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[EnigmaticHat]

I'm ok with inventory Tetris as long as you can't sell stuff.  If I wanted to play "make multiple trips hauling stuff", I'd move apartments in real life thank you very much.

[itisnotlogical]

I liked RE4's inventory because it encouraged some strategizing, since the most beneficial items are hardest to carry (the RPG is the best example; the Large Bass is pretty big too in the early game). Items that you need have their own inventory so you're never truly forced to drop something.

One of the reasons I dislike Diablo 2 is that there is so much junk, and almost every last bit of it is potentially usable but you still only have so much room. The metagame also encourages a lot of grinding for specific items, which in turn means more trips back in to town to sell worthless crap or items you can't use.

One thing I dislike are games where death truly means nothing. Super Meat Boy is one game like that; each level (as far as I played) felt like an exercise in patience rather than skill. In other games death usually means more, even if it is just lost time because of a death scene, or lost progress because you forgot to save. It feels like you're skipping the "you messed up" part and going straight back to trying again. For Super Meat Boy I never said "Wow, that was hard," I just thought "Wow, that took a little bit longer than the last one".

[NobodyPro]

One thing I dislike are games where death truly means nothing. Super Meat Boy is one game like that; each level (as far as I played) felt like an exercise in patience rather than skill. In other games death usually means more, even if it is just lost time because of a death scene, or lost progress because you forgot to save. It feels like you're skipping the "you messed up" part and going straight back to trying again. For Super Meat Boy I never said "Wow, that was hard," I just thought "Wow, that took a little bit longer than the last one".

In some of the longer or harder levels, the lack of a "you messed up" is about the only thing stopping you from putting your foot through your monitor in frustration when you die.

[Parsely]

What's the point of inventory limits in most RPGs anyway? Why should you be forced to go back to town?

[Sartain]

What's the point of inventory limits in most RPGs anyway? Why should you be forced to go back to town?

A semblance of reality?

[Neonivek]

What's the point of inventory limits in most RPGs anyway? Why should you be forced to go back to town?

A semblance of reality?

Often it is to limit your resources or to make resource management to be a real thing.

I actually don't mind limited inventory space depending on how it is done.

For example in Lands of Lore it is rather obvious what equipment is essential (MOSTLY...) and which is unimportant. Mind you the game had HORRIFIC inventory management.

[Mech#4]

I'm not sure what the first game to have the grid inventory was. "Diablo 1" is the earliest I remember right now.
I think the goal of the system was to limit the player in items they could carry, so you couldn't pick up every item that dropped to later sell and so you couldn't buy infinite (Or near to) amounts of potions. Also the grid was there to represent how big an item was.

Personally, limiting inventory space is fine to me as long as they have ways to organise things that you are going to be carrying a lot of. "Diablo II" had the belts for potions, "Morrowind" divides things up under different headings, though you still end up with large sections to sift through, Ultima VII had no organisation of it's own but the player could put bags inside bags to create their own system.
I feel limiting inventory space is good in a game that expects the player to sell items or interact with shopkeepers. If I can carry everything with no limit, it's not likely that I'm going to sell anything. I think "Gothic 3" has no limit on inventory, trading is bartering though so you can buy a scroll for 500g and trade an axe worth 300g to cover part of the cost.


There's been so many different systems made to manage inventories as it can be quite a unique problem for a game.

[Delta Foxtrot]

What's the point of inventory limits in most RPGs anyway? Why should you be forced to go back to town?

It can force a meaningful choice. Which of the two awesome items will you take if you only have room for one? Do you stock up with lot of consumables to be able to withstand perils of the dungeon, or will you pack lightly to be able to carry additional loot?

I'm guessing that's the idea the devs are usually getting at. Too bad sometimes they let you get both if you're willing to make additional, tedious treks between the town and the dungeon.

[Graknorke]

As a refinement of that idea maybe is the presence of 'loot' items, which serve no purpose other than to clutter up your inventory until you sell them. Either gibe mone or something that has some purpose.

[dennislp3]

Yes...clutter and crap that sell for nothing and has no purpose is annoying. It is just mean as a buffer to limit valuable items in a % based drop system...it should still at least have some use...

[pisskop]

:\  I tend to disagree based on the idea that if I mugged a random person, most of their stuff will have little to no value to me.  Monetarily or otherwise.

Seriously.  Go into your backpack or desk drawer, and consider the purpose and use any of it to a thief.  Or a murderer, or cop, or paladin, or whatever.

[dennislp3]

When I am fighting a band of fully armed men and all they drop is "rusty daggers" when they all in fact have swords and armor...doesnt make much sense...

[Graknorke]

:\  I tend to disagree based on the idea that if I mugged a random person, most of their stuff will have little to no value to me.  Monetarily or otherwise.

Walking down the street you could find pebbles or scraps of paper or old socks or piles of dog shit, but games don't feel the need to tell the player about any of those.
There are very few games where having useless objects helps with the sense of 'realism' at all.

[pisskop]

Fallout games, both pre and post Bethsuda.
Any games with sufficient detail but without sufficient interactivity.  Doom3 or such.  Does not having interactivity make junk better?

If games like Diablo or w.e. would actually do me a super and drop loot that would either correspond to sprites or not hide gold coins up rat-asses Id be happier too.  And (J)RPG games are super happy to give a level 50 character at endgame a goddamn potion right before the final boss. Little touches like that are neat.

Which actually brings me to my own peeve:  Games with scaling loot that dont represent any consistency.  Oblivion, with it lvl 30 bandits equipped in glass armor.  Or every RPG ever with its end-of-the-world-elite-shop.

[Parsely]

I hate scaling enemies. I prefer "here's the easy area, and over here is the- OH GOD THEY'RE EATING ME"