History Main / ItemCrafting

[[caption-width-right:214:[-Baking made easy!- -(Finding the resources was hard enough...)-] ]]

[[caption-width-right:214:[-Baking made easy! (Finding the resources was hard enough...)-] ]]

[[caption-width-right:214:[-Baking made easy!-] ]]

* Probably the only way to get useful gear in ''ThroneOfDarkness'', is to make it yourself. The complex ItemCrafting system was one of the few original and truly appealing features the game had.

* Most of the higher level or more effective equipment in ''BattleStations'' is crafted using rare items which have outlived further usefulness.

** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' greatly expands the crafting system seen in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''. The crafting system is now primarily based on your level in certain skills, Repair and the new Survival skill being the requirements for the majority of recipes. It's a bit more balanced too; There's less blueprints and the really strong recipes require high skill levels. New Vegas also introduces cooking (allowing for superior food items to be made with the various raw ingredients around the game world) and handloading (allowing for ammo to be broken down into raw materials, collecting empty casings from hunting and firefights and reloading them, and building more powerful or specialized ammo types). A good survivalist will be able to save a lot of caps on food and ammunition by hunting and recycling empty casings/spent power cells.

* ''VideoGame/NappleTale'' does not concern itself with upgrading the heroine's gear, but the player can craft {{Mon}}s to expand her abilities. The process is rather...whimsical.
** Step one: collect recipes. Step two: use the special decoding machine to break items dropped by monsters into...[[MadeOfPhlebotinum ideas]]? Pictographs? Something like that; the game calls it MIS. Step three: follow the recipes to reassemble ("remix" in ''Napple Tale'' parlance) MIS into floating, cuddly creatures that shoot [[RazorWind shockwaves]] or turn into bridges.

* In ''{{Overlord}}'', it is possible to make weapons and armor, and upgrade them with [[PoweredByAForsakenChild lives of your minions]]. Since Overlord doesn't get any levels, it is the only way to do LevelGrinding (because the process of getting new minions is very similar).
* ''{{Castlevania}}'': ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Dawn of Sorrow]]'' uses this for many weapons. Weapons can be upgraded into new forms thanks to Yoko by fusing them with soul abilities (which act as subweapons and magic in this game). Souls and weapons often require grinding, which can become a frustrating mechanic. Some weapons use boss souls, which only appear once! It becomes a case of whether you want to go further up the chain, or keep a potentially useful ability (or upgrade, then grind for the soul again). This soul fusion is the only way to get many of the best weapons, or at least ones above "mediocre" level.

* ''CastlevaniaCurseOfDarkness'' has such a system which can be used to craft weapons ranging from [[JokeWeapon joke weapons]] to [[InfinityPlusOneSword extremely powerful weapons]]. There is also a system for creating your Innocent Devils.

* In ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', many items in the Shop must be bought with both items and gil. This is called Trading in the game, but you'll probably notice that, usually, the items you need to trade can logically act as ingredients for the purchase. An ItemCrafting system by any other name...
** It was actually called "Synthesis" in the Japanese version.

* ''DeadRising2'' features combo weapons, made by [[DuctTapeForEverything duct-taping]] other weapons together. Examples include [[ChainsawGood a kayak paddle with a chainsaw on each end]], [[WolverineClaws Knife Gloves]], a LaserBlade, and even a motorized wheelchair with machine guns and a robotic voice that taunts your enemies.

** The "Tech 2" module item class is a class of items unique to EVEOnline, and there is no analogous item class in other MMOs. It provides similar performance to faction modules(i.e. rare items/minor artifacts) but has a steeper skill requirement and is slightly more difficult to use than faction modules. While the supply of faction modules are scarce and unstable because they are mostly dropped from [[EliteMooks commander rats]] or purchased from [=NPCs=], Tech 2 modules are entirely manufactured by players and thus the only limiting factor(bottle neck) of supply is the influx of Tech 2 base materials. Combined with the fact that modules and ships get destroyed on a regular basis and must be resupplied periodically, it has achieved a status similar to standardized military gear; an easily identifiable, cost effective package that provides reasonable performance and can be mass produced. (And yes, some items do perform notably worse than their NPC dropped equivalents, making them comparable to the Volkssturmgewehr assault rifle or the dreaded "Ham and Lima Beans" C-Ration package.) It is no surprise that Tech 2 modules serve as a yard stick of both player skill and module performance.

* ''BatenKaitos''... good lord. The best weapons are found in treasure chests (and many common drops are also far stronger than the best weapons that can be created through ItemCrafting), but the best ''healing'' items...
** Then there's the PacMan sidequest in ''Origins'', where you have to feed a PacMan magnus ''every other magnus that is not plot necessary''. Oh, and to keep PacMan from eating every other magnus, you have to surround him with plot necessary magnus. Granted, the reward for ''that'' sidequest is the biggest GameBreaker imaginable.

* ''BatenKaitos''...good lord. The best weapons are found in treasure chests (and many common drops are also far stronger than the best weapons that can be created through ItemCrafting), but the best ''healing'' items...

** Returned again in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX''.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' has this, and the GaidenGame, ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld'', has it even more annoying, in that not only are you utilizing random drops to get these items, the most powerful forms of your [[{{Mons}} monstrous allies]] can only be acquired using equipment that must be specifically crafted...using an item that only appears once as anything other than a random drop...and the enemies that it's a random drop for can only be found in an area that can only be reached on a NewGamePlus. Why must you annoy us so?
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' was worse by far. Some of the best armor in the game required you to search specific points on the world map for items of different rarities. One characters titles could get you specific rarities easily, so that wasn't so bad. But giving the items to one person who didn't tell you what you could make until after they were given, adding them to a pool, with all items having specific requirements to be met, some requiring almost hundreds of items to have a ''chance'' at, and two or three items with the same requirements, one often being fairly easy to get while the other could only be gotten by that method. It was a horrible case of GuideDangIt.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' has a shop where you can use stuff that RandomlyDrops from enemies to improve your items, making them tougher (shields are breakable in this game) and sometimes adding new abilities.

* ''FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles'' has "scrolls", which have materials listed on them. Taking them to a specific shop with said materials allowed crafting of a specific item, with a chance of it being better than normal. Gems can optionally be added for various effects, resulting in many possible versions of each item. Finding some of the materials may result in GuideDangIt, however.
** Gets really weird with the NewGamePlus system, where you get items identical in appearance and similar in name & scroll, but with different materials and stats. Especially confusing with "Dragonlike", "Dragonish", "Dracolord", and "Dragon God" armors, which are all variations on the standard Dragoon outfit in the [[FinalFantasy Main Series]].

* ''VideoGame/EvilIslands'': Taken UpToEleven in this game, as you have to craft even ''spells''. Also disassemble a suit of armor and then assemble the metal into a sword and a helmet.
* ''{{Kingdoms Of Amalur Reckoning}}'' has one for making weapons, armor and items. Can reach {{Gamebreaker}} levels when used right. Oddly enough encouraged by the game as [[KarlMarxHatesYourGuts every store is VERY expensive when it comes armor and weapons]] and your first playthrough will consist of mostly grabbing any weapon or armor you find of enemies to get components for blacksmithing and pick herbs to make potions while selling anything you have no need for.

** Returned again in ''DragonQuestIX''.

* Indie MMORPG ''Wurm Online'' takes this concept UpToEleven; ''everything'' can be crafted, and indeed has to be unless you want to try earning money on someone's big construction project. Yes, it actually simulates ''grueling manual labour''.