YMMV / Endless Legend

• Demonic Spiders: The Magtay are one of the more dreaded minor factions to run into, especially early in the game. Not only do their units use bows in a game that averts Annoying Arrows, but they spread disease when they attack, which can utterly cripple the factions not immune to it. Hoping to use their power yourself by pacifying and absorbing them? Unless your faction is immune to disease, your Magtay units will spread it to your enemies, who will then spread it back to you.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: This game is popular with Koreans, if fan-translation of the game's trailers on YouTube are anything to go by.
• God Damned Bats: Minor factions whose basic units are ranged, like the Hurnas and Jotus. They'll start battles as far on the opposite end of the battlefield as they can get, meaning it'll take you at least two turns to get into melee range to attack them. During that time, they'll rain down arrows and whittle away the health of your units.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Winters getting longer as the game progresses. While few players have problems with the seasons mechanic, the fact that winters always consistently dominate the endgame is grating to many. It more or less makes winter-proofing technologies and hero abilities mandatory for everyone (in a game where you can't feasibly research all technologies and must choose the ones you consider important for your strategy) and slows down endgame warfare to a slog, due to severe movement penalties imposed by winter.
  • A number of faction storyline quests draw significant ire for arbitrary and even random requirements needed to proceed. A few, including the Vaulters and Wild Walkers storylines, require that a hero of that faction learn a specific skill. If you haven't been investing in that part of the skill tree, this can mean grinding 4-5 levels and investing in skills you have no interest in to advance the plot. Other questlines, such as the Cultist and Broken Lord stories, eventually require you to declare war upon a randomly-chosen empire who might be on the opposite side of the world.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Endless Space had good ideas but was ultimately considered boring and a chore to play by many gamers; you were just looking at empty blackness for most of it, the tech tree obfuscated diversification, and combat made little sense. Endless Legend takes place on a PLANET so you see everything happening in stunning detail, improving the granularity and experience immensely. The factions make more sense and are all highly diverse, and most of the EL factions have no downsides, only unique twists to their gameplay, so you never feel like you're being hobbled (like how Sowers were able to spread anywhere but kind of dumb, research-wise). Finally, battles take place on a hex grid with turn-based tactical combat, cutting down on the frustration of Space's fully automated battles.