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Late Character Syndrome: Difference between revisions

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Late Character Syndrome (view source)

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But even if the power divide isn't too bad and the character is really quite awesome at what he does, there's another factor. You've already played most of the way through the game with the characters you're currently using, so you're already emotionally attached to that party and comfortable with the current group dynamic. In addition, a character that comes to the party this late is less likely to have as much of an impact on the plot, or any cool sidequests to go on.
 
And, as a final straw, these guys might end up coming in at the same time for any [[New Game Plus+]] runs you might be allowed to do. ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'''s Magus might be fun to nuke the enemy with in the late part of the game... but hit New Game Plus, and he's gone until late yet again.
 
This is particularly a problem in games with [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], where "late" can actually be quite early, leading to a lot of [[Overrated and Underleveled]] situations.
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Differs from [[Can't Catch Up]] in that the characters were possibly never caught up to begin with.
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{{examples|Examples:}}
 
* {{spoiler|Sarevok}} in ''[[Baldurs Gate|Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal]]''. You get him at the beginning of the expansion pack, true, but if you're importing a saved game you probably already have a developed party that you'll prefer over him.
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** Shoon and Hazuki, also from ''[[Suikoden V]]'' are great fighters, but arrive so late in the game that you'll probably already have others in their roles that fight as well as they do.
** Sonya Shulen in the [[Suikoden|original]]. You recruit her, and then go to war over [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]. {{spoiler|Could also apply to Gremio, as he only comes back if you recruit everyone (even Sonya) before starting the battle for [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]}}
* Magus in ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'', especially if you get him for the first time on your [[New Game Plus+|second or later playthroughs]].
* Most fourth party members in ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'' {{spoiler|even Leon}} get this, due to your main three getting most of the benefits of grinding.
* Amarant in ''[[Final Fantasy IX (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IX]]'', arguably. He joins your party late into the second disc, and there are party members who fill his niche quite well.
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** In the original, Terry didn't have anything mastered and he was 5 levels lower to boot. Thankfully, the remake gave him a few buffs as described above.
* ''[[Warriors Orochi]]'' suffers from this problem constantly. When you unlock a character, even if said character is said to be a major [[Badass]] like in the case of Lu Bu, said character starts at level 1 with their basic weapon and none of their abilities. This is a case of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], of course, but it does seem a bit strange, not to mention frustrating when you can't take the cool new character you just unlocked in Stage 7 of the campaign on to the final battle without some major grinding.
* ''[[Wasteland (Video Game)|Wasteland]]'' features a few great characters in the late game, from Darwin Village and even in the [[Final Dungeon]]. By then your base rangers are engines of near anything-killing and you've got either decently-leveled [[Non -Player Character|NPC]]s or clones to pad out the ranks.
* A lot of these appear in the ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' series:
** One example is what the fandom calls the "[[Magikarp Power|Est]]" archetype. The most notable examples are the archetype-namer from the first game, Corpul from the fourth, Nino from the seventh, and {{spoiler|Pelleas}} (and to a lesser extent, Tormod and his friends) from the tenth.
** For the "pretty good already, but lacks time to level up", Ena in the ninth game and Stefan, {{spoiler|Oliver}} (although he's more of a [[Lethal Joke Character]]), Bastian, {{spoiler|Renning}}, and all of the dragon laguz in the tenth game apply, as do {{spoiler|Karla}} in the seventh game and {{spoiler|her brother, Karel,}} in the sixth. The latter is an especially interesting case--he serves the effective role of the [[Eleventh -Hour Superpower|Gotoh]], but unlike most examples of that archetype (except for the laguz royals in the Tellius games), he's a weapon-user, not a magic-user, and he's also not at the maximum level. He shows up one level ''after'' the final level of a [[True Final Boss|non-perfect run]] and can only be recruited by {{spoiler|Fir or Bartre, who are his niece and his brother-in-law, respectively}}, his stats are very good (in some stats, likely better than the characters of his class that were raised from a low level, especially in normal mode), and he averts the usual "pre-promoted units have horrible growth rates" by having the best growths of any character in any of the games. Oh, but he's already Level ''19'' in a promoted class, so those insane growth rates will only trigger once.
** In the ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe (Video Game)|Fire Emblem Elibe]]'' seventh game you can recruit Renault in the 3rd to last chapter. He has a very interesting backstory and comes with a Fortify Staff, but it's so late at this point you will throw him in the back of the party after recruiting him.
** In general, characters that join on the last five or so chapters of a ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' game will suffer from this unless they're a [[Game Breaker]] or something.
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[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]
[[Category:Late Character Syndrome]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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