History YMMV / ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura

** The Siamese Twins Skull quest chain is one of the most horrific sidequests ever written for a CRPG. The plot follows the party trying to figure out the meaning of an anthropological curiosity found in the Tarant's warehouses. After searching for some items, deducing some evidence and talking to a number of well-informed individuals, they reach a mysterious laboratory off the coast of the main continent and stumble across the AwfulTruth: [[spoiler: members of the Gnomish Council have been kidnapping women en-masse to use as breeding slaves for their own personal bodyguard caste of half-ogres. Not only have numerous women been essentially ''bred to death'' by these experiments (as half-ogres usually only reproduce with other half-ogres, meaning a human female/half-ogre male coupling will kill the mother at birth), the royal family was also disposed of this way. A chilling diary entry reveals the queen gave birth to several half-ogres before she died.]] The worst part of it all? ''You can't do a damn thing about it.'' In a chilling instance of TheBadGuyWins, there's nothing you can do to punish any of the people responsible for this, [[RetiredMonster since it happened decades ago.]] Everyone who could be avenged is long dead, [[spoiler: breeding camps of half-ogres have been set up to continually produce more bodyguards]], and all of your contacts [[spoiler: are [[KillAndReplace killed or replaced]] by agents of the council after presenting evidence of these crimes]]. The questline ends with [[spoiler: all the evidence back at the laboratory going missing]], meaning there is no hope of ever getting justice for what was done. All of this comes right the hell out of nowhere, and has gone on to be one of the more infamous parts of the game. The only way to get a slight amount of vengeance is by setting up a series of events for the ending wherein [[spoiler: the Gnomes are ousted from power in the Unified Kingdom and their financial ambitions crumble as a result]], but even then the game doesn't acknowledge it.

** The "Gnome Conspiracy" quest is one of the most horrific sidequests ever written for a CRPG. The plot follows the party trying to figure out the purpose of a mysterious laboratory off the coast of the main continent. After searching for some items, deducing some evidence and talking to a number of well-informed individuals, they stumble across the AwfulTruth: [[spoiler: members of the Gnomish Council have been kidnapping women en-masse to use as breeding slaves for their own personal bodyguard caste of half-ogres. Not only have numerous women been essentially ''bred to death'' by these experiments (as half-ogres usually only reproduce with other half-ogres, meaning a human female/half-ogre male coupling will kill the mother at birth), the royal family was also disposed of this way. A chilling diary entry reveals the queen gave birth to several half-ogres before she died.]] The worst part of it all? ''You can't do a damn thing about it.'' In a chilling instance of TheBadGuyWins, there's nothing you can do to punish any of the people responsible for this, [[RetiredMonster since it happened decades ago.]] Everyone who could be avenged is long dead, [[spoiler: breeding camps of half-ogres have been set up to continually produce more bodyguards]], and all of your contacts [[spoiler: are [[KillAndReplace killed or replaced]] by agents of the council after presenting evidence of these crimes]]. The questline ends with [[spoiler: all the evidence back at the laboratory going missing]], meaning there is no hope of ever getting justice for what was done. All of this comes right the hell out of nowhere, and has gone on to be one of the more infamous parts of the game. The only way to get a slight amount of vengeance is by setting up a series of events for the ending wherein [[spoiler: the Gnomes are ousted from power in the Unified Kingdom and their financial ambitions crumble as a result]], but even then the game doesn't acknowledge it.

** The "Gnome Conspiracy" quest is one of the most horrific sidequests ever written for a CRPG. The plot follows the party trying to figure out the purpose of a mysterious laboratory off the coast of the main continent. After searching for some items, deducing some evidence and talking to a number of well-informed individuals, they stumble across the AwfulTruth: [[spoiler: members of the Gnomish Council have been kidnapping women en-masse to use as breeding slaves for their own personal bodyguard caste of half-ogres. Not only have numerous women been essentially ''bred to death'' by these experiments (as half-ogres usually only reproduce with other half-ogres, meaning a human female/half-ogre male coupling will kill the mother at birth), the royal family was also disposed of this way. A chilling diary entry reveals the queen gave birth to several half-ogres before she died.]] The worst part of it all? ''You can't do a damn thing about it.'' In a chilling instance of TheBadGuyWins, there's nothing you can do to punish any of the people responsible for this, [[RetiredMonster since it happened decades ago.]] Everyone who could be avenged is long dead, [[spoiler: breeding camps of half-ogres have been set up to continually produce more bodyguards]], and all of your contacts [[spoiler: are [[KillAndReplace killed or replaced]] by agents of the council after presenting evidence of these crimes]]. The questline ends with [[spoiler: all the evidence back at the laboratory going missing]], meaning there is no hope of ever getting justice for what was done. All of this comes right the hell out of nowhere, and has gone on to be one of the more infamous parts of the game, not helped by it being highly reminiscent of many antisemitic conspiracy theories. The only way to get a slight amount of vengeance is by setting up a series of events for the ending wherein [[spoiler: the Gnomes are ousted from power in the Unified Kingdom and their financial ambitions crumble as a result]], but even then the game doesn't acknowledge it.

* {{Speedrun}}: Normally, the game can take upwards of 20 hours to complete, but that's if you try to do ''everything''. However, if your goal is simply to beat the BigBad and get the ending, it can be done in 6 minutes and 54 seconds, as demonstrated in this [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/Arcanum.html video]].[[note]]While not technically cheating, this abuses a major glitch that allows you to skip past 90% of the game.[[/note]]

* GuideDangIt: Good luck finding out Called Shots on your own in the game. They are only mentioned in the manual and not explained nor described in-game in any way. Unless you find keyboard shortcuts for them in the net, you are out. Considering certain combat skills openly rely on Called Shots, it's a truly egregious case.

** The way your followers may negatively react to whom you choose to attack. While it's not a bad idea in principle, this mechanic has a very nasty habit of firing off in the most bizarre of situations, such as...
*** Attacking the Stillwater Giant.
*** Attacking a prostitute murderer who's fulfilling the whims of a sadistic demon.
*** Attacking a man who literally just asked you to assassinate the king of Caladon.

*** Trying to break into [[TheDon Pollock]]'s residence by assaulting his door.

** [[BonusBoss While it isn't necessary to kill Stringy Pete in order to advance the plot (though it's a possible option)]], if you dare to challenge him, prepare to fight with perhaps the toughest enemy in the game, as Stringy Pete is not only one of the best NPC melee fighters and has the strongest magickal equipment in the game, but he also summons five pirate skeletons to his aid, who are as strong as Pete is.
** In a simular case, the Old Blind Master ([[GuideDangIt in case if you can find him with a guide]], since his location won't show on your map). He has [[MadeOfIron an absurdly large amount of HP]] and has the best throwing weapon in the entire game. Thankfully, sometimes he just runs away from you and doesn't fight back.

** The Black Mountain Clan Mines. It's the only part of the game you can't talk your way around. Moreover, it's filled with rock golems which break most weapons when you attack them and do insane damage compared to what you've been fighting thus far. While there are other difficult combat-heavy areas, The Black Mountain Clan Mines are more notorious because they are a relatively early part of the main quest and because you can't get around doing them.

** The "Gnome Conspiracy" quest is one of the most horrific sidequests ever written for a CRPG. The plot follows the party trying to figure out the purpose of a mysterious laboratory off the coast of the main continent. After searching for some items, deducing some evidence and talking to a number of well-informed individuals, they stumble across the AwfulTruth: [[spoiler: members of the Gnomish Council have been kidnapping women en-masse to use as breeding slaves for their own personal bodyguard caste of half-ogres. Not only have numerous women been essentially ''bred to death'' by these experiments (as half-ogres usually only reproduce with other half-ogres, meaning a human female/half-ogre male coupling will kill the mother at birth), the royal family was also disposed of this way. A chilling diary entry reveals the queen gave birth to several half-ogres before she died.]] The worst part of it all? ''You can't do a damn thing about it.'' In a chilling instance of TheBadGuyWins, there's nothing you can do to punish any of the people responsible for this, [[RetiredMonster since it happened decades ago.]] Everyone who could be avenged is long dead, [[spoiler: breeding camps of half-ogres have been set up to continually produce more bodyguards]], and all of your contacts [[spoiler: are [[KillAndReplace killed or replaced]] by agents of the council after presenting evidence of these crimes]]. The questline ends with [[spoiler: all the evidence back at the laboratory going missing]], meaning there is no hope of ever getting justice for what was done. All of this comes right the hell out of nowhere, and has gone on to be one of the more infamous parts of the game. The only way to get a slight amount of vengeance is by setting up a series of events for the ending wherein [[spoiler: the Gnomes are ousted from power in the Unified Kingdom and their financial ambitions crumble as a result]], but even then the game doesn't acknowledge it.

* UnfortunateImplications: As noted in [[https://youtu.be/tW5T-ud7VHg?t=4113 this retrospective on the game]], the central plot point of [[spoiler:TheConspiracy being run by a cabal of rich Gnomes, who has used their wealth to assassinate the King of the Unified Kingdom, in order to create chaos and unrest in order could consolidate their control over the Kingdom political system]] (i.e. the idea of an foreign ethnic group who conspire with each other to use both their wealth and underhanded and shady means to cause societal unrest and upheaval in order to gain influence and latent control over a government), has rather troubling undertones of several real-life anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. The plot point also invokes quite a few other adjacent popular far-right conspiracy theories, such as [[spoiler:the grisly Half-Ogre breeding program (which turns to have been staged run by said Gnome cabal and involved the kidnapping of women related to their political enemies)]], which smacks quite a bit of the idea of "forced race-mixing". Even more troubling, all these things are not mere conspiracy theories in-universe, they are explicitly shown to be ''true''.

* FridgeBrilliance: Torian Kel is remarkable for being one of few potential followers who can join the Living One with low intelligence and also being a rare character in the game who talks to the dumb protagonist as if he was talking to the one with normal intelligence, without commeting on or mocking their weird way of speech. While it can be easily dismissed as developer's oversight, there is a possible in-universe explanation for this. Being an undead warrior [[FishOutOfTemporalWater who was resurrected a millenium after his death]], Torian observed how civilization, way of life and habits of Arcanum drastically changed during his absence and it is likely that he had noticed how [[LanguageDrift language evolved in thousand years]]. It is entirely possible that he doesn't consider the dumb player's speech as a deviation from the norm, but simply takes it as granted that it's how people talk in the modern day, and thus doesn't see it necessary to correct the Living One's manner of speaking.

* TheScrappy: Before patches, [[HaveIMentionedIAmADwarfToday Magnus]] was considered more of a liability than an useful companion, because a bug allowed him to remain in the party without fulfilling his condition (killing the Schyler family instead of bargaining with them), but as a result made him prone to random mood swings and leaving the Living One half-way through the game for no explicable reasons. Even then, after patches made him crystally clear about his reasons for leaving right in the cemetery where you recruit him, some players still can't stand him for his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold arrogant and self-important behavior]].

* ScrappyMechanic: [=NPCs=] pick up almost any item that lays on ground near them. While this behavior can be abused by a savvy player (such as having [=NPCs=] to wear poisoned amulets, or having Lukan's half-ogres to pick railroad spikes as weapons so they couldn't deal proper damage with their fists), it gets annoying very quickly when followers start to pick up any trash that slows down their movement (to the point they can casually pick up 5000 stone boulders that take up almost the entire inventory space) and makes them to automatically equip inferior weapons and armor than those you assigned to them because of weird AI priorities.

** In a simular case, the Old Blind Master ([[GuideDangIt in case if you can find him with a guide]], since his location won't show on your map). He has [[MadeOfIron an absurdly large amount of HP]] and has the best throwing weapon in the entire game. Thankfully, sometimes just runs away from you and doesn't fight back.

* TheScrappy: Before patches, [[HaveIMentionedIAmADwarfToday Magnus]] was considered more of a liability than an useful companion, because a bug allowed him to remain in the party without fulfilling his condition (killing the Schyler family instead of bargaining with them), but as a result made him prone to random mood swings and leaving the Living One half-way through the game for no explicable reasons. Even then, after patches made him being crystally clear about his reasons for leaving right in the cemetery where you recruit him, some players still can't stand him for his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold arrogant and self-important behavior]].

* TheScrappy: Before patches, Magnus was considered more of a liability than an useful companion, because a bug allowed him to remain in the party without fulfilling his condition (killing the Schyler family instead of bargaining with them), but as a result made him prone to random mood swings and leaving the Living One half-way through the game for no explicable reasons. Even then, after patches made him being crystally clear about his reasons for leaving right in the cemetery where you recruit him, some players still can't stand him for his arrogant and self-important behavior.

** [[BonusBoss While it isn't necessary to kill Stringy Pete in order to advance the plot (though it's a possible option)]], if you dare to challenge him, prepare to fight with perhaps the toughest enemy in the game, as Stringy Pete is not only one of the best NPC melee fighters and obtains the strongest magickal equipment in the game, but he also summons five pirate skeletons, who are as strong as Pete is.

** Getting out of the first town can be this for the violence-inclined and/or those without the right build. In order to leave, you have to get past the guys guarding the bridge. Unfortunately, the leader has two half-ogres who will beat your party to death in short order. You get stun grenades early on, but without throwing skill you have to save scum for a solid hit. To get past charitably, you either need a ton of money (more than you're likely to have or want to spend), to sabotage the new bridge being built (which will make the town hate you), or a single skill point in persuasion. You can also cheese the encounter by dropping some railroad spikes next to them, which are found with the grenades. Because they're all using their fists (which do a crapload of damage), the game considers them to be unarmed. That means they will automatically pick up and equip ''any'' weapon on the ground nearby, even if that weapon does far less damage than they'd normally do unarmed. Railroad spikes have a maximum damage of 1, which will render them mostly harmless.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: It's often considered as having an excellent story, dialogue choices and level-up options but with mediocre combat gameplay. The combat can get in the way of the story, as there are a plenty of unskippable fights, some of which can be quite hard, especially at the beginning when the player character can die in a few unlucky hits.

* UnfortunateImplications: As noted in [[https://youtu.be/tW5T-ud7VHg?t=4113 this retrospective on the game]], the central plot point of [[spoiler:TheConspiracy being run by a cabal of rich Gnomes, who has used their wealth to assassinate the King of the Unified Kingdom, in order to create chaos and unrest in order could consolidate their control over the Kingdom political system]] (i.e. the idea of an foreign ethnic group who conspire with each other to use both their wealth and underhanded and shady means to cause societal unrest and upheaval in order to gain influence and latent control over a government), has rather troubling undertones of several real-life anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. The plot point also invokes quite a few other adjacent popular far-right conspiracy theories, such as [[spoiler:the grisly Half-Ogre breeding program, which turns to have been staged run by said Gnome cabal]], which smacks quite a bit of the idea of "forced race-mixing". Even more troubling, all these things are not mere conspiracy theories in-universe, they are explicitly shown to be ''true''.

* ThatOneAttack:

* TheWoobie: Randver Thunder Stone loses his father to exile long before he's ready to inherit the throne, and [[spoiler: he gets ''no'' endings that aren't at least somewhat [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]]: either his father returns to the throne and he isn't even mentioned in the ending, his father [[DyingMomentOfAwesome dies heroically]] and allows him to become a good ruler, or his failures as a king lead to a civil war that either causes him to lose the throne to a stronger candidate, or drives the dwarven race to near-extinction]].

* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler: [[EnlightenedAntagonist Kerghan the Terrible]] is a pre-eminent human mage from the Age of Legends whose tireless pursuits led to the discovery of an entirely new yet twisted college of Magick - the Black Necromancy. Banished to the Void by Nasrudin for his immoral expermients, Kerghan found himself able to travel to the afterlife and from where he drew conclusions that life is a distortion which condemns disturbed souls to pain and suffering and needs to be [[OmnicidalManiac destroyed entirely to bring the eternal peace]]. Pretending to be their master Arronax, his old rival who he had defeated and imprisoned long before, Kerghan guided the Dark Elves to infiltrate the Panarii Church and instructed them to orchestate the banishment of the Black Mountain Clan in order to pave his way back to Arcanum. Upon meeting [[TheProtagonist the Living One]], Kerghan [[MotiveRant explains his motives in great detail]], invoking the arguments that even [[VillainHasAPoint several of the hero's followers find to be legitimate]]. Kerghan then tries [[WeCanRuleTogether to win over the protagonist]] and allows them to examine and challenge his beliefs, [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath succumbing to their reasoning if he finds it especially convincing]]. Manipulating the world events beyond the mortal plane and solidifying himself as the real BigBad of the story, Kerghan manifests himself as not only the most dangerous threat Arcanum has ever faced, but also as the Living One's greatest intellectual foe.]]

* MagnificentBastard: [[EnlightenedAntagonist Kerghan the Terrible]] is a pre-eminent human mage from the Age of Legends whose tireless pursuits led to the discovery of an entirely new yet twisted college of Magick - the Black Necromancy. Banished to the Void by Nasrudin for his immoral expermients, Kerghan found himself able to travel to the afterlife and from where he drew conclusions that life is a distortion which condemns disturbed souls to pain and suffering and needs to be [[OmnicidalManiac destroyed entirely to bring the eternal peace]]. Pretending to be their master Arronax, his old rival who he had defeated and imprisoned long before, Kerghan guided the Dark Elves to infiltrate the Panarii Church and instructed them to orchestate the banishment of the Black Mountain Clan in order to pave his way back to Arcanum. Upon meeting [[TheProtagonist the Living One]], Kerghan [[MotiveRant explains his motives in great detail]], invoking the arguments that even [[VillainHasAPoint several of the hero's followers find to be legitimate]]. Kerghan then tries [[WeCanRuleTogether to win over the protagonist]] and allows them to examine and challenge his beliefs, [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath succumbing to their reasoning if he finds it especially convincing]]. Manipulating the world events beyond the mortal plane and solidifying himself as the real BigBad of the story, Kerghan manifests himself as not only the most dangerous threat Arcanum has ever faced, but also as the Living One's greatest intellectual foe.