I would like 99 of these, and 99 of those, and 99 tents to pitch at the hottie.
 

As I'm starting my RPG gaming again, I'm finding myself back to my old habits of going to a shop and almost maxing out my inventory whenever possible, after purchasing new weapons and such. I usually stock up with pretty close to 99 potions, quite a few tents, close to 99 cure-conditions (tonics, softs, pheonix downs) and the like. I'm not too sure why I do this, but perhaps they do come in handy whenever I'm low on MP and can't immediately cast cure spells or the like.

One reason is that for most RPGs I've played so far, acquisition of money is a joke. Enemy frogs, fishes, and dragons usually carry some sort of money and or items. If this were true, I'd start to slay those damn pesky rabbits in my backyard and start to pay off my credit card. So in a way, maxing out your account is no big problem as money is easily replacable. Supposedly Gil is much harder to earn in the upcoming NA release of FFXII, so you only get Gil from killing human like enemies.

Well, really what else IS there to buy in an RPG? You've got your weapons, your items, and perhaps the odd quest where some NPC will want 10,000 to let you through to a next stage. What else are you going to buy? Food? (Sup Tales of Phantasia) LCD/Plasma TVs? Cars? Houses? (Sup FFVII - Holiday House). I honestly don't really need 99 softs nor 99 tents, but I buy them because honestly there's not much else to buy...

What are your shopping habits like in RPGS?

Spatula, I do the very same thing. Call it a fetish or whatever, but past experiences have taught me that you can use 20 softs and 45 potions in 1 battle. Although, I've already learned how to play these games well enough to never need to use so many support items, I still go around and max my inventory just to simply "have it."

I remember where once I got infected with some sort of Status Effect once, I would return to the previous town and stock up around 20 or so duplicates of the cure.

If I have a lot of money in the RPG, I usually stock up on High Potions or X-Potions, or whatever items cures your characters, because its almost always faster then casting "Cure".

I tend to stock up on healing items the most. If I don't have enough money, I still try to make sure that I have at least ten of each important healing item. In terms of weapons or armor, I don't tend to buy a lot while visiting shops. My habit has always been to simply use whatever I find in the game.

My habit was simple, Buy 10 potion 2 tents and 3 antidotes, for some reason that sufficed through the game (I'm talking about Shadow Hearts btw) I always see myself buying the strongest weapons, although i usually forgot about the armor and misc equips =O

In Suikoden games, spending becomes interesting...Figure you'll likely have around 40-50 active party members, a number of which will need top-of-the-line armor and weapon upgrades. So maxing out a character's weapon is something of an investment of both money and committing to using the character, since you'll run out of money fast if you just try to do everyone.

In my Suikoden V New Game+, I restarted with about 100,000 Potch. I'm not even at the halfway point and I'm broke, because I've been upgrading everyone's weapons indiscriminately. And not even to their maximum levels.

Lot's more stuff to buy (Runes, crystals, potions) and armor is always improving at shops. But that's just it...I like having lots of USEFUL stuff to pick from.

I actually don't buy any healing items in most games, since you can usually find them in chests, closets, cupboards, or off of dead enemies. An exception is tents in most of the FF games, which I will buy ten or so and then restock then when I drop below 4.

As far as armor and weapons go, I will usually keep my primary party members' weapons as up to date as possible, and will buy armor upgrades either as necessary or when something that increases my defense significantly becomes available. I am not going to spent 15 - 20% of my total cash on a piece of armor that increases my defense by less than 5% or something. For my characters who aren't active combatants, I will upgrade their weapons maybe every other town if I have the spare currency.

In other RPGs I've played, a character I invested in happened to die or leave the party for various reasons. Now I tend to simply max out the main character since I know that he'll at least be available during the final battle.

I try to get as many healing items as possible-since as someone said, casting healing spells takes too long.

But, on the other side--MP can be deleted by those attack spells, too, so it's nice to have a back-up healer who can use an object--like one to replenish MP.

That's what I thought was fun about Suikoden and Star Ocean. FOOD could replenish HP and such.

That doesn't happen too much in Suikoden games, though. You can usually tell if a character is going to die/leave the team. They will be the ones who aren't marked as SoDs on the tablet. It is irritating in some games, though. Skies of Arcadia and Grandia 1,2 & 3 all come to mind off the top of my head as major culprits.

For me, it really depends on what RPG I'm playing at the time.

Any game in the Final Fantasy series, I very, VERY rarely buy any items. Even though I have the money for it. Why? It's so damn easy. You'll find items lying around anyways, and those will most likely suffice for whatever you're going to do until you find a save point. That and I'm usually broke for weapons too. (At least in Final Fantasy VI)

Shining Force series though, I usually stock up on the best healing items for every long stretch of the game. Since enemes tend to kill you in two hits regardless of your HP, I stock up if I don't have a town to go to for 3 or more battles. No antidotes or anything else of that kind though. If a character's poisoned, sucks for them.

Seiken Densetsu 3, I remember distinctly, I stocked up on two things, Round Drops/Pakkun Chocolates/Honey Drinks (depending on how far I am through the game) and Angel Grails. I stocked nothing else. That's just about all I needed.

Games like Fallout/Diablo on the other hand, Massive buying of Healing Potions/Stimpaks like there's no tomorrow.

My spending habits in RPGs have changed somewhat over time, possibly due to the changing nature of the RPGs I've been playing. In the past, I used to buy lots of healing items, largely because I often relied on them for party maintenance after battles. Of late, I've been spending less on potions etc. as a result of relying on magic to heal my party, as well as using tents/inns more often. This frees up more money to be invested in buying better equipment for my party (which I almost always do when the opportunity arises). But I still stock up a bit on status healing items since status effects can be quite bothersome during battles. I rarely bother with purchasing offensive items like bombs, wands etc. because they tend to be quite weak compared to what most of my characters can do. Either that or they're just too expensive to be worth the while.

If the RPG allows it, I will certainly save up to buy a horse/wagon and a house. Horses are great for quick transport while horse wagons allow you to hoard treasure. Houses have useful storage functions, too. Plus it's always nice to have a plot of land you can call your own and establish as your HQ. I also remember purchasing a ship in one RPG (specifically Ultima VII) for easy sea travel. The neat thing about the ship was that it had a storage hatch I could dump extra treasure/battle spoils in. Very useful when you're low on supplies whilst visiting hostile/foreign lands.

Doesn't beat Koudelka. You use WHISKEY to revive dead (okay, "K.O.ed") party members.

Since most RPGs give you a ridiculous surplus of money, usually some time before the halfway point, I usually just max out all my items. There's no point in buying potions when you've moved on to mega-potions, but somehow it just doesn't look right unless the quantity slot next to potions says "99" for the rest of the game.

There's a sad lack of games that give you any incentive at all to save up. There's always a point where the best weapons/armour are things you find or make rather than buy, and not much need for money after that except to stock up on curatives (which you usually don't need either if you have a decent healer). I can't think of any RPGs (none that I've played, anyway) where you could actually do something worthwhile with the 15 billion gil you have saved up from level grinding by the end of the game. Your characters' ultimate weapons generally aren't lying around Crazy Wally's Weapons Emporium with a big price tag. And if it's Morrowind, you could just steal the damn thing anyway.

One of the worst offenders for making money useless was Kingdom Hearts. For the first half of the game I was scrimping and saving every bit of munney (or was it munnies? or munny? I forget) just to keep my party in hi-potions and new weapons. Then, after the first time through Hollow Bastion, munney was suddenly useless. The only new weapons and items were ones you had to find through random drops or synthasize or whatever. Enemies started dropping potions so regularly that I didn't need to buy them any more, and I barely had to buy any to max them out when I decided to do so. And...that's it. Unless you're one of those people who actually enjoyed gummi ships and gave enough of a damn about them to bother building some, there's nothing else in the game to spend your cash on. I literally maxed out my party's funds long before the game ended. Hell, Sora had enough to retire on by the time I was finished.

Ah, I remember that in Kingdom Hearts as well. I decided to spend an hour leveling up in one of the worlds and I soon discovered that my money had reached its limit. In Kingdom Hearts II, I experienced a similar situation that you described. Enemies in Twilight Town dropped items like Mega Potions and Mega Ethers too frequently for me to buy anything.

It really depends on the game for me. In something like a Final Fantasy where I have unlimited inventory space (or close to), I try to max out all of my items. I'll usually use items to heal until magic replenishing items become affordable. In something like Suikoden where I have a limited inventory space, I tend to not buy status affect cures and stick to health potions. I cure in between battles with items and try to save my magic for the bosses.

Final Fantasy 1, on the other hand, money was like as valuable as oil is right now, Phoenix downs did not exist and potions heal like 1/5 of your health as well as any cure spells you might have. Ethers were non-existant so you had to have the money to go to an inn. It takes money to save as well. And since magic could not be cast religiously, it was going to be hard to recover any HP without items. That and everything else cost a fortune too, like Magic and weapons.

If it's a game where you just have an insane ammount of money available to you (Final Fantasy games) i will just max everything out. Buying in bulk makes life easier. Means you don't have to go shopping every two hours for more potions or elixirs. In games where collecting vast ammounts of money is more difficult however (Dragon Quest VIII) i will tend to buy what i really need at the time. I find it impossible to do a proper stock up on games where money is a probem. Weapons are stupid prices so you spend all your money on them and you have nothing left for healing items.

It pretty much just depends on the nature of the RPG for me really

Yeah, I guess it depends on the difficulty of the RPG in question. Generally, I don't max out my items though. I'll perhaps buy a few spare healing or MP restoration items in case my healer in the party runs out of MP, but otherwise, I usually rely on magic to heal members of the party. Also, running to the nearest town for an Inn is usually more ideal for me than using MP restoration items or healing items. I tend to use normal items as a last resort, really.
Obviously, if there's no healer in the party (this happens in the beginning of some RPGs), I'll use items for healing.

Weapon and armor shops, however, get most of my gold. If there's a new weapon or armor that I can afford, I'll probably buy it. I usually prioritize weapons over armor, but sometimes I may get armor first due to the low defense attributes of some characters.

Also, I have an odd addiction to gold/gil/zeny/munny/$/watev. Essentially, it makes me feel better knowing that I have surplus cash. I'd definitely rather have extra money than a surplus of items. This way, I know I can buy whatever the next best equipment is. If I squander the money on items that I wouldn't even use, then I'd later feel bad about not being able to buy the best equipment for my characters.

It also depends on if its worth it to buy the stuff or not. Like, in most games (or at least most Final Fantasy games) you have enough MP to cast whatever you're going to cast religiously that you don't need any Ethers or MP restoring items. High level heal spells (Cure3 for example) completely negate the need for any X-Potions you might be hoarding. And the all purpose Esuna will negate any need for remedies. Hell, even Final Fantasy 8 made the item command optional.

I never buy 99 of an item. I tend to go for a number that seems sensible depending on the game. I also take into account the availability of magic spells that may serve the same purpose as certain items.

The only habit I have is that I like to possess at least one of every available item. If I have three of a particular item to sell, I'll usually hold on to the last one, even if I don't see myself using it anytime soon or ever.

In Grandia (at least the first one) there are a few hints you can pick up. It's always suspect to find that a character levels up more slowly (or more quickly) compared to the others and you know things probably won't last when a new party member just happens to be at a much higher level than you.

I discovered that in FF8 when Edea joined. I didn't waste anything on her.

We talk about having room for items. Suikoden made it a strategic point with its item inventory. Each member of the party only had room for so many things, and the items came with a "pre-packaged" number.

For those who haven't played, here's an example:
Needle 4
Medicine 3
Mega Medicine 3

And you can't go higher than those numbers, so to have say, 6 Medicines, you have to use 2 lines.

And like I said, you only have so much room, since Suikoden does the weird thing of counting your armor/accessories as part of your item inventory. (I think there's only 6 slots left)

I was going to come in here railing about Suikoden, but I figured you'd probably beaten me to it, Lek.

Yea, in most FF games I spend like a pimp on shoreleave day. Tents, ethers, potions... tons. In Suikoden though, I budget for weapon upgrades and runes. They force you to be much more economical.

I'm generally quite conservative with item buys -- the result being by the end of the game I generally have too much money (Suikoden an exception, sharpening weapons for everyone takes so much). And this doesn't really have to do with buying, but I have a horrid habit of being far too conservative with item use. Like, I'll be in a fight, and I'll consider using that Megalixir or whatever but then I say "no, what if there's a much harder fight later and I really need it?" And then the next fight comes, and I say the same thing. And the really hard battle never comes. When the final battle arrives, I finally say "oops, I never used any of this." And I beat the game with pretty much every uber-item you find in the game (if you can't buy them) still in in my inventory :\

Heh. One of two things I never liked about Suikoden.

Of course, there's always the trick of spending money at an inn to heal, but if you have the money for that, then why not buy the healing items?

In my case, it's because I like to upgrade weapons as well as buy items AND keep healing MP up. This is what I do in a fight:

Go in fighting.
Physical and magical attacks.
Apply HP item when person is under half HP--use strong item if available.
Use those items until they run out.
Use weaker items until they run out.
Use All-party healing items after All-Party attack from enemy (if available).
If not--All-member healing spell.
Use MP items (if available) to return MP to higher numbers.
Defeat enemy.

This is normally a boss-fight scenario, since some enemies don't require much to defeat them. (Unless it's Diablo from FF8--bugger starts to heal you after a while).

After that, I generally go to an inn to rest up and heal--then go shopping all over again.

Looks like most people haven't played Digital Devil Saga or Shin Megami Tensei. You will be begging for money in those games (especially in Nocturne).

This is mainly because money isn't just used for items. In DDS, you have to purchase new skills, and while prices are okay in the begiinning, they get very high later on (easily 1 000 000 macca or even more), while most enemies in the normal game don't drop anywhere near enough, especially if you want to max out everyone on your party. This wasn't so much of a problem in the first DDS, siince some monster dropped special items, sellable from 60000 to 192000 macca, but in DDS2, getting money was pretty hard, since most monsters hardly drop these items anymore, and you were forced to limit yourself to only a few specific skills, instead of maxing out the mantra grid.

Money is even harder to come by in Nocturne, if you suck at the Kalpa tunnels like I do. You don't really need to rely on money to get the good items here, you're better off hunting for gems for that, but you need it to get old demons out of the compendium. While prices are still fair in the beginning, later on it'll get ridiculously expensive, while the money amount that enemies drop is still low.

I rarely ever buy any actual healing items. Occasionally I'll pick up a few Tents or revive items if enemies/teasure chests have been stingy about dropping them, but by and large 100% of my money goes into upgrading my equipment. Unless my gear is at the maximum level available, I am not happy. This usually isn't a problem though, because most games assume item purchases in their money acquisition curves.

I never played past Suikoden 2, but my policy there was to just pick a core selection of teammates and focus on upgrading only the people I actually expected to be using. With the exception of one part in Suikoden 2 which requires you to have about 18 combat-ready characters, this policy worked out pretty well for me.

I find that works well in most games with large casts, actually. Instead of trying to use everyone, especially if party membership is mutually exclusive, just pick your favorites and let the rest sit on their duffs in the rear rank. It's more economical that way, and you'll probably be able to carry the dead weight with your maxed out guys when you're given a forced party structure.

Money was never an issue in Suikoden 1, though. Since you can save your game on the same floor as Gaspar, I'd just keep winning millions and millions of moneys off the dice game. Too bad they caught wise and set an upper limit to how much you can bet at one time in SK2.

For Final Fantasy-type games, I'll buy a reasonable number of each cure item (between 5-20, depending on how cheap they are). I'll come back after I've learned what the enemies in the area can throw at me and adjust my stocks accordingly. For straight HP healing items, I'll go to 99 if I have some extra money lying around, but I like to rely more on steals/enemy drops (I love stealing shit, I think I have a kleptomaniac lurking inside me) and I don't usually have problems with this approach.

Ugh, the Kalpa tunnels. I hated them and couldn't be bothered to learn the patterns - I would just put the controller down and let Kei run into shit. Maybe if I play the game again (I know I will eventually, since I've gone through 3 or 4 times already...) I'll give it more of an effort. All I did for money was grind at the Tower of Kagutsuchi 3 save point. =/ It took a while, but I figured hey, as long as I'm leveling from it it's not a waste of time.

Of course, getting 100% on your Compendium helps a ton for subsequent playthroughs.

Oh God, me too. I do the exact same thing, saving all the "rare" (or even uncommon) items for the penultimate or even final battle. I just can't use them if I think I'll need them more later.

Quoted for truth.

For those of us who don't like spending hours in random battles, money is really hard to come by in SMT. There's a few instances where the game chucks a load of cash at you (Beating the cursed corridor for example) but even these windfalls are only good for a couple of decent demons with the skills you want. A cheap demon with Pierce skill is essential for money efficient fusing. Personally, I didn't spend much on items in SMT, relying more on life drain/mana drain skills to heal my party and spells to cure ailments. Like Enk though, I blow at the Calpa tunnels.

With hard-to-come-by items like elixers and high-end weapons, it's better to be too conservative than too wasteful.

It's not an RPG, but my first play-through of Silent Hill 3 is still proof of that. For some reason I was under the impression that the fight on the carousel at the end of the amusement park was leading straight into the final boss battle, so I used up my best ammo and healing items accordingly. Only to finish the battle and discover that there was an entire (fairly LONG) final area of the game left to finish, for which I basically had no decent curatives and almost no ammo left. It's not fun to have to fight through hordes of the hardest monsters in the game with the katanna because you blew almost all your shotgun ammo and have to hoard what remains.

It happens to me alot. I always end up buying more than I actually need. This goews ditto for weapons in games like Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn Of Souls where I end up buying 99 of EVERY ITEM AVAILABLE. O_O

I don't always stock up on items, not even in FF games (but I liked it that we could have 99 of everything). I'd usually use magic and curative spells simply because you can cure all party members with a spell as opposed to items (Potions, Hi-Potions, Elixir etc). My sister even called me a cheapskate when she saw me playing FFVII and helped me stock up like 99 of everything when I walked away ^^;;

lol, same here, just that I rarely use those items for the final battle because most of the time my party members are just powerhouses by then :D

I think I don't play enough RPG to determine my buying habits yet.. but so far for FF, Star Ocean and Grandia series I depend heavily on magic rather than items.

In the old days I used to buy a little of each, until I played some games that were either difficult or had one shop far too distant from the other (without save points), and a friend of mine told me "why don't you just buy like 99 potions ?", and I thought "Why not".

So that's what I've been doing ever since. As some other people said here, priority goes for weapons but whenever there's some extra I buy tons of healing but rarely I buy status curing itens.

I never fully stock up to 99 of any item. I figure if I get up to 99, then I fight an enemy that I can steal that item from, or it drops it, and I can't carry it because I'm maxed out, then that's an extra 100 gil or whatever I could have saved up for something else. So normally, I don't purchase more than 70 of an item, and I start selling once I get over that. I always buy the newest of each weapon and armor though. I also refrain from using any items for anything. I will use magic to cure instead, since magic can usually be restored for the price of just one general healing item, so using magic is a lot less costly.

Final Fantasies were pretty stingy with money until 6, I believe. I remember in 5, Phoenix downs were 1000 gil, while staying at an inn or a tonic were only about 50 gil.

I hate item hording. Not because I don't like spending money, I just think it makes the game easy and unrealistic. I would rather see item management of some form. I think of Earthbound as a prime example. But then again, thats just me.

For other RPGs, I try not to stock up too much.

Yup. Saving for those Silver swords at the elf town took quite a while, especially if you had multiple characters that could equip them. It was important to get them since they were so powerful compared to your other weapons. Man I loved those swords.

For just about every RPG that gives out money generously, I usually just stockpile every healing item you can get from stores. This also applies to most of the Tales series (especially Tales of Legendia) give tremendous amounts of Gald.

I haven't hit any RPGs that don't really give out money, although I heard that Tales of the Abyss is notorious for its low Gald yields, at least for the first half of the game.

It depends on the RPG, but normally I wouldn't spend too much on items. 50 on Potions/healing max, 20 on antidotes/cure condition type max. I never found the need to get 99 of something because you'll never even use half in the entire game.

I really dislike RPGs where money is flown around so easily that there is no point in bothering to make money. I can recall a few games (like Enkidu said, Persona series) where money is a big issue, and I would need to hit the slots or something to make money quickly. It's in those cases I'm loose on selling. If I don't use it, it's sellable.

I'm spoiled on this issue myself. When I played through the first Lufia game and went through the beginning Fortress of Doom scenario with Maxim and his team they all had a random number of certain items between 60-99. So whenever I go through to buy a lot of the same item I never straight out buy 99 of them, but vary the number to make it seem like I've had to use them through thick and thin to give it the more experienced look.

Honestly, which one looks more like a believable list..

99 Potion
99 Hi-Potion
99 Ex-Potion
99 Miracle
99 Antidote

or

83 Potion
79 Hi-Potion
89 Ex-Potion
61 Miracle
90 Antidote

Just adds another level of realism for me.

My spending habits are like this: 20 of each status-curing med, 30 of tent/heal everything at save point items, and just pile up on cure items from fights. In FF7 X-potions were never a problem. The birds you fight in the Wutai area drop them all the time. From going there for Yuffie and leaving, you can easily get 99. In shadow hearts is a bit more spending as pretty much all items have a need at some point.

I used to max out on my items... then I started being a cheapskate that hates spending all my money. Although i'll still max out my items if it doesn't put too big of a dent in the total amount of gold I have. It just feels so comforting when I have a whole lot of money that I can use in an emergency. I guess what it really comes down to is the game and how easy it is to get money. :beer: :milk: :megaman: :beer:

I'm definetely guilty of this habit.

I don't nescessarily buy 99 of each item as fast as possible. Usually throughout the course of the game, I usually buy items in multiples of 5. Items are usually the last thing I buy when I go into any item shop. All my money is usually reserved for weapons/armour/magic. Usually if I have any surplus money it goes to maxing out my item list. Sometimes there are just games in which money is so tight i just keep my items at a healthy count, as long as I have one of each item esepcially if the game keeps an item completion list I'm the happiest kind.

I'm in the process of playing a game in which money can be pretty tight and thats Dragon Quest VIII. I'm actually getting pretty close to finishing it but I still want to do everything possible such as getting all the items and finishing the entire alchemy recipe list. I highly doubt that'll be getting 99 of every item, but in rpgs that specialize getting a lot of money relatviely quickly and easily more than likely I'll have 99 of quite a lot of items.

I remember back when I was playing Final Fantasy 7. During most of the game, I was nearly always bankrupt. That's because I used to always made sure I had as many potions and elixers as possible, so my habit of buying too many potions meant that I barely had any money to buy new weapons. However, thanks to a "W-Item" technique which allowed you to dupe your potions, purchasing potions from shops became a thing of the past :)

However, by the time I reached near the end of the game, I had loads of cash, and by then I had no need for money :D

I almost never buy items in the Final Fantasy series.
The only things I buy are Hypers, because I want faster limits, but not long ago I discovered it also lowers your magic hit chance.
It's ridiculous how much Ethers sell though, sell 2 get 3 tents for free.
I would only use sadness, when fighting Midgar Zolom for Beta, but for some reasons Tranquilizer are much easier to steal, I didn't have to buy it.

I played some FF4 Advance lately (which by the way is an excellent port) and ran into a rather embarassing episode. I'll share it with you guys nonetheless, because it really fits the topic:

So I'm in the second town and have some money to spend already. Going through the motions of my FF routine, I stock up on weapons and armor first (or try to, as there isn't anything useful for my my characters yet), buy five units of each status recovering item (except those expensive thingies that cure petrify), three Phoenix Downs and twenty regular potions.
A short while later Edward joins the gang, who I immediately find to be as useless as a hole in the knee. But he has that Heal skill that recovers about ten to twenty HP for each character. Not a complete loss I think and brawling myself through the next dungeon, I use it frequently. Until during one battle, halfaway through, the game tells me, "No healing items left.".

What the...? The skill - which I didn't remember - used up all my potions and throwing down with that Ant Lion actually became at least a bit challenging. I guess that's one way to be pushed out of your RPG buying habits.

It honestly depends on the game for me. I think I might have been one of the 3 people who got 99 of every item possible in FFT: Advance. Yes, even those damned sword that cost 10000 each. It got to the point where I had 5 million in unspent....whatever the currency was, and I thought, what the hell...

Elder Scrolls III...yes, one 3! My compy isn't good enough for Oblivion yet...I sell all non-book, non-magical items I find. I fill everywhere with books I do not have and weapons I think will be useful one day, but I never use. I collect all those useless little charms to, and I have so many, I actually kills things with them o.O

I did the same damn thing. Only, it was my first time through the game, so I clenched my teeth and tried to force my way through as well as possible. I made it, but I never went back to Edward again for tricking me like that.

Lately, I buy nothing at all, saving all my money (unless the game requires it to progess further). Then when I get to the end of the game, I splurge on whatever the hell I please. It's interesting to see what I can scrounge up until then (and it's more challenging that way).

Unless the recovery items are really cheap and your at a point where enemies drop enough money, I might max them out, but I usually just buy enough to get a nice even number, usually around 20, because in most games there rarely seems to be a moment where you actually have to use them. There's usually a spell that does the job, or the effects are gone at the end of battle.

It really comes down to the game. If it's a game where you can only carry like 9 of each type like the mana games, then yes, I like to stay prepared and carry the max, I mean it's not like 9 is a whole lot, but 99...just seems a waste of money.

About the only game I can think of where you go through 99 items pretty fast is Valkyrie Profile, and that's only because of the auto item skill, which cures all status effects automatically and uses elixirs at a certain percentage of your max health.

I like to stock up on healing items. In the beginning I just take as many as I can afford. It makes me feel secure and sometimes it's necessary when you don't have a healer in your party during parts of the game. If I have enough money toward the end of the game I max all healing/battle effect items out. But that's only after buying any armor/weapon upgrades. Sometimes even after getting everything you could possible need your still left with tons of money.

Money is definitely a joke in some games. I remember having 1.2 million gil in FF7 AFTER buying 99 of EVERY buyable item, be it consumable or equipment.

Grandia Xtreme's a bit different.