So Long and Thanks For All the Gear: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Tycho''': I know! He fucking robbed me! As I watched him walk away, all I could think was "Please, {{spoiler|Alistair}}. Leave the armor."|[[Penny Arcade]], [http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/12/02 December 2, 2009]}}

 

*** And if you find hidden materia during said sidequest, Yuffie literally appears just to STEAL THAT TOO. And when it's done she randomly puts all the materia back in random slots on your characters instead of replacing it as you had it before. There's a reason more than a few people consider her a [[The Scrappy|Scrappy.]]

* Kain from ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' does a [[Face Heel Turn]] ''[[Face Heel Revolving Door|twice]]'' and takes his equipment with him both times. Not to mention the other party members who frequently leave your party over the course of the game, often more than once, and take their gear with them. This includes Tellah (twice), Yang (twice), Rosa, Edward, Rydia, Palom, Porom, and Fu So Ya. Rosa is an especially bad offender, because when she returns she's lost all her armor and all you get to replace it is the second-weakest armor in the game - ''right'' before a big boss fight. (Unless, of course, you game the system and unequip Tellah before his second departure.)

** On the other hand, when Kain comes back, he brings a brand-new set of very good equipment with him. Oh, and it's all free.

*** ''Final Fantasy IV'' loved this trope so much, it even used a variation of it with ''the main character''. When Cecil goes through his [[Class Change]], any Dark Knight gear equipped on him is lost. So much for selling it off to buy his expensive new Paladin equipment. Fortunately, the game doesn't go into autoplay until after you step off the boss-fight square, giving a player who knows what's coming the time to strip.

*** [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/stolen-pixels/6831-Stolen-Pixels-147-Naked-Greed This "Stolen Pixels" strip] illustrates the reaction of [[Genre Savvy]] players.

*** On the bright side, regarding the Tower of Ishal guys, if you just leave them in default gear you don't actually ''lose'' anything, and if you strip them you can get some bonus vendor trash as well as one of the only robes that'll be available for a while- normally trash too, but potentially useful if you're playing as a mage ''and'' plan to use Morrigan in your party early.

** Unless you use a tavern card. This item can be used at any point of the game and lets you rehire any mercenary. And the chick you bought equipment for will be with it and join you for free (when all other mercenaries cost the exact same amount of money they did the first time).

* ''[[Albion]]'' is nice enough to give you a chance to take equipment from the one character who leaves for plotline reasons. However, this is played straight if you neglect to take equipment off character who you fire to make more room in your party.