History YMMV / TheLordOfTheRingsTheThirdAge

* [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Crowning Moment Of Awesome]]: And [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Heartwarming]]- a random soldier in Helm's Deep mentions that the only thing he has to lose is his life, which he received freely and is more than willing to give in order to save others. the matter-of-factness with which this line is delivered is surprisingly poignant.

*** The Company Might (Improves offence power) + Fellowship Grace (Restores AP) combo. For some reson, the former interacts with the latter to produce massive amounts of AP whilst both are active, giving you infinite AP. Good thing, too, as restoration items are a limited resource for some time, and even when they're not(which takes some grinding), require AP to make.

* RomanticPlotTumor: Played straight and subverted. The entirety of the game sets up this really awkward and laughably bad {{UST}} between Berethor, Idrial and Morwen when she shows up. Then right at the end the Nazgul says they have claimed what Berethor loves, right before they clash.

* ScrappyLevel: East Emnet Gullies, right after leaving Moria, is a rather confusing labyrinth of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin gullies]] and rocky promontories filled with rather tougher-than-you're-really-ready-for-at-that-point [[EliteMooks Uruk-hai]]. It also does practically nothing to move forward what little plot actually exists.

*** The two missions in Isengard. [[EliteMooks Ents]] are bad enough on their own ... now try facing ''[[OhCrap dozens at once]]''.

* NarmCharm: This little gem from the Mines of Moria fight with a Goblin Chieftain is unintentionally funny, but since Hadhod is the one who said it, its both funny, and awesome at the same time.

* NarmCharm: This little gem from the Mines of Moria fight with a Goblin Chieftain is unintentionally funny, but since [[{{Badass}} Hadhod]] is the one who said it, its both funny, and awesome at the same time.

** The Witch King is unquestionably the hardest boss in the game. Part of the reason is Eowynn, who joins for the fight. While the other guest characters are powerful and fill special roles in combat, Éowyn stands as the single weakest character in the game despite having good skills, in large part due to having absurdly low stats for how powerful the Witch King is. For comparison, Éowyn's strongest attack will do only in the upper hundreds/low thousands of damage per hit, at a point where characters like Berethor, Hadhod, and Morwen can casually deal more damage in a single hit, and their mult-attacks do far more damage then she can. As for the Witch King himself, he has a ton of HP, powerful group hitting attacks, and a LifeLeech attack, making him a MarathonBoss in a game that doesn't really work well with the concept. Not helping is the fear attacks he has, which can paralyze a unit and make the fight a TotalPartyKill if you aren't careful.

*** Idrial's auto-revive spell is completely broken. It auto-revives a character on death with full health and mp ''and'' they immediately get to attack ''and'' Idrial can cast it on herself. This means even if she dies on the very next attack, she still has an opportunity to cast it before she dies, meaning once she casts it on herself, you are invincible and it is impossible to lose except by choice (or the few enemies with [[AntiMagic Dispel]]).

*** Hadhod can learn an ability that renders all party members immune to an X amount of damage. No enemy in the game can break through this barrier in one attack, and even when pummeled by lesser enemies they won't break through without you being unable to put the shield up again. This means that you are immune to damage and can grind whatever skill you want.

*** Downplayed with Steal Skill. It's a fairy bad skill because most enemies only gives 1 point, but when used on trolls, Morwen can get at least 3 Skill Points per turn. With patience, she can learn every skill before anyone else.
** Eaoden's final passive skill, Absorb Malice, makes him immune to all spirit attacks and gives him action points every time he is hit by one. And since Sauron only has spirit powers, all he can do is enable Eaoden to spam his most powerful attacks without worrying about action points.

** The Elfstones of Fell Shadow and Pure Light are game breakers too. They are able to teach any character skills such as healing, AP draining, hasting, resurrection, slowing opponent's attacks, stopping them from using Spirit Moves, putting them to sleep, Fear (see above) and powerful Light, Shadow, and Fire Spirit attacks. It can turn any character into a completely self-sufficient power house.

** Evil Mode also tends to be much easier than the regular game, since the AI [[AIBreaker has no idea how to use your former party members effectively]], while you on the other hand can spam all of the bosses' [[ThatOneAttack worst attacks]] over and over ''and'' [[ShootTheMedicFirst you know exactly who to take out first]] to cause the rest of the party to fall apart.

** Just pump stat points into Idrial's spirit stat, and she can average 20,000 damage a turn mid-game.
*** Idrial's auto-revive spell is completely broken. It auto-revives a character on death with full health and mp ''and'' they immediately get to attack ''and'' Idrial can cast it on herself. This means even if she dies on the very next attack, she still has an opportunity to cast it before she dies, meaning once she casts it on herself, you are invincible and it is impossible to lose except by choice (or the few enemies with [[AntiMagic Dispel]]).

*** Company Might (Improves offence power) + Fellowship Grace (Restores AP). For unknown reasons, the former interacts with the latter to produce massive amounts of AP whilst both are active, giving you infinite AP. Good thing, too, as restoration items are a limited resource for some time, and even when they're not(which takes some grinding), require AP to make.

*** War Cry makes 3 of your allies use their strongest attack on a single target. It only costs 200 AP, and the attacks are free (You don't get skill points for them though). With the right set of team mats and unlocked skills (Eaoden's Rampage of the Helm, Elegost's True Shot, Berethor's Gondor Rampage), this is the most damaging single "attack" in the game.

** Elegost has 2 big ones. True Shot, the final Bow Craft, is a Spirit attack that is capable of truly massive amounts of damage, at least 24,000 each shot. Boosted by Elfstones, and it begins to get insane. Arrows of Sleep is a Ranger Craft that you can actually get pretty early, and it starts a pretty mediocre attack, putting one opponent to sleep for a few turns. What's game-breaking about it is when it is powered up by two of Elegost's Passive Skills: Sleep Volley and Lingering Sleep. The first makes Arrows of Sleep hit all enemies; the second makes the sleep last ''forever'' (or at least until they are hit with something). Most Bosses and a few {{Elite Mook}}s are immune to Sleep, but being able to put all the Mooks out of commission with a single hit is pretty damn powerful.

** Morwen is a bit short on the game breaker department, at least compared to the other characters. But she has one in her Thief Craft tree that makes the enemy unable to target her for a few turns. With enough Speed and a way to replenish your AP, she can stay invincible.
*** Using Cloak of the Plains, she is the only character that can destroy the final boss single handed.

** Morgul Decay, a rare item that can completely remove an enemies Defense stat, and no enemy in the game can defend against it. Granted, there's only four of them but it lets you reduce the time spent fighting tough bosses from half an hour upwards to ''less than five minutes''.

* ThatOneBoss: The last fight in the Helm's Deep level. Once the player moves down the stairs to aid Aragorn at the gate, they are sucked into a long (and tough) series of battles against a veritable army of Uruk-hai and, in the later stages, Trolls. The very last fight in the level is against several waves of [[BloodKnight Berserkers]], who can sometimes take more than one action in a turn, and powerful Attack Trolls. Berethor's "Last Gasp" technique is more or less mandatory for this fight. Hope you restored all your HP and AP beforehand!

!!Tropes in the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube GameCube]]-[[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 PS2]]-Xbox version of The Third Age provide examples of:

!!Tropes in the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance version of The Third Age provide examples of:

*** Heck, she has this move similar to Auto-life from the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series, except way more broken- when the party member it is cast on gets defeated, they are brought back to FULL HP AND MP, and that member gets to attack immediately.
*** And she can cast on herself. So if anything kills her she will instantly be brought back to life with full health and MP AND be able to cast it on herself again before anyone can attack her. You will only lose a battle in this game if you choose to. She can even use another move (with her restored MP) so she can attack and cast autolife on the same turn.

** There is a certain item that can completely remove an enemies Defense stat, and no enemy in the game can defend against it. Granted, there's only four of them but it lets you reduce the time spent fighting tough bosses from half an hour upwards to ''less than five minutes''.

** Also not helped by Morwen's status as a FauxActionGirl. When you get her, everyone else in the party is capable of taking two or three hits before going down, provided there's not any particular buffs on them. Morwen [[OneHitKill goes down in one,]] and isn't even a GlassCannon to make up for it. In a scenario where combat takes up the majority of the player's time and mental energy, and with her being... less-than-friendly in her cutscenes, it's understandable that a large part of the fandom asks [[WhatDoesSheSeeInHim why Berethor would want to stay with her.]]

!!Tropes in the GameBoyAdvance version of The Third Age provide examples of:

'''Berethor''': Watch out! Those tentacles are powerful!

!!Tropes in the [[NintendoGameCube GameCube]]-[[PlayStation2 PS2]]-Xbox version of The Third Age provide examples of:

*** Heck, she has this move similar to Auto-life from the ''FinalFantasy'' series, except way more broken- when the party member it is cast on gets defeated, they are brought back to FULL HP AND MP, and that member gets to attack immediately.

** Goblins, in any level where they appear in force -- primarily Flight From Moria, Balin's Tomb, the The Last Alliance.

** For the side of good:

** For the side of evil, the two missions in Isengard. [[EliteMooks Ents]] are bad enough on their own ... now try facing ''[[OhCrap dozens at once]]''.

* AntiClimaxBoss: [[FinalBoss The Dark Lord, Sauron]], boasting [[DamageSpongeBoss 736,973 HP]] on Hard Mode, can be taken down in under ten turns ([[RedundancyDepartmentOfRedundancy on Hard Mode]]); fifteen if it is your first time fighting him.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: And [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Heartwarming]]- a random soldier in Helm's Deep mentions that the only thing he has to lose is his life, which he received freely and is more than willing to give in order to save others. the matter-of-factness with which this line is delivered is surprisingly poignant.

* GoddamnedBats: Goblins, in any level where they appear in force -- Flight From Moria, Balin's Tomb, The Last Alliance, etc.