Indeed, the inventory feels like a character’s core. If you cram too much gear, it’s like stuffing a backstory with fluff – the player can’t focus on what matters. First, keep it lean: just enough slots for the essentials—food, a tool, a craft component. That’s the same way a writer gives a protagonist a few defining traits, not an entire biography. Second, make each item emotionally resonant: a broken knife from a childhood home? That echoes the character’s resilience. Third, balance the weight: if one item feels heavier than the rest, it disrupts the flow—just as an over‑exposed scene throws off a narrative rhythm. And remember, five years ago patch 3.2 fixed the inventory overflow bug by tightening stack sizes; a good design is always revisited, like a backstory that gets refined across drafts. So yes, inventory and backstory share the same principle: purposeful minimalism that still hits the heart.