The Importance of Rupees

[*M i d n a*]

The Importance of Rupees

Rupees, first of all you have to love the name of the Zelda games currency, I think it's awesome. And now comes the importance of rupees within the Zelda games. Well, I only played WW, so my experience with rupees comes from that game alone.

Rupees come in an assortment of colors and values. They shine and are scattered through out the game for players to pick up, often you have to break pots to get them, which is kind of fun, really, for who doesn't like smashing pots? Aside from being pretty, Rupees are an important factor in the game, that according to my own opinion. Without rupees you can't really complete your quest, maybe you can, but they are important when it comes to the player buying stuff from Beedle, like Hyio pears, bait, arrows, bombs, empty bottles, etc.

And so see, rupees are as important in the game as they are fun to collect. What is your opinion on rupees, do you think they are all that important or not?

 

[Hero of Time]

Well, as far as I know, the term Rupee comes from the currency used in India (although their Rupees look different, and I'm not sure of the equivalency between Rupees and USD). The name in itself is awesome as you said.

Rupees are very important in the Zelda series. They are one of the overlooked things that makes the Zelda formula so special. While the recurring values of 1, 5, and 20 have remained in the series for a long time, values such as 10, 50, 100 and 200 have occurred in a few games, usually with different colors. Rupees have never been an actual necessarity in Zelda, but it is very fun not only finding Rupees, but when entering a town you wonder what things you can buy and what games you can play with your current amount of Rupees. So yes, Rupees are important to those of us who value the magic of Zelda.

 

[Din Akera]

Rupees are (according to wikipedia) the currency used in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Indonesia, Maldives, and formerly in Burma, and Afghanistan. Rupees of these countries do not appear as we know them in Hyrule.




Though there are a variety of colors in the real life rupees they seem to be similar to what we would consider dollars in coins and bills. Personally I think the multi-color gems stones in varying sizes is way cooler As to whether or not this was intended to be a reference to real life in anyway, I doubt highly. I do suppose it is possible, but I do not have enough knowledge on the subject to make a good guess or theory.

Rupees are an interesting aspect to Zelda that I think have some importance in some games a little to no importance in other games. For example, I found that in game like OoT where you could find rupees almost anywhere and there was little to no use for them, that they were redundant and almost unnecessary. I found on many occasion that I am at the highest number of rupees I can carry. Rupees in OoT are very common to find and build up in your inventory. Now, this would be beneficial if there was some use for them. But in this game, there is not. Most items (arrows, bombs, deku seeds, etc.) can be found by cutting grass or killing enemies. Therefore, there is no need to go to any of the numerous shops around Hyrule to purchase them, leaving your wallet full. The only instance in the game where rupees are really required is to play the mini games, most of which only cost 10 rupees, and the Happy Mask Shop sidequest which conveniently ends with your wallet being filled to the breaking point. Further, most of the high profile and required items in the game are given to Link for free in the temples or the overworld. Required items that can be purchased for the most part are able to be found in the overworld anyway. The example being the Hylian shield in the graveyard (as apposed to buying it in the bazar). Of course there is exception to this with the deku shield, however, this occurs at the very begining of the game and there are more than enough rupees laying around the Kokiri forest to get the required amount in record time. In this regard I find them to be a backseat item of little importance to the game as their use is limited and number abundant.

Conversely, Twilight Princess made use of the rupees. They were still as abundant and items were still able to be found in the bushes, grass, under rocks and in chests, but they had many more uses. More sidequests required them including fixing the bridge to Castle Town, donating to the Malo Mart fund, and the usual minigames, but most of all they had an ultimate purpose: Magic armor. The item sucked rupees like a nobody's business which ultimately resulted in a major loss of them. This caused this item to seem more rare and certainly made it more valuable. Giving the item a larger and more important use make it important to the game. OoT lacked this need, and thus this is the difference between the two games and the rupees.

Majora's Mask's use of rupees lies somewhere in the middle. Rupees were easy to get and abundant and they also had little use, but they were taken away from you at the end of every three day cycle. In this sense they were more rare than in OoT, but not as functional as in TP. Now, Mm did bring an interesting mechanic to the table regarding rupees in the bank scenario. Loosing rupees was in some way annoying if you did need a couple to buy the odd thing or try to beat the shooting gallery for the 20th time, but the bank allowed you to save your rupees and therefore have access to them if you did need them for one reason or another. This mechanic contributed both to the rarity of the item and to the the abundance. Rupees were always at your disposal if needed, but, in trying to fill the bank to get the heart piece, finding rupees in the overworld became an important task. My opinion on this is that, the single task of getting enough rupees to obtain the heart piece does not contribute to the overall use of rupees for the game. I still feel that rupees were under used and a rather irrelevant item in this game (as well as OoT).

 

[guy123]

The Rupee Problem

Okay, so we all know what a rupee is don't we? That little green gem that makes up Hyrule's currency. In Zelda games though, I've noticed one big problem lately, and that is the use of rupees. I'm finding that instead of using money like we would in our lives: spending it constantly and a little at a time, in Zelda games, you spend it rarely and in huge amounts.

In all Zelda games, you have many shops that sell items, but very rarely do we use them. Instead we cut up grass. We only use rupees to do things needed to progress in the game, such as buying an In-credible chart or fixing up a canon. I'm really hoping that Skyward Sword puts more emphasis on the rupees, making you use them more often and in smaller amounts.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[JerônimoLink]

I think that Skyward Sword will use rupees more often, because there are upgrades, and I think that some of them are buyable, not from the story, like the double clawshots from Twilight Princess, and there is that shield repair thing.

 

[Seth]

I hope they do do that in SS, I want their to be more we can buy with rupees. In fact that is that one thing I really don't like about Zelda, rupees are so easy to come by and there is seldom anything to buy. Almost all the shops have stuff you can easily find just outside of town.

 

[Azure Sage]

This is a good point. I hadn't really thought of this. Thinking back, I constantly found myself having so many rupees and so little to do with them. With the various upgrades in Skyward Sword, I think this issue will be resolved a bit.

 

[darunia]

Yes id like to see things that can only be got by Rupees.

I have played most Zelda games and this is one thing that annoyed me slightly.
Or have weapons and upgrades that need both puzzle solving and the spending of Rupees.

Of course any weapons that are found in Dungeons must be got the same way as always.

Or have levels that can be used to open the odd level.
Remember you had to give Kiki the monkey in LttP ten Rupees to stay with you then a Hundred to open the Palace of Darkness.

 

[The Shadow]

I think one of the biggest problems with rupees though is the fact that you suddenly don't have anything to spend them one and you get too many when your nearing the end of the game because you've already bought everything, where as at the start your usually trying to scrounge up some rupees to buy some thing just to get you abit further in the story. For example how at the beginning of OoT, you have to search around the village for 40 rupees to buy that stupid wooden shield! its wood! how does wood cost 40 rupees!? its not like even need rupees! plus how is it that by jumping across some platforms you magically gain some, if the shop owner wanted some rupees he could just run back and forth all day on the platforms which are just outside his shop! maybe they need to pay for the red paint which costs 40 rupees, but then who paints those random shields you find inside dungeons? which are sometimes quite far from the Deku tree.

 

[Cuju]

I think Nintendo had this problem in mind when they implemented the upgrade system. Nintendo representatives have said many times that there will be no shortage of things to spend Rupees on.

 

[Ruby Link]

Literaly all I do with left-over rupees in any Zelda game, is buy arrows. I use the bow WAY too much, so I'm always buying arrows. But, I really would like their to be more items that can only be bought at the shop. But aren't there three types of shields in SwS? Now that you can break them I think the whole rupee issue will be a thing of the past.

 

[Xinnamin]

These two threads seem to have enough of a common topic that I'm gonna merge them. Feel free to discuss any aspect of rupees in here, both their importance and flaws.