History NightmareFuel / ShinMegamiTenseiIV

** In the Law route, the new background track for Mikado, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIZVWS9BVyw "Reign"]]. Haunting, and fits the transformation of Mikado into a theocracy.

* The Ashura-Kai building and the secret of how they make Reds, foodstuffs for demons. The demand's up and the women (which they openly call ''[[BabyFactory bree]][[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil ders]]'') just can't cope, ''[[WouldHurtAChild so they want to start using the children]]''--and if you go to the Roppongi Hills early, the doorkeeper flat-out says that if you want to join the Ashura-Kai, you either need a recommendation or need to bring ''three fresh children''. The people from underground cities are taken as slaves, raised and imprisoned in tiny, bloodstained rooms with buckets of filth in inhumane conditions, brainwashed to love Tayama (a girl comments she once told Tayama she loved him and hoped to be his wife, and he responded straight to her face that "[[PaedoHunt Age is no barrier to love]]"), used as seedbeds, and having their brains cut open so their neurotransmitters can be ''harvested'' at daily scheduled times. There are people strapped to chairs and treated like livestock, catatonic, as they have the ingredients for Reds extracted in what is described in-game as a "human farm". Not even ''Lilith'' can help herself but express her utter disgust at this. As is, well, ''everyone''. Law, Chaos, and Neutral alike. They ''all'' find Tayama disgusting.
** The poor sap you find in the Reverse Hills Building, clearly regressed to a childish intelligence by continuous harvesting, still moaning very familiar catchphrases. There are children proud of using buckets as toilets, children abandoned or sold by their parents, children brainwashed with Tayama's cheap slogans, being told to say they are being educated. The underground city dwellers are bought, bribed, or captured to enter Reverse Hills, only to become more raw materials for Tayama's Reds. ''[[FridgeHorror And the place is over fifty floors underground]]''.

* There's something very intimidating about the equipment shops in Tokyo, which are black market branches run by greedy, JerkAss yakuza-esque thugs. It's also a huge contrast to the exceptionally polite shopkeepers back in the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado.

** During the Law Ending, you commit what is tantamount to genocide on the entire population of Tokyo. Merkabah also forces you to commit HeroicSuicide with him, because the two of you have learned about the "Filth" of Tokyo. Meanwhile in Mikado, epitaphs are obliterated, the statue of Aquila is destroyed, and any and all forms of education and literature are abolished. The new Mikado is a kingdom where thinking for oneself and any knowledge beyond the worship of the Almighty are forbidden, one where you are not so much forbidden from sinning as much as they are [[EmptyShell incapable of it proper]], just the way YHVH wants it. Put bluntly, He wished ultimately to purge Man of the [[Literature/TheBible original]] [[HumansAreFlawed sin]].

* There's something extremely creepy about all of the enemies inside Purgatorium. They not only refuse to talk to you, they ''can't hear you'', as they've sworn an oath that makes them deaf to those who don't worship God unquestioningly, and with the exception of Seraph and [[FinalBoss Merkabah]], every boss repeats the exact same [[PreAssKickingOneLiner pre-battle speech]], practically part of God's HiveMind. At least the demons inside Lucifer's Palace can speak and think for themselves. In the Chaos Path, even ''Lucifer'' is freaked out.

* The Ashura-Kai building and the secret of how they make Reds, foodstuffs for demons. The demand's up and the women (which they openly call ''[[BabyFactory bree]][[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil ders]]'') just can't cope, ''[[WouldHurtAChild so they want to start using the children]]''--and if you go to the Roppongi Hills early, the doorkeeper flat-out says that if you want to join the Ashura-Kai, you either need a recommendation or need to bring ''three fresh children''. The people from underground cities are taken as slaves, raised and imprisoned in tiny, bloodstained rooms with buckets of filth in inhuman conditions, brainwashed to love Tayama (a girl comments she once told Tayama she loved him and hoped to be his wife, ''and the asshole told her "[[PaedoHunt Age is no barrier to love]]"''), used as seedbeds, and having their brains cut open so their neurotransmitters can be ''harvested'' at daily scheduled times. There are people strapped to chairs and treated like livestock, catatonic, as they have the ingredients for Reds extracted in what is described in-game as a "human farm". Not even ''Lilith'' can help herself but express her utter disgust at this. As is, well, ''everyone''. Law, Chaos, and Neutral alike. They ''all'' find Tayama disgusting.

** During the Law Ending, you commit what is tantamount to genocide on the entire population of Tokyo. Merkabah also forces you to commit HeroicSuicide with him, because the two of you have learned about the "Filth" of Tokyo. Meanwhile in Mikado, epitaphs are obliterated, the statue of Aquila is destroyed, and any and all forms of education and literature are abolished. The new Mikado is a kingdom where thinking for oneself and any knowledge beyond the worship of the Almighty are forbidden, one where you are not only not allowed to sin, but are ''[[EmptyShell incapable of it]]'', just the way YHVH wants it. Put bluntly, He wished ultimately to purge Man of the [[Literature/TheBible original]] [[HumansAreFlawed sin]].

* The archangels in this game are no longer human-looking beings with wings; they properly assume their form as inhuman abominations.

** Their debut. Full-stop. These warped, utterly inhuman, incomprehensibly powerful...'''''things''''' descend upon the heroes, looming over them in a way that makes the Samurai look absolutely tiny. They calmly introduce themselves and tell you that ''[[TyrantTakesTheHelm they]]'' [[TyrantTakesTheHelm run the show now,]] revealing the truth about Tokyo in the process: the hellhole is made up of people who didn't fit into their utopia, who they shall again attempt to exterminate should they try to leave their cage, and they are in the middle of another cleansing. Gabriel commands you to kill the Black Samurai, saying her death is the only thing they need to concern themselves with, and the Samurai can do nothing but leave, utterly cowed and looking absolutely impotent. The best part of all this? ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero All of this is none other than '''your''' doing.]]'' Why? The masked men you saved from Kagome Tower earlier were Michael, Uriel, and Raphael. You are '''personally''' responsible for unleashing these fascistic, godlike {{Angelic Abomination}}s upon your home.

* The Voice heard as the Ancient of Days falls: the voice of God Himself, telling you that you hardly inconvenienced Him by destroying His avatar. [[OrderVersusChaos The war]] isn't over. [[ForeverWar It will NEVER be over.]]

* The Eastern Kingdom of Mikado itself. Even at the beginning of the game, its clear that there's something very ''[[UncannyValley off]]'' about the whole place, from the harsh caste system, to the fact that demons live literally right underground the capital city, and the fact that, if Isabeau's comments about France's status as a fictitious country are anything to go by, either 1) they believe themselves to be the only civilization in existence, or 2) all of the other people that survived the initial Great Cataclysm were wiped out by the Angels.

** During the Law Ending, you commit what is tantamount to genocide on the entire population of Tokyo. Merkabah also forces you to commit HeroicSuicide with him, because the two of you have learned about the "Filth" of Tokyo. Meanwhile in Mikado, epitaphs are obliterated, the statue of Aquila is destroyed, and any and all forms of education and literature are abolished. The new Mikado is a kingdom where thinking for oneself and any knowledge beyond the worship of the Almighty are forbidden, one where you are not only not allowed to sin, but are ''[[EmptyShell incapable of it]]'', just the way YHVH wants it; i.e., He wished ultimately to purge [[Literature/TheBible original]] [[HumansAreFlawed sin]].

* ThePurge the angels enact is justified in their eyes, as the literature the Black Samurai has been distributing turns humans into demons. The kicker? ''It's normal, human world literature''. The people of Mikado have their beliefs in social castes so ingrained that when an outside force like the books makes them realize there ''are'' alternatives to the CrapsackWorld, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation they go insane with horror, rage and grief]], which ''is'' what triggers [[BrownNote the demon transformation]].

* The process of making Neurishers and Demonoids can be one. Like normal demon fusion the surgery to make a Demonoid can result in ''fusion error'', which some poor soul ends up suffering from in Camp Ichigaya (he turns into a [[BlobMonster Mou-Ryo]]). The Neurishers have to deal with the fact that they'll die if the parts the demon making them into one uses are faulty, and there's no real way of checking before he uses them in the surgery.
* Lucifer and Walter's fusion. Let's just say it doesn't seem to be ''quite'' as painless as normal. That's not even getting into [[http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130906211305/megamitensei/images/b/b9/Lucifer_smt_4.png Lucifer himself.]] While the [[FashionVictimVillain getup]] may be a little goofy, his overall appearance is horrifying: something decidedly [[HumanoidAbomination inhuman]] trying to be human and failing horrifically. Or worse, going by the themes of the game, something that is [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humanity]] distilled to its purest essence... With Merkabah on the other end, it's really hard not to ask oneself exactly who and what we are to create such abominations.

** Their debut is absolutely this. These warped, utterly inhuman, incomprehensibly powerful...'''''things''''' descend upon the heroes, looming over them in a way that makes the samurai look absolutely tiny. They calmly introduce themselves and tell you that ''[[TyrantTakesTheHelm they]]'' [[TyrantTakesTheHelm run the show now,]] revealing the truth about Tokyo in the process: the hellhole is made up of people who didn't fit into their utopia, who they shall again attempt to exterminate should they try to leave their cage, and they are in the middle of another cleansing. Gabriel commands you to kill the Black Samurai, saying her death is the only thing they need to concern themselves with, and the samurai can do nothing but leave, utterly cowed and looking absolutely impotent. The icing on the cake? ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero This is your doing.]]'' Why? The masked men you saved from Kagome Tower earlier were Michael, Uriel, and Raphael. You are '''personally''' responsible for unleashing these fascistic, godlike {{Angelic Abomination}}s upon your home.

* For that matter, the Tennozu shelter music is pretty creepy. It also plays in Minami Sunamachi, a part of Tokyo that's deserted save for refugee demons, chock full of poison gas, and [[ParanoiaFuel has one of the 1/256-rate]] [[{{Superboss}} Fiends]]. The music is even creepier in ''Apocalypse'' despite staying unchanged, because both areas have since been [[EmptyRoomPsych stripped of NPCs]] and, with the exception of a single key item you need from Minami Sunamachi for a Challenge Quest, ''nothing of main plot or sidequest relevance happens in either place''.

* For that matter, the Tennozu shelter music is pretty creepy. It also plays in Minami Sunamachi, a part of Tokyo that's deserted save for refugee demons, chock full of poison gas, and [[ParanoiaFuel has one of the 1/256-rate]] [[BonusBoss Fiends]]. The music is even creepier in ''Apocalypse'' despite staying unchanged, because both areas have since been [[EmptyRoomPsych stripped of NPCs]] and, with the exception of a single key item you need from Minami Sunamachi for a Challenge Quest, ''nothing of main plot or sidequest relevance happens in either place''.

* One of the new [[BonusBoss Fiends]], Chemtrail, may be goofy in concept but the execution is horrifying. From the ribcage down it looks kind of like the Silver Surfer with exhaust pipes at its hips. Everything above that is some sort of living engine with gas emitters all belching smoke, and its "face" looks like three soldiers struggling to breathe. The battle against it just compounds the imagery, as it always opens its turns by using Fog Breath and/or Acid Breath three times, implying it's filling the battlefield with thick, noxious fumes for real.

* Starting with this game, death animations become a lot more vivid:
** Physical attacks punt the target into the horizon (actually, this one's kinda funny), punch it full of bloody holes, splatter it into giblets, or shred it to pieces (but these ones are scary).
** Fire attacks reduce the target to burning cinders.
** Ice attacks freeze the target solid, after which they crack into chunks.
** Electric attacks have the target convulse in an angry stream of sparks.
** [[BlowYouAway Force]] attacks envelop the target into a tornado, which hurls them out of your view. Although depending how you look at it, the animation can actually be ''NightmareRetardant'' instead.
** Light attacks show the target dragged into a light above.
** Dark attacks disintegrate the target into a bloody mass of darkness.
** Almighty attacks will pulverize the target into a brief shower of shining atoms.

* Demon's Domains. Labyrinthine {{Pocket Dimension}}s that take over a particular area and feature pulsating tentacles and deadly demons throughout, often designed to lure, capture, and kill humans. In the first one you enter, you see Navarre and his companions bound to the walls in the background of Alraune's chamber, with Alraune prepared to feast on their blood--sure, Navarre is a [[FantasticRacism classist]] [[JerkAss asshole]], but he's scared shitless, like most anyone would be if they were captured in that fashion--in fact he's so terrified that he locks himself up in his room for days afterwards, crying and screaming like a madman.

* The Ashura-Kai building and the secret of how they make Reds, foodstuffs for demons. The demand's up and the women (which they openly call ''[[FridgeHorror bree]][[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil ders]]'') just can't cope, ''[[MoralEventHorizon so they want to start using the children]]''--and if you go to the Roppongi Hills early, the doorkeeper flat-out says that if you want to join the Ashura-Kai, you either need a recommendation or need to bring ''three fresh kids''. The people from underground cities are taken as slaves, raised and imprisoned in tiny, bloodstained rooms with buckets of filth in inhuman conditions, brainwashed to love Tayama (a girl comments she once told Tayama she loved him and hoped to be his wife, ''and the asshole told her "[[PaedoHunt Age is no barrier to love]]"''), used as seedbeds, and having their brains cut open so their neurotransmitters can be ''harvested'' at daily scheduled times. There are people strapped to chairs and treated like livestock, catatonic, as they have the ingredients for Red extracted in what is described in-game as a "human farm". ''Friggin' Lilith'' herself is disgusted by this. As is, well, ''everyone''. Law, Chaos, and Neutral alike. They ''all'' find Tayama disgusting.
** The poor sap you find in the Reverse Hills Building, clearly regressed to a childish intelligence by continuous harvesting, still moaning very familiar catchphrases. There are children proud of using buckets as toilets, children abandoned or sold by their parents, children brainwashed with Tayama's cheap slogans, being told to say they are being educated. The underground city dwellers are bought, bribed or captured to enter Reverse Hills, only to become more raw materials for Tayama's Red Pills. ''[[FridgeHorror And the place is over fifty floors underground]]''.

** To say nothing of its ''rulers''. The White are OmnicidalNeutral [[TheHeartless embodiments of humanity's despair]] at the sheer [[CrapsackWorld suck]] of the Megami Tensei universe, and wish nothing more than to destroy it, since it's the only way out. And the thing is, they're just so ''reasonable'' about it, it's hard to not find yourself nodding along to their reasons for thinking the solar system needs to go. It's very easy to find yourself thinking like them, and that's the most terrifying aspect of all.
* ThePurge the angels enact is justified in their eyes, as the literature the Black Samurai has been distributing turns humans into demons. The kicker? ''It's normal, human world literature''. The people of Mikado have their beliefs in social castes so ingrained that when an outside force like the books makes them realize there ''are'' alternatives to the CrapsackWorld, they go insane with horror, rage and grief, which ''is'' what triggers the demon transformation.

* The archangels in this game, no longer the human-looking beings with wings, they properly assume their form as inhuman abominations.

** Their debut is absolutely this. These warped, utterly inhuman, incomprehensibly powerful...'''''things''''' descend upon the heroes, looming over them in a way that makes the samurai look absolutely tiny. They calmly introduce themselves and tell you that [[TyrantTakesTheHelm THEY run the show now,]] revealing the truth about Tokyo in the process: the hellhole is made up of people who didn't fit into their utopia, who they shall again attempt to exterminate should they try to leave their cage, and they are in the middle of another cleansing. Gabriel commands you to kill the Black Samurai, saying her death is the only thing they need concern themselves with, and the samurai can do nothing but leave, utterly cowed and looking absolutely impotent. The icing on the cake? ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero You're solely responsible for this:]]'' the masked men you saved from Kagome Tower earlier were Michael, Uriel and Raphael. You are ''personally'' responsible for unleashing these fascistic, godlike {{Eldritch Abomination}}s upon your home.

[[caption-width-right:350:Apparently, the four Archangels [[AngelicAbomination got bored of the whole "winged humanoid" look]].]]

* ThePurge the angels enact is justified in their eyes, as the literature the Black Samurai has been distributing turns humans into demons. The problem? ''It's normal, human world literature''. The people of East Mikado have their beliefs in social castes so ingrained that when an outside force like the books makes them realize there ''are'' alternatives to the CrapsackWorld, they go insane with horror, rage and grief, which ''is'' what triggers the demon transformation.

** Their debut is absolutely this. These warped, utterly inhuman, incomprehensibly powerful...'''''things''''' descend upon the heroes, looming over them in a way that makes the samurai look absolutely tiny. They calmly introduce themselves and tell you that [[TyrantTakesTheHelm THEY run the show now,]] revealing the truth about Tokyo in the process: the hellhole is made up of people who didn't fit into their utopia, who they shall again attempt to exterminate should they try to leave their cage, and they are in the middle of another cleansing. Gabriel commands you to kill the Black Samurai, saying her death is the only thing they need concern themselves with, and the samurai can do nothing but leave, utterly cowed and looking absolutely impotent. The icing on the cake? ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero You're solely responsible for this:]]'' the masked people you saved from Kagome Tower earlier were Michael, Uriel and Raphael. You are ''personally'' responsible for unleashing these fascistic, godlike {{Eldritch Abomination}}s upon your home.

** Wind attacks envelop the target into a tornado, which hurls them out of your view. Although depending how you look at it, the animation can actually be ''NightmareRetardant'' instead.

* In the bad ending, you are required to destroy the Yamato Gate to activate black holes that will consume the whole universe and destroy everything. The "battle" with the Yamato Gate, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown if you can even call it that]], is accompanied by very eerie music. While the background is the same as most bosses you fight throughout the game, the music coupled with the [[NothingIsScarier empty background]] makes it very unsettling.

* East Mikado itself. Even at the beginning of the game, its clear that there's something very ''[[UncannyValley off]]'' about the whole place, from the brutal caste system, to the fact that demons live literally right underground the capital city, and the fact that, if Isabeau's comments about France's status as a fictitious country are anything to go by, ''they believe themselves to be the only civilization in existence''.

** And then after you capture the Black Samurai, you find out that they consider ''public executions'' ''national holidays''.

*** The execution ceremony was used as a chance to order the Samurai to travel around Mikado and "execute" those who have been found reading Literature or otherwise following the Black Samurai. One Samurai states that Hugo told him to [[DeadlyEuphemism call them "executions" rather than the cold-blooded murders that they are]].

** During the Lawful Ending, you commit what is tantamount to genocide on the entire population of Tokyo. Merkabah also forces you to commit HeroicSuicide with him, because the two of you have learned about the "Filth" of Tokyo. Meanwhile in Mikado, epitaphs are obliterated, the statue of Aquila is destroyed, and any and all forms of education and literature are abolished. The new Mikado is a kingdom where thinking for oneself and any knowledge beyond the worship of the Almighty are forbidden, one where you are not only not allowed to sin, but are ''incapable of it'', just the way the forces of Law want it; i.e., the forces of Law want to purge [[Literature/TheBible original]] [[HumansAreFlawed sin]].

* The Ashura-Kai building and the secret of how they make Red/red pills, foodstuffs for demons. The demand's up and the women (which they openly call ''[[FridgeHorror bree]][[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil ders]]'') just can't cope, ''[[MoralEventHorizon so they want to start using the children]]''--and if you go to the Roppongi Hills early, the doorkeeper flat-out says that if you want to join the Ashura-Kai, you either need a recommendation or need to bring ''three fresh kids''. The people from underground cities are taken as slaves, raised and imprisoned in tiny, bloodstained rooms with buckets of filth in inhuman conditions, brainwashed to love Tayama (a girl comments she once told Tayama she loved him and hoped to be his wife, ''and the asshole told her "[[PaedoHunt Age is no barrier to love]]"''), used as seedbeds, and having their brains cut open so their neurotransmitters can be ''harvested'' at daily scheduled times. There are people strapped to chairs and treated like livestock, nearly mindless, as they have the ingredients for Red extracted in what is described in-game as a "human farm". ''Friggin' Lilith'' herself is disgusted by this. As is, well, ''everyone''. Law, Chaos, Neutral. They ''all'' find Tayama disgusting.
** The poor sap you find in the Reverse Hills Building, clearly retarded to a childish intelligence by continuous harvesting, still moaning very familiar catchphrases. There are children proud of using buckets as toilets, children abandoned or sold by their parents, children brainwashed with Tayama's cheap slogans, being told to say they are being educated. The underground city dwellers are bought, bribed or captured to enter Reverse Hills, only to become more raw materials for Tayama's Red Pills. ''[[FridgeHorror And the place is over fifty floors underground]]''.

* Hell, ''both'' Merkabah and Lucifer are completely insane. Merkabah wants to kill Isabeau because she's read ''manga''. Lucifer just outright insults her as she dies.

* The archangels in this game, no longer the human looking beings with wings, they properly assume their form as inhuman abominations.
** Even before they are formally introduced, there's this feeling of utter wrongness in the kingdom. The king has been removed from power, and no one bothers to think where he went. The castes are being dissolved, and all of a sudden even the most pampered Luxurors are worrying about physical work. Dissidents and followers of the Black Samurai are disappearing. Most demons are gone, and most disturbingly, many people talk about being contacted by "the new rulers" via dreams - dreams that helped ease the transition too smoothly for comfort. And then Sister Gabby ushers you into the Cocoon...
** Their debut is absolutely this. These warped, utterly inhuman, incomprehensibly powerful...THINGS descend upon the heroes, looming over them in a way that makes the samurai look absolutely tiny. They calmly introduce themselves and tell you that [[TyrantTakesTheHelm THEY run the show now,]] revealing the truth about Tokyo in the process: the hellhole is made up of people who didn't fit into their utopia, who they shall again attempt to exterminate should they try to leave their cage, and they are in the middle of another cleansing. Gabriel commands you to kill the Black Samurai, saying her death is the only thing they need concern themselves with, and the samurai can do nothing but leave, utterly cowed and looking absolutely impotent. The icing on the cake? [[NiceJobBreakingItHero You're solely responsible for this:]] the masked people you saved from Kagome Tower earlier were Michael, Uriel and Raphael. You are ''personally'' responsible for unleashing these fascistic, godlike {{Eldritch Abomination}}s upon your home.

!! I'm detecting Nightmare Fuel ahead. Be careful.