Video Game / Heroes Must Die

Heroes Must Die is a free-to-play Turn Based Action RPG released by Heroic Games for PC on July 15, 2016.

It follows a young hero forced to work for evil overlord Lord Murder. The game has a turn based strategy combat system where you dodge enemy attacks then attack the enemies. He is called upon to deal with a revolution with the help of his Co Dragon Grim. Along the way he fights masked bandits, mad bombers, magical twins, and Dragons.

No relation to Hero Must Die.

Tropes present in this game:

• Badass Boast:
  • Grim delivers one to an injured Arikan.
    "I like seeing how much I can break something that's already broken."
  • Death delivers one before his fight with Storm.
    "My dragon tenders survived the beasts. We can tame you!"
• Bad Boss: Lord Murder uses the legion to draw cannon fire, and easily becomes suspicious of Storm because of a misunderstanding with Grim. Grim is also this due to his Hair-Trigger Temper and tendency to abuse his subordinates.

• Big Good: Promise the last Sword Breaker, who forms a small settlement outside of Murder's control and tries to save Storm, You, and Angelica from him. Angelica later replaces her, leading The Warborn against Lord Murder.
• Captain Obvious: Grim, when he and War are told that Storm didn't kill The Warborn's leader
  War: You had one job...
  Grim: AND YOU FAILED
  War: That was the obvious implication, yes.
• Climbing Climax: The second stage of Murder's boss fight takes place in the sky, though interestingly this can make it easier than other fights due to the lack of obstacles.

• Department of Redundancy Department:
  • When a group of Legion try to falsely arrest Storm.
    Response 1 "You idiots!"
    Response 2 "Trust me... You Idiots!"
  • Grim has a similar moment before his final fight with Storm.
  "this is the for real last and actual end time thing!"

• Elite Mook: The dragons are introduced near the end and have the same defense as most bosses and deal a lot of damage.

• Enemy Mine: Olive forms this with Storm to defeat Moneybags and later The Warborn. The Warborn and The Masks form this against Murder later in the game.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Murder has several women and Ambiguously Brown people working for him.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: War is a Soft-Spoken Sadist with black hair and pale skin.
• Evil Genius: Split between Murder's three generals.
  • War is The Strategist who trains and commands the Legion.
  • Taxes is a Desk Jockey who manages the books of the empire.
  • Death runs the Propaganda Machine, acts as The Spymaster, and figured out how to breed dragons.

• Failed a Spot Check: A pair of Legion soldiers were so busy playing basketball that they didn't notice that the Warborn were attacking Skullcrusher Mountain.

• Foil: Grim is this to Storm. He is a violent, rude, blindingly loyal, and dumb. Storm is more of a Deadpan Snarker who tries to take the smart peaceful route with issues and is only working with Murder to survive.

• Fun with Acronyms: The "Official Meeting of Network of Masks, New Operating Movement" is called "Om-Nom-Nom."

• The Hero Dies: Subverted, Storm's final battle takes place in the sky and after his victory he falls, but he lands on Grim and survives.

• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • A group of Warborn fight Storm to convince Murder that Storm is still on his side.
  • Later when Storm attacks Skullcrusher Mountain a dragon attacks him, since dragons can only be hit by combos a group of Masks let Storm kill them for combos to kill the dragon.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Meta example with You. The game isn't referring to him in the sense that he's the player character; it's referring to him by his actual name.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Eel's escape attempt backfires when he jumps off the bell tower and the hay meant to save him is moved.
  • Death is mauled to death by the dragons he bred.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Lord Murder's base, Skullcrusher Mountain.

• Informed Attribute:
  • A big deal is made about how The Warborn have a chain of command, however, we only ever see The Hooded Figure and Arikan and no other evidence of this.
  • The Honor Guard are supposedly Elite Mooks but are Killed Offscreen.

• Large Ham
  • Grim has a tendency to shout everything.
  • Lord Murder has some crazy facial expressions while talking.
  • The Masks are Gory Hogs who make big scenes for attention.
• Mad Bomber: Averted with the Mad Bomber who is very levelheaded and smart.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Played with. The Network of Masks are fighting the Evil Lord Murder's Regime, but are also glory hounds who cause a lot of collateral damage
• Motor Mouth: When Storm talks to Taxes in the beginning she goes on a rant and doesn't let him get a word in.
• Mook Chivalry: Lampshaded and discussed. Storm apparently proposed to a Mook working under War that they all attack at once, but he says that it doesn't make sense to him.

• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Lord Murder, Grim, War, Death, Taxes!.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The Warborn are nice, being revolutionaries out to overthrow Lord Murder. The Legion is mean ,being an oppressive government. The Masks are in between, being revolutionaries that are more of Destructive Saviors and are led by the corrupt Captain Moneybags.
• No Delays for the Wicked: Inverted. Taxes goes on a long rant about all the things that need to be paid for in the empire. The Warborn and Masks, however, don't have problems due to the simplicity of their plans.
• Non-Indicative Name: Lampshaded. Death is the Minister of Propaganda. Taxes is associated with this trope but is the Minister of Finance.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…:
  • Attempted. Eel jumps off a bell tower and plans to land on a pile of hay, but it is moved and he dies from the fall.
  • Later played straight when Storm falls out of the sky after his battle with Murder and his fall is broken by an incapacitated Grim.
• Number Two for Brains: Grim is an idiot and is Murder's Number Two.
• Only Sane Man: Storm among the rest of Murder's council because he's the only one that tries diplomacy with their enemies, which works better than killing them most of the time.
• Orcus on His Throne: Played strait and Subverted. Murder is perfectly happy to send his minions to kill rebels, but both times he attacks Southern Cross, he personally leads his troops. Those two examples are Justified as the first time he's the only one capable of beating Promise in a fight, and the second time The Warborn had thwarted all of his previous attempts to defeat them.

• Overly Long Gag: When Grim and Storm fight for the last time
  Storm: This time!
  Grim: Thiiis time!!
  Storm: THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSS TIIME!!!!!
• Pragmatic Villainy: Lord Murder is willing to make pragmatic choices, like recruiting Olive if it helps him.
• Red Baron: Grim and Storm are known as Hero Killers.

• Screw Thisim Out Of Here: To quote Eel, "He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day!"
• Shout-Out:
  • There's a character named Cid who You keeps asking about his crazy inventions, and his assistants Biggs and Wedge, to which Cid says he must be thinking of another person
  • When the job of Hero Killers is explained, they mention killing bespectacled kids who are wizards, silent protagonists waking up on the day of the town festival, and fat short men finding rings in caves.
  • One Legion soldier mentions that some barrels have some large ape smell.
  • A citizen in Southern Cross says "Welcome to Corneria" and says that he's practicing for a play called Final Fantasy.
  • Two of the Mafia goons you meet are named Mugsy and Rocky.
  • The Mafia's business front is called Grand Theft Gelato.
• Sinister Scythe: Death wields a very large scythe in combat.
• Smash Mook: The heavy class of Mook wield large weapons and have 4 hitpoints, instead of the others who have 1 or 2.

• The Spymaster: Death has informants that tell him about problems in the empire.

• We Hardly Knew Ye: You and Promise are killed by Murder in the opening level.
• We Have Reserves: Lamphaded. War outright states that legion relies on numbers to win fights instead of skill.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Taxes is never seen after Storm is sent back to fight the Warborn. She was more than likely killed by Angelica when she fought her way through her tower.
• Would Harm a Child: Murder kills You, who is just a kid.
• Villain of Another Story:
  • Lucarzi Lamorra, the head of the gothic city mafia.
  • Storm and the rest of Lord Murder's dark council are this for the story of the Masks and Warborn. Subverted with storm, who joins the Warborn to take down Murder.
• Xanatos Gambit: Grim sets one up at Southern Cross where he fights Storm. If he wins he captures Storm, if he loses some mages blow up the building and incapacitate Storm.

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