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1[[quoteright:200:[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/redead_oot.png]]]]
2[[caption-width-right:200:[- Just in case that isn't disturbing enough, wait until you hear [[HellIsThatNoise the sound]] it makes.[[note]] And as of the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS VideoGameRemake, the console's graphics now allow it ''to actually look like the artwork.''[[/note]]-]]]
3
4Sometimes...the King of Evil and his minions decided to really scare us. But even if Ganondorf doesn’t show up, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be free of terrifying things.
5
6----
7[[index]]
8* NightmareFuel/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink
9* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast
10* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening
11* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaCDIGames
12* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime
13* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask
14* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames
15* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker
16* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap
17* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess
18* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass
19* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks
20* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword
21* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds
22* NightmareFuel/HyruleWarriors
23* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild
24* NightmareFuel/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom
25* NightmareFuel/HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity
26[[/index]]
27
28----
29!!General
30
31* Wallmasters, Floormasters, and any offshoots they have are largely regarded as some of the most disturbing things in the series. They are disembodied hands that crawl around on their fingers. The Floormasters swipe at you with their finger-hands or turn invulnerable and fly at you, and when you kill them, they split into three small ones that do more damage and grow into big ones. The Wallmasters hang on the ceiling, invisible, until you walk under them. An ominous {{Leitmotif}} plays, the room grows darker, a shadow appears on the floor, and you have a second and a half to jump out of the way before they fall down, grab you, and carry you to the start of the dungeon. [[TemptingFate It's a good thing they don't appear in the Water Temple.]]
32** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks Spirit Tracks]]'', Keymasters appear. They're basically cel-shaded glove-like hands with an eye on the palm. As the name suggests, they will chase you down and steal the Big Key from you. In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'', Zant's Hands do the same thing with Sols.
33** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom Tears of the Kingdom]]'', there is the Gloom Spawn, an [[EldritchAbomination eldritch entity]] consisting of five dark Floormasters surrounded by blood-red malice. The hands will grab you and reduce your maximum HP, giving the impression that the Gloom Spawn is effectively ''[[YourSoulIsMine eating your soul]]''. Try to slay the Floormasters, and they will eventually respawn after some time (with less HP) and they each have a ton of HP to boot. If you do somehow manage to destroy the Gloom Spawn, then [[OhCrap Phantom Ganon appears in its place]].
34* Like-Likes, the 3D games and ''Majora's Mask'' at night in the Great Bay especially: Their appearance, the way they move, the sounds they make, there isn't a thing about this creature that doesn't ooze eerieness.
35** Worse: In Ocarina there's one early in the Spirit Temple in a room with a climbable wall that will actually fall ON TOP of you.
36** And they make such a horrible noise that you can't get away from it no matter where in the Great Bay you go.
37*** Worse STILL: In ''Phantom Hourglass'', ''Spirit Tracks'' and ''A Link Between Worlds'', they ''disguise themselves'' as innocent objects (pots in ''Phantom'' and ''Spirit'', Rupees in ''ALBW'') to lure you into getting close. Then they JumpScare you and try and swallow you whole.
38* The hidden holes and caves are usually very creepy, especially when ''live [=NPCs=]'' reside in them!
39** Or, in the case of the two N64 Zeldas, a live cow!
40*** In ''Ocarina of Time: Master Quest'', there are ''cows'' in Jabu-Jabu's Belly! Some are ''partially submerged in the walls'', but can still be shot for slingshot ammo/used as switches/exploited for milk (no plausible way to get milk from jutting cow heads exists), and one is ''completely submerged under water'' (or whatever that green colored stuff is in the giant fish's stomach). [[DissonantSerenity And they're all alive and eager to give you milk.]]
41* For arachnophobes, [[GiantSpider the Skulltullas]] are by nature pure hell. ''Twilight Princess'' was probably the worst they got, but they were still plenty creepy in other 3D games like ''Ocarina of Time'' and ''Majora's Mask'', where they fall on top of you out of nowhere much more often than they do in ''Twilight Princess''. And there's also those gold Skulltulas with super-creepy sounds and movements.
42
43!!The Legend of Zelda (Original)
44* Yuu Mishouzaki's ''Zelda'' [[http://www.glitterberri.com/the-legend-of-zelda/mishouzaki-manga/part-1/ manga]] is notable for its many interesting changes to the source material; one of those changes is [[http://www.glitterberri.com/content/zelda_series/loz/manga/012.jpg the manner in which Ganon is depicted]]. Originally, he was a giant blue pig; here, he's a razor-fanged, bloodshot-eyed, practically-unstoppable [[EldritchAbomination abomination unto nature]]. That image in the link? That's taken from him looming over the first Princess Zelda [[spoiler: right before he kills her]], and he utterly ''dwarfs'' her. And the demons that he leads? They all share those characteristics. ''All of them.''
45* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMssCMqMHuk dungeon BGM]].
46** Worse, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-DAsdX82O0 final dungeon BGM]].
47* [[TheMaze The]] [[TheLostWoods Lost]] [[TropeNamer Woods]]. It's easy to think you're stuck in there forever if you don't know what you're doing. Ditto with the Lost Hills.
48* The graveyard area, with its ghosts that appear if you touch the tombstones and its eerie color palette. Worse, a sword upgrade there requires pushing a tombstone and going into the staircase beneath it, and in the Second Quest, that's how you enter Level-6.
49* You can hear the bosses roaring one room away from them, and some continue to roar as you fight them. Due to the Famicom Disk System's superior sound hardware[[note]]compared to the NES and any Famicom cartridge game without a sound-enhancing chip[[/note]], they sound even worse in the Japanese version. Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin covers the audio differences [[http://legendsoflocalization.com/the-legend-of-zelda/audio/ here]].
50* It may not only seem odd that this game has no towns, but straight up horrifying if you think about it: All of the [=NPCs=] are hiding in caves, some of which have been camoflauged, or in dungeons. In spite of Hyrule being officially a ''kingdom'', it's a very, ''very'' barren one, [[DeathWorld with most intelligent life in it consisting of monsters]]. Was Ganon's invasion of Hyrule ''that'' thorough? And given the complete lack of infrastructure other than dungeons, caves, a few tunnels, and a graveyard, just how long has he had the land under his rule? Yeah, this turned out to only be a small neck of the land as shown in [[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink the sequel]], but if you were playing this game in 1986 without that retcon in place, you'd think that you were exploring the site of a long-gone civilization.
51* In the first quest, [=NPCs=] can do annoying things like take your money for breaking into their houses ("Pay me for the door repair."), trick you into paying a lot of money for nothing ("Pay me and I'll talk." "Boy, you're rich!") or run shady gambling schemes ("Let's play money making game."), but never harm you in direct ways unless you provoke them by hitting them. In the Second Quest, however, there are outright malicious [=NPCs=] in dungeons who lock the door behind you and threaten "Leave your life or money." Got 50 Rupees? You're fine. No? Assuming you don't just reload your file, you lose a heart container [[MaximumHPReduction for the rest of the game]].
52* Ganon turns invisible during the last phase of his fight, making even finding where he is almost impossible.
53** And when he's defeated, Ganon turns into a pile of ash, or based on the reddish color, is it '''blood'''?
54
55!!The cartoon
56* Ganon's voice would sometimes switch from a high-pitched voice to a low-pitched guttural one that sounded pretty scary.
57* In one episode, Link's body is zapped into Ganon's Evil Jar while his spirit is left behind to wander as a ghost.
58* The Tektites in the cartoon look pretty creepy, and they're savvy enough to tie Zelda up and rob Link of his sword before pouncing on him, followed by Zelda nearly getting her head crushed by a sinking underworld door.
59* The EvilTwin of Zelda that Ganon creates, who nearly steals the Triforce of Wisdom.
60* One episode had a group of fairies attacking Link and Zelda with water homonculi.

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