History Main / Nerf

** The introduction of rain and sun i.e. drizzle politoed and drought ninetales in the ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' OU metagame single-handedly turned the entire competitive battling into a weather war, so this is resolved in ''VideoGame/PokemonXandY'' when it has the same duration as weather inducing moves, i.e 5-8 turns.

** Disgaea D2, whilst providing one skill above the Power Level of 'C,' (Which required a vast amount of in-game currency to retrieve) added a modifier based on how close the attacker was to the enemy. This means that Gun-toting characters, almost all of whom have [[FragileSpeedster low HP and DEF to balance their long-range and evasion prowess,]] had to be in direct danger to deal the most damage. This was devastating early on in the game, since counterattacks now applied to Special Skills as well as regular attacks. If your Gun-toter was fighting an enemy it was statistically on-par with it couldn't one-shot ''at close range,'' you better believe that character will be punished for it. (To be fair, the second-strongest Gun skill [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOntheTin "Point-Blank Blaster"]] moved the Gunner out of harm's way.)

** Disgaea D2 added a modifier based on how close the attacker was to the enemy. This means that Gun-toting characters, almost all of whom have [[FragileSpeedster low HP to balance their long-range and evasion prowess,]] had to be in direct danger to deal the most damage. This was devastating early on in the game, since counterattacks now applied to Special Skills as well as regular attacks. If your Gun-toter was fighting an enemy it was statistically on-par with it couldn't one-shot ''at close range,'' you better believe that character will be punished for it. (To be fair, the strongest Gun skill [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOntheTin "Point-Blank Blaster"]] moved the Gunner out of harm's way)

** Disgaea D2 added a modifier based on how close the attacker was to the enemy. This means that Gun-toting characters, almost all of whom have [[FragileSpeedster low HP to balance their long-range and evasion prowess,]] had to be in direct danger to deal the most damage. This was devastating early on in the game, since counterattacks now applied to Special Skills as well as regular attacks. If your Gun-toter was fighting an enemy it was statistically on-par with it couldn't one-shot, you better believe that character will be punished for it. (To be fair, the strongest Gun skill [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOntheTin "Point-Blank Blaster"]] moved the Gunner out of harm's way)
*** What brings all of these weaknesses home is the fact that Gun-Toters from Disgaea 3 and onwards tended to specialize in one required stat and be "meh" with the other. So adding to the Gun's inherent weakness is the chore of having to continuously customize and balance the character's HIT/SPD ratio, which further deteriorates the Gun's already horrid damage potential, which is little more than a handicap in a game that's about big numbers. (The only subversion to the rule is [[spoiler: Asagi]]. [[note]] Relatively decent DEF, equalized HIT and SPD Aptitudes, and ability to attack more than once in a Combo. Oh, and she can be recruited mid-way through the main story instead of just the Post-Game. She's just short of a GameBreaker.[[/note]]

*** What brings all of these weaknesses home is the fact that Gun-Toters from Disgaea 3 and onwards tended to specialize in one required stat and be "meh" with the other. So adding to the Gun's inherent weakness is the chore of having to continuously customize and balance the character's HIT/SPD ratio, which further deteriorates the Gun's already horrid damage potential, which is little more than a handicap in a game that's about big numbers. (The only aversion to the rule is [[spoiler: Asagi]]. [[note]] Relatively decent DEF, highest HIT and SPD Aptitudes in the game, and ability to attack more than once in a Combo. She's just short of a GameBreaker.[[/note]]

*** What brings all of these weaknesses home is the fact that Gun-Toters from Disgaea 3 and onwards tended to specialize in one required stat and be "meh" with the other. So adding to the Gun's inherent weakness is the chore of having to continuously customize and balance the character's stats, which further deteriorates the Gun's already horrid damage potential, which is little more than a handicap in a game that's about big numbers.

** Disgaea D2 added a modifier based on how close the attacker was to the enemy. This means that Gun-toting characters, almost all of whom have [[FragileSpeedster low HP to balance their long-range and evasion prowess,]] had to be in direct danger to deal the most damage. (To be fair, the strongest Gun skill [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOntheTin "Point-Blank Blaster"]] moved the Gunner out of harm's way, but still wasn't particularly strong compared to other skills.)

** The Gun became a worse weapon once Disgaea 3 transformed it into a split-stat weapon, adding SPD to it's damage formula, and giving it some of the weakest skills in the game. (With one sole exception) While many of these skills became multi-target skills, the weakness the skills suffered from made them barely useful, even in Combos. Come Post-Game, Guns were all but useless.
** Disgaea 4 saw the Gun at it's weakest, having no skills stronger than 'C' Grade, and these skills were out-shined by pretty much any other weapon skill learned in the same time-frame.
** Disgaea D2 added a modifier based on how close the attacker was to the enemy. This means that Gun-toting characters, almost all of whom have [[FragileSpeedster low HP to balance their long-range prowess,]] had to be in direct danger to deal the most damage. (To be fair, the strongest Gun skill [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOntheTin "Point-Blank Blaster"]] moved the Gunner out of harm's way, but still wasn't particularly strong compared to other skills.)

** Dragon Types also gained a long time coming nerf this gen. They gained a weakness to the aforementioned Fairy Type. Fairy Types are also [[NoSell completely resistant to dragon type moves.]]

* Each ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' game Nerfed something that had been overpowered before (while introducing new [[GameBreaker Game Breakers]]). A few examples:

* ''{{Final Fantasy X}}'': In the European/International Version, the ability Quickhit - an ability that allows the user to attack with virtually ''no'' recovery time, which (in combination with Haste) becomes a veritable GameBreaker - had its MP Cost raised significantly (from 8MP to 36MP), meaning it must be used much more sparingly (especially considering that Tidus and Auron, who have the lowest MP-stat, will be the first to learn it most likely). With weapons that reduce MP Cost to 1, this no longer becomes an issue.
** From [[FinalFantasyX2 the sequel]], the Catnip accessory. It basically rises all of the attack/healing numbers of the wearer to 9,999. When combined with the Gunner's [[MoreDakka Trigger Happy]] skill, this made for some serious [[GameBreaker game-breaking]]. Later releases made it so that the accessory also adds Auto-Berserk to the wearer, meaning they will only use the basic physical attack and cannot be controlled.

** The introduction of rain and sun i.e. drizzle politoed and drought ninetales in the ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite OU'' metagame single-handedly turned the entire competitive battling into a weather war, so this is resolved in ''VideoGame/PokemonXandY'' when it has the same duration as weather inducing moves, i.e 5-8 turns.

** They even went so far as to nerf ''physics'', revamping the vehicle collision damage system and completely removing fall damage, in order to cater to "inexperienced players". Those changes, along with a few others, completely removed the risk factor of run & gun techniques, which in turn made the game play more like an ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' clone than a semi-innovative shooter.

** In Reaches multiplayer zombie mode, the pistols were meant to be a backup weapon to the shotgun. Of course, once people realised you could snipe zombies across the map with it, Bungie decided to nerf the game mode itself so the "survivors" didn't have them.

** WordOfGod says that the ''Fairy'' type [[OurFairiesAreDifferent (of all things)]] was introduced in VideoGame/PokemonXAndY to balance out the overpowered Dragon type. Originally an InfinityPlusOneElement, they used to be rather rare, but as new dragons were introduced in later generations, they ended up becoming {{Game Breaker}}s who could easily steamroll virtually anything.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III''':
** Much like its successor ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' the game saw many units and abilities nerfed to balance online play. These occurred via patches and, especially, when the ''Frozen Throne'' expansion was released. A few notable examples include:

** Biotic Abilities were often considered a GameBreaker in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', so when the sequel was released it came as a shock to majority of the players that the powers were extremely nerfed. While not useless, the powers could no longer work on enemies who have any form of protection. Fair enough, but on the two highest level of difficulties EVERY enemy is protected in some form and by time you strip them of their defenses a WhyDontYouJustShootHim mentality takes hold. However this mentality mainly applies to the control powers that could often instantly kill enemies. Most of the support or damage powers actually were substantially upgraded.

** Hyper Beam in the first Gen was horribly overpowered: though it required a turn to recharge after use, it has 90% accuracy when most moves with more than 100 power had 80% accuracy or lower, plus the recharge was mysteriously unneeded when the attack hit a Substitute or ''knocked the opponent out'' ([[UnstableEquilibrium so you can just OHKO the next one out]]). Come the next generation and it always requires recharging, so you have to lose a turn to get a move that is only slightly more powerful than average.
** Over a decade later, Explosion and Selfdestruct likewise lost their defense halving abilities in [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite 5th Generation]], cutting their power in half. Most likely this was done for double battles and triple battles, as in single battles they are simply annoying while in Double Battles they were insanely over-centralizing and would have been even worse in triple battles (which were introduced that generation). It's still the most powerful move in the game, though.