Lethal Joke Character: Difference between revisions

** [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ornithopter Ornithopter] looks mostly harmless: A flying 0/2 is pretty useless. The 'thopter's real value for combos is that it has zero cost - and you won't be using it for ''attacking''. Hint: [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Enduring%20Renewal Enduring Renewal]. It has also fueled cards like [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Arcbound%20Ravager Arcbound Ravager] and other components of the ravager affinity deck, including [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Cranial%20Plating Cranial Plating], which made it into a lethal evasive attacker.

*** Or it can be used to sneak in stuff using [http://magiccards.info/bok/en/88.html ninjutsu].

** There's also four cards based off of [[Parodius]], resembling four plastic men riding paper airplanes. Two of them are Normal Monsters with almost no attack or defense, but the other two are Union Monsters (monsters that can turn themselves into Equip cards) and when unioned to the others, make them ''impressively'' powerful.

** Skull Servants. These are well known as being the weakest monsters in the game with no effect, low points, and no support. Until the release of King of the Skull Servants, a creature that gains 1000 attack points for every Skull Servant in your grave, as well as every King of the SS. After that there was Lady in Wight and Wightmare, who both are treated as SS while in the grave. This means that with all of these cards in the grave, King can easily become a monster with 11000 attack points.

* At first glance, Yachiru in ''[[Bleach]]: Blade of Fate'' seems worthless. She has two moves, a dash attack and her [[Battle Aura]], and one super that's a stronger version of the aura. If you use her personal Spirit Card deck, however, you'll see it's all Stability (which prevents her attacks from being stopped if she gets hit) and Spirit Pressure Increase. That's the trick - use her dash to corner her opponent, then bust out her super, and the opponent can't escape taking ''every hit''. If you have three super bars, that's most of their health. No wonder she's a [[Cute Bruiser]].

** Sadly, ''Dark Souls'' hit her with a [[Nerf]]. Personal Spirit Card decks were removed, her attacks have much more wind-up, and she randomly ''trips'', regulating her to normal [[Joke Character]] status. Amusingly, Hanataro can make a claim to this status - unlike ''Shattered Blade'', he only has two attacks that heal the enemy, and one of his special attacks inflicts paralysis, which is like a "Free Air Combo" ticket.

* ''[[Pokémon]]'' has a few characters that work like this:

** The most famous of these is Wobbuffet. When it was first introduced in ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver]]'', its gimmick of only being able to counterattack and a tiny movepool of only 4 moves left it quite difficult to use without prediction. However, with the advent of its ability Shadow Tag, which prevents the opponent from switching out against it, and expanding its movepool ever so slightly (by 3, but only one of them is really needed), it made the jump from never-used tier to <s>actually being fairly powerful</s> so unbelievably broken that no competitive player will agree to play against one, a designation it shares only with the most powerful [[Olympus Mons]].

* The mecha combat action game [[Another Century's Episode|Another Century's Episode 3]] allows the player to unlock the Gotchko, a small, relatively basic unit from ''[[Overman King Gainer]]''. It would seems like a bit of a joke character, or maybe just an affectionate inclusion to play to the fans of King Gainer... until you actually use it. The unit, with few or no upgrades, is one of the most powerful units in the game simply because of the ridiculous range and accuracy it has for its two weapons. It is restricted to ground stages, and cannot actually fly, but it doesn't need to.

** The RX-78-2 Gundam. The white devil of the One Year War will beat your ass.

* In ''[[Mace: The Dark Age]]'', you can play as Pojo: The magic chicken with a code. Pojo is weak and has very few attacks, but is so small that most attacks miss entirely, including everything the final boss does.

* If you're confused about why you went through so much effort to unlock the seemingly useless Onion Knight in the DS remake of ''[[Final Fantasy III]]'', then you obviously didn't know that in the original, the Onion Knight's stat growth exploded at levels 90-99. The same deal applies in the DS version.

** In addition, they have access to all types and levels of magic from level 1, so they can be used to cast non-stat based spells (such as status cures) at lower levels then usual.

* Cut from the US version of ''[[Streets of Rage|Streets of Rage 3]]'' is Ash, a [[Manly Gay]] character who runs and screams like a girl and has a limited move set (no air attacks). However, his main attack, a weak looking slap, [[Armor-Piercing Slap|can tear even bosses apart in seconds]].

* In ''[[Tekken]] 3'', we got Gon... which despite being a bit slow and short (or due to being short), cannot be attacked by high attacks, cannot be thrown, and has unblockable ''projectiles''.

** Not to mention Doctor B, who spends most of his time on his back, but provides quite a challenge as the end boss of an optional minigame, and can be lethal in the hands of an expert player.

** Alpha 2 takes it a step further, with Boss getting his copilots Nuke and Mucha. Unlike in J, they start out with a pair of decent-ish seishin each, until they hit level 80. [[Game Breaker|At which point Nuke starts throwing Exhaust for 10 SP and Alert for 5.]]

** Not only that, but in J and W, he can use a Self Destruct attack when you think he may be of no more use if he takes too much damage. Crank up the Spirit commands to max and watch the fireworks. And it only costs a measly 10 in cash to repair. Not only that, there is often a meme of him being the true hero of whatever game he is in with the Self Destruct attack his mech has.

* From the online card collection strategy game [[Pox Nora]] there is a Champion called the "Magma Bunny" that had stats well below average for the Mana Cost. However, it had the ability to split off a copy (splitting its HP), and if you upgraded a useless ability you could pump its Mana Cost to huge levels. Senseless? Perhaps, except for two spells, one that sacrificed a champion to refund the full Mana Cost, and another spell that sacrifices a champion and deals damage equal to the Mana Cost to the nearest enemy champion. And each copy cloned off of the original had the same mana cost as the original. Then there also happened to be another (in most circumstances crappy) spell that allowed you to keep redeploying your Magma Bunny after Sacrificing it, over and over again. That Deck became known as the "Bunnies of DOOM!" Finally the mechanics were nerfed.

* Neko-Arc in ''[[Melty Blood]]'' - despite being completely unplayable (literally) for half of the versions, Neko-Arc is ''ridiculously'' overpowered: very small height, good speed, and powerful ranged and throwing attacks. A safe strategy leans towards crouching in a corner continually tripping her until she runs out of health. Luckily, she doesn't do too much damage overall, and has about the worst defense in the game, but if a skilled player hits enough times...

* In ''[[Dynasty Warriors]] 5'', one of the (MANY) characters is Zuo Ci, an old man whose weapon is a deck of cards. At first glance, especially compared to massive pike-wielding badasses, this seems exceptionally lame. And yet his attacks, while not especially powerful, tend to hit EVERYONE even remotely close to him. In a game where it's quite common to be surrounded by 30-40 [[Mooks]], this is invaluable.

** Actually, Zuo Ci only looks like a joke. In reality, he had the best stats of any character in the game- all of his stats were on par with the highest of any other character, and he had epic combo abilities. If you knew what you were doing with him, it was possible to defeat even "invicinble" bosses you were supposed to avoid.

** Further mention goes to Xiao Qiao, whose ultimate weapon in [[DW 3]] had the instant death element imbued onto her final charge attack string. Use it on an enemy officer and watch his/her life bar deplete instantly.

** Also, in the online version, Zuo Ci's weapon seems to be the weakest out of all of them, inversely having one of the WORST stat averages of the game, the average high of the weapon is actually poor quality if compared to other weapons, and having a mostly gimmicky moveset. Unless you get the right combination of first and 6th charge attack. If done right, you can have a perfect assist weapon, second only to none. You could have the ability to naturally stun, freeze, or burn any opponent without using items, and if you do then you can stack up the advantage by using a combination of 2-3 elements depending on your luck with the weapon attacks. Being able to inflict status effects stacks well with the activation skill, you get a debuff and slowly lose health, one of the weapon's higher stats, and give a bonus in attack and defense to all friends, as well as heal them. You don't play this weapon for it's stats.

* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'', we have [[The Chosen One]], Colette. She appears to be a frail girl, that, well, needs protecting -- barely capable of holding her own in a fight. With only mediocre stats, low speed, an odd fighting style and [[Idiot AI]], one would think she's not worth keeping in the party -- even her magic is bad (q simple, low damage light spell, a status buff that takes forever to cast, an [[Awesome but Impractical]] spell that kills ''her'', and lastly a flashy spell [[A-Team Firing|that hardly hits anything]]) so why is she called a [[Game Breaker]]? She gets the game's strongest Physical Special Attacks -- including one that only uses 14 TP, deals massive (x4.6) damage (and it's Lightning Elemental -- a LOT of the game's enemies are weak to it...), another that can do x10 damage -- and that stacks with another hidden ability: Her seemingly weak Pow Hammer attack can become Toss Hammer, a poisoning attack that NOTHING IN THE GAME (not even [[That One Boss|That One]] [[Bonus Boss]]) is resistant to, and anything afflicted by it drops it's HP down to 1 in a minute ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1z2HTmj7XY&fmt=18 this in action]). She also has an easy to use [[Limit Break|Hi-Ougi]]. In the hands of any skilled player she's a force to be reckoned with and NOT someone to be underestimated.

** Even in the hands of an unskilled player, combinining her Hammer Rain with Lloyd's level 2 Sword Rain arts in an Unison Attack provides the devastating Stardust Rain combination, which can connect for 100+ hits on its own against a sufficiently large opponent.

* In ''[[Roguelike|TOME]]'' you can switch on or off "silly" enemies; ones from different series that don't quite fit the series' "''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' meets ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'' with the numbers filed off" theme. One of these enemies early on is a "floating mine." If you have enough skill in the [[The Symbiote|Symbiote]] ability, you can fuse this to yourself and fire ''rockets.'' These work ''very'' well against [[Demonic Spiders|Nazgul.]]

* Shingo Yabuki of ''[[The King of Fighters]] '97'', who is less effective in terms of technique but still has ''lots'' of damage potential in him, thanks to his ability to do random critical hits. Basically, it's a bit hard to have him hit you, but when he ''does'' hit, he'll break your defenses more than once. Yeowch.

** There's also the [[Mascot Mook|Metool]] from ''[[Mega Man X]]''. It takes twice the damage from any attack, hence dying twice as fast as a regular character. However, it's tiny and very hard to normally damage, it can juggle opponents with its [[Spread Shot]], has access to its signature helmet guard which makes it invulnerable to ANYTHING, an unblockable super where a bunch of metools rush the enemy for a third of their health, and finally, it's ultimate attack drops the Metool Daddy from ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]] 4'' on the enemy for a [[One-Hit Kill]] (0WN3D)!

* Arguably, Zappa from ''[[Guilty Gear]]''. Due to the random nature of his ghost summons, he's just as unpredictable to the person playing him as he is to his opponent, and his really powerful ghost takes a long time to set up...but once Raoh appears, the fight is more or less over. Plus he's good for just plain freaking opponents out with his constant babbling and impossible contortions.

** Even more on Mist. She is notable in the game for having the among the lowest strength growths and stat caps in the game while also having amazing magic growth and stat cap. Unfortunately she uses swords as a weapon of choice, which makes her mediocre in battle at best. Until you give her one of the magic swords available in the game, which uses her magic stat for attacking and behaves pretty much like a magic tome. All of the sudden, you have a beastly unit capable of destroying hundreds... at least until her magic sword breaks.

*** This is only possible in ''Path of Radiance'', however. In ''Radiant Dawn'', magic swords do physical damage now. This makes Mist far less usable as an attacker, but allows for more than three sword users (one of whom isn't even in Radiant Dawn) to be able to effectively attack from afar, since every other sword user relies a lot more on the strength stat than the magic stat.

** In ''Radiant Dawn'', one of the starting characters is Meg, low leveled and rather weak. She seems worthless...until you level her up a bit and realize he stats skyrocket. She can become one of the fastest heavy characters in the game, not to mention the [[Luck Stat|luckiest]], and gains tons of HP. Combined with her personal skill Fortune, she can't be critical thus making her a mighty tank. By the end of the game and trained right, she's one of the single most useful characters in the entire series!

* In ''[[Final Fantasy]]'', the Bard is usually thought of as a joke class, mainly due to the fact that most people outside of Japan were first exposed to it by Edward in ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', then called ''II'' in North America, and he [[The Load|sucked]]. In the [[DS]] [[Enhanced Remake]] of ''IV'', Edward gains "Life's Anthem" one level after you meet him, which is nearly a [[Game Breaker]]: It lets the entire team [[Healing Factor|regenerate]] a set amount of HP every ''second'' for the duration. Thus, the best use for him is to make him go first, set up Life's Anthem to fully refill HP, ''then'' destroy the enemies. At higher levels, he gets "Hastemarch", a full-party haste, and "Hero's Rhyme", a full-party 10% boost to all stats.

** In the GBA remake, Edward is actually capable of soloing the [[Big Bad]] at level 60. It's very hard, but possible, making him qualify as an even more lethal joke character. Of course, he has the worst possible stats in the beginning, only beaten by Tellah, who actually becomes ''weaker'' by leveling up. At least his unnecessary Strength-stat drops by 1 point frequently when he levels up. His Intelligence doesn't ever increase either, nor does his MP.

* ''[[Ridge Racer]] 4'' has the Age Solo Ecureuil, a mini car that has one gear but can go from 0 to 180 in three seconds. And you have to race against it in the Extra Trial to unlock it. The car would then appear twice with an extra gear in Ridge Racer(s) 2 for the PSP: once as the Angelus Kid and again as the Crinale Kid.

* Fighting game ''[[Eternal Champions]] 2'' (Also known as ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'') had, as an unlockable character, Crispy, a chicken with no special moves and not many ''regular'' moves to speak of either. But he was also so small that the majority of the other characters' moves couldn't hit him, and opponents could only block his attacks while crouching (except his jumping attacks). The character was supposed to be just a cute novelty character, but he was ridiculously hard to beat, even when played by an inexperienced player. He was practically invincible in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing. (The fact that the game introduced a "juggling" mechanic that the bugs hadn't exactly been worked out of, and that Crispy was too small for other characters to juggle but fast enough to easily juggle anyone else didn't help.)

* Kuma in ''[[Tekken]] 1, 2'' and ''6''. Kuma is a bear with a big hit box and crappy range (though less of a problem in ''Tekken 2''), he moves slow and his moves are predictable. On the plus side in Tekken 2 and 6 he attacks at a decent speed. For some reason from Tekken 3 they decided to nerf him into a crappy [[Joke Characther]] , then Tekken 6 undid a lot of the damage, and gave him a whole bunch of new moves, including the fact he can now juggle! He still moves slow, he still has crap range, a big hitbox and can be very predictable if not played properly..... but he attacks at a decent pace and he still has his high power meaning he can put on alot very quickly. Yay rebalancing!

** Her many flaws and her one plus got balanced out in Brawl. She became much more effective at recovery, and she's a monster in air combat, but her rest is far from dangerous.

** Chain her down-a drill kick with down-b rest and it becomes nigh unstoppable. The first attack immobilizes anyone underneath and lines up the hitbox for rest 95% of the time. Considering how far Jiggly can fly, it's pretty easy to repeatedly spam the combo to kill anyone who isn't expecting it. The only effective counter is using Captain Falcon to FALCOOOOOON PUUUUNCH! while she's sleeping.

** While other characters can't do anything about their weaknesses until the lategame, and even then they can only resist those elements by taking up a skill slot, Cielo in the hands of a player who sees his potential can begin to null individual ailments as soon as he's introduced, equipping whatever nulls are best for the boss or dungeon. Nulling an enemy's attack causes them to lose a turn. In addition to that, Cielo's seemingly odd and useless stat distribution means that he's got an incredibly high dodge rate & good MP. Dodging an enemy's attack also causes them to lose a turn. It's very common to lose one or more characters to attacks that Cielo dodges without a scratch. Eating the enemy's turn icons make Cielo a defense character, and in addition to that his odds of survival mean that he's able heal and revive the party after a devastating blow, in addition to the fact that learning to null aliments also means Cielo can block and cure those ailments. [[Shoot the Medic First]] is impossible when the enemy can't ''hit'' the medic.

** Like the skill Null Sleep, Cielo is also designed for the second playthough [[Bonus Boss]], one of the hardest in JRPG history. Cielo's increased risk of getting hit by ailments plus invulnerability while asleep makes him the most likely to survive the otherwise unavoidable Gaea Rage, on top of the benefits of having no elemental weaknesses & dodging physical attacks.

* The [[Fragile Speedster|Harasser hovercraft]] in ''[[Mechwarrior]] Living Legends'' has laughable armor, crap weapons, gets outran by some [[Humongous Mecha|mechs]] that carry 3 times the weapons, and is prone to spontaneously flipping over from touching small rocks. The Harasser Delta "Toast 'n' Go" variant, better know as the [[Fan Nickname|Flamasser]], carries a loadout of 6 [[Kill It with Fire|flamethrowers]]. Like the other Harassers, it is hilariously top heavy and the addition of the flamethrowers makes the hovercraft melt when you fire. However, when carefully used, those 6 flamethrowers also cause enemy mechs to melt so much their arms fall off, instantly causes the fusion reactors on aerospace fighters to explode, and melts [[Power Armor|battlearmor]] in their suits. A newbie in one of these things is a free kill, while a pro driving one is an unstoppable boiling engine of fire and death spinning across the level at 160kph.

* Hunk from [[Resident Evil 4]]'s Mercenaries mode has no knife and a TMP that burns through ammo in seconds. Careful aim and good use of his one-hit-kill neck breaker special move can allow you to take out packs of enemies while gaining far more ammo from drops than you used, while the TMP's fast rate of fire allows you to lock down larger groups and even some minibosses. Not to mention you also spawn with 3 frag grenades. The only problem is if you run out of ammo, you don't have a backup weapon and can't even break open containers to look for more.