Board 8 > Best of the Trope Season 2: Day 178 - Breather Level

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Best of the Trope!

Here are the rules. Each day, I will post a trope from TV Tropes, and each poster can name up to three examples of that trope. Whichever nomination gets the most mentions wins! Posters may also name as many Honourable Mentions as they like, but they are purely optional and will not count towards the running score. You may look at the TV Tropes page for that day's trope for examples, but you do not have to pick all your examples from the page. You can nominate whatever examples you like, as long as they qualify for the trope. Each trope will last around 24 hours before the next one goes up.

Posters may also nominate any tropes they wish to see come up during the series. This is optional, and you don't have to do it every day, or at all. Tropes will be randomly selected from the list each day, except for some occasions where I will pick a thematically appropriate trope that may or may not be on the list.

Here's the list of previous tropes, so if you wish to nominate some tropes, check on here that it wasn't previously done. http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Best_of_the_Trope

One True Love
Disc-One Nuke
Beef Gate
Lampshade Hanging
Difficult, but Awesome
Tier-Induced Scrappy
That One Level
Game-Breaker
Broken Base
Cliffhanger
Cruel and Unusual Death
Squishy Wizard
Magic Knight
Anti-Climax Boss
Torch the Franchise and Run
Lights Off, Somebody Dies
Grand Finale

The winner of yesterday's trope, Evil Cripple, was Mr. Glass (Unbreakable), who got 4 votes.

Previous Winners: Day 151 Onwards
Despair Event Horizon - John Wick's dog is killed (John Wick)
A**hole Victim - Joffrey Baratheon (Game of Thrones)
Crutch Character - Marcus (Fire Emblem 7)
Your Soul is Mine - Maximillian Pegasus (Yu-Gi-Oh!) / Shang Tsung (Mortal Kombat) / Dementor's Kiss (Harry Potter)
Pop-Cultured Badass - Deadpool
Acquitted Too Late - Tom Robinson (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Lightning Bruiser - The Flash (DC Comics) / Bob Barker (Happy Gilmore)
Me's a Crowd - Naruto / Multiple Man (X-Men)
A Taste of Power - Samus (Metroid Series)
Shrinking Violet - Violet (The Incredibles)
Stone Wall - Shuckle (Pokemon)
One Scene Wonder - The Black Knight (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
Magikarp Power - Magikarp (Pokemon) / Pawn (Chess)
Joke Character - Pichu (Super Smash Bros Melee) / Dan Hibiki (Street Fighter)
Lethal Joke Character - L-Block (GameFAQs Contests)
Stupid Statement Dance Mix - They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard / All Your Base
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere - Necron (Final Fantasy IX)
Roaring Rampage of Revenge - The Punisher (Marvel Comics) / John Wick / The Bride (Kill Bill)
Glass Cannon (Redux) - Tracer (Overwatch) / Hypno Disc (Robot Wars) / Nightmare (Battlebots)
Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome - Marie (The Bourne Supremacy)
Even the Girls Want Her - Lana Kane (Archer)
Even the Guys Want Him - Gaston (Beauty and the Beast) / Big Boss (Metal Gear Solid)
Mighty Glacier - Tohru (Jackie Chan Adventures)
Breather Boss - Morpha (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) / Gi Nattak (Final Fantasy VII)
Big Bad Friend - Big Smoke (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas)
Launcher of a Thousand Ships - Nightwing (DC Comics)

Today's trope is Breather Level. Here is the link: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BreatherLevel

Sometimes in a video game you'll notice that the learning curve is more of a learning zigzag: you may find yourself in a level harder than you were expecting, followed by a level that is significantly easier. A logical application of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil would say that the two levels should appear the other way around.

A cynical explanation would be that the levels are out of order due to poor testing or time constraints in production. A more charitable one is that the easier level is a Breather Level, allowing the player to recover from the previous, more challenging encounter and (should they be a feature of the game) stock up on extra lives for the further challenges ahead. The aim may be to extend the tension over a larger part of the game, by opting to stretch and relax the tension rather than let it build up continually. Games from the arcade era explicitly put in bonus levels for this purpose.

Sometimes, a Breather Level exists to teach the player new skills that later, non-Breather Levels will test the player on.

TL,DR: A level that's particularly easy and/or comes after a particularly difficult one.

Nominations:
100 Acre Wood (Kingdom Hearts)
Chapter 6 - A Linear Sequence of Scares (Max Payne 2)
Cactus Jack's Ranch (Croc: Legend of the Gobbos)

Wily Castle (Mega Man 3)
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Winhill Flashback (Final Fantasy VIII)

I'm taking this trope in its literal form. Taking a breather after the manic end of Disk 1
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Chapter 6 (Mother 3)
Chapter 6 (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door)
Chapter 6 (Max Payne 2)
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100 Acre Wood is the best example I think
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Rank 5 match (No More Heroes)
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GavsEvans123 posted...

100 Acre Wood (Kingdom Hearts)

Every Casino level [Casino Night Zone, Casinopolis, Casino Park] (Sonic the Hedgehog series)
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Sky Chase Zone (Sonic 2)
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Giant Land (Super Mario Bros. 3)
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The Ladder (Metal Gear Solid 3)
The Boat (Silent Hill 2)
The Farm (Resident Evil 4)
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Star Hill (Super Mario RPG)
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I have no idea what this is but I feel compelled to vote for it

Dungeon 18 (Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon)
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Rankings so far:
100 Acre Wood (Kingdom Hearts) - 3 votes
Chapter 6 - A Linear Sequence of Scares (Max Payne 2) - 2 votes
Cactus Jack's Ranch (Croc: Legend of the Gobbos)
Wily Castle (Mega Man 3)
Winhill Flashback (Final Fantasy VIII)
Chapter 6 (Mother 3)
Chapter 6 (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door)
Rank 5 match (No More Heroes)
Every Casino level [Casino Night Zone, Casinopolis, Casino Park] (Sonic the Hedgehog series)
Sky Chase Zone (Sonic 2)
Giant Land (Super Mario Bros. 3)
The Ladder (Metal Gear Solid 3)
The Boat (Silent Hill 2)
The Farm (Resident Evil 4)
Star Hill (Super Mario RPG)
Dungeon 18 (Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon)

Spring Yard Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog)
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