A common Self-Imposed Challenge in video games, the Low-Level Run, is an example of invoking this trope. Just getting through these games with vastly reduced HP, MP, and resources is difficult enough, and it often takes raw skill (often to the point of exploiting Good Bad Bugs) to keep your level low to begin with.
Abyss Crossing: Mikoto has a mediocre stat distribution compared to all other characters, but she has passive TP regen, making it easier for her to use TP skills. She also comes with multihit skills by default, which makes up for her low offensive stats.
Certain bosses display the ability to kick your ass despite using statistically weaker planes (such as Espada Team using a starting fighter and a "multirole" fighter-bomber in a pure air-to-air mission)... to an extent that might be considered the computer Cherry Tappingyou.
On the other side, you have, canonically at least, Mobius One in his Raptor against up to six Wyverns and Gryphus One against the Fenrirs, as well as Cipher and Talisman in (Strike) Eagles against Solo Wing Pixy's Morgan and Ilya's Nosferatu respectively. While neither the Raptor nor the Eagle are objectively "weak" in-game, they are statistically outclassed by these superfighters. Nevertheless, the protagonists still pull off wins. Then you get to the Cherry Tapping examples...
The pitches of the tall and female pitchers from Arc Style: Baseball!! 3D don't have a whole lot of speed, but they make up for it with a wide array of breaking balls that can make the CPU's life a hell.
Adder of Black Hole is a completely and perfectly average CO (which translates to weak by comparison in this game) and CO powers which do nothing more than boost movement ranges, but because he's such a skilled and quick thinker he compensates by having a very short CO power meter which he can use much more frequently than others, clocking in at only two stars for regular (which can be charged in one good turn) or five for super.
Certain guns such as the Mozambique and Wingman in Apex Legends have become memes overtime, for being supposedly inferior to other weapons of their class. True their damage outputs aren't entirely game-breaking, but don't laugh too hard, for in the hands of a skilled player. It will be they who will laugh last. The same can be said for Wraith and Wattson. One can catch you from behind, the other will catch you in it's web...uh...fences.
Luanne Lui from Backyard Sports, mostly due to her speed. She's as fast as Pete Wheeler, but lacks his hitting power, mostly hitting infield.
Bang Shishigami is one of the few pure humans in the series (i.e. having no genetic or eldritch empowerment). He also lacks an empowered weapon with which to do battle with these beings, though he actually possesses a powerful Nox Nyctores, but has no idea how to use it and it has been in its dormant state. However, his long years of ninja training, which include various ninja skills (including the hidden technique "Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan"note yes, that can be attained through training), and most importantly creative uses of them (especially the last one), enable him to survive against both members of the game's super-powered Big Bad Duumvirate, and with all those skills, he can handle himself just fine against various superpowered other characters in the game.
Jin Kisaragi lacks most of the raw power that most characters have in their fighting styles, instead relying mainly on his skills as a swordsman in conjunction with his ice abilities. This is especially obvious when contrasted with the Unskilled, but Strong Ragna; Ragna attacks in a rather simple style of or vertical slashes as well as punches and kicks to overwhelm the opponent. Jin however has much more precision and speed as well as different horizontal attacks to fit different situations, and a more refined looking style compared to his brother. This also extends to gameplay as he's a Jack of All Stats.
Bloons Tower Defense has Boss Bloon Vortex, Deadly Master of Air. Unlike its brethren Bloonarius and Lych which have abilities that make them insanely difficult to destroy (massive health pool and periodic Zerg Rushes from Bloonarius and the ability to become invulnerable and leech lives and buffs for Lych), Vortex has no abilities that let it outlast or ignore damage.
That said, Vortex can be far more brutal than either if not handled correctly; its periodic tornados blow away projectiles, it has a slipstream that makes bloons behind it move at unholy speeds, it's by far the fastest moving boss in the game, and every 25% of its health (12.5% for its Elite mode), it shocks and disables all nearby towers in its radius, including the normally resistant Paragons, and gains a far more powerful projectile shield that lets it block nearly all non-hitscan projectiles. Combined with its blisteringly fast speed and the duration of the stun, if you aren't properly prepared for Vortex, it is capable of absolutely crushing your defense and leaving you vulnerable to a fast death by either the regular bloons or the boss. Worse, because of how the game severly punishes you for attempting to sell stronger towers by forcing you to lose atleast 5% of the money you spent and removing any buffs (or paragon levels), a badly prepared defense can be absolutely unsalvageable, compared to the other bosses which give you some leeway.
Zivko has only average Attack, but his Blast attack gains an extremely high damage multiplier if he accumulates charges. This makes it weak if you just use it as a standard attack, but if you have the time to build up charges it can be very powerful, often killing weaker enemies outright. However, he does still have trouble against heavily-armored enemies, as the damage multiplier occurs after armor reduction.
Nadia has below-average Attack and her basic attack has a low damage multiplier on top of that, making her unlikely to deal much direct damage. Her real potential comes from the poison she applies with that weak attack, which ignores Armor and often deals more damage than her attack did for 3 turns in a row. Her Riposte also has a high damage multiplier that allows it to do strong damage even with her low Attack, but it requires a turn to set up.
In Borderlands 3, Typhus DeLeon, the First Vault Hunter differs from his successors in that rather than simply being an extremely deadly mercenary he got by more on his luck and wits, stating that he's not that great in a fight. He credits his success to being smarter than his enemies, small enough to get into places others can't and being ugly enough that no one would bother paying him any attention.
Crying Suns: The Void class has the lowest health of all battleships, many of its other base stats are incredibly low, and even its better stats are just on par with other ships in the same categories. The one area where it excels is in system support: it can have more officers assigned to its systems than any other ship, and the total number of officers it can have is six rather than five. It also comes with a Pirate Transponder that gives you a 20% discount at shops and makes neutral units friendly toward you during space battles.
Cuphead: The titular character, as well as his brother Mugman, are, on their own, extremely weak and fragile, with three direct hits from the enemy being enough to shatter them into pieces. However, they are also very agile and persistent, constantly dodging their adversaries' attacks and continuously barraging them with their Finger Gun projectiles until the enemy is defeated from all the continuous injuries.
You are (or rather, will become) this from the very beginning to the end. You can level up your abilities and adapt to stronger armor, but your opponents in terms of sheer strength and power will almost always outclass you. Fortunately, as you are an Undead, you basically learn from each death you suffer, and grow more knowledgeable on utilizing certain tactics to win against these foes.
The Ashen One, the protagonist of Dark Souls III, is notable for being this even by comparison to the other protagonists - as an Unkindled, they have even less metaphysical 'oomph' behind them than the Chosen Undead or the Bearer of the Curse, and are fit only to be cinders to the First Flame. In case you were thinking this made them a pushover, bear in mind that the Ashen One's kill list has a guy who eats gods on it, and said god-eater isn't even the toughest target on that list.
You, in Deus Ex. Even when you get the laser sword, super speed and inhuman damage soaking. You'll still get taken down by most enemies if you don't think carefully.
Devil May Cry 5: V lacks highly-damaging attacks to stagger the stronger enemies on his own, and on higher difficulties, his summons can get stalemated fast. However, being able to mix ranged and melee attacks while recovering Devil Trigger gauge at the same time makes it very easy to get style points as V and he offers better crowd control than Nero and Dante. This puts him in contrast with Urizen and Vergil himself. In fact, V has all of his skills and Urizen has all of his raw strength.
In Dissidia Final Fantasy, the characters Onion Knight and Zidane qualify. For the former, due to still being young, his bravery attacks aren't very strong or as varied as the other Cosmos warriors, but makes up for it by attacking and moving quickly, having both short and long range options as well as all of them having branching attacks that deplete HP. For the latter, Zidane hits slightly harder than Onion Knight and just as fast, but his strength lies in dominating at aerial combat, and he is very good at getting his opponent up in the air quickly to get pummeled by aerial combos.
Rogues in Dragon Age: Origins, like in the Dungeons & Dragons example above, can take a passive ability that allows them to base their damage with daggers off their Dexterity instead of their Strength. This usually results in an immediate damage increase out of the Rogue, as players usually build their Rogues with high Dexterity.
In the sequel, Rogues have a few different skills they can take that do things like replace Dexterity with Strength for calculating damage, gain them a 1% bonus to critical hit damage per point of Cunning (high level rogues will easily have 30+ points of Cunning, before any armor bonuses), and increase the 'chance' of scoring a critical hit by 1% per each point of Cunning. Combine this with the fact that your characters no longer control like drunken yaks like in the first game, and a Rogue ability that moves them directly to the target's rear, thereby making flanking 'much' easier, a Rogue with 14 strength will really put the Cannon in Glass Cannon.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has a seriously flawed Level Scaling system in which avoiding Empty Levels is extremely difficult without resorting to being a full-blown Munchkin. Enemies level scale based purely on your level, but your actual strength in combat involves many factors besides just level (health gain per level, attributes, equipment, and skills). As such, leveling up with too many non-combat skills is likely to result in an insignificant bonus to your abilities, but all enemies still increase in strength. One way to combat the issue is to combine this trope with a Low-Level Advantage by increasing skills but never sleeping (which is required to actually level up). Though this severely limits your ability to make use of NPC trainers, as you can only use them five times per level, your skills will still increase naturally through use and by finding skill books. This ultimately leads to the world being saved from a horde of feeble monsters by a strangely competent insomniac.
Fallen London: Tomb-Colonists. Their bodies are ravaged by injuries so horrible they stuck even after dying and getting back up, and continued to degrade after that from both age and wear. But since the kind of person that gets so horribly damaged usually leads a dangerous life to begin with, and because the Tomb-Colonies are horribly dull, they usually pass their days challenging each other to deadly duels (or at least, deadly for others that aren't as ragged as them). Thus, their mangled bodies can't put out much strength, but they have more experience than anyone else and can easily kill much livelier and stronger fighters in seconds. Fittingly, they're one of the three factions who can teach you how to be Dangerous (with the heavily-armed Revolutionaries and the muscular, brawl-happy Dockers being the other two).
In the first two games, it's possible to take an at-creation trait called Skilled, that makes your character into one of these. You gain perks (miscellaneous, but potent benefits) less often but get a bonus to all your skills (medicine, gun skills, etc). It's generally considered inferior to its counterpart trait since skills are easy to raise and specialize in, but perks come only with level gains.
The Skilled trait makes a comeback, where it instead means that you get 10% less experience points, but instead gain 5 experience points in every skill. Here it becomes a trait to cherish, as while it takes more time level up, a low level character with Skilled can be more effective than a high level character.
Since (except for the ballistic fist) most unarmed weapons only require 2 strength to be used properly, a character can have only 2 strength (pitifully low) but still have vast unarmed combat abilities, capable of punching people across rooms. The learnable combat moves take this up to eleven, allowing enemies to be knocked down, disarmed, and countered without "strength" factoring into it at all. Possibly averted in that unarmed combat is based off of "endurance", a measure of how resistant you are to attacks, which could be thought of as "strong"
If Raul Tejada is inspired to be the Vaquero that he once was, he states that while he's an old man who's eyesight and body aren't what they used to be, his brains can make up for that and he's still quick with a gun. His Old Vaquero perk lets him fire revolvers and lever-action rifles 33% faster.
The Swordmaster Class tend to be this, but the class that epitomizes the trope would be the even rarer class, Assassin. Swordmasters have high speed and skill with a relatively low strength cap, but also gain a boost anywhere from 15% to 30%, depending on game, to their critical chance. Assassins tend to have the lowest strength cap in any given game they're in for final class promotions, but also have the highest skill cap, and are the only class with a one hit kill move that deals death even if they'd normally not even do damage with a normal attack.
One specific character example is Luthier from Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake, Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. He has a fairly low magic growth but the highest skill growth in the game, and he even gets an Unskilled, but Strong foil in his little sister Delthea.
Frantic 3: The Tactician ship. It's weak with its 4 weapon slots and 3 hit shield, plus its speed is average. However, it has 12 accessory slots allowing for the most customisability and a high energy bar with recharge rate.
Game Master Plus: The Joker class can only equip weapons and body armor with mediocre stats, but they also have a large variety of enemy skills to choose from. By the end of the game, they'll have much better support skills than the Fighter and Tinker classes.
You as Gene in God Hand. Sure, between the Unleash and the Reel/Roulette you do have a lot of power, but the other 80% of the time when you're building up to the former, even simple mooks can tear you a new breathing hole very fast. Dodging and knowing when and how to retaliate are very important. It's a Nintendo Hard game, folks.
A rare villainous example from Guild Wars — High level Charr are still not at a particularly high level compared to most enemies you face at maximum level, but still manage to be some of the hardest enemies in the game because they have better thought out combinations of skills than most enemies and being a lot more coordinated.
In Half-Life, the player character Gordon Freeman is a scientist who theoretically isn't cut out for the kind of mayhem caused by the resonance cascade. He has to make do without any firearms at first, and, given a skilled player controlling him, could be said to either take a quick, practical level in badass or just discover that he's naturally skilled as a fighter. The second game lampshades it with a speech by Breen to the troops:
"How could one man have slipped through your forces' fingers? Time and time again? How is it possible? This is not some agent provocateur or highly trained assassin we are discussing. Gordon Freeman is a theoretical physicist who had hardly earned the distinction of his Ph.D. at the time of the Black Mesa Incident. I have good reason to believe that in the intervening years, he was in a state that precluded further development of covert skills. The man you have consistently failed to slow, let alone capture, is by all standards, simply that—an ordinary man. How could you have failed to apprehend him?"
The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, or ODSTs. While they lack the physical upgrades or the Powered Armor that the Spartans possess, they're just as rigorously trained for combat and more than prove their worth. Halo 3: ODST has you, as a mere rookie in the ODSTs, playing as this trope to survive. Alone and stranded in the ruins of New Mombasa, the only weapons available at the start for you are a submachine gun, pistol, and frag grenades. Using these, along with whatever weapons, ammo, and medical supplies you manage to scavenge along the journey, you have to take on literally hundreds of Covenant troops, several of whom are comparable in strength to Spartans, and eventually reunite with the remaining ODSTs.
Edward Buck, from the same game mentioned above, also qualifies. He later becomes Strong and Skilled by becoming a Spartan-IV.
The UNSC in general is this during their war with the Covenant. They're at a major numerical and technological disadvantage throughout the franchise, yet continually manage to prevent humanity's extinction (and the extinction of all other life in the galaxy via the Halo Array) through strategy, pragmatism, and sheer determination.
Kingdom Hearts: Master Xehanort, the series’ Big Bad, is this. In the past, he was one of the most powerful Keyblade Masters in history. In the present…not so much, something he bitterly acknowledges, knowing how old age has sapped away his strength and stamina, to the point where he becomes exhausted after a single fight with the much younger Terra. That said, Xehanort still is a Keyblade Master, and he has the skills to prove it, being a very proficient mage, possessing magic strong enough to overwhelm Mickey’s Ultima. Outside of battle, he’s also shown to have retained his cunning, having spent much of his elderly years as a master manipulator working to orchestrate a new Keyblade War.
Knights of the Old Republic: Mission Vao and T3-M4 have the lowest hit points in the party, but they're the best when it comes to disabling mines, hacking computers, picking locks, or turning the security systems against your enemies. Mission also has a nasty sneak attack ability while T3-M4 can be equipped with stun guns and flame-throwers in addition to blasters.
Tanimura from Yakuza 4 is the smallest and skinniest of the four protagonists, and this is represented with him having the lowest health and paltry damage output without upgrades. However, he can parry almost any move and has powerful grappling options thanks to his knowledge of taiho-jutsu, and upgrades allow him to use Heat Actions after every possible combo finisher, alongside the ability to build Heat via his signature parry and grapple. The result is a defensive fighting style where subduing the enemy and using their strength against them is key to unlocking devastating bursts of power.
The Heroes of Tomorrow, aka the protagonists of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, are pretty low on the power-scale compared to the rest of the series' heroes, almost comparable to an Elite Mook in terms of individual power. Instead of relying on brute strength, a la previous protagonist Kiryu, the group instead makes use of teamwork and strategy to take down opponents that would otherwise be far out of their league.
You, in Mabinogi: A good player with half-decent skill ranks can annihilate mighty bosses while taking only Scratch Damage, while an incompetent player with mighty stats will be curb-stomped in short order.
Doctor Mordin Solus in Mass Effect 2 was a member of the Special forces of his Race. He's small, but can take out several mercenaries by himself.
Mordin: Not always been a doctor, can handle myself. Advantage of being Salarian. Turians, Krogan, Vorcha all obvious threats... *sharp inhale* Never see me coming.
Most salarian soldiers do this. The salarians are not a strong race, so they use their heads to fight.
Shepard in Mass Effect was a regular, ordinary human, who still managed to take down Krogan, Thresher Maws and Reapers. Technically, this makes them more badass than they are in the sequels, as the Lazarus Project turns them into an Empowered Badass Normal.
In the games where he is playable, Proto Man is an example of this. Due to a defect in his power system, he is in constant pain, and ingame tends to take fewer hits because of it. Avoiding hits and fighting smart is his only option to take on enemies.
Mega Man, himself, at least to begin within his games. His Mega Buster is vastly inferior in terms of power to his opponents. Only by the end of the game, when he's a walking arsenal of doom, does he go to the other side...and then still requires skill, because he's still just a small robot facing huge massive weapons of destruction.
His buster's ability to adapt weapons is also an interesting case of this. He's instantly able to use new weapons, but because he lacks the specialized bodies of the masters he took them from he tends to end up with similar, often limited versions of the weapons as he's limited to using only what he has to utilize it. While Top Man could spin and shoot all around the arena due to the wheels on his feet Mega Man can only spin in the air, yet for projectile-only weapons like Search Snake he gets a version identical to that of the robot master.
Mega Man X fits even more than Mega Man, considering the fact that he's almost always smaller and less technically able than the opponents he faces, but he's goddamn unstoppable once he starts. Add the fact that every game still manages to have That One Boss even after he gets his 'Ultimate' armor.
It's stated in canon that adherence to this trope is entirely voluntary for all incarnations of Mega Man. With their signatureadaptability and intellect, any Mega Man could easily become powerful enough to wipe the floor with the rest of the cast combined and quite rightfully fear the corruption this could lead to. This doesn't explain Bass' tendency to lose his copied weapons too despite that his sole purpose is to defeat Mega Man and become the most powerful robot in existence. One would guess he wants to do it on his own merits instead of relying on other, "inferior" robot masters' weapons.
Zero from the same franchise is also this, he doesn't have the same adaptability as X nor does he have armor upgrades to compensate for his less than great durability, thus making him a Glass Cannon, but his skill with a sword is second to none, even learning techniques to gain advantages for his weaknesses.
In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Solid Snake has aged considerably but is still able to fight effectively against physically and technologically superior opponents using his elite covert warfare skills. This is in fact a major theme of the first and fourth games: experience and skill trumps pure strength. Snake repeatedly triumphs against the Genome Soldiers of the first game, and the PMCs of the fourth game, because he knows what he is doing and has the confidence and ability to pull it off, while the other side is relatively unskilled but has a significant numerical and technological superiority.
This is how the titular hunters prevail against the many, many large and life-threatening monsters they face. Even the strongest weapons still take dozens or hundreds of hits to kill one such target, while the monsters can easily kill hunters in one or two hits, but through skilled evasive maneuvers, exploitation of all the right weak points, and management of the items they carry in their pouches, hunters regularly come back in one piece with the bits and pieces of monsters that are tens of meters long as their victory trophies.
Embodied best perhaps by the humble Sword and Shield. It doesn't have the strongest blows or the mightiest defences, and even compared to the Dual Blades it isn't particularly fast. Even the games advise this weapon as a beginner's choice. But it is still one of the best weapons for mobility and repositioning options, and thanks to the high rate of attack it's a more effective weapon for inflicting elemental damage and Status Effects even if the raw damage isn't so great. Best of all, World gives the Sword and Shield the unique ability to use items and the new Slinger while still unsheathed, giving a healer or trapper a lot of flexibility.
In EarthBound Beginnings, Loid is first found hiding from bullies in a trash can. He is extremely skilled with weaponry however, and is able to use beams, flamethrowers, and many other tools in to aid in combat. When R7038 defeats the party on Mt. Itoi, Loid comes in with a tank to rescue them.
In EarthBound (1994) Jeff Andonuts is to Ness and his party. He used the Bad Key Machine to free Ness and Paula from underneath the Threed graveyard. Despite his lack of PSI, he proves himself invaluable with his heavy bazooka, neutralizer, and especially with his bottle rockets which is an insane Game-Breaker (Even crazier is when you equip with the Rabbit's Foot).
Aliens in Mutant Football League have high speed and high intelligence, giving them an inherent edge in reaction time, evasiveness, field awareness, self preservation, and adapting as the play unfolds. This makes them ideal quarterbacks and defensive backs, and desirable at wideout and RB. They're also the weakest species in the game, with low tackling ability, hitting power, and durability. The all-alien Galaxy Chaos team has an electric offense and a solid secondary, but struggles to stop the run because they can't bring down the ballcarrier. They can't injure or kill key players on the opposing offense, either. Compare Orcs and the (nearly) all-orc team, the Orcs of Hazzard, who have all of the exact opposite strong points and weaknesses.
You, in NetHack. Your only hope of survival is good tactics, but with proper preparation you can survive the wrath of a GOD.
In Neverwinter Nights 2 this is a fundamental part of the conflict between Sand and Qara. It is implied that Sand has no extraordinary aptitude for magic, and yet though training and dedication, he's an accomplished wizard when you meet him, knowing both the theory and practice of magic. As a sorceress, Qara comes by her power naturally, but doesn't bother to learn to do anything with it beyond the apparently all-purpose application of "Blow Stuff Up".
In the first game, Josh, Stan, and Shannon fall into this trope, with Josh able to more easily find items in a room, Stan able to pick locks far more quickly and skip the Lockpicking Minigame, and Shannon able to use first aid kits (on herself or her partner) more effectively and offer puzzle tips. Kenny, meanwhile, gets a sprint, and Ashley gets a rapid-fire attack. Notably, using Josh and Stan as one's main characters is recommended for getting through the game quickly, especially on normal difficulty, where Kenny's sprint and Ashley's rapid fire attack aren't as necessary.
Stan, Shannon, and Kenny return in the second game. This time, Stan is the only character able to pick locks at all, while Shannon's unique ability is now that she can suck dangerous dark auras out of the environment without harm to herself (a power she gained after the events of the first game, going hand-in-hand with her goth makeover). Of the new characters, Mei can use her PDA to hack computers and locks, and Amy gets Shannon's old puzzle-solving abilities. Kenny, meanwhile, has greater strength that allows him to push heavy objects and do more melee damage to enemies, abilities that he shares with Sven, while Corey is a daredevil who can climb across high ledges.
In Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, Stranger decidedly qualifies as a badass, despite being "kinda shrimpy for a Steef".
Abe as well. As the (very snarky) manual puts it, he's "the skinny guy with no weapons". You want to win, you need to be smart and not fight fair.
In Ōkami, Waka fights Amaterasu twice, and though he loses he urges her to get stronger. It's clear that he's far stronger than Ammy through most of the game's beginning and middle because he shows up to help in the very final fight, and manages to block a full strength blast from Yami long enough to deliver a Final Speech. It helps he's been awake and active for 100 years while Amaterasu was weakened Sealed Good in a Can, but he's still just a mortal and survives fighting gods.
The Ghost class can be this. They have fewer damage dealing skills then their Enforcer or Technician allies, they will typically wear less armor in order to be faster and harder to see, and will also use smaller guns/silenced guns to increase their concealment. But a good Ghost can open every door, slip in and out undetected, and steal every single loot bag on the map without any guards knowing what the fuck is going on.
The Fugitive class could arguably be considered this, as well- most of their skillset revolves around seemingly minor tricks, like a little extra concealment or extra movement speed, and at face value a pure, focused Fugitive doesn't seem like a good fit for the game. Then you pair the appropriate skills with other classes and you see how much better they are for it.
Fugitive Medic Bags may not reset the Downed count, but it still heals to full health and he carries alot of them, allowing the Mastermind's Doctor Bags to be saved for real emergencies, and a fleet-footed Mastermind with the Inspire skill Aced can run around the field reviving the entire team and have the healing supplies to salvage a potentially doomed heist, while pairing the Fugitive's Akimbo Aced skill with the Mastermind's pistol perks will make him a dual-wielding force to be reckoned with.
An Enforcer with the Fugitive's Thick Skin can make them tankier than they already are while giving them a much-needed movement boost, with healing options to help them last longer.
A Ghost with Low Blow, Sneaky Bastard, Sixth Sense and silenced weapons with the right perks can solo some of the hardest stealth missions in the game quickly, and still be able to put up a good fight when things go south.
A Technician can make use of the Fugitive's movement boost to set up turrets and mines quickly before an assault starts, and pairing with the Tech's sniper perks with the Fugitive's Run-and-Gun perk will make them an accurate yet fleet-footed marksman, with both the former and latter setups thinning out assaults before they get too close while allowing them to quickly reach and reactivate stalled drills, or reload empty turrets.
Persona 3: The Michael Persona has a full-team heal, two ma-dyne spells, repels his weakness, and learns the unique move Heaven's Blade, which has the highest critical rate in the game and will do almost as much damage as Brave Blade. However, he has very low stats that don't grow easily.
Pikmin: The captains are tiny astronauts that, if on their own, could be defeated with little difficulty by almost any enemy in the series. But by commanding and utilizing the skills of the titular Pikmin, they're capable of handling anything that comes their way.
Pokémon: Several Pokémon qualify as this. For example, Sableye is a Pokemon with a base stat total of merely 380. However, it has only one weakness with three immunities, and has the ability Prankster which gives priority to non-damaging moves, allowing Sableye to cripple your opponent's team with several very annoying moves.
Sableye got some love from a Mega Evolution, making it much more bulky to compensate for its fragility, and giving it Magic Bounce instead of Prankster, returning pesky traps and status effects back to sender.
Whimsicott is seen as a better choice stats wise, but due to its Grass/Fairy typing, it's vulnerable to many other types, however, its high speed and Sableye's Prankster make it a lethal threat in Battle Spot and Nintendo's VGC format.
Nidoking has mediocre stats all-round, but in later gens the Sheer Force ability turned it into one of these. This grants a 33% power boost to moves with a secondary effect, and Nidoking learns a lot of these, from both sides of the physical/special spectrum. It also allows it to use Life Orb without any drawbacks. Combined, this means it hits surprisingly hard for only having 85 base Special Attack and 92 (or 102 from Gen 6 on) base Attack.
The ability Technician provides a 50% boost to all moves with a base power of 60 or less, which (more often than not) have useful secondary effects such as increased priority, hitting multiple times or bypassing accuracy; putting them on par with the more common "STAB spam" moves such as Thunderbolt or Flamethrower.
The move Foul Play runs on this trope, allowing the user to turn its target's strength against it instead of using its own. It uses the target's Attack stat rather than the user's, allowing even Stone Walls or Fragile Speedsters to deal hefty damage to the right target.
Prayer of the Faithless: Amalie has high Skill growth to make her attacks more accurate, make her more likely to crit, and more likely to graze enemy attacks, but her Power and Armor growth are mediocre. She also lacks the Miasma abilities and telepathy of other Manna, so she has to fall back on combat skill to compensate.
Punch-Out!!: Little Mac, particularly in his NES incarnation. Pint-sized guy vs. title holders who are many times bigger and more muscular than him, anyone? His Star Punch is only acquired by hitting the opponent at a moment of opportunity, and tends to be less powerful than many later game opponents' punches, which clearly shows how much the players must rely on tactics and be more efficient than their opponents.
Re:Kuroi: Remy is the weakest of the party offensively and she never goes on missions alone because of her defensive specialization. However, she has a lot of military experience compared to the other party members. In battle, she's has an autopassive that allows her to use the Mercy mechanic without taking up an entire spell slot, showing that she's the most skilled at non-lethally subduing human opponents. She can also turn an enemy's attack against themself by inflicting Misfire, effectively using their own strength against them rather than using her own middling offensive power.
RealityMinds: Rasheed and Reffian cannot stack their offensive buffs as high as the main trio, but they have other subtle advantages that make up for their lack of damage output. Rasheed can lower enemies' resistance to stat down effects and has access to the burst series of chain skills, which have higher chances of inflicting stat downs. Reffian has the highest base agility, which means she has an easier time casting her healing spells before enemies can move.
Resident Evil 4: Leon S. Kennedy — particularly if the player does a knife- orno-upgrades-handgun-only run. He's more agile than he was as a rookie in the RCPD, and he's gotten advanced combat training since then, too — which are the only things keeping him alive against a literal army of parasite-powered villagers, cultists, soldiers, giants, giant bugs, Regenerators, and chainsaw nuts with sacks over their heads — not to mention the obligatory freakshow bosses, every single one of which is capable of killing him in one hit. Sure, he has superior firepower for most of the game — but a gun isn't much use to someone who can't put the bullets where they need to go.
Ned Flanders in The Simpsons Wrestling is the weakest character in the game, save for his Lightning Bolt attack, which does the greatest damage in the game. All you have to do is survive so you can use it.
Hunters in Sinjid are this. Their base attacks are weak, they can't regain Focus as well as the other classes, and if they run out of Focus during a fight, they're toast. On the other hand, they can be devastating if the right strategies and combos are used. Out of all the available classes in the game, they're the most difficult to master, but are the most rewarding.
Being one of the youngest in Sonic's crew, Cream the Rabbit is obviously going to be very physically weak. However as many a foe (and player) has come to find out, when Cream teams up with Cheese, her chao companion, she can shred through enemies just as easily as anyone else.
In Sonic Mania Plus, Ray the Squirrel can't fly like Tails, he glides instead. While he can't reach up areas by simply smashing a button, he can still do it if he takes enough distance and a good angle to glide upper. Also, unlike the little fox, he's never exhausted meaning that you have more control on where you land.
The Fan GameSonic Robo Blast 2 gives us an interesting case with Fang the Sniper. He can't spin like most characters can and is barred from being able to destroy breakable walls as a result, but his tail bounce is great at building up both horizontal and vertical distance, and his popgun lets him take out enemies with ease. The unusual part is that his tail bounce can also break some floors with it, a feature exclusive to him and Amy Rose (who's the opposite of this trope in this game).
The Wacky RacingSpin-OffSonic Robo Blast 2 Kart has characters with low weight and top speed, which are the equivalents of Mario Kart lightweight characters. Tails is the slowest and lightest of the default characters, but his high acceleration allows him to quickly recover from spinning out, and his excellent handling makes it easy to zip around corners while chaining boosts. Bonus characters that also fit the role include Chao, who takes Tails's stats to their extreme, Dark and Hero Chao, who are a single point lower than Tails in speed and weight respectively, and Motobug, Ray (Rouge in 1.0.2), and Ulala, who are similarly slow but are heavier.
Old and ill and all, Gen can still pack quite a punch against younger, healthier and physically stronger fighters than himself. If Akuma is to be believed (and why shouldn't he be?), Gen's age and illness are the only things that make it remotely fair (in-story) for him to fight any of the other characters.
Many of the female characters fit this trope, but arguably ninja girl Ibuki fits this for the girls of the game the most. She is a fragile speedster who has some of the weakest special attacks in the game and in universe many of the bulkier characters call her out for her "soft punches". She does make up for her generally low damage for having among the best knockdown or reset games in the game and being able to extend her combo's and juggles with precision and execution.
Despite being considered a Joke Character both in and out of universe, Dan Hibiki possesses a surprisingly comprehensive knowledge of martial arts. Gameplay wise, he’s always been dangerous in the right hands and upgrades he’s received over the years have given him several unique skills. It’s worth noting that his status as this trope is only in comparison to the other playable characters, as supplementary materials have shown him taking down a group of armed thugs without breaking a sweat.
Mario himself applies this trope to varying degrees in platforms games.
In 2D games, when he lacks his transformations, he can only stomp weak enemies like Goombas and Bullet Bills, while others like Koopas and Bob-Ombs are only paralyzed for few seconds or ready to explode. However, in this state, he can still kick and hold them so he can use their strength to defeat other enemies or break some walls.
In 3D games, Mario can do amazing acrobatics and is more resistant, but he still has to defeat bosses this way: while they are often strong but imprecise, he can avoid their attacks at ease and wait for the opportunity to counterattack.
While Mario is the Jack of All Stats in Super Smash Bros., his special moves focus less on power than keeping the enemy at distance while keeping maximum control: these moves consist of cutting an opponent in its tracks with fireballs, reflecting projectiles with a cape, or propelling other players out of stage with a water jet. Even his most powerful special move, the Super Jump Punch, only makes minimal damage and leaves him powerless until he falls on the ground, but remains at the same strength (while Luigi's equivalent goes from ridiculously weak to absurdly strong) and after Mario falls on the ground, he recovers instantly (while his brother is powerless for a few seconds as he falls on his head).
In Super Mario 3D World and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Captain Toad is only able to walk or toddle, and is unable to jump. This doesn't stop him to solve complex puzzles and to fight powerful monsters.
While Mario is an Unskilled, but Strong character in Mario Golf, other characters like Luigi, Peach or Toad are this, as they don't hit the ball hard but have much more control over it.
A similar example occurs in Mario Tennis, where Mario is the Jack of All Stats: Technique characters like Peach or Waluigi don't have a powerful smash, but can lead the ball wherever they want.
Before becoming a Paladin, Nade combat style focuses more on countering an enemy's attack than raw power. Once he masters the Iai Blade, he's able to singlehandedly defeat Theseus, the current strongest Einherjar, simply by countering the latter's multihit attacks. He becomes Strong and Skilled as a Paladin, since he retains his more technical sword skills while getting a massive stat boost. Eventually, his Paladin powers are weakened because he has to use a portion of it to preserve Sophie's life, but he's still surprisingly capable due to his sword skills and wide variety of skills from Paladin souls.
This trope becomes a problem for many of the guest characters. While they all have decent skillsets on paper, stats are heavily affected by equipment, which can only be changed through story events. Story events almost never give upgrades to guest characters, leaving them in the dust compared to main characters. However, they can still change their ornament and skills gems, giving them a fighting chance as long as the enemy isn't too strong. Brigid and Zash in particular can use the Tactics skillset without having to equip the Commander gem, giving them a fighting chance despite being outclassed by the enemies in their side story.
Miles Kilo from Syndicate (2012) is a downplayed version. While he has none of the truly super abilities of the other Agents, he's technically still a Super-Soldier by normal human standards. Nevertheless, as his In-Universe dossier notes, he is unusually creative and independent, which enables him to come up on top against better-empowered foes. Indeed, he was specifically chosen for the DART 6 chip because he had sufficient skills and abilities to fully make use of it, but if the prototype failed, he was only a physiologically barely-above-average agent who could be easily replaced. His creative thinking and independence, however, makes him a nightmare for Eurocorp when he turns on them.
The Sniper has only his rifle, his wits, and his marksmanship to take down his opponents. And more often than not, he does.
The Engineer is rather weak, but displays incredible skill around his machines.
The Medic is also pitiful in offensive and defensive capabilities, but the entire game is said to revolve around his abilities.
The Spy has one of the weakest melee weapons in the game, but his Guile Hero skills make up for it, giving him the ability to instant-kill anything that isn't invulnerable. Except for snipers with the Razorback.
The Scout, while fast, isn't strong enough for front-line combat. Instead, the player has to be extremely skilled in using his speed and mobility to get in close and harass the enemy with some of the game's highest-damage guns.
Garrett from the Thief series is very much like this. He's reasonably athletic (he can run and mantle with the best of them, although he's no ninja), but in strength and combat is no match for the muscular bruiser guards or straight-out superhuman monsters he's regularly faced with. Instead, he relies on smarts and stealth to outmaneuver and outwit them all.
Discussed Trope in Under Night In-Birth: In Linne's arcade ending, Hilda notes with frustration that Linne's EXS abilities aren't even that strong, especially compared to Hilda's screen-filling blades of raw darkness. Linne just has thousands of years of experience and technique, and her swordplay is incredibly dangerous as a result.
This is a base requirement for any monster that intends to fight a human and hopes to survive, due to their incredibly weak souls and even weaker bodies. The only advantage a monster brings into battle is its attunement to magic.
On the other hand, the Human Child is this if you do a Pacifist run. Sparing all the monsters means that you never get EXP. As a consequence, you always keep 20 HP and your ATK and DEF stay at 0 (aside from the boosts your items give you, and not counting the extremely costly Temmie Armor it's never a big boost). Their skills rest less on fighting than convincing their opponent that they don't want to fight, then befriending them. Therefore, some of the opponents during the last parts of the game may be able to deplete a quarter of your life with just one hit, meaning that you have to be very good at dodging their attacks if you want to survive.
If you take the No Mercy route, however, you will face a Final Boss who applies this trope in a brilliant way. If you "Check" them, the scan says they're the easiest enemy in the game and that they only have 1 AT and 1 DF, which seems to support this. However, this character, while the weakest, is also the single most difficult battle in the game by an enormous margin. Sure, all of their attacks only do 1 HP damage, but they don't trigger your Mercy Invincibility, meaning they chip off 1 HP per frame, they come at you so fast and densely that there's little time to react and even less room to dodge, and on top of that they inflict a Damage Over Time effect that stacks with every hit you take. And sure, the character has only 1 HP, but they get around this by simply dodging every single attack you throw their way. When they get serious, the character even starts abusing the game's battle system itself by attacking out of turn, switching from one attack to another in the middle of the attack animation, or even just never taking any action, and therefore never ending their turn, never allowing you to take any actions. This character's name is Sans... turns out he's Brilliant, but Lazy.
The No Mercy route leaves one interesting implication that the game teases at, but never answers. If this is what Sans can do, then how powerful is his brother, Papyrus, who has way better stats than Sans, actually? You might fight Papyrus earlier in the game, but is made blatantly clear that he is holding back against you in this battle, because he is an extremely good-natured guy who doesn't actually want to seriously harm the player. When you face Sans, however, he is giving you absolutely no quarter whatsoever and applying himself to his fullest, because he sees no reason to hold back against a genocidal monster like you.
In The Walking Dead, Clementine is not very strong physically, but she's pretty handy with a pistol after Lee teaches her how to shoot. In the first episode of Season 2, at least, she doesn't have a gun so she has to use the environment to her advantage whenever she's caught in a confrontation to survive.
Warframe: Teshin is practically a Badass Normal compared to the Tenno he trains, but what he lacks in amazing and powerful abilities, he more than makes up for with his centuries of experience.
In World of Tanks, the match making can place very low tiers in matches with the bigger, nastier high level tanks. A skilled pilot, however, will stay hidden, reveal the enemy to his artillery, manage to destroy the enemy artillery and capture once the dust has settled down. In fact, a pilot that is good at this will do more to help win than his strongest teammates without firing a single shot.
Adol from Ys series can't take a lot of damage, especially if he is underleveled or if he's up against a boss, so the key to survive as him is to learn how to dodge and counter attack.
, and upgrades allow him to use Heat Actions after every possible combo finisher, alongside the ability to build Heat via his signature parry and grapple. The result is a defensive fighting style where subduing the enemy and using their strength against them is key to unlocking devastating bursts of power.