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openA character who's only used to buff another character's stats Videogame
Example: In the gacha game "Eversoul", there's a character named Eve, who is classified as a Defender despite her skillset being in line with a Supporter. In battle, she takes on one of two states depending on whether she was the highest in ATK at the start of battle. For this query, I'll be talking about her support state "Bound Soul".
In this state, she links herself with the character with the highest ATK at certain points during combat, for a max duration of 24 seconds, at least until she recasts the skill that does the whole stat check again and the status quo remains the same. She then provides said character with two buffs:
- Bound Soul: Protect - this lets her receive up to 50% damage the character she's linked to receives, and
- Bound Soul: Amplify - this grants the character she's linked to with an ATK buff (up to 50%) and a crit rate buff (up to 30%)
This means that she is a very good character to bring whenever you have a character that can practically clean the battlefield quick, even at low rarity levels. This also means that she is both very vulnerable and that she is almost useless in battle outside of her buff, making a 5v5 match to more of a 4v5.
Are there any gameplay tropes that would fit this character archetype?
Edited by SimplyBartzopenPowerful Perish Videogame
An incredible powerful hero dies.
Example: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, when Arkham Batman is killed.
openTherapists Are Useless/Therapists Are Malicious Videogame
Not quite Bedlam House but also definitely not There Are No Therapists or All Therapists Are Muggles. In Night in the Woods, protagonist Mae Borowski is seeing a rural doctor (not even an accredited therapist, from what we're told) whose sole recourse for treatment is to tell her to journal her thoughts, rather than get her treatment for clear signs of dissociation and trauma brought on by both it and the mental illness in her family (her mother is implied to have some form of personality disorder, her father is a recovering alcoholic).
There's another example in True Detective season 4, where a character with a history of mental illness, up to and including suicidal thoughts and hallucinations (though there's a Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane element here) is just allowed to walk out of the institute she's being housed at, no questions asked.
Might also apply to scenarios where the therapist is actively attempting to gaslight or take advantage of their patient. The podcast The Mayfair Watchers Society (based on the works of Trevor Henderson, doesn't seem to have its own work page on the site) has an episode titled "The Apparition of Maria", where at the end it's revealed that the therapist essentially was turned evil by a past experience and was corrupting his patient into being the vessel for a similar presence.
openDebuff that decreases your damage output Videogame
A status effect that weakens the attacks of those afflicted, either by subtracting the attacks' damage by a fixed amount, or by multiplying the attacks' damage by a number less than 1. I tried searching for Damage Reduction but that one's when the damage reduction is on the one being attacked.
Edited by AndrDtriopenCopycat Mook Videogame
A Mook that mimics whatever the player is currently doing. Unrelated to Mirror Boss; a Mirror Boss has all the powers of the player character and will use them autonomously however it wants to, while a Copycat Mook doesn't necessarily have all the same powers as the protagonist, it only needs to respond to the player's action with an equivalent action of their own. A common way to beat them is to exploit this, making them copy movement that will subject them to level hazards like pits or spikes. Examples:
- Celeste's features segments where the player has to escape from Badeline. Badeline pursues the player by mimicking whatever actions they took to progress through the level.
- Crypt Of The Necrodancer has Clones, an enemy that mirrors whatever the player does. If the player moves west, the Clone will go east.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 has Cosmic Clones. Whenever a level features them, they will chase after Mario, spawning in at the level's start point and repeating whatever Mario did in order to reach him.
- Hoppycats, introduced in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, will jump whenever the player jumps.
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening has Mask-Mimics and Arm-Mimics, two enemy types that mirror Link's actions.
open(Puzzle Videogame) activate/deactivate mechanisms by inserting/removing a power source Videogame
A video game level where you have a handful of mechanisms. You can activate a mechanism by inserting an item in it (typically a power source), or deactivate it by removing the item. Of course, the puzzle resides in the fact that you have less power sources than mechanisms, so you must choose how to use the power sources.
openGraphics quality dissonance Videogame
Long-running old games can suffer from this when their visual is a mish-mash of crude poorly textured boxes and highly detailed effects, like realistic water and such. Probably the most notorious offender is the first Half-Life which now runs on Source engine and after several updates the graphics kind of clash in the game.
openSelectively enforced stealth Videogame
Would there be a trope for the situation in video games where, during a stealth mission, some enemies will throw you out of wherever you're sneaking around if they spot you without letting you fight them, while other enemies will let you fight them? I noticed this in Golden Sun (where the only difference between the guys you have to avoid and the ones you fight is what color hats they're wearing), and then remembered seeing it in some other games like The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (where the guards found in the castle grounds will throw you out immediately, but the ones inside will attack instead).
openClearing/making a path for your vehicle. Videogame
In a vehicular sequence in a videogame, you have to get off your vehicle every now and then to clear a path for it. Examples may include lowering a drawbridge or removing some rocky debris blocking you way.
This trope is quite prominent in older First-Person Shooters which featured vehicular sequences e.g. Gunman Chronicles or Half-Life: Invasion.
openNo such thing as "overkill damage" Videogame
FTL: Faster Than Light - The Zoltan Shield provides a non-regenerating 5-HP shield that blocks all attacks. If the ZS has 1 HP remaining and you hit it with an single attack that deals 4 damage, it takes all the damage. But if you hit it with 4 attacks dealing 1 damage each, it will absorb 1 attack, the other 3 attacks will pass through.
Fate/Grand Order (turn-based game): "Break Bars" are basically ways to represent boss phases, and multiple HP bars. A boss with 1.5M HP could hypothetically be taken down in 1 turn (and has been done before), but a different boss with 1M total hp (5 break bars of 200K HP each) would require 5 turns minimum to defeat.
resolved Something from a series' later game/installment being used in a remake or interquel? Videogame
I was wondering if there was a trope for this, as something I did always think of is how Xenoblade Chronicles 1's Nintendo Switch remake did something like this.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2 introduced a meter of how much longer an enemy would have a Break/Topple/etc status effect on it, showing the player how much time was left before it wore off. This wasn't present in the first game, but was added to the UI when it got remade.
- Similarly, I saw this used in a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fanfic, where a later installment started referring to Stand names in brackets, which was retained for an interquel that was made.
openTrope about perspective puzzles Videogame
The Room Mobile Game series often has perspective puzzles involving the eyepiece. Is there any trope that covers this?
openSpells with additional effects (which require additional cost) Videogame
For example, Kicker mechanic from Magic: The Gathering. Dunno if EX Special Attack can count in tabletop games.
Edited by ExaskliriopenTrope about physical element (NOT as an Non-Elemental) Videogame
Update: As of Jan 21 2024 (5 replies) the candidates are:
- Damage Typing (which is about damage typing in general)
Before answering Non-Elemental, note that this is a game where plenty of enemies are weak to Physical.
Honkai: Star Rail has this.
Edited by ExaskliriopenLoses in All Timelines Videogame
What's the trope for a character having an unhappy ending in all timelines. They are not destined to fail, but whatever happens they always will fail their goals. This isn't to say *everyone* loses, but this one characters goals are failed, leaving them dead or miserable.
openTropes about restricting opponent moves Videogame
Usually in RPGs.
Examples:
- Pokémon:
- Taunt (prevents them from using status moves)
- Disable (blocks opponent's last move for 4 turns)
- Heal Block
- Honkai: Star Rail enemies:
- Guardian Shadows imposes bans on either Basic Attack or Skill to the entire party. Using a banned move makes them launch a Counter-Attack to the violator.
- Aurumaton Gatekeeper has a meter to enter Super Mode that increases whenever your characters use an offensive Skill or Ultimate.
openTroops being disparate in background and sophistication of equipment Videogame
In Act of War, the Consortium uses as its private army a "large number of armed groups around the world — terrorist organizations, armed militias, freedom fighters, mercenaries", with the more basic troops having low-tech but still effective gear (such as Kalashnikov rifles and self-propelled mortar) and the elite troops having very high-tech gear (e.g. optical camouflage-equipped soldiers and railgun-armed stealth tanks).
In Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, the Brotherhood of Nod's army is comprised of large numbers of hastily-trained, low-tech militias hailing from the 50% of Earth's regions that have fallen to social collapse and anarchy, backed by a smaller core of highly trained elite soldiers equipped with high-tech weapons and equipment.
Is there a trope for an army's troops being so eclectic and disparate in both background and the sophistication of their equipment?
resolved Knockout/Kill Bonus Videogame
Knocking out or killing an enemy in a video game grants a temporary power-up.
For a specific example, Fell Stinger is a move in Pokémon that grants an increase in Attack if it is used to knock out an opponent.
TIA!
openElite Mook Volunteers to Test Opponents Videogame
Whilst I would've loved to just do one big Trope Finder post with all the tropes I needed, I believe that is against the rules, so I'll have to take it one at a time.
So, in this case, we have an Elite Mook whose Boss is planning an invasion of an area. The Elite Mook volunteers to go ahead, act as a scout, test out the inhabitants' strength personally. Upon being defeated, he happily recognizes that his opponents are strong, before unironically musing "Isn't it great?"
What tropes fit this particular situation? Tried to glance around at Test Tropes, but found nothing that didn't have to be stretched beyond acceptable levels.
Example: In OMORI, the design of the battle UI buttons varies depending on the scene. In Headspace, the buttons are vivid and colorful. In Faraway, the buttons use edited suburban photos as the background. And in the game's serious battles, the buttons are dark and the two inventory buttons are gone.
Another, lesser example: In Undertale, the in-battle inventory usually has many comical abbreviations for multiple items. However, during serious battles, the abbreviations are changed to be less comical whenever possible [e.g. the humorous and slightly unappealing "ButtsPie" becomes the more straight-to-the-point "Pie".]
Do we have a trope page for this? If we don't, then does this have any Trope Lauch Pad merit, or is this Too Rare to Trope and/or The Same, but More Specific?
Edited by StarryFinita