A Taste Of Power - Television Tropes & Idioms

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 siting.

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.

Examples:

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.
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 armor until the esper is found, at which point the armor is destroyed and both soldiers are lost.
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.
When you reach a town after the second dungeon in Phantasy Star IV, Rune will join your party. His level more than doubles the other characters' levels. He will leave after you arrive two towns over.
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.
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.
- 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.
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, a Jeigan Character who, true to form, 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.)
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.
For the first dungeon in Valkyrie Profile, you're joined by Freya, a full fledged god with a very strong attack, a huge number of Hit Points, who blocks nearly every attack she takes.
In Assassin's 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.
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 (possible subversion of [1]?) 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.
In Neverwinter Nights 2, you get Amie in your party for the prologue, and she is much more powerful than you and Bevil at this point. However, in the beginning of the main game, she dies. Permanently.
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.
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 accidentally cursed by a spell which strips the most powerful being on the planet of all their power. She then forces her way into the party and claims that they owe her until she is returned to her former glory.
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.
- Somewhat ironically, you can set things up so you keep the Alucard gear, but doing so involves using a code that drops his starting stats to incredible lows, meaning the early taste of power isn't much of a taste anymore.
- Also, you can glitch your way past the "lose your equipment" point, letting you keep your crazy equipment. Disc One Nuke ahoy!
- During the skippable intro sequence, Richter is in a Boss Fight. He cannot lose even if all of his health is drained (he gains invincibility at that point.) The opening scene does affect Alucard's starting stats though.
Final Fantasy VII is another shining example. Sephiroth's guest-star in Cloud's (fake) flashback is at level 50, with all sorts of nifty powers it took this troper a good 12 game-hours to even approach. Of course, this may just be a way to show off his Badassness, considering that he discovers his origins as a pet project of the local Evilutionary Biologist not long after you find out how useful he is.
Final Fantasy X does this by having Auron join the player in the opening sequence, who is several times as powerful as Tidus. However, by the time he rejoins you in Luca, Tidus and his companions have all caught up.
Baldurs 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.
Earthbound has your player character start off with your bug-like guide, Buzz-Buzz, circling you around. You also have 2 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. Your shortly 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.
Previews have mentioned that the opening level of Star Wars:The Force Unleashed will be played as Darth Vader. Presumably this will be an example of this trope.
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. During the introductory dungeon (set in, well, a prison dungeon) the player must lose or trade away every bit of gear he came to the island with, including the Blackrock Sword, which must be destroyed by breaking the gem in its hilt, releasing a demon within. Doing this changes the Blackrock Sword from being a very good piece of gear to being useless - and there is no other gear in the game that can match what it was.
- Actually, 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 loaf of bread and a jester's cap. However, each item is a clue to where the corresponding powerful item ended up. You never need to destroy the black sword itself to solve the game, with the demon freed you get no more instant death attacks but it remains a good sword once you fix it with the flux analyzer
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.
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.
{{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.

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