Power Equals Rarity: Difference between revisions

That's not the case with games, though. Generally, for balancing purposes, the more powerful an item/mon/etc. is in a game, the harder it is to find. While various reasons are given in the plot (if at all) as to ''why'' these things are so rare, in the meta-sense, it's for balance. If the player has unlimited access to game-changing stuff, then the game is tipped entirely in their favor.

Generally speaking, people have come to associate rarity with power, and vice versa. In any collectible game which have common, uncommon, and rare items, it's generally understood that the rarer individuals ''should'' be the most powerful; mechanics which would only be okay as a rare are considered incredibly powerful as uncommons, for example. Even in games where the creators actively say that rarity means crap in relevance to power, people will ''still'' associate rarity with overall power, [[Promotional Powerless Piece of Garbage|even when]] [[Junk Rare|it isn't]]. In certain TCG formats, the disproportionate distribution of power between the common and rare cards could lead to [[Fake Balance]].

** And sometimes, there were cards that were made useless. Harpy's Feather Duster and Gryphon Wing are a very [[Egregious]] example. Harpy's Feather Duster is a pretty ''nasty'' card that wipes out your opponent's magic and trap cards. Gryphon Wing, meanwhile, counters it so that whenever they play it, it backfires and wipes out their ''own'' cards. Gryphon Wing came in a starter deck, whereas Harpy's Feather Duster usually came with Game Boy Advance game or from a promo... so what was the point of having Gryphon Wing?

** The Crush Card Virus is almost synonymous within the community for it's rarity and power. It was so rare that in a booster pack with 3 guaranteed ultra rares, it was stated to only occur once in every 10 packs (and rumored to only being printed once every 75 packs). These packs were usually valued at 35 dollars as well, making it quite a stroke of luck to pull one of these. As for power? It could completely destroy your opponent's hand and field of any strong monster, for the next three turns for a comparatively tiny cost.

** Supposedly it's this way. In practice, many if not most of the "artifacts" are actually little more than decent but normal magic items with no real special effect. Many others can be replicated with existing spells, and most of those which are really unique are only a little more effective than a "normal" magic item counterpart.

** In fantasy worlds in general, this trope often applies. This is because, unlike powerful technological weapons, magic weapons often CAN'T be mass produced. They take too much power and energy and effectively have to be hand-crafted.

** The effects are much more pronounced in co-op play, possibly to cut down on infighting.

* The same as above happened in ''[[Hellgate:London]]'', although this was more of a case of 90% of the gear being worthless to you.

** Less notorious but even worse to get is the Gutsy bat. 1/128 droprate dropped by the strongest single enemy in the game, the Bionic Kraken. Also extremely rare, spawns in only one place so you'll probably go through the entire game without seeing one, and so close to the end of the game that all you can use it for is the final boss. It is satisfying to see every other hit be a [[Critical Hit|Smaaaaash!]] though.

* Most weapons in the ''[[Disgaea]]'' series can be of common, rare, or legendary quality ([[Infinity+1 Sword|The best weapon]] of each type is always legendary). The better the quality, the better the item's base stats will be, and the degree to which its stats can be boosted in the Item World will be much higher, as well.

[[Category:Game Tropes]]

[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]

[[Category:Power]]

[[Category:CRPG Tropes]]