History Main / PowerCreepPowerSeep

* This trope was at least partially the downfall of the anime CCG ''Ani-Mayhem''. The base set used ''RanmaOneHalf'', ''TenchiMuyo'', ''BubblegumCrisis'', and ''ElHazard''. So far so good. The first expansion set had ''ProjectAKo'', ''DominionTankPolice'', ''PhantomQuestCorp'', and ''ArmitageIII''. No problem here. The second expansion set? '''''Manga/DragonBall Z'''''[[note]]covering the Frieza Saga, with extra characters like Future Trunks[[/note]]. The sheer power imbalance between both heroes and villains made it so there was little to no point to using any of the other characters, since the effort it took to bring them up to ''DBZ'''s level could have been better spent making the ''DBZ'' characters even stronger.

* ''DeathBattle'' averts this for the results of battles, although played slightly straight within the battles. Who ever has the highest recorded power and skills within their own universe will win, [[PopularityPower fanboys be damned]]. They make sure not all the battles are [[CurbStompBattle completely one sided]], so some increase in power level in the ''animation'' is allowed, but the animation doesn't have true barring on who wins or loses anyway.

* Happens in crossover titles in video games as well, as evidenced in [[CapcomVsWhatever Capcom crossover games]]. This is something of a necessity; how else could you expect [[StreetFighter Dan Hibiki or Sakura]] to fight, say, the [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk Hulk]] or [[Comicbook/FantasticFour Dr. Doom]] without having a serious upgrade in strength? (Dan, of course, doesn't have a chance even with the upgrade, but he's a JokeCharacter anyway.) The concept was (lovingly) mocked in a segment on XPlay where Blair Butler took a look back at the ''MarvelVsCapcom'' series, noting in each game the number of fighters, adding that "none of them would stand a chance against TheHulk"; while not completely true, it gets the point across.

* An interesting example is Hank [=McCoy=], aka The Beast. If you pick up a comic in which he is in the ComicBook/{{X-Men}}, the writers tend to focus mostly on his intellect while his actual powers are secondary. When he was a member of ComicBook/TheAvengers, his strength and agility were the main focus and his intellect was rarely brought up. This was because the Avengers had plenty of geniuses: [[AntMan Hank Pym]], IronMan, TheVision, BlackPanther, etc. and didn't need another. [=McCoy=] was a LightningBruiser so his abilities were bumped up to the point where he was nearly as strong as IronMan and could move so fast that CaptainAmerica had trouble following him. When he went back to the X-Men, there were already a couple strongmen (Colossus and Rogue) and agile people (Nightcrawler, Gambit, Longshot, etc.). Even his animalistic nature was covered by {{Wolverine}}. They didn't have any geniuses, though, so Beast became TheSmartGuy nearly on the level of [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]].

* Hiruzen Sarutobi falls under this when he is [[spoiler: revived]] in ''{{Naruto}}''. [[spoiler: He's the Hokage who performs the worst against Obito and hasn't even regenerated since being hit.]]
** He did.

** [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Ike]] too. His ''Path of Radiance'' incarnation can literally kill a small army on his own out of pure unrealistic combat skill. In ''Brawl'', an anorexic plumber with a Tennis racket is too much for him (and everyone else).

* In an extreme example, minor ''[[Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' villain Mano has an origin story in which he uses his disintegrating touch to destroy his entire homeworld and everyone on it simply by placinh his hand on the planet's surface. However, he was never even remotely that powerful in any of his actual appearances, where plenty of characters can survive zaps from his hand. He's actually one of the ''weaker'' members of [[LegionOfDoom the Fatal Five]].

* PowerCreepPowerSeep: In an extreme example, minor ''[[Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' villain Mano has an origin story in which he uses his disintegrating touch to destroy his entire homeworld and everyone on it simply by placinh his hand on the planet's surface. However, he was never even remotely that powerful in any of his actual appearances, where plenty of characters can survive zaps from his hand. He's actually one of the ''weaker'' members of [[LegionOfDoom the Fatal Five]].

**** In the end, however, the success rate for Batman's CrazyPrepared-ness depends on a ''lot'' of good luck and calculations working out the way he planned it. And Superman is still a guy who can kill you by ''looking at you''. None of the explanations and scenarios laid out by any writer for a Batman victory will be a 100% convincing.

* Everyone in MushroomKingdomFusion has had this happen to them. Okay, the likes of Arthur from VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins still dies in two hits at full health and the Mario characters have health systems based on the SuperMarioBros series... but now they can take hits from and do significant damage to enemies from MegaMan, {{Doom}} and {{Halo}} among numerous others! You can even kill soldiers and things by jumping on them or using Sonic's spin attack or punching them in the face just once!

** Comicbook/{{Loki}}. In ''Film/{{Thor}}'', the guy survived the huge Bifrost explosion. In ''Film/TheAvengers'', {{Hawkeye}}'s grenades-on-a-stick and Comicbook/IronMan's repulsors got an "ow" reaction out of him, he's lethally threatened by a fall from the Helicarrier at terminal velocity (though whether it could ''actually'' kill him or Thor is up in the air), and he is taken out of commission by being slammed into a floor by the Hulk.

** ''VideoGame/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse'' is interesting about this, because it brings up the question of who is really getting the creeps and seeps respectively, since there's Superman on the DC side, a god (Raiden) and a supernatural undead (Scorpion) on the ''MortalKombat'' side, and a range of less powerful superheroes and flat-out humans scattered across both. The final explanation is that the merging of the two universes causes powers to fluctuate, strengthening some and weakening others. It gets lampshaded when, after SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker defeats Sonya, Deathstroke asks in bewilderment, "Since when can ''you'' beat anybody?!" (The Joker promptly trashes him afterwards and then decides to use his newfound strength to defeat Batman. He does but then [[VillainBall forgot]] the Bat's [[CrazyPrepared defining characteristic]] and got knocked out by a taser.)

** A good example comes from SuperRobotWarsJudgment in term of the casts. On one end, you got things like ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]]'', ''BlueCometSPTLayzner'', ''BrainPowered'', and ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico''. On the other side, you got things like {{Mazinkaiser}}, {{Zeorymer}}, and Anime/TekkamanBlade(yes, this guy again). The latter part of the cast makes the infamous scene from ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]]'' [[spoiler:where Mwu is killed]] pretty awkward because they can simply tank the attack and really likely to survive. And even in the midst of battle, both Zeorymer and Blade has more than enough speed to arrive on time.

*** To be fair, when he killed Magneto (and every other mutant in that universe) he did use an atomic bomb. One designed by DoctorDoom, no less, so it was likely designed with just that in mind.

* The OnePiece x {{Toriko}} x DragonBall special, being a crossover special, brings out a truckload of these. Most of these problems are the result of having One Piece and Toriko characters fight along the Post-Buu Saga Dragon Ball cast, when Goku and his allies had already reached insane leves of power in canon.
** Zoro and Zebra stalemating with Vegeta's Galick Gun. [[hottip:*:Zebra's case would make more sense, but even then Vegeta's Galick Gun has enough power to ''obliterate'' an entire planet.]]

* Happens during the ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger''/''Series/KamenRiderDecade'' crossover. In ''Shinkenger'', the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters of the Week]] have 2 lives, a human sized one and a giant sized one. But they also periodically need to rehydrate with water of the Sanzu River [[hottip:note: The river that goes to the Japanese underworld.]]. In the crossover, one of these monsters gets his hands on a transformation trinket and transforms in an evil Kamen Rider. This messes up his DNA in such a way that he doesn't need the water, but lost it's second giant sized life. This is done because ''Kamen Rider'' does not have giant mecha readily available.

** Samus is significantly weakened - she moves very slowly in the air (supposedly this was intentional, albeit via the logic of "her adventures take place in outer space, therefore she gets "floaty" controls because in space there is no gravity!"), and can only fire [[OneBulletAtATime one blaster shot at a time]][[hottip:*:though this is more due to the way ChargedAttack code is handled rather than deliberate power seep]]. At least she does get a melee attack, something sorely lacking from her regular adventures.

* In the ''KamenRiderDecade'' movies, all previous Showa and the base form Heisei Riders were placed on a comparable level of power, disregarding previous official stats, even ones presented in the shows themselves that would make some conflicts heavily loopsided. That balance was carried on to later ''KamenRider'' crossover movies too.
** Not just the movies. Power was entirely dependent on plot convenience throughout Decade, resulting in {{Dragon}}s and {{Big Bad}}s that took the combined effort of multiple Riders in SuperMode in their own series dying against Decade in two seconds, whereas much less powerful characters were almighty if they were more important. Riders were no different. The movies take it UpToEleven, though: Even if we leave aside the Decade half of ''Movie Wars 2010'' and consider "Decade Fury" a completely new and all-powerful form capable of OneHitKO-ing all other Riders and say he can't normally do that even if he sure ''looks'' like normal Decade, there's still Shadow Moon. In ''KamenRiderBlack,'' Shadow Moon was evenly matched with the series' one Rider However, in ''All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker'', Shadow Moon was ''so'' powerful the combined might of Rising Ultimate Kuuga[[note]]A ''Decade''-original SuperMode ''on top of'' the normal SuperMode of ''KamenRiderKuuga'' that was considered ''too powerful'' in its own series, where Kuuga was having to hold himself back to avoid being a DestructiveSavior when he got the form ''before'' standard Ultimate. If you told anyone in ''Kuuga'' proper, including the hero himself, that a "Rising Ultimate Kuuga" was ''possible,'' [[BringMyBrownPants a change of pants would be involved]].[[/note]] and Decade[[note]]Himself Power Creep'd in the movie, having won over every other Rider in the tournament at the beginning, even beating ''three at once'' fairly easily. He can't do that in the show.[[/note]] couldn't scratch him. Then ''KamenRiderDouble'' easily beats him. This should rightfully make Double ''literally'' strong enough to destroy the world with one Rider Kick ''in his base form''. Needless to say... he isn't.
** ''Movie Wars 2010'' has Double's power at sane levels, but its villain gets the Shadow Moon treatment: Doras, like Shadow Moon, was a strong major opponent of the one SuperMode-less Rider in his story, the movie ''Film/KamenRiderZO.'' Decade's Doras easily clobbered all the main Riders from Kuuga through Kiva ''plus'' the Riders original to Decade in their base forms ''all at once'' (''really think'' about the best non-Super-Mode CrowningMomentOfAwesome material from those series and imagine the kind of power that takes) and they don't beat him until ''all ten Riders go SuperMode,'' with Den-O and Kuuga breaking out Super Climax and Rising Ultimate, respectively - their Decade-only supermode-of-a-supermode forms. Once again, when you consider the greatest feats of the Riders, and how dangerous the never-seen maximum power of certain Riders is said to be, if it requires all ten, we're talking Doras going from being ''almost'' as strong as ''one'' Rider to "god of destruction" territory. Take the movies at face value, and PowerLevels in KamenRider, from greatest to least, would be as follows: Double with his basic forms > Shadow Moon > Doras > {{God}} > Decade and Rising Ultimate Kuuga perhaps tie > Everybody else ever. That is... not reflected in the series, to put it mildly.

[[folder: Live-Action Television]]

* Happens during the ''SamuraiSentaiShinkenger''/''KamenRiderDecade'' crossover. In ''Shinkenger'', the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters of the Week]] have 2 lives, a human sized one and a giant sized one. But they also periodically need to rehydrate with water of the Sanzu River [[hottip:note: The river that goes to the Japanese underworld.]]. In the crossover, one of these monsters gets his hands on a transformation trinket and transforms in an evil Kamen Rider. This messes up his DNA in such a way that he doesn't need the water, but lost it's second giant sized life. This is done because ''Kamen Rider'' does not have giant mecha readily available.
** ''Film/KamenRiderXSuperSentaiSuperHeroTaisen'' remedies this by A. giving the villains a titanic mecha that outright dwarfes ''Sentai'' mecha in size and B. making the Series/TokumeiSentaiGobusters' mecha [=Go-BusterOh=] somehow compatible with [[KamenRiderFourze the Astro Switches]] to give it a fighting chance.

** Toriko is at least catching up to Dragon Ball Z levels of power now, though its primarily its three strongest characters which have established themselves at Saiyan Saga levels of power. [[spoiler: With Jirou stopping the entire planet for a second with his knocking and Midora's Meteor Spice raining around everywhere.]] One Piece is far behind both in terms of power.