Basic Trope: The best equipment in the game requires considerable effort on the part of the player to acquire.
- Straight: In the Tales of Troperia series, in order to get the Ultimate Sword for Sir Robert, the Ultimate Dagger for Lance, the Ultimate Spear for Zachary, the Ultimate Bow for Kurt, the Ultimate Hammer for Gordon, and Ultimate Staff (for any of your magical based character) for your heroes, you need to get to the final dungeon and defeat the ones who wield those weapons.
- Exaggerated:
- The items for them are Randomly Drops from the Superboss at the end of the Bonus Dungeon that you can only get to if you speak to a particular NPC in the third town, the sidequest to get them won't start, and the other NPCs won't talk... and they're too late, being outclassed by the Double-edged Bonecleaver.
- There's something that's even higher and can only be accessed if you play through the special Another Side, Another Story mode that puts you in Claidheamh's place. Normally, Claidheamh would be wielding a Claybeg, a rather short yet handy sword. But there lies a stone tablet in the Creepy Cave Cobweb Jungle that describes this: "A powerful man of gargantuan structure and thirst for battle who bears a kilt and hails from the lands of high, who had been born within a Doomed Hometown shall seek a powerful blade deep into the mountains of his homelands, a Claymore in equal proportions to cleave through his enemies' defences, and enact his rightful vengeance on the man who wronged him the most." This then leads into a side-quest that spans about half the game's runtime of around 100 hours; Claidheamh goes through an arduous journey in an attempt to achieve this sword, and by the time he has done it, an epic cutscene plays out (something that normally never happens in any other side-quest) as Claidheamh unsheathes the Excalibur in the Stone (or the Celtic counterpart as opposed to the Anglo-Saxon Excalibur), at which point he will get a MASSIVE boost. The Claymore now acts as a total Game-Breaker that can tear through armies upon armies of foes with ease. If Claidheamh fails to retrieve the Claymore, then fighting Sir Robert will basically be a borderline Hopeless Boss Fight, unless Claidheamh somehow manages to pull through and defeat Sir Robert even without the Claymore, in which case he will be gifted with an extended Downer Ending as he is immediately banished by Troperia herself with the almighty Hammer of Thumping.
- Downplayed:
- The equipment appears as a more common, yet almost as powerful Infinity -1 Sword.
- The Ultimate equipment is obtained fairly early into the game, but it's all Too Awesome to Use, meaning you'll probably save it for the final dungeon anyway.
- Justified: They show Character Development.
- Inverted:
- Starter Equipment. May be turned into A Taste of Power.
- Defeating the True Final Boss provides you with a Joke Item.
- Subverted: They're considerably weaker than the other weapons.
- Double Subverted: ...Until you grind their stats a bunch, at which point they're hands down the best weapons.
- Parodied: Their compendium info says "Their power can only be wielded by five true heroes... who have way too much time on their hands. Come on, guys."
- Zig Zagged: The items have the best boost to your Attack stat, but the Double-edged Bonecleaver or the Sword of the Ancients is better in some situations for whatever reason. However, once you obtain their unique Combination Attack, there's no contest.
- Averted:
- There is no sidequest for an ultimate weapon. The best weapon in the game can be purchased or obtained through story progression.
- "Best weapon" is a fan designation based on highest boosts - there's no Ultimate anything.
- Enforced: Ultimate weapons of this type are generally recognized as a common element in the games they show up in.
- Lampshaded: "We could have used the time you spend getting that sword on, you know, SAVING THE FRICKING WORLD!"
- Invoked: It's common knowledge among the game's characters that a diamond-edged sword would be pretty much the most powerful thing ever- it's often said that such a sword could cleave even atoms in half, but it's also commonly thought to be impossible to gather the materials needed to make one.
- Exploited: It may be found very early in the game, if you know where to look.
- Defied: Screw the sidequest, I'll just go level grind if I need to.
- Discussed: That better be the ultimate sword. Look what we did to get it.
- Conversed: Couldn't you have just beaten the game already?
- Deconstructed:
- Their stats aren't high enough to justify the amount of time and effort needed to obtain them, meaning most players don't even bother. Was It Really Worth It??
- By the time you have the ability to obtain it, you've pretty much beaten the game and thus proven you don't need it.
- The weapon is just Too Awesome to Use.
- Once the hero gets their claws on the Infinity +1 Sword, they succumb to hubris and begin boasting about how invincible they are, blind to the possibilities of getting their throat slit while they sleep or being forced to surrender through use of hostages.
- Reconstructed:
- The initial parts of the sidequest are made intentionally tedious or obscure to discourage players who aren't really focused on 100% Completion from wasting their time. Instead, those players just finish the game and move on, and everyone's satisfied.
- The game has a New Game Plus, meaning that if you put the time and effort to get the Diamond-Edged Atomcleaver with it's boosts, you get to experience the joy of mopping the floor with That One Boss's ugly face with them.
- Played for Laughs: The strongest weapon in the game is the GIGASPOON, which hits the damage cap with every swing, and requires you to complete a ridiculously funny and absurd end-game quest in order to be acquired.
- Played for Drama: The weapons were awakened by the soul of The Hero's dead little sister, who was killed by the Mooks.
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