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 characters) 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 Rare Random 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.
- 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: The characters have shown Character Development.
- Inverted:
- All the characters, at the start of the game, are given incredibly basic weapons.
- Defeating the True Final Boss provides you with a Joke Item.
- Subverted: The weapons 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: The weapons' 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.
- There’s no Ultimate anything in the game.
- Lampshaded: "We could have used the time you spend getting that sword on, you know, SAVING THE 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.
- The previous owner, knowing the risk of having it fall into the wrong hands, placed the ultimate sword at the end of a Death Course so that only the worthy may reach it, just before his passing.
- 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:
- The weapons' 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 Sir Robert gets their hands on the Ultimate Sword, he succumbs to hubris and begins 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 its boosts, you get to experience the joy of mopping the floor with That One Boss's ugly face with them.
- The heroes defy fate and force their way through keeping the weapons forever.
- Lance brings Sir Robert back to his senses through a combination of yelling, slapping, and pleading. Sir Robert begins to grow less arrogant over time.
- 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 Sir Robert's dead little sister Alice, who was killed by the Mooks.
Back to Infinity +1 Sword
