Crutch Character: Difference between revisions

Characters who are [[An Adventurer Is You|the Jack]] may often fall into this category, particularly in non MMORPG games.

 

{{examples}}

 

== First-Person Shooter ==

** Likewise Bricks who go into maxing out Brawler/Tank trees with the right cooldowns & class mods (Having a five second cooldown on your minute default skill? Sure why not). Extremely potent in the first playthrough, arguably to the point of being a [[Game Breaker]], but because of how the game scales Berserk damage, it skill becomes decreasingly useful throughout the second playthrough prompting a lot of Bricks to respec into the Blaster/Tank trees and use Berserk for healing.

 

* Prince Rurik of ''[[Guild Wars]]'' escorts the party of PCs and, if so desired, NPC henchmen on a number of missions. Given that he's level 10 and never changes that, he's quite useful when your character is level three and, well, peters off after that. {{spoiler|Then, quite naturally, he bites the dust. Who didn't see that one coming?}}

** Heroes, introduced in ''Nightfall'' and further in ''Eye of the North'', act as customisable henchmen and veritable [[Crutch Character|Crutch Characters]]. Each hero fills out a single party slot, but have access to any skills that your ''account'', rather than character, has unlocked. For Elonan characters (characters that start in the ''Nightfall'' campaign), ''Nightfall'' heroes are generally introduced at comparative levels to yours, but ''Eye of the North'' heroes are all max level, and you can get them at a level as low as 10 (half the level [[Cap]]). Heroes are useful throughout the Prophecies campaign, as the henchmen available to you only hit the level cap near enough three-fourths of the way through the game.

** Cerberus is well-known throughout the series for joining the player (usually temporarily for an upcoming boss fight, but can rejoin later) in flagrant disregard of the level restrictions.

 

== Platformers ==

 

 

 

== Real-Time Strategy ==

* This happens on at least two annoying occasions in ''[[Freedom Force]] vs. The Third Reich'': in the last third of the game, {{spoiler|Alchemiss (who became a much more useful character in this game than in the original) turns into <s>Dark Phoenix</s> Entropy and becomes the new [[Big Bad]],}} making all the time spent leveling her up suddenly useless. More unforgivable is the fact that {{spoiler|Entropy starts erasing other members of your party from existence almost without warning.}}. Though the game can still be completed fairly easily even if you spent time on these characters, it's still a bit annoying.

* Captain Antilles (not Wedge, the other Antilles) in ''[[Empire At War]]'' shows up during the first mission in the Alliance campaign and is quite powerful (although ''all'' hero units capable of combat are) but both leave once the player has gotten a good start and controls nearly half the galaxy. Antilles also leaves just before the player can build Capital Ships.

== Role-Playing Games ==

* Minwu in ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'' is the [[Ur Example]] for ''[[Final Fantasy]]''. He joins with just under 200 HP and several high-level [[White Magic]] spells at a point when your characters have only begun to learn magic and have almost 100 HP, ''if'' you've been level grinding.

** Fusoya of the same game is in a similar boat. He might not be a pure [[Crutch Character]] in that he isn't obtained until very late in the game and your party is fine without him, but he's very similar to Tellah, ability-wise. And rather than having some stats increase while others decrease when he levels up, Fusoya's stats ''never change at all''.

** [[The After Years|The sequel's]] protagonist is, well, a particularly weak weakling at the start. The game compensates by giving you [[Red Shirt|Biggs and Wedge]] then The Hooded Man, who are much better, to assist.

*** Later in the game you get {{spoiler|Golbez}} for the final tale, who much like Tellah and Fusoya gets access to high-level magic long before your other party members do, and gets around 1500-2000 more HP than them to boot.

* ''[[Dragon Quest V]]'' has a few. In the first generation, Pankraz, the hero's father, is easily the strongest party members throughout that period of the game, though he cannot be controlled, and he is only with you in certain parts. In the second generation, when you are first able to obtain monsters, the Rotten Apple is easily the strongest available, with higher stats than even the hero, but it caps at level 20 (though it it still fairly strong for a while longer). A less extreme example is the Slime Knight; with solid stats, great equipment options, and decent healing, is like having a second hero... but by the end of the second generation, it has low stats compared to the [[Mons]] available in the area, and has learned all of its special skills... not to mentioned a better 'second hero' becomes available soon afterwards...

** Fortunately [[Pokémon Black and White]] [[Averted Trope|averts this]]. The two early bugs, Leavanny and Scolipede, are very good with high Attack and Speed, good move pools and okay typing (Bug/Grass and Bug/Poison). Leavanny especially is good if you chose Tepig, since it is strong against both Oshawatt and Snivy.

** Pokemon also has a Crutch ''Move'' -- Dragon Rage, introduced in the first generation, always hits for exactly 40 [[Hit Points]]. It takes surprisingly little time for that to become a drop in the bucket. There's also [[Sonic Boom]], which hits for half as much and (in a later revision) starts to adapt to the [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]] rules of the game. Even worse when you consider that very few Pokémon actually learn it until AFTER the point where it stops being really useful. It has its uses, but for the most part it's just not worth it.

** Luna from the first game's also this due to her multi-target healing [[Limit Break]], which make everything easier.

* The questionably playable ''Beyond the Beyond'' has super-knight Samson and his weak charge, Prince Edgar. Soon, Samson takes a cursed scarf to the face and becomes de-powered to near-uselessness, due to his inherent unreliability whenever you give him a combat command.

** There's also [[Guest Star Party Member]] {{spoiler|Asch}}, who joins with a large variety of [[Magic Knight|combat artes and magic spells]]. You can get him in your party a second time during an optional subquest, and although his level is scaled up he is still stuck with the same equipment he had during his first stint. This makes him drastically ''underpowered'' to the rest of the party, which (thematically) is the whole point.

** Also, if playing on a new game +, assuming you kept your capacity cores and artes, all the other characters are actually vastly much better than him, because in spite of his level being scaled, he doesn't have the bonus stats from capacity cores, and his artes aren't anything special, meaning that the parts of the game where he joins the party are much harder than the rest of the game.

* The PC version (only) of the original ''The Bard's Tale'' has an undocumented cheat: pressing Z will summon a free Stone Elemental, taking up the party's NPC spot. The creature is many times the power of low-level characters, and better than those that can be summoned by even mid-level spells, but of course it never advances at all.

* The ''[[Final Fantasy|Final Fantasy Legend]]'' series (or possibly the entire ''[[SaGa]]'' series) features extra party members that join for only a short time. Unless you have been power-levelling, these characters are always a higher level than you when they join, though they've more-or-less lost their influence by the time they finally leave.

*** Some people in ''[[Final Fantasy|Final Fantasy Legend 2]]'' pretty much fit the [[Crutch Character]] stereotype to the T. Mr. S and Mask pretty much solo the dungeons they're in. (Heck, Mask practically solos the [[Wake Up Call Boss]].) However, others like Hana and Lyn are sorta average and just plain awful respectively. (Lyn is thankfully not around that much.) Only one in ''[[Final Fantasy|Final Fantasy Legend 3]]'' actually counts as a [[Crutch Character]] - Myron, who pretty much wrecks everything in his path early in the game. The others, however, are around the same strength as your party.

* ''[[Phantasy Star]] IV'' does this twice; first with Alys, who acts as the Jegian until {{spoiler|she makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save the main character}} (incidentally this happens around the same time where the rest of the party catches up with her level), and second with Rune, who initially debuts with spells that can wipe out anything you face with ease, and can hit most enemies for more damage with melee attacks than anyone else in your party. When Rune shows up later to re-join the party, he's still fairly powerful, but... not as much.

* Orca in ''[[.hack]]'' starts at level 50, making the first dungeon a snap. Then he gets Data Drained. {{spoiler|Eventually, you get him back, but he's still level 50, while your whole party is 90+.}}

* The Death Knight in ''[[Beyond Divinity]]'' wears his own armor and thus is powerful in the beginning, but has to be safeguarded from harm as the game progresses if you want to keep him around because of his hilarious remarks and {{spoiler|the fact that he's soul-forged with the protagonist, so if either dies, it's Game Over}}.

** Likewise, if you're playing ''The Second Story'' / ''Second Evolution'', Dias Flac is one hell of an invincible demon when he is first seen in battle (as enforced by the ensuing [[Hopeless Boss Fight]]). But if you're playing as Rena and he joins, most players agree he will be surpassed by Claude and maybe other characters as well, primarily due to his lack of multi-hit special moves, laggy normal attack, and the fact that the special ability granted by some weapons and accessories that gives normal attacks extra hits doesn't work on him either: this is even worse in the endgame where all special attacks fall under [[Awesome but Impractical]] and everyone will be spamming their normal attacks which take no MP to use and hit a stupid amount of times.

*** Speaking of Crutches, Claude himself starts with an energy weapon, which serves the same purpose until it gets a dose of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]] and ''runs out of power''. Since it One-shots everything to there, and uses no MP, it's totally understandable.

** That actually works on a couple levels. Zelos has better titles for stat growth (Gilgamesh in particular) and both moves and attacks faster than Kratos. At the end, Zelos is going to pass up Kratos in true Jeigan fashion and be the better character... but of course, it's not like you had the option to use Kratos instead for most of the game.

* ''[[Grandia III]]'' has a somewhat interesting example in that the [[Crutch Character]] is the protagonist's ''[[Hot Shounen Mom|mother]]''.

* In the Game Gear RPG ''Defenders of Oasis'', the first character to join the prince is the Genie, who is at that point a combat monster and nicely carries you through the early battles. However, unlike the other characters (eventually you're a four-man party), he doesn't get experience and doesn't level up. His stats can be improved by expending special Genie power-up items, but they're extremely expensive in shops and are fairly rare in treasures, and by the end of the game the Genie is running healing potions for the other three characters and hiding in his lamp so that he doesn't get killed.

** ''[[Persona 3]]'' gives you the odd case of Shinjiro Aragaki. He has all the traits of a [[Crutch Character]], advanced abilties, hits harder than any other character, only stays for a short while and is pretty damn cool to boot. However he only joins for a short while midgame when the rest of your team is already leveled enough for him to not really be needed. He makes the boss fights a joke if you use him while he's with you, but it's doable without him so the point of having him join at all isn't really clear.

** {{spoiler|Naoto Shirogane}} could be sort of a skewed example; her skillset allows her access the high level Light and Darkness magic, as well as abilities to boost their effectiveness, and several powerful Almighty spells as well. This combination of powers makes her brutally effective against a surprisingly wide variety of Shadows, including some [[Demonic Spiders|very annoying ones]] that most other party members can barely even damage. The letdown aspect of the character, however, comes when you take her into a boss fight... and realize that all those spells listed above are now underwhelming at best, totally useless at worst.

*** The biggest problem with {{spoiler|Naoto}} is that her stats have no correspondence to the skills she learns. One of the major effects of these being that she doesn't even have the MP to be repeatedly casting Almighty spells, and her magic damage is so abysmal that Yukiko can probably hit harder even when the enemy has Fire resistance.

** They also have the basic stats for a character of that level, so if your party members have Augments, there appears to be a large gap in abilities. This is most noticeable with [[Hit Points]] - characters around level 20-ish with augments will have quadruple-digit HP, while guests won't.

** Guest characters have their own inventory, which seems to contain an unlimited supply of potions (Hi-Potions for Larsa's second appearance and for Reddas). Since potions are truly useful in-battle in XII (much less charge time than healing spells, and don't deplete your MP), this can really help you soak up damage. A number of sidequests and Marks are best done while you have Reddas.

** [[Mulan]] is the [[Magikarp Power|exact opposite]]. When you first visit her land she's disguised as Ping. Ping has poor attacks, fumbles a lot and is generally a detriment (but required to have on your party). However, later she drops the disguise and becomes one of the better fighters.

* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' ''Origins'' has Dog, who is a potent melee damage dealer / tank in the beginning of the game. He starts off with "Dread Howl" one of the invaluable area of effect stunning talents in the game and later on can learn the ''very'' useful "Overwhelm" attack. Later though, his lack of threat management abilities, limited selection of talents, lack of bonus stats, and his somewhat lackluster unique equipment cause him to fall behind the rest of the party somewhat. However, he can be built to have high health to compensate for his lack of equipment, and one of his abilities, Overwhelm, is nearly game breakingly powerful, being able to kill high level mage enemies in one hit. Thanks to [[Leaked Experience]], your other party members won't suffer for it either.

* There are a few guest characters in ''[[SaGa|Final Fantasy Legend 3]]'', but none fit this trope better than Myron, your first fifth-slotter. Maybe it's because your stats are terrible at level 1, maybe it's because you made the mistake of changing into a monster when the monsters were meant to be destroyed by level 1's with terrible stats, or maybe it's because he's armed with a Battle Axe, but he seems like the only thing keeping you alive at first. Unfortunately, he's perpetually at ''level 5'', and you have no idea where you're going, can go anywhere after dungeon 1 and random encounters every step of the way. Poor guy never knew what hit him.

* Remilia in ''[[Touhou Project|Labyrinth of Touhou]]'', whose high stats are backed by a barren spell list consisting of one average powered single-target skill and one self-buff. Incredibly useful early on as one of the two only real tanks until about mid-way through the main game; fades to obscurity as stronger characters that actually have more specific uses join up. And of course, the longer you use her, the more skill points you sink in that becomes useless later.

** Remilia appears to be this, but she's a very powerful character up until the last couple of bosses in the [[Bonus Dungeon|Plus Disk]]. Early on, she has by far the best damage output out of all of your characters, up through the 6th floor or so, even longer if you choose not to use Iku as your buffer. Her staying power as a first-slot tank wanes somewhat by the 5th floor, but you should definitely have [[Stone Wall|Meiling]] at that point, who is generally regarded to as the best tank in the game. A better example might be Eirin, who packs the only percentile healing spell in the game, and is one of two characters who is able to support Komachi well, but she severely lacks the attack power of practically everyone except Cirno, and the flexibility of other healers.

* Bleu/Deis from the first two ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' games fits this trope well. When you first get her, she boasts superior magic power and high level (and is an outright [[Game Breaker]] in the second game), but eventually levels off with the rest of your party by the end of the game. Despite this, she actually somewhat subverts this trope because while she does become less powerful relative to the rest of your party, she never becomes useless. And while she can't fuse with shamans in the second game, she remains decent enough without them.

* Jacob Taylor of ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' essentially fills this role during the first Half of the game. Jacob automatically starts with [[Gravity Screw|Pull]] and his Ammo power unlocked, leading to him being the fastest character to gain access to Squad Ammo Powers and "[[Fan Nickname|Warpslosions]]." In the second half of the game, he gets overshadowed by [[Magikarp Power|Jack, Samara]] and Grunt.

** An odd case in the sequel. Kazan joins fairly early literally 15 levels ahead of Lang and Maya, with a solid 3 more Art Blocks than Lang. He easily plows through all opponents for the next few dungeons, but levels up so slowly that Lang and Maya will quickly catch up with him. However, he remains a viable fighter for the rest of the game.

* In ''[[Dungeon Maker]]'', after the first dungeon you get a pet Mimic Slime. It's great early on because it copies the stats of enemies, but while you get steadily more powerful, the slime does not, and eventually its stats will stop growing altogether.

 

 

 

== Third-Person Shooter ==

** Their [[Meaningful Name|names]] foreshadow this: Zero is a static force in the first three games, like the number zero; X always obtains upgrades of some kind during play (X is the standard symbol for a variable in mathematics). Cyber Peacock lampshades this when measuring X's power, saying it's limitless--x means infinity.

 

 

== Turn-Based Strategy ==

** Other examples of flat out Crutch-Characters are Arran (Fire Emblem book 2/Fire Emblem 12), [[Fire Emblem Jugdral|Eveyl]], and Marcus in ''Fire Emblem 6''. In ''[[Fire Emblem]] 7'', he's actually a ''lot'' more better. [[Fridge Brilliance|And he's actually a lot younger; too, whereas in Fire Emblem 6, he was around Jagen's age]]

** Furthermore, most games give you a powerful character early on who's already undergone his class change. These characters qualify as crutches for two reasons. First of all, while they can easily slaughter the entire army on earlier stages, they'll only get one XP for killing them, leaving the rest of your party under-developed. Furthermore, their stats are relatively low for their class and level. A common tactic is to take away their weapons and just use them to take shots.

** For the series in general, healers and defensive characters. They can be crucial for much of the game (the entire story mode for starters), but during all the post-game content Disgaea tends to turn into [[One Stat to Rule Them All|an offense only affair]]. Basically at some point both your characters and the enemies will be doing so much damage that ''everyone'' dies in one hit, meaning defense is meaningless and healing impossible to even use.

** To some small degree, Prinnies. They are never particularly strong characters ([[We Have Reserves]] is putting it lightly; they only cost 1 HL to revive), but have the unique ability to explode when thrown, damaging everyone around them. This can be extremely useful at the beginning of the game, when your characters have little in the way of wide area attacks available. But soon you will get area attacks that don't require sacrificing allies. Also the damage prinnies do when exploding depends on their hit points, and it won't be long before the amount of damage you can do with real weapons far outstrips this number (which is why the game eventually becomes mostly one hit kills, as described above).

** The Orcish Assassin unit also falls into this category in that leveling it up is not at all worth the XP. The two abilities that make the Assassin worthwhile, [[Improbable Aiming Skills|Marksmanship]] and [[Universal Poison|Poison]], are both had at the first level. All leveling an Assassin into a Slayer gives is a bit more HP, a longer attack sequence, and more XP for the enemy who manages to kill it.

* The cyborg recruits in ''[[X-COM]] 3: Apocalypse'' start off more resilient, accurate and courageous than any human or mutant recruit at the time of hiring. The catch? They cannot increase their stats by training and so quickly get left behind when the meatbags start getting the hang of things. The only trump card they have by the endgame is complete psionic immunity.

 

== Non Video Game Examples ==

 

{{reflist}}