The game has you play as the Sole Survivor of a battle between dark elves and humans, where everyone died as a result of a powerful demon named Ul'Thok being summoned. The demon was then forced to go back to his homeland, the Shadowlands, but is now seeking a way to come back into the world of Tyreas. Your task is to find the legendary Ravensword and use it to defeat the evil demon once and for all.
No relation to Ravenmark games.
This game provides general examples of:
open/close all folders
A - M
- 20 Bear Asses: There are two different quests where you have to acquire a specific amount of pelts from specific enemies. One of them is even about bear pelts.
- Abandoned Mine: There is one, as a result of being infested with kobolds. A hapless miner got himself trapped at the very bottom and you need to rescue him.
- Always Over the Shoulder: The third person camera always stays behind your character's shoulder.
- Ancient Tomb: The city of Aven secretly holds one that contains the titular Ravensword.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: In one quest, you need to rescue a maiden from her castle being invaded by a group of thugs. She rewards you with a suit of armor upon completion.
- Animal Motifs: The Ravensword has, predictably, a raven motif.
- An Interior Designer Is You: There are two houses in the town that you can buy and then fill them up as you please with furniture that you can buy in a dedicated shop. Although this can prove difficult without the Rune of Winds, which allows you to move objects around, and which isn't acquired until late in the game.
- Artificial Stupidity: The AI of the enemies is very basic, meaning that it's possible to see them happily fall to their deaths if they happen to run into a Bottomless Pit while chasing you.
- Annoying Arrows: Especially early into the game, arrows can prove very inefficient in trying to whittle down the enemies' health. On the upside, you never run out of projectiles.
- Automaton Horses: Horses (and later eagles and pterodactyls) effectively function as summonable vehicles that don't ever need to be tended to.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The game features blunderbuss guns. It sounds awesome on paper, but in practice, even the highest-level ones prove unreliable (not always making a hit even if you're aiming straight at the target), and don't deal nearly as much damage as the highest-level crossbows.
- Back Stab: You are able to do this if you go for the stealth approach.
- Barbarian Tribe: The Wastelands feature a tribe of Nomads. Consisting of a grand total of 3 actual nomads, one of which you need to rescue first.
- Bears Are Bad News: If you try to fight bears too early, they will annihilate you.
- Beef Gate: There's no level-scaling in the game, and you're free to go anywhere you want, so if you try to go somewhere when you're not yet ready to handle the enemies there, then prepare to have your ass handed to you.
- Big Bad: Ul'Thok, the demon that intends to return to Tyreas and presumably Take Over the World.
- Bloodless Carnage: Not a drop of blood is seen in the game, during combat or otherwise.
- Blow You Away: There's an easily missable rune in the Citadel of Ror-Dan that lets you push enemies away with a gust of wind.
- Boss Battle: There are 5 over the course of the game: Gulch in the Ice Giant Caves, the giant snake in the Citadel of Ror-Dan, the leader of the dark elves from the Wastelands, the werewolf in the Ancient Ruins, and of course, Ul'Thok in the Shadowlands.
- Boss Room: There is one in the Citadel of Ror-Dan, housing a giant snake you need to defeat.
- Character Level: As is standard for games like this.
- City Guards: The city of Aven has them, and they will be quick to give you the Oblivion treatment if you get caught stealing."Stop, criminal scum! You're coming with me..."
- Convection, Schmonvection: Shadowlands feature lava that, predictably, only hurts you if you touch it. In a similar vein, an abandoned temple encountered earlier has a room filled with deadly acid that you need to get across by creating a bridge out of stone blocks.
- Cool Crown: The gypsies outside the town sell a jeweled helmet that looks like a pretty sweet crown.
- Crate Expectations: Here and there you can run into breakable crates, though they only contain small amounts of gold.
- Critical Existence Failure: Played entirely straight. An enemy at 100% health or at 1 health will be equally mobile and capable in combat.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Ul'Thok managed to completely destroy everyone who fought in the battle at Heronmar, aside from the player character.
- Cut and Paste Environments: There's quite a few buildings in the game, but only a couple interior designs, meaning that you'll be seeing the same locations a lot when entering buildings (right down to the furniture and the items on them being in the exact same spots).
- Damage-Sponge Boss: The werewolf that resides in the Ancient Ruins takes a lot of punishment before he finally dies, more so than the Final Boss himself.
- Damsel in Distress: There's a quest where you have to save a maiden from having her castle raided by a group of thugs. There's also two quests where you have to rescue some dude who got himself stuck at the bottom of a dungeon.
- Deal with the Devil: During the battle at Heronmar, the Archmage and his assistant Kavanaugh attempted to end the battle by summoning a powerful demon named Ul'Thok and ordering him to kill all dark elves; the deal was that if he kills them, then he's allowed to consume their souls. However, Kavanaugh betrayed the Archmage and changed the deal to instead kill everyone participating in the battle. However, the player character's heritage prevented Ul'Thok from killing him, and since this meant that Ul'Thok could not carry out his part of the deal, he was forced to go back to the Shadowlands he came from.
- Death from Above: The hostile pterodactyls that live in the Craigs are the only flying enemy, and are an absolute nightmare to deal with if they spot you.
- Dem Bones: Hostile skeletons absolutely infest the Citadel of Ror-Dan.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The game ends with you killing Ul'Thok, a demon who was powerful enough to effortlessly annihilate everyone who fought in the battle at Heronmar.
- Disproportionate Retribution: If you get caught stealing any item (which in this game is limited to metal mugs, pots and plates), then any positive reputation you might have immediately drops below the value you started the game out with, with absolutely no way to get it back if you already have completed most of the quests.
- Door to Before: The game features exactly one example of this, at the end of the troll caves. It leads you to a balcony from which you can jump down near the house of the person who sent you there. Just don't break your legs while doing so...
- Escort Mission: As noted above, there's two different occasions where you have to lead someone stuck at the bottom of a dungeon to the exit. Thankfully, by the time you get to them all the monsters should be already taken care of, meaning that the escortee cannot get themselves in any trouble other than maybe getting briefly stuck in tighter spaces.
- Everything Fades: Corpses that don't have any loot on them fade away almost immediately.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: There's a bunch of slow-moving, axe-toting zombies that inhabit the Ancient Ruins.
- Fetch Quest: Literally the entire main quest boils down to you being ordered to go to places to retrieve items required to advance the plot.
- Flaming Sword: You are able to temporarily invoke this if you enhance your sword with a red gem.
- Forced Level-Grinding: Considering that most enemies you'll run into easily outclass you unless you have expensive equipment on you, chances are, you'll have to spend some time grinding on goblins in order to be able to buy some decent gear.
- Forced Tutorial: The game starts with you controlling a nondescript soldier at the battle of Heronmar, which is used to show you how to play the game. There's no way to skip this.
- Game-Breaking Bug: There's nothing stopping you from using the plot-essential Black Ruby to enhance an item. Doing so renders the game Unwinnable.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: Ul'Thok himself, to the point where he never says anything when you fight him, and it's never even explained what exactly it is that he plans to do once he returns to Tyreas.
- Giant Spider: They can be encountered in the Tanglewood Marsh, the Citadel of Ror-Dan, and the Shadowlands.
- Gold and White Are Divine: The Ravensword has a gold and white color scheme.
- Gotta Catch Them All: You need to recover 3 Ravenstones before Ravensword can be acquired.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: One small example is the fact that you can use a stick with a rat at the end as a weapon.
- Hide Your Children: Not a single child in sight.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: As long as you don't hit the carry weight limit, you are able to carry any amount of items in your inventory, including several sets of weapons and armor.
- Insistent Terminology: Everyone refers to the large building in the Terraces as a castle, even though it looks more like a moderately-sized church.
- Invulnerable Civilians: Anyone who isn't explicitly an enemy cannot be harmed at all, and is completely ignored by monsters.
- It's Up to You: Your character's heritage makes him resistant to Ul'Thok's magic, so understandably, he's the primary material for the hero.
- Jungle Japes: Tanglewood Marsh is a tropical jungle filled with dinosaurs and giant spiders.
- Karma Meter: There's a Reputation stat that increases whenever you do some heroic deed, though it doesn't seem to actually do anything.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: Downplayed; you can steal plates and pitchers from NPCs' houses, and there's also a handful of houses you can break into, but that's about all the game offers in terms of unscrupulous thievery.
- Knock Back: Stronger enemies are capable of inflicting this onto you, with there being a talent you can invest points into to make the chance of that happening smaller. And there's also a secret rune that lets you push enemies back with a gust of wind.
- Land of One City: The starting town is the only town in the game. The only thing that comes even remotely close to being another town is a small miner village consisting of 3 buildings.
- Legendary Weapon: The Ravensword itself, which was used by the king of the land at one point.
- Lethal Lava Land: The titular Shadowlands.
- Limited Wardrobe: There's only about 4 different types of armors you can acquire in the game. On the other hand, the game provides some variety in the hat department, with there even being a whole shop dedicated to them.
- Lockpicking Minigame: There's a Skyrim-like lockpicking minigame where you have to turn your lockpick in the lock just right in order to open it.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The game features a couple of shields you can use to protect yourself. It's a very sensible thing to do, considering that every melee weapon in the game is one-handed and there's no dual-wielding, not to mention that the shields provide a way higher Defense bonus than any other piece of armor.
- Mage Tower: The Archmage lives in one.
- Magic Misfire: Part of the main quest is helping Lamil, the former apprentice of the Archmage, undo the effects of a spell he cast that resulted in him being shrunk and stuck inside of a bottle. He also mentions that he once turned Archmage's pet frog into a five-legged goat, which is what turned him into the former apprentice of the Archmage.
- Mana Meter: The game combines it with Sprint Meter, in that it is affected not only by magic, but also melee attacks and parrying with a shield. If you get yourself into a fight with multiple enemies and don't have any energy potions at hand, then prepare to see the "You're exhausted" message a lot. Thankfully, it recharges fairly quickly if you just stop attacking for a few moments.
- Mind over Matter: Rune of Winds grants the player a limited ability to move objects around. This is used at one point for a puzzle where you have to create a bridge out of stone blocks across a pool of lethal acid.
- Money Sink: The houses you can buy and the furniture to fill them up with cost ludicrous amounts of money, so if you want to play Sims with this game, then better get ready for lots and lots of grinding.
- Mordor: The Shadowlands, obviously.
N - Z
- No-Gear Level: There's a point in the main quest where you are forced to fight against the leader of the dark elves with no equipment on you other than an elven dagger. However, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from taking your stuff out of the container it was put into in the middle of the fight and then finishing the guy off with your best gear.
- No Name Given: The game never reveals the player character's name. You cannot name him, and the closest he gets to a name is that a few times he's referred to as "the survivor of the battle at Heronmar".
- Notice This: Chests and corpses that have loot in them emit a green glow when near.
- One-Time Dungeon: You cannot return to the Shadowlands after you are done with them.
- Organ Drops: Various enemies drop things like pelts, claws, etc.
- Playable Epilogue: You are able to continue playing after the main quest is over.
- Plotline Death: The Archmage dies as a result of Kavanaugh attacking him when he opens the portal to Shadowlands.
- Point-and-Click Map: As long as your weapon isn't drawn and you aren't inside a building or a dungeon, you are able to bring up the world map from which you can travel to any previously visited stretch of land.
- Poisoned Weapons: There's at least one merchant who sells a poison you can use to temporarily enhance your weapon.
- Power Glows: The Ravensword has a distinct shine to its blade whenever it's drawn.
- Regenerating Health: You have this skill from the beginning of the game, and there's even a talent you can invest skill points into to make it faster.
- Respawning Enemies: The enemies always respawn whenever you fast travel to a given part of the world.
- Rewarding Vandalism: Breaking crates reveals small piles of money.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: You can encounter a bunch in the Terraces.
- Roof Hopping: Required in one sidequest where you chase a thief across rooftops.
- RPGs Equal Combat: The game fits this trope to a tee, rarely giving you any opportunities to make any choices.
- Save-Game Limits: The game only allows you to make a single save per character while playing, and does not allow loading a save unless you're in the main menu. While in the main menu, you do have an option to go to an earlier save, but the game can only store 10 of them for one character at a time; if the point you wanted to go back to happened to be placed earlier than the earliest save available, then you're out of luck.
- Sequence Breaking: There's nothing stopping you from acquiring the first Ravenstonenote and the black gem early. Averted with the other Ravenstones though.
- Shop Fodder: There's quite a few useless objects that only serve the purpose of being possible to sell, mostly things like pelts, claws and other stuff dropped by monsters.
- Shout-Out: There is a retired adventurer NPC who, when he notices that you're an adventurer yourself, will say "I was an adventurer too, until I took an arrow in... nevermind all that. I am just an old man just rambling on."
- Skippable Boss: Technically speaking there's nothing forcing you to fight the Werewolf boss in the Ancient Ruins. If all you're after is the Black Gem he's guarding, then you're free to just run past him, grab the gem from the chest behind him, and then run away.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The White Iron Peaks.
- Socketed Equipment: Weapons and armor (some of them, at least) come with "Enhancement" slots, meaning that you can put gems into them that provide bonuses to either damage or your stats. However, there's also some other items like Spider Venom that you have to put into such slot in order to make use of it.
- Starter Equipment: The game starts you off with basic armor and sword, given to you by your guildmaster.
- Stuck Items: Every quest item you acquire remains in your inventory for the rest of the game and cannot be sold or dropped, even after they've long served their purpose.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Each and every enemy, once they spot you, will not give up trying to reach and kill you until either you or them are dead, or until you completely leave the worldspace that they (or the dungeon they live in) are situated. And since you cannot use Fast Travel while someone is attacking you, it's entirely possible to get yourself stuck inside a dungeon with aggro'ed enemies waiting outside and with no ability to fight back. Add in the fact that the enemies are capable of stun-locking you if enough of them are beating you at the same time, and the fact that the game has limited saves, and you have a recipe for potentially making the game Unwinnable.
- Sword of Plot Advancement: The titular Ravensword, the only weapon capable of destroying Ul'Thok.
- Temple of Doom: The Citadel of Ror-Dan. It's a snake-themed temple in the middle of a monster-infested jungle, filled with hostile skeletons and various traps, some of which can only be circumvented with the use of the Rune of Winds.
- The Dragon: Kavanaugh, the apprentice who betrayed the Archmage and attempted to release Ul'Thok into the world.
- The Stoic: Nomads from the Wastelands always have an emotionless, bored-looking expression on their face - even the one you rescue from his cell in the tunnels inhabited by dark elves.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The titular Shadowlands.
- Thieves' Guild: A hidden one working in secret within the main town. One quest requires you to locate it and destroy it.
- Unbreakable Weapons: Your weapons cannot be broken.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: There are some aversions, like the goblin shields, but otherwise, if you see a weapon on an enemy, then chances are that you won't be able to take and use it, like with goblin swords or orc spears.
- Villain Teleportation: When you fight Kavanaugh, he will teleport all over the place, even coupling this with being invisible most of the time.
- Violence is the Only Option: There's a sidequest where you have to destroy a Thieves' Guild that operates within Aven's underground. There is no option to try to join them or resolve the quest peacefully, as the thieves are always hostile.
- Walk, Don't Swim: Potentially as a result of an oversight, if you jump into a body of water while being attacked and the enemies follow you, then instead of them swimming, they will just keep walking at the bottom.
- Wall Jump:
Probably not an intentional mechanic, but a skilled player can jump up almost any wall that isn't at a 90 degrees angle. - We Buy Anything: No matter the merchant, they always buy anything you sell to them.
- Welcome to Corneria: NPCs have a habit of always repeating the exact same greeting when you initiate conversation with them.
- Where It All Began: The titular Ravensword happens to be hidden in a tomb underneath the town's plaza, which is the first location you enter after the introductory sequence.
- Wide-Open Sandbox: It's no Oblivion or Skyrim, but you are fully capable to travelling to any part of the world from the beginning of the game, provided that you can handle the monsters that reside in various parts of it.
- Wizard Needs Food Badly: Your character needs to regularly eat. Eating occurs automatically at regular intervals if there's any food in their inventory. Running out of food negatively impacts the speed at which your character's health regenerates.
