History Main / PaddedSumoGameplay

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* FinalFantasyXIII has a variation in which normal attacks are the equivalent to chucking a grain of sand at a pyramid, even against normal encounter enemies. The only way to deal strong damage and turn the tide of battle was to just pound away with basic physical and magical attacks to stagger the enemy, which would quickly raise the damage multiplier, allowing for ''real'' damage potential. But it still doesn't stop later bosses from taking a solid hour to beat.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'': For all the flashy Psynergy and SummonMagic, endgame LevelGrinding is a lot faster if you hit attack over and over again (then again, the frequent weapon unleashes make it a [[AwesomeYetPractical viable]], [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome and flashy]], tactic).

* Pretty easy to do in ''{{Pokemon}}'' with two stall-heavy Mons, or if the battle has been going on for a while and Mons only have Struggle as their move left. Reaches ridiculous levels in [[GameBreaker Wobbuffet vs. Wobbuffet]] battles, where due to a lack of actual attacks beyond counterattacks means that they can only hit with Struggle, and their high defense means that winning with that will take a long, long time. And heaven help you if you both have Leftovers attached, which will easily heal more HP than Struggle will hurt you for...

* A good example of this is ''[[BaldursGate Baldur's Gate]]'', where (especially early on) it's common for opponents to stand around missing each other for round after round, the victor ultimately defeating their opponent after landing two or three hits.

* ''LegendOfDragoon'' has this toward the end. The final boss fight can take HOURS, even if you're well prepared.

* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' 4th edition combat is often called "Padded Sumo" by its detractors, as damage outstrips health, many powers focus on moving enemies around, and your more exotic powers are most effective if used at the start of a fight (reducing the rest of the fight to basic attacks). Of course, defenders of 4th edition like to point out that combat in previous editions tended to focus on [[RocketTagGameplay spellcasters spamming instant death spells on each other, seeing who would fail their saving throw first]] while the party's non-spellcasters [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards enjoyed a refreshing beverage in the other room.]]

* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' 4th edition combat is often called "Padded Sumo" by its detractors, as damage outstrips health, and many powers focus on moving enemies around. Of course, defenders of 4th edition like to point out that combat in previous editions tended to focus on [[RocketTagGameplay spellcasters spamming instant death spells on each other, seeing who would fail their saving throw first]] while the party's non-spellcasters [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards enjoyed a refreshing beverage in the other room.]]

* The first two ''{{Fallout}}'' games had a similar issue in the very late game, where opponents with power armor are almost incapable of doing even a single point of damage except in critical blows, so combat basically boils down to watching “0 Points Of Damage” bullets bounce off each other until “Critical Hit for 999 HP” obliterates somebody.
** {{Fallout 3}} plays this trope straight, especially in the {{DLC}}s. It is possible to use stealth or cover, but the game's [[MoneyForNothing economy]] makes [[HealingPotion stimpak]] spamming a much easier tactic.

This trope doesn't ''[[YourMileageMayVary have]]'' to be [[TropesAreNotBad a bad thing]]. Lengthy battles tend to feel more epic than short ones, and [[{{munchkin}} some gamers]] enjoy calculating the best possible tactics and [[EliteTweak perfecting them]].

* ''GoldenSun'': For all the flashy Psynergy and SummonMagic, endgame LevelGrinding is a lot faster if you hit attack over and over again (then again, the frequent weapon unleashes make it a [[AwesomeYetPractical viable]], [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome and flashy]], tactic).

* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' 4th edition combat is often called "Padded Sumo" by its detractors, as damage outstrips health, and many powers focus on moving enemies around. Of course, defenders of 4th edition like to point out that combat in previous editions tended to focus on [[RocketTagGameplay spellcasters spamming instant death spells on each other, seeing who would fail their saving throw first]] while the part's non-spellcasters [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards enjoyed a refreshing beverage in the other room.]]

* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' 4th edition combat is often called "Padded Sumo" by its detractors, as damage outstrips health, and many powers focus on moving enemies around.

* This trope is exaggerated to the point of parody in ''EscapeFromMonkeyIsland'', in which you must engage the BigBad in Monkey Combat, a shameless rip-off of ''MortalKombat''. Both fighters regenerate health at such an astronomical rate that they'll usually be back to full health by the time they're done with their recovery animations. The only way to actually win is to find an alternative way of fighting.

* WorldOfWarcraft has this in spades in one-on-one PvP. Every healer class in adequate PvP gear is capable of outhealing any damage dealt by a damage-dealing class in a matter of several seconds while their offensive abilities are rather unimpressive. Tanks have multiple abilities to absorb and negate damage, while damage-dealing classes have higher than average amount of escape abilities. Nearly all tanks and damage-dealers may regenerate their health to some extent, and may often stall matches by being efficient at running away or incapacitating the enemy while their health goes up. While one-on-one duels are not something the game is balanced around, duels occur often between sole survivors at the end of the arena match, making the winner typically the one who made the least mistakes.

* WorldOfWarcraft has this in spades in one-on-one PvP. Every healer class in adequate PvP gear is capable of outhealing any damage dealt by a damage-dealing class in a matter of several seconds. Tanks have multiple abilities to absorb and negate damage, while damage-dealing classes have higher than average amount of escape abilities. Nearly tanks and damage-dealers may regenerate their health, and may often stall matches by being efficient at running away or incapacitating the enemy while their health goes up. While one-on-one duels are not something the game is balanced around, duels occur often between sole survivors at the end of the arena match, making the winner typically the one who made the least mistakes.

* ''{{Exalted}}'' suffers from this in spades. It's trivially easy to throw around one-hit kill attacks, sure, resulting in RocketTagGameplay if nothing is used to stop them... but it's also trivially easy to defend against any attack with a fixed-cost perfect defense. Once everyone is using an impossible-to-bypass suite of perfect defenses, the game changes from Rocket Tag to PaddedSumoGameplay, with no attack ever doing more than making the opponent pay a tiny amount of essence, the game's equivilant to MagicPoints. As a result, your essence pool is your ''real'' life meter, and victory is usually about making the enemy spend essence faster than you.

This trope can happen due to various reasons; Higher defensive stats than offensive ones, an abundance of cheap healing supplies, useful healing/protection moves, etcetera.

* Pretty easy to do in ''{{Pokemon}}'' with two stall-heavy Mons, or if the battle has been going on for a while and Mons only have Struggle as their move left. Reaches ridiculous levels in [[GameBreaker Wobuffet vs. Wobuffet]] battles, where due to a lack of actual attacks beyond counterattacks means that they can only hit with Struggle, and their high defence means that winning with that will take a long, long time. And heaven help you if you both have Leftovers attached, which will easily heal more HP than Struggle will hurt you for...
** The Struggle attack now deals 25% damage to its user (when it does connect). Thus, in a Wobuffet vs. Wobuffet battle, the winner is the last one to strike.

* GoldenSun: For all the flashy Psynergy and SummonMagic, endgame LevelGrinding is a lot faster if you hit attack over and over again (then again, the frequent weapon unleashes make it a [[AwesomeYetPractical viable]], [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome and flashy]], tactic).
* LegendOfDragoon has this toward the end. The final boss fight can take HOURS, even if you're well prepared.

* {{Exalted}} suffers from this in spades. It's trivially easy to throw around one-hit kill attacks, sure, resulting in RocketTagGameplay if nothing is used to stop them... but it's also trivially easy to defend against any attack with a fixed-cost perfect defense. Once everyone is using an impossible-to-bypass suite of perfect defenses, the game changes from Rocket Tag to PaddedSumoGameplay, with no attack ever doing more than making the opponent pay a tiny amount of essence, the game's equivilant to MagicPoints. As a result, your essence pool is your ''real'' life meter, and victory is usually about making the enemy spend essence faster than you.

* {{Exalted}} suffers from this in spades. It's trivially easy to throw around one-hit kill attacks, sure, resulting in RocketTagGameplay if nothing is used to stop them... but it's also trivially easy to defend against any attack with a fixed-cost perfect defense. Once everyone is using an impossible-to-bypass suite of perfect defenses, the game changes from Rocket Tag to PaddedSumoGameplay, with no attack ever doing more than making the opponent pay a tiny amount of essence, the game's equivilant to MagicPoints. As a result, victory is usually about making the enemy spend essence faster than you.