No Hero Discount: Difference between revisions

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* The ''[[Command and Conquer]]'' series often has opposing forces mining resources on the front lines of battle, with commanders more often than not conducting battle with minimal support from their factions.

* ''[[Dark Cloud]]'' Averted, where the Wise Owl will sell you a special sword for a discount. It's still pretty high but as he (along with some other merchants in the game) will tell you, they are still merchants and need to make a living.

* ''[[Deus Ex]]'' "Smuggler" won't give you explosives unless you pay an absurd amount of money for them, even if you've helped him out before, and even though he knows you need them to {{spoiler|blow up a superfreighter full of enough of an incurable virus to infect the entire North American continent!}}. The exception is the first time you're in Hell's Kitchen, where he gives you a discount if you rescue his friend from ~~[[MJ 12]]~~.

* ''[[Deus Ex]]'' "Smuggler" won't give you explosives unless you pay an absurd amount of money for them, even if you've helped him out before, and even though he knows you need them to {{spoiler|blow up a superfreighter full of enough of an incurable virus to infect the entire North American continent!}}. The exception is the first time you're in Hell's Kitchen, where he gives you a discount if you rescue his friend from MJ12.

** Furthermore, those characters who suggest you ask someone else for needed items and information - and who are fully aware of the importance of you getting them - can't be bothered to so much as loan you the necessary credits.

** Occasionally, some of your allies ''will'' give you items for free. Other characters will offer you a discount on items for sale in exchange for completing a side quest.

* [[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Deus Ex Human Revolution]]: Despite your boss spending what must have been an absolute fortune to turn the PC who is the head of security into an augmented super soldier, you still need to pay for your own augmentation upgrades. And weapons. And ammo. And information. Considering you are trying to track down a mercenary group that killed half a dozen scientists ''and'' are planning some kind of conspiracy that would dramatically change the outlook of the company, you really should have a platinum company credit card that makes credits meaningless.

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* ''[[Exit Fate]]'' It's possible to recruit a few people to your army who then set up shops in your castle. Even though they're ''working for you'', they still charge the same prices as every other shopkeeper in the game.

* ''[[Fallout 3]]'' Being nice to the ghoul bartender gets you a discount on anything he sells, but others are fairly unfriendly towards you, even after you repeatedly save their collective asses.

** This is lampshaded in the ''Mothership Zeta'' DLC, when Somah charges you money to repair your equipment despite the two of you having been kidnapped by aliens and fighting for your lives to escape. Somah points out that even if you both do escape, she's as good as dead anyway if she doesn't have any money to survive on in the Wasteland.

* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series is quite fond of this trope.

** ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' sort of subverted this by having the shopkeeper in Bartz's home town give a discount (which is very appreciated when the single revival item in the game costs 1000 gold). But only because it's Bartz's hometown.

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*** Also, the shopkeeper O'aka actually would give you a discount, but in his case only if you had donated a large sum of money to him when he was struggling to get his business off the ground. Otherwise, he charges almost double what any other shop would.

*** While less related to the economy, in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' random people would give you items if you talked to them, considering you're a summoner and her guardians. It made the stinginess of the shopkeepers more noticeable.

** ''[[Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings]]'' Handwaved. The only vendor in the game actually works for you, purchasing equipment while you're off adventuring. One NPC in the ship points out he must be losing quite the amount of money, as Tomah sells said equipment at only a fraction of the original price.

** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' Averted, where all transactions are done via the internet, so vendors are not aware of your status as heroes, but even then as you're characterised as villains for the entirety of the plot, even if they knew your identity, they'd probably not want to sell to you, let alone give a discount. {{spoiler|Another aversion is that the Fal'Cie control all technology, and are revealed late game to be secretly manipulating you in your quest to destroy them (which they desire) but are prevented in their programming from aiding you directly (by lowering prices presumably) One late game vendor though has a message from the Fal'Cie wishing you luck!}}

** ''[[Final Fantasy Adventure]]'' Watts distills this trope to its essence. He accompanies you through a dungeon to get some silver he needs. Despite the fact that you're accompanying him on ''his'' quest so that he can get what he needs without dying, he ''still'' charges you full price for more items in the middle of said dungeon.

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* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' can get rather silly about this. ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|Radiant Dawn]]'' is especially bad near the end. {{spoiler|All of humanity is frozen in stone by an evil god. The only people still alive are your party, the enemies (brought back to life by the god to stop you) and a group of merchants following you.}} They STILL don't offer you a discount. The kicker? In a few cutscenes, they outright '''give''' you the [[Infinity+1 Sword|Infinity+1 Spellbooks]] they found lying around for free BECAUSE you're the last people alive and you're the only hope for everyone. Not the most consistent of merchants, these guys.

** It gets even sillier when you realize that they DID give your army a discount for one chapter earlier in the game, before {{spoiler|everyone was turned to stone.}} Why they didn't think to do so again is anyone's guess.

* ''[[Freelancer]]'' Completely [[Averted Trope|Averted]], once you encounter the Order. They give you the best ship in the game at that point for 1100 credits, when other ships are in the hundreds of thousands.

** Unfortunately, when time comes to trade that ship in to the next best one, you'll notice you ''can't sell it for a normal ship's price'' either.

* The ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' series. Most of the marriageable bachelors and bachelorettes work in the area's shops, which are usually owned by their families. You won't get any kind of discount from their family's store if you marry one of them, ''even if your spouse is the one running the store''. This may be so that people would marry characters they liked, rather than just marrying the person that gives them the biggest discounts. It makes little sense in universe, but a lot of sense when you consider the implications of marrying someone for free cake at the bakery.

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'''Scientist:''' All right, all right. I'll [[Take a Third Option|throw in the employee discount]] too. }}

** Later on in the game you CAN get a discount at vendors...by using a ''[[Mind Control|mind control device]].''

** Averted in the third game where, if you have a save file from the original game, you can get the Gadgetron employee discount [[Chekhov's Gun|mentioned in passing]] at the end of the Gadgetron hoverboard race.

* ''[[Recettear]]'' Can be averted or played straight seeing as you're the merchant and it's up to you whether or not adventurers get discounts. Tear recommends that you give discounts to the heroes you hire, even if at a loss sometimes, since it will save you from having to equip them when you go dungeon crawling. Think of it as an investment.

* ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' Averted as a sufficiently famous and heroic John Marston can get up to 50% discount in the shops. However, the shops in the game's [[Wretched Hive]], Thieves' Landing, which, in an inversion of the trope, only give a 50% discount if you are deeply criminal.

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* The ''[[Suikoden]]'' games have this as well.

** ''[[Suikoden I]]'': You're the son of a well-respected general and later become the leader of the army. Do you get any discounts? Nope.

** ''[[Suikoden II]]'': You're leading against another nation because of an [[Ax Crazy]] [[Warrior Prince]] ravaging the land and you are a former child solider of ''his'' army. You can employ a glitch in the game that can give you unlimited money. Still no discount however.

* ''[[Summoner]] 2'', much like Romancing SaGa, the PC is a Queen (and the [[Chosen One]] besides), with full access to the Royal Treasury... which, unfortunately, is rather bare when you start the game. Earn some gold by adventuring and invest it wisely, however, and your kingdom will soon start to earn you enough money to buy whatever equipment you need. Unfortunately, you can't buy equipment within your own kingdom. Guess that would be too easy...

* ''[[Super Mario RPG]]'' In the final dungeon, just before the entrance to the final boss battle against Smithy, a Toad sets up the area with a save block. He also sets up ''shop'' to sell you items like mushrooms and revival potions. Note that this Toad is on ''your'' side and the fate of the world hangs in the balance on this next fight. Guess the economy's more important than that. Although he does sell them at half price.

** This gets even worse. Look at the dialogue box. This isn't A Toad. This is THE Toad, the one who's supposed to be Peach's attendant.

** Before that, [[Cloudcuckoolander|Hinopio]] charges positively extraordinary prices for the luxury of sleeping on a pile of wooden crates. In a volcano. This gets lampshaded in the official strategy guidde.

*** It helps that Hinopio is the only game in <s> town</s> the volcano. It also makes for a great [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] when Mario awakens face-down on the very uncomfortable-looking crates.

* ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' Some service providers are initially happy to help out for free when they discover that you're the Chosen's group. Naturally, you quickly run into a group of people taking advantage of this by impersonating you.

** Of course, none of the actual shops'll give you any credit. The shopkeeper in the [[Doomed Hometown]] won't give a discount for the people who are going to save the freakin world and whom he's known forever. Even "Marble's" charges you full price, even after you are identified as the Chosen's group and directly save the lives of both Chocolat and Cacao, the owners of the shop.