Never explaining the actual mathematical meaning (or sometimes even the general purpose) of your stats. JRPGs in particular are horrible about this, but western games do it too. What does it mean to have 250 attack power? What's the tangible benefit of this +10 vitality ring? Should I use it over the +2 defense ring? Why even have items like this when the choice is totally blind? What's the point of showing me all these numbers when I don't understand the rules?

The thing that bugs me the most about RPGs is how I completely suck at most of them.

Yeah, that's something that irritates me in most RPGs as well. The biggest hero the world has ever seen and who is on an *urgent* quest to save the world spends most of his time doing worthless non-sense. What really bothers me about that is that also in actual sandbox RPGs the main plot usually clearly suggests some sort of urgency while the game itself revolves around visiting every spot in the whole universe (except the one you're supposed to go to) and doing everything that doesn't advance the plot so you're as strong as possible when you're forced to advance the plot because there's nothing else left to do that you cold otherwise miss. I mean, bottom line, you can't play the games the way they are meant to be played. You either totally ignore the main plot most of the time rendering it perfectly absurd or you ignore most of the optional content that is there for a friggin' reason. It's driving me nuts.

whooops i misread the OP hahaha

Limited inventory
Lack of practice based skills
Too few party based rpgs
Lack of scifi turned based rpgs..

.....TO NOT ENJOY LOOT IS HERESY!
BURN THE WITCH! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!!!

Looks like you created yourself a gem of a thread here. Congrats. :D

There are so many little things annoying me.
Dialogs with different options without effect on gameplay.
Dialogs that only pops up after you have spoken with every otherwise useless NPC.
Monster that you can't beat until you reach a certain level and after that they are done in seconds.
Doors/Houses that you can't enter because the wooden door only opens with a key and you can't use your mighty +35 weapon.
Grinding for the next level only that the monster next door do the same.
Useless quests that sets you on a merry go round.
Items you can only equip after you reach a level carry with you and by than you have found much better items.
Hording money for no use because the vendors have only items worse than everything you get from killing.
An inventory system that lets you carry tons of items as long as there are free slots.

In some cases, XP systems, where it's "kill 100 orcs and become stronger" or whatever, when it also improves your non-combat skills. A few games I've played have a practice-based system instead, which can make more sense than, say, suddenly getting better at something like trading or diplomacy because you killed a dragon. Though that can lead to problems of its own (e.g. "constantly jump around like a moron to train your acrobatic skill" in the Elder Scrolls games.)

I actually quite like the practice based systems...

I actually miss athletics and acrobatics from the elder scrolls :(
they made a lot of sense to me, "want to jump higher? Practice jumping!" Felt it added to the immersion... until I could jump 20ft in the air but that was critical to my playstyle :p

The silly outfits the heros wear that don't look more like they hinder than help, on top of which they never get torn and are never dirty.

Not allowing your whole party to fight (say only 3 out of your 7), even though the enemy 'mob" can have more.

Also when a stat is completely useless or only useful up to a point. Bonus points if the manual or in-game description makes it sound really useful for certain styles of play.

Yes, the endless walkin' around. The good folks over at rpg codex took to calling Oblivion a "hiking simulator," and I think that is the biggest problem with the game. The solution was that Bethesda packed the countryside with caves, shrines, ruins, settlements, etc. Same with FO3 - somebody every ten feet. People bitched that it was too unrealistic and crowded. But then New Vegas. Desolate, yes, but in that boring way, that way in which you just spend a long time walking, walking, walking...

Plus, companions. I hate 'em. All. There, I said it.

Cheers.

I regret nothing. Especially since I play all kinds of RPGs.

Depending on how it's done, I actually like that. You don't miss out on anything essential, but to a certain degree you are allowed to roleplay (the temper of) your character. What I don't like is when you're presented with several interesting and equally valid dialogue options, e.g. in the form of questions, and there would be nothing preventing your character from talking about all of them, but the game arbitrarily restricts your choice and makes the other options vanish once you've chosen one. Because the main thing is choices, right? So we let you choose between asking the NPC either who he is or what he's doing here. If you want answers to both questions, now you have a reason to replay the game! Isn't that fabulous? :P

. If the choices do not make any real impact, why do you still feel like you've missed something? I can relate to the preference for experiencing everything in one single playthrough, but I don't see anything new in the approaches to prevent that. Just think about all the class quests in Baldur's Gate 2 that you miss out on because you can't play all classes at the same time. Or choosing light or dark side of the Force in KotOR, which you named as a positive example. I don't see how this is any different from choices in more recent games like Mass Effect.

. Agreed on these two though. :)

. And this. The problem I have with inventory management is not so much that I don't like it at all but that it's forced on me even when I'm not in the mood for it.

That's my biggest pet peeve with RPGs in general, btw. As soon as you begin having fun with the current gameplay, they interrupt it by forcing something different on you. You're in the middle of an exciting series of battles, but suddenly you have to clear out your inventory. You're in the middle of a gripping plot but suddenly you have to take it slowly, listen to some peasant's life story and occupy yourself with petty chores. You want action, but there's no way around talking to all these boring people first. You want to read interesting dialogue, but there's no way around slogging through these boring trash mobs first. On the one hand, it's great that RPGs are so varied in gameplay, on the other hand it can become quite demotivating, if the game still retains enough linearity to force these changes in gameplay and pace on you when you're not ready for them.

But I guess that's a bit off-topic since the thread's about things that are funny and just bug you a bit. ;)

. I smirked at "your very own weapon rack" in Skyrim, that allows you to proudly put your favorite weapons on display when you're idling in your home, at the cost of having to reconfigure all the hotkeys previously assigned to them when you pick them up again. But what is ease of use compared to virtual owner's pride? :D