We always find ourselves hoarding special items that we end up never using in games.
We’ve gathered hundreds of ethers through the various Final Fantasy games, but always insist on using a tent or inn to restore magic.
For the Persona games, SP restoration is precious and items such as coffee are always saved for the next boss, and then the next one.
We’ve cooked so much food in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild which we’ve never eaten because of their special boosts and which, in real life, would have long ago gone rotten.
In the Phantasy Star games, we still have yet to use the star mist, also known as star dew, which are very precious and can heal your entire party to full health.
For Super Mario Brothers 3, we saved the Hammer Brothers suit until the bitter end and still didn’t put it on.
Just by nature of how rare these items are, they preclude usage, when it should be the complete opposite. In some ways, the act of collection and knowing that we have that essential something in our back pocket is the source of their true value. “An ace in the sleeve” of sorts.
We’ll both probably go on hoarding in game, but for this week, we’ve promised to use that special healing item on the next boss we come across. Unless we manage to eke by in which case, it’ll be the next one, or the one right after that one…
What items do you hoard? If you have special items of your own which you’ve never used, well… maybe now is the time.
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12 responses to “An Ode To Unused Items”
Dark Saviour – That game by Climax (Landstalker) on the Sega Saturn. There was one item that threatened its effects would wear off once you leaved the island… I didn’t want that. It was only once I finished the game that I realised it ALL took place on the island and I should have employed the buffs as soon as I got them. This memory of unused items has stricken me until today.
I always wanted to play that! LOVE Landstalker (and to a much lesser degree, Climax Landers in DC), but don’t own Dark Saviour. I’m currently rebuilding my two Saturn’s (the CD mechanisms on them are dying globally) which is tricky and has made me pause Saturn collecting. This was one of my three next purchases (alongside finishing SF3 with last two titles).
As for the topic at hand: Elixirs in Final Fantasy games. They are there for emergencies, but I’ll be damned if I don’t let my parties get wiped out first before even contemplating using one.
That was definitely some shoddy translation work, but I’ll be dammed if it still isn’t one of my top 10 video games to this day.
I tend not to use health packs/potions at all, and instead do things tactically. Games like Baldur’s Gate, KotOR or Skyrim, if I need to use a healing item, then things have gone badly wrong. I would rather load a save and try another approach.
Using abilities to heal is fine, but eating all the cheese is not.
Especially if you lactose intolerant.
I have loads of them in World of Warcraft. Stuff that is either increadibly rare or seasonal stuff. I usually always keep my endgame set just before the next expansion launches and they get replaced with greens.
Wow is a special case for this one. Years of the game, content that’s been changed or removed entirely. There’s straight up things that don’t exist anymore unless you’ve already got them. For the longest time I had the quest ‘The alliance needs purple lotus’ in my log just so I could share it randomly with folk. I also generally win any rare-item offs with people because I still have a proxy of nozdormu kicking about in my bags which was used to turn people into an agent of nozdormu for the opening of the AQ gates.
I had a bank alt with a whole guild bank tab full of Haunted Mementos. Despite being Unique I painstakingly move them one by one from farming spot, to mailbox, to bank alt to guild bank… a decade later I still have half of them.
FO4…never used power armour, never used Gatling lasers, but couldn’t pass up a fusion core. Last run through I ended up with hundreds…
Lol was going to say that myself, also mini nukes had like 20 of them never fired one.
I made a entire 5 story building dedicated to every version of power armour from mk1-5 all displayed Nicly.
I could never pass up a new set of power armour…. Or caps though I had over 200k from selling water I still looked in every container for more.
No link to TVTropes? Let me fix that:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TooAwesomeToUse
Their is a room in every RPG (Deus Ex, Fallout, Prey) that looks like an obssesive compulsive hoarding hobo lives their… I try to conserve consumables and refuse to use unless the puzzle of fight is impossible. So I end up with all the cheese, all the booze, medkits, mana pots, antidotes and all the ammunition stockpiled, and all the large and heavy weapons (one of each type).Each corner of the room, has a different spot dedicated tonan item type. Never sold unless I need the currency, never trashed cause I may need it.
Thank god for no kill achievements, at least I can sell/trash all the lethals.
On my 3rd play of Skyrim, this time now with all the expansions which I haven’t played any of, and every time through I collect every single book of value and store them in my Breezehome in the smaller room upstairs. At the moment i’m only level 30 so only about 1/4 of the room is full. Last time I played through on PS3 I had to keep the doors closed to keep them all in there. piled high up to about my chest. The game would grind to a halt when I opened the doors because every book was bouncing against each other and eventually the physics would explode and books would go everywhere if you left it open for long enough