INTERESTING ITEMS IN RPGS

Posts

Pages: first 12 next last
So, I think we can all agree that one of the primary staples of any RPG is items. Be they healing items, collectibles, equipment, or what-have-you, during your travels you're likely to pick up bundles of them. However, I think we've all seen our fair share of Potions, Antidotes, Phoenix Downs, etc. What happened to all of the interesting items?

Super Mario RPG, for example, had some very unique items in my opinion. Sure, most of them served the same basic function as generic RPG items, but even something as simple as giving them unique names made them so much more interesting in my eyes. Potions became Mushrooms, Ethers became different kinds of Syrups, and Phoenix Downs became Pick-Me-Ups. I'm sure most, if not all, of us can agree that seeing items with these kinds of names is a breath of fresh air.

On top of that, there were plenty of items with interesting functions. Yoshi Cookies would call Yoshi to battle, and he would either turn an enemy into an items or give your party a Yoshi Candy, which recovered 100 HP. A Mystery Egg, when used by Princess Toadstool with the B'tub Ring equipped, would turn into a Lamb's Lure after 10 uses, which in turn would prevent enemies from leaving coins or experience when defeated BUT would turn into a Sheep Attack after 48 uses and turn all enemies into lambs. Pretty nifty, eh? Just to name a few.

I believe more RPG Maker game designers (or any game designers in general) could certainly learn a lesson from Super Mario RPG's items. So, to open this up for discussion: what are your thoughts on items in games? Do you prefer the typical Potions and Phoenix Downs, or are you drawn into a game more when thought is obviously put into creating new and interesting items? On top of this, a question to designers, what is your thought process on creating and implementing interesting items? Feel free to post examples of interesting items you've seen in other games as well, be they professional or indie.

Also, for those interested, a list of items in Super Mario RPG can be found here.
I agree. Interesting item names (that make sense) are great. The item names in SMRPG are very clever and worked well.
author=Tree_Eater
On top of this, a question to designers, what is your thought process on creating and implementing interesting items? Feel free to post examples of interesting items you've seen in other games as well, be they professional or indie.
For all items, even equipment, I try to make it so no item (even early-game items) ever go obsolete.

For example, in my Rm2k3 project, a Minor Red Potion heals 39 HP with an additional 20% whereas a Grand Red Potion will heal 300 HP with an additional 50%. Now, the Minor Red Potion may have lower numbers, but it is also much more cost-effective and does heal a decent amount even at endgame.

Armors with higher DEFENSE lower the character's SPEED. Combined with DEF-SPEED ratios, I've added special effects to each armor. For example, Berserker's Armor has an exceptional DEF-SPEED ratio, but it Silences the wearer, making them unable to use magic. I even have one called Reaper's Robe that kills the wearer just as you equip it. (Impractical but different)
I don't see many games discouraging players selling low-tier items for money and moving onto the next shiny thing. To me, everything you find in a chest should hold its worth until the end of the game.
Don't get me wrong, I like renaming items and what not, but also make the effort to change the effect and cost of the item or you may as well have just left it at potion. I always try to give an interesting description of an item, change the amount it heals and costs as well as the name. Usually I'll do per cent healing instead of straight out healing numbers.
A few examples:
Herb - Restores small amounts of health - (30% + 20) HP healed - 7 Gold
Body Purge - Heals physical ailments - gets rid of paralyze, stun and trip - 14 Gold
Potent Herb - Used in healing and medicines. <+66%HP> <x2> - heals 66% HP - can be used twice - 150 Gold
Water Skin - A goat skin pouch filled with water - used in battle against fire monsters - 2 uses - 40 Gold

InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
In my game, all "potions" and the like are in the form of real life food, like beef jerky or potato chips, etc.
You also have items like molotovs and rusty knifes, which as expected are single use items that cause damage, whether it be single target or AOE.
And really, in a zombie game, or just a game that focuses on real life, potions and stuff just wouldn't make sense.
So I think people should incorporate items that have to do with their world, be it fantasy or not.
And just because it is fantasy or uses magic doesn't mean it has to be your bog standard potion!

I even have one called Reaper's Robe that kills the wearer just as you equip it. (Impractical but different)

Lol, this would piss me off, but I like it. xD
I like the idea of mixing constant and percentage based healing items, that seems to eliminate the problem with early items becoming obsolete or outdoing later items in terms of price. Good ideas!

How about ideas for non-generic items, though? Such as items that have hidden uses or inflict unique status ailments?
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Just design items as you would cool skills, but without any cost except expending the item. Water Mote goes from "medium Water damage to a foe" to "low Water damage to two random foes. Each hit lowers Lightning resistance" and Earth Mote is "high Earth damage to all grounded foes. 75% accuracy."

(I also have serious issues with tiered spells, but I'm just trying to appeal to you guys here. I'll rant about that on my V&V blog sometime.)
I would personally like to see people use more damaging items. Maybe such as scrolls with a skill in them? A buff? A debuff to the enemy? People think that items are for key events and healing sp and hp, when actually there is so much more you can do with them. Most people don't even bother developing interesting items and thats really a shame.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
At the opposite end of the spectrum are games like Earthbound or Nethack which have dozens and dozens of items with very obscure uses. The absurd list of items is a major part of the identity of both these games, but I don't really think it's good game design in general, any more than having hundreds of spells per character is good game design.

Let's look at this from a different perspective. Essentially, items are a type of skill. Like magic or swordtech.

Items are unique from other types of skills in that:
- Everyone can use them.
- They use a different type of resource (stock per skill, instead of an MP pool).
- That resource is, in most games, shared between all party members.
- That resource is not automatically refilled at inns, or in fact ever. It must be manually refilled, and the difficulty of doing can vary significantly, with item shops on the easy end, steals and random drops in the middle, and treasure chests at the hard end.

These points make items better suited for some types of skills than others. If certain skills are required to win random battles, you probably don't want those skills to be items, because the player will gradually run out and the game will eventually become unbeatable. If the player has an equivalent skill that costs MP, then adding an item that does the same thing might make one of the two worthless (unless both gold and MP are in very short supply, which would make it a meaningful choice). You don't want the best skills to all be from items that the player can buy in shops, because that makes the differences between characters meaningless. If your items are easily refilled, then you probably don't want them to be very powerful at all.

FF4 and FF7 are examples of games that had item versions of almost every magic spell in the game. Because of the items' rarity, they didn't replace the magic versions - they were only good in emergencies. (A handful were actually buyable, but were borderline obsolete by the point they became buyable.)
I rather liked the belt that changed the gender of the character in Baldur's Gate.

I also like drugs in games. Fallout for example had a lot of them and you could get addicted and whatnot (which meant I hardly ever used them). Pop in a few too many buff items? Oh no, now you're addicted and won't get the same bonus and if you don't use it your skills will go down!

The classic use of alcohol as a booster of something but making it a lot harder to hit is also one I rather like.
I have a weird thing for not just items, but item names. In particular I have a nostalgic love of super-abbreviated item names prevalent in older/less technically sophisticated games. e.g. IRON
I like games that keep items relevant - for example 'Legend of Dragoon' had items that restored a percentage of your max HP rather than a given sum of points, meaning that those low-level potions never became useless when the next and more potent version cropped up. Games like the 'Disgaea' series managed to make items an essential part of play too by levelling them and random-dungeon creation. Then again, who can forget Cecil using the porn . . .
author=Tree_Eater
How about ideas for non-generic items, though? Such as items that have hidden uses or inflict unique status ailments?
Outside of "Bombs", I've not created consumable items with particularly special effects. But each character has a Skill slot in their equipment windows, where they equip skills.
Each skill is rather game-changing in the sense that they do very different things and very few of them even do damage.

For example, Final Heal is an equippable skill that heals a rather large amount of HP based on the user's MAGIC stat and silences them.
Another is Assist, which is a skill that buffs an ally for 1 turn. If an ally is ready to release a super-powerful attack and your current character is, without a doubt, going one turn before them, you pop the ally with Assist and watch the damage skyrocket.

I've also implemented Passive Skill Books.
For example, P:Quick Item double's a character's speed one turn after they have used an item.
P:Solstice removes all status ailments every 12 turns in battle.
P:Immortality automatically revives a character by chance.
P:Autocast Arcane adds MAGIC-based damage to your regular attacks.

I try very hard to give RM2k3's battle system more depth.
However, sometimes, one can go overboard. Especially MMORPGS.
For example, the oh-so-new game Rift has rather intimidating skill descriptions.

author=Rift WIKI
Vengeful Spirit
Increases the number of stacks of Deathly Calling converted by your pet's Blood Corruption by 1 and gives Blood Corruption a 33/?/?% to not consume stacks of Deathly Calling. Gives your pet's Oblivion a 33/?/?% chance to interrupt spell casting when it hits enemies. Increases the critical hit chance of your pet's Ruination by 33/?/?% if the enemy has Deathly Calling.

... what?
Star Ocean 2 has its fair share of interesting items. including:

an item that increases in value as game time increases
an item that actively decreases your funds more the longer you hold onto it.
several items that kill you if you use them
portraits and books that raise affection levels of different characters
everything involved with item creation pretty much
A lot of games have those boost items that increase max hp or increase agility or what have you. The only question that ever arises from using these items is exactly which character to use it on. I think it would be more interesting if those items also reduced a stat.
What about items that help one party member but hurt the other 2 or 3 or what have you. For instance, a healing item that fully heals the party member it is used on, but then silences, posions, and berserks the rest of the party?

An item that talks everytime you use it.
An item that changes the way people interact with you as long as you have it.
A box that can be used to give you 100,000,000,000,000 gold but will permanently kill one of your party members.
A summon item that summons a creature to help you fight a boss but then you have to fight the summon immediately after.
A balloon. That pops. That's it.
A musical instrument that can be used to change the background music.
A hula hoop. Using it makes your character have a hula hoop animation until you quit.

That's all the ridiculous ideas I have right now.
An item named "Dues Ex Machina" perhaps?
Using it at the right time might mysteriously change the entire fate of the whole game.
Using it at another time might only turn the moment to your favor, like winning in a casino.

Then there could also be an item that can randomly change something in the world, similar to the Dues Ex Machine-thingy... but more random.
there are some awesome ideas here.

I suddenly remembered those useless Tissues from Final Fantasy 7 that you had to take sometimes...I did not understand until I lived in Japan lolol
It's nice to come up with unique items, but you can get too crazy and end up with items you have no idea about. Of course you could just have descriptions, but the original Phantasy Star games did not have them and had items with bizarre names.
Some of the best items came from the SNES era of RPGs: Lufia 2, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy 6. I'm not referring to consumables, though. I hate consumables.
Pages: first 12 next last