A Taste of Power: Difference between revisions
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When starting a game, often the player starts out with an extremely powerful party, character, weapon or ability, which can easily slaughter anything it comes across, playing through a short battle or dungeon. The player is in no real danger of losing at this point, but this incredible power never lasts long. Once the introductory segment is complete, the player switches to the ''real'' party, usually at [[Starter Equipment|level 1 with basic starter gear]].
The primary purpose of this trope is to get a player into a game and [[He Knows About Timed Hits|teach them the rules]] without overwhelming them with dangerous enemies early on. This can also give them a preview of the powers and skills they'll be acquiring later in the game. Common marketing wisdom is that you have to sell your game on the players in the first ten minutes, or you risk them not sticking around to get to the really good parts - hence
Another advantage to
Frequently used in RTS games to allow the player to be given a tutorial of all the game elements in one sitting.
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*** Later becomes a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when Samus engages two of her more powerful upgrades without explicit permission and bemusedly asks, "Any objections, Adam?"
** Recently, in one of the most amazing [[Sequence Breaking|sequence breaks]] to date, a way was found to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIH76tIwlDo&feature=player_embedded skip the Bag of Spilling] in ''Prime 2''. With out-of-bounds glitching, you can avoid triggering the cutscene where Dark Samus leaves you on Dark Aether and your stuff is stolen.
* In the lesser-known FPS game, ''Chaser'', the only gun you get in the first level is the [[Rare Guns|G11]]
* ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'' multiplayer has something like this. The default classes that can be chosen have stuff, like the <s>noobtube</s> [[Grenade Launcher]] for the FAMAS or red dot sight for the UMP45, that will not be available immediately after you gain the ability to customize your own classes.
** ''Modern Warfare 3'' continues this; only two of the five default classes give you primary weapons you'll immediately have once you unlock Create-A-Class, the other three equipping you with weapons you won't be seeing until level 28 at minimum. Survival Mode does this on occasion as well - for instance, the last unlocked shotgun in multiplayer is available ''from the beginning'' in Survival.
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* In ''[[Guardian Heroes]]'', Han starts off with the powerful Sword of Legend. He loses it to the Golden Hero after the first stage, but may gain another, equally powerful sword if he follows the right path.
== [[MMORPG
* In some MMORPGs, when creating your character, it is depicted wearing very impressive looking, high level equipment. Once your character is actually created though, you only have basic, dull gear.
* ''[[Aion]]'' has a version of this around level 5-6, with a couple of {{spoiler|flashback}} quests that take place in The Abyss, a much-higher-level PVP area. You're in impressive-looking armor, can fly, and characters around you are calling you their hero. In the second quest you'll also be facing off against some really tough-looking enemies who nonetheless go down easily before your "might", {{spoiler|plus a "legendary" hero from the other faction, who ultimately kicks your butt in a cutscene}}.
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* In ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', in the rematch against Sinspawn Gui, himself being a fairly challenging boss, especially for new players, the game gives you a party of [[White Magician Girl]]/[[Healing Hands]] Yuna, [[Badass Longcoat]]/...just badass in general Auron...and [[Guest Star Party Member|Seymour]]. Seymour is perfectly capable of [[Curb Stomp Battle|winning this fight]] singlehandedly without a scratch on him, and everything he does (asides from his character-specific [[Limit Break|Overdrive]], naturally) is something the player will be capable of doing. It's very impressive.
** Even Seymour's Overdrive is available by using Rikku's Mix.
* ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' had you play as Reks who, while still only Level 1, travels with a small squad of Dalmascan soldiers, most notably Captain Basch, who will kill everything that isn't boss-strength in one hit, and one soldier that throws around healing potions to anyone who ever needs them, and never runs out. Then you change to his little brother Vaan. To put in perspective, you have to grind to at least level three in the ''first area'' to survive the sub-boss you have to face upon taking control of him. Also, you are introduced to the wonder and glory of the greatsword weapon class through the guest party character
* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' inverts this trope to drill the combat basics into the player. See [[Second-Hour Superpower]].
** [[Final Fantasy XIII-2]], on the other hand, plays this straight, starting you off as a very powerful Lightning before you switch back to Serah. To put it in perspective, Lightning has roughly ten times as much HP as Serah does at that point.
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* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' had an illusionist at the very start of the game teach you group tactics along with several midlevel NPC friends (who weren't illusory) against swarms of illusory monsters that would have overwhelmed your character normally but which didn't deal any damage.
** And, just to be clear, there was a way to glitch their equipment so it could continue existing well-beyond the tutorial. As many times as you could fit it in your inventory and carry.
* ''[[Earthbound]]'' has your player character start off with your bug-like guide, Buzz-Buzz, circling you around. You also have two somewhat helpful [[NPC
* The Hentai RPG ''[[Knights of Xentar]]'' starts your character at the lower-mid levels, with decent stats. However, the moment we're done with the introductory area, the plot depowers you and strips you nude.
* In ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Force Unleashed]]'', the prologue level is played as Darth Vader. He plays like the normal player character would after being powered up to the max, with all the combos and powers available, except [[Mighty Glacier|he does not have the dash powers]].
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== [[Stealth Based Game]] ==
* In ''[[Assassin's Creed (video game)|Assassin's Creed I]]'' you start off with all equipment and a great deal of health. Sadly none of this is enough to stop you from failing the first mission (albeit by the fault of the protagonist), and being stripped of everything - including, rather confusingly, abilities that shouldn't be possible to take away, like dodging and being able to grab ledges while falling.
** ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]'' starts off right after the final battle of ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'', with Ezio having all the endgame equipment of that game, only to lose most of them soon afterward when his villa is sacked, Ezio having woken up and rushed to the ramparts with only a longsword and a hidden blade
** While the [[Infinity+1 Sword|Armor of Altaïr]] that he wears in the beginning was lost in the villa attack, the player may also unlock an Armor of Brutus that's statistically identical, and/or download an Armor of Altaïr outfit through the Uplay service so that Ezio will appear to be wearing those robes and armor irrespective of what he's equipped with.
* Justified in the ''[[Splinter Cell]]: Double Agent''. In the first mission, you're flouncing through the fjords weighed down with a plethora of high tech gadgets. In the second, you're locked up in prison and have to crawl through an air duct to snag a lockpicking kit. Ouch.
== [[Turn-Based Strategy]] ==
* Almost every [[Fire Emblem]] game starts the party with at least one tier 2 character. This can be good for beginning players, and useful for taking out early bosses, especially the heavily armored ones. [[Crutch Character|However over using them takes valuable experience points away from all your tier 1 characters so your team can stay unbalanced for far too long]]. Experienced players tend to use them as [[Meat Shield
* ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'' opens with the player taking control of the level 2000 "[[Badass]] freakin' overlord" (yes, that's his actual title) Zetta (who also has the best stats in the game) during the tutorial battle, who in the first subsequent cutscene [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|ruins his entire life by accident]] and is rendered unusable as a playable character, despite still being the main character. {{spoiler|When appearing -- in book form -- as a [[Bonus Boss]] in ''[[Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories]]'', he is ''still'' the most powerful overlord in the multiverse}}.
** Another example from in the game is when Alexander tries to kill Zetta, Salome, whose level 1200, interferes and allows you to take him down easily. This is actually necessary since Alexander is level 1000 and unless you're leveling up the [[Bonus Boss|BonusBosses]], you have no chance of beating him.
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** The thematically similiar ''Spider-Man: Web of Shadows'' also pulls the same [[In Medias Res]] variant of this trope.
=== Non-video game examples
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Digimon Xros Wars]]'': In the first episode, Taiki somehow manages to create a strange spectral incomplete variation of [[Combining Mecha|Shoutmon X3]] from just Shoutmon and Ballistamon, which is powerful enough to cause severe damage to MadLeomon's forces. They wouldn't be able to properly form Shoutmon X3 until numerous episodes later, when Dorulumon finally joined Xros Heart.
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