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Silent Protagonists

There’s some trouble going on in a faction that needs looking into.

But you’re the outsider so you’re obviously the perfect candidate to do everyone’s busywork.

Probably the button-smasher games.

Heres a controversial one, but in Fighting games, I think its really lazy to make a character whose whole gimmick is “they did this thing in the show once, and its not an attack, but we put a hitbox on it so now it is.” ESPECIALLY if you’re putting it onto a character who actually does know how to fight, but you’re going to have them pull a random object out of thin-air for this move.

This is usually more prominent in Fan movesets that people post online, or with characters that actually cant fight at all (Kirino in Dengeki Bunko, basically half the cast of Nick All-stars, etc.). I dont just mean characters who pull stuff out of hammer space either like Frank West in MvC and TvC as they’re more of a gray area I can also get into, but I always found it DEEPLY uninteresting in almost every case. I like it when characters feel like they’re actually FIGHTING in a fighting game. When you have Hugh pull out pizza boxes but the pizza boxes have a hitbox so I guess its an attack now, Its hard not to roll my eyes.

That being said, there are people who like these kinds of movesets and there are characters where you really NEED to do that to get them to work (Nick all-stars again of course needed to do that) but I find it much more interesting if you try to come up with an original moveset that still reflects the character. Shredder in NASB1 just pulling a grappling hook or Spear out of thin-air for three attacks is way lazier than just making him do an attack in my mind, and Danny STILL using the fenton thermos for a normal in NASB2 even though its also his super now is really disappointing. The character isnt better represented just because you’re adding something else from their show here. (disclaimer, Nick all-stars is still fun and I’d recommend it)

Monster hunter series has worst storytelling of any game I played, but it’s hard to even count Monster Hunter as i am pretty sure the story counts as an excuse for gameplay.

Sunbreak final boss: Pretty cool mission where you realise the monster you are fighting is battling the same enemy as you, so you let him go so he can continue to protect the country.

Sunbreak optional quest: “Hey, Primordial Malzeno is back! Too bad he’s gone berzerk, so you have to slay him!”

What annoys me particularly about Sunbreak and makes it go from “overly convenient but empty” to “bad” is Dame Fiorayne, who is ALMOST an ok character, but every time she wants to do something, all the other characters put her down and say she’s being too hot headed and you should do it instead. Basically they’re calling her a “dramatic woman” when she’s not anything like that and it’s clearly the perception of some horrible male writer. At least Monster Hunter World respects women, bruh. World also has imo better presentation of its story and makes up better excuses for you showing up to help… by a VERY MARGINAL AMOUNT. Gameplay wise i feel the story mode of Sunbreak is a lot better QOL-wise but the endgame of World is more satisfying.

Bring x amount of an item for almost no gain…

This is more of a gameplay thing, but writing a scenario in an action game where I have to intentionally go slow and stalk someone

Retcon and forced diversity to me are signs of rubbish writing.

I agree with you OP. I will get a lot of flak for this but that was, Control for me. I thought the games narrative and lore building was fantastic but it felt it it was building to something that just never came. I am happy I didn’t know it was part of the Alan wake universe as I would have never played it as those games aren’t my cup of tea so every silver lining. But ye, what a narrative and then just nothing

Maybe not “lazy” per se, but my least favorite is finding reasons and excuses for the player character to always have to be alone even when they’re part of a team or collective effort.

Obviously many games feature AI companions, but a lot of games also have you working with other characters, but in actual gameplay you are completely alone, maybe talking to other characters on comms or seeing them do something in a scripted event or cutscene.

These games are obviously designed to be single-player experiences and balance around you being alone and probably don’t want to do the extra work to include AI companions for just one or a few sections, but the weird gymnastics they do to make sure that you never cross paths in combat with the people you’re working with becomes really noticeable and distracting.

Examples include the new Wolfenstein games, Bioshock, Jedi Fallen Order, and tons of single-player action adventure games.

Main Character slaughters half a city but gets knocked out in a cutscene and has to recover his gear. I hate it so much.