Characters struggling to figure out how their powers work in Video Games.
- Bang Shishigami from BlazBlue was only told two things by Platinum; that he had a Nox Nyctores, which are insanely powerful, and that its ability could very well save several people. She didn't bother telling him though what it was and not even how to activate it.
- In Breath of Fire III, Ryu is born as a baby dragon, and his first few shapeshifts between human and dragon forms (which occur outside of actual combat) are completely uncontrolled. Although the player gains the ability to transform at will during battle, it is not until later, when he reaches adulthood, that he has full control over his transformations.
- Fate/Grand Order:
- Sir Galahad possesses Mash Kyrielight to save her life and turn her into Servant Shielder. But since he's a prick and thinks the heroes' struggles are not his problem, that's as far as his generosity goes. With a few exceptions, he refuses to communicate with Mash, teach her how to use his powers, or even tell her the name of their Noble Phantasm. She is forced to figure it out on her own. Fortunately, she manages to activate her Noble Phantasm on instinct to protect the player.
- The player character has Magic Circuits, but ZERO knowledge of magecraft or spells beyond what's written into their Mystic Code outfits. Kadoc mocks them for this during Part 2, because he can't believe an ignoramus like them saved the world in Part 1.
- Nergal gave Ereshkigal a spear that gives her The Power of the Sun, but since Ereshkigal is an Underworld goddess and hasn't even seen the sun, it takes a while for her to figure out how it works.
- Final Fantasy:
- Much of Final Fantasy VI focuses on Terra's inability to control her powers as a half-Esper.
- Final Fantasy VII. After his defeat at Nibelheim, Sephiroth is inactive for 7 years, trapped in Mako until he returns with Jenova's powers. There's some debate on whether that comes down to Sephiroth learning how to control Jenova or the other way around, but Word of God has said that Jenova was not in control. Although that Word of God was released 10 years after the original game.
- A mundane example in Final Fantasy XVI. After Clive Rosfield slices off Hugo Kupka's hands in their first battle, Hugo is shown later on with prosthetic hands trying to relearn how to eat with utensils. He can barely even pick up a fork, pissing him off and making him smash the table.
- In .hack games, both Kite and Haseo needs to learn how to use their powers. Kite got off lightly, since his Twilight Bracelet can be used easily (with the catch that if he has too much viral infection, he'd, quite simply, die). No mishaps there (except player-induced). Haseo however, basically had to undergo a lot of training to obtain his Epitaph Power as Skeith. The first time he got it out, he nearly comatosed a group of people. Afterwards, he's inclined to pull this off to anyone that threatens him, comatose or no. Inevitably, he loses control of Skeith since he used it with such a reckless abandon. Were it not for Kuhn's special power, he would've permanently comatosed someone.
- Each time Delsin absorbs another conduits powers in In Famous Second Son he must learn everything from scratch. Invoked by Augustine, who allows Delsin to absorb her abilities knowing he will be left powerless.
- Kingdom Hearts has a couple cases of this.
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: Mickey steals a magical item of Yen Sid's, which lets him teleport between worlds in lieu of using a Keyblade Glider like Terra, Ven, and Aqua.Mickey: All I hafta do is think it, and this Star Shard will take me wherever I want to go... At least I thought it would. I haven't quite got the fine points down, like... when... or where. It kinda just goes off whenever it feels like it.
- Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]: Toward the end of the game Lea receives training to use a Keyblade, then pulls a Big Damn Heroes in the climax to save Sora... with Eternal Flames, the Rings of Death he used back when he was Axel. After Sora is woken up, Lea reveals that he couldn't get his Keyblade to materialize.Lea: Must be in the snap of the wrist, or somethin'... [Keyblade suddenly appears in his hands] ...oh.
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: Mickey steals a magical item of Yen Sid's, which lets him teleport between worlds in lieu of using a Keyblade Glider like Terra, Ven, and Aqua.
- The backstory to the NESTS saga character Nameless in The King of Fighters reveals that he had a number of problems controlling his pyrokinetic abilities. Most of his time after testing was spent in the infirmary recovering from severe burns, and on his first real assignment he killed somebody just by tapping them on the shoulder.
- Monster Hunter: World: The final boss of the base game, Xeno'jiiva, possesses incredible power but moves rather clumsily and overall doesn't make very good use of its abilities. This is justified because it's a newborn, and therefore doesn't really know how to use its giant energy beams, claws, and wings to best effect. Hell, it only seems to realize it even has wings halfway through the fight! In Iceborne, the player is introduced to Safi'jiiva, an adult of the same species, which has much greater control over itself and its abilities, and is a MUCH tougher fight as a result.
- The constant bane of MMORPG veterans is newbies who get levelled up too fast thanks to Min-Maxing friends, and end up being very high level with absolutely no idea how to use any of their equipment or abilities, or the basic features of the game. Even worse are those who simply buy high level characters, literally hitting the level cap without ever having fought an enemy.
- City of Heroes players suffer from this trope particularly due to the sidekick system. A low level hero can be temporarily promoted to a high level so they can join a high level instance, but they do not gain any new powers, nor does it miraculously turn a new, low-level player into an experienced veteran.
- World of Warcraft also has this apply to the ability to pay to change your talents, or buy an alternate set of talents. As such, players may be quite good at using their current talent tree, but may need some adjustment while switching to others, as a Warrior might be quite good at the DPS Arms tree, but not as good with Fury (which is also DPS), let alone tanking with Protection without quite a bit of practice.
- In Final Fantasy XIV:
- Level Grinding via the Palace of the Dead or Heaven on High can lead to this. Within these dungeons, the player starts at a given level and very rapidly levels up, which - for someone using a new class or job - can lead to gaining new actions faster than they can learn how to use them. Even once they get out, they do get Exp rewarded for use outside the dungeon, which will level up their jobs much more quickly than grinding via normal dungeons and quests.
- Exaggerated with the Tales of Adventure: One Hero's Journey items available from the Online Store. One Hero's Journey will boost a job to ten levels less thsn the current level cap, which is the entry level for the newest expansion. For someone using ToA items for a new job (as opposed to i.e. bestowing a job they've already trained in to an alt character), this skips through most of the levelling - and learning - process, giving them a full kit of abilties they have no idea how to use.
- Even for players who level the hard way, jobs introduced in later expansions start at increasingly higher levels, with a significant number of abilities already unlocked. Learning how Heavensward's Machinist job works from Level 30 can be difficult enough, to say nothing of trying to pick up Endwalker's Sage and unlocking a new job at Level 70. The first job quest after each unlock tries to teach you the basics, but many players find it easiest to just go back to Sastasha Seagrot, learn the Level 17 kit, and gradually work their way up through the loadout.
- When the Shadowbringers expansion came out, the developers redesigned how almost every class works. While the basics were still there, everyone who was reasonably invested in the game had to re-learn their classes in order to use them effectively.
- Another cause of this syndrome is a "Foundry" or similar system that lets players create their own content. Some will create easy "farming" missions that grant plenty of experience points with little "experience". This is especially prevalent in the aforementioned City of Heroes, with its Mission Architect system.
- The Pokémon Ditto has only one power — Being able to copy those that belong to its opponent. (It's also immune to being paralyzed, but that's beside the point.) However, Ditto cannot copy the opponent's HP and all the moves it copies come with only 5 PP, showing its inability to master techniques on the spot.
- Fairly well done in Second Sight, where John escapes a hospital with Laser-Guided Amnesia. He has a lot of psychic powers but doesn't know about them, until they manifest themselves by an appropriate challenge. For example, he finds himself tied to a cot and unable to get free. Suddenly, he realizes he can will the bonds to open and the door to unlock. He's also weak and hurt. He clutches his head... and suddenly feels better via psychic healing. A guard tries to stop him and threatens him with a gun. Once again, John gets a headache and fires a sphere of psychic energy at the guard that sends him flying across the room, breaking the guy's neck. This all culminates at the end when John realizes that most of the events of the game are the manifestation of his Precognition ability; i.e. the game events are a possible future.
- In Shadow of the Colossus, although he's a crack shot with his bow, Wander doesn't know much about how to use his sword except that it shines when he is getting near a colossus and "point stabby end at colossus; stab." The eventual backstory revelations imply that he stole the thing, which would explain why he's so awkward with it.
- Played with in Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. Samus always had the ability to walljump and shinespark, but learns to use it from the Zebes animals. When the SA-X appears in the latter title, while it never uses these techniques, it's explicitly stated the X parasites take knowledge from the host, so it stands to reason that it would know how to use them (by virtue of having infected Samus before). It may simply be that the Wall Jump and Shinespark are just impractical for the SA-X to use; the Wall Jump is rendered obsolete by its Space Jump ability, and the BSL station's tight quarters severely limits the usage of the Speed Booster/Shinespark.
- Touhou Project
- Rumia can generate a field of darkness to protect herself from light, which hurts her, but she can't see through her own field of darkness; she can often be seen bumping into trees midflight. Apparently, ZUN thought it would be funny to make a character's powerful-sounding ability (control of darkness) actually be useless.
- Keine can hide and "eat" history, as well as create entirely new history in her hakutaku form, which would make her one of the most powerful characters in a setting already overflowing with Story Breaker Powers if she had any idea how to use it. The only time she even attempted, hiding the Human Village during the Imperishable Night, the player characters found it easily anyway.
- It is occasionally assumed that Yukari Yakumo herself cannot fully grasp the potential of her abilities (them being the complete control of boundaries, both physical and metaphysical), or simply isn't willing to.
- In Vagrant Story, Grissom takes a few moments to notice he Came Back Wrong and now has cool undead powers:"...Please, a moment. My body is not... cooperating."
