History YMMV / Iji

** Komato Annihilators are feared in and out of universe, for their incredible endurance, size, and firepower. Several Tasen logbooks go as far to say that fighting an Annihilator is pure suicide. [[spoiler: Even the Komato themselves are afraid of them, after one killed its entire platoon of several hundred soldiers at the ship Cieratako in an attempt to raise its kill counter.]] You can actually [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential invoke this yourself]], [[spoiler:activating an Annihilator to go nuts on its own allies as at least one trooper will start shouting "[[OhCrap CIERATAKO]]" amidst the slaughter.]]

** If you're on a murdering run, [[NominalHero Iji herself]]. In the Pacifist run, she'll be hesitant, try to be nice when she isn't freaking out about something, and keep her head on straight, but in a violent run, she's downright ''bloodthirsty'', hungering for revenge and practically basking in the slaughter she gets to commit upon the foes in her way. And, depending on your playstyle and how you work through the game, Iji can become a [[OneManArmy One-Cyborg-Army]] that can go toe-to-toe with the strongest of both the Tasen and the Komato, even the Annihilators above, ''and win'', causing everybody to be horrified at her mere existence of a being [[OutsideContextProblem no one could've seen coming.]]

** Komato Annihilators are feared in and out of universe, for their incredible endurance, size, and firepower. Several Tasen logbooks go as far to say that fighting an Annihilator is pure suicide. [[spoiler: Even the Komato themselves are afraid of them, after one killed its entire platoon of several hundred soldiers at the ship Cieratako in an attempt to raise its kill counter.]]

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Despite the game's message that "the enemy" are people too, many players found it a good deal easier to kill Komato than Tasen. It's not surprising that portraying a species whose [[PlanetOfHats hat]] is being genocidal {{Sociopathic Soldier}}s as sympathetic would be difficult, to say the least. Even Daniel Remar has remarked that he may have gone too far with how he portrayed them.
** For that matter, the Tasen themselves. The game attempts to paint them as just another victim of the Komato, but when that victimhood involves running away from them, glassing any planet that they find in order to live on it, as well as dragging any race they encounter into a war with the Komato, thus making their problems the problem of everyone else, and then proceed to defend themselves by claiming they suffered more, they tend to not look the most sympathetic.

* ViewerGenderConfusion: Ansaksie is mistaken for a guy fairly often. Ironically, she was specifically made female to differentiate her from Asha. Also, many players thought the diary writer to be a guy from reading her diaries, since it's all just text logs with no voice for comparison and the number of times she refers to her girlfriend outweighs the number of references to her own gender.

* AnticlimaxBoss: Invinciblity or otherwise, Iosa's second phase goes by quite quickly. And the first phase is just easy; she insists on patrolling back and forth below platforms conveniently located for you to jump out of reach of her guns.

** The Null Driver is a literal example. Firing it will lead to random changes in crucial data, up to and including changing the size and shape of the level geometry. Fortunately, the changes aren't permanent. Also a straight example as well. Proper use of it allows you to fully level up all attributes by Sector 2. Which is why it's only unlocked once everything else is, '''and''' has to be reacquired ''every time you start the game''.

** Banana Gun is the only weapon whose projectiles are affected by gravity, which lets you deal punishment while being out of all harm's way.
** The Massacre would be one if it were availiable anywhere outside final boss fight.

** Komato Beasts, which are [[spoiler: former Komato turned into animalistic mutants.]]

* ThatOneBoss: [[ArchEnemy Asha]], the second time you fight him. While having ludicrously low HitPoints, even lower than you, he [[TeleportSpam teleports around like crazy]], [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard dodges every attack except the shotgun and the buster gun]], which he [[{{Pride}} considers it cowardly to dodge]], and constantly attacks you with his LaserBlade as well as [[BeamSpam spamming]] his [[GameBreaker Plasma Cannon]]. Fortunately, he's a SkippableBoss on Normal, Hard and [[HarderThanHard Extreme]] difficulties. Unfortunately, he's not skippable on Ultimortal. That in itself is half the reason Ultimortal is harder than Extreme. Oh, and he's harder too, requiring lightning reflexes to dodge.

* TheWoobie: Iji, and to a lesser extent, the Diary Writer.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters Is Ansaksie a]] selfless KnightInSourArmor heroine, a lunatic, a NecessarillyEvil KnightTemplar or a WellIntentionedExtremist who is going ''way'' too far?

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters Is Ansaksie a]] selfless KnightInSourArmor heroine, a lunatic, a NecessaryEvil KnightTemplar or a WellIntentionedExtremist who is going ''way'' too far?

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Violent Iji. The narrative tries to portray her as a hypocritical bloodthirsty mass murderer, but the problem is that she's in an active warzone surrounded by one faction of aliens whose policy is "wipe out all humans first, explain [[spoiler:problems with space Nazis]] later" and one other faction whose policy is "glass Earth to wipe out the ashes and bones of the first guys", both of whom are trying to kill her on sight. With that in mind, it's very hard to see Iji's actions as anything but perfectly justified self-defense. She sometimes gets ''more'' kudos for her position if you see the Pacifist mode conversations. Aside from Vateilika, neither Tasen nor Komato will sit down and listen to a pacifist Iji. Elite Krotera tries to justify his disinterest in the remaining humans by arguing Tasen numbers ''despite glassing over 600 times that for the Tasen''. And [[spoiler:sparing Iosa will cause her to backstab Iji, kill Tor, and activate the damn alpha strike herself since Tor won't do it]]. No wonder Iji goes violent, so few on the opposite side would listen and work with her anyways, and justify their actions with such flimsy reasoning, it's almost easier to fight back in self-defense.

* AnticlimaxBoss: Invinciblity or otherwise, Iosa's second phase goes by quite quickly. And the first phase is just easy; she insists on patrolling back and forth below platforms conveniently located for you to jump out of reach of her guns.

* GoddamnedBats: Komato Skysmashers, flying turret guns that dodge around so you can't easily hit them and pack some serious firepower. When they do go down they explode, which hurts you. To quote the game creator, "No-one likes the Skysmashers."

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Violent Iji. The narrative tries to portray her as a hypocritical bloodthirsty mass murderer, but the problem is that she's in an active warzone surrounded by one faction of aliens whose policy is "wipe out all humans first, explain [[spoiler:problems with space Nazis]] later" and one other faction whose policy is "glass Earth to wipe out the ashes and bones of the first guys", both of whom are trying to kill her on sight. With that in mind, it's very hard to see Iji's actions as anything but perfectly justified self-defense.
** Violent Iji sometimes gets ''more'' kudos for her position if you see the Pacifist mode conversations. Aside from Vateilika, neither Tasen nor Komato will sit down and listen to a pacifist!Iji. Elite Krotera tries to justify his disinterest in the remaining humans by arguing Tasen numbers ''despite glassing over 600 times that for the Tasen''. And [[spoiler:sparing Iosa will cause her to backstab Iji, kill Tor, and activate the damn alpha strike herself since Tor won't do it]]. No wonder Iji goes violent, so few on the opposite side would listen and work with her anyways, and justify their actions with such flimsy reasoning, it's almost easier to fight back in self-defense.

* AlasPoorScrappy: [[spoiler: Dan.]] He's a manipulative bossy jerk and some of his early dialogue veers almost into {{Kick The Dog}} territory, but [[spoiler:then he possibly dies.]]

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Violent Iji. The narrative tries to portray her as a hypocritical bloodthirsty mass murderer, but the problem is that she's in an active warzone surrounded by one faction of aliens whose policy is "wipe out all humans first, explain [[spoiler:problems with space Nazis]] later" and one faction of space Nazis, both of whom are trying to kill her on sight. With that in mind, it's very hard to see Iji's actions as anything but perfectly justified self-defense.

** Komato Annihilators are feared in and out of universe, for their incredible endurance, size, and firepower. Several Tasen logbooks go as far to say that fighting an Anihilator is pure suicide. [[spoiler: Even the Komato themselves are afraid of them, after one killed its entire platoon of several hundred soldiers at the ship Cieratako in an attempt to raise its kill counter.]]

** reallyjoel's Dad. After a Youtube user named "reallyjoel" posted a comment on Daniel Remar's own speedrun video saying that his dad could do better, there's been a running joke that reallyjoel's Dad is the best gamer in the world, and that there's a top-secret "reallyjoel's Dad" difficulty mode. Daniel said that reallyjoel's Dad played said difficulty and beat it so hard that it was wiped from existence. However, [[spoiler:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysykKz4mBFY It's still in the game]], and it's as [[{{Unwinnable}} impossible]] as they say]].

* + reallyjoel's Dad. After a Youtube user named "reallyjoel" posted a comment on Daniel Remar's own speedrun video saying that his dad could do better, there's been a running joke that reallyjoel's Dad is the best gamer in the world, and that there's a top-secret "reallyjoel's Dad" difficulty mode. Daniel said that reallyjoel's Dad played said difficulty and beat it so hard that it was wiped from existence. However, [[spoiler:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysykKz4mBFY It's still in the game]], and it's as [[{{Unwinnable}} impossible]] as they say]].

* BestBossEver: The fight with General Tor. Not only is it the most difficult and intense one in the game, it is fought at the sound of SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic.

* DracoInLeatherPants: The Tasen in general, really. While there are a few good ones, they apparently contrast so much with the Komato that many, many fans make them out as almost saintly. While they aren't as vicious as the Komato, there's still the problem that they ''tried to wipe out life on Earth'', and that's not touching on all their war crimes in the backstory - [[{{Moral Event Horizon}} what they did to Iosa's planet]] stands out.

* GameBreaker: The Null Driver is a literal example. Firing it will lead to random changes in crucial data, up to and including changing the size and shape of the level geometry. Fortunately, the changes aren't permanent. Also a straight example as well. Proper use of it allows you to fully level up all attributes by Sector 2.
** Which is why it's only unlocked once everything else is, '''and''' has to be reacquired ''every time you start the game''.

* {{Memetic Badass}}: reallyjoel's Dad. After a Youtube user named "reallyjoel" posted a comment on Daniel Remar's own speedrun video saying that his dad could do better, there's been a running joke that reallyjoel's Dad is the best gamer in the world, and that there's a top-secret "reallyjoel's Dad" difficulty mode. Daniel said that reallyjoel's Dad played said difficulty and beat it so hard that it was wiped from existence. However, [[spoiler:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysykKz4mBFY It's still in the game]], and it's as [[{{Unwinnable}} impossible]] as they say]].
** Also, Yukabacera.
*** When you reach Yukabacera in the game, you're [[KingMook quickly introduced]] to why he's treated as a legitimate threat: he moves like a greased squirrel on pop rocks, Mountain Dew and cocaine, [[LightningBruiser and his attacks]] ''[[LightningBruiser hurt.]]'' The [[SillinessSwitch drop]] is worth it, though.

*** "No missile pony for you."
* MoralEventHorizon: Asha [[spoiler: holding Dan hostage and possibly even killing him depending on the player's actions]] is this both out and in-universe. Even on a pacifist run, Iji has no qualms about killing Asha after this point.

* NightmareFuel: Komato Beasts, which are [[spoiler: former Komato turned into animalistic mutants.]]

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: At one point, during a discussion on how [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} portal guns]] violate the law of conservation of energy, we cut to Dan watching Ron fall through an infinite portal loop while [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Kyubey]] freaks out in the foreground. No one acknowledges he's there, it's not brought up in the narration, and he's never mentioned again. Captain Lhurgoyf just included it as a one-off non sequitur joke.

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop:
** Some of the Komato state the logical, if abhorrent, conclusion that since [[spoiler:their species is doomed anyways]], the Tasen's desperate attempts to avoid their fate only lead to more suffering for all involved. Krotera makes the exact same point with regard to humans.
** 1.7 ultimately comes to the conclusion that absolute pacifism doesn't work. Against an enemy you can't reason with, the proper solution is to execute them in cold blood if you don't want them coming after you.

** Ansaksie can also be subject to this, although there's a bit of justification in that her more dickish actions [[AllThereInTheManual are never mentioned in the game.]] The most dickish she gets in the actual game is attacking you in Deep Sector (which she immediately explains and apologizes for on a pacifist run) and being ''way'' too gleeful about Iosa's death in 1.7.

* ThatOneBoss: [[ArchEnemy Asha]], the second time you fight him. While having ludicrously low HitPoints, even lower than you, he [[TeleportSpam teleports around like crazy]], [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard dodges every attack except the shotgun and the buster gun]], which he [[{{Pride}} considers it cowardly to dodge]], and constantly attacks you with his LaserBlade as well as [[BeamSpam spamming]] his [[GameBreaker Plasma Cannon]]. Fortunately, he's a SkippableBoss on Normal, Hard and [[HarderThanHard Extreme]] difficulties. Unfortunately, he's not skippable on Ultimortal. That in itself is half the reason Ultimortal is harder than Extreme. [[CaptainObvious Oh, and he's harder too]], requiring lightning reflexes to dodge.

* BestBossEver: The fight with General Tor. Not only is it the most difficult and intense one in the game, it is fought at the sound of AwesomeMusic.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: "Aw, just say it out loud, bro." [[spoiler:However, you'll only get to see it if you save Dan and get all of the ribbons.]]
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: [[https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0DCF936733BF2A25 The entire soundtrack, no question.]].
** But out of them all, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYt-c0ofZ0o&feature=related the final boss theme]] is generally considered the best.

** As of version 1.7, [[spoiler: Iji herself]] can pass this if [[spoiler: she gets over 300 kills and then chooses to kill Tor at the end. Kiran calls her out on murdering her only hope of aborting the Alpha Strike and saving Earth for the sake of revenge, tells her that Tor was testing her resolve, and [[DownerEnding orders the Alpha Strike to go ahead immediately]]]].