There are few things that bug me more in games that a bunch of useless items. For some reason RPGs in particular have always filled their game with so much useless junk, maybe to make the game world feel less empty, I don't know. It gets much worse when you combine useless crap with limited inventory, cause nothing is more fun than having loads of loot in a cave you can't carry out. Why the he'll do they do this, who uses half this crap they make us collect.
The latest game to piss me off was witcher 2, here is a game with loads of items around but at least here you can quickly scan the room an see where all the items are. At first I was gathering everything, I figured all this crap would help me craft some super sword or something. About 15 hours in I noticed I rarely if ever used any of my crafting items, I had been wasting all this toime searching every corner just cause maybe iget so ethnic useful. Almost all the best stuff in the game you get from quests so what is the point of all this crap. By the end if the game I had enough crap to create a near infinite amount of potions. Speaking of potions about 3 where useful the other 20 are pointless, why have them. I know you could say I can just ignore it all but what happens if I so happen to miss something important in this sea of uselessness. Of course all junk you can sell which becomes your main cash cow but now you have to carry all this crap back and forth to a trader.
Remember in LOTR where Gandalf opened his magical cloak of caring capacity and took 15 Orc swords and 25 bone fragments to sell for money. NO cause that is STUPID. Where the he'll did this item idea come from. Just give me a few weapons, armor and ONE healing item, DONE. That is all I need. Spells or recharchable skills are the way to go, items that get used up suck cause you either use them up too quickly or always save them cause maybe you need it later, of course you never do so you end up with 100 potions at the end of the game. My character should have skills, he shouldn't need to carry an alchemy shop with him.
When a game removes all the crap and only focuses on useful items now every object in the game world is more important, more exciting. Now I am focused more on my actions and not managing some boring inventory screen. All the stuff items do can be done without them and be done better. It is a Terrible arcaic system. Mass Effect ditched all that crap and it was so much better for it. Zelda games have always only had a few useful items, which is why finding everything in the game world is fun and meaningful. Enough with gathering 500 pieces of cloth, WTF.
The latest game to piss me off was witcher 2, here is a game with loads of items around but at least here you can quickly scan the room an see where all the items are. At first I was gathering everything, I figured all this crap would help me craft some super sword or something. About 15 hours in I noticed I rarely if ever used any of my crafting items, I had been wasting all this toime searching every corner just cause maybe iget so ethnic useful. Almost all the best stuff in the game you get from quests so what is the point of all this crap. By the end if the game I had enough crap to create a near infinite amount of potions. Speaking of potions about 3 where useful the other 20 are pointless, why have them. I know you could say I can just ignore it all but what happens if I so happen to miss something important in this sea of uselessness. Of course all junk you can sell which becomes your main cash cow but now you have to carry all this crap back and forth to a trader.
Remember in LOTR where Gandalf opened his magical cloak of caring capacity and took 15 Orc swords and 25 bone fragments to sell for money. NO cause that is STUPID. Where the he'll did this item idea come from. Just give me a few weapons, armor and ONE healing item, DONE. That is all I need. Spells or recharchable skills are the way to go, items that get used up suck cause you either use them up too quickly or always save them cause maybe you need it later, of course you never do so you end up with 100 potions at the end of the game. My character should have skills, he shouldn't need to carry an alchemy shop with him.
When a game removes all the crap and only focuses on useful items now every object in the game world is more important, more exciting. Now I am focused more on my actions and not managing some boring inventory screen. All the stuff items do can be done without them and be done better. It is a Terrible arcaic system. Mass Effect ditched all that crap and it was so much better for it. Zelda games have always only had a few useful items, which is why finding everything in the game world is fun and meaningful. Enough with gathering 500 pieces of cloth, WTF.
Recently Spotted:
*crickets*
Dont you almost need a guide to figure out how to get the best combos. I dont even remember, you know why, cause it was not interesting.
Crafting can be fun in these games but its only fun when you can make something interesting, which only happens after you have done like 20 hours of useless item gathering. How about making crafting from 2 or 3 unique items in the world where you have to do a specific quest or kill a rare enemy. Not some endless scavenger hunt.
Final Fantasy, Super Mario RPG, Baten Kaitos, Ogre Battle 64
What crappy items? In the JRPGS I play all the items are useful. In the WRPGS I play they are generally useful until you upgrade and then they are good for cashing in to buy better items.
The only games I play that have shit items are loot games like Baldur's Gate and any FPS, where they load you up with 12 different guns when all you want is a AR, Shotgun and sniper rifle. (And usually they give you 6 kinds of fucking grenades when all I need is one).
Wrong. I played a ton of FF games, I never used items much. The only important ones ar HP potions, MP potions and phoenix down, everything else i would end the game with like 50 of them. You have magic spells that do the same thing and they dont have limited uses, the items are pointless.
Mario RPG, again only health and FP healing is important. Rarely do you need to use an item for anything else.
Didnt play the other two.
JRPGS have a tendancy of giving you a ton of statis changing or curing potions and the worst of all, really crappy attack items that are always worse than your attacks. The majority of times you have a spell that does the same thing all those items do and does it better and never runs out. I love the Xenoblade totally got rid of items in combat, they are not necessary. I think FFXIII started to go this route as well, thankfully they are seeing the light.
As for WRPG, omg. 99% of everything in TES world is a useless item. I guess it is neat that i can pick up any object but it is a total waste of time. Also it diludes the experience of finding something useful, you may miss something cause you are sick of going through crap. The pick up junk to sell them thing is a horrible gameplay mechanic. Devs need to find far better ways to produce income for characters. torchlight had the awesome idea to have near instant selling from anywhere in the world, that helps a lot but even that could use help. Are you playing as a scavenger or some epic hero that is going to save the world, they dont go together. Again in LOTR you never saw any of the Fellowship gather up weapons and items to sell later, its stupid. Make it automatic, all sellable junk you find as you fight enemies instanty get turned into money cause you have some offscreen assisstant dude sell everything for you, there simple way to do it. Now all that going back and forth selling crap is out of your hands and done instantaneous. Or even more simple, have enemies simply drop money not junk (and only useful items in rare occasions), yeah I know that isnt realistic! Yeah but neither is fighting a skeleton but you dont complain about that.
Another thing, have you ever played a game that didn't use items much if ever and ever think to yourself "Man this game needs ITEMS!! With items it would be so much better!!!"
NO. And if so please give me an example.
(and just so I am perfectly clear the items I am refering too is the loads of junk that fill your inventory in RPGs. A hookshot in a Zelda game is not the kind of item I am talking about, that is a gameplay altering tool.)
For games that restrict my inventory size (which is the only time items annoy me) I trnd to just stick with what I know works and only pick up new items that are worth a lot to sell.
Yeah I mention Torchlight above, great fix to the selling issue. Still has loads of useless junk though. But I guess a loot game is supposed to have that.
I was also specific. I said Final Fantasy. No suffixes, no subtitles. Potions are extraordinarily important. You have treasure chests throughout dungeons. You use equipment in special ways as items. Magic does have very limited uses, so they're important through the entire game, but that wasn't a requirement you posed.
You are also talking to the foremost expert on Super Mario RPG. So the Red Essence is unimportant, granting you invulnerability for 3 turns? Or maybe you just ignored the 30 hidden item boxes throughout the game. Rock candy, which does 200 damage across the board? The best weapon and armour in the game, the lazy shell, is acquired how? By collecting the necessary 2 items. Flower tabs, jars and boxes aren't just for healing, they boost your overall FP permanently. I don't have to demonstrate the game being dependent on items, or based entirely around items. I have to demonstrate that they're useful. They are.
If you strip an rpg of items, you end up with an action game. Very clever, demon. Very clever.