Super Move Portrait Attack: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Whenever a video game character uses his [[Limit Break]], a portrait of him or close-up of his face is flashed on the screen just before he proceeds to beat the crap out of his enemy. This allows us to see the determination on the attacker's face that would otherwise be difficult to convey on the character's in-game sprite or model. If the model ''is'' detailed enough to convey emotion, then an alternate option is to have the camera temporarily zoom in on the attacker.

** Shadow Kouma, an edit of [[Melty Blood|Kishima Kouma]], has a LITERAL ONE

* Used in the ''[[Gundam vs. Series]]'' series of [[Fighting Game|Fighting Games]]. The installments centered around ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'', ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' and ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'' flash the character's portrait when the player activates their [[Super Mode]], while ''Gundam Vs. Gundam NEXT'' shows a cut-in of your character if you land the final attack. ''Gundam Extreme Versus'' brings back [[Super Mode|Super Modes]], but this time portraits only appear if it's especially critical (ie, if you're low on HP and/or it's the last 30 seconds of a match).

* Done in the ''[[Bleach]]'' [[Fighting Game|Fighting Games]]. Taken further, unleashing [[Limit Break|Bankai]] causes a short cutscene of their personal activation method to play.

* ''[[Samurai Shodown]] V'' had a variation. Portraits appeared not when a character used a super attack, but when they activated "[[Desperation Attack|Mu no Kyouchi]]" [[Super Mode|mode]] (which dramatically slows down the opponent).

* The ''Mahjong Fight Club'' series has in-game AI-controlled avatars of real life [[Mahjong]] professional league players. Whenever one of them wins a hand, a cut-in of the pro's face flashes on their opponents' screens right before declaring the win. The pros themselves also have special user accounts that allow them to play as their in-game avatars (with a "real-life person" tag in place of the usual "CPU"), which will have the same effect, though the pro will see his/her own facial cut-in on his/her own screen as well.

** Also happens in earlier games for EX and Arc moves.

* Based on the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANTj2PpyXS0 trailers], ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny'' has added these to accompany the Full Drive super moves.

* [[The King of Fighters|The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match]] did this with the character's [[MAX 2]] supers.

 

 

== [[Hack and Slash]] ==

** You mean '''Koei''' loves this trope. The same company which made that game presents us with ''[[Warriors Orochi]]'', where playable characters can also do combined attacks and character-specific super abilities.

** If it's been a Koei hack and slash franchise, it's used this trope. They seem to favor extreme close ups over still portraits, but that's mostly dependent on the franchise. Almost all of the ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' and ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'' games have used extreme close ups of the character model, often from multiple dramatic angles.

 

== [[Party Game]] ==

** ''Mario Tennis'' uses a "VS" version of this.

 

 

== [[Platform Game]] ==

 

 

 

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

* ''[[Lunar Silver Star Harmony]]'' adds a [[Super Move Portrait Attack]] [[Limit Break]] system to the normal skills of the game. This makes the game rather easy for half the game, since Luna's move restores all hp and mp.

** It also randomly shows a cutaway of the character's face when their Persona either hits a weakness or gets a critical hit (and the first time they summon in battle, regardless of how it hits). It applies both to the party members as well as enemy Persona users (and the optional superboss.)

** Finally, when you've knocked all enemies down, a character will remind you (via portrait pop-up and a voice-over) to initiate an [[Big Ball of Violence|All-Out Attack]]. Agree, and the screen will throw up the portraits of all characters participating in the attack.

* ''[[Persona 4]]'' features your party's portraits when they perform one of their follow-up attacks. In addition, the random face cutaways are still present.

** It also happens when you're challenged by a Gym Leader.

* ''[[Riviera the Promised Land]]'' does this for characters' Level 3 Over Skills and enemies' Max Rage attacks.

 

 

* [[Combination Attack|Team attacks]] in ''[[Disgaea]]''.

** In the newer games, the Magichange ability also does this (As shown in the trope picture).

** Some normal moves do this, as well, the Prism Rangers' Prism Justice (Squeezes the portraits of all seven of them onto the screen), and Mid-Boss' Adonic Buster and Super Adonis (A four person team attack and magichange respectively, both using copies of himself) being particularly noteworthy.

* ''[[SRW]]'' games in general absolutely abuse this, sometimes using cut-ins of the pilot, the mecha itself preparing the attack (or the next part of it), or both. In some of the games, everything from [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDljO7gjY6c the most basic attack] is precipitated by at least a pilot cut-in. Considering [[Overly-Long Fighting Animation|the length of the more powerful attacks]], they almost affect the [[Story to Gameplay Ratio]].

* ''[[Advance Wars]]'' shows a portrait of the CO whenever they use their CO-Power.

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

* ''~Banana-nana-Ninja!~'' uses these extensively, usually to add emphasis to Baninja's fits of overly dramatic dialogue, but also in action and fight scenes.