How many weapons, armors, items, etc. does a game really need?

The topic here is pretty much what the title says. In the game I'm currently making I don't really have much interest in creating a wide variety of weapons and armor, but I know one thing players like about RPGs is being able to customize their characters. In your opinion, how many options are too few? Should each character/class have dozens of options for each equip slot? Would a game suck if your options for a sword-wielding character's weapons were a sword, a better sword, and a best sword? And if you do have tons of options, how long is it before dealing with a large number of items becomes as tedious for the player as it is for the developer?

That really depends on the game, the longer the game, the more options I would expect from it... 

Makes sense. Come to think of it, the game I'm currently working on involves a sword that, once found, is used by the main protagonist as his sole weapon, though it is upgraded several times over the course of the game. I suppose that character wouldn't need as many weapon options as the other characters will.

It also depends on what kind of game you're making.


Or in other words - what is the reason the player has to continue playing?


In Diablo-type games the reason to play it again and again and again (after the first playthrough, when the story is finished) is to try and get better equipment. For those games you need a lot of equipment (essentially an equipment generator and randomizer).


Other games (which fokus on story) might have no equipment at all (Visual Novels) or there might be only a few items of each equipment type, allowing all actors to use the same items (while other games have exclusive weapons for each actor).


You can get away with a very limited number of items, even if they are constant and not upgrading, if your game doesn't need them. But you need to know what is in your game and what you want to do to get the intended player's attention.

Makes sense. I'll have to take a closer look at my target audience for this game. I'm not sure yet what I want the focus to be.

I think that if you have other things going on to provide interest, then having a lot of weapon choices is far less important. I don't put in a lot in my games, but I do give a wide range of accessories with significantly different attributes to enable the player to customise what the character is like. As a player I find it irritating to go into a dungeon late game and find that the only thing that's really effective against these enemies is that sword inflicting X that I got near the beginning which didn't do much for most of the game, so I sold it in order to be able to pay for some outrageously expensive piece of gear.

How many weapons/armor/items to have?  I think it does depend on the length of the game.  And, much more importantly, what makes sense for your particular game world and story.

If you are setting a story in a modern war, where the players are in the army, then you would justifiably have a small selection of weapons --- modern armies try their best to standardize on equipment.

If you are in the classic fantasy setting, it's reasonable to say each town probably WOULD have slightly different weapons IF they have any for sale.  For example, in the Orient, it was common that only nobles had access to swords and such.  And that is also why the commoners got VERY good at using their normal implements as weapons (nunchaks apparently were used by mechanics for example).  So in such a setting you might only see a small selection of normal implements for sale.   After all, why in the world would a market in that world sell "Upgraded Scythes"?  Why would commoners need such things?

If you want to add Item Crafting, you can have a small selection of "default" weapons, and let the player craft the weapon, once, to upgrade it in some manner.  Maybe they harden the sword, or imbue it with a Fire element.  But, in these cases, as the developer the weapons are mainly cut and paste.  The Fire Sword wouldn't automatically be any better at Attack than the normal Sword.  It just uses a Fire element and perhaps grants some resistance to Fire.

This goes well with the Oriental setting, because that would be really the only way to get an Upgraded version of a normal "weapon."

If not, what ksjp17 said makes sense.  Perhaps you could use Badges which grant the users special abilities --- a Fire Badge, a Sword Badge (only improves Sword damage), etc.

I also agree that it's very poor game design to have the Most Powerful Dungeon opponents require something you got rid of early in the game.  

So there's no hard and fast answer.  If your main character has a Single Weapon which really doesn't change out, that reduces the number of choices.  But I do like the Badge idea so even the main character can be customized.  Or you can have Armor pieces which grant special abilities/weaknesses/etc.

If so, I think for game balance it's good that items do NOT only grant a benefit.  Maybe the Fire Badge makes you vulnerable to Ice.  Maybe the Sword  Badge reduces your ability to use other weapons.  Maybe an Attack Badge lowers defense, etc.

FF8 had only 7 weapons for each character. And those are the only equips you could get.

Of course the game wasn't really focused on equips so they probably could've gotten away with just the same weapon throughout the entire game.

Then again FF8 had a number of things you probably wouldn't expect.

In most games, you get an equipment upgrade for each "level", and that's kind of how I have mine set up. Some equips aren't much stronger than others, but may have a different element attached. For instance, the Salamander Blade may have a few more stat points than the Shock Dagger, but a fire weapon won't do you as much good as a lightning weapon in a dungeon full of water elementals. Same goes for armor. The Vulcan Plate armor almost nullifies fire damage, but leaves you vulnerable to water. The Aqua Suit offers less physical protection, but protects you against water. Having different types of equipment like that can let the player develop a strategy that suits their style, and helps the player feel like their customizing their character.

Same goes for items. About half of my non-key items are usable (healing, attack items, or fodder for custom skill cost scripts) and the rest are alchemy ingredients. You can purchase a poison-curing Poultice or mix one up from foraged Vivigrass and Baneweed.

I really enjoyed the customization aspects of games like DQ9 and Bravely Default, and had a lot of fun hunting for alchemy ingredients and fomulas in DQ9, so I brought that into my game.

Weapon quality is just as important as weapon quantity.

In some games getting a new weapon is exciting because it comes with a unique description and graphics set. Think Disgaea where every weapon's description is a short joke or Dark Souls where every weapon and piece of armor looks different when equipped.

In other games all swords look identical and only differ in their names and stats. The long sword has a couple more pluses than the short sword but the character graphics and attack animations look the same as always. Sure, it's nice to get those extra attack points but it's not as exciting of an experience as it could be.

So personally I would rather have a game with three really unique swords than a game with a dozen identical-except-for-their-stats swords.

The big question is how to make weapons exciting and unique in RPG Maker. Changing the character's appearance with each weapon would require some custom scripting and a lot of artistic talent so for a first game that's probably off the table even though it is the most obvious solution.

But even with vanilla RPG Maker you can give each weapon a unique description and a unique inventory icon, which does a lot to help avoid the boredom of “just another sword”. I think you can even set the default attack animation for weapons so you can make a legendary fire sword feel different than all the other non-magic swords the player has equipped up to that point.

Just have weapons/armor boost stats by %. And suddenly that short sword you got at the beginning of the game has use against the final boss. You could cut down equipment numbers drasticly that way without taking away from the game. There, problem solved (hopefully)

I personally hate having to change equips every few levels... Every major town/event is fine, but every few levels could be overkill especially if you level fast... Having equips of the same "tier" main stat wise but with different effects though is a really welcome thing IMHO. 

Weapons, armors, etc is for they who like to grind and explore. They get excited when they find a new item and improve their character. If they enter a new level / dungeon / stage, and find the enemies is far away stronger than they're, they usually seek what kind of weapon / armor / item that could pass the enemies. Note that not all the gamers are explorer, some hate to grind.

The rest is depends on the game itself, yes.

In my game I used fixed weapon slot. They're unable to change. However, I gave two slot of accessories which is you can find unique accessories while you explore the dungeon.

In my opinion having more armors and weapons to choice is more fun and intresting. 

I don't like to have always the same equipment for a long time.

But that's just my opinion ;)

I agree with Scott. If you don't have the skill and patience to have each equip alter the appearance of your sprite (a la Dragon Quest 9), then the items in question should at least have interesting descriptions and unique icons and attack animations.

Your first few weapons can be plain and graphically similar. An Iron Short Sword isn't going to vary greatly from the stronger Steel Short Sword. But once you start getting further in the game, things should get more interesting. Selchar even created a script which allows weapons to occasionally invoke a skill, like the special weapons from Golden Sun. Things like that could be handy especially for characters who don't have magic of their own.