History Main / HealthDamageAsymmetry

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'': Player units have 4 or 5-digit HP values, with even the toughest units almost never reaching 20,000. Even early bosses often have at least this much, and endgame bosses may get close to 1,000,000. However, it usually takes at least two enemy attacks to down even your relatively fragile units, while player units can do 5 or even 6-digit damage when fully upgraded. Units that switch sides usually get their stats changed to match player values, with some exceptions such as ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsJudgment'' where the player gets a former boss on the last stage with all of his enemy stats, meaning he has massively inflated HP but no ability to deal damage.

* While ''[[ZigZaggingTrope initially]]'' averted for the first couple of levels in ''VideoGame/NightOfTheFullMoon'', where Little Red starts out with 20 or so HP at level 1 while level 1 enemies have around 6, this rapidly comes to be played devastatingly straight as enemy HP climbs exponentially, but so does Red's damage as you refine your deck, improve your hand size and card draw, and start putting together the {{combos}} you need to pump out massive amounts of hurt. A level 10 Red will usually have about 40-60 HP depending on how many buffs you picked up along the way, while late-game enemies will have 300 or so HP, with bosses (particularly the final bosses) having ''several times that.'' Fortunately, if you have a really good set-up, you can still bring them down in a single turn.

-->-- '''Deadpool''' lampshading this trope in ''VideoGame/RakenzarnTales''

* In many [=RPGs=], the players and their enemies meet on equal footing. The player characters and enemies often use the same weapons and powers, inflict the same amount of damage, and have similar levels of whatever the game uses for health. Often the players have some other edge, but not always. Games which follow this model (at least much of the time) include: Both Old and New TabletopGame/WorldOfDarkness, TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}, Franchise/StarWars both [[TabletopGame/StarWarsD6 under West End Games]] and [[TabletopGame/StarWarsD20 D20]], TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}, Stars Without Number, TabletopGame/UnknownArmies, Decipher's ''[[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Lord of the Rings]]'' adaptation, TabletopGame/DarkHeresy and its spin-offs, Creator/GreenRonin's ''TabletopGame/DragonAge'' adaptation, TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}, TabletopGame/DeadLands, and many more.

* By comparison to other games, ''Videogame/{{Earthbound}}'' downplays this. The HP and damage numbers still are not equal on both sides, but certain properties of the game attempt to avert this. Your party has a rolling HP system (your HP rolls down at a constant rate on a counter; even if you take mortal damage, you still have a chance to fight and heal yourself before you fall), yet the bosses traditionally have large amounts of HP and also turn instant-KO attacks like PK Flash into death-bringers. The asymmetry is much less than many other [=RPGs=], but it still does exist.

* ''VideoGame/HoloCure'': Most playable characters have difficulty reaching 100 HP. Meanwhile, stage bosses have HP in the tens of thousands, and the game expects you to kill them within two minutes.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'': Past zombies and imps, which only have 70 health at most, demons had about 150 to 1000 health, with bosses sporting health of over 3000; the player's maximum health, ever, is 200. None of the monsters come even close to the player's arsenal of destructive power (unless you're dumb enough to get into melee range, at which point your future resides entirely in the hands of the RandomNumberGod). When put into context, the strongest monster in the entire franchise, the Cyberdemon boss, has a rocket launcher as its primary weapon, which is exactly the same as the player's rocket launcher. And the Rocket Launcher isn't even your most powerful weapon. As a result, the single player campaign tends to be reasonably mildly paced, while in multiplayer [[RocketTagGameplay most fights are over in a matter of seconds]] -- with the introduction of the double barrelled shotgun in ''VideoGame/DoomII'', sometimes a fraction of a second.

** Can be used against you in ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'': The Ancient Devil BonusBoss can mind control one of your party members. While this would be a problem in any case, it's downright horrifying if he takes Sveta, who has an attack that hits ''all'' targets, for free, with no cooldown.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' series, with the partial exception of some major bosses...who exceed the normal 999 HP cap, but still to a lesser degree than is normally seen in [=RPGs=]. The FinalBoss has 3200 HP in its true form, the BonusBoss has 2700 HP and all other {{cap}}-breaking bosses (including the final boss's initial form) range from around 1000 to 1500 HP, with the final boss's two forms having a combined 4600. In a regular [=RPG=] with a 999 HP cap to playable characters, such HP totals would be more likely to be seen among late-game regular monsters.

* The BonusBoss of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' has only about a single bar worth of HP, in a game where the harder bosses can frequently have over a dozen. The catch is that, unlike every other enemy, he can use Curaga, and only casts it when the player does. This forces the player to both play more defensively and rely on items, while at the same time avoiding and/or blocking some of the most punishing attacks in the game. For these reasons, the boss is frequently cited as one of the most difficult fights to win across the entire ''Kingdom Hearts'' series.

* Classic example: the original ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''. Past zombies and imps, which only have 70 health at most, demons had about 150 to 1000 health, with bosses sporting health of over 3000; the player's maximum health, ever, is 200. None of the monsters come even close to the player's arsenal of destructive power (unless you're dumb enough to get into melee range, at which point your future resides entirely in the hands of the RandomNumberGod). How big is the gap, you ask? Well, the strongest monster in the entire franchise, the Cyberdemon boss, has a rocket launcher as its primary weapon, which is exactly the same as the player's rocket launcher. And the Rocket Launcher isn't even your most powerful weapon. As a result, the single player campaign tends to be reasonably mildly paced, while in multiplayer [[RocketTagGameplay most fights are over in a matter of seconds]] -- with the introduction of the double barrelled shotgun in ''VideoGame/DoomII'', sometimes a fraction of a second.