Medicine

A recurring consumable item in retro video games used to restore a character's health (HP) or cure status ailments.

Role-playing (RPG)

Action

Strategy

Tactics

18

Games

1991–2008

Years

5

Platforms

$57.24

Ø CIB

-4.2%

24M change

About

In Parasite Eve (1998), Medicine is a vital recovery item used by Aya Brea to restore HP, appearing in various potencies like Medicine 1 and 2. It similarly serves as a health-restoring consumable in classic titles such as Suikoden (1996), Arcana (1992), and Fortified Zone (1991). Across these diverse action, RPG, and platforming games, the item is consistently utilized to sustain the player's life bar during combat.

In Jaleco's Fortified Zone, players strategically manage the item between two playable mercenaries, Masato and Mizuki, to survive the game's top-down labyrinthine military bases. This cooperative inventory sharing carried over conceptually to other early 1990s titles. For instance, in the Game Boy port of Milon's Secret Castle, the item provides essential recovery during Milon's platforming quest, while in the arcade-style platformer Avenging Spirit, it drops from enemies to aid the protagonist's ghost form.

The item's role expanded with the 16-bit era. In the card-themed RPG Arcana, players purchase it from town merchants to survive grueling first-person dungeon crawls. By the mid-1990s, Cutthroat Island integrated the healing agent into its swashbuckling beat-'em-up gameplay, allowing players to recover from sword fights. In the PlayStation RPG Suikoden, the item occupies individual character inventory slots, requiring tactical distribution among the six-person party before entering turn-based battles. Within the Parasite Eve franchise, the item represents a grounded, modern-day pharmaceutical counterpart to traditional fantasy potions, fitting the game's sci-fi horror aesthetic and requiring careful inventory management during real-time combat encounters.