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YMMV / Dreamfall Chapters

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  • Adorkable: Kian shows quite a bit of this side in Chapters between his flimsy grasp on subtlety in conservations, his love for yams, getting nostalgic about apple bobbing, and reading children's stories in secret.
  • Anvilicious:
    • The Social Democrats are the only political party spoken of positively. Communists are considered fringe but positive. Conservatives are considered to be either incompetent or evil. Word of God suggested this isn't going to hold true through the game - and as of Book 2, you receive a Wham Episode.
    • Books 3 and 4 have the potential for both Kian and Likho to deliver long-winded speeches about acceptance of homosexuality. It doesn't help that, in the whole series of games, they're the only ones who bring it up.
  • Catharsis Factor: Admit it - it felt VERY satisfying to light Onor Hilleriss on fire. And not just because he was going to kill Crow.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: Pretty much Mira's character. She's extremely antagonistic, to the point where she thinks Wit is faking his autism, but she's so over the top about it that it comes off as entertaining rather than insulting. Mira tones her act down in book three - when the plot starts getting real.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • A cute, rambling, overeager Cat Girl? No, there's no way Enu would turn out to be incredibly popular. The devs have acknowledged as much. Bonus points for being voiced by Jessica Henwick.
    • On the Stark side, Shitbot. Nothing like an ridiculously overeager robot terrible at everything, gleefully talking about how a security system will kill you. There's also the name... as well as its Heroic Sacrifice for Zoë in book three.
    • Less popular (simply since most players never meet it), but Shitbot's alternative version Kidbot is also extremely popular. A emoji-faced bot with an adorable voice that plays with you and is just nothing but sweet? Chances are, everytime Zoë goes Squee, the player will join her.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: For Europeans (especially Brits), Europolis is either this or Zoë's doctor's comments about how his dad wishes for it to break up is this after the Brexit in 2020.
  • Improved by the Re-Cut: A few scrappy-portions (the Escort Mission at the start of the game, being forced to make pointless decisions with Baruti) were thankfully changed in the Final Cut.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Brian Westhouse, the Prophet. He's stuck in an alternate universe. He was also possessed by the Undreaming for several centuries, and even tried to prevent it from getting loose by sealing it in someone else.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • Cannon stroking is a popular one among the fanbaseExplanation .
    • Sausagequences. It Makes Sense in Context. Explanation .
  • Moral Event Horizon: Ge'en is this for plenty of Azadi - the events of this as well as the planned genocide of Magical races cause some to actually turn against their own commanders.
  • Narm:
    • Near the ending to Rebels, as Nela charges towards EYE headquarters with a bomb, you get to say an incredibly awkward and hilarious sound clip. The fact you can shout "NEEEEELLLLLLAAAAAA" repeatedly doesn't help.
    • Some puzzles require you to act fast — such as say listening to a racist person talk. Keep waiting and he will just keep stalling for time.
  • Player Punch:
    • In the very beginning, April's funeral. With a start like this, this story can only end well.
    • For some, the deaths of Damien Cavanaugh (and how he was framed for the Dreammachine fiasco) and Olivia de Marco (because she knew too much) are quite harsh.
    • The death of Baruti, the game saying "Your choices have led you to this point" doesn't do any extra justice... Followed by Nela's death... especially if you were nice to them.
    • The much more minor example: The deaths of Kidbot or Shitbot when they get you out of Mr. London's warehouse. Either you've grown to like Kidbot for how cute it is and Shitbot for how hilarious it is, or just feel their responses as they go out are bad.
    • A raid on the Resistance Headquarters in Book 4. Blind Bob is dead, and depending on your choices, Shepherdnote , Likhonote  or Enunote  will also be dead.
    • In Book 5, Crow is killed rather abruptly when the Prophet snaps his neck.
  • The Scrappy:
    • Anna isn't particularly well-liked for essentially being a Stalker with a Crush toward Kian, and forcing herself onto him even though he clearly has no interest in her.
    • Likho has few fans, for the Anvilicious way he talks about homosexuality. Also, because getting along with him requires rejecting Ensemble Dark Horse Enu. He gets somewhat saved from this, if one let's him come along to Ge'en where he will open up and may become like a brother to Kian. It may not save him though if people prefered Shepherd over him.
  • Take That, Scrappy!: Saga gets in a decent slam against her, towards the end of the game.
    "I have no idea who you are, so I'm going to assume you're not that important."
  • That One Boss: When a gun is pulled on Likho/Hami, you have to turn BEHIND you instead of warning him or knocking down the person with the gun.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Many fans were very vocal about the main character Zoë now having a nose piercing. The developers are considering to give the player the option whether wearing it or not. However she lacks one in the game proper, so it could be a case of Author's Saving Throw.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Emma is exhibiting her art in Europolis, which is mentioned early in game, and you can hope she and Charlie will at least finally learn about April's fate. Nope, they're still in the dark by the end and no one remembers about them. She's only mentioned in Book 5, and it's merely WATI's hologram so it's barely a cameo.
  • Special Effect Failure:
    • The game looks beautiful, especially on modern computers. Despite this, the characters' hair is rendered as a stiff piece - and this can lead to some rather embarrassing mishaps such as Zoë's hair clipping through her clothes.
    • The scene with a confrontation is unintentionally hilarious for several reasons: First off, the goons are holding a man's arms behind his back, and his fingers clip through them. Then a man, if Zoë chooses to interfere, will speak to her in Cantonese. His cane is visibly clipping into his shoulder and a humorous glitch can happen where his mouth doesn't open when he talks.
    • Some of Anna's scenes turn into Narm when you see her hair visibly clipping through her hood and her scarf.
    • The limitations of the Unity Engine show again - characters mouth movements sometimes look more like they're just flapping their mouths.
    • The game uses multiple audio channels, so it can quickly happen that there are two to three dialogues happening at the same time (such as looking at something, then instantly going into a conversation plus a NPC conversation happening in the background.
    • Looking at an object multiple times to quickly can lead to no audio, with the subtitles looping. Or with the audio suddenly switching from one description to the other in the middle.
    • The eyes of the game characters seem to be unable to focus on anything, resulting in a lot of thousand yard stares.
  • Unfortunate Character Design: The Prophet's mask has a resemblance to the expression on a blow up doll.
  • The Woobie:
    • Zoë tells her story at the very beginning of the game. She uncovered a conspiracy and her own mother, Helena Chang, put her into a coma. Zoë's had months to come to terms with it, but it's still pretty raw for her. She's also lost Olivia (her best friend) and Damien (her partner and romantic love interest after Reza).
    • Saga, who spent much of her childhood essentially as a prisoner in The House Of All Worlds. note  As an adult, it's implied that, although she has the power to "walk between worlds", she still doesn't seem to have much agency in her life. Always having to follow certain prophecies, making sure certain things happen, etc.

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