Armor Is Useless: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' games ''Morrowind'' and ''Oblivion'' a character's protection depends more on his skill with armor class rather than the armor itself, though despite that NPCs are almost always armored appropriately. This includes the existence of "Battlemage" profession, military mages wearing heavy armor. NPCs will occasionally [[Lampshade Hanging|reference this trope]] if the player asks them for advice. You're warned not to judge how tough a fight will be based on the amount or quality of your opponents armor or weapons, as the really powerful characters don't need these things to kill you.

** Another thing is that, a least in ''Oblivion'', Normal Armour is useless against magic, as are basic shield spells.

* ''[[Metal Gear]] Online'' lets you customize your player characters, where you have the option of giving him/her combat armor or helmets, but these are merely aesthetic accessories, and have no effect on how much damage you take. You still take as much damage as shirtless male characters or bikini-clad female characters.

* ''[[Soul Calibur]]'': The female warrior [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|Hilde]] and male hero [[The Atoner|Siegfried]] both wear heavy plate armor, and yet they still take damage at the same rate as the rest of the cast, who wear ordinary clothes, fabric bodysuits, or in Voldo's case, a simple codpiece.

* Played straight in ''[[Dead or Alive]]'', with the fully power-armored [[Space Marine]] Nicole being just as vulnerable to punches and kicks as the more [[Stripperiffic|Stripperiffically]]-dressed women.

* In ''[[Drakengard]]'', there is no amount of armor you can be wearing, damaged or undamaged, that changes how much damage you take. And in cutscenes, we're shown it works the same way for [[The Evil Army]], although that's possibly because the protagonist is a [[Badass Normal]].

** Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins has a variety of armors, most of which can take more than one hit. The trouble happens when you ''need'' a certain armor that can take only one hit to get past a certain point (especially the Angel Armor), meaning that once you lose the armor, you're hosed. Two ways, in fact.

* In the anime-themed PC game ''[[Shogo: Mobile Armor Division]]'', the enemies come in many varieties, some sporting basic uniforms, others power armor, and still others ten foot tall mini-mechas. The difference that makes in their durability is negligible: 100, 125 and 150 health points. All forms die to a single shotgun blast or a short burst from an assault rifle.

* Armor in ''[[Might and Magic]] 6 - 8'' is only as good as three things: Your skill with the armor in question, The abilities of the enemy you're fighting, and how good your Repair Skill is. Given how many late game enemies had abilities that (a) ignore armor class and (b) break armor, you may as well rely entirely on magic resistance once you reach the [[Lost Technology]] section of the games.

** Leather armor is ''slightly'' more useful than the other armors - every class that ''can'' use armor can upgrade the leather skill to a level where this is no disadvantage to having one on, which meshes well with that it, as all armors, can carry useful bonuses that have nothing to do with armor class (there are no non-armor options for the torso slot), and in 7 and 8 the Grandmaster bonus applies even if the armor class does not.

* ''[[X-COM]]: Enemy Unknown'' is a peculiar case that caused a fair bit of [[Natter]]. A soldier wearing the most powerful armor in the game, hit where it's thickest, has roughly a 2/3 chance of surviving one hit from the most common alien weapon. There's no guarantee against multiple shots. What would be rejected in most games is here a crucial improvement from losing half the squad on nearly every mission. The first armor available occaisonally saves from getting their faces imploded, and instead leaves them in dire need of a medic on the field and time in the infirmary when they return.<ref>Thus doing exactly what reasonable armor can be expected to do in real life; making what would have been fatalities into living casualties.</ref> It's another major development.

** Tricky players note that advanced armor makes automatic high-explosive and incendiary rounds into amusing close combat weapons, and that its flying version reduces Chryssalids from nigh-invincible instant death machines to mostly harmless. (While it also makes Silacoids completely harmless, [[Goldfish Poop Gang|that's not really a downgrade for them]].) The sequel ''Apocalypse'' has much stronger armor.