Crutch Character: Difference between revisions
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Thus, they are like a crutch - you can lean on them to overcome a weakness early on, but eventually, the game will kick the crutch out from under you, and your other characters must have learned to stand on your own two feet by that time, or you are doomed to fail.
The
Definitely also a [[Subjective Trope]], since what becomes obsolete for some players might be perfectly useful for others all the way through the game.
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== [[MMORPGs]] ==
* Prince Rurik of ''[[Guild Wars]]'' escorts the party of PCs and, if so desired, NPC henchmen on a number of missions. Given that he's level 10 and never changes that, he's quite useful when your character is level three and, well, peters off after that. {{spoiler|Then, quite naturally, he bites the dust. Who didn't see that one coming?}}
** Heroes, introduced in ''Nightfall'' and further in ''Eye of the North'', act as customisable henchmen and veritable
* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]] Imagine Online'' gives the player a Wounded Cerberus at the end of the tutorial. It is a strong demon with good stats and a respectable array of magic, including Recarm, Media and Fire Breath. However, it cannot be fused, gains experience ''10 times slower'' than normal, and is removed from the player's party not after long.
** Cerberus is well-known throughout the series for joining the player (usually temporarily for an upcoming boss fight, but can rejoin later) in flagrant disregard of the level restrictions.
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* Minwu in ''[[Final Fantasy II]]'' is the [[Ur Example]] for ''[[Final Fantasy]]''. He joins with just under 200 HP and several high-level [[White Magic]] spells at a point when your characters have only begun to learn magic and have almost 100 HP, ''if'' you've been level grinding.
* Tellah in ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' is an old sage with both black and white magic. He is overleveled for the cave at which he is first available, being able to allow himself and his allies to live off of the enemies with ease using Cura and Osmose. He is available again later on, but at this point you'll have caught up to him in power, until he gets his memories back and remembers ''all'' the top-tier magic he forgot before. Granted, his stats suck so those spells aren't as impressive as they could be, but he still gets access to them and can get good usage out of them.
** Fusoya of the same game is in a similar boat. He might not be a pure
** [[The After Years|The sequel's]] protagonist is, well, a particularly weak weakling at the start. The game compensates by giving you [[Red Shirt|Biggs and Wedge]] then The Hooded Man, who are much better, to assist.
*** Later in the game you get {{spoiler|Golbez}} for the final tale, who much like Tellah and Fusoya gets access to high-level magic long before your other party members do, and gets around 1500-2000 more HP than them to boot.
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* The ''[[Pokémon]]'' games frequently feature a handful of common Pokemon, usually bugs (as in insects, not [[The Missingno|programming errors]]), that evolve into their final forms at relatively early levels (for example, Butterfree and Beedrill, both of which can be acquired at level 10). These Pokemon are useful in the early going, but most of them quickly become obsolete as more and better Pokemon become available (some Bug-types remain powerful ''at least'' until 1/2 or 2/3 of the way through the game). The anime episode where Ash releases his Butterfree possibly [[Lampshade Hanging|hangs a lampshade]] on this trope.
** Fortunately [[Pokémon Black and White]] [[Averted Trope|averts this]]. The two early bugs, Leavanny and Scolipede, are very good with high Attack and Speed, good move pools and okay typing (Bug/Grass and Bug/Poison). Leavanny especially is good if you chose Tepig, since it is strong against both Oshawatt and Snivy.
** Pokemon also has a Crutch ''Move''
*** The move can be bred onto low-level Dragon-types, such as Dratini. Pokémon Crystal's Battle Tower had battle levels as far down as level 10. How many Pokémon have significantly more than 40 HP at level 10? (The Pokémon Blissey, with the highest potential for HP in the game, can have up to 80 HP at that level.)
*** Another Crutch Move comes in the form of Bullet Seed in Gen III. You could get the TM for it right before the Rock-type Gym. You could put it on Treecko or Shroomish to sweep through said Gym and some of the subsequent hikers on the next route, but its low base power means it will eventually be replaced.
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** [[Pokémon Black and White|Gen V]] just may have done this with the Starters themselves. In Generations past it was common practice to keep a starter around, not only because of loyalty, but because usually, wild pokemon of it's same type are uncommon or outclassed by the starter. This all changed with the advent of Gen V. With the sheer rise in power and impressiveness of the wild Pokemon in Unova, it makes the Starters look mediocre by comparison.
*** This is largely the domino effect of [[T Ms]] no longer being consumable. To elaborate: In order to compensate for the now infinitely reusable skill machines, many of the Unova Pokémon were designed with a severely limited movepool compared to other generations. Most of them will only learn moves from their own typings, plus Normal. This makes dual type Pokémon much more valuable than single types, even when they have historically common typings such as Grass/Poison. Thus the Grass and Water starters both are outclassed even by Pokémon that can be acquired very early in the game. The Fire starter, who eventually gains Fighting, is somewhat more useful, but still easily replaced by other Pokémon without any particular difficulty.
* ''[[Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete|Lunar 2: Eternal Blue]]'' has an interesting twist on
** Luna from the first game's also this due to her multi-target healing [[Limit Break]], which make everything easier.
* The questionably playable ''Beyond the Beyond'' has super-knight Samson and his weak charge, Prince Edgar. Soon, Samson takes a cursed scarf to the face and becomes de-powered to near-uselessness, due to his inherent unreliability whenever you give him a combat command.
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* The ''[[Final Fantasy|Final Fantasy Legend]]'' series (or possibly the entire ''[[SaGa]]'' series) features extra party members that join for only a short time. Unless you have been power-levelling, these characters are always a higher level than you when they join, though they've more-or-less lost their influence by the time they finally leave.
** In ''[[Saga Frontier]]'', Red's immensely powerful Alkaiser form is, well, immensely powerful. There are very few non-boss enemies that can stand up to it, especially as the story progresses and more Alkaiser powers are unlocked. Unfortunately, transforming into Alkaiser voids any stat bonuses that Red would receive, and since those directly influence Alkaiser's stats, the result can easily become a very weak superhero. Not to mention the fact that Red can't transform if there are any humans around...
*** Some people in ''[[Final Fantasy|Final Fantasy Legend 2]]'' pretty much fit the
* ''[[Phantasy Star]] IV'' does this twice; first with Alys, who acts as the Jegian until {{spoiler|she makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save the main character}} (incidentally this happens around the same time where the rest of the party catches up with her level), and second with Rune, who initially debuts with spells that can wipe out anything you face with ease, and can hit most enemies for more damage with melee attacks than anyone else in your party. When Rune shows up later to re-join the party, he's still fairly powerful, but... not as much.
* Orca in ''[[.hack]]'' starts at level 50, making the first dungeon a snap. Then he gets Data Drained. {{spoiler|Eventually, you get him back, but he's still level 50, while your whole party is 90+.}}
* The Death Knight in ''[[Beyond Divinity]]'' wears his own armor and thus is powerful in the beginning, but has to be safeguarded from harm as the game progresses if you want to keep him around because of his hilarious remarks and {{spoiler|the fact that he's soul-forged with the protagonist, so if either dies, it's Game Over}}.
* Ashlay in ''[[Star Ocean 1|Star Ocean: First Departure]]'' starts out relatively powerful, but will easily be surpassed by characters like [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Ratix/Roddick]] by the end of the game, and so he's considered low-tier. Conversely, Cius/Cyuss might not seem that great at first, but can become a real powerhouse. As it so happens, Ashlay and Cius are mutually-exclusive [[Optional Party Member
** Likewise, if you're playing ''The Second Story'' / ''Second Evolution'', Dias Flac is one hell of an invincible demon when he is first seen in battle (as enforced by the ensuing [[Hopeless Boss Fight]]). But if you're playing as Rena and he joins, most players agree he will be surpassed by Claude and maybe other characters as well, primarily due to his lack of multi-hit special moves, laggy normal attack, and the fact that the special ability granted by some weapons and accessories that gives normal attacks extra hits doesn't work on him either: this is even worse in the endgame where all special attacks fall under [[Awesome but Impractical]] and everyone will be spamming their normal attacks which take no MP to use and hit a stupid amount of times.
*** Dias' regular attacks are lacking, but his Air Slash is so [[Spam Attack|spamable]], it can be used all the way until the end of the game, and is extremely useful in [[Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer|Fun City]].
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* ''[[Tales of Graces]]'''s Richard is a borderline case as a [[Guest Star Party Member]] for a good quarter of the game or so {{spoiler|until the Future arc that is}}. He doesn't necessarily have better stats than everyone else, but he is the first member to have a decently powerful [[Limit Break|Blast Caliber]] unlocked the minute he is playable. He also has a variety of spells and physical moves, which is helpful because at that point, you only have two fighters. Of course, his usefulness dwindles away the minute you have other mages and unlock your own Blast Calibers, which is quite early in the game.
* ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]'' has the ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' cast and Richter, who are unable to change equipment or level up via experience points like Emil, Marta, and the [[Mons]]. Their levels and equipment do jump up with the occasional plot point, and when {{spoiler|the entire original cast joins you at the end of the game, they are all capped at level 50}}.
* ''[[Grandia III]]'' has a somewhat interesting example in that the
* In the Game Gear RPG ''Defenders of Oasis'', the first character to join the prince is the Genie, who is at that point a combat monster and nicely carries you through the early battles. However, unlike the other characters (eventually you're a four-man party), he doesn't get experience and doesn't level up. His stats can be improved by expending special Genie power-up items, but they're extremely expensive in shops and are fairly rare in treasures, and by the end of the game the Genie is running healing potions for the other three characters and hiding in his lamp so that he doesn't get killed.
* The
** ''[[Persona 3]]'' gives you the odd case of Shinjiro Aragaki. He has all the traits of a
** {{spoiler|Naoto Shirogane}} could be sort of a skewed example; her skillset allows her access the high level Light and Darkness magic, as well as abilities to boost their effectiveness, and several powerful Almighty spells as well. This combination of powers makes her brutally effective against a surprisingly wide variety of Shadows, including some [[Demonic Spiders|very annoying ones]] that most other party members can barely even damage. The letdown aspect of the character, however, comes when you take her into a boss fight... and realize that all those spells listed above are now underwhelming at best, totally useless at worst.
*** The biggest problem with {{spoiler|Naoto}} is that her stats have no correspondence to the skills she learns. One of the major effects of these being that she doesn't even have the MP to be repeatedly casting Almighty spells, and her magic damage is so abysmal that Yukiko can probably hit harder even when the enemy has Fire resistance.
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** They also have the basic stats for a character of that level, so if your party members have Augments, there appears to be a large gap in abilities. This is most noticeable with [[Hit Points]] - characters around level 20-ish with augments will have quadruple-digit HP, while guests won't.
** Guest characters have their own inventory, which seems to contain an unlimited supply of potions (Hi-Potions for Larsa's second appearance and for Reddas). Since potions are truly useful in-battle in XII (much less charge time than healing spells, and don't deplete your MP), this can really help you soak up damage. A number of sidequests and Marks are best done while you have Reddas.
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' has this going with most of the [[Guest Star Party Member
** [[Mulan]] is the [[Magikarp Power|exact opposite]]. When you first visit her land she's disguised as Ping. Ping has poor attacks, fumbles a lot and is generally a detriment (but required to have on your party). However, later she drops the disguise and becomes one of the better fighters.
* ''[[Golden Sun]]: The Lost Age'' has Piers, who joins the party at a much higher level, with good stats, several very powerful attacks, and decent healing spells, but has the lowest EXP progression in both games. Additionally, he has the stats of a physical attacker, but is stuck in the more mage-y classes, while you get a better healer near the end of the game, at which point he's basically just there for backup. (unless you really like looking at his skirt-clad hairy legs)
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== Third-Person Shooter ==
* Zero in ''[[Mega Man X]] 3'' starts out far more powerful than X, and is pretty essential to passing the harder portions of some of the stages, but as X acquires the Maverick weapons and various upgrades, he quickly begins to outshine Zero. Near the end of the game, Zero's only real use is to be killed off so X can take his Z-
** Their [[Meaningful Name|names]] foreshadow this: Zero is a static force in the first three games, like the number zero; X always obtains upgrades of some kind during play (X is the standard symbol for a variable in mathematics). Cyber Peacock lampshades this when measuring X's power, saying it's
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* ''[[Suikoden V]]'' gives the player character Georg Prime, a powerful bodyguard who must, for plot reasons, abandon the hero soon after the main plot kicks in. And even before that, he's only available sporadically. he then subverts the trope's usual expectations when he rejoins the cast near the end and is ''still'' ridiculously overpowered. To the point that he's again rendered unavailable for the final battle (except in [[New Game+]]).
** From the same game, Sialeeds starts out as a useful ranged fighter/mage, but since she has only one rune slot, which is permanently equipped with a relatively weak Wind Rune, she gets less useful later on. {{spoiler|(This is probably the game's way of subtly discouraging dependence on her, so that her [[Face Heel Turn]] about halfway through the game doesn't cripple your party.)}}
** Suikoden in general has a few
* Baldarov in the Genesis strategy game ''[[Langrisser|Warsong]]'' (or Volkov if you're playing the original Japanese ''[[Langrisser]]''). In the beginning of the game, his level is maxed out and he deals far more damage than your allies and enemies, but by the fourth or fifth scenario most of your characters have caught up to him. He's simply there to absorb damage from the stronger armies {{spoiler|until he gets assassinated at the end of Scenario 5}}.
* In the ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]]'' games, you have the Battleships that deploy all of your units-the Hagane/{{spoiler|Kurogane}} and the Hiryu Custom. At first, they're incredibly useful-in the Ryusei route of the first game, the Hagane is essentially capable of soloing most of the early levels. As the game wears on, however, their accuracy drops and their [[Wave Motion Gun
** In the same game on Ryusei's route there's also arguably Ingram. He's one of the better pilots you have early on, his default mech measures up well and comes with a powerful built-in weapon which makes him one of your harder hitters. Then about halfway through the game you get the characters from the other route and, though you have some more characters who outclass him, he is still good enough to warrant deploying him. Then {{spoiler|he betrays you and teams up with the bad guys to become many people's [[That One Boss]] and you never get him back. You get to keep the Wildschwein though.}}
** Kyosuke's route gives us Sanger Zonvolt, '''THE SWORD THAT SMITES EVIL!''' with his fantastic stats, Grungust Type 0, useful skill set and always-critical-ing-Colossal Blade. Then {{spoiler|he betrays you too and becomes a boss. Then he comes back, although he's still [[Subverted Trope|just as good.]]}}
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** Non-OG example, Daitarn3 in Alpha Gaiden is a wonderful tank and can move very far for a [[Super Robot]] due to flight and it's alternate modes. However, as you get later on, tanking is very difficult. Not to say he's not a top tier mecha by the end, HE IS. But Banjo can no longer charge in blindly without expecting to have his HP bar go from 11000 to 2500 in a few hits, and his free attacks falls in 3 range, when the preferred range would be 4. Luckly, Banjo has shield defense skill, high SP and damage output keep him a must for the endgame.
** Another non OG example, and probably one of the best examples in the series to date, [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann|Kamina]] in Z2 Hakai-Hen. He's got the best stats of any of Gurren Lagann's pilots by far, {{spoiler|but as per the series, he dies halfway through the game. And breaking away from the SRW tradition, his death is ''completely'' unavoidable.}} It's still pretty incentive to use him, though, because it also means raising Simon's stats.
** Alpha Gaiden has a really interesting example in [[Great Mazinger|Tetsuya Tsurugi]], which is possibly the most bizzare example in the series. He is simmilar to Kamina(or rather the reverse since Tetsuya is made first), being basicaly the best pilot in his own team stats-wise. Great, his personal mech is an awesome unit. It has high armor, good movement, and powerful weapons such as the one shot Post movement Great Booster, Far range expensive [[Shock and Awe|Thunder Break]], a MAP weapon Thunder Break, and the post movement 4 range free [[Rocket Punch]] that deals high damage, and its EN cheap stronger variants with 3 range all of which is enchanced by Mazinpower making it possibly one of the best unit in the entire game. Not only that, Tetsuya has Great Effort seishin that basicaly makes him far above the others in term of level advancement, making the entirety of the early to mid game a total joke just by deploying and training him. However, he lacks Alert seishin, which considering the late game bosses power in Alpha Gaiden, makes it hard for him to handle bosses and he suffers Daitarn3 Tanking problem, but not as severe thanks to his better set of weapons. The story puts him on a conflict with the entire team, and implies that he will leave the team for good. And one of the midgame stages {{spoiler|pits you against him [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] against Koji, and Getter team UNCOMBINED}}. So what makes him an interesting example ? First, while he is not as powerful in the late game, he is so far above the entire team from the start, especialy in term of firepower that you'll end up using him anyway. Second, his MAP weapon is so useful against late game bosses that abuses the support defend skill. Third, and why he is so interesting as an example is the fact that unlike any other
** Surprisingly and ironically, the true
* ''[[Disgaea]]'' has Laharl himself. If you [[One Man Party|use him and him alone]], he'll remain several levels above any enemies he faces in the game proper, allowing him to steamroller through all opposition with far less grinding than it would take to make any other character useful. Unfortunately, he is less capable than a Divine Majin, and while he can transmigrate, he can't change classes when doing so, so he's at a disadvantage when [[Level Grinding]] for the bonus content (which over half of any serious player's playtime will be devoted to).
** For the series in general, healers and defensive characters. They can be crucial for much of the game (the entire story mode for starters), but during all the post-game content Disgaea tends to turn into [[One Stat to Rule Them All|an offense only affair]]. Basically at some point both your characters and the enemies will be doing so much damage that ''everyone'' dies in one hit, meaning defense is meaningless and healing impossible to even use.
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== Non Video Game Examples ==
* While Scrubs obviously enough is not a video game, Ed's character arc in season 8 [[Playing with a Trope|messes with tropes]] in a way that illustrates this trope. Ed starts out [[Brilliant but Lazy]], satisfied with where he is. However, none of the other interns are. So while Ed is off trolling Lost fansites, the other interns are actually getting better to the point where
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