Videogame pet peeves...

[Mr Durand Pierre]

I decided to start a list of videogame pet peeves. I"ll start with a few of my own and everyone is welcome to add some of theirs.

- Voice acting. 90% of the time it's terrible. Even if the actors do a good job if they're reading bad dialogue it sounds a lot more ridiculous than if you're just reading it. Ex: No one cared that Secret of Mana had poor writing, but it sounded much worse in FFX. And also, Mario just seems wrong with voice acting.

- Cutscenes that cannot be skipped. Far too many games these days are guilty of this.

-Bad dialogue. I'm basically used to this since it's hte norm, but it would be nice if developers could hire half-decent writers. Ex: Resident Evil games.

-Metal or techno music where it doesn't belong. Ex: Prince of Persia.

-rapid button mashing where you simply have to press a button very fast multiple times. Star Fox Adventures had a couple parts like this. (note to anyone like me who lacks the reflexis to do this... use a pen. it works like a charm).

-save slots that only save over previous saves and don't give you the option of saving under a new slot. (i exempt metroid games form this simply because the save slots replenish your energy in those games and there's never any points where you can't go back).

- Games where you can't go back after a certain point to collect whatever small things you may have missed. Ex: Beyond Good and Evil and Starfox Adventures were both great games that were guilty of this.

-text that cannot be skipped, or is written slow. Ex: finding treasure chests in the Zelda games.

-arbitrary goals with no reward. Ex: The shines in Mario Sunshine. They do nothing.


That's all I can think of for now. I may add more later as I notice them in other games.

[jmcc]

For me it's unbeatable battles as plot points. I hate not being able to win a fight. If I have no chance don't make me go through the motions just to taunt me, game!

[punqsux]

lava levels

[dustyeff]

underwater levels. I haven't liked them since the mario games.

[Mookyjooky]

Mine is when they're a great thing like ragdoll physics and people 2 years later are coding with the same motions when people die

[jmcc]

lava levels

Yeah, I hate those too. Especially when added in where not logical. Such as into Call Of Duty for the Xbox: http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2004/reviews/917587_20040608_screen001.jpg
I'm pretty sure there was no lava in WWII. Not in Europe, at least.

[alongx]

Inappropriate cell shading. In JSRF, Zelda: WW, and a select few others, it was great. In many others...not so much.

[coolsteel]

Stealth missions when the character is packing a dozen weapons

[The Successful Dropout]

i hate it when you're playing a good 3d shooter or action game when all of a sudden you have this gay stealth level....they may belong, but i just hate it...i hate having to wait 5 minutes to sneak around one person, when i could've just put a few rounds in him and be past that part in 10 seconds

[ZForce]

Games with slow motion "Matrix" effects. Max Payne was the only game I liked that did this.

[BlueWingX]

Mine carts. I hate mine carts sooooooo much! I think the only mine cart level I've ever passed without dying at least once was in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga... and I still don't want to do it again.

Also, innappropriate use of technology. Right now, the biggest offender to that one is Transformers. Why the hell does Optimus Prime, a huge metal robot, flail about like a sock monkey when he gets knocked down. Misuse of ragdoll physics, that's why. Bad designers! Bad!

[swetooth9]

Stealth missions when the character is packing a dozen weapons

lmao! true that, true that :D

[The Successful Dropout]

games that want you to do special moves, but dont have a controller layout in the options menu or anything in the manual to indicate how to do what they want you to do

[Mustang O-Line 75]

lava levels

Yeah, I hate those too. Especially when added in where not logical. Such as into Call Of Duty for the Xbox: http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2004/reviews/917587_20040608_screen001.jpg
I'm pretty sure there was no lava in WWII. Not in Europe, at least.

where's the lava?

the city is on fire

[PapiChullo]

I hate when enemies don't have a realisitic field of vision. I hate it when you're moving around stealthily and there's no way that a real person would see you, yet, as soon as you walk around a corner, shots fired.

[KingDox]

the worst thing about stealth levels are the ones where if your spoted you die instanly. Beyond Good & Evil had this and it blew. Damn laser beams.

Also jumping puzzles, thankfuly your starting to see less of those.

[Auyeung01]

For me, I like to play RPG's in which you have to level up your weak characters. But as you level up, towards the end of the game, your characters can kill the enemies without even trying. I wish that the newer games would implement the Earthbound (SNES) style fighting in which you can win the fight without the whole battle sequence if your party is way stronger than the enemies. :twisted:

Another pet peeve is when you have to do something to progress in the game, but the game's not specific in the quests/tasks needed to be done (Old school RPG style)

[epobirs]

lava levels

Yeah, I hate those too. Especially when added in where not logical. Such as into Call Of Duty for the Xbox: http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2004/reviews/917587_20040608_screen001.jpg
I'm pretty sure there was no lava in WWII. Not in Europe, at least.

Actually, Italy and some other regions where WWII battles were fought have some pretty serious volcanic activity. Eruptions may not have figured prominently in the war but the potential was there...
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Italy/description_italy_volcanics.html

The PTO wasn't any less dotted with active volcanoes. Imagine if Mt. Pinatubo had pulled one of its major burps while the Philippines were contested.

[snakeeyez]

Escort missions. I can't stand those.

[epobirs]

There is a certain connection between translations of Japanese video games and anime. For quite a long time both suffered from amateurish efforts to translate the text and perform the resulting dialogue. Both have improved massively. IMHO, FFX was quite good in the dialogue department. Compared to many effforts where the voice cast is recruited from family and friends, this game had a group of solid professionals, including Bender and Cornfed!
http://imdb.com/name/nm0413996/

Ten years ago, nearly all of the English dubs of anime were painfully bad. (In some case it turned out the original Japanese dialogue was also pretty awful.) As the market grew the budgets for localization allowed for a better class of performer to be hired. Nowadays I no longer feel the compulsion to watch anime with the Japanese soundtrack and English subtitles just to see if part of the story got clobbered.

In the short time since optical media has made voice a significant part of video games beyond samples from movie soundtracks or the robotic utterings of 'Berzerk' things have come a long way.

The shines do nothing? As I recall they were critical to proceeding through the game. They served essentially the same function as the stars in Mario 64 and orbs in Jak & Daxter. Were these goals largely artificial? Of course they were. Everything about the premise of most games is entirely contrived. It's an excuse to frame the gameplay. It makes things a bit more interesting than just having obstacle courses 1 through 100.

[Renzokuken]

I hate backtracking in a game.

[The Successful Dropout]

I hate backtracking in a game.

thats a major pain in my ass

[PsyClerk]

My own list, some already listed:

-Being unable to obtain items/secrets/what-have-you after a certain point in the game. Especially bad when that point comes before the time a normal player would have the skills to obtain said items in early levels/areas. By the time they know to look for item X or talk to person A, the opportunity is gone. Try again on next play through. This sucks worst on 40+ hour RPGs.

-Jumping puzzles, especially in games that aren't platformers. Half-Life anyone?

-Out of place levels/missions. This goes for those stealth missions in action games, and those levels in RTS games where you only get a limited number of units (you aren't allowed to build buildings and troops).

-Obstacles that you MUST die or lose to. Then you get to replay the level and be on the lookout for them. Example: floor pits in the first Metal Gear. A first time player, with no prior knowledge of the game, will always die to the first floor pit.

-'Cheating' computer controlled opponents. Blanka walking forward and hitting a Beast Roll at the same time in SFII. Guile walking forward and firing off a Sonic Boom in same. In Rise of Nations, blowing the living hell out of a country with nukes and concentrated air strikes, only to see a fully rebuilt city, military production facilities and troops less than a minute later from that same area.

-Cameras that rotate around your character and end up behind a wall.

-Training stages that don't allow you to skip text or fast forward through any segment. I usually don't have to learn how to make my character walk around.

-Infinite Enemy Syndrome. I hate seeing any point in a game where you can kill enemies over and over and over and they continue to come at you. Sometimes it makes sense, but most of the time it's just a weak attempt to get you to move on or something.

-Always having the odds against you no matter what side of a quest/mission/level/etc you are on. Think Dynasty Warriors. If you play, say, Battle at Wu Zhang Plains as Shu, then the odds are against you. The Wei army will have tons of troops and the catapults they use to assault your HQ are well protected. However, if you play as Wei, your catapults come under attack in about five minutes. I know this is done to keep it challenging, but sometimes I wouldn't mind crushing my opponent with less effort.

[The Successful Dropout]

having to get your damn drivers license all over again in Gran Turismo before you can move on

[wubb]

I have just a few main ones

-Not being able to skip intro screens. Not many games are like this. But there are a few that don't let you skip the developer or publisher houses nifty animation... Every dang time the game loads up. Yeah, I might watch them once or twice to check them out but I don't feel like sitting there for 30 seconds every time I pop in the game watching the same dumb thing.

-Not being able to skip cut scenes. I can understand if they lock this out the first time it plays, but after that you should be able to skip.

-Artificially limited save ability. Main game I'm pointing at here is Tiger Woods 2004. You can only save four profiles. Totally sucks. I have my own and three buddies on there leaving me no extra for one to play around with. I don't have much desire to buy a memory card simply because this one game is retarded. With the HDD I could easily have thousands of these suckers no problem.

-Inability to change difficulty level mid game. Quite a few games are like this. So if it turns out the game is too difficult for you a few hours in, you have to restart at the beginning to ratchet it down. If the game tracks the difficulty you beat it on for bonuses it should simply warn you that changing to a lower difficulty level will cause the game to treat your entire playthrough as having been done at that difficulty, even if you bump it back up later.

[ZForce915]

My biggest pet peeve...bad camera angles. I hate this. I would rather play a good 2D game than a 3D game that doesn't get the camera right.

[EggViper]

no check points or save points during a level. in which case if u screw up, ur going to have to repeat the entire level again.

[spongebolton]

-licenced music in inappropriate games. it worked in vice city, but in madden it makes no sense.

-the word "kiddie" and the people that use it. how many people prefer gigli over the goonies just because of it's mpaa rating? just because something is marketed towards adults doesn't mean it's better, kids.

-advertising in games. sobe in munch's oddysey and bawls in run like hell stick out the most.

[chickenhawk]

-Inability to change difficulty level mid game. Quite a few games are like this. So if it turns out the game is too difficult for you a few hours in, you have to restart at the beginning to ratchet it down. If the game tracks the difficulty you beat it on for bonuses it should simply warn you that changing to a lower difficulty level will cause the game to treat your entire playthrough as having been done at that difficulty, even if you bump it back up later.

Related to this...early levels or missions that are insanely hard, when those are the levels that are supposed to familiarize you with the controls and the game. Admittedly, this in some cases may be a product of my suckassness.

[paean]

"Stupid Plots that no one care about"
Ex. Splinter Cell, Mario, Tomb Raider, Quake

"Licensed game released prematurely to coincide with Licensed property dates"
Ex. Tomb Raider AOD, Matrix, I guess you can say most licensed games in general...

"MMORPG that you need to spend 23 hours a day to get anywhere"
Ex. ALL of Them

"Games that TRIES to copy a best selling title"
Ex. True Crime, Dead to Rights, all those 3D mario clones back in the day, all the copy cat mediocre (at best) racing games

"$49.99 as a MSRP"
Sorry, we are CAGs, you expect us to pay $50 for a game? NO Way! Not when the game will be $20 in about 3 months.

"Yearly updates to sports games"
Ex. Madden, madden and more madden, and every other sports franchise out there.

[Javery]

"Yearly updates to sports games"
Ex. Madden, madden and more madden, and every other sports franchise out there.

I disagree. While I don't think $50 is a fair price for the yearly update, I think it is an essential step in the evolution of the genre to make yearly updates. Also, who wants to play with old rosters? Each Madden is better than the one released the previous year - I would pay $50 every year if we got a yearly Zelda or Mario that kept improving the one that came before it...

[SoulEdgeVII]

- Respawning enemies that are just there to make you waste ammo (Red Faction II)
- Pushing crates around to solve puzzles (Pretty much every platformer out there)

[rimsforsale]

when you guys say: lava

it reminds me of Dat Phan...

"nahh... hot like lava"

[alongx]

Escort missions. I can't stand those.

So you hated Ico?

[hinkbert]

Annoying ice, water levels

slow-text, unable to skip text, poorly written dialogue, repetitious text

Hidden items with no logical way of finding them or just randomly searching to find key items (square PSone games especially had this problem), and inversely items that are way to obvious to see (i.e. Resident Evil)

[PsyClerk]

-Not being able to skip intro screens. Not many games are like this. But there are a few that don't let you skip the developer or publisher houses nifty animation... Every dang time the game loads up. Yeah, I might watch them once or twice to check them out but I don't feel like sitting there for 30 seconds every time I pop in the game watching the same dumb thing.

Ugh, I meant to mention this. Some games show four or five involved animations just for the companies associated with making the game. There was one I played recently like that. I actually yelled at the TV "DAMMIT! Get on with it!"

[msdmoney]

My own list, some already listed:

-Being unable to obtain items/secrets/what-have-you after a certain point in the game. Especially bad when that point comes before the time a normal player would have the skills to obtain said items in early levels/areas. By the time they know to look for item X or talk to person A, the opportunity is gone. Try again on next play through. This sucks worst on 40+ hour RPGs.

Can't stand this, I am a completionist, and like to get everything and don't want to have to replay to do it.


-Out of place levels/missions. This goes for those stealth missions in action games,
The Hulk comes to mind.


-Infinite Enemy Syndrome. I hate seeing any point in a game where you can kill enemies over and over and over and they continue to come at you. Sometimes it makes sense, but most of the time it's just a weak attempt to get you to move on or something.

I like to explore levels so I don't like respawning. Metroid Prime was one of the few games where I could take respawning.

-Not being able to skip intro screens. Not many games are like this. But there are a few that don't let you skip the developer or publisher houses nifty animation... Every dang time the game loads up. Yeah, I might watch them once or twice to check them out but I don't feel like sitting there for 30 seconds every time I pop in the game watching the same dumb thing.

Ugh, I meant to mention this. Some games show four or five involved animations just for the companies associated with making the game. There was one I played recently like that. I actually yelled at the TV "DAMMIT! Get on with it!"

Yeah thats just annoying, although it seems to happen less than I remember in the past.

I think this has been mentioned but I can't stand watching the same animation over and over in a game (ie. Link opening a chest, the same camera pan every time a character enters a room/opens a door).

[daddiebigbig]

games that rip off other games and act like they dont care also collision detection when you get stuck on something far in a level and its a hard level and your health. is high and then you have to restart and you die like 50 times then finally beat the level

[DenisDFat]

Too many games do not use cel-shading when it looks a million times better than regualar polygons.

Trying to look realistic when video games can look better than real

m rated games

stealth levels

[MrBadExample]

In the survival/horror games when you go from room to room and the perspective keeps changing. Sometimes I would have no idea where I was in a new room. I like killing zombies as much as the next gamer, but this is too annoying for me. If they've improved any of this, let me know. I have stayed away from the genre for a while.

[Squirms]

In the survival/horror games when you go from room to room and the perspective keeps changing. Sometimes I would have no idea where I was in a new room. I like killing zombies as much as the next gamer, but this is too annoying for me. If they've improved any of this, let me know. I have stayed away from the genre for a while.

I hate going up through a room, then get to the next run where you are supposed to press down, but instead I'm still pressing up. Therefore my character reenters the room where he just was.

3-D games without camera controls, ala Castlvania: LOA, also really peeve me off. Finally, places where you have to follow another character to a checkpoint, but the character walks ten times slower than you do, so it takes 5 minutes to get to a place that you could get to alone in 30 seconds.

[RedvsBlue]

I'm not sure what you would call it but in Max Payne when you have those drug induced dreams and your running around basically on a tightrope and if you fall you have to start all over. I think this might fall under annoying gimmicks category but it made me hate Max Payne 1 and not even want to touch the sequel.

[Nirvanaguy777]

Levels that are so fast you miss out on important stuff, such as in sonic adventure 2 I missed out on a few upgrades due to this.

[Nirvanaguy777]

I'm not sure what you would call it but in Max Payne when you have those drug induced dreams and your running around basically on a tightrope and if you fall you have to start all over. I think this might fall under annoying gimmicks category but it made me hate Max Payne 1 and not even want to touch the sequel.

W0rd, I got the second one but because of those dream levels man did I hate the first.

[6669]

I hate having to fight all the boss battle at the end of the game, when you've already beaten them before (Viewtiful Joe, Megaman). Its not so bad when its done right though (Wind Waker).

[coolz481]

1. Stealth levels
2. Stealth levels
3. Stealth levels

If it's the point of the game (Metal Gear, Splinter Cell) fine; otherwise, I don't want any part of them.

[Tromack]

1. Stealth levels
2. Stealth levels
3. Stealth levels

If it's the point of the game (Metal Gear, Splinter Cell) fine; otherwise, I don't want any part of them.

I agree for the most part, because usually if there is a stealth level in a game that isn't strictly stealth it usually just has very shitty play mechanics. But I wouldn't make a blanket statement though. I personally loved the Princess stealth levels in Paper Mario.

[BossFight]

not to mention stealth levels that end immediately if you are spotted. its a little more bearable if you are spotted and end up just getting shot a little and you run away and hide again, but I HATE it when you are spotted and someone comes up on your radio or something and says, "You weren't supposed to be seen, mission failed!"

[ElwoodCuse]

Stealth missions when the character is packing a dozen weapons

Listen up, Fisher. Sneak through this heavily populated city street. You must not be seen by any police or civilians because they will instantly blow your cover. On the other side of town is a brand-new million dollar prototype assault weapon. You must get it, even though once you do I will continue to order you not to kill anyone.

SCREW YOU PEDRO CERRANO

[redgopher]

Cutscene subtitles that you can't turn off. Like in Xenosaga. Awesome game but the subtitles distract me from watching the characters.

[thegamer4787]

Bad camera-If I can't see what I'm doing how the hell am I supposed to play?

(Mainly applies to wrestling games) Bad Create a player modes- very little to customize, and your character comes off feeling like one of the characters already in the game.

Games that take very little skill

[MrBadExample]

not to mention stealth levels that end immediately if you are spotted. its a little more bearable if you are spotted and end up just getting shot a little and you run away and hide again, but I HATE it when you are spotted and someone comes up on your radio or something and says, "You weren't supposed to be seen, mission failed!"

I'm not a big stealth fan either, but I think XIII did a good job with it. If a guard saw you, he would try to pull the alarm but you had a chance to shoot him before he could. Saved my ass a couple of times.

[BigDirty]

-Jumping puzzles, especially in games that aren't platformers. Half-Life anyone?


"Jumping puzzles, I just love Jumping Puzzles" and "Yey! Another jumping puzzle"

--"Serious" Sam Stone (Serious Sam: The Next Encounter, 2004, Climax)


That was the greatest line in the game, seriously. I'm really not a fan of them either, but when they were put in, and given a sarcastic commentary, it made them fun, granted this approach can only work in a very few games.

[wubb]

The funny thing about non-skippable intro screens is that on the one hand if they weren't there you would maybe not remember that Joe Bob's Dev House created the game you are playing. But on the other hand most gamers will probably find themselves cursing the company that is making them wait to play their game. :lol:

I think anybody that cares to know who is responsible for a game is going to just check the manual or let the intro screens play to find out, so why force it down their throat. Plus many reviews will give you the past games a dev house is also responsible for. To me it just seems like a big ego play to force the gamer to sit through your animation.

And given that there does seem to be a lot fewer games these days that don't let you skip the intros it seems like most game makers agree.

[magilacudy]

"Yearly updates to sports games"
Ex. Madden, madden and more madden, and every other sports franchise out there.

I disagree. While I don't think $50 is a fair price for the yearly update, I think it is an essential step in the evolution of the genre to make yearly updates. Also, who wants to play with old rosters? Each Madden is better than the one released the previous year - I would pay $50 every year if we got a yearly Zelda or Mario that kept improving the one that came before it...

Hopefully the ESPN series at the $20 price point will change the status quo.

One thing that I hate with sports games is the 'rubber-band' AI that lets the computer catch up if you're winning. Aren't you supposed to be rewarded for having skills and playing well?

[Wet Ninja]

Trying to look realistic when video games can look better than real

I'll second this. Too many games try to look dark/gritty/realistic, when they could really look much better. Why is it that in a lot of action-oriented games, indoor environments are so dark? Who lives or works in that kind of environment? For example, Chronicles of Riddick:

http://www.gamerankings.com/screens4/919755/28.jpg

On a related note, why is the color brown so over-used in games? Like DenisDFat said, games can look better than real life. Why not add a little color? Brown gets really boring after a while. Again, for example, Chronicles of Riddick:

http://www.gamerankings.com/screens4/919755/20.jpg

Also on a related note, stealth games and the current craze of realistic, military-themed shooters are two of my pet peeves.

[Graystone]

Cutscenes that cannot be skipped even after you have beat the game or already been on that level watched the it and died in the level.

racing games where you have to race come in last for like 9 races just to by a muffler to get you to go 9 mph more and a place up in the race

Bad Collison detection

[BlueStorm781]

There's a couple things I hate about certain racing games.

- In games such as Test Drive (most NOTABLY Test Drive), I hate when computer opponents "toss" the traffic right in front of you. It won't affect the computer opponent by much, but you hit that car and you spin out.

- Racing games with awful or unrealistic handling. Sega GT (Dreamcast version), Vanishing Point and the original 1998 ToCA for the PS1 are examples of this. Sega GT and ToCA were supposed to be sim-oriented, but judging by the handling design, you would never know that, since the cars seem to lack traction half the time. And pray to god you don't hit a car or hit a jump in Vanishing Point. That game had no sense of traction, gravity or proper collision reaction.

- Racing games with compter opponents who just seem to know the perfect line to win. This pretty much goes for Midnight Club II, where everybody except you knows where the proper racing line is to win.

As for other games:

- I would like to be able to put my full name, or at least my last name in a save slot or whenever you need to give a name. Sure, seeing MCCRACK may be amusing to some, but not me.

- Fetch-quests. Do this, do that, do this, screw it!

- Games that think you can do more than one thing at once. Example: the final boss of 007: Nightfire. You need to destroy the navigation for the missiles, avoid a huge ass laser, keep an eye on who is shooting at you and make sure you don't stray away from that satallite thing. Want me to bake a cake, balance a checkbook and do your homework while I'm at it?

- Huge ass loading times. I can't see how some games need those ridiculous load times, such as WRC for the PS2 or Turok Evolution for the GC. Some games I heard have worse loading times, such as Mafia for the PS2.

- Repetitive gameplay. You know, if you expect people to pay $49.99 for a game, you should offer more than 20 stages of doing the same thing over.

- Games that should take advantage of the custom soundtrack function of the Xbox, but don't. Like Midnight Club II, Need For Speed Undeground and Colin McRae Rally 04 (funny how it was included in ToCA Race Driver 2, but not CMR 4).

- "Me-too" designs. Companies who take an existing design and think that they can make that better. Simpsons Road Rage is a prime example of this (as well as Hit and Run, but I heard that wa actually pretty good).

- A game is only mature by the blood, gore and language. NO. Quite a few games rated "Mature" actually seem pretty immature. Sure, there are games that are M-rated and do have mature themes (such as the Silent Hill and Metal Gear series), but just because you can shoot someone in the head in a game doesn't really make it "mature".

- Games that take up an assload of space on your memory card (mostly inferring to the Gamecube) hen it really doesn't need it. Really, does a game like Aggressive Inline need 57 of the 59 blocks of your memory card, especially since other games in the genre save in about 8-15 blocks? I think some developers get off on using up your memory card.

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure there's some other things that piss me off that I'm not thinking about.

[BlueStorm781]

Oh, I forgot about bad cameras. God, how did I leave that one out. The biggest offender is the Sonic Adventure series. Why the hell does the camera need to focus right on the character? It should be behind the character in a "chase" view. Not struggling and spazzing all over the place like a drunk secretary losing her balance on karaoke night, just so you can see the top of their head.

[KingDox]

I hate levels in an FPS where you have to complete certain goals like find all the switches. Only you can't find them and you've killed all the enimies on the level so your just wandering around an empty level like a moron. Levels should end when you kill everyone. Missions should have more then just one way to win, and one of those ways to win should be "eliminate all enemies".

[AdamInPlaidum]

My biggest peeve is the "good-gameplay" defense of Grand Theft Auto. I think they are fun games, but I don't think I've met one person who doesn't readily admit they always get sidetracked on missions because its just so much much to think of new ways to kill people. That IS the appeal of the game. To say the reason you play the game isn't about killing people is asanine. Not really a video game peeve as much as a video game culture peeve, but I thought I'd still share.

[Yeahman]

Cheap party destroying attacks in RPG's:

Sometimes they give you a warning like a countdown, but I hate it when you're in the middle of a challenging battle, you're making progress, then all of the sudden, and without warning you get obliterated by an attack that you would have to be at full strength to survive.

Limited item capacity:

Often this can be fixed by simply putting all like items together. Dark Cloud (1st one) was hindered by this, as is Resident Evil. Animal Crossing often is annoying. If I want to sell 50 cherries, just put them in one slot so I can do it quick and easy.

RE controls:

In general games should give the player options in setting up the controls, and this is a perfect example. If Capcom wants to leave in foward/back/turn fine, but provide full analog capacity like DMC for those that want it.

Not being able to revisit cutscenes.

This is going to really hurt come Xenosaga II. It would be nice to go back and watch all the movies from the first with out having to replay the game.

[King Bahamut]

Dungeon crawling in RPGs, gamers overrating the FFs (especially FF7), people praising the GTA series, fanboys, and...I think that covers most of the nuisances.