Basic Trope: A video game item (or spell, character, etc.) that is significantly better than anything else of its type available, but is lost soon after being acquired.
- Straight: In Tales of Troperia XIII, the Ephemeral Blade is acquired in the Disc-One Final Dungeon. It deals triple the damage of any other weapon available at that point but must be sacrificed to defeat to the Disc-One Final Boss.
- Exaggerated:
- It deals guaranteed max damage with every hit.
- You acquire it right before the boss fight where it must be sacrificed, meaning you don't get to use it anywhere else.
- Downplayed:
- It deals slightly more damage than any other weapon available.
- You acquire it before you enter the dungeon and get to use it throughout.
- Justified:
- While it looks like and can be used as a powerful sword, it is actually a key to an alien phlebotinum machine that both it and the boss draw power from. By inserting into the machine, you killed the boss, but also depower the weapon.
- The laser gun's hotshot mode is the only bomb available prior to defeating this boss, and just you know it, you need to throw/shove a bomb into his mouth to defeat him.
- Inverted: Disc-One Nuke, Game-Breaker
- Subverted: By utilizing a Cheese Strategy that involves Save Scumming and an Outside-the-Box Tactic, you can trigger the "boss is defeated" script without giving up the blade.
- Double Subverted: ...but if you use it in battle after, the game crashes.
- Parodied: Hiro picks up the blade, which looks amazing and powerful...then immediately hands it to the Reasonable Authority Figure for safekeeping.
- Zig-Zagged: The Ephemeral Blade is acquired in the Disc One Final Dungeon and deals triple the damage of any other weapon available at that point but must be sacrificed to defeat to the Disc One Final Boss. However, a clever player can defeat the boss without using and thus, not giving it up. However, it was meant to be lost and doesn't have stats of its own outside of that dungeons, so it defaults to the stats of the most basic sword in the game as a failsafe.
- Averted: All weapons you can acquire are yours to keep once you have them.
- Enforced: The game is based on a book in which the party acquires the blade but sacrifices it to defeat the boss. It is programmed to match the source material.
- Lampshaded: Party member Quirby comments after the blade is lost "damn, that would have been awesome to keep using for a while".
- Exploited:
- Defied:
- Discussed:
- Conversed:
- Deconstructed: You get the choice of using the blade to defeat the boss or finding another means and taking it with you. However, it is Powered by a Forsaken Child and using it outside of the dungeon drains your Morality Meter very quickly, potentially locking you out of the Golden Ending which requires high morality.
- Reconstructed: ...but a sidequest exists where the blade can be "purified" at the cost of some of its power, allowing you to use it without concern for your morality.
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama:
