Do you also do this? Whenever i get ahold of a consumable, i will almost never actually use them. I always try to push myself to limits, to avoid using consumables as much as possible.


I think Witcher 3 did it well. You only need to craft a potion once, afterward you just need to use alcohol to refill it. Not very immersive and kind of dumbed down, but saves you a lot of trouvle and you don't feel bad about it. There are, of course, finite consumables like water or food, but they are in abundance.


Another good way would be to reward the player with a small amount of XP for each consumption.

Do you hoard consumables? How do you propose we deal with the issue?

I do it, but unintentionally. When I think about using something, I get paranoid that I would actually need it later for a tougher fight. This has happened before with various games. I beat MegaMan (the first one) a few years ago, and since then I've been a little more liberal with the way I use my items. This is because you usually need the items from the last boss to get through the next level. Even now I'm probably too stingy with using items.

Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark also has a nice approach. Each consumable can be used a certain number of times per battle, and they refill after each battle. (Note that, since the game is an SRPG, battles are much longer than they would be in non-tactical RPGs.) You can craft more consumables, and upgrade your existing ones, but you only need to do so once to be able to use them in every battle. In SaGa Frontier 2, when an item breaks, you get some chips that can be later traded for money.

In the original SaGa 2, if a robot uses the last use of a martial art, you won't get any damage, but the stat bonus for equipping it can be made permanent. In the original Japanese version of SaGa 3, Cyborgs can similarly get permanent bonuses by using up consumable weapons. (Unfortunately, both are glitches rather than intended, and the US Final Fantasy Legend 3 got rid of the SaGa 3 glitch.) Or a permanent stat boost. (How about making this the *only* way to get stronger? That might be an interesting growth mechanic.)

1) It's not an issue that needs to be adressed or dealt with. Hoarding/collecting or gathering things is one of the two oldest survival practices in humanity's history after all.
2) Usually you can counter it by playing at the highest difficulty, which most of the time makes frequent and thorough use of everything (including consumables) at your disposal absolutely mandatory in order to overcome challenges.

Or challenge runs.

Or speedruns.

I hoard everything, in case of later need or just because I can, or because I think I may be able to sell them for more at some later point. And definitely don't want the "issue" to be "dealt with", I find it terribly frustrating when using stuff is needed, or rewarded, and will still try to avoid it and end up with a bad experience, making me even more frustrated and needing to just try to push myself to trudge along with no fun left in it. Just let me be "rich" in game, even when it comes to the tiniest things, tyvm.

What if you had a game where you literally can't attack without using consumables or limited use items? (SaGa 1/2 are like that, particularly with humans who don't have any abilities that recover at the inn. Fire Emblem is also like this.)

Besides the comment on Fell Seal that dtgreene already made (I'm glad I convinced her to play it!)... The other reason is so many games never give you reason to use your consumables! Ni No Kuni Wrath of the White Witch was pretty tough and I found myself needing to use consumables to keep going. Not just mana-refill consumables, but also healing ones. But it still had other consumables I never used at all (status removal ones) because the structure of the game (you can only control 1 party member, the other 2 are automated... they'll usually use a status-removal spell if you make sure they have one equipped).

Would never play that.

Baldur's Gate is sort of like this. If you are playing a warrior class, you will probably invest in high strength. The game is very generous with strength potions. Some of them set your strength to 18, but if your strength score is already 18 or higher it's pretty much useless.

The issue of consumables being overpriced comes up in the Wizardry series. In Wizardry 8, for instance, scrolls are both expensive and unreliable (they check against your Artifacts skill and can fizzle or backfire, wasting both the scroll and the turn); when you also consider the fact that many of the scrolls aren't that powerful, they end up feeling pointless. There's a similar issue with potions, to the point where the best use of the stronger potions is to sell them, and the best use of the weaker potions is to mix them (requires Alchemy, which doubles as one of the spellbook skills) is to sell them. (Note that you can't learn spells from scrolls in Wizardry 8; you need spellbooks for that; in this way, the game feels more like how D&D should work than the actual licensed D&D games handle this.)

In Final Fantasy 5, Shurikens are far more expensive than they should be; it is more cost effective to throw money at the enemies instead of using it to buy shurikens! On the other hand, this is the game with rods that can be broken to cast high level attack spells early, ninja scrolls can be thrown to deal a lot of damage cheaply, and chemists can learn to mix consumables for a variety of powerful effects (including a full revive well before you get the Arise spell, and an HP drain that's as strong as the Bahamut summon).

One other issue that affects games is when they make it a pain to use consumables. Final Fantasy 2 (pre-GBA) does this; each character has 2 slots that can be used to equip either extra weapons or shields (you can switch during battle without using up a turn) or single-use consumables. Even worse, all single target consumables are self-only during battle, which is a problem when the item is a Gold Needle or Phoenix Down (both would cure statuses that prevent them from being used in the first place).

Later versions of FF2 (GBA and later) can be quite fun with consumables, except for the fact that they don't exercise any of your stats or skills. In the speedrun (GBA or PSP), the strategy is to buy a lot of Fire tomes, and later Teleport tomes, and just use those to win battles you can't come from. Being able to carry 99 of them helps, as does the fact that you no longer need to equip them in advance.

That is, unless you're in a situation where you actually want to lower your Strength. (Do the potions work that way?) Such a use casee is rather unusual, but this could be useful if you need to do controlled damage or intentionally over-encumber a character.

(Speaking of controlled damage, in FF5 there's a Mix that does 666 damage if it hits, and in the GBA version (and later) you can eventually use a couple items to do 1000, 2000, or 3000 (you get to pick) damage to all enemies.)

I can't remember if the potions specifically lower strength. I do remember the strength and strength of one spells would bring your strength down to 18 if it is above that number.

I tend to horde consumables. I could use this potion of fire damage on the next boss... but what if I need it later?

The thing with many consumables, and offensive consumables in particular, is that they become less useful as the game goes on. The fire damage potion, while nice earlier on, might not even do as much damage as a regular attack later.

I'd also say that such consumables are more useful on later playthroughs (from scratch without New Game +), when you already know which bosses are particularly nasty; if you know about a certain boss giving you trouble, you can use consumables on that one boss, and not bother to save them for later.

One other example where knowing the game might help: In Final Fantasy 4, one of the characters (Rosa) has an ability that can restore your MP for free, so you don't need Ethers when she's in your party; however, as would be expected for FF4, Rosa is not always in your party. There is one point in the game where your only casters are a sage who has powerful spells but only 90 MP and a paladin who is not a primary caster; at this point in the game, which lasts for 2 dungeons (which is rather long to have the same party in this game), MP is at a premium. Therefore, it makes sense to use your Ethers in this part of the game, maybe saving 1 or 2 for a boss that comes a bit later, but knowing that Rosa will rejoin permanently after this section allows you to use them now, knowing that you won't need them later.

(Final Fantasy 4 is also known for having the cheapest Phoenix Downs in the series; you can buy a bunch, and now anyone can revive whenever it's needed. This is in contrast to FF3, where they're not buyable (though there's a few dozen in chests, I believe), and FF5, where they're actually kind of expensive.)