What jrpg tropes by the way? I usually have no qualm with many of the older ones. Chrono Trigger, Fire Emblem, Golden Sun, Lufia, Advance Wars, etc.
You've probably heard several of these before: The protagonist is usually either highly optimistic and a bit on the thick side (Tidus, Lloyd), or he's a pessimistic, miserable jerk. Your's party's healer is a bright, cheery girl with a heart of gold who is likely a bit naive. Of course, to counter this you probably have a dark, broody girl who probably uses offensive magic or is a warrior woman. Not to mention that you're party is possibly joined by an old warrior who may or may not be secretly mentoring the protagonist. You can't forget the underaged girl who is possibly exploited for fanservice. Or the suave, pretty lady's man. Of course, as an alternate your pretty boy can also be really troubled by his past too. Or maybe, you'll even get a monster beast man who joins your cause.
Expect the plot to start out pretty simple, X is doing something bad, go stop them. Of course, it rarely stays that simple. If religion is involved, expect for one of the game's major twists to be that said religion is actually evil. About half way through the game, expect for the game's simple plot to do a complete 180 and suddenly throw plot twist after plot twist at you. Always expect for the game's initial threat to actually be controlled by someone else, which each new villain having less characterization and motivation than the last. Of course, around this time you can also expect for half of your party's character arcs to be quietly forgotten about as the blossoming romance between the hero and healer takes center stage. As you approach the end of the game, expect things like pacing, foreshadowing and common sense to be thrown out the window as the game tries to shock you with as many twists as it can pommel you with in the last few hours. If the game was made post FF7, expect most of these twists to be very surreal and abstract. Also if the game was made post FF7, someone in your party is not who they initially appear to be. I can count the number of post FF7 JRPGs that I have played that haven't had this twist on one hand.
I'm pretty sure that monstrous wall of text is what Pyscho is talking about. I have quite the affinity for the JRPG genre, so I've come to accept these things. Yeah, it can get annoying seeing the same thing over and over again (can we talk about how Final Fantasy X, Grania II and Tales of Symphonia
have the same exact premise?). But for me, my love of turn-based combat, unique character building that breaks away from DnD and seeing all of the imaginative locations and art direction in so many of these games keeps me coming back. Plus I just have a blast when I play them, flaws and all.
That was super off topic, but I wanted to respond to that.
Also, I don't think Advance Wars is a JRPG.
