History YMMV / HeroesOfMightAndMagic

** Within the ''Heroes'' series itself, ''II'' and ''III'' definitely eclipsed the first game in popularity due to technical and aesthetic advancements.

* SequelDisplacement: While the RPG ''[[VideoGame/MightAndMagic Might & Magic]]'' games weren't exactly ''un''popular, the ''Heroes'' spinoff series became much more widely known and helped define the turn-based strategy fantasy game genre. It's telling that the ''Heroes'' games were rebooted in the new Ashan continuity well before the parent series received the same treatment.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: While ''IV'' receives a lot of praise for having surprisingly well-developed lore, the origin of the Chaos faction could have been significantly expanded upon. As the fourth game's counterpart of Nighon, it acquires a lot of troops from the faction's previous incarnations, however, its storyline focuses more on Tawni Balfour's naval conquest rather than the incorporation of the former Nighon armies into her ranks. With every single other campaign from the core game explaining the troops available to each faction in believeable ways, sometimes focusing an entire mission on obtaining a certain creature type, it stings quite a bit that [[DemotedToExtra orcs and minotaurs are barely mentioned, medusae are only a part of a plot-irrelevant sidequest, black dragons aren't present lorewise, and the newcomers like hydras, efreeti, and nightmares aren't even mentioned]].

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: While ''IV'' receives a lot of praise for having surprisingly well-developed lore, the origin of the Chaos faction could have been significantly expanded upon. As the fourth game's counterpart of Nighon, it acquires a lot of troops from the faction's previous incarnations, however, its storyline focuses more on Tawnia's naval conquest rather than incorporation of former Nighon armies into her ranks. With every single other campaign from the core game explaining the troops available to each faction in believeable ways, sometimes focusing an entire mission on obtaining a certain creature type, it stings quite a bit that [[DemotedToExtra orcs and minotaurs are barely mentioned, medusae are only a part of a plot-irrelevant sidequest, black dragons aren't present lorewise, and the newcomers like hydras, efreeti, and nightmares aren't even mentioned]].

** The Heroes 3 Necropolis theme, which is why [[CreepyAwesome many fans like it so much]].

** The reception to the Shadow Council element for the ''Heroes VII'' blog has been rather venomous, as they were forced to choose to between two factions from the previous games, with only one having a chance of being added. Later on, fans also voted for the lineups for factions as well as their town and creature design, with lots of vote-stuffing. The Fortress faction, which lost to Sylvan, was later added in the ''Trial by Fire'' expansion.

** Fans still debate whether [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the Forge]] was a good idea or not. Supporters think the genre clash could've been fun, while detractors don't want unfitting sci-fi elements in the game. There's also a third group that like the sci-fi stuff in general, but hate the {{Narm}}-y idea of, say, robots with laser guns guarding a lumber mill.

** Ghosts in ''V'' are incredibly annoying. They're not that tough, but they have a 50% chance of avoiding any non-magical damage. A pretty big issue early on, when your heroes probably don't have any potent attack spells.

* HighTierScrappy: The Conflux faction is banned from most official tournaments of ''III'' (which spawned jokes about players pretending it doesn't even exist), due to being [[GameBreaker ridiculously unbalanced]] in both the early (powerful heroes two good early shooters, and a flier which prevents retaliation) and the late game (access to all spell schools and ridiculous creature growth). More details on the [[GameBreaker/HeroesOfMightAndMagic Game Breaker page]].

* JokeCharacter:

** ''Heroes IV'': An interesting unorthodox take or an AudienceAlienatingEra best forgotten?

** There's a large sect of fans who despise anything that's even slightly different from ''Heroes II'' and ''Heroes III''.
** The reception to the Shadow Council element for the ''Heroes VII'' blog has been rather venomous.

** Myth and Legend from ''III'' pays homage to Greek Myth/ClassicalMythology, where the player controls Heracles, Perseus, and many other heroes in a large detailed map of ancient Greece plus the underworld.

* Myth and Legend from ''III'' pays homage to Greek Myth/ClassicalMythology, where the player controls Heracles, Perseus, and many other heroes in a large detailed map of ancient Greece plus the underworld.

** The Mandate of Heaven, in the third game, is a replica of the eponymous sixth ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic''. It features all sorts of references to the RPG- from towns and dungeons to the monsters you might find in the various region of the game- and includes impressive attention to detail.

* GeniusBonus: The Academy and the Necropolis in ''VI'' share a ArabianNightsDays and Babylonian themes respectively, which is ironic since the Necropolis is an offshoot from the Academy. Stronghold changing their motif from BornInTheSaddle to {{Mayincatec}} after fleeing from Wizards to the islands could also be a nod to Mongols and Aztecs being genetically close.

* GrowingTheBeard: While ''V'' and its first expansion suffered from lackluster storytelling, ''Tribes of the East'' featured better writing, a new level of strategy thanks to alternate upgrades, another new town, and several other tweaks to the gameplay. It also didn't hurt that ''Tribes of the East'' was a stand-alone product.

** ''III'' is one of the most popular games in Russia and Eastern Europe. In particular, a group of Russian modders created ''VideoGame/HornOfTheAbyss'', including the [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen pirate-inspired]] Cove faction. There have also been a number of ''Heroes of Might & Magic'' concerts in Poland, home of the Heroes Orchestra, celebrating [[AwesomeMusic/MightAndMagic the game's Awesome Music]].

-->'''WebVideo/SsethTzeentach:''' ''Heroes V'' is a fantastic addition to the series, and probably the last good game it will ever have. Since I'm fully convinced that ''Heroes VI'' and ''VII'' don't actually exist. I'm just having a bad dream. One that I can't seem to wake up from.

* HighTierScrappy: the Conflux faction is banned from most official tournaments of ''III'' (which spawned jokes about players pretending it doesn't even exist), due to being [[GameBreaker ridiculously unbalanced]] in both the early (powerful heroes two good early shooters, and a flier which prevents retaliation) and the late game (access to all spell schools and ridiculous creature growth). More details on the [[GameBreaker/HeroesOfMightAndMagic Game Breaker page]].

** ''Heroes IV'': An interesting unorthodox take or a DorkAge best forgotten?

-->''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukr5SPMlzOY&t=14m58s SsethTzeenatch:]]'' ''Heroes V'' is a fantastic addition to the series, and probably the last good game it will ever have. Since I'm fully convinced that ''Heroes VI'' and ''VII'' don't actually exist. I'm just having a bad dream. One that I can't seem to wake up from.

*** [[ObviouslyEvil Kha-Beleth]], the [[SatanicArchetype Demon Sovereign]], is the BigBad of this game, the GreaterScopeVillain in the expansions, and the secret antagonist of ''VideoGame/DarkMessiah of Might and Magic''. Kha-Beleth's main aim during the game is to kidnap Queen Isabel and force her to bear a child that is half human and half demon. Kha-Beleth [[TheChessmaster initiates a war]] with the Griffin Empire to accomplish this objective. When the Demon Lord Agrael, who has betrayed the Sovereign, defeats Erasial, Kha-Beleth executes him. Kha-Beleth sends Biara to join forces with the purged Agrael, now Raeleg, and infiltrate his ranks. Kha-Beleth sends reinforcements to the Soulscar Clan, [[WeHaveReserves expecting them to be slaughtered]]. Kha-Beleth then takes advantage of Markal's invasion of Irollan to send Biara to get the scroll and kill Tieru, wanting revenge on the Dragon Knight for interfering. When Godric, Raeleg, Zehir, and Findan attempt to perform the Rite of True Nature, Biara summons Kha-Beleth and kidnaps Isabel, taking her to Sheogh. Once Isabel is secured, he [[MedicalRapeAndImpregnate rapes her]], and uses his magic to age the child up to force her to deliver it early. When Raeleg arrives, Kha-Beleth reveals he raped Isabel and [[EvilGloating gloats to him]] about it. Upon being defeated, Kha-Beleth flees, and needing time for his son to escape tells Biara to create a distraction that the factions will have to spend time fighting her, and when Biara and most of the armies of Sheogh are destroyed, Kha-Beleth writes it all off as acceptable losses. Years later when Sareth is knocked unconscious, Kha-Beleth reveals his lineage and orders him to release him. Should Sareth choose to imprison him for eternity, Kha-Beleth will scream and curse him. Evil, smug, and a {{sadist}}, Kha-Beleth will do anything to escape his prison and destroy the world, even if it means starting a war just to rape a woman to bear a child.

* EsotericHappyEnding: The ending of ''Tribes of the East'' is pretty much this for ''V'' as a whole. Sure, Biara is dead or is going to [[FateWorseThanDeath punished by Kha-Beleth for her failure]] and demons as a whole are purged from Ashan while [[EverybodyLaughsEnding everybody laughs at the prospect of Freyda and Duncan's upcoming wedding and family life]]. However, as Aratir and Zehir noticed, the [[TheAntiChrist Demon Messiah]] aka Sareth is born from Queen Isabel's rape as foretold. Not to mention, pretty much all of Ashan except for Irollan and Heresh is in ruins from the demons' rampage and schemes. Finally, if Sareth [[MultipleEndings chooses the wrong side]] in ''Dark Messiah'', all of the heroes efforts will be a collective ShaggyDogStory.

** Sir Christian's campaign in ''Armageddon's Blade''. The tale of a perfume salesman with some military training trying to get home after being shipwrecked on an island chain populated entirely by nutcases. A rare case of a NintendoHard SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}.

* DesignatedHero: The Tower faction as a whole from ''III'' is good-aligned, despite their alliances with Castle and Rampart being lorewise strictly professional, the town in question acting as repressive antagonists for Yog's [[OriginsEpisode origin story]], and practicing slavery.

** "For King and Country," the final campaign mission of the third game, is this. Despite being set to Expert difficulty, the two Necropolis towns you face are easy to defeat if you rush them at the first opportunity with Queen Catherine.
** "Independence", the last mission of the third game's secret campaign, requires you to build a Capitol in your home city. This is harder than it sounds, since wood and gold are frequently stolen from you, but if you think carefully and plan ahead, you can finish the scenario in eight days at minimum.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: "Glove/Shoe switching", named after the Equestrian Gloves and Boots of Speed in ''III''. The bonus is given by movement boosting artifacts is determined whether the hero in question has them equipped at the end of the previous day, so keeping them on at the expense of the combat artifacts during your turn is an idiot move. So players who know this mechanic equip the movement boosters at the end of the day and change them for combat ones at the start of the next day. The downside to this is that it would nerf your hero if he got attacked during the enemy turn, which is why it is not fully considered a GameBreaker.

** The idea of the Demon Messiah within the game's narrative. A demon hybrid that can walk on Ashan freely without having to worry about being sent back to Sheogh is indeed terrifying, so that's why Kha-Beleth started the events of the game for a half-human and half-demon hybrid. Only one problem. He already succeeded with Agrael, a dark elf demon cultist who can freely walk the earth and bringing in demons freely while being immune from being banished back to Sheogh as demonstrated with his battle with Nicolai. All Kha-Beleth needed to do is to repeat the same method as he did with Agrael and he will have demons walking all over Ashan in no time. [[AchievementsInIgnorance Kha-Beleth already won without even realizing it.]] This seems to have been noted as of ''Dark Messiah'', where it is revealed that the real purpose of the Demon Messiah is that he will be capable of freeing all demons from their prison. Agrael is definitely not capable of that.

** ''Heroes V'': a breath of fresh air or a buggy and unoriginal remake of ''III'' in 3D? ''Heroes VI'': Is it going to be the best or worst installment ever? Ashan: a valiant effort to clean up the ContinuitySnarl of the NWC era, or a bland and generic fantasy world? Practically every mention of Ubisoft or Nival is bound to have split opinions among the fanbase.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: The vast, ''vast'' majority of ''III'' competitive games are played on either the "Jebus Cross" template or one of its variants. Since players gain a boatload of power very quickly in the central "treasure" area, games usually boil down to one or two battles where a player's entire army is either annihilated or victorious, and JC multiplayer games typically end in a few in-game weeks.

* FanNickname: "Ubival" (Ubisoft and Nival, the publisher and developer of ''V'', respectively).
** Funnily enough, "Ubival" is the male third person singular past tense form of "kill", [[{{LaymansTerms}} i.e. "he was killing"]], in Russian. Seeing as Nival is a Russian developer and the entire HOMM series is quite popular in Russia, it might not be a coincidence. There are numerous players, both Russian-speaking and not, who dislike the changes in ''V'' (either the gameplay or the art style or the completely different universe).

** ''III'' is one of the most popular games in Russia and Eastern Europe. In particular, a group of Russian modders created ''Horn of the Abyss'', including the [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen pirate-inspired]] Cove faction. There have also been a number of ''Heroes of Might & Magic'' concerts in Poland, home of the Heroes Orchestra, celebrating [[AwesomeMusic/MightAndMagic the game's Awesome Music]].

* MemeticMutation:
** Astrologers proclaim week of the ''X''. ''X'' population doubles! [[labelnote:Explanation]]An exploitable random event popup from ''III'', where the creature bonus is replaced with trending topics.[[/labelnote]]

** The idea of the Demon Messiah. A demon hybrid that can walk on Ashan freely without having to worry about being sent back to Sheogh is indeed terrifying, so that's why Kha-Beleth started the events of the game for a half-human and half-demon hybrid. Only one problem. He already succeeded with Agrael, a dark elf demon cultist who can freely walk the earth and bringing in demons freely while being immune from being banished back to Sheogh as demonstrated with his battle with Nicolai. All Kha-Beleth needed to do is to repeat the same method as he did with Agrael and he will have demons walking all over Ashan in no time. [[AchievementsInIgnorance Kha-Beleth already won without even realising it.]]

* IdiotPlot: The ScriptFic ''[[http://heroesinanutshell.blogspot.com/ Heroes V in a nutshell]]'' [[InvokedTrope invokes]] this for ''Heroes V'' by '''utterly''' tearing into the overall plot complete with a ton of LampshadeHanging. Overall implications boil down to how the whole situation went to hell in the first place was because the GoodIsDumb trope was taken to extremes for the sake of drama and fulfilling scenario quotas, the complete package of IdiotBall and VillainBall combined with ForgotAboutHisPowers being pretty much held by the entire cast [[TheGodsMustBeLazy even the Dragon Gods]] to the extent that the number of characters not doing so can be ''counted with one hand''. Any players who went through the actual story after reading this can pretty much certify this by saying: "Yeah, this is pretty much how it went down."

** ''III'' is one of the most popular games in Russia and Eastern Europe. In particular, a group of Russian modders created ''Horn of the Abyss'', including the [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen pirate-inspired]] Cove faction.

* SacredCow: ''Heroes III'' has gained this legacy in many places throughout the world, especially in Eastern European countries where the game was exceptionally popular. It's lasting impact basically sustained the ''Heroes'' series for four more games ''by itself'', and it's widely looked at as both an incredible strategy game and an exceptionally fun game in it's own right. This, looking down on it for any reason isn't taken lightly.

* {{Squick}}: Thralsai, leader of the dark elf Soul Scar clan in ''Hammers of Fate'' has a line that wouldn't sound strange coming from one of the [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} dark eldar]]:

** GRIFFIN ETERNAL! *casts random spell* [[labelnote:Explanation]]''Heroes V'' characters have a penchant for silly battle cries during cutscenes. In the original game, they also talked while sitting on their horses and performing random casting animations having nothing to do with the dialogue. The specific quote is from the ScriptFic ''[[http://heroesinanutshell.blogspot.com/ Heroes V in a nutshell]]''.[[/labelnote]]