Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes

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Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is a RPG/Puzzle hybrid in the same vein as Puzzle Quest. Set 40 years prior to Heroes of Might and Magic V, during the War of the Blood Moon, the game tells the story of 5 children from different families that were tasked to guard the Blade of Binding, a powerful artifact able to control demons. After a meeting is attacked by demons, the five end up in different parts of Ashan.

Battles are fought by means of a puzzle interface with units of three different colors that have to be matched up vertically to form attacks or horizontally to form walls. Some units take up two or four spaces (called Elite and Champion units, respectively) and need to be matched up with smaller units of the same color to form attacks, usually with a special ability like being able to jump over walls or delaying enemy attacks. 5 of the original 6 races appear with slight changes to their lineup, and also have different kinds of walls. Two heroes per faction bring in their unique spells and can be equipped with a variety of artifacts to further customize them. The lineup ranges from Godric and Findan, who also played major roles in Heroes V, to complete newcomers like the Knight Varkas and Godric's brother Aidan.

Tropes used in Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes include:

• Action Girl: Fiona, Anwen and Nadia.
• Affably Evil: This being the Lighter and Softer game that it is, most evil characters you meet come across as such. Even those who aren't are more likely to Poke the Poodle than Kick the Dog, though there are exceptions.
• Exclusively Evil: Demons, of course. The Undead seem pretty level-headed and (in the case of Sir Skelton and Markal) quite friendly, except for Ludmilla.
• Animesque
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Count Carlyle. Ludmilla has a noble bearing as well.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: One NPC complains about Carlyle:

"Carlyle this! Carlyle that! I can't believe this second-rate bootlicker has become so important. He's a cheat! And a swindler! And a thief! Plus he parks his horse all over the place."

• Artifact of Doom: the Blade of Binding
• Awesome McCoolname: Godric's name in the tournament is "Sir Ignatius Thunderblade", which was made up on the spot. Lampshaded by Varkas who goes "Ignatius Thunderblade?", so Godric tells him to just roll with it
  • And again when you confront Carlyle, who says "I'll advise the emperor to hang you for the insult, Sir... whatever your ridiculous name is."
• Ax Crazy: One of your bounties in the Haven Campaign is like this. Considering he greets you with "...YOU GOT A PRETTY MOUTH!"
• Bag of Spilling: Artifacts don't carry over to the final part of the campaign
  • In the Xbox 360 version, they do.
• Bar Brawl: A bar in Sheogh has one.
• Bare Your Midriff: Anwen and Nadia.
• Big Bad: Lord Bloodcrown An alter-ego/true form for Nadia's father, Ahz Rafir.
• Blush Sticker: The zombie core units sport these.
• Body Horror: What happens to Count Carlyle when he tries to use the shapeshifting rod is pretty disgusting.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The blade of binding on Aidan's hand eventually consumes him and he attacks the heroes at the end of the game. However Godric snaps him out of it.
• But Your Wings Are Beautiful: Aidan left hand is deformed with evil. Jezebeth likes it.
• Clear My Name: Godric's campaign
• Clingy MacGuffin: the Blade of Binding, with a dash of Body Horror; it starts as a dagger-looking weapon and eventually fuses with your arm. Nadia's Kaamla Asiya spell is the only thing that can break it off.
• Combined Energy Attack: Fiona's spell does this with every idle Core unit on her field, converting them into a single attack. As an added bonus, after the attack resolves, the bones of the fallen Core units gravitate forward to form walls.
• Compelling Voice: Subverted. It's not Aidan's voice that compels demons to do his bidding -- it's the Blade of Binding he isn't even aware he's holding.
• Cute Ghost Girl: Fiona, after getting gravely injured during the attack on the camp. She gets better.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Fiona's campaign.
• Dem Bones: One of the core units of the Necropolis.
• Dragged Off to Hell: Nadia's dad.
• Eat the Dog: One bounty is a vampire who only preys on puppies. Varkas is not amused.
  • In a more hellish way, Lorhish with his Hellhounds.
• Emo Teen: Aidan.
• Everyone Went to School Together: Close to it, anyway; the main characters are all the sons and daughters of heroes of various lands.
• Everything's Worse with Bears: One of the basic Sylvan units.
• Evil Chancellor: Carlyle, who's also a big Jerkass.
• Evil Hand: Aidan.
• Fallen Hero Nadia's father, one of the three heroes charged with guarding the Blade of Binding. Though it's implied the Big Bad killed him and disguised himself
• Gaiden Game: characterization differences and the gameplay change make this fit well enough.
• Glass Cannon: The Spider Cloak turns Fiona into one.
• Good Bad Girl: Jezebeth.
• Guide Dang It: The later puzzle battles will have you searching Youtube for an answer.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Aidan turns into this when he finds out that he is able to control demons as the dagger he picked up was the Blade of Binding, making this a case of Pay Evil Unto Evil as well. After a while he comes across as more of a Jerkass than some of the demons he fights.
  • In Aidan's campaign there's also a human in the demon world who escaped his slavery only to enslave other humans.
• Horny Devils: Jezebeth.
• Idiot Ball: The emperor of the Griffin Empire had a pretty big one lodged in his head since he listened to Carlyle and was easily swayed. At least he acknowledges this at the end of the campaign.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Fiona.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Azexes ("Why does he always have to yell at me?"). Also the ransom note by the demons:

"We pointy-eared elves have kidnapped the human boy, that Lord-guy's son... We hold him at the elf, uh, our hunting camp and will kill him with our little elfy daggers."

• • A lot of the bounties you fight are like this too; since they don't get much introduction or dialogue, they end up being jokes more than not.
• Inevitable Tournament: Godric enters one in disguise to gain an audience with the Emperor to settle things.
• It's All Upstairs From Here: Nadia's chapter starts at the base of a tower and ends at the top.
• Lighter and Softer: The "western anime" art style, reminiscent of Avatar: The Last Airbender, suits the generally sillier tone of the game well.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Nadia, though her father was studious before his Face Heel Turn, if it's really him at all, and she was already on the side of good.
• Our Elves Are Better: Only Sylvan Wood Elves appear in this game.
  • They have regenerating walls and several useful unit abilities, Anwen's sniper shot spell is a Disc One Nuke, and all their units charge faster than the other factions' equivalents, though as a rule they're also considerably more fragile.
• One-Winged Angel: Lord Bloodcrown. Count Carlyle might count as well, but he does it by accident and you don't fight him directly beforehand.
• Peek-a-Bangs: Fiona
• Precious Puppies: Varkas always has his puppy, Rufus, over his shoulder.
• Pyromaniac: When the volcano erupts in Sheogh, one demon (named Pyro) seems pretty happy about it, and even though he gets hit by a flaming rock about five seconds after you meet him, he decides it was worth it as he crumbles into a pile of ashes.
• Really Gets Around: Jezebeth having dated practically everyone you fight in the Sheogh campaign (including Azexes) is something of a Running Gag.
• Record Needle Scratch: When you first enter the pub in the Inferno campaign. Then everything goes back to normal in an instant.
• Same Character but Different: Markhal and Findan act quite different from their later appearances.
• Shout-Out: In addition to the Ax Crazy bounty above, one in the Sylvan campaign is a man offering to sell you torches, to which Anwen and Findan respond as follows:

Anwen: Remember Sparky, only YOU can prevent forest fires ... and in this case, the "YOU" means US ... Findan:... and the "prevent forest fires" means KICKING YOUR BUTT!

• Sdrawkcab Name: Aidan is actually Nadia backwards. Considering the two characters aren't related in the slightest, it might've been something the writers overlooked.
• SNK Boss: Lord Bloodcrown has double the hit points of any other boss in the game, attacks solely in devastating charged attacks AND you're forced to fight him with Nadia, who is likely to not even at the Level Cap when you face him.
• Standard Fantasy Setting: Slightly more so than the other games, thanks to the art style.
• Teacher-Student Romance: It's fairly obvious Cyrus cares about Nadia, his teacher's daughter.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Godric encounters this early on in the shape of a stealth segment.
• Updated Rerelease: It was released on the Play Station 3 Network and Xbox Live for download in April 2011 with updated graphics and balancing. Later in 2012, it was released on Steam.
• Use Your Head: The skeletons attack with their heads, yanking them off and bashing the enemy with it.
• We Have Reserves: In most cases calling for reinforcements costs one "move"; however, the Haven faction's King's Crown Artifact removes this cost. Elite and Champion units come in limited numbers however, unlike the core units, and they're usually expensive as well.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Poor Jezebeth. She seemed to love Aidan but is never seen past his campaign. Aidan's hatred of demons deepening makes it more bleak.
  • This applies to Varkas as well. He's never mentioned after Godric's campaign.
• Where Are They Now? Epilogue (if you played Heroes of Might and Magic V, most of it won't surprise you)
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Aidan.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Nadia, her mother, and Cyrus all have blue hair for no explained reason. Considering that the Where Are They Now? Epilogue states that Cyrus and Nadia married and had Zehir, who has black hair, either hair dye was popular back then or Zehir dyes his hair black.