Basic Trope: The most barely functional enemy in a given game intended to teach the player how to attack.
- Straight: Trope-Xs are the first and weakest enemies encountered in Troperian Chronicles. All they can do is walk back and forth causing Collision Damage. And they are defeated by a single Goomba Stomp.
- Exaggerated:
- The first few levels have no enemies except for increasing amounts of Trope-Xs. It is expected that the player will be able to deal with Trope-Xs instinctively later in the game.
- You have to try very hard to actually die to a Trope-X. Troperian Chronicles takes notice.
- Downplayed:
- After two Trope-Xs have been defeated, the first Trope-Y will be encountered. Trope-Xs will appear sporadically from then on, often as more powerful variants, in hordes, as part of am ambush or a combination thereof. They do change over the course of the game, but they still don't scale well to the player's progression.
- Trope-Xs are simplistic, but their stats are about the same as the player's starting stats, so they can kill players who lack situational awareness fairly easily.
- Troperian Chronicles is Nintendo Hard, and even the lowly Trope-Xs can destroy an unaware player. However, they're still slower and more telegraphed than other enemies, giving the player an opportunity to learn the mechanics fighting them before the truly nasty enemies start showing up.
- Justified:
- Despite their inherent weakness, Trope-Xs are easy to produce in large quantities, making them popular as minions.
- Trope-Xs are at the bottom of the monster food chain so they stick to relatively peaceful areas like the kind the player starts out in.
- Trope-Xs were intended for low-level grunt work, not facing powerful opponents like The Hero head-on.
- Inverted:
- Subverted:
- The Trope-Xs fought in the early game are nothing to worry about. Black Trope-Xs fought near the end of the game are much stronger.
- Trope-Xs have an ability that isn't relevant in the early game, but makes them much more formidable when the player begins using more advanced gameplay mechanics.
- Trope-Xs are weak by themselves, but in larger numbers avert Conservation of Ninjutsu and pose a serious threat to the heroes.
- Double Subverted: The intelligence of Black Trope-Xs is not much better, and the heroes acquire better gear in time to plough through the stronger form just as easily.
- Parodied: Trope-Xs are named as such because a cross on their head marks the point you should jump on to instantly kill them.
- Zig Zagged: Trope-Xs are very weak at the beginning of the game, but a short while in Trope-Ys start coming instead, which are an actual challenge. Later, a strengthening player means even Trope-Ys cease to be a challenge, which means Trope-Zs start coming in to fill the void...
- Averted: Trope-Xs don’t appear in the game at all.
- Enforced: "The player needs something that will teach them about the game's combat mechanics before harder foes start appearing. Let's design a simplistic monster to ease players into combat."
- Lampshaded: “You know, these Trope-Xs are really weak. Why does Emperor Evulz even bother to manufacture them? They’re barely even slowing me down.”
- Invoked: In the intro cutscene, Emperor Evulz is shown holding up a “Now Hiring Weak Minions” sign while building his empire, with a Trope-X eyeing it curiously.
- Exploited: Trope-Xs are so weak that they know they can’t win and run from the player. Later puzzles involve a Trope-X carrying a valuable item and several dangerous traps, forcing the player to move around and guide it indirectly through them.
- Defied:
- Trope-Xs are shown lifting weights and drinking protein shakes (despite being robots) in the first level, and are much stronger as a result.
- Trope-Xs in later levels get wise to the Goomba Stomp and don spiked helmets.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to The Goomba.
