Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

Custom Search

alt title(s): Cool But Impractical

"It's not only impressive, it's irresponsible."
— Panther, of The Protomen

A skeletal steed. Impressive but impractical. I had one once, but the head fell off.
Death, Reaper Man

NUNCHUKS: Cool But Useless
The Simpsons

So, you've been toiling through the game for many an hour. You've killed a veritable army of Mooks, solved all the puzzles, worked your way through the Bonus Dungeon, and uncovered The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. And here's your reward: The ultimate attack. The spell that scatters the enemies and razes their land, drives your foes away from you and allows you to listen to the lamentations of their women. The weapon which channels the power of the gods and rends the earth (although somehow without damaging you or your teammates). The strategy that even Machiavelli couldn't work his head around. The one attack that rips victory from the jaws of defeat, bends to one knee, and hands it to you on a silver platter.

It's awesome. It's flashy. It's unstoppable.

It's also completely useless.

Yes, it seems that the designers put so much time into maxing out the "ultimate" factor of the ultimate attack that they forgot to actually make it usable. Maybe it requires too many resources to use, causing its allure of "awesome" to be lost as fast as your party's money. Maybe it requires some sort of bizarre set-up to enact, making your normal attacks and spells much easier to apply inside of battle.

Whatever the reason, it will get used once, as a test drive, and then never again. Yeah, it's awesome, but you've got a game to win here.

Mind you, if you care about doing cool stuff over winning, they can be quite fun. A competitive player will never look at them twice; this is one of the good things about being a Noob.

Related to the Bragging Rights Reward and Inventional Wisdom on occasion. The Infinity Plus One Sword may be this. See also Cool But Inefficient, Useless Useful Spell, Blessed With Suck. Contrast Too Awesome To Use, Boring But Practical, Awesome Yet Practical and Game Breaker. Crosses with Death Or Glory Attack when a miss will result in nasty consequences. The weapon equivalent of Scary Impractical Armor.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime 

    Comic Books 

    Live Action TV 

    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 

    Web Original 

    Military 

    Other Real Life