History Main / MagicIsRareHealthIsCheap

** ''Videogame/TalesOfGraces'' and ''VideoGame/TalesOfBerseia'' have no MP system at all, letting you fight at full power at all times ([[NintendoHard and you'll need to]]). As such, MP-restoring items never show up. ''Graces'' has a "fatigue" system where your characters use stamina for each attack, but it recharges by either using basic attacks or just standing still, so running out is just a matter of playing defense for a few moments. ''Berseria'' uses a similar system with "souls" that are granted when a party member stuns an enemy or exploits a weakness.

** In ''Videogame/TalesOfGraces'', there is no MP system at all, letting you fight at full power at all times ([[NintendoHard and you'll need to]]). There is a "fatigue" system where your characters use one point per special attack, but it recharges by either using basic attacks or just standing still, so running out is just a matter of playing defense for a few moments.

* Franchinse/{{Pokemon}}:

* In the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue first generation]] of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games, the Elixirs and Etehrs that restore PP could ''only'' be found, and not bought. They were limited in number, and once you used them up, they were ''gone,'' simple as that. (Unless you [[GoodBadBugs cheated your way to more of them with Missingno.]])
** In the [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver second generation,]] the rare "Mysteryberry," found only in a few out-of-the-way locations, could be used to restore 5 PP to a single skill of a Pokémon. However, given that some skills only ''have'' 5 PP and the "best" still tend to hover about the 10-15 PP mark, this isn't as strict as it seems.
** From the [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire third generation onward,]] Mysteryberries were replaced with Leppa berries, which have the same effects but could be grown anywhere, as much as the player wants, meaning they can always have as many as they want. Elixirs and Ethers also became buyable, but [[YourMoneyIsNoGoodHere only with the special currency of the Battle Tower that must be earned through fights.]] The Battle Tower also tends to be unavailable until the PlayableEpilogue. Interestingly, ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' had no in-game berry growing, leading to a situation not unlike that of the first generation.

* In NetHack, there are three healing potions and only one for power, meaning that healing potions are way more common by odds alone. In addition, while you automatically regain HP and Power, health recovery outstrips power recovery to the point where your ghastly wounds are stitching themselves together as you wait to build up enough power to be able to light up a room.

* In the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'', MP-restoring items do tend to be slightly more expensive than HP-restoring ones, but they are by no means uncommon. Almost every store sells them, and it's easy to burn through them from dungeon to dungeon. Many of the games also slightly restore some MP at the end of battle to prevent burning through the items. Not to mention that in some games, you recover MP simply by using regular attacks. (And since most magic users in the series fall under MagicKnight or CombatMedic, this isn't as bad as it sounds)
** In ''Videogame/TalesOfGraces'' they went the whole hog and removed TP (MP) entirely, letting you fight at full power at all times ([[NintendoHard and you'll need to]]). You will however need medicine or food items if you want to restore health or revive characters outside of battle, and even save points only restore up to 50% health (though they do revive).

* ''Videogame/SeventhDragon III: Code VFD'' offers myriad ways to restore MN (Mana): the Agent's Hack + scapegoat.exe damages one enemy and gives a generous amount of MN to each party member, Rune Knights can recharge their own MN with the zero-cost Aspir Sword skill, Fortuners have the Mana Poetry skill which regenerates the party's MN every turn for a few turns, and upgrading the shop gives access to the Mana Water series of items, which restore Mana and are stupidly cheap, the only catch being the {{Cap}} of 15 per item that is applied to all other consumable items anyway. Failing these, touching a green SavePoint, resting in the Dormitory, or resting at the [[CuteKitten cat cafe]] will fully restore everyone, MN included, for free.

* ''Videogame/SeventhDragon III: Code VFD'' offers myriad ways to restore MN (Mana): the Agent's Hack + scapegoat.exe damages one enemy and gives a generous amount of MN to each party member, Rune Knights can recharge their own MN with the zero-cost Aspir Sword skill, Fortuners have the Mana Poetry skill which regenerates the party's MN every turn for a few turns, and upgrading the shop gives access to the Mana Water series of items, which restore Mana and are stupidly cheap, the only catch being the {{Cap}} of 15 per item that is applied to all other consumable items anyway. Failing these, touching a green SavePoint or resting in the Dormitory will fully restore everyone, MN included, for free.

* ''Videogame/SeventhDragon III: Code VFD'' offers myriad ways to restore MN (Mana): the Agent's Hack + scapegoat.exe damages one enemy and gives a generous amount of MN to each party member, Fortuners have the Mana Poetry skill which regenerates the party's MN every turn for a few turns, and upgrading the shop gives access to the Mana Water series of items, which restore Mana and are stupidly cheap, the only catch being the {{Cap}} of 15 per item that is applied to all other consumable items anyway. Failing these, touching a green SavePoint or resting in the Dormitory will fully restore everyone, MN included, for free.

* ''Videogame/SeventhDragon III: Code VFD'' offers myriad ways to restore MN (Mana): the Agent's Hack + scapegoat.exe damages one enemy and gives a generous amount of MN to each party member, Fortuners have the Mana Poetry skill which regenerates the party's MN every turn for a few turns, and upgrading the shop gives access to the Mana Water series of items, which restore Mana and are stupidenously cheap, the only catch being the {{Cap}} of 15 per item that is applied to all other consumable items anyway. Failing these, touching a green SavePoint or resting in the Dormitory will fully restore everyone, MN included, for free.

* ''Videogame/SeventhDragon III: Code VFD'' offers myriad ways to restore MN (Mana): the Agent's Hack + scapegoat.exe damages one enemy and gives a generous amount of MN to each party member, Fortuners have the Mana Poetry skill which regenerates the party's MN every turn for a few turns, and upgrading the shop gives access to the Mana Water series of items, which restore Mana and are stupidenously cheap, the only catch being the {{Cap}} of 15 that is applied to all other consumable items anyway. Failing these, touching a green SavePoint or resting in the Dormitory will fully restore everyone, MN included, for free.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': Outside of the game's designated medical clinic, Nearly every one of the dozen odd in-game item shops sells HP / Health recovery items. Meanwhile, you can only get SP / Magic restoring items from vending machines, each of which only has 1 or 2 per week.

* In the ''Franchise/TalesSeries'', MP-restoring items do tend to be slightly more expensive than HP-restoring ones, but they are by no means uncommon. Almost every store sells them, and it's easy to burn through them from dungeon to dungeon. Many of the games also slightly restore some MP at the end of battle to prevent burning through the items. Not to mention that in some games, you recover MP simply by using regular attacks. (And since most magic users in the series fall under MagicKnight or CombatMedic, this isn't as bad as it sounds)

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona Q|ShadowOfTheLabyrinth}}'' makes it a balancing act. SP can only be restored with rare items or by going to the Nurse's office, [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts the price of which directly increases with each level your main character gains]]. However, characters equipped with Sub-Personas get an amount of bonus SP that they begin every fight with. In addition, getting a critical or hitting an elemental weakness puts a character in Boost mode, which allows them a round of cost free special attacks.

* In ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', your Estus Flask can heal a large amount of health 5-20 time and miracles can heal more, both of which refill every time you reach a [[HealingCheckpoint bonfire]], but nothing ''besides'' a bonfire restores uses of an Estus Flask or spell while the only other thing that restores HP is Humanity (which you're better off saving for other things). ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' added a larger number of expendable healing items and items that restore spell uses; the weakest of the former can be bought in infinite quantities after beating the first boss while the later is only sold in very limited quantities.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': Outside of Tae's medical clinic, nearly every item shop sells HP recovery items. Meanwhile, you can only get SP restoring items from vending machines, each of which only has 1 or 2 per week.

** ''VideoGame/{{Persona Q|ShadowOfTheLabyrinth}}'' makes it a balancing act. SP can only be restored with rare items or by going to the Nurse's office, [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts the price of which directly increases with each level your main character gains]]. However, characters equipped with Sub-Personas get an amount of bonus SP that they begin every fight with. In addition, getting a critical or hitting an elemental weakness puts a character in Boost mode, which allows them a round of cost free special attacks.

* In the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue first generation]] of ''{{Pokemon}}'' games, the Elixirs and Etehrs that restore PP could ''only'' be found, and not bought. They were limited in number, and once you used them up, they were ''gone,'' simple as that. (Unless you [[GoodBadBugs cheated your way to more of them with Missingno.]])

** It is, however, played more straight with the Mario-only SuperMeter that allows him to use the star skills gained from completing each level. Only sleeping and doing attacks can fill this meter. Only one item, available in the second game, can fill it up, but it comes at [[HPToOne a terrible price...]][[labelnote:*]]Unless you're using a [[GameBreaker Danger Mario or Peril Mario]] build...[[/labelnote]]

** ''VideoGame/{{Persona Q|ShadowOfTheLabyrinth}}'' makes it a balancing act. SP can only be restored with rare items or by going to the Nurse's office, [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts which adds 100 macca to the price each time you do so]]. However, characters equipped with Sub-Personas get an amount of bonus SP that they begin every fight with. In addition, getting a critical or hitting an elemental weakness puts a character in Boost mode, which allows them a round of cost free special attacks.

** In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}},'' the rare "Soul" items that restore SP can only be found from monsters and in treasure chests. The only SP-restoring items you can buy are cans of soda, and the vending machine that sells them ''can'' run out. Even then, they only restore 5 SP. Luckily, [[TheHero Yu]] can fuse Personas with the "Skill Drain" abilities, which allow him to leech a very reasonable 30-60 SP off enemies.

Games which [[AvertedTrope avert]] this trope tend to be those in which [[RegeneratingMana magic restores gradually over time]], or those games in which you are ''expected'' to [[NintendoHard need all of your tricks and skills in every battle]]. It's also commonly seen in games where the entire party [[BagOfSharing shares one magic pool]]. And some games avert it just for fun.

[[folder: Action RPG]]

[[folder: Platformer]]

[[folder: Role-Playing Games]]

** ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' mitigates this somewhat in that a number of characters in the game can use PP-less skills. Permanent party member Duster can even inflict a wide range of StandardStatusEffects whenever he wants, for no cost, and several of the [[GuestStarPartyMember guest stars]] have their own free skills. So the rarity of these items makes it less of an issue.

** ''[[VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth Persona Q]]'' makes it a balancing act. SP can only be restored with rare items or by going to the Nurse's office, [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts which adds 100 macca to the price each time you do so]]. However, characters equipped with Sub-Personas get an amount of bonus SP that they begin every fight with. In addition, getting a critical or hitting an elemental weakness puts a character in Boost mode, which allows them a round of cost free special attacks.

* In ''VideoGame/CthulhuSavesTheWorld'', you automatically jump up to full health at the end of each battle. You magic also goes up after battle, but only by a small amount based on how fast you completed the battle. Inns replenish your magic, and thankfully they're 100% free.

!!!Notable aversions:

** In the first ''DragonQuestMonsters'' game, you won't be able to buy MP-restoring items until late game.

Oftentimes, not much. Because while it is fairly easy to recover health (either through items or spells) in most [=RPGs=], magic recovery items are often much more difficult to come across. While any item shop worth its salt will stock a few healing potions (and possibly some PowerupFood), magic-restoration items may not be purchasable ''at all,'' or if they are, they're only available in specialty shops that are either out-of-the-way or which flat-out don't accept normal currency. Oftentimes, they're far less effective than healing items, too -- while a high-tier healing item might restore hundreds of HitPoints, magic-restoring items might barely scratch the double digits[[note]]Since many games tend to give you more HP than MP, it's best to compare relative values for this. If you're capped at 999 HP and 99 MP, high-end HP potions heal 500 HP, and high-end MP potions only heal around 20-30 MP, it's this trope.[[/note]].

!!Straight Examples:

!!Notable aversions:

** ''[[VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabrynth Persona Q]]'' makes it a balancing act. SP can only be restored with rare items or by going to the Nurse's office, [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts which adds 100 macca to the price each time you do so]]. However, characters equipped with Sub-Personas get an amount of bonus SP that they begin every fight with. In addition, getting a critical or hitting an elemental weakness puts a character in Boost mode, which allows them a round of cost free special attacks.

** ''VideoGame/[[PersonaQShadowOfTheLabrynth Persona Q]]'' makes it a balancing act. SP can only be restored with rare items or by going to the Nurse's office, [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts which adds 100 macca to the price each time you do so]]. However, characters equipped with Sub-Personas get an amount of bonus SP that they begin every fight with. In addition, getting a critical or hitting an elemental weakness puts a character in Boost mode, which allows them a round of cost free special attacks.