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Restart At Level One: Difference between revisions

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Restart At Level One (view source)

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{{quote|''"In ''X2'', you save the galaxy, well sort of. You're the hero, everyone is in your debt. In game time, you play on for about 6 months to a year and amass a huge trading empire and an even huger battlefleet. Your personal ship is a Nova, or an M6, or an M2. Your combat rank is 'Ace of Aces' or better.''<br />
''"Along comes ''X3''.''<br />
''"WTF ? Suddenly you have no factories. No fleet. No race rank with anyone. You have gone from Hero to Zero with the insertion of a disc. Worse, your personal ship is gone and your flying this old fleatrap that can't get out of its own way, let alone keep you alive, and hey, it has no upgrades either and just 2 little popguns. And suddenly you're 'Harmless' instead of an 'Ace of Aces'."''|[http://apricotmappingservice.com/unbalanced.html ApricotSlice complaining about this trope] as applied to ''[[X (Videovideo Gamegame)|X2: The Threat]]'' and ''X3: Reunion''}}
 
Also known as being "[[Metroid|Metroided]]."
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** ''[[Curse of Darkness]]'' has Hector, former powerful servant of Dracula. He gave up all his powers and gear to settle down with his beloved, but then Isaac had her killed and Hector charged after him with just a short sword.
** ''[[Dawn of Sorrow]]'' goes halfway with it. Alucard explains the loss of all the souls collected in ''Aria of Sorrow'', but there's still no reason given for Soma not to [[Bag of Spilling|grab his Claimh Solais]].
* ''[[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]]'': If you're on track for the [[Golden Ending]], then upon entering the Last Cave "You feel a black wind blow through you. All weapons dropped to Level 1!" (Mercifully, by this point the player may have the Spur--which doesn't need to level up--and/or the Nemesis--which [[Lethal Joke Item|works best at level 1]].) This happens ''again'' when you enter [[Bonus Level of Hell|Sacred Ground]].
* ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]'' begins with [[A Taste of Power]] but after the attack on Monteriggioni, Ezio is badly wounded from a pair of gunshot wounds. When you regain control of him, it turns out his body cannot heal as fast as it used to, so he won't be able to perform at top efficiency, leaving you with five health squares; his armor and weapons were also lost during the siege.
** Fortunately however you keep the best of those weapons, the left-arm hidden blade that had a built-in pistol and poison blade, and Ezio is issued a basic straight sword upon waking up in Rome. As importantly, he also retains most of the moves from the previous game, along with the new kill streak moves that were introduced in ''Brotherhood'' before and during the attack on Monteriggioni.
 
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* X of the [[Mega Man X]] series usually subverts this in that, while he starts a new game without the armor, weapons, tanks, and other powerups from the last game, he has a tendency to keep abilities he's used before. As of X8, he's kept the first two dash powerups, and the fourth level charge shot power of the first game.
* Zero puts himself to sleep at the end of ''[[Mega Man X]]'' to fully eliminate [[The Virus]]. 100 years later ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' he is violently woken by [[Damsel in Distress|a scientist under attack by mooks]] so his restoration is incomplete.
** Played literally and justified in the second game. After [[Walking the Earth|travelling the wastelands]] for a year, Zero's weapons are damaged (one, the [[Blade Onon a Stick|Triple Rod]], was even beyond repair), and when Zero returns to the [[La Résistance]] base, his weapons are restored (the Triple Rod was replaced), but he has to [[Evolving Weapon|level them up]] again.
*** Thankfully [[Averted Trope|averted]] from Zero 3 onwards. Your weapons already start at full power. You would probably spend a good couple of hours levelling them up after the first mission anyway, since the saber sucks without the 3 hit combo and charged slash, so it saves up on the tediousness.
* ''[[Wonder Boy III the Dragons Trap (Video Game)|Wonder Boy III the Dragons Trap]]'' is a sequel to ''[[Wonder Boy in Monster Land (Video Game)|Wonder Boy in Monster Land]]''. The game starts on the ending level of ''Monster Land'', with Wonder Boy all powered up. Seems like it'll be a cinch... until he gets cursed and turned into a lizard, rendering all his power-ups completely useless.
* ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|Sonic the Hedgehog 3]]'' ([[One Game for Thethe Price of Two|and Knuckles]]) has the opening scene where Sonic gets the Chaos Emeralds knocked out of him. After collecting said Emeralds, you lose them again in the second half of the game. Though the next power up is a [[Game Breaker]].
 
== [[Racing Game]] ==
* ''[[Blur (Videovideo Gamegame)|Blur]]'' has Legend Mode, which is similar to ''[[Modern Warfare]]'''s Prestige, except each time you enter Legend Mode, you unlock a special Legendary car that you get to keep on the next trip up the [[Character Level|fan level]] ladder.
 
== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==
* Most RTS games don't allow the upgrades you've achieved in one mission to carry over to the next mission.
* Between the end of the first and the start of the second campaign of ''[[War CraftWarcraft]] 3'' Arthas goes from a L10 Paladin to L1 Death Knight.
** At least partially [[Justified Trope|justified]], in that he's having to learn/grow into an entirely new range of abilities.
** Thrall is another example.
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== [[Role Playing Game]] ==
* ''[[The Witcher (Video Game)|The Witcher]]'' strongly implies Geralt having come back from the dead ({{spoiler|he was killed by an angry mob in the end of the [[Lady of the Lake (Literature)|last book of the original saga]], five years before the game begins, but apparently (badly) resurrected by his [[Mary Sue]] of an adopted daughter}}) is why he starts at level 1.
** Played straight ''[[The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (Video Game)|The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings]]''. There is no explanation given for why the same guy who had become a one-man-army by the end of the first game is getting his ass kicked every time he faces more than two opponents in the Prologue.
* ''[[Gothic]] II'' explains this by the [[No Name Given|Nameless Hero]] being resurrected after being buried under rocks for several weeks at the end of the first game.
** The third game does it again, except you spent a lot of time on a boat. And your equipment gets stolen when you leave the boat without it, and pirates take the boat. You still start out somewhat stronger than in the first two games though.
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* In ''[[Geneforge]] 5'', the PC has forgotten everything about their past and all of their skills. The PC regains the skills but never regains their memory.
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'':
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (Video Game)|Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories]]'' slaps Sora, Donald and Goofy with a brand new mechanic, plus [[Easy Amnesia]] as they progress through castle that they spend the whole game in. In ''[[Kingdom Hearts II (Video Game)|Kingdom Hearts II]]'' being asleep for a year explains the similar depowering. It [[Hand Wave|Hand Waves]] the power loss as you being the in the villains' house and having to play by their rules. Notably, Sora ''does'' seem to keep all his HP from the first game, since his starting HP is the same as the first game's max HP.
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358 Days Over 2 (Video Game)|Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2]]'' demonstrates that Roxas is a [[Badass]] by Organization standards, but in his first appearance in [[Kingdom Hearts II (Video Game)|Kingdom Hearts II]], he's downgraded to level 1 and doesn't even know what the Keyblade is. Perhaps [[Justified]] by {{spoiler|1=DiZ/Ansem tampering with his memory, personality, etc...}}
* ''[[Vagrant Story]]'' has Ashley Riot, a famous Riskbreaker... who, after a deeply traumatizing event, locked away all of his memories of combat. Sidney forces him to remember it, freeing the first few abilities, and after that he regains them "from repressed memory" with each experience milestone.
* ''[[Shadow Hearts]]: Covenant'' has Yuri depowered by the Mistletoe Curse, forcing him to relearn and reclaim all of his Harmonixer forms one by one.
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** Arguably, he is much older by the game's events, and additionally didn't learn classes, having not had the crystal shards that allow it. Furthermore, the amnesia thing
*** According to NPC chatter in one of the towns in the second world, Galuf ''did'' actually think to bring high-powered equipment with him, but somehow lost it all when his meteor crashed.
* Somewhat averted in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', as Cloud starts at level 6 or 7 and levels up during the very first battle to boot. In fact no one starts at level 1 unless you exploit a glitch or a hack. Though you'd think Barret, leader of the <s>terrorist</s> activist group AVALANCHE ([[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"|yes, all caps]]) would be stronger than level 7. However played straight in Cloud's {{spoiler|fake}} Nibelheim flashback. It's puzzling how a 1st Class SOLDIER is a mere Level 1 teenager.
** Well, Barret is the current leader of AVALANCHE. There used to be another but retired for certain reasons in yet another Compilation Game. And being Level 1 in the Nibelheim Flashback is actually a tip to what actually happened in there...
** It's a bit of twice-over [[Fridge Brilliance]], anyway. On a first playthrough, it can easily be seen as a way to highlight just how ''powerful'' Sephiroth is compared to you. On a second, it becomes clear that {{spoiler|Cloud's level 1 because he was just a mook.}}
** Referenced in [[Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children|the movie]], during the fight against the big dragon-looking thing. Tifa mentions how everyone had grown so powerful by the end of the game, then had gradually lost that edge over the subsequent two years, and how Cloud seems to be regaining some of that edge.
* ''[[Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete|Lunar: Eternal Blue]]'' gives you the uber-powerful Lucia at the beginning, who wipes the floors with her powers. But once you reach the bottom of that first tower...
** Granted, {{spoiler|this is more of a "''forced'' reboot to level one", which is ''quite'' uncomfortable for the character in question}}, but still.
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** Fortunately averted in ''Mass Effect 3''. If you import a save from the second game, the level you start at will be the level of the imported character.
*** On the other hand, you can do this deliberately in multiplayer. When you reach level 20, you can "promote" a character, increasing your War Assets in the single-player game but forcing you to start that character from level 1 again, a la ''[[Call of Duty]]'' prestige levels.
* Early in ''[[MegamanMega Man Legends]] 2'', the player can actually ask Roll what happened to all their weapons (from the previous game), at which point she embarrassedly admits she sold them to make repairs to their ship.
* The sequel to the German RPG Maker game ''[[Vampires Dawn]]'' features this. The central characters Valnar and Alaine start out with the max. levels canonically attained at the end of the previous game, but quickly get their power drained halfway through the introduction story.
* Played with in ''[[ZHP]]'': Your character starts every dungeon at level 1, but the level you're at when you finish the dungeon (or die; it doesn't matter) is added to your total level, giving you a boost to your stats the next time you go in.
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* Subverted in On the Rainslick Precipice of Darkness, you start at the last game's max level with the same stats. You move up from their, though your weapons are basic once again. Justified in that {{spoiler|Yours was destroyed in the intro of number 2, Tycho's 'potential bullets' ripped his gun apart and Gabe's were soaked in hobo piss.}}
* Done rather amusingly in [[Robopon]] Ring and Cross, the sequel to Robopon Sun, [[No Export for You|Star and Moon]]. You play as the same character, going to another county to enter a tournament, yet you don't have any of the [[Mons]] you had from the first game. On the way to the aforementioned country, the main character suddenly realizes that he left them at home.
* Adol is back to level one, usually without the fancy equipment from the previous game, in each of the [[Ys (Video Game)|Ys]] games. Given how frequently he starts a game by being seriously injured and needing to spend several days in bed (Usually due to falling off a ship or the ship sinking outright), this is actually justified on occasion.
 
== [[Simulation Game]] ==
* As noted in our page quote, the [[Player Character]] of ''[[X (Videovideo Gamegame)|X2: The Threat]]'' and ''X3: Reunion'' are the same guy, reset to level one with his former assets having gone poof.
 
 
== [[Turn -Based Strategy]] ==
* ''[[Disgaea]]'' mentions at one point Laharl isn't back up to strength after oversleeping 720 days {{spoiler|because of Etna poisoning him}}
** The sequel also has Etna brought down from level 1000 to level 1 due to a summoning ritual gone bad. {{spoiler|It was her fault it went wrong anyway}}.
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*** There's also an in-game mechanic to invoke this trope on your own units. It definitely [[Magikarp Power|helps in the long run]], though.
** Apparently a running theme in the Disgaea series: ''Disgaea 4'' gives us Valvatorez, a vampire who was the former "Tyrant" and ruler of the netherworld. After he refused to drink any more blood he lost all his power and took a low-level job training Prinnies.
* Averted in ''[[Fire Emblem]] [[Fire Emblem Tellius (Video Game)|Radiant Dawn]]'' : When the Greil mercenaries (the heroes of the first game) finally make their comeback all are already at tier 2 of the 3 tier system, most at the higher end of it. The first few chapters feel like [[A Taste of Power]] except that its in the middle of the game. You then switch back to the Dawn Brigade every now and then where just staying alive can be a struggle.
** Also Sothe, who was a part of the Greil Mercenaries/Crimean Army of the first game is the token [[A Taste of Power|Jeigen]] for the first few chapters of the game, and can even carry over his exact ending stats from the first game if they're above his default ones.
** Also averted with all of the other returning characters, as all of them come at higher levels than in the original, though some are only higher by one or two levels.
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