Playing With / The War Sequence

Basic Trope: Mook-to-player ratio is (at the very minimum) a thousand-to-one. Time to go to work.

• Straight:
  • In Tales of Troperia, there is a great war sequence in which Sir Robert has to fend off thousands upon thousands of mooks as the first part of the climactic final chapter. Claidheamh The Left Handed Brute also goes through this in his adventure mode, though it's a way easier feat than Sir Robert due to Claidheamh's One-Man Army reputation finally living up to its name.
  • There's a special mode in which Sir Robert or Claidheamh (depending on Player's Choice) can fight a million mooks.
• Exaggerated:
  • Ditto, but instead of thousands, it's outright entire planets worth of mooks.
    • Ditto, but instead of planets, you get to fight the entire omniverse.
  • The Special Mode includes having to fight all the mooks, Bosses and Sir Robert's party members.
• Downplayed: Multi-Mook Melee (for both the story and special mode).
• Justified:
  • Sir Robert has been separated from his party, and the army just so happened to come at this rather inopportune time.
  • Claidheamh didn't even have a party to back him up, and the army just so happened to come at this rather inopportune time.
  • Either Sir Robert or Claidheamh have issued a challenge to everyone in a billion mile vicinity to try and fight them. Of course, being either Too Dumb to Live or outright Blood Knights, they don't bother to have their opponents come in one at a time.
  • Sir Robert is leading the army away from his team as they sabotage their supplies. Lasting 30 minutes but dying after that without your team getting noticed nets you the good ending, but defeating them all nets you the Golden Ending.
  • Claidheamh and Sir Robert had just made peace, with Claidheamh offering to take this role instead as Sir Robert and the team sabotage Evulz' supplies. Considering that Claidheamh is doing the dirty work, and that the two reconciled earlier, the Golden Ending is pretty much a guarantee.
• Inverted:
  • Sir Robert has to gather up an entire army just to deal with Claidheamh. That includes convincing Evulz and his men to join Sir Robert just to take Claidheamh down, and you get to play as Sir Robert in this comedically one sided war.
  • The special mode has an absurd amount of characters to play as, including bosses, ordinary mooks, and even Sir Robert's teammates. Then you get to choose the difficulty mode after picking your character: Easy, or Hard. Once you pick your difficulty, you're suddenly transported to the battlefield, along with the entire cast of characters that you could've played as, as your allies. There's one lone boss on the other end of the battlefield, necessitating as to why there was such a large army by your side to begin with: On easy mode, it's Sir Robert, who can be easily dealt with after he's wiped out most of the army and it's just you, him, and 9 other allies left. On hard mode, it's Claidheamh, who you're supposed to wait out after Claidheamh absolutely destroys your comrades with frightening ease, until it's just you and him left. And even a weakened Claidheamh proves to be the toughest of any superboss you can find in the game at all.
• Subverted:
  • Just as Sir Robert despairs upon the gargantuan opposing forces, his party members swoop in at the nick of time to deal with the army.
  • Claidheamh is surrounded at all sides, but the army either thinks that this is completely unfair to gang up on one person (not knowing Claidheamh's One-Man Army reputation), or (knowing Claidheamh's One-Man Army reputation) makes the right decision and leaves Claidheamh alone.
  • The special mode advertises itself as fighting an entire army, but it's actually Sir Robert vs. Claidheamh.
• Double Subverted:
  • Sir Robert is still forced into the army, and has to fight his way out with no help at all.
  • Claidheamh still causes a mass riot (and thus invokes this trope) by stabbing some hapless mook with his claymore.
  • The army part comes directly after Sir Robert or Claidheamh dies, with the survivor being forced to fight off the rest of the cast.
• Parodied:
  • Sir Robert has to fight through thousands upon thousands of... Giant, cuddly teddy bears!?
  • Claidheamh goes through this daily, as part of his Training from Hell.
  • When you click on the special mode, the game asks you: "Are you sure you really want to go through with this? Do you have the time, patience, skill, and attention span to go through more enemies than the Nuts wad from DOOM?" And if you click yes, you're treated to fighting EVERY enemy, EVERY boss, and even EVERY party member multiplied by a million, with the game magically managing to run without crashing, causing a BSOD, or even having the device heat up by a mere degree Celsius, let alone explode.
• Zig-Zagged:
  • Sir Robert complains that the army is too much for him, and decides to back out... But he's forcibly dragged into the fight... But he's saved by Aireport...
  • Claidheamh begs on his hands and knees for the army to fight him... But the army simply refuses to fight him... So he stabs a mook to get their attention... Which only gets the attention of a few other mooks and not the whole army...
  • The Special Mode instead has you fight infinite waves of 100 enemies at the very most each.
• Averted: Fighting in Tales of Troperia is strictly 1-on-1.
• Enforced:
  • The creators wanted a Crowning Moment of Awesome and a possible Signature Scene while cementing the lone person as a One-Man Army, and this is the best way to do it.
  • The special mode are for masochistic (or thrill seeking) players who want to fight the entire cast ensemble as either Sir Robert or Claidheamh.
  • The creators wanted to really test out the limits of the console's CPU.
• Lampshaded:
  • Sir Robert sheepishly remarks: "Well... This Is Gonna Suck."
  • Claidheamh joyously exclaims: "Oh boy! I can't wait tae tear this army tae wee shreds!"
  • One of the enemies asks why there's such a huge army against a solitary Claidheamh / Sir Robert.
  • The Special Mode's description is: "You have to be one bloodthirsty masochist if you want to play this."
• Invoked:
  • A mook yells out: "He's Just One Man! We can take him on!" in order to spur his comrades to fight Sir Robert.
  • Claidheamh roars: "I CAN TAKE ALL OF YOU ON AT ONCE! BRING IT ON, YA DAFT FUCKS!" and immediately runs through the first mook he sees.
  • Sir Robert / Claidheamh send out a message for anyone to come to them at the arena, and explicitly state that "Fighting solo is optional".
• Exploited: Claidheamh / Sir Robert uses the sheer mass of numbers to their advantage through Radial Ass Kicking.
• Defied:
  • Sir Robert, as soon as he sees the army, sighs and has Marcy wipe them all out with a meteor shower spell.
  • The army's general explicitly gives out the command (and lets every mook know) to never, in any circumstance, get within the aggro range of Claidheamh, let alone attempt to engage in combat with him. Claidheamh, meanwhile, is roaming around, bored out of his mind, wondering where the hell all the fun is at, all the while an entire army is somehow managing to perfectly sneak behind his back.
• Discussed:
  • Sir Robert's party members tell the story of how Sir Robert once faced off against thousands upon thousands of soldiers in a huge war sequence.
  • Claidheamh is well known for getting involved in stuff like this, as it's constantly spread around town, which adds to his One-Man Army reputation.
  • The Special Mode is an Arena, and it's the hottest new topic everyone's talking about. The challenge is to fight thousands upon thousands of contestants all at once.
• Conversed:
  • 1:
  Bob, the RPG Player: Oh, Crap! Look at all those enemies!
  Alice, the Other RPG Player: And we already wasted our health kits and powerups on the previous boss, and we didn't even get to replenish them Well then. This Is Gonna Suck.
  • 2:
  Bob: Why is there a mode dedicated to fighting the entire game as either protagonist?
  Alice: Either for masochists, or for people who want to live an extreme power fantasy.
• Implied: Claidheamh / Sir Robert come back to their base as a Blood-Splattered Warrior, even though the Mission Briefing explicitly stated that there were thousands upon thousands of soldiers and that it was basically an uphill battle.
• Deconstructed:
  • Sir Robert, after slaying thousands upon thousands of mooks, is traumatized at the amount of blood and gore that was shed at the battlefield.
  • Claidheamh is seen as a complete maniac after the war sequence, and suddenly, everyone considers him a threat that cannot be ignored anymore, and immediately target him in hopes of finally eradicating the brute who slayed so many.
• Reconstructed:
  • Sir Robert is forced to swallow back his trauma once he has to raid the castle, and gets over it quickly.
  • Did everyone seriously believe that the plot to kill off a brute that's higher than a Jamaican hotbox off his own adrenaline and bloodlust is actually going to go somewhere? Even if he may have been weakened a lot by getting stabbed countless times, once he gets going, he is not stopping at all.
• Played for Laughs:
  • Sir Robert is forced to fight thousands upon thousands of mooks. He does an Aside Glance, gulps audibly, and says: "This Is Gonna Suck!"
  • Claidheamh enters the view of the entire army. While the army laughs at the fact that they're facing Just One Man, one of them points out that this one man is actually Claidheamh, which soon causes a Mass "Oh, Crap!" and an absolute scramble to safety as the Violent Glaswegian soon gives chase, roaring hungrily in the hopes of killing the whole army off.
• Played for Drama:
  • Sir Robert has been severely wounded, all his party members are gone, and now he has to fight thousands upon thousands of mooks with no end in sight.
  • Claidheamh is well known for just being absolutely brutal, especially when there's multiple people involved (let alone entire armies), so any mook worth their salt will know that trying to invoke this trope on Claidheamh will result in complete and utter destruction upon themselves.
• Played for Horror:
  • Sir Robert, on the brink of death, and completely alone, is distraught at having to face thousands upon thousands of mooks.
  • Claidheamh is a Mook Horror Show, but applied to an entire army.

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