| 36 Dramatic Situations | A morphological list created by Georges Polti. | | | 0 games |
| Aarne-Thompson classification | Any tags that describe something found from the Aarne-Thompson classifications. | | | 0 games |
| Abduction (Kidnapping) | A kidnapping or abduction is included in the plot. A ransom or other demand may or may not be involved. |  | 2000 / 2013 | 5 games |
| Abstract | Does not represent anything clearly real or tangible, such as being a shootout between triangles and circles. |  | 1992 / 2013 | 50 games |
| Adaptation | Adapts a story from different entertainment format while attempting to retain it without significant alteration. | | | 0 games |
| Aesop (Fable;Parable;Moral lesson) | The story exists wholly or partially to teach a lesson to the player, often a moral one delivered at the end. | | 2007 / 2010 | 7 games |
| After the End | Not simply post apocalyptic, but the apocalypse occurred for good, the previous world ended, and whoever remains are not those who'd you expect. |  | 1998 / 2010 | 7 games |
| Alpha funding | Used a type of pre-release funding model where those who pre-order the game (fund it) during its development phase get their hands on alpha, beta, and other [i]very[/i] early development builds. | | 2007 / 2014 | 137 games |
| Ambush | The protagonist can be or is ambushed once or more often over the course of the story. | | | 3 games |
| Anagrams | Involves re-ordering graphemes (letters) to form a new word or a sentence. | | 1984 / 2010 | 11 games |
| Anarchy | | | 2005 / 2007 | 2 games |
| Animation techniques | | | | 0 games |
| Antagonists | Any tags pertaining to the antagonist(s). | | | 0 games |
| Anti-villain (Well intentioned antagonist) | The antagonist is not as evil as they might initially seem. May even go so far that you might question your own actions in bringing down their plans. | | 1992 / 2013 | 39 games |
| Arc words | A word or phrase that appears repeatedly without explanation, except maybe much later, that may or may not have significant meaning. | | 2007 / 2013 | 12 games |
| Archaic technology | Old technology is used to accomplish things that one would expect to see only with more advanced technology. | | 2000 / 2006 | 5 games |
| ARG event | Was part of an ARG (but is not an ARG itself), usually by being patched to include ARG related content for the duration of the event. | | 2008 / 2012 | 19 games |
| At last moment(In the nick of time) | Dramatic escapes, bomb defusals, arrivals, projectile hits, etc. happen at the last possible moment. | | 1995 / 2012 | 29 games |
| Audience: Elementary (Ages 6-10) | Created primarily for the elementary aged players. Likely educational to some degree. | | | 0 games |
| Audience: Mature (Adult) | Created primarily for mature players. Commonly dealing with subjects not deemed appropriate for younger folks, are extremely realistic or intellectual/philosophical. | | | 0 games |
| Audience: Preschool (Ages 3-6) | Created primarily for the preschool aged players, generally ages 3-6. Does not require understanding of written language to play but may have spoken instructions and such. | | | 1 games |
| Audience: Teen | Created primarily for the teenage players. | | | 2 games |
| Audience: Young adult (Adult;Ages 16 and above) | Created primarily for adults or adult minded players, commonly for ages 16 and above. | | | 0 games |
| Audiences | | | | 0 games |
| Australian Classification Board (Office of Film and Literature Classification)[ACB;OFLC] | The Australian Classification Board is a statutory (mandatory) classification body formed by the Australian Government which classifies films, video games and publications for exhibition. Formerly OFLC. | | | 0 games |
| Author avatar (Self-insertion)[author character] | The author appears as themselves or as disguised character within the setting. | | 1990 / 2013 | 17 games |
| Authority fetish | Fetish for people in authority, such as bosses, teachers, police, parents, etc. | | | 1 games |
| Automated war | Depicts a war mostly waged by nonsentient or remote controlled automatons. | | 1988 / 2012 | 20 games |
| Awards | | | | 0 games |
| BDSM | Deals with any part of the BDSM spectrum of fetishes and paraphilia, which covers bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadomasochism, sadism and masochism. | | 1996 / 2007 | 13 games |
| Bechdel/Wallace (Bechdel's law;Bechdel rule;Bechdel test) | Passes the Bechdel/Wallace test's 3 rules: it must have (1) at least two females in it who (2) talk to each other about (3) something else than a man or men. | | 1999 / 2010 | 17 games |
| Beeping computers(Blinkenlights) | Computers beep, blip, and flash lights almost constantly in normal/idle operation, especially mainframe (headless) style computers. | | 1999 / 2013 | 16 games |
| Beneficial curse | The protagonist is subjected to one or more curses or similar that turn out to be more beneficial than not. | | 1998 / 2008 | 11 games |
| Black speech[hell speech] | A type of spoken language that is stereotypically associated with demons, demonologists and/or Evil. Often sounding guttural, corrupted, unnatural, and otherwise menacing. | | 2004 / 2006 | 3 games |
| Bleep censor[beep censor] | A monotone beep tone used to censor profanity, risque dialog, or similar. Often used for comedic effect. | | 2009 / 2013 | 3 games |
| Bloodlines (Hereditary rights;Hereditary traits;Lineages) | Plays with the concept that something extraordinary is passed along down the bloodline. | | 1998 / 2011 | 24 games |
| Blue humor (Sex comedy)[blue humor;blue comedy] | Humor that is off-color, risqué, indecent or profane. Usually dealing with sexual subjects. | | 1991 / 2013 | 11 games |
| Bookends[Book ends] | A literary device where an element at the beginning of the story repeats at the end. Often with the protagonist returning where the story started. | | 1997 / 2013 | 33 games |
| British Board of Film Classification [BBFC] | A british non-governmental organisation responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom. It has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVDs and some video games under the Video Recordings Act 2010. | | | 0 games |
| Broken teaching (Broken morals;Broken Aesop)[broken lesson] | The story tries to teach something, often some highly moral thing, yet fails to stay true to it itself or otherwise contradicts it. | | | 1 games |
| Cameo appearance | An appearance of a known person in work of fiction, often short and insignificant for the work itself. | | | 1 games |
| Cartoon violence | Depicts violence and especially its effects in cartoony manner. | | 1989 / 2012 | 16 games |
| Cassandra dilemma (Cassandra curse) | Deals with Cassandra dilemma somehow, with someone warning others of a danger, but no-one believes them (reasons vary). | | 2001 / 2008 | 3 games |
| Catch phrase | | | | 1 games |
| Censorship | Any tags describing any form of censorship, whether intended as censorship or not. | | | 0 games |
| Chapters (Episodes;Acts) | The story is split into chapters or similar segments. | | 1991 / 2013 | 69 games |
| Chekhov's Gun | A literary technique whereby something seemingly insignificant (e.g. an ignored prop) introduced early on gains much greater role later. | | 1987 / 2010 | 21 games |
| Child lock | Includes a child lock feature that censors or otherwise removes features of the game deemed inappropriate for children. | | 2000 / 2013 | 7 games |
| Childish | Any tags that make games more childish, making distinctions between any two things clearer and things normally hard to identify glaringly easy as well as judging situations or intentions simple, good is always good, evil is always evil. | | | 0 games |
| Christmas(Xmas) | Includes settings, music, visuals, or other traditions commonly associate with the holiday known as Christmas. | | 1983 / 2012 | 91 games (35 characters) |
| City of Gold | Generally rumors and hearsay of cities of extreme wealth with gold paved streets and so forth. Often abandoned long ago. | | 1984 / 2001 | 17 games |
| Civil service | Player functions in scope of any civil service (government funded non-military organization). | | 1985 / 2012 | 8 games |
| Civil unrest (Civil disorder;Civil strife) | Involves or simulates civil unrest, usually in form of disruptive protests (e.g. sit-ins), illegal parades, riots, or heightened crime (e.g. sabotage) against the cause of the unrest. | | 2010 / 2012 | 3 games |
| Classic wizards | Wizards and possibly other magic users are depicted in their age old robes and pointy hat get up. | | 1993 / 2012 | 28 games |
| Classics | | | | 0 games |
| Cold open | An opening where something from later events is shown before starting from the real beginning. | | 2009 / 2010 | 8 games |
| Comedy | | | | 0 games |
| Comic injuries(Comedic injuries) | Some or all injuries are presented in comical manner, especially if this breaks realism. | | 1988 / 2009 | 14 games |
| Conflict between creator and creation | | | 1994 / 2011 | 17 games |
| Consequentialism[the end justifies the means] | Plays with the concept of consequentialism, that the end justifies the means. Meaning any actions, right or wrong, are judged (morally) by their outcome rather than the actions themselves. | | 2007 / 2008 | 3 games |
| Constructed language (Planned language) | Uses a constructed language - a language consciously created by an individual or a group - of any kind. | | | 3 games |
| Continuity variations | | | | 0 games |
| Contrarians (Opposition for sake of opposition)[anarchists;anarchism] | Includes people who vocally question or aggressively oppose a ruling body or similar seemingly out of principle to oppose such. | | 2003 / 2010 | 10 games |
| Cosplay | | | 2004 / 2009 | 3 games |
| Creatorcentrism (Creator nationalism;Creator provincialism) | Something the creator associates with (race, nation, city, type of government, religion or philosophy, etc.) is brought into much more important role than it actually is or should be. | | 2003 / 2012 | 9 games |
| Crimes | Any tags that describe things that most cultures and law systems view as crimes. | | | 0 games |
| Crude humor (Vulgar humor;Off-color humor) | | | | 0 games |
| Cult following | Generally anything with dedicated fanbase, especially one that outlives the game itself and/or its developers/publishers. | | 1994 / 2013 | 15 games |
| Cult video game | | | 2002 / 2010 | 7 games |
| Curiosity | The protagonist exhibits unhealthy levels of curiosity and finds themselves in a difficult situation. | | | 1 games |
| Cutesy | Excessively employs visuals, designs, etc. that primarily would be described as [i]cute[/i]. | | 1998 / 2012 | 7 games |
| Damsel in distress | A classic scenario of a fair maiden in some form of distress - often kidnapped by some Evil Person - from which the protagonist is trying to rescue her. | | 1981 / 2013 | 312 games |
| Dark humor (Black comedy;morbid humor) | Humor that makes light of taboo and/or depressingly serious subjects to entertain, cause discomfort, and/or provoke serious thought on the subject. | | 1996 / 2012 | 20 games |
| Dark is Evil (Black is Evil) | Dark, black, or simply dimmer things are depicted as evil or evil things are consistently clothed/colored dark and anything that becomes evil gains darker coloration. | | 2002 / 2012 | 17 games |
| Dark secret | | | | 1 games |
| Deceptive packaging (Deceptive cover art;Misleading packaging) | The game is sold in packaging that shows notable content that is not in the game. | | 1992 / 2012 | 9 games |
| Dehumanization[dehumanisation] | People, human or otherwise, are somehow dehumanized beyond what they actually are, often with the express purpose of removing moral conundrums about harming such people. | | | 1 games |
| Demiurge | Deals with the concept of demiurge, an artisan figure responsible for the fashioning and the maintenance of the physical universe. | | | 1 games |
| Demon pact (Pact with the Devil;Faustian bargain) | | | 2002 / 2007 | 5 games |
| Descriptive names(Meaningful names) | Characters (and possibly objects) are named in rather descriptive manner [i]from birth[/i]. Commonly going unnoticed or unmentioned within mythos. | | 2004 / 2007 | 4 games |
| Desecration (Profanation) | Player witnesses or participates in desecration of spiritual/religious (sacred/holy) icons, sites, or such. Regardless of who or what is the perpetrator or target. | | 1994 / 2006 | 5 games |
| Diorama | The game world is presented as a diorama, an artificial construction similar to a real location or a reconstruction of one, where player can see evidence of this clearly or with closer inspection. | | 1998 / 2013 | 40 games |
| Disabilities and disorders | Any tags that show presence of people with disabilities or disorders in games. | | | 0 games |
| Discontinuity (Continuity error;Plot error) | Fails consistency with source material or previous works without claiming retcon or reboot (or where such is impossile, such as not owning the associated mythos), or even consistency with itself. | | 2001 / 2006 | 4 games |
| Double entendres (Innuendo) | | | 2005 / 2011 | 17 games |
| Dramatics | Any tags describing concepts that make the depicted events more striking, dramatic, theatric, or such. Generally speaking, overplaying things to make them more apparent, memorable or otherwise entertaining. | | | 0 games |
| Early ending | One or more endings are found much earlier than others. Often not canonical, though not necessarily. | | 2004 / 2011 | 6 games |
| Early start | The story begins well before the actual conflict or event begins, likely for the purposes of establishing how different things are because of it or to introduce the player to the cast. | | | 0 games |
| Electronic sports(Competitive gaming;Professional gaming;Cybersport)[e-sports] | Used in any notable e-sports event. | | 2007 / 2007 | 1 games |
| Empire | Depicts an imperial geopolitical entity, ruled by either a monarch or an oligarchy (small group of individuals). | | 2006 / 2013 | 6 games |
| End time (Armageddon;Ragnarok;Apocalypse) | Deals with a prophesied end of the universe. | | 1996 / 2012 | 14 games |
| Endings | | | | 0 games |
| Endless conflict (Endless war)[eternal conflict] | The back story or overall plot involves an endless conflict, one that has been fought since the dawn of time or for so many generations that those who started it are no longer around, and likely will continue to be fought for as long as both sides remain. | | 1996 / 2012 | 19 games |
| Ephebophilia | A paraphilia towards mid-to-late adolescent (post-pubescent) people. | | | 1 games |
| Epigraph | A phrase, quotation, or poem at the beginning of the work. Sometimes (also) at the end. | | 1998 / 2012 | 12 games |
| Epilogue | A portion of a story delivered after the end, usually bringing closure to any loose ends or seeing the cast off. | | 2011 / 2012 | 4 games |
| Ethics Organization of Computer Software(一般社団法人コンピュータソフトウェア倫理機構;Ippan Shadan Hōjin Computer Software Rinri Kikō) | One of the content rating boards in Japan. | | 2008 / 2010 | 2 games |
| Euthanasia(Mercy killing;Assisted suicide) | Player witnesses or participates in administrating euthanasia, killing someone solely to end their suffering (if unrecoverable) or alternatively assisting in suicide in cases where it is to end the person's suffering (again, if unrecoverable). | | 2006 / 2012 | 4 games |
| Evil by default | People or creatures are labeled as being evil, especially when being evil is the primary trait rather than extension of some actual evilness such as cruelty. | | 2010 / 2011 | 5 games |
| Evil is ugly(Evil makes you ugly) | Evil beings are depicted as ugly and being evil turns you ugly (or conversely, being ugly makes you evil). | | 1996 / 2011 | 12 games |
| Evil vs Evil (Evil against Evil) | The plot has two "evil" entities, groups, or such competing or fighting against each other. Often with the player on the side of the "lesser" evil, or in case of comedy the "greater" evil. | | 1990 / 2013 | 40 games |
| Evil wins (Bad guy wins) | | | 1992 / 2009 | 21 games |
| Expired copyright | Anything that no longer is protected by copyright laws, international or local. | | | 0 games |
| Fairy tale basis[based on a fairy tale] | Based on any traditional fairy tale. | | 1984 / 2013 | 16 games |
| Fairy tale-like(Fable-like) | | | 1993 / 2013 | 9 games |
| Fake names (Fake brands;Generic names) | Certain recognizable things, items, people, or such, are named in differing but likely similar manner. Most commonly firearms are subject to this. | | 1993 / 2013 | 21 games |
| Fallacies | | | | 0 games |
| False ending | The story builds up for conclusion, but instead there's a plot twist or something else that causes the story to continue on. | | 1993 / 2013 | 28 games |
| False protagonist | A character is initially made to appear as the protagonist but is later proven false, usually by that character dying without accomplishing anything significant and the story continuing with the real protagonist. | | 1993 / 2013 | 22 games |
| Fan funding (Fan funded development) | Accepted or requested fans to make pre-orders or otherwise donate money for the development process. | | 1981 / 2015 | 49 games |
| Fanservice (ファンサービス)[Fan service] | Uses any kind of fanservice, usually characterized by the display of things or events even when there's no need for them in terms of gameplay or story. | | 1983 / 2013 | 185 games |
| Faux Cyrillic (Faux Russian) | Using Cyrillic letters in latin text, making it look Russian even if it's meant to be readable by non-Russians. Pronounced completely differently if one understands Cyrillic. | | 1987 / 2010 | 4 games |
| Fear of Nothing | Player (character) is lead to believe something scary is out there, but ultimately there isn't anything. Repeatedly. | | 1999 / 2010 | 17 games |
| Featureless nudity (Censored nudity) | Nude characters have a notable lack of visible genitalia or even nipples. | | 1996 / 2013 | 12 games |
| Federation | | | 2011 / 2013 | 2 games |
| Female dominant | All or most of the cast and important characters, or even of all characters, are female. | | 1993 / 2013 | 50 games |
| Festivals (Holidays;Holy Days) | | | | 0 games |
| Fetish: Mothers (MILFs) | Caters to people with fetish for mothers. | | | 1 games |
| Fetish: Spouses (Married women;Married men) | Caters to people with fetish for spouses (of other people). | | | 1 games |
| Fetish: Students (Schoolgirls;Schoolboys) | Caters to people with fetish for students. | | | 1 games |
| Fetish: Twins | Caters to people with fetish for twins. | | | 1 games |
| Feudal society (Manorialism) | Depicts a feudal society. | | | 0 games |
| Fictional language | Uses any form of fictional language. | | | 0 games |
| Fight fire with fire[fighting fire with fire] | Plays with the concept of fighting fire with fire. | | 2005 / 2009 | 10 games |
| Film grain (Old film effect) | Depicted as if through some old or poor quality film by overlaying film grain or other effects that simulate deteriorated film over the whole screen, possibly muting or tinting colors as well. | | 2002 / 2013 | 25 games |
| First contact | Deals with a first contact with previously unknown civilization, species, or such. | | 1995 / 2011 | 15 games |
| Flawed protagonist | The protagonist has a major psychological character flaw. | | 2008 / 2013 | 4 games |
| Flesh versus Steel (Biological versus Mechanical) | | | 1994 / 2013 | 14 games |
| Foreshadowing | Dialog, text, imagery, or other things that seem meaningless at the time encountered, but actually tell of coming events. | | 2010 / 2012 | 5 games |
| Foretelling (Self spoilers) | Protagonist is told of future events before they happen. | | | 1 games |
| Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse | | | 1985 / 2012 | 27 games (4 characters) |
| Frame story | | | 2007 / 2012 | 2 games |
| Friendship[friends] | Deals with friendship, friends, camaraderie, or other similar concepts. | | 1991 / 2010 | 15 games |
| Game production & development | Any tags referring to how the game was developed/produced (not with what or such). | | | 0 games |
| Game terminology | Characters use gaming terminology in-mythos. Commonly dungeons and quests pop up in strange places. | | 2007 / 2011 | 3 games |
| Genders are Different | Male and female characters have access to different stats, skills, items, quests, plots, etc in a balanced way, even if minimally so. | | 2006 / 2013 | 8 games |
| Gimmick | Includes a unique or quirky feature that somehow makes the game stand out of the others of its kin. Commonly focused on in any marketing. | | 2007 / 2012 | 19 games |
| Good prevails (Justice prevails) | For some inexplicable reason, being on the side of good, justice, love or some other generally positive thing somehow grants you power to defeat those that oppose it. Or at least so the wielder of that power would have you believe. | | 2002 / 2004 | 2 games |
| Greek pottery art | Uses Greek pottery art style in significant quantities. | | 2011 / 2013 | 2 games |
| Group sex | Sexual activity involving more than two participants. | | 2010 / 2011 | 2 games |
| Guro (Ero guro;エログロ;Torture porn;Snuff)[eroguro] | A mixing of the erotic and grotesque imagery or using grotesque imagery for pornographic purposes. Usually involves graphic murder and torture. | | | 1 games |
| Harmony versus Discipline | | | 1998 / 1999 | 2 games |
| Hebephilia | A paraphilia towards early-to-mid adolescent (pubescent) people. | | 2003 / 2012 | 2 games |
| Heroic | | | 1996 / 2010 | 5 games |
| Hidden motives[hidden agenda;secret motives;secret agenda] | The motives of the protagonist are hidden from the player, leading into plot twist when they're actually revealed. | | | 1 games |
| Hollywood conventions | Any tags describing conventions of Hollywood movies. | | | 0 games |
| Human superiority | Humans are depicted, one way or another, somehow superior to all other beings. | | 2005 / 2011 | 7 games |
| Humanitarianism[humanitarians] | | | | 1 games |
| Identity crisis | Either the protagonist has self doubt about their identity, what they are or should be, or they're presented with compelling or undeniable evidence that they truly are not what they thought themselves to be. | | 1998 / 2009 | 12 games |
| Ideology | The protagonist is involved due to ideological reasons. | | 2003 / 2010 | 8 games |
| Imperfect recovery | Player can't ever recover fully from received wounds, transformations, and such. | | | 0 games |
| Infallible (Infallible protagonist)[infallibility] | The protagonist is treated as an infallible person, incapable of doing or being wrong. | | | 1 games |
| Inherent right (Birthright;Inherent entitlement)[right to rule] | Deals with some sort of inherent right to something. Commonly involves reclaiming something that is held by someone without the right to it. | | 2006 / 2010 | 5 games |
| Insistent alternate naming(X by different name) | The depicted mythos is insistent on using a non-standard, uncommon, or completely made up name for something pretty much everyone already knows by some other name (a name that is often never mentioned). | | 2002 / 2013 | 13 games |
| Interquel | A sequel and prequel to two other works published after those other works. | | | 4 games |
| Irony | | | 2007 / 2009 | 4 games |
| Japanese idols | Features Japanese idols or is about idols in the Japanese style. | | 1988 / 2012 | 7 games |
| Jargon (Technobabble) | Player is subjected to technical, scientific or other terminology most people are not expected to understand, whether this is fictitious (technobabble) or factually accurate. | | 1998 / 2013 | 9 games |
| Jiggle physics (Breast physics)[boob physics] | Breasts and possibly other anatomical bits are given oddly great attention to their jigglyness, regardless if this is actually simulated physics or part of predesigned animation. | | 1994 / 2013 | 47 games |
| Jump scares | Sudden and hopefully completely unexpected events – usually accompanied by flash of contrast, color, light, or such and loud noise after relative silence – with the aim of causing the player to "jump" due to fright/panic. | | 1995 / 2013 | 8 games |
| Laser bolts (Slow lasers) | Within the depicted mythos, LASER weapons fire bolts of light rather than end-to-end connecting beams that hit their target in an instant. | | 1982 / 2013 | 58 games |
| Late start (Late involvement) | The issue, conflict, or whatever the story is about has been going on for quite some time now but only now does your character get involved. Or he's been involved all along, but only now [i]you[/i] get to play as him/her. | | 2003 / 2012 | 21 games |
| Legal disputes (Lawsuits) | Subjected to one or more legal disputes, possibly even lawsuits. | | 1995 / 2011 | 32 games |
| Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender | Any tags referring to LGBT culture. | | | 0 games |
| Literary mood | Any tags dealing with mood the game is delivered in. Mostly in terms of the setting, sounds, music, and such. | | | 0 games |
| Literary tone | Any tags dealing with tone the game is delivered in. Mostly in relation to narration, dialog, and the things that happen. | | | 0 games |
| Living diorama | Aspects of a diorama are presented as living entities, especially when unexpected. Such as miniature reconstruction of a battlefield with "real" people fighting in it, or a dollhouse with "real" people living in it. | | 1988 / 2013 | 24 games |
| Living legend | Involves one or more characters (possibly the protagonist(s)) who are practically legends while still alive. People recognize them for the things they've done in the past, the things they can do, or the people they know. | | 2004 / 2011 | 27 games |
| Lost in translation | Any translated versions of the game are perceived by many (fans) to be significantly inferior to the original language version, or are wildly different in tone, meaning, or such. | | | 1 games |
| Macho (Machismo) | Overtly or exaggeratedly masculine. | | 1992 / 2012 | 60 games |
| Mad science | Mad scientists require that science itself is capable of adhering to their unhinged view of scientific discovery. | | 1983 / 2011 | 28 games |
| Magical | Gives the appearance of something magical, but does not necessarily elaborate on the actual workings. | | 1984 / 2013 | 64 games |
| Malapropisms(Dogberryism) | A type of comedy where similar sounding words are used to create a strange or nonsensical utterances. | | 1996 / 2012 | 2 games |
| Mandate of Heaven (天命;Tiānmìng;Divine Right of Kings) | Plays with the concept of Mandate of Heaven. | | 1998 / 2007 | 4 games |
| Mecha musume (メカ少女;Mecha shoujo) | A variant of [i]moe anthropomorphism[/i] where military hardware are given [i]moe[/i] qualities. | | 2006 / 2011 | 9 games |
| Memes | Commonly internet memes. | | | 0 games |
| Meta-story (Story within a story;Nested story)[Story-within-a-story] | | | | 1 games |
| Metafiction(Metastory;Story within story;Fiction within fiction) | Fiction about fiction or fiction in fiction. Usually when a story is presented within a story in more tangible way. | | 1993 / 2013 | 21 games |
| Metagaming | Requires using knowledge the protagonist would not have without the player supplying it from previous attempts or external sources. | | 1984 / 2012 | 51 games |
| Midas' touch (Double-edged sword) | Includes a weapon, item, skill, ability or anything else that is both beneficial and detrimental, especially if such a thing [i]must[/i] be used. | | 1997 / 2013 | 27 games |
| Might makes right | Plays with the concept that the winner, victor or such is right, just, blessed, truthful, etc. | | 2009 / 2013 | 2 games |
| Miscommunication [Imperfect communication] | It is normal for communication to be perfect in fiction unless it is for plot, thus this signifies such troubles occur either on their own or as part of the plot. | | 1992 / 2012 | 10 games |
| Moe anthropomorphism (萌え擬人化;Moe gijinka) | Gives [i]moe[/i] qualities to non-human beings, objects, concepts, and such. | | 2006 / 2011 | 8 games |
| Monologues (Soliloquies)[monologs;soliloquy] | The protagonist(s) speaks to themselves, either to reveal their thoughts, their knowledge, opinions, or other things to the player. Including internal monologues. | | 1991 / 2013 | 27 games |
| Monomyth(The Hero's Journey) | Uses the archetypal story pattern known as monomyth or hero's journey. | | 1987 / 2006 | 1 games |
| Morphology | | | | 0 games |
| Mother Nature (Personified nature) | Nature is presented as somehow conscious entity. | | 1993 / 2013 | 10 games |
| Multicultural aliens | Aliens and other non-humans are depicted as having multiple different cultures and possibly ethnicities within single species instead of the usual monoculture that fiction writers often end up with. | | 2009 / 2010 | 0 games |
| Multilingual | Uses multiple languages regardless of player's locale or language settings. These never require player to actually understand more than their own. | | 1991 / 2011 | 60 games |
| Murder (Homicide) | Player witnesses unlawful murder of someone or personally murders someone. | | 2008 / 2013 | 6 games |
| Mythologies | | | | 0 games |
| Narrative(Story)[Narration] | | | | 0 games |
| Narrator | | | 1999 / 2013 | 20 games |
| Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot | A hodgepodge of various Cool Things in same setting where one would generally not expect to see them together. Essentially a fake crossover. | | 1992 / 2012 | 47 games |
| No 4th wall[no fourth wall] | The fourth wall is broken or completely ignored at such regularity it might as well not exist. | | 1991 / 2013 | 15 games |
| Non sequiturs[non sequuntur] | One or more events or sequences encountered along the main plot that make little to no sense and/or contribute nothing to the plot while still seeming somehow significant (but aren't). | | | 1 games |
| Non-explosive vehicles | | | | 0 games |
| Non-human rights | Deals with basic rights of non-humans or other sentient beings other than the ruling one. Or how much a non-human can be considered a real person or have value as a person comparable to the main species (humans in most cases). | | 1994 / 2012 | 7 games |
| Normality denied[just want to be normal] | A central character, usually the protagonist, voices that they "just want to be [i]normal[/i]" or that their "abnormality" is a curse, but this is denied to them somehow. | | | 1 games |
| Nudism [nudists] | Player encounters characters or cultures exhibiting nudist-like behaviour, or possibly being one themselves. | | 2000 / 2008 | 3 games |
| Nudity | Contains one or more instances of nudity of any degree, though generally of female breasts or genitalia of either gender, sexually intended or not. | | 1986 / 2013 | 101 games |
| Obscure Release | These were deficiently announced/advertised compared to other ports or other games of the same publisher; Hidden in their package; obscure on publisher's homepage, etc | | 1989 / 2012 | 8 games |
| One of the enemy | One on your side, possibly you, were among the ranks of your current enemy or are somehow perceived to be one of them. | | 1995 / 2008 | 8 games |
| Onomatopoeia | Words that sound what they represent, originally invented for use in comics with additional styling variations to farther emphasize the actual sounds. | | 1995 / 2013 | 19 games |
| Origin story | Tells how a character became what people have come to know them as. | | | 7 games |
| Original language: Chinese | The story, voice overs, dialogue and any texts are originally Chinese, any other languages are translations from this. | | 2010 / 2013 | 4 games |
| Original language: Czech | The story, voice overs, dialogue and any texts are originally Czech, any other languages are translations from this. | | 2008 / 2011 | 4 games |
| Original language: French | The story, voice overs, dialogue and any texts are originally French, any other languages are translations from this. | | 1999 / 2012 | 9 games |
| Original language: German | The story, voice overs, dialogue and any texts are originally German, any other languages are translations from this. | | 1999 / 2013 | 27 games |
| Original language: Japanese | The story, voice overs, dialogue and any texts are originally Japanese, any other languages are translations from this. | | 2001 / 2012 | 8 games |
| Original language: Korean | The story, voice overs, dialogue and any texts are originally Korean, any other languages are translations from this. | | 2000 / 2006 | 3 games |
| Original language: Russian | The story, voice overs, dialogue and any texts are originally Russian, any other languages are translations from this. | | 2003 / 2013 | 29 games |
| Pandora's box | The protagonist is unwittingly the cause of the depicted misery, and possibly tries to undo the damage they did. Or the plot otherwise follows a similar theme. | | 1998 / 2013 | 30 games |
| Parental controls | | | 2001 / 2004 | 7 games |
| Patient Zero[patient 0] | Story involves patient zero, the first person infected with a virus, disease, or such. | | 2009 / 2011 | 4 games |
| Pedophilia | A paraphilia towards pre-pubescent people. | | | 1 games |
| Penalty Imposed on one Gender | An unsurmountable penalty, perhaps arbitrary, is imposed on a characters based solely on gender. For instance, a cap on strength. | | | 1 games |
| Perspective flip | Either the same game or another in a series shows how things look from the side of the "bad guys", often making them appear not as bad as you had previously assumed or given to understand. | | 1986 / 2010 | 25 games |
| Player exposition | Player is made aware of things the protagonist does not and could not know, regardless if this has any use for progressing in the plot. Commonly involves a cinematic showing what the antagonist is doing at the time. | | 1991 / 2013 | 43 games |
| Plethora of References (Excessive referencing) | Has excessive number of references to movies, culture, games, etc. | | 1985 / 2013 | 18 games |
| Plot points | All tags that define plot points and have no better parent tag. | | | 0 games |
| Political corruption (Police corruption) | People with public power, such as members of the government or its various departments (e.g. law enforcement), abuses the power vested on them, such as accepting bribes, showing favouritism to things that do not benefit the whole, etc. | | 2001 / 2013 | 15 games |
| Power corrupts | Plays with the concept that power ultimately corrupts anyone who uses or even gains it (regardless of use), often regardless of what that power is, be it wealth, political, social, magical, or anything else. | | 1989 / 2012 | 19 games |
| Prologue | Initial portion of the overall story that mostly introduces the primary character(s) and the setting to the player but does little if anything for the actual story. Also possibly to make whatever starts the actual story seem more dramatic. | | 1997 / 2013 | 47 games |
| Prophecy | Deals with a prophecy or similar portent(s). | | 1998 / 2013 | 25 games |
| Protection complex | Deals with obsessive desire to protect others (those dear to the character, those who can't defend themselves, or even [i]everyone[/i]). Often the protagonist has this, but can include any major character. | | 1999 / 2014 | 34 games |
| Pseudo sexism | Prominently depicts one gender as discriminated, forced to a role, or such without necessarily voicing any sexist remarks nor actually forcing one gender to adhere to it (they do it completely willingly on their own). | | | 2 games |
| Punk | A subculture recognizable by the art and fashion. | | 1996 / 2011 | 4 games |
| Purple prose | A literary method where one consistently uses extravagant descriptions instead of something more normal. | | 2001 / 2009 | 7 games |
| Racism / speciesism | Involves racism and/or speciesism; possibly with the player partaking in it, fighting against it, or simply witnessing it. | | 1989 / 2013 | 19 games |
| Rating: ACB G (General Exhibition) | These films and computer games are for general viewing. | | 1996 / 2013 | 84 games |
| Rating: ACB M (Recommended for mature audiences;OFLC Mature) | Contains material that is not recommended for persons under 12 years of age. | | 2001 / 2013 | 31 games |
| Rating: ACB MA 15+ | The content is considered unsuitable for exhibition by persons under the age of 15. Persons under this age may only legally purchase or exhibit MA15+ rated content under the supervision of an adult guardian. This is a legally restricted category. | | 2004 / 2013 | 35 games |
| Rating: ACB PG (Parental Guidance Recommended) | Not recommended for playing by persons under 15 without guidance from parents or guardians. | | 2006 / 2012 | 47 games |
| Rating: ACB R18+ | | | | 2 games |
| Rating: ACB RC (Refused Classification) | Refused classification by ACB/OFLC, effectively banning them in Australia. | | 2004 / 2013 | 3 games |
| Rating: BBFC 12 | Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated game. | | 1995 / 2013 | 12 games |
| Rating: BBFC 15 | For 15 and older. | | 1993 / 2013 | 41 games |
| Rating: BBFC 18 | Only adults are admitted. | | 1997 / 2012 | 25 games |
| Rating: BBFC PG (Parental Guidance) | All ages admitted, but certain scenes may be unsuitable for children under 8. | | | 1 games |
| Rating: BBFC U (Universal) | All ages admitted, there is nothing unsuitable for children over 4. | | 2005 / 2010 | 3 games |
| Rating: CERO A | For all ages. | | 1999 / 2013 | 164 games |
| Rating: CERO B | For ages 12 and up. | | 1999 / 2013 | 83 games |
| Rating: CERO C | For ages 15 and up. | | 2001 / 2012 | 44 games |
| Rating: CERO D | For ages 17 and up. | | 2004 / 2013 | 46 games |
| Rating: CERO Z | For ages 18 and up. The only CERO rating that is restrictive (the others presumably can be sold to anyone). | | 2004 / 2012 | 39 games |
| Rating: ELSPA 11 | For Ages 11+. | | 1993 / 2003 | 53 games |
| Rating: ELSPA 15 | For Ages 15+. | | 1994 / 2003 | 32 games |
| Rating: ELSPA 3 | For Ages 3+. | | 1990 / 2004 | 183 games |
| Rating: EOCS 18 | | | 2008 / 2010 | 2 games |
| Rating: ESRA 15+ | | | | 1 games |
| Rating: ESRB AO (Adults Only) | For ages 18 and up. | | 1997 / 2009 | 20 games |
| Rating: ESRB E (Everyone) | Suitable for everyone. May contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and infrequent use of mild language. | | 1989 / 2013 | 1227 games |
| Rating: ESRB E 10+ | For ages 10 and older. Contains content that might be considered unsuitable for children under 10 years of age. | | 2001 / 2013 | 337 games |
| Rating: ESRB Early Childhood (EC) | Contains no material that adults would find inappropriate for their children. This content is very mild in impact. Specifically intended for young children and are usually educational. | | 1994 / 2011 | 6 games |
| Rating: ESRB K-A (Rating: ESRB Kids to Adult) | These titles will appeal to people of many ages and tastes. Titles may contain minimal violence, some comic mischief (i.e. slapstick and gross-out comedy), or some crude language. Existed from 1994 to 1997, then replaced by E (Everyone) rating. | | 1991 / 1997 | 238 games |
| Rating: ESRB M (Mature) | For 17 and older. | | 1990 / 2013 | 620 games |
| Rating: ESRB T (Teens) | For ages 13 and older. Includes content that might be considered unsuitable for children under 13 years of age. | | 1989 / 2013 | 1158 games |
| Rating: GRB +12 | Has content suitable for ages 12 and older. Younger may play with parental supervision. | | | 0 games |
| Rating: GRB +15 | Has content suitable for ages 15 and older. Younger may play with parental supervision. | | | 1 games |
| Rating: GRB +18 | Has content suitable for ages 18 and older. Younger may play with parental supervision. | | 2009 / 2011 | 2 games |
| Rating: GRB ALL | Suitable for all ages. | | | 0 games |
| Rating: PEGI 12 | For ages 12 and older. Covers mild violence and suggestive themes. | | 1996 / 2013 | 281 games |
| Rating: PEGI 16 | For ages 16 or older. May contain suggestive themes, moderate violence, crude humor, and/or references to gambling/drugs. | | 1995 / 2013 | 203 games |
| Rating: PEGI 18 | For ages 18 and older. May contain graphic violence, strong sexual content, gambling, drugs, vulgar language, etc. | | 2004 / 2013 | 151 games |
| Rating: PEGI 3 | Ages 3 and over. May contain at most very mild violence and suggestive themes. Primarily edutainment games for children. | | 1995 / 2013 | 245 games |
| Rating: PEGI 7 | Ages 7 and over. Mild violence and/or suggestive themes. May contain disturbing or frightening scenes. | | 2002 / 2013 | 153 games |
| Rating: RSAC Level 0 (All) | Suitable for all; no offensive content. | | | 0 games |
| Rating: RSAC Level 1 | Mild offensive content, revealing clothing but no nudity, mild expletives, creatures (excluding humans) injured or killed. | | | 0 games |
| Rating: RSAC Level 2 | Mild offensive content, partial nudity, clothed sexual behaviour, mild expletives (including sexual references), creatures (including humans) injured or killed but only little blood. | | | 0 games |
| Rating: RSAC Level 3 | Moderate offensive content, blood & gore, vulgar language, nudity outside of sexual contexts, and non-explicit sex. | | | 0 games |
| Rating: RSAC Level 4 | Strong offensive content, gratuitous violence, rape and other sex crimes, explicit sex, crude language, etc. | | | 0 games |
| Rating: SELL 12 | For ages 12 and older. | | 1996 / 2002 | 16 games |
| Rating: SELL 16 | For ages 16 and older. | | 1997 / 2002 | 6 games |
| Rating: SELL 18 | For ages 18 and older. | | | 1 games |
| Rating: SELL Tous Publics | For all audiences. | | 1998 / 2003 | 28 games |
| Rating: TIGRS Adult | | | | 1 games |
| Rating: TIGRS Family | | | | 1 games |
| Rating: TIGRS Teen | | | | 1 games |
| Rating: USK 0 | No age restrictions. | | 2003 / 2012 | 10 games |
| Rating: USK 12 | Restricted for those below the age of 12. | | 1995 / 2013 | 41 games |
| Rating: USK 16 | Restricted for those below the age of 16. | | 1995 / 2013 | 24 games |
| Rating: USK 18 | Restricted for those below the age of 18. | | 1995 / 2013 | 17 games |
| Rating: USK 6 | Restricted for those below the age of 6. | | 1997 / 2010 | 15 games |
| Rating: VRC GA | General Audiences: Appropriate for all audiences. No blood or graphic violence. No profanity, no mature sexual themes and no usage of drugs or alcohol. | | 1991 / 1994 | 216 games |
| Rating: VRC MA-13 | Mature Audiences: Parental Discretion Advised. The game was suitable for audiences thirteen years of age or older. Game could have some blood in it and more graphic violence than a "GA" game. | | 1992 / 1995 | 75 games |
| Rating: VRC MA-17 | Mature Audiences: Not appropriate for minors. The game was suitable for audiences seventeen years of age or older. Games could have lots of blood, graphic violence, mature sexual themes, profanity, drug or alcohol usage. | | 1992 / 1994 | 6 games |
| Ratings | | | | 0 games |
| Recapitulation (Previously happened) | More or less briefly retells what happened in previous game of the series when it is relevant to the current story. Usually to set up the premise, either as a memory refresher or to bring up to speed players who skipped the previous game. | | 2001 / 2013 | 24 games |
| Recreational Software Advisory Council [RSAC] | A content rating organization in USA established in response to existing controversy and possible government enforced regulation. Replaced by ESRB later on. | | | 0 games |
| Recurrence | Something from a previous game in a series appears again. | | 1997 / 2011 | 22 games |
| Recurrence: Character (Plot character;Plot creature;Plot monster) | One or more characters from previous game(s) in a series appear again, regardless if they have the same status as they held before. | | 1997 / 2013 | 41 games |
| Recurrence: Creature | One or more (iconic) creatures from a previous game(s) in a series appear again. Especially for cases when this is unexpected. | | 2004 / 2008 | 2 games |
| Recurrence: Location | One or more (iconic or otherwise recognizable) location from a previous game(s) in a series appear again. | | 1999 / 2013 | 15 games |
| Recurrence: Missing | Something that recurrently appears in all or most other games in the series, making it an expected recurrence, does not do so in this. | | | 0 games |
| Recurrence: Object | One or more (iconic) objects from a previous game(s) in a series appear again. | | | 1 games |
| Redemption (Salvation;Absolution;Reparation;Atonement) | Plot deals with redemption. Saving honor, face, soul, or whatever else to restore worth of oneself (or possibly family, partner, friend, etc.) either in their own eyes or in the eyes of others. | | 2000 / 2012 | 17 games |
| Refers to Alice in Wonderland | Borrows text, characters, ideas from, or refers to "Alice in Wonderland" without being based on it. | | 1987 / 2010 | 13 games |
| Refers to The White Snake | Borrows text, characters, ideas from, or refers to the fairy tale known as "The White Snake" without being based on it. | | 1990 / 2002 | 5 games |
| Refers to the Wizard of Oz | Borrows text, characters, ideas from, or refers to The Wizard of Oz without being based on it. | | 1985 / 2001 | 23 games |
| Reimagining | Conceives the old in a new way, maintaining the basic storyline, timeline, characters and so forth but retelling the story in a different way and possibly with significant alterations to the setting itself. In essence an unfaithful adaptation. | | 1992 / 2010 | 20 games |
| Religion: Christian | Has significant Christian religious content, characters performing related rituals, repeating or rewording attributed teachings, etc. | | 1989 / 2013 | 35 games |
| Religion: Fictional | Has significant content in form of a fictional religion, characters performing related rituals, repeating or rewording its teachings, etc. | | 2007 / 2013 | 5 games |
| Religion: Judaism | Has significant Judaic religious content, characters performing related rituals, repeating or rewording its teachings, etc. | | 2000 / 2010 | 2 games |
| Religion: Shinto | Has significant Shinto religious content, characters performing related rituals, repeating or rewording its teachings, etc. | | | 1 games |
| Rite of passage (Gauntlet)[gantlet] | Involves any rite of passage, a ritual where one's status changes to another (commonly adulthood). | | | 1 games |
| Rivalry | | | | 1 games |
| Rogues Gallery | The term comes from superhero comics where instead of one notable antagonist, a group of unrelated antagonists take jabs at the protagonist. Possibly even banding together against the protagonist. | | 2009 / 2011 | 6 games |
| Saṃsāra (Wheel of life;Cycle of rebirth) | Deals with the concept of saṃsāra : cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Regardless if it's specifically related to the various religions or simply similar to the basic idea of it. | | 1999 / 2012 | 9 games |
| Schism (Splinter organization)[splinter group] | Story involves a splinter organization or similar, often with radically different views, methods, or level of involvement with outside matters. | | 2000 / 2010 | 4 games |
| Secondary antagonist | Features an antagonist that is separate (not an underling or similar ally) of the main one. Occasionally the secondary antagonist goes undefeated in actual play and are either left as too unimportant, sequel hook, or mopped up in the ending cutscenes. | | 1998 / 2012 | 17 games |
| Secret mission | Protagonist is doing a job that is kept secret from everyone except few key people who need to know. | | 1985 / 2012 | 52 games |
| Self-censorship | Contains certain potentially offensive material, but has been "sufficiently" obscured, such as through mosaic blur or only hearing the sounds of the activity rather than seeing it. | | 1991 / 2011 | 23 games |
| Sequel hook | Part of the ending suggests there's going to be a sequel. | | 1992 / 2013 | 117 games |
| Sex (Sexual activity) | Involves scenes where sexual activity occurs or is implied to occur, regardless of the length, details, involvement of intercourse, or such. | | 1996 / 2013 | 28 games |
| Sex theme(Sexual themec) | | | | 1 games |
| Sexism[sexist] | Discrimination based on gender, forcing of gender roles on people, etc. | | 2010 / 2011 | 3 games |
| Sexual interests (Sexual fetishes;Paraphilias) | Any content depicted in fetishist manner; as one of the main sources for supposed sexual gratification. | | | 0 games |
| Shared setting (Shared universe) | Shares the setting/universe of the tie-in material, but besides that has little to do with it. | | 1993 / 2009 | 62 games |
| Side story | Includes one or more side stories that progress with the main plot but are largely unrelated to it, possibly with the player character occasionally influencing them. | | | 1 games |
| Slapstick | | | 2002 / 2014 | 2 games |
| Soul bond (Soul pact;Psychic bond;Empathic bond) | The protagonist is or becomes intricately bonded to someone or something else in a manner much deeper than friendship, loyalty, love or such. | | 1999 / 2005 | 5 games |
| Soylent Green | The food, it's people. Plays with the concept where humans or other sentient beings are processed into food or other products, likely to be sold back to their own kind. | | 1997 / 2013 | 4 games |
| Speech bubbles | A visual delivery method for dialog with possible visual cues on tone, quality, and other factors. | | | 3 games |
| Speech: Constructed language (Artificial language) | The characters speak some constructed language. | | | 3 games |
| Spiritual successor (Spiritual sequel) | | | 1990 / 2013 | 37 games |
| Spoilers | Tags that function as spoilers in almost all cases, usually by describing a plot twist element. | | | 0 games |
| Spoken onomatopoeia(Spoken sound effects) | Uses spoken onomatopoeia (or human imitations) as sound effects rather than actual sounds. | | 2009 / 2013 | 5 games |
| Spoonerisms(Marrowsky) | A type of linguistic comedy where consonants, vowels, or morphemes are swapped. | | 2011 / 2012 | 2 games |
| Story has notable deuteragonist | A deuteragonist is almost or even as important as the protagonist & may switch from working for or against the protagonist at various times. | | 1990 / 2004 | 2 games |
| Story of a Daring Enterprise (Heist) | Elements include a Bold Leader, an Object, and an Adversary | | 1983 / 2013 | 19 games |
| Story of Crime Pursued by Vengeance | Elements include a criminal and an avenger. | | | 1 games |
| Story of Deliverance | Elements include an unfortunate, a threat, & a rescuer. | | 1985 / 2013 | 2 games |
| Story of Supplication | Elements include persecutor, supplicant, & a power in authority who's decision is doubtful. | | | 3 games |
| Strange bedfellows (Enemy of my enemy;Allied with the enemy) | Plays with the proverb "enemy of my enemy is my friend" to a degree or has some other similarly strange alliance, such as two enemies allying to defeat a common but greater enemy. | | 1998 / 2012 | 28 games |
| Striptease | | | 1985 / 2010 | 59 games |
| Superheros (Costumed Crime Fighters) | Defined by extraordinary: themed costumes, skills, strong morals, motivation, enemies, headquarters, & back story. | | | 1 games |
| Supernatural phenomena | | | | 0 games |
| Surreal | | | 1984 / 2013 | 58 games |
| Symbolic[symbolism] | Has significant quantity of symbolic content, things that can't be understood by their literal meanings but rather by what they represent. | | 2001 / 2009 | 4 games |
| Taboos (Social stigmas) | Taboos that occur in most cultures (cross-cultural taboos). | | | 0 games |
| Tangible abstracts (Personifications) | Abstract concepts are given physical form. | | 1994 / 2013 | 30 games (1 characters) |
| Tech fanservice | Fanservice for technologically oriented individuals. Usually providing long camera panning shots across vehicles or other technical wonders, transformation sequences, or excessive detailing of their features. | | 1999 / 2013 | 34 games |
| Technocracy | Depicts a technocratic nation, community, or similar which is ruled by technical experts (scientists, engineers, etc.). | | 2003 / 2013 | 5 games |
| Temporal incursion (Time tampering) | | | 1991 / 2010 | 27 games |
| The Destroyer | Story involves an entity who will destroy the world, universe, or even beyond at the end of days. Usually he does this because it is his duty to do so or was created specifically for that purpose by a Creator entity or similar. | | 1996 / 2012 | 21 games |
| The unnamed | There's an item, person, people, or some other entity that people refuse to name. | | | 1 games |
| Theocracy | Depicts a government governed with divine guidance, usually by clergy but can be any religiously driven official(s). | | 2007 / 2011 | 7 games |
| Tie-in continuity | Conceived as a piece of the same continuity as the tie-in material, either as a sequel, prequel or a different viewpoint of the same events. | | 2004 / 2010 | 6 games |
| Tie-in variants | | | | 0 games |
| Time skip | The story skips a long time period at some point. | | 1994 / 2013 | 35 games |
| Toilet humor (Scatological humor)[toilet humour;scatological humour] | Humor/comedy that focuses on excrement, flatulence, and other real or supposed activities in bathroom. | | 1996 / 2013 | 19 games |
| Tragic ending (Sad ending) | | | 1993 / 2013 | 30 games |
| Transhumanism (Human augmentation;Eugenics) | Deals with the general theme of human augmentation, especially when this is part of the gameplay itself. | | 1987 / 2013 | 57 games |
| True names | Plays with the concept that names have power, especially "true" names. | | 1991 / 2008 | 6 games |
| True story | Claims to be re-enactment of what really happened out there, or based on something that really happened (without too much artistic freedom thrown in). | | | 2 games |
| Truth | Uses truth as a significant plot or thematic element. | | | 1 games |
| Un-canonical | The depicted story is not considered to be canon for the series they belong to. | | 1974 / 2013 | 117 games |
| Unconvincing armor (Bikini armor) | Characters, especially females, wear armor that's unconvincingly sparse in body coverage and protection, much like a bikini, or is thin and form-fitting like a bodysuit. | | 1986 / 2013 | 54 games |
| Unethical science | Performing experiments in the wild, without consent from the subjects, lying to the subjects on the nature of the experiments done to them, or even without the subjects' knowledge they're being experimented on at all. | | 1995 / 2011 | 14 games |
| Unexpected situation | | | 1986 / 2014 | 27 games |
| Unready | The protagonist gets sent or goes of their own choice to do their job before their training is finished. | | | 1 games |
| Unreliable narrator[unreliable narration] | The narrator (or narration) is at least partially unreliable in terms of what information is given. Half-truths, excessive embellishment, and outright lies are likely methods of delivery. | | 1997 / 2013 | 37 games |
| Unwanted responsibility | The protagonist is laid with some great responsibility, or they perceive it as such and must either deal or come to terms with it. | | 1997 / 2008 | 5 games |
| Urban legends (Urban myths) | Based on urban legend(s) or such feature prominently in the story or gameplay. | | 1999 / 2012 | 6 games |
| Vicious cycle (Vicious circle)[virtuous circle;virtuous cycle] | A cyclic thing that reinforces its own existence, commonly something bad happens that is ended which ensures the bad thing happens again. In stories the depicted events often involve breaking out of that endless cycle. | | 1993 / 2013 | 31 games |
| Videogame Rating Council | Introduced by Sega of America in 1993 to rate videogames released in the USA on Genesis, Sega-CD, Game Gear and some computer games. Later supplanted by ESRB. | | | 0 games |
| Virtues | | | | 0 games |
| Vitalism (Life energy;Vital spark;Prana;Qi;Anima)[chi;life force] | Life energy or such is a more or less tangible substance. | | 1997 / 2006 | 4 games |
| Voodoo (Hoodoo;Vodou) | Deals with voodoo beliefs and their practitioners. Popularly characterized with voodoo dolls, zombie servants, and black magics as well as Jaimaican, Cuban or Haitian accents of the practitioners. | | 1991 / 2012 | 11 games |
| Weak humans (Puny humans) | In contrast to the popular trend that favors humans, they are depicted as weaker, stupider, slower, more fragile, etc. than any other notable beings in the setting with no qualities of their own in which they would be better than others. | | 1983 / 2008 | 8 games |
