History YMMV / PathfinderWrathOfTheRighteous

* MemeticMutation: Arueshalae very literally locking herself in horny jail after a certain part of her romance route has become such a meme, that there are a lot of jokes about her being the horny police among the party.

** Terendelev is introduced at the start of the game as a seemingly important character, who very clearly spots something off about the player characters situation and wants to help them. Then only a few minutes later, Deskari drops in and kills her with ease, preventing any exploration or interactions with her. Even later when she's revived as an undead dragon, the only way to do anything is to pick the Dragon Mythic Path, otherwise you beat her and she's gone again.

** Vavakia Vanguards. There are two of them in the game and you will remember both fights for how annoying they are. They have all the traits of the game's {{Bonus Boss}}es (high health, massive AC, high spell resistance, immunities, self-resurrection, etc) but one has to be fought to complete Secrets of Creation and the other has to be fought in Act 6 to complete the main story. What makes them a nightmare, though, is their Dazzling Display. They perform Mythic Dazzling Display every other round or so, which leads to all your characters in a huge radius that ignores line-of-sight being Shaken, then Frightened, meaning you can't control them. ''All'' your characters, because this ignores immunity to Fear, even that granted by such traits as being Mindless (swarms) or Undead (a lich Commander and their companions). The only way around this is to use Remove Fear, which doesn't actually stop the status effects from applying or remove them once they're there but does let you bypass the control lockout on a Frightened character. Unfortunately you probably don't have immediate access to this spell at this point in the game because why would you take a spell to mitigate an effect you're supposed to be immune to?

** One carried over from the tabletop, but level 0 spells, or cantrips, have no scaling damage wise, and do only a d3 amount of damage. Some players dislike this as it makes casters need to use weapons they aren't necessarily stat wise built to use in order to be effective in battle if they aren't going to cast spells, and makes low Strength casters have encumbrance issues due to it - Daeran for instance has primarily healing and support spells and low Strength, so giving him a crossbow puts him at high risk of being slowed heavily while doing low amounts of damage. Some players have commented that even just letting the cantrips add their casters primary spell modifier to the damage would be better than leaving it as is, to the point that one of the more popular mods for the game gives cantrips scaling damage, making them more helpful than the base game. What makes it odder was that Second Edition (which was announced and released before this game was) gave cantrips scaling, but this was not carried over due to the strict adherence to First Editions rules.

* InformedWrongness: Iomedae in Act 5, if you do not take the Legend Mythic Path, is treated as being wrong for asking the Commander to give up their power, with some characters even going so far as to call her a hypocrite for asking you to do so (not just Nocticula at that, some party members might) depending on your Mythic Path and choices. Even Good aligned characters can call her out for her request (most options calling her a hypocrite at that), even if they are a follower or Paladin for her. However, Iomedae's reasoning comes across as fairly understandable in context; she doesn't quite know the full nature of your powers, but knows they are demonic in origin, making the Commander a potential time-bomb that could become a huge threat to the world if not checked. Her request is also firmly that: a request, and she accepts your choice without much problems unless you pick the Swarm that Walks. In addition, Iomedae became a god of her own choice and hard work, only being elevated further as one because of the sudden death of Aroden, whereas the Commander had their power forced onto them, and are not fully sure of the control they have. Not helping is that, even on something like Angel or Azata, Nocticula and Areelu are obviously (and admit to it) still using you to further their goals, making Iomedae's concern understandable.

** You either adore Regill for his extremely pragmatic villainy and cold uncaring logic, that manages to fit into the story without becoming comically evil, or you hate him because he's kind of a bossy asshole with no qualms about lying to you to send you on a SecretTestOfCharacter, on top of his evil mindset being hard to justify for a good aligned player, whose brutality makes him little better than the demons he opposes. You may also find his design unintentionally hilarious, with him pulling the hardass PragmaticEvil military commander while being basically 3 feet tall, and the fact his in-game character model looks like a Franchise/TrollDolls cosplaying as Sauron, or Rumpelstiltskin from ''WesternAnimation/ShrekForeverAfter'' in his Angry Wig.

** You either adore Regill for his extremely pragmatic villainy and cold uncaring logic, that manages to fit into the story without becoming comically evil, or you hate him because he's kind of a bossy asshole with no qualms about lying to you to send you on a SecretTestOfCharacter, on top of his evil mindset being hard to justify for a good aligned player, whose brutality makes him little better than the demons he opposes.

** You either adore Regill for his extremely pragmatic villainy and cold uncaring logic, or you hate him because he's kind of a bossy asshole with no qualms about lying to you to send you on a SecretTestOfCharacter and when that's done tells you it's unreasonable to expect him to not mislead you again for his own curiosity and whose brutality makes him little better than the demons he opposes. You may also find his design unintentionally hilarious, with him pulling the hardass PragmaticEvil military commander while being basically 3 feet tall, and the fact his in-game character model looks like a Franchise/TrollDolls cosplaying as Sauron, or Rumpelstiltskin from ''WesternAnimation/ShrekForeverAfter'' in his Angry Wig.

** Hulrun Shappok is clearly meant to be [[AntiHero a less-than-ideal character]], but exactly ''how'' un-ideal is a subject of significant debate among players. He's a legitimate badass as a combatant against the demons, but as the chief law enforcer of Kenabres he leaves much to be desired: JudgeJuryAndExecutioner in the city's martial law regime, he's prone to having people burned at the stake on the mere suspicion of contact with demons, including infamously [[MoralityPet Ember]] and her DisappearedDad. On the other hand, he ''is'' correct about [[ProperlyParanoid the presence of demon cults in Kenabres]] (even if he wasn't as good at ferreting them out as he thought he was) and that the festival at the start of the game was endangering the city. Players are divided on whether he's a NecessarilyEvil WellIntentionedExtremist, an example of HeWhoFightsMonsters, or a LawfulStupid TautologicalTemplar who should have lost access to his class features years ago for falling to LawfulEvil[[invoked]] (violating the one-step CharacterAlignment limit from his LawfulGood {{patron god}}dess Iomedae) and whose ends-justify-the-means attitude [[NiceJobBreakingItHero makes the demons look attractive by comparison]]. The majority opinion on [[Website/{{Reddit}} r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker]] appears to be the latter.

* MemeticBadass: Setsuna Shy, one of the generals the player can hire in Crusade mode. Due to being a [[GameBreaker Mage General]] he can trivialize just about any battle he fights in and it’s not uncommon for him to annihilate whole armies with one spell. Players claim he’s the true hero of the Crusade who’s stronger than even the most minmaxed Commander.

** Related to the above, the Lawful dialogue options have received a lot of flak. While they should tend towards the rule of law or upholding values of society, the majority seem to veer into AllCrimesAreEqual or ObstructiveCodeOfConduct logic, where execution is brought up as the sole punishment for basically any crime, even light ones, or they are too over focused on one aspect of the prompt, and ignore the rest of the topic, such as praising evil actions because they were done per some vague notion of order. Some options are just nonsensical too, [[labelnote:*]]A lawful dialogue option will encourage Sosiel to kill a prisoner he's taken even as he's just brought up that doing so would violate his oath to Shelyn, meaning the "lawful" option is to encourage oathbreaking, when it seems the Lawful option should be reminding him of the oath he swore and being firm about following it, but instead the Good option is the one that does that.[[/labelnote]], making it seem like Lawful choices seem at odds with what they should be for. Because of the aforementioned issue with corner alignment, it can be particularly hard for Paladins to find in-character lawful options to balance their NeutralGood choices, and makes trying to play a Lawful character unappealing, since Lawful options have no Good or Evil influence.

** '''The alignment system''', like in the last game, it's not very well-liked. Owlcat attempted to address concerns from [[YMMV/PathfinderKingmaker the last game]] that alignment-affecting dialogue options were too restrictive because each one was tied to both the Law/Chaos and Good/Evil axes by making it so that alignment-related choices in this game only affected one axis. [[MortonsFork Players don't like this either,]] in large part because the game breaking them down like that makes each option anti-synergistic with their overall alignment, instead of the previous game where it was too restricting, but the player at least had options that seemingly fit their overall alignment. Since each option is written basically as if they were as "Neutral" as possible, players who want to play certain ways have to juggle between the different alignment, which results in inconsistent actions; a player can go from selecting a Good option where they talk about seeing the good in people, to selecting a Lawful option where they execute someone over breaking a low, with no form of consistency between the two moments. Some part of this can be blamed on Owlcat continuing to track alignment on a circle rather than the square grid used by predecessors like [[Creator/{{Interplay}} Interplay's]] [[VideoGame/BaldursGate many]] [[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment famous]] [[VideoGame/IcewindDale titles]] and [[Creator/BioWare [=BioWare's=]]] [[VideoGame/NeverwinterNights series]], since the circular nature of it ''still'' means every choice is a two-axis choice, they're all just Lawful Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Neutral Good, or Neutral Evil. This makes it possible to lose classes tied to a 'corner' alignment like Paladin (Lawful Good) by siding too much with one half of that alignment (becoming either Neutral Good or Lawful Neutral), something not possible in conventional grid-based alignment systems. To top it all off, Evil choices get the shaft akin to Chaotic Evil ones in the prior game, as most of the time that you see the tag for an evil choice, it tends to be [[StupidEvil killing someone, often who you have no reason to kill and either get nothing out of killing them, or are worse off if you kill them]], instead of doing something selfish or pragmatic. This has the additional problem of making Good options borderline the correct option in every case, because the other options don't have the same consistency.

** '''The alignment system.''' Just like in the last game, it's not very well-liked. Owlcat attempted to address concerns from [[YMMV/PathfinderKingmaker the last game]] that alignment-affecting dialogue options were too restrictive because each one was tied to both the Law/Chaos and Good/Evil axes by making it so that alignment-related choices in this game only affected one axis. [[MortonsFork Players don't like this either,]] in large part because the game breaking them down like that makes each option anti-synergistic with their overall alignment, instead of the previous game where it was too restricting, but the player at least had options that seemingly fit their overall alignment. For example: A Lawful Good character when first meeting Regill, who is Lawful Evil, has to either pick Good, which reads in a AndThatsTerrible way, or pick Lawful, which instead approves of his actions, instead of having some balance of the two that would fit your overall alignment. Some part of this can be blamed on Owlcat continuing to track alignment on a circle rather than the square grid used by predecessors like [[Creator/{{Interplay}} Interplay's]] [[VideoGame/BaldursGate many]] [[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment famous]] [[VideoGame/IcewindDale titles]] and [[Creator/BioWare [=BioWare's=]]] [[VideoGame/NeverwinterNights series]], since the circular nature of it ''still'' means every choice is a two-axis choice, they're all just Lawful Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Neutral Good, or Neutral Evil. This makes it possible to lose classes tied to a 'corner' alignment like Paladin (Lawful Good) by siding too much with one half of that alignment (becoming either Neutral Good or Lawful Neutral), something not possible in conventional grid-based alignment systems. To top it all off, Evil choices get the shaft akin to Chaotic Evil ones in the prior game, as most of the time that you see the tag for an evil choice, it tends to be [[StupidEvil killing someone, often who you have no reason to kill and either get nothing out of killing them, or are worse off if you kill them]], instead of doing something selfish or pragmatic like Evil is sometimes meant to be viewed.
** Related to the above, the Lawful dialogue options have received a lot of flak. While they should tend towards the rule of law, a lot of them seem to veer into AllCrimesAreEqual or ObstructiveCodeOfConduct logic, where execution is brought up as the sole punishment for basically any crime, even light ones, or they are too over focused on one aspect of the prompt. Some options are just nonsensical too [[labelnote:*]]A lawful dialogue option will encourage Sosiel to kill a prisoner he's taken even as he's just brought up that doing so would violate his oath to Shelyn, meaning the "lawful" option is to encourage oathbreaking, when it should be reminding him of the oath he swore and being firm about following it.[[/labelnote]]. Because of the aforementioned issue with corner alignment, it can be particularly hard for Paladins to find in-character lawful options to balance their NeutralGood choices, and makes trying to play a Lawful character unappealing, since Lawful options have no Good or Evil influence.

** Arueshalae runs into the same problems as [[VideoGame/BaldursGateII Aerie,]] [[VideoGame/MassEffect Liara]] and [[VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins Leliana]] before her. You either find her story (and by extension, her romance) to be absolutely heartwarming and the perfect example of a romance themed around LoveRedeems in an RPG, or you find her ShrinkingViolet personality to be childish and irritating to put up with. Her voicework, and specifically how it's directed, helps or doesn't help in either direction, your views depending.

** The Trickster path's story causes a good bit of division because what's funny to one person isn't funny to another. Either the Trickster is a welcome injection of humor and lighthearted goofing off into a serious story or they're trying too hard to be funny in a lolrandom way that shatters immersion. Making it worse is the Trickster's tendency towards invoking LaserGuidedKarma in ways that some players will [[PayEvilUntoEvil consider well-deserved]] and others consider KarmicOverkill. There's also a frequent complain that compared to other starter mythic path, Trickster has much less interactions and special dialogue.

** Hulrun Shappok is clearly meant to be [[AntiHero a less-than-ideal character]], but exactly ''how'' un-ideal is a subject of significant debate among players. He's a legitimate badass as a combatant against the demons, but as the chief law enforcer of Kenabres he leaves much to be desired: JudgeJuryAndExecutioner in the city's martial law regime, he's prone to having people burned at the stake at the drop of a hat on the mere suspicion of contact with demons, including infamously [[MoralityPet Ember]] and her DisappearedDad. On the other hand, he ''is'' correct about [[ProperlyParanoid the presence of demon cults in Kenabres]] (even if he wasn't as good at ferreting them out as he thought he was) and that the festival at the start of the game was endangering the city. Players are divided on whether he's a NecessarilyEvil WellIntentionedExtremist, HeWhoFightsMonsters, or a LawfulStupid TautologicalTemplar who should have lost access to his class features years ago for falling to LawfulEvil[[invoked]] (violating the one-step CharacterAlignment limit from his LawfulGood {{patron god}}dess Iomedae); the majority opinion on [[Website/{{Reddit}} r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker]] appears to be the latter.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: The Crusader mode aspect of the game is commonly viewed as interesting story wise, but at best boring, at best awful, gameplay wise. The multiple different options a player can chose, the writing for your advisors, and how much each choice has some form of impact on your crusade, make it one of the best moments writing wise, and players love the interactions characters have during them. On the gameplay side though, the mode has a number of annoying mechanics and systems that sour the experience for the average player, and either use the auto settings to ignore it (which comes with issues), or use mods just to make the gameplay as painless as possible to get to the story moments quicker.

** Hulrun Shappok is clearly meant to be [[AntiHero a less-than-ideal character]], but exactly ''how'' un-ideal is a subject of significant debate among players. He's a legitimate badass as a combatant against the demons, but as the chief law enforcer of Kenabres he leaves much to be desired: JudgeJuryAndExecutioner in the city's martial law regime, he's prone to having people burned at the stake at the drop of a hat on the mere suspicion of contact with demons, including infamously [[MoralityPet Ember]] and her DisappearedDad. On the other hand, he ''is'' correct about [[ProperlyParanoid the presence of demon cults in Kenabres]] (even if he wasn't as good at ferreting them out as he thought he was) and that the festival at the start of the game was endangering the city. Players are divided on whether he's a NecessarilyEvil WellIntentionedExtremist, HeWhoFightsMonsters, or an incompetent TautologicalTemplar who should have lost access to his class features years ago for falling to LawfulEvil[[invoked]] (violating the one-step CharacterAlignment limit from his LawfulGood {{patron god}}dess Iomedae); the majority opinion on [[Website/{{Reddit}} r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker]] appears to be the latter.

** Hulrun Shappok is clearly meant to be [[AntiHero a less-than-ideal character]], but exactly ''how'' un-ideal is a subject of significant debate among players. He's a legitimate badass as a combatant against the demons, but as the chief law enforcer of Kenabres he leaves much to be desired: JudgeJuryAndExecutioner in the city's martial law regime, he's prone to having people burned at the stake at the drop of a hat on the mere suspicion of contact with demons, including infamously [[MoralityPet Ember]] and her DisappearedDad. On the other hand, he ''is'' correct about [[ProperlyParanoid the presence of demon cults in Kenabres]] (even if he wasn't as good at ferreting them out as he thought he was) and that the festival at the start of the game was endangering the city. Players are divided on whether he's a NecessarilyEvil WellIntentionedExtremist, HeWhoFightsMonsters, or a TautologicalTemplar who should have lost access to his class features years ago for falling to LawfulEvil[[invoked]] (violating the one-step CharacterAlignment limit from his LawfulGood {{patron god}}dess Iomedae); the majority opinion on [[Website/{{Reddit}} r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker]] appears to be the latter.

** Hulrun Shappok is clearly meant to be [[AntiHero a less-than-ideal character]], but exactly ''how'' un-ideal is a subject of significant debate among players. He's a legitimate badass as a combatant against the demons, but as the chief law enforcer of Kenabres he leaves much to be desired: JudgeJuryAndExecutioner in the city's martial law regime, he's prone to having people burned at the stake at the drop of a hat on the mere suspicion of contact with demons, including infamously [[MoralityPet Ember]] and her DisappearedDad. On the other hand, he ''is'' correct about [[ProperlyParanoid the presence of demon cults in Kenabres]] (even if he wasn't as good at ferreting them out as he thought he was) and that the festival at the start of the game was endangering the city. Players are divided on whether he's a NecessaryEvil WellIntentionedExtremist, HeWhoFightsMonsters, or a TautologicalTemplar who should have lost access to his class features years ago for falling to LawfulEvil[[invoked]] (violating the one-step CharacterAlignment limit from his LawfulGood {{patron god}}dess Iomedae); the majority opinion on [[Website/{{Reddit}} r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker]] appears to be the latter.

** [[spoiler:Nurah, who keeps turning up after acts of sabotage that clearly come from your own camp, is suspiciously holding an incendiary when the camp has been set on fire during an attack (and the enemies don't have fire), has Scrolls of Protection from Good, etc. Even if you don't spot the stuff she carries, the game doesn't really offer any suitable other suspects. Irabeth is your second in command and gets kidnapped herself, ruling her out. Anevia's married to Irabeth and been alongside the player since the early game. Horgus Gwerm is bankrolling the crusade so there's no reason he'd sabotage his own investment. The quartermaster guy actually repeatedly engages the commander to go the extra mile to provide for the troops. Daeran your advisor is both a party member and gets kidnapped by the gargoyles too. Nurah meanwhile is the only one that's around not serving any actual role in the camp (ostensibly she's chronicling the crusade but will never ask you about what's going on or accompany you anywhere).]]

** This has resulted in a small UnpleasableFanbase, who often complain that ratfolk didn't make the cut while curiously complaining that the kitsune only did because of being furry bait. Catfolk fans complain as well but are not nearly as loud.