Moments you realized the "weak" character was secretly OP

[Layell]

I've seen this a few times while playing a game casually, I've come across a character that seems incredibly weak, ineffective, or uninteresting. However, upon getting more into the competitive community or metagame, you realize how wrong you were. They aren't bad at all, but there is just a particular way you need to use them to make them incredibly powerful.

So let's post a few of those characters, and why they are so deceptive.

Colin - Advance Wars 2/Advance Wars DS

Maybe I was too young at the time when AW2 came out, but I hated playing as Colin on his maps. Colin has much cheaper units, but as a trade-off, he has lower attack power. Since I thought "bigger is better"I was always saving up for his Super CO power, which makes him stronger based on how much money he has.

But that's not how you are supposed to use him, his much cheaper 2 star CO power "Gold Rush" will boost your current cash by 50%. If you keep using this at the start of a turn, your money can stockpile, and you can just outspend your opponent on a ridiculous scale.

Tauros (RBY)

Of all the generation 1 Pokemon in RBY, this one is actually the killer. He gets STAB (same type attack bonus) on normal moves, and Body Slam is incredibly useful with its paralyze chance in RBY. Because speed = crit percentage, you want to cripple the opponents as much as possible. Hyper Beam also doesn't require a recharge upon a KO in RBY, and Tauros can abuse this to threaten a lot of stuff.

Jigglypuff (Melee)

What are you going to do with puff, sing, and rollout me to death? Puff in melee looks deceptively like a joke character, but the ability to rest, and cause instant KO on some characters is a dangerous game. Once me and my friends realized this could be done, a few of us did try her out a bit more in our matches.

If we can not do just name drops, that would be great. I'd love to know more details.

 

[WestEgg]

 

[crimzonflame]

Selphie FF8

 

[Deleted member 9584]

Donnel the thread.

 

[ProstatePuncher]

Bastion in Destiny 2. Its a fusion rifle, which means it takes a short time to charge then fires bolts of energy one after another, usually 4 or 5. High recoil, but can destroy people since its got high damage.

This one is kinetic, so it shoots actual bullets and not energy. It also fires 3 blasts one after another, like a shotgun, and has the same kind of charge time.

People thought it wasn't gonna be good since you had to give up an exotic slot, and its a fusion, but I didn't care. First week or two of it being available I was scalping people in PVP all day. People would activate roaming supers and I'd absolutely rinse them with it, just one charge while backpedalling as they chased me and they'd be dead. Got good with the charge time that I could wind it up, walk round a corner at the right moment and blam people to pieces.

After a short period it became everyones number one target of "Oh shit thats so OP, I hate it". Beautiful gun. Doesn't get much talk anymore since people got over it but for that short period people underestimated it, golden days.

 

[StreamedHams]

Rydia, once you use her summons in FFIV.

 

[Strafer]

At first I was like, who is this bum, this WWE wannabe.

 

[jiggle]

I thought scouts were useless in Valkyria in the beginning lol

 

[Duxxy3]

Calculator? That's the dumbest class I've ever heard. Why would they even add that to Final Fantasy Tactics?

Wait a minute... whoa.

 

[Rotobit]

That one Pokémon tournament being won because of Pachirisu tanking moves is brilliant

 

[Ryuelli]

The GOAT.

My man Donnel from FE Awakening. The little dork that could.

 

[Boclfon479]

Donnel the thread.

Click to shrink...

I came here to say the same thing.

Donnel starts as Donnel the farmer but becomes Donnel the god

 

[Rran]

this little dweeb from FE: Awakening practically tanked the entire enemy army's attacks for me during the final battle. He was a good investment...

Edit: clearly I'm not the only one who immediately thought of this character lol

 

[solidr]

Click to shrink...

There still people who think gau is useless, when he is the most broken character in FF6

 

[TronLight]

The GOAT.

Click to shrink...

Might as well post a literal goat since you didn't name him or the game he comes from.

 

[Redcrayon]

this little dweeb from FE: Awakening practically tanked the entire enemy army's attacks for me during the final battle. He was a good investment...

Click to shrink...

Almost all junior FE characters that start as recruit/villager status before promoting into a standard class end up crazy strong just through the raw number of level up opportunities they have. Ross in Sacred Stones is the same, starting out way weaker than his dad, but ending up an absolute monster of a melee unit.

 

[Skulldead]

Citan in Xenogear, pretty average, when he get his sword he get broken....

 

[steviestar3]

Cielo from Digital Devil Saga isn't exactly "secretly OP" but his unique attributes (ailment weakness + no elemental weaknesses) make him an ideal party member for the most powerful superbosses in both games. This mostly applies to the first game though where he's genuinely a pretty bad character; in DDS2 he's at least decent even outside of the superboss fight.

 

[Spinosaurus]

Colin is a good pick and I'd also like to include Grit. Never thought the range units buff was all that till I realized how important establishing chokepoints were.

 

[Ryuelli]

Almost all junior FE characters that start as recruit/villager status before promoting into a standard class end up crazy strong just through the raw number of level up opportunities they have. Ross in Sacred Stones is the same, starting out way weaker than his dad, but ending up an absolute monster of a melee unit.

Click to shrink...

I think the reason Donnel is a standout for a lot of people in comparison to other similar units stat-wise is simply his design. A pot head going on to turn into an absolute dominate beast is a story for the ages.

At first I was like, who is this bum, this WWE wannabe.

Click to shrink...

That's Conor McGregor.

 

[KtotheRoc]

Peppita from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

 

[ala1995ginobiko]

Click to shrink...

Thank you for this.


Also I kept underrating Sazh in FF XIII but then he learns Haste and he becomes quickly OP.

 

[Dark Knight]

Fuckin' OP business baby.

 

[DPT120]

Donnel from FE Awakening. It's easy to miss him (his recruitment is kind of tough) and starts out weak. However, with aptitude, he turns into a really strong character.

 

[Cordy]

Bernadetta from Fire Emblem Three Houses. She cleaned all the enemies up and became a straight monster. Although she didn't start off as weak, her character was definitely that. In battle though man, she was wild.

 

[panama chief]

Bastion in Destiny 2. Its a fusion rifle, which means it takes a short time to charge then fires bolts of energy one after another, usually 4 or 5. High recoil, but can destroy people since its got high damage.

This one is kinetic, so it shoots actual bullets and not energy. It also fires 3 blasts one after another, like a shotgun, and has the same kind of charge time.

People thought it wasn't gonna be good since you had to give up an exotic slot, and its a fusion, but I didn't care. First week or two of it being available I was scalping people in PVP all day. People would activate roaming supers and I'd absolutely rinse them with it, just one charge while backpedalling as they chased me and they'd be dead. Got good with the charge time that I could wind it up, walk round a corner at the right moment and blam people to pieces.

After a short period it became everyones number one target of "Oh shit thats so OP, I hate it". Beautiful gun. Doesn't get much talk anymore since people got over it but for that short period people underestimated it, golden days.

Click to shrink...

people still underestimate it and thats why i bang them over the head with it every chance i get. love my bastion, summoner, whatever LMG shoots 900rpm loadout

 

[Josh5890]

At first I was like, who is this bum, this WWE wannabe.

Click to shrink...

Haha I thought the same thing "Boy this idiot is way in over his head"

 

[Layell]

Maybe it's just me, but I feel that Donnel is kind of obvious that he will become super OP. His ability is right there in front of you with "I will be super OP if you train me". Doesn't help I knew the trainees from FE8 had a similar development.

 

[pbayne]

I feel like very srpg has at least one character who breaks the game lol
Ill still bring up lost dimension where you have a character that can phase through walls. Which isnt too busted by itself. But then you can pair that with an ability to summon every unit to its position, letting you bum rush every boss in the game.

 

[Weiss]

Quina in Final Fantasy IX starts out as a character who has an underwhelming physical attack and no spells, gets some use if recruited as early as possible since they can learn White Wind, a full party healing spell, before that kind of power is needed, and by the end of the game has access to devastating offensive spells, can turn the entire party into damage sponges, heal as good as both White Mages in the party, and has access to Auto-Life. They even have a signature ability, Frog Drop, that if sufficiently powered through the Qu Marsh minigame can instantly do max damage every time it's used for 10 MP a pop.

The only catch to Quina is that they learn skills by lowering enemies to 25% HP and then eating them, so you kind of have to keep them in the party at all times to learn all their skills.

 

[SuperHans]

Pico in Breath of Fire III if you link him to the right trainer becomes very OP.

 

[The Albatross]

Rockstar Table Tennis.

I was really into that game back on 360, ranked pretty high (routinely top 100) and it was amazing how the community like naturally discovered who the best characters were. Early on everybody played as Jesper (?) Who was like this blonde beefcake and was all power, no agility, and then suddenly people realized how to play with the better characters... And then the french guy became the most dominant character, and then youd basically try to always match who your opponent was going to be.

But I remember when I discovered how good the french guy and then the korean guy was and it was so fun dominating all of the people still playing power with Jesper .

 

[Starlatine]

Maybe it's just me, but I feel that Donnel is kind of obvious that he will become super OP. His ability is right there in front of you with "I will be super OP if you train me". Doesn't help I knew the trainees from FE8 had a similar development.

Click to shrink...

yeah i dont think donnel is a secret either. you either know before playing hes a super recruit or whatever the term or you realize "someone this weak is bound to get super strong" as its per usual in games like this

if anything even uncle Seth is more "secretly" OP than him cause most FE veterans would think Seth is the Jeigan archetype that will turn into shit later so instincts tell to never bother feeding him xp

 

[Lobster Roll]

I feel like very srpg has at least one character who breaks the game lol
Ill still bring up lost dimension where you have a character that can phase through walls. Which isnt too busted by itself. But then you can pair that with an ability to summon every unit to its position, letting you bum rush every boss in the game.

Click to shrink...

I know a lot of people who when they first played Final Fantasy Tactics were all like "fuck yeah, knights and wizards and summoners and ninjas and monks and dragoons" ... meanwhile, classes like mystic, geomancer, samurai, calculator, and time mage are cleaning house. Calculators in general are hilarious broken, but most people don't bother putting in the grind time to make that a reality. Geomancers attacks just ignore height, so in fights where they have a massive height advantage, you can just wreck them all in a few turns. Mystics can attack from two tiles away, thus negating counter-attacks, and poles use magic in the calculation for damage ... plus their ability set is extremely underrated.

Gah, I love Tactics. I need to stop before I forget that the series is dead now.

 

[Horohorohoro]

Quina in Final Fantasy IX starts out as a character who has an underwhelming physical attack and no spells, gets some use if recruited as early as possible since they can learn White Wind, a full party healing spell, before that kind of power is needed, and by the end of the game has access to devastating offensive spells, can turn the entire party into damage sponges, heal as good as both White Mages in the party, and has access to Auto-Life. They even have a signature ability, Frog Drop, that if sufficiently powered through the Qu Marsh minigame can instantly do max damage every time it's used for 10 MP a pop.

The only catch to Quina is that they learn skills by lowering enemies to 25% HP and then eating them, so you kind of have to keep them in the party at all times to learn all their skills.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I'm playing FF9 for the first time right now and Quina has been a mainstay on my team since they joined because of the insane variety Blue Magic gave my team early on, and now the sheer damage from Frog Bomb after 100+ frogs and the defensive capabilities of Mighty Guard mean that they're going to be on my team for the rest of the game too.

 

[Timelord19]

Melia in Xenoblade, at first when you recruit her she is shit, but when she lears all of her magic hoo boy she is a killing machine.

 

[Tochtli79]

Hi, it's me, I am here to debunk this Donnell being OP propaganda. He is not any more OP than any other character in Awakening since you can infinitely grind levels and skills at any point, and if you aren't grinding it's a waste of time getting him out of that trainee class and then switching from leveling his starting lance to the sword or axe he can actually use once promoted. His final classes are also nothing special. His real utility is passing down his special skill, but even then that is only useful until his child maxes their stats.

 

[Lulu]

Calculators is fft is the actual answer

 

[brinstar]

I also thought of Donnell immediately, who basically solo'd the last map for me lol

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Selphie FF8

Click to shrink...

Perfect answer. I went the whole game thinking Selphie was garbage, then I see "The End" what's that do? Oh.....ohhhhhhh.

 

[Sinatar]

Sherry the mouse in Ultima 6 starts at a lower level than anyone else, but this means she can earn more stat points then anyone else and turns into a monster later on.

And yes, she's a literal tiny mouse that you can equip with platemail and a halberd.

See that tiny little brown thing behind the rest of the party next to the flowers, that's Sherry.

 

[Ginger Hail]

Amy in Sonic Adventure 2's multiplayer. All the characters get a rating of up to 5 stars, though the scoring criteria isn't made clear. Sonic and Shadow are meant to be the "baseline" for the 2P racing mode. They play identically and receive a 5 star rating. The remaining characters, Metal Sonic and Amy, get rated a 4 and 3 respectively. At a glance, Amy seems like the weakest as she's got the lowest ranking and is mentioned to be slower than the other three characters. As a kid, I think we mostly ignored her because of it.

In reality, Amy ends up being really annoying because of her other difference: she only has to collect half the rings Sonic or Shadow do to earn special moves. 10 rings for a temporary speed boost, 20 for an attack that will automatically hit the opponent, and, most notably, 30 would let you time stop the other character for 20 seconds (though they could mash to make the timer count quicker). It becomes very easy to snowball and constantly send attacks and time stops to the other player. Of course, Sonic and Shadow could also dish the same stuff back at her, but she's able to do it so much more quickly that maintaining momentum can be a lot harder for them.

 

[RAWRferal]

9S from Nier Automata. That Route B opening sequence, I was like: holy shit, okay dude.

 

[Arkanim94]

Blur mages are usually this in old school final fantasy.
The spells where balanced around the fact that they were difficult to find and you probably wouldn't have learned them all, but nowadays with the Internet blue mages are usually better then the designated white and black mages the moment they get hold on white wind and some damage spells.

 

[Hero Prinny]

Maybe it's just me, but I feel that Donnel is kind of obvious that he will become super OP. His ability is right there in front of you with "I will be super OP if you train me". Doesn't help I knew the trainees from FE8 had a similar development.

Click to shrink...

It was my first FE game that i actually played more than an hour so i wasn't really familiar with the game at all and if it wasnt for all the recommendations i read online to stick with him cause he's really good i wouldve dumped that loser tbh 🥸

 

[Zeroth]

Melia in Xenoblade, at first when you recruit her she is shit, but when she lears all of her magic hoo boy she is a killing machine.

Click to shrink...

On that note, Tora in Xenoblade 2 can become this. Tora seems to be the weakest driver, only having Poppy and her two forms you get in the story being relatively mediocre compared to the stuff Rex, Zeke and Morag have. However, with Poppy's third form and some item farming, he becomes the strongest driver by far.

 

[cvxfreak]

I would say Helena in Resident Evil 6. When I first saw her in the trailers, I thought she'd be largely ineffectual, but she proved to be tough and resilient and aside from her aloofness at the beginning, she doesn't do anything to get herself into danger or jeopardize the mission (unlike Ada, Jill and Claire, who get into mishaps in a lot of the games they star in).

 

[Calvinien]

The plasma power in kirby super star. When used by an ai helper it is nearly useless. You'll just watch them constantly shoot out incredibly weak, short ranged attacks and get themselves killed. That's because the AI is not programmed on how to use the power intelligently.

Plasma works by storing charge every individual press of the D pad. Then the attack button fires the accumulated charge. No built up charge means a tiny little spark with less range than most melee powers. 3-5 means a weak shot that can hit the opposite side of the screen. 10 or so is a powerful and wide, but short ranged spark. A few more and you can fire out a Makkakansappo from dragon ball. A few more and you can fire out the aforementioned spark across the entire screen.

IN order to use the ability at optimum effectiveness, you need to button mash on the dpad to build up charge quickly. When you do that, you have a reliable, easily aimed attack that clears about 1/8 of the screen in a straight line. Better yet, you can still build charge when blocking, and when at max charge you get an aura that will actually harm low health enemies and objects that get too close. Meaning you can guard, build up charge, become invincible to several attacks and thefire off one of the most powerful attacks in the game and it all takes you about a second if you know what you are doing.

It makes the arena a total breeze.

 

[Yukiko]

That one Pokémon tournament being won because of Pachirisu tanking moves is brilliant

Click to shrink...

Worth pointing out that it won worlds, the most important tournament of the year. It had a pretty good niche in the metagame.

 

[asmith906]

I thought Selphie from FF8 was weak until you realize she literally has the ability to instantly kill any enemy in the game with her Limit Break called "The End"

When you think about it she's literally the strongest person in the Final Fantasy series

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