TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Item Compendium

Go To

Item Compendium (trope)

A game that uses Flavor Text intends that text to be read, but they're usually tied to items that you can sell, discard, or use up, so they're hard to read whenever you want.

Unless you have something that records information of all the stuff you've gathered. That's what an "Item Compendium" is. It might even store a copy of the appearances of said item, to show them off too, and if so, might also be a full-on Model Museum.

Achieving 100% Completion on an Item Compendium (i.e. registering every item in the game) can be challenging if certain items are obtained through Random Drops, and especially if they're Permanently Missable Content drops from one-time bosses. Fortunately, completing the Compendium is always optional, although some games may actually reward the player (in some manner) for full completion, such as in an Achievement System, maybe as That One Achievement.

Often part of a much broader Lore Codex with its sister, Monster Compendium, unless there are no monsters. See also All There in the Manual for information not being stored in-game, but well, in the manual.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Action Game 
  • Jet Force Gemini: The Weapons log, accessible from the pause menu, provides a detailed description of each weapon obtained so far by the current character, as well as its current ammo and max capacity (the latter of which can be upgraded with certain pickups). Humorously, the Fish Food is also recorded here, and its description reflects the player's disappointment over its lack of utility.

    Puzzle Game 
  • Bloons Pop: The Bloonspedia, in addition to describing the different monkeys and bloons, contains descriptions of the various powerups you've encountered so far.

    Real-Time Strategy 
  • Pikmin
    • Pikmin 2: The Treasure Hoard is a list of all Treasures that you have collected so far, with journal entries written by Olimar as he attempts to understand and log the things he finds on post-apocalyptic Earth as a less than 1-inch tall non-academic.
      Olimar (an entry about a rubber duck): "The first time I laid eyes on this hideous treasure, I thought it was a giant aquatic monster! It took me several terror-filled seconds to realize that it's just an ugly statue."
    • Pikmin 4: The feature returns as the Treasure Catalog, this time with notes written by the treasure appraiser Schnauz, Olimar, and the ever-deranged and hungry Louie.

    Roguelike 
  • Balatro: The collection has information for every aspect of the gameplay, from the bosses, to the skip tags, the consumable cards, the booster packs, and every single one of the 150 jokers once you've obtained them at least once.

    Role-Playing Game 
  • Hero & Daughter has a list of all the collectible items, along with their Flavor Text, sale costs and the stat changes they apply.
  • Hogwarts Legacy: An in-game encyclopedia describes each plant, animal part, cloth and potion present in the game.
  • miHoYo-made games tend to have big archives storing information about the world to review at your leisure:
    • Genshin Impact: Genshin Impact contains the utterly massive Archive, with paragraphs of description written for just about every item obtainable in the game. This is on top of the flavor text given in the player's inventory. And if the player wants even more information, they can also find excerpts from in-game books and pieces of literature to read during their spare time as well. These features help add to the game's infamy as being incredibly text-thick.
    • Honkai: Star Rail: There's Archives of information that updates for just about everything the player does, finds, and collects.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom: The Notebook gives overviews on both monster echoes and object echoes such as beds and pots.
  • Mega Man Battle Network: The Chip Libraries are lists of all the battle chips collected during the game. Starting from the second game, the Library also includes Program Advances, powerful moves activated by selecting 3 or more battle chips in a specific order.
  • The Other: Rosie's Road of Love: The Item Book of the Starting Equipment, a counterpart of the Monster Compendium "Monster Book".
  • Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale: There's an "Item Encyclopedia" accessible from the Start Screen.
  • Risk of Rain 2: The Logbook has a section for items that have been collected by the player, each of which containing its effects, the number of times it has been collected, and some Flavor Text regarding the item’s lore.
  • The World Is Your Weapon: The items list stores their description, their attack stats, and their appearance.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles: Both Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and Xenoblade Chronicles X have the Collectopedia, which tasks the player with gathering materials found across the game to catalogue them. Finishing up a specific set of collectibles will reward the player with a useful item.

    Simulation Game 
  • Stardew Valley: Stardew Valley contains the Collection, which lists all items the player has shipped by placing them in the Shipping Bin or Mini-Shipping Bin.
  • Nearly every Story of Seasons has a collection of all the crops, animal produce, bugs/critters caught, and items foraged and collected in the game. This is often on a bookshelf in the house.

    Visual Novel 
  • In Coffee Talk, there are 30 special drinks that are discoverable in your Brewpad and 55 in Episode 2, and there's an achievement for finding them all.
  • The February 27, 2025 update of Tavern Talk added a gallery for all the trinkets your patrons give you across multiple saves.

    Wide-Open Sandbox 
  • The catalogue in No Man's Sky has a page listing descriptions for items the player has collected in their journey. Some item entries allow pinning the search for a specific resource into the quest log, even scanning nearby star systems for it.

    Unsorted 
  • Colorgrave Universe:
    • Both Prodigal and Veritus will have the majority of items obtained still remain visible in your inventory after you've used up all of them, with an indicator saying how many of said item you have, so that you can view their descriptions at any time (which are from the unspeaking protagonist's point of view, downplaying Heroic Mime). The latter game has some exceptions with the food buffs, picks, and boots, but most of these can be viewed in other places within the game.
    • Curse Crackers: For Whom The Belle Toils heavily downplays this as you are only allowed to carry one item with you at a time... unless it's the ingredients that Claire requests, which will remain visible on the pause screen even after you've given them to her.
  • One Step From Eden has a Library of the Spells and Artifacts in the game, where the effects and names are unlocked from being Level-Locked Loot, although the Flavor Text is always visible, at least when the Library's not opened with Readability being On.
  • Pet Simulator 99 has an index for pets, enchants, booths, and hoverboards, where when you collect one of the items listed, they stop being shadowed.
  • The Wario series:
  • In Window Garden, your Plant Journal tracks all the plants you've collected so far and lists how much water and sunlight they need and how frequently they need to be watered. There are 121 plants in all.

Top