Anvilicious: One of the common criticisms of Undyingnephalim's work. During Hyrule Conquest's Hyrule Historia missions, characters rather openly espouse his views of fandoms, the Nintendo corporation, and other issues.
Awesome Art: Sure, there are plenty of moments of creepiness, but the game can become gorgeous even if the moments are few and far between.
Broken Base: Opinions of the mod with Zelda fans range far and wide. Just look at the tropes on this page! Applies within the internal fanbase of the mod as well, with some outright driven away by Undyingnephalim's tendency to criticize and complain about issues in multi-hour rants.
Demonic Spiders: The Kokiri, particularly Saria's unique unit, the Deku Tree. Due to only having Saria as a technology requirement due to a quirk in the 0 A.D. engine, and with the Kokiri's powerful early-game economy, a skilled Kokiri layer can swarm a rival with Deku Trees within the first ten minutes of a match.
Game-Breaker: The Kokiri's excellent early game economy and ability to field swarms of cheap units has earned the mod the nickname Kokiri Conquest among more competitive players.
Game-Breaking Bug: Hyrule: Total War had so many that the creator decided to port the game over to 0 A.D. and rename it Hyrule Conquest.
Goddamned Bats: The Kokiri's cheap units and excellent early economy have already earned them a reputation as the mod's equivilent of the zerg.
In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mineru has much in common with Yaraxonal, who predates Mineru by a decade. Compare them side◊ by side◊. It's not just their appearance; they are both thousands of years old Sages of Spirit who were sealed in stone, have a familiar relation to another ancient character (Yaraxonal is the wife of Senturon, who himself has some major overlaps with Rauru), share a color scheme of black, orange and gold, and their height of about two times that of Hylians. Given Tears of the Kingdom's developement team is composed of many younger and fresh developers, it's possible some of them happen to be fans of Hyrule Conquest and took some of its content as inspiration.
Majora from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is considered the most effective villain in the series by the mod's creator, and as such is the main antagonist of the setting. Its demented laugh, supposedly recorded by none other than Andy Serkis has become known and even by those unaware of the mod.
The Shiekah Cadre and their Yiga cousins field numerous twisted undead abominations and ruthless torturers and assassins as common units. The form of magic they utilize boils an enemy's blood until they explode. Dethl, or Bongo Bongo, their Titan, reproduces by driving victims insane until they cut off their own head, upon which its spawn unfold out of the stump like a flower and mutate the corpse into a Devoured.
Malice is vastly more hideous than it is in its source, being a mass of screaming faces and body horror strongly inspired by The Thing (1982).
Player Punch: The mod can end up like this, particularly to Zelda fans, due to its Gray-and-Grey Morality and the mod's critical stance of the direction the Legend of Zelda series has taken.
Shocking Moments: Majora destroys the Triforce in the final mission of the game.
Tear Jerker: When Ganon realizes Bongo played him for a fool and lied about the Triforce's location, he is so filled with despair that he collapses and does not resist when Zelda I arrives and cuts him down, followed by the revelation his plan was to bring back all those killed by the war between his people and the Hylians and usher in a golden age of peace.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The mod's Gray-and-Grey Morality can head into this territory for some fans, with some of the heroes being actually evil or just manipulated by evil forces. This is actually toned down from how dark and depressing the mod was in earlier incarnations. For example, in the earlier builds of Hyrule Total War, Zelda was an outright religious fanatic and Hyrule was a crusader state bent on converting the world to Goddess Worship at sword-point.
Unexpected Character: Several of the characters who serve as commanders. Carock, for example, was merely a boss who made no appearances after his defeat, yet here he’s a member of the Wizzrobe faction.
There is also Krin, who is a very obscure character from 80s Valiant Comics.
Safe to say not many people are even aware of the game Arborachnid comes from.
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