History YMMV / PlanescapeTorment

* TrueArtIsAngsty: Though it has at least an equal share of humor and optimism, it owes the critical respect it receives from tackling existential issues on personal and macroversal levels.

* PlayerPunch: Hoo boy, yes. In particular, trying to play one of the evil paths is akin to facing down an Olympic boxer with lead weights tied onto your extremities. If the player himself is not a CompleteMonster, of course.

%% FanonDiscontinuity: The 1999 novelization.

* PlayerPunch: Hoo boy, yes. In particular, trying to play one of the evil paths is akin to facing down an Olympic boxer with lead weights tied onto your extremities. If the player is not a CompleteMonster, of course.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: It's noted for its excellent story, characters, and loads of freedom and roleplaying options, but combat is definitely not the game's strong point. Fortunately you can solve most problems with dialogue options rather than fighting does help this as the entire game has a total of three unskippable fights, and while most areas do have regular enemies who will attack you no matter what, they can be avoided if the player so wishes. To some though this only exacerbates the game’s heavy focus on story; with many remarking, some positively and others negatively, that playing ''Planescape'' is [[VisualNovel more like reading a book]] than playing a video game. The game’s side quests are also on the bland side, being mostly standard fetch quests.

* SugarWiki/DevelopmentHeaven: The game featured an incredibly complex and detailed non-linear plot exploring existential themes. The dialogue is a few books worth and features superb voice acting. Many critics have compared ''Torment'' favorably to literary works, a stunning achievement for the ghettoized genre of video game fiction.

* MemeticMutation: "Updated my journal." An average playthrough will have this sound play several hundred times, and the phrase has become an in-joke between fans. Most of The Nameless One's barks have also attained minor in-joke status.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: It's noted for its excellent story, characters, and loads of freedom and roleplaying options, but combat is definitely not the game's strong point. Fortunately you can solve most problems with dialogue options rather than fighting does help this as the entire game has a total of three unskippable fights, and while most areas do have regular enemies who will attack you no matter what, they can be avoided if the player so wishes. To some though this only exacerbates the game’s heavy focus on story; with many remarking, some positively and others negatively, that playing Planescape is [[VisualNovel more like reading a book]] than playing a video game. The game’s side quests are also on the bland side, being mostly standard fetch quests.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Having Martha conduct an autopsy on you while you're still alive is pretty dumb, and then the game goes on to describe the procedure in squirm inducing detail before The Nameless One finally passes out.

* SugarWiki/DevelopmentHeaven: The game featured an incredibly complex and detailed non-linear plot exploring existential themes. The dialogue is a few books worth and features superb voice acting. Many critics have compared Torment favorably to literary works, a stunning achievement for the ghettoized genre of video game fiction.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The RecurringRiff, and by extension, most of the battle music and the background music for TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.

* EsotericHappyEnding: The actual endings mostly qualify as this as well. [[spoiler:In particular, intentionally sending yourself to Hell forever is considered the ''best'' ending, and the second-best is probably willing yourself out of existence.]]

* EsotericHappyEnding:
** Inverted with some of the {{Non Standard Game Over}}s. [[spoiler:Sure, you end up KilledOffForReal by pissing off someone like the Lady of Pain or Lothar, but your existence (which so happens to be fueled by the souls of countless dead innocents) is over at last, which translates to a pretty big plus for the Planes.]]
** The actual endings mostly qualify as this as well. [[spoiler:In particular, intentionally sending yourself to Hell forever is considered the ''best'' ending, and the second-best is probably willing yourself out of existence.]]

* AnticlimaxBoss: After [[spoiler:reaching the Fortress of Regrets, opening the Bronze Sphere, and discovering both your true name and the source of your torment]], thereby achieving emotional catharsis, you get to fight the BigBad. While you can [[spoiler:[[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath defeat him with words]] if you [[StatisticallySpeaking have high enough wisdom, intelligence, or charisma]], or if you brought the Blade of the Immortal]], he isn't all that impressive of an enemy in physical combat. Also, resurrecting [[spoiler:Vhailor]] and telling him the truth of your identity will make him an unbeatable killing machine that drops the boss with relatively few hits.

* CompleteMonster: "[[ItsAllAboutMe The Practical Incarnation]]" is a former incarnation of [[PlayerCharacter the Nameless One]]. Combining [[ManipulativeBastard a wicked intellect with a lack of morals]], the Practical enslaved an adventuring party to him, most notably by convincing a githzerai to follow him based on a religion the Practical invented. The Practical manipulated and murdered countless people, but the worst was what he did to the one woman who deeply loved him: after winning her love, he murdered her so her ghost, bound to the material plane by that love, would remain as a guide for future incarnations should the Practical's quest fail. At the end, the Practical confronts the current incarnation of the Nameless One and attempts to [[GrandTheftMe absorb him into the Practical's own consciousness]] along with all the others so the Practical can achieve his goals.

** ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'' is also a successor to ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' and ''VideoGame/IcewindDale''. From ''Planescape: Torment'' it takes a more reflexive and personal tone.
** ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' eschews the more tradiitonal fantasy setting in favor of a police procedual in a quasi-mundane setting. Still, the games features an amnesiac protagonist in a jounrye of self-discovery and the game covers a lot of philosophical questions.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: It's noted for its excellent story, characters, and loads of freedom and roleplaying options, but combat is definitely not the game's strong point. Fortunately you can solve most problems with dialogue options rather than fighting does help this as the entire game has a total of three unskippable fights, and while most areas do have regular enemies who will attack you no matter what, they can be avoided if the player so wishes. To some though this only exacerbates the game’s heavy focus on story; with many remarking, some positively and others negatively, that playing Planescape is more like reading a book than playing a video game. The game’s side quests are also on the bland side, being mostly standard fetch quests.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: It's noted for its excellent story, characters, and loads of freedom and roleplaying options, but combat is definitely not the game's strong point. Fortunately you can solve most problems with dialogue options rather than fighting does help this as the entire game has a total of three unskippable fights, and while most areas do have regular enemies who will attack you no matter what, they can be avoided if the player so wishes. To some though this only exacerbates the game’s heavy focus on story; with many remarking both, positively and negatively, that playing Planescape is more like reading a book than playing a video game. The game’s side quests are also on the bland side, being mostly standard fetch quests.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: It's noted for its excellent story, characters, and loads of freedom and roleplaying options, but combat is definitely not the game's strong point. However, you can solve most problems with dialogue options rather than fighting (the entire game has a total of three unskippable fights, and while most areas do have regular enemies who will attack you no matter what, they can be avoided if the player so wishes). The game’s side quests are also on the bland side, being mostly standard fetch quests.

* HilariousInHindsight: Yeah, yeah, we ''know'' that "Vrischika" is Sanskrit for "scorpion"... but is there ''anyone'' who isn't going to think of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' when they read that these days?

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: It's noted for its excellent story, characters, and loads of freedom and roleplaying options, but combat is not the game's strong point. However, you can solve most problems with dialogue options rather than fighting (the entire game has a total of three unskippable fights, and while most areas do have regular enemies who will attack you no matter what, they can be avoided if the player so wishes).

* TrueArtIsAngsty: Though it has at least an equal share of humor, it owes the critical respect it receives from tackling existential issues on personal and macroversal levels.

** Larval Worms are some of the hardest hitting enemies in the game, obviously meant for higher level characters...and technically level 1 in the game files despite their damage and HP, meaning you can use Cloudkill to kill them en masse in Undersigil for 8,000 experience a pop. Since Undersigil is repopulated every time you leave and come back, it's entirely easy for a player to get tens of thousands of experience points with one casting of a third level spell and repeat the process as often as they like. Fixed in the unofficial patch, resulting in much wailing and gnashing of teeth for players interested in quick and easy leveling.

** If the Nameless One joins the faction of the Sensates, he gains access to their private sensorium. Within is a sensory stone entitled 'Longing'. In it are Deionarra's experiences, days before her death. And as the Nameless One, you experience both sides of the conversation (it being with the past incarnation Deionarra loved), and come to *know* its horror, especially as a good character. It is not so much a PlayerPunch as the Lady's Shadow of Player Punches. In the same private sensorium, you find [[spoiler: a trap from the Paranoid Incarnation]] and [[spoiler: the experience of being tortured by Ravel Puzzlewell with some interactivity]]. 'Longing' manages to be the worst of the three, ''by far''.

* StoicWoobie: Fall-From-Grace. She's a LawfulNeutral and borderline LawfulGood ''succubus'' who is constantly tempted to do evil due to her demonic nature. Despite this, she doesn't complain or even bring it up other than in the scene with Ravel.

* TheWoobie: Many, many characters in this story

* EsotericHappyEnding: Inverted with some of the {{Non Standard Game Over}}s. [[spoiler:Sure, you end up KilledOffForReal by pissing off someone like the Lady of Pain or Lothar, but your existence (which so happens to be fueled by the souls of countless dead innocents) is over at last, which translates to a pretty big plus for the Planes.]]

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The RecurringRiff, and by extension, most of the battle music and the background music for TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.
** Most of the {{Leitmotif}}s, especially [[TearJerker Deionarra's]].

** A popular fan one is that the Nameless One's original incarnation is Zerthimon. Despite the fact that the Nameless One appears as a human male, albeit covered in scars (not only on screen, but characters who bring up the Nameless One's appearance also describe him this way), and the game's creators have [[WordOfGod outright said]] that, while they don't *know* who he was, they '''do''' * know* who he was not, and he was '''not''' Zerthimon.

* GameBreaker: Dak'kon is a skilled fighter, but his mage part isn't impressive by itself. However, with enough intelligence and spell boosting equipment and tattoos, he's a force to be reckoned with.

* HypeBacklash: Downplayed. Over the years the game rose to the status of the ultimate western [=RPG=] ever made, if not one of the best games of its time. While no one is denying its greatness, it also leads to numerous new players ending up disappointed at the game due to very high expectations and/or wondering what was the big deal.

* CompleteMonster: The worst monster is a former incarnation of The Nameless One, known simply as "The Practical Incarnation." Combining a wicked intellect with a lack of morals, the Practical enslaved an adventuring party to him, most notably by convincing a githzerai to follow him based on a religion the Practical invented. The Practical manipulated and murdered countless people, but the worst was what he did to the one woman who deeply loved him: after winning her love, he murdered her so her ghost, bound to the material plane by that love, would remain as a guide for future incarnations should the Practical's quest fail. At the end, the Practical confronts the current incarnation The Nameless One and attempts to [[GrandTheftMe absorb him into the Practical's own consciousness]] along with all the others so the Practical can achieve his goals.

* CultClassic: Essentially doomed to this, given its very unorthodox design and focus on text. The game did become more well-known over time, though.

* HypeBacklash: Over the years the game rose to the status of the ultimate western [=RPG=] ever made, if not one of the best games of its time. While no one is denying its greatness, it also leads to numerous new players ending up being disappointed at the game due to very high expectations and/or wondering what was the big deal.