Everything in the land, ranging from your inventory to your own physical well-being, is managed by a set of numbers that you must repeatedly manage in order to remain alive. If your numbers happen to drop down to 0, you're pretty much dead. Never fear though, there's always a party member nearby with a handy restorative potion or other random healing implement that can somehow resurrect you. This, of course, begs the question: why did Cloud not just use a phoenix down on Aerith?
8. Flee The Area
Every adventurer knows the importance of having a good escape plan, but for an RPG adventurer, having a good escape plan is nearly always essential. Around 70% of the time the big nasty boss you've just beaten will somehow initiate a self-destruct system in the dungeon you're exploring forcing you to flee quickly in an epic tense shuffle for the exit. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but it does make you look awesome to emerge from the crumbling palace just before it enters a massive chasm in the ground. For bonus points, pretend you didn't actually get out and then emerge at a later date in a heartfelt reunion.
Dan Curtis is approximately one-half videogame knowledge, and the other half inexplicable Geordie accent. He's also one quarter of the Factory Sealed Retro Gaming podcast.
