History RequiredSecondaryPowers / VideoGames

* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenonauts}}'', after researching the Alien Alloys, your scientists note that it would be very useful for armour... if they had any tool capable of cutting, never mind machining it. It's not till later that such capability is acquired. Reasonably enough, such capability is acquired by researching the aliens's ''weapons''.

** The Pokémon Toedscruel suffers the effects of not having these to go with its ability, Mycelium Might. This ability causes all status moves to ignore other abilities, which theoretically allows Toedscruel to use Spore to inflict sleep on Pokémon with [[NoSell Insomnia or Vital Spirit]]. Unfortunately, these abilities also cause the Pokémon to wake up instantly once the turn is over, rendering this functionality moot.

* An interesting aversion occurs in ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' with [[spoiler:Anghel. At first it just seems that he's the resident {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, babbling away about ridiculous things, and acting as everything is taking place in a RPG game. ''Then'' you learn that Anghel secretes hallucinogenic spores, but doesn't have the RequiredSecondaryPower of being immune to them, hence his strange behaviour.]]

** One notable deviation is the Valstrax. While it's capable of flying at SuperSpeed, it completely lacks accelerate information processing abilities. All its focus is on avoiding mountains and spotting prey, so it doesn't even notice when it kills another monster or destroys a guild airship by [[TooFastToStop plowing through them at Mach 1]]. On the other hand, its body is ridiculously tough and it can take a load of punishment from hunter weapons; said toughness is required in order to accelerate and decelerate in a notable fashion without overshooting its target without killing it.

** Parodied with [[UrineTrouble Jarate]]: the Sniper regularly takes Saxton Hale-brand medication that [[RuleOfFunny triples the size of his kidneys so he can piss a lot, and dulls pain, and so he can't feel the rest of his organs shutting down]].

-->'''Medic:''' (''places an Übercharge unit on Heavy's original heart, and powers it up'') Now, most hearts couldn't withstand this voltage. But I'm fairly certain your heart-
-->(''Heavy's heart violently bursts in Medic's hand from the Medigun's charge'')

** Parodied with [[UrineTrouble Jarate]]: the Sniper regularly takes medication that [[RuleOfFunny triples the size of his kidneys so he can piss a lot, and dulls pain, so he can't feel his organs shutting down]].
** For a more general example, all of the Mercs have special heart transplants courtesy of the Medic. This is so that, as elaborated on in ''Meet The Medic'', they can survive being [[LimitBreak Ubercharged]] without their cardiovascular systems completely rupturing.

* In ''VideoGame/Condemned2Bloodshot'', it is revealed that the protagonist Ethan Thomas has [[spoiler:the primary superpower of [[MakeMeWannaShout super shouting]]]]. Sadly, he doesn't find out about it until two thirds of the way through the game, and doesn't learn how to use it [[EleventhHourSuperpower until the last level]]. Thankfully, the super-dense bone structure that allows him to produce the necessary sonic vibrations also gives NighInvulnerability.

*** The ability to use [[LanguageOfMagic Thu'um]] [[MakeMeWannaShout Shouts]] for [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower normal people requires years of intense study and meditation]], as the words must be spoken with meaning in the dragon tongue. Without the understanding of the words, even if a normal human can utter the words, it would generate no effect. The reason the Dragonborn is unique is that they are born with the necessary secondary powers. First, they can instinctively read the written language, allowing them to learn new words for Shouts from monuments scattered around Skyrim that have messages carved in the language (which never have anything to do with the Shouts themselves and just coincidentally contain the words). Second, they can absorb a dragon's soul after killing it, and with it, that dragon's understanding of the meaning behind the words, which is why to actually ''use'' the words you learn off the monuments in a Shout, you have to spend the dragon souls you've collected to unlock them. [[spoiler: This is why the Dragonrend shout is instantly unlocked without the use of Dragon Souls, but Paarthurnax is unable to teach it to you; while it is a Thu'um and still spoken in the dragon tongue, it is composed of words that only has real meaning to a mortal. Dragons, being immortal demigods, would ''never'' be able to truly understand and use it, but the very mortal Dragonborn (and the humans who created it) would.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenonauts}}'', after researching the Alien Alloys, your scientists note that it would be very useful for armour... if they had any tool capable of cutting, never mind machining it. It's not till later that such capability is acquired.

** In ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 3|SnakeEater}}'', Volgin the PsychoElectro also has superhuman strength. The strength allows him to punch holes in solid concrete, but it's also required for another of his favorite moves: using his electricity to fire bullets held between his fingers. Without super-strong hands, the kickback would break his fingers.

*** The ability to use [[LanguageOfMagic Thu'um]] [[MakeMeWannaShout Shouts]] for [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower normal people requires years of intense study and meditation]], as the words must be spoken with meaning in the dragon tongue. Without the understanding of the words, even if a normal human can utter the words, it would generate no effect. The reason the Dragonborn is unique is that they are born with the necessary secondary powers. First, they can instinctively read the written language, allowing them to learn new words for Shouts from monuments scattered around Skyrim that have messages carved in the language (which never have anything to do with the Shouts themselves and just coincidentally contain the words). Second, they can absorb a dragon's soul after killing it, and with it, that dragon's understanding of the meaning behind the words, which is why to actually ''use'' the words you learn off the monuments in a Shout, you have to spend the dragon souls you've collected to unlock them. [[spoilers: This is why the Dragonrend shout is instantly unlocked without the use of Dragon Souls, but Paarthurnax is unable to teach it to you; while it is a Thu'um and still spoken in the dragon tongue, it is composed of words that only has real meaning to a mortal. Dragons, being immortal demigods, would ''never'' be able to truly understand and use it, but the very mortal Dragonborn (and the humans who created it) would.]]

*** The ability to use [[LanguageOfMagic Thu'um]] [[MakeMeWannaShout Shouts]] for [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower normal people requires years of intense study and meditation]], as the words must be spoken with meaning in the dragon tongue. Without the understanding of the words, even if a normal human can utter the words, it would generate no effect. The reason the Dragonborn is unique is that they are born with the necessary secondary powers. First, they can instinctively read the written language, allowing them to learn new words for Shouts from monuments scattered around Skyrim that have messages carved in the language (which never have anything to do with the Shouts themselves and just coincidentally contain the words). Second, they can absorb a dragon's soul after killing it, and with it, that dragon's understanding of the meaning behind the words, which is why to actually ''use'' the words you learn off the monuments in a Shout, you have to spend the dragon souls you've collected to unlock them.

*** In the Dragonborn DLC you meet a mage who wants to fly. He successfully casts the spell, rockets into the air... than crashes back onto the ground. Turns out just because you can get in the air doesn't mean you can ''stay'' in the air, and nothing is cushioning you from the ground.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'':
** ''Metal Gear Solid 2''

** To go into detail, the "[[WhatMeasureIsANonSuper normey]]" tried to move, and broke something. He then spasmed due to the pain, and broke something else. This pretty much repeated until death. The liquid-crystal matrix that was used to enhance the strength of the user could not actually be scaled back for the existing models, and since the suits were being designed for the Spartans anyway, no one bothered re-engineering the suits for normal soldiers.

** On the other hand, it's been theorized that this trope is the reason [[ILoveNuclearPower Utsuho]], otherwise a huge birdbrain, [[GeniusDitz is well-versed in nuclear physics]] in ''Hisoutensoku''.

* In ''VideoGame/JediKnightDarkForcesII'', there is a little bit of aversion of this in play when using the Force Speed and Force Jump powers. Using either at its highest setting causes a little damage to the player upon running into something or landing on a surface equal or lower than the one from which they jumped. If a player tweaks the powers outside the game (which is quite easy), Force Speed can easily mean death when running into stair steps at top speed, and Force Jump can be a great way to get higher, but the fall back down is a killer. The sequels apparently address this by increasing the distance characters can fall without taking damage as a side feature of their increasing Force Jump skill.

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', a codec conversation has Doktor declare that further upgrades to the special eyepatch Raiden is using would be pointless because the human brain would not be able to use any additional resolution it might give him. This is also the rationale behind the majority of cyborgs opting for full-body conversions; a super-strong and super-durable robot arm is no use whatsoever if it's attached to a squishy human torso.

* ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt'': Gunvolt's Septima [[ShockAndAwe Azure Striker]] creates a microscopic insulating layer over his body that protects him from electric shocks and thus his own powers. Should he be sufficiently doused in water (a rainstorm or shower isn't enough, but being submerged more than waist-deep in water does), that field disperses temporarily and using his powers at that point will hit him with the feedback.

* The Pyro from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''. The only reason it can run and fire [[AmbiguousGender his/her]] flamethrower is that it wears a fireproof suit; everyone else's outfits have multiple visible pockets and pouches (and Scout has a messenger bag) to suggest that they are carrying all of their ammunition on their person.

* ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'':

* ''VideoGame/BioShock'': In an aversion, the main characters of the games aren't immune to their own plasmids/vigors. This doesn't cause you any harm, but it makes for some interesting BodyHorror; fire abilities char the skin of your hands, ice abilities cause visible frostbite, and you don't want to know about [[BeeBeeGun Insect Swarm]]. Suchong also mentions in an Audio Diary that the telekinesis plasmid could theoretically [[BulletCatch catch bullets]] if human reaction time was quick enough, which gives him a new plasmid idea.

** The Nightmare boss from ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' and ''[[VideoGame/MetroidOtherM Other M]]'' can [[GravityMaster manipulate gravity]], and it can still fly around as normal while increasing gravity around it and even create an UnrealisticBlackHole. While not explicitly stated, Nightmare was implied to be built with Gravity Suit technology (an upgrade that allows Samus to move freely in environments that would otherwise hinder her movements, such as moving through water as if it were air) to protect itself from being hindered or ripped apart by its own powers. The Core-X copying it in ''Fusion'' gives Samus the Gravity Suit upon absorbed, and the room aboard the Bottle Ship in which the original was developed has a hologram-display that looks like the Gravity Suit item-pickup from other games in the series.