All The Tropes

Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Difference between revisions

← Older editNewer edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Gethbot (talk | contribs)
Bots
10,856 edits
m clean up
Line 15:
== Video Game Examples ==
=== Action Adventure ===
* In the original ''[[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|The Legend of Zelda]]'', a completely unaltered version of the level one boss returns guarding level seven. With the best sword in the game -- whichgame—which is obtainable by that point -- hepoint—he's a [[One Hit KO]].
** This happens a lot in Zelda games, though often the boss will bring some of his friends the second time to offset his relative weakness. It still gets played straight sometimes, such as the {{spoiler|giant scorpion}} boss in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword|The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword]]'', which reappears later...after your sword has been upgraded to do double damage, making the boss much easier to kill.
* The ''[[Castlevania]]'' series gives us a few examples of this. Notably, some early bosses in ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night|Symphony of the Night]]'', such as Slogra, Gaibon, Werewolf and Minotaur, [[Degraded Boss|are encountered later in the game, but with the same stats as before, and are considered normal, respawning enemies.]] Of course [[Took a Level In Badass|with your stronger weapons and abilities]], they are not nearly as difficult.
* ''[[A Day in Dracula's Life]]'' riffs on Dracula's [[Villain Forgot to Level Grind]] woes in ''[[Castlevania]]'':
{{quote|'''Dracula''': Fucking useless-ass werewolf! I pay that bitch so much money to take down Belmont—th-that's it! He just lost his boss status; he's now a normal-ass enemy! Just like all those axe armors!}}
* The SA-X in ''[[Metroid]] Fusion''. Justified by the fact that it possesses the thing that can completely screw you (the Ice Beam) if you ever cross paths. Only after you get the Varia Suit (to block the freezing) and the Plasma Beam (to pierce the armor and hit the softer X core) it loses its edge against you and Samus is able to beat it.
Line 55:
** ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'': Kefka from is an inversion of this trope. At the start of the game, he's a joke who bails from even the most basic blows Sabin can dish out. He does scale up in power very quickly due to his manipulation of the Espers the Empire controls to the point where he not only kills off the [[Anti-Villain]] and fubars the peace conference in Thamasa, but also overthrows his own boss, fubars the whole world, and rules over it like an [[Evil Overlord]].
*** Played straight with Ultros. The first time you meet him, he can one hit any of your party members. Later, most of your party members will be able to [[One-Hit Kill|one hit]] him.
** ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'': The Midgar Zolom is a [[Total Party Kill|Total Party Killer]]er when you first run into it. Fleeing from the battle or avoiding it altogether is the only way to survive. Come back on Disc Two or Three and well ... [[Villain Forgot to Level Grind|see the top of this page]]. (If you come back after visiting the North Pole, you'll have a hard time acquiring the Zolom's "Beta" Enemy Skill on your latest materia, because by this point, your [[Cherry Tapping]] will [[One-Hit Kill]] the Zolom.)
** In ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', while enemies will level up with you, all the mandatory bosses have a level ceiling, that gradually increases throughout the game to 50. The optional bosses can still go all the way to level 100, though.
** In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' the final boss will be a fair challenge if you just follow the story, but if you level grind enough to handle the [[Bonus Dungeon|Deep Dungeon]] you'll breeze right through the final encounters.
Line 64:
* ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'': A problem in the [[Directors Cut]] [[Game Cube]] version: The boss villains from the original game don't level with the players. The optional bosses do level, however.
* This is the intrinsic problem with Gym Leaders in [[Pokémon]]. The player has the ability to level grind after being beaten once, then come back and stomp the Leaders flat the next time around; the Leader has to stand there and take it.
** This becomes especially problematic in ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl|Pokémon Platinum]]''; after the Elite Four, the player can explore the island where Battle Tower is -- northis—north of the tower is a hangout for Gym Leaders and other elite trainers. At first, a player who doesn't [[Level Grinding|level grind]] will find the rematches challenging, but once their team starts growing past the Gym Leaders, said leaders will no longer be a challenge -- theychallenge—they're stuck in the Level 60's.
** The Rival stands outside this building, where you can fight him on the weekends. His levels are also a little tough at first, but you quickly surpass him. There is a way to make him increase his levels, but you have to beat the Elite Four ''twenty times''.
* Darth Bandon from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' is such a powerful figure in his first appearance, in the tutorial level, that you aren't even given a ''chance'' to fight him. He appears later on as a not-particularly-tough boss. Calo Nord as well, especially if you count his first appearance, effortlessly stomping three Rodians. And your party, if you fight him in the cantina.
Line 104:
 
 
== Other examples: ==
 
=== Anime and Manga ===
Line 111:
* Viral from ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' demonstrates the tendency of the trope to cross over with [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]. As dangerous as he is in his first appearance, he never goes ''down'' in personal capability (and improves with each appearance, in fact), but the heroes continually push [[Beyond the Impossible]], thus making poor Viral an increasingly weaker threat. {{spoiler|Until his [[Heel Face Turn]], anyway.}} It didn't help that all of his improvements went towards his mechas' swordsman abilities (instead of his ranged attacks), which were completely useless in their first battle.
* ''[[Dragon Ball]]''. Many examples.
** The Otherworld Tournament Saga. Almost every foe Goku had faced caused a riot in Hell. Goku and a green dude who we never see after this saga (AKA Paikuhan) go and beat their asses (Freeza and Cell are actually a threat at this point, but much less than they were when they were [[Big Bad|Big Bads]]s).
** Tao Pai Pai, who went from possibly the strongest human fighter on Earth and the first opponent to hand Goku a solid defeat early in the original ''Dragon Ball'' to a below-average enemy only able to defeat the weakest of the supporting cast before being beaten senseless by a mid-level supporting cast member in the Tournament Arc at the end of the series. When he appears again in ''Dragon Ball Z'' (albeit only in the anime), Goku is so out of Tao's league that he's basically a joke villain who spends the episode engaged in whacky hijinks trying (hilariously unsuccessfully) to outsmart Goku. When Tao realises Gohan is Goku's son (after using his signature move which didn't harm Gohan), he quickly flees.
** Pilaf. This little guy and his halfwit minions first appeared when the series was more gag-oriented. They would appear again when the series beginning to focus on action more, trying to steal Dragon Balls from Goku, right after he had become strong enough to defeat an army of terrorists ''single-handedly.'' To say the battle was one-sided would be a bit of an understatement. In fact, they themselves invoke [[Cerebus Syndrome]] by releasing Demon King Piccolo, who was the incarnation of Kami's cast-off evil.
Line 123:
** And his latest revealed ability, {{spoiler|Snake Sage Mode}} even made [[The Ace|Itachi]] go [[Oh Crap]].
* ''[[Bleach]]'' has an aversion with Grand Fisher, who is barely defeated by Ichigo early in the series. He comes back, explicitly points out how he ''did'' remember to level grind, only to be [[Killed Off for Real]] by {{spoiler|Isshin Kurosaki}} in a [[Single-Stroke Battle]].
** Gillians could also play a straight example. The first one that shows up takes Ichigo and Uryu working together just to wound it bad enough that it runs away. Now the [[Villain Pedigree]] has shot up so many times that when Gillians appear, they're [[Giant Mook|Giant Mooks]]s and are only considered a threat if they're in large numbers.
* Most of the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]]s in ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' require someone getting a new form that can beat them. The Dark Masters, however, didn't. In their first appearence, they take turns beating the stuffing out of the Digidestineds' Digimon, Piedmon defeating both their Megas with no effort at all. Well the Digidestineds' Digimon ''don't'' get new forms, so they get more experienced and stronger with the ones that do have. They beat MetalSeadramon and Machinedramon of them by wisely using WarGreymon's Dramon Destroyers, which are super effective on Dramon type Digimon. Puppetmon is downed in one hit from MetalGarurumon but Piedmon gets it the worst. Even though MagnaAngemon played a big role in his defeat, the same two Mega Digimon he effortlessly beat down before back him into a corner and force him to pull out his most underhanded trick. Even without them, the Ultimates in the Digidestineds' arsanal still manage to put up a good fight against him and once his trick is no longer of use, he gets his butt kicked. He saved himself for last but didn't bother getting stronger, so the Digidestined were able to catch up.
* The Pacifistas in ''[[One Piece]]''. Nigh-indestructible cyborgs that shoot lasers. The Strawhats were lucky to take down one of them. Cue the {{spoiler|Timeskip. Luffy one-shots one, and Zoro & Sanji double-team another. Though one hit from either of them would have been enough.}}
** Even moreso when it's revealed that {{spoiler|those two Pacifistas are ''the exact same ones'' the Straw Hats faced prior to being separated, and that more advanced models are now available.}}
Line 143:
** The aliens actually were prepared for [[Crazy Prepared|ANYTHING]] they could conceive, and brought with them enough troops and weapons to conquer the expected target a thousand times plus anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons and enough nukes to glass Earth, just in case. As it was, it was barely enough to force a draw after conquering half of the planet.
* At the beginning of ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', [[The Chosen One|Rand]] is barely capable of killing one [[The Usual Adversaries|Trolloc]]. Fast forward three years and he's annihilating [[Beyond the Impossible|100,000 of them]] [[Physical God|by himself]].
** Myrddraal, the minor [[Humanoid Abomination|Humanoid Abominations]]s that act as [[Elite Mooks]] and field commanders for the Shadow get this too. In the first book, they're terrifying and treated as Run or Die, basically. In the next couple of books, they're still really tough, but the protagonists get better at dealing with them. Later in the series, they're only slightly harder to kill than Trollocs. Of course, this was foreshadowed in the first book- Moiraine explicitly points out that any even somewhat skilled channeler can beat them without much trouble, and by the midpoint of the series all the protagonists are either quite powerful channelers or have some other ability to put them on that level.
 
 
Line 151:
** Then you have the ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'' series finale, when the titular ship uses technology from 20 years in the future to [[One-Hit Kill]] Borg Cubes with the Cubes barely able to scratch the paint on the ship. Of course, the Borg have also assimilated the new tech, but haven't had time to implement it yet. Now imagine all Federation ships equipped with regenerative armor a hundred times more effective than shields and [[One-Hit Kill]] torpedoes that can pass through any shield.
* Notable in [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]. In the first season, the first [[Big Bad]], The Master, was shown as this terrifying, ancient vampire whose history of atrocities was enough to plague Buffy's nightmares and was able to easily imprison and torture Angel in an alternate universe. By series eight in the comic series, both had progressed to the point that a possessed Angel was able to shatter his skull when he was temporarily revived.
** In the same vein, the Turok-Han were an ancient and feared breed of vampires who were considered monsters even among ordinary vampires. Buffy's first encounter with one Turok-Han in "Bring on the Night" led to her being bashed around like a ragdoll and nearly getting killed. By the final battle with the First Evil, the Turok Hans' have decreased notably in performance. While the first Turok-Han forced Buffy to use every possible resource to defeat it the second time around, the later Turok-Han seem evenly matched against the newly activated Slayers and even normal humans such as Xander and Dawn. This was [[Lampshade|Lampshaded]]d by creator [[Joss Whedon]] in his audio commentary for the episode, who acknowledged the continuity issue with the Turok Han's powers.
 
 
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Villain_Forgot_to_Level_Grind"