Which Inventory System Do You Prefer?

Design
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Throughout the series, we’ve had a couple of different inventory systems and I was curious to see what people think of them all.

4/5 Slots: FE1 has 4 slots, all of the handheld games (Except FE15) have 5. Very simple, easy to understand, and effective.

6/7 Slots: 3H has 6 slots, FE4/5/10 have 7 slots. While in most games you can only equip one accessory at a time (Shields, Bands, etc.), FE4 allows a unit to equip all of them at once. This can lead to a single unit having up to 6 Stat-Boosting bands and a single weapon.

4 Weapons, 4 Items: Used in FE3 and FE9, units can hold up to 8 items and weapons total. In FE3, staves were considered items like vulneraries, but this was changed in FE9. Also introduced in FE9 were equippable accessories like the Knight Ward and Laguz Guard, though you could only equip one at a time.

Valentia Style: Only used in Gaiden and Echoes, units may only have a single item or weapon in their inventory. This works well enough in these games since the games are radically different from the rest of the series, but it doesn’t mesh well with the classic Fire Emblem gameplay.

Personally, I really enjoy FE9’s system of 4 items and 4 weapons. I never needed more than 4 weapons at once, so I think it just worked out. The main way I would improve the system would just to add more equippable items with unique effects (Again, FE9 did this pretty well).

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I personally prefer 8 slots for any type of equipment. 5 was always too small for my liking, though the simplicity of the handheld games’ inventories mitigates this somewhat. If you have a lot of passive equipment items, a bunch of varying types of weapons, and a lot of items, then five slots would be way too little.

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5 is perfect for a standard game.

If you use alot of consumables aka Laguz Band, scrolls for skills, scrolls to raise stats etc etc 8 is probably better.

4 slots in TOTAL, sounds super restrictive.

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9’s is cool and good (managing it in 3 is a bit clunkier, the evolution of FE’s UX did it justice + staves no longer being in the item section is neato) but at that point you may as well just give 8 slots and let the player do whatever with it (ala 4/5/10).
At the end of the day I don’t really have a major preference.
other than saying 4 slots total is too low, that combined with no trade or convoy options makes managing items in FE1 a total nightmare and I hate it

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I tend to lean towards 7-8 total slots, but with a 4-5 / 3 split. I heavily dislike FE10’s 7 slots for anything system since it basically incentivizes the player to just slap like 1 healing item (if that) and 6 weapons of varying usefulness in everyone’s inventories and just go to town, which isn’t necessarily very strategic. But, limiting the weapon slots and still allowing for more items means that you can carry accessories, healing, or even a promotion item and still have a wider array of weapons at your disposal than if it was GBAFE with a max of 5 from anything.

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7-8 slots should be the minimum imo. 5 in GBA games i alwas find too limiting. Especially with Durability.

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7 slots is the perfect sweetspot imo, 5 feels really restrictive especially if you have held items that increase stats/growths. 4 weapons 4 items is an interesting twist tho.

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Imo, I liked the 3H version, 6 or 7 slots for items is pretty much perfect, cause sometimes when i have a general, gaving him Only 1 or 2 items per class is actually a pain for me, so yeah.
I prefer a little bit more of space for management.

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Just make depot accessibe to everyone.

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I never noticed, but now that I think 3H is the most comfortable for me

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One thing I hate about Fire Emblem is the duration of the weapons (which is always too low) and the fact that when a weapon reaches a few uses before it breaks (example, Iron Lance remain 4) it only becomes cluttered in your already small inventary, forcing you to discard it to recover some free space, luckily this is fixed in FE shadow dragon and mystery of emblem, where you can use the ‘‘merge’’ command to merge weapons.
If the duration of the weapons were higher, at least +10 with a balance cost due to having + 10 uses, having 5 spaces in the inventory would be perfect.

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12

It depends on the game. I generally prefer Thracia’s system since it is open and well-suited for the game. No unit convoy access (map only), and enough slots w/ capture to make it interesting to figure out what to bring to each map. I’ve grown to like not having on map convoy access, but it really depends on the game.

I don’t think an FE9 style system would work in a game w/o a lot of hold items or growth bands, since GBA is usually just “vulnerary” in most cases.

It would be cool to see innovation in GBA hacking around inventory space, but I am assuming it is difficult to work with.

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For the games I’ve played, I think each inventory style more-or-less does what it sets out to do.

Personally, I prefer the GBA/DS-style 5 inventory slots. It’s a good number to keep picking a loadout interesting. Plus, it slightly helps single-weapon locked classes compete. The axe-locked berserker can bring a hammer, handaxe, brave axe, and killer axe, while a great knight really can’t if they want to maintain weapon triangle coverage.

While Echoes’ single inventory slot was frusturating in that you couldn’t hold both a shield and anything better than the dinky starter weapon at the same time, it helped make units feel a bit more specialized in a game where the weapon triangle doesn’t exist. Learning combat arts also helped build a sense of unit progression in a way that might otherwise be lost without weapon ranks.

Three Houses is… interesting. Six inventory slots always felt a bit overkill to me if you’re not really going to have a weapon triangle, and if magic isn’t going to take up any inventory space either. That said, which combat arts, skills, and battalion I had equipped served as a much more interesting psuedo-inventory.

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GBA has less item space, so Supply is more important.
I like the Supply system of FE3 and FE8, in which the main character doubles as a Supply.

In the case of the Kaitou patch, this was a more convenient system for the game.
Since the protagonist is the leader of a gang of thieves, her friends need to deposit the stolen items to her.

I personally like this system because it is similar to the way yakuza keep the cash they earn from their crimes (shinogi) with the boss.
The member bring the items they steal from the enemy to her and pay her back.

It used to be a hassle to send items one by one, but with the addition of the “GiveAll+” menu, it has become much easier.

NAME.en=GiveAll+ Menu 20200321
INFO.en=Send anything other than not equipped weapons and staffs to Supply.\r\nIf captured enemy, also send him items.

We have also changed the game rules so that exchanging items does not consume turns, so players can exchange items and withdraw items from Supply indefinitely.

NAME.en=Limitless Trading
COMBO.en=Default: Once/Turn|OFF|Patched 1: Limitless|FIX1|Patched 2: Limitless and re-move|FIX2|Patched 3: Same applies to the transporter|FIX3

In the case of Kaitou, the Weapon Triangle has a very large +50% compensation, so the compatibility between weapons is a very important factor.
Therefore, it is ideal to always place the main character who has access to Supply in the center of the formation.
I wanted to portray her as “the boss” of the thieves who stands in the middle of the formation and can be relied upon to manage the items stolen by her friends.

However, the main character’s Promotion is a bit slow at ch23, so you need to think carefully about her placement from the middle of the game.
This is also because I wanted to portray main character who is active as the main member of the party in the early stages, but who retires from the front line after the midway point to train younger members.
Roy in FE6 and Mars in FE3 are similar to this.

There is a saying, 出藍の誉れ “syuturan-no-homare (surpassing one’s master)”.
I like the way Goku and his friends grow up in Dragon Ball, surpassing their master, Kame-Sen’nin.

I like the in Dragon Ball , the way Goku and his friends grow beyond their master, Master Roshi.
//I think it is wonderful that even after they have surpassed their masters, they still remember to respect their masters by wearing a robe with the symbol of their master’s name on it.

… This is a bit off topic, the system where the main character doubles as Supply is helpful in determining the main character’s position.

Avoid first-time-kill.
I think the problem with the Supply system in FE7 and FE5 lies in the first-time-kill.
Have you ever had to restart the stage because you forgot to give a key to a player unit?
If you fail to hand over other necessary items and you haven’t sent your Supply to battle, you will have to start the stage over. If you are playing a map for the first time, this kind of accident will happen sometimes.
I don’t like it because if you let this happen, you will end up crying to sleep with the futon over your head.
I think the Supply system in FE3 and FE8 is more resistant to this kind of accident because the main character doubles as the Supply.

For these three reasons, I like the Supply system in FE3 and FE8.

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I think the handheld games got it right with the simplicity and having just enough slots that it’s neither too much nor too little

I like 3h style too

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If inventories are weapon-focused with minimal consumables and accessories, then the 5-item system feels good. The player gets to feel well-prepared, but they still have to make careful tradeoffs. FE6/FE7 Paladins, FE8 Generals, FE8 Sages, and FE8 Druids might feel overly constrained, though.

If a wider variety of accessories and consumables enter the equation, then the limit should be bumped up to 7-8 based on equipment restrictions. I personally want Shields from 3H to return, along with growth modifiers like Bands or Crusader Scrolls.

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GBA games; 5 items, because it creates more interesting item management during chapters for me.

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I like 4 weapon slots 4 item slots.

But actually, what I’ve found is the most common reason for me to want more inventory slots, when playing any FE game, is that thieves can’t steal if they’ve got full inventory.

I don’t have a problem with 5 slots when playing GBA, and 7 or 4/4 works just fine as well. But in all games I’ve played I’ve had this issue where a Thief can’t steal because of full inventory…

So for me what’s more important than 5 slots, 7 slots, or 4 & 4 slots, is that thieves should be able to steal even if their inventory is full. (Just like how looting a treasure chest or getting an item drop from killing an enemy lets you sent the item to the convoy is your inventory is full.)

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