Ass Pull: On the journey from Yokohama to Honolulu where you have to solve a murder mystery. It seems like a standard whodunnit where you question witnesses to find whose story doesn't add up, but in fact you have to study the crime scene and conclude the estimated time of death was wrong. As a result of the faulty premise, most of your questioning peoples' alibis is barking up the wrong tree.
Audience Awareness Advantage: Some of the characters and scenarios are based on real-life events and people, so someone history-savvy might find the supposed plot twists quite obvious. Of course, the only way to get to Port Moresby is to jump on the HMS Basilisk, getting in a balloon with one Saloman Andree is a bad idea, and you should be very wary of King Cetshwayo.
Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: While many consider planning journeys on the fly and making branching choices fun, does the limited interaction really stand up to the excellent writing of the prose itself? This was especially called into question when The Times (the real-life newspaper, not the in-game one) listed 80 Days as one of the best novels of the year.
Octave, a one-off character in New Orleans, garnered a lot of popularity among players for his romantic dialogue.
The same could be said for Goland and Vitti Jokinen, but they were probably more intentional since they are both more traditional love interest characters.
Escapist Character: Passepartout could be easily seen as one. He makes friends easily, is clearly intelligent, and has a tendency to save the day. This is not a bad thing.
More Popular Spin-Off: While the game isn't really 'more popular', a surprising number of people, primarily those approaching the game from the 'video game' rather than 'interactive novel' side, are very or completely unfamiliar with Jules Verne's original novel.
Polished Port: The PC port came complete with the addition of the North Pole arc- a massive amount of content.
That One Sidequest: Want to meet Goland back in London? Good luck. You'd have to start in Russia, head through the desert, then jump all the way to Australia, head across to South America in a very specific gyrocopter, wait in a rural village for a few days for said gyrocopter pilot to return out of the blue, then accompany him for another trip. And make it back to London. In eighty days.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: Should Passepartout have gotten with Goland, Vitti or Fogg?
Unconventional Learning Experience: If one comes to the game without being particularly geography-savy, it makes for a good opportunity to find out the location of various cities one may have heard of, but not necessarily be able to place on a map.
