Misused: Scissors Cuts Rock

Well, "Misused" is the closest thing to the problem I have with this. I feel like some of the video game section is describing a different trope.

Scissors Cuts Rock is supposed to be about a character who trains hard enough that they can overcome whatever disadvantages they may get from Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors. Some parts of the Video Game section more or less amounts to saying "A Level 25 Fire-element Monster can beat a Level 5 Water-element monster," which, though kind of obvious, still counts under the trope as described.

However, there are examples of game mechanics themselves that bugger around with the established Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors or Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors setup, and should really be their own separate thing:

• Pokémon
  • Having a Pokemon with the ability Scrappy or the move Foresight means that Normal-type and Fighting-type moves can hit Ghost-types, which are normally unaffected.
  • Several Pokemon that have Levitate- An ability that makes Ground Type Moves fail- would normally take Massive Damage from said moves. There is also a move called Magnet Rise that grants the ability Levitate for a few turns.
  • The ability Tinted Lens doubles the power of any attack that would normally be resisted, raising it to the power of a neutral attack.
  • Normally, Ice-type moves are less effective (1/2 damage) against Water-types. However, Freeze Dry, a move introduced in Pokémon X and Y is an Ice-type move that is specifically Super-effective (2x) against Water-types thus being able to do massive damage to Water/Dragon, Water/Flying, Water/Ground and Water/Grass types.
  • Inverse Battles, a mechanic introduced in Pokémon X and Y, reverse the Rock-Paper-Scissors element completely, turning weaknesses into resistances and resistances into weaknesses.
  • Primal Groudon in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire is a Fire/Ground type, which it would be 4x weak to water... except that its ability creates harsh sunlight that negates all Water-type moves in the battle, giving Groudon an immunity to what would otherwise deal massive damage to it.
• In EndWar, Helicopter beats Tanks, Tanks beats Transports, and Transports beat Helicopters. The first one can be defied by equipping your tanks with Anti-air missile.
• In Fire Emblem, The Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors triangle goes Axes> Lances> Swords> Axes. However, later on in the game, you're introduced to "reaver" type weapons, which are specifically designed to reverse the triangle; The Axereaver is a Lance that beats axes but is weak against swords, the Swordreaver is an Axe that beats Swords but is weak to lances, and the Lancereaver is a Sword that beats lances and is weak to Axes. Funny enough, if both combatants have reaver weapons, the triangle plays out as normal.
• This can happen fairly often in Battle for Wesnoth, given how time-of-day, terrain, applications of mobility, and special abilities like charging or magical attacks can easily turn the tables as to what counters what. Simply selecting the correct unit types is not enough to ensure victory.
• Spiral Knights often falls victim to this, as the strengths and weaknesses of most monsters are not modified by the environments that they spawn in or the elemental types that they appear to be. For example, a Silversap (an icy-looking Lumber) will still be susceptible to Freeze damage and Shock damage, or a Smoking Howlitzer can still be taken down with ease using an immolating weapon.
• Yggdra Union has a weapon advantage triangle-inside another triangle, which can easily be rendered irrelevant with activation of various Cards (such as Oblivious Dawn, Revolution, Sanctuary, or Crusade). Knowledge of invoking this trope inside the game is practically necessary, since the Big Bad has a weapon that screws over the usual triangle.
• In Age of Empires III, pikeman-type units are extra effective against melee cavalry units. However, war elephants and French curaissers are capable of crushing large numbers of pikemen due to having powerful splash-damage attacks (pikemen typically have little health) and absurd amounts of health.
  • A similar thing happens in Age of Empires II with Cataphracts, the Byzantine unique unit. Their extremely good armor combined with an attack bonus against Infantry means they actually have the advantage against Pikemen one-on-one, despite being cavalry. Paladins also beat unupgraded Pikemen one-one-one, though in this case it's a Pyrrhic Victory at best since the Paladin will still come out heavily weakened and they're much more valuable than Pikemen are.
• Disgaea's elemental table can be totally ignored if your unit has an ability that negates part of the elemental table.
  • This also can be exploited with certain classes. The Mystic Beast, Warslug, and Dragon classes are immune to wind, water, and fire respectively. On a normal matchup with any other unit, a Fire Skull (for example) with +50% in his fire element will deal an additional 50% damage for what he deals in fire. If the target has a -50% fire, then it'll basically double the damage they'd receive... unless it was a dragon who could have an abysmal fire stat, but is ALWAYS immune to fire.

edited 4th Mar '16 11:52:12 AM by SalFishFin

You are making a distinction without a difference. This sort of split is too fine for anyone to understand. Declining to open.