10 Video Game Cliches That Need To Die

5. The Father/Daughter Bond

Witcher 3 Geralt And Ciri
CD Projekt RED

The Last of Us, The Witcher 3, and Bioshock: Infinite are some of the best games of the past decade (yes, even that last one), partly because they all focus on the central relationship between a father figure and a daughter figure, chronicling how they both grow in the face of adversity.

The problem is, they ruined it for any other action game that wanted to tell a similar tale.

In the early 2010s there was a period where a bunch of big-name games all told this story at the same time, and did it better than anyone expected by tying the companion in the narrative to the gameplay in a dynamic and inventive way, and it's made similar efforts which followed feel a little hollow.

Even if they're not chasing trends, using this relationship as the emotional backbone of a story is no longer unique, especially when so many titles often give the companion character identical abilities in gameplay.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.