Would you consider "The Last __________" to be a cliche titling scheme? I've seen The Last Story on Wii and The Last Airbender TV show and I'm sure there are others out there that use it.

What other titles are out there that you'd consider cliche?

Titles I think are cliche?

The Legend of _____

Tales of ____

Though, to tell the truth. I love the Tales of games and Legend of Legaia/Dragoon from the PSX era. Haha. But the titles, yeah, cliche.

I personally cannot come up with a title to save my life.

"Hero of _____"
"____sim"
"_____tycoon"

:|

"*insert protagonist name here*"
Alternate language titles in a different language game.

The Last.... is pretty cliche though.

To be honest, sometimes games do not need to have special titles to be great. Cliché titles exist commercially and make a lot of money, but more importantly are really fun as well.
It isn't every day that you can come up with an original name for something, like: Tetris, Galaga, Metroid, etc... But if you think about it...
"The Legend of Zelda" was a highly rated, and very successful, game despite the "cliché" title.
Sometimes the title will attract people, and other times not. Nowadays you need to have less cliché titles to receive less criticism, but the fact is that the game's contents are what matters.

Here are some more cliché titles that were once very successful:
The Adventures of _____.
Once Upon A ____.
War of the ____.
The Grand ____.
Kingdom of ____.
Final ____.

Most that I could think of was already mentioned

Chronicles of __________
___________ Saga

a lot of cliche titles originally weren't cliche, and were very successful, and then people tried to remake that style of game and failed terrifically. So many of these wannabe games were released that eventually we began associating 'final' and 'the last' with mind-numbing clicheness...

What disturbs me is that it's always the same fucking words
"The Legend of Grey Harbor" <-- random name for something.
could easily be "Myths of Grey Harbor", "The Grey Harbor Mystery" or just "Grey Harbor"
there's an infinite number of alternatives, but people choose the cliche 'legend of' because they think it adds extra awesome-points... It doesn't.

Games can still be good with unimaginative names, but if the author can't even think of a synonym for 'legend' then get ready for some painstakingly daft dialogue/plot/etc.
You should spend ALOT of time choosing the title of a game, and also focus ALOT on what the people within it are saying. They abide by the same principle, think about what you're writing.

If you were writing a personal statement for university, or for a job, you wouldn't just throw down the first thing that comes into your head. You would spend minutes on a single sentence. This is how real, deep, writing is done.

That said and done, some shows or games do have a 'last' as their main plot device, it's cliche but they can make it work.
What's annoying is when you play a game as 'the last dragon warrior' and by the end of the game you've met like three more... Then you have a title that is a lie, contains four cliche words, and is ultimately not about the game you're playing...
However, if you're making a game about a 'last' you can make it so there are more than one (Dr.Who does this all the freaking time) just don't put last in the title. The title is written by God (the author) and so must be as true as possible, unless it's ironic.

Anyway, I'm rambling/ranting/preaching... Just let it be known that there are a tremendously high number of words in the english language, and it is insulting to see the same dozen used over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Here are some

The first "_______________________"
The second "________________________"
The 3rd "________________________"
The 4th "________________________"
The 5th"________________________"
The 6th hero of BLAH
The 7th "__________________________"
# (Number) (Title)

"The Last '_________' ", is NOT CLICHE. This is cliche. "The 2761th "___________"

I'd say it all depends on what is the "last" thing. I can't imagine how a title like "The last platypus" or "The last rhododendron" could be cliche.

This is very very true actually.
The Last (something you would not expect to ever have a last) is cliche because it defies common sense.
The Last Dragon Warrior. For example, how the feck would dragon warriors go extinct?
The Last ninja. Again, why would they die out.
The Last magical crystal of zimbabwe. That's all well and good, but where did the first one come from, and why is the last one so important anyway?

and then
The Last Polar Bear, well this is sad but will eventually happen. A good story could easily be written about it - and it wouldn't be cliche.
The Final chord, all pieces of music end with a final note or chord - such could be applied to a story quite easily.

The problem here is still in the title though. It's VERY easy to take one of these titles and change it. The last polar bear could be called Bearly Alive (a horrible horrible pun) but it wouldn't be cliche. The Final Chord could be called The Cadence (a cadence being the closing chords of a song).
It's not hard to think of more imaginative names than 'the last' or 'the final'. It's the plots more than the titles that are cliche, the titles are just unimaginative.
Take 'I am number four' it turns the entire concept on its head. Why is the 'last' one so important? Why not the fourth?

_____ quest

_____ chronicles

and probably

The guy who is immune to like evrything that would hurt a normal person, srsly I mean evrything. ______ has like NO weakness at all. Really, _____ is so strong Darth Vader AND Maul would like, would like be nothing against ______. Really he would take them in one blow

That would also sound kinda cliche

^You forget the part where he makes one tiny mistake (TINY) and gets killed by a 15 year old boy.

One title that seems to be HIGHLY cliche is something that is something like:
The Four Elements of *insert Generated World Name Here*
Anything naming the Elements in the Title seems to have trouble being taken seriously....

The Fires/Waters/Winds of *Generated World Title"

Another thing which is cliche is simple titles.
I mean, we're (usually) talking about the most epic thing to ever happen in the world where the story takes place. We're talking the pinnacle of all story telling, this event will be passed down for generations (if anyone survives) and be remembered forever.
And you think they'd call it The War of Elements?
Hell no.

The Third Servile war is a real thing, and is one of the most amazing stories in all of history. It happened so long ago and people have written about it ever since. It is about Spartacus and several other slaves escaping slavery and waging war on Rome itself. It is GOLD for story-telling. They called it for what it is, The Third Servile war.

What did we call a world war? World War.
What did we call it the second time? World War II.

Wars are named practically most of the time. Pretty much every event in history has been given a concise title that is fitting and dramatic.
Take a look at films:
Godfather is about... A godfather.
Fight Club is about... Fight Club
Transformers is about... Transformers (movie was awful, never seen the show, but the title is true)

Then someone makes a game, it's called The Wars of the Elements.
But it's actually only about one war, well, it's about one guy that took down an emperor DURING the war, and there were elements, but elements aren't important in this world because everyone has them. I mean, do we call all our wars "The wars of the bullets" no, it sounds freaking ridiculous.
So you end up with a title which makes no sense whatsoever, I mean, what the hell are they going to call there next war? That other war with elements.
It's ridiculous

[/rant]
Seriously. Wanna make a good title for anything, just write about the actual story. You don't see major game companies pissing about with their titles except the long running series.

Anything which redundantly describes itself as a story. Any RPG is going to be a story.

-story, fantasy, chronicles, tales, quest, adventure.

Single word titles are just better. (I reused my title Chronicles of Afar as simply Afar).


Also Requiem. :x

I hate it when people use the word saga and they don't actually plan to make a saga. My game is Fire Emblem: Phoenix Saga and I plan to make it an actual 3 game saga. Trilogy would be more appropriate, but I prefer the sound of Saga to Trilogy and I feel it is still pretty accurate.

Isn't a saga just a long story?

*Checks Wikipedia*

...

...

You win this round.

"Tales of Seven Elemental Crystals of Light and Darkness"

*head explodes*

Wyatt!

My game is Ghost Shards: Requiem. :X

Should I change it?

The Chronicles of the Elemental Warrior Guild and the Ancient Sword of Darkness VII: The Tales of the Final Dragon and the Light Crystals of Hope.

TCotEWGatASoDVII:TTotFDatLCoH
for short.


I agree with what AmyPond said, one word titles are better, I tend to see "___ of the ___" and such used a lot, but I'm unsure if I'd call that cliche

Requiem means a song for the dead, so in your title it's fitting. So long as you intend to make a sequel or something, if not then you don't need two titles...

I believe the last small project I tired to make was called "This Is Involvement" which got deleted when my laptop crashed The title just catches the feel of the game, a group of people (you only play with two at a time) trying to get involved in some political affairs and making everything a whole lot worse (to the point that the good guys become the bad guys, pretty much everyone dies, and it starts an oppressive war which will doubtlessly lead to the end of the world... It was meant to be short). A cautionary tale that sometimes you should sit back, and not be the hero. Title wasn't catchy, but it does it's job

I'd say the best way to avoid a cliche title is to avoid a cliche game, and vice versa. Though not all Xs are Ys and not all Ys are Xs, a great deal of Xs are Ys, and vice versa.