10 Awesome Video Game Mechanics The Industry Abandoned

One of the mainstay tropes of many games, RPGs in particular, are the fact that you must scrounge up every single coin, gil, potion, jerkin, longbow, nail, and radioactive toilet-water covered bullet. You can find things scattered about, get rewards after a battle, actively search the corpses of your dead enemies (and in games like Final Fantasy Tactics - your dead friends), and most importantly - from raiding chests, cupboards, bedsheets, stoves, heck almost anything you can get your grubby button prompts on.

Twenty-five years ago Chrono Trigger did a few revolutionary things for RPGs and one of them was the trial scene after the player's party returns from the past. There the main character, Chrono, gets arrested for kidnapping one of the other characters. During said trial, flashbacks occur showing the player doing various things, like being impatient, picking up a shiny gem before helping a fallen lady, and of course...stealing some poor dude's lunch sack. Fable 2, to its credit, actually made you grow horns if you stole too much.

Imagine if each cabinet, chest, or pocket you raided determined the ending you got - or at least future story ticks and possible ally options?