Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?/Video Games: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Baldur's Gate]] II: Throne of Bhaal'', the final battle pits the epic-level protagonist and his party against {{spoiler|Amellisan, traitorous priestess of Bhaal,}} charged up with about 99% of Bhaal's power. Your protagonist has the remaining 1%. You win.

** This is to say little of the [[Bonus Boss]]. {{spoiler|Demogorgon, the creature imprisoned at the bottom of Watcher's Keep, is the Prince of Demons himself and therefore the most powerful demon lord in the Dungeons and Dragons cosmology.}} Of course, given the way [[Fighting a Shadow|planar mechanics]] work, [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|killing him just sends him back to the Abyss]] [[Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu|where he can wreck havok freely]].

* Don't forget ''[[Breath of Fire]] III'', where {{spoiler|the final boss is Myria, the resident creator goddess}}.

** She isn't a {{spoiler|real goddess}}, since at the end she says "{{spoiler|If there is a god, answer me! What should I have done with the Brood?}}".

** Also, it's more than unclear if the things you killed/wounded actually were Dagon and Hydra. It might just have been overly large deep ones. And the protagonist thinking he killed the [[Big Bad]] does not mean much, especially in a [[Cosmic Horror]] story with [[Unreliable Narrator|a madman as the narrator]].

* ''[[Castlevania]]'' lets you beat the crap out of '''Death''' on a regular basis, not to mention some of the more notable Bosses like the personification of chaos in ''Aria of Sorrow'', and all sorts of high-level demons.

*** A ''minor, recurring'' enemy at that. It actually is present in multiple ''Castlevania'' games, but is generally named Malachi (mistranslation during production of [[Symphony of the Night]]; the name stuck), and never a boss.

*** At one point in ''Dawn of Sorrow'', you walk in on Dmitri killing Cthulhu/Malachi, so Soma might very well ask the trope title.

** The first game explains this somewhat, as it is said that he was only allowed to compete in the tournament after taking a [[God in Human Form|mortal form]]. Eventually, however, the creators just said "the hell with it" and would go on to introduce more gods to the series like Fujin and Shinnok, who are also no stronger than every other fighter.

** He gets punched out at the beginning of ''Deception'', then you punch out the almighty Onaga at the end.

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' usually avoids this -- big threats need big groups of superpowered individuals to take on -- but there are a good few moments where really big threats can be taken out with rather questionable means. The comic strips, for example, have two instances of superpowered hordes being taken out by flashbangs on arrows; in the first case a bunch of ancient deathless ghost mages, in the second case a group of psychically enhanced and deranged lunatics about to tear apart a powerful hero. In-game, while not common, it's quite possible for a group of "natural" origin heroes with powers on a normal human's level to take down Lanaru or Ruladak, beings that make up major aspects of a sentient dimension's awareness. That's made worse by requiring that group to spend upward of six hours going through the lore behind those opponents, describing how they literally broke their planet. Even more fun is going home and getting your backside handed to you by a next-gen SWAT team.

** Then there is Hequat, Goddess of the Mu, who can be taken on and defeated by a lone villain. (They do at least say that she is in a weakened state, which is why you have to go and attack her ''now''.)

**** There's an explanation for that floating somewhere out there on the internet. It said that Arceus is basically the supreme Pokémon, so it lives forever (or at least a damn long time). This means that Arceus will easily outlive humans, like the trainer, so it doesn't really mind. After all, he has forever to wait...

** The [[Pokémon (anime)|anime, or at least the movies]], handles this more "realistically", with only the weakest legendary Pokémon (e.g. Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy) capable of being harmed by humans. The more powerful legendaries (e.g. Mewtwo, Kyogre, Darkrai) are more-or-less invulnerable to anything less than other legendaries, and the ''truly'' powerful ones (e.g. Dialga, Giratina) are essentially indestructible.

**** Considering Pikachu's been battling since the very beginning of the series (1996? 1997?), he could very well be stronger than a Poké-god.

*** The [[Pokémon: The Movie 2000|second movie]] also gives us ''world-ending'' consequences for capturing the three Legendary Birds.

** The first non-Robotnik final boss Sonic fought was the watery god of destruction, Chaos, in the first ''[[Sonic Adventure]]''. Granted, he didn't actually ''destroy'' Chaos, but he did use himself as a projectile and shot through his brain a couple of times.

*** Kinda justified, since at that point Sonic and Chaos were using the exact same power source, just a different attitude to activate them.

** Metal Sonic becomes nearly as powerful in ''[[Sonic Heroes]]'', absorbing Chaos's and all the heroes's lifeform data. Super Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles take him out with ease [[Narm|because they're SONIC HEROES!]]

** [[Shadow the Hedgehog|Black Doom]] wasn't quite a god, but he was the leader of an alien race and distinctly Cthulhu-like in voice and appearance. Shadow whips his ass in super form by himself.

** In ''[[Sonic and The Secret Rings]]'' this trope is also shown (quite literally), where The genie and evil villain the Erazor Djinn uses all the rings to turn into a [[Body Horror|Horrific monstrosity]] called "Alf Layla wa-Layla" (Basically, one thousand and one nights in Arabian.), and begins to recreate the world in his own image, only to be stopped by Darkspine Sonic. Meaning, you knock his own attack back at him, fly up, and start punching the holy hell out of him.

** ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'' (the 360/PS3 version, at least) is notable in that someone - namely, the Gaia Colossus - literally ''does'' punch out the game's local Cthulhu; at the end of the fight, it rears back, zooms forward, and [[Sonic the Hedgehog/Awesome|delivers the left haymaker of]] ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog/Awesome|justice]]'' [[Sonic the Hedgehog/Awesome|to Dark Gaia's face]], stunning him long enough for Super Sonic to deliver the final blow.

** What about {{spoiler|killing Jiyva}}???

* Gene in ''[[God Hand]]'' does this quite literally. You defeat [[Big Bad|Angra]] (who's basically [[Satan]] in the game's universe) by punching him. A ''lot''. Hell, even ''before'' getting the requisite [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower]], Gene had to beat down three ancient demons with his bare hands to reach the [[Final Boss]] in the first place!

* Notably [[Inverted]] in ''[[Okami]]''; you're playing as an [[King of All Cosmos|eccentric]] [[Physical God]], but a large number of the bosses you face are [[Badass Normal|Badass Normals]] who can still give you one hell of a fight. Played straight when you defeat {{spoiler|[[Eldritch Abomination|Yami]]}}.

* The ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' series is rather fond of this one. First up was Gorea, an [[Eldritch Abomination]] that wiped out some precursors and ended up [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed.]] Samus unsealed it and kicked its ass. Second was the Emperor Ing, a demonic [[Dimension Lord]] that Samus shot to death. Finally, there was the sentient planet of Phaaze, whose [[Toxic Phlebotinum]] was corrupting the universe itself. [[Earthshattering Kaboom|Samus blew it up.]]

* Almost every boss on ''[[Grand Chase]]'''s Xenia is a god of some kind. And only one of them said they were going easy on the group.

* Likewise, most of the bosses you fight in ''[[Aquaria (video game)|Aquaria]]'' are also gods of some sort.

* ''[[Arc the Lad]]'' is a rare case: while the [[Eldritch Abomination]] responsible for most of the trouble is eventually defeated, it takes four games, {{spoiler|4.000 years in story, no less than five team of semi-godly fighters powered by the local gods and three near or complete collapse of civilization}} before the [[Big Bad]] finally bite the dust. Before that, the game series will provide plenty of deaths, [[Player Punch|tragedies]] and [[Difficulty Spike|Difficulty Spikes]]: The [[Eldritch Abomination]] will eventually get defeated, but you're going to [[Earn Your Happy Ending|earn that triomph]]

* In ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'', it's quite possible to massacre titans, Forgotten Beasts, and {{spoiler|[[The Legions of Hell|demons]] [[Dug Too Deep|from the bowels of the Earth]]}}, and in the last case you can even {{spoiler|''colonize hell'' and [[Mundane Utility|use it to grow mushrooms]]}}.