Caption does all the work: HP To One

The image has two captions - one inside the image that says "Hallation / HP goes to 1" and one textual below the image that says "KNEEL BEFORE ZEAL!".

Without the first caption, the image is pretty much incomprehensible; the latter caption doesn't help much either. Not everyone has played Chrono Trigger, after all (they should, but that's another story :) ).

Motion to pull, does not illustrate the trope.

I think it works just fine. Keep Until Better Image Suggested

While it might be a little spoilerish for anyone who hasn't played them, most final bosses in the Final Fantasy games have an attack like this. Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX's bosses in particular.

If a screencap could be obtained where it shows all the characters are down to 1 HP, and the damage number that flashed over them is currently one point less than their full HP, then that would work for the trope image.

That's good.

Maybe Heartless Angel from FF 6 as a 2-parter? (If showing the final boss doing it is too spoilery, we could get Holy Dragon 2 using it.)

The Bonus Boss in Enchanted Arms has an attack aptly named "Near Death Stroke" that does exactly this. Getting absolutely nada from Google though (not even a picture of the boss, let alone him using Near Death Stroke).

FF 6 doesn't work - the attack animation is simply too fast to screencap.

edited 7th Jan '12 3:23:05 PM by Stratadrake

Ahhhhh.

Hmmmmmmm... were there any other HP to 1 attacks in the other FF games?

Thing is, Heartless Angel (which doesn't have too fast of an animation: It's the same as Raise) doesn't show number readouts; the HP display turns to 1 without any damage count inbetween.

In any case, how is a damage readout less "caption does the work" than a Chrono Trigger attack call?

Well, it shows context. A few frames earlier from Hallation would also do it (if you can e.g. see the party members and their stats; the current shot is rather blurry).

Breathof Fire IV's Final Boss has "Soul Rend", which (after the animation) shows damage readouts and remaining HP on the same screen. Would that work?

Standard apology for low You Tube video quality applies.
(The attack name, boss pose, and damage numbers I actually cobbled together from separate screencaps.)

edited 7th Jan '12 5:18:43 PM by Stratadrake

That's exactly what I'm thinking of.

edited 7th Jan '12 7:04:45 PM by DRCEQ

That is almost completely unreadable though.

Let's see if I can find one of the ones in Final Fantasy doing 9998 damage to the party with 9999 HP that is clearer. Like say Omega Weapon in Final Fantasy VIII.

edited 8th Jan '12 1:05:52 AM by Raso

Better than the current pic, even though it's rather blurry.

Yeah, I know. (Anyone got a PSX emulator and the 30 hours required to reach that point of the game?)

Ok, I've got two potential screenshots from a Youtube video of Final Fantasy VIII's final boss. One is vertically long, and the other is a cropped version to show emphasis.

I know that the names at the bottom are almost cut off from the screen, but that's how the video was.

First, the full vertical picture:

Followed by the cropped version.

edited 8th Jan '12 10:28:33 AM by DRCEQ

I would say it's best to shrink and blur them a little.

Blur them? The video was at it's lowest resolution, so that's as clear as the numbers come out anyway.

The last suggestions are clear enough; I say we run with either of them unless someone's got something better.

The second FF 8 one is better, although you cropped the HP meters a little on that last panel.

Like I said, that's how the Youtube was. I couldn't get any more space below that.

Oh wait, here we go. I found a better video of the same fight.... and in better quality. I'll make the screenshot again.

EDIT: Here we go.

I can see advantages to both pictures, really. The first one, the characters don't have their HP maxed out, so the attack has different numbers for all three of them.. But then again, the trope is to show that the attack reduces HP to 1, so it really doesn't matter if they are capped out or not.

edited 8th Jan '12 3:49:15 PM by DRCEQ

That looks good.

I like it.

I think the Breath of Fire pic is better because it's more concise

Thank you rodneyAnonymous for cleaning up the image a little, removing the menu bar, and cropping it a little.