Odd prices in games.

[Spiritmaster]

I recently picked Dark Souls up, and when I (finally) found the first merchant, I saw that arrows were 10 souls each, which from a game balance perspective made sense, but I couldn't help but chuckle at the notion of ten human lives/deaths being equivalent to a one time use consumable. Which got me thinking, the economies in lots of games seem really strange when you factor out balance, so what items in games do you guys think are bizarrely priced? (low, high, type of currency used for the type of item purchased etc.)

Captcha: Fair of foul
Oddly appropriate.

 

[Launcelot111]

Your Dark Souls example also raises the question of why one undead has the souls of several hundred people within him.

One case that pops up in my head is the special costume armor in Persona 3 Portable that actually change your appearance. I get that people will be all over them and that prices should be accordingly adjusted to create an air of achievement when you buy them, but at the same time, the guy (a police officer at that) is selling a basic pair of swim trunks for several thousand dollars.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Borderlands has prices that scale with your level for life and ammo. Life is understandable as it fills a % of your life but bullets become stupidly expensive in late game for some reason.

 

[Roofstone]

Fable 2 can have a weird economy sometimes.

For example, I vaguely remember the blacksmith selling a sword for a bit over ten thousand gold.
Instead I bought a shitload of potions.

I came back two days or so later to everyone(and I mean EVERYONE) being poor as fuck and selling stuff dirt cheap.

Somehow me buying a lot of potions sent the economy stumbling..

...

At least I didn't cause inflation. >_<

 

[Spiritmaster]

One case that pops up in my head is the special costume armor in Persona 3 Portable that actually change your appearance. I get that people will be all over them and that prices should be accordingly adjusted to create an air of achievement when you buy them, but at the same time, the guy (a police officer at that) is selling a basic pair of swim trunks for several thousand dollars.

Wow, and I thought 15 dollars for a pair of trunks was ridiculous. I take it they didn't give amazing battle stats? Or weren't made of pressed blue whale skin?

 

[Spiritmaster]

Borderlands has prices that scale with your level for life and ammo. Life is understandable as it fills a % of your life but bullets become stupidly expensive in late game for some reason.

Yeah that always aggravated me since I mainly use rapid fire/multi-shot weapons, so every time I ran out of ammo I had to drop like 200 grand, so annoying.

 

[MagnumOsprey]

That makes me think of the ridiculously expensive bicycles in the Pokemon games that someone ends up giving to you for free later on in the game.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Borderlands has prices that scale with your level for life and ammo. Life is understandable as it fills a % of your life but bullets become stupidly expensive in late game for some reason.

Yeah that always aggravated me since I mainly use rapid fire/multi-shot weapons, so every time I ran out of ammo I had to drop like 200 grand, so annoying.

Imagine if, when you bought ammo, part of the money went to the manufacturer. Tediore would be the most evil company. They're the ink and printer shops of the future!

 

[Patathatapon]

10 souls = 1 arrow.

Wait, so me killing 10 people, is equivalent to being able to kill one person (MAYBE)?

But now that I think about it, XCOM:EU has a weird sort of economy too.

"Buy this super expensive miltary aircraft!"
"How much?"
"$40, sorry about the high price"
"Hmm, well I guess I'll have to, those aliens aren't gunna shoot themselves down."

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

Bear in mind that 'souls' as currency in Dark Souls aren't necessarily equivalent to the number of souls you have. They represent the strength and power of each soul you absorb, so stronger enemies have more valuable souls. This is also shown by the consumable 'soul' items that you can get. No idea why souls are currency though - it would make more sense to have humanity as currency since most merchants are undead. It's just a hold-over from Demon's Souls, which was all about the power of souls.

 

[bbchain]

Saints Row 2 has the most ridiculous economy. A hamburger is 50 dollars, a single song costs 18 dollars, and it costs you 1,000 dollars to get your car delivered to you by a member of your own gang.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

10 souls = 1 arrow.

Wait, so me killing 10 people, is equivalent to being able to kill one person (MAYBE)?

But now that I think about it, XCOM:EU has a weird sort of economy too.

"Buy this super expensive miltary aircraft!"
"How much?"
"$40, sorry about the high price"
"Hmm, well I guess I'll have to, those aliens aren't gunna shoot themselves down."

Xcom uses a credit system, there's not dollar sign, so I would imagine 1 credit would equal like $100,000 or $1,000,000 or something like that.

 

[Ratties]

Know some items in Pokemon are really expensive for no reason what so ever. I understand potions and pokeballs being a tad bit pricey. Do understand that items that cure status aliments are a bit to much. Of course there are tms like Hyper Beam which are way overpriced. Can tell you that Hyper Beam hasn't been a good move since gen 1. I think GameFreak knows this as well. Nobody is buying shit like this anymore in the games. Give some of this shit away for free, so we can turn around and sell it.

 

[Wickatricka]

Nah but dark souls really pisses me off lol. Got past the first boss then the skeletons just rape me every time. Then I stopped playing.

 

[Shdwrnr]

In Deadly Premonition a single cracker costs ~$25 but having your suit dry cleaned in 24 hours costs $10.

 

[TheWanderingFish]

Pokemon always comes to mind for me:

A highly advanced ball that can capture, store, and release, living creatures on the atomic level: $200
A bike: $1 000 000

That is a pretty odd perception of value if you ask me.

 

[George Learmonth]

Nah but dark souls really pisses me off lol. Got past the first boss then the skeletons just rape me every time. Then I stopped playing.

Don't go in the ruins, there's a path that leads up to a bridge. Go there instead.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

Your Dark Souls example also raises the question of why one undead has the souls of several hundred people within him.

One case that pops up in my head is the special costume armor in Persona 3 Portable that actually change your appearance. I get that people will be all over them and that prices should be accordingly adjusted to create an air of achievement when you buy them, but at the same time, the guy (a police officer at that) is selling a basic pair of swim trunks for several thousand dollars.

The prices aren't too surprising, considering that, due to the actions of SEES, the economy of Japan should be completely broken. You get huge amounts of money from Shuffle Time in Tartarus, but where does it come from? Presumably, it just magically appears. Throwing that much extra money into the economy is bound to drive the prices up. Or maybe I'm over-thinking it.

Sticking with Persona 3, it's kinda weird that they charge you anything at all to retrieve your Personas from the Compendium. They're basically holding parts of your personality for ransom.

Igor: "What's that? You need Thor to save the world? Do you have 280,000 yen?"

Me: "No, but-"

Igor: " Well, sucks to be you."

(It's not like it's hard to come across 280,000 yen, though. Like I said, you can get ridiculous amounts of money from Shuffle Time in the higher levels of Tartarus).