-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
How Do You Manage Consumable Items in RPGs?
- Thread starter NipplesAndToes23
- Start date
Dreamgazer
Member
I never used them outside of the occasional potion.
Even then it's always the cheapest potion.
Even then it's always the cheapest potion.
Depends on the game.
Most FF games: Generally don't use them outside of rare situations.
Most Tales games: Use as needed; (Percentage-based healing.)
Other: See FF Series.
I generally don't like using items unless I feel I have to.
(4 Heroes of Light was the prolly the one game where I totally ignored that rule as I had a Salve-Maker with essentially infinite healing item use.)
Most FF games: Generally don't use them outside of rare situations.
Most Tales games: Use as needed; (Percentage-based healing.)
Other: See FF Series.
I generally don't like using items unless I feel I have to.
(4 Heroes of Light was the prolly the one game where I totally ignored that rule as I had a Salve-Maker with essentially infinite healing item use.)
This. Worst case scenario only... which never happens.
I tend to hoard, though it depends on the game. In Skyrim I relied on potions much more than the heal spell. In Pokemon I tend to gamble with hitpoints and cut things a little too close. In Final Fantasy I tend to amass a bunch of potions in the early game, then forget about them and rely on spamming the Cure spell line. As for status-inducing items, I pretty much never use those in anything.
SUBZERO-08
Member
Horde and never use any of them, of course.
jailbird20022
Banned
horde and use them once the difficulty spikes (stares at KOTOR II)
theprodigy
Member
texhnolyze
Banned
It's mostly like this, except for some western RPGs. Potions are kinda rare and you chug them in almost every battle.
Interesting question.
Consumables either require spending money, finding rare items that are hard to replace or both. Neither of which appeal to an audience that you have encouraged to pour time into creating an efficient, resilient adventuring party with reserves of strength, money and back-up plans, rather than winging it by burning through one-use items.
You could limit the rarer consumables to tiny numbers, but have them be craftable by alchemist types with late-game-readily-available ingredients.
You could have the rarer consumables be relatively easy to acquire, but only allow the party to carry one of each, effectively encouraging them to use it in boss fights as they know they can restock easily.
For the cheaper consumables, they need to balance with healing magic. What usually happens is the white mages learn to cure all status effects and group-heal the party for relatively few MP by 25% of the way through the game, effectively rendering basic consumables useless. You can combat this by having magic take longer to cast (and balanced by the group-heal or full-heal options) than using a basic consumable.
Also by not allowing too many characters access to healing magic, you encourage the other party members to use consumables when under pressure. A party with multiple magic healers, even if you think it's characterful, isn't going to hand out basic medicine very often.
Another common solution is an alchemist/herbalist character class/skill that specialises in using consumables, getting greater benefits from them, or group-use-from-one-item abilities that are expensive for a healer to cast the equivalent spell. Basically if it costs 2MP out of 200MP to heal 500 HP for everyone, the equivalent consumable shouldn't be a unique, 20 million gold irreplaceable bottle of angel milk.
SuperChoco
Member
A good number of consumables in RPG's don't scale while most abilities do. So I would focus on making consumables scale (like a potion heals a minimum of 100hp or 30% whichever is higher). Tales games seem to do this pretty well.
Also limited single use items shouldn't exist. The player should have the ability to get more, but make it difficult to get the powerful items.
Surface of Me
I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
If they are cheap things I can buy, I buy a lot and use them constantly. If not I wait until the last moment.
Also, this isn't really exclusive in a lot of RPGs, but in a lot of games if you get a health upgrade it fills up your health to the new max. If that is an item in a game I wait until I'm about to die and use it. NG2 I remember specifically remember doing this during boss fights as essentially an extra healing potion.
Also, this isn't really exclusive in a lot of RPGs, but in a lot of games if you get a health upgrade it fills up your health to the new max. If that is an item in a game I wait until I'm about to die and use it. NG2 I remember specifically remember doing this during boss fights as essentially an extra healing potion.
foamdino
Member
I tend to hoard them for 'the rainy day'/boss fight.
I think I finished BG1 and BG2 without using a potion. (can't recall if I used potions in IWD1/2)
For action RPGs I tend to use healing potions more frequently, but still routinely play with 100+ of them littering my inventory.
Playing through D:OS right now and I'm actively trying to use potions, still have a load of scrolls etc. that I don't even think about in the middle of fights.
I think I finished BG1 and BG2 without using a potion. (can't recall if I used potions in IWD1/2)
For action RPGs I tend to use healing potions more frequently, but still routinely play with 100+ of them littering my inventory.
Playing through D:OS right now and I'm actively trying to use potions, still have a load of scrolls etc. that I don't even think about in the middle of fights.
MrChowderClams
Member
First post nails it. I always save the potion or whatever you get at the start of the game, and then when I'm towards the end of the game I wonder "why the fuck do I have a bunch of useless healing items"
Happens in every game
Wolf Dawgz
Member
I horde them until the last boss. Then I still horde them just because.
super-famicom
Member
If I have a lot of gold/gil/monies, I buy at least 30-50 of every restorative consumable item and use when necessary, then refill whenever I visit a town. Sometimes I buy and carry the max amount. But for the non purchasable items (Elixirs in most FF games), I hoard them.
You really can't make me use consumables barring making them integral to combat. Which would suck.
I don't want to use consumables because it's a waste. It's wasted on normal enemies, wasted on bosses, and wasted on me. They cost money. Money that I painstakingly earned and I don't want to throw away.
So I'll go through the entire game being self sufficient, learning cure, resting to heal, etc. that by the time I have a full list of items I won't need them. It's the same rationale for me to never visit inns.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Haunted this isnt me being a smartass, but try playing some titles where you make things easier for yourself if you do use them.
A lot of Wizardry / Wizardry type of dungeon RPGs are designed like that, so it benefits the players to save MP or be able to cure something that is dangerous to the character now by using items.
Its a balance with the actual game mechanics and effects that can occur to the player / weaknesses enemies might have.
You need to design the items as part of the enemy / combat designs itself rather than an afterthought for just healing or status recovery.
But one thing I must stress is never, NEVER force the player to use items just because. Unless its for a single event with a particular reason. Such as in dungeon X player is unable to use magic for plot reasons therefore you have to rely on item usage till you are out of there. But never design the whole game so players are forced into a design mechanic. As those types of situations usually backfire.
Anything rare/expensive I hang onto forever until the final boss.
No, I don't give a shit if a boss is destroying me and I have something in my inventory that will greatly help me. I'll keep trying or grind for a couple hours if I have to and beat the boss without using the item.
No, I don't give a shit if a boss is destroying me and I have something in my inventory that will greatly help me. I'll keep trying or grind for a couple hours if I have to and beat the boss without using the item.
TwistedFate
Member
Pretty much.
Achievements.
Winterfang
Banned
I use them.
NinjaMouse
Member
Fail for not using elixirs on Dr. Lugae
Ha! I'm lucky I learned how to past Asura way back then as a kid. That felt like much bigger of an accomplishment.
Copy Tales of series combat system.
Spam your skills because you will get it back after combat, items are % based so spam more skills during combat to get more back.
Depends on the game.
Tales series: potion/gum used during boss battle, heal spell/inn/cooking/save point for normal battle.
FF series: heal spell or save point. Heal potion maybe during grinding. Elixir type, save em all. (Except for LR:FF)
Disgaea series: do I need to use potion in Disgaea?
Tales series: potion/gum used during boss battle, heal spell/inn/cooking/save point for normal battle.
FF series: heal spell or save point. Heal potion maybe during grinding. Elixir type, save em all. (Except for LR:FF)
Disgaea series: do I need to use potion in Disgaea?
NipplesAndToes23
Member
It sounds like there are a few games here which have forced some people who usually do that to not do it. Path of Exile's sounds interesting. Thanks for bringing this up though, I'll probably remember this when it's my turn to make an RPG.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
Only right in the beginning do I use healing items. Once you get magic to heal they become useless. I only buy MP filling items after that and rarely use those too. I am a grinder so I usually grind out some levels early on so I'm already overpowered and will hover around a town when I am leveling so I just sleep at an inn to heal up.
I'm the kind of person who rarely feels like I can take on the final boss until I'm at max level. Dragon Quest, Mario RPG. I'll just sell any drops I don't use in the next battle or forget I have them.
In DQ VIII I have rarely ever used a single cheese variant because my characters are always just so much better. And it has an alchemy recipe that takes the two cheapest healing items and turns it into an overpowered high priced healing item. So I sell all items I can't alchemize and use the money for armor and weapons.
I'm the kind of person who rarely feels like I can take on the final boss until I'm at max level. Dragon Quest, Mario RPG. I'll just sell any drops I don't use in the next battle or forget I have them.
In DQ VIII I have rarely ever used a single cheese variant because my characters are always just so much better. And it has an alchemy recipe that takes the two cheapest healing items and turns it into an overpowered high priced healing item. So I sell all items I can't alchemize and use the money for armor and weapons.
Perfect Cha0s
Member
I grind out a surplus of the useful ones and then use them as I need to.
StormBrute
Member
I'm one of those people who saves items and never uses them ever, but for me it's because the items usually don't seem that good. They never seem that effective for me to justify using them when they're consumable versus a spell or something.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door seems to be the exception to that rule, since I used items quite often there. Besides that, I think the most I ever used items was in SMT: Nocturne, but that was mainly at the beginning of the game when you don't have a good supply of demons. At the end, I got all the infinite use items and just used them instead of anything slightly better and consumable. (Nocturne is a good example of most items not being worth their turn to use them, because only the main character can use items and he had a ton of better things to do in any battle; revives and the infinite-use recoveries were the only ones worth a turn.)
Plus, I find most RPGs really easy, so I don't ever feel the need to use items.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door seems to be the exception to that rule, since I used items quite often there. Besides that, I think the most I ever used items was in SMT: Nocturne, but that was mainly at the beginning of the game when you don't have a good supply of demons. At the end, I got all the infinite use items and just used them instead of anything slightly better and consumable. (Nocturne is a good example of most items not being worth their turn to use them, because only the main character can use items and he had a ton of better things to do in any battle; revives and the infinite-use recoveries were the only ones worth a turn.)
Plus, I find most RPGs really easy, so I don't ever feel the need to use items.
That used to be me, until I played Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma. They made me stop with this silly nonsense by basically saying "use your healing items or die".
So now I just use my stuff in every game.
Stick in a cap of the amount you can have, and dish them out regularly.
Restock them for free like Estus in Dark Souls, or Healing Potions in Dragon Age Inquisition
Keep the number of consumables limited so it's simple for people to remember and fish them out, and make each one have a strong, visible impact so their use feels rewarding.
Stick frequent reminders about them on load screens and death screens. Potentially including context sensitive tips like pointing out the fire resistance potions when you're going to the Realm of Fire
If you really want people to use it, model it as a character ability instead of a consumable.
celsowmbr
Banned
This
AtomskEater
Member
Horde everything rare (full heal, elixir-type stuff) for the final battle, which usually results in me not needing it. Anything else I use willy-nilly.
If healing spells are an option I'm more likely to use those, though.
If healing spells are an option I'm more likely to use those, though.
theprodigy
Member
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Actually that turns more into an irritation than anything. Dragon Age Inquisition really does it poorly with the potions and makes it more of a mess than something good.
Both of those examples causes the player to backtrack more than actually be something positive / natural with the gameplay itself.
Though this is an important point which you bring up and do agree with for the most part. Would not go as far as saying strong, visible impact though. But the use feels rewarding part is true. Id say not dying is pretty rewarding when you have antidotes on you that can cure poison which does a lot of damage otherwise.
terrisus
Member
Poodlestrike
Banned
I suffer badly from "too awesome to use" syndrome in RPGs; I get so used to holding on to rare items (and in the beginning, almost all items are rare) that I don't ever end up using anything except the most crucial and common items.