Greentext

RPG has consumables (potions, scrolls, grenades...)

Don't spend on normal enemies, because there will be bosses

Don't spend on bosses, because there will be final boss

Final boss: dies in a minute without you spending any

Here we go again

Almost accurate, except the boss is randomly weak to one of the 20 status effects. Also, said boss fight is nearly impossible without exploiting that one status weakness because fuck you.

FFX was so annoying about this, was doing the dark aeons recently and all you can do in those fights is buff yourself and attack, felt pointless unlocking debuff skills at the end of some characters pathways only to never use them.

Looking at you Triple Foul.

Fromsoft: "We will have exactly 2 enemies in the entire game that are weak to this status effect. Everything else will resist the fuck out of it. You can only aquire this status effect by finding a secret hidden boss named "Joseph the Weakling" and defeating him without getting hit. He is the hardest boss in the game."

This armor is a gamechanger because it gives me a decent elemental resistance boost to some random element, I'm gonna organize my build around it

Statement dreamed up by the utterly deranged

I feel like Square-Enix in particular over-corrected on status effects after FF6 had the Vanish/Doom combo, Fenix Down items used on undead instantly killing them, etc.

Status condition recovery items are even worse, because you have to stock them, just in case there's ever a fight that you really need them in, but then finish the game without ever having needed even a single one.

Game designers, and I'm including tabletop rpgs, love having status effects that freeze, paralyzed, or do a percentage of health of damage; but they always neglect the fact that they're ineffective against hordes of weak enemies and are overpowered against strong solo enemies.

Really wish they would have more foresight than to just make it have zero effect on bosses. I'd be satisfied with it applying a weakened effect instead of being outright immune.

Hate to agree with an anon but that was always my exact experience playing any RPG outside of Pokémon. Between that and not having any indication how much stat-boosting moves actually boosted my stats, it trained me to never use anything other than offensive skills.

Play Warframe.

Have a frame with armour stripping.

Armour stripping is a number based on current armour, not base armour, so it doesn't scale with level.

Low lto mid evel enemies die too easily from conventional attacks to even bother casting armour strip.

High level enemies have way too much armour, requiring to spend more time and casting energy to strip their armour than just using a conventional weapon with the correct element.

Laughs in Shin Megami Tensei.

Play Etrian Odyssey where status effects are an integral part of every encounter.

I've always felt this about Pokemon, there's so many moves that affect stats, cause status effects, or do something interesting, but I always just go for whatever deals damage. Even on my current run, I'll keep a move around because it sounds fun, but won't use it.

ffxi, we gave Bard a song that deals damage over time. Everything is immune to it.

Persona 4, where the first 5 or 6 first bosses are weak to an element, but if you use it they get a shield against it.

I've yet to play a game in which poison damage was at all relevant. Mostly they require to be poinsoned so you can do more damage with a different attack, if that.

Almost worse to me is when you're railroaded to only using the latest acquired buff and everything else is useless once you progress. Like beating the boss is just hoping you land the special attack enough times to beat dps before it runs out. Mostly in TBS games I suppose.

The games where status effects basically have healthbars that apply the effect when they break and get bigger when they recover so you can't keep applying the same one easily figured it out. Lets you do things like blind the boss and take no damage for a bit without trivializing by blinding the whole fight

eh, depends. I use them quite a bit in some games. Persona and the FF, but you have to know what you are doing, and they are mostly useful on stronger basic enemies or minibosses particularly.

But yeah, pragmatically, the learning/experimentation curve for status effects is too high/annoying for most players/playing. They require a lot of experimentation and remembering weaknesses or how to stack them.

The secondary effects they have in persona is pretty cool, a lot of them up the crit rate substantially, but also they can transfer to your characters if you 'touch' them with a normal attack.

Haste and slow, bb!