YMMV / Prodigal

• Breather Level: The Howling Bjerg focuses more on puzzles than enemies, which is has very few of, and also has a straightforward boss battle. The most difficult part is the ice sliding puzzle that comes right before it, which can easily be negated if you've obtained and equipped the Cleated Boots before ending up in this dungeon. This comes in between the Crocasino Vault, where there are a few stealth segments, and Castle Vann and the Magma Heart, both of which have difficult puzzles, hazards, and enemies. Justified since you can't leave the Howling Bjerg until you've completed it, and therefore can't get any more buffs.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Yhotes and Mecha Vanns are both enemies that you cannot do damage to. Yhotes will immediately start running towards you as soon as you are in their line of sight, and while you can put them to sleep with the Lariat, it doesn't last long and they are often out of reach, so it's hard to not get damaged by them. Meanwhile, Mecha Vanns can teleport and you have to be fast if you don't want them to attack you - they're especially difficult in areas where you have to bring a Crystal Key through.
  • There's also the Nippers, which will keep moving towards you until you defeat them. The Helmed Nippers in particular are hard to deal with because they won't take damage, so the only way to defeat them is to knock them into pits.
• Difficulty Spike: The post-game dungeons are significantly harder than the ones you have to complete in the main story, with more enemies that can't be killed and must instead be avoided, and the addition of Crystal Keys (keys that break upon taking damage) which are needed to progress, which was stated by Word of God to force you to be more careful as at this point you are likely to have a lot of HP and therefore could easily just run through every room without caring about taking damage. Most of these dungeons are mandatory if you want to see the "Hero's Rest" ending.
• Fridge Brilliance: Crocodile tells Oran that he can sign the contract with just an X, and the post-game ending shows that he did exactly that. While it may seem like a joke that Oran is unable to write (which isn't actually true since Pa reads out an old letter from him early in the game), there's actually a good meta reason behind this: remember that you're able to change Oran's name when starting a new save file, so it wouldn't make sense if he wrote his actual name if you had called him something else.
• Goddamned Bats: Actual bats. They fly around randomly, and often over pitfalls so you can't reach them and instead have to wait for them to come near you so you can attack them, or drag them over with the Lariat and hope they don't hit you first. They're even more annoying in Mariana's arena challenges, since said challenges can't be cleared until all enemies are defeated, and the bats are quite easy to miss, forcing you to keep moving around until you find them and hope you can reach them easily when you do.
• Good Bad Bugs: It's possible to go out of bounds in certain areas by moving to where an object you can pull yourself to with the Lariat is in such a way that you're in the same place as it, and then using the Lariat to send yourself outside the walls of the room, where you can move around until you end up in a different room. What it can take a few tries to do properly, and potentially cause you to get stuck and need to quit the game, when done right it can be useful for skipping several dungeon rooms and even some boss battles. It's quite popular with a few speedrunners.
• Nintendo Hard: While the game does have many ways to make it easier, you will often have to pay for them. All dungeon rooms reset upon exit (except for locked doors), quitting the game starts you back in the overworld, and losing all your HP sends you to the church, so unless you've already found the second statue you'll have to travel all the way through the dungeon again. And that's not even getting into the post-game stuff, with more difficult dungeons and the inclusion of Crystal Keys, which break upon taking damage, forcing you to go back and get another to try again. Completing the game at least once also allows you to make the game even more difficult by breaking an Altar to one of the gods (or even breaking all of them), and if that's not enough, completing the game with the four main Altars broken and doing the Brutal Bonus Level gives you access to Curses for an even greater challenge.
• Player Punch: The end of Act 1. You thought you were just running a few errands for your granfather's apprentice, but it turns out you were helping him reclaim his power, and you're rewarded with both your grandfather and the Sheriff being killed. Whether it's better or worse that this can happen before you repay your debt is up to you to decide, since Pa Darrow is really touched if you repay it to him, which can make his death even more heartbreaking.
• That One Level: Siska's Workshop, a post-game dungeon required as part of the quest for the Hero's Rest ending. There are various enemies that can't be killed, projectiles that keep firing at you while you try to solve puzzles, and a Crystal Key needed to continue, as well as a two-part battle against Siska at the end. Oh, and since the dungeon only opens after she kidnaps Hugh, you won't be able to do many of the other post-game quests until you've beaten it and rescued him.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: It's not hard to mistake Oran for a girl because of his fairly androgynous appearance and ponytail. Some players were surprised at him being referred to with male pronouns early in the game. The developers have stated that he was originally intended to be a Featureless Protagonist with an Ambiguous Gender before they gave him more of a personality, so it might have been left over from earlier concepts. The sequel, Veritus, averts this by giving him a beard.