History Main / PerfectPlayAI

Of course, it's also possible that some Perfect Play AIs are ''also'' [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard cheating bastards]], but exactly how to distinguish whether or not this is the case is a difficult matter. The AI may be able to predict the player's movements after a button press, even before a distinct animation occurs on-screen. In games where DefeatMeansPlayable, a player can compare whether the character in question handles the same in the player's hands as it did in the AI's. For example, if a character has a special attack that requires holding "down" for a full second before executing, a human player is left vulnerable while preparing it (as they cannot move while crouched), but if the AI can execute it immediately with no preparation, then that is a sign of cheating bastardry. However, if the AI is a unique opponent, it may be impossible to ever determine whether the AI was ''actually'' cheating, or if the boss character was just PurposelyOverpowered.

** ''VideoGame/MortalKombatII'': All characters at hardest setting, though not on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation port.

** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'' on the UsefulNotes/GameBoy has it too, but in this case the Walkers are surprisingly vulnerable to uppercuts. [[BrokenRecord Hope you enjoy doing nothing but uppercuts]]. Shang Tsung can be murder for this; sometimes, in a single motion, the CPU will transform into a new character and perform the counter-attack that character knows.

* The old ''[[Manga/OnePiece One Piece: Grand Battle]]'' series of games on the Gamecube and UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, mostly the final one which was released only in America: ''Grand Adventure''. The opponent AI is actually pretty dumb on normal and hard difficulty, but ''hardest''? Hoo boy. You might as well be playing with a handicap against you; the AI no longer gets stunned when caught in a combo (so they can attack you between punches, meaning slow MightyGlacier characters are next to useless), they're programmed to ''immediately'' grab or use a guard breaker the second you press the block button, and the ones with counter attacks will use them perfectly without fail. What's worse is that, unlike most fighting games, they often will outright have double your health, strength, ''and'' defense even when it defies common sense. The only way to win is to spam aerial attacks, items, and super attacks and hope you don't die (though ''throwing'' items no longer works either, since they have perfect timing and will catch them no matter what position they're in and throw it back at you).

* Saotome Genma in the {{UsefulNotes/SNES}} ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf Hard Battle.''

* The FinalBoss of UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum / UsefulNotes/Commodore64 darts sim ''180'' is Jammy Jim. You get first throw, and you'll need it because one blink and he'll 9-dart you. He misses his target about once in every fifty throws. It's quite telling that while you need to take two legs to beat everyone else, you can beat Jim with one.

* The FinalBoss of UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum darts sim ''180'' is Jammy Jim. You get first throw, and you'll need it because one blink and he'll 9-dart you. He misses his target about once in every fifty throws. It's quite telling that while you need to take two legs to beat everyone else, you can beat Jim with one.

* Taken to its logical conclusion in ''VideoGame/MUGEN''. Being a Fighting Game maker, AI patches are readily available for most popular characters to bestow them with such an AI. Many {{SNK Boss}} characters come with such an AI built in. At the most extreme levels of cheap character creation, this trope and blatantly overpowered movesets combine to produce characters whose main strategy is simply to chain [[FlashStep invincible sidesteps]] as long as the opponent has a hitbox active, and when the opponent is open, counter with an aburdly long and damaging combo.

* Several bosses and some EliteMooks in the ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' series, fan remake included. Some foes will always back up out of your reach the minute you try to advance on them to attack (but will gladly advance on you the minute you turn and walk the other way), backing up off the screen where you can't hit them, but they can hit you. You also have enemies that will stop moving or sidestep your special attacks and will follow up with a counter. Then there are enemies that will knock you out of the air if you try to attack them with a jump attack. To top all of his off, most enemies in the later levels will combo you and team up on you where their attacks take priority over your own attacks.

Perfect Play A.I. is a type of VideoGameAI most commonly found in {{Fighting Game}}s that correctly blocks or evades every attack and move the player is capable of performing against it, while slowly approaching the player to attack (often backing the player into a literal corner in the process). They were first popularized by the ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' series, but have become a recurring AI type in other fighting games, which are often so NintendoHard that it seems unfair (even when the computer is not [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard actually cheating]]), possibly even [[{{Unwinnable}} invincible]].

It's important to note that, generally speaking, the Perfect Play A.I. is not ''technically cheating'': All of the above moves and tactics are ''perfectly legitimate'', i.e. a sufficiently skilled human player could perform such a strategy themselves to best their opponent. The AI's main advantage here is that ComputersAreFast, and it can execute these actions with split-second timing and pixel-perfect precision. Whereas a human opponent must visually deduce and predict what their opponent is about to do next, an AI can immediately and directly identify whatever action (movement, attack/defend, etc.) the player is currently performing, even if [[ConfusionFu different moves have similar tells]] that would confuse a human player.

There are few reliable ways to defeat the Perfect Play A.I. in a fight. One method is to relentlessly attack the AI with {{Combos}} and special attacks (ranged or otherwise) that utilize ScratchDamage even when blocked; this will slowly wear down the AI and defeat it via DeathOfAThousandCuts. Another method is to simply fight fire with fire: Memorize the AI's attacks over time and learn to perfectly block and/or CounterAttack whatever move the AI chooses to perform, which may create an opening (no matter how small) to strike back. Most Perfect Play AIs have a flaw in their AI routine ''somewhere'', and once the player learns to [[AIBreaker exploit that to their advantage]], the playing field becomes level.

** Vergil from ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'' is close to, but not a true Perfect Play A.I.. He will parry and counter your attacks, but you can dodge and counter his attacks.

*** ''Extend'' ups the ante with "Unlimited Mars" mode. Everything above, and EVERYONE is in their unlimited mode. The unholy fusion of SNKBoss and Perfect Play A.I..

* In ''VideoGame/TheLastBlade'', the boss, Kagami, is a Perfect Play A.I. in his first form.

* Cyber-Akuma from ''VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroesVsStreetFighter'' is a abnormally fast Perfect Play A.I.. His preferred method of attack is to launch a missile from a screen's distance, then dash in close as you block high, deliver a lightning-fast low kick and chain it into a super attack. When he air jumps, he unleashes 2 fireballs down at you. The only way to beat him is by piling on the projectiles but he readily throws his own to counter yours. If he closes the distance between you, it's pretty much over.

** If you set the difficulty to the hardest level on certain ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' games, nearly every character becomes a Perfect Play A.I.. Characters with invincible reversals, such as the Shotos and Guile, will read your inputs and counter appropriately with a Shoryuken or Flash Kick. Zangief will pull out his SpinningPiledriver at the worst possible times, magically vaccuming you into his clutches from absurd ranges. If you go up against a character with a multiple-hitting throw, such as Dhalsim's noogie or Balrog's head bash, then the computer will mash out the inputs at speeds which are physically impossible for humans to attain, meaning you will never be able to break out AND the computer will always get the fastest possible version of those throws with the maximum amount of hits and damage.
** ''Street Fighter Alpha 2'''s Shin Akuma on any setting and to a lesser extent ''SFA 3'' Akuma on medium and up are terrible about this. His Perfect Play A.I. routine consists of walking psychic shoryukens (or Dragon Punches - DP for short) combined with tick throws, the result being that you're afraid to poke with anything, because no matter what you poke with, or how you set it up, the comp will just read your buttons and DP you out of it. If you block, the computer will just tick throw you out of it. If you are expecting the tick and try to reverse the throw, you'll get psychic DP'ed (since you're performing a throw/attempt and not really blocking). Try to perform a reversal and you'll be thrown. Occasionally (and Ryu will do this as well, though not with all the other stuff Akuma adds in), if you get the reversal, Akuma will actually block, then throw a reversal DP on the tail end of yours.

** It's been found that the Level 9 [=CPUs=] are legitimately this trope; they're always reading inputs and always ready to react at a moment's notice, and by all technicality, the only reason the lower levels are easier is because a randomizer sometimes stops their inputs, with higher chances the lower you go to the point of seeming brain dead. In reality, they're calculating everything you do at 9 the entire time and were built as Perfect Play A.I. to begin with as playing at the highest difficulty all but removes this random chance. Though there are some AIBreaker strategies and some characters they dip into ArtificialStupidity with.

* As you gain ranks in ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' this will become self-evident, with the game starting to break out the ten-hit or infinite combos, reading controller inputs, using the classic ''Mortal Kombat'' slide along the ground, and begin preventing you from tagging out, specifically targeting your partner when low on health. Earlier in the series, the computer would resort to Secret A.I. Moves to simulate difficulty.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'''s ''Phantasmagoria'' games the A.I. has two settings: play as an idiot or as a god. After spawning the A.I. will dodge absolutely everything you throw at it, and this is obvious from the way it moves (erratic, seemingly suicidal moves around bullets but always stopping short of getting hit). This is temporary only, after a while the A.I. will switch to idiot mode and get quickly murdered. This is what makes up the game's timer system, where each level's objective is to survive long enough for the A.I. to end up killing itself.
** The A.I. actually does have a flaw, but in this particular ''Touhou'' game you're unlikely to be able to exploit it before the opponent's invincibility period wears off (this is why people don't always realize there ''is'' an invincibility period, due to the aversion of TheLawOfDiminishingDefensiveEffort). It only calculates bullet trajectories in its immediate vicinity and can fail to spot an completely inescapable pattern coming until it's too late to avoid it, where a human player would head for the other side of the screen seconds before.

It's important to note that, generally speaking, the PerfectPlayAI is not ''technically cheating'': All of the above moves and tactics are ''perfectly legitimate'', i.e. a sufficiently skilled human player could perform such a strategy themselves to best their opponent. The AI's main advantage here is that ComputersAreFast, and it can execute these actions with split-second timing and pixel-perfect precision. Whereas a human opponent must visually deduce and predict what their opponent is about to do next, an AI can immediately and directly identify whatever action (movement, attack/defend, etc.) the player is currently performing, even if [[ConfusionFu different moves have similar tells]] that would confuse a human player.

There are few reliable ways to defeat the PerfectPlayAI in a fight. One method is to relentlessly attack the AI with {{Combos}} and special attacks (ranged or otherwise) that utilize ScratchDamage even when blocked; this will slowly wear down the AI and defeat it via DeathOfAThousandCuts. Another method is to simply fight fire with fire: Memorize the AI's attacks over time and learn to perfectly block and/or CounterAttack whatever move the AI chooses to perform, which may create an opening (no matter how small) to strike back. Most Perfect Play AIs have a flaw in their AI routine ''somewhere'', and once the player learns to [[AIBreaker exploit that to their advantage]], the playing field becomes level.

** Vergil from ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'' is close to, but not a true PerfectPlayAI. He will parry and counter your attacks, but you can dodge and counter his attacks.

*** ''Extend'' ups the ante with "Unlimited Mars" mode. Everything above, and EVERYONE is in their unlimited mode. The unholy fusion of SNKBoss and PerfectPlayAI.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLastBlade'', the boss, Kagami, is a PerfectPlayAI in his first form.

* Cyber-Akuma from ''VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroesVsStreetFighter'' is a abnormally fast PerfectPlayAI. His preferred method of attack is to launch a missile from a screen's distance, then dash in close as you block high, deliver a lightning-fast low kick and chain it into a super attack. When he air jumps, he unleashes 2 fireballs down at you. The only way to beat him is by piling on the projectiles but he readily throws his own to counter yours. If he closes the distance between you, it's pretty much over.

** If you set the difficulty to the hardest level on certain ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' games, nearly every character becomes a PerfectPlayAI. Characters with invincible reversals, such as the Shotos and Guile, will read your inputs and counter appropriately with a Shoryuken or Flash Kick. Zangief will pull out his SpinningPiledriver at the worst possible times, magically vaccuming you into his clutches from absurd ranges. If you go up against a character with a multiple-hitting throw, such as Dhalsim's noogie or Balrog's head bash, then the computer will mash out the inputs at speeds which are physically impossible for humans to attain, meaning you will never be able to break out AND the computer will always get the fastest possible version of those throws with the maximum amount of hits and damage.
** ''Street Fighter Alpha 2'''s Shin Akuma on any setting and to a lesser extent ''SFA 3'' Akuma on medium and up are terrible about this. His PerfectPlayAI routine consists of walking psychic shoryukens (or Dragon Punches - DP for short) combined with tick throws, the result being that you're afraid to poke with anything, because no matter what you poke with, or how you set it up, the comp will just read your buttons and DP you out of it. If you block, the computer will just tick throw you out of it. If you are expecting the tick and try to reverse the throw, you'll get psychic DP'ed (since you're performing a throw/attempt and not really blocking). Try to perform a reversal and you'll be thrown. Occasionally (and Ryu will do this as well, though not with all the other stuff Akuma adds in), if you get the reversal, Akuma will actually block, then throw a reversal DP on the tail end of yours.

** It's been found that the Level 9 [=CPUs=] are legitimately this trope; they're always reading inputs and always ready to react at a moment's notice, and by all technicality, the only reason the lower levels are easier is because a randomizer sometimes stops their inputs, with higher chances the lower you go to the point of seeming brain dead. In reality, they're calculating everything you do at 9 the entire time and were built as PerfectPlayAI to begin with as playing at the highest difficulty all but removes this random chance. Though there are some AIBreaker strategies and some characters they dip into ArtificialStupidity with.

[[folder:MOBAs]]