Object permanence and object placement in video games is weird. One second, weapons your avatar carries are mysteriously absent; the next, they are blazing a path through an army of ninjas. Rarely do heroes have no bulk or weight limit. Even less common is a hero whose actions are affected by addition weight or bulk.
A few classic examples... Solid Snake and Duke Nuke'em switch between bazookas and shotguns in seconds. I don't know about you, but I probably couldn't hold a rocket launcher upright much less drag it around. One scene in Chrono Trigger, Crono is imprisoned. He escapes by smashing his katana's pommel into a guard's head that he lured into his cell. A believable escape plan, except for the fact that he has a katana in his jail cell . How did that get it there? The heroes of the Phantasy Star series have items that, when used, allow them to jump inside vehicles and cruise their planet's many surfaces. Strange that a LandRovr (a treaded tank-like vehicle that five people fit inside) takes up the same amount of item space as a Potion. The absurdity is astounding. For example...
A glance at a well known hero's inventory:
- A sword
- A shield
- A bow
- A quiver full of arrows
- A bag full of bombs
- A bug catching net
- Bottles with various things inside
- Flippers
- A really big hammer
- Books
- Medallions
- A hookshot
- Musical instruments
- Lots of Masks
- A bigger sword
- A hat
- Iron boots
- Some gloves
- Triforces
- The biggest sword
- A boomerang
Yet... We readily suspend our disbelief. Even games that strive for reality are blatantly nonchalant about it. One of the most hilarious/ridiculous/stupid scenes in Final Fantasy X is when Yuna pulls a staff almost as tall as her right out of her wedding dress .
One of Sierra's good old quest games, Space Quest 6, satirically addresses this phenomenon. The hero, Roger Wilco, and the nameless narrator exchange witty banter throughout most of the game. In one episode, Roger goes to pick up a huge wooden plank about twice the length of his body. The conversation that ensues went something like this:
Narrator: "Roger, you can't carry that with you. It's too big."
Roger: "Ha! Just watch!"
Roger proceeds to pick up the long wooden plank, open the front of his pants, and drops the entire thing in.
Narrator: "..."
Narrator: "......."
Narrator: "You must have a lot of free space down there."
Thus, one theory is that most video game characters have a mystical portal to Al's Storage Bin somewhere around their crotch. All the swords, bombs, money, pistols, infinite ammo, bazookas, and vehicles are stashed in their pants.
On an ironic note- The games that actually try to employ a realistic item limit or weight system are usually annoying. In the Breath of Fire series, the penalty that lowers agility for wearing heavy equipment adds little to the game except headaches. Not being able to hold more than 4 Cups of Life in Secret of Mana is a damn nuisance. Late in Earthbound, the group of heroes is so laden with weapons, armor, and vital items, players are often forced to discard things they would have otherwise kept. Various times I've gone to my filled up inventory in Super Mario RPG to find most of my space taken up by unnecessary healing items (which I promptly begin to drop). With these kinds of annoyances, I wonder if gratuitous disregard for the physics of carrying things in video games should continue to be ignored.