YMMV / Lands of Lore

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Towards the end of the first game you suddenly come across two intelligent species locked in conflict which have never been seen or mentioned before. You have to choose to side with one and decimate the other to proceed. This seems completely unconnected to anything else in the game. Somewhat lampshaded by the main character, who will complain that he has a quest to attend to, cuing a But Thou Must! reaction from the NPCs.
  • It turns out these are conjured up images, presumably by Scotia. The alien connotation is carried over in Guardians of Destiny and III with the Ruloi, although there's more In-Universe explanation and justification for them, supplied by a speaking stone in Guardians of Destiny.
• Demonic Spiders: Many in every game. The Pentrogs in Opinwood and the snakelike apparitions in the White Tower in The Throne of Chaos, those freaky neon-pink spider thingies in at least one game in the trilogy.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Out of the original four heroes in The Throne of Chaos, a ton of players really liked Kieran for his cool design, appealing voice, being the only character with good rogue abilities, and being a surprisingly good mage once you trained him. It seems Westwood caught on to this popularity and made him the canonical character who quested in the first game.
• First Installment Wins: The first game is the most beloved by far. It certainly helps that it is the most polished in the trilogy, especially when compared to the experimental second game and the rushed third game.
• Goddamned Bats: The winged spiders and plague rats in the Draracle's Cave.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Patrick Stewart voices a monarch in a fantasy RPG who is taken out early in the story. Are we talking about Lands of Lore or Elder Scrolls?
• Obvious Beta: Lands of Lore III was released in a clearly unfinished state. Multiple worlds have zero story or interactions other than the opening cutscene, the Class Guilds offer no quests other than their initial ones, acquiring the third class level in a guild gives you no benefit or new abilities, and there are multiple areas sealed off behind locked doors that cannot be opened (but can be glitched past) that reveal areas that were VERY CLEARLY supposed to house quests and guild features (like the Rogue shooting gallery).
• Scrappy Mechanic: Acid attacks have a chance of destroying your armor, something that is in very short supply. Often the only way to get past this is Save Scumming.
• Special Effect Failure: In Guardians of Destiny, when enemies are being clipped incorrectly when they move into obstacles, their sprite size:distance ratio gets messed up. It can lead to some bizarre effects, like human-sized Lamplights, or Cerberus Tigers the size of rabbits.
• That One Boss: The Larkhon. The weapon you're supposed to use on it is not nearly efficient enough and eats the characters' mana; magic-challenged players may have to resort to just chucking items at it until it dies.
  • Made easier by simply dashing back out into the forest once you're low on magic, resting to fill up your magic meter (and restoring any health that's been lost), then re-entering the mines to attack the Larkhon again. Repeat as necessary.
• That One Level: The Third Floor of the White Tower. It is infested with a huge amount of strong undead enemies who will swarm you and can go through walls to reach you. They are highly resistant if not outright immune to most weapons and magic, emerald blades and Mists of Doom spell being the exceptions. Worst of all are little spectral snakes which will pop out of nowhere to deal obscene amounts of damage to your whole party. The good news is if you kept Vaelen’s Cube it all becomes much more manageable, the cube will drain the health of the ghosts and add it to your mana, allowing you to counter with powerful spells and heal up when necessary. Though even with the cube the floor is a trial to get though thanks to just how much undead is packed in it, plus nothing can really be done about the snakes.
• Underused Game Mechanic: in Guardians of Destiny, it is quite possible to play without running until the return from Claw Mountains into the Savage Jungle. There's no in-game hint to running, so if you don't have a guide, it's impossible to continue. The only hint is in the options menu, listing the shift key as the shortkey for 'speed'.

---