YMMV / Shadow of Destiny

• Alternative Character Interpretation: In the EX endings, did Eike not realize that preventing Homunculus from being created would cause him to not exist or did he know and wanted to be free from eternal youth?
• Angst? What Angst?: None of the character react in the way you'd think to the situations they're put through.
  • Eike gets murdered multiple times and retains the memories of these painful deaths, but treats trying to avoid/solve his murders like they're nothing more than an annoying inconvenience. Best exemplified in Ending B when, after everything is done and said, he just shrugs it all off and heads for the nearest bar.
  • Dana gets trapped four hundred years in the past against her will. But when Eike finds her, she's actually perfectly happy and has made a life for herself and refuses to return to the present. This is somewhat explained by the fact she's originally from the 1500s, but it's still jarring that she doesn't miss any of the luxuries, freedoms, or people she knew in the present.
• Cult Classic: One of the lesser known Playstation 2 titles and has a fair number of good reviews.
• Funny Moments: The first thing Eike assumes when he hears Homunculus for the first time? To call him "The Big S". He also apologizes for calling the devil and says he doesn't want to die.
• He Really Can Act: Whoever thought that Charles Martinet could ever play such a creepy and sinister character as Homunculus?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Doctor Wagner is worried his son Hugo would try to use the Philosopher's Stone to attempt to bring back his death mother.
• Jerkass Woobie: Hugo. Beneath his whiny, murderous exterior is just a hurt kid who wants his family back the way it was before his parents died.
• Just Here for Godzilla: If anything else, players are probably going into the game just because Charles Martinet is voicing Homunculus.
• Narm:
  • Each time period has a different color scheme. Okay, slight but noticeable changes in color hue and saturation would be a fine way to give each a different mood. Going so far as to make some of them monochromatic sepia and black and white? That's a bit weird, but it could work. Eike retaining his regular, present-day coloring when everything else around him is black and white? Unintentional comedy.
  • As pointed out by Retsupurae during their riff of the game, the scene with Dana four years into her life stuck in the past has a really difficult uphill battle evoking the right emotion. Dana is supposed to make it sound like she feels at home in the sixteenth century, as she explains how she's found herself and where she belongs at last. Which is, admittedly, true from a literal standpoint. Eike is supportive of her decision to stay behind and Dana willingly gives him the Philosopher's Stone in thanks. The issue is that Dana is happy with being a chambermaid in a time before modern medicine. It's fantastic she feels she's found her identity, but she comes off as hopelessly naive about her circumstances given how dirty and disgusting her work is^note Historically, chambermaids cleaned chamber pots, which nobility used as bathrooms before toilets were invented., the rights she's giving up by being a woman in the sixteenth century, and the massively reduced life expectancy of the era she wants to live in. Her positivity in the face of being dumped in the sixteenth century and thanking Eike for the clumsy action that robbed her of four years of her life is endlessly mocked to this day.
• So Bad, It's Good: The game's poor voice acting (though the performances in the PSP re-release are generally seen as considerable improvements) and silly, over the top plot can elicit this kind of reaction for some.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: The legs. The game's characters for the most part have a good right mix of realism and anime-esque stylisation that ensures they still hold up quite well today, but the fact that everyone has really long legs that seem to take up about 2/3rds of their height is very obvious and distracting to almost memetic levels. Main protagonist Eike tends to get it the worst, as his outfit and the game's cinematography do a lot to accentuate the contrast between his upper and lower body.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Okay, raise your hand if you thought Homunculus was female. Come on, don't be shy. Even his VOICE sounds feminine - and his voice actor is MALE.
  • Not only that, it's Mario. Yes. THAT Mario.