Items 2: The Return of Items

I spent some time this evening working on NPC dialogs for a few of the merchants in the game introducing some of their side-quests.  The base content for the alpha is getting close to completion and I am still trying to find that sweet spot where I can feel like there is enough included to get a feel for what the game is and enough alluded to that you can imagine the greater context and hopefully be excited to explore the rest.  All of which has very little to do with the rest of the post, which is about the other usable items I did not get to in my previous post because I agonize over all the content I produce, even for the Internet (reading what you type more than once?  Shocking, I know).

Bark-skin potion

This muddy brew may take second place in a beauty pageant(*) but it still grants the wizard temporary immunity to damage.  The damage immunity may not last a long time but it can sure be a life saver (or possibly a puzzle complexity reducer for the impatient)!

Bolo

When your enemies have more legs than brains this simple combination of rope and rocks should be your go to accessory.  What it lacks in, well, everything else, the bolo makes up for in it's ability to slow your enemies down.

Speed Potion

Far less addictive than you might expect, this potion never-the-less gives you a serious kick in the movement department.  It will let you win at things you aren't even supposed to win at, like yelling.  You will win at yelling!  Or maybe something else like jumping or waving. It will let you wave your hands really fast and you'll probably become invisible!  Which doesn't even make any sense!*  Just quaff and go! Go go go go go!

Cursed Skull

Seriously, why would you even have this in your pockets?  It isn't like anything good could possibly come of it...

Large Potion

The "Large" potion.  It's like if your mana potion and your healing potion got together and had a very big baby.  And then you drank it.  On second thought, let's leave the metaphors out of this.

Holy Cross

This holy symbol really makes certain undead people uncomfortable.  If you suddenly find yourself the undesired center of an undead party you should throw this on the ground.  (And while you're throwing the cake to the ground tell your so called girlfriend that you're an adult!*)

Invincibility Potion

If you came to chew bubble gum and kick tail but you are all out of bubble gum(*), try the invincibility potion!  "Wait, how is this different from the Bark-skin potion?" you may ask.  Simple, the Bark-skin potion only prevents direct damage to you, it won't prevent all of the other unfortunate status effects that might happen, like being hexed, knocked back, slowed down, stunned, etc.  If those don't sound appealing maybe this will!

Lucky Coin

The lucky coin makes all your coins lucky!  In practice this means that if you toss out a coin while you have this shiny fella equipped it will work like some kind of secret sonar and "ping" for any nearby secrets.  Just look for the sparkles!  Do you feel lucky, punk?*  Don't complain, it's cheaper than bombing every square inch of wall like you had to do in the original Zelda.  And these days if you're a real cheap-skate you can probably find all the secrets on-line anyway; way to ruin everything Internet!

Phoenix Feather

Don't let Dumbledore(*) know where you got this.  If you have a phoenix feather equipped when you die you will be immediately reborn in a burst of flames, though you can safely assume the feather bit the dust in the process.  Just don't count on this to save you if you fall into an endless pit or a puddle.


Alright, that wraps up the currently implemented usable items in the game.  The wizard can also improve their chances of success by finding more powerful gear through searching out secrets and fulfilling quests for some of the world's inhabitants. Thanks to all you LeVar Burton* fans for getting this far!

Keep your eyes peeled for more!  And if you know anybody else who might enjoy having their eyes peeled point them this-a-way (it sounds odd but there are actually a surprising number of people who enjoy all kinds of crazy stuff out there if the Internet is to be believed)!

Cheers,
Zack

* bonus geek points if you caught all the inane references here: (zradick@gmail.com)