“Better save these elixirs for the last boss.” Proceeds to beat the game without using them
There really should be an achievement for this.
Also fuck games that make you consume a potion so you know that’s how potions work.
That NPC handed me a potion and it’s my prerogative to carry it around for the rest of the game.
Agreed there, personally though I do feel one of the biggest silly combinations games often make is, having marathon grade health, easy access to health potions AND a save anytime system. It’s like I could use a potion to heal up… or I could go back 5 seconds and do the fight without taking a hit.
I feel like it’s often bad game design from developers who think they need to put in consumables without understanding their gameplay value.
In too many games using up all your consumables is just A Thing That Happens. So the game is balanced to allow you to survive anyway. But then the corollary is that if it works for a bit then you can finish the game without using any of the consumables. The consumables are just a way to make already achievable portions of the game easier, which is just sloppy game design IMO. Bethesda games for instance are very guilty of that.
At least when I’m playing Bethesda games, potions are a way for me to clear achievable portions that I’ve made unnecessarily difficult for myself.
This recently happened in my campaign.
We were fighting a dragon, and it kept flying around is lair, making it very hard for my Barbarian to hit it. We ultimately won, but 3 of the party of 5 died.
Later, while checking dividing loot, I saw that I had been carrying a Potion of Flying the whole time, and the fight probably would have gone better if I had used it.
I’m awful about forgetting about my x/per day abilities, especially if they are granted from magic items. I’ve taken to writing them down on a post-it note to keep them handy for a session.
A video game I play recently added on-screen panic buttons, so for all the items you might want to use in a pinch. It’s a turn-based game, so you really have all the time in the world to check your items, but they’re still all listed there to remind you of the options you have. And of course, I still manage to completely ignore them when I get into a panic. 🫠
None of them were health potions.
dick enlargement potions are popular nowadays
Those MIGHT be helpful in battle too, though, depending on what you’re working with…
Hey don’t criticize how I play!
This is why I like games where I can combine weaker potions into the more potent equivalent.
Basically DayZ
“It’s not your loot, just your turn to use it.”
The clair obscure / CybP 2077 healing item handling is the way
How does Cyberpunk 2077 handle it?
Since 2.0 instead of buying consumable items you have consumable item types that can be upgraded and a certain amount of charges with a cooldown. These can be upgraded by finding/ buying health item upgrades and perks
So you don’t have to save them because they will regenerate in 20 seconds and you can’t just spam them in fight like in previous versions
As a DM this is always a dilemma - you want to reward the party with some nice stuff but you hate to kill off a character with it. So it looks like the BBG left his most powerful item in the closet for some reason.
I was so bad at this growing up…
It’s not quite this same, but I was renting a Sega Genesis game called Elemental Master for the weekend. It started with a stage select screen like Mega Man and after beating the initial ones you fight the last boss. The game play was more like Gunsmoke though (top-down shooting). Well I fought all the way to the last boss and then died.
After my fit of anger. I noticed that there were power-ups that you get after beating the other levels. You start mastering more than just the reg attack, like Mega Man. 😔 I felt very dumb, but the game was more fun after that.
But… but… if I use it now then I won’t have it later when I might need it! 😱
![[InkyRickshaw] Hoarding](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/c8642f07-c60d-4205-94f5-e854121e8a1a.jpeg){kind=link}