History Main / AIRoulette

* ''VideoGame/TheLastRemnant'' for the Xbox 360 is an unusual case in that you, the player, are subject to partial AI Roulette just as much as the enemies due to the battle system. Though you still have command over your units, the available list of commands you can pick from turn to turn (as well as depending on the enemy you target) is determined entirely by the AI. Sometimes the commands available are entirely logical and normal, sometimes they're nothing near what you need (i.e. no healing commands when you could certainly use some), sometimes they give you access to your uber attacks for trash enemies and sometimes at least one member of your unit will use a move than ddoes ''absolutely nothing''.

*** There are two exceptions to this: they aren't ''quite'' stupid enough to attempt a status-inflicting move if your Pokémon already has a [[StatusEffects non-volatile status]] (i.e., burn, freeze, paralysis, poison, or sleep). In addition, certain trainers like Gym Leaders and the Elite Four operate under a command that fans refer to as the "Good AI flag", where they ''will'' take type advantage into account and only use moves of an advantageous typing if available... but this still manages to be a case of ArtificialStupidity, as they'll continue spamming a move even if said "super effective" attack isn't an actual damaging move. For example, Agility is denoted as a Psychic-type move, but all it does is [[StatusBuff increase the user's speed]]; a "good AI" will deem using this move (and only this move) as the best course of action against Poison-types regardless. And since AI opponents in Gen I have unlimited PP, they'll never be forced to stop using this tactic either. One of the most memorable moments in the first ''LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemon'' directly resulted from this, allowing the mob to win against Lance using a Level 36 Venomoth.

** The bosses of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' were typically a combination of AI and randomness, e.g. random single damage attack followed random [=AoE=] attack followed by random buff, heal if at low health. [[AnticlimaxBoss The final boss]] in this game has an attack that reduces your entire party to [[HPToOne 1 HP]]. Potentially dangerous, but not if he uses it multiple times in a row...

** An [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality accepted break]] in the already NintendoHard ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne''. Most enemies would {{curb stomp|Battle}} you with ease if they used their moves intelligently, even the random {{Mooks}}. Mot, infamous for spamming [[ExtraTurn Beast Eye]] several times a turn, would be absolutely unbeatable if it actually thought about what it was doing. And the BonusBoss works out to be a LuckBasedMission ''with'' the correct strategy.

*** The ''only'' reason BonusBoss The Reaper can be killed without resorting to Armageddon. The key to surviving this fight is that it likes to waste turns using element Break spells and then refuse to exploit the new weakness. The hardest part of the fight is actually the end - once the Reaper is almost dead, the roulette shuts off and its AI goes to "NukeEm" mode.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' has this with ''all'' of its bosses except Dullahan, the BonusBoss of VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge and ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'', as well as for {{mooks}}. Downright painful for mooks, since they're already severely underpowered. There's a point where you just feel sorry for enemies using their non-damaging defense lowering move on your weakest character for two turns (which is actually a good idea), then attacking your strongest character the third turn, right before dying and having done practically no damage at all.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'', all enemies are this. The most prominent example is Yami's slot-machine form, where, if you don't Powerslash it or use Mist, it will just pick random moves. Another good example is the boss fight with Lechku and Nechku.

** Nearly all wild Pokémon in every game uses the Roulette. This is justified by the wild Pokémon not having the decision-making skills of humans, but can reach noticeably silly levels when, for instance, a wild Gastly decides to use Curse (which inflicts a nasty status effect, [[CastFromHitPoints at the cost of half the user's HP]]) when it's at half health or less, [[TooDumbToLive causing it to immediately lose]]. Exceptions are typically those where you cannot catch the Pokémon, like the fused Necrozma fights in ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', as well as the [[BookInMookClothing Alpha Pokémon]] in ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus''.

** Nearly all wild Pokémon in every game uses the Roulette. This is justified by the wild Pokémon not having the decision-making skills of humans. This can get noticeable when, for instance, a wild Gastly decides to use Curse (which inflicts a nasty status effect, [[CastFromHitPoints at the cost of half the user's HP]]) when it's at half health or less, [[TooDumbToLive causing it to immediately lose]]. Exceptions are typically those where you cannot catch the Pokémon, like the fused Necrozma fights in ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon''.

*** There are two exceptions to this: they aren't ''quite'' stupid enough to attempt a status-inflicting move if your Pokémon already has a [[StatusEffects non-volatile status]] (i.e., burn, freeze, paralysis, poison, or sleep). In addition, certain trainers like Gym Leaders and the Elite Four operate under a command that fans refer to as the "Good AI flag", where they ''will'' take type advantage into account and only use moves of an advantageous typing if available... but this still manages to be a case of ArtificialStupidity, as they'll continue spamming the move even if said "super effective" attack isn't an actual damaging move. For example, Agility is denoted as a Psychic-type move, but all it does is [[StatusBuff increase the user's speed]]; a "good AI" will deem using this move (and only this move) as the best course of action against Poison-types regardless. And since AI opponents in Gen I have unlimited PP, they'll never be forced to stop using this tactic either. One of the most memorable moments in the first ''LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemon'' directly resulted from this, allowing the mob to win against Lance using a Level 36 Venomoth.

** In [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Generation I]], all trainers behaved like this as well. Moves were picked at random, with no regards to type-effectiveness or if a move will have any effect[[note]](e.g., using moves the opponent is immune to, using healing moves at full health, trying to do Whirlwind/Roar when those moves had absolutely no effect in trainer battles during Gen I, etc.)[[/note]], much less utilizing any sort of strategy as they would in later games.
*** There are two exceptions to this: they aren't ''quite'' stupid enough to attempt a status-inflicting move if your Pokémon already has a [[StatusEffects non-volatile status]] (i.e., burn, freeze, paralysis, poison, or sleep). In addition, certain trainers like Gym Leaders and the Elite Four have a flag known as the "Good AI flag", where they ''will'' take type advantage into account and only use moves of an advantageous typing if available... but this still manages to be a case of ArtificialStupidity, as they'll continue spamming the move even if said "super effective" attack isn't an actual damaging move. For example, Agility is denoted as a Psychic-type move, but all it does is [[StatusBuff increase the user's speed]]; a "good AI" will deem using this move (and only this move) as the best course of action against Poison-types regardless. And since AI opponents in Gen I have unlimited PP, they'll never be forced to stop using this tactic either. One of the most memorable moments in the first ''LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemon'' directly resulted from this, allowing the mob to win against Lance using a Level 36 Venomoth.
*** Some Gen I trainers additionally have random chances of taking special actions like using an item or switching. Gym Leader Blaine is infamous for this, as he's coded to randomly use a Super Potion...but the coders forgot to specify any clause about HP, meaning that it's surprisingly common for him to [[TooDumbToLive use it on a full-health Pokémon.]]
** The move Metronome is this. A move that is the Pokémon equivalent to the wrath of God (Judgement) has the same chance of being called via Metronome as a move that has no effect whatsoever (Splash).

** ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' in particular has the [[http://starmen.net/mother2/ebdb/enemies.php?enemy=145 Clumsy Robot]] boss, which has one devastating attack and so many "do nothing" moves it could be considered a {{lampshade}}. Of course, this also means that if you get unlucky and Clumsy Robot uses the missile, say, four times in a row, even the rolling HP meters won't save you.

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', after some plot events, Rinoa gains the new LimitBreak ability [[PowerGivesYouWings Angel Wing]] which sends her into a unique berserk state: the player loses control of her actions but she gets boosted speed and magic power, (limited) status immunity, and continuously casts magic at no cost. Sounds great at first, but since berserk Rinoa selects spells entirely at random based on what she has available, she's as likely as not to cast [[EnemyScan Scan]] and [[StandardStatusEffects Silence/Sleep/Confuse]] over high-level damage-inflicting magic.

*** There are two exceptions to this: they aren't ''quite'' stupid enough to attempt a status-inflicting move if your Pokémon already has a [[StandardStatusEffects non-volatile status]] (i.e., burn, freeze, paralysis, poison, or sleep). In addition, certain trainers like Gym Leaders and the Elite Four have a flag known as the "Good AI flag", where they ''will'' take type advantage into account and only use moves of an advantageous typing if available... but this still manages to be a case of ArtificialStupidity, as they'll continue spamming the move even if said "super effective" attack isn't an actual damaging move. For example, Agility is denoted as a Psychic-type move, but all it does is [[StatusBuff increase the user's speed]]; a "good AI" will deem using this move (and only this move) as the best course of action against Poison-types regardless. And since AI opponents in Gen I have unlimited PP, they'll never be forced to stop using this tactic either. One of the most memorable moments in the first ''LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemon'' directly resulted from this, allowing the mob to win against Lance using a Level 36 Venomoth.

** The battle systems in the ''MOTHER'' series rely on this for most enemy encounters. Many enemies (with few exceptions) have "do nothing" type actions in the list, such as furrowing one's brow or falling down. These are chosen from an enemy's list of attacks just as often as their regular attacks are, so it's possible to get lucky and have an enemy spend several turns idling. Other actions include particularly strong or deadly attacks or attacks that inflict [[StandardStatusEffects status ailments upon the party]] (like a particularly odd enemy action leaving a character "feeling strange," or confused). Given the somewhat quirky atmosphere of the games, it goes a long way with infusing the series with a lot of its charm.

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' both use this for their boss AI, unlike all other games in the franchise. It's not especially noticeable during the stories due to the generally low difficulty level, but the bonus bosses in these two games are generally considered the worst the franchise has to offer because they follow no patterns, have no or insufficient tells, and will break out of being staggered by the player's attacks at random. ''3D'' also uses it for your Dream Eater allies, though with the chance to perform a particular action varying based on their disposition and the remaining HP of themselves and their allies. As such, it's not uncommon to see them reapplying StandardStatusEffects or a StatusBuff on something that they just put it on instead of doing something more productive. They also might heal you immediately when you're almost dead, or not at all.

* ''VideoGame/Angband'' has opponents randomly deciding on whether or not to cast a spell, and picks one of those spells at random. Intelligent monsters will filter out ineffective spells (e.g. won't teleport to the player if already adjacent), with an additional option of them keeping track of players resisting one of the damage types.

* ''VideoGame/{{LISA}}'' utilizes this system in its enemies; due to the way the game is programmed, a player can encounter an opponent who will do nothing but check his hair over and over, or [[FinalDeath have their companions' heads get bitten off one by one]] in three turns.

** In ''Crisis Core: VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', you will run into enemies on the harder missions who outnumber you 5 to 1 and have the AI roulette. Example: One of the Wutai missions pits you against 5 Silver Wutai Soldiers, who have a move called "Death Missile" that kills you in one hit unless you have that rare item that makes you immune to Death. They seem to like this move a lot.

** Enemies in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' generally pick attacks and spells at random. Sleepga spells can render an alliance useless, and the mob could go to town on targets one-by-one... if they could only remember to not cast any damaging Area-of-Effect spell, which wakes everyone up.[[note]]Of course this was somewhat offset by so many of the big boss level enemies in FFXI having moves that are essentially "You lose if I use this attack". Being randomly woken up after being slept by a low damage spell means you get to live at least as long as it takes for the AI to decide to give the wheel another spin.[[/note]] Bard enemies are especially funny: lower level ones tend to use useful songs (since those are all they know), but higher level ones may waste an entire 8 seconds casting a MP restoring song on themselves (despite not even needing MP). Some Notorious Monsters, however, either have only one spell, spells of a specific element, or a very small set of spells that maximize the NM's performance. [[http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Shadowhand At least one]] NM is actually scripted to cast Sleepga 2, then [[OhCrap Thundaga 3 for massive [=AoE=] damage]].

*** Some Gen I trainers additionally have random chances of taking special actions like using an item or switching. Gym Leader Blaine is infamous for this, as he's coded to randomly use a Super Potion... but the coders forgot to specify any clause about HP, meaning that it's surprisingly common for him to [[TooDumbToLive use it on a full-health Pokémon.]]

*** ''Persona 3'' actually gives quite a bit of ArtificialBrilliance to the AI. God help you if you're ambushed by an enemy and are equipped with a persona weak to their attack: they ''will'' hit you with it, and once you're knocked down, they'll hit you again, and then the all-too-familiar game over screen loads. Your enemies (and your allies, prior to a scan) will almost always start with some version of "inflict damage on all enemies" in the hope of knocking everyone down, and, if that fails, the next member will zero in on the one who's weakest. Since this goes for enemies as well as your party members, there ''will'' be at least one battle in which you never make it to your first turn and simply watch the enemy use your tactics against you. There's also [[invoked]] ThatOneBoss on 135 -- Natural Dancer, who will learn that since you're willing to eat the damage of a reflected physical attack in order to break their barrier, it's best to charm you into inaction and pound you with consecutive pierce attacks if you've made yourself immune to wind. (They also tend to stop casting the UselessUsefulSpell if you don't die from it.) On the other hand, some fights simply come down to AI Roulette: if the Hierophant boss chooses and inflicts "Prophecy of Ruin" at the start, you may as well reset. Generally, the AI shows signs of brilliance and waits for you to reveal a vulnerability, but if it chooses to attack, it will notice if one attack is more effective than another. If three out of four are vulnerable, it will take out the three before turning to physical attacks on the player character... ''damnit.''

* ''VideoGame/{{Golden Sun}}'' has this with ''all'' of its bosses except Dullahan, the BonusBoss of VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge and ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'', as well as for {{mooks}}. Downright painful for mooks, since they're already severely underpowered. There's a point where you just feel sorry for enemies using their non-damaging defense lowering move on your weakest character for two turns (which is actually a good idea), then attacking your strongest character the third turn, right before dying and having done practically no damage at all.

* ''VideoGame/TheLastRemnant'' for the Xbox 360 is an unusual case in that you, the player, are subject to partial AI Roulette just as much as the enemies due to the battle system. Though you still have command over your units, the available list of commands you can pick from turn to turn (as well as depending on the enemy you target) is determined entirely by the AI. Sometimes the commands available are entirely logical and normal, sometimes they're nothing near what you need (i.e. no healing commands when you could certainly use some), and sometimes they give you access to your uber attacks for trash enemies.
** Especially JustForFun/{{egregious}} is that often one or more characters in a group will use a do nothing attack.

* Enemies in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' generally pick attacks and spells at random. Sleepga spells can render an alliance useless, and the mob could go to town on targets one-by-one... if they could only remember to not cast any damaging Area-of-Effect spell, which wakes everyone up. Sometimes they even use Sleepga after casting Poisonga, which makes sleep ineffective due to poison damage keeping people awake. Some Notorious Monsters, however, either have only one spell, spells of a specific element, or a very small set of spells that maximize the NM's performance. [[http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Shadowhand At least one]] NM is actually scripted to cast Sleepga 2, then [[OhCrap Thundaga 3 for massive [=AoE=] damage]].
** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX FFX]] suffered from this short cut as well. Although more commonly the bosses were a combination of AI and randomness. (i.e. random single damage attack followed random [=AoE=] attack followed by random buff, heal if low health) [[AnticlimaxBoss The final boss]] in that game has an attack that reduces your entire party to [[HPToOne 1 HP]]. Potentially dangerous, but not if he uses it multiple times in a row...
** Of course this was somewhat offset by so many of the big boss level enemies in FFXI having moves that are essentially "You lose if I use this attack". Being randomly woken up after being slept by a low damage spell means you get to live at least as long as it takes for the AI to decide to give the wheel another spin.
** Bard enemies are funny. Lower level ones are more prone to use songs that are useful, since that's all that is available to them. Higher level ones can waste an entire 8 seconds casting a MP restoring song on themselves. Which they are incapable of using. This is mostly due to a flaw in Bard monsters and enemies with MP in general: Bard enemies pretty much ''never'' have a subjob that uses MP(Not even White Mage, which is what player Bards are ''expected'' to have), and any monster that has MP has MP reserves so ginormous that MP restoration is a moot point.
** In fact, that's how most enemies in the entire series act, though some bosses would be subjected to certain rules (such as only being able to use a devastating effect every 5 turns with combat messages warning the player). The only boss that can easily be seen to run on a pre-programmed pattern is [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Safer Sephiroth]]. The only parts in which he varies are his stat caps and when he replaces his seventh attack with Heartless Angel on low health.

* In ''Crisis Core: VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', you will run into enemies on the harder missions who outnumber you 5 to 1 and have the AI roulette. Example: One of the Wutai missions pits you against 5 Silver Wutai Soldiers, who have a move called "Death Missile" that kills you in one hit unless you have that rare item that makes you immune to Death. They seem to like this move a lot.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' presents a unique scenario for this trope: the Coliseum, wherein the player chooses a single champion from the active party to fight solo against the enemy. The AI Roulette will then take over this character. The problem is, the more abilities (or spells) the character has, the more likely it is to perform something useless (like trying to cast Imp at Siegfried for ten turns in a row, or using Remedy or Float on oneself) or downright harmful (such as Meltdown, summoning Crusader, or Self-Destruct.) Many a player has gone into the Coliseum with [[GameBreaker a fully-leveled up Sabin, armed with a Genji Glove and a Master's Scroll/Offering]], expecting to kill the enemy in one shot, only to see him cast [[HeroicSacrifice Soul Spiral]] and kill himself on his first turn.\\
The most painful situation possible, however, is if the AI controlled Terra chooses to [[SuperMode Trance]] herself. For some bizarre reason, whenever that happens the AI will simply sit there, letting Terra soak up whatever the enemy chooses to throw at her, for up to a ''minute'' at times. This is a triple-whammy: It wastes the precious MP Terra uses to stay in Trance mode, it essentially ruins the battle for you, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and it's boring as hell to watch if the enemy can't kill her quickly.]]\\
Ironically, this factor makes Umaro (normally a character of questionable usefulness at best) invaluable. You see, all Umaro can do is attack. He can't learn magic, doesn't have any other special skills unless he's wearing the Blizzard Orb, and since he's in a permanent berserk state, you don't even give him orders in ''regular'' battles. Which means that in the Colosseum, the AI doesn't have any options but attacking, which in turn means that Umaro isn't going to kill himself by doing anything stupid.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', after some plot events, Rinoa gains a new LimitBreak ability ''[[PowerGivesYouWings Angel Wing]]'' which sends her into a unique berserk state: the player loses control of her actions but she gets boosted speed and magic power, (limited) status immunity, and continuously casts magic at no cost. Sounds great at first, but since berserk Rinoa selects spells entirely at random based on what she has available, she's as likely as not to cast [[EnemyScan Scan]] and [[StandardStatusEffects Silence/Sleep/Confuse]] over high-level damage-inflicting magic.

** In the original ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'', this also applies to your ''allies''. In order to represent that everyone aside from your hero is an experienced warrior by the time you recruit them in Chapter 5, the player only gets to directly control their HeroicMime. All the other heroes have their own AI, which... doesn't work out that well in practice. Such as having [[TheMedic team Cleric]] [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Cristo/Kyril]] constantly casting his [[UselessUsefulSpell rarely-hitting insta-death spell]] against ''bosses''. Thankfully, they added a manual command option in TheRemake. Even the original NES version has a VideoGame/GameGenie code that allowed manual command.

[[folder:RealTimeStrategy]]
* Occasionally seen in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'', where sometimes the AI starts creeping and expanding as normal, but sometimes does nothing until it gets its second hero, putting it two or three levels behind everyone else, but also leaving them short one hero. Even worse for the Night Elves, who sometimes trap themselves inside their own base due to randomly putting down buildings (said buildings can ''move out of the way''). Averted where spellcasting is concerned however, as they will always fire off their spells as needed.
[[/folder]]

*** There are two exceptions to this: they aren't ''quite'' stupid enough to attempt a status-inflicting move if your Pokémon already has a [[StandardStatusEffects non-volatile status]] (i.e., burn, freeze, paralysis, poison, or sleep). In addition, certain trainers like Gym Leaders and the Elite Four have a flag known as the "Good AI flag", where they ''will'' take type advantage into account and only use moves of an advantageous typing if available... but this still manages to be a case of ArtificialStupidity as they'll continue spamming the move even if said "super effective" attack isn't an actual damaging move. For example, Agility is denoted as a Psychic-type move, but all it does is [[StatusBuff increase the user's speed]]; a "good AI" will deem using this move (and only this move) as the best course of action against Poison-types regardless. And since AI opponents have unlimited PP, they'll never be forced to stop using this tactic either. One of the most memorable moments in the first ''LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemon'' directly resulted from this, allowing the mob to win against Lance using a Level 36 Venomoth.

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[[folder: Non Video Game Examples]]

** Nearly all wild Pokémon in every game use the Roulette. This is justified by the wild Pokémon not having the decision-making skills of humans. This can get noticeable when, for instance, a wild Gastly decides to use Curse (which inflicts a nasty status effect, [[CastFromHitPoints at the cost of half the user's HP]]) when it's at half health or less, [[TooDumbToLive causing it to immediately lose]]. Exceptions are typically those where you cannot catch the Pokémon, like the fused Necrozma fights in ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon''.
** In [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Generation I]], all trainers behaved like this. Moves were picked at random, with no regards to type-effectiveness or if it would actually work (e.g., using moves the opponent is immune to, using healing moves at full health, trying to do Whirlwind/Roar when those moves had absolutely no effect in trainer battles during Gen I, etc.).

*** Some Gen I trainers additionally have random chances of taking special actions like using an item or switching. Gym Leader Blaine is infamous for this, as he's coded to randomly use a Super Potion... but the coders forgot to specify any clause about HP, meaning that it's surprisingly common for him to open the battle by [[TooDumbToLive using a healing item on a full-health Pokemon.]]

*** Some Gen I trainers additionally have random chances of taking special actions like using an item or switching. Gets hilarious with Blaine, who was coded to randomly use a Super Potion... but the coders forgot to specify any clause about HP, meaning that it's surprisingly common for him to open the gym battle by [[TooDumbToLive using a Super Potion on a full-health Pokemon.]]

*** There are two exceptions to this: they aren't ''quite'' stupid enough to attempt a status-inflicting move if your Pokémon already has a [[StandardStatusEffects non-volatile status]] (i.e., burn, freeze, paralysis, poison, or sleep). In addition, certain trainers like Gym Leaders and the Elite Four have a flag known as the "Good AI flag", where they ''will'' take type advantage into account and only use moves of an advantageous typing if available... but this still manages to be a case of ArtificialStupidity as they'll continue spamming the move even if said "super effective" attack isn't an actual damaging move. For example, Agility is denoted as a Psychic-type move, but all it does is [[StatusBuff increase the user's speed]]; a "good AI" will deem using this move (and only this move) as the best course of action against Poison-types regardless. One of the most memorable moments in the first ''LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemon'' directly resulted from this, allowing the mob to win against Lance using a Level 36 Venomoth.

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'', all trainers behaved just like wild pokemon, picking moves at pure random and not actually paying attention to what move is most effective, nor actually trying to utilize strategy with status moves, and won't even check if the move can actually work (like trying to use a move against a pokemon whose typing makes it immune, Recover when their health is full, and Whirlwind/Roar even though these moves in Gen 1 had absolutely no effect in trainer battles). The exceptions are if your pokemon is already inflicted with status, where they then have a programmed clause that prevents them from using status-inflicting moves (as a pokemon can only be inflicted with one status at a time), and certain trainers, like most Gym Leaders and the Elite Four, have a flag known as the "Good AI flag", where they'll take type advantage into account and only use moves of an advantageous typing if available... even if the "super effective" move isn't an actual damaging move.
** Some Gen 1 trainers additionally have random chances of taking special actions like using an item or switching. Gets hilarious with Blaine the 7th Gym Leader, who was coded to randomly use a Super Potion but the coders forgot to specify any clause about HP, meaning that it's possible for Blaine to open the fight by [[TooDumbToLive using a Super Potion on a full-health Pokemon.]]

** This is also the case in the ''Persona'' subseries, and is the ''only'' reason ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' BonusBoss The Reaper can be killed without resorting to Armageddon. The key to surviving this fight is that it likes to waste turns using element Break spells and then refuse to exploit the new weakness. The hardest part of the fight is actually the end - once the Reaper is almost dead, the roulette shuts off and its AI goes to "NukeEm" mode.
** Speaking of ''Persona 3'' (As well as 4 and 3P if you leave Tactics on), this can be applied to your Party Members. Granted, you can tell them to favor certain tactics, and they will listen to what Fuuka has to say once she finishes her EnemyScan, but that won't stop Mitsuru from using [[UselessUsefulSpell Marin Karin]] at the worst possible time. In their defense, once something not mentioned by the scan doesn't work, they won't repeat it for the rest of the fight; the downside is that their AI can't ''remember'' it won't work (unless you toggle the enemy's scan file again to remind the AI that the enemy has a weakness).
** ''Persona 3'' actually gives quite a bit of ArtificialBrilliance to the AI. God help you if you're ambushed by an enemy and are equipped with a persona weak to their attack: they ''will'' hit you with it, and once you're knocked down, they'll hit you again, and then the all-too-familiar game over screen loads. Your enemies (and your allies, prior to a scan) will almost always start with some version of "inflict damage on all enemies" in the hope of knocking everyone down, and, if that fails, the next member will zero in on the one who's weakest. Since this goes for enemies as well as your party members, there ''will'' be at least one battle in which you never make it to your first turn and simply watch the enemy use your tactics against you. There's also [[invoked]] ThatOneBoss on 135 -- Natural Dancer, who will learn that since you're willing to eat the damage of a reflected physical attack in order to break their barrier, it's best to charm you into inaction and pound you with consecutive pierce attacks if you've made yourself immune to wind. (They also tend to stop casting the UselessUsefulSpell if you don't die from it.) On the other hand, some fights simply come down to AI Roulette: if the Hierophant boss chooses and inflicts "Prophecy of Ruin" at the start, you may as well reset. Generally, the AI shows signs of brilliance and waits for you to reveal a vulnerability, but if it chooses to attack, it will notice if one attack is more effective than another. If three out of four are vulnerable, it will take out the three before turning to physical attacks on the player character... ''damnit.''

** Nearly all wild Pokémon in every game use the Roulette. This is vaguely justified by the wild Pokémon not having the decision-making skills of humans. This can get noticeable when, for instance, a wild Gastly decides to use Curse (which inflicts a nasty status effect, [[CastFromHitPoints at the cost of half the user's HP]]) when it's at half health or less, [[TooDumbToLive causing it to immediately lose]]. Exceptions are typically those where you cannot catch the Pokémon, like the fused Necrozma fights in ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon''.
** In ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'', your very first battle against your rival essentially comes down to luck, as they can either attack or use a status lowering move. Whether you will win comes down to how much they will use their non-directly damaging move. Getting the potion from your PC beforehand turns it from whether you're lucky enough to win to whether you're lucky enough to keep your potion to use later.

** As the game progresses, certain moves are appropriate only in the rarest of situations, such as Gravity. At other times, the 'Rock-Paper-Scissors' elemental weaknesses prove this trope. For instance, when the opponent's Fire-Ground combination Pokémon decides to square off against your Rock-type, he's just as likely to use a Fire move (which does little damage to you) as a Ground move (which will probably defeat you quickly). Gym Leaders are smart enough that any attack that is weak against the opponent is removed from their roulette.
** Trainers in the first generation with certain Pokémon, such as Spearow or Kadabra, would use Whirlwind or Teleport, despite the fact that auto-flee moves don't work in Trainer battles. Whirlwind eventually gained a Trainer battle effect, but said effect is more annoying than anything.
** Some Gen 1 trainers has random chances of taking special actions like using an item or switching. Gets hilarious with Blaine the 7th Gym Leader, who was coded to randomly use a Super Potion but the coders forgot to specify any clause about HP, meaning that it's possible for Blaine to open the fight by [[TooDumbToLive using a Super Potion on a full-health Pokemon.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Golden Sun}}'' has this with ''all'' of its bosses except Dullahan, the BonusBoss of The Lost Age and ''Dark Dawn'', as well as for {{mooks}}. Downright painful for mooks, since they're already severely underpowered. There's a point where you just feel sorry for enemies using their non-damaging defense lowering move on your weakest character for two turns (which is actually a good idea), then attacking your strongest character the third turn, right before dying and having done practically no damage at all.