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  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Cahara choosing to abscond from the party with a blue or light blue vial after bringing him out of the prison cell could be not just out of his usual selfishness but rather, pragmatism (he is a mercenary after all). It's implied he had fallen victim to the guards (and in different ways) and thus, could've gained injuries and had all his supplies used up, which could lead to him stealing the vials so that he could heal whatever injuries he might've sustained. Him leaving the party could either be from fear that it could end with him being arrested or imprisoned even after rescuing Le'garde, or distrust towards the player, which makes his nonchalant attitude if he does actually join your party somewhat make sense.
    • D'arce appears to be the Token Good Teammate when compared to the other protagonists, key word being appears. Despite being the most chivalrous among the four and with the clearest morals, her backstory and certain choices she can make, turns her Token Good Teammate status questionable. She did, after all, still stand by Le'garde and decide to go through the effort of breaking him out of the dungeons even after having witnessed him raze Oldegård to the ground in pursuit of his goal. Not once does she seem to show any hesitation towards following him to the end, or the implications behind his plan, in any interactions with her as a recruitable party member. Her choice in her S-Ending to use Rebirth of the Beloved on a dead Le'garde, despite lots of signs pointing to it not being a good idea, just makes things worse. It begs the question of whether she would actually do the right thing or only what she believes to be right.
    • Was Enki's choice to not ascend to Godhood in his S-Ending just so that he could reach true enlightenment? Or was it rooted in fear over what becoming a New God meant, given the fact that for all their power, they are still capable of being defeated? Perhaps even a small part of him isn't completely devoid of morals and was concerned that he could lose his humanity in more ways than one should he make the choice? It is possible to have him make less morally grey choices after all, such as sparing his sister in his backstory or helping The Girl.
    • Is Le'garde's desire to become a god coming from a genuine desire to help humanity or simply vanity and narcissism? For one, the kingdom of Rondon is stated through bits of lore to be ridden with corruption and crime, and many of the other continents and kingdoms are implied to be no better. Yet in trying to reach his goal of obtaining peace, he is rather quick to using rather non-peaceful methods if his actions in Oldegård are any indication or to try to achieve his goal at the expense of an innocent child. Is it coming from a bit of both?
  • Broken Base:
    • The plentiful Instant Kill coin flip mechanics in fights. Some argue they make the game more realistic, appropriately resemble dice roll mechanics from the tabletop games Fear and Hunger takes inspiration from, and that many, and all mandatory flips, can be avoided with proper planning and strategy; others, however, believe they are unfair Luck Based Missions that add a lot of Fake Difficulty.
    • The sheer amount of sexual violence in the game too. Obvious triggers aside, there is debate whether or not it adds to the horror with its shock value or if its gratuitousness is too over the top and distracting.
  • Character Tiers:
    • The high tier is made up of Cahara, Ragnvaldr, Le'garde, and Nas'hrah. Cahara has tons of party utility with his Escape Plan and Dash allowing him to kite enemies around the dungeon and take them out easily through Hit-and-Run Tactics. Lockpicking allows him to skip right through most locked doors, letting him speedrun through huge portions of the dungeon to get where he wants. Ragnvaldr has strong sustain through his Devour skill tree, and through clever party choices, he can become the best combat character in the game. While he takes a while to get going, proper equipment turns him into a Master of All with great stats. Le'garde is a mandatory recruit for many endings and comes with a great combat toolset. In addition, he can wield Miasma without any penalties, which skyrockets his damage and turns him into a borderline essential companion for exploring Ma'habre. Lastly, Nas'hrah's insane frontloaded damage makes him extremely valuable for most of the dungeon as he blasts apart combat encounters instantly. He can provide some valuable insight into how to navigate the world. It should be noted, however, that Le'garde and Nas'hrah are unavailable for the final battles of the C and D endings (Le'garde) or the B ending (Nas'hrah).
    • The mid tier is made up of D'arce, Moonless, and ghouls/skeletons. D'arce is a solid combat companion who gets a lot of mileage out of things like Leg Sweep. She lacks some world utility, however, and since combat is usually best avoided due to how deadly it is, she isn't as strong as the others. Moonless is in a similar boat, being an excellent combat party member, but lacking in utility outside of it. Lastly, the ghouls and skeletons you summon are very useful and can really bolster Enki's power levels, but once again lack any major world utility whatsoever.
    • The low tier is made up of Enki, the Girl, and the Demon Child. Enki's fragile nature and lack of world survivability is a major downside, even with his unique spells offering some powerful aids. Turning him into a Marriage reverses this, as he becomes signifigantly stronger while retaining all of the spells he has as a playable character. The Girl and Demon Child are meanwhile very ineffective in combat outside of soaking up some wounds here and there, which is something everyone can do. The Girl is notable in that she can learn every spell and skill in the game, which gives her some versatility, but the Demon Child has no real use other than as fodder.
  • Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Many agree that of the player characters, Cahara's the best to use if you're new to the game. He doesn't have any equipment or armor restrictions, so even if he has a measly leather vest equipped at the beginning, you can swap it out for better choices later on. He can wield almost any type of weapon except for blunt and dagger types, meaning that powerful two-handed weapons can be used by him. He has skills that can be pretty useful in the overworld, such as lockpicking and escape plan, making locked doors a non-issue and avoiding battles a breeze. All in all, his versatility makes him an ideal choice as the player.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: While the game is largely pretty dark and creepy, with the right mindset, it can also be an incredibly effective Black Comedy.
    • You can cast Necromancy in a seemingly innocent room that seems to provide no reason to do so. If you do and the spell succeeds, the flaccid penis on a statue gets "brought to life".
    • You fight (male) naked enemies with full graphic detail, which is messed up. You can also attack their penis, and it can attack you back, which is hilarious.
    • Black Knight jokes abound as some fans find the dismemberment mechanic in general to be too casual and absurd to take seriously.
    • Forming a Marriage is risky and treated as a desperate measure to survive the dungeons of Fear and Hunger, and the prospect of having to resort to a Sylvian ritual with either a stranger you just met or a corpse can make it seem all the more uncomfortable yet necessary. The characters, likewise, have rather appropriate responses to being invited to "Show Love" as part of the Marriage forming should they accept it… except for Cahara, who's rather casual about it, to say the least. Special mention goes to him accepting it if you play as Ragnvaldr.
      Cahara: Sure thing. Just don't destroy my anus with those big muscles of yours, okay?
    • Normally, failing Francóis' coin flip attack, which results in them bending the player character over and having their way with them, is horrific. But they can also do so while you're wearing the Penance Armor, which can be darkly funny as it implies they can "penetrate" past the usually invincible armor.
  • Demonic Spiders:
    • Due to the increase in enemy health, the starting Prison Guards are elevated to this level in Terror & Starvation and Hard Mode. Everyone's starting weapons cannot reliably cut off their weapon arm before they attack, which would in turn sever one of your arms. It's even worse for Enki, as he can't wear arm guards like everyone else could if they're lucky gathering gear at the start.
    • Elite Guards are considered this on every difficulty level. They're more durable than regular Prison Guards, they come equipped with a limb-cutting sword in one hand and a bone-breaking mace in the other, and still have the devastating stinger attack. No matter what you target, your team is going to be left crippled if you fight them, assuming they even survive, which makes facing Elite Guards in battle just not worth the effort.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Fandom-Specific Plot: Endings where the protagonists make it out of the dungeons alive with The Girl in tow and adopt her. Which can be a Tear Jerker for those aware of The Girl's (implied to be) canon fate.
  • Fan Nickname: "Dadhara" specifically for depictions of Cahara as a Papa Wolf Parental Substitute for The Girl.
  • Fanon: It's popular to show one of the four protagonists as being a Parental Substitute to The Girl, often due to the fact that lots of players would admit to immediately feeling protective over her upon meeting her. Cahara is a popular choice for this depiction, given how his motivation for entering the dungeon also involves his own concerns as an expecting father, to the point that some fans have even begun to call him "Dadhara".
  • Fetish Retardant: If you have them in your party, you can form a Marriage with the other player characters. The process involves sexual intercourse and the player characters are fairly attractive, with Ragnvaldr in particular having his muscular physique commented on. But the fact that it's done as an act of desperation, has possible ties to a God not exactly known to have any moral boundaries on sexual acts, and is done in a dungeon of all places can be a massive turn-off.
  • Game-Breaker:
    • Anything that hits multiple limbs or times at once. Dark Orb is the most obvious, but the scythe weapon added in a later update trivializes the game because of its lack of Mind cost. The scythe was later nerfed to no longer tear the game in half, however.
    • Damage over time effects, be it Fire, Bleed, or Poison. Each drains 10% of the afflicted body part's health each turn, and there are plentiful options with which to use any of them between items, spells, and a few select weapons. Many enemies at a glance have very high health for their torsos, but in reality the game is coded such that almost every enemy aside from some lategame bosses die when their torso loses 25% of its overall HP, meaning successfully inflicting one of the three aforementioned status ailments can win you the fight in just three turns. Since the damage is percentage-based, these strategies still hold true on harder difficulties.
    • The Salmonsnake Soul. Being unable to lose your limbs under any circumstances is one of the best possible things you can have in this game. The other bonuses are merely icing on the cake.
    • Blank scrolls, which can be used to make any scroll in the game. They're rare, but still common enough that you can get two or three per game, which is all you need. Their versatility makes them even stronger than a Dark Orb scroll, as while you can use them to get that, you can also use it to get anything you might immediately need.
    • Simple Transmutation, a spell that can be acquired in Ma'habre almost immediately if you know where to look. It has two uses, being able to turn water vials into wine vials, and replicate moldy bread provided you have at least one. Between wine vials restoring more Mind than it costs to cast the spell and the Salmonsnake's pond being an infinite supply for water to fill vials with, concerns about restoring Mind or easing hunger are eliminated entirely, and with a healing spell, restoring Body is similarly a non-issue.
    • Moonless's ability to move twice per turn is intentionally balanced by making her unable to use equipment, attacking body parts randomly, and low damage meaning she will probably be spending a turn or two wearing down certain body parts if nobody else is helping her along. Her bite can be upgraded, but only by letting her mark her territory repeatedly, which takes tremendous time. But alternatively you can simply give her the Combustion spell scroll, teaching her a spell that costs no Mind to cost, does more damage than even her upgraded bites, and still inflicts damage over time via burning rather than bleeding.
    • En Garde and Escape Plan are already great skills by themselves, but when combined, they become something hideously overpowered. En Garde allows pre-emptive attacks on any enemy in the game, allowing a free hit, usually with targeting the legs of an enemy. As soon as you land a hit, you can run away with Escape Plan, and then re-engage with En Garde and repeat the process until the legs of the enemy are hobbled, allowing for an easy headshot. This tactic trivializes almost every enemy the game has to offer with very few exceptions, allowing even nasty Demonic Spiders like the Guards on Hard Mode to become an utter cakewalk due to it. The only downsides the tactic has is that there's a small but possible chance the RNG can make even Escape Plan fail, and it doesn't work on some enemies no matter what, but that is still a significant portion of the game's hardest sections cheesed due to the two skills in conjunction, and greatly saves up on resources to make even some of the hardest fights in the game into an absolute joke.
      • This skill combo is powerful enough as is, but equipping the White Angel Soulstone puts it in a whole new category of game-breaking, albeit not intentionally. The accessory, on top of giving an additional turn for free, doubles your agility to 20. Now normally this would be a quaint but unimportant advantage, but as illustrated in this video here, due to RPG Maker mechanics and how the vanilla code calculates escape chances, pressing the Esc button when leaving a battle and going to the "Fight or Run" option menu and picking Run there enables you to flat out escape from any battle in the game, even ones that should be impossible to run from like boss fights. This combined with En Garde makes every enemy in the game susceptible to being cheesed, as you can now have a guaranteed run chance for every battle, then re-engage with En Garde for a cheap shot, escape using the outlined method, and repeat until the enemy's dead.
    • For that matter, any of the methods that allow for you to take an extra action at the end of a turn, especially on Hard Mode where your options to recruit allies are sorely limited and you could very easily have to just fight on your own. It's because of that why En Garde, Fast Attack, the White Angel Soulstone, and other such skills are regarded as some of the best combat skills in the game for that reason, and an absolute must have for any Hard Mode run.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The game (and its sequel) was considered a cult hit in Russia and other eastern european countries way before it was eventually discovered by a wider audience, to the point a lot of the earlier community guides and resources were in Russian only.
  • Genius Bonus: While the Salmonsnake may seem like a weirdly plain addition to the nightmarish dungeons, its place may be a bit more clear should one happen to know a bit of Finnish. In the native language of the game's creator, the word for "dragon", lohikäärme, is composed of the words for "salmon" (lohi) and "snake" (käärme)".
  • Good Bad Bugs:
    • Moonless can cast magic without consuming Mind. While she's uncontrollable, she very highly prioritizes spells.
    • Demon Children all share the same character ID. This means that if it's crippled, you can teach one magic or give it equipment, give it to the Pocket Cat, and make a new one, with your new Demon Child having the same abilities once it's matured enough.
    • You can poison the Greater Blight while it's approaching you. It's not immune or even resistant to it, and poison is so strong that it will die before reaching the party.
    • Losing to a Prison Guard in the high school mode can result in it placing you in the main game. With your legs still cut off.
    • Breaking doors open is done through a single-turn combat encounter that acts as a DPS check. Sorcerer's Stone is an accessory that gives you 10 Mind points per turn in any combat encounter... including breaking doors. Combining the two, you can restore all your Mind points free of charge in a couple minutes of therapeutic door bashing.
    • Leg Sweep is a skill that is meant to remove your opponent's legs. For whatever reason, however, it also breaks down doors in one hit, making it superior to Lockpick. This even extends to the door containing the Miasma, which would normally require defeating the Crow Mauler and taking the Crow Key.
    • The Lucky Coin in the Thicket can be grabbed an infinite number of times so long as you haven't grabbed the one in the Cave Dweller village yet. This makes it really easy to stock up on 99 lucky coins and cheese every coin toss in the game that lets you use one.
    • The Crow Mauler doesn't despawn if you pass through the entryway arch of Ma'habre in the past and stick to either the left or right side of it. Only moving through it on the center tiles. Since all strategies involved in safely killing it require at least some amount of preparation, being able to hold off on fighting it for as long as possible is very helpful.
    • If you wait too long to recruit Enki or Ragnvaldr, they'll become a ghoul-infused Abominable Marriage or a decapitated husk controlled by a Brain Flower, respectively, and in theory, you'll have to fight them... in practice, a bug results in the encounter ending instantly. Furthermore, it's possible for Enki to later turn up back in human form.
    • There's a small number of debug tiles still remaining in the game, one in the Temple of Torment, but two in the very starting area. One immediately grants you D'arce and Ragnvaldr as party members, even on Hard Mode (the Temple one even adds the Girl to this, allowing completion of Ending A on the difficulty setting!), and the other granting the party a ton of torches and material to make more, a Cursed Sword, and can rapidly raise their Hunger so high it breaks the cap and no longer becomes a concern. The Temple one even gives a Quill and Empty Scroll with each use, enabling the player to gain nearly any item and skill in the game in an infinitely farmable way. Naturally, these ones are so good that the community often considers them cheating.
  • Memetic Loser: D'arce has been developing a half serious reputation as one for a handful of reasons. Her status as a Crutch Character, the fact that Le’garde will refuse to partake in a Marriage with her despite them being lovers, her S Ending seeming like a very ill-thought-out idea, and her unflattering haircut.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • "What's the most you’ve ever lost on a coin toss?"Explanation
    • Cahara's a whore/slut.Explanation
    • D'arce is a femcel/simp.Explanation
    • "O LORD GIVE/TEACH ___" Explanation
    • "Yee-yee ass haircut."Explanation
  • Narm:
    • The Harvestman's death scene is unnerving, with it pinning you against the wall, creepy music playing, and it giggling like a child playing with toys as it breaks your limbs and shoves its hand up your anus with uncomfortable sound effects. But the lack of visible reaction from the player character sprite, whether through facial expressions or them screaming, can have an opposite effect. If anything, it makes them come off as just being bored while the Harvestman does the deed.
    • Francóis will be able to have their way with the player even with the Penance Armor equipped. It's honestly a bit silly seeing them do so with someone fully decked out in spiked metal armor.
  • Nightmare Retardant: The Human Hydra is horrifying to look at, but the fact it talks like a twelve-year-old talking crap to its opponents on a multiplayer game undercuts its menace. An Invoked Trope, as it turns out! The Human Hydra is unable to move and can't really attack, able to be effortlessly defeated by anyone stronger than an unarmed child.
  • Nintendo Hard: The game is well known for its incredibly brutal difficulty and sharp early game learning curve that will take many deaths to be able to understand exactly how things work and to learn the best way to proceed. Resources are scarce, healing options are limited, enemies are numerous and powerful and making the wrong narrative choices at certain points can end your game early. Furthermore the coin toss system means that important moments of your adventure will be decided by a 50/50 chance to actually work which includes saving your game. The main saving grace is that that the game's story is short, so when you inevitably die it won't take you too long to get back to where you were before.
  • Player Punch: All over the damn place, but the worst has to be Ending A, which requires you to escort this little girl that you've almost certainly gotten attached to down to the deepest reaches of the dungeons. You're led to believe that accomplishing this is your best course of action, and technically, things do work out in the long run... but that means little when you had to watch the poor kid painfully ascend as the God of Fear and Hunger.
  • Self-Fanservice:
    • D'arce has a rather awkward-looking hairstyle resembling that of a medieval page boy. Quite a few fanarts edit it into a more flattering example of Boyish Short Hair.
    • Enki is gaunt with a receding hairline and sunken eyes, which are usually tweaked in fanart or erased in favor of softer, rounder features that make him look more of a Pretty Boy like Nosramus.
  • Signature Scene: The scene where the Player Character gets raped by a prison guard (if they lose to it), with them losing their legs and suffering anal bleeding, usually going on to encounter Nas'hrah, who summons a titanic creature to crush them to death, often gets brought up as a symbol of the game's brutality. The ease of a newbie getting the scene also gets cited as an example of the game's difficulty. And the whole bleak absurdity of the whole over-the-top situation can demonstrate the game's odd capacity for Black Comedy.
  • Spiritual Adaptation:
    • Between the game's plot, themes, grimdark setting, and especially its beyond transgressive content, this is probably the closest spiritual adaptation to Berserk there is. Le'garde and Ragnvaldr are even Expies to Griffith and Guts, respectively!
    • The game could be considered the gory, psycho-sexual nightmare liberally peppered with Black Comedy that F.A.T.A.L. was trying to be, but done right and made more palatable by the lack of incredibly bigoted Vulgar Humor and convoluted, broken rules.
    • As a nihilistic, unabashedly X-rated, high-lethality dungeon crawler set in a twisted Dark Fantasy version of late medieval Europe with heavy Lovecraftian undertones, you could also make a case for it being a computerized version of Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Both games were even made by Finnish developers.
  • Squick:
    • Playing as Ragnvaldr gives you the option to devour your enemies. Even leaving out the possibility that an enemy Was Once a Man, it's still quite gross having to think of all the Body Horror he'd be literally consuming.
    • If you fail the Night Lurches' coin flip attack (which can even be done on the overworld) or die a few times to the Guards, the resulting assault leaves you with the "Severe Anal Bleeding" status effect that makes you bleed every few seconds. It can only be healed by forming a Marriage or getting assistance from the Lady of Moon.
    • The death cutscene if you lose to a Harvestman. Euuggghhh, the sounds...
    • Getting the Demon Kid added to your party requires, um... putting the player's seed in a corpse.
    • One of the easiest ways to form a Marriage is by using a Ghoul in your party, you know, the dead body that just got brought back to life?
    • Valteil's tastes are quite disturbing, seeing as the Uterus enemies were made for his pleasure, which includes the embryo.
    • Among the characters who are the result of a Marriage are a Moonless Guard and a Lizardmage. Think about it for a bit.
    • Just the sheer fact that the game is rife with nudity and sexual violence can be this for some.
  • That One Disadvantage: Teratophobia (fear of monsters) is widely considered to be the worst phobia for a party member to suffer from, as most enemies trigger it, including the majority of ones covered by Erotophobia and half of those under Zoophobia.
  • That One Level:
    • The Void, an area encountered when trying to achieve Endings C or D. The player's companions are scattered upon entering, meaning they'll need to search for them to have any shot at defeating Sylvian or the Yellow King. Not only that, but the Greater Blight, a giant dinosaur, will constantly search for the party and engage them in an inescapable battle unless they periodically hide, which they are extremely likely to lose. Given that it's located at the very end of the game, many players have experienced frustration with it.
    • The Gauntlet, the final area explored while going for Endings A and B, is similarly difficult due to the assorted dangers present in it. Large swaths of the floor are covered in insects that will damage you if you don't have Mastery Over Insects (a spell that anyone other than Enki needs an Empty Scroll to gain), there are instant-death swinging pendulum blades and rolling boulders, and several powerful new enemies, including a two-headed Crow Mauler.
  • Trans Audience Interpretation: Nosramus has an extremely androgynous look, complete with long hair, and one book about the Fellowship refers to him with feminine pronouns. As a result, quite a few fans have headcanoned him as transfeminine and/or non-binary.
  • Ugly Cute:
    • Moonless. She's a heavily mutated and unhealthy-looking wolf, but she's still a sweet and loyal dog at her core.
    • Enki is exceptionally gaunt-looking, but that doesn't stop those in the fandom from liking him.
  • The Woobie: Of course, in the world of Fear and Hunger, happiness can be rather rare to come by and the characters are no exception. And some of this applies even before the game starts.
    • D'arce was a Wide-Eyed Idealist who wanted to do right by joining the Rondon army, only to be disappointed with the rampant corruption within it. She joins The Knights of the Midnight Sun and there, falls in love with Le'garde, only for her idolization of him to be put into question due to his decision to invade Oldegård. After The Knights of the Midnight Sun are apprehended by the Rondon army, she just barely makes it out alive, determined to save Le'garde. If you don't pick her as the player character, it's even implied that the Cavedwellers were about to assault her. That being said, her S-Ending and how it's implied to bring forth the events of Termina also makes her a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
    • Cahara lived in poverty, after his parents abandoned him, which led to him living a life of thievery and mercenary work. Eventually, he reached Rondon, but ended up in its underworld which forced him to always be on his guard. He does find some happiness in his lover, Celeste, but her work of indentured servitude meant that she would never be free. Him accepting the mission to rescue Le'garde is clearly an act of desperation to be able to buy Celeste's freedom, and if he isn't chosen as the player, there's the implication that he was a victim of the Guards who somehow managed to get away from them. Even if he does manage to survive the dungeon, he's left traumatised from the ordeal. It's also implied that he's the one among the protagonists who brought The Girl through the gauntlet and to the bottom of the dungeons, leading to her ascension into a god. In others words, it's likely that he's long been dead by the time the second game starts.
    • Ragnvaldr lived a relatively peaceful life in Oldegård, with both of his parents present and his father teaching him what he knew. Though when his home land started experiencing harsh winters, he was left with the choice of venturing to Vinland to find riches or resources to help his people survive, and while he did make it and was able to come back, it left him scarred. However, the voyage wasn't even the worst of it, as he witnesses Oldegård be razed to the ground by Le'garde's forces, losing his wife and child in the bloodshed. At the very least, Termina implies that he managed to make it out of the dungeons and even start another family, given the existence of his possible descendant August.
    • The Girl, good god, The Girl. From the moment she was born, her short life was nothing but torture and she never had the opportunity to experience any love or kindness, save for if you choose to help her out of her cage and go out of your way to protect her. Even helping her out of her cage doesn't guarantee that things will get better, seeing as the player can offer her to the Human Hydra, a ritual circle, or Pocketcat, among all the other horrors experienced in the dungeon. Not to mention the fact that her parents conceived her specifically to have a Human Sacrifice for what they believe to be the greater good. It gets even worse if you go out of your way to get Ending A, where she becomes The God of Fear and Hunger, which Termina implicitly treats as her canon ending.

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