Took a Level in Badass/Video Games

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Examples of Took a Level in Badass in Video Games include:

• RPGs in general have this as a game mechanic. Your party is too weak to take down the dungeon boss?, grind enough levels in Badass to become powerful enough.
• In his first appearance, Wally in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire/Emerald is quite sickly and needs help in catching his first Pokémon (Ralts), and moved to a cleaner town to recover. He later shows up partly recovered but still only has that one mon and is easily beaten. Much later he shows up right at the end of Victory Road and has an almost full team of mons levelled in their forties.
  • A lot of Pokémon fit this trope, evolving from cutesy but weak creatures to powerful menacing badass monsters. In the anime, this happens to May's Torchic while fending off a herd of Breloom.
  • One word: Magikarp. Keep giving the Magikarp battle experience, because the gulf between its original form and its evolved form is the widest in the entire series. Gyarados is one of the strongest and nastiest Pokémon out there. (Provided you don't come across anything with a solid Electric-type attack.)
  • A Pokémon with rather bad-to-moderate moves can learn a super-powered move by just gaining a level.
  • Quite a few Pokémon get this treatment between generations, whether by receiving evolutions, receiving new moves, or just fitting in very well with the changes in gameplay mechanics. Then there's Wobbuffet, who was first introduced as a completely useless Joke Character that no one would be caught dead with. Then came Ruby and Sapphire, giving every Pokémon their own unique ability. Wobbuffet's ability was Shadow Tag. With such an incredible Game Breaker as this ability, along with the move Encore it gained in this Gen thanks to its pre-evolution Wynaut, which forces the opponent's Pokémon to repeat a move for several turns, allowing the Wobbuffet player to use the according counter move to destroy its opponent, Wobbuffet now competes at the same level as Mewtwo.
  • Up until Diamond and Pearl (even though it gained the useful moves U-Turn and X-Scissor in those games, and the Technician Ability), Scizor was a forgettable Borderline-Overused at best. Then came Platinum, which gave it the moves Bullet Punch, Superpower, and Bug Bite. Bullet Punch is a Steel-type 40 power priority move (thus able to hit Ghost unlike Mach Punch and Quick Attack) which get boosted thanks to Technician and STAB to 90 (equivalent of Psychic and just 5 points inferior to Thunderbolt, Flamethrower and Surf, the standard competitive Elemental moves); Superpower is a 120 power Fighting-type move, giving it the coverage for Steel types it needed; Bug Bite is a 60 power Bug-type move that gets boosted by Technician and STAB just like Bullet Punch (and thus is superior to X-Scissor). With those, BAM, instant top Overused Pokémon.
  • Sunkern. You wouldn't expect the weakest Pokémon in existence (literally) to potentially have five stars in all Pokéathlon stats, would you? With several servings of Aprijuice, you'll be farming Heart Scales, Nuggets, and evolutionary stones like you wouldn't believe.
  • As of Pokémon Black and White, Ditto of all Pokémon. Its new ability lets it copy the opponent's Pokémon and all of it's stat changes as soon as it enters the battlefield, instead of having to wait a turn (and get hit) using Transform. This is a good way of setting up a massively powerful Pokémon, especially if your opponent has Baton Pass in it's move list, which a lot of competitive Pokémon do. In addition, give Ditto a Choice Scarf, and it will always outspeed the Pokémon it turns into, unless it also has a Scarf.
  • When the new Black and White starters were revealed, nobody liked poor little Oshawott. Then, it was discovered that they evolve into samurai bladed otters with beards.

One swing of the sword incorporated into its armor can fell an opponent. A simple glare from one of them quiets everybody.

• • As of Generation IV, nearly every Fire type Pokemon can be taught Solarbeam. Which basically means that most Fire-types that were powerless against water-types now have something to fight back.
  • You could also say this applies to Venomoth, before an incredibly poor Pokemon, after getting the new Quiver Dance move added to it's moveset. It can be great use in Baton Pass sets and it also gives Venomoth a way to actually fight, combining it with it's ability, Tinted Lens, which boosts the power of 'not very effective' moves. It still has not so good stats and an otherwise shallow movepool but now it's beating it's way out of the Never Used category, at least.
  • During Gen IV, poor Blaziken was overshadowed by Infernape. But with Blaziken's dream world ability, Speed Boost, and not to mention a HUGE power boost to Hi Jump Kick, It now has the honor of being the first starter to be banned from competitive play.
  • In Gen VII, Giovani has done this. Originally head of Team Rocket, he was a mobster who set his sights on world domination by mastering Pokemon via science, his plans involving taking over the Silph Co and possibly the experiments that led to the creation of MewTwo (much like in the anime). By the time VII rolls around, his personal power and/or technology has advanced to the point where he can travel The Multiverse with ease, and has already conquered multiple worlds, uniting the Big Bads of the previous games (or rather, alternate versions of them) under his leadership. Even when defeated by the player, he hardly cares; there are far more worlds out there for him to wreck chaos on.
• In Mass Effect 2, Liara has gone from being an archaeologist to an information dealer. When you first walk into her office, you hear her threaten to flay someone alive. With her mind.
  • At the beginning of the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, she smacks elite soldiers around with her mind while shoting them to pieces with an automatic gun. At the end she kills the arguably most powerful person in the galaxy, and assumes his identity. Just as he did with his predecesor.
  • Also, in Mass Effect, Garrus already has a few levels in badass. In Mass Effect 2, he, as Archangel, takes an additional level in badass where he holds off entire waves of mercenaries all out to kill him, while all he has is his sniper rifle.
    • The only reason he isn't taking more levels is apparently because he's serving under Shepard, according to the Shadow Broker's data.
• In Xenosaga, MOMO proved quite useless, serving as little more than a plot device; in battle she had a high MP count but was pathetically weak and virtually any other character was better. In the sequel she had aged up slightly and become more competent, but most notably had suddenly become an absolute god in combat: High speed, high evasion, high attack power, excellent heals, excellent buffs, and the largest mana pool in the game had her far outstripping any other playable character. Her low HP was her only remaining flaw, but considering her ridiculous evasion meant she didn't really get hit anymore anyway...
  • There's also Allen, a Non-Action Guy who Cannot Spit It Out, and a lovably pathetic Butt Monkey. He has a crush on his boss, Shion, who he calls "Chief," but even the biggest supplier of Wangst in Xenosaga is still laughably out of his league. He's not even a regular party member. Then comes Episode III, and Allen stands up to Kevin, Shion's ex-boyfriend and the beating he takes negates Shion's Face Heel Turn and sparks her interest in him. In the ending, a Gnosis threatens Shion, and Allen pounces on it, beating it to death with an assault rifle. The end shows Shion finally returning his affections.
• Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2 started life as a naive dork, albeit one with a nasty secret and a bit too much talent at chopping people up. In Metal Gear Solid 4, he's turned into a homicidal, husky-voiced, immortal cyborg ninja capable of killing things with antigravity kung-fu and his feet. It was a backlash against him being The Scrappy, probably. He also appears to have taken a few levels in "Lightning Deity", since he was capable of killing soldiers with bolts of lighting from inside a properly grounded ship.
  • Surprisingly enough, Johnny Sasaki, the recurring joke character takes a level in badass in Metal Gear Solid 4 by removing his mask, but only gets to show it in the cutscene where he admits his love to Meryl and makes a Combat Proposal. The rest of the cutscene is then nothing but pure badassery.
• From the Resident Evil series:
  • Leon Kennedy, the idealistic Naive Newcomer who just began his first day of duty at the Raccoon Police Department in RE 2 had somehow became almost as badass as Albert Wesker by the time of RE4! He gets yet another upgrade in the movie Degeneration, although it seems to come at the expense of his personality and sense of humor, since he ends up pulling double duty as the film's Mr. Exposition.
  • At least Leon was a trained cop in RE2, and was hired on by the U.S. Government before RE4. Claire Redfield's level-up has no similar justification. She goes from being a college student in RE2 to a certified ass-kicker in RE: Code Veronica.
  • Notable in that Albert Wesker HIMSELF takes a level in between Resident Evil and Code: Veronica-- notable in that said level was taken AFTER he was STABBED THROUGH THE CHEST, and was shown off in a brilliant Crowning Moment of Awesome as he exposed his powers in Code: Veronica. And Leon's RE4 incarnation is almost as badass as this new Wesker. And in RE5... suffice it to say that if he'd had that kind of power back in Code: Veronica, Alexia wouldn't have lasted ten seconds.
  • Before Leon was Jill, who got more and more badass throughout the series, from RE to RE 3 to RE5. Chris fits the trope as well.
  • Rebecca counts, big time. In the original game she was a Damsel in Distress and The Scrappy with a couple of playable sections. The remake has her fair better. Her own game has her the weaker of the two characters, but more skilled, a lot more guns to play with, and the chance to kill a Tyrant. Umbrella Chronicles makes it canon that she faced more crap in three days than perhaps even Jill. And MercenariesReunion? She gets a machine gun, a shotgun and stacks of ammo for both, making her a very strong character indeed.
• Super Robot Wars manages to do this to Shinji Ikari. And it works.
  • That said, word was that was partly thanks to Captain Bright's infamous bright slaps, which has been scientifically proven to turn wimps into men of awesome (MEN OF DESTINY are another thing).
    • Also, Shinji freaked the hell out during the last two missions in the End of Eva Route of Super Robot Wars Alpha 3.
    • Being around Hot-Blooded Super Robot pilots will do that to you. And there are plenty of them to go around in the Alpha series. He also delivered a Bright slap to Kira Yamato. Oh, yeah. Definitely took it.
  • In addition, one of the main characters in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 starts out as a delivery boy with a minor Karate background. Then he trains with certain members of the Alpha Numbers--this includes, but is not limited to: cyborgs (Guy and Hiroshi/Jeeg), combat pros (the Wing boys, Banjo, Tsurugi Tetsuya...), a yokozuna, masters of various martial arts (Camille, Wufei, Yun Lee...), a dude who cleaves evil, gods, and battleships (Zengar), an old dude who smacks stuff around in space with a ball and chain ([[Theme Music Power-Up|ware koso wawaRE koso wa Baran Doban! fire!fire!fire!fire!]]), and various characters voiced by Kamiya Akira. By the end of the game, he kicked an Eldritch Abomination in the ass straight to hell! That's not counting the other God-like beings he might have to beat up beforehand.
  • In the Compact series of Super Robot Wars, Leina Ashta of ZZ Gundam fame. Considering that, in the series, she got kidnapped by Gremmi Toto a few episodes in, and spent her time either waiting for Judau to rescue her or being thought dead after almost getting crushed by a MS you'd think her to be a useless character... WRONG! She's, in fact, pretty powerful if used correctly, reaching a Newtype Level of 6 (Amuro, Camille and her brother reach Level 8, just to give a comparison) and becoming quite destructive if placed in a Mobile Armor. From personal experience, I managed to take down Bask Ohms' flagship just using her.
  • The original Super Robot Wars 3 on the SNES does this with Kou Uraki, hero of Stardust Memory. Starting with less than half the levels of most of the worthwhile characters and piloting a unit meant only for skirmishes, the GP-01. However, as soon as you head off to space and it's upgraded to the Full Vernian model, he proves to be a nimble character if you put effort into training him. Near the end of the game, upon gaining the GP-03, Kou ends up being a proverbial tank in a top-notch Mobile Suit.
    • Well, anytime Kou gets his GP-03, he turns into a viable Game Breaker.
  • Of course, they couldn't go for too long without doing this to one of their original characters. Original Generation features a character named Ryoto who first appeared as a scared enemy mook. He remains a very minor character until the end of the game, piloting only his original mook mecha or a hand-me-down from more important characters. By the time he rejoins the crew in OG 2, however, he's spent the last six months testing Super Prototypes, and pilots one that can combine with either his girlfriend's tank-thing or a suit of Powered Armor that can detach and turn into a weaponized flying surfboard. Oh, and he almost single-handedly holds off a giant robot dragon that routinely crushes more important characters long enough for said girlfriend and his co-workers to escape. Appropriately enough, this is the point where his theme song upgrades to one called "Ace Pilot" ("Ace Attacker" in the original Japanese).
    • Let's put this in a better perspective here, folks. Ryoto was one of four male protagonists that a player could choose in Super Robot Wars Alpha (the other three being Yuuki, Tasuku and Bullet). Ryoto, Yuuki and Tasuku were dropped in favor of Bullet and female protag Kusuha and never returned until the first Original Generation game. That Super Prototype in the second game? The Huckebein Mk-III, a unit said to be a small scale {=SRX=}. This kid went from piloting a wimpy grunt mecha to piloting a high-powered machine in under one game. That's taking a level!
  • Does this also apply to Setsuko Ohara of Super Robot Wars Z? She starts out as the lowest of her team, is quite timid and unsure of herself. Her debut actually starts with being shot down by Kamille Vidan. But then, she is subjected with lots and lots of traumatic event. And when she eventually gets pissed, not only her emotions evolve her BFG into a much more dangerous version, she discards her timid and unsure persona into a badass, yet still gentle, soldier, then proceeds to one shot the guy who breaks her with her new BFG.
• Muse from Romancing SaGa 3. She shifts from Ill Girl to Lady of War instantly. Also Sharl who is upgraded from Broken Hero provided that you got the Silver Hand in Muse's Dream
  • Also in addition, the Pirate Black, who regains his youth if you bring him to the fight with Forneus, you don't even need to place him in the active battle party which is good since his stats are quite sucky as an old man.
• Mickey Mouse in Kingdom Hearts II You'd have to see it to believe it.
  • Let's not forget Sora himself. Two words: "Reaction Commands".
  • Don't forget Kairi who in Kingdom Hearts II gets a level from Riku, in the form of her own keyblade (while granted, all she fought were Shadows, that's the ideal Heartless for ANY beginner to take on, in this case, there were a helluva lot of them and they gave even the more experienced Riku trouble.)
  • Riku himself, after a frustrating period of Badass Decay, is finally granted a new level of badass once he gets his original body back, after being stuck in the form of Ansem for most of the aforementioned period.
  • Roxas takes several levels in badass after absorbing Xion. Kind of explains Sora's upgrade as well.
  • To elaborate: He now dual-wields Oblivion and Oathkeeper, can kill Neoshadows (who were a bossfight in the first game and very pesky and durable enemies in the second) with one hit, goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the Organization and manages to defeat Riku (who was up to this point portrayed as unbeatable) pretty easily with only Oathkeeper. Riku had to use his full power (which caused him to transform into Xehanort's Heartless in the first place) and use the element of surprise against Roxas to win. Damn.
  • In-universe, Sora gets another one after fully merging with Roxas. This is what unlocks Final Form
  • Remember Sora's Heartless, the lowly Shadow that Sora became after sacrificing himself to save Kairi in the first game? The Shadow that could do nothing but run around and get konked on the head by Donald? Well, in Coded, it's back, and has taken the form of an even bigger than normal Darkside, is sentient, and is the Big Bad.
• And while we're on the subject of Disney games, in Epic Mickey the Phantom Blot is upgraded from a highly competent Gentleman Thief into a Eldritch Abomination of paint and thinner, similar to the previous Phantom Blot only by name. Warren Spector says its an upgrade but not everyone agrees, especially Italy.
• Phoenix Wright in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Seven years of fighting to take down Kristoph and clear his name have turned him from a downtrodden lawyer whose main skills are luck and bluffing to a complete Magnificent Bastard who played puppetmaster to Apollo and was the architect behind completely reforming the justice system just to make sure Kristoph goes down and goes down hard.
• When you first meet Missile in Ghost Trick he's full of enthusiasm and vigor but essentially useless. After he dies next to the Temsik meteorite he gains ghost tricks too and becomes in some ways more powerful than Sissel himself. His reach is much longer, and while he can't manipulate inanimate objects he can swap them with similarly shaped objects.
  • And then we have the double badass level taken by Ray--aka, the Missile from the first timeline. After ten years of waiting for the night of Sissel's death to come around again, he's gone from The Ditz to The Chessmaster.
• Leo Stenbuck from Zone of the Enders, who started out in that game as a (justifiably) depressed street kid, apparently spent the four years between the plotlines of ZoE 1 and ZoE 2 frantically leveling up in Badass until he emerged in the second game almost as a wolf among lambs, capable of piloting his non-Unobtainium LEV against full-on Orbital Frames and more than holding his own.
• In Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria, Alicia starts off the game with such fight quotes as "Do we have to fight?" and "My hands are stinging." Three-fourths of the way through the game ironically, after Silmeria, the titular warrior maiden, is stripped from her she takes a real role as leader, gets an upgrade to her special attack, and is practically thirsting for blood in her fight quotes.
• In Half-Life 2:
  • Alyx Vance practically has to be babied by the player during the sequences where she tags along. Valve paid attention to these complaints and from Episode One on, she's a capable shooter who takes out wave after wave of zombies and soldiers, both during the gameplay and in the scripted events. In one level with a shortage of ammunition (which doesn't affect Alyx's gun), the player spends a lot of time using the flashlight to illuminate targets for Alyx to shoot, turning the first half of the stage into a sort of reverse Escort Mission.
  • The Vortigaunts started off as low-level mooks in Half-Life, but keep leveling up until they are full-fledged Warrior Poets in Episode 2.
  • Gordon Freeman himself could qualify. He went from a simple scientist to a man whose name alone sparks hope in the people and fear in his enemies and is usually associated with his famous crowbar.
• In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Haar was a fairly average unit who joined too late to be useful. Come Radiant Dawn, Haar joins earlier (among other things) and is now in the top tier.
  • In the gap between The Binding Blade/Fire Emblem (AKA Blazing Sword) we have Barte (to a degree) and Karel, depending on whether you go by chronological order (Karel) or release order (Barte).
  • The first part of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War has Oifaye and Shanan as tag-along cute kids no older than 14, and the second showes them as quite capable fighters and leaders.
  • Then there's Elincia, who starts out as a quiet princess sitting at the sidelines and cheering for her bodyguard and his mini-army to win. By the end of the story, she hops on a pegasus, picks up a sword, and decides that Ashnard bitch is going down. Three years later, after being pushed around by her fellow nobles, she too jumps on the top-tier boat to show the country who's queen.
  • And, naturally enough, the hero of those two games, Ike, starts out as a complete noob who you really have to be careful with for fear he'll die to being a world renowned hero by the end of the first game. It's more impressive when you realize that this happens in the space of a year. Of course, he's taken awesome to new heights after the three year Time Skip to Radiant Dawn.
  • Pelleas got a bit of this too near the end of Radiant Dawn. For most of the game, he was pampered and coddled by Almedha, and he seemed content with that. After nearly killing himself and then witnessing The End of the World as We Know It (and learning that his mother has a brother who happens to be a dragon laguz, and possibly coming to the conclusion that she might not be his mother), though, he decided that he had had enough of her coddling and joined Tibarn and Elincia on the battlefield to get away from her. As mages go, he never gets quite as badass as, say, Soren... but Soren was a badass from the beginning.
• Zelda, previously a Damsel in Distress, leveled up in Ocarina of Time with her alter ego Sheik, and has ever since had the tendency to assist Link in the final battle, even though she's still a Damsel in Distress for part of the game just before that fight.
  • Continued further in The Wind Waker with her identity of Tetra and assistance in the final battle. Likewise, she assists in the second-to-last battle of Twilight Princess, and her period of captivity in that game is of her own choice (to protect her people) rather than because she was kidnapped.
  • Link himself is pretty much an incarnation of this trope; he starts pretty much every game as an unarmed kid in a backwater and ends up Badass enough to believably take down the Big Bad, all the way up to the King of Evil himself. Differs from the standard RPG hero listed above by being more of an Action Adventure character.
  • Zelda again in Spirit Tracks for the DS. Her spirit gets separated from her body, forcing the princess to tag along with Link. Her ghostly form allows her to possess Phantoms, among other things.
  • This is Zelda in 1986; This her in 2010.
• Baldur's Gate saw several characters take levels in badass at various points-Sarevok, Nalia, Aerie, and Imoen in Throne of Bhaal come immediately to mind. (the protagonist) seems to take his/her biggest round of badass in Spellhold in BG2.
  • The change is especially notable in Aerie, who is initially the most timid and insecure character in the entire game. And then, suddenly, she blurts out the battle cry, "This will hurt you a lot more than me!". Even Minsc's battle cries can't beat that one...
  • For a quite literal example, Dual-classing Imoen to a Mage in BG1. It's such a big boost the sequel just assumes you did it.
  • Anomen from Baldur's Gate 2 after his character development get a healthy, permanent +4 wisdom boost and becomes Lawful Good with a tolerable personaliy on top of it.
• In the Neverwinter Nights expansion Hordes of the Underdark, Deekin undergoes this as well. Formerly he was a kobold (weakling level one type creature) musician with the barest hints of magical power. In this expansion he becomes a half-dragon and helps your hero take on a greater devil, Mephistopheles -- ruler of Cania, the eighth hell (making him the second most powerful devil in existence!) -- eventually defeating him. Also note, Deekin is the only character that will not turn away from the hero as Mephistopheles attempts to persuade them to join him, showing his True Colors as a very good and loyal creature, which is almost opposite of most Kobolds.
• Zack, the titular character in Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, is one of the more feeble game protagonists. He can flip switches, set off cannons, and use enemies' strength against them, but if he were to encounter a common goon who isn't asleep or distracted, and he's done for. In the penultimate mission, however, Zack finds a sword and is actually able to duel and destroy roaming guards the old-fashioned way.
• Metal Sonic in Sonic Heroes. He manages to augment himself with "data" samples from Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Chaos. The result is an obscenely powerful, fast, intelligent machine made out of liquid metal and possessing the power of Chaos Control. Now compare that to his first appearance.
  • Even then, he was badass. And the whole point of his creation was to be a robot that could fight Sonic on equal terms -- with the addition of built-in weapons. What about Eggman in SA 2, when he puts a gun to Amy's head (TWICE)? Not to mention in Sonic Adventure how Amy herself Took a Level in Badass.
  • Amy in general has taken the most levels in badass in the series, going from damsel in distress to a competent close combat brute around Sonic Heroes.
  • Despite being a Mascot with Attitude and the main character and as such plenty Badass already, Sonic pulls this off in Sonic Generations when he takes down Perfect Chaos without his super form. How did he do it when the entire area was flooded and he can't swim? By hydroplaning
    • Speaking of Sonic Generations, the GUN Truck. Oh, wow, the GUN Truck. To clarify, in the original City Escape it simply tried to run Sonic over, getting stopped by a single building. The truck outright stalks classic Sonic throughout act 1 once it appears, being turned aside by a support at the end of the level, but not crashed. It gets destroyed in act 2, but not after showing it's been upgraded with 3 circular saws, the ability to fly, and, oh yeah, the ability to keep up with a boosting ( or even Super) Sonic. It outright EXPLODES upon crashing in act 2, to boot.
  • Dr. Eggman in recent titles is just as clownish and bumbling as ever, but simultaneously reminding Sonic he is Not So Harmless, in Sonic Unleashed he makes himself the only villain to neutralise Sonic in his super form no less (a feat only Knuckles has otherwise accomplished). He has also stopped being the go-to-patsy for any Bigger Bad of the story and attempted using his own devices to try to take over the planet (and then some).
    • And then in Generations, he finally unleashed an Eldritch Abomination against Sonic that didn't betray him in the end.
• While already a Badass, Boss from Saints Row 2 does what he did so well in the first installation and adds a more brutal touch to it in the sequels. Feats include putting radioactive liquid in Maero's tattoo ink just to show he won't accept 20 percent of the town, saving his hideout from gangsters while high on drugs as well savagely beating up most of his enemies if possible. Events in the finale of the first game inspired him to stop being a Silent Bob, stop being "A bitch who keeps his mouth shut and does what he's told".
• Star FOX: Team Star Wolf were once generic boss enemies who soon developed character (at least, Wolf and Leon) and kicked the two typical baddies Pigma and Andrew and replaced them with Panther. They also become involved in the story.
• In Super Smash Bros.. Brawl's Subspace Emissary mode, Lucas is pretty much characterized as a scared little kid, despite his psychic powers. He spends half a level running away from a giant hopping statue that Ness offs with one PK Flash. Then, after Wario attacks the two of them, Ness makes a Heroic Sacrifice for Lucas, who then runs away from Wario and the trophy-ified Ness without trying to save him. He makes some progress since then; several stages later when Wario shows up to attack him and the Pokémon Trainer, instead of running away, he steps up and takes Wario out.
  • This mirrors his growth in Mother 3. His twin brother Claus is much braver... though this leads to Mecha-Drago nearly killing him when he goes to avenge his mom's death, and Porky reformatting him as his army's general.
• The Sly Cooper series of games has Murray and Bently. Murry goes from just being big to actually being somewhere near as strong as he thinks he is from the first game to the second. Bently is an even more obvious example. He acts strictly as Mission Control in the first game, actually starts going out and doing stuff in the second and by the third has tricked himself out so that Sly is really only the leader of the gang in name. Many fans actually consider Bently, not Sly, to be the true hero of the franchise thanks to this and his overall characters development.
• Happened twice to Jak and Daxter's titular Jak. There was a little incident involving two years of Dark Eco experimentation at the beginning of Jak II: Renegade, and then during Jak III he gained Light Eco powers. Also happens to other characters -- Tess goes from simple Fan Service to being a scarily competent weapon developer between 2 and 3, and everyone (except Tess and Samos) becomes an expert driver in Jak X. Even a vehicle gets Rescued from the Scrappy Heap with the aid of a level in badass; the Hellcat cruiser was useless in Renegade, but an upgraded version appears in Jak 3 so Jak can take on an entire flying war factory of tanks and drones by himself.
  • Don't forget Daxter! Even though he stays mostly the same in terms of personality, he gets more screen time as the series progresses: from completely unplayable in TPL to being invaluable in the later games. A few in-game comments on Daxter's badassery include:
    • Jak's "I'm proud of ya, Dax," after Daxter wins the Class Two Race. Ironically, one of the only times Daxter shares credit.
    • Samos admits that Jak could never have succeeded without Daxter in the prologue to Daxter, since Daxter is responsible for not only saving Jak but also taking down Kor's Dragon.
    • In Jak 3, Daxter has to ride a missile with Torn occasionally chiming in comments and encouragement over the radio: one line you can hear while playing is "You're braver than I thought, Daxter."
• In Siren, Kyoya Suda and Yoriko Anno take serious levels in badass.
• In Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Zack takes several levels throughout the story majorly when he is forced to kill his mentor, Angeal, gaining the Buster Sword and a new hairdo. Cloud also takes some serious levels within the literal last two or three minutes of the game, going from a simple SOLDIER grunt to the asskicker you know and love from Final Fantasy VII.
  • Well the level taking may have occurred earlier when he picks up the Buster Sword after Zack was defeated and thrusts it into Sephiroth's midriff and when Sephiroth returns the favor grabs the Musamune's blade, lifts Sephiroth up and tosses him across the room.
• Cecil's ascension from Dark Knight to Paladin in Final Fantasy IV.
• Rydia from Final Fantasy IV, who begins as a kid with weak magic. After a period of time training in another dimension, she returns with a Plot-Relevant Age-Up and several Summon creatures, just in time to save the party's ass.
• In Final Fantasy IV, Edward is the quintessential Spoony Bard. He's lovesick, he's an admitted and self-pitying coward, and worst of all, he's just plain weak. Lower damage output than the white mage, and utterly worthless abilities made him the weakest and least-liked party member. Fast-forward 17 years in the game's world, and we come to Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, where Edward has suddenly grown some balls of steel. His first act in the story, during the base chapters, is to refuse to stand down when faced with Kain, and he responds to a small army invading his throne room by opening a box with a Carnelian Signet, AKA a Bomb Ring, and wiping out the entire entourage in one swift motion. Sadly, you are controlling the bad guy in that scenario, so he and Rosa go down, but after he shows us how much he's grown.
  • And we're not done there. In his own tale, which takes place before that, we see Edward cross the desert twice and brave the Antlion Cave, by himself, in order to save his assistant, who has taken ill with Desert Fever. And then he goes to Baron, has a conversation with brainwashed!Cecil, gives him a pot of flowers as a gift, and leaves with a present of his own from the guy he was speaking with. As he sails away, he explains two things. One: the flower was actually a cutting of Whisperweed, the voice-throwing plant he saved Cecil with once before, and two: the present he left with is, he suspects, the aforementioned Carnelian Signet. The upshot of this is that Edward planted a bug in Cecil's throne room right in front of him, simply in order to find out if Cecil really had gone evil (if it really was Cecil, he'd know what Whisperweed is), and that, in the aforementioned encounter with Dark Kain, he went on a hunch. He went into that encounter almost blind. Add that to some seriously improved abilities, and we've got one seriously Badass bard.
  • While Edward is the most notable example in The After Years, he isn't the only one. Palom is another great example. While a Bratty Half-Pint in the original game and subject to being hit on the head my his more mature sister, The After Years gives him a chance to shine. Without Porom's nagging, he has shown that he's surprisingly good with the ladies, with both Leonora and Luca interested in him. However, his real moment comes at the end of his tale: He and Leonora have made it to the bottom of the Magnetic Cave in order to hide the Earth Crystal from the Mysterious Girl. When she comes to reclaim it, Palom has Leonora leave and then gives the Girl what amounts to the finger; he petrifies himself so that she can't have the Crystal. While it doesn't work in the end - Leonora comes back and cures him - they then still refuse to give over the Crystal and fight her, the first group to do so. They lose, but man was it badass.
• And then we have Final Fantasy XII's Vaan. Disliked in his debit game, largely for his Supporting Protagonist nature and being largly irrelevant to the story, gets much better in Revenant Wings, where he is the main character, and to almost ridiculous levels in Final Fantasy Tactics A2, where he is considered the greatest Sky Pirate who ever lived, and Criminal Syndicates have 'flee on sight' orders is facing him. He even looks badass in that game! ^{[dead link]}
• Knights of the Old Republic: T3 M4 in the second game. Flying a ship to safety, Locking the navigational controls so only her can guide the ship, and deactivating an assassin droid? Tell me he didn't take a few levels [considering the droid had almost no personality in the first game and only one required instance.
  • Not to mention that at one point, he takes on three HK-50's by himself. T3's a beast.
  • In the first game, the point at which your character is allowed to start leveling up as a Jedi, and in the second game at the point at which you can level up as a Jedi/Sith prestige class
  • Mira, Atton, the Handmaiden/the Disciple, and Bao-dur can all take levels in badass (i.e. Jedi, Sentinel for most, Guardian for the Handmaiden, Consular for the Disciple) in the second game.
• Every single one of your opponents in the Wii Punch-Out!! Title Defense Mode. They all spend the time after Little Mac kicks their asses to learn new and more devastating tricks. Yes, even Glass Joe.
• You the pilot in the Ace Combat games. The first plane is almost always a dinky, outdated model, and even the relatively modest starter F-16 in 6 is not top tier. By the time endgame arrives, you're using a faster, more agile and survivable Cool Plane, to say nothing of the Game Breaker superfighters turning on a dime with Frickin' Laser Beams or Macross Missile Massacre on tap. Beyond that, however, is going back to the dinky planes and Cherry Tapping people to death. In fact, the same could be said for many combat flight-action games in the similar vein.
  • Best illustrated in Ace Combat 4, where you start as the unknown 'Moebius 1', become the only person EVER to down a 'Yellow', and eventually cause panic in the enemy ranks when they know you're against them. This culminates in the final mission where you're given your own 'Moebius Squadron', which causes untold fear in the enemy when they realize not one, but ALL of the incoming aircraft have 'ribbon insignias' - Moebius 1's personal iconography.
• In the five years between his appearances in Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter IV, Dan must have been training; he's gone from the Joke Character to a Lethal Joke Character that's surprisingly high on the tier list. It's even reflected in the game; his face is much more serious (though he still gets excited when he wins).
• In Smash Up, the Utroms, a naturally peace loving race, suddenly get an Utrom with a mecha and guns, making this something interesting for some, or just not desired.
  • The development team says Utrominator is "An upgrade to the Krang character", meaning that, the developers may be hinting that the Utrominator is Krang, therefore, Krang has taken a level in badass.
  • Oh, and the Fugitoid seems to have taken a level in badass too, yes, his weapon is a hammer, but now, he can actually fight, how is that not taking a level in badass?
• Broly in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, actually: his Rush Attacks happened to become more brutal, he smashes his opponent into the ground, grabs them, kicks them into the air, grabs them in the air again, smashes the opponent in the ground again, but he punches them away for good measure.
  • And Broly is getting a Super Saiyan 3 form in the latest game. And Vegeta.
• The Grunts in Halo 3. Suicidal Grunts, My God.
  • Also the Hunters; in Halo they were Fake Ultimate Mooks who were almost pathetic once you knew their weak point. They get tougher and tougher the more the series goes on; becoming Demonic Spiders in the later games.
• World of Warcraft: Gryan Stoutmantle. One first encounters him as a lowbie quest-giver in Westfall. Next time you see him, he's a level 75 elite in Northrend. Commanding the Westfall Brigade. On some servers he's amassed quite a fan following.
  • Another 'legendary' character is the Ork, Mankrik, who has been moping in The Crossroads with a missing wife. Come Cataclysm, he has buried his wife, and is an elite mob hunting the quillboars that killed her.
  • Gamon. Previously an incredibly weak NPC who had the terrible luck to be a neutral NPC in the middle of a Horde capital due to game mechanics (he's part of a rogue class quest and needs to be pickpocketed, and allied NPCs are impossible to pickpocket). In Cataclysm, he got upgraded to Level 85 Elite and hits squishy characters for hundreds of 'thousands' of damage. So the character people once killed for s**** and giggles now needs a raid group to stand even a remote chance against. One hell of a level boost.
    • Just boosting him up to an 85 Elite wasn't enough, since people started to kite him around. They beefed him up again by making him immune to Crowd Control, gave him weapons (a Blade on a Stick and a bow), made him run faster than your character, and made him hit like a friggin' tank. I don't mean the class type, I mean the actual military vehicle. They turned weak little Gamon into an absolute juggernaut. So much so in fact, that if Orgrimmar ever gets attacked by the Alliance, players will actually aggro Gamon to help attack the Alliance too! One of those Ao E spells hits Gamon, and he'll soon forget about the Horde guys who aggroed him...
  • There is also Corporal Keeshan. You encounter him in the original game as a prisoner of the Blackrock orcs who you have to rescue in an Escort Mission. In Cataclysm, he's been upgraded to JOHN J. KEESHAN, who ends up getting swallowed by a black dragon, proceeds to impale him from the inside, sending him crashing into Lake Everstill, and survives to become a major part of another questline over 30 levels later.
• Though he starts off pretty badass in Prototype, Alex Mercer eventually is infected by a parasite that saps his powers and severely weakens him. Once he gets over it, though, he takes many new levels in badass, complete with the Armor and Blade powers. He sums it up best with two simple words: "I'm back."
• Kogasa Tatara of Touhou Project: Undefined Fantastic Object. Starts off as a weak umbrella Youkai, ends up being the Extra Stage miniboss.
  • Fueled by popular demand, Cirno and Meiling have both gone from joke bosses to powerhouses. Cirno even stars in her own Beyond the Impossible spinoff game, Great Fairy War.
    • The extra stage of which pits her againse Marisa. And she almost wins, too! And fairies are the weakest species in Gensokyo...
  • For a story line version, consider Fujiwara no Mokou. Once a little, human girl. One elixir of immortality and a lot (read: over 1000 years) of training later she's a powerful force to be reckoned with with complete mastery over fire.
• Tokugawa Ieyasu in Sengoku Basara 3. What was once a really ineffectual Bratty Half-Pint James Bondage has now grown up and kicks butt with just fists and feet, no longer needing to be overdependent on his Gundam Hondam.
• The Death Jr.. series does this to Pandora. The first game she served as a Damsel in Distress while in the sequel she's a fully-playable character.
• Warcraft III custom map Footman Frenzy has the Death Sheep. Its maximum attack speed is 1 attack per 6 second with laughable damage, crappy HP to the point that a wind walking Blademaster can 1-hit KO it, have the movement speed of a snail that you need a zephyr to really go anywhere. On top of that, it only has TWO inventory slots as opposed to normal hero's six which it desperately need for HP item. The catch? It has the listed skill: Star Fall, Tranquility, Big Bad Voodoo and Stampede, all ultimate skills. Starfall at the very beginning of the match against a throng of footman battling out in a 4 way match can result in the Death Sheep User a lot of gold.
• In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, your player character, "Soap" MacTavish, is an Ageless, Faceless, Culturally-Ambiguous Adventure Person, whom Captain Price continually ribs for being the FNG (Fuckin' New Guy). Despite this, you still manage to pull off some badass moments during the game, most notably during the final level when you manage to shoot the Big Bad while he's distracted. This is ratcheted Up to Eleven for the sequel, Modern Warfare 2, where you find out that MacTavish not only survived the ordeal, but shaved his head, got some tattoos, got a promotion, and became a totally badass captain in his own right and plays essentially the exact same role to the new player character that Captain Price did for him. The student learned his lesson well.
• Jann Lee from Dead or Alive, believe it or not, used to be a weak kid who gets bullied all the time, and to ease his pain, he watched Bruce Lee movies. He ends up as an Ascended Fanboy, masters the Jeet Kune Do and is now a very formidable, if arrogant, fighter.
• Many longtime fans of the Super Mario Bros. series found it pretty cool to see Mario fighting his enemies hand to hand for the first time in Super Mario RPG, and to a much greater extent in Super Mario 64.
  • The downside of that is going from energetic fistfighting to using Fludd in Super Mario Sunshine struck many of them as Badass Decay.
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story does this to Bowser, since the game focuses on him as a main character (with some help from the Mario Brothers). He performs several Crowning Moments Of Awesome, shows a talent for great comebacks and becomes the savior of the Mushroom Kingdom rather than the terrorizer (that role belonging to Fawful).
  • Not to mention keeping the Shroob invaders on ice. Including their leader.
  • Also, Princess Peach demonstrates some quite potent psychic powers (her "wish power").
    • ...which was already present in her rare PC role in Super Mario RPG. Group Hug, anyone?
    • And Super Paper Mario, where Peach and her umbrella of invincibility more or less made her a Game Breaker.
• In Super Mario Sunshine, Bowser's primary goals are simply to kidnap Peach again and make Mario's vacation unpleasant. In Super Mario Galaxy, Bowser's primary goals are to kidnap Peach and take over the entire universe.
  • And then, after the cosmic Reset Button got hit, Bowser got another upgrade, provided by the Grand Stars. In the sequel, he appears to have several new powers, including flight, teleportation, summoning meteors and darkness-powered megaton punches. This time, he also makes sure that Mario wouldn't be able to stop him again by kidnapping the resident God figure and her starship.
• In the NES Punch-Out!! you have to fight Don Flamenco twice. The first time, on the major circuit, he's almost as easy as Glass Joe despite having highly damaging punches since he's so easy to lock into extensively long combos and his blows are so easy to dodge. Then he comes back with a vengeance on the world circuit and is much, much harder to beat.
• Mortal Kombat:
• Stryker was most likely because he was hated by the fans. In MK 3 he was a simple fat policeman . Nevertheless, in the more recent games he appears to be more of a kickass special forces member, with a cool futuristic combat suit. A comparative image can be seen here . Mortal Kombat 9 took it up to eleven, too bad Sindel took one as well, and before she died, she killed almost every hero she fought against.
  • In fact, a lot of lesser characters on both sides are taken a lot more seriously in Mortal Kombat 9's retelling of the original trilogy. Unfortunately, this also means that some of the more imposing villains suffer from The Worf Effect on occasion.
    • Sindel took a level in mass murder.
    • Stryker, Kabal, Smoke, and Cyber Sub-Zero (once his free will is restored) are more traditional examples.
    • Nightwolf went from a sort of goofy-looking side character who didn't had much to do with anything to one of the bigger badasses on the Earthrealm team's side. He even becomes Raiden's deputy when he's not around to directly lead them.
    • Ermac was originally this Ascended Glitch whose only claim to fame was his telekinesis; in the original timeline, it wasn't until Kenshi helped him undergo a Heel Face Turn around the time of Deadly Alliance/Deception that he began to play cleanup and started to shine. Here, Ermac is presented a formidable enforcer of Shao Kahn who should not be taken lightly. Just ask Jax.
    • Freddy Krueger a guy who had trouble facing teenagers and was killed by them in just about every movie, has become so badass that he can take on cyborgs, monsters, ninjas, and a guy who completely obliterated almost every Greek god, demi-god, and goddess EVER!!!
  • Kitana has always been a Badass Princess, but she's also spent a lot of time as a Damsel in Distress. Come Mortal Kombat 11, forget that. She not only unites the Edenians, Shokan, Tarkatan, and Osh-Tekk under her own rulership, she kills Shao Kahn. That's right, she defeats and slays the Big Bad of the previous games.
• From the two Badman games, the young Hero Antagonist Shota is like this. He starts out as a wimpy warrior who can be beaten in just seconds with your low-level monsters. Over the course of the game, he gains confidence, companions, and the strength to take out even your best dragons in just a few hits. The Badman 2 DLC story "My Name is Shota" details his rise to fame and glory, and is told from his point of view instead of the Overlord's.
• The Updated Rerelease of Kirby Super Star has King Dedede go through this in Revenge of the King in an attempt to beat Kirby, donning a mask and a mechanized hammer. His newfound badass level shows even gameplay-wise. The wimpy, easily stunned Warmup Boss at the end of Spring Breeze has become what many players believe to be the hardest boss in the game with his faster and much less easily stunned moves, including a spin attack with long range that leaves him invincible for its duration and hits through shielding.
• To get an idea of what a Tier-Induced Scrappy Mega Man's sister Roll was in earlier Capcom vs. Whatever games, she had her own tier named after her just so there could be no doubt she was absolutely the worst character in the game. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom noticeably changed that. Roll was granted a melee weapon to increase her reach, her attack speed was amped up, and she's now bludgeoned her way straight into Badass Adorable territory, with many fans naming her as a Lethal Joke Character.
  • She's also getting some of this in the official series. Most of the time, she remains Mission Control, but Mega Man Powered Up (where the bosses are vocally afraid of her) and the version of 1 released on Japanese cellphones both include her as a playable character. Apparently, Keiji Inafune even said that she was originally intended to be playable in Mega Man 2. By most evidence, her Character Development looks to continue.
    • That is, if the development of Mega Man games continues...
• Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell, already a badass operative in earlier games, becomes even more awesome in Conviction, with such new abilities as the Mark and Execute that allows him to gun down up to four enemies in the blink of an eye. Officially, this is because Sam, having left Third Echelon, doesn't have much reason to be subtle anymore, which means he was always that hardcore and was just restraining himself.
• Compared to his canon portrayal (a scrawny filthy guy who lives in the sewers talking to rats) the Rat King in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters" is the Final Boss of tournament mode Karai is the Final Boss of the storyline mode, has added some pro wrestling moves to his moveset, and looks like he's done more steroids than Dave Batista.
• Eleanor from BioShock (series) 2 sure as hell counts. Once you get her some big sister armor she goes from a sick girl in a bed to a full-fledged and quite badass Action Girl.
• Kiith Somtaaw spend a vast majority of Homeworld: Cataclysm grinding their way through multiple levels from a minor mining operation to a dedicated combat fleet in order to destroy The Beast.
• Heavy Rain has Ethan Mars for his trails and Madison Paige in the "Sexy Girl" chapter.
• From the new Golden Sun game: The main character from the first game, Isaac, was your typical, harmless-looking, anime JRPG character. Fast forward 30 years with the new DS game Golden Sun: Dark Dawn where his character art was just released. Damn. ^{[dead link]}
  • Golden Sun is full of this trope. Over the course of the first game, Isaac goes from apparently being a meek momma's boy to a badass warrior who takes out the Fire Clan's top two even after they turn into a giant dragon to stop him from stopping them. Along the way, Alex comments on his unexpected progress at Mercury Lighthouse, and Felix is flat-out frightened by his power at Venus Lighthouse, especially once Saturos and Menardi bite the dust. If anything, Dark Dawn just gave Isaac the looks to match the badass within (and by "looks", we mean "beard").
  • In The Lost Age, Jenna goes from Damsel in Distress to Hot Chick with a Sword, Sheba goes from Damsel in Distress to snarky Black Magician Girl, and Felix goes from being a hostage of the Fire Clan to the renegade hero who saves them all-- and the world, and at least three Wacky Wayside Tribes along the way.
• This is the entire point of Zettai Hero Project. You start off as the weakest main character, a bystander who was forced to take on the mantle of the Unlosing Ranger and face the Final Boss. Through your repeated and many losses, you start ammassing the necessary skills and determination required to save the world. It's not called Total Hero Project for nothing.
• In EarthBound, after leaving the Scaraba pyramid, Poo leaves the party to learn PSI Starstorm, returning at the end of the upcoming boss battle to show it off.
  • We can't forget Lucas in Mother 3. At the start, he oversleeps, gets called a crybaby by the villagers, and compared to his braver brother Claus. After Hinawa dies, Lucas weeps at her grave while Claus goes out to avenge Hinawa with a butter knife. However, at the end of Chapter 3, when Kumatora, Wess, and Salsa are facing Fassad's tank, Lucas shows up with a Drago at his side and proceeds to knock Fassad halfway back to Thunder Tower. He only gets better from then on out.
• In Assassin's Creed I, Malik is just the guys who gives you your feather so you can kill your targets, at least until the end, where he helps you take back Masyaf. Did I mention that he only has one arm?
  • Meet Lucy Stillman (voiced by Kristen Bell). Come AC1, she was the blonde chick in a pencil skirt who stood there while you gallivanted about Masyaf in the 12th century. No action girl, no action anything. Meet the same Lucy Stillman (still voice by Kristen Bell) via AC2. She wears high heels, blood-stained vests, and kicks the shit out of anyone who looks at her funny. Fan reactions thus: "whoah, Lucy's a badass!"
  • Desmond Miles undergoing this trope is basically half the reason behind the plot of Assassin's Creed II.
• Left 4 Dead has Louis, an everyday Joe caught up in the zombie outbreak that can still kick ass with the rest of the survivors, but is still super optimistic and assures everyone that things will return to normal, making him look pretty dorky. Fast forward to the sequel where he and the others meet the survivors in the next game and Louis assists them by using a mounted machine gun and kills any Tanks that appear for Bill, who was killed by three Tanks. "That... was for Bill!"
• Yuri Sakazaki from Art of Fighting and King of Fighters. In her first appearance in the first Art of Fighting she was a Damsel in Distress. Her second appearance? Playable fighter and practitioner of Kyokugenryuu karate, complete with her own ki attacks! She would go on to be a mainstay in the King of Fighters series.
• Luigi gets a level in badass in between Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, albeit a small one. In the first game, he was the Butt Monkey, he gets into space against his will, is treated as a joke by everyone, and all times he tries to help end up with him getting in a pinch and having Mario save him. The unlockable Luigi mode, the only situation where luigi is actually helpful a character, doesn't count since that Luigi is in fact a Doppelganger from space Handwaved as "I suppose if the universe is truly infinite someone that looks just like me must exists". In Mario Galaxy 2, however, Luigi gets mad for being left behind by Mario and the Toad Brigade, chases the spaceship down by himself (nevermind how), offers help himself instead of being dragged along, and even throws a few Take Thats at Mario with claims such as "This time I'm the hero, bro.". Instead of walk around doing nothing in your ship, like in the first game, it's also implied Luigi is adventuring around on his own trying to find powerstars.
• Roland in Luminous Arc 2 when he becomes a Master. The story treats it as another stepping stone in his Character Development, but it really shines in his battlefield quotes, which go from bog-standard team quips like "let's do it!" to leading-man shouts of "Everyone, follow me!"
• Shiva's first appearance in Streets of Rage 3 shows an element of Badass Decay compared to his role in Streets of Rage 2 as Mr. X's bodyguard, but when you fail to save the General/Chief of Police, you face him again as the final boss where he is a supremely significant threat.
• In Final Fantasy XIII, Serah was Lightning's not quite Dead Little Sister and Snow's Damsel in Distress who spent the entire game stuck in a crystal. But the sequel's been announced, and Serah's taking up arms to find her missing sister, wielding a sword that is also a bow that is also a Moogle.
  • Hope. He spends the first half of the game wangsting, dragging his feet and generally being a pain in the ass with extremely weak attacks. After chapter three or so, the player will likely want to punch him in the face. Then comes the opening to Chapter 12, where he comes nose-to-nose with a speeding warmech before calmly ordering Alexander to blast it out of existence. By this point, he is also probably the most powerful character in terms of magic.
  • By the time the sequel rolls around, Hope has gone from The Scrappy to the de facto leader of humanity, no matter what time period he's in.
• In MS Saga: A New Dawn, Fritz, Tristian's best friend, feels inadequate as his pals surpass him and he bails in despair. When he returns, he has greater confidence and a much stronger Mobile Suit (the FA-78-1 Full Armor Gundam, compared to the strongest unit you'd have at that point, the original RX-78-2 Gundam).
• In Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel, Zorne's been improving her skills ever since her easy defeat in the first game. Her new move as well as the partner she gets when she Turns Red obviously make up for the defeat Tia (and Grolla) gave her.
• Whispy Woods of the Kirby franchise has been the first boss of almost every game in the series, and never gets any tougher. Then comes Kirbys Epic Yarn, where he's able to take a good stand against Kirby's Tankbot form compared to all his fights with Kirby in the other games.
  • And even better. He was pretty powerful in the anime as well, able to bury Kirby and his friends in an avalanche of apples because he thought they were intruders coming to destroy his entire forest. When he learns from his mistake of having trusted King Dedede, who secretly planned to cut down his forest and build a golf course, he punishes the King and Escargoon by putting them into the bunker after being revived by one of the apples that Kirby ate, and then putts all the apples around to restore his forest, and afterwards he and Kirby-tachi become friends.
  • And let's not forget Whispy Woods in any of the Extra Modes or True Arena(s)
• Drakath takes a level in badass when he becomes The Starscream to Sepulchure in Dragon Fable. He stabs him in the back with his own Necrotic Blade of Doom and then starts absorbing power from the Ultimate Orb. Drakath is happy about the magnificence of growing more powerful thanks to the orb, and calls Fluffy to him, and they fuse together to become Drakath the Darkness Dragon, a.k.a. Drakath the Undead Dragon, who also appeared in the original Adventure Quest, where he was incredibly powerful compared to his initial level of power in Dragon Fable. And even better: In Adventure Quest Worlds, he becomes the Champion of Chaos, showing off his incredibly powerful Chaos magic, which he plans to use to take over Lore and destroy and remake everything King Alteon loves. And he also plans to do so through his 13 Lords of Chaos. That's saying something.
• Fear Effect. Rain starts out as a Damsel in Distress, but this trope starts to kick in later on. A trailer of Fear Effect Inferno shows Rain looking like an Expy of Zero Suit Samus. She is trying to open a locked door. She finally gets it open with one powerful jump kick. She also knocks some guy over with one powerful punch, while wearing a red Chinese dress and high heels. If only she could have done these moves in gameplay.
• In Tekken 1, neither Jack nor P Jack can fly. In Tekken 2, P Jack can. Come Tekken 3, all Jacks can fly. The ability to fly turns him from a merely tough character into an unstoppable killing machine.
  • Lee is a Law clone in the first two Tekken games (albeit a bishonen one with a few exclusive moves.) From Tekken Tag onwards he has gradually developed his own style. He's gotten better with each game to the point where he is one of the top player characters, instead of just a fan favorite boss character like he was before.
    • King's growing arsenal of real life wrestling throws has made him the top choice for tournament players in recent years.
• Numberman in Mega Man Battle Network. In the first game, he's nothing but a slave to the WWW who gets some sense knocked into him by Mega Man, and also a very easy boss. In the fourth and fifth games, his power is increased exponentially, with an attack that hits at a very unconventional range as well as a trap attack that can be very effective. Also of note is that, in the fifth game, he grows a pair and deletes impostors of himself and Mega Man unassisted.
  • Geo Stelar, the protagonist of Mega Man Star Force, starts out as a reclusive, traumatised kid who has to be forced to leave his house or interact with others, and who cordially detests fighting. By the end of the second game, he's cheerfully throwing himself into combat with an electromagnetic god.
• Baten Kaitos: Sagi. He's not bad in a fight at the start, but he routinely gets knocked on his ass by anything bigger than a normal human, with his constant losses eventually driving him into a Heroic BSOD about how ineffective a hero he is. Then comes the Heart-to-Heart, where he finds out what he is, and what he's truly capable of. After that, nothing can stand in his way.
• Persona 4 has Teddie, who joins your party after previously being useless in a fight.
• As of Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten, Vyers has returned to his old identity as Krichevskoy, with all the power that entails.
• Jin Kisaragi starts out in Calamity Trigger as an Ax Crazy Jerkass who has a really really disturbing relationship with his brother Ragna. In the sequel, Continuum Shift, he fights off Hazama while injured and protecting Makoto, holds his own against a full-powered Rachel despite being too badly injured to even move right, receives an extremely painful healing treatment that not even Jubei could handle, takes on Hakumen, overcomes a Brainwashed and Crazy Tsubaki and the evil mind-corrupting powers of his Nox, fights Hazama again and this time fights well enough to cause Hazama to retreat, fights the extremely powerful magic user Phantom off-screen and wins, and then tells Hakumen to back off so he can challenge Mu-12, a Brainwashed and Crazy Omnicidal Maniac version of Noel, all by himself. Holy fuck.
  • Also from BlazBlue, we have Bang Shishigami. In Calamity Trigger, we have an annoying Dan Hikibi Expy and general in-universe Butt Monkey who only wins his battles because other, more powerful characters let him win. In Continuum Shift, he fights off a nuclear-powered cyborg and survives an encounter with Big Bad Hazama, while pulling Carl and Taokaka out of the fire as well, and then immediately goes on to stall Relius Clover for Platinum's sake long enough for Hakumen to show up. Oh, and did we mention he does this despite being the only person in the game who fights entirely without magical or supernatural powers to back them up?
  • A BlazBlue threefer in the form of the aforementioned Makoto. In Calamity Trigger, she only appeared in flashbacks and was generally Fun Personified. In Continuum Shift, she shows off a bit in Carl's story, provides some comfort to Tsubaki in Carl's story and Noel in hers, meets with Jin at the docks (and gets nearly knifed by Hazama for knowing too much), and provides support to Tager. And then Slight Hope from Extend happens, and she literally skyrockets to the top of Hazama's "To Kill" list or very close to it - not only did she learn far more than he's comfortable with and survive at that, she's the only person to date to wreck one of his many gambits - beyond repair at that - and she even endured a round trip through the Boundary to boot, a feat surpassed only by Hakumen himself. Between all that and being just as handicapped as Bang (exceptional physical ability notwithstanding), just what happened since she graduated from the Academy?
• Shandra Jerro in Neverwinter Nights 2 starts out as a serial Damsel in Distress: first her barn is burned by Lizard Folk, then her house is torched by Githyanki, then she is kidnapped by the Githyanki. At the very beginning of Act II, she decides she's tired of having to be rescued and turns into a shortsword-wielding Badass Normal with a pretty respectable damage output.
• Racial militaries in X 3 Albion Prelude. In previous games, they'd sort of ignore the player unless he got very close to them. In Albion, they'll jump around the universe to respond to threats to their space. If you jump into a Split system and start blasting civilian ships and the stations, they'll send ships to kill you. The more damage you cause, the more likely they'll send something big to kill you, like a destroyer, or in the Terrans' case, the ATF Valhalla or USC Kyoto.
• The Fallout series is particularly good at this, with the player characters having fairly mundane backgrounds.Two people had no clue about the outside world, one was an inexperienced tribal, and the other was an ordinary courier. All four of them eventually become one of the most powerful, and influential figures to ever walk the wasteland.
• Quite a few Batman villains who are generally not taken very seriously have undergone this in the Arkham Series. The Penguin is one of the biggest with many Batman fans feeling that this was the first time they could really take him seriously as a truly dangerous villain, with his crude mannerisms and gleeful torture of captured cops. The Riddler is another one, with his Saw-like Nightmare Fuel deathtraps.
• The bosses in Puresabe's New Year hacks use new tactics to defeat Mega Man and X. In the 2018 hack, Rush goes from a mere support unit to a fierce destructive robot under Dr. Wily's brainwashing.

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