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Back From the Brink: Difference between revisions
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Compare [[Late to The Party]], except that the main character has been around for the whole time, [[Cutscene Incompetence|just not under the player's control]]. Related to [[Always Close]], but with an ''entire war''. If you tilt your head and squint just right, this trope appears to be connected to [[Conservation of Ninjitsu]]: The less territory a side has, the more difficult they are to defeat. This may be a sort-of [[Truth in Television]]--barring things like nukes, a side with less ''territory'' but roughly the same ''personnel and material'' will have more people and machines protecting an area of a given size; supply convoys and so on won't have as far to go and thereby remain exposed less often; etc.
The most famous Real Life example would be [
See also [[Near Villain Victory]].
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== [[Action Adventure]] ==
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'': By the time Link starts fighting back the twilight, it's taken over all of Hyrule but the area where [[The Chosen One]] lives. In fact, they would have gotten that area too had Link not come back at just the right time to kill off the Twilight Beasts.
* The second part of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'' begins with Ganondorf in almost complete control of Hyrule.
* Same as well in ''[[The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'' Zelda is the last of the Maidens to be free, and Link saves her, loses her and then frees the others. This happens quite a bit in Zeldas..
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== [[Hack and Slash]] ==
* Somewhat [[Justified Trope|justified]] in ''[[Drakengard]]'', as the main reason [[The Federation|the Union]] comes back from the brink of destruction despite your character having been around the whole time and [[Badass Normal|whooping ass]] is that he's just gained the allegiance of ''a dragon.'' The second level which you play involves [[Kill'Em All|killing the entire besieging army with the dragon.]] Not content to be one-upped, [[The Empire]] deploys some interesting [[Schizo
== [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPGs]] ==
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** During the opening cutscene, ''[[Ace Combat 5]]'' kills off every pilot on the base except for the player, his squadron and their commander. To be fair, however, there's never really a [[Back From the Brink]] point within the game itself.
** Played with by ''[[Ace Combat 6]]'', where the first mission is a surprise attack by the enemy which ends with allied forces being driven from the area and abandoning their capital to enemy occupation, so it's not until the ''second'' mission that you're defending your last remaining airbase from enemy attack. The title of the second mission is, in fact, "On the Brink".
*** Which is a perfect demonstration of why the trope is necessary: The first mission is laughably easy [[But Thou Must!]] retreat anyway. Even though the player could (and eventually does) almost single-handedly wipe the floor with the entire Estovakian military.
* In the same vein as above, ''[[Air Force Delta]] Strike'' starts out with one of these missions.
* In ''Stellar 7'', Earth is being invaded by aliens so they send you, one lone pilot, to fight through them all the way to the alien general and stop the invasion.
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** Played straight, subverted and averted in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Radiant Dawn''. The player starts with the control of Daein's [[La Résistance|Dawn Brigade]], and in the only run the country really is restored; however, in Part III, when you play part their side part (as [[Deal With the Devil|pawn]] to [[The Empire]]) their opponents', they're steadfastly losing, and their [[Last Stand]] ends as a dramatic defeat. It's also averted with the enemy country, Crimea; Crimea was the attacker in the conflict with [[The Empire]], and was not losing in any sense of the word. It's played straight if you think of Crimea's [[The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask|queen]], though, who in Part II was under fierce criticism and had faced a rebellion in her own country, and whose position in Part III is much more established.
** Also played straight in the prequel ''Path of Radiance'' for Crimea against Daein, is then [[The Empire]].
* In the Sega CD game ''Dark Wizard'' the player, as the latest successor to King Armer VIII, starts with the tiniest, most-defeated remnant of the Holy Army (three unnamed units) that's been squirreled away in the far-off wastelands of Quentin. While a professional army made up of the [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards|much-stronger]] equipment-wearing, magic-using units is impossibly expensive for your tiny starting tax base, you can still fight using a never-ending stream of [[Summon Magic|summoned]] [[Mon]], just like all of your opponents.
** Extra points because the first enemy you fight is a glorified warrior unit called "Warlord," who is the weakest spell-caster and summoner out of all the enemy generals.
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* ''Advance Wars DS'' - The first mission (aside from the training one) has the player defending Omega Land's last HQ.
* The ''[[Jagged Alliance]]'' series has a sort-of-justified version of this trope. Being that your troops are a band of mercenaries - essentially a new infusion of ace personnel into a war presumably already won - the enemies start out easy because they're routine patrols that get surprised by people who can actually shoot them. In Jagged Alliance 2 specifically, [[Big Bad|Queen Deidranna]] is a [[Bad Boss|vain, cruel, and egotistical dictator]] who nevertheless keeps a goodly portion of her guard around the things that actually do matter - her gold mines, her towns filled with either smarmy sycophants or cowering subjects, and her SAM sites. The first secures the economy and allows her to maintain her expensive and well-equipped army, the second secures her status as ruler and dissuades open rebellion, and the third forces any would-be saviors to hoof it unless they can destroy or take over the sites.
* In [[Sengoku Rance (Video Game)|Sengoku Rance]], when [[Rance (Franchise)|Rance]] becomes the secret ruler and takes control over the once powerful Oda Family, it has been reduced to only one territory. Then after Rance starts his [[Attack! Attack! Attack!]] tactic he somehow manages to rapidly conquer the other factions.
=== Non-video game examples: ===
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== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'' starts as humanity has been reduced to a single [[Domed Hometown|sealed]] city by killer robots, and the robots keep getting through the walls. They win in the season finale and start recolonizing the planet ([[The End
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]
[[Category:Back From The Brink]]
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