History VideoGame / Gothic

The fourth game in the series, ''Arcania: A Gothic Tale'' or simply Gothic 4 also not made by PB, stars a new hero who goes out on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge after the troops of the King ([[RogueProtagonist yeah, THAT King]]) butchered his village and killed his SatelliteLoveInterest. Of course, things are yet again not how they seem and the previous Hero didn't become an EvilOverlord just for fun... Arcania received low reviews and was poorly recived by fans for being decidedly un-Gothic in most ways, primarily being very linear. An add-on was completed, but Piranha Bytes's temporary sale of ''Gothic'''s rights only allowed [=JoWood=] to make two games, including expansion packs, and the obvious legal issues have prevented its release.

* ArtificialBrilliance: Pack-based predators like wolves will notice when you're trying to engage in {{Kiting}} when you're fighting them and will just signal their mates to attack together anyway, while monsters that do not naturally live in packs will ignore it even if another member of their species is nearby.

* MentorArcheType: Vatras plays this role for the hero in Gothic 2, especially in the ExpansionPack. Xardas is this for the hero in the overall series, though a much darker version than the usual trope.

* ALighterShadeOfGray: The New Camp and its successor organizations (like the Mercenaries) generally come across this way. They're highly violent, criminal and unpredictable, but the alternatives tend to be ruthlessly authoritarian or mindlessly fanatical. Thus, the New Camp bunch gains a bit of a TheEveryman feel, being the only faction that is down-to-earth, non-judgmental and straightforward and honest in what they want, not to mention free-spirited. Even characters from other camps, most notably TheMentor Diego, are implied to have New Camp sympathies, and they later without hesitation [[spoiler: take in an Old Camp Nameless Hero, as well as his pal Milten, as refugees of sorts]]. Plus, the Hero unavoidably during story scenes mocks the Brotherhood's fanaticism and canonically stood up to the Old Camp's systems by refusing to pay Bloodwyn and giving Ian's list to the New Camp, but he doesn't really have anything bad to say about the New Camp. The Water Mages, who are aligned with the New Camp, also function as a BigGood to varying extents in every game, arguably moreso than the "officially good" Fire Mages. This goes doubly for the third game, which firmly establishes that [[spoiler: Adanos, not Innos, is the BigGood among the gods]].

* ALighterShadeOfGray: The New Camp and its successor organizations (like the Mercenaries) generally come across this way. They're highly violent, criminal and unpredictable, but the alternatives tend to be ruthlessly authoritarian or mindlessly fanatical. Thus, the New Camp bunch gains a bit of a TheEveryman feel, being the only faction that is down-to-earth, non-judgmental and straightforward and honest in what they want, not to mention free-spirited. Even characters from other camps, most notably TheMentor Diego, are implied to have New Camp sympathies, and they later without hesitation [[spoiler: take in an Old Camp Nameless Hero, as well as his pal Milten, as refugees of sorts]]. Plus, the Hero unavoidably during story scenes expresses skepticism towards the Brotherhood's fanaticism and canonically stood up to the Old Camp's systems by refusing to pay Bloodwyn and giving Ian's list to the New Camp, but he doesn't really have anything bad to say about the New Camp. The Water Mages, who are aligned with the New Camp, also function as a BigGood to varying extents in every game, arguably moreso than the "officially good" Fire Mages. This goes doubly for the third game, which firmly establishes that [[spoiler: Adanos, not Innos, is the BigGood among the gods]].

* ALighterShadeOfGray: The New Camp and its successor organizations (like the Mercenaries) generally come across this way. They're highly violent, criminal and unpredictable, but the alternatives tend to be ruthlessly authoritarian or mindlessly fanatical. Thus, the New Camp bunch gains a bit of a TheEveryman feel, being the only faction that is down-to-earth, non-judgmental and straightforward and honest in what they want, not to mention free-spirited. Even characters from other camps, most notably TheMentor Diego, are implied to have New Camp sympathies, and they later without hesitation [[spoiler: take in an Old Camp Nameless Hero, as well as his pal Milten, as refugees of sorts]]. Plus, the Hero unavoidably during story scenes expresses skepticism towards the Brotherhood's fanaticism and canonically sold out the Old Camp's requisition list to the New Camp, but he doesn't really have anything bad to say about the New Camp. The Water Mages, who are aligned with the New Camp, also function as a BigGood to varying extents in every game, arguably moreso than the "officially good" Fire Mages. This goes doubly for the third game, which firmly establishes that [[spoiler: Adanos, not Innos, is the BigGood among the gods]].

* ALighterShadeOfGray: The New Camp and its successor organizations (like the Mercenaries) generally come across this way. They're highly violent, criminal and unpredictable, but the alternatives tend to be ruthlessly authoritarian or mindlessly fanatical. Thus, the New Camp bunch gains a bit of a TheEveryman feel, being the only faction that is down-to-earth, non-judgmental and straightforward and honest in what they want, not to mention free-spirited. Even characters from other camps, most notably TheMentor Diego, are implied to have New Camp sympathies, and they later without hesitation [[spoiler: take in an Old Camp Nameless Hero, as well as his pal Milten, as refugees of sorts]]. The Water Mages, who are aligned with the New Camp, also function as a BigGood to varying extents in every game, arguably moreso than the "officially good" Fire Mages. This goes doubly for the third game, which firmly establishes that [[spoiler: Adanos, not Innos, is the BigGood among the gods]].

* LovecraftLite: ''Technically'', the first game is about a slumbering EldritchAbomination from another dimension with unknowable, sinister goals which manipulates people through reaching out with its half-aware consciousness into their dreams and has been known to drive them insane this way, and ultimately said entity is not killed in battle but merely sealed away for the time being. However, it's all framed in a fairly low-key, fantasy kind of way rather than horror, so you're unlikely to notice on a casual playthrough.

** Between II and III several members of Esmeralda crew dissapear without a trace: paladin Girion, novice Pedro and whoever you chose to be a captain (Jack the lighthouse keeper/Torlof the mercenary/Jorgen the sailor down on his luck). They may have been murdered by the pirates.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Myrtana is your average MedievalEuropeanFantasy setting, with strong German, Spanish and Italian touches and some Renaissance elements. Nordmar is basically [[RealMenLoveJesus christianized]] HornyVikings. Both Varant and the Southern Isles are an ArabianNightsDays setting, with a particular focus on TheHashshashin. The Brotherhood of the Sleeper in the first game is a non-national example, presenting essentially a mix of Hinduism and Buddhism, with just a touch of Canaanite paganism for flavor.

A%%* SetSwordsToStun: Especially noteworthy when it's done with weapons like ''Katanas'' in the third game.

* FakeBalance: The idea is that two-handed weapons do more damage, while one-handed ones are faster and allow you to be more agile. Unfortunately, in practice, precisely ''because'' one-handed weapons are faster, they also do more damage overall, since you can strike far more often, making the slightly better damage per-hit of two-handers come out very negligible.

* BeatStillMyHeart: The final boss battle has five of these, and you have to stab all of them.

* CaffeineBulletTime: Smoking a swampweed cigarette makes everything slow, as well as [[InterfaceScrew distorting the screen]].

* PowerupLetdown: The summoning runes for golems (circle 4) and demons (circle 5) are in some ways inferior to the skeleton summon (circle 3). While the former two are better in terms of raw stats and a more mana-efficient way of dealing with single threats, they are weak against groups, cannot block attacks from humanoids, and tend to get stuck in terrain. Worst of all, if you summon more than one, they will fight each other instead of the enemy. Skeletons, meanwhile, can block enemy attacks with their weapons, navigate terrain more effectively, and will happily team up, allowing you to ZergRush just about any problem to death so long as you can afford the mana cost of summoning multiple of them.

In the third game, ''Gothic III'', the Nameless Hero travels to the mainland of Myrtana, only to find out that the land has mostly been conquered by the Orcs, though several factions are still struggling. Finding himself in the middle of a political struggle which also represents a war of dominance between gods, the Nameless Hero has to choose a side. ''Gothic III'' was the first game in the series to feature MultipleEndings, and was something of an ObviousBeta at release. An ExpansionPack called ''Forsaken Gods'' was also released, which took the ObviousBeta status UpToEleven and wasn't made by Piranha Bytes. Most fans consider it SoBadItsGood at best. This time, the Nameless Hero returns from exile because he is majorly pissed off at the people of Myrtana not enjoying the peace he has brought them with hard work, but rather warring each other in various factions once again. In the end, the Hero becomes the new King of Myrtana to unite them once and for all.

* PowerupLetdown: The summoning runes for golems (circle 4) and demons (circle 5) are in some ways inferior to the skeleton summon (circle 3). While the former two are better in terms of raw stats and a more mana-efficient way of dealing with single threats, they are weak against groups and cannot block attacks from humanoids. Worst of all, if you summon more than one, they will fight each other instead of the enemy. Skeletons, meanwhile, can block enemy attacks with their weapons and will happily team up, allowing you to ZergRush just about any problem to death so long as you can afford the mana cost of summoning multiple of them.

* NoFairCheating: In the second game, you can use the [[BossInMookClothing Dragon Snapper]] transformation spell to massacre whole maps worth of monsters early on and get many levelups in the process. However, while this does get you the expected skillpoints, the HP increase you'd normally receive is applied to the Dragon Snapper instead of your regular form, and thus lost permanently as soon as you cancel the transformation, turning you into a GlassCannon relative to your level.