History Main / UseItem

* Also averted in ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER|1}}'', where items have both a Use ''and'' an Eat command. There is a difference - for example, eating a loaf of bread obviously eats it, but using it will start [[TrailOfBreadCrumbs dropping bread crumbs]] behind you. Using the bread crumbs in your inventory will warp you right back.
** Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' (''Mother 2'') when attempting to Use the Insignificant Item. The resulting message neither elaborates on the nature of the item nor explains how it is used. (However it's used, the item is not consumed in the process-- fortunately, since it can be traded for an item that actually accomplishes something.)

* [=MMORPGs=] in general usually have items like this, such as crystals, medals and scrolls that can be used for various purposes including improving gear or providing you with attribute bonuses. Right click the item to use. The usual handwave is that the items contain a piece of single-use magic that is released by "using" the item.

-->-- '''Rolf''', ''Conversations Within Elsydeon''

-->-- '''Rolf''', ''[[http://www.phantasy-star.net/cwe/conversations3.html Conversations Within Elsydeon]]''

* Averted somewhat in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead''; when you use a medkit, the camera switches to third person to show your character actually bandaging themselves up.

** Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'' (''Mother 2'') when attempting to Use the Insignificant Item. The resulting message neither elaborates on the nature of the item nor explains how it is used. (However it's used, the item is not consumed in the process-- fortunately, since it can be traded for an item that actually accomplishes something.)
* In ''Zombie Smashers X2'' (a beat-em-up like River City Ransom), your character is depicted as eating everything that he buys in shops. Including cigarettes.

** Probably intentional: in ''River City Ransom'' your character would happily eat the food he purchased without bothering to separate it from the plate/bowl first.

*** To quote the game: ''Augmented agents have been equipped with an interface that allows them to transparently absorb energy from bioelectric cells.- Jaime Reyes, UNATCO OPS FILE NOTE JR289-VIOLET''. In other words, JC rubs his face into them.

* The Game Gear game ''Defenders of Oasis'' brings us a number of these. Upgrade items for the Genie include Plating, Gilding, and Crystal, all of which are somehow used on his lamp, without tools. Then, there's the magical stones "F. Stone" and "H. Stone", which, despite you [[GuideDangIt never being told this]], are used thusly: You have to equip a character with a ''hilt'' as a weapon, then use one of these items on them. This ''somehow'' creates a weapon by adding the stone to the hilt, creating a blade. Best guess is, [[AWizardDidIt the Genie did it]].

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the top-down shooter ''Crimsonland''. Normal powerups are activated by being run over. A "perk" obtained by killing enough of the swarming monsters gives you a bandage to restore some health. How do you stop to bandage yourself when there are a thousand aliens and zombies tearing for your throat? From the perk description: ''Here, eat this bandage.''

* The ''FanFic/ChristianHumberReloaded'' [[http://chr.nerdramblingz.com/kriegsaffes-chr-autopsy/ autopsy]] jokes about this:

* Averted by VideoGame/TheSims games; Sims are given an array of realistic uses for objects instead of just given "Use." The only exception is the toilet, for obvious reasons.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' has stat-raising items and promotion items. Each can be 'used' to increase the user's stats- though how certain items (or combinations of item and user) work are best left to the imagination.
** The Magic increaser in [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius the Tellius games]] is called 'Spirit Dust'. It's probably sprinkled over something- the question is 'what'.

* ''[[VideoGame/TaiyouNoShindenAstekaII Tombs & Treasure]]'' on NES doesn't have an "Equip" command, so if you want to use the sword in your inventory during a battle, you have to select it with the "Use" command first. If you just select "Attack", you're fighting the monster with your bare fists. The game, at least, does [[LampshadeHanging poke some fun]] at the ubiquitous "Use" command -- the icon for it is a man scratching his head with a "?" next to him.

* Averted and lampshaded by ''VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' text game. You can "use" many items that should have more specific verbs, but you can also use many other actions, often with humorous results.

Fortunately, for the purposes of a videogame, all of these are verbs are generally accessed through a single command: By selecting the item in question and hitting "'''Use'''". Exactly what happens next? [[CaptainObvious Something useful]]! Sure, that NPC may have instructed you only to "use" a sword, or a crystal, or a medal when you get to the appropriate spot, but they didn't exactly tell you ''how'', did they? Because the player doesn't need to know; all they need to do is select it in the Items menu and their characters will do the rest.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' has many items that are 'use'd. This even includes several items whose use is to be combined with each other, such as clingwrap or duct tape. Other 'uses' are to read things, assemble or disassemble charm bracelets, open cases, and cash cheques. And that's not even getting into items whose 'use' command winds up meaning things like "hold out in the open, attracting a random antique coin enthusiast", "dump contents of box into well and disassemble box for its parts", "pay currency to mercenary so it will attack", or the infamous "[[TheyMightBeGiants make a hole with a gun perpendicular to the name of this town in your opponent with this item]]".

** Enchanted items work just like this in ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''.

* ''[[TaiyouNoShindenAstekaII Tombs & Treasure]]'' on NES doesn't have an "Equip" command, so if you want to use the sword in your inventory during a battle, you have to select it with the "Use" command first. If you just select "Attack", you're fighting the monster with your bare fists. The game, at least, does [[LampshadeHanging poke some fun]] at the ubiquitous "Use" command -- the icon for it is a man scratching his head with a "?" next to him.

Common in InteractiveFiction, ''except'' for anything written by InfoCom or Legend, which will snarkily reject "use sword" just as they reject "look sword" (which yields a query whether you want to look at, through, or inside it). On the other hand, they ''do'' accept convoluted sentences like "drink all bottles except the blue then put it in the large bag"...

* In ''Franchise/TalesSeries'' games, the main healing items are not potions, but 'gummies' or 'gels', depending on which word the translators have chosen to use. [[{{Fanfic}} Fanfic writers]] differ on whether they're oral or topical. Some writers show eating the item, others show spreading the item on a wound, and some use either depending on the situation.

* Averted by TheSims games; Sims are given an array of realistic uses for objects instead of just given "Use." The only exception is the toilet, for obvious reasons.

* ''{{Pokemon}}'' has the [=TMs=], or Technical Machines, used once to give a Pokemon a move. Just what the hell these things even looked like was complete mystery. When items finally got depictions in the third generation, it was decided that they look like [=CDs=]... which still didn't explain how they were used. Fire Red and Leaf Green had an ''extremely'' generic "use item" animation for all items; in the case of [=TMs=] it hilariously looked like it worked by ''stapling'' the [=CD=] to the Pokemon's head.
* {{Lampshaded}} in the top-down shooter ''Crimsonland''. Normal powerups are activated by being run over. A "perk" obtained by killing enough of the swarming monsters gives you a bandage to restore some health. How do you stop to bandage yourself when there are a thousand aliens and zombies tearing for your throat? From the perk description: ''Here, eat this bandage.''
* Averted and lampshaded by VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy text game. You can "use" many items that should have more specific verbs, but you can also use many other actions, often with humorous results.

-->What do you mean you "used your will power?" Did you seriously just make your fucking Will save (or rather initially have your Will defense hit, and then finally rolled a 10 or higher on your save) and wash your hands of the Gods of Chaos? How did you use your willpower? And why didn't you use it earlier? Text games, motherfucking text games, won't even let you just type USE (X), because USE is such a vague and all-purpose verb. It ranks up there with "feeling your thing rise up" in terms of vagueness. Good Lord. He USE'd his Willpower, and that was it.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' had some weapons that would cast spells if you "USE"d it in battle. These include wands and swords. One imagines you just have to wave it around vaguely and the bad guys would get zapped by lightning.
** The original ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' also averted one aspect - "USE" (for items) and "DRINK" (for potions) were different actions.
*** And no, [=USEing=] a potion did not have any effect. Presumably, the character pulls a bottle out of his pocket and waves it in the general direction of his enemies.
*** I've got a bottle of potion! I've got a bottle of potion, and guess what's inside it!
**** [[CaptainObvious Potion?]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'' the MMORPG averts this trope while still having a USE option for all items. The USE is actually "[[ICantUseTheseThingsTogether USE X]] [[ItemCrafting with Y]]".
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in VideoGame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland: Half the time, trying to USE a wooden, prosthetic hand with nothing will make Guybrush passive-aggressively wave the arm around in the air and say "I'm using the hand!"

* In ''{{Lands of Lore}}: The Throne of Chaos'', items are generically "used" by right-clicking them on a character's portrait. Sometimes the uses are fairly obvious, but there are some pretty arcane objects in the game, like the Bezel Cup, which heals a character and can be used as many times as there are gems embedded in the cup. Do you drink out of it? The cup appears to be empty, so what are you drinking? And why does drinking use up a gem? Not to mention some of the stranger items, like Vaelan's Cube or The Whole Truth.

* In ''TalesSeries'' games, the main healing items are not potions, but 'gummies' or 'gels', depending on which word the translators have chosen to use. [[{{Fanon}} Fanfic writers]] differ on whether they're oral or topical. Some writers show eating the item, others show spreading the item on a wound, and some use either depending on the situation.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' has this twice-over; the "Item" command, which every character possesses, allows use of normal items (e.g. Potions, Phoenix Down), while a Special ability called "Use" (which Rikku starts with) allows use of special items (e.g. Fire Gems, Light Curtains - basically, items that contain spells, or different types of Grenade). Oddly, a special type of potion - Al Bhed Potion to be precise - falls under "Use" instead of "Item", despite functioning identically to every other type of potion in-game.

* ''VideoGame/FearEffect''.

* Many ''DungeonsAndDragons''-derived [=RPGs=] have equipment that also functions something like magic wands, such as a magical shield that you can also "use" to cast a blessing once a day.

* In ''IllusionOfGaia'', equipping a Red Jewel and pressing the "use item" button will cause the jewel to "fly to the Jeweler Gem in a flash of light!" and a small twinkle will fly around and off the screen. What exactly Will does to make the jewels do that is left to the player's imagination.

* ''{{Final Fantasy X}}'' has this twice-over; the "Item" command, which every character possesses, allows use of normal items (e.g. Potions, Phoenix Down), while a Special ability called "Use" (which Rikku starts with) allows use of special items (e.g. Fire Gems, Light Curtains - basically, items that contain spells, or different types of Grenade). Oddly, a special type of potion - Al Bhed Potion to be precise - falls under "Use" instead of "Item", despite functioning identically to every other type of potion in-game.

* FearEffect.

Fortunately, for the purposes of a videogame, all of these are verbs are generally accessed through a single command: By selecting the item in question and hitting "'''Use'''". Exactly what happens next? Something useful! Sure, that NPC may have instructed you only to "use" a sword, or a crystal, or a medal when you get to the appropriate spot, but they didn't exactly tell you ''how'', did they? Because the player doesn't need to know; all they need to do is select it in the Items menu and the characters know the rest.

Obviously, potions are something you drink, food is something you eat, lanterns are lit, ointments rubbed, and so on. But what verb do you associate with, say, a swiss army knife?[[note]](Which can cut, saw, scissor, screw/unscrew, pry, file/rasp, etc; what ''exactly'' do you want it to do?)[[/note]]

Obviously, potions are supposed to be drunk, food is supposed to be eaten, lanterns are supposed to be lit, ointments are supposed to be rubbed, and so on. However, for the purposes of the game, all of these are generally done by simply selecting them in the item menu (or, if this merely results in a sub-menu opening up, selecting "Use").

The interesting bit is when this also applies to ''other'' items. You may be instructed by an NPC to use a sword, or a crystal, or a medal, but damned if they're going to tell you ''how'' to use it, because the player doesn't need to know, all they need to do is select it in the Items menu.

This also applies to ''any'' game where items have a use that may be obvious, but not ''how'' you'd use them in a real-world situation. How exactly does Gordon Freeman in ''HalfLife'' use those medkits? Or the medical stations, for that matter?

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in EscapeFromMonkeyIsland: Half the time, trying to USE a wooden, prosthetic hand with nothing will make Guybrush passive-aggressively wave the arm around in the air and say "I'm using the hand!"

* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' has many items that are 'use'd. This even includes several items whose use is to be combined with each other, such as clingwrap or duct tape. Other 'uses' are to read things, assemble or disassemble charm bracelets, open cases, and cash cheques.