History Main / PurposelyOverpowered

[[caption-width-right:300:What did you expect? '''It's Creator/ChuckNorris!''']]

*** Sephiroth is deadly when he's in Cloud's party in a flashback. This is meant to show that Cloud is scared of him and doesn't truly expect to ever be able to beat him. Not to mention that Sephiroth is literally invincible for every battle.

* Only one new weapon was added to ''VideoGame/Doom64,'' a demonic laser called the Unmaker. When you first find it, it's actually extremely underwhelming, merely firing a pulsing laser beam that does fairly mediocre damage, arguably just wasting energy cells that would be more destructive fired from the Plasma Gun. However if you can find three of the game's secret levels (and [[GuideDangIt good luck with that!]]) and obtain the Demon Artifacts hidden within them, each one [[EvolvingWeapon powers up the Unmaker]] to increasingly powerful levels. Even with only two Artifacts it's easily the strongest weapon in the game, capable of chewing through tough enemies like Barons of Hell in seconds and even tearing a Cyberdemon apart with ease, once you collect all three then the only thing standing in your way is your stock of energy cells. Notably, a fully-powered Unmaker reduces the final boss from one of the toughest and most-dangerous boss monsters in ''Doom'' to [[AnticlimaxBoss an absolute walkover that gets stunlocked and dies in seconds]] (not to mention the fact that possessing the Artifacts allows you to skip TheWarSequence you'd normally have to battle through before it spawns in).

** In ''VideoGame/FistOfTheNorthStarKensRage'', Raoh, being the final boss of many characters' Dream Modes, as well as the boss of Kenshiro and Toki's Legend mode, is made so powerful that even with his base starting stats, he makes even Orochi look like a joke. His starting Signature Move is far and away the most powerful 1-bar (the game uses a slightly modified stock system from other ''Warriors'' games) move in the game, strong enough to essentially (and instantly) kill all enemies in sight for a good 100 feet, has outrageously powerful normals with a great reach and tons of guard break, the potentially most powerful Hyper Signature in the game (although pretty much everyone's Mastery 3 Hyper Signature is strong enough to wipe the screen, even of bosses), and can summon Kokuoh-Go, a gigantic horse that, when ridden, instantly kills all Mooks on contact and lasts the entire rest of the stage after being used only once. You should not be surprised when you look at the online high score screens and see Raoh's face on almost every spot.

* The [[Franchise/{{Disgaea}} Majin]] and [[VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters Gideon]] classes in Nippon Ichi games. The ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' Majin outranks everyone at everything. Granted, unlocking this class pretty much requires previous knowledge of the requirements, but from the instant he's unlocked, he's already great. In the two next games, the game tells you how to unlock them, but they got heavily nerfed to the point that raising him to his full potential is a dreadfully boring task, given that he actually starts worse than any basic class and requires way more experience to level up.
** The Gideon from ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'' has the highest stats out of pretty much every class, and his attack pattern hits every member of the enemy squad for heavy damage. The actual drawback is that deploying additional squads with them will cost a lot of money. This one doesn't block the player from adding 7 of them in the main squad and kill everyone that comes near.
** Zetta, the main character in ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'', is said to be the strongest overlord in the cosmos. In his own game this leads to ATasteOfPower. In every other game where he shows up as DLC or a joinable character, it means this trope. Zetta usually has insanely high stat growths and aptitudes, balanced by the fact that he's a ''freaking book'' and therefore not very mobile.

* Orlandu in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''. A legendary swordsman, Combining the entire skill sets of 3 good special classes, having enhanced stats and one of the best swords in the game (that also compliments him by giving him auto haste).
** His son Orran also counts; his unique class, Astrologer, is otherwise a basic Squire with only a single unique move to its name... which automatically stops, immobilizes, and disarms every single enemy on the field regardless of range (separately, so immunity to any one status effect still doesn't protect them.) For free. Fortunately or unfortunately, he only joins you for one battle, and you can't control him. Many fans have commented on the absurdity of a battle where you team up with somebody as powerful as Orran, and ''you'' are supposed to rescue ''him''.

** [[DiscOneNuke Sigurd]] in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Genealogy of the Holy War]]'' is just the first of a large cast of overpowered characters. The blood of the Twelve Crusaders turns pretty much everyone lucky enough to inherit it into a walking demigod, and everyone knows it: [[IdealHero honest]]-[[IncorruptiblePurePureness and]]-[[KnightInShiningArmor modest]] Sigurd fully intended to ride against the invading Verdane army alone, and he seemed to think he stood a chance.[[labelnote:*]] Which he does - with a bit of luck, Sigurd can solo the entire first generation without any other units seeing combat.[[/labelnote]] Often applies even before you get their respective [[HolyHandGrenade holy weapons]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon 2}}'', Random Loadout Salmon Runs allow players to get random weapons from any available in the mode. That means you can get a ScrappyWeapon... or you can get one of four rare Grizzco weapons. The Grizzco Blaster has an absurdly fast fire rate, like it's on the hardest crack cocaine. Its power and ink efficiency leave a bit to be desired, but anything in front of its users (yes, you can get ''multiple'' Grizzco Blasters in a single round) that takes damage from normal weapons is pretty much gone in one second tops, as is everything right around it. The Grizzco Brella has a far faster fire rate and much wider area of attack than any other Brella weapon (though it trades off by not having a shield). The Grizzco Charger will pierce lines of Chum and pulverizing bosses as long as you have a steady aim and a quick trigger finger (which is offset by the weapon's dreadful ink consumption). And the Grizzco Slosher can [[ArmorPiercingAttack bypass any inkproof armor the Salmonids can muster]], saving you the trouble of having to AttackItsWeakPoint at the cost of it being a PainfullySlowProjectile and using up 25% of your ink tank for each shot. The weapons are implied to be entirely illegal; they certainly would violate the rules of the Turf War sports that serve as the main game mode.
** ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon 3}}'' introduces to the Grizzco lineup the Grizzco Stringer, a bow that shoots an absurd ''nine'' projectiles at once across a wide area. Not only can it clear out hordes of smaller Salmonids easily but at close range it can deal up to ''a thousand points of damage'', enough to instantly drop any boss. Against King Salmonids the user can easily ignore using their egg cannon in favor of spamming charged shots since the target is so big you're guaranteed to hit most, if not all bolts on him for max damage. The only thing holding it back is its high ink consumption requiring frequent pauses to refill, but with damage and coverage so high it's worth the trade.

* In ''VideoGame/FableI'', the Sword of Aeons originally did double the damage of the second strongest weapon in the game, while also being one-handed (meaning it attacked much faster than two-handed weapons) and having health, mana, and experience augmentations. Since it's obtained from the FinalBoss, you have nothing to use it against except random enemies in the PlayableEpilogue. Come the Lost Chapters expansion, the Sword of Aeons lost over half of it's power (from 550 all the way to 230), leaving it "merely" the strongest one-handed weapon in the game.

*** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' is the only exception, there's one keyblade with better magic and one with better strength, but the Ultima does still have the highest total stats. At least until Final mix added another keyblade with significantly better magic and only slightly weaker strength, but with the major drawback of not being able to gain experience while using it.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' brings back [[spoiler: [[CloningBlues Roxas]]]], who was notorious in the previous games for looking extremely cool in cutscenes and being a [[ThatOneBoss difficult boss fight]] whenever he was your opponent, but getting heavily nerfed to Sora's level of strength when playable. This time he’s your party member for one boss battle. He comes with a full array of powers that he used in his boss fight form, insane damage output putting Sora's to shame, and INVINCIBILITY! The reason for this is to make the payoff for his [[CameBackStrong return]] all the more triumphant, plus [[CatharsisFactor making it satisfying]] to see him pummel [[spoiler:Saix]], the man who most directly made his life terrible . Many players say standing back and watching [[spoiler:Roxas]] take down the boss by himself as a completely viable strategy.
*** The ''Re:Mind'' DLC also makes him playable, so you can pummel [[spoiler:Saix]] yourself.

** Poppi, an artificial Blade, was deliberately designed for maximum power and efficiency. As a result, once fully upgraded, she's capable of soloing many of the game's {{Bonus Boss}}es.

May be a part of ATasteOfPower or a StoryBreakerPower. Can also be essential to beat the BonusBoss on the HarderThanHard bonus difficulty. {{Crutch Character}}s and OlympusMons are often (temporarily, in the former's case) Purposely Overpowered. Compare with InfinityPlusOneSword and EleventhHourSuperpower. {{Bragging Rights Reward}}s often turn out this way. It's also common to find these in a NewGamePlus.

** ''VideoGame/CrisisCore: VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has the Heike's Soul item, which combines the benefits of many other accessories. Naturally, it's a reward for completing all missions, which includes defeating the BonusBoss.

** ''Videogame/FinalFantasyXII'' has plenty of these. Zodiac Spear is the strongest weapon in the game, and can be obtained relatively easily and quite fast [[GuideDangIt if you did not open four specific, unmarked chests]].[[note]]If you did open those chests, the alternative option is a chest in the hardest bonus dungeon that appears 1% of the time.[[/note]] Fortunately, an easier way to get the Zodiac Spear was added in the UpdatedRerelease. Tournesol is a slightly weaker double-handed sword that makes up for it with other bonuses, but that one requires a grinding [[RareRandomDrop Rare Random Drops]] to create the ingredients for the weapon. Wyrmhero Blade has the best overall bonuses and does not need a license to be used, but requires you to kill two [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]] that appear [[BraggingRightsReward at the end of game-spanning sidequest]] and completing a lengthy minigame to get it, though in the UpdatedRerelease you can steal it (or multiple copies) in Trial Mode and actually put it to good use in the game itself.

*** Iron Duke, an accessory that doubles [=HP=] and [=MP=], raises agility by 10, Luck by 50 and all other stats by 100. It's awarded by beating a pair of hard [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]] back to back without recovery at the end of BrutalBonusLevel, or by defeating an even harder BonusBoss in [[UpdatedRerelease Creature Creator]] as a rare drop.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta 2}}'' have Rodin's namesake weapon, which in both games is unlocked by beating his BonusBoss fight. It's a quartet of rings that act as a SwissArmyWeapon that morph into almost[[note]]In ''2'', it cannot become any of the Angel Arms from the first game[[/note]] every Enemy Arm, and Enemy Arms as a whole have significantly more power and combo points to them than regular weapons. The cost is that Rodin is much harder to beat than the final boss on the hardest difficulty, requires a lot of grinding just to fight him, and since fighting him automatically sets the difficulty to the highest, you can't cheese the fight by beating him on Very Easy/Easy.

* UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga in ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara: Samurai Heroes'' is the most powerful character by far. He's also the resident BonusBoss and the most complicated to unlock.

* The fireball spell in the fifth edition of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Based on the guidelines given for spell balance in the dungeon masters it should deal six d6 worth of damage, but instead deals eight d6 worth. The designers have said this was done intentionally, as fireball is such an iconic spell in D&D they wanted to encourage players to use it. (Most [=DMs=] nerf it right back down to six, to avoid penalizing players for originality)

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' has the Legendary and Mythic Heroes given out simply for completing the first chapter of each book. For example, Fjorm possesses a very powerful toolkit (PowerCreep notwithstanding) including a powerful unique lance that lets her counterattack at any range and the Ice Mirror special, which was the only special skill that both reduces incoming damage and boosts attack available at the time, while Seiðr can guarantee her own follow-ups and shut down one enemy unit every other turn. Even if they might not be able to keep up with the most broken units without investment, they are still very strong units who can carry you through most basic PVE content.

** Then there's the mother of all overpowered items; Death Certificate, [[BraggingRightsReward which is unlocked by beating every single boss as all 34 characters]]. When it's used, it takes you to an abandoned house that contains one copy of every single item in the game. You get to take one item, at which point you're sent back to wherever you used Death Certificate at. That means you get a free pick at one of the OP items mentioned here or even another potentially broken item like Rock Bottom[[note]]Prevents your stats from falling below their highest reached levels, turning temporary stat buffs into permanent ones and getting rid of the downside from a lot of items[[/note]] or Sacred Orb[[note]]Prevents low-quality items from spawning, guaranteeing an insane run if it's picked up early.[[/note]]. Also, if you take the time to explore the various rooms, there's tons of free consumables lying around, which will fix your early bomb and key economy as a side bonus.

May be a part of ATasteOfPower or a StoryBreakerPower. Can also be essential to beat the BonusBoss on the HarderThanHard bonus difficulty. {{Crutch Character}}s and OlympusMons are often (temporarily) Purposely Overpowered. Compare with InfinityPlusOneSword and EleventhHourSuperpower. {{Bragging Rights Reward}}s often turn out this way. It's also common to find these in a NewGamePlus.

May be a part of ATasteOfPower or a StoryBreakerPower. Can also be essential to beat the BonusBoss on the HarderThanHard bonus difficulty. {{Crutch Character}}s are often (temporarily) Purposely Overpowered. Compare with InfinityPlusOneSword and EleventhHourSuperpower. {{Bragging Rights Reward}}s often turn out this way. It's also common to find these in a NewGamePlus.

** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' features two battles where you control two parties, switching between them whenever your turn comes around. In both battles, you have at least one party member in the other team who has an attack that can reduce resistances, even to the point of creating a weakness. The other party is also decently built, with many useful endgame-tier skills and their own stock of items that they can use. However, the two battles are the FinalBoss and the BonusBoss, who are both absurdly difficult, so chances are you're going to need the extra firepower.

* Good luck beating the [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]] in ''VideoGame/WildArms2'' without [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Knight Blazer]].
** The Sheriff Star in every game is like this: The highest single stat boost any other accessories can give? The star gives that boost to ''all of them''. Add status immunity and elemental resistances and you've got yourself a GameBreaker. It's also the reward for the BonusBoss.

[[caption-width-right:300:What did you expect ? '''It's Creator/ChuckNorris!''']]

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' has Fjorm, who possesses a very powerful toolkit including a powerful unique lance that lets her counterattack at any range and the Ice Mirror special, which is the only special skill that both reduces incoming damage and boosts attack. Unlike most units, who are either summoned at random or a reward for completing difficult events, a five-star Fjorm is available simply for completing part of the story.

** Queen Sigma ("She owns everything") has the best stats in the game, starts with the Victory Sword weapon that's capable of clearing maps on its own (and when evolved provides regular moments of complete invincibility), and she has dozens of free item rerolls that let her customize a run to her satisfaction. You unlock her by completing hte game's Collection, meaning you've proved you don't really need her to win, though she's useful when it comes to unlocking the game's secret characters, or when you want the catharsis of steamrolling a tough level.
** Menya and Syuuto Moonspell, from the ''Legacy of the Moonspell'' DLC, have {{Super Mode}}s as their gimmick, and if you defeat 100,000 enemies with them, you'll unlock the option to purchase variants of them that are permanently in their enhanced form (which in Megalo Menya's case means she's completely invincible). They're hideously expensive, however, so you'll have had to put the work in to be able to afford them.

*** Kingdom Hearts 2 is the only exception, there's one keyblade with better magic and one with better strength, but the Ultima does still have the highest total stats. At least until Final mix added another keyblade with significantly better magic and only slightly weaker strength, but with the major drawback of not being able to gain experience while using it.

* In a non-Legendary example, the Partner Pikachu and Partner Eevee from ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee'' make up for their lack of evolving ability by having much higher stats than most members of their species and having their own moves, to the point some players have cleared the game with their starters alone.

** * ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' features two battles where you control two parties, switching between them whenever your turn comes around. In both battles, you have at least one party member in the other team who has an attack that can reduce resistances, even to the point of creating a weakness. The other party is also decently built, with many useful endgame-tier skills and their own stock of items that they can use. However, the two battles are the FinalBoss and the BonusBoss, who are both absurdly difficult, so chances are you're going to need the extra firepower.

* Good luck beating the [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]] in [[VideoGame/WildARMs2 [=WildARMS=] 2]] without [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Knight Blazer]].

* And in the ''Franchise/{{BlazBlue}}'' corner we have [[TrueFinalBoss Unlimited Ragna]], who out-tanks the MightyGlacier character, Iron Tager, with his 3 folded HP; [[LightningBruiser can, quite easily, deal damage in the mid-thousands; is much,]] ''[[LightningBruiser much]]'' [[LightningBruiser faster than his original form]]; can air-dash 3 times, while most characters can dash 1 or 2 times at most; has automatic Heat gain; and has a massive life drain on top of that! (He also has one super move that can [[ThisIsGonnaSuck take off 2/3s of his opponent's HP]] [[OhCrap and regenerate 1/2 of his own]], so that's fair...) All of this is because Unlimited Ragna has activated his titular ArtifactOfDoom.

* Super Sonic in the classic Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog titles. On top of being invincible, your top speed and jumping height are both doubled, allowing you to blitz through the stages at ridiculous speeds and cheese bosses that normally hover out of reach and/or or would hurt you if you tried to hit them.

* Mario's [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2 Gold Flower]] power-up. While his speed, strength, etc. are still normal, the fireballs are ridiculously powerful. They can take out ''any'' enemy, including bosses, in one hit. Give Mario a ton of coins, and even turn blocks near where they hit into coins.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}[='=]'' ''Utopia'' expansion, empires that take the [[TelepathicSpacemen Psionic Ascension]] route may come into contact with a being called [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The End of the Cycle]]. It offers you a deal: you gain massive bonuses to resource production, research speed, naval capacity, and a host of other things, for the next fifty years, [[DealWithTheDevil "if only we bring forth the End."]] The tooltip for accepting the deal says in bold red letters "[[SchmuckBait Do not do this.]]" [[spoiler: [[EvilIsNotAToy And you really shouldn't.]] Once those fifty years are up, your empire is '''gone'''. Every ship destroyed, every planet scoured of life and rendered uninhabitable, and vicious {{Eldritch Abomination}}s created from the lingering psychic energies of your empire's dead will begin scouring the galaxy of all life. All you can do is watch from your isolated exile colony, as the galaxy is slowly consumed, and the horrors you unleashed save you for last. Assuming other empires don't finish you off first, that is.]]

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' has the Fierce Deity Mask, and to a lesser extent, the Giant's Mask, which [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin turn Link into some kind of war god and a giant, respectively]]. The first is optional, requires you to have found every other mask in the game, and is found in the room before the final boss (though you can use it in rematches against the other bosses, for [[CurbstompBattle stress]] [[HilarityEnsues relief]]). The latter must be acquired to progress but is not necessary to defeat the boss (except in the [=3DS=] remake), though it certainly makes the battle more [[{{Kaiju}} fair]].

* The final boss characters in ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars 2'' and ''Days of Ruin'', Sturm and Caulder/Stolos, are very challenging (The latter is in fact outright BANNED from Wi-Fi play, while peopled agree to use the former only in 2 vs 1 matches.) Sturm in the first game and Von Bolt from ''Dual Strike'', meanwhile, are not.
** It is actually a case of TheComputerIsACheatingBastard with Sturm in the first game. The Sturm you face as the final boss has 30% higher attack but 20% lower defense and a movement cost of 1 on any terrain. The Sturm you unlock, however, has 20% ''lower'' attack and 20% higher defense, making him a lot less powerful, which is a nasty kick to the balls for players who go through hell warmed over to unlock him ''thinking they are getting a wickedly powerful character to play with.'' That said, he's still considered to be very good, since he still has the movement-cost removal, making his units very fast and hard to take down (especially given the mechanics of defense boosts).

** The [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority royal]] [[{{Animorphism}} laguz]] units of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' are this, with insanely high strength, speed, skill, and avoid meaning that they'll be doubling everything, almost never getting hit by anything, and one-round killing everything more often than not, if their {{Limit Break}}s don't activate and OneHitKill the enemy instead. There's a reason why they're {{Eleventh Hour Ranger}}s only available near the end of both games for the most part, available if the rest of the units on your team aren't up to snuff to beat the FinalBoss.

* The RYNO (Rip Ya a New One) weapon series of ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' fame. They're usually incredibly powerful, but so expensive or difficult to get that you won't normally get them until after you've beaten the game anyways. In most games they're an order of magnitude more expensive than the next priciest thing in the game, and in the ''Future'' series, [[SideQuest you have to find the actual blueprints first]].[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Omega RYNO 4-Ever]] even comes with a warning label stating that usage might [[VictoryIsBoring make the game no longer fun]].

* The VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey ''Untold'' remake has Grimoire Stones as a random drop, which let characters obtain certain enemy skills or share their own skills. The enemy skills include the {{FinalBoss}}'s hilariously overpowering {{Signature Move}}s. One step beyond ''that'' is the Seven King Grimoire, which combines the powers of seven of the game's story bosses. [[note]]Getting even one King Grimoire is a GuideDangIt, to the point where the only way you're likely to know they exist at all is through Website/GameFAQs[[/note]].

* ''VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureAllStarBattle'' has Pucci's final Stand: Made in Heaven. Obtaining it is a pain, because he first has to utter the 14 secret words to the Green Baby (luckily, he doesn't have to say them all in one go) in order to transform Whitesnake into C-Moon; then he has to use his GHA, which, beside the fact that it costs 2 full special bars, can be disrupted with a single hit. If it activates, however, he becomes very fast, while his opponent moves at half speed, instead. The developers had to ''limit the amount of times he could juggle his opponents in a single go''.

* In ''VideoGame/VampireSurvivors'', you unlock Queen Sigma by completing the Collection, which requires unlocking every item and Relics, finding all Fusion and Unity weapon recipes, and unlocking all the Zodiacs by getting to Level 99 with most of the non-secret character. Once you do that, you get to use a character who starts with massive bonus stats and extra Zodiacs from the entire list instead of 4 random ones, an absurdly huge number of Rerolls/Skips/Banishes to easily get any build you want, and an equally overpowered starting weapon with an even more overpowered evolution.

* In ''VideoGame/VampireSurvivors'', you unlock Queen Sigma by completing the Collection, which requires unlocking every item and Relics, finding all Fusion and Unity weapon recipes, and unlocking all the Zodiacs by getting to Level 99 with most of the non-secret character. Once you do that, you get to use a character who starts with massive stats, an absurdly huge number of Rerolls/Skips/Banishes to easily get any build you want, the ability to pick any Zodiac, and an equally overpowered starting weapon.

* [[spoiler:The Gunslinger]] in ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'' is a bit of a pain to unlock ([[spoiler:you have to kill the Lich as the Paradox, who you unlock by finding a rift that turns you into it by random chance and beat the game once with]]), but he comes with a very good [[EmergencyWeapon starter pistol]] and one of the most overpowered items in the game: [[spoiler:The Lich's Eye Bullets]], which unlocks ''every'' Synergy bonuses for any gun you find, turning even most mediocre C or D-tier guns into good weapons, and anything rarer into an actual GameBreaker. He costs Credits to play as, but you'll likely get more Credits per run than you put in. The only catch is his past is way more challenging than the others: [[spoiler:you have to fight through Bullet Hell and kill ''two'' Liches]].