YMMV / The Tiamat Sacrament

• Anticlimax Boss: Ry'jin, the Final Boss, has an exploitable AI that has him prioritize reviving his flunky over any offensive action. If the party can consistently kill the flunky before Ry'jin can move, he won't be able to take any offensive action. The minion is so weak that the player can easily win even without the intended Puzzle Boss strategy. This applies to both his normal ending form and his secret ending form.
• Cliché Storm: The game uses some fantasy cliches such as having an All-Loving Hero protagonist, an incognito princess, an empire that uses a blend of magic and technology, a mostly spotless resistance group, noble soldiers turning on their corrupt masters, and a commoner marrying a princess.
• Complete Monster:
  • Ry'jin is a Mad Scientist who seeks the power of dragons to conquer Neoterra as a god. During the coup against Ildria's king, he and his soldiers kill dragons for their DNA and slaughter most of the Ildrian castle's residents. Ry'jin steals hundreds of dragon eggs to power his Vulcan Cannon, which he uses to drive dragons to near-extinction and kill any who reject his rule. In an attempt to unseal the Great Seven Dragons, he uses synthetic DNA to convert many of his soldiers into Reavers, driving them into insanity. Posing as a resistance leader, Ry'jin guides the dragon Az'uar and Princess Xandra to the Great Seven's Soul Gems, planning to kill Az'uar for his DNA afterwards. Upon capturing the heroes, Ry'jin tries to force Xandra to concede the throne to him, only to destroy the town of Draslin when the heroes fight back. When the heroes confront him again, he unleashes Az'uar's brainwashed brother on them, sadistically enjoying the dragon's pain in killing his kin.
  • Gyle serves as Ry'jin's leading soldier in order to receive draconic power and satisfy his bloodlust. During Ry'jin's coup, he murders King Khytiel in front of his daughter Xandra before attempting to kill her too. Afterwards, Gyle co-leads the genocide of dragons to secure more dragon DNA and eggs for Ry'jin's experiments, taking pride in personally killing Az'uar's mother. Upon discovering a rebel in Draslin, he incinerates the rebel and his wife while forcing their child to watch. In order to force Xandra to endorse Ry'jin's dictatorship, Gyle tortures her friend in front of her and later takes the town of Draslin hostage, threatening to kill the civilians one by one if she doesn't comply.
• Fridge Logic:
  • In the ending, Az'uar says that the dragon hatchlings imprinted on Xandra as their mother, because she was the first female they saw. But she isn't a dragon, so it makes no sense why they would imprint on her in the first place. May overlap with Artistic License – Biology.
  • Pretty much the entire world is a Medieval European Fantasy. However, Ry'jin is apparently using incredibly high-level technology to perform his experiments, as his fortress is very futuristic, and he makes frequent references to DNA. That's bizarre enough as-is, but even more confusing is the fact that no one so much as bats an eye at this, despite being in the Dark Ages technology-wise. The only possible explanation is that Ry'jin is monopolizing all technological advancements for himself.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Az'uar's full-party buff spells are quite potent, though particularly Gilded Wing, which doubles the Agility of all your characters. Nothing can really harm you when you have six turns to an enemy's one.
  • A timely use of Lung Crusher can mean the difference between having to suffer That One Attack or making the boss waste a turn.
  • See that Scrappy Mechanic mentioned below? You don't have to deal with any of that if you complete Az'uar's arena fights and get the Lung Shield. It prevents Az'uar from losing his breath from anything, including Lung Crusher. The Lung Shield can also force bosses to waste turns on Lung Crush, since their AI doesn't account for the shield.
  • Xandra's Breath Sync allows her to spend a turn getting Az'uar to inhale a rune, which can speed up rune combos. Better yet, this can be combined with Saphira's Quick Inhale passive, which allows Az'uar to swallow three runes at once.
• Good Bad Bugs: There's a glitch in the Ring of Fire when you get the penalty that removes your special slot. This can cause the special item to be duplicated onto all party members, resulting in copies of unique and powerful items like the Strategy Badge.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • If Az'uar takes damage while inhaling, his mighty Breath Weapon gets turned into a sputtering cough, and any runes you used are lost in vain. For half the game, you only have two party members. Az'uar does get a slight (5%) chance to resist this with each dragon sage he visits, but it really can't be relied on. Fortunately, Xandra can use a spell that protects from this, but this still requires both characters to dedicate at least three turns total to setting up the attack. While this mechanic does fall under Magikarp Power, the sheer amount of rune farming, Soul Gem grinding, and quests needed to improve it deters players from wanting to explore the rune system in-depth.
  • The player can only check Az'uar's evolution progress by paying 50 crowns to a fortune teller, which forces the player to return to town just to make sure they're on the right track for their elements.