Overpowered characters/weapons/items in games.

[CastletonSnob]

I'll start off with a well-known one: Bo Jackson on Tecmo Super Bowl. He's twice as fast as every other player, and he can effortlessly break tackles.

In case you haven't played Tecmo Super Bowl, this video should give you an idea of how overpowered he was.

 

[BrawlMan]

Dante in DMC4 &5. Especially the latter. When you unlock the Quadruple S rank move where staying at SSS rank, Sin Devil Trigger becomes busted as fuck as long as you don't get hit before turning it on or losing your combo. Grenade role canceling in DMC1 made things easier when fighting on the harder difficulties. By doing it, you can gain Devil Trigger so easily.

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Kid Link (Major's Mask version) in Hyrule Warriors.

Rosa in Bayonetta 2. As long as you don't get hit. The Climax Bracelet in the first game.

Juggernaut, Cable, Hulk, Sentienel, Ice Man, Storm, Magneto, Iron Man, War Machine, and Psylocke are broken in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Vergil, Phoneix, and the X-Factor mechanic is broken in general in MvC3.

 

[meiam]

I always like Orlandeau from final fantasy tactics. The entire game you keep hearing about this god like swordsman who is seemingly single handedly keeping a kingdom from losing a war. Now usually in game when a character join your team they scale them so they're about just as strong as every other character, so that an experience warrior is just as good in combat as a kid who was a farmer 5 minute ago. But not Orlandeau, he join and is just as strong as the rumour said, there's 3 special class of knight in the game only available to unique character and able to use super strong ability. Orlandeau can just use all 3 of those school at the same time, he also come equiped with one of the best weapon in the game. On the downside he kinda trivialize the rest of the game after you join, but FFT balance is complete garbage anyway, so no big deal.

 

[SckizoBoy]

If you're allowing strategy games in here, then anything to do with Ikit Claw & Deathmaster Snikch in Total War: Warhammer II. The Forbidden Workshop and Shady Dealings, respectively, make those two starting factions so powerful. Without them, Ikit is still stupidly powerful with a packed skill tree, none of which is bad, so he is debatably the best spellcaster/combat hybrid lord in the game (with answers to literally everything once he's levelled up enough) which, combined with two really versatile mount choices, his campaign effects, army buffing ability, nukes and the Forbidden Workshop means he's totally OP. His voice lines ("MISCALCULATED!!! Na-HA!" "Science... sorcery... nn-DEATH!!" etc.) are just the lashings of icing on a very moist cake. Snikch has the Thanos snap... nuff sed.

I'd add a couple characters from tabletop games, but this isn't the right place for it, and even though an intermediary format exists linking it to the medium of video games, it's a massive stretch.

 

[Worgen]

I'm gonna go with the classic that is the Doom 2 Super Shotgun.

 

[Casual Shinji]

- The flamethrower in The Last of Us 1.

Even with the weapons you had at that point you still needed to be on your guard with infected enemies, but the flamethrower just turned every infected encounter in pest control. Even bloaters would get stunlocked by just a short burst.

- Apollo's Ascension (combat move) in God of War 1.

Pretty much an air juggle that will keep enemies suspended in mid air for seconds at a time. This itself isn't that OP, but then you realize most enemies can be juggled, and that Apollo's Ascension rakes up those combo counts which only encreases your EXP. And while we're on GoW...

- Hyperion Ram in God of War 3.

You hook your chainblades into an enemy and shoulder check yourself into them. It's a good move to cross some distance and keep yourself in the fight, but the fact that it knocks the shit out of most enemies and even knocks them out of their attack animation is where it gets overpowered. Minotaurs and gorgons pretty much become big, fleshy punching bags with this move.

 

[Ghostrick Dorklord]

I could think of many examples in Pokemon, both ingame and in the competitive scene. There's the obvious like the legendaries but there's also really good Pokemon like Nidoking which have strong stats, wide movepool, and fast evolution rate but I really want to shine a light on one particular one mostly because I think its kind of funny.

See this monstrosity? This fish attached to a dinosaur butt is actually more powerful than god itself. Dracovish has the single most powerful move in the entire game that it can one shot resists like Toxipex in the right circumstances with Fishious Rend. I won't get into all the details and numbers since we can be here all day but take my word for it when I say its deserves it ban from the competitive scene. But still there's something really funny knowing one of the strongest Pokemon around is actually again a fish attached to a dinosaur butt. Life likes to throw curveballs like that.

...Man this thing actually scared me when I first saw it but now its a meme for me due to its sheer power.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I'll start off with a well-known one: Bo Jackson on Tecmo Super Bowl. He's twice as fast as every other player, and he can effortlessly break tackles.

In case you haven't played Tecmo Super Bowl, this video should give you an idea of how overpowered he was.

To be fair, Bo Jackson was pretty much overpowered in real life, too. I think that video might be actual footage; video resolution back then was so great.

 

[Fieldy409]

Final Fantasy 8 had terrible balance, for the entire game you could spam summons, they cost basically nothing and the more you used them the faster you could use them. Until one fight when you couldn't use attacks that hit every enemy or you'd lose the game because the main characters girlfriend was embedded in a monsters chest. I never finished because I couldn't beat that fight because I never learned how to play the game properly lol.

 

[meiam]

Final Fantasy 8 had terrible balance, for the entire game you could spam summons, they cost basically nothing and the more you used them the faster you could use them. Until one fight when you couldn't use attacks that hit every enemy or you'd lose the game because the main characters girlfriend was embedded in a monsters chest. I never finished because I couldn't beat that fight because I never learned how to play the game properly lol.

Just keep your character at low health and spam limit break (or w/e they were called). Worse later in the game you get a magic that let you spam limit break at all time and squall final limit deal a shit ton of damage. FF8 gameplay was, imo, a low point for the franchise.

 

[Worgen]

Pretty much anything in Warhammer 40k. I mean it wins pretty much any nerd debate between power levels of different make up universes by everything being in the fluff pretty much ridiculously big, powerful and numerous. I mean even if there is something bigger and badder in some other universe then it would just have to face like 10 of the biggest baddest things in 40k and have no chance. Because warhammer 40k is ridiculous.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The (upgraded) fear takedown in Arkham Knight that lets you take out 5 guys at once and breaks the stealth sections once you get it.

 

[happyninja42]

Khimari in FF 10, after I took him down...well basically every physical combat character's tree. Got him his ultimate weapon, and he easily one shotted Sin. He was my Rocks Fall Everyone Dies, but in furry form for that game. Loved that furry bastard, he inspired a D&D character shortly after playing that game.

 

[Xprimentyl]

You really had to earn it, but the Infinite Omega Sword from Beyond Oasis. The game has that tired mechanic of weapons with limited usage, but if you can survive a 100 level gauntlet of rooms filled with progressively tougher and random mobs, you net yourself this sweet sword that has unlimited uses and sets your enemies on fire with each strike making it the strongest weapon in the game. Every time I played the game, I challenged myself to try for it as soon as possible, but it's very hard to do with a low-level character. The 100 level gauntlet has to be completed in a single go, and you're restricted to items in your limited inventory space for healing, oh, and the enemies in the gauntlet don't drop items like the ones is the over world do, so what ya' have when you start is what ya' get. The trick is to first get the Water Spirit and pray for the coveted "water rooms" throughout the gauntlet, those with mobs that are puddles of water and allow you to summon said Water Spirit who can heal you.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Oh, the plasma pistol/human pistol combo from Halo: Combat Evolved. I always thought it was brilliant how the [apparently] least effective weapons from both the human and covenant arsenals combined to make the most overpowered duo in the game (save for the rocket launcher and sniper rifles which, c'mon, were set pieces, i.e.: noly found when necessary/relevant.) Not sure if it was intentional as the human pistol was nerfed throughout the rest of the franchise, but it was nice to be able to tackle the game on higher difficulties with that little nugget in your pocket; dropping Elites with two shots never gets old.

 

[laggyteabag]

Oh, the plasma pistol/human pistol combo from Halo: Combat Evolved. I always thought it was brilliant how the [apparently] least effective weapons from both the human and covenant arsenals combined to make the most overpowered duo in the game (save for the rocket launcher and sniper rifles which, c'mon, were set pieces, i.e.: noly found when necessary/relevant.) Not sure if it was intentional as the human pistol was nerfed throughout the rest of the franchise, but it was nice to be able to tackle the game on higher difficulties with that little nugget in your pocket; dropping Elites with two shots never gets old.

The plasma pistol/precision weapon combo will easily get you through most covenant encounters in every game.

The precision weapon can one/two shot grunts and jackals, and can headshot shieldless Elites or Brutes.

The plasma pistol will knock out a brute's/elite's shield, and will leave them vulnerable.

Some variation of a precision weapon is almost always available, and plasma pistols are one of the most common weapons in the game. So unless you are actively avoiding this combo, it is very easy to keep it up.

The only time you really come up against trouble, is when you are dealing with drones (which are rare), Hunters (unless it is Halo 1), or vehicles - but the plasma pistol can stun those too, in Halo 3 onwards.

Honestly, once you discover this combo, using anything else seems comically inefficient.

 

[laggyteabag]

I would like to add the pre-nerf boltshot from Halo 4's multiplayer mode.

Halo 4 is the black sheep on Halo multiplayer, because it really tried to CoD-ify the Halo formula.

Whilst Halo traditionally has equal spawns, with set weapons/equipment, Halo 4 allowed the player to select their starting weapons, grenades, armour abilities and perks (oh, how Halo had fallen).

One of the new weapons in Halo 4, was a Promethean weapon called the boltshot, which was this faction's equivalent of the pistol.

It was fairly weak per-shot, and whilst it could headshot, the standout feature was the secondary fire. Like the Plasma Pistol, if you held down the trigger, this gun would charge up. Unlike the charged plasma pistol, which would only take out an enemy's shields, the Boltshot would turn into a one-shot shotgun, that completely (and literally) melted your opponent, with surprising range.

Players could respawn with this weapon.

So, whilst Halo was a game about multiple precision headshots, or sustained automatic fire, or map control for power weapons, for this period of time, most fights on small maps basically turned into who could Boltshot who, first.

It was tiring.

I can still hear the noise.

 

[Xprimentyl]

The plasma pistol/precision weapon combo will easily get you through most covenant encounters in every game.

The precision weapon can one/two shot grunts and jackals, and can headshot shieldless Elites or Brutes.

The plasma pistol will knock out a brute's/elite's shield, and will leave them vulnerable.

Some variation of a precision weapon is almost always available, and plasma pistols are one of the most common weapons in the game. So unless you are actively avoiding this combo, it is very easy to keep it up.

The only time you really come up against trouble, is when you are dealing with drones (which are rare), Hunters (unless it is Halo 1), or vehicles - but the plasma pistol can stun those too, in Halo 3 onwards.

Honestly, once you discover this combo, using anything else seems comically inefficient.

Agreed, but the pistol was nerfed after Halo CE allowing other precision weapons (battle rifle/carbine) to own their rank as "better" choices. That's why I think the plasma pistol/pistol combo was an oversight, having a single-shot starter weapon and a readily available enemy drop combine for an "I win" situation.

I would like to add the pre-nerf boltshot from Halo 4's multiplayer mode.

Halo 4 is the black sheep on Halo multiplayer, because it really tried to CoD-ify the Halo formula.

Whilst Halo traditionally has equal spawns, with set weapons/equipment, Halo 4 allowed the player to select their starting weapons, grenades, armour abilities and perks (oh, how Halo had fallen).

One of the new weapons in Halo 4, was a Promethean weapon called the boltshot, which was this faction's equivalent of the pistol.

It was fairly weak per-shot, and whilst it could headshot, the standout feature was the secondary fire. Like the Plasma Pistol, if you held down the trigger, this gun would charge up. Unlike the charged plasma pistol, which would only take out an enemy's shields, the Boltshot would turn into a one-shot shotgun, that completely (and literally) melted your opponent, with surprising range.

Players could respawn with this weapon.

So, whilst Halo was a game about multiple precision headshots, or sustained automatic fire, or map control for power weapons, for this period of time, most fights on small maps basically turned into who could Boltshot who, first.

It was tiring.

I can still hear the noise.

I was pretty much past multiplayer when Halo 4 dropped, so didn't experience this phenomenon, but I recall the boltshot being shit in the campaign. Most of the Promethean weapons were shit, but I appreciated them trying to mix things up with a third set of tools; I just never found a time when they were a better option than human/Covenant weapons I'd enjoyed in the 5 previous Halo installments.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Stealth mode, in the first two Crysis games (haven't played the third enough yet to gauge it). It's basically a button that reduces the enemy AI's intelligence by half (and they never had much to give up in the first place), and makes them trivially easy to exploit.

 

[Kae]

ME!
Cuz, I make all games my bitches!
Yah, you herd dat right Romero, even Daikatana!


But seriously, the counter in OG AssCreed was so unbalanced that you were practically invincible.