What are plot raisins? Google comes up with nothing for this.

Plot Raisins = Contrived and idiotic plot reasons. 

Terrible sound effects - especially footsteps. God, I hate annoying footsteps.

Ah got it. Thanks. So like when a character conveniently gets amnesia to advance the plot kind of thing.

Exactly. 

I hate it when JRPGs do creepy sexual shit for laughs or to please a certain demographic. Like it's possible to do sexual humor or fanservice in a tasteful way, but so many games really overdo it to the point that it's creepy. Sometimes the girl is way too young, other times it's just that over the top anime style fell-on-her-and-somehow-grabbed-her-boobs type of cringy, but I see it all the time and now that I'm not like, 14...it just feels weird. Some of these games are otherwise really cool and I'd like to share them with my girlfriend but I'd just be embarrassed to because of the weird parts.

A few RPGs have started just making tons of NPCs you can't interact with in towns. This ends up being really nice, because only important people can be talked to, but also because another thing I hate about towns in RPGs is that they're more like villages, with maybe a dozen people in them. Having tons of NPCs walking around can be dumb when they don't seem to be going anywhere and just disappear eventually, but at least it feels a bit more alive, like an actual town where you could never talk to every person anyway.

Xenoblade 2 has a lot of that. But it also tends to blatantly parody that as well. The whole Tora and Poppi relationship just parodies that sort of thing the whole time. Tora is a Nopon, and shouldn't be attracted to humans, or robots, or maids. The fact that he is is just comedy gold. It works for the same reasons that Pepe Lepew and the cat works as comedy. It's a bit like the "Did you see that android in the lunchline?" skit from the Portal parody https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz5cl131KTk Tora, and Portal Turrets aren't supposed to be sexual beings. So the fact that they are is hilarious. 

Right, it can be done tastefully, in a way that's actually funny. Haven't gotten around to playing XBC2 yet, it's sadly in my backlog, but I've heard it has a fair bit of the cringier parts as well. I've also heard it is an awesome game otherwise, so I'm sure I'll love it to pieces, but it might end up on the "awkward to play with girlfriend" pile.

Do you guys just hate the Xenoblade series? Lord.

And I have to disagree with having a "PhD" to understand Final Fantasy XIII. Tales of the Abyss? I can see that. Final Fantasy XIII? Nah.

Anyways, I hate it when characters you get attached to or like their battle style, suddenly die or turn to the darkside or whatever, and you can't use them anymore.

As one poster mentioned: "The illusion of freedom". They give you more than one option as your answer, but the game or NPC will simply ask you the same thing again and force you to do what the script says. Don't let me pick "No" as an answer if you'll force me to do it anyway.

And there's two tropes/characters I absolutely DESPISE: Women leading roles who are either useless or the love interest. You're always having to rescue them, do their chores for them, go to the end of the world for them, and usually they add NOTHING but tedious dialogue and grind to the games. I really like how Fossil Fighters dealt with this particular type of character: Depending on your answers to her during the storyline, she'd either end up with your character or become some sort of ugly dog and remain annoying for eternity. If only I could do that to Rinoa.