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Video Game Effects and Spells
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So what can you do in a video game? Jump, attack, swing your sword, rain fire and destruction on your enemy, heal your friends, or maybe do a backflip? This is an index of all the things that video game heroes and villains can pull off.
Tropes:
- Always Accurate Attack
This attack will never miss its target. Ever.
- Area of Effect
Attacks that hit a wide area, rather than a specific target.
- Arrows on Fire
Arrows can kill you. But they can kill you better if it's on fire!
- Auto Revive
With the right item or spell, a character will be automatically revived in the event of their own KO.
- Awesome, but Impractical
A great, flashy move, which is hard to use or does little damage.
- Back Stab
A stealth attack from behind that does massive damage.
- Ballistic Bone
An attack that launches bones.
- Beat the Curse Out of Him
The way to free a cursed or possessed person is to beat him up.
- Beehive Barrier
A barrier made up of geometric shapes.
- Booze-Based Buff
Video games portray drunkenness in silly ways, often with positive status effects.
- Boring, but Practical
The mainstays of your skillset that you use over and over again, because they are the most effective.
- Bubble Gun
The gun shoots bubbles. Lame.
- Cast from Hit Points
A spell that draws from the user's own health or life energy.
- Chain Lightning
A multi-hit lightning attack.
- Charged Attack
Charge up a skill by either collecting items or holding a button.
- Circling Birdies
Used by multiple games to indicate various Standard Status Effects
- Combination Attack
A special attack that occurs when two or more characters use certain attacks at the same time or in rapid succession.
- Combos
A sequence of moves that strings together.
- Counter Attack
When the enemy attacks, you swat him right back.
- Critical Hit
An attack randomly does extra (or double) damage.
- Critical Failure
A chance for automatic failure, usually in the form of an Epic Fail.
- Damage-Increasing Debuff
A status ailment making its subject take more damage somehow.
- Damage Over Time
A unit receives a negative status that inflicts a small amount of damage at regular intervals.
- Death or Glory Attack
A high risk attack that can be very powerful but can also backfire or disadvantage you.
- Desperation Attack
Characters are made more powerful near death, or given super attacks.
- Disadvantageous Disintegration
Your attack destroys, not only your enemy, but also all the valuable stuff he would otherwise have dropped.
- Disc One Nuke
An exploit where a powerful item or technique is achieved early on in the game.
- Double Jump
You jump, then you jump again. No, it shouldn't be possible, but it's fun.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors
Ice beats water. Water beats fire. Fire beats... spooky?
- Eleventh Hour Superpower
A powerful, unique weapon or ability suddenly obtained near the end of the game to help the hero get through the final challenges.
- Enemy Scan
HP: 200 MP: 90 Element: Potassium Weakness: Widdle Kitties
- Evolving Attack
An ability which can grow or change as you use it or gain levels.
- Field Power Effect
When the characters get supernatural bonuses or weaknesses based on the battlefield conditions.
- Finishing Move
A special combat maneuver you can only use to finish off a battle.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning
The three most common elements in RPGs.
- First Person Snapshooter
The increasingly common gameplay feature that has the player taking pictures of enemies, items, NPCs, or features in the environment.
- Fixed Damage Attack
A skill that does a set amount of damage, regardless of the caster's or target's statistics, or pretty much anything else.
- Goomba Stomp
Enemies in Platform Games can be defeated just by landing on top of them.
- Goomba Springboard
Games where you can stomp on an enemy to end up higher than where you started from.
- Gradual Regeneration
Hit Points and/or Mana Points are restored over time, depending if it's an ability or an item.
- Grind Boots
Characters can grind a rail without a skateboard—just with their shoes.
- Ground Pound
The player jumps, ducks or crouches in the air, and comes down powerfully onto the ground.
- Herd Hitting Attack
An attack that makes standing around in a group a bad idea.
- Home Run Hitter
An ability that hits so powerfully that the opponent is knocked all the way into the distance (twinkle!)
- HP To One
An attack that always reduces its targets' Hit Points to one (i.e. 1 HP away from death).
- Infinity+1 Element
A unique spell or element only usable by bosses or special units, with no weaknesses.
- Invulnerable Attack
An attack that makes you invincible while it's charging or executing.
- Kamehame Hadoken
An incredibly destructive, solid blast of Pure Energy emitted from the hands.
- Knockback Evasion
An action performed to stop being knocked back by a hit.
- Lag Cancel
A move you can do to shorten the amount of lag time after an attack, letting you move again more quickly.
- Last Chance Hit Point
If a normally lethal amount of damage instead reduces a character to their last Hit Point, and they can endure one more attack before being knocked out.
- Last Disc Magic
In Eastern RPGs, although magic is usually less efficient than melee attacks, a spell or set of spells later in the game will be much better than the rest.
- Last Ditch Move
An attack thrown by an enemy just before it dies.
- Level Drain
In RPGs, certain enemies can take Character Levels away from you (usually temporarily).
- Life Drain
An attack that hurts your opponent and heals you.
- Limit Break
A powerful attack or technique available after some requirement during battles (e.g. damage received) is fulfilled.
- Limited Move Arsenal
Characters can't just use everything they know; they have to rely on a limited subset of them during battles.
- Magikarp Power
A character or ability that seems completely useless at first, but with repeated use and patience can be highly effective later.
- Mana Burn
An attack that damages the target's magic points.
- Mana Drain
A skill that drains a target's magic points and gives it to the caster.
- Mana Shield
A skill that makes attacks damage your magic points instead of your Hit Points.
- Mutual Disadvantage
When two sides are equally impervious (or vulnerable) to the other's skills or powers.
- Non-Elemental
An enemy or spell that has no elemental affinity and hence no strengths or weaknesses against elemental opponents.
- Percent Damage Attack
A spell or attack that lowers the target's HP by a fraction of the current amount regardless of other factors. Often cannot inflict a killing blow.
- Power Copying
Where the hero can copy the abilities of bad guys and use them from then on.
- Random Effect Spell
It's randomized!
- Recovery Attack
An ability to fight back after getting knocked down.
- Reverse Shrapnel
An ability that surrounds the user with deadly items, which then home in on enemies.
- Revive Kills Zombie
Situation where a tough enemy can be beaten with a simple but sometimes overlooked strategy utilizing a single technique or item.
- Rolling Attack
You roll yourself into stuff to both damage and travel quickly.
- Secondary Fire
Where a gun can have a second "fire" button to produce a range of different effects.
- Shockwave Stomp
Where a boss or character can smash on the ground and send out a wave of energy that causes damage.
- Slap-on-the-Wrist Nuke
A powerful attack that is nonetheless far less damaging than its depiction implies.
- Special Attack
Any weapon, move, or tactic that is normally not a basic punch, kick, or whatever other forms of attack the user normally uses. May or may not require some form of Mana or energy to power it.
- Spin Attack
You spin around like a maniac in an attempt to make cheeky enemies give you a little breathing room.
- Splash Damage
An attack that does damage in a radius around where it initially hits, dealing less damage farther from the center.
- Splash Damage Abuse
Abusing an attack's Splash Damage or Area of Effect to get enhanced performance.
- Spoony Bard
A gimmick class, character or unit often added by game designers trying to add variety.
- Sprint Shoes
An item, ability, or spell that enables the player character to move faster.
- Status Buff
An ability that gives a temporary boost of one form or another to a character or an ally.
- Status Buff Dispel
A spell that negates Status Buffs that enemies (or the players) have cast on themselves.
- Standard Status Effects
Negative secondary effects that impair one's ability to fight an extended battle.
- Summon Magic
The ability to call on a magical, often mythological entity without the hassle of actually having it follow you around.
- Super Mode
A mode where an individual temporarily becomes much stronger, almost always accompanied by a visible change towards the Badass end of the spectrum.
- Sword Beam
You swing your sword, and a beam of energy shoots out to hit opponents from a distance.
- Too Awesome to Use
It's so awesome, you want don't want to use it; usually because It Only Works Once.
- Turn Undead
A standard spell which causes The Undead to panic or be destroyed, depending on the work.
- Unblockable Attack
An attack that can't be blocked, breaking any defense or counter. May be dodged or interrupted, however.
- Useless Useful Non-Combat Abilities
Abilities that let you get through situations without fighting, but end up not being all that useful.
- Useless Useful Spell
A spell or effect which sounds useful in theory, but rarely ever works in your favor.
- Useless Useful Stealth
When sneaking past an opponent isn't as easy (or rewarding) as just plain fighting them.
- Video Game Flight
Video games that actually let your character fly freely about the world.
- Video Game Stealing
YOINK! You stole PIANO!
- Wall Jump
You know when your parents said you were driving them up the wall? Here's how you actually do it.
- You Nuke 'Em
Tactical or strategic nuclear warheads used in gameplay.
- You Shouldn't Know This Already
You get an item or instrument that can do all sorts of things - but you can't do them yet, because your in-universe character hasn't "learned" about them yet.
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