A Taste Of Power - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Taste Of Power; Abilitease

In Prime 1 and Prime 2 we were kind of going by that paradigm of "Let's give the player some initial abilities up front to give them that 'Wow, this is interesting; I'm doing a lot of different things' [feeling] and then let's take them away and settle into the Metroid Prime core gameplay." But in 3 we had kind of done that already. In 3 we were like, "Are we really going to take the abilities away again? What does that really prove? We’ve already done it in other games."
—Mark Pacini, Game Director of the Metroid Prime series, on why this trope wasn't applied in the third game to MTV

When starting a game, often the player starts out with an extremely powerful party or character, which can easily slaughter anything it comes across, playing through a short battle or dungeon. The player is in no real danger of losing at this point, but this incredible power never lasts long. Once the introductory segment is complete, the player switches to the real party, usually at level 1 with basic starter gear.

The primary purpose of this trope is to get a player into a game and teach them the rules without overwhelming them with dangerous enemies early on. This can also give them a preview of the powers and skills they'll be acquiring later in the game. Common marketing wisdom is that you have to sell your game on the players in the first ten minutes, or you risk them not sticking around to get to the really good parts, hence A Taste Of Power to draw a player in.

Another advantage to A Taste Of Power is that the player gets to do something and have some fun while the scene is set and the story established, instead of sitting through an uninteractive opening cutscene or simply wandering around the First Town talking to people and trying to figure out what to do.

Frequently used in RTS games to allow the player to be given a tutorial in one sitting.

This is sometimes done by means of a Jeigan Character, who leaves, is killed, or is depowered after the segment is over, weakening your fighting strength. It frequently ends with a Warmup Boss.

If some programming oversight allows you to retain some of this power, such as by removing the ridiculously powerful equipment from a temporary character, the result may make the game incredibly easy.

Compare Bag Of Spilling, where a player character's hard-won power is somehow lost between the end of one game and the beginning of its sequel. If you wind up having to fight the Jeigan Character later, you've been walking in Villain Shoes. May coincide with And Now For Someone Completely Different.

Examples:

Video Games

Lufia and the Fortress of Doom starts the player off with a party of very high-level characters, taking on one of the most powerful beings in the game's universe. This turns out to be a flashback that sets up the story for the rest of the game.
- The prequel Rise Of The Sinistrals has the very same battle and ends with its immediate aftermath.
In Spectrobes, you begin the second game by having everything you obtained in the first game stolen. You technically get it back.
Chrono Cross begins with a dream sequence with Serge, Kidd and one randomly selected character, at a somewhat elevated level and powers. Perhaps uniquely, it's a premonition, and the party goes through the very same events later in the game.
Final Fantasy VI gives Terra a pair of soldiers and powerful Magitek armour until the Esper is found, at which point the armour is destroyed and both soldiers are lost.
- Note that you only get Magitek armour again for a single (and a second, missable) sequence.
The original version of Final Fantasy IV shows Cecil taking out monsters with powerful attack items in an automated battle at the start of the game. The DS remake changed this by placing the player into a real battle with the aforementioned attack items in the inventory, presumably assuming that the player has played the original and remembers the items. Or the player can just take out the monsters themself, using regular attacks. They're not difficult.
Final Fantasy VII does this about six hours after the game begins, when Cloud is telling the story of his trip to Nibelheim with Sephiroth. Sephiroth has a six slot linked weapon, and a six slot linked armor piece, along with mastered materia coupled with All materia, in addition to a ridiculously high strength rating and the inability to be touched by enemies (all attacks default to 0 damage). Needless to say, if and when you find yourself in battle, he kills everything before you can even act. And then we all know what happens next...
- Oh and by the way, think you can let Cloud have a piece of that mastered materia action? Tough luck, because Sephiroth won't let you unequip anything from himself.
Final Fantasy X does this in a different way: during the prologue, you end up in a boss battle against an enemy that can't kill you (it only uses an attack that halves your HP, and if you have 1 HP it does no damage), and almost immediately get maxed out Overdrive gauges for both of your party members. The boss fight becomes trivial.
- Later, in the rematch against Sinspawn Gui, himself being a fairly challenging boss, especially for new players, the game gives you a party of Healing Hands Yuna, Badass Longcoat/...just badass in general Auron...and Seymour. Seymour is perfectly capable of winning this fight singlehandedly without a scratch on him, and everything he does (asides from his character-specific Overdrive, naturally) is something the player will be capable of doing. It's very impressive.
Final Fantasy II gives you the horrendously overpowered Minwu after playing for a short time. The catch is that he specializes in White magic, meaning he can heal you and protect you, but damage is not his forte. In this way, you're allowed to level up your characters without too much worry about death.
Final Fantasy III tricks you into thinking you're getting this: the game starts in a cave, and you have to kill the boss to escape and begin the game proper. Fortunately, you're given a number of Antarctic Wind items, which have the same effect as the Ice2 (or Blizzara) spell, and the boss just happens to have a weakness to ice. Nevertheless, you're not actually more powerful ( and you should save those items for the much more difficult Jinn boss that's coming up).
Two of the Metroid Prime games begin with a fully suited-up Samus playing through a short level, after which she loses her extra abilities and the real game begins. This is now a Beam Me Up Scotty joke for the franchise; "Samus always loses her powers near the start of the game."
- Metroid Prime 3 just uses the Bag Of Spilling, much like the rest of the Metroid series.
God Of War II begins with Kratos as a (slightly depowered) God, allowing the player to slaughter his way through the armies of Rhodes, before he becomes all the way depowered.
- He actually starts the story with fully godlike powers, but Zeus removes some of them with his first backstab, somewhere around a minute before the player is first given control.
Need For Speed: Most Wanted begins with a flash-forward featuring the player racing in a high-performance BMW which becomes disabled partway through the race. The game then flashes back six days to show how the player got to the race at the beginning before coming full circle and having the player lose the car in the opening race. Then the player must start the actual game by purchasing a more modest vehicle and working back up to overpowered racing machine.
- EA Games loves this trope, because the same thing happens in Need For Speed: Carbon. Instead of having the car for three and a half races, however, you're treated to a sort of intro to canyon racing that you can only lose if you stop trying, before your car is totalled.
- Similarly, in Need For Speed: Underground, when you begin a new career, you immediately start a circuit race with modded cars. After you win the circuit, it turns out the whole race was just your daydream, and your own car is completely unmodded.
  - The ending cutscene potentially (and eerily) makes this a dream-within-a-dream. It rattled this editor when he finished the game.
- In Need For Speed: Underground 2, you're in charge of delivering a high-performance car to someone. You can participate in up to 3 races before the car's owner gets pissed and demands you return it at once.
- Strangely, Need For Speed: Undercover completely averts the trope when it'd be entirely logical to have it in full force. You're not some out of luck wanna be racer, you're undercover for the FBI. You think they'd give you more than a barely decent car...
Makai Kingdom opens with the player taking control of the level 2000 "Badass freakin' overlord" (yes, that's his actual title) Zetta during the tutorial battle, who in the first subsequent cutscene ruins his entire life by accident and is rendered unusable as a playable character, despite still being the main character. When appearing — in book form — as a Bonus Boss in Disgaea 2, he is still the most powerful overlord in the multiverse.
Since the main hero in Suikoden V is a prince, he gets to spend much of the first part of the game with a party of strong allies, including the kingdom's most powerful bodyguard, who is compelled to leave him midway through the game. (The hero still has his own personal bodyguard as a permanent tagalong, until plot events remove her from gameplay as well.)
Suikoden II starts you off with Jowy and Riou, the two main characters. Although they are relatively weak, being only level 1, they have access to the devastating Combination Attack "Buddy Attack", which hits every enemy without fail for as much damage as they would inflict with two regular attacks. Needless to say, the enemies that survive the attack are quickly killed.
- Suikoden IV does the same thing in the beginning, with Lazlo and Snowe having access to the powerful Friendship attack at the beginning of the game. It only targets one enemy, but is more than enough to take out any bosses you meet with two or three shots.
Digimon World Dusk & Dawn feature a protaganist armed with powerful Ultimate level Digimon. However, a malignant computer virus causes them to be reduced to level 1 Rookies after the first few battles.
In Assassins Creed you start off with all equipment and a great deal of health. Sadly none of this is enough to stop you from failing the first mission and being stripped of everything.
- Which explains his equipment, but turns into a Wall Banger when it includes his abilities and skills as well. Apparently Altair is on his scout's honor not to counterattack or catch ledges after a jump until his master says he's allowed to again.
Onimusha 3 starts Samonosuke off with the fully-powered versions of his three primary magic swords from the first game (Raizen, Enryuu, and Shippuu) only to rob him of all three by the second level, leaving him with naught but his regular, non-magical katana once again until he can find three new magical weapons. Completing the game gives you the ability to replay it but keep the three swords past the first level.
Command And Conquer 3 allows you to use the GDI's superweapon in the tutorial mission. Needless to say that you won't be able to use it again until much later into the game.
- Also an example of Cutscene Power To The Max. While being highly devastating, Ion Cannon does not, normally, evaporate entire enemy bases in one shot.
  - Oh, it can... if the base designer builds things too close together. The NOD buildings are just rigged to all die no matter what via map scripting - try firing the ion cannon at the outskirt of the base rather than the center.
  - No, it can't. The superweapons of all three factions are balanced to be unable to destroy a construction yard in one hit. So you can never completely waste the enemy in one shot, no matter what.
Tales of the Abyss has a powerful spellcaster join you during a seemingly Hopeless Boss Fight, allowing you to defeat it very easily. Shortly afterwards, aboard his ship, all his powers are suddenly sealed.
Subverted in Disgaea 2 in that it's one of your rivals who loses all their levels and gear. Etna (a level 1000 veteran of the last game), shortly after smacking Overlord Zenon around like a red headed stepchild, is sought out for a component needed to summon Overlord Zenon for the main party to beat down. She gives them the WRONG ingredient as a prank, but little did she know it would end up summoning her with her gear removed and all her levels gone thanks to that act of Laser Guided Karma. She then stalks the party so she can build her power back up, she's that angry about it.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a textbook example of this trope. After the (skippable) introductory scene with Richter Belmont, Alucard comes to Castle Drac with a full complement of his signature equipment... which is promptly swiped from him by Daddy's Dragon, Death. It's not until you've explored the entire castle twice that you can get back everything you lost.
- Humorously, it is possible to skip past the room with Death, making the rest of the game absurdly easy due to your crazy armor that reduces most attacks in the first half of the game to Scratch Damage.
- Happens again in Dawn Of Sorrow, sort of. You're essentially given three souls at the beginning of the game. Two are relatively minor (Spear Armor and Skeleton), but the third (Golem) is relatively powerful, and you won't get a chance to get another Golem soul for about two hours of gameplay.
Baldur's Gate had an illusionist at the very start of the game teach you group tactics along with several midlevel NPC friends (who weren't illusory) against swarms of illusory monsters that would have overwhelmed your character normally but which didn't deal any damage.
- And, just to be clear, there was a way to glitch their equipment so it could continue existing well-beyond the tutorial. As many times as you wanted.
EarthBound has your player character start off with your bug-like guide, Buzz-Buzz, circling you around. You also have two somewhat helpful NPCs with you as well (Picky and your Dog), as well as one totally useless one (Pokey). Because of Buzz-Buzz's great and awesome PSI abilities, you are basically invincible for the first few minutes of the game. Then Buzz-Buzz gets swatted by Pokey and Picky's mom, who thinks it's a bug. Now you are all alone.
Chaos Legion starts the main character off with Thanatos as his legion, whose powers include wiping out everything and anything that happens to so much as look at you. You lose it once you meet the Big Bad at the end of the tutorial stage, and have to reassemble it.
The Hentai RPG "Knights Of Xentar" starts your character at the lower-mid levels, with decent stats. However, the moment we're done with the introductory area, the plot depowers you and strips you nude.
In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the prologue level is played as Darth Vader. He plays like the normal player character would after being powered up to the max, with all the combos and powers available, except he does not have the dash powers.
In the older computer RPG Ultima VII part 2: Serpent Isle the player starts off with a good set of gear from the previous game, including the Infinity Plus One Sword from the previous game's Expansion Pack, the Blackrock Sword. This sword can kill any foe in one hit. Upon setting foot on the titular Serpent Isle with all of the amazing gear from the first game, you and your party members are struck by magical lightning that swaps all of your gear (and your party members themselves) with otherwise innocuous objects, leaving you alone, wielding such things as a pumice rock and a furrier's cap. However, each item is a clue to where the corresponding powerful item ended up.
Alter Echo grants the player all three forms in quick succession during the opening chapter, allowing the player to get used to the shapeshifting mechanics and using all three forms in tandem effectively. At the end of the first chapter, the resident super-villain steals all but your basic form until your ally restores your other forms after beating the second and third chapters.
Star Ocean: The Second Story has one of the two primary characters start out with a futuristic (and powerful) energy beam weapon. It doesn't take long for it to run out of energy, and the game doesn't provide a way to recharge it.
- During the battle tutorial in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, the main character has a ridiculous amount of HP and MP, but has only about a tenth of that in the first real battle. This is explained in-game by the tutorial being a video game within the game's world. (This is also foreshadowing.)
Super Nashwan Power (http://www.nashwan.org/), from Xenon 2. Oh Oh, Oh Yeah!
In the first Splinter Cell: Double Agent mission, you are flouncing through the fjords, weighed down with a plethora of high tech gizmos. In the second mission, you're in prison and have to crawl through an air duct to snag a lock picking kit. Ouch.
- Not to mention that you're probably pining a lot for those fjords.
Kameo Elements Of Power begins with the titular character infiltrating the fortress of Thorn, the troll king, with three Elemental Warrior transformations intact. Instructions are given on how to transform and use the Warriors' abilities. The attack on the castle fails; Kameo loses her Elemental Warriors, and must retrieve them, along with several other transformations.
The first level of the Ryusei route in Super Robot Wars Original Generation lets you play as the best pilot in the game, although he's in the worst unit. He doesn't become permanently playable until the penultimate level. The Kyosuke route is a better example, featuring several levels with the equally Badass Sanger Zonvolt and his Grungust Type 0, who leave the party for most of the middle of the game. Since both of these guys show up as bosses in the mean time, it serves as a taste of the bad guys' power as well.
- The 2nd game does the same thing with Gilliam, Sanger and Elzam, oops, Ratsel for a nice chunk of the game.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories sorta does this. Vic is in the army and guess what he gets? Military hardware. That means while the Cholos and average thug is limited to baseball bats and pistols, you are cutting them down with your handy rifle received from unsuspecting patrols in your base (they will retaliate after the first patrol dies though.
Secret of Evermore gives the player character the bazooka, one of the strongest ranged weapons in the game, in the very first fight. However after going into an escape pod afterwards and landing on Evermore you lose the bazooka and have to fight your way to the next village with... a bone.
- Halfway through the game, this trope strikes again. You meet someone that found your bazooka, and he gives it back to you for free - with one round of ammo. Turns out you can't buy more ammo until the endgame...
  - Well, you can buy more ammo from the guy that sold you the bazooka, but the cost is extremely prohibitive (1000 gold coins for 10 shots, compared to 1000 credits for 50 shots later).
Parodied in the Sluggy Freelance storyline "Years of Yarncraft." When Torg first creates his character for an MMORPG, he's got a cool looking sword and some impressive armor. These are almost immediately revealed to be a cardboard cutout concealing the real character, who's only got some cheap clothes and a small dagger. The game then takes away Torg's dagger and gives him a stick.
Torg: "Well that didn't take long!"
Breath Of Fire 4 lets you play as the game's Big Bad at certain points in the story, usually near the beginning of each chapter. He's at a ridiculously high level and has the best equipment in the game, giving you a taste of what The Hero can do once he achieves the same level of butt-kicking power.
- Breath Of Fire 3 forces you into dragon mode at the beginning of the game. Your attacks consist of a normal melee attack (which is weak) and a dragon breath attack (which kills all enemies in one hit). In the event that you don't get initiative and the enemy attacks first, you have a 100% counter rate and automatically use the dragon breath attack. Losing is also impossible (as the enemies do a paltry 1 HP of damage, and you have a bit more than that (about 30), but since you counter automatically, you can't drag out fights).
When creating your character in CABAL Online, your character is depicted wearing very impressive looking, high level equipment. Once your character is actually created though, you only have basic, dull gear.
- Hellgate: London does the same.
Ecco The Dolphin: The Tides of Time: Ecco begins the game not having to breathe, as a token of the Asterite's power granted him in the first game. Once something wipes out the Asterite offscreen in one of the first levels, though, be prepared to see that oxygen bar start going down...
Kingdom Hearts II had an early boss fight in which you fought with 2 Keyblades. It also had one with an inordinate number of reaction commands. The latter taught you how to use them. The former was just a teaser, and the ability wouldn't be regained until you went to Yen Sid's Tower.
- Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days inverts the trope by giving you the powered up abilities at the end of the game — Day 358 is Deep Dive, in which you play as Roxas dual-wielding Oathkeeper and Oblivion, capable of killing Neoshadows in one hit. This still counts as a straight example, too, because with the right panel configuration, you can use dual-wielding Roxas in Mission Mode, albeit not nearly as powerful.
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, while it didn't exactly dazzle you with power, had the strongest of the 3 basic spells, a decent command attack, and several levels put on Zack for a level with a bunch of soldiers and a Behemoth.
- It can happen again later in the game, when Zack is assigned to protect Hojo. A simulation designed to test new materia gives that materia to Zack and forces him into a fight. The materia is quite powerful...and lost as soon as the fight is over.
Final Fantasy XII had you play as Reks who, while still only Level 1, travels with a small squad of Dalmascan soldiers, most notably Captain Basch, who will kill everything that isn't boss-strength in one hit, and one soldier that throws around healing potions to anyone who ever needs them, and never runs out. Then you change to his little brother Vaan. To put in perspective, you gotta grind to at least level three in the first area to survive the sub-boss you have to face upon taking control of him. Also, you are introduced to the wonder and glory of the greatsword weapon class through the guest party character Vossler—you won't have effective greatswords of your own for quite some time. Another example is Lamont/Larsa, who has unlimited Hi and X-Potions, and isn't afraid to use them. During your first trip with him, dying isn't much of a concern.
The start of Scarface: The World Is Yours has the player take Tony through the film-ending mansion shootout and play around with an unlimited-ammo M16+M203. After the mission ends, Tony loses everything and is somehow made to lose the rifle too, forcing him to rebuild his reputation. The M16 does not become available again until much later in the game and it is no longer unlimited-ammo out of Blind Rage.
Legacy of Goku II uses a "flash-forward" version, taking full and clever advantage of a plot point in the show...the alternate future where the androids have destroyed everything. You play as Trunks, at a fairly high level (but unable to go Super Saiyan yet). And future (Bad Ass) Gohan runs you through the basics of your power and Ki Attacks, including, as mentioned, a failed attempt at going Super Saiyan. Then you're released to chase after Gohan just in time to see him killed by the Androids. Then in the cutscene, Trunks goes Super Saiyan in a rage, the screen flashes white, and you end up in the present, as Gohan, at Level 1, with none of the power or Ki abilities Trunks had in the future.
In the lesser-known FPS game, Chaser, the only gun you get in the first level is the G11 — a powerful and accurate assault rifle with a 50-round magazine and an attached mini-scope. After getting used to effortlessly pulverizing every Mook in sight, you're downgraded to low-power pistols and submachine guns.
The Sega classic Wonder Boy : The Dragon's Trap starts you off in the labyrinth lair of Meka, the Dragon, equipped with Legendary Sword, Shield and Armor, bunches of Heart Containers, and mooks that drop heart refills nearly all the time, making it practically impossible to die at this point unless you do it on purpose. Then you reach and defeat Meka, and he leaves behind a Wisp that curses you, turning you into a lizard-man with a wimpy fire breath.
Ramza's first battle in Final Fantasy Tactics is fought at the courtyard of Orbonne Monastery, defending it from brigands with the help of two Knights, a Squire, Holy Swordswoman Agrias, and Fell Knight Gaffgarion. The party is monumentally overqualified for engaging the brigands, it's nigh-impossible to get a Game Over, and Agrias and Gaffgarion make short work of them with their skills. Upon the end of the battle, the game flashes back to several months ago, where Ramza is allowed only a few other Level 1 Squires and Chemists to accompany him on his mission.
- Unlike other battles, if Ramza is KO'd, then he gets flashing stars over his head indicating he will not be turned into a crystal, and the NP Cs complete the battle normally. It is in fact, ~~impossible~~ almost impossible to lose this battle.
- Interestingly, if you take the time during the flashback to level Ramza up to a higher level than he was in this scene, it will carry over to the rest of the game. Meaning that Ramza could, in theory, go from being a fair match for the brigands to curb-stomping them within one in-game day.
Tales Of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World has the player start with Richter in his party, who can take down any of the first-dungeon enemies with ease. He leaves after about twenty minutes and only rejoins for four other brief periods in the game, and that's assuming you do the sidequests.
Tales Of Phantasia has the player start out with high-leveled party against high-level boss and then when it's over reveals it's just the prolouge. This troper was not amused.
- It's a strictly automatic animation, and it shows nothing - Alan's sword harmlessly bounces off Dhaos' guard, and Morrison's Indignation interrupt's Dhaos' spell.
The prologue of Tales of Innocence gives the player control of Asras for one easy battle. It might be a subversion - Asras controls are quite different from any other character you actually play, ~~even~~ especially his own reincarnation.
In Avalon Code, after receiving the Book of Prophecy, you use it to summon twin "Genesis" swords for a fight, which are very powerful. Immediately after, the Book runs out of power, and the Genesis sword becomes a rubbish rusty old sword.
In Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django, you start with the very powerful solar gun, Gun Del Sol. It is stolen from you a few screens later. You get it back near the end of the game, but it is damaged and uses 50 times as much energy as it used to.
In Captain Comic 2, you get unlimited fuel for your jetpack in the second to last level. The last level prevents you from using your jetpack at all.
In Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, you start the game in a battle where you have a level 50 Salamence squaring off against a level 50 Metagross. After the battle you realize that it was just a sim battle and you actually own a level 10 Eevee instead.
Tutorial of UFO: Aftershock consists of 3 missions during which you control characters (1 in first mission, 2 in second and 3 in last part) with early game weapons but with armour (at true beggining you have no armour for your soldiers) and mid/late game skills and abilities (probably most notable is Ranger wielding double laser pistols).
The first chapter of Riviera The Promised Land is Ein (our hero) and Ledah heading to the title country. Ledah carries one of the two Unbreakable Weapons in the game, heals far more health than he can be damaged for each turn, and is capable of doing about 200 damage a hit (which is usually instant death), and both characters are far stronger than their foes. Once you complete the chapter, Ein gets zapped away, ending up with his stats cut in half when he lands in Riviera proper.
Prototype begins with a scene featuring Alex Mercer rampaging through Times Square, showing off several of his powers. Then we flash back to three weeks prior, when his life bar was smaller and he didn't have the blade, hammerfist, or whipfist.
- The themetically similiar Spider-Man: Web of Shadows also pulls the same In Medias Res variant of this trope.
In two Tactics Ogre releases: Let us Cling Together and The Knight of Lodis, you play the first few levels with the support of very powerful, experienced units (the Zenobians in LuCT, and Rictor + Orsen in KoL.) You're separated from these powerhouses quickly, and left commanding nothing but a bunch of poorly-armed rookies.
In the Flash RPG "MARDEK RPG", the game starts out with the main characters pretending that they are legendary heroes, and the tutorial is played through using their extremely powerful imaginary personas
The new Bionic Commando game has a tutorial shortly after the beginning with several powers available to you. Although you get to practice them all, don't expect to use any of them until the game tells you it's okay (except zip line kicks, those you can do right away).
Doom 3 slowly builds your arsenal of weapons all the way up the the BFG, then strips it all away for you to collect in the next level, then once more when you finish that level, where you keep everything until the end of the game.
Aion has a version of this around level 5-6, with a couple of flashback quests that take place in The Abyss, a much-higher-level PVP area. You're in impressive-looking armor, can fly, and characters around you are calling you their hero. In the second quest you'll also be facing off against some really tough-looking enemies who nonetheless go down easily before your "might", plus a "legendary" hero from the other faction, who ultimately kicks your butt in a cutscene.
Tower of the Sorcerer has you starting out with the Holy Sword and Holy Shield, which you promptly have to hand over to the Big Bad in Tower 3, and get thrown in prison. Luckily, there's a friendly thief (oxymoron much?) who will get you out, albeit with you unarmed.
The Neverwinter Nights module Kingmaker starts you off at level 10 with four level 10 allies in a War Sequence populated by enemies that would be moderately challenging for a level 2 character. Then you get killed and resurrected at level 2, and have to choose two of your allies to resurrect alongside you.
Wingnuts 2 starts you out with the best plane in the game (fast, strong, a ton of missiles, etc.) as you shoot down training blimps. Then, when the action starts and the Baron busts loose of the Temporal Prison, you have to fight a boss... which steals your plane right as you defeat it. Your next selection of planes is... not as good.
Shadow Complex starts with you controlling a different character who has the (mostly) assembled suit of Powered Armor you find the pieces of once you start the game proper. For this one shootout with a boss fight afterwards, you have plenty of armor, an assault rifle, grenades and missiles, and a double-jump.
Ace Combat 5 Arcade Mode, Operation Katina, gives the player a F-22 Raptor to toy with, which is far more capable than the F-5 Tiger that the player is made to start off with in campaign mode. The Raptor doesn't become available again for quite some time.
In the first dungeon of Lunar 2, Lucia has incredibly strong magic until you leave the dungeon (at which point plot/the Big Bad strips them from her), which she'll eventually get back later in the game.
- This is actually very useful, since you can use her to level up your other characters to make the upcoming boss fight much easier.
In the 2D MMORPG Maple Story, making an Aran places you through a tutorial in the form of a flashback. It introduces you to the Aran's basic playstyle by allowing you to use a maxed out Triple Swing/Final Blow, a 4th job skill combination.
Darksiders starts War off with eight Lifestones, a maximum power Chaoseater and the ability to use Chaos Form indefinitely. A couple of battles later, War suddenly loses Chaos Form and four of the Lifestones. After the first Boss Fight, War is brought in front of his masters, the Charred Council, who accuse him of starting the End War early and siding with the demons. They then strip him of all of his powers and leash him with an Exposition Fairy before letting him go on a Roaring Rampage Of Revenge.
Dragon Quest V has the Hero's father Pankraz accompanies you early in two points of the game with Sephiroth-like strength. He can wipe out all monsters before you can attack. You'll be awarded with exp. and even heals you after battle.