YMMV / Tales of the Drunken Paladin

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • When Anebriate found the pile of gold in They’s old hideout, he and Palmer excluded Steve because they believe he is a Token Evil Teammate. Of course, Steve himself claims that Anebriate and Palmer were guilty of betraying him and that he was just getting even. Later, The Old One calls him a "misfit king", implying that Steve was insecure about being alienated by the group and became bitter as a result. Thanks to the nonexistence of Books I and II, it's unclear whether he was alienated for being evil, or became evil because of alienation.
  • It's not clearly specified why Theodore needed to let Anebriate kill him instead of simply running away or non-lethally defeating Anebriate. However, Anebriate's party was technically under arrest by the Save Council and unwittingly helped Theodore in his plans. If Theodore remained alive, it's possible that the rest of the Save Realm would assume Anebriate is in cahoots with Theodore, leading to even more obstruction than Groobs's faction. It's implied he let Anebriate kill him in order to make the latter look like a hero, making it easier to explore the non-Hobotropolis parts of the Save Realm without rousing suspicion.
• Demonic Spiders: Several examples:
  • Sand Ninjas, found in the desert. Fast, powerful, and evasive enough at that point in the game that not every attack from your party will hit them. The time limit you have to deal with during your stay in the desert only makes them more threatening, if you aren't careful.
  • Kings of the Mountain, found in the China Mountains. They're some of the strongest enemies you'll face all-around, and can easily wipe out even a prepared party if your levels aren't high enough. Be sure to stay healed up in-between every regular battle as you trek up the mountains.
  • Regular Dead Guys, thanks to their insta-death move and solid stats all-around. You're going to have a lot of trouble with them, if you aren't packing enough Full Throttles.
  • Save Bulls, due to their high stats and total-party hitting attacks. Having partial immunity to several weapons doesn't help matters.
  • Pretty much every enemy in the Save Temple counts, though the Savegoyles take the cake. It's Devil Maw move will easily wipe out your party, unless their levels are maxed out, and they have a LOT of bulk and power to boot. If you don't focus them with magic, you're a goner.
  • Batwolves are RIDICULOUSLY strong, very tough, and fast. Plus, they can crit, meaning you'll need to plan your approach to them very carefully.
  • File Serpents, found in the Underbelly, are probably the most dangerous enemies in the game, thanks to their Poison Barrage skill and massive Attack scores. Their low Defense and average Agility are the reasons that you probably even have a SHOT against them.
• Difficulty Spike: Starting from the Deep Crow fight, the game starts to step up in difficulty little by little. It reaches it's apex once the third story arc kicks off, with loads of hard bosses and tough enemies coming out of the wood-work.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Dave is easily the most broken party member you recruit, for various reasons.
    • For starters, his Burnished Throne move can copy any move a party member uses right before him. This busts the door wide open to a variety of broken tactics, if BT is used well.
    • Adding to that, he can naturally double the effects of all healing items, meaning Donuts are practically a full party heal when Dave uses them. You'll seldom have to worry about a party member being near death for more than a turn.
    • To top it off, Hydro Pump both heals and increases the Attack of party members; meaning that Palmer and Robert's Vengeance and Arrow Storm moves can dish out LOADS of damage to most enemies and bosses. Done correctly, even endgame bosses become incredibly easy to beat.
  • Stat potions are farmable at the casino, making it possible for characters to have extremely broken builds even at the level cap.
  • The hobo dojo that becomes available towards the end of the China arc. It's easily the best grinding spot in the game by a garden mile; you can get well over 10,000 Experience Points just by beating up the dojo fighters and the sergeant. They're all easy to beat, and you can fight them as many times as you want. Spend a bit of time here, especially with a Broken Slot Handle or two from the casino, and much of the rest of the story campaign will be a breeze.
• Goddamned Bats: A few examples:
  • Sub-Zero Scorpions, thanks to their bulk and immunity to most elements apart from fire and earth. They're quite common throughout the Bowdoin mountain trail, which doesn't help.
  • Flying Goatdinis are incredibly bulky and pretty strong, though not the fastest enemies you'll face. They're mostly there to distract you from the monsters they're paired up with.
  • The aptly named Little Fuckers. Their Agility and evasion alone make them a pain in the ass to deal with; plus, they can confuse your party members and cause them to bleed, furthering the annoying factor.
• That One Boss: The game has more than a few of these, to the point where a separate page is needed to cover them all.
• That One Level: The difficulty of some of the game's areas/dungeons can catch you off guard, to say the least:
  • The very first dungeon, Larry's Labyrinth, can be this if you're not careful. The big issue is that you can't exit back into the bar if you need to leave and buy stuff, unlike most of the later dungeons that let you leave through the original entrance. If you forget to make preparations in town, like recruiting Emma or buying consumables, you will probably run out of MP and die.
  • The desert the party is forced to trek through towards the end of the first story arc. You need to reach the end of the area quickly, or else everyone will become dehydrated, forcing you back into the cave you start in at the beginning. While there's ample fluid-filled cacti around to add to the timer and keep you going, there's also multiple sub-areas and enemies to keep you busy, including another fight against a previous optional boss, meaning it's VERY easy to lose track of time if you aren't careful. The fact that the save hobo will deliberately go on a tangent just to waste your time doesn't help at all.
  • The China Tunnels you need to trek through during the second third of the game, largely due to the Regular Dead Guys lurking around. Come in ill-prepared, and you're going to have a rough time getting to the bottom of the area.
  • The Ram Stables, due to you having to sneak past the stable guards in order to escape. The problem? The guards are smart enough that even a little bit of noise or disruption within the area will catch their attention, forcing you into a hide-spot until they're a significant distance away from Anebriate. The second room you need to sneak out of it is even worse, considering that at least one of the guards has an annoying tendency to linger RIGHT BY that room's hide-spot unless you manipulate the light switch and various other objects enough to drive him away. Without a clever route planned out, or knowledge of how to get the guards off your tail, you're going to spend a while in here.
  • The Save Realm Temple is EASILY the most difficult story dungeon in the game. It's essentially one giant maze with a grave-oriented puzzle right before a very difficult boss battle. Then there's the enemies, which are some of the most dangerous you've faced up to this point. If you're not figuring out where the hell you're supposed to go, you're likely just barely scraping by after a rough fight against a Savegoyle or Save Drowner. Three Leaf Clovers (items that prevent the random encounter meter from turning red) are practically necessary in order to get through this place in one piece.
• That One Sidequest: Any sidequest that requires a rare item from digging or Freeport's auction certainly counts, due to the randomness involved. The former situation is worse, because there's only a limited number of dig spots, while the auction is infinitely accessible.

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