History Main / CutscenePowerToTheMax

** When [[spoiler: Nia reveals her blade form]], her healing powers are strong enough that she's capable of bringing back the recently dead as well as defeating Malos by causing the cells in his body to multiply uncontrollably. Naturally, in actual gameplay, she can't do either of those things.
** Herald supposedly had so much raw power that she was sealed away after her old driver killed themselves because no one was capable of stopping her rampage. While is ''is'' powerful, she's not even close to being the strongest blade on the team.
** Zenobia is supposedly so strong that it's impossible for her to have a satisfying battle due to no enemy being able to put up an adequate fight. While she ''is'' very strong compared to the other blades, she's nowhere near that strong gameplay-wise. Her sidequest [[LampshadeHanging lampshades it]]: after undergoing a rather arduous battle with a powerful monster, she promptly punts it [[ATwinkleInTheSky over the horizon]] without breaking a sweat as soon as the following cutscene starts, shocking the rest of the party in the process.

* ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar 2'' featured Skorge the new Dragon to replace Raam as the biggest scariest locust, his cutscene introduction shows him cutting a tank in half with a chainsaw staff. However wen it comes time to fight him... you never really fight him. He basically runs away from you and summons minions and easily avoided over telegraphed AOE attacks from outside the combat zone, punctuated with really brief rock simple [=QTEs=]. Just about every fight you did in the level proceeding the encounter is a hell of alot harder, and to add further insult the next time you see him is in a rail shooter segment where he ultimately falls off his flying mount and breaks his neck when you shoot it out from under him and that's the end of him roughly eighty percent of the way through the game. I don't think it matters how much they built him up, he just comes across as a total punk.

* During Monomachus's LastStand in ''VideoGame/TearsToTiara2'', he plows through a huge bunch of mooks, 1hkos all of them, and takes down a [[KrakenAndLeviathan kraken]] all by himself before collapsing. In comparison, as he uses a BladeOnAStick, his attack in game is on the lower end for melee members, and no one's going to be soloing a kraken.
* The original ''VideoGame/XCom'' for DOS featured [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX0Cm3N_n6k an opening movie]] showing agents in Personal Armor carrying rifles and autocannons into battle against Mutons performing a Terror Attack and wiping them out. This is ''much'' easier said than done in the actual game, as Mutons are specifically resistant to bullets, taking just 60% of damage from weapons such as the rifle and autocannon. By the time Mutons show up, you ideally want laser rifles or heavy plasma cannons researched and ready to level the playing field.
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** In the cinematic trailer, a young boy says that Doomfist's punches could level skyscrapers. When he was finally added to the game, this was obviously not the case in order to keep him balanced (although his punch is one of the only one-hit kills in the game).

** Winston's Ultimate "Rampage" is often depicted as an unstoppable crushing machine in cutscenes, while in-game it lowers Winston's already low damage-per-second and is more useful for stalling or knockback. It's also a poor way of fighting back against Doomfist and Reaper like he does in the story, as both classes have extremely high close-range DPS and gain health from damage dealt.

*** You have two of these happening at the same time where Merle and normally useless Johnny are fighting the FROG troopers and slaughtering them with Hong Kong Bullet Ballet, meanwhile Snake crawls through a microwave corridor which is roasting him alive (earlier when he just stepped in it, he burst in flames) and manages to go all the way to shut down the Patriot system. This from a guy who dies if he gets rifle-butted 3 times when in game.

* In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'', this is taken to ''ridiculous'' levels with [[spoiler:Sindel, who effortlessly curbstomps 10 people at once in Story Mode, killing all but Johnny Cage and Sonya ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NZs4rAQp7c as seen here for those who like spoilers]]). Granted, she ''was'' empowered with Shang Tsung's soul (and by proxy, all of the souls he absorbed), but ''still''. This even leads to a HeadsIWinTailsYouLose moment with Nightwolf; you can walk all over Sindel in the actual battle, but storywise, Nightwolf is going to have to [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice himself]] [[TakingYouWithMe kamikaze-style]] to finally bring her down]].
** Doubles as CutsceneIncompetence for the other characters, who barely put up a fight. Combined, they should have been able to reduce her to her component atoms.
** For that matter, when [[spoiler:Kabal is hit by Kintaro's fire breath, he is scarred permanently to the point that he requires a respirator mask]]. Needless to say, when [[spoiler:Kintaro]] actually uses that move in a playable fight, it just takes off a chunk of your life meter.

* ''VideoGame/TombRaider'' and ''VideoGame/TombRaiderAnniversary''. Lara can survive a huge fall in an early cutscene that would naturally cause instant bone-shattering death when tried in-game (proven in the remake, in which this area is playable just before the cutscene).
** In a cutscene towards the end of Anniversary Lara reaches a ledge by essentially grappling on nothing, despite it being very established by then that it could only work on specific points, this is made worse by the fact that the original game already provided a plausible (within Lara capabilities) ending to this sequence.

** One boss' signature attack is to fire energy bolts at you and naturally he does this as his base attack during his fight. Soon after losing the battle, he appears in the following cutscene sneaking up on the heroes and points his blaster at one of the characters. Another character sees this and immediately dives in the way to save them. It is implied that his one shot was potentially fatal while you could easily take about a dozen of them in battle without healing. I guess while crawling up from his defeat he "[[WesternAnimation/ToyStory Set his laser from stun... to kill.]]"

** "Dragons" showed Genji blocking and redirecting Hanzo's ultimate, Dragonstrike with the use of his own ultimate Dragonblade. Although this ''is'' possible in-game, it's done with Reflect, not Dragonblade, and requires Genji to deflect the arrow that ignites into Dragonstrike instead of the dragons themselves. In-universe, this is hand-waved as the Shimada clan's ability to "control the dragons" (whatever that means). For that matter, Hanzo is able to withstand the entire Dragonstrike, barely even moved by the attack. In-game, this would instantly kill any 200-health hero like him standing dead center in it. Additionally, the cutscene shows Hanzo using Scatter Arrow, an ability he can no longer use ever since it was replaced with Storm Arrow.

** "Meet the Scout" has the Scout engaging in a melee fight with a Heavy, who could likely kill him in a single hit. The same video also shows the Scout ''outrunning the bullets of a Sentry Gun'', when attempting it in-game would almost assuredly get him killed.

** "Meet the Scout" has the Scout engaging in a melee fight with a Heavy, who could likely kill him in a single hit.

** In "Shooting Star", D.va can fly her mech perpetually, while in-game it can only fly for a few seconds. Inverted for D.Va's self-destruct ability: using it in the short nearly killed her (although perhaps that was the fall several hundred feet into the ocean), while in-game, she can use it at close ranges without taking any damage.[[note]]At launch D.va could die from her own self-destruct, until a later patch[[/note]]

** Until the ability was buffed to allow for an unlimited timer, the 15-second timer on Sombra's Translocator simply wouldn't allow for the minutes-long conversation she has with Volskaya in "Infiltration".

** "Dragons" showed Genji blocking and redirecting Hanzo's ultimate, Dragonstrike with the use of his own ultimate Dragonblade. Although this ''is'' possible in-game, it's done with Reflect, not Dragonblade, and requires Genji to deflect the arrow that Dragonstrike launches instead of the dragons themselves. In-universe, this is hand-waved as the Shimada clan's ability to "control the dragons" (whatever that means). For that matter, Hanzo is able to withstand the entire Dragonstrike, barely even moved by the attack. In-game, this would instantly kill any 200-health hero like him standing dead center in it. Additionally, the cutscene shows Hanzo using Scatter Arrow, an ability he can no longer use ever since it was replaced with Storm Arrow.

** Dimentio of ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' fame. When actually fighting him in game, he's not that ridiculously difficult. But come the cutscenes, he [[NeverSayDie ends the games]] of Mr. L, then later Mario, Peach, and Bowser at once, without breaking a sweat. [[spoiler:Even if it was only temporary.]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{RPG World}}'', Eikre introduces himself by insta-killing a monster with an ability called Top Cut. Once he actually joins the party and Hero asks him to use Top Cut again, Eikre refuses and explains that he "just doesn't do" that ability anymore.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld 2}}'' the player obtains a Progenitor Dreadnaught, and ancient warship built by the Precursors. The first time it goes into battle is in a cutscene, where the Dreadnaught effortlessly reduces an enemy battlecruiser to scrap with a single shot from its main cannon. When the player controls the Dreadnaught, its power is drastically reduced to where it will barely survive a duel with a battlecruiser completely identical to the one it vaporized in the cutscene.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' has a scene where the SA-X obliterates a doorway with a super missile. If you try this outside of the cutscene, the hatch tends just to open, not to blow up spectacularly...
** Similarly, there's a scene done with a powerbomb as well which normally can only affect certain areas, but the scene displays them every bit as destructive as they're described in conversation.

[[quoteright:330:[[Webcomic/{{Hiimdaisy}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hiimdaisyMGS3cutscene.JPG]]]]
[[caption-width-right:330:[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater You can't pick up the radio if you're dead, after all.]]]]

* The box art for both ''TableTopGame/HeroQuest'' and ''Space Crusade'', the closest thing such games can have to cutscenes: In the ''[=HeroQuest=]'' one, the heroes are fighting something like a third of the monsters in the box at once, something they would be unlikely to be able to handle, ''and'', apparently, still find the time to fight each other too. In the ''Space Crusade'' one, the SpaceMarines are fighting Genestealers and the [[GiantMook Destructor]] with nothing but Bolters -- they'd be reduced to a wet patch on the ground within a minute, especially considering Destructor's defences are too high for Bolters to hurt it even in principle.

** Regal displays this...semi-frequently. In both ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' and [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld the sequel]] Regal fires very large [[KamehameHadoken energy beams]] that could rival [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu]] or [[Manga/DragonBall Goku's]], but only when the party is in tight situations in the story. This is justified in-universe in that he swore to never use his hands to fight another living being again.