Mighty Glacier: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Mglacier_1263.png|frame|Slow and [[Implacable Man|implacable]] like an [[Ice Age|ice age.]]]]

 

{{quote|'''Mr. Huge:''' Huge! Huge! HUUUGE! OK, now we can fight.

 

One of the three classic video game character builds, along with the [[Fragile Speedster]] and the [[Jack of All Stats]].

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'''Examples:'''

== Anime and Manga ==

* The Knightmare Frame Mordred from ''[[Code Geass]]'' is this, thought not technically a character in any game. Heavily armored, heavily shielded, all of its projectiles are Hadron cannons to some extent, either small ones that fire hundreds of pin-point lasers or a massive quad Hadron Cannon that can destroy an [[Airborne Aircraft Carrier]] in one shot. Problem is, it's slow and has no effective close-ranged weapons, so a group of anybody better than a mook can generally surround and shoot it down, and its Float Unit is quite vulnerable.

* In ''[[Ranma ½]]'', [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy|Ryoga]] [[Bromantic Foil|Hibiki]] is this to [[Lightning Bruiser|Ranma Saotome]], being [[Super Strength|incredibly strong]] with [[Does Not Know His Own Strength|little control over it]] and [[Nigh Invulnerable]], but Ranma is capable of dodging his attacks and outmaneuvering him with ease, particularly after studying the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken. However, against anyone else, Ryoga is more of a [[Lightning Bruiser]], capable of moving with frightening speed himself, so either Ranma Saotome just has greater heights of [[Super Speed]] or Ryoga's rivalry with him has helped him overcome this weakness. Genma Saotome seems to be something of a [[Stout Strength]] variant of the [[Mighty Glacier]], but he's surprisingly quick and agile, even when he's turned into a fat, ugly panda, to the point he can actually challenge his son equally for most of the series (and fell behind only because he kept dodging real fights and leaving them to Ranma, so Ranma outpaced him). Played utterly straight with [[Monster of the Week|Lime]] of the [[Lamarck Was Right|Musk Dynasty]].

* The closest thing ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' has to a [[Mighty Glacier]] would be [[Cute Bruiser]] Vita. She isn't particularly fast by the heroes' standards, and her attacks use a [[Drop the Hammer|really big hammer]] that doesn't swing particularly fast. On the other hand, she deals out immense amounts of damage, takes more punishment than she has any business taking, [[Determinator|and then asks for more.]]

** Nanoha herself, too. She's not slow in terms of agility, but her attacks are rather slow but extremely powerful beams. Starlight Breaker alone takes significant time to charge, which is why she only uses it when her enemy is being held by magic binds. Her endurance is also phenomenal. Like Vita, she's a mage that combined power and durability.

* Blackbeard of ''[[One Piece]]'' has incredible strength and endurance - however, he is also very slow, and his Devil Fruit has the [[Necessary Drawback]] of ''attracting'' damage to his huge frame. His [[Charles Atlas Superpower]] endurance is usually enough to compensate (although an earthquake to the face was still enough to pierce his defenses).

 

== Video Games ==

* [[Luminous Arc]] series has three notable [[Mighty Glacier|MightyGlaciers]], Heine, Rasche and Gaston. While giving AO+ Lapis to the bottom two made them faster, it turned Heine into a [[Person of Mass Destruction]] immediately.

* Mask de Smith from ''[[Killer 7]]'': walks slowly, carries twin grenade launchers, can take more damage than any other character and is strong enough to pull trucks along. He used to be a pro wrestler.

* The Frost Atronach in [[The Elder Scrolls Skyrim]] is a very literal example, being a huge ice golem. It lacks ranged attacks like its lightning and fire counterparts, but if it ''does'' hit you, it deals frost damage that slows ''you'' down and hinders strong melee attacks.

 

* Hagar from [[Final Fight]] is one of the oldest examples of this trope in video games.

* ''[[Streets of Rage]]'': Adam in the first game has an A in Power and Jump attacks, but his speed is B. In ''Streets of Rage II'', Max is a hulking bruiser of a pro-wrestler who can take out entire mobs of mooks by landing amongst them just as he's hitting another thug with an atomic drop. It's beautiful.

* Abore in the arcade version of ''[[Double Dragon]] II'' is even taller than Abobo and packs a mighty punch, but is sluggish.

 

* The ''[[Need for Madness]]'' series gives us EL KING in the first game, and adds the even more fitting M A S H E E N in the second game. A tractor and bulldozer respectively, both [[Call a Smeerp a Rabbit|cars]] have issues when it comes to performing stunts and pursuing other cars, but they are the strongest vehicles in the entire game and can easily waste every other car, including each other.

* Heavyweights in ''[[Mario Kart]]'' are an interesting case. They're actually the fastest characters in the game, but in this case, it's their acceleration that's terrible. End up off-road, or get hit by something and they're going to lose a lot of ground trying to get back to speed. At the very least, if they should bump into another racer, it's likely going to be the other guy that goes flying off the track.

* The original ''[[Burnout]]'' has a huge Tow-truck that can be unlocked, which is a basic [[The Juggernaut|Goliath]] that can smash other cars out of the way like flies. Unfortunately it doesn't have a very high speed to compensate. However, the game gives you are 'Burnout' gauge which gives your car a boost in acceleration, which is filled by doing tricks or driving against traffic. Thus, the tow truck can take advantage of its unstopability and simply drive against traffic the whole time.

 

* Zangief, T. Hawk, Birdie, Alex, Hugo, Q, and Urien from the ''[[Street Fighter]]'' series. Note that with the with the exception of Hawk, Q and Urien, most of glaciers in ''[[Street Fighter]]'' are wrestlers or feature wrestling-esque moves in their moveset. Subverted with oil wrestler Hakan (he's a low-level [[Lightning Bruiser]] <ref>In other words, Hakan is not extremely fast, but not too slow to be a full-on glacier</ref>). Alex is a unique glacier in that while he moves rather slow, some of his attacks launch and/or hit ''very fast'', like the Stun Gun Headbutt.

** But especially Zangief, as he's not only easily the most immobile Street Fighter ''ever'', he's NEVER had any kind of rushdown attack or (aside from the Marvel crossovers) powerful jump. He actually gained an attack (the Banishing Flat) for the ''sole purpose'' of foiling the fireball-uppercut game, which absolutely ate him for lunch in the old days. ''SFIV'', if anything, cemented his glacier status, as he no longer even has fast strikes; even Hugo could do rapid-fire pokes.

** Meanwhile, the series' affable Canadian Sasquatch (who is, unsurprisingly, a yeti) wields the power of ice (ironically, considering the trope's name), is big, and also has the ability to destroy lifebars in very little time, yet subverts the Mighty Glacier trope. He can quickly traverse the screen using "shorthops" and has quick normals that also reach far and hit hard, which makes Sasquatch more of a [[Lightning Bruiser]] more than anything. These qualities, along with a slew of other strong points, place him arguably at the top of Vampire Savior's (the most commonly-played title in the series) tier list while the "true" Mighty Glacier Victor rests near the bottom.

 

* The Heavy Weapons Guy class from the [[Team Fortress 2|various]] ''Team Fortress'' games embodies this ideal type, having a very powerful [[Gatling Good|gatling gun]] but extremely limited movement, especially when firing. In a sense, the most readily identifiable bane of this class, the Sniper, also has elements of this concept, possessing an if anything even more lethal gun, which can only be effectively employed when remaining still. It is, however, not anywhere near as capable of withstanding damage, nor as slow when in movement.

** ''TF 2'' also made him a [[Husky Russkie]].

* Heavy Armor Replicas and REVs in ''[[F.E.A.R.]]''.

 

* The Hivers from ''[[Sword of the Stars]]''. Unlike most of the other races, the [[Bee People|Hivers]] have no [[FTL]] drives on their ships. This drops the power and size requirements of their ships as they have no ability to outfit them with bulky FTL drives... so they just put more guns and armor on the ships to make up for it. This doesn't reduce their maximum speed in combat (they are about average, faster than the Liir and Humans), but it makes their thrust to mass ratio abyssmal, so it takes a while for them to reach that top speed or change directions. In strategic movement, the Hivers have the insta-moving teleport system, meaning that although it takes them a ''long'' time to reach a new system, once they've deployed a teleportation gate there they're nigh impossible to dislodge from it.

** Except when they get their late-game gate upgrade, they can jump instantly to nearby stars without a receiver gate. This system is inaccurate however and will sometimes teleport the fleet about two lightyears away from the target.

* Leviathans from the ''[[Civilization|Call To Power]]'' series. They are more powerful than any other unit, but can only move one square per turn, even on roads.

 

* Toyotomi Hideyoshi in ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'', since he's portrayed as a man with the size of a gorilla. He's even moreso [[Mighty Glacier]] than the [[Humongous Mecha]] Honda Tadakatsu, since a lot of his moves involves grappling moves (also Tadakatsu actually has good moving speed due to jets on his back). Even moreso in the fighting game spinoff ''[[Sengoku Basara]] X'' thought the most notable [[Mighty Glacier]] would be [[Church Militant]] [[Love Freak]] Xavi, the slowest of all characters in the game but one with massive amounts of firepower and love.

** Takeda Shingen also plays this trope straight (though maybe not as slow as Zabii), being the foil of his [[Fragile Speedster|super speedy]] [[The Rival|rival]] Uesugi Kenshin. Regardless, when you have [[Tessho Genda|Genda Tesshou]] as the seiyuu, you're almost guaranteed to be a [[Mighty Glacier]].

* Possible [[Ur Example]]: Thor in the original ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]]''. Fortunately, speed power-ups later in the game make him more reasonably fast.

 

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' had a member of a [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] that was possibly the ultimate Mighty Glacier - Kael'thas's minion, Thaledred the Darkener. His melee attack is pretty respectable on its own, AND it applies a 12-sec DoT where each tick does about the same damage as his regular melee. This could take out a BC tank easily. He moves at Walking Speed. The strategy for beating him is "Shoot him from far away, and run if he looks at you."

** Don't forget the Deformed Fanatics from the Lady Deathwhisper encounter in Icecrown Citadel in Wrath of the Lich King. They move at walking speed, but will one-shot most tanks with less than 70,000 health on 25-man. They have to be kited by a tank, similar to the aforementioned Thaladred the Darkener.

** Probably epitomized in Cataclysm with the Whale Sharks. They move at a snail's pace, just a bit slower than the player can swim. Which is great, because a single hit from it is instant-death. Doesn't matter if you're a fully-decked tank or a caster in grays, it will kill you. But if you try, you can outswim it.

 

* Bifrost from ''[[Mega Man ZX]] Advent'', the largest pseudoroid boss in the game. Fills this trope quite literally as he's ice-themed too.

* Wario in ''[[Super Mario 64]] DS''. He's very strong and his punches send enemies flying, but he's also extremely slow and can't jump all that high. And since the preferred way of killing enemies in [[Super Mario]] is by jumping, and one punch from ''anyone'' is enough to KO most monsters, Wario is often passed up in favor of [[Fragile Speedster]] Luigi, and is normally only selected to get stars exclusive to his abilities or by players wanting an extra challenge.

* ''[[Runman]]'' has Stumblor, a completely invincible behemoth and can walk over or through any enemy in the game. However, as the entire game is build around the idea of running through the stages as fast as possible the mighty glacier build is somewhat less then optimal. Still [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Stumblor]] seems to be a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5YvU5XYsYQ fan favorite].

* In ''Little Samson'', Gamm the Rock Lord is the slowest and least maneuverable of the four characters, but has a lot of health and attack power and can walk on spikes without getting hurt.

 

* In the RTS ''[[Total Annihilation]]'', the unit called "The Sumo" is true to its name: huge and powerful. Its problem is that it moves ''really'' slow. Its maximum speed is 0.34 m/s, compared to 1.72 m/s for the basic infantry unit. It acceleration stat is 0.04, which is abysmally slow.

** "The Can" came first. Not as slow (that's not saying much), not as powerful, not as expensive. But a lot more useful, since you can actually get it to ''go'' somewhere; in contrast, the Sumo is basically a defense turret that can be repositioned around the base if need be.

* ''[[Sacrifice]]'' most of James units are mighty glaciers, two that exemplify it are the Jabberrocky and the Rhinok. The both can soak up a ton of damage and dish out the same amount on their foes, but are one of the slowest units in the game.

 

* [[Breath of Fire I|Ox]], [[Breath of Fire II|Rand]], [[Breath of Fire III|Garr]], and [[Breath of Fire IV|Cray]] from the ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' series.

* The [[Pokémon]] [http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-dp/289.shtml Slaking] is the embodiment of this trope: It has the third highest Attack stat of any Pokémon, and while its speed stat is above average, it can only attack once every two turns due to its ability Truant. There are many double battle sets that revolve around compensating for this.

** There are a number of NPCs you can encounter that exemplify this, the two most notable are (1) Havel the Rock, whose equipment is so heavy that he's crawling slow but he ''WILL'' [[One-Hit Kill|one-shot]] a bitch. And (2) Black Iron Tarkus, who takes a while to get around, but can easily go alone against the Iron Golem boss of Sen's Fortress.

 

* In ''[[Touhou|Touhou Hisoutensoku]]'', Utsuho Reiuji falls under this. Her most powerful spellcard actually takes about a second to charge before use, but when it fires, it can take out over half the opponent's health bar.

 

* The ''[[X (video game)|X]]-Universe'' series has two versions of this; M3+ (ultra-heavy fighters) are very powerful and well shielded, but are even slower than their already slow M3 (fighter) cousins. Ships built by the Teladi also fit this; they're very slow, but mount ridiculously powerful shields.

* ''[[Ace Combat]] 6'' has the A-10A -- it's (even moreso than before) a [[Lightning Bruiser]] against ground targets, but as before a Mighty Glacier in air-to-air combat. Highest Defense and Stability in the game, but it pays for that in Speed and Mobility, and due to its lack of any air-to-air special weapon the A-10A pilot must use the regular short-range missiles and/or the even-shorter-range gun for dogfighting.

* Heavy fighters in [[Space Sim]] games are almost always Mighty Glaciers, but the GTF Ares from ''[[Free Space|FreeSpace 2]]'' stands out as an particularly notable example. It is slower than many bombers and severely deficient in maneuverability, but has a ton of shields and the ability to carry a truly obscene number of [[Game Breaker|Trebuchet]] missiles, allowing it to simply lob missiles at every target within 5 kilometers and watch them all die.

 

* Mikey Thomas in the ''[[Backyard Sports]]'' games.

 

* ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' has the Brutes and mercenarii. They can't chase with/join you in [[Le Parkour]], but are more resilient and stronger. The former can smash through your guard, though the favor can be returned if you buy the appropriate training from Mario.

 

* ''[[Sanctum (2011 video game)|Sanctum]]'' has [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|the Tank]], a very slow-moving, extremely high hitpoint enemy that pretty much requires headshots with a highly-upgraded sniper rifle to take out. Or just a fully upgraded Lightning Tower. After all, [[Lightning Can Do Anything]].

 

* The Heavy class was one of the four classes in ''[[Gladius]]'' (along with [[Jack of All Stats|Medium]], [[Fragile Speedster|Light]] and Animal) and fits the Mighty Glacier definition to a tee, even though its members can be male or female. They had a [[Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors|rock-paper-scissors]] advantage over Mediums.

* In any given ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' game where you have Knight and General class characters, you have a [[Mighty Glacier]]. As these characters generally are barely mobile, often half the speed of anyone else, but will generally take a "No Damage" from most enemy units, while able to crush enemies with a single hit.

* The Bangaas in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]''. Most of their classes favor defense, offense, and HP over speed and evasion. In A2 however, the Trickster class has a decent amount of speed growth in exchange for less power.

 

* Epic Creatures in ''[[Spore]]'', particularly in the Creature phase. They have at least more than 9 times the maximum HP of a regular creature and can instantly kill other creatures when attacking, but they are as slow as dirt.

 

[[Category:Competitive Balance]]

[[Category:Mighty Glacier]]