History InformedAbility / VideoGames

* In ''VisualNovel/FamicomDetectiveClub: The Girl Who Stands Behind'', the protagonist claims to be a black belt, but never has any proper opportunity to show off his skills besides doing a few rapid-fire kicks in front of Ayumi. When he was about to fight the Weird Kid over a misunderstanding, Ayumi gets him to calm down, and [[spoiler:during the one time she was held hostage, he simply tackled her captor while the latter was distracted by some strong wind]].

*** In the Twilight Highland quests, you witness an epic display of his monumental incompetence from the get-go: In his usual impatience, he orders his goblin engineers to build a fleet of zeppelins to protect his supply carriers from the Black Dragonflight with little time or resource to actually complete them. When the ships are deployed, they can't even stay in flight, and one of them actually crashes. And then Garrosh spots an Alliance navy fleet and immediately orders his attacking ship to make a beeline for them, which would leave all the remaining supply and transport ship completely undefended, a Goblin Captain even questions who'd be stupid enough to do this, but gets punched by one of Garrosh's loyalists for protesting - who remarks that a "Winner" would do so. The Horde fleet attacks and defeats the alliance, however this leaves the carriers completely helpless, as expected the Twilight Dragonflight shows up shortly after and takes out every single carrier. Leaving Garrosh, the player, and a few survivors to be washed on shore after. And when you talk to one of the other survivors, apparently Garrosh, in an attempt to save face, claims ''[[BlatantLies the alliance attacked them unprovoked.]]''

** Blue in the first generation games is supposed to be an incredibly skilled trainer, but his team's setup by the time he's the Champion is pretty awful in Red/Green/Blue. His Rhydon has two moves that do the exact same thing and no Rock or Ground moves, his Alakazam has Psybeam and Psychic (even though the former is mostly just a weaker version of the latter, outside of its secondary effect to cause confusion), his Charizard has Rage (one of the worst moves in the game), his Gyarados has kept Dragon Rage long after when it would be useful, his Arcanine is still using Ember, and his Exeggutor only has ''three moves.'' He also has Pidgeot, which is a pretty bad Pokemon even by Gen I standards, and is wholly outclassed by two completely different Pokemon found in Kanto with identical typing. The remakes mostly fixed this, and by the time of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold/SoulSilver]]'', he's an [[ThatOneBoss actual threat]].

** ''Other M'' claims that the Metroids located in Sector Zero have been experimented on [[OneHeroHoldTheWeaksauce to remove their vulnerability to cold]] and are therefore invincible. As these immune Metroids are [[TheUnfought never actually encountered]], and you do encounter Metroids in the game (including one that came right out of Sector Zero) that aren't immune to cold, it comes across as Adam making a wild guess that even he doesn't seem all that sure about based on very flimsy evidence. And the idea that such a Metroid would be completely invincible is contradicted by the opening cinematic, where Mother Brain kills a Metroid with what seems to be regular ol' brute force.

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' your two rivals are the ditzy Bianca who admits she isn't very good, and the analytical Cheren who is focused on becoming Champion. In your fights with them however, Bianca is actually the more challenging of the two.[[note]]Cheren's two Pokémon that differ from hers are both physical attack based glass cannons. Knowing this he decides that both should use sets that depend on them surviving an attack and the second should run a set with no physical moves. While he tries to give one a set up so he will always critical, he doesn't actually complete it and deletes the move needed to pull it off by the time he has put the other pieces together.[[/note]]
** Similarly, Blue in the first generation games is supposed to be an incredibly skilled trainer, but his team's setup by the time he's the Champion is pretty awful in Red/Green/Blue. His Rhydon has two moves that do the exact same thing and no Rock or Ground moves, his Alakazam has Psybeam and Psychic (even though the former is mostly just a weaker version of the latter, outside of its secondary effect to cause confusion), his Charizard has Rage (one of the worst moves in the game), his Gyarados has kept Dragon Rage long after when it would be useful, his Arcanine is still using Ember, and his Exeggutor only has ''three moves.'' He also has Pidgeot, which is a pretty bad Pokemon even by Gen I standards, and is wholly outclassed by two completely different Pokemon found in Kanto with identical typing. The remakes mostly fixed this, and by the time of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold/SoulSilver]]'', he's an [[ThatOneBoss actual threat]].

** Though Escavalier's entry doesn't say it breaks the sound barrier, it does describe it as flying at high speed. Given that Escavalier's Speed is 20 (tied with Ferrothorn for the lowest of any final-stage Pokemon, and significantly behind [[SarcasmMode such lightning-quick luminaries as Snorlax and Slowbro]]), many fans wonder what metric under which Escavalier could be described as high-speed.

** In ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxHitTheRoad'', Conroy Bumpus is supposed to be an incredibly highly-rated country-western singer. When the player hears him sing his VillainSong, his voice is a pretty good attempt at singing, but pretty shaky. Lampshaded in that Max calls Bumpus's singing "atonal warbling."

* In ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'', General Warfield is supposed to be this badass general, and yet his entire career over the course of the game involves him screwing up the attack on Char and handing over command to Raynor, who lampshades it prior to touchdown.

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' your two rivals are the ditzy Bianca who admits she isn't very good and the analytical Cheren who is focused on nothing but becoming the champion. In your fights with them however, while Bianca isn't a particularly hard fight, she is still harder than Cheren who has an abysmal set up for his team.[[note]]His two Pokémon that differ from hers are both physical based glass cannons. Knowing this he decides that both should use sets that depend on them surviving an attack and the second should run a set with no physical moves. While he tries to give one a set up so he will always critical, he doesn't actually complete it and deletes the move needed to pull it off by the time he has put the other pieces together.[[/note]]

** Psyduck's defining trait in all its appearances, and its Pokédex entries, is its PsychicPowers, with most conveying it as an UnskilledButStrong sort that releases powerful and mysterious but uncontrolled effects when its headache is paining it. You'd expect from this that it be some kind of incredibly strong Psychic-type, but it's actually a pure Water-type that can incidentally learn a handful of Psychic-type moves (and up until the fourth generation, the only one that did damage was very weak). Even its abilities are related primarily to weather mechanics rather than psychic abilities.
** One scene in ''Black and White'' has Bianca claim that if Pokemon really didn't like their trainers, they could leave them at any time. The other characters don't dispute this idea, but not only is there no instance of this ever happening, the idea is contradicted by the previous games (in ''Gold and Silver'', one of [[TheRival Silver's]] defining character traits is that he's a massive dick to his Pokemon) and future games (in ''B2W2'', Ghetsis's Hydreigon is coded to have the absolute minimum possible Friendship stat, allowing it to deliver an incredibly powerful Frustration--something that would require him to go out of his way to piss Hydreigon off). It really feels like the writers included that bit of lore just to make [[StrawmanHasAPoint Team Plasma seem to have less of a point]].
* ''VideoGame/RaveHeart'': Ellemine believes Eryn is wiser than her when it comes to politics and would make a great leader. In practice, [[spoiler:he comes off as the weak link of Count Vorakia Estuuban's conspiracy. While Vorakia, Lady Marselva, and Reverend Sergio perform their roles without making significant mistakes, Eryn puts their entire operation at risk by imprisoning Chad merely for speaking up for Arcturo's innocence. This accomplishes nothing beneficial for the conspiracy and causes the rest of the council to become suspicious, forcing the conspirators to kill and imprison the other council members]].

** In ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxHitTheRoad'', Conroy Bumpus is supposed to be an incredibly highly-rated country-western singer. When the player hears him sing his VillainSong, his voice is clearly a pretty good attempt at singing, but pretty shaky. Lampshaded in that Max calls Bumpus's singing "atonal warbling."

** The wingmen you fly with in the games are all supposed to be truly badass veteran pilots, but with a relative few exceptions... well, [[ArtificialStupidity they aren't]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}'', you're told that the troops under your command are handpicked from elite special forces around the world. This can be a bit hard to believe, since they have a tendency to [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy miss shots at point-blank range]], [[RedShirtArmy die to any blow whatsoever]] and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere flee in panic at the slightest hindrance]]. They do get a lot better as they gain more experience, but, again... "elite special forces". The reboot series tends to at least let them start with enough accuracy to hit more than they miss... even [[VideoGame/XCOM2 the one]] where you're actually leading a ragtag grassroots militia.

* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'', it's stated that the reason Dante is so powerful is because of his love for humanity, something demons don't have. But throughout the series, he barely displays what would be considered even a normal amount of concern or empathy for humans or humanity. His establishing moment in DMC1 is showing he won't take a job if it doesn't sound interesting to him, even though even a weak demon could kill a person. In DMC1 and DMC2, he doesn't really interact with many normal humans to begin with, but 3-5 all involve events that kill a lot of innocent people, and in none of them does he show any hint of sadness or concern for them, preferring to let the other characters deal with any rescuing. His actions do save people, but he seems to only do it because someone hired him to. Made even worse in the anime, where even though he directly interacts with people, but he still never cares when they die, even when it happens right in front of him.

* In ''/VideoGame/DevilMayCry'', it's stated that the reason Dante is so powerful is because of his love for humanity, something demons don't have. But throughout the series, he barely displays what would be considered even a normal amount of concern or empathy for humans or humanity. His establishing moment in DMC1 is showing he won't take a job if it doesn't sound interesting to him, even though even a weak demon could kill a person. In DMC1 and DMC2, he doesn't really interact with many normal humans to begin with, but 3-5 all involve events that kill a lot of innocent people, and in none of them does he show any hint of sadness or concern for them, preferring to let the other characters deal with any rescuing. His actions do save people, but he seems to only do it because someone hired him to. Made even worse in the anime, where even though he directly interacts with people, but he still never cares when they die, even when it happens right in front of him.

** Prince Sidon is said to be a great warrior of the Zora people and he accompanies you in taking down Vah Ruta...by swimming you close enough to it so you can destroy the barrier preventing you from entering it. As a [[FishPeople Zora]], that isn't particularly impressive, since all of them can do that. He never enters the dungeon with you, nor does the game imply he ever had any intention to. The other three descendant characters don't enter their respective Divine Beasts either, but in their cases it's justified - Riju is only a child (and the chief of the Gerudo), Yunobo is a LovableCoward and StoneWall so he is only useful for his shield ability, and Teba ''was'' going to accompany Link but gets injured when he helps destroy Vah Medoh's barrier and has to sit it out. You could argue that with Mipha dead, Sidon has to stay behind as the only remaining heir to King Doraphan, but it doesn't stop him getting close enough to the Divine Beast to help Link actually enter it, so it still seems odd he's [[CharacterShilling hyped up as such a great fighter]] and we never see him deliver on this.

** One scene in ''Black and White'' has Bianca claim that if Pokemon really didn't like their trainers, they could leave them at any time. The other characters don't dispute this idea, but not only is there no instance of this ever happening, the idea is contradicted by the previous games. In ''Gold and Silver'', one of [[TheRival Silver's]] defining character traits is that he's a massive dick to his Pokemon. It really feels like the writers included that bit of lore just to make [[StrawmanHasAPoint Team Plasma seem to have less of a point]].

* ''VideoGame/Persona4'': [[KidDetective Naoto Shirogane]] has an in-universe reputation as a "genius detective," but really does no better at solving the case than the rest of the Investigation Team or even the Police Department. Her first interaction with the Investigation Team, for example, is to blatantly insult them by calling their investigation a "game", thereby ensuring that three of the known victims, her ''best leads'', will refuse to cooperate with her.

** In the ''Lonesome Road'' DLC for ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', according to Ulysses, the mutated creatures called the Tunnelers are perfectly capable of [[TheWorfEffect overwhelming ''Deathclaws'']] and are poised to be a massive threat to the Mojave. First-hand experience reveals a significantly lesser threat than hyped up: they can be taken out by a few headshots like almost everything else in the wasteland, and in a combination case with GameplayAndStorySegregation, an adult Deathclaw is perfectly capable of utterly massacring a Tunneler (though admittedly the Tunnelers tend to attack en masse and win via ZergRush).
** In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', Coursers are made out to be the most dangerous things in all the Commonwealth. Indeed, their descriptions make them sound an awful lot like Terminators, and you might expect to be fighting an indestructible ImplacableMan. In actuality, Coursers are weaker than many human enemies and totally outclassed by high-end mutant creatures like Deathclaws. Their only real gimmick is turning (nearly) invisible in combat.

** In the ''Nuka-World'' DLC, right-hand bad guy Porter Gage states that whenever the going gets tough, he gets out to live another day, no matter how often he's been betrayed. However, if you betray the raiders and kill them, Porter will stick around to fight you like any other armed NPC, even though it's clear he could never win.

*** Gilgamesh, the BigBad of one route and TheDragon of another, apparently has such a high charisma (A+ rank) that his goes beyond "Can be said to have achieved the greatest level of popularity as a human being" (which is A rank). However, you never, never see him doing anything remotely charismatic. Quite the opposite, actually. He spends his whole time being a {{Jerkass}}, SmugSnake, SocialDarwinist who tries to rape Saber. Later works to feature him ended up writing him as more obviously charismatic (though he's still usually a jackass in those works). His physical stats are also stated to be pretty impressive, just a bit below [[LightningBruiser Berserker and Saber]], but he almost never shows them off, relying exclusively on his [[GameBreaker Game-Breaking]] [[StormOfBlades Gate of Babylon]]. Hell, one of the few times he did get forced into melee, [[spoiler:he was thrown off-guard, disarmed, and defeated... by Shirou, who is a human.]]

** Scathach from ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' has been hyped up by the cast and her profile as incredibly strong because of her long-lived experience as immortal witch queen of the Land of Shadows but she has never actually been ''shown'' to win a fight as they either happen offscreen with ambiguity over who won or she is shown to lose to her opponent. Her skills are very vaguely defined in the first place, so it's not even clear what she's capable of.

** [[TheGambler Luxord]] of Organization XIII is stated to have time-based powers, which extends to putting a "Time Limit" in his boss battle that really just ends up being "Hit Luxord a lot" and fights more with his [[DeathDealer cards]].

** Prince Sidon is said to be a great warrior of the Zora people and he accompanies you in taking down Vah Ruta...by swimming you close enough to it so you can destroy the barrier preventing you from entering it. As a [[FishPeople Zora]], that isn't particularly impressive, since all of them can do that. He never enters the dungeon with you, nor does the game imply he ever had any intention to. The other three descendent characters don't enter their respective Divine Beasts either, but in their cases it's justified - Riju is only a child (and the chief of the Gerudo), Yunobo is a LovableCoward and StoneWall so he is only useful for his shield ability, and Teba ''was'' going to accompany Link but gets injured when he helps Link destroy Vah Medoh's barrier and has to sit it out. You could argue that with Mipha dead, Sidon has to stay behind as the only remaining heir to King Doraphan, but it doesn't stop him getting close enough to the Divine Beast to help Link actually enter it, so it still seems odd he's [[CharacterShilling hyped up as such a great fighter]] and we never see him deliver on this.
** Mipha is described as having been without equal when it came to wielding a trident, yet all of the flashbacks featuring her instead focus on her healing ability, her crush on Link, or her nurturing side towards Sidon. This especially stands out in the "The Champions' Ballad" DLC, which gave the other three Champions scenes to show off their combat skill, yet she's just shown swimming up a waterfall. Fortunately, ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity'' helps to rectify this thanks to her being a playable character who can mow down armies just as easy as everyone else. [[spoiler:[[FutureBadass And so can Sidon]].]]

** Sniper Wolf is told to be Foxhound's greatest sniper, who can spend a week without sleep, food, or even water as she patiently keeps her sights on her target. In game the most we see her do is shoot at one target, [[spoiler:Meryl]], who was standing up within a few hundred yards of Sniper Wolf, then stay in a compromised position with little cover, running back and forth in plain sight as Solid Snake snipes her down. She appears again later in the game during a blizzard, but she once again fails at properly taking cover or shoot at the very close Solid Snake. Notably she doesn't do any better at sniping than the three Genome soldiers who lay a trap for Snake on the Comms Tower Bridge and can reliably hit him from a good distance in the dark and in a snowstorm, using FAMAS rifles with iron sights, and ''while wearing gas masks'' (and taking an accurate shot while wearing a two-lens gas mask is no easy feat, even in ideal conditions). Perhaps "Foxhound's best shot" is a [[DamnedByFaintPraise bit like saying]] "[[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy the Stormtrooper's best shot]]".

** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', Queen Anora is said to be a forceful presence and thus many believe she is the better choice for monarch. But she has already been Queen-consort for five years prior to the events of the game. She couldn't dissuade her husband from his campaign at Ostagar, even though she and her father believed it to be ill-advised, and she couldn't stop Loghain from going down the path he walked as regent. Both the horrific events of the Tabris origin (in which a human noble crashes the player character's wedding, murders a bunch of the men, and kidnaps a bunch of the women to rape and abuse for fun) happen in what's essentially her backyard, meaning she either wasn't paying attention or didn't care. Alistair at least stood up to Loghain and will (if chosen) take him down in a duel. Anora's supposed advantage is also somewhat hurt by the epilogue slides which confirm that Alistair does end up being a good King. Granted, the sequels have a tendency to [[RetCon ignore the epilogue when it suits them]], but there's nothing in them to suggest that Alistair isn't a good King or that Anora is more effective if you choose her.
** Loghain himself is universally praised as a military tactical genius, yet what few military strategies he shows in-game are elementary at best (like the "Hammer and Anvil" tactic at Ostagar), and incompetent at worst. On the latter, he withdrew all his troops from the southern border after ([[UnreliableNarrator he claims]]) he realized the darkspawn horde was too huge and organized for him to defeat even with the King's army and the Grey Wardens, yet immediately afterwards dismisses that same massive horde as "not a true threat," and spends ''months'' allowing said horde to pour into the unprotected countryside while he instead instigates a civil war with the nobles, and then gets locked into a ''months-long stalemate.'' So much for being a tactical genius. Reading ''Literature/TheStolenThrone'' does give [[AllThereInTheManual a little more insight]] into how he gained this reputation.

** In ''Inquisition'', if you have an antagonistic relationship with Solas, and choose to argue with him about whether he should be doing more to help people, he will refute you by saying that you could give the elves Halamshiral back, but you haven't. At no point in the game, before or after this conversation, is there an option to make such a choice about Halamshiral.

** In ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', Protectrons are stated to be "sturdy", and a popular commercial security robot, even though they're one of the most fragile robotic enemies in the game, and have even fewer hit points than the domestic Mr. Handy robot. Though they were beefed up significantly in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', averting this trope.
** In the ''Lonesome Road'' DLC for ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', according to Ulysses, the mutated creatures called the Tunnelers are perfectly capable of overwhelming ''deathclaws'' and are poised to be a massive threat to the Mojave and whoever wins the Second Battle for Hoover Dam. First-hand experience with them reveals a significantly lesser threat than hyped up: they can be taken out by a few headshots like almost everything else in the wasteland, and in a combination case of GameplayAndStorySegregation, an adult Deathclaw is perfectly capable of utterly massacring Tunnelers individually (though admittedly it tends to go in their favor when a ZergRush has big enough numbers).
** In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' Coursers are made out to be the most dangerous things in all the Commonwealth. Indeed, their descriptions make them sound an awful lot like Terminators, and you might expect to be fighting an indestructible ImplacableMan. In actuality, Coursers are only slightly tougher than the average mook, and their only real gimmick is making use of a stealth boy in combat.
** The Institute in ''4'' are frequently labeled in-game as the most technologically advanced and intelligent faction in the entire franchise by far, having surpassed pre-war America many times over. Browsing the rest of the series, though, you'll find that everything the Institute ever invented, barring ''maybe'' some aspects of Synths, has been created or surpassed by at least one other group (Vault-Tec, West-Tek, the Big MT, the Enclave, the Shi, Mr. House), often despite less time and resources, and a lot of their inventions are outright inferior to pre-war technology. It makes them come across as a collective KnowNothingKnowItAll, especially given how utterly [[StupidEvil incompetent and inefficient]] they are at actually ''[[MisappliedPhlebotinum using]]'' this tech.
** In the ''Nuka-World'' DLC, right-hand bad guy Porter Gage states that whenever the going gets tough, he gets out to live another day, no matter how often he's been betrayed. However, if you betray the raiders and kill them, Porter will stick around in a suicidal charge to kill you, even though it's clear he could never win.

* Gordon Freeman from ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' is a theoretical physicist... yet the most technically advanced things he does in the series is push a cart, flip switches, and plug in equipment. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Barney Calhoun in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' when he says "Good job hitting that switch. I can see that MIT education really pays for itself." He apparently picked up some mechanical knowledge at least, picking up any weapon and figuring out the controls quickly, even alien ones like the overwatch pulse rifle, successfully subverting UnusableEnemyEquipment.

* In ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}'', you're told that the troops under your command are handpicked from elite special forces around the world. This can be a bit hard to believe, since they have a tendency to [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy miss shots at point-blank range]], [[RedShirtArmy die to any blow whatsoever]] and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere flee in panic at the slightest hindrance]]. The reboot series tends to at least let them start with enough accuracy to hit more than they miss... even [[VideoGame/XCOM2 the one]] where you're actually leading a ragtag grassroots militia.

** Godot is constantly feared by police and other prosecutors alike for being a powerful attorney. ''He's the least successful prosecutor in the entire series.'' He never wins a case, both on-screen or off, where as Winston Payne is at least noted for being undefeated up until his trial against Mia. [[spoiler: Of course, he's actually a ''defense'' attorney (and a competent co-counsel to Mia during 3-4), and only became a prosecutor to oppose Phoenix, which would be terrible for anyone's win record.]]

** Mipha is described as having been without equal when it came to weilding a trident, yet all of the flashbacks featuring her instead focus on her healing ability, her crush on Link, or her nurturing side towards Sidon. This especially stands out in the "The Champions' Ballad" DCL, which gave the other three Champions scenes to show off their combat skill, yet she's just shown swimming up a waterfall. Fortunately, ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity'' helps to rectify this thanks to her being a playable character who can mow down armies just as easy as everyone else. [[spoiler:[[FutureBadass And so can Sidon]].]]

* Liam Kosta in ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' is stated to be an ex-cop who even studied law. However, he does absolutely nothing to assist [[PlayerCharacter Ryder]] in the few criminal investigations you get to carry out. Even when brought along in the field as a squadmate on missions where some investigative work needs doing, such as the Kadara serial killings, the “water filter murders”, Nilken Rensis or the Spender treason investigations, Liam behaves like any other squadmate.

*** In ''3'', Tora constantly mentions "strategy" and "thinking several moves ahead" and is even introduced in the N1 as a "master strategist". His navi, [=KingMan=] is one of the cheapest bosses in the entire series, its "strategy" consisting of staying in back row while a bunch of autonomous chess pieces continually harass the player.

* In ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}'', you're told that the troops under your command are essentially handpicked from elite special forces units around the world. This can be a bit hard to believe, since they're all greener than a fresh recruit who dropped out of basic on day one and require some work to bring up to speed. The newer games tend to at least let them start out with enough accuracy to hit more than they miss, but the older ones would very frequently have them unloading their whole magazine at point blank against a target the size of car, missing their shots completely, and then panicking and running for the hills.

* ''VideoGame/RaveHeart'': Ellemine believes Eryn is wiser than her when it comes to politics and would make a great leader. In practice, [[spoiler:he comes off as the weak link of Count Estuuban's conspiracy. While Count Vorakia Estuuban, Lady Marselva, and Reverend Sergio perform their roles without making significant mistakes, Eryn puts their entire operation at risk by imprisoning Chad merely for speaking up for Arcturo's innocence. This accomplishes nothing beneficial for the conspiracy and causes the rest of the council to become suspicious, forcing the conspirators to kill and imprison the other council members]].

* The various "ultimate weapons" in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' are repeatedly shown to not at all meet such a boast. All the various Tyrants tend to fall to either a single opponent or a group of two armed with conventional weaponry, the Nemesis is debatably only a threat because his opponent is a single underarmed person ''already'' struggling to survive with limited access to supplies, and all are rather easily finished off by a single explosive. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3'' really hammers this home with the ''five Tyrants'' sent to kill the single United States Army unit that was investigating the Dead Factory. As evidenced by the numerous Tyrant corpses littering the area, it seems a proper military unit was able to take down all five with standard military-grade gear. True they took heavy casualties, but if they also had no clue what they would be facing; a military unit with proper intel on these things would smear them all over the landscape with weapons readily available to their soldiers.

*** Shantotto is depicted as incredibly powerful magic user, with even her enemies showing her great respect or outright admitting she is more powerful than them. Gameplay-wise, Shantotto is a TierInducedScrappy, often in the front running for the game's worst character.

** Geeta from ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet''. Three of her Pokemon are terrible, and of the three that are good one is completely wasted by having ability that lets it lay down Toxic Spikes without having to do anything and being her ''last'' Pokemon. She also has two Psychic-type Pokemon as well as her team having crippling weaknesses to Fire and Bug as well as being generally ill-equipped to deal with Ghost and Dark types. Her ace also has Tera Blast despite being a Rock Type that Terastallizes into a Rock Type, which raises the question of why she just doesn't a Rock move to begin with since Tera Blast is primarily meant for Pokemon who are using a Tera type different from their regular type and so might not have good STAB moves while Terastallized.

** Godot is constantly feared by police and other prosecutors alike for being a powerful attorney. ''He's the least successful prosecutor in the entire series.'' He never wins a case, both on-screen or off, where as Winston Payne is at least noted for being undefeated up until his trial against Mia. It's justified only so far [[spoiler:with him being a defense attorney.]]

** Warden-Commander Clarel de Chanson in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' is frequently touted as a wise, brave, and resourceful leader. [[spoiler:So when the Grey Wardens all simultaneously feel "the Calling" (which tells them they are dying and traditionally it is time to make a demon-battling suicidal pilgrimage), she essentially accepts this at face value and assumes they're all screwed. Then she agrees to a plan from a shady non-Warden mage from ''Tevinter'' to use sinister blood magic to murder her skilled and loyal Grey Warden warriors and use their deaths to summon the kind of weak demons that Grey Wardens can eat for breakfast. This is done so she can send her demon conscripts to go fight archdemons. Then she exiles or kills all Grey Wardens who oppose this blood-magic murder-sacrifice demon-summoning... plan. Then when the Inquisition arrives to tell her she's making a huge mistake, she orders her Wardens to kill them. To cap it all, she fails until the last minute to see this whole thing was a ruse by Corypheus to enslave the Grey Wardens, or even contemplate that the matter should even be thoroughly investigated before flying off the handle.]] She wasn't evil all along; she didn't make a FaceHeelTurn along the way. She really thought she was acting logically and courageously, and the tone is such that she is meant to be seen as a tragic heroine rather than a monstrous idiot.