COLLECT THE CRYSTALS

Honestly, it's so dated that by now, I'd only use it in a comedy or parody RPG.

As others have said, while this is a very old cliché, there is no reason a cliché can't be done well. After all, clichés exist for a reason; they create a set of expectations in the audience or player for a story. If there were no such conventions and a game designer decided to go all 'post modern', it would be more difficult for the creator to tell a story within the limits of the medium and it would be more difficult for a player to figure the game out. Even avant-garde games, such as the original Silent Hill, used tried and true clichés such as fake-outs, an evil cult, creepy children, and a host of other elements. Purposely trying to avoid clichés for the sake of being different is therefore akin to reinventing the wheel; the success or failure of a game isn't based on how many clichés it uses, but how well it uses those clichés to its advantage.

For example. Suppose one plays through two RPG Maker games which both have the same basic plot; find four elemental crystals before the world ends. In the first game, a group of heroes travels from one elemental dungeon to another, a villain pursuing them along the way. The villain eventually gathers all the crystals and must be defeated to save the day. In the second game, each hero is a representative from a different elemental land. They have all been charged with the same goal of retrieving the crystals, but they work in competition with one another.

Now, which game sounds more interesting to play? Personally, I'd much rather play the second one, despite the fact that it uses just as many clichés as the first game. The big difference is that the clichés are combined in a different way, which then sparks creativity on the part of the creator; why are these kingdoms separate? What are they all like? What stake do the main characters have in events? Here the game creator, rather than regurgitating clichés in the same successful combination, has instead used the clichés as building blocks to assemble his story. Depending on the skill of the creator's writing, something truly wonderful and unique can come out of a basic old elemental land plot. I mean, just look at Avatar the Last Airbender (the cartoon, not the terrible movie).

This strategy of using clichés is much more likely to yield results than attempting to create something entirely new in a vacuum. After all, we rely on thousands of years of human knowledge to create new mathematics, sciences and general human understanding, so why then should writing be any different?

If you stand on the shoulders of giants, you can still see farther than the giant.

....Unless he has a very tall head.