Status Effects In Games With Funny Side Effects

Key Takeaways

• Status effects in games can be uniquely fun beyond the typical poison or sleep effects.
• Games like Shin Megami Tensei 4 & Hades offer fresh and creative status effects like sickness and hangover.
• Unique status effects in games like Suikoden’s Balloon or Metaphor: ReFantazio’s Anxiety add depth and challenge.

Status effects tend to be most closely associated with RPGs due to their core role in tactical choice in combat, and though that remains mostly true still, there are some very fun and unusual status effects when your broaden your horizons a bit.

Every game has a poison effect, that drains HP over time, or Sleep that puts an enemy to bed for a little bit. But sometimes, especially when the game puts a greater emphasis on status effects, you’ll want some unique ones to really help it stand out. And these games has some you’ll have rarely seen anywhere else.

10 Shin Megami Tensei 4 – Sick

Atlus in general is quite well-known for not only having a variety of unique status effects, but also implementing them into the core experience more keenly. That’s clearly evident in many of its games, like Persona, though Shin Megami Tensei 4 has a rather specific one.

Sick. Just pure sickness. It can be gotten from a variety of moves, such as enemies literally coughing on you. Cruel, and a bit disgusting. Just like a real-life sickness though, there’s a chance for your sickness to pass on to other party members if you don’t get healed up.

9 Final Fantasy – Toad

Final Fantasy is home to plenty of fancy status effects, though more times than not, they’re not really worth using against enemies, and end up being more of an issue for players to deal with. That’s fine though, because who wouldn’t want to turn into an adorable frog?

Toad (or Frog, in some games) does exactly what you’d think – it turns you into a Toad. In most games, these leaves you incapable of most actions, though FF7 Remake let you fight back to the point where maybe being a frog isn’t so bad after all.

8 Hades – Hangover

While Hades doesn’t strictly fit into the RPG category that most other games here do, that doesn’t stop it from having a bevy of unique status effects. In a refreshing twist, status effects are almost exclusively used on enemies, and tend to have some out-there impacts.

There’s no getting around the fact that Dionysus’s boon has the most humourous effect of all – giving enemies a hangover. This makes enemies take damage over time, and more damage the more hungover they are. You try partying with the god of wine and not come out of it with a splitting headache.

7 Suikoden – Balloon

Amidst the many series under Konami’s wings is the famed Suikoden series. Pulling heavily from a Chinese tale, the Water Margin, the series is typically centered around the characters you can recruit. All 100 of them, all usable in battle. It’s an impressive feat.

Which is why you shouldn’t be too worried if you lose a member of two to this status effect. Balloon, a status effect inflicted only by a few enemies, attaches balloons to a character. One balloon does nothing, but three will have them float away from battle. So keep a few needles handy.

When a new election comes up that feels fit to uproot your entire life, it’s hard not to be filled with anxiety. Very reasonable. So it only stands to reason, with the state of the world in Metaphor: ReFantazio that anxiety is a constant companion to you.

In fact, Anxiety is one of the only status effects in the game that can occur outside of battle. Being ambushed causes it, as well as taking any critical hits. It’s a very easy world to be anxious in, basically. So try to keep calm. It’ll all be OK.

5 Final Fantasy 9 – Virus

Being a frog is one thing, though it is just a single one of Final Fantasy’s many unique status effects. It is also the cutest, and exists in sharp contrast to Final Fantasy 9’s rather extreme Virus status effect. You don’t want to be struck with a virus.

Virus is obscenely cruel. When infected, you cannot gain EXP or AP. You also cannot protect against it. Oh, and it remains even if you’re defeated. The only way to remove a Virus is with a good rest at an Inn, or a Vaccine, which are somewhat rare. At least it isn’t contagious.

4 Fallout – Crippled

The Fallout games have always been a bit more unconventional in some of their RPG mechanics, using the absurdism of the setting and building it into the gameplay. Your skills are all determined by Special books, after all. A big ol’ marketing tool. Of course, your limbs will break no matter how tough you think you are.

While they’re a stretch in terms of typical status effects, one could argue that having a broken arm is a status with a rather detrimental effect on you. From no longer being able to aim, to not being able to walk right, having your precise limbs crippled means actually managing your body piece-by-piece, rather than just chugging down a healing potion.

3 Bloodborne – Frenzy

Bloodborne holds a special place in FromSoftware’s catalogue for being perhaps its most celebrated game that has never escaped its original system. And that’s a shame, because Bloodborne is an incredibly unique game where everything is built to convey the themes.

Instant death status effects aren’t exactly a new idea in these games, as Dark Souls had the Curse status effect. Frenzy is so wonderful because it fills your mind it such knowledge that you hurt yourself. And this is caused just by looking at enemies. Even better, the less Insight you have, the more protection you have against Frenzy. You can’t penetrate a thick skull.

2 Earthbound – Homesick

While people beg for an official western release of Mother 3, you should really take the time to play Earthbound, too. It is an exceptional RPG with a wonderfully playful translation, and a series of gameplay mechanics that are deeply self-aware.

As the game progresses, Ness travels further and further from home. That’s a tough act for a child like him, and at times he gets homesick. Literally. The longer you spend from home, the more likely Ness is to get homesick, making him lose a turn. Don’t worry though, a quick phone call back home will perk him up in no time.

1 Dragon Quest 11 – Shypox

The Dragon Quest series is riddled with silly little status effects, from being able to turn yourself into a solid metal statue to being forced to laugh at an enemy’s jokes. But Dragon Quest 11 introduced a new status effect, entirely self-inflicted, that seems hard to best.

Shypox. This can be activated in the Draconian Quest difficulty, and gives a random chance for characters to become, well, embarrassed. Just so damn shy they freeze in place. Remembering failed conversations, lost arguments, any bad memory. It can even prevent you from talking to NPCs. The cruelty of it all.