There Is No Kill Like Overkill/Video Games: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Rune Factory 3]]'' you can continue to hit a dead enemy if they are knocked into the air. You can do this for hours if you want. Additionally, while in wooly form you can grab a dead enemy to perform a [[Finish Him!|fatality]] on them.

* One of the oldest examples is ''[[Scorched Earth]]''. Nukes, Plasma Blasts, Hot Napalm, the Funky Bomb, and the aptly-named Death's Head. Quite capable of destroying large sections of the map, especially with the explosive sizes on maximum in the game's configuration. The Death's Head is so devastating that if fired wrong it can kill everyone on the screen. Including the player who thought firing it was a good idea.

** Its sequel, ''Turok 2: Seeds of Evil'', actually managed to ''[[Beyond the Impossible|top it]]''. Because hunting dinosaurs requires heavy firepower. Aside from the usual final-game devastators, a particular mention goes to the Cerebral Bore, which fires shots that embed themselves in your enemy's skull. Then they start ''drilling''. Then they [[Your Head Asplode|explode]]. One-shot-kill everything.

** Speaking of ''Command and Conquer'', just wipe out the majority of your enemy and decide to leave his Construction Yard barely intact with a little HP left? The perfect solution is to move your troops away, then launch your superweapon at the opponent's Construction Yard. Nothing quite so satisfying like kicking someone to the curb like that.

** Hell, even the superweapons need a special mention - the GDI superweapon in the third is not one, but [[Nuke'Em|EIGHT lazers fired at once from outer space]]. You can write your name on your enemy's base... [[Kill Sat|with Particle Cannons]]

** The Shogun Executioner in ''[[Red Alert]] 3'' - a giant tripod with three bodies, each of which is armed with a [[Laser Blade]]. It's also healed by electricity, and many of your enemies in this level are armed with [[Lightning Gun|Tesla coils]]. Oh, and it's tall enough to knock helicopters out of the sky just by walking into them. You can lose it, though, if not careful.

* In ''[[Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica]]'', this happens when you use 100 I.P.D. Replekia Amplification with [[Game Breaker|Phantasmagoria]] song magic.

* In fighting games, it's a generally common practice to finish a near KO'd opponent with a [[Limit Break|Super move]] or a rapid combination attack, just to finish off the match with flair, at least casually.

** Famously inverted in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS7hkwbKmBM by Daigo Umehara].

** ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' actually encourages this with [[Finishing Move|Fatalities]]. The gorier and more ridiculous, the better. Besides, whether performed after a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] or a fight to the final round with a [[Worthy Opponent]] or [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|cheap-ass computers]], seeing your enemy go in the bloodiest fashion alive is very cathartic.

*** In certain games you also have the Brutalities, which are pretty much Fatalities on steroids. You have to do an 11-button combo to get it. The reward? Your opponent explodes in [[Ludicrous Gibs|a shower of gore and bones]].

*** In ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]'', the first of Quan Chi's fatalities involves ripping off your opponent's right leg and then hitting him with it so that he falls to the ground. Once in the ground, Quan Chi hits him in the head twice with his own leg and then [[Your Head Asplode|it explodes in little fragments]]. And after that he ''keeps beating him to a pulp while the fatality assessment shows up and until you exit the match''. Who needs necromancy, eh Quan Chi?

** The [[Fighting Game]] based on ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' rewarded a Super KO with a [[Reaction Shot]] of your opponent (drawn in the style of the manga) gasping in pain, [[Blood From the Mouth]], scrolling into place in the background before fading to white and cutting back to your character's [[Victory Pose]]. ''Really'' satisfying. Furthermore, depending on how hte opponent was finished off, the portraits would show it. If you used Dio's blood suck super or Hol Horse's J.Geil super for example, the portrait would be covered in blood and slowly turn green. If killed by any of Black Polnareff or Chaka or Kan's supers, the portrait would split in half/quarters, and if beaten by Hol Horse's super or one of Polnareff's supers, the portrait would be covered in holes.

*** {{spoiler|Indeed, he comes back later in that very game as the imposingly named Omega Ridley, and again in Super Metroid (which the Prime games are set before).}}

** Fellow [[Big Bad]] [[Brain In a Jar|Mother Brain]] ends up on the wrong end of another such smackdown in ''Super Metroid,'' when she murders the infant metroid from ''Metroid II'' and earns herself a Hyper Beam-fueled [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] from the creature's [[Mama Bear|human adoptive "mother."]] The final shot decapitates Mother Brain, exploding her cybernetic combat body; her severed head turns to gray powder as it hits the floor.

* Enemies and characters killed in ''[[Enchanted Arms]]'' stick around for three turns, during which time they can be resurrected. If, however, they are killed by inflicting more than double their total health in one attack, they disappear instantly and can't be resurrected until the end of the combat.

* In the shooter ''[[Call of Juarez]]'', Reverend Ray can initiate a [[Bullet Time]] mode at will, causing to draw your six-shooters and have your crosshairs go towards the center from left and right... allowing you practically kill an enemy, use the [[Bullet Time]], and then unload 12 bullets in them.

** Then there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mzIXgpyE_c Regret Buster], pretty much Valzacard on steroids minus 4 pilots.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGSt2FsJOdI Darkbrain's ultimate attack] is just ridiculous. One part of it involves slamming in the enemy into a few planets, the second part is a laser-punch ''through'' nine planets and assorted meteors, and the last part involves dropping them through a hole in the universe.

* The combat system of ''[[The Force Unleashed]]'' is practically built around this entire concept, although special mention must go to the ability to {{spoiler|hold a stormtrooper in the firing path of the DEATH STAR.}}

* The [[Star Wars]] [[Real Time Strategy|RTS]] game ''[[Empire At War]]'' allows you to build the Death Star and use it in space combat. Destroying the planet means that there is no ground conflict, allowing you to control the planet just by winning the space battle.

* Recurring [[Bonus Boss|Optional Boss]] Iseria Queen from Tri-Ace's games is almost inevitably based around this - of course, since she's a boss, YOU are at the receiving end. Perhaps the best example is her appearance in ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]''... her standard attack is a 25-hit combo, each strike dealing damage above your characters' Max Possible HP. Don't ask about her Special Attacks.

** Not that ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'' expects the player himself to raise this trope to a philosophy for the duration of gameplay. "[[Finishing Move|Soul Crush]]" indeed.

** However, despite the overkillness of those abilities - against bosses, who will still have a ton of health despite being at 20%... these can really win it for you in [[Player Versus Environment]] fights.

** Even ''Priests'' get one of these, with a twist. Shadow Word: Death is a finishing move that causes a huge amount of damage... but if you ''don't'' kill the enemy with it, you take the damage as well. Since Priests are so squishy, the spell often ends up [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|doing what it says on the tin]] either way. (Mostly, this is due to its instant cast and faster cooldown.)

** Mimiron will launch some rockets from time to time. They are not hard to dodge, and will do no damage outside a rather small area. Fail to dodge them, however, and you get hit for 5 MILLION damage. If, at that stage of the game, you have 1% of that, you can consider yourself a damn though [[Stone Wall|Tank]].

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'''s Knights of the Round is the strongest summoning in the game, using multiple attacks in one animation to circumvent the 9999 damage cap. Its animation takes about 1:15 minutes. W-Summon means you can use a Summoning twice in one round. Mimic lets a character... well, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|mimic the action of another]]. Putting this together, we get 6 KotR summonings in one round by letting one character do the W-Summon with the other two mimicking him. Of course, this has a drawback - you can easily get up, make yourself a sandwich and eat it before continuing with the game without missing anything apart from animations of monsters being hacked to ''very'' fine bits.

** Additionally, we have the Infinite Omnislash, where equipping Cloud with 8 pairs of linked Counter (Which counter-attacks with the linked materia when hit) and Mimic (Which repeats the last action) Materia allows you to unleash a 16-hit Omnislash on an enemy, which will then be repeated 8 times every time he is hit. This is a great way of taking down some of the toughest bosses in the game solo.

** In ''Dissidia'', Super Nova returns, although not as long (or explosive). However, one of his HP damaging attacks does include ''dropping a meteor upon his opponent''. The blast is so bright that your screen ''will'' flash white, and it leaves lighting, flames, and black clouds in its wake.

* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' has a mechanic whereby dealing large amounts of extra damage to enemies in a certain area will cause parts of their bodies to fly off, which you then acquire in place of the enemy's normal item drops.

** This is actually a very useful strategy for speedruns in that area (and pretty much mandatory if you want the best item to drop at the end). It also has elements (pun not intended...) of [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]], since the type of damage dealt sets the bodypart dropped- for example, Spooky damage "Scared the [enemy] so much he left his skull behind!"

** Excessive Sleaze damage causes the hobo to leave his [[Squick|crotch]] behind.

** Almost all Final Smashes are like this. Sonic and Pikachu start flying around dealing huge damage to whatever touches them. The Starfox fighters break through with their [[Tank Goodness|Landmasters]].Mario shoots a [[Wave Motion Gun|ludicrously large fireball]] across the screen.Link does a combo of about two dozen hits before sending the enemy fly away.And that's just the tip of the iceberg.Some of these can, with the right timing, kill an enemy, and then kill them again as soon as they have respawned and their [[Mercy Invincibility]] has expired.

* Modern combat RTS ''[[Act of War]]: Direct Action'' has each faction equipped with a superweapon and counter-superweapon. International terrorist ring The Consortium's superweapon houses 3 shots per structure (and you can build multiple structures), making it alarmingly easy to simply inundate a base with superweapon attacks faster than the enemy can counter them. In addition, the Consortium superweapon is a satellite nudged out of orbit onto the target...but first, [[It Got Worse|coated in e. bola]]. Needless to say, the strategy of "launching more satellites than you have Patriot missiles" tends to warrant some overcommitment of resources, just to be on the safe side.

* ''[[Pokémon]]'': While not entirely the fault of the game itself, moreso that of the player, but there's nothing quite as satisfying as roasting a Lv. 2 Caterpie with a Lv. 100 Charizard with max Special Attack, using the strongest Fire-type attack in the game... and scoring a critical hit. It's even worse when you use Psychic with a Lv. 100, max-Special-Attack Mewtwo against a Lv. 2 Weedle... and still get a critical hit. At that point, it's not out of the question for a player to experience a momentary [[A God Am I]] feeling.

* ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' didn't qualify until the second game, in which Jak got a [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] possessing ''two'' kill-everything-on-the-screen attacks, as well as flickers of [[Rule of Cool|cool]] purple lightning that followed his attacks. Then he got a gun capable of firing a lightning orb that blows up every hovercar on the screen. Then the third game handed him an ''upgrade'' to this gun which burns through at least half of your ammo in one shot...a shot which is so large ''it gets its own mushroom cloud''. As well as a variant form of his yellow gun which fires an [[Attack Drone]] that [[More Dakka|spams out ammo so fast it resembles a small but deadly rainstorm]]. Someone's really got to explain the concept of 'less than total destruction' to him. Ditto with [[Aristocrats Are Evil|Baron Praxis]], who intends to stop the Metal Heads with {{spoiler|''a bomb that can blow up the universe! All of it! That's less like "overkill" and more like "omnikill"!''}}

* ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' often have guns which veer [[BFG|encouragingly close]] to being overkill. Starting with the RYNO and moving up to its ''Deadlocked'' equivalent, which ''rains laser beams from orbit''. And then there's Clank's [[Humongous Mecha]] form, which, in the second game, is entirely capable of ''razing every building on a [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|small]] but heavily urbanised moon''... You get a ''[[Rewarding Vandalism|Skill Point]]'' for that, too.

** Incidentally, just to give you an idea of what the RYNO can do: "RYNO" stands for "Rip Ya a New One." The third game has the RY3NO. Fully upgrading this give you the RYNOCIRATOR, which ''burns every on-screen enemy into ash''.

** The RYNO IV (from ''Tools of Destruction'') was banned in 59 galaxies, including the one that you're currently in, and the mere act of ''talking'' about it is grounds for being thrown into [[The Alcatraz|Zordoom Prison]] indefinitely. The original holoplan was torn into 12 pieces and thrown across the galaxy, so nothing like it could be built ever again (as [[Mega Corp|Gadgetron]] thought it was too dangerous, and we're talking about a company that sells ''portable black hole launchers'' (point away from face)). Obviously they didn't do a good enough job of discouraging the inventor, since ''A Crack In Time'' brought us the RYNO V. This was unanimously voted the weapon "Most Likely To End All Life As We Know It", outlawed ''everywhere'', and, again, the plans were torn apart and scattered to the winds.

** That's your entire health meter at that point in the game. At the end of the game your health bar maxes out at 65, using every badge you can find to do it.

** In ''[[Super Mario RPG]]'', a properly-used Geno Whirl will always do 9999 damage. The enemy with the highest health in the game has roughly 2000 hit points less than this (however, with the exception of Exor it can't be used on bosses).

* In ''[[MadWorld]]'', Jack can slam an empty garbage can over a mook's head. Then shove a road sign through his neck. Then grab him and [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|impale him]] on a nearby spike. [[Overly Long Gag|Five times.]] Then he FINALLY dies. Or, you could just kill him in one hit with a [[Chainsaw Good]]. It's [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|your call]], really.

* In ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'', a party member being reduced to enough hit points below zero prevents them from being resurrected, presumably because they've been pulverized. It's also possible to turn someone to stone or freeze them into an ice statue, then shatter it. For extra fun, petrify someone, then turn them back to flesh, then [[One-Hit Kill]] them Oh, and if the Gore setting is on, when enemies take enough damage they explode into chunks of meat.

* ''[[Ace Combat]] 6'' requires you to fly your plane down the barrel of the Chandelier cruise missile launcher. Yes, a launcher with missiles so big you can fly a plane down its barrel. If a missile is launched with the plane still inside, well, "[[One-Hit Kill]]" is putting it... lightly. On the player's side, it's easy to single out a single target for all four or six special missiles, pop off the heaters and loose a few gun rounds as well. Or feed a single, isolated ground target a FAEB/LSWM/MPBM, all weapons meant for wide-area devastation.

** ''[[Ace Combat]] 5'' also has this with the Falken's Tactical Laser System and ''Zero'' has the one on the Morgan.

* ''[[Soul Series|Soul Calibur 4]]'''s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcMY-sgZEc4 Critical Finish] Also the fact that in Arcade Mode, you get extra points for hitting the downed corpse of your enemy when you win a round.

* In the ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' series' [[Grand Finale]], [[Big Bad|Dr. Weil]] {{spoiler|fuses to the [[Kill Sat|Ragnarok satellite]] while it was [[Colony Drop|plummeting to the ground]], to fight [[The Hero|Zero]] as the [[Final Boss]]}}. If Weil wasn't killed by Zero, {{spoiler|then the satellite burning up in the atmosphere's re-entry}} should, right? ''RIGHT''? {{spoiler|Until ''[[Mega Man ZX]]'' rolled around, that is}}...

** [[Battle Butler|Youmu]] [[Deface of the Moon|carves her sword technique's name on the moon]] [[Absurdly Sharp Blade|before cleaving it with her swords]] and uses the momentum to launch the balll at extreme speeds.

** The [[Our Vampires Are Different|Scarlet Sisters]] use their weapons, ''Laevatinn'' and ''Gungnir'', in addition to their danmaku techniques, for their combination attack.

*** Marisa in particular has a combination technique, where Alice and Patchouli cast buffs on her before she does a ''very'' good impression of Thrugelmir's ''Blade that Cleaves Continents'' that even '''shreds''' the spectator stands. Thankfully for the audience, spellcards only inflict all non-lethal damage...

** Mokou and Flandre [[Spam Attack|have techniques where they kick the ball thousands of times]] before it can escape.

** Along the same vein are the mastery skills from ''Path of Radiance'' and especially ''Radiant Dawn''. In the former, you have to use up a lot of skill capacity points just to learn them and you only get 4 opportunites per game, but the masteries that inflict damage cut through enemies swiftly whenever they kick in. But lordy, ''Radiant Dawn'' is a whole other beast: all units that promote to tier 3 (and Laguz that use a Satori Sign) get a free mastery skill, and they are ALL made of Overkill. Only one or two of them ''don't'' inflict 3-5x more damage, and some have a side effect (put enemy to sleep, ect.) that you're not liable to take advantage of because your hapless victims will usually become [[Deader Than Dead]] first.

*** Luna (in ''Dawn'') triples the user's Strength, then negates the foe's Defense, then usually crushes its' victim in one stroke. More or less, there's not a unit in the game that can survive that. ''[[But Wait! There's More!|But!]]'' If that's just not Overkill enough for you, consider the Black Knight's [[Up to Eleven|obscene]] mastery, Eclipse. Same effect, but 5x Strength instead. Based on the Knight's stats, he has a fixed 40% chance to inflict 208 damage. The final boss is 88 HP short of that. Ye gods. {{spoiler|Fortunately, when it comes time to duel the Knight in the final chapter, equipping Nihil shuts down Eclipse (and any other enemy mastery) altogether.}}

* Most of ''[[Ar tonelico]]'''s Song Magic isn't quite so powerful. But then we come across Tower Connection, Silver Horn, Ar tonelico, and Phantasmagoria. The latter two in the second game fire a concentrated laser at the [[Floating Continent]] you're on, which causes an explosion ''larger than the continent itself''. About ''100 times'' larger. Combined with Replakia, which is itself another huge freakin' laser ''much'' closer to the continent than the titular tower, and it's a surprise the same thing that would happen to Lyner if he used [[Death By Genre Savvy|Ar tonelico??]] doesn't happen here.

* ''[[Transcendence]]'' actively promotes this in dealing with the massive capital ship enemies encountered near the end of the game. Of particular note is the alien weapon - the Iocrym Fracture Cannon - a deadly plasma cannon that launches and unending stream of excessively damaging plasma, which at this stage of the game is essentially one of the two most damaging types of damage, which can then be upgraded to + 250% damage, for a total for 350% the original damage, giving over a thousand DPS of plasma damage, which is more than enough to slice through anything in the game.

** Of all things, this can also be accomplished with jettisoned crates of fuel; putting enough fuel, or ammo, into an unlimited number of crates and then shooting them will create a massive chain reaction of thermonuclear explosions, killing anything viewable in screen with absolute certainty, and beyond, depending how widely spread the crates are. In theory, one could do this to an entire star system, frying everything instantly and completely.

* In ''[[Halo: Reach]]'', there is a [[Wave Motion Gun]] usable in the climax. It can [[One-Hit Kill]] a Covenant battlecruiser if timed right. It can also be used to kill the incoming Phantoms, which can usually only be killed by tanks or dozens of rockets. There are also Banshees there, which are [[Glass Cannon|Glass Cannons]]. Lulz ensue.

** On the topic of tactical bombings, there is a Target Locator. It rarely ever appears, but when it does, it fires bombs the size of enemy units. Firing this upon large crowds of Grunts can prove very pleasing.

* ''[[The Last Remnant]]'' has a special combat effect just for that called, guess what, Overkill. It requires someone to be hit by an enemy with about twice as much damage as the defender's HP. While hard to perform on bosses and players, normal creeps often succumb to this. Overkills usually are so powerful, not only the entire Union dies (Unions share HP - if one person gets hit for 3k damage, entire group is as well), they are blown away like a rag-doll or disintegrated if it was a spell.

* In the ''Sly Spy'' arcade game, the player fights a shark as a boss. After killing it, it's possible to keep shooting at it before the level ends, turning it's corpse into a [[Gorn|bloody mess.]]