History Main / OverRatedAndUnderLeveled

** Played with in regards to the Knights of Seiros you can recruit in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''. Despite being experienced knights, the best of the best, they join you at a level considered appropriate for the story. That said, they arrive already in an Advanced class regardless of level, and their statline reflects this. They also tend to arrive well-suited for that job and often carrying powerful equipment (Catherine is a DiscOneNuke for exactly this reason) so all up they're hardly a disappointment. Likewise, the protagonist's father, Jeralt, is a famous mercenary known as the Blade Breaker, and former captain of the Knights of Seiros, but in the prologue, he's only a Level 3 Cavalier; he's definitely the strongest unit on the map on non-[[HarderThanHard Maddening]] difficulties, but isn't as powerful as he should be. Also applies to [[PlayerCharacter Byleth]], since you start at level 1 despite having over ten years of experience as a mercenary.

One of many examples of GameplayAndStorySegregation. Contrast UnderratedAndOverleveled or PurposelyOverpowered.

* Garr in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII''. The story presents him as a extremely powerful warrior with skills way above the strongest warriors in the world. He always joins the annual Warrior Tournament as a solo entry, while the standard is to register a team of three. Balio and Sunder, the duo of the previous two HopelessBossFight you have, tremble by just being stared by him. Turns out he eventually joins your party in the third battle against the duo, and after killing them, casually remarks that he was eventually planning of disposing them. Turns out that, in-game wise, he's just the standard MightyGlacier character who is easily outranked by Ryu. He has a plethora of Fire spells but his magic is so low that even his strongest spells can't match the power of his standard attack.

* Terry from ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'' suffers from this; in his first appearance, he is stated to be an extremely skilled swordsman and defeated several soldiers in Arkbolt that your own party beat as a team, and then proceeds to defeat a Hackasaurus that previously defeated said soldiers before your own party can do anything about it. When he joins you for real, he's likely a few levels lower than your party, with his only abilities of note being that he is already in an advanced job (which you likely have access to anyway) and has good equipment; statistically, he is weaker than the Hero or Carver. [[spoiler:Furthermore, prior to having him join, he is fought as a boss battle where he is tougher than when he's in the party, but this at least is justified; Dhuran the Dread Fiend was likely empowering him during the fight.]]

** This applies to half of the main characters in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''. The former guardians Lulu, Wakka, and Auron supposedly had all completed most or all of the pilgrimage, and LevelGrinding that entails, prior to the beginning of the game, but all start at effectively level 1. The monsters at the Calm Lands, which all three Guardians supposedly made it to, could have killed all three guardians with a sneeze at the beginning of the game.
*** Auron at least may deserve a little slack here. It's not unreasonable to presume that one doesn't walk away from [[spoiler: dying]] without suffering a few physical setbacks.
*** Also, Wakka and Lulu's previous journey ended in a tragic premature death of their summoner, and they may have blocked out much of the experience due to grief and guilt. This is driven home during an optional fight with [[spoiler: Lady Ginnem]], when Lulu confronts her regrets.
*** This also occurs very blatantly in a plot-relevant {{Minigame}}: While the original members of your Blitzball team are certainly not the best players out there in the long run, the extremely-hyped, won-the-championship-many-years-in-a-row Luca Goers are a highly competent, tough to beat team... at level 1. They also have pretty much the worst stat growth in the game, rendering them ineffective by the time players' levels are in the teens. The first, story-mandated, match against them needn't be won, which is good because winning it usually involves taking advantage of the fairly simple blitzball AI and Tidus's unique special moves. By the second or third league season they almost never even pose a challenge. The Al Bhed Psyches, on the other hand, start and remain a formidable team, and their starting goalie is a prized recruit for players who seriously pursue Blitzball; however, the story never actually makes much of their abilities, even having them try to win by cheating in a {{cutscene}}-only match. They're also the first team the pathetic Aurochs defeat in ''ten years'' in the storyline, making it even more confusing once you play them normally.
*** It is also a good question why all Blitzball players in Spira, many of whom are implied to participate in previous games, start all at level 1. Especially since both Besaid Aurochs and Luca Goers ''all explicitly won matches just before the one you play''.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemNewMysteryOfTheEmblem'' is infamous for this, due to growth rates and enemy strength being hugely inflated across the board; consequently, just about every character to join after the Sable Knights will be struggling to survive past their join chapter. Astram is one of the most infamous cases, due to the fact that he's recruited from the enemy side. This means that you can compare this guy, who is supposed to be the WorldsStrongestMan, to the soldiers he commands... and holy ''crap'' does he not stack up well. On the higher difficulties, he can be one-rounded by every single one of them. [[https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/345171686640975882/503361863526907904/9OGWIPw_d.jpg?width=600&height=368 Even the thieves.]]

** Played with in regards to the Knights of Seiros you can recruit in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''. Despite being experienced knights, the best of the best, they join you at a level considered appropriate for the story. That said, they arrive already in an Advanced class regardless of level, and their statline reflects this. They also tend to arrive well-suited for that job and often carrying powerful equipment (Catherine is a DiscOneNuke for exactly this reason) so all up they're hardly a disappointment. Likewise, the protagonist's father, Jeralt, is a famous mercenary known as the Blade Breaker, and former captain of the Knights of Seiros, but in the prologue, he's only a Level 3 Cavalier; he's definitely the strongest unit on the map on non-[[HarderThanHard Maddening]] difficulties, but isn't as powerful as he should be.

* The ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series of tactical {{RPG}}s has more instances of this than can be conveniently listed. The reason is primarily a result of the games' mechanics -- since [[FinalDeath death is permanent]] in this series, late recruits exist only to give the careless and the inexperienced a fighting chance in the later levels. As a result, the experienced knights, powerful generals and legendary warriors of the world (who come later in the game) are almost invariably weaker than the rank novices, random mercenaries, and inexperienced students (who join early) raised to the same level. Almost without exception, a character who starts out at level 5 and is raised to level 15 will be far stronger than a character who starts at level 15, even if the character who starts at level 15 is renowned for his peerless strength and skill. (The only exceptions are GameBreaker units who join on the final chapter of most games.) Traditionally, they also tend to have worse growths than the starting lineup, likely due to the logic of "this guy has already spent years fighting, he isn't going to get that much better." They do often boast high weapon ranks, though, which means they can use top-quality swords and staves without needing to grind. Too many specific examples to list, but a few are Cecilia, Dayan, Juno, and Niime from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade The Binding Blade]]''; Karel, Karla, and Renault from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade The Blazing Blade]]''; Innes from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones The Sacred Stones]]''; and Elincia's retainers from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]''. There's actually a bit of FridgeBrilliance regarding them, as you'll read.

*** Jeorge is notable for being renowned as the "greatest sniper on the continent" but is a prepromote who's average and not really noteworthy statwise. This is explained in-game, however: due to the high-class nature of his bloodline, people have been spreading ridiculously exaggerated rumors about him, leading to this false reputation.

*** Karel in particular is referred to as the "Sword Demon" and his supports with Dart and Karla show how skilled he is, yet a well-leveled Lyndis or Guy can outclass him. In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade The Binding Blade]]'' though, he has actually grown far more but can still be outclassed by Rutger or Fir if leveled correctly. Karel is an EleventhHourSuperPower - he's got the best growth rates, but he can only use it once. You'll notice that in ''The Blazing Blade'', he joins at a lower level than in ''The Binding Blade'', [[FridgeBrilliance so obviously he was training]]. The seventh game has a fair number of characters who avert this. Marcus manages to be a solid fighter for most of the game despite being a "Jagen" (a pre-promote who you get very early and is very powerful at first, but is outclassed later on). Vaida is a MightyGlacier (even if she's a huge case of RedemptionDemotion), and Pent manages to avert this trope to such an extent that his joining chapter involves him being a OneManArmy.
*** The penultimate chapter, "Victory Or Death", introduces Renault, a mysterious, high-level Bishop with rare equipment and the ability to heal numerous units at once - initially, he may be seen as a godsend thanks to the [[RespawningEnemies continuous stream of high-level, dangerous enemies]] present in the level. However, his magical abilities are absolutely atrocious, implied through [[RelationshipValues support conversations]] to be because Renault was a former mercenary who renounced his violent ways and embraced religion as [[TheAtoner penance]]. The process of discovering this, unfortunately, requires bringing a ''seriously'' underpowered character into [[BossRush the most dangerous part of the game]].

** Astram in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemNewMysteryOfTheEmblem'' is one of the most infamous cases, due to the fact that he's recruited from the enemy side. This means that you can compare this guy, who is supposed to be the WorldsStrongestMan, to the soldiers he commands... and holy ''crap'' does he not stack up well. On the higher difficulties, he can be one-rounded by every single one of them. [[https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/345171686640975882/503361863526907904/9OGWIPw_d.jpg?width=600&height=368 Even the thieves.]] His ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes Heroes]]'' version, on the other hand, averts this as there he is a LightningBruiser (his only weakness is low Resistance) with excellent buffing thanks to his preferred weapon Mercurius.

* Used in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': Carth is "one of the Republic's best pilots," "a hero of the Mandalorian War and a legendary soldier." He's only a couple clicks higher than your starting character, possibly justified in that being a crack pilot doesn't mean much in on-the-ground fighting (the bulk of your game). Bastila? The paragon of Padawans and key to the war effort - at ''less'' of a starting level than you will be at that point, which is also handwaved by her being an adept of Battle Meditation, an exceedingly rare ability that, by augmenting her allies' fighting prowess, boosted her reputation. The "amnesia" excuse shows up to explain why [[spoiler: you, the ex-Dark Lord and galaxy-feared Badass]] are unpowered and a rather pathetic fighter for a few levels and also further explains why your "exceptional" compatriots seem so mediocre in comparison. And in the second game, damage and age are used to explain the low starting levels for [[spoiler:Canderous, who becomes the Mandalore]] and the droids when Exile finds them.

*** The final boss of the Mages Guild questline, [[OurLichesAreDifferent Mannimarco, "King Of Worms."]] While in the lore Mannimarco is by far the most powerful {{Necromancer}} in the series [[spoiler: and a PhysicalGod after [[TimeyWimeyBall the warp in the west]] at the end of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall'']], here he's more or less a more powerful generic [[OurElvesAreBetter altmer]] necromancer set to be 7 levels above the player until level 36 or higher (his level scaling stops at level 42).

** Played with in regards to the Knights of Seiros you can recruit in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''. Despite being experienced knights, the best of the best, they join you at a level considered appropriate for the story. That said, they arrive already in an Advanced class regardless of level, and their statline reflects this. They also tend to arrive well-suited for that job and often carrying powerful equipment (Catherine is a DiscOneNuke for exactly this reason) so all up they're hardly a disappointment. Likewise, the protagonist's father, Jeralt, is a famous mercenary known as the Blade Breaker, and former captain of the Knights of Seiros, but in the prologue, he's only a Level 3 Cavalier.

** There are quite a few examples in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. They include a sky pirate and his partner, who is described as a "master of weaponry" but is only two levels ahead of your character when you recruit him.

* Garr in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII''. The story presents him as a extremely powerful warrior with skills way above the strongest warriors in the world. He always joins the annual Warrior Tournament as a solo entry, while the standard is to register a team of three. Balio and Sunder, the duo of the previous two HopelessBossFight you have, tremble by just being stared hy him. Turns out he eventually joins your party in the third battle against the duo, and after killing them, casually remarks that he was eventually planning of disposing them. Turns out that, in-game wise, he's just the standard MightyGlacier character who is easily outranked by Ryu. He has a plethora of Fire spells but his magic is so low that even his strongest spells can't match the power of his standard attack.

** [[spoiler: Rose]] was one of the original Dragoons, and arguably the strongest considering she was [[spoiler: the only one to survive the final battle]]. Since then she has had 11,000 years to train. So why is she no stronger then two (admittedly competent) soldiers when she joins the party after all that training?

*** However, Steiner can actually learn Beatrix's moves - including [[ThatOneMove Shock]] (which was pretty much an instant-kill attack). By the time you get Shock, it's actually ''stronger'' in your hands than when ''Beatrix'' uses it due to mixture of the aforementioned glitch as well as the fact that Steiner's stats will get higher.

*** It is also a good question why all Blitzball players in Spira, many of which are implied to participate in previous games, start all at level 1. Especially since both Besaid Aurochs and Luca Goers ''all explicitly won matches just before the one you play''.

** Astram in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemNewMysteryOfTheEmblem'' is one of the most infamous cases, due to the fact that he's recruited from the enemy side. This means that you can compare this guy, who is supposed to be the WorldsStrongestMan, to the soldiers he commands... and holy ''crap'' does he not stack up well. On the higher difficulties, he can be one-rounded by every single one of them. [[https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/345171686640975882/503361863526907904/9OGWIPw_d.jpg?width=600&height=368 Even the thieves.]]

** Erin is an interesting version of this. She is not a bad character by any means. She is a healer with a healing ability which can, with proper equipment, be made capable of activating every two rounds and heal the party completely, rendering many battles easy so long as you can avoid a TPK for two turns. For players that don't like using allot of healing items she is arguably the strongest character. However, her strength comes entirely from her ability to quickly heal the party, she is otherwise underwhelming in health and especially damage. The FridgeLogic kicks in here, because in the early game, the time when everyone insists she is powerful, she always fights alone. A solo Erin, before drives made it possible to speed up her healing, would easily get overwhelmed and killed before she could build up resources for a heal or do much damage. Effectively she is only powerful when put in a team and the only times the plot calls her out as powerful is the times she isn't with a team. Plus no one ever mentions her ability to heal when mentioning her danger, despite this being the only thing that makes her a viable character at all.

** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'', Sora enters Castle Oblivion just days after beating the final boss of the first game. If you remember, by then Sora had become quite the capable fighter, but [[spoiler:Marluxia]] informs him that right as he entered Castle Oblivion, he forgot all of his abilities and had to re-learn them. However, at the end of Chain of Memories, Sora is [[spoiler:put to sleep for a year, having his memories also siphoned off during the events of 358/2 days]] and by the events of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', is level one again and has to re-learn all his magic while also picking up new tricks. [[FridgeBrilliance It's easy to assume he still knew these; just didn't immediately remember them right off the bat.]] ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3D'' justifies Sora and Riku being rewound to level one because they must "Restart their training".

* Feena from ''VideoGame/Grandia1'' fits this as well. She's supposed to be a legendary explorer and adventurer, and everyone is in awe of her, but once she joins you she's not particularly powerful compared to anyone else.

** Averted by the royal families in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates''. Between amazing bases, growths, and being perfectly specced for their jobs, they all come across as the BadassFamily of RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething the story says they are. Although this does have elements of TropesAreNotBad, since this makes it very hard for other units to compete for a place on your team when a royal fills that niche - to the point where they're collectively considered a high-TierInducedScrappy in some circles, and not using any of the royals is commonly considered a SelfImposedChallenge.

Inevitably, this is almost always for game balance reasons, preventing a DiscOneNuke.

* The ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series of tactical {{RPG}}s has more instances of this than can be conveniently listed. The reason is primarily a result of the games' mechanics -- since [[FinalDeath death is permanent]] in this series, late recruits exist only to give the careless and the inexperienced a fighting chance in the later levels. As a result, the experienced knights, powerful generals and legendary warriors of the world (who come later in the game) are almost invariably weaker than the rank novices, random mercenaries, and inexperienced students (who join early) raised to the same level. Almost without exception, a character who starts out at level 5 and is raised to level 15 will be far stronger than a character who starts at level 15, even if the character who starts at level 15 is renowned for his peerless strength and skill. (The only exceptions are GameBreaker units who join on the final chapter of most games.) Traditionally, they also tend to have worse growths than the starting lineup, likely due to the logic of "this guy has already spent years fighting, he isn't going to get that much better." Too many specific examples to list, but a few are Cecilia, Dayan, Juno, and Niime from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade The Binding Blade]]''; Karel, Karla, and Renault from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade The Blazing Blade]]''; Innes from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones The Sacred Stones]]''; and Elincia's retainers from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]''. There's actually a bit of FridgeBrilliance regarding them, as you'll read.

* The ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series of tactical {{RPG}}s has more instances of this than can be conveniently listed. The reason is primarily a result of the games' mechanics -- since [[FinalDeath death is permanent]] in this series, late recruits exist only to give the careless and the inexperienced a fighting chance in the later levels. As a result, the experienced knights, powerful generals and legendary warriors of the world (who come later in the game) are almost invariably weaker than the rank novices, random mercenaries, and inexperienced students (who join early) raised to the same level. Almost without exception, a character who starts out at level 5 and is raised to level 15 will be far stronger than a character who starts at level 15, even if the character who starts at level 15 is renowned for his peerless strength and skill. (The only exceptions are GameBreaker units who join on the final chapter of most games.) Too many specific examples to list, but a few are Cecilia, Dayan, Juno, and Niime from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade The Binding Blade]]''; Karel, Karla, and Renault from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade The Blazing Blade]]''; Innes from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones The Sacred Stones]]''; and Elincia's retainers from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]''. There's actually a bit of FridgeBrilliance regarding them, as you'll read.

** Played with in regards to the Knights of Seiros you can recruit in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''. Despite being experienced knights, the best of the best, they join you at a level considered appropriate for the story. That said, they arrive already in an Advanced class regardless of level, and their statline reflects this. They also tend to arrive well-suited for that job and often carrying powerful equipment (Catherine is a DiscOneNuke for exactly this reason) so all up they're hardly a disappointment.

* Used in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': Carth is "one of the Republic's best pilots," "a hero of the Mandalorian War and a legendary soldier." He's only a couple clicks higher than your starting character, possibly justified in that being a crack pilot doesn't mean much in on-the-ground fighting (the bulk of your game). Bastila? The paragon of Padawans and key to the war effort - at ''less'' of a starting level than you will be at that point, which is also handwaved by her being an adept of Battle Meditation, an exceedingly rare ability which boosted her reputation. The "amnesia" excuse shows up to explain why [[spoiler: you, the ex-Dark Lord and galaxy-feared Badass]] are unpowered and a rather pathetic fighter for a few levels and also further explains why your "exceptional" compatriots seem so mediocre in comparison. And in the second game, damage and age are used to explain the low starting levels for [[spoiler:Canderous, who becomes the Mandalore]] and the droids when Exile finds them.

** By the same token there's also Gorion, who's only level 9 despite being stated to have regularly run with ''Elminster'''s crew back in the day.

* Jubilost Narthropple in ''VideoGame/PathfinderKingmaker'' is supposedly a legendary explorer, journalist, cook and author who has travelled the length and width of Golarion, writing up stories on its lands, people, customs and food for years if not decades. When he joins your party in-game he's level 5 (which is fair enough if he's avoided fighting things for most of those adventures), an alchemist (a class with a skill-set that isn't very conductive for exploring and writing), and hasn't got a single rank in Knowledge: World, the actual skill used for knowing customs and for cooking. Mechanically, Linzi is likely to be better at the things Jubilost are supposedly famous for, despite being a NaiveNewcomer and a bard college drop-out in-story.