History ChekhovsSkill / VideoGames

* The ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]]'' series typically has the boss of each dungeon's weakness based around whatever piece equipment Link finds in (and sometimes before) it. For example, if you find the Bow expect to be shooting arrows at a weak spot, if you find a hammer then expect to smash some armour and so on. The more recent a game is, the more they do this.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle Of Seasons]]'', the Rod of Seasons can be used to smack enemies out of the way, but it doesn't actually do any damage, which makes it useless...right up until phase 2 of the final boss.

* VideoGame/{{Furcadia}} has a very meta example of this. As it has a massive focus on user-created content, it has a simple scripting language known as [=DragonSpeak=] to go along with its map editing program. [[LongRunner The game itself has also been around for over two decades]]--easily long enough for a complete newbie to get the hang of [=DragonSpeak=], thus learning the fundamentals of programming, which would then help in learning other programming languages... and because of the knowledge they've acquired and their continued love for the old game, return as assistant programmers of Furcadia.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shinobi}}'' for [=PS2=]: Your sword, Akujiki, will kill you unless you satisfy it's hunger for souls. At the end of the game, the homosexual-looking wizard reveals his true goals all along. Turn everyone in Japan into demons, set you loose against them, and steal the cursed sword once it's full. Oh, wait. You can use the Tate system you've been using the whole time to kill him instantly.

* Shinobi for Ps2: Your sword, Akujiki, will kill you unless you satisfy it's hunger for souls. At the end of the game, the homosexual-looking wizard reveals his true goals all along. Turn everyone in Japan into demons, set you loose against them, and steal the cursed sword once it's full. Oh, wait. You can use the Tate system you've been using the whole time to kill him instantly.

* The ''Zelda'' series typically has the boss of each dungeon's weakness based around whatever piece equipment Link finds in (and sometimes before) it. For example, if you find the Bow expect to be shooting arrows at a weak spot, if you find a hammer then expect to smash some armour and so on. The more recent a game is, the more they do this.

* In ''TraumaCenter: New Blood'', Valerie drags the operating team to a demonstration held by her friend. Unfortunately, she doesn't realize that her friend became a veterinarian. Any attempts to salvage the situation as having learned something useful are shot down by Markus as being highly unlikely, since human doctors would never have to operate on a dog. Much later in the game, a dog that had been given to them is shot, and they decide to use the skills they learned earlier to operate on it.

* In VideoGame/DevilMayCry 4, Nero, not Dante, is the main character of this one. One key feature of his gameplay is his claw, the Devil Bringer. You kill the final boss exclusively with it.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Banjo-Kazooie}}'', one of the many basic moves learned at the beginning of the game is a crouch attack which propels you forwards. However, with the huge amount of other moves at your disposal, especially the other crouching moves, it can be easily forgotten fairly quickly. So, when you're trying to get a MacGuffin by destroying multiple outer layers that can only be broken with a specific move in a specific marked spot, you might just end up scratching your head at what move you need to do for that really low spot...

** Also in YoshisIsland; to defeat Naval Piranha you need to be good at bouncing eggs off the wall [[spoiler: -- well, or hit it before Kamek transforms it --]] so it's lucky that ''entire boss level'' drills it into your muscle memory. You know, just a spot of tutorial.
* In ''MegaManZXAdvent'', Model A may be your default form, but you have many better choices for combat. By the time you reach the final boss, you'll have nearly forgotten you have it... much less that it has a homing shot which is practically ''designed'' for taking out the boss's multipart shield.

* Inverted in ''JadeEmpire'', where many characters comment on a mysterious seemingly unexploitable "flaw" in the protagonist's martial arts, one or two theorising that his teacher included it to trap opponents. Once the nature of the flaw is revealed it turns the plot completely upside-down.

* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGlory'', spear-throwing is this for fighters and paladins: They first learn how to throw spears in [[VideoGame/QuestForGloryIII the third game]] and then put that skill to good use at the end of [[VideoGame/QuestGorGloryIV the fourth]].

* ''VideoGame/MadFather'': Maria's ImprobableAimingSkills with throwing knives - first used on one of the dead inside the house to protect Aya - comes back in the climax when [[spoiler:Aya is about to be killed by the chainsaw-happy doctor]].

* At one point in ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'', Master Hama speculates that Proxian antagonists Saturos and Menardi were able to pass through the Lamakan Desert without Reveal -the spell that the heroes use to pass through the desert, and the Proxians do not possess- because their [[PlayingWithFire Fire Clan Psynergy]] shields them from extreme temperatures. In the sequel, Agatio and Karst, who are also members of the Fire Clan, freeze to death in Mars Lighthouse because the BalefulPolymorph and subsequent battle with the heroes they had been subjected to left them too weak to maintain this ability.

* Serah is mentioned to have been working as a ground school teacher at the beginning of ''VideoGame/{{Final Fantasy XIII-2}}''--and ruling her classes with an iron fist. Much later (''literally'' 400 years later), her IronLady skills finally come to use when she chases away a horde of juvenile semi-sentient monsters by yelling at them as she did at her misbehaving students.

** Also in YoshisIsland; to defeat Naval Piranha you need to be good at bouncing eggs off the wall [[spoiler: -- well, or exploiting a bug early on --]] so it's lucky that ''entire boss level'' drills it into your muscle memory. You know, just a spot of tutorial.

** A neater example comes at the end of ''MonkeyIsland2'': [[spoiler: at the beginning of the game, you were taught how to make a voodoo doll to defeat Largo [=LaGrande=]. At the end of the game, you must recall this skill to defeat [=LeChuck=].]]
** The most amusing example comes from the first game, in which Guybrush mentions that one of his qualifications for becoming a pirate is to be able to hold his breath for ten minutes. Later in the game, someone attempts to drown him...and the player has exactly ten real world minutes to get him out of the water. This is also the only way Guybrush can actually die during the game.

* At one point in ''GoldenSun'', Master Hama speculates that Proxian antagonists Saturos and Menardi were able to pass through the Lamakan Desert without Reveal -the spell that the heroes use to pass through the desert, and the Proxians do not possess- because their [[PlayingWithFire Fire Clan Psynergy]] shields them from extreme temperatures. In the sequel, Agatio and Karst, who are also members of the Fire Clan, freeze to death in Mars Lighthouse because the BalefulPolymorph and subsequent battle with the heroes they had been subjected to left them too weak to maintain this ability.

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* At roughly the midpoint of the main quest in ''TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', you learn the [[MakeMeWannaShout Thu'um]] Clear Skies, which you use to reach [[spoiler:Paarthurnax]] by clearing away the freezing mist on the Throat of the World. [[spoiler:This Shout gets used again in Sovngarde, to clear the MysteriousMist Alduin has shrouded the place with and provoke him to battle.]]