Key items -- what's the point?

[orius]

Duel's post about trade shops reminded me of another RPGM 1 elements that has long confused me.

What's the point of key type items, seriously? They're supposed to function as a page condition for switches, but given how they work in the game, they seem to be completely redundant with "Other" type items. IIRC, under page conditions you can require the party have one of the 8 types of keys you can set, but since you can also simply require any item in the game, it seems utterly pointless.

[Leish]

I used key items for switch conditions instead of using the direct "switch on" command in my first game because it was easier to use. Well, I actually didn't fully understand switches at the time. The only problem was the random items in a player's inventory that would "magically" show up after some scenes, like horse balls.

Edit - Oops, guess I was thinking about something else...

[Duel]

Eight types? Damn. Thank goodness for Other.

[Draygone]

The point of Key items isn't that you possess it, it's that you actually have to select it from the menu to trigger the event. And once you use it, it automatically disappears from your inventory.

Granted, it does function pretty similarily to having an "other" item, and you could remove the item from your inventory manually in the event's code. But personally, I like the added interaction.

[orius]

It does disappear? I played with it a bit and I thought it didn't disappear; which is why it make no sense at all to me.

I'm going to go back and look at it again.