History VideoGame / ThreeTheHardWay

''Three the Hard Way'' is a popular RPG Maker 2000 game made by [[http://rpgmaker.net/users/iishenron/ iishenron]]. Released in 2003, it was very well-received by most gaming communities across the Internet, and had since been considered an RPG Maker classic.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The main party is mostly made up of untrained (or, at least, non-professional) fighters with ''vastly'' different backgrounds and motives. Vance is a selfish and greedy Bounty Hunter who used to work as a bartender before leaving his hometown to find excitement; his best friend, North, is a martial artist in training who follows Vance around to find out more about the ongoing political conflict in their kingdom. They are later joined by Fayette -- the Duchess of Burlington set out to protect her duchy, Anderson -- a wandering monk who claims to seek for new challenges, Kanna -- a Really700YearsOld alchemist who claims to have been sent by an ancient organization she belonged to to aid the party, Clifton -- another bounty hunter who frequently headbutts with Vance and is mostly seeking revenge over the destruction of Branchville, and Holly -- Clifton's niece who happens to be a self-proclaimed thief and tags along the team just because. The {{Optional Party Member}}s include Tatum -- a bandit queen who wants to deliver retribution to the people who killed her men, and Roper -- a former captain of the [[BigBad Duke Greene]]'s army who defected to the team after the latter killed her sister. [[BigGood Duke Salem and Duke Winston]] seem to trust them more than they trust their own soldiers.

''Three the Hard Way'' is a popular RPG Maker 2000 game made by [[http://rpgmaker.net/users/iishenron/ iishenron]]. Released in 2003, it was mostly well-received by most gaming communities across the Internet, and had since been considered an RPG Maker classic.

* NotSoSimilar: When he got to know them for the first time, Vance considers both Kanna and Anderson as "those two weirdos who may or may not be human". Indeed, they both are mysterious and secretive, yet at the same time very knowledgeable about the state of the game's verse and wields tremendous powers. However, as time goes by, Kanna becomes more open to the rest of the party, as it was revealed that she's more naive than actually secretive and Vance could easily read her thoughts by the end of the story. Anderson, on the other hand, is revealed to have been hiding more and more secrets which he never discloses, and the more of his past is revealed, the less people seem to know about who or what he actually is.

* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The Govan Order, an ancient order of immortal Alchemists whose purpose is to "bring balance to the world", and has sent a couple of their members, such as Kanna, Lucama and Iva to guide the heroes to the right direction. The true purpose of the order has yet to be known: Kanna asserts the heroes that she's been sent to help defeat Duke Greene and stop his tyranny, but Anderson is adamant that the group are full of lying bastards. [[spoiler:Although Kanna is speaking the truth about her personal intentions, it seems that Anderson is right about the Order's purpose as a whole. Their current leader, Marion, is a GreaterScopeVillain who has manipulated the events of the plot, both the "current" storyline and the war that took place 65 years earlier. She intends to control the kingdom behind the shadows by placing puppet rulers and uses the Kaibutsu and/or her subordinates to pull the strings of her machinations]].

** Defied near the end of the game. After the FinalBattle, [[spoiler:a dying Duke Winston]] informs the party that [[spoiler:Anderson]] would know the truth behind the conflict, and that they should confront him for the information. He refuses to tell them anything useful and leaves the party for good.

* BadassInDistress: Occurs during the Kaibutsu Lords Hunt arc if the party decides to proceed in Erhardt. [[spoiler:Anderson]] was arrested for the murder of a local fortune-teller, tasking the other party members to investigate the case further to prove his innocene. Justified because he's only allowing himself to get arrested because the fortune-teller in question [[spoiler:revealed the presence of a Kaibutsu Lord in the city]], and if the player decides not to continue with the investigation, he'll break out on his own.

* TitleDrop: Played almost literally when the party confronts Manteo - who, in his HannibalSpeech, brings us to the actual title screen to remark on it.

** Anderson is a milder case. Several (optional) cutscenes showed him vanquishing a large group of enemies with a single strike. While he's still a good fighter, he is unable to perform such feats in the gameplay. Also justified since he is [[FightsLikeANormal intentionally holding back]].

''Three the Hard Way'' is a popular RPG Maker 2000 game made by [[http://rpgmaker.net/users/iishenron/ iishenron]].It was released in 2003, and was very well received by most gaming communities across the Internet.

* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The Govan Order, an ancient order of immortal Alchemists whose purpose is to "bring balance to the world", and has sent a couple of their members, such as Kanna, Lucama and Iva to guide the heroes to the right direction. The true purpose of the order has yet to be known: Kanna asserts the heroes that she's been sent to help defeat Duke Greene and stop his tyranny, but Anderson is adamant that the group are full of lying bastards. [[spoiler:Although Kanna is speaking the truth about her personal intentions, it seems that Anderson is right about the Order's purpose as a whole. Their current leader, Marion, is a GreaterScopeVillain who has manipulated the events of the plot, both the "current" storyline and the war that took place 65 years earlier. She intends to control the kingdom behind the shadows by placing puppet rulers and uses her subordinates to pull the strings of her machinations]].

From there, the plot becomes increasingly more complex. While the storyline itself, for the most part, is quite linear, the player's choices and actions would unlock varying plot and dialogue branches, giving plenty of [[RewatchBonus replay bonuses]].

* AccidentalTruth: Zigzagged a little when the party encounter Raleigh and his pirate henchmen in Teachy's lair. Vance declares that Raleigh's plans to use hostages to plunder Teachy's treasure is doomed because Teachy is already among the group, and Raleigh dismisses it as a bluff. Thing is, Vance ''wasn't'' intending to bluff, since he genuinely believes that [[spoiler:Anderson is Teachy]], but even though Vance's theory [[spoiler:about Anderson being Teachy]] is untrue, the real Teachy ''is'' present in the group, pretending to be a hostage. [[spoiler:He is Alex, the wanna-be hero NPC that appears early in the game]].

* AlchemyIsMagic: Alchemy is definitely treated as magic, to the extent that Kanna's alchemical items is actually referred as "spells". And having the knowledge of alchemy allowed Duke Greene to build a giant PowerCrystal that can annihilate entire cities at will.

* GladiatorSubquest: The fighting pit in Orangeburg, and the climax of the Beauty Pageant sidequest, requires you to duel NPCs.
* HeelFaceTurn: If Roper is present when the party confronts Orrum, she will convince Dunn to defect (or at least stay neutral while they fight). Although he never left the army, he was determined to use his promotion free Dillon from Duke Greene's influence.

* BigBad: Duke Greene of Dillon

** [[spoiler:Anderson]] is a milder case. Several (optional) cutscenes showed [[spoiler:him]] single-handedly taking down entire armies. While [[spoiler:he's]] still a good fighter, [[spoiler:he]] is unable to perform such feats in the gameplay. Probably justified since [[spoiler:he is [[FightsLikeANormal intentionally holding back]]]].

* GladiatorSubquest: The fighting pit in Orangeburg, and the climax of the Beauty Pageant sidequest.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The main party is mostly made up of untrained (or, at least, non-professional) fighters with ''vastly'' different backgrounds and motives. Vance is a selfish and greedy Bounty Hunter who used to work as a bartender before leaving his hometown to find excitement; his best friend, North, is a martial artist in training who follows Vance around to find out more about the ongoing political conflict in their kingdom. They are later joined by Fayette -- the Duchess of Burlington set out to protect her duchy, Anderson -- a wandering monk who claims to seek for new challenges, Kanna -- a Really700YearsOld alchemist who claims to have been sent by an ancient organization she belonged to to aid the party, Clifton -- another bounty hunter who frequently headbutts with Vance and is mostly seeking revenge over the destruction of Branchville, and Holly -- Clifton's niece who happens to be a self-proclaimed thief and tags along the team just because. The {{Optional Party Members}} include Tatum -- a bandit queen who wants to deliver retribution to the people who killed her men, and Roper -- a former captain of the [[BigBad Duke Greene]]'s army who defected to the team after the latter killed her sister. [[BigGood Duke Salem and Duke Winston]] seem to trust them more than they trust their own soldiers.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Let's see, the central characters consist of a selfish and greedy bartender-turned-bounty-hunter protagonist, his more noble Martial-Arts loving best friend, a strong-willed but sheltered Duchess who always bicker with the protagonist, a wandering monk/martial artist/pit fighter/whatever who knows more about the ongoing conflict than he initially lets on and a ReallySevenHundredYearsOld alchemist with a suspicious agenda and knows the BigBad quite well. Other playable characters include another bounty hunter who is frequently at odds with the protagonist, a LovableRogue thief who happens to be his niece, a bandit queen, and a former captain of the BigBad's army. Duke Salem and (especially) Duke Winston appear to trust them more than their own soldiers.

* AnatomicallyImpossibleSex: Not in the game itself of course, but if you buy a romance novel for Fayette's 21st birthday, Duke Winston will mention that it is an erotica novel. When Vance decided to examine it, he pretty much exclaimed, "Is that even physically possible?!"

* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Most of The Govan members, such as Kanna and Marion, are centuries old and are implied to be immortal. The Kaibutsu Lords does not appear age either.

* DynamicDifficulty: The game has an "Easy" and "Hard" mode, although you can switch this difficulty any time during the game's playthrough.

* DreadfulMusician: Sardinia, according to Vance. Although everyone else seem to disagree.

* AntiGrinding: Monsters stop giving out stat increases if the player is too far above them.