RPG Quirks

Do you have any RPG quirks or habits?

- I always use a 3 save system in an RPG. I will designate one save a "master save" which will only be rewritten after something major happens and then use two save files in between.

- If there is a branching path, I always choose to go left.

- Whenever there is a town, I have to talk to everyone twice just in case a second prompt initiates new dialogue.

- I almost never purchase anything until I have a firm grasp of how the economy works. I have this weird fear that if I buy a potion early that somehow I'll miss out on some amazing item because I will be a couple rupes/gold/whatever short due to the potion purchase.

I rarely ever use items due to a false idea that eventually there will be a better time to use them. That time has never come.

Vector wrote:

I rarely ever use items due to a false idea that eventually there will be a better time to use them. That time has never come.

Me too! I'm not sure when I'll need 99 elixirs, but I better not use any just in case!

Vector wrote:

I rarely ever use items due to a false idea that eventually there will be a better time to use them. That time has never come.

This.

I'm unwilling to sell off any items unless:
--The item definitely has no possible purpose other than selling
--If it's a piece of equipment and I own strictly better ones for every member of my party (and there's no mechanics in the game that break or steal equipment). In this case, I'll only sell it if I need to sell to afford something.

I also always talk to everyone twice. In Golden Sun, I would talk to everyone twice and then mindread them, which took awhile.

If I have a choice between something that will advance the main quest and a sidequest, I always do sidequests first -- I should probably not play Skyrim >_>

If MP regeneration is not trivially cheap, I will save all spells for bosses and special mobs only.

If stealing is allowed, I will try to steal once in each battle.

In most games that aren't direct sequels, I tend to stop after the first few hours of play and start again from the beginning. I feel like I need to get a grip on the world I am inhabiting and how the game plays before deciding how I need to spec out my characters skills or deciding on their personality in dialogue sequences.

Vector wrote:

I rarely ever use items due to a false idea that eventually there will be a better time to use them. That time has never come.

Yup, I hoard special potions or spells like crazy, then ironically get angry at the battles that feel overly difficult or tedious. Hard to break out of. That goes past RPGs, though. I tend to save the ammunition on really powerful guns in FPS titles too, which just leads to me using guns I don't really like through most of the game.

Demyx wrote:

If stealing is allowed, I will try to steal once in each battle.

Woah, I don't think I could handle that. In FF VI(best FF) I maxed out a bunch of characters including Locke but when I contemplated using "steal" I would irrationally think "What if the random mob one shots me in the next turn? I can't risk it!".

Vector wrote:

I rarely ever use items due to a false idea that eventually there will be a better time to use them. That time has never come.

This habit has made the "Throw" skill very useless for me.

I tend to not talk to anyone in a town. Inane dialogue boxes irritate me.

At every town I do a full inventory sweep, and check every piece of equipment to ensure that is has no better stats that could be useful later. Then I sell equipment, not consumables though (see above).

I use all perma stat boost items on the main character unless it's a magic power boost and he's not a mage.

If I have a choice (Dragonage Origins, Dragonage 2, The Witcher, Reckoning) I play a male human who specializes in swords. Two-handed if possible.

When I first stating playing Fallout 3 on the 360, I looted everything and kept it all to sell when I got back to town. Lets just say the first 10-15 hours were of me walking very slowly.

Tigerbill wrote:

When I first stating playing Fallout 3 on the 360, I looted everything and kept it all to sell when I got back to town. Lets just say the first 10-15 hours were of me walking very slowly.

It took me a few hours to learn where my "caps per unit of weight" threshold was with random loot.

I keep a save called "stupid", which I use to save in just before I decide to do something that will likely break my story line.
Example: I saved there the first time I attacked a mutant in Fallout 3. First instinct is run away, come back later bigger and better. Save to "stupid", proceed to attack mutant. Reload and then do what I should have done.

I always pick the rogue/thief/stealth.

I always join the Thieves Guild if possible, and then/or at least loot everything. It's compulsive, and always plays out the same when I realize I have more money than I need and finally stop fobbing everything that isn't nailed down, so I can get to the whole rest of the game.

BNice wrote:

I always use a 3 save system in an RPG. I will designate one save a "master save" which will only be rewritten after something major happens and then use two save files in between.

I cycle two saves, always rewriting the older one. Fortunately I've never had to rely on that backup, but I'm sure I'll be grateful if/when I do.

Can I just Nth all of the above? Because I pretty much do them. And not just in RPG's, I'm afraid. I finally got the Arkham City monkey off my back this weekend with those bloody bedamned Riddler tropies.

I have a minor variant on the save strategies above. I would call it a "running master" system. At what seems like a significant point (right before a big boss, etc) I save. Once I'm through the evuhl thing and the inevitable big cutscene behind it, I save to a new save. This is particularly helpful for re-plays where I don't want to start at the beginning, or I want a quick way to re-watch a cutscene. In games that don't limit your slots (like most Final Fantasy games) I'll have thirty-plus saves by the end can go back to anyplace I wish at my leisure.

The only place this really breaks down is when I don't realize something is significant and so I don't do this. Thank you, Persona 4. My last save before the big important choice is three hours of gameplay and a whole lotta fusing back. In order to re-play it to get the choice I muffed because I didn't know what was next I have to restart from there and I haven't taken the time to do it yet.

Given a choice, I always play female leads. Given a choice in the genders of my companions, like when you make your own, I always make female companions. Given a choice in who joins your party, I take female characters before I take male characters, even if it's not always the best choice strategically.

I only ever use one save. Whatever choices I make, I live with them.

Which coincides with: I almost never replay games to see what other choices could be made unless there's an explicit system designed for this. Radiant Historia's branching story system is my dream system because it lets me explore all the options without having to start over.

I never, ever muck around with crafting systems. They're neat in theory, but I haven't found one yet that isn't at least matched by what you can purchase or that doesn't get bogged down in fiddly issues of getting ingredients via rare drops. The closest I've gotten to one of these in years are the demon/Persona fusing systems in Shin Megami Tensei games.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I never, ever muck around with crafting systems. They're neat in theory, but I haven't found one yet that isn't at least matched by what you can purchase or that doesn't get bogged down in fiddly issues of getting ingredients via rare drops. The closest I've gotten to one of these in years are the demon/Persona fusing systems in Shin Megami Tensei games.

Amen to this. The only reason I ever used alchemy in the Witcher series was that the ingredients auto-populated when you clicked on the recipe.

I liked the SNES Tales of Phantasia crafting system the best so far.

1. Use a rune potion on something
2. It either turns in to a better something, or you get a buzzer and don't use a potion.

So elegant.

I'll craft something maybe once in a game if a walkthrough tells me I need to do it to get the super something.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I only ever use one save. Whatever choices I make, I live with them.

To clarify for myself, I cycle two saves to safeguard against potential technical problems: getting stuck on geometry, quest-breaking bugs, etc.

Or to appease the occasional request from my wife to "just try killing that guy/girl/monster/thing and see what happens".

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Given a choice, I always play female leads. Given a choice in the genders of my companions, like when you make your own, I always make female companions. Given a choice in who joins your party, I take female characters before I take male characters, even if it's not always the best choice strategically.

I usually do this. There's so few female characters in video gaming I take what I can get.

I never, ever muck around with crafting systems. They're neat in theory, but I haven't found one yet that isn't at least matched by what you can purchase or that doesn't get bogged down in fiddly issues of getting ingredients via rare drops. The closest I've gotten to one of these in years are the demon/Persona fusing systems in Shin Megami Tensei games.

I usually love crafting systems, but I tend to only spend a lot of time mucking around with them if I have a guide showing me exactly what to make and where to get the crafting components.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Given a choice, I always play female leads. Given a choice in the genders of my companions, like when you make your own, I always make female companions. Given a choice in who joins your party, I take female characters before I take male characters, even if it's not always the best choice strategically.

I only ever use one save. Whatever choices I make, I live with them.

Which coincides with: I almost never replay games to see what other choices could be made unless there's an explicit system designed for this. Radiant Historia's branching story system is my dream system because it lets me explore all the options without having to start over.

I never, ever muck around with crafting systems. They're neat in theory, but I haven't found one yet that isn't at least matched by what you can purchase or that doesn't get bogged down in fiddly issues of getting ingredients via rare drops. The closest I've gotten to one of these in years are the demon/Persona fusing systems in Shin Megami Tensei games.

+1 to all of this, although I don't necessarily take only female party members. I did get into crafting in Dark Souls/Demon's Souls but that's a little different. I never maxed out anything in Demon's Souls though and barely did in Dark Souls. I don't have the time to grind out all of those shards.

Similar to always playing Female, when given a choice I almost always play an older person of a different race as well.

IMAGE(http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu231/BNoice/Reactions/gasp2.png)

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I only ever use one save. Whatever choices I make, I live with them.

SixteenBlue wrote:

Similar to always playing Female, when given a choice I almost always play an older person of a different race as well.

I like doing this too! In games where I get a choice, I often make white or gray haired women, and I like to sometimes pick a character of a different race when it is an option.

Demyx wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:

Similar to always playing Female, when given a choice I almost always play an older person of a different race as well.

I like doing this too! In games where I get a choice, I often make white or gray haired women, and I like to sometimes pick a character of a different race when it is an option.

Totally. My Shepherd in Mass Effect, for example, was an older-looking black lady.

Demyx wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:

Similar to always playing Female, when given a choice I almost always play an older person of a different race as well.

I like doing this too! In games where I get a choice, I often make white or gray haired women, and I like to sometimes pick a character of a different race when it is an option.

Man, does Dragon Age ever play out strangely when your character is grey-haired and wrinkled.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Totally. My Shepherd in Mass Effect, for example, was an older-looking black lady.

I'm planning on getting to Mass Effect this year and this is what I had in mind

You just never get to play that sort of character in a video game unless you make one yourself!

I'm almost always a tall short haired human male. ALthough usually I give him a nice beard. I have to shave every day for work, so I'm jealous of sweet beards.

I'm pretty much always a redheaded or brunette lady in games when given the choice

Whenever there is a choice between peace and more violence, I go with the more violence. Because loot and exp are more important.

Wembley wrote:
Vector wrote:

I rarely ever use items due to a false idea that eventually there will be a better time to use them. That time has never come.

Me too! I'm not sure when I'll need 99 elixirs, but I better not use any just in case!

+1. I am a total hoard monster in RPGs. Which makes Fallout 3 the the best RPG ever, in that the available player housing allowed me to stockpile items ad infinitum.

Tanglebones wrote:

I'm pretty much always a redheaded or brunette lady in games when given the choice :P

Is your wife aware of this?

I am such a hoarder it isn't even funny, though the Megami Tensei games are doing their best to break me of that. I'm also a hardcore completionist, and mostly when it comes to RPGs -- especially sidequests. It's always funny, because it usually makes the end-game boss laughably easy. I've gotten some prideful moments out of it, though, including beating [redacted] in a NG+ of Persona 3.

Tanglebones wrote:

I'm pretty much always a redheaded or brunette lady in games when given the choice :P

Same here.

I always stick with default character names. If I have to choose a name, I go with Azrael or Azraea, because I thought it sounded cool when I was 12 (unless completely inappropriate to the game).

Given the choice. I always play pure paragon.

I never, ever use single use magic items ("ice shard", etc). Don't know why. Don't sell them unless I'm desperate for cash either.

I use a cycling 3 save system, but don't second guess decisions. I replayed the ending on ME2 because I wanted to save everyone, but now I feel that I polluted my main character doing so.

I always open treasure chests. I have no time for games that punish you for doing so (for the 50th time on GWJ, I'm looking at you, FFXII).

I love worlds that have magic in them, but will never roll up a magic wielding character. This applies to MMO's for me as well.

BNice wrote:

- Whenever there is a town, I have to talk to everyone twice just in case a second prompt initiates new dialogue.

This is not a quirk - this is RPG best practice

If a save may be named, I name it m0, m1, m2, ...

I also choose female characters - a cute petite chick with a big badass bazooka, if possible. In Phantasy Star Zero I had blonde ponytails, military uniform-like outfit, and big gun. Hell, yeah!
If this is a fantasy setting, a dwarf with an axe or warhammer might do (a katana-wielding chick is better though).

If the game proposes a name for new character (like Golden Sun), I always choose the default. In Zelda games I always name my character Link (that's the way it's supposed to be, eh?).

Yeah, I hoard items, saving them 'for later'. I also always prefer healing via spell to potions.

EDIT: Oh, and I never use wands with a limited number of uses

-I always try and keep rotating characters even levels. Everyone deserves a turn and to be uber leveled by the endgame.

-I never shy away from using elixers and megalixers (once I find an easy source to farm them). Nothing else.

-I never use support magic. Fire 3 is just so much cooler than Confu and chances are they won't work anyway.

-I always eat the meat of chocobos that I put down in the course of my Golden Chicken Husbandry.

-Sidequests are to be completed at the earliest possible time, ignoring hostage situations, missing party members, impending doom, deadly plagues, etc.,.

-Steal from bosses and ubermonsters. Every time. They may have an awesome weapon you can use.