Most insane power progression in a game / franchise ?

Cyberpunkd

Member
Let's discuss games where we start from 0 and end up as a god (sometimes literally).

Note: I don't want to put here all the "I started killing rats and then I saved the world". I am looking for something that is clearly validated by NPCs and/or other players (if that makes sense).

My contribution:

1. Summoner - start as a scrub, end up as a god.
2. Morrowind - Hortator, Nerevarine, Azura's champion.

You no longer bear the burden of prophecy. You have achieved your destiny. You are free. The doomed Dwemer's folly, Lord Dagoth's temptation, the Tribunal's seduction, the god's heart freed, the prophecy fulfilled. All fates sealed and sins redeemed. If you have pity, mourn the loss, but let the weeping cease. The Blight is gone, and the sun's golden honey gilds the land. Hail savior, Hortator, and Nerevarine. Your people look to you for protection. Monster and villains great and small still threaten the people of Vvardenfell. Enemies and evils abound, yet indomitable will might rid Morrowind of all its ills. For you, our thanks and blessings; our gift and token given. Come; take this thing from the hand of god."

3; Atelier games - never played them, but apparently in the course of a single arc you go from a clumsy girl to bending time and space and creating separate universes with alchemy.
 
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I can flip the idea somewhat.

The Last of Us 1 - Joel - started as the saviour of mankind, then ended as the, well… if you know, you know.
 
Final Fantasy pretty much.

Hey, I'm 17 years old and a student from Balam. Now watch this laser sword cover half the planet.

Star Ocean 3. Pretty much you breaking the fourth wall and fighting the players and devs.
 
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Your avatar, almost every build is op as fuck, but hacker straight up let you massacre mofos without even entering the building, they tried to balance that shit in the latest patch and as a result, they made it even more broken, just in a different way.

So start as a semi-scrub, beat adam smasher in less than 20 sec.
 
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I guess god of war also fit the description, from spartan warrior to almost erasing 2 different pantheon of gods...

Pretty impressive for a "pussy old dad".
 
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Bloodborne - you start off as a sickly scrawny nobody looking for a cure for the sniffles and you end up killing literal gods, eldritch horrors from the other side of the kosmos and deities that defy human comprehension.
 
Note: I don't want to put here all the "I started killing rats and then I saved the world". I am looking for something that is clearly validated by NPCs and/or other players (if that makes sense).
You share the same MC in Earth Defense Force 5 and 6.

At the start of 5, you are just a security guard and, by the end of 6, you are an entity that trascends space and time that represents the will to fight of the whole human species, put to fight against an alien God that comes from the future in a duel set up by time itself to decide the future of both the human and alien species. Quite kino, and yeah the NPCs go from calling you a newbie to refering to you as the hero of time.
 
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I was going to say Morrowind as well. Started off dying to the 1st rat that jumped me when I got off the boat; stealing plates and sold my pants to get $5. End of the game I had constant effect levitation and invisibility rings and just traveled running at the top of the skybox in the clouds.
 
You share the same MC in Earth Defense Force 5 and 6.

At the start of 5, you are just a security guard and, by the end of 6, you are an entity that trascends space and time that represents the will to fight of the whole human species, put to fight against an alien God that comes from the future in a duel set up by time itself to decide the future of both the human and alien species. Quite kino, and yeah the NPCs go from calling you a newbie to refering to you as the hero of time.
They are not aliens tho, they look just like us, 2 legs, 2 arms, 1 head.
 
Final Fantasy XII

You start as a common street thief killing rats in the sewer, and end up toppling a democracy and kill a god-like being responsible for shaping the world by the end.

But I guess most JRPG's follow a similar trajectory.
 
Bloodborne - you start off as a sickly scrawny nobody looking for a cure for the sniffles and you end up killing literal gods, eldritch horrors from the other side of the kosmos and deities that defy human comprehension.

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I believe the main guy from Indigo Prophecy falls into this category. I only watched a Let's Play (Super Best Friends) several years ago but at the start he's just a normal dude that can get arrested and go to jail and by the end he's having DBZ esque fights.
 
Shin Megami Tensei games, most of the time you start the game as just you without any party members.

In end game you become god that summon other gods to kill another god.
 
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Katamari Damacy. Start rooming up buttons and thumb tacks, end rolling up Kaiju, gods, and even continents.
 
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Resident Evil games: first playthrough versus new game plusses. You go from low on supplies, ducking and dodging enemies to running around with things like an infinite rocket launcher. And both ways are fun to play!
 
Samus in Prime 2: Echoes is my favorite. By the end of the game you are creating Black Hole's and Sonic Boom's, seeing sound, shooting the combo of light and dark matter. Then you pretty much annihilate a whole dimension of a planet.
 
Castlevania dawn of sorrow and most Igavanias, you start pretty clumsy and end up literally dashing through the corridors like you own the place.
Metroid Prime games too.
 
I believe the main guy from Indigo Prophecy falls into this category. I only watched a Let's Play (Super Best Friends) several years ago but at the start he's just a normal dude that can get arrested and go to jail and by the end he's having DBZ esque fights.
This is sort of true, but towards the end of the game I got killed just by looking at a homeless person, so the power fantasy isn't quite as all encompassing.
 
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Disgaea, You can go from power level 1 to the billions. First playthrough, you only need like power level 1000 to beat the last boss.
 
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Start the game one shotting everything and feeling like a badass. Then you run into Death, he strips you of all of your power and now, you have a dinky sword that takes several shots to kill a skeleton.
 
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Start the game one shotting everything and feeling like a badass. Then you run into Death, he strips you of all of your power and now, you have a dinky sword that takes several shots to kill a skeleton.
And then you get the crissagrim and pulverize everything.

Such a rollercoaster.
 
Baldur's Gate 1 - BG2 - Throne of Baal.
You are stronger than gods by the end of this series.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, Persona games. From a regular schoolkid to god-slaying demon handler.
 
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Kingdom Hearts. From a boy in a island to savior of the whole Disney-Squaredom. Sora by the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 can go back through time and inhabit the body of different series' protagonist to save them from inpending doom multiple times so he gets the best outcome while trying to save the girl he likes and to stop the big-baddie. And even after being erased from his reality he somewhat is still "alive" and kicking.
 
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Kingdom Come Deliverance

Start as the as a bum, blacksmith delivery boy, throwing manure into Dutch's house.

Ends up as Sir knight Henry of Skalitz, first of his name, savior of the country, manorlord, reigning defending state jousting multi champion, attorney specialized in church affairs and private detective.
 
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Baldur's Gate 1 - BG2 - Throne of Baal.
You are stronger than gods by the end of this series.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, Persona games. From a regular schoolkid to god-slaying demon handler.

It's definitely Throne of Bhaal, which allows levels up to 40, which is insanity if you know D&D.
 
Fallout games, usually from a nobody/random normal human that'll have trouble with a single raider to a guy that could John Wick through a entire army of soldiers equipped with highly advanced power armor and energy weapons.

Or like some mentioned already, Elder Scrolls games mostly in Morrowind and Skyrim.
 
I believe the main guy from Indigo Prophecy falls into this category. I only watched a Let's Play (Super Best Friends) several years ago but at the start he's just a normal dude that can get arrested and go to jail and by the end he's having DBZ esque fights.
Was going to post this for sure. By the end of the game you are literally flying through the air fighting aliens or something. Having Matrix style battles that put Neo to shame. At the beginning of the game you're just some guy.

The really crazy part is that you can play through the game and honestly have little or no idea how you got from one to the other.
 
KatamariDamacybox.jpg


you start by rolling around in a living room with a tiny ball smaller than the size of a rat.
by the end your roll up whole cities and make a moon.


even crazier here
s-l1200.jpg



same small beginnings, but by the end you roll up entire star systems
 
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