Broken Sword/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • All Animation Is Disney: The cutscenes from the first and second games are mistaken as Disney-style animation by some critics and fans.
  • And You Thought It Would Fail: Revolution tried asking Virgin Interactive to publish the first game on Playstation. Virgin refused because they thought that 3D games were more profitable. Sony wasn't enthralled with that idea either, but decided to publish the game anyway. It turns out that the game was commercial and critical success, selling more than 650,000 copies.
  • Animation Age Ghetto: The Shadow of the Templars and The Smoking Mirror. They have colorful graphics and cutscenes that can be assumed as kid's game, right? Nope. There are lots of sexual innuendos, death scenes, mild swearing and mature themes. And yet, there were many small children who ended up playing those despite the ratings are meant for teens and adults.
  • Author's Saving Throw:
    • Many fans complained that the Episode 1 of The Serpent's Curse have easy puzzles, some wooden animations and slow pacing of the plot. Episode 2 corrects this.
    • Revolution released the enhancement edition of The Serpent's Curse on 2016. So far, it can be obtained by buying Revolution's 25th Anniversary editon box set or download via Amazon AppStore.
    • Averted when Revolution finally released it for PC on March 2017 to celebrate franchise's 20th anniversary.
  • Awesome Art: The first, second and fifth games are praised for their fantastic backgrounds and animations. Averted in third and fourth games where they have 3D graphics.
  • Critical Dissonance:
    • The Sleeping Dragon received a lot of positive reviews from critics and some nominations. Fans, on the other hand, had mixed opinions because of the graphics and the use of direct controls.
    • Despite The Serpent's Curse received mixed reviews from critics, many fans liked it and considered as a true return to the series' 2D roots.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Petra.
  • Fandom Berserk Button:
    • If there's one thing that many Broken Sword fans don't want to hear is to tell them that you only like Broken Sword games in 3D.
    • Saying that The Da Vinci Code is better than Broken Sword games causes irk to some fans as well.
  • Fandom Rivalry: With Gabriel Knight. While most fans of the former like Broken Sword as well, and vice versa, some dislike the latter for its absurdity and similarities both games have (see Counterpart Comparison above).
  • First Installment Wins: Majority of Broken Sword fans and game critics will agree that the original Shadow of the Templars is the greatest among the series.
    • In terms of voice actors, Hazel Ellerby is remembered by many fans as Nico's original voice actress than her successors.
  • Foe Yay: Nico and Petra.
  • Game-Breaker: In DS version of Director's Cut, you can bypass the sliding block puzzles in Ile de la Cité by sliding the lower screen from upper left to lower right corner.
  • Internet Backdraft:
    • Good luck finding anyone on the internet who likes the ending of The Angel of Death.
    • Fans who backed in the Kickstarter for The Serpent's Curse are not pleased when Revolution breaks their promises. The first one is the delay of releasing the second episode twice. To make matters worse, Revolution gave backers the DVD version with DRM. Revolution rectify their mistake by reprinting the disks without any copy protection and give them to backers for replacement.
    • Revolution's announcement about the enhancement edition of The Serpent's Curse for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One caused some fans to wary if the PC version will have similar treatment or not.
  • It's Easy, So It Sucks!: The puzzles in The Sleeping Dragon and The Serpent's Curse get a fair share of this.
  • Love to Hate: Khan and Petra.
  • Most Annoying Sound:
    • Mr. Shiny the polishing machine in the first game. George thinks it has a hellish noise.
    • Father Hubert's organ music in the second game.
    • Pearl's crying in the fifth game can be this.
  • Most Wonderful Sound: Happens when you solve puzzles, explore new areas or discover important clues.
  • Narm: The lyrics to the song during the credits of the second game are hilarious. A sample: "Happiness is an inside job. Whether your name is Mary. Whether your name is Bob."
  • Narm Charm: The voice acting in general. Some say that the accents are terrible and over the top, but they were highly praised nevertheless.
  • Older Than They Think:
    • The Da Vinci Code isn't the first story where an American man and French woman are solving a Templar-related mystery in Europe while an assassin is hunting at them.
    • The idea of having crate puzzles and stealth segments were used in The Smoking Mirror, six years before The Sleeping Dragon came out.
    • Several critics cited that the diaries as hints were the new features in Director's Cut and Remastered, even though The Sleeping Dragon and The Angel of Death used them six years before.
  • Pandering to the Base: The entire point of The Serpent's Curse, which features the return of 2D graphics, some fan-favorite characters and point-and-click gameplay.
  • Polished Port: The Serpent's Curse on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions comes with some new features like adding people in the streets of Paris, more character animations, built-in speaker in DualShock controller, and a Gallery Mode where it shows off the character's profiles.
  • "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny: The Shadow of the Templars introduced the mixture of The Knights Templar, Ancient Conspiracy quests and globetrotting in Europe into the story. Nowadays, it has been overshadowed by The Da Vinci Code, even though the novel was released seven years later.
    • Word of God and the fanbase speculated that the game is one of Dan Brown's influence in writing The Da Vinci Code. The novel has a lot of similarities to the game.
  • Sequelitis: User ratings drop from sequel to sequel.
  • Star Trek Movie Curse: The odd numbered entries (The Shadow of the Templars, The Sleeping Dragon and The Serpent's Curse) tend to be better received while the even numbered entries (The Smoking Mirror and The Angel of Death) are mixed.
  • Strangled by the Red String: The romance between George and Nico can across as this.
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The general consensus among fans who never enjoyed The Sleeping Dragon and The Angel of Death think that The Serpent's Curse is better than those games.
  • That One Level:
    • To many fans, the Escape Sequence level in Paris is the hardest in the third game. George has to run away from Petra until he reaches the elevator. When George dies in that part, you have to endure watching an unskippable cut scene over again, and if you have PS2 or XBox version, the loading times to complete.
    • The Stealth-Based Missions in Prague and Templar headquarters also count.
  • Ugly Cute: Trevor in The Serpent's Curse.
  • Uncanny Valley:
    • The faces of the members of St. Stefan Chapter of the Knights Templar and Susarro's soldiers in Prague look similar.
    • The in-game conversations with the NPCs in The Angel of Death. Notice that the characters stand perfectly still, their mouths are only moving, and the lack of their facial expressions.
  • Vindicated by History:
    • The Smoking Mirror, originally. It did receive positive reviews initially, but it was subject to Hype Backlash. When the Director's Cut was released, reception was much much more positive.
    • The Sleeping Dragon gets this to a certain degree. While being inferior to the previous installments due to the change of graphics and gameplay, over the years, it's gotten more favorable response compare to the next game.
  • Win Back the Crowd: After the poor reception of The Sleeping Dragon and The Angel of Death, The Serpent's Curse has been trying to recapture the magic of the first two games. Receptions are mixed after the release of the second episode, but the game seems less divisive than its two predecessors.
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