History YMMV / Elsword

** The long stream of fire breath of Ancient Bone Dragon, BonusBoss of Bethma region. It can be avoided, but once you get in its path prepare to receive heavy damage (you can also force yourself down to avoid it, but you'll lose some MP). A more annoying (but slightly less deadly) one is when it flies and breathes a carpet of fire in the arena; there'll be a spot in the corner that's not covered in fire that you have to run onto, back and forth. Also the dragon's HP regenerates while doing so.

* AlternateSelfShipping: Given that there are three paths for each character, this is prevalent among the characters. It isn't uncommon to see two or even all three versions of one character being paired together in fanworks.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Add has attracted praise and derision from all across the fandom since his release, owing to very strong and viable gameplay across all three of his classes as well as his [[SpotlightStealingSquad prominence]] in official and fanmade material.

** [[VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline Rose]] has been divisive since her reveal. Many find her gameplay fun and like the designs of all of her classes, while others accuse her for being a MovesetClone of various other classes or being a character from another game.

** Though not all are game breakers (Night Watcher was rather underpowered before her revamp)
** Other 'evolution' changes have only fueled the feeling as well as NA exclusive tweaks, which border on BadExportForYou
** Eve's new system, which is her own core system, similar to Raven's. Reactions are mixed as some like how it helps her, others are upset that it's a copy of Raven's, some more dislike how they've neglected to fix her real issues, or a mix of the three.

* FandomRivalry: With ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline''. DFO players hate ''Elsword'' due to seeing it as a glaring example of BribingYourWayToVictory. It appears to be largely one-sided at most, as most ''Elsword'' players barely know of the rivalry (or the existence of the other game for that matter). This is especially ironic considering Rose's existence, who is basically DFO's Female Gunner, but was sent to Elrios for a mission.

** Batman: Elesis' Dark Knight class is sometimes called this. [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy The reason is obvious.]]

*** [[ScrewYourself Iron Paladin x Deadly Chaser]]. Probably the most infamous one.

*** Crimson Avenger x Diabolic Esper. Like Add x Elesis above, but exaggerated, due to being closet VillainProtagonist.
*** Diabolic Esper x Dreadlord. Due to both having GameBreaker status at a time (until their nerfs).

* GoddamnedBats: Stone Gargoyles. They're the first flying enemy that actually makes an effort to stay out of arm's length. While they're frail and not terribly damage, their sonic howl attack does too much damage relative to their actual strength, and they tend to come in groups, usually with other enemies thrown into the mix as well. Their stronger counterpart, the Wyverns (which attack with low-damage meteors), are a bit less annoying, but still piss off many players.

%%* HoYay: Taken up to eleven in the fandom due to the fact that each character looks different in each class chain. As a result, in addition to shipping them with other characters (who may or may not be of the opposite sex), many circles of the fandom ship them with the heroes with ''[[ScrewYourself themselves!]]''

* ShipToShipCombat: For the love of God, this game is also notorious for this. With the creator's occasional ShipTease moments between characters adding more gas to the fire and the fact that NONE of the ships are actually canon (except probably in the case of Lu x Ciel). Doesn't helped by the fact that you can create pairings through the marriage system in the game[[note]]Though it only allows for heterosexual couples, and [[BrotherSisterIncest Elsword/Elesis]] (and Lu/Ciel with another Lu/Ciel) pairs are prohibited[[/note]].

** Add... [[LauncherOfAThousandShips Who is practically shipped with EVERYONE]], but four pairings stand out for him. Like Raven above, he is mostly shipped with [[StalkerWithoutACrush Eve]] and the two has been [[ShipTease Ship Teased]] more than once by the creators, the rival ships are Add x Ara, [[SixthRanger Add x Elesis]] and [[PurpleIsPowerful Add x Aisha]]. Add x Eve fans are mostly neutral (because they have pretty strong standing) but those who ship other Add pairings constantly argue that they feel sorry for Eve if that ever happens due to them portraying Add as a MemeticMolester and should look for somebody else. Add x Ara fans can be particularly vocal about their opposition with the Add x Eve ship and ESPECIALLY the Add x Elesis ship. Add x Elesis and Add x Aisha also have their share of fans. But, these two are probably the most hated Add ships out of all of them and are frequently targeted for naval torpedoes. Not to mention the faction that ships Add with [[ScrewYourself himself]] either because GuyOnGuyIsHot or because they feel Add can't get along with anyone.

** ALL of the Transcendence related quests. Most of the parts involve getting 3 to 15 decently rare drops from Secret, Lanox, and Atlas dungeons. Total, you must run at least 104 dungeons, and assuming a rate of 1 for every 3 dungeons, you need to run around '''''300''''' dungeons to bring your character to its highest potential. It's no wonder many players open their wallets to instantly purchase the reward instead of actually doing the quest. KOG is a genius in marketing, indeed.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Starting from the introduction of [[GameBreaker Chung]] onwards everything goes downhill...

* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: The lore and story of Elsword is actually pretty deep once you read into it. Unfortunately, even reading it requires some concentration as the stories are not parsed well with how the gameplay is handled. Many useful infos are also AllThereInTheManual and the access to said manual is [[NoExportForYou very]] [[BadExportForYou limited]]. As the result the players often care more about gameplay and fashion than the story. It's gotten to the point that "This game ''has'' a story?" is a joke made by the fans about this.

** [[SoloCharacterRun Playing with a single character]] is actually easier than it would seem. Some titles also require you to do this.

* ThatOneSidequest: More often than normally you'll find yourself wondering about the purpose of some of Camilla's quests. Camilla's Intermediate Training? Part 3/5? Have fun spending more than 300% stamina trying to finish that FetchQuest.
** For this reason they tend to have the FanNickname "Camilla's trolling"

** The near-unanimous reaction to the {{PvE}} and [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] skill tooltip split. It was initially suggested during a player-developer conference because many skills had different effects and reduced damage during [=PvP=], but the description only showed the {{PvE}} damage and effects. A few months later, the skill descriptions were updated to resolve the problem. Not suggested, however, were the damage nerfs to the affected skills, enraging certain parts of the playerbase. Many high MP nukes lost around 300% to 1000% of attack power multiplier.
*** The major complaining seems to have died down, as later patches buffed most skills back up to normal, reversing the changes.

* WinBackTheCrowd: the third major skill revamping (starting around August 2015) that brings back the old system and makes it better (skill points have been abolished, and all skills are unlocked automatically) receives much props from the playerbase.

** The fans are torn on whether to call Add with the surname "Kim" or not. Early publications of Add had "Kim" after his name, but when he's finally released, there's no mention of his surname in-game.
*** This has since died down since Add's real name, [[spoiler:Edward Grenore]], was revealed.

* FandomRivalry: With ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline''. DFO players hate ''Elsword'' due to seeing it as a glaring example of BribingYourWayToVictory. It appears to be largely one-sided at most, as most ''Elsword'' players barely know of the rivalry (or the existence of the other game for that matter).

* ValuesDissonance: The couple system prevents same-sex couplings and marriages, which is criticized mainly by members of the LGBT and western playerbases. However, KOG Studios is a company based in South Korea, where LGBT rights aren't quite as progressive, and the playerbase there would have much more divided opinions whether or not the game should allow it.

** Eve also gets a large amount of attention, even having official birthday events devoted to her in-game when other characters do not. Add often being considered a SpearCounterpart to Eve - though this was [[{{Jossed}} later]] [[https://twitter.com/ELSWORD_KOG/status/612048230734413824 denied (link is Korean)]] - does not help. Nor does her class balancing, as at least one class of hers ends up becoming the TierInducedScrappy of the moment for one reason or another.

* TierInducedScrappy: Exists on both major areas with NA having Infinite Sword, mainly due to bad players making things hard for other character. Other than that, most NA players have no problem with having underpowered classes in their party.
** KR considers Tactical Trooper, Code Nemesis, and any other class that lacks speed/high burst damage this and unlike NA, the game will boot you from a party if your damage output flow drops below a certain point.

%%* HoYay: Taken UpToEleven in the fandom due to the fact that each character looks different in each class chain. As a result, in addition to shipping them with other characters (who may or may not be of the opposite sex), many circles of the fandom ship them with the heroes with ''[[ScrewYourself themselves!]]''

** Elysion territory dungeons are a polarizing affair. One side believes that [=KoG=] [[GrowingTheBeard has done a great job of making truly hard]] [[Awesome/VideoGameLevels and challenging dungeons for the very final area]]. The other side thinks [[DifficultySpike they've been made]] [[UpToEleven too hard]] [[ItsHardSoItSucks to handle]].

** Both Code: Battle Seraph and Lunatic Psykers have it even worse in their sidequest: ''[[UpToEleven 40]] [[OhCrap drops]]'' from the aforementioned Glitter Necromancers in Part 5/5 of their quest. Have fun wasting all of your stamina on these quests!

* BetterOffSold: Most common Normal and Rare level equipment have little value and are usually sold if not deleted outright.

** [[AloofAlly Raven]] is usually only shipped with [[IdenticalStranger Rena]] and the two of them also got an official ShipTease of their own. But, you can also see him being shipped with [[NotSoDifferent Eve]] and... [[HoYay Elsword]]. Those who ship Raven x Rena will defend that the only person Raven could ever love is Rena due to her [[LovingAShadow resembling his deceased late fiancee]], while those who ship Raven x Eve, aside from saying that they're connected with being (half) Nasod and having similar/contrasting color schemes, will argue that Raven may possibly love Rena only because she resembles his fiancee and not because of the person she really is and therefore deserves Eve. Raven x Elsword fans are surprisingly neutral. (Then again, for the most part, the BL/GL shippers tend to stay out of harm's way.) His pairing with Rena is eventually challenged with her pairing with Ventus, mostly with her Anemos form.
** Add... [[LauncherOfAThousandShips Who is practically shipped with EVERYONE]], but four pairings stand out for him. Like Raven above, he is mostly shipped with [[StalkerWithoutACrush Eve]] and the two has been [[ShipTease Ship Teased]] more than once by the creators, the rival ships are [[NotSoDifferent Add x Ara]], [[SixthRanger Add x Elesis]] and [[PurpleIsPowerful Add x Aisha]]. Add x Eve fans are mostly neutral (because they have pretty strong standing) but those who ship other Add pairings constantly argue that they feel sorry for Eve if that ever happens due to them portraying Add as a MemeticMolester and should look for somebody else. Add x Ara fans can be particularly vocal about their opposition with the Add x Eve ship and ESPECIALLY the Add x Elesis ship. Add x Elesis and Add x Aisha also have their share of fans. But, these two are probably the most hated Add ships out of all of them and are frequently targeted for naval torpedoes. Not to mention the faction that ships Add with [[ScrewYourself himself]] either because GuyOnGuyIsHot or because they feel Add can't get along with anyone.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Admit it, after some years of repetitive music flying around, they at least made the field songs work well.
** Particular examples would be the Berthe battle and Return Plains themes.
** The recently released [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZMfeljghFs animated video]] released by Gameforge (who hosts Elsword's EU server) has a pretty impressive rock theme.
** Many of Elysion's tunes fall into this category. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFADtaDbpkM The climactic final fight especially.]]

* ScapegoatCreator: KOG has fallen into this recently, with [[GameBreaker skewed character]] [[TierInducedScrappy "balance" patches]] and [[ThatOneSidequest sidequests that unlock character content that are grindy]] and [[TwentyBearAsses RNG-based]], so players will be driven to [[BribingYourWayToVictory buy the unlockable content from the cash shop instead]]. It does not help that employee exit surveys have shown that the company cares as little for its workers as it seems to care about its players, [[DamnedByFaintPraise with the greatest thing many have written about the company being]] [[SignedUpForTheDental that it has good cafeteria food.]]
** This has only gotten worse in light of Laby's release and character rebalances for the past couple years leading up to that point. In response to the overwhelming Chung dominance in the 1v1 summer tournament (5 of six finalists were Chungs), [=KoG=] somehow saw fit to ''buff'' him. [=KoG=] has also been so preoccupied with putting out a KPop idol based event over the course of 2019 that they failed to address balance meaningfully during the much-touted post-Laby character Re:boot. This all comes off the heels of a scandal, where it was revealed that the company had bribed high-ranking players in Korea with exclusive merch to say that balance was seriously being looked at. This resulted in mass boycotts and account deletions by many important players and streamers, including the livestreamed dismantling of +11 or higher equipment.

* MemeticMolester: Add is often given this treatment in fandom for his obsessions of Eve. Fans also often [[{{Pun}} add]] the crush to his StalkerWithoutACrush towards her (canonically, he only follows her for her Code, which he can use to go back in his timeline.)

** Before Add debuted, Chung x Eve and Raven x Eve were this despite Eve interacting the most with Elsword in canon.

* CompleteMonster: Bloody Queen aka. Elesis in her Dark Knight route.

* FandomRivalry: With ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline''. Among DFO players, they consider ''Elsword'' SnarkBait due to seeing it as a glaring example of BribingYourWayToVictory. It appears to be largely one-sided at most, as most ''Elsword'' players barely know of the rivalry (or the existence of the other game for that matter).

** [[AloofAlly Raven]] is usually only shipped with [[IdenticalStranger Rena]] and the two of them also got an official ShipTease of their own. But, you can also see him being shipped with [[NotSoDifferent Eve]] and... [[HoYay Elsword]]. Those who ship Raven x Rena will defend that the only person Raven could ever love is Rena due to her [[LovingAShadow resembling his deceased late fiancee]], while those who ship Raven x Eve, aside from saying that they're connected with being (half) Nasod and having similar/contrasting color schemes, will argue that Raven may possibly love Rena only because she resembles his fiancee and not because of the person she really is and therefore deserves Eve. Raven x Elsword fans are surprisingly neutral. (Then again, for the most part, the BL/GL shippers tend to stay out of harm's way.)

* MostAnnoyingSound: Anytime Aisha shoots a fireball or teleports - which will happen very often - she'll shout the same grunt. Guaranteed to become an EarWorm in short time.
** Aisha's voice in general (in nearly all languages).
** Japanese Rena's noise when firing in siege mode.
** For an enemy specific example; ANYTIME when a party is fighting the Trocks in PvE, or the Laguz in Phantasmal Geyser.
** NA English [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAR8fSoqZRM Elesis' scream]] on certain attacks, especially when looped.

* LauncherOfAThousandShips: All characters are almost always paired with the other (whether that be Boy-Girl, Boy-Boy or Girl-Girl). But, Add stands out of all of them as he has been shipped with ALL the main playable characters in the game (except probably with Lu).