Okay, let me ask you a question: how often do you finish a game with an inventory that
looks something like this?
It happens to me all the time, and that is because I almost never use consumable items.
While there are a few exceptions, pretty much as soon as I get one, it sits in my inventory,
gathering dust.
And that has me wondering: is this a fault with the way a lot of games are designed or
is it a problem created by players like me?
So, join me as I explore whether or not it is all my fault.
While consumable items operate differently across various games and genres, one common
factor always holds true: the more often a player is put into a situation where they
need to use an item, the more often they will use that item.
Which, yeah, duh.
Items that address specific problems, like having low health or suffering some sort of
status ailment, get used frequently because a) players are put at a huge disadvantage
if they don’t address the issue and b) it is obvious when players should use them.
If a character is poisoned, use an antidote, or lose health every few seconds.
If cursed, use a purging stone, or have half HP.
If blinded, use eye drops, or miss every single attack.
By providing a clear solution to a problem, players know that as soon as an issue arises,
they need to address it.
These are what I’ll call reactive items, which, as the name suggests, are items that
react to some sort of affliction.
Of all kinds of consumables, reactive ones are what I find myself using the most, especially
in early parts of a game before I have more reliable ways, like spells or gear, to deal
with a problem.
On the other side of things are what I’ll call active items, which are items that the
player uses to gain some sort of advantage, whether it be augmenting a characters stats
and abilities or putting an enemy at some sort of disadvantage from a debuff or damage.
These kinds of items are usually the most interesting because, unlike reactive items
which really just set a character back to where they started, active items can change
up gameplay, allowing for more ways to interact with a world.
Reactive items sustain, active items enhance.
Despite that, I almost never use active items because, in most games, I never need to.
I wait and wait for a moment where I will, and more often than not, that moment never
comes because most games are designed to be beaten without needing any sort of boost.
Active items are meant to make various situations easier and more exciting for players, but
if the game is already relatively easy, then there’s no real reason to use them.
Why waste an item when hitting baddies with a sword gets the job done?
So, what can games do to encourage players like me to use active items more frequently?
The best answer I have is by disrupting the repetitive yet effective strategies players
often fall into, and one of the best ways to do that is by adding difficulty spikes
throughout a game.
There are a ton of different ways to make a game more difficult, and every game will
call for a different solution, but regardless for active items to matter, there needs to
be some sort of urgency to use them, which difficulty can provide.
When players actually have something to lose by not using an active item, they will use
them more frequently.
I've started to get into the habit of choosing the harder difficulties whenever I get the
option to because I find that they typically push players to interact with more in-game
systems than easier modes do.
Take the Witcher 3.
In it Geralt can create and drink potions and decoctions, which do everything from giving
him health to increasing the amount of damage he does while on horseback.
The effects are vast, and a lot of them are useful in very specific situations.
Each potion or decoction has a different toxicity level, making it so Geralt can only use a
certain amount before being poisoned and losing health, meaning the player really needs to
prioritize what they are choosing to have Geralt drink.
On my first playthrough, which I played on normal, I found myself really only using the
health potion because I was able to muscle my way through everything fairly easily, and
I didn’t want to spend time gathering supplies to make consumables that would only make things
feel easier.
This bummed me out because I like the idea of researching a monster’s strengths and
weaknesses and then gathering supplies to create something that would be effective against
them, but doing it never seemed like a good use of my time.
Since then, I started a file on a higher difficulty, and had an entirely different experience—one
where I constantly found myself crafting potions and oils in order to not get obliterated by
every enemy in the world.
I interacted with systems and items that I had previously ignored, and I enjoyed the
game much more because of it.
My experience with The Witcher 3 helped me realize that active consumables often act
as a way to accommodate different kinds of players, and, for them to be useful, players
need to know what difficulty is right for them.
For whatever reason, I’ve always found it daunting to choose a difficulty above normal
on my first playthrough, but I’ve come to realize that, for most games, playing on normal
will just lead me to fall into easy and uninteresting patterns until I beat the game.
One way to get around this is by adding more customization to difficulty.
Instead of just having progressively harder modes where everything becomes more difficult,
a lot of games could benefit greatly from having different elements that the player
can toggle.
For example, Dragon Quest 11 gives players a variety of options from earning less experience
points from easy fights to letting the player flee from easy fights.
A system like this let’s players consider what aspects of difficulty they would like
to engage with, allowing them to curate a challenging experience without having to suffer
through aspects they don’t want to deal with, like, enemies with absurdly high health
that aren’t challenging to beat, just time consuming.
On top of a game’s difficulty, it is also good when games give an item multipurposes.
A solid example of this comes from the greatest Earthbound-inspired RPG ever made, LISA.
One of the major consumables in LISA is called Joy.
Any character who uses it becomes incredibly powerful for a handful of turns, which can
be a life saver due to how difficult the encounters are in the game.
What makes Joy even more interesting is that characters become addicted to it, and if they
don’t get another fix, they will go through withdrawals, and become less powerful for
a hand.
This gets the player to think a lot about Joy management.
If they doesn’t control the pace of each battle, their party can get messed up quickly,
and, in some cases, permanently die, making Joy an incredibly useful way to get out of
a bad spot.
It also gets players to consider if it is best to save Joy only for those tough situations
or to use it more often in order to avoid letting characters go into withdrawal?
Even if the player chooses not to use Joy, there are moments in the game when the main
character is forced to have it, meaning no matter what, he will go through withdrawals
at some point.
By giving Joy both active and reactive aspects, LISA solves issues common with both kinds
of items.
It gives players a reason to use Joy because it remedies a problem and it leads to a more
interesting result than just being back to normal.
Along with this, LISA ties Joy into its narrative.
Joy is a commodity that is constantly talked about, and players are regularly reminded
that using it will lead to ruin, but they are also put into situations that are exceedingly
difficult to get through without it, acting as an interesting view of addiction.
When done right consumable items can have a major impact on both gameplay and narrative,
creating experiences more personalized to the player.
Of course, there are other ways to get players to use items aside from difficult encounters.
Consider Breath of the Wild.
It made nearly every item in the game a consumable item.
Swords, shields, food, elixirs, all of them have limited uses, which, admittedly can be
a little frustrating at times, but it does get players in the mindset that nothing is
too precious to hold onto forever.
On top of this, it is really easy to replenish supplies, making it so there is no real fear
about wasting something useful.
Furthermore, the low durability of Link’s weapons often leave players with a weak arsenal,
making it far more important to power Link up through foods and elixirs to get through
certain situations.
Breath of the Wild also creates optional obstacles that can really only be overcome with active
items.
For example, dishes and elixirs that increase speed and stamina make it possible for Link
to reach places that would otherwise would be out of reach, which almost always leads
to some sort of useful secret and reward.
Furthermore, due to the fact that Breath of the Wild doesn’t require players to complete
any sort of questline in order to beat the final boss, it is possible to to just stock
up on active items that allow Link to hit harder, move faster, and glide longer to beat
the game, which gives players a lot of choice in how they want to play.
With all of this said, it is really hard to strike the perfect balance that encourages
players to use active items.
If a game makes things too easy, players won’t need them, but if it makes things too punishing,
players will be afraid to waste them.
Ultimately, the best ways to get players to use the various things in their toolkit is
by providing challenges where they need to think creatively; challenges that have and
require many different answers.
When games don’t have these challenges, using consumable items makes an easy task
even easier.
So, to go back to my original question of is this all my fault—I’m still not entirely
sure.
I think a lot of games aren’t balanced in terms of difficulty as well as they could
be, and while it is good for games to have various difficulty options, most would benefit
greatly from offering more customization when it comes to difficulty.
When games don’t provide strong and diverse challenges, consumable items and the systems
that exist around them like crafting and even buying and selling things lose some of their
value.
With that said, items in games are included for different reasons, and while I love when
they add to a narrative, offer different ways to engage with a world, and help me overcome
challenges, the fact of the matter is that they aren’t always made for a player like
me.
I guarantee that there are items in games that I might never get any use from that a
different player uses all the time.
I also think I sometimes focus a little too much on time efficiency when playing a game,
and not always on, ya know, having fun while playing a game.
So while there are definitely things games could improve on in terms of their consumable
items, I also need to get better at doing things in games simply because they’re enjoyable.
I guess what I’m trying to say is sometimes you just need to inject yourself with some
red stuff and kick the shit of people just for the sheer fun of it.