Summary
One too many of the same trope in a visual novel gets tiring, and that’s why some games don’t stand out from the rest. The gameplay can’t always be the one to carry the story, and even so, visual novels are followed for their narratives rather than heavy gameplay.
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New ideas are hard to come by, but a lot of these tropes need serious tweaks. Some of these are in ill taste, while others are overused to the point that you could swear that every visual novel has featured it at least once with a character or during an event.
10But Thou Must!
Also known as the illusion of choice. Some choices in visual novels end up having the same consequences as the other choice, to the point that you question if making choices even matters in the game. There are times that real life feels like damn if you do, damn if you don’t moments—but they usually don’t feel as defeating as certain choices you make in visual novels.
There will be instances you want to save a character, only for them to die anyway even if the game gives you the illusion that you may save them. There are also situations that appear to be the right choice, only for them to be red herrings to the right choice.
9Beauty Equals Goodness
It’s nice to play games with visually appealing characters, and it feels great to feel beautiful in-game. But always having morally perfect people who are drop-dead gorgeous always becomes easily stale. Besides, there are a lot of horrible people with beautiful faces. Even if they’re more than just their looks, it’s hard to find leads in visual novels that aren’t attractive.
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Having average-looking characters and unconventionally attractive characters take center stage as the story’s heroes is a refreshing sight to behold. Besides, it’s fun to see beautiful yet terrible people commit acts that even their looks couldn’t justify.
8Incompatible Orientation
Please just let the gays kiss already, they’re married. It’s not fun to find visual novels that imply you can eventually date a character, only for it not to be possible because you’ve chosen an MC whose gender isn’t compatible with your person of interest.
This trope will make you move in with the said person and act married to them, only for the script not to officially let you date. It’s bad enough that liking the same gender poses tall barriers, it’s even worse when it happens in a game that’s supposed to let you escape your terrible reality.
7The Main Character As A Liability
But you’re the main character, so clearly you’re powerful enough to survive on your own in the story? Apparently not, and you’ll end up having to rely on most of the overpowered cast for your survival. There are even times that the main character is aware that they’re just a liability, otherwise known as “the load” character.
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The trope makes even less sense when the character is actually strong, but is ill-equipped or untrained to wield their power or skills. It’s a convenient excuse to make the main character rely on the other people in the cast, but is contradictory when they’re written as a powerful character.
6Annoying Patient
Doctors make terrible patients, but visual novel characters are often the worst patients known to man. They often attempt to brute force through everything and insist on being fine, until the main character has to pick up after them — literally. They push themselves to the point of death and exhaustion, and you find it ironic when they’re the ones to tell you to take good care of yourself in the story.
It’s nice to have fictional characters care about you so much, but it would be better to see them have some regard for themselves since it’s painful to nurse after them when they try to look so tough in front of you.
5Love Redeems
you’re able to burn a temple full of monks, declare war, and commit war crimes, but you’re excused by the plot because love can redeem you. If it’s a historical romance visual novel, the setting makes sense — but even your love for a character can’t wash them clean from their crimes.
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This is specific to a lot of dating sim visual novels as if they’ve gotten a cue from Britney Spears' Criminal and taken the song’s essence to heart. Love who you want, but it’s weird to condone the unnerving acts of your favorite character.
4Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist
This trope also works in terms of social standing. The protagonist is often in a lower position than the antagonist and is being bullied and pushed around by the antagonist as a result of the imbalanced power dynamic. It’s a frequent trope, and it’s tiring to see especially when the protagonist can solo the antagonist if they had faith in themselves.
But insecurities aren’t easy to resolve, and it’s up to the plot and the friends made along the way to turn the protagonist into a capable and self-assured hero before they can finally face the antagonist again. It’s a simple trope that visual novels can’t get enough of, but it would be nice to see fights on an equal footing instead of always having a punching bag for a protagonist.
3Big Heroes
Also known as the visual novel world’s Deus ex Machina trope, where the main character gets saved in the nick of time by the heroes and surprising reinforcements. It’s a plot saver, but if you really want to strike fear into people’s hearts, it’s more effective to make them experience loss.
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When a lot of visual novels feature last-minute saviors frequently, it almost becomes an expectation for you to see the main character get saved despite their bad decisions or their recklessness. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s strange to have a guy who was supposed to be dead four chapters ago pop up with little explanation just to save you.
2Ambiguously Absent Parents
If this game isn’t set in high school, or if the parents are written off as dead, then the absent parent trope makes sense. But if the characters are implied to be teens or people who are young adults who are going to college, it’s odd to never have the game feature the parents.
It’s even weirder when they don’t notice their child disappear to another dimension for months on end. If that doesn’t get a parent calling 911 to file a missing person’s report, we don’t know what could.
1Late To School
Being late to school all the time or hardly ever attending school without receiving consequences doesn’t make sense. If it’s set in a school, and you’re not getting punished for skipping classes, that school is either unique or just a convenient setting for the story. But if you skip classes in real life, you’d probably get detention or expelled.
Just remember that if, in the visual novel, you can skip school to hang out with friends, that doesn’t mean that you can do the same thing in real life.
