History Main / UselessItem

* The original UsefulNotes/{{NES}} version of ''VideoGame/{{Final Fantasy|I}}'' suffers from numerous internal bugs that include rendering certain spells (LOCK and XFER, for example) absolutely useless, and ignoring attack bonuses for weapons that were intended to be elemental or monster-specific (Giant Sword vs. giants, Were Sword vs. werebeasts, etc.). %%NOTE: Vox/AMUT is not an example, the game contains four enemies which can inflict Silence upon the player, not zero.

* The UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor version of ''VideoGame/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' gives you themed rewards for completing each section of the Famous Witches and Wizards Cards collection. The reward for collecting all "Potions" cards is, predictably, several of every potion in the game. One of these potions is Polyjuice Potion, which exists only because the plot requires you to brew some at one point -- but you never obtain it ''as an item'' when doing this, and having the item in your inventory doesn't allow you to short-circuit this plot segment, or indeed do anything at all.

* ''VideoGame/TombRaiderI'' has the compass, which has no use whatsoever since the levels are mostly linear and are impossible to get lost in. Later games removed the item, but it comes back as UI element instead of an item in ''VideoGame/TombRaiderTheLastRevelation'' where its only use is to help trigger cheat codes.

* The earliest releases of ''Spellfire'' had a plethora of Ally cards that offered pathetically small combat bonuses and had no special abilities whatsoever. Since all Ally cards in ''Spellfire'' have the same cost and Allies were at the time the weakest card type in the game, there was never any reason anyone would ''ever'' put one in a deck. The reprints gave these cards special abilities.

** The Moon Ball in ''Gold/Silver/Crystal'' is supposed to be good at catching Pokémon that evolve with a Moon Stone. Since only a select few species evolve this way, this alone makes it too absurdly specific to be useful. However, the game checks for the Moon Ball's index number from the first generation of games, which in the second generation is Burn Heal instead. Since obviously no Pokémon evolves with a Burn Heal, the Moon Ball never has a catch rate higher than a regular Poké Ball. The remakes fixed this.

** The Moon Ball in ''Gold/Silver/Crystal'' is supposed to be good at catching Pokémon that evolve with a Moon Stone. Since only a select few species evolve this way, this alone makes it too absurdly specific to be useful. What ''really'' makes it useless is that the developers goofed and instead made it have a higher catch rate on Pokémon that evolve with a Burn Heal (read: no Pokémon), essentially making it a glorified Poké Ball. The remakes fixed this.

* "VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime" has the Stone of Agony, which showed hidden secrets nearby if you had the Rumble Pack in the original N64 version. If you didn't have it, the item was useless, and in the Master Quest rerelease for the Game Cube, there was no Rumble Pack anymore, making the item indeed completely useless.

** You are forced to carry the Mars Star for the ''entirety'' of the game. It takes up one of your very limited inventory slots, cannot be dropped or sold, and does absolutely nothing aside from have some plot relevance. [[spoiler:You end up handing it over to the BigBag in a HostageForMacGuffin scenario, right before the FinalBoss, without it doing anything aside from sit in your pocket.]]

Compare/contrast UselessUsefulSpell, JokeItem, CosmeticAward, and ElementalRockPaperScissors. See also AntidoteEffect, where it's strategic concerns that make something useless rather than programming ones.

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has Real Knife and the Locket, which up your ATTACK and DEFENCE by 99 each. Not only are they only obtained towards the end of the Genocide Route, but when you do get them, the only enemy left in the game that ''can be fought at all'', [[spoiler: Sans]], has 1 HP, 1 ATK, and 1 DEF (the fight also changes the rules so stats ultimately don't matter), thus making the boosts given by the items ''completely useless''. Unlike most other examples of this trope, this is very deliberate: hopefully being an OmnicidalManiac who genocided the entire Underground was worth it for a couple of items that grant only cosmetic numerical bonuses, YouBastard

* For the ''Sonic & Knuckles'' part of ''VideoGame/Sonic3&Knuckles'' the BubbleShield[='s=] ability to negate drowning never comes into play because all underwater areas are only found in the ''Sonic 3'' portion, which has water in every Zone except Marble Garden. Sonic's bubble bounce ability with the shield is still present for him but for Tails or Knuckles wearing the shield after Launch Base reduces its effect to that of the first two games' basic shield.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun1'': In Vault, a woman at the inn will give you a leftover bone if you ask for it, which you can then give to a dog who'll show you the entrance to a BonusDungeon. You can keep getting bones, but there is no further use for them, and they can't be dropped or sold.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'': In Vault, a woman at the inn will give you a leftover bone if you ask for it, which you can then give to a dog who'll show you the entrance to a BonusDungeon. You can keep getting bones, but there is no further use for them, and they can't be dropped or sold.

* The earliest releases of ''Spellfire'' had a plethora of Ally cards that offered pathetically small combat bonuses and had no special abilities whatsoever. Since all Ally cards in ''Spellfire'' have the same cost and Allies were at the time the weakest card type in the game, there was never any reason anyone would ''ever'' put one in a deck. Unsurprising, as due to ExecutiveMeddling the game was [[ObviousBeta barely tested]]; the reprints gave these cards special abilities.