whether you love him or hate him we all
know there are certain things a Japanese
role-playing game just can’t do without
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’ll
be counting down our picks for the top
ten JRPG cliches for more gaming videos
check out our new spinoff channel mojo
plays for in-depth reviews thoughtful
video essays detailed character origins
and insightful commentary mojo plays
games smarter for this list we’re
looking at the most tried and true
tropes of the JRPG genre the ones that
we come to love over the years and that
helped keep this unique genre of games
distinct these include narrative tropes
game mechanics and other oddities and
quirks that for some reason are shared
by a large number of Japanese
role-playing games number 10
say you got your typical JRPG world
ancient kingdoms be magical beasts
mystical ruins on latches and then
suddenly out of nowhere a train passes
by or like a car or an army of robots
the answer to all this is management
technology magic technology is when the
game designers want to have their cake
and eat it too basically they want to
present a traditional medieval fantasy
world but they can’t resist giving the
hero smartphones or something like that
these anachronism will always be
explained away as drawing from some
magical source that powers everything
from street lamps to giant war Mac’s
number nine talking animal mascot it
really wouldn’t be one of these RPGs
without something nauseatingly cute
running around no matter how out of
place they may seem a JRPG cast isn’t
complete without something tiny furry
and motormouth leather it joins your
party or just annoyingly tags along you
can be sure that this RPG character
won’t be one of the most memorable ones
expect squeaky voices repetitive can’t
phrases and oddball attacks that drive
everyone up the wall but you can also
count on these little guys worming their
way into your hearts before the end of
the game a break
let’s face it JRPG heroes must be an
absolute nightmare for real-estate
agents because nine out of ten times
their sheer presence will mark their
hometown as doomed as a storytelling
device it makes sense what’s a more
effective call to action than losing
your home and your family all in one
fell swoop likely due to the plot of
some evil mastermind so beware whenever
you fire up an RPG don’t get too
emotionally attached to mom and dad and
little Timmy in the village square their
tastes are definitely numbered number
seven convoluted plot line my twelve
selves would welcome me here on this day
when I would return a complete person
this might be a spoiler alert if you can
manage to figure out what the heck is
going on Faraj onna that has so many
tropes and standards you expect plot
lines to be elegantly simple after all
you’re a simple hero from a small
village out to take up the big bad guy
and his nasty world domination plants so
pretty easy right well know what starts
out as a day picking mushrooms in the
nearby forest will end in a cosmic war
against God spanning space and time and
tapping into the deep mystical secrets
of the universe and no we don’t know how
we got there either
[Music]
number six themes of love and projectile
weapon my friends are my power
protip if you’re about to take on the
most horrific evil incarnations capable
of destroying the world always bring
this with you no not your most powerful
weapon not an army of level 99
characters but the power of love and
friendship it is after all the one thing
that always pulls through in a JRPG
plotline even if you’re outmatched and
outnumbered a rousing speech and maybe a
montage for good measure about the bonds
between your warriors will always
prevail because of course the evil
mastermind is doomed to fail being the
friendless loner that he is
you just gotta rub it in their face –
they’re my friends friends number five
want to be able to spot a JRPG
protagonist from a mile away
it shouldn’t be that hard because the
hairstyles they sport could probably be
seen from orbit likely inspired by anime
Japanese RPGs love to give their
character spiky gravity-defying and
probable hairstyles I’ll watch it behind
it well it looks cool duh I mean what
other reason could you possibly want
it’s not actually just hair either this
logic extends to some of the ridiculous
things that they wear too which are
usually just there to service the rule
of cool who needs protective gear when
you look as rad as these dudes I don’t
number four random encounters somewhere
along the way random encounters went
from being totally expected to totally
reviled to somehow enduringly classic
when it came to RPG mechanics we all
know the feeling
if euro is walking around in the world
map for the dungeon running expectedly
to the next plot point and then BAM out
of nowhere a horde of monsters has
descended upon you usually after a
trippy transition or animation this way
the game can throw a limitless number of
enemies at you making every step you
take kind of a gamble better keep those
repels and mughal charms close number
three final boss with multiple forms
we finally made it through the villains
twisted final dungeon sat through his
preaching monologue about life and death
on the nature of existence listen to
your own characters preach back about
love and friendship and struck what you
believe to be the devastating final blow
right oh no no no here comes forum
number two and then forum number three
and maybe sometimes more JRPGs love to
draw out the game’s final challenge with
some battles lasting up to an hour or
more you can be sure that each forum is
going to look more ridiculous than the
last two because again JRPGs love to
show off all the cool over-the-top
imagery that they can
[Music]
number two blinded did you think you
could escape me
grinding goes hand in hand with random
encounters freely the teen figures that
if it can throw an infinite amount of
enemies at the player the player should
in turn spend infinite amount of hours
beating them up in order to gain sweet
sweet we level ups every so often you
also run into one of those bosses you
just can’t kill leaving you no other
option than to turn around and start
slaughtering everything you lay your
eyes on in hopes of becoming stronger
then there’s grinding for rare drunks
you know the ones that drop point zero
one percent of the time just driving
you’re frickin crazy well either way
you’re probably looking at a lot of
monotonous senseless killing better put
before we get to our number one pick
here are a few honorable mentions this
[Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
come and get it either it’s made out of
some sort of fantasy metal or the
wielder has superhuman strength or heck
the game can’t be bothered to explain
why it’s just so commonplace but the
number one cliche on our list is the
affinity JRPGs have with gigantic or
inspiring utterly impractical swords
don’t ever expect a JRPG character to
complain about hand cramps or sore
muscles because lifting these blades and
jumping around is literally nothing to
them because like with their hair and
their clothes gravity basic physics and
even common sense can be damned it is
all about looking as ridiculously as
possible do you agree with our picks
check out these other great clips from
watch mojo and subscribe for new videos every day
know there are certain things a Japanese
role-playing game just can’t do without
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’ll
be counting down our picks for the top
ten JRPG cliches for more gaming videos
check out our new spinoff channel mojo
plays for in-depth reviews thoughtful
video essays detailed character origins
and insightful commentary mojo plays
games smarter for this list we’re
looking at the most tried and true
tropes of the JRPG genre the ones that
we come to love over the years and that
helped keep this unique genre of games
distinct these include narrative tropes
game mechanics and other oddities and
quirks that for some reason are shared
by a large number of Japanese
role-playing games number 10
say you got your typical JRPG world
ancient kingdoms be magical beasts
mystical ruins on latches and then
suddenly out of nowhere a train passes
by or like a car or an army of robots
the answer to all this is management
technology magic technology is when the
game designers want to have their cake
and eat it too basically they want to
present a traditional medieval fantasy
world but they can’t resist giving the
hero smartphones or something like that
these anachronism will always be
explained away as drawing from some
magical source that powers everything
from street lamps to giant war Mac’s
number nine talking animal mascot it
really wouldn’t be one of these RPGs
without something nauseatingly cute
running around no matter how out of
place they may seem a JRPG cast isn’t
complete without something tiny furry
and motormouth leather it joins your
party or just annoyingly tags along you
can be sure that this RPG character
won’t be one of the most memorable ones
expect squeaky voices repetitive can’t
phrases and oddball attacks that drive
everyone up the wall but you can also
count on these little guys worming their
way into your hearts before the end of
the game a break
let’s face it JRPG heroes must be an
absolute nightmare for real-estate
agents because nine out of ten times
their sheer presence will mark their
hometown as doomed as a storytelling
device it makes sense what’s a more
effective call to action than losing
your home and your family all in one
fell swoop likely due to the plot of
some evil mastermind so beware whenever
you fire up an RPG don’t get too
emotionally attached to mom and dad and
little Timmy in the village square their
tastes are definitely numbered number
seven convoluted plot line my twelve
selves would welcome me here on this day
when I would return a complete person
this might be a spoiler alert if you can
manage to figure out what the heck is
going on Faraj onna that has so many
tropes and standards you expect plot
lines to be elegantly simple after all
you’re a simple hero from a small
village out to take up the big bad guy
and his nasty world domination plants so
pretty easy right well know what starts
out as a day picking mushrooms in the
nearby forest will end in a cosmic war
against God spanning space and time and
tapping into the deep mystical secrets
of the universe and no we don’t know how
we got there either
[Music]
number six themes of love and projectile
weapon my friends are my power
protip if you’re about to take on the
most horrific evil incarnations capable
of destroying the world always bring
this with you no not your most powerful
weapon not an army of level 99
characters but the power of love and
friendship it is after all the one thing
that always pulls through in a JRPG
plotline even if you’re outmatched and
outnumbered a rousing speech and maybe a
montage for good measure about the bonds
between your warriors will always
prevail because of course the evil
mastermind is doomed to fail being the
friendless loner that he is
you just gotta rub it in their face –
they’re my friends friends number five
want to be able to spot a JRPG
protagonist from a mile away
it shouldn’t be that hard because the
hairstyles they sport could probably be
seen from orbit likely inspired by anime
Japanese RPGs love to give their
character spiky gravity-defying and
probable hairstyles I’ll watch it behind
it well it looks cool duh I mean what
other reason could you possibly want
it’s not actually just hair either this
logic extends to some of the ridiculous
things that they wear too which are
usually just there to service the rule
of cool who needs protective gear when
you look as rad as these dudes I don’t
number four random encounters somewhere
along the way random encounters went
from being totally expected to totally
reviled to somehow enduringly classic
when it came to RPG mechanics we all
know the feeling
if euro is walking around in the world
map for the dungeon running expectedly
to the next plot point and then BAM out
of nowhere a horde of monsters has
descended upon you usually after a
trippy transition or animation this way
the game can throw a limitless number of
enemies at you making every step you
take kind of a gamble better keep those
repels and mughal charms close number
three final boss with multiple forms
we finally made it through the villains
twisted final dungeon sat through his
preaching monologue about life and death
on the nature of existence listen to
your own characters preach back about
love and friendship and struck what you
believe to be the devastating final blow
right oh no no no here comes forum
number two and then forum number three
and maybe sometimes more JRPGs love to
draw out the game’s final challenge with
some battles lasting up to an hour or
more you can be sure that each forum is
going to look more ridiculous than the
last two because again JRPGs love to
show off all the cool over-the-top
imagery that they can
[Music]
number two blinded did you think you
could escape me
grinding goes hand in hand with random
encounters freely the teen figures that
if it can throw an infinite amount of
enemies at the player the player should
in turn spend infinite amount of hours
beating them up in order to gain sweet
sweet we level ups every so often you
also run into one of those bosses you
just can’t kill leaving you no other
option than to turn around and start
slaughtering everything you lay your
eyes on in hopes of becoming stronger
then there’s grinding for rare drunks
you know the ones that drop point zero
one percent of the time just driving
you’re frickin crazy well either way
you’re probably looking at a lot of
monotonous senseless killing better put
before we get to our number one pick
here are a few honorable mentions this
[Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
come and get it either it’s made out of
some sort of fantasy metal or the
wielder has superhuman strength or heck
the game can’t be bothered to explain
why it’s just so commonplace but the
number one cliche on our list is the
affinity JRPGs have with gigantic or
inspiring utterly impractical swords
don’t ever expect a JRPG character to
complain about hand cramps or sore
muscles because lifting these blades and
jumping around is literally nothing to
them because like with their hair and
their clothes gravity basic physics and
even common sense can be damned it is
all about looking as ridiculously as
possible do you agree with our picks
check out these other great clips from
watch mojo and subscribe for new videos every day
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