History VideoGame / TalesOfMajEyal

* ArcherArchetype: Unsurprisingly, the Archer class. Includes unusual abilities such as Piercing Shot (which hits all enemies in a row) and Rain of Arrows.

* DoWellButNotPerfect: [[spoiler:Unlocking the Doom Elf race requires you to find and defeat 3 Demon {{Bonus Boss}}es. One of them, [=Kryl'Feijan=], only spawns if you fail the Melinda sidequest. (Though given how [[BrutalBonusLevel notoriously hard]] that dungeon is, this may actually be the easier alternative)]]

* BribingYourWayToVictory: Patch 1.6 inverts this with [=Pay2Die=], where you can make a small donation to instantly summon a level 500 OptionalBoss to kill your character.

* DifficultyLevels: Five general difficulty settings and three extra life settings, plus a tutorial, make up for a whopping ''sixteen'' difficulty levels. It's also worth noting that each achievement has about 12 variants, one for each difficulty and lives combo, making qiute the list. The general difficulty settings are:

* BonusBoss: In some sense, ''most'' of the bosses are technically optional (like most dungeons), but some are more bonus than others.
** Bill the Stone Troll, who used to be an outrageous WakeUpCallBoss before was replaced by Prox and moved to a secret optional level.
** Kryl'Feijan, who [[spoiler: is summoned if Melinda is sacrificed]].
** The second bosses, which are level 40-50 bosses who appear in several low-level areas after returning from the other continent.
** Atamathon, a sleeping level 70 golem in the Golem Graveyard. He is far more powerful than the end bosses.
** Anyone in the game is killable, which means that terminating Linaniil is a popular SelfImposedChallenge.
** In ''Ashes of Urh'Rok'', the three elder demons. Kryl'Feijan (mentioned above), Shasshhiy'Kaish, the Queen of Pain, [[spoiler: who only pops up if you kill her cultists]], and Walrog, [[spoiler: who's wandering the seas, and can either be found randomly, or summoned if you backstab both Slasul and Ukllmswwik.]] Killing them [[spoiler: unlocks the Doomelf race]].
** ''Forbidden Cults'' added one more, the Hypostasis of Entropy, [[spoiler: Accessed by entering the code found in High Peak in the Occult Egress.]]

** In terms of prodigies, Adept is this. It just increases the talent level of all your skills. Compared to dropping meteors, sending enemies flying, etc, this can seem pretty lame. However, it makes you better at everything, as all your talents are effectively increased in power, making you deal and take more damage.

* BribingYourWayToVictory: Patch 1.6 inverts this with [=Pay2Die=], where you can make a small donation to instantly summon a level 500 BonusBoss to kill your character.

* DiscOneNuke: Bill's Tree Trunk. Assuming [[BonusBoss you're able to beat Bill]] and the RNG is in a good mood when you do and it drops, it's one of the best two handed weapons in the early to mid game.

** However, the Drem, mutated faceless dwarves, are quite different. Most are mindless but a sapient group were added with the Forbidden Cults DLC so they are now a playable race. Their common origin is also quite atypical: [[spoiler:Dwarves are the descendents of a spacefaring high-tech race, with the original generations being created by a cloning system in a crashed and buried spaceship; over time the machine has malfunctioned, which is how Drem came to exist.]]

* OxygenatedUnderwaterBubbles: There are a few underwater levels with stationary (and depleteable) bubbles that you have to travel between to avoid suffocation if you don't have a way to just breathe water outright.

** One piece of lore details how the Ziguranth once saved the life of an Alchemist accused of poisoning her town's elder, despite her use of minor arcane magic. (Though they did manage to persuade her that her mutiliation at the hands of the mob was ''her own fault'' for using magic in the first place.)

** As of 1.5.0 the Archer has sling specialisations again, based on close-range agile combat rather than long-distance sniping.

** The "yeti-meat" quests are like a less-annoying versions of the escort quests, in that the rewards are additional talent or category choices/stat bonuses not normally available to your character. The frustration-relieving bits are a)no need for painful EscortMissions with fragiles, slow escorts and and b) You can choose which perks instead of the random selection from each escort.

* BonusBoss: Maltoth the Mad, [[spoiler: a time-shifted [[PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo possible version of the Scourge from the West]].]]

** Averted in the time pocket. [[spoiler: When you fight Maltoth the Mad, [[PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo the Hero of Maj'Eyal and Scourge from the West]], you're fighting a character from a possible universe and ''not'' necessarily the actual Scourge from your world's past.]]

* NoKillLikeOverkill: Kaltor's finest creation, '''''DESTRUCTICUS, IMPOLITE PENETRATOR OF THE SKY''''', is designed as the ultimate luxury purchase for an upper-class society with a macho streak, and is specifically noted as being able to destroy "golems smaller than a medium-sized village." [[spoiler: When you find it in the epilogue, the "merciful" option involves launching it at ''a single imp.'']]
* OhCrap: Councilor Tantalos completely panics after the PC [[spoiler: annihilates the Sunwall and kills Aeryn]], and runs off to [[spoiler: beg help from the Loyalist]].