History Main / SoLastSeason

* Happens in ''YuYuHakusho''. The Spirit Gun used to be like the ultimate Spirit Detective move, and Spirit Sword was pretty much the {{Badass}} incarnate. Hiei's extreme speed and his Dragon of the Darkness flame was ''really'' something to be afraid of, and Kurama almost appeared to be the ''weakest'' of the crew with his Rose Whip and a couple plants being his only methods of fighting. But then you latter get Spirit Shotguns, Double Spirit Swords, Reverting to your demonic form and pulling plants [[AssPull out of nowhere]] and Dragon of the Darkness flames are the standard to beat and who honestly ''doesn't'' have a sixth sense and some kind of Spirit Gun like combat move or able to break the sound barrier by now?

* In the ''Megaman Battle Network'' manga, Megaman.exe has to upgrade and change power types so often to defeat the latest Big Bad that it becomes ridiculous. If you were to consider each upgrade as a multiplier, he ends up about 100x more powerful than he was at the very beginning. Add his training to that, and in the epilogue story, he is so powerful that his megabuster shoots bullets the size of small trashcans!

** In ''KamenRiderBlackRX'', Black from the previous series ends up being transformed into the far stronger Kamen Rider Black RX. However, in this situation, it wasn't his idea, the villain [[NiceJobFixingItVillain decided to throw a solar powered Rider into the void of space, where he's directly exposed to the sun, causing him to evolve into Black RX]]
* In ''KamenRiderW'', the Riders face the insanely powerful Weather Dopant, who keeps having the upper hand on them, until they gained new forms, capable of defeating the villain.

* In ''{{Half-Life}}'', the often-overlooked secondary fire of the starting pistol gives it both a faster rate of fire and greater damage output per bullet than the SMG, at the cost of having to reload more often (the pistol's 17-bullet magazine as opposed to the monster 50-bullet mag that the SMG packs) and a decrease in accuracy. At close range, it can mow down marines and take out Alien Grunts with a single mag.

** ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' and other ''Rangers'' seasons do this on occasion, introducing new giant robots mid season that are much stronger then the ones they started with. Sometimes this causes the old robot(s) to not be used anymore.

** Partially [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that Miyagi specifically noted that "if do right, no can defense". Obviously Daniel didn't do it right against Chozin.

* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig Zagged]] with regards to ''AceCombat'' starter plane(s). ''Air Combat'' includes an outdated F-4 amongst 4th-generation fighters like the [=MiG-29=] and F-14. In ''2'' the starting planes are now the F-4 and A-4, with 4th-gen planes coming later. ''3: Electrosphere'' gives 4th-gen fighters like the Eurofighter from the start (though it's arguably just a twist on the conceit as 4th-gen birds in ''2045'' would be around as outdated as 3rd-gen ones in 2009), but ''4: Shattered Skies'' brings us back to the F-4 as a starter, as does ''X: Skies of Deception'', ''5: Unsung War'' gives the F-5 and ''Zero: Belkan War'' gives the F-1, F-5, and [=J35J=]. ''6: Fires of Liberation'' then makes the F-16 the starter plane.

* All ''MetalHeroes'', especially the Space Sheirff's have one weapon that kills every villain in the show, up to and including the BigBad, and an handful of mecha that they start with and never upgrade.

* ''NeedForSpeed Underground 2'' is a direct sequel to the first, and you have your powerful Skyline (best car of the previous game, and the one any player will be likely to own) smashed in the opening cutscene. With the insurance money you can buy only a not-so-fast compact. Subverted since some of the starter cars can be even better than the Skyline in the right hands. The worst offender is the [[WhatAPieceOfJunk Toyota Corolla GT-S]]: the scrappiest looking car (a 80's hatchback between late 90's-early 2000's compact cars), but actually ''the best car of the game''

* In ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'', one of the best plasmid, the [[ShockAndAwe Electro Bolt]] is also the first one you receive. Shock a splicer and they're imobilized while you wrench them to death. If they're standing in water, shock the water and they die instantly. Hit a machine and it will be disabled long enough to run up and hack it. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And you can activate broken door controls with it too]]. It's the most versitle plasmid in the game; never leave home without it.

*** However, unlike most protagonists subjected to this trope, Ichigo doesn't learn newer, more powerful moves to replace the Getsuga Tensho, or even (except in [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique one special case]]) learn improved versions of the Getsuga Tensho. He simply gets stronger and makes it effective again...until the next, even more powerful villain shows up, which results in the cycle repeating. One thing he does (way too infrequently) to improve its effectiveness is, instead of [[SwordBeam firing the Getsuga right away]] is leave it surrounding his blade and slice his opponent, then fire off the attack while his sword is already inside their body. This guarantees a hit and bypasses their defenses...but it's still the same attack.

* ''Franchise/DragonAge'' averts this by making some of the basic tier talents and spells (Shield Bash, Winter's Grasp, Heal, Stealth, Dirty Fighting, need I go on?) useful throughout the entire game.

** Though ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' does avert this in terms of your weaponry, as the upgrade weapon generally plays differently than the base weapon without being 'better' or 'worse', it is a matter of personal preference in most cases. For instance, the base assault rifle (the M-8 Avenger) doesn't deal quite as much damage as the upgrade assault rifle (the M-15 Vindicator) and isn't quite as accurate, but it has a much better rate of fire, allows you to carry four times as many rounds, and is fully-automatic instead of firing 3-round bursts.

* In ''KamenRiderBlackRX'', Black from the previous series ends up being transformed into the far stronger Kamen Rider Black RX. However, in this situation, it wasn't his idea, the villain [[NiceJobFixingItVillain decided to throw a solar powered Rider into the void of space, where he's directly exposed to the sun, causing him to evolve into Black RX]].

!!Examples

* In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' the humble pistol and riot prod, which you get at the very beginning of the game, remain effective until the very last level.

** Similarly, Dio ditches his ability to freeze people's bodies and shoot [[EyeScream vitreous humor from his eyes at bullet speeds]] from Part 1 once he gets The World.

* You have to be patient and spend a lot of money, but in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', fully upgrading the basic pistol increases the chance for headshots 500%, reguardless of damage dealt to an enemy. That is to say, when you make a headshot, their head is five-times more likely to instantly explode, regardless of damage. This even applies to the tentacled horrors that burst out of their necks.
** In the same game, the first magnum pistol you can find, the [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Broken Butterfly]], ends up being more powerful than the other magnum, the [[ShoutOutThemeNaming Killer7]], which you have to buy from the merchant.

* In ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', the player is expected to use ALL of their powers over the course of the game, and attack powers have damage that scales up as you gain levels so that level 1 attack is still very useful at level 50.

* In the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' series, every weapon you get from the Power Beam to the Power Bombs retains its usefulness throughout the game. But between games, Samus always manages to [[BagOfSpilling lose all the power-ups she gained previously]]. In ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'', ''Metroid II'', and ''Super Metroid'', this is unexplained. Later games usually damage her suit in some way to [[HandWave justify their removal]].

* Used in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'', in which Indy is pitted against *two* swordsman in a reprise of the iconic scene from ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''. This time, Indy doesn't have his gun, and laughs sheepishly. (Considering that ''Temple Of Doom'' is supposed to be a prequel, this is rather odd indeed.)

** As part of the author's plans to take the "MagicalGirl" out of "MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha", ''Force'' takes this to an extreme by making ''magic itself'' [[AntiMagic completely useless]] against the new villains, forcing the good characters to completely abandon their entire powersets in favor of [[IThoughtItWasForbidden previously tightly regulated mass-based weapons.]]

** Super-advanced LACs which serve as [[GlassCannon eggshells carrying cannons]] that allow a [[DeathOfAThousandCuts multitude of small craft to deal out damage]] each equal to a big craft, and finally,

** In the recent books the Solarian League, having become complacent in the 500-odd years that no one could even ''imagine'' fighting it, sailed headlong into the results of the two decades of the LensmanArmsRace described above. As of ''Storm From The Shadows'' they are largely still in denial about it, despite [[CurbStompBattle losing a couple of dozen fleets of various sizes with almost no losses]] to the Grand Alliance forces.

** [[FasterThanLightTravel FTL technology]] in the form of grav pulses, which allow Manticore unprecedented visibility into enemy formations.

* One of the major reasons for the AmericanCivilWar claiming so many lives was that the technology to kill people had advanced (rifles replacing old muskets being the most common example), while medical techniques lagged behind.