History Main / SurprisinglyEasyMiniQuest

* In ''[[BanjoKazooie Banjo-Tooie]]'', you get SwallowedWhole by a Chompasaurus in a cutscene which uses the intimidating BossBattle music, but if you beat a fairly easy MiniGame it will let you go with a Jiggy to boot.

* In ''TheLongestJourney'', all April has to do to obtain the third piece of the [[DismantledMacGuffin Stone Disc]] from by [[spoiler:the Dark People]] is to tell them of her previous accomplishments. By comparison, getting the first two pieces involved defeating a local equivalent of a troll in hand-to-hand combat, surviving a magical storm, and fulfilling not one but ''two'' [[ChosenOne ancient prophesies]].
** Somewhat earlier, she had to kill a shark armed with nothing but a single spear she'd had no practice with. This occurred simply and without incident.

* In ''SW: KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II'', on Peragus you play as T3-M4 for a period. He starts at level 3 or so, and has a powerful shock arm with unlimited uses, making the fighting almost trivially easy.

* Near the end of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', [[spoiler:the player loses nearly all his weapons while infiltrating the Combine citadel...all except the Gravity Gun, which gets turbocharged by the weapons stripper and can suddenly pick up far heavier items, even people, and throw them across the room with little difficulty. So much for an obligatory stealth section.]]
** In the MINERVA ''Half-Life 2'' mod you're not playing as Gordon Freeman so when you go through the weapons stripper you're left defenseless and half to spend a surprisingly long time running for your life before finding any replacements. Enemy spawns are located and timed so if you're going flat out they'll never quite catch up. It's actually quite thrilling and only surprisingly easy in retrospect.

* In SW: KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II, on Peragus you play as T3-M4 for a period. He starts at level 3 or so, and has a powerful shock arm with unlimited uses, making the fighting almost trivially easy.

* Near the end of ''HalfLife 2'', [[spoiler:the player loses nearly all his weapons while infiltrating the Combine citadel...all except the Gravity Gun, which gets turbocharged by the weapons stripper and can suddenly pick up far heavier items, even people, and throw them across the room with little difficulty. So much for an obligatory stealth section.]]
** In the MINERVA ''HalfLife 2'' mod you're not playing as Gordon Freeman so when you go through the weapons stripper you're left defenseless and half to spend a surprisingly long time running for your life before finding any replacements. Enemy spawns are located and timed so if you're going flat out they'll never quite catch up. It's actually quite thrilling and only surprisingly easy in retrospect.

* A variation is done in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' where any time the split party focusses on the team without your heavy hitters, the enemies become noticeably weaker. It's especially bizarre during one segment where you're all on the same airship, but your heavy hitter team is fighting elite troops and massive robot enemies, and your support team is fighting... Janitor flans.

* Another CardboardPrison case: in the second game from the classic ''QuestForGlory'' series, there's a bit towards the end where the player character is tossed into jail, and with practically all of your equipment taken away. However, regardless of which character class you are, getting out of it is absurdly easy. I guess that prison just wasn't built to be hero proof.

*** Interestingly enough, a lot of players don't question the situation that occurs in [=QfG4=]; despite the fact that the ''incredibly powerful'' bad guy managed to incapacitate you, it seems only natural that you would have all of your equipment (including, for thieves, their lockpicks...). A certain amount of FridgeLogic, or the aforementioned GameOver, are required before you start realizing what's going on.

* In ''[[BanjoKazooie Banjo-Tooie]]'', you get eaten by a Chompasaurus in a cutscene, but if you beat a fairly easy MiniGame it will let you go with a Jiggy to boot.

* In the PS360 version of the game based on ''{{X-Men Origins Wolverine}}'', during the Weapon X facility, Wolverine loses his healing factor. What seems like it should contain some stealth segments or a bunch of wild running is instead a rather peaceful jaunt through a couple rooms with some "Find a way to crawl through the air vent" puzzles and a few baddies that can be easily eliminated.

* In the first ''KingdomHearts'' game, main character Sora [[spoiler:gets turned into one of TheHeartless]], and you can't do anything but walk. You would expect to at least have to run away from the monsters, but the [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Evil Castle]] that was crawling with them a moment ago is suddenly abandoned and monster-free. [[spoiler: All you have to do is catch up to your friends, and wait for ThePowerOfLove to restore him in a cutscene.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', there is a point at which Link is captured by the gerudo, and must break out of jail. This takes less than 5 seconds, due to a convenient overhead wooden beam and the fact that Link is left with all of his gadgets, including the one which can be used to pull him towards anchored wooden surfaces. [[note]]This is actually only a small part of a quest which involves breaking out several other people from jail, all of whom are better-secured than Link[[/note]]

* In ''ValkyrieProfileSilmeria'', there's a part where you lose all but one of the story-centric characters from your party, and the monsters and boss in the next area are made easier to compensate, which makes sense...except that, aside from the story characters, you more than likely have a legion of Einherjar at your disposal that are just as powerful as the story characters, so you'll end up absolutely mopping the floor with the monsters.

* In the first ''KingdomHearts'' game, main character Sora [[spoiler:gets turned into one of TheHeartless]], and you can't do anything but walk. You would expect to at least have to run away from the monsters, but the [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Evil Castle]] that was crawling with them a moment ago is suddenly abandoned and monster-free. [[spoiler: All you have to do is catch up to your friends, and wait for ThePowerOfLove to restore him in a cutscene. Probably justified in that the only monsters around would be Heartless also, and probably wouldn't attack one of their own.]]
** Just a little bit earlier in the game there was a bit where [[spoiler:Sora's ClingyMacGuffin sword was suddenly taken away from him by RivalTurnedEvil Riku]], leaving him practically helpless. However, the game does give you a [[TheBigGuy Big Guy Bruiser]] NPC to do all the damage for you, and it's not long before he gets it back. (This time due at least in part to ThePowerOfFriendship).
*** And also, your spell attacks are still at full power, though they may have lost a lot of power if you were using a [[spoiler:Keyblade]] that powered them up. Percentage-based Gravity spells still work fine, though.

* The ''{{Onimusha}}'' game series is a major offender here. It's somewhat averted in the first game {{ninja}} girl {{sidekick}} Kaede can't harm the demons with her normal weapon, and it's only when she gets a powered Oni weapon that she can do damage instead of just dodging. Fair enough, although her little demon knife packs a hell of a wallop. The rest of the series though...

As with the above example, the hero is placed in what seems to be a tough situation, but like above, the game compensates for it by otherwise making things easier for the player. Either the difficulty gets turned down, the hero will get an EleventhHourSuperpower to help him out, or it will turns out that the [[{{Railroading}} plot was on rails]] and the player will only need to do some simple things in order to get themselves back up to speed. Alternatively, if the player was thrown into jail, it will turn out to be a CardboardPrison, and almost ridiculously easy for someone as powerful as the hero to escape.

** The same thing happens again on Nar Shadda later in the game, with T3-M4 taking on 4 very powerful HK-50 assassin droids alone. He doesn't have the firepower to win, as 4 of the same droids will give a full party trouble earlier in the game. However, through a sidequest earlier in Nar Shadda, T3-M4 can pick up an ''infinitely regenerating'' [[RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth shield attachment]]. In the KOTOR series, every other personal shield in the game is disposable and limited to either 5 or 10 uses, and all but the most elite and expensive shields have low number caps on the damage they stop and are limited in the damage types they apply to. T3's shield never runs out, has a damage cap on par with the best shields in the game, and applies to every ranged damage type possible. This makes T3 essentially invincible to all but melee attacks, which the HK-50s can't use, and gives him all the time in the world to leisurely whittle down their health bars.

** The same thing happens again on Nar Shadda later in the game, with T3-M4 taking on 4 very powerful HK-50 assassin droids alone. He doesn't have the conventional firepower to win that kind of fight, as 4 of the same droids will give a full party trouble earlier in the game. However, through a sidequest earlier in Nar Shadda, T3-M4 can pick up an ''infinitely regenerating'' [[RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth shield attachment]]. In the KOTOR series, every other personal shield in the game is disposable and limited to either 5 or 10 uses, and all but the most elite and expensive shields have low number caps on the damage they stop and are limited in the damage types they apply to. T3's shield never runs out, has a damage cap on par with the best shields in the game, and applies to every ranged damage type possible. This makes T3 essentially invincible to all but melee attacks, which the HK-50s can't use, and gives him all the time in the world to leisurely whittle down their health bars.

** The same thing happens again on Nar Shadda later in the game, with T3-M4 taking on 4 very powerful HK-50 assassin droids alone. He doesn't really have the conventional firepower to win that kind of fight, as 4 of the same droids will give a full party trouble earlier in the game, but through liberal application of more powerful arm attachments (ion droid disablers, for example) all 4 will go down quickly. Most importantly though, through a sidequest earlier in Nar Shadda, T3-M4 can pick up an ''infinitely regenerating'' [[RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth shield attachment]]. In the KOTOR series, every other personal shield in the game is disposable and limited to either 5 or 10 uses, and all but the most elite and expensive shields have low number caps on the damage they stop and are limited in the damage types they apply to. T3's shield never runs out, has a damage cap on par with the best shields in the game, and applies to every ranged damage type possible. This makes T3 essentially invincible to all but melee attacks, which the HK-50s can't use.

** The same thing happens again on Nar Shadda later in the game, with T3-M4 taking on 4 very powerful HK-50 assassin droids alone. He doesn't really have the conventional firepower to win that kind of fight, as 4 of the same droids will give a full party trouble earlier in the game, but through liberal application of more powerful arm attachments (ion droid disablers, for example) all 4 will go down quickly. Most importantly though, through a sidequest earlier in Nar Shadda, T3-M4 can pick up an ''infinitely regenerating'' [[RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth shield attachment]]. All other personal shields in the KOTOR series are finite and limited, but T3's will stop nearly all damage and never runs out, making T3 essentially invincible.

* In SW: KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II, on Peraga you play as T3-M4 for a period. He starts at level 3 or so, and has a powerful shock arm with unlimited uses, making the fighting almost trivially easy.

* ''ResidentEvil2'', when you control Sherri, she can't hurt anyone, but she seems to run faster than the other characters, and therefore dodge faster.

* Ashley in ''ResidentEvil4'' is similar. She can't attack, but she can duck under things, and the enemies either have no weapons or are slow. Not to mention that the enemies who just moments ago could withstand shotgun blasts at point blank range can now be killed by throwing portable lamps at them.

* MischiefMakers. The heroine receives a superpowerful beam that leaves her incapacitated, and for two levels the control is switched to a previously encountered NPC. In a different way to play this, though, you've seen this particular NPC can morph into a big mecha, but for some reason cannot for the levels you play him.

* ''ResidentEvil 2'', when you control Sherri, she can't hurt anyone, but she seems to run faster than the other characters, and therefore dodge faster.
** Also, when playing as Sherry, the zombies can't actually grab you, because her smaller animation model would have required a new animation. Their attacks are limited to vomiting bile at you. Therefore it's much easier to avoid them altogether.

* In later games of the ''AceAttorney'' series, Phoenix can find out the secrets of people via the Magatama. Phoenix needs to present correct evidence to the person he's trying to crack or he will lose some energy in his LifeMeter. In the 3rd case of ''Trials and Tribulations'', Detective Dick Gumshoe tries to hide something from Phoenix. Only one lock shows up, meaning it's very easy to crack him. What makes this even easier is it's extremely simple to figure out what Gumshoe was doing before you caught him. His secret? [[spoiler: He was listening to the radio to see if he won the lottery.]] Once you break his lock, even Phoenix is surprised at how easy it was! This can be a huge life saver if you had wasted most of your energy getting things wrong during the trial before, so it's almost a free health refill here.

* A variation is done in ''FinalFantasyXIII'' where any time the split party focusses on the team without your heavy hitters, the enemies become noticeably weaker. It's especially bizarre during one segment where you're all on the same airship, but your heavy hitter team is fighting elite troops and massive robot enemies, and your support team is fighting... Janitor flans.

* Most of the special missions in ''PokemonMysteryDungeon: Explorers of Sky'' can be pretty daunting for the most part, but ''Igglybuff the Prodigy'' is very easy, thanks in part to Igglybuff already maintaining the {{Badass}} status he carries as Guildmaster Wigglytuff. He already has pretty high stats to begin with, and on top of that, being below Level 20, he levels pretty quickly, and each level boosts his stats by ludicrous amounts as well. There are also practically no bosses to speak of in any of the dungeons he explores, either.

** Just a little bit earlier in the game there was a bit where [[spoiler:Sora's {{Clingy MacGuffin}} sword was suddenly taken away from him by RivalTurnedEvil Riku]], leaving him practically helpless. However, the game does give you a [[TheBigGuy Big Guy Bruiser]] NPC to do all the damage for you, and it's not long before he gets it back. (This time due at least in part to ThePowerOfFriendship).

** Another case from ''KingdomHearts 2'': Sora manages to singlehandedly turn destroying an army of a thousand of TheHeartless into child's play, mostly because the Heartless army consists entirely of 2 types of Heartless, both with ActionCommands that are practically custom-made for taking out large numbers of enemies in form of repeated diving attacks and sweeping lasers. Seriously, it's like they're handing you four or five levels.
* There are a couple instances in ''[[GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'' where you lose all your weapons, no matter if you never get wasted or arrested (or never save when that happens). The next few missions after each on have the good grace to drop in difficulty until you get your stock up, although it's not a cakewalk.

* When first playing ''FinalFantasyVII'', quite a few players were wondering how they were going to get out of Shinra's jail when caught infiltrating the building. Then, about thirty seconds later, Sephiroth busts in and murders everyone for you. Problem solved.

** Earlier in the game, [[BoisterousBruiser Ayla]] challenges you to a {{drinking contest}} that [[ButThouMust you must win.]] It involves some serious ButtonMashing ([[GameBreakingBug unless it doesn't register your button presses.]]) If you fail enough times though, Ayla gets full from drinking too much and gives up.

* In ''{{Earthbound}}'', when Ness and Paula get captured, you take control of Jeff, who is only level 1 at the time. However, Jeff gets several items and broken items (to be fixed once he level grinds to boost his IQ) from the start and he can get a temporary ally in the form of a pink monkey. Not only that, but all the enemies Jeff encounters near his school and in Dungeon Road are also at much lower levels, so you can spend some time level grinding. However, once Jeff meets with Ness and Paula, all the enemies in Winters are replaced by much higher leveled monsters.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', there is a point at which Link is captured by the gerudo, and must break out of jail. This takes less than 5 seconds, due to a convenient overhead wooden beam and the fact that Link is left with all of his gadgets, including the one which can be used to pull him towards anchored wooden surfaces. [[hottip:*:This is actually only a small part of a quest which involves breaking out several other people from jail, all of whom are better-secured than Link]]

* Laguna's segments in ''FinalFantasyVIII'', in which the [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass inept but effective]] Galbadian soldier never runs into anything more terrifying than an oversize caterpillar ambling through the [[GhibliHills idyllic, pastoral Winhill]]. Or crippling leg cramps in the presence of his LoveInterest, but those hardly affect gameplay. Even the one Red Dragon he has to fight, while a serious challenge elsewhere in the game, is {{nerf}}ed down [[CurbStompBattle considerably]].

* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed 2'' at one point [[spoiler: Desmond is suddenly thrown into Altaïr's memories]] and finds that the place he's in is full of EliteMooks, plus he can't seem to switch to his weapons. OhCrap! Except, wait, the mooks don't seem to care that he's there even when he starts running around and doing LeParkour.

* In ''[=~Assassin's Creed~=] 2'' at one point [[spoiler: Desmond is suddenly thrown into Altaïr's memories]] and finds that the place he's in is full of EliteMooks, plus he can't seem to switch to his weapons. OhCrap! Except, wait, the mooks don't seem to care that he's there even when he starts running around and doing LeParkour.

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<<|VideoGameTropes|>>

* In SW: Knights of the Old Republic II, on Peraga you play as T3-M4 for a period. He starts at level 3 or so, and has a powerful shock arm with unlimited uses, making the fighting almost trivially easy.

* In ''{{The Legend of Zelda}}: {{A Link to the Past}}'', you get turned into a bunny if you enter the Dark World without the Moon Pearl. In order to reach the Moon Pearl, you're required to do this at least once. Fortunately the game closes off the area so that in this form, you hardly run into trouble.

* In ''[[OcarinaOfTime The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time]], there is a point at which Link is captured by the gerudo, and must break out of jail. This takes less than 5 seconds, due to a convenient overhead wooden beam and the fact that Link is left with all of his gadgets, including the one which can be used to pull him towards anchored wooden surfaces. [[hottip:*:This is actually only a small part of a quest which involves breaking out several other people from jail, all of whom are better-secured than Link]]
** Happens again in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'', in the same vain, with the difference that it should now be even MORE obvious to the guards why this [[KidHero pesky, little kid]] keeps escaping: There's an [[AirVentPassageway air vent]] above the shelf...

* In ''{{Goldeneye}}'', you're stuck in a jail cell with all your weapons gone. However, you still have your watch, which is suddenly revealed to have a magnetic function that you can can use to get the key on the wall right across from you. The guard never notices this, and upon opening the door he tends to duck before firing and somehow completely misses you, leaving you free to karate chop him to death when he stands back up. The second time you're captured, things are a bit tougher.

* During the Black Bird part in ''ChronoTrigger'', you end up in prison without weapons, items, and other stuff. The monsters, however, are much weaker, and it's not a hard dungeon, especially if you have Ayla, [[BareFistedMonk who does not lose her weapon]] in the group.

* ''{{Marathon}} 2'' has the level ''The Big House''. As you can guess, it's a "get out of prison with no weapons" level. It counts as this due to the fact that it literally plays itself, and is over in about a minute: A bunch of guys beam in just after the start to rescue you, and as long as you don't get shot up in the crossfire (not all that hard to do), they will get you out of there and on to the next level with no player interaction at all.