Finishing Move - Television Tropes & Idioms

"FORM BLAZING SWORD!"

The Finishing Move (In Japanese, hissatsu waza) is the martial arts equivalent of the Forgotten Superweapon — a special combat maneuver that is only ever used to cap off a battle, especially one that's already been won. Usually some variety of Kamehame Hadoken, it's often incredibly flashy, frequently requiring a "charge-up" time long enough that it would be impractical to use if your opponent weren't already on the ground in a bloody heap. Even without a "charge-up" time, using a Finishing Move at the beginning of a fight is often unwise (especially if It Only Works Once), because if the enemy can counter it, they most likely will.

When a new Finishing Move is introduced in a story, it's often treated as a case of Crossing The Streams — if the move isn't carried out perfectly, it could backfire and kill our hero(es), or even cause The End Of The World As We Know It. Inevitably, the move turns out to be the only thing that can save them this week, and so it works perfectly, and it's treated as being reliable from then on.

Limit Breaks in videogames are usually intended as Finishing Moves, but often have different uses. Finishing Moves are also common as a natural part of gameplay in games, as opposed to being intended to be used when you probably don't need it and it's just cool.

A Coup De Grace may be used as one.

Examples:

"Finish him!" The Mortal Kombat games are infamous for their "secret" Fatality finishing moves, which evolved in later games into Babality, Animality, Friendship, and so on.
The videogame Mega Man X: Command Mission features a "Final Strike" move where all the characters fire everything they have at the enemy — somtimes a pointless gesture, since it can only be done when the enemy has received 75% of their current HP in damage in one action (i.e. one character's attack). However, it can be a lot more useful on bosses.
In Dragonball Z, almost every character seems to have a few of these.
Ranma 1/2 parodies this with the "Saotome Secret Maneuver" — which is running away from a fight one's losing to regroup and reconsider tactics.
- Actually, Ranma and Ryoga both have what could be considered finishing moves in the Hiryu-shoten-ha and the Shi-shi-hokodan. While Ryoga's shi-shi-hokodan is not always the end of a fight (Ranma survives several blasts of the "perfected" version), Ranma's Hiryu-Shoten-ha is only kept from being a show winner because it tends to stick around. After Ranma uses the technique (which creates a tornado), he often times gets swept up in it, and there is a sizable chunk of time dealing with this. At the end of the manga, with a bit of help from some artifacts, Ranma manages to blow up a mountain.
Common in Professional Wrestling. Some wrestlers even have multiple finishing moves, either done alternately, or in sequence.
Most characters in Rurouni Kenshin have their own Finishing Move: Kenshin's Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki, Aoshi's Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren, Saitou's Gatotsu Zeroshiki, etc. Subverted with Sanosuke, who only knows one special move, the Futae no Kiwami, (the Sanjuu no Kiwami, its finishing variation, was made up on the spot and is never used again), and Sojiro, whose finishing move is merely a combination of simple battoujutsu and his incredible speed. The Big Bad of the Kyoto Arc, Shishio, has a Finishing Move as well, but we never see it executed.
- As for damage to self, the Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki requires incredible will as well as impeccable timing to execute, or the reversed blade may well slash Kenshin's left leg off in the process. (The detrimental effects of the entire Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu on Kenshin are well detailed elsewhere.) Repeated use of the Futae no Kiwami turns Sanosuke's hands into broken wrecks, much to Megumi's displeasure.
A few Naruto characters have Finishing Moves. There's a technique called "Double Snake Suicide" that instantly kills both the user and the intended target. Kakashi's Chidori/Raikiri strike has to be charged up (which is noisy as hell, so it can't be used as a sneak attack); the only apparent use for it is a Single Stroke Battle situation. Given the many ways ninjas in Naruto can cheat their way out of being hit (shadow clones, substitution jutsus, etc.), these moves seem to be more trouble than they're worth.
- Many people do comment on how the technique is reckless and nearly useless, including Kakashi's own teacher. In fact, he kept telling Kakashi not to use it for those very reasons: It just wasn't a very good technique, especially not for a Ninja. It flat-out wouldn't work in any sort of real fight without the broken abilities of his Sharingan, which he didn't have yet when he created the technique.
  - Kakashi's teacher, on the other hand, created the far more practical Rasengan, which is similar in power but can be prepared more quickly (not needing any hand signs, for one thing) and doesn't tire the user like Chidori. Despite Kakashi having learned the Rasengan himself, he never uses it except once in a demonstration. For some reason he insists on using his own mostly inferior attack. Naruto himself, on the other hand, uses the Rasengan as his signature attack, and it (or one of a few upgraded versions) is almost always his Finishing Move.
- This is also parodied, with Kakashi's "Leaf Style Secret Ninja Art: One Thousand Years of ~~Death~~ Pain", which amounts to performing kancho (a Japanese practical joke that involves poking someone in the rectal area) on your opponent.
  - Naruto later converts it into a very serious technique, though. Instead of a finger poke, he jams a kunai in an opponent's rectal area. An exploding kunai.
Nearly every pilot in G Gundam has one of these. Naturally, it takes about eight to ten episodes for hero Domon Kasshu to learn the "Super Mode" stance, the activation of which usually marks the ending 3 minutes of the episode.
The Instant Kills from the Guilty Gear franchise.
In the game Gears Of War, shooting something down not through the head won't kill them, it will incapacitate them, meaning that they can be finished by a melee attack, a headshot to their downed body, more bullets in them, an explosive or just wait for them to bleed out (aside from the multiplayer mode Execution, in which they can get back up after waiting long enough, removing the bleed out possibility). Explosives and headshots automatically kill when doing enough damage if they are still standing. In the singleplayer mode, however, your enemies don't automatically become 'downed' from taking too much damage from bullets, unless shot in the knees or perhaps legs.
- And don't forget the chainsaw bayonet! Instant kills any enemy it hits (even in multiplayer), with the downsides that you have to be close enough to kiss them for it to work, it takes a few seconds to rev up, and if you are hit during the animation you are stunned and become easy pickings for any player with half a brain. Its riskier than the stomp, but isn't the payoff worth it?
In the Real Time Strategy game Warhammer 40000: Dawn Of War, nearly every unit capable of fighting in close combat (which is most of them) has a number of special killing animations when they win the fight. Some even have special animations depending on who the poor sap is.
- A particularly impressive one is when a Space Marine Brother-Captain takes down a Khorne Bloodthirster, complete with a Colossus Climb.
Every character in Valkyrie Profile has one of these (called "Purify Weird Soul" in-game), and can only use them by filling a combo meter. Timing the order of the party's attacks is important, so if one wants to use these finishing moves, Button Mashing is a no-no. With careful planning, it's possible to have all four of Valkyrie's party members use these in a single turn.
- Valkyrie Profile 2 increased the scale of these to the epic level. They are no longer called "Purify Weird Soul", but "Soul Crush" instead. By the end of the game, these moves range from summoning 50 meter tall lances to ripping asteroids out of orbit to invoking supernova-like explosions.
The Giga Slave from The Slayers was at first treated this way; since it worked the first time, Lina was fully ready to depend on it again. It was subverted in the second season due to the fact that the consequences for failing (of which she apparently wasn't fully aware) turned out to be so high that she became terrified to try it again.
The Guyvers in Bio Booster Armour Guyver (aka Guyver: The Bioboosted Armour) can fire devastatingly powerful "Mega-Smasher" beams from their chests. In something of a subversion, even though the charging time is relatively short for a Finishing Move, it is frequently interrupted (it is one of the only attacks with any charge time at all). In addition, a Guyver cannot use this attack if the protective panels on his chest have any kind of injury, which happens surprisingly often.
Rogues and Cat-form Druids in World Of Warcraft have Finishing Moves which are powered by Combo Points given by their other attacks (and which consume them). They come in multiple variations, some of which aren't particularly suited to finish a battle. For example, the Rogue has a rarely-used Finishing Move that reduces the opponent's armor instead of damage.
- Warriors have a more standard example: the Execute skill converts all of their rage into damage in one attack, but the enemy's health has to be below 20% to use it.
  - Which is often a massive overkill if the attack is critical. Except against raid bosses, which still can withstand a lot of punishment at 20% health. There is even one that starts at 20%.
  - Something of a trend lately, first Paladins got a slightly less deadly but ranged version and Hunters are scheduled to receive their own version in Wrath of the Lich King.
Starlight Breaker of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's titular character, which generally caps off the big battle of the season. Since it gathers residue magic from the environment, the later it's used in a magic battle, the harder it hits. Interestingly, each time Nanoha uses Starlight Breaker in the anime, it's always a stronger variation of the one she used before.
Either under special circumstances never revealed or just randomly, the Samurai Shodown IV videogame allowed the winning player to perform a fatality-like move on the opponent, or a loosing player to perform a fatality on themself. Later, in the arcade version of Samurai Shodown V Special, finishing moves called Zetsumei Ougi were introduced, which like in Guilty Gear would automatically end the match, and in a very gory fashion.
The Final Smashes in Super Smash Bros. Brawl don't necessarily auto-KO opponents, but they're still very flashy and require the use of a special item to perform.
- Some of them are guaranteed KO's, provided that they connect, of course.
- Only one of the Final Smashes is an instant KO. And it is still not absolutely guaranteed to kill, because there are some areas where the target will ricochet and still survive, or "Super-Armored" against by something like Ike's Aether, which will result in the target taking 61% and not moving at all.
- There's also the Dragoon, which is a an item that when it hits it is like a weaker version of Marth's Critical Hit (the OHKO Final Smash) that anyone can use. Likewise, it also can be "Super-Armored" against.
Dungeons And Dragons's 3.5 edition supplement "The Book of Nine Swords" features a high-level technique for warriors explicitly titled "Finishing Move". Used against a slightly injured or uninjured opponent, it's somewhat effective; used against someone below half their hit points, it's exactly what the name implies.
Fist Of The North Star contains fighting styles that pretty much consist entirely of finishing moves. The flashier ones became "Fatal KO" moves in the Playstation 2 Fighting Game.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann 's Giga Drill Break(er).
- Pointedly subverted after the Time Skip and ostensible Genre Shift, when the move not only fails to defeat a foe, but is performed offscreen, in blatant violation of the rules of the genre. Of course, the foe is defeated shortly thereafter, but the point is made.
The entire premise of Battle Chess was finishing moves... in chess! It had dozens of animated fatalities depending on which type of piece took which other piece, and the gimmick alone made it one of the most popular chess titles of its time.
Colonel in Mega Man Battle Network 6 has a Finishing Move that blinds you with his cape, then cuts you in half (complete with the screen going black, then a sword flash). At first, it was believed that the move was an instant-kill; later, it was discovered that Colonel's AI simply only used the move when your HP was below its damage.
- The wonderful thing about that move is when you have Undershirt installed, it doesn't kill you, but it does turn Mega Man to angry mode, doubling the damage of his next attack. If one has a powerful attack already lined up, it can be possibly to take out Colonel on the next shot. Unless You Suck so much that by the time he pulls this on you you haven't really dented him, of course.
In some Super Robot Wars games, the animation for some attacks (usually that Humongous Mecha's high-end attack) extends whenever the attack destroys an enemy; these are called Dynamic Kills. They often just show the mecha watching the explosion or striking a pose against it, but the worst example has to be the Super Robot Wars W's resident god-bot Valzacard and it's Exa Nova Shoot OVER. Normally, this attack just pierces the enemy with multiple crystal ray things in an already delightfully overblown sequence involving transforming and cutscenes. If it would kill an enemy, it then seals them in a giant red alchemic-esque circle, where six shining copies of the Valzacard charge it and erase it from existence. (Link; normally, the attack stops before the crystals turn red.)
- This Troper feels the Dynamic Kill for it's Dimension Breaker is worse: The Dynamic Kill lives up to its name by cracking a hole in reality, and blasting the victim clear outta the galaxy through Hyperspace. (You decide for yourself).
Sailor Moon. In fact, it can be argued that all she has is a finishing move, which she uses after the others have weakened the Monster of the Week. (Unless you count her Moon Tiara.)
Gao Gai Gar has "Hell & Heaven," which ends up inverting the "super-risky new move" subtrope — it starts out as a Once An Episode finisher until the characters realize it's slowly killing the mech's pilot, at which point it gets an upgrade to Dangerous Forbidden Technique.
- Then the Goldion Hammer, the weapon they devised to replace Hell and Heaven, turns out to be just as deadly. Instead of trying again, they decide to build a robot whose job is basically to act as a giant oven mitt so that Gao Gai Gar can use it safely.
- In early Super Sentai, fancy hissatsu moves for the robos were necessary (but got less fancy as the years went by). Just look at Denjiman Robo's (DENSHI MANGETSU GIRI/Electric Full Moon Cut) or Goggle Five Robo's (DENSHI GINGA GIRI/Electron Galaxy Cut) for good examples!
These are a vital game mechanic in Ninja Gaiden II for 360 in order to ensure that enemies are truly dead and not trying to grab Ryu for a suicide bombing; fortunately, it is easy to pull these off. They even have the snappy name of "Obliteration Techniques".
Although it is never suggested that it could backfire and harm the heroes, or is even unreliable at all, the Wuxi Finger Hold from Kung Fu Panda otherwise falls squarely into this trope. Not only is it actually used to end the climactic encounter between the Chosen One and the Big Bad, we are never shown exactly what it does — everyone is simply afraid of it, even Tai Lung, and its mysterious properties are even lampshaded when Shifu says to Po, "You know what this does?" and the panda replies fearfully and with a fervent nod in the affirmative... but of course, the audience still doesn't know. The only moment we see it used happens off-screen — whether this is an example of the movie makers attempting to not show Family Unfriendly Violence or leaving it, for once, up to the audience's imagination (perhaps because it could never live up to the hype?) is up for interpretation. But the somewhat Anvilicious mushroom cloud after it is used does suggest it was something to behold...and despite not getting to see it, it manages to be awesome anyway.
The new MMORPG Age of Conan features "fatalities" which sometimes trigger upon the use of a combo or spell. In contrast to the normal MMO kill, where the enemy just falls over, these involve decapitation, arterial sprays, electrocution, and such. Even better, upon delivering such a fatality, your character receives a buff for a few seconds, increasing damage and regeneration of mana and stamina. The type of fatality depends on the weapon used (one-handed edged, one-handed blunt, etc.)
Amusingly, the Tenchu franchise features opening moves. If the protagonist manages to hit a guard who doesn't know you're around, you're treated to cinematic, sometimes disturbingly convoluted killing strokes. No matter how much Hit Points the guard had, he's instakilled. If you are seen, however, oh boy, you're in trouble. For all your training and mystical ninja killskillz? You Suck in melee combat.
- Justified, since shinobi are trained more to be stealthy assassins rather that powerful melee fighters. You're still skilled, but a samurai is trained all his life to fight. They are more that you and don't have to worry about Conservation Of Ninjutsu.
Mahou Sensei Negima has given a finishing strike to Negi, Kotaro, and Setsuna on a fairly regular basis. However the noteworthy thing is the lampshading Rakan does on it, stepping into Meta Guy talking about how important having a Finishing Move is. he then proceeds to offer to sell one to Negi for an absurd amount of money. To be fair Negi often uses his Finishing move (Oukahouken) without it ending the fight, as its power is based on the number magic arrows he fires in a given attack.
Okami had you figuring out the finishing move on the enemy and then preforming it after you've defeated the enemy as it enters a Bullet Time death to gain Demon Fangs.
Link has a finishing move in The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess that can be used whenever an enemy has been knocked over. If you press A before the enemy gets back up, Link does an over-head jump strike, stabbing the monster through the chest or stomach. Later he also gains an attack called "Mortal Draw", which lets you perform an instant-kill on any enemy as long as you keep your sword sheathed and the enemy is close enough. (Putting you at risk of getting hit.)
Soul Calibur IV introduces the "critical finish" to the series, though the mechanics of it make it very difficult to pull of in most matches.
There are plenty of these in Achaea, with the available choices depending on the character class. One of the more graphic ones is called 'Cleave', and uses a broadsword to slice the helpless opponent in two. Vertically.
Tales Of Vesperia has finishing moves, called fatal strikes, that can only be performed after you have sufficiently damaged an enemy with a large enough amount of related skills. Though they aren't instant kills — they just do a very large amount of damage and are usually enough to finish off weaker enemies. But don't be surprise to use three or more on one boss and still not kill it. More conventionally, Burst Artes and Mystic Artes are performed by expending the overlimit meter filled by hitting or being hit by the enemy repeatedly. They are very shiny with special animation and even a special quote from each character as you perform their unique mystic arte. Horribly, horribly subverted by the "minimum damage" skill which make even these two flashy moves do only one point of damage. The fact that you get a lot of Grade points for performing Burst and Mystic artes means that this has become a central pillar of the technique known as "grade farming"
- Tales Of The Abyss has the mystic artes which are very shiny. Some have really awesome lines.
- And Tales Of Symphonia has the Hi-Ougis, which are like-wise flashy, but one (Colette Brunel's Holy Judgment) is used randomly, and two that are used more-or-less when your character Turns Red (Lloyd Irving's Falcon's Crest, and Presea Combatir's PS 2 Only Hi-Ougi, with the latter in an extreme case: The rest of the party must be dead.) The rest of them function the same as Tales Of The Abyss's Mystic Artes.
  - Well, all of the primary Mystic Artes in Abyss are triggered normally... but all the secondary ones are different. They all first require a New Game+. The hero's requires your character to Turn Red, another requires for you to have done a set of skills 50 times each, two others require a certain skill to have been used 150 times, another has a skill requiring 200 uses then for them to just stand there and hold the R2 button for a period of time, another requires you to be at FULL HEALTH and use a skill (100x, you get the point... did I mention the Mystic Arte takes money to perform?). Oh, and three of the above require specific weapons to be able to use them, which are strong but not the strongest weapons in the game. Obviously, all of the above require overlimit as well.
In Fire Emblem, Characters of the Assassin class have a skill called "Silencer" that does Exactly What It Says On The Tin — it instantly kills anything, even if the Assassin could not damage it with its normal attacks. It looks the same as a Critical Hit, but there's a flash that makes it different.
- In Fire Emblem 8: The Sacred Stones, Silencer would even override a General's Great Shield, which prevents the General from taking any damage.
- In Fire Emblem 9: Path of Radiance, Silencer is called Lethality, and you have to use a rare item on the game's only assassin to make use of it.
  - In Fire Emblem 10: Radiant Dawn, it's still called Lethality and the assassin from Path of Radiance already has it when he joins your army.
In Soul Reaver, the only way to kill the vampires is to use a finishing move, either impaling them on a spike or a spear, lighting them on fire, blowing them up with the Soul Reaver, or using sunlight or water. If you run into a vampire and you don't have access to any of these, you're better off just running away.
Voltron's blazing sword.
Inu Yasha has had a succession of these since he obtained Tetsusaiga: first was the Wind Scar; then the Backlash Wave; when Naraku's barrier prove able to endure the Wind Scar, Inu Yasha found a way to make his sword stronger, resulting in the Red Tetsusaiga; later he earned the Adamant Barrage; then came Dragon Scaled Tetsusiaga; finally in conflict with his half brother Sesshomaru, Tetsusiaga gained the Meidō Zangetsuha (Dark Path) from Tenseiga.
When Hayate The Combat Butler goes up against another Battle Butler, the guy shows off one of his Finishing/Ultimate Moves, (specifically, one that creates a huge gout of fire... from a wooden sword) and tells Hayate that he's surprised that he doesn't have one. In his words "every butler should have a finishing move or two". Almost certainly a Lampshade Hanging, especially since these are literal battle butlers.
- At the end of volume 6, Hayate finally develops one, called the "Hayate No Gotoku" (Whimsical Hurricane).
Truth In Television: The Mozambique Drill. Two to the chest, one to the head.
Prince Of Persia: Sands of Time had the Prince need to dispatch sand creatures by planting the Dagger of Time in them after knocking them down, lest they get back up again. Warrior Within and The Two Thrones (aka Rival Swords) removed this need.
The Wild Stomp from Devil May Cry 3, with Dante filling a prone enemy with lead and then kicking its body away, is clearly meant to be one of these, but on higher difficulties it is never enough.
Alyssa has a devastating Finishing Move in Clock Tower 3 which can kill the first few bosses in a single hit, but which needs to be unlocked by tethering the enemy in place by pulling off several charged shots from different angles before the enemy can break free. Given that Alyssa must spend most of the fight running around in circles looking for an opening to get in a good shot, the fights are hard enough. In the final battle, however, her opponent Lord Burroughs has his own finishing move which works in exactly the same way, and is a guaranteed one-hit kill, and he doesn't need to charge his shots as Alyssa does to bind her in place. A minor laundry issue may ensue.
Failure to perform finishing moves on fallen foes in Eternal Darkness often results in their standing back up & attacking you again. Don't abandon your melee weapons; gun finishers burn ammo quicker than you'd think.
City Of Heroes/City of Villains players who buy the "Super Booster I: Cyborg" expansion pack gain a "Self Destruct" power that can be used as a Pyhrric finishing move — although it kills the character using it, it does so with a massive explosion that inflicts obscene amounts of damage to every enemy in a rather large area.
The Force Unleashed combines this with Reaction Commands; when a boss's health is low enough, pressing the right buttons and/or moving the Wiimote at the right intervals allows Starkiller to perform an over-the-top (and often brutal) finisher that varies from one boss to the next.