Status effects

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Status effects

Postby Wolf Bird » Tue Dec 16, '08, 8:56 pm

Many games have them, especially RPGs...the dreaded and often annoying status effects. I got thinking the other day...what are some of the more annoying, amusing, and/or unique ones you've encountered in any games?

So I'll name a few of you here. And once again, I can't resist talking about Earthbound, and anyone who's been on this board for a while and didn't see that coming from me is living under a rock. :wink: Of the many things I love in Earthbound, the status effects are one of them. It has many standards, such as being knocked out, paralyzed and poisoned. Some common status effects are in Earthbound but under different names...when in most games you're blind, in Earthbound, you cry uncontrollably, but it has the same effect in that your attacks have a lower hit rate. Instead of being petrified, you're diamondized, and rather than silenced, you can't concentrate. But besides these standards under different names, Earthbound has a lot of unique ones...and some of them are amusing.

Three are similar to getting poisoned. There are two desert areas and if you wander around in them for too long, your characters start getting sunstroke, and they'll randomly take damage. It's not much damage, but there it is. Early in the game, you encounter enemies who 'fire a beam that causes night-time stuffiness.' These beams...well, they give your characters a cold. When you have one, you take 4-5 damage turn from sneezing. Though this is very annoying, it's also highly amusing. Some enemies also make you noxious, but this is much worse, as you'll take 20 damage a turn. But it's little things like this that give Earthbound a touch of absurd realism that I love.

One of the most annoying status effects in any RPG is confusion, at least I think so. Earthbound has this but takes it a step further. Confusion is one part of the status effect 'Mashroomized'. Various mushroom enemies in the game cause mushrooms to grow on your head, and one effect of them is to confuse the victim in battle. But it has an additional effect on Ness, who leads the party...when he's mashroomized, your walking controls will get randomly screwed up. The sprites look quite funny with mushrooms on their heads.

But one status effect completely unique to Earthbound (as far as I know) is one that only effects Ness. Sometimes you'll be in battle, just fighting away, and you'll suddenly get this message:

'Ness misses home'

And that's his turn. If you go too long without calling your mom, Ness will get homesick and he'll randomly lose turns in battle thinking about home. This one has NO warning with it whatsoever and can strike at the most inconvenient of times. But once again...considering he's a kid, I love how this status effect exists, as annoying as it can be, just for that little touch of realism.

However, the most absurd status effect I've seen is still being transformed into an eggplant in Kid Icarus. That is just funny...and REALLY annoying. :lol: Earthbound wins my unique award, but Kid Icarus wins the ridiculous award.

Anyone else have status effects from any games that are notable in some way?
Last edited by Wolf Bird on Tue Dec 16, '08, 9:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Thoul » Tue Dec 16, '08, 9:02 pm

Those are some of the most far out ones I've come across or heard of. There are a few games that have an effect to turn the characters into a frog, that's pretty odd too.
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Postby Celeith » Tue Dec 16, '08, 9:26 pm

Malboro's "Bad Breath" in the FF games, I see one I'm like oh crap! *runs*
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Postby Snorb » Tue Dec 16, '08, 9:45 pm

Phantasy Star II/III's particular flavor of poison. In most other RPGs, poisoning means you lose health with every step or action in combat. (Unless you play Dungeons and Dragons, in which case poisons are far more sinister, but I digress.) PSII/III's poisoning? I hate hate hate it- until it's healed, the poisoned character can't be healed through items, psionics, or hospitals. Fortunately, Antidotes only cost like 20 Meseta!

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday's poisoning sucked, too. If you're poisoned, you go down for the count and are out of combat. If someone has a Poison Antidote, they're restored to their current HP after the combat (sucks if your Lunarian Monosword-swinging Warrior with Monosword Specialization III drops!). If you don't have an antidote, they go into the Comatose state (they don't fight, don't gain XP, and can only be healed on your starship. They are, however, not dead!) Damn D&D Second Edition rules.

Odd duck for status effects, but Broken Guitar String in Guitar Hero III's battle mode is also really hated. If a guitar string breaks, you have to tap the appropriately-colored fret until it's fixed. Keep in mind, you can't play any more notes until you fix the string, and you're losing the crowd for each note you're missing. Amp Overload (which makes the notes blink in and out of view) is also not great.

Final Fantasy IX had a unique story-related one for Dagger, where any action she took in combat had a chance of failure, even the Row or Defend commands. I don't have to tell you how bad this is when three Curaga attempts fail in a row because "Dagger can't concentrate!"

Breath of Fire IV had a nice little status called Egg, where your victim... turned into an egg. Their Defense dropped to 0, but that's cool, because three rounds after they get Egged, the egg hatches, and the character is fully healed (Health and Ability Points, too!)
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Postby Wolf Bird » Wed Dec 17, '08, 6:10 pm

Kaloes wrote:Malboro's "Bad Breath" in the FF games, I see one I'm like oh crap! *runs*


I haven't played FFVII in AGES, but I remember those things from the cliffs you have to scale to reach to the crater the first time. Yeah, I hated them since that move hits you with pretty much every negative status effect in the game. I think the final boss had a similar attack, but I can't remember for sure.
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