History YMMV / BrutalLegend

* HarsherInHindsight: The members of the [[NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly Second Wave of American Tween Melodic Rap Metalcore]] band Kabbage Boy getting killed at the start of the game is a little harder to accept as a TakeThat to Music/LinkinPark (the band that Kabbage Boy has been often thought to be a spoof of) and other bands similar to them thanks to the suicide of Linkin Park's lead singer Chester Bennington, and especially since quite a few of Linkin Park's songs actually might have told Chester's feelings on life and were not the whole "emo" thing the band's hatedom had thought it to be.

* ShallowParody: The [[NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly Second Wave of American Tween Melodic Rap Metalcore]] band Kabbage Boy is meant to be a spoof of NuMetal stereotypes present in these bands ([[{{Wangst}} Wangsty]] lyrics, DJ scratching, pseudo-gangsta outfits, random rapping). However, even back in 2009, it's pretty obvious that the developers (especially Creator/TimSchafer) didn't bother to explore deeply the genere and shallowly mocking its common clichès, instead. Nowadays, it has become cringeworthy when Music/LinkinPark's vocalist Chester Bennington committed suicide.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Pretty much all of the characters voiced by Metal Artists. Special mention goes to the Guardian of Metal, voiced by Ozzy Osbourne. His role is one of the most praised; he's just the ''ShopKeeper''.
** Lars is a fairly popular character among the fandom , [[spoiler: despite being killed off half-way through]], yet he manages to rival even main character Eddie in popularity.
** [[TheDitz Mangus]] is well liked as well.

* EvilIsCool: In universe, Eddie sure feels this way in the Temple of Ormagoden.
** Having Creator/TimCurry play a BDSM demon-lord with a multi-necked magic electric guitar is just too cool for words. Getting to play as him in the multiplayer certainly helps.

* FauxSymbolism: Pentagrams as objective markers.

* GoodBadBugs: Due to some flaw in the shape of the sickle-wraith's hitbox, running over it with [[CoolCar the deuce]] causes the vehicle to flip upwards several meters, sometimes even doing a barrel-roll.

* Rocking in Hindsight:

* HollywoodHypeMachine: EA's multimillion-dollar attempt to hide the gameplay against the wishes of Creator/TimSchafer.

* MusicToInvadePolandTo: The Tainted Coil get ''Blitzkrieg'' by Deathstars.

** Multiplayer has too many to count.
** The DLC has a few game breakers: The Eye of Sorrow (primary Deuce weapon) and the Disgorger (secondary Deuce weapon). Not only are all these weapons incredibly powerful, but they can be obtained from the Guardian of Metal for 0 Fire Tributes.

* [[HilariousInHindsight Rocking in Hindsight]]: Depending on when you find and unlock the Legends, some dialogue takes on greater meaning - for example, the Guardian of Metal's little poem [[spoiler: contains the elements that Ormagöden exploded into.]]

* JustHereForGodzilla: Achievement whores aren't very well liked by the online community.
** Creator/TimSchafer met one who asked him to lose intentionally to boost achievements. He wasn't amused.
-->'''Tim Schafer:''' "surrender plz? surrender plz??? This is what I go online for? To have some kid tell me "surrender plz" at my own game?"

* MemeticMutation:
** '''DECAPITATIOOOOOOON!!!''' - Eddie shouts this after seemingly beheading the first boss in the game. [[spoiler:He later screams this for an ''ungodly'' amount of time after beheading the final boss.]]
** LOL RTS!
** HELL YEAH! - Eddie's initial response to Lars and Ophelia's assumption of Eddie's purpose for being in their world.
** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive POSITIVE ATTITUDE!]]
** IS [insert band] IN THIS GAME?
** [[ManlyFacialHair Beard Beard Action Beard!]] - The Achievement slash Trophy title for [[spoiler:making out with Ophelia with one of the DLC outfits equipped]].
** Kinda sexy though in a weird way. - Eddie's thoughts on the Battle Nun.

* PlayerPunch: There's ''three'' of them all caused by the same character.

* [[TaintedByThePreview Tainted By The Demo]]: Creator/TimSchafer talked about nothing but the stage battles and the multiplayer. Creator/ElectronicArts talked about nothing but the story, Creator/JackBlack, and the single player, and nothing about the gameplay. The demo was only the first five minutes of the whole game. Guess whose message got to players. (Hint: Not the guy who made the game.)

** [[BadassBeard Beard Beard Action Beard!]] - The Achievement slash Trophy title for [[spoiler:making out with Ophelia with one of the DLC outfits equipped]].

* BaitAndSwitch: Against the wishes of Double Fine, who were very proud of the Stage Battles.
* BestLevelEver: ''Brütal Legend'' fans and haters love the Metal Spider lair dearly.

* ColbertBump: A few of the bands featured in the game received some healthy boosts in popularity after the game's release. Wikipedia reports that sales of the included tracks went up 700%.
** And Brocas Helm, which was so obscure you couldn't purchase anywhere, now enjoys sales on digital services all around due to popularity of their song "Cry of the Banshee".
** Music/{{Skeletonwitch}} and Music/ThreeInchesOfBlood both expressed pride in being in the game.

* FanNickname: VideoGame/{{Sacrifice}} 2 or [[VideoGame/{{Starcraft}} Ozzcraft]].
** "LOL RTS", used by those who disliked the RTS element.
** "Nuke Solo" are the Facemelter, Shadow Blast, and Curse solos, which are short range explosions.
** "Buzzsaw" is a near infinite combo "AAAX * roll forward* , repeat." It can be avoided.
** To make a "Caravan" means to build a group of Headsplitters.
*** Eddie actually [[FridgeBrilliance uses this term the same way]] in an escort mission.
** The "Wall of Death" is a full Drowning Doom army, with every debuffer available, and lots of Broods.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Activision and EA's attitude toward the Stage Battles.

* LowestCommonDenominator: EA's '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQo2kf4Y4hQ ENTIRE.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4QdYFa-eAc&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_stronger_r2-2r-1-HM MARKETING.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFWM8sUkd_E&feature=channel CAMPAIGN.]]'''

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: EA refuses to drop the money to make the patches created by Creator/DoubleFine available to the public, including the desperately requested [=PS3=] patch to stop crashing. Players who complain to EA have received copies of different games for free. ''Brütal Legend'' is not included in EA's Games on Demand on Xbox Live, or in any of its sales. They are working hard to pretend their relationship with Double Fine never happened.

* ShallowParody: The [[NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly Second Wave of American Tween Melodic Rap Metalcore]] band Kabbage Boy is meant to be a spoof of NuMetal stereotypes present in these bands ([[{{Wangst}} Wangsty]] lyrics, DJ scratching, pseudo-gangsta outfits, random rapping). However, even back in 2009, it's pretty obvious that the developers (especially Creator/TimSchafer) didn't bother to explore deeply the genere and mocking shallowly its common clichès, instead. Nowadays, it has become cringeworthy when Music/LinkinPark's vocalist Chester Bennington committed suicide.

* ShallowParody: The [[NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly Second Wave of American Tween Melodic Rap Metalcore]] band Kabbage Boy is meant to be a spoof of NuMetal stereotypes present in these bands ([[{{Wangst}} Wangsty]] lyrics, DJ scratching, pseudo-gangsta outfits, random rapping). However, even back in 2009, it's pretty obvious that the developers (especially Tim Schaefer) didn't bother to explore deeply the genere and mocking shallowly its common clichès, instead. Nowadays, it has become cringeworthy when Music/LinkinPark's vocalist Chester Bennington committed suicide.

* ShallowParody: The [[NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly Second Wave of American Tween Melodic Rap Metalcore]] band Kabbage Boy is meant to be a spoof of NuMetal stereotypes present in these bands ([[{{Wangst}} Wangsty]] lyrics, DJ scratching, pseudo-gangsta outfits, random rapping). However, even back in 2009, it's pretty obvious that the developers (especially Tim Schaefer) didn't bother to explore deeply the genere and just mocking shallowly its common clichès. Nowadays, it has become cringeworthy when Music/LinkinPark's vocalist Chester Bennington committed suicide.

* {{Anvilicious}}: The [[NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly Second Wave of American Tween Melodic Rap Metalcore]] band Kabbage Boy sounding awful and then getting their heads blown off.
** SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped. Creator/TimSchafer says he's overjoyed about the bands in the soundtrack getting exposure and creating new HeavyMetal fans. Which was exactly one of his goals.

* ScapegoatCreator: A number of people blame the game's rushed feeling towards the end on EA, based on their reputation for rushing games.
** Fans blame EA for poor sales due to marketing ''Brütal Legend'' as a massive single player adventure instead of marketing the Stage Battles, regardless of the fact they were considered good in their focus tests. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbpXAx_F-P0 This is the one and only multiplayer commercial from EA.]] Not very convincing. No matter how much Creator/TimSchafer tried to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGrK70GgTXM pour his heart out]] on the Stage Battles months before release, it was drowned out by EA's hype, and especially the single player demo.

* DeadHorseGenre: Given that this is a game about Metal, there's sure to be plenty of ribbing of unpopular music styles - such as the Hair Metal-themed villain group ([[Hypocrite despite the fact there are multiple hair metal songs on the soundtrack]]). {{Subverted}} because this is a game set in a world without critics to badmouth any specific genre. Any Metal in this game, that is not said to be awful in game, [[WordOfGod is an affectionate nod to its genre]]. Rob Halford even said, "[Lionwhyte] is a cross-section of everything I know and love in Heavy Metal music.".

* DeadHorseGenre:
** Given that this is a game about Metal, there's sure to be plenty of ribbing of unpopular music styles - such as the Hair Metal-themed villain group.
** Subverted because this is a game set in a world without critics to badmouth any specific genre. Any Metal in this game, that is not said to be awful in game, [[WordOfGod is an affectionate nod to its genre]]. Rob Halford even said, "[Lionwhyte] is a cross-section of everything I know and love in Heavy Metal music.". Indeed, there are multiple hair metal songs on the soundtrack.

* [[TaintedByThePreview Tained By The Demo]]: Creator/TimSchafer talked about nothing but the stage battles and the multiplayer. Creator/ElectronicArts talked about nothing but the story, Creator/JackBlack, and the single player, and nothing about the gameplay. The demo was only the first five minutes of the whole game. Guess whose message got to players. (Hint: Not the guy who made the game.)

* {{Misblamed}}: Creator/TimSchafer and Double Fine get all the flack for the MisaimedMarketing, when it was Creator/ElectronicArts fault.

* HypeAversion: Creator/ElectronicArts and Creator/TimSchafer each advertised very different things on this game. In many videos, Schafer talked almost exclusively on the multiplayer aspect, because it's the part he worked on the most, and was the point of the whole game (the single player world and story were created after the multiplayer was finished.) EA on the other hand advertised the presence of Creator/JackBlack, and hyped the game up immensely without actually talking about the gameplay. Players who went exclusively by the hype and the single player demo did not take the UnexpectedGameplayChange well. Double Fine did not enjoy the marketing push at all. EA completely and intentionally hid the gameplay that Schafer wanted players to see the most.

** The DLC has a few game breakers: The Eye of Sorrow (primary Deuce weapon), the Disgorger (secondary Deuce weapon), and the Blade of Ormagoden (axe treatment). Not only are all these weapons incredibly powerful, but they can be obtained from the Guardian of Metal for 0 Fire Tributes.

* CultClassic: However, Creator/TimSchafer expressed the fact that he is very sick of his games reaching this status.

** PC Players complain that Double Fine has abandoned them. Double Fine responded that they make games on the consoles that their publisher allows them to make.
*** It took years, but on February 26th, 2013, ''Brütal Legend'' was released on PC through Steam. Not only that, but purchasing it gives you an awesome taunt for use in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''.

* HarsherInHindsight: The members of the [[NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly Second Wave of American Tween Melodic Rap Metalcore]] band Kabbage Boy getting killed at the start of the game is a little harder to accept as a TakeThat to Music/LinkinPark (the band that Kabbage Boy is obviously spoofing) and other bands similar to them thanks to the suicide of Linkin Park's lead singer Chester Bennington, and especially since quite a few of Linkin Park's songs actually might have told Chester's feelings on life and were not the whole "emo" thing the band's hatedom had thought it to be.

* HarsherInHindsight: Kabbage Boy's entire existence is a little harder to accept as a TakeThat thanks to the suicide of Chester Bennington, the lead singer of Music/LinkinPark (the band that Kabbage Boy is obviously spoofing).