charecters liking different foods

[Oddball]

what do you think of different charecters recovering different amounts if hp from different foods.


like i have one charecter who likes vedgtables and would recover more from them, but she also has saccrophobia so might refuse any sweets and most fruits

 

[Kes]

The only drawback that I can immediately think of is the multiplication of items in the inventory.  You would need to be careful that it didn't become too bloated for player convenience.  I've used this mechanic in a limited way e.g. food which gives double healing to a particular character in comparison with other actors.  An obvious contender here would be if you had a robotic character who obviously wouldn't benefit from an apple, but I'm not sure I would extend it to all characters.  If I've got, say, 6 characters all with different food preferences, this could get a bit tedious when it comes to healing up.

 

[dragoonwys]

I think it's fine if used sparingly. Especially if there is a reason for it, it would flesh out your world a little more with small little details like that or it could be a fun shout out. Like how some games with generic Zombies awards the player for being genre savy with insta kills if they aim for the head even if the game never explained it.


Can't think of any drawbacks either other than the ones Kes already mentioned, like needing more time to set the parameters, bloating of inventory and getting a little tedious when you have a lot of characters.

 

[Oddball]

ok. well there is a backstory reason why she doesnt like sweet foods. i was just wondering if i should do this with all charecters

 

[Rayhaku808]

I'm gonna try steer this back in a general direction now.

I feel like this can work better if there's a farming mini-game. But it'd need to reward the player for the amount of time invested into that mini-game. This can also work if combat is unforgiving to the player where they'd need to optimize the healing foods they consume. Fallout also comes to mind now; eat food with radiation and you still heal but get sick or something. In this case the characters CAN eat foods they don't like but get debuffs to their primary stats that persists through the next battle.

 

[LxCharon]

This is similar to herbs from Pokemon. Normal potions and sodas heal pokemon just fine, but if you feed them bitter herbs it may heal them, but they'll like you less, and if you feed them enough of them it will reduce their stats.

 

[jezebelthenun]

If you have a food for each character, it kind of takes the novelty out of it in game play, unless food is the main focus of the game. Basically, you would have to write it into the story pretty flawlessly, with the plot revolving around food in some major way, and balance it exceptionally well with other items, states, skills, etc.

Speaking of which, I think the better option would be, rather than having them all be healing items, have the foods give actor specific skills, buffs, states, or healing. That way, the mechanic doesn't get worn out. You basically ALWAYS need to heal, but if an apple give Randy Motorface a special water elemental reflection buff, and he happens to be up against some pretty hardcore Tsunami Ants that are predominantly water magic users, then Randy's probably gonna want an apple in his inventory around then. Or maybe Cecily Toeknuckle gets a super attack skill that's only available for 3 actions, and only if she meets the TP requirement, after she eats some lasagna. Using the foods in this way will keep it dynamic and fun, especially if the foods are only rare drops, quest rewards, and very expensive items.

This is coming strictly from a player perspective, because lord knows implementing all of that would be tedious, but in the end I think it would greatly improve the overall enjoyment of that function. Good luck!

 

[Wavelength]

I like the idea more than most people here seem to. I can remember seeing this in a few games and not even fully grasping what was going on, and it didn't hurt my play experience at all. Once I did figure out what was happening, I thought it was cool.

In Star Ocean 2 each character had a favorite food that would completely restore their HP and MP (outside of battle) instead of its normal effect. I think most of the favorite foods were actually listed in the character bios in the manual. It was pretty cool the first time I used a healing item expecting it to do 12% HP healing, got a nice little sound stinger, and boom the character was completely healed!

In Tales of Symphonia each character had a specific "likes" and "dislikes" ingredient (or class of ingredients, such as "Seafood"). If you used those ingredients in your cooking, the character would heal more or less from them. For example, it was hinted a few times in the narrative that Colette didn't like Bell Peppers, so if you used that ingredient in your food she'd heal less. It was less obvious that she liked "Fruits", but that's something you might have been able to guess from her sweet, childish personality. Anyway, because of bad UI, I didn't recognize that my characters were healing different amounts, but that didn't hurt my experience at all, and when I finally saw this was happening when I read a strategy guide, I had a lot of fun tailoring the cooking ingredients to my active party members.

So, I say go for it! Just do your best to make it obvious to the player when a character likes or dislikes something they've eaten.

 

[Failivrin]

I was also thinking about how Pokémon prefer certain flavors and hate others. In Pokémon games, I think the mechanic succeeds for two main reasons:
1. Players who don't want to bother learning flavor preferences have plenty of other options to heal the party (trade-off is that simpler methods are less cost effective and sometimes heal less HP).
2. Flavor is just one of many preferences Pokémon exhibit. For example, they also prefer certain breeding partners, and even Pokémon of the same species have "nature" stats--personality descriptors like Careful or Bold--that affect their stat growth.

Preferences and dispositions may not be strictly necessary, but they do create a stronger bond between player and character. Ultimately my advice is, come up with all sorts of ways for your characters' personalities to affect their performance. Maybe they perform differently if they're wearing cool outfits? When someone says something that makes them happy? You can make it as complex as you want, but if it gets too heavy, players should be provided with a way to opt out.
That's all I got. Hope this helps!