History YMMV / FearAndHungerTermina

** Abella's Wrench Toss attack deals bonus damage at the cost of unequipping your weapon (which must be a wrench). The damage spike can help you wipe out an enemy torso before it can act or break a door, but the true value is how it reliably deals two turns of stun to whatever it targets. If you re-equip the wrench every other turn you can stunlock a key limb (e.g. one capable of dismemberment) indefinitely, potentially two if you have extra turns, giving the rest of the party time to to destroy them or the enemy torso. The ease of recruiting Abella makes this a DiskOneNuke.

* TransAudienceInterpretation:
** Daan's backstory involves him being a CultDefector from strictly religious parents, he has feminine facial features, acknowledges that his father addressed him as "Daniël", [[spoiler:and is addressed as a "dirty degenerate furry" by Pocketcat, tying in to the sizable amount of LGBT+ members of the UsefulNotes/FurryFandom]]. All of these traits combined have led to some fans interpreting him as a trans man.
** Levi's slim physique, desire to leave his past behind, ShipTease with Marina (a canonical trans girl), and [[spoiler:[[BarbieDollAnatomy lack of noticeable private parts]] if he becomes the Weeping Scope]] has led to headcanons of him being transgender as well. Levi's gender identity is the more contentious issue -- there are a few fans who interpret him as an out trans boy, and another portion who see him as a closeted trans girl.
** Samarie has an obsessive crush with Marina, expresses discontent over her body, [[spoiler:and her Moonscorched form is named Dysmorphia, heavily linked to the concept of gender dysphoria]]. As such, there is a massive portion of fans who interpret her to be a trans girl like Marina.

** {{Trans Audience Interpretation}}s of Daan and/or Levi (the former being a trans man and the latter being either an out trans boy, or a closeted trans girl) are common headcanons.

*** Daan's transformation at least has ''some'' horror to it with how [[spoiler: Pocketcat]] is implied to have been following him and talks about his isolation from others. O'saa's though? [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction He calmly goes into a meditation pose.]] Seeing it in comparison to the other Moonscorched animations, in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdOPXV-Qklg this]] video can make it a lot funnier.

** Should you try to talk to moonscorched Levi, one of your dialogue options is simply asking him if something's wrong. Considering that [[spoiler:''his upper body has transformed into a giant organic gun'']], this is a bit of a silly question. The game has a few of these silly, obvious questions when talking with otherwordly horrors. Not only that, but when you first encounter him, he gives out a rather pained cry that might have been meant to be pitiful or heartbreaking but instead...makes him sound like he's speaking in a Discord call with spotty connection.
** The explosion sprite used for [[LandMineGoesClick land mines]], pipe bombs, and [[spoiler: the Platoon’s [[OneHitKill Heavy Mortar]] attack]] is liften almost wholesale from ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'', making it hard to take otherwise [[OneHitKill fatal explosions]] seriously.

** At the high tier sits Abella, Marcoh, and Marina. Abella is a solid fighter with some great utility, most notably a mini-nuke that stuns with "Wrench Toss"[[spoiler: and can notably recruit every character in the game]]. This lets her have a lot of teambuilding synergy, helped by the fact that she is bar none the easiest party member to recruit. Marcoh punches like a truck and can be an effective dodge-tank and LightningBruiser thanks to his stances and the ability to max out agility very quickly. Even if he doesn't go for agility, he can still be a strong frontline fighter. Marina is a GlassCannon BlackMage who can blast enemies apart in the first turn with Occultism and increase the whole party's [[OneStatToRuleThemAll agility]] with engravements of the God of Fear & Hunger, somewhat balanced by her weapon restrictions. Notably, she also has access to quite a few game-breaking strategies as detailed below. Players who follow an efficient route can end the first morning period with tons of heads, a full party of ghoul backups, and tons of resources to hoard for later. All three of these characters make great protagonist choices and can be fantastic to recruit into a party.
** At the mid tier sits O'saa, Daan, and Olivia. O'saa is a great character with the extremely powerful Spice Forge, but is mostly outclassed by Marina due to his inability to use guns (though the two have tons of synergy if you can get each other's Hexen tree). Daan's medical skills make him a great healer (and Wall breaker with "Analysis"), but his lack of good combat skills requires him to be backed up by others to reach his full potential. Olivia can hit like a truck with hemlock and has excellent combat skills with [[PoisonedWeapons Poison Tip]], but her wheelchair makes her a serious liability and (as detailed below) she becomes ''much'' weaker if she is not the protagonist. Overall, mid tier characters are still pretty strong, but often need more backup than the high tiers.
** The low tiers are Levi and Karin, whose problems are detailed under LowTierLetdown. Levi can find some use when partnered with [[DoesntLikeGuns O'saa]], but outside of that circumstance, he is completely outclassed by everyone else and is an active detriment with his heroin addiction. Karin is overall too weak, being utility based, and situational to be competitive with the rest of the contestants, though her exploration skills like "Lockpicking" can be great for getting powerful items and equipment early if you know where to look and Persuasion+Diplomacy makes the annoying Bobbies a free one turn kill.

** Tanaka, by virtue of being the NPC contestant with the most number of possible deaths. Though the fact he TakesALevelInBadass and is [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome implied to have put up quite a fight before being killed by Needles]] has him also treated as the [[MemeticBadass the opposite.]]

** Levi/Marina has ended up becoming a popular ship within the fandom.

** The low tiers are Levi and Karin, whose problems are detailed under LowTierLetdown. Levi can find some use when partnered with [[DoesntLikeGuns O'saa]], but outside of that circumstance he is completely outclassed by everyone else and is an active detriment with his heroin addiction. Karin is overall too weak, being utility based, and situational to be competitive with the rest of the contestants, though her exploration skills like "Lockpicking "can be great for getting powerful items and equipment early if you know where to look and Persuasion+Diplomacy makes the annoying Bobbies a free one turn kill.

* EnsembleDarkHorse: Even before becoming one of the most powerful characters, Abella was nominated #1 most desired playable character in the demo. [[spoiler: It also helps that she's one of the only two (the other one being O'saa) who can pull a HeroicSacrifice as the player in Ending A, since all the other contestants can be saved if you play as her.]]

** The elephant-like part of the Chaugnar's head is believed by some to be the result of or influenced by [[spoiler: Abella]] having a previous encounter with the Woodsman prior to them entering the bunkers, which affected their Moonscorching.
** [[spoiler: Cahara]] being the one who accompanied The Girl in her ascension into the God of Fear and Hunger in Termina's timeline. The other three player characters from the previous games each have their S-Endings implicitly treated as canon and even two of them are SavedByCanon if the presence of the Skin Bibles and [[AmbiguouslyRelated August]] are any indication. This leaves [[spoiler: Cahara]] as the only one unaccounted for, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse without even any hint of their fate or survival]] after the events of the first game. Some also would agree it would be a fitting character arc for them, being the one protagonist who had no involvement whatsoever with any grander scheme in their backstory, only to end up assisting in one.

** There's a decent portion of the fandom who like Marcoh/Tanaka, finding their interactions quite adorable. Alternatively, there are some who like [[BroodingBoyGentleGirl Marcoh/Olivia]] considering they have plenty of interactions with each other if they are in the same party.

** [[PairTheSpares Rounding out the hypothetical player-character couples]] is O'saa/Abella. It helps that they do have thematic chemistry too, with O'saa as a mystic well-aware of the Old Gods but captivated by technology he's unfamiliar with and Abella as a skilled mechanic and electrician who takes exposure to the supernatural with stride and decides to seek answers from the source.

* CommonKnowledge: Looking at him, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Marcoh was based on [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Jotaro Kujo]], causing many to believe that Miro explicitly used him as inspiration for making the character. Miro, while taking inspiration from {{Creator/HirohikoAraki}}'s artstyle in designing him, has actually never watched the series and didn’t specifically base Marcoh on any ‘’Jojo’’ character. In truth, he’s based on [[Franchise/{{Rocky}} Rocky Balboa]] and [[Characters/LikeADragonKazumaKiryu Kazuma Kiryu]].

** Samarie has proven to be one of the most divisive contestants, if not the most, due to her [[StalkerWithACrush obsessive love for Marina]] and [[{{Yandere}} willingness to do amoral things in her name]] -- her detractors condemn her as a PsychoLesbian wanting to isolate Marina so that she can have her all to herself, while her supporters point to her mental health issues, DarkAndTroubledPast and instances where she [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone feels remorse]] to explain and/or justify her actions.

* TheWoobie: Levi's life is pure misery; he was the product of a loveless marriage prone to DomesticAbuse at the hands of [[AbusiveParents his drunken and abusive father]] which ended with him beating his wife to death. He was then sent to [[OrphanageOfFear St. Domek's Orphanage]], where he could've easily fell victim to the predation of the priests, whether it'd be as a HumanSacrifice [[PedophilePriest or worse]]. After that, he was [[ChildSoldiers shipped off to war at the age of 13]], witnessing soldiers even younger than him dying to the extent that [[AddledAddict he became addicted to heroin]]. And after deserting, he finds himself roped up into [[DeadlyGame the festival of Termina]], where he can meet many sorts of awful fates ranging from being murdered in cold blood to [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie becoming a twisted mockery of his view of himself as little more than a weapon]]. Even if he emerges as Ending B's SoleSurvivor, he is traumatized by the deaths of everyone else (including his ImpliedLoveInterest Marina) and spends his days as an aimless drifter.

* CommonKnowledge: Looking at him, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Marcoh was based on [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Jotaro Kujo]], causing many to believe that Miro explicitly used him as inspiration for making the character. Miro, while taking inspiration from Creator/HirohikoAraki's Araki’s]] artstyle in designing him, has actually never watched the series and didn’t specifically base Marcoh on any ‘’Jojo’’ character. In truth, he’s based on [[Franchise/{{Rocky}} Rocky Balboa]] and [[Characters/LikeADragonKazumaKiryu Kazuma Kiryu]].

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: From the beginning, it's made clear that the Termina festival is meant to be a battle royale and the promotional material also wastes no time displaying it with the picture of the contestants caught in a violent brawl. Yet in the game proper, the actual battle royale bit isn't played up as much as you'd expect. The contestants are relatively affable with each other, save for some arguments about what exactly is going on in Prehevil and light quipping, and they're more preoccupied with investigating the town (though that's also rather understandable given the circumstances). Not many of the characters also go out of their way to begin eliminating other contestants, or treat the others with suspicion from the get-go, with deaths that aren't resulting from player input not happening until the latter half of the game. In fact, some characters can even become fast friends on Day 1.

* AntiClimaxBoss: Unfortunately one of the [[FinalBoss Final Bosses]] [[spoiler:Logic]] falls under this due to the simple fact that not only do they lack ContractualBossImmunity to burning and poison, but is weak to it. Because of this with the right build the player is very likely to defeat the boss before it even hits its phase transition.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Samarie has proven to be one of the most divisive contestants, if not the most, due to her [[StalkerWithACrush obsessive love for Marina]] and [[{{Yandere}} willingness to do amoral things in her name]] -- her detractors condemn her as a PsychoLesbian wanting to isolate Marina so that she can have her all to herself, while her supporters point to her mental health issues, DarkAndTroubledPast and instances where she [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone feels remorse]] to explain and/or justify her actions.

* FanNickname: Daan's [[spoiler:NonstandardGameOver in which Pocketcat insults him as one]] has resulted in quite a few fans in jest describing him as a "dirty degenerate [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom furry]]".

* NightmareRetardant: [[spoiler:Daan]]'s NonstandardGameOver is very unsettling as the Pocketcat berates [[spoiler:him]] for [[spoiler:his]] failures...until he calls [[spoiler:him]] a [[spoiler:"dirty degenerate furry",]] as mentioned in {{Narm}} above.