History OneManArmy / VideoGames

* ''Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries'': Batman, in every game. He's able to effortlessly beat down groups of thugs first in an island based asylum, but in every subsequent game can effectively reduce the conscious criminal population of an entire city to 0...in one night. And that's not even counting the supervillains unfortunate enough to get in his way.

** This isn't even a case of gameplay and story segregation, either. ComicBook/TheJoker is well aware that none of his regular mooks stand a chance against Batman, [[BadBoss and he'll let them know it.]]
-->'''The Joker:''' Come on, boys, he's JustOneMan.... well, one man dressed like a lunatic and armed to the teeth, HAHA! GO GET 'EM!
** Taken to its logical conclusion in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' where Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight bring a literal army, with guns, tanks, mines, and drones, all specifically trained and/or designed to counter and defeat the Batman...and they ''still'' lose.

* Batman, in every [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries Arkham]] game. He's able to effortlessly beat down groups of thugs first in an island based asylum, but in every subsequent game can effectively reduce the conscious criminal population of an entire city to 0...in one night. And that's not even counting the supervillains unfortunate enough to get in his way.

-->'''The Joker:''' Come on, boys, he's JustOneMan....well, one man dressed like a lunatic and armed to the teeth, HAHA! GO GET 'EM!

* Despite being a GlassCannon in actual gameplay, this is the reputation bestowed upon Ragna the Bloodedge in ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', who has singlehandedly managed to wipe out several Library institutions and [[GoodIsNotNice kill every single man and woman inside]].

** Also lampshaded later on when Blazkowicz is captured and paraded before a [[KangarooCourt Nazi show trial]], but he really did kill the thousands of people they say he killed. ([[AcceptableTargets They were all Nazis, though.]])

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'':

** ''WebVideo/FreemansMind'' mentions several times Freeman's increasing body count and the ramifications thereof. "Man, if I get indicted once I leave here this is getting harder and harder to explain. I don't think anyone's gonna buy a few dozen counts of self-defense with a submachine gun." By Episode 31 he [[IncrediblyLamePun changed his mind]] again to a more [[Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas Raoul Duke]]-like attitude: who would believe the prosecutor if told that he, Gordon Freeman, an untrained scientist, survived monsters, killed hundreds of marines and launched a missile? And by Episode 51 he's tired of the whole damn thing; "People aspire to be a one man army cause it sounds badass, not because you literally want to function as an entire army; it's do everything yourself or ''die''."

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has anyone who wields a Heroes' Relic and its [[RoyaltySuperpower corresponding Crest]], said to be equal to a ''thousand'' normal soldiers. Take for example Dimitri, who combines SuperStrength and BloodKnight tendencies even before the second act begins. [[spoiler:At that point, on non-Crimson Flower routes he suffers a severe TraumaCongaLine that includes betrayal, being framed for his uncle's murder, and the (presumed) death of his loyal retainer, hits his tipping point, and is forced into exile for five years.]] During this timeskip, he repeatedly ventures into enemy territory to slaughter entire battalions on his lonesome. Unfortunately for him, this gets {{deconstructed}} on the Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes in that he's still just one man who can suffer from exhaustion when fighting too many foes or opponents of similar caliber to himself, [[spoiler:especially when he's too mentally compromised to recognize the need or ''[[DeathSeeker want]]'' to retreat]]. The aftermath of the Battle of Gronder Field on those routes sees him [[spoiler:suffering an UndignifiedDeath unable to defend himself or [[UncertainDoom going missing]] presumed dead, with the Kingdom of Faerghus knocked out of the war as a result.]]
** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors Warriors]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriorsThreeHopes Three Hopes]]'' take this up to eleven. In the sense that '''EVERY''' playable character is this. Considering they are crossovers with ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'', it doesn't necessarily come to a surprise though. ''Three Hopes'' also has a couple of storyline examples in the two {{Brutal Bonus Level}}s:

* Link from ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' hacks up monsters with his sword, shoots them with arrows, blows them up with bombs, tramples them with his horse, kills them in many inventive ways with magic, and in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', uses [[EpicFlail an iron ball and chain]] to massacre them four at a time. In the last dungeon you go through 20 at a time, not to mention cavalry, and in the Hidden Village you have to snipe an entire town of Bublins. In his various incarnations, Link must have killed at least ''fifteen armies'' of {{Mook}}s, ''plus their [[BigBad lead]][[OneWingedAngel ers]]''.
** That's not even counting the hundreds of bodies one must walk over to complete the Savage Labyrinth and Cave of Ordeals.
** In the handheld versions ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'', you receive a ring for killing 1000 monsters.
** However, Link takes this trope literally in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword''. After spending the whole game kicking asses, [[spoiler: he fights entire armies of bokoblins, on his own, before defeating BigBad Ghirahim in a duel to save Zelda.]] And he did it in a row.
** What's more, in some ''Zelda'' games, Link is a ''[[KidHero young child]]'', usually barely 10 years old. In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'', Link could be young as ''8''.

** Even DOOMGUY only comes to [[https://imgur.com/AcMmoiW around a fourth of this guys body count]]

* Deconstructed in the ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' series. While Max kills hundreds of criminals in the course of three enraged nights, it causes him severe psychological damage. He also only narrowly avoids going to prison.
** On the other hand: ''"What do you mean, 'he's unstoppable?!'"'' By the third game, he's become OneRiotOneRanger.

* The classic ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'' games often had the PlayerCharacter, a lone OSS agent, fighting their way through hordes of Nazis singlehandedly. In the first game alone, you destroy a giant rail gun, sink a prototype U-boat, infiltrate a fort on the German border and kill Hitler's favourite colonel and then blow up his mustard gas production facility. In the sequel, ''Underground'', a [[ActionGirl badass French chick]] gets under the skin of the Third Reich so thoroughly that in the final level they lure her into an ambush with what seems like an ''entire platoon'' plus a trio of tanks, ''just to eliminate her'' (and of course, she kills all the Germans and wrecks the tanks anyway). VideoGame/CallOfDuty, this series' SpiritualSuccessor, made a point to avert this trope (you have a slew of AI squadmates and follow orders like a real soldier) because people criticised ''Medal of Honour'' as idealised and unrealistic - wars are won by squads of joes, not lone heroes.

** Of course, starting with ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'', the player can take the option of a [[PacifistRun no-kill playthrough]]. Also technically possible in the first game with the exception of bosses (who must be killed). In fact, based on that information, Snake is either the most genocidal killer ever... or the most pacifistic hero ever.

* The original one-''woman'' army is probably Samus Aran from the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series. Miss Aran has blown up at least four planets (including a DarkWorld version of a planet) and wiped out three entire species all on her lonesome. By the end of each and every game, Samus has become a walking instrument of destruction, plowing through enemies with the Screw Attack and able to freeze, incinerate or otherwise decimate every Metroid she comes across. As with the Master Chief, the Space Pirates (her secondary enemy after the eponymous species) are terrified of her and refer to her as "the Hunter" in the Space Pirate Logs found in ''Metroid Prime'' and sequels. In fact, in ''Metroid Prime 2'', you can read the journal of a dead soldier who maintains that Samus' exploits [[ShroudedInMyth must have been exaggerated]].

*** [[EliteMooks Enclave troopers]] in ''2''. Their ArmorOfInvincibility, {{BFG}}s, and sky-high [[StrongAndSkilled combat skills]] means a single one of them is capable of wiping out an entire town or raider base with no trouble. Against ''you'', this means that most of your BadassCrew (including the GeniusBruiser Super Mutant and the ''sapient Deathclaw'') tend to be reduced to goo within a couple of turns when fighting one. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck You usually fight them in squads of seven to nine.]]
** In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' there are three in-game challenges that net you a few extra experience points and a small bonus to damage. "Lord Death," "Lord Death of Murder Mountain" and "Apocalypse Ain't Got Nothing On Me." The first requires 200 kills. The second requires 700 more kills (for a total of 900 kills). The third requires another 1,000 kills (for a total of 1,900 kills). They seem appropriately named. From a bare story perspective, the Courier canonically tips the balance of an entire war single-handedly
*** There are also non-PC examples. There's [[ColdSniper Craig Boone]], who's a MemeticBadass both in and out of the game and [[BloodKnight Legate Lanius]], a man who personifies AuthorityEqualsAsskicking. There's also, in the second DLC, Joshua Graham, who mounts a one-man genocidal campaign against a [[AlwaysChaoticEvil murderous tribe that slaughtered his hometown]] and, if you don't talk him down, will ''win''. This is ''after'' he killed the best assassins [[BigBad Caesar's Legion]] could send after him, and killed every Legion scout he found as a bonus. The third DLC reveals that Elijah (the BigBad of the first DLC, and no pushover when confronted there) was this too, cutting through dozens of armed combat robots sent after him by the Think-Tank and escaping Big Mountain by hijacking a train and using it as a battering ram.

** Taken to its logical conclusion in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' where Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight bring a literal army, with guns, tanks, mines, and drones, all specifically trained and/or design to counter and defeat the Batman...and they ''still'' lose.

** ''VideoGame/Doom64''[='s=] manual reveals that the events of the previous games did in fact leave Doomguy with severe PTSD. Nonetheless, when Hell rears its ugly face again, he's unhesitatingly back in the fray to single-handedly put down another demonic invasion, and the game ends with him deciding to stay in Hell forever to ensure that no demon will ever threaten humanity again [[spoiler:(though ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' reveals that doing so ended up taking a further toll on his sanity)]].
** ''VideoGame/Doom3'''s rebooted version of the character downplays the "killing machine" angle, in favor of making him a more straightforward BadassNormal ''a la'', say, [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Ellen Ripley]]; however, he can still kick just as much ass as the previous iterations, spraying lead all across a demon-infested Mars to literally Hell and back, without [[TheStoic showing a single emotion]]. In the ExpansionPack you play a different character... who doesn't even blink when the entire rest of his squad gets annihilated by a demonic artifact that he then proceeds to carry around for the rest of the game without skipping a beat...

* Franchise/{{Kirby}}. Same as Mario but instead of having blood on his shoes, he simply ate millions of people. Respect must be given to the [[BadassAdorable cute, pink fluff ball]] that regularly thrashes {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in Revenge of Meta Knight, where as you go through the game taking out every enemy and destroying entire sections of the ship you see the conversations between Meta Knight and his men, with them starting off mildly annoyed you get on board, surprised at the damage you do, then finally deciding to fight you honorably before going down as Meta Knight himself says nothing but "...Thank You" to his crewmates. As if they were a [[TearJerker small fleet being taken down by an actual army with no way out.]]

* Franchise/{{Kirby}}. Same as Mario but instead of having blood on his shoes, he simply ate millions of people. Respect must be given to the [[BadassAdorable cute, pink fluff ball]] that regularly thrashes {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in Revenge of Meta Knight, where as you go through the game taking out every enemy and destroying entire sections of the ship you see the conversations between Meta Knight and his men, with them starting off mildly annoyed you get on board, surprised at the damage you do, then finally deciding to fight you honorably before going down as Meta Knight himself says nothing but "...Thank You." As if they were a [[TearJerker small fleet being taken down by an actual army with no way out.]]

* John Marston in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption''. Even if the player goes out of their way to kill as few people as possible, over the course of the game they will probably end up killing more people than every RealLife Wild West gunslinger ''combined''. Most players report a final kill count upwards of ''two thousand men''. Which doesn't know unnoticed - [[spoiler:when the Bureau decides to kill John in the end, they send the US Army. A company-sized group, at least, easily two hundred men. Against one. And John still probably ends up killing most of them.]]

* ''VideoGame/EldenRing'': Since the game is about three times as long as prior ''Soulsborne'' installments, has an open world where nearly every enemy respawns, and features generally much tougher foes in greater density, the Tarnished will easily outdo his predecessors in the Slayer of Demons, Chosen Undead, Bearer of the Curse, Good Hunter, and Ashen One. A quintuple digit bodycount by the end of an exhaustive playthrough is perfectly possible. To wit, there are 238 ''bosses'' alone in the game. The level design plays up the one-man army element more than in the ''Soulsborne'' games as well, since the various armies of the land are still cohesive enough to maintain fortifications and bases, resulting in many StormingTheCastle moments where the Tarnished knocks on the front gate and ploughs through everything inside. The bosses are also stronger than they've ever been (a [[MiniBoss Crucible Knight]] is more than a match for almost any boss in ''Soulsborne'', to say nothing of the dozen or so PhysicalGod bosses), and almost none of them [[WorfHadTheFlu are nerfed]] from their primes.

** [[https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/5ao6wl/the_normandy_teams_kill_count_counted_and/ Someone actually bothered to count]] all the enemies Shepard's team kills over the course of the series. Not counting cutscenes or off-screen kills, the total is still well over 5,600. Even if Shepard got as many kills as the rest of the team combined, that still makes basically ''every'' member of the Normandy Team a one-man army by the end of the series. Particularly Garrus and Tali, who are the only squadmates present on the team for all games and DLC. Assuming that Shepard killed as many enemies as everyone else combined and that each squadmate killed about the same amount of enemies in each game (these are averages- the exact numbers are dependent on the player's actions), Garrus and Tali each would have racked up ~322 kills during their adventures on the Normandy. Liara and Ashley/Kaidan are right behind them with "only" ~230 kills each.

** Similarly, squadmates from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' and some of the ones from ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' can be added to the War Assets pool. Potentially, adding squadmates to the war assets pool can net you an additional two to three hundred points, which can exceed the value of the entire ground force components supplied by some ''species''. Only the krogan, all of the Alliance ground units you can recruit, and possibly the entire geth corps can supply more effective combat strength than ''ten'' of your squadmates.
** Even more badass than Shepard's squadmates are the [[CoOpMultiplayer N7 Special Ops]]. A single promotion is worth a whopping 75 points of military strength, and while the entire class category's level is reset when you do this, the fact that you don't gain more points the more characters you have in that category effectively implies that those 75 points are from one person -- [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration and this assertion is backed up by the game mechanics]]. So one operative is worth more than the Destiny Ascension ''by themselves'' -- and this isn't even getting into how multiplayer is the way most players build up their Galactic Readiness. (a statistic that can double your effective military strength if maxed out)

** Ryder also has a squadmate counting as a One Krogan Army of his own, Nakmor Drack, an elderly krogan who's been, seen and shot all manner of things in his life.

* Epitomized in many of the ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'' games, where one soldier practically defeats the entire Nazi army and [[AmericaWonWorldWarII wins World War II single-handedly]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'': Double subverted with Nathan Drake. He's [[ActionSurvivor of average build and panics when he gets into shootouts,]] but he still massacres trained, better-armed, better-supplied soldiers, pirates, thugs, and mercenaries by the hundred in each game. In the second game he kills his way through a private army invading an entire country and even multiple attack helicopters and main battle tanks can't stop him, nor can magical super-strong mutants. By the end of the series he's rocking a body count in the quadruple digits. His compamion Chloe Frazer is a lesser example, but between her role as an NPC in the main series, her implied off-screen adventures, and especially her role as the player character in ''Lost Legacy'', she easily has several hundred kills to her name as well.
%%* ''VideoGame/VagrantStory'': Ashley Riot doesn't need reinforcements... he ''is'' the reinforcements. Almost hits the trope by name: "Gods... is he even human? He fights with the strength of a brigade..." This is what the Riskbreakers like Ashley were trained to be. There's never more than one of them sent on any mission, because ''one is always enough''.%%ZCE. Explain how and why.

* ''Franchise/{{Hitman}}'': Usually, Agent 47 can slip in and out of areas completely unnoticed and kill his targets in a way that makes it look like an accident. However, he has zero qualms about slaughtering everything in his path if the situation calls for it and when he is pissed off (such as the case with ''VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin'' or ''VideoGame/HitmanAbsolution'') every person in the area can kiss their ass goodbye.

** Taken to to it's peak with ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'', where the player, being the boss of the Saint's, takes down a multinational criminal organisation, stops a [[spoiler:zombie outbreak]] and even [[spoiler:tears apart an army equipped with sci-fi level technology created for the single purpose of stopping the Saint's.]] Depending on the ending you get, the boss tops all of his previous achievements by [[spoiler:destroying a massive flying aircraft carrier.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:He's [[KillTheGod killed gods]]. 'Gods', as in ''more than one''. What makes you think armies will slow him down?]]

** The Chosen Undead of ''Videogame/DarkSouls''. By the end of the game, they will have cut their way through armies of self-resurrecting zombies (most of whom [[EliteZombies used to be soldiers and knights]], and can still skillfully use their equipment), skeletons, invading dark spirits, several [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]], dragons, demons, divine knights [[spoiler: and the insane Lord of the Sun himself.]]

* ''VideoGame/ExitFate'' sees you on the receiving end of this, in the battle against the Demon Commandos. The enemy forces consist of only two... persons... but each are considered a thousand-strength unit, in terms of power. And that's not accounting for their jacked-up stats besides that. Even if you successfully defeat them, the story establishes that all you accomlished was to distract them for long enough to make a retreat.

* ''VideoGame/EldenRing'': Since the game is about three times as long as prior ''Soulsborne'' installments, has an open world where nearly every enemy respawns, and features generally much tougher foes in greater density, the Tarnished will easily outdo his predecessors in the Slayer of Demons, Chosen Undead, Bearer of the Curse, Good Hunter, and Ashen One. A quintuple digit bodycount by the end of an exhaustive playthrough is perfectly possible. To wit, there are 238 ''bosses'' alone in the game. The level design plays up the one-man army element more than in the ''Soulsborne'' games as well, since the various armies of the land are still cohesive enough to maintain fortifications and bases, resulting in many StormingTheCastle moments where the Tarnished knocks on the front gate and ploughs through everything inside.