History Main / ImprobablePowerDiscrepancy

** And let's not forget that the most powerful of the Acacia Dragoons is not the battle-axe wielding warrior or the muscled mountain of a gladiator, but [[CuteBruiser a nine-year-old girl in a pretty dress]], who has more HitPoints than the two others combined and deals more physical damage just by kicking you in the shin with her shoes. [[spoiler:Marcy is, however, [[HalfHumanHybrid a Demi-human]] ([[DemiHuman not that kind, though]]). That Dragon blood in her likely accounts for the perceived disparity.]]

* The ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei'' series sometimes has this on a mythological level. Some games have the Pale Rider, usually considered the strongest of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse as being weaker than the White Rider. [[Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream Titania]] is almost always stronger than [[MoreDeadlyThanTheMale her husband Oberon]]. Ares is usually one of the weaker members of the Greek Pantheon, etc.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' is a rare example that has this happen despite level scaling. Almost every generic enemy in the game scales with your player's level as you get stronger, which can lead to some strange circumstances. Probably the best example is bandits and the city watch/Imperial Legion soldiers; At the beginning of the game, Imperial Legionaries and city guards are some of the most dangerous non-player characters you can pick a fight with, as they have reasonably good equipment even at the start of the game, and they are always 10 levels above your player, no matter what, which is some of the highest disparities you will see level-wise. However, while their ''stats'' are always good, their ''gear'' does not improve in the slightest... Which is why lowly bandits can eventually overcome professional soldiers of the strongest army in Tamriel, as they get higher levels ''and'' better gear as time goes on. At some point in the game, it will not be uncommon to see the Imperial City itself surrounded by forts filled to the brim with bandits equipped with daedric (or glass) arms and armor that could slaughter the entire garrison without breaking a sweat, while the guards, even the elite palace guard, are still working with steel-quality armor and silver-quality swords. Creatures are affected in a somewhat similar manner.

*** The two Expansion Packs - ''Dawnguard'' and ''Dragonborn'' - also add a variety of enemies stronger than Alduin. The final bosses of those two expansion packs are an ancient vampire lord named Harkon and a 4000+ year-old EvilCounterpart of you named Miraak. While the latter does at least have a deity backing him up to justify his strength, the former is supposedly just a typical (albeit experienced) vampire, but the fight is quite harder than Alduin: he can turn {{intangib|ility}}le, for one, and turn invulnerable while regenerating his health. If that's not enough, Harkon and Miraak aren't even the strongest enemies - remember how Alduin is a deity and leader of all dragons who you're recommended to fight at level 24? The expansions added revered dragons and legendary dragons with more health and deal more damage than Alduin. There's also a frost giant named Karstaag. What makes him unique is that when you encounter him he'll always be at level 90, meaning unless you've put an absurd amount of time into the game, he'll have much more HP than you, at 4000. Alduin, comparatively, will only have 3370HP at most due to the level scaling cap. But to really take the cake, fans agree probably the most challenging enemy in the game is the Ebony Warrior, encountered at level 80. Who is he? Just a BadassNormal warrior outfitted in powerfully of enchanted gear. Yup, a guy in armor is stronger than a ''force of nature''.

* Justified in ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'' with various villains. The HP of a villain is a representation of how hard it is to thwart their EvilPlan, not how durable they are physically. So, while Wager Master (51 HP) and [=OblivAeon=] (calculating his HP total is a bit weird due to how his game mode works so let's just go with ''lots'') are both singular entities, even overlooking that the Big O has been rounding up minions and power sources as part of his plan to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy all reality]], he's also ''committed'' to a win here in the way that a jackass dilettante like WM isn't, and so he won't get bored and wander off if the heroes kick him around for a bit. This also explains why Blood Countess Bathory, an absurdly hax vampire in the lore, only has 13 health as an environment card while most villains start at 40 and only go upwards; Bathory isn't pursuing an evil scheme in that deck, she's only there because the fight is taking place in her rec room, and a few good hits will at the very least knock her into another room so the main fight can continue.

** One of the {{Bonus Boss}}es are a trio of con-artist actors who are trying to capitalize on the party's fearsome reputation to scam people for money, and will fight you when you try to bring them in. Despite this definite civilian background, every single one of them have more HP than your entire party combined and possess variants of your own moves that are many times more powerful -- [[CutLexLuthorACheck which raises the question of why they didn't simply become Air Pirates on their own instead]].
** Another Bonus Boss is a young boy who is, by his own admission, a coward who abhors violence and would like to become a blanketweaver instead of succeeding his late father into the Air Pirate business. Again, he is many times more endurable than the party combined and knows many of the highest-level spells for no adequately explained reason.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'': Lampshaded; if you defeat the bonus boss Nokturnus, he'll agree to help you defeat the final boss - by instantly teleporting to the final dungeon and defeating the boss singlehandedly in a CurbStompBattle for kicks.

** One BonusBoss turns out to be [[spoiler:Celes, Zelos' sickly younger sister]]. Despite having spent her entire life in a cloister and having done none of the adventuring, fighting or ''anything'' that the party has, she's still tougher than most of the regular bosses in the game, which includes dragons, robotic guardians, and 4000-year old combat veterans with {{Magitek}} implants. This is [[HandWave Hand Waved]] by her use of a an [[AmplifierArtifact exsphere]] and [[UnevenHybrid having an elven grandparent]], giving her access to high level magic. It's also worth noting that if she were fought with a full party instead of one-on-one, she [[CurbStompBattle would not be difficult at all]].

* The [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]] in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' all break the level cap, while the FinalBoss is around Level 80. This means that Despotic Arsene, a ''[[KillerRabbit Bunnit]]'', is considerably stronger that [[spoiler: the God of Bionis.]]
* The FinalBoss of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' is said to be the strongest Artifice ever created. ...Despite the fact that another, supposedly lesser Artifice is one of the [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]], and thus a lot stronger.

* Happens in every ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' and ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' game, where you encounter traditional Mario enemies really late in the game that just happen to be about a hundred times more powerful than they have any right to be. Good examples include ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' (which has normal Piranha Plants found in floors 70+ of the Pit of 100 Trials, that happen to have endgame stats), ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' (which has more ridiculously overpowered Piranha Plants and Boos with sky high defences, despite both being usually common Mario mooks) and ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'', where Piranha Plants, Goombas and Shy Guys have ridiculously high stats and complex attacks for their species, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent An]][[TheDreaded tas]][[EldritchAbomination ma]] starts as a [[WarmUpBoss warm-up boss]], and [[spoiler:Bowser Jr is somehow a BonusBoss with more power than the final one! Who happens to be his dad with reality warper powers...]]

** The Lucavi are stated to be powerful enough to battle armies single-handedly. So logically, they'd be ridiculously hard, right? Wrong; almost all Lucavi, save [[ThatOneBoss Belias]] and [[BonusBoss Elidibs]], are very easy to defeat. Hell, more often than not their human forms are far harder as bosses.

** VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the point. The main character can note this fact to the mentor. The subsequent [[JustifiedTrope explanation]] is that the Sith are drawing power off of you, so as you increase in power, they do as well. It doesn't explain every other enemy in the game, but hey, the Sith are covered.

** Interestingly, Pokémon in places that can only be reached with Surf or other [=HM=]s that can only be received later in the games also generally have levels comparable to the level the trainer would be when they get said HM. So, you can have a bunch of level 5 Pokémon in grass on one route, and surf over one square to an island where there are level 20 Pokemon.

** The post-game of ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' pulls this off to absurd levels: after defeating the Elite Four and foiling Ghetsis, you can explore areas that were early-game areas in the original ''Black and White'' which were made into postgame areas in the sequels. Cue the ridiculous Pokemon levels. (There's a ''preschooler'' with a level 60 Wooper! This is especially bizarre because Wooper evolves at level 20.) For extra hilarity, the girl standing in a patch of grass will also give you a standard Potion in the midst of trainers with Pokemon that can deal a lot more than 20 HP's worth of damage.

** In Generations II and III, Pokémon [[WhaleEgg hatched from eggs]] start at [[CharacterLevel level]] 5. Wild Pokemon can be found at levels as low as 2, thus being weaker than ''literal newborns'' of the same species. From Gen IV onwards, eggs hatch Pokémon at level 1.