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Crutch Character: Difference between revisions
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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.CrutchCharacter 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.CrutchCharacter, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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A specific form of [[The Ace]]. See also [[Overrated and Underleveled]] and [[Linear Warriors Quadratic Wizards]]. Contrast with [[Magikarp Power]] and [[One Man Party]]. This character often acts as the EXP version of [[So Long and Thanks For All The Gear]].
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== First-Person Shooter ==
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* The ''[[Pokémon (Franchise)|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'' -- Dragon Rage, introduced in the first generation, always hits for exactly 40 [[Hit Points]]. It takes surprisingly little time for that to become a drop in the bucket. There's also [[Sonic Boom]], which hits for half as much and (in a later revision) starts to adapt to the [[Elemental Rock
*** 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.
** Geodude is particularly useful in early stages of the game despite being an infamous [[Com Mons|ComMon]]. It has [[Mighty Glacier|high Attack and Defense]] and learns [[Dishing Out Dirt|Rock and Ground]]-type moves, both of which are [[Elemental Rock
*** However, Rock and Ground are still good offensive types, so either you'll win or lose easily.
** Another good example would be the elemental monkeys in [[Pokémon Black and White]]. You get the one that your starter is super effective against, because the first Gym leader uses the monkey super effective against your starter. However, they learn very little in the way of decent moves until level 22, and while you get the stones early enough to evolve them, you'll miss out on the good moves, and by that point you'll find Pokemon of the Fire/Water/Grass types that already have good moves and good stats without evolving.
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* 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 (Video Game)|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|Optional Party Members]]; you can't have both.
** 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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== Turn-Based Strategy ==
* Jagen (or [[Spell My Name With an "S"|Jeigan]] as he's known in Japan) in the first ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' game, a purple Paladin who is charged with protecting Marth. He had above-average starting stats for a character in the first chapter, but very low stat growths. His name has become a slang term in ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' fandom for similar characters (he's also the former [[Trope Namer]]) -- nearly every game in the series has one, although they're usually not quite so useless later on. [[Fire Emblem Jugdral|Oifey]], [[Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones (Video Game)|Seth]], and [[Fire Emblem Tellius (Video Game)|Titania]] are seen in particular as being reasonable choices for taking all the way to the endgame.
** Other examples of flat out Crutch-Characters are Arran (Fire Emblem book 2/Fire Emblem 12), [[Fire Emblem Jugdral|Eveyl]], and Marcus in ''Fire Emblem 6''. In ''[[Fire Emblem]] 7'', he's actually a ''lot'' more better. [[Fridge Brilliance|And he's actually a lot younger; too, whereas in Fire Emblem 6, he was around Jagen's age]]
** Furthermore, most games give you a powerful character early on who's already undergone his class change. These characters qualify as crutches for two reasons. First of all, while they can easily slaughter the entire army on earlier stages, they'll only get one XP for killing them, leaving the rest of your party under-developed. Furthermore, their stats are relatively low for their class and level. A common tactic is to take away their weapons and just use them to take shots.
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* The cyborg recruits in ''[[X-COM]] 3: Apocalypse'' start off more resilient, accurate and courageous than any human or mutant recruit at the time of hiring. The catch? They cannot increase their stats by training and so quickly get left behind when the meatbags start getting the hang of things. The only trump card they have by the endgame is complete psionic immunity.
** The psionic immunity makes them incredibly useful in the early game, too, because a common early game enemy is the "Brainsucker", which, while easy to kill, moves quickly and permanently mind controls a character if they successfully leap on their head - and the most common early game enemy weapon is a launcher that shoots brainsuckers at people. Androids are not only immune to being mind controlled, but the brainsuckers will completely ignore their presence, rendering most early game enemies harmless. Relying on them too much in the "Brainsucker" phase of the game means your human and mutant units won't have the experience they need to take on the later game threats, however.
** Their predecessors, the HWP units of the first two ''X-COM'' games, have a milder version of this. They're faster, better armored, immune to mind-control shenanigans, and tougher than your rookies, but don't can't get stat increases and are 4 times the size of a person. And rookies only get to become supersoldiers by getting out and mixing it up with those xeno bastards, so one cannot rely on the HWP to do all the major work or you'll never get your troops to those [[One
* The Zuul of ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' appear to be this at first. They have several advantages: Their ships start out cheap, faster both tactically and strategically and better-armed than most races'. They can take slaves, depriving an enemy world of population while driving up their own production. Having to [[Planet Looters|overharvest]] means they can build up early money fast. '''However!''' They are a subversion who hew much closer to [[Difficult but Awesome]]. See that page for more details.
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