Welcome to the Power Stone world! Characters
In the 19th century, people are strong believers of superstition and legend. Adventurers who seek the world for fortune and glory, and a legendary treasure which has the power to make dreams come true. That treasure is known as the POWER STONE.
— Opening narration from the first game
Power Stone is a duology of 3D Platform Fighter games created by Capcom, with the first game releasing in 1999, and the sole sequel, Power Stone 2, coming out the following year. The two games were released for the arcade and ported to the Sega Dreamcast, and later to the PlayStation Portable. It also received a 26-episode anime adaptation.
Gameplay in the Power Stone series is unconventional, at least compared to the many other fighting games by Capcom itself. For starters, fights take place in 3-D arenas. Items appear throughout the levels, such as weapons, obstacles and the titular power-ups-slash-MacGuffins, the Power Stones. When a fighter collects three of these, he or she transforms into a super-powered form for a limited time.
Not to be confused with Stone Man's weapon, one of the Infinity Stones or the trope Power Crystal.
This series contains examples of:
- Always Accurate Attack: Pharaoh Walker and Doctor Erode have One-Hit Kill variants of these in the second game to end the game once your time runs out in their boss stages; the former leaping into the background to fire an enormous laser from its tail, and the later charging up to fire a massive, screen-filling burst of lightning from his hands. You do get a very brief window of opportunity to stop them before they launch their attacks; but unless you've practically got their health down to the bottom already, you've already failed.
- Anachronism Stew: The second game has nineteenth century-era fighters duking it out on submarines and in a space station with laser guns, beam swords, and skateboards.
- Anime Accent Absence: The characters are all from different nationalities, yet they only speak Japanese.
- The Anime of the Game: A 26-episode series was aired in 1999.
- Artificial Limbs: Kraken's mechanical claw-hand. His Power Change form upgrades it to let him fire it a short/medium distance with an electric tether to quickly cross large spaces, ala a Grappling-Hook Pistol.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Doctor Erode, master of the Floating Castle and main antagonist of the second game, is a giant; who can only be fought close to his level on a huge dinner table he sits at.
- Auto-Scrolling Level: All of the main stages of Power Stone 2 shift from a beginning to an end point, except that of Pharaoh Walker, which is a single stationary area.
- Bubble Gun: The Soap Bubble Gun, which can trap an opponent in a bubble.
- Call to Adventure: Each character in the first game has a reason for searching for the Power Stone:
- Falcon discovered the legend of the Power Stone in an old family legend.
- Wang-Tang is tasked with searching for the Power Stone by his sensei as part of his training.
- Ayame is tasked with finding the Power Stone by a samurai lord. Her ending reveals that she finds it too powerful to give him, so she tricks him by giving him a fake instead and secretly keeps it for her family.
- Ryoma is not actually searching for the Power Stone, but rather, the Power Stone has attracted powerful fighters for Ryoma to test his mettle against. After discovering the Power Stone in his ending, Ryoma destroys it to prevent its power from falling into the wrong hands.
- Rouge wants to use the Power Stone to make the wishes of others come true and bring happiness to the world.
- Jack likes shiny things. The Power Stone is shiny. That's all the reason he needs. His ending reveals he wants to use it to create a doppelganger to go to prison for him, so he can continue his crime spree unopposed.
- Gunrock wants to use the Power Stone to get rich. As his ending shows, he uses its power of clairvoyance in particular to secretly cheat at card games; ensuring he stays rich by winning more-or-less every time, on top of never having to pay for drinks again.
- Galuda is searching for the Power Stone to cure a plague that has ravaged his village.
- As the last living member of his once-feared pirate crew, Kraken wants to use the Power Stone to revive his old fellow cutthroats and resume his reign of terror on the high seas.
- Valgas wants to Take Over the World, because of course he does. It goes horribly wrong for him however, when Valgas becomes infused with so much energy through the Power Stone that it permanently turns him into his Final Valgas form on top of driving him to violent insanity; leading to the world's destruction at his hands.
- Canon Welding: Power Stone 2 implies that the events of the first game's anime adaptation are considered at least partially canon; with evidence including cameos from Octo & Pus on the Adhesive Spray item, and the Lance Of Lava outright mentioning that it once belonged to Apollus.
- Captain Ersatz: Wang-Tang is a fairly blatant homage to a certain Shōnen anime hero.
- He also resembles Fei Fong Wong.
- Valgas' face resembles a Race Lift-ed Demitri.
- As the Completionist pointed out, the Power Stones look somewhat similar to Chaos Emeralds. Considering what console these games were on, that's not the least bit surprising.
- Rouge's Middle Eastern origins, looks, and fighting style based on her belly-dancing makes her highly reminiscent of Pullum Purna. The two even share a few moves.
- A few of the fighters have bases in vintage manga. Galuda, for instance, is based on Geronimo Junior from Cyborg 009, while Ayame is based on the titular kunoichi from Azumi. The addition of her brother Kikunojo in the anime adaptation — who is in turn based on a transgender friend of Azumi's named Kiku — makes the connection more obvious.
- Cartoon Bomb: The Small, Medium and Large Bomb items in both games are these. The second one however, adds some variation with different types of explosives; including hand grenades, fireworks, and Sticky Bombs.
- Cartoon Cheese: The Cheese item, which restores health.
- Cartoon Meat: The health-restoring Meat item from both games, which is the classic big chunk of cooked beef on the bone. It's expanded upon with the Roast Pork (a whole suckling pig) and Roast Chicken, which restore even more health apiece.
- Chef of Iron: Wang-Tang and Gourmand, although given his look and choice of weapons with his cleaver and frying pan, it's far more obvious in the latter's case.
- Confusion Fu: Jack, who crawls around like an insect on the floor, can contort himself in various impossible ways, and even hover through the air by spinning his upper torso like a helicopter rotor.
- Dance Battler: Rouge and Ayame both engage in this, albeit in different ways. Rouge's moves take influence from Middle Eastern belly-dancing, whilst Ayame's are more breakdance-inspired.
- Death Cry Echo: This is present in both games, whenever anyone gets knocked out.
- Denser and Wackier: Despite the darker opening sequence, Power Stone 2 is this compared to the first game; with its broader array of wackier weapons, and all the slapstick-y ways they can be used. To name a few, pummelling opponents with a huge fish, forcing them to march around in place with a trumpet, and being sent flying off and bouncing against the walls with a tennis racket.
- Double Jump: Both games let you do this if you're playing a lightweight character.
- Dub Name Change: Edward's surname is "Fokker" — like the Dutch airplane manufacturer — in Japanese and "Falcon" in English. No guesses as to why.
- It's averted in the anime, but they gave him an excuse: Fokker is his family name. His real name is Edward.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Julia from PS2 is a brightly-colored variant.
- Excuse Plot/Left Hanging: The second game has a plot that's All There in the Manual about how each character is looking into their own personal quest/mystery to do with the Floating Castle. None of them are ever alluded to in the actual game, let alone resolved.
- Fire-Breathing Diner: One of Rouge's Power Drive attacks involves her breathing fire.
- And Gourmand is a Fire Breathing chef. Go figure.
- Free-Floor Fighting: This features heavily in Power Stone 2, with the main stages changing a lot depending on circumstances that force the fighters to adapt to it or risk taking damage. Examples include the submarines diving and surfacing in Iceberg Area — changing which sub comes up each time and accordingly the weapons you can use on each deck — before one eventually crashes into an iceberg, and the various ancient booby traps in Tomb Area, including a sequence with the floor collapsing and then escaping from a huge rolling boulder.
- Gang Up on the Human: Power Stone 2's 3-on-1 Adventure mode. Interestingly, other modes involving multiple coms do NOT engage in this behavior, suggesting the devs put it in on purpose. The PSP rerelease even lampshades it by saying "The odds are stacked against you".
- Growing Wings: The Angel and Devil Wing. Also the extent of Mel's transformation.
- High-Altitude Battle: The Blue Sky Area from the second game takes place aboard an airship initially, which eventually collapses. The second part of the battle is fought whilst falling with players scrambling to obtain healing food and Umbrellas to slow their fall, before landing in the last section of the stage.
- Homing Projectile: The Homing Missile.
- Humongous Mecha: The Pharaoh Walker boss in the second game is an enormous, four-legged robot with a Nepharious Pharaoh motif and an enormous laser cannon tail.
- Interesting Situation Duel: The main stages of Power Stone 2 take place with plenty of these, with them often changing massively — like the airship collapsing and forcing the players to Freefall Fight on the way down to a Floating Island in Blue Sky Area, or the stage being set on fire in Dark Castle Area — in sections.
- Istanbul (Not Constantinople): Not only old place names, but misspelled names as well ("Londo", "Mahdad"). Either that or it's just a twisted case of Bland-Name Product.
- Item Crafting: In Power Stone 2, combining weapons and items unlocks new ones. Some require in-game guides and/or sheer luck.
- Joke Character: In Power Stone 2, it is possible to play as Mel the shopkeeper. Why you would want to, however...
- Because her super mode is AWESOME.
- Knockback: The games have this to a varying degree based on the attack or item used. The tennis racquet in the second game takes it to the extreme by causing the victim to be sent flying across the whole stage and bouncing off the walls like a tennis ball.
- Levels Take Flight: The Blue Sky stage of 2 starts out on an airship, but it doesn't hang in there for very long.
- Lighter and Softer: The tone of the game is humorous and comical, as opposed to Capcom's other fighting games.
- Limit Break: The Power Fusions are this, being very powerful attacks that can only be used by characters when in their Power Change form. The general rule being, that before running out of juice, one can be done in the first game, and two in the second; although Mel is capable of doing up to four.
- Magical Native American: Galuda, who transforms into a golem-like totem-pole being who can form wings made of light to temporarily fly, and rain light arrows down on his opponents from an arm-mounted bow.
- Macross Missile Massacre: The Power Explosion, one of Falcon's transformed-state attacks fits this to a tee; firing out a huge swarm of missiles that home in on the nearest opponent. Pride can do a variation of it as well in the sequel; while his missiles don't home, they spread out in a wide pattern and can do massive damage if a number of them hit at once.
- Monster Clown: Jack, apparently.
- Ms. Fanservice: Rouge, in case you hadn't figured that out already. Julia's Power Change form in the second game is another example, with her corset, and far more sultry, dominatrix-esque demeanour compared to her more modest and gentle usual self.
- National Stereotypes: Almost every single character in this game is a walking, talking, fighting stereotype. Not even justified, it makes early 90's Street Fighter games look culturally sensitive.
- Ninja: Ayame is one of these. Usually she masquerades as a travelling entertainer, but is secretly a kunoichi descended from a long-standing clan of ninja.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot:
- Kraken, the cyborg ghost pirate.
- Accel, the shapeshifting robot cowboy.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: A knife-wielding maniac named 'Jack' who likes to rip things? Nah, me neither.
- Old-Timey Cinema Countdown: The first game features this countdown at the very beginning of the intro.
- Paper Fan of Doom: The Harisen.
- Parasol Parachute: Used by Julia and Mel.
- Portable Hole: The Pitfall Hoop. Drop it on the ground after picking it up, and it sets this kind of trap.
- Power Makeover: The Power Change transformations, which turn their users into highly-stylized — as well as more powerful — versions of themselves.
- Red Is Heroic: Edward Falcon.
- Retraux: The intro to the first game, which is initially done in the style of a black-and-white movie; complete with the 5-4-3-2-1 count before playing. A lesser example are the backgrounds for the map/adventure mode results screen, which are done in the style of old treasure maps, with an exerpt from the game's intro text hidden in them.
- Rise to the Challenge: A variant of this occurs in the Dark Castle Area in Power Stone 2, in which the bottom section of the stage is set ablaze by fire arrows early on; requiring everyone to scale up to the top of the castle in a brief side-scrolling/platforming segment.
- Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: In Power Stone 2, if the players take too long to kill each other, meteors rain down and reduces everyone's health to 1 and Sudden Death starts. Taking too long in Sudden Death will have even more meteors rain down and finish everyone off, ending in a draw.Announcer: FIGHT ON TO VICTORY! ACTION!
- Samurai: Ryoma. His Katana makes him the only character in the original game (And one of four in the whole series, along with Accel, Gourmand and Julia in Power Stone 2) to constantly wield a weapon.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: The beehive item from Power Stone 2, which predictably sends out swarms of deadly bees around it, but only when it directly hits an opponent.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Plot!: In the game, you need three Power Stones to turn into your Power Change form. Not so in the anime and manga — where only one is generally needed to transform.
- Shamu Fu: The Frozen Tuna weapon in 2.
- Shout-Out: Some of the transformations look awfully familiar, like Wang-Tang's, Ryoma's, Galuda's, and Gunrock's.
- The Mega Buster is a craftable and usable weapon in the second game — as are Darth Vader's lightsaber, Guts' Dragonslayer Sword, Son Goku's Power Pole, and even Apollus's Lance from the first game's own Animated Adaptation. Likewise, Octo & Pus from the same anime cameo on the Adhesive Spray item.
- Capcom's first arcade title is called Vulgus. The final boss of Power Stone is called Valgas, and the two names are identical in Japanese. Hmm...
- Slapstick: With all the comical ways you can eviscerate your opponent, especially in PS2 with its variety of over-the-top weapons and stage hazards, the likes of Ayame, Rouge, Mel and Julia are just as susceptible to the hijinks as everyone else.
- SNK Boss:
- Valgas. Aside from the fact that beating him may require several tries with difficulty set to 1 (with a maximum of eight), what makes him so cheap is that not only his grab can make you lose two Power Stones at once, but said stones also tend to bounce out of your reach and right next to him, with him usually entering his Super Mode while you're still getting back up. The fact his One-Winged Angel is actually weaker than him (with obvious results: "Final Valgas" can be easily beaten at the first try) shouldn't surprise anyone.
- Doctor Erode in the sequel is also very tough, with his variety of unpredictable and bizarre attacks that come out of nowhere, have a large range, and do plenty of damage — more often than not removing your Power Stones as well — especially on higher difficulties. You also can't take the easier way out by doing a little bit of damage and then running away to win by decision like you can against Valgas; you'll run out of time, at which point Erode performs an unavoidable attack that destroys you instantly regardless of your health.
- Spread Shot: The 3-Way and 5-Way Shotguns.
- Squashed Flat: Players can get flattened by mallets or other certain objects.
- Stripperiffic: If you thought Rouge's default Sultry Belly Dancer outfit was cute, wait until you see her transformed.
- Sultry Belly Dancer: As if dressing like and being said to be a belly dancer weren't sexy enough, Rouge uses a fighting style that is based on her belly dancing.
- Super Mode: Collecting three Power Stones temporarily activates your character's super form, letting them use more powerful attacks known as Power Drives/Power Fusions.
- Surprisingly Creepy Moment: Most of the game is cute and light-hearted, but then Valgas mutates into his Final Valgas form; a slug-like blob of melted flesh and crystal that wouldn't look out of place in Resident Evil.
- Sword Beam: Powered-up Ryoma has several variants of this, highly reminiscent of the advanced Laser Blade techniques that can be learned by Zero.
- Transformation Sequence: A brief one occurs whenever someone attains three Power Stones to transform.
- Transformation Trinket: The Power Stones, of which three are required in the games to Power Change. The tie-in anime reduces the number to one.
- Two-Fisted Tales: Basically set in the anime version of this; with ace pilots, exotic belly dancers, a few light Steampunk elements, a MacGuffin being sought by a crew of national stereotypes in a 1930's-esque age of adventure and exploration.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Power Stone 2 allows players in a 3-4 character battle to give up a portion of their health to revive a nearby fallen opponent or ally; which, on top of being kind, is very useful for saving a character you want to take with you in Arcade Mode, or for helping out a KOed teammate.
- Wall Jump: A useful mechanic that appears in both games, letting you set up for mid-air attacks or to get away from being corned. It especially helps when fighting off the hordes of wooden figures in the Chaos Area.
- Weaponized Ball: Falcon's Soccer Ball.
- Wind-Up Key: A decorative item in Power Stone 2.
- Winged Humanoid: Mel's powered-up form is one of these, growing huge angel wings from her back that let her perform extra jumps in mid-air.
- And so does Galuda, during his Power Drive and his Power Fusions.
- And thanks to the giant shuriken she wears on her back and the long ear-like things on her head, Ayame's Power Change gives her a passing resemblance to a butterfly.
