Sacred is a Hack And Slash game in the vein of Diablo. It follows the hero as he goes on a quest to defeat some giant demon, destroy the necromancer Shaddar, and save the lands of Ancaria by collecting the five elements. You probably won't notice that much, as you'll be a bit busy using the spells to destroy your enemies. There are six classes in the original (Gladiator, Seraphim, Vampiress, Battle Mage, Wood Elf and Dark Elf) with two more added by an expansion pack (Dwarf and Daemon). Each class has its own special abilities learned from runes found around the game world.An expansion for the first game, Sacred Underworld was released in August 2005, and takes place shortly after the events of the main game. Both Shadarr and the Shakkara Demon have been defeated, but this victory did not come without a price. Prince Valor is dead, leaving Ancaria without a ruler. To make matters worse, a dark wizard named Anducar has rallied the demons of the Underworld (Sacred's equivalent of Hell) under his banner with the intention of invading and conquering Ancaria. With the help of Valor's lover and widow, Vilya, the heroes of Sacred must venture into the Underworld and defeat Anducar before his demonic legions destroy the world. Joining them are two new classes: the Daemoness, a female Demon who was betrayed by Anducar and now seeks vengeance, and the last of the Dwarves.Sacred 2: Fallen Angel was released in June 2009, for PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. Set 2000 years before the original Sacred, the Inquisition, a High Elven Corrupt Church, seeks to gain control of Ancaria's T Energy, a mysterious substance that grants great power, but runs the risk of turning its users into mindless mutants. To this end, they have launched invasions into the neighboring nations as they search for the Great Machine, a mystical artifact that is said to be the source of all T Energy, and will grant the one who controls it complete dominance over T Energy, and with it, all of Ancaria. However, not all are willing to let the Inquisition go unopposed, as a small but growing resistance movement has begun to form. In the middle of this brewing conflict comes you, one of six character classes, each with their own backstory and motives. Your character now faces a choice: Will you walk the path of Light, and fight to stop the Inquisition's nefarious schemes and destroy the Great Machine, forever ridding Ancaria of its corrupting presence; or will you walk the path of Shadow, and strive to take the Great Machine's power for your own, slaughtering anyone who stands in your way?An expansion, Ice and Blood, was released shortly afterwards. This expansion holds two new areas: the Crystal Plane, a region with deep Seraphim heritage where hunters go to test their worth, and the Blood Forest, where a lovers quarrel Gone Horribly Wrong has transformed the once vibrant forest into a dangerous, mutated land where demons and undead fight a neverending battle for supremacy.The game has a high level of customization, with the item manufacturing and skill systems allowing for many different paths for a character to explore.Tragically, not long after Sacred 2 was released, developer Ascaron suddenly went bankrupt, causing the loss of the rights to export Ice and Blood to the US. Thankfully, German developer Deep Silver was able to acquire the IP, and has made both Ice and Blood and the international Gold Edition of Sacred 2 available for digital download.A Spinoff, Sacred Citadel, was announced be Deep Silver, which will be a Beat 'em UpSidescroller with Sacred-level of customization and loot drops. The game was released on April 16, 2013.This game provides examples of:
Abandoned Mine: The Gnarlstat mines were populated by Dwarves before being massacred by the Dark Elves, who built their lair near the ruines and called it Zhurag-Nar.
Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The sewers under Braverock Castle. Bandits, monsters and even a secret vampire cult hide in multiple levels of tunnels. Have we mentioned that the castle is built over an ancient Dark Elven bastion called Mhurag-Nar whose basement is still intact?
All There in the Manual: Both games have a substantial amount of ingame books. The first game contained mostly lore books which included several theories on the origins of the Seraphim and how Anducar became lord of the Underworld. The second game, in keeping with its Lighter and Softer nature, contains texts on the various gods of the world, descriptions of the various regions, and texts that are just plain silly, such as orcish cooking recipes.
2 features a version of Ancaria 1000 years before◊. It's implied that the events at the end of the game caused a cataclysm which altered the continent.
Ambiguously Brown: The Dryad and her tribe of dark-skinned jungle elves.
Animate Dead: Many. The Vampiress, the Inquisitor and the Shadow Warrior can rise corpses as their minions for a time, and the latter can also gather permanently a bunch of skeletons.
Apathetic Citizens: The player character is asked to do all sort of tasks in the town, ranging to bring back a chicken to his owner, to kill a monster which lives in near ruins.
Arm Cannon: Temple Guardian's signature weapon. As a consequence, he can't wield two-handed weapons, but the cannon compensates it more than enough.
Artificial Stupidity: Escortees in 2 that wield melee weapons. which will always seek out the nearest enemy in a futile attempt to kill it...and by nearest, we really mean "anything within 10 yards." By contrast, escorts with ranged weapons are considerably more careful and tactical, but sadly these types are very rare compared to melee escorts.
The undead skeletons summoned by the Shadow Warrior serve as a effective escort team, but they have the unfortunate tendency to roam freely and attack the farthest enemy within a even bigger scope. In general, they don't bother to follow great plans.
The Atoner: The Vampiress, the Dark Elf and the Daemoness.
Ax Crazy: The Vampiress was one before biting a Seraphim, whose blood made her retrieve part of her humanity.
BFG: A skill for the Seraphim in both games summons one of these. The 2 version is a watered down version of the first.
Big Bad: The first game has two. First is the Sakkara Demon that was summoned in the intro, and then it's Shaddar, the Not Quite Dead evil wizard who summoned the Demon in the first place.Underworld has Anducar. The sequel has High Inquisitor Nimonuil. The Gatebreaker in Citadel.
Bigger Bad: In the first game, the reason the orcs are invading the rest of Ancaria is because they're trying to escape the Sakkara Demon's undead armies.
Bittersweet Ending: Underworld. Anducar and his demonic hordes are defeated, but Vilya dies tragically after being completely broken in every possible way. On the plus side, the ending cinematic shows her soul reuniting with the soul of her beloved Valor.
Citadel ends with the Gatebreaker destroyed and the Ashe Empire forced into retreat, but the Seraphim are in disarray and their leader goes into self-imposed exile in shame due to her inability to save the Citadel, and the narrator states that the Empire is far from finished. However, at the same time, the heroes' actions have inspired an organized resistance that is quickly growing in number. Oh, and the Grimmoc Mama escapes with an apparently valuable Seraphim artifact.
Black Mage: The Battle Mage. The Inquisitor is a more straight example.
Blade Below the Shoulder: The Temple Guardian can extend blades from his arm. Certain hand weapons from the original game have this configuration.
The Garema were a race of Japanese-style green-skinned pygmies who dwelled in the southern jungle and battled the Dryads before being anhiliated. The Dryads pitied on them and embalmed the fallen Garema, who would eventually return as the even more vicious undead Nuk-nuks and moved to the Ancaria underworld.
Combat Tentacles: The Wood Elf, the Dryad, and the Inquisitor can summon some.
The Shadow Warrior can summon a flying spectral hand.
Covers Always Lie: Sacred 2 cover shows the Temple Guardian and the Dryad in the good guys side and the Shadow Warrior and the High Elf in the opposite, while the game intro shows the Temple Guardian, the Dryad and the Shadow Warrior teaming in the good side. Technically, neither of them is canon, as you can freely choose your character's path.
Daywalking Vampire: The Vampiress can freely walk around in sunlight while in her human form. Even if she is in vampire form during day, she is just mildly damaged.
Demon Slaying: There are demons among the enemies of this game. One of them is particularly big.
Difficulty Spike: There is a world of difference between Bronze and Silver settings, especially in the first game. And then you unlock Gold and beyond...
Most Dryad people walk around barefoot, giving their Earthy Barefoot Character status. Not the one controlled by the player, however.
The Inquisitor is barefoot in his default attire, probably due to his monkish nature.
Also, the Dwarf only wears spats in his default apperance.
Technically, the Daemoness also count, as she has hooved feet.
Doing in the Wizard : In Sacred, some in-game books explain that Seraphim and dragons are genetically related and tell some religious legends about their origin, claiming Seraphim were created by the goddess Sofia to fight the Worganar demons. Later, in a special quest, a Seraphim is cornered in the desert by demons and cultists and dies muttering "it's all lies", leaving you a lightsaber and a book. The book contains a strange text about the origin of the Seraphim which uncannily fits the first source... replacing holy magic with sci-fi technology. Whether this book is canon or just Easter Egg material is open to debate.
Sacred 2lampshades this, as one of the magic classes used by the Seraphim is called "Revered Technology". It's unclear if this refers to the mentioned story or is just regular Magitek.
Evil Counterpart: In the sequel, The Seraphim's character quest revolves around an undead "Dark Seraphim".
Not to mention the Inquisitor to the Seraphim.
Expy: The Inquisitor has many allusions to Darth Vader. In fact, one of the additions of the Community Patch is Vader's helmet as an unique helmet for the Inqusitor.
Fantastic Racism: In 2, the High Elves consider themselves the best race in Ancaria and look down on everyone else, and the playable High Elf displays a haughty attitude towards the other races even in the Light campaign, while the Inquisitor will coldly tell Human enemies to "get out of the sun". Most Humans hate the High Elves for enslaving most of them. Both races despise the Orcs as bloodthirsty savages, who in turn hate the more civilized races for being "weak". Most of the Seraphim have become distant and aloof towards the mortal races, and even the playable Seraphim exhibits some of this behavior.
In the original, Commander Romata (the man who officially starts the main quest regardless of character) is openly leery and suspicious of the Dark Elf and Daemoness, and the Dwarf will occasionally scornfully remark how much of Ancaria's architecture pales in comparison to his people's.
Green Aesop: The Dryad in general. Her entire race is really big on nature and the preservation there of, and her class quests represent that. Light side Dryad's try to preserve both nature and the lives of others, while Shadow aligned Dryads are... considerably more brutal.
Arguably, this is the entire point of T Energy. Everyone sees it as a wonderous energy source capable of nearly everything, but in reality its a highly volatile substance that turns its users into mindless mutants and can even mutate the environment. It also arguably draws a parallel to real life fossil fuels.
Guide Dang It: A handful of quests in the second game can automatically fail depending on decisions made during a quest chain, or even if certain quests are accepted and/or completed in the wrong order.
Hard Mode Perks: Like in Diablo, higher difficulty means better drop. Also, experience bonus.
Impossible Item Drop: A goblin dropping a giant axe isn't something you see every day.
Inexplicable Treasure Chests: A quest comprise a drunken soldier named Avengarius giving you a treasure map which leads you to a cave with a well-filled treasure chest. The soldier mentions the treasure as the pay of his old legion, but neither he or you know how did it end in the cave.
In-Universe Game Clock: Ancaria has a normal day/night cycle. It normally affects only visibility, although the sunlight causes damage to the Vampiress if she is in her vampire form.
Kick the Dog: Most of the Shadow aligned characters get one in their intros.
The Inquisitor poisons his partner in order to take full credit for the success of their mission, then massacres the tavern he's in because "they're witnesses".
The High Elf kills her rival student in what was supposed to be a friendly duel, and then when her teacher scolds her for lack of restraint, she kills ''him'' too.
The Temple Guardian butchers the two hapless adventurers that accidentally activated him. (to be fair, they attacked first)
The Shadow Warrior is pretty much a near-mindless pawn of the Inquisition, and his first task is to murder a hapless man as a "test drive".
Kleptomaniac Hero: You can steal a lot of items in chests and barrels located inside houses and even stores. Their dwellers won't react if you do so in front of them.
Lava Adds Awesome: The Ascaron's Call tavern has a lava pit in its hall. Yes, a tavern.
Left-Justified Fantasy Map: Somehow averted. Ancaria◊ has the ocean in the underside and not in the left, although the coast ascends to the left.
As it's featured in 2, Ancaria 1000 years before◊ has an ocean under the continent and another one over it.
Leg Cannon: The Temple Guardian has a spell that fire energy from his legs while levitating.
Level Grinding: Not so much as in other Hack And Slash games, because most of the monsters are generated with a level relative to yours. However, that doesn't mean that you don't grind. Rune Grinding is important for your skills.
Lighter and Softer: The second game and its expansion have considerably more lighthearted humor and moments than the original.
Mundane Made Awesome: Completing the Blind Guardian sidequest rewards you with the instruments of each band member as powerful Legendary weapons. The two guitarists' guitars are two-handed swords, the drummer's drumstick and cymbal are a sword and shield, and the lead singer's microphone is a magic staff.
Not so much in the first game, but in the second game, there's at least one friendly member of each enemy race.
The three heroes from Always Chaotic Evil races in the first game qualify - The Dark Elf assassin turns on his own people after falling in love with one of his targets, the Vampiress awakens to the cause of good after drinking Seraphim blood, and the Daemoness assists the forces of good while on her quest for revenge against Anducar. There's also a Dark Elf priestess who will help you until you finish the quest she gives you.
No Export for You: When Ascaron, the developer company, went under, the rights to localize the sequel's expansion in the U.S. went with them. Thankfully, the international version of the expansion is still purchasable.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Before the story of the game, the Vampiress was a female human warrior who found a confinedvampire queen in the Mhurag-Nar dungeons and spared her life out of mercy, but the vampire betrayed her and turned her into a one of her race. Later the Vampiress find her in the Braverock Castle sewers and takes the opportunity to retaliate.
No Name Given: The heroes are only referred by their nature title.
Laurelinad (the Dark Elf) and Maegalcarwen (the Wood Elf) are the exception. Also, a grave mentions a Gladiator named Hendrikus conversing with a Battle Mage.
Not So Extinct: Played with the Dwarves. Apparently absent from 2, they appeared 2000 years after and laboured for Anducar to build his fortress in the Depths of Death, then he annihilated them. Some Dwarves eventually made it to the upper world where they came to rescue the Seraphim from the Dark Elven. But then the Dark Elven massacred the Dwarves... except one.
Obvious Beta: The first game had an absurd amount of glitches and bugs. Even after several patches, they were still plentiful. Thankfully, the sequel was handled much better, even if it is a little rough around the edges.
Our Gargoyles Rock: They are artificial monsters created by attaching evil spirits to stone statues.
Our Ghosts Are Different: Sacred ghosts range from traditional human spirits to bizarre, ghoul-like entities.
Our Giants Are Bigger: Ancaria has a race of gigantic, blue-skinned humanoids that roam the snows. They are nastier enough to assault the Seraphim monastery.
Interestingly, the trolls from 2 are identical to those giants, while the troll race in Sacred is a completely different one.
Our Vampires Are Different: Although not very common in Ancaria. In three games, only two vampires have appeared in the story and the second one was responsible for the creation of the first one.
Shadow-aligned characters are still capable of performing good deeds in certain sidequests. In particular, the Inquisitor's character quest revolves around him protecting and caring for a young lady who is heavily implied to be his daughter.
In one Community Patch quest, if you choose to side with a Seraphim goddess (light side) instead of her witch imposter (shadow) with a Shadow aligned character, the goddess will muse that there may be some hidden good in you after all. Your character, however, insists they only sided with her for the reward.
Physical Heaven: Sacred 2 has a Seraphim fortress in the northern islands.
Physical Hell: A quest leads you to the orcish underworld, which seems to be a deep cave system.
Religion of Evil: The Shakkara Cult in the first game. The Inquisition in the sequel.
La Résistance: The Crown soldiers after the Demordrey takeover.
Also the Resistance against the Inquisition in Sacred 2.
Schizo Tech: Averted in the first game, which had a decidedly standard medieval fantasy setting, but played straight in the sequel (which takes place two thousand years in the past).
Sequel Hook: Citadel has a few. The Gatebreaker says outright just before he dies that his death will not stop the Ashen Empire for long, plus the Grimmocs escape with a Seraphim artifact.
Sequence Breaking: Arguably. In the first game, when starting a new game after finishing the single player campaign, the player has access to all the portals that were activated over the course of the previous playthrough, which gives premature access to various regions and occasional side effects. With Ice and Blood, depending on what point in the main story you're at when you head to either of the new regions, its possible to obtain your class mount before doing the quest that would normally grant it. In both games, areas can be accessed out of order through the teleportation and flying abilities of some character classes.
A little town in the original game is an accurate copy of Tristram. If the player wanders a bit in it, all inhabitants turn into zombies and attack him/her.
Starcrossed Lovers: Laurelinad the Dark Elf and Maegalcarwen the Wood Elf. At the end of the game, the player-controlled dark elf can find Maegalcarwen set to being sacrificed again in Zhurag-Nar. Most of the time she dies before you can rescue her, but if you are skillful, you can kill the captors fast enough to save the wood elf. She hasn't dialogue box, however.
Stripperiffic: Female heroes, mainly the Seraphim, the High Elf and the Dryad, tend to wear... revealing outfit.
Villain Protagonist: While any character doing the second game's evil campaign counts, special mention goes to the Inquisitor, who can only play the evil campaign.
be Deep Silver, which will be a Beat 'em Up Sidescroller with Sacred-level of customization and loot drops. The game was released on April 16, 2013.
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