Battles are fought by means of a puzzle interface with units of three different colors that have to be matched up vertically to form attacks or horizontally to form walls. Some units take up two or four spaces (called Elite and Champion units, respectively) and need to be matched up with smaller units of the same color to form attacks, usually with a special ability like being able to jump over walls or delaying enemy attacks.
5 of the original 6 races appear with slight changes to their lineup, and also have different kinds of walls. Two heroes per faction bring in their unique spells and can be equipped with a variety of artifacts to further customize them. The lineup ranges from Godric and Findan, who also played major roles in Heroes V, to complete newcomers like the Knight Varkas and Godric's brother Aidan.
The following tropes appear in this game:
- Absurdly Low Level Cap: The level cap for all playable characters is 10. Since each character is only playable during their corresponding chapter (except during a brief sequence during the last chapter when they make a return), they need to reach the cap before facing the chapter's boss, as their level can be as high as 15; defeating them requires good preparation.
- Affably Evil: This being the Lighter and Softer game that it is, most evil characters you meet come across as such. Even those who aren't are more likely to Poke the Poodle than Kick the Dog, though there are exceptions.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Demons, of course. The Undead seem pretty level-headed and (in the case of Sir Skelton and Markal) quite friendly, except for Ludmilla.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Count Carlyle. Ludmilla has a noble bearing as well.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: One NPC complains about Carlyle:Peasant: Carlyle this! Carlyle that! I can't believe this second-rate bootlicker has become so important. He's a cheat! And a swindler! And a thief! Plus he parks his horse all over the place.
- Artifact of Doom: The Blade of Binding.
- Awesome McCoolname:
- Godric's name in the tournament is "Sir Ignatius Thunderblade", which was made up on the spot. Lampshaded by Varkas who goes "Ignatius Thunderblade?", so Godric tells him to just roll with it.
- And again when you confront Carlyle, who says "I'll advise the emperor to hang you for the insult, Sir... whatever your ridiculous name is."
- Ax-Crazy: One of your bounties in the Haven Campaign is like this. Considering he greets you with "...YOU GOT A PRETTY MOUTH!"
- Back for the Finale: After completing their respective campaigns, the first three heroes converge upon the Silver Cities as originally planned in the ending of the Downer Beginning. Upon meeting Ahz Rafir, Fiona recognizes him as the wizard that attacked her in Heresh, prompting him to imprison the trio until Nadia rescues them. When Ahz Rafir called for Azexes, Aidan got summoned instead and was bound to the former's will. Thankfully, the other four heroes snap him out of it the old-fashioned way before confronting Ahz Rafir as Lord Bloodcrown.
- Bag of Spilling: Artifacts don't carry over to the final part of the campaign in the DS version. In the HD rerelease, they do.
- Big Bad: Lord Bloodcrown. An alter-ego/true form for Nadia's father, Ahz Rafir.
- Big Boo's Haunt: The setting of Chapter 3, the Necropolis where the undead live for all eternity. It's a dark, unsettling location with ribcage corridors and an acidic lake. Fiona finds herself here after having died, and over the course of the chapter she has to find a way to return to life, for which she has to participate in a ritual at the top of an ancient pyramid. She also has to defeat Lordess Ludmilla, which is by far the hardest part.
- Big Eater: Count Carlyle is not a slender man. In his monstrous form, when he isn't using his vomit comets, he uses a beam that turns your units into foodstuffs, then sucks them into his gigantic secondary mouth.
- Blood Knight: Aidan can control demons at will. The vast majority of his campaign battles are against demons. He could just tell them to get out of his way or even make them kill themselves yet he combats them, and sometimes even foces them to fight him, because he feels it's a more meaningful revenge.
- Blush Sticker: The zombie core units sport these.
- Body Horror: What happens to Count Carlyle when he tries to use the shapeshifting rod is pretty disgusting.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The Blade of Binding on Aidan's hand eventually consumes him and he attacks the heroes at the end of the final campaign. However, Godric snaps him out of it.
- Civil Warcraft: Justified. The demons' plan is to create a civil war, and they're not the ones behind the idea in the first place. There's also the bounties, who are all criminals.
- Clear My Name: Godric's campaign, as he is falsely accused of the murder of Lady Delara (the crime was plotted by Azh Rafier, a.k.a. Lord Bloodcrown). His father is accused of being a traitor for allowing the murder as well (leading to the corrupt Carlyle to take over).
- Clingy MacGuffin: The Blade of Binding, with a dash of Body Horror; it starts as a dagger-looking weapon and eventually fuses with your arm. Nadia's Kaamla Asiya spell is the only thing that can break it off.
- Close-Range Combatant: This is usually just a special effect - archers and swordsmen deal damage in the same way, reduced by the opponents they kill on the way to the enemy - but Gremlins, a unit for the Mages, are different. Instead of having constant damage at any range, their power starts out very high but drops off sharply as it progresses; a max-level gremlin unit firing at a charging unit directly in front of it will do 18 damage, enough to punch through anything except an elite, champion or fused unit, but the same max-level gremlin trio will do something like 3 damage, at most, when given a clear shot at the enemy's face down an empty lane.
- Combined Energy Attack: Fiona's spell does this with every idle Core unit on her field, converting them into a single attack. As an added bonus, after the attack resolves, the bones of the fallen Core units gravitate forward to form walls.
- Compelling Voice: Subverted. It's not Aidan's voice that compels demons to do his bidding — it's the Blade of Binding he isn't even aware he's holding.
- Covers Always Lie: The cover for the game features a version of Aidan that never appears in the game itself, with a different hairstyle and his arm covered in fire.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Gremlins have a short charge time and a high damage, but it drops off sharply after the first couple of panels, meaning they tend to be very useful for weakening/killing enemy attackers and elites, and completely useless for doing more than Scratch Damage if left with an empty lane to shoot down.
- Cute Ghost Girl: Fiona, after getting gravely injured during the attack on the camp. She gets better.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Fiona's campaign features several friendly undead creatures.
- Death or Glory Attack: Fiona's Spider Cloak accessory. It boosts the power of her individual units by 100%, allowing her to take on opponents of much higher levels. The drawback is that it knocks her lifepoints down to 10% of her max, so one solid hit will kill her. Note that in earlier versions of the game, Fiona could refill her life points to full, with the Vampire elite units and a bit of luck. The HD rerelease closed that loophole by hard capping her HP at 25% of maximum.
- Dem Bones: Skeletons are some of the core units of the Necropolis.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: The game forces you to use Nadia in the final Boss Fight (for plot reasons). At this point in the game, you won't have had time to level up Nadia to max (you don't gain access to her until the endgame and her stage lacks the side missions the others have to gain EXP). And as a bonus handicap, Nadia is the only playable character whose Limit Break strikes randomly, rather than full-screen or aimed. What would've been an easy endeavor with Godric or Anwen turns into a Luck-Based Mission.
- Dragged Off to Hell: Nadia's dad gets dragged to Sheogh in the end as punishment for his failure.
- Dueling Player Characters: Near the end of Chapter 5, it is shown that Aidan (the playable character of Chapter 4) got corrupted by the Binding Blade he was using, so Godric (the playable character of Chapter 2) has to defeat him in a Pre-Final Boss fight. Aidan recovers and turns good once again, proceeding to fight Nadia's father and expose his identity as Lord Bloodcrown (who is then fought by Nadia in the final battle).
- Dungeon Town: The setting of Chapter 2, the capital of the Griffin Empire (Talonguard). The city has been put under a state of exception, so even the once-peaceful alleys and streets are unsafe. After winning a tournament, Godric gets an audience with the Emperor in the castle and not only manages to get rid of Carlyle's lies, but also defeat Carlyle himself in a boss battle.
- Emo Teen: Aidan, before he starts Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Close to it, anyway; the main characters are all the sons and daughters of heroes of various lands.
- Evil Chancellor: Carlyle, who's also a big Jerkass.
- Evil Hand: Aidan's hand ends up binding with the Binding Blade.
- Fallen Hero: Nadia's father, one of the three heroes charged with guarding the Blade of Binding..
- Fat Bastard: Count Carlyle is very large and villain of Godric's chapter. And then he turns into a giant monster with an enormous second mouth.
- Foregone Conclusion: Since the game takes place 40 years before Heroes of Might and Magic V with Godric and Anwen as playable characters, it's clear that the heroes will save the day.
- Freakiness Shame: Aidan's left hand is deformed with evil. Jezebeth likes it.
- Gaiden Game: Characterization differences and the gameplay change make this fit well enough.
- Gathering Steam: Pixies start off as by far the weakest core units, but their attacks grow more powerful the higher Anwen's magic meter is. When it's full, they can deliver a surprisingly nasty bite for a core unit.
- Giant Hands of Doom: Lord Bloodcrown has two giant hands protecting his equally massive body. They charge and fire energy blasts while blocking attacks, giving him time to charge up and fire a devastating laser.
- Glass Cannon:
- The Spider Cloak (which doubles all units' attack, but starts health at 10%) turns Fiona into one. However, if you can create formations in a timely manner, you can make it so Fiona never takes damage. It's especially useful against Ludmilla, since it means you can take her out with one shot - a massive attack bonus on a centrally-located Wraith will let it tear through the Bone Dragon and inflict its One-Hit Kill power on Ludmilla herself.
- The Wraith itself is this; it has the ability to kill any other unit in one hit, including bosses and the other player, but it has low strength for a Champion unit.
- Guide Dang It!: The later puzzle battles will have you searching Youtube for an answer.
- Happiness in Slavery: Initially, Jezebeth is controlled by Aidan's power, but she realizes very quickly that she can have anything she wants if she sticks by him.
- He Who Fights Monsters:
- Aidan turns into this when he finds out that he is able to control demons as the dagger he picked up was the Blade of Binding, making this a case of Pay Evil unto Evil as well. After a while, he comes across as more of a Jerkass than some of the demons he fights.
- In Aidan's campaign there's also a human in the demon world who escaped his slavery only to enslave other humans.
- Idiot Ball: The emperor of the Griffin Empire had a pretty big one lodged in his head since he listened to Carlyle and was easily swayed. At least he acknowledges this at the end of the campaign.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Fiona isn't very interested in leading an army of undead soldiers, especially not because of the... circumstances of her situation leading to that. She just wants a happy life alongside her brothers.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain:
- Azexes ("Why does he always have to yell at me?"). Also the ransom note by the demons:
- A lot of the bounties you fight are like this too; since they don't get much introduction or dialogue, they end up being jokes more than not.
- Inevitable Tournament: Godric enters one in disguise to gain an audience with the Emperor to settle things.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Jezebeth is obviously aroused by Aidan's descent into madness.
- It's All Upstairs From Here: Nadia's chapter starts at the base of a tower and ends at the top.
- The Journey Through Death: The third chapter of the game revolves around Fiona, one of the main characters, forcefully deprived of life and taken to the underworld. She ventures through this domain to start a rite whose completion allows her to return to life, but not without facing opposition from strong enemies, including the boss Ludmilla whom Fiona has to face at the top of the rituals' scene.
- Last Chance Hit Point: The elvish faction has an artifact which revives their walls at 1 HP when destroyed. Since elvish walls have a natural Healing Factor, this is quite powerful.
- Lighter and Softer: The "western anime" art style, reminiscent of Avatar: The Last Airbender, suits the generally sillier tone of the game well.
- The Lost Woods: The setting of Chapter 1, the forest of Irollan where the Sylvan live alongside several magical beings that are native to it. It's a beautiful, idyllic forest that used to be peaceful until the war begun. During her campaign in the chapter, Anwen has to look for the Blade of Binding before the demons do, find Godric, and protect the Druid Tree which is under attack.
- Luck-Based Mission: Beating Ludmilla largely consists of a) equipping the Spider Cloak, b) assigning the Wraith as an elite unit, and c) retrying until you get one in a position where it can attack before the Bone Dragon does. Lord Bloodcrown can also be like this, since you need a lot of walls to survive.
- Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Nadia, though her father was studious before his Face–Heel Turn,
if it's really him at all, and she was already on the side of good. - Monster Arena: The coliseum in Talonguard is where Godric (who is under a disguise to avoid being exposed and arrested) participates to gain an audience with the emperor. The tournament begins in the quarterfinals, and in each round Godric has to defeat a powerful opponent that brings their own army of soldiers, including monstrous units.
- One-Hit Kill: The Reaper unit, which has a special effect where it instantly kills any enemy unit it damages. Reaper down to 8 damage vs. 100HP double-merged angel on the verge of killing you? Reaper takes it down. This also applies to bosses, such as Lordess Ludmilla, and even enemy players!
- One-Winged Angel: Lord Bloodcrown transforms into a gigantic version of himself for the final battle. Count Carlyle might count as well, but he does it by accident and you don't fight him directly beforehand.
- Our Elves Are Different: Only Sylvan Wood Elves appear in this game. They have regenerating walls and several useful unit abilities, Anwen's sniper shot spell is a Disc-One Nuke, and all their units charge faster than the other factions' equivalents, though as a rule they're also considerably more fragile.
- Lethal Lava Land: The setting of Chapter 4, the Inferno. It's a large, volcanic hollow where many demons reside, and has several rivers of magma. Aidan finds himself here after the portal that was supposed to take him to the Silver Cities goes haywire due to being open for too long and takes him to Inferno instead. The Blade of Binding he grabbed beforehand allows him to take control of demons, allowing him to prepare revenge after Azexes for the death of his father. Unfortunately, the Binding Blade corrupts him, which isn't reverted until near the end.
- Precious Puppies: Varkas always has his puppy, Rufus, over his shoulder.
- Precursor Heroes: The five heroes as of the epilogue. Also with the exception of Aidan and Anwen, each of the heroes are related to the protagonists in Heroes of Might and Magic V in some form.
- Godric would continue fighting alongside Alexei and Nicolai before having to be Isabel's ward.
- Fiona would recruit Markal into her court as queen unaware of his Face–Heel Turn thinking that he was still the knight that fought alongside her. Her remains wound up in his collection.
- Nadia would marry Cyrus and her son Zehir will save Ashan.
- Pre-Final Boss: Aidan, due to having been corrupted by the Binding Blade. Right after he returns to normal upon his defeat to Godric, he turns against Azh Rafir in another battle and defeats him, which triggers Rafir transforming into Lord Bloodcrown, who is then challenged by Nadia in the real Final Boss battle.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Aidan threatens some demons with this in his part of the campaign, though he never actually does it.
- Puzzle Boss: Besides having a puzzle-based battle system, the game also has some battles where the objective is to hit specific rows or in a certain order. The beginning of the fifth chapter has three battles that are impossible to win unless you figure out how: the first has a wall of fire that destroys all of your units before they can attack (you need to use Ghosts, which are invincible when charging), the second pits you against three linked, extremely powerful Rakshasa (you need to use Druids to de-sync them), and the third against a mage who weakens your charging units at every turn (you need an Angel to replenish their attack).
- Pyromaniac: When the volcano erupts in Sheogh, one demon (named Pyro) seems pretty happy about it, and even though he gets hit by a flaming rock about five seconds after you meet him, he decides it was worth it as he crumbles into a pile of ashes.
- Really Gets Around: Jezebeth having dated practically everyone you fight in the Sheogh campaign (including Azexes) is something of a Running Gag.
- Record Needle Scratch: When you first enter the pub in the Inferno campaign. Then everything goes back to normal in an instant.
- Recurring Boss: Azexes serves as the boss of two chapters: The first in Irollan forest (fought there by Anwen), and the second in Inferno (fought there by Aidan).
- Same Character, But Different:
- Markal has quite a different personality compared to his older Manipulative Bastard self. In Clash of Heroes, he's more of an idealistic warrior rather than a seeker of power and revenge.
- Jezebeth. Nothing of her personality in this game is shown in Heroes of Might and Magic VI or V, and even her appearance differs greatly.
- Shout-Out: In addition to the Ax-Crazy bounty above, one in the Sylvan campaign is a man offering to sell you torches, to which Anwen and Findan respond as follows:Anwen: Remember Sparky, only YOU can prevent forest fires ... and in this case, the "YOU" means US ...
Findan:... and the "prevent forest fires" means KICKING YOUR BUTT! - Sdrawkcab Name: Aidan is actually Nadia backwards. Considering the two characters aren't related in the slightest, it might've been something the writers overlooked.
- Spirit Advisor: Delara to Nadia. Subverted as she could only stay long enough to explain what she did to her before entering the afterlife.
- Standard Fantasy Setting: Slightly more so than the other games, thanks to the art style.
- Super Spit: While they move very slowly, the mutated Count Carlyle can spit things out of his stomach-mounted second mouth that move towards you and, upon reaching your lines, turn into literal vomit comets and cause havoc.
- Teacher/Student Romance: It's fairly obvious Cyrus cares about Nadia, his teacher's daughter. They marry in the epilogue.
- The Tower: The setting of Chapter 5, the Academy (located in the Silver Cities, Nadia's homeland). It's a tall regal building that has falled under decay since the dawn of the war. Nadia has to make her way out of the underground dungeons and make her way across the spiral road that takes her to the throne at the top and confront her father, who is revealed to has been possessed by Lord Bloodcrown.
- Treacherous Quest Giver: After all of Aidan's Bounty Hunter sidequests are done in Sheogh, he finds a Price on Their Head for killing too many demons. When Aidan refuses to surrender to bounty agent, they engage in battle, with said agent being a Superboss with all max level creatures.
- Treants: The game features Treants as one of the two Champion units for the Sylvan faction. They're somewhat weak for a Champion unit, but can steal the life of the enemy hero after hitting them, and stay on the field as a barrier after attacking.
- Two Girls to a Team: Inverted. The core group is made up of three women and two men.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: Godric encounters this early on in the shape of a stealth segment.
- Updated Re-release: It was released on the PS3 Network and Xbox Live for download in April 2011 with updated graphics and balancing. Later in 2012, it was released on Steam. Another updated rerelease, Definitive Edition, is scheduled to be released in late 2023 with further updated artwork and a new boss.
- Use Your Head: The skeletons attack with their heads, yanking them off and bashing the enemy with it.
- Vanilla Unit: Most of the factions have two of their core units be vanilla units, usually with a choice between a fast-charging but weak one and a stronger, slower one. For example, Sylvan has Hunters with the fastest charge speed in the game, but they also have Bears, which are slower to charge and stronger. While there aren't any vanilla Elite units, there are a few vanilla Champions, like Necropolis's Death Knight and Inferno's Abyssal Lord and Pit Fiend — they don't have any abilities, but hit even harder than your average Champion unit to compensate.
- Warm-Up Boss: Azexes is the first real boss of the game, and all he does is slowly teleport around and use slow, moderately strong Charged Attacks that leave him wide open to attack. Azexes shows up again as the boss of Aidan's chapter — he has more HP and can summon walls, then turn them into fireball projectiles, but he's still not particularly hard.
- We Have Reserves: In most cases calling for reinforcements costs one "move"; however, the Haven faction's King's Crown Artifact removes this cost. Elite and Champion units come in limited numbers however, unlike the core units, and they're usually expensive as well.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Poor Jezebeth. She seemed to love Aidan but is never seen past his campaign. Aidan's hatred of demons deepening makes it more bleak.
- This applies to Varkas as well. He's never mentioned after Godric's campaign.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: If you played Heroes of Might and Magic V, most of it won't surprise you.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Aidan, whose control onto demons thanks to the Blade of Binding takes a toll from his purity, leading to the Blade merging with his arm. Luckily, after Godric defeats him during the game's climax, he comes back to normal and proceeds to battle Azh Rafir himself.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: The Sword Master is said to inflict these with his attacks. In-game, it causes anyone hit by the attack to take Damage Over Time for the rest of the battle.
- You Have Failed Me: When Azh Rafir meets up with Ludmilla, he found her defeated and interrogated by Fiona and Markal. He then casts a spell to collapse the lair in an effort to kill all three, but the heroes manage to escape.
