Cursed and Mystery Items in RPGs

[bargora]

I'm kind of an RPG n00b. I finished the first Golden Sun sometime last year, I'm about halfway through Final Fantasy 1, and I just finished Dragon Warrior 1 today.

One thing that I thought was odd was that the game never told me what the D-Scale and the War Ring were for. I'm guessing that they somehow enhanced my defense and attack values?

Then there was the matter of the Devil Belt. I picked it up in Dracolord's castle. Should I have put it on? Probably not, because it told me that I was CURSED when I put it on. CURSED! O NOES!

Nevertheless, I proceeded to defeat Dracolord five minutes later without returning to have the curse lifted. What did the Devil Belt do to me or for me? Like with the D-Scale and the War Ring, the item info showed "?????". Very informative.

So what's the deal with cursed and mystery items? Are they common in the RPG genre? Do vast numbers of these oddities await me if I delve further into the genre?

[MattyXB]

In many RPGs exist curesed or mystic Items.

Final Fantasy III / VI for example has the Cursed Shield / Cursed Ring. I know only, when you wear the Cursed Ring in 255 Battles, then it will change into the Paladin Shield or it was another one, but a very strong shield. But you have many things together with the cursed shield: Imp, mute, poison, and many more. Some can be cured with other armors or rings.

In most other games the cursed items are much stronger then standart weapons or armors. So you can choose between stronger attack and defense and many problems in the fight or lower attack and defense and no problems in fights.

Not sure, but I think in Shining Forces games when you wear cursed items it can be, that you can't attack sometimes. So you never know if this is better or not. Stronger attack, but then you attack maybe only 1 from 3 times.
Same was in LadyStalker when I not wrong. My mother played it and get strong weapons in a later stage. but most can't attack anymore, because she was stunned after try to attack.

Or sometimes you only lose HP points when you wear cursed things. Its like poisened.

So many different things can happen in different games. You never know if this is better or not.

[Gapporin]

Cursed items do show up frequently in RPGs. For example, in Dragon Crystal*, cursed items come in a variety of shapes and sizes: Swords, Armor, Rings, etc. Usually they do the opposite of what they are supposed to do (lower defense, lower attack power, make you hungry, etc.). Cursed items cannot be removed once they are put on, and the only way to remove the curse is to use a spell that specifically lifts the curse. Then the item becomes like a normal item.

As far as unknown items, in Dragon Warrior, was there anything like an "IDENT" spell, or an identify shop? In RPGs, whenever an item is unknown or has no description, it usually needs to be identified before you can figure out what the item in question really is.

* = Dragon Crystal, by the way, is an excellent dungeon-crawler for the Sega Master System and/or Game Gear (I prefer the Game Gear version). You should definitely check it out! :D

[tylerwillis]

I wouldn't say that cursed items are all that common, but they do show up.

Usually they're not too bad; no Glove of Insta-Death that insta-deaths you or anything.

Don't spend too much time worrying about it; at least with a cursed item, you'll always feel special.

[Avatard]

In FF VI the Cursed Ring actually turns into the Hero Ring. Not worth your time to convert considering you can get them all day long in the arena and its no where near as good as the rest of the upper level relics.

The Cursed Shield turns into the Paladin Shield which is the most awesome item in the game. Not only does it resist all spells and turns all elemental spells into hp, but it also teaches the Ultima x1 spell. So you can choose to have Ragnarok as a sword instead of materia (and there for getting Illumina) and still learn the Ultima if you are willing to fight the battles. The best way I found to change it is to wear it while trying to get Gau all his rages. Knock out 2 birds with one stone.

[vultar]

I would say that I've seen cursed items most often in fantasy type turnbased RPGs; thier inclusion isn't that uncommon, but you're not going to see it in every game. Normally, they give you somekind of bonus (stronger attack, instant death, etc.) at the somekind of cost plus the inabilitiy to remove the item yourself. I've seen things like random stunning, recoil, and a higher miss rate. Shining Force uses all of those, stun is the most common. Cursed items in general can't be removed without help, and in my experiance if you remove the curse, the item will either be less powerful and permanetly uncursed or just be unequipped but still cursed. Cursed items are pretty much rare items, and, personally, because the trouble they give you, I think most of them are worth more as money than as items. Most of the time, the name of the item can give you a hint that its cursed (words like devil, evil, cursed (of course), black, etc.) That's not always true, but it's a good test most of the time.
The only game I can remember that has cursed items that don't do anything other that stop you from removing them without help is Lufia 2. I'm not sure why there are cursed items in that game, it's not like having an overpowered weapon/armor/acc until you can get to a church is really a hardship. Of course Lufia 2 is one of those that uncursed items permentantly and makes the items loose some of thier effectiveness.