YMMV / Arcuz

• Demonic Spiders: Pretty much anything that is higher leveled than you. Assuming that they are the same level as you are:
  • Centaurs. They have a lot of health, deal huge damage (even more if they're elemental). Their charge attack is easy to avoid when there's only one around, but with two or more, it becomes very hard to evade.
  • Skeletons have a move where they jump back (and avoid your attack), then they do a nasty charge move that hits 3 times. If they'e elemental skeletons, the damage can rack up very quickly.
  • Skeleton Mages in the sequel. They can shoot damaging fireballs, use a black hole that sucks you in and hurts a lot, curse you to lower your stats for a LONG time, and they can revive a fallen enemy back to full health!
• Even Better Sequel: The second game added in many Anti-Frustration Features (for example, somebody to heal you), stackable items, added more skills, increased the level cap and toned down some of the annoying/dangerous enemies in the first. However, they did make item enchanting into a Scrappy Mechanic, though.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Blade Storm. This makes your character whirl round in a tornado, doing huge, rapid damage to all mooks around him. At max level, this lasts for 8 seconds, enough to down bosses in 1-2 uses. The only drawback is that it consumes 90% of your maximum mana.
  • The second game's Summon Storm. It's like Blade Storm, except that it creates a tornado that follows your mouse cursor instead. This lasts for 16 seconds, although it cannot get backstab bonus unlike Blade Storm. The main drawback is that you'll pretty much need maximum Mana in order to use the move.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • Hornets. These guys fly, forcing you to jump to hit them. They appear with other enemies and LOVE to hit you when you're in the middle of a combo, flinching you and allowing the enemy you're attacking to get in a hit. Thankfully, they have low health compared to other Mooks of the same level.
  • The sequel replaces the hornets with actual bats, who are just as annoying.
  • Goblins. Goblin Warriors have a lot of health despite their small size, move very quickly, and use really annoying tactics like jumping around, backing away from you then using a leap-smash. Goblin Archers will tend to hide behind trees and shoot you which kills your combo. Goblin Mages have a painful fireball attack, and even more painful meteor strike, and they give very low exp. The sequel toned all three of these down, making them less of a pain.
  • Lizard Folk in the sequel. These assholes have a defensive ability where they stand still and hold up their tiny little shield for a few seconds, which makes them completely immune to every attack from any direction and makes you hurt yourself in the process if you hit them when it's up. After this, they attack. They're annoying because their attack is easy to spot and avoid, but you can't do jack to them when their shield is up. Interestingly, Lizardfolk champions can be damaged when their shields are up, as long as they aren't broken.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Item combination in Arcuz 2. When enchanting equipment, there's a chance to fail for each enchant level (10% from level 1 to 2, 25% from 2 to 3, 50% from 3 to 4)^note In 1, enchanting always worked unless it was level 3 to 4 (50%). If enchanting fails, not only does it consume all the gems used, but is ALSO removes all existing enchantments on the equipment. And a further kick in the face is that the game saves after you combine/enchant any items, regardless of success. Needless to say, prepare to multi-window save scum in order to get good equipment.

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