviving parent to allow the protagonist to go on their grand adventure without the guilt of filial obligations weighing them down.
- Science Is Bad: "#10: Luddite Rule": In a Magic Versus Science conflict, the "science" side will usually be represented by the villains, and the "magic" side will be represented by the heroes.
- Shout-Out: The Grand List is full of them, mostly referencing RPGs from the '90s and early 2000s:
- "#3: Thinking with the Wrong Head" references Hiro from Lunar 2: Eternal Blue.
- Rule #5 is called the "Logan's Run Rule".
- "#7: Some Call Me... Tim?" is a reference to Tim the Enchanter from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- "#10: Luddite Rule" references the folklore character Ned Ludd
and director George Lucas, the latter of whose early Star Wars films had the heavily machine-themed Galactic Empire as its main antagonistic faction. - "#11: Let's Start from the Very Beginning" references Yuna from Final Fantasy X, who gives up her summoner powers between that game and Final Fantasy X-2 and starts her new adventure as The Gunslinger.
- "#12: Poor Little Rich Hero" references Meis Triumph, the hero of Thousand Arms.
- "#13: The Higher to Hair, the Closer to God" references Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII and his distinctive Spiky Hair.
