Line #80 VideoGame/Enchanter


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/enchanter.png]]
2	The ''Enchanter'' trilogy is a series of InteractiveFiction games published by Creator/{{Infocom}}. It is set in the same world as the ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}'' series, and takes place in 956 GUE, eight years after the events of the original ''Zork'' trilogy.
3
4	The trilogy consists of:
5
6	* ''Enchanter'' (1983) by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling -- The protagonist, a novice enchanter, is sent on a quest to defeat the evil warlock Krill, in the hope that he will be able to pass under the radar where a more powerful enchanter would be detected and defeated.
7	* ''Sorcerer'' (1984) by Creator/SteveMeretzky -- The protagonist, now a full member of the Circle of Enchanters, investigates when his mentor acts strangely and then goes missing.
8	* ''Spellbreaker'' (1985) by Dave Lebling -- The protagonist, now head of the Circle of Enchanters, investigates when the foundations of magic itself become unreliable.
9
10	The main magical mechanic involves learning magic words, such as BLORB, FROTZ and NITFOL, each of which has a particular effect.
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12	The tone of the series gets darker as it progresses, and the puzzles more difficult.
13
14	''For the arcade pinball game called'' Sorcerer, ''[[Pinball/{{Sorcerer}} click here]]. And for the {{gamebook}} also called ''Spellbreaker'', [[Literature/SpellBreaker click here]].''
15
16	----
17	!!This series provides examples of:
18
19	* OneUp: In ''Sorcerer'', the GASPAR spell effectively lets you set a free respawn point anywhere on the map. Quite a lifesaver in dangerous places, like the infamous Glass Maze.
20	* TwelveCoinsPuzzle:
21	** In ''Spellbreaker'', it appears using a spell that detects the power level of cubes. Naturally, the spell can be used only three times. And you don't know whether the correct cube will glow ''more'' or ''less'' than the fakes. Or only two times, if you [[spoiler:take any of the treasure]], making the puzzle and the game {{Unwinnable}}. The random number generator will be biased against you if you screw up.
22	** After three weighings, the game [[SchrodingersGun determines which coins might be the fake]] given the information you have, and if there's more than one possibility the game will switch it so that you have the wrong coin. Infocom was great.
23	* AbsurdlyLongStairway: The Endless Stairs. The endlessness is actually an illusion which can be broken with the right spell.
24	* AllJustADream: At the very beginning of ''Sorcerer'', you find yourself in an unfamiliar, nightmarish realm with EverythingTryingToKillYou. You have no choice but to let something kill you. Thankfully you wake up in the Guild Hall lodgings, realizing that it's all just a dream. However, when you find the AIMFIZ spell and use it to locate Belboz, you get warped into the same forest path, turning this into "OrWasItADream"
25	* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: In ''Sorcerer'', if you wake up on time instead of oversleeping, you leave the guild hall to get on with your day (instead of your companion leaving without you). You return to find the entire Guild Hall sacked and destroyed by the forces of Jeearr.
26	* AndIMustScream: In ''Enchanter'', if you wait too long in the endless fall, you'll eventually die from [[IFellForHours falling forever]]. Same goes for when Krill casts you into the void near the end of the game.
27	* {{Animorphism}}: In ''Enchanter'', the CLEESH spell turns someone into a [[BewitchedAmphibians newt]]. In ''Sorcerer'' the FWEEP spell turns the caster into a {{bat\|OutOfHell}}, and in ''Spellbreaker'' the SNAVIG spell turns them into any kind of animal they wish to be.
28	* ApocalypseHow: In ''Enchanter'' the days grow darker and darker as Krill’s evil spell takes effect:
29	-->Everything you see is grey and lifeless, as though covered with a veil of ash. Sound is muted and there is a faint acrid odor.
30	* AutoRevive: In ''Enchanter'', there is the black OZMOO spell scroll that can help you "survive unnatural death". If you memorize and cast it at just the right time, you'll survive the HumanSacrifice ritual in the temple.
31	* BagOfSpilling: The only three spells to make it through all three games in the series are GNUSTO, FROTZ, and REZROV. IZYUK is the only other spell from ''Enchanter'' to make it to ''Sorcerer'', while YOMIN and MALYON are the only two spells from ''Sorcerer'' to make it to ''Spellbreaker''. Justified in both cases. You lose your spellbook and most of your heavier possessions near the end of ''Enchanter'', thus explaining why you don't have most of those spells in ''Sorcerer''. In ''Spellbreaker'', magic is falling apart at the seams and much of your spellbook has been rendered useless.
32	* BewitchedAmphibians: The CLEESH spell turns a person into a frog or a newt.
33	* BittersweetEnding: ''Spellbreaker'' for the entire trilogy; [[spoiler:to not only foil the Shadow but also prevent [[ViciousCycle another one from someday arising from within another powerful sorcerer who may succeed where yours failed]], you are forced to [[TheMagicGoesAway recreate the entire universe without magic]].]]
34	* BlackCloak: As part of EvilWearsBlack: The large, black-robed figure in the Temple, [[spoiler:which is later revealed to be the BigBad Krill himself.]]
35	* BlackComedy: There is some throughout the entire series, but the funniest part has to go to ''Sorcerer'':
36	-->>e\
37	Entering the ocean is certain death.\
38	>enter ocean\
39	Certain death.
40	* BottomlessPits: There is one that is a result of the KULCAD spell on the Endless Stairs in ''Enchanter'', and since it's ''literally'' bottomless, [[AndIMustScream you'll eventually die]] [[IFellForHours from falling forever]].
41	* ChekhovsBoomerang: The GIRGOL spell in ''Spellbreaker''. And it has to be used at the last second the first time around. [[spoiler:It will soon come back to save you once again toward the end of the game.]]
42	* ControllableHelplessness:
43	** In ''Sorcerer'' it is possible for the protagonist to end up in the Chamber of Living Death. There, the protagonist will be horribly torn apart and devoured by hideous parasites, only to not die but regenerate, over and over again, being unable to do anything about it because 'Your agony is too great to concentrate on such an action.'
44	** Also, in ''Spellbreaker'', [[spoiler:the BigBad freezes you in the final confrontation, leaving you unable to do anything but watch him carry out his evil scheme.]]
45	* CopyProtection: Only two games in the series each have one.
46	** In ''Sorcerer'', you need to unlock the trunk containing the AIMFIZ spell in the cellar of the Guild Hall by looking up the creature name in Belboz's journal and referring to the Infotater (packaged within the game) to search for the combination color code for one of the twelve creatures in said Infotater.
47	** In ''Spellbreaker'', when Belboz asks you a test question in the String Room, you'll need to look up the six Enchanter Cards (also packaged) to find the correct answer in one of them. Whether you get it right or not, Belboz will give you a key. [[spoiler: If you gave the wrong answer, it's booby-trapped.]]
48	* CuttingTheKnot:
49	** In ''Enchanter'', there is a jeweled egg with all the Gordian handles and buttons needed to open it. There are a few ways to open it, and besides the time-consuming way, you either break the egg to get a shredded scroll, or you can use the REZROV spell on the egg... [[SelfDestructingSecurity only for the egg to open and reveal a shredded scroll anyway]]. The puzzle isn't opening the egg, it's [[spoiler: fixing the scroll]].
50	** Later on, you come across a jeweled box with the MELBOR protection spell, bound shut by magical coils of thin Gordian rope that prevent the box from opening (and not even REZROV can open it). You only need a knife to cut the rope, and the only way to obtain the knife is by HumanSacrifice... [[DeathIsCheap provided that you have the right kind of spell that can help you cheat death]], of course.
51	** At one point you obtain a KULCAD scroll, a single-use scroll that dispels any sort of magic. Since almost all the puzzles in the game are magical, this can be used to bypass any one of them. But [[spoiler:if you do that the game becomes UnwinnableByDesign, because you need it at the very end for something that can't be bypassed any other way.]]
52	* DarkerAndEdgier: Than ''Zork''. You're thwarting the plans of {{Evil Overlord}}s instead of just searching for treasure in a cave and getting rid of a senile wizard along the way.
53	** Spellbreaker is this for the trilogy itself. [[spoiler:The ultimate source of the problems is InherentInTheSystem, since any sufficiently powerful sorcerer will have an evil shadow; and even if you were to win, it would only be a matter of time until one managed to destroy everything. Of course, you ''don't'' even manage to win cleanly, leading to a BittersweetEnding.]]
54	* DeathIsCheap: Most of the games have a mechanism for bringing the protagonist back to life. Examples: In ''Sorcerer'' dying actually simplifies a certain puzzle (if you have the GASPAR spell enabled); in ''Spellbreaker'' you get brought back to life at the Boneyard (the place for the Death Cube) after you get killed. In ''Enchanter'', with [[AutoRevive the OZMOO spell enabled]], you die briefly via HumanSacrifice... only to return to life in the same place seconds later... with a sacrificial dagger in your chest and [[FeelNoPain no pain in your body at all]], even when you pull it out. (Toward the end of ''Enchanter'', [[spoiler:Krill seems surprised at your "revival", as he thought he had [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat ritually killed you]] in front of his hairy ogre servants.]])
55	* DemonicPossession: This is what's behind the mentor's strange actions in ''Sorcerer''. Letting the demon possess ''you'' is... not a good idea.
56	* DownerEnding: In each game there is the possibility of screwing up ''so badly'' that you are awarded a massively negative score and the title Menace to Society:
57	** In ''Enchanter,'' [[spoiler: make BigBad Krill irrelevant by releasing the [[EldritchAbomination Unseen Terror]]]].
58	** In ''Sorcerer,'' [[spoiler: release Jeearr from Belboz's body without shielding your own mind, allowing it to possess your younger, stronger form]].
59	** In ''Spellbreaker,'' [[spoiler: allow the Shadow to complete the cubic ritual and [[GodhoodSeeker become omnipotent]]. If you take the first step needed to stop the ritual but not the second, you instead destroy the world (getting the same rank)]].
60	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: In ''Enchanter'', if you sleep in bed in a tower a few times, you'll encounter dreams of wandering in a darkened place without any light or possessions while being surrounded by strange faces; or of a cartoon version of yourself wandering up the endless spiral staircase. All of these are clues that may help you press on through the game.
61	* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt[=/=]TheNightThatNeverEnds[=/=]TheBadGuyWins: In ''Enchanter'', this is the fate of what will happen to the entire ''Zork'' universe if Krill is not stopped after over 1,400 moves. Also counts as a NonStandardGameOver.
62	* {{Foreign\|Remake}} VideoGameRemake: In 1993, ten years after the original ''Enchanter'', Japanese software development company [=SystemSoft=] developed and published its [[http://www.mobygames.com/game/pc98/enchanter-wakaki-madshi-no-shiren remake for]] [[Platform/PC98 the PC-9801]] entitled ''Enchanter: Wakaki Madōshi no Shirén'' (エンチャンター～若き魔導士の試練～; ''[[TheForeignSubtitle Enchanter: The Trial of the Young Sorcerer]]''). Unlike the original, this game has some of the most common verb commands ("look", "take", etc.) that can be accessed by pressing a corresponding button (the player still has to type the name of an object, though), and enhanced graphics for the unique background pictures on which the text is super-imposed.
63	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: The first scene of ''Sorcerer'' is absolutely brutal, and you escape from one peril to another like some kind of DeathCourse. [[spoiler: It's AllJustADream, though you end up in a less-deadly version of the same location later.]]
64	* EvilWearsBlack: The large, black-robed figure in the Temple, [[spoiler:which is later revealed to be the BigBad Krill himself.]]
65	* FromBeyondTheFourthWall: In ''Enchanter'', you can summon an Implementer (that is, one of the developers of the game), who will make a comment about "fixing bugs" and then disappear.
66	* GreaterScopeVillain: The Unseen Terror in ''Enchanter'', a CosmicHorror [[SealedEvilInACan trapped under Krill's castle]]; you need to defeat Krill ''without'' letting it loose.
67	* GrowlingGut: In ''Enchanter'', this growling stomach comes up as the start of your hunger, meaning that you need something to eat. ''Sorcerer'' also has this at the beginning, but luckily, you can get a potion that will indefinitely satisfy both your hunger and thirst.
68	* GuideDangIt: ''Spellbreaker'' was so hard the developers actually ''apologized'' and admitted most people would have to use a hint book to finish it. ''Spellbreaker'' is extremely linear in nature. If you're stuck on one puzzle, it's seldom possible to leave it and try another.
69	* HumanSacrifice: In ''Enchanter'', hairy ogres make a sacrificial ritual in the castle's temple, and you are chosen as soon as you enter. And for good reason, too: it is necessary to get the sacrificial knife in order to cut the ropes that bind the jeweled box shut that contains the MELBOR spell... [[DeathIsCheap provided that you survive getting sacrificed with help from the OZMOO spell]].
70	* IFellForHours: Played for drama and exaggerated; if your KULCAD spell turns the endless stairs into a {{Bottomless Pit\|s}}, you'll fall down for hours. If you don't IZYUK yourself or if your IZYUK wears off, you'll fall forever and eventually die.
71	* IfICanOnlyMove: At the end of ''Spellbreaker'', the BigBad paralyzes you and then starts a JustBetweenYouAndMe speech that goes on just long enough to let you make one move at the last second to stop him. Unfortunately, by that point [[DownerEnding your options are limited]]. Even more awkwardly, you have to deliberately provoke him into paralysing you as soon as possible, so the paralysis wears off in time for you to act; if you try to remain under the radar he'll eventually paralyse you anyway and it won't wear off until after he's already won.
72	* ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder: In ''Spellbreaker'', if you try to get the roc's feathers:
73	-->You're an Enchanter, not a garbage collector.
74	* ImAHumanitarian: In ''Enchanter'', if you cast NITFOL on the guards while imprisoned, it is implied that the hunched and hairy shapes eat less fortunate people who were killed by HumanSacrifice... while being drenched in their own blood; and that you are too scrawny to be eaten while being TheChosenOne.
75	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: In ''Enchanter'', the large, black-robed figure [[spoiler: (that is, the BigBad Krill himself)]] prepares to stab you in the heart with a sacrificial dagger in a HumanSacrifice ritual. [[DeathIsCheap With the OZMOO spell on yourself, however, you'll]] FeelNoPain as the spell turns it into a BloodlessCarnage.
76	** Played straight, however, in the Engine Room, where if you set a DeathTrap after getting the KULCAD spell, the sharp spears skewer you to death.
77	* ImpliedDeathThreat: In ''Enchanter'', [[spoiler:if you defeated both the dragon and the monster shape, Krill is surprised and threatens you with, "I am through playing games, carnival-clown! You shall return to your Circle, but I am afraid that all the little pieces will prove hard to re-assemble!", before opening the portal to the void.]]
78	* IncredibleShrinkingMan: In ''Spellbreaker'', the LISKON spell is very handy in shrinking a giant snake that's blocking your path. It can also come in handy if you want to get inside [[DownTheDrain an outflow pipe]] that contains the Change Cube.
79	* InvisibleMonsters: The aptly named Unseen Terror from ''Enchanter''.
80	* LeftForDead: It is [[https://www.thezorklibrary.com/history/krill.html confirmed]] in ''Enchanter'' that [[spoiler:Krill has left the protagonist for dead after stabbing him in the chest with a dagger in a HumanSacrifice ritual. Thankfully, Krill's henchmen are too busy chanting to notice that the OZMOO spell the protagonist has prepared beforehand works wonders on him as an AutoRevive spell]].
81	* LightEmUp: Besides lighting up objects in dark places, the FROTZ spell can be a weapon against dark enemies, such as the hunched and hairy shapes and even grues. However, there are some grues that are immune to light, and that is near the end of ''Sorcerer''.
82	* LimitedUseMagicalDevice: In ''Enchanter'', spells are learned from scrolls that are copied into one's Spellbook: Copying that spell causes it to vanish.
83	* LoadBearingBoss: Toward the end of ''Enchanter'', [[spoiler:after you use [[OneHitKill GUNCHO]] on Krill, he recoils in horror before he utters a spell that makes the tower collapse as a final hurrah, leaving you to fall to your death before Belboz saves you at the last moment.]]
84	* MageTower: Krill's tower.
85	* MagicCarpet: There is a magical flying blue carpet with the magic cubes in ''Spellbreaker''. And you'll want to get one from the merchant at the emporium... assuming you can make the right offer of either zorkmids or a rare opal eye.
86	* TheMagicGoesAway: The threat of this sets off the plot of ''Spellbreaker''. [[spoiler:In the end, making it happen is the only way to defeat the antagonist. You get a rank of "scientist" for completing the game, since wizard is no longer a useful occupation.]]
87	** [[spoiler::Though it's implied in ''Beyond Zork'' that the Coconut of Quendor will bring a time of magic back to the Empire. It does so in ''VideoGame/ZorkGrandInquisitor'']]
88	* MythologyGag: The series makes some cameos from the ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}'' series (namely, the Adventurer and the map, the Zorkmid, the Grue Repellent, and the temple of HumanSacrifice from the magic table in the Scenic Vista).
89	* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: The cube in the vault puzzle from ''Spellbreaker'', possibly the single hardest puzzle Infocom ever created. A dozen cubes, 3 uses of JINDAK, no room for error.
90	* NonStandardGameOver: If you mess up in the endgames, you can get a negative score and the title "Menace to Society" for unleashing a horror upon the world.
91	* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Toward the end of ''Enchanter'', [[spoiler:when you come face to face with Krill, he seems utterly surprised to see you alive, as he thought he had killed you in a HumanSacrifice ritual in front of his hairy slaves]].
92	* OneWordTitle: Also JobTitle, for ''Enchanter'' and ''Sorcerer'', and possibly also ''Spellbreaker''
93	* OrcusOnHisThrone: Krill is strangely passive about your intrusion into his castle. Casting certain spells will cause him to probe your mind, but he doesn't attack or send minions. When you sleep, he may try to steal your spell book if you don't protect it, but he doesn't have you killed or imprisoned. The whole ''point'' of sending you is that he wouldn't consider you a threat, but he seems willfully blind or stupid.
94	* PressStartToGameOver: At the very beginning of ''Sorcerer'', when you find yourself cornered by a Hellhound in the prologue, instead of waiting for the hellhound to kill you ([[AllJustADream and end the dream]]), you can [[http://www.mobygames.com/game/atari-8-bit/sorcerer/screenshots/gameShotId,306251/ wake up earlier than expected and go out shopping with Frobar]]... [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs only to find the Guild Hall in ruins and everyone slaughtered]].
95	-->[[HaveANiceDeath Some days it just doesn't pay to wake up.]]
96	* ReligionOfEvil: In ''Enchanter'', there are hunched and hairy figures in the temple, making some bloodcurdling chant to a demon statue with dripping fangs and razor-sharp talons.
97	* RoadApples: In ''Sorcerer'', you come across a hidden cave near Egreth Castle that contains a scroll with the FWEEP spell lying in a pile of bat guano near the BLORT potion. You can actually pick up both the guano and the scroll, since they both can be useful later. It is also said that Yipples have a nauseating fear of animal droppings among human waste.
98	* SealedEvilInACan: In ''Enchanter'', your job is to defeat Krill without disturbing the Cosmic Horror that's sealed below his castle. The tie-in novel by Robin Bailey takes the tack that your character accidentally did release the thing, and now it's up to the book's protagonist to stop it.
99	* SelfDestructingSecurity: In ''Enchanter'' there's an mechanical egg with a scroll inside. No matter how you open it, the egg shreds the scroll so it's unusable. [[spoiler:You later get a spell that allows you to reconstitute the scroll and learn the spell on it.]]
100	* ShoutOut:
101	** The road leading west from the starting point has signs along it writing out a message one word at a time in the style of Advertising/BurmaShave billboards.
102	--->Why\
103	are\
104	you\
105	going\
106	west\
107	when\
108	the\
109	castle\
110	is\
111	east?\
112	Burma\
113	Shave
114	** Some of the spell names; for instance, NITFOL, which lets you talk to the animals, is named after Creator/HughLofting, author of the ''Literature/DoctorDolittle'' books, while YOMIN, which lets you mind-probe, is named after the late great Creator/LeonardNimoy, the actor who played Mr. Spock in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise. The CLEESH spell, which turns enemies into newts, is named after Creator/JohnCleese, who had a memorable line in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' about being turned into a newt.
115	** If you REZROV the toll gate in ''Sorcerer'':
116	--->The gate flies open, waking the gnome, who leaps up and slams it closed again. "Hey! This is a toll gate! Nobody gets through here without paying [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings the one zorkmid toll]]. [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Not nobody, not nohow.]]"
117	** If you try following the rabbit in the Meadow in ''Spellbreaker'' you get this message:
118	--->[[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland What rabbit? I guess he was late for something.]]
119	* SlainInTheirSleep: Sleeping in dangerous places can be an instant game over. In ''Sorcerer'', [[spoiler:you might wind up having to kill you mentor Belboz with the GemEncrusted enchanted dagger while he sleeps.]]
120	* SpeaksFluentAnimal: The NITFOL spell in ''Enchanter'' allows you to talk to animals. Also a TropeCodifier, as NITFOL is named after Hugh Lofting, author of the ''Literature/DoctorDolittle'' series, which became the former {{Trope Namer\|s}} for "The Doctor Dolittle".
121	* StableTimeLoop: One in ''Sorcerer'' and two interlinked loops in ''Spellbreaker''.
122	* SteppingStonesInTheSky: ''Spellbreaker'' has this as a puzzle solution ... though it makes a little more sense jumping up rocks when you've ''[[TimeStandsStill stopped time in the middle of the rock collapse]]''.
123	* AStormIsComing: In ''Enchanter'', when you first meet the old crone in the hovel, she says, "They've all left! A great storm is brewing in the east, my friend, and all have fled before it!", before giving you the REZROV spell.
124	* SuperSpeed: The EXEX spell is very useful for allowing you to move faster than normal. And it just might work on a turtle if you time it right.
125	* TakeThat: Villain Jeearr is named after the ad agency G/R.
126	* TakingYouWithMe: Toward the end of ''Enchanter'', [[spoiler:after you use [[OneHitKill GUNCHO]] on Krill, he recoils in horror before he utters a spell that makes the tower collapse as a final hurrah, leaving you to fall to your death before Belboz saves you at the last moment.]]
127	* TimeSkip: Occurs throughout the series: ''Enchanter'' takes place in 956 GUE, eight years after the events of the ''Zork'' trilogy; ''Sorcerer'' takes place one year after the events of ''Enchanter'' with you having been Belboz's student as your reward for defeating Krill; and ''Spellbreaker'' takes place [[spoiler:at the [[EndOfAnAge end of the First Age of Magic]]]] in 966 GUE, nine years after the events of ''Sorcerer'', with Belboz having retired and you having taken his place as Master of the Enchanter's Guild.
128	* TimeStandsStill: The recurring Girgol spell does this.
129	* TimeTravel: The time travel spell, GOLMAC, is used for a series of puzzles in ''Sorcerer'', and a rather more fundamental method is used in ''Spellbreaker''.
130	* TrialAndErrorGameplay: In both ''Enchanter'' and ''Spellbreaker'', you lose your spellbook near the end of the game. You need to have the correct spells memorized to deal with endgame events, but unless you consult a walkthrough, there's no way to know what you'll need without going through each game's final sequence and dying to the threats at least once.
131	* TrustPassword: In ''Spellbreaker'', in order to prove to Belboz that you're not [[spoiler:your EvilTwin]], you'll have to correctly answer one of the six questions Belboz gives you based on the info on one of [[CopyProtection your six Enchanter cards]] before he can give you the key. Fail to provide the correct answer... [[spoiler:and he gives you the key anyway, [[DoubleSubversion which will later become booby-trapped near the end]].]]
132	* UnnaturallyLoopingLocation: The [[AbsurdlyLongStairway Endless Stairway]], which you can climb/descend forever without getting anywhere as the whole thing is a magical illusion.
133	* UnwinnableByDesign:
134	** In ''Enchanter'', the KULCAD scroll can only be used once. It cancels magic. Since every puzzle you encounter is basically a magical trap, the spell allows you to "cheat" your way past any one puzzle in the game. Doing this gives you no warning that you've done anything wrong -- until you get to the endgame and lack the spell you need to win.
135	** If you [[https://web.archive.org/web/19970805225821/http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/Invisiclues/spellbreaker/chapter8/TheStringRoom2/ fail the copy protection]] in ''Spellbreaker'', the game lies to you and tells you that you passed it. Many hours later, at the very [[https://web.archive.org/web/19970805232746/http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/Invisiclues/spellbreaker/chapter15/TheSandRoom3/ end of the game]], Belboz will suddenly appear and imprison you below the earth, with no warning as to why, what you did wrong, or when.
136	* UnwittingPawn: In ''Spellbreaker'', [[spoiler:the player character]].
137	* VancianMagic: Spells have to be memorized each time you want to cast them, although apparently you can "master" a spell to retain it in your mind permanently.
138	* VideoGameLives: Sort of played straight throughout ''Enchanter'', as when you die, Belboz resurrects you and returns you to where you started in the Eastern Fork. However, his powers are limited, so you have to be very careful. Die too many times, and it's GameOver for you. Near the end, the KULCAD spell subverts this, because if you die during the long fall or the battle with Krill, it's an immediate Game Over.
139	** ''Sorcerer'' gives you infinite respawns with the GASPAR spell, but if you die without casting it it's Game Over.
140	** ''Spellbreaker'' has the same thing as in ''Enchanter'', but this time, a shadowy figure will give you another chance at the Boneyard if you die. But you have to be careful though: die too many times, and it's Game Over for you. If you attempt to cast magic on Belboz, he'll imprison you below the earth, resulting in an instant Game Over (no ifs, ands, or buts).
141	* WholePlotReference: The plot of ''Spellbreaker'' is one to the ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'' trilogy, which was creator Dave Lebling's favorite series; [[spoiler:the protagonist spends the entire game pursing a mysterious shadow who turns out to be himself, as in the first book; and ultimately, to repair the universe, he must give up his magical powers forever, as in the final book.]]
142	* WithThisHerring: In ''Enchanter'', you are a novice sent to kill Krill with almost no spells to start with. Gets a HandWave that Krill would detect a more powerful mage and raise appropriate defenses.
143	* WizardNeedsFoodBadly: ''Enchanter'' requires you to eat regularly, or else die of starvation. Players found this so annoying that very early in ''Sorcerer'' you obtain a magical potion that enables you to go without food and water almost indefinitely. ''Spellbreaker'' dispenses with starvation mechanics entirely.

Context VideoGame / Enchanter