Really, though, it’s only rational – especially if it’s your first playthrough in a game and you don’t know what the future holds. You never know if this is really the final boss, or if it’s a fake-out and the real final boss will be coming up next. So it makes sense to hold your best stuff in reserve, in case you absolutely need it to get through the final final boss. So it’s perfectly reasonable to always only use the minimum items that will get the job done, saving the best stuff for later if you don’t absolutely need to use it now.
That’s especially true for one-of-a-kind or limited items that are irreplaceable if used.
For all the game devs out there: if you want players to actually use your awesome item you gave them, make sure you give them some method to obtain another one if needed.
This has haunted me since resident evil 1. I got acid rounds and was like “fuck yeah! This is great!” Only to find out they’re specifically there for you to kill the snake. This didn’t sit well with 13 yo me, so I had to start a new playthrough, and I’ve been saving weird ammo ever since. I wanna say my last fallout 4 playthrough, I had like 17,000 .45 rounds for the spray and pray by the end.
I remember when I learned about something being to awesome to use: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TooAwesomeToUse
I think awareness has helped a ton and now I’m constantly running low on materials in my DnD campaign.
Really, though, it’s only rational – especially if it’s your first playthrough in a game and you don’t know what the future holds. You never know if this is really the final boss, or if it’s a fake-out and the real final boss will be coming up next. So it makes sense to hold your best stuff in reserve, in case you absolutely need it to get through the final final boss. So it’s perfectly reasonable to always only use the minimum items that will get the job done, saving the best stuff for later if you don’t absolutely need to use it now.
That’s especially true for one-of-a-kind or limited items that are irreplaceable if used.
For all the game devs out there: if you want players to actually use your awesome item you gave them, make sure you give them some method to obtain another one if needed.
This has haunted me since resident evil 1. I got acid rounds and was like “fuck yeah! This is great!” Only to find out they’re specifically there for you to kill the snake. This didn’t sit well with 13 yo me, so I had to start a new playthrough, and I’ve been saving weird ammo ever since. I wanna say my last fallout 4 playthrough, I had like 17,000 .45 rounds for the spray and pray by the end.
According to Lemmy, this is like boomers hoarding money for their retirement.
Oof no series was worse for this than Fire Emblem