"ANOTHER item? But... my hands are full!"

[TheMelodyMaker]

It seems as though in a ridiculously high number of video games, the main hero (and/or group) has this extraordinary ability to carry a ridiculously high number of items all at once!

How do they do it, you might ask? That's what this little ol' thread here is for. Post your craziest (and maybe most realistic) ideas! ^_^


(Note to admin/mods: If you deem this thread more worthy of being in Goof Off, you can go ahead and move it and edit out this paragraph with no hard feelings from me whatsoever. I just couldn't decide whether it belonged there or here, is all. )

[Aka-chan]

Hammer space, of course. *nods*

[LorentzForce]

all pokemon games allowed you carry big bags. you know, thosekinds that are big enough to fit a bike, few hundred pokeballs, few stones, lots of little TMs and HMs, and another few hundred healing tools. in later versions of games they allowed you to carry some weird things, like bigger stones.

how do you put ALL that in a bag? simple.

Open bag. Insert things. Close bag.

[MasterDias]

And I still haven't figured out how your party can lug a piano around in Star Ocean 2.

[Mithrandir]

In on of the original Ultimas, my characters carried around a ship. You know, one that could sail all the oceans of the known world. I never did figure that one out...

[Gypsy]

Hmm ... good question. Perhaps it's like Washu and her closet/lab that's in another dimension ....

Funny you should mention it, actually. While playing Dragoon the other day, I was frustrated with the fact that you can carry only 32 healing/attack items, but you can carry all the old armor and weapons that you want. *grumbles*

[cbwing0]

Although it is not one of the worst offenders in pure quantitative terms, Metal Gear Solid/MGS2 bother me in the respect. Snake can carry around two rocket launchers, a pistol, a sniper rifle, an automatic rifle, forty grenades, several pounds of mines/plastic explosives, along with numerous other items, all in a tight-fitting bodysuit. That, and none of it weighs him down in the least.

How does he carry it, you ask? His other-other identical cloned twin, Packmule Snake! He always stays just off-screen, hauling all of Snake's weapons in a shopping cart. Bet you didn't know that.

[Namu]

Magical Dissapearing Sack! Black hole!

My guesses.

[Shao Feng-Li]

They hold them up in space using their minds like Jean Grey.

[madphilb]

Best in-game explination was for the Star Trek game Eliete Force where they used a mini portable transporter buffer to store items while on the run.

My guess is people's back-packs are made by the same company who made the carpet bag in the Disney movie Mary Popins

[Fsiphskilm]

It should stay here.

[Savior_Sora]

Well pretaining to FF...I think all the items are kept up their backsides :p. Notice that when they use them they pull them out from there :p. But seriously...uh...I'd have to say they have them all but they have a special ability that just allows them to pull them from the big storage shed way off at the bottom of the ocean. And carrying all those weapons and accessories on top of that...Imagine in FF9 how bling bling they must have looked havin all that armor and stuff on

[LorentzForce]

There's a reason why not everyone is a hero is RPGs.

[Azier the Swordsman]

This is one serious cliche I want to remedy when I become a game designer.

[Straylight]

How does he carry it, you ask? His other-other identical cloned twin, Packmule Snake! He always stays just off-screen, hauling all of Snake's weapons in a shopping cart. Bet you didn't know that.

Ever played Dungeon Seige? You can actually add packmules to your party to haul all yer stuff. Unfortunately they keep on getting killed...

[cbwing0]

Ever played Dungeon Seige? You can actually add packmules to your party to haul all yer stuff. Unfortunately they keep on getting killed...

I have played that game. I like the packmules in the game, because they allow you to carry many more items.

[Link Antilles]

Splinter Cell did a good job on the item thing, being more on the realistic side... except the oversized Med packs.

[TheMelodyMaker]

This is one serious cliche I want to remedy when I become a game designer.

I've taken care of that in The Traveller's Guide. The only thing Melody ever has in her inventory is a pocket-sized Bible which fits snugly in her skirt pocket, and maybe the occasional key item here or there which will be small enough that she can carry it in her hand.

[LorentzForce]

I say NetHack has the best realistic item carrying algorithm out of all games out there. So accurate... Yep, that means you can't carry too much gold either.

[Bobtheduck]

If I do the game development course at Full Sail (as opposed to the Computer animation course) I'll use this as one of the clichés to make fun of in my game project, provided that my team is interested in using my parody idea. It's not as much of a problem in games like silent hill as it is in games like Final Fantasy, but still... all those medpacks, bullets, several types of weapons, and then there's the freakishly large "Great Knife" from Silent Hill 2... It's basically Cloud's sword. When he's USING it, he can't carry it very well (thout go into some cutscenes with it equipped, and he flicks it around like it had no weight at all) but for some reason, when he's just got it in his unused things, he can run full speed and is not hampered in movement... To a lesser extent, the same can be said for the Mace in Silent Hill 3. The mace is dangerous to carry period, because it's got points all around it.

I think that there are certain allowances given to games to keep them games rather than simulations... Too much realism can detract from the fun. Can. Doesn't have to, but it can.

Metal Gear makes fun of itself with the game clichés. "Infinite Ammo." That was the last line in the funniest act of the game to break up the seriousness of it, before it got back to being serious... Oh, wait, forgot about "Fission Mailed" but, anyhow... I loved how they broke the fourth wall in that game. Same with Silent Hill 3. Have a save file of SH2 beaten, and go to the dirty toilet in the mall and examine it... Funniest thing... Breaking the 4th wall is fun.

"Who's that you're talking to?"

"The fourth Wall!" (one of the funniest dubisms in Nadesico)

[DrNic]

I know how they do it. Its so simple even a baby could figure it out.

You ever seen Yuna change her clothes? You ever see the option for Ash on the item screen to change into a Dinner Jacket? You ever seen Cloud dress in drag...no wait...I have seen that... See what I'm getting at?

They simply swap hygene for extra item space! The next time you see the option to dress Vivi up in an annoying teddy bear suit you call me and then prove me wrong!

[Fsiphskilm]

[quote="Chris4150"]This is one se

[MasterDias]

Actually, there is a character in Fire Emblem similar to who Volt discribed.

A merchant who joins your party and is responsible for keeping all of your excess items.
The merchant(his tent, actually) doesn't really have a lot of HP but he gets better the more battles he survives.

Granted, Fire Emblem isn't a traditional RPG like Final Fantasy but I thought it was worth noting.

[Roll]

Remember the Legend of Zelda cartoon? The characters' items would be magically shrunk to tiny size while being carried, but when they pulled something out, it would grow to full size. I guess that's one way of explaining the ability to carry lots of stuff unhindered, but I personally don't care too much for it.

[Needle Noggin]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before but In think the only game without a "Magic Bag" is Halo.I Halo you can have only 2 weapons.

Also in EverQuest you can't carry too much or it will slow you down.Although You certainly can carry alot in Everquest (8 backpacks full of stuff).

[Zilch]

all I know, is I find it annoying if I can't carry gabillions of items at once...

Actually, Oni had no Magic Bag. You could only hold...one weapon at a time I think...

[Htom Sirveaux]

Actually, I think Gypsy was onto something with her "Washu" idea.

Ah-hem.
[puts on dorky-looking thick glasses to appear smarter than he really is]

It has to do with a theory in physics called "innerspace" which is basically a reeeeeaaaaaaally large amount of space inside a container that looks a lot smaller from the outside. Kinda like the Tardis on Doctor Who. If an RPG or Adventure game character has, say, a collapsible innerspace sack, they could put all kinds of stuff in there.
But now the question becomes "how does the character pull out the right item at the right time?" I mean, if Snake is backed into a corner, he doesn't want to reach for his FA-MAS and pull out a ketchup bottle, does he? So what's my explanation of this (aside from the all-too-obvious and not-much-fun "the character is dependent on the user to make the correct decisions" answer)? Perhaps they actually dive into the aforementioned collapsible innespace sack and time outside freezes while, inside the sack, good ol' Snakey-poo rummages around and finally emerges, gone and back without anyone even noticing, with his trusty FA-MAS in hand.

And that, good people, is... probably way off-base.

/end "smart" facade.

[MasterDias]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before but In think the only game without a "Magic Bag" is Halo.I Halo you can have only 2 weapons.

Hmmmm.
Well, while that works pretty well in Halo and some other FPS, I generally prefer to have more than two items in RPG's.

[Fsiphskilm]

[quote="SpoonyBard"] if Snake is bac

[TheMelodyMaker]

Remember the Legend of Zelda cartoon? The characters' items would be magically shrunk to tiny size while being carried, but when they pulled something out, it would grow to full size.

I can't say that I remember that, but I do remember them putting rupees into a bow to turn them into arrows. I'd always wondered how shooting arrows worked to reduce rupee count in the game.