I think the trope description can use an update. It goes into great detail to mention how this trope is pretty justified, even mentioning the Unpleaseable Fanbase, yet doesn't really mention much about why it's annoying. Yeah, it mentions that this trope is annoying, but that's it. A short little sentence explaining why people might find this trope annoying might help.
Because honeslty, it isn't hard to see why people might find this trope annoying, when used wrong. You have this powerful character who the game is constantly hamming about how awesome he is, only for you to never experience any of that.
- On the other hand, this is sometimes used in reverse. Take the first boss battle against Vergil in 3. A sufficiently skilled player can defeat Vergil without taking any damage whatsoever (in fact, doing so is part of the frustrating process of getting the coveted "SS" accolade) only to watch, in the subsequent cutscene, Dante get defeated easily as if Vergil had had the upper hand all along.
As noted, Cutscene Incompetence
- Subverted in Final Fantasy VIII, where Edea impales Squall on a giant spear of ice in a cutscene. Later, Edea joins the party, and this same move is her Limit Break and therefore usable in battle.
This sounds closer to an aversion.
- Slightly subverted , where, upon gaining back his memory, Tellah remembers the ultimate Black Magic spell Meteor, and it even shows up on the menu screen. The only thing preventing him from casting it is that his Magic Points are never high enough to actually use the spell, not until the plot requires him to increase his MP in some other fashion.
Another apparent aversion
Do Quick Time Events count as gameplay? A number of examples seem to disagree on this point.