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Have the Shops Become Useless Now And...

Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Gender
Timecube
As aforementioned, I never found the shops to be completely useless, but I never found them to be the most useful installments, either. In Ocarina of Time, I only ever used them to purchase the shield (although I later refrained from doing this, seeing as it can be found in another place for free) and occasionally a potion if I was going up against a [relatively] difficult boss or something of the sort.
Nonetheless, I used them quite a bit, even a lot, in the later games; namely The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. I kind of liked how the ship-shop had a sort of 'reward system'.
And as Swiftblade mentioned, I liked stealing potion and lantern oil from the shop in the woods in Twilight Princess.

The only shop I really visited a bit more than the others, was the Curiosity Shop in Majora's Mask. I liked both the dialogue and random items there... Even if it was not that useful.
 

Mike Pothier

Lord Shaper
Joined
Apr 5, 2008
Location
Southern California
Well... shops are definitely not required unless they have a special item. I do usually make it a point to stop by a nearby shop to stock up on items before I go into a dungeon. Mostly due to laziness then anything else. Really, I could probably go through an entire game without making a single purchase and I wouldn't notice.
 

Skull_Kid

Bugaboo!
Joined
Sep 15, 2008
Location
Portugal
Apart from a few shop-only inventory items, the only game in wich I frequently use shops is Phantom Hourglass, to buy new ship parts, and treasure,and sometimes Spirit Gems... But yeah, I get the point, they're pretty useless, but are good for newer fans who tend to find the game harder than us, that way they have somewhere to grab supplies
 

bellum

Gamer since age 2
Joined
Jan 18, 2009
Location
in my house
yeah the shops were not so useful for me in OoT,maybe sometimes I would stop by the magic hags potion shop and buy a fairy or a red potion but when I'm in dungeons or other random places I can usually brake some pots to get some recovery hearts or a fairy.In PH they were more useful for me beacause I'm horrible at aiming my bombochu's and arrows and I would miss and waste more and more everytime(but now I"ma master in the art of archery for PH).I think in Loz shops were the most useful,mostly beacause I really had to buy ,myself the bombs and the candle,but I really stunk at the original loz and I had to constantly visit the shop to get a potion or something, but It gets pretty annoying having to go to the shop every 5 minutes.
 
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Location
Louisiana, USA
I used the shops in OoT many times. Usually when I had beaten a boss, I'd go back and restock on fairies because I didn't know where any of the fountains were.:D

In TP, I didn't use them too much either. I bought the Hylian Shield, the Hawk Eye, and the Magic Armor, but that was about it.
 

Y2K3

Lushier than Mercy!
Joined
Apr 14, 2008
Location
Newfoundland, Canada
Like some people have mentioned, I usually only go to the shops if it's for something that I can really only get there (eg, shield). I rarely go otherwise, cause I can usually get everything else quite easily by killing enemies/smashing posts, etc... and it's free!
 

El Bagu

Wannabe Mr. 1-8-1
Joined
Jul 5, 2008
Location
In Woods. N of River!
The same here. I do not wanna spend rupees on something that could be found elsewhere. In WW as someone mentioned some things were necessary to purchase. I believe the same thing should be for other games (also in LoZ you had to purchase an item and probably in more games but my head would ache if I should think about them all). I believe that every game should have some items that was only to be found in shops, items that was necessary to proceed. And I believe they should be expensive!
 

DvSag

The Void in the Triforce
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Location
New Jersey
If you ask me, there are quite a few reasons shops have become useless. For instance:

1) The game isn't as hard. When you constantly have full health, and aren't dying as often, you never find the need to stock up on potions or assisting weapons like arrows and bombs.

2) Your magic meter isn't there. At least it wasn't there in TP and PH. Not having an extra meter to replenish means there's one less thing to worry about while you're in the shops.

3) Puzzles require you use more of your head, and less of your supplies. Remember in the old days when puzzles required you to find a large quiver or bomb bag just so you'd have enough utilities to squeeze by? Occasionally you'd run out of ways to obtain these necessary weapons and you'd have to run out to the nearest store before you progressed in your dungeon. Now a days puzzles only require you to shoot a handful of arrows or a pocket full of bombs, and inbetween each use they replenish you substantially.

4) Somebody keeps replenishing the pots and skulls... I'm currently playing through TP and ALttP simultaneously, and I must say the pot and skull situation has gotten weirder. I was ok back in the day when I first realized somebody kept putting the pots and skulls back into the rooms I had just ransacked and left. Feng Shui and interior decoration is very important to some people.

But it seems that that whoever is doing this job now hasn't realized that I'm stealing the things they put in their pots and skulls. I guess they just think they're misplacing these things by accident and putting them back before mom gets home and notices. If we want to spend more time in the shops, then we have to lose the bottomless free mid-dungeon vending machines.

5) These newfangled gizmos and gadgets are all self-sustaining. What I'm saying is that we need more weapons that require ammunition to use. Everything they make now has infinite uses, and that's putting stores out of business! This is also applicable to my "magic meter" portion. Let's say the Spinner needed magic to attack, and the Dominion Rod needed magic for every use, and the Iron Boots used magic to become magnetized. That would certainly make you feel the need to keep a few extra green potions in your bottles.

6) Give the items more mileage! Temples only require, like, two items and your sword for the whole time you're there. Maybe if you needed to use a few more arrows and bombs along the way to open doors and solve puzzles you'd spend more time in the shops before hand. Why did they even include the Slingshot in this game? You use it for 3 minutes after you first buy it, and then never use it again.

7) The enemy AI can be killed by your sword in every situation. Sure items make battles easier, but remember back in the day when you couldn't kill every enemy with your sword? I'm not saying make the sword useless, I'm just saying that maybe you should run into a few baddies that can't be killed the old fashioned way and require a bit of thought instead of mindless sword slashing to subdue.


On this note, I would just like to say how perfect the oil lantern is for this subject. It's got its own source of fuel, and you can't find a bottle for it every 5 steps you take so you've got to get to a shop every now and then to refuel it. The only problem is that dungeons don't have that many dark rooms, so you only really need it at the beginning of the game, in the desert temple, and at a few other small moments during the game. But boy, if the Zelda team makes more of the items like the lantern, then shops will have no trouble down the road.

Also, if they implemented useful items that broke on occasion, or made a blacksmith shop to forge your sword, making it stronger but can ultimately wear down back to its original state, then that would also give you incentive to visit stores on occasion.
 

Kybyrian

Joined
Jan 31, 2008
Location
Amherst, MA
Gender
Didn't I already answer this one?
I think the shops were quite useful in a lot of the games aside from Ocarina of Time. They're more useful early on than they are later, though, because you seem to get a lot more for some reason later in the game.
 

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