It's all well and good that characters with
empathy or
Super Senses can tell the
fighting strength or
Power Level of an opponent, and even get the heebie jeebies or outright
faint when the
penultimate evil shows up, but how do you transmit that to viewers without
stilted dialogue and stentorian theatrics?
Using Stat-O-Vision!
Whether it's thanks to a
Robo Cam, a mystical talisman, or a
cyborg eye, the character is privy to an
Enemy Scan that shows their opponents weight, height, age, fighting style,
blood type, favorite pet, and preferred brand of toilet paper. Expect any readings to be a
Random Power Ranking; if the opponent is weaker, expect
Trash Talking (and eating of crow once it turns out they're
Not Left Handed) and if they're much, much stronger cries of "
It's Over Nine Thousand!!!" with the prompt
overloading of the device.
Stylistically, expect a circle around the target or a shaded silhouette, and an architects line (a horizontal line which then inflects at an angle to a box of text). Other than the raw power being in big numbers, all the other stats' and trivia is usually very small, possibly in
alienese. If you're watching it on a
DVD that can pause and Zoom it
will be loaded with
Easter Eggs. Rapidly fluctuating bar graphs happen too.
See also
Enemy Scan.
For the magical/spiritual power equivalent see
Aura Vision
Examples:
Anime and Manga
Film
- Used in Resident Evil 2 movie with The Nemesis.
- The Rundown has
The Rock Beck comment on the entire offensive line of Notre Dame with various sports commentator stats showing up for each of them. After he mops the floor with them when they try to stop him from collecting a loan's collateral, his own Bad Ass stats show up. He likes cooking.
- The various Terminators, including the T-800 from Terminator 2: Judgement Day. In the 'Minigun VS Policeforce' scene, particularly, it seems to measure the total combat-strength of the entire platoon - the only model never given a point-of-view shot being the liquid metal T-1000.
- In the Iron Man movie, one point-of-view shot reveals that the heads-up display in Iron Man's suit can determine the difference between civilians and terrorists, and labels them as such (likely through AI identification of armed terrorists vs. unarmed civilians).
Literature
Live Action TV
- The Buffybot in Buffy The Vampire Slayer sees like this with information about Buffys friends displayed on screen when they're in its line of sight. Having been programmed by Warren to specifications given by Spike however, the information is extremely basic or displays a laughably 2D idea of the characters. For instance, Willows screen reads: "Best Friend. Gay (1999-Present). Witch. Good with computers.". Also displayed on screen are the Buffybots two primary objectives in life "Locate Spike" and "Make Spike Happy". The latter has a drop-down menu of files with titles like "kissing" and "position-1" and so on.
Video Games
- Deus Ex, superimposed over Denton's vision. It even increases weapon damage.
- Various Final Fantasy games have this, typically as the effect of the Scan/Libra/Peep ability/spell.
- Tron 2.0
- Persona 3 apparently has this as an explicit power of Mitsuru and Fuuka's Personae.
- The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System in Fallout 3.
- The Awareness Perks of Fallout 1 & 2 are probably more accurate examples, as they actually do give stat details. The VATS only gives health levels of body locations, so it's just an extension of the HUD's ability to show overall health.
- Of course, this is only supposed to be an indication of the Player Character's skill at evaluating others, expressed to the player as S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats.
- The combat display in Mass Effect provides identity, shield and health information for whatever enemy your targeting reticle is resting on.
- The Scan Visor in the Metroid Prime games is a textbook example.
- Later Castlevania games, notably Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia, feature either an item, a soul or a glyph that allows the player to see the stats of whatever enemy they're attacking at the moment. They're displayed on the top screen of the DS, while the game is on the touch screen.
- Any recent Dragon Ball Z game uses Scouters for the Life Meters and other information.
- Rosalind has a spell in Summoner that allows her to see the stats of enemies. I was wondering why those darned liches never seemed to take any damage…
- The Solid Eye in Metal Gear Solid 4, which displays health, affiliation, carried weapons, and emotional state (as expressed through the game's simplified four-emotion system).
- Juni in Street Fighter Alpha has this ability and forms the majority of her quotes in the Japanese version.
Web Comics
- In Erfworld, wizards and warlords can see unit stats natively, except for the Trapped In Another World Parson, who needs special help to do so. No one can see Parson's stats, however...
- This
8-Bit Theater strip with Red Mage using what appears to be a Scan spell, titled "Wherein No One's Power Level Is 9,000".
- In Goblins, which began as a straight-up spoof of Dungeons and Dragons from the goblins' point of view, all of the characters are Genre Savvy to the point of worshipping the Dungeon Master, consciously levelling up, and, in particular, being able to see numerals representing negative hit points hovering over unconscious or wounded characters.
Western Animation
- Parodied in Recess where resident bully Gelman's vision is shown like this when he's looking for Gus. It's parodied right down to the start "night vision green" color and the synthesized voice.
