10 MORE Cruel Tricks Video Games Played On RPG Players
2. Scripted Party Wipes
Here's a trope that's felt tired for a good, long while now: scripted party wipes at the end of boss fights.
An unwinnable boss fight where you're quickly destroyed in a matter of moments as part of the story is one thing, but one where you actually have to put effort into fighting the boss to a pre-determined "win" point before the scripted death occurs is hugely frustrating.
Dying before this point will result in a genuine Game Over and will require you to keep fighting to reach the scripted moment where you can finally concede, which, beyond being rubbish game design, feels like a waste of the player's time.
Prepping yourself for a wild boss fight by grinding and stocking your inventory, and then realising it was all for the sake of a scripted defeat, is immensely unsatisfying. Looking at you, Beatrix in Final Fantasy IX.
If a game is going to pull this gambit, the boss fight in question needs to be short, and ideally, if you happen to be defeated anyway, it simply segues into the scripted sequence.