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Discussion Overused overworld tropes/cliches in RPG/Adventure games that you still want every game to have.

ReyVGM

ReyVGM

Game Endings Master
There are certain RPG/Adventure game tropes found in overworld maps that a lot of games have been doing since the 8-bit days, but no matter how many times they're used and reused, I still look forward to stumbling upon them.

Mine are:

A cave behind a waterfall.
I don't care if Zelda has been doing it since the 80s, I want my hidden waterfall caves in every single adventure game.

A cave/dungeon under a well.
Witcher 3 is incredible at this. I was terribly disappointed that BotW didn't have any caves or dungeons under a well, so when I played Witcher 3 (after Botw) I was in for a nice surprise. One of the first quests the game gives you is to inspect a well in a town. My innocent ass jumped straight into the well without looking thinking it was going to be empty and at ground level like all the Botw wells. Holy shit it wasn't like that at all! I fell down into a dark and creepy underground lake and right there I knew Witcher 3 was going to be incredible.

A desert that was once an ocean.
I want to see whale bones, derelict boats, or an indication that the desert was once full of life. This trope has been done many times, but I think Skyward Sword did it best in the Lanayru Desert with the Timeshift Stones that allow you to actually SEE how the desert looked like when it was an ocean. Easily the best area of the game. I would kill for a Zelda game based on the Timeshift Stones mechanic.

Draining water to uncover shit.
This is something that again, Zelda games have done many times, but I never get tired of it. A Link to the Past was the first one that did it when you drained the moat of the 2nd Light World dungeon. But Ocarina of Time did it best when as an adult, Lake Hylia is completely drained. It was amazing back then to see that beautiful lake, now empty and able to explore it's empty depths.
 
Fishing mini games. I don't quite know why fishing is the side activity so many devs latched onto to fill their overworld with activities in adventure and RPGs, but I don't want them to go anywhere.
 
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Damn those are all great choices OP. A little hard pressed to come up with any of my own off the top of my head lol. idk, maybe secret items you can find in town by hopping across the roofs?
 
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I have a few!

- Maybe more of a plot trope than an overworld one, but when you're exploring in a (medieval/renaissance tech era) game and suddenly you find some ancient ruins... from the future! Or, just ruins that are oddly more advanced and tech-y than the current world as you know it!

- Sky palaces/towns/final dungeons/etc. I love floating islands, especially if you had no idea they were there until a certain point in the game

- This is more vague, but I LOVE that feeling you get when you're playing an RPG with a world map, and you think you've explored pretty much everything in it and are nearing the end of the game, because where else is there to go? BUT then: Something happens that suddenly opens up a big part of the map you didn't know existed. Examples: You can now explore underwater, or there's another alternate dimension or another world, or some island on the world map turns out to have a secret entrance and is hollow inside and has new places to explore in it, or you can now explore the underground, etc.!
 
That thing where you have to fall through holes in an upper level to find things in the level below.
 
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"Puzzles" involving a large portion of the world, like the Ghost Ship in Wind Waker.
 
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SammyJ9 said:
- This is more vague, but I LOVE that feeling you get when you're playing an RPG with a world map, and you think you've explored pretty much everything in it and are nearing the end of the game, because where else is there to go? BUT then: Something happens that suddenly opens up a big part of the map you didn't know existed. Examples: You can now explore underwater, or there's another alternate dimension or another world, or some island on the world map turns out to have a secret entrance and is hollow inside and has new places to explore in it, or you can now explore the underground, etc.!
Click to expand...

Yep, I love that too.
 
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I always love climbing into a volcano/lava and using water or ice to make platforms. What do you mean it would kill me to be within 200 ft of the lava? I'm just going to shoot it with a cold arrow so I can stand on it and float down the lava flow.
 
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I love me some good amnesia plot if done well. Not every game should have it though.

MP systems for magic perhaps? It works, it is understandable, don't try to make something different for the sake of something different, it never works.
 
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Treasure behind a waterfall is just a must. Like, if there's nothing there you've failed a game designer lmao.

I also love fishing minigames as long as they're optional (looking at you, Twilight Princess). Let me get to them at my own pace and I will spend an inordinate amount of time min-maxing stuff.
 
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Optional casinos/card games.

Maybe it's not as universal trope as others, but when an rpg does employ them, hooo boy. Couple hundred extra hours just got added to that play time.
 
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The Precursor race shaping the current technological/cultural bedrock of current society, usually surpassing it.

The amalgamation of old and new, usually creates a very interesting aesthetic. I’m a sucker for it.
 
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