Cursed Weapons, and why they're lame

Yay, another crappy rant on something that's prevalent in a lot of RPGs yet may not actually be in the grand list of RPG cliches. This time, we talk cursed weapons, which are prevalent in a number of titles yet are absolutely the opposite of exciting in any way.

As of this writing, I'm playing Dual Orb 2, which apparently does have the cursed items. These things are usually equipment, usually weapons too, and equipping them will usually have adverse effects on the character who equips them. Most of the time, it will do stuff like have a persisting status effect or health or stat drainage, and usually, the cursed item isn't possible to be removed normally. The Cursed Shield in Final Fantasy VI is a nice example of what I'm talking about, since it offers a lot of status effects. Now, the reward for THIS cursed item is actually worth it, unlike some.

And the way to get a cursed item uncursed can vary. Usually, just go to a church, like in the Lufia games or Dual Orb 2, and they will uncurse it. That is of course, assuming the game itself has such a building. And then there's the matter of the cursed item losing whatever advantage it may actually have when it was cursed. Again, the Cursed Shield above is an aversion, as it is uncursed upon fighting 255 battles and becomes the Paladin, allowing the wielder to actually learn Ultima. Players in FF6 will likely go to the easiest possible place to fight, waste 255 battles, bam, Paladin shield.

So apart from the Cursed Shield, why don't I like them and why do I think they are lame? Because they are not actually the ultimate kind of equipment the game has to offer. Yeah, they may have their advantages, as I've said, usually they are always stronger with power at a cost, but even an RPG's ultimate weapons will not only be stronger, but never be cursed as well. Take the Lufia games, which have numerous kinds of cursed equipment. None of these are better than any of the ultimate equipment. The series staple Dual Blade is never cursed in the series, and it's better than any of the other weapons you could find, especially in Lufia 1 (unless you get a Might Sword, also never cursed, but that's a rare drop and screw rare drops in general). Bottom line, better weapons exist instead of trying to torture yourself using a cursed weapon in any case whatsoever.

The other issue is that not a whole lot of games really make use of cursed equipment as well. Most of the RPGs I've played don't even use cursed equipment at all. You see any cursed equipment in Phantasy Star? Legend of Dragoon? And even if the RPG in question does have a cursed item, it's never really something memorable. So yeah, there you have it, cursed weapons are crap and not a single one is really worthwhile in whatever way. Maybe there are a few such cursed items that are actually worth it, like Garr's Beast Spear in Breath of Fire 3, which isn't that bad*, or the Cursed Shield as before, but there are barely a few gameplay-wise that are really good for what they offer. I guess there are some good storyline examples of cursed weapons (like Soul Nomad & The World Eaters' Onyx Blade), but the adverse effects are not really shown in-game and it's not really considered cursed to me.

*This is mostly due to the fact that this is a cursed weapon that actually is the ultimate weapon for the character. It saps his health, but it's got more damage output than any other weapon bar perhaps Ryu's ultimate weapons. But then again, how many people use Garr in the endgame anyways?