History Main / PenultimateWeapon

* The Ultimate Bat in ''Videogame/{{Earthbound}}'' is an Infinity Minus Four Weapon; there are actually four more bats in the game with greater offensive power, three of which are discovered in the course of normal gameplay. The Legendary Bat is quite strong, but the super-rare Gutsy Bat is the true InfinityPlusOneSword, not because of its raw power but its higher CriticalHit chance.

** In the ''Dawn of Souls'' release for the Game Boy Advance, you obtain the Ragnarok after defeating [[BonusBoss Shinyru]] on the 20th level of Lifespring Grotto. However, after you complete all 40 levels of [[BonusDungeon Whisperwind Cove]] and kill the weaker Death Gaze and obtain the less powerful Lightbringer, you can find a treasure chest that contains the Ultima Weapon, a sword that does damage based on the wielder's HP, making it twice as strong as the Ragnarok.

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia'', the Devil's Arms are supposedly the most powerful weapons in the world, each embedded in the body of a powerful BonusBoss. By the time you're strong enough to actually defeat these bosses, the Devil's Arms you get from them will probably be outclassed by weapons you already have. (Elize's is heavily outclassed by a [[LethalJokeWeapon toy princess staff she gets from a couple of pink-obsessed valley-girls]]) There's a sidequest you can do to unlock their true power, but it can only be done after beating the game, and it involves beating the game's strongest BonusBoss, so even then they're more of a BraggingRightsReward.

*** That depends on if you have an angel armband equip or not. For almost all the games fights the eternal sphere is the best because all competition is obtained nearly after the main story is finished and every attack you do throws out 12 stars that stun the enemy and do half the damage of your standard attack. Once you equip an angel armband though the eternal sphere loses its edge over better swords because every attack does this regardless of the weapon and you get some rather hefty stat boosts plus all element immunity. Of course this awesome item can only be obtained if you manage to beat one of the hardest bonus bosses in the game.

* Yoshitsune in ''VideoGame/Persona4'' and ''VideoGame/Persona5''. It has the unique skill Hassou Tobi which deals light physical damage to all foes 8 times. This makes it the single most powerful attack skill in both games provided you're not using DLC. The strats for defeating the BonusBoss in these games with just the protagonist will invariably involve Hassou Tobi spam. The best part? Yoshitsune is WAY too easy to obtain for how powerful it is in both games. It's not the Ultimate Persona of its arcana (Ultimate Arcana Personas cannot be fused unless the corresponding social link is maxed) in either game, and in Persona 4 it doesn't need any Ultimate Personas as Fusion Material. In Persona 5 it requires the Ultimate Persona of ''one'' arcana... that's tied to story progression.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', the Master Sword can be upgraded ''twice'', making the original Master Sword your Infinity Minus Two Sword. Which is funny, considering there are only 4 swords in that game. Infinity Minus Three would be your starting weapon.
** It also happens in a linked ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'', ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'', ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds''.
** Also in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', the Master Sword is surpassed in range and damage produced by the Biggoron Sword. It's obtained in an optional quest and only has the disadvantage of needing to be wielded with two hands, making it impossible to use the shield. Still, the weapon used to finish the BigBad is the Master Sword. The Biggoron Sword will work for most of the fight, but only the Master Sword can strike the finishing blow.
*** Well, the [[SequenceBreaking Kokiri]] [[GoodBadBugs Sword]] works too, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d738pTAmOQ if you're so inclined.]] And skilled.
* Alucard's Sword in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight''. When you get it back, you may or may not have found a better sword (or a certain rod and shield combination). The ''real'' ultimate weapon is the [[RandomlyDrops rarely dropped]] Crissaegrim, which has lower attack power than the Alucard Sword but does more damage per swing anyway due to DeathOfAThousandCuts.

* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' Masamune doesn't remain Frog's best weapon for long. (But much later, its upgraded version does.)

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' plays this absolutely and irredeemably straight, forcing you to collect the legendary silver (!) equipment before you enter the final dungeon, then giving you better equipment of each type if you search the right treasure chests in that dungeon. Ultimately, the stuff isn't even necessary for beating the final boss, apart from the previous ButThouMust.
** Actually, using the better equipment you gain in the final dungeon makes the final bossfight [[SubvertedTrope significantly harder.]]
** In fact, in many of the games, the final boss can only be damaged with the penultimate sword.

* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'''s "Quench Life" spell, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation described in-game]] as OneHitKill against any living creature. Some creatures just need to be one-hit killed multiple times before grasping the principle of death.

[[folder:Real-Time Strategy]]
* [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIIRevenantWings'', where the [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Anastasia]] seems like this when you start finding better weapons for Vaan, until you clear the BonusDungeon, which powers it up a bit for every time you clear it. By Powering it up enough it becomes an InfinityPlusOneSword, and depending on how much you power it up (or not) can be viewed as PenultimateWeapon, InfinityMinusOneSword and InfinityPlusOneSword all in one.
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** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' Lyn's final weapon is the Sol Katti, only obtained in the final chapter, designated just for her, and supposedly on par with the Legendary Weapons. In reality, the Sol Katti has a Might of 12, which isn't just significantly worse than Durandel's 17 or Armads's 18, but it's also below that of a common Silver Sword that you can buy in bulk at that point. It does have some other properties to it, like anti-dragon effectiveness, a boost to Resistance, and a somewhat higher crit rate, but even that's overcome by the fact that the Sol Katti weighs 14, making it one of the heaviest swords in the game, and heavier than even most axes. This does not play ball with Lyn, a character who already tends to get weighed down a lot--most of the time, she's better off using a Silver Sword, her Mani Katti, or not fighting at all.
** Eliwood's Durandel suffers from similar problems--it's a much better weapon than the Sol Katti due to its higher Might and its boost going into Strength instead, giving it very high attacking power, but it's also quite heavy, weighing Eliwood down by 7 when Eliwood already has some mild Speed issues. Curiously, it had a much more manageable weight in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'', when it was merely an InfinityMinusOneSword.

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade''Lyn's final weapon is the Sol Katti, only obtained in the final chapter, designated just for her, and supposedly on par with the Legendary Weapons. In reality, the Sol Katti has a Might of 12, which isn't just significantly worse than Durandel's 17 or Armads's 18, but it's also below that of a common Silver Sword that you can buy in bulk at that point. It does have some other properties to it, like anti-dragon effectiveness, a boost to Resistance, and a somewhat higher crit rate, but even that's overcome by the fact that the Sol Katti weighs 14, making it one of the heaviest swords in the game, and heavier than even most axes. This does not play ball with Lyn, a character who already tends to get weighed down a lot--most of the time, she's better off using a Silver Sword, her Mani Katti, or not fighting at all.

** Eliwood's Durandel suffers from similar problems--it's a much better weapon than the Sol Katti due to its higher Might and its boost going into Strength instead, giving it very high attacking power, but it's also quite heavy, weighing Eliwood down by 7 when Eliwood already has some mild Speed issues.

* Lyn's final weapon in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' is the Sol Katti, only obtained in the final chapter, designated just for her, and supposedly on par with the Legendary Weapons. In reality, the Sol Katti has a Might of 12, which isn't just significantly worse than Durandel's 17 or Armads's 18, but it's also below that of a common Silver Sword that you can buy in bulk at that point. It does have some other properties to it, like anti-dragon effectiveness, a boost to Resistance, and a somewhat higher crit rate, but even that's overcome by the fact that the Sol Katti weighs 14, making it one of the heaviest swords in the game, and heavier than even most axes. This does not play ball with Lyn, a character who already tends to get weighed down a lot--most of the time, she's better off using a Silver Sword, her Mani Katti, or not fighting at all.

* ''Franchise/StarOcean''

* Albel Nox's Crimson Scourge from ''Videogame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime.''
** At least you can upgrade it to your liking.
*** In ''Star Ocean 2'', Claude's Penultimate weapon is the Eternal Sphere, which stuns enemies with each blow. It's very much out-classed by the Levantine found in the final dungeon, with nearly twice the attack power.

The reality is, just because [[FamedInStory everybody you've ever met]] [[LegendaryWeapon hailed your shiny weapon as the mightiest in all the world]] doesn't always mean that they're ''[[ShroudedInMyth right]]''. Or, perhaps that sword truly is the most powerful sword in existence... when [[CutscenePowerToTheMax cutscenes call for it]]. Sure, it may be able to slice the entire palace in half, but when you're actually playing the game, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation the new one just happens to have 5 more attack points]]. And don't get too attached to that new sword you found -- expect to find [[InfinityPlusOneSword a weapon that outclasses]] ''that'' in, or for clearing, the BonusDungeon.

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