Pick your side.
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is a 2008 Hack and Slash Action RPG game, a loose Prequel to Sacred.
2000 years before the events of the first game, a very different Ancaria runs on a mysterious and volatile substance called T-Energy that is the source of all life and magic. Originally solely under the control of the ancient race of Seraphim, over time became the patrimony of the High Elves, who quickly became the dominant race of Ancaria thanks to its power.
Now 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.
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. They also made Sacred 3, but we don't talk about that.
The game provides examples of:
- A Child Shall Lead Them: Dyria D'Arquelyght, the Dryad queen, is a little girl.
- All There in the Manual: The game 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.
- Alternate World Map: The game 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: The Inquisitor and the Shadow Warrior can summon dead enemies, and the latter can also gather permanently a bunch of skeletons.
- 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 that wield melee weapons 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.
- Worse than the melee escortees are the civilian escortees, who have almost no sense of self-preservation, and are quite happy to stand within melee range of the monsters for no reason at all.
- The undead skeletons summoned by the Shadow Warrior do serve as a effective support team in battle, but they have the unfortunate tendency to roam freely and attack the farthest enemy in the radar, thus eliminating any possibility of the Warrior traveling peacefully while they are present.
- Autobots, Rock Out!: The soundtrack was done by Blind Guardian.
- Bad Guy Bar: The game has a werewolf inn.
- Beehive Barrier: The Temple Guardian has one.
- BFG: The Seraphim retains this skill from the first game, though in a heavily watered down form.
- Big Bad: High Inquisitor Nimonuil.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: The Temple Guardian can extend blades from his arm. Certain hand weapons from the original game have this configuration.
- Bottomless Magazines: Also the Temple Guardian's Arm Cannon, being an enery weapon.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Sometimes the Inquisitor congratules the player for his performance in the shadow quest.
- Chainmail Bikini: Exaggerated compared the previous game, as this time not only the Seraphim, but all the female character have it as their default attire.
- Combat Tentacles:
- The Wood Elf, the Dryad and the Inquisitor can summon some.
- The Shadow Warrior can summon a flying spectral hand.
- Couch Gag: The loading screen always has an amusing message, taken from a roster of about 300.
- Covers Always Lie: The 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, however, neither of them is canon, as you can freely choose your character's path.
- Denser and Wackier: Compared to the first game, Sacred 2 is both Darker and Edgier and Lighter and Softer at once, as it features much more Body Horror and the chance to play as a villain, but also much more humor and silliness. The combination of the two can be pretty shocking, leading inevitably to this other trope, or at least to the impression that Sacred 2 is basically Sacred on acid.
- Disappeared Dad: Shirka Alana's father, who she never knew, but her mother described as "a big nosed weasel".
- Doing In the Wizard: The game lampshades this, as one of the magic classes used by the Seraphim is called "Revered Technology". It's unclear if this is just regular Magitek.
- Dub Name Change: Oddly enough, the Spanish version of 2 removes the name of Nelyas and has him just named as "Dryad Shaman."
- Earthy Barefoot Character: Most Dryad people walk around barefoot, though not the one controlled by the player.
- Enemy Summoner: Goblin and Kobold shamans can summon warriors of their respective races.
- Evil Counterpart:
- The Seraphim's character quest revolves around an undead "Dark Seraphim".
- Not to mention the Inquisitor to the Seraphim.
- Evil Versus Evil: In 2, we have Orcs, Goblins and Ogres versus Kobolds and Trolls. Pass the Popcorn.
- Fantastic Racism: 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". Even most of the Seraphim have become distant and aloof towards the mortal races, and even the playable Seraphim exhibits some of this behavior.
- Forever War: The Cursed Forest revolves around one of these.
- Green Aesop:
- The Dryads 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. - Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Even if played on the side of Light, Shadow Warriors have some pretty bloodthirsty dialogue.
- 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 when her teacher scolds her for lack of restraint, she kills ''him'' too.
- The Temple Guardian butchers the two adventurers that accidentally activated him (although, 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 aide as a "test drive".
- Left-Justified Fantasy Map: 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.
- Loads and Loads of Sidequests: Has a shedload of them: there's loads of people you can talk to that will give you quests. It's around the 400 ballpark in total.
- Luke, You Are My Father: The class-quest of the Inquisitor involves you running into the long-lost daughter of someone you once knew, who you have to protect. When she finally finds out who's her father, she's... less than pleased. Her father appears to be you."I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!"
- Made of Explodium: the Inquisitor has a spell to made corpses explode, in a naturally gruesome way.
- Magic Knight: The Seraphim most prominently, but the Inquisitor also qualifies.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Nelyas the dryad shaman has a very short screen time.
- Ms. Fanservice: Seraphim, whose rear end is highlighted in one of the trailers and who has many scantily-clad outfits.
- 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.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: There's at least one friendly member of each enemy race.
- Non-Indicative Name: Sacred 2: Fallen Angel features no literal Fallen Angel at all. Only the Dark Seraphim in Seraphim's side quest can be considered one.
- Our Elves Are Different: Specially in 2, where you can find from technologically advanced High Elves to tribal, indigenous Wood Elves (here called Dryads).
- Pet the Dog:
- 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.
- Subverted with the trolls, who are said to ally to the kobolds just because they mistake them as their troll sons.
- Physical Heaven: The game has a Seraphim fortress in the northern islands.
- La Résistance: The Resistance against the Inquisition in Sacred 2.
- Ruins for Ruins' Sake: The jungle ruins. It is never clear who built them, and theories (even in-game) range from ancient Elven to Garema folks.
- Sequence Breaking: 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.
- Shout-Out: With its own page.
- Smug Snake: Tybosso DeElfeci, a High Elf Corrupt Corporate Executive and slaver whose misdeeds are involved in three class quests.
- Spotting the Thread: Villainous example. A sidequest in the Elven Lands has a slavemaster hiring you to hunt down and execute escaped slaves. Light-aligned characters will instead let the slaves go and bring back their shackles as proof that they're dead, but the slavemaster quickly sees through the ruse when he realizes none of the shackles have blood on them and attacks.
- Stripperiffic: Female heroes, mainly the Seraphim, the High Elf and the Dryad, tend to wear... revealing outfits.
- Thong of Shielding: Seraphim's "Revelation of the Seraphim" and "Mystique" armor sets.
- Where It All Began: The Seraphim's final battle with the Dark Seraphim takes place in the cave where you first encountered her at the beginning of the quest chain.
- Villain Protagonist: While any character doing the game's evil campaign counts, special mention goes to the Inquisitor, who can only play the evil campaign.
