History NightmareFuel / TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom

* Imagine walking around and exploring the overworld until you come across a seemingly innocuous tree carrying apples and other materials. Naturally curious, you walk closer towards the tree... ''[[WhenTreesAttack only for it to suddenly spring to life and attack you]]''. Say hello to the Evermean, one of the new enemies of ''Tears of the Kingdom''. While Evermeans themselves aren't that scary and not that difficult to fight, the scare factor comes from the sheer ParanoiaFuel they can inflict, particularly on first time players, as they are virtually indistinguishable from regular trees, but can be identified by atypical shimmying that normal trees don't do even in windy conditions, though this won't stop anybody seeing this phenomenon the first time from thinking "did that just move?". By the time you're finished playing, you'll likely be jumping at every tree you see like Hestu when you see him cowering before a few seemingly-normal trees.

* Rito Village is initially disturbing. Between the eerie version of its theme, and the fact that only children are around and working, it seems like a PG version of ''Children of the Corn''. It's an incredible relief to come across Tulin's parents and learn that not all of the adults are gone. Still, the poor kids having to dedicate their time to filling in for their parents, not sure if they'll all come home in one piece...

* The Yiga Clan are back, and while they aren't nearly as {{paranoia|fuel}}-inducing as before (having mostly relocated to fairly easy to take down bases in the Depths and generally being treated more as a laughable GoldfishPoopGang), the few times you see them on the surface will show you that they haven't lost their touch at all. They've become more brazen since the defeat of Calamity Ganon, having taken over several settlements and notable locations like the Akkala Tech Lab, the King's Hut, and even the ''Shrine of Resurrection'' (though you thankfully don't have to fight any Yiga in there), and their disguises have seen a notable improvement; the Side Adventure "The Beckoning Woman" has a Yiga disguise themself as a young woman who claims to have found Zelda in an attempt to lure out Link, a plot that could have very well gotten the Adventure's quest giver ''murdered'' if he hadn't gotten cold feet and told Penn about the encounter. Moreover, said disguise has an actual name instead of "Traveler" or "Researcher" (something otherwise restricted to the two Footsoldiers disguised as Zelda), leaving even a player who suspects the whole thing is a Yiga set-up second-guessing themselves.

*** This also provides us some surprising information about the other three dragons, Dinraal, Naydra, and Farosh: namely that they were apparently once Zonai women who, for some reason we never learn, all chose to become immortal dragons in the ancient past. Given the truly dire circumstances that drove Zelda to do it, and Mineru informing us that the act is strictly forbidden because it causes irreversible DeathOfPersonality, one has to wonder what drove not just one but ''three'' other people to also do this to themselves.

'''Yunobo:''' Oh, this isn't good! If that really was him... oh, we're in real trouble!

-->'''Ganondorf:''' Thousands of years will pass in the blink of an eye. You only delay the inevitable.

-->'''Ganondorf:''' I will YET rule this land... You will NOT '''''STOP ME!!''''' A mere mortal... will not STAND IN MY ''WAY!'' [''tears his stolen secret stone from his forehead''] My body... my mind... ''EVERYTHING!!'' I'll sacrifice it all to destroy you... and ''cast this WORLD INTO '''ETERNAL NIGHT!!!'''''

--->'''Ganondorf:''' Body, soul... I'll sacrifice everything! [[TakingYouWithMe I'll bring you to hell with me,]] and I'll shroud the world in eternal darkness!

** Ganondorf murdering Queen Sonia to take her Secret Stone for his goal of world domination is easily one of the most chilling moments in the whole game. But the crowning moment is him breaking his stoic leader façade to unleash '''[[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ganon_laugh.png this]]''', an [[SlasherSmile utterly ecstatic and over-the-top smile with dilated eyes]] that initially looks more like a skeleton's jaw bobbing on the bone hinges, combined with an EvilLaugh. What you see is not ''just'' an evil Ganondorf, but a Ganondorf so inhumane, so twisted that he ''[[{{Sadist}} takes pleasure in his cruel acts]]'', ascending beyond a thirst for power and into just plain psychopathic levels as the most hateful iteration in the franchise.

* ''Tears of the Kingdom'' features what is likely ''the'' most terrifying incarnation of Ganondorf to date. Lacking any of his predecessors' [[AntiVillain noble]] or [[TragicVillain tragic]] traits, this Ganondorf is likely the closest we get to seeing the second coming of [[GreaterScopeVillain Demise]], and he may not even ''be'' a reincarnation of Demise in this timeline, meaning that his villainous actions are of his own volition, which makes him all the more frightening.

* One of the ways to help with recovering the Master Sword has you making your way to the Korok Forest... but the LostWoods aren't just confounding Link, they're outright barring access and covered in an uncharacteristic black fog contrasting the normal white. You have to go into the Depths and Ascend to get into the sanctuary... and when you do, you find yourself surrounded by a gloom-infected forest full of Koroks who don't even acknowledge your presence. It's downright eerie, and it gets worse when you drop into a Chasm below the Great Deku Tree itself, and have to defeat a Gloom Swarm and face one of the aforementioned Phantom Ganon fights. It's very possible this will be the first Gloom Swarm a player finds themselves compelled to kill, and Phantom Ganon afterward can come as a very nasty and dangerous surprise thereafter.

''Tears of the Kingdom'' may be LighterAndSofter than [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild the previous installment]] in ''some'' aspects, but don't let that fool you into thinking it lacks some chilling energy of its own, because it features the return of a certain Demon King!